This one was a real curve ball. One moment we are making plans for spring break and looking forward to warmer weather, and the next moment…this. Coronavirus19 is here. Am I in some sort of a long, strange dream? Did I somehow walk onto …
Yesterday my sister asked me when I was going to write another blog post. It’s been a while, I know, and there are reasons for that. The main reason is that I just haven’t been feeling well lately, I’m still not exactly sure what’s been …
I have been a Kansas City Chiefs fan since childhood. My parents loved both Chiefs football and Royals baseball, and that love spilled over into most of their children (my sister Lorna detested ALL sports).
Yesterday the Chiefs won the AFC championship to make it to the Super Bowl for the first time in 50 years. I had tears. Tears of excitement, tears of joy..and tears for my dad.
I can just picture the big grin on my dad’s face upon learning that his beloved team will be playing in the Super Bowl . Heck, knowing my dad he probably would have been doing some kind of silly dance- if you knew him, you’ll understand that.
I also had tears because it brought back the distinct memory of the very last real conversation I had with my dad.
My father had lung cancer, which metastasized to his brain. He spent his last few months in a nursing home, where we went to visit him daily. After all treatment options were exhausted, he was placed on hospice.
Dad was sharp, and he knew what was happening. I believe it was late December 2010 when we found out the Chiefs had made it to the playoffs. I was alone in the room as I had stopped by to visit on my lunch break from work. Dad and I had a long conversation about our Chiefs. He was so happy and hoped, as he did every year, that “this would be their year”. He wanted to watch that playoff game.
I helped dad put some Carmex lip balm on his very dry lips, and then he shocked me. He said “Thank you. I love you.”
I always knew my parents loved me. They showed me daily, in every single thing they did. He was the best father anybody could ask for, as was my mom. This was the first time that my dad ever told me he loved me.
I didn’t make a big deal out of his words that day (outwardly). “I love you too, dad”, I said as I left to get back to work.
My dad didn’t get to see that playoff game, as he slipped into unconsciousness before it could happen, and never awoke. I joked that maybe he was just saving himself from witnessing the horrible loss they endured. 🙂
I like to think that my dad was there yesterday. He was there in my living room watching his adult grandsons whooping and hollering. He was there when his youngest grandson was yelling from the bedroom and banging on the walls. He was there at my sister’s house watching with her and her husband. He was there at Arrowhead stadium with my brother and nephew screaming with excitement. He was there.
Whether our team wins or loses at the big game (and I definitely hope they win), we finally made it back. This Super Bowl is for you, Keith Holmes, and all of the other die hard fans that didn’t make it to see this day.
Go Chiefs!!
Our Christmas tree went up yesterday. My husband found a “Sounds of the Season” channel on television, put it on for me, and went to the bedroom to hide out until the deed was complete. The end result is beautiful. But.. where’s the tinsel? 🙂 …
Many years ago, I attended a seminar for my job. Through the years there were so many different seminars and workshops, and, quite frankly I only recall a handful of them.
One particular session stood out. The speaker drew a bunch of squiggly lines on a chalkboard.. her rendition of a roller coaster. She spoke for two hours, but it was her final point that stuck with me. Life is like a roller coaster.
At times, we ride along smoothly with just a few slight bumps here and there. Other times, everything seems to be going great as we climb to the top. We are on top of the world! But then….
We start diving down, faster and faster, with life around us spinning by in a blur. It seems that everything that CAN go wrong, DOES go wrong.
Just as we’re ready to give up, we start to slowly climb upward again. There will be a few more dips, but eventually things start to even out. By the end of the ride, we’re cruising along on a level surface.
I haven’t written a new blog post for a month. Sure, I could have written a bunch of words (blah, blah, blah) and published them..but my roller coaster was speeding downhill so fast that I couldn’t catch my breath long enough to write.
Our dishwasher died on us. This dishwasher has been on it’s last leg for months, so it wasn’t a huge surprise. No problem, I don’t mind hand washing dishes. As a matter of fact, I find it relaxing. Eventually a new dishwasher will come into our lives, but this wasn’t a major issue.
Next, it was the pickup. My husband broke down on the way home from work. We thought it was the transmission, but luckily it was something else a bit less sinister. Still, it was out of the scope of my husband’s mechanical skills, so into the shop it went. For the next two weeks, we shared a car- not an easy task with our busy work schedules.
On the day we got the pickup back from the shop (to the tune of seven hundred dollars), my daughter-in-law sent me a message. Her plumbing was backing up into the toilet and bathtub. They rent from us, so this was our concern. We have a duplex, with us living in the front unit and them in the back.
My husband checked our bathroom and.. you guessed it..ours was also backed up. In all of the years we’ve had this place, both units have never had this issue simultaneously. I called the city to have them see if it was on their end. It wasn’t. My handy husband rented a sewer snake and supposedly broke the clog.
All was good for two days until it happened again. What the heck? “Heck” wasn’t EXACTLY the word we used, but you get the picture..right?
Another sewer snake rental, broke the clog. Were we done? Of course not!! My husband went to put the toilet back on and discovered the bathroom floor was rotted out. Rotted out, and he had to leave town for two days (truck driver). No toilet at all. Luckily, the back unit toilet was working and we know our neighbors pretty dang well. 🙂
My husband returned on Friday morning, put in a makeshift floor until he has enough time to replace it properly, and installed the toilet. Yay!
Nope. I started a load of laundry and everything backed up again. Time to call the plumber. Three hundred dollars later, we are cautiously optimistic.
Oh..I forgot to mention that in the midst of all of this, we found out that the water heater in the back unit is shot and needs replaced. There’s another five hundred bucks. 🙂
Throughout all of this we have been having health issues. My husband’s diabetes is acting up with a 13.9 A1c. His doctor wants to put him on insulin but can’t due to DOT driving regulations for his job. They are trying other options. I had also been having issues with kidney stones (much better now).
In the midst of our mess, my husband looked up in the corner of our living room and saw what he thought were cobwebs in the dim, cozy lighting. No, not cobwebs..just a little bit of MOLD!
Seriously? Seriously? Seriously.
All of this took place in November. Also in November we have had two son’s birthdays and four grandchildren birthdays, along with another grandson’s birthday coming December 2nd.
Has anybody seen the movie The Money Pit? I think I’m living it right now.
All of this has been awful, but still this Thanksgiving we have so many blessings as well. I recently found out another of my loved ones is fighting a terrible illness. Other loved ones are suffering heartbreak, in many forms. I have no right to complain.
It is my hope that their roller coasters begin climbing back up very soon.
As for me, my arms are tired from holding them up and enjoying the zoom downhill. It’s time to level off a bit.
Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂
Picky kids. Picky husband. With seven kids and a super picky husband, meal planning was never easy. Our motto ..”you get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit”. I learned this from a former co-worker and utilized it on a daily basis! My …
My husband was a single daddy with three young children when we first met . He invited me over to dinner one evening, and had prepared chicken and noodles. I was surprised that he had actually made his own noodles using eggs, flour, and milk.. …
This year I decided not to decorate for Halloween.
The kids are grown. Most of the grandkids will only stop by briefly on Halloween night, and I remember just how hectic it was to try and get to all the places we needed to go on that busy evening…so I don’t expect them to hang out here.
Trick-or-treaters are almost non-existent in my neighborhood. Last year I had a total of eight trick-or-treaters, and five of them were my own grandkids. My house was the only one in my block with the porch light on.
As I age, decorating for the holiday becomes more and more of a chore. I used to love it, and Halloween was one of my favorites!
A few days ago, I opened up the door to the closet where all of my Halloween decorations are kept…stood there looking at them for a couple of minutes..and shut the door.
“What’s the point of decorating when I just have to take it all back down in a few weeks?”, I said to myself. I called my daughter in law that lives directly behind us and told her she could borrow some of my Halloween decorations if she wanted, as I wouldn’t be using them this year.
She came in and took a few, and I took a couple of things out.
One was a velvet black cat with a witches hat that a talented co-worker made for me over twenty five years ago. So many memories with that old thing, back when my two oldest sons were just little guys.
The other decoration I pulled out was a ceramic scarecrow with a pumpkin head. I remember buying it at a little ceramic shop operated by developmentally disabled adults, and this was at least thirty years ago. My mother was with me, and she bought one exactly like it. Somehow this ceramic scarecrow survived my rambunctious family through all of these years. It deserved to still be proudly displayed.
Two decorations, and that’s it! I told my husband that was the extent of my Halloween decor this year.
Yesterday I took a client to a doctor appointment. I work as a targeted case manager with a mental health agency, and my position requires coordination of services for both physical and mental health.
As we were driving, my client started pointing out houses that were decorated for Halloween and mentioned that she loved seeing the decorations. I began talking about my parents, and how my mother continued to decorate for the holidays until her very last holiday in her home, and how special those memories were to me.
My mother continued to decorate until she was eighty years old. Eighty years old, and here I am making excuses not to decorate.
Right then and there, I decided I owe it to my parents, my children, grandchildren, and myself to get off my butt and put my decorations out.
I’ve lost some of my big outdoor decorations through the years but today I put out all that I still had. I strung the spider webby stuff around the front porch, and the entire time my back was reminding me that I’m no spring chicken..but I did it!
Once I finished decorating, a cozy feeling enveloped me immediately. THIS is the feeling I remember, often lost in the hustle and bustle of daily life. THIS is the feeling I’ve been missing lately. 🙂
So, if you know where I live.. stop by and trick-or-treat on Halloween night. I don’t care if you’re fifty years old- I’ll have some candy for ya!!
My older sister Lorna passed away 8 years ago. Lorna was only 52 years old, the same age that I am now. She had a cancer diagnosis at age 30, but had lived healthy and cancer free for 21 years..until it returned, with a vengeance. …
