Random Musings

This past week one of the cardiologist PA's chatted for a few minutes before finishing rounds. A few years ago this PA had a patient whose spinal cord injury was one level above Bobby's (meaning paralyzed neck down instead of chest down), and was not only young, but in very bad shape. He was paralyzed at a young age while jumping on a trampoline. He was placed in a nursing home. This part of the story actually doesn't surprise me. An injury that high would require a lot of care and time, and if the Mom was single or working, there would simply not be the time or energy needed to do what this child would need. Even many adults who are Bobby's level or higher wind up in nursing homes because of the cost and time involved in caregiving. But what horrified us both was when she said no one came to see him...at all. Not for meetings with the doctors, not for a five minute visit....nothing. This young man had no one.  The PA was concerned enough to call the nursing home and se...

I had all these plans for our big snow. I even went to the fabric store so I could spend half of my inside time working on a quilt.  And then we lost power. And had two roof leaks. Then Bobby got sick. I am very grateful for our generator, as much as I've griped every year about it. (It was one of those marriage situations where "this is happening and it really doesn't matter that I've not consulted you", and for the first nine years we had it I complained every time I had to take off work for the maintenance guy to come or with every bill we've had to pay on it.) But I cannot imagine having to look after someone who is sick without lights, heat, water, or the microwave to heat things. More than once this week I've felt more than a little chagrin for all my griping. Last night, in the midst of Bobby's fever spike, and in one of those "I simply cannot do this again; I just want to sleep one hour" moments,  I headed to the bathroom for a cold...

We've had sleet/freezing rain since about 5:30am. By 3pm the ice had backed up in the gutter and on the roof, which meant as it melts, the water accumulates under the ice and has nowhere to go...except through our ceiling. It's happened once before - only during ice storms, never snow or rain. It was becoming quite bad (as in 1/4 a buck of water in about 30 minutes) and I was texting my brother-in-law for suggestions when my neighbor stopped by. She had just found out about Bobby being in the hospital and was bringing a meal and checking on him. We both just looked at each other, and I wondered why on earth I never thought to call her husband, who builds houses for a living. She went and got him, and he came, crawled up in the attic and found the spot, put some pans there to stop the downpour, then got a ladder and broke away the ice from the roof AND our gutters around that area so the water would have a place to go. He told us more than once to call us if it backed up again, ...

Sometimes the communication wires in my brain are a traffic jam. There are simply too many thoughts rushing in too many directions for anyone to keep up with one train of thought. And that's okay. My husband is a very private person. There are times I write a post, only to delete it because I realize it's not just my story, but his as well. And he's not into social media. Other times life is just very busy, and there's simply not the time in a day to sit down and write. (Although one of the many reasons I started this blog was to help me do that very thing.) As much as I like to write, and as much as I do an okay job of teaching, I find that I'm not the best communicator in the world. I was reminded of that this past weekend. We spent three days at the hospital. Day one was in the ER as they ran tests and waited to see if things would improve on their own. The nurse in charge of our section was laughing a little. She remembered us from last fall, only becaus...

About 10 years ago, I met a woman who was working on a Dear Jane quilt. I looked at all the teeny tiny pieces, and thought "No earthly way. Not in this lifetime."  Since then I've seen a few at quilt shows, briefly admired the chosen color scheme or the handiwork, then moved on. I was never one of those to stand and focus or think in front of the quilt. It was simply too much, too tiny. Here's a picture of a quilt in the original style, from www.dearjane.com: See all those tiny squares? The entire block (each square) measures 4.5" when finished. Those are tiny, tiny pieces in those blocks. Smaller than my fat fingers even care to think about. I bought the book yesterday. WHY? Curiosity for one reason. But also, with all my fabric accumulations from last year and leftover scraps from quilts I made, this is just one of many possibilities to help use it up. I don't know if or when I'll ever start. In the introduction, there's a note that the origin...

Over the years ladies in our church have always said "We should do a cookbook." And everyone would nod and say "Yes, we really should." And we never did.  Over the last month I've been thinking about that, and actually researched it, and came up with the crazy conclusion that it actually might be doable. Sunday our Pastor's wife handed me back all the paperwork, said her husband had looked at it and "go for it".  And now I have this crazy fear that no one will give me any recipes. Several years ago we did a Bible study that involved cooking classes. One lady would give a cooking demo (and have recipe handouts). While the food was cooking, we'd have Bible study. Once the food was ready, we'd eat and have discussion groups. It was awesome. So I do have almost all of the recipes saved from that. I've spent most of today typing them in (only 6 more pgs to go!).  This is the type of stuff that I actually enjoy doing. Well, I'm not craz...

Earlier this winter (that seems so strange to type as most of our winter has been spring/fall temps) our neighbor gave us a huge bag of persimmon seeds. Evidently Bobby's uncle had planted a persimmon tree near the mailbox, and the new homeowner, knowing that it will likely be cut down in all the upcoming construction, said all many of the seeds from the fruit this year. So my dearest husband looked up instructions online on how to properly tend the seeds. The seeds have been in refrigeration for the last six weeks, as instructed, and today I'll pull them out and put them in water to soak for two days. But from that point on, I'm seriously contemplating deviating from the instructions. The instructions call for planting the seeds directly in the ground, then as they grow into seedlings, thin them out, then the 2nd autumn, thin the row out again according to the number of trees you want to keep. Umm, dear nursery people...not everyone has a nursery, or space for planting...

It's so hard to believe that today marks the end of the first week of 2016! So here's my first list of thankfulness for the week: 1. Rain - I know we've had a lot, but with all the droughts of last year, it truly is a blessing (unless you're one of those who lost your house due to flooding.) One of the leaders in CA was saying they were able to store up enough water from rain run-off this week to provide for 40,000 people. That's not a lot for such large cities, but it's truly amazing when you stop and think about it. 2. Heat -  We've joked some this year as I've upped the temp in our house a degree or two (our thermostat is now on 70). And yet, there are days I've still been cold. Bobby is normally the cold one in our house, and he claims it's been too hot for him a few days. I'm thinking maybe I need to invest in some sweatshirts. Either way, I am very grateful for the heat we do have, and that it's more than adequate. 3. A Dryer ...

The other night I FINALLY finished reading A  Plague of Frogs by William Souder. The first chapter or two was riveting, giving background details to what I remembered hearing on the news many years ago. It was horrifying to think about. Because so many scientists and areas and viewpoints were involved, Souder's book simply follows the timeline of the story, meaning a LOT of jumping around from viewpoint to viewpoint and area to area. It was a little hard to remember who was in what area if you're only reading the book a little at a time like I was. The last 125 pages of the book are probably the best. The pace has picked up and you think an answer is finally in sight. Only, it's not. Well, at least not in the way readers are accustomed to have endings. Basically, there are multiple reasons to the decline/extinction of the frog population, scientists don't agree on all of the answers, the tests are inconclusive, and other than the fact that frogs are dying in massive q...

There are days that are "lost" to headaches. Most of today was that day. So, no shower head repair, no completion of cleaning out documents from the desk, no quilt work, no prep for election training,  no phone call to check on someone who loves to talk, no reading, no cleaning from my housework list...but I did manage to get in a few errands this afternoon. Gel Tablet ibuprofen is my friend on days like this.

We had snow flurries yesterday. It lasted for a whopping 20 minutes. Garner granted approval for Bryan Road Elementary School to be built, without curbs and gutters (which is what the school system suggested to much outroar at the last meeting). I'm not sure why the meetings lasted as long as it did, but I was thankful I made the choice to stay home. Making a quilt at someone's request is not as fun as doing it as a gift. In fact, it can be stressful. I never dreamed I'd say this, but the book Plague of the Frogs ( about all the deformed frogs found in Minnesota in the 1990s) has become quite interesting in the last 100 pages. Everything I thought was going to be the reason behind the atrocities is turning out not to be the cause. I may be quite surprised by the end of it. My favorite section of the newscast this morning? The number of people interviewed on the street who have already broken their new year resolutions. Ha!

Friday we went to the NC Art Museum to see the MC Escher exhibit. Our tickets included the exhibit for the journal of Leonardo da Vinci, but you had to go through a security checkpoint and certain items (including cell phones) were placed in a ziplock and held at the checkpoint to be picked up when you exited. Bobby didn't want to empty his wheelchair pouch (he's had a bad experience with that - mainly the Wake County courthouse security team confiscating his adapted fork because "it could be a weapon".  Those things aren't easy to replace!) and as I mainly wanted to see Escher's works and knew we wouldn't be able to read the journal anyway AND was getting more than a little tired of the crowd and my feet were tired, we left after the Escher exhibit. And for me, it was worth it. I learned quite a few new things about the artist, and I really enjoyed seeing the changes in his artwork throughout  his life. I don't think Bobby was a huge fan afterwards...

Last year I read or completed reading (meaning I started it before 2015) about 19 books. This year, I hope to keep that pace. Ideally, I'd love to read more than that, but I know with the schedule for this upcoming year that's not going to be very likely. I have two books from last year that I've not finished, one a science/past current event book, and the other a church history book. And lined up on my dresser are several history books, several biographies/autobiographies, a few fiction, and a few church/Bible study type books. My goal is to knock quite a few of them out, and unlike last year, not replace the stack with news ones to read. I'd like to have all books off my dresser unless they're in the process of being read within two years. And that's a steep goal. Several years ago I joined some friends in a book club. I enjoyed almost every minute of it (there was that one book that I literally had to make myself read) and it pushed me out of my boundarie...