The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. The tornado, hail, and fierce thunderstorms, went North and South of us.

2. Quill and I took a nice nap together.

3. We had breakfast for supper. I made myself a fried egg over easy. I haven't had one of those in a long time, and I didn't break the yolk

4. I did a little organizing in the studio.

5. I went to  a birthday lunch with childhood friends to celebrate we're 70

How was your week?

TBT: Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

  In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Big Boy

Monday was a planned shopping expedition. Ma had asked me to come early so I arrived at 9am. She wasn't dressed so I puttered with Dad's computer trying to explain to him the need to turn it on for more than a minute every month. The poor machine nearly choked with all the Windows updates. After twenty minutes, Ma shouted impatiently, "I'm ready." We whirled into the usual flurry of looking for the check book, getting her coat, her walker, and the soda bottles for return.

The ride up was pleasant. Ma nodded off, and I left Dad to enjoy the peace and quiet of his own thoughts. Since we were shopping on the fifth of the month, there were quite a few handicap spots available. Social Security checks were deposited on the first and funds available to seniors on the 3rd. I helped Ma across to the sidewalk. Dad came tooling out on a scooter for her. As I was taking the walker back to the car and hoping I could spend time reading my book, Ma shouted, "You come back and help me." Deep sigh.

From the entrance, I could see people jumping out of the way and I knew Ma is in that direction. I passed Dad at the bottle return machines, slowly and carefully feeding the cans and bottles in.

I caught up with Ma and she shouted the orders: Get 2 dozen of the medium eggs. I turned to put them in the scooter basket and she roared down the dairy aisle shouting more items: 2 gallons of milk, a gallon of orange juice, two cartons of cottage cheese - make sure it's the one with the pineapple in it. I ran after her occasionally lobbing an item into the basket. She also grumbled about the prices. Seems things have gone up, and Ma is not happy.

At the deli, she told me she wanted a pound of bologna and some provolone. "You like provolone. I'll buy you some provolone." Now, I don't eat raw cheese. Ever. She's only known this for some 50 years. "I'll get you some roast beef for lunch too even though I'm not supposed to have it."

"Ma, don't worry about the roast beef, bologna is fine. And remember I don't eat cheese so if you want provolone for yourselves get it." I take a deli ticket, number 52 and the deli is now serving 48.

"Let your father stand in line." With that she careened toward the meat case.

I headed back to the front of the store in search for Dad. He had just finished feeding a few cans into the return machine and is standing in line at the courtesy desk to get cash for his chit. Somewhere in the back of my head an alarm bell began ringing, but I ignored it. "Ma wants you to stand in line at the deli for bologna and provolone."

He looked at the deli ticket. "What number are they on?"

"48."

"I'll never make it."

"Then get another ticket." I sprinted toward the meat cases and nearly lost my lunch as I rounded the corner by the fish case. I smelled rotten fish. Even though I don't do the shopping, I know fish is not supposed to smell rotten. As an aside, I hate this store. It's not very clean. Packages are always dented and I question the freshness of the meat and produce.

Ma had stopped at the meat counter and was in deep contemplation. She pointed to a package and as the acolyte I handed her the first package to have the blessing. We continued down the miles of the meat case. Lift the meat, bless it and put it back.

There was a sale case with Stella D'Oro goodies. Ma put a package of anisette toasts in the cart. One of my favorites. A treat for me to go with lunch. Not a bad reward.

Dad finally caught up with us. "I have to go find the men's room." Vanished. We have been in the store close to an hour and have only progressed to meat. Produce, frozen foods and the aisle territory still needed to be explored. The alarm bell clanged.

In produce, Ma is delighted to have found Big Boy tomatoes at a good price. She prodded, poked and thumped looking for the best candidates. Another sign for plum tomatoes caught her eye. I heard a plop and there between my shoes was a Big Boy, murdered at the height of freshness with tomato guts oozing from its split skin. Ma was no where to be seen and I'm suddenly on the receiving end of disapproving stares from other shoppers. I slinked away, branded a tomato murderer.

Dad made another cameo, announced they needed salt, and vanished. The dawn broke. The three or four hour shopping expeditions aren't necessarily blamed on Ma, not with Houdini looking for items.

While inspecting celery Ma found another weeble lady to lament the rising cost of store items. The weeble lady tried to include me in the conversation. Since I don't grocery shop, I wouldn't know the cost between a carrot or a yam. I shrugged and smiled politely.

Dad caught up with us by the ice cream case. Another debate about flavors and Dad critiquing Ma's scooter maneuver ability. Ma had gotten the scooter wheel wedged under the kick space of the freezers. We had to offload Ma and pull the scooter out.

"Do we have everything we need?

"We don't need to do the big shopping," she informed me. "You come back in two weeks to take us shopping again."

Oh, joy.

"Where's the list?"

"In my pocket."

A fine place for the list to reside. Ma decided the last item needed was paper towels, but another store had the item for a dollar less so she decided we had to go to this store. I wasn't happy but bit my tongue. She was happy because they were saving a dollar. In the mean time, I had to burn another gallon of gas to get to the other store. We have now been on this expedition for 3 hours. We have come close to the time I must leave in order to pick the Young One up at school.

We drove to the second store. "You have 10 minutes," I said to Dad.

We got back to their house at 10 minutes before 1pm. Dad and I unloaded the car. Ma was frantically looking for the lunch items.

"You're staying for lunch." More of a command than a statement

"I can't. I have to leave."

"You never stay to visit."

Oh, cheeze! "I could if you didn't use up all my time. I was here at 9am, but you're dancing around and we don't leave for another 20 minutes. You take 3 hours at the grocery store and then we have to go get one item at another store. That was my visiting time."

I left. No lunch and no anisette toast.

Doodling for Stress Release

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend  a half an hour doodling our stress away. I missed a week of class because, I was away and then there was no class on the Labor Day holiday.

The assignment was to draw a border, add some wonky 3 petal flowers, stems, and little circles.  I colored the little circles Ultramarine with a Tombow marker. This was a relaxing and fun exercise.dra

T Stands for Anniversary Dinner

For our 40th wedding anniversary last month, we decided to celebrate at our favorite, special occasion, restaurant the UxLocale.

After some wicked hot and humid days, the evening we chose to go out was a Goldilocks kind of night. We went early in the hopes of being able to sit out on the patio. Our wish came true and we had a lovely table outside. 

While waiting for our drinks and appetizer, we remarked how there were no mosquito or no-see-um bugs with giant teeth on the patio. Himself was looking at the herbs and plants that Elaine, the owner, has planted. I wonder what this thing is? Plant.net told us it was Citronella. Well, that's why no bugs

For our beverages, I had a glass of Prosecco and Himself had a Coke. Our appetizer was a burrata pesto tomato jam crostini. 

We each got a house salad with a red wine balsamic dressing

Himself ordered salmon and risotto for his entree. I ordered the Get Figgy With It pizza. I know, I know. I have said more than once fruit, especially pineapple, on pizza is a mortal sin. I'll gladly sell my soul for this outstanding combination. A white base pizza, fig preserves, sliced tart apple, prosciutto, arugula with a balsamic glaze.

It was also nice when Elaine came out to take care of some business with the band setting up. She saw us and came over to chat. Elaine used to work at the museum where I teach calligraphy. It's always nice to see her and to catch up.

We were tempted to order dessert, but had no room.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.

Monet and Me

hate spaghetti. No, not the pasta, but the tangle of electrical and charging cords. Every device (usually) comes with its own charging cord. Many of the devices use the same type cord: USB-A, USB - B, USB-C, Mini-USB, Micro-USB,  Lightning cord. The chances that all of your devices need to be charged at the same time is pretty slim.

Monet and I detangled the mess and kept two of each kind. We went from the picture above to

all the cords fitting into the ark, two by two. Along with a dual  USB-A plug and a light that attaches over the camera of the laptop so you look pretty on a Zoom meeting.

The extra cords will be donated.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Eggplants

Big tomatoes

Little tomatoes

The death bed. Stuff in here isn't looking too good.

Mum's

the

word

Fading Queen of Hearts Petunias

More mums

Himself was weed whacking along the side of the house, but didn't have the heart to whack the hollyhock. In memory of Mitty.

Mutant Broccoli

Eh, wadamalone! In a makeshift greenhouse to keep out the critters

May the odds be ever in your favor. 

You may or may not remember last week, I took a picture of the first watermelon. Himself had read on the Internet (so it must be true!) that you pick your watermelon by Labor Day. He picked it, and it was too early for picking. It tasted sweet but the color of the flesh was pale pink and the seeds looked more like beans. Something wasn't right. So far, he is leaving the other two alone.

Sedum

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

DIY | NO Sew T-Shirt Bag (SO Easy!!)

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Calli and Quill followed me around after giving me the cold shoulder for being away.

2. As I was going to bed, I realized because of the Labor Day holiday, I didn't have to get up early to put the trash out

3. Himself made mashed potatoes so I could make the topping to a Shepherd's pie (made with lamb otherwise if it's made with beef it's a cottage pie)

4. A friend sent me a link to Bring Magic to Your Art & Life with A Free Taster Event!

5. A beautiful day. I had the sunroom all to myself so watched The Beautiful Game while I had lunch.

How was your week?

TBT: Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

 In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

The Day the Checks Stood Still

I had a nice chat with the postal inspector, and though he couldn't help, he was sympathetic. He's been chasing after the scammer that sent Ma the $250 check. According to him, "the guy is a big player." He chuckled when I told him I hoped Ma got burned. Some people just need to learn lessons the hard way. He also told me if I wanted to tell her a story, to frighten her into stopping the lottery nonsense, he would back me up. Anything I told her. Even if I told her she was on the postal inspector wanted list for passing bad checks. As I said, there wasn't much he could do, but I felt better after talking to him.

I had a dream that Ma finally got the message about the checks. My dream was like watching a movie. The Day the Checks Stood Still. Michael Rennie reprieved his role as Klaatu, galactic ambassador along with his robot side-kick, Gort.

With Ma in front of him, Klaatu gave her a stern warning. "It doesn't mean you have to give up any freedoms, except the freedom to act irresponsibly. It is no concern of ours how you run your own finances, but if you threaten to extend your nonsense by trying to cash illegal scam checks, we will have no choice but to reduce your house to a burned out cinder."

Ma had several checks in her hand, and asked Klaatu to give Dad a ride to the bank so the old man could deposit the checks.

Klaatu looked at Gort. "Gort, barringe."

The visor on Gort's helmet slowly raised, his laser flickered and began to burn to full power.

I didn't get to see the end of the movie as I woke up.

Another Face

 

See the face? Edvard Munch! 🤣

T Stands for the Water Fountain.

 

The Eldest purchased a water fountain for the kitties. After an initial wariness, Quill took to it. He likes to drink out of the spigot.

Calli took a lot longer to warm up to the idea of drinking from the fountain.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.

Monet and Me

are admiring some happy mail. I didn't even have to look at the return address to know it was from friend and guild member, The Postman (he worked for the US Postal Service).

He mixed fun styles for the lettering and placed the stamp in the lower, righthand corner! A no-no! It doesn't look like there were any problems with the placement of the stamp. The stamp is one of the new Baby Wild Animal stamps that was issued in May. Very cute.

The card had a calligraphy cartoon on it.

Thanks, D, for brightening up my mailbox.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Lettuce

Tomato

Eh, Waddamalone!

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

How To Carve Letters Into Stone by Hand

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Another anniversary celebration. Dinner at Elaine's restaurant. It was a beautiful night to dine al fresco on the patio.

2. Two Old Ladies were back on the road again, back to our little cabin with a screened porch at the Half Moon Motel and Cottages where we stayed last year in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire

3. We had sundaes at the Kellerhaus for supper

4. I had early morning tea while sitting on the front porch and watching the boats on the lake.

5. We went to Edicott Park. Teague went swimming. I dipped my toes in as Lake Winnipesaukee was too cold for me.

How was your week?

TBT: Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

 In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

 

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Juggling Monkeys

I thought I would have a free and clear day. There was nothing marked on the calendar on the fridge. I'd get the Young One to school, the Eldest to work, and then I'd be able to settle in and work on the book project. Maybe even have it finished by the end of the week.

As the Young One got ready for school, I took my morning tea and booted up my square headed spouse. The hum of the disk drive spinning up was meditative. The desktop widgets blinked to life. The Heath birthday countdown calender. Big Bopper's cheery "Helloooo, Baby!", the day's weather, monthly calendar, and the day planner. My eyes popped out of my head. It couldn't be. A 10:30 Weeble doctor's appointment? We were just there a week ago! It must be a mistake! Yes, that's it! A mistake. I marked the wrong date.

Before I left to take the Eldest to work, I made the mistake of calling the Weebles. Ma answered the phone.

"Do you have a doctor's appointment today?"

"Yes, at 10:30."

My heart sank at the loss of productive me time. At least I'm good at juggling monkeys.

Ma must have been in a good mood because she was yelling at Dad when I got to the house. She went to get dressed and Dad and I had a few minutes alone.

"Did that check clear?"

"No, the bank is still holding it."

"Do you still have the letter from the postal inspector?"

"What for?"

"Because I want to give him a call."

Dad gave the letter to me, one spy making a drop to another.

Ma's good mood held as we left the house. She yelled at Dad as she tried to maneuver around the metal folding chair that was on one side of the stairs. The bricks had come loose so she wanted to make sure no one would kill themselves on the loose bricks. Course, I don't know what she'll put out so people won't kill themselves on the metal folding chair. I helped Ma down the stairs. 

She took another breath in the car and began singing the "Your Stupid" song to Dad. I looked in the rearview mirror, and he was feverishly making the sign against evil. She sang repeated choruses from the parking lot to the lobby to the doctor's waiting room.

"Enough!" I yelled at her. "This is not the time or the place for that! Sit over here!" I'm not sure whether I'm their parent or the referee. The waiting room was fairly quiet so I wandered back to say hello to the lab tech and to hold an OPD Support Group meeting.

"Weren't you here last week?"

"Yeah, that was to see the middle toe doctor. This week they're here to see the big toe doctor."

"How are they today?"

I took a cautious peek around the corner. Ma was nodding off in her chair, and Dad was flipping through the pages of a magazine. "Good. Today, they're being good. How's your mother?"

"Oh, she's just wonderful! She had an operation, and it's like she's a new woman."

I wondered if the procedure was similar to what happens to the pod people in The Body Snatchers, but as I was about to ask, patients came in so I went to sit down in the waiting room.

As I was just getting engrossed into the latest happenings of the characters in the book I'm reading, another weeble lady sat down next to me. She was terribly concerned with the goings on of the trial for the body of Anna Nicole Smith. I refrained from rolling my eyes, smiled politely and turned back to my book. She didn't seem to notice, but happily kept on chattering.

A half an hour had drifted by, but the doctor hadn't sailed in. Rather frosts my fanny the office books appointments at 10:30 but the doctor doesn't show up for another half an hour or so.

Finally the doctor arrives and calls them into the exam room. My waiting room weeble neighbor asks me what time my appointment is.

"Oh, I don't have an appointment, I'm just the chauffeur."

The Weebles are in an out before I've finished my sentence. Ma had fallen earlier in the week. This now being a weekly occurence. She handed the doctor's prescription to me. He had written a prescription for Advil and Ben Gay. 

"We can go to the Stop and Shop to get these," I told her.

Dad decided to come in to the store with me to get the "prescription filled.

"Would she mind the generic Advil and Ben Gay because it would save you a few dollars?"

"No! You better get the real stuff, because they'll be hell to pay if it's not exactly what the doctor ordered." I rolled my eyes, but got the items. We headed to the check out. "Do you need anything while we're here? Bread, milk, juice? The bank?"

He shook his head.

I dropped them off at the house and was on my way home in hopes of salvaging some of my work day.

"Before you go, give your father a ride downtown to the bank?"

"To the bank? We were just there!" (there's a branch bank at the Stop and Shop) I roared. "Why does he need to go to the bank downtown?"

"I got another check for $2000 and he needs to deposit it."

I silently borrowed a phrase from Himself. No, not horse's patoot! Help me, Lord! All morning Ma and I had been dancing around the issue of the check. Both of us desperately wanted to tell each other "I told you so!" but the jury was still out for both of us.

Dad turned me toward the door as I was still sputtering. 

"You go on. I can walk. I need to get a haircut."

Yes, a walk would do him good. It would get him away from her for a couple of hours. He didn't need to hear the "Your Stupid" song being hammered out like "The Anvil Chorus." I was going back to the Stop and Shop to pick up a bottle of baby aspirin to eat on the ride home.

Are You Looking At Me?

I opened up my watermelon Luigi's Italian ice and to my delight saw a face smiling back at me. This dude must be very intuitive with that large, third eye.

If you turned the cup 90 degrees, there was another face. This one a bit sad with a wordless "oh". I named him Vincent because he only had one ear.

T Stands For Crane Beach

The Eldest had a vacation week around the time of her birthday the second week of July. She asked if I wanted to go with her to the beach. It used to be if you wanted to go to the beach, you packed a bag, towel, and chair and drove to the beach. Now you have to make reservations. It seems local residents complained about the Summer people getting all the parking spaces. Reservations come in the form of day passes which get scooped up quickly or 2 hour passes. Nice if you live close to the beach but not practical if you have to take an hour and a half ride to get to the beach.

The week the Eldest chose also happened to be prime vacation time. I told her about the reservations, but she had no difficulties securing a day pass to Crane Beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts. We left early on a Monday morning, and had a little hassle with commuter traffic.  When we got to the beach, we were one of the first visitors and hardly anyone was there.

A seagull

claimed his spot on the beach

We took a selfie to remember the day

The Life Guard crew were holding contests to see who could paddle out to the buoy 

and back to shore first.

It was a perfect beach day. Though the weather was hot and humid at home, it was quite breezy at the beach. We set up our chairs and I made a little cabana to try to keep us out of the sun.

It had been decades since I had been at this beach with Teague. One thing I forgot about was this beach was notorious for Green Heads, a type of Horse Fly. They have emerald green heads and giant teeth! Apparently, the Green Heads decided to return a few weeks earlier than normal to correspond to our visit. 

By the time we left, I was covered with so many bites I looked like I had chicken pox.

I found a beautiful snail shell

There's a snack shack along with a clean beach house so we decided we didn't need to drag along a cooler for lunch. We did bring water. 

The Eldest was going to treat me to lobster sandwiches for lunch, but they were out of lobster. I opted for a veggie and hummus wrap with a peach ice tea. The wrap was delicious, but I'm not a fan of peach flavored things though I do like peaches. All that could be said about the tea was it was wet and cold. We had a nice lunch underneath the pergola.

While the Eldest was swimming, I met a young woman a few years older than the Eldest. Her name as Tanya and she had also brought her mother for an outing. We had a nice chat.

How many seas must a white gull sail

before she sleeps in the sand? (apologies to Bob Dylan)

Despite the Greenheads and the sunburns, we had a nice day at the beach.

See ya later! 

Only if the Greenheads are gone!

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.