The Next Fifty Years

Pepe the Key West Rooster, a Delightful Picture Book

2023-08-05T17:57:00.004-05:00

If you have a young child, you will love this picture book. Pepe the Key West Rooster, written by Victoria Scudder and illustrated by Nita Candra. I'm way older, and I loved this book! I was given an Advanced Reader Copy, ARC, but it was my idea to review it here for you.

As you can tell from the title, Pepe is a rooster who lives in Key West, Florida. He is just a young rooster though, a cockrell, and wants to be like his handsome and popular father. But he feels small and drab compared to his father. He doesn't know what his special qualities could be that will set him apart from other roosters. He goes on a quest, seeking out his friends to see if they know what talent he could learn to make him special. From them, he learns patience, self-acceptance, and that he is already unique.

Pepe's trip around the island is full of famous places that made ME want to visit there. His conversations with friends are touching and encouraging. As a parent and now a grandparent, this is exactly the kind of book I want my grands to hear. Without giving anything away, let me just say that you will love the ending. This is a perfectly written rhyming book. If you've ever written a poem, in school or afterward, you know how difficult it is to find words that have both the right meaning and that rhyme. Some rhyming books sound a bit disjointed because of that. But not this one. The meter is measured yet conversational and the sentences and words used are completely balanced.

The illustrations are simple, bright, and colorful, just like life on the island. Some of the famous landmarks are visited too. If you've been there, you will recognize them in the illustrations. At the end of the book is a kid-friendly history lesson with a paragraph about each landmark visited by Pepe.

It's on Amazon Unlimited, so you can read it before buying it for your children or grandchildren. If yours are like my grandsons, they want to hold the book and flip through it over and over before I ever start reading.

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday

2023-06-14T15:29:00.002-05:00

Linking to:

Wordless Wednesday at Comedy-Plus

The Murderer Wore Obsession Cologne

2023-06-09T21:34:00.006-05:00

(Prompt word this week is BOX.)

The Uber driver pulled up to the curb and jumped out to open the door for FBI translator, Lisa Dumont.

Her white cane sweeping the sidewalk in front of her, Lisa walked to her door and let herself in, glad to be done with a long, trying day.

She had been translating for a French national, suspected of the murders of twenty young women, before being extradited that evening.

His nauseating cologne had become stronger and stronger as they sweated him in the interrogation room and the cloying odor seemed to follow her home.

Lisa kicked off her shoes and placed them neatly beside the door before padding across the oak floor toward the kitchen, stopped by an unfamiliar box blocking the door.

She reached into the box and felt a roll of duct tape on top of loose plastic, and then a hand on her shoulder as he said: "Enfin seul, Lisa, Alone at last."

Linking to: Six Sentence Story at GirlieOnTheEdge>

Thankful Thursday

2023-04-06T12:10:00.012-05:00

I am thankful for my home and the beauty surrounding it in spring. I love this field in front of my house and the fragrance is delightful. These pictures were taken with my phone and don't begin to capture the beauty of the bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush.

Neighbors who watch out for each other.

Spring rains.

Hummingbirds and purple martins.

And since Easter is just days away, I can't end without saying that I am thankful for Jesus, who gave his earthly life so we might have eternal life.

Leeanna's prompt this week is ""do you have any fun or special memories of getting or giving an easter basket? What was in it? Was it covered in that shiny see through crinkly paper and candy sitting on that paper grass? Remember that wall of easter baskets in the front window of the dime stores ? Did you do easter egg hunts in the yard, and did you love it? "

When I was a little girl, it was usually too cold to have Easter egg hunts outside. The day before Easter, we drew on boiled eggs with our crayons and then dyed the eggs in rainbow colors. The dye wouldn't penetrate the crayon wax so the words and designs showed up after dying. One big splurge my mother made at Easter was to buy an Easter egg dye kit. There were tablets of concentrated dyes and little metal egg holders that looked like a lasso with a bend beside the loop. It was quite a contest to see who could carefully cradle the egg in the loop of this little metal lasso and dip the egg in the dye without it falling off.

On Easter morning, we got up to find that the eggs were hidden all over the house, and when I say hidden, I mean hidden. None were in plain sight. After all the eggs were gathered, we gave them to Mom in exchange for a live chick or duckling that we got to keep in our room until it was big enough to go outside. Cheep, cheep, cheep all night long! I didn't know Mom counted the eggs in our baskets until the year one was missing. It was finally found a couple of weeks later in my closet and boy did it smell bad! After our egg hunt, I put on my best dress and went to church. If I had grown much since Christmas, Mom would have made a new dress in spring colors. Lunch was probably a ham, but I only remember that the Easter eggs were now deviled eggs which we quickly devoured.

After we moved to North Texas where the grass is green and flowers are in bloom at Easter, our girls had Easter egg hunts in our yard and garden. We usually had their hunts after church when it was a little warmer and we didn't have to worry about being late for church. It was so fun to see them running from flower to flower looking for eggs, which were plastic, not boiled, and filled with candy or nickels.

Easter 1999, Mom with my girls.

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Mia and Smokey Chime In

Smokey: Why is Mia's name first? I lived here first. I demand top billing.

Mia: I'm more important than you are and besides, it's alphabetical order. You're already distracted too. We're here to talk about things we are thankful for.

Smokey: Well, I am happy that it is spring and my catio is open all day. I'm happy the mice are in the backyard again.

Me: Wait. What mice?

Smokey: The mice that lived under the steps last year are back again this year. I got one already. *smug grin*

Mia: I showed him where they were hiding, but mousing is cats' work.

Smokey: What is dog's work? You lay in bed all day.

Mia: Chasing stray cats out of the yard. Remember that black cat that was harassing you Saturday?

Smokey: Yeah, he growled at me while I was in my catio.

Mia: After mama shooed him away from your catio, he went into my backyard, and I chased him up one side and down the other and he finally squeezed through a cattle panel to get out. He won't be back to bother you anymore.

Smokey: You did that for me? I love you.

Mia: Ewww, don't say that, I don't even like you. Protecting you is just part of the job.

Smokey: I'm going to come rub on you anyway.

Mia: Not looking at you. You're not there. Go away.

Me: What are you thankful for Mia?

Mia: I love dad.... and my pillow... and my bed in the kitchen... and my bed in the ham shack... and my bed in the RV. And cheese. I love cheese.

Me: What about me? Do you love me?

Mia: Eh? You're ok. I love that you feed me chicken.

*******

I am linking with the usual Thankful Thursday linkups, and I'm sad to see that Overflowing with Thankfulness is discontinuing her linkup after today. We'll miss it Jennifer but understand how a weekly obligation can be tiring. Jennifer has a Wednesday linkup called Currently that looks interesting and I hope to join it next week.

I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color

Thankful Thursday at It's a Small Town Life

Thankful Thursday

2023-02-15T22:58:00.007-06:00

I don't have a lot of Thankfuls this week. I can't believe it's already been a week since I wrote my last post. For the last several days, I've been noticing signs of spring. I first noticed that the Callery Pear trees at Home Depot were in full bloom. You may know them as Bradford Pear or pyrus calleryana. They're a trash tree from Asia and have made the Texas Invasive Species List. But they do have an impressive display of white blooms every spring. So starting my list is:

1. I love spring! I haven't seen any wildflowers in bloom yet, but the dandelions have bloomed and gone to seed. I even like dandelions because the honey bees love them, and because they attract aphids which keeps the aphids out of my garden. I've heard dandelion wine is good, but I've never tried it. During the depression, people used to eat all parts of the dandelions, from the roots to the blooms. Thanks to the dandelions in bloom, I've also seen my first butterfly of the year, a sulfur, flitting from one yellow blossom to the next. I've also seen the first grasshopper of the year and the first mosquito. I'm not thankful for them though.

Free photo from Pixabay

2. I like my town. I am so glad we moved here and wish it had been sooner. The other day I had to mail something, so I grabbed it and headed to the post office where I picked up a padded envelope, carefully stuffed my project in it, and walked up to the counter where I realized I had forgotten the address. I started to take my project out (it wasn't a free envelope), but the postmaster waved me off and told me to take it home, put the address on it and pay for it when I brought it back. Small town trust!

3. I like my Sketchers. I noticed this week that they are starting to come apart at the seams and it makes me sad that I won't have them much longer, but they have given me 4 or 5 good years and maybe the next pair will too.

4. I'm adding this hours after posting this, but Hubby came in this morning and said the purple martins have come home! It took awhile for all four of them to be out at the same time, but he took a few pictures for me. Whoohoo! Spring is definitely on the way. These may only be scouts, but they seem to have claimed a couple of nesting boxes, so we'll see.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

This week, Leeanna's prompt is: "Tell us about a time you knew someone was for you... in honor of Love month, I'm thinking a mate but it can be a best friend, or your dog/cat, etc.

How did you know, what did they do or say that made you look again, this time knowing they were your person?"

I feel incredibly lucky to have several friendships that have lasted over 60 years. I think they have lasted so long because we have so much in common, but also because of trust. Without trust, I don't think any relationship will last. Let me tell you about two times that I knew someone was going to be in my life forever.

First was the boy I had known since I was 13. We went to the same church but not the same junior high so I only saw him a couple of times a week. We went to the same high school but we weren't in any classes together and dating different people, so didn't see each other much. But at the end of our senior year, we went out as friends, and we had a nice time. Thanks to years of frienship, there wasn't any first date awkwardness and then we started seeing each other more often. I think I started falling in love with him the day he came over to fix something on my car that he had noticed was broken. We both dated other people too, but it really wasn't until someone else asked me to marry him that I realized I only wanted to marry my best friend. A year later, we did get married and after 47 years, I'd rather spend the day with him than anyone else I know.

Second is a woman named Ruthie who I met on my first day at a new job. She sat at the desk in front of me and from that first day, it was like we had known each other forever. We weren't allowed to have personal conversations at work except during breaks, so we developed a kind of conversation shorthand where sentences went unfinished because we knew what the other was going to say, so it was a series of sentence fragments. It was an odd workplace, with co-workers who barely spoke to each other all day. But somehow, Ruthie and I communicated with nods and goofy facial expressions. We'd wave goodbye after work and then call each other as soon as we got home to have real conversations and laugh that we thought the same things about all the silent communication at the office. On weekends, we helped each other with home projects or went shopping. We moved away first and our conversations and visits became less frequent until they gradually stopped. Then, a few years ago, I googled her name, called her, and it was like no time at all had passed. She had also moved and now had cystic fibrosis. We began talking every day again, but as time went by, it was harder for her to talk very long and once again, we spoke in sentence fragments and still understood each other perfectly. I miss Ruthie but I know if we could talk today, we'd take up right where we left off.

I'm joining the usual Thursday linkups:

Thankful Thursday

I like Thursday

Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday

2023-02-09T01:46:00.010-06:00

Leeanna, at Not Afraid of Color, posts a thoughtful question every week, and I want to start with it this week.

"How do you celebrate Valentines day, what do you like about it, special memory of one now or as a kid... you get the idea. Love is always good."

When I first saw this question, I thought about skipping it, because we really don't celebrate "Hallmark holidays." But then I remembered things we do or have done to show our love - without commercialism. We don't ignore that it is Valentine's Day, we just celebrate it without standing in lines with credit card in hand.

I start the day with hot tea made in a teapot decorated with hearts. One year I made French toast and cut the bread with heart-shaped cookie cutters. The kids loved that and wanted it every year after that. We'll wish each other a happy Valentine's Day and I will wear a silly Valentine's shirt which usually starts the Valentine's jokes. I usually make Hubby's favorite cake, a red velvet cake, in heart-shaped pans. When the girls were little, we made heart-shaped sugar cookies and iced them pink and red. Hubby's contribution is cinnamon candy. In the evening we will call the kids and grandsons and hear all about class parties and who brought treats to work. We will have a nice dinner at home, dust off the candles, and maybe even eat on the good china. Or it could be paper plates and celebrate a night without doing dishes. That's a special treat too. But our favorite part of the day is cuddling on the sofa with hot chocolate and popcorn while we watch a movie.

We don't give wrapped gifts, or send cards. I think our love language is acts of service.

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Thankful/I Like Thursday

1. I am thankful for the rain we've had this week. Yes, it's cold, gray, and miserable, but we've been in drought conditions for months, so this is a welcome relief and hopefully will give us an extra hay cutting this spring.

2. I like bluebonnets, and we are going to have a bumper crop (no, not really a crop) this year.

3. I like living in the 21st century. I read a biography of a pioneer family who lived in Kansas. They had to make every single thing they needed. Need to wash clothes? First have to butcher the pig and render the fat, then make the soap. That took two or three days. Doing laundry was an all-day affair which included hauling buckets of water from the well, heating it on the stove, and then scrubbing clothes in tubs, and hanging it to dry. Later, everything was ironed, even the sheets. That took two days every week or two. And through all that, the daily chores had to be done, the milking, the cooking, the cleaning and the garden. Life for pioneer women sounded like pure drudgery. Today, we are so very, very lucky to have so many conveniences which give us free time for our hobbies and travel. As simple as those times were, they weren't easy.

4. I like audio books. I appreciate the authors and readers who make it possible for me to close my eyes and listen to a novel. I don't remember anyone ever reading to me at bedtime when I was little, but I could really get into bedtime stories for grownups. I think I'd pick the soothing words of Lucy Maud Montgomery read by Megan Follows. She was my favorite Anne. Right now I'm listening to The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian. It is our book club selection this month and does require some concentration, so I don't listen at bedtime.

5. I like rocks. I've picked up rocks for over 65 years, and I'm still amazed at the colors and shapes that are just lying on the ground. Of course, I like the unusual ones best. I found these two in my driveway. I assume they are fossils of shells, but I like to imagine that they are dinosaur teeth.

What are you thankful for this week? Join me at these very special linkups, where people share their thoughts and inspire us.

Thankful Thursday

I like Thursday

Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday

2023-02-02T13:37:00.008-06:00

I am Thankful

1. That my mother is still here to lead by example. When she moved here last year, she said she was determined to make the best of it and she has. I'm sure she has been sad many times about missing the friends she left behind, the house she lived in for over 60 years, most of her possessions, and probably most of all, missing her independence, but she has never complained to me. She is always thankful for what she has now and never fails to thank us for doing things for her. She does talk about missing Mia who now lives with us, and I try to take Mia to her on days we aren't going anywhere else, although Mia wishes Mom would come here instead. Mom still enjoys learning new things even if it is more difficult than it used to be, and I hope I can say that when I am 91.

Mom called me last night and asked what a pdf is. I explained and then asked why. Well, she had come across a website with free crochet patterns. It's lovecrafts.com. (Have you heard of it? If so, what do you think of it?) Anyway, Mom said she tried to download one of these free pdf patterns but it didn't work. So while we were on the phone, I went to the website too, and finally found the pattern she wanted and asked if she had clicked the black Download Now button. No, she had only clicked on the picture (the snapshot) in the page of patterns. I told her to look for the Download button and she finally found it and said nothing happened when she touched it. (That should have been my first clue. She was on her laptop, which is at least ten years old and doesn't have a touch screen.) I wanted to see if that was the problem, so I clicked it with my mouse and it opened a signup page. Have you ever tried directing a 91 year old on how to do something on the computer by phone, without Skype or Facetime? She could not figure out how to type the underscore ( _ ) in her email address without it becoming ( ___________ ) and after much instruction, she couldn't find the log in button. I suspect part of the problem is that she hasn't updated her computer in years and she wasn't seeing the website the same way I saw it. The short story is that I signed her up using my laptop, so all she has to do is find the main page of that website where there is a big log in button. Now I just hope she has enough memory space to download some patterns. They do have some cute ones.

2. My dog, Mia. Or rather Mom's dog. Truth be told, she is Hubby's dog. Even Mom says that Mia never really attached to her. But Mia adores Hubby. I call him Mia's Beloved. Mom got her from a local shelter, so we don't know much about her previous life except that her original owner had to move and couldn't take Mia (who was first named Agnes). So that owner gave her to a friend and after a couple of months, that friend surrendered her to the shelter. We suspect the original owner was a man because Mia prefers men. Or maybe she's just a natural flirt. Last Saturday, at Hubby's ham radio weekend, she was the perfect hostess to a bunch of men. There were a couple of women who came, but it was mostly men and Mia wanted to greet each one. If they wanted to pick her up, she was fine with that too. One man in particular wanted her to sit with him, and I could tell she was uncomfortable but she stayed with him and made his day. He was an older man who felt like he was in the way while the younger men were setting up radios and antennas all around our house. So he sat in the living room and cuddled Mia while talking to me. I'd like to tell you that Smokey the cat was equally charming to our guests, but, he wasn't, so he spent most of the weekend in his catio.

3. For a beautiful weekend for the ham radio club. Since we were gone last year, they hadn't done their Winter Field Day since 2021 and they were all excited about their weekend. If you are wondering what Winter Field Day is, it is where ham radio people all across the country, or maybe even countries, leave the comfort of their indoor radio rooms and their permanent radios and antennas, and go outside. They set up mobile antennas, tents, trailers, and tables for their radios, and try to connect with as many other ham radio stations as they can. It runs from 1:00 Saturday to 1:00 Sunday and they endure whatever weather Mother Nature throws at them. There are people enjoying the weather in Florida talking to people freezing their toes off in Maine. Portable heat is allowed, but there are rules on how far they have to be from a building with electricity. The weather was nice Saturday, with a high of 60 and a light breeze and it stayed in the 50s all night for the night people. A cold front came through soon after breakfast on Sunday though and the men hurried to take their antennas down before the wind did it for them. That put an early end to the weekend. Now they will start planning Summer Field Day, which is in July and the hams will be sweltering instead of freezing.

4. That I didn't have to drive to work this week during our ice storm. Today we are listening to the ice slide off the roof and crash on the ground. At least it is finally melting.

5. Snuggling in the living room around the tv watching a family movie. Even Smokey wanted to watch this one, Dog Gone with Gonker the dog.

Eventually I convinced him that he could watch it easier from my lap.

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I Like Me

1. I wanted to be able to say something positive to myself everyday, but I am still struggling with this. I mentioned above that an older ham radio operator stayed in the house and talked to me while the younger members were setting up. I don't do well with inactivity. Even when I watch tv, I either have a book in my hands, sewing, or the computer. I also don't do small talk well for very long. So I'm going to give myself a pat on the back for making this man, and another, for sitting and visiting instead of running off to do my own thing.

2. This isn't an I like, as much as it is a self pep-talk. Venture outside your comfort zone and join the ladies at coffee in the morning, or see what is going on at the senior citizens center. When my In-Laws first moved here, my mother-in-law was very resistant to even visit the senior center. I think it made her feel old. I finally understand how she felt. But who knows, maybe it will make me feel younger instead.

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LeeAnnas thought question today is: What do you think of the panetone color of the year, Magenta?

I love magenta. It's a great jewel tone color, rich and vibrant, and looks good on most people. I don't think I would like it painted on the exterior of most houses though there are some "gingerbread" turn of the century houses around here that would shine with that color as trim. I think it would be pretty overwhelming inside as wall paint too, but as accent fashion, it would be fantastic.

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I'm joining the following Thankful linkups:

Thankful Thursday and Fashion Files (I don't know what Fashion Files are though.)

I like Thursday

Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday and Positive Talk to Myself

2023-01-26T00:00:00.008-06:00

I challenged myself to start keeping a thankfulness journal this year but we were both so sick the first week of January that I never gave it another thought. Then we had a busy week trying to run all our saved up errands and then of course, I had the mystery killer headache and invisible flaming arrow in my eye for a week and that challenge went to the bottom of the trash heap. But I was recently reminded of it by another blogger and thought I'd give it another chance even though the first month of the year is almost over. That's when I realized I really don't know how to keep a thankfulness journal, or even how to write thankfulness. How many times can I say I am thankful for my incredible husband? Then I thought I'd look at a few Thankful Thursday posts from linkups, and I couldn't find any Thankful Thursday linkups. I thought I had several bookmarked, but I only had one and it has ceased. So if you know of a Thankful Thursday linkup, let me know. I'd like to see how other people do this. *edit* Thank you for the link to a new Thankful Thursday. I added it at the bottom of this post.

I thought I'd write about something I'm thankful for every day, but since I was just reminded about this yesterday, that would be a short list. I'll try to do that starting tomorrow though. For this post, I want to tell how being sick for almost a month made me thankful. I'm not thankful I was sick. That is not how I wanted to start the year. But it did make me see things around me that I have been taking for granted.

I am so very thankful for my husband. For the last year, he has driven my mother and me to her doctor appointments, even when I'm sure he would much rather be doing something else. He drives us to the door, waits in parking lots, and picks us up at the door. He gets out wheelchairs, walkers, set up appliances, and put together furniture. All this without complaining, or at least not complaining much. He sorted through mom's house of hoard, packed box after box of stuff and carted them 350 miles to her new home, only to be met with requests for more stuff. This past week, he sat in the emergency room with me while people all around us coughed and hacked, and he listened to doctors toss ideas in the air and then say they have no idea what was wrong with me. Then he brought me home, turned out the lights and made me as comfortable as possible while we waited to see what to do next.

I am thankful for these two furballs who depend on me and support me by showing unconditional love. Even Mia, who has chosen Hubby to be her favorite person, showed she cared by sitting in my lap for two worst days of my headache. She did jump down and run into the kitchen when Hubby started cooking though. Did I mention that Hubby cooked for a week? I don't remember what all he made because I couldn't eat much, but I do remember we ate.

Mia saying "Do you know what time it is????"

I am thankful for the friends who called and asked how I was doing every day and who asked what they could do to help us out. I'm looking forward to paying them back for their kindness or paying it forward.

I am thankful for my mother, who put aside her wishes to give us time to get better. I know how it feels to be dependent on others for food and transportation and I'm sure there are places she would have liked to go in these weeks without doctor appointments.

I am most thankful that I woke up without a headache and eye pain Tuesday morning.

This one is pretty selfish, I admit, but I'm thankful the weather was cold and windy. It made it much easier to want to be home instead of think about what I was missing. Now bring on the nice weather please!

******** Another blogger, MiaIsMine, challenged me to write things we like about ourselves. So many people sabotage themselves with self-criticism, and it's time to turn the tables and build confidence with encouragement. I read this question on another website: "How many friends would you have if you talked to them the same way you talk to yourself?" So I am going to try to detach myself and talk to me as if I were a friend. If writing about being thankful was hard, this was nearing impossible. I couldn't seem to turn off my inner negative voice.

1. I like the way you cut your hair. Changing to a new look can be tough, so hang in there and grow one more layer out before you do anything different.

2. I like the way you held your tongue when he said that B12 and Biotin were the same thing. Save your energy for more important disagreements.

3. I like how you recreated one of mom's old favorites out of some chicken leftovers. I love comfort food.

******** What are you thankful for this week? And I challenge you to tell what you like about yourself too, espcially if your inner voice tends to critique instead of encourage.

Kate reminded me of I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of color, so I will try to link to that too. Lee Anna's challenge question today is: "I love color! what are your favorite colors? Do you wear them or decorate with them? has it changed in the last few years? Is it influenced by the seasons?"

I've never really thought about it before, but my favorite color has changed over the years. It took me a long time to learn about seasonal color analysis and I found out I was an autumn. For years, my mother and mother-in-law bought clothes for me for Christmas and birthdays and they were always pastels. I always felt washed out in pastels and tended to wear bright red when I shopped for myself. The last few years, I've added some bright blues into my fall colors, and lately I've been in love with jewel tones, especially teals. If I were buying fabrics like I used to, you would see more teal in my quilts.

When we bought new furniture for our family room, the furniture we both found comfortable only came in navy blue, so for the last twenty years, my house colors have either been navy blue or something that coordinated with navy blue. When we moved here, I considered buying new furniture, but our furniture still looked brand new, so we kept most of it and I said I would never buy blue furniture again. We were shopping for new recliners for our RV last fall, and wouldn't you know it, when we found one that we could both sit in and would fit in the space, they were navy blue! But let me say here and now, I will never buy blue furniture again!

Linking to:

Thankful Thursday and Fashion Files (I don't know what Fashion Files are though.)

I like Thursday

Thankful Thursday

I Just Want My Life Back

2023-01-10T22:27:00.003-06:00

About five minutes after submitting the post yesterday morning, my phone rang. It was Mom's assisted living director notifying me that two people there had Covid. A few minutes after that, Mom called to tell me the same thing. I quizzed her with the usual questions and yes, she was running a low fever, and yes, she was really tired. She had just woken from sleeping for over twelve hours. Her back and neck were also aching and she was sneezing and had a runny nose. I wondered if those last two were because the assisted living was spraying the place down with Lysol, but considering her age, I thought we'd better take her to the doctor. I made an appointment, coordinated with Mom and the assisted living staff and we left.

After a long wait at the doctor's office, we were told by the PA that the Covid quick test was negative, but her urinalysis showed a UTI. Since Mom has been battling e-coli for the last year, this was the last thing we wanted to hear. It is resistant to all but one oral antibiotic and after that there will only be IV infusions. But this doctor wanted to start her on that antibiotic now, before the culture comes back and identifies exactly which bacteria it is. She also wanted Mom (which means me) to make a follow up appointment next week with Mom's urogynocologist, despite having an appointment in three weeks. She also wants Mom to see a nephrologist (kidney specialist). I could see my desire to get back to a normal life disappearing into the same endless cycle of doctors' appointments and hours on the phone that wore Hubby and I out last year.

This morning, the PA called (in person!) to say that the longer Covid test results came back and it was positive. So I spent the morning cancelling appointments for the rest of the week and calling doctors, notifying the assisted living, and getting paperwork sent from one place to another. Our afternoon was spent running errands, picking up Mom's medications, and making a grocery store run for her in case we come down with it too. Monday we got home at 8pm and tonight it was 7pm. Yes, 2023 is beginning to look like 2022.

An Unexpected Long Holiday

2023-01-09T10:53:00.003-06:00

Everyone came to our house for Christmas this year. Brownie and her boys came with coughs and runny noses but Brownie assured us it was nothing, just the end of their colds. The day they left, I had a scratchy throat and Hubby started coughing the next day. It quickly progressed to chills, fever, and the worst body aches I have ever had. One sleepless night, I actually thought something had happened to our bed and all the springs and metal frame must have come through the top. But by the end of the first week, we were both over everything except a deep, croupy cough and being very tired. We assume it was flu but never got tested.

Today marks the end of the second week and I feel pretty good. I hate to admit this, but I've enjoyed this past week. Other than the coughing that woke me up at night (Hubby's, not mine - I learned how to sleep through my own coughing), I have binge watched Longmire, The Crown, Providence, and All Creatures Great and Small. I've started a new quilt, I've kept my slippers on all day, have eaten comfort foods, taken several naps a day, worn old, ratty clothes, and let my hair stick out in all directions. It was like going back to 2021, minus the naps and funky hair.

We took Mia to a veterinary ophthalmologist last Thursday. It was about 60 miles from us on the other side of the city. It was just a consult for surgery, so the drive was the hard part of the trip. After that, we had to pick up prescriptions and do some grocery shopping for mom. By the time we got home, we both fell into bed and took a two hour nap. It seems this cold or flu has turned us into old people.

But now it's back to reality and the daily grind. Today I have to take down the Christmas tree and put up Christmas decorations, things I usually do on January 1. Tomorrow I have to take my banquet tables to the library and set up for our book club meeting. Wednesday, I have to take Mom to a cardiology appointment. Her assisted living is in a Covid lockdown and I don't know how this is going to work. Thursday, Mia has to go to the vet for teeth cleaning and toenail surgery. She may never want to get in the car again. I have reserved Friday for another old person nap.

Happy New Year 2023!

2023-01-01T22:33:00.001-06:00

This year, I am not going to tempt fate by making any specific resolutions. I am so happy to have 2022 behind us that my only resolution is to put it behind us and move forward. If I were going to make resolutions, they would look something like the collection of memes below. Enjoy and I hope to be back again soon.

I Really Should Stop Making New Year's Resolutions

2022-04-01T22:16:00.008-05:00

Every year I plan on finishing quilts, reading books, working on the house, and so on. And for the last four years, some kind of health crisis has put an end to all our plans. After 2020 and 2021, we thought we had met our quota of health problems and decided that 2022 was going to be our year. I was going to start much needed dental work the day after I wrote my last post. Hubby was going to work on the house, and then we were going to do some traveling.

So I wrote that post, feeling great about 2022, and went to bed. The next morning, we got a phone call from Mom's care giver. Mom was in the hospital after attempting suicide. Yeah, that was some wake up call. Someday I will write a post about the many ways suicide wrecks the lives of survivors. Thankfully, Mom survived and with no further organ damage. But our plans for 2022 were put on hold as we have been taking care of Mom, moving her near us, clearing out her house (fodder for several posts there too), and getting it ready to sell.

We now have Mom's dog, a cute little shih tzu name Mia, and mom lives in an assisted living center about twenty minutes away. She is trying to have a good attitude and make the best of it, though she has been going through a phase of wanting to stuff her 400 square foot apartment with everything in her 2200 square foot house. I think she is beginning to face reality now though, so we can finally let the estate sale company come in and do their thing. The thought that goes through my mind every time we go through her stuff is "I will not do this to my children." And as much as I enjoy seeing friends who still live in my hometown, I am tired of making that trip several times each month, especially with Mom calling every 15 minutes to send us on a search for "just one more thing" she can't live without.

I can't say I'll have time now to start posting again, but I'll try to post every week or two. After all, I need to regale you with stories of the football helmets and 100 bottles of wine on the wall. For now I just need to remember what Woody Allen said: "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him about your plans." One minute you're enjoying your day, and the next minute.....

Smokey's Cat Climbing Wall

2022-01-03T14:54:00.001-06:00

Maybe it is his young age, but Smokey goes where Buddy never even thought of going. He loves to climb, whether it is a ladder, a screen, or jumping from one high place to a higher place. His climbing isn't really the problem though, it is his agility. He's clumsy and he knocks things off the shelves, the very high shelves, when he jumps around.

One night, I heard a loud crash followed by several more crashes. I rushed out to the garage to see if he had been crushed under what sounded like all the shelves in the garage falling off the wall. Smokey was on top of our RV and all around the end of the RV were broken bits of 18 gallon plastic totes and their contents, paint cans (of which only 1 quart broke open), and the screens to all the windows in our barndominium (most of which were bent). This climbing, jumping, and knocking stuff off shelves has got to stop. The ladder hasn't been kept near the shelves since the first time he climbed it, so we thought he might be climbing the ladder on the back of the RV, going out onto the slide and jumping onto the shelves a few feet away. I covered the ladder with cardboard to stop that climbing. Then, we noticed he was jumping onto the chest freezer, then onto the upright freezer, and onto the top of the garage door, where he tightrope walked across to the shelves.

Last week, we (we as in I was in the room too) built a safe climbing wall for him so he wouldn't be tempted to get into those shelves. So far, so good, but it is still new to him.

He thinks we can't see him.

Can you see his toy collection in there?

The idea for the box he is sitting in came from Smokey himself. We ordered a fireplace insert and it was held in the box between two styrofoam pieces. Smokey claimed one the minute it came out of the box. When it broke, he moved over to the other one, and for weeks, this was his favorite place.

When he finally broke this styrofoam piece, he had a really hard time trying to lay in it, so I built a box and glued the pieces back together inside it.

Loud purrs to all.

Sunday Selfie

2022-01-02T10:57:00.002-06:00

A cold front blew through last night so Smokey Joe wasn't stirring much this morning. But finally, he consented to take a few steps on his new climbing wall (more on that tomorrow) and posed for a selfie.

Sharing on Sunday Selfies at The Cat on My Head.

Say Hello, Smokey Joe!

2022-01-01T17:13:00.005-06:00

First of all,

Happy New Year!

From Unsplash

A quick update, for anyone wondering. In August, I had strabismus surgery to correct the placement of the muscles in my eye. Somehow, the eye had changed position during the first surgery in 2020 and I had been getting more and more cross-eyed which made my double vision even worse. Now my eyes look almost normal again, but I still have double vision within each eye. So far, I've been going to one referral after another, with each doctor saying he can't fix it. Now I'm being referred back to the surgeon who did my strabismus; I'm curious to hear what he will say this time.

This summer, we got a new cat. He showed up in someone's back yard but they couldn't keep him, so he came home with us. The vet figured he was about seven months old and he is a ball of energy. It's been awhile since we had youngsters in the house, feline or human, and like most adolescents, he wants constant attention.

We tried to redirect his energy by building a play tower in the garage, and he loved the hammock, but that was about all. We let him outside a few times, but he kept going further and further from the house and we have too many wild animals around us, so he is mostly an inside cat. He is very seldom still and I thought he was enjoying sitting with me until I looked down and saw that he was really chewing on my shoe laces!

Then we built a catio which fits in the garage door opening so he can be outside when we aren't around. He didn't go out there very often, mostly at night. He much preferred being where we are.

He loves climbing up and then hanging upside down. We have a wood ladder in the garage to access the upper shelves and he loves climbing on it and taking a swipe at us when we walk by.

He also loves to go up to the upper shelves in the garage and has knocked down numerous items. So far no major breakage, but that has got to stop. We've moved the ladder and covered the ladder on the RV so he can't climb up easily and still, he gets up there. He is a cutie, but there is something to be said for adopting older pets. He is what my mother calls "a live wire."

I hope to be more active here as adjust to my new life.

My Book Corner, a Month in Review

2021-05-30T20:42:00.047-05:00

This is new to me, talking about the books I've read. I've always been a voracious reader, excluding the years when toddlers and exhaustion monopolized every hour of my day. Once the kids were in school and I had time to actually sit on my own sofa, I rediscovered the adventure of reading.

About six years ago, I realized that I was bringing home books I had already read, but didn't realize it until I was tucked in and reading them. Not a good thing when books are bought at a used book store far from home. So I started keeping a book log. Then I started writing reviews of each book so I could remember the highlights in case I ever wanted to discuss it with anyone. No one ever did. After that, I added a vocabulary list and a want-to-read list. Later, I added genre, publication date, and number of pages read so I could see if there was a pattern to the type of books I liked most. And all that combined to be a book journal that is now with me every time I leave the house, because you never know when you are going to pass by somewhere to get more books.

I already posted this on my sewing blog, but I'm going to post it again here for my friends who do not check that blog. It's a pen holder for my book journal. In the past, I just hooked a pen onto the spiral binder of my journal, but I often lost pens that way, and I never did find a way to carry little post it notes so I can mark vocabulary words or quotes when I am reading somewhere that I can't write in my journal. This is the first one, made to fit this particular journal. A comment on my sewing blog called it a book buddy, and I really like the sound of that, so Book Buddy it is. Normally, the book buddy is on the outside of the front cover, but when writing, I like it on the inside.

I decided this would be a great gift for all the ladies in my book club because it's cheap and easy to make as well as handy. There were just a couple of problems: two elastics are a little bothersome when putting it on, and it won't fit just any size book or journal. So I came up with plan B, still cheap and easy to make, but this one will fit on any book.

Now onto the books I've finished this week, and this month. I don't know about you, but I always have at least three books going at the same time. One that is highly recommended but a new author to me, one an author I already love, and one that is completely unknown but I thought would stretch my comfort zone. Kind of like a mom telling her children to at least try brocolli before eating their entree and then moving on to dessert.

Books this week, starting with my favorite:

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T J Klune. I've only started reading fantasy fiction lately and oddly enough, it appeals to me. Odd, because I am usually so practical and the first to read something in a book and say 'that can't possibly happen' but in a book that makes it clear from the beginning that they are in a very different world, it is possible. Maybe we all need a chance to be in a different world right now. It was a great escape and had a poignant message. I loved the symbolism (prejudice and acceptance, bullies and friendships, brow-beaten and confident), the descriptions, and the attitudes of the characters. Of course, I will say right now, that children, no matter what kind of children, are not going to get along as well as these, so there is my 'that can't possibly happen' observation for this book. I loved it except for one thing: the profanity and sexual overtones of the adult characters who are supposed to be role models for the children. 5 star.

One Plus One by Jojo Moyes. This is the Jojo Moyes I like best: funny, sweet, romantic, and not very sad. It is a well-written, lovely, and enjoyable book which also has a subtle message about truth and honesty and it would have been my favorite of the week except that it is predictable. At no point in the clashes between the characters did I ever think it would turn out differently than it did. It is the story of a rich, but troubled man who is thrust into the life of a desperate young working mom and her two children and enormous dog and against his better judgement, he agreed to take them across country to a math competition. Along the way, the two adults bickered and then began to fall in love. For some reason, I kept seeing Hugh Grant as the man. Maybe because part of the storyline reminded me of About a Boy. Again, I'm disappointed that the author let the adults use profanity in front of children and expose their sexual relationship to their children. 5 star.

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. I really disliked the writing style of this book. The author wrote briefly about something that happened years ago and then moved to the present, then back to something else that happened years ago, then back to the present. So brief that several chapters that were only a half page. But most annoying were the witness interviews. That's where my 'that wouldn't happen' hackles were most raised. At about page 160, the author finally quit that style of writing and it became more interesting. Not great, but better. If this hadn't been a book for book club, I would have rejected the book after page 50. 3 star.

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende. This book started out with a strong storyline, civil war in Spain, a girl who was a starving goat herder taken in by not one, but two, rich families, and the two sons of the second family and how they deal with the war. The hardships that everyone, even the rich families, endure is told in detail so that it feels very real. Then, the author begins to tell the history and politics of the war, and that is very dry reading. There isn't much dialog and I think that makes the characters two dimensional. I never connected to any of them. It's still an interesting story, one that I had never heard about in World History class, but more like a history lesson than novel. 3 star.

The rest of the books I read in May:

Death of a Perfect Wife by M.C. Beaton. This author and this series is easy reading, enjoyable, and just the right thing to read before turning out the light. 5 star.

Zero Day by David Baldacci. As long as he has been around, I have never read his books. I thought I knew what kind of books he wrote, but I was wrong. He had a choppy way of writing that bothered me at first, but then I really started enjoying the book. 4 star.

Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos by Donna Andrews. Another cozy mystery and one with a lively sense of humor, which is exactly what I need at this time in my life. 5 star.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. I tried to read this book once before but just couldn't get into it. This time I finished it. I have loved some of Mitch Albom's books but this was not one of them. Maybe it was the sad tone or the message, but it just didn't resonate with me. 2 star.

Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon by Donna Andrews. Ditto what I said about Donna Andrews above. 5 star.

We'll Always Have Parrots by Donna Andrews. 5 star.

The Haven by Suzanne Woods Fisher. This is an Amish romance and I think one in a series. Like so many Christian authors, this is written with a very simple vocabulary and while there is nothing wrong with that, it always seems like I am reading a book meant for junior high girls. 3 star.

I've decided that my attitude and mental state make a big difference in the way I feel about a book. Right now, I need to escape from reality and be entertained. By fall, I may need psychological thrillers.

All the books I've read this year and in the past six years are in a Reading List Page on the tabs at the top of the page.

In the spirit of trying something new, I am linking to this blog for the first time:

Hello Thursday!

2021-01-28T14:56:00.007-06:00

I love Thursdays, the anticipation of the weekend, my favorite British tv shows, and a chance to visit with friends or family. Today has all of those!

Free photo from Pixabay

Things I like this week:

Two joys in my life right now are stitching and reading (beside my family of course), and I have done plenty of both this week. Stitch by day, read by night. Other things go on in the background, but they are just that - background. I have the feeling that I need to get as much done as I can before something puts a halt to it. That halt is usually hay and garden season and it's almost time to start planting and fertilizing. But for now, my time is my own and I love it!

Hubby is taking a ham radio weekend so I am taking another stay-at-home sewing weekend. This is the second one this month. I could really get used to these.

One little thing that has brought joy into my life this week is something that is so insignificant that no one else would ever notice. A cat has started visiting us at night. I don't know how long it has been coming; one morning after a heavy rain, there were little muddy footprints all over the porch. Since then, I've been putting out a little food in the evening and most of the time, the food is gone in the morning.

Books I've read (not just this week):

I don't think I've talked about books before. I used to be a prolific reader, but that was BEP (Before Eye Problems) and now I'm doing good to read a book in a week. So far this year, I've read:

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, a historical non-fiction. It is a story about the Osage Indian Nation of Oklahoma in the 1920's. They were among the richest people in the nation after oil was discovered under their land and then their people began dying. At first it seemed that the deaths were from natural causes, but as the number of deaths kept climbing, people began to wonder. Local police found nothing and finally federal agents were called in. These federal agents were to become the FBI.

This book blew me away. Living as close to Oklahoma as I do, having relatives in Oklahoma, and having a Chickasaw heritage, I was amazed that I had never heard this before. The author did extensive research, far more than the FBI did at that time, and what he uncovered is interesting, shocking, revealing, paranoiac, and horrifying. Through it all, I was impressed with the people, the Osage who lived through it and the federal agents who investigated despite the danger they faced from people who didn't want the truth uncovered.

**********

Cherry Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke, a cozy mystery. I have read other books in this series and with each one, I liked the author's writing style less and less. I reached my limit with this book. All of the books are written for adults, but written on a junior high (or younger) reading level. Her overly explanatory style may be fine for a ten year old, but she makes inferences to clues, makes a deduction, and then beats the reader over the head detailing how she reached the conclusion.

**********

A Thousand Spendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, historial fiction. This is first book I've read by this author and he is a gifted writer. It is the story of two women in Afghanistan who live through emotional and physical abuse, wars, political unrest, and suppression of women's freedom. And yet, they each found love and became stronger together. I hoped for, but didn't expect the ending for the younger woman, Laila. I read a review once of a Western Novel written by a woman and the reviewer said that a woman writer couldn't understand or describe a man's lack of emotion. This author however, totally understands the ebb and flow of women's emotions. His biography says that he came to America in 1980, well before the Afghan War, and yet, he writes about it as if he has personal experience. His descriptions made me feel like I was there, listening to the whistle of the bomb and waiting to see where it hit. As I neared the end of this book, I was torn whether to read faster and find out what happened to these women I had come to love, or slow down so the book didn't have to end so soon.

Things That Make Me Thankful:

My mother had surgery this week and got a pacemaker. She is already feeling better. She also has a friend who is struggling financially, and they worked out an arrangement so the friend will live with mom most of the time. And that makes me feel better.

My daughter is coming here today. She is only coming for one night and probably wants help moving from her apartment, but I am thankful she still wants to spend time with us.

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I know I am late to the party(s), but I am linking this post to:
Thankful Thursday at Knit by God's Hand
Thankful Thursday at Brian's Home
Little Things Thursday at Random-osity

Day Two of Snow

2021-01-11T09:30:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, it snowed nearly all day. The temperature was about 34 and the ground much warmer, so a lot of it melted instantly, but we did end up with several inches. My daughter brought the boys out to build snowmen and she ended up doing all the work. The boys ate some snow (hopefully it was clean snow) and then said they were cold and wanted to come inside and have hot chocolate. Evidently, hot chocolate had been promised as an incentive to finish the job

But the boys came in and Hubby went out to help finish the job. It was such wet snow that the snowmen were quickly created. Yes, I said snowMEN; there were two of them. Or maybe one was supposed to be a snowwoman. Unfortunately, the second snowperson suffered from an incurable case of headlessness. Maybe the body wasn't quite big enough, or was too misshapen, but the head just wouldn't stay on. Then boys gathered up some curtain rods for arms, bottle caps for eyes, and of course a carrot and hat and went out to help finish the job and pose for pictures. But first, Hubby asked the boys if they wanted to knock over the headless snowman and the six year old said "I can do that!" (That's what he says about everything, whether he can do it or not.) He stepped back about five feet, ran at the snowman... and bounced backward into the snow. It was a heavy lineman, headless snowman. But not to be defeated, he begged his little brother to join forces and they ran at the snowman together... and little one tripped on his gigantic scarf mittens and went into the snowman head first, knocking the middle off the base. You can see some of the base behind my daughter.

In the time it took to get the boys out of their snow gear and settled around the table for a warm treat, the snowman's head was beginning to lean forward like he was about to nod off to sleep. We told the boys the snowman would last long after the rest of the snow melted, but this is what it looked like this morning.

I'm not sure if the temperature got down below freezing during the night, but there were some school closings this morning and our local school had a delayed start. Because of Covid, today was the first day back after the Christmas break. The roads are clear, but the bridges could be icy if there was a freeze.

This is a view out my side window where the snow hasn't been trompled. I spent a lot of time looking out the window yesterday, marvelling at this rare snow fall, and I'll probably look out a lot today. But right now I hear the snow sliding off the roof, so I know it won't last long.

What is your weather like today?

Snow!

2021-01-10T10:55:00.002-06:00

Our part of the state gets snow about one day in every ten years and I guess today is that day. It's beautiful snow, with big wet flakes falling softly. It's the kind of snow that makes us hum "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas." It reminds me of the snow days we had in the Texas panhandle when I was growing up.

Sometimes I get homesick, not just for my mother and friends still there, but for snow and the memories of the cold crisp days of fresh snow, even the days after when it is the dirty mounds down the center of the road - a cold barrier separating cars. I don't miss the days I went to my car in the morning and couldn't get my key in the frozen door lock.

2020 Was a Year of Throwing out the Old

2020-12-28T14:09:00.000-06:00

The older I get, the less stuff I want. The less stuff, the less cleaning. The less cleaning, the more time for fun. That's the plan. The hard part has been getting rid of all. this. stuff! I've offered it to my friends, I've listed it on buy/sell/swap groups, and I've listed it free on facebook's local town group. As one of my friends so crudely put it, "I don't want your crap to become my crap." True, some things are old enough to be antiques, but some things were still brand new in the box. I've given away a total of two items; I had to beg Hubby to load up the rest and haul it to the thrift store. He hates doing that for some reason. Maybe for the same reason he hates returning things to stores, although there, I think it's the standing in line part.

After my second eye surgery, I experience dry eyes and asked Hubby to buy me some eye drops from the store. When he brought it to me, I noticed it was contact lens solution and no where on the box did it say it could be used as eye drops or for dry eyes. He wouldn't take it back. So the next time he went to a bigger town, I asked him to buy me some eye drops. That evening when he handed me the box and, you guessed it, another box of contact lens solution.

But back to the ridding of stuff. It seems that I am not the only one trying to simplify in 2020. I wonder if it's the extra spare time we all had this year, or if other people have just looked around and realized how much easier life would be without all that stuff. I'm not sure why younger people aren't taking anything though, especially when it is free. Maybe because it isn't new? I couldn't even give away a doll and cradle. I think it's because it didn't do anything. It didn't transform into something else, the doll didn't walk and talk, and neither shot arrows out of hidden parts. It is just a doll and cradle and my kids spent hours rocking everything from dolls and stuffed animals to real live puppies. The puppies weren't keen on rocking so it was back to dolls and stuffed animals.

Oh well. The thrift store reopens Wednesday.

A Thanksgiving Surprise

2020-11-29T10:35:00.001-06:00

I thought there would just be the two of us here for Thanksgiving, but Lil and her husband wanted to come now for their yearly visit. They usually come after Christmas, but it looks like we're in for another lockdown which could last until next spring. They live in Missouri and both work for a big company with exposure to a lot of people, so I was hesitant about getting together, but Hubby isn't as cautious as I am and insisted they come for the week. Brownie had to work a half day on Thanksgiving, so we kept the boys that morning too. We all wore masks, at least the adults did. The boys kept taking their off and had to be reminded to put them back on. When it was time to go home, for the first time ever, the boys were glad to leave.

But that's not the surprise. Lil brought her little dog, who wanted to run in the yard after they got out of the car and came in covered with fleas! Well, maybe not covered, but there were a lot on her. Since we don't have any pets, we couldn't figure out where they were coming from. Deer come near the house, and we have seen skunks right outside the door, but we've had those since we moved here and never had a flea problem. Hubby walked around the house and saw the telltale signs of wild hogs! They were everywhere around the house. There was no rooting damage, at least not yet, but plenty of sign that they had been there for awhile. A quick google search for wild hogs and fleas showed that they did indeed leave fleas behind when they rubbed against things and rolled in their wallows. I had been hearing some odd sounds at night, thumps like something big hit the house, and that has been going on for a couple of weeks.

Lil and I went to the city for a little Christmas shopping and a stop at the pet store for a bag full of flea supplies, for the dog, the yard, and inside the house. Despite constant spraying and bathing the dog, she continued to pick up fleas and bring them in and they decided to leave the day after Thanksgiving instead of staying the weekend. Mr. Google told us that the bestf way to get rid of the hogs was to kill one in their new, favorite night spot, preferably with a hog trap. That has been easier said than done since we don't have a hog trap or a gun to kill them. But we have neighbors who have been hog hunting on their land, so after the holiday, Hubby will start putting the word out for someone who can get rid of them. Meanwhile, we are treating the yard every day.

What a Thanksgiving. Next year, we are going to go camping. Alone.

Well, Here's Another Nice Mess

2020-10-16T13:52:00.006-05:00

The eye part of the second set of surgeries, went pretty well. The ENT had to do a septoplasty to correct a deviated septum before he could get to his part of the eye surgery though and that proved to be the worst part. Septoplasty recovery would have been a great addition to Dante's Inferno, right between his second and third circles of Hell. Each difficult breath burning and almost drowning in the River Styx three times a day. I'm not sure what group of people this punishment would be for; since it is a physical torment, maybe for people who only thought of their own physical pleasure.

The choreography of the surgeries was kind of interesting. In the surgery on my right eye, the ENT started my surgery, doing the inside corner of the eye, while the orbital surgeon started another patient in an adjoining operating room, doing the outside corner of her eye. Both surgeries took about two hours and then the surgeons traded places and the orbital surgeon did my outside corner while the ENT did her inside corner. In the surgery for my left eye, the orbital surgeon started my eye so the ENT would have an extra three hours to do the septoplasty.

It is two weeks after surgery and I still have double vision though. After my right eye, the orbital surgeon told me the double vision should be corrected after surgery on my left eye. When I still had double vision after that surgery, he told me it is common to have doulbe vision for two weeks afterward. At my last visit, he told me to start doing some eye exercises that are a lot like a DIY sobriety test and come back in five weeks. I'm not feeling hopeful.

On the positive side though, the streaky vision is better and my near vision may be getting better. Every day I open a book and try to read the words and I think the right eye is improving. The left eye is still really distorted, but the right eye was like that for a long time too, so I'm not giving up on reading just yet. Still, I'm very happy that it's so easy to enlarge my computer screen. I'm sure there are a lot of typos here, but I can't see them, so I'm not going to worry about them. I think I am seeing color better too although sometimes Hubby tells me something is blue but it looks so grass green to me that I don't see how it could possibly be blue and I wonder if he is teasing. If I really have to see something as clear as possible, I can put a patch over one eye. It doesn't help depth perception but it sure beats trying to see with overlapping images. With a little help, I think I'll be sewing again in short sessions.

The orbital surgeon doesn't want me wearing an eye patch unless it is really important, like using a sharp knife or reaching in the oven. Probably driving too, though I haven't tried that yet. We were driving home one day and Hubby said he was about to nod off while driving so I volunteered to drive and he blurted out "No way!" before he had a chance to word it politely. Then he stopped for coffee and kept the keys away from me the rest of the way home. So maybe I'm not ready for driving. I may try mowing when my nose doesn't feel so raw. If I didn't have to drown in the River Styx three times a day, I think I'd feel a lot better.

Is This An End to Blogging?

2020-09-28T11:00:00.005-05:00

It's been awhile, hasn't it. Long enough that Blogger has changed the blog format and being an old fogey, I don't care for the changes.

So many things have happened and blogging just fell by the wayside. The short version is that I finally decided to go ahead with the surgery for my Graves' Eye Disease and had the first surgery on my right eye. It did not go as well as we hoped and my vision still isn't clear. I've had visits with both my orbital surgeon and my retina specialist and both say they think the problems I'm having can be fixed, either with medication or another surgery. To say I have devastated is an understatement. I'm having surgery on my left eye in two days and I doubt I'll be able to get on the computer for quite some time. I wouldn't have the surgery if it weren't dangerous to my optic nerve and eye muscles to leave it alone, plus my right eye is now half the size of my left and I look like a freak.

I needed to update another blog, so thought I'd put a personal update here too, just in case I'm not able to ever come back. Don't you just hate blogs that just end with no explanation? But with any luck, I'll be back by December or January.

Goodbye, Buddy

2020-05-27T22:47:00.005-05:00

We said goodbye to Buddy today. You may remember that about two months ago, Buddy suddenly started staggering and falling over. The vet diagnosed it as inner ear infection, but two weeks of medication made no difference. We think he had a stroke because a couple of weeks later, he had another one while he walking in front of me. He didn't seem to be in any pain, but from then on, his head was cocked at a quizzical angle and he couldn't close one eye when he slept and it was his good eye too. Between that and the cataract in his other eye, he could barely see. And between barely being able to see, and not being able to walk a straight line, he had a hard time finding his way and often got trapped under a chair without being able to find his way out. I won't trouble you with all his other symptoms, but we finally opined that he also had cancer in his mouth, throat, or nose. Still, he didn't seem to be in any pain, and wanted to be held and petted all the time. But lately, he has seemed to be restless or uncomfortable, and this week became incontinent. It was time, probably past time.

Buddy came into our lives around 2007. I don't know how he showed up in our neighborhood, probably dumped by someone who didn't want a male cat marking their yard and fighting with the other cats. The first time I got a glimpse of him in the bushes by our house, he was skinny and covered with cuts and bites. I didn't want him either but couldn't chase him off and couldn't catch him. You can read the story about how that changed and he came to live with us here. Over time, he filled out, calmed down, and devotedly settled into our lives. He preferred being outside, but when we moved, he became a fairly content inside cat. He never scratched the furniture and never had an accident in the house, until recently.

As we said our goodbyes to Buddy, I remembered going for my long walks with him trailing along behind me, of teaching him how to jump (unwillingly) through a hoop, how he would jump into our laps if we snapped our fingers, and how well he seemed to understand what we were saying. He was the smartest pet we have ever known, and that includes all the dogs we've had, as well-trained as they were.

I've gathered some of my favorite pictures here. Rest in peace, Buddy The Cat.

Buddy Finds a New Bed

2020-04-12T23:26:00.000-05:00

Daughter and Grandsons have been here about a month, and Buddy has finally decided to tolerate the boys. I started babysitting when Daughter started a new job last week and Buddy makes himself scarce when the boys are playing. But at naptime, Buddy is once again beside my chair in his snoozing spot and he generally ignores the boys even though they are sleeping on bench cushions just a few feet away.

On Saturday, Buddy was restless and couldn't seem to settle down. He wanted out. He wanted in. He wanted in my lap but couldn't get comfortable. He went back to the door to look out the window. Every time he went by the four year old's cushion, he made a wide berth so a little hand couldn't reach out for him. On more than one occasion, I noticed that he was looking over the pile that was cushion, child, and a thick quilt.

After a week of babysitting the grands, ages 4 & 5, and not being able to tell when the 4 year old is really asleep or just closing his eyes when I look his way (I have caught them closing many times), I discovered Saturday that Buddy the Cat has that unique talent.

An hour after putting down the cushions and separating the brothers, I knew the four year old was still awake. Buddy obviously did too because his usual detour to the door involved hopping up onto the last few stairs and then down them to avoid the fake-sleeping boy. Finally, he gave up and settled in beside my chair.

Then, I noticed Buddy was gone and when I looked around, he was about to put his foot on the cushion instead of taking the longer route. I tried not to shriek as I called his name, but Buddy intently climbed onto the cushion. From past experience, I knew that if I tried to lift him off, his claws would come out and latch onto whatever he could hang onto, so I cringed and waited for Micah to start talking. But there was silence.

Never one to pass up a good bed, Buddy had waited until the coast was clear to make his move. After testing out a few spots, including on top of the boy, he finally decided the best spot was snuggled against him. And there they both stayed for the next hour, until Buddy sneezed, which woke the boy and startled both of them into tumbling off the cushion.

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