Monthly Archives: June 2014
To-Do
It feels like my “to-do” list is miles long. The garden is a mess. (I still haven’t thinned those radishes.) It seems like when it’s raining I have time to weed, but can’t get out. When it’s a beautiful day for gardening I have errands to run and places to be.
Last weekend Orion and I went to Gilda’s Club to celebrate Gilda Radner’s birthday and we had a great time. I got to introduce him to all the people I know from volunteering there. He’s still talking about it! We got home minutes before the rain started. Life is just like that sometimes, but it doesn’t get things done!
Tomorrow I officially start my pre-surgery diet regiment. I went to a class to learn what to expect and got a shopping list of things I might need in the next few weeks and for a few weeks after the surgery. I anticipated a few of those items, but there are still several that have been added to my “t0-do” list. It seems like every time I turn around it gets longer!
I went to make toast this morning and the toaster didn’t work. No electricity. No electricity in the entire bar that is the primary electrical source for my kitchen. It’s not the circuit breakers, it’s the uncanny old wires. Add hire an electrician (which may become an electrical contractor) to the list of things “to-do”.
In the next few weeks I have several doctor appointments, including a pre-op. I have questions that I need to ask the surgeon that came up during the “what to expect in surgery” class. I have to get Orion ready for the changes coming up in his schedule. (Helping with transfers will be a BIG no-no for me for awhile. I’ll even have to work up to tossing the wheelchair into the back of the car, and that doesn’t weigh nearly as much as he does!)
And then there is coordinating support. I can’t tell you all how much I’ve appreciated the kind words, thoughts, and prayers from my readers. The comments cheering me on are invaluable. They mean the world to me and brighten my days. They just don’t get the grocery shopping done. Yet another thing to add to the “to-do” list.
Karina Karina
My little girl turned 21 years old this weekend.
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She continues to be such a delight.
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I’m so proud of her and all she’s doing with her life. But it’s also a little sad.
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Seems like yesterday she was crawling into my lap.
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So I took a little stroll
down memory lane.
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Phones
When was the last time you got a busy signal calling someone on the phone? I know people who’ve never heard one. I recall one time my daughter handing me the phone asking, “What’s wrong?”
“It’s just busy.”
Voice mail has made the busy signal obsolete. Most business will give you the voice message “all of our lines are busy” rather than a busy signal and some cell phone providers do the same.My parents are hold-outs. They refuse to put in call waiting. If they are talking to someone they are busy and don’t want to be interrupted (especially not by solicitors). They find it rude to put someone on hold to check another call. I often get a busy signal.
I expect that at particular times. My Mother makes weekly phone calls to some of her friends and relatives. I know I won’t reach her during those times. I also know that a birthday or special occasion (like Mother’s Day) will make it nearly impossible to get though. “Just calling to say Happy Birthday.” takes most folks at least 20 minutes where my Mother is concerned.
Maybe that’s where I get it from. As a teenager the phone was regularly attached to my ear. I often ran the cord under the basement door and sat on the top step for some privacy. Just the idea of a phone I could carry with me wherever I went made me giddy. You’d think I would be at the top of the line for the next, newest, best.
You would be wrong. I went into Best Buy in the late 1990’s looking for a new “portable phone”. Not a cell phone, but one that didn’t have a cord attached. I said I was replacing an old phone and really needed to be able to take this one with me out into the garden. The very young salesperson immediately assumed that the reason I needed to replace the phone was because I was gardening and not cleaning the phone properly. He tried to up-sell me a wipe for the phone. I said no, the phone I was replacing was a dial phone. He looked at me like I’d stopped speaking English.
“Dial doesn’t make a phone.”
“No a phone with a dial.”
“You mean you press the buttons to dial?”
“No a rotary dial phone.” I made the motion in the air. Apparently I’d stepped out of a time machine. His recovery?
“Yes, you really do need a new phone.”
I’ve learned to not jump up every time the phone rings. I’ve learned to let it go to voice mail when I’m busy. I’ve learned to send texts – although after an exchange of 3 or 4 I’m ready to just call you to complete the conversation. I’ll even use the bluetooth built into the car.
None of that changes my capacity for a good conversation. There are a few people, long distance relationships, that are bound to be a long call. My Mother and I sometimes will get into a long conversation, especially if there is drama in the family. Apparently I come by it honestly, but I can have that 5 hour conversation. I don’t do it very often, but sometimes I just get to talking.
That’s why the blog is late. I took a Monday morning phone call and , well, got to talking……….