A Dear John letter but not what you might think...

I'm NOT SURE WHY THIS POST DOESN'T SHOW UP IN THE ARCHIVES SO HERE GOES:

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

A Dear John letter but not what you might think...

Dear John, I apologize.  Yesterday I totally lost it, I did and I don't feel good about it.  There you were grilling in your back yard when this crazy woman next door let loose at her poor demented husband in the drive way.  I hope your 4 yr old son wasn't witness as well.  And I want you to know that I have seldom yelled at my husband in anger in all 56 years of marriage...however I do yell sometimes if he has forgotten to put in his hearing aids.

Okay, it seemed like a simple task for my husband to take the potted plants that had been escaping the freeze out of the garage and back to our patio.  He was insisting that it be done NOW even though I was in the midst of cleaning the refrigerator in the kitchen.  Midway through my task I went out the back door to take out a bag of trash.  He was just standing in the garage and it was obvious he didn't know where to start so I grabbed a big pot, shoved it on the dolly and ran it to the back yard.  He still didn't get it so I did it again.  Finally between us we got all the pots delivered into the sunshine.
Now the next step:  I asked him to water the newly delivered pots, he agreed so I walked back in the house.
An hour or so later of cleaning the kitchen, I realize I haven't seen him on the patio.  I go to the driveway and he is standing with the hose in the garage.  The garage floor is covered with water...water all over the floor of the garage irregardless of whatever may have been sitting on the garage floor like the bag of charcoal, the new box of kitty litter, etc.

This is when I lost it and screamed at him, " You just put water all over the f...king garage floor." in my not-so-nice fishwife voice.  Geezus!!  Of course, he was baffled as in his mind he was cleaning out the leaves that had blown in.  Know what happens to a kitty litter box when it gets wet?  I hope you don't find out.

How many times do I need to get this lesson?  ALZHEIMER'S PATIENTS  can't anticipate consequences of their actions.  Not only do they have short-term memory problems but they have difficulty looking down the road to the future.  So I apologized for yelling at him but he didn't remember that I had.  Now there is the joy of short-term memory loss.

So John, please forgive my language.  I would like to think it won't happen again but I have given up making any promises about my future behavior.

Fondly,
The Crazy Old Woman Next Door Who Lives with a Crazier Old Man

Wow! Wings on time

I've been a widow for almost 3 years now and am happy to say I have been moving on.  It's been 3 years since the hip replacement and it works great but the back just kills me at times.  Life is good but change is in the future.  My son is opening an office in Austin and house hunting there so I will be headed there sometime in this year.  I'm looking at apartments for 55+ as I don't need the food service or the housekeeping...just need the socialization of being around people.  I grew up in Austin but don't have any friends left there.  My college roommate had the nerve to die last year...damn!
 
I had a powerful dream the other night.  I was at a high school reunion in a deep conversation with a classmate that grew up in the same neighborhood as me.  He's a cardiologist and shared that he has cancer in late stages.  The dream was so real I woke up filled with angst that it might be true.  I think I must have more anxiety over this potential move than I don't want to acknowledge.

I toured with son and DIL last week a 55+ community on the northeast side of Austin.  It is lovely and right across the street from an HEB but a long way from the neighborhood that the family is hoping to land.  It needs to be close to the airport as my son travels all the time.  We will keep looking.  I can see in the future when I no longer drive that I will be more and more dependent on them and need to be closer so we will keep looking.

Austin real estate is so high that I will have to go into something much smaller than what I have now...I don't need a second bath so a one bedroom plus study is perfect but I will need additional storage for holiday décor and suitcases, etc.  What to do with art work?  It's like getting rid of my children in a way...such a big part of me....drawings, paintings, photographs, etc.  It was so much fun visiting the Austin condo last week and seeing so much of my art on the walls...like my own little gallery.