I ordered my brother's headstone today. Put it off long enough, finally had to face up to it and do it. I stayed home as long as I was supposed to, waiting for the tv dish repairman to show up (he never showed up--they called me after he was supposed to come to say they didn't have a technician in the area--AUGH!). So I climbed in the car with my brown girls and drove to the granite company and picked out the best (I thought) stone. It's the same size as Spaulding's, 10" X 20", and is 4" high. Gray granite. They come polished but I asked them to sand the polish off. All that will be on it is HENRY GEER ROGERS on one line and
APRIL 25-1949-APRIL 5, 2004 on the next line. If there's a mistake in any of that let me know right away because he's going to work on it right away and get it up there soon. It costs $250 and we can pay him when he sends me the bill. I have to get there soon to mark the spot where we want it. While I'm there I have 20 geraniums and some zinnias (for Henry) to plant. The bugs weren't too bad so hopefully I'll get it done this weekend, before I go to the Midwest.

What a beautiful day today was. We have to call it a Day of Prayer because that's what everyone's contracts say, so to give us the day off it has to be called that. I guess, I don't know. I certainly don't pray or Mourn, so it doesn't matter to me what it's called. I call it Dead President Day. My dogs celebrated by running away for hours. I couldn't go looking for them because the repair guy was supposed to come. Waste of my time. Now Ihave to take Mon. afternoon off because he's supposed to come sometime between 1 and 4. As if I can afford to take Monday afternoon off, when I have to take Tues. morning off for my ultrasound, and am leaving on Weds. Oh well, what is what is. Can you tell I've taken some atavan?

My dish hasn't worked since the big storm of the other night, when trees came down, boats ended up on the road, all hell broke lose. Nothing down at Sonci that I could see on quick inspection. Linda lost 3 big pines and some camps behind the island had trees fall on them. Roger Douglas said he saw a tornado go through but I have real doubts about that. Anyway it was an intense wind and now my dish won't work, says there's no signal. So I;m reduced to watching network tv. This is truly the pits. It would happen during Reagan's funerals--how many is he having, anyway, 3? 4? They're still burying him and he'd been dead a week. I watch some public television and that's not so bad but it gets infuriating because there's some testimony in front of the Congressional committee looking into our torturing of Iraqi prisoners. Oh the arrogance of this administration! So basically there's nothing worth watching. I've been reading my book. So far I've covered the apple and the tulip, now moving on to marijuana.

I really hope to do some gardening tomorrow. I have 2 sets of lupines in bloom now--this is radical and thrilling. One is purple, one pink. I love it. Also have spiderwort, one pink and one purple. One from Liza and one from Lin. Really neat, I'm thrilled. My baptisia is growing smaller and less enthusiastic but is still waist high. It's 20 years old so I guess it's entitled. Likewise, my rose bush, also 20 years old, has died in the center and has new growth all around the edges. I'm not sure it will bloom this year, for the first time in 20 years. I brought it with me from RI. Hope it rallies, I'd really miss it.

I stopped at Pray's in Plattsburgh last night and bought a bunch of flowers--lots of snaps so I can work on my dream of having a huge patch of snapdragons in the middle of my flower bed. Also got cosmos because I always have them. Got some zinnias to plant in the cemetery in memory of Henry, for Kristen. More impatiens for the shade. They had some really neat snaps, lavendar and white in a really neat shape but they were already blooming and going by so I didn't get them.

The weather is really great, blue sky and crystal clear. The dogs and I lie on the deck (when they finally return from wherever they go) and marvel at it. The bugs are bad but bearable because there's a breeze. I got my hair cut very short last night. She pretended to give me a new cut and gelled it all up differently but when I washed it this morning it went back to its old ways and now just looks hacked off. Oh hair, it's such a funny thing.

I only cried a little getting Henry's stone. there are all these stones out front on the ground, some are carved with people's names, some are blank. makes me want to get one for myself ahead of time and have it ready and waiting. Anyway, I want one just like Henry's, same as Spauldings, just my name and numbers, next to Henry and/or Molly if she has a stone there. Yes, we need to have a marker for Molly even if there's nothing under it.

I'm going to bed early tonight, if it kills me. If I have to take 10 pills to sleep. No more staying up until 2 and sleeping late, I need to normalize a schedule because I'm going to be with other people who won't have the same schedule I do. NO one has the schedule I do. Even my dogs nag me about going to bed. I also have much organizing of my house to do before Monday. OK, so I'll just do one or two more crossword puzzles before I get going...