Trip home

I had breakfast with Audrey and Cheryl and then headed towards St. Louis.

Stopped in Indianapolis to see my cousin Amy and her husband Roger.  

They are ballroom dancers and they are fascinating.  I just did a quick internet search and came up with a picture:

And I also found a YouTube video of them dancing -- so cool:

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-iry-fullyhosted_011&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted_011&hspart=iry&p=roger%2Band%2Bamy%2Bgreenawalt%2Bdancing#id=1&vid=02ba1d3fa954f839dc5f760194b0f24a&action=click

Then I got on the road again, went through a few storms and got to Tricia's house.  Ed makes his own beer (he has a cool setup in the basement) and this year he started making his own hops, so I still had a small bag of Marshall's ashes so Ed spread them on the soil of his hops plants.  I think Marshall would be tickled to know that he is part of the beer-making process.

I spent the night at Tricia and Ed's and headed out on Sunday morning.  I was hoping to drive all the way through but I was too tired.  I stopped at a Holiday Inn in Abilene, Kansas.  When I got to the room, I laid down and immediately went to sleep.  I didn't wake up until this morning at 6:30AM.  I sure must have been tired.

I got back to Denver around 3:30 and picked Mia up from Camp BowWow -- I was so glad to see her again.  Now I'm home and plan to go to bed early again.  What a trip!  I'm so glad it's done and I'm sure Marshall is, too....

Starbucks in West Virginia

Update: today we found a Starbucks in Beckley, West Virginia.

Starbucks sells coffee cups in a promotion called "You Are Here," meaning that when you are in Chicago you can buy a cup that says Chicago and has the Chicago skyline on it.  Or if you are in Denver, you can buy a cup that says Denver, etc. etc.

So we went to Starbucks in Beckley and I didn't see any West Virginia cups so I asked the barista about it.  She said, "they don't make cups for West Virginia."  So I mentioned that it was hard to find a Starbucks in West Virginia and she said they were told that Starbucks is planning to open two new stores a year in West Virginia for the next several years so maybe they will finally get a cup.

Now we need to work on Kentucky.

Scattering Ashes

We had a great breakfast at Bob Evans and then started our cemetery odyssey.

First we visited the graves of Marshall's Uncle Benny and Aunt Ann, two of his favorite relatives and we scattered just a few ashes there.

Audrey, me and Cheryl (Marshall's niece):

Then off to Blue Ridge Memorial Gardens.  First to the grave of Carl Mullins, Marshall's brother, who died at a young age.

Then to the graves of Marshall's parents, Denver and Grace Mullens (they chose to spell Mullins different than other parts of the family):

Then we went shopping for a few hours and are now back at the hotel resting.  We'll have dinner tonight and then breakfast tomorrow and then off we go....

In West Virginia

Tricia and I went to breakfast this morning.  We had such a nice visit.

And then I made it out of Missouri, and then through Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky and finally around midnight (Eastern Time) made it to West Virginia. The last hour was harrowing because the West Virginia Turnpike is always under construction and it was pouring rain and very dark.  It was a steering-wheel-gripper hour or so.  I was so glad to get to the hotel.

Marshall's niece Cheryl waited up for me but Audrey (his sister) went to bed.  Evidently she isn't feeling too well so we'll need to take it easy tomorrow.  She brought flowers to put at the graves for Memorial Day.  And then we will scatter the ashes.

I'm going to try to stop in St. Louis again on my way home.

I am so tired.  It's bedtime...

NOTE:  Kentucky and West Virginia are evidently not big on Starbucks.  I think I'm in withdrawal!

Made it to St. Louis

I can't believe I was able to drive 14 hours today.  I made it to St. Louis and am spending the night (or what's left of it) at Tricia's house.

It was a beautiful today all across Colorado, Kansas and Missouri so that made the trip pleasant.  And I love listening to XM Radio's "Radio Classics" so I enjoyed listening to old radio shows all the way.

I should make it to Beckley, West Virginia, Thursday evening and we will scatter the ashes on Friday.

Packing for West Virginia

I started packing.  I think I'm all ready to go so that I can just lay around tomorrow and rest up for that long drive.

All the animals seem to be doing really well, thank goodness.

They are predicting freezing weather tonight -- and maybe snow.  Please let it be gone by Wednesday.

I may spend some time tomorrow trying to figure out how to use iTunes.  I thought I had a grip on it, but, well, I don't.  I can download a song but for the life of me I can't get it into the Playlist that I want it in.  I need to get on Google....

Not much snow

It was a little icy last night but this morning the sun came out and the day is pretty nice.

It seems like two of my babies aren't feeling too well.  Okie has been throwing up a lot and Mia has diarrhea and has had it for two days now.  I called the vet and she said to give Mia a bland diet and if she hasn't improved by Monday I should bring her in.  It seems like these bouts of diarrhea seem to come after being at Camp BowWow.  I sure hope there's nothing going on there.  Maybe it's just the excitement of being there.

The vet told me that a bland diet for Mia would be boiled chicken, boiled hamburger, scrambled eggs and maybe cottage cheese.  So I went out this morning and bought what I needed.  But I can tell you this: she is going to love this bland diet and after a day or two of hamburger, chicken and eggs, she definitely will not want to go back to her Blue Buffalo food.  But if it makes her better....

Remember the Wii craze from maybe 10 years ago?  You could go bowling, play tennis, baseball, dance, etc., and you could play against your friends (or, if you were alone, Wii would provide additional avatar players).  The little sensor thingie then showed your movements on the TV.  Dancing was particularly fun because you actually would be dancing with the musician -- like Katy Perry or Michael Jackson, etc. and you could TRY to learn their movements.  We had bought the whole shebang and after a while we stuck it in a closet.  Well, I got it back out again, dusted it off, hooked it up and then went and bought the latest version of Just Dance.  I wasn't sure that the most recent version of Just Dance would be compatible with the original Wii, but it worked.  So I'm having fun with that.

I also actually got situated in my office/studio and started on a jewelry project.  I think I am starting to feel a little motivated again.  I talked to one of the girls from my grief group this morning and she was in full throttle, too.  Maybe this trip to West Virginia will be a boost, knowing that Marshall can now rest knowing I did all the things he asked (it's funny what our imaginations can come up with).

Snow

Of all things, they are predicting snow for tonight.  It just started raining and the temperature is dropping.  I hope I don't need a snow shovel tomorrow morning because I don't have one.

None of the animals behaved today so I'm not speaking to them right now.

Mia is making progress

Mia had training again today and she is really picking up the commands.  However, she still has trouble responding when she's outdoors and sees or smells a rabbit.  The trainer says she can come to the house and do some at-home training so I think I'll take her up on that when I get back from West Virginia.

And I put in an application to an agility training class that starts, I think, in mid-July.  She will love that.  And it should also provide a nice diversion for me.

Bruno Mars, Uptown Funk and Old Movies

If you like old dancing musicals (Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Shirley Temple, Bojangles, The Marx Brothers, and on and on and on) and if you like my new favorite song, Uptown Funk, then you can really entertain yourself by going to this site:    https://youtu.be/M1F0lBnsnkE

Then after you've watched this video 20 or 30 times (because every time you watch it you will see something you missed), then do a search for "Mashup Uptown Funk" and you will find a bunch more.  It seems to me like a lot of work went into putting these together but they are incredibly entertaining. It makes me want to start taking dancing lessons first thing tomorrow!!

Trip to West Virginia

I've changed the schedule for the trip to West Virginia to scatter ashes.  I will probably leave around May 24.

One of my favorite all-time shows was Frasier and I've been watching reruns.  I have never been an observant person, so it's been interesting to learn something fascinating about the show I never knew -- I wonder if anyone else missed this.

I was watching a rerun last night and Frasier was taking calls on his radio show and the first caller had a voice like Reba McIntyre.  The more I listened to her the more I knew it was her.  The next caller sounded like Lily Tomlin.  So I Googled it and learned that all of the callers are famous people.  So now it's been fun to listen and see if I can figure out who they are.  It's fascinating.

And today I identified (Shazam!) another song I've loved but didn't know who the artist was -- It's Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk.  It took me 5 years to build up 93 songs on my iPod and now I've added two songs in the last two days.  Progress.

Tomorrow Mia goes to "class" again and I'm also trying to set her up in an agility class.  I'm waiting to hear from that trainer.  If I'm able to get her into agility, I know she'll love it.

Cats and Cubbyholes

I was going through my bedroom drawers to organize and purge and I left the room for a little.  When I got back, here's what I found:

Retail therapy

When Marshall died, he made sure I had a bit of money for "retail therapy."  He knew how much I liked to shop and he was trying to do everything he could to be sure I could make it.  I kept telling him to quit worrying about me and to do things that gave him pleasure and he said at that point it was giving him pleasure to try to take care of me.  Incredible.

Anyway, I have enjoyed my retail therapy thoroughly (THANK YOU, MARSHALL!) but that little pile of money is almost gone and it is time for me to stop.  It's not going to be easy (ha).  I am going to try to replace shopping with exercise and yoga.  Maybe I will finally even be motivated to start making jewelry again.

On Thursday a piece of mail came for Marshall.  It was from the Pueblo Municipal Court and it said he owed $34 for parking an unlicensed vehicle in Pueblo in 2010.  I knew that could not be true because he was an absolute stickler about taking care of those kinds of things.  So I called the court and the clerk told me it was a Mitsubishi and she gave me the license plate.  I told her we never owned such a vehicle and she basically said, "Our records show you did, so if you don't pay you are about to be sent to Collections."  So I called our wonderful Custer County Clerk in Westcliffe -- Marshall had gotten to know everyone in the courthouse in Westcliffe because he did everything in person and he loved to chit-chat.

The Custer County clerk is also named Marilyn.  So I spoke to Marilyn and she checked and called me back and said that plate was definitely not ever registered to Marshall.  So I called Pueblo back and told her what I had learned and she didn't believe me -- she repeated that this matter was going to go to Collection.  So I asked for a supervisor and got voicemail.  Left a detailed message.  The supervisor called me back at the end of the day and she said, "Oops, sorry, we made a mistake."  She didn't apologize, just said they made a mistake and I didn't owe anything.  Our government at work....

I felt pretty good, though, because this is the type of thing Marshall always handled and I did it!  I came very very close to just paying the $34 to get it over with, but I persevered.

Potty Training

Before I went to Durango, I considered Mia to be totally potty trained.  She had behaved for weeks.  Well, now she seems to have forgotten what she's supposed to do.  I can only assume she is mad at me for leaving her behind for a week because she now refuses to do anything outdoors.  I love her to death but she is really getting on my nerves.  😀
On a funny note, though, it is the time of year for the landscaping people to turn on the automatic sprinkler system.  Well, Mia has never seen anything like that and if the sprinklers are on when we go out, she has a blast with the water.  It is hilarious.  But tonight when we went out the sprinklers were on and I didn't realize it but they were getting ready to rotate.  We stepped off the patio and got the sprinklers head on full force.  That wasn't all that funny....

It was a dreary day today and we stayed in and watched TV.

Mia

Mia went to training again today.  The are doing wonders with her.  She got home and was totally pooped.

She is becoming an expert at getting out of her harness.  She made it out into traffic the last time.  Today she did it again, but I was able to get to her and scoop her up before she realized she was free.  She scares me to death.  I don't know what to do about this.  I've ordered two more "escape-proof" harnesses and they should be here any day now.

There was a pretty bad storm last night -- really scared the animals -- and this morning all of the landscaping in the front was ripped out by the hail.  Last night was my grief group and I'm glad I decided I'd better stay at home.

Dog Training

This morning I dropped Mia off at Camp BowWow for her training session.  She always get super excited when I pull in at the Camp.  She sure loves it there.

After I dropped her off, I treated myself to some "retail therapy."  I always feel better when I'm shopping.  A few hours at Kohl's kind of makes the world go away.

I picked Mia up at 2:30 and, as usual, she was pooped.  That means she will sleep well tonight. Her training is coming along nicely.  But I don't think they'll ever be able to train her to keep from turning into the Tasmanian Devil whenever she so much as smells a rabbit, much less sees one.  I've been trying to find an escape-proof harness for her but so far without success.  I bet I've got about 20 of them now that just won't work for her.

I need to find a place where she can do some serious running.  Maybe an agility class.  I'll do some checking.

I've been hearing a song that I really liked and wanted to identify.  I hear it when I'm at Walmart playing on their speakers in their playlist.  Yesterday it was playing and I asked someone if they knew what it was and they told me it was called Ex's and Oh's by Elle King.  So then I wanted to get it loaded into my iTunes.  Now, I haven't added anything to my iTunes in several years, I've just been listening to the same 93 songs that I have on my iPod.

I thought this was going to be easy.  HA!  I played around with it yesterday for hours and went back to it today and I was getting so frustrated.  Finally I did what I should have done to begin with -- Googled it.  I'm sure I'm the only person in the world who lost track of the changes and advances in iTunes, but nowadays you don't purchase a song, you need to be an iTunes member ($9.99 a month) and you get unlimited access to songs.  Good grief.

So at least I got my song -- which I really like -- and it will only cost me $9.99 a month.  And -- oh yeah -- I learned something.  There's a lot to be said for that.

I also learned that there is something called Amazon Music so, before I figured out the iTunes thing, I downloaded the Amazon app and bought the song for $1.29.  That was cool, but I then couldn't get it into my iTunes Playlist.  So that's where Google came into play.  And that brought the cost for this one tune up to $11.28.  That reminded me of an old commercial:  "Ex's and Oh's -- $11.28; learning experience - Priceless!"

And here's another thing I learned yesterday: when I asked this person at Walmart if they happened to know the name of the song that was playing, she got her iPhone out, pressed a few buttons and almost instantly handed me her phone and on her screen there was all the information I could possibly want about Elle King and her song.  So I now have Shazam on my iPhone.

The Aging Process

Today started out with me making a very bad judgment call in a task for my boss which is something that never would have happened a few years ago.  It has thrown me for a loop.  So today I went through disbelief, denial, anger and then reluctant acceptance of the side effects of the aging process.  Not sure what to do going forward.  Something to really think about.

But the day got better.  My neighbor Janine invited me to be her guest at her church's annual High Tea.  It was absolutely delightful.  The church hall was transformed into a beautiful tea room, tables beautifully decorated and candle-lit.  And the male members of the church were dressed just short of black tie and they waited on all the women.  A lot of the women members of the church were wearing huge flowery hats.  The food was tea, scones, petit fours, cookies, finger sandwiches, biscuits, etc.  and there were handsome beautifully dressed men everywhere, glad to bring us whatever we wanted.  Janine and I had a wonderful time.  It sure ended the day better than it started.

Now I am home in my familiar townhouse watching mindless TV -- "mindless" being the key word.

Marshall's sister and I are starting to make the plans to scatter the rest of Marshall's ashes in West Virginia on his mom and dad's graves. We have tentatively set the date of July 22 (the 2-year anniversary of his death) to meet in Beckley, West Virginia, and go to the Blue Ridge Memorial Gardens.  I wonder how we will feel once that is done.  It will truly be the end of all activities relating to Marshall.  So sad.  I miss him now just as much as I missed him two years ago.

Massage

Today was my bimonthly massage.  Somehow I can't seem to get into a groove with this guy.  Every time I go, I tell him I don't want one of those deep massages, I want a light one.  And he always says he understands what I mean.  And then he tries to break up every knot he can find and it hurts.  Then I get home and I feel like I've been in a car accident.  So when I made my appointment for the next one, I asked for a different therapist.  I hope I can get a massage that just makes me want to take a nap!

The weather was great today.  Maybe spring is almost here.

Mia was doing really well in the potty training department but since I got back from Durango she has reverted a bit.  GRRRRR.  And the rabbits are out again so controlling Mia when we're outside is a challenge.  A few weeks ago she managed to back out of her harness and she ran right out into traffic.  I got pretty worked up trying to catch her.  Thank goodness the traffic all stopped (it is a very busy street) and a few people even got out and tried to help me get her but that just scared her.  But she eventually came back to me. I sure wish I had a yard.

Catching Up

Just a quick catch-up.

Things are still going along nicely.  My dental stuff is all done and I have a very pretty smile....

I still have not had an episode of atrial fibrillation for a very long time.  And that is great.  The pacemaker is doing nicely but I think it may need tweaking -- it seems to kind of over-work whenever I do anything that requires exertion.  We'll see.  I still have tremors but I believe they are related to coffee consumption.  I try to give it up but I am truly addicted.

I had the plantation shutters installed and they look awesome.  They cost a fortune but well worth it.  I feel like I'm in a whole new house. (I threw in a picture of my three babies being exceptionally well behaved.)

In April I met up with an old high school classmate in Durango for the Durango Meltdown Bluegrass Festival.  Spent about five days there and we had so much fun.  I'm still not very good at selfies but I'm practicing.  (I finally quit dying my hair and realize that I can live with my natural look...)

I think my sister is having a heck of a time with the unending rain they've been having in southern Missouri.  I'm planning to go visit her towards the end of May.  I hope it's dried up by then.

I have had an interesting last few weeks.  One of the girls at the grief group told me about a neighbor of hers who lost his wife and was looking for someone to talk to.  She asked if I would be willing to talk to him, so I said yes.  I didn't want to give out my actual name or address or phone number (just being careful) so we started emailing (I have a special email for things like this).  He's 80 years old and I'll call him Roy.

After a week of emailing he started asking if we could meet and have lunch or dinner and I felt like it might be getting to be more than I planned on, but I thought it couldn't hurt.  However, before doing that I decided that we should discuss -- by email -- the three big things that can break up a friendship: politics, religion and race issues.  So I sent him an email telling him how I felt about those three things and I guess my political views were more than he could handle.  He replied saying, "Well, you are right, political views can end a friendship, so let's end this one."  LOL!!  I think I dodged a bullet.

Mia has been going to training twice a week at Camp BowWow and they have done wonders with her.  We still have a way to go but she is certainly progressing.

I'm waiting for the weather to get nice so I can try taking the motorcycle out.

That's all I can think of.  More later.