So, the new neighbors are having a cement slab under their storage shed, but.....not under their house? Weird.
I sat here watching and soooooo wanted to go over and put a nice big hand print right in the center of the wet cement, but.............they kept coming back and "floating" it again and again, to make sure it was smooth while it set up. RATZ!!
My sister said, "What would even make you think of doing such a thing?"
She doesn't know me very well, you see. BECAUSE--we always did that. When Daddy poured the cement slab for the new back room, I got to put my hand print in there and my initials--1949. When we put in a sidewalk at our new little home in 1959--Gary and I both put our hand print on it. When we moved to my Grandma's farm and had to put in a cement back porch, Gary and I put our hand prints, plus Mark, Pam, Karen did theirs and baby Jennifer's small baby foot print-1972. They are all still there, where Pammie lives. I love to look at them whenever I stop by.
When we put in a "fake" fireplace in Grandma's house, my Mother suggested I put a sign on the wall board before they put in the fireplace. It read, "This fireplace was installed on April, 10th, 1967," and we all signed our names. Twenty years later, when Pam and her husband tour it out to put up a whole wall entertainment center, she found the sign, remembered the day and has the sign in her memory box.
When I lived in Saginaw, and redecorated Ernie's bathroom (2001), when he took the medicine cabinet out of the wall, someone else's initials were in there. So, I made a little sign and pasted it to the wallboard. "This bathroom was redone by Judy Miller in 2001."
To me, it's like an old form of what the prehistoric people painted on the walls of their caves. It proves I was here.
I told my sister, "For archaeological purposes."
A million years from now, when the people that live on another planet, come to earth and dig through the remains of our buildings--they will wonder what our primitive hand prints mean. Why we did it. Is it a clue to our life style. They will say, "What strange names these people used."
Anyway, I didn't put my hand print in the neighbor's cement slab--I think they should have, though.
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Off to the dentist to get my toothies cleaned and checked. Everything is great---EXCEPT--part of tooth #19 is breaking away. Tooth #19 is just to the right of tooth #18, which I had crowned five months ago. Tooth #19 needs a crown too. I would love to get it crowned--would love to have all my double molars crowned, but.....at $850+ per tooth--it's not happening. The dentist said it wasn't critical, but I should get it done in December or January. I know it needs it--that tooth has been sensitive and hurting for over a year.========================
Tomorrow Pam and I are taking the kids to play a game of Putt-Putt. If they move, at least they will have one more memory of having fun with Mimi.
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What a weird happening. I was sitting watching Wheel of Fortune and in walked Pearl.
"Merle is sitting in his chair...sleeping. That makes me so mad, I decided I'd come down here and chat with a live person."
"C'mon in. Oh, I love your new hair cut!"
"My hair is falling out and I'm tired of messing with it, so I told Tracy to just cut it off."
"Well--it looks very nice. Makes you look younger than when you had it in a long Bob."
All of a sudden, I hear Dar calling out, "Judy, are you home?"
Pearl whispers, "I am staying right here!"
"Please do," I said.
Dar came in, sat down on the couch and said, "You seem depressed, so I had to come over and check on you."
"No. I'm feeling fine, I might have been................"
"Oh, I gotta tell you girls!"
Pearl's head snapped back and she turned to look at Dar.
"I am going to be working thirty hours over time all next week. So, if you see me not able to get out of my car, come over and help me into the house."
Pearl: "Do you get paid for the over time?"
Dar: "Yes! I will make about ninety dollars more next week."
Me: "Wow--that's great."
Pearl: "I think you will get more than ninety dollars for over time, if you make........."
Dar: "Oh, I gotta tell you. I'm worried. None of you know where the extra key to my house is. I have a motion light and there is a metal box on top of the fixture and an extra key to my house is in it."
Me: "And we need to know t his...why?"
Dar: 'Because, if you don't see me outside, you come and check. Just unlock my house and walk in."
Pearl: "Can I call first?"
Me: "Yeah--I'm not going in your house alone and find you dead on the floor....just like..........."
Dar: "I have great news! I'm getting a raise!"
Pearl: "Well, that's just............."
Dar: "I need you to go into prayer."
Me: "Because of your raise? Or...hm-mm..."
Dar puts her hand up to stop me, "No for my daughter-in-law."
Pearl: "What's wrong?"
Dar: "They think......" just then her phone makes a noise
Dar: "Now..what does that mean?"
Me: "What?"
"Dar: "My inbox is full and I have to clean it out or it goes to my Face Book and I don't know how....now how do I do this............?"
Pearl gives me the look that says, "this woman is NUTS!"
So Dar's interruptions and crazy talk went on for the next forty-five minutes! She finally left.
Pearl says, "That woman is wound tighter than an eight-day clock!"
Me: "That's just about to have it's spring, sprung."
Pearl: "Boinggggggggg."
"Hm-mm."
"I thought she came over to check up on your."
"Nope--that was just a pretense and then, when she saw you were here, she decided to entertain us."
"I don't know her that well....you've told me, but I never realized. She really has mental issues."
"Ya think?"
Then Pearl and I spent another hour having a nice, two-way conversation. She is very worried about Merle and figures he is dying. He gets the results of his last tests on Friday.
"Let's not bury him until we get those test results," I said.
"I've been with him for over sixty years. I have never seen him this weak, this tired."
"That's because you've never seen him at age seventy-eight."
"Sixty years. I never thought I'd see him like this."
"You never thought he'd get old?"
"No. What would I do without him?"
"I think that is a question every person who has been married since they were teenagers asks themselves."
"But---what would I do?"
"I guess you'd do what every other widow has had to do. You get through one day at a time."
She is coming into the realization that he is going to die--someday. Although all his tests so far have shown nothing. His heart is perfect, as are his lungs, all his internal organs, his brain. Because it is the first time she has seen him start to become old and a bit frail, although he works everyday and rides his bike every evening, she is in shock. She is into the "what ifs" stage.
So, I have one friend who is nuttier than a fruit cake, right now. And I have my best friend who is worrying herself, based on nothing, into an almost continual state of diarrhea!
I can't be saying, "Not my circus", because both of them are going to need me to be calm and sane!!! No matter what is going on in my life--I am right here, in this place, for a reason.
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BTW, Dar makes $8.50 an hour. Thirty hours overtime is way more than ninety dollars.