Nature Songs ~~~~
FEBRUARY, 2000, continued
February 18,2000 - Shorts was the outfit of choice this morning when preparing for the trek to exercise. Why take a chance on making the knee I blistered and burst the blister any worse for another round with the equipment today? Strangely, I was not as self-conscious about myself in the shorts as I thought I might be since they came nearly to my knee. In fact, it was a pair of those I used when I was in rehab with my knees. I was just one of many others wandering around doing my own things as I performed my feats for the day. Being a rainy day, I grabbed my raincoat to wear going in and out of the facility, saving me an extra time of changing clothes. It did happen to be somewhat chilly today, but what did it matter? That was my attire for the day and into the evening.
February 19,2000 - I agreed to have Tbird's three children for a few hours last evening while she and Hubby had supper with her best friend and his wife who were visiting from Maryland this weekend with his family. Then shortly after lunch the boys were back today to spend the night and attend church with me tomorrow. I call and have Mom to drop them off for me at the nursing home and I meet them there. We made a trip by the drugstore and grocery store before arriving home. NascarKid choose a pizza mix to fix for his supper and DynoKid went for the frozen waffle potatoes.
BingoKid comes over for about four hours of contact threaded with a little combat with his cousins. This was not to be DynoKid's day for being a part of the group, no matter how hard he attempted to get included in the big boys activities. The day pretty much had to be controlled by me and my rules for the day. It just was not a day they were able to control their feelings and tempers. After BingoKid left, it wasn't long until the other two were ready for bed. They truly were worn out and ready for a good night's sleep.
February 20,2000 - We had to be in the car and on our way this morning by 8:20a.m., in order to meet my aunt at McD's. The boys devoured two biscuits each and were ready for church in no time at all. Once at church, everyone could not get over how much Tbird's boys had grown and how well-mannered they were. NascarKid was very devout in keeping up with the hymns and singing them quite lustfully, and when the scripture was read he took the Bible and found the scripture so he could read along as the pastor read. Oh, he had we boyish ways as well, such as playing with the pencils and writing on his bulletin and folding envelopes from the back of the pew. DynoKid took his bulletin and made a fan to cool himself off. He kept saying he was hot. DynoKid went to Sunday School Class with me while NascarKid went downstairs to his age group class.
I drove by the drugstore on the way home to pick up my meds. Using the drive-through window, I was a little surprised at the amount of the prescriptions, so I drove to the front of the store and stopped to check the prices. Sure enough, two of them were at the regular price - not my new rate! I had to take them inside to get it straightened out to the tune of receiving over $50 back that I had over paid. Of course while inside the store, the boys found something they wanted and being the kind grandmother that I just happen to be, I could not do anything, but buy them one thing which they promised to share with BingoKid.
Once home, I laid down to rest while they played with their new Pokemon tokens and the Sega games. Mom came about mid afternoon to pick them up and then I had to go over and spend a little time with Mother again. It is getting to where she expects me to come every day now since she has not been feeling well. She has this way of putting me on a guilt trip when I don't show up.
February 21,2000 - Ms. Jay goes with me this morning to Q4L. Allie meets us there (well, she did arrive about 30 minutes earlier). I do ten minutes on the life cycle before heading up the elevator to my own special corner where the Keiser equipment is located. I make two rounds on all five of them and find that I have time to spare today. I am speeding up in doing the repetitions and my two leg exercises, I did forty each time. I go around and do the repetitions on all five machines again before heading back downstairs to do five more minutes on the life cycle. Now it is time to head toward the water and my hour of power exercises there. While Ms. Jay does some of the water aerobics in the following class, I get an extended time in the steam room and take a cool shower before entering the sauna for a spell. As it turns out, the two of us finish up about the same time, and are on our merry way for the day.
Me thinks I may have forgotten one wee fact for the day. When I got up this morning my blood sugar was 61 - a little on the low side. I was careful to eat a good breakfast before leaving for my exercise, but still had a nagging headache. The headache remained with me for the morning. When I checked my blood sugar before lunch, it was 67. Tbird had left an individual serving pack of donuts here yesterday, so I opened and ate them. I stayed tired and listless for most of the day. I managed to get started on the quilting squares that I need done for next Monday, but the work was under protest to say the least. It is just that I have to get busy if I hope to make a jacket with the others next week. The nagging headache will just have to nag. By late evening my blood sugar registers 110.
February 22,2000 -Bright and v-e-r-y early this day, I called Tbird to wish her Happy Birthday before she was off and running around doing all the little things she does in a day of her life. The cheer I brought to her by remembering it was her special day resounded in her voice over the phone. We probably will go to the Southern Spring Show in Charlotte this weekend to celebrate together. (Tongue in cheek: I know what a special priveledge it is for her to get to push me around in the royal chair for an afternoon. What better present to her!) We shall stop somewhere along the way and I will treat her to a special meal for her birthday.
Giggles shows up earlier this morning than usual along with her car seat and lightweight stroller. My goal is to take her with me to Q4L and leave her in the Day Care Center provided while I take my water session. The stroller keeps me from having to carry her in and out. As it happens, I get some help from Ms. Jay since she is now going along with me. In fact, little Giggles went to sleep in the car seat on the way home and she was carried in to the crib by Ms. Jay instead me having to put her in the stroller and handling her so much. (She slept nearly two hours once home.) While she slept, I sewed on the log cabin squares needed for my Monday quilting class.
Once Dad has collected Giggles, it was time for me to go over and visit with Mother for a while. I took my sweatshirt along and worked at taking out the seams. This sweatshirt will be the pattern and base for my log cabin jacket I'll be working on in the class. All the ribbing had to come off, the sleeves taken out, along with the shoulder seams opened, and the front split open turning it into a basis for the new jacket. The fun will begin when I begin deciding which of the many hundred different patterns of the log cabin design I will use for the final product.
By bedtime, I am pretty much on the way to being prepared for construction of the jacket, itself. I am beginning to see the emergence of the dark and light contrast of the strips going around my center block.
February 23,2000 - Busy, busy, busy! At times I can glimpse a wee bit of the past activities of the life that used to be. It was fun back then - being so active. I like being on the go and accomplishing things. Going into the midst of others who are intent on better health and partaking of the fruits of labor along side them is satisfying and the rush of endorphines is an added boost.
This morning I hit the Life Cycle for fifteen minutes straight and use my headphones for the first time to watch television while peddling nearly five and a half miles toward better health. This morning I hit the Life Cycle for fifteen minutes straight and use my headphones for the first time to watch television while peddling nearly five and a half miles toward better health. The exercise equipment got two go-rounds again today before heading into the water for an hour. Guess by next week I will be ready to move on to some more equipment to my program. I couldn't stay for the eleven o'clock stretch class that began today. I had to get home because Lady came this morning while I was gone and I needed to see her before she left.
Shortly after lunch I was cruising down the road toward Hickory to have my hair trimmed. I have made the decision to have it cut shorter and forget about having another permanent any time soon since I am getting it in the chlorine so much each week; it also makes for easier upkeep for me.
When I get back home and start to speak, I am startled to hear that this strange sound comes from within when I talk to my puppies. My voice has decided to go on vacation, I guess. Warm weather has brought on some early blooms and I also have noticed that the maples are in bloom. The maple trees always give me a bad bout with allergies and apparently this year is going to be a bad year for allergies if today is any indication of things to come. My throat is irritated and that nagging cough is bothering me once more. The inhaler does not seem to provide all the relief I need. I even wonder if the high chlorine level in the water at the center is bothering me.
February 24,2000 - Giggles is back this morning. I opt not to take her along with me to the Q4L for my water session. I had a bad night. At one point or two I even considered calling my Paramedic on duty, Allan, to come to my rescue. About 2 a.m. I started to turn over in bed. A sharp, mind-boggling pain shot through my upper left thigh. It was not a cramp as I usually experience. There was no way that I could find relief. I broke out in a cold sweat from the effects of the pain. I finally manage to get a folded pillow under the knee and it helps a little. hen gradually, I maneuver another pillow under my foot. This enables me to reach into the drawer of my nightstand and pull out a bottle of pills to take. I decide that the Flexeril will be medicine of choice this time because it will help me to relax all over and ponder my predicament. I take two of them and then concentrate on relaxing myself. Somehow I made it through the night and awoke with a deep thudding hurt in my leg; not the sort of pain usually left by a muscle spasm. I can walk and get around, but decide I need to take it a little easier today. I probably did too much yesterday.
Giggles decides that she wants to sleep today and that suits me fine. That gives me a chance to rest some as well. Allan comes by and touches base with me. He warns me to contact him if I need anything at all. The Q4L calls to tell me that the pool is closed, because the chlorine level is too high. It will not be opened up again until the water level is back to normal. Wes also comes by. He is having a problem with his neck and is in a great deal of pain. We compare our night's ordeals before he has to leave. Giggles leaves early, and that gives me time to rest again.
February 25,2000 - So, Wednesday morning, I was coughing a little during the water exercising? That afternoon, I begin to get that nagging cough back. Yesterday, my left eye was runny all day and my sinuses hurt. This morning, both eyes are watering to high heavens and matting up. It is difficult keeping my eyes open this morning. know from the symptoms that I have no choice, but to call the doctor's office this morning. But, first I have to take care of the dogs grooming appointment.
I get my puppies ready for their trip to the groomer's for their beauty treatments. Charlie has to be on leash, but he is more than happy to run to the car and take his appointed place in his crate. Oreo jumps into the co-pilot's seat next to me and we are off. We travel over hills, through vales, across bridges, criss-crossing back and forth and in and out amid all the mountainous curves to a place unknown, following the roads and directions given me by my daughter-in-law. Just as she said, there was the house sitting back on a knoll, a small sign designating it as the right place and the building in back of the house where her grooming business is situated. I turned and drove up the long graveled road to the top of the hill and left my two canines to be beautified and shorn.
The doctor's office staff returned my call after talking with the nurse and asked if I could be in the office by 10:30 a.m. Surprisingly enough I was in to see the doctor on time and by 11:11, I was pulling out of the drive of the drugstore after leaving three prescriptions to be filled. The doctor said he was glad I had come in; I needed an antibiotic and he gave me another allergy pill to take in addition to the one I've used for a long time, and a nasal spray to help with the infection in my sinuses. I just hope this is not an indication of things to come with the allergy season starting off. I also hope that it does not turn out that the pool is going to be a problem for me. It is still closed today because of the high chorine level, and I will just believe that it agitated my sinuses.
Once I got back to pick up the dogs, they were more than ready to leave. They were also very proud and happy, each one sporting a bandanna around his neck . Both of them were strutting as if they were in some sort of pageant and were much friskier than earlier this morning. (A dog definitely knows when he looks great.)They each had lost at least half their hair because I had them trimmed for the warm weather that is just around the corner (if you don't count these past few days, that is - it was 74 degrees today.)
( I managed to snap one picture of Charlie when we got home. After that one each time I picked up the camera he headed for his escape route - out his doggie door. Oreo was very obliging and posed for several shots even though he would look everywhere but toward the camera.)
February 26,2000 - I'm still feeling rough today, not nearly as chipper as I had expected after getting on the antibiotics and other meds for this allergic episode of hayfever and whatever... Added to that Mr. Pesky Psoriasis feels left out and has to send out an itchy reminder that he is still alive and well by causing those small pistules to pop up here and there. Ah! What a vicious circle things seem to take. There is no end or answer it seems; just acceptance and trying to adjust the old lifestyle to where the best happy medium may be.
Much that I would like to accomplish today, but being in slow-mode and having to stop to cough and catch my breath every little bit, it is midday before I really get into any type of rhythm of working. I am not ready for my class on Monday. I can only hope now that I will feel like even going Being ready with my squares is an option I can deal with as long as I learn the steps for turning them into a jacket. I have been toying with the idea of maybe making each of the daughters and daughers-in-law one for Christmas this year.
The grandsons call to ask if they can come over for a few hours. How can a grandmother say no! Of course, it is okay with me if they come over. Wes brings little BusyKid with him for a few hours as well. He stays indoors with me and we enjoy each other's companionship as I help him with a frozen icee juice pop and bake him some of the frozen ready-to-bake biscuits I bought just to have on hand when they come looking for something to eat.
NascarKid has strict orders to spend all his time at the computer working on his Science project that is due Wednesday at school. He has done an analysis of three different sites of water in Lake Rhodhiss which separates my county from his county. Strangely enough, shortly before his samples were taken, there were two major sewer leakages into the lake and they both were noticeably evident in his reports that came back from the laboratory that ran the results! The lab even returned small vials of the samples back to him so he could display how each of them looked. He also has pictures taken of the different procedures he did and the interviews he had concerning the lake and its safety. In a nutshell - IT IS NOT A SAFE PLACE FOR HUMANS! And I remember way back, when the waters of the Catawba River, which includes Lake Rhodhiss, were crystal clear and enjoyed by everyone.)
BingoKid and DynoKid got to spend quality time together, which was good for the two of them. The three of us left NascarKid working at the computer by himself long enough to pick up pizza for supper and then BingoKid decided he liked the looks of my sofa and pleaded to spend the night with me. He was zonked out by 10:30 P.M. and I was able to get some more work accomplished on my sewing.
Oh, before I forget - I spent a little time this morning on a story for the writer's group I joined. I had toyed with the idea for most of the week and had gone as far as making an outline of some possibilities to pursue about caves, caverns, tunnels, and being underground, or in the dirt. Hopefully, I will be able to construct a story with a surprise ending.
February 27,2000 - I decided not to attempt going to church this morning and having to deal with the nagging cough that will not take leave of me.
Strangely, Mother has developed a bad cough that sounds a lot like mine and the center has her on medication for it. Wonder if maybe what I have is not what I thought I may have? If so, I could easily have been the carrier for what Mother has, or vise-a-versa, she could have conveyed to me what she has. That may be why I am not responding to the medication as quickly as I had hoped. My medication is helping me. I can tell a difference in my eyes even though they are not cleared up and my teeth don't ache like there did, making it easier for me to chew. The cough has changed the least and been least responsive to treatment.
BingoKid sleeps until mid morning and immediately turns on the TV to watch Sunday morning cartoons. Tbird has called to say that she will bring me a Subway sandwich after she and NascarKid get out of church. He has to do some more work on his Science project and needs to get all of his computer work done today since he will not be able to get back over here before it is due in all likelihood.
Ms. Jay brings in my Sunday papers for me and reports that I have 16 crocuses starting to open up today. I have gads of daffodils around the house and in the woods in full bloom with many more buds beginning to burst open. Singing of the birds along with the pretty blooms abounding would make one be deceived into thinking that Spring has sprung. I know it hasn't! In fact with Easter coming so late in April we will no doubt have a lot of cool days between now and Easter.
Ms. Jay and I decide to leave an hour early in the morning heading out for Morganton and our jacket class session. We want to be sure and get a good table for our day's work with easy access to a receptacle for four machines and iron. Last class we were later arriving and had a problem with hooking up our machines from a table in the middle of the room.
I must get to work on my squares and try to finish them . . . and there is that story to work on . . .
February 28,2000 - The best made plans of . . . ur...er...an over-industrious, forgetful, antiquated, enthusiastic, well-meaning, preoccupied, archaic person oft times go askew. They certainly did for me. One moment of choosing to change my method of sewing the strips together for my log cabins (to save time, no less) - and all came undone. In my mind's eye I was seeing the strips being sewn in the correct way. In reality, when I sat down last night to watch the late news and cut the blocks apart to prepare to sew on the next row of strips, I sewed them all on backward! Yes, every one of the blocks had to have the strips of cloth removed and redone. That left me only one decision for the workshop today.
I left my sewing machine at home and took only the blocks and trusty seam ripper and the three sets of charm squares with me to the Quilter's Guild this morning. I wanted to at least see the steps for making the jacket. As it turned out, I probably got to spend more time watching the others as they worked busily on their placement of squares for the one special design of their choice and learned more than if I had been working on one for myself. Every lady had a totally different look for their jacket pattern. I'm anxious to see all of them completed. We also learned today that the challenge for this year is to take any UFO that we may have and complete it for the Challenge Competition in August. - now to make up my mind about which one I might do. . .
NascarKid and Tbird were back this evening to work at the computer for his Science Project. It is coming together nicely. He also had some work to complete on Math for his class today getting ready for the big Math Competition in April. Looking over pages of his work, I was surprised to see many of the type math I studied in high school and college. More power to him. I certainly didn't understand some of it!
February 29,2000 - A 7 a.m. call to Q4L and we learn that the pool is open for the first time again, today. They had to get a crew from Charlotte to come and work on the pool equipment Seems that the construction company that build the pool bought the equipment from a company in California. Even though there is a warranty on it, there is not a place around here to work on it for the company. They instructed Q4L to pull out the piece that was not working and pay their own shipping and handling to send it back to California to be worked on. Of course that is out of the question when you consider the time factor and pool use. Just happens to be one of those loop holes you hope never happens, but does.
And no, the chlorine was not all in my imagination. A whole barrel of chlorine was dissipated into the water and air that one Wednesday and it should have lasted for a month! It got much worse in the pool area after our morning session.
Finally, I got my log cabin squares finished today! Now I can go about the pleasant task of choosing the layout I like best and begin sewing the squares together to construct my jacket. It's been a longer time working on these squares than what I usually put into a project.
Giggles belated birthday present from Cotton arrived here today. I'll keep it here until she comes back Thursday morning and open the package with her to see what she has. I know that it is a toy, so maybe she can play with it while she is with me Thursday - that is - after I get in my water class.
Things , well.... er.... sort of... er... went askew for me again this afternoon. No, not with my sewing. This time it was pure memory! I drove up to Bi-Lo to get some drinks while they are still on special today. While there I picked up some candy to take over to Mother since she had been bugging me since Saturday that her cache is shrinking.. At checkout I even have the girl to put the three bags of candy in a separate bag. At the car, I put all the bags in the back of the Explorer, push the cart to the front of the car and proceed to drive over to the nursing center. I start to get out of the car and realized that I did not have the candy! I had left it in the buggy in the parking lot at Bi-Lo!
I had also stopped to get me some Barbecue for my supper to eat with Mother while she had supper. I went on in to her room and called the grocery store. Yes, they did have my bag with the candy in it at the Service Desk! Some one had turned it in, or else the boy found it when he collected the carts to bring them back into the store. I had only to drive back and retrieve the candy. At a price of close to ten dollars, it seemed a good cause to jump into my car and run back up the road the six or eight miles or so. But, first I had my supper.
MARCH
©2000 by Stormy Jeanne
