NOVEMBER
Nature Songs ~~~~
NOVEMBER,1999
The mellow year is hasting to its close;
The little birds have almost sung their last,
Their small notes twitter in the chilly blast -
That shrill-piped harbinger of early snows.
~~Hartley Coleridge
November 1,1999 - This year is quickly coming to an end along with the millennium. There should be a lot of excitement and anticipation instead of the listless mood I can't seem to shake off. The headache still is hanging on with a vengeance and keeps me from trying to do much of anything. This time change does little to help. It always takes several days to a week to adjust to just an hour's change in the day's activities. This day turns out to be one of doing next to nothing it seems. I do get a little of the triangles sewn together, but with the rainy, windy weather it is mostly a prainy day for me.
Allan comes by in the afternoon for a short visit and later brings by Buddy Boy for a short visit. Another court date comes up on Wednesday for him again. This is now nineteen months and still no decision has been made about his future by the court and Social Services. He is such a happy well-adjusted little tike now. I can only pray that his best interest will be addressed by the judge for his future. here is much that has never been brought up in the court sessions of the past. Also, in these nineteen months, his mother has never once had an unsupervised visit with him. Children are usually placed back in their original surroundings in the shortest time possible. That has not been the case with our little one.
Later last evening Wes brought by his family and I got to see the boys in their Halloween outfits. BingoKid was covered from head to toe and unless you knew who he was there was no identifying parts showing. He was one of those warriors that had the mesh covering his face sewn to a black hood. DynoKid was tigger! They were already trick and treated out and ready to have time to just be themselves while they were here. They stopped by the nursing center before coming here. Before that they spent the evening trick or treating through their old neighborhood.
November 2,1999 - I have Giggles again today. She is growing and changing so very fast. She has two teeth and loves food. She stands and can move along the side of the crib, so I'm sure she will be walking soon.
Seems every time I move around very much my back "pops" and a pain shoots across my lower back. I'm having to be more careful than usual with moving around. It has rained a lot off and on all day and the wind is playing tag with the leaves twirling around throughout the day. Even the rain is not taking away from the beautiful array of brilliant colors the trees are displaying this fall. Not only is the best display of color we have enjoyed in many, many years, but it is also the longest season of radiant colors. Even so, there are some trees yet to change colors. The dogwood tree outside my window gets more radiant every day. The color only becomes deeper and prettier as the days pass.
My writing assignment for this week is to take some clichés and rewrite them using original words of my own to replace them. It doesn't take much time to look around and see how much our everyday language depends on metaphors to get across ideas and feelings. Also am to rewrite and improve on my first writing assignment. I've been a little disappointed that no one has yet done a critique on it, but then again, I have not done critiques on others' work. It is difficult to make comments on others when I am not well versed on the subject and the person reporting on it. Guess that is a good project for me to work on and a hurdle to overcome. Perhaps as I write more and read more, it will become easier for me. I cannot get myself into the work this week any more than I am doing anything else.
Election Day today. I didn't even leave the house. I didn't take my legal right to vote on this the last official election day of this millennium. I have left the house since Sunday.
November 3,1999<- Today there is no choice. There is much taking place today. I am doing things today regardless of how I feel. Talk about psychicing one's self up! I'm having to do it today. I get my hair cut this morning. It has been three months since it was last worked on. Mother goes to the eye doctor this afternoon. I stopped by at lunch time and spent a little time with her. She was already dressed in her red three-piece suit and ready to go. Her appointment isn't until four this afternoon. My niece is going to take her. Meanwhile I have to go by the bank. On the way, I drive the truck down the back road (I don't want to get stopped by the police.) to have the oil changed and the sticker updated on the windshield. It was supposed to have been done back in July. I got there and didn't have my registration card, but I had my updated sticker on my tag, so they knew that I was legal. Of course, I've got to get the registration card with the truck anyway. I've had the truck since Mar. 1995 and have only 11,000 miles on it, so it was easy for them to see how little I've been driving it. That's going to change. I enjoy driving it too much to leave it sitting around aging and rusting for no reason.
On the way down to Hickory to get my hair worked on, I played tag with a truck from the mountains that had snow on it. Yes, we've had our official winter snow in the mountains. Grandfather Mountain also had wind gusts up to 70 mph during the night! Talk about single digit wind chill factor! Tonight is to be colder than last night and tomorrow is to be cold.
Brother BJ is supposed to have laser surgery on his eye this afternoon for a torn retina. Buddy Boy's mother's hearing is today. I have to call my uncle in Indiana about a letter I got concerning my aunt that died four years ago as of Nov. 7th. He has had surgery on his knee and just finished with his therapy. I called in my medicines to be refilled this morning and had to go this evening to pick them up. I had wanted to stop at the store, but my legs have decided to go into spasms and I decided to wait and try the store later this week. I wonder if the spasms have anything to do with the "pops" I've been having in my back ...
On the plus side - I got all the triangle blocks sewn together and the main blocks in groups and now I am ready to sew the top of the quilt together. It will be sooooo nice when I have it together.
November 4,1999 - Giggles came for the morning again. Dad is hoping that his work will slow down some now that the hospital has hired someone else to help with the work. Giggles isn't feeling too good and is coughing today. He came by and picked her up to take her on to Hickory to her doctor for another checkup. Turns out that both ears are still not well and she is put back on more antibiotics. The doctor says that she will definitely have to have tubes inserted in her ears.
I collapsed for a few hours after she left. A phone call from the doctor's office brought the unwanted news that my blood sugar level came back at 150. I know that is way too high for the doctor to ignore. I know that it means I have not been eating wisely. With the diabetes in my family history, it certainly is not the best news in the world. The doctor wanted to schedule a time for me to come in for another blood test done with fasting beforehand. When I mentioned that that had just been done for my Quest4Life exam, they said I can just notify the office when I learn the results and they will go from there. Even so, I know already some of the changes I must make such as no more sweet tea when I eat out; stop those trips to the candy bowl when I visit Mother - and no, I don't do it every trip. Eat more salads, fresh fruits and veggies and less sandwiches ...
Some statistics on my quilt progress I noticed: over 750, 60 degree triangles which I sewed into over 60 hexagons, some with extra appendages added. So far I have 8 rows nearly completed and ready to sew together. The pieces of the puzzle is beginning to take shape now.
November 5,1999 - Mother's baby sister is coming up this morning and we are going to the optician's place to get new glasses for her. Mother needs a new lenses and hopefully, Mother's glasses that got stepped on can be straightened and a new lenses put in them. The doctor gave us a new prescription day before yesterday. Plans are to go out and have lunch together after ordering the glasses.
Her friend came along with her, so the three of us set out for a day of adventure and fun together. We were sitting outside the office door waiting in our car fifteen minutes before time to open. We were the second car waiting in line. Four or five more filled the parking lot before the doors of the office opened for the day. Mother's new lenses was ordered before anything else was done so she will have them Monday. Then my aunt's new frames were chosen and all the necessary measurements noted. She was pleasantly surprised to see that the total was going to be less than half the $425 that her friend had just paid for a new pair of glasses. She learned quickly why I get all my glasses there. It is a no frills place with only the one person working. There are folding chairs to sit on while waiting your turn.
Wally World was next on our agenda - where I spent way too much money - end of subject! We had lunch together at the Golden Corral and took advantage of the lunchtime specials. It was good to have a regular Southern styled hot dinner plate for lunch. I was a good little girl and had unsweetened tea and declined dessert except for some cantaloupe. It's just a different kind of enjoyment from the Chinese and Japanese meals. We stopped off to visit with Mother before calling it a day.
Rest time ... the leg spasms just have this thing about announcing their rights to be felt whenever I walk very much on concrete. Makes me wonder if it is going to be a fact of life, or will they ease off and disappear with time? Guess time is the answer. I will have to wait and see.
Much has been in the news lately about the "Fleecing of America" and the cost of medicines skyrocketing and the affect it has on the elderly. I have to confess that this is a matter that addresses me directly. As a habit, I have this thing about skipping my meds one day a week. That means a savings of 52 days in a year; nearly two months. When you put an amount of money to that it takes a whole new meaning. For me it is supposed to be a savings of 80% of the cost. That has the hidden note: 80% of the approved cost set by the insurance company. That becomes interesting when the added factor of using AARP's plan that guarantees me the lowest cost "they approve" matched up with the amount of my regular coverage and its approval. The amount I pay and send to the Insurance company is the amount after the AARP allowance at the time of the refills.
| Service | Amount | AARP
Saving | INS
Paid | I pay |
| Medicine | $137.65 | | $110.11 | $27.53 |
| Medicine | $22.29 | $29.10 | $17.83 | $4.46 |
| Medicine | $99.97 | $20.62 | $77.64 | $22.33 |
| Medicine | $53.09 | $7.80 | $41.86 | $11.23 |
| Medicine | $51.04 | $11.45 | | |
| Medicine | $6.99 | $0.67 | $3.98 | $3.01 |
Note about the last medicine: Folic acid. I have to have it because with the Methotrexate I could have severe heart problems without the Folic acid. It is not looked upon as a prescription need because you can purchase a much lower dosage over the counter.
These are only a few of the medicines I have to use, yet it shows what others are up against that do not have an insurance company that will pay a co-payment on the needed medicines. Medicare does not cover medicines and glasses. Incidentally, this is the third time I have had to buy Mother more glasses in less than a year. Thank goodness I can get them at a more manageable cost.
November 6,1999 - A beautiful day. This week earlier we had some of the coldest weather ever for this early in November - the low 20's F. Today should be up in the mid 70's. The trees still offer an array of bright fall colors that far exceed any of the splendor of many years past. My dogwood just outside my window is finally beginning to shed some leaves and the other leaves are showing signs of drying. I can see my neighbors through the woods a little now, and my little hidden hideaway is opening up to the road and civilization for the winter. I will have to start putting down my blinds again in the evenings.
BingoKid comes bright and early to spend some time with me today. The other boys should show up by the afternoon to play for a while. They asked if they could come play with me some today. How can you tell your grandchildren no when you haven't seen them for a week!
As it turns out, this has been the best day ever for the three Kids! They completely enjoyed each other the whole time they spent together which turned out to be about ten hours. Not once did any of them raise their voice or get angry with another one. Once they spent time chasing Charlie while he was teasing them with, "Joy! Joy! Joy! Isn't this the most fun we have ever had?"
They watched as little 7 pound Oreo outran Elsie the Hunting Dawg as they played together in the front yard. They chased Elsie all through the woods trying to catch her and she came running to me the first time I called her and immediately sat at my feet waiting for a pat on her head. She was enjoying them, too ... there was the computer and a new game, the videos and TV and toys from downstairs that kept them busy ... and pizza ...
I have all my strips together and ready to press so I should finish making my quilt top kaleidoscope today. All the pieces came out exactly even, so it must be in the right sequence. Then the question; "Will I add it to my other UFO's yet to be quilted, or do I go ahead and complete it before I put it up?"
Am I wrong? I just got a phone call asking me to mail out diabetes letters to my neighbors asking for money to help their cause. It will only involve mailing out twelve letters using my own stamps and mailbox for mailing. I explain to the lady very nicely that I am retired on disability and that also I go several days at a time without getting my own mail from my own mailbox and that I rely on my neighbor to bring my mail to me most of the time. I call on her way too much as it is without adding another chore to the list. I only get my bills and stuff mailed out once a month. (The woman had a problem understanding that a neighbor would be involved ... it would just be me and the mailman. He would be the one picking up what I mailed out and deliver them to the other houses!) I tell her that it is over a hundred steps to the mailbox. I don't walk it very often. She still doesn't understand why it would be an inconvenience to my neighbor. She was irritated with me for not wanting to call on my neighbor for something else to do for me. How many people are put on guilt trips each day to help milk the country of more money for this cause and that? True, there are some excellent causes and needs, but how many of them is one person to take on as their own pilgrimage? There should be better ways of taking care of some things I suppose. I always remember the answer that my friend Betty Dula always gave these callers: "I give all my money through my church." She was always doing and giving of her money and herself to others, but she did it on her own terms and what she thought the Lord would best want her to do.
What was that comment I made earlier about finishing my quilt piecing today? Correction as usual. What with the grandsons being here; Wes working on installing the lights; Charlie running free in the development just beyond the house in front of mine - how is one to take time for sewing? My plans were changed for me. There is always another day ...
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© 1999 by Stormy Jeanne
