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.
Saturday, May 13, 2017
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
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.
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.
Sunday, May 7, 2017
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.
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.
Saturday, May 6, 2017
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.
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.
Thursday, May 4, 2017
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
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.
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 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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)