A very active August
I am writing in mid-September and am glad to say I survived August. It was choc-a-bloc and I don't do choc-a-bloc well, so I'm very glad to have come through the other side. As I mentioned, four golf matches in the first week of August. Here is me with my hounds on 8 Aug, Lady Captain's Day.
The next day was the Day of Cancellations, as mentioned in the previous post, so I flew to the US the following day. I was in the US from 10-20 August. And a busy time it was. Mom and I visited four furniture stores six times to pick out a recliner chair that also lifts you up. We visited a home health supply store three times to select some more age-friendly equipment. And we spent hours with her cable provider getting her extortionate bill down (so easy to take advantage of OAPs!). While also getting her a cellphone, which I spent many more hours teaching her to use. Talk about the blind leading the blind.
But it wasn't all graft. We went swimming a few times at the Y and went to a nice market in Marietta. I ate a lot of freshly picked sweet corn. Mom bought me some bathing suits. We took a cruise on the Ohio River on a sternwheeler.
It was a lovely evening.
In addition to the scenery, we enjoyed a farm-to-table dinner on the boat incorporating the best seasonal produce Ohio farms had to offer. Spaghetti squash, tomatoes, peach and corn salad – I was in heaven. Only bad note was a melon cake – I hate melon! But love cake. It was confusing.
I also spent countless hours talking to (or trying to talk to) my credit card company, my credit union, American Airlines, Vanguard and a record-keeping company for shares I own. In three cases, the issue is not having an address in America. Multi-factor authorisation makes your life miserable when you don't have a US phone number or zip code or anything. I also did my 2023 taxes, which mom's accountant failed to do. Much easier to do these on paper in the US – using mom's excellent library to print all the forms. I wrote the IRS an explanatory letter and have no idea what the repercussions are for paying $120 a year late.
A second highlight was a lovely dinner with mom's neighbour Sandy. This should have been a photo of mom with Sandy but the photos were on mom's phone. I was deleting the extra/duplicate photos and deleted the one I wanted. Mom's phone is different from mine and I didn't quite have the hang of it. Sandy had her kitchen painted blue after mom painted hers blue. Mom still a trailblazer in her 90s.
The morning I left, I heard a loud rustling in the leaves below mom's second-story deck. I went down to investigate and there was a deer thrashing then lying still then thrashing. I called a wildlife number and a guy responded quickly. But not before the deer died. There is a hemmorrhagic fever raging through the deer population in West Virginia, spread by ticks and mosquitoes. An awful death. I then made inquiries as to how to dispose of a deer carcass behind the house and left mom with instructions. Which she ignored in favour of calling her handyman, who got it sorted. The August heat in America means you don't leave a carcass behind your house longer than necessary.
I next drove 2 hours to Columbus and turned in the rental car, which had damage I hadn't noticed when I collected it. I was relieved to find there was pre-existing record of this so I wasn't going to get blamed. On the flight back I watched season one of the brilliant Slow Horses and a few episodes of Ted Lasso. Once home from the US, I had two nights in my bed then off to Limavady for two nights at a hotel/golf course. My friend Patricia and I played two rounds of golf. We both had colds so we had early nights after very good dinners. Patricia turned out to have Covid which I luckily didn't catch.
I got home the afternoon of the 25th and my friends Joe and Carlos, from Brooklyn, arrived that evening. The next day we headed north to Ballycastle. Luckily, they like dogs, so the hounds came with us. We released the hounds (Paddy is a dot in the surf and Daphne a dot on the beach).
The Auld Lammas Fair was on, so there were lots of stalls along the harbour (dogs got treats from a 'barkery'). But we spent most of our time on the beach throwing balls for spaniels.
Carlos teaches children with autism so he was enjoying his last days of freedom. Joe just accepted a new job where he will be overseeing refurbishment of dozens of subway stations in NYC. I love this photo (below) where both dogs have a paw up. What gorgeous creatures.
Joe was in Ireland to meet with cousins and spread his father's ashes at two homesteads – his father's father's land and his father's mother's land. Peter loved Ireland and would have visited many times. He was a lovely wee man.
We thought of taking the ferry from Ballycastle to Rathlin Island, however the lads had recently had a bad experience on a ferry in Greece and, given how windy it was, we passed. We had a look over Whitepark Bay beach.
That night we went to a comedy night at The Empire. We sat up front (only seats left when we arrived) and the comedian had a ball with Joe and Carlos. There were actually three comedians and they were all very funny. Now that I'm retired, Tuesday night comedy at The Empire Laughs Back will be a thing.
We bummed around Belfast on Wednesday and went to an art show at the Culloden Hotel on Thursday. They visited my neighbour Sarah Wednesday evening and she joined us at the Culloden. She told an incredible story about an ex-boyfriend who had an elderly friend living in a small town near Ballymena. This man had been a bookie in London. One of his clients (clients?) was Lucien Freud, who paid his debts with paintings. The man's house was full of paintings by Freud and his contemporaries. Sarah visited this house and walked around with her jaw on the floor.
Joe and Carlos left on Friday the 29th. I think I was on the golf course within an hour. I'm very behind on golf at the moment with a big match ahead of me. August closed with me tidying up the house, doing laundry, trying to finish unpacking, mowing the lawn – catching up after a month of neglect.
While the month was a bit full on (I need my down time), I was very aware of how blessed I am. Mom was in good form and we enjoyed our visit (despite the to-do lists) and I got to spend time with good friends doing things we enjoy. Joe even fixed my toilet, which has had a leaky handle for a year. One of my favourite memories is when mom and I, at the same instant, pointed a recliner-chair remote at each other as if we were holding up a bank. That we have the same silly sense of humour and the same comedic timing (at ages 63 and 93) is something that I find very poignant.
august