7-10-09

It has been a very hard week....very hard. While we SW geeks were out having fun at the Bartlett 4th of July parade on Sunday we were not aware that one of our favorite little people had passed away the night before. Max Lacewell died of his brainstem cancer on July 4th.

I will always remember Max. The brief time I spent with him and his family will remain with me always. He and his family had amazing courage and I have spent the balance of this week depressed.

My Star Wars costume groups had done a fundraiser and early birthday celebration for Max back in March and we had hoped that Max could beat the odds for his cancer. Sadly, the odds were too overwhealming. His chance for survival was a mere 10%. After Max passed away, his family friends got in touch with us again to come to Max's Celebration of his life at the same church where is fundraiser was. They asked us to come in costume as they knew that Max would have loved that.

They asked...

we came...

simple as that.....

It was gut wrenching.

I removed my bucket to give my condolences to Max's father and just lost it. When I first went up to David (Max's dad) I had my helmet on...when I removed the helmet David's eyes lit up when he recognized that I was the Jedi who sewed Max's robe and gave Max his lightsaber at the March event. I tried to say how sorry I was, but just broke down. Max's father consoled ME....

how extraordinary....

Something else occured to me through this whole thing...where I am very angry about my pay cut...I think I figured out that I am most angry about the fact that I will not be able to have the money to spend on things like Max's lightsaber and robe anymore. I think that hurts more than cutting back spending for my own needs. I have come to realize that I don't need much but I do love doing something special for others....I will miss that.

I survived another "4 Mile Death March"...lol..

Yesterday was the annual Bartlett 4th of July Parade and I was glad that this year it was not as incredibly hot as it has been the past several years.....hot...but not oppresive.

Had a great time and got my exercise for the day.

Saturday I just spent working around the house as it rained pretty much all day. I did walk up to Wolf Road to watch the Mokena 4th of July Parade but could not get out to butterfly monitor because of the rain. I was glad it rained though as I was going to have to water the vegetable garden if it didn't ....and I hate to spend the time and money on watering!

6-28-09

The photo on the left was taken last Saturday at a party that I was event coordinator for. We were asked to come by in costume for a 4 year old Star Wars fan. Only TK8114 and I (in Jedi) were available so we suited up and brought some games and prizes to the party. The kids were all a little shy so getting everyone "going" with the games was a little difficult but it went pretty well and I left with a $200.00 donation to Make-A-Wish for our effort.

This week was very hot and humid and was certainly a character builder. I forgot how miserable high temps and humidity can make a person feel. I had a headache for 4 days but finally got rid of it. Today was pleasant but is windy. I wanted to go out and butterfly monitor today, but the winds were too high so I worked at some small chores around the house as I can't afford to go anywhere anymore.

Friday I had a vacaction day and took a class with the Master Gardeners on problem solving. I thought I had signed up for a weed ID class....lol. The class was not what I thought it would be but was interesting none the less. We had 20 samples of bugs and plant diseases that we had to work through and I have to admit that I knew most of them. I am getting more comfortable with that.

Yesterday I went with Caroll to visit her brother and sister-in-law. We had a nice visit and played some Scrabble. Caroll's brother Mike recently moved into a mobile home park. Their house is a very nice double wide and you really can't tell it is a trailer. Caroll and I also took a walk in the morning and hit the Farmer's market.

I began the morning with laundry and housecleaning and then finished up the painting of the windows I had re-glazed a couple weeks ago. I also mowed lawn and worked on the garden. I find that I have my first ripe tomatoe on the vine and it is NOT a cherry tomatoe...it is a full size! Last year I didn't have tomoatoes till the end of July and this has been a VERY wet and cold spring up until this past week.

I also worked on a little sewing-or should I say de-sewing. I decided to finally start on ripping apart my current Hoth Hangar Trooper coveralls as they are too big and too short now that I cut the bottom off to make the second set of pockets...lol. Anyway, fortunately I had purchased a smaller pair before my pay cut that I have to alter a bit and then add the second pockets to that. Since I can't afford to go anywhere anymore I can devote some time to my stack of unfinished projects....well...projects that I already have supplies for anyway.

Along the budget lines, I am doing pretty darn well with my cutting back on smoking. Again, since I can't afford cigarettes anymore I have cut about 1 1/2 packs a day out of my smoking habit which can really save me some money.

This coming Sunday is the Bartlett 4th of July Parade already....wow....can't believe it is time for that already.

6-15-09

Well, another weekend gone...

Another Star Wars event...

and another week ahead. What terror will it bring?

Friday night I went downtown straight from work to costume at the Gene Siskel Theater for a special showing of "The Force Among Us". Rather than go all the way home, I left straight from work after killing some time down at the Body Shop.

I was still way early so I went to Borders and poked around and then wandered the street a little. Downtown Chicago is alwasy fascinating. I had my suitcase and RFT helmet in tow, so I didn't wander too far. At 5:00 PM I was able to enter the theater and I hung around till others got there. We were on duty on the street out in front of the Theater from around 6:45 PM till 8:00 PM. In retrospect, it was a lot of travel and money for gas and parking for such a short troop. But, as always, it is fun to be downtown...you get the strangest looks.

Saturday I began one of the jobs I have been putting off for several years. I re-glazed a couple of my old, tired windows. The stuff is a pain to work with but I got the two worst windows done. Now the stuff has to dry and then I can paint it. I also have some other trim to paint like the bay window and the frame around the garage door. Better get to some of that painting tonight as it is supposed to rain tomorrow.

I also worked on my garden and the Lincolnway garden over the weekend. Sunday I went butterfly monitoring and got a GREAT surprise. I netted a Viceroy butterfly...we have never had one of those documented at HCB before. It is always a big deal to me to add another butterfly to our list.

6-12-09

Yet another horrible week in my life this year. I got called into the office where I work and the owner told me that he was cutting my pay $200.00 a week. That is pretty much devastating...and the end of my "life" as I know it. At this point, I will be just making enough to pay the bills and little else. Such is my reward for 30 years of hard work at the same place. I think people are right in as much as you should not stay at a job for more than a couple years. There are no rewards anymore for hard work.

Well, this past weekend I did go up to Wisconsin to the Timber Rattlers game and Wisconsin Make-A-Wish celebration. We Star Wars geeks were there to add a little excitement to the Make-A-Wish festivities before the game...and then be on hand for the Timber Rattlers "Star Wars" night. Mother Nature was not kind to us at all. Our time on-duty started out with a little drizzly mist and then escalated to pouring rain. We pretty much all got wet and cold as it was only in the 40's in upper WI. But, as usual, getting out in costume and just being a goof is always good fun and the Star Wars fans never make me sorry that I go to an event.

The weather this week has been horrible...rain...rain...more rain and cold for June. Personally, I don't mind the cooler temps but my garden and the Lincolnway garden are not liking it at all...well..at least the vegetables aren't liking it.

I can only hope that things get better. This year has been awful with the furnace, hot water heater, sump pumps and work on the Jeep just flattening me ...and now the pay cut.

I guess my "best years" are behind me...

5-29-09

My god...where has the month gone?

So much for me keeping up with my blog. I have a second blog to worry about now...
I started a blog for the Master Gardener project at Lincolnway East High School...
that can be found at
plot66and70@blogspot.com

That has been a huge project and has kept me busier than I anticipated.

I have also been working on my own garden, which is also a huge undertaking.

The news on my job front is mixed. For now I am still working, but I don't see much future ahead.

In addition the "restoration" of my Jeep has been going at a snail's pace. I finally have the two new quarter panels on the Jeep...but they are still in black primer...I still have no passenger seat and no back seat bottom...and most of the interior trim is missing. I am kinda getting tired of the mess the Jeep is in...I hope it is all worthwhile.

Stef had her 60th birthday last friday....wow...it is hard to imagine that it has been 10 years since all of us siblings surprised her for her 50th birthday...
Where does the time go!

In July, I will be at my same job for 30 years...

5-6-09

Caroll came over yesterday and our plans were to brainstorm on our job issues. Caroll has been out of work and with Chryler's current status, I really don't know what future I have.
Before Caroll got there, I spent Monday night and Tuesday morning working on nagging small projects that I have all over the place.

When Caroll got to the house it was very early morning and we had coffee at the little table in the garden and just discussed our lives as a whole and various job strategy things. We then went on line and she asked me some questions on how to do things and we also reviewed my resume and I put her in touch with my sister Laura and looked through my massive text book from my class at JJC in "Office". Hopefully, it helped her.

After that we started work on all the Barbie items that Hans brought by for me to sell on e-bay. Wow...what a project. We both worked for hours on looking through everything and trying to make sense of it all. We took a break at 11:00 AM and went to Panera for lunch. I had some gift cards, so it was a cheap outing. When we got back we finished the Barbie project and I launched the first auction. I don't think the stuff will sell for much. Sadly, the dolls were well worn, the playsets were all missing pieces and a lot of the clothes was torn and dirty. Even the boxed Barbie Hallmark ornaments don't look like they are selling for much. So, it looks like it will be a lot of work for nothing. I really wish that some of it would have made some money for Hans...and I could be proven wrong still..but with the current economy I don't think that a lot of people who might have bid on the items have the spare $$ these days.

I have a "free" weekend this weekend! WOW... no SW events, no restoration workdays! I would have liked to go out butterfly monitoring but it does not look like the weather will cooperate!