OMG He Bought a Dog

Am I shocked or surprised that he has visits from the other side, extremely vivid visits? NO. Am I shocked that he went out a bought a puppy for company....YES! A Siberian Husky! He knows he must walk this dog and take good care of it and housebreak it and all that, but did he think there will be no more overnights for him at Henry's? Or for us together? I don't want to be one of those pet bullies that just brings the dog wihout consideration for the people you are visiting. I have been on the other end of that. Or a weekend in Chicago with other daughter? A cat is easy, fill the bowls, clean the litter, make sure there is plenty of water and go. Dogs need attention. We still do not have a fence. We still both work long hours and many times he is out of the city every day...hmm. guess I'll be one of those people running home from school to take the dog out every day at lunch. My ankle which is actually becoming slightly bent from arthritis will work on a treadmill, but not very well on a sidewalk.

My Child Has Flown.......

Off to Israel for 2 weeks, what a wonderful trip. I hate for Dooce to find this out, but she actually bought a pair of crocs for the occasion. OMG Allyson Kraus is singing.. sorry I am in the middle of a show.

WOW!

The Paul Simon honor on PBS tonight rocks!! Except for the twisting face of Mark Anthony, what a show. And I know almost all of the words. Dear sweet Lyle. What a body of work for Paul Simon.

Relief

I got in for an emergency massage and I am feeling so much better. AAAH. Why did I wait so long in my life to feel worthy of massage therapy? I couldn't even go to the pool this morning I was in so much pain. Now I am going to throw a few things into a bag and head off to baby sit for Henry. We won't be flying on my feet this time, though!

Now I Get It

I bent over to pick up my swim bag and pow--the lower back did something screamingly painful. My husband and my daughter have this happen to them on a very regular basis, but I am very proud of my nearly trouble free very strong back--swimming muscles. Suddenly I am barely able to locomote-- I did jump in the pool, but getting out and feeling gravity again, whew. All I have done this afternoon is turn the heating pad on and off for 15 minutes at a time, take some Excedrin and even a leftover pain pill from my case of shingles last winter or spring or whenever it was. There is no way I can go to my crazy hard exercise class at 4... and I was really counting on it. No really, I love that class. Luckily, toddler grandson doesn't need much picking up, I am scheduled to take care of him this weekend, I guess he won't be "flying" on my feet. I am off to get some ice now and see about alternating that with the heat. I wonder if I can get an emergency massage?

Good Day

Great workout last night, constant motion weights--40 minutes on the elliptical, half an hour of some new stretches that really pushed the limits. I find I am getting back some of my flexibility, slowly over the past year. I took care of some errands and came home and set up some paintings and DID them, instead of thinking about doing them. I have done 3 small paintings and that is as good as a workout!
Larry is lonely and bored and ready to come home, but the job continues to grow. It has been a full month now, and that should have been it. Number one grandson is turning out to be a hard worker, he doesn't want to go whale watching, he wants to work, he doesn't want to go kayaking, he wants to sleep and work. I hope he is worked into a normal schedule by the time he gets here, I don't know if I can stand someone lurking around the house all night, besides me. By the way, have you ever noticed how ominous squeaks become when no one is coming home later? Whatever else I do or don't do today, I can feel good about what I have done. The paint is out already, might as well use it!

Feelings of Mortality

I really felt it last week when I was taking care of Henry. We were playing push feet on the couch, we were flying, and we were pretending to be asleep with baby Frank and the green satin blanket, we were full of joy and playfulness, then suddenly I realized I won't always be there. ooooh. It was a flash of sensation that ran through the moments of great joy. and passed. I talked to another grandmother, and she said it happens to her, too. Probably a secret club of grandmother's thing.

I Feel Dizzy

My law graduate took down her blog-- I am a blog reader and feel really in touch with my kids when I can look at their blogs, things we might forget to talk about on the phone are interesting to me and the updated pics of Henry are like B-12 shots. I realized I had to bookmark Gone Feral if I was going to continue to read her! The missing blog reminds me of the one foggy overcast day in Colorado Springs when you couldn't see Pike's Peak out the picture window of my sister's home. It made you feel unbalanced. This was after being there a week and already becoming accustomed to the strong mountain looking like a vision out the front window every day. I may limp from this lopsidedness! Larry has oldest grandson in Maine and they are working hard. Alan is acquitting himself well in the work department. Tomorrow they are going kayaking! That should be fun. Good thing Larry already found a massage therapist who is very strong, he'll be needing it!

I did run over a sit for Henry on Thursday and we had a perfectly delightful day. We played outside, we watched a little Caillou--he ate a hearty lunch and took an equally hearty nap. If there were any shenanigans that day, he saved them for Mom and Dad. I have seen another movie-- Waitress. another winner. it may be a chick flick, but it was very entertaining.

I am reading the Mermaid's Chair and like it very much-- in fact, I shall stop here now and go read some more.

YIIIEEHHAYIYIYI--David Chase, you Naughty Boy

Were you screaming at the blank screen last night at 10:03 and checking the next channel to see if the cable was still on? Tension mounting, gruesome death of that hateful Phil-- all those strange men entering the restaraunt--were they mob--were they FBI? or both......How many of you grabbed the phone to call your nearest and dearest to say what the .......?? What was that? I may be alone in thinking it was perfect--no answers--no ending......perfect, it was all a dream.

Mowed

I purchased a new mower on sale at Sears, a craftsman. I wanted it ready to gas up and use. All I had to do was put in the oil and the gas and pull the string. guess what, you need to check the height of the wheels before you do that, I was in a cloud of dirt and dust as I was at the lowest possible setting. I got the wheels raised to what I hope was 3 inches and set off, through the running bamboo, under the English walnut where there used to be a wildflower garden and now it is just wild with quite a bit of that classic plant, poison ivy. I got all but a little bit done before I gave up and came in for some pop. That was the dirtiest dustiest lawn mowing ever. I seem to remember rain in the near past, even a couple of downpours, but it must not be enough. Then there was the strip where the gas company plowed the yard all the way from front to back and put in new pipes for gas. I noticed they came back while I was swimming and threw down some grass seed. Thanks guys, what makes you think I want grass? Oh yeah, its a yard. I prefer to think of it as a forest on the edge of the plains where young children pack up their jowl bacon and go off on bear hunts. "The Bears of Blue River" is a great read and a look at the past, written in the 1600's, to read it to your kid you must deal with the inherent racism and the hatred of predators, other than that a great read aloud full of adventure from the days before microwaves and McD's--way before. well, really, before refrigeration, plumbing and running water.

Knocked Up

Saw it in a near empty theater at the first show of the day and laughed out loud so many times. Very, very funny, and strangely sweet, occasionally graphic, as a person who refused to look in the mirror. I know that isn't a sentence, but this is a blog, what do you expect. This movie has some of the best dopes on dope scenes ever. The Bruce Willis trailers looked good, though, and that is totally not me.

First Ride

I find, after two years of not riding a bike, that I cannot throw my leg (must be the arthritis) over the seat or even bend my knee enough to lift my leg over the bar. grrrr. I have to lower the bike to the ground and step over it, then pick up the bike. So far, I have to get off the same way. Somewhat humiliating. And THEN I was wobbly for half a block! Jeez, it takes use it or lose it to another place. Hey folks, that includes riding your bicycle like a kid. The ride, though, was nice. I didn't stay out long, but the weather is perfect. I am now over the nervousness of being home alone, I took ID with me and money for water, and hoping I had put the front wheel back on exactly correctly. I am here to tell you, it didn't fall off. Whew.

Ashes to Ashes

It has been 2 1/2 years since my Mom died and a year since I buried her ashes in the cemetery where her sister and her parents lie. Mom would only be disappointed that I did it LEGALLY (thanks Rick) she really wanted me to sneak out and dig a hole and drop her in. Sorry, I am the oldest and I have that law-abiding oldest thing going. I even stop at stop signs--in the middle of the night. My youngest sister wanted some ashes as she was not ready to let go and my brother pointed out that she never would be ready, so let's "git er done". I was going to take the box of ashes to the funeral home and have them get some out. I had some idea I might not be able to stand to do it myself. Then I felt silly and found a nice country Mom style little wooden box and just decided to DIY. The ashes are not what you expect, I experienced no dust, no fluffy floaty stuff in the air. They were in a heavy plastic box that looked like a really thick encyclopedia on the bookshelf. The ashes are actually very very dense. They were sealed in a heavy duty baggy. I had to cut the tie to get them open and took the bag out of the box and sat it on my work space, talking to mom all the while. I noticed the bag slowly spreading out and losing its boxlike shape, but so what?? I carefully spooned out a nice amount of ashes into a baggy and put it in the wooden box and sealed it symbolically with sealing wax. Then I tried to put the bag of ashes back in the box--no way, they are so dense and heavy there was nothing to do but pour them into a container, another bag, put the official funeral home baggy back into the box, and gently pour the ashes out of the walmart sack back into the box, put on a new zip tie and hope the people at the cemetery wouldn't have an opinion about the broken seal.(Mom might have preferred an aldi's bag) I finally got everything back into place and was able to satisfy my sister and my mother's wishes to be buried next to her mother. There was a lot of conversation and laughter going on and I certainly wished my yaya cousin was here that day to share it with me. I went alone to the cemetery and the day was cool and sunny--perfect--and I had never noticed how beautiful the view was out over the farmland. I had only ever been there in the heat of loss. I found it very lovely to be fulfilling my mom's last wishes on such a lovely day and past the fresh grief of the loss.

OK--Studio or No Studio

I bought myself a good bike, one that will accept a 6 foot tall woman without breaking her back. After not riding my walmart bike for 2 years, I cannot throw my leg over the back of the seat, and don't try on bikes wearing crocs, either. That new bike is sitting in the kitchen and I will put on the deluxe seat DH got me a couple of years ago and I will be ready to peddle on a cloud. I may need to find a box to stand on to get on and off, though! When DH gets home from the big job, he is going to build the glass/art studio for both of us, and I was waiting for that to get a good bike. If you saw his garage, I take no ownership of that, especially now that I have found the office encroaching on 3 rooms instead of one...If there was a tornado or a robbery here, it would be hard to tell. It was either fast or get a good bike, fast or get a good bike.....guess I am not fasting. I have been swimming every day of my summer vacation and this is day 3.

Back in the Pool

I was a little late to the pool this morning, my first Monday of vacation and I overslept! I did find out that I am so much stronger this year because of all the weight training I have done for the past year or more. The most dense water weights were like nothing and they used to be a little tough.

Home

The weather is near perfect, so I decided to mow-- surprise honey! I bet you thought I'd go all summer without mowing.. the mower didn't last 20 minutes! I came in and got the computer back on line after two weeks of being denied a connection to the server, by what? static electricity? Well, I am on now and have looked at my main reads, my kids' blogs and Dooce.

Yesterday we took little Mr. Amazing to a pow wow, or as he called it, a cow bell. There was some powerful drumming and singing and some beautiful baskets, but are candy corn baskets and library totes really Native American basketry? I didn't buy because I am actually trying to get rid of some stuff, not add to it. Luckily the crowd was rained out and Henry could run and run as much as he pleased. He actually touched a bison-- his sturdy legs looked insubstantial next to that great hulking animal. We followed that up with a trip to a Chinese buffet in Bloomington-- a really clean, well-run operation with great food. On a buffet? Who ever heard of that? Henry wants to try everything, including sushi with actual fish...let me try that..let me try that.

Tomorrow I start my daily swimming for the summer at our local Y and I can't wait! By the way sweetie, if you figure out how to read this while you are at summer camp in Maine, When did the yellow bedroom become your filing cabinet? I thought you had an office.

School's Out for the Summer

I haven't been on line for two weeks. Something is up with my DSL. I am dong this from my daughter's house, so why am I writing at all? Yesterday was the last day of school and today I am visiting with Henry and his parental units. They may even go to a movie tonight. I have been home alone for over a week and have taken out a lot of trash and mopped some floors. I really was eager for this school year to be over and get started on my daily summer swimming routine. I think I am also going to invest in a bike that fits me. There is just never enough room between my knees and the handlebars on my hundred dollar walmart bike.

Our graduation ceremony yesterday was two hours and that is 8th grade! don't really know why it is so complicated and so similar to a high school graduation. We do have kids go on to top notch colleges after high school, so I don't really think it is low expectations for their futures. At any rate, it is a long boring morning for the 6th and 7th graders.

Big news is Henry is almost potty trained and very proud of his big boy underwear. We all are.