Me, Myself and Memories

Updates from April, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Noreen 2:19 pm on April 25, 2022 Permalink  

  Same Old 

  The temps are cold and the north winds make it feel colder still.  Same old, same old.

  By noon the second bed had freshly laundered bedding on it.  Of course the Swiffer found plenty dust bunnies under the bed.

  Dennis has one kitty that has gone AWOL.  It is the oldest, Honey Bunny.  She was a kitten in the spring of 2009.  She missed curfew last night. When I look out the east bathroom window, Dennis is looking towards the east, hoping to see her trotting home.  The day isn’t over yet.   

  With KNUJ on in the studio, I pecked away on the next nine 3.5″ each pieced block.  I am really taking it slow to prove to myself I can get this batch better than the last.  It need not be perfect but I still need to try.  I had completed the first round of sewing and decided to hit the west porch and do some reading.  It gave me a chance to watch traffic in between turning the pages.

  As I looked through the windows and took in the tree tops, there is the slightest hint and tinge of green in the densest of the trees.  Spring will not be detoured.  Ready or not . . . Mother Nature will have her way.

  Dennis came in at noon and had to comment on how wonderful it felt to not have to hit the highways this week.  Since the January 21st surgery on his left foot, Dennis can actually feel his foot.  The three veins that were opened up are pumping blood to that foot.  Healing the incision can’t be far behind.  That is the best news ever.

  We are having chicken titties, mashed potatoes, corn and cranberries for supper.  That is another thing I have noticed in Dennis.  With the sinus infection and the pneumonia beat, he has an appetite.  What a great way to welcome spring.

   
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  Noreen 3:30 pm on April 24, 2022 Permalink  

  Goodbye Spring 

  Unbelievable winds again today.  Earlier, I did see a kiddy pool flying south down Stauffer.  I hope the kids that used it yesterday didn’t have a huge attachment to it.

  Dennis visited the studio this afternoon.  He looked over the situation.  I had the color photo of my latest project lying beside my block that I had finished yesterday.  The cowboy logic had this to offer . . .  perhaps the original project used all sorts of colors and prints together in a single block as to throw on-lookers off track so as to not see imperfections.  Wouldn’t ya know it . . . a lot of truth in that thought.  At that, Dennis was off to the patio porch.  I may have to think on that logic going forward.  All that I got done after that visit was to pin the next nine block in a semblance of order so they are ready to go under the needle.  That might happen tomorrow. 

  One of the two beds now has fresh linens on it for this evening’s rest.  Tomorrow the second bed gets stripped.  Doing both on the same day is too much for this grammie.  I do have to know when to hold it and when to fold it . . . literally. 

  I thought for sure, the furnace would get a furlough . . . not!  The temps are going to take a swing on the cool side for the better part of this next week.  I will say that the Lilacs are done being screwed with.  The tips of the branches have tiny little green buds.  Last year we received a late rain that turned to ice about this time of the spring and we had no lilac blossoms.  Time will tell . . . just like it always does.

  If I sit still for too long today, the lull of the roaring winds could put me to sleep, so I have kept moving.  I am not a daytime napper.  I am still doing my nine p.m. bedtime.  I may not fall asleep right away, but the body feels good stretching out and I am then ready for the next day after a good night’s rest.

   
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  Noreen 2:09 pm on April 23, 2022 Permalink  

  Hang on to Your Britches 

  Oh my goodness what a hot wind.  I need to say hot as it is 72 degrees with 28-30 MPH winds from the south.  This is way too much of a temperature change.  I checked the radar and the good thing is there are no storms indicated . . . as yet.  There were still remaining some pine cones at the top of the evergreen on the northwest corner of the house.  They do not stand a chance with his howler.

  I was happy to hear that the well that was found under Kevin’s shop floor may soon be able to be filled in after the building inspector visits next week.  Talk about scary things in older buildings.

  Today I spent in the studio with thread and fuzz.  Nothing strenuous with plenty of breaks to keep up with what Dennis was doing.  Dennis runs his vacuum six out of seven days in his patio porch.  With spring coming the three kittens will spend more time outside and not be shedding so much on the green carpet.  Dennis can only hope.

  As I finished a 9.5 x 12.5 block on my latest project, I knew taking the photo would hurt a bit as the errors in seaming jump right out.  Hey . . . there are 204 separate fabric pieces in this block and some seemed to have a mind of their own.  When doing a pieced project with larger pieces of fabric, the grain of the material can be honored.  Lengthwise grain sewn on to likewise length grain, etc.  With a jumble of scraps on the sewing table it is just that . . . a jumble.  I am quite sure as this project continues there will be additional times when I sit back and shake my head.  I chose a theme of like background fabric with various hues of the burgundy to finish each 3.5″  block.  Later on there is another such block, made up of nine 3.5″ blocks using the same pattern.  It will be 9.5″ x 9.5″.  I will again use the same background fabric with hues of browns to finish them.  This project will be plenty busy as it is without each 3.5 block using multiple colors.  I really have a hard time being that bifurcated in mixing prints and colors.

  It’s time to do a bit of cleaning of the kitchen, bath and entry floors.  I drag thread up from the studio and I am beyond having to take off shoes every time Dennis or I come in from outside.  It’s not like we are tracking in mud from the plow fields.

  See you Sunday!

   
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  Noreen 1:23 pm on April 22, 2022 Permalink  

  Wet Day 

  I heard it raining during the night and it has proved to be damp all day with bouts of rain.

  Yesterday when I got home, there had been a huge empty box delivered by our postman.  We needed to package up all of Mediacom’s Tivo boxes, electrical cables and remotes from the television cable service.  The best part was a postage free label.  We had promised ourselves as soon as the rain showers gave us a break, the box would in in the post office building.  Yup . . . we got it done. 

  Yesterday at our stitcher’s luncheon we shared ideas of threads and fuzz.  This afternoon I made myself a sample of a block that Lu had shared.  I may not get at this pattern for a while, but at least I have the basics of it within a sewn block for reference.

  I have been getting updates from Kevin on the project of the cement that needs to be removed for the site of the new hoist that will be installed.  It has been a long awaited improvement to his shop in Fairfax.  This would have been a day that my dad would have been right there taking it all in, especially when there was a 21 foot deep well that was discovered underneath the existing concrete floor.  My prayer was for safety as the day progressed.

  As we have Dennis’ leftover oven dish for supper, I am heading back to the studio to pick up on my project that has been patiently on the back burner.

   
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  Noreen 3:05 pm on April 18, 2022 Permalink  

  New Week 

  It is a new week with a hope of warmer weather.  I am thankful I can take each day as it comes regardless of what the temps are.  The northwest wind never lets up.

  As of this noon, the bathroom project is finished.  Every small detail was as if Kevin were doing it.  This young apprentice will go far with carpentry.  I asked him how he and Mr. Aden had begun working together.  His mom had mentioned over a visit at Pizza Hut that Mason was in Vo-tech for carpentry and that is all it took.  Mason had a job and has enjoyed every bit of it since.  I asked, taking off shingles is his least favorite . . . understandable. 

  I had a postcard that Culligan needed to check out our water softener.  This afternoon was the day.  If we rented, it was free of charge . . . and we do.  I asked if this was a new service.  He hemmed and hawed.  It was a way to visit customers and sell them a drinking water system.  I let him give me the talk and then told him we were not interested.  He was a young fellow and I assured him if there was a performance follow-up by the boss, I would let his boss know he had done a great job.

  So went the day.  Taking things in stride is all one can do.  Tomorrow Dennis has an echocardiogram of his heart for his procedure on Wednesday.  By the time it gets nice out, the doctor visits may be behind us.  I can only hope.

  Some days the lights in the studio should not be turned on.  Over the course of several hours, all I did was pick stitches out.  My mind was running amuck.

  Soon there will be a mailer coming our way to ship back items to Mediacom that were connected to cable viewing.  Gladly that will be done in a timely matter.

  So- – -what’s for supper?

   
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  Noreen 12:25 pm on April 17, 2022 Permalink  

  Easter Sunday 

  Not a day when gloom should be had.  It should have bright sunshine as the entrance of the empty tomb is found.

  I rested well last night.  It might sound silly, but it was the last hurrah for Mediacom’s cable service.  This forenoon with coffee in arm’s reach I called said cable company and asked them to cancel the cable service, while we would maintain the modem for internet and Wi-Fi.  A very helpful young fellow allowed me to know how to access our usage via streaming television programs.  The main concern that I passed onto Dennis in the patio porch, is that when he leaves the porch, the set needs to be turned off, thus the meter is no longer running.  It actually is a great way for Dennis to become comfortable with a new way of accessing programs. All he needs to do is give me a call and I will be out in the patio porch to help.

  This last week and a half has meant lots of commotion on Stauffer Avenue.  The walk-in shower did make a bit of cleaning that was needed.  When Kevin put in the tub and surround 24 years ago, he cut a hole in the east bathroom wall and slid the unit in.  I remember it was a brisk day and a bit breezy for a time.  There is no easy way with which to improve one’s quality of living.  

  During these last months while visiting various doctors for Dennis, the question does come up as to whether or not he can still comfortably live in his own home.  You damn right he/we can!  Everything we have done this early spring has allowed for ease in keeping our own home up.  Even with the garage and patio porch shingling and the walk-in shower . . . I don’t think it would have covered what a month in the nursing home would have covered.

  As I am putzing in the studio today, Dennis is in the patio porch using Murphy Wood soap to clean the teak wooden rocking chair.  We do keep ourselves busy.  In between time, the microwave stand got a treatment with the Murphy Wood Soap wipes.  No more dust from the bathroom project.  I will wait until Dennis comes in before I tackle the shelves over the refrigerator.  Better to be safe than sorry.

  I heard from both of the kids today and you know that made my day going into a new week.  Priceless!

   
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  Noreen 2:50 pm on April 16, 2022 Permalink  

  A Saturday 

  A bright Saturday on Stauffer Avenue.

  It never fails, if I need to get up in the middle of the night for a bathroom call, I go back to bed and sleep deeply.  What happens then is that I am not getting up at seven.  I was sound asleep when the phone went off at 8:15 when Dennis’ grandson, AJ, said he would be over in 15 minutes.  AJ lives in Mankato and had planned on working on his camper that is stored here in St. James today.  He and his parents had already been at the Home Town Café for breakfast.  Dennis was still in bed and we made tracks to at least have clothes on when the family arrived.

  For the sum of $24.99 that we reimbursed AJ for, the Wi-Fi booster that is plugged into the east wall of the kitchen’s outlet, Dennis has a television in the patio porch that is working off of the Mediacom’s router.  Whew!  Check that off of our list of things to take care of this spring.

  I was set to do some tidy, tidy when the phone rang.  My brother from Decorah called, which is not often.  I gave him 54 minutes.  We are now caught up on the latest and greatest.  I am sure the house is quiet since his wife passed away earlier in the year.

  The tidy, tidy that needed doing was the shelving in the kitchen.  We had a tub and surround dismantled this week as well as having sheetrock work done after the new walk-in shower was installed.  No matter what takes place to keep things under control, I have lived with enough remodeling projects to know that debris takes flight and lands at will.   The shelving on top of the refrigerator is next on a list . . . sometime.  It all needed to be done under the guise of spring cleaning.

  After pulling choices of scrap fabric in the studio, I am getting close to cutting the sizes of blocks for the next pattern.  The sizes range from 7/8″ square to 1″ x 1 1/2″.  I am actually finding this project to be enjoyable.  No time frame.  No pressure.  It will be some time before the sewing machine is turned on.  There are to be 20 blocks measuring 3.5 square when completed. 

  I think supper will be frozen waffles and Jimmy Dean precooked sausages.  Sounds good to me.

   
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  Noreen 1:05 pm on April 15, 2022 Permalink  

  April 15, 2022 

  What a sunny day for it being Good Friday.  The wind chill is in the 20s.  Oh how the wind can howl through the huge evergreen on the northwest corner of our home.

  Yesterday afternoon, Dennis’ daughter and her family from Silver Bay surprised us.  Early in 2022, Dennis’ son-in-law’s father passed away.  Dennis and Swede had been life long friends.  It was now time for some items from Swede’s home to be taken up to Silver Bay as the home now has a new owner.

  This morning I was waiting for a fellow to pay us a call from Madison Lake.  When the Watson boys unpacked the components of the walk-in shower, there was a hair-line crack in one of the panels.  I would not have been able to find it if Watson’s had not pointed it out to me.  I left the fellow to his trade.  I could smell an adhesive and there was a heat gun of some sort being used.  Within 45 minutes, the fellow was going out the back door.  Of course I had to peek.  There was absolutely nothing indicating that a service man had made a repair.  Hats off to Watson’s for following through on their install.

  My stitching is making progress.  Today I finished a very busy scrappy block.  The 12.5 inch x 21.5 inch block was sewn with the pieces of fabric sewn into long strips.  The strips were then sewn together.  There is a scrappy star at one end of this block.  I really worked at mixing up different prints and colors on this block.  I have mentioned before that I fight not having them do the matchie match on colors.  My church tables are a plethora of various prints and scraps . . .  ready to turn the page to see what is next.  This pattern is totally out of my wheel-house.  

  A quiet weekend is upon us.  Sweet.

   
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  Noreen 1:41 pm on April 14, 2022 Permalink  

  Oh My Gosh! 

  The wind today may have been more than I wanted to be out in, but . . . it sure beats storms.

  Dennis had coffee with the buds in McDonald’s.  I headed to the studio.

  KNUJ has a bit of news to keep me in the loop and good country music as the day goes on.

  Slow but sure I picked out vintage prints on my latest project out of my scrap bin.  Some of the scraps are mine, some are Lena’s and some are from my friend Lorraine that is no longer with us.  It makes for quite the mix.

  Every once in awhile I get the bite to head north to the Bird Island quilt store . . . Gathering Friends.  I know I have a gift certificate there from nephew Larry for the eight Christmas stockings I made for his family.  The materials were supplied to me and the rest was at my digression as to how to embroider a design on each one.  Four of the stockings did get an embroidered name and the remaining four were for at a time when their family grew.  As I said, I think about visiting Gathering Friends, but . . . I have not run out of things to do with what I have on hand.  Sweet!

  The young apprentice carpenter was here today and wet sanded and primed the sheetrock around the walk-in shower.  Yesterday he and his boss worked on a deck for someone that had been started before the rains.  I totally got that.  Mason is coming back later today to paint the area.  The gallon pail of matching paint doesn’t have much in it, but he was sure it would be just fine.  He mentioned that as far as he knew he would be back tomorrow to put the oak trim on where new was needed.  The shower is just a bit different in size where it meets the north corner wall and the east wall.  I think in total it was 12″ in total that was needed.

  Tonight, I am looking forward to several of my PBS mystery programs to be on.  Between Hulu and YouTube TV, there is everything we had watched before plus oh so much more.  By Saturday afternoon we should be able to call Mediacom and have the cable disconnected, leaving the internet as is with their router.  Dennis is slowly getting accustomed to working with the television in the living room so he will be good to go after grandson AJ has the patio porch television connected via the WiFi booster.  Slowly but surely, we are advancing on changes on Stauffer Avenue.

   
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  Noreen 12:55 pm on April 13, 2022 Permalink  

  Hump Day 

  After a night filled with rains and winds, this is a quiet hump day.  A perfect day to be in the studio.

  Holy week is always a reminder to me that my dad passed away in holy week on Maunday Thursday.  The week also allows me to think about me and where I am in my relationship with my ole cowboy.  Way back when, I knew who he was and what his lifestyle had been.  Nothing serious hiding in the bushes.  Dennis was a hard working soul that had one habit then, that is still prevalent today . . . smoking.   When we spend our lives doing, being what we believe is acceptable, the long run seems like never, neverland.

  At 86 years young, regardless of health issues, Dennis is not going to quit smoking.  Dennis began smoking while he was in Korea and that is his addiction.  Alcohol abuse may run in his children’s lives, but Dennis never has had a taste for it.  I am thankful for that.

  I have learned that harping upon an action that I don’t understand, does only one thing . . . I upset myself.  The last thing I, or my heart needs is to be upset.  At times the best is . . . “live and let live.”  There are many more wonderful qualities in Dennis than not.  I am thankful for that.

  A little late in my life . . . but I have learned to accept rather than expect.  With that as my road to travel, I am at peace with family and friends.  I have not walked in their shoes, nor they in mine.  At the end of each day, I like my size eight and a half shoes.

  As I was in the studio today, thinking about a whole lot of things, I finished yet another square in my latest endeavor of the pattern called “A long Time Ago.”  It was the Trip Around the World pattern that was my mom’s favorite.  166 pieces came together for this 13.5 inch block.  I did shut off the sewing machine, the iron and the studio’s lights to have a bit of coffee with Dennis.  I have no idea what the next block will be.  As I finish one block, the page has not yet been turned as to what is coming next.  Kind of like what life has to offer.  Stay tuned.