Hello on Wednesday Morning

ear Friends,



Tuesday went exactly as planned for me. The Christmas Tree is out with today’s trash. The decorations are sprawled out on living room couches and chairs. It is good that I didn’t put them away. Some of the decorations actually don’t belong to us, but that is another story in itself.



I did go to the nursing home to wish my mom and dad a happy 64th wedding anniversary. Dad took my mother’s sister Gladys with him. Gladys lives right next to the family home in Lee.

The nursing home has Tuesday afternoon music for the patients, so they weaved in an anniversary celebration for my parents.

My sister was babysitting for her grandchild in New York State, and she was tied up for the day. She does so much for our parents the rest of the year, missing the little party wasn’t a big deal.

The last few times visiting Mom, I have really seen the dementia increase. We have to do a lot of repeating, or answering the same questions over and over again. It is so sad for me to see such a once vibrant person heading down this road.



Linda had fun playing Mah Jongg. After a cold start, she returned her winning ways.



The Polenta dinner at the new Mazzeo’s went well. We served over 300 Polenta, Chicken, Sausage dinners along with a salad, coffee, and cookies for dessert. I have never been in the kitchens in this place. They would be a wonderful place to prepare food for a fundraiser. I say kitchens because they have an upstairs and downstairs kitchen. What is quirky is that there is no big hall in the place. They have rooms of various sizes. I can see where you can have a whole bunch of separate parties. It is not like a golf course which has one large function room, and a separate members’ area.

The Mazzeo family had their workers volunteer their services by using some of their kitchen crew, and waiters and waitresses as servers. The rest of us volunteers prepared the food, and plated it. We had an assembly line working for the plating. We all seemed to get along in the kitchen even though their seemed to be a lot of generals directing us.



Today I am going to commune with nature. I will be doing my first ice-fishing of the year. After purchasing some bait in Pittsfield at 7 AM (which is when the bait shops open), I will be heading off the lake in Lee which I mentioned in yesterday’s e-mail. I should see some of my buddies from Lee whom I ice-fished with last year.



I just got through putting together a pot roast with all the fixings. Linda will put in her favorite spices when she wakes up. The herbs will be coming from our Aerogarden. The herbs growing in the device have been growing so well that we could do a commercial showing how good that the Aerogarden works.



Retro Fitness – I did go to the gym on Monday. My friend was correct about whom you see at the gym at a more reasonable hour. There seemed to be an excess of females at the 10 AM hour. The first female that I said “Hi” to was a student that I think that both Linda and I taught when we first met teaching at Taconic in the early 70’s. This woman was one of a set of twins who both went to Taconic High School. I am pretty sure that I met here in the supermarket a few weeks ago. She told me that she had just gotten laid off from her job. I am also pretty sure that she is the sister who is also divorced. Like I said, maybe going to the gym at 4:30 AM has fewer distractions.



Outside of me opening and closing the garage door a little before 7 AM, Linda should have a day where she could move at her own pace. She hasn’t had many of them lately!



Well, I have to pack a light lunch, put on my ice fishing clothes, and load up my car with all the gear that I need for ice-fishing, and head out the door.

I am not sure if all this can be done quietly, but I will give it a try.

Have a great Wednesday.

Talk to you soon! The Curley Lad