Monday, September 24, 2018

Wandering

I don't have much to say, but I'll let my thoughts wander and see what it finds.

I was wandering around looking at Lexus' used cars last evening, and an online salesperson jumped into action and wanted me to come and check out their cars.  Only, they are in New Jersey, which is a good long distance from West Virginia.  So far all they have is my email, and NOT my phone number, we get enough phone calls as it is.  And I figure I can use their prices to bring a likely local deal cheaper.  I don't know, I have never bought a car on my own, N did it all and I signed on the dotted line and drove it home.  Meanwhile, I have received 4 messages since last evening.  I guess persistence makes for eventual sales.

I am trying to get into the groove for therapy tomorrow, I have been doing exercises so I hope I won't have to struggle so much, like trying to do marches, which kills.  And at home, I do it without ankle weights, and boy their regimens with weights sure does wear me out.

I have made a start on clearing up this room, and once my storage boxes come that will accelerate.  The original plan is to clean out the attic of everything but luggage, and for that I want to get someone to do the heavy lifting.  Three piles, discard, donate, and keep (in box unit nearby).  I'm hoping the trash pile into the truck will be the biggest.  I hope we can at least make a start soon.  All the old textbooks and class notes are a goner, and then we will see.  The baby crib is for trash, it is a drop-sided one and it is illegal to sell or donate one, they are dangerous to use.  Same for the high chair, no belt to keep a toddler from sliding out under the tray.  I think there is a youth bed up there, but no grandkids to utilize it, so it goes.  And on and on.  That's a lot of back-and-forth on a drop down stair entrance.

I'm back to bed, I know this isn't a scintillating post, but I'm not feeling very sparkly at the moment.  Bye!


Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Some Progress

I am actually doing a decent job in therapy now, considering that I couldn't bear any weight on my right knee for more than 4 months, and it has now been 7 months of scarcely any progress.  I have actually walked a few steps without using walker or cane, here in my bedroom.  I'm scheduled up through November with the rehab place, and hopefully I will be done before there is any snow in the offing.  I see the nephrologist in October, and I hope he/she will have something that can be done about the swelling in my legs and feet.  It would be nice to be able to wear some sort of shoe other than a slipper.

I am wearing a brand new navy shirt today, so of course the white cat wanted lap time, so now I am in desperate need of a lint brush.  One of the in-home therapists apparently disliked cats because when he came here he wouldn't put his brief case on the floor, he would hold it in his lap, and pick off the odd hair that wafted his way.  The cats aren't allowed in  my bedroom, but their hair gets tracked in anyway.  C vacuumed in there each time before the therapist came, oh well.  I can understand allergies, cat dander is probably the number one allergan, and there are circumstances like frequent travel away from home, but someone who never has had any pets seems strange to me.  Oh, I just remembered a cute story.  One of our Indian grad students said that we Americans really like our pets.  I said, why do you say that?  He said he noticed a sign on the ground floor at work that said PET scans.  This was before the days now when PET scans are done over a sore tooth, so I explained about Positron Emission Tomography, which is a mouthful, the patient could be dead by the time you got done ordering the scan.  Anyway, he was embarassed, and I was (covertly) amused.  He was the one that used the word "preponed" and when I asked what it meant, he said, the opposite of "postponed".  I assured him that wasn't a real word and he was amazed, he had used it for years.

Moving right along, it is now dinnertime so I will post this.  Thanks for reading!

Friday, September 14, 2018

Success!

I was actually able to take my first shower in many months.  I use the shower chair and have to leave the door open as it won't clear my knees once I am inside.  But I managed to get in and out myself, and it felt great to be clean all over.  Big improvement over "sponge" baths.  At the therapy gym, I walked using my quad cane for the first time for this knee.  I tried it back in July of last year, but the knee wasn't working properly from the infection, and this was so much better, making me feel solid on my feet.  There is still room for improvement, I don't want to rush and fall, so the therapists cautioned me against using the cane at home for a while yet.  I am so hopeful.

I went to the hair salon yesterday and got my hair colored and cut.  So much better, not to have that fringe of white hair all around my face, making me look old and sick.  And I got it cut really short so it won't be a frizzy mess in a month.  The only bad thing is that the stylist didn't get the very back/neck area washed, and it felt gummy once I got home.  So I showered and washed my hair and the water ran red-color for a bit of time.  I'll be more forthcoming the next time about the shampoo coverage.

I think the worst of the falling-out of my hair every time I brush it is over, and some baby hair is growing back in.  I looked online for reasons for balding in women and found that, among other things, stress, antibiotics, surgery, and poor circulation are prime causes.  That pretty much sums me up for the last year.  It isn't falling out now, knock on wood.

Here's hoping the nephrologist can treat my swelling, that is the last problem to be addressed, my feet and legs are so swollen every day all day, that I can't wear any of my shoes, only slippers that velcro together over the top of my foot.  This won't be good once winter sets in.  We lost most of our summer to the rain (yesterday it was torrential, and not from Florence yet) and it looks like there will be no fall foliage with the winds and rain ripping all the leaves off before they get a chance to turn yellow and red.  I hope there won't be serious problems from Florence here ( or anywhere if possible) there are so many streams and rivers, and homes too close to them for safety.  We live on top of a ridge, up a steep road with no guard rails, and we have our sandbags ready to go at the garage door gap; but the store shelves are stripped of water and bread and t. paper, you'd think it was Armageddon.

My posts these last months haven't been their past amusing ones, and I am at a loss as to how to fix that.  My life right now and for about the last year or more isn't very conducive to humor I'm afraid.  I hope to do better as time goes on.

Here's a bit of humor...


Here's hoping everyone stay safe and dry!

Monday, September 10, 2018

Miscellaneous

It is really windy tonight, although not our share of Florence.  I hate it,  I listen to it all day and now all night, and for every creak outside I think of those 4 dead trees, one in the yard leaning toward the road and the main power line.  If I get a reimbursement from the long care insurance, I will call the company that gave us one of the estimates; not the cheapest one, and not the highest one.  The guy C spoke to was very knowledgeable, and he said the removal can wait until the next year.  But I hate dreading every twig that blows off, and one of the trees will definitely fall onto the neighbor's yard.  This is the neighbor that took down 3 trees on our property before N pointed out the property line.  One of the trees was still alive.  He hired a survey to shoot the corners of his property, and what do you know, we were right.  When we put up our livestock fence, we had to set it inside the boundary because there were so many trees right on the line, fencing would mean taking them all out.  We planted a few too, one, a Colorado Blue Spruce`tree that now, 20 years later, is a beauty.  What if he decided it was in his way when he mowed?  I would have cried.  He has a tattie old house they built with left-over building material; for example his windows are tiny trailer ones, and he used soffit to side the house, putting it in vertically and it looks very strange.  I have never seen vertical clapboard.  I'd think he would be better off working on his house than screwing around with our trees.  I haven't seen his wife in many months, I guess she is gone.  Maybe she moved to FL, where she spoke of going, when she had a garage sale.

Back to bed, more later.

The farrier came this morning, and found another abscess on the horse's left hind.  She is so gimpy from her stroke-like symptoms that the abscess didn't faze C.  I doubt I would have noticed either.  And anyway, I would have called the farrier to open it so it could drain.  It is like a sore spot under a fingernail, it hurts but you can just wait it out if necessary.  I am wondering about having her put down, if she has another stroke, or if the growth in her ear becomes huge and hurtful.  Right now she seems OK and a little sassy, so I will wait to see how she gets on.  I hate this part of pet ownership, how to balance their quality of life and the pain they are in.  If the winter is bad...

The neighbors across the road have their house listed to sell.  It was built by the same contractor as ours, and it is listed at $249,000.  I don't know what improvements have been done, it has had 4 owners since I have been inside.  C has been in, to feed their dog while the family was on vacation, and he said it looks very much like ours, except there are two steps in the hall, where they couldn't get the foundation any further down due to a huge outcropping stone under the house.  I don't think they have had any potential buyers.

I would like to get our kitchen remodeled, bigger.  I don't know how to start with someone to draw up some plans that would take the back wall further out, yet still above the master bath downstairs.  Guess I will go for the yellow pages...

I've rambled along quite a while so I will leave you with this funny:



Monday, September 03, 2018

photo film

I've been sorting through the little point and shoot digital cameras that we have.  The original one was a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W5, it has a 3X optical Zoom, 5.1 Mega Pixels, and it does take nice photos if you are close enough to the subject.  Nikon Coolpix, there are 2,  S3300 and L32.  They are 6X and 5X zooms,  no pixel stated on the outside, but a maximum of 16 M and 20M once turned on.  I like the L32 the best because it runs on AA batteries, and doesn't need recharging all the time.  My daughter loaned me her Nikon L320 which has 26X optical zoom, and 16.1 MPixels and is a very nice camera.  The lens is not changeable, the main drawback.  It runs on batteries too.  I have been enjoying all of them, as a break from stitching.

Additionally, as I was rooting through my dresser drawers for the mini tripod, I found two film cameras, a Canon Elph that is waterproof and uses APS 35 mm film, and a Minolta Talker, also 35 mm but not the fancy APS stuff.   What is even better, I found in the door of the refrigerator a whole lot of 35 mm color print film, and APS film.  The Minolta still had life in the batteries, but the Elph is dead.  I ordered the battery that the ELPH uses, it would be neat to play around in the water with it, if I eventually get mended enough to make that feasible.   The kicker is getting the film processed and printed.  I always took film to Walmart, but now they send it out, takes about a week.  I paid to get the first roll done by the Darkroom, just to have something to compare the other, cheaper, results.    I did eventually did find the tripod, too.

I have been working on the cross-stitched bookmark that I plan to give at Christmas.  I got quite a lot done yesterday, but when I switched to the next color, it was the "snow white" shade that drives me crazy when stitching on white fabric.  Also, the bookmark that I am using, I got it from Hobby Lobby, is not quite the right dimensions that the pattern calls for, so I have had to modify the motifs as I go along to make them fit the canvas.  I sure hope to get it done soon, it won't fit on the hoop so I have to use my left hand to keep the fabric taut.  Tiring.

We were visited last night by a big 'ole possum in the garage.  C doesn't want to set the have-a-heart trap tonight, but it will have to be done tomorrow night.  Possums carry all sorts of diseases, and both of our outdoor cats are ancient, and it won't take much to finish them off.  The neighbor two houses down from us never use trash cans, just bags, and when the truck comes along in the wee hours of the morning, the bags are ripped up and the owners take days to pick the trash out, which will be ripped up again the next week.  Why don't they get visiting possums?  They come into our garage to eat the cat food we leave down at night, so now we have to pick it up at bedtime.  I smelled a skunk last night too, I hope to hell that it was just passing through.  No more outdoor cats after these have gone, their food is like a smorgasbord for wild critters.  And the coon N killed three years ago was rabid.

Our liquid propane tank has been topped off and should be sufficient for the winter.  It cost around $350.00 instead of the $2000 it took when we discovered in the spring that it was completely empty.  Home maintenance is so much fun.  We will have to turn the barn hot water heater back on once we get a hard frost, so there is warm water for the mare to drink.  Which will raise our electric bill, of course.