Watch Out - All Star Swimming Here She Comes...

Great News!!

My daughter was just elected by the coaches to represent the league at the East Meets West Swimming All Star event this coming Wednesday!! This is great news. She will be swimming the 50 yard breastroke event. For those of you who have been following, you know that she has a permanently disabled shoulder sustained in a snow tubing accident.

Mere words do not seem to be enough to express how proud I am of her for showing shear determination to overcome her physical challenges. She is an incredible example to me and reminds me to keep going, keep persevering, and not to give up. I love her "the glass is half full" approach to life.

Here is a link to an earlier post if you want to learn more background on the story:

http://queenofhaartz.blogspot.com/2009/02/dont-underestimate-determination.html

Wild Weather

Hey, who hijacked our typical New England Summer? It has rained for almost 30 days in a row. Just two days ago, in one burst, we had 6 inches of rain in a two hour time frame. Two homes nearby were struck by lightening. The small brooks are overflowing into the streams, the streams are overflowing the rivers, and the rivers are filling the massive flood plain areas near by. The beaver pond in our back yard has grown enormously.

The weather man is working overtime here. Instead of the typical forecast of when can we expect rain, we are getting reports of when we can expect sun. By some fluke, we had a clear weather for a few hours, enough to attend a Red Sox game. Yahoo!!

I can't help but wonder if near the end of summer it will be the the opposite and we will be dealing with a draught!

A new volunteer opportunity

Got to musing again today about my volunteer term ending soon. It has been a long road over the last 10 years, volunteering, which culminated in being President for the last 21 months. Every day, seven days a week, I work on Auxiliary responsibilities. All for the good of the patients our hospital serves. Some days there are many hours, others just a few follow ups or small tasks.

For the last 9 months I have been training my replacement. It is hard to think of the person as a replacement because I have been so attached to the organization. But change does and will happen. People will arrive who not think like us or act like us. As a matter of fact, they will be abrasive. And why is this you might ask? Because they think they can do better and be better. Things will no longer be done “our” way, but will be done “their” way. Change will definitely happen and depending on the leader it could be a good thing or a bad thing.

I wonder what the future will bring for both me and the organization I currently serve. Hopefully, it will survive and thrive trying new and different things to make it successful. I know that my path will lead me in a different direction with a new organization. Already I have been elected to another non-profit Board of Directors. There is a new group of people who feel I am the fresh new face they are looking for! The future looks bright.

Goodbye My Friend

My muse for today,

My very dear friend passed away this week. A vibrant, gorgeous, loving wife and mother of two young children. This was a shock of monumental proportions. I just had coffee with her a couple days previous and were were setting up our schedules for summertime activities. Death arrived like a thief, and stole her callously away.

We had just set up our new television and stereo cabinet and laid out the new rugs. We now knew how much room we had for furniture. My daughter and I excitedly said we were going to call my friend and see when she was available to help us go and pick out new furniture. At that precise moment when we were about to call, the phone rang and we learned the news. A terrible blow.

What can anyone really say to someone who has lost their #1 go to person? Words can't seem to fill the chasm of pain and grief. At the wake last night, I tried to offer my condolences to her husband, and no words would come out. I stood there, unable to speak, my words were muted. Her husband understood, nodded and gave me a hug. I believe he understood my inability to say words that had any meaning.

What I am able to muse about here, is that while her death was a tragic loss, her life and impact on others was ALL good.

Queen of Hearts Stamp!!

Wow, a new US postage stamp ---- The Queen of Hearts!!!

This appeals to me, so I went out and bought a whole bunch of them today. What could be better than sending out mail with a QOH stamp??

I really don't know why this seems so great to me, but it does!

Adventures of a Rainy Run/Walk

Muse for the day.....

The day started out raining. Hard! It was pouring, some of the roads were flooding, and we had 300 people attending our event. Of course, as President, everyone was looking at me asking me if I was going to cancel. I finally decided that if it was thundering and lightening it would be cancelled. If not, it was "a go." This ended up being the right call.

Remember the last post, "show me the ice cream?" I had decided to buy an extra 75 ice creams based a a 75 degree forecast with sunny skies. It wasn't until last night that the weatherman said the forecast had changed to rain. We really didn't need an extra 75 ice creams.

By race time the weather was down to only a light sprinkle so we were able to go on as planned. The runners actually liked running in the mist. The walkers were decked out in appropriate rain gear. We had about 275 people attend even though it was completely iffy weather.

I am very thankful to the entire 63 scheduled volunteers who all showed up!!! Who ever hosts an event with that many volunteers and they all show up?? Then we had 5 extra people show up who volunteered to help!! It was great, no one was over worked, and with all those extra volunteers were were able to eat most of the extra ice cream with only 9 left over. Those 9 are currently in my freezer. Shhhhh, don't tell anyone!!! LOL.

Show Me The Ice Cream!

Musing about ice cream and other things.

My volunteer group is hosting a 5K run walk this Sunday. We have over 50 volunteers signed up to help and a projected 300 or so participating. A good size group with the economy in a slump. Everyone seems less able to afford to participate in these types of events right now so we are thankful to have 350 people attending.

We are having refreshments, an assortment of fruit, granola bars, water, and ice cream. Everyone gets a T-shirt for participating. It should be a fun time for all.

Who would have guessed that the #1 debated item is the ice cream we are planning on serving after the race? Not me, this came as a total shock to me. We are constantly discussing ice cream and the quantity to have on hand. We have had no fewer than 5 discussions on the topic. Should we or should we not order more.

This is a moving target. We don't know how many will actually register. Our goal is to raise money so buying extra ice cream and no one eating it is a problem. But then again, not having enough ice cream and not meeting the expectations of the participants might be a bigger problem. Then there is the question of should we have ice cream at all? After all, this is a sporting event for the runners. Perhaps encouraging people to eat ice cream is an undesirable thing to do.

I suppose having ice cream wins out. Some of our participants have been there for the last 8 years and they expect ice cream. So...... ice cream it will be!