Round-Robin Blog with Ginger Simpson #RndRb0913

This month' topics has to do with new beginnings in honor of September being a restart of school, a return from most vacations to assume regular life again, or maybe something you've decided to embark on...there are so many ways to keep your mind occupied: Linkedkin, Pinterest, StumbleUpon...to name just a few.  Of course, none of them provide exercise, so perhaps you'll use this time to begin a new regiment to get fit. 

I've known about my fiftieth reunion for some time, and I had plenty of time to get myself into better shape...perhaps shock some of my old classmates...make them say, "Good Grief, she looks wonderful," but I didn't.  Time sort of slipped away and I considered not going because I've gained weight, don't much like how I look and I want my husband to be proud of me. BUT...we are going.

After watching a video on Facebook (another time gobbler), I was encouraged to live for today...make this a new start and enjoy my life because tomorrow is no guarantee.  That's really scary when you view the list of those graduates already deceased.  At least, Thank God, I'm still mobile and breathing...age is inevitable if you don't prefer the alternative, and I don't.

So, my new beginning was sort of a bust despite good intentions..  We made plans to use our 2001 Yukon Denali to pull our RV and take time to smell the roses.  The only thing we smelled was the stench of rising gas pries and knowing our vehicle got about 13 miles to the gallon when towing, we decided to scrap the RV idea.  There went my comfort zone of pulling my own toilet.  *lol*  You might laugh too, but just wait, the day will come when you understand my disappointment.

So, hubby packed everything into the Denali sans the trailers, including the dog, and off we went.  My son and his wife are taking care of things at home, and I'm told it isn't wise to publicize your absence, but we left a trio of Pitt Bulls to keep watch.  Anyhow...off we went. 

With plans to visit my Internet Sis, Rita in Montana, we feel a tad short when we broke down in Missouri.  With it being a holiday weekend, they couldn't get to our repairs until Tuesday and this was Friday.  No motels in the area that were pet friendly, so the vehicle was drivable enough to decide to head home.

Back home, we sat for a few days and bemoaned our rotten luck...overlooking the fact that we made it back safe and sound, but $160.00 poorer to find out we had some major problem that would require a lot more to fix.  Determined to travel and smell the roses, hubby took our 2012 Optima to have the tires rotated and checked.  Yeah, you guessed it.  The tires that come on most new cars are rated for about 20,000 miles before they start to balloon on the sides.  We should have remembered that from a few years back when we tried to make a trip to California in a 2011 Kia and made it to Arkanasas before we had to turn back.  Sometimes, I feel like a boomerang.

Anyhow....a new net of tires, and of course the chrome wheels my husband has wanted, and now we've invested another $1200.00 in the trip and we aren't even gone yet.  Of course in the interim, my new glasses came..$260.00, and we had to find a homeowners insurance that didn't consider us high risk since Erie dropped us for filing a claim on a burst pipe last year.  I was definitely in need of a vacation by now.

I'd already been through the dilemma of what to pack, as the reunion announcement said the attire was party casual.  What is that?  Jeans with no holes....shirts with sleeves. My suitcase bulged with options, none of which I like.

With the Optima crammed to the ceiling with dog bed, dog, treats, cooler with water and snacks, we were off like the proverbial herd of turtles. We spent two nights with hubby's brother in Broken Bow, OK...the first spent in a room where someone forgot to open the AC vent.  Two big adults and a dog in a full size bed on flannel sheets with no air was not a new beginning.  :)  The discomfort was worth the visit.  We had a good time, plenty of good food and company.  Hope we an do it again soon, but this time with AC.  *lol*

We departed and hubby drove until he couldn't see anymore.  I refuse to drive anymore, so if they asked for my license back, I'd gladly surrender it.  We found a pet friendly motel at La Quinta Inns and spent a wonderful night with AC, a king-sized bed.  Live was good....is good.

The next morning, we made the breakfast bar in time to get lukewarm coffee and be on our way again.  First stop, Show Low, Arizona where my mom has just relocated.  She and my sister are moving back to the house my mom vacated two years ago because we didn't like her living alone at her age.  Now 88, she's decided she needs to live in a town where she knows no one and doesn't drive.  Since my sister can't yet make the move, I'm staying for a while to handle the repair and installation people who are coming because my mom is almost totally deaf and refuses to wear hearing aids.  Sometimes we talk and have totally different conversations.  Yesterday, I asked about her car and she told me all about Matlock.  Gotta love her spunk, though.

The altitude here is killing me.  I forgot how it took me two weeks to acclimate the last time.  I have headaches everyday, I'm out of breath, and reminded that I'm no spring chicken anymore.  But, I plan to walk into that reunion on October 5th come hell or high water.  After all, I paid $188 for the experience, so it had better be great one.  :)  Okay, so I'll waddle into the reunion, hold my head high and hope to hell my former classmates have more than a few extra pounds and a lot more wrinkles.  This actually isn't a new beginning, but a continuation of something I completed fifty years ago.  1963...seems like just yesterday, but maybe seeing old friends and reliving some memories will provide a new outlook and give me a beginning to knock my socks off.  (of course, at my age, I'll still have imprints of them on my vein-riddled legs.)


I hope any new beginnings your make go a lot more smoothly than mine have.  I might grumble and gripe, but I'm thankful for every day the Lord lets me stick around.

Now, jump over to Lynn Crain's blog and see what she has to say about new beginnings.