So cold

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Oh, goodness. It is all anyone is talking about but it is soooo cold. Just so cold.

And then this story. I just was so cold even thinking about the experience. I just couldn't imagine...... Sometimes when I get on a plane and I look at the pilot I think that maybe I would be more comfortable with a younger pilot. It is a stupid thought but it happens. I don't think it I will ever have that thought again.

Bagels

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2009

I was at the IGA down the street this morning and got my two Bell & Evans chickens and was very good--no candy, no chips, no pastries, no nothing. Then I got up to the check-out and there were the bagels. They just looked so good. OK. One bagel. I actually took it to the deli guy and asked him to lightly butter it (which I have never done before). 50 cent bagels at the market. Always a good deal.

I got home and looked at the receipt. $1.25. What? Are you kidding me? This is nuts. What? I should have told him to go heavy on the butter for that price. 75 cents for the butter???? So much for stupid impulse buying. Well, until the next time but it won't be a buttered bagel. I have six bagels in the freezer and lots of the spray on, no fat, yellow chemicals.

The cold it is a comin'

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Dentist this morning. I just can't get past the anxiety that an appointment with the dentist always triggers. This morning was particularly anxiety ridden as I was going for a filling in my front tooth and I knew that meant the injection up into the roof of my mouth. I have to admit she was pretty good and it all went pretty well. Not fun, mind you, but OK.

-37 degrees in the midwest??? Without the chill factor??? I have been complaining that the high on Friday is only supposed to be 14 degrees. But all the critters are ready.

Yesterday morning I woke up about 5:30 or so and I realized that I was once again laying in the yellow light but the demon lamp wasn't on. I looked out the window and the moon was full and huge. I read in the paper that yesterday's full moon was supposed to be the biggest full moon for all of 2009. I am guessing that the moon is probably always the same size but it would appear the largest that it would in all of 2009.

Here we go. Book #3.

Sad

Monday, January 12, 2009

A couple of days ago I wrote about my neighbor who has some dementia going on. This morning I met the two daughters of another neighbor out in front of the house. Their 94 year old mother lives alone in her home also (happens to be right next door to the woman I wrote about the other day). A couple of days ago one of our neighbors saw her standing out in front and when asked she said that she was waiting for a ride although she didn't know from whom. The daughters were contacted and she ended up spending the greater part of a 24 hour day in an ER. She was given IV antibiotics for a urinary tract infection and the daughters were given the assurance that once the infection cleared, mom would be back to "normal". I think the daughters got the short end of the good advice stick on this one.

I can't get these women out of my mind. They are all alone in their homes. I am in no way making any judgment about this but rather am concerned. We are starting a small initiative to see if we can get some support for these daughters and their moms if necessary. We think we will be successful if we can get two of them to talk to each other and understand they are not alone in this situation. The biggest problem with this island is what I call the Irish curtains--oh no, everything is fine in my house.

We'll see. We are coming up with a date for a meeting with one of the ministers on the island, a social worker, myself, a woman on the island who works for the NYC Department of the Aging and a friend of mine who took care of her mother with Alzheimers for seven years. There has to be some way to give these people some support.

It is worrisome to think about these women and I definitely do know that I am thinking about myself also. I remember how much my mother worried and worried about losing her mental faculties and I understand that worry more every day.

Books, books, books

Monday, January 12, 2009

Cold, cold, cold. Definitely not as cold as Michigan but cold enough for me. It actually got warm enough today to melt icicles, except on these guys. Let me tell you how much sympathy they got today. I sent the picture to three people and three people answered me--we need to make them scarves, or you need to make them scarves. Sounds like a project for tonight since I think it would only take a couple of hours.

I finished reading "The Zookeeper's Wife." Good book. It is so amazing what people do when they see a need to do good.

Read James Patterson's "Double Cross" this weekend. I think he is probably one of my three favorite authors. I keep telling myself it is not because his chapters are only two or three pages long so the book just flies by. That does help make a 389 page book a two day read with lots of time to do other things. This is a two year old book but definitely not a disappointment.

Time for the next Twilight book.

All things yarn

Friday, December 9, 2009

The great Christmas hoax. What do you think, Liz? Janet wears scarves. Maybe I will make her one for Christmas. Which one do you think she would like? That one? OK. Oh, you like that other one, too? I don't know. Which one do you like? OK. For a couple of weeks I worked on both scarves right in front of Liz's face. Granted the yarn was the same yarn but the patterns were very different with Janet's being a twisted cable throughout and Liz's being a Celtic pattern. Liz was totally surprised to open a scarf Christmas.

Sylvia also got a home knit gift. A turtle neck ribbed sweater. I still have to weave in the ends and am waiting for the buttons to come. I actually had to order buttons on line because I could not find a place that sold buttons! Michael's does not. ???? That seems weird to me. There is no Joanne's close. Nice picture overseeing the project there.

Last night the ladies who knit....or crochet....or don't met. We started working on projects for the Visiting Nurses Association. I have seen this as a wonderful opportunity to get rid of some of my stash. So this is how it worked. Vicki brought her own yarn. Mary Ellen took a skein out of the trunk. I put the yarn from under my bed into the trunk so now it is all in one place. Doesn't look any emptier to me although I know I did give up one whole skein.

When we cleaned out Mom's apartment, I took these two afghans that she was working on and had not finished. The multicolored one only needs a solid border and it is a nice size for a lap afghan. The solid ecru colored one just needs to be bigger and it will also be a nice lap afghan. I think Mom would be happy to know what is going to happen to her unfinished projects.

Congrats!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Congrats, Lizzie!

Ah, the lamp story

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Sure enough, I found a new touch lamp on eBay, exactly the one I wanted, and ordered and it was delivered and everything is wonderful about it. Except, the one that was coming on repeatedly at 5A stopped doing it. So the new one is sitting in a box in the basement, waiting for the present one to start acting foolishly again. I don't have the box for the present one or I would put that one away as I much prefer the white one. However .........I woke up this morning and what? is that sunshine? my room is yellow? Ha! The light was on. The first time in a very long time. I didn't even bother to turn it off, just went back to sleep. But I have been trying to find a place to put it in some other room all day and still haven't come up with a place for it. It was easier when every room in the house was white.

Book #2 of the Twilight Series. Excellent read. I have the next one but I am waiting to read it. Sort of want to savor the experience.

Besides, I am reading our chat book now. It seems like I have read more about World War II in the last year than ever in my life. I still have to ask.....how did the rest of the world sit back and let it happen? It is impossible for me to believe that they didn't know it was going on. I probably never will understand it.

The daughter of one of my neighbors across the street stopped at the house today. Her mother has mild dementia secondary to Alzheimers but still lives alone in her house. Today when her daughter got there she was quite beside herself as her money is gone. They cannot find it anywhere in the house. The mother remembers that a man she knows stopped at the house last night, took her out to dinner, took all of her money and then brought her back home. Possible? Probably. Likely? Probably not. Real in the mother's mind? Absolutely. So very sad.

Red truck

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The story goes that when I was about five or six years old and my friend was a year older, his teacher asked his class to bring their favorite Christmas present to school to show the rest of the class. On the way home from school, as the story goes, I went up to him and asked him where he got that dumb red truck from and pushed it out of his hands onto the ground. Now, I have heard this story about four or five times in the last year and a half so I am thinking it had quite a traumatic effect on the now almost 65 year old man. But, what I am really thinking is that, surely, he is not quite clear on this story this many years later and that he has most certainly gotten me mixed up with my younger sister.

Anyway, I found this old red truck on eBay and am going to clean it up and try to make amends for my family the next time I see him.



The Christmas tree is history for last year now. It always seems like such a big project to put it up---but it really isn't. It always seems like such a big project to take it down---but it really isn't. It is always fun to look at all the ornaments and remember where/whom they came from---all filled with so many memories. This year my brand new daughter-in-law gave me a "photo family tree" for Christmas and she had printed a little piece of paper that said "Family" on it. I put it on cardboard, covered it with heavy clear tape and it is the ornament we have added to the tree this year....to recognize that we have expanded by one. I have a picture of it but it is in RAW format by mistake and the ornament is already in a box upstairs.