Moving into 231 State Road

We moved into Jeff and Susan's on Friday, October 25 after they left for a ten day trip to Durham, NC and then on to Honolulu, Hawaii for a conference for Susan and a few vacation days.  I am so glad they can do this and that they trust us with Michael who is very self-sufficient but needs transportation and his food allergies do add a certain worry to our supervision of him.  I don't want to accidentally expose him to eggs or dairy although we reviewed the use of an epipen and the need to call 911 afterward.

This morning was typical.  Jim set an alarm, got up first, and reminded M to get going.  Jim made sure I was awake but because I was fasting to do blood work, it didn't take long to get ready.  We dropped M off at Princeton High School and joined the hundreds of others on the roads.  I called the doctor's office to say we were stuck in traffic but they seemed unconcerned and of course, I still had to wait to give my blood.    Afterwards, we headed up State Road 206 to Burger King to treat ourselves to French toast sticks for Jim and a sausage-egg biscuit for me.  We missed it and got caught in endless traffic heading back between the three traffic lights along the way.  But the breakfast was delicious after a fast in particular.  We avoided the detour signs for road closings on SR 518 and went to our apartment for mail, laundry and showers.   I took the car back into Kingston to practice the organ for an hour  at Kingston Presbyterian Church.   Jim worked in his study. 


We had lunch--even if the milk was sour and the chips bags were down to scraps.  We don't have the hang of living in two places and find what we need (shaver, hair dryer, t-shirts) are often at the other place!   I think in some ways, it is easier to pack for a 700 mile trip than a 4 mile trip!

Next on the agenda for the day is to get milk and veggies at McCaffrey's, pick up M at 3:30, have supper with him and then get him to band practice at PHS at 6:30 with pick up time TBD.  The 7th World Series game should provide some entertainment for the evening.  So life is not very strenuous yet there is a certain confusion to it.   Seeing the happy faces of Jeff and Susan on one of their Hawaii photos on Facebook makes me very happy and Michael seems to tolerate his grandparents easily enough.

Doctors

One of the difficult things about moving was leaving the doctors we had used over many years.  Our dentist made it easier by retiring.  Our family practitioner was cutting back some hours.  Jim, however, saw several specialists which complicated matters.

It also made our decisions urgent when Jim broke a tooth almost immediately upon our arrival in New Jersey.  We found a local dentist--very local.  She practices in an old house in nearby Kingston and doesn't always have assistants and certainly does not have modern x-ray technology.  After several appointments, Jim has his new crown and all is well.

Also complicating matters was that our AARP plan changed from a PPO to an HMO.   We asked family and friends and found an internist, Dr. Chattha.    She began with new patient visits and follow-ups and now we both see her for complete physicals next week.  What that involves we do not know.   It may  mean that we can skip the insulting Medicare competency questions which always make me so stressed that I do feel and may appear incompetent.

I got out my laptop and from Dr. Chattha's list tried to find specialists that would take our insurance.  Jim has now seen an opthamalogist and a rheumatologist.  We have both seen a nurse practitioner at the dermatologist's office and then had follow-up visits with the doctor himself.  Jim has two more visits scheduled with him for procedures and one more with the rheumatologist.  He has had a bone scan for the first time--never was asked to do it before.

I have followed up with Dr. Chattha because of my recurring insomnia.  She sent me to a cardiologist who is scheduling two more tests--a stress test and a calcium scan--but also got me started on a new (old, actually) drug that has already lowered my heart rate after one dose.  Dr. Chattha may ask for more tests and another referral.   I am going to cancel the gastroenterologist referral because a colonoscopy is more than I can deal with right now.

Is this what it is like to be 73?  I hope it all settles down soon as we get into regular routine appointments instead of all these consultations and follow-ups.  I know we need to be thankful that there are doctors here for us and we can still make decisions as to what we choose to do or what we choose not to do.  For the most part we have found the doctors to be caring and competent.

So now I will have the drink of wine my internist forbade but the cardiologist said was just fine.  I prefer her recommendation!

Libraries

One of the first things we did upon arriving in Princeton was to get library cards at the Princeton Public Library located very near Palmer Square and just off the busy Nassau Street bordering the university.   Parking is free in the Spring Street parking deck where you usually have to drive up to the top floors to find a space. I do not like parking decks!

To my surprise, I learned that 508 Barclay Square may have a Princeton postal address but it actually is located in Plainsboro, New Jersey.  I had to pay $75 to get a library card--a bargain at the senior rate.  I was happy enough to do so and the gentleman who helped me was very enthusiastic telling me all the benefits I would get for membership.

That may have been the first and last time I checked out books at the Princeton Public Library.  If we  live in Plainsboro, we decided we should find the Plainsboro Library.  It is a four mile drive from our apartment about the same distance as the Princeton Library.   Parking is easy in a large adjacent lot.   A library card is free and if the library does not have the book I want, I can use an interlibrary loan service that will find the book at one of about 30 libraries in Middlesex County.

  It is not high tech.  The librarian at the counter checks out books for you.  There are no electronic chips in the books to facilitate the process as we had in the St. Joseph Library in Indiana.  In fact, I was told they just stopped stamping the due dates in the back of books and are now using printed receipts.

Last week I began volunteering to assist the interlibrary process.  This involves unpacking books from those 30 libraries and sorting them into two categories--those being returned to Plainsboro and those requested from elsewhere for local patrons.  Then my job is to sort all the returned books into 30 piles--one for each library in the system--and pack them into bags or boxes.   It is not a difficult job but after an hour my back was hurting from bending over the array of books.  There were literally hundreds of books to be processed.

Just as in South Bend, I need to thank our libraries by volunteering.  At least here, no one made me take a drug test and no one is insisting I wear closed toe shoes.  Tomorrow I will go in and try to make it for two hours of work but I will also leave with a book on hold for me and another one I hope to find in the stacks.  How grateful I am for our libraries!

Apartment Living Part 2

We have been in our apartment for seven weeks.  There are still four paintings to be hung and five boxes of books to be given away and garage shelving to be assembled.  But the car can fit in the garage now and the place looks and feels like home.

We have delighted in being able to call maintenance a few times and let them fix minor problems easily instead of them being major problems to us.  The smoke alarm went off one day with a voice saying over and over "Fire. Fire"  There was no fire.  Alonso came immediately and changed the battery--although he said it should have been a new one.  One of the faucets dripped; another one leaked.  Another maintenance man came a few hours after we posted the problem on the tenant portal and cheerfully fixed both.  We hear the mowers and the leaf blowers and the grounds are not our responsibility!

This week I have begun using the stationary bike in the exercise room.  I have had the room to myself at 9:30 am and can choose my own TV channels.  I haven't used the piano for a few weeks but I will again soon.  Eboni in the office has helped us with faxes a couple of times.  We can make copies in the business center.


We have ridden our bikes to the towpath a couple of times and will enjoy doing that many times in the weeks to come.  We walk to the mail room in the main building and to the recyclable bins and trash compactor almost daily.  Walking down the sidewalk along Mapleton Avenue at sunset has given us views of the most beautiful sky over the trees.

We are on the far end of the complex which turned out to be a great location.  We look at trees from our living room and bedroom windows.  We can hear traffic faintly in the distance. Our neighbors are quiet.  And we are far enough away from the smelly and noisy trash compactor which we would not have even considered to be a problem when we signed the lease.

We are not sorry about our choice of Barclay Square and Princeton itself.

Books!

 A week or two ago, I was trying to go to sleep but I would close my eyes and envision books tumbling over me.  I felt overwhelmed by the books in the hall and in the garage.  Even Jim said he was feeling overwhelmed;  he thought he had gotten rid of so many books before we moved.

And he had!  The Theological Book Network gave him tax receipts for more than 1000 books that he had donated--some right after he retired and the rest in May--books that go to third world seminaries.  He estimates that he gave at least that many to students at Notre Dame.  We put numerous books that he thought were of little value in Better World Books bins where we had heard (and hoped) that they would be recycled for their paper.

After we moved into our apartment, we bought six three-shelved Sauder bookcases from Skillman Furniture and Jim began filling the shelves. He went back to buy one more five-shelf bookcase later.

When I posted on Facebook about our dilemma, one suggestion was to Kondo the books--did each one that was left in boxes or on the floor bring Jim joy?  He said that was the wrong question.  The right question was would the book bring him work?  Or assist his research?

Maybe breaking down the task into manageable parts would help.   I labeled boxes Trash, Garage, and Students.  I would hold up a book and Jim would decide where it fit.  We did that over the last week--a section each day.

There are now five boxes of books that Jim hopes to give to students at Princeton University or Princeton Seminary.  Just how that will happen is to be determined. 

 There are eight boxes of books stored in the garage and we are optimistic that there might be room for the car now.

 And then there are the trashed books.  It makes me sad when I think of the work each author put into his or her volume.  We recycled all the paperbacks and one by one I tore out the pages of the hardbacks to recycle their paper.  We made daily trips to the recycle bins in our apartment complex.

I am pleased to say that as of August 13, 2019, a month after we leased our apartment and four weeks since we moved in, we can walk through the halls without having to avoid books.  And it looks great!

A Sleepover with Grandpa and Grandma

Laura was taking her older three on a Disney cruise but felt very uneasy about taking four year old A along for the sake of his safety.  Just this month a child from our own home town of Granger fell overboard through an open window on a cruise.  So she asked if A could have a sleepover with us as something special for him.

 It was special for him and for us.  This morning he said to me "Today is going to be a great day."  I asked why and he answered "It's a surprise."  I asked him at lunch if it was a great day and he said it was!

It was 24 hours from the time his nanny dropped him off until we brought him back to her at home.  Only once did he say he was homesick as he was trying to go to sleep last night.  Otherwise it was a continual refrain of "Guys, you know what?" with lots of happy chatter.

We had asked the nanny to bring his little bike.  That was probably not the smartest idea because he is sooo fast on it that we could hardly keep up.  He took a spill or two but got up and kept going.  We found a safe circle around the playground for riding and he did that circle again and again.

After supper we walked to the place where we had seen deer previously and last night there were ten of them there.  That was pretty exciting and caused us to do research on whether deer slept during the day or night.  Answer--they nap and don't sleep soundly any time.  But they are more active during the night--which A told me means they are nocturnal.  He knows a lot of words!

We played dominoes,  read books, got out some of our kids' really old toys and were introduced to some of his favorite Kindle games. There was plenty to do and no time to be bored.

The plan for sleep was that A would sleep on the floor in our bedroom in a sleeping bag.  At some point, he convinced Jim he needed to be in our bed and that is where he fell asleep.  We hated to move him so I went to sleep in the second bedroom.  Jim lasted for a very short time with him because of his snoring.  So at 1:30 am when I checked on both of them, there was snoring in the bedroom and snoring on the living room couch.  I happily went back to sleep in my quiet room.  We were amused that A took over our new, big,  comfortable bed and we were displaced and sent elsewhere.

More experienced grandparents would have remembered to get A's car seat out of the van.  We didn't want to ask the nanny to make the return trip so I braved Route 1 traffic and merging to go to Walmart and pick up a $19.95 booster seat which Jim put together using the newly purchased screwdrivers. 

The apartment seems empty tonight without him.  It is a real blessing of our being here in this area that we can do this.  We have been grandparents for 21 years and this is only the third time we have had a grandchild over by himself or herself.

Princeton--Small Town America in New Jersey--Garden State

Many years ago our North Carolina governor, James Hunt, warned that our state could become like "creeping New Jersey"--just one big urban area.  Parts of New Jersey are probably like that but the Princeton area is not.

We drive to Jeff and Susan's on two lane roads lined with trees.  We take a similar route to McCaffrey's Groceries and to the doctors we have seen.  Going in the other direction to the Plainsboro Library and Meadows of Middlesex Golf, the roads are broader but they wind their way through large commercial campuses that are hidden from the road by large trees.  It's taking the scenic route daily.  I anticipate the beauty of autumn when the leaves change color.

There is a disadvantage to this rural feel.  We hit a fawn dashing across the road a few weeks ago.  We just missed a much larger deer crossing our path this morning.








Skillman's Furniture Old and New has been our place to buy numerous bookshelves and a TV stand.  The store is a mess of crowded furniture but we found exactly what we needed at a very reasonable price and it was delivered to our door for a minimal fee.  Mr. Skillman has long grey hair and he rings up the sale by hand.  We have been happy to "buy local."

Ace Hardware stores are everywhere but the one in Princeton Shopping Center is amazing.   There is always someone to help you find what you need and give advice.  Our purchases include picture hangers, a dust buster, a set of screw drivers, pliers, and coasters.  It definitely is better than wandering around the big box stores.

Jim broke a tooth shortly after we arrived.  He was not in pain  but it needed care.  We found a dentist who took our insurance for exams but not for procedure.  He booked with her anyway.  He went in on a Saturday and met her in a very old house on the main street in Kingston.  She had no assistants, took an x-ray herself and showed it to Jim without putting it on a computer.  She did not ask for payment ahead of time. Jim saw her again today in a similar situation but said she seemed very competent and he paid her for half the cost. He has at least one more appointment scheduled.

When I looked for a scanner to check out my book at the Plainsboro Library and couldn't find one, I asked for help.  There were no self service scanners-the librarian at the desk claimed he was a lot better looking and he checked out books.

With the exception of the Division of Motor Vehicles, everyone who has waited on us or helped us has been very friendly and kind.  I hope we continue to feel as if we are living in a small town in a garden state.