I just remembered something (warning...)

When I was at the pool today, for some reason or another, a picture flashed into my mind. An old memory from the days not long after Timmy died. My mom had been with us since just after Christmas, actually arriving in town the wee hours of my birthday morning. I had to drive downtown to the bus depot to pick up Lynn and Mom because I was certainly NOT going to allow them to sit there until a 'decent' hour----not in the Jacksonville bus depot! Lynn was coming along partially for a visit and partially to help Mom out with the kids while I was having my surgery on the 11th of January. Lynn left on the Friday after my surgery, with Roger having taken her to the Orange Park bus depot. Less than a week later and she was back for Timmy's funeral.

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All the while after the funeral, I should say, the first full month after the funeral, my neighbors in The Preserve made a meal for us every other day, as a show of support for us. All we had to do was set the table and wait to see what was coming for dinner, and wonder if we had room in the freezer for yet more ice cream. We could not eat some of our meals fast enough, especially the ice cream, believe it or not.

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While I cannot remember the date Mom flew back home to WI, it was some time after Timmy died. The sad reminder that flashed through my brain was of the night Mom left, when I was setting the table, I accidentally set four places. It then hit me like a ton of bricks that from now on, we would only need to set for three of us at the table. Upsetting not because Mom was gone, that had not sunk in yet, but because Timmy was gone and an empty space was at the table. Like a ton of bricks....What made me think of that today when I was at the pool? I have no idea but fortunately I was mostly by myself and could cry without drawing an audience. Maybe it was because I had an earworm of the hymn "Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness" rattling round in my brain and out that memory popped.

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This type of thing happened once more to my knowledge, sometime later when Harv and Barb had come down for a visit. We were enjoying a meal cooked on the grille and I gave Barb the plastic pink flamingo patio dishes to set the outdoor table. In a few moments she came in with an extra setting----seems I had once more counted Timmy in our number. He was enjoying a feast much better than what we were having, but those tons of bricks on earth are a little hard to take sometimes.....

An exciting morning

This morning as I was just about waking up, I heard my telephone make a beep at me. Oops, I had left it in Quiet Mode since Bible study last night. As I reached for it, I heard Justin yelling, "Mama, Mama, wake up! You gotta call WOKV right away because you just won a trip to St. Petersburg!" He gave me the number because I couldn't think of it and made the call. Whew!! The nice man who answered told me that I actually won a trip to Adventure Landing Water Park BUT my name is being thrown in the hat for the big prize of a resort stay in St. Pete's Beach. I am still a winner, no matter the prize. I called Justin back and told him my news and he was disappointed, saying, though, that I have a 1 in 15 chance of winning the other trip yet. While I was talking to him, my friend from church, Tina, beeped in, asking if I heard my name on the radio. She was excited for me and wanted to make sure I get my prize.

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What a way to begin my day! I had only yesterday entered the contest which was e-mailed to me as an 'Insider'. Good thing Justin and Tina were listening that early in the morning. Supposedly I should receive an e-mail from WOKV with the details of my Adventure Landing outing, wondering if I can take folks with me or what. If so, I might even save it until Kerry comes down here to visit me in early September to enjoy the wave pool and lazy river with me.

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Pheewww! I need to empty my wastebasket in my bedroom/office. It seems the foam boxes and their uneaten remainders are decaying, as one might imagine. Particularly bad since it is warm in here, and the early part of the day when the sun bakes it a bit more....Last night Judy J. picked me up for dinner and Bible study. We ate at Panera and she greatly enjoyed her salad. She even had me rub my finger in the bottom of the bowl to taste the delicious dressing left there. The salad was called a strawberry salad but it also had lettuce of some type, blueberries, mandarin orange segments, and this lovely poppyseed dressing. She was in heaven, so to speak. You can guess what I had...predictable me! I did, however, buy a loaf of bread made with nuts and twigs, as per the doctor's orders. Actually it is a dense seeded rye bread and made a great slice of toast for breakfast. Might even have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich later---that's how good it was! Last week I threw out almost an entire loaf of bread as it turned green on me, and yes, Judy, I DID have it in the fridge!

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Last night about 11:30 pm, I was sitting in bed with my laptop when I heard what sounded like a gun shot, very close gun shot. Oh my! I listened closely to see if I could hear any follow-up noise or more fireworks to follow this first one. But there was nothing more, only the one shot. Earlier in the evening, however, I had placed a can of Diet Coke in the freezer to speed the process of chilling. Well, can you guess what the gunshot was? This a.m. before getting ready for the pool, I opened the freezer to get my can holder out and discovered what appeared to be pieces of chicken, dark meat chicken pieces. Yikes! It was Diet Coke blown all over the interior of my freezer! The side was blown right open on the can and I picked up chunks of soda and put them into the ruptured can. They were still fizzling as I dropped them into the sink. I knew this was going to be a mess but not a problem unless I let them melt.....I did clean up some more of the shards of shattered soda (I cry over spilled and exploded soda like some do over milk!) and then mopped the floor where the pieces fell out of the freezer drawer. I will need assistance from Justin for cleaning up the rest because he will have to lift the basket off the floor of the freezer to get inside to wipe it out. Worse mess than when the Christmas cookie container opened up and made crumbs all over the place in there!

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At the pool there was only one lady, a former stranger, reading a book. I greeted her and determined I did not know her and then got into the pool. At first the water was cold but I got used to it quickly. A man was using a leaf blower over at The Club and it was getting quite annoying. When there was a break in the noise, I said to the lady, "I hope he is nearly done with that" and she agreed, saying it was an obnoxious noise. Aha, I was in! After introducing myself, and she to me, Katina, I told her my story of gunshots in the night and the mess I was facing. Her hubby and she were in town from Tampa, he was an architect who specializes in church rehabs and such, and she came along for the ride. They had seen the place, The Club, on a previous visit and decided to stay here for this overnight trip. So, we had a nice chat, talked about our entitlement-raised college kids and then she had to leave. It was check-out time and she had to go pack. Rats! Anyway, it was nice to meet her and have some new ears to tell my story to!