APRIL, 1999~~~
Nature songs
The habits of each little bird,
And all its patient skill,
Are surely taught by God Himself
And ordered by His will.
--AuthorUnknown April 1,1999 - It dawns on me that I have forgotten another appointment. This time is was on Monday and was supposed to be with the investor. Hope he understands and gets things taken care of without me. I must call. Allan asks about my taxes. I still do not have them ready yet. He says they are taking theirs to the accountant. I tell him I will run mine by later since they are not ready yet. That means a trip up to Patterson in the next day or two.
This morning, Ms. Jay and I go to Wally World where I buy some more of the material I am using for the center of my log cabin squares. I will use it for the border when I get the quilt together….(I hope). Some pretty flowers are out for Easter and I can't resist purchasing one for Mother's room. I choose a lily with pink in it rather than the traditional white Easter lily. Then there were cards to buy for Easter and up coming birthdays and replenishing Mother's cache of candy.
A quick stop at the grocery store and then we stop by the Center and leave the candy and flower and visit a while before heading home. I am not worth very much today. it just takes so much energy out of me when I attempt to do some of what I once did a lot of . This time I have a very sore shoulder, probably from the sewing and the stretching for strips out of the large grocery bags where we had placed our exchanged strips. We weren't allowed to peek or change strips as we pulled them out of the bag. That ensured the scrappy look that we were after.
April Fool's Day and I didn't play a single prank on anyone! No one played one on me either…. I helped out with Giggles during the afternoon and evening while Mom worked on her National Boards papers again. Time is drawing nigh and there is much to yet get done before mailing off "The Box" with all its goodies enclosed safely to the higher powers for evaluation and acceptance.
April 2,1999 - While Tbird was working on "The Paper" last evening DynoKid took it upon himself to go to my bedroom, climb on my bed and go to sleep. He was so peaceful and his school was out for Easter/Spring Vacation, I offered to leave him there and not disturb his sleep. Of course, big brother wanted to stay, too. So there he sat in front of the computer until way tooooo late, playing the Oregon Trail and putting on other games that had been lost. My already disturbed sleep was further disturbed to say the least. The pain in my shoulder has been worse today. I assume it is from the sewing I did on Wednesday.
They leave around lunchtime to go to the mountains for a family outing since school is out. They hardly have left and Wes comes by with his family. He is driving my new Explorer up to Marion and BingoKid decides to stay with me just in case his cousins get back and can play with him for a while. As it turns out, he has to leave before the others return.
We order Pizza delivery for supper and Mom Tbird gets to work again on her papers. It is late when they head home. I chose to work some on my webpages. As I make a new HTML for April, some way the March HTML is lost! How? I have not idea! I put the new one in and for some reason it came out as March instead of April. Now, to look for my floppies that have the journals on them to reinstate the page lost. I am really too tired to really be upset by it. In fact, this seems like a minor thing after all that I have had to deal with this past week with the computer….
April 3,1999 -Easter time. Change of time. All I want is to stay in bed to day and yet, there is much that must be done. My shoulder hurts more and more. I am ready for it to improve. I am typing only because I am able to rest my wrists on the laptop and move only my fingers to type. It takes little effort to type this way. I have typed all of Tbird's first drafts using this technique. I love my laptop. It is my computer of choice. We have also discovered that it has Microsoft Word .7 while the big computer is Microsoft word.4 The two do not honor each other and work together as we would like for them to work. Some of the things we do one has to be redone on the other. What I need is a lap port to connect to the big computer and then I could use the laptop running through it to the printer. Of course, this laptop could be programmed for the printer….
The weather has been beautiful. It has been eighty degrees, sunny and flowers are blooming everywhere. The dogwoods are even trying to bloom. They have made a lot of progress just in the last two days. I don't think they will be open by tomorrow, but there is some of the buds showing anyway. We may have some showers by late afternoon on Easter. I have put my few real plants out on the porch. Hopefully they will not have to be brought back in until fall.
I have some new planters I bought at the Southern Spring Show. I want to hang them around the Spa and put some pretty blooming flowers in them for the summer. By having them hanging, they should be easy to water and care for. I love flowers. Driving up to Patterson today to deliver my tax information was a real joy because of being able to savor all the colors bursting forth with the warm weather. Allan and his family are spending this weekend at the campground. It is a good time for it.
It is also a good time for attending church. My life has always been so closely related to church and church activities. This is my third year that I have not been able to attend the church functions. The service I attended last Saturday was hard for me. It is difficult to explain to others how hard it is trying to sit for an extended time on a wooden bench, knees bent, or even worse, struggling to stand up and work out the spasms in the back so I can stand upright again. Other places, there are more movements, but yet, I don't really go to that many other places either….
April 4,1999 - Happy Easter! Easter Sunday has arrived with beautiful warmer than usual weather and a breathtaking array of flowers. Our temperature is up in the high eighties which is above average for this time of year. The dogwood trees tried to open up their blossoms, but only managed a small green cup showing on the tips of its branches. I spent the day alone here at home - just me and my pups.
My big Brother came by and stayed for only a few minutes. He and his wife didn't even sit down. He has been having a really hard time with his back and pain. Nothing the doctor tries, seems to help. I ordered him a book on Mind Over Pain today. Maybe there is something in it that will help him. (I hope to get some ideas from it, too.)
Tbird came over later in the afternoon and I rode with her up to Wally World so she could get some things for their trip to Tennessee tomorrow morning. Surprise of surprises! WW was closed! Yes, Actually, Closed! We ended up shopping at Kmart which is in the process of redoing their whole store and add an indoor pantry. Between the remodeling moving and the "Wally World is closed ;here we are Kmart" crowd things were pretty messed up throughout the store. We found a few things that she could use before heading by the Japanese Restaurant for a carryout supper. She brought me back home before taking her own supper on home with her since it was getting pretty late. It worried me that I did not hear from Cotton. She always calls and it has been a while since I've heard from her. I just hope that she is okay.
April 5,1999 - It starts out sort of busy today. My shoulder is still bothering me quite a bit. I would have thought that it would be better by now. I either pulled a muscle in it Wednesday carrying my sewing stuff around , or I messed up the rotor cup stretching and sewing on my log cabin squares. I take Ms. Jay to have x-rays made this morning. From there we shop a few places and do some grocery shopping as well. We stop by and visit with Mother for a while before coming home. She is beginning to look better and no longer needs the oxygen. She loves when I bring others to visit with her.
I do little the rest of the day. My pain level is much higher than I would care to admit. That in my shoulder is what I would refer to as a "white, hot" sort of pain. It is there even when I do not move, but movement makes it much worse. Moving my neck, or turning my head adds to it as well. Taking my Flexeril at night has helped me to sleep some at night. That means most of my pain is muscular related.
April 6,1999 - I check out my computer friends early in the morning. I have been concerned that my friend, Treeheart, has not made an entry in her journal since the 24th of March. It is always a highlight of my day when I go to her journal and read about some of her adventures and thoughts. It seems that we have a lot in common on how we view life and people around us. She has been a light in the night for me on several occasions, knowing what to say and understanding what I need or feel. I do hope that she will soon return and be a part of this Cyberspace family that I am coming to know and appreciate. There are many others that I feel close to and look forward to exchanging thoughts , remedies, or simply chat for awhile.
Allan came by and took a little sympathy on me. He took time to sweep out all the leaves that Charlie has been carrying in on his long Yorkie hair. It's amazing how much that critter can get into or attempt to do. My cleaning lady came again this evening. She moved Charlie and Oreo's water dish and rug unto the other room so she could mop and wax for me. Charlie decided he wanted his bowl back where it belonged and proceeded to take his nose and push under the edge of the rug to move it and the water bowl. We caught it before he spilled the water. (I had managed to do a few things in the kitchen and family room before she came so she could do more work easier.)
It looks good that Julie, the lady that is cleaning for me now, will work out and stay with me for awhile…. I hope for a long while…. Julie works at the hospital on third shift in the emergency department. Tonight she sat and talked with me for a while before having to go on to her night work. Charlie had to have his share of attention from her while we sat and talked. Every time she started to pet Oreo, Charlie would jump in between her and Oreo. He wanted ALL of her attention!
Allan doesn't understand why I can't just set in and do a lot of the stuff around the house that needs to be done on my own. He doesn't realize how difficult it is to try to bend, stretch, lift and push. There are many things I have a strong desire to do. There are things that I attempt doing. There are things that I have learned from past experiences that are completely out of my range of motion to accomplish. Oh, I will do things, knowing what the consequences are, because there seems no other way to get them accomplished. I end up paying for them in the long run each time.
This morning I used the electrodes for most of the morning on my shoulder and back. It would be wonderful if I just had it on me all the time. For the time that I am using the pads, I can counter-react the pain level making it almost go away. Yet, if I use it for too long it will cause pain and soreness as well. I should get into the Spa, but I much rather use it when someone else is around. What if I was in it and was unable to get out!
April 7,1999 - It's another slow start this morning. At some point I must build up some more energy to get the gumption to be more active. As it turns out , I spend the whole morning doing nothing. In the afternoon, I take pen in hand and tackle the stack of bills that have to be paid. There is no good reason for me to wait this long to put myself down long enough to do this monthly chore. It actually takes longer to go through the envelopes and throw away the unneeded inserts and gimlets that the companies try to entice us to spend more money on along with the bills. That part done, it takes hardly no time to write out the checks and have them ready to mail.
BingoKid has gone with his Uncle Allan again today to watch while Allan works on some of his yards. Later in the evening I get to watch his little brother while Mom is busy packing up some more of their belongings from the basement apartment. It is such a wonder to see how quickly he is growing and changing. BingoKid and Wes take time to play a new game, Deer Hunting, on the computer before heading home.
April 8,1999 - Treeheart is still around. It was so good to find that her journal was up to date and to once again read it. It is like sitting with a friend and sharing the events of the day over a cup of coffee. I meant to call Ally and see if she was up to lunch out with Ms. Jay and me. Well, I really did mean to! It is just that I never got to the phone and pick up the receiver to dial her number. As it turned out she called me later in the afternoon. Just as I suspected she was feeling about as bad as all the other FMer's have been feeling. I would love to believe that probably it is just the time of year and all will pass soon. Ah! If only that were the truth! There would be so many happy people knowing that soon all the pain and tiredness would be gone.
I took Ms. Jay uptown and then we went on over to visit with Mother for awhile. She was still in bed and her lunch was brought in while we were there. Ms. Jay cut up her ham into small pieces and mixed it in with the beans in a bowl. Mother ate it along with some cornbread while she talked with her. It seemed that she ate more by talking with us and not paying attention to eating.
After a short rest, it was time to sit at the table and sew some on the log cabin squares. Before I knew the time, it was near midnight. When I started to stand, I noticed that my feet were very much so swollen. Seems every time I sit too long, my feet and ankles swell. After all these years, one would think that I would stand and move around every little bit, and drink more fluids. At least, I could probably prop up my feet and it would help some.
April 9,1999 - Tbird and her family returned from Chattanooga, TN, yesterday evening. They had a great time taking in the place that taught lessons on carving carousel horses. They toured one of the TVA dams and she was amazed at how different it was from when we toured years ago at Fontana Dam, which is part of the same project. They managed to work in a boat ride in the schedule.
BingoKid was dropped off here by his Dad early so that he could spend some time with NascarKid and DynoKid when they came later on in the morning. Tbird had bunches yet to do on her Nationals. By noon they were all here along with one of the neighborhood boys. It proved to be an interesting afternoon, to say the least. After all had gone, I went in to check my email. By the computer lay a small pile of…something? Looking closer, it was easy to see that it was bits and pieces of an old necklace of my Mother's. It was in a drawer of the file cabinet, now it lay broken and most of the sets broken out and gone. It seems that every time the neighborhood kid comes inside things get lost or broken. We try over and over to give him another chance. On occasion, when he has caused damage, he has been brought back to work out the cost of the damage or to do repairs. It is a challenge to work with him and yet at times there is no evidence of any progress. This is a child that caused a younger brother of his to have severe burns on his legs several years ago. Even with supervision things happen, but despite some behaviors he is a kid you can't help but like.
April 10,1999 - Tbird is here bright and early this morning. She only brings Giggles with her this time. The boys are left with their Dad so all our attention is addressed to the Nationals. By noon two of the papers are complete and printed. By mid afternoon all of them are finally typed and the third one is over half proofed - nearly ready for printing. She has a meeting at church she has to attend followed by supper and plans to bring me a plate of food back for my own supper.
We ended up meeting at the nursing center where I shared my supper with Mother and we visited with her. Allan shows up with his family to visit as well. His little foster boy is walking all over the place now and kept Allan busy the whole time they were at the center. We talked about Cotton and what it would be like when she has her baby this fall. She is fourteen weeks along now and all seems to be going well. She will have to have a C-section and as of now her doctor has a tentative date of September 15. I would sort of like for it to be on October 5, which is my own Birthday. That would no doubt be most unlikely since it does has to be a surgical birth. We are already making plans for my trip up there to stay with her and try to help out some when the time comes….even to how we will manage my two dogs along with hers since Oreo and Strider's fight.
April 11,1999 - The dogwood trees are now white with large blooms. All through the woods are patches of white since dogwoods are native to this area and grow quite prolific. My pink dogwood is in bloom in the front yard along with the cherry trees, apple trees, wisteria, azaleas and other spring flowers. With all this 80 degree weather, this is one of the prettiest springs we have had in years. At the same time it is one of the driest and there are some severe forest fires and brush fires around.
We have been alerted to watch out for more tornadoes this season than usual. We live in what is referred to as "Tornado Alley" which means we are prong to have a lot of tornadoes. I like to believe that I live on the side of a mountain and that tornadoes have a tendency to strike in flat areas. It is a terrible experience to have to endure things since as tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters. It must be even more horrible to think of the plagues of war and the terrible things that are now taking place in our world. If only we people of such diverse interests could manage to work things out in a peaceful way and live harmoniously together. I pray for peace, acceptance and understanding, and most of all for love of all mankind.
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© 1999 by Stormy Jeanne