I made my "cleaning out" list.  I pictured each room and what needed doing, and visualized what I needed to get rid of.  Then, while I was at Walmart on Tuesday, I accumulated a bunch of large boxes they were going to throw out.  I figure the boxes will hold my mixer and toaster and the other appliances I am going to give to Karen and Maddie.

I was in Walmart because, after a month since my eye examination, I finally took my prescription in for new glasses.  Over the holiday season, friends had sent me some extra money and I had enough saved to get my glasses.  Plastic frames are back in style and I am glad, but it seemed all the styles were dark.  Browns, blues, red.  When I put them on, all I could see was glasses.  My skin is fair and with my gray hair...the frames stuck out like glaring headlights.

Then the clerk suggested that I look at the men's frames.  Well--why not?  My head is as big as most men--I have a wide face and big ears.  The first ones I picked up and put on were perfect.  They are a nearly clear plastic frames and almost invisible against my pale complexion and gray hair.  

Then we sat down for the measurements and when all was done, she gave me the price: $295.00.  Well I know, comparatively, that isn't a bad price for progressive lenses, but all I had was $200.00. So I will have to go back when I get the 95.00 scrounged up.  I finished the big genealogy I was working on and my client owes me $84.00, so that will get my glasses ordered.

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Went to the Old School Gal Pals lunch.  Our Senile Sister was not there, but the Professor was.  She rapped on the table with the handle of her knife for our attention.  Then she regaled us with a story of her and the new Roomba she bought herself for Christmas.  The first 15 minutes of her dissertation were funny....the next 30 minutes got to be a bit much.  Some turned to the person sitting next to them to engage in conversation and when the Professor saw this, rapped the table again with her knife to bring all attention back to her.

We were all finished eating.  She was still taking bites as she had talked so much, her plate was still full.

I left kind of early...my eyes glazed over...and napped on my drive home.
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There was an e-mail message from daughter Karen.  My youngest sister-in-law (ex) had died.  Apparently she had laid on her apartment room floor for 2 days before her landlady noticed she hadn't seen her and her mail had not been picked up.  Her twin sister, her older sister and her brother, my ex, are all in their Florida homes for the winter, so they will have to fly home to make the arrangements.

By far, she was the sweetest sister-in-law.  Married at 19, her husband left her, after two years, when she was 8 months pregnant.  She had a beautiful baby girl that I used to baby sit.  When the little one was 13 months old, she died suddenly from an enlarged heart.

She has had a hard life for sure.  She took care of their mother, who had a stroke, for seven years.

I don't know the details, but I am thinking my sister-in-law probably had a stroke too.

The big fear we women who live alone have.  Dying and not being found for days.
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Dar has quit work.  We all wondered why she ever went back to work.  She sure didn't need the money, after a big settlement from her car accident.  We suspicioned that she wanted a few hours away from her Dad.  

She always checked on him before she left for work.  He usually got up an hour after she was gone.  One day, two weeks ago, after she got to work, she realized that she had left her purse at home.

She came home and noticed her Dad wasn't up.  She checked his bedroom and he was laying on the floor, struggling to breathe.  She called the ambulance and got him to the ER.  He had an AFib attack and a severe case of bronchitis.

He stayed in hospital for a week.  The day after she got him home, she fell and thankfully Dad was there to call the ambulance for her.  She bruise three ribs and her aorta.  Dad is 97 and Dar is 75.  

For the last week there has been a steady stream of delivery trucks and repairmen coming and going.  Pearl can see Dar's front door better than I can and reports that Dar has new carpeting, a new couch and two new chairs, 2 new beds and mattresses, a new refrigerator and yesterday, a new washer and dryer appeared.
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Tomorrow, if we don't get a snow storm--we have had only 3.5" of snow as yet--weird...I am driving up to The Farm.  A cousin from our mother's side is driving down to The Farm and we are going to go over questions she has on genealogy.  Her mother and our were sisters.

I'm not in the mood, but.............................
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I gave Bethie her BIG genealogy yesterday before lunch.  The information she gave me was extensive, but I still managed to find some ancestor's she didn't know about.  We only had a few minutes to go over it before the other Gals arrived, but I think, when Bethie has the time to get into that 160 page book, she is going to be real happy.