Halloween
has come and gone. A few people dressed up during the past week, bags of candy were handed out on Friday during Happy Hour, but that was basically it. On Thursday, after dropping off a special card at our son’s house, driving back along the inside roads, I discovered on a street corner a large pumpkin patch. I can’t remember the time that I actually walked around a pumpkin patch! So I immediately crossed over to the left lane, turned into the side street, made a U-turn and parked my car. It was fun! I had planned to get a pumpkin at Trader Joe’s, but this was better. It took me quite a while, however, to find a small pumpkin without blemishes, and I was surprised to see that not all pumpkins are round. There were many that were covered with growths, like large warts, colorful yellows, greens and oranges. Tall ones, and huge round ones, too numerous to mention, reminding me of the diversity of the human race.
Moves
The movers came early across the street on Monday. Sonia, the lady whose husband had passed away in August, is moving today to an apartment in the main building. She had ample choice of apartments on any of the floors, because I counted 26 vacancies. It is unbelievable, and I’m sure not good for business. Perhaps that is why the containers in which we get our food, oatmeal, soup, cottage cheese and fruit, are getting smaller, and therefore the portions have been getting smaller. I now order two oatmeal for Mike, and two soups. The kitchen is still struggling to get workers, and so sometimes we get three salads and no soup, or other kinds of mixups. Any new people they are hiring have to be trained, and sometimes you wonder how smart they are. For instance, getting all the containers in one plastic bag caused the problem that the boxes with dessert always ended up on the side. I then had to scrape off any whipped cream from the sides of the boxes put it back on top of the cake or pie. So I asked the chef to give me a second bag for the desserts. And what did I get repeatedly? A second bag; but instead of putting the boxes on top of each other, someone in the kitchen puts them neatly side by side, on their sides! So the pies are facing bottom to bottom and two whipped cream rosettes are squished somewhere between the top of their pie and the side of the box. Finger licking good!
Another move was taking place in Assisted Living: our son’s father-in-law was being moved to a whole new facility closer to the family. That was not done lightly, moving a disabled octogenarian to a whole new place. But considering the alternative, staying in an Assisted Living place where housekeepers did not do a satisfactory job of dusting and vacuuming, and an occasional mouse would come out of the bathroom, it would be my choice to get out of there too. We are so lucky to live in our wonderful cottage, are very independent, have a housekeeper that we hire from the outside, and we are thankful for every day.
Car maintenance and more
It has been a really hectic week: One day I had to take the car in for oil and filter maintenance, and when I was there, they reminded me that a year ago, they had given me an estimate for four new tires. It’s a good thing that after November last year I did not do a whole lot of driving! I made an appointment for the next day, after I had secured a ride from our son. The ride the garage offered was still too close for comfort.
On top of that, I needed to make appointments for Lani: a bath, an annual shot and a grooming session with a new groomer at another Veterinarian’s office, because the original groomer is away on maternity leave.
And then there were tons of daily political emails, and requests for money. It was quite a week. But today is Voting Day, and I am going to watch tonight who will be the winner. Think of all the money that was spent on this election! It could have been spent on disaster relief, the Food Bank, housing for the homeless and more. If only one president considered one term enough and another president would take over for the next term. That will not be the case, and next week we will know more. May the best team win!
It’s a Wonderful Life!
Until next time
Ronny