TheBanyanTree: Love Like Ours

[Margaret R. Kramer]

12/12/05
Hi Love:
 Just a dusting of snow this morning, they say MAY BE more today. Darn cat
through up twice this morning, had to clean it up before I have go to work.
Got to go
 LOVE YOU TOO MUCH! 
 Ray and George

I’m copying Ray’s Barbra Streisand CDs to my big iPod.  I’m not a big fan of
Babs, but Ray sure was.  In fact, I bought these CDs for him.  It’s funny
how I keep certain strands of his life close to me for no apparent logical
reason.  Like he’s going to care that I have these CDs on my big iPod.

It was my penance Saturday.  For my second job, we have to work at least one
weekend day a month.  I call this my penance Saturday.  I work from 9:00 –
1:00 pm.  It’s usually pretty painless for a penance and the time goes
fairly quickly.  The worst part is that I have to get up early and be
accountable on a Saturday.

I set up Quicken this afternoon.  I’ve been using Microsoft Money on my old
computer.  Since I filed my taxes (and got my refunds!), I’ve been meaning
to seriously wean myself from the old computer.  So, I took the time to get
my financial information set up on Quicken.  The most tedious part is the
set up.  Once everything is in place, then it’s automatic.

My young neighbors’ (yes, I still dislike them, but they no longer all try
to park in our combined driveway.  The light bulb came on and they’re
finally parking in the street.) landlord stopped by because their furnace
had gone out.

He asked me about Ray.  Ray and Mark worked together on that house next
door.  Evidently, he’s been by before and hadn’t seen Ray.  It’s the most
difficult thing to tell people who knew him, but didn’t know he died.  It’s
like going back to those first few moments and reliving it all over again.

Of course, I started crying.  And then Mark backed away.  It’s interesting
how people react to that sudden bit of crying.  Some people run away and
others understand and just wait until those initial tears stop.  It’s kind
of embarrassing to start crying out of the blue, but I can’t help it.

As he was speeding away, he told me Ray was a good man, and yes, Ray was a
good man, that’s for sure.

We’ve dodged a couple of winter storms this week which either drifted north
of us or south of us.  Our weather has been coolish and everyone gets spring
fever when the sun is out for five minutes or so.  

It was almost 50 degrees yesterday, so I opened the front door and let the
sunshine in.  I was at the dining room table working on some reports for my
primary job and I was amazed at all the people walking by either at a quick
pace like running or ambling like with a dog on a leash.  Yes, we all have
spring fever and we’re looking desperately for a remedy.

Joe’s coming by later tonight.  He’s going to bring some cheap wine.  I
baked banana bread again this afternoon after seeing three overly ripe
bananas on the counter.  Does cheap wine go well with banana bread?  We’ll
find out.

And we’ll watch basketball.  I’m still a contender in my office pool by the
skin of my teeth.  I have North Carolina picked as the champion.  But that’s
the only Final Four winner I picked correctly.

Watching basketball should be a good way to spend this early spring/late
winter evening when it’s too icky to do much else.