Labor Day was not a big celebration at our house. Being unemployed makes it not very celebratory.

The rain did come, though. It was very strange. A little band in the morning gave us 2/10 of an inch. My Dad came to admire and had lunch with us. We talked about him signing up for classes at OLLI, which used to be called Learning in Retirement. I might, too. You have to be over 50 and there's a $40 registration fee. Classes range from $5 up, plus parking ($2). Gardening, history, languages... a lot of them are taught by retired professors.

Ray went to give platelets at 2 and I went to sit with Janna. Her mother is in the hospital and has been moved to palliative care. She is getting oxygen and a little morphine, but no meds. She hasn't been communicative since last Saturday and we are not sure she knows Janna is with her. Dani is coming today and they think she will die before the end of the week.

Back home, I made some enchiladas with peppers. They were tasty, but I think a cup of peppers may have been too much for my digestion. Peppers being what there is in the garden in plenty still, we have been eating them almost every day.

There was more rain in several batches, maybe up to an inch. We'll go check when it gets light. Now it is breezy. There is a risk of trees coming down. We watched the radar and most of the storms just slid by us. I expect they got a lot more rain in Atlanta. An inch is good, but more would be okay too.

After supper, Alison and Paul came to play hearts with us. We had a really good time and a close game. Ray won in the last hand (and I was the first to go over 100). It was fun to play with someone new.

Well, the rain is not here yet. I certainly hope it has not veered away from Athens. There was a little mist last night and it's still very overcast, but they had predicted 6 inches of rain, and I planned on waking up to it!

My Dad came and planted some things yesterday morning in anticipation of rain. Ray and I had pancakes and walked out to the newspaper and went to the Fellowship. Just the women sang, a Holly Near song about unions in honor of Labor Day. It was not our best effort, but the congregation seemed to like it. There were only about a dozen of us--and four parts.

After the service, we came home for lunch, leftovers. Then it was time to look at the Want Ads. There it was, a job someone had mentioned to me the week before: part-time, working with the Board at Sandy Creek Nature Center. I had been looking forward to finding out more about it. Salary $10 an hour! I was enraged--really, that is what I am worth (if I am lucky)? To top it off, a friend wanted to go shopping. For fun, I watched her pick out things to try on. Because she has a professional job and needs lots of clothes. If I were working, I would not spend my money on new clothes. I have plenty. And if I did need something new, I would probably buy it at a thrift store.

Then we went to dance class. A young man with a sexy accent was teaching the Argentine tango. It was very fun, but hard for us. The beat in the music was not always clear and I had trouble recognizing what Ray was doing (since I am supposed to follow, not lead). I think tango is not our dance!

We came home and made supper, anticipating the rain would start any minute, but nothing. We watched TV and went to bed...

The rain is coming; I have been excited for days. I can't wait to wake up and hear it on the roof. I can imagine all the plants stretching their dying roots to suck it up.

My Dad came for breakfast yesterday morning--scrambled eggs, toast with butter and jelly. He planted some fall crops: spinach, lettuce, beets, carrots, even though it was pretty hot already in the morning. This is in anticipation of the inches of rain we are supposed to get from a tropical storm in the Gulf headed our way.

Ray wanted to get the last of the tree he has been working on. I went and sat in the truck, waiting to call 911 if need be. He cut 5 huge slices off the bottom of this tree trunk, but they were too heavy to get in the truck. This took over an hour. He got a couple in (I was not much help) and split one to take back in two pieces, but left the rest to come back for today.

I was anxious to go to the Farmers' Market, but we always have someone there when anyone is working with a chain saw. We finally left about 11:30 and there wasn't much to buy--onions, potatoes, cucumbers. So expensive. I bought a pound of sausage for $6. We needed lettuce for a salad for a dinner party, so went to Kroger afterwards. Now it was lunchtime, so we stopped and got some giant ("medium") smoothies, which tided us over well. I do most of my shopping at Earth Fare these days, but some things are impossible to find or outrageously expensive. We bought two bags of dog food, some wine, and a pork roast, among other things.

Back home, put the groceries away and ate some lunch (leftover goulash--yum!). I managed to run the vacuum for the first time in weeks. And I took the pictures of my Mom off the display board to start scanning. It will be very time consuming (we have an old scanner hooked up to an old computer), but I look forward to having them all safely "digitized." I was a little sad after that.

Luckily, we were invited to dinner at Jane's house. She had invited us for the Friday after my Mom died and we had to cancel. This time, we brought a green salad with a delicous homemade dressing: oil & vinegar, mustard, garlic, chives from the pot out front (just barely still green). There were friends from the Fellowship there--Herb and Myrna, Michelle and Jim. It was a pleasure to talk politics safely. Ted was trying to get everyone to say who they thought the Republican presidential candidate would be. Jane served hot dogs and hamburgers in honor of the end of summer. Michelle brought potato salad and cole slaw. Jane had delicious baked beans, too. I ate cheese and crackers and drank wine, passed on a bun for my burger. The dessert? A delicious strawberry shortcake--a frosted cake with strawberries between the layers, whipped cream, and more strawberries on top.

Sadly, eating and drinkling like that gave me a rough night. At one point, I woke up and Ray was somewhere else. This morning, I had dry mouth and general discomfort. I would previously have said I had too much wine, which is partly true--maybe 3 glasses over 3 hours. But I think the pre-diabetes is part of why I don't feel great this morning. Not that I wouldn't do it again--maybe skip the crackers or ask for a smaller piece of cake. And limit the wine.

The Distinguished Guest by Sue Miller

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book was educational and made me think--which is not always a lot of fun. It deals with writing, aging, family relationshps, and dying. The hero is an architect. His wife is from France. (Two things I enjoyed about it). It was a little choppy, I think, because that is how life is, not neat and smooth.



View all my reviews

 

Yesterday, I spent about an hour and a half talking to Michael, director of the Stable Foundation. He seems to treat me as a peer and I enjoyed the time. He has some issues with his board and fund-raising and I gave him my two cents. But in the process we talked about the challenges facing the homeless in Athens, especially during the upcoming winter. He wasn't sure whether the Homeless Shelter had a new director or not, but thought they continue to face funding challenges. Meanwhile, IHN is once again without a director.

I went by the Land Trust and picked up my last check. I went to the bank and deposited it. I spent an hour at Ray's office organizing his stuff. We went to the Captain's apartment and swam for a bit. We went  home and the Captain was at our house. He was doing some bill-paying, I think, and then he watched the tennis on TV for a bit. Ray did most of the preparations for supper, maybe because he was excited about having goulash. I was too. We hadn't had any pasta or beef for a while, so it was pretty decadent.

It hit 97 degrees. No rain.

For fun, we went to Canopy after supper, and saw a fascinating show--aerial dance, dancing with hoops, poi, belly dancing, juggling fire. It was fun and different. I love the idea that you can see these things in Athens. We saw Harriet and Dave. They sent love to the girls...and were sorry to hear about my Mom's sudden death.

We came home, ate ice cream, and went to bed. I slept well for about 8 hours.

Well, that was a little bit of a kick in the teeth. I finally contacted the university about scoring essays, a part-time temporary job that is paid by the piece. I did it a few times a couple years ago and it's pretty brutal. Imagine my shock when they said my accuracy was not good enough and they do not want me back! My big accomplishment for yesterday was making that contact; it never occurred to me they wouldn't have me, only how much I didn't want to do it.

Secondly, my Dad is having a rough time of it. For example, he had to go to the eye doctor. He called to tell them to cancel my Mom's appointment (since she died). When he got there, one of the things the doctor asked him was if he had been under any stress lately. "Yes," he said. "My wife just died. I thought you knew that." Well, in this case, the person in the office didn't pass that along to the doctor, I guess. He came and spent a few hours with me, mostly dozing in front of the tennis. My Mom loved to watch tennis. He was telling me things about it and in my usual way, I was not very interested. He came to the Kenney Ridge potluck with me, but I warned him they wouldn't have much that he would like. "You mean, there won't be any meat?" he said. "Probably not," I said. He ate a little tuna fish I got him before we went. We played a few rounds of Boggle with Sky and Gere and Basil.

Ray was at work and then at the Democratic Executive Committee meeting and went to dinner with the geology speaker. The paper says we have the hottest summer on record, with 82 the average temperature and only 6 inches of rain, the 8th driest since record-keeping began. I think we have had 0 rain since just after my mother died. Many people are giving up on their gardens, but we still have herbs and peppers, and maybe we will have some things in the fall.

So far (10 am), staying home alone is good. Of course, Ray just left a few minutes ago and I have not actually accomplished anything. It is 78 out and humid and I have closed all the windows and most of the shades. The AC will kick in soon, I hope. One of the good things about being home is the chickens are out, but they are just hanging out under the porch because it's too hot.

Yesterday morning, I made myself some garbanzo bean salad to eat for lunch with the leftover shrimp. We headed into town before 10. I called my Dad to check his plans for the day and he didn't answer. I called again (4 times, plus my house once in case he had come there). So I made a detour to his apartment. He was fine, had been out for a walk without the phone. We chatted a bit, he had some errands and finances to take care of.

Then I went to ALT for the last time (for now). Nathan had me show him how to work with the mailing list, getting ready to mail a second set of Harvest Moon postcards, and the vertical response email software some too. I ate my lunch and then headed out.

First I went to the bank, to put some things in the safe deposit box. I stopped at the library to put a book Ray had finished in the drop box. When I looked at the back seat to get the book, I saw Polly's birthday present that I had wrapped a couple of days before. I went back and stood in line at the Post Office. It was a little more to send it Priority, but I would have had to buy an envelope for it to send it Parcel Post, so I used the Priority.

Then I noticed that Borders still had Going out of Business signs. Yup, sure enough, nothing more than 50%. I found a lot of books, mostly for Christmas presents. Some on aging and caring for your parents and estate planning. I got one for grampa on Grief, although I suspect he will not want to look at it or find it useful. But maybe. I finally stopped, but I bet there are lots more I would find a use for. I didn't buy any cookbooks or craft books...You can even buy their bookshelves for $100. I am tempted...

I headed over to Captain's apartment to meet Ray and go for a quick swim. Captain had headed out to the bank to get something official signed. Ray and I went to Earth Fare to buy a few things. At home, I finished up the lentil salad for potluck. I am always surprised at how tired I am after a little swimming.

We went to potluck a little early, but unfortunately, I thought Ray had the salad and he thought I had it. So he had to go all the way back. And most people didn't want any lentils with their dessert! So now we have a good bit left. It's pretty tasty, with oranges and peppers and herbs. That's what I'll have for lunch probably. After choir, we came home and I fell asleep in front of the TV pretty early. Woke up a few times during the night, sweaty and a little congested, from the weather, I think.