tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343984792024-03-07T17:53:06.669-05:00Down RIver DrivelComments on my life in the "Down River" region of Central Pennsylvania. Some days, it's dull as can be; other times, as I recollect various people, events in my life, it's fascinating - at least to me. A little bit of drivel about just about anything.Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.comBlogger2149125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-4744939911769039062015-07-03T15:25:00.002-04:002015-07-03T15:29:14.163-04:00What Happened to the Space?I suppose I am like just about every other home owner or tenant when it comes to looking at my residence and wondering why I just don't seem to have near enough room to store things!<br />
<br />
My biggest issue -as with probably 95% of society -stems with my kitchen and the cupboards there. I think even if I had the funds now to redo my kitchen all over again, I would still find that my cupboard space is severely lacking!<br />
<br />
I know this because back in 1989 I had my kitchen redone and I do have several more cabinets than I had previously and yet, when I go to my cupboards and start attempting to locate and pull out bowls and pots and pans and utensils I need to cook a meal or bake something, I frequently feel like I am living my life a bit like "Fibber McGee and Molly" and opening a cupboard door can at times be a bit of a crap shoot as to whether I can get something I need out of there without a bunch of other items falling out on my head in the process!<br />
<br />
Now, I know there is no way I can make any major changes to my kitchen unless I would happen to win a Super Lottery of many millions of bucks but I keep telling myself that there has to be something that can be done to provide for a little better organization in those danged cupboards!<br />
<br />
Organization skills are not exactly my finer points in my life, that I know for sure by now. But still, I'm always looking at things that might just be relatively inexpensive to put into play in my kitchen. Or, at least I hope there is a potential for help there!<br />
<br />
I did however come across something that could possibly be helpful and that is getting cabinetry add-ons using slides in my cupboards and drawers. The only drawback, really, would be finding things in the proper <a href="http://www.ovisonline.com/Drawer-Slides-by-Size.aspx">drawer slide size</a> so that some of these contraptions would then fit in my cupboards.<br />
<br />
Of course, due to my puny retirement budget, it would still require saving a bit of money to get the items I think might help resolve my issues, but it sure wouldn't call for my winning a big lottery prize!<br />
<br />
Who knows but maybe one of these days I can do something there and be able to work in my kitchen without fear of a frying pan or big glass baking dish coming down and clunking my head, leaving me without those few brain cells I still have that still work now and then!Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-15627168485886620452015-07-03T15:09:00.002-04:002015-07-03T15:09:46.792-04:00A Big Day!So, unless you're totally living under a rock now, we are all aware (I hope) of what tomorrow is, aren't we?<br />
<br />
A day for people coming together for picnics and/or barbeques, parades, carnivals and all sorts of entertaining events as we celebrate a huge birthday party for all of us in the form of the biggest event of the year's celebrations for our country.<br />
<br />
Of course, it's the Fourth of July or Independence Day and on this day we commemorate the events of 1776 in Philadelphia when the original colonies started things off with our Declaration of Independence.<br />
<br />
It's a holiday from our history and the beginnings of what would become one of the greatest -if not THE greatest nation in the world!<br />
<br />
Sometimes though, as with many other holidays we celebrate every year, how much we take into consideration just how fortunate we are to have had those men who signed the Declaration of Independence and how much this ultimately means to all of us who reside in this awesome land.<br />
<br />
We are truly blessed that they composed that document which in turn led to the Constitution of our country and the Bill of Rights as well too.<br />
<br />
Back in 1776, we were just a small area on this continent but the inhabitants then were strong in their beliefs that unity of the various areas populated then would be best served if they joined together -unity, as well as more safety in numbers too, in could be said and their ideas which, in my opinion in the simple phrase "With liberty and justice for all" should mean enough to all of us today that we remember that is what this holiday is all about.<br />
<br />
Today, we have so many issues still affecting all of us - some much more so than others -and we do need to remember those who joined their faith and hearts to put into words the meaning they felt were necessary for us to move forward together.<br />
<br />
And, yes indeed, we have moved forward over those 249 years, haven't we? We have amendments to our constitution that those early colonists perhaps never even imagined would or could take place -Women's right to vote and an end to slavery are just two that are extremely meaningful.<br />
<br />
But sadly, putting an end to slavery didn't put an end to the issue of racism. Granted, I do think we've come a long way towards resolving that problem but we still have a long, long way to go there until we all truly love our fellowman and citizens here to enable everyone to be treated the same and respected as individuals -not hating others simply because they are from another country or their skin is a different color.<br />
<br />
We all have the same thing under our skin -blood flows freely there -and we are identical in that respect. And, I believe we should feel that all who live here do have the right to live freely without being hated and mistreated simply because of those differences in our ethnicity or skin tones!<br />
<br />
Today, we also have the issues regarding Gay Rights now too -something that was kept hidden away or "closeted" as long as our society has existed. I find it ridiculous that people who have different sexual preferences should be look upon as being second-class citizens. We have so much scientific knowledge now and it is a known factor that homosexuality is not a matter of individual choice but rather is something that 10% of the people who live in this land with all these freedoms we have, are born this way.<br />
<br />
The Supreme Court finally passed judgement now that will allow those from what is commonly referred to now as being the "Gay Community" to marry and thus be afforded equal rights to the heterosexual community and that is a big step in the forward direction now. Many of those against this ruling preach about the sanctity of marriage and yet, have no qualms about marrying and divorcing and often repeating that act then too.<br />
<br />
Those are to my mind, the biggest issues we still need to put a lot more work into resolution of them and thus, providing the original intent of those who began this march two and a half centuries ago. They aren't the only problems our country still faces but I do believe if we are willing to meet those with opposing views halfway, we can begin to heal these wounds to so many of our society.<br />
<br />
So tomorrow, as you do your celebrating of this wonderful birthday, think about all the good things that come to all of us today just through the Declaration of Independence. Do it with reverence and a few prayers too that we can continue to live in this country as freely as our laws intend us to enjoy.<br />
<br />
And do it with love and respect for those who came before us, even those currently serving us in our Congress, Senate and as President too -regardless of whether you believe totally in their efforts in their posts.<br />
<br />
Wave that flag! Let "Old Glory" shine unfurled for all to see and show respect for our flag then by not burning or stomping on it as it is a symbol to all of us of what we all stand for as residents of this beautiful nation.<br />
<br />
And then, do have a Happy 4th of July with family and friends in the knowledge that our system is still the best there is to date. This doesn't mean we are always 100% correct in some of our ways, but we have the freedoms here to take steps to correct those areas that need reformation.<br />
<br />
<br />Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-21377175520455901632015-06-11T01:49:00.001-04:002015-06-11T01:49:52.641-04:00To Hear - or Not!My kids and I have a bit of a feud that is ongoing here whenever we get together. Actually, it is more between my daughters and me as my son doesn't usually get involved in this or any discussions about the subject, my hearing.<br />
<br />
The fact of the matter is that I do hear but I don't hear clearly, and this happens frequently. I may hear people talking and pick up every so many words, sometimes enough to figure out what is being said but often, I only get bits and pieces and as such, am often asking my daughters to repeat what has been said.<br />
<br />
Because they know I do hear people talking, at least most of the time, they like to say I have "selective hearing" and perhaps that may be at least partially true at times. They also like to tell me to "Turn up those belltones" of which I DON'T have -at least not yet. And, I really hope no one ever tells me I absolutely have to have hearing aids because I know how much it has cost a cousin of mine to purchase his hearing aids and if I had that amount of money available to me, I'd spend it on getting the main roof of my house replaced!<br />
<br />
I'd rather have a solid roof over my head, with no leaks and deal with my "selective hearing" issues. Just my priority there, ya know.<br />
<br />
But something that does annoy me with the hearing issues involves my television set and the fact that the volume on the TV varies from channel to channel. I get it set to a level I can hear but without it blasting anyone else out of their seats while watching something with me and then, if I switch to another channel, the volume will be so low there that I have to jack it clear up as high as it will go in order to hear anything on the set!<br />
<br />
Because this issue only happens all the time on two particular channels, The Hallmark Channel and the Chicago station, WGN and every now and again on the PBS channel here I am thinking perhaps this is an issue within the cable company's equipment. Frankly, I think they -or someone in charge of audio stuff - needs to invest or at least look into getting <a href="http://www.musiciansfriend.com/mixing-mastering-software/cakewalk-sonar-6-producer-edition">sonar 6</a> to see if that might correct the problem!<br />
<br />
<br />
As it stands now, in order for me to follow what's happening on any programs I watch on the set in the living room, I also have the application for captioning turned on which enables me to comprehend the programs I like to watch.<br />
<br />
However, the little TV set in my bedroom doesn't have this function available for me to use so I have to have the volume on that generally turned up quite high to make out what is happening.<br />
<br />
Because I sleep with the TV turned on all night, I often wonder when the weather is nice and warm in the summer and I have my bedroom windows open, how well the volume of the programs I like to watch as I fall asleep are being heard around the neighborhood.<br />
<br />
So far, no one has complained about the sounds coming from my house in the middle of the night though, so I guess they are all either very sound sleepers or maybe a few of them also have to contend with "selective hearing" of their own then!<br />
<br />Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-54026672153663365512015-06-01T19:57:00.000-04:002015-06-01T19:57:49.227-04:00Waiting....About a month ago, the oncologist at the Cancer Clinic decided to have me schedule an appointment with a specialist in Dubois to have something that's been showing up for almost two years now on every PET scan I've had.<br />
<br />
And so, I made the appointment. Keep in mind here that an appointment with a specialist runs me $45 per appointment compared to $5 for my primary care physician, so for openers, for economic reasons, I try to stay clear if at all possible, of specialists, with the exception of the oncologist at the Cancer Clinic and a rare circumstance that might call for a trip to Pittsburgh to check in with the surgeon I see there every once in a blue moon.<br />
<br />
Dubois just happens to be about 44 miles due west of where I live, so that means and extra 88 miles of travel just to see this doctor. That means almost an hour each way for the trip, so right off the top, I'm loosing two hours of potential time to work my lovely Avon sales route. Add to that, since it was my first visit to this specialist, I was to arrive a half-hour before my scheduled appointment to fill out several items of paperwork for myself for the doctor's files and after that, a wait of almost an hour before actually getting called into the examining room and seen by the doctor and now I've lost three hours of my time.<br />
<br />
The initial result of that visit was that this doctor wanted me to have more tests by way of blood work. The only hitch to that was that I had to get a prescription filled for one pill -don't ask me the name of this medication because I don't know the name of it but that meant a wait at Walmart to get the prescription filled and $4.00 for the one pill that was to be taken at 11 p.m. that night and then, the next morning, I was to report to the lab at Clearfield Hospital to have the blood work done.<br />
<br />
Add on here another hour of my time lost the next morning to get the lab work done. (Surprisingly enough, my time at the hospital that day was very fast and I was in and out in about 20 minutes, as opposed to the "normal" wait time at that place which could be a half-hour to an hour spent waiting to have the blood work drawn.)<br />
<br />
For me, as those of you who know me will note, was the fact I had to be at the hospital by 8 a.m. to have the test done. I am NOT a morning person! Not by any wild stretch of the imagination as I tend to regard any hour of awakening prior to 10 a.m. as being cruel and unusual punishment. That, plus the fact I have no alarm clock to use to try to wake me up for early appointments such as this one so it was on a wing and a prayer that I went to bed the night before that test before 2 a.m.(which is considered an early bedtime in my book) and hoping that I would wake up in time to make it to the hospital by 8 a.m.<br />
<br />
Lucky for me, apparently my inner system was in sync with my need to awaken at this horrendously early hour and to get out the door and over to Clearfield in semi-timely fashion. (I confess -I was about 10 minutes late arriving but I consider that as being close enough, there fore, on time!)<br />
<br />
The doctor requesting this blood test had asked me to schedule another appointment for a follow-up, which I did and that appointment was for last Thursday, May 28th. He had also told me he would contact me if he detected anything not quite kosher with the blood test prior to the appointment but since I didn't hear anything from him, I assumed then this was just a follow up.<br />
<br />
However, about a week before the scheduled appointment, I had to get one of my regular prescriptions refilled and when I went to the counter at Walmart, I was informed they had two prescriptions there for me. One was the one I had requested and the other one, I didn't recognize or know anything about at all until the customer service rep there told me it was a script that had been faxed in from the specialist in Dubois. I was a bit confused by this "new" script but then with the instructions the Walmart rep told me that accompanied this prescription I then recognized it as being the prescription I had picked up about two weeks earlier -for the one pill -except this script was for 9 capsules and specific number of days it was to be taken, etc. Since I knew nothing about this script, I assumed this was a duplication of some sort and told her that prescription was now null and void and cancelled acceptance of it.<br />
<br />
When I got home that afternoon, I saw I'd had a couple of phone calls -showing on my caller id -but two of them showed no identification of the caller nor any phone number so I assumed they were spam or scam calls. I didn't check my voice mail for any messages at that time as that type of caller never leaves a voice mail but a couple hours later, when I did check my voice mail, there was a call there from the nurse at the specialist's office telling me they had faxed this prescription in for me and that I was to follow the instructions on the prescription order, take the pills as specified and after taking the 9th pill -to be taken at 6 a.m. -I was to report to Clearfield Hospital once again for more blood work.<br />
<br />
Wonderful! Had I known about this transaction earlier, I could have picked up the pills when I was over at Walmart. Now -I'd cancelled that prescription plus, to contact the doctor's office and reschedule the script to be faxed and take the pills in the manner prescribed in order to have this new test done, which was to be done prior to my appointment on the 28th of May, created a lot of time issues which I couldn't observe so when the office called me to confirm my appointment or to cancel it, I cancelled it!<br />
<br />
Then, the day after my scheduled appointment was to have been, I received a paper with the ordr for the blood work to be performed at Clearfield and on it were listed the times I was to take one of these pills that I had cancelled the prescription for. Seems I was to take these pills over a 2 full day period with the 9th pill to be taken at 6 a.m. and then, I was to show up at the hospital at 8 a.m. for the new blood work. Hmmm. Apparently timing isn't of the essence in that office's sending out that paper I would have needed to get the blood work done, for openers plus the factor that the times I was to take those pills was set up to begin on the first day to take them at 6:00 a.m., noon, 6:00 p.m. and midnight and repeat that the next day ending with the 9th pill to be taken on day 3 at 6 a.m.<br />
<br />
Needless to say, I was not the least bit impressed by these directions! Three days in a row they were screwing with my sleep patterns!<br />
<br />
Then, the day after I should have gone for that second office visit, I received a call from the nurse or office manager, stating I had missed my appointment and please call to reschedule it and about five minutes later, I got a call from the doctor himself, asking me to contact him about the test results from the initial test I'd had done too. These two calls came into me shortly before noon on Friday and I called the office to reschedule and try to reach the doctor only to get a message that the office was now closed for the day as they had hours only till noon on Fridays.<br />
<br />
Another episode of my muttering "Wonnerful, wonnerful!"<br />
<br />
So today, Monday, bright and early -for me -about 10:30 a.m., I called the office to reschedule the appointment and see if the doctor would be able to talk to me then about whatever it was he wanted to tell me. The lady in the office said she would tell him to contact me but also stated they were very busy and running at least 90 minutes behind schedule then so for him to return my call, it would be much later in the day.<br />
<br />
I explained to her that I have some issues with the telephone though -one being sometimes, the line cracks and appears to be disconnecting but doesn't and other times, it does. That plus I have a lot of difficulty hearing conversations on the telephone and the fact that this doctor is from India and has a relatively thick accent -which I could sort of figure out in person but I worried that on the phone, I wouldn't have clue one as to what he would be telling me. So I asked if it would be at all possible for him to just e-mail me the information he wanted to share with me since I have no problems reading stuff at all but she said, due to privacy concerns, he couldn't do that.<br />
<br />
Hmmmm.Meanwhile, I'm thinking the privacy issues they were concerned with would be irrelevant because I wouldn't have a clue as to what he would be saying so most likely a potential phone call would have really great privacy then, wouldn't it?<br />
<br />
And so, I waited this afternoon then for the phone to ring and just like the old adage of "A watched pot never boils" came true, I had lost the entire afternoon when I could have delivered at least one Avon order, possibly two, and I could also have walked my poor dog sometime then too -if they had tried to give me a time approximate when he or the nurse would be returning my call that was supposed to be -apparently -an important message he had for me.<br />
<br />
But now, since it is almost 8 p.m. and I've yet to hear anything back from them, I guess it is at least safe now for me to leave the house, walk the dog and go check my mail box too then to see if maybe they sent me something that I needed on Friday or today in the mail!<br />
<br />
Don't you just love episodes like this?<br />
<br />
I'm becoming less and less enthralled with this doctor, his staff and the new medical system in place around several hospitals in about an 80 mile radius of where I live. Very uncoordinated and also, very unprofessional as well!Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-6599878278328907512015-05-31T02:12:00.002-04:002015-05-31T02:12:37.686-04:00Where do all my pens go?Why is it that every time I need a pen, there are none around where I am at that given time?<br />
<br />
When my grandchildren were still living here with me, the pens I had would disappear frequently but then, I could usually locate at least one or, maybe even two, under the sofa, a chair and at times, miracle of miracles, hidden behind some papers on my desk.<br />
<br />
Now that I am the only one living here, my pens all seem to go into hiding on me, never to return!<br />
<br />
I try to collect pens to have them at hand whenever I need one to jot down a note, an order from a customer, to keep with my checkbook and I like to look for extra pens whenever I need to visit a business office and happen to see a couple there, free for the taking.<br />
<br />
I love those good ballpoint pens that are made to be refillable too as then, if/when it runs out of ink, I don't need to add to the trash because all I need to do then to make them usable again is to change the nice little refill for them.<br />
<br />
I especially like those pens that have a sort of rubber gripper around the end by the point as it seems to make holding them much easier and they allow a much smoother style of writing with them then.<br />
<br />
I love the pens that have an advertisement on them -the name of the company that gave them out, along with a phone number too, makes them really great when you happen to need that information and can't find the company listed in the telephone book and need to place a call to that office in a hurry. My insurance man almost always has a supply of these type of ball point pens in a jar in his office along with business cards too.<br />
<br />
Business cards are a nice form of advertisement too but they tend to get lost in the shuffle in my purse faster than do the pens!<br />
<br />
Unfortunately for me of late, I have had no reason to stop by any of the offices I know that have free pens for the taking so I haven't been able to keep my supply replenished very easily. I really wish a lot of other places took advantage of using pens for advertising their services as they could take advantage of <a href="http://www.penfactory.com/pens-1/retractable-pens.html">great promotions at PenFactory.com</a><br />
<br />
By doing this, they would really -and very easily -put their name, address and phone numbers out to the general public without the advertising costing them a small fortune. And by using this method, it would endear these companies to me for many, many years to come for keeping me in a good supply of these items!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-10434413506267401942015-05-18T02:11:00.001-04:002015-05-18T02:11:53.216-04:00Thinking about my Mom -post-Mother's DayThis probably will be the longest paragraph I have ever written and hopefully, for the sake of anyone reading this, will be the longest one that I will ever write too!<br />
<br />
I read an article tonight about registered nurses and the things that they talk about at home, how they deal with their family when one of the members is sick or injured and other traits that are -to people who know nothing about living with an RN probably would ever think happens.<br />
<br />
But it brought back memories to me of my Mom, who was a registered nurse -or "RN" as we like to call them. Maybe because Mother's Day was just last week and I'm still on a bit of a high from the cards I got from my kids and grandkids and the flowers my son and his girlfriend brought down to my house today -2 beautiful hanging planters filled with light lavender petunias -plus two other gifts as well -a set of pyrex bakeware (5 pieces, all with LIDS) and a new KitchenAid portable mixer too! I guess this was a hint that I've kind of stopped cooking very much lately and maybe the want me to bake something or at least, cook a full meal now and then.<br />
<br />
But anyway, this is a compilation of my thoughts -and the main memories I remember of my Mom, the RN. I apologize for the big, big paragraph but I just couldn't bring myself to break it into smaller segments for fear I would forget something!<br />
<br />
So, with that in mind, I now give you my fondest memories of Nurse Hazel, my Mom.<br />
<br />
My Mom was an RN but she never talked about things pertaining to her patients -probably because she generally worked private duty, often in the patient's home, usually worked the midnight shift too, and because almost all her patients were elderly and dying, her one brother used to tease her about her nursing skills since it seemed all her patients always died. When I was small, I used to get tonsillitis on a regular basis and my Mom was good friends with the family doctor so when I got hit with another go-round of the throat stuff, she would stop at his office (in his home) and tell him "The kid has another sore throat, can you give me a script for penicillin and I swear that man never heard of meds in pill form. He always gave her a little bottle of the stuff, to be injected in my behind. This to a kid who was terrified of needles and therefore, it would take my Mom and both my grandparents to hold me down on the sofa while she tried to inject this medicine into me -all the while telling me the reason it hurts is because you are tense. Just relax! Relax my foot! I once managed to run a pick into the bottom of my right leg. When I did it, I didn't even realize I had broken the skin but my aunt saw my leg was bleeding and made me go inside to have my Mom check it out. She did that, poured some hydrogen peroxide into the wound -which of course stung like crazy -and then, took some bandaids and tried to pull the wound together as much as possible and slap the bandaids in place. About 3 or 4 days after I did this, she was cleaning it one day and said it seemed to be healing quite nicely but it probably should have had a few stitches in it! When I fell in the back yard the morning of our family reunion, and broke the ulna on my left arm, I swear to this day that had my Mom's siblings and most of my cousins not been there that day, she probably would have tried to set the arm herself and not taken me to the emergency room! I was about the only kid on our street who owned a pair of rubbers as well as knee-high rubber boots, a heavy, very warm winter coat, scarves up the yazoo, mittens, snowpants from the 30s (I grew up in the 50s so you can imagine the style of those snowpants that had belonged originally to my youngest aunt.) In the winter months, I didn't leave the house unless I had either the rubbers or boots over my shoes on, the heavy jacket, a scarf around my neck, knit hat and mittens to make the walk to our school with my neighbor's daughter and my best friend. My friend had dealt with rheumatic fever the spring of our 5th grade year and hadn't even been allowed to walk for about 3 months while recuperating. When we went back to school that fall, she was supposed to be very cautious about not catching a cold or the flu, or virtually anything. We walked about almost a mile up to our school and she wore a winter coat but it wasn't very heavy, no scarf around her neck, no boots or rubbers, no hat but she did wear mittens. I had my normal heavy-weight protective garb and which one of us do you suppose got sick? It sure wasn't my girlfriend! As my Mom grew older, she refused to go to a doctor for any type of checkups because in her mind, they were all money-grubbers and besides that, she didn't need them. She passed away 35 years ago this coming October of cancer -of the colon, liver and spleen and which we only knew about for a week prior to her death! Because of her stubbornness about doctors and such, had she only gone for a checkup now and then, the possibility the colon cancer could have been detected while still in a curative stage and thus, she could have gone on for perhaps several more years and seen what beautiful children my three were and they all could have had lots of memories of her then instead of only the oldest really knowing her as she was 12. My son at age 6 vaguely remembers her and my youngest who wasn't quite 4, has no memories of her grandmother whatsoever! I see my three grandchildren now and think how lucky I am that I have had the opportunity to know them and they, me and thank them too because I credit having them in my life for pulling me through colon cancer, 4 surgeries in the past 12 years now and two rounds with cancer, chemo and radiation because they gave me the desire then to take the treatments available and fight to recover. Wish my Mom had done that too!<br />
<br />
And that's the truth!Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-46854473770637456252015-03-28T02:52:00.001-04:002015-03-28T02:52:03.488-04:00A Gift of Sunshine!I don't know why it seems to be so difficult -and apparently very time-consuming to my thought processes -but I am still having lots and lots of difficulty getting enough time as well as topics to write about and keeping my blog at least semi-active. Not really that I haven't had lots of topics run through my mind and thoughts of doing posts about them, but when push came to shove, the posts got knocked out of the way.<br />
<br />
However, today -something happened to me that I knew I absolutely had to write about this!<br />
<br />
I got an envelope in my mailbox today with my name and address neatly and correctly printed on it and the return address at the left-hand corner told me immediately (or so I thought) that this was either an Easter card from my daughter, Mandy -probably some cute card for Grandma at Easter from Maya and Kurt maybe -but the fact that the addresses were printed and not done in cursive is what gave me that idea.<br />
<br />
So I hurried up and opened this and inside was a card -the kind with just a cute picture on the front and inside, it was blank, made for someone to write a quick not, you know.<br />
<br />
The picture on the top of the card was of two puppies, with one leaning toward the other one's ear, as if it were whispering some big secret message or something. Cute, very cute, for sure and yes, it appealed to the dog lover in me!<br />
<br />
But the surprise came when I opened the card and there, printed very neatly were the following words.<br />
<br />
" Dear Grammy,<br />
I miss you very much. I can't wait to see you at Easter. I think you will like my Easter dress. we <br />
all are doing very well at home and at school. I wonder if Aunt Carrie or Daddy will come <br />
Easter Sunday too. On Friday, I can't believe there's a week until I come up. Hope to see you <br />
then.<br />
Love,<br />
Maya"<br />
<br />
Oh and after her name there is a hand-drawn smile and also a heart~<br />
<br />
What grandparent (or even a parent or aunt or uncle) wouldn't immediately melt upon reading a little message like that?<br />
<br />
Not this one, that's for sure!<br />
<br />
This card and the note it held from my 11-year-old granddaughter brought so much sunshine into my heart and gave me cause to smile the rest of today!<br />
<br />
I've been looking forward very much for the past month now to Easter because the probability that Mandy, Maya and Kurtis would be coming up that weekend was pretty good. And now, unless the weather decides to get extremely unruly next weekend, they will be coming up!<br />
<br />
And so, for the wonderful gift today of lots and lots of love and sunshine in my heart from one little card and a hand-printed note inside it, thank you my sweet little ray of sunshine, Miss Maya!<br />
<br />
Grammy loves you to the moon and back! Along with your brother, Kurtis, and your cousin Alex! You three were the best things ever when you came into my life, you still are and always will be!<br />
<br />
Love, love, and more love from Grammy to you! Today and always!Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-32205998899349765842015-02-09T02:35:00.001-05:002015-02-09T02:35:12.639-05:00Getting Used to ThingsAlthough it's now been over 18 months since Mandy and the two grandkids moved down to Middletown, apparently -judging by my mood tonight, I still haven't fully adjusted to not having them here with me.<br />
<br />
Last week was a bit of a zoo here as we were all still adjusting to the shock of my son's house burning a week ago this past Wednesday afternoon. People were bringing boxes and bags and bags of clothes as well as kitchen goods and bedding down to my house (and probably many were taking things to Chantel's parents' home too, to help Clate and Chantel get back on their feet.<br />
<br />
Here's a couple pictures of some of the bags and boxes brought down here -with my apologies if any of these pictures require your having to twist and turn a bit to see 'em because I'm still adjusting to my new camera and the upload process and didn't change the angle of some of these pictures in the process.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKv5PsTftE1kVjF-yEHK2xd1NNv0bHLYT1x4JDW6dl7s9-2d8zm-OEG2czZJRc0_md0XzAWbSwdPwDFBrLI3euSqSXkWRgSCmL9C2THqfYE4r4YEnqilU5Z9i7HGOLm4ksqmjk/s1600/DSCN0015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKv5PsTftE1kVjF-yEHK2xd1NNv0bHLYT1x4JDW6dl7s9-2d8zm-OEG2czZJRc0_md0XzAWbSwdPwDFBrLI3euSqSXkWRgSCmL9C2THqfYE4r4YEnqilU5Z9i7HGOLm4ksqmjk/s1600/DSCN0015.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxnp5FfZwlZM7AKTbjjvSJTd5U61PgPMPAixZxrpUlCJLE42mx5FXSm1OYDxc8d_VwZj768mbSu040RgdXnTPqBPHAzRJHMicChxqJy5ZddgNUg0GCn0Py4D8qzJov5MUCsHc8/s1600/DSCN0014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxnp5FfZwlZM7AKTbjjvSJTd5U61PgPMPAixZxrpUlCJLE42mx5FXSm1OYDxc8d_VwZj768mbSu040RgdXnTPqBPHAzRJHMicChxqJy5ZddgNUg0GCn0Py4D8qzJov5MUCsHc8/s1600/DSCN0014.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_uhmqkPInvG98P8WQLwAvRpiu4u74zxmrsMVMf-AcIPFx5bs9xEFvsRQJ8wl5Ci75y8a5GjlxQwGlpMB_cOcFtXx2YJ8W3dMiBde58TIcKSaEEcfbuwH6ASla6efJCp5GTdoh/s1600/DSCN0013.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_uhmqkPInvG98P8WQLwAvRpiu4u74zxmrsMVMf-AcIPFx5bs9xEFvsRQJ8wl5Ci75y8a5GjlxQwGlpMB_cOcFtXx2YJ8W3dMiBde58TIcKSaEEcfbuwH6ASla6efJCp5GTdoh/s1600/DSCN0013.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
The red tall laundry basket arrived filled with all kinds of toys -used and new too -for Chantel's little girl along with two big bags of clothes for her as well!<br />
<br />
Clate and Chantel also were offered a house near here to rent for the duration of time they may need a place -until they figure out how much insurance money they will get to use to either find another place to purchase or decide if they will have a new place built or a double-wide perhaps put on the land (2 acres) where the old house was. So that will help her little girl adjust better as for them to stay in the motel room for what may end up being a lengthy stay, it was just way too cramped for Chantel and Catrin to be there day in and day out in one small room with no where for a two-year-old to really be able to play.<br />
<br />
The outpouring from this community as well as friends and family from afar too has, at times, really been very overwhelming for them to see how generous people really can be! People are still bringing things down to my house too and some of the things brought here really surprised me greatly too. Like today when a friend of the family showed up with a smaller bag of items along with two beautiful handmade quilts that had been done by the Women of the Forest Baptist Church about 6 miles from here. The one quilt is more just a coverlet done in blocks of a very pretty pink shade interspersed with a matching floral print and is for little Catrin's bed and the other, is a very, very heavy comforter with an inner lining that is quite think done in patches of a pale blue print and solid blue squares. One need never worry about being cold with that quilt over them, for sure! Both quilts though absolutely gorgeous works of art!<br />
<br />
On Friday of this past week, I kind of thought there was a possibility that Mandy and the kids might come up this weekend since the weather forecast for Friday and Saturday was relatively decent. Actually, it was almost a heat wave compared to a few days earlier this week with the temps predicted to go up into the 40s and no not-so-nice weather predicted to show up until Sunday evening.<br />
<br />
But Friday came and went and no one showed up here. But then, around noon on Saturday I got a phone call from Mandy telling me she and the kids were on their way up then and expected to arrive here around 3 p.m. Saturday.<br />
<br />
Since I hadn't seen them since New Year's Day, it was so nice to see all three of them again! Really, REALLY, Nice!!! And to add to that the fact that my older grandson, Alex, also showed up here Saturday afternoon and was here till about 11:30 Saturday night, really made the day complete!<br />
<br />
The kids were so well-behaved -no squabbling at all from either of them (with the small exception being that Maya refused to eat any of the homemade beef vegetable and pasta soup I had made that day for our supper.) The reason she wouldn't even taste it was because I had put a little bit of macaroni pasta in the soup to give it a little more fill or body or whatever you care to call it! There's no accounting for her whims at mealtime sometimes!<br />
<br />
Then today (Sunday), Mandy and the kids went up to see Uncle Clate's new abode and when they got back to the house, it was time for them to gather up their things and pack them into the car so they could get a fairly early start on their return trip home to avoid any possibility of running into any potentially nasty weather.<br />
<br />
We said our goodbyes, hugs and kisses all around. Maya has always been pretty good with that routine but it took Kurtis a longer time to having any real displays of affection. But once he started to give hugs and kisses, it expanded greatly to now, when he comes to offer his parting he does really give great big hugs. And as he was doing that today, I told him "You really give some great hugs now, Kurtis!" His response to that was a rather quiet, subdued "I know." I followed that with my usual comments to him about how he is Gram's little sweetheart along with "I love you, Buddy" and each time he would nod his head and again say "I know!"<br />
<br />
Just so sweet to hear him say that and to see the big, big smiles on his face then too.<br />
<br />
And then, it was time for them to leave and I stood on the front door step, watching them pull away with both kids waving, blowing kisses and poof, they were gone.<br />
<br />
Another visit history, ya know.<br />
<br />
I came back inside and got a fresh cup of coffee and looked through the Sunday paper, tried to see how much of any of the three crossword puzzles in there I could fill in -not much -but just enough to make me tired.<br />
<br />
And so, off to the computer and playing there a bit on Facebook.<br />
<br />
As the evening wore on though, I could feel an all too familiar sense of depression seeping into me and I knew it was because as nice as this quick visit was, as much fun as I had with my daughter and my beautiful grandkids here, the void was back again and brother, I was taking a big hit of missing them then tonight!<br />
<br />
I know they'll be up here again in about a month from now -at least that was Mandy's plan but how I wish they lived closer to me.<br />
<br />
How I wished they still all lived here with me!<br />
<br />
So now, it's back to the old routines I've been trying to plug into my life -doing things I usually enjoy like baking bread and also, off and on, baking a special item for a very good friend of mine who will post pictures of some kind of baked goods on my Facebook with a little subtle hint to the effect of "this sure looks good, don't you think?" which means, any possibility you will fix this and bring it to me? She knows me pretty well now as that's about the only way I do tend to bake cakes or cookies now is if I know someone wants something like that and if I can fix it for them, it makes me feel good to be doing something for someone else!<br />
<br />
But now, I think I'll do something just for me -and go to bed!<br />
<br />
Maybe a good nite's sleep will erase some of the longing deep inside me for my babies!Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-85427464362388783872015-02-04T06:48:00.000-05:002015-02-04T06:48:02.784-05:00Cheesy Whining, Part DeuxOkay, let the whining begin!<br />
<br />
First off, if you are part of my Friend list on Facebook, you've no doubt heard me grumping a good deal about the Nextbook Tablet I purchased for myself shortly after Christmas. My main complaint with this thing is the camera installed in it, which just so happens to be a front camera and I can't figure out how to take pictures using it because it seems all I am able to photograph with it would be selfies and I absolutely loathe, abhor and despise "selfies!"<br />
<br />
Not being blessed with photogenic traits -at least not good ones anyway -I don't like having my picture taken as it is but selfies? There is no way on God's Green Earth you will ever see a selfie of me!<br />
<br />
So, since my formerly very easy to use and nice little camera I've had for about 4 years now quit functioning on me, and I wanted to have a means to photograph some of my recent embroidery projects as well as getting pictures of my favorite subjects -my grandkids -I had been looking for a good deal on a new digital camera.<br />
<br />
And this past weekend I found one on sale at Walmart -on their Clearance shelf! It's a Nikon CoolPix that has a lot of things I like about a camera.<br />
<br />
But that is where my good vibes end and the whine begins!<br />
<br />
I got a memory card for the camera when I purchased it and tonight decided to try to upload what pictures I had taken to my computer. This is a whole new experience for me because with my "new" computer that has Windows 8.1 ya know, trying to figure out how to upload pictures from my card -well, definitely not the easy process it was with my previous little Kodak! First, I had to find the photos file -which by the way is not the same as the Pictures file with Windows 8.1 and then, once I did find that, then I couldn't find the stuff to upload the pics with! Okay after a good long period of time I finally found the photos place and also so other indicators as to how to transfer these pictures over to the computer. So far, the process of uploading about 20 pictures only took me about 90 minutes and then I wasn't sure they had even been saved because at no time did anything pop up asking me if I wanted to save them and where did i want to save them too wasn't showing up anyplace either!<br />
<br />
You know, the more I deal with computers the more frustrated I get! They are supposed to be so much faster -that has never happened for me with any of the previous computers I've had and it definitely doesn't take place with this one I just got back in September! Slower than freaking molasses in January is how I would describe this unit and that's with having my internet on the high speed end via my cable service but speed -can't prove that by me and this unit nor with any other computers I've had relatively recently!<br />
<br />
Cameras and convenience? Not happening here! Yes it is a neat little camera but what one has to go through to get the pictures taken over to where you can use them in any way, shape or form -anything BUT easy!<br />
<br />
I bitched a good bit when I got the Kodak camera a few years ago because I really didn't like a lot of things about Kodak's wonderful "easy share" system as it was anything but easy for me to figure out how to get it to function properly but by the time that camera died, I had gotten fairly well accustomed to how to deal with that feature. Now, it's here we go again!<br />
<br />
I have nothing against learning some new things but sheesh, could we please put a few more instructions in with each new computer and not just assume that it is an innate mental process that we all come with knowledge built in our brains as to how to operate a new computer? Sure wouldn't hurt to have a little bit of information available about how to use Windows 8.1 for openers and how to use this little computer too would be greatly appreciated as well.<br />
<br />
I have the same complaint about operating instructions with my lovely little tablet too! Very sparse on the instructions of how to operate this damned gem!<br />
<br />
And then of course, there's my standard complaints about selling the lovely stuff I try to peddle to what few customers I have acquired over the past 18 months since I went back to being an Avonlady! How it is that when I sold these products oh, about 24 to 40 years ago, I had a whole lot more customers then, but my orders in terms of sales per customer generally totaled about the same each campaign as they do today but I have a lot fewer customers now. What confuses the heck out of me though is how I made $300-400 in sales then and frequently have that size (money-wise) orders much of the time today but how much profit I make on my orders today by comparison to what I was able to earn 30 years ago -a huge difference! And one that is not to my benefit either I might add!<br />
<br />
I love seeing my invoices from them every two weeks and they proudly print on each one of them approximately what I have "earned" with each order I have submitted. Strangely enough, somehow an order that they say I have earned around $120 ends up with me being lucky if I will clear $20 when it's all said and done! I attribute that to the costs of the demos I purchase, samples to give my customers that I purchase and of course, copies of each campaign book to hand out to my customers too and all of that comes off the top of the figure they say I have earned! So it does seem to me that it ends up being a royal pain in the arse then!<br />
<br />
If it weren't for the fact that my customers are also mostly very good friends of mine and I decided that returning to be an Avonlady again would be a good thing for me to force me to leave the house more than once every week or two and thus, keep me from becoming a total recluse, I would very seriously consider giving this financial venture up completely! But I keep hoping one of these days things will "click" and I'll get on a better track with this stuff plus, an occasional extra $20 bucks does come in handy! But it would be a whole lot better if it was $20 extra guaranteed each week and not hit and miss as it tends to be now.<br />
<br />
Oh well! Such is life in the fast lane of being an Avon Rep!<br />
<br />
Now my next time sucking project I'm going to have to do is figure out how to figure out my actual income from this stuff so I can report it on my income tax this year! ARRGH! I'm going to have to file income tax now -again -on something that is far from supplying me with the kind of a little bit of extra bucks that they tout the reps earn!<br />
<br />
Now, after spending about 2-3 hours this morning printing out invoices and draining my printer's supply of black ink, I'm going to have to get over to Walmart now and pick up another set of cartridges so I can finish printing out my damned sales, costs of demos, costs of samples, costs for bags and other trivia things one needs for this venture and also, how to calculate my mileage along with a few orders that I have that were never picked up and a few that were delivered but then, the customer decided to skip out without paying me so how to deduct that then from my earnings too ya know.<br />
<br />
Okay that is going to be it for my whine session for today.<br />
<br />
Let's hope (and maybe pray a bit too) that nothing else comes along to give me cause to do yet another Whine post!<br />
<br />
Peace!Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-77813672627030048822015-02-04T06:06:00.000-05:002015-02-04T06:06:09.167-05:00Cheesy Whining Part one!Before I actually get started with this post, let me take 10 seconds here to apologize because, yes I am whining tonight!<br />
<br />
Okay, with that much said -a warning for you as you read this -let me get on with this post.<br />
<br />
The first part of this post is not a whine number but a little information on what happened to me, to my family, shortly after my last post here. That was a week ago today on January 28th -a day that will be locked in my mind forever, for sure.<br />
<br />
How's that, you ask? Well, it's because sometime after I wrote that last post -around 9:15 last Wednesday night, I had a big shock as a neighbor of my son's phoned me to tell me that my son's house was on fire!<br />
<br />
He had an old house on the top of the hill here in our little village and yes indeed, last Wednesday night his home went up in flames! His girlfriend (Chantel) and her little two-year-old daughter (Catrin) had just moved in with him about a month ago and knowing they were there, my first concern was if they got out of the house or if they were still inside. Thankfully, the young lady who phoned me said they had gotten out and were across the road with the neighbors there. Count that as one big relief and really, the first of many blessing that came out of this whole thing!<br />
<br />
Thankfully too that the state of Pennsylvania has a requirement for anyone who has a mortgage and that is that it is absolutely MANDATORY that the home owner carries home owners/fire insurance! And the next blessing was that my son had actually listened to me when he took out his home owners policy and had it insured at "full replacement value!"<br />
<br />
Although the walls of the old house are still standing, and we don't know the full details that will take place with the insurance and such, I really doubt that they will try to have him "rebuild" this place. The 2nd story and the attic were completely gutted plus severe damage done to the roof too -which by the way, also happened to be a metal roof but is now pretty far gone in the damages department. So we're thinking most likely it will be determined to be a total loss.<br />
<br />
Within a very short period of time though, my Facebook wall was going crazy with messages asking what happened, if Chantel and little Catrin were okay, were was my son (on his way home from a run he'd made earlier Wednesday to Bristol, CT) and did they need anything, any help whatsoever? By Thursday morning people began to arrive at my house bringing whatever they thought Clate and Chantel could use or would need, etc. As a result, they had many donations made early on of clothing and also, money. Both much needed commodities, ya know, since 98% of their clothes went up in smoke and he's not been able to work since last Wednesday due to trying to get things resolved with the insurance company and such.<br />
<br />
He was by Thursday night really blown away by the prayers and donations brought to my house or to Chantel's parents' home too of so many needed items and the caring messages continued to flood in for them from friends and family from all over the place it seemed.<br />
<br />
They have been staying at the local motel but now, they are in the process of getting situated in a rental property owned by some very good family friends and should be settled in there perhaps as early as this afternoon or evening now. Hopefully the sooner the better as little Catrin is very confused by all this and initially, not knowing, not understanding, at her young age, what had transpired, she was fussing and crying, saying "I want to go home!"<br />
<br />
But if anyone reading this is among those who messaged me or Clate or Chantel or any other members of my family or of Chantel's family, or are friends of ours, thank you, thank you, thank you for the very generous outpouring of love and everything else -many, many prayers -and giving thanks with us that all that got hurt was the house! They will recover from that and will be forging ahead a little more each and every day.<br />
<br />
Hopefully, things will have settled down enough by tomorrow now and Clate will then be able to go back to work which will go a long way then to assist them having a paycheck once again, for openers.<br />
<br />
After that, it will be moving as quickly as the insurance can all be processed and so far, the adjustor has been working with them at each and every turn to see that they get all the help they need. Yes, you are -at least in my opinion -in good hands with this company!<br />
<br />
Because of the fire, I now have a third cat here too! Chantel's big and beautiful -truly, he is gorgeous -Maine Coon TomCat (MoJo) is currently camping here as it's a lot easier for me to add another cat into the household than for them to cart him all over while they are still staying in the motel. He was pretty standoffish at first -growling and hissing at my cats and the dog and then, doing the same routine with me too. But the past couple of days he has begun to loosen up a bit with me anyway. Apparently he has figured out that my hand is the one now feeding hin and judging by the size of this boy, he's never missed much in the way of meals! I wanted to take a photo of him but haven't gotten around to doing that as yet.<br />
<br />
But I do have a photo I can share taken of the house the morning after the fire. You can perhaps get a bit of an idea of the destruction that occurred there in this photo.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeL-EeV40G768t0c3AyXHvnLX8306hcNZ8LR9gzvNKt5vC0pzrNPcBgB6o8S6OCOt97rzoc8M_cwcI9NVwjpn5pE4fW8wfQ0Qwl-evicikurx1mfwvDEb4UTtD5ySFKVRvgcqX/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeL-EeV40G768t0c3AyXHvnLX8306hcNZ8LR9gzvNKt5vC0pzrNPcBgB6o8S6OCOt97rzoc8M_cwcI9NVwjpn5pE4fW8wfQ0Qwl-evicikurx1mfwvDEb4UTtD5ySFKVRvgcqX/s1600/photo.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
Not necessarily the best photo of the old place but hopefully, it gives some idea of what it looks like today.<br />
<br />
And that's the end of my story about the latest event in the life and times of my family and me. This wasn't really a whine and cheese post, only slightly. Stay tuned for the next installment which shall be labeled as Cheesy Whining, Part Deux!<br />
<br />Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-86846394941746043972015-01-28T04:59:00.001-05:002015-01-28T05:00:06.638-05:00HappeningsHere it is - over a month now since Christmas and almost a full month whizzing by as the end of January is coming up in just three more days and I am just as disorganized as ever! No changes made in that aspect of my life!<br />
<br />
It's been quite an interesting month though, I do have to say that much for it.<br />
<br />
The grandkids -Maya and Kurtis spent a week with me from Christmas Day until New Year's Day and that made the holiday week extra special. But it also showed me after they returned home how quiet this house is without them here and how boring it can be then too at times.<br />
<br />
Don't get me wrong now as I have discovered since they moved 18 months ago now that there are lots of times I really enjoy the peace, quiet and solitude of living alone. Just don't care for it ALL the time. I do like the fact I can come and go as I please and not have to worry about being home in time for the school bus as the kids return home and also, I can have my very own, weird sleep schedule too -go to bed as the sun comes up if I want or hit the sack ultra early in the evening too on those rare occasions when I just don't feel like staying awake. (The drawback to retiring ultra early though is that I don't sleep through until daylight but instead seem to wake up and be unable to fall back to sleep around 1 or 2 a.m. so it doesn't work to try that avenue to maybe revamp my sleep schedule to more normal hours. Whatever they might be.)<br />
<br />
Christmas Eve, my older grandson, Alex, was here and he, my son, Clayton and his girlfriend, Chantel and I all went to the late night service at church. My son's annual visit to our church and a move he make to try to keep peace with old Mom, ya know. It was a beautiful, candlelit service with many of my favorite Christmas carols -including the church's traditional opening song done by the church choir as they sing it a capella from the narthex and that is my personal old favorite Swedish carol, "Lyssna." Brings back so many wonderful memories to me of Christmases many years ago and hearing my grandfather sing this song. He truly had a beautiful deep bass voice and I suppose that's a big part of why I love hearing a good bass voice singing!<br />
<br />
Saturday after Christmas, the grandkids and I were going to make a run over to Walmart but ran into a few problems getting out of town that night. When I opened the car door I noticed the dome light didn't come on and I reached in and pulled on the light switch and got nothing! Uh oh! Dead battery? After looking a little closely though I realized that when we came home from church Christmas Eve I had done something I very rarely do and that was I had left the keys in the ignition but hadn't completely turned them to the off position so that had drained the battery. I came in and called my son to have him come down and bring his jumper cables -which he did -and in about short order, he had the car running. Said the drive to Walmart (about 20 miles) should be enough to charge the battery completely but had me take the cables with me just to be on the safe side.<br />
<br />
So off we went!<br />
<br />
And once in Walmart, it was a bit of a struggle to keep the kids from pestering me to go to the toy department which tells me that nothing about these two has changed in that respect.<br />
<br />
Got the few things I needed and we headed back to the house but about 2 miles from Walmart, out on Interstate 80, I heard this really loud noise and then, the car just was not handling right so I managed to get it pulled off to the side just beyond the an entrance ramp to the Interstate and tried to call my son for assistance. That's when I discovered my cellphone was dead too!<br />
<br />
Seems I had not made the required number of calls on it in November so it needed to be reactivated but, lucky for me, it would allow me to make an emergency call to 911. And so I did that and the 911 operator connected me to the State Police and in no time at all, a state trooper pulled up behind me and together, we checked the situation on my car which it just so happened to be my right front tire had blown out! Lovely!<br />
<br />
The trooper was kind enough to change the tire for me -put the donut on and tossed the old tire which was really gaping with the hole the blow out had made! But we made it back home and then, the next couple of days I was stewing about what to do with the tire situation. My ex-son-in-law located a used tire in the size I needed and brought it down to me but I had to take the car into the shop where he works the next day because the tire needed to be mounted. It was during that process that the son-in-law realized this tire wasn't exactly the best as it had problems with the belt separating but he said if I took it easy, it would work okay till he could locate a better tire or I got a new one.<br />
<br />
the thought of getting a new tire was a bit of a big concern for me as of course, I was in my normal financial status -broke!<br />
<br />
And then as suddenly as this spate of bad luck had come my way, it all got resolved through the generosity of someone I've never met in person but which whom I have communicated for several years now. This man is a minister in a Lutheran church located someplace in Southwestern Arkansas and I had met him via my interest in local history as well as family tree information as his grandparents had lived about 4 miles from where I live and he had spent a great deal of time during his summer vacations as a child with his grandparents so he knew a good bit about this area and was interested in learning more about the history and also, of his roots. Through his kindness and generosity, within a week, he had sent me a check for a lot more than I needed to purchase one tire, but instead, I was able to get four new tires on my old buggy!<br />
'<br />
Boy, it is sure amazing how nice my old car rides when it has four brand new tires on it!<br />
<br />
As the month progressed, so did the arrival of more of the real winter weather - snow, freezing rain, sleet and very low temperatures too became the norm for this time of year. And with the cold, that brought with it another worry -will I run out of oil to run the furnace and keep the old house warm?<br />
<br />
I thought I had applied for the fuel assistance program here but as it turned out, when I called in to see about getting fuel delivered, due to a mix-up with what the receptionist at that office had told me, apparently the fuel program folks had never received an application from me!<br />
<br />
Wonderful, just freaking wonderful to have to putsy around trying to fill out a form online to get it accepted and approved while my fuel tank gauge was sitting almost on empty and that was pretty much the status of my checkbook too -very close to being empty!<br />
<br />
After several hours of fighting with the online form, due to overlooking one of the rules of setting up a password for my application, and trying every freaking password I could think of to use or that I have previously used over the years, I realized that the password had to have the usual of one letter in caps, be at least 8 characters in length and contain at least one number but it also had to contain one special character too and it was that aspect -something I had never encountered previously in setting up any password -that had kept me fighting with the application. Finally got the darned form completed and submitted and waited for the approval.<br />
<br />
Then, two days after submitting the form, I woke up that morning to find a slip in my front door from the oil company telling me they had delivered 100 gallons of fuel oil to me and that it was paid for. So I thought it was oil coming to me from the fuel assistance plan but discovered a week later when the oil delivery guy showed up again and dumped more oil -over 100 gallons - into my tank and I asked him where this came from and he said this was my delivery from the fuel assistance program! Oh really -then where did the 100 gallons I had received a week earlier come from, I asked and he said it had been ordered and paid for by an anonymous person -a friend or neighbor -and he smiled, saying apparently I have some good neighbors who really like me!<br />
<br />
WOW! This was such a blessing to get both deliveries and now, I should be good to go with steady warmth in the house for at least 6-7 weeks, maybe even a little longer than that if I don't mess with the thermostat or if the weather doesn't get too terribly cold very often -like not dump 3 weeks solid of temperatures in the minus 18 degrees and lower -much, much lower when the wind chill factors get included such as we had last winter here!<br />
<br />
So anyway, as a result of these events this past month, I am feeling very, very blessed, indeed! My nerves have calmed down considerably thanks to the generosity of others -some even unknown to me. And I've been busy too doing more embroidery work again since my innards aren't feeling all jumbled and tangled up and the hand holding the needle became pretty steady again.<br />
<br />
I completed a very pretty table topper -in a diamond star shape -made with red cloth and embroidered completely with white floss. A very pretty piece, for sure. Sorry -no photos at this time because my camera isn't working so when I am able to get a new camera I'll be sure to take some pictures of that piece and post 'em. Then, with that piece done, I started another embroidery project -a table runner in red cloth and with the stitching done all in white floss too. This one is a winter church scene on each end of the piece and is also a very pretty item too!<br />
<br />
Now I'm working on a table topper called "Matroshka" and it has two figures on each side, dressed in what I would call Russian or Polish traditional peasant garb -very colorful -and should be really cute too when it's finished.<br />
<br />
And so, those things, plus of course, the lovely Avon orders, have been keeping me pretty much out of trouble for this month anyway.<br />
<br />
Maybe getting back to keeping busy between baking bread, stitching and reading a book in between breaks in the other action will all serve to keep me occupied and start me moving more towards balance in my life.<br />
<br />
It could happen, ya know!Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-22637491989332880342014-12-09T04:29:00.000-05:002014-12-09T04:29:30.946-05:00HomageI know a lot of people -virtual as well as "physical" friends -who don't just like to read but who love to read and, I consider myself to being one of those who does love to read.<br />
<br />
The only problem I have with that is that I love to embroider too and so far, I haven't figured out a way in which I can work on my embroidery stuff and also, to read simultaneously.<br />
<br />
So the result is that one suffers from no attention when the other takes over the spotlight.<br />
<br />
One thing though, for sure, is if I get into reading a book and am really liking it, I have to keep reading, pushing myself to stay awake for as long as it may take (if possible) until I finish the book. Embroidery, on the other hand -well, sometimes I can manage to push myself -and my needle -up and down for fairly long periods of time, but definitely not keep going until the project is completed. To be able to do that would really be a very, very long period of insomnia, for sure!<br />
<br />
Right now, I do have an embroidery project I should be working on however, the other day I made a purchase at Walmart of a book that I thought looked interesting. Actually, I thought it was the book daughter Mandy was reading a couple weeks ago but which she hadn't brought up with her over Thanksgiving to share it with me. And, I thought perhaps this book would make for a nice gift for Christmas for someone on my gift list.<br />
<br />
Now my kids all know that if I buy a book to give to one of them (or even if it is intended for a non-family member) the odds that I will read the book before giving it to whoever I thought would like it are very high that as my kids say about this habit of mine, I give "second-hand" books because I read them all first.<br />
<br />There's a method to my madness, if you will, in doing that though. Especially on those rare occasions when I find several books that appeal to me and that I think maybe this or that person probably would like to read too, in that if I read it before giving it, it helps me determine who I think would most enjoy this book!<br />
<br />
Well, I decided to read this particular book - "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman -and it was, for me, one of those books that I didn't want to put down until I finished it.<br />
<br />
But this time the reason I couldn't put it down was a bit strange, even for me, because after I got started reading it, the story was very familiar to me -like I had read it before. However, if I did read it before, it is the first time I have NOT recognized that I'd already read it by simply by looking at the title and author's name nor by any of the little blurb of description about the book on the cover either!<br />
<br />
But the more I read, the more I knew I had at least had this book at some time and had read at least half or more of it at some time but I also knew I had never finished it because when I got close to the end, it then became new territory, unexplored previously by me on one of my reading binges.<br />
<br />
Seriously, I have never had that happen before -NEVER! I've had books that I have begun reading and not finished for one reason or another but I have always recognized the titles and authors of them upon sight of those books.<br />
<br />
The thing is there are some books that I have read and reread several times, including two very large books -"Gone With The Wind" and "Not As A Stranger!" But the book I have read and reread several times was one I read in the 6th grade and for the next 4 years, I took that book out, again and again from the bookmobile and reread it -"Jonica's Island" by Gladys Malvern! Much as I really did (and still do) love GWTW -book and the movie -"Jonica's Island" is my all-time favorite book ever. Although it's been well over five decades that have passed now since the last time I read that book and yes, it is a young girl's type of reading material, I got the bright idea about 2-3 years ago that I'd like to get a copy of it and reread it and then, pass it along to my granddaughter, Miss Maya, who is becoming a bit of a voracious reader now too.<br />
<br />
However, in trying to find a copy of it, all I found was information that it is long ago out of print and a copy of it now, if one were available to purchase, would run me close to $300 which is considerably out of my price range! I can only hope that someday Maya will have the good fortune of coming across this book in a library someplace and read it and fall in love with that story as much as I did, many, many years ago!<br />
<br />
Now that I have polished off this latest book, I can return to working on my embroidery project again until the urge to read comes over me again if I should happen to come across another book that I just can't bring myself to put down!<br />
<br />
It would be nice if I could bring myself to pick up and finish one of a few books I have here that I started to read but have yet to finish -rare though that type are in my bookshelf. I'm thinking about the copy of "The Count of Monte Cristo" which I started to read over 11 years ago and have not yet completed reading it or "Paradise" by Toni Morrison which I have started to read at least three times now and have yet to get beyond about completing maybe half of that book! (When Oprah said, as she recommended that book for her Book Club that it was a difficult book to read, she sure just wasn't whistling Dixie there!)<br />
<br />
Wish me luck in trying to divide my time between my two favorite things equally now! (And here's hoping those I often give books to give me some hints about books they'd like to receive too!)Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-21932837554389693812014-12-07T02:04:00.001-05:002014-12-07T02:33:29.331-05:00More problems? Perhaps.As if having a computer and occasionally having it do strange things that you don't know how to counteract to correct isn't enough, in a fleeting moment of temporary insanity, I decided I needed to own a tablet!<br />
<br />
Why, I'm not really sure now what my logic was in getting one of these things but I took the leap.<br />
<br />
Okay, I was egged on via some pre-Black Friday sales online at Walmart. But, I think somewhere deep inside of me, I had some kind of real rationale that after several days of pondering the idea of the purchase, I broke down and made the more to purchase a Nexbook unit.<br />
<br />
It's a 4-quad -whatever that means -with 16 GB according to the ad for this fine unit, and a 7" screen, plus other accoutrements that I don't even know for sure what the heck some of them are for.<br />
<br />
This is definitely going to be one heck of a learning experience for me. That much, I have determined for sure in the two short days since I picked this little gem up at my local Walmart location.<br />
<br />
And the first thing I have figured out is that I definitely need 10 new fingers! Well, at least 10 much smaller fingertips would do the trick, I think. Shifting gears all the time between the type of keyboard I need to be using is a neat learning trick in and of itself, for sure.<br />
<br />
But let me clarify one main sticking point here as to my reasons for purchasing this thing.<br />
<br />
It was between getting myself a new camera or a tablet and I decided on the tablet because -well, it also has a camera. So now -once again -I will be able to take pictures and post them too (maybe, if they turn out okay) and I will also be able to do Facebook and communicate possibly better when I am away from the house from time to time and therefore, unable to be accessible via e-mail or Facebook.<br />
<br />
Hey -it seemed like a good, very viable bit of logic to me.<br />
<br />
I struggled for several hours the first night of playing with this toy, trying to get my Facebook presence on this thing before I finally conceded defeat of that cause. Tonight though, lo and behold, I fired it up and just like that -presto, magic, ya know -there was my Facebook live and online! About an hour later, I actually managed to find the keyboard and type a status update on Facebook that "Woo Hoo. I am actually using Facebook on my new tablet."<br />
<br />
And after that major success, I decided to stop playing with this puppy while I was still ahead in the game of learning how to use a tablet and I shut it down then.<br />
<br />
I had planned on doing some baking tonight but unfortunately, the urge to nap overtook me and I fell asleep then in my recliner for about 3 hours or so. Now -at 2:00 a.m. -I am wide awake and this will no doubt cause me to oversleep Sunday morning and not make it to things I should be attending to -like my spiritual life, ya know.<br />
<br />
Earlier this evening though, my younger daughter (that would be Mandy) called me and we had a very brief conversation before she had to hang up. During our fast chat though, Kurtis had something very important he wanted to share with me. And I absolutely have to share this with everyone here.<br />
<br />
Kurtis: "Hi Gram! Guess what? We went caroling and sang to a bunch of old ladies!"<br />
Me: struggling to talk to him because I was totally cracking up laughing - "That's great, Kurtis!"<br />
<br />
Kids! Gotta love their interpretation of events, don't 'cha?<br />
<br />
I'm wondering now what the age ranges may have been of these ladies they sang to that he classified them as being "old ladies?" Wonder too if, in his mind, I made the cut?<br />
<br />
And that pretty much sums up what's been going on here today -another rainy December day but at least today's rain was soft and didn't add to the ice cover that was on my car all day yesterday!<br />
<br />
Oh and I just remembered something Mandy told me in our brief chat this evening as I was complaining about my fat fingers not being able to utilize the keyboard very well on this tablet.<br />
<br />
"You need to get a Stylus, Mom!"<br />
<br />
Alright! Good to know there is a device that will help me to use this sweet little instrument perhaps a bit easier. Hopefully, it won't break the bank to get me one of those things cause that would then just add lots and lots more problems, wouldn't it?Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-63823344185076598322014-12-05T16:45:00.001-05:002014-12-05T16:45:06.642-05:00Happenings!I honestly don't know where the time goes that days pass by so quickly and I still am just as darned disorganized with my blog and postings here! I start out with all the best of intentions and somehow or other, things get overlooked or just plain forgotten about.<br />
<br />
And I don't know which to blame right now for the fact it has been well over a month since I last posted something here.<br />
<br />
I've had so many things -ideas -that have popped up in my mind and intended to write about them but then, somehow or other, I got waylaid, or busy with something else and well, it just totally slipped my mind then.<br />
<br />
I've been -of course -still dealing with the Avon and definitely not setting the financial world, much less my own personal status on fire with that business! Thankfully, this year, although I have had a few issues now and again with items not being available, it hasn't been near as bad as it was last year during the Christmas selling season. But the strange thing is last year -problems with orders and all -I still had way better sales than I have had this year. Oh well. Live and learn and deal with it!<br />
<br />
I've been trying to incorporate a little extra time for me to devote to my embroidery projects but even that hasn't been what it used to be. I did finally finish a tabletopper this past week but, although I had done this particular tabletopper a couple of years back and managed to get it done within 2-3 weeks, my stitching must have slowed down drastically this year because this time it took me over 2 months to finish that thing! I have since started a new topper project -a Christmas piece -and so far, it seems to be moving fairly fast -which is to say there is a remote possibility I can finish it before the holiday!<br />
<br />
Last week though -Thanksgiving Week -I had the company of my two younger grandchildren (Maya and Kurtis) here all week. They had the pleasure of accompanying me to deliver several of my Avon orders and provided a good bit of entertainment in the process for me.<br />
<br />
The weather here has been so up and down -one day it's like springtime, another day, like a rainy summer day and then, boom, out of no where it seems, Mother Nature decides to attack with a bit of revenge to remind us that it is very near to wintertime here!<br />
<br />
Most of the nasty weather has involved my most hated type of weather conditions, that being freezing rain. Gosh I do hate that stuff with an absolute passion because it makes driving as near to impossible and is possible! Had a good bit of that substance here this morning and as yet today, I haven't been out of the house, but I know my car is going to need a lot of muscle to clear all the layer of ice on my windshield, for openers, before I will be able to go anyplace now!<br />
<br />
Now, I know several people who say they love rainy days and don't even mind the days when the rain freezes upon contact with the ground, or changes over in mid-stream to sleet. (I think those people are insane, but that's my opinion.) They tell me that, to their minds, it is like a form of music to their ears when they hear it hitting their roof or the windows in their homes.<br />
<br />
I do love music, for sure, but that kind of music doesn't make me think of <a href="http://www.musiciansfriend.com/powered-pa-speakers">PA's</a> music at all. Nope, no way! To my ears, that kind of music from Mother Nature sounds like a big old orchestra trying to tune up and not giving any harmonizing tones to it at all yet!<br />
<br />
And now, because Sammy - my little old mutt here -is doing his kind of music of whimpering and whining and telling me by that to get my boots, coat, scarf and gloves on and please take him out for a walk very soon or I will be making some bad music of my own here, with a bit of cursing involved, as I will have a mess on my hands then to clean up after him!<br />
<br />
So, off I go -into the wild, dusk, sort of gray, gradually turning black, yonder so he can find some areas along the road and our little walk to stay on my good side for the rest of today.<br />
<br />
That much, I can control for now, today!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-4524239935988711202014-10-28T04:46:00.000-04:002014-10-28T04:46:15.211-04:00On the Agenda - Baking (and then, some more baking!)It's that time again when I go on a bit of a baking binge. No, not baking ahead for Christmas; not even for Thanksgiving for that matter. But I will be doing a good bit of baking off and on this week now -as often as I have time and the energy that is -in preparation of the Annual Bazaar that the women of our church here will be running on Saturday, November 1st!<br />
<br />
And let me tell you this, I just hope any bread baking I do this week now turns out as good as the Whole Wheat bread I baked this past Saturday but minus all the hassles that were involved in that production!<br />
<br />
First off, Friday night, I drove down to Milesburg to pick up my older daughter there and bring her up home here to spend the weekend with me and my next door neighbor -one of her closest friends. She has a walking cast on her leg now but still is not allowed to put ANY weight at all on that leg. (She broke two bones in her left ankle about 6 weeks ago and will be off work, laid up, in essence, for at least 6-8 more weeks with this problem.<br />
<br />
She wanted to come up here this weekend because I had said I planned to bake some bread and she wanted to watch me do that so she can get a little more idea of how to go about baking bread.<br />
<br />
Normally, it takes me about 4-5 hours from start to finish to make a batch of bread but this time I sure set some records I think in having it take more like 10-12 hours from start to finish!<br />
<br />
First off, I had my ingredients all measured out and the first four items in the big bowl I use, just waiting for me to measure out the hot water and pour it in to mix with the butter, molasses, karo syrup and honey and get the butter mixed in and semi-dissolved. But before I do that, I have to measure out 1/2 cup of hot water (between 110-125 degrees temperature), add a pinch of sugar and a pinch of flour to that and mix it up and then, empty in 2 packages of dry yeast and proof my yeast. The water and yeast combination should start to kind of produce tiny bubbles at first and then, rather quickly, those bubble should grow and make the yeast mixture develop a foamy head (like pouring a beer, you could say and you get a head on the beer) and it should then measure to a full cup of the yeast liquid. Well, in this process on Saturday, the yeast was either no good or just very lazy because it seemed to take forever before it started to form that head and it didn't come clear up to the 1 full cup measure either. More like a little more than 3/4 cup is all the higher it got.<br />
<br />
But, I decided to go with what I had and use that. However, before I had a chance to add it to my batter, the foamy head just sort of went "poof" and disappeared taking my yeast mixture then down to the 1/2 cup measure I started with.<br />
<br />
Now that really set me on edge because I've never seen yeast proofing where it sort of evaporated on me before. So I called my neighbor who has been baking bread way longer than I have and asked her if she'd ever seen that happen. Well, she said no because she said she never proofs her yeast.<br />
<br />
Hmmmm. That surprised me because as I mentioned then to her, it was her younger sister (who is my age) who told me it was always a good idea to proof the yeast. This then surprised my friend because she said "Oh, I didn't know she proofs her yeast!" Well, I was convinced that was who had told me to do that so I held my ground, insisting it was her sister who said that to me.<br />
<br />
So anyway, she didn't know if that yeast would work or not and I went back to the business at hand of adding all my flour then to my dough mixture and even getting my mixing bowl all ready to wrap in waxed paper on top with about 7 or 8 tea towels covering the bowl and even wrapping a heavy lap blanket around the bowl too and then, placing it just above my radiator to let the dough rise. (Well, hopefully, it would rise.)<br />
<br />
So, there I was worrying about whether this dough would rise so I could bake it and my daughter suggested I go online and look for websites about working with yeast and troubleshooting then. WOW! Turned out to be a good suggestion because I found a website that told me just about anything I'd ever need to know about working with bread dough and yeast!<br />
<br />
First off, I learned that if you proof your yeast and the liquid does not double -or as was my case, turn into a liquid product measuring 1 cup -then the yeast is no good and the advice was to pitch that and start the proofing all over with a fresh pack (2 packs in my case) of yeast. SO I did that and this time, that yeast kicked into high gear right from the beginning and in no time, it was up to the 1 cup measure.<br />
<br />
The advice also said that you could add this yeast to the dough, even if you were through with mixing in the dry ingredients so I did that too then. After which, I was to add a little more flour and make sure that all got well worked into the dough. And, I did that then but boy, what a job that was to work the yeast and a little extra flour into the dough that was already well mixed! It took me a good 20 minutes of kneading to finally get the dough to the right consistency to let it try to rise then.<br />
<br />
And rise, it did! But whether that was due completely to the addition of more yeast and fresh active stuff to boot, or maybe it could have been due to the fact my daughter and her friend, my neighbor, and I then sat down to eat supper while my dough was sitting on the warm radiator doing its thing while I got my mind away from the bread dough and forgot it was rising away till almost 2 1/2 hours had passed!<br />
<br />
It did rise up quite nicely so I panned it out and even got enough dough from this to form six fairly even sized loaves to bake! I set the pans with the measured and rolled out dough loaves on my counter, layered on waxed paper and the tea towels as well as the blanket to cover the pans then so the bread could do the second rise.<br />
<br />
And while it was doing that, my daughter and I moved into the living room to catch the Penn State/Ohio State football game just past the start of the third quarter. If you saw that game or read anything about it, when we tuned in Penn State was down by 10 points with the score being 17 to 10. But we got really engrossed in the game because Penn State came back after half-time loaded for bear! And they played a great game then that got tied up with about 1 minute to go to the end of the game and that of course, sent them into overtime play. Penn State scored a touchdown and then Ohio scored a touchdown so again, it was tied up and it went into double overtime then! Sadly, Ohio managed to score another touchdown ending the game then with the score being 31-24!<br />
<br />
And the whole time we were watching this, my bread loaves were merrily rising away just waiting for me to toss them into the oven and get them baked! My getting my head all wrapped around the football game meant the bread was well overdue then to be baked!<br />
<br />
Into the oven it went around midnight and finally, by 2 a.m. Sunday morning, I got the last two loaves baked and out of the oven to cool.<br />
<br />
And I have to say, the bread looked terrific!<br />
<br />
I looked for a loaf that was maybe a little smaller than the rest and cut a couple slices of it, slathered some good REAL butter on that warm bread and boy, did that ever taste good.<br />
<br />
Perfection. Yes, indeed, it was! Nothing beats freshly baked bread sliced with REAL butter on it, watching that butter melt and then, popping it in your mouth.<br />
<br />
Simply heaven in my book.<br />
<br />
So I ended up by Sunday afternoon -after having cut into two loaves of bread by then with breakfast as well as dinner that I still had 4 really nice specimens of Whole Wheat bread to wrap and put in the freezer and to take to the Bazaar on Saturday.<br />
<br />
No, I'm not done yet -as I still have to mix up some Swedish rye bread and pray that I get the same result with that as I did with the Whole Wheat stuff so I will have then, hopefully at least 8 loaves of bread to donate to the Bazaar!<br />
<br />
And somewhere in between the bread baking, I have cookies I have to bake too to give to the Bazaar. I'm planning on making Maple and Bacon cookies iced with maple and bacon flavored icing along with Creamsicle cookies too, with orange flavored icing for them too. (Yes, these are what I call "cheater cookies" though as they are both new items I picked up at Walmart to try out and hopefully surprise people who come out for our bazaar by taking them out to the church too. (If you like soft cookies with a little bit of icing on top, try either of these two kinds out -very easy and believe it or not, maple and bacon cookies really do taste sublime!<br />
<br />
Live dangerously in the kitchen and give them a try!<br />
<br />
Now, off to bed to get some rest so I have enough energy and time to get this baking done!Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-11947328345059453302014-10-18T03:21:00.000-04:002014-10-18T03:40:39.493-04:00A Little Music, Maybe?My little Diva, Miss Maya, started taking lessons last year -learning to play the clarinet!<br />
<br />
She had an older clarinet loaned to her from Jeff's Dad. (Jeff being Mandy's boyfriend, ya know.) And, last year, when she and Kurt would come up for a weekend, she would bring that instrument along and was supposed to practice on it here, just like she was supposed to do at home.<br />
<br />
A couple of times, she did get it out and try to practice a little bit, but it wasn't all that much effort put into the practice time on those occasions.<br />
<br />
This year, at school, she is again taking more clarinet lessons but this time, her Mom, I gather, decided she needed to purchase her own clarinet and so, with the aid of some type of easy payment plan, that's what's happening now with the clarinet and lessons are continuing as a result of that.<br />
<br />
I just hope, what with the price of purchasing a new instrument, that Mandy is able to get her to practice on this daily and for a reasonable period of time too. I know, all too well, how easy it is to get frustrated with learning to play an instrument and if practice sessions become cumbersome or always too boring, the desire to learn this art can soon evaporate.<br />
<br />
Go <a href="http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/yamaha-dbr10-powered-speaker">visit Musicians Friend</a> for added information on anything and everything music related from instrument to music instruction. The powered speakers though -maybe that can wait awhile!<br /><br />
Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-47821637956414543012014-10-17T03:16:00.000-04:002014-10-17T03:16:38.922-04:00A Little Relaxation Now!I am, as I have mentioned frequently here, a bonafide night owl! For me to go to bed before 2 a.m. is an occasional thing but hitting the sack earlier than that generally means I'm worn out tired and probably sick.<br />
<br />
But, if I've stayed up most of the night till 4 or 5 a.m., now that is more my normal bedtimes!<br />
<br />
I attribute much of my night owl traits to the fact that from as far back as I can remember, as a very young child, I never had a reasonable bedtime -nothing that was the same night after night -and most certainly nothing like the pretty strict bedtimes that Mandy insists Maya and Kurtis keep, at least between September and June anyway.<br />
<br />
School months schedule there you know and for them, it's 9 p.m. for Kurtis and 9:30 for Maya. Weekends, they get to stay up a little later than that, but especially with Kurtis, he generally is ready to fold up and crash before 10:30 at night on a weekend. Maya, being a little older, can often stay awake as late as midnight on a Friday night but beyond that, and she's done too!<br />
<br />
But I tend to do what I consider to be my best "work" -be that reading a book, working on an embroidery project, occasionally knitting or crocheting and for the last couple of years now on really rare occasions, even using my sewing machine.<br />
<br />
My mind and generally, my fingers too, just seem to follow my brain's commands better after midnight!<br />
<br />
But the late-night tv programming also fits my fancy better too, overall -what with reruns frequently of the old Law and Order shows on one network and on another, reruns of Frasier and/or Cheers!<br />
<br />
I really wish though that TVLand would rebroadcast reruns some day again of SOAP as I loved that that show and never got a chance to see much of it when it was actually on the air because at that time I didn't have a recorder and almost always worked the late afternoon to midnight shifts so I couldn't view those favorite programs very often then!<br />
<br />
I'd also love to be able to watch some other old hit shows too if only some of these networks would carry ones like WKRP in Cincinnati or Taxi or Hill Street Blues too! I wouldn't even mind rewatching All In The Family and Mash over and over again as well because those programs, in my mind, were pure classics for sitcoms!<br />
<br />
The kind of shows that really relax me ya know!Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-42251852446346544612014-10-17T03:01:00.000-04:002014-10-17T03:01:01.397-04:00My Dancing Diva!Don't remember now if I ever discussed one of Miss Maya's favorite activities when she is here, visiting with me but if I did and you find this redundant, my apologies but remember, you're dealing with someone who has a major tendency -due to my now well-advanced age -to be more than a bit senile.<br />
<br />
Oh shucks. Who am I kidding there! It hasn't got anything to do with my age now because I've been more than a tad on the senile side for several years now. At least one decade worth and possibly even close to two decades that the memory fails me a lot!<br />
<br />
But anyway, I just wanted to tell you about this activity of hers in hopes that I'm not repeating myself.<br />
<br />
When she is here, she commandeers my computer and will sit here for hours on end, watching videos of young girls dancing to various types of music. No special format of music, just any music video that features any kind of dancing and she will watch them. She watches them over and over and over again, memorizing what she sees there of the moves these other dancers make and when she thinks she's got a pretty good bead on those moves, she then cranks the video up full blast and starts trying to imitate these dances and the dancers!<br />
<br />
The moves this kid can make absolutely amaze me though. Not that she is on top of every step she's seen and fantastic about imitating the other dancers and such, but for a kid her age who is teaching herself this stuff for the most part, she actually does a pretty darned good job.<br />
<br />
Since her Mom moved them with her last year down to Middletown though, Mandy did sign Maya up for some dance lessons but as near as I can understand it, the dance lessons she's been getting are geared more towards a gymnastic type of dance with maybe some shades of ballet here and there.<br />
<br />
Nothing along the lines of fancy grown up dances like the Mambo or Rhumba or stuff like that. No waltzes either so definitely nothing like lessons given such as <a href="http://www.dancedoctor.com/weddings/">dance lessons in LA</a> offers for a special wedding dance or things of that ilk. Besides, the kid is only going to be 11 this weekend, so one would hope she doesn't need to learn any dances like that just yet anyway! <br />
<br />
Never the less, I am totally fascinated by her ability in this realm! I have no clue either where that ability came from -most certainly not from me as I am better known for having two very, very left feet! That plus, I generally have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time so that gives you some idea that this is nothing genetic coming through from my side of her family tree. And I know for a fact too that it sure as heck didn't come down from her grandfather either cause he was about as graceful as I tend to be.<br />
<br />
Which is to say Not. At. All!<br />
<br />
Makes you wonder though doesn't it when you see someone in your family able to do stuff like this and pick it up as easily as she has been able to do!Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-30734186042452727512014-10-17T02:40:00.001-04:002014-10-17T02:40:35.807-04:00Camera problemsI have a bit of a problem here now with respect to this new computer and my camera.<br />
<br />
The camera I have is just a small Kodak digital with a few little features, including video but nothing fancy. But it suits my needs because I'm not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination and just wanted a camera that generally takes relatively decent snap shots by which to remember this or that event in my life or of the kids when they are here for a visit or now, with the kitten in the house, an occasional shot of her and her unplayful roommates, Sam and Pearl, who live here too!<br />
<br />
This camera in particular though has been unlike the previous little digital unit I had in that it has never been good at holding a charge whereas the other camera I had, I could connect it to the computer, charge it up and it would hold that charge in the batteries for several weeks at a clip. This one -not so much in that I was lucky if I had a charge after a day or two.<br />
<br />
But that aspect isn't where my problem now lies with the new computer!<br />
<br />
It's that I can't figure out how to charge the camera like I used to be able to do by simply plugging it into a usb port here. Frustrating for me because now my camera is virtually dead to me since I can't get it to charge the way I used to do even if it did only hold that charge for a day or two, at least I could time it enough so as to be able to catch a shot here and there.<br />
<br />
So if any one reading this knows anything at all about cameras -Kodak model 340 in particular -and charging one via the computer, please let me know what I'm doing wrong and how to correct this so I can once again use my little camera!<br />
<br />Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-66518318248525291942014-10-17T02:26:00.000-04:002014-10-17T02:31:18.221-04:00Bloody Mess!About two weeks ago here, one day I was all ready to go out on one of my delivery rounds with some Avon orders but I got side-tracked for a few minutes by a post on my Facebook and I sat down then to read it and probably to comment or at least to indicate that I had "liked" said post.<br />
<br />
When I sat down, with my feet pulled under my computer chair, Fica -my little black kitten -decided she wanted to play with my ankles and in doing so, she wrapped her tiny paws around my ankle, with her face centered just under my shin bone (where it connects to the ankle) and then, started to nip at my ankle and dig her very sharp little claws into my skin. Then, quickly tiring apparently of that action, she decided she was going to snag a claw into my clam digger pants I was wearing and proceed from there then to climb up my leg. Well in the process of doing that, she ended up digging those little claws in just a bit too deeply for my liking and I reached down to grab her and pull her away from that game of hers.<br />
<br />
I finished what I had set out to do with my Facebook and stood up to get ready to get my purse and other things and in doing that, I glanced down at the floor and to my surprise, actually shock would be a more accurate term, I saw there was blood streaming down my leg and little pools of blood all over the floor all from Fica's game of playing with my ankle and trying to climb up my leg!<br />
<br />
I ended up in the bathroom, scrounging for some bandaids to cover the deepest of the scratches and that's when I realized that she had dug into a little cluster of veins right directly above my ankle and it was almost like she had hit the mother lode there with the amount of blood loss evident.<br />
<br />
Heck, I even had to take that sandal off and scrub it down on the inside because it was just plain soaked in red!<br />
<br />
All the cleanup on the floor, of my sandal and of trying to get the bleeding to cease and desist had me thinking I really wished I had a styptic pencil -like the kind you can get from <a href="http://www.smallflower.com/brand/pinaud">pinaud at smallflower.com</a>, ya know! But, since there's been no males living in this house who might have things like that stashed away in the medicine chest or other hiding places in the bathroom, I was left to my own devices which meant using bandaids that have cute little cartoon type characters on them because most of the time bandaids are needed here it's to soothe the ruffled feathers of one of the grandkids booboos!<br />
<br />
I really did look the sight though after I finished doctoring my leg up and finally got the bleeding to subside!<br />
<br />
Such a fashion statement, for sure!<br />
<br />Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-69318577315515439132014-10-17T02:10:00.001-04:002014-10-17T02:10:53.335-04:00Silly Beasts!Are you an animal lover? I consider myself to be one, especially since I have three furry "children" here who reside with me.<br />
<br />
There's Sammy -the purebred mutt with roots that are more than a bit eclectic. Best description I can think of for him is to say he does look sort of (well, actually very much so) like a minature Benji dog. He's been with me now for five years and he was a little over a year old when we got him. He's basically a very sweet, very mellow little fellow except when a certain neighbor of mine who lives about five houses up the street from me decides to walk his dog and Sam truly hates that dog. As a matter of fact, that is the only dog I have ever seen him react to in a negative way and boy, does he ever. I swear that as soon as that neighbor and his dog leave their house to go for a walk, Sam senses that because he will start by growling a bit and then, the growl gradually changes over to a few barks but by the time this duo gets within view of my living room window, Sam is up in the window sill, barking like a lunatic and his voice changes too in that his bark becomes very ferocious sounding.<br />
<br />
I also have two cats now too. Well, actually I have Pearl, who is a little over three years old now, white with orange markings, very, very fluffy and also, a tub of lard to try to pick up now too! She's quite the lazy cat preferring to spend her days reclining -either in the front entry way, where she reposes in the sunlight and pretends to watch people and occasionally animals that go by the house. Or, she also has an affection for resting in the windowsill of the Bay window in the living room too and does pretty much the same thing there as she does out in the front door entryway.<br />
<br />
Then there is the other cat that I just acquired about two months ago now. She's actually still a kitten -only about 14 to 16 weeks old now. She's the exact opposite of Pearl in that Fica (yes, that is her name) is solid black, very slight build, shorthaired and anything but the epitome of laziness! She wants very much to play with either Pearl or Sam but neither of them appear interested in the slightest to honoring her spells of trying to badger them into some kind of kitten and cat or kitten and dog games.<br />
<br />
It's that aspect between the two felines that I find really humorous though.<br />
<br />
If you have a cat or several, you know cats are always searching for some off-the-wall place to get into and lay claim to and one of their favorite things would be boxes. No special kind of boxes are required, and they don't even have to be empty although they do like empty ones quite a bit.<br />
<br />
And my house is often a gold mine with empty boxes since I sell Avon products and every two weeks, I always seem to end up then with at least one "new" empty box here. At the rate I've been acquiring these boxes, I'm soon going to be over run with them, I think.<br />
<br />
But anyway, that was just a little digression there about how many boxes exist here.<br />
<br />
Right now, there are two empty boxes at the entrance to my dining room and they are sitting under a card table, back-to-back. Pearl and Fica have each laid claim to one of these boxes for their special sleeping space at this time and what I find comical is to watch them as they each hop into their respective choice of box and then, move around in it for a little bit to apparently get a feel for the place and it is when they are each doing that moving around, that Fica often gets a little rambunctious, bumping around more than Pearl approves of, and before you know it, Pearl is standing up in her box, leaning on the edge of the top, with her big fat furry paw swatting down at Fica and with each pass of that paw, she lets out a hiss to give a little more warning to Fica. This then gets Fica moving around more in her box so that her movements bump her box into Pearl's which then causes Pearl to launch out another attack.<br />
<br />
But that's as far as their feud goes there. They never really get into any knock down, drag it out kind of cat fights. Just petty nonsense as far as I can see going on there.<br />
<br />
If they get a little too noisy or push their boxes too much, Sam might get up from where ever he's bee sleeping and meander over to watch the two silly cats for a few seconds and then, it's like his expression is one in which he's thinking "Kids! What the heck you gonna do with 'em."<br />
<br />
I was really surprised when I saw how Sam and Pearl do tend to deal with little Fica and have done ever since I brought her home. When Pearl was a kitten, she and Sam made up immediately as friends and playmates and they would rip and tear around the house, chasing each other around, rolling on the floor together, running through the living room as fast as they could go, up onto the couch, along the back of the couch and then, chasing each other over to the next piece of furniture along their race track.<br />
<br />
But from the very first sighting by either Sam or Pearl of this kitten, neither of them has befriended her in any way shape or form. No playing games with her with the minor exception being that with the boxes.<br />
<br />
Wonder why this is, especially since Sam is very cat friendly and Pearl used to play a lot with Mandy's cat that lived here until they moved down to Middletown last year.<br />
<br />
If I didn't know better,(and well truthfully, I don't because I am neither a dog or a cat whisperer, ya know) I'd say Sam and Pearl are discriminating against the little one, poor little Fica, and just plain ignoring her!Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-71867121960198530342014-10-16T02:49:00.002-04:002014-10-16T02:58:29.513-04:00Just What I Really Need!!!By the looks of things, I'm becoming somewhat of an eclectic surfer on the web here as I roam around, (surfing, ya know) and find various things of interest inadvertently in the process.<br />
<br />
Don't ask me how I find these off the wall things because I get lost from time to time and have no clue what it was that took me hither, thither and yon sometimes on the 'net but it is fun and makes life a little interesting then, now and again.<br />
<br />
My latest find though has me wondering why no one around these hills has come up with an idea like this though!<br />
<br />
This is a multi-tasking thing that sounds like it should change from being <a href="http://www.theotherwoman.net/">the other woman in Raleigh </a>to perhaps, the other woman in Cooper Township instead. <br />
<br />
No,it's not something I personally would feel up to starting myself -not at this stage in my life at any rate -but I sure would love to have someone who would keep my house neat and tidy and also, who would keep me on top of things like paying my bills before they become overdue or reminding me of doctor appointments and other things along those lines that I do have a terrible time remembering.<br />
<br />
Heck, I would forget my head some times if it weren't fastened on so you know someone to help keep me at least semi-organized would be a great thing to have.<br />
<br />
Now, if I could just figure out a way to afford it, everything would be just hunky-dory, wouldn't it?Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-34784615222848678982014-10-16T02:48:00.001-04:002014-10-16T02:48:39.089-04:00Cooking for One!Over the past year (plus about three extra months) for the most part, my cooking has changed considerably.<br />
<br />
When Mandy moved with her two children down to Middletown, PA a year ago this past July, I had to change my methodology in my kitchen and try to downsize the amounts I was previously accustomed to cooking. Those larger casserole meals I generally liked to fix were now off limits unless, of course, I wanted to eat lasagne or spaghetti or roast beef leftovers forever!<br />
<br />
Last summer, I still had opportunities to fix somewhat larger meals fairly often though because the grandkids spent several weeks here with me before they had to leave to start school last fall. So that's when my quest to figure out things to fix just for one person with maybe enough leftovers for one more meal every now and again. (I'm not normally one who enjoys leftovers of everything I've fixed for a meal -just certain things that I don't mind reheating and eating.)<br />
<br />
But then, last October, my step-granddaughter and her darling little girl moved in here with me and I was once again back in business of fixing slightly larger meals once again. And I didn't worry about leftovers then because frequently, Katie would heat up leftovers for her lunch and as the baby began to eat more and more table food, she also would serve it to her too, so leftovers weren't something that was clogging my refrigerator very often then.<br />
<br />
But after Katie moved out back the beginning of March, I was back to the drawing board again with my meal preparations and not only do I not like cooking in very, very small portions, I also do not like eating a full meal all alone either!<br />
<br />
So, my menu then often switched to sandwiches - usually cold sandwiches that I just threw together or salads. Not that there's anything wrong with that but it's boring. But then too, cooking just for one person is also very boring too, in my book. There's no anticipation to see if the meal meet someone else's expectations which gives me no incentive then to experiment with new dishes the way I often had done in the past.<br />
<br />
But this week, I had a hankering for something I had tasted about 2 weeks ago when the local Moose had a small semblance of a cooking contest for soups and I had made a big crockpot full of Stuffed Pepper Soup as my entry in the contest and each person entering the contest got to judge the other cooks' works too.<br />
<br />
Well, there were two specific entries that I especially liked. One was a rice with a tomato base that I found very tasty and the other was some kind of a beef soup with something that was sort of like rice to me but yet, not quite that. Now that beef based soup really tripped my taste buds as it was very, very good! (I was tempted to try to smuggle that whole crockpot full of it out and take it home with me.)<br />
<br />
But instead, I thought I knew who had made that soup and so, two days ago, I called that lady - my neighbor, June, who lives a couple houses down the street from me. And yes, I was right -that had been her soup and what it was -well it was Beef Barley Soup and sure, she would be happy to tell me how she fixes it. So she told me the ingredients and so forth and today, I cooked a pot full of it for my supper!<br />
<br />
It wasn't quite up to the par level of great flavor that hers had had but it was decent enough that I chowed down two large bowls of it for my supper anyway! And I have leftovers of it in the fridge now that will do me for another meal too now. With possibly enough leftover though that I might just take what I have in the fridge and make a trip down past Howard to where my older daughter lives and surprise her for lunch of my version of June's Beef Barley Soup!<br />
<br />
I'm thinking perhaps daughter Carrie would be very happy to have something really homemade for lunch either tomorrow or perhaps Friday afternoon and I would very much enjoy being able to spend a little quality time visiting with her and seeing to it that she would have a good and nourishing meal since she's still pretty incapacitated with her leg and having two bones in her ankle broken!<br />
<br />
Don't tell her I'm thinking of doing this as I think it would work much better if I can just take it down and surprise her!<br />
<br />Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-44425249975665326182014-10-16T02:25:00.001-04:002014-10-16T02:25:40.797-04:00 A New Law?Ever notice how you can see something and wonder what the heck it is that whoever is writing is actually writing about? Something that just sort of grabs your curiosity and won't let go until you check into it and see what it is they are actually writing about?<br />
<br />
I did that last night when I saw something that mentioned something referred to as <a href="http://www.eghlaw.com/">EGH Law</a> and I had to find out what the heck kind of law this really was!<br />
<br />
Well, imagine my surprise when I realized it was not a new law of any kind at all but rather just the initials of the partners in this doggone law firm!<br />
<br />
Well, okay -that does make sense, of course. But it just is one of those things that caught my eye and gave way to my wondering if this was perhaps some new specific area of legal concern, ya see!<br />
<br />
But anyway -I put this under the header of "learning something new every day" now!Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34398479.post-51374315064839128612014-10-16T02:18:00.001-04:002014-10-16T02:18:58.128-04:00Emergency Equipped!So, you're probably really getting tired now of my writing about my commode problems I've had here of late, aren't you?<br />
<br />
Well, today I decided I was going to arm myself for battle in the event that the darned commode decides to act up on me again!<br />
<br />
I had an appointment this afternoon in Clearfield at the Cancer Clinic for my monthly "port flush" -which, if you have lousy veins that nurses have to access for IVs or blood work, and have ever had chemo, chances are you have one of these "ports" and know what I'm talking about there then. It's simply a little mechanism inserted just under the skin that gives access to your blood vessels when you have to have a lot of blood tests, IVs or chemo and they don't have to keep poking and poking you to find a good vein then to access. But anyway, if you have one of these, then you know they have to be flushed out with a solution, generally about once a month, to keep them open and available that way.<br />
<br />
After I had that taken care of, I headed straight up to Walmart and back to the bathroom plumbing supplies area where I got myself another plunger -one with the rubber end like the one that used to exist on the old plunger I had but which had rotted away from age and the other plunger I got to replace it, had a different type of end piece on it which didn't fit right in the bowl of the commode so it wasn't getting a good attachment and thus,no suction.<br />
<br />
And along with that new plunger, I also invested in an auger thing -or "Snake" as they are commonly referred to -to use in the event of another blockage that a plunger can't work to release!<br />
<br />
Be Prepared! Yes!I am now that person!<br />
<br />
And this news will no doubt come as a relief to my neighbor across the street who frequently gets a call from me for his assistance (and who answered my call last night and got my commode unplugged). And, also -my friend up the road aways -Richard -and his dear wife, Andrea -will both be relieved to know they can go to their kids places this winter and stay in the warmer climes there assured that I now have at least that base covered within my house!<br />
<br />
I was quite relieved too when I realized those two items together cost me less than $10 bucks too! A real bargain price, in my book, for something to keep my bathroom from flooding!<br />
<br />Jenihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16425701332785470116noreply@blogger.com0