KateP's musings

I am so glad today is the last day of the month. I hope today goes by very fast. Yesterday was incredibly long. I ended up getting up around 6:30 and racing around getting ready for work. I got to work a little after 8. There was a little traffic tie up with a coworker that sort of annoyed me but I eventually got to the garage and then to the office and began working on the charts. I can’t even begin to tell you how long it took. Although it may not have for there wasn’t that many charts. However, when I did the mail I was having some reservations about the way I was counting each piece. It took me a long time to finish the lockbox and as I explained to Gayle later I wanted to not mix the two together so I can get an accurate count. By the end of the day I had the mail opened and delivered but the bad addresses were not done and by that time it was time for me to see Debra. I told Gayle I would do the rest of them in the morning (I wasn’t able to finish it until mid day today). Gayle u...

Mom came home around 6 last night just as the sky grew dark. She told me it was a lot of fun watching the bidding for one door going for $3,000. She even had an opportunity to speak to the artist. Apparently the artist painted all the bridges from North Street down the Wepawaug River. It isn’t a big river and I don’t even know where it starts but I know it goes out to the Harbor by the Library. She said the dress code varied from well dressed to short and short. She says the Former Miss Connecticut Heidy Voight who was the mistress of ceremony introduced her as the Milford Living treasure and not as chairperson of Bridges. I told her that will probably be the way she will be introduced for the rest of her life. She argued that her “term” as living treasure would be up soon. Mom did tell me she saw a baby deer on the side of the road on New Haven Avenue. We both felt bad. That was about the time I told her I would have loved to see a deer in our back yard but it isn’t going to ...

Good morning. It is after 8 and I haven’t done very much. I will be leaving shortly for bingo and church. I gave Mom the biweekly shared expenses check and so that‘s paid. The next time I pay her again will be the first weekend of October. I have been updating my calendars and noticed I missed a few things for additional purposes. I will have to check other sites as well. I want to make sure I have everything I am supposed to. I just checked my emails and so far one person has responded to my weekly newsletter. It was Marie C. She is from my pen pal lists. I think we may be on several lists together but not really sure. My pal from Alaska got snow! Well it is now after 1:30 and I have been home now for about an hour. Bingo went well. I chatted and served coffee while Virgie got the residents. She managed to bring 21 residents in. We played until 11:15 and it was great. The residents were cooperative and playful. Half way through the games this mo...

Good Morning everyone! I am just doing some odds and ends right now, emptying out email boxes of old stuff and saving old entries from online. I hope I don’t do anything to the computer for saving from the web. I am also chatting on line with Emily in PA. I haven’t talked with her in quite some time. So far all I know is she is good and her brother and sister are good. School is good. This conversation is going to be short I can tell. Well as I suspected it was a short conversation. I was waiting and decided to go and get some breakfast and watch TV. When I came back I IM’d her and asked if she was back. Now she has to study. I don’t know if I should feel offended or what. Aw nuts. I just got back online and found out that actor Paul Newman has died! He was 83 years old and lived in Westport CT. He died from cancer. He has been living in Westport Connecticut for probably 25 years or more. Here is one article. He was also the bane of my sister’s existence a while bac...

It is dark and cold and rainy and is expected to be this way fro most of the weekend. According to the weatherman the rain will be heavy at times. Tomorrow is supposed to be rain all day and showers tomorrow night. Sunday will be thunder storms and showers. I probably won’t do much that day except stuff here in the room. Today went really well. I was able to do everything and did pretty well with the counting each piece of mail. I asked Gayle about certain things and she gave me the info I needed. It won’t be so bad. I got a call from Bob O’Connor of O’Connor Automotives and he needed some authorization from me to let him start. I wrote up a letter and faxed it to him by 11. He says there is at least $3000 of damage and it could go up. When I got home I found that Sylvia was home so I parked in the driveway. Mom was vacuuming the rugs and doing the rug cleaning. She also told me about the shoes she got at 9 West on sale. I want to take a look at that tomorrow. The rest of th...

Well here is an update on the car situation. One of the adjusters did a visual review of the damages and will talk to an insider adjuster. Then will revise to reflect the updated information. Tim is taking it to a body shop guy he does work with. That will be tomorrow. I am getting to know the Dodge Charger better each hour and feel more comfortable with it. At the same time be aware of things better. As Mom suggested use the techniques the driving instructor gave me when he was teaching me. Look ahead beyond the cars and drive a little better. Work was a little stressful today. Sally had to speak to me about the mail and how I need to be on top of it. We will be changing some things. She wants to go back to counting each piece of mail when it comes in on a daily basis. Have a breakdown. As she said to me before I left after apologizing she was saying that if I need the help they will get the resources. The things that also will change are people will bring the...

I had a pretty good day today. I got to work with no problem and got my work done with no problems (and I got them done early) and Susan R apologized to me today after blaming me for things that weren’t my fault. She had received documents last night that had old dates. This time it wasn’t me. I even got to pull some EOB’s and copying (I think you call that filing) that I have done in 12 years. That will probably be something I will do now that I am back to being organized. On the way home from work tonight I rear ended a truck on the highway. I am fine but the Hunter is in the shop. Well actually it was towed to the garage up the street. The accident happened in the West Haven area. It seemed like a long time for the cop to come to the scene but he was dealing with a disabled car. I called Mom and she came to the scene about 5. She walked to the other car and asked if he was okay. I really wish she would not do things like that. Even the cop said when I asked him that he ...

I had a hard time going to sleep last night. I tried several times to go to sleep but things kept me awake. Things about work mainly were keeping me awake. Will Susan and Gayle have to speak to me again? I thought I was doing pretty well but I knew I still had stuff to do. I will just have to keep at it. I will pick up the mail from the lobby tomorrow when I get there. My hand and arm still ached through out the night and I took another dose of ibuprofen. I was beginning to think that my body was rejecting the ibuprofen because I had the runs earlier in the evening. My hand still hurt and I could lift my arm only so high. That was the way it went all day. I was also beginning to think that the computer was going to die or something because it was so slow. I really hope nothing happened to this computer. There were a number of times I would click on the close button for some of these and the window to report a problem would pop up. I got a...

I got up very early this morning. The reason well I knew Mom wanted-no needed to be up early for appointment at the hospital. She needed to be out by 7. So I set my alarm for 4 (testing the alarm on my cell phone) and decided to get up and start saving my blog entries from July to the computer. I just hope I don’t transfer any viruses or I will be pissed. After doing that for a bit I decided to get the bed made. It really hasn’t been made since Saturday. I have been sleeping on the blankets. That’s a habit I have been doing over the years because of shear laziness. Sunrise wasn’t for another hour or so. I checked the weatherchannel.com site and it was 60 degrees out (that’s a bit chilly) and clear for now but partly cloudy for the rest of the day. They will probably be those beautiful willowy clouds that form shapes of things. I decided that I would like across the bed for a bit before ironing my clothes for the day. If Mom gets out early I want to leave early also and get to...

I had a great time at the season ender party. I got there close to 12:30 and got into eating. More and more people came afterwards including the babies. Oh there were so many little kids there and so adorable. My cousins Bob and Donna C and Bob and Donna H all came for a visit as well. I got to see many friends and Nelson’s family as well. Donna H was telling me how life is in Salzburg NC. She also was telling me how things are with her sister and BIL and their family. I was there until after 5. Mom left before me. When I got home I took in the clothes I had out on the line and Mom was cleaning the ceiling fan. I came upstairs and folded them and did some computer stuff. I also spent time watching TV and then helped Mom with a few more things. I also spent time watching the POTC. Mom told me some very sad news last night it seems that Chris and Stephanie have separated and have been for about a month now. I guess Chris took Mom aside and went for...

Good morning! It is after 8 and I am trying to get into some cleaning here while preparing letters to various pen pals. I won’t write them out now but I have them written up so I just have to print them. I haven’t been up but an hour and started laundry and getting that done. I still have to make the bed and then get ready for my haircut. I will be leaving shortly for that. Today is Liz and Nelson’s 4th Annual End of Summer Season Party and it starts at 12. Mom is downstairs baking the cake for it. Rightfully I should be doing it but she managed to get Nelson to not expect it from me today. I expect there will be lots of food and lots of people. I am really looking forward to seeing Chris and Stephanie and the kids. Of course I am expecting to see the rest of the nieces and nephews as well. I have been tossing out some pen pal stuff that I don’t’ have files for. One was from 1999 and I even looked the address up on whitepages.com when I didn’t see anything I just had to toss. I can’t b...

Found out that Paul’s Hamburger Stand on Boston Post Road was permanently closed on Wednesday. The reason they are giving is they lost their lease but could it be more? It’s been in the same spot for 62 years. In the last 46 years (that I know of) I have only been there twice in my entire life. The people I mentioned this news to were shocked and dismayed. They would tell me stories as to how many times they have gone to that place over the years. I have cousins who worked there. I made it to the funeral home and wake for Phil’s Dad with no problem. I stayed for quite some time after some others I knew from the DTC came and paid their respects. Phil’s family is nice. I got home by 6. No mail except junk for the AARP insurance advertisements. I spent the night doing very little. Mostly on line stuff. I was checking emails. Today work went well considering it was my first week back after the two week vacation. The charts came and went without any problems. I even got to vi...

I was just heading to bed when I decided I would write my entry early like I did yesterday. Despite some minor aggravations and frustrations the day went pretty well. I knew I was in trouble when I slept until quarter of 7. I had wanted to get up early so that I could leave early and get a head start on the work. I left on time and got the bulk mail out and managed to get to work on time. The charts that were supposed to be delivered yesterday were delivered today. Happily the list that I had sent over yesterday was a repeat and so I tossed them anyway. The list for tomorrow is much shorter. The rest of the day went without incident. I still have a lot of readdress mail but I am keeping up with the other daily stuff. I am hoping to get more done today. Mom wasn’t home when I got home. She was at a meeting and came home sometime around 5:30. I thawed and micro waved the lasagna. When Mom came home she made chicken. It seems as if the scavenger hunters came through and made a ...

I don’t know about you but I am so confused about all this financial stuff that is going in the world. If you read this blog you have read that I am not so savvy about my own finances and that I have been to a financial advisor and you know that I have a TIAA Cref account and a Dreyfus mutual funds and I don’t know if this stuff with Lehman’s or Fannie Mac and the other one will affect me in the future. Every time I hear reports I try to understand what they are explaining that is going on and it makes my head spin. Mom asked me last night to see my info. I told her the next time I get the prospectus reports or what ever I would give them to her. She usually says for me to through them out but I also told her we could probably see them on line. Now that my own personal finances (the credit cards and stuff are getting straightened out) I am afraid other things won’t be when it comes time to have them. Well yesterday was a pretty long and good day. I got a lot done but...

Good Morning! Last night I spent a couple of hours going through old papers. I came across a birthday party invitation for Bryan M’s 14th birthday party from last year. I always enjoyed Cheryl’s parties. The thank you note for Mike’s Graduation party was also tossed. I even tossed some journal entries from 2005 to 2007 that I was going to send to Debra but never did. I also tossed Liz’s Valentine card to me. The journal inserts from February 2006. One of Liz’s cute Valentines Card with Tweedy Bird, a thank you note from Natalie for coming to the Nursing home during the blizzard that Month. I also had a ticket for the bus ride to Foxwoods I took with JG and her boyfriend that month. My letters to Debra from those months were weekly or daily updates of the activities that were going at the time. The latest aggravation or some challenge I had over come or anxious moments I had to deal with. In one of the envelopes from January 2006 I found some photos of the Holiday party YMG had...

As I knew it would be I haven’t gone to bed yet. I have been answering emails and deleting others that I have read already. I have emailed The Big E 2008 blog to both Dave and Mary to see if they would like to read it. Now I am going to bed. 2:05 am: Still awake. I tried listening to one Celtic Music CD on one of my portable CD players. It is a cool player. It has been hiding in a box in my room. I will go back to it soon. I went downstairs to see if I could either find something to eat or get some warm milk. I didn’t get very far because I saw a centipede crawling on the floor. (They are usually on the cellar stairs or on the floor.) I beat the crap out of it with a fly swatter. I had to use a paper towel to wipe it up. I was going to tell mom about it but she was asleep. I am beginning to panic about finding the minutes that Telka requested. I don’t think I have all of them and some of them are not dated. I am so screwed. I am going to have to write them up very soon...

Good Morning! I am leaving in 15 minutes with Dave to meet Mary and her sons at the restaurant for lunch and then go to the Orchard. I suspect we will also do the Corn Maze. That should be fun. Not really but what the hay. Hey everyone I am back. It has been a long day. Dave didn’t get here until around 11:15 and we had to wait a bit because Mary was still at church. I told Dave they should have said this originally. I mean I could have done bingo if I tried and also went to church. I was going to go at 8:30 but by the time it came time I didn’t. We started off at 11:30 and headed to the Meeting place while we were driving Mary called and said she would not be getting there until 1. So we made a few side stops. (Now that I am writing this so late I can’t remember what order they were.) They were Dunkin Doughnuts, Vinnie’s garden shop they all didn’t take very long. Mary and the kids were just ordering when got there (we had no trouble finding it). It was in a lovely place on Route 66. ...

Good Morning everyone I am still working on the room. I was running around this morning thinking I had to get my haircut and its next week! Some of the things I came across this morning was a newsletter put out by a dear friend of mine name Erin S. It was about 6 years ago and it was a cute one of games and interviews. I contacted my Aunt Betty in Houston to urge her family to be safe during the Hurricane Ike. She emailed me last night and said things are fine and that they are secure right now. I came across some old letters I had written to my therapist Debra in 2004. One of them was about an appeal to my insurance company at the time. They apparently didn’t pay all of the reimbursement at that time. In the next batch were meeting notes for the Borough and holiday newsletters from relatives in Texas. There was a letter I had written to John Memorial day weekend in 2003. I had told him about the holiday events being rained out because of some rain storm that was happening at th...

Morning everyone it is just after 11 and I am in the middle of cleaning out some drawers and hopefully making more progress with the room. I still have to through a lot of papers but I can do that as I go along. I just threw out some greeting cards/sympathy cards from some friends from a long time ago. Some old fitness tips from Bally’s in 2003. I saw Debra at our special 1 pm session today. We talked about how stressful the last week has been and I got angry not at her but just at the whole thing. Oh and Open Diary implemented some new procedure that needs to change password. The tips they had were outrageous and the ones I can only come up with are unacceptable well they lost a client. I didn’t feel well for the rest of the night. I think it was the veal dinner I had as leftovers from the retirement dinner.

Seven years ago today the world as we knew it changed. Four planes all Hijacked from three different places (4). Two Planes crashed into the Twin Towers in NYC killing everyone aboard and those in the buildings and causing the twin towers to collapse and one plane into the Pentagon in Washington DC and one in PA that was headed to DC. All over the country there were memorials held. At ground zero names of the victims and those who helped were read off by family members and those who represented our allies. There were speeches made and bells rung for each victim. Here in Connecticut there were memorials services and candle light vigils. I tried watching some of it but I couldn’t. I had things I needed to do and I wanted to get them done. Well they are not done but I also did some apple picking with Dave today. I brought home a good amount and Mom will use them for baking. When I got home I finished getting my cell phone set up. I had some trouble with it so I had to go to the s...

Today is my niece Emily’s tenth birthday (or eleventh) I am not sure exactly. She is a definite sweetheart and full of energy. I have sent her gift to her and I suspect that her Mom is holding on to it until today. At least I am hoping. I hitnk she si having a party with some friends either next week or she had it already. Today I am going to the Bronx Zoo with Dave. We will be driving in and should be leaving anytime now. I will write about it when I get a chance later on. I called Telka to let her know but she was at work already. Today is my niece Emily’s tenth birthday (or eleventh) I am not sure exactly. She is a definite sweetheart and full of energy. I have sent her gift to her and I suspect that her Mom is holding on to it until today. At least I am hoping. I think she is having a party with some friends either next week or she had it already. Today I am going to the Bronx Zoo with Dave. We will be driving in and should be leaving anytime now. I will write about it when I...

It is just after 8:30. I have been up since 6 and did some laundry and watched TV. I have showered and went to feed Junior. I checked some emails and now am getting dressed for the services for Mr. Oliver. Okay it is several hours later and I am exhausted for many reasons. I didn’t leave for the services until quarter of ten. I walked in with Mary from Torrington. I saw many people I had known over the years and some I did the obligatory hellos and hugs. David was about to make a federal case out of his niece not remembering me. I sat with my friends and then went to the car. It started raining as we waited for the procession to start The rain started coming down harder and hard as we got to the church. Patrick and I walked in together and sat together. Mom was a couple of rows a head of us. Rose and her mom sat across the aisle. The family walked with the casket while the rest of us were in the pews. I didn’t quite understand that. It was raining and thundering during...

Good Morning it is after 7 am and it is a sunny morning. I will be leaving shortly to feed the kitty. Mom is just getting up now. She is going to a meeting in East Haven and I am not sure how long that will be for. Around 9 I started getting into the “rid of papers” that I have here. One of them was the file on Linda Bohanon. She was a pal who had died in April. I just realized I haven’t written a number of pals. My list is getting longer. The rest of the day I did a lot of the pen pal stuff which annoyed Mom. She asked me at dinner what kind of progress I was making. I could feel the blood boiling because it’s not her place to tell me what to do. From the time she left for the meeting and after I fed the cat I did some work but not a whole lot. She said she would help me as much as I needed but I still don’t think it’s a good idea.

I got up around 7. Spent time online and then got ready to feed Junior and see the pups next door. The weather was so different then last night. It was much cooler and of course brighter. Mom was reading the paper when I came down. She saved the obituary for Mr. Oliver. I left shortly after 8 to feed kitty and have some cookies. Apparently I left them out and some of them were stale. I made sure I put them away before I left. At least I think I did. After cleaning out the litter box and feeding the kitty I had a visit from missy who was waiting at the door for me. I could hear Junior meowing. I looked and there she was. I spent time with the dogs and then headed out to Mediplex. Since it was really very early for me to go to Mediplex I stopped at the Dunkin Doughnuts and got some hot chocolate and a doughnut. I drove to Mediplex and turned on the lights and started getting stuff out. Then Mr. Merly told me there was no bingo. I looked at the calend...

It has been raining on and off this morning but it is suppose to arrive sometime after 2 pm and last until 2 am tomorrow. That’s according to the latest report. Mom is going to the rally and then depending on the weather out to dinner with Martha. I will be spending the day getting rid of papers and writing letters and updating files. I remembered that I have to feed the cat today. It was after 8 when I realized what I had to do. On the way to the house I saw a small flock of Turkeys on the Church lawns. They were huge. Missy was out waiting for me when I was leaving so I gave her some treats. Many organizations have cancelled their activities and events for today. Around Noon there was a siren alert and a message to evacuate. I mean come on. It’s a tropical Storm and we have had this type of weather before. Why are you trying to cause a panic? The rain finally started around here by 4. I was watching TV when all of the sudden I heard it coming down and looked up and saw ...

I got up around 6:30 and watched TV until 9 Mom started to bug me about the cleaning. I also was talking to my pal Janet about some pen pal stuff. When Mom found out she got really upset. It really annoyed me because she has these ideas on what pen paling is or isn’t. I told her I wouldn’t be giving out my number and quite frankly she does have a point. She basically feels I shouldn’t be calling people I will never lay eyes on. I had my appointment with Debra today. I was a little bit late because of traffic of course but I also left the house late too. I told her of the events in the last few days and about my birthday after the session I went to the bank to get money because I parked in the parking garage (and that was outrageous too). The ride home was uneventful. When I got home the yard had been mowed and the thing is it was just done before my birthday. Mom is a little anxious about that. She also did some shopping while I was out. The rest of the afternoon I was clea...

It is after 8:30 and Mom is on her way to a meeting. I had to wake her before 7:30 this morning and that’s very rare. When she comes back from her meeting she said she would help me with the closet. A part of me is really having a hard time with this. She will want to throw things out that I need for probably pen paling. It is now quarter of 11 and I am still pulling stuff out and going through stuff. Mom isn’t in the closet with me but I do check with her see if she sees things I don’t. I am tossing all the EOB’s from Anthem for Debra and Dr. Adams and the stuff for Milford Bank. I found some more statements for Debra. I recorded them in to the log sheet for her. By the end of the afternoon I made more progress. Mom helped me go through some old jewelry and colognes and stuff and clothes. Now I have 1 bag started for going to charity the others to be tossed. My bed still looks like massive pile of clothes and papers. I took a break from it at night though. I still have a lo...

I have a new journal since Greatest Journal apparently died several months ago. It is kate06460's Journal and this will be the first post there after my introduction. I hope I won’t be disappointed. It is not unlike its predecessors. Just can’t link from one place to another. At least I don’t think so. Debra called me this morning to reschedule the appointment for today. She wants to move it to Friday at 1 pm . That’s okay because now I can write some letters and do some stuff. I would rather not spend my entire vacation watching TV. Mom had an early meeting to attend in New Haven. She got home just before noon. She has some errands to run before her conference call this afternoon. She says she would show me exactly how to clean the rugs. Its not something I do very often (and for those of you new to this blog) it may seem like I am a princess but I am not. While she did the errands I got ready for my dentist appointment. I also had to deal with a collection call fr...

Morning everyone it is a beautiful day and I am trying to get papers tossed out that I don’t need but it is really hard. For example this morning I am going through some old papers. They were emails from 1999 and 2000 to and from friends, co-workers, neighbors about a myriad of things that were going on at the time. As of right now I am throwing away emails from friends who were in the Herc-dom, Sorbo-dom. Especially emails to a one Normandie Nigh. She is he executive director of AWFFK. It was during the time Fansource was fired and taking money from fans (which happened to me) and not returning. I also made the mistake of telling Normandie some of the concerns other fans had with the behavior of Kevin and she got rude and unprofessional in my opinion. That just turned me off from ever contributing to that charity. Well I didn’t get very far. I got a headache late in the day and also got into a little tiff with Mom because I had to repeat for what seemed like the 4th or 5th ti...

Well Happy Labor Day everyone. I didn’t do very much today but I will be as the days progress. Moms asked me what I wanted to do today and told her relax and catch up on writing some letters. I can pretty much count that I will be doing a lot of things for her. She did say she didn’t want my entire vacation spent on cleaning the house but neither does she want me to fritter away the vacation. She even offered to go through my room and help get rid of stuff. That did not set well with me but I will have to get over it. I heard from Aunt Betty last night. She had a picnic with her family. They are keeping an eye on Gustav. The hurricane hit land and it is now category 2. There haven’t been any causalities but there is flooding. The rest of the day I puttered around. I am going through old papers. I came across an old email from a classmate of mine. I had mentioned her on one of my forums and she felt uncomfortable with the amount of information and asked me to edit it a li...