Hello, Me!  And how am I tonite?  Very well, thank you for asking.  (Tho I have to admit I've gotten a couple of comments via email from blog friends so I know someone else is reading my blog!   

I took half a dose of Nyquil before bed last nite and I had one of the most incredibly weird dreams.  It was about another blog writer, someone whose blog I've gone to and enjoyed for a long time.  I don't think she ever comes to read mine but, even so, I won't go into detail in case she does...she's never told me that she does and has only commented a time or two on mine, tho she sends me emails whenever I comment on hers.  What is it about Nyquil that does that to me?  I dreamt I met her and she was like 20 years older than her photo on her blog shows her to be.  Her house was a mess, even tho it was a beautiful mansion.  Her husband works in a career where he probably doesn't even make as much money as mine does, so this house was totally unexpected.  And our conversation was really bizarre, too.  Do they put opium in Nyquil?  I mean, honestly...when I was in the hospital back in 1999 and being fed big doses of morphine intravenously I didn't have dreams as weird as Nyquil gives me.  But I guess I held some pretty crazy conversations on the phone with people.  I remember one where my oldest brother kept saying to me, "You already told me that!" and I'd say, "I did?!?"  Haha!  You should come and try to have a conversation with me now during the day when I'm caring for my grandson.  Dear Hubby's gotten to the point where he'll just flap his hand at me and say, "I'll tell you later!"  And phone conversations?!?  Fuhgeddaboutit! 

I'm quickly working my way to becoming a Senior Citizen myself, but I just LOVE older citizens!  I meet some of the nicest 'golden oldies' when I'm out walking my grandson.  Today Dylan and I braved our frosty temperatures and walked up to a small grocery store a mile or so from our house.  When I'm running low on milk and orange juice I go there...then stop at the Dollar Store next door and buy him a helium balloon to tie to his stroller.  Usually Sesame Street but they were out of helium today so he had to settle for a "Congrats!" one with smiley faces that was half-deflated.  He didn't care.  Anyway, back to 'golden oldies'.  As we were walking up one of the aisles in the grocery store, an elderly gentleman spotted Dylan and began talking silly to him, trying to make friends.  Dylan was his usual stoic self as he always is with strangers, but the older man sure was having fun!  He happened to come behind us in line as we waited at the checkout and began talking to me.  He had a package of pastries in his hand and asked me, "Do you think these are any good?"  I looked at them and said they looked good to me.  He kind of chuckled and shrugged and said, "Well, I'm just buying 'em for my pinochle-playing buddies...it's my turn to provide the snack.  Once a week a bunch of us old farts get together and play cards."  LOL!  If the rest of his old codgers are anywhere near as entertaining as he was, I can only imagine what their card games must be like!  I'm not much of a card player, but is pinochle even played much any more??  I remember when I was a little girl my parents and their friends used to have pinochle or canasta card parties, a different house every week.  When it was my parents' turn I loved watching the preparations in the evening before everyone arrived...my parents setting out all the card tables and lots of ash trays...back then it seemed like everyone smoked.  My little brother and I would sneak out of bed and sit on the top stairs, peering down at the grown-ups in the living room below thru the balustrades of the stair case.  The air would be wreathed in smoke.  The ladies usually dressed up a little fancier than their every-day housedresses or pedal pushers.  Nothing stronger than beer and lots of hot coffee was served.  It seemed so....sophisticated.  So...grown up!   And I hadn't thought of this in years until this lovely old gentleman mentioned pinochle!

Ah well.

Hmmmmm...as I'm sitting here I had a couple of other old memories come to mind.  Does anyone remember Beeman's gum?  Or Clove gum?  Or Black Jack?  I hope I have those names right.  Or the little chewable wax candy shaped like pop bottles?  You'd bite the top 'cap' area off and the inside was filled with sweetened colored water you'd drink down, then chew the bottle up?   Or penny candy?  We had a 5 & Dime store in the little town I grew up in that had a huge display case filled with all kinds of penny candy...some were even 2 or 3 for a penny!  And taffy?  And roasted nuts like cashews or peanuts or Spanish peanuts you could buy warm in little white paper bags?  A dime would give you plenty.  I'm not sure where my mom purchased them, but she used to buy HUGE kosher dill pickles and one of my favorite snacks every now and then was to dig one of those big pickles out of a jar...and one for my best friend Angie...and wrap a paper towel around the bottom end of it for a 'handle'....then chomp away in little tiny bites.  They were so sour it'd take us most of a day to chew our way down to the end but, boy, were they good!

Ok.  Enough tripping down Memory Lane.  Time to sack out.  4:30 will be here in no time.  Poor Dear Hubby is coming down with Dylan's cold...which was my cold...which is now his cold.  So I think I'll go warm his old fanny up with mine.  He always tells me he never really sleeps until I'm in bed next to him, so I'm off to take Chloe dog on her last potty trot outside.  No Nyquil for me tonite.  I want to sleep dreamlessly after last nite.  Sheeeeeeeeesh.