GRANDSON DAY

Today was grandson day. I loved it as much as he did. Usually he spends the morning with his sisters while mom is at work, but both girls had other activities going on this morning. So I drug myself out of bed at 6:30 this morning to be there at 7:30. I am not normally getting up that early. It is usually a couple of hours later.

It was cooler this morning that I expected. I knew I wasn’t going to need it most of the day, but I should have worn a sweatshirt for the trip. So when I got there I crawled under a blanket for a while and Morgan joined me. He is a wonderfully loving kid and likes snuggling. After mom and the girls left and we launched our own day. He loves Candy Land. I don’t know why, but he has never beaten me and he is anxious to change that. I won the first one to keep my streak alive, but he destroyed me in round two.

I like to play with the Wii. I seem to always get a little exercise so we began with baseball. I have to use this as an excuse, but I hadn’t played for a very long time. He got eight runs off me in the fist inning. When up to bat, I felt like a beginning hitter. I swung to early or too late. When I did it I popped up a foul ball. He skunked me. I ended up with a great big goose egg.

He wanted me to come out and play badminton. I can’t even remember the last time I played badminton. There was no way I could move fast enough to even hit a slow moving birdie. I was doomed. Ten minutes into the running more than I have run since — well, it is so far back I can’t even remember the last time I ran. I had to go sit down. We went in, turned on the TV and began watching The Search for Noah’s Ark on the history channel and I promptly fee asleep. I guess I was only out for about ten minutes. At least that’s what he said.

He jumped in my van and headed for Toys R Us. His birthday is in a couple of weeks so we went to take pictures of toys he likes. I swear there is nothing in that story he does not like. Everything was awesome. But to his credit, we ended up taking pictures of only ten things. He loved doing that and I managed to stay on my feet walking around for an hour. I haven’t done that in awhile. I was happy.

He wore out and we left to McDonalds where we met his dad for lunch. I blew my controlled eating plan to shreds. As they were leaving to return home, he thanked me for a wonderful day. I also enjoyed it. As I was refilling my cup with a second helping of Toot Beer, Another man at the pop machine said, that was nice to hear. He is so polite. He is — always, and I was proud as punch of the good job my daughter was doing raising all the kids. Of course the oldest is a teenager and now had her teenager moments. Yuck.

Later that day my daughter took me shopping to help me get a new pair of shoes. I didn’t was to struggle getting the new ones on. Surprisingly it took about fifteen minutes. I’m not that hard to please.

Whaling Days began today and several of up went across the street to out secret hiding place to watch the fireworks. It was a terrific display tonight with several new ones. I loved the white ones that looked in waterfalls clinging to the dark of the sky and disappearing into a pool behind some bushes.

It was a terrific day and all is well with the world. I will get up tomorrow and go to the parade where my middle granddaughter will ride a unicycle with her class. I still can’t believe they teach that in her PE class. She loves it got her own unicycle for Christmas. She’s a hoot to watch. I guess I can go to bed tonight. I’m very happy.

I GOING TO BEAT YOU TO A PULP

One of our mentally challenged men shares my initials CW. I can usually stand his conversation, but he was something else this morning. Much of his behavior was fairly typical it was just too much. He usually starts his conversations by calling some one by name to try and get their full attention. I was the nig winner today. “You know Clyde, I just wish I could wiggle my nose,” a very common part if his daily speech. He is enamored with Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie.

This morning he was calling Samantha from Bewitched Sam. Few knew whom he was talking about. This agitated him more than usual. He continued to say, “You know, Sam, Sam, Sam!” One of the ladies figured it out and tried to explain it was a TV show. Everyone there should have figured it out since he either wants to twitch his nose or snap his fingers to have his apartment cleaned. We know he won’t use elbow grease.

That was only the beginning. He interrupted four more times with the same thoughts and called my name each time. It was getting hard to focus. He paid no attention to the rest of the conversation. He quickly moved on to explaining the bus schedule by route number ones which ones have changed their stops. Everyone at the table drives their own car. He then moved on to taking about Johnny. Understand now, all his comments were interruptions of an on going conversation of how and why our maintenance man was fired. This interested all of us busybodies. We all wanted CW to just be quiet.

When he brought up Johnny he put me over the edge. I admit my breakdown was somewhat premature. I can usually last longer but he was picking on me and I could not follow the conversation I wanted to follow.

“No one cares about Johnny and his truck. I cannot follow the other conversation. Do you even know that there is another conversation?”

“But Johnny is going to come by with his truck and take me over to Sally Ann (Salvation Army) for lunch. I’m going to ride in the back of the pickup.”

“You are?”

“Do you know that it is illegal to ride in the back of a pickup?"

“Yes, I do so why are you going to ride there?”

“Johnny says it OK.

“Johnny is wrong.”

“He’s going to help me get a girlfriend.”

“CW, could you be quiet awhile so we can have an uninterrupted conversation.”

That comment did not stop a thing. He kept going and going and going. The Energizer bunny! I finally left and believed that was it for the day.

We had our first outdoor BBQ on Thursday night.

In the process of eating, Chas decided to go to the other building it see if anyone was on the dining room. We had been eating there for the past two months. He got half way to the other building when CW jumped out of a chairs and started yelling obscenities and threatening that he was going to beat Chas ass to a pulp. That would be a lot of pulp. Chas is big.

It was clear CW was off his meds. I went to try and get him to stop screaming. He said Chas was interfering with him getting a girlfriend. He was sitting on the porch trying to pick up a passing girl. Fortunately, none were passing. Lucky them!

MARRIAGE

I was thinking about my childhood yesterday and laughing about how things change. Also wondering if there was a story. Not that I want to do anything but write short stories – like in this blog. I doubt I could hold a book together.

Around here I am a confirmed bachelor. This is not prideful (I hope) but that’s heartbreak to more than one woman. That’s just a reality. It has everything to do with the men to women ratio. And even more to do with the number of acceptable men. I suppose this is bragging, pride or stupid, but I am about the most acceptable man here. Admittedly most of the women look for someone who is alive and walks. No very high standards. I guess I surpass the minimum standard.

I make them made because I think its funny. I can’t help myself. I flirt with a fair number of them. They love it and I get a kick out of it. That’s when I feel like I’m in high school. Have fun, enjoy, but don’t touch. And I don’t want to either. I suppose this is a little too romantic, but I have never wanted a woman other than my wife. I know I am free to move on. But I’m also pretty set in my ways. I’m not sure I want my way of life disrupted. When I first moved after Della died, people commented on the house reminding them so much of Della. That’s because I always did the decorating. What the appearance did was remind them of me, but they didn’t know that. I was a workaholic when she passed and I was free to work 7-80 hours a week and totally invest myself in what I was called to do. I liked that.

Scriptures talks about the wife of our youth, and I have though a lot about that. I was 24 and Della 23 when we married. We had no concept of what it took to merge two lived together. We just did it. I have always said we grew up together and we liked what each other liked, or we merged out preferences. We talked about every little thing and came to an agreement on what we liked and how we would live.

We are from a previous generation and held many of the same values as our parents. There was a fairly distinct understanding of male and female roles in marriage. We bought into most of them. I had responsibility for the yard and car; she had responsibility for the house. There were a couple of differences. She insisted that I be part of meal preparation and cleanup. I was sure that was not my job, but relented. I set and cleared the table and helped with the dishes. I also helped with food preparation and did what I was told. It took a while to come to enjoy that.

I was expected to be responsible for household repairs. My dad tried to teach me some of that, but I resisted. I did not like dealing with plumbing, electricity, mechanical things or hammer and saw repairs. Unfortunately, Della’s dad liked that stuff and did it quickly. I had to stew over it, doubt myself and build up courage to tackle most of those things. She was not happy with my delays. I always believed God created repairmen for a purpose — to rescue people like me. The hard part was we rarely had the money to take advantage of people like that. There were times friends helped out. I always felt like I was using them and didn’t like the feeling. It is amazing how much I learned about household care of the years. One of my favorite things about this place is that I can call the repair line and someone else comes and fixes things. Yeah!

I like my life. I am comfortable with who I am and where I am. I have no objection to others getting married at any old age. It’s just not for me. The men here are dull. They hide out and rarely enter into conversations. The raised my value significantly. If I do anything around her it is done with women. I’m fine with that. I would rather be with emotionally healthy women than terrified me. I have no intention of marrying any of them. I have always said that the only woman for me other than the wife I had would be one in her late 90’s, not very healthy, who has not family and is extremely wealthy. Every one deserves a little love and tenderness in their last days. No one seemed to ever think that was funny. I did. That only proves I am weird enough to remain alone to the end. But I’m never really alone. None of us really are.

WHALING DAYS

We’ve had summer – I guess. It reached 82 on Sunday. It’s 56 today. Naturally we aren’t jealous of those of you in 100+ degree weather. No north westerner could handle it. This weekend is our big area celebration – “Whaling Days.” Don’t ask. I have no idea why they call it that. While a whale might be able to make it into our inlet, it is highly unlikely. They do come down into Puget Sound, but it would take a number of turns t find their way into our inlet. However, people say they have made it before.

The event takes place in our little park. It is the nicest park in the area. The advantage of having this event so close is our area gets spruced up at least once a year. Friday night there was an awful roar outside my window. It went on so long I finally got up to see what was happening. It appeared that some country workers had taken a lunch or coffee break in the parking lot across the street and left their piece of machinery running. It was a striper. They were putting down nice fresh yellow lines on the roads leading to the park.

My pastor said it was called Whaling Days because we were suppose to have a whale of a good time. Right! If you like large crowds, traveling carnival rides, overpriced fair food, and no place to sit — it’s perfect. I do admit to enjoying the walking traffic past out building. People watching is wonderful. I do hope it is warm enough to stay on the porch. I’m taking my camera this year.

The Saturday morning parade passes two blocks away. I have to go. My granddaughter is riding her unicycle this year. I will take my chair early and find a shady part — unless it is cold and then I’ll sit in the sun.

There will not be a parking spot in the area. Two of the largest lots are next to our building. The sheriff will park his car outside my window and that street will be blocked. He is usually as bored with his job as the people here are with the event. Most hate the traffic, the noise. I say it is only one weekend – deal with it.

Admittedly when they are still making noise at one or two in the morning, the fun disappears. Two years ago, a group of kids sat at our corner and argued with each other. You know how arguments go – louder and louder until my upstairs neighbor told them she was trying to sleep. They left, but they did not stop arguing.

Out former maintenance man has moved on. He took his last load out this morning. No one knows where he is going or what he is going to do. He has both a brother and a sister in the area. His mother is here from Georgia. He mentioned in the past that he could not stay with his brother. He never said why. While his past and his lies have caught up with him, but I hope he has a place to stay. He is a former drunk. Some ting he has still not given up the bottle. It seems like he has told so many lies he doesn’t know the truth from the stories. He has always confused people because his storied constantly change. He cannot keep them straight. His most laughable habit was to tell is stories or a small group or one person and make them promise they will not tell anyone. Later you would hear him telling another group the same story and asking them to make the same promise. Then he would get made because so many people knew his “secret.” Duh! He probably told them all.

The administration has moved downtown leaving the former office building empty. It sits next to our property. They are trying to sell it to lower their debt. Some bad financial mistakes were made a few years back and they are still trying to get out from under the burden. The building has been for sale for the past two years and the current realtor believes it will sell better if it is empty. Maybe. I think it is not selling because they want too much and the economy here is not that good.

Well, that catches you up with my life. Boring, isn’t it.

MY FAMILY

I pretty well stayed in my apartment today. I did not want to hear any more speculation about Rocky. No one has seen his truck since supper yesterday and they think he has already left. Probably. He had been getting rid of possession for the past few weeks. He could not have had that much left. The game at the moment is trying to determine what he told us that were lies and what might have been the truth – if there was anything.

I spent most of the day curled up with another J. A. Jance book. She writes to my tastes. Excellent mysteries.

I got a call from my niece, Wanda. She lives in Missouri. We don’t talk often, but she calls from time to time. She still is my favorite niece. We are only seven years apart in age. Because I was a surprise baby to my parents, my older siblings were married and having children while I was still a kid. Wanda is not the oldest of the grand kids. The oldest one is only two years younger than I am and one year older than my younger brother. Life is strange.

Wanda’s mother was my favorite sister. She was eighteen years older, but had me over to her place for many weekends when I was still young. They had moved out of town by the time I began high school and those overnight visits stopped.

I have a neat picture my younger brother and me sitting on a pony. There was this man going door-to-door with his pony offering to take photos of kids sitting on his horse. He had hats and chaps and did all he could to make us feel like real cowboys. She paid for that.

Of all my siblings, Doris was the farmer. She always had a small garden and animals when possible. I was in kindergarten when she assigned me to collect the eggs the mornings I was there. I was scared. They would flap their wings and, run around my feet and jump at me. Then there was the rooster. He chased me and pecked at my legs. His peck hurt, but the rooster was the worst. He attacked me every chance he got. If I didn’t have the rooster after me it was the billy goat. He wasn’t a very big goat. He had to lower his head to get me in the rear. He could really make me fly. While I didn’t like him any better than the rooster, his push was more like a shove. Doris said he knew I was little and didn’t want to hurt me. Right.

Doris was the first of my siblings to pass away. She died of a blood clot hitting her heart. She was resting peacefully on the sofa on a Sunday afternoon. I had been married and was living in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan when she died. I arrived on the day of the funeral. A gathering after the grace side was held for the family at her home. The reception ended up being a hostile environment. The hostess just happened to be her husband’s mistress. I spent most of my time trying to keep my two older brothers from taking him to the woodshed to beat him to a pulp. I wanted to join them, but not with the kids ages 10-16 around.

Diana, the first born, was the first to run away. She was angry. Her dad married the woman within a month of my sister’s death. The girls hated the idea. She quickly married and has shocked me that she is still married to the same man 46 years later, they have thirteen children. Wanda was next. It took three years before she ran, but by that time came she no longer hated the new wife. She just didn’t want to be around any longer. She got pregnant; married had the baby and got divorced. Seems like she has been living with different men ever since.

My sister was a godly woman and greatly influenced her children. She married the son of a minister, but not a godly man apparently. They all stopped going to church. Wanda often calls me for clarification of something she read in the Bible. She continues to seek God, but is wandering.

I have ached for this family since my sister died in 1968. My sister’s dreams for her children were shattered.

THEY COME, THEY GO

I feel swamped. It seems like I have been talking nonstop with people since Wednesday morning, maybe even since Monday evening.

Chas had a meeting with the administration Tuesday morning. He was frightened it had something to do with the last residents meeting when he got into it with Rocky. One of our mentally challenged men was trying to talk to Rocky in the course of the meeting. While it is true that he rarely makes sense and is always off topic, he did have the attention of Rocky. Chas was very annoyed so he interrupted to put his two cents in which included a subtle put down of our friend. Rocky addressed Chas and clarified that he had interrupted. Good ole’ Chas pulled his “I’m hurt stunt” and wheeled out of the room to one on the side where he could hear what was going on, but was hard to see. That was Gail’s view of the story, and a couple of others.

Knowing he was called in by the administration, Chas visited me on Monday night to tell me about the meeting and get his fears off his chest. Now while I had heard about the residents meeting, I wasn’t there. I had a doctor’s appointment. So I backed the story up to get his point of view. It was certainly different than what I had been hearing. He felt like he had simply asked a questioned and Rocky would not let him talk. I asked if anything else was happening at the time of your question. Nothing, he said. Were others talking? No. Why did you think he shut you down? I don’t know. It didn’t make sense.

I could not get him to acknowledge any responsibility on his part. He was innocent. But he wasn’t.

He had the meeting on Tuesday and I was busy working on the August newsletter so I could meet today’s deadline. That night I confirmed the story with Gail. I was concerned that he had plans to lie to the administration.

Wednesday morning I skipped coffee to work on the newsletter when the lady across the hall from Chas knocked on my door. I could see she was distressed before she said how upset she was. Do you want to talk about it? Yes. Have a seat. What did you think about the letter we got this morning? What letter? The one taped to our door. I haven’t been out so have not seen the letter. She retrieved the letter and I read that Rocky was no longer employed at The Home effective immediately. It was blunt, to the point and (to my eyes) looked like he had been fired.

She was crushed. In her way of seeing things he was the only one who would stand up to her archenemy and put her in her place. I will agree with that. Why is he leaving? That was an absurd question to put to me. How would I know? It looked like he was fired, but I wasn’t going to pass that on. I listened and tried to explain things in as tender a way as I could. I did not want to rile her up. He is having health problems, he is not able to work 40 hours a week, maybe he was being going to jail for the on going court case he was facing. It was all speculation.

I got a call while she was talking and put it off until afternoon. The woman in my apartment needs lots of encouragement and support. I knew if I could not get her calmed down she would fly off the handle and say things she would regret to anyone in hearing distance. She liked the guy while others did not. No one knew why we were getting the letter and we likely never will.

Rockys' sudden departure was the talk of the buildings. Apparently he began work Wednesday morning (getting ready to paint) was taken into the office by his immediate boss and never returned to work. We had the note within minutes of that little talk.

OK, I admit I am interesting in the scuttlebutt. I hung around open spaces to see if anyone actually knew anything. No one seemed to suspect he had been fired. Shortly before noon on Thursday I saw Chas. Gail and I were upstairs working on her life story for the newsletter. I do a profile story on a resident each month.

It was obvious Chas wanted to talk. Gail excused herself to go get something to eat and Chas let go. Do you think anything I said caused his departure? You mean you think he was fired? Yes. What did you say?

He repeated the Resident meeting conflict so I asked if everything he said was correct and he said yes. I confronted that and told him what I knew. He then acknowledged that he had interrupted. Rocky and Chas have the same cleaning lady. Apparently Rocky asked the woman’s 18-year-old daughter to total his truck. He would pay her $600. He wanted the insurance money and the payments topped. He mentioned that and that his mother was here. Both were unknown to the administration. Who knows what else he said or how true it all was. He was mad and wanted the bosses to know he was mad.

So did he have anything to do with the departure? Maybe. I wasn’t about to let him off the hook completely since he was speaking out of anger and may have lied about some, most or even all of the stories he passed along. Anyway, Rocky no longer works here. Speculation continues. I just finished the newsletter and got it off. Chas has some guilt but will not acknowledge that nay have helped that along. There were other issues and they have been building. Something he may have said may have pushed the decision over the line, but he never started the man’s problems.

DIETICIAN, CHURCH, COMMITTEES, DEPARTURES

I had an appointment with a dietician on Monday and came away convinced that I should to do this at least every other year. Everything I knew about managing diabetes has changed. Go figure. I have always watched sugar. Admittedly there were times I could have cared less, but now I am supposed to count crabs. Ugh? I didn't even know how to do that. And I got away without asking how many crabs I should have.

So she tells me - sugar is not the issue if I don’t get carried away. Keep the count low, but some sugar is acceptable. Who knew? You have no idea how happy that made me. I went right home and have 1/2 gallon of ice cream. No I didn't that was a joke.

I also learned that I am taking four medications for diabetes and that can be reduced to one that I only take once a day instead of twice a day. I would be way more consistent just taking things in the morning. I never knew I was to take my insulin every eight hours. I was told take them morning and night. So I have taken them when I get up and when I go to bed. No wonder my morning numbers are always good.

Anyway, I learned a lot and since we are taking this with one direction at a time (think instructing 2 year olds) I believe I can manage it. So besides counting crabs, she wants me to eat vegetables everyday. I don't hate veggies; I just don't eat them very often. After my heart attack I was warned so often with so many threats I became fearful of leafy greens. Watch that vitamin K. I have never even heard of that one before let along knowing that since I have heart problems it could kill me. Maybe that is an over statement. But rather than being inconsistent, I just gave them up all together. No, no, no! She said. If I eat only occasionally, just don't eat too much. That's good. I actually like broccoli. I know that is not leafy, but it was on the list. Boy I hate lists.

Anyway, we will see what happens. I just got tired of losing my mobility and with the addition of serious hip problems I cannot longer manage the weight. It has got to go. Yes, it will take a long time. I just hope I can stay on track.

I went to a church meeting last night to hear about a vision and passion the pastor has to take over another church in another town and nurture it to health. Admittedly that was something I promised myself I would never do again. I can’t even begin to tell you how tired of was of church meetings and committees. The eleventh commandment should be "Thou shalt not committee." Most would not agree with me, but I am much more fond of a benevolent dictator. I am more than willing to listen to what others want, but leave me alone to make the decision. The administration at The Home felt like we should have an activities committee here and they wanted me to chair the committee. A committee may be a very good idea, but I told them in no uncertain terms that I did not want to have any part of a committee. I even encouraged them to do it, but begged off the committee. That is almost a year ago and nothing has happened. I guess they like it the way it is.

The church meeting was fine. I had my say and since I am not a member, I will have no say in the final decision. I am fine about that. Besides, there is no real opposition and it is just a matter of time before it happens. More power to them. He has the greatest family. He has is very involved and active wife have four adult married children. They are all-musical and pay multiple instruments. The family could run (and do) a powerful and terrific music ministry anywhere. Besides the three services they do at our church, they all plan to help dad start this other church and therefore will add a fourth service that will be in another town. They are also doing at least three satellite home churches. They already broadcast three live services as well as record them for future use and three other locations have picked up the feed and started home churches that they want to grow into bigger churches. It's a very interesting concept. Only time will tell. But this all comes from the pastor. Very creative!

Got interrupted by visitors wanting to discuss a staff change. We had notices on out doors today announcing that our maintenance man no longer works for The Home and that he will be moved out within the next seven days. That seems abrupt. Naturally that kicked off the tumor mill. It is operating hot and heavy. This one lasted nine months. The last one was six months and we were one year between each of them. Yeah! We get to be without again. Critical needs are handles by their roaming crew. But there will be lots that will not be done. This will divide The Home once again. Some will rejoice, others will cry. A couple of witches will gloat and take credit for his departure. Yuck!

Because he is done today and we just got the note today the strong speculation is that he was fired. Could be. We will likely never know the truth. He has both health and legal problems and has been unable to put in a full days work for several weeks. He says the termination is mutual. I hope so. He also has legal problems that he fears may put him in jail. That may also be happening. He was previously told that he would be terminated if he goes to jail. They cannot keep someone on the payroll that will not be able to do the work. Again no one knows, but the rumors with authority are already being shared. I have hand one visit and one call. There actually is one more leaving at the end of the month, the top dog is moving on to another job. She has been the heavy hand. There will be rejoicing in her departure. Too bad! She actually accomplished her job - Get this company back on a solid financial ground. She is off to do that for another company.

One of the few things we always have with us is change. Things they are a changing. We all might as well adjust.