Posted on by ChatterLei

Inspired by Bloggers

Before this blog was a reality, while still in the planning stages, someone asked me if I ever read blogs. That was a great question! My answer was no. I mean, I had read a few blogs but did not really follow any or read any blogs regularly other than news blogs. I remember asking myself if I am qualified to start a blog if I don’t really read them? Haha!

Now I read blogs regularly, follow several blogs, I am inspired by many, and I live vicariously through some of your stories and experiences. I appreciate the time and effort it takes for you to blog your thoughts and experiences.

Live, Love, Grow

Today was an interesting step in our aging process. My husband’s knee surgeon with whom my husband had a six-week follow-up appointment said that we are all dying. It is a part of life. We need to make the best of life at each stage. And, then he wrote a prescription for a jazzy scooter for my husband, along with a prescription for continued PT so he can keep what strength he does have and slow the process of weakening over time.

My husband’s numerous medical challenges have never stopped him from working hard to keep moving with as limited assistance as possible. He is an inspiration for never giving up or giving in. To him, a jazzy scooter feels like a step backward.

I do not see it that way. From my viewpoint, nothing has changed, except it will increase his level of safety when we are going to events, sightseeing, or on trips. It will expand the distance he can safely go and do things around the neighborhood and a greater opportunity to visit with friends and neighbors without someone necessarily needing to be there to push him in his wheelchair. 

Life is not without its difficulties, and it may not always be comfortable, but with adversity comes growth. Someone said once that there is no comfort in the growth zone and no growth in the comfort zone. So, if we, as adults, are all dying anyway, we might as well make the best of it!

Posted on by ChatterLei · 3 Comments

Keep a Journal

Daily writing prompt
Share a lesson you wish you had learned earlier in life.
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Time moves so fast. And your memory fades over time. The details of your life, over time, become less and less easy to recall. One of my friends became an author. She has kept a journal her entire life, which was very helpful to her when she wrote her first book. I just wish I had kept a record of all of our family experiences when our children were young. It would be fun to share those memories with our adult daughters and our grandchildren now. Also, it would be good to have something in writing to solve disputes when my husband and I are discussing past experiences from our separate perspectives and aging memories. Yep. Keep a journal! 🙂

Posted on by ChatterLei

California – Own a Piece of History

Photo by Tom Fisk on Pexels.com

A few weeks ago, my family joined Life360 so we could find each other at the 4th of July celebration fireworks by the river that night. About an hour ago, I received a notification via Life360 that our son-in-law landed in San Francisco. What? I didn’t know he was going to California. So, I shot him a text asking him what he’s doing there. He said he is attending a conference for work. Tomorrow is sight-seeing day and he asked for suggestions of places to go. I gave him some ideas, but only what I could find online, since I have not been there. I see on Life360 that he is checking out the night life in Soma. I hope he takes some pictures to share tomorrow. You haven’t really been anywhere if there are not pictures to prove it, right?

In my earlier adulthood, whenever I would travel to a new location, I would watch the local news channel to get a feel for what was going on in the area. Nowadays we have the news from anywhere right at our fingertips. So, I searched San Francisco news to see what is going on in the area, just for fun. An interesting article caught my eye, so I thought I would share it.

Caltrain is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley for the past 160 years. On January 16, 1864 the first steam train made its way down the Peninsula past Mayfield, to San Jose. This year, 2024, Caltrain launches Electrified service.

ABC7 News (KGO) reported on August 13th, 2024 that Caltrain will have a new fleet of cars that are all electric. The gas powered trains are on the chopping block. They are going to sell the diesel locomotive with 40 years of service and a million miles traveled, a piece of history, to a California buyer. It will not come with a working engine. So, with enough money and imagination, someone will be able to transform it into something fun and useful. What a fun Airbnb it would be! Here is the link to the story and to Caltrain’s store for more information.

Posted on by ChatterLei

Grandpa was only TWO YEARS OLD!

Grandpa Francis

I have been working on family history. My favorite place to research is in old newspapers at Newspapers.com. I discovered that my grandpa had amazing parents and that he, himself, was an amazing human being. He had experienced a lot of loss at a young age, yet he did not grow up to be bitter or angry. He was authentic, sincere, and unpretentious. My mom said she never heard my grandpa and grandma argue. The were kind and patient people.

My grandpa, Francis, was two years old when his mom died at age 31, while giving birth to her third son, my grandpa’s baby brother. Francis’s older brother was about 7 years old when their mother and baby brother passed away.  

Grandpa Francis’s dad had gone blind and could not raise his two boys after his dear wife passed away. My grandpa and great uncle were sent to live with my great-grandmother’s parents. Grandpa’s dad (C. M.) went to a school for the blind after his wife passed away, where he learned how to live with his blindness. He learned how to tune pianos and was able to get by okay.

My grandpa was nine years old when his maternal grandfather died. He lived with his grandma until her passing when he was 25. He moved from Kansas to Idaho where he met and married my grandma a year later. She was 17 and he was 26. They raised 7 children together, worked hard, grew a garden each year, canned their own fruits and vegetables, loved their family, and each of them lived to be 90 years old. Neither of them drank alcohol. Grandpa was well-liked in the community, running the downtown “show-house” early on in their marriage and working for the City on the canals later in their marriage.

Grandma was quiet and busy with, cooking, canning and raising their children. She loved spending time with Grandpa, however, on coin-hunts, camping, and traveling back to Kansas so he could spend time with his brother and other family members from time to time.   

My grandparents have both passed away. My mom (turning 81 in 9 days) and her six younger siblings (the youngest turns 60 in October) are all still alive.