Do I hear "three"?

When Justin was a little boy, oh, about 4 or so, he was tucked in for the night........but his conversation continued long after we'd left the room. At one point I went back in to tell him to quit talking and go to sleep, he replied, "But, Mama, I have words left over!" Can't fault a guy for something he came by naturally, right?

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Well, today I'm the one with words leftover! For the 3rd and probably last time today, I am posting.

Martie and I just finished our lovely dinner at the Blu Grotto, the very same place where I had lunch with Justin today! At the beach last week I told her we needed to go there, so when she suggested dinner tonight, oh, yeah, let's go! I saw a mess of people I knew there, and saw some folks at noon, too. Great fun!

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But, here's the thing: I saw Carol, a Realtor at E. H. whom I've known for many, many years, and her hubby, whom I see often at Longhorn. She was happy to see me and gave big hugs, etc. And then she reported that someone said they'd seen me out with a guy........what? I blew it off, saying it was probably Justin, and she said no, it wasn't. Hmmm....people are talking about seeing me out with a guy????? That is nuts on so many levels! I said, "Well, if they did see me out, it was probably Rick, who drew your house plans." Carol said, "No, it was an older guy." I told Carol in no uncertain terms that I was absolutely NOT dating anyone ever, that it must have been a mistaken identity (oh, yes, soooooo many people look just like me)...

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This gave Martie and me something fun to discuss over our dinners. We thought and thought over who it could have been....Paul! Joan's husband, Paul, it has to be! (Justin and I celebrated Christmas at their house, I posted a photo of us all together.) He is the only older man I've had dinner with but certainly not alone, always with our group. Isn't it funny how stories get started? Hopefully I sufficiently defended my honor with Carol, and she'll "share" that information with her cohorts. We just shook our heads over this, just imagine someone wanting to go on a date with me!?!? Puh-lease! The only other option would be when our Bible study group goes for lunch but still, that's not on the Island and is always more girls than boys....

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After Martie left, I headed for the elevators where I met Ellen, my upstairs neighbor, who was coming home after being at the hospital. Her hubby, who is somewhat well-known, had his hip replaced, again, yesterday. If all goes well, he'll be released on Saturday to come home. She said she'll be playing nurse to him, but once he's not as dependent on Ellen, she and I are going to go have dinner at Blu Grotto. I really love it there: the rich blues, the Italian theme, the music....

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While eating lunch, I told Justin the music alone made me want to just pack my bags and go over!!! He said to go for it, just sell all I own and find an apartment near the Ponte Vecchio. He's such a romantic, or a Florentine, as the case might be. When I said I'd miss him, he said, "You could send for me". He's got it all worked out.....the only thing about his plan? No church for me there! Small detail.............

Two postings today.......

After choir last night I caught up with Carol in the parking lot and told her about the big sign at the cemetery. Her infant son and her mom are buried just steps away from Timmy. Judy C. was there, too, when I told about having to collect the memory items from the site......Carol, being Carol, said, in her loving way, "Well, that's another step..." She is so wise, that Carol. She knew exactly what I was thinking and feeling. I used to call her "Troi", from Star Trek: The Next Generation because Troi was an "empath", could pick up vibes from people and know what was going on inside them. And Carol can do that, too, plus knows what to do with the information!!!!! Comfort!

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I'd love to have half the Troi that Carol has.............

Another lovely morning on the river

Southern view of The Club, which is what I see from my front doors....

The humidity has forced me to fire up the A/C last night and today, since I couldn't get my kitchen door to shut properly. It was so swollen, it wouldn't let me out the door for Bible Bites. I figured "what's the harm in turning it on while I'm gone?" It's set on 80 but I arrowed down to 78 (brrr.....!) and have left it at that overnight. At one point before I went to bed, I heard my wood front door open....scary! Certainly it was the wind pushing it, because it could! Enough moisture had left the wood to allow it to pop open, since it probably wasn't tightly shut in the first place. The metal door was safely locked so no worries there, just an eerie feeling to hear the door open all by itself.....(imagine creeeeeepy noises, and voices whispering, "Don't go in there, don't go! Turn on a light!). I don't watch enough of those movies!

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Evidently the roofers don't stay up until all hours communicating with their friends in TX like I do, as they were on the job bright and early this a.m. With the threats of rain yesterday and today, they most likely have to hustle some so as not to leave our underbelly exposed to the elements. I doubt tarps would help much in a good-sized downpour. My parking spot was occupied with a giant dumpster yesterday so am glad I found a vacant "Guest" spot to park in. I offered my garage spot to my neighbors before I realized mine would be taken up outside. The early memo's didn't mention those parking spots!

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This brings to mind a "Seinfeld" episode where George didn't want to drive his car anywhere because he had gotten the "perfect" parking place. I don't want to go bumming today and possibly lose my Guest spot!! Of course, I will, but the thought did cross my mind......Wal-Mart, that den of iniquity, has some re-fills from me to pick up, plus I want to buy a birthday present to take along to Dave & Busters Sunday.

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For those who don't know, D & B is an indoor playground for mostly adults...kids can go but must be attended by an adult. They are also known for their excellent menu and am looking forward to enjoying the company of my friends, some good food, and perhaps a game or two of Skee-Ball! Justin will have great fun playing with the big boys on whatever it is big boys like to do. When the Prange's were here in January, I had to miss going with them and the gang to D & B because of Pizza/Game Night. Later, Fausto said he would have run the fun at church so I could go, but, oh well....it's the thought that counts anyway!

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My heart rejoices that the roofing costs didn't come in at the highest price estimated. That would have been absolutely killer and made me very sad. So, now the sum is not as much, so I am glad to pay the yet horrible amount....if they'd said a lower price first and then found it be higher, my attitude would be damaged. Starting with the higher cost and coming down, now that's the way to play it! Makes it seem like we got a good deal! And last fall, when I had water running down into my family room from the two floors above mine.....yeah, we need to do something about this roof! And we are!!! That same terrible rain storm is the one which flooded my Longhorn and totally warped the wood floors---while people were eating lunch! They have since taken out the wood and replaced it with carpet and tile. Less ranch-like, also probably less vulnerable to Florida weather!

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Oh, my gosh, the moon last night absolutely spectacular!!!!!!! Inspires awe!!!!!!!

Rats! No cropping today!

...so now I can work on my newsletters instead. All my ladies had to cancel their plans for coming over today for whatever reason so I'm on my own. I'm sad they aren't coming but am glad to have the time now to do this other stuff. How do I find myself in time crunches, pray tell?!?

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It's heavily overcast today, although I did wake to sunshine on my face. The wind has kicked up and I think I saw an orange safety vest fly past my window earlier. No body was attached to it, so I didn't watch to see where it landed. There is quite the crew on the roof, which I got to view up close and personal yesterday when visiting my 5th floor neighbor. I'd have to make sure to be up and dressed by 6:30 in the a.m. if I lived in her unit---they are right outside her windows!

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Before having lunch with Justin and Jesse, I went over to see John at the Memory Gardens. Mike, the guy in charge of the property, was busy setting up a tent at the football field for the funeral of the boy killed by the train. John stuck to his guns and said all the stuff has to be removed from the site, except for the marker under Timmy's tree which indicates it's a memorial tree.......I was extremely sad, but he was gentle with me and explained the reason for the crackdown cemetery-wide. I did plead with him to allow the Babyland stuff to remain, and he said it's under consideration. I hope they leave that area alone, it's just so important to those parents to keep their stuff there, of course, within some limits. Oh, well, I now have my answers and will abide......Justin asked me if I batted my eyes, but I told him it didn't help.

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Last night my Bible study lady friends and I had dinner at Aron's Pizza before class. Mmm, I had the three-cheese calzone, half of it, of course, and it was so delicious! Leeanne barely dented her meal as hers came with a salad and garlic bread besides. It will make a wonderful lunch for her today, as will my leftovers work for mine. Nuts! I like going to have lunch with the scrap booking ladies before they come over here and today, I'm going to be all messed up, eating leftovers!!!!

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Tonight is Bible Bites and choir rehearsal so will have to come up with something to take for supper. We chip in a food item to eat while we study (hence, the bites) and I like to take something not too fussy to clean up. Debbie, Lynne and I have to dash over to choir immediately from Bites so the others do the clean-up for us. Hate to do that but again, a time crunch situation. If only the rest of the choir joined us for Bites, we could make quick work of the clean-up and then go practice....it's a moot point now, anyway, since we are nearly ready for summer recess. Things certainly wind down abruptly once school is out!

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Friday the window cleaners are coming again, nearly 6 months since the last visit. My view is interrupted by webs, nests, stringy junk and egg sacks....yummy! I only hope that the roof work won't undo his work right away. It might be wise to wait for the roof to be done, but again, the mess is quite sickening to look at, especially with birds committing suicide against my windows!

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I love my window guy, Mike. His company's done "our" windows since Timmy was a little boy, so that would be about 1998 or after. I remember hearing Timmy authoritatively tell the window guy that his mama doesn't want anyone to open those windows! A real 'law and order' kid---yeah, right! I wonder if the window man asked Tim who tore the wallpaper off the wall in his bedroom!!! Mike's a good, Christian man, and we have long, wonderful conversations whenever we get on the phone together.

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Lisa is putting together what sounds like a great Memorial Day picnic at her house in Sheboygan. Man, I hate to miss that! I wonder if they'll get to the parade this year. I went a couple years ago and it was fantastic to do so. Cook's Corner, an amazing kitchen store (yes, I liked the kitchen store!!!), was still open and we set up right outside their doors. Lisa offered to save a brat for me...I can smell it already, I think.

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Justin and I will be joining some friends for a birthday party at Dave & Busters on Sunday evening, which means I can't attend the Concert on the Green at Thrasher-Horne. A new venue this year for the Concert, which I hear from an insider might be going away due to lack of people to put it together. That's too bad, I just love the Concert. Last year one of my former neighbors, our pet watcher, won a nice scholarship and was able to perform with the Symphony, complete with an oboe solo. I'm proud to know her, and I told her so! And it's flattering to be included in their family's celebration, great to see my "old" neighbors again, too!

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If anyone heard roaring yesterday on Fleming Island, it was me....at lunch time, I excitedly said to Justin and Jesse, "You'll never guess who came to my house last night!" Neither could guess so I announced, "Kyle!" (They know he's a fireman). Justin came right back, accusingly, with "Were you cooking???!!!??" Oh, how I roared with laughter! Birds flew away, and cars crashed together, I laughed so hard. He kills me, that kid! Yeah, anytime I want to have some company, all I have to do is cook something.......where there's smoke, there's supper!

Sunshine on my shoulders....

...and pounding on my head! Not in my head, over my head. We were "informed" that the roof work would begin early in the day when it wasn't quite so hot out and they have been true to their word. At first I wondered what was making the noise in my river room but, upon investigation, realized its coming from above. I'd have sworn it was right outside my bedroom doors, that's how close it is. I wonder how the top floor people are handling it....surely its preferable to having to mop up running water when it rains!

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Pastor sent the needed information for the newsletter so I have plenty to keep me busy this morning. Late morning is the best time to catch John at the cemetery so will head that way about 10:30. We talk a long time usually and will need to be back on the Island by noon to have lunch with my boy. I don't know yet if I will have to pick him up or not. It depends upon who drove today, Jesse or Justin.

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Last night was just lovely on the sun deck and I shared my cheese curds which most found quite interesting. One of the Realtors came out for a while, all dressed up in her "house showing" clothes. The bad news was: her appointment failed to show up! She put 93 miles on her car for the meeting and then was stood up....no wonder she gets so upset!

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We had some excitement while sitting out there, too, last night. Our neighbor on the end of the promenade had recently been released from the hospital. His granddaughter and her baby were staying with him for a bit to help get him settled, and a home care company had representatives arrive to check him over. While they were up there, we watched the comings and goings with some interest. The others, who know the situation better than I do, insisted that he belonged in an assisted living home rather than in his condo, where he'd also benefit from the social aspect. All of sudden we could hear sirens approaching and then saw the rescue squad pull up in front of the building! The home care gentleman came out to tell us that rescue was coming and that Manny had called them himself! While the home care people were there to help him!!!!! Oh, yeah, that's his style all right.

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Again we watched a new parade as the EMT's and firemen went down to his condo, and don't you know---I knew one of the guys! Later, when the fuss was over and they left without Manny, Kyle and his partner came in for a .50 tour of my house. The moon was just rising and they were blown away!

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Here's the thing though---it just gives me the willies to hear the sirens and then have them pulling up in front of my building like that...at one point, Hugh made a joke that besides the rescue squad and the ladder truck, a helicopter was circling overhead. That did it.....but no one noticed the tear escaping down my cheek. That terrible night when Timmy died (you knew I was going to bring that up, didn't you???!!!) I cannot remember hearing the sirens, but when I hear them now, it all comes rushing back. It's not my fault, and I don't do it on purpose, it simply happens. BUT, I hung in there on the sun deck to watch what was going on upstairs....still nosy!

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Today is the funeral service for a young man who was hit by a freight train last week. His buddies and he were fishing on a train bridge near Hwy. 220 and tried to make it off before the train got there. Two kids jumped but one didn't get off in time. He had great promise as a football player, which is all over the news, what a great ball player he was and his college career coming up, etc. I'll bet his mama's heart simply breaks because her son is gone, not that his career in football was cut short! That sort of bugs me....as though his value in life was how well he played sports. Oh, I know, I know......I tend to nit-pick about stuff like that, but having experienced something similar in my life, I'd mourn the lost child more so than the missed chance of football playing!

Ooooh, I so 'cited!

After Bible study today, some of us went to Longhorn to have lunch. Bonnie came along this time, and was treated for her birthday, approaching this week. Before we left church, though, Twila asked about the memoir writing workshop, and I started my sales pitch, Bonnie said, "I knew you were behind that!" We hashed it all over at lunch. I think both Twila and Bonnie are interested and Jackie is already on board. There is no Monday class in June so away we go!!! We just filled up our Monday mornings!

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Bonnie is also interested in the Reading Club so that may be a "go", too! I've picked out the book "Dear John" by Nicholas Sparks for us to start with. I have to start small and build up to the level the others are already at! It's best that we not venture into books political in nature (my type of reading material) or dealing with matters of doctrine, as doctrine would require some participation from Pastor. I certainly do not wish to put one more thing on him, particularly since we're coming up on the summer months, meant for playing, not adding to his work load. It's also important to stay away any reading that ventures into New Age stuff, and, as you might know, that thinking permeates so many of the books and music on the shelves these days. People have worshipped themselves almost since time began and, as is stated in Ecclesiastes 1, there's nothing new under the sun!

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Whenever I think about the Reading Club, the ad from Publix comes to mind: it opens with a group of ladies sitting around a coffee table with their books. One lady says, "I didn't read it!", another, "I read it, didn't like it" and another one has a comment, and then someone says, "Let's eat!" It's an ad for a sinful looking chocolate cake called "Decadence" and that's all the ladies cared about. Skip the reading part and dive right into dessert! It's funny, you have to see it to appreciate it.....or you have to be in a book club to appreciate it! Maybe that was my inspiration to start a Reading Club! Nah, it was something just as sweet, though--my MN Judy!

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After lunch, I headed over to get my hair cut. My regular lady is on vacation but her partner was willing to tackle the job of cutting my hair. And, it looks good! Of course, once cut, it looks much more silvery than it did before! Oh, how I wanted to go sit on the deck at Whitey's and have a nice drink but instead came home to do some work. It's quite pleasant outdoors, the shore birds are having a feast picking up whatever from the exposed sandbar. It's often exposed during the full moon, looks yukky, but it's still worth it to have the moon reflected on the river at night.

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Work has begun on the roof of the condo, and some people had to relocate their cars due to the machinery and work going on overhead. Praise be to God, the chosen bid isn't going to cost as much as we thought. We are assessed based upon our square footage and my blessing of having lots of room here comes back to bite me for these assessments! Thankfully, the market is so slow right now that the roofing companies were bidding tighter and tighter just to get work.

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Sometimes I say "thankfully" for the market, but most of the time I pray for the housing market to pick back up---soon! Not only for selfish reasons but because many of my friends and associates are experiencing the trickle down effect of the sluggish market. Many of my neighbors here are in real estate and to be hit over and over with these assessments is absolutely brutal. Of course, the end result will be an up-to-date building, in good repair, but it's hurting on the front-end for everyone. Some are upset that previous owners and association leadership didn't have a fund set aside for these major expenses but it's water under the bridge now. At least, with the new roof, we won't have water in our units!

Sunday morning came too soon!

This has really been a Richard Gere/Jennifer Lopez weekend on TV! Friday night I saw the end of "Pretty Woman" with Gere and Roberts, and then saw the entire thing Saturday afternoon. I thought of Joanne, Dolly's mom, who LOVES this movie! This a.m. while other people were in Bible study, I was lying in bed, watching Gere and Lopez in "Shall We Dance?" Sometime yesterday I saw Lopez in "The Wedding Planner" but only the very, very end of it. It would have been quite easy for me to just stay at home to watch MORE TV this a.m., but instead, got myself up and showered, dressed and out the door in plenty of time to serve as Greeter. The Wednesday night Bible Bites class is a re-play of the Sunday a.m. class so sleeping a bit later today will be made up on Wednesday night.

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No, no, I didn't spend my entire day in front of the box Saturday. Emily and Paul invited me over to their house for weekly "family dinner" and from there, Paul and I headed off to the Symphony. Eight of us went to hear the music of John Williams performed by our own JSO. The Rosses' joined Justin, Grove, Paul and me in the 3rd row center front, where we had an exquisite view of the Star War characters who theatrically paraded on and off the stage in their full regalia. (These were not my usual reserved seats, as it was a special concert.)

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Anyway, Mem and Christopher had the most obvious enjoyment. The grown-ups showed more subdued glee.....except for one of us whose face hurt from smiling! One of us also had a few tears run down listening to the theme from "E. T." where the boys are being chased on their bikes, and take flight across the face of the moon. I can't watch that movie without remembering the tears---my own, and also Lisa's! When she was little, we'd planned on going for ice cream after the movie but Lisa was so upset, she had to go home to regroup! And Lynn had told us not to even bring up "Bambi"! To this day, I won't!

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Anyway, part of the fun was watching the kids watch the "show" around us. It's like when you put your child on the merry-go-round and wave "hello" everytime they come around. Or when you take little ones to Disney and enjoy vicariously the great pleasure they have when at "Mickey's House". Those are the times when it's just NOT about you at all! Taking pleasure in someone elses' great fun, that's living!

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The sad news was that Rick took a mess of pictures of the characters and the kids and all that, then realized there was no memory card in the camera....talk about a sinking feeling! We have one picture which we could share, it's of Paul and a storm trooper!! Kids come in all sizes....

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Since Grove had to go right to work from the Symphony, Paul and I gave Justin a ride back to his place. After dropping off Justin, I took Paul home in Argyle and then took myself home. It was nearly midnight by the time I got settled in, which is why I slept a bit longer than usual.

So far I have one person interested in my "Memoir Writing Workshop" and hopefully more will become aware and decide to join the fun!