November 2014 – thereisnosanityclause

Football Withdrawl

The Philadelphia Eagles didn’t play football today.

We are sitting here at the breakfast bar trying to move it down a notch, getting ready to try to sleep a little before we come up to the big city and it just is so weird that there is no football.

I walked with Kasia and did 12,000+ steps today with her and did things around the house, but it really is weird, as we have gotten use to watching and/or listening to football on a Sunday afternoon or Sunday night. This is a change from us, as we normally are baseball people.

Zush sleeping as is Kasia, and we are getting ready getting to shower to relieve some aches and relax and try to get some sleep. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the football season is over…lol.

All in this together

Zush and Kasia and I did our walking today.

I think we did the 10,0000 steps on the main route that is still closed down so it was easy for us to walk it, and for Zush, well, with her designer, expensive arthritis medicine, she kept walking , albeit slowly, so we were ok, as it was not a race.

I enjoyed the time together with the girls: we get out and I think the stress level for us goes down and we are all happy.

We managed to get done in time for Jim and I to go for 4 PM Mass, so now, we are back, and we are one more walk away from calling it a night, as I know we are all tired.

Hope you enjoyed your Saturday and have a fabulous Sunday.

So beat!

This trying to keep up with at least 10,000 steps a day is really rough, especially on Fridays.

I lose a bit of time on Fridays because of the time we use running in the car down to undisclosed.Usually I try to squeeze in a few walks with the girls during the day before we have to go in the car.

Today, my legs were so sore but fortunately I got to my 10,000 steps. Since October 29, I have walked 75.78 miles…it is an average of 4. something miles a day.

So forgive me-a hot shower and hair appointment await in the morning,

Another day

I am waiting for a day of personal peace. I am waiting for a day where my voice is heard, my opinion is asked for and accounted for.

This is not the post I wanted to write tonight but I am very tired. I am preparing my future life and I must get it right, for there is no one to blame but me for whatever I plan. It is very intimidating, but as a grown up, I have a right to figure out how to deal with what’s coming down the road.

Prayers and good vibes are appreciated.

Thanks.

Fighter

I went to make a sick call for Church tonight and stopped at a former neighbors while I was in the area.

I heard her call,” Come in.” and did, only to see her crying.

My good friend lost her 47-year-old daughter to cancer. She passed away today.

I immediately thought back to my niece, Sandy, who passed away at 18 to a mid brain tumor. Jeanne passed away today from metastatic breast cancer at the age of 47. She left behind her mom, 2 brothers, 2 sisters, husband, and two children, 10 and 8 years old.

Jeanne fought the good fight and gave it her all, but as I say a lot: cancer is a very mean disease.

Heaven needed another angel.
Rest in peace, Jeanne.

Packing it in without folding up shop

Getting everything together is a job.Anyone who has gone through the process of retirement and moving knows how it goes.You struggle to get things together while life goes on around you.

The problem is getting run down while trying to take the Undisclosed Location down to our new home.Our sleep is off, weather has been all over the board, and in the meanwhile, We are both running a little on the ragged side.It’s rough that our sleep is off and we are worrying about all other stuff, I have come down with classic “falling apart at the seams” health. Jim isn’t quite as sick as me.I am doing but a couple of ailments but the problem is they are all dancing around at the same time.Jim picked up a prescription for me today. Add to the equation that holidays are here.

Hopefully we all will get through this and I am praying next year will be better.

Thanksgiving week

It’s that time of year again for me.

I think it’s kind of common that when you get to a point in a life, you have some balance, and then the balance tips the other way.

I miss and honor those who are no longer with me at Thanksgiving.

It’s not really a fair statement, as I miss them every day. I include them in my prayers daily.Perhaps if things were different, the melancholia that settles over me like a fog could be shaken off.But it doesn’t. I strive to savor those with me, have loving thoughts for those separated from me by distance, and prayers for those who are having a heavenly holiday.

There was a time when grandparents were still around, and aunts and uncles and parents and cousins and, in short, a full table.

If only……**sigh**

Update what?

Argh….

4400 steps?
Hey fit bit…4400?
You want to put my glasses on?

Uh, I went on-line and thought I was tracking my fit bit steps and saw this morning that I had 4400 steps. I just came back in after a big time walk with Kasia, honoring Zush’s boo-boo leg, and said WTF? 4400 STEPS?

Oh yes, I have an iPhone and MacBook Pro and fit-bit zip….

Would be nice if I remember the ” Synch” my fit-bit zip with my computer.

I am sure my nephews are both laughing hysterically that techno-Cioci forgot to synch something up.

**Reaching for the Lady Clairol to cover my rapidly advancing gray**

Fit this Bit!

Well, it seems that Fridays are my low days on the fit bit, averaging around 7,000 steps.Once I get to the weekend, it’s a better story. I average around 11,000 to 12,000 steps on the weekends and have been doing pretty good for the week.

I am walking the girls and outside all, the leaves are down. My four-legged children are quite like 2 legged children. They love walking through the leaves.It’s funny that their fur color is matching the leaf color.

We’re enjoying the weekend. We are hoping, gentle reader,you are doing the same.

Kicking Back

We got down here to Undisclosed and are working toward unpacking.

Glassware and things from our marital kitchen are being sanitized in the dish washer, after resting for a year and one half in the cellar of Mom’s house. I have wash to do that can wait until tomorrow, but for tonight, we are out.

The local Moose lodge has our favorite two piece band called, Twelve Strings, and they play fabulous music from the 50’s through today.We’ll grab some dinner and a drink or two and kick back.

Tomorrow is another day.

Happy Visit

We went over to see my mother-in-law tonight.

She is going to be 96 this Saturday and we’ll be at Undisclosed, while she’ll be down the casino.The family intends to celebrate her birthday on Thanksgiving, but we brought her a small cake and along with Jim’s sister Kathy, we sang a happy birthday to her.Zosia and Kasia were on their best behavior, and we had a good visit.

It made for a long day though, so it’s off to bed for us all.

Here’s hoping you are warm and have a good weekend. Stay safe.

Ryan Howard’s Sad Family Story

for my husband to read…how greedy can baseball get?

The Zo Zone

Charlie Manuel has plenty of opinions on hitting a baseball, and one of them centered on the psyche of the hitter.

It is a difficult game to play, he said, but it can become impossibly difficult if the mind is not clear. Manuel said a divorce, a breakup, an argument, a sick family member or other family issue can affect a hitter at the plate.

Manuel’s words came back today following FOX29’s initial report and The Philadelphia Daily News’ detailed report about Ryan Howard’s twin brother Corey suing him for $2.8 million, Howard’s father requesting $10 million as severance from the “family” business and Howard countersuing because he thought his family conspired to defraud him.

It is hard to imagine Howard had a clear mind at the plate the past couple seasons because of it.

Howard and his family settled out of court last month, but if everything alleged…

View original post 695 more words

Sorting things out

Jim just came up and announced that there weren’t too many things downstairs that is ours.

He said the same thing, about the upstairs, with the exception of my Ficus plants and a few other plants.

The bulk of the things we still have to move are all on the floor where we spend all of our time.We try to weed things out, and start moving stuff out slowly but surely. It’s a bit much, as when we are looking for things like winter coats.We tried to keep things that we would need up here. Now, it’s a question of what we don’t need and we can pack away.

It’s another chapter of the process of moving on with life…can honestly say that I can’t wait until the next chapter starts.

A bit of Fit? Or A Fit Bit?

I bought a zip fit bit to cover my fitness needs while I am healing from my blown out tendon in my knee. My physician seemed to feel that walking was a pretty good way to go.

I just got my weekly email from Fit Bit and found out that since Sunday I have walked 11.81 miles and I went “whoa.”I never realized that.Prior to having my zip fit bit, I have gone through pedometer after pedometer and lost them. This zip Fit Bit clip is securely fit on my clothes.It is accurately measuring my steps and I find that I am trying to meet a 10,000 a day step quota.

Stay tuned.

Hurting

I have been trying to be religious about attending my flip fitness class.

Until last week.

I left class and as I walked away, my right knee started flaring up. Not good, considering that I have two knee replacements.

I have picked up a fitbit, because throwing my leg into different positions may not be the thing to do: it might be time to gp back to basics, while my knee heals.It’s rough after having gone through the knee replacements, because you remember how it feels when things swell up and then when it actually blows up again.It’s like it’s your worse nightmare.

Walking will be the tour de force for the next few weeks until the knee quiets down.Here’s hoping that it will.

Eagles vs. Packers

Down here at Undisclosed watching my Eagles getting spanked by the Green Bay Packers. The score, at the time of this writing is Green Bay 53 and Eagles 13.

We have a little family dissension in this game, as my nephew Matt roots his heart out for Green Bay and my Sister in law Dawn and her husband are big Eagles fans.She has posted the shot of her husband and their dog watching the game.

I honestly would have been shocked if the Eagles had won this, but they obviously aren’t. I can hardly wait to hear sports radio when we come up for the city in the morning.Should be pretty interesting.

Perks of Undisclosed

Jim’s nephew, Tom, is forever announcing one thing to us.

We are so lucky in living so close to the Lobster House restaurant.He feels it is the best restaurant.

We went to dinner tonight and actually went to the coffee shop at the restaurant, and there was a daily special for $9.95, which was stuffed pork roast, mashed potatoes, gravy and vegetables. Not bad. Evidently they have a special every day of the week, and as the waitress was telling us, it was the same food coming out of the same restaurant that takes care of the actual restaurant. It’s something only the locals know about.

Ooops…now you know!

TRIPS

Ever trip we have had going down here to Undisclosed we have had one basic route.We would try to take the drive to bypass expressway traffic.

As much as I want to leave the city, the route on the way out was always so nice.The Boathouse row is especially nice at night when the houses are lit up. It is so gingerbread that is screams to take a picture.The other site we take in is the Art Museum, home of many wonderful paintings, but most importantly, the steps that Rocky took in the movie.

Nice to have the pictures for the memories.

Snow

We have the first snow of the season tonight here in northwestern Philadelphia.

It was drizzling when I got in from the doctor, and as I looked out ready to take the girls out for their walk, I was shocked to see the snow laying on the lawn and on the cars. I understand that it is November,and the news has been saturated about the polar fronts and cold plunges coming, but hey, they never said it would be here tonight…lol.

It is a comfort because we have been wearing away at the seasons we have left in the city.The snow is announcing it’s almost time!

Drop a Stitch

Before my Mom became ill with dementia, I likely had her review knitting with me and I was so grateful that I did.I have made a few things and admittedly, I struggled trying to make them nice.

I picked up a few skeins of green chenille yarn and decided to run the other way. I embraced my roots: I crocheted.

As a kid, I used to watch my Mom crochet me a hat to wear for school. She would do it on a Sunday night between 7 and 8PM, when Wonderful World of Disney was on.I was fascinated how she could do that in such a short amount of time! And it was a pretty hat to boot!

As I got older, I made my oldest brother and his wife an afghan as a wedding present , with some help from Mom, I made scarves, I made myself an afghan.I think that is why I got back to crocheting.It is like comfort. I can’t finesse knitting needles like my friend Julie can, but I can make my way with a crochet hook.

Thanks, Mom!

Memories

One of the things I’ll miss about living at our current spot is a tree.

In front of the house, there is a Japanese maple.Nice and cooling in the summer, and vibrant in color now, we have had many memories of that tree.

In honor of my nephew Matthias’ birthday today, the one I will share with you is this. My late niece was in town with my brother and their family, and Matthias, Sandy, and I had a good day at Mom’s, playing whiffle ball in the back driveway. Afterward, Matthias, who loved the tree, would climb up in it, and we have a picture of Matthias and Sandy and myself at the tree, with young Matt actually in the tree.

Below this post is a picture of the current beautiful color out front in the tree.It’s bittersweet that I won’t see it next year, but the memories, happily, will go with me.

The secret of the disappearing email

My post regarding Comcast caught the eye of someone who works there.

Aha! Someone will help?

Uh-huh.

Someone who looked into the status and said it’ll be another 24-48 hours, and if we don’t hear anything, email this person back and it’ll get check again for status…uh, the problem is Jim’s Comcast email program has magically disappeared….did someone push the wrong button at Xfinity?And we are to wait another 24-48 hours? On top of the 12 he has already spent? Will we be reimbursed for the lack of service? HA.

REALLY?

Disappearing email since the morning of November 6th, today is the 10th, and another 24-48hours?

I don’t care if it is Comcast or Xfinity or whoever.

What a horrible state of helping the consumer. They are so quick to cash a check into the account to have the bill paid and yet the service is like their old commercial with the turtles in it.

**sigh**

Stress

So anyone who has moved at all during their life knows the stress of moving. As many times as I would move, and I would pray I’d never have to do it again.

No, the stress with moving is a walk in the park: try tying in the art of wrapping up your entire life in retirement and moving from an urban area to a place where I stand out on our deck at night and I hear crickets or birds and night sounds you’d never know exist in the city. We have come to the point where are in the home stretch and the anxiety is overwhelming.

Comcast is a current nail in our foot.Jim’s comcast email has disappeared. He has spent over 8 1/2 hours on the phone with Comcast, who evidently have decided they know how to do anything, lets assign people trouble tickets, and tell them their problem will be solved in 72 hours. Not good.Try to complain to Xfinity, you know the “kinder, gentler Comcast name”, well, they don’t care.There is no one to complain to and with their outsourcing of workers, they have no qualms at hanging up on you.I work in a Customers Service unit and if I even thought of trying what they( Comcast) are doing, I wouldn’t have to worry about retiring.

So I will wrap this post up praying for a miracle regarding Comcast, and hopefully, some peace of mind along the way.If you want to share any Comcast customer service, er, rather, lack of service stories, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Another Saturday Night

..and we are off.

We are around the neighborhood tonight where our Property Owners Association is having a wine and cheese get together for us. They will supply the crackers…lol…

I made a nice tray of Asiago,Havarti,Colby,Feta,and some blue cheese.I am also bringing some spinach and artichoke dip and some hummus.We have some Scoops that we are bringing, along with some sesame crackers,too.**not having too much hope for the crackers they’ll have**

Jim worked hard with our friend to put up the metal handicapped ramp off the back deck, so now Zush and I have a way out back.I am sure that he is ready to kick back, and the fact that our friends are going to be there is very nice.We are quite comfortable with our neighbors, as we all are in the same boat, pretty much.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend. Stay well and safe.

Nudge by Greg

My nephew Greg paid me a visit to me today.He was kind enough to pick up a prescription for Zush.

During our visit, I started busting on him about Words with friends.They give you an opportunity to nudge a player when they are not playing the game fast enough.

I said to Greg,”I hate when you do that.”**meaning hitting the nudge thing on Words with friends**

Then I showed him my knitting I am working on, and I told him that,” Here, now I am going to nudge you with my knitting.”…lol. I am working on a chenille eternity scarf. It is keeping me busy in the car when the light is good.

The Beat goes on….

Another Thursday night.

Well, not another. It’s November. My oldest nephew turns 27 on Tuesday.I remember when Matt and I were best of buddies, and I could carry him on my shoulders, and we played “zoomie cars”.**sigh**

I can’t believe it.

I also can’t believe I have reached a kind of short timer status on the job. It’s surreal as I sit here and think about that.

Fortunately, Zush has a vet appointment with our new vet on Saturday morning as we march forward with maintaining good health for all of us as we approach our new life. It’s kind of weird to even type that, but in a good way.

Off to Undisclosed in the mid-day, hanging out with ourselves,and our new neighbors, and getting ourselves immersed in a different way of life.I am praying it’ll be a smooth transition for all of us.

Hector

Hector was a pit bull of Mike Vick’s who was rescued and became a therapy dog..this is a touching tribute! ❤

Hector.

Running by the seat of my pants….

I took off today to do the marketing study. I was back walking the dogs by noon.

Jim came back in from work shortly thereafter.

He asked, “Want to come down the shore?” We had a chance to fill up the car and start bringing things down to Undisclosed. I agreed it was a good idea and it was us definitely flying by the seat of our .

We had china that was my mother’s that we boxed up and brought down and some baskets, Christmas presents, Christmas decorations, and other things that left the big city for life in Undisclosed.

It looks as if we are going to be trying to stay over and come up in the morning. This, indeed, was a pleasant surprise.

To market, to market….

I am participating in a marketing study tomorrow.

It is one of the few things I genuinely will miss when I leave the city.

Being in a large metropolitan city,marketers tend to like people to participate in marketing studies. I would be compensated a little pin-money for my efforts when I would take part in one.Usually I would put the money aside for grooming my girls.Tomorrow is an awesome exception.

It is for dog dry shampoo and for writing a diary for when I sprayed the girls with the shampoo and 90 minutes of my time, I’ll be getting $150. No doubt the easiest cash I’ll ever make.

Sure will miss it!

Windy

We had a good visit this weekend with our buddies Juls and Tim and today we went for a beach walk.

They had been with us over a few times down here at Undisclosed and we had attacked the various parts of the beaches for our walk.Today, we went by the mother house at the shore for the Sisters of Saint Joseph at Cape May Point.We walked up the ramp and got down to the beach and the wind was insane.You had the ocean in front of you, and the wind was blowing the ocean from two different directions, so the surf was really restless.I managed to find a few different shells on the beach and we talked and walked through the trail in the state park to give us all a break from this wind that just wouldn’t stop.It was a good thing that the dogs got walked so we could go without them-they really would have struggled in the wind.It was a beautiful blue sky with the clouds, and the wind was so rough, the lighthouse was closed due to ” inclement weather.”

It’s always nice to have our buddies down for a visit.We need to do it more often.

And the wayward wind…

It was a nor’easter today.

My friend Julie and I went through Cape May today and Cape May Point and we were dressed for the weather.It was still chilly though and the rain came and went and then showed up again. It was a classic rainy day at the shore and we were happy hanging out.

One of the things that we did was going to the Cove in Cape May: I love to try to take the shots of the sea crashing on the rocks.

Yay for buddies!

Our friends Juls and Tim are here for the weekend and it is awesome!

We don’t get a chance to hang out with company and Juls is knitting, I am blown, our pups are playing and two of our pups are chilling. Tim and Jim and hanging out on the sofa and we are relaxing. So nice to actually kick back with buddies.

The weather is due to be a little wet tomorrow, but rain or shine, friends rock! We need to get together more often!

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this:

Rate this: