Auspicious
It seems like an auspicious day to being something...the middle of the year, the end tomorrow of a job of twenty-two years. I turn in my keys, and am officially retired. What a concept! All the articles say one must have $200,000 saved at a minimum and I have more like $20 salted away. I'm so thankful to have had a pension perking along slowly in the background.
Since the 2008 financial fiasco employees of the State of Tennessee have perhaps gotten six percent total raises. (This year it will be 2%, a 2% increase over last year.) At least twice when entering Kroger I've assumed every item in the store has the price raised, as well as utilities, anything else one might use.
And my investment is in my grandgirls. After I'm introduced to something wonderful I expose them. Obviously they can't guess what it is. The most recent of these was Tom + Chee...Tomatoes and Cheese at Nashville West off Charlotte Avenue. They have fried doughnuts in different flavors...I tried the one with peanut putter and chocolate. Their salad has a chopped up grilled cheese used as croutons. We had a great time trading bites! That to me is a wonderful investment. When I am long gone they will giggle about this.
Yesterday was our 45th wedding anniversary. We always saw a movie. I took myself to Beatriz at Dinner. I didn't anticipate the intensity and the ending...turns out several friends were in the theater and we were all a little stunned and questioning what the ending meant. It is apparently the first movie post-Trump and it certainly reflected it. A kind, gentle soul winds up with the ruthless, celebratory persons of business whose first move after getting a major bill passed is to go tear out the trees before anyone notices there are rare birds on the land. It is THAT kind of movie...The actors are fabulous.
July 4, 2017
My friend P. and I went to see Baby Driver. It was the movie we would have seen if my husband were still alive! He loved the driving movies in which the authorities were foiled. And this one is a pip. Baby's driving needs to be seen on the big screen because the feats are so rapid. However, there is a lot of violence. At one point we seen three people only shooting, not their targets, so a body count is hard to devise... The music is also great, as are the characters. Can you tell I like it?
July 9
I have a self-diagnosis of uticaria, aka hives. My first batch came from shrimp. I ate them again with no problem, then had severe hives again. The local Kroger opened a deli and offered a seafood salad. Although the worker stated it had no shrimp, more hives appeared. On two separate days I drank a mug of craft beer brewed in Tennessee and got hives on my arm. When these symptoms appear I can sleep forever. Indeed, I've done little other than sleep for several days now. What a cheap delight!
July 10
The grandgirls tell me I talk in my sleep. The latest: Gasp! "Are you really going through with this? You're braver than I am. Well, if you are then you should just sneeze and blow germs everywhere."
Maybe this is germ warfare for the cowardly!