P. T.

The tendons and muscles of the rotator cuff.

The dark stars are the bad spots.  They are also where she puts her thumbs and presses until they come out my pectorals in front.

4 yelps yesterday, so I did not reward myself with a treat.

Logical thinking--I am all for that.......

Let's be logical and reasonable here, okay?

The wooden monster has hung way up there for 14 years next Wednesday, March 15th.  Why would it suddenly decide now was a good time to fall?  Or does that mean the odds are turning in favor of it dropping?  Of course, you know what they say about March 15th?  

Beware the Ides of March!

I will be taking the Monster down when I get this room painted--hopefully the first part of May.  Unless of course, I am in the midst of chemo from the bad colonoscopy from the bad stool sample test.  
I just know that dang test was a false positive!

I suppose I could hang it over my couch? Under the Ocean painting?

I need more clutter on that wall!

Over the fireplace/TV stand?

BTW--I have given up on the curtain  musical chairs.  The kitchen ones will stay where they are and one set of these in the den will go on the bedroom window.  I think.

Physical therapy yesterday.  I was doing pretty well until she rammed her thumb into the muscle by my rotator cuff.  I dang near fainted and let out a "Yelp".  Couldn't help it.  She caught me by surprise.  One nice extra--I get there 15 minutes early so I can do my exercises to warm up my muscles before she attacks them.  I ride the stationary bike for 10 minutes, even though that is not part of my therapy.  I can tell already--my legs are getting stronger!!!

So today--I gotta make the 3 mile jaunt up to the Walmart.  I have prescriptions to pick up.  Cat food--AGAIN and stop at the bank.  

I FINALLY--got that gift card fiasco straightened out.  They closed the card and sent me a $50.00 check instead.  It has only taken 2.5 months and a dozen phone calls. Good thing I got it.  I will need it for the prescriptions and cat food and gas for my car.

ARRGH!  Prices keep going up.  My health insurance doubled and my car insurance went up $20.00 a month.  

Oh well--get into happy thoughts.  Put a smile on my face and off I go...............................

Unforeseen Contingencies

Now, you all have me nervous about the Monster on the Wall.  I keep looking up at it, wondering when it is going to come crashing down, killing my monitor, a window and a cat or two who love to sit on the wide window sill below and no doubt, decapitating me with its long "tail".

I can see the newspaper headlines now.  "Local woman killed by falling driftwood."  Should make an interesting obituary read.

Look at that "eye".  It does look menacing!!!

You asked how far I am on the Nativity Scene cross stitch?  No?  You didn't?  Well, I'm going to show you.  With an explanation, because, there is always an explanation.

I do like to work a cross stitch from the right side to the left.  BUT--to start, one must first find the center point of the cloth and the center point of the pattern, start there and work outwardly.  This cloth is 25 inches wide.  The pattern comes on five different pages.

I could not count the teeny squares over to the right side of where the pattern starts on the cloth, so I started at the middle point--which is Joseph's head.  I did the top part of part of that section.  Then jumped up to the ivy border and did that over to the farthest right point and down a bit so I could count on where to start the Wise Guys.  That guy on the right is one of them.

Now, IF I have counted correctly, I can work from the right of the cloth/pattern over to the left.  IF I have NOT counted correctly?  

Saturday, I got the other Wise Man started.  His crown of golden metallic thread starts just below this guys red head scarf.  Got his crown done and all of a sudden---I was tired of it all.  

I took it out of the hoop, folded it up nicely and stowed it, the thread and pattern in the lidded box next to my chair.

Sunday morning, after TV church, I opened up the NEW, sealed Noah's Ark baby quilt.  There was no thread included!!!!!!!  On E-bay the description read, "NEW!  Sealed in its original packaging." On the front of the packaging it stated, "thread included".

Someone lied to me.  So, not to be deterred, I entered the color numbers in a Excel spreadsheet, sorted them from lowest to highest number, printed out the list and headed to Michael's.  I got 26 out of the 29 colors I needed and walked up two stores to JoAnn's to get the other 3.

Came home, ate a bit of lunch, and sat watching movies on TCM while I wound the floss around the paper bobbins--4 hours!!

I started at the upper, right-hand corner of the quilt and I stitched while I watched/listened to "Mercy Street" and "Victoria" on PBS.  Would you believe it took me two hours just to get one cloud almost finished!  If you have ever done a large cross stitch project, you know how time intensive these things can be.  

I figured, if my colonoscopy comes back "bad", I should try and get this, the last of the 9 baby quilts done.  If I croak, my sister can finish the Nativity Scene.

.................always planning ahead for any unforeseen contingencies.

The Monster on the Wall

That, Dear Friends, is a 7 feet long, heavy piece of drift wood, taken out of the Au Sable River up north.

1960--my Mother, sister and I were visiting her brother (my uncle), who had a home on the shore of Lake Huron.

One day we took a road trip to various places of interest in the area and then to the top of the hill with the Au Sable river lying far below.

My Mother spotted it and said, "Judy!  You need that.  Help me drag it up here."

So down we ran and hauled that heavy thing up the steep hill to the car.    Thanks goodness, back then, cars had larger, deeper trunks.

When we got it home, she put some heavy eye bolts on the back of it and hung it over our couch.  It has hung over every couch I have had, in every house I have had, until I moved here.

Now, it hangs over my den window, ready to come crashing down on my computer/monitor/desk at any moment.

It is one of my most prized possessions.   (and at the time, very dusty).  LOL

It's Friday. Again! Time goes so fast......................

I thought Salmon patties sounded good for supper.  It was canned pink Salmon and they weren't all that great.  I prefer Red Sock-Eye Salmon, but I ate one while it was hot and have been having one cold one, dunked into Ketchup for lunch the last couple of days.  The Food Bank only has pink canned Salmon.  "Beggers can't be choosers."

That's one of those new ceramic fry pans.  I'm not impressed.  Sure, nothing sticks to it, but that causes the food to just slide around and seems to me, to make it difficult to get under and flip the meat to the other side.  I had to toss my big 16" Teflon coated fry pan, it was just to heavy for me to maneuver and very worn.  At least now, I'm not ingesting flakes of Teflon--which is probably a good thing?
====================

I got my new tier curtains today.  I'm not in the mood to iron and put them up as yet, because I also have to wash the windows first.  

These are the ones being replaced.  Notice how you can see through the bottom tiers.  Not a problem during the day, but I have had neighbors tell me they can see me sitting at my computer when they drive by.  That makes me feel a bit creepy.

Then, I got to pondering.  

"Oh, Oh."  One of you just said that.  I know you did!

I am not fond of the curtains in my bedroom.

 What if I swap out the curtains in my kitchen to my bedroom?  These have been my kitchen curtains for a few years.  I could put the tiers from the den on this window.

Then put these tie- backs on my bedroom window--I used to have tie backs at that window and liked them.

Then take these curtains at my bedroom window, wash them, fold them and give them to the Salvation Army.

New curtains at the three den windows.  The den tier curtains at the kitchen window.  The kitchen tie-back at the bedroom window.  It would be like I had new curtains in every room.  Are you confused yet?
====================
John stopped in and brought me 12 jugs of Diet Pepsi.  They were on sale for .99@ at Meijers.  6 de-cafe and 6 leaded.  I am a happy camper.  I was down to one jug of de-cafe.  YIKES!!  A near miss there.  I am hoping when I have the colonoscopy, it doesn't show my innards all torn up by my years of drinking Diet Pepsi.  To have to give that up?  I'd have to go into rehab!!
=====================
One tiny political note here.  I didn't watch the State of the Union address, or whatever they call it nowadays.   I don't care to hear what any politician has to say anymore.  I can't do a thing about their agendas, so I choose to ignore them all.  Whatever will be, will be.  And to think--I used to be so involved.  PBTTT.
================
Well, the sun is shining today.  It is cold and snow has covered up my Daffs and Tulips that were about 4" tall, but the sun is shining.  What a weird and strange season this has been.

Enjoy your weekend.  I shall be cross stitching and watching old time movies on TCM or basketball games on ESPN.  Sounds heavenly to me.

You mean a lot to me.................

When I starting this blog, I never realized how much it would come to mean to me.  Not so much what I write, but the comments.  Yes, I use this as my kind-of journal because arthritis in my hands has kept me from writing anything with pen and paper--that is legible.  Typing is still fairly easy.

I let it all out here because it is almost like having a conversation with friends.  I have to say, I think most of you know me as well or better than a lot of my "real life" friends.  In a real life conversation, a friend might say, "Oh, stop being such a baby."  or "Why would you think something dumb like that?"  Here, the comments might say the same, but I can't see your facial expressions, so any negative comments wouldn't hurt as much.  LOL

To say that on this blog, I bare my soul, would be an understatement.  Sometimes (I have been told), I am TOO open.  There are things I should just keep to myself.  That has been preached to me since I was young.  Consequently, I have kept things to myself that were screaming to come out.  I have a permanent line of sores around the edges of my tongue from biting it.  

I know that I have strange ponderings and thoughts.  I can't really put some of them out there to "audible" friends.  I do have a reputation to uphold after all.  A perception that "they" have of me.

Here is my safe place.  Well, it is safe now that my kids don''t know how to find it.  Remember a few years back when someone in the family told my daughter Jennifer of something I had posted about something she had said?  She quit speaking to me and forbade me to see her children?  Remember that fiasco?  The person who told her loves to spread hurtful gossip.  Jennifer had quite misunderstood what I had posted.  Well. anyway.  I feel a bit safer here now that this blog is no longer findable on ANY search engine.  Anyone who finds me, finds me from another blog where I have commented.

That being said--or written, I get such help from your comments!!!  It could be an affirmation or it could be a different way to think on something.  Sometimes an "I disagree", or an "I know just how you feel."  Either and all of your comments just make my day.

I know that sounds trite, but it is the truth!

Guess what?  My Bestie, who doesn't comment, but sends me comments via e-mail, my Bestie, Bethie, is also have a colonoscopy on March 30th.  She's an old hand at it--getting one every 5 years like she is supposed to.  Too bad we aren't having it done at the same place.  We could ride together and commiserate with each other.  LOL   Misery loves company and all that.
===========================

I woke up this morning to my big cat Buddy, kneading my left shoulder.  He was right on the spot that aches and his kneading felt sooooooooooo good.  Of course, the minute I moved and he sensed I was awake, he stopped and came around to nose my cheek with his cold, wet nose.  I had over slept and he was hungry!  It was a nice massage for a moment anyway.

I love that animal more than I should allow myself.  Growing up on a farm, I learned early on, it was not wise to love an animal too much.  Just about the time I became used to a pet, it either died or got run over by a piece of farm equipment.  I never became attached to a calf or lamb, because they were sent off to market.  So, I never had an inside pet.

Then---in my 50's, I got an inside cat.  I didn't want her, but she was going to be sent to the pound, so I grabbed her and she was mine for 13 years.  When I had to have her killed, it tore me up for weeks.  I swore that would never happen again.

Then I met Fred and in he came with his 12 year old dog, Tootz.  She was a love!  Then a few years later, Fred was in hospital, I woke up one morning and the dog couldn't move.  I couldn't get her in the car so I called the vet.  They came out and while Fred was on the other end of the phone talking to her in her ear, the technicians put her down.  Right there, in front of me.

I swore.  "No more pets!"

Six months later Fred suggested we get a cat.  or rather, "Two cats.  One for each lap."  I wasn't about to deny him anything, so off we went to animal control.  I got Buddy and he got Maggie.  Six months after that, Fred died and left me with one lap and two cats.  I've never quite forgiven him for that.  LOL.

Buddy has always been my favorite because he is so gentle and calm.  He sleeps right by my head every night.  Maggie was a frantic cat--hissing, clawing, biting.  She now has turned into a lovable cat.  She sits on my lap and pats my face with her paw until I pet and cuddle her.  She sleeps by my feet.  I have become so attached and in love with both of them now.

ARGGH!  I'm sunk.
=======================
I bought a brand new black inkjet at Staples.  $49.95.  Can you believe that?  It's because my printer twins are old and the ink isn't manufactured every much.  It worked perfectly in my printer so up to the refill place I went to turn in the ones that didn't work.  We had a long, informative conversation.

The cartridges can get old, of course, and although they test them before they sell them, if not used soon, the sponge can dry up and the ink won't come through.  Probably not too many people buy that kind anymore, so who knows how long they hang on the shelf.

I asked if I could get my new cartridge filled when needed.  Yes.  It might take them a few extra minutes to refill it, but at least I would know it was fairly new and had only been used once before.  That is the way I am going to go from now on.

I got store credit for the black ones that didn't work.

They also have a March Special on an HP Envy printer and flat bed scanner, copier, fax, all in one for $99.99.  The ink refills on that one coast $18.00 for the color and $13.00 for the black.

My refills cost, $29.00 for the color and $22.00 for the black.  Plus I have that $25.00 store credit.  

Hm-mm.  
============
Theresa--thanks for finding me!!  Where are you from?

Predictions

My predictions for 2017 was it was going to be a year full of change.

One of those changes will be happening on March 30th.

Have you ever gotten news and you felt a cold band wrap around your mid-section?  That's the way I felt.

My doctor called.  My Colo-Guard stool sample test came back positive.  I have to have my first and I hope last, colonoscopy that day.  I'm not worried about the prep.  It will be spring-time by then and as my Grandma would say every spring, "You need a good cleaning out!"  My Mother would bring out the worm medicine and laxatives and if that didn't work, a warm soapy enema was in the offing.  

I am worried about the results.  I have had bouts of severe diarrhea and then constipation since July.  That's one of the "signs".

Every year I have the FIT test, which is a stool sample smear and all have been negative.  Then, on reading about this Colo-Guard test, I see there are a lot of people who have had false positives and clear colonoscopies.  But still.........................................

I have my lung CT scan on the 15th.  I sure hope that one goes okay.  My voice is still hoarse and that too is one of the "signs".  My chest x-ray last fall came back good, but chest x-rays don't always show tiny lung tumors. So....................................

GEEZ!!!  I'm falling apart!!

Well, if I'm going to talk the talk, I am going to have to walk the walk and put all of this in God's hands.  Not that He causes any of these health problems, but that He will help me get through whatever the future brings.
====================
Yesterday we had strong thunderstorms, high winds and a nearby tornado in Michigan.  Today, we are expecting snow this late afternoon.

I have to deal with the inkjet refill place again.  The black refills do not work!  Neither one!  I have tried them both in both of my printers, so I know, it is not a printer problem.  I should just break down and buy a new black inkjet at Staples and then---I'd know for sure.  They are so expensive--the new ones.  The refills are about half the price.  Oh---I just don't know what to do!!!!!!!!!!!!

After that, I go to the torture chamber.  So far all the maneuvers have done is cause my nerves to become more inflammed.  I don't think my left shoulder will ever get back into it's correct position--it comes forward a bit, but I am in it until the end of the treatments.
=====================
So, today is Ash Wednesday.  I'm not Catholic so I don't get to have ashes on my forehead, dripping down my nose and I sure hope I don't tell someone they have a "smudge of dirt" on their forehead, like I mistakenly did last year.

I did learn something last night, as I watched Mother Angelica on TV.  The ashes are a sign to make us remember death.  That we all are going to die and return to ashes.  That knowledge seems to be an everyday thought in my life as I age.  I don't need a one-day reminder.

I know that Lent is a time of atonement and sacrifice.  We Methodists never "gave up" stuff for Lent.  When I was in the 9th grade, before going into my Algebra classroom, I stated to my friend that I was going to "give up Algebra for Lent".  Not realizing that my teacher was right behind me and heard that comment and was not pleased.

I rather like to take on something new for Lent.  Like calling a friend just to say I thought of them, or an e-mail or a note.  I think one day I will go over and visit Dar and her Dad and one day visit Merle and Pearl and one day visit Jackie.  

I never have quite understood why Catholics have the 40 days of Lent at this time of year.  Jesus went out into the desert for 40 days BEFORE He started His ministry, not 40 days before He went into Jerusalem and His death.  

Although, it IS a good time to have a period of thought and atonement BEFORE His crucifixion.  After all, He did it all for us.  Then the joyousness of Resurrection.  Christians would have no "religion" without His Resurrection.  

Sure, His birth was significant, but our church year begins on Resurrection Sunday--Easter.  If He hadn't come out of that grave alive, He would only be a great prophet.  He would not be the Son of God and we would not have all the promises He gave us to believe in.

So, March is coming in like a Lion.  Many will be anointed with the sign of the cross made on their foreheads with ashes mixed in oil and the rest of us have spring-time to look forward too.  A time of new life, as baby animals are born and flowers come up out of their cold, dark winter graves.

I'd say, there are a lot of reasons for celebration!