Even though it’s a bit cloudy, it’s a pretty lovely day here in the desert. My roses are budding and blooming, leaves have returned to the trees, there’s a soft breeze, 83 degrees. Spring has most definitely arrived. And it’s been six months since Jim died. He created this beautiful backyard, so I always […]
Miscellaneous
Permission To Discard
This post may sound like a rehash of a former post as I continue to clean out the garages of the house I purchased with my late-husband, Rich, six years ago in Georgia. That garage also contains the remainders of three homes in New Jersey. There are so many photos, cards and letters that I’ve […]
Scrambled Thoughts 🍳 with a Side of Trauma.
⌛️ It has been 842 days, 13 hours, and 41 minutes. Roughly 2 years, 3 months, and 22 days. But the trauma, the slow agonizing torture, started for me more than five years ago with his terminal brain cancer diagnosis. It blindsided us. If your person was ill for a while, you know what I […]
Start with YES
I’m now at Day 10 of this respiratory thing going around, so I’ve been isolating … which should have made it easier for me to accomplish all of the things on my list … but my energy level is at the negative level and I can’t manage more than an hour before I need to […]
Springing Forward
Yesterday welcomed the first official day of spring and for many it didn’t come soon enough. This winter has been a beast and judging from last week’s storm in Michigan where snow seemed to swallow houses and cars whole, winter isn’t lying down quite yet. Being from the Northeast originally I always understood that although […]
Tears in Heaven
Well, I finally sold the travel trailer. It needed to go … because I won’t be taking it out on the road AND because I need to get it out of the way so Jim’s son can retrieve the cargo trailer that was behind it and pick up the Harley. Mission accomplished. Check received. And […]
Everybody leaves one day….
As levees are breaking, a flood comes Washes away all the rubble Past indiscretions and stalemates We are all sailing to the gates Everybody leaves one day I know it hurts Everybody goes away You will too, I will too (Ghost) The thing is, everything that lives will leave one day. Death is all around […]
Finding our way
We each carry our grief – deal with our grief – in our own way. It’s important to know that there really is no right way for any of us to do this, so please don’t ever let someone tell you how you must do it or that you’re doing it wrong. You may choose […]
The Daze of a Week
The first week of March brought a strong sense of nostalgia. When I was prompted to grab my phone and to access my archived memories on Facebook early Monday morning, I realized that on that day, 8 years ago, my sister passed after a long illness. Today was her Service I’m also reminded. I remember […]
Birthday Week
A long time ago I decided I would never be upset if I couldn’t do something super special ON my actual birthday. Oddly enough, Mario and I were kind of on the same page with that, but he was even worse in that he didn’t like to celebrate his birthday at all. In hindsight, as […]
Paean to a Pup
I recently saw an article in the New York Times that posed a provocative question: whether dogs help people live longer? Dogs are rightly counted among Man’s best friends, yet, despite citing research suggesting that owning a dog can make us healthier, this article left me unconvinced of its teased central premise. I have limited […]
Fever Nights
Wow, last week was ROUGH. When I wrote on Monday about being sick, I had no idea what I was in for. I was down for seven days with a fever of 102 I couldn’t keep under control and exhaustion. Every night, I woke up every hour or two either chilled to the bone or […]