Remiss with Yesterday’s Birthdays, September 11, 2001 Forever in Our Memory, A Day of Visits and Quiet Times

On Tuesday, Sept. 12^th the first thing I thought of was to mention a couple of birthdays that I missed in yesterday’s post. The good thing is that I didn’t forget yesterday and made sure to make a phone call as well as pass the wishes on through the social media, FB.

So, Happy Birthday, Patrick! My son turned 38 yesterday and I am very proud of this young man. Finding employment quite a few years ago in a cabinet making industry, he moved around a bit to find the perfect fit ending up at Rycor in London. 

He is very capable with his hands and can build what he puts his mind to out of lumber using the tools he has on ‘hand’. Patrick provided and installed the counter tops and cabinets in our kitchen and bathroom in our London home. I hope your day was a great one!

The birthday boy and his Mom

Also, a quick shout out to Laurie, my girlfriend from London who also celebrated yesterday as her birthday. Happy Birthday, Laurie, hope to see you Saturday! And lastly need we be reminded of the horrific disaster of 9/11? I can’t remember where I was or what I was doing through many past events, Kennedy’s, Elvis’ and John Lennon’s deaths but I do remember this one. When I heard it on the news, sitting in my office, I cried from the shock but then I called Patrick with his birthday greeting. I didn’t want his day to be ruined because of that.

Back to the present. Today I woke up and heard Bill in the shower at 5:15 or so. He is so quiet when he gets up, I don’t even notice as a rule. Next thing, at 6:15 he came up to say goodbye and to let Clemson out for me. He was loaded into the car and drove off at 6:30. I tried to go back to sleep and maybe I did for 20 minutes but decided to rise and shine just after 7.

The sun and sky are a repeat of yesterday and I am feeling blessed. These are the days we all wanted 2 months ago but we’ll take them whenever we can get them. I made my tea and sat here to write. Mulling over what I wanted to do, I neglected to get out for my walk this morning. Had my tea poured before I really thought about it. I swept the floors in the Suite and then decided to wash them as well.

You can see that the centre hole is filled
My checkers are black, btw

By 9:45 I was cleaned up and on my way to Durham with my laptop. I wanted to visit Aunt Mary first and show her some pictures of my family. Last time there, she replied in the affirmative that she would be interested and she was. I spent about half an hour sitting with her and she showed many responses according to who I was showing her. The excited recognition of me, Pat and Rob in some pictures, the pleasure and joy at seeing my grandchildren and Bill, but the delight in her eyes when she saw a picture of Clemson was worth it all.

When I said goodbye she reached out to take my hand. She is one special lady. I walked down the hall and caught up with Mom just getting back from a walk herself. She was dressed up in white capris and a skirt and her pink sweater. She had no idea how in style she was! We sat for a while and chatted. It is comical the way I have to switch modes of communication from A. Mary to Mom. I start off talking slow to Mom and soon realize that I don’t need to.

This is my Oregano

After about 10 minutes she asked if I wanted to do something, like walk so we walked down to the games room for a game of crokinole. We played 3 games and she blew me out of the water with her 20’s! I got one and she scored two almost in a row. It was fun and at 11:35 we walked down to the dining room. It was too early to sit at her table so we sat in the front lounge and looked at pictures on my laptop.

Tomato plants are still loaded with babies

When I left her at noon, she waved and I bent over and said goodbye once more to A. Mary who was watching me with Mom. It is such a gorgeous day out there, I was looking forward to home and getting a bite to eat before getting to work outside.

I think this is Echinacea mixed in with the weeds

Pulling into the laneway, in his regular area, Mr. Snapper was sitting smack dab in the middle of the path, looking at me. What to do what to do. Would he move if I drove slow? The closer I got, he didn’t twinge so I hoped for the best and drove over him. Looking back, he was up on all fours in the track heading for the pond. I probably scared the crap out of him. Thank God I didn't hit him!

Time for lunch. I had some leftover white rice from supper so had that with Kombucha and yogourt. I also put 6 eggs in a pot to boil so I’d have something to eat later on. This wouldn’t tide me over all day. When the eggs were done I put them in cold water while I went out to the yardwork. The weed trimmer started up like a charm so I got the general areas tidied up.

Today's fare

Bill asked if I could use my smaller mower to cut grass up on the hilltop in the corral for him. He usually uses his trimmer but it is painstaking and time consuming to say the least. His big mower worked, kind of, last time but it is narrow up there and he is taking a risk. It didn’t take me long to do it, I just had to avoid the ruts and rocks up there. At least most of it is done now with the exception of trimming on the sides which he’ll do Thursday morning.

We are expecting our next round of company on Thursday for overnight and we have no idea how this visit will go. Jeff and Joan are a very nice couple whom we met through Bill’s rc flying hobby. They live northeast of here, I think. The reason we’re not sure how the visit will go is that they have a very large Great Dane. Well, that is a pointless statement, I’m sure that all Great Danes are very large.

Big dogs are not my thing. If you know me, you know that. However, I’m getting better and as long as the owner of the dog has complete control I am usually fine. I’m not convinced that is the case here as firstly, the dog is deaf and secondly, I have seen her lunge a couple of times with little confidence in the restraint level. I’m sure it will be fine if they keep her tied up. We are praying this good weather holds so we can be outside mostly.

Bill called when I was visiting Mom and said that before noon hour, he was finished work already. Oh dear, that isn’t good. Too bad they didn’t have a full day for him. I'm sure that is what he thought. Hopefully he’ll find something to get his hands into this afternoon. As it turned out, we chatted later in the afternoon when I was outside in my lounge chair reading. Bill had driven out to his former flying field and met up with a couple of his fellow flyers. I felt better that his afternoon wasn't a waste.

Healthy supper tonight

In the meantime, I’d been texting back and forth with my sister, Donna, and were trying to plan our usual dinner out for three of our birthdays. Gayle had one at the end of August but we were all too involved to get together so we’ll pick a date and a place sometime during September to celebrate hers, mine and Bill’s. Just a meal out with family and I’ll do something later for Bill’s special day.

I’m hooked into this new James Patterson book that it is making me lazy! I think now that this one should have been read first, it is a bit hard to tell. It is called Tick Tock, more with Detective Michael Bennett. At 5 I came inside and fed Clemson and then put some of my Swiss Chard in a pot to boil. I don’t know if it is still good but picked a few the biggest stalks. I have part of my smoked pork chop to heat up too hard boiled eggs.

Happy Hour was just me with my book and a glass of iced Forty Creek so I need to eat sooner than later. I also texted Rob and Pat to let them know about my visit with Aunt Mary and they were just arriving home after a relaxing week away with their Cedar Creek fifth wheel. Welcome back! 

My own private Happy Hour

This has been an awesome day and the night will be a quiet one. I hope you’ve experienced a great day too.

Thank you for stopping by today. If you feel like leaving a comment, I would love to hear from you!