OK

 OK, I know it is 7 or 8 weeks since my last post, Somehow I thought new posts would magically appear on the published posts even if I didn't put them out there. ( I still have my teddy bear from 7 years old.)  

Meanwhile I am trying to get a topic going that I can fill up without going silly.  Could it be refills on my scripts?  There are a lot of them, the problem is that they just lay there, no action.  I have been trying to get going on lots of topics, but none of the read well.  I can't see how writers sit down, dip into the ink well and write a best seller.  I have been trying to get the manuscript for my novel to be correct, but I just keep re-writing what I should leave alone.  At the rate I am going to finish in time for my 80th birthday.

So OK I will drag what is left into the light, no read-right  what is  (above) finished, fixing typos as I see them.  

C has gone to take a nap, and I could do the same, but I would wake up feeling worse than when I went to sleep.  Its is nearly eleven and I just had brunch.

When I was well and hearty I went to see a doctor who was gradually losing losing her battle with cancer, but still cheerful, at least.  I called her at her house for a quick yes/no that Dr. Number two recommended and she sounded like her usual self and the answer was "no".  She remembered who I was and what meds I was taking.  It was a real blow when she passed.  I have seen more than 5 doctors since then and everyone has left for one reason or the other.  The main one has been they missed too many of the kids' soccer etc. games, and the older ones missed too many grandkid's games.  One of them said "I thought I could change the system but instead it changed me".  I seem to invite all sorts of "secrets" and have no idea why.  Once I repeated the words to another doctor that #2 was leaving and he had no idea.  Whoops, open mouth insert foot...

Today being  Sunday there are no nurse visits.  Yesterday there were 4 visits from nurses, therapists, etc. and one would hardly leave and another would arrive.  No doubt Monday will make up for today.

I am tired already.

We called the power company when the wind knocked a line down, and the guy (singular ) wrapped the line up in his hand and disconnected the power, I guess.  He didn't seem too bothered.  Makes mowing more straight forward.  One would hope.

OK, that is it from here, hoping all there is OK.  I will try to do better.

Bye for now!

 Addendum: We were having not a simple cold, but Covid.  C got it first, from R?, and it has knocked him down, good thing he is retired.  I got it from him and I thought I would miss but no, just a a brief pause from the entire run of the illness.  I have been trying to use OTC to ease the system, but no help.  *cough*cough*.  we all tested positive on the in-home tests and then  R works in Family Medicine and I would expect she would have it already, but is cleaner yet.

I am still working on cleaning and sorting stuff, but it is hard to go into the closet when there is so much that needs to be sorted.  I should offer an incentive to those per armhole? that needs to go, but there would be a massive dump.  When N died, they went in the closet and outside of a sweater or jacket they just dumped them to Goodwill.  Some of them were mine.

Anyway the deed is done, 5+ years ago, and if I ever get to go shopping, I will buy all new.  With a new budget.  And the closet will look radically different.

Moving along, dum de dum

 OK, I have news, bad-ish, about Heath Bars.  I was eating one of the miniatures, and there was a *crack*, and there in my hand what I presumed to be a piece of candy.  I tossed it, but an hour later I felt a rough part in my molar, and I think I busted a filling.  I will call Monday and hope it is a trivial matter.  I just love to get dental work, don't you?  And my dentist for years and years retired in Dec., and the new one is an Unknown Quantity.  

C got a new phone, the old one was cracked and crazed, so this one is a big improvement.  I think he had been nursing the old one along, and R got him this one for Christmas, a big improvement.  I got a cd player, but I don't know where I will put it, this room is so filled with everything.

C and I have both been given an extra gift; we caught R's head cold on Christmas day.  Yippie!  This has set my clearing up several days behind, but I will get there.  Meanwhile I need to get pitch / donate / keep divisions from spreading out everywhere.  

I see the ortho doctor at the end of the month, this is to make up for the appt. in Dec that I missed.  Another fun-filled appt, this one involving needles of cortisone under the kneecap.  What fun.

 If it weren't for doctor appt. I wouldn't have any social life.

Well that is all the news such as it is, hope everyone of you had a merry merry Christmas, and I will catch you on the flip side.  Bye!

Secrets

Well, I've tried every hack I know, and some are pretty out there, but the bottom line is I don't know as much as I thought. Do you know some odd little pick in the grater? Keep it to yourself. I'm not being mean just some experience that gives the paternal size. For first exploration, I hear the physician say, well I won't be leaving. She lasted around one year. I am one of those people that just invites soul-bearing I guess. I listened to a nice person tell me the secrets of their church's financial woes(I never then or now had been there.) A doctor that unloaded their grief about never getting to their kids' soccer games because he was on call. At one visit, the first one, the doctor told me he was leaving to be nearer to his family. Several doctors told me "the reason" they were leaving, I never told anyone. So on and so on. Starting when I was in my twenties this has been going on, Divorce, one went to doping ( It was on the front page of the newspaper): one came out of the closet, I feel like Mother Confessor, (now I am 70 and don't care to get anyone's deep secrets). I spent a good part yesterday in the ER. I had fallen once again and hit my head and my back. They found nothing in my head (surprise) and they have done everything. The back scrape is the most they turned out, it is very tender. It looks bad and feels worse. (The doctor in the ER is looking for another clinical position). We had our first snow last night. The road is fine, but the snow is all over the yard and so the kids find the footing treacherous. I doubt it would matter (back home) in Miami. Sunburn, yes. Ice,no, I am reminded of the long arm of the far right and so I have redacted much of the particular info here.

I have been working with my hordes of cosmetics to sort them into  broad categories, the easier to get them used.  The main problem is that I keep getting distracted and so I try them out rather than sorting them out.  I am sure that a lot of the sample ones are all dried up inside their little foil packets.  Still, I am trying to reduce the amount of real estate the disposable packets take.  For instance the cologne samples take up way too much space and so I have discarded the cardboard cards and just kept the little spray vials.  Do you know, in the *old* days cologne samples came in *nips*, capillary pipettes sealed at each end, and you had to snap the glass to release the cologne.  The nips were sharp and being made of glass they couldn't be resealed.  Don't miss those things.

The other thing that needs to be sorted are the makeup samples.  I have a MaryKay tray with lots of makeup that I don't like.  Why don't I pitch it?  It just seems like a terrible waste, and maybe I will want them after all.  The MaryKay people have changed the tray from pink to tan and the old ones don't fit in the spaces of the new.  That's assuming I can find the old refills and try to get them into the tray of the new.  I spend an inordinate amount of time searching for things I don't really need.  For instance, this morning I searched and searched for a new hairbrush I bought just last week only to finally finding it in my purse.  I think my purse is in cahoots with this room, it hides things in plain sight and giggles when I ignore whatever is in front of me.

I have been watching videos on You Tube by Wayne Goss, he is a makeup artist.  He has a dry sense of humor, and since I just found him I can binge-watch his videos.  As an example, he said  "Are you wondering what this powder is... it's a secret.  You'll have to wait until next month."  Yesterday he was applying mascara and said "Are you wondering what brand this is?  It doesn't matter, it's shit and you don't need to know."  In all, I have found that the mass amount of time I spend on my makeup, the better off I'll be if I scrap the entire process and follow the advice of Wayne.

Two more gifts to wrap and I will be done; I have been buying clothes and slippers and other things to be my gifts since I know I will get nothing (probably) on Christmas day.

When N was alive he made a special effort to maintain the yearly efforts for Christmas; food like fruit cake he made (YUM!) and cookies, the tree wrapped in ribbon, Christmas carols on the radio while we did the tree, flavored popcorn in the big cans, cards to people I never even heard of, decorations outside on the roof, on and on.  It's been 6 years now, and every year we do a little less.  This year the tree is 2 feet tall, one strand of lights, nothing outside, only the gifts I bought (online) and wrapped, under the tree.  The tree looks like the one in the Charlie Brown cartoon.  R didn't even come over to help decorate, couldn't be bothered.  Next year we probably will skip the entire thing.  It makes me sad.

Time for lunch, if C remembers. Merry Christmas from us to all of you, hope Santa doesn't succumb to ennui and visits all the kids.  

Bye! 

I still have the   whoops   same error  damn hmmm

I need to polish up my blogger before I attempt starting 900+ posts and ruin all of them in the ether of lost posts.

I plan to $$ the author  of my beginning and pay an accomplished blog writer to get off the ground.  

Meanwhile I will post here and ignore those small slips until they act as brakes.  

hang in there....

passwords are just scrabble games for slow learners

Here I am, and only 45 minutes wasted.  HTML version is useless for anyone but a programmer.  This will be a short post so it will be only a small glitch if it disappears.  

Hello?  What just happened?  Hello?

OK, continuing on...

Now I cannot remember what I was writing, I am sure it doesn't matter.

I got a camera bag to hold the Canon camera (sounds like a bunch of Cs) and it is only so so as a protective sleeve.  If I needed to get to the camera in a hurry, forget it, it has 4 velcro straps to undo, the cute bunny in the back yard is long gone by then.  Plus, I am trying to switch from Nikon to Canon and it is a lot harder than I thought.  Where did the Canon come from?  I can't remember that either...

I saw the podiatrist last week and he has done more than all the other MDs combined.  He removed the dead skin from the callus and made three moleskin patches to replace the one that will get wet when I shower; gave me a tube of ointment to treat it, and at no time did he say "wait until it clears up".  I go to see him in 2 weeks for a follow-up, and I am hopeful it will be clearing by then.

Too bad he doesn't do backs.

I hate passwords, I never have clear sailing when I am attempting to do the simplest thing here.  Never.  I want all the passwords to be "password"  and if I need to "protect" then I will take the damn laptop WITH ME.  

I can't remember how to do this

I think this is right

I'll give it a shot

I am still working on my cross stitch, I had to rip out 6 rows that were in the wrong place.  It took forever, being careful to avoid snipping the fabric, and after the rows were gone I still had to stitch the correct place.  I will lay this away for now, my hands are covered in Bag Balm right now anyway.

The purse I got on eBay came yesterday, and it is small enough to hold my organizer and nothing else.  But mostly that is all I need to have; the purse is a lovely Coach in navy leather and is cross-body, so hands free.  

One of the therapists tempted us yesterday, looking for a home for a kitten that wandered into their living room.  It sounds lovely, but my watchwords are "No more cats, no more dogs, no more horses." so we escaped without a kitten, hurrah.  If the typical cat lives 12 or more years, I don't plan on living much beyond that, I am 70 after all.  Dogs and horses are about the same, and they aren't easy to find a new home, when they are teenagers or older.  Just as well she didn't bring the kitten with her.  When I lived in San Francisco one of my coworkers said she wanted a kitten, so I passed the word to a horse friend, and on a day that the boss was gone she brought in a box with 11 !! kittens.  Three were adopted then and there, and more on a tentative date.  Who can resist a sweet kitten??

It seems strange not to have a horse.  I bought one when I was 24, and he lived to be 23; I even had him shipped from  SF to here.  I gave most of my tack to a friend, so even the tack room looks bare.  I also have 40 or 50 bales of moldy hay, don't know what we will do with those, they don't burn very well. 

I am currently sporting a blister, on the outside edge of my foot, probably originally from walking on the side.  I got one like this when I was in the nursing home and it took forever to heal.  It doesn't hurt, as I have very little sensation in my feet, but I don't want it to fester into a big open wound.  I can't see it myself, but C took a photo to show me, and it is nasty looking.  He has been changing the bandage and treating it with Neosporin and it seems to help.  I have an appointment to see my GP on Tuesday, and I hope he has something other than "keep clean and wait".  Maybe something to get it to heal more speedily.  When I was in the nursing home the lady across the hall from me had only one toe left on her left foot, and when she went home they removed that one as well.  It was to control gangrene in her foot, and I take that as a warning for me also.  

Speaking of the nursing home, they had a laundry there.  They would label your clothes and then when it was all clean they would return them to you.  In theory.  The first week I lost a bathrobe and the second week I lost a pair of culottes.  The robe was new, and monogramed, and labeled with the name of the cruise ship.  The culottes were a standby in place of shorts.  The bathrobe showed up after a couple of weeks when one of the aides took pity and searched it out, but the culottes never did reappear.  Now that I am home I have been trying to find a replacement, but no luck there.  Bummer.  It probably got pitched.  Anyway that is how I came to be handing my laundry out to C at the back door, and getting on the bad side of the senior aide.  It was OK to open the doors for the smokers, but not for 45 seconds to pass laundry through.  One of the aides said "they were trained" to go outside and I said for an entire semester?  By university faculty? and pulled an Aplus at the end? Trained, pfffft.

Well that is it for me today, hope everyone is healthy and stays that way.  And never take walking for granted...

 

Home at last

We lost Blackie yesterday.  She seemed lethargic the day before, and by Wednesday she was failing.  There was nothing to be done, C laid her on a soft blanket in the garage with a heater going, and shut the kitty door so we would be able to find her, and no one to harass her.  I never touched her, she would only let C give her chin and tummy time.  One of the neighbor kids asked for her today, but there is only the truth.  We had no idea how old she was.  No more feral cats, they take a bit of your heart when they go.  They all do.  

I have been thinking of B, N's brother.  He died a few weeks before N, they were never close, N was more involved with his sister, S, keeping track, going to see her, many phone calls.  S moved to Kentucky from Michigan, to get out of the clutches of her "friends" who seemed more into her money, after she came in to $$; but they just followed her to KY, at least until she came to say "no".  Anyway, I have wondered why B's step children cut him no slack once B's wife passed.  No sympathy cards, no contact at all with S and B and his wife/ their mother.  When I write this out it is convoluted, but it just puzzles me.  B had done a fair amount of genealogy on our western families, but when I asked for it, the step son said they pitched all the paper in his rooms. Never again to be found.  I should have asked B before he became ill. He had served in 'Nam and got deluged in Agent Orange on a daily basis and it just ate him up from inside after his tours were over.  I think he and his stepsons had a falling out over religious things or maybe money.  I will ask S when next we talk.

I have a nice lady who comes every 2 weeks to do my nails, and this time she remarked on how many books I have.  And if I had read them all?  I guess I have  more than a lot of people but then I never watch TV. 

I do re-read some and you can tell which ones by their tattered covers.  Meanwhile there sits the TV...When I was in the nursing home I had the only TV with no sound and no remote.  They fixed it the day I left (after 10 weeks )The lady across the hall was mostly deaf and had her TV cranked up to the max, so I had sound if I wanted.  I guess the $6000 extra we paid was ransom to let me out.  Or maybe the cost of new TVs. It was a nice place, but damn I wanted to come home.  One time C came to the back door and I buzzed him in to collect my dirty clothes (oh horrors; like the smokers didn't let unfiltered air in for every one of them).  And then tried to figure out how I knew the code.  (Hint: ambulance )  And then the admin people found out about the smokers, and that was my fault too.  Being a non smoker gave me a different perspective on the matter. (ho ho)

God I wish I had never had the knee replacement, here  4 years and 6 surgeries later and I can't walk.  

I don't want to depress myself so I will close.

this is me with my walker; the man on the ground didn't fall, he just wanted a little nap. Zzzzzzzz

  

You mean it's not fall?

 I have once again fallen, doing a simple transition from bed to bathroom.  At 2 a.m.  This time, for a little variety, I fell to the side.  The way the olden falls were falling backwards, as soon as I feel the floor feeling ready to throw me down I recite, "bed right there" or chair or whatever and gather my courage.  But in this case I just plummeted to the side.  Had to call the VFD to get me up, I was too closely wedged between the bed frame and the doorway.  They know me as soon as they reach the house.  What fame I have, at least I don't have to go to the ER every time.  This time I just bruised my butt.  

Early bird this morning

 Hello everyone, this is my idea of an early beginning for the day, it is 7 am.  C will need to get up soon to ride to the dealership to get the truck.  It was recalled due to an exploding air bag on the passenger side.  I am betting that it won't be ready today but I am only the mom, my opinion doesn't count.  

Tomorrow is the 13th, if you are superstitious then best to stay in bed, for Friday the 13. When I was in school at BJU I $$ worked in the snack bar, dishing up ice cream cones and making sundaes; once there was a meeting (among adults in the back,) and when the meeting was over, the concierge told the girls they could get a cone as a reward. How generous.  I took one too, I had worked through dinner and was starving.  Maybe they thought I should put the ice cream back in the tub? One of the waitresses said I don't think she meant you, but I ignored her, what is one cone more or less?  They probably prayed for me that night.

I also worked in the faculty nursery with 2 and 3 year olds, cute kids, even Bob Jones III, I felt sorry for him, having to carry on the dynasty.  And the third job was cleaning bathrooms in the dorms.  So I barely had time to go to class.  Of course students were obliged to make it to every class, the only excuse was being in the infirmary.

Pause here for now...  

I meant that on Friday 13th all of the non-essential jobs in BJU were quietly postponed. 

The truck was ready except for the window sticker, when the registration was checked it was for last year.  The way I work it, is when the registration and insurance and so forth come, they are put in a red envelope in the glove box, because there is usually a bunch of white paper in the box; the red stands out.  The weak point being putting the paperwork in the red envelope in the first place.  So...

Damn.  The mail today included a letter from the tax people that I am being audited.  What a special surprise.  I think I need a wee dram to get to sleep tonight.  What do the audit personnel tell people when asked where they work?  I know it is a valid job, probably pays pretty well, but I would guess it would be a conversation stopper.    I had a friend in CA whose husband was a state trooper.  It irked him when the next question was, "Do you carry a gun?"  The answer was, yes, it was a requirement even when off duty.  So he made up crazy jobs, a different one each time, just for his own amusement.  I didn't think it was very polite to make fun of someone asking a simple question.  I didn't like him much anyway.  

That is the end of this tonight, I can't think of anything to add here.  I only think of bits to write about when I am unable to jot them down.  Still, I try. 

Bye!

 

Blog Post Number two (again) only saved this time

 I am bummed out with reading a blog I have read for years.  I check it sporadically and saw where the last entry was 2 or 3 years ago.  When I checked it today it has been changed to "private".  All I want to do is send the author (Magazine Man) an email so I can join again.  How can I do this?  

I will have to re-write the majority of this post, as I have once again left this post unsaved when I left this page.  I am so damned dumb.

The thunder storms every night have the cats in a tizzy, they hide when the first rumble is heard.  I can't figure how the fat cat gets under the laundry cart much less gets out.  I always have to check that she isn't stuck. The other cat hides too, but she saunters out and does a wash up like she never had to vanish.  I don't actually know where she hides.

I had to cancel today's therapy visit, I hate to do that yet again.  They book visits up every day, and canceling leaves a hole in their schedule.  But I was sick all night up until 5 a.m. and doing exercises was not on my schedule either.  C has been headachey and dizzy for weeks, and I finally harassed him to go to one of the freestanding clinics.  They said he had fluid behind his eardrum, and gave him medicine to alleviate that, and the headaches too.  It took him hours to get seen. But I worried a lot about him driving while he is dizzy.  And the homeopathic remedies did nothing.  Not that that is a big surprise.

I hate to look for anything, it drives me crazy, but I spent hours looking for a box of straight pins that I got last week.  Last week!!  in the end I decided to order another box.  It came Monday, and I stopped looking.  So how did that come out?  I looked in a box in the kneehole of the desk for some makeup, and laying there in plain sight were the missing pins.  And I got the second box of pins 15 minutes later.  So I now have 250 pins.  So do I feel dumb?  Yes in deed.  But I am set to hem the three pairs of silk/tensil pants; assuming I can find thread.  And needles.  Ever the optimist.

I think I may try hemming on the sewing machine,  I used to do that with the old machine.  Three pairs is a lot of stitching by hand on slippery fabric.  Given that this new machine has a speed control on the front of the machine, good news that the usual pedal is not possible when I can't lift my foot.

When I was in high school I took "home ec" as an elective.  By then I had been sewing (but not cooking)for years, so I did a velvet skirt and a lace shirt.  Somewhere I have a photo of me wearing them, looks ok.  And I am sure that they don't do Home economics  any more, think of all those sewing machines and sinks to tear out...I hope they sold them  and didn't send them to a land fill, no, they don't teach any practical stuff it's all math quadratic  equations , or calculus, China poetry and so on, never how to Balance a check book (does anyone have a check book?) or fill out a job application (lots of those ahead) and so on...

Well I guess that's it for Tuesday, hope everyone is safe and sound, and I will save this before I leave!

  

Ready for reading

 I want to get back to the novel I have about half read, but it seems that after dinner and exercises I am too sleepy to concentrate on the written words.  I keep having to flip backwards to remind me who is who, the last book I tackled Her Last Breath kept switching every chapter to another character, I hate when they do that.  

I forget what the plot was in the above book, but the one I am reading now is called Moonlight Child and it moves along at a fair clip so I can soon look for another.  The thing is, although these two books are both 5 star ratings, one is OK and the other is best forgotten.  Or as my son says, a good review does not guarantee a good book. Maybe the author just has a lot of friends.

My new glucose meter is not a home run at this point.  It is supposed to contact via my meter with my readings but it won't do that because the error code says there is no connection (T Mobile).  When I called the trouble number the man says I will need to drive to another place where the signal is stronger.  (?)

The number of SPAM calls is amazing.  Yesterday I had 5 calls in 20 minutes all at 8 am, then we took the phone off the hook for the rest of the day.  I am telling people I am dead, then they say "sorry" and quit asking for me.  If they ask for N I say they will need a Ouija board, and that confuses them long enough for me to hang up.  A little humor there. 

 

 As long as I don't try to reverse I seem to do OK with this font/size.  Touch wood.  If one

Yesterday the order I returned should have been delivered.  This order was for Bed Scrunchies, and I thought it would work to tighten the fitted sheet to preclude wrinkles.  But what I thought it was for, the actual purpose was to make a flat sheet into a fitted one, tightening the corners with a bungee type cord.  So back it went, $99 to the good, minus shipping of course.  

I have been looking at purses on Amazon and on eBay, but I can't find any for the criteria I want.  I need a reasonable minimum to maximum, not to have oodles of space taken up with dividers, but 5" wide at the bottom.  I prefer no zipper closure on top, they always seem to catch on whatever is inside the bag, and need two hands to fasten, so toggle closure.  Leather.  Big enough to hold my wallet and my organizer without stacking them up in a narrow bag.  Color of pretty much anything.  Price of anything less than $200, if all else is OK.  Not necessarily a high end designer.  Used but still OK.  Doesn't sound like impossible features, does it?  I used to rely on Aigner bags, but they seem to have gone out of business except for eBay. If I could work on my purses in the closet I could probably find what I want. Maybe tomorrow.

We finally got the electric meters read a second time.  They have been using a pair of binoculars and standing outside the fence line.  But I called and got them to emphasize that all the horses and all the dogs are gone, so walk right up to the meter.  I have hope that I will get a lower bill.  And I saw them at the barn meter, Update: this time ; the original bill was $150 and this last bill is $50.  We also found the second key of the safe deposit.  And best of all C found my diamond ring. ( I am glowing thanks to an old tooth brush).  Don't plan on warm temps until the sun of the spring comes along.

I keep looking at the space all the jewelry boxes occupy, knowing once the area is clean I will fill it with more stuff, net change Zero.

Back to bed.  Later. 

farmhouse

The photo on the top is the family farmhouse in Braxton County, West Virginia.  The people in the photo are my great grandfather and wife, my great uncle, my grandfather, and one of the grand sisters.  The photo was taken in front of their just built home, ca. 1904.

The photo on the bottom is the farmhouse ca. 2004, and now, in 2021 it has collapsed.  I took the photo on the bottom, and by accident I took one from the very same location as the photo from 1904.  I will never go back to the farm, it was sold in 1970-ish over the strenuous objections of the entire family; I remember it from the 1960s.  It is now a testament to the ravages of time.

It makes me sad.  There is only myself and my sister-in-law (cousin) that survive,  to remember, and I am 70 and she is 73.  There are kids from both of us, but they don't care, never having seen it in a living state.  My family went to the farmhouse every summer for 3 weeks, and SIL was there for the entire summer, helping with cooking and canning.  The last time I was there, to get the mirror in the living room, there was a tree growing inside the house, deer in the yard, snake skins in the bathroom, stripped of anything usable.  I don't know why the mirror was left, or why the owners let it all fall to ruin. I guess they only wanted the land.  They are all gone now too; don't know who pays the taxes.

 

fire place

 I should explain the photo on the post below.  Every time I try to add a footnote the rest of the posts are hidden and I am now too anxious to try just anything, for fear of deleting all the entire posts.  I did this once and I have learned not to mess with published posts.  So just pop down and I will write the caption here.

The photo is of our fireplace in "my" room, but the stuff on top isn't as cluttered that it would seem.  The US flag is the one given to me at N's informal get together at the funeral home.  I finally got it into the triangle box made for this (well, C did while I looked on ).  Still to come is the little brass label with N's name and dates engraved.  The frame is resting on the lovely wooden box containing the cremains.  I haven't figured out what to do with the flag and ashes, I will probably just leave them for the "kids" to handle.   Then there is the spider plant (faux) that hides a damaged part of the brick; brass candle sticks and a candle; a hurricane oil lamp; and a jar containing one dollar coins,( I haven't seen one used in years).  Just  efore N died he said he wanted to have his ashes buried in the veteran's cemetery in Prunytown (spelling?) but that was news to me.  I don't want to do it, so there they sit on the mantle for the last 5 years.  The black silhouette of a horse hangs over all of it.  Underneath it all is the mirror from the farmhouse fireplace, I like the idea that I look in the mirror that my great-grandmother used herself. Although she would be appalled at what the home is now.

Whew, a pretty lengthy footnote.

It is almost time for the manicure lady to come, so I will stop here for now.

I will try to find the photos of the farmhouse, one is from 1904 and one from 2004.  I have too many photos but the thought of sorting through them makes me tired before I begin.  

here I go again

 Well, I fell last night, around 4 am.  I was on my way to the bathroom when my crappy knee buckled and down I went with my walker on top of me.  I had my cell phone on the walker and called, sigh, C.  The only good part was that we got me up, no EMS needed, and to the bathroom and back in bed.  Never got back to sleep, it figures.  This is so tiresome, there isn't a day goes by that I don't feel regret for having my knee "fixed".  The ortho doctor says fusion of my knee is my only possible cure for falling, but I will go to a wheelchair full time first.  No more surgery.  No more "fixing".

I am reading a new book, Her Last Breath by Hilary Davidson.  It is a little slow, but I am only on page 50.  My next book will probably be The Midnight Child by Karen Mc question.  Both are Amazon books with 5 stars.  Although they are paperbacks, the first one is 8" by 5.5" , and 284 pages, large for a paperback.  I have two of my 4 Kindles charged up, far easier on the wrists to read; I have several Kindle unread books on them, but the charging is always lagging it seems.  

Yesterday I got a diabetic box with meter, lances, charging cord, reaction sticks, all the mod cons.  This came courtesy of the Fed BC/BS.  The last meter and such were from years ago and became a way station for ants, ugh, right in the trash it went.  At least I will know if I am pre-diabetic, I never know what to say when asked if I am diabetic.  For certain I don't use injectable insulin, and for now I don't use oral meds either.

Elmer

 I can't remember if I ever related the time of Elmer the goat.  Feel free to search it out if I did, there are only 900 posts to wade through.  I have a hard copy of all the posts (except the last dozen or so) but they aren't any easier to check.  So, here is the tale of Elmer.

When we first bought this place, all the acres were a tangled mess of thorny vines, grape vines, and of course the ever present poison ivy.  Every weekend we would spend thrashing through the brush and the weeds, cutting out and burning what we could tear loose.  Bob, a friend from work, advised that we should get a goat, as they are brushy eaters and not grass, and he would help us get one. So one weekend we all went to the livestock auction and Bob picked out a young goat, pretty tame and able to be handled easily.  Bob said that no one with any gumption would keep a billy goat (male) and so we made a detour to Bob's barn and he made short work of Elmer's package.  He was now a wether goat (in horses you'd call a male horse a gelding) and off we went to home. 

We bought a stout chain, about 15 feet long, and every morning we would stake the chain in a different spot, with a bucket of water at the very end where Elmer could reach it and not (in theory) tip it over.  At the end of the day we would put him in his pen/stall with more water and grain.  He was a four legged wonder, the way he would mow down the vines and such, and what he didn't eat got cleared by the chain going over it.  However not all was roses on the place.  Goats are amazingly strong, and he routinely pulled loose his chain, until we figured out that fastening the chain around a tree was way more secure.

But there were other problems.  When I would put him in his stall, I had to be really quick to get him most of the way into it, unsnap the chain, and knee him far enough to shut the door.  But he would thwart me, turning around so fast and heading out of his stall.  Then he would head for the electric fence and scoot right under the strand.  If I were still hanging on to his chain, I would get the electric shock right across my face.  And Elmer, free from clean water and a bucket of grain, would jump on top of the car in the driveway(tappet scrape) , and if he was still attached to the chain, he would trail it across the car too (scrape scrape)  I did not know, in the beginning, that goats loved to climb up to the highest point they could reach. But I learned, too late to save the car paint job.  Our dog learned too--sometimes Elmer would head for the old dog on the porch and start humping her.  She would give me the most pained expression, like "get this thing off of me!"  And a wether is not supposed to have urges like this. Once the brush was gone Elmer went back to the live stock auction.  N would say, " what if the buyer mistreates him?" To which I replied, "too bad", knowing most any situation Elmer would rise to (and N never did the unchaining and electric fence zapping).  At the auction the animals would be ushered through the in door where the auctioneer was, then bids, then ushered through the exit door on the right.  And every time the entrance door opened for the next animal I could see Elmer in the holding pen, humping away.

He sold for $11.

I fell again last night, right on the craft table.  Fire and EMS called to hoist me back on my feet.  It must have been a slow night, there were 5 of them.  Two is all that is needed, one on each side.  Today I am sore all over and took an Ultram around 3 in the morning so I could get some rest.  

Bye!

Westward Wind

 We have had some torrential rain this last week, streets flooded and gravel washed out of the medians.  I can only remember one comparable storm in the 40+ years we have lived here.  This time we stayed inside and rescheduled doctor and therapy visits; the photos in the paper show a car trying to get through a river of muddy water on one of the main roads, while water still shoots out of the drains.  Surely everyone has seen cars and drivers unable to proceed when their cars are making like a boat.  How do you dry the inside of the car before irreversible mold takes hold? Don't know...

I was going to make a joke about Moses and flooding, but people are so quick to criticize anything about religion, I think I will pass on that.  One of the popular posters I follow gets the nastiest comments, mainly about profanity, she just blocks anyone who does the holier-than-thou; back in the day she would point out if they are offended to just stop reading, blocking is so much faster.  I was chided on CVS and I need to keep that number useable, but the next time I will bring it to the head pharmacist and let him sort it out.

It is dark outside and thundering and a big storm is due to hit.  I think I will wrap this up for now, I am nearly done. 

 

Well, OK

The black feral cat that was missing for 8 or 10 days returned demanding food (we had the dry food taken up so we wouldn't tempt wildlife) and scratching of his itchy spots, in that order.  He doesn't look any the worse for wear, but I am surprised he found his way back to us.  I don't hold with putting collars on outdoor cats, if they are stretchy they invariably disappear, while the solid collars hang up in anything and strangle the cat.  There was a time years ago when indoor cats wore loose fabric collars that had powdered flea treatment in them, and then the plastic ones that were stretched to activate and put on afterward.  Now of course we have the drops that are dribbled on the neck-back and they kill all the fleas and ticks and immature fleas too.  I haven't used flea treatment for years, but I would if somehow fleas re-appeared in the house, tracked inside somehow.  Ick.  

And I go on the 7th for my second inoculation for COVID.  C has had both but the last few days he has been headachey and tired all the time, and I blame the vaccine.  

Sigh.  C vacuumed the entire house on the 12th and had to change out the bag it got so full.  But what really stunned me was that he took down the Christmas tree!  It has been sitting in the living room all this time, and I, of course, haven't been upstairs since Christmas day.  June!  6 months since Christmas!

On a more related thing, C washed and waxed the Lexus, which was my Mother's Day gift (a little late).  It looks great, he took photos and best of all, it does not need to be waxed  again for 6 months.  It is one of those new waxes (silicone? Ceramic?) and it really brings up the blue mica paint, but not too gaudy.  

C bought a new car on the 12th ( well, I bought it because the 2011 Subaru he drove died and I have a better FICO score and thus a lower interest rate).  We had the old Subaru towed to the dealer for an estimate on repair, but the price for repair was $5200!  No way would I put that amount of money on a 2011!  So the one we got is a 2019 Subaru Impreza with low milage, red for a little pizazz.  The repair on the '11 would have been for all the belts and hoses, which they said were dry-rotted from sitting so long without being driven.   Even though the hoses (etc.) could be replaced, I am betting the fuel pump, the water pump, the radiator, and so on would die too, eventually.  A wide hole into which we would throw money...   

                                           

     Bye for now!

More of the same

 Trying to think of something to write here

The ortho doctor I see wrote me a scrip at the last visit for diabetic shoes and strengthening exercises on my right leg.  It can't go on, falling every week or two, maybe the work will help me stop falling.  Even when I don't fall, I have "near misses" when my right leg buckles once weight is off and I catch my leg and force it back where it belongs using the walker.

This is so boring.

I have been watching streaming video of Amazon Prime to pass the time.  I watch for 15 or so minutes and either continue, or give it the old heave-ho.  The one I am watching now is Nicolas Cage in a flick that looks like an early version of the National Archives movies that he starred in.  It has some great visuals of commuter trains blowing up, so I will watch for a while longer.  It is odd, how many movies include scenes where the hero tries to warn someone of approaching danger only to be ignored or arrested.  I can only assume the script calls for "stupid blank-faced extras", and thus prolongs their screen time to fill out the visuals. Anyway, Nicolas is one of my most-often selected actor, so I'll hang in here for a while. 

The feral outdoor cat (Blackie) has disappeared from the garage (two days ago).  He has done this before, so I hope he is off looking for lady cats and will be home in another day or two.  The trouble is that if they don't come back you never know if they were killed or just found new places to hole up.  It is the fundamental reason we have our tame cats indoors all the time.  And we have no idea how old he is.  We had a female cat that belonged to a neighbor, and she decided one day that our barn was the place to be.  She would pop out a litter twice a year like clockwork, but she was pretty tame, and we took her to be spayed, plus all the remaining female cats we could capture.  The mom lived to be 15 or so, and one day when we went to feed her, she was here one minute and gone forever 10 minutes later.  We did eventually find her under the porch, but her longevity was very rare in outdoor cats.  

I fall once again

Once again I have fallen.  Yesterday I was standing beside the bed with my walker, talking to C when Blam! I fell backward to the floor.  My immediate reaction was fury, and I hurled myself back to the bed (a first). C agrees with me, I was just standing there when I fell, and how am I to move if I can't even stand?  I don't know which doctor to contact, the right ankle? the right knee? the left knee?  My family doctor? I need a keeper, is what I need, that and a conveyer belt between bed and bathroom.  To say I am discouraged is a vast understatement.  This has gone on for so long...

I got a check in the mail from Publishers Clearing House, but alas! it was for $10 and not for $10,000.  If I was the winner from Lotto or the PCH, I would never reveal the win, but (if possible) I would claim it as anonymous.  I don't have any relations except my sister-in-law, but no doubt "relatives" would appear as soon as the word got out.  Even strangers would descend with sure-fire opportunities to earn more if only I would invest in their scheme.  I would for certain send money to the three charities I have supported for years now, but would ask them to hide the source of the donation.  The first people I would contact would be my lawyer, and my financial guy.  No doubt I would owe a hefty amount to the IRS, but I would try to minimize that with things like IRAs.  That is as far as I can ponder, and of course I'm not ever going to win anyway.

This is Mother's Day, and rather than flowers or candy, I told C that I want my car washed and waxed.  I have the Torque ceramic polish (around $20), and wiping cloths and I will take photos since the birds will decorate soon after.  I'm willing to skip the inside detailing, it doesn't need more than a fast pass with a vacuum, and that is best done at a  do-it-yourself car wash, rather than drag the house vacuum out and try to get all the nooks and crannies with a short hose.  When I had my Miatas (3, a 1996, 1999, and 2002) I washed them often, and blackened the convertible top and the tire sidewalls too, and did the inside also.  But face it, I can't do even a simple wand washer, me in my walker.  I have asked C to do this several times but he hasn't done it, nor put the license plate on.  Mutter mutter... Maybe this will do the trick.

 I just finished the Downton Abby videos, the 6 chapters and the movie, and enjoyed them thoroughly.  I was pleased to have the dialogue in English without such a heavy accent that I miss half the conversation.  I started watching Wild Witches, but not only is the conversation all dubbed from Swedish(?) but the story line is so boring I don't know how it ever was made.  I also watched most of the Booth at the End, but finally the ads did me in.  I will have to try again, with the free stories, and steer clear of the ad ones.

I bought new covers for the MacBook, the old ones are all cracked on the corners and don't stay attached very well.  From  Amazon of course.  They look very nice in the listing, but how hard can it be?  I used the model number on the back side of the 'Book, that was the hardest part of the whole thing, the printing is very small and faint.  I used my flash lite at an angle and can see the model number plainly enough.