Wordless Wednesday

17 pound Melly

Here I come (again)

Goodness, Has it been that long since my last post?  Well, it was due to life that needed to be caught up.

I have been knitting an afghan, it is 60% done, not counting the final crochet on the edges, and I am pretty pleased with it so far.  I knitted only one before this.  It is supposed to be "beginner simple" I will see after I begin braiding the panels together.

Spring is almost here, and I am desperate to get some sunshine and warm temps.  The horses have been kept in the barn with only a few outdoor trips in the last 3 months, because the footing in the paddocks is too slick and glue-y and I fear a sudden fall and and a broken leg.  Willie is 22 and Maybe is 20 this summer.  They were born here, I missed Willlie's birth (drat that mare) but saw Maybe's.  After she was born I slowly followed the instructions for imprinting the foal, gently handling her feet and head.  It went well, I thought, until 24 hours later when she wouldn't even peek around mom and no way would she be touched.  Willie was friendly and interested from the start.  The difference between them is the same now as it was then, although her intensive emergency handling at the trainer's  when she was two at least let her be haltered and brushed.  (I didn't know any horse alive that didn't love grooming.)  His secret weapon was peppermint candy and a lot of patience.  I would have sold her if she had not calmed down.

All of our feline beasts are doing fine, touch wood, so our vet bills haves gradually been retreating from the breathless levels of the winter.  Most of the scars from dosing them have faded too.

The Newfy dogs are OK too, although pretty smelly.  To cold for baths, though.  Now if I could keep them from drooling...

I passed my 2 year check up with no problems (breast cancer), I am good until July.   My scars there are fading too.  In my mind though, I am waiting for the other shoe to drop, doing a  breast check every time I shower.  I know it is redundent, and that the first one was found from a mammogram, but I can't seem to quit.  Maybe with more time I will feel more secure.

I have apparently solved my problem with weird comments on this blog.  As near as I can tell, they were posted and then erased after a few hours.  A mail drop?  Anyway I added word verification and banned anonymous comments, and I haven't gotten one for weeks.

All for now..
Bumper sticker:  "You can tell Monopoly is as old game because there's a luxury tax and rich people can go to jail."

Insomnia

I've been having a bad case of insomnia the last few days.  Nothing is as boring as listening to someone about sleep, so that's all I will say.  Just so you know this post is from a deranged brain.

The weather out here is frightful, with very low temps and snow.  Both the kids made it home Friday with minimal complications, and we all stayed in for Saturday.  Today, Sunday, it is supposed to get up to 60 degrees with rain, go figure.

I tried to lunge* Willie a few days ago, with mixed results.  I wanted a calm walk, maybe a little slow jog, and instead got rodeo 101.  I had to give up, this old nag is too old for the athletic stuff.  And it seems, so am I.

*Lunge is standing in the center of a circle with a long line while the beast runs around you with a little urging of a snapping whip ( not to touch the horse, just to make a snap in the air).  The speed is controlled by clucking at the horse.  That's the theory.

If you have ever considered getting a horse of your own, my advice is -- Don't.  Do.  It.  You think it is hard to get a house sitter, imagine the difficulty finding a horse sitter.  To come twice a day, feed and water and/or turn out or keep in their stalls.  The problems increase the more horses you have.  The last time we all went somewhere I paid $300 for 10 days and felt lucky to get off so cheaply.  The dogs had to be boarded and the cats had their own sitter.  I felt like I was planning a foreign invasion.  Our horses were born here and have never been off the place except to be broken to ride ( most of the breaking is the rider's bones) years and years ago.  We rode in the 'hood, lots of wandering dirt roads, tho all have been paved now.  Then there is the shoer (every 8 weeks) and the vet (AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR,HAH!).  Grain, pine shavings, wormer, vaccinations, winter blankets, the list goes on and on.

That's all the scoop for now.  I rate this as a 3 for boring.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "Famous last words:  What happens if you touch these two wires tog--"

Is it January already?

December is over and I, for one, will not miss it.  It wasn't the holidays, but I just didn't feel well for most of the time.  So far this month I am doing better.  Fingers crossed.

I haven't posted here in quite a while.  Events have come and gone, and I have been dealing.  But I wanted to post here the photo of my birthday present, an electric fireplace.  We have an actual fireplace, wood burning, but it needs some vital repairs on it, so it doesn't kill us some dark night.  So, this sits right in front of the wood burner, and I will not miss the ashes/smoke/wood carrying that it entails.

Here is the photo:

I am 62.

I don't think of myself as being in my 60s.  I feel the same as I did when I was, say, 30, just a little creakier, a little more unsteady on my pins.  Mentally I am seeing a few little slips, names I can't remember (I've never been good with names), a few gaps in my memory, feeling a little confused about simple things like needing directions to familiar places when I have been there dozens of times.  I blame the chemotherapy, partly, for blasting my brain as well as any tumor, but it is a small price to pay for a renewed lease on life.  If I lived alone it would be different, but I have 3 adults in the house, and they are pretty patient with me, and help me too.




Bumper sticker for the day:  "Drink coffee - Do stupid things faster with more energy."

December 23

Christmas is almost here.  I sure hope the Christmas songs that are everywhere will stop on the 26th.  I have had one or the other imprinted in my head, Like winter wonderland, or Rudolf or silver bells.  It's a wonder my brain doesn't actually chime, I could get a job at the Salvation Army and I wouldn't even need a bell.

We have 6 to 8 inches of snow on the ground (WV) but it looks like that is all.  Hopefully the roads will be cleared so we can get to the grocery store later today, we need to buy the Christmas day fixin's We do steak and baked potatoes with fruit salad and a pie, and have sweet rolls for breakfast and a tray of munchies for lunch.  Not traditional but also no leftovers!

All the online purchases we have all done have arrived with time to spare.  And we only tackled the mall twice.  I'm not going to go on the 26th either, I can't take the mob scene.  The last time we went one of the local schools 7th and 8th graders had the string group playing, very nice.  We sat in the food court eating a sugar bagel and listening, a nice respite.

N's great great nephew is now a year old.  I am going to send a gift after the first, as I neglected to do so when he was born; things on my mind then.  They live in Kentucky and N's sister looks after the baby most of the time.  This after raising her grandaughter, and now her great grandson.  Maybe some people need to grow up?

Bumper sticker for the day:  "We have enough youth.  How about a fountain of smart?"

P.S.  I see now that the blog counting widget is above the actual count, and not down the page.  I didn't do it!  Will it last?

My heart goes out to the family and friends in Newtown.  We must not lose sight of the larger issue of prevention of this horror.  

The victims in Newtown, CT as released by the CT state police.


Charlotte Bacon, 6
Daniel Barden, 7
Rachel Davino, 29
Olivia Engel, 6
Josephine Gay, 7
Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6
Dylan Hockley, 6
Dawn Hocksprung, 47
Madeline F. Hsu, 6
Catherine V Hubbard, 6
Chase Kowalski, 7
Jesse Lewis, 6
James Mattioli, 6
Grace McDonnell, 7
Anne Marie Murphy, 52
Emile Parker, 6
Jack Pinto, 6
Noah Pozner, 6
Caroline Previdi, 6
Jessica Rekos, 6
Avielle Richman, 6
Lauren Russeau, 30
Mary Sherlach, 56
Victoria Soto, 27
Benjamin Wheeler, 6
Allison N. Wyatt, 6

puzzled

Hi there every one.  I've been wrapped up in Christmas preparation, but most of it is done (except the wrapping, sigh) so I came here to check things out.  But there is this weird thing:  I get all the comments forwarded to my email (that's not the strange thing) and I keep getting comments written in what looks like greek.  I delete them from the email, but today I went to the comments section on the blog site to delete them there, and I don't find any like that.  I worry that my comment section is being used as a "drop" for several people to leave anonymous messages that aren't attached directly to them.
But I can't find the messages in the 428 ones in the list.  What gives?  Can someone leaving a comment come back later and delete it from my blog?  Just a random micro thought....


My visit with the oncologist last week went fine;  still in remission.  Yay!!

Bumper sticker for the day:  "The geeks shall inherit the earth."

R.I.P. Cookie, 2001 - 2012

My dear Cookie died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer.  I have 6 other cats (don't ask) but Cookie was my favorite, and it was she who slept with me, shutting the others out until morning.  Isn't it always the favorite ones who go first?

Bumper sticker for the day:  "What if the hokey pokey IS what it's all about?"

Post Black Friday

Today is Saturday, and we ventured out to go to WalMart for groceries.  The store was fairly busy, but not crazy, like it was yesterday.

I don't actually have much to report; which is good news, too.

I washed and dried a tube of lipstick this week.  Forgot it in my pants pocket, and I am doubly sorry.  Not only did it ruin 2 pairs of pants, but the lipstick itself, Lancome @$27 was destroyed too, of course (not that I paid this for it:  it was a promotional size ).  Got to remember not to do this.  This is why we carry purses, right?

I have ordered two Christmas gifts, that makes 20% of my gift list, not counting money gifts.  Now if I could just come up with an idea or two for the rest...

Son is still driving around with a nail in his tire.  Got to start nagging program...

The bathroom remodel is finished, hurrah!  The contractor left us a bonus, his ladder.  He says he will come and get it, but so far, not.  The garage is finally cleared out of all the cardboard, and the truck is cleared of the old fixtures.  The guys at the solid waste center knew us on sight, for a couple of weeks.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "If indoor plumbing doesn't bring you happiness -- what can?"

Grocery Shopping

We just finished our Thanksgiving dinner grocery shopping, what a chore!  We filled two carts; but I know there are many who can't afford extra groceries, or that have no place to cook them.  I think of them at this time of year, especially after all the loss of homes and lives during Hurricane Sandy.  And I donate regularly to the local food pantry, although it feels like it is a very small help.  This Christmas we will shop for a family, which we have done in the past but let it slide the last few years.  It is fun to pick out stuff you know will be appreciated, and not just put aside.

While we were at the grocery store we saw a lot of WVU Mountaineers regalia, and also some Oklahoma fans.  Big game today in Morgantown, which I didn't remember until I saw our fans everywhere.  Also at the store we noticed the shelves for Hostess snacks was stripped, no more Twinkies!  What will we do?  Get Little Debbie snacks, I guess.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "When we say "Women and children first," we're not talking about budget cuts."

(And one big cheer for President Obama).

Back porch sunset

For this photo I actually had my camera ready and handy, as these beautiful light shows only last a few minutes.

Winter Wonderland part two

Here are the other photos of Hurricane Sandy aftermath, taken by my daughter.  All of them are scenes within walking distance of our house.  Mostly gone now, off of the trees at least.  Now for the chain saw  work...

Winter Wonderland

Here in WV, this is the present Sandy left us Monday night.

As you can see, it was a mixed blessing; many trees continue to break as the icy wet snow burdens the branches that still have some of their leaves.  We hear "Snap"  and then "whoosh!" as they fall.  Daughter has more photos of this, I will post them later.  Meanwhile, I apologize for the bold text; for some reason I can't turn it off.

Hope everyone of you is safe and dry at home. And has power too.  So many who don't!

Aftermath

I'd send a photo to show all the debris and the pile in the bedroom of all the rescued computer room stuff, but it is all so depressing.  When we arranged for the upstairs bathroom to be remodeled, I thought there would be a certain amount of dust and yucky stuff in here, because the drop ceiling gives access to the plumping upstairs.  But I never anticipated that there would be a massive leak all night long where a copper joint didn't quite seal.  I think I have the room dried out (fans, high speed) to hopefully leave no mildew producing residue, and tomorrow I will start with the vacuum.  My favorite activity.

Meanwhile back at the ranch.. N lost his consulting  job as the agency ran out of funds; the contract runs to April, but without money that scarcely matters.  At least we had considered (and rejected) the purchase of a new car to replace the Lincoln, so we aren't on the hook for car payments.  And the bathroom job had money set aside in advance, and boy am I glad of that.  Anyway, in the end the chaos will be forgotten and the lovely bath, gutted now, will be the result.  Now if only the printer is OK...

I slipped and fell again; isn't it funny, whenever you fall, how you look around to be sure no one saw you being a clumsy  nerd,  as if someone will point and say, "what a doofus".  Anyway, I am fine for once, now if I can keep my feet from arguing where we are going (" this way!  No, THIS way!") I should be OK.

Time to return to bed.  Hope Hurricane Sandy zips out to sea and spares the east coast. but meanwhile I am thinking of my Florida BFF (hello!) and sending good thoughts for the meantime.  Also hugs.

Bumper sticker of the day:  "Where's Robin Hood when we need him?"

P.S. Did you notice there is no political content here?  I already voted but the emails and the TV ads still haven't stopped...
update:  the vacuum broke!

In Brief

We have had a new flood downstairs (plumbing) and it is all over the computer room, where the acoustic tile fell into the room.  I am writing this on husband's computer and he has this weird keyboard that I have to search for each key.  back soon.

Where has the Time Gone?

I have just been merrily poking my way through the weeks, never thinking of the poor neglected blog.  Still, if you have been following this for any time, you know that I sometimes post three times a week, and other times 3 times a month.  Or less...

In my defense I must remind  you that my computer died the death about 3 weeks ago, and I now have son's cast off computer (too slow for gaming).  It suits me fine, and he helped a ton with setting it up for me, but it runs Win 7 and not XP, so that has been taking me a while to master.  And then there were the files backed up, luckily, on a flash drive, that were really precious (photos mainly) that had to be exported once the program itself was installed.  Busy times.  I think I am good to go now.

So over the next few days I will catch up with all the blogs I love to read, and hopefully resume regular Programming.  As I mentioned before, I have been knitting, hand and machine style, but most of what I did I unraveled again as I was not pleased with the way it looked/fit.  Like a winter cap that two people could wear at the same time, if they are friends, I guess-- anyway, off it goes, and the yarn rewound for future use.  I only have over a hundred skeins of yarn on hand, and boy do I need a bigger closet.  But pretty yarn is so hard to resist.

The long anticipated remodeling of the upstairs bath is set to begin in two weeks or so.  We have bought a tub, cabinets-- sink, over the tank, medicine/mirror-- and the sink, counter top, toilet, towel bars, paper holder, shower rod, the list goes on and on.  All we need at this point is for the contractor to get going.   Both son and daughter, who use this bath, are dismayed that the bath will be unusable for two or three weeks once demolition of the old bath is under way.  They have been spoiled I think, by having three full baths in the house, and now they will have to come downstairs and use the master bath.  Horrors!

My thumb has healed, I am glad to say, just the odd twinge if I turn it just so.  If I can only stop tripping, I wouldn't have these problems.  Two left feet, like I said (below).  Now I have this nifty wrist brace just waiting for the next episode, which with my luck could be any day now.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong."

Meme

I did this meme back in the '06 days, but I thought it would be interesting today. 
With some editing.

1) Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4.

"I've been talking to some people here at Houston.  We started re-evaluating the collision dynamics and trajectory when you found the core was hollow."

from In the Ocean of Night, by Gregory Benford.

 

2) Stretch your left arm out as far as you can and see what you touch.

An HP Officejet 6500. Ow.

3) What is the last thing you watched on TV?

NCIS

4) Without looking, guess what time it is.

6:30

5) Now look at the clock. What is the actual time?

6:25~~ Five minutes of Do Over!

6) With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?

A gurgling aquarium, the AC..

7) When did you last step outside? What were you doing?

About 3 hours ago, to hang throw rugs to dry.  No rain!!

8) Before you started this survey, what did you look at?

The Joy of Cooking.  Tasty stuff in there.

9) What are you wearing?

Brown sweatshirt, jeans and fuzzy slippers.  (such a fashionista).

10) Did you dream last night?

Yeah, something about losing my car in this huge parking lot.  Frustration dream, again.

11) When did you last laugh?

Reading some of my old blog posts.  Probably not too funny for anyone else..

12) What is on the walls of the room you are in?

Diplomas, a bulletin board, a photo of the old farmhouse.

13) Seen anything weird lately?

In West Virginia? No, do you think?

14) What do you think of this quiz?

It's an easy way to create a new post....

15) What is the last film you saw?

Cowboys and Aliens.  Harrison Ford, not so much, but Daniel Craig, rrrowl.

16) If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?

I'd hire a full-time housekeeper. No, a cook. No, a chauffeur. An accountant?

17) Tell us something about you that we don't know.

I'm actually a famous star.  Or not.

18) If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what

would you do?

I'd have all the world leaders meet and thrash out their conflicts mano-a-mano, with dull

butter knives.

19) Do you like to dance?

Not at all. Two left feet. Maybe more.

20) What do you think of Obama?

I think she's terrific and so is her husband.

21) Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?

Draconia

22) Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?

Apeteryx (a wingless bird with hairy feathers). Just thinking of his first teacher struggling to pronounce it gives me the giggles.

23) Would you ever consider living abroad?

Nope. West Virginia is about as "other worldly" as I can manage.

24) What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?

"You look great for your age!"

And not to forget the all important bumper sticker;  "Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?"

Uh-Oh

And now for a moment of silence OK that's long enough.  My computer died, not my fault, it just sat there humming and doing nothing.  We tried several ways to revive it, but in the end I got my son's old (nearly new) computer for the cost of a new HD.  It is one terrabyte, and I had less than 320 mbytes before.  Unfortunately although I had backed up (regularly) my main files, I didn't back up my favorites bookmarks.  Learn from my error and back your favorites up from time to time, you'll be glad you did at some point.  Anyway, I eventually remembered that my MacBook had mostly the same bookmarks, so I used a flash drive to transfer them here.  So!!  I still have all of your addresses, and don't have to wrack my brain to remember who was where.

We have closed the pool, although it is still warm enough to swim in (mostly), fishing out the the falling leaves just overwhelmed us.  I really miss it.  The broken thumb is pretty much mended, although my grip is still a little weak.  As part of the new computer I have a new keyboard, which does not have the letter "B" on the b key; instead it has a small red "b" in a circle, which puzzles me.  Any ideas?  The keyboard does not have all the extra buttons, CD drives, Internet shortcut keys, and so forth, so I have to stop and ponder how to do things that were so simple before.  But as I then had Win XP and now have Win 7, the connection of the USB as well as the extra functions were not compatible.  A term I have been seeing a good bit of, these last few days.  I used to use a little program called HP Image Zone to do a fast and simple touch up on my photos, it is incompatible too now, and I can't seem to find something similar.  I guess I will have to use Adobe Photo Ready, which is way more complicated.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a simple photo editing program? 

I did get out my knitting machine and knitted up some practice pieces.  I still want to learn to knit by hand, the local Michael's will have two classes in October so I will try that.  The first class is "Knit" and second one is "Purl", don't you think that is strange?  I can do both now, but I don't hold the yarn right and I keep dropping a needle (not just a stitch, the entire needle!).  The diagrams in the book are only so much help, at some point I need a real person to help me.

Bumper sticker for the day: "Computers do not damage your thinky thingy."

Worshiping at the porcelain throne...

Sigh.  If it isn't one thing it's another.  The orthopedic dr. allowed my thumb was cracked in two places and put on a black splint with lots of serious velcro straps.  Of course I can't do Anything so I leave it off a bit more often than the dr. intended.

Something has my tum all upset, And since I feel better sitting up I can post here, even at 2 am.  I think the worst is over, though.  Still munching on saltine crackers.

Meanwhile, we are waging the battle of the wisteria.  It is lovely, don't you think?  It blooms ferociously in early spring, the bees just love it, it smells nice,BUT BUT BUT nobody told us it is the flowering counterpart of Kudzu!  The main great mistake we made was planting it along the lattice work that surrounds the pool.  It is a climbing specie and boy does it ever climb.  All along the deck side, the deck walking area, it even invades the pool, growing under the lattice and up and over the coping of the pool.  When it grows on the lattice it fractures it as it forces vines thru the gaps in the lattice that thicken to the size of a man's arm.  It also reaches up and grows on the trees choking them and spreads,  even to tiny branches that are used to bootstrap to all the trees around it.  So it is chain saw and hedge trimmer time, and removing the vines wearing leather gloves because it has thorns.  My daughter says in biology it is listed as a noxious invading weed, Choking out other species and will regrow from the roots several seasons, so you have to keep cutting. Our big mistake...  My major was chemistry and medical technology; the hubby is sociology, what do we know about plants?  And the guys at Lowe's know next to nothing.  It sure looked nice...

The other thing I have been doing is trying to re-learn how to knit.  I made several things the last time I got into it, and I'd like to do so again.  But the thing is, all the big things, sweaters, any pattern other than stripes, I do on the knitting machine.  So fast, so even, so frustrating when it messes up.  But other than a pair of mittens, I have not made anything using hand needles.  It is really slow.  And having my thumb broken is not making things easy.

Well, onward and upward!

Bumper sticker for the day:  "Boobs!  Proof that men can focus on two things st once."

Imagination

I'm going to have to cultivate the habit of leaving my camera out, accessible, so I can get some neat pictures to post here.  Last night there were these incredible cloud formations, thunderheads lit from behind by the setting sun.  The view didn't last long, and of course I couldn't lay my hands on the camera until it was mostly gone.  So you have to use your imagination...

Friday I fell and landed hard in a parking lot.  Besides my dignity, I also damaged my right hand.  I waited until yesterday (Tuesday) to have it checked out, and the x-ray shows that I broke my thumb.  Now I sit here pecking away at the keyboard one key at a time.  And you should see me inching my trackball across a page, oh it's a wonder the screen will wait that long for me to click on something.  Next week I go to the ortho doctor to have it evaluated.  Meanwhile I am in a half-cast, I can at least remove it to shower.

All because I tripped.

Prior to my face plant, I have been trying to knit.  I once knitted a pair of mittens (which I soon lost) and a sweater (too small), well, actually I only knitted 2/3 of it and my friend, bless her, finished it for me.  She is gone now, but I have several things she made for me that I treasure.  Anyway, I seem to have forgotten how to knit, and have had to refer to a beginners book and try again.  However that will be on hold until the cast is off, since I can't even hold the needle, and I don't want to lose what I already have done (on a practice piece).  I unearthed my boxes of yarn and my! there is a lot of it.  Luckily it doesn't spoil!  And some of them are especially lovely.  I'll put some of them together so you can see.

Today I go see the oncologist for my 3 month check-up and a check of my liver enzymes to see that they are marching along in there as they should.  Also to ask if my dizziness has anything to do with the cancer treatment.  Probably not, but still good to ask.

Anyway, back to bed for a while.  Hope those of you who soldiered on with Hurricane Isaac blowing around are doing OK by now.  I remember what it is like to hunker down in the house and wait for the storm to pass, 19 years in Miami gave us a fair sampling.  My thoughts are with you.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "Incontinence Hotline...Can you hold, please?"