May,1999~~~
NATURE SONGS
Be like the bird which on frail branches balanced
A moment sits and sings;
He feels them tremble, but he sings, unshaken,
Knowing that he has wings.
--Victor HugoMay 1,1999 -And the winds blew, and blew and blew! They are not spring breezes! There is a constant blowing of the leaves, turning them upside down. Interspersed throughout are hefty gusts (that case Charlie to chase to the nearest window to supervise with apprehension.) I can't help but wonder if this is a wind that will continue throughout the summer months. These past years have been filled with summers of blowing winds, much as if we were getting the winds that accompany the tides of the ocean when walking along the beach. Will they be as strong as they are starting out?
Mother is more and more insistent about coming home. She has the idea that if she is at home all will be all right and she will be able to do things as she was doing twenty years ago. She was upset with us for not bringing her here yesterday and leaving Giggles with her while I was gone to Hickory to the doctor. After all, she took care of the boys, she could take care of her just as well! She feels she only needs to be home and all will be well again…
So much of my life seems to follow "…," trailing off into a "what if," "if only," "someday," "in time," or "so it seems to go" sort of routine! There is no constant to be compared to. There is not real decision that may be assumed! There is not a genuine absolute available! There are desires, wishes, dreams, preferred outcomes. Someday maybe some of them will become the reality of what is the present.
May 2,1999 - I was a good "little girl" and listened to the church service and sermon on television this morning. There is much to be said on the positive side about taking time to go to church on Sundays. Even though it is different by not meeting others and sharing in person there is still food for the soul to be found in a sermon.
There is always some advice and direction to be found too make life better. Inspiration is found that makes the following week easier to endure. There is an uplifting of the spirits. At times the toes may be stepped on. Something may be pointed out that needs to be changed in your life.
Our church weekly bulletin this week is asking those that had pictures in the new directory to send in information about themselves to be made into a Family Album. This way the new people can learn more about the older members, or vice-versa. My picture is not in the directory, but being a member I am going to answer the questions and statements about myself and my family and e-mail it to the church. (I wonder if they will be asking me about a picture to go along with the facts.)
Ms. Jay is supposed to get her cast off this week! I know she is looking forward to getting full mobility back to her ankle and her life. I am supposed to go this week for the physical that I forgot back in February. This time I had to tell Tbird since she will be taking me. Surely, we will make this one. When the prescriptions were called in last time, my doctor was not in and the doctor filling in for him only gave me one refill. That one refill is out on several of them and I have chose to just wait and get my refills when I go in to see my own doctor. He always gives me a year's refill at a time on most of them. It would be GREAT if I could stop taking some of them. Wonder what he will have to say about my knee episode!
Other than a few phone calls, this has been a quiet day. Tbird had said she would be by, but that will no doubt be after she plays volley ball this evening. don't look for Wes to come and pick up Bingo until tomorrow. He will say that they are tired and had to get the boys and get ready for work tomorrow.
North Carolina had its own catastrophe last evening. The Charlotte Motor Speedway had changed its name to Lowe's Motor Speedway after Lowe's bought it out. This is the first year that it has been Lowe's. Last night two race cars crashed. Part of the debris flew up into the stands killing a man from Statesville, and two men from Connelly Springs. Eight others were injured. A nine year old girl from Hickory was the most critically hurt of the eight. Another child was hurt. It is bad with the drivers are injured, worst when the fans are involved, but even worse when you learn that it was children. This was not a stock car race as we usually have in this area, but an Indy-type car race which has been in Charlotte now for the third year. many safety precautions had been made before they were allowed to come, but even that was not enough to prevent what happened last night.
May 3,1999 - Warm weather has returned. Thank goodness for small favors.
Monday, lazy Monday! At least life seems that way since I still have to keep my knee elevated. I am surprised when Ally calls to say she is on her way over here with a coffee cake fresh out of the oven. When she arrives, we sit and enjoy our hot tea and cake. After a while, Ms. Jay comes out to join in on our visiting together. It is almost like old time - the three of us together and cutting up. We make a pact to do it again before too long.
I do finally get out the flowers of the state quilt that my aunt worked so hard on and begin to get it where it will fit together. Quilting is much like an intricate puzzle. All the pieces have to fit a certain way, or it just doesn't work out right. She has cut the squares individually, by hand and they do not fit. I spend most of the day ripping out the seams, pressing out the wrinkles and cutting all the pieces so that they will fit properly.
I end up having to cut all of them down about three-fourth's of an inch to get the squares squared up. Then it is time to measure and even up all the pieces that go between the squares. It will be a large quilt once it is finished. It takes time and patience. I only hope that I don't mess up and measure wrong along the way. It is much easier to redo something of my own instead of someone else's. If I mess up mine, I don't concern myself nearly as much.
May 4,1999 - Ms. Jay gets her cast off today. I know she must be happy about that. She will finally get to drive for herself again after eight weeks of being waited on and ferried around. Tbird comes over and I have her to stop on the way in to get the newspapers and mail. Once she gets here, she has to make a separate trip in just to carry the papers and mail. It included two Sunday papers. Some of the mail was wet from all the rain of the past few days. There was also a video from the club that I had requested them not to send. So it has to go back to them. I wonder at times why I get these things anyway when I see some of the titles and read the innards of contents. Many of the featured items are much too violent to have around my grandsons… maybe, even my sons.
Lady shows up to do the house while baby Giggles is still here with her Mommie. It may have taken all of two seconds for Giggles to win Lady's heart. (No, I would not possibility be a little proud of the little tike!) Before the baby was taken home, in walks Allen and talks with Lady about doing some work for her at her own house. As it turns out, the housework was a little late getting started, but that was all right with me. I was enjoying all the talking and visiting between everyone.
While the house is being cleaned I use the time to check on a lot of e-mail that has piled up the past few weeks. I have just not felt like doing the computer or anything else much. It is time to begin catching up on things. On one of my e-mail lists I had 23 long letters to sort through and catch up on. That took most of my evening. While I sorted e-mail, Lady sorted Tupperware and got a lot of it straightened out and in the right place. She agreed with me that it takes a lot more than most would think to bend and reach, push and pull, trying to get things where they belong. The kitchen has needed some extra attention now for a long time. As of now, any and all that has remained in the kitchen all these many month (or is it years?) are officially considered part of my wares. I no longer will ask that things be picked over and taken to such and such places. I also will have to see to it that when something comes in from other places that it is returned the same visit.
May 5,1999 - Ms. Jay came out after lunch and we spent a while in the Spa working out our injuries. It was surprising how much swelling went out of her ankle during the time she had it in the hot water.
Before she came out, I decided to walk out to the mailbox to put some letters out to be picked up by the mail lady. Out of curiosity, I counted how many steps it was to the box from the house. Surprisingly, it was 165 steps more or less. Then I fed Elsie Dawg which was another 60 steps. That was 225 steps one way, or a total of 450.
Sometimes I envy these people that have only to walk out the front door to get the mail out of the mailbox. Then again, I am very happy with my own place and have no desire to change it just so I have less steps to take to check the mail.
I worked on the quilt some more today. Hopefully, I will get it back to my Aunt by this weekend. I wonder if she would embroider one for me if I got all the materials and thread for it? It would give her something to work on in her spare time, or when she is home alone.
May 6,1999 - Allan came in the back door as Tbird and I were going out the front door. He followed us through and took time to put the new tag on the Explorer for us. The temporary tag had run out and the new one had just come through the mail. He used one of the new quarters to take out the screws. Denoting New Jersey, it was the first quarter like it I had seen. It is so light compared to the older ones.
I made it to my doctor's appointment on time this morning. He had all my prescriptions to rewrite for me for another year. (I had to get a bunch of blood work done before leaving the office.) In discussing my back, hip and leg, he noted that there is still some inflammation in my knee. He touched on a spot on my back and said, "This is probably where your pain is coming from." I almost came off the table! I think it was a little more painful than he expected it to be.
From the doctor's office, we dropped off the prescriptions at the drugstore only to be told that the insurance computer was down and it would be at least an hour and a half before they would be filled. We hadn't planned to take that long to run around. A quick trip to the bank, the post office and the car license bureau and I was through. Tbird stopped off at Wally World to get a few things. She came back to the car with a new tree for my Mother's Day present. It is one I always refer to as a "tulip" tree which blooms in the Spring. It has a name on it of a magnolia tree variety. Well, we did do lunch during that time, too.
May 7,1999 - Today is starting off with thunderstorms, but I'm sure nothing like some parts of the country have been experiencing. I have been upset by all the tragedy of so many, many families and the lost of homes and family members. I was chatting with a lady in the Midwest that was affected by some of the weather. She had not heard from her Mother and didn't know just how she had come through the tornadoes. She was very near where all the devastation happened.
Hopefully, we will get in the spa for a short while this afternoon and work out some more kinks. It looked like the sun may stay out for awhile, but than again it seems to have disappeared behind another gathering of clouds. However, I don't hear any thunder building up. That's the thing about the spa, when the jets are on, you can't hear the thunder.
This evening we are all to meet at Tbird's for a cookout for Mother's Day. Since there are two sides to the Children's families, we decided to have it early and leave Sunday for the other Mothers. If it rains, then we shall just eat indoors instead of outside on the deck. It will be happening, rain or shine. Wes is supposed to come by and pick me up.
May 8,1999 - As she made her rounds after work picking up the two boys, Wes's wife stopped and picked me up as well so as not to have to backtrack on the way to Tbird's for supper tonight. We also stopped and got some of that favorite slaw that everyone loves so much from Frosty Freeze to take along with us. They now live about halfway between the our two places - Tbird's and mine. We then stopped long enough for them to change into more comfortable clothes and pick up Wes and then proceeded on our journey. We had to drive through a terrific thunderstorm on the way. At least, it had already passed Tbird's before we got there and the rest of the evening was muggy, but nice.
A bunch of guys had come to the pond last weekend and spent the biggest part of the night partying. What a pity that during their having a good time they had to disturb and destroy the Canadian geese's nesting site and hopefully run off all the geese and ducks. At least, I hope they ran them off. There has not been a one around all week now. The birds had come to trust people and when you beeped the horn they would come to be fed. The grandsons loved stopping each day to get out and feed them with their Dad. There are no trespassing signs posted all around because it is private property. Unfortunately, there are those in our world that thinks that rules and regulations are not for them and that any or all property can be destroyed at will. How quickly they turn something in nature that is lovely and delicate into an ugly, unfixable, unexplainable act of selfishness.
Being the first cookout of the season, Tbird didn't think to check the level of propane in the bottle. About halfway through the cooking, the gas ran out! The deer steaks which had been marinating all day were transferred to the oven to be broiled until they were finished. NascarKid was upset because his hot-dog was not going to be charcoaled with the lines browned on it. He ended up doing his own special one in the toaster oven to his own delight and satisfaction.
During the evening we noted how hot it seemed. Even though the storm had passed, it was so humid outdoors we decided to stay indoors. The rain drops never evaporated from the windows throughout the whole time we were there. Allan's wife had driven down to be with us straight from her work in Morganton. She didn't notice when she parked that the water hose was running across the drive where she parked. We all had a good laugh when she had to go out and move her car about a foot to get it off the hose! They have a water heat/cool system installed in the house. Instead of re-circulating the water through the system, they chose to use the water outdoors for the yard. As it turns out, the system only cools when the water is moving through the pipes. With the car on the hose, the water could not move, therefore, we were hot! Seems that Tbird has done the same thing several times through out the time they have lived there.
We all really enjoyed our evening together. We especially got a lot of enjoyment watching the little ones running around. There was a note of sadness knowing that Buddy Boy's Mother goes before the judge again this coming week and things are not looking good for him. We just worry about his well-being and health. Only time will prove the outcome. The daycare workers where he goes were the sweetest people. They had a poem about "Angel Mom" framed for the family which is about the love and worth of a foster Mother. It was such a loving, touching act.
May 9,1999 - NascarKid and DynoKid got to come over and spend the afternoon with me yesterday while Mom and Dad played volleyball with their friends. I had their favorite pizza delivered to the door for their supper, a medium size for each. They are growing up so fast. NascarKid finished up his indoor soccer games before coming over and was excited about winning for the season and getting a trophy!
The trophy actually comes later at a pizza party for the team. Mother called before her breakfast had even been delivered to her room this morning to tell me that she was cohered into going out to Kopper's in Hickory for Mother's Day today with my brother. My niece went by late last evening and cut her hair and picked out what she would wear today. I'm glad that she is getting out for the day. I don't know if I will get to see her today or not since we were together on Friday. Tbird has already called and is not sure if she will get by today or not. Wes will probably spend most of the day with his in-laws.
Tbird did come by with some supper for me and left her boys to keep me company for a little while. She brought me some ice cream for later on, too. Allan and his crew came by and brought me a birdhouse for outdoors. It was made by a man that lives up in Mortimore, who gathered up all the materials from around the mountains and Wilson's Creek to make the house. It is a log house with a stone chimney and moss for the porch. A rhododendron stick is nailed on for a handle to carry or hang it by. He signed and dated the bottom of it for me. Mortimore at one time was a bustling, growing town built around a large mill. It had its own post office and a single gauge railroad track, but in the 40's there was a huge flood that completely washed away the town and it was never rebuilt. What few buildings remained are now used as summer homes by some. According to the man who lives there, they have a population of seven today.
Interestingly enough, Sunday Morning on TV ended with showing waterbirds in their natural habitat in ND, and included baby ducks. At the same time someone's beagles have found a scent of rabbits or something in the woods outside my window.
Mother's sister called yesterday to see how I was doing. She was involved in another wreck yesterday. Someone ran into the back of her car. She was stopped for a car in front of her and ended up being pushed into the back of it. I would think that she will be sore today. I was able to tell her that her quilt top is completed and ready to be picked up. She will probably be at Kopper's for lunch today since her son is married to my brother's wife's sister and they always have the whole family together.
All in all, this has been a pretty good day. Mother enjoyed her outing with her son and his family. I got to give Giggles her very first bottle today! She took it with no problems. As long as she has food, she is happy.
A friend called and wanted information on making a website. I offered that it would be no problem for me to make one for her. It is something that I get great enjoyment doing. It is a challenge to always create one that is different. I have this thing of never making two of any one thing. There must always be some creative work in it for me to keep up an interest. This site sent me out searching Internet to find out about the subject - Kindermusik.
May 10,1999 - Today's trivia: North Carolina produces more bricks than any other state in America. If you ordered bricks today, it would be September before you could get them because of the current housing boom at this time in building. That's quite a shortage of bricks.
May 10th, and already we have an ozone problem. The rest of the week is to be in the eighties, so the ozone will no doubt stay up or even get worse. This is something we generally don't experience until late July and August! This may end up being a summer to spend inside during the day and explore outdoors in the evenings. Ms. Jay and I did spend time in the spa this morning. The water was 110 degrees and it felt so good! Allen got my new plant put out so it can grow and bloom this summer. He put it between the walk and the patio so it should show up well.
There is a big, bare spot in the canopy of trees around my house. Looking more closely, it turns out that one of the huge oak trees is dead. It is close to the line in back of the house and is not a threat to any of our homes should it fall. I would like to just leave it and let the woodpecker take it over. There is a fairly large woodpecker that I have seen several times. It is not as large as the one that comes through in the spring and fall, but yet, larger than most of the other birds. I hear it echoing throughout the day as it drills on the trees looking for food. Wes had one that attacked his house where they lived before living with me for a while. He had a time getting it away from the house.
I got the new website up and running. It didn't take very long to do. While I was at it, I also opened up an e-mail account to use along with the page. I did forget to date and copyright it, so I need to go back and take care of that. If she likes, my friend can come by and I'll work with her on things that she would like to add and show her how to do some of it for herself. Once it is up and running, it isn't hard to maintain. What I really should do is sit myself down and learn how to do animations! Well, do art work as well….
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© 1999 by Stormy Jeanne