Happy holidays

We had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas day. On Christmas Eve we went to Epiphany Church's Children's Mass. Kathy belongs to that parish now. She had been advised by her friends that an earlier arrival would assure us of choice seats. Mass was at 5:30 and we arrived at 4PM. Much to our chagrin we were the ONLY car in the parking lot. (By we, I mean Paul, Karen and I.) Paul tried a few locations and finally settled on one that suited him. We sat for awhile and then Kathy and Scott and the kids pulled into the lot. Paul jumped out of the car and did the official gestures that direct cars to the appropriate parking place. It so happened that it was right next to ours.

We proceded into the church, which was pretty much empty, Maybe a guitarist,trumpeter, pianist or so and we chose our seats. We took up a whole row of seats (10 chairs).

Gradually other people were drifting in, we were somewhat dismayed to see quite a few of them with soft drinks from Mc Donalds, Wendy's etc. and we were downright stunned to see one group eating BigMacs! around 5 o'clock the church rapidly filled up. There was quite a bit of joviality and Christmas greetings, and 'long time no see' conversations going on around us. It was the Childrens' Mass so naturally there many children.

As the time moved on toward 5:30, darling little Angels ran up the aisle to get in their places. Hark, we didn't hear anybody singing because there was such a hub bub. Soon, though, the sign was given that Mass was about to begin and quiet fell just as outside the glass walls we could see twilight falling also. The priest
had a lovely singing voice and the ability to enthrall all of the children with the ceremony and yet engage the adults in the spirit of things as well.

Their musicians played the traditional Carols and the adult choir,children's choir and the congregation accompanied them. The service ended about 7 o'clock and we went out into the cold winter night and got into our cars in their premier parking places and left for Kristin and Tim's house for a delightfully delicious Christmas Eve dinner.

I could not help but wonder what some of the old timers back in the day would think of that ceremony. My brother,Joe, who left the church for a period of time and came back later said the church he left was not the one he came back to. When he heard guitars at Mass,he referred to them as Hoot-en-ninny Masses. We had to remind him that when they first played organs in church the congregation referred to those as Circus Masses. Time marches on.

When I described the experience to Brian he came up with an idea for next year. he said we could all tail-gate, get a small grill and throw some bugers on and go from there.

I really did enjoy it and thank Kathy for inviting me. I have heard so much about Epiphany and have wanted to go there for sometime. I hope to go back again. It is a beaautiful place.

Tomorrow I'll give you a rundown on Christmas Day. Ciao

Discussion Forum

I guess I will send e-mails to the group of out of towners that might be interested in getting into the discussion page again.

I recall the first discussion page we had, for quite sometime I kept up a cyber conversation with myself. Most of the time I knew I was communicating with myself but there were a few occasions that I was unaware! As I recall, I also kept talking to article #68 or #32 and so forth. It takes awhile for me to get into the swing of things that require, what is for me, high level technology ability. It may take awhile for me to get on to this new system but perseverence( and Gregg's help) will pull me through!

4 shopping days left till Christmas. Ho,Ho,Ho! Could you give me directions to the Mall? Ciao,ciao

New Forum

I just saw as I turned to the Web site that Gregg is working on a new family forum page. I tried to figure out how to use it but I didn't do too well. I'll learn it eventually. I am really glad to see that we can communicate again as we did before. Get everyone in on the discussions, news, questions and snide remarks! I am ready for bed right now and hope to get with it tomorrow when I get home from school. Give it a try, you guys! Ciao

Comment on Comment

GREAT! Kathy, you will have to update your blog and tell us all about this fun adventure. Abbey and Gus are so lucky to get to do this. It will be a memorable occasion. Have a nice hot chocolate and sit and admire it when you finish trimming!

One year Grandpa and Mike went into the woods to cut down a tree for us. Mike still talks about it. They went into the natural woods, not a tree farm, and they found so many beautiful trees that it was hard to choose. They looked and looked and finally decided that since we lived in an apartment, they would have to perhaps pick the smallest tree and not one of the tall, bushy, giants of the forest. They chose the smallest tree they could find and chopped it down. They were very proud of their choice, though small and humble looking, among the bigger trees it suited their purpose.

They brought it home and we all admired it as they took it from the trunk of the car. They hoisted it in through the front hall and Lo and Behold it was too tall to stand up in our living room! Grandpa sawed off a few feet and it was still too tall,another foot or so came off and now it could stand up but when the tree stand was attached to the bottom ...it was still too tall. This time the cut was made at the top. But guess what?
When we placed it in the corner that we had decided to put it in it extended all the way out into the middle of the room. Out came the saw again and the limbs on the side facing the wall had to be trimmed ,then trimmed and finally pretty much removed. This was in the early years of our lives together and we had a pretty meager selection of lights and ornaments. We put them on what was left of the tree and gathered round and admired it. It may well be the most memorable Christmas tree of all my four score and three years. It WAS, they kept insisting, the smallest tree in the woods. Relativity, ya' know? Ciao,ciao.

Seasonal Yard Art and Ramblings

When you drive around the area in the day light hours you see deflated Santas, Reindeer, and Snowmen looking mighty dead on the lawns. You also see cheap, (I think)plastic snowmen, elves, Santas and Rudolfs looking rather garish standing out there in the cold light of day. When the sun goes down the dead Santas, reindeer and Snowmen get their re-inflated bodies up off the lawn and bask in the flood lights aimed at them from the near-by shrubs The plastic figures seem to be lighted from within and they don't look nearly so chintzy as they did. The nightly display of lighted icicles cascading over the eaves and in some cases the Santa complete with sleigh and reindeer cavorting on the roof tops remind us all that 'Tis the season'...
I've seen a few Nativity scenes on the lawns, competing with the mythical characters too. Nary an elf in my yard!


I do enjoy seeing the decorated trees and the brightly lighted wreathes and especially like the scent of pine trees. However; more and more artificial trees are on the scene these days. When I think of the excitement of shopping for the tree, bringing it home, getting out the ornaments and lights and doing all the tasks necessary to complete the tree decorating and then sitting down with just the lights of the tree to transform our living room into a magic place, I think about what the families are missing that stick plastic limbs into a plastic trunk or worse just pull the tree out of the basement or attic and strip it of its cover and plug it in and what to their wondering eyes should appear but a genuine plastic tree. Their kids will never know the special pervasive aroma of the tree in the house or the shock and awe of the tree crashing over to the floor, lights, ornaments, angel-topper and all, the daily sound of the needles dropping to the floor, the hope that the tree will not be needle-less by New Years. Taking the tree down, packing away the ornaments till next year, taking the bricks out that were helping the tree stay upright, the trail of icicles, needles etc. that were left on the carpet that persist in hangting on, sometimes till June. Still, wonderful memories!

I didn't take the lights off my fake ficus tree last year, I meant to, but...it was pretty easy to plug it in this week and pull out my blue ceramic tree and plug it in and guess what? With all the lights out except for the two imposters, my living room looks so festive and calm. I can enjoy that while I entertain my memories of Christmas's past! Ciao!

Family Days

I've just recently celebrated my birthday. Big Day! We went out to eat at an Irish Pub type place. It's called O'Sheys and it did resemble some of the pubs that we visited when traveling in Ireland. First of all it is on a couple of levels,one level for the bar, itself with a few boothes and tables, then to the left a small ramp that led to the tiny stage and another few tables, back up the incline and past the bar a few steps down and a few more tables plus a juke box. The food was typical pub type food. sandwiches, soups, salads etc. I had a really good trout sandwich and a cup of Potato Chowder. Delish! The guys among us ordered the brew testing order. They each recieved five small glasses containing five different beers. Zowie!! We moved on afterwards to Graeters for ice cream cones. Too bad the ice cream store doesn't have an ice cream sampling order, think about it, five small ice cream cones,maybe a vanilla, pistacio, pralene, peppermint and chocolate! What a deal that would be!

When I was very young I used to think that my birthday would fall on Thanksgiving some year. Especially when FDR moved Thanksgiving back one week so that the Christmas shopping season could be extended, there-by aiding the economy but still it never fell on my birthday. This year, it came close!

Thanksgiving was yesterday and thirty four of us convened for dinner at Karen's and Paul's. It was a great day. We had a deep fried turkey and traditional oven baked turkey and a few baked turkey breasts. All of the side dishes that accompany turkey and I provided the obligatory scalloped oysters. We had a variety of pies for dessert. A good time was had by all.

We had Carrie and her friend Gabe from Seattle, Washington, Pat, Kristy and Alex from Raleigh, NC, Lee and Stephanie, Pearce and Robert from Lexington, Courtney, Al, Ellen, Sam and Madeline from Owensboro, Paul's nephew,Chad and his wife Annette, from Chicago

Today all the Dolwick clan went to the races and met Brian out there and did the backside tour and had a grand day and then Pat and Kristy picked me up to go to the Bonnycastle Club for a night of Bingo. Shannon, Lenny, Daniel and Nicholas, are here on leave from Japan, Rick,Jeanine,John and Jack from Denver,CO and Michele,Joe,Julie, and Jeff from right here in town came to the Bonnycastle and we played bingo, ate, drank and be merried! What a fabulous thing it is to have such a beautiful family!

Doc enjoyed his visits from Carrie and Pat et al. Pat brought him a stocking (Ohio State Christmas stocking) filled with Hersey Bars (his favorite for the time being.)

Holidays

Current Events

It has been awhile since I've written. I am usually too tired to think at the end of the day. I've met with a few successes at school lately. After many sessions of trying to teach fractions, percents and decimals I've actually seen some improvements. Even a few students saying ,"Oh, I think I get it!" Tomorrow they may have forgotten it all but there for a little while today they could change a fraction to a decimal and a decimal to a percent. That's a great breakthrough.

Doc has been moved from one room , which was private, to another room which is double. It was quite an ordeal, he does not want a room mate!! He fought like a tiger but had to give up when they pushed him in his wheel chair down the hall and put him in his new room. For the time being, he does not have a roomie but I'm sure that won't be for long. He is very contented in the room now because it is quieter and brighter. Today he referred to his old room as that gloomy room.

He has had MRSA infection and they got rid of that but then he got seudonomos and had to take a full round of antibiotics for that and supposedly it was cleared up but as of now they are waiting for the results of another culture to see what kind of new infection he has. The culture is due back tomorrow.

Mike called a little while ago and said he was in the process of moving Jane again. She is being released from Jewish and moving to Frazier Rehab. They are hoping the next move is home. He said her spirits are good and she is walking a little now on her own but mostly uses the walker. She can eat and drink regular food and does not have to have the oxygen often. It has been 8 days since she has had to have dialysis. Things are looking good!

Ciao and Shalom PS.I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving.

Flying High

We really have some good news today. Jane,who has been dreadfully ill since last May has finally made a good turnaround. She has been hospitalized all of this time. she was in Denver in the early days of her illness and then was flown by MedVac to Louisville to the Baptist Hosp, then to Jewish Hospital. She has been on a respirator all of this time. She has occasionally been moved to a rehab facility that is housed in Jewish Hosp but always gets an infection that is serious enough to send her back to ICU. Two weeks ago her condition had deteriorated enough that she was placed on Dialysis. After a few days of that she rallyed and once again they tried weaning her off the ventilator. she has continued to improve to the point that they determined yesterday, after doing a swallow test, that she could eat food without the worry of some of the food going down into the lungs. She can breathe on her own now and does'nt even need the oxyogen in her nose. She sits up in a chair for hours at a time and can talk with the aide of a Passy-Muir button for her treac. She had her first meal yesterday and was served roast beef, potatoes and gravey and a few sides of vegetables! Her first food of any kind since last May! They moved her out of VCU today and she now has a room on one of the other floors at Jewish. They will continue with the therapy that she has been getting there in the hospital until she is able to move into a full re-hab facility. Mike was visiting some of those today in an effort to get the best he can find. With two people assisting her she can walk a few steps with a walker so she is on the road. It is remarkable!

Doc is doing OK. He was able to come home to visit for a few hours yesterday. Gregg and Paul brought him. He really enjoyed getting out. He said today that he was very tired when he got back to Klondike. He was particularly glad to see Fergus and Fergus was equally glad to see him. We do take Fergus to see him occasionally. Fergus entertains all of the residents. He visits any one that is in a wheel chair and basks in the fuss all of the personel make over him.

I am at school every day and have some great kids this year. They behave well, no bullies, no problem kids, just kids that seem to want to learn. We have had a few incidents that were unusual. Two weeks ago we had to evacuate the school because the odor of gas was pretty strong in one of the upstairs halls. LG & E came to check it out and said even though we have no gas coming into the school it could be somewhere in the neighbor hood and we could be in danger.

Our "safe place" to go is about a mile and a half away from school so we all had to walk there until the firemen, and LG&E issued an all clear. The safe place is The Melborne Heights Baptist Church on Taylorsville Rd. The kids loved it! The fire trucks passed by (as we were walking to our safe place) going to our school and blew their horns and the police cars flashed their lights and did their siren thing, while the kids yelled and waved. Other motorists joined in the fun and honked their horns and waved. It was quite a sight. There are two hundred or so students and of course about 45 staff members. We were all very amused by the fact that two of the sixth graders (that are on the bowling team that bowls after school) took their bowling balls with them. When one of the teachers noticed them about half way to the church she asked ,"Why!" One of them said," Those things cost money!" They took them because they didn't want them to blow up. The principal told them the next day that she stayed at the school and she would have watched the balls for them. When it was time to go back they sent the secretary to pick me up so that I didn't have to walk back. I must admit, I was very glad to see her because I was expremely tired!

A few days later there was a hot air balloon race at Bowman Field and one of the balloonists that had landed on our playground last year called and asked if he could come and visit us again. He said he would let the kids help get the balloon ready to go up and teach them all about ballooning. He said he would take any of the teachers up for a tethered flight that would like to go. Of course he couldn't take the kids because that would require permission slips etc.One of the teachers that I traveled to Italy with a few years ago and had taken a chair lift ride up to the top of the Isle of Capri with, asked me if I wanted to go up in the balloon with her..It was one of those, If you go I will, deals. I went up and it was fun. Getting into the balloon was a chore but with a little help I made it. I have lots of pictures to verify my flight!

I hope Dollberry, abbygus and others soon get out of their slump and bring us up to date. We can't let T. carry the load for the rest of us.

Birthdays comming up on the 22nd, 24th, and 25th. H.B to all!

It's Hot,Hot, Hot

When I was a child and would spend time at my grandparent's house in London, Ohio, I would study the titles of two framed pictures that hung in their entrance hall. One was a picture of an old man walking through the deep snow at dusk with a jug of molasses. His arm hung down at his side and his finger was grasping the curved handle of the jug. He was dressed in a slouch hat and a heavy overcoat and the picture was from the rear. Trailing behind him was a visible stream of molasses dribbling out of the earthenware jug into the snow. Up ahead quite a distance away was the farm house that was probably his destination. The caption read," IGNORANCE IS BLISS." Another picture was of a few people struggling along with their bodies bent against the blustery wind. One hand on their heads to keep the hats from blowing away and the other hand clutching their coats to their bodies.The trees were bent against the wind just as the people were. The caption on this one read, "THE WEATHER'S THE WEATHER, WHETHER OR NOT." On many occasions I would ask my grandpa what those pictures and their captions meant. He would make an attempt to explain them to me, but his words were never sufficient enough to let me think that I fully understood these conumdrums.

Today is October the 12th. Columbus Day, the leaves have not turned the rich, fall colors this year the way they usually do by Columbus Day. The Oak leaves are brown and crisp, as they fall to the parched ground. The grass, no longer green, not from an early frost but rather from the drought that has us in its throes. The temperature today is 92 degrees and has been in the nineties for much of July, August, September, and thus far in October. It is no longer difficult to convince us that Global Warming may be a problem for mankind. The Native Americans tried to teach us to take care of the Earth by setting examples for us but we ignored the suggestions they made and bowed to the pressures of the easy way out life style that we've adopted.

As I think about the two picture captions that I mentioned above I am still wondering what they mean. Grandpa tried his hardest to teach me but... Now I wonder are we being blissfully ignorant of the role we are playing in the warming of the globe? Are we responsible at all for this weather? Did we have anything to do with it? Or is the weather the weather, whether or not?

Summer is on the wane

Here it is September already and as of the 21st or thereabout summer will be officially over. I missed it, I think! Seems it was not long ago when I rode through the park on a spring morning and mused about the new leaves, the flowers cropping up, the runners, bikers and golfers out enmass and where did the time go? Yesterday, I once again drove through the park and the leaves were swirling down, no longer fresh and green, the flowers now have faded blossoms,the runners, walkers, and bikers are not as scantily clad, and the air is bordering on crisp. While it is one of my favorite times of the year, it seems to be upon us sooner than I expected. I can't say that I will miss the endless days of temperatures in the nineties but the subtle signs that soon the furnace will be needed and the jackets and sweaters will be out of the closets, lets us know that the halcyon days of summer are coming to an end. But there is always an up side to everything; it will be good to see the ubiquitous "flipflops" will once again be stored away or perhaps, dare I hope,be disposed of! We have the U of L/U of K football game over with.Whew!So, I'm sure Holloween,Thanksgiving and Christmas will be speeding toward us too.

I read or heard the other day a discussion about the fact that all tomb stones in the cemetaries and the caption under the pictures of celebrities that have passed away and so forth all have a date of birth and date of death with a dash in between.( 1952-2002) Did you ever ponder the Dash? The Dash represents your life. All the happiness you've experienced the sadness,the worry, the suffering,the joys, all the homes you may have lived in, the schools you've attended, the friends/enemies you've made, the travels you've traveled, the kindnesses and the cruelties you've inflicted. Say that the Dash would be a grade you should receive. Does your Dash deserve an A+,a D,C,? What? Would it depend on who is doing the grading? If you are grading yourself what grade would you give yourself? I'm going to start, a little late maybe, on an A. OK? I know a lot of you have A's going for you but if not ,get working on your Dash!

Summer is on the Wane

One week down!

I lived through the first week of teaching 8th grade math! I have devoted all of my reading hours to Saxon 87 Math. I have to ponder every word and phrase that the book offers so that I can go in and relay all the pertinent information to the eleven students. I'm sure some of them are far better at math than I am, however; that is to my advantage because they can learn the new concepts easily. Actually, the great need they have is the language portion of math. While some of them are very good at the mechanics they are lacking in language skills.
The vocabulary totally baffles them. I found that they were all aware of the word "consecutive" but at a loss as to what it means. Consequently, I spend a great amount of my teaching time helping them understand the language. When time to take the tests at the end of the year comes around I'm hoping that the scores will reflect the efforts that they have made to learn the language.
The basic question each and every lesson is,"When are we ever going to use this stuff?" I have my answer ready, " When you get to be my age, someone might ask you to teach them what a subtrahend is and what a minuend is and what is the commutative property of addition and if you pay attention now, you may be able to explain it to them!"
My Literature and Grammar class is such a pleasure! I'm sure that I know more than they do and I thoroughly enjoy sharing my knowledge with them. Teaching them about genres, plot, theme, and all those things is fun. My goal is to internalize all the math concepts so that I can be secure in that area also. The thing is, when am I ever going to use this stuff??

Shoot Out Update.

I,m sure you remember the shoot-out at the Kroger Shopping Center? Well, not much has transpired since then. The shootee Hummer dude is still in the hospital, the ex-cop is still free to go out and look for other four way stops to invade and the law is still investigating!

The wheels of justice and all that stuff, ya'know? The wife of the person that was shot says the J-Town police don't return her calls and she has heard very little from them and she is mad as hops. The J-Town police or the authority that speaks for them, said they return all of her calls and just talked to her recently and explained to her that they are working diligently trying to figure out who is at fault here. These things take time. It seems that the ex-cop, after the shooting, ran over and turned off the motor of the Hummer so that no one would get hurt (What a nice guy!) and he also took numerous pictures of the "crime" scene. I wonder if he took a picture of the Nat'l City Bank that he shot. Maybe his wife is into scrap booking.

The J-Town authorities think he took the pictures because of his past training as an officer of the law. This is a real cliff hanger! Watch this site for further activity on this case. Be patient, it might take awhile.

My Own Typhoon

We have something this year that we have been striving for for years. A beautiful lawn! No thanks to anything that we did though, all the credit goes to Gregg. We always maintained the lawn, we fertilized in the spring and fall and put out grass seed each year and Doc mowed regularly. I sat on a little box year after year and dug out the dandelions, knowing full well that dandelions are like sins, you can spend your whole life trying to get rid of them but when you die they are still there. After a few bouts with the sewers and the MSD the yard was nothing more than a patch of weeds with a little grass on it. Doc became unable to take care of it so Gregg took over. He fertilized, planted grass seed and used weed killer and worked a miracle. The lawn is beautiful. In order for it to stay beautiful it needs water and we have had draught and near draught conditions for the last two or three years. Gregg didn't want all of his hard work to be in vain so he installed a sprinkler. It is really neat. It is in the front bushes and it ossilates to be able to sprinkle the whole front lawn. The faucet is right outside the front door and so I can step over and stoop over when I go out to get the paper in the morning and turn it on and the automatic timer turns it off. No brainer for me.
We haven't had rain for two days or so and I stooped down to turn it on yesterday morning. Wow!I was hit by a full force blast of water. It was so powerful that I couldn't even reach over to turn it off because it was in my face and eyes and every place else. I ran around to the car and got my umbrella out and came back with it to protect my face and eyes from the blast and still had to struggle to get it off. I wonder what the people in the cars thought if they looked over and saw me. What a great home vidio it would have made. I was soaked clear through to the skin. My hair and face and clothes were dripping water. Fergus was watching me out the storm door which was getting pounded with water too. Water has a way of triggering bodily function urges and I didn't want to run through the living room in my watery state so I ran to the back door which I found was locked! I wish I had the ability to shake off the water like Fergus would have done but I am not so blessed. I had to go back through the living room after all and head for the bathroom. Not a dry spot on me. It was a very funny scene. I only wish someone could have seen it and joined me in my laughter. Apparently some one had bumped the devise and turned it the wrong way. I haven't tried to fix it yet. I'm not sure that I can and I would be afraid to turn it on to test it and run the risk of another dousing. We'll see. Thankfully it has rained off and on ever since so I haven't needed the water for the lawn. Keep the umbrella handy is my motto!Ciao

Song in my Head 2

I realize that the following post doesn't make much sense if you did not read the beginning of the blog. To do that you have to scroll down to the bottom and then click on the " older posts" thing down in the right hand corner of the blog. The blog dated June 5 has the first part of the "Cherry" story.

Song in my Head 2

We all went up to our room and I told Michele that this would be a good time to teach her some of the songs she could sing to her children. Linda washed all the cherries and washed the ash treys in the room and divvied up the cherries. Linda and I propped ourselves up on the bed and the other two took the chairs. We went through my whole repertoir of songs, ate cherries and laughed and laughed. It was so much fun. They had very little air conditioning in Athens and we had the windows open and could hear the traffic noise and the sounds of the city. There were still a lot of people on the streets.
We sang "I had a little chicken", "A penny a kiss,"" If I had a nickle" " (Kid name) is a friend of mine, he/she will kiss me anytime", "Once upon a time a goose drank wine"."Go to sleepy little baby.." " I went to Cincinnati and walked around the block..." We sang and sang and sang. Eating cherries during the whole concert. We finally switched to camp songs, "The prettiest girl I ever saw was sippin' cider through a straw.." "The Great ship Titanic.." and Linda's all time favorite "Catalina Madalina,Hoopa Stanna, Wanna Monna..." It grew later and later and we had a big day planned for the morrow and besides we were out of cherries so we wrapped it up. Our guests went off to their rooms and we went to bed. I went back to bed about eight times during the night. Did the five second rule fail me or did the two or three ashtreys of cherries do a number on me? I'll never know. I still like cherries and I still remember the fun we had that night.

To Err is Human

A few days ago I wrote a long article entitled "There's a Song in My Head" I started it one evening and finished it the next evening. I've spent untold hours since then trying to find the second half. I finally decided to go ahead and post the first half of the blog. I did and then couldn't find it despite the fact that it said I had successfully published my blog. I scrolled back through the archives and found it waaaaaay back there. Now, I'm sure that there are numerous people out there that could move it up to the spot that I intended it to be in, probably many of them just 12 or 13 years old, or younger but try as I might, I cannot figure out how to do it. I am easily defeated by technology. About ten or fifteen years ago, Karen and I took a class at Spaulding on teaching computer skills. We both got A's as I recall. We, of course were learning on Macs but I had a PC at home. Since that time I use Macs at school and my PC at home. One would think that I would be a whizz but guess what?... I am not going to give up entirely on finding my saved piece that I did.But I have a migrain headache and I am giving up for this evening. One day soon, if I don't find it, I'll start over!Ciao,ciao

Life in the Slow Lane

I spend a few hours or so every day at the Klondike Manor Nursing Home, which is officially not called a nursing home, it is a Rehabilitation and Nursing Care Facility. There are about sixty-two "residents". Doc is one of the "residents". It is a varied group of people and since I'm there for a portion of each day, I have gotten to become familiar with a number of them.
The facility itself is very neat, clean, and attractively decorated. Jane went with me to check it out before we settled on the place to move Doc to after his second stroke. His right side was paralyzed and he could get physical therapy there. Jane and I both were impressed by the fact that the place had a very nice odor. Most "homes " that we had been to had the unpleasant odor of,well,nursing homes!
It took Doc awhile to settle into the place. He's used to being in charge and having his demands met 'STAT'. It didn't happen that way and he was not too pleased and was inclined to let them know in no uncertain terms. While his speech was affected by the stroke as to the spoken word but not the volume, he did a lot of yelling. I've been told a number of times that they are used to obstreperous people there and he did not get any votes for being the worst, matter of fact he wasn't even in the running.He adapted to them and they adapted to him.
He is not a very social person so he did not even attempt to make friends. He won't eat in the dining room because they play music, 40's music, and he says he can't hear people talk with the music playing. He does enjoy going out into the patio/garden. It is beautiful. Lots of flowers, trees, bushes and birds. They have a fish pond with water lillies and huge gold fish. There are bird feeders hanging in the trees and bird nests in every available place that the birds choose to set up house keeping. There is a robin's nest on the drain pipe outside his window, a dove's nest on the drain pipe near the entrance of the building,more robins, wrens and others around the garden area. The mallards have a nest there near the fishpond and the squirrels and chipmonks abound. One day a deer came into the grassy area right outside his window. He is very contented to watch the activity of the wild life and enjoys the flora and fauna.
I have struck up a friendship with many of the residents. There is a man there that has a nervous laugh. He is very friendly and kind. He is about 88yrs old and he also served in WW 2 just as Doc did. He reminisces about his days as a dancer. He was a dance instructor and danced at Fountain Ferry Park in the old days. He married one of his dance partners but it didn't work out and he married another girl. They had triplets. Two identical girls and a boy. When I asked why he was there at Klondike he said, "Because my wife put me here!" Ha,ha,ha. He told Doc she put him there because he hit her and knocked her down. Ha,ha,ha.Actually he is a very kind good hearted man. He frequently says, I love you and always says God Bless you when you leave. Ha ha!
Arlene is a very ill patient. she suffers great pain most of the time but she can forget it for awhile if she can wheel herself into the patio and talk with us for a few moments. She spent her life working for the govertnment, the IRS, to be exact. She has a condo that she was living in but has had to put it up for sale in order to pay her fees at Klondike. Her daughter just graduated from Spaulding with another degree, summa cum laude and has emmediately registered for further studies. She is about 35 years old and up to this point her mom has financed her. Arlene said she hated to tell her that she was on her own now because she needs her money to pay her bills. Her drug bills alone cost $1500.oo a month. She says it costs her about $5000. a month to reside at KM.She is taken by ambulance every Mon. Wed. and Fri to Suburban for Kidney Dialysis. When I stop at McDonalds or Wendy's for a milk shake for Doc now and then, I always bring her one too. Her 98 year old mother comes to visit despite the fact that Arlene begs her not to come because she drives herself!
Ruth was brought here from Cleveland by her son because he wanted her near his home. She is not used to this heat and humidity but she likes it. She is very sharp and can converse about a variety of subjects. Even though it is ninety degrees, she still brings her sweater with her when she comes to the patio. She is baffled by the fact that she is still alive. She questions the reasoning of God that He lets her keep on living. She says she has no purpose in life and sees herself as a semi-burdon for her son. She had emergency surgery in April and had to have a colostomy. She can't figure out why. She's 93 years old. Waiting for God!
I am quite surprised to know how many people are here that we know. One of the people lived down the street from us for the last 40 years or so. She was a well known figure in the neighborhood because of her profession. Her husband owned a girly bar down on Third St. and in her hey day she was a stripper. The aides have viewed her scrap book and heard some of her expertiences. She rolls into Doc's room occasionally and he yells at her to 'Get Out!' She is always looking for ways to get out of the 'home' and asks people to help her escape. She seems lonely to me but is not too aware of her plight.
I love most of the aids and nurses on the staff. They are or can be quite funny. They are loud and raucus at times but their job is very difficult. They have to take a lot of guff and deal with a lot of complaints. They have to take their lunch breaks and cigaret breaks out in the patio and their conversations are sometimes a riot. They argue over who has the least stretch marks, who has the laziest husband, who is the best cook, unlimited subjects to discuss. I would love to record some of them because they are so funny. They are quite taken with my shoes and check each day to see which ones I am wearing. I explained to them that I have to make up for the lack of shoes I had growing up during the depression when I had to cut out news paper liners for my shoes to cover the holes in the soles. I avoided walking on the cement that way. They were amused! It's true, ladies! They are the unsung heros of the decrepid members of society! More later.(ha,ha,ha)

Miracles do happen

I went to the hospital to see Jane today and what a happy day! Andrea was there doing her nails, giving her a pedicure and washing her hair. She, for the first time smiled, even laughed once, and mouthed the words "No and Yes" and before I left I told her goodbye and said something to her and she responded by mouthing the words, "I will".
Tomorrow they may move her to an acute rehab place at Jewish Hospital. She will be getting speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy. You should see her, she looks great! Keep the prayers going!

Socializing

I haven't been going to the grocery as often lately and I've missed out on a lot of my socializing. The trip to Krogers quite often is the highlight of my social life. Almost always I have encounters with friends, neighbors, parents of children I've taught and various other people that I know. Occasionally, I interact with people I don't know.
You'd be surprised at how many words of wisdom, words of derision,words of sympathy and words of advise are dealt out in the produce aisle, prescription counter, and other areas of the food mecca.
Profound statements and useless information, medical advise, marital advise, parenting advice are all handed out with sublime equanimity.
I have frequent encounters with Rita who enjoys passing on all of the bad news that she has heard lately about mutual friends and neighbors. "Mary, you remember her,broke her leg a few days before her wedding and had to go down the aisle in a wheel chair. One of her neighbor, Jim, backed his car out of the garage and ran over his wife's walker. Fortunately, she wasn't using it at the time; however she 's not getting around too well lately.
Joe keeps me updated on his PSA test results and his golf scores. He gets pretty fired up about the latest goings on in Washington and bemoans the fact that there are so many ill informed people in this country that vote these "baboons" into office.
Danny, that I taught for a few years is now grown up, married and has two boys. Do I think they should be tested for learning differences? I advised him to give it serious thought. They surely are cute boys.
Inga keeps me up to date on what her tall dark handsome son is doing and how many jobs he has had. She is thinking of taking the test to see if she can become a citizen of the U.S. She has lived here for thirty or forty years and has never been able to vote!
Kitty moved here from the North and has had a hard time adjusting to the accents of some of her new friends. She called to congratulate Sue on the birth of her new baby and when told that the baby is "blond" she made a fuss about that and remarked about how cute blond babies are. She teared up when she told me that she had misunderstood. Actually the baby is blind.
Dorothy is ninety and she is shopping for potatoes because she is bringing potato salad to a party she is attending. "Can you believe the price of potatoes?" Anyway, the party giver is even older than Dorothy and when Dorothy called her to check and see if anyone else was bringing potato salad her friend said, "Am I having a party tonight?" Dorothy called the daughter of the friend and confirmed that the party was in fact going to happen, her friend just forgot that she had sent out
invitations.
Jack has a terrible time with his wife. She is unable to do anything around the house. She can't cook any more, nor do house work and he has to do everything! The only respite he gets is going to the grocery and to church on Sunday. He would like to visit Doc but he would not be able to leave her unattended for that long. They had no children, he had one brother but he died and her only sister died so they are completely and totally alone. I can remember when we were all younger and they were free to go where they wanted, Bahamas, California, etc. etc. and had plenty of money to do all those things. They had no tuition bills, pediatrician bills, large grocery bills,they seemed so foot loose and fancy free. Now, they have no sons or daughters that care for them, no grandkids or great grandkids, no neices or nephews or anyone that really cares for them. What a lonesome life. I always walk away from him thanking God for our blessings.
Advise is asked for and given on things like how do you know if a chicken is fresh, do you think this melon is ripe enough, what's that stuff called, (rhubarb) what do you do with it? How do you cook asperagus? Is this cabbage or lettuce? What is mush? How do you cook it? Is it good? Why did you open all the egg cartons before you chose one? Teachable moments happen on a regular basis.
Happy shopping most of the time except for Senior Citizen Day! That's a whole new ballgame!

Pokemon is alive and well.

Gregg and I went to Florida last week. Seamless trip down and back. non-stop flights are definitely the way to travel. The twins are super role players. I don't think we ever see the "real" twins. They take on the persona of whatever their latest interest is and go from there. In their short life time they have been squirrels, dogs,cardinals,cats,mice etc.etc. At the preset time they are Pokemons. They have videos, pokemon cards, stuffed Pokemons and access to the computer game of Pokemon. They map out strategies, they speak of evolving, they have all of the names down pat and Bridget can draw most of the figures. Whew!

We went to Myakka for the express purpose of taking an air boat trip through the lake to see all of the aligators. I've done that before and thought it was a facinating thing to do but they are having a serious drought in
FL and the water was too low to sail the air boats. There are usually canoe trips available also. I'm too chicken to sail in the alligator infested waters to go on a canoe trip but Angela and Keith have done it and I'm sure Gregg would have done it but once again the water level was too low. We did climb a beautiful, well made tower to see the "jungle" from above and that was a neat thing to do but neverthe less I was dissapointed that we did not get to get up close and personal with the alligators.

We went to Lido Beach after dinner and while I sat on the beach, Keith,Angela, twins and Gregg swam. It was a perfect evening. The water was warm, the air cool and the sunset was beautiful. The moonlight was pretty bright and very visible before the sun had fully set.

Keith was quite busy while we were there. He is enjoying his job as legislator and is appropriately involved in the business of legislating.

Back home, Doc is doing well at Klondike and Jane is making incremental gains every day. Sign off time. Ciao

Shoot-out at the Stony Brook Kroger

Even though it is still early in June, we are already in those hazy, lazy days of summer.It's when the livin' is easy, kick back and relax with an iced tea or cold drink of choice. Listen to the katy-dids and buzzing bees and find a place in the shade to doze off and let the rest of the world roll by. Or,go up to Krogers and roll up to a four way stop and pull out your gun and blaze away at the Hummer dude that had shown his gun to you when the two of you disagreed on whose turn it was to go first. Have we seriously regressed or what? Whatever happened to civility? The news reported that the two men exchanged words before firing and waving a gun about. How do you suppose that went? "You first." "No,no, you first." "No, that's OK, I am not in any hurry." Hummer dude pulls gun and is about to say, "I insist." His words were drowned out by the hail of bullets piercing his door and his arm and his head. I always thought of Hummers as being as impenetrable as a Brink's truck! Not so! Of
course, I may have it all wrong, it may just be an unfortunate misunderstanding. Maybe it was Hummerdude's birthday and he just got his fully legal 40 caliber,simi-automatic gun for his birthday and he was just showing it to the ex-cop with no ill intent. Ex-cop wants to show him that he too has a fully legal 40 caliber simi-automatic gun, forgetting that he has a hair trigger and so he got shooting and didn't quit till he had shot up the Hummer, the Hummerdude and the National City Bank. He also shot the lazy day of summer all to heck and back. I'm trying to be understanding about this incident but...

There's a Song in My Head

In a conversation that I was having the other day I was reminded of an incident that took place in Greece a few years back when Linda and I traveled there. I decided
to share some of those experiences once in awhile.
We were in Athens one evening and were walking around visiting the various shops in the Platka and a street vendor came along pushing a huge wooden cart filled with dark red Bing cherries. Those cherries looked so delicious and were not at all expensive. The vendor was a very old Greek man with a slouch hat and baggy pants, as he put the scoops of cherries in a bag for me, one cherry fell to the street. Using the five second rule, I reached down and scooped it up, rubbed it on my skirt and popped it into my mouth. One of the people with our group was horrified.She rushed over and put her arm around my shoulder and chastised me for eating a cherry off the dirty Athens street. The temperature that day had been 105 degrees and I didn't think germs could survive the heat. We all bought cherries and then decided to go up to our room and eat them. One of the women had asked me to teach her some of the songs that I used to sing to my children when they were little. She has two young children and wanted suggestions. I agreed to teach her but had not yet found the time or place to begin.

Hollywood continued

This was the first Derby ever for Paul Duryea and so I told him early on what to expect. When we first got there the whole area was still wet and muddy from the overnight rains, the track was one sloppy mess. Our location is right on the fence and then there is about 10 feet of grass and then the track, so we are well aware of the condition of the track throughout the day. When those horses roar around that bend and head on full speed ahead for that finish line they could well say, "Here's mud in your eye". "Not to worry," I told Paul. It was only about noon and I assured him that in a few races and a few draggings of the track by the draggin machines,all would be well and when the horses came around that bend they'd be kicking up dust. It was quite grey and gloomy also but there again I told him that just before the Derby when he could hear the first strains of "My Old Kentucky Home" the sun would burst through the clouds and shine bright on our Old Ky. Home. He was very amused at my senario, he did't believe me! He muttered, "Yeah, right"! The track became dryer and dryer and looked more and more loamy as we watched from race 1 through 9 but the skies were still cloudy and gray till, Hark! just as the strains of MOKH began what to our wondering eyes should appear but the beautiful sun bursting through the clouds and we all knew that the DERBY was near. I explained to Paul that we would all be expected to sing and when we get to the part where we sing, "Weep no more ,my Lady, weep no more today, we will sing one song for my OLD KENTUCKY HOME" (the obligatory tear should be rolling down your cheek) " for My Old Kentucky Home far away." He protested loudly at that. " No way," he jeered, "no way". He claimed that he did not know the words so he could not sing." HA" my turn to jeer. "I'll teach you the words. Just watch my lips." I sang as loud as I could and lead the onlookers behind us to join in and as advertised, right on cue, Karen burst into tears! This totally, absolutely, wiped Paul out. He shouted, "I can't believe this!" I saw what I thought was a tear in his eye but he insisted it was a drop of beer that had splashed into his eye! Aw, come on.! I told the crowd, "He just doesn't get it. He JUST doesn't get it." Paul,you've got one year to learn the words, when you come next year we will expect you to join us. Stephen Foster will be honored. Bring extra kleenex for the onslaught of tears!

We had such a perfect day. Alex and his young cousin Thomas were delightful. They wanted to see everything and wanted everything explained. Furlongs, tri-fectas, boxed bets,out riders, etc. they went home with an extended vocabulary. All of Pat's friends and family that accompanied him were enthralled. Nathan's ump friend and his girl friend had a great time too. I understand that Scott, (I think that was his name) wanted to ask his girl friend to marry him while they were here but I'm not sure that that happened. Once again I'm very tired and will be in bed soon. Having fun can be tiring. I love having Cynthia come and glad she brought Paul this year, now she'll have to work on other family members. Even Doc asks why Mart doesn't come. Mart, come on down! IRISH BLESSING, May the dust of your carriage wheels blind the eyes of your foes. "Slainthe is saul agat" (Health and life to you!!)

We all thank Brian for giving us the opportunity to have such a magnificent day. I thank him for carting me around in the Gator. Queen Eliz. couldn't be treated any better than I am. Linda held down the fort and provided my glass or two of wine and Karen provided the wine glasses and sang a duet with me to keep me centered. "What's round on the ends and hi in the middle?" (Reminds us of our roots). Gregg, too, he provided the tarp, the gazebo and the smoked turkey that once again was so delicious. Let's hear it for my family! See the pictures on the Web Site.

Hollywood Ending of another Derby

No blog for Saturday because I was too busy having another great day, another trip to the track, another day of fun and laughs. I started off Derby day by going to see Doc at Klondike and by the time I got home from there, Cynthis and Paul Duryea were already at our house. They were out in back being entertained by our watch dog extrodinair, Fergus.I finished packing up the food that I had spent part of Sat. purchasing and we waited a few minutes for Gregg to get there. Linda had gone out early (7AM) to watch our established space and protect it from any late coming squatters. We claim the front row site right in front of the media building that houses the betting windoes and the rest rooms,there is also a pool table in there but so far we've never felt the urge to shoot pool during the races.

Our tarp was down our gazebo up, our chairs lined up and the coolers situated and with racing forms, and programs in hand, we were ready for some heavy duty thinking. At first I was slightly miffed by the fact that there were so many tents and gazebos but once we were in our spot I forgot about the other people and settled in for the fun.

Alex Dolwick was the youngest member and I was the oldest. Everyone else was in between. Alex, Pat,(dad of Alex,) and the before mentioned entourage of Pat's, Thomas and his mon and dad, his mom being Pat's sister-in-law, Pat's father in-law,Chuck, Pat's neighbor and his wife,and Pat's fellow worker,and his wife drove up from North Carolina on Thursday. Some of them along with Paul Dolwick attended the Oaks race in the Infield and were very soggy by the end of the day. It rained most of the day.

The rest of our group, Nathan and his former umpire friend, Scott and Scott's fiance, from Denver, Cynthia Sullivan, and Paul Duryea, my niece and grand nephew, from Cincinnati, Karen,Linda and I plus Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip from London,Eng. were all there. (Q Liz didn't sit with us.)(Her loss)

To be continued tomorrow because I am still tired from the outing and I'm going to bed. As they say in Jolly Old Eng. Tata.

Getting Closer

According to the countdown clock on the home page, we are 15hours and 30 minutes away from Derby Day. I haven't checked with the Dolwicks to see if all arrived safe and sound. I'm assuming that they did. Brian was out for a minute last evening and he said he is working the first race (DerbyDay) and will be working the Derby race itself for one of Pletcher's horses. He is not sure which one yet.

For today's Oaks race, if I get an opportunity to send some bets out, I think I would bet on High Heels,Cotton Blossum and I forget the other one I was thinking about.

The events leading up to the Derby have been spectacular. Thunder over Louisville was attending by an estimated 800,000 people, the Balloon Glow was good, the Mini Marathon was huge and the weather perfect for running, the Steam Boat race was again won by Louisville under a cloud of doubt (they cheated) They said they were cut off by the River Queen, Yeah, right! The Pegasus Parade went off without a hitch. Doc and I watched it on TV, He loves a Parade! We saw Kristin with the Girl Scouts. Very exciting.

It's early in the day, no school so i'm off to get ready for the races. More later.

Countdown continues

Thursday evening and we are expecting Patrick and his entourage to be coming in from North Carolina soon. They have had a few delays on the road and thanks to cell phoneage Paul and Karen have been apprized of their status. Cynthia will be coming down from Cincinnati but she won't be here till Saturday morning. Gregg purchased the fresh turkey from Kingsleys yesterday and will be smoking it in his Big Green Egg, I think that is what it is called, I will be shopping tomorrow for the bread and dressings for the sandwiches and the side dishes. The tarp, a few chairs, and a cooler filled with beverages are sitting on the back porch waiting for Brian to take them to the track. Things are moving right along. Nathan and a few of his buds and Linda and Larry will be joining us also.

Tomorrow,(Friday) is Oaks Day and some of the Dolwick faction will be attending that event and be located in the Infield. Good luck, Y'all!

Countdown continues and I will write more tomorrow.Irish Proverb.. You must crack the nuts before you can eat the kernel

Derby Countdown

We are all reving up for our trek to the track. Gregg even put a countdown "clock" on our home page. Louisville, at Derby time is alive with excitement. It is the most beautiful time of the year here, too. All of the azalias, dogwood trees,redbud trees, tulip trees and tulips, daffodils, pansys and numerous other flowers are in full bloom. The trees have their new leaves and they are such a fresh, clean green. Louisville's Operation Brightside has been out on the streets cleaning up the highways and by-ways getting ready for the big day. We are spiffing up for the more than 100,000 visitors that will come to admire our city, see our horse race, drink our mint juleps and boost our economy. Only in Louisville is there a horse race like the Kentucky Derby, run. Known all over the world.

The Fitzgerald family are reving up also. It is so much fun to plan and discuss and recall last year and the years before that. Looking back,thirty three years ago, our friends the Wilsons , Micky and Warner and their two kids, came to join us and Keith and Brian in the Infield for the hundreth derby. Karen and Paul and members of Paul's family from Akron came to join in the crazyness. We spent the whole day there and saw some unbelievable sights, ate Ky Fried Chicken, laughed at some of the "goings On" and were duly shocked at some of the "goings on", bet money on our favorites, drank a julep or two, sang "My Old Kentucky Home", (got teary eyed) welcomed the call to the post, went home at the end of the day, tired, dusty, hungry, happy and a wee bit dissapointed that we had not seen a horse!We still talk about our Day at the Races.

Since then, we've been to many more. The mystique is still there. We still love it, talk about it and look forward to it. One year, Linda, Larry and I sat in fantastic seats next to the winners circle,right under the twin spires and got to see Brian and Wayne Lucas greet their horse that had just run, and got to be upclose and personal with all of the other horses that won that day. We went to the paddock and watched the horses get their saddles on. Actually, the jockeys saddled them up. We saw a few of the rich and famous and whats more they got to see us!

Both those experiences were great but pale in comparison to what we have done in recent years. Brian works for Wayne Lucas and each year we have the privlege of setting up our space on the back side of the track and have the most fun of all.

We bring our food, chairs, tarps, coolers, and have our annual derby picnic. We see every horse in every race. They run right in front of us, we can hear the thunder of their hooves and feel the rumble of the ground when those thousands of pounds of horses race about ten feet in front of us with just the fence and some yards of grass between them and us. We can look over and see the 100,000 plus people in the boxes, grand stands, sky terrace, millionairs row and the thousands of people in the infield and know that there is no way that they can buy a ticket to the spot we are in.
To be continued.Two more days and counting! Rain, rain go away! I hope the weather men are as far off on the rain as they were on the snow all winner. However, we spent one day in torrents of rain at the track and had a great time. It dampened our clothes, tarp etc, but not our spirits.

true grit

Larry is one of the members of the Thunder Over Louisville team that work all year long getting ready for the big event. He oversees all of the river traffic. Where the boats can and cannot go, where the barges go etc. etc. The team start planning immediately after the event for the next year's Thunder. This year after a full year of planning Larry had a big problem. He and Linda go ahead and get a room at the Galt House on Friday night so that he can be in the command center as late as necessary and not have to worry about driving home and then back down town early Sat. morning. At 2:30 or 3;00 AM he called Linda and told her he could not breathe. She took him immediately to Baptist East to the ER. It was determined there that he was in Congestive Heart Failure. They took the necessary steps to relieve him and started a series of tests, after admitting him to the hospital. At 5:00 AM he checked himself out because he said he had a job to do! The hospital made him sign a paper saying that he would not blame them if he didn't make it. He promised that he would be back as soon as Thunder was over.

He went back down to the command center and worked all day but they had taken the precaution of having an Emergency Medical Tech on duty all day. She had the equipment needed to give immediate care in the event that he or any of the others needed it.

He made it through the day and as promised went back to Baptist East where he is still being treated today. You do what you have to do!

Meanwhile Doc is still in Klondike Manor trying to regain the strength and movement of his right arm and leg. He had a stroke on February 16 and spent 7 days in the hospital and then was moved to Baptist rehab facility where he stayed for 12 days. He was doing very well until March 25 when he had another stroke. It paralyzed his right side. After 5 days in the hospital we moved him to Klondike Manor rehabilitation center. It is close to home and easy to get to. He has been under very strenuous therapy ever since. He works five days a week trying to regain the use of his arm and leg. Last Friday he was very pleased with himself because they had "game day" in re-hab and he was the star of the day because he got five out of five in the game of corn hole! One of the therapist asked if he had played basketball at Ohio State. He really got a kick out of that. He is kidded a lot because he wears so many Ohio State athletic shirts and sweat pants. Someone asked, snidely, if that person had seen him standing up. I pointed out that in the days when he would have been playing basketball you didn't have to be seven feet tall. A six foot man was considered a giant. The baskets were 10 feet off the floor in those days too and it took raw skill to make baskets.

He is making steady progress, his arm has regained some of the feeling and he can move it now. His leg is a little slower coming back but each day he can do a little bit more. Today they told me he had worked three straight hours and among other things he had walked with the walker,with the therapist holding his walking belt and someone following behind with a wheel chair to let him sit when he had had enough. He walked 80 feet! By the time I got there at noon he was eating lunch. I took him outside into the patio/garden to sit awhile and then he wanted to go in and take a nap.

Yesterday was his birthday. He is 86 years old. His favorite thing to eat is lobster and his favorite pie is lemon, so Gregg, Linda and I went to have lunch with him. Gregg brought him a full lobster tail dinner and I brought a lemon pie I had baked. He got lots of cards, a Happy Birthday balloon and visits from Gregg, Linda, Karen, Brian,Mike, Jane, Paul and me. Big day. I think he really enjoyed it.

Both these guys know what it takes and know how hard it can be to accomplish things.
An Irish toast to the both of them,"May you live all the days of your life! Slainte!

THE VERSED SYNDROME

I mistakenly called Stilz Avenue Speed Ave. in my last blog. Now, understand, I am not one to make excuses but due to my history of the last seven years, I have had multiple doses of a drug called Ver-sed(syllabication is my idea) It is an amneasia drug. The patient is fully awake and aware of the procedure taking place but within a short time the memory of the procedure is lost for all time. I must wonder if it has long term effects on the patient. Those times when you try to recall facts, names, experiences and so on and draw blanks, could well be "Versed moments," instead of " Senior moments" or "blond moments," or "memory lapses" or downright "dumb moments". You be the judge. Would you be unkind to a person who has intermittent or recurrent amnesia? Lets hope not!Mea culpa.

Another Spring!

I drove through Seneca and Cherokee Park this morning and it was evident that Spring had truly arrived. I drive through there frequently on Saturday mornings and there is always some activity but today was especially awesome.First of all the golfers were out in numbers. Golf carts wheezing along the fairways and the new walkway. All the guys eager to get out there and forget all of their bad habits and really play some golf this year. Hope springs eternal in the golfers heart.The trees and shrubs are just beginning to blossom out. The Tulip Trees are the most advanced in the blooming stage, then the Red Buds ,finally the DogWoods beginning to take on their popcorn personna. All of the other trees are beginning to bud out too. A beautiful sight. A new beginning. I love it! The winding roads were alive with runners and power walkers in various stages of dress and (almost) undress. Bare legs and almost bare cheeks on some of the ladies. Muscle shirts and slick running shorts on the macho guys.A few baby stroller/runner carriages with shapely moms pushing up and down hills. Even a balding fiftyish guy cruising through the throng in his convertible with the top down.Would it be Spring for real if you didn't see a convertible with the top down on the first day of 60+ weather? As I left the park and drove down Speed Ave. on my way to Frankfort Ave. I could see a train in the distance on the tracks that run parellel with Frankfort Ave. As I drew nearer I could see the train consisted of Army vihicles of all sorts and types, even brand new Red Cross ambulances, jeeps, half-ton trucks and many conveyences that I could not identify. A sudden jolt back to the reality of war and all that it entails. I fervently hope and pray that all of our men, women and boys will live to enjoy the beauties of springs in the future.

home

We came home from the rehab center last Wednesday, Mar.7. The task of taking care of a diabetic is horrendous! I'm sure it will get easier and easier but for now getting the bloodsugar number, giving the insulin shots and manageing all of the medication is quite a task. My first shock after getting Doc home was getting all of the prescriptions filled at the pharmacy. It was not only a shock for me but the pharmacist, and all of the people standing in line for their turn, were shocked too. The total that I had to pay was $337.00. Not counting the Avandia. The Avandia was over $200.00 dollars so they suggested that I only pay for 5 pills and hope that their call to our Dr.and his call to the drug comapny would result in a lesser amount. I am going to check that out today to see if they were successful. I knew when I heard that he was going to be put on Avandia that it would be expensive! Just how much does Patty LaBelle and or Della Reece charge to urge all of us to rush to our Dr. and ask for Avandia? The supplies for diabetics are paid for by Medicare but not all of the various drugs that are supposedly going to keep him alive. He, who is well known by members of the family as being opposed to taking pills, now takes 12 pills a day plus two shots of insulin. He is also required to drink thickened liquids because of the residual effects of his stroke. He has a swallowing problem and is not permitted to have any thin liquids or foods. He cannot have any food that melts at room temperature,(ice cream, jello, popsicles etc.) and may not eat anything crunchy, which means that cereal three times a day is no longer an option. Life, as we knew it does not exist anymore. Ciao,ciao

Long Days

I have been spending all of my time at the hospital or the re-hab center. Very tiring. As soon as things improve enough that I can be home for an extended time, that is , anytime longer than three or four hours, I have already composed a few blog entries in my head and I will print them.

Doc is doing well. Today he walked without his walker and walked better than I've seen him walk in a year or so. He had to be talked into walking with a rolling walker and I think he may stick to that. He has all kinds of therapy and the one's I've sat in on are very good. I particularly enjoyed the speech therapist. I guess he still has a lot more that they want to teach him so he will probably be there for another week or so. As long as it is doing him some good I am all for it.

MOre in a few weeks. I'm pleased that Carrie joined the bloggies, I really like reading Pat's (better known as Dolberry) and the Sparky etc. Sometime I should identify who the Owl'sPineTree is. I never have time. Ciao

Same theme

Guess what? We are going to have snow tomorrow! Could this be the real thing this time? Predictions call for 1 to 2 inches on the grass!! Double Wow! We shall see.
I'm on my winter break and it would be so lovely to have snow on Saturday and maybe it would linger into Sunday and then warm up to 60. Ohio has had so many snow days that they have used up all of the days allotted to them by the state. So any that come from now till May have to be made up in June. Bummer.

More Snow Reports

Every day since my last blog the tireless meteorologists have continued to talk snow. They have crawlers across the bottom of the screen saying "snow watch' they show pictures of the area map with white patches, green patches and blue patches and inform us of which patches represent 1 inch, 2inches, etc. and warn us repeatedly that we must be very cautious when driving, walking , sleeping and any other activity that one might engage in in the course of a day. "It will start to snow Mon on into Tues. and then maybe a light dusting on Wed. Guess what! Nada, nothing, just a few flakes. Maybe a light dusting but only those of us that get up at 6 AM get to see it, and it is just on the grass. Two feet of snow to the north of us 6 feet to the far west of us, So new forecasts come out. There will really be snow on Thurs. Friday and on into the week-end. UH, No snow. They are so persistant, they come on again when those days have gone by and still no measureable snow and start predicting again! They never giveup. Here we are at Friday of this week and despite all the predictions, we still have not had snow but we did get to see the pictures of Owesda, N.Y. shoveling out from under 88 inches of Lake Effect snow. I must admit, I don't want 88 inches or maybe not even a foot but I would like to make some snow Ice Cream and would like to look out the window at the snow piling up and put a pot of white chili on to bubble and boil, and huddle up with my book and read! I haven't given up yet. Tonight John Belski said we may have snow next Wed. on into Thurs.!!Ya' think?

M.N.T.D

I did actually write a long blog entitiled Mourn Not the Dead, that happens to be the beginning of a quotation of William Penn. "Mourn not the dead, but rather mourn the apathetic throngs that see the world its anquish and its wrongs and dare not speak. I expounded on the situation in our country and world today and the lack of people speaking out against all of the wrongs and all of the anguish that surrounds us. I tried to spell check and my writings disappeared and they are floating around in cyber space I know not where. I tried everything I knew to try to retrieve them but my skills are limitted. If they should re-appear as mysteriously as they disappeared I will share them with you. Ciao

snow

To snow or not to snow, that is the question. For days and days the weather men have been predicting snow. They keep telling us there is going to be an inch, an inch and a half, a dusting, flurries, a flake! So far there have been a few flurries sdrifting down but no visible signs of an accumulation. I had a little girl in school tell me one time. It's snowing but it is not landing! thus far that is an accurate account of what has gone on for the last two or three weeks.

Once again, there are predictions. The new system is to predict by bread loaves! (I kid you not) If the picture on the screen shows an opened loaf of bread with a few slices visible, sort of falling out of the wrapper, that is flurries, if a whole slice is separated from the loaf and standing alone, that is an inch, half a slice is a dusting. I'm predicting that if a whole slice of bread is exposed on TV there will be no bread in the stores.

People go to the stores in droves when any snow is mentioned on the News. They stock up on bread, some times 5 or more loaves. Milk also is a big item. If they normally use a gallon of milk a week, they buy 2 or 3 gallons, "just in case". If we have two feet of snow they will be ready.

I used to have a system, if snow was predicted three times and failed to show up, the fourth time we might get 1/2 inch or so. I am well aware that meteorology is not an exact science but crying wolf is.

Once again it is supposed to snow tomorrow, Friday and into Sat. with a possible accumulation of 1 to 3 inches! I say,"LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW."

Mourn not the dead

Ramblings

I am having trouble posting things on the discussion page of the Fitz Web page. For awhile I was just communicating with myself. But at least the posts were visible but since then things have gone down hill. Now all of my posts are just #'s.

I probably didn't have anything profound to say anyway. Maybe it is just as well that thay were not published. I've got to get the hang of all this new fangled stuff so I can really have my say. So far they are all complaints about my inadequacies. Don't complain, just explain. An Irish proverb : 'It's a bad hen that won't scratch herself. ' Whatever that means!

Today I went to Dick Milburn's funeral. Last evening, Doc and I went to the viewing at Pearsons' funeral home in St. Matthews. I was quite surprised and pleased that Doc concented to go. When I asked if he wanted to go with me and said, "Yes, he was a good person and a good neighbor." We met other neighbors and former neighbors there. The one's that still remember Doc walking around the block for all those years, were glad to see him and greeted him very lovingly. Debbie Haddad was there and she and I had a small reunion. She cried and said how much she still misses all of us. The three remaining Milburn boys were doubly pleased to see us and were very affectionate. Today I went to the funeral. Doc wasn't up for that. Once again we met many former and present day neighbors. The funeral itself, was very different. First the open casket was in front of the lecturn and the minister opened the ceremony with reading the eulogy, word for word, from the news paper. Dick had written it in prepararion of his death. Then the minister tried to tell his story of knowing Dick. It was very poorly stated and actually no picture of Dick was in the words. After the whole church stood and sang a hymn the "pastor" asked for one of Dick's friends to give the formal eulogy. It was one of Dick's best friends and he was very,very good. He had some great stories and really gave a true picture of his friend. We could all laugh and also shed some tears. I'll digress a moment here, the minister described Dick as a quiet man, and we all knew him to be very loud. After Rose Lee, he was the loudest neighbor we had. After the friend, volunteers from the crowd spoke. They were also very good and really eulogized Dick appropriately. Dick had talked to me recently about his Grandson, Stan JR. who he said was having a really hard time getting over or dealing with his dad's death. Stan died on Derby Day, Dick said he had been doing all he could do to help him cope but had finally recommended that he get professional help. That grandson volunteered to speak and Dick would have been very proud of him, he was wonderful. Other friends and another Grandson spoke and then we sang Amazing Grace while smelling the odor of roast beef wafting through the air. As closure, the 'Pastor' invited everyone to meet in theFellowship Room for lunch prepared by the women from the congration and" thank you all for coming." Not even an Amen. I'm not being critical I am just giving an account of a Prespeterian funeral for a good man that will be sorely missed in the 'hood.

OK it works now.

I was unable to post anything on my blog because it said my cookies were not connected or something but now it is working. Gregg came over today and he did something or other to it and I am suddenly able to post. Now, I've forgotten all of the things I was going to post. Pat, someday I will do a music review that will be quite long. I've been through all of the music genres from Glenn Miller down through the ages. (Swing, R&B, Rock and Roll, Protest, Country, etc.) Having had teenagers in the home for 25 full years, I've pretty much run the gamut. As soon as I get time to really devote a chunk of time to it I will get busy.

What's up with this "cookies" business?