#56 In The Books!

 I cleaned thoroughly and did three loads of laundry on Friday.  Things are under control!

Saturday was officially our 56th wedding anniversary.  We were married at St. Bonaventure church in Cincinnati, OH.  A brunch reception followed Mass, a dinner was served for the wedding party at Forest View Gardens later in the day and a reception that evening for everyone was held at Covedale Hall.  

We spent our wedding night in our apartment that I had been living in for a month.  After Mass on Sunday morning, we headed to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania for a week at Cove Haven, a honeymoon resort.  We had a great time!

This year after Mass we met Terry and Carol at Casa Medina for dinner.  It was a two margarita night!  And they bought our dinner!  

We went back to their house to play cards and I won!

On Sunday Ted was shooting in a charity tournament representing Wood Forest Development on Sunday, They had sponsored a team and told the gun club to fill it.  So Ted and three others filled the bill.  He came home with a goody bag with hats, shirts, coozie, etc.  They fed them too!  

I spent my day with my friend Irene at the outlet mall visiting Chico’s, Coach and Carter’s.  I bought a new purse, shorts, crop pants, T shirt and two size 24 month outfits for CeCe!  We called John when we left and when we arrived at the restaurant, he was just getting out of the car.  Great timing!  We had BBQ and they bought my dinner.  What a weekend!

I didn’t do much on Monday.  I packed CeCe’s package for mailing and paid a few bills but not much else besides normal housekeeping stuff.  A day at home is always welcome.  We were surprised and tickled when we saw our newly planted hostas and astilbe have already sprouted!  The hostas are in the lead.

My 6 month check up with my PCP was Tuesday morning.  My numbers were awesome. 116/72 BP, 61 heart rate, 98 pulse ox, weight stable and two pages of good blood test results from last week at the hematologist.  He was so pleased, as was I!  He ordered three more tests, cholesterol, thyroid and urinalysis and called in my prescriptions.  I am good until Fall!

I left there and drove to the lab where I had to wait around until I could fill my little bottle!  Next up was a stop at the post office to mail CeCe’s “just because” package.  From there I headed to the nail salon.  It has been since mid March, right before our trip to Ohio, since they were done.  The girl had a fit when I asked  her to cut my “beautiful” (her words) nails.  They were so long!!  She reluctantly cut them!

It was mid afternoon by the time I arrived home.  Ted was in the shower and then went to the grocery, which he does most days.  Nancy, my neighbor and mail lady, came over for a visit. We sat on the front porch and had a nice visit. She has finally started playing dominoes again with her friends, twice now since March a year ago.  She stayed in all year!  

Ted grilled fillets for dinner and they were sure good.  Then we had a quiet evening at home.

Wednesday was a birthday celebration for Teri.  We met at Tommy Bahamas for lunch, cake and a few presents.  It is so good that people are coming out.  Most people are getting vaccinated and feel comfortable in small groups I guess.  We have never stopped going to restaurants and have sat in faraway corners away from others but that was okay.  

I tried to work out a quick trip to Florida because all three of my girls will be there together but I waited too long to book a ticket with good travel times that wouldn’t disrupt anyone.  So now I have 5 days of nothingness!  I won’t bore you with those details,  just be advised we will go to church, that’s a given.  

  

Mother Nature

Our grass is coming along!  Ted bought a bottom piece for our downspout to better direct rainfall.  And the grass is doing somewhat better.  So maybe our sod and bull rock bill will be less if the grass continues to fill in while we wait the 4-5 weeks.  My shade garden perennials are due so Ted and I will plant them as they will be bare root and can’t wait for the yard people.  

I don’t recall the end of last week but after church on Saturday we drove north to Cheddar’s for dinner.  There was a 30 minute wait so we returned to our car to wait for a text saying our table was ready.  After about 15 minutes Ted looked up and saw Gerre and Barry walking into the restaurant. We hollered and told them to add themselves to our reservation and change it to 4.  We waited another 15 minutes and were seated.  What a serendipity evening!  They are busy with their grandson’s ball games and two upcoming weddings so we haven’t seen them except when we all went to see Footloose.  It made for such an unexpected, fun evening.

Sunday we were due at a restaurant to play cards, have dinner and celebrate Terry’s birthday.  I didn’t get down in the third game and it kept me from winning.  Without that, I only had 19 points which would have won.  

Tuesday we were back in the same restaurant with a regular group that has started up again.  People are loosening up and venturing out once again.  Most everyone has had both shots.  Our second one is Monday.  I didn’t win at my table but Ted did at his.  

Nothing much happened the rest of the week.  We went to church on Saturday night but came home to eat.  We were going to Perry’s Sunday to celebrate Terry’s 78th birthday and our 56th anniversary.  John and Irene joined us.  Everyone ordered a different side for two to go with my onion soup and filet - whipped potatoes, grilled asparagus, sweet sarachi Brussel sprouts, corn and creamed spinach.  There were two “trio” desserts for the anniversary and birthday celebration so everyone could have one but some declined but they all got eaten.  

We went back to Terry and Carol’s to play cards and I came in second!  

Monday was our second shot and it went off without a hitch.  My arm was much sorer this time the next day but that was my only side effect.  Tuesday we met Tommy and Susan for lunch at Saltgrass.  They are getting closer on having their whole house redone.  They went down to the studs, raised the ceilings, got new HVAC plus a generator, all new appliances, etc.  In all it will be about 6 months of living in their motorhome.  I can’t wait to see it.  We got caught up in a traffic jamon the way home.  The sign board said major accident, freeway closed.  We were stop and go for an hour and then we started moving and then saw nothing!  No wrecked cars, no wreckers, no cops, no nothing!  Weird.  

Wednesday was our neighborhood birthday luncheon.  Except for the four that met for Christmas, it has been a year since we got together.  We started out with 10 planned attendees and ended up with 7 as other things came up.  I learned one neighbor is moving to Virginia.  Our 20 year old neighborhood is turning over to younger people.

Our plants arrived and we planted them.  They said it will take 6-8 weeks to sprout.  They were bare roots with just nubs so hopefully they will take root and get established for this year and bloom even better next year.  

I worked a shift at the thrift store Thursday for the first time since before Christmas.  It was good to get out and see some co-workers.  

Tomorrow will be cleaning and laundry.  This week has flown by!

Easter Weekend

 Holidays without kids is boring!  No eggs to color, baskets to fill, eggs to hide, little girls to dress.  We had McDonald’s fish sandwiches on Friday to avoid eating meat but nothing else was done in preparation for Sunday.  Saturday was a bit strange in that we did not attend the Easter Vigil which is a very long service.  Palms are burned to make ashes for next Ash Wednesday.  Oils are blessed to be used in sacraments throughout the year.  People entering the church are baptized if they never have been in any Christian church, they are Confirmed in the Catholic Church and receive their First Communion.  Lots going on.  It starts at 8 and goes for a few hours.  

So Sunday morning we dressed and went to 9 am Mass.  We had no trouble parking but the church was full, the gym pretty much so, the hall had just been opened so we went in there.  Rows of 4 seats filled the area so we sat in the middle leaving an empty chair on either side to keep someone from sitting next to us.  By Mass time and beyond (who shows up at 9:15 for a 9:00 service on Easter?) the hall was filled too.  Communion ministers came to us so things went smoothly.  We were out before the church emptied, got right out of the parking lot and made our way home.  

We had just a short time before we left to have brunch with Terry and Carol as their guests at the country club.  The big restaurant area was booked so we went to the smaller one and it was great.  No crowd at all and a very nice spread to choose from.  We didn’t leave there until almost 2:00.  After going home to change, we went to their house to play cards.  Carol won with a Shanghai and Ted came in second.  It was close to 9 when we came home.  Our Easter turned out very nice.

The kids sent a video of CeCe emptying her Easter basket.  We had sent three hair bows we bought in Mexico and a gift card to Carter’s.  They put one of the bows in her hair and she was more interested in the card.  She loves books and opened it and appeared to read it.  The gift card was of no interest!  She turned 18 months Easter Day.

Monday was cleaning day and laundry.  I stripped our bed and did three huge loads of laundry and cleaned everything but our bathroom.  It will have to wait until tomorrow.  Ted cooked dinner since it was close to dinner time and I was still putting clothes away.  He even emptied the dishwasher so after dinner, I cleaned up.

Tuesday I finished cleaning our bedroom and bath. It felt good to have the laundry done and the house cleaned.  For dinner I made ribs in the Instant Pot. 22 minutes in the pot, 3 minutes under the broiler.  Delicious, falling off the bone. 

Wednesday Ted joined some old friends to shoot in a competition at the Houston Gun Club.  I washed my car windows after a bird decorated them all in white doodoo!  Then I went to Ross to buy a frame and to Office Max to return some ink cartridges. 

We decided this year to make one annual contribution to our church from our RMD to take advantage of the tax deduction. We lumped everything into one total. Sunday’s, Christmas, Easter, St. Vincent de Paul, food bank, Bishops Fund, Building campaign, etc.  I delivered the check from Morgan Stanley along with our desired breakdown to our church office. No more remembering to get the envelope(s) ready on Saturday!  

Our landscaper said he is 4-5 weeks out to get to our bull rock and sod placement.  If we wait long enough we may not need sod!  Maybe it will fix itself. 

Dealing with the Freeze Aftermath

We were very lucky in that we had no water leaks in our house.  The pipes had frozen before we were able to get someone to go to our house. They turned the water valve in the garage off and opened some faucets.  It must have thawed slowly when the heat came back on and drained out the open faucets.  The ice maker, dishwasher and washing machine lines were all ok too.  

We were not so lucky outside.  Our brand new backflow that was drained, turned off, wrapped and with the sprinkler system also off, cracked.  It was leaking water so we had another neighbor turn the water off at the outdoor meter box.

We spent a good deal of time arranging to have it repaired and finally had it fixed on Friday.  The sprinkler system checked out ok but there was the problem of the water above the French drain and the filled water meter box.  The water company said our French drain was leaking!  Excuse me, it is a drain!  It needs a water source to disperse water and it had all been shut off!  The water board guy says the boxes all fill up.  My yard guy said the French drain was clogged.  FINALLY, after installing the new backflow and checking the sprinklers I asked this man to look at my “old mill stream” in the front yard.  He said “you have a leak.”  Hallelujah!  He showed Ted where the meter moved ever so slightly at intervals.  Based on the saturation of the ground he thinks we have a pipe leaking starting at our front fence leading right into the meter box.  It will be dug up and repaired next week.  Everyone is so busy.  In the meantime my water meter is moving ever so slightly and there is a permanent wet gutter all the way down the street.

We were to get our first vaccine shot on Wednesday and whoever was in charge of logistics should be shot!  Traffic on the interstate, feeder roads and cross streets was in virtual gridlock.  Knowing we needed to get two shots and fearing we had to return to the same place, we bailed!  My mail neighbor gave me a letter her husband had received from a hospital where he had been a patient.  Ted had been at one time too.    So we called and got appointments for Monday.  No problem signing us both up. Everyone who has gone here said it is smooth sailing.  

Our plants fared pretty well.  The boxwoods and junipers were not affected at all.  The African irises, agapanthus and hostas all have green shoots and the azaleas are blooming but without any leaves which must have all frozen and fell off.  The buds apparently were unharmed.

I used the last of my Southwest credit to book our flights to Savannah where we will rent a car and drive an hour to Hilton Head to spend a week in May once again with Gus and Melissa.  We had such a good time two years ago with them and their neighbors.  This year, another fellow from Celanese that Gus and I worked with, and his wife, are joining us. 

Friday night was the last weekend to see our community theater production of Footloose.  We met Gerre and Barry at Joe’s Italian to have dinner.  We have missed several productions because of Covid but the house was packed.  The cast was 90% young folks and their singing and dancing was extraordinary!  What a fun evening!  Tonight will be their last performance and there will be a sad group.  You could just feel the camaraderie and fun they were having.  We thoroughly enjoyed this production.  Our next and last one for this season will be Cabaret.  

We didn’t know how Palm Sunday would be handled at church.  Normally everyone gathers on the piazza where the Passion is read and then we process into church for the remainder of the Mass.  This time we just took our socially distanced seats while wearing masks and the Passion was read from the altar.  

Our niece Rhonda and two of her boys are visiting from Illinois so we met them with Terry and Carol at our favorite Mexican restaurant after Mass.  I had a margarita and my old standby, chicken empanadas, that I have not seen in many Mexican restaurants.  In Mexico I order lonches which are small sandwiches but I have not seen any stateside, I asked once and they looked at me like I was nuts!  

We then played cards and I won!  Poor Ted got stuck not going down twice.  I am not sure if he or Rhonda pulled up the rear.  My dime purse is overflowing!  Time to “let the games begin.”  

Sunday I did some cleaning of things that get missed in our travels.  Baseboards, cabinets, straightened my closet and shoes, etc. while Ted worked a Tournament at Blackwater Gun Club.

We had appointments at Methodist Hospital Monday morning at 11:15 for our first vaccine shot.  Because we had so much traffic last week resulting in gridlock, we left at 10:30 for a very short drive.  We drove into the parking lot, followed signs to park, was picked up by a golf cart and walked right in after being questioned on our name and appt. time.  There was no line, we moved from one station to the next, waited 30 minutes afterwards and left 5 minutes before our appt. time.  What an immense difference!  Same area, different hospital, different venue!  So far, no soreness or problem for either of us.

We both eventually had a bit of soreness in our muscle but nothing too much.  It didn’t bother us lying on it while sleeping.  I hope the next one is equally as quick and side effects free.  

Gerre stopped by for a visit and to pick up some things I brought her from Mexico.  She didn’t stay terribly long but we did get caught up.  

I was expecting the sprinkler guy to come on Wednesday but they called to say it would be Thursday afternoon!  Patience is a virtue!  I know they are all very busy but I am getting tired of watering the gutter in the street non stop!  Once we have the leak fixed and with the backflow and sprinklers working okay, we will start on replacing sod and moving bull rock around to better drain the yard.  Zero lot line homes are not conducive to good grading.  There simply isn’t enough room.  I can’t tell you how many times we have replanted and/or reworked this postage stamp yard.

Ted went shooting Wednesday and I picked up Margi and Irene for lunch.  It was nice to be out with friends talking, laughing and eating like old times.  We didn’t have to wear a mask in or out of the restaurant but the servers did have masks on.  It said patrons could decide for themselves.  Ted and I never stopped eating at restaurants.  We chose outdoors when we could, went to places with great social distancing and wore masks as required.  I can only think of three times in the past year where I felt we were in a bigger crowd than I was comfortable with.  We simply did our best to avoid “rubbing elbows” in groups.  

Today our leak was located and repaired.  The man had it fixed in 20 minutes.  He put the ditch back in such a way you could not tell he had dug it!  He must have taken the grass off as pieces of sod and then replaced it.  He said to give it two days to dry out and said the French drain is fine and does not need to be replaced.  

Next up will be addition of bull rock to move the water away from the back fence and to capture the rain from the downspout instead of emptying on the grass causing mud!  We need sod in many places and I imagine most will be replaced for uniformity.  I ordered plants for a perennial shade garden.  Annuals just don’t do it in all the shade and I have tried numerous kinds. Hopefully these new plants, once they arrive, will fill in the empty spaces.