Wrappin' It Up

We spent the day as planned – doing as much around the house for Connie as we could.  She likes to think she can still keep her place up, but it’s obvious she needs help.  And since Robbie was the one to do the bulk of the work, her place has been fairly neglected for the past few years since he’s been so ill.  We all pitched in today and worked in her yard and did as much as we could.  Kory did a lot of edging and additional pruning.  Kory and Kaleb both mowed the lawn.  Kory did the tough stuff but wanted Kaleb to do some too, since he’s never pushed a mower before.  Kaleb also helped me in the stream, clearing away debris that was washed down in the last flood.  The water level got up to six feet higher than normal, so I couldn’t even reach much of it stuck up in the branches above me.  We trimmed a lot of the bushes that catch the debris and tried to make the part of the stream that’s visible from the house, look nice.  It was more work than I realized and I’m currently exhausted and full of cuts and scratches from the various vegetation I encountered.  Overall it was a satisfying day, but the humidity was back and my face had a flood of it’s own with the sweat pouring off me from the heat.  What a workout.

We took Connie out for lunch to a genuine Italian restaurant nearby.  It really was much like the restaurants we ate at in Italy and the food was delicious.  No one could finish what we got so we got to eat the same thing again for dinner.  Yum.

Connie’s neighbors came over to visit us tonight before we left.  We were hoping to see Robbie again but he over did it on Saturday and was in no shape for company.  Poor thing.  It was nice to visit the neighbors though and to thank them for letting us swim in their pool.  We were kinda looking forward to jumping in again today after we’d all had a good workout, but they had drained the pool last week at the first sign of leaves falling from the trees.  Oh well.  They are a nice couple that look after Connie like family, so she is lucky to have them next door.

Connie showed me a book today that she’s been writing in.  I guess she’s been writing in quite a few – different recollections she’s had over the years.  She said she filled up two books just on funny things people have said to her over the many years she was a telephone operator.  She retired after 9/11 as the stress of that day was more than she could bear.  But the book she showed me was called “And then there was Mickey…” and she wrote down how she came to be our neighbor when I was a kid, and her impressions of me.   It was pretty funny.  She’s always called me the daughter she didn’t have and in many ways, she was the mother I didn’t have, too.  She taught me to iron a shirt.  She used to pay me five cents to iron her husband’s white business shirts (he was an engineer for Boeing.)  To this day, I do it exactly as she taught me and I think of her every time.  She taught me to bake, too.  She still remembers the mess we made in her kitchen when I babysat her kids for their anniversary, and while they were gone we all made them a cake.

Above all things though, she seems most confused about my name.  She can’t understand why I still go by my nickname Mickey, since it’s not my real name, and my last name is not the name I was born with, nor the name of either of the men I married.  I couldn’t explain it either, other than the name I use is easy to spell and unique enough that there aren’t many of us out there.  It’s just a name.  Inside, maybe I’m someone else, but outside, my name fits me just fine.  She doesn’t understand that, but she loves me anyway.

So our time has come to an end and we are all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds and starting up our weekly routines.  I think we miss our pillows and our shower the most.  We have really enjoyed this time away, learning new things, visiting friends and seeing another part of our great country.  New Jersey is really quite beautiful, which surprised us all.  The big cities aren’t anything to visit, but the country sides are gorgeous.  We loved driving all the back roads and seeing the beautiful houses and farm lands.  I wouldn’t want to live here, but it’s certainly a fun place to visit.  We’re glad we did.