A New Jersey Adventure and a Will

The Rug in
David's Office 

Our former neighbor John O'Donnell is a financial planner and was interested enough in our situation to get information about senior housing options.  When he presented them to us (and did this all out of friendship), he strongly advised us to update our wills.  He gave us the name of an attorney he trusted.  So today we made the hour long drive to Morristown, New Jersey to meet with David Lewis in a lovely old house in a historic town.  It was a very good meeting in which David was delighted to tell us of all his Notre Dame connections--his father, his wife's father, he and his wife, and four of his five children are all Domers!  And it was a ND priest who married him and his wife in Puerto Rico. 

David was reassuring about the whole process of settling an estate in New Jersey and gave us good information along with various questions we still need to answer.  Jim will contact our financial planner (aka "wealth advisor") in South Bend and I will gather some addresses for our donations.  I felt overwhelmed but when I googled how to settle probate in Middlesex County the instructions were all spelled out.  One needs to prove that one is married or related to the recently deceased so I was wondering if our marriage license was available.  Jim looked in our strong box and sure enough, we are officially married and can prove it! 

We are really glad we have the process started and feel good that we have lived here long enough that we know folks who can help us out and make good recommendations for people one can trust.  

We had a pleasant ride home on country roads as directed by our Apple maps.  It was good to leave I 287 with all the trucks.  In fact, the only real traffic tie-up was when we had to take turns getting on the one lane bridge that crossed what may have been the Delaware Raritan Canal or Millstone Creek.  

And then to finish the day up well, the Mets beat the Phillies in a close, tense game and will go on to the National League Champion Series.  

-----------I always say Psalm 23 before trying to fall asleep.  Last night I felt the day had been one of "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death."  Too many thoughts about the end for either one of us--stimulated by the day's information and decisions.  Hope I can clear all that away today!

I Can't Find Them!

When we first moved here five years ago, we found ourselves looking for items often.  Even the pots and pans were missing at first until we found them in a box mixed in with Jim's book boxes. I used a wine bottle as a rolling pin when I couldn't find ours--but that showed up later. 

 A recipe I used this week said one absolutely had to sift the flour.  But where was my flour sifter?  I could not find it and wondered if it was in such poor condition that I never moved it.  Not a frequently used item!   The beer bread was fine without sifting the flour.  

We have a wedding to celebrate on Sunday and the invitation specified "cocktail" dress code.  I bought a new dress on Amazon and spent more money having it hemmed than I spent on the dress.  Then I wondered where my little dressy handbags might be--and to my surprise found them easily on a higher shelf in our walk-in closet where they were gathering dust.  But now, where were my black patent leather strappy sandals?  We looked everywhere and found other items we had forgotten about but no shoes.  Jim found me another pair in the bottom of a little used closet that will have to be suitable but I am frustrated by this.  At least we don't need to make an emergency trip to  DSW for new shoes to be worn maybe once.  I think I wore the missing shoes to Dan and Alex's wedding so they must have made the trip to the east coast.  

---------And with Amazon Prime, I was able to order some panty hose and a half slip and they arrived one day later.  

----------A note after the wedding--My dress was very appropriate and I was able to walk from the church to the reception a few blocks away without a problem.  I met one other person who said she got her dress from Amazon too!  It was fun to see what "cocktail dress" on the invitation looked like for others! 

The wedding was beautiful and the reception food excellent.  They were a very happy couple who were "smitten" with each other from their first meeting.

Dinner and a New EV Car

Dan and Alex stopped to visit enroute from a wedding in Maryland to their home in the Catskills.  They were eager to show us their brand new EV--on its maiden voyage.  They plugged it into a charging station at our apartment complex which involved downloading an app but seemed to be done easily.  While it was charging, we took our old fashioned Kia to Season 52 for dinner.  Susan was able to join us but Jeff was across the border in Ottawa for a week-long workshop.

Dinner interrupted our watching of the Mets game--sadly a loss to the Phillies in game two of the series.  We like the Phillies too and maybe they will be the team for us to watch as the post season goes on.  So thankful to be able to spend time with our son and two daughters-in-law. 

The Amazing Mets

 

We have enjoyed cheering on the Mets as our local team in the last few years.  And as one of their mottos says, "You Gotta Believe."   After a very rough start to this season (0-5), they have won their wild card race in two out of three games over the Brewers and they are going to to play the Phillies in the next phase of the long play-off post season.

Earlier this week on Monday there was an unusual double header with the Atlanta Braves to make up for the rain delay due to hurricane Helene.  The Mets managed to win one of the two games and thus went on to meet the Brewers.  All three games were at the Brewers' home stadium because they had a higher wild card standing. 

We despaired last night when the Brewers got off to an early lead but our heroes Lindor, Nimmo and Alonso came through with a walk and a hit and then a home run off a great Brewer closer Devin Williams--all in the ninth inning!  Peterson, who is usually a starting pitcher, was called in for the bottom of the ninth, and he took care of the Brewers with a final score of 4-2.   The Brewer fans were stunned into silence, the Mets fans at a watch party at Citi Field were rejoicing and we get to watch the Amazing Mets for another few days at least.  

Contacting Authors

If I have any hobby, it probably is reading books.  I spend quite a bit of time perusing book suggestions and making lists in a little notebook and on a "for later" list at our local library--and a "want to read" list on Goodreads.  I don't bother to finish books that I find boring or unpleasant.  I almost always have one book in process.

And after I read a book that I have really enjoyed and rated five stars on Goodreads, I find it very difficult to pick up another book.   So right now, I am at a loss to get involved in another volume.

I just finished Agatha Christie Mallowan's memoir about being on archaeology digs--Come Tell Me How You Live.  It was great fun to read Christie in a different role than as an author of mysteries.  Her book was funny in parts as she told of the difficulties of packing and also impressive as she wrote about the discomforts of living and working at digs.  

I have developed a very happy habit of contacting authors that I have enjoyed.  But I cannot do that this time!  It can take a bit of effort to write an author.  I have sent messages to publishers who forward the email.  I have left messages on websites.  My last contact seemed hard to reach but Ilyon Woo, the author of the Pulitzer prize winning book Master Slave Husband Wife, had an instagram account so I messaged her there and very quickly got a response.  She was happy I had enjoyed the book and yes, it was a lot of research.  She said she had gotten obsessed with the research.

Because my husband and my daughter are published authors, I know that they appreciate hearing from readers.  It has given me joy to contact authors and to encourage them when they have given me joy in reading. I can't think of any author who has not responded to my note of thanks to him or her.

Covid Vaccines Again

 I got notice that we could get a Covid booster at CVS again.  I made appointments for both of us very easily online at a local Plainsboro CVS where we had done previous vaccines.  We checked in when we arrived and had no wait at all to be helped.  When I mentioned how efficient all this was compared to our struggles to get that first vaccine, the technician agreed and said how easy it is to forget how life was at that point.  Empty store shelves, hospitals overwhelmed by folks in the ER, not enough ventilators, churches and schools closed.  People are still getting Covid and we hope we will avoid it.  We are drinking lots of water today and wondering if we will feel some side effects later.  We are feeling very grateful to be able to do this step so easily today.  

September 18  We both drank lots of water and had no side effects at all--just felt the injection spot when I lay on the side last night.  Happy to be vaccinated and hope it really works!  As we shopped at Target this morning, I remembered that was the first place we went that said we had to be masked to enter when folks were aware of the dangers of exposure.  

Another Go at Our Memories

Five years ago, when we packed up and moved from our home of 25 years, I spent hours and weeks sorting through boxes of letters and cards and childhood memorabilia (report cards! piano recitals!).  It was sometime fun and sometimes very sad as I tried to look up friends from long ago and realized they were no longer with us.  There were many items that I saved, packed into shoeboxes and then into two larger boxes.  They found a home in our spacious garage at our apartment complex and I forgot about them.

Last week, I noticed water on the floor of the garage.  It was coming from a faucet that was leaking--a faucet that we had never used.  Sadly, it meant that the boxes were damp on the bottom.  I began a rescue operation in which items were pulled out and deposited in dry boxes.  I had to throw out a few things but many may be salvageable even if they smell a bit moldy right now.  

We had to laugh at some of the cards we had given each other over the years and some of the handiwork of our offspring.  (Dr. Dan VanderKam and his secretary Laura VanderKam--sexism that I guess did not matter at the time).  Most of the items I put away for another day.  I don't have the zeal for sorting it all out again.  

And then there were all the work items I saved thinking that I might tutor as a volunteer again.  Covid put an end to that ambition for a couple of years and now it just seems like too much effort.  But I found I  could not throw it all out.  Six volumes of Megawords?  Word charts?  A guide to phonics?  Too many memories and hard work were represented by those books and information.

So what will happen to it all?  Maybe I will be ambitious again and be more ruthless in editing all that paper.  If we move to assisted living, we would need a storage unit for it all.  That would give me some motivation. Maybe I will pass on and my children, in cleaning out our place, will find it easy to dump it all. But for right now,  I don't have to do anything but let some wet paper dry out and postpone most decisions for another day.