I’ve spent more time in Florida than any other state outside New England. I like Florida. I love the beaches. I like the theme parks. I love all the outdoor dining. I like the diversity. I love the winter weather. I like how easy it is to get there from Boston with many cheap, nonstop flights daily.
We have close friends and family in Orlando, the Palm Beach area and Naples. They have been through many hurricanes and they don’t typically get too concerned. Therefore, I did not immediately change my travel plans when a very late season hurricane (Nicole) was forecast in November 2022. We were scheduled to look at condos with a realtor and she would’ve been highly inconvenienced if we cancelled. (We were actually thinking of purchasing a second home down there at the time.)
Hurricane Nicole hit on Election Day in November 2022. (Governor Ron DeSantis was overwhelmingly reelected—possibly a bad sign for this Massachusetts liberal.) We were told we had to evacuate our hotel because it was in “Zone B” – a barrier island. I never even got to try the pool. We left and checked into another hotel outside of Zone B.
The hurricane itself wasn’t too bad where we were, but I had a bad reaction to the extreme barometric pressure change. It caused a problem with my inner ear and triggered vertigo. Not fun. I sat in my hotel room with a barf bucket in my lap waiting for the moment we could go to the airport.
After that trip, I decided I would never again visit Florida during hurricane season and really didn’t want to own a condo there. (Renting is fine.)
But I still like Florida.
Hurricane Milton looks horrific. I’m scared for the state. I hope it’s not as bad as they’re saying it will be.
Here we are at my nephew’s wedding on Longboat Key (which looks to be in extreme danger from Hurricane Milton). It was just one of many, many good times I’ve had in the quirky, beautiful, unique state of Florida.
It’s now been a whole year since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Israel in which 1,200 men, women and thirty-six children were horrifically killed and 250 abducted. Since then, over 40,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed and countless thousands have been injured and displaced, including mothers, children and infants.
Mothers, children, and infants, like my precious granddaughter…
My minister shared this poem on Sunday and it really struck a chord with our Unitarian Universalist congregation.
“If God Would Go On a Sick Leave: A Poem of Peace”
by Rabbi Zoë Klein
Nowhere is there more prayer. The Nuns at the Holy Sepulchre. The faithful at Al Aqsa Mosque. The worshippers at the Wall. The call to prayer at dawn and dusk Warbling from the citadels. The church bells, The Persian trills, The passion spilled over texts From every major/minor religious sect. Nowhere is there more prayer than Jerusalem, Thanks be to God, Hamdilala, Baruch Hashem. And yet, I’m starting to think that it’s You and not them, God, what’s the point of prayer? If there’s nowhere where There’s more prayer, And terror reigns Then, Who’s to blame? If suddenly, without a whisper goodbye, Jesus, Allah, Adonai, The three men they admire most All took the last train for the coast, And the Moslems got up from their knees And the Christians put down their rosaries And the Jews stayed their hands from kissing Their mezuzahs, And everyone looked up, And realized something’s missing… God is missing. Stop the praying! No One’s there, They’d arrange a party to search everywhere. They’d look for God But there’d be no Presence In Holy Books or stars and crescents Or steeples and crosses. People’d be at a loss, Is He ever coming back? They’d be so distraught, Their searching for naught, There’d be nothing on high So they’d turn to on low, There’d be nothing above So they’d turn to below, And they’d finally see there, In the face of the other, A semblance of sister, The eyes of a brother, They’d turn and they’d lean Upon one another. You see, every group can’t believe that they’re the ones chosen, Every group can’t believe that the Holy Land’s owed them, Sometimes faith in You, God, Builds insurmountable walls, And everyone falls. Everyone falls. How wise are the secularists for whom the dead aren’t martyred But, quite plainly, murdered… This might sound like an absurd, ungodly thing to say, A truly heretical supplication to pray, (I say this only out of the deepest respect) But if for a few days, God, You’d just give it a rest, If You’d take a sick leave and just go away And let Israel work this out without You in the way, God, for that kind of peace, You’re a small price to pay.
There’s no feeling like holding your first grandchild for the first time. It’s an experience of pure love. It’s a bit different than the new parent feeling of baby love, which is such a huge life-altering event. (Your life is ever after divided into two parts—before and after.)
Becoming a grandparent is just a…gift. A gift from the universe. I’m crying as I write this. I don’t love the word “blessed” because of its association with traditional Christianity, but…I mean…heck… it sure does apply here.
I’ve been searching for quotes about becoming a grandparent that resonate. I kind of like this one:
“Grandchildren are the reward for those who have labored as parents.”
But I don’t love the word “reward” in it. Children are not rewards.
Becoming a grandparent is just awesome. That’s all I can say. I know I’m very lucky too. For whatever reasons, the birthrate is way down in the US. A significant number of millennials are choosing not to have children. I’m just so fortunate that my wonderful daughter and her partner have chosen to take the parenthood plunge.
And some practical advice for new grandmothers (based on my one week of experience):
Don’t be annoying.
Be helpful.
Let the parents figure out how to feed and care for their brand new baby. Do your best to take care of the parents—with meals, cleaning, recycling boxes, and whatever else they obviously need. Some ideas have changed since we had kids, especially around bottle vs breast “nipple confusion.” Don’t assert yourself too hard with your old ideas. And don’t say any of those annoying things that all mothers have up their sleeve! Tell the parents how awesome they’re doing at life’s hardest job.
One thing you will always be 100% in agreement on is that their baby (“our” baby 😉) is the cutest baby.
I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoyed the Leanne Morgan comedy special “I’m Every Woman” on Netflix. This bit about becoming a grandma is one of my favorite parts 😂🤣😂
To my readers: my granddaughter has arrived safe and sound – thank the universe! She is perfect in every way and so is her name, which I love, but won’t be sharing publicly at this time.
As a mother, I can tell you it’s pretty darn stressful to have your own precious daughter go through labor and delivery. I wrote this haiku during the first night of her labor, which went on for two whole nights. I barely slept a wink!
I continue to try to take photos of the moon with my iPhone 15 and it never works well.
I could clearly see the partial lunar eclipse with my eyes last night, but the photos don’t show it. (Well, maybe a tiny bit in the second one, but you have to zoom in.)
Now that I have apparently answered all the WordPress Daily Prompts, I feel left out. I enjoyed responding and reading other bloggers’ responses to the Daily Prompts for many months in 2023 & 2024. But alas, nothing lasts forever. I’ll just have to come up with my own blog topics now.
Did anybody watch the Emmys on Sunday night? My husband hates awards shows, but I’m like how can you not watch them, when we watch so much TV? It’s like seeing all your old friends at a party.
The best line of the night came near the beginning of the show when father and son cohosts Eugene & Dan Levy referred to it as “broadcast TV’s biggest night for honoring movie stars on streaming services.” So true! What the heck is Meryl Streep doing at the Emmys? GenXers grew up in a time when TV was TV and movies were movies.
Speaking of GenX, our best moment of the night was when Ron Howard (Ritchie) and Henry Winkler (Fonzie) came out together—on a recreated Happy Days set—and Winkler hit that jukebox as only the Fonz can.
In case you haven’t heard, Baby Reindeer won big. I guess that’s well-deserved, but I found the show pretty difficult to watch and my memory of it now is quite foggy. I mainly remember the level of depravity depicted.
Hacks also did very well, which I fully support. It’s a great show. And speaking of GenX (again), did you all know that Hack’s costar Hannah Einbinder is original SNL cast member Lorraine Newman’s daughter?? No wonder she’s so funny.
Actors from The Bear, The Crown, and True Detective: Night Country (Jodie Foster) also won several awards, which I support. All were terrific shows. (My husband would disagree on The Crown. He didn’t enjoy the Diana years, but I loved that part.)
The relative diversity at the Emmys was heartening. So many more stories are getting told these days and we are all better off for it.
There’s one show that got a zillion awards that I have not seen: Shogun (on Hulu). I’ve added it to the top of my “to watch” list.
What did you add to your watch list, based on the Emmy awards?
Other shows we’re watching now:
The final season of My Brilliant Friend on HBO Max. I’m still loving this show, in all its Italian glory, but my husband is bored. He doesn’t seem to care what happens to the two main characters anymore. I think part of the problem is that there’s so much time between seasons with some of these shows. People forget and/or lose interest.
The English Teacher on Hulu. This is a new show we found on our own. It’s very enjoyable, like Abbott Elementary, except it takes place in a high school. The main character is a gay high school English teacher, played by Brian Jordan Alvarez (the same actor who played over-the-top Estefan on Will & Grace). He’s very different in this role, but still funny. They tackle both current topics (like the art of drag and trigger warnings) and age-old high school traditions (like powder puff football and circles of popularity) in an open, non-accusatory way. GenX, Millennial and GenZ perspectives are all represented.
The Perfect Couple on Netflix. I’m a bit of a Nicole Kidman hate watcher. I mean, I love her, but I also hate her. But how can you not watch any of her limited series? Her costumes alone make these shows interesting. This one takes place on Nantucket and is based on an Elin Hilderbrand book. There’s a death during a fancy wedding weekend. Liv Schreiber plays her weed-smoking husband. Eve Hewson (from Bad Sisters) has a major role. Did you know that she’s Bono’s daughter?
The cast of the latest Nicole Kidman vehicle on Netflix: The Perfect Couple
Bad Monkey on Apple TV+. Vince Vaughn is funny, but I sort of regret ever starting this show. I was drawn in by the setting (the Florida Keys and the Bahamas), but I’ve really lost the plot, which is pretty nutty and stupid. I wouldn’t bother with this show unless you absolutely love Vince Vaughn.
Back in the 70s, charm bracelets were a common gift for girls. Typically girls got the bracelet with one or two “charms” as a first gift and then additional charms for birthdays and Christmases ever after.
Charms were little silver representations of some hobby or activity that the girl liked to do.
I loved my charm bracelet. I have kept it in a box in my closet for decades now. It lives with a bunch of other sentimental jewelry that I no longer wear, but cannot part with.
I recently bought some of those tiny silver polishing cloths to shine up some old jewelry and decided to clean my charm bracelet.
As we very eagerly await the birth of my granddaughter sometime within the next two weeks, I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to show it to her and tell her about the meaning of all the charms.
There are 17 charms on my bracelet. Most represent things that were important to me as a child and teenager.
A Camp Fire Girls 5-years charm (I had forgotten how important the CFG were to me)
A set of silver bells (not sure why I had those, but I’m assuming they were Christmas-related)
A Camp Fire Girls 6-years charm
The B-1 Bomber (Unusual, yes, but my Dad was an engineer and a pilot and his company made some navigational components for the B-1. He was always going to California on business and he must have brought this charm back from one of his trips.)
A tall ship, probably the USS Constitution. The bicentennial in 1976 was a very big deal in Massachusetts. The tall ships visit to Boston was a part of it.
A baton (I loved twirling and being a majorette in high school)
A tennis racket and ball (I had forgotten, but I was quite serious about tennis for several years. I made it to the club finals in singles one summer. I played on the high school team for a year or two.)
A starfish – I loved the beach. (I ill-advisedly took a starfish home with me one time and that thing reeked like hell for months. It was probably still alive and I didn’t realize it. Poor starfish.)
Mickey Mouse – I was one of those very lucky kids in the 70s whose parents took them to Disneyland.
The Eiffel Tower (I hadn’t been to Paris back then, but I must’ve liked the idea. I sure did love it later on in life.)
A saguaro 🌵 cactus that says Tucson. I had an aunt and six cousins that lived out West. My grandmother would periodically move out there to help them.
The last one is a bit of a mystery. Maybe it’s supposed to be a bicycle. I loved riding my bike. But it looks a bit more like a moped. I remember seeing mopeds a lot on our visits to Nantucket and Block Island, but people were constantly getting seriously injured on them. I don’t think my parents ever let us ride them, so let’s just go with bicycle for that one.
For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been seeing “Answered” under the Daily Prompt. In other words, WordPress asked the exact same question a year ago and I responded. Believe it or not, I just now figured out how to find my original response to the prompt and “reblog” it (OK Boomer!)
I’ve already posted too many times about my recent trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. But what the heck…it’s my blog and I can post what I want, right?
As previously mentioned, spotting wildlife is a major activity in Yellowstone National Park. After your first 500 or so bison (aka buffalo), you start coveting sightings of the more rare animals— like wolves and bears.
Here’s everything we saw:
Bluebird
Lots of elk
Bison galore
Raven
Osprey (baby)
KilldeerMagpie
Two grey wolves (one white and one black) from a long distance, but very clearly seen through a stranger’s scope
The black one looked like this
Chipmunk
Pronghorn
We saw mountain goats from a long distance in that cliff face behind us. They are non-native and therefore a bit controversial in Yellowstone.
We also saw sandhill cranes and vultures, but I wasn’t able to get photos.
The wolves were the most exciting to spot, partially because everyone else was so excited! There are people that go around spotting wolves all day long in Yellowstone. They know individual members of each pack. They have special spotting scopes and they sit in certain areas watching for wolves. When you see a clump of those people, you pull over to see what’s going on. Their excitement is infectious and they are very generous with their spotting equipment.
Despite all the warnings about bears and the need to carry bear spray on hikes, we never saw one! I’ve still never ever seen a bear in the wild.
I am pleased to report that with this recent trip to Montana and Wyoming, I have now visited more than half of the fifty United States (26 to be exact). I have 24 left to go!
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PS: Is anyone else disappointed that MyGenXerLife’s blog seems to have disappeared? Did he make an announcement while I was away or something? I really loved that blog! Any info appreciated.
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