Me, Myself and Memories

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  Noreen 5:18 pm on January 26, 2019 Permalink  

  It is to be a huffing and puffing… 

  It is to be a huffing and puffing spell for the furnace.  The forecast for the next six days doesn’t look very much above zero.  We worked outside for a time to clear away some fresh fallen snow.  With the sun and no wind to speak of, it didn’t seem bad.

  Today was swap out day for bedding.  I actually don’t swap them out.  The sheets get taken off the beds to be laundered and then put right back on.  A linen closet full of choices is not something that I thought we needed here on Stauffer Avenue. 

  As the bed in the west porch was being made, a chuckle came about.  When Michael and Joann were here in the fall of last year, I was showing JoAnn a quilt on the bed.  The bed touches three walls of the four sides of it.  JoAnn commented it must be quite the job to dress the bed.  As I was going through my antics to do just that, I chuckled.  An older adult conquering the quest of the bed versus walls.  It most likely would make a humorous YouTube video.  Our tiny home is our forever home and of course there are going to be challenges.  I am up for them.

  Dennis came in and said the livestock was down by one.  The oldest of the four cats has died.  Tabetha came to us as a stray battling snow banks for food.  We took her in and she had the best three years of her life.  It seemed fitting that I help Dennis take her basket bed apart afterwards.  Dennis went off to the laundromat with that and some other rugs from the patio porch and I began doing some cleaning.  It is now up to Honey Bunny, Snuggles and Harriet to keep Dennis company in the patio porch.  I think it will all work out just fine. 

   
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  Noreen 4:57 pm on January 25, 2019 Permalink  

  All is Back to Normal 

  It may have been cold out with full sunshine.  That was the just the ticket we needed to head out for errands.  I thought we had just done that!  

  Our pharmacy in Shopko is in a flux.  Monday, I went to fill one of Dennis’ meds that he needs for his trip with nephew Brett.  The are leaving Feb. 3rd.  It needed to be 60 pills to last 30 days.  When I received the bottle and had paid for it, I was told they could only do 40 pills.  I asked when I could stop back for the other 20.  Hello!!  The pharmacy is closing and they are no longer receiving meds for prescriptions.  If they happen to have them . . . you may get a full prescription or you may get less than what is needed.  They could have had a sign up.  

  Today we had an appointment with Dennis’ doctor for a new prescription.  Once the old one was processed, we had to start anew.  This med is a specialty.  Only one month prescription at a time and they must last 30 days.  The new start date of the prescription is Feb. 8, 2019.  Where Dennis and Brett will be on the 8th is anyone’s guess.  Upon advice from our doctor we drove over to Mountain Lake’s pharmacy.  It is a privately owned pharmacy and this pharmacist takes care of his customers.  He and our doctor are working hand in hand, so Dennis can pick up the meds on the first of February and have them with him when he leaves St. James.  It seems when a pharmacy is linked to a chain, there is no consideration for the timing of a vacation and how it interacts with what the label on the pill bottle indicates.  The store linked to a chain . . . does not recognize people.  They only work with numbers.  We are so fortunate to have good doctors that have a rapport with good pharmacists.  

  I on the other hand needed my blood pressure meds refilled.  Where to go?  I decided to have the prescription sent down the highway to Madelia.  It’s 20 minutes and I have a 90 day supply with each refill.  

  As lucks would have it, GEEK Squad in Mankato had left a message that the HP laptop was ready to be picked up.  I had called and we got an appointment for later in the afternoon.  I also made them aware I was bringing with me a Dell Laptop.  All was good to go.  Dennis and I stopped at home for a bite of noon lunch and off to Mankato we went.  There was no charge on the HP.  The HP got a total new top.  No more sticking keys . . . and there are no more worn off keys.  The Dell was looked at and tweaked with a minor adjustment under the hood.  I came home with both computers and there was no charge.  What wonderful service!

  On the way home from Mankato, we stopped in Madelia and I picked up my 90 day supply for a whopping charge of $2.95.   By the way . . . Madelia is hooked to the chain of the Lewis Drugstores, that is why our doctor sent us to the independently owned pharmacy in Mountain Lake for Dennis’ medication.

  Our last stop was here in town at the library.  It is to be cold for quite the stretch and nighttime viewing is less than wonderful.  I can while away the after-suppertime with a good book.

  This was a busy day.  After we got home and made ourselves a cup of coffee, I marveled.  We had spent the entire day out and about with an outlay of cash of $2.95.  Gas for the pickup was $1.97 per gallon.  What a heck of road trip for us.  It sure does feel good to have these annoying little issues taken care of.  Having everything covered before it becomes a panic or causes stress is . . . priceless.

  P.S. I had sent Nicholas and Megan some of my stitching.  Something totally out of the blue.  I had been playing around with cork fabric and thought it would be fun to make each of them a wallet. The one pictured was my prototype.  Nicholas’ was brown and Megan’s was black with silver in and among the look.  Grammie can’t always do the same old, same old.

   
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  Noreen 4:48 pm on January 24, 2019 Permalink  

  When the morning finally registered to my slumber… 

  When the morning finally registered to my slumber, I was hesitant to open my eyes.  It sounded horrible outside.  The wind chimes were a constant rattle.  The wind rushing through the evergreen outside the northwest side of the house sounded more like a train.

  Wonder of wonders, the driveway had not drifted over to any degree.  I could still see Randy’s tractor tire tracks that had drug gravel from the street.  The portion of the driveway I had cleaned off with the leaf blower was still clean.  I did not think the snow was heavy enough to have held firm.  Yippee for us.

  I am in between serious sewing and stitching projects and have decided to take a break and do some reading.  I had sent Nicholas and Megan a package with some stitching in it for each of them.  Obviously I don’t have any photos loaded here on the ole cowboy’s computer to share right now.  I may get the photos loaded but then I also need to download a program to resize them.  When Megan received the package in the mail, I got a text that said “awesome,” I knew I could take a bit of a break from the sewing studio. 

  The house smells oh so good as there is a pork roast in the oven along with an Acorn squash.  A good oven meal always adds a bit of warmth to the kitchen.

  I will add if I am to stay on the ole cowboy’s computer much longer, each one of these keys need to be cleaned . . . just saying.

   
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  Noreen 7:03 pm on January 23, 2019 Permalink  

  A Whirlwind of a Day 

  How can two  people have so much to take care of!  I don’t think it’s because it is so much, we just putts around.  Both vehicles needed tabs, this ole gal needed to get her driver’s license renewed and the refrigerator was quite bare.  My license wasn’t due until March, but the way the service has been, why put it off.  Ten years ago, I would have had that licked by nine in the morning.  As it was we got home at three due to the fact we decided to have a late lunch at the Home Town Café and ended up visiting with lots of acquaintances.

  Coming home I felt I needed to check my emails.  The 11-year-old Dell laptop may have decided to retire.  Heck, everyone else in the house is.

  So you may ask . . . why do two retirees have three computers in the house.  As I said, the Dell laptop I bought eleven years ago . . . that was quite the treat and the deal.  Dennis soon learned how much fun it was to play the free card games.  Well, what is better than keeping the hand to eye contact going!  Off to Best Buy and Dennis has his own spot here in the west porch.  He has panoramic view of what is going on out in the neighborhood as well as he is his own traffic controller so to speak.  Three years go or so, Kevin and Kersten were amazed at the age of the Dell.  There were no longer any updates for it.  I think it was Windows 7.  I then had an HP Notebook as a Christmas present from them.  At first I baulked. Their thought was, that as different as the current applications were from what I was use to, I would get frustrated and not continue enjoying my life being active with a computer if all of a sudden the older one died and it was do or die.  Boy . . . were they right.  It was as different as night and day.  The HP sits in the living room here on the first floor.  The older Dell went into my sewing studio to assist in downloading stitching designs.  It has all been working like a top having three computers. 

  The Dell is unplugged, the HP is at the Geek Squad getting a new keyboard and what would I ever do if I didn’t budge in on Dennis’ sanctuary here in the west porch!  Amazing.

  I was just getting set up to do my blog on his computer for the first time when my cell phone went off.  It was Dennis out in the patio porch.  Of course, I dropped the call.  It was just as easy for me to go out to the patio porch and see what was going on.  Harriet is home after being gone for four days!!  Harriet the cat had had cabin fever and slipped out on the first of the bitter cold days.  With a foot of snow to travel through, we thought she would look around and decide her warm basket was the best place for her.  Not!  Dennis would wait in the patio porch each night with the lights on inside and out waiting for her to no avail.  Who knows where she was.  She did head right to the Meow Mix bowl.  Dennis feels so much better that his four kids are all home and accounted for.  Peaceful night here on Stauffer Avenue. 

  On a note, Dennis’ computer really has a different touch.  I am very thankful for the use of it.  Time to close as Dennis will be in shortly to check his Facebook posts.  After all, the ole cowboy has people.

   
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  Noreen 5:08 pm on January 22, 2019 Permalink  

  Dennis had a chance to meet with a… 

  Dennis had a chance to meet with a lot of his classmates and long time friends at McDonald’s for coffee.  I always encourage him to go and enjoy.  It’s quite outside of my world of opportunity, but people that graduated high school together, and still remain in the same community and are of the age of 82 . . . I say priceless. 

  Left on my own I knew I needed fresh air and some exercise.  Heart, body and soul came together for me.  It seemed milder outside today than the last several days.  The little flag on the corner of the front steps indicated the breeze was from the southeast.  A light coating of snow had fallen overnight.  With my lightweight leaf blower, it was fun to blow off the patios.  Hmm.  It worked so well, so why not dig out another extension cord and try the back door area.

  I was almost giddy when I realized that the air from the leaf blower when held close to the concrete, peeled off the hard, older crusted snow like potato chips.  Away I went.  About fifty feet of the ninety feet of driveway cleared off.  My level of comfort was good but the electrical cords were hard to manage as their flexibility was hampered by the cold by quite a bit.  

  As I mentioned the fresh air and exercise served me well.  I was then content to come inside to fix a hot bowl of the ole Quaker Oatmeal.

  Later on some time was spent in the sewing studio to hem my quilt.  There were not any long time spans at one time as my arms could feel that the swinging of the leaf blower had made an impact.  Nothing hurt . . . they were just a bit limp.

  I had a great day, feel good and celebrated by getting to the library to check out a few books.  The air is to switch to the northwest with gusting winds.  It will be interesting to see if the leaf blower will be called into duty tomorrow . . . or maybe the snow pusher will be a better option.

   
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  Noreen 6:18 pm on January 21, 2019 Permalink  

  Crazy 8 Quilt 

  

  The Crazy 8 Quilt is out of the shopping bag. The reason it is called Crazy 8 is that each 8″ block is made out of five different fabrics. I chose to put four of those 8″ blocks together to make a 16″ block. The five pieces of the 8″ block can be put together just as many ways that you can think of. I chose to have the focus on pinwheels. The quilt top has multiple pinwheels in it depending how the eye travels. I wanted the dark blue pinwheel to be the eye candy. The picket fence border was a great challenge. The binding prep is underway. It sounds like we have another cold day tomorrow to spend time stitching the day away. This has been a fun project and it is MINE. All other quilts I have used have been using scrappy fabrics. These five fabrics were a joy to find in three different quilt shops.

   
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  Noreen 2:57 pm on January 20, 2019 Permalink  

  Then and Now 

  

  Mom had a favorite pattern for embroidery. These flowers were done in numerous colors. Mom gave me these embroidered pillow cases in the late 1980s. I crocheted and attached the edging for them. They indeed were special. Not long after I did the crocheting, working with threads became difficult for my hands. In today’s world, within my stashes were two pair of white pillow cases that Mom had ready to embroider on, but it didn’t come into fruition. My project was to make use of these from a time long gone. Within the green checked shopping bag that my Crazy 8 quilt is still resting in, is the quilt that will match the border fabric I used on Mom’s made ready pillowcase. We are getting closer to letting the quilt out of the bag. After I have these pillow cases ready to go, I have been working on getting the binding ready for the 100″ x 100″ Crazy 8 blue quilt.

   
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  Noreen 6:41 pm on January 19, 2019 Permalink  

  Considering that I stayed in bed until 9:30… 

  Considering that I stayed in bed until 9:30 this morning, I had a very good day of activity.  Randy blew out our driveway quite early thing morning.  It seems we had about 10 inches of snow.  

  With coffee laced with a bit of sugar and heavy whipping cream, I was ready to get suited up and tidy up the yard.  Randy does several passes up and down the driveway.  It takes out the bulk that would have us totally overwhelmed.  Dennis manned our walk-behind blower and I had a pusher and a shovel.  In time we had the bins for garbage and recycling dug out, the doorway cleared on Stauffer Ave. for Dennis’s pickup, and the front landing – complete with a walkway for the mail carrier to travel from Stauffer Ave. through our yard.  It was not without several breaks in the patio porch.  I didn’t even want to know how cold it was outside.

  Once we had caught a second wind we cleared the east and west patio around the patio porch.  I have no idea what is up with that.  Once the nickel gets shoved in the slot it buys more time than what most oldies our age are even aware of.

  As I was cleaning off the landing and step in front of the house, the FedEx truck stopped.  A young fellow hopped out.  “You are going to need this once you are done moving snow.”  It was the tea I had ordered.  My doctor had told me how beneficial Turmeric was for arthritis.  I do use it in the shake and bake for doing chicken, but there is only so much that is needed.  I found a website, and as of today, I have a variety of six boxes of tea bags all containing Turmeric. 

  We shut off the snowblower about 1:30 and tucked the shovel and pusher away.  After I got in and could feel my nose, I did get the tea kettle going.  The flavor I tried was Turmeric Three Roots.  It was Turmeric, Ginger and Licorice.  It said to steep it for 8-10 minutes.  The aroma was fantastic.  I have tried tea before . . . not impressed.  The taste of this tea is wonderful.  I filled my cup three times and even with the last cup of hot water, there was a great flavor.  I am going to give this a good try as I am not in like with meds to solve problems.

  Both of us could feel the activity.  I made the call on supper.  A big bowl of Oatmeal with side dressings of cinnamon and brown sugar.  I opted for some cream over mine.  Dennis had milk. It was very satisfying. 

  Tonight we will either sleep like the dead or will not be able to settle down for being overly weary.  It doesn’t matter one way or another.  It may be another 9:30 morning for us tomorrow.

   
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  Noreen 4:40 pm on January 18, 2019 Permalink  

  The Test of Mettle 

  I believe I may have gone beyond Dennis’ mettle in regard to his stitching abilities.  Give Dennis a puzzle to work through for pin pointing what needs to be done in all aspects of a vehicle.  He knows when to hold it or when to fold it and get it into a repair shop.  

  We are in a snow situation here and that means that we hunker down until the snow stops and then we move it.  Neighbor Randy has already been down our driveway and his when he was on his noon break from John Deere. 

  I was at my sewing machine finishing up the last of what I wanted to get done in my adventures working with cork fabric.  Dennis wanted to help by doing some serger work on the cotton dinner napkins.  My machine was working with one spool of thread.  Dennis’ serger was working with four spools of thread.  It sounded like a a good way for Dennis to while away some time.  The project was clipping right along.  I had encourage and advised him to do what we call chain sewing.  When the one side of one napkin was stitched just feed another one right behind it under the presser foot.  The threads are not cut to separate them until all of the napkins have had one side stitched.  It eliminates the need to lower and raise the pressure foot to position the fabric each time. 

  Somewhere along the line, that process wasn’t going well and Dennis wanted to cut one from the machine as each side was done.  When thread is held taut behind the needle and then cut the pressure and tension causes the thread to snap back out of the eye of the needle.  In this case two needles.  The snap back extended far beyond the eyes of the needle.  Where oh where did these two threads snap back and become overlaid with the remaining threads from the other two spools.   At that time, Dennis thought that perhaps he could see if his snowblower would start and move some snow around.  It was a good call on his part.  

  I got my Dell computer down into the sewing room.  I knew there was a good YouTube called “A man and his serger.”  I dug out the manual.  Between the two, I should be able to get everything re-threaded. It had been a challenge getting the four spools threaded the first time and one time does make a blueprint in my mind on how to successfully repeat it.   

  Midway through, I got dressed and went outside to move a little bit of snow around and clear my head.  Dennis and I both got a good amount of the driveway cleared.  No . . . it’s still snowing.  There will be plenty for Randy to play with after he is done with work.

  It’s now supper time.  The serger is ready to go again.  My cork fabric projects are done.  Dennis has gotten some snow exercise and is enjoying playing solitaire on his computer in the west house porch.  Dennis’ mettle is in good shape.  I may have stretched it a bit.  It’s all about living and learning – and we sure do a good job of it here.

   
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  Noreen 5:37 pm on January 17, 2019 Permalink  

  New Day – New Feelings 

  It may be cold out, but with the sun shining, it makes a world of difference.  Our evergreen on the northwest corner of the house was filled with singing, chirping birds.

  We had a dusting of snow that didn’t take long to push off.  The fresh air felt great and it made me feel so much better than yesterday.  

  Yesterday the mail brought supplies for my Santa Project.  If he is going to get a new suit, I feel he warranted a new belt and buckle.  It is amazing what can be found with a few flicks of the fingertips.  I could very well have contrived a new vinyl belt given enough time to find the right vinyl in the right store in Mankato.  For $15.99 and free shipping I have both items ready to use in time to come.  A second package came that has the closures that I am going to use for Santa’s jacket.  We are getting closer to a start.

  I was content in the sewing studio this afternoon when the cell phone went off.  My good friend Sharon at the Old Alley Quilt Shop called to tell me my quilt had been longarmed and ready for pickup.  I had taken the quilt top to Sherburn when Megan was here over MEA weekend in October.  Sharon had a fall in early November that put her in the hospital for a time as she had broken her hip.  Sharon may have gotten behind with quilting, but I had assured the shop, I was not in a rush for it.  In time to come I will be getting a binding ready for it.  In the meantime, in between time, it is going to have to stay in their signature green checked shopping bag until I finish a few other items.  The suspense will no doubt spur me on.  

  As I mentioned, I felt so much better today in regard to the arthritis.  It is the luck of the draw.  My mother-in-law, Esther, felt the humidity and air pressure had a lot to do with it.  It doesn’t really matter as each day comes into its own and I take it the way it comes.