Pen Pals going, going....

not quite gone. I was talking to one of my customers (85) today when she came to mail her son a package. She also bought some stamps and said part of them were to send to her Pen Pal. I told her just last night I was thinking about her Pen Pals and wondered how long she had them and how she got them. She said she had had them since the early 70's. I said "Wow, basically as long as I have been alive". She said "my Mother took a paper back then, it was just in black and white print, no pictures. (If you said she took a paper now a days it would something different) There was an ad in there from a lady saying she could match you with Pen Pals that shared the same birthday as you, so my customer mailed in her info in. She received back a list of Pan Pals who shared the same birthday as her, some even the same year. She wrote all, didn't here back from a couple, but heard back from 5, all were from different states and 2 were even from different countries. She said in the beginning they wrote at least once a month, except around Christmas, then they would just send a note saying talk to you after Christmas. As the years went by they aged, their eye sight faded, writing became harder to do and the letters aren't quite as regular anymore. A few times now she has sent letters only to receive an obituary notice back. I asked if she had ever met any of them in person and she had. Some just once, a few she has went to visit more then once and they had also come to visit her a time or two. I could have listened to her much longer and asked more questions, but another customer came in. How cool is that to have made friends that way and to still be friends after all these years? It really is sad that such simple things in life are going to the way side. Oh the joy of receiving a hand written letter in the mail and the joy of writing one back. As the saying goes "It's been a long time since the morning mail could be considered correspondence." How many years before no one knows what a Pen Pal is?

Lucky or Unlucky?

Yesterday I stopped over to my friends Larry & Deb's to discuss something with them. Deb said to me "if it weren't for bad luck you wouldn't have any luck at all" I totally agreed with her. Today I got home from work only to find my floor wet and I knew right away that it wasn't a wet spot you could blame on the dogs. I changed my clothes and got down on the floor to drag everything out from under the kitchen sink. ( Where did I get all that stuff?)  While I was wiping up the water I bumped the garbage disposal and down it came. Really, how unlucky can I be, part of it has broke and that is why I had the water all over the floor. First lucky moment: this is an easy fix and doesn't require a plumber. Off to Menard's to get parts to fix it. We are driving in the driveway and they have their 11% rebate sign out, lucky me I get a rebate for fixing my disposal. Turns out they didn't have the parts I needed, but new ones aren't too terrible expensive and I can use my new card that earns me points. Back home to get it installed. I did swear a few times, I won't lie about that. The luckiest part of all of it: I can now say I put in my own garbage disposal in, how many other women can say that? So maybe now no matter what the situation is there is always a lucky side to it? Do you consider yourself lucky or unlucky? Maybe you don't believe in luck at all.