A New Adventure

Yesterday was the 2nd Thursday of the month, and thus, lunch with the Old School Gal Pals.

On my way to Durand to meet friends for lunch, I turned off Oak Grove road onto Beard and up to New Lothrop Road.  A 4-way stop sign there that I kind of looked both ways and rolled through and turned right.  This is my home turf.  These are roads I have ridden/driven on for 78 years.  I know them, so I may have become too casual in how I drive them.

On up to Bath and New Lothrop--another 4-way stop sign.  Someone had recently planted purple and gold mums, the school colors, in front of the Byron Village sign, in time for the Homecoming Football game today.  I said to myself, "Oh--that is so great!" I may have "idled" through. No traffic coming from either way. I think I stopped, after all I noticed and looked at the flowers, but……………

I got about an eighth of a mile when I noticed in my rear-view mirror a small, dark car behind me with flashing lights.  I thought at first it was the mail delivery car, but noticed it was going kind of fast. I decided I’d better pull over to let him get by.  It took me a few yards to find a place on the shoulder that was wide enough for me to pull over.  The car didn’t go by me, he pulled in behind me.  Oh My Gosh!  It must be a cop!

I put my flasher’s on, cranked down my window and watched as he walked up real slowly and cautious like to my window.  I decided I’d better put my hands on the steering wheel, where he could see them.

“Ma’am, I’m Shiawassee County Deputy Lawson.  Do you know why I stopped you?”

“I think so.  I didn’t make a full stop at New Lothrop and Beard Road.”

“That’s where I first picked you up.  (I'm, pretty good at spotting a "bear on the side", but I never saw him.) You also didn’t come to a complete, full stop at New Lothrop and Bath either.”

I wanted to argue a bit about that stop, after all, I saw the flowers and looked for traffic, but he was wearing a gun on his hip and had a taser at his belt, so I kept my mouth shut.

“Do you have a driver’s license, Ma’am?”

I handed it to him.

“You’re from Brighton?  Are you familiar with this area?”

“Yes.  I lived on Beard Road most of my life. Went to school here.  ”

“Where are you going today?”

“The girls I graduated with from Byron High School, sixty years ago…we get together every month for lunch.  Today we are meeting in Durand.”

“Where are you meeting?”

“At the Iron Horse Pub.”

“Oh, they have pretty good food there,” he says.

He goes on, “Do you think you deserve this ticket?”

“Yes, Sir.  I didn’t make a full stop…that is illegal, so…yes I deserve the ticket.  I don’t know how this works though.  Do I have to appear in court in Corunna (dreading the 50 mile trip to the County Court House)to pay the fine, or can I mail it in?  Oh, don't you need my registration and proof of insurance too?”

He never took my license back to sit in his car and check it out.

“Nope, I won't need those. You’ve never had a ticket before.”

“No Sir.  I’ve been driving 62 years and I’ve never even been stopped.  I’ve never had an accident, where I was at fault.  I’ve never even had a parking ticket.  So I don’t know how to go about paying this.”

Then he says, “Well, maybe you won’t have to. Are you a Godly woman?”  Which I guess was an unusual question, but I didn’t think so at the time.  Nice young man.  I'm near my hometown.  That might be a normal question.

“Yes, Sir.  I pray at night and in the morning and during the day.  I trust that God is always with me, keeping me safe. I talk to him all day.”

“If you would please, promise to pray for my safety every night.  Please pray for Deputy Lawson—spelled L.A.W.S.O.N.”

“Well, of course I will.”  And he handed my license back to me.

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Business over I said to him, “Do you know Bill Bohman?” (This is a friend I have known since he was a little kid.  He was a County Sheriff Deputy too, long since retired.)

“Sure I do.  I love Billy, Ryan, Brenda…the whole family.  How do you know Billy.”

“When he was a kid, he lived right up here on Lehring Road, I pointed up to the next cross road, next to my in-laws.  After my divorce, when my daughter and I were living alone, out in the country, on Beard Road and Bill was on patrol, he used to go past our house to make sure we were okay.  If it was night time, he’d slow down and shine the car spot-light in through the big living room windows and I’d wave.”

“Well, that’s why you and I met today.  The County Sheriff Department are now back…patrolling these rural areas again."

"Oh!  I am so glad!  I had a break-in once and it took the Deputy forty-five minutes to get to us.  They didn't have the patrols then.

"We started doing it back in January.  Our new Sheriff reinstated it again."

"Oh, Brian?"

"You know Brian too?"

"Well, not in person, but he was at my sister and brother-in-laws sale and bought the old cook stove and old heater from them for his new house."

"I've seen them both.  Rather remarkable old antiques."

"Yes."

"Now when you see Billy, you tell him I said “Hi”.

"I probably won't see him, but he's on Face Book and I'll tell him you sent your regards."

"How are you going to explain how we met?" he asked.

"Guess I'll have to tell him the truth.  He will get a chuckle outta it for sure!"

So—that’s how I met the gracious Deputy Lawson.  I so wanted to give him a grandma hug, such a handsome, sweet young man, but you know—the gun and taser—I decided not to make any quick moves.

==============

So I contacted Bill on Face Book when I got home.  He told me I had met the famous Craig Lawson of the Lawson Brother's Christian Band group.

Then this morning, a friend posted this:

Deputy Craig Lawson was assigned to the Secondary Road Patrol at the beginning of the year and has strived to make the roads in Shiawassee County safe for all of us. On Thursday Deputy Lawson took a few minutes off from traffic enforcement near Laingsburg High School to recruit our newest member-Deputy Evan.

It is my pleasure to inform you that Deputy Lawson was selected as the State of Michigan's Secondary Road Patrol Deputy of the year by The Office of Highway Safety and Planning and The Michigan Sheriff Association. Deputy Lawson will be presented the award at the MSA conference next month in Traverse City.

Thank you for your hard work and dedication Deputy Lawson.

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What a wonderful experience, that seemed kind of intimidating at first, but turned out to be one of the best of my last few years.

You bet I will pray for him each day!!!

High Cotton

Way back, near the first of August, I received a letter, notifying me that I would have my DHS (Department of Health and Services) in other words, "welfare", re-determination, via a telephone call on Tuesday, Sept 5, between 8:00am and noon.

In the meantime, I had to gather all my "documents", i.e., proofs of income, assets and expenses--the ones that count for welfare.  Rent, utilities, that sort of expense.

I had about 15 pieces of proofs that I mailed back on August 21st, a whole week before the due date.

On Sept. 5th, I got up at 7:30, just so I would be awake and alert by 8:00, when my case worker might call.

I didn't leave the house all day--not even to walk across the street to get my mail.  I carried my phone with me when I had to go to the bathroom.

There was no call.

I stayed at home the next day, thinking maybe my case worker got overloaded on Tuesday and would call.

There was no call.

--------------------------

This past Friday, I got a notice in the mail that because I had "missed my re-determination interview," I would have to call and reschedule or I would lose my benefits.

I called my case worker right then and of course it went to her voice mail.  I left my message and waited.

Monday morning, I decided to call again and leave another message.  I was shocked when she actually answered the phone!!!

I explained that I didn't know how we had missed connecting on Tuesday, as I had stayed home and by the phone all day.

She said, "I didn't call.  I didn't have your paperwork yet."

"Oh....I got a notice in the mail that I might lose my benefits because I had missed your call."

"That notice is automatically generated if I don't note, on your file that I have called you."

In other words, "you could care less than one shit that you struck panic and fear in the heart of an old woman?" 

NO!  I didn't say that.

"We can do your interview right now," she said.

All she did was ask me questions that were on my proofs.  Like, "Is your income still Social Security?"  "Is your rent still.....?"  She had the signed proof from the park office as to how much rent I pay, right in front of her.  Did she think it had changed in two weeks?  Perhaps.

Our interview took exactly 7 minutes.  "You'll get a notice in the mail on whether you will still receive the benefits."

So--"why don't you take those benefits and just shove them in a file where the sun don't shine."

NO!  I did not say that.  I said, "Thank you so much."

Sure is a heck of a lot of time and stress just to get $23.00 in food assistance and I know darn well, my food assistance will drop to $15.00--I just know it.

But, I have to play this game because DHS also pays my $104.00 a month Medicare, so it doesn't come out of my Social Security.   

I get 900.00 a month for Social Security, so if they took that 104.00 away-----I don't know what I'd do.  My budget is always in the red with the help.

====================

I remember the day when I'd walk into the grocery store and buy all our family needed, write a check and think nothing of it.

I remember, growing up with nary a worry about money.

I remember the days when I sponsored a child in Mexico for $50.00 a month and sent extra clothes and things twice a year, and never gave it a thought.

I remember when I could tithe 10% of my income to my church, and never gave it a thought.

Golf memberships, bowling leagues, new cars every 3 years, college tuition for the kids.  No hardships, financially, at all.

I can remember, looking down my nose, at people on welfare.  The woman I saw in the grocery check-out lane with a passel of kids, whipping out her food stamps and tearing off whatever amount was needed.  I was sure she was trash!

Then the divorce.  Having to give up his nice GM pension and free insurance.  Five years later, having to give up my house.  Having to go to work for $5.00 an hour.

Ya know--that was 32 years ago.  I have lived in poverty more than I lived in comfort--and I still can't get used to the fact.  I am embarrassed by it all!

My grand parents, my family--we used to be the ones to help others and now...I've got my hand out?  It has destroyed my pride--which, in the long run, according to the Bible, is a good thing.

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I heard a rumor last week that President Trump wants to raise all poverty stricken seniors Social Security to $1,300.00 a month.  I doubt that will happen, it seems to me that the Democrats would like that, they like social programs.  Just think!  $1,300.00?  Man, I would be living in  high cotton!

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So thankful I don't live in a hurricane/flood/wild fire/earthquake zone!!

I await my re-determination results.

There's going to be a morning after-------

I got to use my new Black & Decker, corded, 17" hedge trimmers today! You know.  The ones I bought in July and have been sitting by my front door ever since.

I have so much gardening work to go and less then zero gumption to do it.

Why?  Because I know it is going to hurt!!!

The four Privet bushes on the east side of my house, had major ice damage, the winter of 2013.  That spring, 2014, they barely grew at all.  I thought they had died.  But, instead of having them pulled out, I had my BIL Chuck, come down and cut them off at ground level.

That fall, they started coming back.

Last spring and summer they grew even more and looked healthy.  This summer, one, the scrawniest one of the bunch looks the healthiest and had grown up to the bottom of my window and a few branches taller than that, brushing the screen.

What normally would take 20 minutes, took me an hour.  I could only hold the trimmer and cut for a few minutes before my back started screaming.  So, I got my folding canvas chair out of the trunk of my car and hauled it over to where I was working.

I trimmed the top and sat down to rest.  Then trimmed the back and both sides and sat down.  Then trimmed the front, hauled the chair and trimmer down to the next bush and sat and rested.  This routine x 4 bushes.

I hung up my trimmer in my shed and threw the long electrical cord in the wheelbarrow.  No, I didn't coil is up around my arm and hang it up because I will be using it again--maybe tomorrow.

I got the rake and a yard waste bag and swept up the branches from one bush, sat in my chair and put the branches in the yard waste bag--x 4 bushes.  That way I didn't have to bend over and pick them up from the lawn.

HEY!!!  You know me--where there is a will, I will figure out a way!  HAH!

======================

I found it curious that a Rose of Sharon was growing up the middle of one of the Privet bushes.  How that seed got from the west side of my house to the east, is beyond me.  You know darn well, if you wanted to grow a Rose of Sharon and planted a sucker, the dang thing would die before the next blooming season.  This capricious little seed pod, wasn't planted or cared for and was growing 5 feet tall already--and she wasn't there last year.

=================

 I sat in my recliner all day Sunday and watched the coverage of Irma--all day!!  Switching back and forth from The Weather Channel to FOX news, then CNN, to see who had the best, latest coverage.

By 10:00, I thought my head would explode!!!  Information overload!!!  Of course, as soon as I woke up this morning, I had the TV back on.  

I was kind of worried about my ex hubs and his sister--both family's have small manufactured homes that they winter in.  They are inland, but I was worried about the winds and/or a tornado.  His wife had mentioned at one time, that their trailer is "tied" down with large metal chain links into the cement slab.

I said, "Well mine is too.  So if a tornado comes along, the frame of your house will stay connected to the cement slab, but the rest will be destroyed."

Like I keep telling you, most of Florida is just a swamp, covered over with tons and tons of dirt so investors can build communities on top.  It's still a swamp underneath and when you get lots of water, you can get sink holes and when you get wind, you can get destruction.

===============

I was/am worried most about Jacksonville.  Although it wasn't going to take a direct hit, I was worried about the storm surge coming up the river and into town--which it has done.  

and--was it fascinating to see the ocean being driven way out.  In one place, the edge of the ocean was 1/4 of a mile from from where it normally met land.  Almost be like a mini-Tsunami when it came back in.  Weird.

==============

Well, selfish person that I am, I was just thinking how great the shelling will be at Sanibel or Captiva, today and tomorrow.

I got my one chore done, so tonight I am going to sit in my recliner, cross stitch and watch American Nija Warrior show.  I find it most interesting.

Clean and Green

I've always loved living in Michigan.  I have NO desire to winter in Florida or Arizona, like some of my friends.  The longer I live, the happier I am that I live in the Mitten State--surrounded by 5 Great Lakes--4 of them filled with nice, clean water. We won't discuss Lake Erie at this time. HAH.

Sure we get an occasional tornado--quite rare actually, but it only effects a small area.  We don't have hurricanes and unlike what Bernie Sanders replied to one of our State congressman, where he said, "Texas today, Vermont tomorrow, even Michigan," I seriously doubt we will EVER have a hurricane.

Sure we might have a snowfall of 12 inches in a 24 hour period, but before it stops snowing, snow plow trucks and salt trucks are out on the highways and the roads.  Snow plow company's are out, clearing people's driveways, shopping malls parking lots--it's all very manageable.  Not  like what they get in Upstate New York or the NorthEast.

No Nor'Easters here.  No earth quakes--well there was one in Ohio about 25 years ago that some of us felt, must have been all of a 1.2.

Perhaps a small wild-fire in one of the northern forests, but quickly quenched--it is much too green in the Upper Peninsula for anything to burn very long AND we do respect Smokey the Bear and drench our camp fires and would never think of setting off fireworks in the woods!    

Occasional flooding--down in Detroit, where the concrete highway runs low, near lake level--in the underpasses.  It doesn't last for too long. 

Our elevation here is 925 feet.  In Saginaw, where I used to live, it was 584'.  When the great glacier plowed its way south, the deepest part was in the Saginaw Valley Basin.  Around Brighton, where I now live, was the edge of the glacier, where the dirt was pushed up, not as deep a trough.  Everybody in Saginaw, including me, had sinus problems.  My Doc there called it the "Saginaw Nasal Basin".  I haven't had those problems since I moved. 

Wouldn't I love to live in Nag's Head, North Carolina--on the Outer Banks?  Yes. Yes. Yes!!!  BUT, in my opinion, if one is dumb enough to build on a flood plain or at sea level, one must know that at certain times, one will lose everything they own from a hurricane and flooding.

Which makes me wonder.  If you have lost your everything, every few years...how many times will the government help you to rebuild in the same spot? 

Don't live where there is so much concrete there is no place for the rain to drain too.  I would advise anyone I know, not to live in Southern Florida.  It was a swamp to begin with.  Just because contractors brought in tons and tons of soil and built on top of it--that swamp is underneath and sink-holes can occur and--well--hurricanes do occur in the area, with frustrating regularity.

Oh--I guess you can't help where you live.  Usually you were birthed there and stayed or moved there for some other reason.

I'm just so glad I live here, where the clean air comes down from Manitoba or Alberta, sweeps across upper Minnesota, across mid-Wisconsin, across the clean waters of Lake Michigan and cleans all the pollution out of the upper and this part of our Mitten, and sends it down to Detroit--where it belongs. HAH!

I feel quite confident, says the Ostrich in me, if the North Korean maniac sends a nuclear missile into Washington/Oregon, the air will be clean by the time is reaches me.  
(Sorry JB, Kathleen and Dianne).

Dang Government

Oh great, I guess the worry over hurricane Harvey is over and now the snarkiness about DACA starts on Face Book.

The President did not declare it null and void today--he passed it to Congress to figure out.  Wouldn't that be a major miracle if Congress did what they are getting paid to do?

In the first place, the Policy should have never been put in place.  It was deemed illegal, or deemed that President Obama didn't have the legal right to make the policy.  As you can read below from the Constitutional Review--a truly non-political group.

A federal judge in Texas issued a national injunction to block the policies that extended the program to parents and people entering the United States between mid-2007 and 2010; the lawsuit didn’t deal directly with the DACA program. A federal appeals court added to that ruling to say that the policies exceeded President Obama’s policy-making authority. In June 2016, the Supreme Court, in a 4-4 vote, upheld the injunction in a one-line opinion.

On June 29, 2017, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told Attorney General Jeff Sessions that on behalf of 10 states, he was notifying the Justice Department that they would amend a suit against the administration if it didn’t change the 2012 DACA program by September 5, 2017.

“Courts blocked DAPA and Expanded DACA from going into effect, holding that the Executive Branch does not have the unilateral power to confer lawful presence and work authorization on unlawfully present aliens simply because the Executive chooses not to remove them,” Paxton argued. Paxton said the group would amend a lawsuit currently in the Southern District of Texas to include the 2012 DACA program, if executive action wasn’t taken by September 5, 2017 to phase it out.

The Paxton group didn’t demand an immediate end to the DACA program or the immediate deportation of participants. “This request does not require the Executive Branch to immediately rescind DACA or Expanded DACA permits that have already been issued,” Paxton said. But it wants new executive action taken to start the process of ending the DACA program.

And Paxton clearly thinks the group will win in court based on their prior success in blocking the other two Obama proposals. “For these same reasons that DAPA and Expanded DACA’s unilateral Executive Branch conferral of eligibility for lawful presence and work authorization was unlawful, the original June 15, 2012 DACA memorandum is also unlawful,” Paxton said.

============================

More than anything governmental, I am more worried about my friends in Florida and the East Coast.  If Irma hits them as a Cat 5--the highest rating for a hurricane, they will be in as much or worse shape than Texas.  I also know people who live in Puerto Rico.  Or we could worry and pray for our friends in Washington and Montana, California, with the horrendous wild fires.  

==========================

As old as I am, as long as I have lived, as many President's reign of power I have lived through, I realized a long time ago.  There is not one thing you can do about how the government is going to run itself.  You can rant on Face Book and in your blog posts, which makes people who believe as you do, pat you on the head, or people that disagree try to cut your legs off at the knees, and all that does in promote more anger.  You can write letters to your Congress men and women, as I often have.  You can protest in the streets, put up signs in your front yard--nothing you do is going to change one, teeny-tiny thing in Washington, DC--the Swamp as it has been known for a century or so.

Oh, you might get an "I told you so," moment every now and then, what good does that do?  Does it make you feel better?  Does it pump up your pride?  Does it make you happy that you predicted something bad was going to happen and it did?

Sure, I've had those, "I told you so," moments and hoped with every inch of my mind that my most Liberal friend would see it on the news and realize that the Great and Powerful Oz was right.  Nah Nah Nah, Na Nah Nah.   Back in the day--before I grew up.

Now I just kind of view the whole, political arguing as sad.  Do you know, I saw a post on Face Book condemning President Obama for being so disconnected and playing golf while Hurricane Katrina was going on?  Posted by one of my Conservative friends.  I was actually embarrassed for them and felt it my place to private messenger him to reveal that President Obama was NOT the President then, he was still a Senator.  He had so many people that commented and agreed with him--it was shocking!

It's like that on both sides.  We should take the time to do the research before we post on FB.  Or better yet?  Just don't post that stuff at all.  It's not going to change anyone's mind or their belief.  And yes---I have been guilty of this.

===================

What I am more ticked off about is that on August 21st, I was called to tell me to remove my car from the driveway as my cement work would start that afternoon.  Here it is September 5th and it still isn't completely done.

I am ticked off that I got a notice that my Social Services review would be via telephone today--between 8:00am and 12:00 noon.  So I got up at 7:30 to be awake and ready.  It is now going on 5:00 and no call.  Damn government.  ...and there's not a thing I can do about it!!

Roller Coaster Week

Even me--who usually remains on an even keel--emotionally, have had my emotions go up and down like a roller coaster, until I nearly made myself sick.

I watched too much of the Weather Channel and the news--too many hours for two days straight.  How can those people ever recover?  WE ARE TEXAS STRONG!  Well, of course that's a nice motto and supposed to be uplifting, and any State would say that faced with a disaster like the flood, but c'mon...at sometime in this tragedy, any normal person would break down.

Coming home to find everything destroyed with a couple of Water Moccasin's curled up on my flood soaked davenport, would put me right over the edge.  Let alone seeing every scrapbook and photo album I have, ruined.

Having to live in that big center, for more than two days, would put me into a catatonic state and mentally gone.  No privacy.  All the humanity--the noise.  How could you sleep--on a small uncomfortable cot, babies crying during the night, people coughing, snoring.  The fatigue alone would kill me.  Having to be on guard in case some drug addict, coming off his high, was going to take the few dollars I had with me.  

FEMA can help, but it wouldn't help me.  They would loan me some money to restart, but with what little I have, I couldn't re-pay the loan on a new place.

I don't know how any of those people can ever recover.  Especially the farmers!  No food for their live stock.  After the flood waters recede, the pasture will be covered with heavy silt, mold and not fit for cattle to eat.  

I sometimes think, those that died are the lucky ones.
=========================
Friday came along and I HAD to go foraging for food.  I had two prescriptions to pick up at Walmart, so I made a list of what I needed for food, the cats, anything I could think of and walked to my car, parked in back, and traveled on up to Howell.

It was like a Saturday in there.  Why were these people, who usually work on Friday, in the store?  My gosh--every kid in the county was in there--arguing with their parents over school supplies, or just crying in frustration.

Well, I put on my smile and went about my business and when a boy came out from a side aisle and T-boned my cart and his mother screamed at him,  I said, "Hey, that's okay.  No harm done.  I should have been watching more carefully."  He looked at me with tears in his eyes.  Trying to be a big boy and help mother with the cart and the baby sister.  I wanted to just hug him.

Then on the drive home, I wondered how I was going to make 7 trips back and forth to the car--parked 85 steps away from my front porch.  I knew, I couldn't do it.  I was already exhausted and feeling a bit weak.

I pulled onto my street and thought, "To heck with it.  Drove right up on my lawn--as they have tape across the old part of my drive--where I could have carefully parked.  Got another bright idea, trudged out to my shed, got my wheel barrow, put some of the smaller bags into my canvas shopping bags, loaded the two gallons of water in the front, over the wheel, layered my 4 jugs of Pepsi in the bed of the wheel barrow, and put the rest on top.  Pushed it up and under the yellow tape up by my front steps and toted in my groceries.

Came in and rested my back.  My doc would have been happy to see I had a nice heart rate of 67 going on.

Saturday, I was all ready to sit in my recliner and watch the first football games.  To my dismay, when at noon, I clicked on to watch my Michigan State Spartans, I discovered it was on ESPNU--a channel I had last spring, but lost when I had to down grade my Comcast.

So I watched a pretty good movie on TCM, then watched the Michigan University game against Florida and later the Florida State/Alabama game.

This morning, I watched my favorite pastor and bible teacher, Dr. David Jeremiah and then, once again I watched a live-stream, on my computer, of the Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina.  The sermon was based on one of my most favorite hymns, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" and the last hymn they sang was my Mother's favorite hymn, "I Need Thee Every Hour."  I am getting more used to the style of preaching the pastor has.  I felt very blessed from his sermon.  

I am such a lazy church goer.  I have to admit, I kind of like "going" to church while in my jammies, drinking my warm cocoa and eating my Cheerios.
==============================
3/4 done with my counted cross stitch project.  It took me the entire month of August to stitch just that part on the hoop.  Such detail in this.

I started the last two Shepherds today.=
====================
Rain is expected late tomorrow, so I better move my car.  The lawn is hard enough now, so the tires won't leave any dents, but with rain?..............

It's here! It's here.

Finally--it seems like a long time in waiting.

My cement mixer, putzy-putzy, arrived here.

They did such a fine job of smoothing, and floating, and brooming.

They asked me if I wanted to put my name or handprint in the corner.  I decided that the cement will be here longer than me, so I declined.  Then I thought, I could find a metal Spartan head and put it in the corner, but then...what if when my kids have to sell the place, a U of M fan likes it, but wouldn't buy it because of Sparty.  So, I decided to take one of my heart stones, from my collection, and put that in the corner.  

Right over where the bumble bees had their underground nest.

Tomorrow, the guys are coming back to put the "line" across.  This helps the cement stay stable in our cold winters, when the ground underneath heaves and settles.

By the way--after they left and I walked out to go to my car, I saw three bees buzzing around that spot.  No doubt those little rascals will figure out a way to rebuild their city!!
=============================
Had my yearly check-in at the Cardiologist's this afternoon.  Didn't even have to have an EKG.  He is a bit concerned about my continuing slow heart rate--52--I told him I was happy with that because a year ago it was in the 40's!  He had cut one of my meds--that slows the heart--in half.  I'd like to quit taking it, but if I have another AFib instance, I might have to get a Pacemaker--and I want none of that.  I remember how it creeped me out, feeling and seeing it, just under Fred's skin near his left shoulder.  My heart rate was 65 when I was at my doc's office a couple of weeks ago, so I'm not worried.  I had taken an Ativan at noon--maybe that slowed it down?

Anyway, I love this doctor.  He is the one who saved Fred's life.  Today he said, "I miss Fred."

"Me too, " I replied.

"How long has it been now.  Two years?"

"Five and a half."

"We are aging quickly, aren't we?"

"A year ago, you told me I'd live into my nineties.  I'm going for ninety-two."

"Why ninety-two.  Go for a hundred."

"Nope," I said.  "I don't want to live to be a hundred."

"Why not.  What's the difference between ninety-two and a hundred?"

"Eight long years in a nursing home!"

Anyway--I think it's sweet that he remembers Fred--as did the receptionist today.  When I checked-in, although she hadn't seen me in a year, she mentioned, "I sure miss Fred."  
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It's strange because, every now and then, one of the people at the pharmacist will mention Fred and how he always brightened their day.  Just last Sunday, Yvonne, the girl that took time off to attend Fred's funeral, said to me, "I was just thinking about Fred the other day.  He was always smiling, no matter what.  Here you are, eye all swollen and red, and your smiling.  I can see why you two got along so well."

Well, yes.  Fred and I never took anything too seriously.  Five minutes before he died, he gave me a hug, a kiss and a big smile and said, "I'll see you in a few minutes. Love you."

Yeah--we were made for each other.