Today is the Memorial Day Holiday. When we were teachers, we used to spend this day mostly catching up at home, and catching up with school-end reports, the end of the school year being so chaotic. We were also excited, anticipating the summer's freedom ahead. We almost always grilled out, and wondered why school couldn't end BEFORE Memorial Day.
So what did the old folks do to celebrate the holiday, since all year is one long holiday for us?
We began the morning by going to a "free" breakfast at Hoosier Park. If you are an "oldster", you can sign up at Hoosier Park for a Primetimer card which entitles you, among other things, to free breakfast every Monday morning. Honestly, I've only made it there a couple of times, but Don is there most Mondays (actually most mornings). Let me tell you those "free" donuts only cost about ten dollars each after we played the slots for about a half hour.
Then we came home and picked up Mother so we could make the trip to Muncie to see brother David. Then we decided we could pick up the flowers we had left at the cemetery, and avoid the rain predicted for evening. WOO HOO! Nursing home and cemetery! Now you know how old folks celebrate a holiday. Although, Don and I did have a lot of laughs on the trip trying to come up with some Q words for tonight's blog.
Dave looked well in his burgunday shirt, and his 500 mile race hat. We decided to rescue him from the lounge where most were sleeping in their wheel chairs. We rolled him down to the dining room for our coffee and cookie treats. The usual early birds had arrived in the dining room ahead of us. The "smokers' club" were gathered and waiting at the side door. About four residents must meet there every morning at about 11 and an aide takes them out to the gazebo for a smoke. I know that medical folks shouldn't promote smoking, but I think it is great that they try to let their residents continue enjoying some of the things they did at home. Miss Daisy and Mabel were continuing their never-ending card game at one table. And it wasn't long before the "Walking Encyclopedia" arrived. He is one likable resident that we really enjoy. He is probably over 6'5" tall, and he is either totally or partially blind. When we are in the lounge with the large TV, and he is there, he only has to hear one word from the TV, and he can quote ten or so interesting facts about that subject. This is done in a loud voice for the whole world in general.
AND I'm sure his facts are right! Evidently, today, he had just finished listening to an old Munster show, because he kept delivering Munster facts. Did you know that Count Dracula was Mr. Munster's father-in-law? Well, I didn't.
After leaving there we stopped at Burger King for a sandwich, only regretting that it wasn't called Burger Queen, and we would at least have one Q for our list. While eating , we tried to decide if we could find the Mechanicsburg cemetry driving there from Muncie. We have no trouble from Anderson, but we weren't sure about the back roads of Delaware County. It was
a quandary! Quandary? Quandary? Wow, a Q word. So, the decision was, do we make a
Quick trip home, or get lost in the Quest of our cemetery planters. So we opted for adventuresome. Why not. We could be like Don Quiote, on impractical adventures to save things.
Well, we wandered eastward through Muncie until we found new 67, then we turned toward Anderson, and it wasn't long until we saw a sign that said Honey Creek Road. Wasn't Honey Creek somewhere over around Rd. 36? We found the road, but we never did find the town of Honey Creek. In fact we faced many Quandaries: which road to take, do we turn left or right, which branch of a Y in the road. We decided on one scenic county road that just kept getting narrower and narrower, and rougher and rougher, and finally was barely more than a cowpath going through a thick woods. We were about ready to turn around when we came to a better road that went South.
Finally, we saw an intersection that looked vaguely familiar, then a farm house, then there was a sign that said Tri-County golf course, then the golf course, and finally there was St. Rd. 36.
We did rescue the flowers and we did get safely home. We may not have been as adventuresome as Don Quiote, but we did succeed in our Quest.
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