It has taken me 20 minutes to start today's blog....poor Nonny is computer challenged and suffering from a broken AC. Glad to have a fan blowing, but praying that the broken part will be installed today! Praying also that when I want to write again I'm able to remember what brought me to this site!

ADHD as I am, my writings will jump from subject to subject. I'll write what I feel like writing. A conversation with my family is often disconnected. We're all that way; we all can follow each other and get through the day with minimum misunderstanding..... How's that for passing on crazy traits?

I have always been happy for my "Lot in Life", never envied anyone. Growing up I had the "things" I needed, an abundance of good food to eat, decent clothes, 25 cents to go to the Saturday Matinee....It made no difference to me that my friends' parents could give them cashmere sweaters, jalopies to drive, lived in a bigger house and rubbed elbows with the elite.

My dad worked for the government, brought home a reasonable wage and distinguished himself to the point where he received the President's Award for Distinguished Civilian Service, awarded to him by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was a co-inventor of the Proximity Fuse, second only to the Atom Bomb in ending "The War". We'd be rich, had they allowed him to profit from the 11 patents which he held....Since they were developed while working for the government, that was not allowed. Didn't matter to him in the least!

Maybe that's where I got my disdain for the "elites", the people who look down on others less fortunate monetarily. It only happened once or twice in my upbringing, but my dad's accomplishments were always there for me to secretly fall back on.... We knew who we were!

All that came back to me when we moved to Fredericksburg in 1968. I was introduced to a lady who considered herself Fredericksburg's upper class. I understood the concept: There are upper class people here, and they're just like the rest of us, some nice, some kinda "snooty". Well, this lady was nice, and she said to me in a kindly way, "I will introduce you to the best people"........My reply: "Thank you, but I already know them". I wince as I recall my response! What an awful thing to say to someone who was really just being friendly, was, actually paying me a compliment!! I still feel bad about it.

My conservative upbringing was a bonus when I began my married life. Charlie and I started out with "early attic" furnishings, most of which I still have today. My love for antiques started in my childhood and has grown to almost an obsession in my later years! Used furniture did us nicely. We became bargain hunters from the git-go, and I've probably set foot in a new furniture store less than a dozen times in my life!

Our children and grandchildren inherited the "junkin-yardsale-thriftstore-Goodwill genes". To my knowledge, none of them owe their souls to a furniture store! (Makes me very proud!)...and they will have plenty of my "stuff" to fight over after I'm gone... They'd better NOT or I'll haunt them!!

So here I sit in my beautiful home, surrounded by beautiful things I've bought for a pittance or inherited, and I am smugly happy! My dilemma, though, is trying to keep temptation at bay when I spot another bargain.

My walls are adorned with oil paintings...(some from the Goodwill store in Hawaii, costing from 10 to 25 dollars!) I buy them from yard sales, "Junque" stores, very few from galleries. My children have been instructed to list "art collector" in my obituary! I have a few good prints in my collection, but none in the "new" category.

They are all framed, and I have discovered that if I keep picture sizes written down in my address book, there are beautiful frames available in cheapie stores. I just remove the cheapie pictures and frame mine. No one's the wiser!!

My champagne-taste-on-a beer-budget has served me well. My family has inherited the genes, and they are able to choose well with their "cheap genes". That, too, makes me smugly happy!!

My computer has swallowed me up enough for today. Tomorrow I'll do what I do best: Jump to another subject. What will it be? I'll surprise myself...always do!