Confessions of a Grandma

  Saturday morning I woke up unable to settle into the idea of packing/cleaning. I decided to take a trip to "surprise" my daughter and grandkids. Levi and I packed up some travel supplies and headed out in the car. They live about 70 miles south of us, takes about 90 minutes. Everyone was still asleep when we got there! They are all night owls/second shift workers. Dane, of course, is a typical teen-ager with hormone disrupted circadian rhythm and a back-at-school social life to adjust to. Levi and I went for a walk. They were up and moving around when we got back. Their little town is already starting to decorate for Halloween! I am a total minimalist when it comes to holiday decorations so this seemed completely over the top to me. Levi either didn't notice or didn't have an opinion one way or the other. Dane and I went into Rutland to do some shopping for school supplies. We took a walk around the downtown area -- so changed in some ways since I lived there but un

 I have just in the past week or so started seeing those first tinges of changing leaves. It seems late because I used to be aware of the beginning changes in early to mid August -- a sure sign of a new school year beginning. Maybe I am finally just not that tuned in to the school calendars anymore. Other fun is ahead, though.  My condo is under contract and if all goes well, we will be heading south the first of October. So let the fun begin of all the paperwork involved in selling. Let the fun begin of checking off items from my to-do list -- one added for everyone checked seems to be the trend right now. Let the fun of social events begin since my family and friends seem to believe I am planning to fall off the face of the earth. Or perhaps be blown out to sea in a hurricane.  Don't forget the great fun of packing and the knowledge that unpacking awaits. It's funny that friends in Florida say won't you be glad to only have a hurricane to worry about instead of those terr

Late last December, Don started experiencing severe pain in his leg (thigh) and in his lower back. When it happened that he tried to stand and ended up falling to the floor, barely missing hitting his head on the corner of a marble table top we made a trip to the Sarasota hospital emergency room. He was there for six hours, had an Xray on his back, never actually saw a doctor but was give five days worth of pain medications -- no explanation of what might be causing the pain. A few days later he went to the ER again but was told to go see his doctor and sent home. A doctor visit resulted in five more days of pain medication, no other follow-up. The leg pain is most likely nerve damage from his years of working construction. The lower back and side pain -- related to work history? Shameless bid for pain meds? When we returned to Vermont, Don went back to his regular doctor. I told him to ask about a kidney stone but he was told, "unlikely since the pain was intermittent." A se

Levi is still a puppy at ten months old, but he is almost full grown at 40 pounds. Saturday night our next door neighbor had some company and one of the guys had this tiny bulldog puppy. I'll bet it didn't weigh more than five pounds, if that, and it was 7 weeks old. Don caught sight of it in the yard and had to go out to see and that meant Levi was going to follow. The two dogs sniffed at each other and started playing. They ran around chasing and jumping. Levi is very gentle. He let that little guy climb all over him. After about a half hour we took the dogs in to respective homes. An hour later this little one was at the back deck.   Can Levi come out and play some more? Don whined about getting a puppy for three years. Now Levi wants one of his own! This puppy thing is a slippery slope!

 My sister and I went to the pie social fundraiser for the Rokeby Museum .  A beautiful sunny Sunday when we left, a sudden deluge before we even got five miles from home. Nevertheless, we kept on going and the rain stopped shortly after we arrived. We had our pieces of pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream each and listened to some folk musicians who were able to set up.   We toured the museum and grounds. The home was owned by fervent abolitionists who were involved in the underground railway. There was history of the Robinson family and their activities, of the underground railroad through Vermont, and slavery in the United States. Funny . . . I did not see one thing about the fabulous work skills program that the Florida Education Board and the lovely Ron DeSantis are talking about. (Excuse me while I go spit out the bile that came up to my throat just then.) My sister belongs to the 251 Club -- a loosely organized but enduring group dedicated to making a visit to every town and ci

This has been a strange summer with a definite lack of summertime fun.  My grandchildren are off on various travels. The rains fall almost daily here. The packing up to get ready to sell the condo is poking along. Don has been experiencing some medical problems -- a lifetime of working in various construction trades catching up with his knees, back, feet.  Then there was the whole thing with changing my phone service which resulted in having to get a new number. I am still working on getting the information out there. I particularly love the automated customer service routine that tells me it will send a code via text so I can make changes to my account. So helpful to have one option that clearly doesn't meet my needs. And of course the rains. Everything is lush and green, but we haven't seen much of the sun and many are dealing with flood damage to homes and vehicles. Nothing big or catastrophic going on -- just ho-hum. So to look at the brighter side: There's the little r