After two months off, due to my eye situation, I finally returned to the A&P last week. Felt like a kid going back to school. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check out this post. It’ll bring you up to speed. Returning to the A&P was like coming home. It put some normalcy back into my life, and I can’t tell you how good that feels. I’m still getting used to my eye not being 100%. I thought the bubble would be long gone by September. “They,” meaning the internet, said these sorts of bubbles are usually absorbed back into your body in six to eight weeks. Eight weeks was September 1, and my bubble …

I ran into my old friend Joan at the DQ the other day. She was ordering a banana split. “Hey there, Joan,” I says. “What are you celebrating?” (See, I knew it had to be a special occasion. I mean, you don’t order a banana split for nothing, right? Joan goes, “I just went for a stress test. You know, to check out your heart. Make sure you’re not about to keel over.” “Oh, I’ve never had one of those. Were you nervous?” “You betcha. Number one, I don’t like to break a sweat. Ever. And B, I’m not what you’d call real athletic.” “I hear you.” “Still, I wanted to ace the test. Mostly …

You can’t underestimate the power of a good night’s sleep. It’s true for kids, and personal experience has taught me, it’s true for seniors, too. What with my eye situation and the heat, sleeping good has been a challenge for both me and Charlie. ‘Til last night. I’ll let the Poet Laureate of Mahoosuc Mills tell you all about it. The Couch She’s pitching about Like a boat on the sea And pulling the covers Right off of me A night without sleep That’s what I’m dreading I know exactly Where I am heading The couch That is where I always go The couch When she gets to fidgeting so An island of peace Where …

Well, it’s been four weeks now since the emergency eye surgery to reattach my retina, and I’m doing pretty good, I think. It’s weird how you can spend over 60 years taking your eyes for granted, never thinking about your retina, and then, Pow! That’s all you can think about. The whole thing’s pretty amazing. In the olden days, I’d have been blind in that eye for the rest of my life for sure. Yikes! I’m still not back at the A&P. I decided to take the rest of the summer off, and go back the day after Labor Day. There are plenty of college kids who are glad to pick up the hours. I …

For the first time since 2009, I’m forced to take a break from sharing what I’m up to, my musings, and Mahoosuc Mills news. Over the weekend, I gradually lost the sight in my right eye. It was wicked scary! Turns out, I have a detached retina and have to have emergency surgery tomorrow morning. The surgery doesn’t take that long. But the recovery does. Get this: I have to be face down for a week. I can walk around, as long as the back of my head is toward the ceiling. Cute! I have to sleep on my side or stomach. The second week, I get to sit up for short periods at a …

The other night, Charlie and me were in the den. He was  watching the tube and I was reading the AARP Magazine when I think, when did this happen? When did I go from joking about this magazine to actually reading it? Not flipping through it, not scanning it, but actually reading it? I mean, finding the articles interesting and helpful. The celebrities on the cover used to be old looking, you know? Now I find myself saying things like, “Gee, that Michael Douglas still is a good looking guy.” In fact, this issue I got more excited about the article called “Your Big Health Questions Answered” than the one about budget vacations. That worries …

We’re living in wacky times, right? So this week, I thought I’d do something a little different. I’ve put together a public service announcement designed to remind us of the stuff we know we should be doing, to get us moving, and to (maybe) make us laugh. I call it the Coronavirus Shuffle. Don’t just watch it, get up off your duff and do it! That’s it for now. Catch you on the flip side!

You may be “sheltering in place,” as they say, but as a cashier down to the A&P, I’m on the front lines of this thing. Global pandemic! Go figure! Folks have totally lost their minds, buying three, four, five hundred dollars worth of unrelated stuff! It’s like that old game show Supermarket Sweep; they’re just throwing things into their carts. The biggies, of course, are toilet paper, milk, and chicken. Why? If you’re going to be stuck inside, wouldn’t you want a nice cut of meat to look forward to? And think of it: you have all this time to slow roast. It’s perfect! The toilet paper baffles me, though. It just don’t make no …

Well, Charlie had his hip replacement. A week ago, today. Get this: we had to be at the hospital in Bangor at 5:45 am. I know! Had to get up before 4:00, which actually was a relief because neither one of us was doing much sleeping. I says to Charlie, “I can’t believe we’re getting up this early, driving to Bangor, and not getting on a plane to somewhere nice.” He just grunted in response. We arrived at 5:30. “French early,” is what we call that. Unlike some people, we really do think the party will start without us. So we arrived at 5:30 in the morning, and you know what? Charlie walked out of …

After I finished my radiation for breast cancer and started getting my energy back, I realized something. I had never asked anyone where the boob shop is. See, because of where my cancer was located, I had what I’d call a “partial mastectomy.” My medical chart says “lumpectomy,” but honey, they lopped off the top third of my breast. In other words, instead a gentle mountain peak, I’m left with more of a mesa situation. What would you call it? It isn’t really that big a deal. I’ve been stuffing a little sock into my padded bra to balance things out and make my cleavage not look wonky. But the sock was too lumpy for …