I have a calendar of Maxine, the lady with the crusty attitude and today she says, "Ah, the joys of winter. Surely there must be some." Our summer was much like the winters here with lots of foggy gray days as we waited for Indian summer but surprisingly we have our taste of 'hot' which started yesterday. The weather forecasters are saying we may go to ninety today . . . summer leaving with a bang. I called my story poem book "Weather . . . We Like It Or Not . . . and over a life time we all have had to take the weather as is , whether we like it or not.
It has been an interesting weekend, quiet for the most part and a bit sad as my neighbor called to say she has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She weighs about ninety-two pounds and has been failing for some time. At age eighty-six she has really done well in keeping her morale and her spirits high. She is one to admire as she goes off twice a week to help keep the Alzheimer patients content in their 'time out' at the senior center. A former nurse who has never lost her desire to help others. I invited her over and told her to bring her glasses as I have that 1,500 piece puzzle on my dining room table and she should help me finish it. She came over but forgot her glasses saying she thought we were playing scrabble, something we both like to do. I gave her an enveloping hug to show her how much I hated having her in pain and then proceeded to tease her until she laughed out loud. She went home with a 'jean' dish, one of those dishes I put together with whatever is in the refrigerator. It turned out to be chicken vegetable toss up that tasted pretty good and she loved having her dinner prepared so she didn't have to put something together. Her children are on their way, and although she says she will not leave her home, I am hoping they have the where-with-all to convince her to visit them while she can. She is from Canada and would love to go back to see her old homestead one more time so hopefully her daughter, who lives up there, will come and drive her back for a little while.
Pat came over to keep me company. I think she enjoys doing the puzzle as much as I do. It is such a challenge and I swear I'll never do another . . . yeah . . . maybe in another life time. I'll take a picture of it when I finish, as long as you have the patience to wait to see it, and brag a bit, that is if I can finish it and there are moments when I swear every piece I need is missing.
I put those wonderful already peeled apples into a big baking dish, thanks to my neighbor Jim who loves to peel apples, bless his heart, at ninety he is still active and tells us he is going to live to be one hundred. I topped the apples with the wild berries Pat picked and brought back from Gold Beach, added oatmeal, some brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, a stick of butter and we all had a feast, apple crisp with a twist.
So we are starting a new week and hopefully it will be one we will take time to improve our attitudes, our health and maybe our wealth, but don't count on that. Take time out to relax, smile a lot and give everyone you meet on of those air kisses . . . they will think you have lost your mind as they laugh out loud and enjoy it.
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