Me, Myself and Memories

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  Noreen 3:46 pm on June 24, 2019 Permalink  

  Good Feelings 

  Waking this morning, it felt like it was going to be a great day.  How wrong can feelings be!  The sky isn’t the limit, it’s what I believe in.  We did have an inch and a half of rain last night and with the sun shining this morning . . . I had good feelings.

  After running a few errands, I settled into the kitchen to see what the refrigerator held for supper.  One of our best bets for a good purchase from the grocery story is a rotisserie chicken.  Bringing it home hot from the store with a container of slaw is all we need for a supper.  The best part is that there is so much chicken on these chubby gals that after it is boned out . . . there is a lot of good eating left.  I usually make a small bowl of cold chicken salad for sandwiches for the coming day.  The remainder of the cubed chicken goes into a hotdish.  Alfredo sauce is our favorite for the hotdish using the Pennie pasta.  Dicing up frozen vegetables or even using a can of mixed vegetables or chopped up green beans tops it off.  Dennis prefers a very moist hotdish.  That calls for me rinsing out the Alfredo jar with some cream.  Sometimes we put crushed cracker crumbs on top or just a layer of fresh ground pepper.  Within 45 to 50 minutes in a 325 degree oven we call it a great hot meal for supper.

  It’s not that I don’t like making meals.  I like to make a dish that will allow for left-overs.  In thinking about it, the rotisserie chicken usually runs about $8.98 in our grocery store.  Figuring one hot supper after it is brought home, a cold chicken salad sandwich with a cup of soup for the next night’s supper . . . and then having the hotdish on the third night . . . it is a very value-conscious purchase.  I don’t think Dr. Oz thinks kindly on Rotisserie chicken, but . . . we have been purchasing it off and on for quite some time and have no qualms about it.  It’s good protein.  I have even purchased the chicken and refrigerated it until the next day when I had time to work with the boned out chicken.  Convenience . . . you can’t beat it. 

  Yesterday we were at an event where someone had recently smashed their finger.  It looked sore and I am sure it throbbed as the time when on.  It reminded me of how often Dad had done the self same thing while working.  It kind of grossed me out, when after a day or so, he would be in his shop and could be found drilling a very small hole in the center of the nail of the injured finger.  He assured me that it took the pressure off of the injury and in time the nail would fall off on its own.  Oh how much we take our hands and fingers for granted as we work them every day.  They may be calloused from the work, but oh so tender when harmed.

  My good feelings have endured the entire day.  The breeze is blowing into the west porch windows and the chimes in the evergreen tree are bringing melodious music into our home.  It’s a good thing.

   
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  Noreen 4:26 pm on June 23, 2019 Permalink  

  Slow Start 

  A gray Sunday threatening rain shows had a slow start this morning.  On the spur of the moment we decided to take in the parade at the Fairfax summer celebration.

  Kevin had told Dennis last weekend, he and Kersten were working on a float for the Casey’s store that Kersten manages.  Why not go and take it in!  There was a group of Kersten’s employees getting ready to man the creative float when we arrived.  I thought taking cloth products from Walmart and making hoops for the front and back of the float was genius.  Kersten manned her Pokemon favorite on the float.  By the shouts of recognition by the kids on the parade route, it made the candy that was thrown out a two-fold winner.We had comfortable chairs in front of the kids’ building.  For a small town, the entries into the parade was numerous and wonderful.  Fun times to see merchants put out an entry as well as service people. 

  What started out as a slow Sunday ended up as a very memorable Sunday.

   
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  Noreen 3:15 pm on June 22, 2019 Permalink  

  Success 

  Though it was different for Dennis to not take part in the car show during Railroad Days, he deemed today a successful day.  The acre is mowed and trimmed and looking sharp.  Self satisfaction is hard to beat.  

  We got a late start mowing as the grass was heavy with dew.  Temps at 66 degrees and the humidity at 77 % . . . it was understandable.  Dennis rambled over to the shop to check on the paint he had applied yesterday to his Cub Lo-Boy, with the last being said we would mow after lunch. 

  His last words gave me the go ahead to strip the bed, load the laundry and get the Swiffers out to do the floors.  There are gliders under everything in our home . . . other than the refrigerator.  Today was the day to glide it out and get the dust bunnies underneath.  Hmm,  a crinkled up leaf of the Christmas Poinsettia was under the sofa.  No jelly beans were found.  Occasionally when I hear the jelly bean dish being opened there may be one or two that have escaped.  Dennis will hunt for a jelly bean only so long before it is left to cohabitate with the dust bunnies.  I had started at the west end of the house and just kept that east bathroom window as the target.  Oh so thankful that our home is small.  It can be whipped into shape in no time flat. 

  The day is ending here on Stauffer Avenue.  I did check to see if Dennis wanted to take the Railroad Days Parade in . . .  the nod of the head was a negative.  In times past when Megan and Nicholas would be here during this time, we didn’t miss a beat of all that was offered to enjoy.  I am thankful there are people that will put out their chairs along the parade route and wait it out.  No so for us anymore.  We are content having taken part in it at some time and now it is home sweet home enjoying the success of our labors for our home.

   
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  Noreen 3:52 pm on June 21, 2019 Permalink  

  Stauffer Avenue Persevered 

  With the storm that went through Stauffer Avenue around seven last night, Stauffer Avenue persevered.  We went into the basement when the sirens began blowing.  The winds were horrific but more than the winds was the concern about the hail.  When the hail hit the metal awning over our back door it made me jump.  It seemed to go on for a long time. 

  The hail lasted long after the sirens had stopped blowing.  The size of the hail was between dime and quarter size.  Dennis was brave and went up to check on the skylight in the kitchen.  When he came down he gave the thumbs up on the window.  All but the skylight has screens over the windows and I believe that helped a lot. 

  When all was said and done, no large branches came down.  I think the winter winds had pretty much cleaned out what was loose.  The tree tips look like confetti over the entire acre.  An inch of rain had soak in without any standing water in the backyard. 

  This morning I walked the acre, and yes, the hostas took a beating where there was little overhead shelter from the trees.  They will make it or not.  We felt blessed that we had no damage to take note of.

  This morning Dennis took a drive around in his little red pickup.  A storm can’t go through without a check to see it for one’s self.  I decided to do a load of laundry and start some chocolate chip cookies.  I do say start.  My modus operandi is to get all my ingredients out and measured out.  Cookie sheets have bakers paper on them, trays in the oven are adjusted.  While the butter is getting to room temperature, I played around with the laundry.  It’s a good job done when I haven’t burned the last tray while in the oven and the dishes are all washed.

  Dennis  gave me a pat on the back as he swooped by with several cookies in his fist.   It was a very satisfying day.  As Dennis was eating cookies on his way out the door, he made a comment about checking the lawnmowers over for tomorrow.  Hmm.  If the storm didn’t take it out of me, I am sure I will persevere the mowing for tomorrow.

   
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  Noreen 4:06 pm on June 20, 2019 Permalink  

  Maybe 

  Maybe it will put out some rain or maybe it won’t.  Not taking a chance, the newly seeded ground did get a soaking.

  Errands took me out and about.  The Lewis Drug’s temporary location was busy.  Ground has been broke for the new facility out near the hospital adjacent to the four lane Highway #60.   Another nugget of news is that the vacant Shopko building will be having Sunshine Foods grocery store moved in by the fall.  It will be nice to have some competition with the Super Fair Grocery.

  My errands took me to the library.  First time ever picking out books from the “larger print” isles.  Yup, it will seem like a long time until August 5th when I will have a cataract removed from my right eye.  20/60 is not a good level, making the left eye pull extra hard.  It brings me much comfort to have the same specialist do the cataract surgery that has done both eyes when I had torn retinas in times past.  The cataract surgery does call for a pre-op physical within 30 days of August 5th.  I have that already nailed down.  For the eye surgery we need to travel only as far as 15 miles down the highway to the Madelia hospital.  Dennis will be able to take a snooze for several hours before he drives me home. 

  Not such a serious surgery as it was in times of old when Grandma Laura had her eyes done in the 1960s. They had small sand bags tucked on either side of her head when she laid down to keep the head still and being still lasted for a long time.  Yes, modern medicine is amazing.

  I spent some time going through fabric stashes and lo and behold, I found a piece of print fabric that my mom, Lena, had pieced together for a quilt batting.  My gosh, I measured it and it was 98″ x 108″. I don’t think my pinwheel quilt will be quite that large.  It will be good to use it.

  Dennis just toddled in and I hear pill bottles being rattled.  That tells me supper time is getting close.  Tonight it is a hamburger patty topped with cheese, onions and a slice of bacon.  Bread is optional.

  We still are under a thunderstorm warning.  The weather system can’t quite decide . . . so . . . maybe.

   
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  Noreen 3:38 pm on June 19, 2019 Permalink  

  Balance is Important 

  Yes, summer is about to start this week . . . officially.  Dennis and I have been hitting it quite hard ever since the last of the snow disappeared.  We have stayed on task.  Just because it gets daylight around six a.m. and stays light until almost nine p.m., doesn’t mean we are outside non-stop.  Balance is needed.  

  Dennis has been working on his Cub Lo-boy.  Nephew Brett has given him a spot in one of his large metal storage buildings.  He pops back and forth multiple times a day.  Today he came home at three and announced it was time for lemon bars.  So . . .we had an afternoon break.  When he leaves we always do the check to make sure he has his cell phone.  Working alone in the shop and laying underneath it while cleaning or painting could cause a problem.  Better be safe than sorry.  His putzing with the tractor has given him a balance in the day.  It’s not just about mowing the acre.

  For myself, I take my sister Elvera’s advice.  Elvera had her flowers and a few vegetable planted.  When it got warm or humid, she was right down into her sewing room.  As we would visit over the phone, sharing what was growing and what was being stitched was important.  Three o’clock coffee breaks over the phone were the best.

  My balance in life consists of taking care of what the ole cowboy can’t on the acre.  Trimming is not for his legs.  Spraying for weeks tends to be a bit much for Dennis.  If a little area needs some control . . . let’s just do a bunch more.  Not!  Once I know what I will have on the menu for supper . . . I am free to go to the sewing studio. Elvera would give a heads-up on that. 

  There is a fairly large boot box that scraps from projects get pitched into.  The box has been overflowing for some time.  I saw a photo of a scrappy pattern on Facebook.  It took me the better part of the afternoon yesterday to get a pattern for it penciled out.  I call it a scrappy pinwheel design.  I have one block done as a prototype.  I do now know it will lie flat using my paper pattern.  Today, off and on, I have been cutting the spokes of the pinwheel.  Lots of triangles.   I also now know that I will need 49 or 56 of these blocks to finish a quilt.  

  This morning a bit of yard work and watering a few potted plants.  This afternoon a coffee break with Dennis.  There is a project that has been nailed down in the sewing studio and I have supper planned.  I call this a good balanced day.

   
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  Noreen 5:32 pm on June 18, 2019 Permalink  

  Success 

  When I went out this morning to water a few plants, the last thing on the list was the area where we put down grass seed on newly tilled soil off of the corner of the house.  That grass seed was put down last Thursday afternoon.  Here we are on Tuesday and there are multiple spears of grass showing.  That is deemed a gardening success.  It did help that it was so close to the water supply that the area did get a sprinkle of water every day.

  Yesterday my trip to Mankato was to have lunch with some fellow stitchers.  Once a month we encourage each other, help each other with some challenges and do a whole lot of chit chat.  Enjoyable beyond belief for me.  I have yet to find fellow stitchers in St. James that are willing to commit to getting together.  

  A recipe had surfaced on Facebook called “Lemon Brownies.”  I printed it off for future reference.  Today was that future.  Dennis made a run for two chubby lemons that we needed for lemon zest and the actual juice.  It could have well been called “Lemon Bars.”  I can tell you that it looks wonderful and Dennis and I have a date at 8:00 this evening to cut into them.  I had not baked anything for a very long time.  I need to do a bit more of it.  It’s very satisfying.  I have been give the gift of a gently used Kitchen Aid heavy duty mixer that takes the heft out of mixing stiff cookie dough.  Stauffer Avenue’s Betty Crocker may be making a come back.

   
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  Noreen 4:25 pm on June 17, 2019 Permalink  

  Losses and Wins 

  I had a quiet drive to Mankato this morning.  No one to visit with, no radio.  Quiet thoughts abound.

  So much on the media about the sporting events that take place to no end.  I’m am not into the sports.  What I hear often is the rhetoric as losses and wins that are kept track of.

  My losses have been more than I like.  Son, Scott Howard, would have been 46 this December.  Our third child may have made the huge difference as to how our family would have moved forward as a family.  My dad, Raymond, was a dynamo.  Married at sixteen and a father at seventeen, he was strict and had much to offer his family through the decades.  Not many people realized what a tender heart he had.  Leaving us at the age of 72 was far too young.  Up until the time that mom, Lena, who passed away at the age of 93, was the heart of the family.  Hard working and never too weary to be there when needed.  Mom’s heart was not as tender as Dad’s, but it was filled with love and pride for the family. Mom was able to show both sides of issues.

  Carrie and Kevin’s dad, Orlin, passed away in 2007.  How Carrie and Kevin would have, could have benefited from their dad’s council as they established themselves with families and responsibilities.  Orlin had the penchant for all things that hands could create or fix or talk his way through.  Orlin was a “black or white” individual.  At times that made things just as difficult for himself as well as those around him.

  My sister, Elvera, passed away at the age of 78 in 2016 with plans and dreams for herself and family.  Complication from cancer cares not for plans and dreams.

  My brother, Michael, passed away in 2018 at the age of 69 from complications caused by cancer.  Michael fought the illness with the heart of a Lion, but outwardly put others in the forefront of his days.  He was my brave warrior as I felt he took Dad’s place as the head of the family. 

  The losses of these family members have affected many.  That is most certainly true.  All these losses were life altering to ME and each has left their mark on Me as I am now 75 years old.  When I am done mourning them in . . . often days, the losses have more than sadness.  I have taken what each of them have contributed to my life, much like the sweet breeze of a gentle wind.  It brings to me a win of all that I have gained from having had them in my life.  The words that spring to mind when I least expect it.  The hugs that I can still feel.  The kindness of each of them when I may not have deserved it, but I took it gratefully.  The events that now feel hollow without them.  I am humbled that I can try to be what they all believed I could be.  I have huge shoes to fill on so many levels.  It gives me a reason to get up each day and do what there is to face.  

  When losses and wins are touted, I feel both equally.

   
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  Noreen 3:43 pm on June 16, 2019 Permalink  

  There is a Limit 

  As I mentioned a post or two ago, things can slide for some time and it doesn’t seem to bother.  Then again, in an instant . . . there is a limit.  

  We replaced the toilet quite a few years ago in our main bathroom.  Of course we got the high-rise oval model.  The oval is important as self-cathing for peeing does take a it more elbow room . . . so to speak.  The top of the tank has never fit properly.  Poor casting of ceramics.  Any little movement while sitting or getting up from the toilet, a grating of ceramic on ceramic could be heard.  

  Dennis was out in the patio porch and I knew today was the limit.  I took the top of the tank into the sewing studio and stood back to see what my options were.  There was double stick tape on shelves.  Inspecting stashes in the sewing studio, I came across some half inch foam.  Cutting the foam an inch wide to match up with the tape, the entire perimeter got a piece of foam around it.  I couldn’t wait to see how it would work.  The next challenge was to make it up the basement steps carrying the top of the toilet.  It has happened to me in the past, that just as there was going to be the completion of a project, the hands gave way and it all went to crap.  We now have a toilet top that is quiet.  Why the hell has it taken me all these years to do something that was so annoying for oh so long.  I think what the trigger was is that I had taken it upon myself to put a new toilet lid on the toilet.  When the lid was lifted to open, it was heavy enough to make the top let us know it hasn’t been fitting right.

  On a very wonderful bright spot, Dennis received Father’s Day calls from four out of his five children.  It kept him quite busy out in the patio porch.  By the time he came in, I was in the sewing studio putting away supplies from the toilet fixing.  It never fails . . . Dennis has barely gotten his sweet hind-end in the door and he is calling out to see where I am.  With our huge home it never fails that he needs to know my location.  Five steps either way and he has found me.  Not this time.  He was right beside me in the basement when he said he had gotten a call from his third son.  I looked at him quizzically.  The call had brought tears to his eyes.  Yup, the ole cowboy had not expected a call from Fairfax for Father’s Day.  It had touched him deeply.  Priceless.  We just never know when taking a moment to reach out can make such a wonderful impact.  

  There is a limit to putting things off that by taking a bit of time, we have our angst quieted.  There is no limit in reaching ours as we never know how important that may be right at that moment.

   
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  Noreen 2:41 pm on June 15, 2019 Permalink  

  Lots of Thunder 

  The skies have been rumbling for several hours.  It’s dark out but Dennis tells me it has all gone to the south and east of us.  A good shower of rain would have been welcomed.  You never can tell how the thunderstorms seem to be gone and they can wangle themselves back.

  Dennis did wear himself out yesterday with making several trips to Fleet Farm for the right connections for his hose to be attached directly to the sump pump as the water is pumped up and out of the basement.  It doesn’t help matters any that his hands don’t always do as they are directed to.  I did stay out of the way until such time that I could help with reeling in the garden hose as he took it off of the secondary sump pump.  Looking out of the north dining room window it does seem strange not to see a swamp with standing water in the area of the drain field.  Dennis said he would put the direct connections on later this fall.  I totally agreed with him. 

  Tomorrow is Father’s Day.  Lots of memories surface.  I absolutely know that I had the best father anyone could have had.  He taught me how to work and how to appreciate life.  I absolutely know that Carrie and Keven had the best father anyone could have had.  Orlin was strict and fair and had the same blessing as my father did . . . logic.  The logic I see in my children by far passes what can be taught in schooling.  Learning aspects is needed, but how it needs to be applied is a true gift.  My children and I got the real goods and it serves us well. 

  My sewing machine is stitching and I have done a bit of extra organization in my sewing studio while it is hard at work.  Sometimes the things that I have looked at for a long, long time can all of a sudden be seen in a different light.  Yup, what I sew with most frequently needs to be closest at hand.  The rest . . . is still important but not so much needed right at a reach away.  

  Looking at some stitching designs, I am pulling together some fabrics out of my stashes and thinking that they would make a wonderful quilt with some special embroidery when someone special leaves for college.  It really isn’t that much of a reach.  That someone will be sixteen this December.  I don’t like the fact that she is growing up, but I sure do see one mighty fine young lady. 

  Oh the memories of an older gal . . . me,  that still sees her own children as her babies and sees the grand babies as precious wee ones.  I know, I know . . . we bring them up to be strong independent people, but I can still reminisce and thank God Almighty for my memories.  They sure can get me through a whole bunch of days, weeks, months and years . . . and they are all mine.

  Hmm.  Maybe the rumbling will still bring some rain.