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June 2005 May is behind us. Summer is just around the corner. The days are getting longer and warmer. Happy Anniversary to my brother Terry and sister-in-law Shirley on June 4th. The lazy days of summer are not for me. June 6th thru 10th is a work week. Forty hours-what was I thinking? It will give my brain a work-out. I haven't thought about all the accounts at work since I retired, in October, 2004. This will be interesting. I also have a dentist appointment for a crown on a right, top molar. It is going to be an interesting week. The first day back to work went well, I am just going through the accounts and giving suggestions to my protege, with regards to how I would handle his accounts. Late in the afternoon, I went back to see Dr. Johnson to have my crown put on. It took a while, but that tooth should be good for another five years or so now. The rest of the week crept by. I was able to get a few accounts paid and closed out. Negotiation is the name of the game, with this job. We went for a drive to Auburn, Michigan on Sunday. It is about a four hour drive, each way, from where we are at, with the car. We wanted to see our cousins Pat and Charlie. It was good to see them again. We found them through researching the family tree. Her Grandmother Elsie (Burch) Nihart was the oldest child of Doug's maternal Grandfather-Joseph James Burch. Her Grandmother Elsie moved to Michigan, from Ontario, with her first husband Charles Sankey around 1940. He worked for the railroad. (Charles Sankey was a British Home Child who was sent here from England, in June, 1910 on the S.S. Sicillian-there will be more info on the British Home Children on the genealogy page-three in the tree are Home Children, that we know of, at this point in time). The rest of this week was very quiet. I went for my walks, with the girls, everyday and when I came back worked on the bookkeeping. Progress is really slow. June 21st saw us in Windsor, at Dr. Curran's office. Doug has to have ultrasound on his right eye, before the cataract removal. On June 24th we were in Windsor at 8:30 a.m. We left bright and early, arriving well ahead of time. We checked in, Doug received drops in his eye to freeze it. Then we waited. Numerous other people are having the procedure today also. The nurse came and called Doug to follow her to the procedure area. They told me how long he would be. I left for the cafeteria to have breakfast. Doug hadn't been able to eat before the procedure, so I hadn't either. Now I was more then ready for my morning coffee and breakfast. Back in the waiting room, I waited, and waited. It was after 12 and still no Doug. I went to find a nurse and she said that he hadn't been treated yet. They had a problem with an earlier patient, so there was a delay. The staff had gone for lunch, and Doug would have the procedure as soon as they came back. I went back to the waiting room and waited some more. Finally, they came and called me to go into the recovery room. Doug was sitting up in a chair. He already had his hat on. He was sitting straight up, smiling ear to ear, munching away on digestive cookies (which he will not eat, even if it was the last cookie in the world, he says he will not dirty his mouth with something that taste that bad), and drinking apple juice. I sat down beside him and asked him how he was. He said fine, never stopping munching. It was hilarious. Whatever they had gave him was sure making him happy. The nurse soon told me I could bring the car up to the emergency room exit. When I arrived with the car, Doug and an assistant was waiting for me. He got into the car and away we went. Back home, a couple of hours later, Doug didn't even remember me being in the recovery room, nor did he remember eating the digestive cookies and drinking the apple juice. The memory of him sitting there, eating the cookies still cracks me up. We had to go to Dr. Curran's office Saturday morning, for a check-up on the eye. Everything was fine. He has to go back July 21st, for another check-up. Today-Sunday, we called Uncle Joe Burch in Lumsden, SK. There is talk that he is going to have a 80th birthday party in August. He was very happy to hear that we are plannig on coming out to Lumsden. It is a long way to go for a birthday party, but we want to be there for him. We will be the only Ontario relatives there. Monday, June 27th was here. We are driving to Bowmanville, east of Toronto, to see my brother Terry and sister-in-law Shirley. We are delivering my brother's birthday present to him. Both Shirley and Terry's birthdays are in February, but this is the first chance we have had to drive to Bowmanville, which is a four to five hour drive each way, from where we are. I had looked all winter for the perfect gift. Something I thought that he would enjoy. When Doug saw it, he wanted to keep it for himself. I had went over budget on the purchase price of it. Shirley has basically set the limit at $10 CDN, usually it is lottery tickets in the birthday card. We did the same for them. This year because we have become full-timers, I sent Shirley $10 of Florida Lottery tickets in her card. When I sent Terry's card, I told him that I was bringing his present home and would deliver it to him. I had bought him a black cap, with the Spirit of the Suwannee logo on it. In Canadian dollars it cost over $30.00. Doug is a connoisseur of baseball caps, if there is such a thing. He fell in love with this hat, but I told him that it was my brother's birthday present. What Terry's expectations of receiving were, I will never know. It was definitely not a baseball hat, special or not. When I gave it to him, he said "Oh, a baseball cap", didn't even look at it long enough to see the logo, and threw it down on the hall table. I should have let Doug keep it and just bought $10 of lottery tickets. This coming year we will just skip mailing cards. This coming year I will send e-cards and forget the lottery tickets. Much easier, and I will not have to locate post offices. If we don't receive a card it is nothing to worry about. We have conveyed our best wishes to the birthday people in our life. We had a nice visit and left in the early afternoon. We wanted to get through Toronto before the commuter traffic became heavy. We were back at the coach just before dark. I tried calling Shirley to let them know we have arrived back home safe and sound, but for some reason the Verizon cell call wouldn't go through. I tried calling from inside the coach and it rang, then some weird noises, then nothing. I went outside the coach and the same thing. We are on Bay City, Michigan cell tower at this location, even though we are in Ontario, Canada. They must be experiencing problems. I could walk up to the pay phone, but I drove all the way to Bowmanville and then back as far as London. I had a full day (seven hours of expressway driving) and didn't feel like adding another half hour to it, my bed was calling. I will call in the morning. We had to be in Chatham this Tuesday morning. We got in the Grand Am and left for Chatham. Doug put the right hand signal light on and no signal lights. We have been having this problem off and on for several months now, started when we were in Naples, Florida. By the time we get to the GM repair shop they would be working again. This time there is one just around the corner, in Wallaceburg. We pulled in, the service manager came out, had a look and said that it was the hazard switch. He booked us for tomorrow. We continued on to Chatham. We hope drivers remember arm signals, because that is what we will be using. :} I have an appointment with Dr. Masternardi. He checked my eyes and gave me a prescription and some artificial tears. I don't need a seeing eye dog yet, but the glasses will be stronger. I took the prescription to the store next door. The strength of my lenses required that I have a special lens to reduce the thickness of the lens. The staff quoted me a price which would make the leader dog more cost efficient, and still be money in pocket. We have to watch our budget. Our next stop was Wal*Mart. I went in and they would supply me with new frames, and the lens for half of the other stores quote. They have my business. Doug and I have discussed the upcoming birthday party, for his uncle and have decided to invite his sister to go with us. We will be taking the coach so the additional expense will be minimal and this is the only way she will ever be able to go. Marg is very happy and excited that we have asked her. We have not invited Gord, her husband to go. He would have had to take three weeks off work, and they can not afford to do that. We told her she would need her own pocket money and money for any meals she ate out. She said that would be fine. We told her what date to be out to the river and the latest time she could arrive was 6 p.m. Marg is always late. She likes to keep people waiting. Several times this has been a problem. If it was just minutes, we could live with it. She believes in being late by hours. We made it very clear to her, we would not be waiting hours. If she wasn't on time, then no trip. We said be there by 6 p.m. We wanted her to be here the night before so we could get a very early start on Aug. 17th. This probably sounds very hard, but we know Maggie. Her favorite saying is "After me, everyone else comes first". Back to the river we go. Doug took the Grand Am in to the GM shop in Wallaceburg, for repair on Wednesday. They have to order parts, so another day we won't be going far. We don't like taking chances on turning without the signal lights. You just never know if the one behind you knows the arm signals or not. Thursday is another shop day for the Grand Am. This time Doug came back and it is fixed. The rest of the week we relax. We really needed a few days to recoup. It has been a very busy week. Another month has flown by. Where did June go?
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