Monday, September 11, 2023

The anniversary of 9/11. I didn't lose any friends or family that day but I did have people who had near misses. Such a sad day in our history.

Speaking of flying, I am on the road again. We leave for the airport in a couple of hours. Neck feels pretty normal and my arm is functioning as well as it is going to. And I think my packing was pretty efficient. I hope I won't be missing much...

The next 2 weeks are our last on Cape Cod for a while. We fly to Florida 2 weeks from today. In the meantime I have this trip, several get-togethers with family and friends and my 50th class reunion the final weekend. It will be nice to be somewhat quiet for a while after we go.

My appetite was still somewhat depressed by the muscle relaxers yesterday but I have stopped taking them. I have 3 days left of prednisone. We shall see what happens with that on-board alone.

Have a major Monday!

Liz, you are a jet setter! I can't keep track of your comings and goings. But you know, it seems to work really well for you. Some people are movers and shakers, travelers, or homebodies. I'm all for what works best for you. My BFF says he could never keep up with my schedule, and I think I'm kind of on the lazy side! I rarely get projects done around the house that need doing (e.g. hall bathroom needs to have the toilet tightened and possible reset, but I have been putting that off for at least two weeks!). I'm always impressed by those of you who get your household chores done with efficiency!

9/11 Anniversary: I did not realize that 99% of the people in the twin towers that were below the impact levels of the two airplanes survived the attack and subsequent disaster. That is a bright statistic in an otherwise horrendous event.

I "forgot" (???) to weigh again today. I haven't weighed myself in 5 days. I don't usually go that long. Wonder what's up with that?

Dog show was not a success this past weekend. Blitz was beaten both days - albeit by a lovely girl that was sired by one of my other dogs named Ace. But it did feel like a bit of a wasted weekend with no breed or owner handled points to go with the weekend. But in the dog show world we know that you win some and you lose some. It's the winning that keeps us in the game and the losing that teaches us sportsmanship, humility and grace. One must have both!

Not much else in my brain today.

Hope all is well with everyone on this rather mundane Monday.

Good afternoon. Today another student was added to my caseload. I made sure to leave at the end of my contract day. Last spring, they eliminated the position of a young, enthusiastic and skilled teacher. He wanted very much to stay. Now we don't have enough staff to cover everything. I am not staying late for free to rescue them from their poor decisions.

I know I should get back to working out. I have lots of excuses, but we all know the truth, working out is a great stress and fatigue buster.

Summer has left the area! Definitely fall weather since Saturday, light jacket needed.

I like a balance of busy and unstructured time in my personal life. I need a good amount of processing time, ie staring at the wall, thinking. And although I have some extroverted tendencies, I need to be by myself at times, when traveling with others. One time when we were staying at Texas BILs house with all his siblings and spouses, I found I just needed to go sit on the guest bed with the door closed and "breath" for awhile. Pretty sure I could not keep pace with either of you Liz and Peps.

I do need downtime too. One of the reasons the SILs and I have separate rooms on this trip.

Greetings all

Yes 9-11. Remember it well. I did not know anyone who perished but there was a man who ran a wildlife refuge here who was on United 93. The place is named for him now. I was getting ready for work when the plane**** Went to work anyway but we just went in the conference room and watched the towers fall. Our firm sent everyone home because our offices were in high rise buildings. 9-11 is part of what made DH and me decide to quit our jobs and move to CA. Life is short. 9-11 is also my great nephew's birthday. Life does go on.

The movie Strays was pretty good but boy do those dogs have potty mouths! So much so that it almost distracted from an otherwise cute story. Then we ate chili and had a fine time.

Yeah in my old age I require a lot of down time which is what I have. The accountant canceled the appointment today and I was thrilled not to have to go. I have never liked having my time highly structured which was another reason I retired young. I wanted to own my time and my thoughts. No regrets.

Well peps dog shows are always more fun when you come home with loot but as you know they are an all day party. Some of the most fun I have had was at dog shows where I got a barely qualifying obedience score but we went out and partied! At least you lost to a fine dog and not some piece of you know what.

DD I so feel your pain. Good on you for staying to contract. Hope the new student is enjoyable and not too time demanding.

Yeah Liz I can't keep up with you either. No gathering moss for you! But hey, live it up. Glad the pain is subsiding.

More chili tonight. I made a rather large batch. No cooking day 2. Yay.

Diane S

Liz, your schedule would do me in. I wouldn't last a week!

Today we met with the contractor to talk more about the big house kitchen. Lots of details to work out. Aside from that, I did very little! It was cold and rainy.

I'm leaving Saturday so I need to start getting my brain and my stuff ready for that.

9/11, a coworker's brother died in one of the towers. He worked for Cantor-Fitzgerald. My parents had been on the Boston Flight 11 to LAX the week before, coming home from a wedding. My mom was so upset by that, she never flew again. What a terrible, awful day.