Me, Myself and Memories

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  Noreen 2:34 pm on August 9, 2022 Permalink  

  Sweet Home 

  Today we motored to the Mankato hospital for Dr. Madson to check on the wound on Dennis’ foot.  The incision is healed where the big toe was removed.  This wound is the rubbed spot next to the little toe.  Man oh man this has been a long time healing.  Now that Dennis has good blood flow to the foot, it looks better to me each time I dress it, and Dr. Madson agreed.  We will still need to be a Lewis Drug annex for a time.

  We are home in the mid afternoon and it feels oh so sweet.  We picked up some groceries at Hy-Vee and they are put away.  We do take advantage of our trips to put groceries in the cupboard.  I realize our small town grocer can’t buy the volume as Mankato can, but I don’t need to pay the higher price that is asked as long as I am in Mankato.

  Tomorrow is my yearly eye exam here in town.  I wouldn’t think of putting that off.  I do often think of my friend Judy that is blind.  Every moment of every day is the same for her . . . black. 

  Our goal is to keep the calendar as free of appointments as possible.  For the remainder of the month, Dennis has only one additional appointment during the last week of this August.  Thanks be to God. 

  I am thinking of what may be going on at Megan’s home this week.  Megan and her family had planned on being in Lynchburg Virginia on the 14th to settle Megan into her college dorm room.  Hmm.  My heart strings are feeling a tug.

   
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  Noreen 2:39 pm on August 8, 2022 Permalink  

  A Great Morning 

  When I realized the temps were in the 60s, I dug out my garden shoes.

  It has been a long time since the soil around the Hosta was wet enough that weeds could be pulled up by the root rather than breaking off.  As I made piles of clover and sand burr plants, Dennis got them to the burn ring to dry out.  

  A year ago I put pavers around our giant Maple and Dennis filled it in for a heightened flower bed.  It was great not having to bend over and just stand next to it to tackle the weeds.  When it came time to get up onto the flower bed next to the tree trunk, that’s where the choice culprits were, Dennis was standing behind me to give a bit of a heft for me to get up the twelve inches next to the trunk of the Maple.  Success.  Dennis was right there when it was time to descend safely.

  If I had had more physical power than my want power, I could have tackled a bunch more at the ground level.  I settled on taking out all of the Bleeding Heart stalks that were spent.  The pile of greenery to dry out is quite high.

  I know I have spent my abilities when my left foot begins to turn in.  My body has its way of shutting me down when I am too stubborn to acknowledge the smaller hints.

  I have begun stitching out an embroidery design in the studio.  When I realized my bobbin was about empty, I decided on taking a break to fill some bobbins and to also come to the first floor to see what the mail person left.

  With that being said, my blog post has now been completed and I am heading to the studio to push that little green button and work towards finishing that design.  Shutting down the process completely is a shot in the dark, on having everything remain aligned when the sewing machine is powered back up.

  We are having leftovers for supper.  Yippee!

   
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  Noreen 12:51 pm on August 7, 2022 Permalink  

  Wonderful Rain 

  During the early morning hours, I did hear thunder.  Getting up at six the rain came down in what I would call a good soaking rain.  It was very welcoming.

  I was up early for a potty visit.  Dennis slept until ten this morning.  

  We had had a very busy day yesterday traveling north to the city of Darwin for a family gathering.  My mom, Lena Riebe Wendlandt, has a lot of family in that area.  Granted, us cousins are now left to continue the family stories.  Dennis chimes right in.  Some can talk tractors.  Some can talk collectable guns.  Dennis knows no strangers.  The dish towels I had done for the family members went over great.  I had done those in the early winter of 2021.  I did put two towels back, one for Kevin and one for Carrie.  They all joked, I should do caps for next year.  Blank caps to embroider on are a bit too pricey . . . but it was fun to think about doing it.

  We drove in heavy rain as we traveled north and could only hope there would be some saved for our neck of the woods.

  I was weary when we got home.  I had not done anything but sit, but it was out of my norm.  Dennis is the fellow that drove the little red pickup the 120 miles one way.  Home felt wonderful.

  This morning, I was determined to try something I had not done for a long time.  I wanted to make sure I could still remember the steps to find an embroidery design, get it saved to a file and then transfer onto a flash drive to insert when I am ready to stitch.  Out of site and out of mind can happen very easily.  Success!  There are many brands of thread.  Design companies use their own unique brand when hawking their wares.  I do have printouts of conversion tables for several thread companies. The conversion chart allows me to know that the Floriana number for the color cinnamon is the number in the Isacord brand that I sew from.  I have invested in one brand only.  The eyeballs were doing a lot of back and forth.  I printed out the picture of the design and then put my thread numbers to coincide the thread changes as they would take place.

  The spools of colored thread needed are lined up on my church tables.  It was time to clean out fuzz and thread from under the hood.  A bit of oil where indicted.  I swapped out the number twelve needle that I had used for the scrappy quilt for a number eleven needle, not such a large poke in the material, that I like to use for embroidery.   The embroidery module is on the sewing machine and tomorrow we should be good to do some stitching.  The scrappy quilt was a timely project.  The last time I embordered was when making nephew Larry’s Christmas stockings.

  It being fairly comfortable to run the oven, I do have an oven meal prepared for supper.  My own concoction:  1 can of Hormel Chili with no beans, 1 can tomato soup, I can of golden mushroom soup, 1 lb. 85% browned ground beef and a heaping 2 cup container of pasta needing to be boiled.  When all was combined, I finished off by folding in whatever was left of grated Parmesan in a container in the refrig.  350 degree for an hour or until the thermometer reads 155.  Dennis finished it off by grinding black pepper over the top.  Whatever would I do without my round blue speckled enamel roaster.   

  This next week looks like a keeper and by tomorrow we will know how much rain fell.

   
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  Noreen 1:40 pm on August 5, 2022 Permalink  

  A Warm Afternoon 

  I had big plans for this forenoon.  I would be in New Ulm by eight and have repair work begun on the car.  I had calculated a good three hour sit in one of their very soft chairs in The Quick Lane waiting room.  I wasn’t too concerned as the tie rod work on both fronts would be covered by my warranty.  The four new tires and the oil change would be out of my pocket.  It was just a good feeling to get this done as the amount of miles I would be putting on before winter would be minimal.

  I had barely gotten into watching the news when a fellow came in carrying one of my rims.  I was given a loaner car as that rim had a crack in it and they would be having a used rim from Nebraska in by later next week.  So be it.  

  The only place I wanted to stop at was Hy-Vee on my way home.  The loner car was a 2005 red Ford sedan car that felt like I was driving a tuna can.  I came out of Hy-Vee and headed for the red Ford sedan.  I got my groceries in the back seat and noticed something on the dash.  I had just put my groceries into someone else’s red Ford sedan.  Oh my gosh!  I was amazed that a car alarm had not gone off.  I had already put the grocery cart away, so I nicely opened up my red Ford car door that was parked right beside it and began swapping out groceries.   Good grief!  I rolled my eyes the majority of the miles home.  Leave it to Grammie!

  Tomorrow we are heading to the Twine Ball Town of Darwin for a noon picnic.  The Riebe cousins do this every year.  It is a happy group that enjoys catching up with each other.  Myself and two other cousins, Arlan and Dorothy are now the eldest.  That was my purpose in stopping at Hy-Vee.  Dennis and I travel the farthest and I had made up my mind, I would not be spending any time in the kitchen this afternoon.  Cold pared fruit would be traveling with us.  Many man the grill and many plug crock pots into the electrical service in the park.  Surprisingly the Riebe clan stuck around Dassel and Darwin.

  Each year, someone has made or acquired favors to celebrate the calendar year.  Needing the physical therapy, I began doing dish towels last fall.  Mills Fleet Farm in Mankato always has a great buy on the white looking feed sack towels already hemmed.  My tote of many towels is ready to be put into the little red pickup.  Many different colors of thread were used.  Not too many look-alikes.  I took the count of how many were in attendance last year and then Dennis decided on making twenty more.  Good ole cowboy.  Dennis has gotten to know this group and looks forward to it as much as I do.

  I know we will have a long day, but a very good day, tomorrow.  I will do a post on Sunday.  I have already been told the little red pickup leaves at ten sharp in the morning.  I can already lay odds, that my sweet ole cowboy will be in the drive, sitting behind the wheel, close to 9:30.  

  Just as the weatherman had predicted, it is warm out this afternoon.

   
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  Noreen 1:47 pm on August 4, 2022 Permalink  

  A Thursday 

  The weather has been a roller coaster.  Today is a winner.

  I have been digging through several small drawers and seeing what can be seen. 

  A while back when I was in Hobby Lobby, I ended up in the very back of the store.  Looking at different sizes of picture frames as I had an idea for a small pieced quilted project that would look good framed.  The idea of the pattern was that once the pieced item was done, different items of memorabilia could be added and attached to it and then have the total project put in a picture frame.

  In the very back of Hobby Lobby amid the frames were hinged memory boxes.  Hmm.  I purchased two of what was to be had.  Each was different.  Each would hold its own unique items depending on the bulk of them.

  As I have found items here, there, everywhere, I have trundled them to the studio . . . my creative place.   I look at the items from time to time.  I don’t want to rush into this.  

  In the meantime . . . I have been spending some time on the Etsy site and Pinterest.  I need to have a pattern or a project to use my mom, Lena’s, prairie points.  Mom used these points to finish quilt hems.  She felt that the edges of quilts wouldn’t have as much wear and tear with the prairie points taking the brunt.  I believe Lena was planning on making more quilts than she could.  There has to be something that will use her stash up.  Wright’s was a company that sold sewing accessories and Lena found a site that was selling off bolts of prairie points in various colors.  Twenty four yards per bolt.  Yup.  I have Lena’s stash.  I just could not part with them.  It’s one of those “emotional attachment” items.   I will continue seeking and searching.  

  Dennis has announced that we are going to the Home Town café for supper.  It has been listed on our realtor’s website.  The owner’s have already cut back on their Sunday brunches.  Like everyone else up and down our Main Street, original owners aren’t getting any younger and help is difficult to find.  We will visit them once in a while giving them as much support as us two older ones can.

  Tomorrow, I need to be in New Ulm by 8:15.  My car is getting new tie rods, new tires and an oil change.  Busy morning for me.

   
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  Noreen 1:50 pm on August 3, 2022 Permalink  

  A Rain Shower 

  A rain shower during the night that did settle the dust.

  So . . . it’s ok if I don’t do anything.  Hmm.  That does go against all that I have done for my years.  But . . . today doing nothing seems to work for me.  

  A load of laundry punched in and I pop a piece of toast in until later.

  We had company later in the forenoon.  Dennis’ daughter stopped in to check up on us.  Denise hasn’t stopped in as often as her husband had a triple by-pass surgery several weeks ago.  Caretakers need to answer the call when it comes in.  Denise works at one of the three Casey’s here in town.  From daughter-in-law Kersten’s sharing of her working in Fairfax’s Casey’s, I know schedules can become quite mind boggling. 

  I can share that several nights ago when my supper was to be a pan sized pizza, I heated it in the microwave.  I would do it again rather than heat up the oven.  I am not a fussy eater.  It’s supper, let’s just get something done.

  I think I know how Moses felt wandering.  I did wander about the studio and nothing stuck.  One more time and perhaps something will beckon me.  For me, these last months, I knew what was my next move in the world of stitching and it was quite reassuring.

  I do have a book that is getting quite spellbinding.  Maybe once I have finished it, my concentration will be willing to spread itself.  I hope. I hope.

  Dennis has been going through his huge container of quarters looking for bicentennial ones.  It has kept him busy and the Swiffer mop works good for the quarters that fall to the floor and insist on rolling away.  What a guy!

  It is hump day.  It feels like a gold ole Wednesday to me.

   
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  Noreen 12:47 pm on August 2, 2022 Permalink  

  A Corker of a Day 

  There is a hot breeze blowing today.  Our dewpoint is sitting at 74 with humidity in the mid 60s.

  Before the day got too long, there was one project on my hit list.  Our walk-up attic is typical of a 100 year old home’s attic.  It smells like an attic in the hot summer months.  Dennis had been out to the Fleet and Home store and came home with a jar named Fresh Wave odor removing gel.  It is actual crystals  that will in time disappear.  It was time to take the empty container down and leave a full one behind.

  When I opened the closure at the top of the steps, I was taken aback that the small window was open.  The window had been kept closed with an aluminum full turn button.  That window is as old as the house and the soft trim indicated that the turn button needed to be turned into the wood not so badly worn.   It’s a good thing that we had put a screen on that window decades ago.  I could only imagine the bats that would have found this opening at tree top level.

  In the middle of the room was a collection of items I had pulled together another time when I had visited.  Older paper bound books that were meant for the recycling bin, and a three ring binder that I recognized I had put together decades ago.

  As I walked down the attic steps backward, moving my stash with me one step at a time, the kitchen floor felt secure when my feet felt it underneath.

  The older books clunked as they hit the recycling bin.  The three ring binder, we opened on the dining room table.  It was a journal of 1993 when our town had received seven inches of rain in a short spell.  The infrastructure of the city couldn’t handle all that rain and our basement filled with water from the sanitary storm lines coming up from the floor drains and up out of the toilet.  It was four feet high of pure fecal mess.

  The city cut the power to our home and we stayed in the Super 8 until such time that the mess was down to a thick sludge on the basement floor.  With dumpsters in the drive, it was a mess with a smell that took on a life of its own and needed to be cleaned up quickly.  What carpeting we had in the basement needed to be cut up into small pieces to be able to put it in five gallon pails and carry it out.  I had documented everything with photos and a running written journal for insurance claims.  Seeing what we went through that year, I can only imagine what Kentucky is facing . . . to a much larger event. 

  Yup, I am saving that three ring binder as a reminder of what a sweet forever home we now have.   The city has since improved infrastructure.  We have since tiled the interior and my studio was created.  I so appreciate my studio.

   
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  Noreen 1:27 pm on August 1, 2022 Permalink  

  A Satisfying Day 

  When my body gets me up for a potty call at 3:30 in the morning, there is the small chance that sleep may not return.  That is what happened to me this morning.  I didn’t feel isolated as there were some birds up just as early as me.

  I waited until five before I started the coffee pot.  My plan for this Monday was to strip both beds and let the laundry begin.  The laundry did began with my bedding while the coffee perked.  I looked outside and noticed the flag had gotten wrapped around the holder.  With shoes slipped on, the red, white and blue billowed in the morning’s breeze.  Hmm.  I walked up and down the drive several times.  The air was great.  Checking out the Russian Sage up close and personnel was a treat as the bees were not up yet.  By that time there was a bit more traffic.  I made one more whip up and down the drive and decided me and my bathrobe were due back in the house for a cup of coffee.  I didn’t need anyone phoning in a welfare check for the Grammie out in her nightwear.  I took the coffee out to my bedroom porch and watched traffic until it was light enough outside that I could read without turning on a light.  I was bidding my time to put on hold the Monday’s laundry.

  No. I didn’t whip the bedding right off of the slumbering ole cowboy.  I  gave Dennis a chance to sleep until he awoke naturally.  When he headed out to the patio porch with his coffee, I had his bedding next to the laundry before he had one sip taken from his cup.  Sweet.

  I piled up fresh bedding as the clothes dryer cranked it out.  Our small vacuum has a lot of power and a super long hose.  I began vacuuming in my bedroom porch and didn’t quit until the steps down into the studio were done.  Ready or not, the dust bunnies were hunted down.

  By the time Dennis and I sat down for a noon bite . . . the beds were dressed and the floors were done.  While I was doing the Merry Maid stint in the house, Dennis had been trimming back the Snow Ball shrub in the backyard.  We both had had a great satisfying morning, and . . . we called it.  “Done for the Day.”

  Sure enough.  After five days the head cold has subsided.

  I have had a pan sized pizza in the freezer for some time.  Tonight is my night.  Dennis is having Progressive soup and a grilled cheese sandwich.  Both of us will be happy.  Where did Dennis grow up that he doesn’t like pizza?

   
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  Noreen 1:53 pm on July 31, 2022 Permalink  

  My Lazy Sunday 

  Not much in a hurry for anything today.  I can’t remember when I have had such a lazy day.  

  A nice shower of rain came through this forenoon.  I couldn’t remember when we had heard thunder.  It didn’t last near long enough.

  Dennis and the porch kitties have about as much spunk as I have today.  

  Tomorrow I will be turning the page on the calendar.  So far there are not too many appointments penciled in for August.  It will be sweet if we can keep it that way.  Dennis and I do agree that we have had excellent heath care and the trips to Mankato have been well worth it.  My oh my, if those trips would have had to have been made to Rochester, we would not be feeling as fortunate.   There are some that feel if the Rochester Mayo isn’t visited, the care is not adequate.

  Last year when Kevin and Carrie trundled me to Rochester in preparation for the heart surgery, those trips wore everyone out.  For preventative measures . . . I plan on having a few more lazy days such as this one.  Taking care of hearth and home for Dennis and It doesn’t need to be made stressful.  A dust bunny here and there allows for something to look forward to . . . the Swiffer hunt.

  My library card is always handy and the list of good authors doesn’t hurt either.  Years ago, I remember my sister-in-law needed to pack up as they were moving to Iowa.  The books that she had purchased over the years would have needed a U-Haul all by itself.  Community libraries were built and funded to be used.

  There is more of this lazy day to enjoy and lookie, look . . . there is a book open in my bedroom porch just waiting for some pages to be turned.

   
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  Noreen 3:24 pm on July 30, 2022 Permalink  

  Last Weekend 

  This is the last weekend of July.  A lot has gone on this month and the time has gone fast.  Would I like this hot month to repeat itself . . . no!

  Dennis’ daughter, the RN, was here today from Mankato.  I think she may have been checking up on the care her dad has been getting . . . from me.   A little too late.  This was her first visit since Christmas.  Oh well.  Submarine’s surface when something is needed.  She came to pick up the vehicle that has been stored in our back garage.  Good thing Dennis kept the battery charged.  Sweet ole cowboy!

  I hemmed my scrappy quilt late yesterday afternoon.  I had quilted it on my sewing machine by free motion under the needle.  When all was said and done and the fuzz and thread got picked up, I laundered the quilt and dried it in the clothes dryer.  It gave the batting a chance to puff up a bit after I had mashed it down with the stitching.  This is my quilt and it is on my bed in the porch bedroom.  It is a busy quilt and it is growing on me.  It is not the traditional quilt that repeats the block pattern over and over.

  I have not even given myself time to think about what will take place in the studio going forward. This scrappy had kept me busy since late winter.

  It is getting warm outside and that should not surprise any one of us.  One thing I can say is that the mosquitoes have not been bad.  No rain over a long extended time will do that.

  “Be near me Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay.  Close by me forever and love me I pray.”