by Ninasusan

My next trip to the DMV will be different

We have renewed the plates on the car and truck for 2 years and longer than that for the trailer…so the only reason I can see going back to the DMV in Cass County will be if we buy a new vehicle. You can renew on line or in the mail…but 1) I forgot and 2) you have to have the 2 past year personal tax statement from the “collector”, along with your auto insurance card and the little card they send you in the mail. If you don’t live in Missouri, the MV licensing process is much more difficult and chaotic than it is in Iowa. But, you pay a very minimal amount for your license tags but at the end of the year, they send you a personal tax invoice to pay for all of it. The $$ is probably the same in the end but just seems to be a ridiculous process…Don’t quote me but I think the amount of personal tax on each vehicle is like 9% or 13% of the blue book value.

Caution: not politically correct

So today at the DMV…the line was out the door…that is frustrating. There are several and I mean probably 10 chairs set up in an L shape around the walls to take the weight off while you wait your turn. Each time I have been in there, people are sitting on the chairs and when it is your turn at the window, everyone gets up and moves down a chair. That way it is easy to keep track of who is next. But not today. The old lady (probably my age) with white hair up in a pony tail, a cane, wearing too short of shorts didn’t understand the drill. The guy in the brown t shirt wanted to know why no one was sitting in the chairs ahead of her…she gave that toothless laugh and said well they must think I will bite. Finally someone moved out of line and took a chair with nearly every person ahead of us reminding her not to forget who she was behind in line. So white pony tail lady gets it figured out, I think, and gets up and moves one chair over. leaving 5 chairs ahead of her. I was frustrated. Finally I thought screw this idiot process so he and I walked over and sat down ahead of her…reminded by the chorus to remember who we were behind. Through all this cacophony, a couple of big red neck type “fellas” were talking loud about working on engines. So loud that I was having a hard time hearing what I was thinking. THEN…they start heckling some guy at the counter (who appeared to be clean and had a job) because he had several vehicles to title and things were moving at less than snail pace. These two morons just kept at it – everyone was talking amongst themselves which culminates in that constant low hum and rumble and then you had jack ass and jack off talking at the top of their voices…mama obviously didn’t teach them inside voices.

After expletives to him passed my lips a couple of times, I finally hunkered down..stuck my fingers in my ears as far as they would go, closed my eyes and tried to deep breathe. I felt at any moment that my high anxiety level was going to kick into rage level…I remember one other time this happened to me at the bottle redemption center – some town clown kept talking to me and I asked him to please shut up and this offended him….HE was standing behind me and decided to let me go off on him because he knew he could take him. I tried to remain calm today because I knew he could take one of them but who knows when you are dealing with idiots who might carry a gun!

I feel better.

Until next time….

09.24.15

by Ninasusan

Cake!

Twice baked cake.

Seriously!

I learned this week that when you understand cooking and baking and have years to perfect the talent, you know nothing is a total loss.

The lower oven heating element didn’t work in the house we rented, so when Gena went to cut the spice cake with cream cheese frosting, the evidence was…shall we say runny. We ate some outside corners then as I cleaned up the kitchen, she scraped the frosting off, combined done cake with the cake batter in a smaller cake pan and baked it again…then refrosted. It was amazing. No one really knows why she didn’t remember this with a pan of brownies two nights later but it worked again … scrape frosting, fold together and rebake, refrost.

Oh….and I also learned that lime sherbet is excellent with chocolate syrup made from chocolate chips, milk and butter! Of course, I’ve always known that chocolate on anything makes it better. I know most of you are with me on this one!

Vacation is over. I’m going to miss the cook but at least I won’t gain MORE weight!

Until next time…..

09.23.15

by Ninasusan

Footprints….

I woke up this morning thinking about our last day at Eufala Lake….and then I went a little deeper..I was thinking about this house we rented.

A week of our lives we lived in this house…we laughed, we watched TV, we found our own separate corners and read, we fixed meals, we looked forward to returning to this house after a day on the lake so we could cool down and relax, we slept here and we left dreams here. It’s a week out of our life and we left a big footprint. For years to come, other families will come here and do what we did and then they will leave. The house will remain and everyone will take their memories with them…not necessarily remembering the house but remembering the pages of memories. Someday, we could come back to this house and as soon as we step through the door, the ghosts of our past would be with us once again.

Tomorrow we return to our day to day life, this excerpt of life….how we felt….our footprint will still exist..but moving on just as we move on to the next adventure.

Until next time….

09.22.15

by Ninasusan

A beautiful day on Lake Eufala

Until next time….

09.21.15

by Ninasusan

APPARENTLY

During the off-season in Oklahoma (after Labor Day) things change. Not only does the largest and most active marina not rent boats after Labor Day but many shops in Eufala and restaurants along the lake are closed on Monday. This could easily turn into a rant:

Look at the faces on these people!

And the loneliness that abounds

The “young thing” working the marina yesterday surely knew yesterday, when we stopped in to inquire about boat rentals, that the season was over. DUH!

We did find a place in another cove a few miles away that still rents pontoons…so all is not lost. This fact will save us a lot of energy. Gena had a plan..she would stand on the dock and thumb a ride from a passing private owned pontoon, meanwhile the other three of us would tread water until she got their attention. We would then climb aboard and take it over. Arrrrrrr, Matey!

Until next time…..

09.20.15

by Ninasusan

A rainy day at Eufala Lake, OK

But just the kind of Sunday I like. 5 cups of coffee while watching Face the Nation and Meet the Press…a car ride and cooking supper with Gena! We are renting a 3 bedroom house overlooking the lake..had we come winter or spring, there would be a much better view but it’s good enough for me. i don’t think the four of us have an agenda for the week other than relaxing, reading, watching TV and enjoying a day on the lake on a rented pontoon boat.

So, dear diary, here’s some pictures I took:

Lake Eufala, the largest lake in OK, is about a couple hours east of Oklahoma City and just south of Muskogee.

Until next time….

09.18.15

by Ninasusan

The Fiat 500

Gena and I are always surprised how much room there is in the back seat of the him-in-law’s Fiat

To be totally honest…that is what we said prior to the feast at Bare Bones BBQ tonight. When entering the back seat of the Fiat, you must pay attention and not just squeeze inside in a hurry…not even if you are in a hurry to save your life because you must be cognizant of the fact that you must exit the vehicle ducked and bent over in exactly the same manner as you entered the vehicle….and one would never want to be in the back of the Fiat with anyone occupying the front seat that you don’t trust with your life! It would be virtually impossible to escape without the front seat occupants assistance. Period.

My loyal partner of 36 years has been a faithful mate! If a woman on the street catches his eye, I would not know it…he’s just one of those guys.

Until FOR CRYING OUT LOUD tonight. It was my idea for us to hit the ice cream shop after dinner…he’s driving and we pull up in front of the ice cream shop…two female employees are sitting outside…he gets out of the car, slams the door and makes his way to the door of the shop (I believe I hear giggle giggle but it could have been the heat rushing from my ears) before he realizes that he has locked his wife in the back seat…the him-in-law was just standing outside his car door waiting to assist his future bride out. I was pretty sure that him in law was also wondering WTH his brother was doing. He may or may not have heard my expletive about his brother totally forgetting his wife when he sees a couple of other women. Needless to say, the embarrassed man who locked his wife in the backseat of the car bought ice cream for four. And thus begins our week long foursome vacation.

Until next time….

09.17.15

by Ninasusan

The cutest 5 syllables I heard today

After we dropped our 2 year old motor mouth off with his mama the other day, we were talking about how bad we felt that we don’t remember language milestones of our girls. Every week we notice huge leaps in his language skills … His vocabulary, his parroting of our words and putting sentences together. Parents are just too busy raising their kids, cooking meals, working outside the home and trying to survive to be able to appreciate the amazing transformation from infant to child to the dreaded teens years and on.

That’s why we have grandchildren! So we can slow down and enjoy the process.

At this age, I’m not the beloved grandparent….that title belongs to papa…but Gama gets her moments.

My o meal gets his attention? This afternoon snack was O meal for Jax and Gma. I always make his first but tell him he has to wait because it is hot and he rambles on about it until mine is cooked.

Today my heart sang when I took my oatmeal out of the microwave and he looked up at me from the floor and said….smells like it’s ready!

Until next time….

09.16.15

by Ninasusan

Turmeric

A few months ago, I suffered with some pretty bad shoulder pain…both shoulders….this coincided with the kidney cancer diagnosis so I suffered through without the use of NSAIDS. I’ll get back with an NSAIDS discussion! I had a chiropractor adjustment, had acupuncture a couple of times and a couple of deep tissue massages at the chiropractor’s office….I finally had a little relief. The chiropractor handed me a bottle of Turmeric and told me to try it for the remaining inflammation and nagging pain. I did and became a believer in the healing properties. Not only did it help with my shoulder pain by reducing the inflammation but I realized that the (self diagnosed) arthritis pain in my hands, wrists and elbow as well as my left knee no longer ached!
I’m a skeptic by nature! When I hear about “miracle cures”, I google and read everything I can feast my eyes on. For the most part, our U.S. FDA dollar driven medical community refutes anything that doesn’t involve drug companies. Sometimes I try it and sometimes I don’t. But the proof is in the pudding (what does that even mean?). Turmeric works!

Back to NSAIDS. In my life time, I have consumed lethal doses of ibuprofen and naproxen. Copious amounts…some of the heavy doses prescribed by the doctor…for my intense menstrual cramps to my knee pain before and after surgery. I took them for headaches…not just one tablet or capsule but if one was good 3 had to be better…..sometimes on a daily basis…I even used to make the comment that this was probably damaging my kidneys..but reality and my own mortality were not important to me as long as I could make it through the day without pain.

I had a huge wake up call! Knowing what I know now saving your kidneys and liver are very Important if you want to continue living! I don’t know if my mega doses of NSAIDS had anything to do with my kidney cancer but I do know that I’m lucky that I have a healthy kidney on the right side and I will do anything to protect it…..and I’m pretty protective of my liver too….never say never, I may have to take Tylenol in the future but I will try other methods for relieving pain before I will pop a pill.

Until next time….

09.15.15

by Ninasusan

Fiesta sisters!!!

Dentist appointment this morning for my permanent crown, a trip to Lowes..I told him that he had me out of the house so if he wanted to do something, it was fine with me. He bypassed the Pleasant Hill exit off 50 highway to the exit for Cockrell…more specifically Cockrell Mercantile. He knows how to keep his woman happy! We’ve seen the sign for the Cockrell cottages several times and today I got to experience it. Anything…and I mean anything you might want for the kitchen or dining room. But my glee was walking into the fiesta ware cottage. Here’s a pictorial and I didn’t take pictures of everything.