Sweet Sue, I miss you every moment of every day. Every place I look, and everything I do, reminds me of the wonderful life we had together, operative word, together. This Easter is my first without you, and it will be different but I have three decades of fond memories of us, our family, and friends to fall back on. I miss you!
Sue was an amazing person. She so loved our collection of Chi-Hooey-Hooies! (Translation: Chihuahua’s) The Chihuahuas loved to party. The pictures below are from twenty years ago at Easter. Our family gathered at our home and did Easter Eggs and Sue had a big dinner for all! It was Sue’s trademark to make sure everybody had a good time; she was the original hostess with the mostess! Tomorrow is going to be difficult as the family will, for the most part, be staying home and no big dinner.
Pinky and Sue talked all the time. I can see the love in Sue’s eyes.
This picture is of Easter 2001 (4/15/2001) with family and friends.
Sue used to dress her bear family for all the holidays. The Vanderbears were part of our family holiday celebrations for over 30 years! I was happy to give the babies and all their clothes to Colleen, and I am sure she will share them with her daughters and granddaughters. (My great grandaughters)
The bears now have a new home!
The Sun rose, and so did I! I had two Easter miracles this morning!
First Miracle: I stepped carefully upon that disgusting bathroom scale, and it immediately went into convulsions, shaking violently, and spewing explicatives like an R-rated movie. Before jumping away fearing for my life, the scale was forced to give up its little secret! I am at 201 pounds! I yelled “Hallelujah,” and danced all the way into the living room before I remembered I was wearing my birthday suit!
Second Miracle” I found my way to the local Ralph’s Market as I needed diet Coke since Robin is popping over today. Minding my own business, I skipped aisle seven, but a glance revealed there was toilet paper on the shelves and no mad rush, no people yelling, “I gotta have some,” no fist-fights! The paper was just sitting there quietly as if to be in hiding.
Returning home, I put away the groceries and decided bacon and eggs were a requirement for me to continue my high energy level and to be able to do my morning three-mile walk! I cooked the bacon in a water bath again, and it was so crispy, what a neat idea!
Dinner tonight is going to be Pork Chops with Zesty Green Onion Salsa & Buttery Black Beans over Rice. I moved the chops to the frig to defrost them, so right after the Dancer’s Zoom Session at 5:00 PM, dinner will get started. It’s not our typical Easter ham, but it is close enough!
I read and re-read the instructions several times before beginning the cooking process, that seems to help!
Robin and Bob came over around 1:30 PM, and we talked for an hour about everything. They stayed for about an hour and a half, and we had a couple of glasses of wine, plus I gave them a tour of the “painted walls.” It was very kind of them to come by! We shared some funnies like:
Funny stuff, some people are so talented!
I shared with Robin my letter from George Lee, and we both were in tears. Robin decided to hold up a picture of Colleen and me during Colleen’s Father-Daughter dance evening. She compared it to today. It was not too bad, although I wish the small photo was of me today! Another month and a couple of squirts of red dye #2 and I could pass for a 24-year-old (maybe)!
They were taken 50 years apart! Not too bad for an ol’ fart!
OK, it is 5:00 PM, and the internet will soon light-up with “The Gang.” We will have to see who shows up this afternoon. Some of our folks have older machines sans cameras so that makes Zooming difficult.
Yeah! Yeah! The Gang is mostly all here!
We talked and teased for an hour, checking up on everybody! I showed them my collection of Easter eggs.
After the marathon one hour meeting, I decided dinner was needed, I prepped the workspace and put on the chef’s hat, which, by the way, gives me super-powers unknown to mortal man!
I think I need to add a cape for the full effect!
Tonight I had three burners going at once; rice, beans, and chops! It was like conducting an orchestra! Spatulas were moving at a dizzying pace. The result was much better than I ever expected!
The lime flavor was excellent, and I happen to have a tree full of limes in the front yard!
Yes, I set the table, poured the vino, lit the candles, and enjoyed some soft-jazz courtesy of Miss Alexa!
I wish I were sitting across from my beautiful bride, but alas, a picture will have to do!
It was a perfect dinner for me!
After cleaning up, I talked to Marianne, and at 9:00 PM, we tried a Zoom meeting to see if she can get her side of the session going. We got her video but the audio was missing so she is going to download Chrome and we will try tomorrow.
Time for TV and a little funny!
Good night all and thanks for being there for me in these lonely and trying times!
