This photo of sand and surf and a pier is from Huntington Beach, California.

Thank you Jo From This Side of the Pond for Wednesday Hodgepodge.

1. July 5th is National Hawaii Day…have you ever been to Hawaii?

Yes, once in 1997.

Any desire to visit or make a return trip?

Not particularly.

Pineapple, mango, or guava…what’s your pleasure? 

Pineapple but not on a pizza. 🙂

2. Last time you were ‘thrown in at the deep end’? Explain. 

I’ll leave out some information to spare the mostly innocent but ‘the deep end’ was showing up at an event that no one was really in charge of and having to jump in and make it run smoother than it was going to.

3. Sun, sea, sand, salt…your favorite when it comes to summer? 

I like the sea in the summer because it is usually cooler at the seashore than inland.

4. Bury your head in the sand, the sands of time, draw a line in the sand, pound sand, shifting sands…pick one and tell us how the phrase currently relates to your life in some way.

I’ll go with the sands of time as in ‘the steady unstoppable passage of time’. It currently relates to my life as I turned 70 this year. How did that happen? As the saying goes I am not a Spring chicken but that is quite okay as I’ve lived and learned a lot with a lot more to learn!

5. On a scale of 1-10 (1 = make your own rules and 10=like a warden), how strict were your parents? If you’re a parent where on the scale do you land? 

Our Pop worked long hours but he had his priorities and that was making sure we were all at church on time a few days a week. My mother tried to be a warden but mostly fell in at about a 5. I was the baby of the family for 7 years before my younger 4 siblings arrived and I wore my parents down and got to do things my older siblings didn’t do. We didn’t really have chores and we never had an allowance.

Dear and I fall in closer to the warden side than the “free range kids” side.  Maybe at a 7, it’s hard to put a number on it. We had rules, specific bedtimes and other expectations but we didn’t lock them in their rooms. They had the freedom to break the rules when we weren’t watching.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

At my follow-up appointment yesterday my eye tests confirmed I have 20/20 vision in my right eye after my cataract surgery. Looking forward to my left eye cataract surgery July 16th.