When my grandchildren were little, I had a basket of outdoor toys in the garage in case they came to visit. I had some balls, Frisbees, chalk, and a pin wheel. When I was little I always liked pin wheels. Games and athletics were not my thing.

Two or three years ago when I reorganized the garage, I got rid of the toys but not the pin wheel. First of all, it was my favorite green color. So I stuck it in the ground of a flower bed that wasn’t doing much. As it turned out, I see this bed and the pin wheel from my kitchen window. It became a sort of weather vane on how windy it was on ground level.

By early this year, the sun and wind had become too much for the little pin wheel and it fell apart. I expected to get another one when the spring toys arrived at the dollar store. No pinwheels this year. Not to be found at my drug stores, the grocery stores, or Walmart.

Finally, after Memorial Day, I found a red, white, and blue one at Michaels. It felt too stiff to me, but

I brought one home anyway. I promptly stuck it in the ground where my lovely green pin wheel had been and . . . it sat there and didn’t move. Even on a day when branches were flying off my big tree it didn’t turn.

When Robert returned from Florida at the end of June, he needed a marker at the end of his new parking pad, so, I mounted the stiff pin wheel on a pole, where once in awhile it will turn for a minute.

Last week, I finally found one at a grocery store that had about six light-weight pinwheels on a mark-down table. I brought one home. It has all the colors: red, orange, lime, blue, and purple, spinning like crazy in the spot where I can watch it from the kitchen window. As my husband used to say, “It doesn’t take much to amuse her.”

The other simple pleasure from my childhood that is still a passion is beach combing. You can read about the shell collecting trips I’ve been on in my Memoir, “Looking for Connection” available as an eBook on Amazon.

This week I’m packing up to attend the Conchologists of America’s annual convention in San Diego all next week. I will hear about other people’s collecting adventures, bid for some shells in silent auctions, and enjoy sea breezes.