Howie Wants Me to Put Jamie First
(Jamie did all of her own cooking and cleaning from the time she could use a stool to reach the counters)
Howie writes Carole 11 Feb 2003 19:19:54
You are welcome to pop in by surprise any time you want. Today at noon you would have found a funny scene. I got myself stuck up on the roof (yes, again). Fortunately I had the hose with me. I tied it to a vent, prayed that the vent and the hose would hold, and lowered myself. What an idiot.
I hope I'm not overburdening your calendar and you can decline any of my invitations with no issue, but I now find I have to be in NY March 30 for the 50th birthday party of the sister of my long time friend Marshall. His parents have been like a second set of parents to me. Would be thinking to make it a 3 day, 2 night trip and see friends in NY and then go upstate to Poughkeepsie for the event and see my one remaining aunt who turns 90 this year and is still wonderfully sharp. Anyway, would love to have you join me and could gear the specific days in front of or behind 30th to your schedule if you are able and would like to go. - Howie
Carole writes Howie At 05:33 PM 2/11/03 :
Dear Howie, Najla sounds like the perfect mate or life partner in her attitudes expressed in the section titled: The Power of Belief. What greater gift can a person give their loved one than that sense of unconditional love and the commitment to champion their cause. You have given that to me. I have no higher calling than to reciprocate in kind.
Strange, I have had the same sensation in missing you. I wanted to drop by this morning, because I was in the area (OK, Dale Marbry north of Waters). I wanted to stop by on the way to the Harbor Island club and then again afterwards, but decided I would appear needy and heaven forbid... How odd.
I really enjoyed the tennis lesson and signed on for six more. I have misplaced the one week card, but Dan said I don't need it to access the courts as long as I am scheduled for classes. Next one is Thursday morning at 8:00 am. What was I thinking? I guess that just about insures that I will spend the night Wednesday. I cannot believe that I found this physically challenging.
I picked up two king feather pillows (that I can live with) for your place, a cookie sheet (bet you didn't know I knew what that was called) and a set of six little fork like things for the snails.
I have to leave in 5 minutes and the electric guys are still here so I haven't had a bath, nor shaved, nor washed my hair, so I am not likely to show up at your door later. I will miss you (even more than I did during the day) and will greatly look forward to tomorrow after church around 9:15 PM. Today was amazingly productive. Hope yours was too. - Carole
Howie writes Carole 11 Feb 2003 19:26:34
Re the purchases, you are so sweet, but I am becoming afraid to mention my shopping list to you. And I have a 20% coupon to Bed,Bath Beyond that I just put by the door so I could stop on the way to you Friday. Somewhat like the Quidam tickets, I really do appreciate it, but l would also urge some restraint? By the way, I'm also thinking of getting myself a new Rolex watch. :-) (That was a joke - honest! It occurs to me you might not think so. :-))
Sorry not to see you tonight. For future reference, you are always welcome to show up disheveled and do your tidying here.
Just to remind you of something I mentioned earlier, I really, really do not want Jamie feeling like you cut short an evening with her and Daniel to get to me. If you guys are having a good time and the evening lingers, don't be looking at your watch or leaving when everyone is having fun. You can arrive here as late as you want, or just call to let me know you won't be here, but please complete the evening with her as if you were not planning to be here. Thanks.
P.S. Bob, of course, you can walk out on as you wish. :-)
Carole writes Howie 11 Feb 2003 09:49:34 EST Subject:
Dear Howie, I will be in Texas for the USDA big cat symposium from March 25th until 9:12 pm on March 27th. I don't have another scheduled appointment until April 5th. I'd love to go with you, if you will let me pay my own airfare and the room rent. I can write it off, if I read the classifieds while I am there.
Thank you for not pressuring me to cut my evening short. Bob has a sinus infection that he's been battling for a week and it's getting worse. A smoky pool hall seems like a foolish thing to do and may get canceled. If it does, I will still use the time to take Jamie and Daniel out.
In extending you the same level of curtesy for time management, I will stay at the island Thursday so that there is no rush for you to conclude your "date". ;-) I have a gay friend that I sometimes travel with, named John Aynes, and we can lay in bed and talk until 3:00 in the morning with no perception of time passing. It is fortunate that we have friends, both straight and gay, that we have such
relationships with. It is even more fortunate that by having them, we understand the nature of them in each other's friendships. So much about you is so rare that I often am just lost in the wonderment at what the odds were against our meeting.
Howie writes Carole 11 Feb 2003 22:29:57
I hope you had an enjoyable evening to cap off the productive day you reported earlier!
It seems strange to leave my PC and walk into the bedroom and not find you either reading or snuggled under the covers and pillows.
I had to show the maid the picture of us in order to avoid her thinking my taste in clothes had become kinky when she cleaned the guest bath.
I'm jealous of the leopard in the picture! Sleep well. For the Minutes. - Howie
Carole writes Howie 11 Feb 2003 23:05:58 EST
Dear Howie, I just got in and am heading to the shower. At the pool hall my "son" recognized us and came over and got reacquainted with the family. Jamie and Daniel stayed after to catch up with him. His name was Mike Wagner and his mother came to me, one day after school and said she was dying and couldn't deal with the teenager any more and that he was my problem from then on out. She wasn't kidding.
I fixed up a travel trailer next to Jamie's trailer and moved him to Easy Street. The kid didn't know how to make toast. Jamie, on the other hand had done all of her own cooking and cleaning from the time she was 10 or 11. She taught him how to take care of himself and "mothered" him through his classes at school.
Later, he found his birth mother and now lives with her, has piercing everywhere you can pierce a body and hair that looks like the headdress for the statue of liberty, but he is a very sweet kid. Sort of in an Eddie Haskell way.
Daniel didn't go to that school, but he and Mike were friends from somewhere else, so they all had a lot to talk about. My proficiency at pool is only slightly worse than my tennis today, which means I should never show my face in a pool hall or on a tennis court again. I would like to watch you play, or a video of you playing, to get a feel for how it should be done.
As for the pillows, I wanted to make you comfortable when I knew that my sensitivities had cost you that luxury. It makes me feel better about being there to know that I am not putting you out in any way. You extend yourself so graciously to me that I cannot do enough to return the favour. My mother always clips the BB&B coupons for me as well. You also ignored my request to pay for the wine and this seemed the only way to repay your generosity.
How could you get stuck on the roof? Did you not have a phone? I would have had a heart attack if I had walked in on the scene of you lowering yourself via a hose to the ground. I am SO tempted to bathe and drive, but I am aching so much now, that I am sure to be pitiful in the morning. I will dream of you and remind myself that absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Speaking of fonder, I awoke last night to the feeling of your hand on my back and almost had to fight back tears because it felt so dear. Good night, my Love. - Carole
Howie writes Carole 12 Feb 2003 12:59:24
Mike is another wonderful example of how you have touched so many lives in such a positive way, both human and feline. - Howie
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