House tired. Rains and rains and shut in.

Look at it this way Stan. Now you are doing things which you have never had tne opportunity to do before when you were younger...like ....gardening, sticking to a tight budget and enjoying companionship of a few cats. It's a whole new world!

According to our news bulletins your part of the country has had some dreadful floods. I'm not surprised you didn't want to go out. Hope you were not affected.

Not following old interests isn't always bad. Life has a habit of offering new interests. I did some studying with a US group for about five years (Senior Net). They have so many "groups" it's impossible to keep up with them all, but they are there! It's not all study, I hasten to add. They have on line photography competitions. ( no prize, just the kudos of a win); book discussions; word games though the emphasis is on learning to use the Internet.

Then there's always reading! If you want cheering up, get hold of "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman. It's going to be televised next year.

You can always video the cats and place the videos on YouTube. Cats are such Prima Donnas!

I play Scrabble with myself every day. Aim to get the highest score. So far 422 for one game.
Best score ever was years ago when I scored 47 with a
single tile. Didnt stop laughing for a week.

p.s. Klahanie has reappeared, cant remember where it was now. So she hasnt forgotten you.

Hywel would like to see pictures of your cats.
Me too.

You can play Scrabble on line with friends. A good way of exercising the little grey cells.

Stan could do this. I like playing after I have done my piano practice. Must add up my last months expenditure.
I do this manually. Just another discipline.
There are all these fancy ways of doing things, but to offset Altzheimers I think the old fashioned ways are best.
Years ago families had a sing song round the piano on Saturday nights. Children did their homework. Mum knitted complicated jersey patterns. I used to knit and read at the same time.
All this things exercised the brain.
Life is better in some ways, but ways that make us into
lazy people are not good. I watch 'Eggheads' and keep my score of correct answers. Best result so far .....17 !
My son says its when I know the subjects ...........
Am no good at Pop Music.
Only read non-fiction library books.
Never watch T/V soaps.

Well,the internet is a good way to keep the mind sharp. My father at his job for the Railroads had his own yard shack or office,and on lunch break would fill out the NY Times crossword puzzles- completely.
I see the internet as the free modern mind expander-lol. Getting older I tell you,I'm amazed at what I know and cant bring up..GOOGLE..cures that too.
I notice,when I cant remember something I know I know? I go to Google and type in a hint of what I'm thinking..and so many times the answer comes to me before I even hit send. I wonder what that's all about?

Stan: One of my fellow students on Senior Net was a renowned crossword compiler for the NY Times.

I like General Knowledge crosswords but haven't tried the cryptic ones yet.

Like you, I am amazed how Google can help even when my "question" seems baffling!!

Not much of a games player. I liked RISK and some Monopoly and a couple of others like UNO I havent played in so long.
Video games? eh. They are about killing something. No wonder society in America is so dangerous.
The weather here has dropped. We might touch a 16C for an hour...but mostly in the 13C+ range as I try to convert the two scales.
A winter like this has been hard considering we had only only single morning touch 0C...the perpetual cool even into late February is causing tropicals plants that should be evergreen..to shed all the shredded by winter leafs. Hibiscus and Ti plants come to mind. Both had done fine every winter since 2007.
2017 has added record rains. Some local waterways have passed historic highs and are flooding urban bay area like I never thought possible "Once in 100 years" they say on the news.

Four on line games I play: Scrabble, Patience, Concentration and an object - finding game set in Australia! The last two really keep my mind focused and there's no killing involved!!

Sounds funny- but I still like "Find the spoon in the tree" or whats different in photo A from photo B?..those internet ads sometimes suck me into those.
It reminds me of a kid at the Doctors office and that magazine..Whats the name of it? tip of my tongue.

The name of the magazine it " Highlights" and it's still in the waiting rooms Stan.