Third Time is Not the Charm

Other than forgetting to take Blood Pressure medication two days in a row, waking up on Sunday to a reading of 166 over something or other, it was a great and productive weekend.

Saturday’s weather was perfect for walking, so I suited up, headed to the college campus to log in a few miles, test out the collapsible trekking poles — the third set I’ve purchased.

Finding something wrong with the first two sets — one had a joint locking issue, the second set was meant for short people and could not be adjusted to my arm height, not wanting the hassle of returning, both had been tossed in the trash.

The third set — the current ones, everything snapped into place per the diagram, so I assumed everything was hunky dory fine.

It wasn’t.

Third time was in no way the charm, because the collapsible poles kept collapsing on Saturday’s walk.

Is it me … Am I doing something wrong? thought I. This being the second set with locking issues, I began to think I was not connecting and tightening properly.

Looking at a few YouTube videos later that day, I couldn’t find anything I'd done wrong.

At any rate, where there’s a will there’s a way so, not wanting to waste money on another set, I decided to change the collapsible trekking poles to non-collapsible by crazy gluing all the joints.

Sunday’s weather was a lot less inviting than Saturday’s. It rained, so outside was wet and gloomy. Testing for staying locked, with crazy glue, will have to wait until outside is once again inviting.

After getting the BP down to 135 on Sunday, by taking the medication, passing on coffee in lieu of Saffron Tea, the day was spent catching up on recorded TV programs and crafting — mainly scrapbooking.

My personal Album is not only caught up but completed. Photos of activities I participated in last year are in the book — like Spa Day with my girls, The Mission Inn 5K, Halloween Costume parties here at the complex, my trip to Long Beach for Thanksmas. The last page ends the book with a fun little thing I did with the photo of Genie and I at bingo wearing outfits that could mix and match.

Somehow it felt like a fitting end — a place to end scrapbooking altogether, something I've been thinking about for a while because my scrapbooking no longer seems relevant.

Who but myself cares what I did in photos last year, the year before that, the year before that, so on and so forth.

With the family so fractured, no one talking to and/or getting along with each other, what’s the point with being the historian of sort. I've got all these albums of my life raising my girls and after; and I did all those albums of the grandkids growing up and, in someone's storage area, there's even an album or two of my mother's life, with photos of my now deceased brothers and sister and I when we were kids, but who now is around to care? Who's going to be around in future to care?

There's not enough crazy glue in the world to put this fractured family back together and, with everyone living their lives so differently, I'm not so sure it should be put back together — the theory of "Leave Well Enough Alone". However, the point is .... for whom am I continuing this scrapbooking thing?

No one cares.

No one is going to care.

As what's left of this family begin to die off, including myself, it's highly likely the albums will end up in a dumpster like Bonita's did.

So, this book is the last I'll do of my adventures.

The end page, where the video cuts off, is the fun thing I did with a photo of Genie and I at bingo wearing outfits that looked like they were meant to mix and match.

I titled the page "Genie and Shirley Paper Doll Cutouts", turned us into paper dolls and switched the outfits around, just as one would do with paper dolls.

The great grandson, now some seven months old, already has two albums so, when the one I'm currently working on (see cover page below) gets filled, it too will be the last I'll do of his adventures as well. I don't want to repeat what I did with the other kids — make a kazillion albums that eventually become no longer relevant.

In other news, after the police department posted that the body parts guy they were looking for had been located and identified, it was radio silence, no further information.

That kinda sucks to get us invested in this story — like who is this guy, how did you find him, where did the body parts come from, and then nothing; but I'll keep an eye out for further updates on the PD's page.