I can never think of a title for my posts, so.............................whatever.

I decided it was time for me to put away my prideful nature for a bit and go back to the food pantry.  I haven't been since June.

Yesterday I went shopping for food,  I wanted to buy a roast so I could Crock-Pot it and have vegetables and the whole ball of wax.  Have you priced a cut of roast lately?

When I got home, I called Gleaners and got an appointment for this morning.  I found a nice frozen hunk of Choice roast beef.  The price on it was $18.50!! I also stocked up on diced tomatoes (for my spaghetti sauce), found a nice small cake from Meijers--which when I bought last month was $4.00.  Also a big bag of frozen vegetables--carrots, onions, celery--which will be great with my roast.  Also some King Hawaiian rolls.  John gave me some last fall--I had never had them before.  Oh my!  Delish!

Anyway, I am allowed 60# of food and I rarely get over #24.  Today I got #30.  I only take what I am going to need for a month.  There are so many that are worse off than I am, so if there are 20 bottles of water, I will take 5.  15 cans of cat food, I took 4.  Also got a can of Salmon, a dozen eggs and crackers to make Salmon patties.  

When I got home, I kept half the eggs and Hawaiian sweet rolls and took the rest up to Merle and Pearl's.  I wouldn't use a dozen eggs in 3 months.

Actually it felt kind of good to go back and see a couple friends who work there and when I got home, it was nice to tote in that extra food.  If any of you contribute to food drives and the like, thank you.  It is very helpful for us poor people.  
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I also had to drive on up to the print shop.  I took my pedigrees in Monday.  I hadn't heard a thing, so I called them yesterday and they said the copier that they use for the long, landscape paper had broken down.  I asked them to call when they got my copies done--no rush, no problem.

They called early this morning.  I think what really happened--they were kind of busy Monday and I think they put my order off to the side and just forgot about it.  HAH!  Oh well.  I have the pedigree pull-outs in the genealogy book and ready to take it in to be bound on Monday.  It turned out really nice and a pretty thick one.  Lots of information.

I often think that someday--in the way far distant future, a person will run across one of my books that his great grandmother had me do and get information and enjoyment out of it.  That would be wonderful.  I think these genealogy books could become family heirlooms and treasures.  Not because of me, I am only the go-between, but for the interest of their family background.  
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Unusual weather today.  Very warm, with severe thunderstorm watches and warnings, followed by a cold front tonight and some snow this weekend.  

Enjoy your weekend, whatever the weather.
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4 months old today.

Is it spring or is winter just around the corner?

Don't any of you have to answer those kinds of medical/health/social questions?  I have too every year for my Medicare Wellness check.  When I go in for my mammogram, I have to fill out a questionnaire--same at the PT office.  When I go in for my lung CT scan, I probably will again.  Then they ask the required questions like. Do you have black lung disease.  Are you a veteran. Do you have insurance through an employer and of course, with each new medical doctor, they inform you of the HIPPA regulations.

Sometimes I make funny notations, if I am writing the answers myself.  Like the "Are you sexually active?"  I write, "Only in my dreams."  or "Not at the moment."  Stuff like that--just to give them a laugh or throw them a curve.  One time I put down, "None ya."  (None ya business.)

This kind of paperwork is ridiculous.  Sometimes they give me an I-Pad to use and the pen they give me never works on the dang thing.  I think they may use these questionnaires for government surveys or polls of some kind.  The government likes their statistics and demographics.  Someone is working in an office in DC, making $100K a year just to record all the stats on how many women/men over 70 are sexually active.  HAH
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Beautiful day today.  Sunny and 67 degrees.  Tomorrow we are expecting a cold front to come through and along with it....severe thunder storms and.........tornadoes?  Yeah--we are going to have a tornado watch.  In February.  In Michigan.  Weirdest February I have ever lived through.  

I had a strange moment today.  I had to run up to Walmart for cat food and prescriptions.  Had a nice shopping trip, got home, unloaded with no problems, put everything away and sat down to relax.  All of a sudden, I had the strongest ache for missing Fred.  Tears just started running down my cheeks--and you all know---I never cry.

It came so quickly and for no known reason, but it was deep and it was hurtful.  I almost felt like he was near--just out of reach.  Very strange.  Very palpable pain and sadness.  I don't know why.

Social Interactions

My poor physical therapist!!  I think she thinks I may be a lost cause.  On our first meeting Monday, which I thought was only to fill up paperwork and do a evaluation on what I needed, but instead turned into an hour long torture session, must find me quite anti-social.

I hadn't worn my glasses so she had to answer the questions for me.  Put a little "x" in the box of yes or no.

"Do you exercise?"    NO.   "Okay, no need to ask you how much or how many times a week."
"Do you walk every day?"  NO.  "Okay, no need to ask you how far you walk."
"Do you belong to any social clubs?"  NO.  "Okay."
"Do you attend functions at a senior center?"  NO.  "All right."
"Do you go out to eat frequently?"  NO
"Do you go to movies?"  NO.
"Do you attend church regularly?"  NO.
"Do you visit with family members at least once a week?"  NO.

Then she looked at me.  "What DO you do?"

"Lots of things.  I'm always busy.  I cross stitch.  I spend a lot of time on my computer.  I love to garden.  I crochet and knit.  I do housework and laundry."

"Do you cook?"  Not if I can help it.
"Is there someone who would come into your home and assist you if you needed it?"  NO.

That's when she got it into her head that I should join a water aerobics class or a fitness center.  "It would get you out and you could socialize with people."

"That is the last thing I want to do!"

She looked at me again.  Then she started working on me and I said...................

"Okay--let me tell you my story.  For some 30 years I was involved in everything.  Starting with being a room mother, the PTA president.  The secretary for the Little League baseball team and the official scorer, where I was at the baseball field three nights a week.  Saturday nights I was also there because my Dad was a softball coach and I was his assistant and scorekeeper.

I organized a woman's golf league with two flights and 80 players and was scorekeeper and secretary of that.  I planned all the tournaments and events.  

I sang in the church choir every Sunday, I taught Bible School in the summers.  I took my kids to piano lessons, Flute lessons, swimming lessons, dance lessons.  I was an assistant Troop leader for the Girl Scouts.  One year, my house was where all the  cookies were delivered.

When my kids were in high school, I was a Band Booster parent and worked at the Friday night fish fry suppers.  I was on the curriculum committee and was a driving force to have computers put into the school in the early 1980's.  I had three men on that committee that thought computers were not needed.  They didn't need them when they were in school, neither did their kids.  I had to convince them.

Our barn was where my daughter's class met every October to build their homecoming float.  I made several hundred tissue paper flowers.  I made all the skirts and blouses for the flag girls, the first year the marching band promoted flag girls.

I baked cakes and cookies for every cake walk or cookie sale or bake sale my kids classes had.  I organized and recruited workers for the annual school fun/game night and festival.  I organized and recruited other women to have a book sale from the school library.

Then, when I went to work, I was the bosses private secretary--or he thought of me that way.  I had to pick up his dry cleaning, go out and get his lunch and take his car to be washed.  When his wife turned forty, he was out of town, so I had to plan her surprise party, the catering, the venue, the decorations.  I made all the travel plans and airline and hotel reservations.  

I put out a monthly newsletter and I planned and coordinate the annual company Christmas party and the annual company picnic for three hundred people.  I organized and made all the booklets for the annual business meeting, made all travel arrangements for the different managers and set up the room where the conference was to be held."

"Oh."

"I have done enough socializing in those thirty years to last me the rest of my life.  Now, I like one-on-one visits--that last an hour or less.  The world is too noisy for me and I am very content to be in my home, doing what I want to do and not being scheduled up to my ears in stuff I HAVE to do."
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  So today, when I went in for my hour long PT, she merely asked me how I was doing and if I was in any pain.  Then as she worked on me, she told me her life story.  She is one of those modern working mother's that thinks she can do it all and have it all.  I feel kind of sorry for her.

The agony and the.................No. No ecstasy

No arson took place yesterday, you will be glad to know.

Up to the Cartridge World at the crack of 10:00.  Swapped out the bad Tri-Color inkjet for a new one.  Stopped at the print shop to drop off pedigrees for them to copy onto nice long paper.

Put the new inkjet in and printed out the photos on scrap paper and the Navy blue clothes were indeed, Navy blue.  Loaded in the expensive, special paper and..............success.  The last page done.  The book completed.  Now to get the pedigrees back from the print shop and inserted in the book, back to the print shop to get the book bound and off into the mail.

It was around 1:00 when I happened to look at my calendar and noticed I had an appointment at the physical therapy place at 4:00--in Brighton.  ARGGH!!! If I had only remembered, I could have made a trip to the Cartridge World AND PT at the same time.  One trip.
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My visit to the Physical Therapy place was just for an evaluation.  I turned in all the paper work you have to do for those places and then a therapist came and got me and we walked back to a little room.  She just wanted to look at me--how I stand and sit and walk.  No big deal.

Ah Hah!  An hour later, after she had pressed and pulled and maneuvered every sore spot on my upper body and created more sore areas, I finally called "Uncle" and she stopped.  Good Grief!

The sorest spot--the muscle under my scapula (wing bone), which hadn't been really sore in weeks, was now inflammed and marching to a pain that came with every pulse beat.  

"You're a mess!"  she proclaimed.  "Why have you waited so long?"

When I could once again breathe, I said, "I have been intending to get physical therapy for the last two years, but..........................."

"Well--you have waited so long it's going to take longer to get you back into shape!"

"Sorry."  

I haven't been scolded like that since I was twelve.

"Your shoulder is practically frozen.  Your C2 and C3 are practically welded together.  That's the reason you can't turn your head and the reason for the numbness in your left arm and hand.  Your shoulders are sitting up by your ears.  Your left shoulder is higher than your right shoulder and becoming humped.  When you walk, you walk with your head jutted forward."

Now, this young thing is small.  Thin as a rail and delicate looking.

She had hands with the strength of Brunhilde!  When she put her thumbs into that muscle in my back, I expected it to come out through my chest.  

"You need to start exercising.  I'd like to see you start swimming."

"I don't know how."

"Water aerobics then."

"I don't have a swim suit."

"You can buy one for twenty dollars at Meijers."

"Not one that will hold up these ta-tas.  The last one I bought was a hundred and twenty."

"Join a gym and lift weights and exercise your upper body."

"I can't afford that."

As she ushered me to the door she added, "Oh, since you are on a blood thinner....you may have bruising on your back.  Don't worry about it.  See you on Wednesday."
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I have had physical therapy and chiropractic therapy on my upper and lower back several times in the last twenty years.  I had PT before and after both of my hip surgeries.  I have never hurt as much as I did when I stumbled out of there yesterday.

To tell you the truth, I don't remember what I ate for supper or what I watched on TV last night, but I do remember looking at the clock when I fell into bed at 9:00 last night!   9:00?

See ya on Wednesday.

The world tries hard to drive me to distraction..............

I love Mondays--really I do.  When I was single and working, the weekends out on the farm where I lived seemed so long and I was eager to get back to the city, and the work place and all the people.  Now, I still feel like Monday is a special day.  A new week.  Time to get things done, although it really isn't any different than any other day around here in Retirement Park.

But...Oh, what a day.

Saturday--I was trying (the operative word here is trying), to print out a final genealogy book.  Everything was going along just fine and then--as it always happens--three pages came out with the photographs in odd colors.  The Navy blue clothing the people wore was a weird shade of Violet.  

Now, I am not dumb enough to think something is wrong with my printer, it was obvious my Tri-Color inkjet cartridge was running out--had run out--had died.  I bundled my inkjets into a bag and headed up to Brighton to the refill place.  2 black cartridges and 1 Tri-color.  I wanted 1 refill of each.

"This one black cartridge is three-quarters full.  Here is a new black and color one.  Use the three-quarters one first--I cleaned it up, but didn't charge you."

"Thanks."

I stopped and got gas on the way home and a quick trip to Michael's--way in the back--for ONE skein of floss.  The line was long.  ONE--skein.  I told the girl it would have been easier just to shop lift it.  She eyed me strangely.

Home for lunch and loaded my new cartridges into my printer.  Ah-hh, such a good, relaxed feeling to know that I can finish the job.  The test page looked a bit strange, but I loaded in the expensive special paper and printed out two photographs.  The clothing was still Violet in color.

What the heck?

Took the cartridges out, looked at them, patted them on a wet paper towel and tried again--this time on scrap paper.  Violet.

Took the 3/4 black one out and put the new black one in.  Violet.

Now, the Navy dress the lady was wearing was quite pretty in Violet, but her husband's Navy blazer looked a little weird in that same color.

I have two printers, exactly alike.  One is a remanufactured newer one.  I plugged that one in, swapped out the ink cartridges.  Printed.  Violet.

Yanked the cartridges out and back up to the refill place.  A placard on the darkened shop informed me, "Closed at 2:00 on Saturday".

EGADS AND LITTLE FISH HOOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I came home and did as any sane woman would do.  Sat in my recliner for the rest of the day and watched a basketball game and many movies on Turner Classic Movie channel AND cross-stitched!!!

Now--today?  Another journey up to the refill place.  Satisfaction will be mine or I will burn the place down!!!!!!!!!

My Alter Ego----the Dowager

Glad to see you took my last post in the humor it was intended.  Difficult to write about TMI without being humorous.  You have no idea how long it took me to think up words that would paint the picture without being too gross.  HAH!!!!!!
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...and it's also possible to agree with both.  

Too much fun.......

I am having way too much around here!!!

When I was at the doc's last week, I inquired about a colon cancer screening test that has just come out on the market.  Perhaps you have seen the commercials on TV.  He said, "Sure" and a few days later the UPS guy delivered a fairly large white and blue box to my front door.

Now, I know darn well that that cute UPS guy knew exactly what was in that package, but I just took it and said, "Thank you," and scurried back in the house.

The next morning, I decided it was time for me to investigate the innards of the box and get too my mission.  There was a large, zip lock bag and inside was an assortment of implements.  

Something that looked like perhaps a toilet seat protector, that comes in those dispensers in the toilet stalls, but this one was made of plastic.  It had to be placed between the seat and the toilet lid.  

Inside the box was also a rather large plastic container with a lid.  Like one of those fat, squat thermos' you can get to carry stew or soup in for your lunch.  This container was to sit down into the middle hole of the plastic "bracket" between the toilet lid and seat.  There was also a test tube sort of thing included in the kit.

One is supposed to sit upon this "bracket" and deposit one's G. I. tract contents.  BUT WAIT--there is a warning.  One is not to allow any liquid from the bladder to get into the container.

I took the bracket out and did my bladder thing and then put it all back together again.  As I sat down, very carefully positioning myself into the correct alignment, as one would not want to lose any precious cargo, the bracket made a loud cracking noise and I immediately envisioned, part of the plastic holders coming up and spearing me in the nether regions and perhaps causing a rupture of some kind and my imminent death.

I was barely in the mood anymore, but.....once started, one must proceed to the finish, so I pushed on.

Now the fun part starts.  I removed the thermos-like container and gazed into the depths to see what I had produced.  There were no images of anything miraculous, so I proceeded on to the next step.

In the test tube was a very sharp plastic pointy thing with a spiral on the end.  The instructions called for me to take the spiral end and sort of use it somewhat like an archeology tool to investigate and collect part of the newly deposited product onto the spiral end.

Put the pointy thing back in the test tube.  Pour a large bottle of preservative into the thermos-like container, tighten the lid---VERY TIGHTLY, put my name label on both test tube and container, put it back into the zip lock back---press all the air out of the bag, pull the glue strip off the top of the box and adhere tightly, with the free lab shipping address plainly in sight.

On my way to get my hair cut, I stopped at the local UPS store and proudly carried in the box.  You would have thought it was filled with gold going to an assayer, as I walked in tall and business like.

Now, I know darn well that the young UPS guy clerk knew exactly what was in that package, but I handed it off and said, "Thank you," and got outta there before my face got any redder.

I wonder if he had to put a "hazardous waste" sticker on it.  

A colonoscopy may have been less embarrassing.  At least I would have been asleep and not known what was going on.  EWWWW!!!
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As you know, my hair stylist died and they gave me to another girl at the same salon.  That girl just couldn't figure out how I wanted my hair cut.  It's not like I wear any hair cut that is complicated.  Then she decided to open her own shop.  Twelve miles away and in the fancy mall, with three round-abouts to maneuver to reach it. 

That is not happening!!! 

I had mentioned all this to Karen and she said one of her good friends goes to Fantastic Sam's.  Yeah--like do any of those places give a good hair cut?  I got the stylist's name and went yesterday.  Now, these are walk-in places, which are un-nerving to me.  I want an appointment.  I want to know what time to be there, put it on my calendar schedule and to prepare myself for the visit.  So I called in the morning and they do take appointments for that day.  Got in at 2:30.

Well, let me tell you.  This lady has been cutting hair since 1978.  She does know what she is doing.  She looked at my hair and told me exactly what I wanted--and she was correct.  I suppose, in all her knowledge, she could easily read the "lines" of my last cut?  

$17.00 for a hair cut.  $17.00.  Most places charge $35.00 and that is ridiculous for me to pay.  Plus they do eyebrow waxes--the whole salon thing.  

I think she did a great job and now I can go once a month, instead of waiting to save up the $$$ and the hair getting too unruly.

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Had lunch with the Old School Gal Pals today.  It's nice--having known each other for 70+ years, we know what topics we can talk about and which ones not to bring up.  They told about some of the ridiculous things their, now, old husbands do and I sat and listened and laughed, with a smug look on my face because I don't have to put up with that stuff.

Then, out to The Farm and an hour with my Little Sis.  I had a great day and tonight I am properly tired out and ready for bed.

We are expecting record high temperatures in the next 5 days!  In the 60's.  How great is that going to be?