Another year with many non essential things.

 I was born 55 years ago when there was no health insurance (that I know about). My parents paid for my hospital bill and my mothers week long stay out of their pocket (at least that's what it looked like on the hospital bill).
I have watched cartoons on a black and white tv, and had to ask why my mom was crying when the nice man in the car was shot. We had to get up to change the channel, and had thirteen stations to choose from.
I learned how to read with Dick and Jane and Dr. Seuss, played hide and seek until after dark, and played Robin Hood and war in the canyons and bushes. I was born in an era that was much more secure and yet more frightening in a global sense.
I read books and watched shows about space travel, fantastic inventions, and now am living in the future where we have wrist communicators, telephones in our pockets that can tell you where you are and what the weather is like in China while talking to someone in Canada.
I am now a cancer survivor and a proud parent who still worries about her three adult children and wish I could do more for them. I have been homeless three times, on the edge of poverty, raising three children as a single mom and though I have to have two jobs to make ends meet, I am lucky to have two jobs that I love.
Why answer a question about 'would you do it all again'? The past is what makes you and sometimes it leaves scars, sometimes it gives you something to carry forward in your life and make you stronger.
I don't want to live forever, but I do want to live another ten years cancer free, and want to see my grandkids graduate from high school. I want to be here for my kids and still be an influence on the casual people that I meet every day at work.
Oh, and I eventually want to go to Ireland and Hawaii.

That was my facebook post on my birthday, with a little editing because someone commented that there was medical insurance back then. But I was a baby.. I didn't know.
The day before my birthday some low life or pair of people decided to liberate the bike I got and take it for their own or to sell. It was locked up downstairs, cable and combination locked to the front gate in the breezeway. Doing research that bike is worth around $600, not going to replace it any time soon. No, it wasn't registered, I was going to do it that night when I got home from work. Didn't call the cops because there isn't any information to give them other than the model and color.
Thus ending my grand plans for getting exercise and losing some weight that way. I was making posts on facebook calling it 'Patty's Big Biking Adventures'. 
I can only plead to the great karmic wheel in the sky to bite them in the butts, likely it is a group of bike thieves that either turn it around and sell it or break it down for parts.

Anyway....
For my paid birthday day off I went to the zoo with my friend Kathleen, enjoyed seeing the animals and the wonderful plants. Bought a new visor to replace the one I lost last year, a new safari tapestry shoulder purse thingie, one of those small things I can take with me when I go to Disneyland or small day trips that I don't need my larger lunch/knitting bag.

I am still debating whether I want to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. Haven't decided what sort of story, it's a toss up between a Star Wars story or a continuation of my other two fantasy books. Need to make that decision soon, as November is looming on the calendar horizon.
(NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, go check it out if you haven't heard of it.)

The weather is starting to cool down in the evenings/mornings. Much like our 'June Gloom' weather, overcast marine layer clouds in the morning, low 60's burns off by the afternoon and goes up about ten degrees to be a nice day. At least that's what it looks like it's done the last few days, this morning not so sure. It did rain on my birthday, luckily I was inside working at the fabric store and could watch it pour in spurts outside.
I am attempting to grow my hair out, not quite shoulder length at this point, but it's past the annoying in between stage of getting in my eyes constantly. I can pull it into a small ponytail and use combs to keep the stragglers out of my face. I figure I'll let it grow through the winter then cut it again next summer. 
Okay alarm just went off for getting out of bed and ready for work.
 Sigh, another day.

"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology." - Carl Sagan