Ashleigh Is In College Now

Today was the day.  Last night Lucie and Ashleigh and Nathan and Elliott packed up Ashleigh and got her stuff loaded in two cars.  (I made supper and stayed out of the way.)  All 5 of us headed down a little after 9 AM.  Great weather - sunny and windy.  It is just over an hour ride (1 hour and 12 minutes to be exact) and we got there fine.  Today they let the Honors Program Freshmen move in first so there were hardly any people there.  Got everything up to her 4th floor room in just two trips and were all unpacked by noon.  The school bought us pizza for lunch and then we headed out to pick up some odds and ends and books.  I did all of the IT stuff - got her online and downloaded Office 2010 and so forth.  She has one roommate and two suite-mates - they live in another adjoining room.  All four share a bathroom, two sinks, shower, fridge, microwave, phone, etc.  Pretty nice.  Ashleigh has been emailing the other girls so they sort of knew each other.  This dorm is brand new - Ashleigh and the others are the first to live in it.  Around 4 they fed us again (hors d' oeuvres) and at 6 Ashleigh had an introductory meeting with some of her instructors.  We packed up and left at 5:45 PM so she could go to her meeting.  Tomorrow the other freshmen move in.  Ashleigh has a full day of a ropes course and other get-to-know-you team building things.  Pretty hard to pull away but fortunately she is not far away and we will see her often.  When we got home, one of her school books arrived in the mail - I wanted to go back and bring it to her!

Feets and Toes

The Hales are a bit gimpy around here.  Lucie had minor toe surgery last week to get a toe bone shaved down.  Outpatient but they still knocked her out.  Seemed like she was out for all of ten seconds.  Went fine.  She has her foot in a bootie thing but can get around fine.  Only hurts when she stubs it.  Which of course now happens all the time...  Coming out of the anesthesia was probably worse than the operation itself. 

Meanwhile, my third cortisone shot seems to have taken.  I am aggressively icing my feet every night (that is a party!), wearing my brace and keeping the inserts in my shoes.  For the first time in a LONG time, this Friday morning after Thursday night basketball I was able to get out of bed and walk across the room without an electric scooter.  (The mornings are the worst - the Achilles tendon is inflamed because of bone spurs in my heels and the first stretch of the day is a killer.)  I am on vacation this week so I can wear real comfy walking shoes and maybe I can finally put this all behind me.  Or under me...

Chair-ity Case

One of our pool-side stools rusted thru this summer.  Oddly enough, a year or two ago Ashleigh put one in the pool and sat in it and now we have one chair out of 5 that has rusted...  Anyway, when my younger brother visited recently, he offered to fabricate a piece to fix it.  He did a great job and sent me the pieces.  However, as the picture shows, it broke during my efforts to slide it in.  Back to the drawing board...

Just halfway through August and it is already the wettest August on record.  I may actually mow the yard now.  The funny thing is, after it rains, there are about a dozen little frogs in the pool (I do rescue them).  But when it is hot and dry out, they don't get in.  You would think it would be the opposite way.

I ran the entire safety and security part of the annual picnic at work this.  Aside from some communication issues with the City, all went extremely well.  I was so pleased.  And relieved!

I am on vacation this coming week.  Not sure how much of a vacation it's going to be:  Ashleigh goes to college on Wednesday and Lucie gets rotator cuff surgery on Thursday.  Maybe I will get called in...