It is the last week in February and the weather is acting more like the winter I am used to. It is sunny and warming up to the upper 70s today. Woohoo!! Tomorrow it is supposed to rain and get cold again. But yesterday and today it is gorgeous. It is common to have little blips of cold, even freezes through mid April. This is the time of year that as a gardener I am in the most awe.
Just to see recognizable plants, innocent delicate sprouts pushing up through the dark soil. Then to turn black and squishy if they get nipped to hard with frost. I do not think we are looking at that cold at this point. In another week or so the sprouts should be able to weather any light frosts. But then the buds and flowers will be sensitive, so at this time of year you watch. You watch the strong survive, the lucky. You see those too sensitive at the wrong time not make it. Yet some of those that seem to die back, come back. It is always amazing each year. And after time spent in the house during the coldest times here time passed and life is coming back and turning green. We still have almost another month until the "official" spring, but I can survive the rest of the cold because I can see the green. The sap rising in some of the trees making the stems green under the older stretching bark.
Hopefully we are at the place where cold is two nights, maybe almost three days and then warm again. And the return of life and plants. A perfect time to move into our new place. Bug was out with the John Deere yesterday. He loves his tractor. He bush hogged as much of the front 3.5 acres as he could. He is finding lots of pockets of water. Call them springs, call them high water table, I don't know, but we have the rest of our lives to enjoy them and learn them. Tomorrow is 80% chance of rain, so doubtful there will be much tractor work tomorrow.
Right now we are waiting for the delivery of the frig, stove and micro/hood from Lowe's. Our vanity has had to be reordered because all the ones they had turned out to be broken. They say the product is good and quality, but their shipping containers are no where as strong and secure as the other cabinets.
The electrical turns out not to be the worst case scenario. Here is the story the neighbors told Bug. A husband and wife owned this house. He built it by himself, which explains some of the bad decisions, ie the back room roof. It also was a "Stilt house" with a two car garage on the first floor along with the bathroom and Florida room. That also explains why the vinyl on the front is different then the sides and back of the house. Anyway, the couple get a divorce and the husband leaves later but the son stayed there. That was when the making two bedrooms downstairs happened. The son and his friends were evicted from the house. The story is that some of the "kids" came back and wrecked the house. And they did not do as much damage as it first looked like. The electrical is already fixing in most of the up stairs. Wow, we might be in the house sooner then we imagined.
Hahahahahahahahaaaaa, it is a little early to be saying that. All we have had is one day with the electricians, but hope bubbles forth. Just like the water on our property.
I have messed up my neck which is causing a few problems. Stella jumped onto Bug clawing him and then she jumped on me leaving three nice bloody claw marks on my right knee and two swipes on my right arm. But at the moment she jumped on Bug I looked toward him and then jerked my neck in the opposite direction and immediately felt it in my right arm. At first I thought maybe she had just got a nerve or something in my arm, but three days later and I am still having this much trouble. When you run your fingers along my neck you can feel where things are not right. The biggest inconvenience is I can not crochet. Admittedly I was a little obsessed with crocheting since before Christmas, but I set a goal for next Christmas to crochet each of the grand kids an afghan. I already have Shireen and Kayla's done. I have two more started, but that is a no no movement with my neck right now. I am trying to stretch and relax it. I am trying yoga and meditation, and I am almost pain free for about an hour after each session, but as soon as I start doing anything again I feel it come back. I have found a way to type where I don't seem to hurt it much. Because this is old woman pain, not cancer pain I tried to just take a naproxen instead of the heavy stuff. What I found was that I actually was in pain, but the arm/hand/shoulder/neck pain was simply loud enough to not hear the other everyday pain.
Everyday pain.
I am starting to realize what that means. My cancer might be moving slow, but it is there. The meds are wrecking their own havoc on my body and I can no longer simply skip through life. I am not going to quit skipping, which might explain part of the reason that I fall down so often, but to ignore where my body is in this process can no longer be denied. I have tried not to take a pain pill everyday. I have cut back from one pill twice a day to half a pill twice a day. Why? Well, I still believe the longer I can keep from total reliance on pain meds, the longer the quality of my life. But it has given me a lot to think about yesterday. I did manage to get most of the house cleaned, swept, mopped, vacuumed, cleaned the showers, the sinks the kitchen. I did it all in one day. That did not include heavy dusting, but I did clean the tops that we live with each day.
While I continue to wait for the call from the delivery men, who might call Bug, but I need to be here if they call here first, I can enjoy some of this weather by trimming some of the dead. I can see the green pushing up from the bottom, so time to take the dead off the top.
Mom is doing much better and they had a conference at 10 this morning to go over the plan for her stay and rehabilitation. I did try and slip a little idea in Dad's ear. I asked him if she could come home and have the rehab visit her there. He didn't know, but maybe he might ask if that is possible. As soon as I find out what is going on with the delivery I will take the green truck over to the trash and then on to the new house. Bug is looking for a new motor for it but he thinks it should be okay to drive to the house, and well, the trash is on the way so hopefully I can get it there safe and sound. It is a great truck and I was thinking of it as Bug and Dad's play truck. They loved to hop into it and take off to run errands. It does get much better mileage being a small truck and it is gas, so that is much cheaper then using Bug's giant diesel. And Dad's truck is a full size gas truck, but they are like two kids when they jump into the green one.
I am also excited to see the property now that Bug has so much of it chopped back. He also has an amazing post hole digger that will be the only way we could get that fence in. It will also be amazing for planning trees, and I will have a few trees to plant.
Bug is wearing himself done working on the new house. I am a wimp and wearing myself out just trying to keep this place clean. And at the same time trying to complete a few projects. I have some reupholstering to do. I will need to make the covers for the Florida room rattan. I also want to make a piece of stained glass for the octagon window at the top of the stairs. I am thinking something free style of a tree and a creek with sky and grass. I will be busier when the walls are done and I can paint. So get some things done here, try not to wear myself out, so maybe start a little packing in the garage. Lots of possibilities for the day.
A hello to my friend Karen. We grew up a few blocks apart, went to the same church and both grew up as Millers. Karen, Lisa and I took dance together when we were around 4. I was remembering our first dance recital. Most of my memories I am sure are from parents retelling the story. But this is how it went. Lisa Pratt Clements, you and I were dressed in red, white and blue with little red plastic buckets covered with aluminum foil and something red, white and blue like maybe feathers on the front. Karen was in the middle, Lisa and I a little older and taller than you flanked the sides. The music started, it was On the Good Ship Lollipop and Lisa and I put our little hands up to our foreheads, perfect little salutes like Shirley would have done. Karen walked up to the microphone stand and walked it down until she could sing into the mic and started singing Frank Sinatra. I remember Lisa and I dancing our little hearts out. I think I was being very bossy and telling her not to stop. Karen's parents came up and removed you from the stage. Hee hee, she were so tiny back then. One of my very favorite memories of childhood. Love you dearly cuz.
Just to see recognizable plants, innocent delicate sprouts pushing up through the dark soil. Then to turn black and squishy if they get nipped to hard with frost. I do not think we are looking at that cold at this point. In another week or so the sprouts should be able to weather any light frosts. But then the buds and flowers will be sensitive, so at this time of year you watch. You watch the strong survive, the lucky. You see those too sensitive at the wrong time not make it. Yet some of those that seem to die back, come back. It is always amazing each year. And after time spent in the house during the coldest times here time passed and life is coming back and turning green. We still have almost another month until the "official" spring, but I can survive the rest of the cold because I can see the green. The sap rising in some of the trees making the stems green under the older stretching bark.
Hopefully we are at the place where cold is two nights, maybe almost three days and then warm again. And the return of life and plants. A perfect time to move into our new place. Bug was out with the John Deere yesterday. He loves his tractor. He bush hogged as much of the front 3.5 acres as he could. He is finding lots of pockets of water. Call them springs, call them high water table, I don't know, but we have the rest of our lives to enjoy them and learn them. Tomorrow is 80% chance of rain, so doubtful there will be much tractor work tomorrow.
Right now we are waiting for the delivery of the frig, stove and micro/hood from Lowe's. Our vanity has had to be reordered because all the ones they had turned out to be broken. They say the product is good and quality, but their shipping containers are no where as strong and secure as the other cabinets.
The electrical turns out not to be the worst case scenario. Here is the story the neighbors told Bug. A husband and wife owned this house. He built it by himself, which explains some of the bad decisions, ie the back room roof. It also was a "Stilt house" with a two car garage on the first floor along with the bathroom and Florida room. That also explains why the vinyl on the front is different then the sides and back of the house. Anyway, the couple get a divorce and the husband leaves later but the son stayed there. That was when the making two bedrooms downstairs happened. The son and his friends were evicted from the house. The story is that some of the "kids" came back and wrecked the house. And they did not do as much damage as it first looked like. The electrical is already fixing in most of the up stairs. Wow, we might be in the house sooner then we imagined.
Hahahahahahahahaaaaa, it is a little early to be saying that. All we have had is one day with the electricians, but hope bubbles forth. Just like the water on our property.
I have messed up my neck which is causing a few problems. Stella jumped onto Bug clawing him and then she jumped on me leaving three nice bloody claw marks on my right knee and two swipes on my right arm. But at the moment she jumped on Bug I looked toward him and then jerked my neck in the opposite direction and immediately felt it in my right arm. At first I thought maybe she had just got a nerve or something in my arm, but three days later and I am still having this much trouble. When you run your fingers along my neck you can feel where things are not right. The biggest inconvenience is I can not crochet. Admittedly I was a little obsessed with crocheting since before Christmas, but I set a goal for next Christmas to crochet each of the grand kids an afghan. I already have Shireen and Kayla's done. I have two more started, but that is a no no movement with my neck right now. I am trying to stretch and relax it. I am trying yoga and meditation, and I am almost pain free for about an hour after each session, but as soon as I start doing anything again I feel it come back. I have found a way to type where I don't seem to hurt it much. Because this is old woman pain, not cancer pain I tried to just take a naproxen instead of the heavy stuff. What I found was that I actually was in pain, but the arm/hand/shoulder/neck pain was simply loud enough to not hear the other everyday pain.
Everyday pain.
I am starting to realize what that means. My cancer might be moving slow, but it is there. The meds are wrecking their own havoc on my body and I can no longer simply skip through life. I am not going to quit skipping, which might explain part of the reason that I fall down so often, but to ignore where my body is in this process can no longer be denied. I have tried not to take a pain pill everyday. I have cut back from one pill twice a day to half a pill twice a day. Why? Well, I still believe the longer I can keep from total reliance on pain meds, the longer the quality of my life. But it has given me a lot to think about yesterday. I did manage to get most of the house cleaned, swept, mopped, vacuumed, cleaned the showers, the sinks the kitchen. I did it all in one day. That did not include heavy dusting, but I did clean the tops that we live with each day.
While I continue to wait for the call from the delivery men, who might call Bug, but I need to be here if they call here first, I can enjoy some of this weather by trimming some of the dead. I can see the green pushing up from the bottom, so time to take the dead off the top.
Mom is doing much better and they had a conference at 10 this morning to go over the plan for her stay and rehabilitation. I did try and slip a little idea in Dad's ear. I asked him if she could come home and have the rehab visit her there. He didn't know, but maybe he might ask if that is possible. As soon as I find out what is going on with the delivery I will take the green truck over to the trash and then on to the new house. Bug is looking for a new motor for it but he thinks it should be okay to drive to the house, and well, the trash is on the way so hopefully I can get it there safe and sound. It is a great truck and I was thinking of it as Bug and Dad's play truck. They loved to hop into it and take off to run errands. It does get much better mileage being a small truck and it is gas, so that is much cheaper then using Bug's giant diesel. And Dad's truck is a full size gas truck, but they are like two kids when they jump into the green one.
I am also excited to see the property now that Bug has so much of it chopped back. He also has an amazing post hole digger that will be the only way we could get that fence in. It will also be amazing for planning trees, and I will have a few trees to plant.
Bug is wearing himself done working on the new house. I am a wimp and wearing myself out just trying to keep this place clean. And at the same time trying to complete a few projects. I have some reupholstering to do. I will need to make the covers for the Florida room rattan. I also want to make a piece of stained glass for the octagon window at the top of the stairs. I am thinking something free style of a tree and a creek with sky and grass. I will be busier when the walls are done and I can paint. So get some things done here, try not to wear myself out, so maybe start a little packing in the garage. Lots of possibilities for the day.
A hello to my friend Karen. We grew up a few blocks apart, went to the same church and both grew up as Millers. Karen, Lisa and I took dance together when we were around 4. I was remembering our first dance recital. Most of my memories I am sure are from parents retelling the story. But this is how it went. Lisa Pratt Clements, you and I were dressed in red, white and blue with little red plastic buckets covered with aluminum foil and something red, white and blue like maybe feathers on the front. Karen was in the middle, Lisa and I a little older and taller than you flanked the sides. The music started, it was On the Good Ship Lollipop and Lisa and I put our little hands up to our foreheads, perfect little salutes like Shirley would have done. Karen walked up to the microphone stand and walked it down until she could sing into the mic and started singing Frank Sinatra. I remember Lisa and I dancing our little hearts out. I think I was being very bossy and telling her not to stop. Karen's parents came up and removed you from the stage. Hee hee, she were so tiny back then. One of my very favorite memories of childhood. Love you dearly cuz.
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