Thursday, January 19, 2017

January 16 - 22, 2016, AZ

Thursday, January 19.  It has been one busy week and I'm finding some time right now to be lazy in front of the tv.  

I had dinner at Jan and Jim's on Monday night and Connie, Cookie, and Max were there too.  I was shocked to see Cookie up, active and feeling good after her heart attack on Friday night.  Unfortunately, she and Max had to get on a plane the next day for their home in Vancouver, Canada. It was a planned trip, unlike the heart attack, in order to renew their health insurance.  Now, Cookie may not be able to return to the US for 2 years because she won't be able to get travel insurance because she now has a pre-existing condition.  We had a nice evening and some of Jim's delicious Turkey soup.

Cookie, 3 days after a heart attack.

Yesterday, as I was getting ready to go hiking with Tom, my client called to see if I was coming today. I looked at the calendar and it wasn't on there, although I had it on my phone calendar.  Sylvia was great about it and I will be cleaning her house on Friday.  Another senior moment.  We headed out to some trails on the southeast corner of Usery Park, a nice, level trail and my knee gave me no trouble.  Tom and I found lots to talk about, had beautiful weather, but poor Frisco got several stickers in his paws - he just stops and waits for me to pull them out, then he is good to go.  He's such a trooper.


I just got some bad news - my friend and neighbor, Kirk, passed away on Tuesday.  I hadn't heard from him after leaving several messages for a couple of weeks, so I called the hospital to talk with him and they told me that he had passed away.  I really liked the guy - he had an incredible life story in spite of his 40 years as a paraplegic with many surgeries, many successes, and was just a really nice guy.  He has been in the hospital since the end of November undergoing reconstructive surgery on his hips.  I wondered how he could continue to win this recent battle that actually started last summer.  Rest In Peace, Kirk, I'm glad to have known you.

Saturday, January 21.  I didn't that I could stand to watch the inauguration of the 45th President, Donald Trump, yesterday but I ended up watching or listening on the radio. I only hope that he can make a favorable difference without taking away rights that are already in place.  I think the public will hold him to doing the right thing.  

And that leads up to today's activity - The Women's March on Washington - Phoenix version.  Connie, Lois, and I went, got there early and found a parking spot across the street from the capitol building.  Before I could do anything, I had to use the bathroom and, can you believe, they had 6 porta-potties for all of those people and I waited in line for 40 minutes.  I had a very nice conversation with a young, like-minded gal named Tracey and a few others.

I found my way back to where Lois and Connie were and we walked around the capitol grounds, checking out the variety of signage. Everyone was happy and peaceful.  The walk was only about a mile long, and it felt good to be part of such a large crowd of people, standing up for our rights.