This Was the Other Phone Call I Got

While we were gone, I received two phone calls.  Then I will get to the photos.

You all know about the one horrible phone call I had with my vet about losing Chloe on the cruise.  That was pretty bad, dealing with the guilt of being away and knowing my girl had to spend her last moment alone.

I always have held them in my arms.  Each and every one.  Chloe was just stubborn enough to want to do things her way though.  She certainly walked a different path.

We knew Chloe had that cancer, we bought her a year with the surgery last August.  Neither the vet nor I thought I would bring a dog home from that procedure.  He called her the Miracle Girl and kept her chart out to show the vet students as they came thought the clinic. 

The other phone call was not unexpected either.  But blindsided me with the timing.

We have known Chuck and Patsy for years, traveling with them since we met in Alaska across a

dinner table on a cruise way back in the 90's.  It was a great friendship that spanned continents, you could say.  We would laugh and play games and drink local beers, but Chuck was the only one who ever ate the termites.  Minty, he said. 

Patsy had a beautiful voice.  She would sing in the talent contests and she would always win.  The prize was invariably a bottle of champagne and they would come to our room and we'd drink it sitting out on the balcony while Chuck smoked. 

I told the story once about saving Chuck's life when he was driving his rig through Baton Rouge and had a heart attack.  He ended up having open heart surgery and staying with us till he was able to get back on the road.  He talked to Patsy every night.  

First Chuck got cancer and surgery, then Patsy got pancreatic cancer and died suddenly 3 years ago.  Chuck was devastated.  He fell in with the first woman he met at the next truck stop.  I use the term woman loosely.

We met her when we were in North Carolina, my opinion didn't change.  I would get phone calls from Chuck, lifeline calls I termed them.  Just to know someone cared, someone loved him.  Well, he made one of those calls while we were gone.  I didn't answer.  And I didn't call back for a week.

And then he gave up. 

When we got back I called his phone and a social worker answered.  She assured me they have his truck locked down and he is in the hospital where they are caring for him.  Yes, The woman bled him dry, used him, tossed him. 

I had known this call would come too, like I said, but it blindsided me just like Chloe did.  And if I had been home, it might have gone another direction.  Sometimes just a word will make that difference.  You know.  You just have to listen.

Some Things Never Change - Like the Obscene

I have not gotten an obscene phone call in many years.  I thought most likely because Carrie's friends were all working productive jobs and had no time on their hands with their young families and that I am almost 60 and there was no interest any more.

However, I don't know whether to be excited that they began noticing again or worried that the new crop of young people have too much time on the hands that hold their cell phones.

It was startling, simply because I have not had one in so many years.  I was so startled that I said, What?  and they REPEATED what they just said!  LOL.  It sounded vaguely like my friend Press, which is why I thought I had not understood what he said.  Press is a fairly religious guy, and while I am sure he knows how to do what this person said, I am totally sure he would not have called me on a Friday afternoon and actually said it!  When I looked at the Caller ID it definitely was not Press!  Even that was obscene!  LOL.

So, I am right, some things never change.  (segue)  Like my sewing room.  It too, is obscene.  The pile of UFOs will always be there, the fabric will always be piled up somewhere it doesn't belong and my work space will always be barely visible.  That doesn't mean I am giving up though.  I am working hard, or hardly working, to make a sincere effort to move something today.

Everything I own that is personal to me is in this room.  Our "common" stuff is in not much better shape outside the room.  It has taken about 5 years to get it to this state.  I am not normally a neat person; I tend to be a pack rat as well.  But I have outdone myself here.

PattyA - this is for you, my exposed breast, my chain, my nemesis   For all you others, soak it in -- I have stuff and you are lookin' at it!

I even used the panoramic feature on my stupid camera to show you the breadth of the surface of my cutting/work table.  Do you think anyone could work in there?  And this tall one is the center of the room against the closets and the window where DiNozzo looks out.

The closets have fabric in them as well.  That is why I have to keep that pathway there.  Also, I get balance practice whenever I go that way picking my way through the debris.

So don't start suggesting things, now, all of you with neat as a pin sewing rooms.  I know I need to clean up, throwing out stuff is a very low, low option.  I would rather use it for a raffle quilt somewhere like my beloved Swissy Club or for CAAWS.

Oh, and you have not even see the dining room where the long arm resides.............