Dackel Princess

45 Life Lessons By Regina Brett

This is something we should all read at least once a week. Make sure you read to the end. Originally published in The Plain Dealer on Sunday, May 28, 2006

Written by Regina Brett, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio .

“To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I’ve ever written.” Regina Brett

“1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short – enjoy it.

4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don’t have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.

7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.

8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye, but don’t worry, God never blinks.

16.. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.

18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

19.. It’s never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive

29. What other people think of you is none of your business

30 Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative of dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved

39 Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have, not what you need

42. The best is yet to come…

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.”

Healthcare

We learned yesterday that Jack won’t have his Mohs surgery until October! He will be seeing a new doctor. The Mohs Surgeon who operated on me is no longer practicing in our area.

This leads me to a big concern that I have. Why are the premier doctors that have practiced at DHMC either gone or leaving?

I wondered if I am getting old (this is entirely possible, as many of them were older than me) and have retired, or if they are leaving because politically, they do not like what is happening at the hospital?

The gifted Retinal Surgeon I had a 15-year relationship with, left last year. He had not been happy at DHMC for some time. We spoke about it one day, and when I called and learned he was gone, I was not surprised. Saddened, yes, but not surprised.

I feel, much as I did when I moved back from Florida twenty years ago, that I am in the process of developing new medical contacts for all my needs. It’s a bit unsettling.

At least, I have been relatively healthy, and Jack’s doctors at the VA have been good at caring for him.

The Friday Five

I’ve been enjoying reminiscing about my time in Germany. I will do more next week, but as usual, here is my Friday Five.

Our summer has been one of the hottest ones that I can remember. Each day it is well over 80 degrees and for the last few weeks, many days have been over 90 degrees which is not usual for New Hampshire! Life is full of hot, humid, air masses and cranky individuals! Oh yes, and we have had a lot of rain! So as we enter the second weekend of August here is what’s happening in my corner of the world!

The hospital still has not called with a date for Jack’s Moh’s Surgery. It kind of ticks me off that this is happening. He really needs to get in and finish having cancer removed. As it is, the area is not healing, and it concerns me very much!
Lili is pretty funny these days. She will bark at Jack to get him to go outside.

Then, when he does, she follows him for a few minutes, and then wants to come back into the air-conditioned house! She cracks me up!
Poor Anneliese has her allergy to grass and grass pollen back.

It just doesn’t seem fair that a short little dackel like her should be allergic to grass! It causes her to break out on her belly and get little hot spots. I bathe her with special soap and then once she is dry put on her cream.
We met our new neighbors. They’re a really nice family with a daughter named Emily! It makes me remember the days when my sweet Emily lived right next door. Now she is all grown up, and a married lady with a baby of her own!
This weekend, I plan the usual, laundry, cleaning, and kicking back. I love the weekends!

Have a great weekend everyone!

The First Weeks In Berlin

When we arrived in Berlin back in 1989, the Company put us up at the Intercontinental Hotel. It was okay, but the room was a bit small, and the fridge in the room would tick off if anything was removed from the fridge. Now we would take out their expensive beer and put in our own beer, so we could have the brands we enjoyed.

The Hotel was nice, but since we knew we were going to be there all summer, we started looking for a temporary leave Flat to rent.

The first one we found was on the KuDam. Now for those of you who aren’t familiar with the KuDam, it is the Street that never sleeps! Sort of like New York City. The only problem was that nothing is sound-proofed and after a week of not sleeping I was one grouchy girl.

I should note. Jack can sleep anywhere, so he wasn’t bothered as much. He mentioned this to a friend, who was going Stateside for a couple of weeks and offered us his apartment. We immediately moved out to it in the Zehlendorf section of West Berlin. It was beautiful and quiet, and I loved it there, even if it was pretty far out of the city.

We stayed there, enjoying a local Greek restaurant and Jack would go out running in the morning and bring back fresh rolls and pastries.

But our time there was limited, so we moved to another Flat, that we sublet from another Pilot who was on a vacation, and would be gone for a while.

Thus we moved into One Lietzenburger Strasse. Our apartment was on the eleventh floor of the apartment building, with beautiful views of the city. Best of all, it was quiet!

There is one thing I will never forget about this apartment and that was the decor. On a prominent shelf in the living room was a picture of a beautiful woman. She had obviously wanted to look good in the picture, and her hair and makeup were immaculate. The frame was perfect and sitting right in front of this special picture was a box holding a tube of Preparation-H! Turns out the Pilot we were subletting from had a rather acrimonious divorce from this beautiful woman, and putting a tube of hemorrhoid ointment in front of her picture was his way of making a point, on a daily basis! I laughed each time I looked at it and admired his rather droll sense of humor!

We settled into daily life in West Berlin. Jack would go off flying several mornings a week, doing Charter Flights with vacationers, and I would trek all over Berlin, getting cases of Beer, Groceries, trying new restaurants and different foods, before going back to our Flat and cooking something for dinner.

On Jack’s days off, we would often go for walks to various places around the city, stopping for beer along the way. If you have never had German Beer on Tap, then you have really missed something special in life. I had never been much of a beer drinker before, but my goodness, German Beer is simply magnificent!

I walked everywhere and had a medium size wicker basket that I carried my groceries in. On the days I went to the Beer Store, I used my suitcase wheelies to bring back the Beer, water, and juices.

I also went to museums, Zoo’s and Parks and walked and walked, all in an attempt to keep from gaining too much weight from everything I was eating and drinking. No such luck! That was the summer I gained 25 pounds! Quite happily so!

You might also notice that I dressed every day. That summer I wore skirts every day. No slacks. I was trying to enjoy myself, and I felt so pretty in dresses and skirts. I must also confess that my skirts had elastic waists and expanded while I was there! Ha!

All of this happening in just the first few weeks we were living there. What an adventure I had started, and there was so much more to come!

My First Flight…No Passengers!

In 1989 Jack came home one day and said he’s been offered a temporary assignment with Pan Am in West Berlin, Germany. Since I A) loved Germany and B) I was always up for an adventure, I told him to grab it!

At the time Jack was the #1 First Officer on the A-300 Airbus. So when he bid for any line, he got it. Thus in May of 1989, our adventure began.

First, getting the plane to Berlin was a bit tricky. It could not be flown with passengers because it did not have the ability to fly from New York, JFK Airport to Berlin, Tegal Airport with a full fuel load and passengers. So, the crew was to ferry the plane over. Seeing as I was married to one of the crew, I was authorized to fly along.

Meals were loaded in the galley for us, and the Flight Engineer gave me a crash course on how to make coffee, cook the meals, etc. It was pretty exciting stuff for a 30-year-old, who really had not done a lot of traveling by the seat of her pants before!

Taking off out of JFK was so exciting. I was strapped into the cockpit pass riders seat, sat straight-forward and for the first time in my life, experienced what a pilot goes through at take-off! The plane went speeding down the runway and then I felt the front wheels leave the ground and then we were flying! I mean, it is so different to be in the cockpit and feel and see the changes. I was in awe!

(Please note here, since that flight, when I dream of flying it is always from this vantage point. And oddly enough, I’m not in a plane!)

We had daylight for a bit, and I was thrilled at what I saw down below. Once again, the perception is different in the cockpit, as you see everything head-on, not to the side of the plane.

Flight Engineer, Ray and I made the dinner meals and served them up. Do you know they all eat different meals? A built-in safety so that the entire crew doesn’t get food poisoning.

After dark, I went back and tried to sleep a little, but you know, I have never slept well on airplanes no matter how tired I am.

Eventually, I stumbled back into the cockpit and just watched the nighttime sky. St. Elmo’s Fire danced across the wind screen, the Northern Lights, over Iceland, and eventually, the sunrise over Shannon, Ireland. All so beautiful, and all I would have missed if I had slept.

In the morning we were flying over Europe, and then over the very beautiful and neat fields of Germany. That flight was the start of the adventure and I still can see so much of the beautiful countryside in my mind.

Before I knew it, we were setting up to land at Berlin, Tegel Airport. As strange as it was to take off, the landing was an experience! We were lined up on the runway, and we floated down, down, and I thought okay the wheels should touch…but it was a moment or two more before the back wheels touched and then the front!

berlin

This is the plane we flew over from New York, JFK Airport!

After landing, we taxied to the gate, and a ground agent popped on board, and saw Jack and smiled and greeted him by name. Jack had flown in the IGS (Internal German Service) for Pan Am for 11 years, so this was all familiar to him.

It was all new to me, and I was a wide-eyed youngster back then, but by the end of the summer I was taking the S-Bahn and U-Bahn and buses all around town and I think that was the summer, I learned how to do everything all on my own.

I would find a destination in West Berlin, and then figure out how to get there. It was a summer of fun, adventure, good German Beer and did I mention the wursts, cheese, bread, and pastries? Oh my goodness! It was marvelous all of it!

Charlie

Me and Jack

Long, Hot, Summer!

It’s been a very long, hot summer. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a summer with this kind of heat.

Monday started with Jack’s nose incision showing signs of infection. I told him not to worry and I got it cleaned out and a good dressing applied. I need to do it again before bed, but I just wish they would schedule his Mohs Surgery and be done with it. I have a feeling that it will not heal until after that surgery is done and they actually stitch him up.

After that, we did things around the house because our thermometer was climbing outside 80, 90, 100! And humid too. Just wildly unpleasant!

Late afternoon, about the time I usually start to do the prep work for dinner, Jack began to defrost his beer fridge’s freezer. That wasn’t too bad. But it did leak a bit on the floor.

But it was during this procedure that I mentioned that our deep freeze downstairs really needed to be done. (Thinking, you know, another day?) A few minutes later, the phone rang and it was for Jack, and I was looking for him. Where was he? Downstairs defrosting the deep freeze! Sheesh!

So while he was on the phone, and had the freezer turned off, and all the food on tables in my laundry room! Crap! So while he was on the phone I got all the ice out of the freezer and off the freezer walls and then started to organize it.

The bending, stretching, and lifting was pretty darn tough, and by the end, I was feeling it. But the freezers are now defrosted and thank goodness the other two are frost free!

However, I still managed a decent stir-fried chicken and vegetables. And now as I near the golden hour of 9 PM, I am just about ready to fall asleep, know I will sleep very well tonight!

The Loves Of My Life

When I think of all the blessings in my life, right at the top of the list are my two grandchildren, Savannah and Quinn. In life, I’d always hoped for children of my own, and I was pleased to give birth to two beautiful baby girls.

What I never expected was how wonderful it would be to become an Oma, and have these two terrific children as my grandchildren!

I listen to other people talk about their grandkids and I smile because it really is a special bond that you have with these, your own grandchildren. You absolutely adore every hair on their heads and would do anything for your grandchildren. It’s a feeling that fills me with such joy!

My darling Savannah!

My sweetheart, Quinn!

I love going into my daughter’s home and calling out and having the children come running into my arms, calling my name. There is such love at those times and I feel like the luckiest woman on the face of the earth!

I love the way Savannah sings her little songs to me and how she uses her imagination when she is playing with her dolls. She makes each doll have an individual voice and it is the cutest thing. But the songs, yes, her made up songs, are so dear to my heart. She is six now and a total delight!

Quinn is so funny. He is all boy. I swear he was born with a car, truck, or plane in his hands. If it has wheels or wings, he is happy. When we were out one day at Cracker Barrel for dinner, I told him he could pick out his toy. He went around looking at everything and then went right to an airplane (also had wheels!). That was what he wanted. He is also working so hard to get his words down, and at two and a half, he speaks amazingly well.

I am not just head over heels in love with my grandchildren, I also really and truly like them. They are a pleasure to be with.

I give all of the credit to their two parents, Mandy and Matt. They have been raising these kids to be good, kind, polite, loving, children. How lucky these two children are to have parents that love them enough to be raising them to be wonderful people.

Yes, all around, I am blessed!

In The Summertime

Saturday was a wet, wet, day. In the morning and afternoon, it rained like crazy, I got soaked and the grass grew longer! It was also 88 degrees during all this rain, so it wasn’t just wet, but hot too. What a summer!

It was time for me to get my head dipped in the fountain of youth, which was just what I needed. There is something so refreshing and relaxing about this. I also needed a good shaping, and Dianne did a great job. For a change, she blew it out, so my usual curls don’t show right now. However, by tomorrow, the tight curls will be back!

Once again, no make-up.

I really don’t like make-up. I have been told I “have” to wear it to look good. Well, you know, I am, who I am, and I hope that sticky wretched make-up doesn’t make me a nicer person! I am almost sixty years old. I’ve had facial cancer, and sort of had things on my face rearranged. But despite this, I don’t think I look too bad, and actually, no amount of make-up will make me a better person.

Greta is doing beautifully today. I am still keeping her on a leash, so I can guide her around safely, but I think we were very fortunate that it wasn’t worse.

So, as the sun sets over Lake Waukewan and we settle in for the night, I will leave you with a beautiful summery picture of the Lake we live on.

Scary Things

On Friday morning I got up quite early. The dogs followed me to the back door, and I let them out. In the early morning, the dogs all follow me out, do their business and then follow, me back in.

I was on my way back with Anneliese, Arnie, and Lili, and I glanced over and saw Greta walking along the top of the retaining wall toward the house. She has done this a million times in her 14 and a half years, and I expected her to reach the house for her morning treat!

It was then I heard it! YELP! My heart stopped for a second and I ran over to where she had been. She was gone! I called her, frantically, and looked under the fruit trees, and then I heard her cry again and my eyes followed the sound.

Greta had fallen off the wall, about 5 feet onto the crushed stones below! I raced down the stairs, and gently picked her up and carried her into the house. I set her down onto the floor and then asked her to walk toward me. She limped, just slightly, and walked to her little bed and crawled in.

I went over and checked her over, she seemed fine, but I was not sure. Over the next two hours, I checked her gums for color. Pink gums are healthy, white gums indicate internal bleeding. Hers were pink!

I gave her a small dose of her pain medication and then I let her rest most of the day.

There is no doubt that her spinal problems are getting worse. I’m pretty sure she lost her balance and fell off the wall. We talked about it and Greta will need close supervision outside.

Tonight she is quiet and despite the rain showers, we have been outside (on leash) and she’s done her thing. Today gave me an all too real vision of what it will be like on the day that Greta’s spine gives out, and we have to bring her in.

I didn’t like that vision at all.

The Friday Five

I want to know, where is the summer going? Here we are on August 3rd! The first Friday of the month, but all too soon, it will be time for the summer to end the school buses to start coming along down our roads. This summer really has flown by. Am I ready for the summer to end? Well, since we have had one of the hottest summers that I can recall, yes, yes I am! I am ready for cool temperatures, bright Autumn leaves, and believe it or not, shorter days.

So as this week comes to a close, here are the five things that have been on my mind this week.

Our hot-water/heating-system is all repaired and it did not completely brake our bank. The company that did the work was polite, considered what we could afford, and worked hard to stay in our price range. They did all of this, and provided a new master control system for us!
Jack got the results back from his biopsy and it is a Basil Cell Cancer on his nose. Unfortunately, they did not get it all and he will need Mohs Surgery to get the remainder of it. Boy, can I relate to that!
Speaking of Jack, his flip phone is now a thing of the past, and slowly, Jack is learning to use my old Galaxy S5. He knows how to answer it, and how to make a call.

That was lesson #1. The Galaxy S5 is actually a pretty easy phone to use. I have gotten Jack a blue case, as I felt the hot pink wasn’t really his style!
It has been so hot! In the upper 80’s and lower 90’s with high humidity and high dew points. What this all boils down to is that it’s just plain miserable. I hate to leave our air-conditioned house and go out. Worst of all, it is supposed to be like this for the next week!
I did well at Weight Watchers this week, losing one pound! I think my next step, now that I understand the eating plan is to slowly work in a walking plan. I’ve noticed in the last few weeks that my knees have gotten a bit stiff. Old age wear and tear, but time to work them out, so I keep them moving.

So that wraps us this week and brings us to the end of the first week in August. I just know, before I know it, it will be September 1st! Summer will be over!