Ugh. Every spring. You can count on it.
In other news, the garden is nearly planted. Radishes are coming up, squash, both summer and winter are planted and the zucchini is up already. We bought heirloom tomato seeds when we were at the Lost River Co-op in Paoli. They are called Yellow Pear. We also have cherry tomatoes, bell peppers and banana peppers.
In case you're wondering why we're planting a garden when we're moving---well, we figure it will be awhile before we move. Besides, we still have extra seeds for next year.
Speaking of moving, I finally got rid of three boxes of old magazines my boss brought over a couple years ago. "I have a box of old magazines in my mom's basement, do you think you can sell them on ebay?" he asked. I agreed, and then he brought THREE big boxes and none of it would sell. I mean it wasn't just me, all the other hundreds of the same magazines were not selling either. So I freecycled them, snapped up in a day LOL!!
I've pared my violet collection down and I'm sending out a couple more. Of course leaves and starts are coming back here---can't win! Well, actually it's my hobby so I love it.
Might be raining tomorrow, if so we might look at the old Grundig radio in the living room to see what it might sell for. Figured it was a good rainy day project. Don't want to take it with us. Not sure what to do with the Temple radio. It's big and really heavy.
Tacos for dinner, homemade of course. Movie--on TV, "I Walk the Line"--about Johnny Cash and June Carter. We watched it before.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Time flies...
I didn't realize so much time had gone by since I last posted. The weather has been nice, 70's and 80's and still cool at night. It's breezy enough to keep the air fresh so we can keep the house open all night. So far. But the time will come as it does every year when the breeze will stop and the smog will build up and the idiot across the alley will burn his stinky campfire every night so I have to close the house up.
I've been busy, putting stuff up on eBay and throwing stuff out. I filled up three grocery bags full of papers to take to the city recycling to be shredded (so much easier than one page at a time). I've been going through my violets, re potting and tossing extras that aren't worth keeping. I managed to send out quite a few to new homes a couple weeks ago. I also sent some tubers of the unusual iris I got from grandma on Lindbergh Street to friends in Missouri and Michigan. I have lots of it here but at least it will be shared so I won't loose it when we move (just in case what I bring doesn't take).
A type of Japanese Iris bought many years ago.
My daughter in Australia had a very sad day yesterday. One of her cats, Iggy, developed sudden and severe kidney problems and did not respond to medication. He passed away at the vet's on Wednesday (Thursday the 21st in Australia).
May 2004, they were tiny kittens
Iggy (left) and Woolly, March 2008
Iggy 2004 - May 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Dinner & a movie
Chinese takeout and a Chinese movie, Up the Yangtze, a moving and well-done documentary about the effect the building of the Three Gorges Dam had on the two million people that were displaced by it. I was surprised that China allowed the suffering to be publicized. I was surprised to see the people speak about their pain, instead of just saying what the government wants them to say. It was also interesting to see the training of the young Chinese hired onto the new cruise ships that course the waters. I highly recommend this compassionate documentary. It plays out more like a movie and is worth watching.
There is another documentary worth watching. I don't think it's being broadcast right now, but you can visit the website, FRONTLINE: young & restless in China. I never look at Chinese-made goods the same anymore. China is a country of "haves" and "have-nots", and most of the people are the "nots". They toil endlessly, many times in conditions that harm their health, to eek out a living. I cannot pick up an imported item in a dollar store without wondering what woman or child is getting paid next to nothing to make hundreds of them. On the other hand, some of the lucky ones are making lots of money. It's interesting to learn their attitudes.
There is another documentary worth watching. I don't think it's being broadcast right now, but you can visit the website, FRONTLINE: young & restless in China. I never look at Chinese-made goods the same anymore. China is a country of "haves" and "have-nots", and most of the people are the "nots". They toil endlessly, many times in conditions that harm their health, to eek out a living. I cannot pick up an imported item in a dollar store without wondering what woman or child is getting paid next to nothing to make hundreds of them. On the other hand, some of the lucky ones are making lots of money. It's interesting to learn their attitudes.
Monday, May 4, 2009
...Paoli continued
After the pub we went back to the Inn. Dad said let's go look at the park. It's in a valley behind the Midwest Inn. We decided to take a walk. It's so beautiful. The Lost River runs through it. Here are some photos.
Redbud tree behind the Inn
We begin our walk
The vote was unanimous! We hope to make Paoli our new home!
Redbud tree behind the Inn We begin our walk
Bluebells!
The Lost River
We thought it was really pretty there.
It was one l--o--n--g walk! We were tired when we got back and decided to order pizza instead of driving back to town to eat at the El Compadres Mexican Restaurant. The pizza was pretty good, the toppings were good but the crust needed improvement.
I had been watching the weather and it looked like rain was moving in for Sunday, at it looked like it would be raining ALL the way home. So we made a decision to leave on Saturday. The notice was too short for us to get our money back. The lady promised she would try but it didn't happen. Oh well, I wasn't going to ask Dad to drive home in the rain to save 50 bucks.
When we got home we had a discussion. Should we keep looking or had we decided? The only thing we didn't like was all the traffic on 37 and 150. The people are friendly. They look healthy and spend time outdoors. The young guys in the pub were polite and friendly to Dad. When was the last time THAT happened?? Oh---probably at Foxy's in Briggsville, Wisconsin. There is a clinic, a hospital and a health food store in town, among other amenities. I love the quaint town square, and the historic Orange County Courthouse with the clock that has been restored to working condition.
The vote was unanimous! We hope to make Paoli our new home! Some things to do in the area:
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Getting better...finally
Dad is doing fine and it seems like my cold is trying to break up. I almost lost my voice today. Really happy to see dad feeling so well!!
Yesterday I packed up three boxes of violets to send to my bingo winners. Every month the online African Violet club I belong to has a bingo game. I was the host for April. I have more room now, and I even have more to send out to friends. My collection may actually be under control...briefly. Well, I admit I am saving some starter plants for the ladies in Paoli who are growing violets. Oh. Didn't I tell you about that? No, I didn't, and I left out most of the story because when we got home I was incredibly busy catching up with work and then Dad ended up in the hospital and then I got this awful cold.
I see I left off with a "hello" from Bedford on April 16. Friday we headed south to Paoli, got settled at the Midwest Inn and then headed back to the town square. When we visited last November the court house had scaffolding up. Now it was complete and the antique clock is working at it even chimes! I have to say the only drawback about this quaint and historical town square is the traffic. There seems to be no other route for all the hustle and bustle other than 37 through the middle of town, around the square and out on 150 west. I think I heard mention of a bypass. Well, who wants to live on a main highway anyway.
We stopped in at the Lost River Market & Deli. We found grains! All kinds. I still have my mom's Vita Mix blender that grinds grains into flour. They also have a good selection of bulk herbs and spices. Then we wandered into Roslyn’s Corner Gifts and Antiques. Well, I wandered in. Dad decided to sit on the bench under a tree. When we stayed in Bedford the room had coffee cups, but the Midwest Inn didn't. Since we brought our coffee maker but forgot the cups, I needed to buy some. Anyway, Dad said I could find him at the pub when I was done.
Roslyn is sweet, easy to talk to. She tracked down a phone number of a realtor for me. I paid for the cups and lo and behold there were African Violet leaves rooting next to the cash register! She got them from Maggie's Fashions. I almost went there but decided instead to meet Dad at the pub. He was talking to someone who owns a lot of properties for rent and he said he will rent to seniors with pets. Wow! We exchanged numbers. So if we have to rent for awhile, most likely we will be set.
It's getting late, and I need my rest to get rid of this cold. Next time I will continue the story.
Yesterday I packed up three boxes of violets to send to my bingo winners. Every month the online African Violet club I belong to has a bingo game. I was the host for April. I have more room now, and I even have more to send out to friends. My collection may actually be under control...briefly. Well, I admit I am saving some starter plants for the ladies in Paoli who are growing violets. Oh. Didn't I tell you about that? No, I didn't, and I left out most of the story because when we got home I was incredibly busy catching up with work and then Dad ended up in the hospital and then I got this awful cold.
I see I left off with a "hello" from Bedford on April 16. Friday we headed south to Paoli, got settled at the Midwest Inn and then headed back to the town square. When we visited last November the court house had scaffolding up. Now it was complete and the antique clock is working at it even chimes! I have to say the only drawback about this quaint and historical town square is the traffic. There seems to be no other route for all the hustle and bustle other than 37 through the middle of town, around the square and out on 150 west. I think I heard mention of a bypass. Well, who wants to live on a main highway anyway.
We stopped in at the Lost River Market & Deli. We found grains! All kinds. I still have my mom's Vita Mix blender that grinds grains into flour. They also have a good selection of bulk herbs and spices. Then we wandered into Roslyn’s Corner Gifts and Antiques. Well, I wandered in. Dad decided to sit on the bench under a tree. When we stayed in Bedford the room had coffee cups, but the Midwest Inn didn't. Since we brought our coffee maker but forgot the cups, I needed to buy some. Anyway, Dad said I could find him at the pub when I was done.
Roslyn is sweet, easy to talk to. She tracked down a phone number of a realtor for me. I paid for the cups and lo and behold there were African Violet leaves rooting next to the cash register! She got them from Maggie's Fashions. I almost went there but decided instead to meet Dad at the pub. He was talking to someone who owns a lot of properties for rent and he said he will rent to seniors with pets. Wow! We exchanged numbers. So if we have to rent for awhile, most likely we will be set.
It's getting late, and I need my rest to get rid of this cold. Next time I will continue the story.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Home and Recovering
Dad is doing fine, recovering, still a bit sore and taking it easy, eating good. Poor guy, he had a hard time in the hospital. Before I brought him in Saturday afternoon he wanted to eat but I discouraged him from doing that because I knew the hospital would want to run tests.
I brought him to the ER and he was admitted that night. The bad thing was, they didn't feed him anything but broth and jello the whole time he was there, but they also didn't do the colonoscopy until Monday. They did a CAT scan of his torso in ER, but that's it! NOTHING until Monday---no tests, no food, no information, major STRESS. Because he also has Essential Tremor (which I hardly notice at home, and I didn't realize this until after it happened and I looked it up) going that long with no food and no beer (which suppresses it) and all the stress causes the tremor to really get bad.
Sunday night the night nurse brought the colon prep for him to drink. She said it would be best if he could drink the whole thing by midnight. He finished it at 11 pm and the nurse even checked to see that he had. A few trips to the bathroom and he tried to sleep.
Now, I had a colonoscopy in January, and although it's not as bad as some might think, the prep makes it so you can't sleep. There's just something about it that puts your body out of whack and gives you the jitters.
Dad couldn't sleep so they brought him something. Monday morning he called me bright and early at 7:30 am. He thought his test might be soon but he didn't know. I called the nurse and she said it was scheduled for 1 pm. After spending some time catching up on all the things I needed to do I got ready to go to the hospital. I called dad at 10:30 and I could hardly understand what he was saying...something about still being there. I told him the test was at one and he said no one seemed to know.
So I get to the hospital and he's in a weird way, not himself at all. He was grouchy, really grouchy. So I talked to the nurse. She said he was agitated that morning so she gave him something. They gave him a unit of blood. The IV was hurting so they moved it to the other arm. He said the IV had been pulled on three times.
While I was there he told me they wanted him to be seen by a neurologist because of the tremor. He tried to tell them he had already seen doctors about it in the past.
After the colonoscopy they brought him more broth and jello. They said he couldn't eat until a surgeon saw him because there is one large polyp they couldn't remove and he needed surgery. By then the wacko drug from that morning had worn off and dad said this is too much, he needed to go home and eat something. I mean, he hadn't eaten since Friday night for cryin' out loud! Plus that he doesn't have medigap insurance (yet) so we have to pay 20% plus whatever Medicare doesn't cover.
So I talked to everyone and got the discharge. It was very stressful and now I'm sick again. Sore throat. Anyway, I got him home and fed. He went to bed early.
Tuesday----all the drugs have worn off, so he has a clear head. The Tremor is calm, his color has returned, he's eating well and resting. So he starts telling me about the ordeal. Aside from the no food problem, he said they kept telling him different things. One person would tell him to get up to go to the bathroom and the next was complaining that he wasn't supposed to be up at all.
Then there was the thing with the colon prep. When the morning nurse came in she saw the empty jug of prep and said he was supposed to leave half of it for today (Monday). Now you have to understand his Essential Tremor was way out of whack and he hadn't had anything solid to eat since Friday night AND he was jittery from the colon prep AND no one seemed to know when the colonoscopy was scheduled or they didn't hear him ask or something. So he told her that the night nurse wanted him to finish it by midnight. Well, I don't know what happened because I wasn't there, but the nurse popped him with some kind of noo-nee noo-nee drug. She told me he was apprehensive about the test. Now I know men aren't the best patients but come on, he wasn't hitting anyone.
Then there was the IV. It went bad, stopped working. Why? Housekeeping tripped over the line and pulled on it. Then at two different times aides pulled on it, I'm sure accidentally because the noo-nee noo-nee drug made him flop around. So he was hungry, he hurt, he was drugged up, and he wanted to go home.
The large polyp? It was biopsied. As soon as I get over this stupid cold I'm going to chase down the results. My nurse friend in Missouri said a polyp is a polyp, though they can be pre-cancerous, but they grow very slowly. She said a mass or a tumor doesn't look like a polyp. So we feel there is plenty of time to get moved. There are plenty of hospitals downstate. One in Paoli, two in Bedford, one in Bloomington, Salem, several in Louisville, KY. We'll get through this. Now if I can only get over this crummy cold.
I brought him to the ER and he was admitted that night. The bad thing was, they didn't feed him anything but broth and jello the whole time he was there, but they also didn't do the colonoscopy until Monday. They did a CAT scan of his torso in ER, but that's it! NOTHING until Monday---no tests, no food, no information, major STRESS. Because he also has Essential Tremor (which I hardly notice at home, and I didn't realize this until after it happened and I looked it up) going that long with no food and no beer (which suppresses it) and all the stress causes the tremor to really get bad.
Sunday night the night nurse brought the colon prep for him to drink. She said it would be best if he could drink the whole thing by midnight. He finished it at 11 pm and the nurse even checked to see that he had. A few trips to the bathroom and he tried to sleep.
Now, I had a colonoscopy in January, and although it's not as bad as some might think, the prep makes it so you can't sleep. There's just something about it that puts your body out of whack and gives you the jitters.
Dad couldn't sleep so they brought him something. Monday morning he called me bright and early at 7:30 am. He thought his test might be soon but he didn't know. I called the nurse and she said it was scheduled for 1 pm. After spending some time catching up on all the things I needed to do I got ready to go to the hospital. I called dad at 10:30 and I could hardly understand what he was saying...something about still being there. I told him the test was at one and he said no one seemed to know.
So I get to the hospital and he's in a weird way, not himself at all. He was grouchy, really grouchy. So I talked to the nurse. She said he was agitated that morning so she gave him something. They gave him a unit of blood. The IV was hurting so they moved it to the other arm. He said the IV had been pulled on three times.
While I was there he told me they wanted him to be seen by a neurologist because of the tremor. He tried to tell them he had already seen doctors about it in the past.
After the colonoscopy they brought him more broth and jello. They said he couldn't eat until a surgeon saw him because there is one large polyp they couldn't remove and he needed surgery. By then the wacko drug from that morning had worn off and dad said this is too much, he needed to go home and eat something. I mean, he hadn't eaten since Friday night for cryin' out loud! Plus that he doesn't have medigap insurance (yet) so we have to pay 20% plus whatever Medicare doesn't cover.
So I talked to everyone and got the discharge. It was very stressful and now I'm sick again. Sore throat. Anyway, I got him home and fed. He went to bed early.
Tuesday----all the drugs have worn off, so he has a clear head. The Tremor is calm, his color has returned, he's eating well and resting. So he starts telling me about the ordeal. Aside from the no food problem, he said they kept telling him different things. One person would tell him to get up to go to the bathroom and the next was complaining that he wasn't supposed to be up at all.
Then there was the thing with the colon prep. When the morning nurse came in she saw the empty jug of prep and said he was supposed to leave half of it for today (Monday). Now you have to understand his Essential Tremor was way out of whack and he hadn't had anything solid to eat since Friday night AND he was jittery from the colon prep AND no one seemed to know when the colonoscopy was scheduled or they didn't hear him ask or something. So he told her that the night nurse wanted him to finish it by midnight. Well, I don't know what happened because I wasn't there, but the nurse popped him with some kind of noo-nee noo-nee drug. She told me he was apprehensive about the test. Now I know men aren't the best patients but come on, he wasn't hitting anyone.
Then there was the IV. It went bad, stopped working. Why? Housekeeping tripped over the line and pulled on it. Then at two different times aides pulled on it, I'm sure accidentally because the noo-nee noo-nee drug made him flop around. So he was hungry, he hurt, he was drugged up, and he wanted to go home.
The large polyp? It was biopsied. As soon as I get over this stupid cold I'm going to chase down the results. My nurse friend in Missouri said a polyp is a polyp, though they can be pre-cancerous, but they grow very slowly. She said a mass or a tumor doesn't look like a polyp. So we feel there is plenty of time to get moved. There are plenty of hospitals downstate. One in Paoli, two in Bedford, one in Bloomington, Salem, several in Louisville, KY. We'll get through this. Now if I can only get over this crummy cold.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The good and the bad
I wanted to write about what a wonderful time we had, and all about talking to the nicest people, and finding such a beautiful area that we want to move to, that we have found our "somewhere" in Indiana, but tonight dad is in the hospital with internal bleeding. An ulcer maybe. So everything will have to wait. Here is a picture of us in Paoli. Dad looks happy and healthy. I'm sure he will recover just fine.
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