Feel Like Complaining

When my Husband got laid off last fall, the first thing to go was my Curves membership. I wasn't going much anyway so it wasn't that much of a loss. But lately I've been wanting to do something , just knew that I didn't want to go back to Curves. Hubby has a new Medicare plan and has Silver Sneakers (free membership) like Grumpy. He looked at the list of clubs and saw the Y was on there. He called and got some info and said I could come as his guest at 10 bucks a pop. Doing that at only four times a month would cost me as much as any other membership. All he's only really interested in is a hot tub and sauna so I started looking around on my own. There were two clubs close to me who also are on the Silver Sneakers list. If something isn't 10 minutes away from me, I know I wouldn't go, so that narrowed my choices. So we had Snap Fitness or Anytime Fitness to choose from. I looked at both website and Facebook sites to help me make up my mind. They seemed v...

I recently flew through an entire season of The Knick , a historical medical drama on Cinemax. I saw the premier as a special last summer on HBO so assumed it would continue there. I was hooked and wanted to keep up with it. I don't have Cinemax so was very bummed I couldn't watch anymore. It's inspired by the Knickerbocker hospital in New York City in the early 1900's. Not all parts are historically correct but some are, as in the story line about Typhoid Mary. The lead surgeon (Clive Owen) is hooked on Cocaine and Opium which was used for pain relief in the hospital. A brilliant African American surgeon was also hired but wasn't allowed to operate by the uppity white surgeons. He took up his own doctoring in the basement of the hospital to the poorer African Americans in the city and perfected the hernia surgery. Only after he was discovered by Thack (head surgeon) and his perfected surgery found, was he allowed to do surgery alongside the others. The hosp...

Since my Husband was working, it was my job to find a new apartment. I was looking in the paper and found one that was located basically right around the corner from where we were. I think I went first to check it out and it was a hot summer day. It was a basement apartment of a house. It's funny how I went from a basement, to an upper, then back to a basement. I met the homeowner Gary and he showed me down the stairs. It was love at first feel.....as it was nice and cool. I was sold right there but of course had to have my Husband take a look. He liked it also so we signed a lease right there. It was a great little place, small but very cozy. Warm in the winter and oh so cool in the summer. If we had not had our daughter 10 years later I think we might still be there! Again, tiny little basement windows to peer out of The landlords were nice people and if we shoveled snow or mowed the lawn, we got to take some off of the rent. He could be a little fussy and he and Hubby but...

Let's continue this little trip down apartment memory lane. As I said, I moved into this upper duplex with Harold, a younger work friend. If you remember my old stories of co-workers, you will recall this did not end well. The rent on this abode ran me $175.00. I don't have any pictures of the outside of this place since it is long gone. This is a long ago shot from that time. Check out the posters, Rainier Beer and Pink Floyd. Ah, the good old days. Good Morning, Little Mary Sunshine Other than some hard times, I had a lot of 'firsts' and fun times too. I got my first cat in this apartment and she lived to be with me half of my life when she finally passed. I made a lot of friends through Zips while living here and learned to drive my first column stick-shift. One of the guys from work took me out looking for cars. I had 500 bucks cash and bought a  '66 Chevy 4 door Bel Air but didn't even know how to drive it. He had to drive it home for me and then teac...

I got to thinking about my first few years of college when feeling bad for my daughter on some days when her classes/schedules seem crazy and how it sucks that she has to walk every where. Waaaaaayyyyy back in the late 70's I graduated from high school in a small town and moved to the big city of Spokane. My older brother and I went in search of an apartment for me, close to the community college I would be attending. I think my rent was a whopping $125.00 a month. Since I did not have a car for the first year, I had to walk there. No it's not a 5-mile-each-way story but it did suck even at 10 blocks. Walking in the dark on my way to a 7:00 am class and having a car splash me with cold frozen slush just added to my misery. I lived alone, by choice. No car meant I had to walk to get any groceries (another 10 blocks each way) and had my choice of 2 different mini-marts; not the best choices of food. I could only buy as much as I could carry so that meant more trips throughout...