just a check up...

Today I had my annual checkup with my cardiologist, or, actually, one of his NPs.  It had actually been about a year and a half since my last heart check up so it was time.  Also I had had a couple of brief dizzy spells recently so I decided it wouldn't hurt to just get an exam, especially since my wonder spouse and I are going on a long vacation in about six weeks. 

The exam today included an EKG and on Saturday I am scheduled for an Echocardiogram.  Meanwhile I am wearing a heart monitor stuck to my chest.  It's very small, not obvious at all under clothes.  This wouldn't be bad except the heart monitor comes with its own cell phone which I must keep with me at all times so I can record any events like a rapid heart beat or breathlessness.  I walked two rooms away from this pesky little phone for about 15 minutes earlier this evening and it sent out an audible message that I was too far away from it. 

I must admit, I'm a little surprised, but really very pleased, with how seriously they are dealing with my concerns.  I sort of expected someone to listen to my heart, tell me it sounded ok, tell me to keep taking my one a day heart pills, pat me on the head and send me on my way.  

I feel quite sure that nothing new and serious will be discovered but I will feel much more confident going on our three week cruise knowing that "all systems are go."

Easter Monday

 Today is Easter Monday according to my calendar.  My daughter-in-law, who teaches at a Catholic school had the day off, and, interestingly, the students who go to the public school where my spouse and I tutor on Monday afternoons also had today off.  We were told that it was an in-service day for teachers.  

I wanted to know more about Easter Monday so I googled it, of course.  It seems that Easter Monday is celebrated globally as a public holiday (not a religious holiday) representing a day of rest, continued feasting, family outings, and in some regions, unique water based traditions to mark the joy of the resurrection.  It is widely observed in Europe, Canada, and Australia, while in the US it is marked by the White House Easter Egg Roll. This US tradition is not a federal holiday but has been held on the South Lawn every Easter Monday since 1878.  

I saw some coverage of the White House Easter Egg Roll on the news this morning.  Evidently it involved 40,000 eggs. and thousands of children and their families selected via lottery.  President and Mrs. Trump were there to host the party and the Easter Bunny was also in attendance.  

And I thought all the fun was on Easter Sunday.  I will have to think of something special to do on Easter Monday, 2027.  By then our great grandson will be a year old, maybe he will want to join in the fun. 

Happy Easter indeed...

 With most of our family members busy with other extended family members, my wonder spouse and I anticipated a quiet Easter.  We decided to take his older brother to our favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner after church (lovely music, favorite hymns), and made reservations for that a week ago. That was it, our big plan for the day, and it went very well.

But yesterday I received a text from my niece who lives in Tennessee saying that she and her husband were unexpectedly in town just for the weekend and could they come see us for a while about 4:00 this afternoon.  This niece is especially dear to me because she is the first born of that generation.  She was born a few months after my mother died and I have always felt some of my mother's spirit in her.  She has grown up to have the same confidence and ability to tackle tough jobs that my mother had.  She also has the same love of life. 

So of course we said by all means come on over.  We had a delightful visit which included sitting around talking and sipping wine (which they provided) and culminated in taking them to our favorite pizza place for supper.  There are not a lot of restaurants open on Easter but B'Antonios was and, happily, we all like pizza.  

As it happened my spouse and my nephew-in-law decided to share a Hawaiian pizza, made with ham and pineapple so they had an almost traditional Easter dinner.  My niece had a taco pizza and I had a meatsa pizza.  Maybe they will become a new Easter tradition.  All in all it has been a delightful Easter day and I thank God for all the joys in my life.  

aticipation....

 Happy Easter Eve.  I know it's not actually called that but I'm not sure why.  If the day before Christmas is Christmas Eve why shouldn't the day before Easter be Easter Eve?

It has been a low keyed day for my wonder spouse and myself.  We will be eating out tomorrow so no hustle of food prep, and most of our grandchildren are too old to expect Easter baskets full of eggs and candy so no coloring eggs.  Our day was pretty normal.  Except for this poem I came across while sorting through old letters and cards. I felt that I really must share it:

WOULD HAVE SENT YOU AN EASTER EGG, BUT ...

by Ogden Nash

I asked a rabbit that I knew to lay and Easter egg for you.

The air was filled with chilly frost.  The rabbit said to me,

"GET LOST!

That egg routine is for the funnies, us rabbits just have little bunnies."

This information spoiled my day, but Happy Easter, anyway.

            

                Seriously, I hope you all have a blessed, joyous Easter.

prelude...

 Today is Good Friday.  As I write this I am listening to thunder and heavy rain outside.  It seems like a fitting end to a somber Good Friday.

I went to the Good Friday noon time service at our church.  First as a greeter, then as an attendee at a very moving service of "prayer, song and silence at the foot of the cross." 

I managed to embarass myself as a greeter by telling a rather distinguished looking gentleman that we would be worshiping in the chapel and pointing him in that direction, only to be told that he knew that because he is our director of music/organist.  In my defense he is fairly new on the the job.

The service was very well done.  One of the things I found most interesting was the reading of Psalm 22.  I had often heard the opening line "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" or in the Common English Bible "My God, my God, why have you left me all alone?"  I had learned long ago that it was what Jesus cried out when he was dying on the cross, and I knew it was from an Old Testament source, but I had never heard the entire Psalm.  One phrase that stood out to me was verse 11, "Please don't be far from me because trouble is near and there's no one to help."  What a sad desperate prayer.  

But, happily, we all know how this story ends, and Sunday we will glory in the resurrection.

Challenge accepted...

 Yesterday evening, while we were working on our 2000 piece puzzle on the big table in the basement, my spouse pointed out to me a medium size plastic bin on a shelf across the room that he said was full of my stuff.  He asked me, nicely, if I would like to clear it out.  

Since he had boxed up lots of my stuff when we married and I moved here from my apartment, it seemed reasonable to me that the contents of the bin could be mine.  So this morning after breakfast we went down to the basement and he lifted the bin in question off the shelf (it was very heavy) and carried it over to a table.  I opened the bin and found that it was filled to the brim with family pictures from back in the day when pictures were taken with a camera, not a phone, and developed at a photo shop.  Yes we are that old.

The surprise to both of us was that they were his pictures, not mine, so it was up to him to sort through them and decide which ones to keep.

While he was sorting through those pictures, I decided that it would be a good time for me to sort through a large box of "precious" things that I had taped shut and moved with me every time I moved as an adult. 

I was delighted to discover, among little albums of high school friends and other nick nacks that I knew would be there, my original baptism certificate that I had never seen before and a fat file of letters that my mother and, after she died, my father had written to me while I was in college and during my first three years of teaching.  There was also a file of letters and cards that my first husband had mailed to me before we were married.  I have not yet taken the time to reread these letters but I will. 

But thinking about all these surviving letters, I realized that I don't write very many letters these days.  Occasionally I will write to a grandchild in college or one friend who doesn't use a computer but more often (daily in many cases) I text.  I text to my brother and my daughter and my son daily and my grandchildren often but not quite so frequently.  

After my discoveries today, it saddens me to think that they will not have a huge stack of letters to rediscover someday.  On the other hand they will not have to meet the challenge of deciding what to keep and what to throw away.  

I found these two letters from my west coast brother among the other treasures.  I am ten years older than him.  These were mailed to me when I was in college.  He would have been eight or nine years old.

Even way back then he was providing me with things to blog about.

April foolishness...

 Today is April 1, often referred to as April Fools' Day.  Mother Nature seemed to be doling out a heavy dose of foolishness today.  Or perhaps she had her months wrong.  March is the month that is supposed to come in like a lion, but last night March made its exit with lion like roars of thunder and a heavy downpour.  So heavy that we now have a damp spot in our basement where we never had one before. 

But now it is April and,while it continued raining steadily all day, I consoled myself with the thought that April showers do bring May flowers.  I pondered this happy thought during a visit to the dentist (always so much fun) and a lengthy stay in the waiting room at my car dealership while they changed the oil in my faithful Fiat.  It would be, they had assured me when I brought my car in, about a 45 minute job.  Two hours later I realized that they had estimated the time using football minutes.

While I texted with my west coast brother to pass the time (and because I enjoy texting with him) he shared this joke with me "Chemists aren't good at April Fools jokes because they lack the element of surprise."

That reminded me of my favorite April joke "If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring??"  "Pilgrims!!"

My brother passed along one more bit of April lore.  It seems that April 1 is "Edible Books Day."  Of course I had to look that up and it's true.  There are books for toddlers that are safe to chew on and even ingest, but I couldn't find any claims that they make a child smarter. 

But thinking about books that are almost good enough to eat, I just finished a yummy book that I highly recommend. It's "The Crime Brulee Bake Off" by Rebecca Connolly.  If you've ever watched British or American baking competitions, I assure you that you will enjoy this book.  And that's no April Fool joke.