Today has been an interesting day already. While out walking the dogs, we saw a guy pushing a baby in a stroller and his young son was riding a bicycle behind him on the sidewalk. For some reason, a square of the sidewalk near the corner was filled with wet asphalt like the road would be patched with. The father should have maneuvered everyone around that but instead went through. The son on the bike got stuck. He left the stroller a short distance ahead with the dog’s leash tied to it. He went back and pushed his son onto the regular sidewalk and looked back. We were walking up from the side and saw the whole thing. The dog was starting to pull towards the kid on the bike and the stroller had completely flipped in mid-air with the baby hovering a foot from the ground (face first). The guy had amazing reflexes and grabbed the stroller and righted it before any harm came to the strapped in baby! I kind of gasped but kept walking. Most people walking would’ve stopped and just stared. I didn’t want to make things worse so we kept going.
Posted in Currently in my world, Dogs, It's All About Me, Treasure Hunting | Tagged #babbling, #coronavirus, #covid19, #dogattacks, #estatesales, #quarantine | 2 Comments »
I had hoped to get back on here with regular updates of our quarantine status but got waylaid by life. Hubby has been home since March 20th. He’s on his 3rd week of working from home. It is going fairly well. Previous to home confinement, he would get up at 5:20 am to go to work (45-60 min. drive) and I would roll out of bed when I felt like it which was usually 7-8 am. Now I’ve been going to bed when he does (11:30 pm) and getting up with him. I am a zombie and fall asleep a couple of times during the daytime and sometimes in the evening. I end up taking at least a one hour nap most days. I never believed in naps but now it’s out of my control. My body just gives out and I pass out. So the days seem longer but no more productive. Hubby seems to love working from home. He is tired but less so because he gets to cut out all the driving both ways.
Posted in Currently in my world | Tagged #coping, #coronavirus, #covid19, #quarantine, #shelterinplace, #stayathome, #stayhome | 2 Comments »
Aunt Anne passed away on Sat. Morning at 7:30 am. We got word yesterday from family that the funeral is this Thurs. up in Harland, WI. The Rosary is at 4:00 pm, visitation is from 4:30-6:45 pm with the mass at 7:00 pm. Then Greg got a call from his mother saying to call Sara (Anne’s youngest child) right away. So he did and she asked him to be a pallbearer. Greg is taking Thurs. and Friday off but using hours he got from an award and not sick leave. It’s about 2 hours from here so we’ll have to leave mid-afternoon to get there and skip dinner until afterwards. That’s not a big deal but something to consider. When we saw the funeral would be at St. Charles Catholic Church in Harland, we wondered why. Aunt Anne was devoted and passionate about her faith. She was a Catholic and she got Uncle Dean to convert to Catholicism before he married her. She was selfless and loving with everyone. She and Uncle Dean lived their faith and were really the only examples I’ve known of true Catholics. They even ministered to prisoners. Besides going to church religiously and tithing, they were the first to help anyone. Aunt Anne belonged to St. Mary’s in Pewaukee her entire life. The church was sold and the congregation began going to Queen Of Apostles in 1999. I never liked that church. It has such a modern look inside, it feels soulless. St. Mary’s reminds me of the church I grew up going to that was not much bigger than a house. Anyway, for all that Aunt Anne has done for the church and the congregation over the years, they won’t let her funeral be there. The day they are having the funeral is CHOIR PRACTICE. That is laughable. They could sing at her funeral. They could cancel and just wing it on Sunday. You’d think church-going people would understand. Instead they put out this nice family in their time of need. This is everything that is wrong with religion.
Posted in #grief, Currently in my world, Family | Tagged #bestfriend, #catholic, #church, #death, #funeral, #religion | 4 Comments »
Things have taken a turn for the worse. It’s been one thing after another. Last Thursday night, one of my husband’s coworkers was driving home from work on I-57 at 2 am. She was hit by a drunk driver who was going 85 in a 55 mph zone. He was out celebrating his 25th birthday and his blood alcohol level was .123. He struck Stephanie’s 1999 Jeep and it went over a concrete barrier, flying off a bridge, landing on railroad tracks below. We were originally told the car burst into flames then but later found out it burst into flames when it was hit before it went over the side. She was so burned up that they had to use DNA to verify the body. When Greg was at work on Friday, he was told that they weren’t sure if it was her. They knew it was her car and that she hadn’t picked up her child or gone home the night before. Everyone in his office is pretty shaken up. Stephanie was only 39, married with one boy about 5 or 6 years old. My husband worked with her the last 10 years or so at both O’hare airport and Midway. We are waiting to hear when her funeral will be. A GoFundMe has been set up in her name (Stephanie Anselmo) for her family. I don’t usually believe in donating to those but in this case it seemed the right thing to do. I met her a few years ago when I volunteered to help with the canine training at Greg’s office. We donated $100 and it’s now over $10,000.
Posted in #grief, Currently in my world, Family | Tagged #breastcancer, #cancer, #caraccident, #death, #drunkdriving, #funeral | Leave a Comment »
I can’t believe it’s been almost 7 months since I blogged. I lay in bed thinking about it every night. It’s hard to get back into it but I need to have an outlet. Even if it’s for my own personal reading at a later date, it needs to happen. Since July, things have been “ok”, “not so good”, “awful” and most recently TERRIBLE. I know I have a flair for the dramatic and that while things are happening they seem to be exponentially worse. But the last 2 months have brought life to a new low.
Posted in Currently in my world, My Health | Tagged #biopsy, #bleedingaftermenopause, #endomitrialbiopsy, #gynecologist, #nightmare, #papsmear, #transvaginalultrasound, #ultrasound | 3 Comments »
Things are officially back to business as usual around here. Hubby got home from deployment on the afternoon of Sat. June 15th. He went back to work the next day and worked 2 days and had to take a sick day. He had been nursing a cold for a few weeks. The environment he was in was like a petrie dish and everyone there was sick on and off. He spent that Tuesday in bed and slept 17 hours. He went back to work on Wed. and then had off Thurs., Fri. and Sat. He wasn’t feeling well most of the weekend and I had caught the cold on Thurs. My illness lasted about a week and his lingered even longer. We are both finally well. It helped that after hubby worked another week, he was informed that he had earned “3 admin days off” for being gone so long. He was told to use them as soon as he could after coming home. Too bad they didn’t tell him 2 weeks earlier. He put in for the 3 days of the July 4th week and with the holiday that gave him a full 10 days off. He didn’t even mention going away. He wanted to just relax and get used to being home again.






Posted in Currently in my world, Holidays, Treasure Hunting | Tagged #restandrecovery, #sick, #staycation, #treasurehunting, #vacation | Leave a Comment »
So hubby’s been gone 5 weeks today. I haven’t felt like checking in with the blog but figure I should anyway. Only a week and a half to go! The time has gone surprisingly fast. I knew it would because as my dad used to say, “Time waits for no man”. At first I had all kinds of ideas of things I wanted to get done while he was gone. That pretty much went out the window right away. I gave myself permission to just get through it, day by day. At first I was really fearful to be alone and not happy about it. After about 2 weeks, I relaxed into it and by 4 weeks, I no longer minded being alone! It’s funny because at the 4 week mark when I was getting comfortable with hubby being gone, he started getting homesick. Each day it gets harder for him and easier for me! It’s weird to have us on different pages at the same time.





Posted in Currently in my world, My Health | Tagged #alone, #fish, #koifish, #koipond, #likeaboss, #problems, #thyroid | 4 Comments »
I’m happy to report that I survived the first week alone. Time has been passing incredibly quickly. I keep to a routine which helps. Last Thursday it rained all day so I stayed home and did housework. Friday, I ventured out to 3 estate sales by myself! This is the first time I’ve ever gone to an estate sale alone! It went so well that I went to 3! None of them were nearby so I had to drive my husband’s Jeep. It was so easy to navigate, I didn’t have to worry about getting lost or parking. Now I can see the appeal of the newer vehicles. I took some of the major highways in different directions and things went like a charm. I already felt more confident. Saturday I went to the library book sale which our local library hadn’t had for a year since they were remodeling. The pickings were very slim but I got a few vintage books. Then I went to 2 estate sales. I got more books at one of them and nothing at the other. I don’t know if I’ll venture out on a Saturday again since the traffic was horrible and parking was ridiculous. I found nothing earth shattering at any sales all weekend. I did find a pink and blue carnival monkey to keep me company while hubby is gone. I’m glad I went but it sure isn’t as fun as going together. I can’t fully relax when I’m on my own like I can when I know someone has my back.





Posted in Currently in my world, Dogs, Treasure Hunting | Tagged #cuttingthegrass, #dogattacks, #dogs, #estatesales, #firstestatesalealone, #firstweekalone, #yardwork | 6 Comments »
So many months have passed since I posted or even looked at my blog. Most of that time I didn’t even think of it or if I did, I quickly put it to the side. I just haven’t been in a writing mood. We had computer problems in early November. Our old beloved computer died and we replaced it with a more recent version of the same. I had never used our old computer much and neither had my husband. We use our iPhones or iPads. The old computer had been my mother’s lifeline. She went on it every day after breakfast until lunch. Sometimes after lunch until dinner. Occasionally even in the evenings. She played casino games and they kept her occupied and entertained. I hate change more than the average person. I didn’t want a new computer but sometimes there’s no other choice. To think this new computer was never touched by her hands or seen by her eyes or heard by her ears is weird. I still feel like I’m dealing with her loss every day. I don’t dwell on it but she was such a big part of my life for my entire life. I hadn’t been alone as long as she was alive. In the 2 1/2 years since she’s passed, I’ve been spending my days alone while my husband is at work. I’ve gotten used to it but can’t say I enjoy being alone.




Posted in Currently in my world | Tagged #alone, #deployment, #duty, #helpingout, #immigration, #missingyou, #thesouthernborder | 2 Comments »