The lemon tree is.............

...........nothing but a stub. I am pretty sure it's dead and now I feel that way, too. A little bit anyway. One last ditch effort is to totally re-pot it and stir a systemic into the soil in hope of killing the beasties that killed my precious precious tree!

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Not being totally without hope, in my freezer, I do have two of the lemons produced by the tree which I could cut open to salvage seeds to try planting. I would risk only one of the two lemons in order to at least have something as a remembrance. Nuts! His father has a seedling I grew from a seed but only one, which I couldn't take back, that wouldn't be nice.

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Here is some good news! My friend, Joanne, is back in town!!! She's been gone over 5 months taking care of her dad and getting his house ready for sale in MI. She came over for a bit this afternoon and it was grand to have her back.

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Joanne has some properties she's trying to market about an hour south of here and is going to stay on the property there as a true site agent. She'll be there 'round the clock for a month or so to try to move some properties. I don't know what kind of Realtor she thinks she is because Joanne is NOT in favor of selling my place!!!! Joanne is of the opinion that this condo speaks my name and that I need to stick it out here until I absolutely cannot any longer. Okay then! Dee is of the same opinion, in her words, "I want you in this condo!". Not one down the street or in the next county or in WI---here!!

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This afternoon after she left, I got busy opening the huge boxes which held the purchases people made at the Southern Living party I had. Many of them would be at Pat's party tonight so I waited for today to open them. Such a mess of boxes and packing paper! At least I was able to rid myself of one box because I filled it back up with peoples' purchases to haul down to Pat's. Now Pat has to deal with it instead! Justin could probably use the box in his move in a couple weeks but that's okay, since there are two more in my family room!

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At the party I got to see many of our mutual friends, including Sharon who did Lynn's facial which was her birthday gift from me. Tracy came a bit late but it was great to see her. She lives below me but I hadn't seen or heard (hardly) from her since the last Board meeting. She asked me to breakfast on Saturday and I accepted. Justin is coming either Friday afternoon or sometime Saturday to help me with a couple things but I'll be done with breakfast before he'd get here anyway.

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After the party, one of the guests, Jacqueline, came upstairs to see my place, because I have many of the pieces from the catalog in my home. Plus she wanted to see my place. The Units are similar in size and layout yet each one has specific differences, uniquenesses. She loved my place, trying to figure out why my rooms don't match Pat's layout. I told her mine was more like the one next door to Pat's but unless you see them all, it's hard to explain. Another of the neighbors, a new lady and her daughter, also came to the Southern Living party, my first time to meet them. The daughter is in 6th grade at St. Johns and has been there since pre-k. I mentioned that I had a son who died while at St. Johns in pre-k, and the mom asked, "The drowning?", and I said, "Yes." She got visibly upset and expressed her sympathy, which I accepted, and then she said her daughter was a year after Timmy. Elaine said, "I love the little angel by the bench." I thanked her and told her the tree there is also planted in his memory, moved from behind the old pre-k building to the new middle school building, in a prominent place. It's been a while since I've been over to school to see the tree, the bench or the little angel. I think that means something, don't you?

Don't be ineffective!

"I want to be around to pick up the pieces when he breaks your heart in two........" Oh, what's the point of moaning and bemoaning what's taken place in our nation? It's a new day and life goes on. The bottom falls out of the market---again---and time marches on.

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At Bible study this morning we talked about the situation a bit, all of us like-minded on more than only our doctrine, and I was able to brag on Justin a bit for his facebook posting Wednesday morning. He wrote that he's looking forward to 2012 and that it's a new day. Of course, as a politically involved young man, he's quite ticked off, being more libertarian than I am. But he didn't go out and flip any cars or riot in the streets like was expected if things went the other way. Anyone else see something interesting in that?

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I had a bunch of stuff written here, much of it quite profound, but I didn't feel like posting it. 'Nuff said............

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Well, today is the day---------------I finished The Shack!!! Finally, worked my way to the end. Wow! Judy, I can't believe it, what a trip! Thank you sooooo much, I can't wait to talk to you in person about it. As soon as I finished, I called my friend, Diane, the financial counselor and absolutely insisted she read this book. While my car was being lubed and tires rotated, I sat at a picnic table in the sun and finished it up, with tears soaking my shirt, again. Wow!

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48 more hours, Judy!!!!

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My sister wrote the other morning to report what she saw on election day at her polling place, the fire station in the neighborhood. Kerry wrote: "There were about 80 people ahead of me at 6:25 a.m. As the time passed, I watched the line increase, with cars parking on both of sides of Snell Road (barely a cow path.) The sun was just coming up over the buildings and all I could see were people walking through a corn field across the street, walking across part of the lawn of the prison, and pushing strollers and/or carrying young children with them. It was almost 7:00 a.m. and people were calling their work places to advise they may be a little late (me included), when a small group of men (firemen) came carrying a little, old man on their crossed arms to the front of the line.

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He was a WWII Veteran and had pushed himself up Jackson Street (I don't know how) in his wheelchair. He is a resident of Nova House which is a residential treatment center for drug and alcohol addiction. He was the first one to vote! I was still in line when he came out and the firemen helped him back to his wheelchair. Several people offered to give him a lift back to the center. He declined.

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When I came out, he was wheeling himself just a little bit ahead of where my car was parked. I stopped and chatted a little while with him. He proceeded to tell me that we were lucky; we still had enough of our senses (vs. others that don't) to be able to cast a vote for the president of the United States of America. He parted with, "God Bless You."

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Need I say anything else? I was sobbing when I got in my car and when I got to work, people asked me if I was okay. I replied, "Never better." I don't have much money, but I have my senses, my faith, my family, my nation and my right to vote. I have never been so moved in my entire life."