mar00

Nature Songs ~~~~ continued

MARCH - 2000

March 6,2000 - The robin sings outside my bedroom window once again. It's heralding the approaching springtime. The dogwood tree has each tip with a developing bud turned upward reaching for the warm sun. I had never noticed before how they would tilt up like that in the spring before beginning to swell in preparation for bursting forth with their large white blooms. My sneezy, wheezy causing maple trees are now red with their blooms. It will be a while before the little helicopter seeds are formed and come twirling down to the ground. A solitary hawk soars across the tree tops coming to rest on a topmost branch of an oak tree. Way off in the distant bluest of blue sky, a jet much smaller than a Cracker Jack toy makes its way to unknown places as the sun's reflection glistens off it.

After exercising this morning, I had to drive to Hickory to meet with Mother and her eye doctor. Surprising how many of the flowering shrubs and trees are already in full bloom and many more are ready to blossom at any minute. The news crew predicts that we shall still get that "arctic blast" - hopefully, with no snowy stuff.

Mother's vision is not doing too good, but that is to be expected. We were surprised that the glaucoma pressure in her bad eye is up to 47 this visit. She has already lost her vision in it, so there is not much more that can be done for it. We did get a prescription for an antibiotic ointment for her good eye which has some infection in it. We had to remind the doctor to put in writing what the protocol would be for taking care of her eye. If it isn't in writing, the nurses can't do any thing.

Come evening and I am off to Valdese to meet with Tbird and her boys for supper at a pizza place. They are stopping there for supper after the boys have indoor soccer practice. She has her National Teacher's Board paper ready for me to type for her. Hopefully with this paper and the two written tests she has opted to do she will pass the Board this year and be certified on the National level. This has been a little rougher for her this year with another child to care for. She worked and did much of last year's work before the baby came and was disappointed when she didn't pass all the different sections she turned in and worked so hard on.

Since I go by BingoKid's road, I swing by his house and pick him up so he can have supper and visit with his cousins.Keeps me company, too ;o) The three boys sat at a table by themselves and enjoyed having supper together. Meanwhile, Giggles kept us amused and spellbound at our table. Tbird and I got a good laugh about an advertisement for a motel chain which had pamphlets at the checkout counter. Listed under Attractions was none other than at the top of the list, the local hospital in Morganton and the Mental Hospital! Seems there are many more interesting places to enjoy visiting in the area than hospitals ... Not mentioned was Table Rock, Linville Falls, The Jailhouse Art Gallery, Trout Hatchery, etc.

March 7,2000 - A pleasant surprise when I entered the pool area at Q4L today. A friend I knew in Hickory some twenty years ago (and since) has moved to Lenoir. She and her mother have joined our group. She was equally surprised to see me, I think. After our workout, we ran into each other again in Wally World. I got a few things for another quilting class this coming Monday and then waited in the car while Ms. Jay finished her shopping.

It was close to one when I got home and my telephone answering light was blinking that I had a message. I knew it had to be Mother! I was surprised that I had two calls! The nurse had left a message for me to return her call. They had done a culture on Mother and it came back that she has two different infections. One of them is the same one that she has been getting lately. The other one is staph! The only place that she could possible have picked it up was at the Urologist's Office. They assured me that it was safe for me to visit with her as long as I don't have any open sores and get in physical contact with Mother.

I ventured over to visit with Mother and took her a supply of candy for the nurses. They said that it was fine to go ahead and bring it. Meanwhile, mother is being fed on throwaway plates and trays, and all her stuff is being put in those pretty red plastic bags that have been place all around her room and bathroom. When AO had a staph infection, there was a sign on her door and the door had to be kept closed at the other nursing home. Here, Mother got to go play bingo this afternoon, there is no sign on her door and I don't see much effort to keep her from contaminating others. With my knees and the way things have been for me lately, the last thing I want is to pick up her infection.

I came back home early and sewed on my jacket. I got all the squares together that I need and pinned the pieced squares to the sweatshirt base, I have to figure out just how I want to do the neck area where there is not room for a square, but I need just a little more fabric. So, for now I have it on the back burner while I think on what I want to do next with it before I can sew the two parts together and begin the quilting so I can sew it all back together again. Meanwhile, I have washed the new material that I will use Monday when I go to learn more about Appliquéd Embroidery where we will be making a wallhanging with flowers for the center.

March 8,2000 - Yes! I made it another day. This time I went to exercise by myself. I am a big girl now and don't need someone to hold my hand. In reality, the others went about forty-five minutes before me so they could get in more of the floor exercises before hitting the water. I don't do that many things out of the water. In fact, I still took it easy today and went into the steam room before class. I had to leave as soon as the class was over.

From Q4L my trek began. First I travel to DynoKid's school in Burke county where Mom brings him out to the car for me. He had an appointment with the dentist for twelve noon in Morganton to have two baby teeth pulled. Seems, he has a small mouth. He has lost four front lower teeth, but two of his permanent teeth have filled the space and the other two teeth are coming in behind them. His stomach teeth had to be pulled to give room for the two growing in back of where they belong. He will be a good candidate for braces in a few years as things are going now.

I brought him home with me for the afternoon until Mom called to see if I would bring him over to the Hospital in Rutherford College and meet her so she could take him on to his basketball practice. He and NascarKid have both won their games so far in the playoffs. NascarKid also won a blue ribbon for his science project and it will be entered in the County Science Fair to be judged again.

While I was gone, Lady came to clean for me today. I missed her. Talking on the phone later, we decided to wait until next week for her to return She has a lot to do at her own house. Since she has moved into it now, a friend of hers is giving her an open house party this Saturday afternoon and she has a lot of little things to do to prepare for Saturday. Tbird will be gone this weekend and I will have the children for part of the weekend so we made plans to visit with Lady later and see her new home.

March 9,2000 - Those Fibro days can really mess up a person's daily lifestyle. This would just happen to be one of them. Energy level must be next to none! Pain level has to be a 10+ on a scale of one to ten and ten is the highest. No, it isn't earth shattering. It only hurts if I am awake or more so when I move. I have already agreed to watch Giggles for the day and it is too late to back out. Thankfully, she took two fairly long naps which helped bunches. She was more mobile and needed to go on excursions through the den and kitchen. Balls were her main interest and she enjoyed throwing or pushing them around for a while. Climbing was her other passion. She was determined to keep coming back to the window bench where Charlie spends much of his day looking out at the world. Every time she would get in the window, he was right beside her, taking in his share of the view. In fact, Giggles was in the window when her Dad came to pick her up.

I chose not to go to exercise this morning. It seemed too much for me to handle when I thought of having to take Giggles out and in to get there, and in and out again leaving there. I managed to get Tbird's paper typed for her and sent home by the time her DH came to get the baby. After resting, I dragged over to visit with Mother for a short time. She was disappointed I didn't stay longer, but home and bed was beckoning me.

March 10,2000 - Okay! I know! I SHALL get to the water this morning, were my thoughts as I gingerly unfurled myself from my blanket. Ms. Jay was sick yesterday and called to say she would miss our journey into town to exercise again today. She opted to go to the doctor today. Meanwhile, I opted to skip the floor machinery at Q4L and go just in time for the water session. It must be something about the weather. She is having Fibro moments as well. We both struggle to keep up with all the movements this morning.

I feel too tired to even walk out to the truck which I'm driving today after changing from my wet suit. I do make my way to the parking lot. I have to go by the bank to deposit a check from insurance for my blood testing equipment. I need to stop by the grocery store and when I get to the parking lot, there is no close space for me to park. Too bad! I only drive by the one time and head home. Groceries will have to wait.
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Wes comes by shortly after lunch and eats some peanut butter and crackers while he visits with me. Once more I drag out of bed to sit and talk with him. While he is here the tree trimming company that has worked since yesterday morning topping the trees in Ms. Jay's yard drives up to my front yard. Allan has asked them to top my maple tree in the front yard while they are so near. I can only hope that the robins flying around the yard have not started building a nest in the limbs that are now fallen and ground up. I'm surprised that Allan didn't have the men to also cut back the Bradford pear tree which is now in full bloom. It is getting much too high for the power lines that run to the pole in my front yard. From the pole all the lines are underground going into the house.

I zonk out for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

March 11,2000> - And the rains came, not as the gentle rains of spring, but more like the deluge of summer storms. They slipped in during the darkness of early morning bringing with them the lightening and thunder to announce their arrival. Charlie comes running through the hall, jumps on my bed and hides under my blanket hunting for safety. He curls up next to me and feels safe enough to go back to sleep, after leaving the comfy pillow on the sofa. Oreo kept on sleeping beside my feet on the corner of the bed where he keeps watch each night. The weather report for this spring calls for dry conditions with threat of wildfires. We shall have to appreciate whatever rain we get regardless of how it may come. There have already been several bad fires that got out of hand. In fact, just the other evening the fire trucks came rushing by on our road with sirens blaring as they sped up the road to a neighbors land where the bank of the creek was being burned off and the flames got out of hand getting out into the adjacent field.

I got a little bored last evening and decided to look at "the jacket" to see if I could come up with an idea for making the squares fit the roundness of the sweatshirt and still keep everything in perspective. Before long I was sewing on strips of the darker color at strategic points on the shoulder seams and front sides and voila! Not bad! I think I will keep it that way. That means that now it is ready to run the quilting stitches across one inch apart crisscrossing at a 45 degree angle. And no, it was not something I felt like doing. If I went around doing only what I felt like doing, I would never leave the bed. It's the challenge of doing things that makes life worth the living and savoring the victory of success when the challenge is completed gives way to the desire to do more.

More I shall do today. Tbird is off on a flight of fancy this weekend with some of her girlfriends. Sometime today after the boys have their basketball games (both of their teams made the playoffs) Dad is supposed to drop off the three grandchildren for me to watch while he gets some other things taken care of. I'm not sure when that may be - so the wait is on. Thank goodness the boys will be here to help keep up with little Giggles. I don't think that I can move fast enough to keep up with her little legs this day - whether she is walking, crawling or climbing. Climbing is her goal; much like her Mother used to be. (Her Mother climbed up on top of the upright piano many years ago, just to see if she could play the keys from the top reaching down ... of course, she fell - AND broke a baby tooth in the process!)

It is still early. I have the day still before me. Guess I am going to have to make that effort to somehow get myself up from this bed where I am propped on my pillows; laptop on my lap; trusty Oreo laying guard at my side, Charlie - no doubt- sitting guard at his window wishing he could be outdoors, free as the birds and squirrels; Allan has already left with his straw blower to complete a yard he is landscaping and seeding. All shall be right with the world today. I know I can do it!

March 12,2000 - Morning breakfast this morning was a sausage and egg McMuffin. I was a bit late arriving due to my dawdling around in slow mode and my aunt had already ordered for the two of us. A couple and their son was taking in the delights of breakfast out at McD's before Church and were seated in a pew a few rows behind our pew when we made our grand entrance for Church.

The Youth Minster had charge of the pulpit and delivered an excellent sermon with vivid illustrations on the Pursuit of God. Vivid illustrations? Yes, with references to The Dukes of Hazzard and the sheriff that was always in hot pursuit of the Duke boys along with descriptions of riding in a sheriff's car in Virginia himself, the topic was an attention-getter. More importantly, he presented good causes for our need to always be in pursuit of living right and keeping the right goals in view throughout our daily lives. From there we went to our Sunday School class where the lesson began with the Real McCoy! Definitely a Sunday brought to real life!

I stopped by and spent an hour with Mother before heading home to rest up and get ready for my night out. Tonight we go to the Civic Center to spend the evening with Glen Campbell. This is the first time that we have had a Sunday evening performance. Perhaps it is because it was the only opening he had in his schedule to accommodate a stop with us. At any rate, it should be a good program and one that I look forward to. Seems we have not had many trips to the Civic Center this year. Maybe we didn't buy the whole group or maybe there are several grouped together this spring ... (I get out my ticket for tonight and notice that there are three programs on tap for this week- another on Tuesday night and one for Friday night! HUM-M-M ...)

Strange how my daily scheduling is constantly being shuffled about. Yesterday, Tbird's children were a no-show; Wes's boys were the agenda for the afternoon instead. BusyKid was busy living up to his name. He supposedly would go to sleep for two hours, but that was not to be. He was much too involved with life around him to allow sleep to succumb him. He was good and listened and stayed right with me, except he had no desire to stay still long enough to take a rest. BingoKid spent most of his time here at the computer playing his favorite games. I was surprised that BusyKid left him along as much of the time.

When Wes and Wendy came to pick up their boys they spent some time visiting. Wendy went so far as to fix some supper of buiscits and ham for us. While they were here, the telephone rang once and it was Mother, she told Wendy it was the wrong number and hung up before Wendy could say any more (she called right back and Wes answered!) The phone rang another time. It was my neighbor across the front yard. She saw the light blinking off and on and wondered if I needed some help. Wes assured her of how grateful he was that she looked out for me, but on this occassion it was only little busy BusyKid playing with the kitchen light.

Clouds of white Bradford pear trees shroud our county, accented by the yellow of the golden bells, the red of the quince bushes and the many hues of pink of the flowering crabapple trees, weeping cherry, tulip trees and other bushes. The robins are in abundance hopping around looking for juicy worms. One would marvel that spring has sprung. However, such is not the case. After a week of near eighty degree weather, now it is turning cold again. Just hope the temperature does not dip low enough to freeze all the spring colors. Looks like I am going to have to turn my heat pump on again before dark. There is a cold wind blowing.

March 13,2000 - Monday's child is full of tiredness is the way I would have to describe myself perhaps. I got my gear together last night, except for going back this morning and trimming my background fabric down to a smaller size and adding the travel iron and drop cord to the basket. Allan parked at the shed (in my driveway) moments before I was to leave, and I couldn't get out the Explorer; hence, we went in the truck to Morganton and our Quilting Class. As we drove down the boulevard to the Morganton Highway, the distant mountains were shining white with snow. Here the temperature dropped to 25 degrees last night. Today is long sleeves and jacket weather.

There were a dozen or so of us gathered together to make our creations of baskets of flowers while learning new techniques of appliqué. We had a lot of sharing fabrics back and forth in search of the illusive basket fabric, flower or leaves to make our designs perfect. Last night, I had already chose to use a piece of flannel which resembled a marble design cut into a vase shape for my base instead of a basket. I also chose to make my masterpiece a rectangular shape instead of a square. Lunch time came and no one wanted to stop work to eat. Finally, someone took orders and drove to Subway to get subs for us to eat around one o'clock.

I did bunches of cutting, pressing on Stitch Witchery and more cutting out flowers and leaves, but never got to the point that I was ready to press my motif in place permanently. I kiddingly told the group that for our next Show and Tell, I would bring my vase, which is all that was ironed on the background, and show it. That is not exactly what they want to see. About half of us had cut and ironed on the designs and were ready to go home and begin the embroidery. Me thinks, maybe I am trying to accomplish a much too complicated picture to work on. Maybe I will take out some of the flowers and leaves and work with less. There are times that less is best. Common sense tells me that this is one of those times.

I sat most of the day, getting up only a few times to walk around to look at the other's work or in search of material to use. Time to leave and collecting my gear, I realize how tired I am. It's more of an exhaustion that hit. I had to stop and rest before I got out the main door of the building! I stopped two more times to rest before I made it to the truck. Nothing looked any better to me that my truck seat! What a relief to sit down. Before I could sit down at home, the phone rang. It was dear Mother. She thought I had been running because I was out of breath. No, just "gived" out after spending my day having a good time and carrying in my equipment from the truck. Of course, as I sat and rested at home, I finished cutting out the flowers and leaves. The rest will have to wait until later. Tomorrow, perhaps.

The Broyhill Civic Center of Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute Showcase of Stars really out did itself last night. The Glen Campbell Production was probably the top of the list of favorites for me. The Rhinestone Cowboy outdid himself sharing his songs and talents. A highlight at the beginning was his rendition of William Tell Overture on his guitar. As a surprise element, he and his daughter did some duets together before he left the stage and allowed her to do a medley of songs of the seventies (her era.) The next highlight and surprise was coming back on stage with a bagpipe! He sang Amazing Grace and played his bagpipe for parts of it ... a superb feature of the program. We were honored to have three more songs after the end of his program.

Coming back to the house and watching television before going to bed, I changed musical tempo from Country and Pop to Classical. Equally enjoyable and famous, the PBS Channel had a special segment with Andrea Bocelli in his Romanza in Concert program. Ah! I could listen to him forever ...! It's unreal that he was not always a musician with a voice like that.

March 14,2000 - Tuesday's child is full of Grace. Possibly; possibly not ... elegance, distinguished, graceful, refinement versus a feeling of sheer exhaustion, solitude. Seems the exhaustion was showing its evil head! How could I have forgotten? Who knows! I just did. I talked on the phone with Ms. Jay around seven this morning and told her I would see her shortly at Quest. That was not to be! About thirty minutes later, I heard a soft tap - tap - tapping and wondered, "Is that somebody at the door?"

Dragging out of bed I go to check and see if there is someone at the door, or what did I hear? There is a bright red head with a big smile peering at me through the tiny window on the front door. Giggles! I forgot I had told them I would watch her this morning while Dad went to the doctor. Dad brought her over in her pajamas this morning since it was still early. I made an about face and decided that I would not be going to Q4L after all. Turns out that was a good decision! When I get out the clothes for Giggles from the diaper bag I discover that she has no shoes! Dad forgot to pack her shoes. We ended up spending half the day together enjoying each other.

After Giggles left, I went to bed and zonked out for a long while. Wes called and wanted me to meet him in town, so I combed my hair and headed into town. While I was out I ran by Wally World to get Mother some more candy. I couldn't believe she was out of treats for the staff already, but her candy bowl was nearly empty on Sunday. Next was the grocery store to get some drinks, dog food, bananas and bread, along with some New York Sharp Cheddar Cheese. Mother had asked me to bring her some and I knew if I went by the house to get some, I probably would not leave again. I took the new package of cheese in her room and cut off some of it with the wrong end of a spoon and left it with her for later enjoyment. I didn't stay long with her since Lady was to come and clean up some of my dirty house for me. Turns out that Lady didn't come and I didn't hear from her. We must have gotten our signals mixed somewhere along the way. I'll check with her tomorrow and see what happened. Meanwhile, I do need to get into the water tomorrow.

March 15,2000 - Well, I did make it to Q4L this morning and exercised myself, I did, I did! Not that it increased my power to do more for the day. It was more of a test to see if I could get through the hour - plus about thirty minutes of the floor work. Instead of being energized at the end of the session, I was "tireder". After the class, I had Ms. Jay to go into Kmart and buy a Noodle for me to use in our water exercises next week. She chose a bright yellow one for me (hers is lime green and Allie has an orange one.) Everybody knows what a noodle is - that giant straight Styrofoam stick that floats, comes in all sorts of bright colors and are designed for playing in the water. Now all I need is the energy to use it.

The extent of my day's accomplishment was quilting on my jacket. I could do it and sit in the chair with the least amount of activity. Lady came and cleaned house all around me and there I sat. Brother BJ and his wife came by to bring me Mother's supper she didn't touch because they had taken her a barbecue pork sandwich to eat. I sat still when they came, too. In fact, the phone rang and Lady handed it to me, since my portable phone was run down. Which reminds me, it is still laying in the den nowhere near the base where it should be recharging. I can do that tomorrow.

Looking at my calendar when my brother was here, I noticed that I had done it again. I forgot another doctor appointment. I was supposed to go back this past Friday afternoon for a recheck from my last trip there. This forgetting is becoming a habit with me one would think. Guess I need to make a habit of checking my calendar each morning and evening to lessen the chance of missing something important. With the doctor, I still have an appointment for later this month, so at least I don't have to call them to reschedule this time around. My next problem will be to remember to remember to check my calendar so as to remember what it is that I need to remember, if I can remember to do that. That's a lot of double talk, but on the other hand, if I write, think and use the word remember enough times, then perhaps it will stick somewhere within the depths of my brain and I won't forget things quite so often as I seem to be doing lately. As the old saying goes, "If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it," may work with remembering, too. "If you want to remember something, have a lot of things to remember." My way of life is not conducive to the art or need to remember a lot of things.

March 16,2000 - Moan, groan, grouch, ouch! Now that is all behind me, maybe I can enjoy some of today. At least get a few things done regardless of that prainy feeling that the rain has brought to my doorstep to visit this day.
In the words of one of my cohorts, "The drill sergeant's in charge of our water workout today." Our regular fearless leader had the day off because she did a special CPR Class last evening and working today would have her earning overtime. That happens to be a no-no, so she was off for the day. We got a full hour of real moving with jumping jacks, cross-country skiing, crunches and all those other goodies. I opted not to do the jumping that the others did. It seemed to put too much stress on my knees, but I did do the jumping jacks. Yep! It was a good workout followed by a long stay in the steam room. I was ready to rest when I got home.

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