anniversary – thereisnosanityclause

Long Ago…

…in a galaxy 94 miles away from where I am now, Jim and I said our vows 17 years ago on the 31st of August.

We have gone through ups, downs and bumps, but we are still here. Perhaps the fact that we were late bloomers at 42 and 48, and maybe we assumed that maturity would see us through, but what ever it was, my vote being love, we are still standing at the seventeen year mark. I have often said that it has gotten to the point where I can’t remember life without Jim and Zush, and later Zush and Kasia joining us. I think it’s a good thing.

So happy anniversary to the former bagel baker. I love you and am looking forward to the golden years that we might actually participate in down the road.

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.

25 Years Ago Today

If you have followed this blog with any regularity, you know I have an interest in the story of the Halloween gale of 1991.This is the storm that took the lives of many in the Northeast part of the country, including the crew of the Andrea Gail, a swordfish boat out of Gloucester ,Massachusetts.

Ironic that Jim and I went for a quick dinner to the Lobster House in Cape May. You really get a sense, since being down here, of the lives of commercial fishermen. Our neighbor, Nate,commercial scalloper, is gone out to sea a lot. We look out for him, and pray for his safe return.

So with today being the twenty-fifth anniversary of the sinking of the Andrea Gail, let’s all be mindful of “they who go down to the Sea in ships”…and keep a good thought to all who risk their lives to bring food to our table.

Anniversary #14

Wow.

Who would have “thunk” it.

We cleaned up pretty well back then, the old bagel baker and the city worker.It’s so odd seeing fourteen, having known folks who married in their 20’s,now celebrating thirty odd years and we who left the gate late, well, we look like novices.

Here’s hoping to another decent year with love and health for everyone here at Undisclosed.

Five years…

Some days it seems like only yesterday.

This upcoming Thursday marks five years since my double knee replacements.I remember taking the girls for a last walk the night before the surgery, and as I walked down the hill toward the field, I felt the crunching in my knees and thought that it’s the last time I’ll hear that sound and feel that feeling.

So much has changed in those five years.

My Mom is gone,we left the city,I retired…I can go on and on.

Fortunately,with my union bargained medical benefits.I managed to get through the whole deal,and the pain is a faint memory.

Life goes on.

Still Crazy After All These Years….

Today is the 22nd anniversary of my first conquering of cancer.

My first cancer had me treated with radiation, chemotherapy and a radiation implant.It wound up, between biopsies and office treatments with a total hysterectomy with the cancer gone. Granted I have had cancer after that, and they also were not insignificant, but it only takes one brush to tango with mortality.

I thank God for wanting me around a few more years, my surgeons, physicians, nurses and hospital staff, and ,as usual, my BFF Kate, who kept me going.Always check- it saves lives-I should know!

Happy Anniversary

Today marks one year since I left a position I held for 30 years.

One year that saw me squueze two part-time jobs in, but mostly I got to be home. And happy with my girls.

I would not change a thing.I managed to live long enough to catch a year of my pension.A lot of people don’t live long enough to do that.

IMG_4637plack

Four Days in November

Tomorrow marks the 52nd anniversary of President John F.Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Texas.

I have been watching on the Decades channel the documentary “Four Days in November.” It was fascinating to see the events that preceded the historical event, such as the First Lady speaking in Spanish to a group in Fort Worth.Amazing how some historians downplayed her presence through the entire Texas event. Most of the historical blurbs I have read usually just had her in the car, carefully holding the President in her arms, after she climbed up the get pieces of the skull and brains the bullet attacked.

I was 2 and 1/2 years old when this happened, and the odd thing was I remember being in front of my parents Philco television in our living room, listening to the muffled drum beats and watching the soldier lead the horse along without a rider. The stir-ups were backward on the horse, which evidently signifies the soldier-rider died in battle.

Amazing what the mind had us recall.

It’s that time of year

….at least for me!

Today is my 22nd anniversary of my 1st cancer, and the protocol I was fortunate enough to get into at Jefferson Hospital, and have Dr.Charles J.Dunton as my oncologic gynecologist.

Chemotherapy ,radiation and a hysterectomy later, I was blessed to be good to go.

I’ve had two other cancers since then, breast and thyroid, and mercifully I got through them. It pained me , though, that I lost my 18 year old niece ,Alyx, to a mid brain tumor, and yet I was still here, thanks to my employer’s health plan.

This is always an anniversary for me: it reminds me God’s not done with me yet.

Thirteen

Jim and I were married August 31,and tomorrow is our 13th anniversary.

We were younger, but now we are wiser. We have changed:weight gained, lost, hair changes,friends and family no longer with us,retirement,work,new houses,…life goes on. Zush has hung in with us, and Kasia joined us half way in.

Like any other couple, we have good and bad times, but we are here and the love is stronger than ever.

Happy Anniversary,Baby.

Moon over Racetrack

I titled this post after walking up the street from my neighbor and took a quick shot on the phone.

It seemed appropriate that the moon illuminated the house, as today marks one month that I am officially retired.Shedding light on a new life as this moon is on the house, well, it has been an adventure so far.

It has been fabulous not to deal with the expressway, the buses, the fellow commuters,..I could go on and on. I miss some of the folks that I worked with, and the nice part is, they know who they are.I am sure there are just as many folks who couldn’t give a hoot that I am gone, or even realize that I am gone. Uh, news flash,folks…who cares? I don’t.

Being in a new stage of life gives you new appreciation of age and of time.When you need to do things through the day, you wonder however did you accomplish things when you worked.People would constantly ask me if I was bored.Gee, when I get a free minute I’ll let you know.Age comes into play when you actually realize some places start giving senior citizen discounts at 55.Not too shabby.

The moon is my friend. It has given me light on retirement, and hopefully it will continue to guide my way.

Just for me

Three years ago today, I moved my blog, Thereisnosanityclause, to this platform at Word Press.

It’s been a long three years.

I want to take this commercial break, if you will, to thank you all for reading my posts.It means a lot to me and I do appreciate it.What has started as an exercise to keep me going while caregiving for my late mom has become something I look forward to doing.Your occasional comments help keep me going.

Thanks,reader,for stopping.Do come back tomorrow.I’ll be ready with a new post.

Hot Date

Since we had no company this weekend, Jim and I decided to take ourselves out to dinner.Last Sunday was our anniversary and we really didn’t have a chance to celebrate ourselves. Tonite was our delayed celebration.

We went to a local eatery here at Undisclosed, and they had a woman singing and a guy on guitar playing for her.The music was nondescript, but what we thought was funny happened halfway through our dinner.

A guy went up to the musicians wearing a holster.I know- I write holster, you read it and go, gun?Nope, he had seven, count them SEVEN different harmonicas in the holster, and evidently he shows up to help the musicians out.I was thankful there was no gun in that holster.It made for some interesting evening.

Below, a shot of holster man….

It Was Thirty Years Ago Today**

** with apologies to Lennon and Mc Cartney

It was thirty years ago today,
The city of Philly started giving me pay….

Nah, I can’t twist those lyrics that badly, especially since I like that song.

But…

On this day in 1911, a dispatcher in the New York Times office sends the first telegram around the world via commercial service.On this day in 1977, NASA sent the Voyager II, an unmanned 1,820 pound spacecraft into orbit.On this day in 1984, I became a full-time employee of the city of Philadelphia.

Thirty years.**shaking my head**

I can’t believe it.

I am truly blessed, especially in the day of companies relocating, folding, high unemployment….

My nephews Matthias and Gregory weren’t even born yet.My parents were both alive and I was living in the home I grew up in.I was probably**gulp** 80 pounds thinner and a lot more optimistic.I know I was scared. I left a small publishing house to work for the city.And now, thirty years later, I work a half city block away from the home of that first post college job.

Full circle? Yup, it certainly seems that way.

I thank my brother Bob for kicking my butt into getting this job.Without this job I’d probably not be here writing this blog.My medical plan from this job got me into a protocol for my first cancer.Without it, I might have died.When I started this job, my Mom asked me to call her in the morning when I got to my desk so she didn’t have to worry about me here in the city. Toward the waning years of her life, I called her every morning to make sure she was ok.The circle of life strikes again.

It’s funny.I appreciate being my age, but that melancholia can envelope you when you stop to think about back then.I’d like to think I have learned from my mistakes I have made, and with what I have learned, stare the future down and say ,”Here I come.”

Thank God!

Social Butterflies

We are having a busy weekend down here at Undisclosed and loving every minute of it.

We enjoyed our Saturday, complete with a cut-throat, yet friendly card game where I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard.

Tomorrow we are celebrating two birthdays, one anniversary, and having friends over to join in the celebration.

It is good to be HOME.

Excursions

I have to leave the realm of canter city and go out to a suburban hospital.

Of course,I would only have a 22 degree day to go out into the wilds for. I
need to go because it’s a yearly visit , so there’s no excuse for not going.
My excitement just got wetted because it is the first time I’ll be on a bus
with THREE digits( meaning suburbia)

It’s the little things…..lol

Pretty good day

We started out anniversary day with going out to breakfast.

Unfortunately due to Labor Day weekend, we had to go to a back-up spot, and we both had scrapple with pancakes..**mental note to self-need a kitchen to start juicing again-scrapple will kill you!**

With that literally under the belt, we came back and took the girls out for a bit, and then decided to tackle the inevitable-colors for Undisclosed Location Deux.

We went to Lowe’s and agreed on paint colors for the house**hello?Snowstorm in August?*** and ended up back here with the girls, where we went on-line and found our siding and roof colors.

I think we’ve gotten this married team down pretty well, considering we’ve only done it for 11 years…lol.

Happy Saturday! Be safe this Labor Day weekend!

Eleven Years

Tomorrow is our eleventh wedding anniversary.

ELEVEN!

Hard to believe, although so much has happened in our lives, it has all
happened, so it seems, in the blink of an eye.

Although we had no “human” children, we’ve been blessed with Zosia and
Kasia. We had a beautiful post Victorian twin which we sold this past
June and are actually working toward retirement.We are watching what,
hopefully,will be our last home being built.We’ve buried family and
friends, and have made new ones along the way.It feels as though we have
crammed a lifetime in along the way.

I couldn’t have asked for a better partner through life.Jim is truly
my better half.

Happy anniversary Seamus love you with all my heart!

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