HOME HAPPENINGS

July 8 thru August 5, 2018

While new travel adventures may be on hold for the time being, I feel the need to continue writing every so often. Our blog is a place where I can hone my writing skills, but only time will tell whether or not readers will find my ramblings of any interest. Your comments would be appreciated.
We’ve been home a month now and it was a bit of an adjustment. It had been wonderful not reading, hearing or discussing the news. It had been wonderful not dealing with home maintenance related concerns. It had been wonderful seeing something new almost every day. But, vacations don’t last forever which is what makes them so WONDERFUL.
Upon our return we were fully expecting our house to be full of cat fur, and it was. We were fully expecting it to take time to sort through the mail, and it did. What we didn’t expect was finding an opossum staring at me with its small beady eyes when I went down the basement to find wrapping paper.
We had noticed that the tubing from our dryer to the outside of our home appeared to have eroded away. We had replaced it the day before I confronted our “guest.” The critter was on the 3rd shelf of a storage bookcase. After it hissed at me, I backed away and gave Dan the news. There must have been a less expensive and more humane way to have the animal removed, but we hired an expert to capture the creature. Sadly, I know that they euthanize wild animals. I have a problem killing spiders let alone a young opossum, but it had to go.
Fortunately, there was only one opossum in our home, but it wasn’t until I was cleaning our rarely used living room that I noticed a horrible smell. I thought at first something had died, but it turned out that the opossum had been using an area behind our couch as its bathroom. We were able to get the area clean and get the smell out, but we wondered how long the critter had been in our house? We’ll never know, but we guess it had made itself at home for some time. Since it found its way up to the first floor we assume it simply helped itself to cat food and water. Both cats appear to have accepted the opossum as a friendly visitor.
Also, on our minds was a party we were planning for our son Jonathan and his fiancé Dana. They are getting married in October, but the wedding is small and we could not invite all of our family and friends. We wanted everyone to meet Dana. In addition, Jessica and our grandchildren were coming in for the party and their annual summer visit. All we had done before leaving on our trip was to send out invitations. Now it was time to pull everything together.
On Sunday, August 5th 55 people came to enjoy a brunch of bagels, lox and fixings, giant blintz soufflé (made by me), fruit, sweet tray, tuna salad, alcoholic punch, tea, coffee, and cake. Jessica and Dana were both very helpful in getting the food ready and setting up for the party. Even the lox looked like it had been professionally prepared thanks to my neighbor Jan’s lox rolling technique. Many of our guests were able to sit at tables set up in our backyard, which helped keep the house from being over crowded.
When I was growing up my entire family lived between Cleveland and Akron. The Zaas Family Club, on my mother’s side of the family, would have frequent get togethers. I would see the Weisman relatives all of the time as we lived next door to my grandparents. But nowadays it is rare for all of us to get together. It was really special having the majority of family living in the area make it to the party, along with our close friends. That alone would have made the party a success. We even had a family celebrity stop by. My Mom’s first cousin Sheldon Ocker, a former sports reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal, was just inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for his coverage of the Cleveland Indians. Go Sheldon!!!
We really lucked out because almost immediately after everyone left there was an unexpected rain storm. Now we can sit back and enjoy the balance of the summer and get ready for Jonathan and Dana’s big day.
I almost forgot to write about another of life’s landmarks – my 50th high school reunion. I remember when my father received an invitation to his 50th Glenville High School reunion. He was really old. Now it was my turn, and it is rather numbing to admit to being THAT OLD. I even volunteered to help in its planning, although I admit to not having done very much.
The reunion was held at Landerhaven Party Center, and for those not from Cleveland, it is a lovely place. Out of my class of 168 kids (about 17 are no longer with us), 79 classmates attended, plus plenty of spouses and significant others. After so many years everyone was comfortable with who they were making conversations easy and enjoyable. It is rare experience to be in a room filled with people with whom you’ve shared so much, such as growing up in the same sheltered community of Beachwood, OH, going off to college at the same time, and living through the turbulent 60’s and 70’s. It was a fantastic group of people and a lot of fun.
Stay tuned for more…..