Weary, Wasted and Worn

A Stodghill Says So blog:
It was 81 yesterday and is 82 today. Oppressive heat that drains all life and ambition from me. Could we bring back winter, please?
I don't mind the heat until it hits 75 or above. Then it wipes me out. I shudder whenever covering Cincinnati Reds spring training in Tampa comes to mind. The March heat was unbearable.
Upstate New York had the ideal climate when we lived in the village of Cooperstown. Even in July we'd build a fire when sitting on the patio in evening. I liked the standing joke when winter tourists would ask what we did in the summer: "If it falls on a Sunday we have a picnic."
Many evenings were spent at the Vet's Club shared by the Legion and VFW. When one had a dinner, the other would do the cooking and serving. We'd sit at the bar because there was always interesting conversation. The people there were the most informed and knowledgeable I have known.
The club in a building built in 1798 was directly across the street from the Baseball Hall of Fame. Just beyond it was the grave of James Fenimore Cooper. Visitors from around the country would stop in the club and often express surprise because New Yorkers were so friendly and nice. They had been led to believe otherwise.
In winter when it was 30 below we'd go out on the ice of Lake Otsego - the Glimmerglass of The Last of the Mohicans and Cooper's other stories - and watch auto racing on a slick track. The lake is the source of the Susquehanna River where there were canoe races in the spring. Sometimes a lone piper would stand where the river begins and play his bagpipe.
It was a wonderful area in the Northern Catskills between the Adirondacks just to the north across the Mohawk River and the Catskills to the south of the point where the Susquehanna sweeps to the west. Deer and bears roamed the densely wooded hills. The Mohawk warpath ran across the upper area of our property on Hannah's Hill.
It was, and is, an area of energetic people who work hard, move fast and accomplish a great deal. Wool sweater and warm jacket country of wondrous beauty. A great place to visit, a better place to live.
If we were there today I'm sure I wouldn't be sweltering in the oppressive heat of 82 degrees. It didn't used to get that hot in the Western Reserve during April. Global warming has a lot to answer for.

Since we've been up in the woods we've had four inches of snow. Then yesterday it was 80 degrees and we were able to get outside cleaning up the woods. My husband had such a good time, he forgot to take breaks and a few drinks a long the way, and I ended up taking him to the ER with dehydration. Thank goodness it wasn't a heart attack which I feared. Luckily I can drive now. We hadn't been to the emergency room for at least a month. We've got the routine down, but we've got to stop making these visits.

Today it is 40.

Carol

Dick,

This picture of the wedding party at my son Dave's wedding was taken at a lodge near Bloomingburg, NY, in the foothills of the Catskills. We were told, that if you could see clearly enough, that in the valley, near the center right of the photo, you would be able to see West Point. Dave went to grad school in Troy, just outside of Albany, at RPI. He is now a confirmed New York State person, living a few miles outside Newark, NJ. He and Lyn (Jaycie's parents) moved there from Bloomingburg because of the long commute to Kean U, where they both teach. Lyn's Mom was very worried about the heat that June day, since it was in the low 80's, but we were overjoyed at the coolness of the weather.

Ann

Carol,

I'm glad Tom is OK. It's 88 outside right now.

Ann

Nice photo, Ann. I attended a football game at RPI when they were playing the Coast Guard Academy. Another at West Point. Wonderful country, the nicest I have seen. You need to get away from a place where the temperature hits 88.

Speaking of heat and weddigs--Dave and I are stll recovering from our friends son's tacky wedding in Yakima , WA.

The heat was unbearable 104 and the vows dispicable. They agreed to stay married as long as their love should last.

I wanted to yell "you wlll have to do better than that. Especially atter draggng us out to this hot, desicated desert to this mockery"

I might as well have they have been divorced for about six years now and were married for about six years.

Dave and Lyn will celebrate their 10th next June. Lynn and Chris, their 18th about a month from now. Susan and Jim are at 2 1/2 years, but it's Susan's first. She had said there wouldn't be one, ever.

About that picture, Lynn & Susan are 2nd & 3rd bride's attendants from left; the handsome young gentleman with the goatee, 2nd groomsman from right, is my nephew, Lucas.

Dave, of course, is the groom. His best man, John, is standing between him and Lynn's Chris.

Dear Dick,

Happy, happy birthday to you. If I were Marilyn Monroe I would have a microphone.

Oh! were you talking temperature.............?

David says that my mind is not what it used to be. I am grateful for that,

He says that because I chewed tar paper shack tar that my mental facilities are demented. I told him that okra did the same thing and he is not better off than I. He snorted. I wander if he has the swiney flu.

Love,
Betty

Betty,

Maybe it's the mold in that "mold loft," I confessed to on Abe's thread.

Ann

Happy Birthday, Dick!!

Dear Ann,
I love your picture. Zada, I love yours too. I sit here in my dementia and consider I have arrived~

I have washed my hair. They told me I could. I am really considering that olden age stuff is more for the enjoyment of doctors than anyone else.

Where else can you find people who will say "if wearing a hat and losing your hair is the only thing that comes out of this, count yourself lucky" Where else can you hear, "Your insurance company expects you do do your part and come every three months for check up?" Where else can you sit for two hours for someone to tell you you need another test.

I am tired this night.

I have not much humor, but dinner is done, and tomorrow is a new day. I have hope. I sold a lot of squash. There must be people with boners all over this area tonight. Squash, I have heard, is good for that if you apply your mind and your imagination.

E Don, I got the vision and I will try to let it go.

Love,
Betty

That is all true Betty. I've heard the thing about the hair and hat.

Sometimes doctors are so puzzled. Sometimes they seem to be tired and need to retire.

And sometimes they say wonderful things like "of course we can treat you," or "you don't have to come back until July," or even "you are looking pretty good."

Let us know the final decision. My daughter had the biopsy in her hair thing. They removed something, and stitched her up and her hair grew back.

Take care.

Carol

zadaconnaway wrote:

Happy Birthday, Dick!!

'

Does Dick have two birthdays?

I thought his birthday was in August.

Dear Alice,
Dick's birthday and the temperature go up and down. In August he will have a very warm birthday, but tonight it was only 82.

I have too much fun with my self.

Love,
Betty

Alice, I was echoing Betty, thinking she knew!

Betty Fasig wrote:

Dear Dick,

Happy, happy birthday to you. If I were Marilyn Monroe I would have a microphone.

Oh! were you talking temperature.............?

David says that my mind is not what it used to be. I am grateful for that,

He says that because I chewed tar paper shack tar that my mental facilities are demented. I told him that okra did the same thing and he is not better off than I. He snorted. I wander if he has the swiney flu.

Love,
Betty

And here she was just being cute with the numbers! somehow I missed the comment about the temperature--talk about dementia!

It's okay though, he deserves to have two birthdays as long as one of them goes backwards!

I think Dick was talking temperature - not age.
Of course Dick will shed some light on that.

Thank you for the birthday wishes, which I will store away until my birthday in August. This seems to happen every year so I'm beginning to wonder why people are rushing me.

When you're very young you want two birthdays a year so you can become an adult twice as fast, and then when you get older a birthday every other year would be nice. Oh, if those very young only knew!

Carol

I'm beginning to look forward to birthdays since it means I survived another year.

Abe, don't wish your life away. That is the very worst.

Abe F. March wrote:

I'm beginning to look forward to birthdays since it means I survived another year.

That is gratitude, but I think I could go a lot longer than two years to have one, myself.

When I was a little kid, no one even told you when your birthday was. I learned that mine was January 18, 1943 when I first applied for a social security number. I was 12. I needed one to work in the local drug store diner for .25 an hour. I still have that social security card in my purse.

The first time my birthday was celebrated, I was turning 16 in Casa Grande, Arizona. The people who had taken me as a foster child invited the whole high school to a party in my humble honor. I will never forget that. How wonderful that felt.

What kindness there is in this world!

You know, time goes on marching. We forget to be glad for time. Not just years but minutes. Perhaps that is the real significant thing about birthdays. Awareness and respect for time on this earth as a finite span.

I am happy to be here!

Love,
Betty

You're right, Betty.
I, too, still have my original Social Security card I got two years before you were born. Unfortunately I have never memorized the numbers. At the VA Clinic the first thing they always ask is the last four numbers of your SS card. I think it's to see if you need mental help because they also ask for your birthday. They have already seen the card with your photo on it so they know you are really you. I always give the wrong number for my SS card but so far they have not sent me to the mental ward.
However, I can tell you my military serial number in a heartbeat. They said it was the one number you would never forget and they were right.

I know my husband's past occupation ID number because it is the code he uses on things like garage door openers, etc. Our kids all know it also. It is the code for retrieving messages from his cell phone as well as a plethora of other things.

Carol

With that information made public, the code better remain secret.