Ice Hockey!!!

     Wow. In the third period of the US vs Canada Gold Medal game of the Olympics, the US just pulled the goalee and managed to score a tying goal in the last 24 seconds. How often does that happen?  I white knuckled the whole game, cheered from my comfortable seat beside the TV, watched that puck with wide open tense eyes. I thought, now, Wow, whoever loses now, it will be so very painful. And indeed, it was very painful. Canada scored and won in sudden death overtime. But I do think Canada was the slightly better team and it showed. Anyway, what a game!

     It recalls my former love of hockey years and years ago. When I came to Madison, WI to medical school, I met my husband to be. He was an Israeli sabra but in spite of that he learned to like Wisconsin ice hockey. As a medical student I didn't have too much time for dates. Mostly we just got together to somehow spend time together. But one of the rare dates was when we went to a hockey game. At that time the Wisconsin games were played in an unheated corrugated steel shed with a few bleachers along the edge of the ice. But I found that I loved the game. There is no spectator sport that is so very very fast. And at that time, the TV technology was such that you couldn't watch a game on TV. The camera lost the puck repeatedly. So you had to be there at the site. As my medical school years wore on, Wisconsin began playing hockey games at the Dane County Coliseum. But there were still very small crowds in that larger venue. After I graduated from medical school after we moved to Milwaukee, we tried to see some Wisconsin hockey in Milwaukee. There was an annual Invitational Tournament held in Milwaukee on the Arena ice. We got tickets for that tournament in the first few years. But slowly without the college connection, we stopped seeing hockey. So this game recalled my love for the sport. I don't think there is any sport that so produces tense emotions in the spectator. It is a great game!

     So ends the Olympics. I have spent so much time watching all the events that I have not even taken time to keep this blog going. But like all exciting and good things, it must come to an end. Back to our regular life.

An Unusual Experience:

    
This last week I had an unusual experience. Let me tell you about it:

Visit to an Estate Sale and Toys

       In this blog article I have juxtapositioned my interesting visit to a very unusual local estate sales that made the local and national news  versus  photos of my own antique toy collection to which I wanted to add by visiting this estate sale. Comtemplation of this sale and its scenario allows me to discuss some life issues, a favorite pastime of mine. Click Read More to see this whole article and photos.

Antique Valentines

      Wikipedia says that Valentine's Day was originally set to honor several possible Christian martyrs that were named Valentine. It is widely assumed that the linkage of St. Valentine's Day to romantic love occurred in the 14th century when Chaucer seemed to refer to it in some of his writing. However the spelling in Chaucer's verse, given its origin in Old English, may not refer to Valentine's Day. Shakespeare in the 16th century definitely refers to St. Valentine's Day as a celebration of romantic love, and refers to someone being a Valentine in Ophelia. It was not until the late 18th century and early 19th century that valentine cards began to be sent as indications of affection. 

Invictus and South Africa today

     I know the movie, Invictus, is now out of most movie theatres, but I still recommend that you somehow get to see it -- look for the DVD or on Netflix, or whatever. It was a great 'feel good' movie.It is the story of Nelson Mendela and the South African rugby team. Mendela decides that that team, even though it had poor skills, even though it was all white except for one man, even so, that team could and should be the anchor to draw the country, both races together. All sorts of small and larger transformations occur in the movie. 

Lake Michigan

Morning from Madame's Boudoir

When I awake, the view out my bedroom window is of a pale anemic morning, like the fragile fainting daughter of the domineering English matron. Porcelain grays, cream and pale blues are the colors. There are no cloud distinctions save two small dark wisps above the horizon, but there is a slight blush on the sky's cheeks just beneath the indistinct globe of the sun. But that sun-- in spite of being weakened by the winter and the clouds before it's face -- has the strength to beat a path on the calm Lake Michigan surface. The horizon is marked by a powder blue line of water. Further south away from the sun's pale influence, the water is deeper blue and the sky blushes more visibly. Winter ghosts of trees stand witness to the subtle shifting light patterns. Suddenly, the visible globe of the sun disappears, its only remnant a long narrowing swath of bright cream light on the water just below the horizon, as though someone out there on the lake needs illumination. Momentarily white flakes begin to drift down from the graying sky and within seconds we are playing out the weather forecast -- lake-effect snow showers. The narrow band of sunlight on the lake narrows further and disappears. The indistinct clouds and blushing skies disappear and now the lake world is one gray color from water to sky. Only the trees maintain their distinct silhouette among the snow flakes, and the ground of the backyard is now trying to achieve that oneness with lake and sky by turning white with snow. All this has happened in exactly 12 minutes. Life on Lake Michigan.

Yes, we live on Lake Michigan and see this play of color and light everyday. What a special opportunity.

This is my first entry into my new blog. First, I think I should explain the title of this blog. I was a primary care physician for 34 years of practice but retired a year ago. But unlike many other physicians, I always had multiple other non-medical interests. A doctor and close friend who shared my office always used to say I was a Renaissance Woman because of all my interests. This is the origin of the abbreviation REN. My real middle name is RAE. I don't know where my mother got that name exactly but I am stuck with it, so why not use it? And finally the RETIRED is obvious.

It should also be noted that I have always been a frustrated writer. I have volumes of scribblings and reflections from times throughout my life. But as a wife, mother, homemaker, fulltime practicing doctor and many more labels, I never had time to do the work of writing--that is edit, polish and turn all those scribblings into something that others could use or enjoy. That last was just too much like work and required too much energy at the end of very busy days to enable me to add the writer label to my list. Now I have some time and want to write some things and polish them on this blog for others to hopefully enjoy.

My view for this blog over time is for it to represent all my many interests through writings and photos. I hope that others will add their comments and add to this knowledge and to my own reflections. I hope these meanderings will reflect a lifestyle of mindfulness and beauty, writings of literary value, and bites of practical knowledge to move us all forward during our sojourn on this earth.

Weighty words and lofty goals, I know, but here we go!