Choir Lady

  May 23, 2020 Today my sister Shelagh & her partner, Tess Contos, came for an afternoon visit.  This is our first face-to-face contact since Christmas!  We used face masks (inside) and the weather was (finally) lovely, so we spent most of our time outside in the Pergola or playing with Kate's boys, Erik & Jack, on the lawns at Rafter Hall.  Shelagh, who is the director of Respiratory Services at St. Camillus Nursing Home in Syracuse, is tested for COVID-19 twice a week now.  She has consistently tested negative as recently as last Thursday, so we  hope  exposure to her & Tess is safe. It was a nice visit, but a bit tiring, as usual, for me who does the bulk of the prep, serving and clean up.  Shelagh & Tess both needed a change of pace. Irene Contos is living "downstairs" with them now, since  her  brief but dramatic hospitalization for a bleeding ulcer early in the COVID-19 crisis. Tess has been carrying most of the loa...

  May 22, 2020 In 2 days  it will be our 40th Anniversary!  I am feeling sorry for myself because we can't have a group celebration.  The NYS Health Dept. is still recommending "sheltering-in-place" and "Phase 1" limited opening of some businesses, with no large group contacts.  This means  no  party, here or at a venue like the  Conesus Country Club ,  no  Mass (like we had for our 30th @ St. Mary's), and  no  exotic vacation, like a cruise or a foreign destination!  I admit, my kids, as wonderful as they are, could/would not have pulled together any kind of celebration for us, even without a pandemic.  Months before my parents' 40th, my sister & I arranged a Mass &  reception for them in Buffalo, with my cousin, the priest, officiating & a renewal of vows.  I admit, I wanted at least a little of that. Not my husband, Mark's "thing", but he would have gone along with it if he only...

  May 20, 2020 In the midst of the pandemic news, today our isolated household dealt with the euthanasia of our dear 16 year old calico cat, Sophie.  We knew her renal failure was worsening.  Her appetite disappeared and she stopped eating almost a week ago.  Even though she was still hunting until a week ago, now, her walking up the hill from the pond appeared painful and she had been sleeping even more than her "normal" 16 hours/day. Although she continued to tolerate her subcutaneous hydration treatments stoically, she had lost so much weight it was hard to "pinch up" enough skin under which to inject the needles. Her vocalizations began to sound like she was in pain as well.  Yesterday, I found her up against the Pergola wall, sleeping in the weak sunshine, occasionally watching the pond below.  I think she had been there for hours, too weak to walk up to the house. I slipped a small saucer of water under her chin and she quietly lapped at the water for...

  May 16, 2020 Kate was discharged today without having her gall bladder out, yet.  Things are still too inflamed and irritated to have surgery. Apparently (& according to the MRI she got on Wed.) she has gall stones. None are currently in her bile duct, but her pancreas looks "consistent with pancreatitis".  We all learned that those pesky gall stones can block the  shared  duct from the pancreas too and  its  digestive juices can back up and start digesting itself! Hence the inflammation of the pancreas.  Left untreated the pancreatic tissue is destroyed.  Hence the recommendation to remove her gall bladder as soon as the inflammation has subsided.

  March 17, 2020 My RRTA Book Club mtg. for today had been canceled last week as well. So, my only appointment in Rochester today was a pedicure.  I had purchased a bottle of  Bailey's Irish Cream  for the pedicurist's "tip" and that was the last of those appointments too!  I dropped off a couple of framing jobs at the  Frame Shop  in Henrietta, just before  they  closed as a "non-essential business."   As your grandpa's job at the  American Hotel  in Lima, was canceled due to COVID-19, your grandpa & I had invited 2 friends for dinner instead, John Kerr & Colleen Liggett.  It was the  quietest  St. Patrick's Day I ever had in my life, and the first  March 17th  in more than 40 years your grandpa had NOT played his mandolin with his band,  some where.  We invited John Kerr & his wife Colleen Liggett here for a dinner of Irish Stew and mandolin (Mark & John) and violin (Colleen ...

  March 16, 2020 You boys were home today, as HCSD  did  shut down over the weekend.  I drove to your home in Honeoye that morning, almost giddy in anticipation of helping your mom with your "home schooling."  Instead, there were errands to run.  Your mom took you, Erik, with her to deliver Easter candy orders (I think) and I took you, Jack, with me to: 1.  collect more signatures on a ballot petition for Nate McMurray, who was running for NY27 Congress, 2. drop off those completed petitions at the McMurray "headquarters" in Geneseo, 3. pick up Ringers solution and needles for our cat Sophie at our vet Gene Scherline, in Geneseo, and 4. shop at Wegman's in Geneseo.  It was a busy morning and you, Jack, were very good. We chatted in the car and you were super cooperative, such as holding my hand, or letting me "sanitize" your hands when required.  After we got back to your house in Honeoye, your mom didn't need any more help, so I left.  ...