Confessions of a Grandma

The other day when I was driving through the town of Brandon VT, I noticed all kinds of antique cars parked around the green and up and down the business lane.  I stopped to snap a few pictures. There was a club ride taking place and I guess that Brandon was a good place to stop for lunch. On Sunday morning, I went to the Vermont Quilt Festival (billed as the oldest --37 years--and largest in New England) at the Vermont State Fairgrounds in Essex Junction, VT.  There were sign all over the place warning, "NO TOUCHING THE QUILTS."  Talk about torture.   Photography was allowed, but of course I did not remember to bring my camera and my phone is a stupid one and the battery was dead anyway. There were programs, lectures, demonstrations, vendors, and quilts.  So many quilts, both old and new.  I did find a section that had quilts that looked as though they might be on a par with mine.  Then I noticed that I was in the "Kids W...

Yesterday, I slept until 8:30.  Today, I was up before 6.  Both nights I went to bed at my usual 10:00 and had the usual bout of tossing and turning before I fell asleep and again at around 2. The funny thing is that I worked at the library on Monday.  The librarian is getting her summer reading programs nailed down.  I have been helping her make sample crafts that she can show when she does a presentation at area pre-schools and the elementary schools. So I have made buckets out of old jeans and mixed up cement to make flower pots.  Monday I painted rocks to look like a penguin and a strawberry, mixed more cement (this time with color added) for three more pots, and cut out pigs.  Lots of pigs and poster board patterns for piggy banks. Obviously it exhausted me. On Tuesday, I worked in the garden.  There are so many perennials that have been in need of dividing for some time now.  I worked for hours, digging and pulling and repla...

Those who keep track of such things are predicting a huge influx of tourists this season.  Cold winters in the north are good for the Florida economy.   I have already noticed a big increase in the traffic around town.  Today there was a big car show at the airport and we had to take the long way around to get to the beach.  Damn Snowbirds! I can get away with outrageous statements like that because--when I am not driving around in my car with a Vermont license plate--I am often taken for a native.  That is not necessarily a compliment, but I do plan to check out the Cracker festival this year to see how far I can push it. Even before the tourists get here though, there is plenty of what the Allstate commercials call mayhem on the roads.  In fact with the number of three wheel cycles, golf carts, and those scooter things, there is plenty of mayhem even off the roads.  Those ride-in grocery carts?--mayhem in the supermarket aisles. I did hear that...

Do ya remember the 80's ?  The winged hair, the baggy knits, the football uniform shoulder pads? Sadly, I do.  Even sadder--we thought they were such an advancement over the 70's .  Is it just me, or does some of the 70's look have a much fresher and recent  kind of look to it?  Okay, I know everything old is new again, that fashions come and go and then come again.  This has got to be one of the most vicious aspects of aging--seeing the trends of one's youth flashing once again before us. I was thinking about the '80's because I was thinking about cars I used to drive once again.  During the 80's, I drove a Nissan Sentra.  The first one I had was actually my first brand new car.  It was a grey sedan with upholstered seats, radio and  cassette tape player.  I loved it.  My son learned to drive in that car.  It had all kinds of other bells and whistles--like a tachometer (which I never learned to use).   ...

It's not often that I am ahead of any kind of trend.  I am not even sure that this counts.  I've written about my old Opal Kadette and my yellow VW bug --small cars that got me through the energy crisis and the escalating price of gasoline right on into the 80's (remember--went up to a dollar!).  I was into small, fuel efficient vehicles while others were just rolling their eyes at my toy cars.  I liked small cars--putting up with the lack of room and family loading conveniences for the ease of driving and parking. So when it was time for the yellow car to go to the car assisted living facility, I bought a Ford Fiesta.  A likeness can be seen on this video  if you look quickly--except mine was white.  This was a small car.  Very small.  Another standard transmission, stripped down model, but it definitely got us all where we needed to go.  This was a time when I should have had a minivan, soccer mom kind of vehicle because I...

My 1973 Volkswagon Beetle was a good little car.  My father was less than thrilled with my choice--a car he was sure was designed by Hitler did not sit well with a World War II Vet.  Still it was reliable and I had it for quite a long time and still remember it fondly. It did have a standard transmission.  I thought by that time that I was quite good at driving a standard and managing the changing of gears.  Other people did not agree and, apparently, the car itself did not agree either.  I did end up having to replace the transmission.  Maybe even more than once.  It took at least two more cars and who remembers how many transmissions before I finally realized I was meant to drive automatics and that's all there is to it. A new feature for me on this particular vehicle was the lack of rear doors.  Wrestling a toddler and an infant into the back seat along with all the attendant paraphenalia was quite the balancing act, especially on thos...

After killing off my first car, my dad helped me find a "new" one.  The Opel Kadette had been reintroduced by Buick in the early 60's as the American answer to the VW Beetle.  I have always wondered why the bigwigs at Buick never thought to question why the Germans had discontinued it in the first place.  That vehicle had some quirks. This car presented challenges from the start.  It had a manual transmission. Now, I had taken driver's education in high school and back then all the driver's ed. cars were manual transmission.  I remember that I had done really well on the first written test after the introduction lectures (I did school well) and the instructor handed me my A+ test and  remarked about how easy it was going to be to teach me how to drive.  He changed that particular prediction as soon as he sat next to me behind the wheel and discovered I had no feel for the clutch at all.  Let's just say my mechanical ineptitude is epic. ...

In the news today, gas prices reach $4.00 a gallon.  It seems that the old notions of supply and demand no longer drive the economy.  I never really understood much of economics anyway, but this whole speculation deal really leaves me scratching my head.  I make it a point now of combining errands and working out an "always turning right" kind of route to follow.  I am thinking it is time to up my number of "no car" days as well. My first car was a used and abused old Chevy Impala that was approximately the size of the QEII.  I bought it in 1968, I think.  It was an automatic transmission, which was good, but it had no radio, which was really bad.  I remember having to hang a transistor radio off the open ashtray on the front console.  Yet, I feel free to tut-tut anyone driving around with a cell phone to his/her ear. After my son was born, the radio was less important.  I put his car seat in the middle of the front passenger seat--it ...

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, I went to the Cabot Factory sock sale, then out to lunch, with my sister.  On Sunday, I took the grand kids out to lunch.  Wednesday was an unexpected lunch because of trapping ourselves in the basement.  Thursday, of course, was a full day of feasting and nibbling.  On Friday, we made our annual pilgrimage to Giant Grinder and Modern Bakery on Franklin Street in downtown Hartford.  Then we went out for a soup and sandwich supper on Friday night.  In between all this eating was either work on sanding/finishing stair treads or driving.  Healthy food choices?  Exercise schedule?  This is how I can gain five pounds over the holiday season, and I just decided not to do that. So yesterday and today, it's out for brisk walks and pull out the vegetarian recipes and the exercise bands.  This morning, I made a big pot of oatmeal.  I used to eat a lot of oatmeal breakfasts but then I got out of the...

I am being totally frustrated with computers today.  It seems that everything I have tried to do has not worked out.  I tried to copy some files from our home computer to transfer to the laptop that we use in Florida.  No luck with that.  I tried to print from the laptop--that didn't work.  I wanted to download some music, but the sound is turned off again.  All these things can be fixed with a little fiddling and changing of settings, but I have to bother Mike to do that because I always forget how--and that's the most frustrating thing of all. I just want to sit down and do what ever it is I have planned to do.  I have no patience for the quirky needs of machines.  For instance, we keep getting a message on the laptop that new Apple software is available for download.  We don't have an Apple computer.  Why do we get that message?   Also, if I  download music on the laptop, it tells me it is being saved in i-something, w...

Since we are too cheap to hire a regular weekly garbage pick-up, we take our trash to a near-by transfer station. Along with the trash goes our recycling, a pail of compost material, yard waste, any clothes we may want to get rid of, and anything that we may want to leave in the Reuse Shed. Sometimes we have all the other stuff and no real trash so it’s a free drop off and we do our bit for the green life while keeping excess clutter at bay. Today I loaded up the car and made the three mile trip to the transfer station. I disposed of everything in the appropriate area or receptacle and gave my hands a wipe with waterless cleaner. Then I turned the key in the ignition. Nothing. I tried again. Nothing. Then I noticed I couldn’t get the key out of the ignition. Oh, no. What was I going to do? Call a tow truck? I called Mike instead. “Hi, the car won’t start.” “Who is this?” “Your wife? Olga?” “Oh.” “So the car won’t start. The lights come on but nothing from the engine.” “H...

The wind has been blowing like crazy here--with great clouds of pollen rolling past. Our car is yellow but even though I had the option of getting a car wash when I was filling the gas tank today, I decided to wait until next week. We'll be taking a long drive to Eustis, FL tomorrow for an antique motorcycle meet. Mike is no longer in the old motorcycle business, but going to some of the meets gives him a chance to keep up with old friends and acquaintances. I won't have all that much interest in looking at antique motorcycle parts and listening to tales of the glory days, but it will give me a chance to do some exploring of that part of the state. I'm especially looking forward to spending a couple hours in Mount Dora--so close to Orlando and yet so far, far away. I was ruminating on gas stations, because if you read A Slower Pace as I do, you know that Linda has a way of writing about things that just get you thinking about things like that. Today she wrote about the old...

They say when life hands you lemons you should make lemonade. I say, yeah, if you add copious amounts of vodka. But that is not a safe way to drive so Mike and I decided to ditch the money sucking s omething a lmost a lways b roken. We did research online and both came up with the idea to get a Ford TaurusX--a crossover utility vehicle, or, for those of us who still remember the 1950's, a station wagon. Having made that decision, the next step was to find one. Not easy. Ford didn't make that many and they ended production of them entirely this year, replacing it with a Flex (an ugly, boxy thing, IMHO). We did find one though--Walker Motors in East Montpelier had a 2008 model that they were using as a courtesy shuttle. We jumped at the chance to get it. They cleaned it up and put on four brand new tires. So now we are happily on the road again. Yes, I know about f ound o n the r oad d isabled, so don't bother me with that.

I bought the car of my dreams in 2003. It was a Saab 9-3, steel grey, that cost me exactly as much as our first house. I didn't look at other cars. I didn't read consumer reports. I just always wanted a Saab and I could afford it at the time. It was painful to part with that much money, but I promised myself I would do everything right as far the regular maintenance, take good care of the car and it would last me for the rest of my driving life. Something that cost that much should last forever. But, hello, LEMON. One thing after another. I've spent nearly three thousand dollars on it just in the past two and half months and now I can't afford it. Lights are flashing at me, telling me to make a safe stop and call the dealer immediately. Who needs this aggravation? I am so very disappointed with that vehicle. Aside from the mechanical/electrical things going haywire, the final straw is that the interior of the car looks worn out. The numbers are worn off the radio button...