Author: Peg

It’s Aloha Friday, no work till Monday… Well, at least no long distance far suburbs public transit runs. This afternoon – my first “free” afternoon of the week, I took a little nap and then made a leisurely walk down to Clarendon.

Tomorrow AM, it is supposed to be cold. Snow flurries. So, I plan to get both of our taxes all done. They have been “resting” on the window ledge all week.

Note to Carlton: You have been dead for over 6 months. But, you caused me enough trouble this week. I had to go see a lawyer, attend your Faux Funeral, check out apartments at the old ladies asylum, etc. And, tomorrow I am going to finish your taxes. You owe me! I’ll send you a bill.

I fixed myself a fine dinner. Lettuce, avocado, sugar snap peas. Sautéed chicken and tangerines. With some interesting orange vinegar. I am always pleased anytime I actually cook.

  

It’s 7:45 in the evening and rainy.  I just snapped a photo with the iPad and am doing this while riding home from far suburban Virginia. 

I went to a “viewing”.  Sans body.  Carlton love Janet Evanovich books. He was ever so glad when he got his kindle- then no one knew he was reading Janet Evanovich. I felt like grandma in those books. 

A very uneventful day. No problem with that. But I am more than a little weary of figuring out how to get to the distant ‘burbs by public transit. 

BTW I really like the data plan on the iPad. Money’s well spent. 

Got Wednesday done. Another cold and damp day for tramping all over hell and gone.

Carlton’s service was nice. Not too much religion.  It was in a church.  Guess the Episcopalians aren’t too fussy about who they “bury”. I behaved myself. (Carlton is still well and truly dead and in the Georgetown University Medical School morgue.)

I got a ride home. And then walked up to the dentist. Still cold and damp. BUT, my mouth was declared “stable”. And stable is a good as anything gets it my age.

I am feeling a little tired. Run hard and put away wet tired. All in all – no complaints. Just tired.

No pictures today. Not even a rerun. Well, maybe a rerun… from March 2002. Which was a rerun from 1956 or 1957.

I always enjoyed teasing Carlton about being the “Biggest Lover” at what was essentially a boys school.

Took the bus down to the asylum today. Looked at 6 or 7 apartments. Visited with some of the residents. One of them, is YOUNGER than I am. She said there are several residents who are younger than she is. That is the upside. Downside, no way any of the apartments that I really like will be available in my lifetime. I am like number 40 to 76 on various apartment waiting lists. Time for “Plan B”.

Tomorrow – I am going to, once again take public transit to Maryland. Two metros, one bus, a little walk. I am going to Maryland because some of Carlton’s friends are dedicating a rock to him. I am supposed to speak for 3 minutes. I do not speak. I do standup.

How is this:

Hello, my name is Peggy and I am Carlton’s Last wife. I am happy that the famous “boss who confronted Carlton with about his drinking in January 1973” Thank you for coming today, Cliff.

Carlton had a personal hero, Theodore Roosevelt. I have a personal heroine, Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Alice said of her father TR, “He wanted to be the baby at every christening, the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral.” That describes Carlton.

So, Carlton – you are sharing today with Chris, deal with it.

How to remember Carlton. His little book. The duct tape is his. The red ribbon is mine. He started every single day of his life with this book. Upto and including his last day.

How do I talk with new prospects? Am I always trying to dominate the conversation? Do I lay down the law and tell prospects what they will have to do? Do I judge them privately and feel that they have a small chance of making the program? Do I belittle them to myself? Or am I willing to bare my soul as to get them talking about themselves? And, then, am I willing to be a good listener, not interrupting, but hearing them out to the end? Do I feel deeply that they are my brothers or my sisters? Will I do all I can to help them along the path to sobriety?

You were Carlton’s family. To his Hawaiian AA family “ohana” and he would say, Aloha, malama pono, a hui hou kākou. My love to you, care for each other, until we meet again.

Thank you.

 

Spent the afternoon with the lawyer. That will have cost some big bucks. Carlton, you can just stop spinning around in your morgue drawer at Georgetown. She is going to be the person who has my Power of Attorney and will be my medical representative, the person who will say “Pull the plug!”. She is also retweaking my will. She is a nice lady. Her father lives at the asylum that I am going to visit tomorrow. Her law partner’s parents live at the other asylum I am considering.

I took the lawyer a pile of old papers from Carlton. Papers that seemed to me ready for the shredder. She agreed that I didn’t need to keep his marriage certificate to his first wife, his divorce decree, payoff of a house he owned… that sort of stuff.

In the pile, the lawyer found a letter written to Carlton’s mother by Representative Harold D. Cooley. Never heard of Harold Cooley. According to Wikipedia:

Harold Dunbar Cooley (July 26, 1897 – January 15, 1974) was an American politician of the Democratic Party. He represented the Fourth Congressional district of North Carolina from 1934 to 1966. Cooley remains the longest-serving Chairman in the history of the United States House Committee on Agriculture. He was nearly defeated in 1964 by Republican James Carson Gardner and lost to Gardner in a stunning 13-point upset in 1966.

So, I guess I am not going to be able to sell the letter and envelope for NetJet share or even enough for a tall coffee at Starbucks.

When I got home – the ZipCar card arrived. I now have: Capital BikeShare, Uber and ZipCar. All I need is a NetJet Share!

But wait: There is more. Ted Cruz is running for president. Let the games begin. Ted – just because you don’t believe science doesn’t make it fiction.

I think a had a normal – well, new normal Sunday. I just ignored all of my “widow woman” work. No paperwork, no taxes, No clearing out Carlton’s stuff. No thinking about the old woman’s asylum. Just a new normal day.

I spent most of the day puttering around with the 2014 images. I have to get them all cataloged and moved off the Airness. It was strange – looking through every day – getting closer and closer to October 3. Everything was good – until it wasn’t.

Talking to a friend on the phone today, I was reminded that I really shouldn’t take a ZipCar out – say at evening rush or at night – I haven’t driven on a regular basis in 10 years. My first task of the week is visiting the lawyer. Tomorrow afternoon. It would be an easy ZipCar starter run. But, it is an easy bus/feet trip.

I need a death do over. Let us go back to the morning Carlton died? I’d hug Carlton. One last time. But, that is no biggie. He was loved. He knew it. I was loved. I still know it. Two things I’d like to change.

1. I wish I had taken Carlton’s boss – the man who scared Carton into AA – to one of the AA meetings I went to to pay respects right after Carlton died. Cliff needs to know how many people his intervention helped.

2. Some of Carlton’s AA friends are dedicating a rock to him on Wednesday morning. I wish I had thought to order a maile or ti lei to put on the rock. No way one can get here from Hawai’i by early Wednesday AM. Heck, if I had known I could have frozen the ti lei I got when I left Kona. I have it drying on a picture frame right now.

As I said, I need a death do over.

Made heaps of progress on the taxes this morning. My taxes and Carlton’s taxes are almost done. Well, they are done. They need to “rest” (or maybe it is me that needs to rest)… And be checked one last time. Then off they go. In any case – they are good enough to take to the lawyer on Monday.

Lots of running around on tap next week. I hope the card that gets me up and running with ZipCar shows up in snail mail soonest. I am going to try to sign up with Uber. I think I can use my antique cell phone and my iPad (it has a data plan) and make it work. I could always get a smartphone – me I kinda like my current system.

Lots of flowers today. Not much variety. But lots of crocus, hellebores, snowdrops, winter aconite etc. And no snow at all.

Update: UBER in operational.

It was cold, rainy and snowy today. It didn’t seem like the first day of spring. But, I am not going to complain – because, I only had to go to work. By a little afternoon I was home in my cosy apartment. My cosy messy apartment. I fixed the messy. Even, ran the dreaded vacuum. I didn’t attend to any paperwork today. I didn’t do any walking just to make the fitbit happy. I made 3.5 miles today, just doing my normal stuff.

Started the day, watching the total eclipse of the sun on the computer.

It was glorious, even as viewed on the Airness. It would have been magnificent to have been in Svalbard. Imagine what any eclipse of the sun would have meant to folk in the olden days. (And, we are becoming so mindlessly anti-science – maybe in the future.) Now, imagine a total eclipse. And wonder at the power you would have if you were one of the few who understood eclipses. Always makes me think of that great Isaac Asimov short story, “Nightfall”.

The next and most likely my last crack at a TOTAL eclipse will be in 2017. Check it out. The difference between partial and total is huge. Start planning now to be there.

I am feeling very mortal. I really am down to my last 10 years of “good time” – if I am lucky. Gotta make the most of the end of days.

Not a morsel of spring to report. It might have been out there but I didn’t go looking for it.

1. Wake Up
2. Walk to bus stop
3. Ride 52 bus
4. Work
5. Ride 51 bus
6. Walk home from bus stop
7. Finish organizing stuff for lawyer
8. Take elevator to bus stop
9. Ride 75 bus
10. Walk to lawyers office
11. Drop off stuff at lawyers office
12. Walk to bus stop
13. Ride 1A bus
14. Walk home from bus stop
15. Take Nap
16. Wake up
17. Walk to bus stop
18. Ride 2A bus
19. Walk to Pizzeria Orso
20. Enjoy pizza and beer and cupcakes and donuts
21. Get ride home
22. Waddle up to apartment.

And that is how an old lady spends her days. Only logged 4 fitbit miles.

Tomorrow might be a snow day. Stay tuned.

I noticed “my” starlings on the ledge this afternoon. They were looking all grumpy. Which is sort of the way I felt too. I figure we both wonder, why did we come back so soon? And where the heck is spring? Why are we here?

Still waiting for 2 more documents – other than that – Carlton’s taxes are “done”. I don’t have all the stuff together for the lawyer. But, headway is being made. Snow might happen on Friday. If so, I’ll stay home from work and finish it up then.

 

This stuff is called winter aconite in this area. Not my favorite name for a harmless member of the buttercup family. I reserve the aconite label for the true aconites – poisonous members of the wolfbane family. Enough with the biology lesson.

Made strange progresses today. I signed up for a ZipCar account. Hope I will not be too Carlton-like (CHEAP) to use it.

And, I worked some more on the paperwork for the lawyer.

Considered getting a new printer. My printer is acting strange. It is almost 10 years old. BUT, it has all new ink… I am too Carlton-like (CHEAP) to give up on a printer that has new ink cartridges.

Went to the store for a carton of milk and some new flowers. I decided that I require flowers – at least until outdoors is flower filled. Sorry Carlton. I know you don’t approve. But, if you recall, I did buy myself flowers from time to time.

While I was selecting flowers, a young man (and that would be anyone under 60) came up and just picked a dozen red roses. I wouldn’t call that a highly original selection but it was a nice idea. He put his shopping basket on the floor next to me and I noticed a rather large box of Magnums in the basket. Of course, I had to tease him about his shopping list. Ah, the joys of being an old lady. I hope things work out great for him this evening.

I only found crocuses today. But, crocuses are a start in the right direction. Blessings to all who plant/nurture crocuses and other early flowers.

Not much to report. Volunteer work. Personal paperwork. The expensive lawyer wants a hell of a lot of paperwork completed. But, I am guessing that it will be in my best interest to fill out her paperwork. I hope to appoint her as my “decider” when and if I am no longer able to make my own decisions. My plan is – that if I completely lose my marbles the lawyer and the money guy will sort of watch each other and that the old ladies asylum would also have an interest in my money – so – there might be a change that I will not be ripped off too bad and I will be as swiftly as possible dispatched into the good night.

As I may have mentioned, assisted suicide states look damn good to me.