Jan Suchy has written a book. Jan and Gene were my next door neighbors for the last 22 years. Gene has been the treasurer of Holliday Park since before I moved in and just retired from that post last year. Since he retired our carrying charges have gone up twice. I know, gas prices, etc. But they didn't go up when Gene was managing the money.
Anyways, about Jan. The title of her book is Three Heavenly Lives. It chronicles her childhood years growing up in Dubuque Iowa, her 19 years in the convent and her 30 odd years of married life. I'm assuming it was self-published and since she isn't in the business to make money, she is selling the book for $5.95. I bought one and finished it yesterday. Those of you who know her will believe me that there is not a harsh or offensive word about anybody. Except maybe herself. She tells of a time while she was in the convent and one of her sisters (there were 9 siblings) left the Catholic church and joined the Lutherans. She wrote her sister a letter telling her she was going to hell. She also tells how deeply she regrets that letter and that sentiment.
One of her stories that I had heard before is that after she accepted Gene's proposal, he set a date for the wedding a year away and told her that she would need a dowery of $5,000.00. He later explained that he wanted to make sure she was not just trading the security of the convent for the security of marriage. He wanted her to know that she could make it on her own. When she presented him with $9,000.00 before the wedding, he offered to double it if she decided she didn't want to get married. But she did.
Something I didn't know about her was that she suffered two miscarriages in her early married years and ended up with a hysterectomy.
In other news, I learned that the guy who bought my unit died before he ever moved in. It seems that the wife is going to move in anyways tho.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Friday, April 21, 2006
Springtime Tulips
I had lovely tulips on the side of my house. Overnight they sprung almost full grown. Beautiful red tulips. Crap. I don't want to take care of any flowers. When I bought this unit, I made the lady pull up all the flowers and lay sod right up to the bricks.
Whoever laid the sod probably didn't even know those bulbs were down there and now they have presented themselves. Yes they are beautiful, yadda, yadda. But, in my case, beauty is in the eye of the caretaker and that makes them ugly to me.
I sent my resident daughter outside to pull them up and she did. The next morning I saw them sitting in my trash and could see about 20 buds waiting to open. So I called Jeannette and she offered to adopt the plant and put it in her backyard. Now when I look at them at her house, they can be beautiful again.
Whoever laid the sod probably didn't even know those bulbs were down there and now they have presented themselves. Yes they are beautiful, yadda, yadda. But, in my case, beauty is in the eye of the caretaker and that makes them ugly to me.
I sent my resident daughter outside to pull them up and she did. The next morning I saw them sitting in my trash and could see about 20 buds waiting to open. So I called Jeannette and she offered to adopt the plant and put it in her backyard. Now when I look at them at her house, they can be beautiful again.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Alien among us
I mentioned in my Slacker post that we had been to the Windsor casino last Thursday with Martha. We liked it so much we decided to go again on Tuesday the 18th and Jeannette made the reservations. When we get on the Windsor bus we have to show our proper ID so the bus driver will know that there will be no problems at the border. Usually we flash the passport pictures and get on the bus. This day, there was a little delay getting on the bus and after flashing the picture page, Martha closed her passport and the bus driver saw that it said Canadian.
He asked to see her green card. He asked a little belligerently. She didn't understand the request, not having had a green card for almost 25 years. Jeannette tried to find out why he thought she needed one. The way I understand it is that a green card is necessary for aliens who wish to live and/or work in the US. Martha lives is Quebec City, Quebec, Canada and was just here visiting Jeannette for the week. The bus driver was listening to no one and kept hollering "Lady, let me do my job." It was the day after Martha's 85th birthday and she was visibly shaken.
The upshot was that he wouldn't let Martha on the bus, and she and Jeannette went back home, got Jeannette's car and drove to Windsor where they met up with me and Rita for the day. Rita and I took the bus anyways in order to get our $15.00 bus packets, then we drove home with Jeannette.
We heard the driver explaining to some of the front passengers who had witnessed the demonstration that Martha would have been able to go over on the bus, but she would not have been able to come back. Bringing her into Canada would have been no problem since she was a Canadian citizen resident. He is not allowed to bring any Canadian citizens across the border to the US on his bus without sufficient entry documents.
Jeannette got the full explanation from the bus company supervisor when she called to complain. She still lodged a complaint against the driver for his intimidating, belligerent manner, and failure to explain at the time.
He asked to see her green card. He asked a little belligerently. She didn't understand the request, not having had a green card for almost 25 years. Jeannette tried to find out why he thought she needed one. The way I understand it is that a green card is necessary for aliens who wish to live and/or work in the US. Martha lives is Quebec City, Quebec, Canada and was just here visiting Jeannette for the week. The bus driver was listening to no one and kept hollering "Lady, let me do my job." It was the day after Martha's 85th birthday and she was visibly shaken.
The upshot was that he wouldn't let Martha on the bus, and she and Jeannette went back home, got Jeannette's car and drove to Windsor where they met up with me and Rita for the day. Rita and I took the bus anyways in order to get our $15.00 bus packets, then we drove home with Jeannette.
We heard the driver explaining to some of the front passengers who had witnessed the demonstration that Martha would have been able to go over on the bus, but she would not have been able to come back. Bringing her into Canada would have been no problem since she was a Canadian citizen resident. He is not allowed to bring any Canadian citizens across the border to the US on his bus without sufficient entry documents.
Jeannette got the full explanation from the bus company supervisor when she called to complain. She still lodged a complaint against the driver for his intimidating, belligerent manner, and failure to explain at the time.
Monday, April 17, 2006
The Sheedy Scoop
I had dinner with Rita's family and here's all the Sheedy scoop.
Jerry and Linda have been in their new house long enough to know that they really like it. Jerry and Neil have facial hair, Kelly not. Kelly brought a girlfriend (name, Diana) Neil, not. Linda just got back from a trip to Las Vegas with her siblings. She has 3 sisters and a couple of brothers and they are close and do trips together. This new house is close to one of her brothers.
Kelly is laid off from his good job and hopefully it is temporary. Since he started this job and had good insurance he has been to a sleep clinic. He has a pretty severe case of sleep apnia. They outfitted him with an apparatus that sits next to his bed and to which he is supposed to hook himself up in order to sleep well. They found that he quit breathing an average of 72 times per hour, and the longest non-breathing interval was 125 seconds. He tried holding his breath for 2 minutes (after an inhale) while awake and couldn't do it. He finds being hooked up very tedious and has been told to try wearing the apparatus while awake for increasing intervals in order to get used to it. There is a surgery that could be tried, but they told him that many people end up using the machine even after surgery.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Slacker, Me
I don't do anything. I can't just blog about casino experiences all the time. Martha (Jeannette's Aunt) is in town and we have been to Windsor and Motor City. We were supposed to do MGM on Tuesday but are going to Windsor again. That's our favorite.
My feet have been hurting really bad. I go from hardly being able to walk to not being able to walk. In the not able to walk stage it hurts slightly less when I'm sitting and slightly less than that when I'm lying down. Its been more than a week now. I'll give it another week then think about seeing a doctor.
I get sunshine in my living room in the afternoons and it gets pretty hot in here. I can't open the front door cause that's where the hot is coming from. Yesterday I was smart enough to open the side door and got a nice cool breeze. Today its cold again and there's no sun.
I am going out to dinner today with Rita's family. Happy Easter to all of you.
My feet have been hurting really bad. I go from hardly being able to walk to not being able to walk. In the not able to walk stage it hurts slightly less when I'm sitting and slightly less than that when I'm lying down. Its been more than a week now. I'll give it another week then think about seeing a doctor.
I get sunshine in my living room in the afternoons and it gets pretty hot in here. I can't open the front door cause that's where the hot is coming from. Yesterday I was smart enough to open the side door and got a nice cool breeze. Today its cold again and there's no sun.
I am going out to dinner today with Rita's family. Happy Easter to all of you.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
How Quickly we Spoil
We had a couple of days of weather in the 60s and I am thoroughly spoiled. Getting off the casino bus last night it was quite a bit colder than it had been when I got on at noon.
The full tank of gas that came with my car is almost gone and I saw gas at a reasonable price (the fact that I can call $2.46 a reasonable price means that George W. is truly winning) but I wouldn't stop and pump it because it was cold outside.
I figured if it went up 5 or 10 cents in the next couple of days (as it is wont to do) that's a dollar. I would have paid someone a dollar to pump that gas.
The full tank of gas that came with my car is almost gone and I saw gas at a reasonable price (the fact that I can call $2.46 a reasonable price means that George W. is truly winning) but I wouldn't stop and pump it because it was cold outside.
I figured if it went up 5 or 10 cents in the next couple of days (as it is wont to do) that's a dollar. I would have paid someone a dollar to pump that gas.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
New Car Woes
On the car's one week birthday, we came out of the restaurant and the boopy thing didn't unlock the doors. I had to manually use the key. Can you imagine. The next time I needed to unlock the doors, it worked. Then again it didn't work. The door unlock and the trunk release are on the same button. Hit once to unlock doors and hold down to release trunk. When it didn't work, none of it worked. Before I called the dealer I tested the other buttons. While the unlocky part wasn't working I pushed the remote start button and the car started just fine. Then I had to open the door with the key to get in and stop it.
So, I called the dealer, got my salesperson's voice mail and told her my problems. About a half hour later she called me back and said that the guy was going to be there at 11 if I could bring it in then. I could, and I did. When I got there she noticed my book and we discussed a book she was reading called My Sister's Keeper. It just so happened that Erika had loaded that book into my ITunes file and it was going to be the next book I listened to. She showed me to the waiting room without ever mentioning my problem.
After an hour and a half, she came in and told me that the guy had to get a part that was at another store and that he thought that if he put in a longer delay it would work better. "Good", I said, "because it is a real pain when the doors don't unlock and I have to open the door with the key to push the inside trunk release and ... She looked confused and laid "unlock??" He's fixing the starter. I told her no, the starter works fine, its the unlock button that doesn't work. Oh, she said I'd better go tell him. Good Grief
A half hour later the guy comes in and apologizes for working on the wrong thing but says he needs a pick up a relay that will only take a few minutes to install, and rather than have me wait for him to go pick it up, he takes my address and says he will come out and install it at my house tomorrow. (today, now) Hopefully it will all work out.
So, I called the dealer, got my salesperson's voice mail and told her my problems. About a half hour later she called me back and said that the guy was going to be there at 11 if I could bring it in then. I could, and I did. When I got there she noticed my book and we discussed a book she was reading called My Sister's Keeper. It just so happened that Erika had loaded that book into my ITunes file and it was going to be the next book I listened to. She showed me to the waiting room without ever mentioning my problem.
After an hour and a half, she came in and told me that the guy had to get a part that was at another store and that he thought that if he put in a longer delay it would work better. "Good", I said, "because it is a real pain when the doors don't unlock and I have to open the door with the key to push the inside trunk release and ... She looked confused and laid "unlock??" He's fixing the starter. I told her no, the starter works fine, its the unlock button that doesn't work. Oh, she said I'd better go tell him. Good Grief
A half hour later the guy comes in and apologizes for working on the wrong thing but says he needs a pick up a relay that will only take a few minutes to install, and rather than have me wait for him to go pick it up, he takes my address and says he will come out and install it at my house tomorrow. (today, now) Hopefully it will all work out.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Long suits and shortcomings
In taking a little stock here I find that my shortcomings have nothing to do with my height and my long suits are all in my head.
Among my long suits, I have excellent reading and comprehension skills, very good reasoning power, and a good memory. I know a lot of stuff and have always considered myself a pretty smart cookie.
In the shortcoming department, I have absolutely no physical talents. Any physical attributes I might have had are quickly falling by the wayside. I used to be a pretty good dancer. Ballroom, square dancing, line dancing and even in grade school days, tap dancing. I learned the steps easily and executed them well.
I was an excellent typist. My last testing at a temp agency after I retired and decided to work temp jobs had me at 82 wpm with 0 errors.
I was a good singer. School music classes and performances. A talent show and Karaoke on cruises, Glee clubs, church choirs and even just with the family. I loved to sing.
All the physical pieces of me that used to allow me to do those things either just don't work, or hurt when I use them.
Keep in mind that I am still very grateful for all the things I can still do. I can still walk, just not very far. I can still sing, just at the very low end of the keyboard. I can still type, only the backspace and delete keys on my keyboard are the most used.
When I am 100 years old, and I don't remember any of your names, and my body is just a drool machine, remember that in my head there is still a lot of singing and dancing going on.
Among my long suits, I have excellent reading and comprehension skills, very good reasoning power, and a good memory. I know a lot of stuff and have always considered myself a pretty smart cookie.
In the shortcoming department, I have absolutely no physical talents. Any physical attributes I might have had are quickly falling by the wayside. I used to be a pretty good dancer. Ballroom, square dancing, line dancing and even in grade school days, tap dancing. I learned the steps easily and executed them well.
I was an excellent typist. My last testing at a temp agency after I retired and decided to work temp jobs had me at 82 wpm with 0 errors.
I was a good singer. School music classes and performances. A talent show and Karaoke on cruises, Glee clubs, church choirs and even just with the family. I loved to sing.
All the physical pieces of me that used to allow me to do those things either just don't work, or hurt when I use them.
Keep in mind that I am still very grateful for all the things I can still do. I can still walk, just not very far. I can still sing, just at the very low end of the keyboard. I can still type, only the backspace and delete keys on my keyboard are the most used.
When I am 100 years old, and I don't remember any of your names, and my body is just a drool machine, remember that in my head there is still a lot of singing and dancing going on.
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