Summer 1962

 

1962 Chesapeak City, Maryland
Pictured from left to right, bottom row Dessie, me and Dave M.
Top row Ed C. and George B. All gone now except for me and Dave

Sixty four years ago I was in the Army stationed at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. I worked for the National Security Agency. 

I was able to go home almost every weekend. I also had leave time. "Leave Time" is Army talk for vacation time. 

During my time at Ft. Meade one of my very good friends was a guy from Georgia named Dessie Stroud. Of course he couldn't go home on weekends like I did. Occasionally he would go home with me just to break the routine of hanging around the Army base on the weekends. 

One stretch of time I think he took some leave and spent a few days at my friend Bill B's family cottage near Chesapeak City, Maryland. Bill had a boat. A speed boat. It was fun to drive around the Chesapeak Bay in. 

One weekend two of our high school friends and one of Bill B's friends took over "The Cottage" for the weekend. Oh we had a grand time. I remember that long weekend well. Dave M. had one of those old VW buses. We drove around town like the carefree twenty year olds we were. Interestingly enough, I haven't been back to that cottage since. Actually my friend Bill B.'s family sold that cottage but he has another one which he has invited me too often. It's now that far from where I live in Delaware. I would like to go on a speed boat ride again before I check out. I think Pat would like that too. 

I'll put this one on my Bucket List.

P.S.

One of those guys was my very first crush/boyfriend. I'll never tell. 

Rehoboth Beach 2026

Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk tonight

Rehoboth Beach boardwalk tonight.

I captured this picture from my Facebook account. Daily someone posts pictures of Rehoboth Beach.

Each summer I like to go down at least once during the day and, hopefully, once during the evening. If I do the evening it has to be only when Pat is here because I don't drive at night anymore.

The Rehoboth Beach boardwalk is only ten miles down the road from where I live in my "Not Many People Can Afford To Live Here" development of Covington Chase. Fancy name eh?

This year it doesn't look like I'll trod on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk at night this summer. Perhaps in the fall when Pat is scheduled to visit again. He visits me quarterly. Whereas in the past we used to get together and travel to either Philadelphia, Canada, and Palm Springs. These days, when both Pat and I are cash restricted, we're not making those destinations anymore or as much as we used too. It's expensive, especially now with the economy the way it is (inflation, tariffs, cost of living for those of us on fixed incomes).

I love my home here in Covington Chase. It's nice and quiet but occasionally, I do like to get out and mix it up with the summertime crowd. To experience that "summer vibe." Probably not going to happen this year. 

The Muggies

 

Yesterday's visitor to my butterfly bush

Another hot, muggy day today.

I can't take the humidity.

Last night it rained. Lightening, thunderstorms, winds. Then this morning, humidity lays heavy on. the landscape here in southern coastal Delaware. 

This is to be expected since I live on a peninsula surrounded by water, much like Florida.

On days like this I stay inside my house. It's too dangerous for me to go outside in this heat and humidity. Literally, too dangerous. A few times I almost didn't make it back inside before I passed out. This is the main reason I pay Jose to mow my lawn weekly, which he does every Wednesday (today).

I could stay all day at my computer here in the house but after a while my lower legs swell up. I have poor blood flow. If I take a daily walk it helps to keep my legs from swelling up. I wish I had one of those suburban malls close by that I could take one of those daily old people walks around the mall.

Last night I was up until after two AM. Usually I don't stay up that late but some nights I'm just not sleepy. I did get a good sleep in though and got up later (about 7:30 AM) that I usually do. Lately I've been waking up at 4:30 or 5 AM and can't get back to sleep. I sense "something" is going on. My appetite has changed too. I'm just not that hungry anymore. I've lost weight but not that much so far. About eight to ten pounds. Maybe this all is just an "old age" thing. But I do feel I'm transitioning to a different phase.

Today I will take a lot of time correcting and updating my family tree on Ancestry.com. Something I've been meaning to do for years but life caught up with me the last four or five years. Three years full-time caregiver for Bill and then over two years grieving for his loss. I'll always grieve over not having Bill in my life to love and take care off but I feel it is time to move on now and get ready for my grand exit. But before that happens, some loose ends to clean up. Of course I'll never have all of them cleaned up but I'll do what I can. I don't want to leave too much of a mess for Pat.

Stay cool today folks!

Heat Wave

 

The back deck of Casa Tipton-Kelly during this heat wave

Thank God for air conditioning!

Can you imagine living in Europe, where they don't believe in air conditioning? I would be one of those old folk fatalities that you read about who died from heat exhaustion if I lived in Europe.

This morning I made an early morning run to my local supermarket before the heat and Fourth of July tourist onslaught began. The traffic and heat were fine when I left at 6:45 AM. Not so much when I return ed at 7:30 AM. I sat a good ten minutes in my car waiting for a break from the south bound traffic coming from the north on Route One.  Casa Tipton-Kelly is located on the other side of Route One. Always a challenge getting home in the summertime from the summertime hordes.

The rest of the day I will stay inside here at my oasis from the heat, chaos and turmoil of the outside world. 

Tomorrow I'm having company. Old friends who rented a beach house to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary with their extended family. Checkin isn't until later in the afternoon and they need a place to stay out of the heat if they come down earlier. That place would be right here at Casa Tipton-Kelly. Originally they were going to stay overnight (they are always welcome) but decided not to this time. We will also go out to lunch. I suggested one of my favorite local Mexican restaurants. 

My Canadian husband at that favorite local Mexican restaurant in Milton

I could use a frozen margarita in this steam bath that is southern Delaware.

That Time Of Year

 

Receive my four cubic yards of mulch this morning. 

Total cost $156. Delivery free because I ordered the minimum order for mulch.

In the twenty years since I lived here in southern Delaware I estimate I've had hundreds of cubic yards of mulch. Where does it all go? Oh well, it smells good and makes my flower beds look neat and keeps the moisture in so the flowers can thrive.

I'm going to try and get rid of all this mulch by the time Pat arrives next Sunday. I have a place for him to part his cute little Fiat in my garage but he likes to park outside. 

I love laying mulch. It's the kind of exercise I like. I can't do it all in one day, especially on hot and humid days but I do like the exercise and being outside in the fresh air.

Another good day here at Casa Tipton-Kelly.

Memorial Day Weekend 2026

 

Today is Memorial Day weekend here in the summer beach capital Rehoboth Beach and environs. 

Unfortunately it is also chilly and rainy. That the forecast for this weekend and next week.

The following week Pat arrives from his cozy little home in Hamilton Canada for a two week visit with The Old Man here. I have a number of doctor's appointments which he will take me. I plan to introduce Pat to my doctor's as my eventual caregiver much the same way I did before I became Bill's full-time caregiver. Yes folks, that's the road I'm going down. Time to face reality.

By the way, I'm not sad at all that the weather is dreary and uninviting for the summertime beachgoers. Especially those "kids" from the University of Delaware who have recently targeted the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk for "events." Yes, it is what you think it is. A bunch of unruly "kids" trying to instigate riot or some such thing so they can loot the stores. Hey "kids" I have a tip for you, the stores in Rehobth Beach only have the Chinese made overpriced tourist souvenirs. No high end stores down here "kids." You better stick to Walnut Street in downtown Philadelphia for your riot produced "shopping" expeditions. See HERE:

Route One Traffic August 2025

Yesterday I dared to venture out on the dreaded Route One, Coastal Highway. 

I was lucky! I just missed this traffic tie up. 

Usually, during the summer tourist season I do not venture out on Route One from Memorial Day until a couple of weeks after Labor Day. Why? Because there are always accidents and the traffic is usually backed up. I have better things to do with my time than sit in traffic. And forget even venturing into Rehoboth Beach, which I would love to do. I like to walk on the boardwalk and people watch but it is just too crazy during the summer season. This is so ironic because when I used to live in Pennsylvania, I yearned to visit Rehoboth Beach. And here I am, only ten miles up the road from Rehoboth Beach, and I don't go out. 

The reason I went out yesterday was that I want to get some more of that dill pickle hummus at Aldi's. Aldi's is located on the strip on Route One as one enters Rehoboth Beach. It's easy for me to get there because I have a red light each way, I don't have to make any of those dreaded U-Turns on Route One. 

So, with my heart in my mouth I headed out on Route One about five o'clock yesterday afternoon. Yes, the traffic was heavy but it was moving. 

I enter the parking lot of Aldi's. Plenty of parking, which is a blessing. Not always a factor when visiting other stores on the Route One strip. 

I go into Aldi's and scoop up all of their dill pickle hummus and head out to my car. I see on the ground two small rugs. I think about it for two seconds then I scooped them up two! Two free rugs! Why not? Someone else would just pick them up. Obviously someone was loading the back of their SUV and these small rugs fell on the ground. 

When I pulled into the Aldi's parking lot I heard and saw an ambulance. I can't remember the last time I was on Route One during the summer that I haven't heard and seen the screaming sirens of ambulances. I just hate it when I'm in traffic and the ambulance wants to get around me. Where do I turn? Thank God I was in the parking lot this time.

As I pulled out the Aldi's parking lot with my bounty, I see the southbound traffic is stopped. Ah ha! As I drove further up the road I see the cause of the traffic tie up, there was an accident (a fender bender thankfully, no one was hurt). Traffic is at a stop. I just missed that by a half an hour! Believe me, you haven't lived until you have sat in a half and hour to an hour traffic tie up while the police and EMT's clear up the latest accident on Route One. 

I think my five containers (I cleaned them out) of dill pickle hummus will last me until Labor Day.

A Midsummer's Night Dream and Other Ramblings

 Good morning folks!

I had another one of those early to bed and early up mornings. 

Last night after dinner I suddenly slipped into almost total exhaustion. 

I eat late, sometimes as late as nine or nine-thirty at night. Last night was a little earlier, I finished at 8:30 PM. But suddenly I was so tired I could hardly put one foot in front of another. I was planning on Face timing Pat as I usually do every evening but I wasn't even up for that enjoyable, daily tradition I've had with Pat going on twelve years now. I was so tired I didn't even have time for my nightly snack (a brownie was on deck last night to be devoured). 

It doesn't take too long for me to get to sleep, something that has always amazed Pat (he says "As soon as your head hits the pillow you're out.")

And out I was until I had to get up at around one o'clock for a bathroom visit. I tried to get back to sleep but it wasn't a deep sleep, instead very "surfacey" sleep. I finally got up at around 3 AM and here I am now. 

I think what's been knocking me out is this oppressive heat and humidity I've had to endure for the past month where I live in the southern most country here on the Delmarva peninsula. I might as well be in Florida. 

I want so back to get outside and do one of my favorite activities, trimming a weeding my almost once acre oasis here at Casa Tipton-Kelly where I am somewhat insulted from the stress and chaos that is the world now. I love my house and my almost one acre paradise. Few activities invigorate me more than "working outside." 

During this heat spell, about the only thing I have done outside is change my fish pond filter. That I have to do every four or five days and even then I have to perform that necessary task at the end of the day when the sun goes down before darkness descends on Casa Tipton-Kelly. Usually I am accompanied by the incessant barking of my widowed neighbor's Australian cattle dog poodle mix dog Cleopatra. She wants to play ball!

Me and Cleo on my neighbors deck this past July 4th

 

I have my routine down pretty pat now, so I can accomplish this task fast before the mosquitos figure out a way to get around the mosquito net I have around my hat. One day last week they did and I had those damn itchy mosquito bites on the back of my neck, ears and even on my cheeks (face). They were angry, probably because once they got in my mosquito net they couldn't get out.

Me and my mosquito net hat - not my best look

During these brutal heat and humidity days (temperatures in the low 90's and humidity also in the 90's), I'm trapped in my house. 

Trapped! Just like the dead of winter when the cold traps me in my house. Of course these are the time when I can clean out drawers, dust from top to bottom and finally sort out more contributions to my local Restore (Habitat for Humanity) store. But I'm rarely in the mood for that activity. I want to work outside. 

Today I think I get a reprieve. Thunderstorms rolled in last night. Right now outside is a cool 72 degrees. I'll take it!

Have a great day everyone!

Atop Curahee Mountain, Bill's hometown in Toccoa Georgia, May 3rd, 2011,
From this mountain top Bill and my ashes will be scattered at an unknown date in the future.

Heat Wave!

 

Sweating already!

I can't take this heat and humidity folks!

I only have to be outside five minutes until my T-shirt is soaked with sweat. Then I have to retreat inside my house and peel off my wet T-shirt and the rest of my clothes and take a shower. I'm taking a lot of showers these days folks. 

Today was another Heat Alert from 8 A.M. to 10 P.M. 

This is serious stuff folks. 

When I was young (a LONG time ago), I remember those stories about old folk like me dying during heat waves. I can believe it. 

When I was young I knew the summers were hot. We didn't have air conditioning. When we got an electric fan for our bedroom (me and my two brothers, we slept in the same double bed if you can believe it until I was thirteen years old, that's story for a future blog posting), that electric fan was luxury. Our parents got an air conditioner for their bedroom. That was Heaven. The only other air conditioning I knew in my childhood was the Roosevelt movie theater where we kids used to go to the Saturday matinees and watch the newsreel, previews, cartoons, Superman serials and the main feature which more often than not was a Fifties musical staring Doris Day and the likes. Again a story for a future blog. So much history you have Ron!

Back to when I was young and knew the summers were hot and steamy but I don't really remember being those summers being THIS hot. Maybe I just adapted to it. These days I'm adapted to air conditioning. I seriously don't know how I would survive without air conditioning. 

This is one reason I'll never move to Palm Springs unless I'm in a wheel chair and need Pat as a caregiver. Pat's moving to Palm Springs, he's adapted to this heat. Oh I know they say the Palm Springs heat is a "dry heat" but as my dear friend Spo says "It's still hot!"

One day at a time folks, one day at a time.

Stay cool!

Finally, Relief From The Heat

Me eating lentil soup at the Veggie Grill in West Hollywood, California 2014

The past few weeks I've been a prisoner in my home not only because my driving privileges have been temporarily suspended, but because of the oppressive heat and humidity here on the Delmarva peninsula.

I cannot stay outside more than a few minutes in this oppressive humidity. If I do, my clothes are soaked in sweat. Some days I take three showers. I cannot stand to walk around in a sweat soaked T-shirt, even worse one that has dried out. 

Today was a normal summer day. I accompanied my neighbor Shannon to Weiss Market to resupply my groceries. Shannon is delightful company. Still, I'm depending on someone to transport my sorry ass to the store for my routine errands. I hate it. Hate it. Monday I have a followup appointment with my cardiologist's office. I hope I get the okay to resume my driving again. I miss the freedom of driving whenever I want to. I'm glad this didn't happen when I was taking care of Bill. He so depended on his daily ride. Me too.

President Biden is ensconced at his summer home here in Rehoboth Beach, about four miles from where I am typing this blog. He still hasn't made his decision to drop out of the presidential race. I'm getting where I don't even like him now. Just how stubborn and selfish is he going to be? I heard on MSNBC where one of the talking heads likened Biden to a formerly successful baseball pitcher who is past his prime. A good pitcher in his time but he is out of his prime now. The fact remains, Biden has to be a vigorous campaigner to defeat Trump in the presidential election. Biden cannot communicate. For an effective campaign we need someone who came communicate his message to the American voter and also counter Trump's lies. Biden no longer has his fastball if he ever did. Hopefully as I type this blog entry, someone is finally getting through to Biden that he is not the best candidate to defeat Trump. Kamala Harris is quite capable of running and being president. 

Oh, and what does the photo of me eating soup pictured at the beginning of this blog have to do with anything? Nothing really except I was finally able to make a decent lentil soup this week. This photo was taken in January 2015 when Pat and I visited West Hollywood California. I'm eating a lentil at the Veggie Grill at 8000 Sunset Boulevard. Ever since I ate that lentil soup I've been attempting to replicate that recipe and I'm proud to say, I have! I make more tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

 

Company Has Gone!

Glenn and Pat with me in my hospital bed Sunday June 16 2024

 My company left this morning around nine thirty AM. 

Pat and Glenn were here for ten days but what a ten days we had!

I am just briefly writing about their visit now because I am still recovering. Not only from their fabulous ten dat visit to Casa Tipton-Kelly and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware but also their visit to me in the hospital where I had a two night three day stay. Yes folks, I ended up in the hospital for three days!

What happened? You'll never believe it but when we were exiting the Rehoboth Beach Walmart after purchasing a game of Clue, and while I was walking like an old man behind Pat and Glenn who were heavily involved in a discussion about a row of two rubber decks on the dashboard of a Jeep in the parking lot, I crumple up like a piece of paper and passed out backwards on the heat infused black macadam parking lot. Pat and Glenn didn't even know I was on my back, totally passed out until a car beeped its horn to get their attention that their friend (me) was unconscious on his back in the parking lot, blocking cars trying to make an exit out of the parking lot. 

Pat told me he rushed to my body to get me up along with Glenn. I don't even remember passing out, only slowly coming to by Pat asking me "Are you all right Ron" over and over again. 

I remember nothing about passing out except thinking about the rubber duckie Jeep story then an image of steel doors with vertical teeth coming together and be trying to get through those doors before they closed. Yes, what did THAT image come from?

As Pat and Glenn helped me up I felt the back of my head and it was sticky with my blood. And my head hurt. Later I found out I had a brush burn on my left elbow and low left back. 

I was woozy. I felt like I was drunk. Just the day before I had my colonoscopy (which came out fine, only two small polyps). The sun was hot. We were up late the previous night. I wasn't getting my daily naps.

Pat and Glenn kept asking me is I was all right. I was going to go home but then I thought of the incident with Liam Neeson's wife Natasha Richardson when she fell backwards after a skiing accident (Death. On 16 March 2009, Richardson sustained a head injury when she fell while taking a beginner skiing lesson at the Mont Tremblant Resort, about 130 kilometres (81 mi) from Montreal. At first, Richardson refused any medical help but complained of a severe headache about two hours after the accident.) and thought she was all right but ended up dying about twenty-four hours later because she had a brain hemorrhage  that was slowly bleeding in her skull and she was unaware that it was bleeding. I decided to go to the nearest walk-in clinic.

At the walk-in clinic they checked my bloody head and decided to send me to the Emergency Room. There I went and spent the next two nights and three days going through a series of tests including a brain Cat-scan, stress test both on the treadmill and nuclear. Echo gram and some other tests which I can't remember now. I pretty much ran the gamut of tests. The blood on the back of my head was superficial. It still hurts but it doesn't look like I caused any serious internal injuries in my brain with my collapse in the Walmart parking. Oh the embarrassment, collapsing in the Walmart parking lot? Well, I guess it could have been IN Walmart itself of even at The Nook where we had breakfast earlier. 

They found nothing but I am wearing an heart monitor for the next ten days and I have had my driving privileges suspended indefinitely. I see my cardiologist next week for further evaluation and hopefully have my driving privileges returned. I HOPE!

I was so thankful to get out of the hospital yesterday even though they treated me very well. I don't like hospitals. I've spent too much time in them in my lifetime. 

I'm taking it easy now. Pat Glenn and I did play "Clue" (first time for me, I loved it and actually won my first game!) We went out to dinner last night at the Tequila Real in Milton. A lovely summer evening. 

Pat and Glenn left this morning. In spite of all my drama in collapsing after trying to act like the 27 year old I think I am in my mind but in actually I'm an 82 year old man trying to cram too much in a short period of time on a hot and humid summer day one day after a body cleansing colonoscopy. 

More.....much more in future blog posts about Pat and Glenn's visit. They were wonderful and in spite of the brief stint in the hospital by yours truly we all had a wonderful time. Actually, we had a FABULOUS time!

Butterfly Garden

After sixteen years I finally established a butterfly garden here at Casa Tipton-Kelly. 

This is just the start. Now that I have the basis established for our butterfly garden I plan to expand on it. Few things give me greater pleasure than our backyard. This year it has been especially hard to work in our backyard because of the heat and humidity and now the mosquitos. But I got the base established which was a huge accomplishment.

I need things like this butterfly garden to balance out my now restrictive life as a caregiver. No more quarterly trips with my good friend Pat. At least not for the foreseeable future and I have a feeling, not for the rest of my life. Bill's health has stabilized but he still needs my help dressing, washing and feeding. A large part of his handicap is his blindness, he just can't see. Also, he's physically weak, so weak he can't even dress or undress himself. Thankfully he can now go to the bathroom by himself even though he needs to wear Depends, probably for the rest of his life. I help him change every morning when I help him wash himself. Shower day is every third day, which he hates but being the type of person he is to take short cuts on personal hygiene, I just can't take the chance he gets an infection. His lower legs are much better, less swollen and no oozing liquid that I have to change the dressing daily.

I've pretty much settled into the routine that I'll be here at Casa Tipton-Kelly for the next few years. My main concern now is that I stay healthy enough to continue to take care of Bill. In the meantime I'm going to build the best butterfly garden here in Sussex County, Delaware.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

 

Good morning folks from a very hot and humid southern Delaware! 

With this kind of continuous heat and humidity one would think I'm living in southern Florida. Well, here on the Delmarva peninsula we do have that geographical feature in common with Florida. Our peninsula is surrounded by water. The Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Chesapeak Bay on the other side. Most summers here in southern Delaware we have our fair share of hot and humid days but the past few years have been brutal.

I can't stay out in this heat and humidity too long. Only minutes in fact or else I'm going to pass out. That almost happened a few years ago when I was trying to push myself on my yard work, I felt myself getting dizzy and about to pass out from heat exhaustion. I barely made it back to our garage. I learned my lesson then, don't push myself or else I'll end up dead. Thus our yard is looking a little shaggy because I haven't been able to trim or pull weeds. Au natural, that's my new landscaping style. Deal with it my dear neighbors. At least I have a green, lush lawn. Not like last year when the army worms turned my backyard into a Martian landscape.

Thank God our air conditioning is working. Unlike my good friend Pat F. who has problems with the air conditioning in his penthouse condo in downtown Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I feel for Pat, it's so frustrating for him to have his central air conditioner unit running continuously and can't seem to get below 78 degrees. Here, at Casa Tipton-Kelly, with our multiply rooms and floors, our central air works fine. Now I still have a problem with my wall oven. It's not working right even after I had the repair guy in here several times. They were supposed to show up for an appointment last week but they didn't show. And I can't get in touch with them. I've called several times and left a message. Now I can't even leave a message. No one answers the phone. I'm really disappointed in this repair company. I did my due diligence before I called them and they had all great reviews. I don't know what they problem is with them but they just haven't fixed my oven. I can use my oven but I have to push the "ROAST" button to "BAKE." The "BAKE" button doesn't reheat even though the last time the repairman was here he said it did work. He must be a Trumper, just outright lie and expect me to believe him. "Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?" I'll say it again, thank God our air conditioner system is working!

Stay cool folks. 

Ron Enjoys A Treat on The Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk

Last week during Pat's visit we took several jaunts down to the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk. A treat I rarely have availed myself since I moved to southern Delaware lo these fourteen years ago. If I do go to the boardwalk, it is in the off season. I just cannot abide the traffic to get to the boardwalk in the summertime. However, since Pat was visiting, we drove down to the beach in his rental car.

The video above shows me sloppily licking one of those soft ice cream cones. This particular cone had an orange flavored coating. Delicious! 

Back when I was a very young man I used to enjoy ice cream. Over the years I have lost my taste for regular ice cream. I don't know if it was me or the manufactured taste of ice creams that food makers are all too guilty of injecting into our foodstuffs these days. It's a wonder they don't put garlic powder in ice cream, they put garlic powder into just about everything else these days to make up for the loss of flavor of manufactured food.

Pat is back in Canada and I'm back to my regular routine of caring for Bill. While Pat was down here I found that I could take a shuttle bus to Rehoboth Beach to avoid the traffic and I may do that in the future. However, there is no substitution for doing the boardwalk with a good friend, breathing that ocean breeze and imbibing in the summer vibe and feeding my face with a fabulous orange crusted soft ice cream.

Thoughts On A Hot Summer Day

 

Here we are, sweltering in another summer heat wave. 

After doing some yard work this morning I couldn't take anymore. I had to come in before I passed out. I just can't work in this heat and humidity. 

I had to take a shower when I came in from the open oven door that is our outside now. 

Two days ago we almost had a medical emergency with Bill. He takes a walk or two every day.  He took his walk in the 92 degree heat and almost didn't make it back. I took his blood pressure when he came in the cool climes of our air conditioned love nest. His blood pressure was very low, very low. 88 over 50. Needless to say, no more walks on very hot and humid days.

These days, at the end of the day I'm exhausted. Bill is still working on his "projects" (he can't help himself). His latest is security our deck canopy against gusts of wind. This is very hard for Bill to do because of his eyesight. He just can't see. But he insists he's doing this "for me." I'm resigned to the fact that Bill will always have his projects until the day he dies. That's just him. In the evening when Bill goes to bed at dark, I have a few hours to myself. Only problem now is I just can't stay awake. Last night I feel asleep again while watching one of my previously recorded "Dateline" murder mysteries. I'll have to watch it again during the day when I don't fall asleep.

Yesterday I made a batch of my personal potato salad recipe. I've developed this recipe over the years from trial and error. I LOVE this cold potato salad on these brutally hot and humid summer days. 

My eating habits have changed since caring for Bill. I did lose about fifteen pounds. Pounds which I've been trying to lose for years but now I've accomplished that. Still have my little pot belly though. I'll have that with me until I check out of this life. I've resigned myself to that fact. 

Now what I eat is Beyond Burger. I LOVE that "hamburger." I load it down with condiments like lettuce and tomato, a slice of red onion, three dill pickles, two melted slices of sharp cheddar cheese and a swirl (or two) or French's mustard all served on a Hawaiian sweet hamburger roll. Veggie of choice is local white corn sliced off the cob (I don't like to munch corn on the cob, did when I was a kid but not now). That's my meal at night, occasionally alternated with Royal Farm spicy chicken tenders with their fries and biscuits. Veggie for that meal is a Greek salad of iceberg lettuce, tomato, feta cheese and Wishbone Greek dressing. That's it folks, I'm just like Anderson Cooper and many others, I eat the same food all time. Bill has really downsized his eating. He eats oatmeal in the morning and oatmeal at dinner. Lately I've been making watermelon puree juice for him. He also likes Belgian waffle anise cookies. That's what these two old men eat these days. 

Weekly Bill's hospice nurse visits and checks on Bill. Tomorrow is her visiting day. We have our routine now. Now if we can just get a break from his heat.

Sweltering!

How's the weather where you are?

We're sweltering here.  Right now, at 4:45 PM the temperature outside if 98 degrees.  The humidity I don't know but it feels like 100%.  I can only stay outside a few minutes before my body starts to overheat.  Then I dash back inside for relief. I can't take this kind of weather folks.  

I believe it when warnings go out during hot weather like this about it being dangerous for seniors.  It is folks!  I'm here to tell you.  Hard to believe when I was young, I sailed through summertime without air conditioners and even fans.  Not now, I literally fear for my life if I stay out too long.  I think I can take Palm Springs heat, which is low humidity but not this heavy, oppressive humidity. A familiar refrain eh?  "The heat not so bad but I can't take the humidity."

By the way, got some good news this morning. Home Depot gave me a credit ($248) on my rug pad that I didn't need. I love Home Depot (even though one of its founders funds Trump's campaign).  Good customer service Home Depot.

An update on my brother who I mentioned was seriously ill.  I haven't heard anything for several weeks now which isn't good. My Mother often said "When it's quiet that not good."  John isn't one to complain about misfortune, unlike me.  I tend to shout my misfortune from the rooftops.  I texted him asking him how he was doing.  I'll let you know if I hear anything.  

Hopefully I'm back to my regular schedule (two nights a week) at the hotel.  It seems for months now I've been working three nights or more a week at the hotel to fill in for my co-workers for various emergencies, sicknesses, resignations, and vacations.  Last Monday on my workday I woke up and was dizzy, very dizzy.  I had to stay in bed all morning until I got a semblance of my balance back.  I think I have an inner ear infection.  I had this problem a few months back.  It's scary when I have that condition because I can't get my balance. It's like I'm drunk.  I am totally immobilized. I don't know what we would do here if this was a permanent condition with me.  I couldn't drive and Bill doesn't drive.  I don't want to even think about it.  

I only have one more thing to do this summer, getting my car inspected and registered then I'm looking forward to coasting out the rest of the summer. That is until the next unexpected emergency crops up. 

Around the House June 2019

Life is good here folks at our lovely home here in southern Delaware.  Of course as long as our air conditioner works. 

From FaceTiming with my Canadian Travel Buddy Pat, to blooming flowers, to a false fire alarm at one of my neighbor's vacant houses, to pictures of some of my neighbors Shannon and her daughter and dog and my other neighbor Dave and his wife and new son, my new herb garden, and Bill mowing our acre back yard, new memory foam carpet padding for our basement media room and new baby bluebirds. All summertime activity, living the good life here in vacation land.

The video says it all. Enjoy!

Summer Day Musings

After a few perfect weather days, the muggy weather is back.



Ah, for two days the temperatures hovered around 72 breezy, low humidity days. Would that all summer would be like that. Not to be though. 

The heat and stifling humidity is back.  I'm glad our air conditioning is working perfectly.

Today I accomplished a major goal that I've had for years. I finally uploaded the last of my digitized old VHS videos to You Tube.  Now I can die without the concern that all that visual history of my life would be lost. All I need to do now is go through and edit those videos. 

Forty-six of the videos are two hours long. Another sixty-seven are thirty minutes long. One of the two hour videos are of a compilation of old 8 mm films, lots of history there folks.

I hope to go through and take out little snippets of those videos and package them up in cool little presentations which I will post to social media and here, your favorite blog.

Now all I have left to do is write my autobiography. 

Screen shot capture from one of my old VHS videos that I have digitized and uploaded to You Tube

Trip to Cape May, New Jersey

The Mall in downtown Cape May, New Jersey. Just a perfect idyllic setting, lovely!

Yesterday was one of those rare days, perfect summertime weather. 

If we're lucky we only get two or three of those days during the summer. 

The temperature hovered around seventy-two breezy degrees and not a cloud in the sky. 

A few weeks ago I was invited by my new friends Mike and Bob to take a day trip with them to Cape May New Jersey. Mike's twin sister from San Francisco was visiting for a family reunion in West Virginia.  I accepted the invitation immediately.

I live and work here in southern Delaware which is only a short (forty-five minutes) away from Cape May, New Jersey via the Cape May-Lewes ferry.  

I've only taken the ferry trip to Cape May once. That was with my friends Jack and Judy D. That trip was during a cold winter month.  It was a cold trip and when we got to Cape May, almost everything was closed. Yesterday totally different, height of the summer season.

This post is only a short version of that trip. I took one hundred and forty-four videos and photos which I will put together in a fabulous musical video.  But for now, these two photos will have to suffice. 

I do live an interesting life!

Thanks Bob and Mike for inviting me.

Mike and his twin sister Pat; Bob and me prior to our departure on the Cape May-Lewes Ferry yesterday from Lewes, Delaware - the beginning of a fabulous day

Rumination of Life and Death in the Sweltering Heat

Good morning folks!  

It's going to be a hot one today!

The current heat wave descended upon us two days ago.

Here on the Delmarva peninsula where we live, when the summer heat arrives it is almost always accompanied by heavy humidity. That oppressive, you can't break Florida humidity.  Of course Florida is a peninsula too, surrounded on both sides by a body of water. In our case on the one side we have the Chesapeak Bay and the other, is of course the Atlantic Ocean. No dry heat here.

This past week was rather pleasant though because neither Bill nor I had doctor's appointments. What a relief not to see the doctor to try and keep our aging bodies going for a few more days, weeks, months and hopefully, years.  I'm reading a book now called "How We Die."  Very interesting book but depressing. To sum it up, we don't get out of this life alive. Hopefully we leave painlessly and with some of our dignity intact but this books doesn't present a pretty picture of our final days when our bodies finally say "Enough!"

My neighbor Joe loaned me this book (and I loaned him by book "Being Mortal").  Joe has health issues as do several of my nearby neighbors. One of my neighbors has pancreatic cancer. I've seen him and he looks like a ghost. I feel so bad for him. And he's not that old.

Another neighbor is in end stage of COPD.  She's on oxygen all the time. 

Yet another neighbor, who I rarely see these days, both he and his wife have serious medical issues that I do not know the nature of. He used to have a vegetable garden in his back yard which he often loaded the neighborhood down with his bounty.  

And there is my neighbor who has melanoma cancer. He is my ride to Philly and back (for my trips).  A really, really nice guy. And again, not that old, not even sixty yet.  

And then there is my lifetime friend Larry who is entering his second year of ALS.  He's doing well by the way. 

So when I start to feel sorry for myself with my arthritis, phlegm that I can't get rid of and sometimes makes me feel like I'm suffocating, my left leg that numbs up every time I sit at my computer like I'm doing now, and of course my prostate cancer which I hope doesn't make a return visit and my general lack of energy.  I remember something my Mother told me years ago when she could no longer weed that eight rows of corn after she came home from a full shift of working the conveyer belt line at Pepperridge Farms frozen layer cake. She asked the doctor "What's wrong with me? I used to be able to work all day, come home and make supper for the family and weed rows of corn before calling it a day?"  He asked her "How old are you?"  She said "Sixty-four" years old."  He said "Well, you're not as young as you used to be and eventually your body wears out".  That came as a revelation to my Mother, she thought her body could go on forever.  

Looks like I've reached that time my life folks that the old bod is starting to slow down. 

I've taken good care of my body over the years but eventually everything comes to an end. 

This summer I've tried to do as much as I can outside working in my backyard and front yard. But I need help now.  My two Mexican landscapers will be over this Sunday to trim my twenty-one holly trees. There is no way I can go out in that heat and trim those trees. Last week I almost fainted from the heat after I over extended myself transplanting some red salvia plants on our driveway.  

Bill will be ninety years old this September. I'll be seventy-seven years old. No spring chickens here. 

We're still enjoying a good life, in between all the doctors' appointments.  I have my four times a year (quarterly) trips with my excellent friend Pat of Hamilton, Canada.  

I can still type this blog and I can still go to my job at the hotel twice a week and more when needed.

I'm getting uglier by the day but hey, now I understand why old people aren't that hung up on their looks.  What it is, it is.  

My main concern now is that I leave enough of a visual history and written history behind for that person at some future date who would be interested what this weird gay guy was all about.   And of course I hope I don't go out ugly, but with tranquility and some measure of dignity. 

That's my wish.

Have a great day folks and stay cool!