Month: November 2016

Leaf me Alone..

..or the end of the 2016 Leaf Saga here in “Amity”.

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The leaf men, or arbor technicians…lol…actually showed up around 8:30am.

November.

29th.

I was ready to have heart failure because I couldn’t believe they actually came close to the date on the flier.They started down our street ,but it was not without a glitch, though. It would figure that they got to our next door neighbor’s house,and,what do you know? I watched the guys and the one who was operating the vacuum hose informed me it stopped picking up because the truck was full. “We’ll be back.”

Sure,

I’m from Philly. I believe that..NOT!

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Didn’t they come back 20 minutes later? Color me chagrined. I leashed the girls up and got them out for our morning walk so they could read the rest of their leaf mail for 2016.

Bring on the snow!

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Late November Disappearance

I really have not entered a post since Thanksgiving.
Here’s why.

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“Amity”‘s little secret is that we turn into leaf city in November, as that is when everyone gets together and gets their leaves to the street, where our nonexistent curb would be:that is where the township comes up and vacuums the leaves with a couple of stray workers to pick up straggling leaves that would be left behind..lol.The joke is today is the first day listed of a “possible” pick-up, but hey, they gave us the same day last year and they were picked up December 14th. HAH..politics seldom change wherever you are.

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This picture is a shot further up our street, showing our house and the avalanche of leaves waiting to be picked up.I had nothing to do with this, although I had offered to help Jim.He ran with the challenge of this, and I for one, will just be happy when the leaves leave, as the dogs can stop scratching from running through them. Yes, I know, I am a bad dog mom, but, I just can’t deny them their pleasure of sniffing who was there first and digging for buried treasure.

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Take A Breath

I want to know if anyone ever heard the wind take a breath?

Down here in “Amity”, the wind down here doesn’t seem to know how to. Seriously.

The wind keeps blowing, and the weather report said the wind here is running 25 to 35 mph, with gusts to 50 mph.I am a big girl, and taking the girls out today, I think it was safe to say that the three of us could have, at one time or another today, qualified as Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons.You go down to the bay and wonder where it went, because it seriously lost its’ image, and now was like the Atlantic.

Not too long ago, I would have been walking the streets in center city, and had the wind blow me away there.It would be just like blanketed in steel and concrete.I’d sooner take it in down here, and look up and see the sunshine.
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And The Wayward Wind…..

This is a picture from our walk during the morning.I added the bay pictures so you could see how blustery it was.

My nephew,Matt, let me know that a front was blowing up last night. Needless to say, I was surprised to see leaves off the trees and on the ground that would measure up to my bionic knees, and I am 5’6″ tall. As Jim says, he’ll be needing a shovel to get out tomorrow to get through all of the leaves.

So it’s clean flannel sheets on the bed and an extra blanket, and we are good to go! Stay warm!

Another Good Anniversary.

This was an anniversary between me, God,Jefferson University Oncologic-Gynocolgy department and Dr.Charles J.Dunton,not to mention other doctors, nurses, staff, my best friend Kate and religious advisors.

I was diagnosed with stage 3 cervical cancer 23 years ago today.What an experience! Doctors, nurses, having to call my parents from the hospital to inform them that I wasn’t coming home because a grapefruit was found in my cervix and I needed exploratory surgery.Then came the pain of them coming to see me in the hospital and seeing the pain and fear in their eyes.That pain I will take with me to my last day.Kate was living in Pittsburgh at the time and drove back on the weekends when I was in for my chemotherapy.

I usually make a post on this every year to show the people who might “think” or”know” they have cancer.You really can’t ignore it. You need to take a pro-active stance on trying to get the invader out of your body.I went through a radiation and chemotherapy protocol that was so effective that it is now the standard for cervical cancer treatment.You never know.

If you have a friend or family neighbor going through the disease, be supportive, if they choose to tell you about it.Let them know you’d like them to be around for a good,long time.

That’s why I am here 23 years later.

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Just A Twitch

My left foot is twitching as I write this, probably in anticipation that tomorrow morning starts my physical therapy.

Gee, it brings back a ton of memories, going to physical therapy.Yes, I was one of “those” children, that is, I put my hand through a washing machine wringer**ask your parents or older siblings what they were if you have no clue what I am talking about** among other things.I have gone through ice and heat and ultrasound and back again.Tomorrow brings no really surprise for me, in regard to what is in store for me.

It’s another chance to appreciate 30 years of health care that I worked to earn with my union, to heal this old body of mine.

Maybe the twitch will go away.

It’s Raining….

…and its eastern standard time, so for 6:12pm, it’s dark out.

It doesn’t take much to make me drowsy, or the girls, for a matter of fact.Jim is back to working and we are hanging in here trying to make sure all are going to the yard for the potty before bed.

We’d like to have at least a little light, but with the rain and darkness, we are all ready for bed.If we manage to stay sleeping, that would be a miracle.I just think that we are thick in the November malaise.

February 1st,anyone?

Old Girl’s November

My middle godson, Matthias, just turned 29 years old, and his brother turns 27 next month. My oldest godson, Mike, turns 40 on Black Friday.FORTY.I was 16 when he was born.

Where did those forty Novembers go?

I haven’t written a post of late because I have been mulling over a lot of stuff.

Poor Zush is hanging in there to the best of her ability.I start my physical therapy for my tendonopothy on Wednesday.My family is pretty much gone their on their own, so my days of making Thanksgiving are long gone.This week I was informed of three passings of friends and family.We are traveling up to the city for the holiday, as Jim’s Mom turns 98 on the 22nd.

As Simon and Garfunkel used to sing.”And the leaves that are green turn to brown.”

The Election

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I had to get to the polls by 5:15AM, which I did.In all my years of big city or Amity, I have NEVER seen the line that we had when we opened the polls at 6am.In hindsight,I guess I should have seen it coming. Another thing that I found incredible is that usually, when you work the polls, time goes, albeit slowly, but it goes.Well,Tuesday morning, I swear I thought it was 9am and it was 7:15, and I looked at my watch 3 times and it was as if time was standing still.
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We had our table set up and watched ALL of my neighbors come in. Usually,it is retired folks or really those interested in government that come in.Not for this presidential election: there were more 18 year olds that you can shake a stick at. There were Mom and kids in strollers.Senior couples came in, singles of all ages…they all came in.

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The above shot is one of the few quiet moments that we had, waiting for folks to come in.I really don’t remember ever having to wait as long to use the bath room, because we were that busy.I didn’t get any of the older guys coming in and using their brother-in-law as a write-in.This time, everyone meant business.

I was fortunate enough to be working with a great crew, and hope to be assigned them again.In all, although it was a busy day, it was a pretty interesting election day.

Well?

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It’s Election Eve. Yeah, I know, not quite Christmas Eve.

I am writing this blog early, as I have moved into the “Garden State”.Evidently, when you work polls in the Garden State, you have to be up at the crack of dawn, so the farmers can vote.I am due to report at 5:15am.It’s going to be a long, long day.I recall when I worked the primary election, we were backed up due to people entering their brother-in-law’s name as a write-in for the presidency.Oh yeah, I could write a book from the stories.

Don’t let me deter you, though.It’s our country and it’s YOUR vote.It’s your chance to have a say.

Good luck to all the candidates!

The Zusher

Here’s my buddy Zush, who was hanging around me while I was clipping coupons. It was a backward thing, because we actually went grocery shopping this morning. I was just trying to tidy up and put the recycles out and figured I might as well clip coupons. I share them with my neighbor across the street. I still get the “city”paper, whereas she gets the Jersey paper, so usually swapping between the two of us works.

Zush is hanging in there. I try not to walk her as much as we used to, but she likes to go out and sniff her” tree” mail, and see if anyone was there she knew. One thing about being down here is we have a lot of wildlife, so I let the girls sniff to their hearts’ content. She still has an appetite for anything but her dry food. I had to laugh, because I had just said to Jim that she’ll starve Tuesday when I am at the polls all day and Jim has to work.The words just left me and I heard a noise, turned around, and saw Zush eating her dry food. I guess when she’s hungry enough, she’ll eat.Kasia still eats the kibble, but has learned giving me ” those eyes” will give her a food upgrade too!

Talk about playing me like a violin!

That Kind of Day

The expression on Zush’s face says it all.

It’s been that kind of day. I managed to get the girls out before leaving for the doctor this morning. I got through the appointment and also got a pneumonia shot, to boot.Now, I have to work on the tendonopothy in my foot, because the pain in the foot today was pretty damn bad.

So, as of 8pm, Kasia is asleep in our bedroom, Zush and I are vegging out in the living room, waiting for a decent hour to go to sleep.Hopefully, things will start picking up for us.

Catch22

Every night I am here with the girls, and that’s it. On the weekend Jim is here with me.

I am accustomed to it, and just pretty much make do with the way things are.The only bad thing, right now, is that I sit here and become my mother.That is not a bad thing, but it means I sit here and think and pray and cry and hope about Zosia.

There was the documentary that was shot about 9/10/2001, and the female documentary maker said about the title of her film roughly translated from Spanish.You are not dead the night before you die.You are still living.That has always stuck in my head and when I am here with my girls, it makes me even more determined to savor every moment for the memory.I can’t worry about losing Zush, as God has still granted her presence with me.
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Still, it is hard, during the time that goes bump into the night, to keep that good frame of mind.I just have to love both the girls as much as I can.

Tomorrow is another doctor appointment for me with the infectious disease doctor.I hope that this maybe, just maybe, can wrap up soon. Any prayers or good karma you can send this way, I will be forever in your favor.

Days Off

I really didn’t realize that I am operating under a “days off” mentality, even though I am retired, technically.

I have to go back to the doctor on Friday and check on my leg and see what’s going on with that.Then I have to try to see if he can refer me to a competent podiatrist or back to my orthopedic guy, to figure out the tendonopothy in my ankle..

In the mean time, I am due to work election day this coming Tuesday.This morning I had up the page for my substitute job for school and actually accepted a job on December 23rd at my old school.It’s funny because it made me realize, oops, I am technically still working.

It just makes me savor the days that I have home with the girls.
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Well, It’s Tuesday…

And this time next week, I’ll be wrapping up a very long and exhausting day as a poll worker for the state of New Jersey.

I know a lot of people who have very strong opinions on this election, and that’s a good thing.Then there are people who I will not name but am ashamed to say aren’t registered to vote.Their excuses are quite feeble, so when they bitch and moan, I tell them, quite frankly, that not voting takes away your privilege to make me listen to the crap you have to say.

Regardless of your party, belief, or whatever, as long as you are registered, go out and vote.It’s your duty as an American and it is your chance to have a say in the system.Then look at the bright side.The next presidential election is only 4 years away!
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