So, I need to start with some sad news. Mike’s first cousin, Sandy Sidell, passed away this week after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Mike and Judy went out to Seattle to see him a year ago after he was diagnosed. They had a wonderful visit and also met with his son Josh, daughter-in-law Rachel, and baby grandson Aaron. The grandson gave Sandy great joy in the last year of his life for which Mike and all the family are immensely grateful. Sandy was a lovely man and he will be missed. Sandy dealt with his diagnosis and treatment with the best possible attitude and was certainly an inspiration to Mike and everyone who knew him. Mike lived a separate life from his cousins, simply because of geography. Sandy and his older brother Steve grew up and lived in Seattle, and Mike grew up in Chicago and afterwords lived in the Midwest and then the South. So they couldn’t just drop in on each other. Steve came to Atlanta for a bridge tournament several years ago and stayed with Mike and Judy for one or two nights. They took him around to see some of the things that he wanted to see including the Carter Center and the Fernbank Center. They also went to eat at the Flying Biscuit and Dreamland barbecue. Steve was delighted and had sent a note thanking Mike and Judy for a perfectly wonderful visit. And it was. Mike and Sandy shared something else in common. They had both been widowed in their 40s and had to finish raising children on their own. I think they both handled themselves with grace and dignity and all 3 of the kids have turned out to be wonderful adults themselves.
So, yesterday I was in the bathroom while Mike was brushing his teeth, and I realized that humans can be divided into 2 categories: people who brush their teeth standing over the sink, and people who pace back and forth while brushing their teeth. Mike is a pacer, and Judy is a stander. Mike remembers when he was in college one of his dormitory mates told him about one of the other fellows who paced back and forth when he brushed his teeth, and how ridiculous he thought that was. Mike remembers thinking at the time that he also paces back and forth when he brushes his teeth. So this is an ingrained habit of many years duration. I wonder if the trait is genetically determined. Somebody could do a study. Grant money could be available for something like this. And here’s another thing. It’s not unusual for Mike to drool while he is brushing his teeth, especially since he started using the electric toothbrush. I don’t know how many times he’s had to change his shirt because of this. You’d think he would remember to brush his teeth before he puts his shirt on, but no, not Mike. Well, he does once in a while. I remember one day he had to change his shirt twice, but the 2nd time it was because of an unfortunate encounter with spaghetti. Mike as you may recall had another encounter with spaghetti sauce a few months ago as I had reported in the post entitled “The Stolen Carpet/Eating Out” dated 12/26/2016. He had dragged his shirtsleeve across his plate in a very careless manner. Actually I think it was his coat sleeve. It was so cold in the restaurant that he had kept his coat on. He also kept his hat on throughout the entire meal. (It is my understanding that a Southern gentleman removes his hat when he is indoors. This is a topic that I could return to at another time.) That was the same day that the little girl a couple of tables over threw up at the table. Not the best dining-out experience.
I love this time of year. We have lots of flowers in the yard. I’ll show you some of them. We have daylilies, daisies, butterfly bush, lantana, and for some weird reason the mums are blooming already. We also have little tomatoes on the vines already. The yard would look better if Mike would get out there and cut the grass. I hope he does so today or tomorrow. You should see Richard Donkle’s place. You know, he has a 3 hole golf course on his property. He has a landscaping staff and the place is stunning and immaculate. That is, if you don’t count the little bombs that his dogs leave here and there. I need to go back and visit them soon. I had a nice time the other night when I was there. His wife doesn’t like me and neither does their maid, but I don’t let something like that bother me. He gave me some delicious cream when I was visiting. You can read about this visit in my recent post “A Bad Vibe” dated 04/30/2017.
I just love flowers. And they provide good cover, and attract butterflies, a double bonus.
We have news reports of a cluster of overdoses and at least 4 deaths in central Georgia from some counterfeit Percocet tablets. It seems that once people get addicted, their judgement goes out the window. And there are people who have no conscience whatsoever who take advantage. If they increase their profit margin by 5-10%, so what if a few (or a few hundred) people die. Caveat emptor! I’m afraid that it is just a matter of time until we have a tragedy like this in Happy Meadows. You remember that I witnessed some young people using drugs at Richard Donkle’s place the other night. (See “Fake Jews” posted on 05/26/2017). Mike’s medical specialty is addiction medicine, so he is active in trying to help addicted people turn their lives around. It is a passion for him. He says he is old enough to retire, but he still enjoys what he does, and he gets to help people that not enough other people either want to help or know how. He does say that the field has advanced enormously from when he first got into it in 1973. Without exaggeration, he gets more referrals from other physicians in any given week than he used to get in an entire year. He has written an article that I will either attach to my blog or set up a link to it. It would be pointless to ask Mike to do it. He wouldn’t have a clue.
