Hello on Saturday Morning

Dear Friends,

Linda and I made it through another Friday together. Her getting physically better seems to have caused less bonding. I didn't make her breakfast. We made ourselves separate lunches. Has the bonding stopped? I told her that I would make her a hearty breakfast today before I do any projects.

I left the house first once again on Friday. She had just come down stairs from a good night's rest as I was heading off to Lee to see how dad was doing. I brought my father his favorite morning newspapers, and made him a hearty breakfast while Linda was home alone. As a matter fact, she skipped breakfast except for making herself a bowl of oatmeal on Friday which I found out when I arrived home around noon. She liked it much better when I waited on her. I will have to keep that in mind before I start my day.

Update on Linda's condition -- The wound clinic was a mad house when we went there for her 1:30 PM appointment on Friday. They took her in a room as soon as we walked into the wound clinic office. She was in that room alone for a long time before a doctor came to see her. I was watching the Red Sox game in the office lobby wondering where she was. There were so many people which required wound clinic services that the doctors were bouncing from examination room to examination room. All these patients walked by me as I was watching the game, and so many of them looked like they had more serious issues. One guy had a hospital gown on, and his leg, which was sticking of a blanket while he was sitting in a wheel chair, looked awful and discolored. A couple patients had amputated legs. I started to get uncomfortable just looking at these patients so I focused on the game.
When the doctor finally got to see Linda, he agreed that her wound was healing nicely, but she wasn't given a clean bill of health. There still was an area of concern, and Linda has to continue on with her current treatment, and the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday bandage changing by the VNA nurses. She also has to keep taking the pill form antibiotics. We both were hoping for better news. She has another wound clinic appointment next Thursday.
I must say that Linda is looking pretty good when we are out and about, but her body tells her that she is not completely ready to return to all of her normal activities. Oh Darn!

After we arrived home, I took a power nap in preparation for our evening activity. We had a really great time with the couple whom we have never gone out with before. We were to meet them in the bar area at a local restaurant around 6 PM. Linda and I decided to go early, and it was like old home week. We met so many friends whom we haven't seen for a while. There was no lack of conversation. The couple who we were supposed to meet with arrived a little after 6 PM. We said goodbye to one set of friends, and bonded with this couple. I went to the person at the desk, who happened to be one of my former students, and she reserved a table for the four of us.
The conversation at the table went very well. I didn't bring up and controversial subjects. I really did want to talk politics, but I will save that discussion for another time. I might have eaten a little too quickly, but I did eat at a slower rate than I normally do. I was so hungry that I ate everything on the plate of my Chicken Parmesan dinner. My plate looked like I let a dog lick the plate at the end of a meal. The couple did take note of that.
After the meal, we skipped coffee and dessert at the restaurant and invited the couple back to our house. After a short visit, the couple left our house. I think that they sensed Linda was getting a bit tired.
As we said goodbye to this couple, we all agreed that we should do this again. I was thinking that a cookout on our deck might be a fun way to hook up the next time.

Speaking of hooking up, I received an e-mail from City Hall by way of an Irish friend, who invited our Irish Sister City Committee members, to participate in a reception in the City Hall Chambers for two professional Pakistanis who will be spending a few days in our fair city. The reception takes place on Tuesday morning at 10 AM. I can't make the reception because my sister and I will be taking my dad for a follow up visit at BayState Medical Center in Springfield at the same time as the reception.
The Pakistani guests will be spending the day observing how Pittsfield City government works. They will be going to every department in City Hall during the day. They need some people to show them the sights of our area, and take them out for lunches. They will also need people to take them out for supper, and to do a little partying. There are a few stumbling blocks. Our guests are most likely of the Muslim faith, and they don't consume alcohol. Taking them the Patrick's Pub, O'Laughlin's Pub, Matt Reilly's Pub, the Shamrock Pub, etc. might not be a good idea. As a matter of fact, we don't know what kind of food that they like to consume. I believe that eating pork is not allowed. Their diet might already have some American influence in it. I will have to do a little research of what is in a typical Muslim diet. I might volunteer to work with our Pakistani guests a little bit while they are in Pittsfield.

Politics -- I see where we have a budget agreement so that our government won't be shutting down at least for a little while.
This crisis, which was averted, got me thinking about politics. There is a Tea Party rally coming to Pittsfield for your listening and viewing pleasure. I will have to read about it in the local newspaper. I have already lost a relative who used to get my daily blog when I originally started attacking the Tea Party. I got to thinking about the Tea Party once again. The Tea Party is composed of people who are fed up with the two party system of government. Their members tend to be conservative. Their members were formerly members of the Republican Party as well as from those people who dropped their affiliation from ether party (the independents). They lost faith in their own party so that they formed their own group. It reminded me of the boy in the playground who owned the bat and the ball. If he didn't get his way, he took his bat and ball and went home, and the game ended. It could also be like what happened in the public education arena. If your school is not educating your children, parents should get involved and be part of the solution. Well instead of parents working with the school, the administration, and the teachers to fix the problem, they created Charter Schools. People are now finding out that forming a new beast didn't solve all of their problems.
There was a time in our great nation when if something wasn't working, we would take it apart and fix it. We have become a "throw a way" society in all aspects of our lives including politics.

Sports, etc. -- My Red Sox, and their Eastern division rival, Tampa Bay, finally have won their first games of the new baseball season. It was so refreshing for me to see the Red Sox defeat the Yankees in yesterday afternoon's game. The Red Sox starting pitchers are still struggling, but their bats came alive. Their bullpen actually came out and did what they were supposed to do which was to hold a lead.

There has been a good deal of off the field activities also going on. Manny Ramirez, of the Tampa Bay baseball team got busted for another drug violation, and decided to retire instead of going through a multiple game suspension. His last violation cost him a 50 game suspension.

The intoxicated mother of Lebron James, a top rated professional basketball player, slapped a valet at a posh Miami hotel because the valet shut off the engine because she didn't come out to get her car for over 30 minutes. She used the line "Do you know who I am?" Well the Miami police do now when they finally took her to the police station.

A professional basketball player named Alan Iverson used the same line when he got in trouble with the law this week too. The arresting officer had no clue that he was a big time star.

Social Calendar -- A friend wanted Linda to go to a Wine Tasting / Pasta event today. The friend tried to get a couple of her girlfriends to join them, but she didn't have any luck. Neither of us males wanted to join them. We have outdoor projects to take care of especially since the temperatures are supposed to reach the 60 degree mark.
My Red Sox play the Yankees at 1 PM which I will most likely be listening to the game on radio while doing my outdoor projects. My male friend is a Yankee fan.
The Masters Golf Tournament comes on around 3 PM. Tiger Woods is in the hunt and he is 3 strokes behind the leader from Ireland who just turned 21 a year ago.
I am not sure what the exact plans are for the Curley's, but we might be heading over our friends house for supper.
As you see "Life is Good" for the Curley's no matter what our social plans are.

Have a great weekend.
Ours has been off to a good start so far.
Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad