The 21st Century

Misfortunes never come singly

On Sunday after church, Mike sat down in his recliner and suddenly started shaking. I’ll make it brief: E(emergency)M(Medical) S(Services) came, administered medication in the Van, then took him to the ER. It looked like Atrial Fibrillation, irregular heart rhythm. We spent hours at the ER, had dozens of tests done. At 8 p.m. Mike was admitted to a room in the hospital; still on Sunday, and he was discharged today, Tuesday,  at 3:30 p.m. I can’t remember how many tests were done, cardiac and neurological, and of course lab tests, and everything came back negative! That’s good! The last MRI took place this morning, and it was like hell, said Mike. But it is all done now and he was declared in good shape and sent home with some different medications.

What a scare! I’m thankful that I can report a happy ending and we are both turning in early tonight!

May your days be peaceful and happy.

Until next time.

Ronny

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…

Me? Fall? Well, yes. Last Thursday evening, getting off of my step stool in the coat closet, after looking for a pair of pants that had my Fitbit in it, I tumbled down, because I did not keep my feet in the center of the top. It was very, very painful. My right leg was crushed between the steps, but I was finally able to free myself and get to the bed. I was wearing leggings and dreaded the moment I would take them off. Mike came to sit next to me for moral support, and when I stripped down, we saw a 6 x 2″ strip of bare leg: the skin was hanging in shreds, unsolvable. Ouch, such pain! The legging was undamaged. I had a large supply of first aid stuff from the treatments of Mike’s leg wound and took care of it. After a week, it still hurts a lot. But there are two good sides to this fall: I landed with my head in a wall of skirts; and the next day we had to go to the wound clinic for Mike’s leg anyway, so his doctor could give me advice: “Only the epidermis is gone, it is not a deep wound and it will heal in time.” So now we are both hobbling along. But Mike’s wound looks almost closed and so we are pretty sure we will both be happily striding again when Christmas comes around.

Mele Kalikimaka

I was looking forward to dancing hula again at the Christmas show with Caroline; but I just cancelled, because if my leg hurts so much still to walk, dancing will be out of the question next week. But another plan formed in my mind: I would like to tell Christmas stories. It’s all arranged, starting next week I will do a one-hour Christmas program with a friend, Paula, who plays the violin. She has been playing Advent carols on Sunday mornings and is looking forward to three weeks of doing a Christmas show together: I will tell a story and she will play carols to fill in at the beginning and the end, with the theme of the story in mind. Another friend said, ‘Ronny, you just retired! And here you are doing another project?” Well, yes. I know some beautiful Christmas stories, and it is only once a year that I can tell them.

A funny occasion comes to mind. We had moved from Hawai’i to Prescott, Arizona in 2001, and had been visiting a particular church for a few months. When Christmas services were discussed, I said to the Pastor that I would be very happy to tell a Christmas Story instead of his sermon. The Pastor agreed, and when the time came, I went on stage and told my story. At that time, I still had it memorized, so I could act it out. But it is a lengthy story, about 25 minutes. I saw the Pastor from the corner of my eye getting red and restless. I had everybody’s attention and continued to the emotional end. The Pastor was clearly upset: there was no time left for him to do a sermon! “I did not know your story would take that long,” he said. But I had told him ahead of time I could do it instead of a sermon, so I did not feel bad.

A Christmas Program…Stories and Carols with Ronny and Paula

…is the title of our program. The Activities Director will design and print and circulate flyers each week and the only thing I have to do is practicing my reading and check the sound system. At my age I do not dare tell stories from memory any more, but I can do a lot with my voice, and that will be so much fun. Well, I also printed and stapled 30 x 4 music sheets and added stickers. Because I could not very well let Paula do all that alone.

A Wedding in Waltonwood!

My new best friend is getting married! Her fiancé moved to the Cottages in July of last year, and she came in October. We quickly became best friends. And recently, finally, he asked her to marry him! They are having a reception in the Private Dining Room, invited 8 people and asked me to be their MC. Only the Chef and the Dining Room manager know about it, so they can plan ahead with food and drink. He is 82 and she just turned 72 last week. And now I am so incredibly busy with things to do that I will stop right here.

My leg wound is hurting a lot, but getting smaller, so I’m hoping I will soon be well again. And how wonderful it is that I have all those wonderful long skirts from Anna to cover my injury!

May your days be peaceful and happy.

Until next time!

Ronny

The lists of things to do are getting longer  ——————————————

The days are getting shorter  ——————

And my Blog posts ——–

…are becoming shorter still —-  It is clear: the holidays are near!

Last Sunday we visited a newly discovered Presbyterian Church with our best friends from the cottages and found one of the pastors to be from the Netherlands. So after the service, we “spoke in tongues” for a while, and decided, based on the light and modern setting, the beautiful music, the sermon and the friendly people, that we would visit again next week. In the afternoon we went to our son’s house for a few hours, to watch them in action after setting up their large Christmas tree. Our oldest grandson and his girlfriend were over from Florida, the girlfriend of our second grandson was also there, and we thoroughly enjoyed the interaction of the younger generation.

Our youngest grandson, Peter, had offered a while ago to help me with the outside lights. I would have to order new lights on Amazon, because last year, our whole wall of lights woven through the fence, was so difficult to get off in the January cold, that I took scissors, cut all the light strings and threw them away. However, even though I had planned on buying new lights, that had not happened yet. And last night, when I got a call that Peter and his Dad would be here to put up the lights around 10 a.m., I had to confess that I would have to make an early dash to Walmart to get them. “No, don’t worry about that”, said our son, “We will bring lights in the morning. Just get out the extension cord and the timer and we’ll see you around ten.”

How about that for a wonderful Christmas surprise!

May your days be peaceful but exciting!

Until next time,

Ronny

Fall Colors are everywhere around. Our son took us for a ride around town and Lake Johnson, and treated us to a peppermint chocolate chip milkshake, a seasonal special.f Chick-Fil-A. We had a wonderful time. Around our campus and neighborhoods the fall colors are beautiful as well.
The temperatures are dropping in the night into the thirties, but it is amazing that now, in the middle of November, the day time temperatures are still in the sixties. Wonderful weather for walking.

The return of the Rabbit

Many years ago, in the late nineteen eighties, I inherited some money from my aunt in the Netherlands. We lived in Pasadena at the time, and according to the fashion, ladies wore shrugs, also to sit on the bleachers watching the Rose Parade. So I went to a furrier, who designed a silver fox shrug for me and embroidered my name on the lining. Six months after that, we moved to…Hawai’i! I had no need for any fur in Hawai’i! The furrier kept my shrug in cold storage for twelve years. After we came back to the mainland and settled in Arizona, I had no need for a shrug there either! The furrier was nice and let me trade it for anything in the store. And there was this lovely rabbit fur bomber jacket: fancy enough to take on outings in Prescott and walk around the square, and simple enough for walks in the forest. I loved that jacket! I wore it for about 17 years, into our time in Cary. Where I took it to Phoenix for storing and cleaning in the summer months, I had just kept it in the closet here in Cary. So it was in dire need of cleaning and repair. I took it to a local furrier and after two seeks I got it back! It’s beautiful, like new, and it keeps me wonderfully warm! More next week!

May your days be peaceful and happy.

Until next time,

Ronny

Correction

Now that we are approaching year-end, the end of the year 2021 that is, I noticed that all year, on all my Blog Posts, I mentioned the year 2020. How is  it possible that I did not notice that before? My eyes are good, and I detect every spelling error in every text that I read, others’ or my own. I was still living in the past, that must be it. Correction applied!

Covid concerns

When the CDC put out a mandate recently that all companies and organizations had to have masks in the workplace, there was quite an uproar here. Unbeknownst to many, several employees of the Physical Therapy department, a separate entity within our Senior Community, had not been vaccinated. When that became the law, they left or were fired; which gave many patients peace of mind. The leader assured us that she had already hired other therapists, so nobody needed to worry. Whatever happens in the larger community happens mostly without anyone noticing the details. New employees get hired, get trained, and a month or so later disappear again. Old-timers vanish because they can get a better paying job somewhere else. Wonderful servers who worked in the dining room during the summer, left for college. The kitchen has constantly been understaffed, and we have had many buffet dinners. Lately, we were happy to have three evenings a week with a proper sit-down dinner, and that is when we like to go. On buffet evenings I go through the buffet and take our dinners home. We can also arrange to have our selections bagged for pick up, and we used to do that, but at those times we did not always get what we had signed up for.

Boosters

They finally announced that Walgreens Pharmacy will come to give us booster shots on the 17th. That was still such a long wait that several people decided to go to Walgreens and get them sooner. We did. I made appointments online, filled out the required forms and we went last Wednesday afternoon. There was no wait, and we had absolutely no adverse reactions. Done! We are safe once again!

Unsafe Drinking Water

Two weeks ago, we did not get anymore bottled water. At the same time, articles appeared online: tap water was unhealthy, and plastic bottles could also be dangerous. I have no idea what is going on. When I texted the chef, he said that ‘they started giving out the small bottles during Covid, but now they would no longer do that, because of the great expense. Drinking water out of the tap was ok.’ I question both, but I asked our daughter-in-law for a second opinion. She advised to purchase a pitcher with a filter for cold water from the refrigerator and said that tap water had contaminants in it (10 in Cary) but was not dangerous for drinking. Not like water in Mexico or third world countries. So…Amazon to the rescue for a water filter pitcher.

Shopping!

What a difference was real shopping compared to shopping from catalogs or shopping on Amazon!

Our son took me shopping to Bass-Pro, an enormous store for outdoor articles, clothes and much more. Mike did not want to go, but I loved it! I bought some wonderful pants and flannel shirts for him. They were already decorating for Christmas and I saw a Gnome, so cute that I could not resist it. It has a light with a switch at the
bottom. I decided then and there that I will start a Gnome collection. Over the years, I have had many collections and it is a wonderful hobby. I have had a box collection, a perfume bottle collection, a paper weight collection and a bell collection. Each time when my interest waned, I would keep the nicest ones, and gave the others away. The paper weights are so functional that I still have seven. Does any of you have a collection that you want to share? Please tell me about it. It’s fun!

Yesterday I was in for a big surprise. Our daughter-in-law announced that she has a new gig: she is making wreaths and selling them on Etsy and soon on Amazon! I went to her Etsy shop and what did I see? She made one Gnome wreath! “I’ll be ‘Gnome’ for Christmas”. Two people already had it in their basket, but I beat them to it! She will hand deliver it soon! Lucky me.  I even see Gnome ribbons. She is so creative! We never had a large wreath on any of our front doors. We had a decorated horn, because our son was a trumpet player. If you would like to take a look at Stephanie’s Etsy shop, go to ShopWelcomeWreaths. She calls her creations Jubilant Designs. And I know two people who are on cloud nine!

May your days be peaceful and happy

Until next time,

Ronny

Halloween Costume Party

We had a great time at Happy Hour last Friday, when a handful of people had dressed up. We joined another couple from the cottages who did a skit. He sang songs in Italian and I was swooning, with long black gloves holding a long cigarette holder with a cigarette. The day before, I had no idea where to get a cigarette for my holder. This is a smoke free campus, and even my morning helper had no success.

On Friday morning, after my dashboard had indicated the car needed an oil change, I made an appointment with the garage. It would take and hour and a half, so after dropping off the car I took a walk on the shady sidewalk of the neighboring street. Fifteen minutes to the end, then back. On the way back, looking down on the parking lot of one of the Duke Hospital facilities, I noticed a parked car with an open window through which smoke drifted out. I walked past it, thought for a moment, then turned around and a walked back towards the car. ‘Where there is smoke, there are cigarettes’ I thought. I needed to walk down to the parking lot through a steep 8 feet border with pine needles and mulch, and then I walked around the car and stopped six feet away from the window behind which sat a smoking woman. Since I had no idea if she spoke English, I said slowly and enunciated: “Tonight, I am going to a Halloween costume party and I need one cigarette. Do you have one cigarette for me?” With a nice smile, she nodded and offered me a crumpled cigarette pack. In it was one cigarette. Her last one, and she offered it to me. For a party. Her kindness and generosity touched my heart. But I was prepared to give her something in return. With my left hand I carefully lifted the cigarette out of the pack and with my right hand I took a one dollar bill out of my pocket and handed it to her. You should have seen her smile! And mine!

Miracles

Yesterday, after I had walked in Wimbledon with Lani, through what I call The Divide (the forested area between our two neighborhoods), I dropped her off at home and walked back to take a look at the large tree that had fallen over about two years ago in a storm. I have to duck underneath it every time I walk to and from Wimbledon, because it fell across the trail I had created. I thought the tree was long dead. Nobody would cut it down, because nobody goes there. It is no-man’s land. I looked at the roots, which were sticking up in the air vertically: a very shallow root system for sure. But when I looked closer, I saw that a small part of it, about 5 inches around, was still “grounded”. I looked again at the trunk of the tree. It had not fallen to the ground, but right on top of another, smaller tree, which had bent under the weight of the big tree. And then I noticed that all over the trunk of the fallen tree, thin branches had grown up, all full of leaves and about 4 to 6 feet long. The tree was alive! Thanks to the support of the smaller tree, it had not uprooted completely and crashed to the ground, but it was still alive, growing branches in every direction: a miracle in nature.

We have a friend, whose wife has a Glioblastoma tumor in her brain. It is terminal, they were told. The tumor affected her total right side: she can’t see, hear or move on the right. But her left side is still functioning. Left-handed, she has made the most beautiful quilts, small and very large: their house hangs full of them. When she could no longer handle the mental challenges of quilting, she started doing jigsaw puzzles, and playing Scrabble on her iPhone. She was diagnosed in 2016, that’s five years ago! She has had treatments and tests, has been on Hospice Care for two years, but now she is only on palliative care and a checkup  every three months. She sits in a wheelchair most of the day. Her husband is her full time caregiver. He takes her everywhere, even to the beach for family reunions. He is like the small tree that carries the weight of the large tree and keeps it alive. The two of them are a miracle of human love. We are blessed to be their friends.

May your days be peaceful and happy

Until next time,

Ronny

Moesson

is a Magazine that is celebrating 65 years. It is a Magazine for and by Indo’s, people with links to the Dutch East Indies. Because so many Indo’s emigrated to many countries all over the world, and second and third generations do not speak Dutch anymore, but rather English, Moesson came out this year with Moesson International in the English language. For the July issue, commemorating August 15, the end of World War Two in the Dutch East Indies, they asked me to write some childhood memories of our years in the camps and of our later pilgrimage to Java. I may have mentioned this here before, and if you have read the books I published based on the secret journal of my mother, you will recognize some of my story.

The full story is published in the Printed Moesson International Magazine of July 2021.

Volcanoes

Last week, the Hawai’i News reported a 6.2 earthquake off the coast of Hawai’i, the Big Island. No tsunami expected afterwards, it said. I looked it up, and sure enough, the earthquake was on the bottom of the ocean, where a new volcano is taking shape. Lo’ihi, or Lōʻihi Seamount is an active submarine volcano about 22 mi off the southeast coast of the island of Hawaii. The top of the seamount is about 3,200 ft below sea level. This seamount is on the flank of Mauna Loa, the largest shield volcano on Earth. If you are interested, look it up on Wikipedia.

It was especially interesting for us, because we learned about Lo’ihi when we lived on the Big Island twenty-five years ago. Not that we expected to see another island surface, because with a little bit of luck that will take 200,000 years. None of us will be there to watch the spectacle. What I found particularly interesting is that the hot lava erupting out of the crater immediately cools off by the surrounding ocean water and turns into balls. Can you imagine? Lava balls? I wonder how warm they still are, knowing that the temperature of lava straight from a volcano is about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of the water at the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean is 38 degrees Fahrenheit. Reading that, it does not seem too cold down there. But I was very happy to swim and snorkel on the surface at a temperature of about 84 degrees. And that for twelve whole years! How lucky can you be?

Activities

October Fest and a Dog Parade are on the schedule this week at the Club. Last week, they had rescheduled it and I came for nothing, because we at the cottages not always get all the news in a timely manner. So this Friday, I will take Lani to the Dog Parade for the Assisted Living Residents. October Fest still conjures up unpleasant memories of the War for Mike, and besides, we don’t drink beer. Talking about memories, one of the pleasant memories that we have of visiting Mike’s Mom when we still lived in the Netherlands was that they always served a glass of Port after dinner. So this week, when I happened to be at Harris Teeter Pharmacy, I sauntered over to their huge wine department and discovered in a far corner several brands of Port. I chose a bottle of Sandeman Tawny Port, a familiar brand, and recommended by the man who was stocking the shelves. He apologized for the fact that Harris Teeter did not carry the $125/bottle Port, but I said that I would try the Tawny Port they had on the shelf first. I did, and it is delicious! Sometimes instead of dessert, sometimes with! I can highly recommend it.

Doctors visits always take time, whether they are coming to the house or we are going to see them. We had several of those, and so this week I will end by saying all the checkups were good and we’re ok until the next visit. Happy, happy.

May your days be peaceful and happy.

Until next time,

Ronny

A Watch Story

Mike has had a favorite Timex watch on a stretch gold tone band – he had it since we lived in Prescott. The band became so tight that it left an indent and that worried me. So one day, we went shopping for a new watch with a wider band. We ended up at JC Penney’s with a watch that looked the same, so Mike liked it, and the label said “wider band”. Well, the band was a tad wider, but not longer. So it was equally tight on his wrist. Then recently, our Primary Care Doctor said he shouldn’t really wear such a tight band, also because we detected a rash on his left hand. So Mike took it off, but the next day, he put it on his right wrist. It was equally tight there. So he took it off and put it on the table next to him.

I went shopping on Amazon and found a beautiful gold pocket watch, bigger than the old one, on a gold chain. Now Mike does not wear vests of course, but it said this pocket watch was especially good for jeans. The pictures looked cool, and I bought it.

Hm. It started out good, because Mike liked it. I took it to my Jeweler to set it and he explained that it was self winding, but it needed movement and the movement of walking alone was not enough. I would need to shake it vigorously twenty times twice a day. Well, Mike is not walking a lot, so we needed to shake it more often.

There was another problem: it was a pocket watch for jeans. Jeans have a pocket on the front. Mike does not wear jeans. He has deep pockets, and even though the gold chain was attached to a belt loop, it was impossible to dig the watch up to look at the time all day long, especially when he was seated. And he is seated most of the day with his leg up, because the wound is only slowly healing. So he put it on the table next to him. And said: “Why can’t I have my old watch on the table instead of this one?” Well yeah, good point, but I really liked that watch. So I shook it twenty times or more twice a day and walked around with it in my pocket for a while, but then it stopped. And after I set it again an d tried it for another day, the same thing happened. It did not keep running. I was sad to see it go, but Amazon graciously took it back. And Mike ended up very pleased with his old watch on the table next to him. the band is attached, so I can’t replace it, and I’m done looking! If he is happy, I am happy.

Halloween is just around the corner!

It is wonderful to have found another couple interested in thinking of some fun costumes and to do
something with. I sent out a text to all the kids and asked for ideas for Mike. Everyone jumped on the chance . .they sent us pictures and Amazon links.      

From Hawaiian tourist to Adventurer to Einstein to a Pumpkin. But Mike did not care for any. Until one kid sent us the link to a Maori suit with tattoos all over and a leaf skirt. Well, that one took my breath away. It is available for men and women: I wanted that one! All reviews however were from men. I decided you have to be tall and skinny to show off that costume! So I am not going to get one.

 Mike decided he would be happiest with the same  costume that he wore two years ago. And I am still vacillating friends tomorrow night over dinner.

The dining room is open again

for three nights a week, possibly five next week. There are
more servers and it was delightful to go to dinner again.
The mood was animated, the dining room was full, so full
that they ran out of apple pie for the last shift.

We have hope that eventually, Waltonwood will be restored           to its former glory. Remodeling will start in January 2022.
It will be a lengthy process, but we in the cottages will not
be in too much of a mess.

May your days be peaceful and happy.

Until next time

Ronny

New Neighbors

We have new neighbors in the second cottage across the street. They have a little white dog, Sofie, and of course we met with our dogs. After the moving truck had left, their daughter spent three days working in the cottage, to get it ready for her parents, and I thought everything was in place. To my surprise, nothing is! Boxes up to the ceiling, furniture everywhere but not in the right place, and when they came home from the supermarket this afternoon I found all the grocery bags on he floor in the kitchen. My heart goes out to them, but what they need is their Ambassador, and their daughter will not come back until next weekend. I went over to give them phone numbers for the Vet and the Ophthalmologist and other things she asked about, but too much time away from Mike is not what I want.

Balance

Management of Waltonwood leaves much to be desired these days. People rightly complain about everything, and the cause of all that is that many management associates have either been fired or have left for better jobs. And then, if replacements are hired, they have to be trained and lots of things go wrong or do not happen. Phone calls do not get returned, neither do emails. The monthly calendar has double bookings and so on. All those things are negatives. But then there are so many positives that we decided to sign on for another year.

Spelling Bee

Before Covid, the monthly Spelling Bee was always fun. Now, people still have to discover it among the many other activities. Today there were three people participating, and it was better than nothing, but I hope they will send out a flyer for the next time.

A good day!

When, halfway through the night, I couldn’t sleep anymore, I got up, wrote a long email to my best friend, added a paragraph to this Post, and at 5:00 a.m. Mike came to look where I was, thinking it was time to get up. Well, since we were both up, I made coffee, woke Lani, who was very hesitant to get out of her basket at such an early hour, and checked the mail. Then, gloriously early, I rolled out my yoga mat, did my exercises, took Lani for a walk when it was barely light, took a nice shower, got dressed and went to the Club to get breakfast.

Before the Spelling Bee, when it was already warm outside, I walked for half an hour on the first floor, inside, and at the end of the day I had reached, finally again, more than my goal of 10,000 steps: 12750 to be precise. That is 5.51 miles. I hope to be back on track after the long hot summer, vacation time and just a slower pace of life. Amazon provided me with a good pair of running shoes after I had worn out the previous pair in the spring. So…Life is good!

May your days be peaceful and happy.

Until next time,

Ronny