Category: Susie’s musings

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.

My way to church is country road with mostly trees, a few houses, no lights, no school traffic, 5 minutes! I rolled through there this week, and I thought about 107 Avenue and how hard it was to make the right hand turn on to 107, in all the school traffic, then one has to drive furiously to keep up and fight to get into the left hand turn lane… All gone. I volunteered to lector on Fridays and am helping the Sacristan clean up after Mass. Other days is Bible Study, Emmaus, and other meetings. As soon as I get the house under control I have the name of a lady at church who works in the art community! There are 2 art places that I plan to examine and play at.

We made our first general practice appointment for Chuck because his back and legs are bothering him. No kidding. He’s non stop on his feet in the shed. I got the name of a great Cardiologist today so we are moving forward on taking care of ourselves…. I will probably return to Miami if my aneurism grows, but until then, I have good reports of doctors from church people. If the aneurism monster grows we will be burning rubber to Miami! This week I concentrated on unpacking books (all done). Unpacking clothes (YIKES) I have a lot of clothes. Still haven’t found the socks. Oh well too many anyway! Chuck went to the house in Miami and found platters and serving bowls and seran wrap but no socks! Think about this and breathe a prayer that I take it to heart. We only need about 7 of everything because who doesn’t do laundry every 5 to 7 days? So GET RID of all but about 7 tee shirts, socks, and sweat shirts!!!! Oh but they have names on the front. Guess how many Eastern AirLines tee shirts I have???? Oh and all the tee shirts with American flags!!! And pretty nightgowns. And sweatshirts. Did it used to be colder in winter? Or do I now have a fat neck and I don’t like tight things around my neck???

Time to get back into the bedroom as the bed is covered with piles. I will finish clothes today!!!! Pray for me! Have a wonderful week! Angels with us!

My friend Kathie, next door neighbor, won’t move to a place where she can’t SEE the beautiful birds! Right now, out here in the dock 🏠 house I am hearing some very interesting twittering from the East. Several birds talking. And behind me to the west… Several chirpers. A flock of something just flew by going east… But so far I don’t think they have noticed the bird feeder. The eastern sky is glowing pink cotton. It will be another beautiful day!

Today is the first day I read in new church. We were so busy yesterday with emptying clothing boxes and sorting tee shirts and working with Xfinity to automate our bill that I forgot a Sacristan meeting. I’m in training to work at the altar, but missing a meeting while in training isn’t the nicest thing! Mea Culpa! The people at the church are all wonderful. Yesterday at Adoration they were singing a special office and I went looking for a book and a lady came from the back to hand me one! Our pastor is very friendly, he smiles and talks to people after Mass, yet he is very serious when he says Mass. As it should be (in my opinion).

It is still here at sunrise. Yesterday Chuck hung 3 wind chimes, but not a sound this morning except birds!!! God bless us!

Good morning gentle readers! In the past few weeks the readings at church have been about Masters leaving stewards in charge and asking the stewards to take care of things and bear fruit! I always remember this time of year how many films there are by documentarians who show us the dust and fumes spent into the atmosphere which tries to absorb and clean our dust and dirt… How we spew gasoline and diesel fumes into the neighborhoods… How we cut down trees that can breathe in our filth and give us good oxygen back. I remember the stories of stewards who are given "talents"… one invests and gives the master back 10 times! One buries his talent and gives back the Master only the barest minimum. I remember especially the stewards left in charge of the vineyard who do not donate anything to the poor (as is directed in the Pentateuch) and who kill those the Master send to collect the fruit. What mean spirited greedy creeps they are. I think we all know these stories. And I think we know what we are supposed to do! I’m following the Sacristan around at St James so I can volunteer on days when someone can’t be there to serve! I also sang in the choir but I still have a froggy throat from cold I am mostly over…. Also I will serve on Fridays as Eucharisti Minister (St James offers Body and Blood in Communion. What a blessing.) Also as a good steward I must put out the bird feeder and give the birdies some "more" so they in turn will sing to me!!!!

Chuck and I are about 1/2 way through getting the inside of the house unboxed and put away. We agree we have to ditch some clothes and we eagerly await the electrician Brian who will move an electrical outlet so we can move one hutch into place and put "dining room" pretties into the hutch!!! Believe it or not, my socks have not turned up yet! I have about 2 "master bedroom boxes" to unload yet; surely socks willl turn up!!! From Lake Placid we send our greetings and we wish you God blessings! Boat’s not here yet, but soon we will be able to give boat rides!!!!!

"I thank the Lord Above… I got a roof over my head!!!!" sings Darius Rucker on Music Choices. Last night Chuck fell asleep before supper to Classical Music! If I can get him into a chair he will rest, but I’m telling you… we are like little dervishes here in Lake Placid! I woke up thinking of a welcome painting on the entry wall! When you come to visit you will see the town of Skagway photo and a fish greeting you! "Welcome!" the wall says…. I’m going to paint a frame around the fish and let him swim in fanciful water. Give me a few weeks to get that done!

It’s cool this morning in Lake Placid. I know because I was out digging in the garbage to find the coffee filter from my coffee pot! There was a bag that was covered with ants. HOW do they know??? Chuck handed me a can of Raid. The ants are dispatched and the coffee filter is soaking in soapy water. Who ever gave Susie something that can’t be thrown out…. they are silly. Chuck found all the refrigerator magnets and now the childrens’ graduation pictures and wedding announcements are hanging in fine style on the refrigerator. There’s a photo someone took of me and Debby at a book talk. Debby won my book in a drawing and she is holding it. Thanks to all of you who support me in my creative efforts both writing and painting. At the church yesterdy I met the church secretary who is writing a teen romance book…. maybe I can encourage her and we can do a little creative work together! It’s all cooperation and love! Time to get out of this chair before I grow roots! Time for morning Mass on television! God bless us all. Angels with us!

We packed everything we have and finally ended up making boxes and filling them in the late hours of move day minus 12 hours. I now have a bunch of boxes labled "kitchen/bedroom" in my Lake Placid house! At the last minute when I thought I was finished, we were still filling boxes and filling the car and the truck. It’s a good thing we did that because the mover’s truck was FULL. I say to YOU, "Go NOW and clean out under the sinks." Do you keep old sponges? Do you keep bottles of cleaners with 1 inch of cleaner in the bottom and buy and start using a new one? How many spice containers of your favorite spice, all open, all half used? My car looked like I went to the grocery store and bought EVERYTHING!!!! It’s a good idea to throw it out now as moving day is the wrong time. I threw stuff into plastic bags and loaded my trunk. This was right in hurricane season so I had several large cases of bottled water, lots of beer, and there was a sale on wine so …. We moved a lot of cleaners, beer, and wine! Moving morning was amazing. We hired "The Good Greek" a very professional organization. We saw one guy move furniture that Chuck and I could not budge!!! Chuck pulled out first with the truck and trailer FULL, then the movers jumped in their big "Greek" truck and headed off for Lake Placid. I was last and got to the house as the first items went in from the big truck. i was going to run off to Seabring and get Xfinity parts but I got involved in placement of furniture. When your furniture is wrapped in blankets and plastic… you might ask, "What is that ugly thing?" Finally all was placed… OH boy!!!!! It’s actually not TOO over crowded. (yes it is) Our wonderful helper Sergio came over and while Chuck and I lay prostrate in easy chair and couch, Sergio emptied my car and Chuck’s truck. I could not have lifted a box of kleenex out of the car at that point. Sergio left and promised to return to unload the trailer the next day and he did! Sergio is a high school sophomore of lovely manners and great strength. He wants to join the Coast Guard out of High School. So say a little prayer for Sergio to succeed! Meanwhile, I finally got into the car the next morning and sang my way to Seabring with the windows open! It was so beautiful at 8am. Cool, no traffic!!!! I went to the Xfinity store, Home Depot and Winn Dixie and talked to lots of people and had a great time!!! I bought a Bird Feeder that is squirrel proof and bird seed to attract birdies who live near by! Friend Peter hooked up the TV and internet. No easy task for 72 years average age old folks…. We now have beautiful television and I have to figure out how to work DVR and other 21st century features. We are still dancing and singing although we are a little bent over from the hard work of opening boxes and figuring out where stuff goes. i still haven’t found any socks. I had to confess to some of my friends that I couldn’t find underwear, but that problem has been solved. They were in with Chuck’s boots. Now where might the socks be? I’m going to have to get off this sofa and make dinner. We have a delightful Italian pizzaria really close but we have had it for 3 days in a row…. I might have to do something different or spark a rebellion. Actually we have chicken from Shorty’s bar be que on Bird Road so… I get one more reprieve day!!!!

I went for morning Mass for the first time today at St. James in Lake Placid… It was a beautiful morning Mass with singing and extra prrayer! The Sacristan asked me to be a Eucharistic Minister, giving the Blood of Christ (the concecrated wine), and I realized I have not done that in almost 2 years as I took up full time lectoring at St Timothy. Here there seem to be fewer people (probably the whole of Lake Placid is the size of St Timothy parish!!!). So I will serve with the choir on weekends if they will have me… and serve as lector on Fridays. I also will talk with the Pastor about putting my Catholic books into the chruch library. This is a great opportunity for me to serve in a small community who needs servers! The Sacristan took me over to the office to "sign up" as a new parishoner and I was careful to tell them that this big city girl with lots of talent and experience is "here to serve! not to lead"… What can I do for you? If you ask for this kind of service, people will ask for you to help!!! So, go, walk into a place where you are new and no one knows you (your parish church? a home for aged or chronically ill?) and ask, what can I do for you? The Lord knows exactly what he needs! YOU! God bless you dear readers.

Drew is here (young muscle). moving boxes that are stacked up in front of furniture that is to be moved on Wednesday by movers. Drew, my firefighter friend said I must get a blood pressure monitor and measure BP every day!!!!! He made me promise. Isn’t it funny how people can see what we need and we, stubborn, …. think, "Ill get to it…" … I promised to do it today.

Today I packed everything I could find in kitchen and bathroom and I left only what we will live on for 2 days. Moving is a mixed blessing. I hoped I would clean out a lot of stuff, but I’m afraid we are clinging to too much. Nobody wants our books or old stuff…. It is so hard to throw away our old stuff. I’m hoping when we get to the house we will also throw away more stuff. Clean out the old stuff for "the last days." I think the dust of the ages is what got into my nose and gave me the cold. Oh well. Enough complaining.

We think a friend needs to go to the doctor as we are seeing some changes in his speech and movement. He and wife won’t listen to us. Pray for each other, that we would listen to each other. Pick a friend you trust and listen!!!! Go take care of your self "for the last years!" God bless us. Angels with us.

I haven’t written since the 12th when I was developing a "little cold". Well sometime in the night Thursday I started coughing and I realized when I got up that this is no normal head cold. I can’t take over the counter meds due to aneurism and blood pressure so I called pneumologist. He’s at the hospital… So I took myself off to the Baptist hospital ER. The check in lady handed me a mask for the coughing and I was wisked in to a room in ER. BIood work, chest x-ray and a nose probe revealed clear lungs and a rhino virus. You don’t have to take antibiotic if it’s a virus. Juice is making me itchy (too much fruit)… Cough medicine makes me sleepy, but coughing is under control. I sleep a lot in between packing "the last boxes". Wow we have more than I thought!!!! Our plan is get some of the boxes out of here tomorrow courtesy of our new renter Drew’s muscle. I hope we don’t hurt him. Movers come Wednesday and arrange our furniture in Lake Placid. I’m changing addresses, and will do change of address with post office. So Wednesday is our official last day! God bless you dear family and friends!!! Pray for healing for Chuck and me!!!

Today is my Father’s birthday and in the Church we celebrate today the Holy Name of Mary, Mother of God. We talk about Gratitude to God for making a totally human, humble woman bear the Son of God on earth making Jesus true man (wholly man) and True God (wholly God). What a mystery. Thank God for coming here and showing us we don’t have to bear the cross alone. He’s already done that for us! Gratitude is Thanksgiving which in Greek is Eucharistia, Eucharist. Celebrate Thanksgiving today to God for coming to earth and walking with us, and giving us himself to eat. Jews of Jesus’ time were scandalized by this whole "eat my body, drink my blood" speech which Jesus made in Matthew, Mark, and Luke…. but we take it as true and "do it in memory of Jesus." Yesterday I talked about a man who loved worship so much he served at two churches! His legacy is children, grand children and great grand children. I’ve seen the younger teenagers helping Grand Dad at conventions, especially in St Mary’s Georgia where we celebrate the WWII submarine veterans. Celebrate your veteran. Celebrate your father, and Thank God.

We girls (three of us) had a rocky relationship with our father. He had an illness that might have been genetic for we all seem to share the melancholy, polarity, and depressions that ached in him. He lost his mother, his wife and his daughter (my sister Annette) in a short time and it shook him more than he could handle. I think he left big parts of his heart in that cemetary upon a hill in Pittsburgh. All three McCarthy women (Sarah, Freda, and Annette) are buried together under a beautiful Irish Celtic headstone. So what did I get… a part of a man. 6 feet Tall, blue eyed, handsome actually… I remember playing with his tobacco stained fingers on the back of a church seat. I remember curling up in his chair late at night and eating cheese off a saucer he was nibbling from. He read books, and I learned the love of reading and writing from him. He fixed things. I remember him tinkering with the old Ford and teasing another 50,000 miles out of it. We didn’t have much, but I gained a love for books, writing and education from him. Remember the Concorde? When I was in grade school, I had to write about a new invention and I was stumped. "Write about the SST," he said, "What??" I researched and read all the latest on the British and French relationship (that failed) and the building of the Concorde…. Long before it was officially out, I had my paper out there. God bless Fathers today for giving good suggestions and influencing children in the good things. Fathers, influence your children! In the Good things. God bless you.

Fred Richards joined the Navy at the age of 15 (lying about his age). He wanted to be a submariner. Who wants THAT …? An underwater target. Doomed to sink to the bottom. Lost. And so it happens in war. And we honor the brave and we might whisper behind our hand… (foolish). If on a surface ship and hit by munitions… You could jump off. If a submarine is wounded, she just sinks to the bottom. Davy Jones’ Locker. Fred talked of being taken into submarine service and qualifying… Then transferred and on her next mission the boat he qualified on was sunk. His buddies, gone. Yet Fred continued to serve, with passion and honor. He loved service. He loved God, and in fact he served at two churches because he believed so much in worship of God. He and his wife went to Catholic church and served there, and they went to a local (beautiful) Methodist Church and they served there too! God bless our friend Fred who was double dipping! He had his Methodist minister and his Catholic priest blessing him today! Let us all go serve the Lord like a humble submariner did! God bless you Fred. God bless our troops and sailors today. Patriots Day.