As I mentioned a while back, my husband purchased a new weed whacker. He’s always had great big gas powered things, but with the ethanol additives in fuel and our cold winters it seems they’re always breaking down and dying.
This time around he went battery operated because he bought this brand’s battery hedge trimmer last year and loved it.
Naturally, he put it together in the living room… because that’s what one does.
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Excited to try his new toy, upon completion he took it outside and starting whacking the first thing he saw… grass along the edge of our garage.
You know, the section you see immediately upon exiting our kitchen door.
Apparently my spouse did not realize the power of his new tool because…
This happened.
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Yup.
He weed whacked a nice long strip of the vinyl siding.
I’m 59 years old and most definitely not as toned and tight as I once was. My hair is greying, my knee is shot… I have bunions FFS! But aging is a part of life and reflects who I am now, not the silly 20 year old I see in pictures and hardly recognize.
Much as I’d love to hook up a Hoover to my thighs and suction off a few doughnuts, I won’t. I also won’t be nipping and tucking anything on my face like these ladies… who in my opinion would’ve been better off with a few wrinkles.
Remember Melanie Griffith?
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Working Girl? Milk Money?
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Damn!
Remember perky little Meg Ryan? America’s sweetheart from When Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail?
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What’s with the lips? Why do they think bigger will make them look younger.
And then there’s Renee Zellwegger from Bridget Jones Diary.
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She doesn’t even look like the same person and yet she swears she hasn’t had any work done. Her reason for the transformation? She’s happy.
Well so am, I but I still look like myself.
And finally there’s Madonna, to whom I can only say…
The husband and I have been on the road a lot lately, shuffling from nursing home to hospice and back again. This means a decided lack of cooking at Casa River and numerous meals have been eaten out. While I enjoy my favorite haunts and their prodigious cocktail mixing, sometimes you just have to suck it up and go full on diner.
We’ve hit a few good ones, a few bad ones and a few that offered up some extremely odd selections.
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Yes, I live in Maine. Yes, it’s close to Canada.
But no, I have never embraced the regional favorite known as poutine. As for a hunk of barbecue bologna may I just say…
🤢
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I don’t care what you cover them in… no.
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Leave my burger alone poutine!
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Thankfully diner desserts are usually more appealing.
Take this lemon blueberry cake with fresh blueberry lavender compote. It was so huge and rich I took it home and ate it for 3 straight days.
Any of my Florida friends ever have a drinkie poo here?
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Weird, yes. But I think I’d have a hard time partying under a hanging tree.
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Twigs and leaves aren’t the only things it sprouts…
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To be clear this is not one of my favorite decorating themes. I have enough trouble with bras in every day life, I really don’t need to drink under a ceiling of them.
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Wow.
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The oldest bar in Florida definitely has history.
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Damn.
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I’ve had drinks with my share of dead beats, but this takes dead to a whole new level.
Since we’ve been emotionally overwhelmed and beyond busy with my SIL’s situation over the past month… other things have taken a back seat. And though I hate to admit it, that included visits to my husband’s elderly uncle. We’d been going once a week to visit, bring groceries and run errands but hadn’t done anything other than call in three. And then the other day, we found that his phone had been disconnected.
A visit to his house found it locked up tight, blinds drawn and truck missing.
A few frantic phone calls later….
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We arrived at the V.A. hospice facility.
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A huge campus with a pond and strolling flocks of Canada Geese. And unlike a lot of Veterans Affairs hospitals, a complex with an excellent reputation and amazing care.
It was here that we found my husband’s soon to be 91 year old uncle.
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A recent trip to the emergency room revealed he is riddled with bone cancer and has a mass on his lung.
He won’t be going home.
But honestly? He’s alright.. and has made his peace. He was in good spirits, joking, telling old stories and flirting with the hot and cold running nurses who are catering to his every whim.
This place is amazing.
Private rooms with a fridge, microwave and Bose sound system.
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A large menu. Room service food whenever you want it. An ice cream and dessert cart that goes door to door like the Good Humor truck.
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The high tech bed has Wi-Fi and a USB port.
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With multi colored light reflections on the floor.
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They even hooked up a DVD player and brought him John Wayne movies.
The staff is kind, compassionate and go out of their way to make him as comfortable as possible.
Losing a loved one is never easy, but he’s in a wonderful place and being well looked after. He’s a widower with one son who lives in Florida… so we’re going to do our best to visit as often as we can.
❤️
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 