From the Deep Freeze

Brrrrrrrr.....13 degrees here this morning with very heavy cold winds. Bright moonlight shone on my face and woke me at 5 am from the most peaceful wonderful, sleep just before my friends from NPR came on with the news. Yesterday, I probably should have stayed home to rest as I had little or no voice. That made for a stressful day, as so much of my time is spent on the phone. By seven last night, I was ready for bed! It was windy and rainy, the window open a crack and I was sound asleep at 8 pm. MMMMMMMMM, love it. So much better today!
After work, I'll be headed over to casa LM & Ms G. We have some celebrating to do, some chili to make together, and a visit with his sister this weekend.

The celebration I mentioned above is quite a story and has had us both in tears of joy and disbelief this week. LM has a friend, Freddie, whom he has known since 1960. They were both in the Cape Cod TV/electronics business, and met on a bus to a convention in the Catskills Mountains of NY. Through the years, they spent a lot of time together fishing, playing cribbage and helping each other keep their respective businesses running. Ironically, Freddie, now 90, lives here in my town, but I never knew of him until LM and I became a couple. Freddie's personal life was pretty much a mystery to LM, although we knew he had a "girlfriend" of 50 years who lived nearby. Last week the girlfriend, Joan, died alone in her home. Last Sunday, Freddie, brokenhearted, called to tell us, and ask LM to stop by on Monday to play cribbage. Little did we know the dramatic twist which would come from that visit. No sooner had I gotten back to work at lunch on Monday, than LM called me from Freddie's to ask me to use my work computer to help him with a search. He told me that Freddie, now facing his own mortality, and very much grieving the loss of Joan, wanted us to help him find his daughters whom he had not seen for 50+ years!! Evidently, they have been estranged all that time due to Freddie's divorce from their mother. All we had were their names and some other sketchy details. As I was beginning a search, LM was going through some boxes in a back room at Freddie's house. Simultaneously, he found an unopened 10 year old Christmas card from one daughter and I found phone information on-line, and within minutes, LM was talking to one of the daughters who was so emotionally overcome that the rest of the talking had to wait for a bit later. Both daughters have been aching all their lives to have contact with their Dad, and now it was happening. Evidently, they both have spent summers here all their lives but not been able to contact their Dad....various reasons, but it just never worked out. Obviously, they are thrilled, and this opens a huge door for Freddie, virtually alone in the world with Joan's loss, to now be surrounded by both the loving families of his daughters as he finishes out his life. Meanwhile, there were many, many phone calls back and forth with the daughters and LM, trying to facilitate a reunion. Freddie is still very emotional about Joan's loss, and felt it would be too much for him to see his daughters right now, but as I was recovering on Wednesday afternoon, we finally got Freddie to agree to have his daughters visit yesterday afternoon. The reunion did happen and when last LM spoke with Freddie, it was going well. We will know more today and cannot wait to be together with them all. How quickly life can change....it was almost instantaneous. Another nice twist to this story is that Freddie, alone as he has been for a long time, has inherited Joan's cat, and they are now best buddies. Things always come along in life, just when needed!!
Happy weekend everyone and thank you so much for all the well wishes!

Onward

The endoscopy is over, now we await the stomach and esophagus biopsy results. So far the doctor says it is severe gastritis and some other inflammation. A new med promises relief and healing. It will all be fine, I know it. Slept most of the afternoon yesterday and then through the night. LM took really good care of me, while Ms G spent all night cuddled with HIM and not me. I'm still feeling the route of the endoscope as it passed down my throat to its goals. OUCH. Otherwise, I am fine and will be at work today. Got out of bed at 5 am and drove home in the very crisp quietness of early morning to get ready for work. The stars seemed so bright and I never saw another car...black ice slowed me down and gave me time to contemplate how beautiful my life really is in this lovely part of the world, and just how very much good fortune fills my days.

Catch-up

Oh, my, I have been neglecting this blog. No excuses.....just driving on some side roads these days. Traveling at a slower pace as I deal with some health problems. I'm having an endoscopy tomorrow to diagnose the source of some serious upper abdominal pain, and other symptoms. On a daily basis, I am not at full speed, so hopefully, the test can explain why. The diverticulitis is quieter now, but the upper GI pain has not abated, along with a chronic cough.

LM's stress test was normal and he is doing really well. We've been in a very nice and introspective place in our relationship since the dust of the holidays settled. Happy times! It seems like I've almost been on autopilot and we find ourselves having very quiet weekends at his house, watching movies, talking and contemplating the great beauty and amusing quirky nature of Ms G. Speaking of the little minx, she is about to have her world rocked. She will have to be captured and brought back to my house for awhile, along with her beloved LM, because we are having a contractor come in to gut out "their" bathroom and build them a brand new beauty. We've been having fun making our selections and are just now awaiting the pricing before we move forward.

Otherwise, life is very simple and just what it needs to be right now.
I'll fill you in on the test results when I can. LM will take me tomorrow and then bring me back to his house to recover.
Hoping this finds everyone happy and healthy!

Teddy

As I left Teddy last night after having lots of fun and sharing a lovely homemade beef stew, his very proud daddy's last words were, "So now you know, if you are feeling down, you can come here and spend time with this beautiful boy and you will not be sad anymore." So sweet! So true!

Alison has weeded out Teddy's "too many" toys to just a few in a small corner of the family room and he is so happy to just sit there and play, focusing really well on one thing at a time. As you can see, his furry friend, Sting, is never far.
Face-off! He's really walking well now and able to move VERY quickly.
Love that face! At the time he was trying to figure out how to scale that table to get at my water bottle and other things.
Mowing the lawn!
Oh, what a joy

LM did very well at the State House testifying before the legislature yesterday. Time will tell if the long day there was worth. It seemed the majority of our local representatives were not in favor of the bill to limit striped bass fishing. Made LM very happy.
This morning he is having a very thorough stress test. I'll be on the edge until I hear how it went.
We are looking forward to a nice but busier than usual weekend. We will see friends for lunch in N. Truro tomorrow, and hope to see Sam and Trish sometime Sunday or Monday. Trish continues to be sick from the constant head pain.

Wishing everyone a lovely long weekend.
It still seems so mundane to be writing about my silly life here when so much suffering is happening in Haiti (and other places, for that matter). I've reached the point where all I can do is use some creative visualization and see them happy, and recovered and at peace, and maybe more peaceful than they have ever been.

Happy Weekend!

Perspective

The Haiti earthquake compels me to take a look at the mundane complaining I do about my everyday life. Our state has the third largest Haitian population in the US and it must be so painful for them to not know what has happened to their loved ones at this time. My heart goes out to all touched by this tragedy.
There are sites on all news pages where anyone can offer to help. It seems the only thing besides prayer, that we can do from here.

LM Update

Good News - LM is home from the hospital. He's been thoroughly tested although he is commanded to appear for a 3.5 hr stress test on Friday morning.
We are both relieved for the moment, and very, very tired.
Thank you all so very much for the kind thoughts, prayers and support. I appreciate it all so much and will relay it to LM.
PS....he was able to re-schedule his radio airtime to tomorrow morning at 9 and that makes for a very happy boy!

LM

After a perfectly delightful weekend with my wonderful LM, I was having a great day at work, relishing the busyness of Monday, until he called me at 3:30 to say he was having heart attack symptoms and was on the way to the ER! All day he had been on the road swapping a car for the local Honda dealer but began to have pain. With his history of a major cardiac arrest and subsequent quadruple by-pass 2 years ago, he was taking no chances by ignoring the pain. DEJA VU consumed me. I quickly left work, heart in my throat, and got to the hospital within 35 minutes. Tonight he has been admitted and is on all sorts of monitors. Hopefully, they will find nothing. There is a chance it could be related to a nerve issue in his cervical spine. Tomorrow morning they will do a stress test and he will see his cardiologist. Leaving him tonight was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Knowing how sick I have been, he is insisting that I try to rest to further my recovery. There he was, worrying more about me! Pure LM.
I'm focusing on the positive and working on some things he needed tended. The timing is bad as he was scheduled to do the most fun thing tomorrow morning and make an appearance on the local radio talk show for an hour. He is so sad to miss it.

In other news, a very dear friend of mine fell through the ice on a local pond on Saturday while trying to rescue her dogs who had run out to chase some birds. Laurie barely survived. Tonight they are all recovering but it was nearly a tragedy. WHEW.

Off to bed, hoping sleep will come my way. I will be back tomorrow with good news, I promise!

Gratitude for Friday

A little list of reasons I feel humbly grateful today:

1. Having a wonderful compassionate physician
2. Very thoughtful co-workers (countless ways)
3. Beautiful snow
4. Having Mum's hair
5. Having the privilege of loving a wonderful man
6. Family
7. Friends near and far, including my wonderful readers
8. Intuition

Have a lovely weekend....I am off to the land of Ms G and LM

Welcome 2010

Ms G had an incredibly exciting New Year celebration! She received a lovely and thoughtful gift box from her dear friend, Debbie, who I am sure had no idea just how much fun Ms G would have with the box in itself, after all, it was taped closed with that delicious packing tape. Here she is, after digging in, lots of noisy tape chewing, and sniffing out some catnip, she had the best time.
Oh my how she loves these little crinkly balls.
....and, she loves to entice her LM to dare touch her tummy, so she can then grab his hand and pretend to bite, attack, and be "vicious"....note the feet braced on the bottom of the chair. She pushes herself all over the place from this point. What a character!
She also had several visitors to spy on. The downey woodpecker and a sweet carolina wren were feeding madly at the suet during the storm we had here over the weekend. (That's the broken weathervane leaning inside the outdoor shower - it came down a few storms back)

My New Year is not off to the best start, although I must say that LM and I enjoyed a divine 3 day weekend indoors, and we amazed ourselves by staying awake to see in 2010.

Some health issues have raised their head high enough now to really get my attention, forcing me to see my physician Tuesday morning. There is a serious ulcer and diverticulitis invading my system right now and it is not fun. The symptoms have been worsening over the past 6 months or so and I had been chalking them up to stress, but it is way more. Blood work has been done, I have a scrip for the ulcer and will know more tomorrow. Meanwhile, I must stay on clear liquids and in a few days graduate to bananas, rice, applesauce and toast. YUM!
It is all a way for me to put more focus on my health in 2010, I am sure.

Despite it all, I am determined that 2010 is going to be a banner year, and that I will enjoy the beauty and gift of each day.
Happy New Year!