Recuperation -A Good Thing!

Well, the birthday has come and gone but I didn't feel any older until this past Sunday. That day, I felt like I was 85 years old, going on 300! Not sick, mind you -just seemed to have every darned joint in my body as well as ligaments and muscles and tendons all in a uproar at the same time and I ached, boy -did I ever!

I really think the main cause of this was that we had like three days of constant moisture -either in fine misting rain with some occasional showers that weren't really heavy, just enough to put a damper on any outdoors activity.

The grandkids were here with me this past weekend too -a sort of belated birthday present for me to have them here from Friday afternoon thru Monday afternoon. I made arrangements to meet Mandy and the kids on Friday in Mifflintown and picked the kids up there and then, Monday we met again at the same spot so I could return Maya and Kurt to their "owner.

Despite the weather -and my aching joints and limbs -it was a good weekend overall. Late afternoon Saturday, the kids and I had a surprise when my older grandson, Alex, and his Dad (aka "Big Daddy) showed up here.

It was really nice to see Big Daddy again as I hadn't seen him in probably about 3-4 years now. We had a very nice visit which came about because Bill (that's Big Daddy's given name) and Alex were out riding around with Alex doing the driving now that he has his Learner's Permit. Just doesn't seem possible he is that old already but boy, one look at him and you'd maybe think he was older than just 16. The boy is now 6 foot 4 inches tall -about 2 inches taller now than his Dad and a good 3 inches taller than his Uncle Clayton too -and his weight -209 pounds. He's a big boy, yes indeed, but just very solidly built. He's also one of the most polite young men in his age range that I know too, along with being a good student, well-rounded in his activities and very involved with Boy Scouting. Plus, he also works part-time for a guy in his area that runs concession stands at various county fairs and such, so seeing him this past Saturday was the first I'd had a chance to see him since late June when the fair season got underway. I think he worked at 3 or 4 county fairs around the state along with the Grange Fair too in late August down in Centre Hall.

If I know Alex, the money he has been earning is probably earmarked now to go towards the purchase of a car for him sometime in the near future. He definitely does make me very, very proud for his ambition, activities and achievements! Keep up the great work you've been doing Alex!

 After last Sunday (October 6th) and our apple picking, my neighbor down the street also brought up two buckets of apples she gathered off the ground from the two apple trees in her backyard and I spent all my spare time last week peeling apples and cooking up applesauce. I put the cooked applesauce into quart ziplock bags and then freeze it but on Sunday, we had two different "flavors" of applesauce with our dinner. One was cooked with brown sugar and cinnamon in it and the other was just plain applesauce (white or very light beige in color) with only a little bit of white sugar added to it and both went over quite well with Maya and my son too. Kurtis -not so much into wanting to eat applesauce at all this past weekend. As he looked at all the applesauce I had made up and saw too the other bucket of apples waiting for me to peel and cook up, his reaction to all that was that "We're going to be eating applesauce for the rest of our lives!" Well, not quite that long but for a good while, that's for sure, once I get this last batch of apples prepped up and cooked!

 HOwever, all the work peeling those apples has left me with another little problem of sorts. My right index finger is now stained almost black from the peeling process and no amount of scrubbing my hands, even with bleach substances or baking soda, does much to make my finger look clean again! Any suggestions as to how to get my hands back to being lily white once more?

I think I mentioned in my previous post about some of the women from our church group getting together and making some items in preparation for our annual Fall Bazaar to be held on November 23rd and we got 15 sets of 2 and or 3-tiered plates put together along with 3 pedestal cake plates too.

On Sunday, after church, I had planned to take a photo of these plates, all lined up nicely in our church social hall and ready to be sold (hopefully anyway they will get sold) but wouldn't you just know it but my camera wouldn't work as it needed charged. I'm going to try to take a little visit out to the church either a little later this morning (after I have enough coffee in me that I am fully awake) and take some snapshots of these dishes and then, be able to post the photos on my blog and also, on Facebook.

I think these dishes turned out very nice and if we're lucky, maybe a lot of other folks will like them too then! (Keep saying that, over and over, and maybe it will all come true, ya know!)

So now -I need to get my self dressed and motivated to go do the picture taking and then, hit the roads around here to deliver my current Avon orders and hopefully, get lots more orders from my current customers and maybe even be lucky enough to find a couple new customers to add to my bi-weekly visitations!

It does get a bit hectic at times when I have my order here waiting to be delivered, trying to find time to make each stop and be able to "visit" a bit then too. Unfortunately, I do have a couple customers who don't realize I have several other people I need to call on and I really don't have the luxury then of spending a minimum of an hour and often, as much as 2-3 hours at each stop I make! I'm taking suggestions too on how to delicately be able to end a sales visit and get back on the road quickly to the next place so if you have any ideas on that, feel free to give 'em to me! (I know -one would be to just not talk so much but man, that's a hard road to follow, ya know!)