An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

Most of 2020 sucked. But, there were some good moments that made memories to cling to. I'm going to review some of those moments from each month. (Disclaimer - my memory isn't what it used to be so this is my story and I'm sticking to it regardless of reality.) My birthday is in May. I don't make a big deal out of it because I don't want to do the math. Seriously. It's just not possible that I'm this old. Celebrating in a quarantine is right up my alley. However, my friends and family thought differently. Birthday cards from around the country. My friend Jim started a secret (to me) Facebook event and asked mutual friends to mail me a card. Funny side story, he put the wrong ZIP for my address. I imagine the post office staff in 85033 enjoyed processing those forwards a lot. It was very thoughtful and fun and my pals Brenda and Scott sent me a new game to play as well. Have I mentioned lately that my friends are better humans than I? They are. Drop offs and ...

Most of 2020 sucked. But, there were some good moments that made memories to cling to. I'm going to review some of those moments from each month. (Disclaimer - my memory isn't what it used to be so this is my story and I'm sticking to it regardless of reality.) April is the month I went hard core online. Our club events and NFW as well as weekly meetings with my friends Crash and Jim,  nearly weekly meetings with the Verzaks and Rodriguezes, Wolf Pack gatherings and my Book Club all became Zoom or Google Meet events. My friend Steve had started a weekly home game on Pokerstars.net  in March and that became a bright light for the end of the work week. I was online meeting tech support more times than I can count and it's a role I continue to play. #blesstheirhearts Why am I not in this one? Oh, well, it was the best I could find of the many screen shots - someone always looks goofy. Some of these events might become permanent. Crash, Jim and I are in three different stat...

Most of 2020 sucked. But, there were some good moments that made memories to cling to. I'm going to review some of those moments from each month. (Disclaimer - my memory isn't what it used to be so this is my story and I'm sticking to it regardless of reality.) I moved into my house in May of 2019 and it was already hot out so I used the Arizona summer as an excuse not to do anything to my patio or yard. I don't recall what excuse I used to justify ignoring the both in the fall and winter. Let's go with complete laziness. It's entirely plausible. However, I had to get on the stick and pretty it up because I had a bunch of company scheduled for the spring. The first thing I did was get some inexpensive chairs from Target for my beat up table. I honestly thought I could jam them into my car. I really, really did. One would never guess I was a Tetris master. After several futile attempts, this is how it ultimately went down. Adam (answering cell): Hi, Kathy! Me: Hi...

I'm usually one to let my birthday slide on by with as little pomp and circumstance as possible. It's just not a big thing to me. I think people who actively forget their age are like that. Please don't ever do the math. But, this year I was truly sad coming up to the day. I share the same day with my friend Adam and we were all supposed to be in Vegas celebrating his 40th. Not my 40th, again, please don't do the math. Instead, I got up at 5:30 AM on a Sunday to do a 4 mile walk through my neighborhood. So. Not. Me. But, leave it to my family and friends whom I don't deserve to make this a fantastic day. Card Barrage Starting a few days ago, I started getting cards from people I've never gotten one from before. It was only a few and I thought maybe they were taking the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason to stay more connected.  Thursday's Haul My letter carrier rang my doorbell on Thursday because this box didn't fit into my mailbox. She...

I've slowly replaced all of my plastic hangers with flocked, cascading ones. Frankly, I was out of space in my closet so I needed to start going low to get more in there. I'm donating the plastic hangers to a charity. Except for one. This is a hanger I have from when my Grandma was in the nursing home and we had to ID all of her possessions. I'd actually forgotten about it and I don't remember how I got it (maybe one of my Aunts) but I will never give it away. It's funny or wonderful or heartbreaking (insert your own emotion here) how things can bring back feelings and memories.  Whether it's a picture or a knickknack or a mixing bowl or the front steps of a house or a piece of jewelry (insert your own item here), objects carry power. My Grandma Hazel was truly great and we talk about her often even though she's been gone for many years. One of the things we do when my Dad and his siblings disagree about something from their past (did they have ch...

I spent the first part of August in beautiful Detroit Lakes MN (beautiful in August, pretty sure I wouldn't think the same in January) for a super big and long running country music show. It was my third WEFest and I truly love the event. When people ask me about the lineup, I start rattling off all of the acts. Most people, unless they listen to The Highway on Sirius/XM, go glassy eyed and politely nod because there are a bunch of up and comers they've never heard of. There are also always some "classic" country acts that have been around for a long time and that the young listeners may not know. I listen to The Highway about 90% of the time in my car so I know all the newbies. I've also been listening to country since high school which is, sadly, long enough ago to know the classic artists, too. Here are my thoughts on the performances. Any quotes are actually paraphrased because I wasn't smart enough to write them down right away and it's been ...