Lue's birthday

After Lue's family left on Sunday, she came to our house for dinner. Then afterwards, Sharon's family and Randy came for cake and ice cream.




There were lots of celebrations for her 80th birthday: cards, flowers, and on her birthdate- Monday - she went for lunch with a friend. While she was gone, Paul and Sharon went to her house, blew up 80 hydrogen balloon and tied them to her back deck before she got home. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that, but it looked great!

Today began as a beautiful Fall day. Lots of leaves coming down. Now it's just dark and gloomy. Summer's gone.




It seems early for the leaves to fall, but Paul said all the leaves were gone last year when we left for Florida. It's not even October 1st. We left last year around the end of October.

We're flying down this year around the same time, with Gracie, of course. This will be a unique experience for her, and for us. Benedryl seems to be the "drug of choice." by owners of small pets. I have to make an appointment with her Vet before that, to get her flying papers and we'll check with him.

So - what's happenin' in your neck o' the woods?

Unbelievable timing

Lue: poor lady - had such troubles with the floods around Labor Day Weekend. She really needed help. And naturally so. Well - it seems luck continued NOT being with her, or it WAS, depending on how you look at the following.

Lue called us Thursday night around 9:30 in the evening. Paul answered it. I could tell from his face that it was bad.

It seems a drunk driver drove his car directly into her front porch and almost into her living room. She had been in the back of the house in the kitchen at the time. The drunk driver fled the scene, along with his drunk girlfriend. They were found and arrested later.

Lue was really really upset. Who wouldn't be? Paul drove up to her house to help her in any way he could. He had his camera to help her take pictures for insurance. (He took the pictures below.) I would have gone, but we had the kids staying here and we didn't want to leave them alone.






About forty-five minutes later, Paul came back home and he told me what happened. The police, state troopers, fire fighters, and neighbors were there. It was the usual crime scene: police-car lights and others were flashing, fire engines running, the area was roped off with tape, lots of spectators. He had to park way up the street.

Now here's the happy ending. . . .if there could be one. And there was.

Remember, it was Lue's 80th birthday on Monday.

Her three kids, living in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Tennessee, decided to surprise her and come for the weekend Thursday night to celebrate her birthday. . . . Arriving together, just after this happened, and seeing all the emergency personnel must have been extremely scary. What a sight! There must have been a couple of harrowing moments until the emergency personnel assured them she was okay.

But - How wonderful for Lue to have her family nearby to comfort her, and I'm sure the kids felt the same way. They spent the weekend doing some more picking up from the flood, and Thursday evening's event, and after I picked up Ida at school on Friday, we drove past, and there was a big blue tarp up there to keep the weather out.

Well, things seem to happen in threes, and her kids joked there was the flood - one, and the accident - two, that did she think the satellite orbiting the earth and pieces falling who-knows-where, would land . . . .

So - how're things goin' in your neck o' the woods?

Expiration Date

I usually write in the mornings but have some time to write this late afternoon.

Last week was truly busy taking care of Sharon's kids while Sharon and Dave were at the conference in Orlando. Everything worked out very well. Sharon's detailed lists were a great help.

We split up the responsibilities: Paul was to take the boys up to Route 13 to be picked up each morning and picked the boys up at Notre Dame after football practice every night. I took Ida to her class in Odessa. After picking Ida up from school each afternoon, she and I went to the house so she could do her chores: making sure the cats and chickens had fresh food and water, taking care of kitty litter, getting the mail.

When I wrote last Tuesday morning, I wrote that we would be there that afternoon.

As we drove up, Ida said - "oh, my. One of the chickens is lying down and the others are pecking at it. It's old and dying and we have to shoot it." As a born and bred Long Islander, the only thing I do to animals is pet them, feed them, and take them for walks to poop. Shooting them is not in my ability range.

So - we called the expert-on-everything: Paul.

He suggested separating the chicken from the others so they couldn't peck it. Great idea. I would have thought of that, but he said it first.

Ida covered the chicken with an old tee shirt of Charles', picked it up, and put it in the back room of the chicken shed (with a little water. . . .my suggestion. I also had her wash her hands extra good.)

Later that afternoon, Sharon called to talk to Ida. We talked about the chicken and discussed several options.

Paul, I and Ida were going to Ida's Open House at her school that night, so we'd stop by and he'd "see what needed to be done."

Meanwhile, Charles and Lee needed some things at their house and decided to do their homework there, while we went to see Ida's third grade classroom. So we dropped them off there, and we went on. Dave called the boys on his cell phone, and told Charles what to do. So -Charles waited for Grandpa, he got the gun, and with Grandpa looking on, disposed of the almost expired chicken. And that was that.

BTW: Happy 80th Birthday today to Lue, and Happy First Birthday to my little granddaughter, Yvonne. Or Evie, as she is known on this blog. Last year at this time, we were here celebrating Lue's 79th when Nancy called from the hospital, announcing the birth of my granddaughter.

So - what's happenin' in your neck o' the woods?

Tuesday morning.

We've got a busy week ahead of us.

As I mentioned in my most recent post - we're taking care of Ida, Charles and Lee for the week while their folks are at a conference at Orlando. Sharon gave us a very detailed list of their schedules for the week. Luckily, Lee and Charlie are on the same football team (as also noted in last time's post.) so they can get picked up at the same time each day from practice. Late, but at the same time.
That's Paul's job. My job is getting Ida to school on time. (She goes to a different school from the boys.) In the afternoon, I'll pick her up and see that we stop at their house so she gets her chores done: to feed the cats and the chickens.

So - the boys had to be up at 6 AM, and Ida at 6:30. Before we went to bed last night, Paul set the alarm for us for 5:30. But he forgot to put it on and it didn't go off. Luckily, we woke up at 6:15. Jumped out of bed. The boys were up and dressed already. Paul started breakfast - toaster waffles and pre-cooked sausages. I took over as he took Gracie out. Thank goodness the boys are at an age to take responsibility. At home they need a little nudge, Sharon said. But being in a different place, under different circumstances, helped. This morning, Charles even toasted an english muffin for himself before we got out to the kitchen.

Ida got up on time. I even braided her hair - but not as well as her mother does, and so a front section fell over her face. She was very polite about the whole thing, but I could see she wasn't happy. We didn't have any bobby pins, so she said, could we stop home and get some? By now, the boys and Paul had left to meet their ride to their school. Right on time. And believe it or not, we girls were right on schedule too. So on the way to her school, we stopped at the house, which is two minutes from her school. She ran upstairs, got some bobby pins and we got to school with two minutes to spare.

Now we have five bobby pins for tomorrow. Pretty nifty.

We both took a nap in our chairs.

Boom - a cold spell

Boom - summer is gone. We had our winter coats on Friday night, and could see our breath. I know they're sweltering still in Florida, and we should be glad we're here, but it's cold up here! Three days ago, it was nice. It'll warm up again because it's too early to be permanent, but it won't be warm long enough or soon enough for me.

All I ever do is keep starting my posts with the statement or a facsimile of - where has the time gone. It sounds like a broken record. . . .

For those of you who remember phonograph records. . . . Remember the really really old ones that were so delicate you had to handle them by the edges in fear that a scratch would appear and ruin it? And Perry Como would go "on and on and on and on" saying the same thing over and over again, and you'd have to pitch the record into the wastebasket because it was un-fixable. Yeah. I know. My, oh my. That was a long time ago.

Some people have written to me about my posts- Good - the more the merrier!

Unfortunately, they're all in e-mails, and not in the comment section of my blog (which I'd like) to share. So - I need to remember what's what and respond to those who give permission, rather than just click on the comment section. So. . . . If people read this as a post, it would be nice.

A note: Please don't misunderstand me - I appreciate any comments. . . . how ever they come.

Daughter Nancy corrected me: Vincent's school is NOT within walking distance. And it is a Magnet School - not a Charter School.

Cousin Carol, speaking of our early morning church service experience: had a similar incident with a lady in her church. . . . when this lady keeled over too. But it was a heat problem.

Here's an update on that: Zelda does not have diabetes, but she has a heart problem and is now wearing a heart monitor. Plus Paul said the nurse doing artificial respiration. As far as I know - Zelda's doing okay now.

If Paul and I just sit back, we can expect activities to settle in around us:

Mid-week, we got a call from son Jeff who lives up near Rochester. Jeff was going to crew for a friend who's racing up at Watkins Glen International Raceway this weekend. Since we live in close proximity to WGI, could Dorothy and he stay here overnight two nights? Friday and Saturday nights? Of course.

Friday night, Grandsons, Lee, 11th grade and Charlie, 9th were playing football for Notre Dame H.S. at Odessa-Montour H.S. Both boys used to go to O.M., and know many kids. Plus their cousin is a star player on O.M..so it was an exciting game for them. They had both sets of grandparents, plus parents and sister: Sharon, Dave and Ida, and I'm sure many relatives from the Odessa side in the stands.

So - late Friday afternoon, Paul called Jeff on his cell phone, and they met us there at the game. Lee is quite a football player - he scored 2 touchdowns and had a two point conversion. Wow. We all were very proud of him. His cousin from O.M. did well too, with a lot of high yardage. But N.D. won by quite a few points. Charlie played also. He's a freshman so we were glad he had a chance to play. They played mostly upper-classmen.(They didn't have enough JV players for a team, so they combined both teams into the varsity.)

Paul wasn't feeling up to par Saturday, so he took it easy. He spent the day on his recliner watching football games. When Paul takes it easy, you know he isn't feeling well. Today, Sunday, he seems a lot better.

We went shopping at Sam's Club this morning. Sharon and Dave are going to Orlando for a conference Monday through Friday. So we're gonna take care of Ida, Charles and Lee here at our house. I've heard through the grapevine that teenage boys eat a lot. In fact, Sharon said her boys eat A LOT. Emphasing A LOT. We don't mind getting A LOT of food, but I just hope we got enough. We got the gigantic, super-size, largest ever of whatever we could. (TGF Sam's Club sizes.) Oh, well. We can always go again.

An aside: we're not used to having those snacky type stuff around, so they'd better eat them all up, or take them with them at the end of the week.

So - now we're having a beautiful Sunday afternoon. It's gorgeous out. Paul is out mowing the lawn.

How're things goin in your neck o' the woods?

Sunday, September 11, 2011

We haven't been to church in several week, but last weekend was the tenth anniversary of September 11th, so we thought we should go.

BUT - we had a scheduling problem: our Corning grandson was in a baseball league that plays only on Sundays - 9:30 or 11:30 and we wanted to see him play. We'd had commitments every single Sunday for eons. It was time to see him play! Church service was at 10:30. This Sunday's game was at 11:30. So - a solution: - we'd go to the early 8 AM service at church, be finished in time to go out for breakfast, go home, let the dog out, change our clothes, and travel to Corning in time to see him play at 11:30.

All in all - we congratulated ourselves on a good job of scheduling! And arranging everything to fit in.

So -we set our alarm for 6AM. Which is later than I used to get up while teaching.

(Good heavens - it was still dark out!) but it gave us plenty of time, and so, off we went. The Early Worship Service was held in the Sanctuary. Same service as the later one, but the choir doesn't sing. There are much less people than the later service, so the congregation all sit on the left hand side - down in a direct line from the pulpit. There are two sides: with a large middle aisle separating the two, and two small aisles on either side. Our regular seats - about halfway up on the center aisle, left - were even available. Great! So that was good.

The sanctuary was nicely filled (taking into consideration it was only one side.) This was the first Sunday, after summer scheduling, for the regular worship service. In July and August there's only one service - 9:30. Now there's two: eight AM and ten-thirty.

So . . . . Sunday morning. 8 AM: Two rows in front of us,two older women (probably in their 80's, much older than us almost old folk) sat together. A third one came up, they moved over to made room for her, and she sat down. I overheard her saying how glad she was to have the regular church time back and that she'd missed seeing them, her friends. I thought - how nice.

The service was well planned around September eleventh: During the early announcements before the service began, we all applauded as Pastor Rhonda had all the First Responders stand up to be recognized. We noticed that there was a nurse sitting next to Paul and there were two physicians nearby. During the service, we had a green September 11th sheet insert . . . very nicely done. You could tell a lot of thought went into planning the service.

The green sheet took about a 10 minute in the middle of the service. Rhonda's sermon was next. Rhonda's been here two years and she's done a lot for the church. And she's very well-liked . . . But - to put it bluntly - her sermons put you to sleep. I think we all know ministers like that. (She is well-liked, but needs work on sermons.) Her sermon was short, Good ! - but even so, I could see Paul's eyes were closed. A little nudge. He was alerted.

We all stood for the next hymn.

The organist started the introduction.

In front of us, the three ladies began to get up. No ~ I mean the two outer ladies of the three got up, the one in the middle didn't and started to fall slowly over to the right on the pew pad. For a second, I thought she was sleeping, remember - the sermon had just ended, but quickly realized something was drastically wrong. As we began singing, her friends called out for help. We quickly moved out of the way to let the nurse out and she and one of the physicians, was there in a flash. Someone gave a jacket to put either over the lady, or under her head, 911 was called.

Throughout all this Paul and I were very close to everything. As far as I was concerned, we were close witnesses to someone's Passing On. The organist continued playing, I'm sure - doing Rhonda's bidding. As verse one finished, Rhonda came over to assess the situation and was able to tell everyone that the lady was now awake and able to communicate. Rhonda continued the service, which was 80% done. Not much time went by before four 911 people and equipment came in the middle aisle, to where the lady was lying two rows in front of us.

My thoughts are Rhonda did a great job. She remained calm. She reassured us all. She continued on with the service, possibly to not embarress Zelda, to calm us, and included her into prayers. She had us file out to the side so as not to bother the men working on her. By this time Zelda was very awake. We found out later that she was diabetic. That could have had a great deal to do with the situation. Probably did.

So how're things in your neck o' the woods? Here. . . .it's fine, thank you.

The Full Week

I don't know about you, but my weeks are so full - it seems like two weekends ago it was Labor Day - not one.

Poor Lue had flooding at her house due to Tropical Storm Lee. Thursday, she sent us a message on our answering machine, which we didn't get til late morning, that she had several inches of water/mud in her cellar and garage and wouldn't be going out to lunch with us, Ruth and her sister, Sharon. So - we dropped by her house to see if there was anything we could do to help her. But, earlier, her old boss, Jamie, and others had been there to help her out. She ended up with lots of wet boxes that were full of seasonal Fall items, clothing, drapes, rugs, other things. She was on her third batch of laundry. Paul is there now to help her with some electrical problem. Lue is amazing how she's able to cope with so many things so well. It doesn't seem possible that she'll be celebrating her 80th birthday. FYI - She and Evie have the same birthday! Only she was born 79 years before her.

Our weekend was full.

My good friend, Carol O. from Bath, came for a visit overnight Friday. We see her infrequently here in NYS. But keep in touch via e-mail. It's mostly when I go to Bath for some reason or other do we get together. But in Venice - it's a different story. She rents a condo nearby in our development. (We go to Curves together down in Fla.)

Friday afternoon we went to my Curves here. On our way home from Curves in Elmira Heights, we drove past Saint Mary Our Mother Church and School, and we saw a field "planted" with all these many many big eight-ten foot flags .

We stopped and talked to some people who looked like they were in charge. They said it was called "The Healing Field" for the tenth anniversary of September 11th. People could buy a flag in memory of someone. They said there were about 2,000 flags. They even had a chart that could tell you where your flag or a certain flag was located. There were several speeches and events planned for the weekend, so they had chairs set up near the school for speeches and such. We saw several local radio and tv station vans there.

That evening, the three of us went out for a fishfry at the Mechanics Club.
So - after dinner, we had Paul drive back to the church, so he could see all the flags, and I could get some pictures. (Naturally, I didn't have my camera with me the first time around.) Speeches were going on, so we went to the other side of all the flags so we wouldn't disturb the speeches. Carol and Paul stayed in the car while I got out and took pictures.




As I was taking pictures, two little girls with red, white and blue 9/11 ribbons pinned on their chests came running up - asking if I was looking for a particular flag? They were very proud. They went to that school and this was their way of helping out, by helping people find "their flag." But No, I was just taking pictures. Would they mind if I took theirs? Afterwards I hesitated about the idea of putting it on my blog because I didn't have their parents permission. But I didn't get their names, so I don't have any idea who they were which probably means that no one else will who reads this blog will either.

Saturday the three of us, plus Gracie, had lunch outside at Panera Bread. It was a beautiful sunny day. As Carol says - Gracie is a "chick magnet": The Bucknell girls' soccer team were going to Cornell and happened to eat outside with us. So you can imagine what happened. Then Paul took Gracie, and went to do his shopping at Lowes', and we went to the mall to do ours. From there, Carol went home.



We had expected Ida to also stay the night, because the rest of the family were going to a football game and the weather wasn't expected to be ideal. (Ida is susceptible to pneumonia.) but Sharon phoned to say - "She got a better offer. . . at a friend's house." I'm sure she did. LOL Good for her.


So - what's happenin' in your neck o' the woods?

A Special First Day

What a day. Here we are, the day after Labor Day, which was all rainy, all day. Not very nice weather to end the summer. We didn't have any bar-b-que, so we stayed inside and did inside things.

Actually that's not quite correct. Paul put in a new front screen door. We have a porch along our front, so the rain didn't affect his work at all. But - let me backtrack a bit: For a while now, we've been thinking that when the house is "closed up" such as when we don't need a/c, but don't need heat, it gets really stuffy, and if we could open windows and the front door to let some fresh air in, without bugs, it would help. Saturday, we went shopping for a screen door.

Our first stop was Lowe's. They displayed a new kind of retractable screen which doesn't take up much space, and looked like it would be perfect for us. It had to be special ordered. We decided to check at Home Depot because Paul had a gift certificate there. We found just the right kind, and what we wanted, in stock and less expensive. The screens retract. Some go into a side area or some into a top section, but goes across or down when needed. Neat. We bought a side-retractable one. It's almost invisible when opened, so we have to be careful not to walk into it. It's practically unnoticeable when retracted too. Paul said the directions were horrible. Why is that so often the case with projects that need to be put together? Luckily, Paul is so handy. It took longer than he expected, but he naturally did a beautiful job, and he is so calm and patient.

Today is a special first day of school. The first time in all of my retirement "first days" that my schools' retired teachers don't have a luncheon. Our usual planner couldn't be here. . . and the gal put in charge . . . to put it bluntly - forgot. You can imagine how embarressed she was when she got phone calls - yes, I called also - wanting to know what was going on. So we have a scheduled first-day-of-school-luncheon-for-retired-teachers planned for the 19th. So life goes on. Eight years and still celebrating!

But - today is also a special day for my dear little grandson. Vincent starts kindergarten. Wow. It will be only a half day today, and Nancy and Dan are required to go to meetings while he's in class. Then starting tomorrow, he'll be going full days. The new school he'll go to which is a charter school, is within walking distance from their condo. How great is that?

In 1962 I "started" Kindergarten also - and taught for 7 years til my son Jil was born. So, this is an important day for Vincent, and I can relate to Vincent, Nancy and Dan. So well. Not only my own children's first days, but my own teaching. Some of my happiest teachings were then with my co-teacher next door, Dot. We had more fun together - joining forces for so many things. I think everyone can relate to this day - the first day of kindergarten is so special. Life goes on. BTW - I had 36 children in the morning, and 36 children in the afternoon. Two sessions. My very first teaching day was memorable: it rained and they all had yellow raincoats, many without names on them. Plus rain boots.

My little guy started kindergarten. God bless him and all the other little ones. May it be a joyous time for them all. Happy First Day, Vincent!

September's happenin'

Friday is happening, even though I don't know where this week went. And it doesn't seem right that it's September.

Yesterday morning, Ida came for a visit. Sharon had a chance to go to the State Fair with some friends. Dave, Lee and Charlie were busy til late morning: Dave had a meeting, and Lee and Charlie had football practice. Notre Dame didn't have enough boys sign up for the JV squad, so they added them to the varsity. So, Lee, a junior this year (where has the time gone?) and Charlie - a freshman (ditto - where did the time go?) are on the same team.

I turned to the September page on my papillon calendar that Brenda got us for Christmas. It's right here in the computer room. It's a picture of a mid-grown papillon that reminds me of Gracie about a year ago. No long hair, tail has begun to grow hair, out in a grassy area looking cute.

Gracie's still cute. We had cocktails on the deck last night and she wandered off on one of the paths into the woods. We could see her, going back and forth, sniffing the ground, going off as usual. But - All we have to do is say - "Gracie, where are you?" And she comes running. Takes her no longer than 10 seconds to travel from where she is, to scrambling up the deck and standing in front of us. . . wondering what we want.

Paul returned some Brookstone catalog items I got him for Fathers' Day,and got a gift certificate in return. He'd been perusing the catalog and found something he wanted.

He ordered an instant slide and negative scanner. He says . . .One of the pluses - It doesn't need a computer. It came yesterday, and it's a success! He was able to get some old slides and put them on our digital picture frame in the living room.

An aside: A couple of Christmases ago, I was standing in line at Macy's and a similar item caught my eye - so I made a spur of the moment purchase for him. Unfortunately, that one was a dud. He liked the idea, but it didn't work right even from the beginning. Now . . .if anyone knows Paul well, you know he doesn't give up easily when something doesn't work right. He stays with it until it does, so I know it must have driven him crazy to finally decide it wasn't worth fiddling with.

My lesson: I guess you get what you pay for. That one wasn't worth much. The new one is much better.

We had lunch with Lue, her sister Sharon and Ruth yesterday at the Harvest Cafe.

Lue was visiting her daughter Gail's family on Cape Cod when Hurricane Irene arrived. They were without power and it sounded quite scary. Even though the house is quite new (6 years old), it was blowing so hard that the large picture windows were bending in and out. They didn't break - thank goodness, but everyone was told to stay away from them. Just in case. Gail and Arthur's house is on high land. Thank goodness. It's not far from the ocean but they can't see it. Lue said some people went down, at low tide, to get a look. The waves were quite violent and it was difficult to stand in the wind.

Lue came home on Tuesday, and had to take several detours (three) - due to flooding, washouts. I didn't ask her if it took more time than the usual. Probably.

So - that's all the time and news from this end of the woods. What's happenin' in your neck o' the woods?