Meet and Greet: 1/19/18

This just looks like something fun to do today. And believe me, I need something fun on this cloudy, rainy day. Enjoy!

Confrontation with the term ‘Truth’

My favorite post by Damon, a lovely young lady who recently began following me. Thank you, Damon

anunfinishedsentence

And in all these 20 long years

I have confronted myself with

The term truth

A trizilion times.

Yes. A trizilion times.

Yet I wonder the very essence of it.

Because

There were Truths,

Truths that were Unspoken

Unexpressed and

Undescribed
And because

There are Truths,

Truths that are real

plain and

pretty.

Truths that are tearing us apart

Are hard and

Gigantic.

Truths that we cannot deny,

Because of simply their existence

Truths that are swiftly evolving

And changing,

Changing with the passage of time.

Truths that are not even Truths

And because

Some Truths are aching our hearts

And mending our soul

All at once.

All at once.

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Another Day, Another Opportunity

Opportunity to shop, that is.  I hitched a ride with another friend who wanted to go to Target and a couple of other shops in a totally different direction from Wednesday.  I needed some laundry detergent and white vinegar.  I had the detergent in my cart and was looking for the vinegar (which I really don’t think they had anywhere in the store) when she called me from across the store.  She wanted my opinion of some outfits she had found on the clearance rack.  I got a little bit distracted when I was looking at the items she was thinking about so naturally I had to check for a bargain also.  I finally found a beautiful sweater that will go with almost everything I already own had jumped into my cart and taken up residence there.  That seemed like a very good time to exit stage right for me so I headed to the checkout line and after that to a chair in Starbucks for a  little bit of rest and caffeine.

Outside, down the sidewalk to the next shop where they advertised another clearance sale and I found some jewelry that was marked $1.99 each.  I found a couple of necklaces that I fell in love with and that matched several things I have in the closet and wouldn’t you know it, they had also jumped into the cart when I was looking the other way.  I’m wearing one of them now.

Back to the car and heading for home I looked at my friend more closely and noticed we both had on the same top!  Funny I hadn’t noticed that before, but then we were both wearing jackets until that point and our tops had been hidden.  One of us should have noticed it when I looked at some emerald green (but not real emeralds) earrings then found several necklaces in the same shade of emerald.  Unfortunately none of them were on sale and I refuse to pay full price for anything.

Finally home again and collapsing in my chair, feet all tired and swollen propped up and ready to just chill for the rest of the month. And maybe even all of next month.  Plus a few days into March.  and now it;s 40 minutes until midnight and I’m wide awake,even though tired and ready for a long, long nap.  Actually, now that I think about it, I’m more ready for a dish of the ice cream I made after we got home.  So you enjoy the photos of the plants while I enjoy my ice cream, and oh yes, have a wonderful weekend.,

 

Shopped Til I Almost Dropped

We had such a beautiful day today.  The sun finally made another appearance late yesterday, the temp rose to a balmy lower 50 F., a gentle breeze was blowing, and Rose asked me if I wanted to go to Wally World, otherwise known as Sprawlmart in my home.  To give credit where it is due, Sprawlmart is another of the “rayisms” I am very fond of.  My all time favorite though is “I forget if I remember that or not”.  I call them rayisms because a guy named Ray said it first.

So, apartment inspections were first on the agenda today, and as soon as we each passed our own inspections I met Rose downstairs, managed to finally see her car after she blew the horn several times and finally got out of the car and yelled my name.I have a lousy sense of direction where horn blowing and name yelling are concerned.  I also have problems identifying cars.  Most people tell me the make and model of their car but that makes no sense to me.  I couldn’t identify any car, past or present with one possible exception. The ’57 Chevy has always been my dream car.  Okay, I made it to the car, got some sloppy kisses from my furry friend, Tessa, and we took off for Meijers first, Sprawlmart next and then the others noticed a thrift shop on the horizon.  I have a certain weakness for boxes, all types of boxes, and the shop we visited today had dozens of them, all types and sizes, and they all tried to jump in my cart as I went past them.  I fought them off bravely but in the end five of them sneaked into the stuff as I was checking out so what could I do?  They overflowed the car but we are nothing if not inventive packers of cars.  I brought them home, along with the bamboo and jasmine plants that had jumped into the cart at Meijers.

After limping back to the car we agreed we will not go to another thrift shop for a few months.  They are too dangerous to the pocketbook.  One $3.00 item is a bargain but one hundred of those bargains are too many.  I didn’t actually get 100 of anything but after bringing it all up the the apartment and putting it away the number of items just seemed to grow larger and larger.  I didn’t have my power chair at the stores so there were no incidents of destruct, um, I mean very few cases of running my cart into the displays and knocking stuff over.  I can actually move furniture with the chair but it’s less likely with just the cart.  So now it’s late night and I’m watching “Golden Girls” while settling in for the night.  I haven’t done much of anything since putting the stuff away, trying to remember the words to a poem I wrote several decades ago about “No U-hauls Behind A Hearse” which deals with accumulating so much un-needed stuff and the fact of life, I cant take it with me in the end.  Not a problem though. I’ll do another big decluttering  spree one day soon and get rid of a lot of the excess.  It probably will go back to the shop I got it from today and someone else will enjoy it for a while.  Now I’m gonna kick back and veg out for a few days and nights — or Friday, whichever comes first!

Mem’ries Light The Corners, Blah blah

I just read a post called “Siblings” by a new follower and it brought back so many memories of my young days.  Avni has an older sister and a younger brother, but even though my older sib is a brother, followed by two more brothers before my first sis, and Avni lives a world away from Kentucky, some things seem to be universal and all-time the same.

This photo was taken at a family reunion in July of 2000.  Only part of my extended family made it that year, but it was the first really big one we had done for so many years we figured one fourth of the family was doing good.  These are my mom’s family, my aunts, uncles and cousins from all over the country.  To say we had a good time would be an understatement — we had a great time.  We wore name tags, our name and the “elder” responsible for our own branch.  The setting was Panther Creek Park, very close to the old place where many of us grew up.  The area around this place has been cleared and manicured now, but back in the day?  Well, just taking a walk off the beaten path gives an idea of what our playground looked like all those years ago.  My favorite game was swinging on grapevines out over the creek.  For a person who was as chicken as I was, this was the ultimate adventure, led by the older male cousins and their friends, and copied by the girls.

First Communion day for one of my brothers with one sis and two other brothers posing with Mother.  This was our back yard which seemed so large back then.  At one time, when we first moved in to the house Dad built there, my Uncle’s barn stood about where everyone is posing.  Older brother and I took care of that one terrible day when he was demonstrating how the cinder blocks the house is made of didn’t burn.  The blocks were fine, it was only the straw big bro stuffed down in the holes in the blocks that burned, all the stuff in the holes plus everything else that caught flame when the fire spilled over the sides and across the dry barn.  Now the yard looks so small, with the house so close to that highway I wonder how we all survived being run over by the coal trucks that were a constant danger to us all.  One of my cousins was hit by a coal truck after getting off our school bus and crossing the road to her home.  I recently talked with one of the cousins about that day.  I saw it happen from my seat by the window, and still have recurring nightmares about that.  The truck driver not only didn’t stop for the bus, he hit Judy after she was several feet into their driveway, still holding her older sister’s hand.  I’m so glad I didn’t realize the entire situation back then, because it gives me chills now, all these years later.

Have to collect my brain cell again now.  More memories later  A.

The Sun Was Bright On My Old Kentucky Home

And

But I didn’t take any photos today.  Instead I went shopping for some groceries.  It was a balmy 22 F outside and as long as there was no wind it felt good.  Of course there was no way to stay out of the wind and go shopping at the same time, soooo, we eventually braved the element and made a quick trek to the car.  Most of the ice had melted on the sidewalk, but there was one really hinky spot where we had to negotiate the ice, both the seen and the unseen black form.  M. was using a walker while I was forging ahead on foot and praying very hard that these boots really WERE made for walking, to coin a phrase from an old Nancy Sinatra song.  Nothing beats Mukluks for keeping feet warm while hanging on to the sidewalk in weather like this.  So, just to thank them properly, last night I dropped a cup of barbecue sauce on them.  (They also make good house slippers when it’s just too exhausting to pull them off.)  They are now adorning my shower curtain rod doing a rhythmic drip, drip, drip, drop drop drop drop.  I have a feeling they will continue the dripping for several more days therefore dripping several more days too.  My curtain rod just isn’t big enough for this!

It is even warmer today — 35 F. when I checked a couple of hours ago, with the sun even shinier than yesterday.  I am considering just going out for a drive today.  Ya just don’t miss out on a day like this in winter time.  The only thing that would improve the day would be finding a tree filled with black olives, a hammock under a perfect tree and the ability to wiggle my nose and make it all happen.  A clone of Mel Gibson and George Clooney put together would make it perfect!  Oh well, it just isn’t happening and wiggling my nose just makes me sneeze so back to reality, well, soon!

Had visitors last night — Jerry, my neighbor brought over some of the stuff he picked up for me at the store, bringing Angel with him.  Some day I hope to get a photo of Angel but she is a little bit shy right now.  It’s not taking her as long to get over it now but I’m not going to push or shovel her into a corner.  She eventually comes over and lets me know in her own doggie way that she is ready to be picked up for a brief moment and I can respect that.  Of course it probably helps that I keep bribes, um, snacks available for all of my furry visitors.  

Okay, I’m outta here.  Might be back inside in seconds, but it just looks too nice out there to stay cooped up inside,  Gave a good rest of the weekend!  A

    

 

 

Pretty Boxes And Other Nonsense

One fine day as I was tiptoeing my way around Pinterest I stumbled upon some templates for boxes. Since I didn’t have enough stuck in every bare spot of the apartment already I started printing some of them out.  All Christmas related at first, as soon as Christmas was over it only seemed right to print out some for all other seasons.  After blundering my way through the first thousand or them I have finally figured out how they are supposed to look.  So, maybe some day in the future I’ll figure out a good way to make them actually look that way, but for now I’m using a bucket of school glue and a crate of shipping tape to sturdy them after they are finished.

These are my personal favorites, but for each one of these there are two more that will be foisted onto a friend on each visit.  For me the boxes are just right to hold the materials needed for one project at a time.  The fact that they hold large amounts of beads, screws,, and other small items until they are used in some project or another. 

Somehow I got back into jewelry stuff.  Just pulled my pliers and a few other things out to repair a necklace and the next thing I knew I was working with the whole shooting match again.   One thing of beads, two things of beads, some chains and findings, another necklace that had a couple of things I likes and more that I didn’t like and felt the need to revamp them just led to something else.  The following photos present some glare because of the backdrop — a large box they will live in when not being worn, more necklaces I found for $1 in different stores and now all I need are some new hands. I’ll accept almost any offer, right hand would be most appreciated, aw come on now, surely someone out there has an extra hand they want to trade, lol.  (Just had an awful thought here.  Don’t take that seriously please.  I really DO NOT need packages filled with hands arriving at my door.)  Just that this cold weather makes already stiff joints turn to cement, provided you can find cement that has joints that let their presence be known each time you flex the fingers.  Haven’t found any gold in these golden years but there are so many rusty hinges it loses its appeal.

  

Some of the necklaces I revamped by taking some components from several old pieces and combining them into one.  Or three.

I also got my crochet hooks and knitting needles out again.  Both of these are made from the same ball of yarn, a self striping one from Bernat called “Pop”.  My son and daughter-in-love gave me a neck warmer for Christmas and I fell in love with it.  The only problem I have with the concept is that one just isn’t enough!  They fit just right around the neck which makes them perfect for sleeping in a drafty room.  It only takes a few hours to make one, so I’m back hooking again.  Except for the hat — a first effort with 5 double point needles, and this one looks great from a distance.  A closeup makes every dropped stitch that i picked up in the wrong place glare at everyonel

I guess this weather we are having is a good thing for me, now that I think about it.  At least by starting up with some of my old hobbies I’m staying busy while remaining inside where it is warmer, and it also keeps me off the street corners at night.

A Near Miss So Far

Big This was the way it looked Sunday, but even though I haven’t been back down to take photos since then a glance out my window tells me it is somewhat improved outside.  The predicted storm with the additional inches of the stuff seems to have missed us, even though it is bitterly cold out there.  I made it to the funeral home on Monday morning but reality set in very fast. It’s one thing to take a photo from up here, or even from the entrance while still in the warmer area around the door, quite another to actually get out in the wind and frigid air!

I had to be downstairs by 7:30 am to wait for the bus to take me, hoping they would wait until close to the correct time of arrival — 8:30.  No such luck on the later time though, he was waiting when I got to the window to watch for him.  Probably a good thing though, because when I went out I saw more ice on the entry than I wanted to drive over.  My drier moved the bus closer but there were several spots I still had to go across, toes crossed along with fingers, legs, arms and eyes — not sure, but I think even my hair roots were crossed for that couple of feet of ice.  My cell rang while I was getting on the bus but I ignored it until safely inside.  The number wasn’t familiar but i called it back as a precaution against missing some important message from family.  It was another bus driver, asking if I was still going. Okay!  One trip but two drivers? I told him I was already on the bus and we were leaving, and he said I was on his schedule.  I don;t think I ever felt so wanted, even when two people were asking me to dance at the same time.  A few minutes later the driver who picked me up got a call from dispatch informing him the manifest he was using was wrong, and he had picked up the old one,  Okay, so I had two drivers due to a mistake, better than sitting at the window for an hour and getting there five minutes after it was over.  Of course, arriving before the door was unlocked at the funeral home wasn’t the greatest thing, but they let me in, even moving the hearse so I didn’t have to sit behind it until it was at the church.   Not a bad way to start considering the fact that just going out the door gave me some sinus problems!  Nothing like a drippy nose in -5 temps.

So, I sat there with Uncle Sam for about 40 minutes, wondering who would finally show up, then looked up when I heard voices to see my brother come in with one of my cousins.  Big Bro drove in from Lexington that morning, despite the forecast of more and worse on the way.  I thought maybe he had more sense than that, but I was wrong once before in my lifetime.  Mama Ree got there next, fussed at him for me, then hugged him while looking around his tall (6’8″) frame for me.  BTW, she is 5’2″ tall, so she had quite a job seeing around him.  Once in my lifetime I was almost the same height he was, but that was a day or two ago.  I’m getting shorter, 5’6″ last time I checked, about an inch shorter than I used to be.

As people arrived I could tell it would not be a good idea for me to go on to the church. I knew the trip out last week had not done me any real harm, just a lot of discomfort in the sit-down and my stamina — to say the least, I was already tired even though I hadn’t done anything but get dressed.  Several years ago I made a cross stitch picture for my Mom on her birthday that had an old gray haired woman in a red jogging suit. The caption was:  “Growing old ain’t for sissies”.  Well, growing old with MS is sometimes even worse.  Okay, so anyway I decided that for safety sake I really should get home asap!  I wanted to tell Mama Ree goodbye, but just when I thought it wouldn’t happen without mowing down a roomful of people Diane came out of the crowd with her.  I have the best cousins in the world!  The bus arrived within minutes, this time with the right driver, and he had me home before the starch was completely out of my system.

Can’t Think Of A Snappy Title

 

Sunshine on snow — at least briefly, from my window yesterday, 1-13-18.  Usually when the weather people predict this stuff it never happens around here.  It hits every other place around us, but the river usually protects us and diverts the white stuff to the Indiana side.  I have wondered why we are getting it this year and might have come up with the answer.  At least it’s an answer I like, so I’m going with it.  Mama Ree loves snow and we just never get enough for her, so this year, with Sam now in heaven (and I truly believe he is there),  he is making sure she gets enough to keep her happy for a while.  And with that sense of humor of his, I don’t dare go outside for a while because he would probably slap me in the face with a snowball!  I’m not too crazy about the stuff and yes, I know what we got is nothing compared to other parts of the country we have to contend with the fact that it is out there lying on the ice that came first.  So far the temps have been well below freezing so it isn’t leaving the parking lot here and the less traveled streets.  The building management has a firm policy against cleaning it off the sidewalks and parking area here, at one time stating that if they leave it and we are stupid enough to go out on it anyway we deserve whatever happens. (Paraphrased comment)  As is usual in this town someone will have to be seriously maimed or killed before the policy is changed.  I love this place in spite of the less than ideal management and the downright stupid rules they seem to think we accept without question as the truth.

I shouldn’t say the above out loud but it becomes an exercise in silly at times and it all has to come out.  All in all however, it is the first place I’ve felt at home since leaving the farm and I have yet to figure out why!

I’ve been updating my kitchen for a while now, one item at a time, and this dishwasher magnet is one of the latest finds.  It sure goes with the overall rooster theme that began in the kitchen and has now spread all over the apartment.  So, while I’m trying to get myself together enough to prepare for the funeral in the morning, I’m gonna stick a few of the latest photos here.  You might get one of the scene outside our freight door also if I remember to add it.  Part of the entrance is clear (went down to get the photos this morning, opened the door and didn’t freeze!)  Enjoy the photos while I’m working on getting my clothes together for morning.  Then I’ll have to take the laundry off the shower chair and the shower rod tonight so I won’t have to do that in the morning while I’m still walking around in my sleep.  And praying the snow that is supposed to begin at nine a.m. doesn’t happen.  My chariot won[t get far in that mess.

  New rugs in kitchen, nicely padded to help reduce fatigue.

    Rooster mugs and plates 

  

OH, NO!

But oh, yes.  Snow on top of ice that started during the night.  I woke during the night and heard the ice hitting my window and the chill started with the sound! Purely psychosomatic, but I’m still shivering more than twelve hours later.  The wind is picking up again and my internal temperature is dropping rapidly.  It’s not a good night to wander out of the apartment, and I might end up breaking my own rule and turning the heat up before much longer.  Chee!  the more I think about it all the colder I’m getting.  Funny how the brain works — and I only have half of one cell left!  More than that and I might wake up frozen solid in the morning!

My photos were taken from the floor to ceiling window at my end of the common hall while my neighbor and I were joking about the dirty windows.  I had to scrunch down and aim from the lower part to find an almost unobstructed area, and within a few minutes he was doing the same thing.  It just occurred to me that I could have taken a few other photos while we were there, but after we started talking and watching his little puppy, Angel trying to get down for an elevator ride I just forgot about the other photos.  And now I really do have to add more layers or a thick blanket because it is getting cold in here for real.  Take care, and stay warm.  As for me, I’m praying for a better view on Monday so I can get to the funeral.  Missing you, Sam.  I hope Mama Ree is finding some pleasure from the snow.  She loves it!