Ronny

Daffodils!

A big smile crossed my face when I walked into Trader Joe’s today. At the foot of the display table across the entrance I saw two buckets full of daffodils! Although the cut poinsettias on our side table are going into their third week, still looking good, I could not resist the temptation and bought two bunches: the first sign of spring! I noticed them as well the following day, walking on the trail in Wimbledon.

I so love arranging flowers. I still have a collection of vases, in various  sizes. My flower arranging really took off when we were living on the Big Island, with its abundance of flowers. I arranged large bouquets for our home and for church as well. In the jungle around our home I would pick various types of heliconia, monstera leaves and more, growing everywhere in the wild. For calathea flowers and a different variety of heliconias I had to go down a steep slope at the bottom of our property. Sometimes slippery due to the frequent rains in the Hilo area, the trail led down to a small stream. It was dark down below, and quiet except for the soft sounds of the cascading water. Shortly after we moved to the Big Island in 1990, I cut that trail through the jungly bushes down to the stream, because I had dreamed that I could sit in a chair by our stream and read books! Ha! It appeared to be a mosquitoes’ paradise! Even though I achieved some immunity for mosquitoes over the years, I always wore long pants and long sleeved shirts when I descended into the jungle. And I was not carrying a book but a machete and heavy duty clippers. Many flower stalks in Hawai’i are very large and I came home sometimes with just two or three heliconias over my shoulder. If you have not actually lived there, I don’t think you can have any idea of the beautiful delights of the thousands of varieties of flowers on the Big Island.

Now back to reality in Cary. I took a small vase with one of the bouquets of daffodils to a couple in Assisted Living with the joyous message of the coming of Spring. The other bouquet stands on our coffee table. You know, I still have the habit of buying two of everything. It dates back to my camp years I think, when everything was scarce and we never knew if we could get another pair of shoes, or socks, or underwear, or any kind of food. What a delight, what a privilege to now have so much of everything that we can share abundantly. If I buy two pairs of shoes, I will give one older pair, which I have not worn in a long time, away, and I do that with everything. If you figure it out, my possessions still grow!

So once in a while I go through all our closets and cupboards and fill some bags with things we don’t need any more. Our young housekeeper who comes twice a month has a large family and she will happily take everything I put in the garage. Now, if it concerns two boxes of Oreo cookies, or chocolate chip cookies, we usually keep them all. I like to be prepared for visits from the three grandkids, who will happily, over time of course, empty our cookie jar.

Loose Leash training

Lani is home after her stitches have healed, her donut came off and she had a nice bath at the Vet, and I started walking her on her new harness again. It is a struggle to put it on her, because she is wriggling in all directions, but I will get better at it over time. She is not pulling so hard any more, and last evening – it was still light when we came home from dinner – she was so good! Looking over her shoulder at me, sitting down, then walking next to me, that she got treat after treat, and I took her on an extra round around the pond. Well, all those treats and fast walking two hours before her bedtime did her no good. When she heard us getting up this morning the started barking and when I switched on the lights I saw she had thrown up all the treats from the night before. Poor thing, there was just a small dry area left on her pad to sit. Halfway through the morning the pad was clean and dry again and I had learned another lesson in caring for our puppy. Now, she has periods that she lays at our feet, or between us, quietly watching or sound asleep. She is going to be a model companion! Our million dollar Goldendoodle, Lani.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

Don’t judge a book by its cover

Everybody has a story, but if you live life on the surface and never make deeper connections, you will miss out on many of those stories. This week I decided to visit Jayne. She lives in Independent Living and has been here perhaps two months. She has a 24 hour caregiver and is on oxygen 24/7. She was one of those women that make you think why does she not live in Assisted Living? Very skinny, not very well dressed, with hair that stood out in bunches in several directions. One night, she was seated at our table of seven and we had the opportunity to talk to her and listen to her and hear part of her story. She sounded so interesting that I could not help thinking that I would want to visit her to get to know her better and hear her full story, and perhaps fix her hair. I have washed and styled patients’ hair when I was a Hospice Volunteer, so I knew I could do that for her.

Well, after meeting one of her sons and one grandson at brunch last Sunday, I was even more impressed about the whole family and I called her to see when I could visit. She had said she would like to see my mother’s diary, because she had my book on her Kindle, so I took that with me on Thursday afternoon to show it to her. What an interesting life this little Jayne has had. She once owned a Travel agency, was married to the love of her life for 65 years, and then Lung Cancer attacked her lungs – even though she had never smoked. Three quarters of one of her lungs were taken out, but the cancer has returned, though growing slowly, and only in her lungs. I won’t mention the other things that she is suffering from, but it is a burden that is almost too heavy to carry. The small container she carries with her to the dining room contains compressed air, not oxygen, as I thought. Because the one with oxygen is too heavy for her to carry. So she only has a limited time to breathe when she is away from her room. She has a very old miniature poodle to keep her company, for which she has two dog walkers, and every available surface in her apartment displays family pictures. We enjoyed our time together and I promised I would visit again. Her hair looked better, she just had it cut downstairs at the hairdresser’s. What she said made a deep impression on me. “I don’t care how I look. I don’t care what people think about me. I have other things that are more important to think about.” And indeed, when there are so many things wrong with you, when you feel miserable, when you have to breathe through tubes and you are on Hospice Care because you don’t have a long time to live anymore, I can understand that you don’t care how you look, only how you feel. She was happy with the small tube of fragrant hand cream I gave her, one of six I had received at Christmas. It is easy to share if you have so much.

Onno

Meanwhile, I have been texting with Onno’s daughter and the news was not good. After intensive care Onno went to Hospice and did not regain consciousness. My plan to be with him on Saturday to give his daughter some respite could not be accomplished. Caroline texted me that he passed away early Friday night. God knows what’s best for us, but that is not always easy to accept.

I found out in the process that if I make time available for others, things can run out of hand! It is a delight to visit with people and listen to their stories; but it is like everything I do, I need to limit my desire to go in all different directions and forget about the most important reason for living here: Mike and Lani and the de Jong family. All five de Jong descended on us Monday night, as a surprise, to celebrate with us the final hour of the sixteen year old’s birthday. That was wonderful, and that’s one of the reasons we moved to Cary.

Guy Cowan Willis

I trust that all of you have read my Anthology Survivors of WWII in the Pacific. Do you remember that I interviewed four WWII Veterans, living in Prescott? Two of them died in the mean time; one fell out of bed and broke his hip and surgery was not possible; another one committed suicide. But two of them are still alive in Prescott, and one of them surprised me with a gift. His name is Guy Cowan Willis. There are several Guys and Maries and Marys and Glorias and Bobs and Johns and Bills living here, but only one Guy and one Mike and one Ronny) and he was involved for 20 years in the Bomb Testing Business, starting in New Mexico where he lived. He sent me his recent book (only published for family and friends) Atomic Bomb Testing – The first Twenty Years – 1945-1965. He published this book at the age of 91. It is amazing and interesting, full of maps and beautiful large pictures. Glancing through it, I remembered many of the names he talked to me about before and during his interview for my Anthology. Now, I have them all in writing and can follow the chronological continuing development of the Atomic bombs after Little Boy and Fat Man, dropped on Japan in August 1945, which ended the War in the Pacific and saved my life. What a gift! I can’t be thankful enough.

Ringing the Bells

After only four days of training, our little Lani is now getting my attention when she wants to go potty by looking at me, walking to the back door and pushing the string of bells that is hanging from the door knob with her nose. She is making progress in various training exercises. An important one is that she comes running when called. It already paid off on two of our walks, when she kept pulling on her leash and broke the connecting ring it was attached to. The first ring was small and held her dog tag, then we got a strong keyring and even that gave way after a week. Next, I will look into a wider collar with a strong ring and a wider leash with a larger clasp. She will be six months old on February 20 and as of now weighs 13.6 pounds.

Fob Sob

Talking about a keyring, I lost my main Fob for the car. It was a big thing, about 4″ long, and had my favorite little elephant on it. That elephant was a gift from the lovely girl in Prescott, who worked in our favorite Thai restaurant. Our birthdays were the 24th and the 26th of December, and we exchanged little gifts every year. I treasured that elephant. I could not find it anywhere in the house; coat pockets, purses, in drawers, I turned every place inside out and upside down. Of course I do have a spare fob so we can still drive, but have you ever lost something without finding it? All the things I lost always came back to me, except my little elephant. I even called the restaurant where we had been with the family to celebrate our 58th wedding anniversary, and the NC Museum of Art we had visited the day before. Nothing. Now, after four weeks, I have to let it go to get peace of mind. I have to get a new Fob. So I will. And so I did. And with it came peace of mind.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

 

 

 

New Adventures

On Sunday afternoon, in bright sunshine, I decided to take Lani to Wimbledon for a long walk. The stretch along Cary Parkway, with many cars racing by, was scary, because she was pulling hard to get to the street. Just imagine her leash or collar would break, I would surely lose her. But the sidewalks and greenways were nice and clean, so walking was less stressful for me, although she kept pulling. On the way home she climbed her first stairs, next to the tennis courts. That was scary at first, but before we had reached the top she got the hang of it. We walked together for over an hour and covered 2.5 miles. I carried her across ”the Divide” and thought she would promptly fall asleep when we got home. But her energy was boundless and she started running after her ball! I was ready for a nap! Another 2.5 walk in Wimbledon this week was enjoyable, and when we got to the stairs she raced up the top part and arrived before me!

A few days ago her new kennel and pad arrived: she had outgrown the first one. We thought we would get a very little dog, but the new 30 x 22 crate fits her better. Two days in a row, when we went out for a walk, and she was fussing with her leash, she suddenly stopped and looked at the floor, stunned. She put out a foot, like a cat does, and then stepped back again. I looked and saw a tiny tooth! The next day, the same scenario took place. I found another tooth, and just now, on the dark brown rug by the front door, another one, smaller than the first two. I have to look in her mouth and see where they came from. She did not  whimper or indicate a feeling of pain when it happened, just looked dumbfounded. Our puppy is teething! I gave her an ice cube and it was incredibly funny to watch what she was doing with it before it had melted away, the last part in her mouth, I think.

On Monday morning early, I took her to the Vet to be spayed. Aww, such a little body to do surgery on… she came home that afternoon in a daze, her head in a cone, so she would not lick her incision, a 2.5″ scar. She ate some food, we sat on the floor, she cuddled up, I stroking her, stroking her, a soft massage, and then had a nice long night. She will have to wear that cone for ten long days, imagine. But the worst is behind her and we will continue the training. We’ve started on the bells; the goal is that she will ring the bells when she needs to go out. Step one of three she got in one day!

Make a Termite Hill out of an Ant Hill

Remember that I had found an ant hill in the border last week, and compared that to the huge ant hill that I had seen in South Africa when we were on safari in an elephant park? Well, in all probability those hills were not ant hills, but termite hills. I never noticed any sign of life near either hill, but just assumed the ants were inside and underground. Well, this week I saw part of a documentary on TV about a Chimpanzee, who used a reed to suck termites out of a termite hill that looked just like my ant hill! No wonder the tunnels I saw inside were so wide – termites are wider than ants!

Recycle your Poinsettias and save your orchids!

We got two large Poinsettias three weeks before Christmas and we put them up high, where the dog could not get to them. One is still beautiful, but the other one had lost all its leaves – only the flowers were still good. I cut the stems as long as possible and quickly put them in a round vase with water. Now I have a lovely bouquet of red Poinsettias. It has lasted ten days already and is still beautiful. I changed the water after a week, because it got cloudy, but the flowers don’t use any water at all. Another source of joy, I call it my little miracle, is a Phalaenopsis in my office window. We got it from the kids as a welcome gift when we arrived in Cary on May 10, 2017. It bloomed for two months and then went dormant. At Christmas time I moved it from the sunroom, Mike’s office, to my office, to make room for the poinsettias. And as of today it is showing a 6″ flower stalk! It does get some sun, but probably likes it better in the cooler front room. Never before have I managed to get an orchid to bloom again. But now I know that where there is life, there is hope.

Visits in Assisted Living

Walking to the exit in Assisted Living yesterday, after visiting two couples, I noticed the name of Onno on one of the doors. A month ago his daughter had told me that her Dad had felt so lost a year after his wife had passed away, that she had put him on the wait list for Assisted Living. But I had seen him recently in the dining room…had he already been admitted? I texted his daughter right away and heard that she was with Onno in the hospital in the Critical Care unit, for he was very ill. He had moved the week before but had not lived there yet. Poor Onno. I have not heard anything yet today, so let’s believe that where there is life, there is hope!

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Birthday Dinner

The January Birthday dinner, for which I had a raincheck, was nice, but some of the elegance was lacking. The salads were served in a deep soup dish instead of the usual small flat plate, and the wines that were served left a lot to be desired. Have you ever heard of a Chillable Red? The wine in my glass had a light red color and was chilled, again, after several prior requests for room temperature (68 degrees or so). When I asked what kind of wine we were drinking – it came out of a box – the maître d’ said, “It’s a Chillable Red.” Just now I looked it up at Google and guess what it said? Franzia Chillable Red had 9% alcohol and per 5 oz glass only 105 calories. Well, the one time a week that we drink a glass or two of wine at the Club, I’ll take the full 12.5% and all the calories that go with it! It’s so much more enjoyable and I am not on a diet.

At the dinner I talked to a few people whom I have met but don’t really know well yet. We came to talk about my book and my – now once-a-year – presentation downstairs in the Theatre. Abby had seen the presentation and would love to see my mother’s diary. “My daughter is very interested as well,” she said.

“If you let me know when your daughter will come to see you again I will be happy to come over and bring the diary.”

She hesitated and then said, “My daughter comes only when I need her and ask for help.” How sad! I wish I would still have my mother close by; I would visit her several days a week, like my sister Paula did when she lived close to Mamma in the Netherlands.

The other day, I noticed a large ant hill in the border across a window in Assisted Living. It was about 14” high with a 14” diameter at the bottom. A branch had fallen on top of it causing  a partial collapse, in which hole many 1/4” tunnels became visible. The red dirt felt hard when I touched it with my finger but I could easily press it in. I did not see any ants; they must be big red ants in order to need such fairly large tunnels. How interesting! I took a picture, went home, and searched for the picture of a giant ant hill we saw when we were on safari in an elephant park in South Africa. I had an idea. OI would visit a lovely couple to share these pictures with and tell the story of our African safari. We have been privileged to travel all over the world, but many people have not been able to do that, certainly not Jean and Bill. They are both in their late eighties, and had moved a few months ago to Assisted Living. They used to often walk around the building, until last April, when Bill slipped and fell on the hard floor of one of the entry ways of  the building. He needed hip surgery. It took months to regain some of his strength and his wits, and after months of Rehab he needed 24 hour care, and a wheel chair. He did eventually come home, but he is now on Hospice care and they had to move to Assisted Living. Here, Hospice care is extended as long as people need it, I believe, not for only sixty days.

The ant hill I discovered was directly across their window. I went to visit and showed them the pictures of both ant hills. “Just look outside your window and you will see this little one,” I said, “and then travel in your mind’s eye to South Africa, and look at this giant one. God creates similar things all over the world. They may be smaller or bigger, but if you are out in nature you can see many interesting things wherever you are. You don’t have to actually travel to South Africa to see the beauty of creation right in your own back yard.”

Travel to India

Last Friday our Chef prepared a special dinner with authentic dishes from India for twelve people. We signed up of course. It is always interesting to taste food from other countries. In this case I thought back to my Dad, a pilot with the Dutch Naval Air Force, who barely escaped the advancing Japanese army in WWII and joined the Allied Forces in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He must have eaten Indian cuisine during the war; he never talked about his war experiences, though, like many other veterans. The Chef wheels his special cooking equipment into the Café for occasions like this, and prepares and serves each plate individually. The dishes I enjoyed most were Dal Makhani, with black lentil and red kidney beans, richly mixed with cream and butter, Bhindi Masala, deep fried okra, split and filled with a special spice mix, both of these dishes lightly spicy, and the dessert, Gulab Jamun, three sweet brown balls of fried powdered milk. I still question how you can make balls out of powdered milk and then fry them. Good thing I don’t have to make them!

Georgia O’Keeffe

Maria had tickets for the exhibit of Georgia O’Keeffe at the NC Museum of Art and invited us to come with her. It was a magnificent exhibit in the East Building, where we had not been yet. En passant we admired a collection of African art: clothing, artifacts, masks and more. Paintings by other artists were also on display, and one three dimensional creation that covered a whole wall made me suddenly feel that I was floating on the surface of the ocean, looking down at underwater coral gardens through my mask. It looked so real!

The museum also has an amazing outside art display, which I saw last October. When I walked back to the parking lot I noticed identical geometric shadows cast by a set of three parallel white metal structures on the lawn. I wondered if they were constructed in a similar way as the Snake of Sunlight at Chichen Itza in Mexico during the Equinox. Of course this comparison does not make sense at all, but it has to do with the sunlight and I want to go back at another time of day and look at the shadows at that time. Fascinating creations of Sunlight! I’ll call it Sun Art.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

 

 

Daily Routine  

While the month of December was full of out-of-the-ordinary happenings, January has taken off with a normal everyday routine. Caring for the dog, which means walking and training and feeding and trying to prevent damage on rugs, carpet, slippers, towels, you name it, by strict supervision. Today is the monthly Resident’s Council meeting at the Club, and this week shows appointments for dentist, barber shop, Birthday dinner and, on Friday, loose leash training on the street with a personal trainer. I have pledged to do all it takes to get a dog that calmly walks next to me, without dashing left and right looking for things to eat, like wood chips, paint chips, goose poop, dog poop, and more. Yesterday she picked up the dried skin of a small snake, which I managed to get out of her mouth in two pieces, without her swallowing any. But here I am, talking about the dog again, as if there is nothing else on my mind.

Once a month the Chef treats all the people who have a birthday in that month to a special dinner in the Café. Each of the birthday people may bring one guest to the feast. Dinner usually  consists of a small salad, steak and lobster and special vegetables, with a piece of a huge birthday cake for dessert. Often, the Manager serves the salads and he also pours the wine. My birthday was last month, but we could not be there because the dinner was on December 26 and we had arranged for a carriage ride in Raleigh that night. The chef promised me a rain check for January. Tomorrow night is the night! while everybody else is looking forward to lobster and steak, the Chef always makes me something special, since I don’t care for either one. This month I have asked him for a salmon fillet with spicy chili sauce. Yum!

Bringing a bit of Sunshine

Living in a community like ours, where people live who postponed their move until they could absolutely not live in their own home anymore because of disabilities, we come across many illnesses and body part replacements we never knew existed. Aside from the usual knee and hip replacements and shoulder surgery, like mine, and colds and the flu and bronchitis, we heard from several people who get shots in their eyes on a regular basis, some who get a pacemaker replaced by a bigger, stronger one, some who wear a large band-aid on their head or their nose or their cheek to cover cancer surgery, and just now someone went to the hospital to have his esophagus stretched. If you want to listen, people will tell you everything, into the minute details. Like, when a larger, stronger pacemaker had to be inserted, the surgeon, after taking out the stitches, had a hard time to get his hand into the pocket to widen it for the larger device. That finally worked, and he closed it up again. See? Here is the scar, unbuttoning and pulling back the shirt and T-shirt for show and tell. If you think about it, all that can be pretty depressing. And perhaps I already wrote about this once. But these are recurring events.

I am not bragging about our decision to plan ahead to move closer to one of the kids at a certain age, yet I really think we did the right thing. For many people it would be more fun to live here and make new friends while they would be ten years younger and have fewer disabilities. That is not to say that we were happy to leave our beautiful home in Prescott, Arizona. But when we finally sold it, we packed up and moved to our new place, clear across the country. We had other heartaches too. Prescott had been a wonderful place to live, and a week before our departure we had to put our beloved Rottweiler Isabelle to sleep because she had cancer. The best scenario of living here is that physical therapy is on the premises and many hospitals are close by. Most of the time something can be done for people who go to the hospital and they re-appear in the dining room – which is where we meet most people – but that does not always happen. When I was a volunteer for the Visiting Nurses Hospice in California, I supported people who were dying until they died. Here, we don’t see the end. People just quietly move out of sight. They disappear.

For six years I was a one-on-one Hospice volunteer in California. I became a friend to many of my patients and their families, but had to say goodbye over and over again after a few weeks or months. Many people have said to me that it must have been depressing to be a Hospice volunteer. But it was not depressing to me. Because I felt I was contributing to the deepest needs of my patients at a time they had to say goodbye. Goodbye to their loved ones and to the life they knew. They had to take a journey into the unknown, with nothing but uncertainties; and they had to go it alone. With palliative care, Hospice would try to make that journey pain free. After six years of losing friends, though, I was burned out. I could not give any more. And that is when we moved to Hawai’i and a whole new life began, more wonderful than I could have ever imagined. God has a plan for us…

Thinking back to that time, where I could mean a lot to people, relative strangers, by just being with them, sitting and listening, I decided I should be able to do simple things for people around me to make them smile, feel happy and loved. Like that little old lady who called me the best friend in her whole life a day before she died, just because I had found a common love for rocks and started sharing some of mine. We both benefited from that friendship without any effort.

At first I was thinking of spending one day a week doing things for other residents, but that goal will be too high. I am busy enough as it is. But I am sure I could spare an hour here and there throughout the week, don’t you think? And I have plans for the future, too. When Lani is a calm, mature, obedient dog, I will take her with me to people in Assisted Living and perhaps Memory Care, as a therapy dog. Not that I want to train her to be a therapy dog, heavens, no! I recently watched a documentary about what it takes to train those dogs. And if you have ever had a puppy you will know that regular obedience training is all I can handle, especially at my age! But just being able to pet and cuddle a little dog can be therapeutic, I think. We’ll see how long it takes before Lani will live up to that expectation. I hope it will be soon! Life isn’t exciting if you don’t plan ahead!

On the Welcome Page of this website I wrote one of my mottos. Can you find the other motto I live by? Try and find it and let me know!

Life is like being alone in a little kayak on a river with a life of its own: if you don’t consciously direct your own mind to where you want to go in life you may end up where you don’t want to be.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

A New Year!

Inasmuch as I like Mondays because they are the beginning of a new week, during which I can catch up on everything I could not get done the week before, I absolutely love every new year. Not just for the reasons I like Mondays, but for all the things a new year will bring. First of all, TIME. 365 days and nights of glorious time. Time for new things to learn and do; new books to read (YES! The new year will finally give me time to read!); new friends to make, new people to meet whom I can be helpful for in some way (there are so many needy people in this retirement place where we live); new stories to write; new get-togethers with family members (our 58 th wedding anniversary is coming up, yeah!). I will stop this summary of wonderful things to mention what we did last Saturday. We skipped breakfast at the Club, picked up our youngest grandson and took him to IHOP for a pancake breakfast. His eye fell on a four-stack of chocolate pancakes (diameter about 5”) with chocolate chips and dark Belgian chocolate sauce inside. Hm, that was my choice as well. But then there was a four-stack of cheesecake pancakes that looked very good too. We decided to order both and share fifty/fifty. Granddad ordered a tres leches four stack and we looked at the menu again while we waited in anticipation of the feast.

”The chocolate pancakes have 1085 calories!” said our grandson, with a sideways glance at me.

“So what? It’s your birthday, isn’t it? We can splurge a little. Besides, you will only be eating half of it, so, how many calories is that?”

“Um, five hundred forty two and a half.”

”See? Only half as many. And your great-grandfather would say that you would get the same calories in a bowl of pea soup, and pancakes are so much more delicious, so eat pancakes today!”

We did not check the calories in the cheesecake stack, and it turned out that both of us, after eating our half of the chocolate stack, had enough and the two half four-stacks of cheesecake pancakes went home in boxes, including a third of Granddad’s four-stack of tres leches (how fun to work with numbers!). Management found out too late that it was our grandson’s birthday and they hadn’t sung the birthday song yet, so one of the waiters hurried to the kitchen and made him a large smoothie with lots of whipped cream on top. Since we were already in the starting blocks to go to his next birthday event, he took the smoothie home too and put it in the freezer.

The next event was an hour and a half in a jumping place for kids, where they jump on trampolines, on large rubber blocks, jump from towers and throw basket balls jumping on moving surfaces. Oh, the fun things people think of! His mother later said she was glad he jumped off some of the calories he had consumed, but it would not be for me. I think I would have  thrown all the calories back out, on the rubber blocks!

Doggy Day Camp

On Tuesday, Lani had to get another wellness exam at the Vet. This time it included a Rabies booster. For now she is completely protected against any outside threats. She had grown so much, that she has outgrown her kennel and a new one is on order. We are guessing that she will be around 20 pounds, while at 4 months she is 11.6 pounds. We have learned that there are mediums, minis, teacups and toy Goldendoodles. Ours right now is a teacup, and today she is at a doggy day camp because they had no puppy classes at this time and she needs to socialize. The amazing thing is that with the special Camp Bow Wow App, we can watch her on the cell phone from home! She is very outgoing and we haven’t seen her sitting down for a moment. She will be exhausted when I pick her up again. And I, finally able to walk a few miles in Wimbledon again without a pulling dog on the leash, took advantage of the beautiful weather and did just that. I need loose leash training with Lani, and have to find a good trainer for that. In the house though, I am proud to say that she knows sit, down, and we are working on stay (it feels like I am home-schooling her). She is light-footed and silent as a kitten, and we constantly need to keep an eye on her; but that’s what we expected. She is a delight when in a cuddling mode early in the morning after breakfast and at night before bedtime. And her shaggy coat is soft as velvet feathers. They say that owners often get to look like their dogs. Well, you could say that of me now. I have let my hair appointment of December 19 go, and finally made an appointment for this Friday. That’s 23 days plus 6 weeks after my last cut! You can call me shaggy!

It’s a wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

 

I am an Octogenarian!

It was an exciting day, right from the start. Nothing went the way It was supposed to. We were planning to go with the whole family on a carriage ride in Raleigh, to see the lights. Then  afterwards we’d have dinner in one of the specialty places downtown, where we normally never get to. On Sunday the 23rd, Dennis came to tell us that their plans had changed. They were going skiing in Utah. The plan was to go on standby with Stephanie’s brother and his family. Her brother is a pilot with Delta, so he had some clout and buddy passes as well for all of them. They left on my birthday and came back on the 31st, and had the trip of their lifetime, as Dennis put it.

So that was all wonderful, but in the meantime we had reserved a carriage for 7 people and so I decided to ask some others to join us. The plan was then to go to Raleigh and back with Uber and have drinks and pizza at our house. However, in a retirement place like ours, it proved to be impossible to find a couple who could make it. Varying from mental problems to back problems to going out of town, we found no takers and went by ourselves. And oh, were we happy that it worked out that way. Not only was it romantic, but the steps up to get into and out of the carriage would have been too  high and narrow for other people and it was cold to sit in the open carriage for an hour from 5 – 6 p.m. I was prepared with extra warm clothing and the driver had a blanket for both of us to snuggle under.

The day started with a panic right after breakfast. I was on the phone talking to Jeff, inviting him for our carriage ride, when the doorbell rang. The dog was loose in the house and when Mike opened the door Lani shot out like an arrow out of a bow towards the street. Consternation! Mike could not understand what the young woman at the door was saying – she had a Mexican accent and came with a large shopping bag, which she put on the floor. After pushing the phone in Mike’s hand I ran out to get Lani back. She does not know all commands yet, but came back to me! I put her in her kennel, then asked the woman what she wanted. She needed to see my ID because in the bag was a gift which contained alcohol. I ran inside and got the black banner that I had gotten for my birthday, which said 80 has not looked this good, put it on and said, “I’m 80 today, see?” But she insisted she needed to see my ID. I got my driver License, showed it to her, and then she also needed my signature on her machine before I could take possession of the bag. In the mean time Jeff was still on the phone, so I ended my conversation with him and opened the bag in the kitchen. No note, no name, but a bottle of pink champagne and a fruit tart appeared. Ah! The pink champagne is the trademark of one of our daughters, who even took a bottle to the hospital when she was going to deliver her baby!

UBER

We had never before used Uber before and so two days before Christmas Dennis put the Uber app on my cell phone and showed me what to do to get a ride. On Christmas Day I decided to try it and reported to Mike “Hey, it’s working. Jennifer is 11 minutes away.” Satisfied, I closed the phone. A few minutes later I picked it up again and saw that Jennifer was now 8 minutes away. Goodness! I had pushed one button to many and someone was actually on her way! Now what? I texted the driver I’m sorry! Cancel this trip! I don’t need it today. I need a ride tomorrow not today. I made a mistake. Please cancel this trip. But of course Uber does not work that way – you can’t make a reservation, they come when you call.

Jennifer has arrived my phone said. Then she texted You have to cancel. If I cancel it will look bad on my reputation.

How do I cancel?

At the bottom of your App it says Cancel.

I went there but dear Jennifer had mercifully already cancelled for me. Then my phone said, you cancelled your driver. Larry is on his way. He should be there in 8 minutes. Heavens! I quickly pushed the Cancel button. Then the phone asked if I was willing to pay $10,33 for JennIfer’s lost time and all I could answer was Yes. Uber had my credit card number so I was powerless. Then it was quiet. Phew! Everything ended well, however, when I looked at my credit card later and saw a charge for the trip to Raleigh and then a credit for the same amount. It was a scary learning experience!

The Uber ride to Raleigh went well and our carriage was waiting. We had a knowledgeable driver and a strong horse in front of us (I actually liked the smell, and she looked decent: her behind was covered by a black rubber cover hanging from underneath her tail down to her thighs) we drove around in the beautiful old neighborhood of Oakwood while it got dark slowly admiring the decorations outside the homes while brightly shining Christmas trees inside the homes radiated light through uncovered windows.

We were the last ride of the day and I pulled up Uber on my cell phone to arrange a ride home. But Uber seemed stuck and did not move after asking for my cell phone number. To make a long story short, the driver waited with us until I had called my two children who were skiing in Utah and left messages and our daughter in California. After five minutes the California daughter called back and saved us by calling Uber on her phone and arranging a ride home for us. I let the dog out and then we warmed up again at our favorite Mexican restaurant just 2 miles away with spicy food and a strong margarita. Reading my birthday mail back home ended my special day on a very happy note.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

Puppy Training

After another trip to the dog trainer, over an hour away, with Lani throwing up in her carrier, poor thing, I decided that was the end of this trainer. I am happy he taught her the basics, but the results were not as we expected and so I have started teaching her the basic commands myself. She is a quick learner, and a delight to have around most of the time, until she gets tired and grouchy, and my hands show the imprints of many little dog teeth – painful and not funny. Except for one time she sleeps through the night and this morning I didn’t even wake up until 7:00 a.m. Not a beep from Lani.

Because she needs to socialize with other dogs I am looking for a puppy class and for now booked a doggie day camp for a day where she will be with other dogs. Supposedly we will be able to watch her at home on the cell phone. That seems unbelievable to me, but then I am not fully up to date on modern technology.

One of our daughters sent us an Echo Dot for Christmas. She said “It was a shot in the dark”, and indeed, we were wondering what on earth we could do with it. But it looks cute and we should be able to ask Alexa, the soul within the dot, to do something for us.

Hula

On the 13th of December Caroline would be the entertainer at the Club. She is the favorite of all residents and comes once a month to play and sing. She asked me if I wanted to dance Mele Kalikimaka again, like I did spontaneously last year. That sounded great.

The week before we had received a card with the announcement of the death of one of our good friends in Prescott. His wishes were: Do not have a gathering or send flowers, but do something you love and make a donation to your favorite charity in my memory. An unusual request. He had always loved music and so that’s what we honored. We made a donation to the Community Music School in Raleigh, a charity that offers music lessons to underprivileged children and youth; an added bonus was that our son had become the Executive Director of that organization last September.

I asked Caroline if I could dance more than one hula. So I danced Mele Kalikimaka and White Christmas, and I danced Blue Christmas in memory of our friend. Because it had been a while since I had danced after my left foot had recovered from the Neuroma (that took nine years!) I did have to practice some. But because the songs are  in English, that was not so hard. Real Hawaiian hula is something that people do not understand and so I will stay away from that. I can’t stand it when people talk about hula and make silly waves with their hands. That’s the image a lot of people have of hula; that and grass skirts! Of course they don’t know any better and it is not worth my time to educate them. I’m thinking back to a group of German tourists on the lanai of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, who kept talking, their backs towards a group of live musicians and a beautiful hula dancer.

Christmas Presence

After a beautiful Christmas Cantata at church on Sunday, we had the opportunity to hear it again on Tuesday evening in the Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh. Conducted by the Composer, Pepper Choplin, the performance included 250 voices of 8 church choirs and a 36 man orchestra. Our daughter-in-law sang a solo. She has an amazing soprano voice, like her mother.

That evening I started a cold, oh no! I started fighting it with everything I had, including my neti pot and made it to the Christmas party at the Club the next evening, even walked over to Assisted Living where Caroline was singing, and danced Mele Kalikimaka for them. But the next day I had an eye infection for which I went to the ophthalmologist. Then the family thought I was too contagious and I was afraid I would have to miss out on the Candlelight Service and the family gathering. Thank goodness the cold was very light and with a mask on my face I could attend everything.

The year 2018 is ending and a whole new year is opening up.

Celebrate Life!

Until next time!

Ronny

A picture is worth a thousand words…

We’re calling it a day!

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

Doggie Days

Well, our little Goldendoodle Lani has made it home. On the passenger seat in her carrier for over an hour, she threw up three times, poor thing. I pulled off the road into an exit each time and covered up the vomit with the small towels I had brought a few of. In order to prevent the dog (or people) to get car sick, I had ordered an anti-static electricity strip from China which the tech at the Ford Dealer attached to the exhaust pipe. The problem was that the strip never touched the ground so it did not work. Many people in the Netherlands use those strips. We did too, and when in Prescott, I brought a few home from a trip to my Mom to attach to our cars and share with my mechanic, who had never seen such a thing. Here, the guy who attached it to my car did not know that the purpose was to unload static electricity by having it occasionally touch the ground. And I, when I finally left the shop,  neglected to see that it was not attached right. I will right that tomorrow.

It is wonderful that Lani sleeps through the night, from 9 to 6. She hardly ever barks, she runs three times half a mile per day with me and is very much at home in her kennel. She went with me to the Vet for the first time and all was well, except she was a little lean, so we can give her half a cup of kibbles twice a day, double of what the trainer gave her!

Our lives have taken on a more structured form, and I actually really like that.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny