Mid-Week

Almost done with this month--already.  Too bad, I've always liked June better than July.  July is when it normally gets hot around here--well for a few days in a row anyway.

I had to run down to Brighton today--had to get inkjet refills.  No adventures on the way into town, but on the way home, when I got back on the 4 lane road, 50mph speed limit--I was doing 53 and in my rear-view mirror, I could see a pick-up truck weaving in and out of traffic, like he was in a big hurry.

He couldn't seem to make any headway.  He finally settled in behind me, nearly kissing my bumper, then turned left into the 2/42 church.  I don't know if he a church-goer or not, because he sure drove like he was hell bent!

Then a mile ahead, as I got into the left turn lane to turn into my Park, there was a guy, in an electric wheel-chair trying to get across 4 lanes on our busy road.  4:30 in the afternoon, when traffic is heavy and there he is--trying to get to the other side of the road.  The oncoming traffic cleared a bit, I turned in and saw him scoot to the middle lane.  I have no idea if he made it, but I didn't hear any sirens later.
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All my kids and grandchildren and great grand daughter are up at Mark and Karen's cottage.  Jennifer was in hospital over last weekend with meningitis, but she and her family managed the 12 hours trip to get up north.

Which makes me feel pitified once again.  On their way up north, they drive on the expressway that is about 4 miles from my home.  Wouldn't it have been nice if they had swung by, for a potty break, and so I could have seen my 4 youngest grand children, that I haven't seen in 18 months?  15 minutes is all I would require.  Time for a hug and a "Do any of you need a bottle of cold water?"  Bye.

That would make me happy for the next year!

Monday and Monday stuff.

I have an adventure every time I drive out of this park. Today I had to get some cat food and Pepsi and Milk and had a birthday GC for Meijer, so I headed into Brighton. 

I was in the right lane, going about 48 in a 50mph speed zone and out from the Community Bible Church comes an old guy in his car. I had to not only brake quickly, but had to stand on them for a minute because, after he got on the road, he continued on at 35mph--down a mile to turn off into the 2/42 church.

I figured God must be his co-pilot because I almost sent that old guy to the Beulah Land Hotel!!

Did my thing at Meijer and then stood in line 25 minutes at the check-out. Even with 452 thousand Self Check-out lanes, which were all being used, there are some old people like me that like to go through the regular check-out lane. 

The lady behind me and I conversed on how we keep saying we are never coming back to this store to shop, but..............she usually shops at Kroger, she was only at Meijer because her favorite ice cream was on sale. She told me that she just returned from driving up north for the weekend.  Her daughter didn't want her too, but she did.  The town she visited is about 250 miles from here.  The lady is 87!  

I was there, instead of the Howell Meijer because I had to go to the Meijer gas station and the Howell Meijer doesn't have one. That poor kid at the gas station, busy time of day and he's working all alone and had a line that went clear back to the coolers! 

Too bad they can't keep their employees at that store--guess it might be bad management? NEVER AGAIN!!!
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It has been nice and cool here.  Daily temps in the mid 60's, nighttime temps in the 50's.  I admit, I turned on the furnace this morning to take the chill off.

I woke up to the sound of a riding lawn mower.  I thought it was my lawn mowing guy Don, but it was my nutzy-cuckoo neighbor who lives behind me.  I looked out and saw her going round and round, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts.

A couple of minutes later, my lawn mowing guy showed up.  He had on a sweatshirt!

I looked at the outside temperature.  It was 59 degrees!  She never has been the brightest bulb in the package!
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I was feeling a bit pitified this morning.  Tears were very close to the surface--which is nutz because I never cry!

Karen hasn't called me since they got back home from their trip last Wednesday.  No birthday card from her either, which has got to be the first time in my life.

Yeah--she's busy.  Apparently there is not 15 minutes in her day to call her Mom.

My kids have a text group thingie on their phone.  When one of them wants to text, they hit one button, type in the text and it automatically goes to everyone in that group.  Kind of like a group e-mail.

I do not have a cell phone, so I am not in the group.  I miss out on all the news.  I have often asked if it is family news, could the "textor" just send me an e-mail.  "Oh sure, Mom."  Never happens.

When I hear one of them say, "I got your text and laughed 'til I cried," or something like that, I feel pretty left out.  

It gets pretty lonely here and feeling left out of the family doings, was the reason I felt pitified.  BUT--there is nothing I can do about it, I guess.

Perhaps I should start a campaign of my own.  Make a note on my calendar and call Karen one week and Pam the next and send Jennifer an e-mail the next and include my sister in there with a phone call or a visit every couple of weeks.  

This 'N That and Nothing in Partticular

Finally--no lightning, or thunder, just a nice full down-pour.  I think I hear my flowers singing.

https://youtu.be/d5gOgqJdKvk

 A birthday card from my only nephew. 

Adam Charles--I have always called him Adam Chuckie and he has hated that since he was 13. 
So I quit.  HAH

The color of my pedicure polish.  Never worn this color before.

This guy stopped by after the rain.

Now, don't be telling me it was Fred's spirit come to visit.  It was merely a hungry Cardinal coming in to my newly filled bird feeders.   Followed shortly by this Grosbeak.

I like the looks of the rest of my June calendar.  Not a thing to do for the next week.  Of course, there will be a food or Pepsi run, but no definite places to go or things to do.

Which will leave me lots of time for this

and this--------

Summer Solstice

The summer solstice started early for me--I wanted to enjoy as many of the long daylight hours I could!  The weather was perfect!  Sunny, 74 degrees, low humidity, with a slight breeze.

You see, the First Day of Summer, the longest day of the year, is the day I was born!  

It was also my cousins 6th birthday, which she has informed me, over these last 78 years, I completely ruined for her.

She was my Grandmother's niece and her namesake.  My Grandmother doted on her and then....my Grandmother had to miss her birthday because....Grandma was waiting for me.  When I was born, the nurse (my mother's sister), took me and handed me to my Grandma.  Grandma said, "My precious baby!" and that's how it was until she died.

Sure, my Grandma had a huge capacity to love and she loved my cousin, but I took up a lot of her time and well..............................as I have told my cousin over and over, "It's not my fault!  I was supposed to be born the end of May!"

My cousin and I on our birthday--I was 1, she was 7.

My sister Susan and daughter Pam drove down from Byron, about 4:00, and brought Subway sandwiches.  This is my favorite way to celebrate.  I would much rather eat in than go to a restaurant.  That way, we set up our TV tables and ate and talked and laughed loudly and hooted and laughed some more.  Can't do that in a restaurant.

I had cleaned my earrings the night before and with my hand tremors, I couldn't get them back in my ears.  So Susan did that for me, although she had to sit down because it made her knees weak.

Then Pammie helped me fix the toilet flush handle, which I had worked on for two days, but again, with the hand tremors could not get the wire I had to connect from the handle to the chain.

Then we went outside.  I asked Pammie if she would paint my toenails, because, with the hand tremors, it is impossible for me to do it and keep the polish only on the nails and not all over the toes.

Then we went back inside for cake and a wish.  What to wish for?  At my age, I wished for a few more years.  LOL

They left at about 8:00.  Pam had worked all day and had to get up at 4:00, this morning.

I found out at 8:30 that daughter Karen and her hubs had arrived back safely from their 3 week vacation in  Alaska.  It was a perfect day!
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One of the neat things about Face Book?  When it is your birthday, a notice appears at the top of the page, so all most of your friends wish you a Happy Birthday.  I had over 100 wishes--where else can you get that?  HAH!

Weather Break

Ah-hh!  The joy, the bliss, the pure sublimeness of cooler temps and having windows and doors open.  Last night it almost felt cold.

 Note: Sublimeness is not a valid word.

We have had rainstorms predicted all weekend and all today.  I see the dark clouds and hear the distant thunder, but about 3 miles before they get here, the separate--one storm going north-east (over Howell) and one going south-east (over Brighton).  We got sprinkles--twice today.  So--I went out and watered all my flowers.  Now the dark clouds are coming in again.

While I was watering, I found a sweet Cardinal feather under the bird feeders.  It will go in my  Anasazi Indian bowl with the rest of my collection.

I cut off my stray out growing branches off my Forsythia and Wegelia bushes and up the trunk of my Maple trees.  Stuffed them in a yard waste bag for pick-up tomorrow.

I really need to tear apart my little front garden this fall.  All the Iris need to be spread out, perhaps in their own bed and almost all of the Lilies need to be divided and replanted.  Sounds like a big job, but I know I can do it over a period of a week.  I say this now, who knows what September and October will bring.

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Karen is posting photos on FB from Alaska.  They are there for three weeks.  Their second child, Susanna, who lives in Oregon, does a lot of advertising and marketing work for New Balance shoes and just happens to have a boyfriend who lives in Alaska, so she went with her parents for a couple of weeks.  They sure are seeing some splendor up there.

My hubs and the kids and I were going to drive up through British Columbia and up the ALCAN highway to visit Alaska--that was back in 1970.  We had the camper and the plans and then my Mother died and a year later Jennifer was born, so we never made it.

You might remember me posting that at grand daughter's wedding, he and I were talking about our missed Alaska trip and how we still would like to go there.  He can't drive and I certainly couldn't drive that far, but his wife drives--everywhere.  So I told him, we'd throw our stuff in the back of their van.  He could stretch out in the back seat and I'd sit up in front and chat with Diane while she drove us to Alaska.  HAH!

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I had to run down to Brighton this morning and got into an insane construction fiasco.  It is 4 miles to the Meijer store.  It took me 30 minutes.  The back-up started just about 1.5 miles up the road.  When I got into town I could see what was happening.  They were moving the right lane over into the left.  A few yards ahead they were merging the left lane over into the center lane.  So now they had two lanes of very heavy traffic all in one lane in the center left turn lane.

All during this time, traffic was exiting from the Super Highway.  We were very orderly, letting one car in off the expressway in front of us, then the car behind me would let one in and so it proceeded.  Drivers in this area are nothing if not polite.  When I got about a block from the merging insanity, I turned right and scampered up a couple of streets and basically took a back alley way to Meijer.  I was not the only one.  HAH.  When I got out of there, I took the back way home--out into the country and down a road just west of me 1/2 mile and home. It took me 17 minutes to get home from Meijer.

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Now I am finishing up laundry and working on the latest genealogy book.

OOOH--I hear thunder.  Maybe we'll get lucky this time?

Nope, it's going south east.  DRATS!!!!!!!!!

Broken down old woman.................................

I looked at the weather map radar this morning and there, to the west, was a beautiful big blob of green that looked like it would be right over me at about noon.  Sure enough, as I ran out to get the mail, I could feel the sprinkles.

....and that's all we got.  Not enough sprinkles to even make the street look wet. As sometimes happens, part of the storm split and went north-east and part of it went south of Brighton.  So, after lunch, I went out and watered all my annuals.  I'm not real good about watering.  I never water my perennial gardens as they have long, strong roots that will find deep water.  I do tend to forget the annuals on my porch and even with a nice rain, some of them are protected under the porch roof.

Well, now I see another bigger blob of green headed this way about about 10:00 tonight.So I am hoping.  It has been so hot-90- and dry here for the last few days, we need the rain and more normal cool weather.  It feels like July and it's only mid-June.
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When I woke up this morning, I remembered.  It is my anniversary.  I was married at 7:00 pm, 60 years ago.  I remember it all so well.  

and our best friends

Arlene and her fiance' Dick.

We had a lot of good years------------

...but four years after this happy family scene, if was over.  Such is life.

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I have such terrible looking hands--especially my right hand.

Age spots--arthritis bumps, red bruised spots.

They look like my great grandma's did when she was 90!!!  Now I am starting to have worse Carpal Tunnel Syndrome problems.  Both of my thumbs go numb and sometimes I get, not an ache, but such a pain in the back of my hands.  I can pull the skin up over my knuckles and it stays there.  I used to do that with my grandma's hands and think it was so funny.  I don't think it's so funny now!

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One day, in mid-August,I was about 14, I was helping my Daddy and the hired men, fill the cement silo with chopped corn.  I was about 2/3 up in the tall structure.  It was a hot day and it was a steam room in that silo.  It was my job to hold the funnel by a rope and walk around and around, keeping the incoming corn level and tamping it down as I walked.

I started getting real dizzy and felt faint.  I decided I had to get out of that silo.  It was a long climb down those rungs to the ground.  I remember shaking my head to clear it and felt like I was just going to stumble and fall down.  All I could see was the house and I had to get to it and lay down.

I heard my Daddy yell, "Hey!  Get back up in there!"  I could feel him pelting me with little stones he had grabbed up from the gravel barn yard.  I couldn't turn and tell him what was wrong.  I had to keep walking.

My mother must have heard him yelling because she came to the back door and opened it up.  Closer and closer I got--my eyes only on my mother until I collapsed and fainted into her arms.

I came too the next morning.  I was naked between two nice cool sheets.  A fan blew cool air across the big metal dish pan, filled with ice.  My grandma was wiping my face with a cool, wet wash cloth.  She had been with me all night as I went in and out of hallucinations.

The country doc had been called and came out and claimed I had a heat stroke.  They had put me into the bath tub with tepid water and gradually added cooler and cooler water and then placed me in my bed.

I was in bed for 3 days.  The thermometer in my mouth every couple of hours to check my body temperature.

Ever since then, being outside in the heat and humidity make me sick.   Once, I was visiting a friend in Florida and decided to mow his lawn.  It was August.  I ended up collapsed on his living room floor with the A/C blowing directly on me.   I shoulda known better!

Now you know why I prefer fall and winter to summer.  I cannot bear the suffocating heat and humidity. 

What's it all about..............?

Flo asked:  7 guys, 9 gals from my graduating class of 36 people, have taken their final journey.
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It turned from nice cool days and a night cold enough for the furnace to come on, to sweltering, humid and the first of the A/C running day and night. Thankfully, when it was checked last month, I was told the Freon pressure in the A/C was at maximum pressure, so I am counting on it not to die this summer.  I always wonder what might go wrong with this 20 year old equipment.

I called Pam Saturday morning and her phone was busy.  When I hung up, mine rang and it was her, calling me.  We commented on how "great minds think alike."  She filled me in on what Karen and her hubs are doing on their 3-week jaunt to Alaska.  Karen messages everybody or texts them, but because I don't have a cell phone, I am left out of the loop.  Can't you send an e-mail message from a smart phone?  I think so.

Pam said that (my son) Mark is doing well.  Out walking every day because the doc told him to get some weight off, which Mark replied, "How do you expect to get the weight off when you got me on steroids?"  His cancer is still at bay, so that's all I'm concerned about.

I asked when Karen is coming home and Pam said she thought June 25th.  Then all the siblings are going up to Karen's cottage on June 27th for their get together.

Hm-mm, I thought to myself.  My birthday falls on the 21st.  Apparently there will be no get together for their Mother this month.  If they are going up to the cottage, that means Jennifer will be in town.  I wonder if she will find time to stop over for a 20 minute chat?  

Doubtful.

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I was always so close to my kids, even after they got married and moved, I never dreamed that it would come to this.  Karen and Jen begged me to move "down here" instead of my hometown, when I had to move from Saginaw.  They wanted me near to help baby-sit and be able to attend all the grand kids functions--which I did and still do when grand daughter Maddie has a ballet performance.  Other than that, I might as well be dead!!

Plus, Jennifer moved and took the four youngest with her.  All four now in school and all their activities--that I could be going to and enjoying.

So--what to do?  It didn't help to tell them I was lonely for them and felt left out.  A temper tantrum also didn't help.  

I don't understand any of it.  Not a week went by that no matter what, I visited my Mother and my Grandma.  Even when I lived a 100 miles round trip away and my Dad was always critical, I still visited him once a month--no matter what.  So I don't understand why, when I have always been supportive of them and kind and loving and financially helpful, they forget who I am and where I live.

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Oh well.  Maybe if I had more health issues, they would check-in more often?  But who wants that excuse?  I guess I should be glad they don't worry about me.  But I tell you the truth, and it sometimes scares me, I could lay her dead for a week plus before anyone would notice and that one that might notice, might be Dar.  HAH!!

Or you my blog buddies might wonder why I hadn't posted in a week, but what could you do?

What's it all about and why am I still here?