I’ve come to the conclusion that if my son and husband do not return to Hawaii to work, I’ll need to find a warm tropical island a little closer to the east coast for vacations. I realize that it isn’t just warm weather and the ocean that I love; it’s islands. I love islands.

We’ve all heard wonderful things about the Bahamas and I’ve considered the Florida Keys. I’ve kind of got my mind set on Puerto Rico, though. I’m not sure why that is, I just want to go there.

I know Puerto Rico is self governing and somehow tied to the US. Is it a US territory? Do you need a passport to visit there? Are prices comparable to US prices? Anyone have quick answers?

Our cable company is a small outfit. That’s both good and bad. It’s good in that our prices are reasonable; it’s bad because we have to wait forever to get extra services. Like internet.

With the government dictating that all cable operators must offer HDTV by 2009, my cable company decided it was a good time to also roll out cable internet. I’ve been waiting patiently for it to get to my neighborhood and have called the office at least once a week for the past several months. Did it pay off? Well, I have the distinction of being the very first customer in my neighborhood to be hooked up to cable internet. And yes, I’m loving it.

I’ve also figured out that this is going to save me some money over time. I think I’ll put that savings away until I have enough for a new HDTV. I’d like to get either an LCD or plasma mounted to the long wall in our family room.

Looks like we’re finally catching up to the rest of the world. Sort of.

Speaking of cars and things….

I don’t know how I missed it before, but my car insurance company has a website that lets you pay your premiums online. I did that last month and it was really easy.

I pay most of my bills online. Those that don’t have online options get paid through my banks BillPay program. I don’t think I send checks for anything anymore. And I like that.

The best thing about the online payment options is that I have a triple record - the Thank You For Paying page that I copy and paste into a text file, the email that is always sent after payment is made, and the record at the website where I make the payment.

I’m awful with paper records so I embrace the digital receipts. I just have to remember to back up my hard drive so I don’t lose anything.

Nick has inherited my terrible sinus problems. I feel so bad for him. Like me, his sinuses get so clogged up that he ends up with an earache. Nothing is worse than an earache caused by sinus problems.

I found some homeopathic ear drops at the store for him yesterday. He was so miserable he was willing to try anything. He was shocked that the drops worked. The box said they were gentle enough for a baby but strong enough for an adult. And they were!

Now I’ve used and even formulated “natural” products using dried herbs, essential oils and other ingredients like olive oil. I’ve had a good bit of success with natural acne treatment and I swear by helichrysum essential oil for scarred or aging skin. I guess I just never imagined a homeopathic remedy working for earaches. But it did, and much to our relief.

Is this what it means to be a grandma? Every time I go to the store, even the grocery store, I come home with new toys. Last time it was a 10-pack of play doh. My kids, of course, didn’t hesitate to point out that they were never allowed to play with play doh in the house, only outside on the picnic table.

What is it about grandkids, anyway? Why do I look into Kendyll’s eyes and see so much more there than I ever did with my own kids? Why do I rock her and sing to her and not feel in a hurry for her to doze off? Why am I so satisfied just being with her?

I was playing with Kendyll yesterday and something hit me - when she is my age, I’ll either be dead or 96 years old. I don’t know why I thought that and I can’t explain how that made me feel. I never used to think like that but I do more and more now.

Grandkids do strange things to you. When you’re with them, you’re totally in the moment, enjoying the Now. And yet, they bring you back to your own youth, and remind you how quickly time passes while somehow showing you a glimpse of the future.

There is nothing more perfect than a grandchild.

My mom and I were talking about what kind of child life insurance we should get for Kendyll. We’ve always opted for the two policies for the kids. One is very inexpensive, provides a small amount of coverage and offers the option of converting to an adult policy at very reasonable rates when the kid is 21. The other is a one time payment of $2000 that provides scholarship money for college.

I always get the first policy for my kids and my mom gets the second one. I’m thinking about getting the second one for Kendyll. Anyone know of a better policy for kids?

On the one hand, the computer replacing my fried Windows 98 machine has a faster processor, a bigger hard drive and a newer OS. On the other hand, I’d upgraded the old machine and it did have 1GB RAM while this XP machine has only 512MB. I think that should be enough for what I want to do with it, but I’m still considering a system memory upgrade later this year. Maybe.

Most important, I’m going to be able to move a lot of stuff from my laptop and onto this spare XP machine. That should speed up my laptop. I really didn’t want to add more than the 1GB that it currently has. It’s just that running a local version of WordPress on my laptop (thanks to the excellent instructions at the old Geeks Are Sexy blog) really bogged down my laptop. It’s old and needs replaced but until I can afford that, it’s going to have to do.

So now that WordPress is on this old XP desktop, it’s time to clean up the laptop. Wonder what interesting files I’ll find stashed away on it. I’m such a digital pack rat, you know.

Can you keep a secret? I heard recently that one of the homes near me that had gone through foreclosure help has been sold and the woman who bought it wants to convert it to a small store. That’s wonderful news.

When we moved here there was a small store that had been in operation since before I was born. Another small store opened up a few years after we moved here and the first one went out of business. That second one didn’t last long which means we’ve been without a store around here for over a decade.

Prices at small neighborhood stores are usually higher than general grocery stores but with the price of gas what it is, driving 7 or so miles each way for a gallon of milk is more expensive than paying an extra 30 cents for it a block away.

I noticed the For Sale sign in gone from the house in question but I haven’t seen any remodeling being done. Yet. And I’m keeping my eye out for even a little bit of activity there. Can you tell I’m excited about this?

My son Nick bought a very old car, a 1992 Ford Tempo, that’s in pretty good shape. The lady who was selling it is now in her 80s and no longer drives. The price was a no-brainer. $200. How can you turn down something like that? Besides, we know the lady so it isn’t like a stranger selling it.

Anyway, the expensive part of this deal is the insurance. We checked some online sites and thought we found a great price until we realized the price was for California auto insurance. Uh, we’re in West Virginia.

We did finally find a decent price. Nick thinks he can make the insurance payments easily enough and may sell his motorcycle so he won’t have to worry about that insurance. Oh, yeah - did you know that a motorcycle policy is separate from a car policy? You can’t put them both on the same policy, although you can link the two to get a discount.

I learned something new this week.

About this health thing. I’m looking at various diet pills and I’m doing some research. The over the counter stuff is very different from the stuff I remember from a few decades ago.

Most of these diet supplements are packed with a number of herbals as well as trace minerals and vitamins. I’m not sure if they’re completely safe but it seems they’re much safer than the ones we bought back in the 70s and 80s. I’m just not ready to jump into any of them yet.