So here I am, a few days later, still trying to get enough room for pictures back on the blog.
Kasia and I are hanging in, as the weather turns her into Dorothy Hamill and me a nervous Nellie that I might fall.
In the meantime, I hope I can figure this out.
Happy 2017 to you, gentle reader.
I am back after taking a little break, ready to take on a new year.
Things are quiet right now, but there is a part of me that even hates to type that, as I know that it is the equivalent of talking it up.For the meanwhile, we are going to, hopefully, get up in the morning and put two legs or four paws on the ground.I will be keeping my prayer lines working for my family and friends.Oh yes, and it goes without saying that I’ll keep praying for me too.
Here’s to 2017! Hopefully this will be a good one!
I really have not entered a post since Thanksgiving.
Here’s why.
“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.
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.
Subaru is currently getting folks to enter and vote for pets in the Subaru Pet hall of Fame.
I entered the Zusher.
The link to vote is at the top of this page and if you should see it on Facebook, the picture above is the one I entered for the Zush.
Please vote for my girl, and if you could share this post,Zusher and I would truly appreciate it. If you are going into the site and can’t recognize her, search for ” Zush” and you will get her entry and the little blip I wrote to submit for her.You can vote daily through the end of November and, again, thanks!
I took these shots of Zusher and Kasia today while we were sitting on the back deck.
It has been a long week, bringing back a lot of good and sad memories. The anniversary of 9/11 was the icing on the cake.
What I’m moving forward with? Telling the people I love that I love them: you never know if you get another chance. My girls? They are getting tons of hugs and love, even more so than usual. I never know when I might not get another chance.
And to the sweetest girl, Lola?
I read a lot of dog blogs and pages and Facebook pages, and one page by LadyBug, who is a beautiful pitbull, always turns on the GOD~DOG play. I am sure they won’t mind if I borrow one phrase from them for our good friend Lola.
“Dogspeed” our friend: you will always be in our hearts. You are the best, and always will be.
Decided to treat myself and make a Cooper sharp on rye bread grilled cheese sandwich complete with garden Jersey tomatoes.
It is hard to believe that I first started writing about our tomato harvest with a blog post about a tomato sandwich which really rocked. Here I am a few months later, lamenting the upcoming end of the season with a grilled cheese and tomato on rye.
I often watch Food Network and know there are chefs like Eric Greenspan who make the signature dishes dealing with gourmet grill cheese. God bless ’em, getting people to pay big bucks for a designer sandwich.
Me? I am a transplanted Jersey girl. Once these tomatoes are gone, there are no flavor filled ones like these. I’ll be on the wagon until next summer.
For many years now, I have been writing posts to this blog.
Usually I write about something that has come across my mind, life, whatever, during the day.
On occasion,I have had things that I would have written about, but I pulled back at the last moment,because I just don’t feel like fighting with people or explaining myself. I feel that my writing pretty much speaks my mind.
Right now, I am asking for prayers and good thoughts. I am going through some rough emotional waters right now and need to get through it.
Thanks.
Bad enough that my “weekend” is over, but here comes August.
If you have read this blog for any period of time, you could recall that August is quite the bittersweet month for me. I lost my Dad in 1998,and I got married in 2002.When I was a kid, my Dad always took us to the shore during the last week of August.
The best part of August, though, is the promise of fall. You can muck through the hazy, hot and humids of August and know that sometime soon the fronts will be coming and cool things off.I know my Mom always would warn me against wishing my life away, but this is one summer that I can hardly wait until the first 70 degree day comes.
So after my blog post yesterday, I decided to pay attention to words I wrote and take some action.
My front garden has been ” full”: blooms had to be moved apart, weeds had to be pulled and after I had the girls out for their walk this morning, I watered the front yard and proceeded to pull weeds and walk some large dusty miller plants apart and give some to my friend Georgine. I came back from her and proceeded to straighten the plants out some more.I actually felt as though I had taken a hand on things and decided to savor every minute.
It was a little thing, in the grand scheme of things, but hey, it was something and it felt good.
Went with my buddy today to a local charity’s “mega-family’ yard sale.
I have learned the glory and pain of yard sales over the years and also the angst of buyer’s regret or should-have.
There was a ceramic nut or candy dish that someone made.On top of it was my favorite from childhood; a squirrel. I went back three times looking at this dish. All I could think about was how much I wanted it, but it would be put up in the attic and I’d have to get Jim to get it for me and I really didn’t need more hassle in my life. I really wish I had gotten it though, as if you have been a frequent reader of these posts, you’d remember I had a love of squirrels from childhood.
I had wanted a summer handbag. Not a Vera Bradley, like I have, but a woven and burgundy colored one.This was something dating back to when I started working and splurged on a John Romain handbag and spent nice money on it. I wore that handbag every summer for many years and it killed me when it literally died. I found a Relic brand leather and woven handbag for $2. It’s a tight squeeze for my wallet but for summer, it’ll rock. I can’t believe that there was leather all over it! I also scored a 100% silk blouse for .50. I hand-washed it and it came up really well.I even got a new air of khakis for me for work for the princely sum of .50.
I regret that I bought ANYTHING for Jim, because he is**expletive deleted** when it comes time to buying or trying on clothes. I picked up a men’s 34 waist Banana Republic khaki short for him for .50. A brand new Izod polo shirt, tags and stickers still on it, retailing for $40 went for $5. Both wait for him here on the chair next to me.” I can’t try them on now:I’m working.”
**Watch me holding my breath waiting for him to try them on.”
Not bad, overall, and off in a little while to go swimming at a friend’s in ground pool.
Day three of three days off is going ok, so far…here’s hoping the rest of the day is uneventful!
So here I am in Townbank, Lower Township, New Jersey.
Retired, pulled up roots, relocated..we are all here.
I walk the girls four times a day. As it has gotten warmer, I have taken the early afternoon walk with Kasia, as Zush isn’t too comfortable with the heat. We walk for two miles, and part of it is on the bay. I have her leashed, and good Dog Mom that I am I have plenty of bags.We have come to enjoy it.
Until tonight.
My neighbor informed me that the local government meeting this past Monday night moved to BAN dogs from the beach between 11 and 4 from Memorial Day.
**Sigh**
I am not stupid. I have lived here in the winter. I know it is a vacation economy and they have to bow to folks who want to come down and go on the beach. Yup, they do, with their infants, toddlers, dirty diapers, juice boxes,little dogs, big dogs, toys, and when the day is done? They pull up their beach blanket, count their children and dogs, and go back to their rental.Never mind the soiled diapers that they leave behind, beer cans, Wawa hoagie wrappers, and the like. Oh that doesn’t happen? Walk with me after the day beach folks and see what is left behind.
Did I mention they are going to fine folks for being on the beach with dogs then? Leashed or otherwise? Hah…would love to see them to catch up with visitors.Whoa if word gets out to pet parents who rent down here, and they bring their dog down and find out their water dog CAN’T go in the water.Obviously the powers that be haven’t read any of the travel surveys that note the trend is people who own dogs LOVE to travel with them.
So now I have made this post, and if someone looks and finds the tags for Lower Township NJ and Townbank, I hope they are warned.
As for me and my girls, we aren’t defeated. Hah! Far from it. We know the shady route, and the girls know their Mom votes. I vote with my wallet and my actual electoral vote.I’ll make my voice heard.
..except the subject of my last post, the band ALL TUNED UP, actually pulled my post and put it on their Facebook page.That really made my day, because I think that was the first time a subject did that for my post.
Diane and George started the band, and I owe George an apology for calling him Gary yesterday. There are five members all together and I can’t begin to tell you how amazed we were to see a band that actually played music.Sure, there are a lot of groups that play down here, but they usually have their background music on computer.They sound like they are a bigger band, but it is really the computer playing the music.
We laughed last night, because Jim and I normally wouldn’t have been a fan of the song” Uptown Funk”‘ because we really don’t pay much attention to new music, but the tune is so catchy, we had no choice but to really get into it, because the tune gets stuck in your head.Jim always likes It’s All About The Bass, because he felt Megan Trainor’s voice was different.I used to play the song all the time on You Tube because it got me through the workday.When we heard older standards played, we felt that this what a well-rounded group does.They cover the whole thing.
Anyway, this morning I was beat.I hadn’t danced that much in a long time and that was a good thing.We are looking forward to the next time they come on down and play.
In the continuing saga of my fit bit zip, I cut myself some slack when it was brutal cold on two days this past week and walked a wee bit over 10,000. They suggest you try to walk 10,000 a day. Coming from someone so full of angst, depression, and about a zillion other emotions, it was like a miracle pill because it kept my butt out of a chair and had me walking.I wanted to get that number!
That’s saying something.
I have a good friend who goes to the gym two blocks from her home, other friends who are runners, some walk with weights, but my big moment was WANTING to continue this since I started on this past Halloween.Usually I start something, with the exception of my behavior modification class, where I lost 40 pounds and then stopped when Mom got sick-mentally I just was too exhausted from caregiving to continue.When I lose interest I stop. The walking has been different.
Your steps are recorded on the fit bit zip and then you synch it to your computer.It doesn’t lie.If you did 5,000 steps it shows it. If you did 18,000 steps it’ll show that too.
The past two nights it has been pleasant and it the 20’s. Yes, I know, a regular heat wave.I felt like a slacker it I didn’t try to go to 15,000 because the weather was not quite that bad.I am proud to say I went over 15,000 steps both days.I don’t want to say I have an obsession with the number, but hey, it’s an accomplishment.
I will sign off for now, because I have to synch my fit bit with my Mac, and then I am showering and off to bed.I,like Charlie Bucket in Willie Wonka, have found my own golden ticket.
15,000 steps.
It’s a good number….for now.
They say that there is often sympathetic pain when a family member is suffering.
Zush has her issue with the cyst on her rear left leg. Me? My lower spine is knotted up tighter than a Philadelphia soft pretzel. I had been sleeping off and on since four o’clock this afternoon .My brother-in-law and Jim’s nephew Tom were over and I was completely oblivious to it,
Now I am up and having a little rice pudding for dinner, typing the post, and then a shower and bed, only to be up at three to head back up to the city.It truly will be sweet once the two of us are back on all our wheels again.
Here’s hoping your night is good, your week is better and the weekend comes really quickly!
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.
** 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!
When someone would normally tell you that,they don’t want you to miss anything: something important is coming up.
My blinks, these days, are sporadic.They neglect to tell you how temperamental an eye is. As the day gets later, my right eye is awfully sore and tired. I actually had to write this entry before I take the ointment and put it in my eye. Once it is in, my right eye vision gets fuzzy from the medicine. It’s a two edge sword, because as fuzzy as it gets, I really don’t need an infection in my eye.There are only six more days of putting the ointment in twice a day, then the next and last week, I only need to put it in once a day
Thank goodness I still have one working eye, but at this time of the day, it’s just as tired as the right eye.
Good night!
“I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song.
I’m twenty-two now but I won’t be for long
Time hurries on.
And the leaves that are green turn to brown….”
Paul Simon wrote these lyrics for a Simon and Garfunkel hit circa 1966 called ” Leaves that are Green”.I thought this was an appropriate start for the blog numbered 1,000.
I started this blog in 2011, when I was 51 years old. I was sharing care-giving duties for my Mom with Dementia with my brother.I was married for 9 years back then. I had crappy knees and was waiting to get knee replacements.And yes, I was thinner,
So on the occasion of this blog #1000, so much has changed.
Mom is gone, I am happily married, next month, for 12 years. I have new knees and a belly because emotion still gets the best of me.I am working on that, though, and trying to get things together.
Jim and I have a new home and we’ll be occupying full-time in a few months.I, knock wood, am on the road to retirement.My girls are still with me: Zush is 12 and Kasia is 5. Jim and I are trying to set up housekeeping and farming down here at Undisclosed.The emotions are mixed at folding up our tent and leaving the big city, but more times than not, we are more than ready to leave it behind.
This blog has been therapy for me to vent and also to keep the memories of what has happened, be it good, bad or indifferent. It also has been a way for me to share my stories and experiences with you, dear reader.Thanks for reading and being here for me. I appreciate the fact that you check in with me and the family. For that you have my thanks and a giant hug.
Thanks!
And to quote the tag line from the Beverly Hillbillies…”You all come back now, hear?”
I wish they did.
Some Einstein played with the wires at my desk on Friday, for evidently, they weren’t satisfied with how I DID it, and killed my , as I affectionately call it,” My time-life operator headset.”
I have been waiting for three days for the phone to get back to life, but to no avail, so I had to redo my phone and go back to stiff neck extremis and answer it the old way.
If a pompous person of the male persuasion comes by this desk again, this might be my last blog, because I am going to have some words to say and they, rest assured, will not be Merry Christmas.
I get really frustrated with the internet and the blog.
I know WordPress is normally a pretty reliable blogging platform, but when you are lout here on a mountain, well, you have to hope the gods of the internet are on your side, I guess. I tried to blog last night and there was no way in hell the internet was letting me on this site.
Oh well.
We are having a wonderful time with our friends and enjoying their hospitality.Our girls get along pretty eel with their girls and life is good.
Enjoy your Sunday!
The birthday weekend was good!
Outside of Jim having to talk to our builder, we were laid back, had a lot of fun,hS few beers….life is good.
I tried to blog from Undisclosed, but Word Press has upped their sign on for security…
HUH?
You mean I have to write the number down? ….
After a day and a half of trying to backtrack,…
I’m ba-a-a-a-ack!
This is my eight hundredth post.
I can’t believe I have been doing this long.
Today(12/19)is my nephew Gregory’s birthday-he is 24 years old today.
I lost two of my buddies to heaven.
Zush was younger and Kasia was a wee one when I started.
Mom was sick and still around and Bob and I were care-givers.
Jim and I lived in a different house.
I wasn’t this close to finishing out my first career.
Undisclosed location wasn’t even around.
It has been a while, and I need to thank you, my reader.I appreciate the fact you find this blog and open and read it.I am thankful for those of you who like the blog, leave comments, and even express your opinion on the blog.
Here’s to 800 more.
BTW, Happy birthday Gregory. We love you lots!
It’s a Saturday morning and I am sitting in the back of Pet Smart, by the grooming area.No breakfast for Mother-daughter yet…
Zush is getting groomed.
I feel bad: for 11 1/2 years, I was her chief cook and bottle washer , as far as grooming went. I furmanatored her, brushed her, trimmed her butt, all the good things a dog mom should do.
Zush is now 12, and as the years sneak up on her, as they do us all, the heat is a bugger. My buddy Juls used to get Zush’s best bud, Brinley, what they call a puppy cut. Well, Zush isn’t going quite that short, but hopefully her undercoat will be knocked down a bit, and really, just so my girl will have some comfort in the heat.
Jim drove away as we went in, and Kasia was in the back seat looking sad- she always hangs with her sister. Hope she recognizes her when we are done.
Stay tuned!…
We take our fur children with us whenever we can because basically they are good dogs.
When they are not welcome, well,for now I might go solo, but like me, the kids are getting older, especially Zush . Like folks who stay home when they’re not wanted, I’ll be with them.
They are my kids- end of story
I was getting some weird issues with WordPress that were annoying enough that
I reloaded it to my iPhone and uploaded it on my Kindle.
Problem is…I forgot my password, so I ended up going on the Macbook to
write this.
LOL
The girls are lying low and we are kicking back watching the Phillies
versus Indians, and trying to take advantage of a little break in our current
on edge life. All that is left is bringing clothes up out of the dryer, a hot
shower, and off to bed!
Good night!
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