Chez Rozarie

As some of you know, Blues on the Beach was Saturday.  We had lovely weather - if you like rain and wind, soggy clothing including underwear!  Our high school class continues its 2nd year of having a party on the beach during this fun event.  Yes, we had an official reunion in December, but this is so much fun, we're probably going to keep on doing it every year! Mom and Dad - well, really Dad - asked me why I was making brownies on Friday night.  First Dad wanted me to go to Ninety-Nine with them for dinner Friday...hmmmm...empty house with just me, myself and I?  Going to Ninety - Nine with the people I've watched television with the past 5 nights... "No, that's OK, Dad, I had a late lunch.  I have to make brownies anyway for our party." "At the beach?  Blues on the Beach?  You going?" So I explained, I was leaving in the morning, going to help with set up at one of the pavilions for our class reunion. "Oh, it's supposed to rain all d...

It's been a bit nuts here at Chez Rozarie.  Some changes happening with one more chick out of the nest, and a bit of hospitalism going on. Mom had her surgery on Monday morning.  It was a bit more invasive than originally planned, but she is recuperating.  Much  better today than she was yesterday with regard to her mind, although today she is in some pain where the bypass stuff went in (yup - the groin and her thigh).  Covered stents don't just go into cardiac areas - they also go into subclavian arteries (who knew?).  Probably a good thing to keep on eating all those good foods to get your cholesterol in line, people.  You just never can tell where that nasty plaque is going to dam up your artery. So, got home yesterday, pulled into the driveway around 4:30 p.m.  One chick had kindly walked the puppy (who am I kidding?  Puppy????), and was just leaving.  Looked at the phone and Dad had left a message that they were on their way hom...

I just sat in my living room and watched Mom eat her lunch.  Dad fixed her a decent lunch, which she ate.  He doesn't eat lunch.  Well, at least that's what he says.  It turns out that what he does is pick...a bit of this, a bit of that, a piece of fruit, a cookie or 3. We have a rule in our house about Santana, our shepherd.  When someone is eating, whether it be in the kitchen, or in the living room, we say, "EATING" loudly, and make eye contact with Santana.  He, like most dogs I've ever known, likes to watch others eat, very closely.  This way, if even the tiniest crumb may fall, he can get it before it hits the floor. We've sort of trained Santana that "EATING" means to move away from the eater.  He will inch backwards while you keep saying "EATING" until you stop saying it.  Then he stops and lays down.  The stare at the eater is refocused, of course. So Dad brought some cookies in the living room for his snack and gave a few...

Softball, as I've written before, was a big part of our lives as we grew up.  Dad played in several leagues, but the best league was the beer league on Sunday mornings.  The culmination of the Beer League team's season was a game at Lordship School's field, followed by a picnic at the school.   The heat we've been having brought this particular game to mind - it was always this hot!   This happened on a Sunday, usually around Labor Day.   It was not an ordinary game, however.  The team would choose sides, splitting into 2 teams.  One of the teams would be required to dress as women, and play as women.  While this may now be considered problematic, back in the day it was just funny as hell. Bigger women in the neighborhood would be sought after, especially those who owned house dresses and were willing to loan a bra as well to the guys.  Sneakers or cleats were all right, but a bra with falsies (do they still call them that?) was a requir...

So, we got home this afternoon from a much needed break at a lovely Lake in Vermont.  Of course, I knew just about everything that happened at home...missed a few minor details it turns out, but got the gist of all that occurred in the house.  Didn't need my cell (No Service was the most common status while at the Lake), didn't need fast Internet (FB doesn't need speed if you don't want to see pics!).  Still found out just about everything that went on, and picked up the rest within 3 hours of arrival. The house is still here, and there were just some little things I found to be "off".  That's the good news. Some folks need others around, however, to continue being nice to each other.  Enough said about that. Dad - likes to use the air conditioning in their room even when the temperature is not high.  The rats were right on that one. Mom - doesn't really know what's going on (nothing new there). Adult Kids - well, like I said, enough said...

Back to the vacation experience...You know when you vacation as an adult, you remember the vacations you took when you were a kid?  Even if they were day vacays? Mom and Dad believed in taking a summer vacation.  It pleased my Dad to take the first 2 weeks of July every year when he worked at SNET.  Because he and another guy had the most years in for a long time, they always blocked July out - the other guy took the second 2 weeks.  None of the other folks on the job there in that area could ever take days in July.  When the guys complained, my Dad with his 5 weeks, and the other guy with his 5 weeks booked out June, July, August and a bit of September.  The complaints ended right quick, and Dad and his buddy went back to the bogarting the month of July. So each year, Dad picked a spot - sometimes Mom got a say, but all she ever wanted to do was get the freak out of town for a week.  I already talked about the lake in New Hampshire.  Another ...

So Mom is going to have a covered stent put in to circumvent the blockage that may have/likely caused the 2 strokes in Disney in May.  Dad scheduled the procedure on the day I have to be back at work, but no worries - he'll get company while waiting.  She's going in around 10, in the morning, I think.  She should be home by evening.  Let's hope so, because if she has to stay overnight, the staff will also have my Dad to cope with. In Florida, he stayed in the hospital room with her, fell out of bed and broke a bone in his arm/shoulder (still don't know which, but know he was in a sling for over a month).  While he was "watching her", she got up out of her bed, took all of her leads off (you know, the ones that give the docs and nurses all those readings for BP, heart rate).  She got into her clothes, packed her bag (with all of the leads), and walked to the elevator.  As she got to the elevator, she asked a hospital employee which floor she was on, a...

I'm remembering the week we spent in the woods of New Hampshire, back when I was 11 or 12.  Mom and Dad's friends had a cabin that we rented for a week.  Of course, now I know that these are actually called "camps".  It was right on a lake with 2 bedrooms and a big open dining/living/kitchen area, with an indoor and an outdoor bathroom.  I got to bring a friend with me, and my sisters came along.  Another couple came up the next day - friends of Mom and Dad.  They weren't married, but were engaged.  Fred and MaryLou didn't appear very often except to eat and sleep on the lawn in chaises.  Years afterward, we were all talking about this and Mom said, "All they did all week was screw."  Yeah, figured that. Mom was always great in the water - she got up on skies and did really well.  She swam with us all, and we had a great time.  Dad and Fred were in the boat one afternoon, on the lake, with their cooler of beer, pretending to fish. ...

It had to happen.  I had called home a few days ago, just to give folks the phone number here in VT, and to ask someone to go get a bottle of JD from the basement and put it on the counter for a friend to pick up and bring here to us.  No one was home, but Dad saw the missed call.  Of course, there is little cell coverage so I kept missing his call, and couldn't call him.  He left 4 voice mails (that I can't retrieve until we go back into town), and caught me this morning. Now, Dad is a phone talker.  He talks an average of 35 minutes per call, no matter who he is speaking with. He always has to have the phone next to him, and has his daily call routine with Florida folks.  If it's Tuesday, he has to call Ron...Wednesday it is Helen, and so on.  His mother had the same routine with all of her sisters and sister-in-laws.  When Gramma was in the nursing home, she had to have her own phone so she could continue that.  The phone was a new kind ...

You know how you know how you got here, but you don't want to really think about your parents doing the deed?  Well, my parents just HAD to tell me the whole story some years ago.  It was a really big deal for both of them because of what happened when they got married. July 13th in 1957, Mom and Dad got married at St. James Church.  Dad finished his service in the military, and had a job, well, he actually had 2.  One was with the phone company, the other shoveling coal into the street's furnace on Fisher Court, where their apartment was.  Mom was working for Manning, Maxwell and Moore as a secretary.  Her parents came up for the wedding, from Florida, and his parents were there, too. The Raven was the site of the reception - it burned down back in 1979 or 1980.  We were going to put a deposit on it when we got word it was gone. It was a big wedding - with 6 attendants on each side - white tuxes for the guys, tea gowns for the girls.  Mom was n...

Getting caught up here, as I sit in the Northeast Kingdom...away from the old folks for the next 2 weeks.  I figured I'd do some historical stuff.  You know, the folks were cool in their day - cool kids in high school, cool folks in Lordship, cool couple in Florida.  Sometimes we lose sight of that as we look at those who are aging.  They had lives that were somewhat different than they are now, but have some of the same elements. We checked with our great neighbors before we came up here - making sure the old folks weren't being pests.  Dad looks out for neighbors.  He noticed last week that one of our neighbors' cars hadn't left the driveway.  He walked over, to check on her.  She was not feeling well, so he brought her some gatorade from the store.  Her husband noted that - we said that's the way they always were - for over 30 years in Lordship, and for the past 22 years in Florida (the time overlapped for the math folks out there). Mom...