playing with ketchup

I am booked on June 2nd to fly to Florida to see my BFF.  The worst thing is, I have to fly out of Pittsburgh to get a non-stop flight, which frees me from having to change planes 3 times and be 12 hours getting there. The non-stop is a 2 hr 30 min flight, and I fly business class to assuage my claustrophobia.  Pittsburgh is about an hour's drive from here, and my plane departs at a decent time, so DH won't have to spend an entire day getting me started on my journey.  My return is June 6th, which also is my wedding anniversary, the 44th one.  Not too late in the day, so that is OK.

My DS has been a huge help around the place.  Yesterday he planted an arborvitae near the front steps.  That will make it 4 times we've planted right there.  First was honeysuckle, which grew like kudzu, and in season attracted about a million bees.  Not that I have anything against bees you understand, but having to duck under the honeysuckle vines as well as the bees kinda made it interesting for visitors.  Like Jehovah Witnesses.  Next we planted an arborvitae  and it too grew to majestic proportions and blocked the steps.  Last of all we planted an evergreen (the type stumps me now) and the whole thing browned up. dropped all of its needles and died.  So we have now planted a new arborvitae, max height 15 feet, max width 4 ft, and we planted further out from that corner.  It better live, it was a 6 ft tree, and too much $$ to let it croak. We moved another browning off evergreen to a better location, I hope that helps.  The 6 Canadian hemlocks that we bought from a guy selling them from the back of his truck, the whoe bunch for 20 bucks, freshly dug up out in the woods somewhere, have tripled or more in size and look to be on their way to true tree-dom.  Go figure

I sent off my burgundy knitting swap package Friday, and although the swap will continue, I have decide to withdraw.  It cost me around $30 each month ($10 of which was postage) and I can buy a lot of yarn with $30 a month.  It was fun at first, but colors like burgundy were hard to find.  I bought all mine online; they included a stuff sack, apron, mitt, potholders (these were hand knitted), a notebook with matching pen in burgundy ink, scissors, a travel mug with MOM written on it, and of course yarn.   I am sure it will all be useful.  And it cost too much, all my fault.

The farrier comes in June, so that will be the day the horses get vaccinated.  Assuming I remember to order the vaccines. They are 25 dollars each, plus 25 dollars shipping and last time I  didn't have the syringe on the needle tight enough and all of the vaccine sprayed out, so I had to order another dose.  But it beats having the vet do it, as long as they are otherwise healthy.  After they were trimmed and wormed (apple flavored!) we turned them loose in the upper pasture, and the farrier and his wife just stood and watched them as they kicked up their feet, galloped around tails up and snorting.  I swear they know when they have an audience.  They are 23 and 21 this year.

Gracious, this whole post is about money and how much I spent; I didn't mean to come across as so mercenary.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "As long as everything is exactly the way I want it, I am totally flexible."

Robert Bob

N's Brother died last night, and there is both sorrow and relief for N and his sister.  Grief because he will not be around to lend his humor and insight with us, and relief that he passed quietly and with no pain, after so long.  DH cannot go to KY without an 8 hour drive, but knows his back will take only so much, even sitting while DS drives.  To fly takes even longer, as the routes are anything but straight forward; for example, there are 4 plane changes.  DH turned 70 last month, and feels especially sad that his brother didn't make it that far.


This is a substitute for my bumper sticker for the day, as I am dieting and not getting anywhere.  I see my GP doctor next week.

Family

This is a photo of DH (center) and his sister and brother, taken in 2009.  I have photos taken more recently of the brother, but he looks awful.  He is now on Hospice care, drifting in and out of consciousness at his sister's home in Kentucky.   You can see how tall and heavy he is, and I don't know how his sister can cope, even with hospice care and health aides that come in.  So this is a bittersweet photo, as we wait to hear that he has passed.  The waiting is very hard on everyone.

Bumper sticker of the day:  "Life isn't tied with a bow . . . . but it's still a gift."

Cure All Cancers

Please share.

West Virginia Beauty

This beautiful scene is at Hawksnest in West Virginia.  I was there once for a conference, and my photos were nowhere near as beautiful as this. A lot of WV has breathtaking views, and unspoiled areas that few people ever see.


I'm tired today after a bad night of almost sleeping, but not really.  I finally ended up on the couch, my bedroom was so stinky from a plumbing problem in my bathroom that was fixed (for now) but the memory lingers on.  Owning a home is one long series of problems, it seems, now that our home is 35 years old.  We have done all kinds of improvements and repairs over the years and I am tired of it all.  However, there is no alternative for now.  Readers that are longing for "a place of their own" are advised to think carefully about what they are taking on before mortgaging their life away.

I think I will try a nap, and see if that improves my outlook.  To one and all, here and there, I am thinking of all the anguish you are dealing with, and hoping that all is resolved soon and for the best. 

Peace.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "Always be yourself because the people that matter don't mind ... and the ones that mind don't matter."

Knock offs

I like to use looms to knit on, these are the round or narrow plastic looms with pegs on it that you wrap the yarn around.  There are a couple of manufacturers of them, but if you look online or in looming books, the main ones used are "Knifty Knitters".  I have read that the company that makes these (based in Provo Utah) was discontinuing them.  So I have a set of the round looms, but I wanted to get a set of the long narrow ones, which a number of patterns call for.  I went on eBay and found very few sets available, but there were a couple that were listed.  I won the bid on one of them, not realizing until I went to PayPal to pay for them that they were located in China.  I don't doubt that the Utah ones were actually made in China too.  Anyway, it has been 2 months or so, and they arrived today in the mail, all held together in rubber bands and tissue paper inside a big bag that was tightly taped together.  They look fine; but there is no name on them and the "how-to" instructions are without any brand name.  I think I have inadvertently bought a knock-off.  I have had a lot of opportunities over the years to buy name-brand merchandise at what had to be knock-off prices, and I never buy them; I feel it penalizes the original seller and causes them to raise prices to cover the costs of "outing" the pirates.  That having been said, I can't think of anything to do to  mitigate this error on my part.  They may break down while still new, and that will be my penalty for not paying attention to this.

We have survived the last gasp of winter earlier this week, when we had a lovely snowfall.  That is, it was the kind that sticks to the trees and leaves the roads clear.  But along with it was a 25 degree low that night, and our jonquils, ready to bloom, froze, even though they were covered.  Drat.  Every fall we resolve to put in more bulbs than the bunch next to the steps, and every year we forget until spring, when everyone else has loads of flowers and we have 12 or so.  If we don't plant bulbs this fall, then we probably won't even have that many.  And to be really strange, it is time to mow now, and some of the neighbors have done that today.   Strange weather.

The horses have been outside mostly this week.  We have been unable to find a source for wood shavings to put in their stalls, and so they need to be out as long as the weather is not brutal.  They have cover to go to where we feed them hay and grain, and although they don't have the brains to come in out of the rain, they could if they wanted to.

One of our neighbors recently got two beagle pups to train for hunting (what?  I don't know.  Rabbits?) and they are in a kennel with a dog house nearly all the time.  When they see anyone - the kids playing, other dogs, etc. etc. - they bark.  Not really bark; they howl.  It is driving me crazy.  The odd thing is, we borrowed the kennel when our Newfs were puppies, so the one-year old pup wouldn't get too rambunctious with the 10 week old one.  We alternated who was in and who was out, and moved the kennel every couple of days to be in the shade and on un-trampled grass.  We really appreciated the use of it, but the neighbor has yet to move the kennel to a fresh spot, and about half the time the pups have their doghouse upside down.  I'd like it if they moved them to the back of their property, so the howling would be muffled somewhat, but I know that won't happen.  And just so you know, our dogs have about one acre fenced and none of it near the neighbors, and they don't bark unless someone is in the driveway.  If then.

Back to the laundry.

Bumper sticker of the day:  "Wouldn't it be great if we could put ourselves in the dryer for 10 minutes and come out wrinkle free and three sizes smaller?"

P.S.  I changed the font here, as I found the original too hard to read.  I think I like this one, but I'll have to get used to it.  What do you think?

Do you remember?

When all the girls had to wear skirts to school (no minis either)

When kids could ride their bikes home after school.  Without helmets .

When no one warned kids of anything except "don't talk to strangers"

When milk cost $1 a gallon

When the Sunday comics were 4 pages long, both sides

Telephone party lines, and the guilty pleasure of eavesdropping

The automatic outward fling of the driver's right hand if there was a sudden stop and kids in the front seat (no seat belts or car seats)

Hand turn signals

Stop signs everywhere instead of traffic lights

When girls wearing shorts didn't have to decide whether to pull them down to cover their butt, up to cover their muffin top or just pick the seam out of their crack.                      

When you cashed your paycheck and put the money in envelopes for each bill to be paid.

Hula hoops, and the one the neighbor gave us.  I bet it really wasn't too big for her son.

When bullies were a fact of life and you learned to avoid them at all times.

Remember when coffee cans opened with a metal key fastened to the bottom of the can?

When Bic pens left blobs of ink when you wrote with them


Some of these have hugely improved now, so no, I don't get too nostalgic for the old days. 

Bumper Sticker for the day:  "Yet, despite the look on my face, you're still talking."

                                                                                                                                                                      

Moving along

I spend so much time reading the Knitters Paradise forum that I don't have time to knit.  But I received some lovely yarn that has inspired me to get going again.  If I actually finish something I will post a photo here.  I know, you are breathless with anticipation, right?  I forgive you if you're not.

We went to visit my only living aunt and uncle on Sunday.  She is on hospice, with COPD, and caught a flu bug three weeks ago that landed her in the hospital for three days.  Then a stomach bug, for another emergency trip to the hospital for fluids, etc.  Both have taken a real toll on her stamina, and she is now on hospice care, and although her Alzheimer's is still there, she was pretty sharp during our visit.  Her coughing made me hurt, just to listen to; and my uncle is looking so tired himself.  They get a fair amount of visiting aides/nurses/and even her doctor once a week (who knew doctors anywhere still make house calls?) but day-to-day it is up to my uncle to be there. 

I know I don't want to go by inches; my grandad had a heart attack while painting his eaves, and was gone immediately.  My mom and dad just slipped away, but both were in sad shape by then.  When I show up at the pearly gates I want St. Peter to say "Wow! You look great for your age!"  Old joke.

We also put spring flowers on the graves for my parents and sister and aunt, Now if only the weather would match the flowers.  So far all we have are tiny green stubs peeking out of the ground. 

My DS got laid off last week.  It is a long tale, but I won't bore you.  The new regional director started this week, and tomorrow DS is going to talk to him.  I know he is nervous, but if he can relax he is very well-spoken.  At the minimum he will find out the main reason he was laid off.  Poor business?  Uncertainty about his position's duties?  Any information will be welcome at this point.

However, there are a lot of job opportunities in the area right now, so he should be able to find another position.  Lots of new construction in the area, and all the ancillary jobs that creates.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "A walk in the woods helps me relax and release tension.  The fact that I am dragging a body should be entirely irrelevant."

Swap packages

I have been doing monthly swap packages on the Knitting Paradise forum.  This where the coordinator pairs up knitters and each one makes up a package to send their package in that month's color.  This month the color is brown.  I am finding it really hard to find brown things in any category (other than chocolate and yarn) and not much in a tan color either.  I have been picking things up even before the swap partner has been chosen, and I think I will need every bit of the month to finish it.  It is fun, though.  There is a suggested price range also, but I never pay too much attention to it.

I have been under the weather this week, fighting off a cold/flu and finally feel half human today.  We have all shared it in the family, and we all sneeze and honk together.  Yesterday C broke his glasses, and last week R broke hers.  Coincidence?  Maybe not.  Maybe broken things are contagious too!  You never know...

Tomorrow I will finally find out my lab results from January.  Presumably if there had been something dire someone would have called, right?  I will see.  I called the dr. office yesterday to give them a heads up on getting the results, and they called yesterday to confirm my appt., and to let me know the results are in my folder.  I don't remember what was tested.  Or why.

I got a DVD on loom knitting yesterday.  I watched the first demo on making a hat, and I didn't find much new there.  I am hoping the rest of the lessons cover some of the stitches other than ssk, which is all I have been doing on the loom so far.  I have two books of patterns, and the diagrams of the advanced projects is confusing.  Hoping a visual reference will clarify things.  I also got a box of yarn today, 17 little skeins, just the thing for making stripes on a hat or scarf.  Meanwhile I finished my latest scarf on the knitting machine, and it looks good if I do say so myself.  Then I lubricated the knitting carriage and the needle bed and now the carriage just zooms! across the bed.  No more sore shoulders for me... I also leveled the bed, added another clamp to prevent it from shifting, blew the crud out of the needle grooves and checked for bent needles (there aren't any).  Now I am making a cover to go over it so it doesn't collect more cat hair.  But I must be careful to not make the cover too cozy or they will sleep on top of it instead on the window ledge.

Firefox just crashed, must tie this up for now.

Bumpersticker for the day:  "I'm not always sarcastic; sometimes I mean it." crashedfor                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Laundry

I hate to do laundry.

By the time I get it sorted, washed, dried, hung up or folded and put away, the dirty clothes hamper is full again.  Rinse.  Repeat.

So guess what I am doing today?

The temperature here is a stiff 15 degrees, after 55 yesterday morning.  I want to go to somewhere warm, but that would only make returning worse.  So I crank up the space heaters and sit with my knees nearly in them.  At least we finally got propane for our tank, it is used for the furnace and the stove, and the bill was $$$$ and the driver said he was about to run out and return to the gas facility to fill HIS tank next.  Next year we will be sure to top off the tank in the fall, and not have to worry about a bitter winter and running out.  If we had lost power this winter in one of the storms, I don't know what we would have done for heating; the thermostat and the fan both need electricity to make the furnace work.  I think we have a  kerosene heater we could use; otherwise, it's all of us in the local Ramada  Inn.  Including all the house cats.  Let's don't think about that.

I spent several hours reading the knitting forum, and I feel constrained somewhat from saying here on the blog what I think about various posts on the knitting site, because my signature there includes a link to here.  Just in general terms, then:  A lot of the posts are of photographs of knitted or crocheted projects, with some variety of "What do you think?" as the post.  And everyone says, wow, great, lovely, etc., often several pages of this, including requests for the pattern.  But what I think about some (not all) of them is EWWW, tuck it away from the light of day and pretend it isn't there.  And rip up the pattern too.  But of course that is too too mean, hence the Wows.  And when I read posts about how ungrateful some family member is about the amount of work it took to make, say, an afghan, that gets used for a dog bed, and so on, I think, HMMMM.  I wonder if I and the giftee have the same thought.  Anyway, I don't see the attraction of knitting in purple and orange with highlights of fuchsia,  unless it is for a dog bed.  There.  That's what I'd say if it wasn't so mean.

I personally spend a lot of time matching the pattern to the yarn.  When  I used to make some of my clothes (back in prehistoric times), I finally figured out that the best fabric and colors to use were the ones on the face of the pattern envelope.  If it was shown in solid fabric, don't make it in a floral.  I also learned that the feel of fabric is pretty irrelevant to the actual dress, because (of course!) no one goes around feeling the fabric of a dress.  Except me, and then I don't buy it if the thing itself is ugly.  And there is a lot of ugly clothing out there, believe me.  I like to shop at a super discounted store where there are returned items, product overruns, discontinued things, all for half price or less.  And so I see a lot of rejected clothing and wonder what they were smoking when the designer came up with some of these things.  Or who got the kickback.  Hit it with an ugly stick.

Well, the dryer is dinging at me, so back to laundry.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "Don't let your mind wander, it's too small to be let out on its own."

 

Extraordinary Lives

I found this on the knitting forum I follow and thought it would bear repeating here:

Make the Ordinary Come Alive

Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is a way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples, and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.

By William Martin | Illustration by Hasebe Yutaka

Bumper sticker for the day:  "Live so your memories will be part of your happiness."

Damned snow is back.

I hate to blog about the weather, but this season is really getting to me.  We had heavy icy snow Sunday night and the roads on Monday were incredibly awful.  My son stayed home, he had brought some work home on Friday and worked online.  My daughter, who works in a family medicine office, had her dad drive her to and from the hospital.  They had 35% cancellations for the day.  I cancelled my ortho appointment and finally got in for my cortisone shot this morning.  Relief, it is like magic how fast it works, but only at 3 month intervals.
 

 This is a 'light' snowfall from last week.  The wind chimes got a work-out too.

 This is AllWhite sitting in the snow instead of cuddling up in the heated garage. 

I'm wearing my Alaska sweatshirt today, I think we got their weather and they got ours.

Bumper Sticker for the day:  "I know I am supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting hard to find any."

It's spring, right?

We are having an unusual type of weather, warm and sunny.  All the snow has melted, slowly enough to not overrun the drains.  Cold weather is supposed to return next week, but meanwhile I am grateful for this reprieve.  We actually went shopping for an hour or so, not just to the grocery store for need-it-now food.  The horses' stalls are clean and they are outside for the first time in 2 months, poor babies.  That also means C can clean the stalls without the horses in them, a big benefit.  And we have enough dog food, cat food, horse food, bird food and people food for a while.

I even went through Walmart without buying any yarn, yeah me.  I am still trying to store the yarn I already have in some way where I can see most of it.  Someone suggested a shoe storage container with a zip-up clear window, if I can just figure out where to put it.  Right now the bathroom is the one with the most floor space, but it is too humid in there for yarn.  I try to actually discard and re-purpose things, and not just "churn" the contents.  I am trying to decide what to do with the jeans that are too small, should I keep them while I am dieting (sigh), or get rid of them?  My entire closet needs a major overhaul, but I am short on enthusiasm for such a project.  Maybe a little at a time.

I have my Color Wheel swap package for the Knitting forum I follow, nearly ready to ship, I just need a longer box.  This month's swap color is gold, and I lucked out finding some nice stuff at the local discount store (in addition to yarn), similar to TJ Maxx.  I hope it pleases, I always overspend the limit and have to prevent myself from buying every neat thing I see.  For one thing, the box needs to have only unbreakable stuff, and things that are not too heavy, as shipping costs are really pricey.  I know the USPS is constantly raising their cost, on stamps and on parcels, and yet maintaining that they need to raise them even more to keep running.  If they stopped giving mass mailers such discounts, maybe we would save trees from being cut down to make the paper which we throw away as soon as they arrive.  Grumble grumble.

The weather has prevented me from getting my hair cut, it is the longest I have had it in years.  Well,  the shortest was  the bald look I sported during the chemo.  It is still thinner than it used to be, I guess some of it just didn't recover after the chemo ended.  When it is long-ish the way it is now, the thinness especially shows.  Maybe this week I'll get it cut, now that the roads are clear.  Have a little me-time.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "If your car could travel at the speed of light, would the headlights still work? "

(Cut to the chase -- yes they would.  Really.  But what would you see?)

Computers and other gadgets

This little  MacBook laptop is getting a little temperamental as it ages.  I shouldn't be surprised, as it is around 8 years old, but I am quite fond of it.  Not, however fond enough to put money into it.  2 years ago I replaced the hard drive with a 500GB one, which is ridiculously large.  At one point I had the drive partitioned into mac and windows, so I could run windows programs (mainly Family Tree Maker) on it.  But the latest versions of that program now run on the Mac (I am told) so if I want to I can install it again.  It seemed so weird to have the familiar windows opening screens on here.

I hear that it is now possible to buy a new computer (HP) for $150 less, with Windows 7 installed instead of Win8.  Because win 8 is such a dog.  My desktop is running win7 and I quite like it, once I got used to it, replacing a win xp that went haywire.  We at least have found a place that recycles old computers, cellphones, printers, etc. so they don't end up in a landfill somewhere.  And for free, no less.  Now if I can only find someone who will take 500 books or so; maybe if we take them to the library, a box or two at a time.  There are even  more in the attic, but I don't want to think about them.

I got my latest swap box from a fellow knitting knut, aqua this time.  It was great, and included more YARN! of course.  I have revamped my secondary stockpile of yarn to hold more, separated by boxes so that I can remove skeins without having the entire pile fall down on me, probably smothering me, how embarrassing.  Of course it is 2/3 full already, and I am still open to more acquisitions.  A lifetime supply already.  It is hard to explain to non-knitters (or crocheters, etc.) the lure of a warm fuzzy hank of lovely colored yarn, but the truth is I had collected a fair amount of yarn even before I learn to (poorly) knit.  Now I machine knit, which zooms through yarn at an amazing clip, once the fiddly pattern making is selected for the row.  I still try to knit by hand, I made a pair of mittens, but the quality of my knitting is really poor, dropped stitches, twisted ones, uneven tension so there are big and little stitches, you name it.  And of course it is really slow going.  I am currently experimenting with looming, it looks like a kids' toy, but can produce some lovely things once I get the hang of it.  It is faster than handknittting (for me) and best of all it uses bulky and super bulky yarn, which won't fit on the machine and which works up in much fewer rows.

Anyway, enough of that.

The menfolk are outside trying to clear the driveway and parking area of the latest snowfall, 4 inches last night.  Our driveway is a mess, it is a continuous surprise that we don't slide into each other while parking.  I hate this and want it to be spring.  Not as badly as the shovelers do, I am certain.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "Lead me not into temptation.  I know the way."

The weather is still freezing

And that's all I'm going to say.  Cabin fever.  Boredom.

Knitting, when my hands will co-operate.

This is a pattern for this knitted cardigan that I got from a helpful person on the Knitting Paradise forum.  I'm actually hoping to find someone to make it for me, as it is way too complex for me currently, but meanwhile I can admire the photo.  Isn't it neat?  It was from a knitting brochure from Sirdar yarn back around 15 years ago, but they are OK (copy rite way) with passing this along as long as it isn't sold.

My hands are too cold to type, I'm going to have to stop for now and bring in a little heater.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism."

Pets of the Past

I've had lots of pets over the last 50 years, but I never got into birds.  When I was a kid, Mom had a parakeet or two, and I would spend hours repeating phrases to them, so they would talk.  They had a few words, but I wanted them to say "Hello Joe, what do ya know?"  I never succeeded, but one of them would say "Joe" now and then.  Once we visited "the bird lady" in Miami to trim the beak of one bird, and she had all kinds of birds as pets and being treated for illnesses.  One was a mynah bird, and he would say all kinds of things, it really tickled me.  Beautiful bird, too.  But I felt sorry for them, all caged up for most of the time. 

Here are the names of all the cats we have had:  Frosty, Shari, Misty, Whim, Mandy, Moxie, Mensha, Mali, Splotch, Emma, Mac, Gracie, Beans, BC, Dottie, Melly, Funny, Mouse, All White, Nearly, Ditto, Travelers (several), Mamma, A, B, Blackie (probably a traveler), Mismatch, Bro, probably more that I have forgotten, and cats we found homes for.  The travelers are male cats that hang out outside until they wander away again, usually in the spring when lady loves are crying out for a handsome fella.  I have loved them all, and when they pass they take a part of me with them.

The dogs are fewer:  Lady, Joker, Shadow, Simba, Lotsa, Magpie and Raven.  We still have Magpie (black and white Newfy) and Raven (black Newfy).  There will be no more dogs, cats, or horses when these pass they won't be replaced.  It is hard to keep that resolution, but there may come a time when we must move into town, maybe a condo or whatever, and pets make that really really hard.  Especially the horses, which cost a fortune to keep and even more of a fortune to board out.  I've had 10 horses/ponies:  Poco, Chacho, Jakate, Beauty, three pony foals from Beauty whose names escape me, Blondie, Willie and Maybe.  We still have Maybe and Willie, although they are in their 20s; they were both born here, by Blondie. No more after this.  And there is all of the tack, saddles and such to dispose of too.

Whew!  That's a lot to remember.

The weather is finally moderating, the snow is melting and the bitter cold is gone for now.  I feel for the unprepared Atlantans.  When we lived in Memphis, we bought snow tires and the natives laughed at us.  Then there was a really rare snowfall, and we were the only ones traveling without a problem.  Basically, they just wait for the sunshine plow.  Not fun if you are stuck on the interstate surrounded by jack-knifed 18 wheelers.  Although I did get tired of seeing the same footage over and over on the Weather Channel.

 Bumper Sticker for the day:  "I like you, but I wouldn't want to see you working with sub-atomic particles. "

bored bored bored

Being cooped up at home for 3 days is giving me cabin fever.  The roads are horrible here and they haven't been touched since the snowfall last week, so yesterday's snowfall just covered tracks left from before the storm.  We, husband and I, don't have to go out, but the kids have jobs to go to, and I really worry about the drive there.  Our road is basically one car wide, so if you meet anyone coming or going, one of you has to get in a driveway or the ditch.  Part of it is a steep drop-off over the side.  I hate even thinking about it.

I've finished the knitting projects I've been doing, but can't make up my mind what to tackle next.  I use a knitting machine, which whips through yarn in a heartbeat, so if I use it, I have to be sure I have enough yarn to finish.  Unfortunately I don't have enough experience to estimate yarn quantities, so I just go with whatever I have the most of.  Even more important is not to run off the end of the skein, because moving the carriage without having yarn fed into it, causes all the stitches to fall off the needles, which puts "finito" on the work.  So I have to keep track of the skein and go slowly if I am near the end; I can only tie on a new skein when the carriage is at either side and not in the middle of a row.

Now that you know way more than you wanted about knitting, I'll change the subject.

I have decided to stop going to the psychotherapist for the time being.  I am running into problems making the appointments, between other appointments and the weather.  And I miss my therapist of 10 years who moved away, and I just don't seem to click with this one.  Not her fault, but it's hard to talk with an utter stranger about family problems, and my problems; my other therapist just got the story about all this a little at a time as it unfolded.  Now there is too much water under the bridge to lay out everything from scratch, if I may mix my metaphors.  I have much the same problems with my primary care doctor. I had the same one for 15 + years, who passed.  The next one I picked retired; and the one he recommended moved out of the area.  So doctor #4 seems nice and can hopefully keep all the balls in the air from all my specialists. 

I decided to start taking Social Security beginning in February.  The benefit of waiting until I am 66 to get the full amount is offset in that it will take 10 years at the higher level to make up for the 3 years of no benefits.  But with typical government finesse, I got one message to bring in my birth certificate (I wrote about that in my last post), and then got a phone call where I went over my application on the phone and was told it would processed within the next two weeks, and no further action for me to do. Go figure.

I don't know when the horses will be able to get out of the barn, with the footing bad from the snow and the likelihood that they will get sweaty and then chilled in their heavy blankets.  Their stalls are a mess, but not soggy under foot thanks to the mats which drain away liquid.  That and their heated water buckets so they don't have to drink immediately after the buckets are filled or go thirsty when they ice over.  I hate to think how we would have coped in the old, open sided barn,  with the temps here below zero at night.  One of the best investments we have made.

And the outdoor cats are literally wrapped around the oil-filled space heater in the garage, staying warm.  It is not really warm there, but we have had electrical problems with the older heaters.  We don't want to burn the house down to keep the cats toasty.  We went to Lowe's to get a new space heater, and there were none.  Zero.  Zip.  Any size, any brand.  Nada.  So they will have to make do with what there is, as we can't bring 3 outdoor cats into the house with the 6 already here.  WWIII.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "OMG!  My mother was right about everything!"

The weather outside is frightful

I always seem to start with a weather report, but tonight I'll just say it is cold and snowy and let it go at that.

This month the color is aqua (turquoise) for the knitting forum colorwheel swap.  I can't find the staple things I usually send, like an apron, kitchen gadget, hot pads and mitts, they just don't seem to be available in aqua, not at a reasonable price.  Well I'll review my box once the things I have ordered all come in.  And yarn takes up lots of space in a box.

Last Friday we traipsed all the way to the Social Security office, only to find it was closed until today (the 21st) due to construction next door.  I want to get my retirement now that I am nearly 63 (well, on Friday) . Since I no longer contribute to my fund for the last 6 years, the benefit of waiting to age 66 makes no sense.  I won't bore you with the math, but waiting until I am 66 means it will take me years to make up the early disbursement.  And who knows what will happen then?  We are frugal, but the extra money into our "what if" fund will be welcome.   I just hope we don't get the surly person that I had to deal with when I had another question.  Update:  there has been so much snow they closed (or kept closed) the office for the entire week, so it will be next week before I can go and finalize the application.

I actually registered via ssa.gov, but at some point it screeched to a stop and referred me to the local office.  Why have an online method if you still have to go in person?  Grumble grumble.

Last week I was bending down slightly to attach the vacuum cleaner hose, when my back went *Pow* and I couldn't straighten up.  I hobbled my way into the bedroom, and somehow got my feet up on the bed so I could lie down.  I stayed in bed for 3 days, just getting up to use the euphemism, and DH brought me food and drink.  After 3 days I could gimp along fairly well, and could cope with the stairs so I could see something other than the water marks on the bedroom ceiling.  And television.  It was a toss-up as to which was more entertaining.  Gotta get the ceiling painted, but not anytime soon.  This makes a triumvirate of ankle, knee, hip and now back.  Oh wait that's four.  Well, you get the idea.  I am falling apart one joint at a time.  I wish our house was on one level.  The vacuum cleaner is *whisper* evil  .I just know it will punish me when I try to clean again.

I have written this over the course of several days, that's why the timeline is a bit back-to-front above.  I can't sit for very long or my back gives me fits.  Somewhere in this blog, I have recounted the Fall-from-horse, bad landing, 5 weeks in a body cast and several months in a brace, so I won't re-recount it here.  Suffice to say that the vertebrae where the injury was is still exquisitely tender, from 39 years in the past. When asked now to rate my pain in a one-to-10 scale, everything is 5 or below, because I know what real pain is.  Ten is when the pain comes in waves, bearing me off to oblivion and binging me back to more pain.  Morphine, please, every 4 hours, thank you very much.  I slept through the 2 weeks I was in the hospital before they cast me.  Just as well.

Still went back to riding as soon as the doctor gave me the all clear, but on a different, sweet, easy-going lovely palomino.  He died at 22 years old, it's been some 30 years ago, but I still miss him.  Heart-tied.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "I'm not arguing, I'm just explaining why I'm right!"

January Winter

I hate posting about the weather, because if a reader does not live here why would they care?  And if you do live here, you already know what the weather is/was, right?  So we will skip all of that except to say the West Virginia suffered its coldest day EVER since recorded time, like maybe since prehistoric days, I dunno.

Going to Gassaway today to see the aunt and uncle.  It will be good to be there, it's getting there that's the problem.  I've already said, if there's snow, I don't go.  I'm going to carry a full arsenal of winter stuff, blanket, water, first aid kit, the works.  Be prepared.

We have been bedeviled with stink bugs in the house, ick.  They're easy to kill, or capture and flush, but damn they are creepy.  I'm calling an exterminator soon, I can't imagine how many we will have once it is warm.  Ick.

I have been "looming" since Christmas on hats (very easy project)  but so far they have been too small for an adult.  I dropped them off at the oncology office when I had my 4 month check-up. 
They really came out nice, someone will take them.  My check-up went fine, I have 6 months to the next check-up, woohoo.  I will have a mammogram in Feb, that is the next challenge.

I made bread yesterday, one for the family across the road.  She had sent us (via kid) a coffee cake with cinnamon sugar; the only problem is that she bakes with Truvia instead of sugar.  This is because DH is a diabetic, but let's face... sugar is better.  Anyway, you can't send a pan back empty, thus the bread.  So although I fell behind last year in our treat-to-treat competition, this week we are even.  (I know I will fail.)

I need a haircut, but I don't know...

Bumper sticker for the day:  "Never assume malice for what stupidity can explain."

Acupuncture

 This is what it feels like when one of the cats peel off my lap at the speed of light.

I had acupuncture years ago when I slipped at work and fell on my butt, which wasn't as cushion-y as it is now. I injured my back, beginning a long period of pain and treatment.  I tried physical therapy, bed rest, and pain meds.  My physician finally recommended I try acupuncture.  I probably would have skipped the whole thing (I'm not into woo-woo stuff), but she called right then and made me an appointment for that afternoon. I went, all hunched over to ease the pain.  He did a treatment and as I got off the table, I thought, damn, it feels better. ( But physical therapy felt good too, until I reached the car, when I'd be popping pain pills before I started the engine.)   I walked out of the office, upright, and out to the car, still feeling fine.  No grogginess like the meds would do.  To make a long story short, after treatments daily for a week, and then once a week for a "tune up" I was cured.  Isn't that funny?  Tiny tiny needles,about the size of a human hair, placed just so, and each time more of the pain went away until there was no more pain.  Maybe this is one Chinese import that is better than home-made...

Hope all of you have a very happy new year, and if you traveled, I hope you drive home safely from all the hung-over drivers.  Even a fender-bender can ruin your day.

Bumper sticker for the day:  "Sex on television can't hurt you unless you fall off."