a day in the life of an adventuresome couple; not your average AARP Seniors

I have had bad pains in my left backside – like my kidney area for a week now. Bought a “ThermPack” heating wrap at CVS. It is full of “cells” of iron that when taken out of package begin to get warm.

It helps your aches, it’s deadly to your pets

While I was on the computer, Pappi got into my “thermal wrap” and ate one of the cells. We saw that it is poisonous. So we call vet. It was $60.00 just to have my Vet call Poison Control. I said, I’m retired, can you just find out without charging me? Please? The vet did – but boy oh boy – found out that it was a lethal dose that Pappi had eaten. (1 cell of iron = 1100 mg of iron dosage) – Atleast he didn’t get to the other 19 cells.

David drops me off at the hospital to find out why my back is killing me and he goes to the Vet with Pappi. Long story short………$400 + dollars later – pumping stomach twice, shots, X-rays – etc – Pappi is home and alive. He’s very lethargic, but he is going to LIVE!!! Yeah.,,,

I love my Pappi – you do what it takes to keep your pets healthy and LIVING. 😊 In the mail today, when we got home, was a card from our insurance company VPI (Vet Pet Insurance) – a beautiful card of a dog and his owner saying “HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPILLON” which will be 1 year on September 19th. – Yes. HAPPY BIRTHDAY my dear puppy. You almost didn’t have one my little Pappi. So happy you are okay. We are crazy about you!!

Oh, and MOI? Well, dogs are taken care of better than people. I’m waiting on a phone call . “No, you don’t have a kidney stone, yes, you do. ……. ” . We should just all be puppies/dogs/4 legged creatures. They get cards in the MAIL, and great, all encompassing care

😄

Sep 10

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I’ve Fallen, and I can’t get up!”The life of a procrastinator, of a TKR.

Okay, well, the time has come. All my 2 years of walking, walking, walking like crazy in France, and even climbing mountains, has come to an end. Oh, I’ll walk again, but I can’t do it without TKR, or , TOTAL KNEE REPLACEMENT. In BOTH knees. I’ve had this bone on bone, no cartilage left, no miniscus even, no cushioning for over 5 years now. I’ve put it off, and procrastinated, and had the knee shots for as long as I can in two or more countries. I’ve worn huge braces under my clothes around the knees which were bulky, hot and a bigger pain than walking without them. I’ve grimaced my way through metro stairs, been picked up at Terminal 1 by a van in Paris to Terminal 2A to catch my other flight to having the wheelchair guy stay with me the entire time never expecting so much as a euro for his trouble. I have made people wait while I climbed into a bus, fallen on the beach coming out of the big blue water and – yes, “I’ve fallen and couldn’t get up”, having waves hit me so hard it knocked my bathing suit totally OFF my body in front of hundreds of onlookers. I’ve had a little girl of 5 hold out her hand to me to help me get up from a low chair at the shore and I had to tell her “Thank you honey, but that’s not gonna work.” (love ya just the same though). I’ve been knocked knee’d and taken a job at a upscale department store with no one knowing the difficulty as I climbed ladders and stayed constantly moving for 7 hours at a time. My husband has fixed countless dinners for me and started my soaking baths too many times to count. Oh, and we carried 500 pounds of luggage from the South of France, up and down 6 sets of stairs at 4 different train stations and onto a ship without actually collapsing from the weight or suffering a heart attack. A miracle in itself.

It is just time to get the ‘ole knees replaced.

If I didn’t – my life would be slowly reduced to less than I’m doing now. Stairs are already a killer, and most of the time I take one at a time. If I remained the way I was, my sedentary life would be a slow demise to something that I’ve never been before. Still. I’d be sitting a lot more than standing, sitting more than walking, my dog would suffer, cause I can’t walk him. I would suffer. I would gain a 100 pounds. My posture, my hips, my body would kind of atrophy into itself. It would not be pretty. Thus, I go and do what I’ve tried not to do for so very long. Both knees done. One next month, the other the month after. A total of 3 months or more of rehabilitation. Errrrggggg. Lots of physical therapy. Lots of exercises. Lots of pain. And then after?  Well, I will celebrate by climbing the top fo the Garlaban in Aubagne, France, one more time. (I hope) That’s my goal. Wish me luck If you pray – do that for me ??

Mar 13

A Beautiful Life – A Tragic Ending

A Beautiful Life – A Tragic Ending.

Imagine my surprise when in the film MONUMENTS MEN, the camera focused on a particular Renoir painting in the Rothschild collection –

one of which I was intensely interested in and wrote about in my blog in December of 2012. The story of this family is supremely interesting, little known and incredibly sad. They were not the only family that this happened to, but one of millions. This one is close to my heart. A story that is sadly true and should be told again and again for future generations.

Mar 11

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A Year Ago Today – Trading “Climbing huge mountains to climbing ladders”

Just a few mementos of one of the happiest and most difficult days of our lives. As, a year ago today, we climbed the Garlaban in Aubagne France and felt very very happy and proud that we were able to do this. It was EXHILARATING – after we made it down, that is. 🙂 It was a 5 hour trek, to the mountain and down the mountain. Sadly, my photos of that day have disappeared, except for the Christmas card. I have no idea what happened. But the memory is always there for us.

(Today I climbed a LADDER in the high end fashion retailer that I work for now in the United States. I had to laugh, it’s not so high, but at least I can still go up a ladder!!! – I’d much rather be climbing mountains, however. 🙂

TWO YEARS AGO – THIS MONTH – our grands, and my kids visited PARIS and it was the time of our lives! What fun we had. Here are a few pictures to capture those wonderful moments and we hope that trip has instilled a love of travel to far and wide places for the rest of their young lives.

Enjoy the photos. We certainly have……….

Mar 3

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A year ago tonight………

……….we were watching a movie at the Cinema in Nice which was the Jennifer Lawrence nominated film “Silver Linings Notebook”. We came back to our IBIS hotel and caught the OSCARS just in time to see Jennifer Lawrence accept her award – before tripping on the stairs. We were amazed at her grace in spite of her mishap.

We also had gone to Nice to enjoy seeing some SNOW in the mountains and ski areas of the very northern Provencal areas above Nice & Menton. I had researched these places and were almost guaranteed a sight of snow – lots of snow – as we were actually MISSING snow living in the Southern Port town of Cassis, near Marseille. Oh it was very cool, even COLD at nights, but – no snow. Needless to say, we traveled by several trains to 3 or 4 alpine villages – all without the huge blanketed snow that we were “promised.” The highlight of our mis-planned trip turned out to be the Jennifer Lawrence movie!!

Well, here we are in March…….March 2, 2014, another Oscar night……..and so far Saint Louis has had more extreme frigid temperatures AND snow fall since our return than I care to ever see again. We’re sitting here wrapped up, watching the Oscars, with snow falling, 9 degrees outside and a windchill of -15.

Funny how my life is measured, not so much in “Oscar nights” but in what was once important, and wish fulfillment that may be forthcoming, if not but a year later, in your own hometown.

Mar 2

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Sunset at the Louvre

Oh yes, I know, we have not been writing, (me, myself and I) and I hope you’ve missed me . (I’ve missed writing, that is for sure) But, I will repost something that is beautiful though not from me. And I will add that it’s been LOVELY, so lovely to be part of a French Speaking Group that meets every week. Yeah for hearing and speaking a little French. Oh , how I miss my Sandrine (in Cassis) and her teaching me, and doing it every so gently. 🙂

Work calls, and I must go……………

Rebecca Plotnick Photography

Tonights sunset in Paris was magical. It feels like such a gift to see such beauty. I wanted to make sure to share with you all.

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Feb 1

Allergic to America: I Had to Move Away Because Life in the US Was Making Me Ill | Alternet

I copy this wonderful article as I’m in my second week of the cold from hell, that doesn’t want to remove itself from my body. I was never this sick when I lived away, but then, you know, as I know, that I lived in a pure shrangra-la existence. ??? The GMO’s , however, are a strong fact. They’re not there.

Allergic to America: I Had to Move Away Because Life in the US Was Making Me Ill | Alternet.