Month: June 2019

First: About the Mama Morehen. She finally forsook the nest with kids in tow. We saw her yelling at some rather large ducks to stay away from her babies and then she took off. We normally see the morehens with babies in the more quiet canals not out here in the big lake. Anyhow, the boat will be gone next time she gets ready to lay eggs…. They normally return to the same place for egg laying. Like the ducks. The back of my house against the house wall is a favorite place… Then we can’t walk on the path for 40 days. There was a lot of me peeking out the window and Mama duck (Mike named her Dolores) peeking back up at me. The babies hatched and Mama duck was gone inside of 24 hours! I also saw a turtle laying eggs in my flower garden near the art room. If I ever feel like pulling weeds there, I have to be careful. Good grief, nature is amazing.

We are in Bowling Green Florida after spending the day at Lake Placid. We dropped off a truck full of yard furniture and a few boxes of delicate angels. Hand carried to the new house. Then we went to lunch at what I call the American Cafe. It’s a diner with a big American flag…. Wonderful! I met 3 new lady friends who have been in Lake Placid all their lives….. a long time. We swapped names and numbers and I’ll text them when we come to the Calladium festival and when we are living here. Then to the tag agency which in Miami is a long and drawn out experience – need to make an appointment… We took a number and were called within 10 minutes. Did everything: Registered the boat and bought a tag; changed address on drivers license (I have a star so mine was easy; Chuck had to prove he was actually really a human citizen of the USA with social security, passport, 2 envelopes mailed to him in Lake Placid…. He also took his DD214 so he will have veteran on his drivers license; registered cars in Lake Placid; filed for voters registration, and I applied to volunteer at the polls! Whew! We walked out of there smiling. It should all be this nice. Then we went to the bank and did our first ATM deposit at Heartland bank! Easy Peasy! Then Chuck talked with the concrete man (need a slab for planned shed) while I shopped for bathing suits at Bealls Outlet. He packed all my swim wear, including cover ups! So I had to shop. Found 2 suits. Then we headed out for Bowling Green, Fl which is a pretty drive up route 17. Had too much dinner and brought leftovers back to the hotel. I might snack on leftovers in the room between swims if Chuck is busy with Convention stuff. OK! That’s it for the day!!!! All is well in small Bowling Green. We look forward to Convention starting tomorrow. God bless you!

We can want someone else to do something because it’s the right thing to do. In our opinion. It’s the right thing to do NOT to build a nest in the engine well of our pontoon boat. It’s the right thing to do NOT to overspend yourself into overdraft mode or pay only interest on a credit card. It’s the right thing to do to DO the exercise in a rehab hospital. So is this just my opinion? In the last few days I’ve stared a Morehen and 2 friends in the eye …and they stared back. Eye to eye we disagreed, and I walked away frustrated. Need wisdom here. I once had a boss say to me, "Care, but not too much." She didn’t want me to eat myself up from the inside out worrying about things I can’t control. So today, I stared at the Morehen, who by the way seems to be sitting on 4 tiny hatched babies, I finally said, "OK I’ll leave , but can you get going soon? I want to take a boat ride." Honestly I think she shifted her weight a little. That’s all. No boat ride tonight.

Thanks to a lot of prayer both Bonnie and I have settled down and are allowing the Lord to lead. Bonnie has been in hospital over a month but seems to have rallied. She has good care and good rehab people and she is regaining her sunny smile and is working hard to get up and walk around on her own. I told her "This is rehab, treat it like a spa!!!!" Warm showers, soft clothing. Handsome young men to help her exercise. What’s not to like? I don’t think she is eating yet, but that will come soon. It awaits a swallow test and great breathing on her own. (soon)… Family will meet soon, and Bonnie and they will make a plan for "at home care" whenever that is because I imagine Bonnie will not want to be alone just yet when she is released from rehab. I remember when Chuck was released from rehab, he needed some quiet time and help by friends and family before he was able to be on his own. So… Thank God this miracle has occurred!!!

As as for me. I have finally become accustomed to having the ascending aortic aneurism. It’s so close to the heart that it scared me but 3 doctors and the echo cardiogram technician and my lawyer all assured me that repair is more risky than just watching…. so we will scan with CT machine every 6 months and if the little critter gets bigger then we go to treatment. So, I’ve become one who cannot help lift things which puts the burden of moving on Chuck. I pack the boxes and call for my mover!!!! We are at this time awaiting the first interview with a mover called All My Sons. I like their web site and their voices on the phone…. Let’s see what the contract looks like. We will interview others also. This is a big move from Miami to Lake Placid. A house full and 3 sheds full…. God help us! Thank God my dear readers for blessings and miracles. Ask for peace and then sit back and let it happen. Love!!! and God bless you.

Hi dear readers! I went over to the hospital all full of foreboding because the last time I saw Bonnie she was all fight and frustration and no calm. Today she was sitting in the easy chair all smiles and happy because the trach doctor is coming! Well within 5 minutes he came and Bonnie was all lighted up. She wanted to talk to him, but he was all business, so I said to him, "she wants to talk to you." He looked at her big smile and he softened up just a little and greeted her and told her what he was doing and that she would cough a lot…. so "just relax." You should have seen. This obstreporous angry lady just settled like a lamb and did exactly what the doctor said. He pulled out a tube and put in a smaller one and immediately she is able to talk a little. It’s like a little more than a whisper, but boy oh boy does it make a difference. She wanted a mirror to look at the trach. How would we feel not being able to "see" what’s poking out of our throat? She also felt for the stomach tube. OK that’s still there. Speech therapist has to do a swallow test and the oh boy oh boy!!!! food and water coming up! I sent photos to her daughter and granddaughter. I sat with her for a while and she adjusted herself in the chair with help. She is back folks!!! Bad Bad Pneumonia almost got her. Let us all go get flu and pneumonia shots.

Chuck and I are midstream and almost drowning in books at this moment. I reached the half way point in the library, dividing my side (mostly religious books), into mine, garage sale, and church. This morning I started on the fiction and am organizing by author and searching out duplicates for garage sale and I’ll let Chuck decide if any of his precious James Connolly or Clancy or Patterson etc etc books will go to garage sale. Kathie has a lot of our stuff on internet and in her store so…. We look forward to halving our bounty!!! It’s sunny and beautiful today after a blustery grey sky day. God bless us and let us thank God for blessings!!!

All the books I studied and taught are glaring at me from the garage sale pile. I’m not going to read or teach Old Man and the Sea, Huckleberry Finn, and Walden again. I feel so sad giving away the books but since I’m not teaching like I used to I am trying to give to anyone who will read. I also made a pile of Catholic writers, books I’ve read and given book talks on, and I hope to give these books to my new church in Lake Placid if they have a book nook. If they don’t, and they agree, I’ll help set one up. It’s hard going through things and giving away or selling half, but as many of you know, I have too much and don’t want to move dusty things I haven’t touched in years and years.

I have visited Bonnie daily and today was her first day with no family here. She is very anxious. Trying to tell me what she wants but I can’t read lips. It is very frustrating for her and occasionally she gets mad and pulls on the Oxygen tube, and then the nurse puts mits on her so she waves the mits around and shouts voicelessly. Hopefully tomorrow she will get a smaller trach and she can talk… We have to get over this hump until she can swallow and doctors are happy with her breathing and doctors can remove the whole trach. Oh my dears! We need a miracle here. Bonnie is very strong. She wants to get up, get those mits off, and get out, but she can’t yet. Lord heal Bonnie and send the doctors to put in the smaller trach. More tomorrow. God bless you dear readers.

My friend Bonnie is improving. And I pray that her family will embrace her and get her back to full health. From what I have seen of Bonnie’s family, her healing will be filled with love and support. The pneumonia and infection has left her weakened, but rehab is planned, and hopefully a new refreshed life filled with a whole bunch of children, grand children and great grand children there will be dancing and singing. We pray to the Lord that this is his will!

Today a storm hit Miami and our lawn furniture was tossed around, Chuck’s small sheds were knocked over and the glass jars he had full of nuts and bolts were broken. We didn’t hear the damage happening, but it sure rained hard. Just a tiny tornado wrapped up in a lot of heavy rain. I was in the library sorting and packing books and Chuck was packing the contents of the big hutch. I haven’t seen local news so I don’t know if anyone else had damage. It’s calm now, and we have picked up the broken glass, reestablished the sheds, and put the lawn furniture back. We hope all is well with you dear readers. Keep creating and thank God!

It’s Saturday afternoon. I went to the hospital this morning… praying all morning, distracted in Mass with thoughts of my childhood friend in serious trouble…. I prayed for her and for others who are sick with mental or physical illness. I went to the hospital praying the Hail Mary and the Our Father as I walked… As I approached the CCC room Bonnie is in, I saw her lying there all quiet, mouth open, tube in her neck and my heart dropped. Then her daughter Donna must have said, "Hi Susie!" Bonnie turned her head to the door and she lifted her arms and grinned at me! Her whole face was alive with that smile! We continued for the next hour to communicate with eyes and hearts! She can’t speak yet with trach still in, but she is totally breathing on her own, but she mouths words…. much like me whispering to Chuck, "turn left at exit 26" and he would say, "What???" Bonnie looked like she was laughing and she grinned as we talked. Then Donna said, "Do you know the news about Allison?", and Bonnie really came to life with big facial expressions!!!! Allison, a member of twin granddaughters of Bonnie, is pregant with her first. She is bright, intelligent, sweet, a thoroughly good girl who has come from Fort Lauderdale every day to be with Bonnie from the day Bonnie passed out in the doctor’s office. Allison is pregnant and Bonnie livens up!!!! My dears. I haven’t seen my friend so lively in a long time. Sometimes we need to be taken totally out of our world of troubles, loneliness, problems, and we need to be dunked inside of ourselves. Bonnie lay in silence for 3 weeks. What did God intend? Who is this bright and shining friend I now have? What can I expect of her? Well I expect that we will be closer friends because I’ll be more gentle and more caring for her in her fragility. When I said I have to go, Bonnie reached over and picked up the sheet and started to put her leg out to get up and go with me. "No, not yet, sweetie," I said…. "You have to heal first. Stay right here in this bed and be obedient." She did not panic or fight. She lay back down with resignation. As I left the room, I prayed "Thank God!" and asked now for recovery. God bless us! Let us go help someone in need. Just hold hands and pray!

We lost many men on D Day "liberating" Europe. We lost a lot of men in Europe and the Pacific on land and in ships. Yet we are still at war. Today we celebrated and honored the veterans of D Day and of the Cuban Missile Crisis (Both big life takers) at the Miami Military Museum at the old Blimp base off 152 Street where today the Metro Zoo and a train museum share the space that was once occupied by soldiers. Thanks to God for taking the veterans to heaven. There were chaplains all over the beach that day, and a squad of men especially trained to find and bury the dead. Thanks too for their brave efforts.

I visited Bonnie this morning and she is improving. More thanks to God. She was sleeping but we woke her up! The pulmonologist doctor came in and assessed her. Lungs are clear, she is breathing on her own with supplemental oxygen through the trach tube. Her oxygen level is 100%. They say all vital signs are normal. She just has to settle down. She tried to get up and go last night when her visitors left and the nurse ended up sedating her So she goes backwards. Settle down Bonnie. Pray my dears for the sick that if they can heal they will heal. If they cannot be healed then pray for God to be swift in taking them.

We are in the midst of a huge packing mess. I wander from library to art room, into kitchen, into living room or dining room and select stuff I want and pack it. It’s going along and it will be a big bunch of stuff and lots of furniture when we finally go in September. We also went with neighbor Kathie to her antiques store with some stuff to sell. Hope to get a few bucks to start to fill up the empty coffers. God bless us all. Happy weekend!!!!

Having scraped all our coins together from every place any coins existed, Chuck and I carried a Cashier’s check into a title office today and bought a house in Lake Placid. We picked up homeowners insurance, opened a checking account at a bank called "Heartland" ❤️, we visited a shed place, an air conditioning place, the tag office and generally started making foot prints in Lake Placid. The ride from Miami at 9am today took 2 hours. We are on the road at 3pm and facing arriving in Miami at 5pm… Rush hour! I’ll get spoiled like mad with the quiet in our new home…. We are slowly going through all of our stuff accumulated over 49 years of marriage and moved between a rental apartment, Coral Gables, Westwood Lake, and Big Pine Key… And into a somewhat smaller house, so "throw it away" is my stock answer if Chuck asks if we should keep this (rusty, browned, old) paperwork, book, etc. Actually sell or recycle, or throw away… I’d like to dispose of 1/2 of our stuff. (Oh but I might wear that one day)… Dear readers, please continue to pray for Bonnie. She didn’t respond to me on Saturday but she wiggled her toes Sunday for her granddaughter Allison. We are praying she wakes up so we can start recovery and rehab. God bless us! Thank God.