This and That

The schedule for yesterday was, cross stitching and watching the Big Ten basketball tournament.  4 games, so it was an all day affair.  My eyes were crossed by 10:00 last night.  Did you hear that the plane the University of Michigan basketball team, cheer leaders and Pep band members were on, had an accident?  On take-off, because of the high winds, their plane couldn't take off and slid off the end of the runway.  No one was hurt--thankfully.  

They were not allowed to unload the plane, everything had to stay in place while the NTSB investigated.  They got no sleep, and arrived in D.C. (where the tourney is taking place) in the morning, and on the floor to play at noon, in their practice jerseys.  They went on to beat Illinois anyway and played like demons!!  Their coach was crying he was so proud of those kids.  I was too, even though I detest the U of M.

My Spartans won too.
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Today's schedule?  Another 4 games, beginning at noon and ending around 10:00 tonight.  You would be surprised how far I am on my cross stitched baby quilt.

I do have to run up to the Walmart to get a prescription for my Celexa--anti-depression pills.  Can't go without taking them.

You all don't want to see me without them!!!
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Wednesday, on my way to PT, I saw Dar's friend Sheila, helping her to the car.  Sheila had Dar's arm around her neck and Dar could hardly walk.  

Dar has been in hospital since then.  She is having balance problems.  First thing I thought of was a stroke.  I called her yesterday and she said they had run a lot of tests on her and they thought perhaps she had a blood clot at the base of her skull!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She is on blood thinner Coumadin.  How can she have a blood clot?  

Then she said it might be Vertigo, but she isn't dizzy or nauseous, it's just when she stands, she tends to fall toward one side.

Then she said they gave her a little pill called Ativan to help her.

Ativan is an anti-anxiety pill.  Hm-mm.

She wanted me to go over and check on her Dad.  It was 8:30, dark, windy and cold out there, but I went over.  He is doing fine by himself.  

He is such a gentleman.  95 years old and yet he got up to answer the door, we chatted and when I got up to leave, he got out of his chair, walked me to the door, opened it up for me and thanked me for checking in on him.  

I called Dar back.  She thinks she is coming home today.
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900,000 people with no power in south-east Michigan.  The worse outage in history.  The power company "thinks" they will have power restored by Sunday night.   The temperatures have dropped and it is mighty cold.

Thank goodness, I live in a place where all power, phone, gas lines are buried.  I've been here almost 14 years and the only power outage we have had, is when a truck  ran into a transformer pole and snapped it off.  We had power restored in 3 hours.

My sister and BIL have a whole house generator, so they are fine.  My son Mark and Pam, who live out by sister, had power restored yesterday morning.  Karen has a generator that will run their furnace and water pump, so they are pretending they are "camping".  LOL

.....and here I sit.  Warm and toasty and watching basketball games all the live long day!

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