You didn't hear it from me, but.....

It snowed here again today. Just an inch or so. But in this part of the country that’s enough to start the looting of bread and milk at the grocery store in a manner fitting Sherman’s army. Fortunately, we’re not big milk drinkers in our house and I bought three loaves of wheat berry bread last Friday for Hubby’s poker night sandwiches with the boys, so the Hula-gen’s should survive this little winter blast just fine. AND get plenty of fiber.

My distaste for winter weather is well documented on these pages, so I shall refrain from typing anything that makes my brothers and sisters in the north roll their eyes. Nothin’ makes a Yankee more annoyed than someone south of Indiana whining about a few centimeters of snow. Sorry, we have a weak constitution when it comes to freezing weather and snow. Now a good old fashioned tornado? That’s something we can sink our three teeth into.

I have been very consistent in my running in the last few weeks, so I really wanted to run today. All morning I watched the snow fall and dreaded the idea of running in the cold, wet weather. In between all of the phone calls and memos my head was all, “Run, skip it. Run, skip it.” I finally decided I should just suck it up and give it a whirl. I figured if it was really horrible I’d circle a few blocks and head back to work. By the time I reached the locker room that voice in my head was, “Skip it, skip it, SKIP IT!” And finally, a big, “Are you CRAZY?” That voice in my head is a noisy wench. And lazy, too. I thought the best way to shut her up would be to layer up and then just hit the door in a run before I had time to weenie out of running. I threw on two layers of running pants, two shirts, my gloves and then tucked my hair into a hat and ear warmers to keep my head dry. I was wishing I had my trail shoes ‘cause as Lt. Dan says, you need to keep your feet dry and don’t get killed, which oddly enough is good advice for running on the streets of this town amid soggy weather and a host of stupid drivers.

I burst out the door and hit the street, and tried to remind myself that folks in Minnesota run in this kind of weather every day. Except I’m not from Minnesota. It was cold. And windy. And wet. I concentrated on staying focused on my pace and not the weather. I also kept looking down to keep from splashing into a puddle because of the whole wet feet thing. The tap, tap of my feet sounded in my head as I found a comfortable pace and put block after block behind me. I turned a corner and the wind hit me in the face at full force. I looked at my shirt and saw that it was speckled with snow. I kept moving and told myself to soak it in. Savor the moment, Hula. Enjoy the miracle that is snow. Isn’t it beautiful? But my head was whining, “But it’s COLD.” And then something clicked. I’m not sure why or how, but the voice in my head shut up, and I noticed how quiet my surroundings were. The traffic was less than usual, and the streets had a nice silence to them. The snow had covered enough ground and scattered little sparkles along fence tops and lawn decorations to make it really pretty. Instead of looking at the snow, I really began to SEE it. And enjoy it as it drifted from the sky and onto my shoulders. I rounded Fountain Avenue, and the chimes on the Methodist Church began ringing a hymn to mark the stroke of noon. And it was one of those moments when I felt very in touch with nature and very spiritual. And I didn’t notice the cold anymore. In fact, I felt inspired to run well. I did the four miles I had time for within my lunch hour and finished quicker than usual. It was a good run. A beautiful run. I didn’t mind all of the stares I got from drivers thinking I was crazy. And I really didn’t mind the snow. I truly enjoyed it.

Just don’t tell anyone. A Hula Girl has a reputation to uphold.

Dear Mother Nature,

Send sun.

Please?

Word of the Day-"Sloth"

Pronunciation: noun \ˈslȯth, ˈsläth also ˈslōth\
Origin: Middle English slouthe, from slow slow
First Known Use: 12th century

Synonyms: idleness, indolence, inertia, shiftlessness, laziness
Antonyms: drive, industriousness, industry

Definitions: 1. a: disinclination to action or labor: indolence b: spiritual apathy and inactivity “the deadly sin of sloth”

2: any of various slow-moving arboreal edentate mammals (genera Bradypus and Choloepus) that inhabit tropical forests of South and Central America, hang from the branches back downward, and feed on leaves, shoots, and fruits — compare three-toed sloth, two-toed sloth

Used in a sentence: “Hula THOUGHT about running five miles this afternoon and she THOUGHT about taking some nature pictures, but what she DID was nap on the couch like a three toed sloth. And it was good.”

These Boots Were Made For Talkin'

And they're screamin' fun. For several years I've wanted a pair of red cowboy boots. Not loud, trashy red. Just a nice worn red that I can wear with jeans. After digging around in every local western store and Tractor Supply, I finally had to order them off the internet. They arrived last week, and I love 'em.

Let the sassiness begin!

Today's Headlines-In My Own Words

Go Gabby! We're all rootin' for you!

You hit all of the right notes last night, Mr. President. Now, take that spirit back to Washington and put it to work on the budget. We've got an economy to fix.

Ted, we're still rootin' for you, too. And those of us who have dealt with a loved ones' addictions are relieved that you took the step we suspected all along that you needed to take. You just couldn't let it go, could you Sarah? I'd like reimbursement please for the shoe I broke when throwing it at my TV yesterday. You didn't cause Ms. Gifford's shooting, but I'll tell you like my mama told me, sometimes you just need to sit down and shut up.

Speaking of sitting down and shutting up...Snookie, your fifteen minutes is up.

Did you think we actually believed you when you lied about the Botox?

And Britney honey, you might want to get a new do before the new album is released. We're rootin' for you, too, but girlfriend needs to get that hair UNDER CONTROL.

Hula-gen Family Fun Fact #82

Hula sometimes loves an icy cold soda early in the morning. As she's aged and her various body parts have started moving south she has switched from the fully load stuff to Coke Zero and only imbibes twice a week. But it's a relationship that started very early.

Taking Care of Old Folks

If you care for the elderly or someone with a disability or chronic illness, you know how important good resources and a support system are. Sometimes, it’s just difficult, and you need a little help. Part of the work in taking care of someone is acknowledging when you need help and being humble enough to accept it. It took us a little while to get humble, but when we did we were glad. I want to share a couple of resources with you today that have been a God’s send for us in our efforts to take care of Papa T. They might be of help to you too one day.

For all practical purposes, Papa T. is blind. Every now and then he sees a little light or the fuzzy outline of someone or something, but on most days he sees nothing. It’s something he was told as a young man would eventually happen to him, so he expected it at some point in his life. In fact, he planned his life around it. It’s why he chose teaching and educational administration as a profession instead of staying on the family farm where he would have been very content. He knew he needed a career that would position him for a good pension and allow him to continue working as his eyesight diminished. He’s a smart man. But expecting it didn’t make it easy when it finally happened. It’s been very difficult for him to accept as it permeates his entire life.

One of the things we did when his vision went really south a couple of years ago was to contact the local office of the Kentucky Bureau for the Blind. He was hesitant to do it because he felt like he was accepting some kind of state aid, but we convinced him that after paying taxes for sixty years, he was certainly entitled to take advantage of this one service. So he did, and they were wonderful. They came to his house and provided him with two different kinds of canes and showed him how to use them. They also hooked him up with a watch that speaks the time every half hour and other utensils that helped him to sign documents and papers without scrawling across the entire page. They would have taught him Braille, but he resisted that, much to our dismay. Oh well, you pick your battles.

Our goal was for him to be able to function around the house on his own, and the employees of the Bureau were very patient and respectful in teaching him ways to get around. REALLY patient, if you know what I mean. They also set us up with a service that allows Papa T. to borrow a special CD player that allows him to listen to books on tape. They have a lending service that mails him books and magazines every couple of weeks, and he returns them when he’s finished. It’s a library for the blind, and they have a gazillion titles to choose from. Right now he’s working on some Louis Lamore westerns, ‘cause he LOVES Louis Lamore. The books on tape and listening to the University of Kentucky football and basketball games on the radio are his two favorite pastimes, so this service allows him to continue the reading he so enjoyed before he lost his vision. We had to get him some headphones though ‘cause he was driving Mama J. crazy with the volume on his radio and CD player. She couldn’t care less about the Wildcats, so the headphones are a nice compromise.

He always enjoyed the newspaper, especially the sports pages, so Mama J.’s been reading it to him daily for months. She gets tired of reading it word for word, and his diminished hearing means she sometimes has to shout when reading aloud, so that didn’t always work well. Then we stumbled upon a better solution. The National Federation of the Blind has a service which allows you to dial a toll free number and choose any number of newspapers on tape from around the country to listen to. You can set up a favorites list, adjust the volume and listen to every paper in the nation if you like. Mama J. dials it up, gets it going, hands Papa T. the phone and then goes about her business without having to worry about shouting the latest high school basketball scores across the living room. It’s a sweet deal. In fact, sometimes she picks up the other phone and listens to the local newspaper with him so she doesn’t have to read it to herself. We LOVE this service, and it has enriched his life in a big way. Little things mean a lot when your world beings to shrink, ya’ know. I can’t say enough about this service. It’s free, and all you have to do is get your doctor to sign the appropriate form for you. They are also sending him a bible on tape soon.

A couple of other tidbits we’ve learned along the way that really don’t have anything to do with blindness are to have a good relationship with your local pharmacist and use school resources. Papa T.’s and Mama J.’s insurance requires them to order their medicine from one of those online pharmacy companies, which usually works okay, but every now and then there’s a glitch. We have a wonderful neighborhood pharmacist who is a great resource for information and a time or two has filled a mini prescription of medication that the online company screwed up and caused a delay in delivery. In fact, about four years ago, Papa T. went to Cincinnati for a four day trip without any of his medicine. At a loss, I reluctantly called the pharmacist at home on a Saturday night. Her husband called her on her cell phone at Wal-Mart where she was shopping, and she drove to the pharmacy and faxed his prescriptions to a Cincinnati Walgreens. He had his medicine in two hours. You don’t get service like that from a chain. We sent her flowers.

Also, recently we started using flash cards with Papa T. He knows his memory is fading, but as he says, he’s going to fight like smell to keep it as long as he can and wanted some exercises for his mind. We went to the local educational store and bought a bunch of trivia cards for middle and high school students that cover history, science and the arts, and we drill him on those subjects daily. We try to do it in a fun way so that he enjoys it. There will come a day when they don’t work but for now they’re working well. Kind of like a lot of other things around here, but hey, you just gotta roll with the flow and try not to drown in the big waves.

Oh, and don’t forget that old folks love little folks. It’s good for their soul, even if they can’t see them. The touch is enough.