Last Day, Last Visits, Last Sleep, Last Post, Special Lunch at Rockwood Terrace

On Sunday, Oct. 22^nd Bill and I were up about 7:30. It was a good night’s sleep, I didn’t hear Bill coughing last night so that is good. I was so pleased for him that his cold was not apparent much yesterday at all, especially at dinner. There is nothing worse than being in a restaurant or even with a group of people and you are sniffling and coughing. Hopefully, we can say goodbye to it when we pull out tomorrow too. This should be a pretty easy day.

We bagged up our last garbage and tagged it to take into Durham, Rob and Pat said they would look after it for us next week. Neither of us ate breakfast this morning since we’d be having a big lunch with Mom today at Rockwood Terrace. Bill plugged in the central vac and went from window to window, room to room and got rid of the hundreds of dead flies that were in the ledges. Then he washed the windows on the inside of the Suite, they were smudged as you can imagine. At the same time, I began putting things away into cupboards for travel and using the bungy ball fasteners to secure the doors.

We got cleaned up and at 11:15 drove into Durham. I could see a table for 3 set up at the corner of the dining room so figured that was reserved for us. We checked with the cafeteria staff and asked how we paid for Bill’s and my meals. We took the elevator up and found Mom walking down the hall in the opposite direction. Being it was Sunday, between Renee and I we talked Mom into changing out of the top she was wearing into something a little dressier.

She was tickled that we were joining her for lunch and soon found out that it was a treat but also a goodbye for a few months. After pleas to take her with us, we had a lovely, very filling meal. Starting with vegetable soup, milk, water, juice, tea, we then had Cheese Dreams (cheese and bacon on buns) and a salad. It was quite good and then we had French cheesecake for dessert. I was stuffed and all for $6.80!

We walked back up to Moms room with her and sat for a few minutes before giving her multiple hugs and kisses at the elevator. She is quite the card and I will miss her funny tales and especially the delight on her face when she sees me. Before sitting down for dinner, I stopped and greeted Aunt Mary. She was also happy to see me and happy for our trip south, however showed disappointment when I said I wouldn’t see her for 6 months. I will miss her too.

From there we drove to fill the truck up with diesel after realizing that FS was closed and we couldn’t get propane on a Sunday. Oh well, tomorrow morning on our way out of town we’ll be able to stop. We drove home to pick Clemson up and back into Durham to visit Pat and Rob briefly. Darn, I meant to get a picture with our buddies! I avoided saying ‘we’ll miss you’ again because……well, it makes me sad. Pat suggested Facetime on Messenger with Mom so we’ll just use to keep in touch with them too.

Back home, I dusted everything. It makes me smile, even though I dislike dusting, to be able to do it from top to bottom, woodwork included in 30 minutes. The stainless-steel fridge needed a really good cleaning and this Orange glow cleaner does a great job on it without leaving streaks.

When that was finished, we were both steamed up so opened up some windows. Not only that, but I poured myself a Steam Whistle beer that was in the fridge. Our friends, Jeff and Joan, brought it for us to try. I’m not a beer drinker but this one isn’t too bad. What’s with the belching though? LOL I’m not used to that! I drank half of the beer and that was enough.

My sister, Audrey, suggested on Friday’s post that we should try cutting our hardy mums off, since the flowers were drying anyway. Water them good and let the goodness go to the roots instead of the blooms. Easy! The blossoms on mine were pretty much dead already. So, I went out and did that around 4. I tossed the clippings into the composter along with my 2 remaining pepper plants. The 4 baby peppers along with them. I can’t take them across the border.

Donna and Gerry came in after 4:30 to say goodbye. We had no chairs outside so we sat indoors and talked about our dinner last night and lunch with Mom today. We look forward to having them visit us in just over a month in Arizona, a place they have never been. 

Gerry and Bill's faces don't take away from Donna's smile

We hugged and promised to keep the texts coming, keep in touch in other words. As they drove away we folded up the patio mat together and put it into the garage, just the satellite dish left to put away in the morning.

The pond picture is for Deb & Tom

Tonight, for supper, something simple. I’m not feeling too hungry and I’m sure that is because of the big lunch I had. Bill is happy with brown beans on toast so that makes it easy for me. I opted for chicken salad on toast with cheese and my last Ridge apple on the side.  

Everything we have planned for over the last month comes down to this. Our last night of sleep here on the Ridge for this year. I walked outside and snapped some photos feeling excited but melancholy too. This is such a beautiful spot and I've enjoyed the various sunrises, sunsets and views across our area. 

And the sun shines on our Mobile Suite for the last evening 

I hope you’ve had a great day too. Thank you for reading, stick around for our travels to the southwest! Love to hear from you.