Month: July 2017

Hope Springing Eternal

So when you left this post yesterday, you figured, as did I, that I’d be having Gerber”lettuce” for the rest of the summer. I mean, my mother-in-law is coming for a visit and I would have loved some pretty flowers for her to spruce up the joint.

Granted, the Gerber”lettuce” is green, but there is no pretty blossom there.

A-hah!

Look at what I found this morning!

I am hoping they make it open in time to spruce up the back deck. Thanks, all, for all your suggestions and comments. I appreciated all of them!

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Gerber’s Lament


I love Gerber daisies. I tried them this year. I am sad.

According to a neighbor here, they can’t have a lot of direct sun. There are trees down here, but nothing close to the house. I tried to move the Gerbers so they’d be in partial shade through part of the day. I think that the heat has played havoc with them though, much to my disappointment. I have a few blooms still going.


Will I try next year? Probably, but again they’d have to in pots. I will be doing some research to handle them better next year, so I won’t be looking at three pots of Gerber leaves.

Ah, to Sleep

Anyone who has been put on prednisone knows how precious sleep is. It had been a while since I’ve been put on it and it was quite a, pardon the expression, rude awakening for me.

The first night I managed to get one hour of sleep. That was just great ***not***. The benefit of not sleeping was I went on line and found out what to do.

With help of the late, great Zush, I had Melatonin in the house, thank God. Last night I managed 5 hours of sleep and almost felt like a million dollars.

The good news is the symptoms were pretty much quieted with completion of the first dose. Today is day number three.

Four left to go.

Uneasy is the Head that has a Crown in it

I had a dental appointment this morning.

The joys of old age- I had lost a crown on a molar. To me, if there is anything worse than grey hair, it’s trying to keep your teeth that may not necessarily want to stay with you. The benefit is , thank God, for my retirement insurance plan. The “bite” , pardon the pun, won’t be too bad.

So now I realize why people tended toward softer food as they got older.

On the bright side, I am in a good spot to be in.


The Difference between Here and There

Jim and I went out to dinner tonight. It was spontaneous and a really enjoyable time. There was one little twist in the matter: we went to Cape May.


Of course, no home our way looks like this. This is Cape May.  It’s  seldom that we venture to the city during the ” high holy season”, Navagating through the groups of tourists is not our favorite pastime. But then?



Sure we love where we are. The peace and quiet is great, off season, that is. Granted we are not as crowded as Cape May is. When we manage to sneak into Cape May, and actually don’t have too many people around, it’s truly a delightful experience.

Singing in the Rain

If you read my post yesterday, you saw my question if anybody knew any  rain dances to get some rain going down here to get the heat down. We had a good thundershower this morning about 2 a.m. and I know the time because Kasia was up pacing the floor.


Here is a picture of the little girl in action, pacing as I write this. Zush used to handle the rain and thunderstorms well. Kasia, from day one, abhorred fireworks and storms. We would know if one of the two were coming three hours prior, as that’s when she’d start pacing. I don’t drug or thundershirt her: I merely give her love and attention and she’s good.


We were out this afternoon and coming home, you could see the clouds forming across the bay. According to my phone, the barometric pressure was going down, so between that and my weather predicting sinuses, I knew the rain was coming.

So thanks, especially to my buddy Peggy, for all the rain dance help. You rock!☔️☔️☔️☔️☔️☔️☔️☔️☔️☔️☔️

Cool as a Cucumber

Oh, for October!

I have been patting myself on the back for scheduling my colonoscopy on one of the hottest days of the year. It gave me a day out of the heat.Today, I got my legs back under me, so to speak, and got Kasia back on her schedule, including limited walks, especially in this heat.

I mentioned to a neighbor or two that I wished I knew a good rain dance or two to cool us down. If you know of anything, let me know, ok?

My Little Buddy


Above is my favorite picture of Kasia as “only child”.

It’s been six weeks and we both are missing Zush, which is expected. The surprise is when we have her outside for a walk, and she comes across some of the other dogs, her tail wags and she actually is getting along. Prior to Zushie’s passing, Kasia would be barking at everyone she came across to stay away from her “pack”. This has been a nice development. Don’t get me wrong: in the house, with us, she was a love muffin. Outside was a different story.



Our daily adventures are usually good, provided I miss tourists who are out with their dogs and don’t have them on leashes. Allegedly, the local government is actively policing that. I laugh because some of the weekenders KNOW of this law, still walk their pup off the leash, see me or any of my other full time neighbors, and go running to put their dog on a leash. I can only think it’s part of the ploy so they can plead ignorance in picking up after their dog. I figure this will go on until they start finding deposits on their lawn.

Hopefully we’ll get a good walk in tomorrow before I have to start my test prep. I like to keep my littlest of girls happy!

Hey? Yo? Refer This!

So it’s bad enough that I have to go for my medical test this Thursday.

I got a phone call this morning from the surgery center where this is taking place. I was listening to the woman and thinking to myself, why would the surgery center be calling me?

Answer: THEY NEED A REFERRAL.

OK, I have a HMO. No big deal. I am used to, by now, to asking for referrals. Doctors, specialists, x-rays, I have gotten referrals for them all.

For a surgery center?

I can hardly wait to see what else needs a referral.

Hitting the Fan

This week starts 3 weeks of stomach knot tying worry.

If you’ve had a medical cancer history, you know what I mean. You have to go to the hospital for procedures that you don’t necessarily want :it  is something you don’t want to get but if you have a history you need to have them done. Even if you’ve had no symptoms it’s still gives you something to worry about because if they do find something they always have to biopsy it and that makes you sweat things out just a little bit longer


It’s not so bad when you approach things the way you prior doctor told you to look at things. When you establish with a new physician though they don’t care what your prior doctor told you they feel you should be doing things their way .You are their new patient.

When you were done with one doctor and one procedure and sweating out the results from that lo and behold you have a two or three day respite and then medical procedure number two comes down the pike. Nothing like getting all this done before school starts. Add in the fact that I have been working a couple days a week and it kind of makes for a really busy stretch of time. I am hoping that once I get through this prayerfully I’ll have good results and things can get back to some semblance of normalcy.

Please hold a good thought for me this week because I certainly could use it and if I’m not blogging  as much it’s because I’m indisposed :hopefully I will be back on the ball later on the week.

Swim Fin and a Prayer

I tried to get to our public pool down here today to do some water walking for my knees.

We pay a small fee for a seasonal access to the pool and it is in good shape and well-kept.

One of my BFF’s, Kathi, has been schooling me one exercises for my knees. She suggested water walking as a good way to get back into working out. Actually, today was an ideal day at the pool: the water was like bath water due to the hot weather we have been putting up with.

The pool is very nice and has benches you can sit on, and grassy areas for beach chairs. It is fenced in and allows privacy from neighbors, especially renters, in the area.

I managed to get done all my walking in an hour, as the dark clouds for the current thunderstorm that we are having. The bay was getting pretty dark, and I was happy to be going home,

Kasia was waiting for me and I know she is terrified of thunder, so we are up close and personal tonight.

Have a good weekend.

Long Time No Hear


Facebook does crazy things.

Everyone who reads the blog post or sees the post knows my Zusher is gone. A good deal of my posts deal with Zush, Kasia or both of my girls. 

You know how you “friend” people on Facebook. You know how some people can read your Facebook page. You really don’t account for everyone who accesses your page. As a blogger, I appreciate the folks who read the blog.

I got a sympathy card for Zosia’s passing today. I was out front getting the mail and I looked at the return address. One of my neighbors here used to live there, but I really know no one in that town. Here, it turns out it was a relative who I haven’t seen since 1967.

She probably read it on Facebook. Go figure.

Summer Heat

It’s pretty bad when Kasia and I get up to walk at 7am and the humidity here is already 90%.

Blech.

I guess we have officially hit the summer doldrums.

It’s really been hard with Zush gone from us and Kasia and I left to fend for ourselves.To add insult to injury, Kasia is still recuperating from her bad sprain on her rear paw. Potty walks only until the end of August is really getting her crazy.We haven’t even really been to the bay in 4 weeks.

I just will have to keep up content and hope the first cold snap comes really soon!

Company’s Gone

Jim’s sister and her husband had left us and now, I get to try to get the house back to normal.


Honestly, I loved having the company.  The ride on the bay was a nice surprise. There is a lot to be said for bay breezes. Of course, I made sure my sunscreen was on before we left.


Jim is out now, trying to shift gears while walking at Higbee Beach. I finished a load of wash and took Kasia  for a walk. Just another quiet Sunday night.

Have a good week.

Company’s Coming

I haven’t been on top of blogging for the past day of two,  Jim’s oldest sister,  Joanna and my brother-in-law, Earl are here for a visit.


We’ve been busy.

We had a buddy, Bonnie, over to play cards last night. This morning we went to our local street fair: it was the first time our guests had ever been there for it.

On the spur of the moment, we all spent the afternoon on the Cape May Lewes ferry for some sightseeing and dinner.


I even managed to see a lighthouse or two.


Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my good girl guarded the house.


Life is good.

Two Angels

Sure, everyone who has read my blog knows of my Zush and her passing on the fifth of June.

I was shocked that when I had logged in this morning, a classmate from high school who is active in Animal Rescue lost her sweet pup Pawlee. I don’t know what the circumstances were of his passing, but it really threw me for a loop. It was incredible how it took me right back to Zush.

Both of these pups were the sweetest dogs. Pawlee, or Lord Pawlee as I called him, was a blind but handsome Akita, who was uncle to all of my friend Carla’s foster pups and his sister Tribble. Zush would go with us to see all our older relatives and our buddy in the nursing home. When we would go see him, everyone would want to see Zush, so she made many stops.

I have a hard time accepting that Zush is gone, although I know, realistically, my life will never be the same. Now with Pawlee gone, although I know it’s of little comfort to Carla, but God called two angels up, and that the two of them are meeting in heaven.

Have fun, kids!

Your Local Government at Work

I am sitting now for over two hours at my local township meeting and all I can do is shake my head.

Big city politicians I grew up with. Although this isn’t a municipality but a township, these politicians are clowns.

It makes me really glad the house is far from the beach.The subjects argued about give the term secret society a new meaning.If you question an alleged issue, it was covered in a meeting that is past. Translation: a secret meeting.

God save me from Lower Township personnel.

Joe

Joe is a friend of ours and he is 94 years old.

He was a former guitarist and has lived down here a while. His caregiver left for a few hours today, so we came over to spend some time and keep him company. As my mother-in-law is 98, we are used to the older folks. In fact, Joe knows my mother-in-law and they are friends. We are watching the rat pack documentary on you tube.

So it was a good afternoon on this overcast 4th.

Counting Down


This is my love muffin, Kasia, as she appeared the other morning.


This is Kasia now, at 7:54pm. Our blinds are down , the volume on the television is way up, and Kasia and Momma are in for tonight. We don’t care for the fireworks and mosquitoes, and missing Zush, we will hunker down and , I am sure, Zushie’s spirit will be here with us. We watch the loudest thing possible and when the fireworks are over, we laugh at everyone in cars trying to get out of here and get home, That is the part worth the price of admission.

Don’t get me wrong. A beautiful display of fireworks is nice. I’ve seen a lot of them, and don’t need to see more. I sooner would stay with my fur girl, for Kasia “is” my firecracker.

Diana, Princess of Wales

Today, had she lived, Diana would have been 56 years old.

I find it highly ironic that almost twenty years after her death, Penny Junor has come out with a book lauding Camilla, the wife of Prince Charles.

According to her, Camilla is going to be the savior of the Royal Family. Not only that, she is big on stating alleged mental diseases that affected Diana.

Seriously?

I really, if I would meet the author, suggest that the author turn the mirror on the Royals and herself and let Diana rest in peace. I can only imagine how William and Harry feel about this.