At 8:00 am, I got a communication on Messenger from Jeanne (Dollard) Painter, my former classmate at HSHS. We exchanged messages back and forth, then I called her and, as we do every few months, had a long talk. She's still in West Palm Beach with her gentleman friend, John, who is in his nineties. They used to go back and forth between Jersey, Lake Placid, and Florida, but are staying put for now. As I have, Jeanne has let her hair go natural and on her, it looks good.
She'll be 85 in May.
I finally galvanized myself to dust and mop the hard floors. Also washed the bath rugs and mat and laid them out on chairs on the patio to dry in the sunshine.
I had the urge to call my cousin, Marifran, in Cincinnati; did so and we had a nice cousinly talk. I told about a project on which I'm working: Starting fourteen years ago, I transcribe my Uncle Frank's memoirs on to a blog, added Uncle Ed's (Marifran's father) and our Aunt Mary's, too. Cousin Judy, Uncle Frank's only child, had written a treatise on caring for a quadriplegic--which she was--at home. I added that, although I'm not sure how much interest it has for most. Anyway, I sent the link to my children and will send it to other family shortly.
After lunch, I hopped a bus to town, wandered here and there, stopping into some stores. Rode back and got home shortly about 5:30. I was delighted to see it was still light out then. Daylight Savings, here you come--YAY!
Called Jim and we chatted for twenty or so. I told him I was reading a auto-biography by Hume Cronyn, the actor (he died in 2003), and Jim surprised me by asking to borrow it. He's re-reading something by Nietzsche, wouldn't you know, then we started talking about Hannah Arndt and her writing style. He thinks it's unnecessarily dense and I brought up Henry James' The Wings of the Dove. I had forgotten about James' brother, the philosopher, William James, with whom Jim is familiar and reveres. Anyway, it was a satisfying conversation, the kind that I miss living out here in the provinces.
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