Looking up

Near the end of my Florida visit in 2005 I had an episode of this same "back spasm". One of the remedies then was physical therapy which worked very well for me. On the first day of my last week of scheduled therapy the facility had changed hands and employees and the upshot was I didn't like any of them and never returned.

I went for my first appointment of this round of therapy and found that the therapist is the same guy I had liked at the other place. I am pleased as punch. He remembered me only vaguely but that was ok. I am scheduled for three times a week for four weeks.

Then, this afternoon I went for a cortizone injection. I was given a choice of locations, Nine Mile and Greenfield or Twelve Mile and Haggarty. I chose the Greenfield location since they could get me in almost two weeks earlier than the other one.

There was a little mapped diagram of the location that made it look like I could go right up Greenfield and turn left into the little black dot that was the Providence Pavilion Medical Facility.

Any of you old time Detroiters remember what is at Nine Mile and Greenfield. That's where Northland is. There are streets and drives and parking structures that don't appear anywhere on the little diagram. To say nothing of the strip malls and traffic. And to say nothing of the big black fence that encloses the Providence Pavilion. Once I found my way into the fenced area I find that there are about 20 parking places with additional parking indicated by an arrow that lead god-knows-where.

Rita and I were talking, when this was first scheduled, about days of yore when cortizone injections were administered in the doctor's office. I had gotten at least one in my back way back when Adrienne was a teenager and Rita had gotten at least one in her knee before her first replacement. Why, we wondered, did it now have to be done at a special facility.

I was lucky enough to get one of those 20 spaces and made my way to the proper office. Once in the inner-sanctum, the doctor indicated on my paperwork introduced himself to me and then to two other doctors. There was another woman there but she must have been a lowly technitian and wasn't introduced. They were all wearing those leaded x-ray aprons. It turns out this injection must be given while viewing the area through an x-ray machine. Who knew?

The main doctor, the only male in the room, was across the way in conversation while one of the females administered to me, explaining each step; this is going to feel cold; you're going to feel a pinch; there will be pressure. I had the feeling that this was a learning experience for the female crew.

Anyway, they did a bang-up job. Oh, yeah, everything still hurts but I have high hopes for the passage of time.

I am so easily amused

This is so funny. But you've got to be here to appreciate it. I am watching a workman out in front of my house. He is putting one sweatshirt over another and is obviously using my front window as a mirror. I know he would not be preening like that if he knew someone was watching.

I have been watching these aluminum siding guys work for a couple of months now. They are working on units a lot farther away from my house now. I can no longer even hear the hammering. However some of our parking lots have fewer empty spaces than this one and in front of my house seems to be a good spot for them.

There is one guy that works pretty steadily inside the truck bending pieces of aluminum. It is very interesting to watch. If he ever has to take a day off, I think I could fill in for him. Except I don't know how heavy those pieces are or how hard he has to press on that bendy thing.

Poked and prodded

I saw a Doctor today. My back which has been a pain for more than 30 years, has been what I describe to myself as "in spasm" since the middle of December. I called for an appointment with a Rehabilition Physician before Christmas and today was my lucky day. I had to settle for a Doctor I had never seen before because my favorite one didn't have an opening until near the end of January.

This guy was young with no discernable accent and I liked him very much. He set me up for a cortizone injection in my sacro-illiac this Thursday afternoon at Providence Hospital and several weeks of physical therapy which will start on Thursday morning at Progressive Rehab Network on Ford Road near Middlebelt.

I seem to be in good hands.

A Happy Camper

I have been messing around with home pages, bookmarks, tabs, contact lists --- its a big pain. Then I called AOL to cancel my dial-up service. I learned that I can still access my old aol page by just connecting to it only the dial-up is missing. I can keep my whold set up, tool bars, address books, email, everything. I love those people.

See how fast I am?

I am all loaded and up and running with ATT Yahoo DSL. It is a pain in the neck because I have to get used to new formats and new ways of doing things. But I am a smart resiliant old lady and I can get behind anything.

If each of you will send me an email, just changing the aol.com part to sbcglobal.net I will be able to get you into my new address book. Only we no longer call it an address book, now I have a contact list.

Ringing out the old

Let me be the last to say that I hope 2006 was a very good year for all of you and the first to say that I hope 2007 will be even better.

I am leaving this year as a slow dial-up user and will shortly usher in the new year as an always-connected user. Erika and Gretchen went through the order process for me when they were here and ordered ATT Yahoo DSL. The box of stuff necessary to implement the turnover arrived and is sitting by my front door. Whoever loves me the most or gets here first will hook it up.

Adrienne thought I should be brave and open the box, but I am pretty sure that the installation will involve pulling out the CPU to connect something at the back and that is beyond my ability.

I am seeing in the new year by watching a marathon of the 2006 main event of the world series of poker.

Wasn't that a party

Wow, what a gathering. We had 17 for actual dinner (not counting the birthday boy) and then 8 more came over later. I hope Erika will be posting a picture of the snowman cake that Gretchen made. Jackson was very excited. We lit the candles and started to sing. So of course it was time for him to hide behind his mother's knees. He came back out in time to blow out the candles and stayed out long enough to say "Let's do that again." So we did.

Pots and pans were cleaned last night. Dishwasher was run today. Rita just picked up her dishes and silverware that we borrowed and Gretchen's family just picked up all the extra cake, cookies and pop and they are heading back to West Branch. Erika should be on the plane right now and winging her way to California. The house seems very empty.

Steak and Shake

Erika mentioned to me on the phone how nice the lights were at the Toledo Zoo. However to a three year old boy the word zoo does not mean lights it means animals. Luckily there were enough animals visable and available to make him happy.


Gretchen's family will be in town tonight when Erika and Jackson get here and we will all go out to dinner. Megan and Melody are really looking forward to going to Steak and Shake and it occurs to me that we had better call it something else in front of the three year old or else he will be expecting to have steak. Which, of course, they don't serve.

Disregard previous post

Not the happy birthday part. I still want Marcel's birthday to be happy but I'm afraid I added a year to his age. He is bringing up the rear in the odd numbers department.

Even numbers

Happy birthday to Marcel. This year he drags us all back into the even number category. Yesterday we were all odd numbers starting with 67.

Two Down, One to Go

I have already seen two (count them, two) dentists this morning. The first one cleaned my teeth and it was just as horrid as I expected, but I am done with her for another three months. The second one was the guy at the other end of the building that will get the tooth I broke in California fixed. That was just as horrid as I expected. The good part is I just leave them my store-bought teeth and I don't have to sit in the chair while they fix it. The bad part is they needed to take impressions; top, bottom and bite.

Now this was the interesting part. I don't know if I have just never had a bite impression done before or if they changed the way they do it. The girl came at me with what looked like a caulking gun and squeezed some ooze on top of my bottom teeth and told me to bite down. We held that position for a couple of minutes and then she removed a cute little rubbery bite impression.

The tension of sitting in those dentist chairs for so long has my back hurting like I have walked a couple miles. Anyways, I have to go back at 4 pm to pick up my fixed teeth.

Christmas in the air

I went to a marvelous Christmas Dinner Party last night. From the lucious ham, prepared in accordance with an Alton Brown (Food Network) receipe, to the magnificent christmas tree, Martha would have been proud. Stephi, take a bow.

Unfortunately, Jackson showed signs of a slight fever in the afternoon but took a good nap. He was in a funk at the party but Jeff still managed to get smiles and giggles out of him and helped coax him to drink a little juice and eat some yogourt.

When we got home, Erika tood him right to the rocking chair and managed to get his coat off but not hers. He was really hot. We force-fed him some childrens ibuprofin and that made him cry hard enough to throw up all over Erika's coat and clothes. Erika calmed him down and managed to get out of the yucky clothes and throw a load in the washer. About an hour later he was willing to take a bottle and watch a video and go lay down in the bedroom. About an hour after that he was back in the living room and ready to play.

About 11:30 PM Erika gave up on getting him to sleep and decided to head for home. I'm afraid they left in a little of a hurry and I saw a barrel of monkeys still on the floor in Gretchen's room this morning. I hope they are both feeling OK today.

Wind and rain

While having breakfast at Denny's on Thanksgiving morning, Erika was amusing Jackson by blowing at him through a straw. He would raise his face and say "Ooo, wind". Then she did it again and he said "Ooo, wind". The next time he said "Ooo, that one was rain".

Sleepless nights

My recent trip to California has done a number on my jet lagged sleeping clock. I finally took a double dose of diphenhydremene last night and I slept very well. However there were all those other sleepless nights, like the one at the casino. If my body worked better I would have just gone back down to the casino and played till I got sleepy. But getting up and getting dressed (including shoes and socks) and walking to the elevator and then all the way down the hall to the casino; it all seemed like too much trouble.

So I spent the time translating nursery rhymes into French. The A B C song was pretty easy. After singing the alphabet in French I added:
Nous chanton les A B C
Prochaine fois voulez vous chantez.

Next I did Bah Bah Black Sheep but the French word for Sheep eluded me so I worked around it. I really needed it to be two sylables for it to work properly and yesterday I looked it up (keep in mind that my French/English dictionary is smaller than my IPod) and it is Mouton. Works well:

Mouton noir, avez vous de leine
Oui, monsieur, j'ai trois sac plein
Une pour moi
Une pour vous
Une pour les enfents qui reste chez nous
Mouton noir, avez voud de leine
Oui, monsieur, j'ai trois sac plein.

Absentee

I voted my absentee ballot before I left for California in October. Now I have been back for a few days and inundated with negative campaign ads on TV and found out all the bad things that have been done by the people I voted for. In their defense, their opponents are not any better.

No wonder people don't bother voting.

Letter from Aunt Julia

I got a call from Elise today telling me about a letter she received from Aunt Julia. Julia had written it in English and I think Elise had more trouble understanding it than if she had just written in French.

But the sad news was that Marie Clair passed away on 9/25. The way Julia put it was that Marie Clair started her journey to heaven on September 25th. She has finished her purgetory here on earth.

Marie Clair was the youngest of Grandpa Beauregard's sisters and suffered an anurism many years ago and has been living semi-vegitatively ever since.

Monique had a minor cerebral hemorage and is doing fairly well. She was at the hospital in Ste Hyasinthe (sp) but now she is at home with Mirielle who looks after her.

Julia herself and Aunt Alfreda are doing fine. They live in the same housing complex and are great company for each other.

I want to slap his face

Yes I do. The guy that put a bomb in his shoe. They should make him stand at the end of a security check-in line so that everybody going through that has to remove their shoes can slap his face.

That part of security check in can usually reduce me to tears. On a good day I can take off and put on my own shoes and socks but I need to sit on a bed or a couch to do it. Not standing up and not sitting in a straight chair and certainly not in a wheelchair.

I would never have thought 10 years ago that so much agility would be needed for such a basic operation

Hard to Blog

I found out that it is just as hard to blog when your life is full and exciting as when it is dull and boring.

So many things I thought I would blog about on my trip but before I got to the blogging point those things were old and new things were happening.

Anyways I'm home now. It is very quiet here. There is no little girl pointing her finger and saying "Doh". I miss her. I miss the big people too. Dog, not so much.

E E G

That's the most recognizable part of Caitlyn's singing her ABCs. She also does a recognizable 1 2 3. Its hard to believe that this child is not yet 11 mos. old.

Great Dinner

What a nice dinner we had yesterday. Everything went so well its hard to believe the kind of chaos that was going on the day before.

The ham was "monica-worthy" it was so good. The table setting and food presentation was "martha stewart-worthy" it all looked so beautiful. I was so proud of my daughters, my grandchildred and oh yeah, that little girl that kept us all entertained even at the dinner table as she slept in her chair at the table. Grandpa Taj took charge of keeping her face off the table and trying to keep her comfortable

The day before, Kathy was coming down with a cold and felt miserable. Adrienne worked as a volunteer at the consession stand for the PTA at the high school football game and came staggering in at about midnight shivering from cold and fatigue. Baby had a snuffely condition - cold? alergies? but enough to make her two favorite calming influences (bottle and binky) almost useless because she needed her mouth to breath.

Everyone rallied on Sunday and we had a marvelous dinner. John and Nancy were there and they haven't changed a bit. Nancy is just like Pat. Both of them still look like they are in their 50s. Not fair.

Call Me Ishmael

People say Mom and they are not talking to or about me. They say Grandma and they are not talking to or about me. I'm waiting for my new identity to emerge.

In the Caitlyn hierarchy I have moved up a couple of notches. That feels good. It's always nice to light up someone's face.

Caitlyn had a short and restless night, which means Ris and Adrienne had a short and restless night. Adrienne is taking time out from her cooking preparations to let Cait nap on her shoulder.

Being Here

Well I got here. Getting a wheelchair at the LA end turned out to be a pain. I think this is the first time I have de-planed into a gate that was crowded to the gills with people waiting to take off. There was no empty seat to sit down and wait for the wheelchair. I appealed to an attendant and he said the first row was for handicapped. I pointed out to him that the first row was full so he went to a lady who looked able bodied at the far end of the second row and asked her go give up her seat while I waited for a wheelchair. He came back and asked me if I could walk as far as that seat. I said yes, but not fast enough to beat the man who had just sat in it. He had to go ask the man to get up and I got the seat.

The first wheelchair that got there he comandeered for me when she was going to pick up someone else. So she came over and got me and tried to put me back on the plane. When she tried to enter the jetway, I said this cannot be the way to baggage.

As soon as we got close to baggage there was my Adrienne. Happy, happy, joy, joy. Now I felt at home.

Melody was at the house to greet me when we got here. The Adam got home shortly after that. Adrienne fixed a dinner for us and Kathy got home while we were eating. Melody's baby-daddy was late for dinner and he was unceremoniously given cold food and warm soda (pop) (or as they say in the south - ko-kola).

My first impression of Jon, what with his gracious acceptance of the fare offered and willingness to eat it, is that he may be a keeper.

Now for the hierarchy of Caitlyn. She prefers the dog to me. Although she did warm up to me enough at one point to be fascinated by a pattern on the sole of my shoe and come over and shake my foot for a while. Every once in a while she will toddle over to the dog and hug her and lay her cheek on the dog's back.

She prefers Melody to the dog. She prefers Adam to Melody. She prefers Adrienne to Adam and she prefers Marisa to Adrienne. But when Kathy is in the house everybody else turns to chopped liver. Who would choose chopped liver when there is ice cream on the menu. Certainly not a Van Houten.

I figured out that the legend of Adam and his devoted Aunt Kathy is what God reads to all the little baby souls as their bedtime story. Those babies are just lining up in heaven waiting to be sent into this family.

Kathy's not too shabby as a daughter either. She presented me with a gift when she got home last night. First of all it was in a cheese-it box and I thought they were cheese-its and put it aside. When she asked wasn't I going to open it I said not while I was eating dinner. She said it wasn't cheese-its for krise sake. It is soooo cute. It looked like one of those kleenex covers for a really wiered shaped box of kleenex. It wasn't. What it is is a cover for my brick (of the stubbed toe)

I can't wait to get home and put it on my brick. I will have to move the brick to the living-room side of the door so I will be able to look at it. It is decorated with the same little houses as the coasters she made me.

I have gotten shorter since the last time I was here. When I stand in front of Adam I am looking directly at whatever is printed on his tee shirt. He has to sit down if I want to make eye contact. I know y'all think its Adam that's getting taller but my shrinkage was also demonstrated when trying to achieve Adrienne's bed. She's sharing it with me as she has in the past and it seems like last time I was here I could just crawl in. This time I am looking around for something I can use as a stool.

When I shared a bedroom with Monica the background TV of choice was Fox News, here the background TV of choice is ESPN.

Adrienne is fixing us a ham dinner at Mary's house on Sunday and John and Nancy have agreed to join us. I'm really lookin forward to that and the rest of my stay here.

How Ready am I

My boarding pass is in my purse, my suitcase is in Rita's trunk and I am, in fact, typing this post from the front seat of Rita's car. She will come out about 7:00 AM to drive to the airport.

One of the statements in the above paragraph is a lie. Let's call it poetic license to demonstrate how ready I am.

Faith restored

I am in danger of having my faith is mankind restored. Well maybe not all of mankind but parts of commerce.

A few weeks ago my airline reservations for this trip to California got all messed up when Spirit airlines cancelled their flights on which I was scheduled to fly. The alternatives they gave me (overnight flights) were completely unacceptable and when I called them they were less than cooperative. As the clerk was enumerating my options I heard somewhere sort of behind a caugh the word refund. "That's what I want", I said "I want my money back". She agreed and less than a week later the refund appeared on my credit card. I was sooo impressed.

Now I get this message from aol about reduced fees and I can sign up for service that I understand to be comparable to what I have now (for which I have been paying about $240.00 annually since I first got it) for $9.95 per month. New rate to start at the end of the current billing period. I clicked the requisit square. My annual billing would have been beginning in February. Today I got a credit from aol which I assume covers the time from now until February. I am soo impressed.

Fretworthy

The person that cut my hair last week cut it way too short on the top and I have cowlicks sticking up all over the place - Fretworthy?

I found a bug in the carpet piece I keep just inside the door. It was the type of bug Megan called a roly poly. We found one like it in July when she was here. This is about the 5th one I've seen in the house since I moved in - Fretworthy?

Last Monday (9/11) I made a pot of soup called 15 Bean Soup. I had made this before and always omitted the garlic because I didn't have any. This time, I had allocated my overflow to Kelly and decided to follow the recipe. I bought some minced garlic. The package said that 1/2 teaspoon was equal to one clove of garlic. The recipe called for 2 cloves. I used one teaspoon. The house still smells like garlic - Fretworthy?

I sent in a reply postcard to TV Guide saying they could send me 8 free issues of their magazine. I had cancelled my subscription when they changed their format. After the free issues I am under no obligation to buy any more. All I have to do is write "cancel" on the invoice. The invoice may get here while I'm in California and go astray - Fretworthy?

I have only one bottle of ketchup. - Fretworthy?

The VCR in my kitchen is making funny noises as it records - Fretworthy?

My health plan is changing our prescription provider as of December 1st. When I get back from California in November, I will have to make a Doctor's appointment to renew my prescriptions before 12/1 - Fretworthy?

Holliday Park is throwing a thank you dinner for committee members on 10/7. They require that we send in a $10.00 deposit which is returned to us when we show up at the dinner. I don't want to go. Rita really enjoys those dinners and I usually go to please her. The deposit is due tomorrow. I'm not going to send it in. - Fretworthy?

Balanced toolbar

Thanks to Marcel my toolbar of favorite places is balanced. I still check Amanda's blog every day (at least on days that I am not rushed off my feet) and if she gets to a full year without updating I'm going to take her off my favorites. Then there will be another opening.

In other news. the tree out my living room window (of the red leaves) is starting to turn red again. Those clingy red leaves that refused to go away did finally become either gone or not visible among the greenery. Now all the leaves at the outside edges of the tree are red.

I am beginning to prepare in ernest for my three weeks in California that start on October 12. Ernest preparations at this stage involve more of a mindset that actual packing etc. Reservations are all in place and actual packing takes 20 minutes tops. Not counting the after-period wherein you start to think of all the things you forgot to put in. So, taking those 20 minutes a week or so in advance gives plenty of time for the afters.

The mindset involves fretting over all the things that could go wrong, or even if they're going right, at my age and condition many facets of travel are uncomfortable and/or painful. I need to have plenty of small bills for tipping. I need a wheelchair and a pusher at the Detroit end. I have plenty of pushers at the LA end.

I allow myself a few minutes every day to fret and then I go about my business.

favorite tools

First of all yeaa. My old format is back and I have spell check and preview on this page.

About the tools. I have these icons for each of your blogs and they appear on a toolbar at the top of my screen. There are an uneven number because there is room for six icons at a time. I check six blogs then move them all over and check the next six etc.

I mention this just in case one of my favorite brothers (you know who you are) decided to start blogging, I have an icon space available.

Homescan

I have in my kitchen a laser bar-code reader with which I scan everything I purchase. I do this for the A.C. Neilson Company. They collect the information (I report via that same gizmo by phone once a week) and probably sell it to merchandizers for tons of money. What I get out of it, besides the satisfaction and its kind of fun, is that I earn points for every week that I report. There are also bonus points for taking periodic surveys that they send in the mail and others that they ask us to take online.

I have approximately 150,000 points and I've never seen anything in their catalogue of prizes that I am interested in.

I got an email from them asking if I had any friends or family that might be interested in being contributors to this program. So if any of you are, just go to homescan.com and fill out the questionaire and they will contact you if they need a household like yours.

P.S. since Erika changed my format, I no longer have a spell check on new posts and I don't know how to get it back. I don't have a Preview either.

Life in the Dead Zone`

The dead zone I'm talking about is two toes on my right foot that due to back disks and nerve damage from years ago have been useless and have no feeling. They are the little piggy that had roast beef and the little piggy who had none.

Now flashback to a time when my darling granddaughter, Marisa, for some school or girl scout project made me a brick. Its painted white and has felt glued to the bottom and pretty pictures all around it. It has lived up against the wall in my bedroom until the time that I moved into this new unit.

Now, in order to keep my front door opened wide, I need a doorstop. Finally the brick can fulfill its destiny. And, its fair to say, part of the destiny of a brick doorstop is that someday, somehow, someone is going to stub a toe on it.

Well, I'm here to tell you that there is life in those dead toes. I just never dug deep enough before.

The AA show

Boy Andre Agassi is sure giving us tennis fans a treat this week. Whatever they are paying him, its not enough.

Jackson be'd here

That's my new favorite word. After Jackson had spent the night in the living room with Erika he was watching TV with me in my bedroom and I asked him if they had fixed the couch in the living room. "It already be'd a bed", he told me, "and we made it into a couch."

It was so fun to have him here for 3 days in a row. I got to see most of his moods and accomplishments. Some days he eats good, some days not so much. Some nights he sleeps good, some nights not so much. Sometimes he's very very cute, sometimes--- No, he's always very very cute.

He recited Bah Bah Black Sheep while we were in the car and Erika said "Do Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". He said "I don't know how to talk that one, just to sing it."
He told Erika to talk it for him, and she did.

Reality imitating reality TV

When I woke up this morning the TV was on and they were reporting the news. Of course the news was all about the UN passing a resolution for cease fire in the middle east and the fact that al quieda (sp)plans to blow us all up and I had the weird feeling that we are all living in the big brother house.

The UN is HOH (Janelle at her best)and doesn't have a clue. Hezbullah and Al Quieda are Will and Boogie (Chill Town) and are laughing it up in the diary room. Israel is Danielle, give her some power and she can straighten this out but as she said in her isolation room "I'm playing with idiots." I can just see Israel saying that.

Kaysar is the Iraqi and Lebanese everyman, feeling that if he doesn't antagonize Chill Town they might be his friend and then wondering why he's having to evacuate.

Coping

Life is getting hard and I am barely coping. You young people think it is difficult to raise kids, try coping with these problems.

There is the Rodger's Masters men's tournament in Toronto, the Morgan-Chase women's tournament in LA, and the Little League World Series. And this is all in prime time. Even if I tape all my reality shows and everything I can't watch in real time (and I have three VCRs) there are just not enough hours in a day to watch everything. My watching is getting sloppy. I fast forward more than I should and I am going to MISS something.

Thank God some of my judge shows are on reruns and I can watch other judges on other channels. Except that now I like those judges too and when they all start new seasons I'm going to have to tape them too.

eight decades

I think it is interesting and worth comment that we had eight decades of ages at Four Winds, the timeshare on Longboat Key in June. For these purposes I'm assuming that all in-laws are in the same decade as their spice.

0's Jackson, Austin, Sarah
teens Jonathan, Colton, Daymond, Ryan
20's Brittany, Danny, Janna
30's Krista, Doug
40's Mitchell, Angie, Debbie, Erika, Lyle, Kathy
50's Kim, John
60's Paulette
70's Monica, Rita

This won't happen again for a long time since I am rapidly leaving the 60's and those in their 50's are just barely there.

Madison anyone?

Rita and I had a great overnight trip to Kewadin on Monday. There were heavy clouds and winds all the way up there and they were escorting trucks and busses going across the Macinac Bridge. The heavens opened up just as we got to our first casino stop in St. Ignace. I got three drops on me between the bus and the casino. When it was time to re-board the bus, all that was left were puddles.

One of my past blogs made reference to the fact that I can still sing and dance in my mind. Well, during a couple of wakeful hours Monday night I found some music in my head and I was dancing with Bill. We were doing the Madison. Its a fun dance. We learned it in a ballroom dance class and were pretty good at it.

What I'm thinking is that my body should get credit for all that exercise. Who do I see about that?

Couch Potato Heaven

What a great TV day. I spent all morning with my Coronation Street tapes and then after a brief nap I found the Hall of Fame Tennis Tournement from Newport, RI on Fox Sports Network and they had two semi-final matches. I expect to see Gimelstob and Philipousis in the finals tomorrow.

For my back-and-forth viewing there was a marathon of the World Series of Pop Culture on VH1. They stopped in the middle of the quarter-finals and I'm afraid I will have to watch my local listings to find out when they will continue.

Then for icing on the cake, when both channels went to commercial at the same time, I still have my tape of all last week's Jeopardy shows.

Stuffing it

Stuffing seems to have been the right thing because I felt way better in time to go to Pat and Lee's anniversary party on Friday night. And what a swell party it was. We tried to teach Jackson the Chicken Dance the next day and he was fascinated by it. By us doing it.

Caugh, caugh

I have a cold. Its been a really long time since I've had a cold and it would seem that in the meantime, I got really old. When old people have a hacking caugh, the kind of caugh that proceeds to gag reflex, their bodies take that as permission to expell any excess air that has been hanging around inside.

So, I've got this cold. Should I be stuffing or starving? What the heck, I enjoy stuffing, I'll stick with that.

Soccer by the card

Yellow card, red card. How about SAG card. The more agony the foulee can convey, the more likely a yellow card. Do they learn that at soccer camp? Writhing 101. I realize they are on the field and not on the screen but it seemed too mean to substitute an F for the S.

But, oh, the tension. Agassi is serving at 4-5, the score is at deuce. Too tense, I turn to soccer. England is lining up for a free kick, Hargreaves is taking the kick. Too tense, back to tennis. Agassi has held for 5-5.

Fast forward, its the first set tiebreak, Agassi is at 5-2. Nadal's service brings it to 5-4, then he takes one of Agassi's serves, its 5-5 in the tiebreak. Back to soccer. They are in the second overtime. Portugal is very agressive. Robinson is blocking shots left and right. Portugal sends the ball into the net, but someone is off-sides and its not a goal. Back to tennis, they are in a commercial. I don't know who won the first set. The second overtime in the soccer game is over. They are going into penalty kicks.

OMG, I need a nap.

The Clock Struck 44g

I got a cramp in my leg last night. While I was repositioning, I glanced at the ceiling to see what time it was. I love my clock that reflects the time on the ceiling. The clock said 4.4g. I would have been OK with that, but the cramp persisted and I started to wonder what the g stood for. By the time I decided to get up and take a pill, the clock said 4:51.

By then I was awake enough and I turned on the early morning news to see what had gone on overnight. I said a prayer for the poor people caught in floods on the east coast. I was still awake when the clock said 5.5g. I dozed off sometime after that but woke in time to change the channel to ESPN2 at 7:00 where they are covering Wimbledon.

I am loving that tournement. All my favorite people are still in.

I've got my Megan. The bad news is that it is because of a crisis in Gordon's family. His mom came through her surgery as well as they could expect but she is not a happy invalid. I understand that she is resisting tests and medication which adds stress to her family but they are coping.

Just as I was getting ready to brag about having Megan, Gordon and his sister Tanya came and whisked her away. They are going someplace in Detroit from wence the fireworks will be visable for the big show tonight. Gretchen is meeting them there after work. I'm glad they are going to see the fireworks as long as they are down here. I, myself, am content to view them on TV.

In other news, the deposit has been made on the Scandanavian Cruise and since the Cruise dates are 6/16/07 thru 6/30/07 I will not be going to the time share in Florida next year.

The sadness of missing Florida is rapidly being replaced by the excitement as I track our ports of call on my globe. The ship leaves from Dover, England and goes to Oslo, Norway: Stockholm, Sweden: Helsinki, Finland: two days at St. Petersburg, Russia: Berlin, Germany: two days at Copenhagen, Denmark: Helsingborg, Sweden and back to Dover, England.

We got a great cabin assignment close to the Grand Foyer, which means close to the main elevators. Eat your hearts out.

Basement Woes

I have, not just one, but two daughters at my disposal. Jackson wants to go down the basement anyways so they may as well do my laundry. What did we find down there. A river of rusty water leading from under the furnace to the drain. The water was rusty because the bottom of the furnace panel and a leg of the hot water heater were all rusted. Who knows how long that water has been running down the drain.

I may have mentioned in a previous blog about this motor that is mounted on the side of my furnace encased in an uncovered metal box. That enclosure was now full of water and it was dripping onto the floor from there. There is an electrical cord running from this motor and there is an electrical outlet very close to the cord but the cord is not plugged in. No one, not maintenance people, tradespeople, friends or family has been abel to tell me what this motor was and whether it should be plugged in.

So, I called maintenance Monday morning. Yes, they would come out, but if the problem turned out to be A/C related they would charge me for their time. So I called the A/C people. Last time I needed them it was $85.00 to come out and extra if they had to do anything. I was envisioning needing a whole new A/C unit. The City of Westland recently changed their code requirements and I have heard that the cost of installing A/C has tripled.

They couldn't come out until the next day (Tuesday). So I called maintenance back and said never mind, I had the A/C people coming out and that if it was not A/C related, I would call maintenance back. But in the meantime, could they send someone by just to tell me what that motor was for because no one seemed to know.

So the maintenance guy showed up. Erika went downstairs with him. He plugged in the motor and all the water disappeared. That was the pump to get rid of excess condensation while the A/C was running. He is a new guy with maintenance and he comes from Florida so he said he knew all about those kinds of things.

I cancelled the A/C repair guy, and alls well that ends well. Except for the huge rust stains on my brand new basement floor and all the diluted tile glue coming up through the cracks in the tiles. Erika tried to get the rust stains out with CLR but it didn't work. No biggie.

The best laid plans

Erika should be in her car with Jackson peacefully napping in anticipation of getting to Grandma's pool and going swimming with Aunt Gretchen.

That part of the plans has changed. Gordon't father died a little while ago and someone is driving Gordon from West Branch to Birch Run. Gretchen is on her way to Birch Run to pick him up and bring him down here.

I don't know how the rest of Gretchen's week will unfold. My deepest sympathy to Gordon and the Gerth family.

Ikea, Ukea, everybody kea

Our Ikea opens tomorrow morning. Steph called me yesterday afternoon to let me know she was in line and had been interviewed by the local news shows. I saw her on Channel 2, and saw her in the background on Channel 4. The first 100 people in line are promised a chair that sells for $72.00. Steph said she was number 5. There are lots of other incentives like mystery envelopes with ascending amounts of money and percentages off. When I first saw the circular I thought to myself that if I were an able bodied person I would like to go there. But I envisioned getting in the car at 8:45 to get there for the 9:00 opening.

The roofing people just set up all their paraphernalia in front of my house. What with the trucks, tarps and ladders, I'm glad I don't have any flowers and shrubs out there, and pity the folk who do.

Happy Birthday Kathy

Vacation

Rita is at the airport. She will be at Monica's tonight. Her vacation has started. I have done most of my packing. That means that if I had to, I could zip it up right now and go. But I don't have to so I will undoubtedly think of more things to put in it. Like, oh yeah, a bathing suit. I am using the smallest suitcase possible because we have to have extra room on the way there so that we can fill it with Kathy and her belongings on our way back.

I have committed Gretchen to watering Rita's plants each Wednesday that she is gone.

Kelly and his girlfriend (yes, remember Diana from Easter?) came by to take Rita to the airport. I didn't get to talk to them, I just saw her leaving.

No more home teams in playoff games and only one American left at Roland Garros. Go Venus.

Homecoming

I slowly open the back yard gate and peer down the alley. The alley looks empty, but Mama said that it was time. I step into the alley without letting go of the gate. I lean as far as I can into the alley, without letting go of the gate. And suddenly there he is.

I let go of the gate and begin to run. I run past Wally's yard. I run past Jefferies' yard. I run past Bobbie Moore's yard. I am very far from home. It is scary, but exciting. There is a dog in one of the yards. I can't see him because of the fence but I can hear him barking. It is scary but exciting.

Then I look up, and there he is. He is smiling and his arms are wide. I take a leap and he scoops me up. He kisses my face. He kisses me on the eye. The stubble of his beard picks my face. We are laughing. He's happy that I came.

He carries me high on his arm. I can see the dog now. He is still barking and jumping against the fence. Nothing is scary anymore because we are laughing.

We come to our own back yard. The gate is still open. I look into his eyes. I'm not supposed to leave the gate open. But he is still laughing and swings me down to the ground while he closes the gate.

Once released from his arms, I can run to the house and announce to everybody - "Papa's home".

Its raining

Its raining. Its raining hard. I'm all alone on the back porch. I have my pick of the big red rocking chairs. I like the bigger one better because I can sit cross legged on it and rock higher. There's thunder and there's lightening. Bernie told me that Bobby Moore's grandmother got hit by lightening standing in their back garden. But I am safe. I'm on the porch.

A little while ago, Monica was back there with me. Before it started to rain. We were playing cut-outs. We got matching cut-out books for Easter. Rita helped me cut out the dolls because they are on the covers and the paper is thicker and harder to cut. I cut out the clothes myself.

Monica gets mad when I put the same dresses on my dolls that she puts on hers. Its hard for me to decide what my dolls should wear. When I see what her's are wearing, it seems like a good idea.

Monica got mad at me and went inside. It was too windy to keep playing anyways and then the rain started. I liked the smell and the sound of the rain. Watching it hit the sidewalk.

Our sidewalks were smooth and flat from the alley all the way to the front of the house. That was good for roller skates but not so much for collecting rain puddles. There would be good puddles in the alley but if you jump into them barefoot, you might hit a stone or piece of glass. Alley puddles were better when it was colder and you were wearing boots.

It gets darker and the wind gets colder. I don't want to go in the house because I will run into Monica and she is mad at me.

Mama comes out on the porch. She brings me a sweater. She takes the smaller rocking chair, letting me stay in the big one. We sit together and watch the rain. I love Mama.

The company

Company was coming. The air was electrified. Houses were cleaned. Pies were baked. Larders were replenished. And, if the company came from far away, bedrooms and sleeping spaces were shuffled to accomodate. Possibly the reason for some of my time on McKinstry.

Company had to be shown the Detroit Zoo. Company had to be shown Belle Isle. Company had to be shown Edgewater Park, especially, the fun house.

One year, when Company included the Grandparents, we all walked to the home of Petit Noir who lived on Pearl near Vernor Highway to show them TV. On a Tuesday night, of course, so we could watch Milton Berle. That year we also showed them a Drive-In Movie and went to see Trail of the Lonesome Pines.

Dinners were planned. Dinners that required more than one table setting not including the children who were fed early and then pressed into service to fetch and carry, serve and clear.

After dinner the floors were cleared for dancing and entertainment. Children were encouraged to perform and so did the adults. At Ma'Tante Vonna's house on Clark Street there was a victrola in the living room with good dance music records. Squares would form up and Tony was the caller.

First couple lead to the right. four hands around and Birdie in the Cage. Birdie fly out and the gent fly in. Gent fly out and two couples swing.

After the dancing started nobody paid much attention to the kids. We got to play outside. It was dark out. If it got too scary outside, nobody noticed if you found a quiet place to sit just inside the doorway and watch.

When the party was at our house, and bedtime had been achieved, no one noticed if we crept down the staircase to listen.

Red Leaves

When I moved in here winter had a strong toehold and most leaves were off the trees. Across the parking lot, about 4 doors down from me is a lovely large tree. It is the focal point of the view from my living room picture window. There were a small clump of branches on that tree that were clinging to some red leaves. I kept waiting for the leaves to fall. They never did.

All through the winter, through the snow and ice, winds and rain, those sturdy red leaves hung on. Then spring started to spring and most of the trees around here started to bud. This tree remained bare. When other trees were visably green, this tree started to bud.

Ah, I thought to myself, now those fragile red leaves will be pushed off by the new buds. I have been checking it faithfully every day. I search the ground beneath the tree for fallen leaves (from my easy chair, of course, I don't go outside and search). I've never found any.

The tree is quite green now, and because I know where to look I can pick out the red leaves. There they sit. Red leaves among the green.

Dinner with Elise and Larry

My dinner with Elise and Larry was in no way remarkable. Elise got married the same year I did. We stood up at each other's weddings and it is always delightful to spend time with them.

Many years ago Larry suffered a stroke and he has been fighting long and hard to regain normal functions. There is a slight list to his stance and a slight slacking of facial muscles that advertise him as a stroke patient. But, he has regained his speech and motor skills and seems to enjoy a high quality of life. His mind and memory are the equal of any of us this age.

When I arrived at the restaurant (Ram's Horn) they were already seated so I joined them and over dinner conversation told them about my recent encounters with advanced arthritis. As we were leaving, I pointed out a walker with a seat attachment and said that that was what I was going to need when I got to the walker stage. The man it belonged to said "just take it." I said I would if I thought I could outrun him, but no.

After dinner they came over to mine to see my new place. As we walked from room to room (not that many) Elise and I had to find a place to sit while we chatted and discussed. Larry was content to stand and pace and check things out. He even went down and checked out the basement. My point here being that among the three of us he is the most fit.

My Cousin Elise

I had dinner last night with Elise and Larry.

For those of you who are generationally challenged, Elise is my first Cousin, daughter of my father's sister ReJeanne after whom I am named, because she is my Godmother. Elise and I were close growing up, partly because we were close in age and because among we siblings, her mother liked me best (duh).

I remember spending parts of many summers at her house on McKinstry street just a block away from Clark Park. Elise was an only child in her early years and quite spoiled. Her father was called Petit Blanc. It was a nickname but we didn't know that at the time. He came by that nickname because he actually had a twin brother who was called Petit Noir.

Ma'Tante Jeanne and Petit Blanc had three children born at 7 year intervals. That's why I'm thinking they each had the "only child" experience.

Sitting in the kitchen on McKinstry, watching Ma'Tante Jeanne cook was not like watching my mother cook. I had watched my mother make hamburgers. She opened the butcher papered package of ground beef and tore off little chunks and made patties. So now I prepared to watch Ma'Tante Jeanne make hamburgers. She opened the butcher paper and dumped the whole lump of ground beef into a bowl. I thought to myself "WTF" or something similar that would have been appropriate for the times.

Then, this aunt of mine, of whom I was quite fond, took an egg and broke it right over the meat and started mixing them together. I had to leave the kitchen so I don't know if that was the only thing she put in there. Of course, I didn't eat my hamburger at dinner. Ma'Tante Jeanne knew I was a picky eater and was quite kind about it.

Another McKinstry kitchen memory is of the rhubarb that grew in their back yard. When Ma'Tante Jeanne harvested the rhubarb to make pies she would give me and Elise each a stalk with a mound of course salt to dip it in. Ah, good times on McKinstry.

I'll save the story of dinner with Elise and Larry for tomorrow's post.

Doctor, doctor

OK, the pain in my left hand and wrist has passed the point that I expect it to go away on its own and I went to the doctor. She tested my strength and flexibility, took some blood work and sent me to the other side of the building for a series of xrays. I remembered to mention the pain behind my left knee so they xrayed that too. I forgot to mention the bottoms of my feet since that has been a lot better for a while now.

The Xray lady came in holding the same chart file my doctor had and led me to the xray room. She sat me on a rolly stool at the foot of the xray table and started to position my arm. It started flat on the table. I could do that. Then she needed it turned away from me. I could almost do that. Then she said, now turn your hand so that its facing you. I wanted to ask her if it said anywhere on that chart that my problem was a limited range of motion. She got all her wrist pictures and said While I develop these you can climb up on the table and lay flat on your back. I almost cried but didn't mention how many pillows it takes on my bed for me to lay on my back. Then she started with straight leg, bend it this way, lean it that way. Man, what a workout.

The prize goes to the person who said arthritis. It seems my left arm is consumed with arthritis from shoulder to fingertip. Also the knees. She gave me some samples of Celebrex. I took one as soon as I got home, about half hour ago. I can already feel less pain and more range of motion as I type. Why, oh why, didn't she give me one of these before the xrays?

I Burned

So far this year, I have caulked, I-Poded and now I have burned a couple of CDs. Am I a new age woman or what.

And, since I spent the whole day at the Casino Windsor, and I know its Tuesday, I didn't get any pea soup. Maybe next week.

Wednesday

Today is Wednesday. It is the time on Wednesday that, if I were a working person, my workday would be over. It is the time on Wednesday that I often say to myself, "Damn, I didn't get any Pea Soup."

There is a very nice little family restaurant across Wayne Road from my complex named Rana's. Rana's has a very nice soup bar. Tuesday is Pea Soup day. I love their Pea Soup. There comes a time on most weekends when I think I will have to get to Rana's for lunch on Tuesday and have some Pea Soup. Some Tuesday mornings I remember this and make a concious decision to wait till later in the day and get some soup for dinner instead. Then it is usually about this time on Wednesday that I say to myself, "Damn, I didn't get any Pea Soup."

I have been wearing a wrist stabalizing brace on my left wrist and as I type this the start menu keeps popping up. I'm not sure what key I am inadvertently bumping.

--

All About Jan

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Cracked Up

Sean's comment line "Youth isn't all its cracked up to be" cracked me up. However, after I finished laughing, I began to wax philosophical and he is, of course, absolutely right. The more I waxed, the philosophicaler I got. (Is there any kind of award for the best made-up word?)

Nothing can be "all its cracked up" to be because nobody cracks anything up to be something unless its something they haven't got. And if its something they used to have or expect to have in the future, they tend to dwell on the good parts.

While you're taking the good with the bad, isn't it nice that the good stays with you and the bad tends to disappear.

Almost twins

Jeannette and I picked up our new cars together on Thursday. She sold her car on Monday night and since I was going on an overnight gambling trip Tuesday, she used my car for the next couple of days. Thursday afternoon she left work early and picked me up to go pick up our cars.

After the paperwork, our sales lady had them pulled up one behind the other in the service bay and it turns out they are exactly the same color. The names of the colors are different because they are two different models. Mine is a Focus and the color is Tundra, hers is a Fusion and the color had a different name.

When I looked at the color swatch, it was blueish grey. Now that it is sitting in front of my house in sunny, cloudy, rainy and even snowy weather, it looks mostly grey.

I love how clean it is, inside. I was never one to accumulate a lot of litter inside my car, but dust will out. And the day I wash windows inside my car is the day after I wash them inside my house.

Monica's back

For any of you that had stopped checking Monica's blog (I still checked it every day, just in case) she's back. Now if we can just get Marcel to start blogging. Note to Monica - Since we always like to see comments from our non-blogging brothers, there is a selection at the top of this "create post" page that says "Moterate comments" when you click on that it directs you to a "Comments" page where you can select who may comment on your blog. If you select "anyone" it will allow anonymous commentors.

On the birthday front, we (Rita and I) spend Rita's birthday on an overnight gambling trip. I think all future birthdays should be casino related. We had a great time. I wanted to buy her a birthday dinner and ended up paying for our first breakfast stop at Tony's at Birch Run (you Michigan people know what I mean). We shared a breakfast that included eggs, hash browns, toast and ham. After we had both eaten our fill, they could probably have served that plate to another table. The servings are that big. We did finish the ham and the toast. We asked for the hash browns extra crispy but only the top was crispy. The good news was that even tho we only ate the crispy top parts, it was still enough for both of us to eat our fill. There was still a pound of mushy hash browns on the plate. If we had been on our way home, instead of on our way there, we would have brought all those potatoes and eggs home and had enough for a week.

At Mt. Pleasant, we were able to use the points from our playing cards towards our meal. In fact, when you put the card into the machine to start playing, it doesn't say you have x amount of points, it says you have x amount of dollars and cents. You just presented your card to the cashier and she swiped it. So. I got $6.75 off of my $7.75 soup-salad-drink and desert bar that I had for dinner. Of course after that my credit was back down to zero and I didn't notice where it was at right before we left.

I found out later that we could have done that at Little River also. I had a $5.00 coupon that I had received in the mail from them tho so dinner there was pretty cheap also.

You young folks take notes about this stuff so that you don't have to learn it all by trial and error after you retire.

Hey Dude, I got a Dell

Can you tell, I'm typing this on a new computer. Well, used, but different. Erika's University was selling their used ones and she picked one up for me. Lyle did his magic on it and then Gretchen spent a couple of nights transferring all my files. She was up till midnight last night, poor thing. But she did get my MSMoney to work. I use MS Money for Windows 95 and I like it. I don't want to be new and improved. If she hadn't been able to get it to work it would have been a deal breaker.

Oh, yeah, and I bought a new car. It is another Focus 4 door sedan. The color is blueish grey and they call it Tundra. It is pretty much exactly like the one I have with a couple of extra things like an extra safety package (anti-lock breaks and side airbags) that just happened to be on it. I did have them install a remote starter tho since I will be parked at the mercy of weather I can pre-heat and pre-cool.

So, new house, new car, new computer. One would think I had won the lottery, but sadly, I'm broke.

Not a very warm welcome

After 5 days in Indiana, I got home this morning to a very cold house with no electricity. I couldn't check my e mail, I couldn't watch my tapes; all I could do was bundle up under a comfy throw and read my book.

Rita had already left for her Tuesday schedule so I couldn't call her to find out exactly when the electricity had gone off or if there was any information about when it would return. I hadn't been listening to the radio at all on the way home. (IPod)

I finally called Gretchen at work and she said it must have gone out sometime between 3:30 AM and 6:00 AM, the two times she was up medicating for her cold. She was under orders to change my VCR tapes on Tuesday morning but she couldn't do that without electricity.

Around Noon, I thought I may as well go to the casino in Windsor as sit here in the cold all day. As I pondered that, I realized that that way I would miss all my programs tonight for sure even if the electricity came back on because all my tapes were full. Since I had just been to the casino yesterday, I thought going back today was a bit much, even for me.

About five minutes after I made that decision to stay home the lights came back on. I am sitting pretty, in a nice warm house, all VCRs reset and reprogrammed. I have checked all my e mail, caught up on all the blogs and now will settle in to start watching tapes.

Life is good.

P.S. Rita stopped over on her way home a little while ago and she never did lose her electricity.

I love the irs

There's a sentence I'll bet none of you ever thought you would see in print.

All my life, from the time I had taxable income (soda jerk) I have prepared and filed my own income taxes. They have ranged from the simple (1040EZ) to the complicated (schedules involving rental property, income and expenses).

Near the beginning of this century I ventured into Tax Cut and e-filing on line.

I liked that very much, but the Tax Cut itself was a big pain in the neck. The delux program came with free e-filing (after rebate), free state tax program (after rebate), $5.00 rebate from Best Buy, $10.00 rebate from I don't know who all. Anyways the rebate forms were way more complicated than the tax forms and the whole thing still cost me about $45.00.

This year I went to irs.gov. They make you choose a company from a list of companies and I just took the first one OLT.com (On Line Taxes.com) I was able to fill in all my information, they did all the math. Because my income is below (way) $50,000.00 my e-filing was free. There was a $7.95 charge to e-file the state return. The forms were available in printable PDF form but for an extra $4.95 they are sending me a printed copy of all forms.

I love those guys.

the survey

I did this morning's blog before I read about the survey. So there's another new one under this.

4 jobs
Soda Jerk
Typing Pool
Secretary
Bookkeeper

4 TV shows
Amazing Race
Big Brother
Grey's Anatomy
Coronation Street

4 movies
Dirty Dancing
White Christmas
Absence of Malice
Pretty Woman

4 Foods
Steak
Soup (pea, chili, veg)
Chicken Fingers
Pizza

4 places I have vacationed (not counting visiting family)
Caribbean
Europe
Thailand
New Hampshire

4 places I have lived
Detroit
Melvindale
Westland


4 places I'd rather be right now
Kewadin
Las Vegas
California
Anywhere Jackson is

Hip or What

Who's the hippest grandma on the casino bus. Why, its that lady wearing the IPod earbuds. I went to Windsor on my own yesterday so I was under no obligation to talk to or listen to anyone. Erika loaded a new book for me this weekend. I don't even know the title but it is about the "Petit Yayas". I listened to my book all the way to the Windsor then shut it off through customs and into the casino. Inside the casino it was very, very loud. It was very, very crowded. It was free Paczke day.

After I had lost $30.00 pretty quickly, I sat at a nickle poker machine and played one nickle at a time and listened to my book for about a half hour. I still had 3 of my $5.00 left at that point and took it out and went to play Babushka. I won $35.00 on that and started my day all over again. At the poker machine I could listen to the IPod pretty good, but back in the general population, the background noise was too loud.

I did listen to it all the way home, and just this morning noticed that I had almost no battery left. Something I will have to learn to check before each outing.

Rolling Over

Tim said it could be done and we did it. We is kind of a misnomer, my part was mostly pointing out to Erika what she was doing wrong and saying, "if I was doing it I would ,,,".

I got a picture-hanging kit with eye screws and wire and everything. I felt so professional. Erika wanted to document each step with pictures a la Treebeau but its a rule that the camera has to be where the baby is and she came here this weekend sans baby.

Anyways, we hung the mirror with a longish wire and put three cheap thin washcloths rolled up behind the top part of it and it is perfect. I roll over in bed and can watch TV out of my good ear. Y'all know what I mean.

Over and Out

Even if I decided now that I wanted to move back into 33908, I can't. The final water bill came (who knew they charged $25.00 to issue a final bill) and the final accounting I got from the office turned out not to be a check, but an invoice.

Rehabbing the unit to Holliday Park specifications turned out to cost much more than I had anticipated. There were several things I knew were going to be fixed and charged. One of the things I didn't anticipate was them spending 1 1/2 hours cleaning the refrigerator (at $48.00 per hour), that I thought was already clean. Another is the removing of the full length mirror in the hallway (six screws). They charged 1/2 hour labor for that. The list is long.

Another reason there was nothing left in the kitty for me, is that I anticipated receiving $750.00 for the aluminum siding program that is supposed to be picked up by the new buyer and returned to the seller I paid it as a new buyer of 34721 and the seller got it. Well they are not returning that to the seller anymore. Somewhere between becomming a buyer and a seller, they started a new aluminum siding program so they are keeping my $750.00. It could have been worse, they charged the buyer of my unit $1,875.00 for the siding program.

I have had time to absorb the shock of it all, and have decided to just pay the thing and get on with my life. So, this is me getting on with my life.

I loaded EZ Christmas onto my Ipod today, all by myself. Next I'm going to hit Rita up for all of her Time/Life albums.

Ipod Mama

I love it. Gretchen loaded two of my three CDs last night and if I hadn't had trouble learning volume control I would have taken it to bed with me. This morning I figured out the volume. Gretch got pictures loaded for me too. We only put on 15. I just found out how to put a few favorite songs in an "On The Go" file. I'm going to take it with me to the casino today to show Jeannette.

This was a great choice of birthday gift and I don't need another one, ever.

Lovin' the Olympics

Just kickin back and watching the Olympics all day. This is the life. All you hard working people, this is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

I love being so close to Canada that I can watch the Canadian channel all day. They start very early morning and run a lot of the events live and give color comment on the canadians. Then during prime time when everyone is running tape I go ahead and watch the NBC channels and get a lot of the color comment on the american competitors.

Its really funny to hear the canadians pronounce "Flying Tomato".

Feeling Old

I just got a package delivered to my front door. Its a birthday gift from my girls. Its an I-Pod. A pretty high tech gift for a low tech mentality. I am sure there will come a day when I will like it very much and use it often, but first comes the tedium of learning how to use it. I'm guessing my first lesson should include what/where is a USB port. I think I've got one because Erika plugs in her camera and jump drive while she's here,

Then it will be a matter of locating the music and books to download from the web. I was told it could hold books.

For now, I'll just keep the box here near my computer and look at it to get used to having it. I had a cell phone for almost a year before I made a call, so it could be a while. In my defence, my first cell phone was for emergencies only, I had a 5 minute per month plan and paid $4.95 per month.

So, a big thank you to my wonderful amazon girls. I know they will be providing as much instruction as its going to take to get me up and running.

Closure

The sale of my old unit closed yesterday. I got my check from the buyer (for the carpeting and misc.) and will get the check from Holliday Park (for balance of equity and authorized improvements minus whatever they charge me for misc. repairs etc.) as soon as the final water bill comes in. I am also waiting for the final electric bill.

I will exercise on the the percs of the new place when I walk (that's right walk) up to the clubhouse on Friday for dominos.

The Snow is Back

Winter is here again. It only makes sense. We had winter in November, some spring in January and the first few days of February felt like Fall, so now its Winter again.

They predicted 3" of snow by 6:00pm last night and then about 8" by the time we got up this morning. I figured I would shovel at 6, then again before I went to bed and when I got up. At 6, there was nothing but wet. Before I went to bed there was a dusting on the grass but just wet on the pavement and cars. When I woke up this morning (I stayed in bed watching the super bowl stuff till almost 11:00) the sidewalk cleaner guy had already been by and there's about an inch on my steps and on the grass and cars. If the sun comes out it should take care of that. If not, I'll shovel tomorrow in time for the mailman.

I got a nice surprise when I opened the door to check the show. I had my first newspaper. I ordered the sunday paper (in lieu of TV Guide, which I hate) and the girl said it would start on the 12th, but it started today, Woo,hoo. I am very pleased that it was double bagged and not a bit wet.

I am also pleased with the City of Detroit for all the Super Bowl related activities they are putting on for the general public. There was a day that I would have wanted to be down there with my kids experiencing all that, but that day has passed for me. The TV coverage has shown lots of participation with no incidents. I figure that if local coverage is just hiding the bad stuff, it would come through in the national coverage anyways, so I believe it is pretty peaceful.

There is a guy named Bettis that is playing in the Super Bowl who comes from Detroit and a big fuss is being made over him and his family. I think that's great, and I'm going to root for his team to win as soon as I find out which team that is.

Normalcy

I've been back for a couple of days now and am beginning to achieve normalcy, or would that be normality.

If you've been reading Adrienne's blog you know all about the cruise in much better prose than I could have done. We had a wonderful time and Adrienne turned out to be one of those people who was born to cruise. Considering that I did everything she did, but that I did it all sitting down and being pushed in a wheelchair, one might wonder why I am still feeling so exhausted.

On the house front, I just called Detroit Edison and had the electricity taken out of my name. I turned in the keys before I left for the cruise and authorized maintenance to complete any repairs or adjustments they felt were necessary to finalize the sale. They did have a buyer that gave a deposit so whenever their final closing is, I will be getting a small check for my equity in that unit. Small because most of my equity was transferred to this new unit.

I am busy watching all the shows I taped while I was gone. Fate shortened that chore for me when the VCR in the kitchen died and two whole tapes didn't tape. Also one Living room tape messed up so I only have 32 hours to watch. I am about half done. In the meantime I have to continue taping the current shows until I catch up with the back ones.

Life gets complicated when you travel.

Lazy farmer

I doubt if the kid was Farmer Jack himself but damn.

I did a load of shopping at Farmer Jack this morning. I don't usually shop there but they had pop and milk on sale and those are my staples.

I came to my car with a cart full of stuff, and as I opened my trunk along came a cart picker-upper. I was glad to see him, anticipating help. He stood there with a hand on the side of my cart, never looked directly at me and waited until I had unloaded everything into the trunk. When he didn't offer to help, I was too angry to ask. As I put the last 12 pack of pop in the trunk, I was going to say "That's alright, I've got it", but he was gone with the cart already.

I caulked

I want my dull and boring life back. I want to go days at a time without having to leave the house or think about anything but the book I'm reading and Law and Order. I think I can see it on the horizon.

My emotions are fluctuating with the frustration of dealing with contracted trades people and the guilty twinges of how much others are doing for me. Even Sandra (Erika's Mother-in-Law) who got my humidifier working and explained to me how to fix the leak in my shower doors. The shower doors, that I hate anyways, but accepted when I bought the unit, were leaking and left puddles on the floor. This morning, after letting the area dry thoroughly, I put down some caulky stuff. I expected it to be clear but it was white so I had to do the whole front instead of just the problem spot.

Jeff, (step-father to Karl's daughter, Stephanie) spent many many hours here on Monday, his holiday off. He connected the cable in the rooms the cable-guy refused to drill holes for. Jeff drilled the holes and hooked everything up. He installed my gas dryer to the gas line that had been capped, and went over and capped the line at my old unit. He had to go back and forth to Lowe's a few times. Then to top it all off, when he was done, he couldn't get the furnace to kick on again. He had the instruction book and followed everything it said but the house got colder and colder. I felt bad because he was feeling bad and I assured him that I could call maintenance in the morning.

I ended up spending the night at Jeannette's (hence, the shower here didn't get used and had a chance to dry out) and when I got home from the Windsor casino, the house was nice and warm, and the work order left by maintenance said it was a faulty switch and they replaced it.

I have a little over a week before Adrienne gets here for the cruise and I intend to spend it reading and watching tv (on cable in every room, yeaa). Oh yeah, and packing.

I'm Home

and I am a happy camper. After a few false starts I know which way to turn and which parking lot I belong in. Rita and I have set some ground rules about getting into each other's business and carrying on our lives like we did before.

Erika has got everything unpacked and set up for me. It will take me a while to know where everything is and I can re-arrange as I go along, if necessary.

Now I can start concentrating on packing for the cruise.

What a Guy

The first of three people who are checking out my unit just left. He was the appraisor. After he called for an appointment I recalled that one of the papers I had signed was authorization to charge me $65.00 for this service. He checked the humidifier, air conditioner, marble sills, storm doors and handrail. These are the authorized improvements for which the coorporation will assign fair value to charge the incoming member.

I asked if he needed me to go to the basement with him and he said no. So I went further and asked if he would bring up my ice chopper on his way back up and he did. Then he went further and he scraped the ice off my porch before he left. Title line, What a Guy.

I have prospective buyers coming today. One, a man, at 3:00 pm and the other a couple that live here in Holliday Park at 7:00 pm. I have actually travelled with the wife, Karen Moore (for those of you who have travelled with me, Karen usually rooms with her mother, Barbara Long). Karen's mother-in-law is on the list but out of town right now so Karen and her husband are going to come look at the place for her. Karen's mother, Barbara already lives here in lot 27 and will actually be about three doors down from me in my new place.

It is a little more intimidating to show my home, with all its flaws, and the disclaimer that I need a buyer that will accept the place "as is" when its somebody I know rather than a stranger.

Long Day

Boy, yesterday was a long day. It started at about 4:30 a.m. and continued for at least 19 hours. Of course, the first five of those hours revolved around MGM Casino. Erika is a champion. I lost count of how many trips she made between the two house shlepping stuff over. I even stopped going with her at some point yesterday afternoon.

She did a stellar job on the basement and had it all vacuumed and everything by the time Ron (prospective buyer) came by to look at the place. This is the second place he has looked at and he said the first one was not as well maintained as this one. I really expected that I was at the bottom of that list, but maybe there are some real slobs around while I am more of a wannabe.

The dishwasher didn't get so much wired on Wednesday so I am meeting the electrician over there Monday morning. Also there was a puddle of water under the sink and Erika met the plumber over there this morning and hopefully that is fixed.

Mail was resumed here as promised and as of today I have received everything I was waiting for. One thing was a form from an investment company that needed to verify my and Erika's signatures and it was going to be so handy getting it while she was here to sign it. The postmark showed that it was mailed 12/7 and it was delivered about 2 hours after she left for home today.

No Wishy Washy me

So, I went over to the new house to leave a note for the cabinet installers and what should I find, but the cabinets all ripped out and the installers on the job. I told them why I was there and they already knew that I wanted a dishwasher. I told them I was having second thoughts because the electrical was going to cost $150.00 and I didn't even know how much the plumbing would cost. "Well", the guy said, "I could probably let you know that part in about 15 minutes because I have encountered a plumbing problem when we took out the cabinets and the plumber is on his way over here". (note - the problem encountered belongs to the corporation and not to me). So I gave him Rita's phone number and went over there to wait for the call.

About a half hour later he called and said the plumber was there if I wanted to talk to him. I went over. The plumber from Dearborn Heights Plumbing said he could plumb it in for $165.00. He asked if I had the dishwasher yet. I said No, there was one on sale at Sears that I was going to get if everything worked out but I hadn't bought one yet. He showed me the problem that because of the flooring, it created a ridge between the cabinet line and the floor and if the cabinet was set in place, it would not just slide out to put the dishwasher in. He said if I had the dishwasher he could do the work right now and avoid having to take it apart later. I said I could go to Sears right now and buy it but I don't know when it would get delivered. Plumber guy said if I bought it right now he would go pick it up for me and come back and install it.

I said "what about the electrical". Installer guy said that could be done through the floor and the unit would not have to come out for that part. Installer guy also said he could do the wiring but he was not actually a licensed electrician. I said "Oh, no, I know these people at Holliday Park, I will need licensed workmen if this needs approval". Installer guy said "I have an electrician that I use, let me call him and see what he can do".

So I get in the car and go to Sears to get the Kenmore dishwasher that was on sale for $299.00. The one on display is black. I asked the salesman, do you have this in white. Let me go check he says, I say, if not, do you have this other one, the Fridgidair (that was on sale for $210.00) He says, I'll check them both. Alas, he comes back and neither one is in stock. Can I have this one from the floor? The white Fridgidair? Oh, no, he says. We can't do that. I explain that I have a plumber in the palm of my hand that will come by in a half hour to pick up a dishwasher. Come with me he says. He has a G.E. discontinued model marked down to $149.00. Sold, I say.

So I go back to the house, give the receipt to the plumber and he leaves to get the dishwasher. In the meantime, installer guy has talked to his electrician and he's in the neighborhood and can come over and do the wiring for the $150.00. Electrical guy will need a check. Plumber guy has agreed to bill me. I came home to get my checkbook. I can cover the $150.00 but just. My automatic deposit of S.S. comes on the 3rd Wednesday of the month and that comes late this month.

So I am a very happy lady. For less than $500.00 I have an installed dishwasher. And better yet, my new cabinets will be installed for this weekend and me and Erika can start moving the kitchen stuff. Also, I like the cabinets very much because instead of that silly half shelf in the bottom cabinets, the top shelves of the bottom cabinets are sliders.

So, floating on a happy bubble, I called maintenance when I got home at about 4:30 to see what I had to do to get it approved. Watch out for the big bubble bursting prick. Well, first, he says, you fill out the request form and we tell you whether you can get a dishwasher or not. Then if you get the OK your contractors have to pull city permits - Wait, I say, the dishwasher is already installed. Well, you can't do that, he says. To whom am I speaking, I say. My name is Russ, he says. I say, you are the one who was supposed to call me this morning to let me know whether the dishwasher was something that even needed approval. Well, he says, I've been tied up all day. Well, I say, while you were tied up, I have had a dishwasher installed. Well, he says, they may make you take it out. Whatever, I say. I'm done with him.

In other woe whoas, I went online last week and changed my address with the Post Office with a start date of 12/26 and I haven't received any mail since. I called the post office this morning and she was sorry for the inconvenience, but they don't get the internet information, all they get is notification that the address has been changed. So they have a forwarding order. I said, I was there yesterday and nothing has been forwarded. (there are a few things I have been waiting for, not the least of which is my medications) Well, the forwarded stuff wouldn't get there that fast, but if the start date hasn't been reached yet, the forwarded stuff should come back to them. They will resume delivery here today. Yeaa If the meantime, if my medications are among "the forwarded stuff", that is in limbo somewhere I still have a 16 day supply on hand. It should get sorted out by then, right?

Woe after woe after whoa

The good news is that my cabinets have been delivered and the installer has been notified but not scheduled as yet. Lauri, the maintenance lady suggested that I go over and put a note in the existing cabinet that I plan to have a dishwasher installed so they won't bolt in that particular cabinet.

Then she asked me if I had turned in that request to the improvement committee. I didn't think that a dishwasher was an authorized improvement but she wasn't sure about that.

It also turns out that a newly installed dishwasher has to be plumbed and electrified and stuff like that. I called Family Heating and the electrification will cost $150.00. They do not do the plumbing and have no idea what that might cost. I am starting to like my portable better and better.

More Paulette

My name is ReJeanne Paulette Beauregard
My address is 8354 Navy St., Detroit, Mich.
I was born today Friday, February 12, 1937 at 4 o'clock p.m.
My mother Alberta Dalpe
My father Azarias Beauregard
Dr. Edgar, Vernor Hwy at Springwells, Detroit, Price _____
Nurse Mde Monty paid $5.00
God father Louis Langevin
God mother Jeanne Beauregard
Baptised Sunday, February 28, 1937 at 2 o'clock p.m. at St. Gabriel Church, Vernor Hwy at Norman
Weight 8 3/4 lbs
I was supposed to have Dr. Durocher but he was gone to Florida on a vacation and he had Dr. Edgar to take care of me. Doctor arrive after I was born
Sat up August 27
First tooth August 28
Second tooth September 2
Start walking December 22, 1937
Had Doctor Ashe care for mouth troubles (gums red) July 1940
Toxin - Anti-toxin treatment first shot July 16, 1940 by Doctor Ashe and second shot August 16, 1940 by Dr. Edgar. Dr. Ashe was gone on Vacation
Had measles (rougeole) April, 1941 No doctor care
Broke her right arm (joignet) July 1941, Fixed at Delray Hospital by young Dr. Durocher
Broke her right arm again at the elbow October 24, 1941, fixed at St. Mary Hospital by Dr. Falk
Measles (3 days) April 1942

More Aunt Monica

(translated from the French where necessary)

My name is Marie Monica Agnes Beauregard
My address 8354 Navy, Detroit, Michigan
I was born today, Wednesday, July 17, 1935 at eleven o'clock p.m.
My mother Alberta Dalpe
My father Azarias Beauregard
I had no doctor because I was born before the doctor arrive - but I was taken care after birth by Dr. Durocher (paid $20.00) I had Nurse Monty
My Godfather Georges Blanchard
My Godmother Agnes Bresko
Baptised Sunday August 4th 1935 at 2:00 pm at St. Gabriel church on Vernor Highway at Norman, Detroit
Weight 8 3/4 lbs
First smile July 28, 1935
I had measles December, 1935
First tooth March 3, 1936
Second tooth March 12, 1936
Stood alone September 19, 1936
Had Whooping Cough (coquelouche) April, 1936
First steps October 2, 1936
Had toxin anti-toxin treatment first shot July 16, 1940 by Dr. Ashe, Vernor Hwy and second shot by Dr. Edgar August 15, 1940 (Dr. Ashe gone on vacation)
Had measles (rougeole) April 1941.

That's where that record ends. For the new record, congratulations Monica on your third attempt at retirement.

When I first read through this record, I missed the ditto marks under the word March for the second tooth and I read it as 12/36. I pictured this poor baby with only one tooth for nine months.

Walk Through

The resale lady, Christy did a walk through on my house this morning and made a note of all the things that the new buyer would have to accept "as is" if I was not willing to change them. There is very little that I am willing to change. I plan to take down the changing table and the cabinet in the downstairs bathroom and that's about it.

I put a value of $1,000.00 on the improvements that I can charge for which include the new carpeting in the living room, stairway and hallway; the ceiling fans in the hallway and bedroom, that she said could be considered decorative lighting; and I also plan to leave all the window treatments and the hall mirror and rugs in the basement and basement stairs. I have extra electrical outlets and a phone jack in the basement that Taj installed and the phone jack in the living room that Jeff put in when I got my computer.

For a person that likes to do their own decorating this will be a pretty good place.

Yet Again, more Theresa

Its only fitting that after not giving her a thought for sixty odd years Theresa can be the subject of another blog.

In things I brought home from Papa's house after he died, I have all the information about Mama's funeral. It turns out that it was at that time that Papa bought the headstone for Theresa's grave. There are receipts for two headstones. One for Alberta Beauregard, at Our Lady of Hope Cemetary and one for Baby Theresa Beauregard at Holy Cross Cemetary.

Theresa's is described as pink marble with a baby angel and a cross. Almost makes me want to go see it.

Movin on

We are doing so good. My linen closet is all set up at the new place. I just kept a couple sets of towels here. My bed linens normally live in a dresser drawer so they are not an issue.

The toy cupboard is empty and everything is boxed up to bring over after Jackson gets up from his nap. Toy cupboard is a euphamism for a bottom kitchen cupboard unit that we had in the basement on Navy that the kids kept their toys in. The cupboard is in my basement here and used for various storage as it will be in the new place but to our family it will forever be a toy cupboard.

We will be doing more packing tonight to bring over there in the morning and then I will be ready to gel for a couple of weeks. Erika will be back the weekend of the 16th to take care of any other stuff that can be done before the truck move.

Bought and Sold

I never want to buy or sell a house again as long as I live. I closed on my new place today. I did a final walk through with maintenance and I have the keys. The new cabinets have not yet been installed. The new basement floor is the same tile that is in my present kitchen. The kitchen tile in the new place has some nice blue in it that matched the counter tops. The new counter top was already there and it is beige. Good thing I'm not a matchy type person.

I went in with the attitude that I was going to read everything before I signed it. I got over that.

I have rescinded my present unit and the new one is my primary residence. I have parking lot tags for the new place, but they can't throw me out of here till 1/30/06.

I have a truck reserved for 12/26/05. Jeff is going to pick it up at 4:30 PM and we have it reserved until 12/28/05 at 4:30 pm if we need it that long. I'm thinking we can probably bring it back on the 27th but Jeff is in charge of that and whatever he says goes.

Gretchen is having Christmas dinner at Tonya's (Spicer) and her family will be here until Wednesday. I don't know Erika's timeline yet.

Steph is coming over this afternoon and I want to take a card table and chairs over to the new place and maybe move some of the clothes from my closet (and my new Joy Mangano designer hangers). I just thought of bringing a couple of lamps over also since there are no light fixtures in the bedrooms.

I can't believe how stressful this all is and I think I am starting to understand what heart palpitations are.