Sent by my friend, Pat A.

Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio.

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written.  My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:"

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short – enjoy it.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it. (I am thinking this is not good advice-Kim)

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye, but don't worry, God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie.  Don't save it for a special occasion. Today IS special.

22. Over-prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative of dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have, not what you need

42. The best is yet to come...

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

I highlighted those which were most significant in my mind, or my heart, and bolded ones which were extra important to me. I hope you find these to be as 'inspiring' as I did!

Where was this weather?

Where was this weather when Linda was here??? Today was a lovely mid-90's day (I guess it depends on just how lovely when you are a yard man....) The pool water did not reflect the heat of the day however; just a bit on the coolish side. When my friend, Fran, put her toes in, she winced at the temperature. I was okay as long as the sun shined on me, but once the clouds took over, I had to get out.

People came and went most of the afternoon, including Lee, Nancy, Cynthia, Fran and Rick. I had my lunch poolside, eating with Fran and Rick. Lee had eaten a bit ahead of me, having the shrimp special. I had my standard cheese burger and Fran had a big, fat hot dog. She just got good news from her blood work so it was time to celebrate!! 

This is a picture of Fran and I in the pool, but her hat hides her cute, little face...

Loved the politics talk, the book discussions, and other banter around and in the water. I sure do miss Maureen and those folks who are back in their classrooms because I enjoy the school discussions as well. The day before the topic was about real estate and best times to buy/sell. Nancy recently got an offer accepted to purchase a townhouse on our property, and she closes on it November 1st. She will be my neighbor soon!

*

Wednesday night I had gone to Happy Hour. I found Nancy sitting in the bar area with her Realtor, to whom I had directed her, having a celebratory margarita for the accepted offer. Nancy then came in to join us at the tables in the garden room. She left before I did, and I later walked home with my other neighbor, Kathy M. She and I both wanted to be home for O'Reilly. Betty and Kathy stayed a bit longer, with Kathy H. planning to watch O'Reilly later at 11:00 pm.

Well, I was settled in for the night, watching TV while under my covers. I am not able to recall what I was watching but likely it was "Frasier". All of a sudden, I heard something, like someone yelling. I leaped from my bed to hear better and sue enough, someone was yelling for help. I grabbed my phone and went outside. 

From all around me I heard footsteps, folks running to see who needed help. I went toward the voices and there, between 1st and 2nd floor, was a lady on the steps. I knew who it was...Miss Chardonnay had taken a tumble trying to get up to her unit. She had called for Kathy H. to help her, and when she could not get her upright, Kathy began yelling for help.

Justin, in the meanwhile, already sleeping, heard the sound of feet running, thought it was knocking at the door. He heard me open the door and then leave, not closing the door behind me. So, he had to come to see where his mama went, thinking a bad guy came to the door and I opened it up, and was taken!!! Oh yes, that's going to happen...He came around the corner and could see me standing at the rail, and figured out what happened. I assured him I was fine and he could go back to bed.

I asked Kathy if I should call for the rescue squad and she shook her head no, as Miss C. had already said not to. Since I was in my gown, I didn't go all the way down there, but plenty of other folks, including a cardiologist and his wife, had come to the rescue. About 7 men and ladies from as far up as the 5th floor had come down, but one lady was especially helpful in getting Miss Chardonnay scooted up the steps on her butt, and then to standing. Nothing broken and nothing bleeding, but boy, were our hearts pounding!!! Good thing we have a cardiologist in the building...

I am told Rosemary got her into the condo, and situated in the bed. When I got back to my own bed, it took me a while to settle down. Kathy was so shaken that she stayed awake until after 1:00 a.m. And Miss Chardonnay slept like a baby! But, boy, do we have wonderful neighbors here or what???

A different Martin Luther King, Jr. speech excerpt

Martin Luther King, Jr. speech given at Barrett Jr. High, in Philadelphia, in 1967 

"What I'm saying to you this morning, my

friends: Even if it falls your lot to be a

street sweeper, go out and sweep streets 

like Michelangelo painted pictures! Sweep

streets like Handel and Beethoven

composed music. Sweep streets like 

Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets

so well that all the host of heaven and

earth will have to pause and say, "Here 

lived a great street sweeper who swept 

his job well!"  

If you can't be a pine on the top of a hill, 

be a scrub in the valley, but be the best 

little scrub on the side of the rill.  Be a 

bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't 

be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't 

be a sun, be a star.  It isn't by size that 

you win or you fail; be the best at 

whatever that you are!"

Where did the time go?

Today I got a message from one of my friends, Kathy, wanting to get together with Linda before she left. Oops, too late! My upstairs neighbor, too, wondered if we could spend some time together but it was not to be. Linda has returned to her home and to her desk, running the show at FG. Or running her legs off, getting the bulletin printed, folded and stuffed for Thursday night's worship and for Sunday. Whew!

Several folks asked me at Happy Hour what Linda and I did while she was here, and as I ticked things off, we sounded quite busy. We were, and we were not, if that makes sense at all. Linda and I have skills that way---easily entertained.

First of all, Thursday, was Bible study and then our lunch at The Club. When we were about to leave Victory, it was pouring so hard that one of the men, Wayne, took our keys and went to get our umbrellas from the cars for us ladies. He is a true gentleman! 

Because Linda and I are wide loads, we could only protect our heads from the rain, while the rest of us got wet, including my booklet and Bible. We ate our lunch at The Club still a bit damp, and had to go out in the rain again to leave. Yech!

That night I made some of my delicious (I am proud of them!) sloppy Joe's for our dinner, and we spent the evening sitting around and talking. Justin was working in the kitchen prepping his beer cheese and bratwurst soup, making the house smell wonderful. 

In the morning on Friday, we were expecting a visit from Dee but Julia came instead. She brought a matte sample to match against Timmy's hug but we chose a different one for Justin's, which will hang on a different wall. She left the sample with me because 'it is your blue...'. We all went upstairs to Debbie's to look things over, as Julia was going to do an assessment of her wall space and room colors, etc. Debbie is looking for FL art and Julia can help her out!

Linda fell in love with the paint colors in the kitchen/dining area. She had brought her sample along for her new counter tops and we were going to look at colors for her. She found them upstairs! It's great to see them applied and how they work.

                

     Linda, Lee, Jacquie, and me (under the hat)

Friday was also our tea at Basketique with Lee and Jacquie. Linda had not met Jacquie before that day but had only heard about her. I am so glad when my friends can meet each other and put faces/personalities to their names. Linda bought a gift for her friend, Angie, at the store, for watching over the cats while Tom and she are gone.

We watched our radio show together and then The Five, with no hopes of going to the pool that day due to weather. Nuts! Justin served us our beer cheese soup while we watched the Packer game together. Stayed up late for that!!!

Saturday Linda and I went to breakfast at Honey B's and then snooped in the scrapbook store a bit. Since we were already dressed, we went to Beall's. Linda found some place mats for her new kitchen and a mat for by the sink, also in the new colors not yet painted. It's all about the accessories!

She helped me find a new purse, too, after I gave her my parameters. Since 2004 I have carried a red purse, my first being purchased in Florence from a street vendor. I also told Linda if we cannot find a suitable red one, a colored one would do, just not black or brown, and not fabric. Linda found me a perfect purple purse, and it was the same brand as the one I was carrying. Half price on top of all that!!! Now my check book fits, and my pocket Constitution, too!

...and now she is gone!

As I lie here on my bed, keeping my puffy foot up, I await word that Linda has landed in Atlanta. Her flight left JAX at 8:15 and she will arrive in MKE around 11:30. It will be the wee hours of the morning when she gets under the covers in her own home for a short night's rest before being back at her desk tomorrow. Bright-eyed and bushy tailed? Not likely!

After getting back from the airport, a surprisingly traffic-light trip, I helped Justin get his mattress situated on his bed. At long last, after work, he was able to get his mattress from the storage and also a chair with ottoman which did not sell from their estate sale. My upstairs neighbors expressed interest in it so he brought it over to here to get it cleaned up, make it presentable.

Prior to his getting his nice mattress back, he had used a twin mattress on his full-sized box spring. Now, he can sleep on his cushy memory-foam mattress padded bed, with a pedestal fan situated to blow air in his face as he sleeps. I helped him get the garters on the sheet to keep them in place, because, as he describes himself, he sleeps "like an alligator wrestling some kill...". So funny, and so entirely opposite of how I sleep. Plunk, and I am out! No alligator wrestling in this bed...

Today, Linda and I opted to stay in from water exercise class (too cold and cloudy out there) to watch the opening service of Martin Luther College. The pastor from our home church, FG, was taking part in the service, along with his father, installing his brother as a teacher at the college. We wept, of course. One man was being ordained and installed by his father, and the dad got a bit choked up when doing so, as did we. That is what we do!

When it was over, the sun was out and it was above 80 degrees, so we two went out to the pool. I had put some cheese curds in my bag, grabbed Linda's bag of pretzels, and some grapes which had been purchased for her breakfast, to have for a snack. (We had both had breakfast, me having half a bagel with veggie cream cheese on it.)

When we walked out in the courtyard, I saw a tablefull of ladies, so I went back into the house to grab the other bag of cheese curds which Linda had brought along at my request for Ollavan. She had been so grateful for the ones I brought back for her in June, sending me a lovely card with Mojo gift cards tucked inside! This time she was thanking Linda for them and wants HER address!

I was so glad the ladies were out there and that Linda got to meet them and chat. They had ordered lunch from the dining room, so Linda ordered the soup and salad from the menu. Since I had eaten earlier, I was not ready to eat yet but did enjoy some Diet Coke. We shared our grapes, and I ended up sending them home with Susie, who was making chicken salad for her dinner that night. Otherwise, they would go to waste here.

After the other ladies left, Nancy, my newer friend, hung around with us. At one point I was getting warm so we went to try the pool water. Having been cautioned that the water was quite cold, we braved it for a bit to get cooled off. Yikes! We have had so much rain and clouded skies which makes for cooler water temps. While some don't mind it, I sure do! 

                        

Around 3:30 or so we came back in. Linda heated up her leftover shrimp from the night before and then commenced her packing for the return trip to Wisconsin. The swimsuit was likely nearly dry but she had a plastic bag to transport it home. I had the last of my sloppy Joe's from Thursday night's dinner, without a bun. I told Linda it's bad form to compliment my own cooking but I just love my sloppy Joe's!

We watched the first half hour of our show, "The Five", and then had to leave. Justin had done his good-byes the night before, not being sure of getting home in time. He did pop in, all smelly and dirty, and had to leave again right away, so simply waved to Linda from the doorway.

I really hate to let people go at the airport but the security folks make sure I do! We got there right on time, no traffic problems, and I released Linda to Southwest Airlines. I have since gotten a text message that she is safely in ATL at her next gate, waiting for her connecting flight. Hoping all goes well and she gets tucked into her own bed before the light of dawn!