Category Archives: Special days

Cold, Drippy Walk Today

Leave a reply
Share

We are having a cold, drippy rain today. I just got back from my walk, so I know this to be true. Did 10/20 sec. blasts, and 8 side crunch sets (20 reps each time.) So, all in all, I didn’t do as much as I have been doing, but, you know the really good part? While I was on this walk, I fantasized about walking the Portland Marathon! Now, granted, it’s only in the fantasization stage, but, still. Wouldn’t that be a hoot? I mean, my buddy CarolAnn walked the Portland Marathon with Stage 4 Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, so why do I think that’s so out of reach for me? Of course, CarolAnn was in her early 50’s when she did that and I’m now in my late ’60’s, but I love it that this just popped up in my head as I was rolling along, counting to 40 over and over. So, we shall see how it all works out.

Stef and I are going to an art show this evening, which should be fun. Tomorrow, we will be heading to Eugene to see THE LION KING at the Hult Center. We thought we were going out to the horse ranch to talk to them about volunteering, but these were the only decent tickets we could get to the Hult Center, so, Eugene is the destination for tomorrow. Plus, there’s a women’s march of some sort going on in Eugene, so we can go and cheer for that before the show.

The thing about Eugene is that they LOVE a parade. They probably have a parade more than most cities you’ll ever find…like, there’s a whole bunch of people sitting around on a street corner and someone says, “Hey, it’s Tuesday. We’ve all got banjos – LET’S MARCH!” And, they do. It’ll be fun. JS

Share

9 yrs. old at my grandmother’s house

Leave a reply
Share

I am thinking, this morning, of being 9 yrs. old, at my grandmother’s house, helping her put together the pans and pans and PANS of cornbread dressing she would be cooking very soon.

I am remembering setting the table with the good silver, going all around that huge oak table. Suddenly, every bit of it looked dull to me and needed to be shined up, so I proceeded to do that, picking up each piece, huffing on it a time or two, then rubbing it with the dish towel slung over my shoulder. I’d gotten almost completely around the table doing this when my grandfather walked into the doorway and saw me. “Good God, girl,” he said, scooping all the silverware up, “you could have tuberculosis!”

Well, I DIDN’T have tuberculosis, and nobody else did, either, because we washed every single piece of silver before resetting the table on that day. It’s a funny memory. JS

Share

Prime rib roasting on Christmas, 2015

Leave a reply
Share

Prime rib is roasting now. Potatoes are loaded up for the 2nd baking of them later on. Sam is asleep. His giant dogs are outside. Stef is playing with her new Nikon. And I am feeling a need for a nap, although I doubt it will happen.

Christmas morning was loaded with wonderful gifts and laughter. We all are missing Stef’s Mum who so loved Christmas and would squeal with glee over each gift, like a young girl. “Holy Crow!” she would exclaim, delighted to have been thought of, and overwhelmed when the gift was EXACTLY what she needed, or had been hinting about for months. To have been such a tiny little old lady, hers was a huge presence. We miss her. I know she was with us, though. JS

Share

Eldon on Thanksgiving

Leave a reply
Share

Our 84 yr. old neighbor, Eldon, is a very active man, always working on his house or yard, and plays golf like I think we all wish we could. He loves it that we keep our yard nice and that we don’t back down from big tasks.

When he first met Stef, she had just moved into this house and was taking down a dying GIGANTIC oak tree in the front yard, pulling the rotting roots out with ropes attached to the bumper of her Volvo. “I’ve never seen a woman take on the projects that Stef has,” he told me. Of course, necessity is the mother of invention, and, when you’re raising 3 kids on your own, there’s very little money left over to hire someone to fall a tree for you so, with the help of friends, she took that big thing down without professional help. Eldon was impressed.

He and I are buddies. It distresses him, I think, to know that I am sick or hurt. When he came over the other day, my new knee still had the price tag on it, it was so new. Eldon looked at me. “So, how long you think you’ll be down?” he asked, “a week, maybe?”

I shook my ahead. “Not sure, Eldon,” I said, “It’s a whole new knee.”

He looked down at my leg all covered in bandages and ice packs. “Okay,” he said, “ten days, then.” I think it makes his world feel safer to know that we are on the road to recovery and not getting out of his sight for too long. He is a very dear man.

So, on this Thanksgiving, as I think back through all the memories of the Thanksgivings of my life and remember who and what I am thankful for, I want to say that I am also thankful for the older friends in my life – people like Eldon and Joanie, like my friend Marjorie who just left us – people who are kind enough to lend their wisdom and experience to me as I bumble and hobble along on this journey.

If you have older people still in your life, give thanks for them on this Thanksgiving Day, and give them a hug for me, too. JS

Share

Inspiration coming in on all fronts

Leave a reply
Share

It is early Monday morning and I’ve been up early, thinking, as usual, and reading parts of an excellent book by Nicholas Kristoff and his wife, Cheryl WuDunn called A PATH APPEARS. This book is about programs emerging all over the world to help address the dual crises of extreme poverty and hunger, what works and what doesn’t and how we all can help. I’m feeling some inspiration coming on… don’t know how that will present itself to me, but I’m trusting that A PATH WILL APPEAR.

Today is my last day in Lubbock for this trip and I fly back to Oregon tomorrow, so I’ve got 3 rolfing session to do today before I begin packing. My thanks to Melody Ogletree and Cheryl of PforymWELL for hosting me to do rolfing here in Lubbock. They do wonderful work with their company, focusing on personal, as well as corporate, wellness programs, and I don’t think I’ve run across two people who do as much research into supplements as these two women do. I trust what they have to say about it all. So, if that’s something you are interested in, too, or, if you are interested in scheduling rolfing sessions with me when I return next to Lubbock, give them a call @ (806) 784-0506.

I won’t be back to either Lubbock or to Tulsa for awhile. The time has finally come to replace my other knee with something smooth and bionic, which will be done by my favorite bone guy, Dr. Ira Weintraub (Dr. Dub) in Portland on 11/20. (“We have the technology. We can make her stronger, faster, cuter, more able to handle small-talk at parties…”)

I am only mildly apprehensive about this since I know what to expect and I love my doc, who, in addition to being a great surgeon, is also a wonderful man. Still, it’s a big surgery, what with bones being sliced up, chopped off, and spikey things being whammed down into the marrow. (I’ve watched YouTube videos just to see what is actually done and, also, to scare the bejabbers out of myself, like the fascination of a bird to a snake. I know, I’m a dumbass sometimes.)

Anyway, my next rolfing trip to Tulsa will be in the new year, 1/15-1/20/16. Call Stephen Saunders to schedule rolfing sessions there @ (918) 605-6508.

I’ll be back in Lubbock 1/22-1/25/16. Contact PforymWELL @ (806) 784-0506.

I will spend the holidays rehabbing my leg and, chances are, not cooking as much as I usually do during those days. I hope all of you have a delightful Thanksgiving with family and friends and that your Merry Christmas is truly that. We all deserve the love we have to share with each other, let’s try to remember that one. So long for now and remember this, too: You are all deep in my heart, from Texas (and Oregon.) JS

Share

Birthday 2015

Leave a reply
Share

How nice to awaken to so many sweet birthday greetings! Another trip around the sun has only scorched me a little, but, then, the natural collagen layer in our skin tends to diminish as we age. That, I know.

My birthday, as far as I can tell at this moment, will consist of errands to be run and packing to be done since I am flying out on Thursday to Tulsa and then on to Lubbock to do some rolfing in both places.

I am having my right knee replaced on 11/20/15 in Portland, so I won’t be making a rolfing trip in December since I will be rehabbing the bejabbers out of my leg during that time. Experience has shown me that the harder I work at that the better my new knee will work in the long run.

Went to meet my new PCP doc yesterday for my clearance physical and we hit it off great, not the least of which is because SHE’S FROM DALLAS! She pronounced my EKG as “stellar” for a geezer of my age. I told her that, deep down, I have a good heart. It’s the surface Jody who gets me in trouble. Thanks, everyone. JS

Share
Our Boy Toby

Our Boy Toby

Leave a reply
Share

Two years ago (actually 8/29/13) we adopted this sweet little dog, our boy Toby. My friend Susan McElroy brought him from Washington to Corvallis to make the hand-off. I was interviewing Susan that day on my TV show, BACK PAGE. So, the first half hour of the time I spent with Toby, he was on camera and, I must say, he was a perfect gentleman.

Stef took this photo right after Toby & I arrived in Roseburg on that day. It’s a good memory. JS

Share

Meryl Streep’s birthday, 2015

Leave a reply
Share

Today is Meryl Streep’s birthday. I love her. I want her to come over to our house for dinner. I would make chicken enchiladas with cilantro/sour cream sauce, black beans, and grilled pineapple slices with honey Greek yogurt for dessert. She would swoon over this delightful meal and then we would all go for a long walk down by the river. We would take lots of pictures and tell her all about salmon fishing on the Umpqua River in September. She would promise to come back in Sept. and go with us on our next trip. It is a perfect evening of laughter and connection and fun. Then she would send us a thank you note every couple of weeks for a year and become our new best friend. She and her family would begin coming to southern Oregon to “…get away from it all…” which, let’s face it, is perfect, because you can’t get much further away- from-it-all than we are without falling into the Pacific Ocean.

Anyway, that’s my fantasy for today. So, Happy Birthday, Meryl. Dinner’s at 7. JS

Share

KZEW 2015 REUNION

Leave a reply
Share

Big weekend, this one. Our KZEW 2015 REUNION was so much fun! I was delighted to see so many old friends from radio days, just as I was delighted to have participated, way back in the 1970’s, in a Dallas/Ft.Worth station that rocked FM radio out of the elevator and into the ears and hearts of so many listeners for so long.

I left the ZOO in 1979 to go off to the Rolf Institute in Boulder to learn how to become a Rolfer.

A lot can happen to our butts, bellies and hair in 36 years, most of it not so good. What doesn’t seem to change, though, is the love we felt for each other while working at that radio station. It was there way back then and, I’m happy to report, I still feel it now. I’m catching a plane this morning and heading back to Oregon with such wonderful memories scatter-gunning themselves around in my heart. What a great weekend. Wow. JS

Share