Nature Songs ~~~~ continued
MARCH - 2000, page 3
March 16,2000 - Rest was short lived since I had to go to the drugstore and straighten out the error on six of my refills last month and drop off the list of refills for this month. I got to the parking lot and was ready to go inside the store and couldn't find my list. I had picked up the ziplock bag with the little bottles inside, but had left the list behind. I had to come back to the house and there was my list of refills laying on the counter where I laid it down to put on my jacket. Once it was retrieved, I retraced my tracks and successfully explained about my pills that were short four days when they were filled last month.
This being the day I seem to be waiting around for things, it was only logical that when I stopped at McD's for a grilled chicken sandwich for my supper, I was asked to pull forward away from the pickup window and my meal would be brought out to me. Surprisingly when the lady brought out the bag she told me she had included an apple pie for dessert since I had to wait for my order. That worked out well since I was on my way to spend some time with Mother. I gave her the pie which she enjoyed eating. I was not impressed with the fact that Mother's dinner tray was still sitting there beside her because all the red bags were gone and no one had brought any more to her room. Her medicine for the staph infection is all used up, but her meals are still served on the disposable stuff.
March 17,2000 - St. Patrick's Day. I remembered to wear green today - just in case- and good I did. There were those looking to pinch anyone without the touch of green in honor of today. Since I had on green and could not be pinched, Allie chose to "baptize" me in the pool; so I got dunked along with several others.
I went by the drugstore and picked up the refills I dropped off yesterday. A lot of good I did to go in and show and tell about the mix up last month. I had written down the what's and how's and the pharmacist said she appreciated me writing it down for her. She gave me refills for all of them, but did not include the ones I was short last month. I shall chalk up last month as finished and be cautious in the future each time I request my refills.
Allan left Buddy Boy with me while he picked up some wood left at the neighbor's after having their trees topped. We had a good time together watching cartoons, eating raisins, playing with the dogs and toys and watching out the window for the truck to return with Daddy driving. Next week is another trial date for him. Hopefully things will be put to rest and we can go on with having a normal lifestyle for him after this next meeting with the judge. It appears that his "Mother" may have given up on the prospects of getting him back. She had made a comment once that if they took him away, she would just have another baby and she is pregnant! She has chosen not to reveal how our little one got the broken leg and ribs at such an early age or why he was three months old and weighed only eleven pounds.
Scissors don't like me! They have a way of tearing apart after I use them for a while. Seems I put pressure on them the wrong way because my thumb sticks out of position at an odd angle. Now they are nipping at me when I hold the thread up to clip it off at the end of the rows as I quilt my jacket. This evening I was putting the scissors down and somehow, with the blades closed, I slit my thumb with the outside edge badly enough to have to go in search of a Band-Aid to put enough pressure on the place to stop the bleeding. That is four places for the scissors on my left hand and counting.
March 18,2000 - My robin is back on her lower limb of the oak tree just outside my bedroom window. Wonder where her nest will be this year and how many little robins will be raised? There is still an old nest on one of the branches of the oak tree from last year. Guess I should check to see where the other robin has decided to nest this summer. It is always someplace near the back door. Even with the colder weather today and the next few days, signs of spring are continuing to abound. The rain has made the grass so very green and the dogwoods are noticeably showing signs of soon bursting into full bloom. I haven't seen any tulips yet, but the narcissus are budding and my woods have an abundance of blue flowers of the ground cover, periwinkle, I planted many years ago.
My mouse died this week. It has been temperamental for the past few weeks and I wondered if it needed to be cleaned. Instead, I find that in moving my laptop back and forth to my table beside my bed, I have been bending the cord where the mouse connected to the computer. It has caused the cord to break on me. Now I am back to using that green dot in the middle of the keyboard to command movements. Wonder if I would have to reprogram anything if I buy a new mouse to replace the broken one? I still have bunches of things to learn about computers. I would not call myself computer savvy by any means.
After spending three hours with Mother and quilting on my jacket as I talked with her, Tbird brought the grandchildren by the center to see Mother and then I brought them on home with me to stay for six hours while Mom and Dad had supper and a movie out alone. The boys had been to their basketball teams' get-together this morning. DynoKid was disappointed because he received a certificate for team leadership and there were three miss-spellings in his name. His first name is hyphenated which was written as two names - both names written wrong - and the "e" was left off his last name. Thank goodness his middle name was not included! It would have been wrong, too, undoubtedly! It will be fun to see how people handle Giggle's name as she gets older. Names are special. In school I always made a point to teach the little ones the importance of being able to write their name correctly; which meant to write it as it was on the birth certificate. Here I am in my sixties, and it is unreal how many people that have known me all my life still miss-spell my middle name. They pay no attention to how it should be, even yet.
March 19,2000 - Rainy, prainy goes the day. Even my Explorer has decided to be slow changing gears from low. Once it gets warmed up, it works fine, but looks like I need to get it checked out before something major jumps out at me when I'm out on the roadside somewhere and have to call for help from Wes or Allan - or worse yet, a tow truck ... It's not enough that the price of gas is escalating quicker than Kudzu takes over the country side. Now, I will need to get the car fixed; investing more money in order to get myself from here to there. There is not a way to get around unless you drive. There is no mass transit to rely on. There is no transit at all to use. A taxi would be more than driving oneself from point A to point B. The nearest grocery store for me is two miles away. There are no sidewalks for walking. In fact, there are no spaces one can safely walk along the side of the roads in most places. These are older roads in our area that have been widened out to the ditches to make room for the larger cars and trucks of today. A bright yellow school bus has to drive on the midline to keep in the road. Years ago when I attempted to walk in this area, it was a challenge. There were those drivers that liked to see how close they could drive close to me without hitting me; as if it were some kind of game.
On to better things ... church was good this morning. It's good to be there and set the mood for the coming week. This Sunday there were some really good songs and specials. After church, I was ready for home and rest for the afternoon. But, there were more pressing needs to take care of. The painter comes in the morning to refinish the kitchen cabinets and do some painting for me. I have to get my violets moved from the windows, wash dishes, put up stuff, and move stuff getting ready for the work.
March 20,2000 - I left to exercise before the painter got here, but arrangements had been made for him to start work without me. BingoKid was to come by and wait here for Allan to pick him up to spend the day with him. BingoKid's three week vacation break began today. All told, the day was filled with fumes of paint stripper, paint, paint thinner, paint cleaner, noise of the sander doing its work and a layer of sawdust throughout the house. A drip cloth had been hung over the door opening between the kitchen and the main part of the house. Strangely enough, the cloth kept out a lot of the odors, but the dust seemed to steal around the edges of the cloth to settle on one and all. Even after just one day of working, the cabinets and trim look so much better. Because of the major gouging and scratches on the lower cabinet doors, the light oak stain was not working to blend the wood. The painter had to go to the store and buy a pecan stain to darken the cabinets more. That helped a lot.
Before much time had passed, the doorway was christened with some marks from the gate I had propped up to keep my doggies from getting into the kitchen and wet paint. The youngest grandsons were quicker than the adults and managed to get the gate against the wet paint leaving some dark smudges. Every body had to come by to see how my project was coming along and the children had a good time playing together. Hey, this was a first for the cabinets! They had not been redone since I first finished them back in 1960. In a way, it is sort of sad to give up some of the memories that some marks bring out.
March 21,2000 - The kitchen ceiling got painted today along with the molding, and the first coat of varnish went on the cabinets. After yesterday's comments, I also had the wood between the kitchen and adjoining room painted to match the trim in the kitchen. After years of gray, yellow or beige trims, I opted for a pretty blue-green that blends well with the den to paint the windows and trim. I like the color that it adds. I am one that goes for what I like rather than what the going trend may be. I am not a trendy person for many reasons.
Giggles showed up bright and early this morning. She didn't have her stroller, so Ms. Jay drove out to the house to put Giggles in the car seat for me. Since Ms. Jay had signed up for another program this morning she had to drive her car and followed me up to Q4L and carried the little one in to Child Care. After our water exercise session, she than carried a sleeping Giggles back to the car for me. Once home, I left the window open in the car so she would not be too hot and watched as she slept for about thirty minutes more. My painter is also a family friend, so I had him to carry Giggles back into the house for me.
Giggles seemed to want to sleep more than anything else today. When she woke up in mid-afternoon, she had a high fever. After calling Mom to let her know I gave her some Children's Tylenol and held her for about two hours until Lady came to begin cleaning up some of the dust that met her at the front door. The fever came down for a while, but by the time Mom came to get her, the fever was beginning to rise again. Her ears were not running, nor was she rubbing at them. Her cough was not very often and her breathing was not labored. She ate and showed no sign of a possible sore throat. Perhaps she is cutting several teeth again. She ran a fever and slept a lot when she cut six teeth at once.
March 22,2000 - It's made legal as of today. Buddy Boy is to be adopted by us. The time table that DSS has mapped out will take until the year 2002 to be finalized! There are many loose ends and situations to be attended.The "mother" has been cut back to supervised visitation rights only once a month as of today. If the "mother" were to choose to work with DSS and terminate her rights without all the court proceedings, it could be finalized in two to four months. I would wonder about what she may choose to do since she is pregnant again. As long as this case is open, the child she is carrying now would be made a ward of the Social Services when it is born and placed in a foster home. I can't help but wonder what will happen to this next baby if she does keep it. Will she be any more careful with it? Is she capable of caring for it? Can she control her temper around it? Guess only time will tell.
BingoKid and I enjoyed a Chinese meal this afternoon while we visited with Mother at the nursing center. I have one grandson that enjoys eating real people food with me. He was lucky enough to get to watch the nurses have a wheelchair race while we were there. Mother's team, the Hooter's, won the race. Today was Spring Break Celebration at the center, and I was surprised how many of the residents took part in it. Mother would not go out to watch with the others, so we sat in her room.
I keep reaching over for that dead mouse! This little green button for a cursor is for the birds. Habits are sometimes hard to break.
March 23,2000 - BingoKid was over bright and early this morning. He wanted to go with me to Q4L and stay in the Day Care. Seems that after talking with his two cousins and hearing about the computer and the games on it, he wanted to play on the computer himself.
When it came time to leave, he was not ready! There was a Math program he was working on and the level he was working on had him stumped. He wanted me to help him figure out how to solve the problem of the amount of pounds of pressure of oxygen must be used in a submarine to keep it from breaking apart with the pressure of the depth it was in. My mind was sort of a blank as to how to explain to him how to get the answer. I encouraged him to close the program for today and he could work on it another day. Just remembering what he needed to do is tiring to me. I did explain to him later in the day that he needed to find out what each of the two blocks of oxygen showing for the submarine stood for and multiply that number by three. There were six of them showing on the outside for the pressure from the ocean and he needed to make the two of them equal.
We surprised Mother by taking over some of Hannah's Barbecue for lunch today. BingoKid and I had a small plate each. Mother enjoyed a sliced Barbecue sandwich. Ms. Jay rode along with us to visit for a while. She fixed herself a cup of hot tea to sip on and worked on her log cabin jacket while the rest of us ate. The day shift nurse came in to tell me that half of the report came back on Mother's last culture. There was still some of the staph infection hanging on apparently. She would know for sure when the whole test results come in later this week. She is to call me when she gets the final report. It looks as if Mother may have to go on IV medication for a while. (I can only hope and pray that none of the rest of us happen to pick up the bug from our visits.)
March 24,2000 - Why would I be surprised to find that BingoKid makes it over here bright and early this morning? I told him I would be leaving the house before eight o'clock so I could exercise on the floor equipment before my water class. Actually, we beat the Day Care workers there. The doors to it don't open until eight o'clock. He and I sat out in the lobby and talked together while Ms. Jay started on her regime. I did take him back to see the floor equipment, where he was very interested in the weight lifting corner. He also got the see the television picture of the pool area where the television set is set up at the front desk so the staff can keep an eye of folks that might be using the pool alone and perhaps even incorrectly - we noticed this week that a new sign was posted for the pool:NO JUMPING. Guess some kids were playing around over the weekend and were jumping in the water.
Today was our day to play with our Noodles ... and was it fun! It's surprising how many different exercises can be done using those long sticks of foam. We used some muscles we didn't even know we had. The hands probably got the best workout of all because the Noodles were hard to hold on to at times. They also make all kinds of squeaking sounds when they are wet and slip from your hands. It sounded by whales calling to each other at times as we rubbed the wet Noodles. Then there were those of us that had to call, "On guard," and do a little water style fencing. Well, earlier, we were chorus line dancers as we locked arms and tried to kick out from side to side in unison. That didn't work all too well.
After coming home and settling up with my painter for the miracle he brought to my kitchen, the Kid and I set out for Wally World and the grocery store. I wore myself out adding these activities to the already active morning at Q4L. He doesn't know how lucky I felt having him along to carry in all the stuff I had purchased at the two stores. I was much too worn out to have done it for myself. I would have brought in the "have-tos" for the refrigerator and left the rest in the back of my car for later. The two of us had Burger Kind for lunch today. We didn't make it over to see Mother, although he would liked to have gone and roamed the halls to see others.
March 25,2000 -My door was unlocked before seven this morning. Little Miss Giggles came to see me bright and early. Mom and the boys were off for a special meeting together today. Dad had already made arrangements for a friend of his to help him with some work there at the house and his new workshop. I was asked to keep her for several hours. Thank goodness that Wes, BingoKid and Allan were in and out of the house during the morning. They helped a lot with her.
Early afternoon I get a surprise telephone call from New Jersey. Seems Cotton had an unusual morning. She called it being a Klutz! While working out at the gym and doing step aerobics, she stepped down from the step and her leg would not hold her up. The rescue squad had to be called to take her to the emergency room. Luckily, they were able to get hold of her hubby before he left the house and he went along with her. X-rays showed a break at her ankle on the right leg and a cast was put on it. She was given a pair of crutches and warned not to put any weight at all on the leg. Next week she has to make an appointment with a specialist to get it set and have another cast applied. Sounds like she is in for a fun few months. There are steps to be conquered any way she attempts to enter her house. I suggested from my own experience visiting there, that the front steps would probably be the easiest for her to use. The steps are not as steep or high as the back steps and there is a rail for her to use. A rail is much easier to work with going up and down steps than crutches or a cane. Being her right foot, getting to work may also be a challenge as well. Dear hubby will have a lot of things that he will have to take care of for a while. I wonder how this will affect the dogs' training ...
I spent several hours visiting with Mother this afternoon as well. It was while getting ready to go, I bent over to put my shoes upon my feet that the stabbing pain hit, pulling me over to where I could not straighten my back to an erect stance. I knew what did it. I didn't appreciate that it happened at all. All I want is to be normal like people are supposed to be and move around without having to pay the consequences for my few seconds of being free. I only put my leg up on the window bench while I was watching Giggles as she enjoyed looking through the glass at the outdoors. I thought I would try one of my water exercises out of the water, so I proceeded to bend the knee that was supporting me. The left leg worked, well, sort of. I could bend the knee some and it didn't feel too bad. I put up my left leg on the bench and my right hip would not stabilize itself enough for me to bend my right knee. Instead of exercising the knee, the hip was the only thing that would shift and move. Shortly thereafter, the pain hit and boy did it hit hard. Would it be good or bad that Monday is the day I go back to the surgeon to get my right knee checked from the fall in April of last year? He no doubt will ask if I want a shot put in the hip where the hard knot is now abiding.
continued on page four
©2000 by Stormy Jeanne
