Been busy this week and it feels GREAT! Tuesday I went to the Main Street Grill in Niantic to attend the Seaside Retirees semi annual lunch. Saw "Dr. Bob" Schneider there, first time I've seen him in ages!

Bob told me that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease a year and a half ago. He couldn't sign his name, couldn't walk, etc and I believe he said he ended up at Bridebrook for rehab. But then he did a little dance to show me that he is cured! He attributes it to the medicine and the healing services he attended at church. I attribute it to doctor diagnostic error.

Whatever, he is back up and out and it was fun to see him.

Ellen had arranged for a lady to come speak to us about a variety of issues effecting seniors and once again, I felt like an outsider...there to support "those old people." Later, when Mary Ann noted that my hair is grey I told her to "shut the fuck up!'

You get the picture.

Afterwards I snuck down to Bridebrook to visit Flo Robinson, who broke her foot and is in there for rehab. She's being tube fed because they also noted her difficulty with swallowing. She's going to go somewhere in Hartford and they are going to give her a botox treatment to stretch that area, so she can eat again. Hmmmmmm....wonder if this is something they know about in Tennessee???

Flo looked good considering and we had a nice visit. She has a set of Sennheiser wireless headphones for listening to her TV with her hearing aids. She had me try it and I loved it! GREAT SOUND! We have been looking for good wireless headphones for Sandy to use when she watches the shows that have all the beeps and high pitched noises (like CSI) because Bubbles freaks out when she hears those noises.

I'm going to see if I can find that online to get for Sandy for Christmas.

Today is Sandy's birthday...she is now 47. A mere child. I hope she gets to retire in a few years, so we can travel around and enjoy retirement together. When we first got together I thought about that, but didn't realize just how much of a difference it makes to have both partners retired at the same time. Now I am home to help do the house stuff, so she can focus on work and the dogs. But I am looking forward to when we are both free to travel, have fun and do things together.

Yesterday I got to work outside most of the day, helping "the Js," Janet, Jess and Jeremy put up their new shed. Poor things, they had been laboring over this for days, putting in the floor and then assembling the shed. I helped them get over the hump....they were getting tired of the whole thing.

They got the shed from Sears and of course the directions and diagrams are horribly cryptic or missing. They never include enough screws, washers, etc.

We got the roof on yesterday and I had to leave to feed the dogs. They finished the job after I left.

It felt great to take a nice hot shower, get changed into comfy clothes and relax, after working all day.

I'm looking forward to more and more of those kind of days.

Still waiting for someone, anyone, to call me back about repairing our roof. I called one guy who's name I got from Angie's list and still haven't heard back from him. I'm going to go down the list and call them all....and hope that someone has pity and calls us...and then actually shows up here at the house!

Today I went over to Uncas for the Mortality Review meeting...saw some folks and visited a brief time. I'm supposed to go to Wallingford next week but Russ is coming in the AM to teach me how to use the new Apple MacBook I got. So, I don't think I'll be going to Wally World. I gave my feedback about that meeting to Betty today when I saw her...so I'm off the hook.

I did my cleaning downstairs today for Sandy's birthday. Unfortunately, she has to work until 7:30 tonight...again. This has been happening a lot yesterday and I'm going to have to put my foot down soon. She is getting tired. I try to help--feed the dogs and do the work around here so she doesn't have to, but I'm getting worried about her. She is a delicate flower and when she gets rundown, she gets ill.

I think we'll get Chinese for supper tonight, her favorite.

Later!

Still cautiously optimistic that my big purge the other day cured my bm problems. Last night I didn't get up until 5:30 this morning! YAY! I was so shocked when I checked the time.

Finally broke down and joined "Angie's List" online...for help in getting names of reputable and reliable home improvement guys. We are having the trouble with the roof leaking when we have heavy rain. It did it last year too, but now we want to try again to do something about it. Last year we called someone who said he'd come out the next day and we never heard from him again.

Well, I called a guy the other day...I should have been tipped off when he answered his business phone with "hello?" I had to ask, "is this Wickhams?" He offered to come out the next day and I got all excited. Of course, he was a no show-no call. I called him back and asked him to at least give us a call....nope!

So, Angie's List it is. I have the names of three companies that have gotten good reviews. Let's hope we get lucky.

Yesterday I finally finished the job of cleaning the kitchen floor tile grout. It looks great. Now I keep it up and look for something that will put a good seal on it. And to think I almost hired someone to come do this job for me...now thanks to Google (finding the right solution for me) I have done it myself and saved the $$.

This week is a busy one..."off" Monday, Tuesday is lunch with the Seaside Retirees at Main St. Grill in Niantic; Wednesday I go back to Dr. Ber, the allergist; Thursday I have Mortality Review at Uncas and Friday I'm off again. Saturday Joyce and I are going to Putnam...they are having the Great Pumpkin Festival up there, with lots of crafters booths and pumpkins I guess. We've been talking about going up there for a long time...it's finally going to happen.

Thursday is Sandy's birthday. Thank goodness I already bought her present when I was in Sweden, I'm almost out of $$ and I still have two weeks before the eagle flies again. Cutting it close! HA ha!

I also have just two weeks and one day before this damned hernia gets fixed and I get my tummy tucked. Right now the other hernia is bulging next to it...getting bigger and bigger too. My abdomen looks like I have babies heads in there....one big head and one smaller one next to it. I have to wear oversized tops to hide it...otherwise I look grotesque. A good look for Halloween...too bad I'm not going to be here to use it.

Now...back to the Patriots as they try to win this tie game.

Later!