Well, hello there, friend! It’s a gorgeous day here in the upper midwest of our great U. S. of A.

And I am excited because I have a brand new bottle of Goo Gone.

Think about it.  Bottles of that stuff last forever. How often do you get to start a new one? It’s like those old bottles of mucilage. Remember those?? Methiolate and Mercurichrome and bottles of regular aspirin also lasted forever, along with rolls of white adhesive tape and boxes of gauze. I felt like it was all a conspiracy so that we would never buy that new clear  Bactine spray that wasn’t supposed to sting, real bandaids, and flavored children’s aspirin.

Oh my goodness, anything would taste better than half an aspirin tablet dissolved in a spoonful of water. Yep. Mom had to tap that aspirin with her fingernail a couple of times to get it to dissolve. And the taste??  Try it sometime.  Seriously, there’s nothing like it. How something dissolved in water can immediately dry out your mouth is beyond me.

And Thum. Remember that vile tasting liquid that was brushed on your nails so that you wouldn’t bite, chew or otherwise mangle your fingernails?  Yuck.  But it did the trick.   Quickly.    Putrid stuff.

Sigh. But what a great childhood we had. Trikes, wagons, bikes on the sidewalk in front of our houses. Playing hopscotch with rocks we found in front of our houses that were not part of any landscaping plan. They were just rocks we found.  And one of the stones that we picked up would be used to draw the board on the sidewalk squares. Sandstone? Limestone?

And when we finished that we would play Cars, taking turns at owning the cars that came around the corner. We hoped for a sporty red model and laughed at whoever got Ole Flatved’s Model T. It was a great game because of the variety of vehicles that would be driving up the hill on West Fourth Street. The element of chance combined with hopes and dreams; kept us occupied.

With fall would come raking the leaves into houses. Separating lines of leaves would delineate the rooms in your house. Mansions were created and then  played in.

And statues, hide and seek, tag. Hmmm. We were easily and cheaply entertained.

I guess things haven’t changed that much if I am charged up about a bottle of Goo Gone!

Did I tell you that I’ll be washing rocks after posting the blog? I tell you, the excitement never stops!!

One of the hubster’s new projects is a retaining wall where there is no hill. Yep. The hill is being created. And on the new hill will be clean rocks. That’s my part. I am not always part of the hubster’s projects, but when  I am,  I try to contain my excitement.

Speaking  of excitement, we fit in a camping trip last weekend!! Whoop! Whoop! So good to get out of the city and renew our selves surrounded by Mother Nature.

It didn’t start out that way, though. Our destination campground was full. Our back up campground was also full. And our back up to the back up campground was full, too.

Oh boy. Tension and snappy responses invaded our bubble of relaxation. So the hubster found the next town’s grocery store and disappeared to get our provisions. I took up his research,  made  a few phone calls and

SHAZAAM!!!!!

We discovered a brand new camping area!! Only 40 miles away, it had lovely sites still open and waiting.

And the campin’ cats approved of it!!  YES!

Nothing worse than complaining campin’ cats.

So we got  chance to get away and practice this newly discovered Scandinavian concept of “hygge.” (hue gah) I am just learning about it, but so far, I’d say it’s a simple cozy  way of living.

Reminds me of those childhood games . . .

Have a wonderful Wednesday evening! Hug the people you love. Smile at someone you don’t know. Revel in the flowers’ blooms.

Excuse me while I go wash some rocks.

Love,

Janet