Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Stolen from Jean at Pushing the Envelope

Envelope with a Twist

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I heard from my high school friend who is moving from California to Arizona. The renovations to the house haven't been finished yet so they won't be moving until the end of the month. I'm glad I didn't send the new home card yet.

2. The Eldest Door Dashed donuts for breakfast.

3. The first ripe tomato and cucumber when to making a cucumber and tomato sandwich on brioche for lunch. Okay, it was Wonder Bread and still delicious

4. During bookbinding class learned about a jig to make perfect mitered corners. Found a different tool that does that plus has  4 other features for less money!

5. A lady at the hairdresser let me go ahead of her so I could have the hairdresser I like to cut my hair

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.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Thursday's Child

The sun was shining and though cold, it promised to be a beautiful day. Dad's eye doctor appointment had been changed from 10am to an hour earlier, and I was unable to give him a ride. I pushed down the momentary guilt and reveled in the thought I had crossed an imaginary international date line and gained a day. Since I didn't have a Weeble run, I had an extra day to work on the roll call book. Yes, it promised to be a perfect day.

I told the Young One I would do some work on the book, and we could spend the afternoon at the mall having lunch and shopping. In the middle of lettering, the phone rang and on the fourth ring the call was sent to voice mail. Most times, these calls are from telemarketers and charities. On the off chance it was the Eldest calling for a ride home from work because another water main broke, I dialed into the voice mail and saw red. Steam poured from my ears.

Seems Ma wasn't happy with the bank telling her the $250 check didn't seem kosher, she called the scam man who issued the check, and gave him my phone number so he could talk to me! I felt the blood pounding in my ears. How dare she! How dare she put me in the middle of her OPD stupidity! I paced, cursed, and spoke in tongues. I said the eff word several hundred times.

Long ago, and through the hard way, I learned to continue with my work if I was unhappy or in a bad mood, was disastrous. The work came through my hands in ugly puddles and rivers and would only need to be redone. Since I was writing in a book, I couldn't take the chance pages could easily be removed in order to redo. No sense trying to work with flames shooting from my eyes.

Just as I collected keys and kid, the phone rings. No psychic or caller ID to tell me the call was from Ma. She danced around the reason for the call. I didn't mention her scammer had called earlier. Finally, she told me about that damn check. I old her she's never to give my phone number out to anyone.

"I don't care if the Pope himself wants my number. You're not to give it out! Do you understand?"

She whined the man told her the check was good, and she should cash it. She was like a dog worrying a bone and no amount of reasoning or cajoling was going to work.

"If you want to cash the check, cash the damn check!"

I felt the familiar throbbing behind my left eye. I was determined she was not going to spoil the rest of the day. I wasn't  able to work, but I could enjoy the afternoon with my kid. It was near lunch time and I told the Young One we were going to be very naughty. We were going to have ice cream for lunch and the world could go to hell in a hand basket. The Young One was thrilled.

The weather was sunny and pleasant for a winter day. There was a feeling of Spring in the air. We went to the ice cream parlor, and I was disappointed to find there were no tables to enjoy the decadent treat inside. I wasn't adventurous enough to eat my ice cream outside. No worries. I promised the Young One we would be naughty. We headed to the bookstore. I ordered cups of chai and a double chocolate cheesecake slice for her, and a heated cinnamon bun for me. I tried to concentrate on the delight of the Young One and not Ma and that damn check. I wished I could make the draft spontaneously combust or to find a way to reason with Ma. Thursdays' child has far to go. (I was born on a Thursday.)

Doodling for Stress Release

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend  a half an hour doodling our stress away.

The assignment started with tracing our hand. We could fill the space with curved line contours as I did in the wrist. We also had the option of dividing the hand into sections and doodling in those spaces.

T Stands for Breakfast for Lunch

After a rainy Spring, we finally got a nice day to visit the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery where my parents are buried. We missed a visit Mother's Day, but we made it on July 8, four days after the Fourth of July which would have been my parents' 82nd wedding anniversary.

The grounds are absolutely pristine. The cemetery doesn't allow planting, windchimes, statues or personalizing the grave in any way. I'm pretty sure that after I leave flowers and when we have driven out of site, the groundskeepers swoop in and toss the flowers away.

One of the groundskeepers was in the section I was visiting. He asked if I would put my flowers on the side of the headstone instead of in front as this area was going to be mowed and it would make their job easier. No problem.

When I visit, I always visit Ma's side of the stone (the back) first. She was funny that way. Her nose would get bent out of joint if we didn't greet her first. So I still carry on the tradition. I put the flowers to the side of the stone just as the groundskeeper asked.

The flowers are always for Ma and Dad would have been pleased with that. He wouldn't have minded. He would have just been happy to see us.

Since I can't leave stones or a token to let the folks know we visited, I leave bird seed. If a seed gets blown off the stone and germinates whatever grows is just going to get mowed down. The birds or critters might get a treat, too. The Weebles would have liked that as they enjoyed watching birds at their birdfeeder. In any case, nothing permanent left. No harm, no foul.

After the cemetery, we stop at The Cracker Barrel restaurant on the way home. It was a hot day and we arrived at lunch time. I was hoping for an ice tea and a sandwich, but their lunch menu was pretty much dinner entrees and none of them interested me. One thing you can always get all day at Cracker Barrel is breakfast. We started with beignets, I had a cup of tea and

the blueberry pancake breakfast which came with egg (I had them scrambled) and bacon or sausage. The blueberry pancakes also came with blueberry syrup. Perfect!

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

 

From the suggested scarecrow names from last week, Monet and I decided we liked the name Bolger. This name was contributed by Mackerull and the FSG from Trout Town.

Thank you all for the wonderful names

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Before A's hard work

After. 

He will come back to dig out the hostas and daylilies

Before

After

I didn't take a before picture, but this is the area, A weeded and mulched two weeks ago.

How does your garden grow?