Friday, November 30, 2007

Ear Infection

Finally got in to see the doctor at 2:15 yesterday. It seems I have a middle ear infection with a heavy build up of fluid behind the ear drum. That explains the wobble I have when I try to move around. My equilibrium is terribly off. I think the animals are laughing at me when I bounce from furniture to furniture or wall to wall! Shame on them!

Will be taking Amoxicillin for 10 days.

It's a shame to be home and not be able to do anything...so much needs to be done and there are so many things I want to do. Oh well.....

I did make a pot of cream of curried chicken soup yesterday. It's good, it's hot and it goes down okay. So I'm living on soup and Ritz crackers and Sleepy Time Tea.

Rosie and family are sick too.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

The Bug

Yesterday while at work the boss asked if I wanted the heat turned up. When I said "no" he put his hand on my forehead and said "Girl you're burning up, go home". So I did. It's my throat and when I woke up this morning my ear is involved too. Dang it! I'll try to get in to see my doctor today.

There's a funeral this afternoon that I wanted to go to. Anabelle Rogers died. She was the most amazing seamstress and sewed a gazillion wonderful things for me when I was a teen. Mother is going and I planned to meet her there. I'll have to give Mother a call...oh, I hope she doesn't come by here!

Haven't heard anything from my kitchen man, so I guess it will be after the first of the year before he gets started. Want to have the living room, dining room and funny room painted also...I'm thinking of a grayed green...still looking for the right paint chip. I've found many that are close, but no cigar. But, cocoa brown keeps popping into my head. That could be fun.

When I got home yesterday Shirley was shivering terribly, so I put her sailor dress on her and within minutes she was just fine. I need to get her some pajamas and a new sweater as she's outgrown her turtle-neck. I gave Maria her rain coat and I'll give her the turtle-neck too. I tried the turtle-neck on Smokey. I think he was doing triple flips in the air! Had a little trouble catching him to take it off!

Oh good! I think I just heard the newspaper arrive.

I feel rotten!

Friday, November 23, 2007

I made it through Thanksgiving!

Yesterday was nice. When I got up around 4:30 am it was pouring rain!!! Thanksgiving! It rained until time for me to leave around 10:15 am. Not some piddling little spitting rain, REAL rain! Yeah!

I went to Nancy's house and we road together to the country club. She really wanted to beat Mother and Bert there and we did, by about 30 minutes! We had coffee and cookies while we waited at the table...nice. Mother and Bert were the next to arrive and then Nancy and Mark.

Nancy B. brought dear little cut Thanksgiving arrangements for each of us. Mine, of course is in the bathroom, safe from marauding kittens!

The food was abundant and very good. I didn't eat turkey as I still had half of a breast that I roasted Sunday. I just finished making a big pot of Spanish Bean Soup with the remainder.

Mother was very good. Only one barb that we were aware of...something about Nancy P. not having a slip on.

Was home by 2:30 pm and just frittered away the rest of the day.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Responsibilites

When I was a teen I went to camp in the mountains or N. or S. Carolina. They were in the middle of a drought that was several years old. One morning some friends and I went exploring and found a small, broken, abandoned house sitting beside a totally dried up little lake. We walked across and even in the very middle it was inches and inches thick of dried, cracked red mosaic clay of unbelievable beauty. It was also very frightening. We'd heard of predicted catastrophes and to us this was an example. Later, maybe the next year, it was full of water. The house was even more broken and still abandoned.

I've seen other dry water basins, but none as intimately as the first one. (It was about 20 years later that I saw my first trashed and polluted lake.)

I'm certain that, as with most things, the climate is cyclical. Granted, this shift is more abrupt than I've seen. We've sorta given it a kick-start with out globe-wide carbon-based emissions.

There is an answer, but are we in our immature selfishness willing to pay the extreme price that is required? We must stop, not phase out, at least 50% of all carbon-based emissions. We have to do it now.

If no one drove on the weekend that would make a difference. If all thermostats were set on 63 degrees in the daytime in the winter and 55 degrees at night, and 83 degrees in the daytime in the summer and 72 degrees at night that would make a difference.

I know there are many ways each of us can make a difference, and we've gotta do it.

I know the CFL bulbs do really make a difference in my electric bill, but I find them too cool for winter. Unfortunately, I've found that I really depend to the heat from the incandescent bulb in the lamp by my chair!

Something has to be done about land fills and dumps and trash that each of us create. Not too sure what the answer is there. Eliminating consumer plastics may be a good start.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Count down to Thanksgiving

Daily I think of my blessings and give thanks for them. I also find myself chastising my thoughts for often dwelling on the problems in my life. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to look at the problems as opportunities or challenges and in some convoluted way turn them into blessings also!

My contractor for the kitchen came by earlier this week. Now he's saying it'll be the first of the year before he can begin on the renovation. He'll be tearing out all of the cabinets, plaster walls, ceiling and floor...guess that's called gutting it. I have no idea how long this will take and certainly am not looking to the process...just the end results. The floor will have to be completely rebuilt as the joists have warped and the cabinets were built into the plaster walls. Wow! Sounds like a mess to me!

I'd like to have 2 pocket doors put in and he's going to completely change out the french door as it's warped and there's a big gap that weather gets in. He'll also put in a new kitchen window. I've only met with the cabinet people once...I'm looking forward to the next meeting as we'll get down to specifics.

The TV just said that it's 26 degrees now. I actually had to turn on the heat...set it on 65 degrees and am very bundled up! Had a lovely fire last night, but as it died down around 8 o'clock the animals and I went to bed. Fought with Goodness all night. He was bound and determined to sleep on top of me and I just couldn't handle it. Every time I moved him off he growled! He was determined to go out this morning around six o'clock, but when I went out to get the news paper he came in. That lasted about 15 minutes...he's out now. He's tried to tell me that he may be domesticated but he is not a house cat!

Work is funny right now...some days it's dead as a door nail and somedays (like Thursday and Friday) it's total bedlum! I figured that since we're closed 3 days next week folks were placing orders that normally they would place next week. I'm thinking Monday and Tuesday will be wild!

No plans this weekend (YEAH!). Just the usual, laundry and stuff.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Check out this web site

freerice.com

Check this out and pass it on.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

From one extreme to another

Wednesday morning we wore to 28 degrees outside (and not much better inside!) and the weatherman said our norm for that date was 50! Needless to say, I had a fire in the fireplace that night and every night since. Did try the central heat and it works, but I'm not sure how much propane is in the tank, so I just put the thermostat on 60 to keep the chill off and I called to have the tank filled. They are coming tomorrow to fill it. I've been sleeping a little warmer than I like what with a blanket, comforter, 4 cats and a dog all on top of me, so I've actually been a bit too warm!

My sister is coming over today and we're going to the Catholic church bar-b-que for lunch. We'll get take out and come back here to eat. Should be good!

Bandi is finally getting to be her old self again. That surgery really knocked her for a loop. She's finally eating and running, etc. Thank goodness!

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Daylight Savings Time is Gone!

The majority of my time this morning has been spent on changing clocks & watches! I think the only one I haven't done is the one in the car, but traditionally I just subtract an hour for 6 months. I did read in the car manual about how to do it...I'll just have to get the darn book out again.

Actually had fun yesterday. Mother was in a pretty good frame of mind...we only had a couple of tiny head butts. I got several very nice outfits that will mix well with some of the things I have already and a couple of pairs of shoes. Nice! After shopping I drove us to The Atlanta Bread Company where we had a wonderful lunch and chit-chat. Mother has made the reservations for Berts birthday, I'm a little worried that it's just a couple of days after Thanksgiving and the night of the FSU/FL game...I'm not sure what time the game is. After lunch we drove through the parking lot row by row hunting Mother's car. I finally found it, but had to insist to her that it was indeed her car. She got home okay.

Went to Walmart and did my monthly pet food shopping. Compared to the Winn Dixie here in town prices are like 2/3s at Walmart. I hate to go there in the middle of the day on a Saturday, I know what a mob scene it'll be and sure 'nough, it was! I was almost 45 minutes in the check out line!

Went by Nancy's house on the way out of town. Her new metal roof is dynomite! It's a charcoal grey and really looks sharp against the salmon color she painted the trim on the house. Visited just a few minutes. Got home a little after 3.

I was totally pooped after emptying the car and putting the groceries and pet food away. I knew that if I didn't get a few things done I'd do nothing at all if I sat down. So I emptied litter boxes, swept the back hallway, living room, funny room, kitchen and side porch, changed the water reservoir thingy, took out the trash and did a couple of other things and then collapsed into my chair where I promptly nodded off for about half an hour. Still went to bed rather early!

It's a beautiful cool morning, 40s and our high should be the mid 70s. Perfect, though we do need rain.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Busy, busy, busy

HWB's surgery went well and Paul's mother is recovering from her surgery.

Yesterday HWB's wife called in a small panic. They were in Tallahassee for his first physical therapy and had left the referral papers at home. So I dashed out to their house (way out in the country) found the papers and dashed back to the office to fax them to the therapist. Then Paul's wife called to tell him that she's scheduled for more test on Tuesday...her blood pressure has been having major spikes and then lows and the doctors have no idea what's causing it. Hope they'll finally be able to put their fingers on the problem and fix it!

Mother sent me a check for my health insurance and it arrived on Thursday. When I opened the envelope I discovered she hadn't signed it, so I called her. Well, I got no answer, but I knew that Bert was playing golf and Mother has a 2:30 beauty parlor appointment on Thursdays so I just jumped in my car and dashed to Tallahassee. Pulled into their driveway at 3:30 and sat there until 4:30 when Bert got home...Mother was almost 5:30 getting home, she'd changed her appointment because she'd played bridge all day. Anyway, she signed the check and I got home around 6:30.

Yesterday I met Martha Jean and Mary Helen for lunch. We have a new place in town. A lovely bakery/tea room in an antique shop. Soups, salads and sandwiches. Wonderful! I saw bunches of people I know and had a wonderful time!

This coming Tuesday is election day, Bandi is going in to be spayed and I have an appointment with a lawyer. Should be quite a day.

I'm meeting Mother this morning at 10 at Talbot's. Yeah! New clothes!

I've been much busier than I've intended to be.