Day 136 - at least it isn't Monday

Today is the 3rd day of the 20th week, the 16th day of the 5th month, the 136th day of my 2023 resolution, and:

• Biographer's Day
• Dinosaur Day [also celebrated on June 1st]
• Honor Our LGBT Elders' Day
• International Day of Light
• International Day of Living in Peace
• Love a Tree Day
• NASCAR Day Give-a-thon
• National Coquilles St Jacques Day
• National Horse Rescue Day
• National Mimosa Day
• National Piercing Day
• National Sea Monkey Day
• National Wear Purple for Peace Day
• Sex Differences in Health Awareness Day

Quote of the day:

“Grief is a giant neon sign, protruding through everything, pointing everywhere, broadcasting loudly: Love was here. And quietly in the fine print: Love still is.”

~ Heidi Priebe, Canadian author specializing in psychology and personality types

Grief and the physical manifestation that is mourning, is a very personal process and is not limited to death, but with missing what was or could be.  One mourns when a relationship is over, when an era fades away, when a door closes.  There is no time limit and there is no "return to normal" because normal has irrevocably changed.    I grieve for Frank 18 1/2 years later.  I grieve for the lives my children and my granddaughters would've had but for cancer. 

I ran across this quote totally by accident, and came to a full stop, gazing at it, letting the meaning of it sink in.  Grief, mourning, missing, is not the same as the bitterness of regret, but it can deplete one's spirit and make everyday life that much harder. 

Contraction update: 

Today has been a noisy one in chez Enclave - yup, I was right about the start of jackhammers out in the parking lot.  Interestingly, they took the time to add additional lines where they weren't working but in a different color.  I wonder what is the difference between the yellow and red lines?

Part of the reason the noise is so loud while they are working is that multiple jackhammers are going at the same time.  I can't tell if they are wearing audio protection, but I certainly hope that they are because it is quite loud on the 20th floor, so it must be deafening right next to it.  I've had to close the balcony door despite it being rather warm in the apartment to help manage the noise

A few days ago, I expressed some angst because I had not dived in and cleared out the trash chute area.  The same situation arose this morning and I just stood and looked at the pileup   I had walked down to throw away my garbage, primarily because I had cleaned out Triscuit's litter box.  Again I stood there and looked at the mess helplessly - I had to log into work in a few minutes and I honestly didn't even know where to start.  I tossed my bag into the room and left it.  And yes, I went back to take this picture just so I could show how bad the issue is at times.  About an hour later, when I went down to get my mail. the housekeeping staff had cleaned it up completely.

So much for my resolution to be a good neighbor - that didn't last very long, did it?

Now if this blog post was an essay rather than a meandering babble, I would come up with some neat little way to tie up those these two disparate segments.  If it was more literary, I would've had a good transition from the discussion of grief to the daily minutiae.  As it is, just like life itself,  the post just goes on to the next thing willy nilly and takes my readers along with me.

Just be glad that I don't start expounding on the problems caused when you let a loan officer figure out a settlement disbursal!  After a flurry of emails and phone calls, we got it worked out.