Sudokuaholics Anonymous 10

Music, when soft voices die
Vibrates in the memory
Odours, when the sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.

Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the beloved's bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
(We read this yesterday for Mum and Dad. Seemed apt to post it now.)

MizT - my love and thoughts go to you and Al. How brave you are to be able to have that necessary conversation with him. I wish him peace and comfort and for you, the strength and fortitude to face what is to come. {{{hugs}}}

Perfect Cyn, perfect ♥

June - just checked the Parents page and now sending you love and hugs. It's always just below the surface, isn't it? And just needs a small reminder to bring it back.

CynB.... Thank you. That poem speaks volumes.

MizT, love and hugs to both you and Al. What a sweet time you had together.

Hi, Everybody! Getting here a bit late tonight (even for me), so I'm not sure how long I'll last.

Cyn, I'm glad things went so much better than you expected and ended with everyone sharing coffee and cake!

Gail, it sounds like your family has experience similar times when family comes together and draws strength from each other! It's always so nice to see families do that!

Suzy, it sounds like your hubby has joined the ranks of "Mom's Taxi," just like you. I guess that's the only way when you have 2 children who need to be in different places at the same time. I'm guessing the reason Dana can't allow a "comfortable silence" between you is because she isn't comfortable. I bet she knows that you can see through all of her shenanigans, so tries to keep up the chatter to avoid any opportunity for uncomfortable topics to be brought up. She is probably more comfortable with her dad because she thinks she has "pulled the wool over his eyes" and he's still keeping her on a pedestal. (That's my very non-professional view of things, anyway.) Hopefully as more time elapses she will begin to realize that you have been right about so many things and know what you're talking about, but right now she still thinks like a teen, who believes she's immortal and the center of the world. Good luck!

Tami, I hope your day improved from it's less than perfect start. It's always tough when things don't go as planned and you have an unexpected delay. Seems to be like dominoes falling from that point on.

Suzy, Heidi is right to be concerned about you. Please remember to take care of yourself! The whole family suffers when the Mum/Mom hasn't been able to maintain her own health.

June, thank you for the update! Don't you hate when hotels charge for internet usage. In this day and age, it would seem that most hotels (well, maybe not all 1- and 2-star facilities) ought to have internet. How much more would it cost than having it for their own use? We hope the trip continues to be relaxing and fun!

MizT asked about the cello playing and I gave a partial response last night. Exchanged emails with the teacher last night/this morning. Now it looks like I won't have a lesson before Nov. 9 at the earliest. DARN! The strings don't really hurt my fingers, but they are much larger than guitar strings (which I had forgotten I once tried to play for a short time). Guitar strings can be steel or nylon. I bet the guitar you tried had steel strings, and they can cut into your fingers. I played a baritone ukelele with 4 nylon strings - same as a tenor guitar - for a few years in college and after. My water aerobics instructor is also a personal trainer. She suggested doing exercises for triceps with exercise bands in the hopes that will build up the muscle that is getting fatigued from using the bow. I hope that's not more information than anybody wanted!

And now I'll head to page 252. It looks like you lot have been very chatty today!

Cyn....beautifully fitting...thanks for sharing it here and now.
June....HUGS big time♥

Trica....What a beautiful love story you have given us......Sharing this transitional period talking and sharing the truth, listening and appreciating the music and each other...What a wonderful treasure to help carry you through this long walk. You have shown strength and given Al the comfort necessary to smile as you tell him the untellable. May the Dove of peace and all that love sustain you as you help bring peace in the valley of your home and heart! I write this with tears in my eyes, yet a smile on my face, wishing I could have done for Sully, what you have done for Al...I know it means the world to him. What a gift to be given by one's mate!!!! ♥♥

Thank you Mama for putting into words what all SA'ers feel, such a bitter-sweet time.

June and Cyn, my thoughts with you both.

Heidi, I agree with your TOPP on page 252. I hope Al can get some of his memories down on paper. Maybe a project he and his brother can work on?

Heidi, I hope you were able to "make hay while the sun shines!"

Theresa, take your medicine!
I'm sorry that it's now your shoulder, arm and wrist that are keeping you awake at night! Did the doctor give you any indication when you might hear from him? They say "the squeaky wheel gets the oil." If it's beyond the date indicated, maybe it's time to make a daily phone call. I know it's unlikely that you'll get to talk to the doctor, but his nurse/receptionist/secretary will get to know you and hopefully care if the doctor gets back to you.

You're probably right about what's causing your older grandie to act up. I love the idea of some one-on-one time, just the two of you for dinner (and maybe dessert) to prolong the conversation! I hope it helps!

Heidi, I'm impressed with your albino budgie. She wanted the nest box that SHE wanted and she wanted it WHEN she wanted it! Sometimes I wish I could be a bit more assertive like that. Congrats on all of the new life in your sunroom!

Broni, remember housework can wait! Remember to award yourself with some "me time!"

Tami, it sounds like your mechanic is a nice guy! It may not be your car that doesn't like you. The battery may have had a defect. Also, hot weather can be hard on batteries (just like cold). Our D in Texas has had to replace batteries more often than we do in Illinois.

Bobbi and Bernie, I hope you had a wonderful day! Happy Anniversary!

Gail, you sound like you have personal experience with auto mechanics, especially when you start talking about a broken flange nut in your wangdanger. Don't you HATE when that happens?

Rolanda, I hope you and P and the other couple have a wonderful and relaxing caravan weekend, and a long one, at that! I also hope your Mum is showing some improvement! I'll be keeping her in my thoughts and prayers!

Suzanne, keeping fingers crossed that the couple/family that viewed your CLEAN house will be THE one! Perhaps the fact that you haven't heard means they are deciding if they should make an offer and for how much! At least, I hope so!

Heidi, I hope the violet lovebirds' babies will be beautiful and healthy!

Oh, MizT, what a long and difficult day, but as you said, thank goodness you have had some experience with those kinds of conversations. I think many/most of us just tiptoe around the facts, if we even face them at all, and prefer to pretend that nothing is happening. You and Al have now faced it head-on. I'm so glad you have been able to do that and so proud of you! I'm sure it was excruciatingly difficult. It seems as if you and Al have all of the important paperwork prepared, as well! Remember, we are all here for you so that you can be strong enough to be there for Al!

MizT, with Al

Darn, I ran over again!

MizT, with Al being so informed about music, mixing and sound boards, did he ever have the opportunity to work in that field? Did he play a musical instrument or sing? If not, someone in his family must have had that background. Sounds like you were both able to have a great day listening to music and reminiscing! I hope you that both of you will enjoy many more days like this one! {{{{{HUGS}}}}}

Cyn, thank you for starting page 253 with such a beautiful and appropriate poem! Thank you!

Love to you, June! I also went to the parents page. I hope some day you will be able to view the picture as a happy memory, rather than a sad reminder! {{{{HUGS}}}}

Mama, thank you for saying so beautifully and thoughtfully what we are all feeling! What a wonderful present Tricia has been able to give to Al!

MizT, may all your remaining days with Al be just as memorable! May you both find peace and comfort in sharing your love for each other and making some happy memories!

Thinking of all of you wonderful SA friends, sharing positive thoughts and vibes, , prayers and {{{{{HUGS}}}}} Peaceful dreams to all of you when night falls!

(((((HUGSSSSSSS)))) Tricia and of course Al. I have tears in my eyes having read your long 'graphic' post. It must still be hard on you having to deal with this even if you have been through it before.

MizT, I didn't know whether to smile or cry reading your posts and think I actually alternated between them. Sending all of my love, thoughts and warm wishes your way.

June, hope your knees hold out for you to have a good time on the next leg of your journey.

Cyn, I think I said it already, but nothing wrong with saying it twice..I'm so glad yesterday turned out to be a nice day with family.

Mama, you say it so well!

Morning all. Coffee is ready. Pour yourself a cup, put your feet up and relax.

Tricia, as a nurse you must have gone through all this a lot, but it is not the same when it is your family. You are a strong woman and Al knows that. Come here and vent anytime you need to. We are here for you with our strong shoulders to lean on and arms to hug you with.

We've got a cold-ish, rainy day here. IH is gone and so I'm enjoying doing as little as possible. I need to feed some hay to the cows, and that's about it.
Robert and I did get all the new rolls of hay stored inside before the rain started. We finished 5 minutes before the sky opened up. We have a final cutting of the alfalfa field scheduled for next week, then that's it. I will not have enough hay for the winter unless I sell a bunch of cows. The grass just didn't grow during the record setting heat wave this summer. This cutting only produced a little under 1 roll per acre, when we usually get ~5 per acre.

MizT... please feel free to call on me if you need something. I'd really like to be able to do something to help.

Bernie and I want to thank everyone for their anniversary wishes.
Theresa-Tami was born troublesome. She came out while the Dr. was washing his hands. She couldn't wait.
Miz T all our thoughts and prayers are with you and Al.

I just got something very strange in the mail. Last January, I think, I had a fall off a ladder in the sunroom and landed on my head, knocking me silly and giving me a goose egg on my head. I ended up going to the ER and giving them my insurance info, but nothing else. I just received a check in the mail from them telling me I overpaid them that day. Now, I know I have been charged excessively for some services in the past (who hasn't) but I don't think I was on that occasion. I'm afraid that if I return the money to them, they'll get horribly confused. But I feel guilty keeping it. What do I do? The amount is $677.76.

Julie, no, hubby never worked in the music field, but he would have been good at producing records, working sound board, those kinds of things. His father played the radio hehehe, from sun up till sun down, they went to the live music at Al's aunts, and his father took them to fa so la singings at old country churches and other "singings" where visiting gospel quartets sang the afternoon away.

Al did take guitat lessons for a while, as a teen, and back a year or so he again took some lessons online, bought a couple guitars.

Another Al story musically themed. Al loved Halloween, went to great effort for costumes. The year we were dating, halloween was for some reason celebrated Friday and Saturday and Sunday nights. He went out every night, I could only attend one party with him. His costume was a leather half mask, lower half, of a pig snout and cheeks. He had on a uniform that was so very near the Birmingham Police Department, with hat, mirrored sunglasses, and a real looking toy pistol, equipment belt, slap stick, night stick, whistle. One night when I could not go with him, he went bar hopping with a friend of his, and entered many costume contests. He won several, a couple of them being bottles of champagne. OK, there was a Lot of Alcohol involved in this story hehehe.

Late at night, he was in this club with live music and dancing, he was on the dance floor standing right in front of the band, playing air drums. you know, pretend there is a drum set? Band leader asked him to come join them and sit in on a couple songs. In his condition, having no fear, he said, sure, why not. How I would have loved to have been there and seen him. Now I thought he was sort of making this up, till he took me back to that club, and on the bulletin board was a photo of him, "pig" suit and all, behind a huge set of drums. He must have done a good job, he was asked again that night I was with him to set in, but refused. Al never had the first lesson on drums, but he had watched some of the best on videos, and i guess with his photographic memory he just remembered what the drummers did.

For the down under girls, in the USA "PIG" is a non flattering slang word for police.

Heidi, I might phone them and ask if they are sure you overpaid that day. If they say yes, then I would cash the check. If you try to send it back without talking to them first, I fear you could end up owing them fore they got finished trying to figure how to post that hehehe.

Heidi, Al said THANK YOU for the card. That was just perfect, so you and your farm. The post office did correct the address, so no problem there.

thanks for sending, I will tape this up on the edge of the book shelves, where he and visitors can see it.

I'm glad it got there, and delighted that Al enjoyed the card. It kinda tickled my funny bone.

Julie, I enjoyed reading about your cello playing. Alie has a steel string guitar. I asked if she should go for nylon strings and was hurrumphed at - that's classical guitar.. oh well, you learn something every day. Alie also says her new bodhran is a bit like your bow, her left arm ached for hours after she played for a while. She thinks that's a good thing as she claims she hasn't been able to re-strengthen that arm since she broke it and the bodhran will work well.

MizT, I love the drumming story. These days with phones that record and cheap digital cameras that also take movies (the way I record Alie), his escapades would probably be on youtube!

Heidi, I've been thinking about your dilemma with the payment. You didn't actually pay anything, but you overpaid. There is a possible, though unlikely, explanation, don't laugh, Gil may have paid a bill that came in the mail.

I asked him, Suzy, but he never pays any of my medical bills. Such a sweetheart. I suspect that the insurance company was over-billed and paid that bill. But this just doesn't make sense to me. The more I think about it, tho', the more I think that I'll keep it. My health insurance is so horrendously high (~$1,000.00 a month) that I'm starting to think of this as an unintentional rebate.

Greetings, Everyone!

Heidi, I'm so glad to hear that you and Robert got the hay in before the rain! If your grass didn't grow well this summer, I assume the same was true for others. Where will you be able to buy some to help get through the winter? I don't suppose now is a good time to try to sell some of your cows. Good luck getting it worked out!

Heidi, I'd be tempted to just put the bill in the bank, but would probably call the hospital before doing it, as MizT suggested. Could it be that the refund/rebate is from another visit, rather than when you fell off the ladder?

MizT, another great Al story! He truly seems to have an aptitude for music! I hope you both had a good day today, and will have another tomorrow!

Suzy, I didn't know Alie had a bodhran. There was a man in one of the bands we saw in Ireland who was amazing to watch as he played! I believe his name was Igor - a nice Irish name if I've ever heard one. I'm sure Alie realizes there are many youtubes that instruct on how to play the bodhran.

Feel free to skip this next section - just a little anecdote about how klutzy I am. Today had been going pretty well - water aerobics class, acupuncture appointment, dinner, then hubby went to a friend's to use a large belt sander. So far, everything was fine. After he left, I tripped and fell on the wood floor, hitting both knees and hitting my right arm. (I tried to catch myself on a dining room chair - hitting the chair and bruising my arm. I put ice on the knee that hurt the most and on my arm. The weird thing is that one of my shoes came off in the fall, which I can't figure out for the life of me. I was worried about my knee replacements, and I may have pulled something in my back. (So much for the acupuncture appointment.) I'm pretty sure I didn't do any real damage, but will take a couple of Tylenol before I go to bed (soon) and see how things are in the morning.

As I said, I really need to get to bed. I hope each of you has a wonderful afternoon/evening/night and a great day tomorrow! {{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}, positive thoughts, prayers, and for all! Good Night!

Julie, hope you wake in the morning with not too many aches and pains.

Morning friends. I am up at 4:45 am for what I hope is just an intermission. Al's machine that supplies humidified air to a mask ran out of water. It usually does about this time, and it makes a noise that gets my attention. I watered the machine, visited the littlest room, checked on Al, now cannot get back to sleep.

Mama, thank you for the lovely comment about the talk Al and I had. I am sure you do have regrets now about not being able to talk to Sully, but his death was so sudden, if I remember correctly??

Was it Julie who said that my being a nurse I had seen this before but how different it was for family? I did not have patients die where I worked. I had a few patients who lost a baby, or had a desperately sick newborn. I did learn in nursing school how to help these families, and for lack of a better word, I enjoyed being able to work with them.

JULIE, I do hope you are really OK after your fall. Do you think you should phone your doc who takes care of knee replacement and let him know about the fall right on those knees? Even if there is no problem now, it might be a good thing to have this information on your chart, in case at some time in the future there was a problem. Get well soon.

Where has everyone been? Not many posts, I guess some of you have lives in the real world.

OK, let me rewarm my rice sock, see if I set thermostat correctly, and get back in bed. Hugs to each of you, with extras.

Good morning. Coffee is ready. Help yourself.

Julie, I do hope you are feeling better today. That sounds like a nasty fall.

Tricia, hope you can get back to sleep and then have a great day.

Heidi, I had something similar happen but not for as much money. When Mitchell was about 2, I got a $20 check in the mail from the insurance company with a note that said no copay for labor/delivery. I never did pay a copay to the hospital so I told everyone that I got a rebate on Mitchell.

Kicked off the computer so Alie can have a go, she's broken hers.

Julie, Alie got the bodhran at the folk festival from a very nice Irish man, Kevin Kelly. It came with his DVD, Round Ireland in 32 beats. He's saving up now to do around three world in 80 beats. I haven't looked him up online yet.

MizT, what a shame Al never worked in the music industry it sounds like a real passion of his.

Julie,i hope your knees are okay in the morning.

*the world, stupid phone

Hi, I am home again after the long flight from Singapore.
I have lost my Email connection. Problem caused by trying to access my account on the notebook computer. Will have to go through Ken's account to get it back (I think). I am not game to do that in case I muck that up. Gee I miss my computer expert.

Tricia, thank you for sharing. Treasure this special time together.
You are both in my thoughts and prayers.

Welcome home, June. At least now you can rest your aches and pains.

June, are you as glad to get home as I usually am? Hope you feel rested and refreshed soon.

Welcome back June. Can't wait to see all the pictures.