My daughter Suzy lives here on Bounty with me, her longtime boyfriend(so long, in fact that he's far far away from being a whatchacallit "boy"!)Thom, and his Siberian husky Tabasco.
Tabasco is in his 15th year.
That is very old for a big dog of his type.
It's time to kiss him goodbye and send him off to doggie heaven but that is just so hard to contemplate let alone DO.
He's in constant pain, poor fella. He's lost control of more than one part of his body. And his whimpering would break your heart.
I know it does mine.
I will hate to see him go but will be so glad when he's gone on to his reward!
What do you think Doggie Heaven looks like?? I can't imagine - but I know it will have a spot ready and waiting for our good boy whenever we get up the guts to let him go.
I hope that's soon. This hurts us all too much.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The Gay Divorcee
This could be a little tricky, saying everything exactly right, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway because it's such a significant happening.
My daughter Amy is officially divorced! It happened very recently after eight long months of agonized wishing and waiting for it to be done. The process of divorce is not any fun, that's the simple truth, but Amy handled the challenges with great aplomb and I am proud of her for weathering the many storms that washed over her again and again.
Her story was not a new one; she married someone who looked great on paper but was not, in reality, the perfect fit she'd anticipated. He's a good man but is not and never was the right man for her.
She devoted 14 long years to trying every day in every way to Make It Right and then - when 40 came - she said, "Enough!" and set about making a new life for herself
and for their three children.
She and her ex - Bill - decided to live, as separated adults, in the same house with the children while the divorce was underway. There was some tension between them, yes, but they protected the children from their differences in so far as that was humanly possible. It was difficult in the doing but, in retrospect, I see it as having worked out well for the children and that is the bottom line.
They both agreed to joint custody and worked out a new-to-me arrangement of keeping the children in the house as they always have been with both Amy and Bill doing the coming and going having either 3 or 4 days each week with the kids.
So far so good!!
The kids have handled all this far better than I could ever have forseen. It pays to have two parents who each love them tremendously and want the best for them.
I hope and pray Amy has all the love she deserves in her life from now until forever.
If confidence counts, she will. Love IS the meaning of life (I read it in The Big Book Of Judy!)and finding a soulmate makes all of life not just bearable in its trials but brings joy to every moment.
That is my wish for her, for you, and for everyone everywhere.
Amen.
My daughter Amy is officially divorced! It happened very recently after eight long months of agonized wishing and waiting for it to be done. The process of divorce is not any fun, that's the simple truth, but Amy handled the challenges with great aplomb and I am proud of her for weathering the many storms that washed over her again and again.
Her story was not a new one; she married someone who looked great on paper but was not, in reality, the perfect fit she'd anticipated. He's a good man but is not and never was the right man for her.
She devoted 14 long years to trying every day in every way to Make It Right and then - when 40 came - she said, "Enough!" and set about making a new life for herself
and for their three children.
She and her ex - Bill - decided to live, as separated adults, in the same house with the children while the divorce was underway. There was some tension between them, yes, but they protected the children from their differences in so far as that was humanly possible. It was difficult in the doing but, in retrospect, I see it as having worked out well for the children and that is the bottom line.
They both agreed to joint custody and worked out a new-to-me arrangement of keeping the children in the house as they always have been with both Amy and Bill doing the coming and going having either 3 or 4 days each week with the kids.
So far so good!!
The kids have handled all this far better than I could ever have forseen. It pays to have two parents who each love them tremendously and want the best for them.
I hope and pray Amy has all the love she deserves in her life from now until forever.
If confidence counts, she will. Love IS the meaning of life (I read it in The Big Book Of Judy!)and finding a soulmate makes all of life not just bearable in its trials but brings joy to every moment.
That is my wish for her, for you, and for everyone everywhere.
Amen.
The Wednesday Girl
I was looking for something new to do - something that Tom and I had not shared so that I could take one more bold step into this future of mine. I found it at Sarasota Memorial Hospital.
I'm volunteering there on Wednesdays, taking the library cart around from room to room offering free magazines and books for patients and their families to enjoy while at SMH.
What's not to love about "free"???
There are over 1000 volunteers at Sarasota Memorial, isn't that amazing? It's a tribute to not just compassion and community service but also to retirement benefits that have, thus far, allowed all these kind-hearted people to just give away their time for hours and days and weeks and years at a stretch.
God Bless America!
If the State of Michigan screws with my benefits any more than they already have (and moreover threaten with regularity)I may find myself in a position of having to work for money again but - for now at least - I'm enjoying the opportunity to be a volunteer.
The uniform notwithstanding!!!?
It physically hurt me to buy and hang in my closet two pairs of white elastic-waist polyester pants; they are and always have been the trademark uniform of the elderly. Yikes!! I so did NOT want to go there.
But go I did.
In training I got to wear a sort of semi-cute royal blue pinafore apron over a simple white blouse but now, as a graduate volunteer, I have to wear this God-awful
tunic top in a hideous guaranteed-to-wash-out-ANYONE's-color blue. I'm still at the stage when I shudder dressing for my Wednesday date!
But it's like my father always said, "Keep your head up, Judith, and smile. THAT's what people notice, not what you're wearing."
I love being able to talk to real patients! I love being able to spread that smile my father righteously claimed a winner. I love being able to offer (free) something that has the capacity to divert even for a moment each anxious/scared/depressed/lonely person who could easily be you or me, your family member or mine.
I'm so glad to have found a niche where, even if briefly, it's in my power to bring a smile where there was none before.
It's absolutely more a blessing to me than it could ever be to anyone I serve.
And that's the truth (insert raspberry noise here!).
I'm volunteering there on Wednesdays, taking the library cart around from room to room offering free magazines and books for patients and their families to enjoy while at SMH.
What's not to love about "free"???
There are over 1000 volunteers at Sarasota Memorial, isn't that amazing? It's a tribute to not just compassion and community service but also to retirement benefits that have, thus far, allowed all these kind-hearted people to just give away their time for hours and days and weeks and years at a stretch.
God Bless America!
If the State of Michigan screws with my benefits any more than they already have (and moreover threaten with regularity)I may find myself in a position of having to work for money again but - for now at least - I'm enjoying the opportunity to be a volunteer.
The uniform notwithstanding!!!?
It physically hurt me to buy and hang in my closet two pairs of white elastic-waist polyester pants; they are and always have been the trademark uniform of the elderly. Yikes!! I so did NOT want to go there.
But go I did.
In training I got to wear a sort of semi-cute royal blue pinafore apron over a simple white blouse but now, as a graduate volunteer, I have to wear this God-awful
tunic top in a hideous guaranteed-to-wash-out-ANYONE's-color blue. I'm still at the stage when I shudder dressing for my Wednesday date!
But it's like my father always said, "Keep your head up, Judith, and smile. THAT's what people notice, not what you're wearing."
I love being able to talk to real patients! I love being able to spread that smile my father righteously claimed a winner. I love being able to offer (free) something that has the capacity to divert even for a moment each anxious/scared/depressed/lonely person who could easily be you or me, your family member or mine.
I'm so glad to have found a niche where, even if briefly, it's in my power to bring a smile where there was none before.
It's absolutely more a blessing to me than it could ever be to anyone I serve.
And that's the truth (insert raspberry noise here!).
The Prodigal Returneth
Yup, I'm back.
My hiatus was unplanned for and inexplicable - just wrote one day and stopped the next. My apologies to those of you who've been looking for more and weren't getting any.
I know the feeling!! lol
Summer IS a lazy time in the tropics but it's not my excuse. Like everything else having to do with me I don't question the why so much as I simply accept it and move on.
Hope you're ready to move on along with me?? The Widow Judy does need her peeps!!
There are a few things to report from The Summer Sabbatical and those will be following quickly on the heels of this (re)opener.
TWJ lives!
My hiatus was unplanned for and inexplicable - just wrote one day and stopped the next. My apologies to those of you who've been looking for more and weren't getting any.
I know the feeling!! lol
Summer IS a lazy time in the tropics but it's not my excuse. Like everything else having to do with me I don't question the why so much as I simply accept it and move on.
Hope you're ready to move on along with me?? The Widow Judy does need her peeps!!
There are a few things to report from The Summer Sabbatical and those will be following quickly on the heels of this (re)opener.
TWJ lives!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Summer Daze
It's hard to believe another whole school year has gone by. I swear the days rush past at lightening speed.
And yet, somehow, I never change, cough, cough....
Nope. I'm still the madcap goofy girl I've always been. Still trying to learn it all, do it all, have it all and then give it all away!?
Italian is coming along very nicely (multo bene!). Instead of singing out loud to all my country music faves on the car CD player, now I'm following the cues on the language tapes so I can 1.) be polite in a third language, 2.) get around town, and
3.) cafe klatch with the best of them once in Roma.
My trip to Michigan (yes, the very place I vowed I would never go again only a couple short months ago when it tried so hard to kill me!) is overbooked and underfinanced but go I shall and, once there, will do it up brown. This is touted as a "Celebrate Olivia" tour but of course ALL the grandchildren will be celebrated in turn and together as a crew.
My crew. In my crib. Good Daughter Amy has worked up a schedule wherein each and every child will have at least one night at the motel with Grandma. That comes with attendant restaurant foods most loved by the kids and a shopping spree of course.
What's a Grandma without a flashing debit card, I ask you??
Olivia will get special treatment this time to celebrate her graduation to middle school. On Saturday we'll be skipping town with her two best friends and heading for an amusement/water park on the west coast of MI for two days of Big Fun.
I am not a rider of anything that goes fast, upside down, or twirls so the girls will do the rides with oversight only on my part. I'll park myself on a nice bench under a tree in proximity to a cotton candy stand and they'll check in at appointed times to share their tales have food/drink with me.
There's a lazy river in the waterpark section so the girls'll know where to find me floating placidly on what I hope will be a sunny day in Muskegon!!
Ergo, the school year will end with a bang for Miss Olivia. Everyone else will ease into the summer a little more subtly but with just as much enthusiasm.
Including the Widow Judy!
And yet, somehow, I never change, cough, cough....
Nope. I'm still the madcap goofy girl I've always been. Still trying to learn it all, do it all, have it all and then give it all away!?
Italian is coming along very nicely (multo bene!). Instead of singing out loud to all my country music faves on the car CD player, now I'm following the cues on the language tapes so I can 1.) be polite in a third language, 2.) get around town, and
3.) cafe klatch with the best of them once in Roma.
My trip to Michigan (yes, the very place I vowed I would never go again only a couple short months ago when it tried so hard to kill me!) is overbooked and underfinanced but go I shall and, once there, will do it up brown. This is touted as a "Celebrate Olivia" tour but of course ALL the grandchildren will be celebrated in turn and together as a crew.
My crew. In my crib. Good Daughter Amy has worked up a schedule wherein each and every child will have at least one night at the motel with Grandma. That comes with attendant restaurant foods most loved by the kids and a shopping spree of course.
What's a Grandma without a flashing debit card, I ask you??
Olivia will get special treatment this time to celebrate her graduation to middle school. On Saturday we'll be skipping town with her two best friends and heading for an amusement/water park on the west coast of MI for two days of Big Fun.
I am not a rider of anything that goes fast, upside down, or twirls so the girls will do the rides with oversight only on my part. I'll park myself on a nice bench under a tree in proximity to a cotton candy stand and they'll check in at appointed times to share their tales have food/drink with me.
There's a lazy river in the waterpark section so the girls'll know where to find me floating placidly on what I hope will be a sunny day in Muskegon!!
Ergo, the school year will end with a bang for Miss Olivia. Everyone else will ease into the summer a little more subtly but with just as much enthusiasm.
Including the Widow Judy!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Roma redux
I started learning Italian in my car yesterday.
Usually I just sing as loudly as I want to the two country stations I listen to but now I'm improving my mind. Seriously. Experts say that doing crossword puzzles and learning a new language are two of the best ways possible to keep your brain sharp.
If that's true I should be a LOT sharper than I am??
I play Scrabble way too much of the day on Facebook... usually about 8 games simultaneously! I win a lot but not all the time because those upstart nieces won't let me rest on my laurels.
I mentioned that I'm thinking about travelling to Rome this fall and I got a message from a long-lost-recently-rediscovered cousin inviting me to travel with her, her husband, and a friend of theirs.
No, his name wasn't Stan!! lol
Their schedule isn't fixed because the friend has some health issues that need to be resolved first but it would be so cool to hook up with my cousin, whom I haven't seen in, let's say, thirty five years give or take.
And then my daughter Beckie told me she and her husband Dan will be in Rome themselves for an energy conference at the end of September so we could pal around if I were there then.
Also a very cool idea.
So... I'm learning Italian. After teaching French, another romance language, for almost forty years Italian's coming along pretty quickly. I just need the oral facility - won't be writing any treatises after all. The accent's interesting and I like it very much - not as much as French but that's OK.
Who's been to Rome at different times of the year? Is it better to be there in September and October or October and November? Can you do without a coat... just stick to sweaters in the fall? Anybody stayed somewhere they loved? What's the best area to live in while you're there?
I need some input so help me out. Let me know some specifics ASAP, please. I need to start solidifying some plans!
Ciao!!
Usually I just sing as loudly as I want to the two country stations I listen to but now I'm improving my mind. Seriously. Experts say that doing crossword puzzles and learning a new language are two of the best ways possible to keep your brain sharp.
If that's true I should be a LOT sharper than I am??
I play Scrabble way too much of the day on Facebook... usually about 8 games simultaneously! I win a lot but not all the time because those upstart nieces won't let me rest on my laurels.
I mentioned that I'm thinking about travelling to Rome this fall and I got a message from a long-lost-recently-rediscovered cousin inviting me to travel with her, her husband, and a friend of theirs.
No, his name wasn't Stan!! lol
Their schedule isn't fixed because the friend has some health issues that need to be resolved first but it would be so cool to hook up with my cousin, whom I haven't seen in, let's say, thirty five years give or take.
And then my daughter Beckie told me she and her husband Dan will be in Rome themselves for an energy conference at the end of September so we could pal around if I were there then.
Also a very cool idea.
So... I'm learning Italian. After teaching French, another romance language, for almost forty years Italian's coming along pretty quickly. I just need the oral facility - won't be writing any treatises after all. The accent's interesting and I like it very much - not as much as French but that's OK.
Who's been to Rome at different times of the year? Is it better to be there in September and October or October and November? Can you do without a coat... just stick to sweaters in the fall? Anybody stayed somewhere they loved? What's the best area to live in while you're there?
I need some input so help me out. Let me know some specifics ASAP, please. I need to start solidifying some plans!
Ciao!!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Memorial Day
What a beautiful holiday this has been.
Memorial Day is all about remembering those who've served our country especially those who have died in service so you would think that might be sad. But, it fact, it's a rip-roarin' beach-lake-pool-picnic-barbecue-fireworks celebratin' sort of day and that's what we did.
All that stuff!
I started off meeting Carolyn, Dalecia, Dabria, Dominique and Quincy at the beach about 10:00. IT WASN'T EARLY ENOUGH, lol!! We literally drove up and down the parking lanes for better than 50 minutes (you would never have done that, I know!) and still there was no room at the inn.
So we drove across the street to the condo Carolyn's friend lives in but - alas - she was having people over herself and couldn't give us the go-ahead to use her parking spaces as we'd hoped she might.
All that running in place made up hungry so we stopped for brunch at Denny's. As soon as we got our drinks we toasted our service people, their sacrifices and those of their families - then we ate like pigs!
You would have hooted over our ancient waitness. She had to be in her late seventies. Guess we'll be seeing a lot more of that in this economy....
You have to know that, yes, I left her a hugh tip!
Having been denied access to the Gulf of Mexico we headed to Oscar Sherer State Park figuring we'd go to the little beach there. I pulled up to the ranger's station first and paid but as she was handing me change the officer said, "Oh, by the way, the beach is closed for high bacteria count."
"Oh, no! That's the only reason we were here - to go to the beach!!"
She gave me the entire refund, Quincy switched back to Carolyn's car (she was nice enough to bring him so I didn't have to drive all the way cross town to pick him up!) and we parted company.
I went back home and joined Suzy and Thom on the lanai. Suzy was wiping away big crocodile tears when I stepped out there. Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke" was on XM and she was remembering the crazy 'exercises' that Tom used to do to that song and to so many others.
The softie!!
We spent the afternoon watching the Tigers play the Royals and whup 'em pretty good: 13-1! That, lazing in the pool and reading completed our holiday afternoon.
It's dinnertime now and Thom Strong is manning the grill. We're having all the staples: barbecued rib steaks, corn on the cob, salad, hot crusty rolls.
Later, there'll be watermelon, ice cream and sparklers.
All I can say is, "Wish you were here,
Tom."
Memorial Day is all about remembering those who've served our country especially those who have died in service so you would think that might be sad. But, it fact, it's a rip-roarin' beach-lake-pool-picnic-barbecue-fireworks celebratin' sort of day and that's what we did.
All that stuff!
I started off meeting Carolyn, Dalecia, Dabria, Dominique and Quincy at the beach about 10:00. IT WASN'T EARLY ENOUGH, lol!! We literally drove up and down the parking lanes for better than 50 minutes (you would never have done that, I know!) and still there was no room at the inn.
So we drove across the street to the condo Carolyn's friend lives in but - alas - she was having people over herself and couldn't give us the go-ahead to use her parking spaces as we'd hoped she might.
All that running in place made up hungry so we stopped for brunch at Denny's. As soon as we got our drinks we toasted our service people, their sacrifices and those of their families - then we ate like pigs!
You would have hooted over our ancient waitness. She had to be in her late seventies. Guess we'll be seeing a lot more of that in this economy....
You have to know that, yes, I left her a hugh tip!
Having been denied access to the Gulf of Mexico we headed to Oscar Sherer State Park figuring we'd go to the little beach there. I pulled up to the ranger's station first and paid but as she was handing me change the officer said, "Oh, by the way, the beach is closed for high bacteria count."
"Oh, no! That's the only reason we were here - to go to the beach!!"
She gave me the entire refund, Quincy switched back to Carolyn's car (she was nice enough to bring him so I didn't have to drive all the way cross town to pick him up!) and we parted company.
I went back home and joined Suzy and Thom on the lanai. Suzy was wiping away big crocodile tears when I stepped out there. Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke" was on XM and she was remembering the crazy 'exercises' that Tom used to do to that song and to so many others.
The softie!!
We spent the afternoon watching the Tigers play the Royals and whup 'em pretty good: 13-1! That, lazing in the pool and reading completed our holiday afternoon.
It's dinnertime now and Thom Strong is manning the grill. We're having all the staples: barbecued rib steaks, corn on the cob, salad, hot crusty rolls.
Later, there'll be watermelon, ice cream and sparklers.
All I can say is, "Wish you were here,
Tom."
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