Me, Myself and Memories

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  Noreen 2:19 pm on October 13, 2026 Permalink  

  Get Up! 

  I had no idea what time it was on this Tuesday, the 13th.  I had heard the garage truck empty our bin.  I had heard Dennis go out to the patio porch.  I believe I then drifted off again.

  I heard my phone and that got me up . . . in a hurry.  I caught the phone ring before it died.  What ensued was a 45 minute call.  I can’t really call it a conversation as the caller barely takes a breath.  During that time, I managed a bathroom visit, drank my tall glass of daily morning water and poured a cup of coffee to take back into my bedroom porch all with the phone being in my right hand.

  Dennis tells me he is proud of me for letting Karen vent until she is done.

  Not even the parade of grain 18 wheelers that had made been going about the time the garage man had been here early, early to make enough noise to roust me before the phone rang.  No doubt, the combines will work late into the night before the dew gets heavy and then they are ready to get to the elevator first thing in the morning.

  Every fall of many, a farmer from south of town comes by our place with his Allis Chalmer’s tractor pulling two flair boxes of his grain, heading to the elevator just like the big boys and their 18 wheelers.  After his first load, it is his wife that brings in the grain.  It makes me feel proud that there remains farmers living conservitibly.

  I have had one small Monarch flitting about my south bedroom porch windows this afternoon.  It’s a site that never gets old.

  It’s not often that Dennis gets a bill in the mail, totally in his name.  Those window envelopes usually have Dennis and Noreen, or Noreen and Dennis.  It was the bill for the September 6th ambulance call when the EMTs visited to help Dennis get up off the floor.  $250.00 payable.  It may well be that they do not do those bills monthly.  If Dennis’ vitals check out and he has not hurt himself when he fell, we get a bill for services rendered.  If Dennis needs to go with the EMTs in the ambulance, our insurance covers it.  That’s just how that service is handled.  

  As of today, my left arm feels like it and the muscles and tendons are recovering nicely.  I could sleep for a time on my right side during the night, and the shoulder, with no support under it, handled it.  Today, thus far, I used the left arm only once to the degree that it made me squeal.  Grammie is on the mend.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:18 pm on October 12, 2026 Permalink  

  Time Spent 

  Time spent in the studio today.  Sifting and sort always a good past-time.

  Many decades ago, I, was one that would pursue sale bins in craft stores.  One in particular in Sioux Falls when Dennis was attending a gun show at the civic arena for the weekend.

  This morning I pulled out the wares of that weekend.  It will be my next quest to use those wares as well as scrap fabrics.  At a time when Lena was in the apartment house in Hutchinson after she had retired from the farm, I would make cards as well as send letters within those cards.  She loved getting mail.  I am going to make a few of those foundation pieced fabric cards again.  What a great way to pass some sewing machine time using one color thread and one color bobbin thread.  That would give the embroidery module a great deserved break.

  Dennis’ son-in-law felt he owed me for what I had paid him for washing off the house last week.  Today Tom used the tiller attachment to edge the concrete drive.  I must say it looks sharp.  The yard is close to being tidy tidy for the next season.

  Shawn Cable our KEYC weatherman is warning we may have our first frost this weekend.  Not a killing frost but the tender plants may be affected.  Dennis’ two huge houseplants were put inside the patio porch last weekend in preparation.

  Supper will be left-overs.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:22 pm on October 11, 2026 Permalink  

  By the Book 

  I usually cook by the lessons learned at Lena’s elbow.  If not that . . . then by the seat of my pants.  Today, I had found a recipe that I followed to the letter of the law and by the book.  It turned out great.  There is hope for the ole Grammie.

  Last week, I had set about the task of beginning fall house cleaning.  It had been a family tradition taught by Lena for decades.  My bedroom porch is a very important part of my life and where I spend a lot of my free time.  Reading, hand sewing and watching Floss tubes of those that like to hand sew and share their wares. 

  The eight windows of my bedroom porch were not done in the fall and winter of 2025 nor in the spring of 2026.  The dust of Stauffer Avenue could roll much like a dirt storm of a 40 acre field.  Looking through clean windows is something I feel I wanted badly enough to then put some elbow grease into them. 

  I had given up the gardening circuit after the stroke.  Keeping tidy, tidy in our home . . . very doable.  When the eight windows were tackled . . . how could I not do them within two days.  The left arm never does play well and it balked over helping with each one of those windows.  The windows were tipped in and when both sashes were done inside and out, each window was then given a shove upwards so the lock could be engaged.  So it was done.

  The left arm has retaliated and given some muscles running from the back of the arm, then up and down into the back, to buck into a “pay-back.”  Yes, there is always a re-action for every action.  It is taking a bit of time for me to not suck in my breath and let out a small squeal when I move in a contrary way.  What I wouldn’t give for some elbow grease to lubricate the muscles that feel they have been wronged.  It’s called “pull up your big girl panties and deal with it.”   A quiet week will help. 

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 1:52 pm on October 10, 2026 Permalink  

  Big Change 

  The 25 mph south wind has brought temps of 87 degrees.  Too much of a change for my liking.  Stauffer Avenue is very dusty and so . . . no house windows open.

  A bit of tidy, tidy never hurt this ole Grammie on a Saturday.

  Dennis’ eye injection of yesterday has taken a toll on him.  When it feels like gravel in one’s eye, the best thing is to try and keep the eyes shut.  The shutting of the eye has also brought on contiguous naps.

  The grain trucks were going by the house last night as late as eleven.  Low humidity keeps the lights on in the fields as long as there are no breakdowns.  It has gotten very easy for headers on the combines to be switched from soybeans to corn.  When the combines cost upwards of a quarter of a million dollars, you would think nothing less.

  As I am at my HP desk this afternoon, the bright sunlight allows for seeing the multitude of bugs in the air.  It makes me feel itchy just seeing it.

  I noticed our neighbor to the southwest got the spray can of red paint around the trunk of their elm tree that sits on the corner of their lot.  I would imagine it will come down when the schedule allows.   The largest tree on our acre is a very, very dead elm.  So far no red spray can has hit it.  Dennis didn’t think that the wood from those elms can be re-purposed.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:14 pm on October 9, 2026 Permalink  

  A Quick Trip 

  At nine this morning we were at the Mankato Eye Center for Dennis’ appointment and we were home before noon.  Nothing else had taken us out of St. James.

  The boxelders are letting up outside, but not so much the no-see-ums.  When they land on you you feel it.  I do have a bottle of spray and that does help.  Admittedly, I do not stay outdoors for very long.  The one bee string that I had caused me to check out what is around me.

  With that being said, I got a cup of breakfast coffee to enjoy when we got home.  I turned on the HP laptop in my bedroom porch to check a few things out.  Right in front of me was a bee flittering in between me and the laptop’s screen.  Granted, I was stung earlier on and I can still see the puncture mark on my left hand’s little finger.  The sting had left the better part of my hand red and swollen for several days.  I got my fly swatter and was ready to take him out the minute he landed.  I thought for sure he would be dancing around on a window pane trying to get out.  I lost track of him.

  Dennis came in and we went about checking through the mail.  When the VA sends out prescriptions we go through that package thoroughly.  I was then going back to the bedroom porch with more coffee.  There on the middle of my bed was the bee.  Just as yellow and black as could be a bee.  Prancing around like no one’s business.  Hmm.  The coverlet I have on my bed is a patchwork of various floral designs.  Was this bee dumb or what.  He stayed where he was, until the fly swatter was back in my hands and with my calculated swat I got him dazed, so I could finish him off.  With him on the swatter, I went straight to the kitchen sink and gave him a very wet, hot goodbye. 

  Yes, life’s experiences has me respecting a bee . . . right there on the top ten list.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 1:53 pm on October 8, 2026 Permalink  

  I Shouted Out 

  This afternoon, I saw a Mediacom Xtreme van to the home just south of us.  When I saw a fellow working on a box on the south side of the house, I went out on the deck and shouted out a “HELLO!”  When he looked up to see where the hello had come from, I waved him over.  I explained to him that in August we had changed internet providers but had no luck after repeatedly asking one of their reps to pick up the router.  He agreed to take it with him and he also said he would close the box on the side of our home that must have also been Mediacom’s.  I was thrilled to get it out of our home.

  The morning was spent in the kitchen getting several items prepared for meals yet to come.  One setup.  One prep.  One of having the oven on.  It was a good morning spent.

  Dennis had his eye appointment here in town.  He came home and relayed that he could have gotten new glasses, but had refused.  His eyesight is 20/25.  Dennis does no close reading and the script on Facebook has been enlarged for his ease.  It was a $600.00 purchase he would consider for the next six month appointment.

  Tom got the yards looking good.  As he mowed the dust rolled.

  Tomorrow we need to be at the Eye Center in Mankato by 9:30 for Dennis’ eye injection.  I have said it before and I will say it again, I am happy to by-pass the need for that treatment.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:09 pm on October 7, 2026 Permalink  

  Hoppity Hump Day 

  We were without service, internet, from yesterday noon until this noon.  I called the Fedium number and they went through what they could, finding no answers.  As the phone call was nearing to an end with no solution, I looked down.  After my marathon of window cleaning in my bedroom porch, it also took in a lot of moving of items to get near the window.  I had set the leg of my old Sears and Roebuck sewing table on the glass cable and crimped it good.  Really good.  Within an hour of letting the gal on the phone know what I had done, we were back in business.   There had been three extra feet of cable that had been on the floor, right about where my feet end up while sitting at my HP laptop.  The tech was kind enough to run it from the entrance to the home, up under the windows and tack it with small brackets.  Well done!

  Grammie . . . live and learn.

  My Wednesday luncheon guest brought about a good visit.  Marianne is going to PT, after she had fallen and had broken her arm, and is done about 12:30.  I had gone to the grocery store earlier, so it wasn’t a big deal to prepare a lunch.  Dennis doesn’t do “noon”, but he will enjoy all the fixens with his supper.

  The evening meals will be the ones that are easy for several days, as my window cleaning marathon will take some recovery time for the shoulders . . . actually one good shoulder.  Some don’t get it, but for me . . . clean windows . . . priceless.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:19 pm on October 6, 2026 Permalink  

  Freaky Tuesday 

  With Dennis’ help I decided to finish the remaining six windows of my bedroom porch.  

  The prep work takes quite a bit of time.  For the north windows to be tipped in, the bottom sash needs to have something for it to lay on, so the top sash can lay on it.  It is all doable, doing it slowly and safely.  It is a once-a-year task.  Surprisingly, the no-see-ums came through the screens.  Yuk.

  When Dennis wants to go in or out of the house, he taps his cane on multiple places of the screen door for the boxelder bugs to fly off to allow him to be on his way.  As I am doing this posting, the screens on the south windows of my bedroom porch are about 18″ from me.  It’s like a horror show with flocks of the boxelders glomming to find room.

  The area where the Country College was in, Karen, is now going to be the location for the physical therapy.  Everyone is wondering how that will serve those that need help as the area is not all that large.  The Opera House Ass’n owns the building and it is on the historic registry.  All that were gun-ho years ago to re-purpose the building, they are all in their 90s’.  Anything to bring in some rent money for up-keep.

  A light supper by way of Dennis.  I like that.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:24 pm on October 5, 2026 Permalink  

  At Last 

  Company coming from a distance is wonderful.  Having the normal quiet when all have gone home is . . . priceless.  The patio porch kitties agree wholeheartedly. When Dennis has all three walls of the slider windows of the porch wide open to air the porch out of cigarette fumes, you know it could have choked a horse.  

  This afternoon, I tackled two of the eight windows in my bedroom porch.  The house and window screens had been washed off last week, thus making it a bit easier.  Admittedly my bottle of Windex is 50% white vinegar being used with a nylon scrubby.  The two windows facing south is all I am doing today and the water marks are no more.  I won’t mind going to bed this evening with the aroma of the vinegar.  It smells . . . cleaning in progress.

  Before the bugs have the sun shinny on the west front door, I hope I get that done before supper.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 12:35 pm on October 4, 2026 Permalink  

  Sunday 

  Sunday the fourth of October and all is well.

  Dennis had a great birthday party yesterday afternoon at the VFW.  Dennis’ four kids did a great job of putting it on for him.  Dennis thought he was going to a benefit for his cousin Bruce, recovering from cancer surgery.  I had been talking that up for several weeks.  All of his nephews and nieces were there from Morris, MN; York, Nebraska and Windom and all that lived here and the.  

  Susie from Silver Bay was prepared to take Dennis home with her for a week or so.  Last night before we went to bed, Dennis got his bag out so he could pack this morning.  This morning as he was getting his breakfast bag and coffee ready for the patio porch, we stopped at the coffee pot and Dennis took my hand.  “I really want to stay home.  Can I stay home.”  How could I not!  I may have wanted a brief respite, but not badly enough to deny Dennis his home.  We do know how to do this together every day, every week. 

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥