As another year ends....

 Another year is drawing to a close.  As I reflect back on this past year, I realize how much I have changed.  You may not think so, since my appearance is much the same.  Oh, a few more gray hairs and my complexion just a tad more leathery.  My weight remains the same and the hair is still white.  The changes are inside.  The changes are subtle.  I suppose it happens to all of us as we move forward from the cradle to the grave.

I moved into this house in 1982 with Kenny Mercer and my two kids, Sam and Susie.  They were both still in school.  Sam would go on to graduate college.  The kids are both gone.  Kenny has since passed and I remain here on my "Gods little acre."  with 7 geese and a calico cat for company.  The grandson that Kenneth and I adopted together is grown, married and has three  children of his own.

Today was Sunday, December 24.  Yesterday was December 23.  On December 23, 1983 Kenny Mercer and I exchanged our wedding vows in front of retired minister in Canon City, Colorado.  It was 15 degrees below zero.  We topped the ceremony off by enjoying a doughnut at the local donut shop. Susie was in middle school and Sam almost ready for college.

Sadly, I lost Kenny in 2002.  I have spent over half my life in this house.  I look around at where I am in my life journey and wonder how this happened.  It seems like only yesterday that I was surrounded by a vibrant loving family and the token dog and cat.  How many sunburns did I suffer while on a weekend fishing trip?  The children are gone, replaced by grand children and even great grand children.

I set here in my 2400 square foot house with a detached garage and an acre of land and wonder just where this will all end.  I can't sell the house and move into town, because I have 7 geese left from the good old days when I had 17 geese and 47 ducks and a pond.  They have only known this little acre  of mine as their home. 

And if I should move, where do I move to?  Do I go back to Hutchinson, where I have only one sister left?  I have no friends that I have kept in touch with.  Do I  go to Garden City, where I spent many years with my husband who is the father of my kids?  He is since deceased.  Do I go to Lakin where I have one daughter?  Or Longton where I have two daughters.  I have one daughter here and one son.  And one son in Dallas. 

Life would be so much simpler if the good Lord had not given us free will.  We should be born with some kind of handbook on how to do this.  But we weren't so I am stuck.  Guess I will just keep putting one foot in front of the other until one day I just cease to be.  Then it will be someone else's problem, won't it?

Peace!

For sale: A vacation home in Longton, Kansas!

Here is something that might interest you.  I know it interests me.  This is Longton, Kansas kind of down in the Southeast corner of Kansas.  Sort of a little Garden of Eden.  The first shots are just that.  A couple show Longton Main Street with a tree growing out of a roof, the general store and a big red barn.  One is of a vacant house grown up in underbrush that is just for the sake of art.

But the rest of them are of a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with a 3 car garage and a workshop located on 5 lots two blocks off Main Street.  My daughter Patty, went to an auction and in true Seeger fashion, lost control and bought a  house.  She lives in Western Kansas.  The house is in Eastern Kansas.  The words logical and prudent never were used much in our family.  So here it sets and is used only when someone needs a place to stay while visiting .....nowhere. 

Patty did say she wanted to sell this.  I am sure it could be had for uner $25,000 and would make a very nice retirement home.  Not a lot of jobs in the Longton area so I would not recommend it for a working family.  But I could see me moving there and having a little shop out in that big garage.  But I love Colorado.  But we will see.  If you are at all interested give me a shout out!

I have unleashed a monster on the world!

First I should tell you that the SWM of long ago who broke my heart and left me disillusioned is now operating under my umbrella in a far different capacity than he was last summer.  We are now friends.  As such we do not discuss politics, race, religion, Fox News, rearing of children, the welfare state, immigration, Sarah Palin, cooking, tattoos, Harley Davidson, the price of silver, and a myriad of subjects which are dealt with on a need to deal basis.  We spend a lot of time in quiet meditation.  I see him a couple times a week and I am helping him get his life organized.  Can not get mine on track, but doing pretty good getting him lined out. 

As friends we have a lot more in common and seem to have developed a mutual respect that was missing before.  I have found that he is interested in gardening.  Small draw back here is that he now realizes he is old and does not have time to wait for this stuff to get big.  So he has planted two  6 foot evergreens.  When he wanted Pampas grass he assumed he could buy it 6 feet tall and was crushed to be presented with 6 inch starts.  Of course the 4 inch tomato plants were a real blow to his expectations.  But like a true city farmer he went along with the game.  Four tomato plants and 2 peppers along with 2 hills of Zucchini soon graced his back yard.  He recalled his mother building a tent with three sticks for the tomatoes and was a little disappointed to find that the tomatoes needed to be 3 feet taller to reach the sticks.  That and the walk ways he built between the plants proved a little too much for me.  I had to take a break.

Next I taught him the benefit of making a list of things that need to be done and told him how gratifying it is to complete a task and then check it off or draw a line through it.  He is very good at making the list.  Very, very good.  I taught him on Tuesday about the list and Wednesday he called to read me his list.  It is now up to 38 items.  Nothing is checked off because he does not have time to do anything since he has to water his garden and make his list!  I am worried he may starve to death since I did not see anything about food on the list.

Now, lest you think I am completely heartless, I do have a long range plan for the little fellow.  Next week he and I are going to venture off to the the Senior Center and he will be enrolling in computer classes and I think he may play Chess.  I  will have to put this plan in place as I go.  See I noticed when I had lunch with Phyllis that there seemed to be a plethora of women in the lunch room.  Now I know the drill here.  If I were to be so inclined as to actively seek male companionship I would put me on a pretty little frock and kind of sashay along the boulevard there and sort of smile with my eyes a little down cast and some big strong boy would fall in step.  So, I know the game the girls are playing, I just need to make him aware of the part he should be playing.  How the boy survived this long in the world of women unscathed is beyond me.

He does not have an inquiring mind at all.  I know this because he wanted me to help him clean his stove.  So the first step was to do the self cleaning oven thing.  We disconnected the smoke alarm and opened all the windows and I went home and he went to his garage.  The next day I returned.  The boy almost had a stroke when I pulled the oven door off the hinges.  Then when I pulled the drawer on the bottom of the stove out he was astounded.  He had used the stove for 7 years and did not know either of those things could happen.  But he now has a very clean stove with the skillets neatly tucked away.  So I am grooming him for the candlelight dinners that await him and some lucky lady in the not to distant future.  I know he can cook so that is an advantage.

So next week I will throw him to the wolves, so to speak.  He has very high morals and a naivete that I find rather amusing.  Course we know how many times I have been around the block and I do not try to sugar coat any of it.  He will make some woman a very good companion and we are both acutely aware that it is not me.  The boy plays Classical music in his garage and his venture on the wild side is a little light jazz.  And he reads books with big words and tiny print by people I have never heard of before.  Way out of my comfort zone, but that does not make him a bad person. 

Ah, but for every  Jack there is a Jill.  We know that.  We just have to find the right Jill.  It is an undertaking that he has not yet put on his list, but he will! Just  click on this to see what I have planned!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR2FvrU-NIM



 

So just what is this thing called retirement and how is it different than working myself to death?

As I was digging in the little area behind the house, with sweat pouring off the little pointed head and my back in spasms, it dawned on me that I am now officially retired and am enjoying my leisure time? Question mark is the proper mark there, because, I am not sure this is how it is supposed to be.

Seems like retirement should involve some sort of sitting around and having naps and things like that. As I recall, I worked very hard the first 50 years to raise kids, pay into my Social Security, establish myself as a respected member of society and gloried in planning all the things I would do when I retired.

Ok, so here I am all retired and while it is mostly pretty good, there are a few drawbacks I did not forsee. The homestead is paid for, but there are the taxes, insurance, utilities, upkeep and things like that which amount to as much as I would pay for a place in town. So, while the Social Security and small pension do cover the necessities, there is always the expensive of wanting to have an actual life!

This entails having a small income on the side which is derived by doing something to make a few extra bucks. Earning of the few extra bucks means missing the nap. Then there is the matter of the grunt work around the place. So I can either do it myself or earn more extra bucks to pay someone else to do it for me. There went that other nap!

Assisted Living Facility has already told me that if I check in there, they have a no duck or goose policy. Imagine that! So guess I am going to remain here on the farm and enjoy this thing called retirement until I work myself into an early grave, but guess what! I am not alone on this and the only ones who seem to be doing the nap things are the ones who planned way better than I did!

But, you know what? I would not have it any other way. While the sitting on the decks waving off the bees and the taking of the nap looks really good sometimes, mostly I like the active life and earning and spending of the almighty dollar! So while I may not see you on the golf course, I will see you when I am jogging down the lane and you pass by in your big fine car. I am the one who smiles and waves! I am the nutty one!