I told you that my Lunch Bunch friends couldn’t meet yesterday. I was disappointed, but hoped we could meet sometime early next week or something.
Today two of our friends came to our house to exchange gifts and visit. It was the greatest gift. We really got to talk after exchanging gifts, sharing some things we hadn’t mentioned before. It was truly wonderful. I’m so lucky to have met these people and shared friendship and love for over 20 years now.
Even now, as I type, I’m a bit teary over how lucky we are.
Things happen – and more changes in a second than you can believe. Since I’m becoming an heirloom, more happens to the people I love, too.
My friend’s MRI is Monday, where they see how much damage she had from her recent fall. (Nothing broken, thank goodness.) A family member went from the ER to the hospital last night due to trouble breathing. She’s not in pain, thank goodness, but having trouble breathing is scary. My own next test/procedure is the middle of next month. A lot will depend on the results. Another friend texted me to tell me that she and her mom wouldn’t be at Lunch Bunch today. (she was going to a funeral and her mom wasn’t comfortable driving in the rain.) I’ll see what they think of having our Christmas gift exchange next THURSDAY. Fingers crossed.
We repaired a CB Radio antenna wire that the hugely gusty winds we had had snapped off. It runs between our well house and the main house and was hanging down in the yard. So, of COURSE my husband grabbed our tall ladder and wanted to climb to the top of the well house to try to fix it. I helped the best I could, running to the house to get parts, tools, and scrambling up and down the ladder to hand them to him. We got it repaired and back up again. No injuries.
This was topped off by our dog, Amber, coming back covered in ‘that-that-is-not-to-be-named,” and we had to finish off the afternoon by giving her a cold bath in the back yard, something that really got our attention.
Christmas cards feel like hugs. We’ve started hearing from friends and relatives we wish we could see more often. We sent out ours last week, and hope they feel OUR hugs, as well.
I’ll be really glad when Mother Nature decides which season we’re having. We MAY get another 3 inches of rain between now and tomorrow morning. Severe weather chances are low, though, and I’m really grateful for that.
I’m trying to immerse myself in my book and in listening to YouTube videos to keep any bad thoughts in the back part of my mind, happy that we are snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug here. :0)
I just got home from having my monthly massage and I feel GOOD. I’ve been more stressed than usual lately and it felt WONDERFUL to totally relax, putting myself in the glorious hands of Lynn, my massage therapist. We exchanged gifts and a nice hug. AND I’m set up for a massage for next month. :0)
I’m about to fix us some lunch. My husband is taking a nap. He’s so cute. He puts a kitchen dish towel over his face in his recliner and zonks out. The cat is sleeping on his stomach. Our dog, Amber is snoring on the floor beside his chair, wishing SHE could sleep on his stomach, too.
No big plans for the day. It’s rainy, but we missed storms last night. It’s supposed to rain HARD tomorrow off and on, but I don’t think anything is supposed to be severe.
I told you that my Lunch Bunch friend, Kay, fell last week. She’s having an MRI Monday to assess the damage and see what can be done. Meanwhile, she is finally able to eat again, so my husband and I took her a cherry milkshake yesterday afternoon. Her coping mechanism is Word Search books, and she was out of them. We stopped and got her another one after we got the shake. We visited for about 10 minutes. I gave her the Christmas present and card I made for her and hugged her VERY gently. She is such a nice lady.
I’ll get presents together this afternoon to take to Lunch Bunch tomorrow.
Our weather is yo-yo-ing, not sure whether we’re still in the fall or at the beginning of winter. Storms are due this evening into tomorrow, with record high temperatures here today and a cold front coming though. Mother Nature is really in a snit lately. We will hopefully have a quiet day with a very wet evening. Right now it’s really beautiful outside. I’ll try to get out to play today.
One of my dear friends from Lunch Bunch fell last week. Our medical community is giving her the run-around on giving her some real help. She needs an MRI to find the extent of the damage, but it isn’t scheduled until NEXT Monday. Meanwhile, she’s in pain and can’t keep pain medicine down. Her husband took her to Ft. Smith yesterday to see if they could get some help. I will call her later to find out if they were successful. I want to FIX her, help her to quit hurting, help her to feel sassy again.
CFQ.com
I’m now waiting to schedule another health test. My ‘adult’ side peaks her head out, mainly during the day. At night, I’m at the inner child’s mercy. I came down in the middle of the night and read for about an hour to chase away scary and dark thoughts. Happily, during the daytime, I’m MUCH better able to find joy.
I had a nice chat with our son this morning, who lives and works in Thailand. We are so lucky to be so close to him, even though we’re physically across the world from each other. We can talk about anything, help each other handle what life gives us, encourage each other, even giving virtual hugs.
It’s a beautiful, though chilly morning here. Lots of sunshine.
Mirka Lindfors-pin.it
It’s our son’s 43rd birthday today. I actually wrote to him yesterday, as he is 13 hours ahead of us in Thailand. He had forgotten that it was his birthday! I sent silly pictures, such as the one above, and wrote out the Happy Birthday song. We chatted a bit. I told him I thought he should play his guitar and record himself singing Happy Birthday. This is one of the many times I wish he weren’t all the way across the world from us.
This week will actually be most of our Christmas. Thursday I have a massage and will take my therapist’s presents then. Friday is Lunch Bunch and we will exchange presents there. I have several more to deliver around town, but that will be the bulk of it. I’m trying to get Christmas cards in the mail. I love this time of year!
Children’s Health
The scared inner child is trying to find the adult in the room. I’m waiting to hear from my doctor what and when the next step is. “One foot in front of the other. Do what needs to be done. Stop being stupid.” (Not only am I a wimp, I talk to myself. )
We’re going to run errands now. I hope you have a great Monday.
This isn’t really a picture of the “Ladies of Lunch Bunch,” but it shows the spirit. We met as usual today, except one of us wasn’t there. Kay fell yesterday and was checked out at the hospital before coming home last night. She had called to tell me she wasn’t going to be there today.
I don’t know the details of what was found, but they did allow her to go home. This morning I called and she was in pretty bad shape. She was dizzy and nauseous. She has her husband and niece there with her, and she was waiting for her local doctor to call and tell her if he thought she should go back to the hospital. I don’t know any more details than that. She said she would keep me in the loop of what was happening.
It was good to catch up with Linda and Patty, but the worry was underlying everything. We won’t be able to settle down until we know how Kay is and what is being done to help her. She didn’t tell me anything was broken, so I’m assuming she was mainly shook up and probably sore from the fall. I want to know the why of the dizziness and nausea. She only weighs 98 lbs right now. As feisty a lady as you would ever want to know, so it’s doubly disturbing for this to happen to her.
So, all appendages are crossed for her recovery. We need our friend back.
________
We are having an amazingly warm day today with a cold front and rain forecast for this afternoon and evening. I gathered what is probably the last of our flowers to bring inside.
Red roses, Rio Samba roses, twice-blooming iris. Abby
When we came home from Lunch Bunch, we found that Abby had decided that the buffet was a great spot to sleep. Amber, our 95-pound yellow lab, climbed up in my roll-around office chair with me this morning, almost causing us to both end up on the floor. She likes to make me laugh. Right before we went to Lunch Bunch, I sat on the sofa to talk to my husband, and Amber took that as an invitation to join me. She walked right up and sat beside me, crawling into my lap and licking me as if she were allowed on the furniture!
Final thought – I discovered a singer named Andreas Kummert. I think he’s from Germany. He has such a distinctive style and voice. I could listen to him for hours.
I sent an email to a long-time friend on the 30th of November, his birthday, wishing him a happy celebration. Yesterday I saw his email address pop up on my incoming mail. It was one of his daughters, telling me he had died of complications from cancer. He was creative, funny with a wicked sense of humor. He loved his family. I will miss him.
This is the time of year when Amber, our 95-pound yellow lab, starts bringing deer parts into the yard. Over the years I have built up my ability to take care of this myself, rather than bothering my husband with it. Today it was just deer skin. This is the first time for this. I can only think that someone killed a deer, field dressed it, and left the parts he didn’t want close enough for Amber to find. GREAT. :0(
While I was out, though, I saw a rose in bloom! It looked especially lovely with most of our plants gone now. I cut it to bring inside, then found one red rose bud on another plant, plus two twice-blooming iris. It really lifted my spirits to be able to bring them inside.
We are about ready to run some errands. On the way out, we will put up this mailbox decoration. We will have a very quiet Christmas, so this will be a fun way to wish any passers-by a wonderful celebration.
Yesterday I finished the cards and ornament I was working on in my art room. I’ll take pics and share them with you in another post.
Today we have Lunch Bunch for the first time in two weeks. We missed last week due to the restaurant being closed the day after Thanksgiving. It will be good to catch up with everyone again.
It’s amazing to realize that we have been meeting our friends every possible Friday for about 20 years now. These people aren’t just friends – they’re family. We have helped each other through the hardest things there are, and celebrated joy. We have laughed, hugged, and shared our lives. Friends are truly one of the greatest riches we have.
This afternoon my husband has an eye exam. This is especially important as he has Type II Diabetes. He hasn’t had an exam in several years due to stubbornness. Our primary doc finally got through to him that he NEEDS to do this. So we go today to Fort Smith.
I’m hoping it will go smoothly. My husband used up all his patience in the Marine Corps years ago. He only gets more stubborn with age. He HATES waiting in doctor’s offices. Years ago we were waiting for a different eye doc. We waited in the room for 45 minutes with no one telling us what was going on. I checked out in the hall, but couldn’t find anyone. He insisted we leave without seeing the doc. He wouldn’t go back. Hopefully, today will be a more reasonable appointment…
One of the first things my husband and I did on waking this morning was to congratulate each other on doing our grocery shopping yesterday while the weather was nice. This morning we have 45 degrees F., rain, gloom, and blustery winds.
We will meet our friends for Lunch Bunch, but we won’t do anything else outside.
Cliff Harden, of Safe Elite Transformations 479-849-0520 safeelitetransformations@gmail.com called and then came to look at my porch yesterday afternoon. He made us a new ceiling, repaired damage, and then repainted our porch last year. One trim board had fallen down and needs to be reinstalled.
After I got a wonderful hug and he looked at the porch, he said he would be here sometime next week to fix it. When we met, I was his first customer after he used the pandemic lock-down to get his builder’s license and start his company after working for others for several years. Now he has three full crews working for him and is scrambling to keep up with the business. When you’re good, you stay busy. :0)
We got our Covid booster shots Wednesday. My husband and I are in the high-risk group. Even though my husband tends to think everything is a conspiracy, he agreed to the shots, and finally to the booster. Thankfully, neither of us had a bad reaction to the booster. Our son, who lives in Thailand, is in the group that has had bad reactions with heart problems. He is healthy, so has decided not to get the shots or be tested. Since our government has now decided that you MUST have been vaccinated or present a negative test in order to fly, he won’t be able to come home for any reason until the order is changed. We will be on our own until the world rights itself again.
I finished the re-painting of the back of Wonder Wart-Hog. We will hang up the mailbox decoration with the others in the shop now. Monday, weather permitting, we are planning to put up Sylvester and Tweetie Pie.
I have the paint, tape, and stepping stool ready to start the refurbishment of the greeter robot at the bottom of the driveway when the weather permits.
Since our weather is so unfriendly today, after Lunch Bunch I will clean a few things and then do a combination of playing in my art room, reading, and listening to YouTube compilations of “The Voice” auditions. All that talent just fills my heart and makes me feel good about the world!
Our friend gave us quite a ‘thank you’ today for making the Freedom sign for her last week. She paid for our lunch, brought us a home-baked cake/bread with a huge, pretty bow on it, and hugged both of us. I feel that we should make her another sign for the extremely nice ‘thank you’! :0)
The sign said, “Don’t want $ – Want FREEDOM.” She stood on the side of the road across from a busy intersection off the expressway in Ft. Smith. She had a flag in one hand and the sign we made in the other. She said she had people honking and waving, and one man rolled down his window so he could yell, “Freedom!” and smile. It was a good experience for her and probably made some people who saw her happy.
(I’m happy to report that no one has damaged Yosemite Sam (our mailbox decoration) today. I’m relieved, and I hope to be able to one day take it for granted again, rather than driving down our driveway with dread. I will try to finish the repainting of the back of Wonder Wart-Hog this afternoon.
The daughter of one of our Lunch Bunch friends asked my husband and me for a favor yesterday. She is a very calm, kind lady. She is afraid our freedom is under siege.
She asked us to make a sign for her that said, “DON’T WANT $ – WANT FREEDOM.” (The only people waving signs in our part of the world are people asking for money and she wanted to be clear.)
We’ve never done this before, but we got a stiff sign board and spent much of the afternoon creating the sign plus cut a stick and a brace for the sign. My husband used some good nails with washers to nail the sign to the brace and stick.
We called them when the sign was ready and they came over to the house to pick it up. We showed them our shop, since they have shown an interest in the mailbox decorations and our efforts to refurbish our yard critters. Our friend seemed pleased with the sign.
I will check with her today to see how her one woman protest went.
Bill Watterson-Calvin and Hobbes-celebrateeachnewday.tumblr.com
It’s drizzle-y, windy, and too cool this morning. The high today is supposed to be 57. Right now it’s overcast and 47 degrees F. I was ready for cooler weather, but this is ‘too much of a good thing.’
We will join our friends for Lunch Bunch in about half an hour. It’ll be good to catch up with what has been going on for each of them. We have been having lunch together every Friday for about 20 years now. How many changes! We have shared good and bad things, laughter, hugs, and tears. Some of the faces have changed. We’re never sure how many will be there, but the core group is three of us: Linda, Kay and myself. My husband was accepted as an honorary member of the group several years ago. He sits at one end of the table looking at his “harem” he says. We have told him that he is welcome as long as he behaves…
Unless it’s pouring after Lunch Bunch, we will scoot to Walmart afterwards to replenish some supplies. We plan to stay in the rest of the day, warm and dry. I’m putting the electric blanket on our bed today when I put fresh sheets on.
I’ve been adding new products to my Etsy site – Handmade Haven by Linda. Please take a look if you have the time. :0)
To those of you who have been following the blog, I FOUND the gallon container of mold/mildew/algae/elephant remover! As soon as the weather is dry and sunny, I’ll put some in a spray container and hose down the greeter robot yard art at the bottom of the driveway that I’m trying to refurbish. When I get the green and other dirt off of him, I can prepare to freshen his paint.
This was especially brought home to me yesterday at Lunch Bunch.
As I looked around the table at my friends of over 20 years now, I was suddenly aware –
Our wonderful long-time waitress/friend is trying to be strong though her co-worker has retired now and she pulls the load for both of them while missing her.
the owner of the restaurant – also a long-time friend, is having to do what the retired waitress did while TRYING to find another person that he can trust
one of my friends is suffering from vertigo and had to miss Lunch Bunch a couple of weeks ago because of it. Thankfully, her daughter read up on the problem on the net and found a treatment that she could do at home to help her. She lives alone, except for a sweet little dog.
Another of my friends has a disabled son who has worked at a hospital in Ft. Smith for years. Because of the new policies of the government, the hospital is requiring vaccinations. He went in with his doctor’s letter, saying the shots would be dangerous for him. The request was denied. They then asked for a religious exemption – valid, but not as specific as his health exemption request. He was denied. He was fired. He doesn’t need to work to feed himself, but for his quality of life – his sense of self-worth as a man. The fight continues.
A third friend’s husband just had surgery to remove a skin cancer that required a graft. The surgeon got it all, thank goodness, and her husband is just ‘grumpy’ about not being able to go back to work yet.
My own life is challenging due to the changing side effects of the mini-strokes my husband has suffered.
Whether you know the people you see each day or not, the loads are carried. We need to be aware of this as we try to solve our own problems and try to deal with the many changes that are happening every day. The extra thought, trying to come up with more patience, a smile, a hug, all may make a difference as we remember all the good things around us.
Today was the first Lunch Bunch since our waitress, Susan, retired. We are all happy for Susan, giving her a good send-off last Friday, her last day, before she started taking care of her grandchildren. She has spent many years working hard, getting up early to go to work, do the prep necessary before opening the restaurant, making pizza dough, cutting up veggies, all the things that need to be done to have the place run smoothly. She’s still getting up early every day, but now will fill her days with life flowing from the plans of the grandkids. She grinned from ear to ear last Friday, clearly relishing the change of focus for her life.
So today we gathered once again. Mikey, our other treasured waitress, took our orders. We talked about the fact that SHE kept feeling that Susan was “just on vacation,” and would be back at work soon. WE kept thinking she would come out from the back, drying hands on her apron, smiling and joking with us.
One Green Planet
Things change and we must change with them. Susan has our permanent invitation to join us at the table for Lunch Bunch. We HOPE she’ll take us up on that some Friday very soon. Happy for her, sad for us, resistant to change…
Yesterday I received a card in the mail from a lady who used to have her work displayed on my website, Creative Artworks. As with many of the people who shared my site, we became friends, even though we have never actually met face-to-face.
Sandi is really talented. I think she could crochet a house if she wanted to. I was proud to have her work on the site and we enjoyed collaborating for several years.
As also happens, life got in the way and we lost touch. I think of her often, but I had lost her email address and the days went by with my being too lazy to write.
When I saw her name on the return address, my heart filled. Inside there was a really nice card. It said, “The best thing about knowing a person like you is everything.” Isn’t that wonderful?
I wrote a return letter and will mail it tomorrow. I’ve shared my email address and asked for hers, so this lazy lady will take advantage of a few minutes from time to time to reach out –
She made my day yesterday. I’m still smiling and feeling very lucky to know her.
Our celebratory lunch today for Susan went really well. One of our friends didn’t feel well and couldn’t come, but sent a present. We worked around customers coming in and being served, since our two treasured waitresses also do the cooking most of the time.
We gave her gifts that hopefully showed her how special she is. I also put a copy of the blog post I wrote this morning with one of my gifts and THAT made her cry. One of our group made a cake that we shared. There was a lot of eating, laughing and crying going on. My husband muttered about there being enough emotion today to float a boat. I noticed he got quiet a couple of times, a sure sign that HIS heart was touched, as well.
I hugged Susan before we left. I won’t believe it really, until we go to Lunch Bunch NEXT Friday and Susan isn’t there. She has a standing invitation to join us now, and I hope she will do it.
Lunch Bunch today will be a celebration party for Susan, our friend and long-time waitress at the Pizza Barn. Today is her last day. She IS the Pizza Barn, so there will be tears and she will be sorely missed.
How wonderful for Susan, though, to realize – in a tangible and emotional way – that she has made a difference. That she is special, and will be missed.
She is looking forward to spending a lot of time with her grandchildren. This will keep her young and active. Her quality of life will be terrific and her grandchildren are lucky.
We’ll load up on the kleenex as we gather her presents and prepare to give her a nice send-off.
The GOOD NEWS is that we went to Red Lobster for my celebratory lunch yesterday. I had a lobster tail with melted butter, rice, and broccoli. YUM! We will celebrate again if my subscribers total ever reaches 3,000.
The BAD NEWS is that I gained 2.8 pounds eating that lunch. UGH. So QUICK to pile on and so HARD to get back off!
I refuse to give up celebrating. My husband disappeared shortly before we were due to leave. He came downstairs in a yummy shirt I haven’t seen in years, clean jeans, and dress shoes. He looked wonderful. I felt we had ‘date night’ as well as the celebration of a milestone on my blog. Absolutely priceless.
On the way home, we saw a dear friend. She was standing at the bottom of her driveway waiting for the mailman to come by. She lives alone and now keeps her gate closed across her driveway, not wanting unannounced people driving up. I hadn’t seen her in awhile, so we stopped. I quickly jumped out and hugged her neck.
Yesterday was a happy day – and today I’ll start trying to shed the lardage I gained, PLUS hopefully keep the trend going downward.
Today is Lunch Bunch. I’ve told you before that two friends and I as the core – plus others who have joined us over the years – meet for lunch on Fridays at The Pizza Barn. We have done this for over 20 years now. We catch up on what has happened the past week, what is coming up, have great food, wonderful conversation, laughs and tears.
That remains – thank goodness, but there is a change. Susan, one of our waitresses, has decided to retire. Her last day is NEXT Friday, the 24th. She wants to spend more time with her grandchildren.
We are happy for her and are “crying into our beers” otherwise, selfishly. Susan IS the Pizza Barn. We have shared things every Friday with Susan, too. She brings us our lunches, and has helped us celebrate birthdays and Christmas, has shared good news and bad, and is as much a part of the group as the people sitting at the big table. We have exchanged birthday gifts. She is on my Christmas list. She is a friend.
She – with Mikey (our other wonderful waitress/friend) – gave us her retirement news last Friday. I was talking to another of the Lunch Bunchers this morning, deciding what we would do for the proper send-off next week. We are both really sad. We realize that’s selfish, but it’s a gut level reaction.
We will try to get her to come to Lunch Bunch, bringing the grandkids, but we know that it will be a rare thing, and that Lunch Bunch – one of the truly bright spots of our world each week – won’t be the same.
My hair is blowing as I realize we’re at the end of another week and we’ve started September. We will leave for Lunch Bunch soon. I love seeing my friends’ faces, hugging their necks (vicariously – with Covid), and sharing a meal, seeing with my own eyes that all remains well.
Since the main people who pass our driveway these days are the kids who ride on the school bus, we will concentrate on displaying the decorations we hope they will enjoy. We will put up Godzilla today.
When we get back from Lunch Bunch and a few errands, I’ll check the dragonfly in the shop to see if he’s ready for us to put back up on the side of the house. I’ll also check the Christmas presents that I think are finished and ready to come inside. I THINK all is finished, except for painting on some polyurethane for protection.
I will make a chef salad with chicken left from our lunches today for dinner tonight.
I’m HOPING our weather forecasters are right with chances of rain tomorrow night into Sunday. My husband is smiling because he’s only had to mow once lately, but our plants could really use a good soaky rain. In CASE they’re right, I need to check our tomato plants and do some weed whacking today and tomorrow.
On the start of this Labor Day Weekend, I think of my dad, who was born – he said ‘quite appropriately’ – on Labor Day. My parents have been gone a long time now. I still feel them encouraging me to enjoy each day the best I can.
One of our dear friends from Lunch Bunch decided to be really, really nice and bake my husband a cake. It wasn’t his birthday or any occasion. She baked him what she calls a ‘Mt. Dew’ cake. She has done this before, several years ago. It was absolutely delicious, but he’s a Type II diabetic (although he denies that and says he has a sugar problem). She couldn’t figure out how to get the cake to turn out right without sugar, so that was that.
This big beautiful cake was sitting at my husband’s place at the big table at Lunch Bunch Friday. My husband being thoroughly himself took out his pocket knife and immediately cut himself a piece, ate it, and pronounced it, “delicious.'” He didn’t share, also being consistent, cutting off a second piece and eating it. Our friend explained that she had finally figured out how to make it sugar-free, maintaining the consistency. There was a cup of real Mt. Dew, which does have sugar, but a cup in a big sheet type cake isn’t much.
My husband was telling me on the way home that we would have to throw out the rest of the cake, since he isn’t supposed to have sugar. I again explained that the cake was sugar-free, with only one cup of Mt. Dew in the whole thing. He got it that time and we have enjoyed a piece of cake each evening since. And it IS delicious.
It is NOT calorie-free, however, and my indulgence has my scales not only smirking, but laughing at me with its hand over it’s mouth. We finished it last night, thank goodness, so today I will be a good girl. I’m drinking a glass of water as I type this. :0)
Our heat index this afternoon will reach the triple digits, so I’m going to get our to the shop pretty soon to continue work on refurbishing the ‘turkey’ yard art critter I started yesterday. I’m hoping he can go back out to his place at the base of a tree beside the driveway by the end of the day. I forgot to take pics of the ‘before’ on the turkey. He was basically just super dirty and desperately in need of new paint. I’ll take pics to share when he is back in place.
Did I tell you I HATE automatic Windows updates? For some reason they always cause us problems. We can’t NOT do the updates, but it’s sure a pain to deal with the havoc they generate. Yesterday it was one of our printers that suddenly won’t print plus our personal DVD computerized collection isn’t opening as it should. My husband fought with it most of the day yesterday to no avail. He wrote Microsoft and is hoping they have some help for us. He also talked to our son via a conference call, in Thailand. Hopefully, answers will come today.
Tomorrow at Lunch Bunch we’ll celebrate the birthday of one of our core members. Our friendship – going on 20 years now – is priceless.
My husband has been celebrating the lack of rain lately. He’s been praising the ‘brown and crunchy patches of grass in the yard, meaning he has to mow less. I told him to enjoy it while he could. Rain is due this weekend.
My spring garden is about to come to an end. I got what is probably the last of the yellow squash, leaving only sweet onions. I’ll probably pull the onions soon, leaving them to dry on the trailer bed and clean up the garden. On the good side, though, we had the first two ripe tomatoes of what I hope will be a wonderful season. My husband and I shared them for lunch yesterday. They were delicious. I hope we get enough that I can share them.
Every year about this time I wish we had been able to build the pool we wanted when we built the house. Since we’re on top of a ridge line, we had to do a lot of blasting to build a house amid all this rock. We blasted for the septic tank, the basement, and then blasted the whole back yard for the pool. We ran out of money before we got to the pool, though, so it never got done.
I worked every summer from the time I was 14 through college teaching swimming with my 6th grade gym teacher to make money for college. I really miss the great exercise I got. I tell myself that if we had a pool, I would go out and swim every possible night before bed. The reality of that would probably be that I would gritch and moan about having to get my exercise cleaning the pool, rather than getting to swim in it. I would have to fight for space to swim laps, having to dodge raccoons, opossums, squirrels, and other critters I don’t want to think about who thought we had built the pool for THEM…
Today is a pretty day, though the humidity is still high. Thanks to a neighbor’s super-kind compliments about our mailbox decorations, we will change our decoration when we leave to go to Lunch Bunch. This is what we’ll put up –
Pepe LePew and Penelope
We will enjoy catching up with our long time friends as we have every Friday for over 17 years now. It’s impossible to explain how close we feel, having shared highs and lows, laughs and tears all this time. The number of people at lunch changes from time to time, depending on who is being visited, which other friends took time to be with us, but the core remains the same – Kay, Linda, and me, plus my husband who was ‘graciously’ taken in as an honorary member of Lunch Bunch. Kay’s husband also joins us from time to time when he isn’t working. He is in high demand because he can run many huge machines like an artist – a vanishing skill.
When we come home, I’m planning to get out and weed whack the yard. My husband got the recalcitrant riding mower running and got the main part of the yard done. I need to do the parts he can’t get with the mower, of which there are many, followed by leaf blowing to clean things up, and then spraying with KillzAll weed killer to discourage new growth. I don’t know how long I’ll last in the heat, but it’s good knowing I can come in, jump into the shower, dress in clean clothes, and maybe even have a nap this afternoon.
Tomorrow is the official start of “Lewis Refurb 2021” where I wash, scrape and thoroughly clean one of our yard metal critters, then repair or replace parts, repaint, and finally spray with polyurethane for protection so it can go back outside. The sun and rain and temperature ranges are very hard on them. I’ll do the best I can to give them some more years as members of the Lewis family. I’ll start with our “Box Turtle.” –
This is what he used to look like. I’ll take a picture when I get started so you can see what Mother Nature does to our ‘creations.’ The poor thing is NOT a happy camper right now.
The other thing I’m hoping for this weekend is that my husband will be in the mood to cook out. I have some kielbasa and some lovely veggies that would make a delicious meal. I’m hoping we can have a late dinner, sit and talk on the deck, with our rope LED lights on, making things festive, while we enjoy the evening and our animals.
I hope that you’re having a nice day today and that you’re looking forward to an enjoyable weekend.
We will leave for Lunch Bunch in about an hour. It looks like we may need a boat if this keeps up.
I would like to harvest more lettuce, but Mother Nature has been playing with us over the last week or so, starting the rain up every time I get ready to go outside, almost like a faucet, waiting until I am out there, and then dumping on me. I can imagine her laughing at me. :0)
Other than squeegeeing, mopping, and toweling off the porch floor over and over, I’ve been playing in my art room. I’m trying to eventually try an ‘acrylic pour,’ but I’m a bit intimidated, so I’m trying one new technique at a time, building up to it. I put the second coat of a stuff called, “crackle medium” on the background of a painting on which I used Unicorn Spit paint. So far, nothing is ‘crackling.’ I’ll continue to experiment, having lots of fun, until something good starts to happen. :0)
I think I already told you that I am newly motivated to get the lard off. We had a routine doctor appointment Monday. We were doing so well that she said we could wait 6 months to come back, rather than the usual three. I’m now trying to lose a significant amount of my lard before we see her again in November. This week has been a good start for me.
I hope the weather is good where you are and that you can make this a wonderful day.
It looks like today will be another perfect day. We had one yesterday, too – sunny and 80 – and I’m not taking a minute of these for granted.
We leave in a bit more than an hour for Lunch Bunch. Today I’m taking gallon bags of spinach and lettuce from our garden to my friends. I absolutely love it when we have enough to be able to share with people who mean so much to me.
I’m hoping that one of my friends will have pictures of her new kitchen floor to share. She had a pipe burst during the last winter storm and it completely ruined her floor. Apparently a LOT of people had damage because she had to wait a long time for someone to be able to build a new one for her. I talked to her on the phone, though, and she said she was THRILLED with it.
I have some pics of our new carpet and new porch floor to share with my friends. It will be a LONG time before I get up to walk anywhere on the first floor of our house and fail to smile ear to ear. It’s such a pleasure to have things looking good. We’ve been opening our front and back doors to enjoy the weather in the afternoons. I can also see our new porch floor when we do that. And the carpet FEELS so good when you walk on it. :0)
Yesterday when we were going to get our mail and make a quick run to the grocery store, we couldn’t get our garage door to stay closed. It kept going down, then ‘bouncing’ off the bottom and going up again. Apparently the last big storm we had recently blew its mind. We ended up getting out the paperwork and reprogramming the remote that lives in the truck and the manual opener that lives outside the garage. Now it seems to be working fine.
Yesterday’s project bundle was threefold: 1) three loads of laundry, 2) put new sheets on our bed and change out the electric blanket for a summer velour one, and 3) change my clothes in my closet, putting winter stuff in the guest room closet and bringing summer stuff into my bedroom closet. I got most all of this accomplished yesterday. Today I’ll finish organizing my closet today, plus I’m promising myself to actually go through my stuff carefully, looking for things to donate.
I will also check my garden to see if I need to start the automatic watering again. We’ve been getting a lot of rain, so I turned the system off. We’re supposed to get more rain tomorrow night into Sunday…
We splurged last night, eating hot dogs and chips, with ice cream and fresh cut up strawberries for dessert. It’s been about a year since we did that last, so it tasted like Heaven. :0)
I hope that your Friday is wonderful. Enjoy every minute!
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