Leslie's Latest News

2010 Holiday Letter

If you want to read my quick summary of 2010, see here.

Two houses, much packing

Last Friday, I closed on the condo, so I am now the proud owner of TWO homes. I'm working hard to try to make that ONE home, but there's still a lot of work that has to be done.

I did get a setback this month by coming down with a really annoying cold. I was seriously sick for nearly a week, and the darn thing has lingered on for nearly 3 weeks now. So that really put a crimp into my packing because I just didn't have the stamina to do much physical work. And I'm still not feeling totally normal.

So I'm trying to be philosophical about it. I'll get it done when I get it done. I just try to do a little bit every day. I don't want to just throw everything into boxes - I am really going through things and trying to get rid of extraneous stuff that I don't need any more. I'm giving a lot of stuff away and throwing out a lot of excess paper and other junk. So it's a good process - just a lot of work. 

Yesterday I mowed my lawn after neglecting it for 3 weeks due to being sick. I went through a gamut of mixed feelings. During the first part, it was hot and humid, and I was thinking about what a pain it was and how happy I'll be after I move and don't have to do that kind of work any more. And then I took a break and went out later when the evening had cooled down a bit and there was a sunset light in the sky, and I started thinking about how this little city plot was actually the first bit of land I've ever owned, and how I've personally touched and gardened every little square inch, and really how sad it is that it won't be mine any more. 

I'm basically happy about moving on, and still convinced it's the right thing, but part of me is really going to mourn the loss of the land. 

On the plus side, last Saturday Alex and Steven and I went out to a strawberry festival at Verrill Farm - a farm stand just across the Sudbury River from where I'm going to be living. We got grilled burgers and sausage, and then wonderful strawberry shortcakes with local strawberries, fresh-baked shortcake, and real whipped cream. We ate it sitting on a grassy hillside in the middle of fields, listening to a bluegrass band play and watching kids getting pony rides. It was heaven. I'm looking forward to their blueberry pancake breakfast in July. I'm really going to like living in the country. (Or as close as country you can get around here.)

In other news, I continue to work as Healthy Aging Program Coordinator for Springwell. We now have a great group of volunteer leaders trained to teach two different workshops: Healthy Eating for Successful Living in Older Adults and My Life, My Health, the Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Program. Most of my job is concentrated the start of a new course, to help set dates, choose leaders, help with the promotion, and get everything set up, and then at the end of a course to pick up the materials and make sure all the paperwork gets turned in to where it needs to go. And then I go to the occasional coordination meeting and keep up with whats going on in the "Healthy Aging" world, and answer any questions that the leaders have as they proceed with the course.

The Healthy Aging world is really getting a lot of support these days, both from the Massachusetts Office of Elder Affairs and the National Council on Aging. They see these workshops as a cost-effective way of improving the health of seniors and are working to encourage a self-sustaining state-wide network of agencies with the capability to offer them. 

So it's great work - it doesn't take a lot of my time (I can do a lot of it from home), I work with wonderful, caring people, and I can really feel like I'm making a difference in many people's lives. 

Yesterday, I gave an Information session to a group of nine in Watertown, explaining the My Life, My Health course that starts next week and encouraging them to come. Then I went to the last meeting of a class in Wellesley and really enjoyed reading through the satisfaction surveys, which showed that everyone was very happy with the course and with the leaders. Next week we do an Info session for Healthy Eating in Brookline. That will be it, I think, for the summer - the next set of classes will start in the fall, hopefully after I'm back from Australia. 

"My Life, My Health"

As part of my work as Healthy Aging Coordinator for Springwell, I've been attending a training course for leaders of a workshop known as "My Life, My Health", a chronic disease self-management workshop developed by Stanford University. I had no idea what it was about before I started and thought it had something to do with actually managing the disease. But, in fact, it is really more about managing the effects of the disease (or chronic condition), effects such as fatigue, anxiety, depression, and other difficult feelings. 

The content of the workshop is a wide-ranging toolkit of techniques and habits that the participants can pick and choose from and try out as they choose. Much of the course is discussion and brainstorming, where the participants can share ideas and help each other deal with their challenges. At the end of each meeting, the participants make an action plan for what they will do in the following week, and then report back at the following session. The action plans are totally personal and are whatever that participant feels they want to do and will be able to do. 

We covered topics such as how to overcome pain and fatigue, relaxation techniques and deep breathing, good nutrition and exercise, how to communicate better, how to keep track of medications, positive thinking, etc. 

The course itself is tightly scripted and the leaders are expected to follow the script exactly. Your organization giving the course must be licensed by Stanford, and the leaders must complete the 4-day training and be approved to teach. In the training, we go through every topic in excruciating detail. First the trainers conduct it as if we were the participants, then they reviewed it and explained why they did what they did, and then the trainees conducted the segment again as part of their practice teaching. So by the end of it we were pretty well indoctrinated.

The leaders themselves are expected to be people that either have a chronic condition themselves or are care-givers for someone with a chronic condition. This is pretty broadly drawn, so that most people of a certain age can probably come up with something they can use to relate to, even if it's just chronic back pain, arthritis, or any other minor ailment that impinges on their daily lives.

I started out a bit skeptical. It seemed that we were dealing with weighty topics and giving a small amount of time to each of them, so I wasn't sure what impact the course would have. Also, being widely read, I was already familiar with many of these ideas. What I need to keep in mind is that many of the people we will be meeting with may not be. 

And then there was one little bit of magic that really impressed me. At the end of the training we did a brainstorming. The topic was "What problems does my chronic condition cause me?". So we brainstormed and made a list. Then the leaders re-posted the result of the exact same brainstorming we'd done at the beginning of the first day of the training. And by gosh, you could see the change. The same sorts of items were on both lists, but they were subtly altered. On the second list, they were either worded in a more positive manner, or were more specific and action-oriented. Something definitely happened there, and it was a good thing.

I originally took the course because I was going to manage and coordinate these workshops, but now I have a definite urge to actually teach one. 

While I'm here on the blog, I'll mention that my job as coordinator is going well, but has been more work than I bargained for. I'm hoping that a lot of this is start-up effort, and that things will settle down as we move forward. One major time sink is a good thing - we got a very nice response from our call for volunteers. We'd inserted ads in the local papers in our service area (8 towns) and have gotten 16 responses so far. So it's a lot of people to call and interview and get to fill out our forms and so forth. 

Also, I'll be teaching a Healthy Eating course with a new partner and at a new site on Monday nights as part of Watertown Adult Education. So that involves a lot of coordination - working things out with my new partner (who is very experienced with the other course, Chronic Disease Self Management, but has just been trained in Healthy Eating), figuring out how do deal with the room limitations, and assembling all the handouts and other paraphernalia we will need. We've got 12 people signed up, which is a perfect number. Although there are two husband and wife pairs, which has sometimes caused problems in the past - we shall see.

So life has been a teeny bit too darn busy, but hopefully it will settle down in a month or so. And I have the satisfaction of knowing that I'm accomplishing something useful.

All verklempt

The garden class celebration yesterday was surprisingly emotional.

As I was getting ready to head over, the lightning lashed and the heavens opened with an insane downpour, so it looked liked the party was going to be spoiled. We set up the refreshment tables and chairs in the hallway near the courtyard entrance (instead of outdoors as we had been hoping to). Parents started coming and we mingled and looked at the photo montage posters the children had put together (using many of my photos plus others contributed by some of the adults, plus the photos the kids themselves had taken down by the river).

But then a little miracle happened - the rain ended and we were able to walk outside. By the end of the party, the sun was out and people were able to get a good look at the garden. The kids were stationed in each of the different areas and as people walked around, they were able to tell the visitors about what they'd done and what types of plants were in each area.

Then we gathered inside again for some short speeches. The administrator of the program described it briefly and thanked all of us who helped. Then each of the kids read a short paragraph about what they learned. Then we all got some gifts and were able to say a few words. We talked about how hard the kids worked, and how we felt like we were all in a team together. I told the story of the kids cheering on Henrietta when she was digging up a donated plant ("Go Henrietta! Go Henrietta!).

Many of the parents approached me and told me how much their child had enjoyed the program - talking about it at home and looking forward to getting to school each day. And the kids all said they wanted to join the garden club and hoped we would all be coming back in the fall.

Each of the volunteers was given a little bag of gifts including a group photo (which is now proudly displayed in my living room), a collection of the students' work, a card with notes from each of the students, and a bookmark made from pressed flowers from the garden. Very sweet.

And then after the visitors left, those of us who worked on it were left to feel really good about how it went, the good friends we had made, and the definite feeling that we had made a difference in those kids' lives. What a great feeling!

Gardening - Now it's Hot

So after weeks of rain, and one decent week of not-rain, we are now coping with a week of heat and excessive humidity. But the kids are sticking it out and we have a really nice garden space ready now for our graduation celebration tomorrow. I hope we get a good turnout and can get outside and really enjoy the results of our efforts. 

Tuesday was a hard-working day at a local community farm, Waltham Fields. I've got some photos posted of Facebook, and now that they've changed their security rules, I hope you can see them without having a Facebook account. I also have a few photos taken by one of the other volunteers, Wende, that shows me working with the kids to plant carrots.

Yesterday, I went exploring at Gore Place, which is a 40-acre estate about 2 miles from my house, just over the border in Waltham. I have two batches of photos. The first, taken with my iPhone, shows the walk around the grounds and a little bit of a lovely hidden perennial garden I found. Then I went back today and took more pictures of the secret garden with my better camera. 

The walk around the perimeter is about a 1-mile walk, so that will be a nice place to go for some of that exercise I'm trying to get. There are broad, grassy paths through trees, open fields filled with wildflowers, a shady walk along a brook, and then the formal front lawn of the 1806 estate building leading down to an old ha-ha. And then on my way out, I can duck behind the tall hedges into the secret garden and see what's in bloom in the perennial beds. 

So now I'm running around trying to get ready for our trip to Montreal. I just mowed the lawn; the car has had it's checkup. Tomorrow is the garden party and I need to get my hair cut. Then I can start thinking about packing. I'm not sure exactly when we'll be leaving - probably Saturday. I love that we're going by car and don't have to stick to a fixed schedule. 

Rained out

Those two relaxing weeks I was anticipating in my last blog post were pretty much rained out. A Boston Globe article last week gave some statistics to show that we were on track to be the least sunny June since 1903! The past few days have been a bit better, but we've just gotten past three solid weeks of unrelenting clouds and rain. Needless to say, this did have a big effect on my energy level - I started feeling my SAD kick in, even though we were right at the summer solstice. So the solstice went by without commemoration - just another cloudy gray depressing day.

Since the weather wasn't conducive to working (or doing anything much) outdoors, I faced up to an indoor project - getting my 2008 taxes done. I'd gotten an extension this year for the first time ever, partly because I was so tied up with getting my dad's and the estate taxes done, partly because I was away on vacation in Florida in early April, and partly because they were just a bit complex this year. But I bit the bullet last week and tackled them. At this point, I think I have completed the federal taxes, and I have an appointment with my accountant on Monday to go over things and just make sure I did them correctly. Some of the atypical complications this year: miscellaneous reportable estate income and expenses, selling a number of stocks and mutual funds when I transferred my assets to a new advisor, rolling over 401(k)s and IRAs, selling stocks purchased through an employee stock purchase plan, drawing income from two different IRAs with two different bases (one inherited), volunteer stipend income, volunteer mileage expenses. etc. 

I was finally able to wrap up my father's estate this past week. I'd been holding off on distributing the last little bit of funds because I'd had an issue with the IRS assessing a penalty for underpayment of my dad's estimated taxes for 2008. I'd written an explanation of why the underpayment (due to not knowing the full extent of the obligation until receiving 1099s showing a large accrued interest income on his government bonds), and they responded that they needed 45 days to study the situation before replying. I finally got the notice that they were rescinding the penalty (yay!) and there was no additional tax due. So I was able to distribute the last of the funds and get the probate court Affidavit of Closing notarized and submitted. So after 1 year, 2 months, and 1 week, I am finally no longer dealing with estate affairs. Hallelujah!

I did a little work getting prepared for the Middle School summer gardening class starting this coming Monday. I am not the main person responsible for this; I'm just a helper, which is fine with me. I'll just pitch in and do what I can as we go along. I also helped get a small grant from the Watertown Community Foundation, partly due to just happening to mention things at the right time to the right people. On Friday, when the rain actually started to let up, I joined the other garden volunteers to help move in equipment and prepare the site. We're going to let the kids to all the weeding and digging, but we wanted to do a little pruning of some of the existing roses and small trees on the site. I'm fairly knowledgeable about pruning, so I helped to show some of the other volunteers how to do it. 

The class runs Monday through Thursday for the next 5 weeks. Normally the gardening portion will be from 10:30 to 11:30 each day, with the exception of about 1 day a week which will be a field trip. On the first week, we're going to the home of the lead gardener, Henrietta, where we'll introduce the kids to some of the plants, show them how composting works, and visit a nearby beekeeper. I'll be trying to attend each day when I don't have conflicting activities, but there are 4 of us, so I'll be able to miss a day now and then without any problem.

As mentioned, we did have a few non rainy days, so I have been back out into my own garden. I'm still working on all the overgrown shrubs and vines, which is quite a project. But progress is being made, little by little. My arms and shoulders are pretty sore today because yesterday I also helped with a riverfront cleanup day. So between the school, the riverfront, and my own yard, my loppers have been getting plenty of action. 

Several weeks ago I had my new furnace and air conditioning system installed by National Grid (the local utility). It took two days, but went pretty smoothly - it was a nice crew of guys and they were pleasant to have around. One interesting thing they found was that my chimney, which I'd paid to have lined about six years ago, hadn't had the lining installed correctly. At the point where it needed to go horizontally to connect with the furnace, a section had been omitted and was potentially releasing gasses into the house. That'll be one chimney company I'll never deal with again. 

The new furnace is a high efficiency furnace that vents directly to the outside through a hole in the foundation and some pipes extending up a couple of feet. That leaves the water heater as an "orphan" water heater - the only device using the chimney. So the flue had to have a narrower liner installed in any case. The outside pipes are white and ugly, but they said it would be okay to paint them, so I'll paint them brown to match the brick. The air conditioning unit is larger also, but at least is a nice unobtrusive charcoal gray color. 

I had to have them come back once to fix a couple of small things the inspector didn't like and also to fix the thermostat wiring so the fan mode would work. But now everything seems to be humming along fine. It's funny - in the 3 weeks I didn't have a working system (before the installation), there were several days cold enough that I needed to run my electric space heater, and several days hot enough that I was dying for an air conditioner. But since the system has been installed, there hasn't been any really hot or cold days to give it a good test. As part of the installation, they gave me a new digital thermostat, installed carbon monoxide detectors on every floor, and included a 1-year service contrac. (And what was nice, since I'd already just recently paid for a service contract on my old furnace, the new one is appended to that, so I really now have 2 years paid for.) 

A great relief having all of that taken care of.

So now it's almost July. At some point the rain will let up, I suppose, and we'll be facing the same hot humid summer that the rest of the country has been enjoying. But in the meantime, I'm trying to be thankful for the coolth and not too depressed by the clouds. Next big even for me, after the Middle School class, is a driving trip to the Worldcon in Montreal in early August with Alex. We're thinking of going on up to Quebec afterward, but have not made any firm plans as yet. 

Taking a deep breath

The spring push of volunteer activities is over now, so I'm at the beginning of a 2-week lull before the summer gardening program starts. It's wonderful to not be running around to activities every day, and I'm hoping to be able to catch up on some of the long-deferred items on my to-do list. Especially now that the incessant rain has abated for a bit and I'll be able to get out and work on the garden. Luckily, it's still cool and relatively comfortable to work outside.

Some of the things that happened in the past week...

I had my annual DPP visit and checkout. That was relatively uneventful until I put my raincoat on to leave, was chatting with the technician, and suddenly noticed that my arm was feeling wet and there was a growing pool of blood on the floor under my right arm. No big deal - my IV site had just not closed properly - but I was a bit upset because I was wearing one of my favorite sweaters and the arm was now covered with blood. A couple of the technicians took it in hand and worked over it for 10 minutes with hydrogen peroxide wipes, then I took it home and soaked it in Tide. The blood stain came out, but the whole arm ended up slightly bleached in color. I wish they had just tried cold water first, but what are you gonna do?

I led a garden tour for a lovely group of docents from the Museum of Fine Arts. Being tour guides themselves, they were a lot of fun. At one point, when I didn't know the name of a plant they asked about, I went into my whole, "This is where I tell you that we have 1500 species in the garden and, sadly, I must admit that I don't know them all." They came right back with, "Unacceptable - we demand a new guide!" and we all broke up into laughter. 

But it was a great group, and at the end they all came by to thank me and expressed wonder that I knew so much. (Funny, I'd thought that I'd said "I don't know" several dozen times, but I'm glad that they were happy.)

I also shadowed a 3rd grade tour given by Ginny, one of the best kid's guides, and learned a lot of stuff from her. And the following day, I did my own solo 3rd grade tour and think I did pretty well. It was a funny group - 4 boys and 4 girls that acted like two different groups. The boys tended to run on ahead and talk a lot, while the girls lagged behind, but were more observant and spotted more interesting things. The girl who was afraid of snakes spotted the black water snake at the pond, which I hadn't seen all season. Luckily, he was out on a floating island and not bothering anyone. 

It was cloudy and rainy for all of these tours, but what are you gonna do?

Over the weekend, I got in one non-rainy day of outside work, and then the rain came back again. But I got totally caught up in following the events in Iran on Twitter. I'd hooked into a couple of eye-witnesses in Tehran who were giving fascinating blow-by-blow reports of what was happening there, and I found myself hanging on every word. (See @StopAhmadi and @persiankiwi, for example.) As I write this morning, it's beginning to look like the demonstrations may be having some effect. This paragraph is green in honor of the brave citizens of Iran who are insisting that their voices be heard.  

On Monday, I went on a great garden tour that we'd arranged for the Garden in the Woods guides. Of course it was raining again. We visited two gardens in the western suburbs - one around a Bauhaus-style house in the Lincon woods near the Sudbury River and Walden Pond and one around an 18th-century Concord farmhouse. Both very different and both very lovely. We had planned to have a picnic lunch on the grass at the second house, but due to the rain we got invited into the screened porch, which still had a great view of the garden. 

Here are two pictures from the tour; you can find more here.

Yesterday, we had another planning meeting for the summer gardening program at the Middle School. We have worked out the sequence of gardening events week by week, and at this meeting, we were helping the teachers work out accompanying lesson plans that would make sense. We worked out the first two weeks in some detail, and will go on to the remaining weeks after we see how things go. 

The first week, we'll concentrate on learning about soil, and will start on cleaning out the weeds in the areas we will be planting. The field trip will be to Henrietta's garden, where the kids will get acquainted with some of the perennials, see a compost pile, and work on sifting compost to make soil for planting seeds. On the second week, we'll continue preparing the beds, adding soil amendments, and will take another walk to a nearby garden where we'll dig up some perennial divisions to bring back. In the classroom, they'll be learning about plant structures and life cycle. There is also a book they'll be reading - I forgot the title, but it's about a diverse group of kids working on a community garden.

I'm also helping to get a small grant from a local organization to help pay for some of the plants, seeds, supplies, and tools. So far that's just involved some e-mailing them with information about the program and putting together a spreadsheet of expenses. I've also helped by recruiting a local naturalist to lead a nature walk along the river in week 3, and will be donating some miscellaneous supplies. And have been contributing ideas to the activities and curriculum as best I can. We'll be putting together a schedule to insure that members of the gardening team will be available on each day to assist the teachers. The gardening activity will be mainly from 10:30-11:30 each day, except when we do the field trips (which will be longer), so that's easily doable. 

Now I'm about to begin a week and a half where I have almost nothing scheduled! It will be like taking a vacation! 

A quiet weekend for me

Alex turned out to have pneumonia and is still recovering, so we did not make any plans for the holiday weekend. It's a pity he's missed so much of the good weather. Alex has always been very susceptible to respiratory infections and always has to be on guard. I've been visiting every few days to bring supplies (mostly liquids, since he had various places nearby that will deliver food), and one night he felt well enough to watch some TV together, but he is definitely not yet up to any excursions.

I'm using the time to try to catch up on some gardening work. It was very hot on Thursday and Friday, and since I don't have air conditioning yet, I didn't get a lot done then. But yesterday I went on another major pruning frenzy and have another huge pile of branches to trim and bundle. I also went shopping for vegetable plants and some annuals, so those need to be planted. 

Last week, we had the 4th meeting of the Healthy Eating class. This was the tricky one where we make plans for the grocery store expedition and the "plan and prepare a meal" final class. People were a bit confused, but I think they finally understood what would be happening, and we managed to get some volunteers to bring in recipes and lead the preparation of those items. We still need to check out the Senior Center kitchen and see if they have everything we need. It's complicated to plan, but lots of fun when we finally do it. We're skipping a week for Memorial Day, so the next meeting is June 1.

I also went to a planning meeting for the Middle School summer gardening course. I have volunteered to help out with this, along with two other members of the town environmental task force who are taking the lead. The whole thing is turning out to be a bigger deal than I originally realized, meeting 4 hours 4 mornings a week for 5 weeks. (Although it's actually split between gardening and math, so we really have only 2 hours a day, probably the 8am-10am slot.) And we found out this week that it's targeted to kids with special needs, which no one mentioned at the first meeting. I feel like I'm in a bit over my head, but I will continue to help with the planning and will see how much I can contribute in the execution. Field trips are possible, so we might be taking them out to Garden in the Woods for one session. I need to write a list of topics we could cover there. We've got another planning meeting scheduled; the class doesn't start until late June. 

I only had one visit to the Garden in the Woods this past week. One lovely morning I met Geri and Elaine for a walk through the garden, followed by a picnic lunch on the patio.  After lunch, I gave a cart tour to the husband and friend of one of the other guides. (She was able to join in with the narration, but had been nervous about getting trained to drive the cart.) We had a perfect day and the garden was in fine form, so it was hard to pull myself away.

I am continuing to stick to my diet, although I'm a bit behind on the exercise (except for the garden work, which actually has left me feeling a bit sore in the arms and buttocks from all the bending and stooping and wielding of pruning shears). At my weigh-in this week, I was down only .6 pounds, but that was better than before and okay if I can keep it up every week. 

Next week I'm at the Garden almost every day - have an adult tour for a garden club, a high school group (which is above the age of the normal kid's tours, so I'm not entirely sure how to handle that one), and another cart tour. That will make up for the following week when I get to stay home for the furnace/air conditioning installation. I hope it stays reasonably cool until then.

What to do this weekend?

This is crazy, I woke up at 5:48 because the sun was up. Love these long days, but they make it hard to get enough sleep. At least it wasn't chilly this morning.

Alex is still sick. He saw the doctor again and is on a different medication, but he still sounds ghastly. He won't be making it to Spring Awakening with me on Sunday. This is the third time I've had to go to a play without him after buying tickets - it seems to be a perpetual jinx. 

I finally gave in and joined Facebook, as one of my old work friends invited me over there. I also found a Slovak cousin there, although she hasn't yet responded to my friend request. In the meantime, though, I've started to build up a nice circle, so it looks like it will be fun. The trick is trying to keep up with everything - blog, Twitter, and Facebook - and figure out what is appropriate to each. I found an app which would stream everything from Twitter to Facebook, but that was overkill.

I have been watching season finales this week. Lost was just totally out there, as Lost always is. I hope it eventually will all make sense. Grey's Anatomy was quite a downer. Amazing Race was satisfying. Rooting for Adam in American Idol, although I'm afraid he might get an anti-gay backlash from the Danny fans. 

And I'm SO rooting for Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness. She should have been in the Derby. 

If the weather is good, I'm going to try to catch up on my yard work. Yesterday, I set up a trellis for the large-flowered purple clematis I bought. It was a very old redwood trellis, one of three that I made years ago to put up next to my back porch. When the porch was redone two years ago, the trellises didn't fit anymore, so they've been stashed behind the shed. But redwood doesn't decay, so it was still in pretty good shape. I'd not use redwood now, as it's not sustainable, but I'll certainly continue to use the ones I have. 

I still have a lot of pruning I'd like to do. Many of my shrubs are really large and overgrown and need to be rejuvenated by cutting out some of the thicker stems. I bought an electric saw, so it will be interesting to see if that helps me with the pruning chores. 

And I'm still trying to stick to my diet and exercise regime, so hopefully I'll fit in another couple of long walks. Sunday morning a local group is having a walk along the river to observe the herring run, so I'll try to join that one.  

Next week: Healthy Eating on Monday. Then I was supposed to have been teaching a Lay Leader class for Healthy Eating, but it was cancelled for not enough participants. So I had a couple of unexpectedly free days where I'm trying to arrange getting together with friends. Hope that all works out. Then Boost on Thursday where I hope I'll have lost a pound. But it's a relatively quiet week.

Feeling at ease

I began the week with two "teaching" experiences that each went very well. I am finally becoming at ease with speaking to small groups, I think - at least when it's on subjects that I know well. 

The first was Healthy Eating on Monday afternoon. It was the third session, so I've gotten to know the participants pretty well by now. Also, my partner was out this week due to some planned surgery. so I got to do it alone. The sponsors don't like us doing it alone and really insist that we partner up, but we were unable to find a substitute able and willing to join me just for that one week. And to tell the truth, I was relieved, since learning to work with a new person is always a bit difficult. I was very happy to just do it on my own and I think I did a very decent job. 

We're down to 9 people now, but they are all very knowledgeable and interested. They're starting to bring in things to share and contribute more ideas to the class. I am thoroughly enjoying this group. 

One problem I've had in the past is that I'm not very good at remembering people's names. This class, I've been making a particular effort to learn and remember the names, and find that I'm doing pretty well at that also. I hope I can develop a technique for doing this easily in the future. Right now, all I do is try to be conscious of the names, especially when my partner is leading the class and I can take a minute to go around the room and review them all in my head.

On Tuesday, I was one of four guides at Garden in the Woods handling a busload of garden club folks up from Connecticut. Once again, it was a good group, and we had nice weather, so a good time was had by all. Garden clubs are challenging, because they have lots of questions (and sometimes I have to admit that I don't know the name of a particular plant). But mostly I was able to answer the questions and it's great to be talking to a group that is really interested in what you have to say. They've come on a bus for hours to see the garden, so you want to give them as good a visit as you can manage. Of course, they hit us on a great week, when there was a lot in bloom.

They also bought tons of plants before they left, which is always great for the Society's bottom line. Then they went off to lunch at the Wayside Inn. 

This has been a pretty busy week so far. The weather has been fantastic, so I've been trying to get outside a lot. I took one walk along the river, and have gotten some work done in my own garden, including finally mowing the lawn before it turned into a tallgrass meadow. It's great to be out in the yard right now, since it everything is lush and green and the air smells of lilacs. I finished labeling the plants I had dug to donate to the Garden plant sale and brought them out to the Garden. I figure I donated about $200 worth of plants. 

I made a couple of runs to assist Alex, who is laid up with a very bad cold that has settled into his lungs. He is very prone to that sort of thing, which is a little scary, but he is good about seeing a doctor when it gets bad, so he is on antibiotics now. I brought him drugs and liquids, and spent a little time watching TV with him, so I'm hoping my immune system will do a good job in combating whatever bug he might have tried to give me. I'm also hoping he will get well by this weekend, when we have tickets to Spring Awakening on Sunday night. It's getting to be a trend that whenever I get tickets to a play for the two of us, he manages to get sick or something and I end up going alone. Well, maybe not a trend, but it's happened twice in the past, which is two too many times for me. 

(On a side note, I learned that the first case of swine flu has been reported in Watertown - in an elementary school student.)

Today I took a drive out to Worcester to see my financial advisor. We usually talk on the phone, but I wanted to deliver my house check, and I figured it's nice to see him in person at least once a year or so. He didn't think we'd be seeing a real recovery in stocks anytime soon, and advised sticking to municipal bonds and high-quality corporate bonds, at least for now. I'm supposed to check in again around July or so. 

I went to the dentist on Monday and was relieved when they didn't find any additional work they wanted to do. Tomorrow I have my annual mammogram and of course will be even more relieved if I get through that okay.

Also tomorrow, a Springwell Advisory Council meeting and a DPP Boost meeting that sort of overlap. The DPP people know I'll be arriving late, though, and they're okay with that. I've been quite good at following the calorie limits this week, although that's left me feeling a bit hungry a lot of the time. I just hope it proves to be worth it and I see some weight loss tomorrow.

But tonight I feel really tired and think I will go to bed early. Well, maybe after checking in to see who's eliminated this week from American Idol...

Has it really been more than two weeks?

Gosh, I knew it was a while since I'd blogged, but had no idea that it had been so long. Wow.

The problem is that I've been very busy with lots of stuff on my mind, and thus have been doing a lot of short updates on Twitter, rather than taking the time to sit down and chat at length. 

I do have a couple of slower days coming up, so I might get a chance to actually write a bit. But in the meantime, if you want to catch up on things, you could take a look at my Twitter page.

The short version: Started teaching Healthy Eating at Waltham Senior Center, car broke, worked Charles RIver Earth Day cleanup, got poison ivy from Charles River Earth Day cleanup, am taking fascinating drugs for poison ivy from Charles River Earth Day cleanup, worked Earth Day open house at Garden in the Woods, learned how to do cart tours at Garden in the Woods, learned how to do kid's tours at Garden in the Woods, actually did all of the above, went to a cookout, sold father's house (for real - the check is in the mail!), it rained a lot, my furnace broke, and my car may be breaking again. And somewhere in there Spring happened.

Needless to say, I'm a bit tired. 

Next week will be similarly crazy.

I hope I survive May.

Exciting marathon

Gosh, this was an exiting marathon. The top 3 women finished within 10 seconds, with the US woman, Kara Goucher, finishing third. Defending champion Dire Tune ran her heart out and lost to Kenya's Kosgei by only 1 second, collapsing in exhaustion at the finish line. And 4-time men's winner Robert Cheruiyot had to drop out and was taken to the hospital also. I'm waiting to hear news - sure hoping they're both okay. 

The men's finish was not quite so close, but American Ryan Hall managed a strong third place finish, after Ethiopian Deriba Merga and Kenyan Daniel Rono. Wheelchair champion Ernst Van Dyk won his 8th Boston marathon going away, tying Jean Driscoll for most Boston Marathon victories ever. 

Still no news on Bill Rodgers. I'm rooting for him to finish. 

Update: Tune and Cheruiyot are both okay, and Bill Rodgers finished in a bit over 4 hours. 

No time to breathe

My online presence has been mostly on Twitter lately, because I've just been so busy since I got back from Florida. Between trying to catch up on the stuff that accumulated from before and while I was away, and all the new commitments I have now that spring is here, I haven't had much time to just sit and reflect. Someday I hope to have time to download and post some of my trip photos, but right now other things have higher priority.

Besides all the boring stuff that I should be doing (but mostly haven't gotten to yet) like getting various home repairs done, finishing my taxes, and continuing to sort through the boxes I brought back from my father's house last year, I've been spending a lot of time on volunteer activities that I've been really enjoying. 

This past week, I went to the last Garden in the Woods training session for Children's Guides. Next, I will shadow a few tours before trying one of my own. There three slightly different tours for different ages, so I'll try to sample one of each before soloing. I also had a training session on driving the electric cart and need to get checked out on that all the way around the garden before I'm cleared to do cart tours. I also actually gave a tour on Friday, to a group of interns from Longwood Gardens, and that was quite a pleasure, since it was a group of very interested and knowledgeable young people who wanted to learn all about how we do things at the garden. 

Yesterday I taught some boy scouts how to find their way in the woods with a map and a compass at the semi-annual Scout-O meet held by the NE Orienteering Club. I had a good group and that was a lot of fun also. 

I've also put in a little time preparing for our senior Healthy Eating class that will start in Waltham on April 27. The class is fully subscribed (actually oversubscribed), so we're hoping to do a good job on it. I'll be meeting with my partner a planning session next Tuesday. 

And then I volunteered for another project. I hope I don't regret this. But my local environmental group has been asked to lead a gardening project for middle school kids this summer and I said I would help. So I'm going to a planning meeting for that next Friday afternoon. 

On the personal front, I got another pile of documents to sign and send on to my brother. So it looks like the house is still on track to sell, closing sometime in early May. (We thought it was May 1, but someone slipped the date to May 15 or 18 and we're not sure who, since both the buyers and sellers want to go for May 1.) 

Of course, there are some fun activities, too. Friday night, Alex and I saw another play in our subscription series at the Huntington Theater, Miracle in Venice. And I posted a few photos of the film crew we stumbled across in the South End as we strolled around before the play. Yesterday, I had another session of playing Dominion with Alex and Steven. Last time Steven dominated the game, but yesterday both Alex and I got in our share of wins, so it was fun. This evening I'll be going over to Alex's sister's house to their Greek Easter dinner, and tomorrow I'm planning not to do anything but watch the Boston Marathon and maybe get some outdoor work done. 

And then next week, it's back into the activities again. Next Saturday I'm committed to do a couple of different Earth Day activities, both in my local area and at Garden in the Woods. 

On the whole, I'm enjoying everything, but I just wish things were a little bit more spread out, with a little bit more breathing space in between. 

Movie set photos

Movie set

Strolling around the South End prior to a play, we encountered a movie crew that had taken over several blocks. Trucks, wires, and lights were everywhere, plus patches of fake snow. Rumors of Ben Affleck and Tommy Lee Jones. People sitting on their front steps, drinking wine and watching the activity. No stars on sight though. Photos to follow.

In a whirlwind

After a fairly quiet winter, suddenly everything is waking up and I feel I've been in a whirlwind of activity for the past few days. To just run through a quick recap...

Today I received a letter from the Probate Court approving my final estate accounting. Yeah, Dad, I did it! And it's come just in time for me to send the "Certificate of Devise" transferring the property to my brother and myself to the attorney who will be handling the house sale. So that's a relief.

The house sale is still proceeding. The various inspections did turn up a couple of problems I was not aware of and we are negotiating credits. The septic tank needs repairs and I was surprised to find that there is a high level of radon in the well water (the water tests in my father's files didn't even test for radon, so we had no idea about that.)

I had two more days of Garden in the Woods guide training, which I'm loving, as always. I'm really glad I decided to take the kid's guide training, as they really need the help and I'm learning a lot. This morning we threw sticks in the brook and watched them float downstream, and turned over a log and found tiny red-backed salamander, which is something I've never seen before.

Yesterday, I gave a very short talk on the Healthy Eating program to a lunch gathering at the Waltham Council on Aging. I hope I did a good job selling the program. The Director had signs posted everywhere and says she is getting a lot of interest. A box of 50 pedometers that I will be using for the program arrived at my doorstep. I need to find a few minutes to make a checklist and make sure that I've got everything we need, but we seem to be ready to go on April 27.

The Watertown Riverfront Park advocacy continues. We have some notebooks full of the letters people have written, and I've got the job of updating them with a few more new letters we've pried out of people and then delivering them to our state rep who will be pushing our case with various state officials, possibly including the governor. 

And there's just about one week left to get ready for the Florida trip. We have plane, hotel, and car set - I just need to do some web searching to find some good places outside of Disney to spend some time and see if we can still get into one of the Disney backstage tours.

Did I write yet about my air conditioning dilemma? I thought I was going to have National Grid fix my ailing a/c system, but the guy they sent claims that my system is too out-of-date and there's nothing he can do to fix it. I have to get some other companies to come and give me their opinions, but probably not before the Florida trip. I am very bummed out, because I absolutely require a/c to live through the humid months. But I'm trying not to panic until I get more data.

Those are the major things going on right now. Like I said, busy days...

Putting off the day of reckoning

Yesterday I printed out and filled in 3 income tax extension forms - for the U.S., Massachusetts, and Connecticut. It's the first time I've ever bothered with an extension, but this year my taxes are just way too complicated, and I'm going away for the first half of April, so I don't want to go crazy trying to get them done in time and possibly messing them up. 

The catch-22 about a tax extension is that you have to pay the full amount due by April 15 anyway. So you have to at least come up with an estimate, and pay the balance due. I have been paying quarterly estimated taxes, so I'm pretty close to being paid up, but I did another estimate and added a bit to my state payments. I think I'm okay on the federal taxes. 

What's complicated this year? Well, in February, I sold a whole bunch of stuff when I moved my accounts over to my financial advisor. That included some employee stock purchase plan stock, which has special rules, and some 401(K)s that got rolled over to an IRA. Then my father died, and there are a variety of things relating to that, including an inherited IRA with a basis, a survivor annuity from his government retirement plan, K-1 estate income (in Connecticut, of course, which requires filing a CT non-resident return, which in turn means I also need to credit that on my Massachusetts taxes). I had a small amount of 1099 income from the Healthy Eating course stipend. Plus some mileage credits, some considered charitable and some business (and those that can be charged against the stipend at the higher business rate). And there are retirement plan withdrawals, and social security income (which has a worksheet because only a percentage of it is taxable). And investment expenses. And some small capital losses from an ill-advised foray into Prosper some time ago. And the usual array of interest and dividend income and itemized deductions.

Many of things listed above are actually fairly small amounts so its not like I owe a lot in taxes. It's just lots and lots of picky details that have to be taken care of, for three different jurisdictions. I'm not even sure I've received all of the tax forms from the various institutions yet - step one is going to be to go through everything and figure out exactly what I have and what I still need. And I'm sure I'm going to need to get some advice from my accountant, and I'd rather do that when he isn't dealing with the April 15 rush. 

So this will be on my queue when I get back from Florida. Along with planting my garden, prepping for the Healthy Eating course, giving tours at Garden in the Woods, and arranging to get my failing home a/c system replaced. That should keep me busy. 

Who said retirement was relaxing?

House under agreement - hooray!

It's been an intense couple of days dealing with house negotiations, but as of now, we have a purchase agreement for the house with an intended closing by May 1. Knock on wood.

The price is lower than I hoped, but we'll just have to live with it. It is 33% below its estimated value one year ago when my father died and 25% below our first asking price last August. So it goes.

We've engaged a lawyer in Connecticut and the wheels are in motion. I just hope everything goes smoothly to closing.

(By the way, once I got the buyer's names, I did some Google searching and now know lots about them. Where they live now, where they went to school, when they were married, what their jobs are and where they work, what they and their dog look like, where their parents live and work, etc. It's pretty amazing what you can find out about people on the web without even trying hard...)

I'm not quite ready to celebrate, since there's a lot that can still go wrong, but if the sale goes through on May 1, there will be some dancing in the streets. 

Joyous Ostara!

At 7:44 EDT this morning the sun crossed the equator and the spring equinox arrived. To the pagans, this was the holiday of Ostara, which has been adapted into the Christian Easter. Ostara is the time of rebirth and renewal, and a time to get back in touch with the earth. From my favorite pagan holiday site:

At Ostara, light and dark come into balance, in what is nearly everywhere a season of storms. It seems as if the Sun must fight for a greater place in the sky. Then the storms subside as April unfolds, and the returning sun warms the land and sky. Buds open. Birds return. The Earth wakes into flower. People, from long before Chaucer's time to our own, have taken any excuse -- definitely including religious devotion -- to get themselves out of doors.

Since our spirituality centers on Mother Earth Herself, this is not an excuse but an imperative: touch the Earth!

During the winter, we were housebound, literally insulated from the Earth. Now, as Spring releases us, our very first priority should be to renew our connection with Nature. 

This is a holiday I can celebrate with great enthusiasm. Certainly the children's guide work that I described in my earlier post is totally in tune with the theme. And I've been starting to get out and work in my garden, planting peas, and generally getting things in order. Planting peas is a true "touch the earth" activity, where I press the seeds directly into the soft, dark, compost-enriched topsoil. 

So get out there, hug a tree, and rejoice in the increasing sunlight! 

Kathy's St. Patrick's Day display

Alex and I stopped to visit an old co-worker this morning. She makes a green room like this every year, covering all 4 walls with decorations.