Words Trigger Memories

I posed a question last week on a post. It was about a word that triggered a memory. The word was "south".

Many years ago when my children were small and in grade school we were searching for a home to buy. Seems like we looked at thousands, but it was only a few. At one such home there was a kitten in need of a home. We didn't find a home that day, but the kitten did.

A tiny Siamese female we named Misty. Misty never grew to be very big. Could be due to the fact that my overbearing child, Adrienne, forced her to wear doll clothes and walk upright. Adrienne was about 4 and yes, even at four years old she was a force to be reckoned with. Still is, but that is another story for another day.

Fortunately Misty was very docile and didn't use her teeth and claws to discourage Adrienne. When the rest of the children were in school, Adrienne would dress Misty for the day and subject her to being many things. She played school with her, she played house with her and Misty would succomb to whatever Adrienne wanted to do on any particular day.

Misty aged without growing big and, as cats will do, produced a litter of her own kittens. Several times before we managed to have her spayed. By the time she had her last litter, we had found a house to buy. Not a dream home, but one with "potential". So many pets came through that house, but once again that is not the story here.

Out of one litter, Adrienne chose a male kitten with tiger stripes. She named him "Southy". She never explained why she chose the name and no one argued with her about her choice. Southy did not possess Misty's calm demeanor. He was a fiesty one and Adrienne met her match. 

Southy objected to wearing clothes and walking upright. He was as determined as Adrienne was and let her know with bites and scratches. This went on until he was an adolescent cat. Rarely did Adrienne get through the day without crying and bleeding from scratches on her arms. No amount of counseling her about the nature of cats could convince her not to try to bend this cat's will to hers.

The day arrived when Southy  was nowhere to be found. My little girl searched and searched for days. Finally she accepted the fact that her cat was gone to parts unknown. Did she mourn the cat leaving her? No, she did not. She was mad, lamenting that Southy would be sorry about running away. Who was going to play with him and dress him and teach him how to walk?

I suppose Southy went south, in search of a home with an old lady fond of cats who would feed him and let him be a cat. Just one word can trigger a precious memory. So many words over so many years.

 

Purging

It was a quiet weekend. I made great headway in the office and purged all the files of unnecessary paperwork and personal stuff. Moved on to my sewing room. I could easily become overwhelmed in there, but I have zoned the room and am handling just one zone at a time.

The mindless folding and stacking of fabric is soothing. I am measuring the cotton prints in hopes of selling them to a quilting establishment nearby really cheap! I have lots of fabric. So far I have measured out 137 yards and not made a dent in my fabric stash. These are what is commonly referred to as "good" yards. 

Last time I bought fabric at Joann's, they measured inches!  Back when I was working in fabric, if the end of the bolt had an extra couple of inches after I measured out what the customer wanted, I just let them have it. Nothing you can do with a tiny slice of fabric. The person measuring at Joann's said I had to pay for the extra 2" and that I had to take it.

It was a man and he was more than a little perturbed when I insisted that he call the manager over. He discovered that he was wrong about making me take and pay for 2 extra inches. They cut it off, those 2 inches and threw it in the trash can. I suppose to make a point. A crowd had gathered by then and everyone close to my age applauded that I refused to pay for what I didn't need and then agreed that it was stupid to throw something away rather than garner a little good will.

 The weather has me longing to be outside and it is hard to stay on task. Hard, not impossible. I sent HeWho buys duplicate tools out to choose one of the FOUR giant rolling tool chests and to fill it with his tools that he will be taking. I warned him NOT to pack duplicate tools. I have not gone out there to see what he has managed to do. Perhaps I should, because he seems to be inside a lot .... resting on a "break". I could do it myself, but my plate is full taking care of my own stuff.

Nobody likes to move, but it can be done in an organized manner.  Unfortunately, my huband seems to be lacking in that particular skill. In the meantime, I will be frantically PURGING!

 

Dead Phones and Air Conditioning

"Gonna be hot tomorrow" says HeWho keeps up with weather trivia. Great. The air conditioner in our living quarters is dead. I am thankful for the cool nights and hope they continue. I am not replacing the air conditioner. The one in the store works and I can stay cool in there, take a nice cold shower and go to bed.

Things were going along like any other Friday in a campground when it occurred to me that the store phone had not rung all day. I like it when it doesn't ring every two minutes, but this was odd. It was dead, out of power, despite being on the charger all night. I take it off every morning and it becomes my constant companion all day long. Goes everywhere I go, even to the bathroom. Not one ring today.

I can't remember how long I have had this phone. When I started making regular trips to see my dad, I forwarded the number to my personal phone so I wouldn't have to keep up with two phones. This had more advantages than that. The store phone is an android and my personal phone is an I-phone. It is unfair to expect a woman of my considerable age to have to be adept at both phones. I have zero interest in learning to use another device.

I have spoken about passwords and HeWho can't manage to remember or record the ones he makes. He set up the store phone and when I asked how to retrieve the voice messages he discovered that it required a password that he had no recollection of making. Was I annoyed? Yes, I was. At least when I forwarded the number I could listen to messages and answer them!

The phone has been unforwarded for some time now and I am forced to go to "recent calls" and figure out which calls were answered and which were not. When I return a call, I simply say that I am returning their call to Kan-Do Kampground. Don't have to know the name of the caller or what they want. They will tell me when I call.

The drawback of calling from my personal phone is that the number is a Minnesota number and I end up having to leave a message and then they call me again. Even more calls. So, now that we are about to retire, HeWho decides to pay a visit to the AT&T store to learn how to use the phone! I know!

Apparently, while holding his chair down and playing on his phone he actually learned some things. Today when the phone died, he was able to access all the voice mail from his personal phone.

It was already close to 7 when I made the discovery of no phone calls and I was tired and hungry. I had ladled out a bowl of the soup I had lovingly prepared for nourishment, altering a recipe to lower the sodium and still taste like something good when he started listening to the voice mail. Fifteen calls. He listened to them, all of them without benefit of paper and a writing implement. Then again, volume on extreme while looking at me as if I should be dialing away. I was eating! I handed him a pad of paper and a pen. He would listen, then go back and listen again and write down illegible names and what he thought they wanted. I swallowed my last bite and dialed the number while he was trying to write it down and took care of the first call while he was still listening to the second one for the fourth time. I interrupted him to tell him to just write the number down and forget the rest ... making him go back to the beginning of the call.

I may have mentioned that he can't hear and refuses to go to an audiologist (costs too much) and will order them on line. I may also have mention how very much this annoys me. If I heard a name on a call that was already here and tried to tell him to just erase it he would wave me away and turn his back to me and GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING of the call again.

I seriously thought I might lose my mind! Just think, soon we will be spending ALL of our time together. He was still listening when I made the last call and left a message for a call back. 

The day is over and I am tired and I am sticky and sweaty. I see a shower and a bed in my immediate future!

Lost and Found

Tomorrow the vast majority of campers will be rolling out and heading home, having enjoyed the last hoorah of the summer. I will be singing my song about the most wonderful day of the week. "It's the most wonderful day of the week. All the campers are leaving and my heart is heaving a sigh of relief! It's the most wonderful day of the week,"

Will I miss singing this song? Not really. It hasn't been a bad weekend. My no contact check-in worked like a charm. I do wish the opening in the plexi was a little higher, eliminating the need to bend low to be heard, but all in all it worked quite well.

I did choose a ring tone that was not annoying, so much so that I would look around to see whose phone was ringing. It rained all day yesterday (Saturday), but that did not deter those longing to play in the pool.

I got to visit with my daughter and son-in-law and I didn't care what anybody did. It was pretty quiet until we all sat down to eat and that is when that door bell rang incessantly. They were tired and went to bed early. Since they were staying in our motorhome, they were able to leave very early without disturbing anyone. They reached the second stop in their trip early in the afternoon and will have a nice rest before continuing to their destination. They are at the home of HeWho's sister and are being well taken care of.

A little girl rang the bell awhile ago (I thought I put it high enough that children couldn't reach it) and when I responded at the window she asked if I had her phone. No, I did not, but decided an investigation into why she thought I would have her phone was necessary. Apparently her mother lost her cell phone and she wanted to know if anyone had turned a phone in at the office. I wondered why anyone would send a young child out on a mission to enquire about a lost object without giving them the words to communicate with. But I would have had my child with me, not wandering around in a park surrounded by woods and close to the interstate where truckers park regularly in the rest area right across the road. I didn't think anymore about it until the mother and another woman I assumed to be the grandmother came up with the same query.

She didn't seem to believe me. She had a cell phone in her hand and informed me that the tracker was telling her that the phone was "right here". Already knowing that the tracking device was not indicating the office, I asked her if the device was indicating the office. "Well, no, but it is in this area." She said she lost it in the dog park and I suggested she look there and maybe call it and that I would have my guys look for it. She was still looking at me suspiciously as she walked away. About five minutes later as I was texting the need to look for a cell phone she was back to tell me she found it.

It was in her camper! Mystery solved and I was vindicated! I could tell she felt rather sheepish, but I put her mind at ease, telling her I lose things all the time. True story. After that I learned that a young child was found, quite by accident, with a long stick that was being used as a torch with about 6 inches of one end glowing orange. He was attempting to set our woodpile on fire!!

Thank goodness he was discovered, as that wood pile is pretty close to the big propane tank that feeds the main building! He was taken to his parents and they were told of his adventures. They took the situation seriously, but when I was sitting here watching TV and smelling camp fires, it made me go out and peek through my fence just in case!

As long as nobody was hurt, the fire would take away my packing angst! Just kidding .... I think!

 

Humana Could Learn a Thing or Two!

 Still Friday here and the irritations of life are trying to stress me out! I got an email warning me that my prescriptions were perilously low. They aren't, but as I was filling the pill boxes anyway, I called Humana.

The prompt warned me that there was a high number of calls and suggested I use the internet. I hate calling almost as much as navigating their website. It is not user friendly at all and will close down on you without warning. Calling isn't that great either, but a little quicker. The automated voice asked for the birthdate, then asked that I verify my zip code and then asked for my member number. After every answer the voice will repeat what you answered and you have to say yes to proceed. I have my phone on speaker and just shout my response. Once they have decided you are who you are, the automated voice will tell you how many prescriptions need to be refilled and then ask if you want to have them all refilled, or if you want to hear the list and decide. I always want to listen to the list in case something has been discontinued by my doctor.

This is another painstaking process in which the drug name is often mispronounced and then repeated if you choose to order it. I finally finish my order and verify twice the address and method of payment. At the end the voice will ask if you would like to do a phone survey and I always answer "NO".

Having taken care of mine, I then call back to take care of HeWho knows not what he takes and lacks the patience to deal with the process. I learned long no to try to refill both of our prescriptions with just one call. Same thing again and I listen to the 6 prescriptions that have popped up as needing refills. I okay 5 of them and am in the process of verifying address and payment when the store phone rings. It is someone with a reservation today, checking on her reservation. I walk to the desk where HeWho is preparing a bank deposit and has his stuff atop my reservation book. He decides to take over the Humana call and I say, just answer yes to all the remaining questions.

He decides to challenge the payment method because he doesn't recognize the last 4 numbers of MY credit card. I finish assuring the reservation that her reservation is alive and well and there he sits looking astonished as the voce is now asking what payment method to use in lieu of the one already on file.

I take the phone from his extended arm and now I have to go dig out the credit card in a hurry, lest I have to start all over again. I verify the number, the expiration date and security code twice and then my address again. Then, the automation informs me that there is a problem with 3 of the 5 ordered prescriptions and asks if I would like to speak to a representative. Of course I want to know what problem there is. Another prompt telling me that the call lines are especially busy today and would I like to order my prescriptions on-line. No, at this point I want to go howl at the moon.

No wait to speak of. Once again I have to verify date of birth, zip code and "membership" number. Membership would imply that we are in this together and I would never be a member of such redundancy as this. I am already highly irritated that a task that should take minutes is already eating up the better part of an hour. Then she questions my authority to order drugs for someone else and tells me she needs to have verbal consent from the Member before we continue. He yells that he gives me the authority to take care of his drugs.

 She hums and haws and wonders aloud what I might be referring to, because she sees no problem with the prescriptions. She seem to think I am the one saying something is wrong. Deep breath and I slowly explain to her that I did not choose the refills, her automated system did and that her automated system told me there was a problem. I resist the urge to ask her to repeat what I have said so that we can VERIFY it. She tells me to wait a moment AND PUTS ME ON HOLD. Then comes back (maybe she asked her supervisor for help?) to tell me she cannot find anything wrong and if there is something else she can help me with today. I just want to have this one task DONE, so I say no. Then she asks if I would be willing to do a short survey!!!!!

I can feel my heart pounding in my temples and I say, "You REALLY do not want me to do a survey, sweetie, it would not shed a kind light on you. I am old and I am pissed off right now with your entire process, goodbye!"

I am just finishing up with the pill box of HeWho is oblivious and start to snap the lids closed and the entire week of pills flips over and dumps onto the counter. I wanted to cry, but the phone was ringing with a third call from someone try to make a reservation for next month. First call she asked for two 30 amp sites together. No problem, I take the information and complete the task. Calls back wondering if I could put them in 50 amp sites because she is not sure what her friend needs and she is sure she can hook up on either one. It doesn't make a difference to her. It does to me. I have fewer 50 amp sites than 30 and if she does not require 50 amps, she could be the reason I have to turn someone away that needs 50 amps. I suggest she call her friend and call me back.

She does call me back and then wants to chat about which sites might be available in the entire month of October weekends. I finally sort out all the pills and place them where they should be. No easy task, since some of his pills are to be taken at night. I dump both day and night pills together in my box, because I can easily fish out the night pills when I take my morning pills. Never would I ever do that for his pills, as it would require my attention every single day.

It is now 3:15 and I have answered countless calls about nonsense and tried to explain how to get into a site three times to the same person and finally sent HeWho over there to show them, warning him NOT to just throw the driver to the ground and park it for him. Now I am sitting here wondering about my ability to continue with the day. The caller just now says, "I been wonderin', do I gotta pay to make a reservation?" I replied, "To make a reservation I would need something to secure it, either a deposit or a credit card number." He said, "You ain't gotta be such a smartass."

I didn't even let my exasperation into my tone as I explained this. What is wrong with people?

Walmart Pharmacy has an automated system that requires very little time and is extremely simple. You call the number on your bottle of pills and use the prescription number on the bottle to order your refill. The pharmacist or the technician gets a printout of the information and the prescriptions are either filled or you doctor's office is notified if it is out of refills. Humana should take a lesson!

If You Stay, You Pay!

 As I anticipate selling the park and moving on, I thought I would feel more nostalgic than I do. I suppose this means I am ready to go. I was out weeding this morning, I should maybe have been packing? Anyway, I was content to put a garden bed that was neglected back to right. I do enjoy gardening and will no doubt continue to keep up with it until the day we pull out.

Speaking of that, I am overwhelmed as I look at the amazing amount of things we have acquired during the past 18 years. How are we going to move it all? We can live in the RV easily, as it is quite spacious and even has a washer/dryer. But what do I do with all this stuff? Maybe I should just get my girls to help. Adrienne is organized and Jill has not an ounce of sentimentality. Jill would quickly dispose of most of this stuff via the dumpster with nary a twang of regret and Adrienne would have everything boxed up with utmost efficiency. I would probably struggle with angst over every item.

I will just have to channel my girls and get tossing! I would absolutely rather be in the garden!

In the meantime, it is Friday on a holiday weekend. I have a mere hour left until I have to man the desk and begin the day. The has been ringing since 8am. Robo calls do not take a day off and campers informing me of their pending arrival times. I do not need to know when you are arriving, nor do I care. It is raining and I expect  cancellations galore. I managed to mow my dogs' yard and didn't get too wet. It is predicted rain all day and all day tomorrow.

This rain means that some campers will come and stay the entire weekend and then ask for compensation for the rainy days. A tiny Judge Judy will be sitting upon my shoulder as I tell them you can't eat the steak, then get your money back because you didn't like it. And like the litigants on the show, half of them will be confused.

I have a light heart knowing that tomorrow afternoon my daughter will be here!!

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend is upon us! The good news is that this may be the last time I will host a holiday here. We have an interested party and things would appear to be falling into place.

I am now in a mad rush to find a suitable landing spot. All my extra time has been spent searching and my mind is on overload as I have seen so many properties on line and am trying to narrow them down to a suitable number to go and actually see. I have a budget, of course. Initially I am the one who set the budget. HeWho has never adhered to a budget in his life and all of a sudden he thinks he is the one who will mandate how much we spend.

I paused for laughter. Anyone who knows us is laughing. In other good news, my baby girl, Adrienne, and her sweet husband, Chad will be here Saturday. On their way to Tampa, they are spending just one night here, but I will take every minute I get and be thankful. It has been two years since I have been able to see them. As excited as I am, I don't think I am as excited as my sister-in-law, whose home will be the next stop on their journey. Maybe it is the fact that they can look at each other and see themselves! They look a lot alike, except that Adrienne towers over her Aunt Pam, just like she does me.

Back to the search for property, a realtor from north Georgia has been keeping an eye open for us. He stayed here awhile back and must have chatted with HeWho fancies himself to be in charge. He kept sending me listings of houses in neighborhoods. He finally called and talked to me. I don't want neighbors close by. I have lived in a fishbowl for the past 18 years and I am ready for privacy and quiet. The only sounds I want to hear are those of nature. I want to look at mountains and hear water close by.

I have a specific area for my search and am open to looking in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. None of the listings the realtor has sent interest me at all. I will just have to hunt it down myself, I suppose! Good thing I am diligent in my hunt. 

When I close my eyes at night I see pictures of properties running in a loop and over-lapping. I dream about  mountain views and babbling brooks and cabins with decks and views.

In reaction to the growing number of the Delta patients and the conflicting "advice" coming my way, I have gone to a no contact check-in procedure. The window behind my check-in desk now sports a sheet of plexi and instructions on how to get service. My new wireless door chime arrived today and I spent some time listening to all 56 of the choices. I want something to let me know someone is there, but these last so long I may lose my mind! Really annoying. I liked the one that sounded like birds chirping, just two times. I am afraid I may burst into song with some of them and then have that stuck in my mind. Just how gentle is that rain that falls softly on the meadow? And, why do I want to know?