7/31/10

A first for me in a long time--never went any where today and yesterday the only place I went was to the Sumner Relay for Life for a little while to see a couple of people I know and to see how theirs differs from the Puyallup Relay. They were having a party! It's surprising that they splintered from Puyallup a few years ago and are now the 2nd largest in Pierce Co--2nd only to Tacoma.

Tomorrow we plan to go to Ocean City to see Dick and Colette. According the the weather forecast, it's only supposed to be in low 60ºs and it's been that way nearly all summer. Colette told me a couple weeks ago this is one of the nicest "Octobers" they've had.

When I was growing up, we went to the beach quite often in the summertime. Anna May's 2nd husband, Al, was from the Aberdeen area and he's the one who really got us started going there to dig clams. Boy have the rules changed for clam digging! You have to have a license; no more putting the babies back to grow a bit--you take the first 12 (I think is the limit now--was 36 back in the day), if you break the shell while digging it out, oh well, no letting the seagulls have that one.  

Of course, after she married Uncle Steve and they moved to Westport, we went down there often, but I haven't dug a clam in a way long time. Haven't eaten one for quite awhile either although I do occasionally have a bowl of clam chowder. Anna May could sure make good clam chowder. I'm starting to sound like Eva.

I don't think any of you knew Eva, but I'm sure you've all heard stories. Man, how that woman could talk and clean! She was the cleanest "clean freak" I've ever known. Laundry day was a full day's work for her even though they never had children. She rinsed the clothes before she washed them and rinsed them at least twice after washing--and that was before automatic washers! One day Audrey and I were there when she was making applesauce. Even though the apples were off her tree and had not been sprayed w/a pesticide, they had to be washed twice and wiped with damp cloth before they could be peeled to go into the pan!

She was married to Grandma French's brother Stuart. I think I've mentioned before that he was a very quiet man. I don't think I heard him utter a total of 100 words and he spoke so softly that he was very difficult to hear. Eva made up for him, though; she didn't talk loud, but constanly and very fast. Besides that, what I know about Eva is that her maiden name was Alford, she was a lifelong member of the Methodist Church, sang in their choir and was a telephone operator. (Robin, if you read this, you can tell us a few stories about her--and other members of your Grandpa's family.)

I looked back at my last post and see that Stan was trying to build up his strength so he could have surgery. He took a 2nd lung function test on the 26th. Even tho it had improved, it was still pretty "borderline" and he had to let the surgeon know by Tuesday afternoon as the surgery would be on Thursday. It was a tough decision for him to make, but he opted not to have surgery. He's still struggling a bit about whether or not he made the right choice, but I think he did. There was too much possibility that he would have to go into a nursing home and then be on oxygen for an extended period of time. At our age, no one can promise us an "extended period of time." We will see the radiologist again on Wednesday to get that scheduled and he will have chemo again this Thursday, August 5. He is much stronger, and getting so every day, than he was a week ago, but the "window" has closed for surgery.