Are You Still Here?

After many years in a pretty public position, and more than several retired and spending several months a year in Florida, I get the question about once a week from somebody long unseen: "Are you still here?" I ran into a newbie retiree this morning in Wal-Mart. Well, we retirees shop during the day. Our schedules and patterns change and we see different people but we are still here. It was very nice to run into Cheryl. She and her husband Chuck and I go way back. We came the same year and he was head for the local counselling Center and I was the head of Special Education. They have always been very kind to me-because that is who they are. We were just about to sit down for dinner at their house one evening and Cheryl said I will be right back. She always cooked more and took dinner to an an elderly couple who lived at least a mile away. She is a Catholic in the best sense of the word, Chuck is more like me- wary of organized religion but open to the spiritual. Anyway we had a great visit between the soap and toilet paper aisles in Wal-Mart. Their son Steve is divorced, lives in Montana and has a good job. Daughter Katie is back from her appointment at the Max Planck institute in Germany with a German husband. Katie had two weddings this summer. They are settled in Boston. Life does happen to the offspring. Very interesting to watch.

I installed a little program I had on the old Motorola Q phone on the new one. Had to purchase the upgrade. Verizon is no longer a gatekeeper to the Internet on the phone modem. I pay for the "unlimted" plan that they tried to limit so it is all aboveboard.

I have a new Grandpuppy! I will meet him in Oregon soon. A pound puppy that Audrey was certain she wanted. Likely half Lab and half Rottweiler. Pretty mellow at this point. Matt took him to Eugene for his checkup. Matt got a "sorta release" for work. The doc says light duty. The county says no light duty here. The work is not physically taxing so we will just see how this sorts out.

I had to call Poison Control. Miss Honey chewed the child-proof cap off my diuretic. There were just a few in the bottle. They said if she hadn't had a seizure by now she wasn't going to. It reaches full strength in two hours-don't I know it. She is fine- full of it.