FRIDAY'S FAVE FIVE

As we can't go out due to the cool temperatures, thunderstorms and rain. My COPD affected my movements and I was quickly breathless and had to behave like a snake. But that wasn't so bad, since I spend a lot of time with my old photos.

Everything is in complete chaos here now that the third floor was finally finished and over 30 TVs were delivered, which was naturally quite interesting for the some residents, and two days later, beds! There were boxes and bed parts lying around everywhere. So, you couldn't exactly walk fast, and those in wheelchairs had to do slaloms.

While I am typing another thunderstorm is arriving ! Fortunately little Rosie doesn't care about lightening and thunder !  

 

thunder is a good lullaby 

All our games have a purpose. This time we tested our dexterity. It was quite fun, we had to put a cup over our hands and then pick up plastic balls and place them on top of upturned colored cups where they should stay put ! Not so easy ! A stopwatch was used. The best person took 1 minute, and I took 1.5 minutes. The last person took almost 3 minutes. 

The week ended with a special event. My best friend, whom I've known for over 20 years, met each other again for the first time since five years. Neither of us knows what happened back then. It was the time when Rick approached his last hours, and I was a nervous wreck. Finally, she sent me an email this Christmas. And so, we slowly reconnected and both realized that we were far too old and didn't have to much time for misunderstandings, as we were both actually suffering. 

We have done so much together, traveled, taken yoga and painting classes together, that it was more than time to see each other again. Which is exactly what we did today. I drove to her place, and we fell in each others arms and spent the next three hours catching up on at least the most important things. She now has ten great-grandchildren (!!). 

We probably both have a few more wrinkles, but we both felt that we had not changed much. It was a very lovely afternoon, and many more will follow. Now I am angry with myself because I forgot to take pictures !

 

Excursion Loch Ness on our tour around the UK

 

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.

    

HODGEPODGE JUNE 4

 1.What's something you find extremely difficult that most people would say is simple?

To calculate ! I am an absolute 0 when it comes to numbers. I would need a calculator to add 1 + 1. Rick calculated quicker as a machine, so he was my calculator ! Now it's my phone ! 

2.  "And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow fast in movies I  had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer." 

~F. Scott Fitzgerald

Does the season of summer make you feel this way? Elaborate. 

 

Yes, absolutely ! I return to life slowly in spring and absolutely in summer ! I am also born in summer I don't know if that has an influence. One thing is for sure I hate autumn and winter.  

3. Pickles. Love 'em or no thank you? What's your favorite type of pickle? What's something you eat that definitely needs a pickle added?

I don't eat pickles, I just don't like them, I wouldn't add them to nothing.  

4. This the season...do you know any June brides? Are there any weddings on your summer calendar? What's your favorite movie wedding? 

 

Weddings ? not at all it's more funerals in my age range. But I love the movie "Notting Hill"  I even visited the place where the film was made.

5. June 1st is/was National Say Something Nice Day...say something nice here. 

 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

For the moment as we are again singing sitting in the rain, I am very busy with restoring our old pictures from 1971 when we were for the first time in the USA visiting my aunt in Madison/Wisc.

To get our visa she sent us this letter, European tourists didn't exist in the USA at that time and apparently the government didn't need more immigrants to become Americans. We only wanted to discover beautiful places and certainly not become Americans. I got a visa for 10 years because I was German and my Italian husband only for 5 years, the Mafia was still hanging over the head of all Italians. 

I changed the black and white photos into color, and after a few trials I finally managed these ones and was very satisfied with the result as a beginner user of AI.  

 

 Yellowstone Park we as 2 years married couple and my uncle !

 

Montezuma with us three

 

Lake Mendota in Madison with my aunt. At that time we liked wearing the same clothes. (see our jeans)

 

Home sweet home in Madison/Wisc 

I think this was the day we took the bus to Chicago and then the flight back to Brussels. There was no direct flight, but I don't remember where we had to land before the final flight home. 

It was so nice to work on these photos and see the result, it kept me busy the whole mornings and evenings.

 

AWWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND MAY 30

 

Isn't he cute ? This should be the smallest dog in the world. It's a shame he barks at everything from a fly to a St. Bernard. Otherwise, I would like him as a little dog.

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS 

 

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WEEKEND

On Saturday the temperatures had dropped from 30 to 28°C and that was very nice ! More then 30 without wind and aircondition is difficult to support. 

The sun had disappeared and we didn't really need the antique parasol at all, but there it was, and we hoped that the next strong wind would finally break it completely. Unfortunately, it was still there the next morning. 

 

For our game we needed an umbrella in which we had to throw little plastic balls. You could get from 10 to 50 points if your ball landed in the right place.  I just throw my 5 balls 4 landed in the part which gave me 4 times 50 ! I became second. It was quite funny !

 

In the evening we had terrible thunderstorms, never had I lived such a strong storm like this time. The thunder came from all sides and the lightning, which came non-stop, made the room  almost as bright as daytime because I always had one curtain open so that cat Rosie could look out ! It lasted quite long from 9 to nearly 1 am with some interruptions. 

 On  

Sunday people discovered the damages it was quite extensive. Houses were destroyed, cars were submerged, and there was mud everywhere. Such a thunderstorm with so many lightening had never happened in Belgium. We, in our castle with its thick walls, were unaffected. Not even the antique parasol had moved, and no water had seeped in. Most of the residents hadn't heard or seen anything at all because they weren't wearing their hearing aids. I heard everything despite my earplugs.

We couldn't sit on the terrace and play basketball, it was very windy and humid, really unpleasant.

One of the castle cats had hidden in Pauline's room and was meowing when I visited her, she hadn't heard it at all ! I looked in all wardrobes, but I couldn't find her. In the afternoon, she was on the balcony, and Kim tried to catch her with a cardboard box. Suddenly, the poor cat jumped from the balcony onto the terrace but wasn't hurt because she ran away immediately! I was standing under the balcony looking up when I suddenly lost my balance and fell on my backside. They helped me up, but I was just like the cat, I didn't hurt myself !

 Rosie who doesn't fear thunder or lightening, this time she came and sat besides me making huge eyes