Throw Back Thursday

Today's high temperature was:  35 degrees

Sunny and nice

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As I mentioned on Face Book this morning,

it is difficult to find a picture of me 

when I was young.

Most of our pictures were painted on the

walls of the cave we lived in, along with hand prints

and pictures of beasts that roamed the plain below our dwelling.

This is one that was taken with a magical

machine that I was fascinated with.

Others said the machine would capture my soul,

but you know me--a risk taker.

Night Terrors-Nightmares--Night Phenomenon That Feel Real

Today's high temperature was:  20 degrees

Sunny all day

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I don't know what causes them.

I don't know why I can go months without them and then, have them night after night.

Monday, sometime during the night, I had a nightmare--I guess.  It all seemed very real.  My left eye hurt and I got up to go into the bathroom to look at it.  When I looked into the mirror, the left side of my face looked like a skull, but my left eye was in place and it was red.  Around it was blue and green and purple--jewel colors.  I woke up and my mouth was wide open like I was going to scream and I was sweating and trembling.

Last night, sometime during the night, I had a night terror--I guess.  I heard a loud noise and I knew the furnace had blown up.  I was trying to get out of bed, gather up the cats and run from the house, but I couldn't move.  I knew I had to move, but I couldn't.  I woke up yelling "Help", only it sounded drawn out like "Hhhhaaalllpp."  I was thrashing my legs which were tangled up in the sheets, the bedspread over my head.

I know that nightmares and even middle of the night panic attacks are caused by unresolved issues in life.  We either don't want to think about them or work them out during our awake hours, so when we go to sleep and get into the REM phase of sleep, our subconscious brings all these issues to the forefront of our brain and we try and work them out in our "un"subconscious state.  I know all that, when I was having middle of the night panic attacks--a psychologist explained it to me.

Of course, the questioner, the ponderer in me is trying to figure out what is going on that is causing these middle of the night things.  I got nothing!

I'm as bad, in the middle of the night, as Dar is in the daylight!! LOL

===========================

My big Buddy has taken to laying on the back of my chair.

He is so heavy that he almost tips us backwards.

He likes to paw at my hair and sniff my ears.

Then, when I get up and leave, he immediately jumps down 

on the seat and goes to sleep.

Isn't it amazing how fast cats can go to sleep? 

When I return to my chair, I say, "Off" and he hops down.

Good Boy!

Now this one, Maggie, owns the couch.

If I wanted her "Off", she wouldn't move.

If I reached down and tried to move her,

I'd probably lose a finger or pull back a

bloody hand.

She IS getting better, but still can use her

teeth and claws to show disapproval. 

If I am in the study in the evening, Buddy comes in and

sits here on the cart and stares at me.

He thinks it is time for his supper.

I have tried to explain to him that he gets his supper when the Cuckoo clock cuckoos nine times.  I always wait for the Cuckoo clock before I get up and say, "Ready for some food?"  and they both run into the kitchen and stand by the refrigerator for their tablespoon of wet food.

You would think he'd know by now how to count cuckoos, but he doesn't.

All he knows is, it is dark outside, he is hungry, therefore, it must be supper time.

....and, like a lot of us, if we think it is true, then to us it IS true.

Just An Ordinary Tuesday

Today's high temperature was: 20 degrees

Grey

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Just a note about hair color--I see older women still coloring their hair blond and it tends to be yellow--like baby chicks feathers--like mine was getting to be.  Or I see older women still coloring their hair too dark, which tends to look like dark shoe polish.  Don't even get me started on men who color their hair--it usually has a reddish tint to it--you did see John Travolta on the Oscars--right?  EGADS!!  As we age, our skin gets thinner and lighter and our hair needs to be lighter also or we tend to look hard.  Of course, the grey hair is coarse and wiry and does not take color as well as it did.  I only stopped coloring my hair (I have colored it since I was 16 when my blond hair started going mousy--Light Ash Blond) because I really couldn't afford the box of color every month AND I was curious to see what color my hair actually was.  Imagine my surprise when the hair on the back of my head grew out so dark--I probably was destined to be a brunette all my life.  LOL.  I looked good as a blond when I was younger, I have blue eyes and fair skin.  I am very happy with the grey and yes, I agree.  It does make my appearance look softer.

==============================================================
I called and canceled the Comcast service guy.  How can he check the outside cables when I have four feet of snow piled up around the foundation of this place?  AND, I am not in the mood to pay out 40 bucks if he finds the problem is inside.

So--Melissa Gilbert is having a book signing of her children's book--this Saturday, in Howell.  She's lived here 8 months.  I have lived here nearly 11 years--did anyone in Howell ask me to have a signing for my children's book?

My doctor makes house calls to her.  She has been going to him for six months.  I was his first patient when he started his practice seven years ago.  Does he make house calls to me?

HARRUMPH!
=======================================
Dar came over (again) this morning.

"My throat is awfully sore.  I woke up in the middle of the night and it was burning.  It felt like I had a lump in my throat...or like vomit...or something."

I said.  "It sounds like acid reflux."

"What?"

"Heartburn."

"Did the words throat cancer cross your mind just then, because it crossed mine in the middle of the night?"

"Yes--it flew through, but....tip your head back and feel all along your throat.  Do you have any lumps there or along your jawline?"

She runs both hands up and down her throat, under her jaw, back to her ears and the back of her neck.

"No...I don't feel anything unusual."

"What did you eat last night for supper?"

"I got Sheila to go to Art Van with me, after she got home from work.  We spent over two hours walking around, looking at chairs and then, we went across the street to that new Mexican restaurant for a late supper.  I came home and went to bed around ten.  I woke up at midnight with the burning in my throat and pain."

"It must be heartburn then.  Drink some Alka-Seltzer or take a Prilosec or Rolaids...drink some milk and it should be better."

"I have never had this before in my life!"

"It's from stomach acid.  The food was probably spicy or greasy and you don't usually eat that kind of stuff.  You went to bed soon after you got home.  You laid down and the stomach acid came up into your esophagus.  It burns in your throat and tastes like bile."

"I don't have acid in my stomach!  Remember...I had nine feet of colon removed."

<what that has to do with acid reflux I do not know, but all things are possible>

"We all have stomach acid.  It breaks up our food and makes it digestible.  Sometimes, something we eat will cause the acid to increase.  Prilosec---Omeprazole are medications that kind of shut the acid down.".

"You've had this before?"

"Yes.  I can get acid reflux from drinking too much water.  Mine is usually caused by nerves or if I eat something too spicy.  Although, I haven't had it for quite a long time now.  My doc gave me Omeprazole to take, but I haven't needed it lately."

She went home and called later...

"I called my doctor and she wants me to have some tests done.  She said it was probably acid reflux, but she wants to do the tests to make sure.  I go in next Monday...I have to have the test done in the hospital!  I did drink some milk it did help, but my throat still burns."

"Okay--good to get it checked out."

<good grief.  I hope she enjoys a tube stuck down her throat to check it all out>
========================
My House Finch with Leucism came back today and I got better pictures of her.

==================================================

A month ago, I gave this kid Brian--(1st chair Horn in the Wind Ensemble) a CD of French Horns playing jazz.

I got a response on Face Book from him today.

Brian Tangposted to‎Judith Walts Miller

2 hours ago

Thanks so much for the CD! I can't stop listening to it! Soooo amazing!

======================================

I didn't even know French Horns played jazz until about 20 years ago and I knew these kids wouldn't know about it.  I had posted on FB that I was enjoying one of my CD's and Brian commented back that he didn't know French Horns played jazz, so I got the CD for him.  I am so glad to know he is enjoying it and that I helped a bit with his edification. 

I told him, "When you get to be about sixty-five and you are relaxing in your recliner chair, you will probably appreciate it a lot more than you do now."

===============================

Tonight, the University of Michigan or the Arrogant Asses of Ann Arbor as some of us call them, won the Big Ten Championship in basketball.  I posted a congrats on Face Book--and now, I have acid reflux!!!

The Weekend, Neighbors, White Headed Birds and Friends.

Today's high temperature was: 16 degrees

Last night's low was:  -12 degree

Sunny all day

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I had a most wonderful Saturday--wonderful.  You already saw the collage I put up yesterday, well, this is where I got that most recent picture.

Madeleine plays French Horn in her school's highest band--

actually it is called Wind Ensemble.  I think of an ensemble

as 4-5 people, but there are around 50 in this group--

only the best musicians.

They had their District Competition and of course I was there.

Afterwards, I wanted to get pictures.  When Karen was done

taking a pix of Maddie and I, I got the other French Horn

players, that I adore, and we had a group shot

Maddie put her horn down on the floor behind me!

I grabbed it to keep it safe!

Madeleine calls me Gramma Judy, Brian calls me Grandmother,

and Drew (to the right with glasses) calls me Grandma.

I adore these kids as if they were my own grandchildren!!

Then we went into the cafeteria to wait for the posting

of their marks

theirs are the bottom scores--Straight One's

 ...and there was.....Matthew (my favorite)

the drum major for the marching band and

trombone player.

Is he not adorable?  He is growing his hair long

as he has the starring role in the musical "Grease".

He calls me Grammy. 

He is the one I want Maddie to date.

They did go out a couple of times, but he isn't Catholic

and Karen's kids are smart enough to know not to get serious

with someone that isn't of the same faith.

(and I agree)

I had such a wonderful day--I was high with happiness the rest of the day.

===============================

I have to explain about that remark of getting serious dating someone not of your faith.  My third grand child, Karen's oldest son Marcus, met a beautiful, lovely girl when he was a Senior in high school.  She lived in Missouri, but they wrote back and forth and visited each other on school vacations.  Her parents are Baptist missionaries--Marcus is Catholic and thought of going into the priesthood at one time.  You can see a problem developing here, can't you.

Her parents made her break up with Marcus, but after she graduated, she told her parent's she was going to date Marcus, move to Ohio and go to the University of Toledo.  Her parent's told her that if she did, she was dead to them.  They told her she would go to Hell for being with an "idol worshipping heathen."

At a family get-together at Karen's, she, Megan Joy was there.  She was distraught, missing her parent's and her younger sister.  Karen asked me if I would talk to her and Marcus and tell them how I felt when she, Karen, married a Catholic.

So I did.  I told Megan that I knew exactly how her parent's felt.  That I was terribly upset when I learned that my daughter, a strong involved in our Methodist church,  was going to marry a Catholic.

I said, "My Mother had a book entitled, "What To Say To Your Daughter When She Wants To Date A Catholic."  But...rather than lose my daughter, I let her make her choice.  I knew that she was a strong Christian and I figured she'd be a strong Christian Catholic."

Megan nodded her head.  I could see Marcus' reaction--he never knew how I felt about his parent's marriage.

"Now...look at Mr. and Mrs. Rivard.  Their marriage is one of the best I have ever seen.  Look at their children (I patted Marcus hand), isn't this family the most wonderful you have ever known?  Catholic's don't worship idols!  Mr. and Mrs. Rivard are just as stalwart Christian's as your parents are.  Your parents will come around in time.  You just have to follow your heart."

So these two young people have dated for the last four years.  I think all of us thought they would marry and we all loved Megan.  I especially loved her middle name Joy--as she exuded joy all the time.

I found out at Christmas time that they no longer were dating.  It just about broke my heart, but Megan will not convert to Catholicism and won't promise to raise their children in the Church and this has shaken Marcus, who takes his religion very seriously.  Neither one of them are dating anyone else and they occasionally go out and she calls Karen on the phone often, but.....

As my Mother used to say, "If you ONLY date boys of your own religion, you won't fall in love with someone of a different religion and have to go through problems that it might cause."  

Maddie has seen the pain that Marcus is going through and so she won't date anyone but a Catholic.  I see nothing wrong with that, but.....Matt sure would make a wonderful grandson for me!!!  :-)

======================

I woke up Sunday morning to five inches of new snow.  A young man knocked on the door and asked if I wanted him to clear off my car and driveway--for "ten bucks".  I told him, "I have a regular guy who comes and does it for me.  Thank you so much for stopping and asking though."

Well--Dan the snow shoveling man--never showed up--all day--and not this morning!!!

=========================

I woke up this morning in a MOOD!

I had a night terror and woke up around 2:00 a.m. yelling, "NO", and thrashing around.  I did get back to sleep and then woke up at 4:00 a.m. with what felt like a UTI--it burned so bad to go to the bathroom.  I finally rolled out of bed near 11:00 and I was mad!

The muscles in my back hurt so bad, so I rubbed on some of the horse liniment I use and took two Ibuprofen.  Then, it still burned to go potty, so I took some antibiotic and some Pyridium to stop the urinary pain.

I fed the cats, noticed that the humidifier wasn't working, shut it off, got my warm cocoa and came in here.  I glanced out the window and there was Dar walking up to my door.  ARGGH!!

"OH MY GOD--you aren't even dressed yet!"

"No--I just woke up.  I had a bad night and I have a urinary tract infection."

"You better get right to the doctor!"

"I took an antibiotic and some other medicine for it."

"You get to the doctor!!"

"And what would he do?  He'd write me a prescription for an antibiotic and some Pyridium to stop the pain.  I have all that and I have already taken it."

"Drink lots of water."

"I will."

"It's because of all that Pepsi you drink."

"The first ingredient listed in Pepsi is water."

"Why is your vacuum sitting out?"

"Because...I vacuumed yesterday and I have more to do today?"

"Well..get dressed!  I am going to Art Van and buy a  new recliner and I want you to come."

"I don't really feel very good, Dar...and I am just waking up...and...I need a new recliner and if I go and see them, it will just make me feel bad because I can't afford one and........"

"I know you need a new one.  Get your credit card and let's go."

<okay--she better leave or I AM going to slap her!>

"You need a new chair.  I need a new chair, now let's go."

"I told you...I cannot afford a new chair."

"Well--you didn't buy a good one to begin with.  The fabric is worn, the back keeps falling off.  You need to get a more expensive one and it will last longer."

<okay--I am no longer going to slap her, I am going to throw my worn out recliner at her and hope it injures her!!!>

"No thanks.  I think I might go back to bed."

"Gawd--you aren't any fun."

<and she left--just in the nick of time, I might add>

===========================

I got on the computer, drank my (by now) luke-warm cocoa, took my vitamins and read my e-mails.  Then I got up to go to the bathroom again and when I came back in here, I could not access the Internet and my phone was dead!  ARGGH!!

This is the fourth time in two months that it has happened.  The last time I called, they told me to go get a new modem.  

I turned everything off and waited for a couple minutes--then turned it back on, reset the modem, and it was working...but I figured I'd better call Comcast.  They had me turn everything off again and they sent a new refresh signal to my modem and all the lights came on.  Then, they said they were going to send a service guy out tomorrow to check and make sure it is not their cable or modem causing the problems.  It won't cost me anything IF it is a problem with their equipment.  If there is something wrong inside the house, it will cost me thirty nine-ninety nine.  Forty bucks--and you and I both know my luck!  I have checked everything and cannot find a problem in here, but.....who knows!!!  

===========================

All of this did not help my mood.  I got dressed, took the 9 gallon (big) humidifier apart and cleaned it all up.  The filter was all brown and hard all around the edges.  Now--this humidifier is an evaporative filter one and I know enough that if the filter is in that condition, if won't work.  It won't draw the water up to evaporate it.  Every store in this area is out of water treatment to kill the lime and scale, which I always use AND there are no filters to be found.  I shut the humidifier down and am already getting shocks from everything I touch in this house.  I had to get on-line and order some.  Thanks goodness the filters are only $4.50, but of course the shipping..... ARGGH!!!

===========================

Then I heard a noise outside and there was Merle--shoveling out my driveway and cleaning off my car!!  I love that little man!  (He is little--5'6")

============================

I felt a bit better physically, so after watching my Soap, I drove into the Rich People's store in Brighton and got myself a small yellow cake with nice thick icing, an Antipasto salad, some tuna mac salad and 1/4# seafood salad--it is expensive so I only get a little bit--Lordy, it is so delish!!  On the way home, I stopped and got a Subway with my gift card.  A foot-long, spicy Italian sub on herb and cheese bread with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber slices and onions. 

Tonight, after eating my comfort food, my mood is improving.

=============================

Did you see the weather man Cantore on the national news tonight?  He forecasts colder weather for Michigan for the next 3 months--because of the frozen over Great Lakes.  Isn't that just special?  ARGGH.  We may not get to plant our annuals until July--and then, it will be a bit too late to enjoy them for very long.

================================

I went on a wild bird website and asked the question about my white headed bird and the consensus is it is a Finch--related to the House Finch, but with pigment missing from his head feathers.  The condition is called Leucism.

===========================================

I was looking at photos from now and last year.  You know what?  I actually think I look better with grey hair.  That blond color (the same one I have used for 30+ years) was getting a bit brassy and yellow looking.

What do you think?

and much better than I looked 2 years ago. 

=======================================

I have a friend--she's actually my kid's age and she lived with me for almost a year, some nearly 30 years ago.  We were very close--closer then sister's I feel.  Much closer than parent and child for sure. We were both in bad situations at the time and we used to have long, long talks.  Sometimes lasting well into the early morning.   We talked about our abusive childhoods and our fears and...all of it.  She eventually moved--I took her to the bus station myself and cried after she left.  She  had nothing and yet she was moving clear out to Idaho and going to go to college.  

We have kept in touch, of course.  She helped me find a publisher for my first e-book.  I am trying to help her with a new novel and setting up her e-books to be printed out in book form.

She has always been so supportive of me.  I posted a picture of me on Face Book and she commented, "Oh, I love that face!"  I write a story and she thinks it is a literary masterpiece.  I cross stitched an angel picture for her a long time ago and she thought it was the most wondrous thing she has ever seen...and yet, she knits things that are much more wondrous than my cross stitch picture.  

I adore her and think of her as my child from another mother.  

Long story short, she married a military man and has had a wonderful life.  Fred and I stopped in Virginia, on our way to The Outer Banks, to have supper with her husband and her.  I knew when we parted, I probably would never see her again as they were moving overseas and then retiring to Texas or Idaho and I'd be dead in a few years.  

She has offered, many times, to send me airplane tickets to visit her in Germany--Italy, wherever they have been stationed.  Now--here she is, about to leave her hubby in Italy, while she moves back to the States.  She has Lupus and the weather in Italy is not conducive for good health for her.  She has been sick all winter.

So, they are in the process of getting her moved--can you imagine how that would feel?  To have to leave the man you love and move far away?  And be all alone--on your own.  Oh--I know she can do it.  She is a military wife and has been alone before.  She is very resourceful and extremely capable.  

BUT--in the midst of all this, she has offered to send me money to pay for my furnace.  

Not a loan.  

A gift. 

How can I accept this?  It would be impossible to accept it from my own child or my sister...and yet this beautiful woman wants to help me...not just help, but save me...and I am suppose to accept it without any notion to pay her back?  I am the "older".  I am supposed to be the one helping her!

...and yet.....

Can you believe such a person?  

Saturday

For Jean...and anyone else who is interested.

I usually don't post on the weekend, but Jean was writing about the dollhouse she had as a child, so I am posting these pictures.

My Mother made this for me for my 4th Christmas.  It sits in the corner of my bedroom.

The table top turns...on the back of the dollhouse is a kitchen and upstairs, a bathroom and laundry room.

ROAR!!

Today's high temperature was: 13 degrees

Last night's low was: -12

Sunny all day

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Everyone complains about the unusual cold temperatures and the unusual amount of snow, but you know what?  We have had a lot of sunny days so far this year.  February is usually grey and depressing, but this year, I think we have had a lot of sun, so...the month didn't really feel all that bad to me.

Tomorrow, March 1st, is going to come in roaring--we are expecting another big snow--all the way from Kansas to Massachusetts!  Get ready!

I got up early this morning--well 8:00--turned on the dishwasher, did a load of laundry, put my roast in the crock-pot and filled up the humidifier with water. (good thing).

At 10:00, my phone rang and it was Dar..yelling and in a panic.

"I DON'T HAVE ANY WATER!! DO YOU THINK I HAVE A FROZEN PIPE?  OHMYGOD--I WAS NAKED AND ABOUT TO CLIMB IN THE SHOWER AND THERE WAS NO WATER!!  DO YOU HAVE WATER?"

"Hold on a minute and I will check to see if I have water.  I know I did about an hour ago.  Hold on..."

"WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?  I WAS NAKED AND ABOUT TO CLIMB..."

"DAR...HOLD ON A MINUTE!"

I walked out into the kitchen and turned on the faucet--nothing.  "I don't have water either.  The park may have had a water main break."

"OHMYGOD!!  I AM GOING TO CALL THE OFFICE AND TELL THEM---I NEED WATER!"

...and she hung up.

Three minutes later...

"We have a huge water main break under the main drive way.  They say we might be without water until this afternoon!  What am I going to do?"

"You have bottled water to drink, right?  You can get a bucket, go out, fill it with snow and set it on your heat register to melt so you have some to flush with."

"NO!! I HAVE TO TAKE A SHOWER AND WASH MY HAIR!"

"Well...I guess you can't until they get the main fixed.  Be grateful that you weren't all soaped up and had a head full of shampoo."

"I guess."

She hung up.

Five minutes later....

"I'm going to the beauty salon to get my hair washed and I am taking a towel and some soap and use their restroom to wash up in!"  

Then she laughs that annoying Nyuck Nyuck Nyuck laugh!!

<I just don't know>

=========================

I was still hearing that weird noise from behind the couch this morning.  It sort of sounded like a clunk.  I knew there was an electrical outlet back there and a heat register.  I wondered if when the thermostat turned on it would make a noise in the outlet, but then realized, that could not be as the thermostat is wired directly to the furnace--it does not run on any other electrical wires.

I moved the couch out a bit, climbed on the couch and looked over the top down to the floor.  There was the heat register with the deflector in place, to direct the heat out from under the couch.  Just then the thermostat clicked and soon the furnace blower came on and "clunk"--one of the vanes in the register is broken on one end and it moved.  I figure that because I now have a more powerful blower motor, when it comes on, the force of the air moves that vane and it makes a noise.  So---I need a new register.  

Problem solved!!

=================================

Jackie (who lives in the blue house across the street) is in Florida until March 11th.  I didn't know this, but last week Pearl told me.  Jackie called me around noon and said that Pearl had been calling and leaving messages on her phone--wanting to know if she was all right..that Pearl hadn't seen her drive out of her driveway in a week and she was worried.  ????

Jackie asked me to call Pearl and I said I would.  I called Pearl and told her that Jackie was in Florida until March 11th and that she was doing fine.  Had received Pearl's phone messages.

Pearl said, "Well I know that!"

"Yeah you were the one who told me.  But...why did you call her and leave a message?"

"I picked up the phone and dialed her number and then I remembered."

"Well...why did you leave a message?"

"Because I didn't want her to see my name on her phone and wonder, so I left a message asking her if she was all right."

"Okay--well she will be back on the 11th."

"Okay."

<I just don't know>.

=========================

I had an appointment with the Chiropractor this afternoon.  I wasn't hurting a bit---until after I got out of there, LOL.  Deep tissue massage can be really painful, BUT I know I will feel great for a few weeks anyway.  I go twice a month now and plan in April to only go once a month---for maintenance!

When I came home I noticed the water main repair trucks were leaving.  While I had my coat on, I filled all the bird feeders, came in the house, and there was water to wash my hands.

All is well with the world--until another Dar crisis.
=========================
Pearl called me back this afternoon, just to let me know she didn't win the PCH contest.  

"I didn't either," I said.  "And--I really could have used a dozen roses to brighten my mood."

She seemed quite depressed about it.  To think of all the money she spent buying their products--you'd think they could have sent her a hundred dollars.  The man who won, lives in Oklahoma, has 6 children and has been cancer free for five years.  His picture looks like he is a farmer--just an average person--I am so glad for the family!
=====================

Pearl's birthday is tomorrow and I have made a HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign that I am going to tape in my bathroom window tonight when I go to bed.  That way, in the morning, when she opens her bedroom blind, she will see it.  Hee Hee Hee

Also, tomorrow, going to grand daughter Madeleine's band competition.  This will be the last one for her and me, as she is a senior.  <sniff>