It was a warm and windy day today. Chelsea and I had a lovely walk this morning. We were the only walkers out there, though we did see one of our neighbors working in her gardens.

I did a bit of gardening myself. I had decided to make a hummingbird planter. I needed a fuchsia, begonias and a sweet potato vine. So, since I had to go and pick up a couple of prescriptions for Dick later this morning, so I swung by Moraine Gardens and picked up the plants I needed and a large planter.

This afternoon, I planted the Hummingbird Planter and a couple of herb plants, then watered everything thoroughly since it was windy all day and dried everything out.

I talked to Barbara today. She is home from Florida and said that her critters were very glad to see her and that one of her kitties crawled into her arms to sleep last night. I sure miss my kitties. I wonder if Oscar will have anything to do with me if I ever get him home. Roxie seems to be more social, but I am sure she will miss Bobbie if I ever get her home.

I remember our Waylon. Cat food commercials reminded me of him today. He liked to eat only dry food. Though he did change from Purina to Science Diet, he did not like anything new. If we tried to give him canned food or treats, he would just cry. We always said that he must have thought we were trying to kill him.

Aside from my little shopping excursions, we stayed home today. Except for doctoring, I can't see Dick going anywhere anyhow. It is hard enough for us to get him from one room to another

Tomorrow is another quiet day. I think I will bake some bread. If it is as warm as it was today, I will bake it downstairs. It is sure nice to have that extra oven.

Love

Mary

Chelsea and I had a very short walk this morning because it was raining. But we did have a walk. It was warm enough and I am glad that everything got a drink today.

We spent the day at home. We are moving Dick around on his walker mostly. He can sit on the seat and with him pushing and me pulling we are able to get him where he needs to go with the least pain.

I spent the day cleaning and doing computer stuff. I also had a ginger root that had sprouted so I planted it. Wonder if that will work. I don't know how to harvest it if it does work but it is fun.

This morning I caught a little bit of Regis and Kelly. Regis is on vacation and somehow or other she and Pat Sajak the co host got on the subject of Mc Donalds. Kelly mentioned that Regis can eat at Mc Donalds free for life. But it reminded me of a guy that I worked for years ago at United Savings and Loan.

Craig stopped in to get Mc Donalds for dinner for his family. When he got home he opened up his Big Mac and inside the styrofoam container (at that time all sandwiches were served in styrofoam) was the neatly stacked meat, pickles, special sauce and onions but no bun.


Love Mary

Men's Translations

"I'M GOING FISHING" Means: "I'm going to drink myself dangerously stupid, and stand by a stream with a stick in my hand, while the fish swim by in complete safety."

"IT'S A GUY THING" Means: "There is no rational thought pattern connected with it, and you have no chance at all of making it logical."

"CAN I HELP WITH DINNER?" Means: "Why isn't dinner already on the table?"

"UH HUH," "SURE, HONEY," OR "YES, DEAR..." Means: Absolutely nothing. It's a conditioned response.

"IT WOULD TAKE TOO LONG TO EXPLAIN" Means: "I have no idea how it works."

"I WAS LISTENING TO YOU. IT'S JUST THAT I HAVE THINGS ON MY MIND." Means: "I was wondering if that redhead over there is wearing a bra."

"TAKE A BREAK HONEY, YOU ARE WORKING TOO HARD." Means: "I can't hear the game over the vacuum cleaner."

"THAT'S INTERESTING, DEAR." Means: "Are you still talking?"

Well, we spent a good hunk of the day in doctors offices today without any really good resolution to Dick pain problem. The good thing is that we finally know what is wrong. The bad thing is that it seems that the cure is a knee replacement but they will not be able to consider it until his circulation problems are solved (Dr. Siddique) and we have that open sore on the bottom of his right foot healed for a year. Dr. Murphy prescribed a stronger pain killer and a wheel chair so that he can keep the pressure off of the knee. Exercise will not help this problem, so I guess I have to stop suggesting walks for a while at least. It took forever. We were at the clinic from 2:10 to 5PM, not counting the appointment with Dr. Sharon this morning.

Anyway, we are tired people. And I have to cancel the Quilting Day I was going to tomorrow. Bobbie said she would be glad to take Dick to the doctor but we have to call tomorrow to make the appointment with the specialist to help us heal the sore on the bottom of his foot. It may be that we don't even have an appointment tomorrow, but we have to be ready and now we are facing a whole new set of "truths". We also have a prescription for a wheel chair and I would like to see about that tomorrow.

On our travels, we were listening to PBS. They were interviewing a man who, with six other friends, rafted down the Mississippi. I really enjoyed that interview because it brought back memories that were fun.

When I still was out in California, in my previous life, we went out jeeping a lot. One of the places that we often went was near the Colorado River. One of the fun things that we enjoyed doing was floating down the river. We would gather up inner tubes, inflatable rafts, actually anything that floated and then pile as many people, adults and kids, into a couple of jeeps and drive a couple of miles up the river to an access point where the drivers would drop us off and go back to camp or out jeeping.

Then those who stayed would tie the whole mess of floatibale objects together, pile everybody on this odd mess of an "island" and push out into the river. We always floated an ice chest with beer and soda along with us and we would drift and sing and talk all the way back to our starting point. It was always hot at the "River" and was so cool and relaxing spending the day in the water that way.

So. Hope your Friday is a nice one.

Love

Mary

Another late night. Lil Abner at the Sheboygan Theater. It was really excellent. The talent really turned out for this one. I had not seen the man who played Abner before but he sure could sing. The dance numbers were exceptional too. The only complaint that I might have had was that it was too long. We did not get out of the theater until almost 10:40 which makes over a three hour production. It was acceptable only because it was goo well done.

Bobbie, Mother and I went to Nino's before the play for dinner. Nino's is always good.


We finally got a doctor, Dr. Kapur, to look at Dick's leg. She ordered an ultra sound and blood test and ruled out blood clots and infection but really was not able to do anything else. We have an appointment at 10 tomorrow morning to discuss the ultra sound with Dr. Sharon. Dr. Kapur told Dick he could take the pain pills at somewhat closer intervals but it is not doing any good.

Well. Perhaps tomorrow we will get some relief for him. We keep hoping.

Sleep tight

Mary

This is going to be really short. It is after 10. My CWI meeting ended about a half an hour ago.

We had a great time. There were nine of us. I taught them how to bake Irish Brown Bread. We decided our next two meetings plus tentative dates for the rest of the year. Discussed a bit of genealogy and Kate told us how she reads handwriting. That was fun. We all wrote. This is a perfect day. Then she went through the letters and told us what it meant about our personalities. How cool is that?

The article that I interviewed for at the Review was in todays paper and we got a new member who called and came tonight. The article turned out really nice and I am sure we will be better known from now on.

This morning Dick had his blood tested. It is still a bit low so we are adjusting the dosage and will have to check next week as he has another procedure on the 6th. His leg is getting more sore each day. We pestered the Clinic til they FINALLY got a doctor on who prescribed a painkiller and will see him tomorrow if the leg is swollen. Thank God. Pray for him, these past days have been really painful for him.

That is all for now. Love you all.

Mary

Memorial Day. It was a quiet one. Chelsea and I had a nice walk at 6AM. It was a lovely walk. Chelsea cut it kind of close. She decided to take the path through the woods today. The trilliums are still blanketing the forest and some of them are pink now. Would you believe that there are two tulips blooming in the woods? I was surprised, let me tell you.

Jim and Michelle came over for scrambled eggs this morning. That turned out well. I scrambled them with green onions and cream cheese. Then we went on our busy days today.

I went to visit Mother at about 11AM and was able to help her move some plants from the garage to the front porch. We had a good visit before I headed back home. Jeff had brought some tomato plants for me. There were a couple of extras. That Kathy sure can get those plants started. I took a Roma and a cherry. There were a couple of extra so I brought them for Jim and Michelle.

When I got home, I did some weeding and planted the tomato plants and a few bean seeds. Hope everything comes up. It was 86 degrees here today which got the house up to 80 but it was dry so we were able to stand it because the wind was blowing pretty good too. This kept everything circulating.

I sat out on the deck for about 45 minutes which was really pleasant. Mosquitoes are really thick this year, BUT none bothered me this afternoon. So Chelsea and I were very happy out there.

Tomorrow is a doctor day. We also hope we hear the results of Dick's MRI. His leg seems to be hurting him more every day. The walker IS a big help however.

Have a good week. A short one for you workers.


A group of Americans, retired Teachers, recently went to France on a
tour. Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.
At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry
on. 'You have been to France before, monsieur?' the customs officer asked
sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
'Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.' The American
said, 'The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it.' 'Impossible.
Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !' The
American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly
explained. 'Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in '44 to help
liberate this country, I couldn't find any Frenchmen to show it to.'

You could have heard a pin drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Love

Mary

This is turning out to be quite a lovely Memorial Day weekend. So far there is no rain, though we may get a bit tonight and/or tomorrow. Actually, we could really use it so I hope we do. I actually ran the sprinklers on the gardens at the bottom of the yard yesterday, so that I could pull some of those awful wild garlic plants that are invading everything again this year.

I also planted the last of the plants that I bought a couple of weeks ago. So far I have only killed one tomato.

I went to the 8AM mass this morning after walking our Chelsea. It was a nice morning for a walk but we did not see another soul out there today. Church was full. When I arrived, the lot was pretty empty but I guess everybody was just funning a bit late. Fr. Van Beeck gave a nice Memorial Day, Corpus Christi sermon. I fixed Dick and I a good breakfast and then Jim and Michelle arrived. They installed a battery backup for our sump pump. They were doing theirs and asked if we would like it done too. It is nice to have someone watching over us.

So I invited them over for a steak dinner. Was pretty good too. This way I can get Jim to turn on the fryer. I always have to use a match. He just goes Click Click Click and off she goes.

Tomorrow is actually Memorial Day. I don't know if there are any real parades going on. I remember the first year Dick and I were married. Dick and Bart and I rushed up from our home on Broadway in Sheboygan Falls to the corner of Pine and Broadway for the Parade. We still laugh today. The parade consisted of a police car, a number of veterans, some Girl Scouts and Bruce Mertzig with his old car.

When I was a kid there was a band from one of the schools, all the scouts marched and we had to go all the way to the Sheboygan Falls Cemetery in Kohler. It was much more impressive. Now they go the the Municipal Building and do the gun salute and cememony on the steps. Maybe we have forgotten the reason for this day. Sadly, we are making more reasons for Memorial/Veterans Day every single day over in the Gulf.

Pray for all of our boys and girls over there. They need our love, prayers and support.

Mary