Here it is - two days before Christmas and I find it hard to comprehend how quickly we're tumbling towards the Big Day and the New Year.
BUT - Every night I write in my journal. As most of you know, I've been doing it for 30 odd years, plus more if you want to include my childhood. It's easy to realize how close we are to the end of the year by the limited number of pages I have left in it, and as they become less and less, it surely reminds me that the year is ending.
At that point, I usually turn to the end of my journal to read and ponder the section that is of other writings I have found to be inspirational during the year. Yes. I collect writings. As most of you know, I am an avid reader. And as I read I sometimes will come across some statement that I think is "cool." or hits my fancy. I want to remember it. Perhaps it has to do with my life at the present time, Perhaps it is just something that I think I will enjoy reading about later on. Either way, I write them down. I try to put the author's name, or some other way to give credit due to whomever the author is. But sometimes I forget. Oh, well. Good intentions.
When you get to be my age, Christmas is not about material things, such as Santa Claus and presents, as much as it is about the story of the Christ Child, family and friends, and I have my wonderful husband and family to help me celebrate the Christmas season. So - This year I have decided to share my quotes with you, as a gift for Christmas. Perhaps one or two will "ring a Christmas bell" for you.
Merry Christmas to you all.
Dec. 26, 2013 (I had just gotten my new diary and decided this would be a good entry for 2014)
Do not fault the lazy man
Who chooses to rise late.
He may achieve his destiny
By sleeping thru his fate.
****
It's good to have a dream,
And I also think it's true
That if you believe in your dream
Then your dream will believe in you
A.B. Curtis
The Little Chapel that Stood
Don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged the way you expect.
****
No mother is ever, completely, a child's idea of what a mother should be, and I suppose it works the other way around as well. But despite everything we didn't do badly by one another, we did as well as most.
I wish she were here, so I could tell her I finally know this.
The Handmaid's Tale
****
Life is not the way it's supposed to be - it's the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.
****
A boy does not need a father, unless he is a good father, and a good father is indispensable.
The Stand - Mar 29, 2014
****
I have learned that People
will forget what you said,
People will forget what you did, but
People will never forget how you made them feel.
Listen to yourself and in that quietude
you might hear the voice of God.
Maya Anjelou
****
I am no longer the daughter my parents knew. They will never know me as I am now.
Divergent
****
Life damages us, everyone. We can't escape that damage. But now, I am also learning this. We can be mended. We mend each other.
Allegiant
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Saturday, December 20, 2014
No coats, No hats, No boots
Time is a-flying around here. I finally have some time to write.
Being in Florida and warm weather is not conducive to the Christmases we've had in the past. I must confess that I like it this way.
It certainly is fun not to worry about slipping on ice. Paul says he remembers how quickly he fell on our icy driveway upstate NY going to pick up the newspaper in the early morning. One second up, the next down. No thank you. We don't need that. It is such a pleasure to go out without coat, hat, boots. And still have all the merriment found at the Holiday Season. And to have Paul go out and put up the lights and not have it a chore.
Our Circle is just beautiful.
Our next door neighbor, Bob, and his brother-in-law, Phil who also lives in our Circle with his wife Kathy, and Paul have done such a marvelous job of lighting display - draping trees, shrubbery - using nets, strings of lights. Bob decorated before Thanksgiving, leaving them off, until the time was right.. His purpose in doing it so early? - do it while it isn't hot! Remember? It was cool at Thanksgiving. LOL.
Inside: We got a garland from Lowe's with LED lights that blink white, blink colored, or stay whatever you want. Things have certainly changed since we last bought lights! We have that in our lanai, draped across the long wall that separates the lanai from the kitchen.
We have a little decorated Christmas tree on our piano, I have a little crèche on the piano that my friend Ruth got for me several years ago. I should change that because when I open up the piano to use it, it obscures the crèche. The artificial Fica tree has lights in it and is also decorated.
We've had a couple of holiday parties here at the house. The first one was for the neighbors. Only a few people could come, but we had fun! Lots of cheer, food and merriment. We sat at the island and chatted.
My brother Bob will be happy to know that we used and are using his Christmas gift to us: a blue tooth speaker! I don't know how we managed before to enjoy all the Christmas music of Pandora. It has been wonderful. As I said, we continue to enjoy it. Maybe we'll bring it with us to Gainesville when we go for Christmas.
Our second party was a spur of the moment one - and was during the week - we're all retired - so it doesn't matter! This was my carol-sing. I wasn't sure I wanted to do it, but, several people asked if I was doing it. I must say - it was enjoyable. These are the popular modern Christmas songs. (White Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock) I must say - I have almost perfected this. I have the music, I have made up song sheets. And I found some gluten free chocolate chip cookie dough to make cookies. (That was good or bad actually.) Oh, but it tasted so good.
What I need is a copy of piano music carols with whom people can sing along too. (It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Silent Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem - you know the kind.) Lots more people came for this event than the neighbors, since I opened it up. Even people from last year that couldn't make it, came. Very pleased to be invited again. Everyone brought an hors-doerve. And we used those for our "supper". Everyone came at 5:30. We drank, ate, and then sang. Enjoyable. Then almost all walked home. No coats, no hats, no boots.
I'm disappointed:
in the music at our Presbyterian church because the wonderful choir director of several years left (I don't know why, but it sure points out the great importance of music in a church)and they have a new young man in charge who didn't have time (I'm thinking/hoping) to do any of the extra Christmas music we usually have. The choir has dwindled. But perhaps that's because they haven't arrived yet. I think that has made us go elsewhere to hear the sounds of the season.
Last Sunday evening, Alice's church choir and music department put on a Cantata. A group of us from Circlewoods went. It was perfectly lovely. They had a small orchestra playing carols in the vestibule before the service began. The children's choirs sang, the 50+ member choir did a marvelous job. (I counted them.) Alice said it was so nice to look out and see us.
Tomorrow afternoon we're going to a barbershop concert with Alice and Carol at Carol's church. Alice and Carol are coming back here for some crockpot pot roast.
Oh NOW more such great happy thoughts:
I have to get used to the pleasant idea of thinking of Nancy, Dan, Vincent, Evie and Walter being in Cancun, Mexico for Christmas. Dan's parents are celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary and invited all their three children, spouses and significant others. How exciting. They won't need hats, coats, and boots! Yeah! They left yesterday so everyone is enjoying themselves in the warm sun! As I write.
They requested sending all their gifts to their Chicago address and a neighbor is picking them up and putting them in a safe place away from the open vestibule. They get home the day after Christmas. (night, actually) The nice thing is they have almost a week of vacation time left before they have to start back to work/school.
Thank you Sharon for sending the patio cushions that I erroneously sent upstate NY - (One step amazon prime shipping doesn't work if your address is NYS and you're in Fla.). They look beautiful on our outdoor patio set. You are wonderful and I thank you so much for being there for me. I am sometimes not very swift. My mind escapes me.
We're excited to be going to Gainesville for Christmas. Gracie has a special Christmas collar that she's worn for our parties. She doesn't care for it much, but she hasn't put up a great fuss. Brenda, Eric and Emma will be flying in from California. It'll be so nice. A little vacation for us and such a treat to see everyone.
Santa brought Paul a new bike. He got it early, a week or so ago. He's out riding it right now. Santa was smart to get that for him. Plus some power tools have been put to good use already. He's been having a wonderful time. Not Santa. Paul.
Being in Florida and warm weather is not conducive to the Christmases we've had in the past. I must confess that I like it this way.
It certainly is fun not to worry about slipping on ice. Paul says he remembers how quickly he fell on our icy driveway upstate NY going to pick up the newspaper in the early morning. One second up, the next down. No thank you. We don't need that. It is such a pleasure to go out without coat, hat, boots. And still have all the merriment found at the Holiday Season. And to have Paul go out and put up the lights and not have it a chore.
Our Circle is just beautiful.
Our next door neighbor, Bob, and his brother-in-law, Phil who also lives in our Circle with his wife Kathy, and Paul have done such a marvelous job of lighting display - draping trees, shrubbery - using nets, strings of lights. Bob decorated before Thanksgiving, leaving them off, until the time was right.. His purpose in doing it so early? - do it while it isn't hot! Remember? It was cool at Thanksgiving. LOL.
Inside: We got a garland from Lowe's with LED lights that blink white, blink colored, or stay whatever you want. Things have certainly changed since we last bought lights! We have that in our lanai, draped across the long wall that separates the lanai from the kitchen.
We have a little decorated Christmas tree on our piano, I have a little crèche on the piano that my friend Ruth got for me several years ago. I should change that because when I open up the piano to use it, it obscures the crèche. The artificial Fica tree has lights in it and is also decorated.
We've had a couple of holiday parties here at the house. The first one was for the neighbors. Only a few people could come, but we had fun! Lots of cheer, food and merriment. We sat at the island and chatted.
My brother Bob will be happy to know that we used and are using his Christmas gift to us: a blue tooth speaker! I don't know how we managed before to enjoy all the Christmas music of Pandora. It has been wonderful. As I said, we continue to enjoy it. Maybe we'll bring it with us to Gainesville when we go for Christmas.
Our second party was a spur of the moment one - and was during the week - we're all retired - so it doesn't matter! This was my carol-sing. I wasn't sure I wanted to do it, but, several people asked if I was doing it. I must say - it was enjoyable. These are the popular modern Christmas songs. (White Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock) I must say - I have almost perfected this. I have the music, I have made up song sheets. And I found some gluten free chocolate chip cookie dough to make cookies. (That was good or bad actually.) Oh, but it tasted so good.
What I need is a copy of piano music carols with whom people can sing along too. (It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Silent Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem - you know the kind.) Lots more people came for this event than the neighbors, since I opened it up. Even people from last year that couldn't make it, came. Very pleased to be invited again. Everyone brought an hors-doerve. And we used those for our "supper". Everyone came at 5:30. We drank, ate, and then sang. Enjoyable. Then almost all walked home. No coats, no hats, no boots.
I'm disappointed:
in the music at our Presbyterian church because the wonderful choir director of several years left (I don't know why, but it sure points out the great importance of music in a church)and they have a new young man in charge who didn't have time (I'm thinking/hoping) to do any of the extra Christmas music we usually have. The choir has dwindled. But perhaps that's because they haven't arrived yet. I think that has made us go elsewhere to hear the sounds of the season.
Last Sunday evening, Alice's church choir and music department put on a Cantata. A group of us from Circlewoods went. It was perfectly lovely. They had a small orchestra playing carols in the vestibule before the service began. The children's choirs sang, the 50+ member choir did a marvelous job. (I counted them.) Alice said it was so nice to look out and see us.
Tomorrow afternoon we're going to a barbershop concert with Alice and Carol at Carol's church. Alice and Carol are coming back here for some crockpot pot roast.
Oh NOW more such great happy thoughts:
I have to get used to the pleasant idea of thinking of Nancy, Dan, Vincent, Evie and Walter being in Cancun, Mexico for Christmas. Dan's parents are celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary and invited all their three children, spouses and significant others. How exciting. They won't need hats, coats, and boots! Yeah! They left yesterday so everyone is enjoying themselves in the warm sun! As I write.
They requested sending all their gifts to their Chicago address and a neighbor is picking them up and putting them in a safe place away from the open vestibule. They get home the day after Christmas. (night, actually) The nice thing is they have almost a week of vacation time left before they have to start back to work/school.
Thank you Sharon for sending the patio cushions that I erroneously sent upstate NY - (One step amazon prime shipping doesn't work if your address is NYS and you're in Fla.). They look beautiful on our outdoor patio set. You are wonderful and I thank you so much for being there for me. I am sometimes not very swift. My mind escapes me.
We're excited to be going to Gainesville for Christmas. Gracie has a special Christmas collar that she's worn for our parties. She doesn't care for it much, but she hasn't put up a great fuss. Brenda, Eric and Emma will be flying in from California. It'll be so nice. A little vacation for us and such a treat to see everyone.
Santa brought Paul a new bike. He got it early, a week or so ago. He's out riding it right now. Santa was smart to get that for him. Plus some power tools have been put to good use already. He's been having a wonderful time. Not Santa. Paul.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
chairs, appliances, electrical things
This post has been done over a couple of days. The italics are the newest entries.
Re-reading this makes me realize that I didn't get my usual entry paragraph, so here it is. It's been a while since I wrote, and I always say that. This is particularly true this time because I wished to get the nodforsome of the items I wrote about. I don'twantto write anything that wouldn't be appropriate.
My tongue gets hot.
My sign to Paul that I need/want ice cream. Brenda was so concerned when she heard that the first time. Now she understands. (She's such a nice lady.) We don't have the ice cream stands down here - except for the orange groves. Haven't been there yet this year. Our ice cream is store bought. It's okay in a pinch. Ice cream parlors are quite good. Actually - more than that.
I wrote that because I wanted to compare that to something else, but I can't remember what it was. My poor son thought I was losing it on our long trip south because I couldn't remember where we'd had lunch that day. . Nope. Just senioritis. I'll remember it somewhere down the line. I'm not concerned. Is that in itself a worry?
I had a nice chat with my friend Marcia in North Carolina the other day. I mentioned that I had trouble remembering. Ex: my doctors' names down here and differentiating from those who do the same job for me upstate. She said I'd just have to say "Hey you - I don't remember your name." Is that bad manners?
Bill and Epril signed no-fault divorce papers on Friday. We're all sad, of course. But this opens up a whole new chapter in Bill's life. He went out to dinner with us Friday night. He's looking great and has a great perspective on the future. He's going with us to Gainesville for Thanksgiving.
I had some good news from my rheumatologist down here, Dr. G. All my PMR tests came back with good results which means I can reduce my prednisone some more. It means that my right shoulder pain is not from PMR. Nor did the cortisone shot do a bit of good. So, it would probably help with a bit of physical therapy. That's my expert opinion, and I'll check into it soon.
We went to Sam's Club this morning and got supplied with meat. Now our freezer is full. Paul cuts, I label and fill the zip lock bags. But our refrigerator stinks (Not the smelly kind of stink). . If I could describe the emotions of this fridge, it would be anger. It's not very loveable. Our ice maker is throwing out small fragile pieces of hollow ice cubes way beyond the ice tray. They cover the whole freezer floor Something needs to be done. This is the second ice maker that fairly new fridge has had. Paul can fix it though. I know he can.
Tuesday: A Miracle.
So-the ice cubes are solid. Paul said he didn't do anything. I think he just looked at them sternly and they recognized the folly of their actions.
We stopped at Kanes Furniture because I want/need a new chair in the lanai. The one I have, we've had for a long time. Not sure what I want. A recliner or a rocker. I'm in the window-shopping mindset. If I find something, good. If not, I can sit in my comfy old chair at which no one should look too closely. Thinking about this some more, it's important that my feet touch the floor. When I sit in my old chair, my feet touch the floor. I wasn't able to do that with the recliners I sat on.
We have a fake fica tree with white lights in the dining room which is on a timer. They've been working since the year one. I always liked the way it looks. Unfortunately half the bulbs were not working when we returned this year. Age-wise - It was bound to happen. So, knowing that Walmart is all set for Christmas and we could get millions of lights there, we made a trip to there a couple of days ago. We got two boxes of LED lights, got them home, and one of them was completely different than the box said it was supposed to be. It obviously had been opened. Why, or why, can't we live in a world where we can trust that, what we expect, is what we get! I think I posted a while back about a box we opened from Lowe's that had a receipt and a broken item inside that someone had returned.
We've had January weather here in November. November is usually a wonderful month of no humidity, sunny, and warm temperatures. It's been cold, cloudy, rainy the past couple of days. Actually January isn't like that, but it is cooler. Florida is still the Sunshine State. Monday we had a gorgeous day and I spent some time in the afternoon in the pool and the sun with the other ladies.
Gracie had a bath yesterday. She looks like a drowned rat when that happens. We thought she was dry enough afterwards, but she wasn't. She was so cold, I wrapped her in a towel and put her right next to me on the sofa so that the heat from my body would also warm her. Until she warmed up, her shivering was like a vibrator. Martini arrived yesterday with Bob. He's here till tomorrow when he leaves for his daughter, my niece, Christine's home in Melbourne. They have a standard sized poodle who is too aggressive. Martini is going with us to Gainesville on Thursday. Gracie and Martini have such fun together, playing, cavorting. Bob will be back, and we'll be back, and he'll stay for a while longer before he begins the trek back to Alpharetta.
My husband, the pie-maker, is going to make two pies for Thanksgiving. God bless him. He bought two pie plates at Walmart, and all the fixings for apple and pumpkin. That'll be tomorrow's work.
Right now he's at physical therapy for his shoulder. Yeah, that's right. We're twins. Two sore shoulders. He's a bit ahead of me in this department. Eventually I'll have to get mine looked at.
Re-reading this makes me realize that I didn't get my usual entry paragraph, so here it is. It's been a while since I wrote, and I always say that. This is particularly true this time because I wished to get the nodforsome of the items I wrote about. I don'twantto write anything that wouldn't be appropriate.
My tongue gets hot.
My sign to Paul that I need/want ice cream. Brenda was so concerned when she heard that the first time. Now she understands. (She's such a nice lady.) We don't have the ice cream stands down here - except for the orange groves. Haven't been there yet this year. Our ice cream is store bought. It's okay in a pinch. Ice cream parlors are quite good. Actually - more than that.
I wrote that because I wanted to compare that to something else, but I can't remember what it was. My poor son thought I was losing it on our long trip south because I couldn't remember where we'd had lunch that day. . Nope. Just senioritis. I'll remember it somewhere down the line. I'm not concerned. Is that in itself a worry?
I had a nice chat with my friend Marcia in North Carolina the other day. I mentioned that I had trouble remembering. Ex: my doctors' names down here and differentiating from those who do the same job for me upstate. She said I'd just have to say "Hey you - I don't remember your name." Is that bad manners?
Bill and Epril signed no-fault divorce papers on Friday. We're all sad, of course. But this opens up a whole new chapter in Bill's life. He went out to dinner with us Friday night. He's looking great and has a great perspective on the future. He's going with us to Gainesville for Thanksgiving.
I had some good news from my rheumatologist down here, Dr. G. All my PMR tests came back with good results which means I can reduce my prednisone some more. It means that my right shoulder pain is not from PMR. Nor did the cortisone shot do a bit of good. So, it would probably help with a bit of physical therapy. That's my expert opinion, and I'll check into it soon.
We went to Sam's Club this morning and got supplied with meat. Now our freezer is full. Paul cuts, I label and fill the zip lock bags. But our refrigerator stinks (Not the smelly kind of stink). . If I could describe the emotions of this fridge, it would be anger. It's not very loveable. Our ice maker is throwing out small fragile pieces of hollow ice cubes way beyond the ice tray. They cover the whole freezer floor Something needs to be done. This is the second ice maker that fairly new fridge has had. Paul can fix it though. I know he can.
Tuesday: A Miracle.
So-the ice cubes are solid. Paul said he didn't do anything. I think he just looked at them sternly and they recognized the folly of their actions.
We stopped at Kanes Furniture because I want/need a new chair in the lanai. The one I have, we've had for a long time. Not sure what I want. A recliner or a rocker. I'm in the window-shopping mindset. If I find something, good. If not, I can sit in my comfy old chair at which no one should look too closely. Thinking about this some more, it's important that my feet touch the floor. When I sit in my old chair, my feet touch the floor. I wasn't able to do that with the recliners I sat on.
We have a fake fica tree with white lights in the dining room which is on a timer. They've been working since the year one. I always liked the way it looks. Unfortunately half the bulbs were not working when we returned this year. Age-wise - It was bound to happen. So, knowing that Walmart is all set for Christmas and we could get millions of lights there, we made a trip to there a couple of days ago. We got two boxes of LED lights, got them home, and one of them was completely different than the box said it was supposed to be. It obviously had been opened. Why, or why, can't we live in a world where we can trust that, what we expect, is what we get! I think I posted a while back about a box we opened from Lowe's that had a receipt and a broken item inside that someone had returned.
We've had January weather here in November. November is usually a wonderful month of no humidity, sunny, and warm temperatures. It's been cold, cloudy, rainy the past couple of days. Actually January isn't like that, but it is cooler. Florida is still the Sunshine State. Monday we had a gorgeous day and I spent some time in the afternoon in the pool and the sun with the other ladies.
Gracie had a bath yesterday. She looks like a drowned rat when that happens. We thought she was dry enough afterwards, but she wasn't. She was so cold, I wrapped her in a towel and put her right next to me on the sofa so that the heat from my body would also warm her. Until she warmed up, her shivering was like a vibrator. Martini arrived yesterday with Bob. He's here till tomorrow when he leaves for his daughter, my niece, Christine's home in Melbourne. They have a standard sized poodle who is too aggressive. Martini is going with us to Gainesville on Thursday. Gracie and Martini have such fun together, playing, cavorting. Bob will be back, and we'll be back, and he'll stay for a while longer before he begins the trek back to Alpharetta.
My husband, the pie-maker, is going to make two pies for Thanksgiving. God bless him. He bought two pie plates at Walmart, and all the fixings for apple and pumpkin. That'll be tomorrow's work.
Right now he's at physical therapy for his shoulder. Yeah, that's right. We're twins. Two sore shoulders. He's a bit ahead of me in this department. Eventually I'll have to get mine looked at.
Friday, November 14, 2014
All in all . . .a very nice week.
I noticed the title of my last post, and it said it . . . as It was. The first week or so it takes a while to get back to a familiar feeling of where home is. That, plus, in the beginning this season, not having Bob next door placed an extra burden. At first.
But, Bob - all is okay here. We miss you, we are also adjusting to you not living next door, but being several hours away. You so happy. That makes all the difference!
Bob's home was always "home" to him - and it reflected him . . . his ideas and tastes. The new owner told Bob he bought it and would renovate it to resell. He has done so much to create a "new" villa. We're pleased with what he's been doing. Paul, of course, my expert carpenter and hero, knows how things should be done and is keeping close track. New kitchen cabinets, carpeting, paint, are in being worked on. Each step of the way is changing it into a new place. It's exciting.
The first week I didn't feel like I got out much at all. This week has been better. I went to Curves yesterday (I've been going 12 years - off and on - mostly on - trying to go 3 times a week). I mention the parenthesized (a word?) because when I went, there were only 3 customers and the owner was on crutches with a newly bandaged foot. One of the customers was new. She needed someone to help her with the machines. Due to my length of membership, I was elected - even though I have a sore right shoulder and am not using some machines, I could tell her what to do.
Got a Facebook entry from Lue's daughter, Jennifer. She's spending some time with Lue, who's recuperating from pneumonia, among other things. Jennifer said her mom is improving.
There's snow in Montour Falls. Jennifer also said that it melted before too long. GOOD. It's too early in the season.
I went to the pool yesterday afternoon for an hour. When you're an experienced Snowbird, and you don't want a sunburn, you learn that the mid-late afternoon is the best time to adjust to the Florida sun. It felt so good. And I'm enough of a newbie this season to appreciate it all. I try not to take it for granted. Ever.
We've been enjoying Edna's freezer jam each morning. It's been great, Edna. What a treat! Thanks again for letting us have a jar to take with us.
Gracie's eye infection is all cleared up. She hated the drops in her eye, but Paul did the whole week's worth. Now she's running around like crazy - enjoying the patterns she can initiate through the house. So she's all better.
What's wrong with the following picture?
Wouldn't you think you'd be able to find patio cushions in the stores down here? Nope. It's not the season. The patio sections are filled with Christmas items. Just like up north. How ridiculous can you get. We needed some. Badly. On amazon.com I found millions. With free shipping. We decided to get two of one pattern. We needed four, but I couldn't see getting a full order until we found we liked them. We did. Although I suppose I could have returned four as easily as two.
Also - aha - I decided to kill two birds with one stone. There's a GF (gluten free) marinade upstate NY that can't be found in Florida, but it's on amazon.com. It is something too cheap to order separately but can be placed with another order worth more than $25. Great. I ordered their Cornell chicken recipe and a spiedie marinade.
Wouldn't you figure they'd come in one box? Nope. Three boxes came by Fed Ex. One extra large for the pillows Then he came later. One bottle of marinade. Then he came the next day. Another bottle of marinade. The inefficiency of it all is appalling.
Thinking about this - they were from different places. I guess that's why. It's a shame my brain doesn't register thing the way it used to. But, again - why two boxes for two bottles of marinade???
********
This was our week of doctor visits. I have two new ones - a rheumatologist and a gastroenterologist. Good thing I have a notebook. I keep track of all my visits and write down all that's transpired or what I'm to do. Paul saw our dermatologist. Now, that's done for a while. Except for a lab visit next Monday. Plus we saw our Florida GP.
We joined Carol for lunch today at one of her favorite restaurants to celebrate her birthday. Carol brought two friends with her. We took Alice with us. Alice had a procedure done on her back yesterday, and it was easier for her to be a passenger than a driver. Carol looks wonderful. She has a lot more vim and vigor. And as I mentioned a while before . . . spunk! All in all - it was a very nice luncheon.
But, Bob - all is okay here. We miss you, we are also adjusting to you not living next door, but being several hours away. You so happy. That makes all the difference!
Bob's home was always "home" to him - and it reflected him . . . his ideas and tastes. The new owner told Bob he bought it and would renovate it to resell. He has done so much to create a "new" villa. We're pleased with what he's been doing. Paul, of course, my expert carpenter and hero, knows how things should be done and is keeping close track. New kitchen cabinets, carpeting, paint, are in being worked on. Each step of the way is changing it into a new place. It's exciting.
The first week I didn't feel like I got out much at all. This week has been better. I went to Curves yesterday (I've been going 12 years - off and on - mostly on - trying to go 3 times a week). I mention the parenthesized (a word?) because when I went, there were only 3 customers and the owner was on crutches with a newly bandaged foot. One of the customers was new. She needed someone to help her with the machines. Due to my length of membership, I was elected - even though I have a sore right shoulder and am not using some machines, I could tell her what to do.
Got a Facebook entry from Lue's daughter, Jennifer. She's spending some time with Lue, who's recuperating from pneumonia, among other things. Jennifer said her mom is improving.
There's snow in Montour Falls. Jennifer also said that it melted before too long. GOOD. It's too early in the season.
I went to the pool yesterday afternoon for an hour. When you're an experienced Snowbird, and you don't want a sunburn, you learn that the mid-late afternoon is the best time to adjust to the Florida sun. It felt so good. And I'm enough of a newbie this season to appreciate it all. I try not to take it for granted. Ever.
We've been enjoying Edna's freezer jam each morning. It's been great, Edna. What a treat! Thanks again for letting us have a jar to take with us.
Gracie's eye infection is all cleared up. She hated the drops in her eye, but Paul did the whole week's worth. Now she's running around like crazy - enjoying the patterns she can initiate through the house. So she's all better.
What's wrong with the following picture?
Wouldn't you think you'd be able to find patio cushions in the stores down here? Nope. It's not the season. The patio sections are filled with Christmas items. Just like up north. How ridiculous can you get. We needed some. Badly. On amazon.com I found millions. With free shipping. We decided to get two of one pattern. We needed four, but I couldn't see getting a full order until we found we liked them. We did. Although I suppose I could have returned four as easily as two.
Also - aha - I decided to kill two birds with one stone. There's a GF (gluten free) marinade upstate NY that can't be found in Florida, but it's on amazon.com. It is something too cheap to order separately but can be placed with another order worth more than $25. Great. I ordered their Cornell chicken recipe and a spiedie marinade.
Wouldn't you figure they'd come in one box? Nope. Three boxes came by Fed Ex. One extra large for the pillows Then he came later. One bottle of marinade. Then he came the next day. Another bottle of marinade. The inefficiency of it all is appalling.
Thinking about this - they were from different places. I guess that's why. It's a shame my brain doesn't register thing the way it used to. But, again - why two boxes for two bottles of marinade???
********
This was our week of doctor visits. I have two new ones - a rheumatologist and a gastroenterologist. Good thing I have a notebook. I keep track of all my visits and write down all that's transpired or what I'm to do. Paul saw our dermatologist. Now, that's done for a while. Except for a lab visit next Monday. Plus we saw our Florida GP.
We joined Carol for lunch today at one of her favorite restaurants to celebrate her birthday. Carol brought two friends with her. We took Alice with us. Alice had a procedure done on her back yesterday, and it was easier for her to be a passenger than a driver. Carol looks wonderful. She has a lot more vim and vigor. And as I mentioned a while before . . . spunk! All in all - it was a very nice luncheon.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Home Away from Home Away from Home
We're home again, coming from home to our other home away-from-home, or vice versa. It always takes a while to get used to being where we are at the present time. It's funny, but we (meaning "I") always start several weeks before we leave with a no-no-no attitude. . . don't want to leave! But as the time approaches, it becomes more and more acceptable in my mind. Until when I leave, it feels right.
This leaving was quite a different one. Bob and Bill were visiting us for two weeks. Bill used our new cave/cottage downstairs for work/sleep. He brought his work computer with him and was able to work even though he wasn't home. We had the futon down there which he said was very very comfortable. Good! Bob and Martini slept in our main floor guestroom.
We decided that we would travel together. . . caravan style.
We stopped for gas all at the same time. Obviously. As we were leaving one gas station, we glanced at Bob's car, and he'd forgotten to return the gas cap, so we frantically waved to him and got him to stop before we left the station. Then Paul looked at ours - he'd done the same thing. (I guess it's an old-folk thing. Bill, of course, was fine.)
We wanted to see Bob's place in Alpharetta, so Paul and I traveled that whole distance with him, but Bill left us after the first night, our half-way point to Alpharetta, to continue on to Florida. He'd stopped at Alpharetta on his way up and he needed to get home so he didn't miss any work.
Saturday afternoon, we stopped to see Edna and Mike, in Montandan, PA. Their daughter, Judy, was visiting from Connecticut, so we had a nice lunch and visit with them. Edna put on a "spread" that was wonderful. There was so much to eat! Bill especially enjoyed the BBQ ham sandwiches, and took Edna's recipe home so he could make it for his church's potluck lunches that they have every Sunday after church. Edna gave me some freezer jam which I had this morning!
We traveled caravan-style our first day - stopping in Staunton, VA, a town we usually stay, but we stayed in a different hotel. Bob and Bill shared a room. It was a hotel that we'd wanted to try, but hadn't. It was fair. The next day, early, Bill left us and traveled the complete distance to Punta Gorda - more than 14 hours.
Bob lives with his son Jon, wife Nicole and their three children - Brooke, Jonathan and Talia. It was a joy to see how much they missed him - he had so many kisses and hugs when we got there.
Their home is beautiful - four bedrooms upstairs, a kitchen, living room, dining room, office on the first floor and a two-bedroom apartment downstairs where Bob lives. I wonder if they have some before pictures. His apartment also includes a kitchen, dining area, living room, bathroom and walk-out to the in-ground pool area. There's also a media room downstairs.
While Bob was gone, Jon had it all painted, some carpentry work, adding doors, windows, closets, and hung pictures, etc.. So, as you can imagine: There was quite a bit of work done. Carpentry, painting. Bob's present bedroom was a storeroom - so they added a window outside, and framed it all in. It's larger than the second bedroom which had been his bedroom before he left for his visit with us. He has a lot of storage space too. (That's good because Bob is a saver.) In the dining room there's a beautiful round wooden table with six lovely matching chairs. What I saw was wonderful and took a lot of time and effort. And love. As I often say: It did my heart good.
After saying good-by to Bob on Monday morning, we left there and traveled six hours on to Gainesville, where we spent the night with Greg, Noi and NeeNee. We had missed Noi and NeeNee at Paul's party because of school, etc. so it was a good opportunity to see them. They have a new guest room upstairs that was very comfortable. The downstairs guest room off the kitchen is now a den, with a loveseat and their piano. We always enjoy visiting with them. It's nice to know they're so near.
Tuesday, we had only three hours to travel down to Venice. We took our time, stopping for lunch on the way. Even though it was only three hours, we both were very tired. We had to get food, but stopped home first. And then went out again. Wednesday we had more to do - our Comcast wasn't working right. That's almost a given. Each year we come back to trying to get that to work right and we always have problems. So we were on the phone to "technicians" whose English leaves a lot to be desired. We also had some more shopping to do. Today is wash day. And all the other incidentals.
I almost had a heart attack this afternoon when I couldn't find any of my meds, other than the ones in the two weeks supply in the pill containers. I couldn't understand where they could be. BUT I found them = I had neglected to take the gallon Ziploc bag full of my prescription meds out of the suitcase when it was put away. Such is the life of an absent-minded professional. Paul is so lucky to have me. Not.
The weather is fantastic. Paul is out at the Garden Center. He'll have fun getting the flowers and all started. He said the oregano from last year, has overgrown, needs to be fixed.
Gracie is on the couch sleeping. Oh, yes. We took her to the vet last night, and her eye infection that we noticed and I wrote about on Facebook, is being cleared up with drops twice a day. Poor thing. She traveled so well, but her right eye was closed a good deal of the time. The Vet said the light hurts her eye. Now she can look forward to healing. It hasn't stopped her zooming around. We got here and she immediately ran next door to see her best human friend, Bob. He wasn't there. She finally got to see him today. Everyone is so busy. Good.
********
BTW - as we were traveling through Virginia, Lue's son, Mike, who lives in Connecticut, called us on Paul's cell phone. Lue was in the hospital with pneumonia. Oh my goodness.
Thursday, she had cancelled having lunch with us all - thinking she had the flu. The poor dear. We felt awful that we were so far away.
We called Paul's daughter, Sharon, and Paul's Corning relative, and they kept in touch with her and let us know what was going on. I guess she was very very ill. I'm not sure if she's home now or not. But I wouldn't be surprised if she was home. She definitely didn't like being in the hospital. Her daughter, Gail, was coming in from Massachusetts. They also were setting up a health-care worker to stay with Lue at home. Lue's sister, Sharon, had been staying at Lue's house and taking care of Greta, her Bernase Mountain Dog.
This leaving was quite a different one. Bob and Bill were visiting us for two weeks. Bill used our new cave/cottage downstairs for work/sleep. He brought his work computer with him and was able to work even though he wasn't home. We had the futon down there which he said was very very comfortable. Good! Bob and Martini slept in our main floor guestroom.
We decided that we would travel together. . . caravan style.
We stopped for gas all at the same time. Obviously. As we were leaving one gas station, we glanced at Bob's car, and he'd forgotten to return the gas cap, so we frantically waved to him and got him to stop before we left the station. Then Paul looked at ours - he'd done the same thing. (I guess it's an old-folk thing. Bill, of course, was fine.)
We wanted to see Bob's place in Alpharetta, so Paul and I traveled that whole distance with him, but Bill left us after the first night, our half-way point to Alpharetta, to continue on to Florida. He'd stopped at Alpharetta on his way up and he needed to get home so he didn't miss any work.
Saturday afternoon, we stopped to see Edna and Mike, in Montandan, PA. Their daughter, Judy, was visiting from Connecticut, so we had a nice lunch and visit with them. Edna put on a "spread" that was wonderful. There was so much to eat! Bill especially enjoyed the BBQ ham sandwiches, and took Edna's recipe home so he could make it for his church's potluck lunches that they have every Sunday after church. Edna gave me some freezer jam which I had this morning!
We traveled caravan-style our first day - stopping in Staunton, VA, a town we usually stay, but we stayed in a different hotel. Bob and Bill shared a room. It was a hotel that we'd wanted to try, but hadn't. It was fair. The next day, early, Bill left us and traveled the complete distance to Punta Gorda - more than 14 hours.
Bob lives with his son Jon, wife Nicole and their three children - Brooke, Jonathan and Talia. It was a joy to see how much they missed him - he had so many kisses and hugs when we got there.
Their home is beautiful - four bedrooms upstairs, a kitchen, living room, dining room, office on the first floor and a two-bedroom apartment downstairs where Bob lives. I wonder if they have some before pictures. His apartment also includes a kitchen, dining area, living room, bathroom and walk-out to the in-ground pool area. There's also a media room downstairs.
While Bob was gone, Jon had it all painted, some carpentry work, adding doors, windows, closets, and hung pictures, etc.. So, as you can imagine: There was quite a bit of work done. Carpentry, painting. Bob's present bedroom was a storeroom - so they added a window outside, and framed it all in. It's larger than the second bedroom which had been his bedroom before he left for his visit with us. He has a lot of storage space too. (That's good because Bob is a saver.) In the dining room there's a beautiful round wooden table with six lovely matching chairs. What I saw was wonderful and took a lot of time and effort. And love. As I often say: It did my heart good.
After saying good-by to Bob on Monday morning, we left there and traveled six hours on to Gainesville, where we spent the night with Greg, Noi and NeeNee. We had missed Noi and NeeNee at Paul's party because of school, etc. so it was a good opportunity to see them. They have a new guest room upstairs that was very comfortable. The downstairs guest room off the kitchen is now a den, with a loveseat and their piano. We always enjoy visiting with them. It's nice to know they're so near.
Tuesday, we had only three hours to travel down to Venice. We took our time, stopping for lunch on the way. Even though it was only three hours, we both were very tired. We had to get food, but stopped home first. And then went out again. Wednesday we had more to do - our Comcast wasn't working right. That's almost a given. Each year we come back to trying to get that to work right and we always have problems. So we were on the phone to "technicians" whose English leaves a lot to be desired. We also had some more shopping to do. Today is wash day. And all the other incidentals.
I almost had a heart attack this afternoon when I couldn't find any of my meds, other than the ones in the two weeks supply in the pill containers. I couldn't understand where they could be. BUT I found them = I had neglected to take the gallon Ziploc bag full of my prescription meds out of the suitcase when it was put away. Such is the life of an absent-minded professional. Paul is so lucky to have me. Not.
The weather is fantastic. Paul is out at the Garden Center. He'll have fun getting the flowers and all started. He said the oregano from last year, has overgrown, needs to be fixed.
Gracie is on the couch sleeping. Oh, yes. We took her to the vet last night, and her eye infection that we noticed and I wrote about on Facebook, is being cleared up with drops twice a day. Poor thing. She traveled so well, but her right eye was closed a good deal of the time. The Vet said the light hurts her eye. Now she can look forward to healing. It hasn't stopped her zooming around. We got here and she immediately ran next door to see her best human friend, Bob. He wasn't there. She finally got to see him today. Everyone is so busy. Good.
********
BTW - as we were traveling through Virginia, Lue's son, Mike, who lives in Connecticut, called us on Paul's cell phone. Lue was in the hospital with pneumonia. Oh my goodness.
Thursday, she had cancelled having lunch with us all - thinking she had the flu. The poor dear. We felt awful that we were so far away.
We called Paul's daughter, Sharon, and Paul's Corning relative, and they kept in touch with her and let us know what was going on. I guess she was very very ill. I'm not sure if she's home now or not. But I wouldn't be surprised if she was home. She definitely didn't like being in the hospital. Her daughter, Gail, was coming in from Massachusetts. They also were setting up a health-care worker to stay with Lue at home. Lue's sister, Sharon, had been staying at Lue's house and taking care of Greta, her Bernase Mountain Dog.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
80th Birthday Weekend
BlogSpot.com gives a very false idea of how many followers I actually have. If it were so, I'd be very sad. (They say 6.) It doesn't give a reliable number. Most people read it as an e-mail, which is a shame, since my blog design has such beautiful wall paper background and includes other information about me. But, I'm glad to be able to help friends and family keep up with our happenings.
I can always read the Stats section and see how many have actually looked at it, plus the world map which also lets me know where people reside who are reading it. It's interesting. You probably surmised by this time, I write because I like to write.
I always seem to begin my posts with I'm so busy. I don't know how I used to manage when I was working. Actually, the world seemed to go much faster and I was moving faster then too. Now, time seems to envelope all my activities. . . whether I'm busy or not. . . the time goes by. Quickly.
Paul had a good 80th birthday weekend. His kids are great.
Greg arrived on Thursday evening, driving up from Florida. Brenda, who flew in from California, arrived Thursday evening also. Dorothy and Jeff arrived on Friday. They were so busy getting ready for the party!We didn't see much of them. But - they had a chance to be with each other. The Elks Club in Watkins Glen is in a beautiful location that overlooks Seneca Lake. It was a beautiful day and evening. We couldn't get over how lovely it looked - with candles, mirrors, flowers, colored leaves, linen colored napkins on all the tables. Thanks to Dorothy for the floral arrangements.
Sharon and her "committee" of Greg, Brenda and Dorothy (Jeff said he only did dishes which I don't believe) spent an afternoon baking cakes and decorating them. They set up a table for them in the corner of the banquet hall. They were just gorgeous and people were taking lots of pictures. They tasted delicious too. (I could appreciate their beauty.) (It took many more hours for Sharon to bake - especially since her boxer, Flea, ate part of one of the chocolate cakes.)
We had 66 (?) people. I know I will forget to mention some people. There were a LOT. It was nice to meet his secretary from work.
Early on - The kids opened up the invitation list to their cousins. I'm getting to know that generation a lot better. His nephews on Donna's side, Eric and Joe, came from Middletown. Of course, it wouldn't be the same without Lue! Lue was there with her son and daughter-in-law, Mike and Barb. - and her sister Sharon, came also. I had friends, Ruth, Wes, and Carol, come from Bath and our next door neighbors, Dick and Ann, came also.
Plus my kids and two grandkids. Vincent and Evie are getting to know their cousins. Evie was one of several smaller children who enjoyed a dvd player that was set up in the corner for a while.
Evie, Vincent and Nancy arrived at Elmira Airport, on Friday evening and left on Sunday evening. They had the same flights that Brenda had taken - only Brenda's was a day earlier and a night later. Sunday was my son-in-law, Dan's, 40th birthday, so Nancy, got a sitter, and took him out to dinner when they got home. Bless him - he took care of Walter, who is 20 months old, for the weekend. What a guy. It was much appreciated. We missed him though.
Paul just laughed at me. I asked him for another word for kids. He said children. Then I said - kids, who are ages 40 - 60. Offspring. That sounds a lot better, doesn't it.
Paul's brother and sister-in-law, Howard and Alicia's three offspring came: Charles/Chuck flew in from Alaska to Connecticut a couple of days early, and drove his parents to the party. Karen came from D.C., Joe - from NYC. Plus mine came:. Bill from Florida. Nancy from Chicago.
Grandkids: Some were unable to come - due to school, college. But there was a table of grandkids: - including Vincent. That was really neat. Of Paul's siblings - the brothers, Howard and Bob, were there. Got some good pictures placed on Facebook. Bob, stayed with us overnight. We always enjoy having him.
Paul surprised everyone (including me) by giving a great speech at the end. When I commented to him on it, he said -with a twinkle in his eye - what did I think he was doing downstairs in his "cave" all this time? I had no idea.
Speaking of his Cave: It has worked out very well for my son Bill. He works from home in Florida. He's been able to continue doing his medical transcription and not miss any work time. He was also able to get in touch with several of his high school buddies, go to his home church, and see his dad.
Gracie and Martini, her older 8-year old cousin: Now, I don't know why - perhaps the difference in ages, but they haven't actually played together much. Martini is rather shy and lets Gracie get away with a lot of things. This time though, they actually played - pretend wrestling, growling, sharing (?) toys. Maybe: Gracie is maturing and is not as rambunctious as she's been. Ya think?
Paul just did his last leaf pick-up for the season and the mower/blower is now in the shed for the winter. Everything is just about ready for us to leave. I have to check my 2013 list and add/subtract items I need to have.
Brother Bob and son Bill have been here for two weeks and we'll all be leaving together soon. In a caravan. Three cars. We've never tried this before. We'll stop and have lunch with Edna and Mike at their home in Pennsylvania - two+ hours into our trip. We'll stay one night in a motel. From there, we'll part ways with Bill. He will continue driving on to Fla., and we'll go with Bob to Alpharetta, GA., stay overnight, and continue on to Fla. the next day. We're anxious to see Bob's new place and see Jon, Nicole and the kids.
I can always read the Stats section and see how many have actually looked at it, plus the world map which also lets me know where people reside who are reading it. It's interesting. You probably surmised by this time, I write because I like to write.
I always seem to begin my posts with I'm so busy. I don't know how I used to manage when I was working. Actually, the world seemed to go much faster and I was moving faster then too. Now, time seems to envelope all my activities. . . whether I'm busy or not. . . the time goes by. Quickly.
Paul had a good 80th birthday weekend. His kids are great.
Greg arrived on Thursday evening, driving up from Florida. Brenda, who flew in from California, arrived Thursday evening also. Dorothy and Jeff arrived on Friday. They were so busy getting ready for the party!We didn't see much of them. But - they had a chance to be with each other. The Elks Club in Watkins Glen is in a beautiful location that overlooks Seneca Lake. It was a beautiful day and evening. We couldn't get over how lovely it looked - with candles, mirrors, flowers, colored leaves, linen colored napkins on all the tables. Thanks to Dorothy for the floral arrangements.
Sharon and her "committee" of Greg, Brenda and Dorothy (Jeff said he only did dishes which I don't believe) spent an afternoon baking cakes and decorating them. They set up a table for them in the corner of the banquet hall. They were just gorgeous and people were taking lots of pictures. They tasted delicious too. (I could appreciate their beauty.) (It took many more hours for Sharon to bake - especially since her boxer, Flea, ate part of one of the chocolate cakes.)
We had 66 (?) people. I know I will forget to mention some people. There were a LOT. It was nice to meet his secretary from work.
Early on - The kids opened up the invitation list to their cousins. I'm getting to know that generation a lot better. His nephews on Donna's side, Eric and Joe, came from Middletown. Of course, it wouldn't be the same without Lue! Lue was there with her son and daughter-in-law, Mike and Barb. - and her sister Sharon, came also. I had friends, Ruth, Wes, and Carol, come from Bath and our next door neighbors, Dick and Ann, came also.
Plus my kids and two grandkids. Vincent and Evie are getting to know their cousins. Evie was one of several smaller children who enjoyed a dvd player that was set up in the corner for a while.
Evie, Vincent and Nancy arrived at Elmira Airport, on Friday evening and left on Sunday evening. They had the same flights that Brenda had taken - only Brenda's was a day earlier and a night later. Sunday was my son-in-law, Dan's, 40th birthday, so Nancy, got a sitter, and took him out to dinner when they got home. Bless him - he took care of Walter, who is 20 months old, for the weekend. What a guy. It was much appreciated. We missed him though.
Paul just laughed at me. I asked him for another word for kids. He said children. Then I said - kids, who are ages 40 - 60. Offspring. That sounds a lot better, doesn't it.
Paul's brother and sister-in-law, Howard and Alicia's three offspring came: Charles/Chuck flew in from Alaska to Connecticut a couple of days early, and drove his parents to the party. Karen came from D.C., Joe - from NYC. Plus mine came:. Bill from Florida. Nancy from Chicago.
Grandkids: Some were unable to come - due to school, college. But there was a table of grandkids: - including Vincent. That was really neat. Of Paul's siblings - the brothers, Howard and Bob, were there. Got some good pictures placed on Facebook. Bob, stayed with us overnight. We always enjoy having him.
Paul surprised everyone (including me) by giving a great speech at the end. When I commented to him on it, he said -with a twinkle in his eye - what did I think he was doing downstairs in his "cave" all this time? I had no idea.
Speaking of his Cave: It has worked out very well for my son Bill. He works from home in Florida. He's been able to continue doing his medical transcription and not miss any work time. He was also able to get in touch with several of his high school buddies, go to his home church, and see his dad.
Gracie and Martini, her older 8-year old cousin: Now, I don't know why - perhaps the difference in ages, but they haven't actually played together much. Martini is rather shy and lets Gracie get away with a lot of things. This time though, they actually played - pretend wrestling, growling, sharing (?) toys. Maybe: Gracie is maturing and is not as rambunctious as she's been. Ya think?
Paul just did his last leaf pick-up for the season and the mower/blower is now in the shed for the winter. Everything is just about ready for us to leave. I have to check my 2013 list and add/subtract items I need to have.
Brother Bob and son Bill have been here for two weeks and we'll all be leaving together soon. In a caravan. Three cars. We've never tried this before. We'll stop and have lunch with Edna and Mike at their home in Pennsylvania - two+ hours into our trip. We'll stay one night in a motel. From there, we'll part ways with Bill. He will continue driving on to Fla., and we'll go with Bob to Alpharetta, GA., stay overnight, and continue on to Fla. the next day. We're anxious to see Bob's new place and see Jon, Nicole and the kids.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Length? Or Longeth? Which?
Time flies by when you're having fun, or not . . .BUT. . . it seems like time just flies by - don't you think? I've been watching this month disappear. The end of which will be very busy. Paul's 80th birthday party is in the works. So much preparation is being done by all five of his kids. They each seem to have a job to do - We don't want you doing anything, they say. Okay. That's so nice.
I'm playing the piano at church this Sunday. I'm playing "As The Deer" which is one of my favorites, but it is not that well known. The lyrics are: "As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after Thee." As I thought about this, one of my ideas was to find a picture of a deer drinking water and put the lyrics next to it - to be projected on the large screen - as I play - so people can realize it's a Christian hymn.
There are lots of pictures on the internet of just that (a deer drinking water) and some of them even have the lyrics with them. I found one that I thought was the prettiest, in a card-making site. Any lyrics can be included. So - it's being sent to me, to be delivered, supposedly, today. Last Sunday, I talked with the gal in charge of the projection screen at church. She gave me her e-mail and said to send the picture and words any time, which made me feel better, because I didn't know if it would come in time.
And it did come today. I assume it went okay by computer. I have to laugh, though, I had to re-write the words of the card for her because the words of the real card said - "As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul length after thee." Length? What happened to the word "longeth". Didn't the person making the card have any sense of what he was doing? Grrrrrr. Or did I make a mistake when I sent it out. Who knows. It really doesn't matter, but I guess I should do something about it - just for general principles.
We've been inundated with doctor appointments. Nothing new.
So, when people ask - what've you been doing, and we say, not much. We have been busy, but who wants to hear that stuff. Our calendar is full. It used to be full of fun things, now it has mostly doctor appointments.
There was an article in Money Magazine about good health - making the most of doctor visits- how often you should see a doctor - and the article said, mentioning different tests, procedures, protocols - when you're young - you should go, let's say - every 2-3-5 years - for such and such a procedure. Then it creeps up. Now it's every2-3- 6 months. Ridiculous. But I guess when/if your body is breaking down (meaning, my body. . . sorry . . . I can only speak about mine. And I'm trying to be humorous.) and they need to catch things in beginning stages so that they can repair, rewind, redo, renew. That's how they make their money, and how we stay well, I suppose.
And when things crop up - and new doctors appear, my goodness. I know that half to three-quarters of my post-readers are my age, so I'm preaching to the choir. I can see you all nodding in agreement.
Next week at this time, we'll have Bob and Bill here for the last two weeks of October. . . God willing and the creeks don't rise. Bill will be leaving Florida on Thursday, spending a night in Alpharetta, GA, with Uncle Bob, cousin Jon and family. Then on to St. Louis on Friday, to visit a friend and then spend Saturday night in Chicago with his sister and family. Sunday - he'll be here. Late. Bob will be here late that night too. He says he'll spend one night on the road.
So I guess I'll have the sauerbraten on Monday. It needs to marinate for four days. Let's see. . . I guess that means tomorrow it should start marinating. Have to shop for the ingredients.
Got an e-mail from cousin Alice. She was in Colorado for her grandson, David's, wedding these past weeks and posted some beautiful pictures on Facebook of the wedding and the area. I am very happy with Facebook as it keeps me posted as to what all my family/friend groups are up to.
Alice also said that Carol is doing so well. That is great news. Not unexpected. Carol has a lot of gumption. Do you remember Mary Tyler Moore show? When her boss says - you've got gumption, and I like gumption. Carol reminds me of that.
A note: Paul has set up my old camera - the one where the shutter doesn't close completely so that the battery doesn't last long - so that I can take some pictures. And he has set up the present sick camera's battery charger so I can use it with the old camera. Pretty neat.
Leaves, leaves everywhere - Paul was outside yesterday and mowed/swept the lawn and the grass is that lovely emerald green. We had a wind/rain storm and it's all covered up again in a blanket of leaves. All of his work is for naught.
Another note: Our hot tub is drained for the winter and all winterized. There's a good chance that a lot of people that read my blog will be staying at our house in the next two weeks. If you do, don't bring your swim suit. Unless you want to use it when you shower.
We spent a lovely Sunday evening at Sharon and Dave's house to celebrate Lee's 19th birthday. His dad drove down to Maritime Academy Saturday night for a football game and drove Lee home afterwards. (It was a three day weekend - Columbus Day.) Sharon had sandwich makings, and two home-made pumpkin pies. All Delicious. I brought my gluten-free bread so I could make a sandwich. It was good to see Dave's dad, Dave Sr., there. His wife passed away a couple of weeks ago. Also there were Dave' sister and two of Lee's cousins. A good group.
Just spent a lovely afternoon at TGI Fridays with my good friend Ruth from Bath. It was so nice to catch up with all her news. She's been taking care of her 98 year old mother, Emily, for a couple of months. Her mother is very very feeble. And she requires 24 hour care. Ruth has two sisters with whom she shares care of her mother. Emily stays with Ruth for several months and then goes up to her sisters' homes up near Buffalo where her mother used to live.
Last weekend, all three sisters and Emily went for a sisters' annual Columbus Day weekend and rented a cottage on Seneca Lake. When the weekend was done, Ruth's sisters took her mother home with them. So Ruth was so glad to get out and be by herself!
It's not easy having an elderly person always around requiring 24-hour care. One thing Ruth remarked about today was her son-in-law Mark. He was so wonderful because he would come over and take care of her mother so she and Wes could do necessary things. Doctors' appointments, a dinner out, visiting people.
I must repeat what Mark told her because I think it's really really nice. I wish I could remember the exact words, but here's what I remember. . . She asked him, aren't you afraid that she could possibly "pass on" (my words) while you're here looking after her? And he said - This is not a verbatim quote. "I would consider it a privilege to be the one who was here when she passes to the other side. I would consider myself very blessed."
The other morning, before 6 AM, we were awakened by our carbon monoxide alarm going off. It wasn't a false alarm. The back burner on the gas stove was left on simmer and it blew out during the night or something, Paul said. He's still not absolutely sure that was what it was, or was it a malfunctioning unit. All our alarms are interconnected, so the whole house was sounding the alarm. It's not very loud, but enough to waken you. I had thought it was Paul's alarm clock. He had thought it was mine.
The next paragraph is funny. Not funny ha-ha- but funny- strange.
Gracie who's so small isn't afraid of thunderstorms, lightning doesn't make her shake, but those alarms do. She just shakes like she's going to break apart. We have to hold her and calm her down.
Tonight, Paul was downstairs in his Cave, which is directly below where our computer room is upstairs, and where I was sitting. He tested one of those alarms - just ONCE, and poor Gracie got under my computer table, which she never does. She literally cried. I couldn't even hear it at all and didn't know what was the matter with her. She started for the stairs, didn't want to actually go down there, but I was concerned that Paul might need help or something (You hear about dogs knowing that.) So we went down. All is okay now. He says if he has to, he'll test it out in the garage from now on. Her hearing is so good - I wonder if that'll make a difference.
I'm playing the piano at church this Sunday. I'm playing "As The Deer" which is one of my favorites, but it is not that well known. The lyrics are: "As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after Thee." As I thought about this, one of my ideas was to find a picture of a deer drinking water and put the lyrics next to it - to be projected on the large screen - as I play - so people can realize it's a Christian hymn.
There are lots of pictures on the internet of just that (a deer drinking water) and some of them even have the lyrics with them. I found one that I thought was the prettiest, in a card-making site. Any lyrics can be included. So - it's being sent to me, to be delivered, supposedly, today. Last Sunday, I talked with the gal in charge of the projection screen at church. She gave me her e-mail and said to send the picture and words any time, which made me feel better, because I didn't know if it would come in time.
And it did come today. I assume it went okay by computer. I have to laugh, though, I had to re-write the words of the card for her because the words of the real card said - "As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul length after thee." Length? What happened to the word "longeth". Didn't the person making the card have any sense of what he was doing? Grrrrrr. Or did I make a mistake when I sent it out. Who knows. It really doesn't matter, but I guess I should do something about it - just for general principles.
We've been inundated with doctor appointments. Nothing new.
So, when people ask - what've you been doing, and we say, not much. We have been busy, but who wants to hear that stuff. Our calendar is full. It used to be full of fun things, now it has mostly doctor appointments.
There was an article in Money Magazine about good health - making the most of doctor visits- how often you should see a doctor - and the article said, mentioning different tests, procedures, protocols - when you're young - you should go, let's say - every 2-3-5 years - for such and such a procedure. Then it creeps up. Now it's every2-3- 6 months. Ridiculous. But I guess when/if your body is breaking down (meaning, my body. . . sorry . . . I can only speak about mine. And I'm trying to be humorous.) and they need to catch things in beginning stages so that they can repair, rewind, redo, renew. That's how they make their money, and how we stay well, I suppose.
And when things crop up - and new doctors appear, my goodness. I know that half to three-quarters of my post-readers are my age, so I'm preaching to the choir. I can see you all nodding in agreement.
Next week at this time, we'll have Bob and Bill here for the last two weeks of October. . . God willing and the creeks don't rise. Bill will be leaving Florida on Thursday, spending a night in Alpharetta, GA, with Uncle Bob, cousin Jon and family. Then on to St. Louis on Friday, to visit a friend and then spend Saturday night in Chicago with his sister and family. Sunday - he'll be here. Late. Bob will be here late that night too. He says he'll spend one night on the road.
So I guess I'll have the sauerbraten on Monday. It needs to marinate for four days. Let's see. . . I guess that means tomorrow it should start marinating. Have to shop for the ingredients.
Got an e-mail from cousin Alice. She was in Colorado for her grandson, David's, wedding these past weeks and posted some beautiful pictures on Facebook of the wedding and the area. I am very happy with Facebook as it keeps me posted as to what all my family/friend groups are up to.
Alice also said that Carol is doing so well. That is great news. Not unexpected. Carol has a lot of gumption. Do you remember Mary Tyler Moore show? When her boss says - you've got gumption, and I like gumption. Carol reminds me of that.
A note: Paul has set up my old camera - the one where the shutter doesn't close completely so that the battery doesn't last long - so that I can take some pictures. And he has set up the present sick camera's battery charger so I can use it with the old camera. Pretty neat.
Leaves, leaves everywhere - Paul was outside yesterday and mowed/swept the lawn and the grass is that lovely emerald green. We had a wind/rain storm and it's all covered up again in a blanket of leaves. All of his work is for naught.
Another note: Our hot tub is drained for the winter and all winterized. There's a good chance that a lot of people that read my blog will be staying at our house in the next two weeks. If you do, don't bring your swim suit. Unless you want to use it when you shower.
We spent a lovely Sunday evening at Sharon and Dave's house to celebrate Lee's 19th birthday. His dad drove down to Maritime Academy Saturday night for a football game and drove Lee home afterwards. (It was a three day weekend - Columbus Day.) Sharon had sandwich makings, and two home-made pumpkin pies. All Delicious. I brought my gluten-free bread so I could make a sandwich. It was good to see Dave's dad, Dave Sr., there. His wife passed away a couple of weeks ago. Also there were Dave' sister and two of Lee's cousins. A good group.
Just spent a lovely afternoon at TGI Fridays with my good friend Ruth from Bath. It was so nice to catch up with all her news. She's been taking care of her 98 year old mother, Emily, for a couple of months. Her mother is very very feeble. And she requires 24 hour care. Ruth has two sisters with whom she shares care of her mother. Emily stays with Ruth for several months and then goes up to her sisters' homes up near Buffalo where her mother used to live.
Last weekend, all three sisters and Emily went for a sisters' annual Columbus Day weekend and rented a cottage on Seneca Lake. When the weekend was done, Ruth's sisters took her mother home with them. So Ruth was so glad to get out and be by herself!
It's not easy having an elderly person always around requiring 24-hour care. One thing Ruth remarked about today was her son-in-law Mark. He was so wonderful because he would come over and take care of her mother so she and Wes could do necessary things. Doctors' appointments, a dinner out, visiting people.
I must repeat what Mark told her because I think it's really really nice. I wish I could remember the exact words, but here's what I remember. . . She asked him, aren't you afraid that she could possibly "pass on" (my words) while you're here looking after her? And he said - This is not a verbatim quote. "I would consider it a privilege to be the one who was here when she passes to the other side. I would consider myself very blessed."
The other morning, before 6 AM, we were awakened by our carbon monoxide alarm going off. It wasn't a false alarm. The back burner on the gas stove was left on simmer and it blew out during the night or something, Paul said. He's still not absolutely sure that was what it was, or was it a malfunctioning unit. All our alarms are interconnected, so the whole house was sounding the alarm. It's not very loud, but enough to waken you. I had thought it was Paul's alarm clock. He had thought it was mine.
The next paragraph is funny. Not funny ha-ha- but funny- strange.
Gracie who's so small isn't afraid of thunderstorms, lightning doesn't make her shake, but those alarms do. She just shakes like she's going to break apart. We have to hold her and calm her down.
Tonight, Paul was downstairs in his Cave, which is directly below where our computer room is upstairs, and where I was sitting. He tested one of those alarms - just ONCE, and poor Gracie got under my computer table, which she never does. She literally cried. I couldn't even hear it at all and didn't know what was the matter with her. She started for the stairs, didn't want to actually go down there, but I was concerned that Paul might need help or something (You hear about dogs knowing that.) So we went down. All is okay now. He says if he has to, he'll test it out in the garage from now on. Her hearing is so good - I wonder if that'll make a difference.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Guess I won't have pictures for a while.
My camera is really kaput. There's nothing but blackness when you look through the lens and it doesn't change no matter what we do. Paul said, and I agree, we have to send it back to the manufacturer. Unfortunately, I can't send it from here now because we could end up being in Florida when it's shipped back. There's just not enough time left. Also, unfortunately, I won't be able to take any pictures of Paul's 80th birthday party at the end of the month. We had some rain this morning, but this afternoon has been absolutely beautiful and I saw some perfect shots. You know - with the colors just perfect. Sky blue. Leaves. Oh, well. It is what it is.
We've had a quiet (?) week of doctors' appointments. I go to see my rheumatologist on Wednesday, so I needed blood tests which I got today in Big Flats - 10 minutes away. I have so many doctors that I sometimes forget where they are located - Sayre, PA, Corning, Big Flats? And just think - in a month or so, I'll be introduced to new doctors in Florida, as it was suggested that I get some down there.
My car: tomorrow morning it goes in for a recall and oil changed. First time! Did I tell you how much I love my car? I was thinking that as I drove home this morning from Curves. I love the color and I love the back up camera. I will miss it when we go to Florida. But, it'll have a good rest in the garage up here - out of the salt and snow.
You should see the most recent pictures of my son, Bill. He's been on a diet and very very strict about keeping to it and exercising. He should be very proud of himself and all the effort it's taken. He's coming up for a couple of weeks and will work from here.
Paul made two new end tables for his room downstairs. They're really pretty. Sorry. No pictures. You know - I could be easily discouraged. . . I learn how to put them on this blog and my camera breaks! There's no justice.
His room is so nice. That futon is so lovely - it's very comfortable to sit on. I told Paul we should get another. And he said - why? I said because I love it. That's no reason, of course. I made some chili yesterday and it needed 1/4 cup of beer. (what a waste of a can of beer. . .) so I took it downstairs and sat with him while he finished it.
He has my hope chest as a coffee table. Inside the hope chest is a folded WWI flag that's been in there forever. It's huge. People would march with it - held open - like a blanket - in parades in WWI. People would throw pennies down into it from windows . I guess the pennies were then used for the war effort. Now, I wouldn't dare open the flag without great caution. I'm afraid it would fall apart. My parents flew it from our huge willow tree to the house for Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. Circa 1940-1955.
These are such exciting years for Paul's grandchildren.
Heard from Greg, and Brenan seems very happy at Georgia Tech. He went camping this past weekend and it was supposed to be very cold. I wonder how this young Floridian made out??? Of course he's used to upstate NY Christmases.
Nee Nee has been accepted at two colleges and is still waiting from UFC. ( For me, it's wonderful to be a part of all this. I feel very fortunate.)
Lee is doing well at his school. He visited us last time he was home and we learned how happy he was as he talked and talked about school.
Charles is on the swim team at his high school. (reminds me of the "Bill years" when he was on his swim team. Exciting).
Ida is on her soccer team. We have her schedule and hope to get to see her play.
We went to Corning last Friday night and saw our Corning relative and the Corning Band play for their football game. He is (Now I can't remember correct titles here, so bare (bear?) with me) head chair of the percussion group. . . 10 -15 students?
Corning has just combined two high schools - so the band is huge. This is their first year as one school. I taught and retired from Corning. (11 years ago! Seems like yesterday.) Loved that time in my life. Made some good friends and had some great experiences.
I spoke with Bob and he's so happy in Alpharetta. He says there's always something going on. He'll be visiting us soon, for a couple of weeks before we leave for Fla. He's driving up with Martini.
We've had a quiet (?) week of doctors' appointments. I go to see my rheumatologist on Wednesday, so I needed blood tests which I got today in Big Flats - 10 minutes away. I have so many doctors that I sometimes forget where they are located - Sayre, PA, Corning, Big Flats? And just think - in a month or so, I'll be introduced to new doctors in Florida, as it was suggested that I get some down there.
My car: tomorrow morning it goes in for a recall and oil changed. First time! Did I tell you how much I love my car? I was thinking that as I drove home this morning from Curves. I love the color and I love the back up camera. I will miss it when we go to Florida. But, it'll have a good rest in the garage up here - out of the salt and snow.
You should see the most recent pictures of my son, Bill. He's been on a diet and very very strict about keeping to it and exercising. He should be very proud of himself and all the effort it's taken. He's coming up for a couple of weeks and will work from here.
Paul made two new end tables for his room downstairs. They're really pretty. Sorry. No pictures. You know - I could be easily discouraged. . . I learn how to put them on this blog and my camera breaks! There's no justice.
His room is so nice. That futon is so lovely - it's very comfortable to sit on. I told Paul we should get another. And he said - why? I said because I love it. That's no reason, of course. I made some chili yesterday and it needed 1/4 cup of beer. (what a waste of a can of beer. . .) so I took it downstairs and sat with him while he finished it.
He has my hope chest as a coffee table. Inside the hope chest is a folded WWI flag that's been in there forever. It's huge. People would march with it - held open - like a blanket - in parades in WWI. People would throw pennies down into it from windows . I guess the pennies were then used for the war effort. Now, I wouldn't dare open the flag without great caution. I'm afraid it would fall apart. My parents flew it from our huge willow tree to the house for Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. Circa 1940-1955.
These are such exciting years for Paul's grandchildren.
Heard from Greg, and Brenan seems very happy at Georgia Tech. He went camping this past weekend and it was supposed to be very cold. I wonder how this young Floridian made out??? Of course he's used to upstate NY Christmases.
Nee Nee has been accepted at two colleges and is still waiting from UFC. ( For me, it's wonderful to be a part of all this. I feel very fortunate.)
Lee is doing well at his school. He visited us last time he was home and we learned how happy he was as he talked and talked about school.
Charles is on the swim team at his high school. (reminds me of the "Bill years" when he was on his swim team. Exciting).
Ida is on her soccer team. We have her schedule and hope to get to see her play.
We went to Corning last Friday night and saw our Corning relative and the Corning Band play for their football game. He is (Now I can't remember correct titles here, so bare (bear?) with me) head chair of the percussion group. . . 10 -15 students?
Corning has just combined two high schools - so the band is huge. This is their first year as one school. I taught and retired from Corning. (11 years ago! Seems like yesterday.) Loved that time in my life. Made some good friends and had some great experiences.
I spoke with Bob and he's so happy in Alpharetta. He says there's always something going on. He'll be visiting us soon, for a couple of weeks before we leave for Fla. He's driving up with Martini.
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Our Cruise to New England and Canada
We're back. I don't like advertising the fact that we'll be away, for obvious reasons. After the fact, is fine.
We went on a seven-day cruise for Paul's 80th birthday to Canada and New England on the Norwegian Cruise Ship, The Gem.
We left from NYC which in itself could have been an adventure. The idea of driving in NYC wasn't met with much approval by my husband. So we drove to Middletown the day before and stayed overnight with Paul's niece, Sue, and had a nice visit with her and her brother, Eric. On Saturday morning we took the beautiful ride along the river on the train in to the city. We took a taxi to the ship from Grand Central.
This was quite a different cruise from a Caribbean one. The second night there were eleven foot waves which made walking, standing, sitting and sleeping kind of exciting. The next day we were in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and went to Peggy's Cove, a picturesque little town on the rocky coast with scattered houses and a lighthouse. We could still see large waves rolling in. I guess they're used to waves because they said that when there's really high waves, the town-folk come out from Halifax and go watch the waves at Peggy's Cove which sometimes go over the lighthouse! It was a beautiful day and I'm glad we got a chance to see it.
The next day we docked at St. John's, New Brunswick. The main tourist attraction is the tidal portion of the Bay of Fundy. If you've never heard of this, the tides are the biggest in the world - 50' from high to low tide daily. We had a boat tour of the reversing rapids at high tide. It's a section of the water where the water reverses direction after a while. It was high tide so we could get quite close because the water wasn't too rough. To get on the boat, we needed to take a floating stairway down to a floating dock. The stairway incline was, I'm guessing, at a 15 degree angle - so it was very high tide. After our boat trip we went into a museum where we had a very knowledgeable young man give us all a lecture on whales. When we left the museum, had a cup of coffee, and then went outside, the dock was at a much much higher angle. 40 degrees in two hours? So we could see the water had lowered considerably. Didn't get any good pictures there.
The third day we went to Acadia National Park from Bar Harbor, Maine. We had to dock out and take a tender in. A beautiful and scenic tour. From mountains to seashores. They said that people will come to the beaches by the hundreds to sunbathe on sunny hot days, but you might see 6 kids in the water. Very cold! I somehow think I'd prefer Jones Beach on Long Island. But it was a beautiful spot. We got out at the top of Cadillac Mountain, which they say is the tallest mountain on the east coast, and could see our ship down below.
The fourth day we were in Boston. That was a disappointment. The pier where we docked was old and decrepit - sad looking. There was a mile-long four-story dirty white building with broken windows in a lot of areas. A few spots had lights on. We took a bus/trolley tour and saw a lot, but went past most things too fast to get pictures. No stopping. And the sound was poor quality. Not good for Paul. I did see the church my former nephew Andy was married in and hotel across the square where we stayed. It was as beautiful as I remembered it 20 years ago.
The fifth day we were in Newport, Rhode Island. That was beautiful. We went to the tourist center and got on a small bus for a ride around the area to see the mansions. I had been before, but Paul hadn't. It was a good tour with a good tour guide and excellent sound quality. Unfortunately, my camera stopped working. Not sure what happened but we were unable to get any pictures.
The next day we were back in NYC. What a zoo! There were four cruise ships in at our pier. The luggage was color-coded and amazingly we found our luggage quite easily in the pink section of our ship's luggage area. But the thousands of people! We thought we'd never get a taxi, but there was a queue across the street that we got on, and got in. A short wait. We felt badly for our annoyed taxi driver because he waited an hour for a ride - and we were only going to Grand Central Terminal (a ten-minute $10+ fee) He had hoped for a JFK ride. Oh, well. All we could say was "sorry."
We're still recuperating from our trip. It was fun. One thing I did was to make it known that I wanted gluten free meals, and they supplied a dietician who worked with me each day to prepare a dinner that was GF. Each night, after I finished eating, he'd come by with the next night's menu. He used the regular menu and showed how they could change the ingredients so that I didn't have any wheat products. Such as chicken parmesan with GF pasta. Plus GF toasted bread when Paul had the regular rolls. There were (I'm picking a number)2,500 people on board. The dietician worked with only 32 people on the ship. So I felt very special.
Sue was at the train station to pick us up and we took her out to lunch before leaving for home. We stopped at Tioga Racetrack on the way back and played the slots. I couldn't seem to lose my money! I was down to 50 cents and then I accrued $30. - I was tired - so I cashed in my original $20 and we left. I paid for pizza for supper when we got home. Gluten Free for me. Regular for Paul - Pretty good!
We picked up Gracie on Sunday around noontime. She was happy to see us, of course, but it looked like she had a good time with her friend, Micky.
We went on a seven-day cruise for Paul's 80th birthday to Canada and New England on the Norwegian Cruise Ship, The Gem.
We left from NYC which in itself could have been an adventure. The idea of driving in NYC wasn't met with much approval by my husband. So we drove to Middletown the day before and stayed overnight with Paul's niece, Sue, and had a nice visit with her and her brother, Eric. On Saturday morning we took the beautiful ride along the river on the train in to the city. We took a taxi to the ship from Grand Central.
This was quite a different cruise from a Caribbean one. The second night there were eleven foot waves which made walking, standing, sitting and sleeping kind of exciting. The next day we were in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and went to Peggy's Cove, a picturesque little town on the rocky coast with scattered houses and a lighthouse. We could still see large waves rolling in. I guess they're used to waves because they said that when there's really high waves, the town-folk come out from Halifax and go watch the waves at Peggy's Cove which sometimes go over the lighthouse! It was a beautiful day and I'm glad we got a chance to see it.
The next day we docked at St. John's, New Brunswick. The main tourist attraction is the tidal portion of the Bay of Fundy. If you've never heard of this, the tides are the biggest in the world - 50' from high to low tide daily. We had a boat tour of the reversing rapids at high tide. It's a section of the water where the water reverses direction after a while. It was high tide so we could get quite close because the water wasn't too rough. To get on the boat, we needed to take a floating stairway down to a floating dock. The stairway incline was, I'm guessing, at a 15 degree angle - so it was very high tide. After our boat trip we went into a museum where we had a very knowledgeable young man give us all a lecture on whales. When we left the museum, had a cup of coffee, and then went outside, the dock was at a much much higher angle. 40 degrees in two hours? So we could see the water had lowered considerably. Didn't get any good pictures there.
The third day we went to Acadia National Park from Bar Harbor, Maine. We had to dock out and take a tender in. A beautiful and scenic tour. From mountains to seashores. They said that people will come to the beaches by the hundreds to sunbathe on sunny hot days, but you might see 6 kids in the water. Very cold! I somehow think I'd prefer Jones Beach on Long Island. But it was a beautiful spot. We got out at the top of Cadillac Mountain, which they say is the tallest mountain on the east coast, and could see our ship down below.
The fourth day we were in Boston. That was a disappointment. The pier where we docked was old and decrepit - sad looking. There was a mile-long four-story dirty white building with broken windows in a lot of areas. A few spots had lights on. We took a bus/trolley tour and saw a lot, but went past most things too fast to get pictures. No stopping. And the sound was poor quality. Not good for Paul. I did see the church my former nephew Andy was married in and hotel across the square where we stayed. It was as beautiful as I remembered it 20 years ago.
The fifth day we were in Newport, Rhode Island. That was beautiful. We went to the tourist center and got on a small bus for a ride around the area to see the mansions. I had been before, but Paul hadn't. It was a good tour with a good tour guide and excellent sound quality. Unfortunately, my camera stopped working. Not sure what happened but we were unable to get any pictures.
The next day we were back in NYC. What a zoo! There were four cruise ships in at our pier. The luggage was color-coded and amazingly we found our luggage quite easily in the pink section of our ship's luggage area. But the thousands of people! We thought we'd never get a taxi, but there was a queue across the street that we got on, and got in. A short wait. We felt badly for our annoyed taxi driver because he waited an hour for a ride - and we were only going to Grand Central Terminal (a ten-minute $10+ fee) He had hoped for a JFK ride. Oh, well. All we could say was "sorry."
We're still recuperating from our trip. It was fun. One thing I did was to make it known that I wanted gluten free meals, and they supplied a dietician who worked with me each day to prepare a dinner that was GF. Each night, after I finished eating, he'd come by with the next night's menu. He used the regular menu and showed how they could change the ingredients so that I didn't have any wheat products. Such as chicken parmesan with GF pasta. Plus GF toasted bread when Paul had the regular rolls. There were (I'm picking a number)2,500 people on board. The dietician worked with only 32 people on the ship. So I felt very special.
Sue was at the train station to pick us up and we took her out to lunch before leaving for home. We stopped at Tioga Racetrack on the way back and played the slots. I couldn't seem to lose my money! I was down to 50 cents and then I accrued $30. - I was tired - so I cashed in my original $20 and we left. I paid for pizza for supper when we got home. Gluten Free for me. Regular for Paul - Pretty good!
We picked up Gracie on Sunday around noontime. She was happy to see us, of course, but it looked like she had a good time with her friend, Micky.
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Oh, wow!
Every September I remember the reasons I retired.
One is - It has to be the most beautiful month of the year around here. Unless you count June. I was always inside school at the beginning and end of the school year. Testing, scoring. Going from class to class. It is perfectly gorgeous outside.
And it's Sunday. I think all Sundays should be sunny, bright. Rain just doesn't fit in the picture. Luckily, with our schedule of being here and in Florida, rain seems to seldom happen. Actually that's not true, but don't tell me otherwise.
If you're retired - How lucky can you be. No need to be inside.
Today was the first day of the Sunday School year, so church was changed from 9:30 to 10:30. It took some getting used to for us and I'm sure others. We had breakfast first and then ended up early to church. New schedule. New thinking. It was okay, but next week will be better.
Last Sunday I played in church. I think I should do that more often. I really like to share beautiful music. The congregation responded nicely too. I even had people come up to me today and say how much they enjoyed it. And when was I going to do that again? Which made me want to. Perhaps I'll try to before we go South. The choir is back, but I could play for the Offertory.
They were selling chrysanthemums after church today to support the church campers. We bought two - should have bought a lot more. Next year.
We had a visitor Friday night. Someone we haven't seen in quite some time. Ida. (Ida's in sixth grade now. Yes, I know! Where have the years gone? Our little four-year old flower girl is growing up, and growing up, indeed. She's quite taller than me. To her joy and my chagrin.)
Her parents went down to NYC to visit Lee and see a football game. Lee's on the team. Sharon thought it wasn't a good idea for Ida to miss half a day the first week of school. They had to leave around 1:00 to get there in time for the night game. We were very happy to have her stay overnight with us. So, Paul picked her up from school and brought her home .
I had been to Bath for the day and got home after she got here. They had concocted the most wonderful smoothie - and left some for me! To cool my hot tongue! It was yummy. Made from frozen fruit, milk, ice and a chocolate bar. It even gave me a headache. I'm thinking I'd like to have one tonight. Minus the headache.
Friday, I went to Bath and had lunch with my good friends, Carol O, and Ruth. What a treat to see them! We had lunch at the Chat a Whyle restaurant.
I got to Bath a little early, so I had a chance to make a quick drive through the Fruit Loops (Peach St. house) and I noticed that the green shutters are getting faded and should be replaced. The ones in the sun look like they're grey. The trees are getting enormous. There's a sign out front that the house is for sale, and it says "You should see inside!" Yes. How about it? I'd like to.
The purpose for my Bath visit was to see the eye doctor for my annual contact lens check up. All okay. But I noticed as I pulled into their new facility, which was beautiful BTW, there was an old old lady pulling into the parking place next to me. I knew she looked familiar, but it took me a while to get her located in my mind.
It was my son's third grade teacher. Oh my. She's been retired for decades. So, when we got inside, I introduced myself, and to my surprise, she remembered me, remembered where I lived - Montour Falls - of course that was a while ago, but wasn't that something else that she remembered me and where I had lived?
We had a nice conversation before she was called in by the doctor. Small-town living. Everyone knows about everyone. And if you don't have alsheimers, your mind is a receptor of people information.
The eye doctor sat down across from me and said with a straight face (actually he was smiling)- I never change. Liar, liar - pants on fire. I have gained weight from the medication I'm taking. My face is getting round. And, with the red marks on my arms from the bruising, you can find 1. A heart 2. Australia. 3. A faded old bruise shaped like Florida. Plus others I can't identify. Vanity, thy name is woman.
Speaking of aging. . . my retired teacher friends always have a luncheon the first day of school. This year it happened to be on Thursday. So I went. I hadn't been able to go for several years, due to conflicts. I was slightly apprehensive about going until I saw that I wasn't the only one getting older. Hey - it's just nice to see people and speak with them and see what's going on in their lives. Everyone was happy to see me. And I was happy to see them. And that's the way it should be. There were 22 of us.
It reminded me of class reunions after high school. The first couple of decades, or the first decade, everyone is checking out how people are doing. How they look. After that, it gradually becomes about the people that attend - until you reach the 50th or more and you're just happy to see people and know that you have this bond of childhood memories.
This week was a hodge-podge of doctor visits. Both Paul and me. Mostly, follow-through visits. That's how they make their money - on old people like us. If you have an ache or pain - You get referred to go see a specialist. Now I need to find specialists in Florida to carry on the work of the doctors up here. That'll be my goal next week - on the phone.
My Southern Relatives say that it's HOT. Well, it better cool off by the end of October when we come down, or I will have an unhappy husband. And me too. I think there's a good chance it will.
Cool off.
Cousin Carol seems to be doing well with her dialysis. She should be quite proud. I understand she drove herself to it. I'm not sure if this is a permanent thing, but even once - that's a wow factor.
Brother Bob is now situated in Alpharetta, GA and seems to be so happy. That makes me SO happy. He has family around and does not have to worry about any problems to do with housing. There's a good chance we'll see him before we go South. Each time I've called his cell phone, he's been at a party with Jon and his family.
I understand Bill has some new friends down in Punta Gorda. He's had them to his house to play cards. And he's playing pool. Way to go!
Vincent started third grade on Tuesday. Wow - where has the time gone. Seems like last year he was in Kindergarten. Evie turns 4 this month on Lue's birthday. Walter is 19 months. Nancy and Dan have hands full, working full time, and carting kids here and there- to daycare, school, after school activities.
Parents these days are completely filled with their children's lives. I'm not saying it's bad or good, but just different. Not completely different. We did too, but not to the extent they are. Maybe it's because they grew up in Bath, a small town. Nancy and Dan live in Chicago. There IS a difference there.
Vincent has been taking piano lessons at home. What a bonus that is! No need to go out. The teacher comes to him. I can remember doing that when I started teaching piano. Going to houses was great. It got me out of the house. I was making money. Life was good.
Life is good!
One is - It has to be the most beautiful month of the year around here. Unless you count June. I was always inside school at the beginning and end of the school year. Testing, scoring. Going from class to class. It is perfectly gorgeous outside.
And it's Sunday. I think all Sundays should be sunny, bright. Rain just doesn't fit in the picture. Luckily, with our schedule of being here and in Florida, rain seems to seldom happen. Actually that's not true, but don't tell me otherwise.
If you're retired - How lucky can you be. No need to be inside.
Today was the first day of the Sunday School year, so church was changed from 9:30 to 10:30. It took some getting used to for us and I'm sure others. We had breakfast first and then ended up early to church. New schedule. New thinking. It was okay, but next week will be better.
Last Sunday I played in church. I think I should do that more often. I really like to share beautiful music. The congregation responded nicely too. I even had people come up to me today and say how much they enjoyed it. And when was I going to do that again? Which made me want to. Perhaps I'll try to before we go South. The choir is back, but I could play for the Offertory.
They were selling chrysanthemums after church today to support the church campers. We bought two - should have bought a lot more. Next year.
We had a visitor Friday night. Someone we haven't seen in quite some time. Ida. (Ida's in sixth grade now. Yes, I know! Where have the years gone? Our little four-year old flower girl is growing up, and growing up, indeed. She's quite taller than me. To her joy and my chagrin.)
Her parents went down to NYC to visit Lee and see a football game. Lee's on the team. Sharon thought it wasn't a good idea for Ida to miss half a day the first week of school. They had to leave around 1:00 to get there in time for the night game. We were very happy to have her stay overnight with us. So, Paul picked her up from school and brought her home .
I had been to Bath for the day and got home after she got here. They had concocted the most wonderful smoothie - and left some for me! To cool my hot tongue! It was yummy. Made from frozen fruit, milk, ice and a chocolate bar. It even gave me a headache. I'm thinking I'd like to have one tonight. Minus the headache.
Friday, I went to Bath and had lunch with my good friends, Carol O, and Ruth. What a treat to see them! We had lunch at the Chat a Whyle restaurant.
I got to Bath a little early, so I had a chance to make a quick drive through the Fruit Loops (Peach St. house) and I noticed that the green shutters are getting faded and should be replaced. The ones in the sun look like they're grey. The trees are getting enormous. There's a sign out front that the house is for sale, and it says "You should see inside!" Yes. How about it? I'd like to.
The purpose for my Bath visit was to see the eye doctor for my annual contact lens check up. All okay. But I noticed as I pulled into their new facility, which was beautiful BTW, there was an old old lady pulling into the parking place next to me. I knew she looked familiar, but it took me a while to get her located in my mind.
It was my son's third grade teacher. Oh my. She's been retired for decades. So, when we got inside, I introduced myself, and to my surprise, she remembered me, remembered where I lived - Montour Falls - of course that was a while ago, but wasn't that something else that she remembered me and where I had lived?
We had a nice conversation before she was called in by the doctor. Small-town living. Everyone knows about everyone. And if you don't have alsheimers, your mind is a receptor of people information.
The eye doctor sat down across from me and said with a straight face (actually he was smiling)- I never change. Liar, liar - pants on fire. I have gained weight from the medication I'm taking. My face is getting round. And, with the red marks on my arms from the bruising, you can find 1. A heart 2. Australia. 3. A faded old bruise shaped like Florida. Plus others I can't identify. Vanity, thy name is woman.
Speaking of aging. . . my retired teacher friends always have a luncheon the first day of school. This year it happened to be on Thursday. So I went. I hadn't been able to go for several years, due to conflicts. I was slightly apprehensive about going until I saw that I wasn't the only one getting older. Hey - it's just nice to see people and speak with them and see what's going on in their lives. Everyone was happy to see me. And I was happy to see them. And that's the way it should be. There were 22 of us.
It reminded me of class reunions after high school. The first couple of decades, or the first decade, everyone is checking out how people are doing. How they look. After that, it gradually becomes about the people that attend - until you reach the 50th or more and you're just happy to see people and know that you have this bond of childhood memories.
This week was a hodge-podge of doctor visits. Both Paul and me. Mostly, follow-through visits. That's how they make their money - on old people like us. If you have an ache or pain - You get referred to go see a specialist. Now I need to find specialists in Florida to carry on the work of the doctors up here. That'll be my goal next week - on the phone.
My Southern Relatives say that it's HOT. Well, it better cool off by the end of October when we come down, or I will have an unhappy husband. And me too. I think there's a good chance it will.
Cool off.
Cousin Carol seems to be doing well with her dialysis. She should be quite proud. I understand she drove herself to it. I'm not sure if this is a permanent thing, but even once - that's a wow factor.
Brother Bob is now situated in Alpharetta, GA and seems to be so happy. That makes me SO happy. He has family around and does not have to worry about any problems to do with housing. There's a good chance we'll see him before we go South. Each time I've called his cell phone, he's been at a party with Jon and his family.
I understand Bill has some new friends down in Punta Gorda. He's had them to his house to play cards. And he's playing pool. Way to go!
Vincent started third grade on Tuesday. Wow - where has the time gone. Seems like last year he was in Kindergarten. Evie turns 4 this month on Lue's birthday. Walter is 19 months. Nancy and Dan have hands full, working full time, and carting kids here and there- to daycare, school, after school activities.
Parents these days are completely filled with their children's lives. I'm not saying it's bad or good, but just different. Not completely different. We did too, but not to the extent they are. Maybe it's because they grew up in Bath, a small town. Nancy and Dan live in Chicago. There IS a difference there.
Vincent has been taking piano lessons at home. What a bonus that is! No need to go out. The teacher comes to him. I can remember doing that when I started teaching piano. Going to houses was great. It got me out of the house. I was making money. Life was good.
Life is good!
Monday, September 1, 2014
Just practicin'. Gracie Photos.
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| SDS - Small Dog Syndrome. Very bad manners for a dog which are overlooked when dogs are a small breed. |
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| She doesn't even know she's posing. |
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| She goes up and down those stairs three times faster than I can. She's saying - What's takin' you so long? |
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| Gracie's Big Friend: Greta. |
Friday, August 29, 2014
Time is flying by. . .
August does that. I still hate to see the summer go. Even if I'm retired, summer is my favorite time of the year. It doesn't matter if I'm working or not.
We are having the kind of weather we like to have all the time, up here. It's a good temperature outside, no humidity to speak of, and lots of sunshine. Wow. That's all I can say. You southerners - eat your heart out. Crystal and Bob, up in Boston area, are usually enjoying the same weather. They're our next door neighbors in Fla. and we have just about the same seasonal schedule each year.
Doesn't seem possible that summer is on its way out, and that I've had my car for 3 months now and I've gone 3000+ a couple. Due for an oil change. I can't get used to the fact that my computer here tells me that and knows how many miles I've gone in my car and how it's doing. Strange how Big Brother is taking over our lives. Also that my XMSirius radio free subscription is about to expire. No loss there. Although I use it all the time, I can't see spending all that money each month on what they have to offer. I'll wait and see what happens when I don't bite. Will they offer me less?
Brother Bob is having a day and a half. He's moving out of his home in Venice TODAY and going up to Alpharetta. I keep thinking that they have a beautiful day to move (Jon, his son, is there to help him). Of course in NYS we're having a gorgeous day to move. That's true. I'm sure it's sunny and HOT down there. How very exciting and life-changing it will be. I can't wait to hear from him. I'm excited and happy. I'll be thinking about him all day.
Well - the ordered window blind arrived, and Paul put it in downstairs on the window. It was quite inexpensive and looks great. We also got a new futon for downstairs from Sam's Club. I've never seen this kind- it has cloth arms, like a regular sofa. It isn't what you'd call a klikklak either. Or maybe it is. Material: Brown corduroy with two loose pillows. The only draw-back is it's a full-size rather than a queen-size mattress, but being full-size, it is more comfortable to sit on. ( Drawback: Full-sized seems like it would be small to sleep on after queen.) It looks really nice.
Paul moved his big desk into the area now, so he has - the futon, desk, wooden rolling chair, tv, tv stand, standing lamp, and a hope chest he's thinking of using as a cocktail table.
I talked with my good friend, Marcia, yesterday. We had a good long chat. I'm going to make a promise to myself to call her more often. We enjoy talking with each other! It's HOT down there in NC. Yes. I'm sure it is.
I'm going to be playing the piano on Sunday in church. I'm playing the Prelude - God So Loved the World, and Special Music - My Faith Looks Up to Thee. They have the most wonderful grand piano there. It is such a pleasure to play it. After Bible Study Thursday morning, I went in to the Sanctuary and practiced a bit. It's quite dark in there, but there was a light on the organ that I could use to shine over my shoulder onto the piano for me to see. When I talked with Dave on the phone, he gave me instructions as to what to do, but I promptly forgot. . .except he saying that there was a lamp there near the organ.
As I was finishing and stopped playing, and was putting the piano to bed, I heard some voices in the back and looked at the silhouettes, remember it was kind of dark in the sanctuary, in the main aisle of a man and two small children telling them that this is where he and their mom got married. How nice.
I'm not sure if I've said it, but their organist is a first-class musician who travels around giving concerts all over the country. He also repairs and rebuilds organs. When I was a Trustee in Bath, I was in charge of the music committee and when our organ there needed some really special work, we had him come do it. This church is very lucky to have him. He's also THE organist at the Clemens Center in Elmira. The Clemens Center is the venue for most of the large musical events in the area.
I am feeling very good. As I said in my last post, it probably isn't the wheat-free diet that's causing me to be able to sleep so well. I'd like to think it, but I have my doubts. Perhaps because it's not a medicinal answer? Time will tell. Unfortunately, I am gaining weight - I'm taking medicine that causes that problem . . . at least that's the reason I'm using. I also have developed an appetite. Not to be cliche-ish - but I have to learn to take the good with the bad. I always think I'm not going to develop any bad side effects. I'm different from everyone else, I should have NO side effects!
I have to laugh - just before I began this new medication, really - Just Before by a couple of days - I signed up for a contest that if I went to Curves 30 times in the 60 days of July and August, I would be eligible for some free things, plus if I lost weight, inches, I'd win some other prizes. Well - forget about the weight loss (today - they sorrowfully said I gained 2 lbs.) but I did manage to go 30 times. Today was the 30th.
I have found a perfectly wonderful place to read my kindle in the afternoon: the front porch. It's shady, we don't seem to have bugs. I can see the world going by. The people across the street just had their fourth little baby born yesterday - the mailbox has pink balloons (so it's a girl) - three - I wonder if it's from each of their other children - Natalie, who made good friends with Evie, Abrigail, the oldest, and little Graydon, their two-year old son who will eventually be perfect for Walter. Haven't seen anybody out and about. I don't envy her, I know I shouldn't say that. It's not nice. Paul said she wanted to have four children. So it was her wish. Good for her. I'm happy for them.
Sharon, Dave, Ida and Charles went to visit Lee last weekend as he finished his "bootcamp" called indoc. at his military college. It's been quite an experience. Good pictures of him in his dress whites. Very handsome. Looks so much like his dad! They got there a day early which became lucky - because they had time to see his room.
Paul just got back from Lowe's - his home away from home. The van pulled up outside my window and he's loading 4 X 8 panels downstairs.
I was so annoyed last night. As a surprise for Paul, I ordered the last season 7 of Monarch of the Glen. It was one of the few seasonal series that we both enjoyed. Netflix BBC had seasons 1-6 streaming - subtitled. I don't know why, but they didn't do Season 7. So I ordered it. Through Warner-Home Videos. It took a couple of weeks to get it here.
It arrived Thursday (yesterday). We put it on. No subtitles. With the Scottish accents and different ways of talking, we really need that. So - it was a complete waste. I wrote them a letter. Sent it out today. Probably was a waste of time, but I felt better. BTW: I was very nice. I played on their sympathy. I told them we were elderly and had this hearing problem. Did they know of any place we could get Season 7 with subtitles?
We are having the kind of weather we like to have all the time, up here. It's a good temperature outside, no humidity to speak of, and lots of sunshine. Wow. That's all I can say. You southerners - eat your heart out. Crystal and Bob, up in Boston area, are usually enjoying the same weather. They're our next door neighbors in Fla. and we have just about the same seasonal schedule each year.
Doesn't seem possible that summer is on its way out, and that I've had my car for 3 months now and I've gone 3000+ a couple. Due for an oil change. I can't get used to the fact that my computer here tells me that and knows how many miles I've gone in my car and how it's doing. Strange how Big Brother is taking over our lives. Also that my XMSirius radio free subscription is about to expire. No loss there. Although I use it all the time, I can't see spending all that money each month on what they have to offer. I'll wait and see what happens when I don't bite. Will they offer me less?
Brother Bob is having a day and a half. He's moving out of his home in Venice TODAY and going up to Alpharetta. I keep thinking that they have a beautiful day to move (Jon, his son, is there to help him). Of course in NYS we're having a gorgeous day to move. That's true. I'm sure it's sunny and HOT down there. How very exciting and life-changing it will be. I can't wait to hear from him. I'm excited and happy. I'll be thinking about him all day.
Well - the ordered window blind arrived, and Paul put it in downstairs on the window. It was quite inexpensive and looks great. We also got a new futon for downstairs from Sam's Club. I've never seen this kind- it has cloth arms, like a regular sofa. It isn't what you'd call a klikklak either. Or maybe it is. Material: Brown corduroy with two loose pillows. The only draw-back is it's a full-size rather than a queen-size mattress, but being full-size, it is more comfortable to sit on. ( Drawback: Full-sized seems like it would be small to sleep on after queen.) It looks really nice.
Paul moved his big desk into the area now, so he has - the futon, desk, wooden rolling chair, tv, tv stand, standing lamp, and a hope chest he's thinking of using as a cocktail table.
I talked with my good friend, Marcia, yesterday. We had a good long chat. I'm going to make a promise to myself to call her more often. We enjoy talking with each other! It's HOT down there in NC. Yes. I'm sure it is.
I'm going to be playing the piano on Sunday in church. I'm playing the Prelude - God So Loved the World, and Special Music - My Faith Looks Up to Thee. They have the most wonderful grand piano there. It is such a pleasure to play it. After Bible Study Thursday morning, I went in to the Sanctuary and practiced a bit. It's quite dark in there, but there was a light on the organ that I could use to shine over my shoulder onto the piano for me to see. When I talked with Dave on the phone, he gave me instructions as to what to do, but I promptly forgot. . .except he saying that there was a lamp there near the organ.
As I was finishing and stopped playing, and was putting the piano to bed, I heard some voices in the back and looked at the silhouettes, remember it was kind of dark in the sanctuary, in the main aisle of a man and two small children telling them that this is where he and their mom got married. How nice.
I'm not sure if I've said it, but their organist is a first-class musician who travels around giving concerts all over the country. He also repairs and rebuilds organs. When I was a Trustee in Bath, I was in charge of the music committee and when our organ there needed some really special work, we had him come do it. This church is very lucky to have him. He's also THE organist at the Clemens Center in Elmira. The Clemens Center is the venue for most of the large musical events in the area.
I am feeling very good. As I said in my last post, it probably isn't the wheat-free diet that's causing me to be able to sleep so well. I'd like to think it, but I have my doubts. Perhaps because it's not a medicinal answer? Time will tell. Unfortunately, I am gaining weight - I'm taking medicine that causes that problem . . . at least that's the reason I'm using. I also have developed an appetite. Not to be cliche-ish - but I have to learn to take the good with the bad. I always think I'm not going to develop any bad side effects. I'm different from everyone else, I should have NO side effects!
I have to laugh - just before I began this new medication, really - Just Before by a couple of days - I signed up for a contest that if I went to Curves 30 times in the 60 days of July and August, I would be eligible for some free things, plus if I lost weight, inches, I'd win some other prizes. Well - forget about the weight loss (today - they sorrowfully said I gained 2 lbs.) but I did manage to go 30 times. Today was the 30th.
I have found a perfectly wonderful place to read my kindle in the afternoon: the front porch. It's shady, we don't seem to have bugs. I can see the world going by. The people across the street just had their fourth little baby born yesterday - the mailbox has pink balloons (so it's a girl) - three - I wonder if it's from each of their other children - Natalie, who made good friends with Evie, Abrigail, the oldest, and little Graydon, their two-year old son who will eventually be perfect for Walter. Haven't seen anybody out and about. I don't envy her, I know I shouldn't say that. It's not nice. Paul said she wanted to have four children. So it was her wish. Good for her. I'm happy for them.
Sharon, Dave, Ida and Charles went to visit Lee last weekend as he finished his "bootcamp" called indoc. at his military college. It's been quite an experience. Good pictures of him in his dress whites. Very handsome. Looks so much like his dad! They got there a day early which became lucky - because they had time to see his room.
Paul just got back from Lowe's - his home away from home. The van pulled up outside my window and he's loading 4 X 8 panels downstairs.
I was so annoyed last night. As a surprise for Paul, I ordered the last season 7 of Monarch of the Glen. It was one of the few seasonal series that we both enjoyed. Netflix BBC had seasons 1-6 streaming - subtitled. I don't know why, but they didn't do Season 7. So I ordered it. Through Warner-Home Videos. It took a couple of weeks to get it here.
It arrived Thursday (yesterday). We put it on. No subtitles. With the Scottish accents and different ways of talking, we really need that. So - it was a complete waste. I wrote them a letter. Sent it out today. Probably was a waste of time, but I felt better. BTW: I was very nice. I played on their sympathy. I told them we were elderly and had this hearing problem. Did they know of any place we could get Season 7 with subtitles?
Saturday, August 23, 2014
It's nice to have good news.
Good news in as few words as possible: This week: One mammogram, two mammogram, a biopsy - negative! So, we've been a little stressed lately, but very happy now. And very thankful. And sincerely pleased. It's been a busy week. . . thinking of what if's. . . that now won't be. Thank the Lord.
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Nancy, Dan and the kids came for a visit last week - from Wednesday to Tuesday. We enjoyed having them and the little ones.
Vincent is growing so fast - he's now eight years old. He's getting out of the little boy stage and into the "boy" arena. Amazing how quickly that happens. When did he grow up so fast? He still enjoys his legos and luckily I had some pirate/sailor legos here that he was able to put together. Interestingly, he's going to some summer day camps near his home and one of the "courses" he took was making videos of legos. He and Dan made up some fun 60 second movies using the legos we had. . .moving them frame by frame. They added music and cartoon captions. Very clever.
Evie is adorable - on her way to being four at the end of September. Where has the time gone? She enjoyed the hot tub very much. Nancy says she loves water. She, Walter and Nancy were in the hot tub and so I thought I'd join them wearing my new flowered bathing suit. Now, you know a 74 year old woman is not exactly a bathing beauty, but three-year old Evie - unrehearsed - yelled out - I LOVE it! to me as I entered the hot tub area. She's pretty cute.
Walter is going to be two in February, so he's still quite a little guy, and a handful. He's constantly on the move - either running or walking or tumbling fast. From one thing to another. This was not an easy week for him. It was hard for him to adjust to new surroundings and new people. Nancy (especially) and Dan needed to be constantly available for him. As has been said many times before, this too will pass, but while you're going through it, it isn't easy. Patience is a virtue that wears thin, but I didn't see that too much. Nancy has a load of it. I'm proud of her. I don't know if it's easier to have a job, or to be available 24/7. It doesn't matter. Whatever your choice in life is, it is what is, then and there, and that's the path you're on.
Nancy and I took Vincent and Evie to the Science Center in Ithaca last Sunday and had a wonderful time. The Science Center is a huge building full of nooks and crannies of all kinds of science experiments for the kids to enjoy. They aren't aware of the principles of science that they are using for most of the time, but they had such a good time with giant bubbles, a rube-Goldberg contraption, an invisible harp, stairs that were musical notes, giant foam building blocks, outdoor drums, cymbals, were just a few. Afterwards we played 9 holes of miniature golf (we gave Evie a lot of leeway with the score) and went for some ice cream. A perfect day. Lots of smiles and happiness.
Anyway - they're now home and back to their routine. Vincent starts school after Labor Day. Seems so strange when Nicole, Bob's daughter in law and their kids, started school two weeks ago. Brenda's in California started also. I think I wrote about that a while back - interesting how different the school schedules are.
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Paul's waiting for special-order blinds to come for the down-stairs cottage that he worked on. We've decided to keep the futon upstairs in the office and buy a new one for downstairs. That downstairs area is going to be beautiful when he's done. He's having such a good time putting it together. Gracie and I like going down there and seeing what's been accomplished.
Gracie has Ping-Pong balls all over and she enjoys going after them and watching them bounce, roll. She's not that good about dropping them in front of us so we can throw them for her, but she's learning. I had looked for some small balls for her, but everything is bigger than them. And she has trouble getting her mouth around them, so she loses interest.
Oh, yes. Lue brought Greta, her Bernase Mountain Dog, here for the kids to see. Lue leaves the seats down in the back and puts a rug down for Greta, so she travels in style. As Dan said - kids, you're going to see a dog that's twice as big as Ivan (their Siberian husky). And she was.
We don't see Greta very often because she's over 100 lbs. vs. Gracie 5 lbs. 1 oz. And there's rightly a possibility of some squooshing there. Although Greta is much much calmer, as is Gracie. We let Gracie get close to Greta and Gracie licked Greta's mussel. Greta even let the kids hug her too. She has a double coat and is as soft as can be. She's a very well-behaved dog. Lue's done such a good job with her.
After Lue left us on Saturday, she had an accident - she was stopped in traffic in Watkins Glen, a truck didn't notice she'd stopped, and plowed into her. The compact car in front of her was fine. The truck was okay too, but her van got rumpled front and back and is in the shop for repairs. Lue's okay. Sore. They loaned her a little Versa. She's fit to be tied. She said it's like a tuna fish can with wheels. Not sure if they factored in having Greta join her. Guess not. Not sure how long the van will be out of service. God Bless her.
My cousin Carol in Venice, is getting used to dialysis - three times a week - Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Recently, I talked to her on the phone and she sounds so upbeat. I love her to pieces and it was so nice to hear her voice.
Sunday, tomorrow, our church is having a brunch after it's 9:30 service. I am going to make some gluten free muffins this afternoon. I've discovered that there always seems to be someone at buffets that brings something GF, so I thought I would too. And (as the books say) I'll have something to eat. I forgot to put the butter out to get soft, so I may do it tonight. Such is life.
I had such a nice e-mail from Edna, Paul's sister. She reads my blog all the time and missed it. That was so nice of her to think of us. We appreciate responses and its always good to know people are reading it. Thank you, Edna, for your kindness. It means a lot.
I am feeling so much better since I went Gluten Free. I would recommend it to anyone. I am sleeping so well. I was trying to figure out why and tried to make a connection. I am taking a lot of medications now, but I checked them out and I don't think any of them cause that to happen, and even if they did, the only thing I recently added was GF. (July 23 I began a wheat-free diet) Before that, I had trouble sleeping. I considered old age as the culprit, as to why I had trouble sleeping, but perhaps it wasn't. Perhaps it may be partly due to GF. Or all. I am still hesitant to give it all its due. But I am very grateful. There's nothing like a good-night's sleep.
********
Nancy, Dan and the kids came for a visit last week - from Wednesday to Tuesday. We enjoyed having them and the little ones.
Vincent is growing so fast - he's now eight years old. He's getting out of the little boy stage and into the "boy" arena. Amazing how quickly that happens. When did he grow up so fast? He still enjoys his legos and luckily I had some pirate/sailor legos here that he was able to put together. Interestingly, he's going to some summer day camps near his home and one of the "courses" he took was making videos of legos. He and Dan made up some fun 60 second movies using the legos we had. . .moving them frame by frame. They added music and cartoon captions. Very clever.
Evie is adorable - on her way to being four at the end of September. Where has the time gone? She enjoyed the hot tub very much. Nancy says she loves water. She, Walter and Nancy were in the hot tub and so I thought I'd join them wearing my new flowered bathing suit. Now, you know a 74 year old woman is not exactly a bathing beauty, but three-year old Evie - unrehearsed - yelled out - I LOVE it! to me as I entered the hot tub area. She's pretty cute.
Walter is going to be two in February, so he's still quite a little guy, and a handful. He's constantly on the move - either running or walking or tumbling fast. From one thing to another. This was not an easy week for him. It was hard for him to adjust to new surroundings and new people. Nancy (especially) and Dan needed to be constantly available for him. As has been said many times before, this too will pass, but while you're going through it, it isn't easy. Patience is a virtue that wears thin, but I didn't see that too much. Nancy has a load of it. I'm proud of her. I don't know if it's easier to have a job, or to be available 24/7. It doesn't matter. Whatever your choice in life is, it is what is, then and there, and that's the path you're on.
Nancy and I took Vincent and Evie to the Science Center in Ithaca last Sunday and had a wonderful time. The Science Center is a huge building full of nooks and crannies of all kinds of science experiments for the kids to enjoy. They aren't aware of the principles of science that they are using for most of the time, but they had such a good time with giant bubbles, a rube-Goldberg contraption, an invisible harp, stairs that were musical notes, giant foam building blocks, outdoor drums, cymbals, were just a few. Afterwards we played 9 holes of miniature golf (we gave Evie a lot of leeway with the score) and went for some ice cream. A perfect day. Lots of smiles and happiness.
Anyway - they're now home and back to their routine. Vincent starts school after Labor Day. Seems so strange when Nicole, Bob's daughter in law and their kids, started school two weeks ago. Brenda's in California started also. I think I wrote about that a while back - interesting how different the school schedules are.
********
Paul's waiting for special-order blinds to come for the down-stairs cottage that he worked on. We've decided to keep the futon upstairs in the office and buy a new one for downstairs. That downstairs area is going to be beautiful when he's done. He's having such a good time putting it together. Gracie and I like going down there and seeing what's been accomplished.
Gracie has Ping-Pong balls all over and she enjoys going after them and watching them bounce, roll. She's not that good about dropping them in front of us so we can throw them for her, but she's learning. I had looked for some small balls for her, but everything is bigger than them. And she has trouble getting her mouth around them, so she loses interest.
Oh, yes. Lue brought Greta, her Bernase Mountain Dog, here for the kids to see. Lue leaves the seats down in the back and puts a rug down for Greta, so she travels in style. As Dan said - kids, you're going to see a dog that's twice as big as Ivan (their Siberian husky). And she was.
We don't see Greta very often because she's over 100 lbs. vs. Gracie 5 lbs. 1 oz. And there's rightly a possibility of some squooshing there. Although Greta is much much calmer, as is Gracie. We let Gracie get close to Greta and Gracie licked Greta's mussel. Greta even let the kids hug her too. She has a double coat and is as soft as can be. She's a very well-behaved dog. Lue's done such a good job with her.
After Lue left us on Saturday, she had an accident - she was stopped in traffic in Watkins Glen, a truck didn't notice she'd stopped, and plowed into her. The compact car in front of her was fine. The truck was okay too, but her van got rumpled front and back and is in the shop for repairs. Lue's okay. Sore. They loaned her a little Versa. She's fit to be tied. She said it's like a tuna fish can with wheels. Not sure if they factored in having Greta join her. Guess not. Not sure how long the van will be out of service. God Bless her.
My cousin Carol in Venice, is getting used to dialysis - three times a week - Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Recently, I talked to her on the phone and she sounds so upbeat. I love her to pieces and it was so nice to hear her voice.
Sunday, tomorrow, our church is having a brunch after it's 9:30 service. I am going to make some gluten free muffins this afternoon. I've discovered that there always seems to be someone at buffets that brings something GF, so I thought I would too. And (as the books say) I'll have something to eat. I forgot to put the butter out to get soft, so I may do it tonight. Such is life.
I had such a nice e-mail from Edna, Paul's sister. She reads my blog all the time and missed it. That was so nice of her to think of us. We appreciate responses and its always good to know people are reading it. Thank you, Edna, for your kindness. It means a lot.
I am feeling so much better since I went Gluten Free. I would recommend it to anyone. I am sleeping so well. I was trying to figure out why and tried to make a connection. I am taking a lot of medications now, but I checked them out and I don't think any of them cause that to happen, and even if they did, the only thing I recently added was GF. (July 23 I began a wheat-free diet) Before that, I had trouble sleeping. I considered old age as the culprit, as to why I had trouble sleeping, but perhaps it wasn't. Perhaps it may be partly due to GF. Or all. I am still hesitant to give it all its due. But I am very grateful. There's nothing like a good-night's sleep.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Old things, an old old Bible, old me.
Okay. Things have been either very hectic, or not very writeable. In other words: Rush rush rush, or STOP. Does that make sense? I found a posting that I had begun on July 22nd, (this has never happened before) and somehow didn't get back to it to complete it, so I'm going to now send it on. I'll put in parenthesis if I have anything to add.
This is what I wrote:
Paul is still busy downstairs working on the room. It'll be really great when it's done. I shall try to get some pictures up. Really. ( We now have rugs down there and the last part of everything is done. Paul has been finding pleasure in doing the little odds and assorted things, only he will see. No perhaps that isn't right. He added a light switch so he can turn off the lights from the room to the outer area. So we all can see. A pun intended. )
We're having a rainy Sunday afternoon. July 22nd. (It's actually a Thursday in August.)
Lately, I'm taking advantage of all the energy I have to clean out some boxes downstairs in the cellar. I'm trying to throw out, consolidate, and get some to the Salvation Army. I see Paul has a box on the dining room table to go for my car trunk. I got some new boxes from the grocery store and have filled three - two to go out, one to stay. . . cleaning out three boxes. And yes. There will be less there "stuff" when I'm through. (I did get one o the boxes to the S & A Boutique - and have been filling up another. So, I'm making a dent in it all.)
I did find a scrapbook full of letters I wrote home when I was in college. My mother had put them carefully back in their envelopes on each page. They weren't attached, so I could take the letters out in their envelopes, and throw away the old, old scrap book that was falling apart. I'll attach them with a ribbon and put them away. (I found a decorated lidded box and put a ribbon around them as I had planned. They're now sitting on my dresser, forgotten for the moment, but I will soon find a home for it on a shelf in our closet.)
I also found my family bible. From what I remember, it's in German. It's wrapped up in black plastic bag - probably I'm sure the utmost horrible way to keep it. As it doesn't "breathe". That'll be one of my next steps. To see if it can be saved. If I remember correctly, it wasn't in good shape to begin with. And it seemed like a tremendous undertaking at the time to properly look and see what can be done.
( I DID take the plastic off, and the Bible was wrapped in cording because it is in pretty bad shape. It wasn't at all like I had thought it was. It isn't as old as I thought it was, and hoped it was my great grandparents. I cut the string, and opened it up. The covers are completely separate from the book. Thus the reason for the attached string. It's in English and was given to my grandparents from their wedding. Around 1900. It's HUGE. It has a bookmark in the middle, set to the page for weddings, births. My uncle, father, brother, my birthdates are there, as are the wedding dates of relatives since. Paul found some new string which got quite dirty - a rusty dusty colored disintegration of cardboard, leather-like cover, appeared on the outside, on my white blouse, fingers, everything, but now it looks like its re-wrapped and good to go)
I did find a white china teapot, coffee pot service - trimmed in gold - that is rumored to be the 50th wedding anniversary for the Smith Family circa 1860-70. I'm keeping that.
We talked with Brother Bob on the phone last night. He's doing fine in Florida - waiting for his home to sell. He's had a lot of people through. Talked to Alice, and I guess he drops over there when he has people at his house. Ah - It's a chance for them to get together. (It's sold! He sold it last week! So now he is busy packing, getting ready to move to Alpharetta. I'm so excited for him. Now he can get on with his life. The house was sold to a person who fixes up houses and resells them. )
Alice has her grandson, Philip, staying with her for a couple of months this summer. Philip's parents, Craig and Sue, are missionaries in Peru. He's going to college here in the states, to be a youth pastor, and he's doing his "internship" at his grandmother's church. Alice and Bob both said what a nice young man he is, and Alice said he's a joy to have around. I'm sure she'll miss him when he leaves. She said Philip did a lesson on the Parables with her Bible Study group.
BTW I understand Bible study has been suspended for the month of August. And Alice has places to go and things to do. Not enough people. And of course she deserves some time off. We usually had over 20 in the winter months. Now there were 4 at the last one.
(Alice is now home after taking Philip back to college up north,and visiting relatives on Long Island, and get away from the heat! She was gone for about a week, I think. I talked with her on the phone and she's glad to be back home and back to her usual routine (minus Bible Study. . . because it's still August.)
This is what I wrote:
Paul is still busy downstairs working on the room. It'll be really great when it's done. I shall try to get some pictures up. Really. ( We now have rugs down there and the last part of everything is done. Paul has been finding pleasure in doing the little odds and assorted things, only he will see. No perhaps that isn't right. He added a light switch so he can turn off the lights from the room to the outer area. So we all can see. A pun intended. )
We're having a rainy Sunday afternoon. July 22nd. (It's actually a Thursday in August.)
Lately, I'm taking advantage of all the energy I have to clean out some boxes downstairs in the cellar. I'm trying to throw out, consolidate, and get some to the Salvation Army. I see Paul has a box on the dining room table to go for my car trunk. I got some new boxes from the grocery store and have filled three - two to go out, one to stay. . . cleaning out three boxes. And yes. There will be less there "stuff" when I'm through. (I did get one o the boxes to the S & A Boutique - and have been filling up another. So, I'm making a dent in it all.)
I did find a scrapbook full of letters I wrote home when I was in college. My mother had put them carefully back in their envelopes on each page. They weren't attached, so I could take the letters out in their envelopes, and throw away the old, old scrap book that was falling apart. I'll attach them with a ribbon and put them away. (I found a decorated lidded box and put a ribbon around them as I had planned. They're now sitting on my dresser, forgotten for the moment, but I will soon find a home for it on a shelf in our closet.)
I also found my family bible. From what I remember, it's in German. It's wrapped up in black plastic bag - probably I'm sure the utmost horrible way to keep it. As it doesn't "breathe". That'll be one of my next steps. To see if it can be saved. If I remember correctly, it wasn't in good shape to begin with. And it seemed like a tremendous undertaking at the time to properly look and see what can be done.
( I DID take the plastic off, and the Bible was wrapped in cording because it is in pretty bad shape. It wasn't at all like I had thought it was. It isn't as old as I thought it was, and hoped it was my great grandparents. I cut the string, and opened it up. The covers are completely separate from the book. Thus the reason for the attached string. It's in English and was given to my grandparents from their wedding. Around 1900. It's HUGE. It has a bookmark in the middle, set to the page for weddings, births. My uncle, father, brother, my birthdates are there, as are the wedding dates of relatives since. Paul found some new string which got quite dirty - a rusty dusty colored disintegration of cardboard, leather-like cover, appeared on the outside, on my white blouse, fingers, everything, but now it looks like its re-wrapped and good to go)
I did find a white china teapot, coffee pot service - trimmed in gold - that is rumored to be the 50th wedding anniversary for the Smith Family circa 1860-70. I'm keeping that.
We talked with Brother Bob on the phone last night. He's doing fine in Florida - waiting for his home to sell. He's had a lot of people through. Talked to Alice, and I guess he drops over there when he has people at his house. Ah - It's a chance for them to get together. (It's sold! He sold it last week! So now he is busy packing, getting ready to move to Alpharetta. I'm so excited for him. Now he can get on with his life. The house was sold to a person who fixes up houses and resells them. )
Alice has her grandson, Philip, staying with her for a couple of months this summer. Philip's parents, Craig and Sue, are missionaries in Peru. He's going to college here in the states, to be a youth pastor, and he's doing his "internship" at his grandmother's church. Alice and Bob both said what a nice young man he is, and Alice said he's a joy to have around. I'm sure she'll miss him when he leaves. She said Philip did a lesson on the Parables with her Bible Study group.
BTW I understand Bible study has been suspended for the month of August. And Alice has places to go and things to do. Not enough people. And of course she deserves some time off. We usually had over 20 in the winter months. Now there were 4 at the last one.
(Alice is now home after taking Philip back to college up north,and visiting relatives on Long Island, and get away from the heat! She was gone for about a week, I think. I talked with her on the phone and she's glad to be back home and back to her usual routine (minus Bible Study. . . because it's still August.)
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