Happy Leroy

Hello,

Leroy went to the synod convention yesterday for the first time in a couple years. I thought maybe he would be just tired from all the meetings and activity; instead he was totally energized when he got home after nine last night. This was after being gone since before 8 in the morning. He was so pleased to be a part of it all again, see old friends and acquaintances that he had not had contact with for some time. He was a chatter box too, telling me all about it. I am so glad he has the opportunity to go this year.

He left this morning about 6:30. He walked to church to meet his ride there. I decided to walk with him as it was a good time to get that done. I loosely timed our walk and it was quite close to the fifteen minute mile in spite of pausing to look down a big hole that seemed to have caved in on a side street. Leroy even noticed that under the layers of asphalt there was the old brick street. We also took a little time waiting for a green light allowing us to safely cross a main street.

On the way home I again got close to that fifteen minute mile. I cut through the campus thinking I might see more geese, but there was not a goose in sight. Almost all of the goose poop was gone too. I suspect that that campus did something to discourage these fowl birds and cleaned up after them.

Last night, Leroy thought he would have trouble getting to sleep, but I think his breathing changed before mine did even though this morning he told me that he did not sleep well. He certainly was awake early, at just a few minutes after five. He got right up and was ready ahead of time because he was eating breakfast at the meeting rather than at home. Guess this guy just needs more meetings to go to. It energizes rather than saps him.

Paula

Grumpy

Hello,

The day started off ok. I had a few chores lined up and time to do them. Then Leroy started to deal with the wireless bridge that does not work. He took the laptop, the bridge, and moved the router to the table for easy access prepared to talk to the company. It all worked fine. “Well we must wait until some time when it does not work before we call,” I said, “but I would rather have it in the computer room.”

That move was not successful. Leroy thought maybe the living room would be close enough to the router. So we moved it close to the wall that is next to the kitchen. It worked, but I really wanted it in a different spot. We tried it in the hall, unsuccessful. After that it was moved to another spot in the living room that I could tolerate. That is where it is now working beautifully.

Later I went over the credit card statement only to find that we did not have two of the receipts. I like to have everything in order. I suppose if someone were to have access to our card and stealing the purchase would have been larger than $27.56. Secretly in my heart I blame Leroy because he went shopping with me. Surely he did not take care of this paper, but then he found the piece of paper in the bag with the chair cushions that I might return. Oh no it was me!

Then I decided to get some music using the money Brian gave me. I had thought to get a CD, but saw that I could download a file for MP3s. Leroy thought I should check with Brian to make sure this was compatible with the IPod. It is. Then when I tried to get the music it told me on the website that it was loading it for download, but this was still happening more than 30 minutes later. So we called Brian again to learn what he thought we should do. Through much description, suggestions, and irritation on my part we got it done, but not before Brian had us download a program so he can get into our computer and see what is there as well as control it. He believes that Leroy and I are operating at the edge of our computer ability.

Miriam called while we were on the phone so I called her back. In the course of that conversation I said, “Brian thinks we are old.”

She totally missed her cue and emphatically agreed with him. She also thought we were at the limit of our computer knowledge. Sigh.

Later I took a plant over to our neighbors across the street. Somehow age came up in the conversation with that guy. He thought maybe I am a little younger than he. “I am 66,” I said, “and Leroy is 65.”

He repeated loudly several times, “66! 65!”

“How old do you think I am?” he wanted to know.

“70?” I wondered.

After more guesses he finally told me, “I am 80.”

He thought I was in my 70’s. Such a deal! I certainly cannot brag about my youthful looks.

Leroy and I took a walk later because it seemed I needed to get out of the house. That helped, as I can still walk along at a good clip, although perhaps no longer at the 15 minute mile rate. Do I want to time this?

Paula

Lost

Hello,

Last night Leroy was sighing and moving things around in the spare bedroom where he keeps his things. Finally he announced, “I can’t find my wedding ring.”

He spent more time looking, using a flashlight and looking in impossible place. He even put clothes over his pj’s and looked in the garage in garden gloves because he had worn them in the community garden. No luck on spotting that simple gold band before he went to bed.  This morning it was on his mind first thing, but nothing turned up. About a year ago he lost his Luther ring so he is now ringless. There is still hope for the wedding ring, but the Luther ring is gone for good it now seems.

I lost my computer glasses last winter in January. This spring, I even looked where snow had been piled, but no luck in spotting them. They are larger than a ring consequently I cannot imagine why I did not find them.

Perhaps there is a time of grief when you lose something that you care about. After that one must move on to more important things. Strange how life is full of little sorrows. Perhaps that teaches us how to handle the big ones.

For some reason I was overcome with emotion at my parents’ grave site. My father died in 1987 and my mother in 1998. It seems there are still things I would tell them if they were alive. I have said I want to be cremated. Now I wonder will my children want a spot to return to later or will I be lost totally to them? I have only been to the grave a few times so it is not so important to me to do that.

Paula 

Working in the dirt

Hello,

Leroy and I are exercising our farming skills. I have taken out all but three houseplants. So we have planted the second azalea as well as six poinsettias. Our landlord, after consultation, has moved two ferns. We think the backyard will have a great new look with a good spot of green in a weak corner.

Then we moved on to the rental house a couple doors down that our landlord manages. Are we trying to change the neighborhood? I had talked with him last year about the weeds in front of that house, but talk was all it was. This year I was determined to do something about them, but before I did, he approached me about doing it for pay. So yesterday Leroy and I eradicated weeds. It looks so much better without dead weeds from last year. Soon there will be flowers or other greens planted there to beautify the place. I have some flower seeds which I volunteered to put there and we may look for some plants too. Surely mark downs will start in the near future.

Soon we will plant the amaryllis in the back. I also brought home the fern and the spider plant from the elementary building. They both look good, but the fern is just about perfect. If I were selling I could command a good price. Next week I will start bring home plants from the Ely Library. Personally I believe plants like a summer outside. My boss anticipated this move so she has acquired some other plants to keep green in the space.

One of the plants still in the house is in a lined basket so it would not tolerate the rain. The peace lily is blooming so I do not want to disturb it. The Clivia did well outside, but it is sending up this shoot and I am not sure it should be disturbed.

I found my flower seeds. Some are from 2008. I am hoping that they will grow in that space by the house two doors down. If not then that is ok and I am free from hauling them around with me. If you look there is a positive side to many decisions and  issues.

Paula

Couch and house

Hello,

We had a short relationship with that couch/loveseat. Leroy worked to get the handrail off the back steps only to get hung up on the middle screw on the middle brace. While I was holding the railing I looked at the doorway in front of me. Leroy had gone to fetch additional tool help. The doorway looked small. “Did you measure this door,” I wondered.

Leroy sighed and grabbed his tape measure. It was indeed too small. Our landlords were out so we discussed with them bringing it up the front stairs which are in their apartment. Leroy measured steps and turn after they had cleared them and felt it was possible. Then it was on to the doorway at the top. It seemed that it would work if the door were taken off. In the meantime they had cleared a path in the kitchen so we could get it in that way rather than carting it around to the front. Leroy went to work to take off the door, but it would not budge. Also he then measured the door into the kitchen and found it too narrow. This house is one hundred years old and not built to accommodate such big furniture as we now have.

I now declared, “I do not want this loveseat. We will return it.”

Leroy agreed. The furniture was picked up today and is no longer a part of our vision. Our lives were fine before and they are fine now.

This afternoon when we both got home from work we planted six of the poinsettias. They were the worst looking ones, but they still have quite a lot of red on them. Tomorrow we will decide where to put the last four beauties. They are just astonishing looking.

We also helped the neighbor boy (He seems like a boy, but I suppose he could be in his thirties.) who knows nothing about plants and trees to eliminate some vigorous trees taking root next to his house. We did it partly for selfish reasons because I want to enjoy the clematis and peony that they were hiding and chocking. It looks good now.

Paula

Miracle Day

Hello,

Yesterday was a day of miracles. The first for me was that my z sources at work started working again. Why? I have not the slightest idea. I am now accessing the records of the New York Public library. That is a source I had added at least two months ago. Spontaneously two records appeared when I was doing a search. This is so odd because usually I had to go hunting for the z source response. Because of this gift, I was able to add about three times the videos compared to when I have to copy and paste the record in. Now I do not fee l so old and slow. Hopefully this will work for a good long time. After all I want to look speedy and efficient.

After getting the new internet service at home, the router, phone box, and one phone handset all sat on the refrigerator. Yesterday, Leroy tried setting up the WIFI signal capturer and it worked perfectly without trouble. It needed to be on a different channel and we are now on the proper channel. Consequently the phone box and phone are in the office and the phone in the kitchen is on the microwave. I am happy to be able to see all phones easily. We do not have a huge frig, but it was an effort for me to look at the phone up there.

Yesterday I froze about half of the rhubarb we brought home. This morning I made up a recipe. I put rhubarb in the bottom of the pan and added sort of a cake batter on top. I put in a measured scoop of sugar. I like it just fine. There is a tart taste, but then the dough part sweetens it all up.

Leroy does a leg/hip stretching session on the dining room table. He reclines on the edge of the table with one leg hanging over for three minutes after which time he reverses direction and stretches the other side. This morning I heard a big bang and clattering in the computer room where the dining room table resides. “What happened?” I asked as I hurried to the source of the sound.

“I fell off the table,” Leroy said as he rubbed his head where it had hit an end table. Apparently he was over balanced to the outside. Once the fall started he could not think how to stop it.  He is all right, but was a bit shock up.

Paula

Life is full of surprises

Hello,

On the way home from church we walked through the college campus. School may be winding down, but the geese flock is growing. Leroy took several pictures with his camera, but I did not find them in my email, so who knows where they went. You will just have to imagine this large group of geese. I counted two gathering of adolescent geese: one of 19 and one of 34. It was quite nice to be amid so many thriving bodies even with the poop on the sidewalk. Why don’t they just use the grass?

Later in the day I called a friend, who had offered rhubarb, to learn if there was any available. After telling her we would come later, Leroy thought it a good time to walk over. There we learned that she was collecting furniture for her foster care child who was moving on as well as for refugees. Leroy asked about one of our five rocking chairs. She thought that would be a great addition to her supply that was being picked up tomorrow. She and Leroy took the seats out of her van and we all drove to our house. While there she noticed all our rocking chairs and I mentioned that we had given our couch away before we moved here. She then offered a loveseat that was in her garage. I did not feel we should take it because it was meant for refugees, but she insisted it was for whoever might like it. So we traded a chair for a loveseat.

The rocking chair fit easily in the van, another seat was taken out of the van and the couch put in. It had spent some time in a basement so we left it on the back porch to air out. Leroy vacuumed it this morning, brought up the two cushions which we treated. I do not notice the smell, as I had when I sat on it last night. Our neighbor helped move, push, jam it through the door to the porch.

We would like a little sun so we could air it out more. Our landlord has offered a little wheeled cart so we could move it out into the sun if it ever shines. Leroy is home this afternoon so maybe he could do that even without me. So far it has not rained since we have been up.

Who knew that we would bring home rhubarb and a loveseat?

Paula