Week of June 5, 2014 - Father's Day

By Joan Whetzel

It's the 2nd Father's Day since my husband's death and the first since my dad died. Since my son is working on Father's Day, we won't be celebrating with him either. It feels really weird this year. Truth be told, I almost forgot about it, until somebody said something about it. I had to stop and ask when it was. Oh! It's this weekend?

What would we be doing if we had someone to celebrate it with?

1. Go to a movie.

2. Take one of them out to dinner - or lunch.

3. Buy a gift.

4. Breakfast in bed.

5. Let my husband sleep in late.

6. Call my son or my dad, and any other men in my life and wish them a happy Father's Day.

Well I can still call my son. As far as the other things, well, I think my daughter and I will do a few of those things in their honor - like sleeping in late and going to a movie.

Week of June 8, 2014 - Widows Must Be Rich

By Joan Whetzel

My mother and I  were talking the other day about things that have happened since we both became widows. It seems like we are suddenly inundated with things that need repairing or need our attention - and our finances. We have come to the conclusion that the fates have decided that we must be rich widows.

This week I am having to fix a failed water heater and a hole in some ceiling sheet rock (accidentally stepped through by my daughter when trying to figure out what was wrong with the water heater in the attic). I am also needing to do repairs to the siding and soffits on the back of my house. Also it looks like my downstairs air conditioning is having problems - AGAIN!. I just fixed the (bleep) thing last summer.

Add to that, my desktop computer. Internet Explorer started sending me to random websites instead of the ones I'd selected. Then my internet security program went haywire, flagging everything in sight as being corrupted and infected with a Trojan horse. Finally, Internet Explorer quit working altogether - on this computer only. I ran a diagnostic but it couldn't find anything wrong and suggested I contact my internet provider or my network administrator. Well, I can still get internet through Mozilla Firefox on this computer, and Internet Explorer is working fine on the other two computers in my house so I doubt the internet provider is going to help much. And as far as my network provider is concerned, well, he (my husband) died last year.

It was suggested I might want to try reinstalling Microsoft Windows on my desk top, even though everything else on my computer is working just fine. Windows was installed at the factory and if my husband had any backup disks for re-installing Windows, I have never found where he hid them. So I can either dip into my vast "widow wealth" and buy a new desktop or I can make do with Firefox.

For now, this "rich widow" opts for the Firefox option.