Rx for Catering Blog

BACK in Atlanta from spending my month in PA. It was time to come back as I need a break from working on the house.  We have done another round of renovations and fixing up and I can finally say the place is coming together.  I feel like now it is finally show ready.  We are doing a lot of work to the front of the house.  Today they took down 2 trees from the front yard.  One was dead and another one was too close to the house.  I feel like we are finaly narrowing in on it but we still have one more big hump of renovations and then we will be in maintenence.  Unfortunately in our neighborhood there are 3 houses in the more expensive price range so all’s I can do is say it is out of my hands for right now.  Today I slept the majority of the day but I did manage to go to the gym and hit the grocery store as I had no food.  I also went through a couple of magazines tonight and got a lot of good ideas out of one. I am going to work on my newsletter and start searching for a web designer as the ones I have now have priced me out of the market.

That is my story for now.

Claire

Last night was a picture perfect night in our small town – something we very rarely see and they did a concert in the town’s ampitheater. They call the program Arts On The Allegheny.  It was great fun as they had a couple of bands and all the local town folks come. People are course are selling food as this is what us local folks do best is eat and spend time being with one another.  There were close to 150 boats on the river on this perfect night.

A beautiful night on the Allegheny

My friend Gary and his 2 daughters

This is my story for now and I am sticking to it.

When I was in Las Vegas last week my dear friend Jeff Lund sent me a copy of Bicycle Dreams. It is a story about bikers that ride their bikes across country. Not the motor but pedaling.  Over 3000 miles in….12 days. Many of them do it in 10.  Words have no meaning in what kind of shape you need to be in to accomplish this – your mental shape is just as important as your physical shape.  Most of the riders aren’t even from this country.  But yet it has as much meaning as if they were from the US? Why – I  think it is about sense of accomplishment and walking away knowing that you can. As I watched I began to think what if I went to England and did this race – where I don’t know their equivelent to states would this have as much meaning as opposed to doing it in my home base country?  Over the course of these  days thes folks will sleep for most 1 to 2 hours a day and that is tops. So they continue to ride in such exhaustion.  The movie is very powerful and I recommend it to everyone who feels the need to find inner strengh to pedal to all of our individual finish lines.

This is my story for now and I am sticking to it.

A couple of weeks ago my sister and I were in the basement of my father’s home doing what we do best…packing.  We were definitely narrowing in on it with one room and there was a brand new dehumidifier. I told her I needed to find a home for that but for now I probably would hold onto it because they are expensive and somewhere down the road we might need it.  She said yup dad and I bought that together some years ago and I am surprised that he never used it.  Fast forward to today. My oldest and best friend’s son came over Andrew who just graduated high school. He bought his BFF and together we packed a “dump truck” of all the things that needed to go down to storage.  Most of it will probably end up at Goodwill but for now I just need it out of the house.  The boys were great and hard working. Matter of fact I wanted to do anything I can to help these young men as they are venturing out into the world. Andrew is going to a local college and his friend is going to play hockey for a farm team in Philly.  Oddly enough my fathers shoes fit them so they each took a new pair of shoes, picked out some ties and were both beyond thrilled.  As a sidenote which was totally kool is my friends son is a bit on the “retro” side.  My dad being an eye doctor of course had a tie with eyeglasses printed all over it. I haven’t seen it in years but Andrew picked right up on it.  He didn’t pick it out right away but kept talking about what a kool tie. He finally said I have to have it. I all the sudden got a little hesitant thinking “no” I want to keep that in the family. But Andrew really seemed to like the tie so I decided to let it go..in the end I am glad I did. I told him just promise me that you will always keep the tie and if he wants to give it away then make sure it circles back to me.  He said no he really loved the tie and he can promise me he will never get rid of it and you know what. Andrew said it with such a full heart – I do believe him and am really glad he has the tie. 

Once the truck was packed up we stop at the library to donate the books and onto our storage space that Brenda’s husband so graciously lent to us.  Another woman Jane was down there working and watching us diligently unpack and haul everything downstairs for storage. Jane comes up to tell me that I should go get a dehumidifier because I the downstairs space gets moldy. Andrew luckily was standing there and told her we had one.  She then says well you are going to need to empty it everyday as it will fill up. As I start to get panicked Andrew says not to worry they will hook a hose up to it.  I laugh to myself so thankful I never gave the darn thing away as it was ME who ended up needing it.  While Andrew and Alex was looking for a hose to hook up to it I sat there and looked at it still in the box thinking there truly is a place for everything.  Sometimes it just takes awhile to figure it out where that perfect spot is located. 

In an odd way it made me realize maybe there is hope for me  too.

 In the end Andrew was good to his word and he with Alex hooked it up the dehumidifier and it is running as we speak keeping our things dry.  Andrew and Alex I am grateful to the both of you today for your lovely personalities and willingness to do what it takes to get the job done.

This is my story for now and I am sticking to it.

Claire

Today is the first father’s day with Uge and Iam glad it is almost done. I started the day off by going to the cemetary to check on him. I also bought some cleaning supplies to clean of the headstone. It is important to him that we go out and check on him periodically. I think mom doesn’t care but in death my dad does. I told Bruce that I went to see Uge and – Bruce asked how he was doing? I said still pissed that he is gone. Dad wasn’t ready to go. Bruce laughed an heartily agreed.

The weather in Western Pa was a lovely day. I went on the boat with my friends Len and Pam.  To give you an idea of how small out town is enjoy the pictures.

This is "the cove" on the Allegheny river

They store 2 barge in the cove.

Len relaxing in the sun

Needs no explanation

A day in paradise

Pam in Len

This is my story for now and I am sticking to it.