Month: October 2019

In the penultimate box, marked "Sue Art", I found Emmaus tee shirts, exercise tops and leggings, 3 ice cube trays, one of Chuck’s bar trays full of pencils, pajamas (nightgowns) and 2 dressing gowns, and a wine glass. Oh and a basket full of big green and beige roap wrapped Christmas balls. I know I packed this box as it’s all my stuff, but "Sue Art"? and the wine glass all wrapped in a long nightie!? I long all right to go outside to the dock, but my friend Karla said "No drinking before 5pm." Ack! Oh well, I like the Christmas balls…….

Alas. We were all holding our breaths. Under the tray? …. socks? Nope. just more pesky pencils. The last box in the art room: Drumroll:….. The last on earth copies of Alphabet Soup for Christian Living and Christmas CDs.

Chuck says there are more boxes in the bar room. It’s 5 o’clock somewhere! Actually it’s 5 o’clock in Lake Placid! To the dock with that wine glass, a bottle, and an opener. "Oh CHUCK!!!!! bring a glass!" God bless us! Angels with us!

Funny. The last box I unpacked that said "art room" yielded our 3rd blender and 3 crock pots. That box must have been packed on one of those days that Dave and Drew came over and Chuck invited everyone for "a beer." After that, it all seemed like art. Most people don’t have 3 can openers, 3 crock pots, 2 exactly matching sets of soup pots (in 3 sizes per set), but remember, Chuck and I bought houses with all their contents from 2 very domestic women, Aunt Trudy and Loretta. And we eventually stored everything in the very commodious Lake House. So whose idea was it to move into a 2 bedroom house in Lake Placid? I think we have to blame this one on Glenda who lives across the canal and down a few houses. Her summer home was practically empty and it drew at me. What am I gonna do when I fill that last shelf in the garage???? My friend Karen would offer me black plastic bags and big garbage bins. I am using "Good will" commodiously and will drop it all off at the church when I get desperate. We have had no visitors today, and I haven’t had to tell any salesmen we are poor. That really tends to throw off a saleman’s pitch! The socks have not showed up yet. … Makes me wrinkle up my forehead and I don’t want a wrinkly forehead to go along with my baggy eyes! Well for now my dears… TaTa! God bless you. Angels with us.

No really! This is what I said yesterday afternoon when I unearthed a giant file full of maps and trip ideas for European countries we have been to and loved… England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Israel, …. I was so tired at the time that this just leaped out of me, "England, France and Underpants." I wish I could tell you I dumped it all in the trash because the 5 drawer file cabinet is full, but Chuck took a look at me and headed for the Aleve bottle and said, "You throw that away and someone is going to give you a free trip to Europe." Really. So I took the Aleve and then kept an old ugly brown filing table I used to use in the Miami art room and put the fles in it.
Europe is now successfully stored in case someone sends us free tickets…. Oh! and then I found two boxes of files full of "art ideas" who also went into the brown file holder. So … then the doorbell rang. Aleve was working so I was able to get to the door without incident and a man holding an American flag greeted me, "You have a submariner in the family?" He went on to express his "Thanks for your service" to Chuck and then proceeded to try to sell us a vaccume cleaner. It looked good… anything to keep the dust bunnies at bay. We found our first dust bunny yesterday too…. Then the doorbell rang again. A friend from church came to help fix the sprinklers. What a nice dude!!! He too is a submariner! He took one look at the vaccume cleaner, now out of the box, being proudly explained by the sales person, and he said, slowly, "Oh I have one of those"…. long pause. I looked at his sour face and asked, "how is it?" and he honestly replied, "way overpriced." … gulp … was that me or the salesman gulping, looking at each other? So I told the salesman honestly (lots of honesty going on in the room), "I don’t have any money. We put everything into buying this house. I coudn’t pay my Visa bill last month and I had to borrow $1000 from a friend. So, why don’t we just say, your presentation was nice, but maybe I’ll see you next year in the store?" He bundled up his gear and repacked his box. I gave him a bottle of water and escorted him out the door. Meanwhile, Chuck and his new submarine friend were outside doing what men do… looking at sprinklers and discussing the problem very seriously. Finally we all went out to the dock and sat for a while. Our new friend only drinks soft drinks, but after the days I’m having, I’m chugging wine and not being embarassed about it!!! Chuck and I continued until dark. No mosquitoes and lots of breeze blowing in from the east. My last duty was dinner which was a grilled pork and cheese sandwich and ice cream. I’ve succumbed to ice cream so I’m developing a pot belly. Life is really wierd right now. … Well it’s tomorrow (Wednesday) and I servied as Sacristan (which is like a set up altar boy clean up person) this morning. I left the tops on the water and wine so the priest had to take the tops off. My hands were full so we just put them on the Altar. Ack! You have heard of stress sweat? …. All else went well. I’m a vigorous bell ringer. No tinkling bells here! Go and serve today!!!!! All is well here in Lake Placid. God bless us. Angels with us.

This week in the church is so wonderful with celebrations of St Jerome who translated Scripture into Latin so it isn’t lost for us. He died 1600 years ago. That means the Latin translation still living today, is 1600 years old. It amazes me and makes me feel grateful to know Scripture, and to hold it in my hand. The priest who said Mass today on EWTN said Scripture should make us tremble…. Tuesday we celebrated St Therese, the Little Flower of Jesus who said, I can put my head against your heart Lord, because it is my heart. To believe the Lord’s heart is my heart! Breathtaking! He likes us!!!! He cherishes us and wants us to put our head against his chest. We celebrated the feast day of our Guardian angel yesterday. The Lord said to the people fleeing Egypt, "I will send my angel before you to guide you and protect you." Do we think he didn’t mean that? The Exodus story tells of the big pillar of cloud and smoke that guided them through the desert… When the cloud stopped, they stopped, and when it started, they started. We might not have something so visible today, but we do have the Word of God in Scripture and the church. Today we celebrated the reading of the Word to the people who came out of captivity in Babylon back to Jerusalem. Ezra stood up on a platform and read to the people from sunrise to noon and the people wept! I am sure if we believe "He likes us"… we would weep too! God and Creator of all this world, the stars and clouds and sky and me. Wow! Tomorrow is the celebration of St Francis of Assisi who loved God and took God’s word seriously… St Francis gave up everything and took nothing out to preach. He took God’s words in Luke 10:1-12 seriously. Be a lamb among wolves… take nothing… And we thank God today for the lives of amazing people who taught us! and who teach us today.

I’m still waiting and unpacking…. waiting for the plumber who is coming at 9:30, unpacking boxes that all say art room. I had a lot of stuff stored in my art room closets…. My sister Sarah has an art room too and I saw a lot of stuff stacked up! We artists pick up stuff to turn into art and the stuff stacks up! Oh the joyful excitement of a blank canvas and a pile of stuff and paint to put on it!!!! It’s beautiful here in Lake Placid and yesterday I saw 3 great brown egrets peacefully strolling across the road…. I’m still waiting for birdies to come to my bird feeder. Chuck was sent to therapy for the numbness in his leg. Both doctor and therapist say pinched nerve… and now he is giving blood and getting carotid arteries checked. He is happy with this new doctor. All is well. God bless us!

I drive all over Lake Placid using a local map. Many roads don’t "go through" due to the many lakes in Lake Placid! In Miami I knew what roads didn’t go through like 102 avenue and of course the whole circular pathways we have to take to get from Bird Road to Kendall. … Here it’s lakes and there are hills around the lakes! Today we meet the first new doctor. Chuck is the guinea pig to try out our choice of general practice physician. He teaches medicine at the FSU Fort Pierce Regional campus and there is a commendation in the waiting room.. And after our visit with him .. I like him a lot!!! I made an appointment for me after the next CT scan. . I’ve asked many people about doctors and everybody has a favorite! Never the same one. I got a glowing recommendation for a cardiac doctor in Seabring in the Advent health group… I might try there! That will take care of the insides. Need to find dentist and eye doctor! All new. Be ready for change if you decide to move! And be ready to examine your life… All the miniscule needs like, how many of these do I really need!!! That’s what I go through every day. Today is shoes. How many pairs of sneakers and slippers do I really need? Yikes!!! Today is the feast day of St Therese… She led the simple life. Simple!!! Only God. And a few angels. God bless us.