Viki's Place

Mrs. Dunkin #14

2012-01-30T08:50:00.000-05:00

This is an ongoing story I've decided to write and put on my blog every Monday. Please excuse the errors, I'm only doing limited editing. Constructive criticism welcome. I wish I had a cute button on the side where the story could go but I don't know how to make a button. Even if I did I wouldn't know how to link up the story LOL. So if you miss a chapter, you'll have to look at my sidebar for it. The first chapter was written on October 23, 2011 so that should at least be some help, ha.

14

I saw Clara at my door with an aide “Are youready to go Annie?”  

“Yes,ready and willing.  You lead theway.”  We walked past the day-room to thetwo big doors.  The aide punched in somenumbers and then pushed the doors open. The elevators were right there and we went up to the second floor to abig room.  There were many tables andchairs.  People were coming in andfilling up the tables pretty quickly.  Weeach got two cards and token markers. “Clara, I haven’t played bingo since my children were young.  I loved it then.”  

“I’m sureyou’ll love it now too.  If you win, you’llwin candy or a trinket whatever you pick.” 

“How fun” I said laughing.    

When allthe tables were filled, we started.  Iwon’t bore you with the details but let’s just say I had a very good day at thebingo table.  I won four candy bars.  I think that was pretty good for my firsttime.  I’ll probably save them for the grand-kids.  

When theaide came to pick us up Clara told her to take me on a little tour.  I followed her pushingClara in the wheelchair.  Most of theplace looked like where I was living. Each wing had its own day-room and visiting room.  I found out the whole place only has about200 residents.  The reason I picked itwas because it was a smaller place.  Ididn’t want to feel like I would get lost and I certainly wouldn’t have toworry about that here.  I was shown wherethe social workers, activities people, and other personnel worked.  It was a circular building and in the centerwas a beautiful courtyard.  The mums werestill blooming and I bet it looks gorgeous in the summer with all the fallflowers.  

When westarted going back to the room, I noticed a Mrs. Maria Baker outside one of thedoors.  “Clara, would you mind if I stopin this room?  This is my daughter’sfriend’s mother.”  

“Sure goahead we’ll wait for you.”  

I walkedin.  “Hi Maria.”  

“Yesthat’s me” she said with a slurred speech. 

“I don’t know if you remember me I’m AnnieDunkin.  My daughter, Julie, and yourdaughter were good friends.”  

“Yes, Iremember.  In fact, Sally just left andmentioned that you were here.  It’s niceto see you again.” 

“It has been a long time.  How are you doing?” 

“All thingsconsidered, okay I guess.  I’m in awheelchair all the time now and I still have slurred speech but luckily, I’mstill getting therapy and I’m hoping to improve.  At least I can use both arms now.” 

“Then it’sall good.”  

“How areyou doing?  Sally says you haveAlzheimer’s.  I’m sorry to hear that.” 

“Me toobut I’m trying to adjust to that fact. I’m taking some medicine that’s supposed to help slow it down.”  

“I hope itworks for you, Annie.”  

“It wasnice seeing you Maria but I’ve got to go. Perhaps you can get one of the aides to bring you to my room and we canchat some more.”  

“Okay, itwas nice that you stopped by Annie.”  

“Bye.”

“That wasshort.”  

“I didn’twant to keep everyone waiting.”  Weheaded to our wing and they were already starting to serve lunch.  

“Clara, Ithink I’m going to head to my room for a while. I’m still stuffed from breakfast. I’ll see you later.” 

“I’ll seeyou later, Annie”.  I headed off to myroom.    

I took my shoes off when I got to the room andsat on the rocker and covered myself with the quilt and dozed off. When I got up, my lunch was sitting on thetable. I got up and looked at it. I still wasn’t hungry but I took the piece ofchocolate cake and put it on the dresser and covered up the rest. I turned the TV on and before I knew it, Iwas dozing again.

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Down in the dumps

2012-01-27T11:38:00.000-05:00

I've been ill with a bad cold for about a week and a half. I'm finally starting to feel a little better.

Besides I've been down in the dumps. I think this cold, warm, snow, rain, dreary weather has just gotten to me. My house is a wreck, heh.

Finally, the other day Mom is done with antibiotics. She is cleared to get a roommate. So, we'll see when that happens. She seems to be starting to get back to normal.

Some of the blogs I've been reading are getting me down as well. So much heartache; divorces, deaths, sickness. It makes me just want to curl up and hide away.

Hopefully, now that my cold is almost gone I can start putting things into perspective.

Have a good weekend.

Mrs. Dunkin #13

2012-01-23T00:14:00.000-05:00

13

Our trayswere put in front of us.  We hadpancakes, sausage, and cheerios; also, the usual liquids that I had at everymeal so far.  “Boy, they don’t scrimp onthe food or drinks do they” I said. 

Claraanswered “No, they sure don’t.  You wouldthink by my weight I eat everything but I usually don’t.   I take what I can’t finish back to my roomfor later or give it to someone else.”

“Goodidea.  Can I ask how you like ithere?”  

“I like itokay.  There are plenty of things todo.  They have bingo, exercises, art andall kinds of other things if you’re willing to do them.   Theyhave entertainment come in which I really like a lot.  They also have outings you can sign up for. 

“Soundslike it’s up to the person to make of this place what they want.”  

“Yes,that’s exactly how I would put it.  WhileI can, I’m going to do everything before it’s too late.  If you know what I mean.”  I knew exactly what she meant.  I decided right then and there I wouldtoo.  

“Heygirlies.”  I turned around and smiled atFred.  

“Don’tencourage him” Clara said.  

“I don’twant to be rude.”  

“Thelonger you’re here you will learn.  Thereare some people you just have to ignore. He calls everyone girlie, even men” and she laughed.  

“What’shis story?” 

“He’s anice enough guy but if you get to talking to him you’ll never get away.  He was here when I got here.  He told me he’s got children but I’ve neverseen them.  His wife is long gone.  He can get around pretty well but he’s alwaystrying to get out of here and go back home to see her.”  

“I sawthis morning that he tried to get out.”  

“Yeah, hedoes it like clockwork every morning.  Idon’t know why only in the morning but that’s what he does.”  

“Around10:00, they are going to be playing bingo would you like to play?”  

“Sure, itsounds fun.”  

“HeySheila” Clara yelled “mark me and Annie down for bingo this morning.” 

“Will do”Sheila said. 

“They willcome and get us around 9:00.  We get toget off this floor, thank goodness.  We’llhave something new to see.”

“Where isit going to be?” 

“It’s onthe second floor.  When they are goinghave something where a lot of people will attend it’s usually up there.”   

We werefinished eating and I told Clara I was going to freshen up.  When I went back to my room, the phone wasringing. 

 “Hello?” 

“Mom wherewere you?  I’ve been calling for the lasthalf hour.”  

“I was atbreakfast Julie.  Is somethingwrong?”  

“No, notreally.  I got concerned when I couldn’tget a hold of you.”  

“That’sexactly why I’m here Julie, so you don’t have to be worried about meanymore.  If you call and I’m not herethat means I’m out of my room doing something. In fact, I just came back to freshen up and then I’m going to be playingbingo.”  

“That’snice Mom.  I wanted to tell you thatJerry’s going to be there in the morning tomorrow and I’m coming in the eveningif that’s okay.” 

“That’sfine; whatever you two decide is good with me. I’m not going anywhere.I reallyhave to go now, they will be coming to get me and I don’t want to keep Clarawaiting.”  

“Who isClara?”  “She’s the woman who lives nextdoor to me.  She’s very nice and isshowing me the ropes.”  

“Okay mom,have a good time at bingo.  Oh one morething, Jill wanted me to ask you if you got whatever she needed taken care of.Whatever that means.” 

“Tell her,yes I did and it’s waiting for her.” 

“See you tomorrow mom.  Love you.” 

“Me too dear.”  

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Mrs. Dunkin #12

2012-01-16T07:48:00.000-05:00

12

WhenSheila left, I felt faint and I sat on one of the recliners.  Suddenly I felt like I was trapped like arat. I felt like I was in a prison.   I couldn’t leave without someone going withme?    

“How ya'doing girlie?” and I looked to see the escape artist right in front of me.  

“I’m doingfine.  I wish I was a girl” and Ichuckled.  

“You’re agirlie to me.  I’m 92 years old.”  

“I guessyour right then.  I’m only 70.”  

“You comehere often?” he said. 

“No, this is my first time.”  

“Well, Ihope to see you around more” and he left. 

There wasa table set up with puzzle pieces on it. I went and looked at it.   Therewere also games and a tall bookshelf with many types of books.  It seemed like they had a nice variety. I’llhave to take one back to my room to read.    

I lookedout the window again and saw many cars going down the road. I imagined peoplewere out doing their grocery shopping and taking their kids places.

I hopedJerry had talked to Sue about letting Josh have my car.  It would be an ideal situation for me andthem.  Perhaps I will find out tomorrowwhen Jerry comes.  

I took mycoffee over by the computer and got on my email address and I could connect toit.  All of the email I had was mostly spamand jokes.  I deleted it all.  I decided I would email Stella.  She was probably worried to death aboutme.  

Hi Stella,

Who knew Iwould have Internet here?   I’m ready forvisitors after Sunday.  Anytime you wantto come would be fine.  Don’t worry aboutme, I am really doing fine.  

Don’temail me because I don’t know when I’ll be back on the computer.  

Love,                                                                               Annie

I hit sendand off the email went.  She’ll be happyto hear from me.  

I couldhear noises behind me and I looked into the day-room and could see people goingto the tables.  It was filling up prettyfast.  

I took mycoffee and went out to the table where Clara was sitting.  

“Hi” Isaid.

“Hi, I’mglad you decided to join me.”  

“Is yourroommate coming out?”  “No, shecan’t.  She’s bedridden now.  We had a really rough night.  Something was wrong but she seems finenow.”  

“It’s sogenerous of you to take care of her.”  

“Before she got so ill, we were really close.  I promised her to be there if she needed meand I’m keeping my promise.”

“Does shehave any family?”  

“No, shehad a husband but he died and no children. Her sister put her here and then she died.  She kind of became my family this last year.”

“Oh thatis so heartbreaking.  Does she know you?”

“I thinkshe does.  When no one can calm her down,she seems to respond to me.  I sing toher and sometimes I even read books to her. When I’m in the room with her, I talk to her all the time but for thelast few months she hasn’t talked back. That doesn’t deter me though, I know she hears me.”  

“I’m sureshe does” I reassured her. 

“That’ssuch a lovely necklace you have on.”

“It was mymother’s.  My father bought it forher.  It’s one of my most treasuredpieces.”

“Becareful with it.  You see that woman overat the next table?” She whispered.  “She’sa thief.  I’ve had several things missingthat they found in her room.”

“Thanksfor warning me.  I’ll keep an eye out forher.”

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Saturday Centus #89

2012-01-14T08:32:00.000-05:00

THE PROMPT THIS WEEK IS A CONTINUATION OF YOUR STORY USING: Hanging off a cliff!
WORD COUNT - Not to exceed 50 words total.
STYLE OF WRITING - Any
ADDITIONAL PICTURES IF DESIRED

To see other centus' go here

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2012/01/saturday-centus-hanging-off-cliff.html

Is it just me or did last week's centus say we were going to have 100 additional words. for the second part? I already had it written and had to edit it so much, I hope it makes sense lol.

Part 1

Dot watched the ball drop from Times Square on TV andthen her phone started ringing like it had done for the past 45 years.

“Hello, Sister.”

“Hi Dot, Happy New Year.” 

“Happy New Year.”  

“Talk to you later. Good night.”

“Good Night.”

Next year might be different, Dot thought.  Would I even be here?   Sheknew she should have told someone that she went for the biopsy but she justcouldn’t. Not yet.   

She was nervous about the results and felt like she washanging off a cliff.

The phonestarted to ring.

“Dot, this is Dr. Jones. I’m sorry….”

Part 2

to be calling so late. I had emergency surgery and saw your test results were in. I didn’t wantyou to have to worry longer than necessary. The tumor was benign. Happy New Year, Dot.”

“Thank you so muchfor calling, doctor.  You have a happyNew Year too.  Bye.”

Random thoughts

2012-01-12T09:22:00.000-05:00

1. They put mom on another 14 days of the antibiotics for c diff. She's feeling fine though, just lonely from having no roommate.

2. 2010 Christmas, hippie and I got gift cards from Macy's from my brother and his wife. I've been wanting to start trying to buy more things made in the USA. With the money they gave me this Christmas, I was able to buy 4 place settings of Fiesta ware.

3. I really need new drinking glasses, for some reason this year I was clumsy. I'm thinking of buying them from Anchor Hocking - again USA made.

4. Does anyone watch Biggest Loser? The last couple of years, I can't put my finger on it but Bob Harper really seems to have changed. I don't like him as well as I used to.

5. I've been in a little bit of organizing mood lately. I tackled a container that I have with things that I've saved over the years. I really went to it and got rid of more than half the stuff. I mean, who needs cards from our wedding that people gave us 34 years ago, ha. I haven't looked at them for years. Also, what do you do with all the pictures you get in Christmas cards? I have hundreds of them. Some people didn't put a name on or how old they were. I don't even know who some of them are lol.

Mrs. Dunkin #11

2012-01-09T09:05:00.000-05:00

I woke uparound 5 a.m. the next morning.  Afterseeing Clara singing to Helen, it was so heartbreaking I went to sleep.  I thought I would get my shower over and donewith before my medication came.  

When I wasdone, I came out to brush my hair and the medication was sitting on the tablewith a small glass of water.  I took thepills and began brushing my hair when I heard.

“Hi Annie,my name is Jane.  I was wondering ifyou’ll be going to breakfast.  I’m one ofthe housekeepers and I’d like to clean your room.  Usually after the first full day someone ishere, we start our routine of once a day cleaning.”  

“It’s sonice to meet you.  I was thinking ofgoing out to the day-room for breakfast but I could sure use a cup of coffeebefore then.”  

“There’s somecoffee in the visitors room that you can go and get.  There are nice comfy chairs and evencomputers that the residents can use.” 

“I didn’tknow that.  As soon as I get done with myhair, I might go check it out.  Where isthat room at?” 

“It’sright across from the day-room.  Youwon’t be able to miss it.  When you getback from breakfast your room will be cleaned.” 

“Thank youdear.” 

“You’rewelcome” and Jane left.

I finishedbrushing my hair.  I opened up the lockeddrawer and pulled out earrings that had little pink roses on them and thenecklace that matched.  It would looklovely with the pink shell and cardigan I was wearing.  No one here will probably care if I match butI still do.    

I decidedto go and find the coffee.  That wasalways the first thing I did in the morning when I was home.  I was never much of a breakfast eater but Ido love my coffee.  As I went passedClara’s room, I could see Helen in her bed but couldn’t see Clara.  I went down the hall and got to theday-room.  A few people were in their butnot Clara.  I saw the visitor’s room andwent in.  No one was there but me.  I got myself a cup of coffee and stood andlooked out the open blinds.  The treeswere starting to turn lovely colors; yellow, orange and fiery red.   Fall is always my favorite season.  I started looking at the computer when Iheard someone come into the room.  

“You mustbe Annie.  I’m Sheila the weekend daynurse.  I dropped your pills off earlierbut you were in the shower.”  

“HelloSheila, I took them.  It’s nice to meetyou.”  Suddenly, I head a beeping.  “What’s that?”

“That’sprobably Fred doing is usual escape act. I’ll be right back” and she headed out.

“Fred,where do you think you’re going?” I could hear her say from the hallway.  Then I heard a man’s voice say, “You caughtme again girlie.  I’m going back to thetable right now.”  “Thank you Fred.”  

I saw aman in a wheelchair go past the visitor’s room and to a table where he put hishead down.  Sheila came back in theroom.  “That Fred” she said.  “He does that every morning.  He knows he’s going to get caught but I thinkhe likes to keep us on our toes” and we laughed.  

“How comehe’s not allowed out?” I questioned.  

“Anniethis is a locked floor.  People can comein but if you want to go out you need to know the code.  We have to be careful because we areresponsible for everyone.  They could getout and walk right out the front door. We put alarms on some people.”  

“Oh” Isaid with some trepidation.  

“If youwant to go somewhere off the floor Annie let us know and we’ll have someone gowith you.”  “I have to get back to workbut I’ll be seeing you later.”  

“Okay,dear.”

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Saturday Centus #88

2012-01-07T08:55:00.000-05:00

It looks like I picked a good day to come back and do the centus - NOT, lol.

Jenny chose a literary device the rules are:

THE PROMPT THIS WEEK IS:Hanging off a cliff! (Might as well be literal while we're attempting to usethis literary device!)
WORD COUNT - Not to exceed 100 words plus the 4words of the prompt. 104 words total.
STYLE OF WRITING - Any so long as you utilize acliffhanger writing device to wrap your story up. Next week we'll do anadditional 100 words for the rest of the story.

My prompt will be in blue. Check out the other centus here:

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2012/01/narrative-ends-unresolved-to-draw.html

Dot watched the ball drop from Times Square on TV andthen her phone started ringing like it had done for the past 45 years.

“Hello, Sister.”

“Hi Dot, Happy New Year.” 

“Happy New Year.”  

“Talk to you later. Good night.”

“Good Night.”

Next year might be different, Dot thought.  Would I even be here?   Sheknew she should have told someone that she went for the biopsy but she justcouldn’t. Not yet.   

She was nervous about the results and felt like she washanging off a cliff.  

The phonestarted to ring.  

“Dot, this is Dr. Jones. I’m sorry….”

Random thoughts

2012-01-05T00:33:00.000-05:00

1. I had a pretty good Christmas Eve and day. My brother and his wife came over later than usual on Christmas Eve. Christmas day we went to my son's girlfriends house - she was home over the holiday. It was fun.

2. New Years Eve hippie and I were asleep before midnight LOL.

3. Luckily, the Armageddon they were predicting for the whole area didn't happen except for the snow belt this week. We probably didn't even get 3", ha.

4. We'll be celebrating with hippies family Christmas on Jan 14th. My sil, where we are having it, moved to a condo last year. I can't wait to finally see it.

5. Unfortunately, son can't come home. Oh well.

6. Even though it's past new years, I'm still deciding if I'm going to pick a word to focus on for 2012.

7. We took our decorations down before New Years eve. I was ready.

8. The patio saga continues. When he finally came, he couldn't do anything because of the weather. We decided to wait to have it fixed in the spring.

9. Mom's still in a private room at the nursing home. When she gets cleared, she won't be going back to her old room. They gave it to someone else. She's been a little confused but seems to be starting to get back into her routine somewhat.

10. Words I'd like gone from the English language in 2012 "job creators" and "I approved this message" but I know with the election coming up it's not going to happen @@.

Mrs. Dunkin #10

2012-01-02T00:06:00.000-05:00

10

I was finishing up eating when a womanstarted wheeling herself into my room. “Can I help you?”  

“What areyou doing in Sally’s room?”  

“Sally?  I don’t know who she is but this is myroom.  I came yesterday.  My name is Annie.”  

“My nameis” and she reached into her pocket pulling out a little piece of paper andsaid “Clara.  My name is Clara.”  

“It’s niceto meet you.  I don’t know what happenedto Sally.”  

“Clara, what are you doing in here?” Kate saidcoming into the room.  

“I came tosee how Sally was doing.”  

“I’m sorryto say Sally is on another floor now. Let’s leave Annie alone.” 

“No,that’s okay.  Clara can stay if she wantsto.” 

“I’d like that” Clara smiled.  Katie left the room.  

“You know when they say they’ve moved someoneto another floor, its code?” 

“Code?  Code for what?” 

“Thatmeans the person died but they don’t want to tell us.” 

“Oh.”  I decided to change the subject.  “How long have you been here Clara?”  

“I’m notreally sure but probably a couple of years. I don’t remember a lot of things anymore.” 

“I’m having trouble with that myself lately,”Annie said.  “Do you have childrenClara?”  

“Yes, Ihave a son, Johnny.  I fell and broke myhip and I’ve been here ever since. My mind just wouldn’t let me walk anymorethat’s why I’m in the wheelchair.  Iwanted to live with Johnny but his wife and I don’t get along very well.  So, he left me here.”

“I’m sorry that happened.”  

“Whyshould you be sorry you didn’t have anything to do with it?   Also there’s that woman.”  

“Woman?” 

“Yes, shevisits me quite frequently.  She saysshe’s my daughter and I’ve tried to tell her I don’t have one but she’s verynice to me so I just play along.  She’sbeen better to me than my own son.  Doyou have children?” 

“Yes, I have two but I didn’t want to staywith either one of them.  I’m tooindependent.”  

“Well, atleast you had a choice.  My son used allmy money for my living expenses.  I can’t believe it.  All those years my husband and I saved and it’s all gone.”  

“Clara weneed help with Helen.”  the night nurse,Amelia, saidcoming into the room.  

“Helen’smy roommate.  She’s not doing well atall.  Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow.  I’m the next room down” as she hurriedly leftthe room.  

“What’s wrong with her roommate?”  

“Clara isabout the only one that can calm Helen down now.  She spends a lot of time when Helen’s awaketalking to her and holding her hand.”  

“Oh, can Iask a question about Clara?”  

“Sure.” 

“How manychildren does she have?”  

“She hastwo but she doesn’t remember her daughter anymore.  Her daughter comes every weekend even thoughshe doesn’t remember her. She lives quite a distance away.  It’s very hard on her but she loves hermom.”  

“That issad.  She doesn’t seem to care much forher son’s wife.” 

“His wife is very nice.  I think she blames her for not being able tolive with them when it was more the son’s decision and Clara just can’t handlethat so she blames her instead.” 

“Couldn’tshe have lived with the daughter?”  

“Notreally, before Clara even got here she didn’t remember the daughter anymore.” 

“I see.” 

“Can I getyou anything, Annie?  I’m going to go seehow Clara is doing with Helen.”  

“No, I’mfine dear.  Have a good night” and Amelialeft.  

I watchedsome TV and started getting tired.  I putmy nightgown on and the hallway lights were starting to dim.  I was ready to get into bed and I could hearsomeone singing.  I looked out in thehallway and I could hear it was coming from Clara’s room.  I timidly walked out and crept over andpeaked into the room.  I could see Clarasitting in her wheelchair next to Helen’s bed. She was holding Helen’s hand and singing a lullaby to Helen.  I turned and walked back to my room.  

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Happy New Year

2011-12-31T17:47:00.000-05:00

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Mrs. Dunkin #9

2011-12-26T06:58:00.000-05:00

This is an ongoing story I've decided to write and put on my blog every Monday.   Please excuse the errors, I'm only doing limited editing.  Constructive criticism welcome.  I wish I had a cute button on the side where the story could go but I don't know how to make a button.  Even if I did I wouldn't know how to link up the story LOL.   So if you miss a chapter, you'll have to look at my sidebar for it.  The first chapter was written on October 23, 2011 so that should at least be some help, ha.

As I lay on the bed, I kept looking at myhope chest.  I may as well get up andlook for the stuff for Jill.  Opening thechest, I rooted around looking for the family tree I had done years ago.  You see, Hank and I were only children so wedidn’t have big families. We had cousins but we lost track of them over theyears.   Here it is. I’ll put this in thelocked drawer with my jewelry.  

I started looking through the chest somemore and found a few empty journals. Julie for years would buy me a journal for Christmas and tell me Ishould write my memories down and I never got around to doing it.  I should probably start doing that now whileI can still remember things. She asked me for years if I wrote anything and Ialways had to tell her no.  I took out abeautiful lavender journal that had little violets on it and closed thechest.  I grabbed a pen from my purse andsat at the table with the journal. Iopened it up and started to write.

*My first entry will be about Hank and meand how we came to be. We happened to join the same study group in college.  When I came into the library our eyes met andit was as they say “love at first sight”. The next two years while in school, we saw each other as much as wecould.  Since we were both from Ohio whenwe were on breaks we could meet each other’s families and get to knowthem.  When our parents came for graduation,we sprung the news that we were getting married the next day in thechapel.  They were none too pleased butthat’s the way Hank and I wanted it.  Ihad called my best friend from home, Stella, and she and her husband came up soshe could be my matron of honor.  Hankhad his best friend from college stand up for him.  Our parents had given us some money forgraduation and we decided to go for a few days to Niagara Falls for a littlehoneymoon.  To say the honeymoon wasmagical would be an understatement.  Backin those days, or at least how we were raised, there was no hanky panky beforemarriage if you know what I mean.  Enoughsaid on that though.  

When we got back to Ohio, Hank and Irented a little bungalow.  He got anentry level job at a big corporation that he would eventually become the CEOof. I wasn’t going to start working until the fall as an English teacher at thehigh school.   It was so much fun decorating the house whilehe was at work.  We didn’t have a lot ofmoney so I would go to Goodwill and decorate on the cheap.  I poured over recipe books and when Hankwould come home from work, I would serve him my latest creation.  Sometimes I knew they were terrible but Hankwould eat them without complaining. That first summer every evening, we wouldsit on an old swing on the back porch and have a couple of cocktails and dreamabout what the future would hold for us. That’s about it for now.*

It’s 5:00 already.  I’m sure supper will be here soon.  I think I’ll go wash up.  When I came out Cheryl was leaving theroom.  “Were you looking for medear?”  

“Oh, I putyour supper on the table.  I hope you’rehungry.”  

“Yes, Icould eat something.” 

“I’m going to be leaving pretty soon.  I’m sorry I never got to give you thetour.”  

“That’sokay, I enjoyed our conversation very much.” 

“Me too.” 

“I don’thave to work this weekend so I’ll see you on Monday.” 

“Bye dear, and have a good weekend.”    

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Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T23:10:00.002-05:00

Twitter Background

A word

2011-12-23T11:26:00.001-05:00

I'm trying to decide what to do for the coming year. I'm not very good at resolutions.

I've heard of people selecting one word to focus on in the new year. Has anyone done this and been successful?

Mrs. Dunkin #8

2011-12-19T08:12:00.000-05:00

This is an ongoing story I've decided to write and put on my blog every Monday.   Please excuse the errors, I'm only doing limited editing.  Constructive criticism welcome.  I wish I had a cute button on the side where the story could go but I don't know how to make a button.  Even if I did I wouldn't know how to link up the story LOL.   So if you miss a chapter, you'll have to look at my sidebar for it.  The first chapter was written on October 23, 2011 so that should at least be some help, ha.

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to interruptyou.  I didn’t see you were on the phone”Cheryl said. 

“Don’tworry about it. Wait a second I have to write something down.”  I wrote look for family tree and put it onthe bulletin board on the wall.   “I wastalking to my granddaughter, Jill.  Sheis such an inquisitive child.  She alwayscalls and asks me questions.  She’s donethat ever since she was old enough to learn to dial the phone." 

“That’svery nice.” 

“Yes, it was nice.  Now I’m not so sure.  I’m worried about the time when she calls andI won’t be able to answer her question. What will I do then?  You know theAlzheimer thing.” 

“I understand your concerns about that butthink about it this way for now.  Noteveryone has the answers to everything whether they have Alzheimer’s ornot.  How old is she?”  

“She’sthirteen going on twenty one”.  

“Oh, oneof those, that’s how I was when I was that age” and she laughed.

“I wasalways in a hurry to grow up myself.  IfI only knew then what I know now I wouldn’t be as eager.”

“Annie if you want to go for the tour webetter get going.  I’ll have to get backto work in a little while.” 

“How about we sit here and talk instead?  I can do the tour another time.”  

“I’m allfor that.  My back’s killing me.”  

“Okay dear, tell me how you came to do thiskind of work?” 

“I’m going to nursing school and I neededmoney.  I took this job so I could put ittowards my education.  At least that’swhat I thought at the time.  I found thatI’ve learned so much since I’ve been here. It’s got me thinking when I do get my degree; I might want to do nursingwith geriatric patients. I think I could make a difference in their lives. ”  

“Whatmakes you like working with older patients?” 

“Part ofit is the wealth of knowledge they have. I’ve learned more about history from some of the residents than Ilearned when I was in school.  Also, mostof the time, the residents are so appreciative and good hearted of what I dofor them.”  

“Only mostof the time?” 

“I guessit’s not that some aren’t on purpose but with the unique situations of everyonesometimes they just can’t.”  

“I think Iget what you’re saying.  My dad hadAlzheimer’s and he could be very difficult at times.  I think it takes a special kind of person todeal with older people and I think this is a good place to figure out if thisis where your heart will lead you.” 

“It’s exactly what I thought.” 

“Are you married?”  

“I’mengaged to a paramedic.  Next year, weare getting married.” 

“How thrilling.  I suppose you’re getting all your plansready.” 

“Kind of,we are going to be paying it for ourselves. Neither one of us has a big family so we thought we would have somethingsmall.” 

“I’ve learned over my years, people spend moretime worrying about how they can make it into an extravaganza then about theactual getting married and what that means. When Hank and I got married, we had a small ceremony. We had our parentsand a few classmates and went out to dinner. I never regretted doing it that way. On that wall, there’s a picture of me and Hank on our wedding day.”

Cheryl gotup close and looked at the picture. “Wow, you looked gorgeous.  Notthat you don’t now” she said apologetically. 

“I knowwhat you mean dear.”  

“Yourhusband was quite the handsome man and you both look so happy.” 

“We were.” 

“Where didyou graduate from?”  

“I don’tmean to brag but we went to Harvard.  Hegot a scholarship and got a degree in business. He eventually became a CEO.  I gota degree in English and taught high school.” 

“Annie,it’s time for your medication” Katie said as she came into the room and handed me the little container andwater. 

 

Cheryl stood up and said, “I guess it’s time for me to get back towork.  I’ll talk to you later.”  

“Bye dear”and she left.  “I like that girl.”

“Most of the residents do.  She has a way with them.  Is there anything else I can do for youbefore I leave?”  

“No, Ithink I might lie down for a while.  Isit okay if I close the door to keep out the noise?”

“Sure,I’ll close it on my way out.  Have a goodnap.” 

“Thanks.”

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Saturday Centus #85

2011-12-17T13:33:00.001-05:00

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/search/label/Saturday%20Centus

This week it's a picture prompt with 50 words.

“Hello?”  

“Mary, this is Joanne. Have you seen Jenny’s house?”

“No.”

“She’s got a Christmas tree in her yard with all sorts ofmeats and vegetables.”

“She always has been an odd one.”

“There are animals there chowing down on it now.”  

“Oy vey, there goes the neighborhood.”

Disclaimer: Any Resemblance to our hostess of Centus Is Purely Coincidental.. LOL

Random thoughts

2011-12-15T07:59:00.000-05:00

1. My brother and his wife watched Corky while we were in Vegas. When we got back, my brother decided to keep Corky at least for now. Ever since I've been trying to get all the dog hair out of my house, ha.

2. One of my Dinner Friends became a grandma for the first time. He was born on 11-11-11 in Room 11. How cool is that!

3. Interesting December so far. Hardly any snow. Avg. 4.9", last year 11.9", this year 0.9". Calm before the storm?

4. I'm having issues with the new tree. When I close the blinds at night and the tree lights are on, I have a reaction. I can't exactly explain it (it kinda makes me feel dizzy). Hippie used to say the lights bothered him on the old tree. I thought he was nuts until now, ha, ha. Anyone ever have these problems?

5. I've only had my hair cut once since I had chemo in '04. It was very long. On Tuesday we had to stop at the drugstore for a few things. There's a hair place close by. On the spur of the moment, I went in and got a haircut. It's pretty short. Everyone in the family will be shocked when I see them over the holidays (hi family!) LOL.

Mrs. Dunkin #7

2011-12-11T08:52:00.000-05:00

This is an ongoing story I've decided to write and put on my blog every Monday.   Please excuse the errors, I'm only doing limited editing.  Constructive criticism welcome.  I wish I had a cute button on the side where the story could go but I don't know how to make a button.  Even if I did I wouldn't know how to link up the story LOL.   So if you miss a chapter, you'll have to look at my sidebar for it.  The first chapter was written on October 23, 2011 so that should at least be some help, ha.

Chapter 7

 I started unpacking the last box.  I put my anniversary clock Hank had bought memany years ago on the dresser.  I wasjust pulling out my jewelry box when Cheryl walked in.  “How was your lunch Annie?”  

“It was delish.” 

“I hope you don’t mind if Igive you a suggestion but I see you have a jewelry box.  If you have anything expensive in there, Iwouldn’t leave it out.  We could put itin our safe.  You see, when someresidents walk the halls and they see things in peoples rooms they would like,they take it.” 

 “ I have a lock on my onedrawer” and when I opened it the key was in it. “Yes, I have the key.  Would thatbe good?” 

“Sure.  It’s not when they takethings they are being malicious, their mind just doesn’t tell them they aredoing something wrong.  We pretty muchknow who takes things, so if you’re ever missing anything let us know and we’llhunt it down for you.” 

“Okay.” 

"I camefor your tray.  I’m going to have a breakin about half hour and thought I could show you around a bit.”  

“That would be lovely, dear.” 

 “Okay, I’ll see you in a bit.”

I put the jewelry box in the dresserdrawer and locked it.  I also found thekey for the hope chest.  I opened it upand got out one of my mother’s fancy white laced runners.  All these years later it still looked asbeautiful as the first time I remember seeing it.  I put it on top of the chest.  I also got out the quilted throw that Stellahad made for me one year for Christmas. It was burgundy, green and an off white. I always feel so cozy when Icover myself with it.  I think it’sbecause I know Stella took the time and love to make it for me.  I put it on the back of the rocker.  Then I locked the chest.   I decided the clock would look better on thechest and I moved it there.  I knew thatgirl, what’s her name again, will be coming soon.   I can finish with this box later.  I better put this in the closet and hideit.   

 Isat on the rocker holding the quilt, what’s that girl’s name that will beshowing me around?  I bet you know.  It’s just terrible not to remember things. Idon’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve been calling a lot of people dear.  It’s less embarrassing than having them see mefumble to recall their name.  When I wasyounger, I never could understand people calling someone they hardly knew dear,or honey and now that’s me.  I know I’mfeeling sorry for myself and I don’t care.  I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I was an English teacher at a highschool many years ago.  Now, I don’t meanto brag but I had such a good memory; I could remember kid’s names years laterafter they had been in my class.  Theywould be so tickled if I met them somewhere after they had children and I wouldgreet them with their name and a little anecdote of something they had done inmy class.   Now I can’t remembersomeone’s name I met a few hours earlier. Think about it, how disconcerting that would be.  Another thing I never told anyone but thedoctor I went to.  A couple of times whenI went for a walk, I would forget how to get home.  It always seemed to happen at the same place,a bench in the town square.  I would sitthere until I remembered how to get home. Julie and Jerry would be so upset if they knew.  

 Excuse me; the phone is ringing“Hello?” 

 “Hi grandma, it’s Jill.”  

“Hi Jill, I’m surprised to hear from you.  Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” 

“Didn’tmom tell you I was home sick today?” 

“No, she didn’t mention it.  Whatcan I do for you?”  

“I found your numberand I wanted to ask you a question.”

  “Okay, what’s your question?” 

 “I have to do a school project.  It’s about putting together a family tree asfar back as we can.  Do you have any ofthat kind of stuff?”  

“Yes, I have alot.  It’s here in my chest.  I’ll sort through my stuff and can give it toyou when I see you.” 

“Annie, are you ready?”  

“Who is that grandma?” 

 “That’ssome very nice girl that’s going to show me around.  I’ll have to go.”  

“All right. Try to remember to look for that stuff okay?  Bye.  Ilove you.”  

“I will honey.  I’ll write myself a note so I remember.  I love you too.  Bye.”

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Jinx

2011-12-07T08:50:00.001-05:00

I'm officially a jinx I'd say. I was all thrilled that this year Mom was doing so well. I even put it in my Christmas newsletter.

Last Tuesday my aunt (whose not really my aunt, ha) called to see how Mom's been doing. I was regaling her about how wonderful she's been this year.

Wednesday night I get a call at 10:30 from the nursing home that they are taking Mom to the ER. Apparently ( TMI) she was bleeding and they thought she might have a UTI. We were there until 3 a.m. and she left back for the nursing home at 4 a.m. They sent her back with antibiotics.

The next day, they call again this time at 2:30 p.m. she wanted to go back to the ER because now she was having a lot of pain and (TMI) clots.

They checked her and put a catheter in and decided to keep her to further evaluate her. While she was there, she was in more and more pain. For over a half hour I was asking for pain medication for her. No one was bringing it. Finally, I was so ticked (think Terms of Endearment but not quite) I went to the desk and ~~yelled~~ said "I want to talk to whoever is in charge." The doctor happened to be coming by and asked what was wrong. I then proceeded to ~~blubber and yell~~ tell him that I had been asking for pain meds for mom and no one was doing anything. He said he didn't know and he would order her some.

A few minutes later the charge nurse came in and got things going for the pain meds. ~~I bitched and moaned to her that my mother was supposed to get comfort care and so far it hadn't been happening.~~ I thanked her and she apologized for what had happened.

Anyhow to make a long story shorter, Mom got out of the hospital yesterday evening. After doing CT scans and ultrasounds, she just had a very bad UTI.

When we went to see her in the morning yesterday they had her in an isolation room because now she has C diff. She's supposed to be in an isolation room now in the nursing home. I know she's probably not thrilled with that.

We're going to see her later to see how she's doing, after the patio guy comes for I think the 4th time to see why it's still leaking. Grrrrrrrrrr.

Mrs. Dunkin #6

2011-12-03T08:58:00.001-05:00

Chapter 6

I was already looking through the boxeswhen Julie came back to the room. “Mom,you’ll never guess who I saw leaving the building. Do you remember SallyBaker? Her mom’s here. She had a stroke last year.” “Why yes, I do. You used to be pretty good friends, whateverhappened to that?” “I had some importantthings to get done; you know things like med school, marriage, starting apractice and having kids. All my friendsfell by the wayside.” “That’s notgood. Women friends are very importantto have. You should really think aboutreconnecting with some of them.” “Yeah,I guess.” “How is Mrs. Baker doing?” “Wedidn’t have a lot of time to talk. Shehad to go back to work. She did say hermom’s in a wheelchair now. Sally alsomentioned that we should get together and talk.” “Then you should do that. Trust me you won’t regret it.” “Okay, mom I will. Your room is starting to feel kind of homey,don’t you think?” “Yes, it’s gettingthere. Now if you can just hang some ofthese pictures on the wall that would be great.”

Julie started looking at the pictures andhanging them on the wall. “Annie, yourlunch is here. I’ll put it on the tablefor you.” “Hi Cheryl, let me introduce you to my family. This is Julie my daughter, son Jerry and grandsonJoshua.” “Hi Cheryl” they said in unison. “It’s nice to meet you all. I see you broughtmore stuff. The room is starting to lookvery nice. I’d stay and talk but I have other meals togive out. Feel free to ask anyone if youhave questions. Bye.” “Bye” again inunison.

“She seemed nice but didn’t stay verylong.” “Son, she’s not here to entertainus. There are other residentshere.” “I know mom. Look me and Josh have to go. He’s got rec basketball at 1:00 and if weleave now we’ll be able to make it. Isthat okay?” “Of course it is. You go and Josh I hope you win yourgame.” “Thanks grandma” and he gave me akiss. Jerry hugged me for the longesttime, I thought he would never stop and then said “I’ll see you tomorrow.” “Uh no you won’t, I don’t want any visitorsuntil at least Sunday. I need to learnthe ins and outs of this place and I’d rather do it alone. And don’t get that look on your face. I’m fine. I wish everyone would believe me.” “Okay, I won’t argue with you. I’llsee you Sunday afternoon” and they left.

I sat down at the table and Julie peeredover from where she was hanging a picture. “Well mom, let’s see what you have to eat.” I pulled the covers off the food. There was fish with tartar sauce, frenchfries, green beans and a slice of chocolate cake; glasses of milk, juice, water andcoffee. “I don’t know why they give meso much to drink.” “I’m sure they don’twant the residents to get dehydrated. You know just because it’s on the tray if it’s too much, don’t drink itall.” “Is that your professionalopinion?” “Yes it is” and welaughed. “Do you want some?” “No, I’m stuffed. I ate a big breakfast. You go ahead and eat and I’ll finish hangingthe pictures. I’ve got to get back tothe office in a while anyhow. I’ve got acouple of women that are coming in that are past their due date.” “You go ahead”.

While I ate, I watched Julie. She has her whole life ahead of her and shehas made a wonderful life. When the timecomes, I know she’ll be okay. She’sstrong although I know at times she doesn’t think so. That will be my job from now on, to make sureshe realizes that.

“I’m done Mom. Does everything look okay?” “Yes, it looks great. Why don’t you go now, I’ll finish up with therest of this stuff later.” “Okay, ifyou’re sure.” “I am, see you on Sunday.”“Love you mom, bye” and off she went.

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Mom's eyes

2011-12-01T03:10:00.000-05:00

I haven't mentioned about mom's eyes lately but ..

Good news - In October we took Mom back to the eye doctor after she had issues with the one cataract eye surgery. Mom was able to see two more lines on the eye chart than she did before. They checked to see if with glasses she could see even better and she could. Although we didn't get any there. She told the doctor she could see well and he told her if she didn't want to she didn't have to wear glasses. He did ask her if she could read without glasses and she said yes. I knew she couldn't. When we waited for her transportation back I had her try to read a magazine without her glasses and she couldn't.

Bad news - The doctor told me Mom has macular degeneration from aging in both eyes but the left is worse. She will now be taking vitamins which some studies show helps slow the process.

Good news- She had her eyes examined at the nursing home in November, she should be getting her new glasses pretty soon, ha!

Mrs. Dunkin #5

2011-11-28T08:16:00.000-05:00

Chapter 5

Meanwhile, Julie had been sitting in thecar for quite a while in front of the doors. She had to calm herself downbefore she could go back in. She couldfeel the fear inside her of what was eventually going to become of hermother. She was always the one in thefamily that kept everything going; the one they all depended on. She couldn’t believe what was happening to hernow. She was feeling guilty about a lotof things. She was a doctor for goodnesssakes. Why didn’t she see thesigns? She noticed her mom was gettingforgetful but just thought it was old age creeping up on her. She was 70 sometimes that will happen topeople her age. Ralph did tell her thathe thought something might be wrong with her mom but did she listen, no. She wanted to live in a fantasy world. After the unexpected death of her father shewanted to believe that nothing was going to happen to her for a long, longtime. Thank goodness, she finally facedreality. At least she’s on medicationnow and hopefully it will slow the progression of the disease.

Then she was feeling guilty that her momended up at a nursing home. She told hershe could live with her. It would havebeen hard for her family but they could have made it work. She then remembered all those years ago hermother telling her that she never wanted to have to live with herchildren. She could have had a privatenurse too that lived at her home. Therewas no problem with the money. Herfather made sure her mother even if something happened to him that she would beset for life. She didn’t get it. Like her mom said though it’s her decision,and I’ll honor it even though she didn’t like it.

“Auntie Julie, are you all right?” Joshsaid peeking into her window. Juliejumped. “You scared me Josh.” “Sorry, grandma wanted me to find you. She thinks you were taking too long. I brought the cart back for you.” “I’m fine. I guess I just got lost in my thoughts.” “Are you worried about her?” “ Iguess I am. I never expected her to endup here.” “Me either. Grandma’s always been so independent. It seems nice enough but I guess with whatshe’s dealing with she thinks this is best for her. Dad told me what’s wrong with grandma butthat was it. I looked it up on theInternet to see exactly what it was. It’s kind of scary.” “Yes, it isbut we’ll get through it as a family and don’t you worry about it. Now let’s get this stuff unloaded before shesends your father for us too.” “Okay”and they unloaded three boxes full of stuff. “You take that stuff to the room while I move my car back to the parkinglot. Tell grandma I’ll be right in.”

She pulled her car into the parking lotand as she was walking to the door, she saw an old friend from high schoolcoming. “Sally, what are you doinghere?” “Julie, is that you? I haven’tseen you for years. My mom’s here. Shehad a stroke last year and is in a wheelchair. We couldn’t take care of her; our house is way too small. We barely fit my family in it. What are youdoing here?” “My mom moved inyesterday. We found out she hasAlzheimer’s. For some reason she’s telling everyone it’s early onset which itisn’t. It’s a little worse than that butperhaps she didn’t understand the doctor or that’s how she’s coping withit. We wanted her to move in with one ofus but if you remember my mom, she always did things her way.” “She’ll be fine, don’t worry about her.I was so lucky to get my mom in here. This is a wonderful place and they treat the residents likefamily.” “That’s good to know.” “Well, I hate to run but I’ve got to get backto work. Every four months they have afamily conference and I like to go to it. Maybe we can get together sometime and if you have any questions I canhelp. My number’s in the book.” “I would appreciate that more than youknow. See you later.”

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Saturday Centus #82

2011-11-26T09:52:00.001-05:00

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2011/11/saturday-centus-would-you-like.html

"Would you like fries with that?"

“Sure, why not.”

I looked around the tiny diner with all its Christmasdecorations.

“I’m surprised you’reopened.”

“Yeah, we’re always open on Christmas. Where you headed?”she asked.

“Nowhere really, I had some vacation time. I just got in the car and headed west.”

“No family?”

“Let’s just say if you looked in the dictionary under dysfunctionalyou would see my family.”

“Why do you think I work every Christmas? I’ll get yourorder and then we can trade stories.”

Maybe this won’t be such a bad Christmas after all they boththought.

Random Thoughts on vacation

2011-11-25T00:18:00.000-05:00

1. I haven't gotten chapped lips in years. I did when we were in Vegas. One day it was very windy, it must have been from that. Also, I had flyaway hair the whole time, ha.

2. When we were driving I was surprised at how many freeways were 75 mph through mountains and curvy roads. Yikes!

3. In May when we went to Vegas, we tried to see the big golden nugget in the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino and we couldn't find it. This time it was my goal to see it. We did. It was pretty big lol.

4. The first Super 8 we stayed at you could have dogs in your hotel room. From our room we could see people taking them out to do their business on a grassy area.

5. I am starting to like flying again even though we hit some turbulence on the way back this time. The girl sitting next to hippie was freaking out a little, ha.

6. When I got back, blogger was all different. I'm having some trouble when posting. Is anyone having issues?

Thanksgiving

2011-11-22T12:52:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone..

I hope you have a lot to be Thankful for this year. I know I have.

Myspace Graphics

Mrs. Dunkin #4

2011-11-21T12:23:00.000-05:00

Chapter 4

“Mrs. Dunkin, my name’s Jim. I’m from maintenance. We got your son all set with a cart and yourdaughter mentioned that you needed some things taken out of here. So, that’s what Paul and I are here todo.” “Well, thank you. I’m almost done with this dresser and thenyou can take it.”

Theywere about done when Jerry and Josh arrived at the door. “Hello, Mom.” “Hi grandma.” “Hello, you two. Where’s Julie?” “She packed the breakables in her car andshe’s getting them.” “I hope I haveenough room for everything.” “You’ll befine, Mrs. Dunkin. You have one of thebigger rooms here. Do you need some helpbringing the stuff in?” “No, Josh and Ican handle it. Thanks for askingthough.” “Okay, we’ll probably see youaround Mrs. Dunkin,” and they left. “They seem very nice, don’t you thinkJerry?” “Yeah, I guess mom. Come on Josh, let’s start getting grandma’sthings in.”

First came in my beautiful mahoganydresser and nightstand. I remember when Hank and I bought it. We got money from our parents and it was thefirst things we bought as a married couple. Next came in the mahogany hope chest. My parents bought it for me when I was 10 years old. Every year at Christmas, my mother would buyme something to put in it. By the time Igot married, I had a lot of stuff. Thenthe most important piece of furniture I ever owned the mahogany rocker. “Are you sure you want this rocker? It is rather old and it’s not in that greatof shape.” “Yes, I most certainlydo. Your dad bought it for me when I waspregnant with you Jerry. I rocked you,your sister and all of my grandchildren in that for hours on end. I could never get rid of that.” “Okay, I wasjust asking” and he put it in the corner. The last thing they brought inwas the beautiful mirror for the top of the dresser. I closed my eyes and remembered how manytimes I would be standing in front of it brushing my hair and Hank would comebehind me and encircle me with his embrace. I missed him so much even more now than when he first died.

“Mom, mom, are you okay?” “I’m fine Jerry, I was just rememberingsomething.” “Okay, I’ll get this mirroron for you,” and he went about attaching it. “Do you think you’re going to like it here grandma? I remember coming herethat one year when I was in the choir; it gave me the creeps.” “Josh,” Jerryyelled. I chuckled. “Jerry, leave the kid alone. Joshhopefully now that I’m here, it won’t seem so creepy. I would hate to think you wouldn’t visitme.” “No, I’ll visit you grandma. Ipromise. In fact, since I just got my driver’s license you might see me morethan ever.You might even get sick of seeing me somuch. That’s if dad ever lets me use the car. .” “Oh, I don’t think I’d ever getsick of seeing my favorite grandchild.” “You’re not fooling me. I hearyou say that to all the grand kids, grandma.” “I guess you got me there” and he gave me a big hug. “If your dad thinks it’s all right, you canhave my car. I won’t be using itanymore. It’s not a sports car but for afirst car I don’t think it’s too bad.” “Are you kidding me grandma? Iwould love it. What do you thinkdad?” “I’ll have to talk to your motherbut I’m sure we could work something out, although there would still have to berules.” “I know. I’ll do whatever you and mom wants me todo. It would be so great to not have momdrive me to school. I could even go tothe store and do all kinds of errands.” “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll talk to mom.” “Okay, cool dad.”

“What do you think happened to Julie?” “You know her Mom. She’ll talk to anyone. Son, go and find your aunt.” “Okay, I’ll take the cart with me in case sheneeds it” and Josh walked out the door.

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Hello

2011-11-18T14:12:00.000-05:00

Is anyone out there? LOL.

This week we bought a pre-lit tree. For years I've been trying to talk hippie into it.

The tree we already have is like over 20 years old. Amazingly, it's still good as new but it's too full.

After last Christmas, hippie agreed to getting a pre-lit one. I didn't want to get it last year, although it probably would have been a while lot cheaper, in case it didn't work.

We got it at Michael's. We're going to set it up this weekend to make sure it works but won't decorate it until Thanksgiving weekend.

We'll still keep the old one but I hope I like the new one because after talking him into it, I don't think I can switch back next yea r to the old one, ha.

Trip part 3

2011-11-17T00:21:00.000-05:00

The next day it would take us until 4:30 to get to Vegas so we drove straight through. We were pretty tired of being in the car already.

When we got there we went to our son's apartment. He was sleeping. He works nights (he has Monday and Tuesday nights off) and we said a quick hello and then his girlfriend took us to where we were staying. We stayed one night at The Orleans because it was close to where they lived. The room was very nice and was pretty reasonably priced. I ordered a pizza and hippie went downstairs and got it. On the order sheet it just said a whole pizza when I called she asked if we wanted 6 or 8 pieces, I said 8. Holy Moley, this pizza was HUGE. It was like an extra large one. We ate 4 pieces and that was it. Hippie went downstairs and gambled and I made a couple phone calls. I never left the room the whole night.

The next day, we had to go to the DMV to get the title turned over and for them to get new plates for the car. We checked in at 1:30 and got number 833. When we looked they were only on 500 something. We got done a little after 5:00. It is so busy there that they have restrooms and a snack bar LOL. Since it was Halloween most of the workers were in costume. A good portion of them were themed costumes from the Wizard of Oz. There was Dorothy, Glenda the good witch, tinman, scarecrow, the lion, the wicked witch, yellow brick road and a couple of munchkin, including the mayor, ha. Also, non-themed was the joker and a klingon (from star trek). They all looked really good.

When we were done there they took us downtown to Freemont Street where we stayed at the Fitzgeralds. Since it was downtown, the rooms weren't as fancy but for the price they were fine. On Halloween night they had a parade. Freemont street was packed. It reminded me of when you see Mardi Gras. A lot of people were in costume.

We didn't go see any shows this time. We walked up and down Freemont Street mostly and ate. We did go to the Peppermill again. I bought quite a few souvenirs for myself this time. We also gambled a lot more. We played the video blackjack machines and the poker machines at the bar that way we got free drinks LOL.

On Thursday, we took the shuttle to the airport. We got home around 11 p.m. All in all we had a great time. We're thinking of going again in the spring.

Side note: I really didn't take any pictures.

Mrs. Dunkin # 3

2011-11-14T00:04:00.000-05:00

My breakfast came about 8:15, a nice girlbrought it in all cheery-like. She was atall girl, thin and looked to be in about her 20’s. She said her name wasCheryl. They must have a rule here, all employees must be cheery. She put the tray on a small table and thenleft. I sat down and surveyed thefood. Eggs, bacon, toast, and smallglasses of juice, water, milk and coffee and it all tasted pretty good.

After I was done eating, I realized Julieand Jerry would be here in about 30 minutes and I thought about where I wouldput the things they were bringing. I hadeverything all ready for them. All theyhad to do was load it up in Jerry’s truck. It should only take them one trip. I thought about going out and looking around the facility a bit but Iwasn’t ready for that.

While I’m waiting for them I’ll tell you alittle about them. Jerry is my firstborn, 40 years old. He’s been married tohis wife, Sue, for 20 years. He has twochildren. Joshua is 17 and Amy is 15. Like I mentioned he’s a financial planner andis very good at what he does. Since Hankdied, he’s helped me a lot around my house. We had issues with him when he was growing up but we don’t need to getinto that now, there will be time later I’m sure. He’s the spitting image of his father. Tall, handsome, a good build, and black wavyhair.

My daughter, Julie, 36 years old ismarried to Ralph for 16 years. They havetwo children; fraternal twins. Wait forthis… Their names are Jack and Jill. They thought it would be cute. Iremember at the time thinking how much they would be teased because of it. Now that they are 13, I can onlyimagine. Julie’s a Pediatrician. Her husband’s a surgeon. I wonder how they do everything they do withthe kids and their jobs but they somehow manage things. She favors me. She has hazel eyes, thin and auburn hairalthough my hair’s long turned gray. Idon’t mean to brag but I was quite the stunner back in the day.

“Hi Mom.” “Hi Julie.” “Jerry and Josh havethe truck in front. They are seeing ifthey can get something to put your stuff on so it’s easier to bring in. How was your first night?” “It was wonderful. Everyone’s so nice here and my breakfast wasjust so yummy. It will be so nice not tohave to worry about cooking or doing dishes.” “Really mom? I always thought you loved to cook.” “Sure I did when you kids lived at home andyour father was alive. It’s not so funwhen you have to cook only for yourself.”

“Oh by the way, Stella called me lastnight.” “And..?” “I did just what youtold me. I said you didn’t have a phoneyet and when you got one you would call her and tell her when she couldvisit.” “Thank you Julie, you know howStella can be. I love her like a sisterbut sometimes we don’t see eye to eye and this happens to be one of thosetimes.” “She’s just worried about yourdecision just like we are.” “Let’s notgo there again.” “Okay, I’m going to seehow Jerry and Josh are doing. Do youwant to come with me?” “No, I think I’ll start emptying these drawers and putthe stuff on the bed so they can move this small dresser out before they bringin mine. You go dear,” and Julie left the room.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Trip part 2

2011-11-10T10:55:00.000-05:00

When we left Missouri, we traveled through Oklahoma. It was pretty uneventful. I did see a sign on the road that said the first shopping cart was invented there. We stayed at another Super 8 in Oklahoma City. This one had a room service menu. You called an 800 number, and then they connected you to a local restaurant and they delivered what you wanted. I got chicken fettuccine and hippie got a Philly cheese steak sandwich. We turned the 7th game of the World Series on but I only watched about 2 innings and fell asleep LOL. Hippie said it wasn't as exciting as the game the night before so I didn't miss much, considering we weren't really rooting for anyone.

The next day we traveled through Texas where we saw what looked like a big wind farm. I've never seen so many wind turbines.

Then came New Mexico. We stopped to get gas and the MasterCard wouldn't worked. The pump said it was expired. (We had this issue the last time when we couldn't use it the rest of the trip. This time though we called and said we would be out of town, grrr) We stopped at dusk and stayed in Grants at another Super 8. When we got to the room, I called and complained about our card not working. The girl checked and said they didn't decline anything and next time if that happens to go inside and have them hand put it in. There was another Denny's there so we walked over to it. When we were walking hippie was a little ahead of me and a woman was walking out of one of the motels. She and I both said hello to each other. Then she asked if my friend could give her a dollar. I reached in my purse and gave her $2. She said she was from Dallas and didn't know what she was going to do, blah, blah, blah, although she was wearing a uniform from the hotel, ha, ha. I knew I was being hoodwinked but that was okay.

Side note: We were pretty happy with the Super 8's. They weren't fancy but we used our AARP card and got the rooms a little cheaper Also, every McDonald's we went to gave us the senior discount for coffee without us asking, lol.

Next time Las Vegas

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-09T06:43:00.000-05:00

Mrs. Dunkin #2

2011-11-07T00:11:00.000-05:00

Chapter 2

“Annie, Annie?” I thought I must bedreaming when I looked at the clock and it was 6 A.M. “Annie?” “Yes?” “Hi my name’s Kate,” walking in the room allchipper. “I’m the day shift nurse. Amelia left on your chart that you wanted tobe called, Annie. I brought your pills infor you to take. Also, if you want toeat in the day-room, breakfast will come at 8 A.M”, she said handing Annie alittle container with her pills. “Youstart things kind of early here.” “Yes,we do. You can let us know what time youwant to get up or if you want you can bring an alarm and get yourself up. I know it’s going to be your first full dayhere so if you’d like to eat breakfast in your room you can do that too.” “I think I would feel more comfortable doingthat. It’s going to take me a while toadjust to being here.” “Noproblem.” “It’s nice meeting you,Annie. If I don’t see you out and about,I’ll bring your afternoon pills to your room. If there’s anything you need just buzz. See you later.” “It was so niceto meet you dear.”

I may as well get up now as long as I’mawake. I got up and got my underthingsout of the dresser. Thank goodness, theywill be bringing my dresser. I canbarely fit my stuff in this one. I got alavender flowered blouse and black pants out of the closets. There were towels and washcloths in thebathroom already. I started taking ashower and made a mental note to tell Julie to buy me some different soap. When I got done, I put my clothes on and wentto the room blew dry my hair and put a clasp in it. That’s done.

So, she said breakfast was at 8 A.M. inthe day-room. I wonder what time they’llbring it to my room. This isn’t so badso far, it’s like staying in a hotel and getting room service; except for beingwoken up at 6 a.m. I decided I’d openthe blinds to see what kind of view I had. I could see the woods and a few deer in the distance. This should be nice especially this time ofyear. With mating season, they probablyhave a lot of deer around here.

I looked in my purse for a pen and somepaper. I should make a running list ofthings I need like the soap. You see,I’ve become an expert at making lists. If I don’t write it down, I don’t remember it. I know what you’re thinking; it’s theAlzheimer’s. Don’t be so sure ofthat. My lifelong friend or how I hearpeople say it now my BFF, Stella says she forgets things all the time and hasto write them down. Although I don’tthink she’s ever driven somewhere and forgotten how to get home. How humiliating it was when I had to callJulie and tell her I was lost. That’swhen all the doctor’s appointments began and finally the diagnosis I feared themost was confirmed. That’s when theytold me I shouldn’t drive anymore. Ishould have someone put my medications in containers so I wouldn’t mess themup. The doctor suggested before I gottoo bad I should think about getting my affairs in order and either hire aprivate nurse or move in with one of the children. All I could think of was that old saying“whoa nelly” as my son and daughter argued about who would take me in. That really sealed the deal for me on cominghere. I knew even though they loved meneither one could handle it. Someday I wouldn’t recognize them and I didn’t want to be living in one oftheir homes when that day came. I didn’t want to see the dismay and frustrationon their faces when I couldn’t do the littlest thing or remember something. Itwas bad enough they would see that when they came here but 24/7? No, I was sure that this was the best decisionfor everyone but mostly for me.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Trip part 1

2011-11-05T08:45:00.002-04:00

So, we left about 7:45 on October 27th to drive to Vegas to take our son's car to him. These last 2 years they've only had the girlfriend's car. Her's was pretty old and was costing too much money to get it fixed.

We took the GPS and got a trip tik from AAA. Hippiie wanted to use the trip tik instead of the GPS. Okay!!

We got lost once in Indianapolis, Indiana but it only took about 15 minutes to get back on track.

When we got over the border in Illinois we stopped at a McDonald's for coffee. Hippie wondered why we got the coffee so cheap and when I looked on the receipt they gave us the senior coffee price (we never thought to ask about it) we were laughing so hard we went the wrong way on the freeway. Thus we had to go back over the border into Illinois again. Naturally it was my fault because I distracted hippie @@. At the McDonald's I never saw this before, they had three f aux leather chairs and a big screen TV for people to watch. Anyone have a McDonald's like that where they live?

We got lost a little in Missouri but somehow ended up on the right freeway, just in time for rush hour and about a half hour before the 6th game of the World Series was to start. We went right past Busch Stadium. We saw the blimp above it. Right after St. Louis we were going to stop for the night. I wanted to stay in Eureka. We took a road that there was supposed to be a Best Western and drove up and down hills and a curvy road, past a ski resort, very high speed limit in the dark. We kept looking for some place to turn around and finally after 5 miles we found a place. We went to the next exit and found a Super 8 and stayed there. Turns out it was in Eureka, ha. I made the decision right then and there that would be the last time we would be looking for a motel in the dark, ha. After we got checked in we went to Denny's to eat, then went back to the room and watched the baseball game. The next day when we left, in the afternoon I found Rush Limbaugh on the radio. I never listen to him but I was starved for entertainment so we left him on. Then when we were driving down the freeway we saw a hand painted sign that said "Obama is destroying our country". How apropos LOL.

More next time.

I'm back

2011-11-03T23:30:00.000-04:00

We (hippie) drove my son's car to him in Las Vegas. It took us about 4 days. We left last Thursday and came back today (Thursday). We had a good time. Not many pictures but some stories to tell when I get a chance. It's good to be back home.

Mrs. Dunkin

2011-10-24T19:16:00.000-04:00

I'm not going to be off the computer for a couple of weeks but I've toyed with the idea of doing an ongoing story, pretty much copying Jenny Matlock, ha. I've emailed a little bit with her about another story for those that remember the one I started on Centus about Mary. I got about 40 pages done of that and then I got stuck, as in suddenly the whole premise changed. I emailed with Jenny and I was going to start that one over but then another one started coming to mind. So, I'm going to start posting it. I'm posting the first chapter today and then when I get back on the computer, I'll start posting every Monday. I really have to learn to be disciplined and not just write. So here it is. This is my working title right now.

Mrs. Dunkin

Chapter 1

“Mrs. Dunkin,can I get you anything?” “I’m fine dear,and you can call me Annie.” “Okay Annie,if you need anything you can just ring the bell. I hope you have a good night’s sleep.” “Good night, dear.”

I lookedaround the room astonished thinking this was going to be life now, until Idied. I was in a nursing home. How did I get here? Oh I know, it was my idea. My son or daughter would have taken me in butI didn’t want to be a burden. Mychildren objected to the idea but I knew secretly they were probably glad butwho could blame them? Who wants to lookafter an old lady who forgets things? The doctor said I have early stage Alzheimer’s. Just the word frightens me. I took care of my dad when he had it, Iwouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

Tomorrow Julieand Jerry will bring the rest of my things from home. I can’t wait. I’m hoping it will feel more like home to me then. At least I can be grateful that I can afforda private room like this. I don’t knowif I could share a room with someone.

I don’t meanto brag but we had money, lots of money. My husband, Hank, was a CEO. Wehad our home in Ohio and then a Florida getaway. When he died five years ago, I got rid of theFlorida place. My kids thought I shouldkeep it because of the bad winters; but I love the change of seasons too muchto do that. I was what I would call areluctant snowbird. Hank was the one wholoved Florida and couldn’t wait until after Christmas to go. Every year, I would insist on staying in Ohiountil Christmas and I only followed him because he loved it so. My son Jerry the financial planner will sellthe home I was living in and invest the money. I should be in the clear moneywise; still leaving a large inheritancefor my kids.

Just then she heard the phone ring loudly.I’ll have to adjust that, she thought. “Hello?” “Hi Mom is everythingokay over there?” “Yes, Julie, I’m fine.” “Before we bring the rest of yourstuff there, we just want to make sure you made the right decision. It seems to us that you made this decisionrather hastily and like a flash you’re there.” “I’m sure. This is the rightdecision for me. I’m with people thatare my own age. There are plenty ofthings to do here.” “But Mom, Jerry or Iwould love for you to be with us.” “I know but you both have families of yourown. You don’t need to be worrying aboutme. That’s what I’ll be paying these peopleto do. Really Julie, I know I’m losingmy mind but I haven’t yet and this is my decision. Please respect that.” “Whatever, you say mom. We’ll see you in the morning. Good night.” “Good night. I love you Julie.” “Me too mom.”

I climbed intobed. It wasn’t as comfortable as my bedat home but at least I had my comforter and pillow. I would have to see what I could do aboutthis mattress.

As I laytrying to drift off to sleep, I could hear noises. I could hear people whispering in thehallway. I could hear someone yelling“help me, help me”. I could see the dimlight in the hall. I got up and closedmy door and finally it was dark and quiet. I guess these are things I’ll just have to get used to and drifted offto a restless sleep.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Saturday Centus #77

2011-10-22T12:01:00.001-04:00

It's Saturday Centus again - in a nutshell, Jenny Matlock gives us a prompt from either herself or a guest submitter and then we have to write 100 words or less related to the prompt (the prompt doesn't count toward the 100 words) Then link it up to her blog. It's open until the following Saturday, so that means you have all week to participate by either reading or writing. The prompt is in blue. http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2011/10/saturday-centus-i-planted-little.html

I'm going to be taking a break from the computer for a couple of weeks. I thought this was a very hard centus. If I seem frustrated in writing this, it's because I am LOL probably like many of you. I could probably have written 100 things about what's going on now that gets to me, ha..

I planted a little story seed years ago; as my parents haddone before me. My child would do betterthan me.

The economy tanked; unemployment rose and our government can’tagree on anything.

Thecorporations sit on the sidelines with millions of dollars unwilling to hire becauseof an uncertain future. Seems to me if they hired; more people would have money,and they would spend it

Banks are nickel and diming people.

Thenthere’s Wall Street the biggest culprit of all. I can see why “Occupy Wall Street” came to be.

I planted a seed; I wonder is there still a chance?

65 & 60

2011-10-20T08:50:00.000-04:00

Hippie turned 65 on Saturday and is now on Medicare.

I turned 60 today and got the Golden Buckeye card from the Ohio Department on Aging (it's a discount card). I also found out I'm eligible to go to the senior center, ha!

Can I just say I am astonished, amazed, stunned, and shocked by this turn of events LOL.

I'll be going out with the Dinner Friends ~~to drown my sorrows~~ to celebrate tonight.

Random thoughts

2011-10-17T00:12:00.000-04:00

1. I got a flu shot on Friday. Hopefully, I won't get the flu. Although my arm was quite sore, ha.

2. If you have HBO and get a chance, they have a really good documentary on George Harrison called "Living in the Material World". It was done by Martin Scorsese. It's 3 hours and 29 minutes but well worth watching.

3. The patio guy is supposed to come on Wednesday.

4. Bad news - I chipped a tooth and had to go to the dentist. Good news- No novcaine, only took about five minutes and he didn't charge me for it because it was a tooth he previously fixed.

5.. Be aware - There are many living with Stage 4 breast cancer with treatment but they are not living nearly long enough.

Saturday Centus #76

2011-10-15T11:06:00.001-04:00

It's Saturday Centus again - in a nutshell, Jenny Matlock gives us a prompt from either herself or a guest submitter and then we have to write 100 words or less related to the prompt (the prompt doesn't count toward the 100 words) Then link it up to her blog. It's open until the following Saturday, so that means you have all week to participate by either reading or writing. The prompt is in blue. http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/search/label/Saturday%20Centus

This week is something different. I'm not sure this is correct because I think this part of writing is very difficult for me. Some honest critiques, okay?

The literary device to use this week is Sensory Details. Describe the image using five senses: perception, hearing, sight, touch, smell, and taste.
WORD COUNT - Not to exceed 100 words.
STYLE OF WRITING - Sensory Details Literary Device
NO ADDITIONAL PICTURES
THE PROMPT THIS WEEK IS:

Was this her dream home she always wanted? She could see it would take a lot of work.

It had been abandoned for 10 years. The curtains had been drawn for so long; she could almost taste the mustiness inside.

She climbed up the rickety stairs to the second floor, holding tightly to the banister; listening to the creaking steps under her feet.

It didn't matter to her. In her mind's eye, she could see what it could become. She could feel the excitement building. Yep, this was the one she wanted and she called the Realtor.

Drip, drip, drip

2011-10-13T00:14:00.000-04:00

I've said a bunch of times on here how much I enjoy the new patio enclosure, which I do; but... what I've failed to mention is that we've been having issues with it.

Shortly after it was done, we started to notice when it rained there would sometimes be wet spots on the floor. We could see drips on the ceiling and the underside of the gutter. We waited about a month before we called.

The patio manager came out and looked at it the following week. Then it took another week before someone came and fixed it. Fine. A couple of days later it rained and some of the same issues cropped up. It was over the weekend and we called on a Monday.

It took two weeks again but then the manager came out this past Monday and supposedly fixed it. This time I had pictures of some of the issues. He said it might take a couple of days for the water to get out from the gutter problems. All right!

Wednesday it started raining. Still have a few gutter issues but not as bad. Now I'm wondering if this is still the residual effects he told us about. I'm thinking not.

One of the leaks inside that only happened once cropped up on Wednesday as well, which when it happened, I hadn't taken a picture of it. UGH. I told him about it when he was here but when he looked on the roof he didn't see anything, although he did caulk around the edge.

Since I wrote this, late this afternoon another wet spot showed up, sigh...

This is getting frustrating and even though it's not as bad, it's bringing back bad memories from the experience we had from the company that may or may not rhyme with blows http://vikisplace.blogspot.com/2010/02/alphabe-thursday.html LOL.

I do really love the patio enclosure though, ha,ha!!!

BC awareness

2011-10-10T09:12:00.000-04:00

Saturday Centus #75

2011-10-08T09:29:00.000-04:00

I have fond memories of Friday night football in highschool. My friends and I would go on the school bus to the games. We weren’t so interested in football. It wasmore about the atmosphere and boys although there was cheering for the team,ha!

I really didn’t understand football until after I met myhusband. He was an avid fan and whiledating we used to watch it every Sunday. I would ask questions and learn. We used to bet on teams. At theend of the season, whoever had the most losses would cook for the Superbowl.

Vodka

2011-10-06T08:04:00.000-04:00

Last month when I went out with the dinner friends, some of them started talking about flavored vodkas. I never even knew there was such a thing. The only time I ever drank vodka, in my younger days, I used to drink screwdrivers.

Anyhow, one of the dinner friends got a shot of whipped cream vodka. I had a couple of sips. Sure enough it tasted like it had whipped cream in it but boy, was the vodka ever strong. Could be because I never drink just shots of anything lol. Magellan said it would probably taste good in hot chocolate which at first I agreed. Later when I got home, I started thinking about how strong it was. I think I would have to have an extra large mug of hot chocolate to get it down, ha.

Has anyone had flavored vodka before?

**How appropriate I picked this topic. Finally I got to my 500th post LOL.

BC awareness month

2011-10-03T00:38:00.001-04:00

Don't forget to get a mammogram, it could save your life. Getting one saved mine.

Saturday Centus #74

2011-10-01T13:01:00.002-04:00

"The number you have reached is no longer in service."

"No longer in service?" She put the receiver down stunned.
Her furniture was coming from cross country and should have been there by now.
Her mind was going a mile a minute with worry.

A little later, she looked out the window and saw a moving truck coming.
She went out the front door as it stopped in front. The driver got out.
"Sorry we're late; bad weather."
"Did you know your phone is out of service?"
"We'll get your things moved in first and then I'll check on it."
"Go right ahead," and she sighed with relief.

Random thoughts

2011-09-29T00:41:00.001-04:00

1. I started letting the nursing home do Mom's laundry again. Since I don't have to worry about the roommate that passed anymore taking her clothes. What a joy it's been, lol.

2. We're heading for the wettest year since they've been keeping records.

3. Less than 3 months until Christmas. I'm almost done with my knitting for Christmas. I bought my cards in July. I have a draft of my Christmas letter that I send to people that I don't have contact with throughout the year.

4. One day a couple of weeks ago, I had to take an early morning shower. It was very cold in the house. I actually turned my heat on for about 15 minutes to warm the bathroom up. I figured it was good because at least I know it works before we really need it.

5. We celebrated our 34th anniversary this month, Wow!!

crafts

2011-09-26T00:05:00.001-04:00

I think I may have mentioned before that at the nursing home they have residents that make crafts and then they sell them. This year I bought a couple for Halloween and put them on the patio.

Saturday Centus #73

2011-09-24T09:33:00.000-04:00

"Are you seriously ordering another martini?"

"It is my birthday."
"This will be your 6th martini since we got here for dinner."
"So what; are you my dad?"
"Sometimes you make me feel like I have to be."
"Look Bill, I certainly don't need another father. I am an adult with children."
"Yeah, children you can't take care of at times because your sloshed".
"Let's not go there again."
"You are going to have to do something, Barb. I can't be worried if the kids are going to be safe with you."
"You're crazy!"
"I'm crazy? I'm serious. If you don't get your drinking under control, I'm divorcing you and taking the kids."
"You just go ahead and try. We'll see who wins."
"I have enough people that will back me up because of your drinking. You are unfit. Now let's go."

How did your garden grow?

2011-09-22T10:32:00.000-04:00

We've already had fall weather for a few weeks and our garden will be coming to an end. This year it was so-so.

Hippie planted green beans three times and we really had a good harvest.

Cucumbers were okay. We had enough for us but not enough to give away.

Tomatoes, what can I say. We had almost enough bigger ones for us but none to give away. A lot of the ones we did have were split on top. Cherry tomatoes were terrible. He hardly had any to harvest.

I think the garden didn't do well because of the extremely hot weather. Also, the issues with the tomatoes had to do with the darn squirrels this year. Last year they didn't bother them. This year they were relentless. Two years ago, they just took the bigger ones. Now, they even took the cherry tomatoes and also took them when they were green. Those little buggers.

How did your garden grow?

Corky and Berta

2011-09-19T08:09:00.000-04:00

Corky and Berta have become friends. Well, I guess they haven't become friends really. Corky tolerates Berta now. When she comes in the room, he doesn't jump off the couch and flee in fright. He just lays on the couch and let's her do her thing. That's great for me.

Saturday Centus #72

2011-09-17T10:26:00.001-04:00

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/search/label/Saturday%20Centus

This week is a shake up. We get 32 words including the prompt and it has to be to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Blech, Yucky, Ugh, lol

Aching, aching, body parts,
Isn't there a pill for this?
In the autumn of my life,
I'm not liking this one bit.

Aching, aching, body parts,
Isn't there a pill for this?

Bon Voyage

2011-09-15T08:21:00.000-04:00

Hippie decided to sell his boat. He's had it for a number of years and has only used it a handful of times. It's 13' long not really big enough to take it very far in the lake. He decided he's not a boat owner. He took it to a place that repairs and also sells boats.

It was taking up valuable space in the garage. We still have our son's car here and there is a lot more room for all the junk he has now, ha.

WTH

2011-09-12T08:17:00.000-04:00

One day last week I was sitting in the patio enclosure and I noticed something on the garage door. It sounded like it was making a noise. I went out and looked. At first it looked like a dead leaf that had blown on after the storm. I almost flicked it off with my finger. Luckily, I looked a little closer. It was an insect that just looked like a dead leaf. Ewwwwwwwww Click to see it bigger

Saturday Centus #71

2011-09-10T12:28:00.000-04:00

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2011/09/saturday-centus-mother-may-i.html

They always had a stormy life together. It was always her mom's way or the highway. How she wished they could have had a different relationship. She knew her mother loved her, but with the abusive childhood she had had, she could never truly show it. She missed the closeness she saw her friends have with their mothers.

She sat at her mother's bedside in the hospital knowing that soon she would be gone and they would lose that chance. Well, no matter she thought. It was what it was. She heard her mother groan. "Mother may I get you something?"

Complication

2011-09-08T20:34:00.000-04:00

Mom went to the eye doctor last week to have the eye checked that she had the cataract surgery on. I had a really hard time getting her from the wheelchair to the chair she needed to sit in. Since she had just gotten out of the hospital a couple of days before, they had her on bed rest the whole time, she wasn't so great at standing up. Anyhow, when she was finally in the chair, the girl gives her an eye exam before the doctor comes in. The only thing Mom could see out of the eye she just had surgery on was the large E. That was it. WTH!! We kept asking her what's the next line. We kept changing around the thing she was looking through thinking she didn't have it right but nope, she couldn't see as well as she could right after the surgery.

When the doctor came in and examined her he said that her eye was swollen and a little irritated. I mentioned to him that when she was in the hospital they hadn't given her the drops right away. (I called the morning after she got to the hospital and mentioned that she had to take eye drops. When we went to see her at 12:30, she still hadn't had any drops. They were waiting for them from the pharmacy. I specifically asked the nurse if the waiting would screw up her eye. Naturally, she said nooooo) He said, it looked like what happens when someone stops taking the medication too soon.

He wanted to do another test but because Mom would have to get up and move to another chair again, he decided to put her on drops every two hours until we come back the beginning of October.

I was so disappointed. She will still be able to see better than she did with that eye but I am so hoping when we go back she will be able to see more of the chart.

Now, I can't be sure that it is the hospital's fault. All I know is that this didn't happen with the other eye. Ugh!!

Expired

2011-09-06T09:26:00.000-04:00

I was checking through my cupboards writing up a grocery list. I haven't cooked that much this summer and when I started checking dates on different things many were expired. Wow!! What a waste of money. I threw quite a bit out. I'll either have to start cooking more or buying less lol. Hopefully, with this cooler weather I will be cooking more.

Finally

2011-09-04T12:08:00.000-04:00

We got our front step railings put on. We ordered them on June 7th, the guy told us since we wanted white it would take about 3 weeks for him to do them.

We didn't hear anything until he came to put them on the 17th of August. However, when he took them out of the truck they were black @@. He had to redo them.

Finally, he came on the 23rd of August and put them on. I don't know what the problem was but they are done. At least this winter if we need to go up the stairs we don't have to worry about ending up on out butts, ha, ha, ha.

The Pit

2011-09-01T00:08:00.000-04:00

We got a free fire pit. Our neighbors neighbor moved out last fall and he gave the fire pit to her. They are an elderly couple and in the spring she told hippie he could have it. He kept procrastinating going over and getting it and one day she dragged it up to the fence. He had no choice then he had to go and get it. It's kind of rusty but it's good enough to light a fire in.

Random thoughts

2011-08-30T22:24:00.001-04:00

1. Saturday about 11:45 p.m., we got a call they were sending mom to the ER. They thought she might have a blood clot in her leg. Luckily she didn't. She wasn't released until today. I'm sure it took longer because she went on the weekend.

2. Small world - While we were waiting for mom to get there we were the only ones in the waiting room. Who should come in but our neighbors, ha. It was so weird.

3. At the hospital you have to walk past the gift shop to get to the elevators. When I looked into the window one day as we walked by I fell in love - with a purse. When we got done seeing Mom, we went in and I bought it. I've never heard of this designer before, Donna Sharp, have you? Ya just never know where your going to find stuff, ha.

If it's not one thing, it's another

2011-08-22T23:10:00.000-04:00

My cold is finally getting better. I felt really good on Sunday so I decided to finish cleaning the inside of the patio. I washed the other window then I decided to wash the siding down.

Today when I woke up, my one eye was pasted shut and the other eye is real red as well. WTH Luckily, I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. He said I have conjunctivitis @@ I asked him if I could have gotten it from doing the patio and he said yes. I'm now putting antibiotic drops in my eyes.

I got the cold the day after I was cleaning the patio, now the eye. I think cleaning in there is hazardous to my health lol. Good thing I'm done.

It has been wonderful to sit out there the last few days though. We've got a touch of fall here which I so enjoy.

All about Mom

2011-08-19T09:43:00.001-04:00

Mom's had a busy month, at least for her.

1. She went to an outing to eat at Cracker Barrel.

2. She went to a fair. We used to go to this fair when we were kids every year. She had so much fun. She said she even got to hold a baby pig, ha, ha. Also she loved the ice cream.

3. This week she had the cataract surgery. It went well. We'll have to go back to him 2 more times and then probably not again until next year. Hallelujah.

On the day Mom went to Cracker Barrel; I still went to the N.H. because she was almost out of clothes. Her roommate is a real doozy. She's not a very agreeable person and she constantly swears at everyone. I've only said hello to her once and she didn't respond. Anyhow, when I was putting away mom's clothes she kept asking me what I was doing. I would tell her and then she would proceed to tell me I was either "full of sh**" or that I was lying @@ Mom said when anyone comes in the room to help her she is always yelling at them.

It makes me wish she still had her old roommate, lol.

Sick

2011-08-15T20:53:00.000-04:00

I hate summer colds. I've been sick for the last week or so. Bad cough, sore throat, no energy. Hippie told me I should call the doctor so I listened because I couldn't go another day feeling this way. I called around 8:15 this morning and I was able to get in. The doctor thinks I just have a virus but he did give me some stronger cough syrup which I hope works better than the OTC I've been taking. My ribs I know will appreciate it. At least the weather has been cooler here but I haven't really sat much in the patio enclosure because I've been laying down sleeping a lot. I hope I didn't pass it on to Mom but I haven't seen her since Friday. She's supposed to have her cataract surgery on Wednesday.

Also, my ears were blocked. I have a regular appointment on Monday which I was going to start putting drops in my ears so he could clean them but he was able to do them today. He said that they being blocked could have also contributed to my issues. I do know I can hear a lot better lol.

Patio pics

2011-08-08T09:56:00.000-04:00

weird lightening

2011-08-07T21:57:00.000-04:00

Hippie and I tonight saw a big cloud that had lightening in it. It was so weird. There was no rain or thunder and the lightening never came out of the cloud. Crazy!!!

Patio enclosure

2011-08-04T21:32:00.000-04:00

We got our patio enclosure put in. They started last Tuesday and finished today. It probably would have gotten done sooner but their was an issue with lead. We knew there might be lead under the eaves and sure enough there was which meant more money, ha. They had to put plastic over the back of the house and porch to catch any lead that came down from them sawing part of the roof off. They had our driveway taped off with the yellow tape that said "Caution" and a red sign that said lead and some other stuff, LOL. Also there was some rain to contend with but it's done and I love it. I haven't taken pictures yet but I will soon and post them.

Saturday Centus #64

2011-07-23T09:27:00.000-04:00

Random thoughts

2011-07-21T13:07:00.000-04:00

1. Last weekend I had to do my least favorite thing, go clothes shopping. We're going to a wedding in a couple of weeks and I had to buy an outfit.

2. Oh my goodness the weather. I guess I shouldn't ask if it could get any hotter or muggier because I'm sure it could, ha.

3. We're supposed to have our trees trimmed tomorrow. We'll see if they come or not because of the heat.

4. Mom's going to have the other cataract surgery done in August.

5. We have had about 4 or 5 cucumbers from the garden. I always forget how good home grown ones are until I eat the first one. Yummy!!

Saturday Centus #63

2011-07-16T09:40:00.002-04:00

This week is a shake up week with ONLY 25 words plus the prompt.

I'm still continuing my story. You can go back here to read the Past centus's

"I don't envy you cutting that grass. Gramps would always say I'm not getting any younger when he did it".

"I just started and I'm already thinking that".

Madonna

2011-07-15T11:44:00.000-04:00

Remember this statue I took from Mom's house when we sold it?

A couple of weeks ago, hippie finally decided to move it before we had the patio enclosure done. We never had the chance yet to try and fix it. It's very heavy. When he tried to pick it up the whole Madonna broke apart. It was filled with ants. Mom would be sad if she knew, I'm not going to tell her. Her and dad carried it home on the bus years and years ago.

Random thoughts

2011-07-12T18:14:00.000-04:00

1. I've hardly been on the computer. I've been so busy. I'm like almost 1000 blog posts behind, oh my, lol.

2. Mom's leg where she needed the stitches is looking good except for the scab.

3. Mom also had her right eye cataract surgery last week. It was like a miracle. When I went in to see her after it was done she could see immediately. Wow!! She wanted to have the other one done right away, ha. We have to go back on the 21st and if everything is good, we'll set up an appointment for the left eye. She is SO happy that she can see. I think she wasn't doing arts and crafts anymore because she couldn't see. Yesterday she participated and strung a necklace with beads.

4. Hot, hot, hot. That's what it's been around here.

5. We had our first green beans from the garden over the weekend. Yummy!!

6. Do you all know Michael Symon from the Food Network? He has a couple of restaurants around here and he's opened a couple of new ones called the B spot. I went with the Dinner Friends a couple of weeks ago. It's primarily a hamburger and brat place. It was about one of the best burgers I've eaten. The place is very small but what was neat was the whole front of the restaurant was opened to the outside. Pretty cool.

7, I can hardly contain my excitement about getting the patio enclosure. It's hard to wait, lol.

Saturday Centus #62

2011-07-09T09:19:00.003-04:00

“Hi Frances, it’s nice to finally meet you. How do you like the cottage?”

“I love it but I’ve got a lot to do to make it my own. So, your running for mayor”.

“Yep”, he said. “Would you be interested in putting a sign on your lawn for me?”

“Sure, why not”.

He brought it out and the sign read Vote for Will, He won't be a pill.

Frances started to laugh when she saw it and couldn’t stop.

“I know it’s corny” and he laughed with her as he pounded the sign into her front lawn

Saturday Centus 61

2011-07-02T09:53:00.001-04:00

Frances was just beginning to read the letter when she thought she heard music. She put the letter in her pocket; walked to the front sidewalk and looked down the road. She could hear Oh say can you see by the dawn’s early light. It was a van with speakers on the outside. As it reached her house, she could see a big sign saying Vote for Will for Mayor.

The van stopped . A young man got out. “Hi, my name’s Will. I’m running for mayor. My family originally owned this home.”

“It’s very nice to meet you Will. My name is Frances”.

Patio enclosure

2011-06-27T08:45:00.000-04:00

We had the guy come last week to discuss getting the porch enclosed. We are getting a 3 season patio enclosure but we're only doing half of the porch. We had a figure in mind what we would be willing to spend. To do the whole porch would have been double, yikes!! I'm very, very excited about it. It won't be done until sometime in August but I'll be happy to have it for the fall.

We will eventually get some kind of flooring done and get some furniture as well. I'm not sure if we will still do that this year or next.

Also, the enclosure will be from the driveway side to 16 feet which we will not have access to the back door. When it's done, we will have to go through the patio enclosure to get inside the back of the house. We will have to get new steps put in to get into the back door, ha..

Saturday Centus #60

2011-06-25T08:36:00.001-04:00

It's Saturday Centus again - in a nutshell, Jenny Matlock gives us a prompt from either herself or a guest submitter and then we have to write 100 (although this week is only 60) or words less related to the prompt (the prompt doesn't count toward the 100 words) Then link it up to her blog. It's open until the following Saturday, so that means you have all week to participate by either reading or writing. The prompt is in blue. http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/search/label/Saturday%20Centus

This is a continuation from last week. I'm not sure how long I'll be doing this, ha...

Frances had to get the property in order before she did any investigating. She went outside and started raking leaves in the cool fall weather. In the stone of the cottage, she noticed a tiny piece of paper sticking out. It was difficult to get it out but she did.

It was a letter. Dear John it started. It was from Vivian...

Mom

2011-06-21T08:20:00.001-04:00

Mom had to go to the ER twice on Sunday. On Friday, she got a skin tear on her leg. The nurse wrapped it up and all was well. Sunday a nurse called about 4 p.m. and said the bandage wrap was all bloody and they couldn't get the bleeding to stop so they were sending her to the ER for stitches. The doctor at the ER said the skin was so thin that they couldn't put stitches in. He ended up putting some medicine on some gauze to get the blood to clot, wrapped it up and put an ace bandage on it. They took her back to the nursing home. Around 9:45, the nurse called again and said they were taking her back to the ER because it was saturated with blood again. She got there around 11:00. The same guy was there. He ended up putting stitches in but put them a little bit further from the actual skin tear and also put some steri strips on. We left mom around 1:30 a.m. and she was waiting to get a pressure bandage on and then there were going to take her back. I don't know what time she got back.

I slept until around 11 a.m. on Monday. I talked to them at the nursing home and they said mom was doing okay and she wasn't bleeding. On Tuesday, the nurse practitioner is going to take the pressure bandage off and see what it looks like. What a night.

Saturday Centus #59

2011-06-18T12:16:00.000-04:00

It's Saturday Centus again - in a nutshell, Jenny Matlock gives us a prompt from either herself or a guest submitter and then we have to write 100 or words less related to the prompt (the prompt doesn't count toward the 100 words) Then link it up to her blog. It's open until the following Saturday, so that means you have all week to participate by either reading or writing. The prompt is in blue. http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/search/label/Saturday%20Centus

I haven't done Centus for months but I thought I'd jump in again. Not that I have anymore time and I'm all caught up but I missed doing it. So we'll see how it goes.

Frances was excited about the cottage she had moved into. It was the home she always dreamed of.
With the insurance money from her late husband, she had enough money to purchase it.

She was making her first fire and noticed something within the stone. It was a photograph. On the back it said Wilfred and Vivian - so sad. "So sad; what does that mean?" she thought.

The cottage had been built in the 1800's and by the clothes; she could tell they were from that era.
She could hardly wait to start investigating what happened to Wilfred and Vivian.

Random thoughts

2011-06-16T17:36:00.000-04:00

1. Last Saturday when we went to see mom they had bell ringers there. That was the first time I've ever seen them. It was beautiful.

2. We finally ordered some railings for our front steps. They should be put up in a few weeks.

3. I did it... I've written on the blog before how I've always wanted to enclose the back porch. Over the years I've gone back and forth thinking it would be too expensive. I'm finally going to find out. I have someone coming on Monday to give us an estimate. Oh, how I hope it's not too much.

4. I finally bought my yarn for Christmas. I've gotta get going.

5. Cool, hot, rain, cool, hot, rain, pretty much sums up this spring. It can't make up it's mind, ha..

Mom

2011-06-10T14:32:00.001-04:00

We took mom to the ophthalmologist (the one I go to) and he's going to do the cataract surgery on Mom. The first one will be in July and if all goes well, he'll do the second one. Her vision now is pretty much down to nothing. Seems she has lost peripheral vision is both eyes as well. She won't see perfect but she will see better.

Her new roommate - what can I say, ha. She's not friendly, complains a lot and yells at whoever comes to help her. I've said hello to her once and she ignored me. Oh well, maybe she will get more friendly as time goes on.

Men behaving badly

2011-06-07T17:27:00.000-04:00

Is there some kind of mindset with men politicians in Washington that they can get away with behaving badly?
How could they not think they are going to get caught for goodness sake @@.

Vacation random thoughts

2011-06-04T00:09:00.000-04:00

1. It was fun to see son and his girlfriend in their environment. They did say they went to more things when we were there then the whole time they've been there. Could be because we paid for everything lol.

2. Thursday of our vacation, hippie tried to buy something with the credit card we had been using and it was denied. We came back, called HSBC and they said MasterCard said it was compromised so they would be sending us a new card. Good thing we had another credit card.

3. I loved staying at the Luxor because of the proximity of things I picked out for us to do. We hardly had to go outside at all.

4. Luckily, the weather was wonderful for me. The first few days were amazing high 60's and low 70's. The weather people were complaining that it was below average for the year LOL. It wasn't until the weekend it started to get into the high 80's.

5. My sleeping is still messed up from Vegas and I'm woefully still behind on blog reading. I think it's time to start deleting some stuff.

6. I was a little disappointed with some of the pictures I took. The ones with people inside especially didn't come out. They were either blurry or the lighting was wonky. Here's one of me though:

More pictures

2011-06-03T01:33:00.000-04:00

These are pictures I took while we were in the car of different things.

Days 7 & 8

2011-06-02T00:09:00.000-04:00

This was our last day before having to get up on Tuesday so we just relaxed at the Luxor all day. Son and girlfriend came and we gambled pretty much all afternoon and evening. We did go to girlfriends school so I could print out our boarding passes and pay for my luggage online.

We bought ice cream and ate at Nathan's Hot Dogs again.

We left them about 8 p.m. so we could pack our bags and get ready for the morning.

In the morning about 5:45 we heard a big noise outside and it was a traffic helicopter. We were by the freeway and there must have been an accident or something. It seemed like it was out there for a long time. We decided to just get up. We were getting picked up at 8 a.m.

Everything went well on the flight home. Although 4 hours was a long time to be flying. I don't think I'll ever be going to Europe lol.

Day 6

2011-06-01T04:35:00.000-04:00

This day we had tickets to see The Lion King which was at Mandalay Bay. This casino was also connected to The Luxor. I was highly anticipating see this. I loved watching the movie with my son when he was little and I only heard great things about the musical. We had gotten two free tickets for it and I purchased two extra for son and his girlfriend. It was good but I was surprised I didn't love it like I thought I would. Girlfriend had seen it before and she thought something was off with it as well.

When we were done we went to a place called The Peppermill to eat.

It was a pretty cool place. It had neon lights inside and tiffany lamps with flamingo design hanging from the ceilings at each table. There were trees inside. It was just a warm Las Vegasy kind of place.

Our meals were excellent and they were pretty big portions. Son and girlfriend got to take all the leftovers home from the various restaurants we went to.

Day 5

2011-05-31T07:13:00.000-04:00

We went to a free indoor car show. Hippie really liked that. Most of the cars could be purchased. They had one that was over one million dollars for sale. There was a car that Johnny Carson's father owned and Johnny had learned to drive in. A car from Red Skelton and Howard Hughes. There were some beautiful old cars.

That night we went to the House of Blues for dinner.

We have one in Cleveland but I've never gone, ha.

We went back to the Luxor and played the slots. Every day we would play them. Any money I won, I just put back in the machine. Hippie was the only one to break even.

My particular favorite was a machine called Leprechaun's Gold Gettin Lucky. I also played a Survivor slot and finally the last couple of days, I played video blackjack. I brought home a 3 cent voucher as a souvenir, ha!!

Day 4

2011-05-30T07:56:00.000-04:00

They had a Nathan's Hot Dog where we were staying, so I ate there for lunch. I've always wanted to try one of their hot dogs. It was pretty good.

Hippie and son went to a place called Bill's Gambling Hall & Saloon. We dropped them off and

Son's girlfriend and I went and got a Starbucks and then went to see Menopause the Musical at the Luxor.

I about died laughing at this. It's so funny and so true.

After we picked them up we went to another place I've always wanted to go to

More tomorrow...