When the Grocery Store is Out of it...

.... the entire island is likely out of it too. I have decided when you find something in the store that you really want - buy extra. Once it is gone, you cannot find it in any other store on the island - indefinitely. A few days ago, it was Picanté Sauce. I am a Pace person, and yes, everything else is from "NEW YORK CITY?!" I found Pace, (medium and not chunky, thankyouverymuch!) and picked up the last two jars. I looked for pinto beans. There were none. Sooo, the beans I have been craving will have to wait.

Yesterday, Sarah and I went to Cold Storage and Giant. Just out of curiosity, I looked for Pace. Not there. I looked for pintos. Nope. Not at either store. Rest assured, if I go to twenty other stores, they will be out there as well. *note to self (making many notes these days), BUY EXTRA - you have no idea when the next container of Pace or pintos will be opened. Extra is good.

Ben (thanks for the thought) assured me the lights on the island were probably turned out a bit each night. He is so right! I did look at 2am and they were on :-) Again at 4am and they were off! And it could also be, as he suggested, signs of the beginning of the recession. Even Singapore is beginning to feel it now. So, the question of the lights has been answered. However, the big arc like lights on the sides of the buildings (the ones on the left) have yet to come back on. Is that a sign of recession as well? *clueless*

Sarah and I went to see "The Women" yesterday and had a great visit. We actually talked about the layoffs that are beginning to happen and she asked if we were in danger. As I have said before, we are not necessarily concerned about it as Steve is planning on retirement in 2.5 years anyway, but the thought kept nagging at me. When you are young, you think things will all be settled by the time you are our age.

You start out with intentions of moving to other places and for whatever reason they don't pan out - but there is always time to do that 'later'. Later comes, your children grow and they set out roots with the same intentions - dreams of moving to bigger and better places. Work holds you to one area, pulls them to another area, or even keeps some where they never intended to stay; the world keeps twirling and before you know it, 'our age' has come and here we are - in Singapore!

Where do we really want to be when we 'grow up'? *I* have always wanted to move back to Oklahoma. My heart never left there. The reality is though, if we were going to do it, we should have done it years ago - so our kids roots could have grown in that soil. But our kids have lives of their own too - and the grandkids are young now, but soon, they will also be moving on in their own lives. So what do you plan your lives around?

That is a question I posed to Steve last night. We talked for hours about it, the plusses of living in south Louisiana, in Oklahoma, in other places... the negatives... the money... the kids... the grandkids...

Do you know what we decided? Not a thing. We still don't know where we want to be when we grow up or what we want to do when he retires. No earthly idea. How can that be?

So here we are in Singapore, nearing retirement and still wondering where life will take us.

And it all seems to go back to our 'stuff', a kid, and a swing.