Actually, when you have to have a 4-year-licensed driver sitting beside you ... and can't drive on the freeway ... and not between midnight and 5 a.m. either ... ... somehow, one gets the feeling that one has arrived at one's second childhood! ole joyful

Thank you very much, Kris. I've had some health problems, but they haven't caused more than minor reductions in what I can do, and thankful every day for that. Good genes, I think. Started to smoke at 15, after a few months liked neither the taste nor the cost - so had sense enough to quit. Daughter, who has dual citizenship, her mother being from Iowa, has spent most of the last 20 years or so in the U.S., most of it in Phoenix, recently moved to the Atlanta area, her husband being from there. She comes up for a few days every few years and said summer of '18 that they'd have to celebrate my 90th during her trip up in Aug.: flew me to Phoenix for my 8oth, ten years ago. At the party, when I said that I'd been rather worried after the announcement, as birthday wasn't till Jan, so figured I didn't dare die in between, or wouldn't be keeping up my end of the bargain, there was some laughter. The old guys at the village church that I attend had a group called "Senior Mens' Coffee Hour" on Thursday mornings, that they renamed the "ROMEOs", as in "Retired Old Men Eating Out", (and wouldn't touch my suggestion that it should be"ROMDOs", as in "Retired Old Men Drinking Out" with a 10-foot pole) give each guy with a birthday that month a cupcake with a candle on top at the meeting. I hold mine at arm's length: if I blow it out, called "blowhard", if not, "bit off more than you could chew, huh?", and laughter whichever way. When the cake came out at the party, the numbers were facing me, but the cameras were on the other side. I was holding the cake at arm's length, and turned it around to have the numbers "89.5" facing the cameras ... ... and gave a sigh of relief: happy to be off the hook! Hope you're having aq good year. I spend uite a bi of time over on Kitchen Table. ole joyful

Ole joyful is alove and well. (That was meant to be "alive" - didn't have the heart to amend!) I thought to comment on the "what are you grateful for today" but it was late and at my age I need any beauty sleep that I can find. Will stop for now and send, to add more later. ole (didn't hit "space", then "delete" ... so had to return to add) joyfuelled + "space", then "delete"

Greetings again, folks. Some time ago one of the old guys used to bring out a cupcake bearing a candle, Jasdip, but it hasn't been happening for a couple of years or so. I spoke earlier of having forgotten to take an empty water bottle to my friend's house on an earlier trip, but we'd emptied a second and were on our last bottle so I was taking the two empties when the young woman picked me up. A couple of days later my water provider friend called me from the end of my lane, saying that he was very reluctant to tackle my snowy lane, so was leaving a bottle at the end of my lane. There was next to no conversation or I would have told him that there was a fairly thin layer of snow the day before when I'd walked out for my mail, and no drifts in the lane. My landlord or his son had driven a pickup truck up the lane after the first snow leaving a track in the rather thin snow blanket, and the second had added only a little more. We lack a sleigh but I took my scoop shovel out, installed the water bottle on it and hauled it in without any tipsys: I'd thought maybe son would need to tie a rope around the neck and walk beside to keep the bottle upright had it tipped. A few days later, after rain had removed the snow, a previously unknown lady had picked me up with a couple of bags of groceries and we were talking at my house (she gave me her name and phone no., saying maybe she could drive me occasionally) when my water friend drove in with the second bottle. I felt the need to tease him a little, asking whether he was letting his venturesome spirit shrink a bit in his advancing years. It's rather pleasant to realize that winter is about half over. Earlier I'd thought of my life here being rather open-ended, but I've been thinking that even a couple of minor restrictions in my capabilities would mean that I could no longer live here. Good wishes to you all. ole joyful