Random Musings

The pond dam behind our house has a small flat area in one "corner" called a spillway. I've only seen water flow over it a a few times since we've lived here - during hurricanes or extended heavy rain times, and once when a dead turtle got stuck on top of the drain pipe and we had a day of rain. But about a month ago, something got stuck inside the pipe (the country in me wants to write "down inside" but Bobby always gripes when I stick the extra preposition "down" in front of another preposition), and the water level has been quite high and has been going over the spillway at a regular rate since then. Since the workers have cleared a path for the sewer line near the spillway, I was able to walk through part of it and see exactly where it returns to the stream (as opposed to where the pipe empties water on the other side of the dam). The pond easing over the spillway. It's usually at least a foot lower. and the stream heading to the...

2/3 of the water pipes along Clifford Rd are now installed. The last two days they've been placing some metal thing (that's about the size of a vehicle) into the ground near my sister-in-law's house. The path for the sewer line connection from a nearby subdivision (through my Mom-in-law's farm) has been cleared, and below are pictures of the actual site itself: 2nd wing of the main building has now been added. A closer view. Not exactly sure what they're doing now, but they're working day and nights. and the 2nd building, which is nearby the one above So far nothing has been done for the parking lots, football field, or other areas, but they are working as weather permits (and sometimes even in the rain).

Life with any long term illness or disability means many visits to the doctor. It's just  a part of life. One of my favorite things to do is check out the artwork at each place. Bobby and I see different general physicians in the same practice. I know my dr. is a believer. He has quite a few Christian magazines as reading options in his office, as well as some Christian artwork on the walls. In the course of conversation, we've talked about mission trips, adoption (that came up when we got our physicals for our home study) and he leads a Bible study at his church. Today while seeing Bobby's dr, I noticed he has one of the same pieces of artwork (and the other is one he painted himself). The glare doesn't make it the easiest to read, but it says "Behold, I make all things new!" - a verb change from Revelations 21:5, but I love both the concept and the artwork. Truth on so many levels.

Last night my Facebook feeds were filling up with posts and newslinks from home, as there was another gas explosion.  I should say "gas explosion" and not "another" as the last one was almost 25 years ago when I was in high school. But I've not forgotten it. I still remember the blast, how our house shook, how we thought it was a train that derailed and crashed, and then the fear and concern as we heard sirens coming near our house, stepped out side, and saw the flames reaching up above the tree tops. An older couple died, one immediately, one later.  To this day gas makes me a little nervous. As the night wore on and more details became now, I heard that three workers from Cordova's utility company were injured. Found out this morning one of them was a classmate from high school. The hospital kept him overnight for observation. The last time I saw him was at our one and only reunion a few years ago, and he was sharing his fears from the day the two tornad...

Two things I have always enjoyed doing are going to Estate sales and sorting through pictures. But lately both of those things are becoming not quite so fun. About 20 years ago, a friend of mine didn't have a camera, and I asked her about it. (I was always taking pictures of everything and everyone.) She told me that her parents held an antique store and often were invited to sort through homes after people had died and the remaining relatives had taken all they wanted. Pictures were one of the things that often got left behind. She said you wouldn't believe the number of photos that got thrown away. I've tried to be a little more selective in what I take and what I actually print (printing and digital photographs...that's a whole separate blog post!) since that conversation, but I still take a LOT of pictures. During Mom's surgery and over Thanksgiving, we tackled the boxes of photos Mom has, trying to sort them into ziplock bags by years. In four days of work,...

My cousin Rachel, in her early 30s and mother to two, is fighting with insurance...to have her reconstruction surgery. No one at that age who has lost her mother and grandmother to breast cancer, has faced a stage 3 diagnosis, has endured a double mastectomy, chemo, radiation, and is now dealing with the side effects from those treatments, should have to fight and refile paperwork just to have her ports removed and breasts reconstructed. Friday she found out that the insurance was denying the procedure for the 2nd time in five months. The first time they said her "application" was never turned in; the second time they said the paperwork proving her radiation treatments were over was not submitted. My heart hurts for her. Incompetence on anyone's part is not something you need to contend with while you are recovering from a cancer ordeal. Sometimes I wonder what would happen to our country if doctors refused to deal with insurance companies at all, and you paid a set fee...

Well, since my last post on body piercings, we went to Krispy Kreme Saturday evening to get a hot doughnut (something we've never done before). As soon as we made it through the door (the line was long), I was face to face with another customer who had the "all over" piercing...except this girl had one I had never seen before.  She had about 5 holes in each ear, the eyebrow, the upper lip, the lower lip, the tongue...and a fingernail size stud above the nose on each side of the beginning of her eyebrows. It's one of those scenarios where you don't want to look but you have a hard time not looking. I wanted so badly to pull out my camera and snap her picture and post it (it was almost too incredible to see), but I knew that would be rude and I wouldn't want someone doing that of me. Can't you just imagine that post?  I saw the craziest girl today. Her hair had NO color in it AT all and NO tattoos or facial piercings. Is she a total prude or what? Except I d...

Over Christmas we had one of our "normal" crazy conversations with a set of nieces and nephews. Within the last few years they've started throwing out what they call "random topics" for us to discuss (though I'm finding they're a lot less random than they want us to believe). This year one of their topics was facial piercings (to which they clarified eyebrow, cheek, lip, tongues, excessive ear piercing...the "all over" look I think they called it). I think they expected Bobby's "yuck",  but my response sent them into a fit of giggles and shock. There's nothing wrong with it, the Bible doesn't condemn it, but it makes me want to throw up. If I go into a restaurant and waiter/waitress has it, I lose my appetite. I would seriously consider leaving. Even if I don't, I wouldn't go back there again. (I think it was the last sentence that made their jaws hit the floor.) My niece, who is all about peace and love and harmon...

In my mind, I've always (okay, the last ten years or so) thought about owning/running a quilt shop. Whenever I see an empty building in our area, I mentally think about how that spot would/would not work as a space. And whenever I enter a new quilt shop, the back of my mind is storing ideas or rejecting layouts. The reality is, this will always be a dream. One of those things I think about, but will most likely never do. In the last two weeks an airline called Frontline has made news in the SCI world, and not in a positive way. They were fined $50,000 for refusing to allow a passenger to fly because he was a quadriplegic and couldn't hold himself upright in the seat without extended seatbelts (which he had made the staff aware of when the bought the ticket and had even brought his own belt extensions) and then a second man was boarded after the plane was full (wheelchair users are always first on, last off because staff needs the extra room to transfer them in out of the boar...

Someone on Facebook posted an article  last week. Basically, a Swiss company has developed a fake spinal cord that could potentially enable paralyzed people to walk. It doesn't replace the spinal cord or repair the damaged parts, so no feelings or sensations, prevention of muscle spasms or elimination of AHD, but it would send messages from the brain to the muscles, enabling a person to walk without the use of the heavy exoskeleton (and I'm hoping without the exoskeleton's astronomical cost). It's not been field-tested on humans yet, only mice. So realistically, even if it passes further studies and makes it into human trial, by the time it is finished and passes FDA standards, provided they approve it, it would still take time for doctors and insurance companies in the US to be willing to try it out. We're talking 5-10 years down the road, at the earliest. I'm excited. For 35 years, the medical community has been saying "cures are around the corner"...

My friend and former co-worker, Amanda, is now back home in Ethiopia after being medically evacuated to Kenya last week. She's still got a long way to go and still needs prayers, but it's just good news to hear that her family is once again united and she's slowly getting better. Due to the ongoing adoption process, they feel it's best at this time for her not to return to the States, though they're still considering that as an option for a few weeks so she can seek her doctor here and get some much needed rest (though the plane trip here and there wouldn't be very restful). And...Mom's visit yesterday to the pulmonary doctor resulted in some good news (by my standards, at least). He confirmed that neither her heart nor lungs are damaged; only the artery between the two is not working properly. Thankfully, this can be treated with medication. So she has to go through a lot of tests and paperwork this next month so the insurance will pay the exorbitant pric...

I knew in college that I was learning a lot of things, but I think I'm still discovering even now just how greatly my college experience shaped who I am today. One of the authors I was exposed to in college was James Weldon Johnson, particularly his book of poems called God's Trombones, based on African-American sermons. One of the drama students in college performed several of his pieces during chapel, and I've never forgotten those presentations. I checked the book out from the library this weekend and read several of the poems/sermons to Bobby this afternoon. Johnson took liberties in his poetry, which many black preachers tend to do, but he captured the cadence of the sermon extremely well. I can hear the rhythm and deep, bass voice in my head every time I read one. While "Creation" is probably the most well-known of the seven sermons, it's actually not one of my top two favorites. As morbid as it sounds, one of them is "Go Down Death". I...

I grew up in an area where beauty pageants were the norm. Almost every year, in elementary school, I would be one of the few girls in my class who did not enter. If I remember correctly, the pageant was actually a fundraiser by the PTA. I attended a Christian school during middle school, so that eliminated any thought of such things other than seeing pictures of winners from numerous pageants in the paper and copies passed around at family reunions if a person "placed". In high school, only a handful of girls did the pageant circuit, though many girls would do it "at least once", as part of their high school experience. I've thought about some of those memories a lot the past few weeks. My youngest niece has decided to join the insanity. Her friends talked her into it five years ago, as she was the only person in first grade who did not compete. So in second grade, she participated, absolutely hated it, and refused for third grade, which was totally fine with ...

I've typed four posts since Thursday. I've deleted all four of those posts, intentionally. To prevent being a bad news bear or an outlet of negativity, I'm not going into details in these situations, but please pray for these families: 1) The Wilkinsons 2) Charae 3) The Potts 4) The Wyatts 5) The Lewis family 6) Lytle/Atwood families 7) the Beatty family A funny from today...For Bobby's 60th birthday, 1/2 of his family met at Toot-n-Tell for breakfast. For the 6 great nieces and nephews who could be there (ages 1-6), I had helium balloons on the table that they could take home after we ate. The kids were thrilled; the parents just gave us that look. My sister-in-law stayed behind and told us that many years ago the oldest one got a balloon at a restaurant, and she suggested in the parking lot they they let it go and give it to Jesus. So they did. A few years later, leaving the same restaurant, she overheard the oldest tell her younger sister "Whatever y...

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.   I've been reminding myself of that old saying this week as I slowly tackle cleaning house. And housework with a wheelchair involved is very similar to the way a cow eats...you're constantly cleaning the same thing over and over and over. We met someone once who had an indoor and an outdoor wheelchair. Bobby was aghast. Not only is the cost of that prohibitive, but the thought of having to be transferred into a different chair every time you want to leave the house or come back inside is horrid. Just the thought of a minimum of four extra transfers a day makes my shoulders hurt. But I am determined that this year I can somewhat return to everything having a place and everything being somewhat organized (though the kitchen table is already mocking me on that one). I am so not there, but hopefully, by this summer, I will be. One bite at a time.

A few days ago we started receiving junk e-mail...from ourselves. Yes, our own personal e-mail account was sending us spam. I ran our anti-virus software and double checked to make sure all the updates and been installed (they had) and nothing showed. The next morning, same thing. So I went to the e-mail help section, found out many people have this problem, downloaded the company software to check for malware, which took all day to run, found nothing...same thing. So this morning I go to google, found a forum in our e-mail's software where a university professor shared some info, as well as many links to four different types of virus checks his university (Stanford) offered to students. They also had a 30 day trial version that people can run just to check and see what is on the computer. It found two pieces of malware. It quarantined them instead of removing them. So now I'm wondering what will happen when the trial version ends. Does the quarantine end as well? Equally b...

One of my sister-in-laws lives in Rockingham County, NC.  During December we had the chance to drive up and spend half a day with her. After lunch, she took us to the nearby town of Wentworth to see the new county museum. And I must say, I was a bit impressed. I don't remember what building these concrete slabs came from, but they made an incredibly awesome table and chairs. Can't you picture little kids on a field trip eating their lunches here before/after a trip to the museum? While I did enjoy the few quilts they had out on display, one of my two favorite exhibits from the museum was a photography exhibit from a local person who had worked for the Smithsonian. They were incredible. The second favorite thing was the building itself - an old courthouse. I was amazed at the doors and the archway, the old tile floors, the safes (some of the exhibits were actually housed in the safes, which are huge and which I found both interesting and a bit unnerving if I thought a...

I've been trying to tackle one small thing (housework wise) each day the last week. It's not a planned thing, but something I've just been trying to do to keep the house semi-clean. And last night, while waiting for supper to finish cooking, I started this one project (because it was there, in front of me, daring me) and finished it this morning. Normally Bobby is not happy when I throw things away, but today when I showed him the labels, he actually laughed. Most of these are Kroger brand.  The year before we got married, I lived across the street from Garner High School (which connects to the Kroger shopping center). But I've not shopped there since 2000.  That tells you how old these spices are. And somewhat in my defense...I used to cook a lot of things from scratch. Bobby's parents had a huge garden every summer, as well as beef cows, so I learned to make spaghetti and chili without the seasoning packets. And then we had to cut back/out the tomato produ...