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No longer on the river and, again, an empty nester. Back to living on Fleming Island and making some more friends!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Things didn't work out

Another smoky morning, no sign of Mandarin across the river or even the palm trees at the end of the breakwater. And talk about stink! Justin described it as being the smell of vomit but I am not too sure about that. He worked out in that heavy air all day on Monday but said it didn't really bother them too much. I was concerned for their eyes and lungs, but mainly the smell bothered them. By the afternoon, when the winds came, the smoke moved off the river and I could see!

Last week my friend, Chris N., with whom I used to paint and scrapbook, contacted me via Facebook. She wanted to have lunch! I am so in! We made plans at first to meet on Monday since there was no Bible study that day, but then she remembered a doctor appointment which would interfere. We settled on Tuesday, before she goes to play bridge, and decided to eat at Pengree's, which is a bit closer to her bridge game place. 

I went the few blocks to Pengree's and was surprised to not see her blue Beetle parked out front. She wasn't inside either, so I told the hostess I would wait outside in case there was a mix-up. Chris's cell phone number was no good anymore and Martie didn't answer her phone to get me a better number. I could have gone in to eat but it was 'only' 11:00 a.m. and I was not quite ready to eat. We planned to meet early enough so we could talk before her 1:00 pm card game, whether we were hungry or not!
I didn't mind waiting for Chris under the boughs of this ancient, enormous oak

I waited about 15 minutes and then decided there must have been a mix-up, maybe she thought next week Tuesday or something. I left another message on her home phone and went to church to get Timmy's Easter lily. I had forgotten all about it on Sunday, being in a rush to get from church to The Club for our Easter buffet. As I waited at the light to turn onto Kingsley Ave., I saw Martie driving through on her way to work. How funny is that! She is coming over for dinner on Friday, I finally pinned her down! I met Chris through Martie, and we really hit it off.

There were extra cars in the church parking lot since work is going on in the Fellowship Hall. I got my keys out to admit myself to the church but found the door unlocked. Before yanking it open, I tapped first and then went in. Cliff was meeting with some fellows, looking over the situation in the sanctuary, which is next on the list of areas to be rejuvenated. It was okay for me to come in and get my lily, but I tried not to be intrusive. On Friday night Justin and I noticed one of the drywall cracks seemed wider and darker near where we generally sit, and I wondered if that happened when the cross was erected on the exterior side wall of the church...ooops! No worries, though, these guys are on it!

I took the lily to the cemetery and then headed for home. It was getting hot out, in the low 80's but it seemed the smoke had mostly thinned out. Justin had eaten dinner at his father's house on Monday night and brought home a wonderful mini-loaf of homemade walnut bread. He wanted me to have some that night but I was too full, so he left me a piece to have today. That was what I had for my lunch, and oh my!, was it ever delicious! 

The afternoon was spent watching the printer as the 'members away' newsletter was spitting out of it. Since there is one entire page of photos, I only print three at a time because they need some time to 'dry' a bit before feeding them through again for the text on the reverse side. I know what you're thinking----do the text side first. Next time, I will! I also have to wait to fold them up for insertion in the envelopes. Guess I will need more ink again soon!

Justin had a shorter day today, getting home right after 2:00 pm, just in time to hear that Rick Santorum dropped out of the race. Rats! I rather expected it, especially since it looked like he would have an uphill battle for his home state. Add to that the health problems of his daughter, Bella, and yes, it was just time. He fought valiantly and brought up issues, well, some of them needed to be talked about. Others were a distraction and brought negative attention to our fight, but anyway, I am sure we have not heard the last from Rick. To support Mitt is not a tough thing to do, as I have the utmost regard for his abilities to turn things around. I only wish he were more conservative in his thinking, more small government...Sigh....

Chris called and left me a message, apologizing for the mix-up. She had gone to Panera Bread instead, and then realized her mistake. By the time she would have gotten to Pengree's, I would have been gone already, and she had no phone to let me know. I reminded her we chose Pengree's for its proximity to her bridge club, and she said, "I just saw the "P" and got mixed up!" Next week, we will try again and hopefully hit the mark!

For dinner Justin and I had the pot roast I had made for us on Monday night (I did not know or did not recall his plans to eat at his father's) but pot roast is just as good again the next day. First, though, we had to go upstairs to Randy's unit as he is moving out and wanted us to have his refrigerator foods. We got numerous bottles of salad dressing, sauces, ketchup, and so on, plus his cleaning supplies except for the Soft Scrub. He is a big box shopper so I now have plenty of Cascade for the dishwasher! It will be so sad to have him gone but he kept much of his belongings here in a storage unit so he promises to be back! His lady friend still lives here which will serve to keep him somewhat attached to this area as well.

Tonight I watched the pilot for the TV show "The Big Bang Theory" (TBBT) and it was interesting and fun to see how the characters have developed since that first episode. The brainiest of the characters with no social skills to speak of was almost flirtatious in the pilot. He is more amusing now without much humanness at all, like Mr. Spock, his idol. He (Sheldon) is the one Justin compares me to, with his needs for order. The show has far too much focus on the humanness of the other characters, sickeningly so, which annoys me greatly, but I enjoy Sheldon and his quirks, or what others consider quirks...

At one point, Sheldon went into his new neighbor's apartment and discovered a terrible disarray. She had given the two guys, Leonard and Sheldon, a key to use to admit a furniture delivery. Having little sense of societal propriety, Sheldon used the key to go in to clean her apartment in the middle of the night. He could not sleep, knowing there was disarray with only two doors separating him from it. "This is not a messy apartment. No, this is a swirling vortex of entropy!" I used that very line on Justin when I went to his bedroom door. I won't go in and clean while he's sleeping, but he said I can maybe help him tidy up in the morning. There are only two doors between my clean room and his disarray....

P.S. I just thought of something my friend, Carol, said the other night at choir. I used one of Sheldon's expressions, and she looked at me, and asked, "Oh, has this (TBBT show) taken the place of the other show?" She means "Seinfeld", of course, and no, not yet!