Tag Sale

It is a beautiful day for a tag sale. I decided that my basement was full of enough junk to have a sale. I went through all of the things I no longer want that might be good for someone else. As I did this,  I saw each phase of my life. Children's toys, college items, crafting, weight benches and my parent's antiques. If some items do not sell, I will throw them out. I do not want to put them back into my house. I need to downsize.

Down the Mountain

I finally feel like I am coming down the mountain and will see the other side soon. My husband is going back to work in a week. Last night, I took the last midnight drive to get his paycheck. My entire life has been turned upside down because he fell from a tree. I have had total responsibility for everything for 6 weeks. I have done my regular job, looked after my grandson and my husband. I have been a chauffeur for all that time at all hours of the day. I am tired.

No More Crutches

The doctor visit went well yesterday. The doctor said that my husband is healing well and can put away the crutches. I wanted to say that he put his crutches away three weeks ago. It goes to show you that someone can totally disregard medical advice and do everything that he was told not to do and still heal well. Crazy, right?

Check Up

Today my husband goes for a recheck on his broken foot. He feels better, but the foot still looks swollen. The doctor will ask questions that my husband will answer with lies. "Have you been staying off your feet?" The correct answer will be yes. The truth will be that he has been walking on his foot without crutches for the past 4 weeks. "Have you been icing the foot?". The correct answer will be yes. The truth is that he iced it two times and told me that it was too cold to do. My husband will play dumb when the doctor asks why the foot is so swollen. All I know is that I am telling the doctor to write a note saying my husband can return to work a week from Sunday. He is getting to used to being off.

Back To Work

The weekend was a long one and it seems like I have not been to work in ages. I am sure the topic of the day will be the wedding most of us attended on Sunday. The two women that had been fighting will see each other for the first time since the argument and they'd both better behave. If not, they will have to contend with me, and it will not be pleasant. At night, I lecture in Staten Island at a new library. That should be fun.

Memorial Day

It is another Memorial Day. The weather is sunny and cool and later on the scent of barbeques will be in the air. When I first moved into this neighborhood, over 30 years ago, I went to the town parade. We saw the WWll Veterans, the Korean War Veterans, the Jewish War Veterans and the Vietnam Veterans, all walking proudly on the parade route. I used to look for the veteran I named "General Patton" as he wore a helmet. Thirty years ago he must have been in late 60's, at least. Each year the veterans looked older and one by one they disappeared. The parade felt different, as our history was fading away. This year I do not think I will go. It will be too sad to see the older veterans missing.

A Wedding

This morning I am going to a wedding. One of my young doctor's is getting married. Last year at this time I did not even know her, but it seems like I know her forever. It is magnificent out so she will have her ceremony outdoors. She really only wanted a small intimate wedding, but the grooms family wanted a big wedding so she agreed. Her only stipulation was that as her main meal she could have a cheeseburger. The other guests could choose from prime rib, chicken or fish, but she would have a cheeseburger. That was an easy compromise.

Holiday Weekend

Today begins the unofficial summer season. It is Memorial Day weekend. The weather feels like Autumn, but the spirit feels like almost summer. It is a bit cloudy outside, but the weather people promise a beautiful Sunday and Monday. Let's see.

Referee

I was a referee yesterday at work. Two women, over 5o years old, had a fight. One was front staff and one was an extern. It almost came to blows. It was a typical "she said, she said", that got out of hand. I had to intervene by pulling rank and ordering them to stop shouting.  When they did not end it immediately, I had to throw the extern out of the office. The two women had been friends and I do not think that things between them will ever be the same. That's sad.

File Fallout

We are redecorating my office and trying to clean out the old papers. The goal is to have offices without clutter. I worked on a back room for weeks until it was clutter free and ready to have the furniture repositioned. I walked in yesterday and found 10 boxes of files dumped there. I questioned everyone until I found out who did that. The woman who put them there said my boss told her to. I called the boss and she said she never said that. It seems that the woman wanted her office clean so she took it upon herself to move things. I made an intern return the boxes to where they came from and locked the woman out of her office until I talk to her.

The Menu

Some days Shelby wants to eat his food. Some days he does not. He has to be coaxed. One day cheese will do it. One day chicken. One day hamburger. It only takes a tiny amount of these foods but the choice is his. Today I tried cheese. No. Then chicken. No. Then hamburger. Yes! I feel like a short order cook, but I love him.

All's Well

My lecture went very well last night. The demographics of the audience was not what I was expecting as the minimum age was about 75 years old. My topic was communication, focusing on texting. These women do not text, but I turned the lecture around to have the point of view about how they feel other people's texting is rude. They were interactive and enjoyed themselves. After I spoke, they all gathered around me to continue the evening. I had a wonderful time and met some really nice women.

Lecture

This evening I will be doing something a bit different. I will be the guest speaker at a Hadassah meeting. I am told there will be somewhere between 60 to 100 people. Eek! I usually do classes and workshops that have 20 attendees. I do not have stage fright but I feel a bit nervous. I have to talk for a half hour. Even though it is not a long time, when you are the only one speaking to a captive audience, it can seem long. I have memorized my speech because I do not want to look at cue cards. I want it to seem like it is a natural conversation. The topic is "Effective Communication".

Raring To Go

I woke up this morning to beautiful sunshine streaming through my bedroom window. Instantly I felt awake and energized. I jumped out of bed, got dressed and am ready for the day. I have nothing planned but I am sure something will pop up. Even if it is a walk around the neighborhood with my sister. Some days it just doesn't matter what you do, as long as you are out.

Beautiful Day

It is the most beautiful day today. Cool, crisp, clear and sunny. I had so many plans for the day, but my car sensor went off last night and it is in the shop. Now I have to figure out what I can do within walking distance. The supermarket around the corner closed so I can't go there for the few items I need. I will probably walk to the dollar store. I can always find something there.

Marathon

I am having a babysitting marathon. I watched my grandson yesterday afternoon for one hour. I then watched him at night for 4 hours. I went home and slept and got up early this morning so I can return to his house. Due to a change in my son's work schedule today, I will be watching the baby from 7am to 3pm. He is now sitting and crawling so it makes watching him more interesting. He is a real charmer.

The Chairs

We bought new chairs in work. We used to have one big chair and one small chair. We decided to get 2 large ones. I think they are too big. Every time someone needs to go to their mailbox, they crash into me. For some reason, no one can navigate the chair. It is big and comfy and when I sit in it I start to fall asleep. When I get up to get out of it, it glides across the floor. When this one wears out, I will go back to a small one.

Sneezy

It is allergy season. My nose feels like someone has stuck a feather up it and is swishing it back and forth. I am not the only one. Everyone I see has a tissue in their hand. This is the worst allergy season I can remember. I took a Benedryl last night and am still feeling drowsy. I hope the trees bloom quickly so the pollen will go away.

Coming Along

My husband went for his 2 week check up on his broken foot. The doctor said he is healing well but still needs to be off of his foot. Since the first week after he had his accident, he has not stayed off of his foot. He keeps bearing his weight on it. The doctor saw this yesterday and told him to bend his knee when he uses the crutches. My husband said he can't. The doctor said," You can't or you won't?" They debated this for a few minutes and I told the doctor that there was no way he was winning this argument. He looked at me and then gave up. He is slowly learning how stubborn my husband is.

Brain Power

I saw my 2 year old niece yesterday. I had seen her two weeks ago, but that was at her birthday party. This time it was in a smaller group. She is a soft spoken little girl and when she was sitting in a play car we decided to ask he questions to see how she would respond. She knew her name, where she lives and every person at the party. She knew every animal and the sounds they make. Not just dogs and cows. She knew owls and monkeys also. She not only knew the words to about 20 songs, she also sang the tunes....on key! It was mind boggling to think how much information her 2 year old mind had stored in it.

Happy Mother's Day

I had the nicest Mother's Day. I spent it with 4 generations of my family. My parents, my sister, our children and our grandchildren. We ate great food and spent the afternoon in the backyard watching the babies play. The desserts were the best assortment of homemade treats and we are still on a sugar high. It was such a pleasant day and we have the pictures to show for it.

Unlikely Friends

Friendship comes in all sizes. It transcends age, religion and social background. A few years ago, I met a young doctor who is my younger son's age. We met at a time in her life when she needed a shoulder to cry on. In her professional life, she needed to be the strong, sensible person, but in her personal life she needed to have someone she could get unconditional support from. I became that person. Sometimes I feel like my shoulders are made of Kleenex, because they always become the ones to cry on. That is okay though, because that is what a good friend is for. I stuck with her through her hard times and she became one of the closest friends I have. I am glad I weathered the storm with her, because when the clouds parted there was a beautiful rainbow at the other end.

Don't Come Knocking

For some reason, in the past week, I have had a few solicitors knocking at my door. I think they are political volunteers canvassing the neighborhood. I never open my door to anyone that I do not know. I do not care if you are wearing an ID badge around your neck. For all I know it could have a picture of Mickey Mouse on it. I cannot see it from behind my peephole and if I open my door to look, at that point it doesn't really matter. If I do not answer the door in one minute, please leave my stoop. That means you are not welcome.

Slow Morning

I am off schedule this morning. By now I am usually on the road. It takes me about 20 minutes to get ready for work. It took everything else longer. Shelby wanted to stroll around the yard. He then wanted to eat slowly and savor his food. My contact lens turned itself inside out, so there went more time. The internet was slow opening. More time lost. I like things to go at my speed. Today they did not.

Taking a Walk

My parents are back from Florida but their car is still en route. It will arrive by tomorrow. It was a beautiful day out yesterday, and they decided to go for a walk. They called me at work to say that they were going. My first thought was "why". I gave them instructions as if they were 2 years old. Hold hands. Look both ways when you cross, even on a one way street. Be careful as the streets may be uneven. They took their walk and even went further than I had "authorized". They had a fun day.

Baby Steps

Little by little things are turning back to some sort of normalcy. You do not realize how a slight change can affect life. When my husband first broke his foot, nothing was easy. We needed to devise a plan for everything. As each day passes, he is able to do more and we need to adjust less. For the past two weeks, when he went to sleep, he was not able to shut the den light. I had to do it in the morning. Today when I came downstairs, the light was off. Even though it seems like a small thing, to me it is huge.

Home Again

My parents are back home. They are on summer break from Florida. Their trip went well. Everything fell into place and it was easy. The plane was on time and they met us exactly where we had planned. Everything that they had shut down in their house turned back on. Now they just have to adjust to New York living again.

Sit Down

Last night I went to a concert to celebrate my anniversary. While most of the audience was older, some teenagers were there also. Midway through the show they decided to stand up and sway with the music. They blocked everyone's vision. Their mother did not have the common sense to tell them to sit down. They were 2 rows ahead of me so I was not close enough to tell them. After a few minutes they finally sat down. If I had a straw I would have blown paper into the back of their heads to give them a hint. I was wondering to myself if they had any sense of other people. Did they realize that if you are sitting ahead of someone and stand up, that you will block their vision. If it was my child, they would have been told to sit down in one minute.

City Day

This morning I am off to Manhattan for a lecture. I will be speaking about self awareness. It is a beautiful day and just walking in the city will be wonderful.

Night Rider

I am getting to the age where driving at night is not as easy as it used to be. If I have to go somewhere it is local, so I am fine. Since my husband is still unable to drive, I am the chauffeur. He works nights and payday was last night. After a long day of getting up at 6am, working until 2pm, babysitting until 10pm, he wanted me to drive him 70 miles round trip to get his check and say hello to his work friends. Being the kind person I am, we went. Everyone was glad to see him and he enjoyed being back at work, if only for one hour. I got to and from his workplace on a wing and a prayer, going no more than 50 miles per hour. When push comes to shove, we all do what is necessary to keep a happy home.

1100

Today this blog has 1100 entries. Except for two days during a hurricane, I have written something every morning. Sometimes it is just a few lines and other times it is a short story. When I arise each morning, I think about what I am going to write. Sometimes I have a blank mind. Then I review what happened the day before. There is always a bit of information that I can turn into a blog. My original thought was to write this blog for one year and stop on the anniversary day. I just couldn't stop though. So here I am, every morning at approximately 6:45am, typing away.