I have words left over!

What a gorgeous day it is today on the river! The sky is blue, cloudless, with the trails of airplanes the only 'white' against the blue, and the sun sparkling on the water. Only 52 degrees today but it sure feels a whole lot warmer than it did earlier in the week when it was 54 and raining. What is up with that? It's all about the sunshine, right?

Yesterday I brought up the mail from downstairs, finding a mailer package in my box, from Lori. When I got upstairs, immediately I tore into it. My loving sister sent me a nice book titled “Cold”, with stories about the coldest places on earth!!! Very funny! As I stood at the counter, laughing, Justin came up the stairs, opened the kitchen door, announcing, “I heard you laughing way outside….” Her card was hilarious as well, showing two somewhat heavy women, probably from the 1940 era, attempting to address a teeter totter. The captions have the ladies planning their mounting of the board, with one finally saying, “I picked a bad day to wear a thong….” Again with the laughter! She also enclosed a lovely pair of glass-bead chandelier earrings, multicolored, and perfect for me, and a pin of two pigs with their snouts pressed against each other. Justin thinks it looks ‘old’, as though it is retro. It might be but I may simply keep that for display purposes only and not wear it on my clothing!

Recently I was contacted and ‘friended’ via Facebook by some folks I had been trying to track down for a little while. Our neighbors in Waterford Landing, Dan and Lynn, with their kids, were our best friends as long as we lived there. They had a foreign exchange student, Philippe, come back every year for a long-term visit. One summer all us adults and Philippe, who was French, took diving classes together. The instructor was an idiot, who would try to converse with Philippe in Spanish, thinking it was the same as French! Only Philippe spoke English just fine. The rest of the gang took their test dives and were certified, but I did not feel we had sufficient instruction so was never certified. Anyway, only a few weeks after we moved into our new home in The Preserve, Dan and Lynn were called to the hospital to be with us when Timmy died, and Dan served as a pall bearer for Timmy. I hated losing track of them, as they moved around a bit due to Dan’s job as an air traffic controller. I love it, love it, love it that his daughter, Amanda, and Dan both reached out to me and reconnected. And now Philippe, too, in France! International Facebook connections….

Justin is coming by this early afternoon to drop off some of my grocery items which inadvertently went home with him yesterday. I had discovered Hamburger Helper in plastic cups to which one adds water and simply microwaves to prepare. Nice! I hope I like it…if not, I can donate it to the preschool for them to use in case anyone forgets their lunch or something. Justin, whom I told not to beg when at the store, asked for and received a bag of animal crackers. He said they provide protein, and I thought he was fooling because of them being animals….but, no, a portion of crackers allows for 2 grams of protein. Who knew? They also come in a chocolate flavor but that did not make them any more appealing to me. We also got him some foot powder as he has a problem with his feet….I kept telling him how Gabe and Manny laughed when I read his text message aloud in Manitowoc, where Justin was complaining about his feet smelling. They found that to be just so terribly funny, and had me ask Justin if he ‘stepped on a stinky bush’. No one really knows what a stinky bush is, but the two boys were rolling on the floor, laughing about it. That Justin is sure a lucky kid, isn’t he?

Today is the first anniversary of the passing of our dear friend, Gordy. His daughters, including my friend, Terri T., are visiting the cemetery, and going to the Ale House for lunch, to drink a toast to their dad. He loved the Miller Ale House, especially the Miller Genuine Draft beer. Not terribly long ago I used the last of the MGD I had on hand for Gordy, making a kettle of chili with ‘his’ beer. What a wonderful funeral service he had! We sang about eight hymns, and one of Gordy’s friends at church, Kurt, tucked the service folder into his Bible for his family to use when he passes away. “All they have to change is the name…” he said. We miss you, Gordy!