An Interesting Review

Earlier this week I received another call asking for the owner of one of Doug's old companies.  I explained that no one in our family had ever been the owner of this company and that I could find their business's phone number if they liked.  The person on the other end apologized for calling me and said that they would take my number off of the list.  I thanked them but knew that next week they would call back.  I had been receiving phone calls like this one since February.  I do not know how anyone got my number or how they associated it to one of Doug's former companies, but they weren't the only ones who called and quite frankly, I found it extremely annoying.  

With this last call, I decided to investigate if the company was still in business or if they had been in the news lately.  I knew that in the past there had been reasons that someone would be looking for them but had no idea how they were doing recently.  I didn't find anything but did come across one review from a former employee that criticized the company harshly for the way that they were treated, even calling out individuals by name.  It stated that they had felt used.  I could totally empathize with the reviewer.  I had felt that Doug was treated poorly as well.  Thankfully, Doug's most recent position has been wonderful for him.  That has been a prayer answered.

Baldwin Park

It has been extremely helpful that Doug has been able to stay at Meg's several nights a week.  It cuts his drive time to work from one hour and thirty minutes to twenty minutes.  It also gives him a chance to hang out with Meg.  He really appreciates her cooking and has tried several new delicious meals at her place.  He has also been able to read, exercise and relax in the evenings as well as listen to Meg's vinyl collection with her and watch old episodes of Modern Family.  There has been benefit to Meg as well, especially since Nick travels so much.  It gives her a companion to talk to and someone to retrieve items from the storage unit for her.  

Another benefit of staying at Meg's has been the ability to explore a new area of Florida that we knew nothing about until they moved.  Baldwin Park is filled with young people Nick and Meg's age and there are a lot of restaurants and stores that we do not have near us in Ocala.  Tonight, Doug was able to walk to Tactical Brewing Company in downtown Baldwin Park and try a few of their craft beers.  He really enjoyed it and planned on returning in the near future.  I was happy that he was able to explore the area, but most of all thankful that Meg has been able to make such a big difference in Doug's life.  

Kings Island

Cameron and Cora spent the day at King's Island.  She had never been, and he really wanted to take her to one of our family's favorite amusement parks.  They were a little bit worried after looking at the forecast that they would have to cancel, but thankfully the rain held off for most of the day with only a small shower in the late afternoon.  The best part about the weather prediction was that it must have scared away park goers as the two of them were able to go on every ride twice.  They did skip some of the smaller rides that Cameron and Meg loved when they were little but still took a turn on Charlie Brown's Rushing River Log Ride.  Cameron forgot that at the end there is a cannon that shoots water directly at the log flume, but they had so much fun that they didn't mind getting soaked.  

The best part to me about Cameron and Cora going to King's Island was that it brought back a ton of memories of our own trips over the years.  We started going once we realized that it was cheaper for us to vacation in Cincinnati for a weekend than it was to take all four of our children to the Elkhart County Fair.  The rides were also safer and a lot more fun.  It was nice to know that our children loved it as much as we did as each one of them has now taken a friend to the amusement park as well.  There is no better feeling as a parent than when a child validates the way you raised them by following the same path.  Our family's love of King's Island does that for me. 

Back in the States

Cal arrived home yesterday after a long flight from Rome.  He called this evening to fill us in on the details of his trip.  Besides the Vatican City, the group also went to the Sistine Chapel, had an Italian chef cook homemade pizza in their villa's pizza oven, visited several wineries, ate at local restaurants, shopped in small marketplaces where they learned how to haggle over a price and visited the Coliseum in Rome.  He was on the phone for well over an hour describing the details of his trip. I was amazed at all that they were able to do on their ten-day trip and enjoyed listening to each and every day.

 

I was also incredibly thankful that the Doyles invited him to go with them.  Cal and Maggie will always remember their time in Italy.  In fact, they have already been talking about where they would they like to travel next.  Exploring the world is something that my children's generation has done well.  I am glad that all of mine enjoy exploring the world and can't wait to see where one of them goes next.  

Pineapple Days

When Doug and I first bought a house in Ocala, he noticed that there was a pineapple plant growing out back.  We had never seen a pineapple plant before and were fascinated by the whole process.  The pineapple seemed to be growing on top of the plant, looked like a miniature pineapple from the start and changed from green to brown to yellow.  Doug picked our first one carefully (as the leaves had sharp edges) when he thought it was mature in the spring of 2023 and enjoyed the fruit very much.

Shortly after eating our first pineapple, Doug and I decided that we wanted to remove the plants and shrubs surrounding our house.  Many were overgrown and housed bugs and snakes.  We had a tree service company pull everything out and then hired a landscaper to put down white rock and beautiful cement curbing. We have loved it ever since.

Before the landscapers arrived, Doug and I walked around the house to see if there were any plants that we wanted to keep knowing that we would have to move them to pots since neither one of us wanted to deal with overgrown landscaping again.  The only two that we kept were the pineapple and the aloe plants.  I wasn't in love with the aloe plant because of all of the sharp spines on it, but it was interesting to look at and Doug liked it very much.  I never worried that the aloe would survive as it appeared hardy to me, but the pineapple was another story.  One had already died since we moved here, and we didn't know anything about growing them.  We decided to take a chance and transferred it to a pot.  I am very glad that we did as today we were able to pick and taste one of the best pineapples that I have ever eaten.  Maybe growing it ourselves made it sweeter or maybe it was because we let it ripen on the vine.  Either way, we both enjoyed it very much.

New Meds

The medication that Doug started taking July 4th for anxiety was pretty tough on him at first with fatigue, nausea and heat intolerance as the main side effects.  Thankfully, those went away and after a month on the medicine Doug is feeling a lot calmer about everything.  Unfortunately, the tremor has not changed and instead gets a lot faster after his daily dosage of the new medication.  Therefore, he now takes it in the evening so it's manageable, but because of that he has decided that he would like to try something that would help calm his tremor.  I was ok with whatever he decided as the tremor doesn't bother me, but I know that it does make it more challenging for him to type and write. 

Doug messaged his doctor today and they agreed for him to take a low dose to start the tremor medication to lessen the chance of severe side effects.  I don't know if either one of us believe that it will make a difference, but they have been asking him to try this drug for four years, so Doug thought that he might as well give it a chance.  Whether it helps his tremor or not, I will pray that the side effects are not as severe as with the first medication he took in July.  

Trying it On My Own

Meg and Nick wanted to come out to Ocala this weekend to hang out with us.  We were excited to have them visit, and told them that we usually go to Hiatus Brewing Company on Friday nights with Uncle Phil.  They were happy to go with us especially since Nick had never been.  Meg said that they didn't have a lot of excess money in their budget, however, with their trip last weekend to the Midwest.  When I heard that, I offered to make something.  She really liked that idea and I started thinking about easy recipes that I could make to go along with our plans.

Meg first suggested bruschetta as she had a recipe that would only take ten minutes and that I could make ahead of time.  She sent it to me, and it looked easy enough.  With that in mind, I decided that I would make another appetizer and quickly looked up the refried bean dip recipe that we had made many times over the past few years.  I was excited about those two dishes but knew that we would need more food than just those two.  Thus, I thought back to everything that I had made in the past and settled on cheesy potatoes.  I would leave out the sausage this time as I knew that would work with the crowd I was feeding.

Everyone had a great time trying a few beers at Hiatus before returning to our home for dinner.  The potatoes cooked in the crockpot while we were gone, and I put the bread for bruschetta and bean dip in the oven as soon as we got back.  Everything was delicious, and I was very happy with how well everything turned out.  I am not noted as the cook in our family but was proud of my first attempt at making everything on my own.