Ophelia and Other Females

According to Wikipedia "Ophelia (/əˈfiːliə/) is a character in William Shakespeare's drama Hamlet (1599–1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes, and potential wife of Prince Hamlet, who, due to Hamlet's actions, ends up in a state of madness that ultimately leads to her drowning."

An appropriate name for the latest tropical storm that hit our area over the weekend.  Many of the low-lying shops and low-lying streets in our coastal towns were flooded by about a foot to two feet of water.  The population prepared, so no tragedies!  At least 48 hours of rain and winds up to 50 miles per hour.

We had to head up to the city to Grand-sit this past weekend because my daughter and her husband were headed to the Eastern Shore beaches for a 50th birthday party for a friend.  So we were stuck inside with the teenagers (only two since one is away at college) and my daughter was at the Eastern shore facing walls of wind and rain.  I am sure they spent most of their celebratory time at the restaurants and bar!

The youngest boy was easy to entertain and watch (12 years old).  We took some dog walks and saw a movie.  The older girl was a real reminder about teenagers and teenage love.  Her grades had been low and since she failed to update her parents on that situation she was grounded for the weekend except for being able to cheer at the football game.  (The love of her life is a football player).

Photos were taken with my new Pixel phone since I did not take my camera due to the possible torrents of rain (which did not happen).

One of the sweet young things below is my granddaughter cheering her high school team and her boyfriend on.

Seems that when we got home she had to go back outside about 9:30 to meet her boyfriend who was dropping off a jacket!  After 15 minutes we had to go out and get her back in the house.  According to her mother who was on the Eastern Shore she is able to track her location and it seems she snuck out after we went to bed!  I was listening carefully for noises but fell asleep at midnight.  If I had not trusted her, I would have slept on the living room sofa and stopped her, but alas, I failed.  My daughter did not think us old grandparents were at fault, but thanks to technology you can track your kids.  They can even track their college kid and see where he is on the campus several states away!

Alas, teenage love is so beautiful and so dangerous.

Time

I wonder as I age about the (my) concept of time. One definition I found on that vast and scary Internet is "the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole:"

The indefinite part is not totally accurate.  Time does move on and new things begin while old things end.  That is NOT indefinite.  The actual when and where may be indefinite.  

My husband's dementia is with us every day.  It moves forward very slowly but even that is a frightening pace of movement.  

My body and its aging fight me tooth and nail.  If I fail to exercise both brain and body for any length of time I become some stiff robot crossing the room.

One gift from aging is perspective.  My first grandchild is in his first year of college and I wish I could dump on him tons of wisdom.  But one cannot force-feed a young adult who is already being bombarded with all kinds of demands, events, new situations, and challenges.  I think all of us elders wish we could pass along perspective.  Maybe in the future that can be done with technology, but actually, that does sound a bit scary.  Lessons learned from a lack of perspective can be valuable.

I sent him a box of cookies and candy and Halloween stuff.  He texted back:

Thanks so much for the package!  I just received it and I love the Halloween stuff.  I just realized that I have no decorations so this will be useful.  College so far has been very fun and I've been finding my people.  I've been addicted to the rock climbing gym here and I'm also really enjoying the food.  The workload had been a little annoying but I'm sure I'll get used to it....

I would like to be him.  He has a better attitude toward college than I did.  He is an introvert but realizes that he must make an effort for friendships.  I did not realize that either.

This cup in the photo above is something that he gave me many Christmases ago.  I have several from each of the grandchildren and their worth is beyond any amount of money I could ever get.  I was once told the story of the two on either side of the highway on the cup but sadly forgot.  That is something I may ask again.  Just looking at that cup really takes my breath away.  It is time travel.  It is its own time machine.

A Meeting of Stangers

My world is still pockata, pockata, pockating along. My life seems to be running like an old model T. It is not as smooth or as fast as those EV vehicles that silently zip by me and pass me and with drivers that may or may not wave.  They can go farther and more quietly.  I may groan or grunt or even snap, but I will move forward just pocketing along.

I recently went with some new friends to Hilton Head Island to stay for a week at a place there.  It was within walking distance of the huge beach and also had enough pools that we could swim in the indoor pool by ourselves!  We could use the jacuzzi also.  All the parents and grandparents were in the larger outdoor pool in the sun leaving the indoor pool as a quiet haven.

We did not know these friends who journeyed with us very well.  We did not know their politics and just a little of their religion, but all four of us were brave enough to move into a week of challenges on the island and eventually sit out Hurricane Idelia for a day!  I usually bring easy-to-cook foods for vacation--premade stuff that tastes OK, but do not spend much time in the kitchen.  My friend likes to cook and spent several evenings doing that!  The breakfast that she cooked was lovely.

It was healthy to boot!!

Idelia passed us with some nasty sheets of rain, but most of the tree damage and flooding was to the north of us.

Hubby and I drove further south to visit with his high school friend.  That was a different visit in that they are lovely and smart people whom I barely knew, but they said that they love their Gov. *Desantis* and voted for Cheeto head in the prior Presidential election.  Needless to say, we did not discuss politics much.  When leaving the church on a Sunday, I saw a police car parked in front of the church.  When I asked my friend about that, she said many of the churches now have that because of the shootings.  (There were only white people in this church and the sermon that day was about football!)  They do not seem to see the reason for this safety "necessity" and I will bet $100 that neither the black churches in that part of the state nor the Jewish synagogues had courtesy police cars on Sunday!

Anyway, they live in one of the loveliest parts of the state.

Now for the payment of my life of leisure, I am being punished by a pile of back mail, bills to pay, laundry to do, and restocking the fridge!  And when done I have an English class to teach and then I go to exercise and if time I will catch up on my Blog reading!