* CAN I REST A BIT NOW? *

I brought Ron home a couple of hours ago. He'd been in the hospital since the morning of June 1st. I'm so happy to have the love of my life back home with me.

 



Ron and Becky February 1983

 

 

(Yes, he had pneumonia.)

* I'M HANGING IN THERE, AND STAYING STRONG *

Can you believe it is already June 2016?

 

I don't know why, but it seems to be part of human nature that as every month and year goes by, we all say, "I can't believe it is.....fill in the blank...already!"

 

Although I really do enjoy all the little things in life (Mr. Robert Brault!) and savor as much of each day that I can, life just gets in the way sometimes of our "plans." It's kind of like watching or listening to the weather forecast for the upcoming week. Don't bother making your outdoor plans according to those predictions. They usually change.....

 

Case in point: About six weeks ago, neither Ron nor I could have predicted what our lives would be like during these first few days in June. About a month ago, Ron had part of his right lung removed due to a cancerous "nodule." The surgery was successful and there was no chemo or radiation involved. Thank goodness! But during his recovery at home, he wasn't getting much better, and had trouble breathing. But when he went for his follow-up appointments to his lung surgeon and lung doctor (yes, two separate ones) both said things like: It takes time. You're doing all the things you're supposed to, etc.

 

Then, over the weekend of May 14th and 15th, Vern rapidly got sicker and our vet said without a doubt we were making the right decision to say goodbye to our sweet, beloved, senior guy. As most of you know, we'd had Vern just over five years and he would've been 15 years old this August. Although Vern was our third dog, Ron bonded with him much more than he ever did with the first two, and it really hit him hard. For me...I'm grieving about the same as I did for our other two, much-loved fur babies. I have my good days and my bad days.

 

So, a couple more weeks went by, and I kept telling Ron I thought he had pneumonia. I've had it enough times in my life to know the sounds and symptoms. It's not "normal" to wheeze and rattle when you breath! But, did that happen when the doctors listened to him with their stethoscopes? Of course not. One of them looked at me a bit patronizingly at that point, because I had voiced my "knowledge" but he wasn't "hearing" it.

 

....................................................... To Be Continued ...................................................

 



* OUR DEAR FRIEND, CLAUDiA...AKA BOOKiE *

This is kind of a long blog post, but please don't glance at it and think you don't have the time to read it.

Many of my readers have certainly come across a dear friend's blog, Claudia's Page: http://claudiapage-bookie.blogspot.com/

Claudia and I "met" through blogging probably in 2010. That was during the height of my blogging life, as it was for many others. We connected easily, having the same passion for writing and reading, tea cups and tea pots, being outside on the deck on beautiful days, plants and flowers... We sent each other snail mail from time to time and also little gifts. Nothing that cost more than a few dollars, but something special we knew the other would enjoy.

Somehow over the years, though, many of us also began writing fewer and fewer posts. I'm certainly guilty of that. For some reason I lost my gusto for it. Maybe finishing my memoir had something to do with it, but I also know the hard times I was going through for quite some time had a lot to do with it, too. I shared some of my troubles with Claudia via emails and she was always so supportive and encouraging.

(Some left blogging for the ease of quick interactions on Facebook...something I still do not care for, but feel compelled to do from time to time. I haven't let it take over my life, though, by any stretch of the imagination.)

I was thrilled in 2010 when she and I both had stories accepted in an anthology, Patchwork Path: Treasure Box. Here's the link to one of my blog posts concerning that: http://beckypovich.blogspot.com/2010/12/anthologies-friends-book-store-food.html

Claudia on left. Becky on right.

Claudia and I met in person, quite by accident, during Christmas time in 2014. I was working at Thistle & Clover on Main Street in old St. Charles, Mo. (one of Claudia's favorite areas!) When I got off work that evening, Ron met me for dinner at a great restaurant just down the road. We ate and talked and during our dinner, I saw a woman walk by who I thought looked a bit familiar, but I wasn't sure from where. I hardly remember names, but I almost never forget a face. Maybe she was a store customer, maybe I knew her from writers' meetings, etc. So, when she walked back toward our table, we looked at each other and she said to me, "Is your name Becky?" And I stood up and immediately said, "Claudia! Yes, it's me!" We hugged and talked and Ron sat there looking at us like we were nuts. We recognized each other just from various photos we'd seen of each other...She knew I lived in the general vicinity, but she and her DH (dear husband) had driven from near Joplin, Missouri to be there....which is quite a LONG way. Unfortunately they had to leave to visit some other people, so we only talked for a couple of minutes. Ron took a couple of pictures of us...and can you believe this is the best of the two?? Even though the coloring and focus is bad...Claudia looked so cute, and I looked....well, just awful. LOL

So, why am I writing about Claudia today? I'm writing a post about Claudia today because of her blog post of May 27th that I just came across yesterday. What she wrote hasn't left my mind for one second in these almost 24 hours. Claudia has cancer. And it doesn't sound good. I am stunned. I am in shock. This can't be happening to such a sweet woman.

Here is a portion of her post: "...this week, my world crashed. I got very sick and had to go to the hospital. I am home again but not for long. I have cancer, one of the worst with no hope. Now my time must be spent tending to wrapping up a life. If you are a writer, you know that means among other things hundreds of folders for research, new ideas, and manuscripts! I never knew this office was SO full of paper!"

Whether you know Claudia or not, please visit her blog and read some of her beautiful posts and see the lovely photographs she took during road trips she and DH went on. Leave a comment, or send an email to the address she gave. And maybe become her new follower...I would love to see her finally hit the 100 mark!

If you believe in prayer...please say a ton of them for her. If not, please send well wishes, think healing thoughts, or anything else you would like to do.



"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one." - C.S. Lewis


"A good friend is a connection to life...a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world." -- Lois Wyse

* SAYING GOODBYE TO VERN *

It is with great sorrow that I write about losing our beloved dog, Vern today. He'd been having some major health problems off and on, and we had to say our goodbyes to him this morning. I can't write anything else right now, or post more photos, but please just type in Vern in the upper left search area. See the Blogger symbol and the looking glass? Type Vern and you will see many blog posts and photos.

Vern and Becky 2013

* DUMB THINGS BECKY SAID *

One for the chapter of "Dumb Things Becky Said."

Hey, this might be a semi-regular blog post, like my Nostalgic Sundays.

(I think I have dyslexia of the mouth!)

At work today, a woman came into the store and asked how to get to our tearoom. I said, "I'll take you there. It's right this way."

Then...knowing there was a group of ladies already sitting at one of the long tables, I asked her, "Are you here with the group of large ladies?"

I swear to God I said that! I couldn't make this stuff up. I kind of back pedaled, explaining what I meant to say, etc. etc.

One of my dreams is to do Stand-Up someday at an Open Mic. I'd bring LOTS of friends who already laugh at stuff I say, so I wouldn't die of embarrassment, in case nobody else laughed.

 

 

I don't remember if I've jotted down any of the crazy, backwards things I've said over the past few years, but I'll look. And if I didn't write them down, hopefully some will pop into my head....hopefully!

 

 

 



"I am a goofy person, really. That's where my energy goes, that's how I live my life. The goof gene is very strong inside me, really." -  Devon Bostick

* ANOTHER GOODREADS GIVEAWAY *

Goodreads Book Giveaway

From Pigtails to Chin Hairs

by Becky Lewellen Povich

Giveaway ends May 27, 2016.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

* A NOSTALGIC SUNDAY... REPEAT *

It's Time for Another Nostalgic Sunday

 

Hello Everyone ~

This is a complete repost of a Nostalgic Sunday from August 7, 2011. It's so warm and sunny and beautiful outside, and I'm drinking iced tea with my little sweater on it....so I just had to find this and repost it...plus an additional note at the end!

~~~

 

I think I've mentioned more than once that I love iced tea in the summertime.

No matter what cold drink you sip or guzzle in hot weather, the drinking glass (whether it's really glass or plastic, etc.) tends to get tiny droplets of moisture on the outside.

When I was a little girl, in the 1950s, no kitchen was without very important, priceless items, made just for that little inconvenience.......

 

 

Little Terrycloth "Sweaters"!

 

How many of you remember these? You wouldn't believe how time consuming it was to find a set of these in the twenty-first century! I have a set of four: hot pink, pale pink, bright yellow and pale blue.......How I love drinking my iced tea, or Diet soda, from a glass filled with ice cubes.....using my "little terrycloth sweater"!

P.S.  After posting this, I searched online for somewhere to buy these cute little terry cloth covers, and I hit the pay dirt when I wound up on The Vermont Country Store, because they not only have the adorable covers, but also the fabulous, colorful aluminum tumblers of my childhood! These are the drinking glasses we had and used the "sweaters" on!! ☺

 

 

(Both photos courtesy The Vermont Country Store)

 

* Note: In my original post, I forgot to mention that the "sweaters" we had when I was a young girl didn't fit just around the glass, but they also had bottoms to them, so it also acted as coasters! I haven't found any of those, but I also haven't searched since this post! ....and I know it isn't summer yet, but I love the quote below and it so fits today. *

 

 

 

"Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world." -- Ada Louise Huxtable

* NOSTALGIC SUNDAY *

It's Time for Another Nostalgic Sunday

 

From the time I wrote my post about Merle Haggard on Thursday afternoon, and today during the early afternoon, I had two of those Twilight Zoney happenings... otherwise known as those incidents of Cosmic Encouragement (thanks again to Connie's comment in an April 2010 blog post of mine!)

For now, I'm not going to share what happened, but please don't think it was something so magnificent or weird or bad. I just don't have the time and the mental strength to write about it properly. (I've been de-cluttering my home office this evening like the Tasmanian Devil!)

What does any of this have to do with Nostalgic Sunday?

Memories and Writing...and Following My Bliss

 

 

I'll be back soon, but for now I want to urge all of you to follow your bliss. The first time I heard the poem below, it was from a new writer friend and mentor...and it was a life-changing moment,

 

"If you do follow your bliss,
you put yourself on a kind of track
that has been there all the while waiting for you,
and the life you ought to be living
is the one you are living.
When you can see that,
you begin to meet people
who are in the field of your bliss,
and they open the doors to you.

I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid,
and doors will open
where you didn't know they were going to be.
If you follow your bliss,
doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.”

-- Joseph Campbell

 

~~~