Sophie's Story

           C was loading the bikes onto the car on Monday night when he discovered a big problem. The front tire on my bike was completely flat. As I looked at the tire I noticed that it was cracked and that's probably why it went flat. The tire was the the original one on the bike when I bought it about 30 years ago so it's no surprise. It's been really hot outside, the temperature in the garage would have been even higher.          This was a bad time for this to happen. C and I were really looking forward to a ride since it had been too hot to ride all last week. We wanted to get an early start, but the bike shop didn't open until ten. We discussed possibly hiking somewhere instead riding our bikes.           The next morning, C decided to play pickleball since we weren't going to be able to start our ride early. I did some chores around the house. When C came back we donned our riding attire, filled...

           It's Middle Eastern Festival time at the Eastern Orthodox church near our home. We've been going to this festival every year for most of the years we have lived here.          I have always enjoyed learning about different faiths especially when paired with other ethnic cultures.             We like to go when the festival opens and have lunch. They have Lebanese food: kabobs, kafta, kibby and my personal favourite falafel. They used to have a combination plate with a sample of most of the menu that C and I liked to share. Unfortunately they stopped offering it.           They play music while people are eating. The lyrics are in a language I don't understand, but the music is very rhythmic and loud. They have two dance groups made up of teenagers and preteens that perform ethnic dances at set times in the tent where people eat. I was surprised the first tim...

           A few weeks ago, one of my coworkers committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. I use the word coworker very loosely. He was not a part of the pharmacy staff so I didn't interact with him. I saw him a lot around the store. He was kind of hard to miss as he had the longest hair I have ever seen on a man along with facial hair to match.          What I do know is that he was a dependable and well liked by everyone. When he didn't call or show up to work, people were concerned. This lead to a search which found his car parked with his phone and ID in it. There was a note in his apartment.           He wasn't found right away. Some of the people who knew him thought that maybe he ran away. Maybe he was in Las Vegas or some where getting away from it all. They didn't want to believe that he was really gone and that he had killed himself. I don't blame them. It's a hard thing to process.   ...

           This morning I decided I could wait no longer. It was time for a serious session of weeding the garden.           I do enjoy gardening, but I'm not always as diligent about weeding as I should be. My only excuse this time is that I had to wait for the peas and carrots to get a bit bigger so I can weed around them. Also it had been raining on and off for the last week.           This morning I officially ran out of excuses. Time to go out and pull weeds. I dressed in some older clothes and a ratty pair of sandals, filled my water bottle, grabbed my phone and headed into the garage. I got a hand spade and a tool that I refer to as the claw. Since there were a lot of weeds, I was going to need both tools to get at the roots.           I started on the vegetable side of the garden as it was in the worst shape. The weeds had grown up so much that I could not see ...

           I'm trying to limit the amount of time that I spend on social media. I used to enjoy posting thoughts and pictures, but now I find I really don't have much I want to share anymore. One thing I still like doing is looking at the memories section every morning. A few days ago I noticed that I posted about taking a leap of faith. Sometimes when I see these cryptic posts, I'm not sure what I meant. This time I knew what prompted that post. Eight years ago I quit my full time job.          This isn't the first time I quit a job. It is the first time I quit before I had another job lined up.           I wasn't planning on quitting. My plan was to continue working full time until I got much older. Then maybe I'd back down to part time. I felt like I needed to stay with the company I was at. There weren't a lot of pharmacy jobs open plus the degree I have is somewhat obsolete. Since it is better to h...

           Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic for past few months. As with all new technology many people have jumped on the bandwagon touting how useful it is. Businesses are assessing how to use it possibly replacing human workers which will help the business be more profitable.          As much as some may want to believe that AI can replace any human in any job, there are a few jobs that really need to be done by a human. One of them is my job, pharmacist. I'd like to write about an encounter with a patient that I had last week.          He is a middle aged man who had a prescription for an albuterol inhaler and a spacer. Albuterol is a medication that is used to help open the lungs in people with asthma, COPD, pneumonia and bronchitis. A spacer is a plastic device that has a mouthpiece on one end and a place to put the end of the inhale on the other. It's used to hold the medication to help pe...

           One of pleasures I've recently discovered is watching seedlings sprout up from the ground. For many years, my gardening (using the term very loosely) has consisted of buying plants and planting them in my garden and tending to them throughout the summer. It is fun to watch them grow and produce vegetables or flowers, but there is something about planting small dry seeds and watering them carefully not knowing what if anything will happen.          I've had two successful carrot crops the past few years. This has given me the confidence to attempt to grow other vegetables from seeds. This year I decided to grow snow peas. I planted two rows carefully spacing the seeds. I misted the ground so it wouldn't be completely dry. A few days ago I thought I saw a line of seedlings where I had planted carrot seeds. Yesterday, I saw two pea seedlings above the ground. It made me so happy to see those little green plants poking up. I ...

           Several years ago Dana helped me to make four dyed shirts using ice and powder dye.  I gave two shirts to my parents, one of them to C and kept the fourth for myself. It was fun to do and interesting to see how they would turn out as the melting ice would influence where the dye went.          When my Mom was bedridden the nursing staff cut the back of her shirts so they could dress her more easily. Dad gave Mom the shirt that he had as they were more comfortable for her to wear. When she died all the clothes that had been altered were thrown away.          A few months ago Dad suggested to me that he would like another shirt. He liked the one that he had and would get compliments when he wore it. I told him that I wasn't going to be able to make another one exactly like his old one, but I could do another in the same colours. He said that would be fine with him.        ...

      We live a block or so from the library. While I haven't spent as much time there as I would have liked, I like the fact that it is so close. Last year, they shut the library down to do some renovations. I was pretty sad about it. Although  I'd been choosing my books through an online catalog, I liked being able to walk to the library and pick my books up as well as drop them off when I finished reading them.      The library moved temporarily to the second floor of one of the county buildings. I was happy I had access to the library, but the county building was not convenient. I still checked out books, but I had to make sure to pick up books or drop them off when running errands.     The library reopened a month ago. I was working on reopening day so I had not seen when changes were made.        A few days ago, I had a book I needed to return. Since the library is close to our walking path, we decided to drop off th...

           For our latest bike ride of the season, I wore my flowered bike pants. Because it was going to be warm out I wore a thin purple t shirt that matched the pants. The shirt had a round collar and is close fitting.  We had a good ride, ate the picnic lunch that we brought and then went home.       I was in the bathroom doing something when I glanced at myself in the mirror. I took a really good look. Then I felt sick.        I looked fat. I looked in the mirror and saw something grossly fat and unattractive. I changed out of my biking clothes but it didn't make me feel any better. I felt fat and ugly. I hated what I saw in the mirror.        This is something I've struggled with off and on for a lot of my life. Even as a teenager I was never fashionably thin. Many of the woman in my family tend to be rather sturdy especially on the Italian side. When I was out of college and working, I was t...

           Willow turns three years old today. Most mornings she walks onto my lap and tilts her head to get a scratch before settling down for a quick nap or cuddle session. This morning after she settled into my lap, I reflected on how she came to live with us.          Three years ago, in July, a woman from church needed someone to take care of a kitten she recently adopted. Because the kitten was so small, it meant the kitten would need to stay in the home of whoever was caring for her. The woman and her family were going on a trip over the Independence Day weekend. She had planned to pick up the kitten after her trip, but the family she was adopting from wanted the kitten in her new home before the holiday. Someone put her in contact with me as someone who might be able to help.          We had just lost our beloved Scamp a little more than a month before. For the first time in 25 years I had no cat to ...

           In the interests of fair disclosure, I have absolutely no ideas to write about today. All I have are a series of small things that alone aren't enough to write about. I hope you will enjoy this hodge podge of topics.          Lately C has had a craving for beans. When he was growing up he ate pinto beans and cornbread. In the south, it's cooked with fatback. It think fatback is like bacon with a lot of fat and very little meat. It was salty which flavoured the beans. I've tried several times to cook beans all unsuccessful. I finally decided to try again. Since I'm never organized enough to do an overnight soak with the beans, I used a quicker method. After sorting and rinsing the beans, I put them in a pot of water to boil. I let them boil for ten minutes. Then I turned the heat off and let them set for an hour in the water. When the hour was over I drained the beans, rinsed them and rinsed out the pot. I put them back in...

           Yesterday we went for our first bike ride of the season on the Cannon Valley Trail. We got there later than usual because we wanted it to warm up a little bit before we rode.          We had planned to start out in Red Wing and bike to the midpoint at Welch. Due to construction on the trail we were not able to do this. We had to start at Welch and bike toward Cannon Falls. It wasn't going to be a problem.          We got to Welch and unloaded out bikes. My job is to tie on our trail passes and put our water bottles and other things in their proper places while C puts the bike rack in the trunk. C brought out our helmets. I put on my helmet and instantly knew there was a problem. I had my hair tied back as usual and it was up too high. I removed the elastic hair tie and retied my hair lower. I think I got a piece of the scarf I had tied around my hair. Also the knot from the scarf was in the wrong ...

           At the end of last year's riding season, C fell off his bike. It happened when the front wheel of his bike tapped the back wheel of mine tipping him off the edge of the trail into the grass. It was scary for me as I didn't know in the moment what had happened. I was scared he had a stoke or other serious medical issue.  Fortunately he was able to get back up with assistance and ride the last mile to the car. His bike had some minor damage and a few days later his shoulder started to ache. Nothing was broken and it healed slowly over the winter.          We are not sure why it happened. C never rides behind me and never directly behind me. That is a rule that we have. How he managed to be directly behind me is something he has pondered for weeks. It's still a mystery.          C decided, because of this accident, that we are going to get helmets and wear them when we ride. Until now we hadn't ...

           A quick check the the VP of Education confirmed what I had already guessed. As of May 1, I have been a member of Small Town Toastmasters for 25 years. I may possibly be the first person in the history of the club to reach that milestone.          In honor of that achievement, I thought I'd share a few memories and things from the last two and a half decades.          Few people know that this was not my first time in Toastmasters. My first club was in Albert Lea. I discovered it through a woman who was a few years ahead of me in high school. The club met in a law office conference room and consisted of lawyers, legal secretaries and a court reporter. I was the only person not employed in the legal profession. The only memory I have of that club was the time meeting coincided with the announcement of the verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial. A TV was rolled into our meeting room and the lawyers watche...

            For me, one of the best days of the week is Thursday. That is the day I go over to visit my Dad.           My siblings and I decided it would be a good idea if my sister and I visited our parents every week. (My brother lives further away and was travelling for his job so we excused him.) Since Thursday was the day I had off most often, it became my regular visiting day.          The routine we had when Mom died naturally altered.  At first it felt strange not going up to memory care to say hi to her and to help her eat lunch if she wanted to eat. We had an hour or so of extra time with nothing to fill it.           At first we spent it talking. I would make myself a cup of tea and we'd visit until it was time to make lunch. Sometimes the conversation would get teary if we talked about Mom. My brother gave Dad a copy of the picture we used in her obitu...

             Several weeks ago C and I went to see an exhibit at the history museum. It was an exhibit that showcased her life starting from her childhood and following her through her life and career.  I was interested in seeing the exhibit because I always enjoy learning more about the lives of women who do things. The exhibit was very good. I also liked the exhibit of cookbooks put out by churches and other groups for fundraising purposes.           The exhibit showed the kitchen where she recorded her first shows. You could open up doors and cupboards and little little bits of trivia related to the show. One of the things that struck me was that she seemed to be very down to earth. It also showed how she and her husband, Paul, worked together on her cookbooks and her show. They had a wonderful partnership that was really nice to see.          Several days ago The French Chef, Julia Child's...

                  One of the things I'm grateful for is that I grew up in a time before computers and the internet. I was fortunate to have avoided the pitfalls caused by social media and the trend of videotaping things so your mistakes and bad times can never be forgotten.           I'm especially grateful for YouTube. That site has been one of the most useful sites I know.           I started watching things on YouTube back during the pandemic. Washington National Cathedral had a short morning prayer program every weekday morning. The organists at the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City would give an online recital once a week called Piping Up. Since I like pipe organ music I tuned in faithfully.          From there I started branching out. I liked to watch videos about history, fashion and the United Kingdom's Royal Family. I found an Orthodox Jewish doctor ...

           Coming home after the end of a 12 hour shift on Friday the 13th, C and I were sideswiped on the interstate. Our car spun into the oncoming traffic before C was able to guide the car onto the side of the road. Stunned and in shock we sat there for several minutes before we were able to call a tow truck and highway patrol. The driver of another car had seen the accident and called highway patrol too, but wasn't able to get the license plate number of the car that hit us and then sped away. Thankfully we were not hit during the spin or as we sat at the side of the road. We are pretty sure the car that hit us was speeding and most likely didn't have it's headlights on.          It wasn't safe for us to get out of the car to see how badly it was damaged. When the tow truck arrived we were able to get out. I went to look at the car. It was better than I expected. The back fender was damaged along with a side panel and a bit of ...

           On Sunday I decided to spend part of my day cooking. There were a few things that I wanted to make to prepare for the coming week. All of them were things that I had not made before. I enjoy trying out new recipes. Today I'd like to share how my food turned out.          The first thing I made was white bean soup. I've always wanted to try making a bean soup with dry beans. Most of the recipes I found required ham which I don't eat. I try one recipe many years ago. It turned out very bland and I threw it away. This one had lots of spices in it. I thought it would be worth a try. I had everything except celery and a bay leaf. I left the celery out as C doesn't like it. An online search told me that I could use sage in place of the bay leaf. Knowing that C likes sage, I put some in the soup.           I decided that it would be best to let the soup cook in the crockpot on low. As the day went o...

           The winter storm  that was predicted to hit our area is definitely here. These days you never really know if a storm is going to come or be as severe as predicted. We already have several inches on the ground and the snowfall is continuing to be heavy.           C and I bought everything we might need yesterday. The stores were crowded with people shopping for supplies. Costco was very busy as well, it looked like people thought they would be snowed in for weeks by the amount of food and other supplies I saw in many of the carts. C and I enjoyed some pizza in the food court while we watched the line of shoppers head toward the exit doors with their purchases.          Days like this are a precious gift to an introvert like me. I get to stay home all day and get some needed down time. I can relax. I have an entire day to do almost whatever I want.          One of ...

           The swimsuit that I bought shortly after we got married no longer fits the way I would like it to fit. It's not bad, I could still wear it, but I wanted to get a new one. Something a bit more flattering to my figure. Something cuter.           I started out by ordering something online. When it arrived I tried it on. Despite carefully following the sizing guidelines, it didn't fit. That meant only one thing. I would have to return it and shop for another one in a store. I don't like shopping for clothes with so I knew that this was not going to be fun. However, there was no other way. I didn't want to keep ordering things.          Part of the challenge I have with swimsuits is that a traditional one piece doesn't work for me. I need a bit more coverage on the bottom. I also don't like to show a lot of skin, so traditional two piece suits don't work either. The best ones are the kind that hav...