Summertime Blues

Sometimes, you just get a little blue.

My friend Dee is having a kidney transplant tomorrow. She is in my prayers.

My pastor and his wife, who was in the choir, left a couple weeks ago. I got to be very fond of them.

The woman in this picture, Naomi Anderson of Binghamton, died on the 4th of July. I was actually going to go to the funeral - I was sent the obit, and was actually in town for her funeral. But the e-mailed notice didn't mention WHICH Saturday the service was being held, and I arrived at my old church, which was locked. Not that I would have gone to Binghamton specifically for the service, but I figured that since I was there...

Won't even talk about work.

They're closing the Catskill Game Farm, which I went to when I was three and a number of times since, and which I figured I'd take Lydia to someday.

The thing that REALLY stressed me out most, though, involved Lydia. We had not given her any peanuts or peanut butter, but last Wednesday, she got some. It did not agree with her at all. When I got home, she was crying after throwing up. She threw up a second time, but more distressing, her left eye was far more closed than her right eye. I was afraid she was going into anaphylactic shock, or something. She has been sick before, but never was I as worried as I was that evening. Carol called our doctor, then went out to get her some Benedrill while I watched her. She threw that up, and about an hour later, threw up a fourth time after a small cup of water. Thursday, I took her to the doctor. We now carry an EpiPen.

The upsides: we have new pastors, the Leupolds, who start today; I'm serving coffee. My friend Cecily became a grandmother for the first and second times in the last two months with Henry Sinon, son of Jeff and Heather, and Katherine Lottie, daughter of Mike and Karen. And finally, Lydia seems to be OK. Of course, this means dumping Carol's beloved peanut butter - the doctor thought it should even be in the house until Lydia sees an allergist - but this is the price one pays as a parent.

That's Carol, my sister Leslie and my mom Trudy in Binghamton last month with the child.

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This is my daily Julie Hembeck mention.