Missing these two a lot......................

Daughter Karen Helene and her grandbaby, Della Helene

Ticked Off

Friday started out just fine.  The sun was shining.  The wind had settled down.  It was cold, but it was a shiny day.

I had to go to Walmart and pick up a prescription.  On the way there, driving on the 2-lane, plus left turn lane, plus 2-lane road--50 mph speed limit, some guy in a big pick-up drove out of a driveway right in front of me.  I had to slam on the brakes, or I would have T-Boned him.  He glanced at me as he headed the opposite way.  I sooooooooo wanted to flip him off!  
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Got to Walmart parking lot and there was a nice spot, near the door, with a car backing out.  I put on my blinker light to let everyone know I was going to pull into that nearly vacant space.  The car left, I was about to make my move and a guy, in a pick-up, came around the corner and into that space.  He got out and glanced my way.  I sooooooo wanted to flip him off!
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I got home and decided to take a shower before the basketball games started.  The water ran for longer than usual before getting hot.  I had no hot water.  Apparently the gales of wind we had on Wednesday blew out the hot water heater pilot light.  I had done laundry on Thursday and hadn't even noticed because I wash in cold water.  ARGGH!!!

So, I called the electric company, with which I have my appliance service repair plan.  They can get a guy out here on Monday. 
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Okay--everything will be fine.  I had some lunch and took my anti-anxiety pill and settled in to watch the basketball tournament.

At 3:00, right in the middle of my Michigan State game against Minnesota, a team we have beaten twice this year, my phone rang.  It was Dar.

"Hi.  They sent me home.  My sister-in-law Mary drove me home, but I need a favor from you."

"What's that?"

"I have prescriptions I need to get filled.  I have to take my dizzy pill at five."

 "Did you drop the prescriptions off on your way home and you want me to go pick them up?"

"No.  I have them here.  You have to take them up to Walmart and sit and wait for them to be filled."

"Well, I can do it in an hour, but right now I am watching the basketball tournament and Michigan State is playing.  Why didn't you have your sister-in-law drop them off on your way home.  You came right by Walmart."

"I know.  I just didn't feel like stopping. I wanted to just get home."

so because it is all about you, you want me to now hop to and do your running.

"Like I said, I can do it in an hour.  You don't need them until 5:00, I'll be over at 4:00 to pick them up."

"Oh.  That's cutting it kind of close.  Why don't you take them up now and then go back and pick them up when they're ready?"

"Because I want to watch this game and my gas tank is almost empty so I didn't want to drive anymore until Monday and fill it up when I go to PT."

"I'll call Sheila and see if she can do it."

"Okay, let me know."

A few minutes later, I saw Sheila pull into Dar's driveway and then out again and leave.  She was gone for well over an hour.  Dar never called me back.
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Michigan State lost.
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I wanted popcorn and milk for supper.  When I opened the refrigerator, I remembered.  I had used the last of the milk that morning for my Cherrios.

I soooooo wanted to flip off the entire world

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