A Nor'easter Week

Fall is here. Can you  believe it? 

It decided to turn cool. This Nor'easter is making my ears and nose cold. I am NOT going to turn my heat on but you can bet I am going to put my feet on the heating pad while I watch my Saturday college football. Roll Tide!! 

My week has been interesting. I am less willing to drive in the rain now at this age than ever. I don't even want to do it in a drizzle. Wednesday I had a dental appointment and guess what... it was drizzling!! I told myself I was brave and I must have believed myself 'cause I took off in that yucky mess and made it fine. Glad that trip was successful! 

Friday was a pretty day. Thank God for sunshine!! My car needed it's yearly inspection and I had an eight o'clock appointment to get it done. I mean, I don't usually get up 'til 8 but once again, I told myself I could do it and I did. Another successful trip. I'm getting pretty good at this!! 

I may pull out my Fall decorations tomorrow and make this place look more seasonal. I don't do much.. there's no storage for a lot of stuff and I just don't have the energy to be lifting and tugging at boxes that hold things I really don't need. We'll see how that goes. 

I spent two days going through some old keepsakes I have stored in totes under my bed. I told you storage was in short supply around here! What memories all of that drug up along with a ton of dust and used tissues I had blown my nose on and somehow they had hidden under my bed. I got rid of that mess and then cleaned up and neatly arranged my keepsakes back to await another day when I want a little trip down memory lane. 

I'll share a couple of my keepsakes that I am so proud of... 

This is my grandfather's school book. He signed the inside of it with his name and date... 1886. 

Another one that I treasure: a V-Mail sent to me during WWII from a friend who was serving in Italy. I was 10 years old at the time so this letter is 82 years old now.  

The envelope that it came in.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend. And, if you are rooting for a college football team I hope your team wins!!

Blessings and Tribulations

 Good Morning all you fine and fancy bloggers out there. It is a good morning anytime you wake up and can still move around, live your life, be happy. Don't you think!!

I've been sort of discombobulated lately. Seems if I get thrown off my routine I struggle to accomplish anything... for days!! I gotta fix that, there's no time to waste being discombobulated. Don't you just love that word! 

I have to tell you that my 'neighbor' who called the cops on me the other day waited a few days after she'd sent the cops on my trail for making noise, she goes to the office and gleefully tells them that SHE is the one who set me straight 'cause she hadn't heard a peep out of me since that policeman told me to behave myself. Guess what, girly, I've not changed a thing I have ever done and I just can't wait until my housekeeper gets here next week and starts doing her thing up here. Do I sound vindictive? Maybe, a tad. I am just so tired of all this mess.

I started a workshop here at Centerbrooke. I am sooooo into preserving our history (family history mostly) so I invited anyone to participate in writing down their memories in a notebook so that their grandchildren will have a sense of who their grandparents are. There were about 8 of us. They were so into telling their memories as they recalled them, of sharing and talking and having fun. And, guess what, I did not take one single picture!! What was I THINKING!!

My son-in-law came yesterday to accompany me to the eye dr. I can't see a blooming thing once my eyes are dilated!! And it takes me forever to get over it. My appointment was at 11... when I went to bed last night I noticed that my irises were still not back to normal but they are fine this morning. I have the best son-in-law. Besides being my DD (designed driver) he also fixed my dead mouse. But it wasn't my mouse at all but my computer had a glitch. He's such a wizard!! I'm so blessed! 

So... I guess I will get busy and catch up on all those chores that I neglected when I was discombobulated. Love that word!! I'll see you again soon. 

Knock, Knock Who's There?

I promised you another story about Susan's visit with me!

We had been to lunch with Shirley and came back to the apartment to yak awhile. After Shirley left Susan got out her watercolors and, sitting in the floor, began to paint. I picked up a scrapbook to look at. 

KNOCK, KNOCK

Susan went to the door and opened it. A policeman was standing there. 

Seems that the lady downstairs had called the cops because we were making too much noise!

So, he went down to her place to check her out. Came back up and told us that she had told him I was always making a lot of noise and that my grandson visited regularly and made a lot of noise.  

Guess what!

He has not been to visit me but one time!!

You see, this lady has been complaining about me for the three years since she moved in. 

 she is regularly calling the office complaining about all the noise I make. (I even don't wear shoes in my place so I don't make noise walking)

I've lived here 12 years and have had several people living under me. This is the first one that ever said I was noisy. One even told me she enjoyed living beneath me 'cause I was so quiet. 

Then the banging started and went on for over a year. I really thought it was coming from over me but the policeman said it was her. She'd been banging on her ceiling with a broom handle to annoy me, I guess. To me it sounded like someone hammering down a carpet. And, it happened one night at midnight that woke me up out of a sound sleep. ( I must have been snoring really loudly)

That policeman couldn't have been nicer. He said that the minute Susan opened the door he saw that we were not at fault and told me to live my life and enjoy it. I could have hugged his neck!! 

I guess this whoever she is has never lived in an apartment before and thinks she's not going to hear anything or anyone. Shirley said she'd pay me $5 to drop an iron skillet on the floor and we were laughing about it. it's just so ridiculous. 

Yep, folks I am up here having a party every day! Gee Whiz.  I'm 92 for gosh sakes. I couldn't kick up my heels if I had to. 

We've had some laughs out of it. And, the cop said if she banged on my floor again that I was to call the cops on her!! So There! 

This Southern expression is for my 'nice' neighbor!

 

Susan's Visit

 Susan left this morning.....

So sad to see her go but we had a fabulous visit, so relaxed, filled with laughter, talk, painting, good food and such a loving, sweet time. 

On Tuesday Shirley came down. Susan said she'd like to go to Cracker Barrel. It had been years since she was in one so that's what we did. That was a fun outing. 

Shirley joined us once again for lunch on Wednesday. (We ate out a lot!!)  We hit First Watch and enjoyed that a bunch. We always have a great time when the three of us get together. 

Susan and I spent some quality time just talking.... about everything. She has recently taken up watercolor painting. She had brought her supplies down (just like Mama didn't have any!) and she sat in the middle of my living room floor and painted and painted. 

We went through the scrapbook that I'd made of her, her dad and my trip to Europe back in 1991. What memories that dredged up. I gave her the scrapbook to take home but not before I made a snapshot of each and every page of that thing. I may want to look at them again sometime. Here's one of the pages I took a picture of. 

I just hated to see the visit end... 

P.S. come back again soon. There's an interesting story I have to tell you of something had happened during her visit. You'll love it. 

A Visitor and Lilies

 What a lazy Sunday... the air was cooler, the sunshine bright but not unpleasant and the world just looked gorgeous out my balcony doors. Then the telephone rang... it was my daughter Susan. She's the one who lives in New York. I saw her at her son's wedding in Georgia back the first part of May and now, she tells me she will be at my apartment tomorrow for a few days visit. What a wonderful surprise. I love surprises like that! I can't wait to see her. 

I got another surprise a few days ago.. daughter Shirley brought me a bouquet of white ginger lilies and some little reddish blossom she called a bat's face. The small flower does look like a bat's face so go figure! Those lilies are so aromatic. I just sat there in my recliner taking all that wonderful fragrance. The plants came from my aunts garden back in Alabama when she was still alive. And, she's been dead since 1981, so that cutting has been thriving, blooming and multiplying for 45 years in my daughter's yard. Amazing!!

So, I'll go for now, make sure everything is ready for my visitor tomorrow. Good times ahead!! 

Oh, by the way, I got this picture of that bat-faced cuphea flower off of the internet just to show you what it looks like.  Weird, isn't it!! 

A Bit of This, A Tad of That

 The start of a new month. 

Boy, they are flying by now. Just wish time would slow down so I could catch up!! 

I've not been doing a blooming thing interesting lately. Oh, I did go to Sam's Club today and shopped. I haven't been in a grocery store in ages so I just had myself a blast wandering around. I bought a cantaloupe, some plums and a bag of lemons and a package of already cooked chicken legs and thighs. Had one of those legs for supper tonight. 

I freeze my lemons so when I get a chance to buy a batch of them, I do. I freeze the juice or I slice them and freeze the slices. It's just amazing what all you can freeze! 

While I was writing one day I had a chapter where my main characters attend a football game. I've watched a lot of football over the years (Roll Tide) but there are still plays and terms that I don't understand. 

Anyway, my grandson, Griffin, played on the Rutgers football team during his college years so I called him for some help. He gave me some valuable pointers and promised he'd fill me in on what really happens during halftime in the locker room. That ought to be interesting. But, I did warn him that my book was based in the late '40s so really bad language wouldn't have been used back then. 

My basil is looking mighty peaked. Leaves turning yellow and dropping off. Does basil die off after a productive season or am I just not taking good care of it? 

I'll go for now and crawl in bed and read 'til I fall asleep. Tomorrow is another day!