Flying the "friendly skies."

And I hope the skies will indeed be friendly for my Aunt Dolly, because my cousin S has convinced her to fly back to New York, instead of driving back from Florida. This has been a year of "firsts" for my 94-yr-old aunt, to say the least.

She drove down to Florida the week before last, in my cousin S's Hummer. Now I would have liked to have seen that-- my aunt climbing up into a Hummer. I'm still wondering how she managed to do that. The trip took three days of driving, so my aunt got to see a lot of the east coast along the way from New York to Florida.

But now she's got to get back to NY and supervise the packing of her house there, in preparation for the big move to Florida. S didn't want to take another three days driving her back to NY, only to turn himself around and drive back to Florida, taking yet another two days. I can see his point there... that's a lot of days off from his job.

Somehow, he convinced my aunt to get on a plane, and he'll fly up to NY with her, then take another plane back to Florida. More money, I'm sure, but less time. I wonder if he has explained to my aunt that she will have to take her shoes off at the airport before they will let her through the security gates. For his own peace of mind, I hope he has told her that, and prepared her for all of the other security measures, because I know that my aunt is not going to like that kind of a surprise once she gets to the airport. (Talk about wanting to be a fly on the wall.....)

I'm still deciding whether or not to have some of the furniture in my grandmother's house shipped down here. It's going to cost more than the furniture is worth, plus it will add another level of stress for my aunt, who will have to be there to watch the furniture picked up by the moving van that I hire. The present plan is for her to pick out what she wants moved to Florida, and everything she picks will be packed and shipped for her--- but she won't have to see anything actually leaving that house. As if by magic, it will just arrive shortly after she gets to her new home in Florida. Everything else that is left in my grandmother's house will be sold, but my aunt will no longer be there to see things being taken out of the house.

My husband has told me to do whatever I want to do about the furniture... he said not to think about the cost if I really want the furniture for this house or the lake house. The practical side of me says not to do it.... I can probably find more or less the same bamboo porch furniture in an antique shop here, for less than half of the money it would cost to have that set moved from NY.

Then the sentimental side of me says to have the furniture moved here... for the simple reason that I spent so much time at my grandmother's house that it was a second home for me for all of my growing-up years. How nice it would be to have such a significant reminder of all of those years in my grandparent's house. My grandmother used to sit on the porch sofa and crochet... my grandfather would sit in one of the chairs and smoke a cigar.... and I'd be in the other chair with a book or a coloring book and crayons. In those days, the neighborhood was quiet... we'd all sit there and we could hear the birds. Now the streets there are so noisy that most of the windows in my grandmother's house are never even opened.

I can see the past in my mind's eye. I've lived without that furniture for all of these years, and I never expected to have the opportunity to have anything from that house. But now I have my choice, and the practical side of me is saying that all I really need is my mind's eye, so nothing else should matter.

This will be very hard to arrange, to make it easy on my aunt, and I have to give my cousin S a lot of credit for what he's doing here. Not easy moving out of state, but when the "movee" is a 94-yr-old woman whose only wish was to live in Papa's home until her last breath, that makes it harder still. Needless to say, my aunt has been on edge during all of this, and no matter how beautiful she says Florida is, I know she'd much rather live in Queens.

Still raining...

More rain than we know what to do with...... the thunder and lightning woke me up before dawn this morning. The lawns are still so soaked here, and I'm sure the two usual large puddle-ponds are in the backyard right now.

I finished reading the last Harry Potter book last night..... as usual, a very intense story. There were times that I caught myself holding my breath during the last chapters, and twice when I had to just get up from my chair and stand up and put the book down for a couple of minutes. "A couple of minutes" was just about the limit, and I got back to reading again.

Great story...... great series of books. I don't know what J. K. Rowling will come up with for her next project (as she's calling it) but I'm sure we will be ordering her next book as soon as it comes up for sale on Amazon.

Thunder and lightning are back once again now... time to shut down the computer. Will this weather never end?

Still reading....

...... and reading, and reading... the new (and last) Harry Potter book. When my husband has the book, then I've been reading "It's Only a Movie," which is a biography of Alfred Hitchcock. Excellent reading... and I think Hitchcock would have been a Harry Potter fan.

We're also getting ready for our Harry Potter lunch. The invitations are great... I had champagne bottle-shaped invitations that I had used for a New Year's Eve dinner a couple of years ago. I wrote out Harry Potter in the writing style of the book cover, for the label of each bottle, and on the little tags that are attached with thin silver thread to each invitation, I wrote Polyjuice Potion, which is a key element in the books. (If you're not a Harry Potter fan, that will mean nothing to you.)

We just have to decide on the date..... I will call our friends tomorrow and see how far along they are in the book, and see which Saturday in August they're all available. Everything for the party is ready... table decorations and favors, along with Victorian "crackers" that are decorated in silver and purple, with a Dumbledore lookalike-wizard on each of them. Each cracker has a magic metal puzzle and a paper crown inside of it. Just something else to use as table decoration which adds to the fun of the lunch.

My husband happened to find out that our neighbor at the corner of our street, the lady who doesn't talk much to anyone, is a Harry Potter reader. I never would have guessed that. (If ever there was an honest-to-goodness Muggle, she qualifies.) She's been more talkative these last few months, however, since she's been dog-sitting for her son's dog. Hard not to speak to neighbors when you're out walking a large dog that no one on the street has never seen before.

I will have to ask my husband if he intends to invite this neighbor to our Harry Potter lunch... if so, then I will have to get one more place setting of everything that I have for the other Harry Potter fans. Shouldn't be too hard... Harry Potter is all over the bookstores, all over the supermarkets.... everything from cups to balloons to pens to light-up wands, for goodness sake.

I heard on the news that Harry Potter's author will soon be at work on "another project." I am guessing that she will come up with a new series of books, and I hope I'm right. Her publicist has told the news that nothing will be announced, however, for at least another year.

Back to the book..... (unless my husband picked it up when I put it down)....

More rain than we know what to do with...

The lawns are so soaked here that you can't even walk on them without your shoes dipping down into the muddy layer beneath the grass. When we got back from the lake, our back and front lawn was nearly five inches high because it had been raining here most of the time we were up at the lake. Our yard guy came today to get it mowed.... it was sunny while he was here, but a couple of hours later, the sky opened up and it poured again. We have three huge puddles in the backyard that just won't go away because it just hasn't quit raining. We should just put a rock border around the biggest puddle and call it a pond.

Both ShadowBaby and AngelBoy haven't been out in the backyard since AngelBoy managed to get himself under the fence and into our neighbor's yard last month. I know that the cats miss walking around the backyard, but I just don't trust AngelBoy anymore.... he knows what it's like now in V's yard next door, and he'll keep trying to get over there.... and he'll end up being hurt by V's big dog, or he'll get lost when he finds his way out of her yard. Besides all of that, it's just been too wet out there, with all of this rain we've had these past few weeks. So now they're both inside cats again, totally inside, with no hope of going out in the backyard again. Better for them, easier for me... even though they do get "cabin fever" every once in a while. I wish the two older cats were like little Mickey Kitty, who runs away from an open door. The smallest cat is the smartest.

Young Miss C and her parents left on a cruise this afternoon. The ship left from Galveston, and they'll be visiting three places in Mexico this week. They had asked us to go with them, but neither me nor my husband was interested in a cruise-- especially me. With all the thunderstorms today, I would not have been comfortable getting on that ship, no matter how big it is. They laugh at me when I remind them that even The Titanic sank to the bottom of the ocean. (C's dad's answer to that was "When was the last time you heard of an iceberg near Mexico?)

We're reading the latest Harry Potter book..... both my husband and I taking turns reading it. He's a little further along than I am, but I think we'll have it finished within a few days.

My grandmother's house...

I've heard through the family grapevine that my Aunt Dolly is thrilled with Florida, and she keeps telling everyone how beautiful it all is. Well, we've been trying to get her to move out of Queens for over twenty-five years now, and finally, finally, she seems to be taking kindly to this move-of-a-lifetime adventure.

There's still the house filled with family things......... and now Aunt Dolly is wanting everyone in the family to take what they want before the estate-sale company comes to the house to sell everything that she won't be taking to Florida.

In my mind's eye, I'm going through every nook and cranny of that house, making a list of things I might want to have shipped down here. So many things in that house that I've known for all of my life..... but I can't take too much... our house here is full and I don't want to be parting with anything that's already here.

However.... my grandmother's porch set...... I have a porch here, and a porch at the lake cottage..... I could use that set at either house, and just get rid of the yard-sale items that are in the porches now. And those beautiful green glass lamps in my grandmother's dining room... if Aunt Dolly isn't taking them to Florida, I would want those...... and I'll just get rid of two of my small lamps here.... two of the small ones that came from yard and estate sales.

Aunt Dolly wanted me to have my father's television console.... it's very big, and the television no longer works, and neither does the record player. Plus, we really have no room for that here, and it's not the sort of thing that would fit up at the cottage, so I think I'll have to tell Aunt Dolly that I can't take that. She'll be disappointed about that, but it's just too big and I'd have to part with a big piece of furniture here to make room for it, and that just doesn't make sense, for a non-working television in an over-sized cabinet.

So much in that house.... too much in that house....... and I don't want to be over-crowding my house here. Still so sad to think that my grandmother's house in Queens will soon no longer belong to the family.

I think Aunt Dolly is going to really love Florida. She'll be living close to Disney World. I wonder if she'll get to see Mickey Mouse.

Harry Potter is in the house....

... and my husband and I are taking turns reading it. We'll be having a Harry Potter lunch with five of our friends who have also followed the series of books.... but we can't set a date for that yet until we have all read it.

I had pre-ordered the book through Amazon, and when it was delivered today, the box had Harry Potter designs all over it, which was a cute touch. Twelve million copies of this book were printed, and that was just for the United States.

What on earth will J. K. Rowling do now that the Harry Potter series is finished? I'm hoping she'll start on another.

Aunt Dolly goes to Florida.

As I type this, my Aunt Dolly is in my cousin S's car, on her way to Florida. My cousin S has lived there for years now, and he's been wanting my aunt to move down there for the longest time. He has never been able to convince her to do that, until just recently, when a string of house robberies right on her own street scared the daylights out of her. And believe me, it takes a lot to scare the daylights out of my 94-yr-old Aunt Dolly.

She already has a buyer for her house (the neighbor across the street) and as much as she knows she should leave that neighborhood, she doesn't want to leave. My grandfather built that house in 1922, and it's been the family home ever since. My aunt is the only one still living in it, however... everyone else has either passed away or moved away.

It's much too big a house for just my aunt... two kitchens, two bathrooms, two pantries, eight bedrooms, living room, dining room, enclosed front porch, plus all the "extra" rooms in the basement (play rooms, wine cellar, family room)..... just too much house for one little aunt to take care of, even if it were still in a prime neighborhood, which sadly, it just isn't.

I would like to be a little fly in my cousin's car, as he's driving my aunt down to Florida. I can't even remember the last time my aunt has been out of that neighborhood, much less out of NY state. My only hope is that she gets her heart into the move, or as much of her heart as she possibly can. I know she doesn't want to leave that house, and I know at her age, it's got to be one of the hardest things she's ever done. But the time has come for her to just move on. (Actually, the time came about twenty-five or thirty years ago, but she just dug her heels in and stayed put.)

My cousin S has found a few mother-daughter-style homes in Florida..... he's bringing her to all of them, to let her pick and choose, and be part of the decision-making process as to which house he'll buy. Then he will arrange for her furniture to be moved down there, with whatever is left in the NY house being sold. And, in that big a house, with all of those rooms, there will be a lot left over after my aunt takes what she needs.

My aunt is beside herself with worry..... she wanted to live out the rest of her life in "the house that Papa built." I wish that could have been the ending to her story. Now I'm just hoping that whatever happens in Florida, her story will have a happy ending.

Lake Neighbors

When we started looking for a weekend cottage, one of our friends told us that we'd see a big difference between the people who lived in the west (Hill Country) part of the state and those who lived in the eastern part of the state.

We had been to the Hill Country before, and I fell in love with the small-town, down-home, Mayberry charm of all of those towns. Unfortunately, those Hill Country towns are more than a four-hour drive from where we live... way too far to drive for a weekend cottage, especially with a dog and three cats in the car. Which is why we started looking in East Texas.

It was a "learning experience," to use one of my husband's favorite expressions. The people up here around the lake are very friendly, very helpful, very resourceful, and they all subscribe to the live-and-let-live rule. The subdivision where we have our weekend cottage has a community association which has a printed booklet of deed restrictions. However, a lot of those restrictions aren't enforced. And most of those deed restrictions aren't even taken into account by the people who live in the subdivision.

I think they also live by the rule that says this-is-my-property-and-don't-you-be-telling-me-how-to-keep-it. As a result, some of the houses in our subdivision may have weird little out-buildings built to store a tractor, or an old boat-in-progress on their front lawn, or heaven only knows what-all may be growing in their vegetable gardens. And then, on the same street, you'll see a perfect, lovingly-tended English garden in front of a neat white house surrounded by a picket fence, or an expertly landscaped, golf-worthy, weed-free acre surrounding a vintage-looking clapboard cottage.

Somehow, everyone lives side-by-side up here, not caring much about what their neighbors are doing, as long as they're doing it on their own property.

Until now, that is....... because part of our lake community wants to get rid of all of the current members of The Board. Not one or two of them, but each and every one of them. The first "Ousting the Board" meeting had about fifteen residents. The second meeting had about thirty-five people. The third meeting is scheduled for next month, and I'm guessing that we'll have about fifty people at that one.

My husband has set up a Yahoo! news group for the subdivision. He mentioned that idea at the first meeting, but no one knew how to do it. Before the second meeting, he had everything set up, and handed out printed sheets to everyone there, giving instructions on how to sign up for the group. Everyone seemed excited about being able to send eMails back and forth to everyone else in the subdivision. And those without computers-- we told them about the public computers available at the library in town. (One of the residents said he'd "never set foot in a library in his life." One of the other residents told him that "right about now would be a good time to start.")

Since we bought our little cottage on this lake, we found out that all of the lakefront property around another lake, which is closer to downtown Houston, has been sold out, built up, and anyone looking for lake property will have to drive to the next lake town, which is where we are. We chose this particular area because the lake towns closer to downtown Houston were just too crowded, too built-up, too city-looking and filled with bars and restaurants catering to the twenty-something boating crowd. That wasn't what we were looking for.... we didn't want a resort destination, we wanted a restful community.

Which is what we have here, although I can see now that in twenty-years time, this town will get to looking like our town "at home," with lots of shopping centers and restaurants and theatres. Heaven knows there's enough land up here for all of that development. And when that happens, our little cottage on the lake will be worth twice what it's worth now. As it is, our lake cottage in this tiny east-Texas country town is already worth more than our house "in town," as we call it....... and the cottage is worth more just because it's on the lake.

So....... everyone can either follow the deed restrictions or not follow them, but whether they do or not, and whatever happens with the old Board (or the new Board, when it comes into being), one thing won't change..... we're all sitting on good property up here, and even the ones who aren't taking pristine care of it at the moment will still be able to make money on it when they're ready to sell.

Baby ducks, puppies, & things lost in the lake.

During our latest trip to the lake cottage, I found a tiny baby duck trying to keep himself afloat right next to our boathouse. Of course, I couldn't leave him in that deep water, so I scooped him up in my hands. "Just what we need," said my husband, and of course, he's right. (The inn is full, as we keep saying to one another.)

But what do you do with a tiny baby duck? I brought him into the house and put him in a wooden birdcage. I tried to make him a soft little nest with some old dish towels. Poor little duck didn't need the towels and the birdcage, he needed his mama. I didn't have an eye-dropper to feed him, and neither did our next-door neighbor. I tried soaking a piece of bread in milk, but the duckling didn't want any part of that.

We happened to see two adult ducks in the water near our pier, so I put the baby back into the water and fed the adult ducks some bread pieces, hoping that they'd get close enough to the duckling and want to adopt it. Not a chance.... all they wanted was the bread. My husband got the fishing net out and scooped up the baby duck. Then we did what we thought was best... he walked over to the boat ramp and put the duckling into the shallow water there. At least he would have a better chance, not being in the deep water, and having the grass and reeds to hide in.

The next morning, I went out to our boat dock to check, and there was a tiny duckling, identical to the first one, only this second one was dead... smashed inbetween the wood planks of the dock, most likely by the waves from the rainstorm that passed through the night before. I seriously doubt this was the same duckling... no way could he have gotten from the boat ramp back to our dock. Hopefully, the first baby duck is swimming happily around in the high grass around the boat ramp. But I'm not going over there to check.

As for the puppies..... we had gone into town to do grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. On the way out, there was a young teenaged boy standing near the back of his pickup truck... and in the flatbed of the truck were eight puppies. Half of them were black labs, half were golden labs... not purebreds, but a wonderful mix. All of the puppies were happy and friendly and of course heart-breakingly cute. Both my husband and I found our favorites in the back of that truck, but as quickly as we did that, we quickly came to our senses and got away from that truck and got into our car and drove back to our cottage without looking back.

No way can we get another puppy. Our eleven-year-old dog Gracie would have a fit of jealousy, and besides, we couldn't even have gotten home with a puppy in the car, added to the three cat crates that we have now, plus Gracie taking up half of the back seat. No puppies. No baby ducks. No baby-anything. Jeez.... we're not even looking for baby animals and they always seem to find us.

Things lost in the lake......... that's where my husband's glasses are right now-- in the bottom of the lake, near our boathouse and pier, where they fell yesterday afternoon. He tried to get them out with the heavy magnets at the end of a rope, but that didn't work. (That method worked just fine when he dropped some tools down into the water last month.)

Our across-the-cove neighbor saw my husband with the bright yellow rope and the magnets and asked what he was doing. We explained about the glasses, and the neighbor offered to help with his own method. Within minutes, he was in his canoe and rowing across to our side of the wide cove, armed with a long bamboo pole with a rake attached to the end of it... attached with silver duct tape. (The universal fix-all.... duct tape.)

The neighbor quickly realized that our side of the cove was much deeper than his side of the cove, and he rowed his canoe back to his side to get another long-handled tool to add to the length of his eyeglass-rescue contraption. Back he came, with a snake-catching-fork attached (with duct tape) added to the rake and bamboo pole. He started to tell us some of his snake-catching stories, but his wife quickly told him not to entertain us with "snake tales" at that particular moment.

Try as they might, they just couldn't find the glasses... not with the magnets, not with the long snakefork/bamboo/rake pole. The neighbor told us that the bottom of the lake must be covered with people's glasses, which didn't exactly make my husband feel any better.

No Scrabble game that night, no cards, no dominoes. Although, had we played, I surely would have won at all three, given my husband's eyeglass-less condition. In the morning, I called our eye doctor's office back at home, and told them about the lost glasses and asked if they could fax or eMail his eye prescription up to an eye doctor at the lake. That normally could be done easily, except my husband's prescription can't be made up "in under an hour," as most prescriptions can. They'd need to send them out, most likely into Houston, and that could take some time. In the meanwhile, he wasn't able to see unless something was less than twelve inches in front of him.

Our eye doctor came through for us, however... she found an optometrist right in the lake area who could give my husband a set of contacts that closely matched his prescription. And they'd give them to him for free, being that it would be a "trial set," to be worn for just two weeks while a permanent set was being made. Perfect solution.... so I drove us into town and the "trial" contacts worked just fine until we got back into town to our own eye doctor's office.

One baby duck trying to stay afloat. Another baby duck smashed against the pier. Puppies in the back of a hot pickup truck. Eyeglasses at the bottom of the lake. Stuff just happens... even in Mayberry.

Pajama Delivery

I went to the local church today with the bundle of pajamas for the infant program there...... I met the girl that I spoke to over the phone yesterday, and I felt like I was meeting an old friend when we first saw one another.

First of all, her enthusiasm over the phone yesterday just overwhelmed me..... she was so excited to be getting pajamas from the Houston Chapter, because they just never have enough of everything they need for the infants there. Then when I met her--- and I knew right away somehow just who she was, even though she was walking towards me with a small group of women who work with her in the infant program.

I just walked right up to her, in the midst of all the other women, and told her You must be.... She gave me a big hug and she had tears in her eyes when she saw how many pajamas I had for "her" babies.

She asked me how I knew which one of the five women was her, and I told her that I picked her out just because of her smile and her look, which reminds me so much of my friend F up in NY. Both of them just have that same bubbly-ness about them... friendly smile, enthusiastic attitude... just something inside that says "Here I am... let's talk!" And, as I talked with the girl from the church (who's about the same age as both me and my NY friend), I found out that this girl is also originally from New York... Valley Stream, Long Island, for goodness sake. So that was a surprise as well.

She was so happy to get the size 10 pajamas for the little boy she told me about over the phone.... and I wrapped up some books for him as well, and put everything into a bright blue gift bag. I wish I could have seen his face when he saw his much-wanted pajamas. Just the thought of this poor child wishing and hoping for a pair of pajamas, when so much in his life is upside-down at the moment....... if that isn't enough to tug at the heartstrings, I don't know what is.

I think our Pajama Program chapter will have a long relationship with this church and all the other groups involved within the church. The ladies I spoke to today are going to tell all the other women about the Chapter, and they would like to get everyone together so I can come back and speak to all of them at once.... as a "guest speaker." (My, my... who would have thought.)

I met the pastor of the church today..... very nice priest from England... he seemed to be embarrassed to be holding up the tiny infant pajamas for the photo I took of them all, but he was very excited that I'd be delivering pajamas... not only for the infant program of that church, but for the toddlers and young children as well.

Harry Potter movie....

We went downtown late this afternoon to meet K and B..... we took young Miss C with us also-- we were all going to see the newest Harry Potter movie, then go to the Greek restaurant downtown to discuss the film.

The theatre was in the River Oaks section of downtown (quite plush, to say the least)... truly a gorgeous theatre with colorful carpeting, gold and glass doorways that sparkled, too-many-to-count individual movie screens, spotlessly clean concession stands, plus an enormous parking garage. The only complaint from all of us-- their sound system was way too loud. And for this kind of movie, with its darkness and intensity, the too-loud sound was too over-the-top.

Miss C thought long and hard about coming with us to see this movie.... she wasn't too thrilled with the last Harry Potter movie, for the simple reason that it was too dark, too somber. She finally agreed to come with us, just because she loves to spend time with K and B, and us as well, of course. And I think she likes the downtown adventures, no matter where we happen to be going.

Within the first twenty minutes of the movie, I knew that both C and I should have stayed home.... this latest Harry Potter film was dark and somber, with too many intense special effects... so much going on at once that you didn't know where to look first. I had my arms crossed through the entire movie-- so much so that the pearls on my bracelet made marks on my arm that didn't go away till well after dinner at the Greek restaurant.

Just one more reason that I like books better than movies--- when the book gets too intense, you can close the cover and go back to it after a while. Can't do that when you're in the movie theatre.

I have read all the Harry Potter books..... and love the creativity and imagination throughout all of them. We're waiting now for the last book in the series, which comes out in less than two weeks. Then we'll have our Harry Potter lunch party, with K and B, and C and R, and J........ now we just have to figure out how much time we'll all need after the book's release-- can't have the luncheon to discuss the last book until we've all read the last book.

That "big-boy" collar....

Somehow, Mickey Kitty managed to get the red velvet collar off of his neck. I found it on the floor of the screen porch this morning. Either he got it off by himself, or AngelBoy (who didn't like the sound of it) got it off for him.

So now Mickey Kitty is back to wearing just a thin gold elastic string around his neck, with a little silver bell attached to it. My husband says that the little gold string is what makes Mickey Mickey. (Somehow, there's logic in that.)

Mickey is perfectly happy with the little gold string and the silver bell, and AngelBoy is no longer scrunching up his face the way he did when the little red bell on the red collar got to jingling.

Cats. I swear, sometimes I look at ours and wonder how we got three of them. And to think that a few weeks ago, I nearly caved in and bought that cute little white fluffy puppy. What in the world was I thinking? One dog, three cats, one husband, and me. The inn is quite full.

Size 10 pajamas...

I was out at one of the local children's shelters today, delivering pajamas. While there, as I was counting up what they had, to see what they would need for the next delivery, one of the volunteers there told me about another children's shelter (for infants) which a local church oversees.

It sounded like just the place to deliver baby-pajamas, especially since I always have lots more pajamas for infants than for older children, and this particular church administers to young pregnant girls and their babies. And right now, as always, I have so many infant pajamas.... and I hate to see them sitting in my closet waiting to be matched up with a baby-- when they could be at shelters waiting there for the babies.

I did my research on the church and their baby-project, and called to speak to the lady in charge of the program. She hadn't heard of the Pajama Program before, but she was thrilled to be hearing about it today because they're in desperate need of infant pajamas. I will be meeting with her tomorrow morning, delivering the baby pajamas to her, and she will be on my weekly or monthly delivery list, depending on how many pajamas she needs.

Before we said goodbye, this woman asked me if I happened to have one pair of size 10 pajamas for a little boy. I looked into the boys-pajama bin, and I had just one size 10 Disney pajama set-- with the Pirates of the Caribbean design on it. Just the one, but that's all she needed. She told me about a little boy and his mother who had just come to the church looking for assistance... they had to leave an abusive husband/father... and they left so quickly that they had only the clothes on their backs. (So sad, all of this.)

The church is helping the mother with food, clothing, shelter, and hopefully will be able to find her a job in the area. Before they left the church office, the little boy asked the program director if she had any boys pajamas in size 10. The director told the boy that they usually just get pajamas for tiny babies, and right now, they didn't even have very many of those left. The little boy told her Well, if you happen to find some size 10 pajamas for me, can you let my mom know so we can come and get them? (I swear, stories like this one just break my heart.)

I told the director to please call that little boy's mom and tell her that she can go to the church tomorrow and pick up the pajamas for her son. I will also pack up some books for that child, but I didn't tell her that, so the books will be a surprise for him.

I mean, really... what are the chances of me calling that church to see if they'd like to be part of our Pajama Program.... and then the director asking me if I had a certain size for a little boy-- and I had just one set in his size.

Right back at me...

I had decided to celebrate a birthday this year for a very good and long-time friend who was so ill last year that I was afraid of never being able to wish her a Happy Birthday again. The two of us had long ago stopped exchanging gifts... so long ago that I don't even remember when we last did hand one another a wrapped and ribboned package.

Rather than send her something wrapped up in pretty paper, I decided to do something special and generous in her name. I did just that, and sent her a card telling her just how her birthday would be "celebrated" right here in Texas, while she was celebrating with her family and friends up north. She called to tell me that my card made her cry. Which, of course, wasn't my intention, but looking back now, I can understand why it did.

The other day, this same friend sent me a card, filled with beautiful thank-you words, and a generous (very generous) amount of money, asking me to buy special things for special kids to make them smile. Her card made me cry.

When I pulled myself together, I went out to the stores, and did what she asked me to do. When all of her money had been spent, I called her to tell her how overwhelmed I was with her card, and I told her that it made me cry as well. And, of course, I told her just what I was able to buy with her money.

It's a wonder that we both didn't start crying all over again.

These Keds are made for walking.

And that's what I've been doing every night....... walking, walking, walking. After the episode with my foot, and our retired-doctor/friend J having a look-see and telling me that all I needed to avoid foot surgery was to get rid of my high-heeled, narrow-toed shoes, I've decided to just plain follow all of his advice.

I've cancelled the appointment with the foot doctor.... no need to see him, being that I've decided that going through bone surgery is just not something I want to do...... they don't tell you all the risks of bone surgery, as I found out from my friend L, whose doctor didn't tell her everything that J told me. (And which, of course, I passed on to L, who is now re-considering her own foot surgery.)

The first night I walked, I think I did four miles. I forgot to bring that little mileage thing with me, so I don't really know. Last night, I only did half of the walk, because one of my sneakers started to bother me. It was so hot and humid last night, which may have caused the shoe problem, because the same shoes didn't bother me the night before when I walked twice as long.

I swear, I am so very aware of my feet these days. You only have two of them... no replacements on the medical horizon, unless you count the plastic/wood contraptions that are available. I went back to the shoe store today, for a different kind of walking shoe... this one doesn't have the high part at the back of the heel, which is what had started to bother me with the humidity. I can't take the first pair back, since I already used them outside, but I will take them up to the lake cottage for walking on the property up there, which is more of a stroll, not a fast-paced walk.

The "new" Keds don't have the high part at the back of the heel, and are even more softer than the first pair, if that's possible. That's what it's all about these days... softer, more cozy/comfy shoes, with dress-shoes having heels just two-inches high or less. Two inches. Two inches...... that's what I keep saying to myself as I browse through the shoe racks these days.

Oh well....... three-inch heels are a thing of the past. But, as young Miss C told me-- at least you're not wearing velcro-snap shoes. I had to cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-kiss-a-frog- promise Miss C that I would never, ever buy any kind of shoe with velcro on it. She said that if I ever got to the point where I couldn't fasten my own shoes, she'd come over here and do it for me.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at that one.

Mickey Kitty's Big-Boy collar.

I was finally able to get a bright red velvet collar on Mickey Kitty this afternoon. For the past two years now, he's been wearing a very thin elastic ribbon on his neck, with a tiny bell dangling from it. I bought the red collar last year, but his neck was just too tiny for it, and he didn't like the sound of the "new" bell and kept running away from the collar. He's a little bigger this year---- not much, but he has enough of a neck now to hold a real cat-collar.

This morning, the elastic ribbon broke (for the 257th time) and I decided to try the red velvet collar once again. So far, so good. Mickey seems to have noticed the difference in the sound of the bell, but at least he's not rolling all around the carpet trying to get it off of his neck. When his little bell makes noise, he stops what he's doing and turns around, as if he's expecting to find another cat right behind him.

He sounds like the Good Humor man now...... this new bell's sound has a higher pitch than the old one. (The Good Humor man... do they still come around in their sparkling white trucks?)

AngelBoy noticed the new bell-sound on Mickey Kitty as well...... he notices everything, that cat. I don't think he likes it too much because he scrunches up his face now every time Mickey's bell makes noise. I swear, there's just no pleasing AngelBoy.

Shoes... and more shoes.

But at least they're all comfy and butter-soft and aren't hurting my feet. (Not that my other shoes were hurting my feet, but I guess they were bothering the bunion on my right foot.) So easy to buy shoes..... and the shoe store here is still having sales on all of their summer sandals, and even the new shoes they got for the fall. Everything is marked down because they got too many boxes of shoes all at once and there's not enough room to store them all. (Plenty of room in my closet, being that I donated all of the highest heels that were in there.)

I've decided not to go to the foot doctor after all. Being that our retired doctor-friend J examined my feet the other day, I feel confident enough that if I'm just more careful with my shoes, I won't make this little-bunion problem into a big problem. I will call the foot doctor's office tomorrow to cancel the appointment.

Went to Barnes & Noble today..... and of course found books....... a biography of Harper Lee called Mockingbird, and a biography called Geisha: A Life, about a Japanese girl whose geisha training began when she was just five years old. I could have spent a couple of hours in that store, but then I would have left with too many books, and I have enough books on my to-be-read pile as it is. Too many good books out there to read, and I hope I have time enough in this lifetime to read them. Which reminds me-- another book I found in the biography section today was If I Live To Be 100........ just the title of that one got me interested.

This is the only time I miss working at the library.... when I look through bookstores. When you work at a library, you get to see everything that comes into the system and it's very easy to set aside books for yourself. I used to check books out of our local library all the time, but with the five-day and seven-day limits, I couldn't check out too many at one time and I don't like returning books late. The clerks in the bookstore of our library know me better than the clerks at the circulation desk...... lots of good books in the library bookstore, all for just one dollar each. I keep the ones I love, and give away the others to our friends. Somehow, that just works better. Same with Half Price Books... so many books in there for two dollars and less.

Shoes and books..... two of my favorite things to shop for. Besides pajamas........ I went to Marshalls today and found really cute pajama sets for little girls. They didn't have much for boys over the age of four this time, and not a thing for the teenagers.

My husband took young Miss C to the ballpark today to see the Astros playing the Mets. It was photo-day as well, and they got there three hours before the game began and were able to get right down on the field with the Astros. C made a poster-sign-- Biggio on one side, Hunter Pence on the other side. C loves baseball, and she was bouncing up and down for most of that game, I'm sure. Thankfully, the Astros won the game today...... always nicer to be at a game when your team wins.

"Avoid surgery at all cost, at all times."

This is what our friend J says-- and J is a retired doctor who has performed surgery.

My husband and I happened to see him yesterday after dinner while we were walking in the park with Gracie. We got to talking about the foot doctor, and J asked me if he could take a look-see at my feet. Not a problem for me, because I've always said that if J were still a practicing physician, he'd be our doctor for everything.

J said that the bunion on my right foot wasn't big at all, and the one on my left foot was even smaller. He said bunion surgery for me would be for "cosmetic purposes only," which is not something I want to be doing. Especially after he told me everything that happens to the body when it's under anesthesia. Which is why he always says that avoiding surgery is the best way to go, unless of course, the surgery is for a life-threatening problem. And a bunion isn't going to kill anyone.

So now I'm thinking I may not even go to the foot doctor at all. My foot isn't hurting anymore, and even with that pain I had last week-- which was most likely due to the dirt-moving, not the bunion-- I'm not anxious now to get my feet under an x-ray machine just to see what that doctor has to say. I have a couple of weeks to make up my mind, so I'll see how I feel about all of this before the appointment day comes along. Now, of course, I'm glad that the first appointment was cancelled because of the glitch with the insurance company.

I've been calling my friend L, who is due to get bunion surgery during the first week of August, and I've been telling her all this new information I've found out about bunions in the last few days. Now she's thinking about cancelling her surgery as well. She has spoken to her two friends who have had the surgery already, and now they're telling her all the bad things about the surgery and the recovery. Before she started asking her friends specific questions, they had only told her that they were happy with the surgery and pleased with the foot doctor. Now they have told her how awful the recovery was, and that they were mostly immobile for four weeks after the surgery. L wasn't thrilled to hear that, because she's due to start working again two and a half weeks after her surgery date. (Which would be just about impossible for her, since she's on her feet all day at her job.)

So the foot doctor may be losing both me and C's mom as patients.

And I'm looking on the bright side........ I've taken so many high-heeled narrow shoes out of my closet that I get to go shoe-shopping again.

No referral.... no appointment....

I was all set to go to the foot specialist this morning... then the doctor's office called to tell me that my insurance company needed a referral from our primary care doctor. Give me a blessed break. I've had this appointment for two weeks, and they just found that out this morning.

I called our PCP, as they call him (does that stand for primary care doctor or pretty careless physician?)...... and his office told me it would take at least five business days for them to fax over a referral slip to the foot specialist's office. Give me another blessed break. (Five days to send a fax??)

Needless to say, I had to cancel the appointment...... so I will be waiting another two weeks to see the foot specialist. But on the bright side (and there always is a bright side)... my foot isn't hurting today, and the swelling looks to be gone.

So now I have two more weeks to consider the possibilities...... to have surgery on the foot or to just leave it alone. Or.... a new idea...... to find someone to do laser surgery on the foot, rather than cutting it open and doing whatever they do to the bone in there. (Dare I ask for another blessed break?)


On another bright side....... I went to the local library and their Pajama Box was filled nearly to the top with pajamas, so that was a good thing. I also delivered pajamas earlier this morning, and they were happy to receive the new sizes.

It's still raining on and off, which isn't exactly a bright side, but at least it's not flooding.

Dominoes....

Just as we were sitting down to try out the new double-twelve dominoes, the phone rang tonight and it was young Miss C. She wanted to know if she and her mom could stop over tonight with a surprise game they wanted to play with us.

As soon as C told me that, I knew they had gone out to buy a set of dominoes. As much as I wanted to just relax tonight, I couldn't tell C not to come over. She sounded so excited over the phone, so I told her to come on by when they were ready. Just by the sound of C's voice, I can tell when she's jumping up and down on her toes. And C is very perceptive as well.... as soon as I said hello on the phone, her first question to me was "Are you alright?" (I was tired and my foot was hurting, but I told her that I was just fine.)

Before they came over, my husband hid our just-bought set of dominoes so they wouldn't see our set first. Turns out that C and her mom were in Target also, a little while after we had been there, and they bought the exact same double-twelve domino set that we did. C's mom also thought the double-fifteen set was "over the top," as my husband also said when we saw those at the store. My husband hid our set in one of the kitchen cabinets, then asked C to get him a glass..... she squealed when she saw that we had bought the same set this afternoon.

It took us nearly three hours to finish the double-twelve game, and C won....... I came in last-- I kept getting stuck with such high dominoes. We all laughed that we needed a calculator to add up the dominoes that we didn't get to use.


C's mom told me more about the bunion surgery that her friend had (with the same doctor that I'll see tomorrow)...... she was off her feet for longer than she thought she would be, but she said it was definitely worth it. Her friend will get her other foot done, as soon as she's able to stay home from work for four more weeks. I asked L how her friend's foot looked after the surgery and she said it looked wonderful (like a "new foot") but there was a little scar at the side of her foot. I'm not worried about the scar...... I'm worried that this will just get worse if I don't get it done.

Oh well....... tomorrow is the appointment with the foot doctor. I will be fine, and ready for the appointment and the x-rays, as long as I can get to sleep tonight. Instead of counting sheep, I should try counting dominoes.

Wet and rainy 4th....

It's been raining on and off around the Houston area for days on end, and today has been no different. The ground is so soaked that you can hardly walk on the grass. One of the tropical plants in the front of our house is actually drooping and is leaning towards the ground, so I'm guessing that it has had too much rain this past week.

Most of the little towns have cancelled their July 4th celebrations, and I don't know if the fireworks show in the downtown area is still scheduled for tonight. We don't drive downtown for that anyway... too much traffic, too hard getting in and out of the city for that kind of event, so we just stay in the area here for fireworks. Being that we had two nights' worth of fireworks up at the lake this past weekend, we feel as if we've already celebrated the 4th of July, so we'll probably watch the "Boston Pops" on television.

We thought we'd go to the movies this afternoon, to see the new Robin Williams' movie. Robin was on the Larry King show last night and (as always) he was hysterical. When we got to the theatre, which has 15 separate movie screens, half of Clear Lake seemed to be there and the parking lot (which is super-huge) was filled with cars (mostly trucks, actually) and people were parking in lots for other shopping centers and just walking over to the theatre. My husband figured he would drop me at the door so I could buy the tickets while he parked the car, but the ticket line was so long that people were waiting in the rain. Between the rain-soaked ticket line and the parking situation, I suggested that we just go to the movies another day.

We went to Target and Toys R Us instead, in search of the double-nine dominoes. We didn't find the double-nines, but Target had double-twelves, so we bought those. The game is played the same way, but just takes longer because you're starting the countdown from twelve rather than nine.

It was too early to go out for dinner, which we thought we'd do after the movie, so we just went to the supermarket and bought something for tonight, being that I hadn't defrosted anything. My husband bought a package of hot dogs.... which I kind of figured he would buy, because we watched the Nathan's Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest this morning. The winner (Joey Chestnut) ate 66 hot dogs in twelve minutes..... a new record, and he finally broke the winning streak of the young man from Japan (who has won for the last six years-- I won't even attempt to spell his name). 66 hot dogs (with the rolls, of course)...... that's just an incredible number. I used to love hot dogs when I was a kid, but haven't touched one in more than twenty years.


We were going to call up Miss C and invite them over for a domino game, but I just don't feel like it tonight. My foot is bothering me again, I guess because of all the walking around the stores this afternoon, so all I feel like doing is having some hot soup for dinner and then reading a book. The rain has quit for the moment, but it doesn't look to be clearing up out there.

Doctor's appointment tomorrow, to have a look-see at this foot. Oh goodie. (And that's a serious oh goodie.)

Rainy Monday

We had beautiful weather up at the lake this past weekend, except for one afternoon when a rain shower passed by...... and when it did, my husband was out on his sailboat with our young friend C and her friend M. The shower didn't last too long, and there were no strong winds, but they did get rather wet while it lasted. Today, however, is a different weather-story: lots of rain and cloudy skies.

C and her parents came up to the lake cottage to spend the weekend with us, and C invited her friend M. C loves to show her friends her cabin up there next to our cottage, and it's fun for us to see her friends' reactions to the cabin's decor. C has sort of a dolphin-palm tree-parrot-seashell-beachy theme going on inside that cabin....... it looks like a party is about to happen at any given time. She takes a lot of pride in it, and she's careful to keep it neat and clean.... which was one of my rules when we asked her if she'd like to have the cabin instead of a room inside the house. I would bet that she keeps that little cabin neater than her own room in her parents' house.

With C's dad up at the lake this time, it was easy for my husband to raise the mast up on his sailboat, as well as get the sail hoisted. The sailboat was docked at our boathouse all weekend long, and they took it out every day. C's dad has a kayak, which is now stored up at the lake cottage, and that went into the water every day as well. We all had a great time..... a Mexican dinner in town one night, then cooking at home the following night. C's mom brought up foods for lunch, and we added that to what I had in the fridge. It all worked out-- breakfast, lunch and dinner for six people from Friday through Sunday. Plus laundry, with the wet bathing suits and beach towels. I've determined that four guests at one time is just enough. Any more than that, and I'd be too worried about the meals and the laundry. C and her family are like our own family anyway, so it's very easy to be relaxed when they visit. C had asked me if she could invite two friends up this time, but I told her that one friend at a time seemed to be the right number.

We went into town for a couple of hours one day, because C likes to look at the large consignment shop there. We've been looking for a comfy chair for her cabin-- one that she can curl up and read in, and we were also looking for a nightstand with two or three drawers in it, to use as a small dresser for her clothes. We didn't find a nightstand with enough drawer space, but I did find some really nice old leather trunks, and I asked C if one of those would do for her clothing storage. The shop had new trunks made of fancy rattan, and old trunks made of worn leather. C loved the old leather ones... she said they had more personality. She picked out one that wasn't too big or too small, and it wasn't very expensive either, so that's the one I bought for her, and as soon as we got back to her cabin with it, she was in there folding up her clothes and finding the perfect spot for her new trunk. We're still looking for the perfect chair... one with personality that isn't too old-lady looking.

Our next-door neighbor up at the lake is selling her house there, and I've arranged to buy a day-bed from her, which will be C's bed for her cabin. Hopefully, that house will be selling soon (she's had lots of prospective buyers coming through), and then we'll be able to move the bed from her house to C's cabin. We've had an air mattress in C's cabin since last year, waiting to be replaced with the perfect bed with enough personality for Miss C.

When we all had dinner at our house on Saturday night, we invited our next door neighbor to join us. G has lived up at the lake for thirty years now.... starting out as a weekender, then living there full time when her husband retired from his job. But now her husband has passed away, and she's getting too old to be taking care of the house and that waterfront property, so she's moving to Louisiana to be near to her family. G brought a homemade peach cobbler for dessert and she taught us how to play Double-Nine Dominoes. Great game...... we play Dominoes a lot, but always used our Double-Six set. We're hooked on the Double-Nines now, so we'll have to get a set of those.

While we were up at the lake, Craig Biggio had his 3,000th hit for the Houston Astros, so C was thrilled about that. She calls her cabin Biggio's Bungalow, in honor of her favorite baseball player. We have a television up at the cottage, but we still haven't gotten an antenna for it yet, so we don't get to see any baseball games while we're up there. We're too busy looking at the lake, I guess.... not to mention the chores that always seem to be there.

I was careful not to touch a shovel filled with dirt this time....... my right foot is still hurting, and my appointment with the foot doctor is this Thursday. Just by the way my foot feels, and the way it's hurting, and with everything I've read on the Internet sites, I just know he's going to tell me that the only thing that will cure this is the surgery. I'm trying not to think about it.

My friend F (up in NY) called this afternoon, and that was a nice surprise. I told her how much I've thought of her since I've had this foot problem..... with everything she went through with her own medical problems last year, this foot thing seems to be so very minor. Without a doubt, I will be saying over and over to myself It's only my foot, it's only my foot. In the grand scheme of the universe, this is just so small, when I stop to consider all that she had to endure last year.


Pajama numbers...... 983 pajamas, as of today. The NY office sent me four boxes of pajamas-- 95 pajama sets, but those aren't counted in my own collection numbers. The NY office received thousands upon thousands of pajamas, donated by one of the major northeastern corporations, so they spread the pajama-wealth and sent some to each of the Chapter presidents. A local volunteer has offered to make slippers to give away with each of the pajama sets, and I'm looking forward to meeting that nice lady at the end of this month. And a local Girl Scout troup will be collecting pajamas for our Houston Chapter, once school starts again in mid-August. Little by little, volunteers continue to surprise me.

And speaking of presidents...... one of our lake neighbors told my husband not to be surprised to find himself nominated for President of the Community Board up at the lake. My husband is now giving that some serious thought........ he will only run for the position if he's prepared to do what needs to be done to bring some good and worthwhile changes to the community.

We're getting back into the routine here, which is very different from the lake routine. No ducks to feed (the ducks are now waiting by our back porch in the mornings for their pieces of bread)... no egrets and herons landing on the bulkhead and the boatdock. We don't watch the sunsets here, like we do at the lake. And fireworks.... both my husband and C's dad bought fireworks for the weekend, which are legal up in the lake country..... they bought the bright pretty ones, not the noisy ones, so that was the entertainment for both Friday and Saturday night up at the cottage.

And today is a Monday..... and I've been so used to not having a television to watch for the last six days that I totally forgot to turn on the television here to watch Oprah this afternoon. I guess I was just too busy counting and sorting pajamas... I didn't even think of the time. That's another "lake thing" -- there is no set time up there.... it's just whatever time you want it to be.