Ronald and Donis Great Adventure

Each year, as I renew my domain, I tell myself I'm going to write more and, as you can clearly see, I don't.  Life is good for two retired old timers.  Our days are pretty much the same each week.  We try to get out one day shopping for our meager needs. Sometimes it's local stores and sometimes we travel a bit but once a month it's a trip to Joliet's west side, Sam's Club.   We're trying to have our "Date Day" meal at different places that we haven't tried before but sometimes we fall back to old favorites.  Last week we ventured out to Monee, Illinois to visit our daughter and have lunch.  We decided to try the Polish restaurant a few blocks from her home.  I'm so glad we did. We all enjoyed the food and took home enough for a light lunch another day.  I hope this isn't the last visit. 

 It's that month again.  Granddaughter is still happily married.  My breast surgeon says everything is ok.  Daughter had to sell her house, but her brother found her a manufactured home in a gated community and she's settling in.  Living alone is all new to her. The fact that she qualifies to live in a senior community is a little rough on me, though. Ron managed to get in a garden this year and took loving care of it.  We've been supplying cucumbers to whomever wants them, green bell peppers and green hot peppers have been coming in pretty steadily and the tomatoes are really turning the garden red.  It's one of my favorite times of the year.  I almost become a vegetarian between what's in our garden and what we get delivered from "Market wagon".   We were naughty children today on our trip to Sam's Club.  We bought a jar of M & Ms plain, peanuts and peanut butter plus a jar of Skittles.  Time to hit the exercise bike on a...

It's goodbye 2021 and hello 2022.  We're looking forward to a better year than the past.  August wasn't our favorite month though it started out pretty good.  Our oldest granddaughter got married.  It was a nice quiet affair in her father's (our son) backyard.  Her brother got his license and preformed the ceremony.   The next week was my visit to the hospital as an outpatient.  It's the first time I've really been inside the hospital, so all was new.  Ron got to come and stay the entire time.  A lot of our friends had more serious hospital, but their spouse had to wait outside the hospital for their release.  I've recovered fine and in time to fly out to Arizona. Our daughter's husband has had a series of ailments and spends a lot of time in the hospital, so this time wasn't expected to be any different.  But it was.  He died August 29th, 4 days before his wife's birthday.  She's not doing well but that is expected....

 Just as our world headed back to normal another strain of COVID 19 popped up and it's back to wearing masks indoors.  I'm back to staying away from the grocery stores to keep myself clear for upcoming surgery.  I've been told that it will happen as  scheduled because it's necessary (C).   The positive results is that I will be able to play the accordion, I couldn't before surgery.  

 We're back in Illinois with two shots in our body that we didn't have when we left.  We did the two week wait and added two days and flew home.  The plain was pretty full and I made the mistake of sitting in the middle seat so someone took the window and slept most of the way via hogging the arm rest.  I'll learn, it may take me awhile but after this second time, I think I'll remember. Got to hug our son and daughter and then a grandson and great grand daughter.  What a nice feeling.  I wish there were more but, oh well. Life is still pretty much the same as it has been.  Sometimes I go to the grocery store with Ron but sometimes I don't.  We still go out for a late lunch/early supper on date day.  Before we left last year we went to Syl's for our anniversary dinner and were the only customers and today we went to Pagoda for our date day and we were the only sitting customers.  I'm going to miss the quiet where everything gets back to "...

 We made it back to sunny/hot Arizona.  It's been two weeks since we arrived, so we're presuming we're COVID 19 clear.  We were in three airports and two crowded planes to get here.  We bought our non stop tickets early to get a good price but in the mean time they changed the non stop to a switch planes in Vegas.  Vegas was the worst of the three airports.  First of all, it was crowded. Second it appeared they were trying to upgrade the eating choices but stopped before they were finished.  There were a lot of fast food signs but blocked from admittance by plywood barriers.  Third and most important to us we had to fast walk to, what appeared to be, the other end of the airport in order to catch our flight to Tucson.  We made it with only minutes to spare before they called out numbers.  Both flights were full or very close to being full except for the middle seats left open by Southwest Airlines.   It appeared everyone was we...

 I'd like to list all the beautiful places and friendly people we saw this summer but thanks to covid19 the list is short. My son came to visit on Saturday mornings but he kept 6 feet away from us and wore a mask.  My daughter came to visit a few times but she had her and her husband's health to deal with so that was her priority. We talked to our retired neighbors but only waved at the ones who still work every day.  Since the neighborhood has it's share of dogs, we met several face to face.  Gibby has a great memory so when he sees one of us outside he runs across the street because he knows he's probably going to get a treat unless his mean mommy says no.  Rocko is getting old and isn't doing much running and he never cared for any snacks.  The poor dog across the street the other way is tied up all day and barks at anything/one that walks by . . . the entire time their walking by.  The one next door on the other side is only out on a leash and only...

So far we're ok.  Keeping to ourselves and wearing masks when we're out.  We spread ourselves a little thin this week going out to eat in a restaurant twice but where we didn't go was the possible problem.  We were meeting up with someone we worked with to deliver some "challenge coins" that we had picked up for her when the restaurant they had picked turned out to be closing just as we walked up to the front door.  We feared it was probably COVID19 and we learned the next day that that was the reason.  We did find another restaurant and enjoyed the company and food very much.  Best burger I've had in a long time.   We're picking up fresh produce from different venders in the area and so far have not been disappointed.  We had BLTs the other night and the tomato we picked up at Siegel's was definitely locally grown and their corn was delicious.  The fresh blueberries and cherries from Michigan that we picked up in Lemont were right on....

The world, as we knew it, has made a 180 degree turn, at a minimum.  Covad19 is the new catch phrase.  Everyone who dies either died from it or had it when they died.  I'm not planning on being part of that statistic in the near future so I'm staying away from people.  Unfortunately, our next door neighbor has tested positive.  We see him on his back porch almost every day and presume he's doing ok.  The pandemic made a drastic change in our lives.  We were in the middle of enjoying University of Arizona basketball, boys and girls, when it hit and cancelled all the playoff games of which the girls were going to be held at U of A.  Since we both enjoy college basketball the cancelling of the tournaments was a big let down.  We also decided to stay in AZ longer to let things quiet down some so we didn't leave until May 4th.  It was a great decision as the airport was empty and so was the plane.  No problem social distancing.  B...

People are born an people die and with that profound statement said I'll just say to many of the later have left our world this year. A guy I've know since he married my best friend 50+ years ago and a man who started as Ronald's training officer and ended up a good friend left our world while we were still in AZ this past winter.  We've lost a brother in law, work brothers and Moose friends this summer.  It's been rough but we're happy to have the friends and family we still have with us. We're staying close to each other and trying to live a life we enjoy.  Each day before I open my eyes I think of what my plans are and thank God for a roof over my head, a full stomach, a wonderful spouse and family and dear friends.

Again, it's been awhile but time flies and I'm just a pedestrian.  Our lives have changed since I last wrote but so has the world.  Nothing out of the ordinary world of kids, grandkids and great grandkids following their life lines.  The greats are growing into adulthood to fast for me because we just don't get to see them as often as we would like.  Two are in New Jersey, two are in Arizona and three are here in Illinois but their parents work so between working, sleeping and taking care of their children they have very little time for a social life. Life is good for Ron and me.  We are able to do almost anything we want, when we want but our wishes are simple.  We talk about going to Green Bay to see his birthday brick at Lambeau Field but we haven't.  We will, some day.

If anyone is still trying to follow my blogs, I apologize.  I have not been able to reactivate my account until this very moment. We're still retired and we're still spending winters in southern Arizona but now we have a mobile home instead of a 5th wheel and as of this fall, we're flying instead of driving back and forth. We firmly believe this is the way we need to follow after two very dangerous trips last year, we felt it was God's will so we bought a new car and left it at the mobile. We've added onto our home last fall with a three season room that we are now enjoying every day.  Large windows to see out and enclosure to protect us from the elements.  Our first priority is curtains for five large windows and a glass door.  The sunset is a little intense and the lack of privacy in the evening are the major factors in deciding what to do first. Here's to keeping up with our adventure.

   It's been awhile but I want to put so much down in black and white so here goes. The great adventure started over 44 years ago when a goofy looking young man told me he was going to marry me.  I was already married and so was he, therefore, I pronounced him "drunk".  After all we were in my marital home with other family members at the time of his declaration…. Without going deep into the process by which we arrived as a married couple, I'll just say we became a married couple on Sept. 27, 1974 and the rest is our great adventure together. Needless to say it hasn't all been smooth sailing,  All marriages go through rough times but so far we've been able to make it work for us. There was little money from his Marine pay and then the Sheriff's Department, which was a cut in pay from the Marines.  I was a lowly insurance agent just trying to keep my office rent and bills paid but we didn't need much and we wrote a lot of notes on yellow legal p...