30 Minutes of News Here at 11 ~~

Wow, lots to catch up on, and I am trying my best. Ok, let’s try to keep it short on this side (yeah, HA).

1 – Lee is home but having Home Care each day to come in and change those bandages on her leg. She can’t make the steps so a couple of us do the errands each day.  Now normally, her daughter would have done this, but she had knee surgery the very day Lee was put into the hospital.  I tell ya when it rains it pours.  Anyway, things are just very busy, and I haven’t had more than a few seconds to breeze by and even comment on a few of your posts.

2 – I saw a note from Kimmy (TnNature Photography http://tnnature.blogspot.com/). Good gracious, Kimmy, a thousand blessings to you. As you’ve all seen, you supposed to tell 7 things about yourself and then name the next 15 to pass it on to and so on.  I think it’s really nice because without too much work, it should make it around to all of us in a short period of time.  It’s a great way to get to know little bitty things that normally wouldn’t even make the page :)

My 7 things are: Like Kimmy, I go barefoot with every breath. I hate shoes. Hated clothes when I was a toddler, but that’s another story, so my lips are zipped for now. Suffice it to say, a belt was enough.

I am an only child, but I was never, ever spoiled. I had hand-me-down clothes all the way through school and never had a brand new dress of my own until I went to work after college.  Wow, that dress was something else! But can you imagine your first new dress at 21?

I have been married more than once, more than twice and finally figured out that it just wasn’t for me.  I’m just too much of a sucker for a sad song.  So, friends, yes, pets, yes, husbands, NO.

I have friends, male and female,  from when I was 4 yrs old and they are still my friends today.  How lucky is that!  They are the best!

I don’t have any kids. That was not by choice, it was by a killer emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix and that was the end of that. Supporting the thing about kids, I transferred all that mommy-love to animals.  I’ll bet I can out do all of you for the number of critters in bed with me at one time.  Try (seriously) 9 cats, 2 dogs, 5 raccoons, 2 birds, and 2 squirrels ALL in the sack with me without any fussing or fighting going on.  Amazing and absolutely true.  I had to vacuum  every single day and it was a kick to see all the matching placemats on the kitchen floor.  The cats all lived to 20 except for one that only lived to 17.  The dogs lived to 15 and 17 and the life spans of the rest were incredible. I was so, so lucky, and half dead from keeping everything spotless.

I was the US Champion for women’s duckpin bowling wayyyy back in 1963, and I was also the youngest person ever to be accepted to the NY Ballet.  That’s a story in itself for another time.

I was my mom’s sole caregiver at the end of her life.  She had 4 kinds of cancer and we never knew it until a month before she died.  I made sure she was in no pain, looked absolutely fabulous until her last breath, and she died in my arms.  My last words to her were, “Mom, I love you so much”, and she said, “Oh my darling daughter, I love you, too”.  There are some things you just never forget.  The unfortunate thing is that now it’s a year and a half since she died and I still fall apart at the drop of a hat. I need to talk to someone and I will --- If I can just finish all the paperwork and repairs first.  I feel like my own countdown is very close and it’s so scary. I’m going as fast as I can on all the stuff that needs to be finished.  Most of all, I worry about Sam & Lucy if anything should happen to me.  I need to find somebody really young to take over.  Sheesh.  Enough already.  Sorry, but it’s true, it’s what is on my mind every single day.

Last but not least, I love anything edible. What a shame ;)  There aren’t even a handful of things I don’t like. Luckily, I’m a wham bam great cook and have been told many times I should open a restaurant.  The shame is, I never write any of my recipes down, they’re just in my taste buds when I’m standing at the stove.

NOW……Ok, the next step is to pass the award to 15 recently discovered bloggers.  I’ll do that, although I’m not happy not to pass it on to about 50 or so.  The list is at the bottom of this post.  I will go to their page and let them know and then they can agonize like I’ve just done.  Awards are nice, but in my own mind it’s not an award of “bloggedness”, instead, it’s a great way to pass on those 7 personal things to everyone and that way get to know the inner workings of each other better.  There, done.  Now go check your own comments and see if I’m there with this Stylish Blogger Award.  If you see it, you’re supposed to name your 15 and also link back to me (jennydshappyhours.blogspot.com) . Man, this is tough!

And Kimmy, THANK YOU, sweet thing! XOXOXO

3 – Last but not least, I am trying my best to keep up, but with all the errands it’s tough right now, so if you don’t see me typing away in your comments, understand that I’ll be there later.

4 – Our Sally (Whispering Hope) wrote the greatest book about her brother and she was SO nice to send it to me.  You have got to check this out on Amazon:  The Spirit Beside Me by Sally N. Crowe.  This tribute to her brother PLUS a cd of such a song is breath taking!  Go check it out.

5 – Another blogger, Alex Roman (Poetry After Noon), has written 2 books that are outstanding detective mysteries.  The Superman Project, A Chico Santana Mystery, and China Town Angel.  You must check these out on Amazon as well.  Super duper reading!  Hey, Pen, you know Alex :)

6 – My cat blog is going just fine and I’m enjoying being the secretary to Lucy and Sam’s mewsings.  They have lots to say and have made a number of friends already on their page.  One of their human friends there makes the most wonderful mats for cats and Sam & Lucy have 1 coming for each of them this week PLUS a new birdie toy stuffed with catnip.  Hey, if you have cats, you know how great this is.

7 – Oh shoot, I might as well add one last thing to the list of “about me” stuff.  I have no middle name. It was tradition on my dad’s side of the family for women to forego middle names.  The reason is that once they married, their maiden name would become their middle name (or initial) and the original middle name was out the window.  So, not one woman had a middle name including myself.

LIST:

Dianne :  http://diannesphotographsandthoughts.blogspot.com

Carrie:  http://myworldwithaview.blogspot.com

Toodie:  http://babblelots.blogspot.com

Beth:  http://bmariede.blogspot.com

Joe & Co.:  http://morbidscorneroftheuniverse.blogspot.com

Penelope:  http://ladypfab1.blogspot.com

MizAngie:  http://mizangie.blogspot.com

Jodi at N8tureNut:  http://n8ur-nut.blogspot.com

Dana:  http://danakunz.blogspot.com

Pen again for:  http://penpusherpen.wordpress.com

Carole:  http://ramblingon-ramblingon.blogspot.com

Mike Jackson:  http://mj51day.wordpress.com

Lisa:  http://redwillowlisa.blogspot.com

Marge:  http://whatwasithinking7734.blogspot.com

Sally:  http://whispering-hope.blogspot.com

PLEASE know that I see this award as only a way to “pay it forward”, not as a way to hold any higher than the rest. We ALL have something to say.  Some have subject topics to discuss, some have family things, and some have this blogosphere as a way to write a mass letter, so to speak, to our friends all over the world.  All of the avenues are just wonderful and isn’t it astounding that we can do this! I figure in a month or so, everyone we know will have this Stylish Blogger Award posted on their page, and rightly so.  You can pick it up here. Right click, save as, and then add it to your own page.

Ok…..have your eyeballs dried up and rolled back into your head now?  I’ll bet they have.  Tomorrow it’s supposed to be awful weather and I’ll be home for the day.  My plan is to do a blog walk, or at least as many pages as I can read since I have the human blog and the cat blog to keep up with now (thanks, Carole xxx).  So I am signing off of this page this evening and will see you tomorrow!

XOXOXO

Rehab and Lee ~~

Last night Lee was transferred to a rehab center for a minimum of one week.  I went to visit her for a few hours today and that place is so gorgeous I could have moved in myself.  Usually places like this have a great entrance lobby, but then you go to the rooms that are always way back in the back, and those aren’t anything like that lobby.  This was completely different.  It “looks” new but it isn’t. It’s just that the decor is so fabulous that it makes you think that it is. Wall paper, beautiful vibrant up to date paint, paintings, crown molding everywhere, beautiful floors, working gas fireplaces surrounded by shiny brass that are in the hallway walls and showing through to the other sides that are the most beautifully appointed dining rooms you ever saw.  I thought her room could never be that nice, until I walked in.  Wow.  A wonderful private room that I swear looked like a 4 star hotel room.  I wouldn’t blame her if she refused to leave.  My imagination was already knocking out walls to the next room and arranging my own furniture so that I could live there full time. I’ll try to remember to take a camera with me next time.

Tomorrow I’ll be picking her up at 1:45pm and taking her to her cancer doctor’s appointment.  I happen to know this doc on a personal and social level so this will be nice to see him.  I just wish it was on other terms and not Lee’s health.  She told me today that she thinks he is getting ready to start her back on the chemo again. But there was some good news today, and that was about the bone marrow test.  Nothing has gotten even a tiny bit worse. No leukemia showing mounting in the marrow. Whew.  I got that information straight from Lee, but I had the oddest feeling that she wasn’t saying everything. My gut feelings have never been off.  We’ll see. I hope they are this time.

I took a quick picture of Lee’s legs this past week.  One of the legs had only a small amount of marks left as you’ll see, but the other (her left) was still really beat up looking – and the picture doesn’t even do it justice for as bad as it looked in person. In this shot, the swelling had also gone done remarkably and now those legs were only twice their size instead of 3 times.  Also, the very bad place you see, in person looked as if an entire hunk of meat had been gouged out of her leg and was now trying to close up even thought it was still oozing badly.They may not look that swollen to you, but you don’t know what fabulous and curvy legs she had, plus you can see that knee caps are still not showing.  Anyway, at least things are looking up and the docs have said that no scars will be visible at all when this is done. I’d say that’s pretty darn amazing.  CLICK to enlarge:

Busy day tomorrow so I’m closing out for now.  Lee said to thank all of you for your concern and for checking up on her. She was bowled over by that.  I loved it….love you all, too.

XOXOXO

Name That Hum! ~~

As I was eating dinner tonight and watching Two and a Half Men, all of a sudden I said to myself, “What’s that humming?” I turned down the TV to mute and it stopped.  I left the TV on mute while I fixed that shouldn’t-have-a-second-helping plate of stuffed salmon and buttered steamed broccoli mixed with cauliflower.  Oh yeah, for sure dinner was great, but as I was standing at the stove, I heard it again!  It was ME! (ok, “I”, but who cares).  I just stood there for a moment and all these memories came flooding back. 

About 30 years ago, my great aunt, Ida, at 92 would walk around the house humming.  It drove my father insane. Instead of just ignoring it, he’d say, “Ida, for God’s sake, cut it out!”  To which she always answered, “What?”  Well, time went by and Ida passed away, then later Dad passed away and Mom was left in the house.  One day I was there for lunch. I was sitting and completely enjoying my sandwich when all of a sudden I heard this humming.  Oh noooooo, it was Mom.  She didn’t even know it.  We left the house and went shopping and she was still humming, and it wasn’t even a tune.  Now, I was never going to criticize her like Dad did with Ida, so I remained zipped.  Years went by, the humming kept on, and one day Mom passed away, too.

So back to dinner…..and the hum.  What does this mean???  Is it an age related thing? Is it an alone-living thing?  And holy smoke, there wasn’t even a tune!  Now I can’t help but wonder how long I have been doing this and exactly how many people have been tearing their hair out in frustration.  Oh Lord, why me?

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To update about Lee:  Tonight she was being transferred to a rehab facility for a minimum of a week.  I’ll be going over there instead and on Monday she has 2 appointments, one with the rehab doctor and another to resume chemo.  How much can a body take?  My hat is off to her.  Anyway, you’d think that a rehab center would provide the transportation to the appointments that they, themselves, have made for her, but noooooo, no such luck.  I’ll take her myself.  So the news about her today is overall good.  Her legs’ swelling is going down and the lesions are slowly closing and healing.  Now we just want the good stuff to continue.

_________________

Between the hospital and my own errands, I was also talked into doing a 2nd blog – do you hear me, Carole? You all know by now if you followed me on WLS,  that I adore my pets, 2 cats by the name of Sam & Lucy. Yeah, I’m one of those old cat ladies you read about that have no kids and transfer all their affection to their pets.  So be it; they’re terrific and they’re fun and they’re smart and adorable.  Need I go on.  The thing is, when Carole (see, you aren’t getting out of this) talked me into this, I thought, “Wooohoooo, I can DO this”, and never, EVER thought about all the rest of the stuff going on.  Oh wow.  I opened the new blog (http://lucythebeautiful.blogspot.com) and now I’m am trying to answer bloggers from BOTH places.  I might die. By sheer luck, I twisted my ankle on the stairs and have been home for 2 days, mind you, 2 days in my pjs because there’s no time to even dress for typing!  Thank you, Carole.  I love you.  ;)

Time to call it a night and tend to the finger nubs.  I’ll be around as soon as I can and will try not to get too far behind. Love and hugs and real admiration to all my blog buddies and especially those that have 2 or more blogs. Miracles, that’s what they are.

I am now hummingly out of here for the night.

XOXOXO

B-R-R

That’s what Mom used to say; she’d spell it – B,R,R….brrrrr. It’s very cold here today. It was 14 F this morning and only reached 20 today, but that was actually ok with me because it was my day to be home, vegetate, do some laundry of my own, and definitely take a long overdue blog walk as I’m sure you’ve seen by now.

This past week, (16 days really) has been busy with sitting with my friend, Lee, still in the hospital and also running errands for her and for myself.  After that long in the hospital, she had bills that were coming due, plants to be watered, clothes to be laundered, hair to be done (or as well as it could be), and calls to be made.  Very busy time.  This coming week she is scheduled for another bone marrow test so I doubt she’ll be home anytime soon.  Besides, if you saw her, you’d know that she’s not able to take care of herself yet anyway.  Her legs were 3 times their regular size and there were beginning lesions opening up.  Then on top of that, biopsies were done and she had severe reactions to that, too.  I’ve never felt so badly for someone.  It’s been a lot of pain for her and she’s still on morphine.  To give you an idea of the swelling, when she entered the hospital, she weighed 130 lbs.  Since there, she only eats like a bird, and then yesterday weighed 163 lbs.  They have now started her on a diuretic, thank goodness, and it’s starting to work.  Seeing 33 lbs extra on 2 legs is some sight. Scary.

A week ago, I was getting up at the crack of dawn, looked out of the window and saw this HUGE sink hole in the middle of the road.  Now this happened a few days after the first incidence of losing water to my house. Sheesh, I still have to back up to explain this.  Last year, there was a geyser of a water spout rising from the road just across the street. Everyone lost their water service.  The road was dug up and the pipes replaced due to age.  So now it’s another year gone by.  Same spot, new geyser.  The county trucks were back out but this time I was the only one without water.  The digging began.  First they found that the other repair was done with plastic pipes instead of copper.  A redo was in order. Because of this 2nd break, the line running to my house broke at the water meter.  The next sight I saw was my yard being dug up to replace everything with copper there as well.  Listen, I know this had to be done, but lordy, I’d just resodded my yard all by myself last Spring, and now it’s dug up clay.   Here’s where they were digging:

Notice how close they are to that pine tree.  They cut right into the roots of it and I’ll bet in another year that tree will die. Glad I took pictures.  See the roots below? (You can always click to enlarge) :

So, repairs were done and I had my water back about 12 hours later.  I also had a dug up yard. All they did was semi-smooth the clay over that side of my yard.  Gee, thanks.

A few days ago, I was getting up early again and glanced out the window (now we’re back to the present).  There in the middle of the street was this HUGE sink hole in the middle of the road. Even a new little geyser had begun across the street.  Now this sink hole was about 3 ft deep and 5 ft across.  The county trucks show up again and the digging begins.  In fact, the digging started at that hole, ran the length of my house, the next house and all the way to the highway.  They don’t even know what caused it.  They dug and dug and filled and filled:

I didn’t even bother going out to take pictures of them digging all the way down the street, and it didn’t matter.  You know why? After ALL that work and ripping up the street and refilling everything, they left, and 2 hours later they were back --- because the entire thing caved in again.  It was like the twilight zone.  Again, they didn’t know why, and again all the repairs started over. As of today, the road hasn’t sunk for the 3rd time but we are holding our breaths.  You should see all of the neighbors and myself skirting around the middle of the road.  I heard my 80+ neighbor say they were afraid the darn road was going to swallow them up.  I look at the whole thing from a different angle – and here’s my mean side.  Our street has been used as a cut through for the last year and cars will come flying down the road.  Good golly, we have kids and pets here! The county even put speed bumps in but that didn’t stop the huge amount of traffic and some still speeding their heads off.  So here’s what I hope, and I don’t care how mean it sounds. I hope that one of those speeding cut-throughers has the fortune to ride right over that spot just as the road collapses.  It would serve them right. Up until now, I’ve waited for those folks with my camera and a pad of paper.  Just when they get close, I’ve been running out to the side of the road, lifting my camera like I’m taking a picture of them, pointing with my finger to their face and then looking like I’m writing it all down.  Well, I can say it’s kept a few off the road but not enough.  Wow, this turned into a rant and it’s not even Wednesday.  I need to calm down.  Hey, Arlene, bring over that glass of Bailey’s.  I’ll make the next blog walk in spurts as I can.  I never like getting behind and missing out on what’s going on in your neck of the woods.  Be good, be careful, be loving.  

XOXOXO

The Januarys Of Our Lives ~~

I keep this little desktop calendar going as my default.  It’s old as the hills, a la 1997, but I’m so used to it that I never changed to anything better. I do wish it would take birthdays and roll them over to the next year, though I’m not complaining.

We are all off and running into January now. I went back about 6 years to all the Januarys and never realized before that I always got hit with the flu and/or pneumonia every single January even though I’d gotten a flu shot each year and I’d gotten a pneumonia shot to last for years, too.  Ok, I guess the month is here again for 2011.  I’ll keep an eye out.

Last January of 2010, I was moving all the big stuff out of my prior abode, storing part of it in a giant storage unit, and then unloading Mom’s things and storing most of that, too.  When I think back to all that physical labor plus being so darn sick, I don’t even know how I lived through it.  Well, you do what you have to do, right?  You can collapse after.  Last January, our friend, Curtis was also getting new tests done and trying to recoup from his bout with vasculitis.  It was a tough month for him, too.

The very beginning of that month saw tons of snow and ice and I’d noted on the calendar about the hair-raising trips back and forth to the storage unit. Other than being so sick, I think it was lucky the cars and truck weren’t hit and totaled on the roads.  We ended up with a grand total of 36-38 inches of snow for December and January and everyone got their wish for a white Christmas.  After that, not so many got on the Band Wagon of Wishes for this Christmas.

Last January was also the month of Eric, the accountant. Remember him?  He’s the one I wrote about that made the major move on me when I went to see about the taxes being done.  I can still see him with those puppy dog eyes and hear him making that ungodly groaning noise when he trapped me in “the hug”.  Good lord, what a day that was.  Obviously I did not hire him.

Then, same month, my oldest friend, Lee, was put into the hospital and diagnosed with the same cancerous disease that Curtis had.  Well, Lee has been going through chemo since then and actually doing pretty well. Until now. She’s back in the hospital and has been for a whole week.  Yesterday, the Eve, was her birthday, and I took her her favorite Wonton Soup and bunches of birthday cards.  She is in an isolation room and you have to put on all this plastic garb and gloves before you can visit.  Everything is seeming a bit like a rewinding repeat of last year.  She is worried that she will never get out of the hospital, and to be frank, so am I.  (Update: She called me and now cannot even walk with help, and lesions are opening on her legs. I am having a very hard time not showing extreme worry when I am with her. I am very, very afraid now and even sorry to pass this along in my post.)  Here is my friend, Lee, on her balcony:

There is nothing I can do to change Lee’s situation no matter how I try, and if I don’t write about something else, I will crumble into tears, so, enough of the nightmare January stuff for now;  here’s a funny to at least raise the spirits for a moment.  Last January, at the end of the month, a friend of mine decided to throw a party.  He LOVED my dip and knew it was my own recipe of over 30 years.  Everyone said that dip is like a drug and you can’t stop eating it once you start.  He begged and he pleaded for that recipe and I finally caved and gave it to him, but with the stipulation that he never give it out to anyone else.  He agreed. Ha. People will do anything to get what they want. Here’s what happened at that party.  Lots of people, lots of food and everyone was having a wonderful time.  My friend was being the perfect host and visiting with every person there.  As I was mingling, I kept hearing comment after comment about how fabulous that dip was and I really did feel very proud.  Then I saw my friend with a larger group and I started walking over to them.  As I made it just to my friend’s back, I heard one of the guests in that group say, “Oh wow, this is the best damn dip I’ve ever had in my life!”  Without a pause, my friend pipes up with, “Soooo glad you like it, it’s my own recipe.”  Say what??  I was almost fuming and I tapped him on the back.  He turned, saw me, turned beet red and said, “Ohhhh s**t”.  I think he saw the fire spurting out of my eyes.  He had no choice, so he turned back around to his guests – thinking he could still save face and I wouldn’t hear everything he said, and in a half way whisper to them said, “Well, she helped me with it.”  I can only say that this was the first and last time I ever grabbed a guy by the rear end and pinched that cheek so hard he screamed like a girl. But it worked. He said to the group, “Ok, ok, it’s HER recipe.”  I thought he was actually going to cry. Tough.  He’s just lucky I didn’t grab somewhere else!

See? January can be fun!

Oh, and as a quick post script, I forgot to mention that both laptops that I won arrived and they are Perfecto!

XOXOXO