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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, January 11, 2011

Does this date mean anything to anyone?

It does to my sister-in-law, Mona, whose birthday is today: 1/11/11. For her, she is another year older on a cool line up of numbers. Her daughter, Allie, enjoyed her 18th birthday yesterday. Allie posted on Facebook that everyone should watch CNN (ew!) on Sunday because her brother, JR, who called from Afghanistan to wish her a happy birthday, reported that something BIG was happening in Afg. and he would be on TV Sunday. He could not release any information but this a.m. on Fox and Friends, I saw that Biden was in Afghanistan visiting the training centers and the troops, which is what JR does, so..............let's put the pieces of this puzzle together!

When the group was at lunch yesterday, Olive Garden, I mentioned about the preschool being closed for a few days due to the water supply line breaking. No one, except Michael, knew about the pipe problem and who came to fix it. Jackie, sitting next to me, said, "You were gone for two weeks and know more about what was going on than we do, and we were here!" When in WI, I saw a FB posting from Cindy S. that she had an extra day off during the week because of the water pipe breaking. WHAT??? I jumped all over that and when she did not immediately post back to me, I called her to find out what was going on. Broken water pipes get my attention, believe me. It turns out the break, likely from the cold, was near the street, and once determined it was not the County's responsibility, although they did shut it off, it was on the church to make the repair.

GS has a "resident plumber" normally used for repairs but he was not going to be available until Saturday....it would not work for the building, for the preschool or church office, to have no water for several days. Another plumber was called to make the repair and I understand water was back on in a day or two. How that affects the finances and such of the preschool I am not sure but it certainly caused a great inconvenience for the families who used the preschool for their holiday childcare. Yikes! As I talked to Cindy, she suddenly realized that I thought the water pipe had broken inside and that stuff was damaged, etc. Whew! She apologized for not making that immediately clear and scaring me. Can you even imagine all the stuff which could be damaged by sitting in water in that classroom? To say nothing of the church office??? Oh my!

On Monday I was grinding because I was weary of the wind whipping the trees and making white caps on the river, but today, I cannot even see the water for all the fog. As Gabe would say, "It is as thick as mushroom soup out there"! The trees are not even moving right now, so I got my wish. Justin has to go clean out a model home today, postponed from yesterday because of the terrible weather. I am not sure if the fog affects areas other than the along the water. My friend, Stephanie, has her parents here from WI, in the photo posted yesterday, and they had to delay their departure due to the terrible weather north of here. Friends in NC, TN, and GA are off because of having snow days again this week, and Kerry, in Oshkosh, reported inches of snow on her car already this a.m. I suggested that Stephanie bring her folks over here for a visit and maybe now she will have time to do just that!

Like others, I am following the shooting incident which took place in AZ on Saturday. How terrible that a crazy young man cut loose on these people, killing several including a child and a Federal Judge. The others killed, aside from the Congresswoman's aide, Gabe Zimmerman, have either not been named or the families have asked to remain anonymous. Hopefully that is the case and not that they are ignored, over shadowed by the more well-known folks. I think about that every time there are discussions about 9/11's terror attacks because not only New York was hit, so was the Pentagon in Washington, DC, plus the folks who took down the plane in PA. It is as if the other two planes and the lost lives do not matter, but they sure do to the families and friends of those who died or were seriously injured that day.

On a cruise once, I read a book from the ship's library about a woman who survived but was seriously injured when the one of the WTC towers came down, the story written by her spouse in letter form. "Love, Greg and Lauren" was the book, and I did hear later that she had been on "Oprah" some time after her recovery from the burns she suffered. Let us not forget the wounded folks, those not mentioned in the news reports from AZ, and the families of those who lost loved ones in this tragedy. It makes one wonder who among us is ready to bust, like that shooter did. Whether he used a gun or a bomb or a knife or his car, he was a young man seriously in need of some help, and it was missed or overlooked.

Last night, after changing my plans to have dinner with Martie, I was enjoying a bowl of my homemade vegetable soup with a dinner roll. The doorbell rang, and as best I could without hurting my knee, I ambulated to the kitchen to see who was there. It was Cassidy, my downstairs neighbor, standing there with a container from the Olive Garden. Her mom and she had ordered food to go from there and when they got home, found they had gotten the pasta fagioli soup rather than the vegetarian choice they preferred. So, she gave it to me! The Olive Garden gave her the correct soup, after she had to run back over to get it, but I also sent along a portion of my veggie soup for them. Now I have a partial kettle of my soup, plus a container from O.G., a few slices of Pizza Hut meat lovers, and my stromboli from Aron's, enjoyed with Jessica and Beckham. Cassidy said they had no food in their house, and it seems for a change, I do! Judy J. took home the leftover pizza that Jessica had brought by on Saturday night or I'd have more food yet. I even bagged up some cookies for Cassidy and her mom to enjoy, they being left from Judy C.'s tray of treats on Saturday. How fun to be able to reciprocate once in a while!

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