Category: Christian fellowship

I really had what was shaping up to be a nice quiet day today.  This afternoon I watched a documentary about Marvin Hamlisch (whose work I love.)

Then the mail came, and with it another payment request from that wretched lab that has been haunting me.  Medicare assures me that this bill is not my responsibility.  I’m surprised that you did not hear me scream (no matter how far away you are).  This has all the earmarks of a cursed transaction.

I just did not have the heart to call medicare yet again, so I will just postpone that until tomorrow.  Will no one rid me of this meddlesome lab? (to misquote Shakespeare).  They are coming back more times than the mummy.  What I don’t want is for them to put me into collections, because I have a superb credit rating and I want to keep it that way.

Boy am I mad.  I will also call the lab tomorrow too.  I just sent them a copy of Lee’s death certificate. To yet another address, this one in Texas.  They probably lost it.

Sorry for the rant, but I’m not in the best frame of mind right now.

Tomorrow I’ll talk a bit more about Marvin Hamlisch and the great volunteer work he did in the last decade of his life, traveling and conducting local symphony orchestras at his own expense to keep the really good old popular music alive.

Have a good night, all.

See you tomorrow.

God bless everybody.

Patty

“I am becalmed.”   It sounds sort of nice, actually, but to the old pirate it was not a good way to be.  Wallace Beery was just great in that role.  If you ever get a chance to watch Treasure Island with Beery, and Jackie Cooper as Jim–watch it.  We used to watch it quite often.

The heat has becalmed me.  (read paralyzed).  Actually, it’s not as bad today as it was yesterday, but still way over the top for this time of year.  Tomorrow, there’s supposed to be rain (which we need desperately) and a lot cooler temperatures.

Did the absolute minimum for survival today.  Just the inescapably necessary stuff.  I’m sort of edging up toward that bum-of-the-year category again.

I’ll stick with blaming it on the heat.

I’m also trying to figure out how to bring one of Lee’s podcast interviews to the blog, so you can hear him discuss writing in person.  He had such an odd voice.  People would assume he was a very elderly man (even back when he was in his 30’s) because of his voice.  It was also very soft and the sound engineers would go nuts trying to manage the sound levels when he was being interviewed for internet radio.

I am now going to make my supper and relax a bit.

Have a good night.

See you tomorrow.

God bless everybody.

Patty

Today the mercury hit 99 at Newark airport, and it knocked me out.

Hence, fewer posts today.  I was just too darned tired.

If you remember, only a couple of days ago I was complaining about having to still wear my puffer jacket because it was so blinkin’  cold in the mornings.  And cold in the apartment, too.

It just proves the truth of the old saw  “if you can live in New Jersey you can live anywhere.”

There’s one more day of heat, then the temperatures should go into the  50s (which is actually cool for May).

On the home front, my new water cooler was delivered today.  I’ve started using the 3 gallon bottles, because the 5 gallon were just getting too hard for me to wrangle into the cooler.  The other day’s mini power outage seemed to have messed up the electronics in the cooler, hence the new one.  I rent it from the water company.  That’s actually better, because if there’s a problem, they replace it (as opposed to me buying a new one).

And that was my excitement for the day.

The delivery guy did spill some water.

On the rug.

Have a good night, all.

See you tomorrow.

God bless everybody.

Patty

 

Some of us sure do look that way.  I got a very interesting column today from my friend Bob Knight who writes for the Washington Times.  He talked about the moral imbecile ( I will not name him) who shot an insurance company executive in the back and killed him.  On a public thoroughfare.  In Manhattan.  You all know the case.  The problem is not only did this jerk feel like he had the right to do so, but that he should do so.  Bad enough.  However, there are many people calling the shooter a hero.  Hero?  Shooting a man in the back because you did not like the way he made a living?  Talk about entitlement.

There is so much of this–people who loot, shoplift, rob little stores and beat up the cashier.  It is a deep seated rot.

Truly, we are losing our civilization.

Well, at least they didn’t catch him praying in school.

That would be really bad.

Have a good night.

God bless everybody.

Patty

Well, today I did something I never do.  When I got hit with the afternoon sleepiness, I fell asleep.  Not for too long, but it truly did not refresh me.  I felt groggy for a long time afterward.  It takes me a while to wake up after sleep at the best of times, so I’ve always nixed sleeping in the daytime.

I’ll have to go back to Plan A.  No sleeping in the daytime.

I took it easy today, but will have a pretty busy week coming up.

My neighbor had a medical emergency yesterday, and had to go to the ER.  If she had been going to our local hospital, I would have gladly driven her, but she had other plans.  It was just a reaction to a new medicine, and she is home now.

It was nice this morning–not freezing cold like it had been.  Maybe spring is really here.

I read that Amazon will be instituting 30 minute deliveries, and expect it to be nationwide by the end of the year.  I can’t figure out for the life of me how they are going to pull that one off.  I hope they don’t bite off more than they can chew, because the system they have now works great.  My Whole Foods grocery orders are part of Amazon and I don’t want that to get messed up.

That’s it for now.

Have a good night.

God bless everybody.

Patty

Very quiet day today.

I had that darned midday tiredness again today, which really keeps me from doing anything at that time.  I will just accept it (another facet of my new normal, I guess) and not try to force the issue.

Had to nip out to the store this morning and it was so cold I had to wear my puffer jacket.  By afternoon, it was really warm and I needed no coat at all.  We are in desperate need of rain.  I live in fear of wildfires in the Pine Barrens.  The air would get very smoky and generally unbreatheable if that happens.

I got my sample ballot for the June elections.  Would you believe that my local government (town) had NO Republicans on the ballot?  Just a little memo saying “no petition filed”.  There are Republicans running for the Senate and Congress, but nada for the town.  Guess they’ve thrown in the towel.

Well, that about sums it up for today.

See you tomorrow.

Have a good night.

God bless everybody.

Patty

Did you ever have a day where it seemed like you were getting in your own way when trying to do something?  That was me, today.  It was truly like pulling teeth to get from point A to point B.

Plus, I was really tired all day long.  It seems when I am tired, my brain takes a vacation.

I posted the old column from Lee’s Inquisitor series (back when he worked at the Independent) and I must have made ten thousand typos.  I have to physically type those, as I don’t have a scanner.  If I do any more of those I’ll have to make sure it’s a day when I am alert. Not like today.

Aside from the usual stuff, just another day.

No major problems.

Have a good night.

See you tomorrow.

God bless everybody.

Patty

I thought today would be a day to just not do much.

Well, I got another letter from Medicare which left me totally confused.  It was asking for a lot of documentation that I don’t have.  Lee did not have a will, so there is no copy of any probate document.  Bottom line–I called Medicare and they were once again extremely helpful.  I don’t have to send them anything–just hang on to any papers that I will be receiving from them in the future.

I had my will drawn up last fall. — My keyboard just stopped working for a minute.  Let’s hope that isn’t a harbinger of problems.  It’s almost brand new.–  Anyway, back to the will-stuff.  I had that done so that my daughter doesn’t have any problems.   She has her copy, as well.  Plus the power of attorney and all the required paperwork.

Aside from that, it was an easy day today.

Have a good night, everyone.

See you tomorrow.

God bless everybody.

Patty

 

 

 

 

Today I spent a lot of time doing necessary things.  Like sending the documents to that lab that keeps bugging me.

I also kind of “wrote myself out” this morning with my piece about the impact of  widowhood, which nobody seemed to be interested  in.  Go figure.

I am also dealing with a recalcitrant water cooler/dispenser.  We had a minor power failure and now I can’t seem to get all the lights back on.  I will have to call the water company and find out what to do.

Some days you would just love to be able to hit a “reset” button, and start all over.

I am also having an odd phenomenon going on.  It is about 70 in my apartment, and a lot warmer outside.  I find myself going outside to warm up.

.

Have a good night.

See you tomorrow.

God bless everybody.

Patty

 

Today I wasn’t able to post as much as usual, because there were things that I had to attend to.

One of them was calling that laboratory company and breaking the news to them that I was not responsible for that outrageous bill.  I had to send them a copy of Lee’s death certificate (and that went to yet another address, this one in Texas).  These companies are huge and have offices all over the country.  I think that contributes to all the billing errors.

Other than that, it was a good and productive day.

Did not have the fast heartbeat nor palpitations today, either

Thank you Lord.

See you tomorrow.

God bless everybody.

Patty