Proactive and Prepared Tuesday

[Sadie]

Good Morning Dear Ladies,

No snow or ice here either. Just COLD.

Went to PT yesterday. She is pleased with my progress, said she could tell I'm doing the exercises at home and we moved into using some equipment this time. Worked with some play=doh type stuff which made me laugh.

Had a good night's rest, still in the recliner.

After PT, DH said we have another appointment and he took me to pick out a new stove. My old stove hasn't worked right for awhile and I was just making due with it until it just died, but since DH and dsons have been doing the cooking they named the stove "the wicked witch" and DH said it needed to be replaced. I picked out a black-5 burner stove. I told them it could be my valentine gift.

So dsons are moving things and cleaning.

Took my sling off and ate breakfast, then did my exercises. Had it off for two hours and then I got it back on and it felt so good to wear it.

Going to fold laundry on the bed. It's one of the few things I can do. similar to folding at work too.

Tomorrow will be 5 weeks since surgery. 7 weeks of the sling left,

[lucylee]

Looks like a nice little snow for us, but roads don't seem to bad -- so we are off for one of our two monthly nursing home visits. I'm not really feeling great, but I don't think anything is physically wrong with me... so, no excuse NOT to go... and of course, dgs will be going, so I pretty much HAVE TO go. Those older ladies just LOVE LOVE LOVE to see dgs. Probably enjoy him more than they do ds/dh's singing, LOL!

[BookSaver]

Harriet ~ I like those Coke touchscreen machines, too. There's a BK on the way to Aldi that added one recently, and I like being able to mix a vanilla coke because that flavor is no longer available here in stores. They even have ginger ale and flavors of sparkling water as choices in their machine. Unfortunately, it's a place where the food does not agree with me.

I wish the Subway at the truck stop would install one of those machines to replace their soda fountain, which always seems to be breaking down. I think that would bring them all kinds of extra business at a truck stop.

In spite of the cold last night, and in spite of the town's electrical problems, the meeting for the library did take place because the bar still had lights. They put us in a back room, brought beverages, apologized that they couldn't cook anything hot without power, and treated us very well. Too bad there were only 7 of us -- from an invitation that went out to 70 volunteers. Still, we had a nice chat and brainstormed for fundraising ideas.

An Englishman in the group told of the time he raised money for his church by sitting for 24 hours in a bathtub filled with baked beans. If we can get permission from a shopping mall in The Big City, and figure out logistics, he is willing to recreate that scene, even though he's 20-some years older now. (He didn't admit exactly how many years ago that was.) We would make it easier by only doing 12 hours, but still -- Doesn't that sound like a fun event? And crazy enough to get a lot of publicity.

So glad that Sadie is doing well with PT. A new stove is exciting, too.

[Ivy]

I just read on the Internet that Shirley Temple Black just died at age 85. I grew up on her movies. I'm 62, so I adored and worshiped her as a little girl. She was so gifted, entertaining and such a sweet soul, in my eyes.

It's warmed up here with rain on and off.

I did shoulder/back PT exercises yesterday, so today the left shoulder I had rotator cuff surgery on in Nov. 2010, is acting up. It makes it hard to clean, reach, etc.... But today I'll pre-warm it with my microwave thing, first, and THEN do them. I couldn't heat the shoulder yesterday because I had Icy Hot on. I heard on TV how a man who's caretaker had heated a pain patch in a microwave, prior to applying it to her patient, it made him die because too much immediate medication went into his blood stream so swiftly. I decided to not do Icy Hot today, so I can heat up the shoulder before doing my exercises.

The little white birds in a bush near the feeder were so adorable today. They had a touch of grey on them, too. They'd take turns on different branches of the bush and then back and forth to the bird feeder. They sure bring us a lot of joy and entertainment.

Our TV for the great room arrives tomorrow between 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.'s window. I've seen very little of the Olympics, as they're in the bedroom on that TV, but DH has been in there a lot to see them. It's uncomfortable on the bed and in the hard chair, for me to just sit-sit-sit and watch TV in the bedroom. So I've been doing other things. Having a TV in the great room will be awesome for us!

We're proactive and prepared here for anything, especially for earthquakes and if Mount St. Helens should erupt. We even carry masks in our car, just in case. It happened once, we weren't prepared for all the ash then, but at least I had a scarf at work to tie over my mouth/nose to make it home safely. The ash blew this way a few days later, from a different direction, as I recall. It erupted the day before our Dson's b-day so his b-day had a damper on it. Everyone was staying home and safe. We're prepared for power outages, have flashlights, lanterns and head lamps, too. We have plenty of bottled water and a stocked up pantry, too. I always try to get set by August, for the winter months. We just never know. Then, there is always the chance of the Big One Earthquake, too!

Have a Terrific Tuesday, Everyone!

[Nancy]

Clean chicken coop done,
Bring trash can back from curb done.
It feels like spring out!

[Harmony]

Our cold will be Wed night/Thurs morning, into the 40's. Pretty cold for us. We're having a bright beautiful day with nice blue skies.

Did you know there is more carpentry involved in upholstering than sewing? We had a whole counterfull of tools out. Took both chair arms off, repadded and reupholstered. Now we have a black fabric chair with multi-reds arms! A little different perhaps but the new padding isn't disintegrating into powder and the material isn't all shredding. This chair is about 10 years old.

We also took the lid off the middle console in the suv and recovered that in vinyl. I've done that a couple years ago but I cut the material short to get away from the screw holes and it worked its way out. DH used the awl to make holes in the vinyl instead.

We are going to work on another house project tomorrow.

Being prepared, getting all this stuff done before the big day.

Sadie, it sounds like you are doing very well. Interesting that you like wearing the sling, that it feels better with it on. DH hated his with a passion.

Sounds like you are prepared, Ivy. Interesting about the patch. I just loved Shirley T emple.

[Elizabeth]

Cue Hallelujah Chorus LOUD!!!

No, I have not found a job, but I am quite relieved this morning. Last night, I heard a loud crash somewhere in my house. In a house of 6 cats this is not unusual and I did not bother to get out of bed. This morning, I found that someone had knocked over the table with my monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers on it!!! Since I am posting to you, there was no damage. One day I should get a real computer desk, I guess. I am using one of my grandmothers end tables. It fits beautifully in the space allotted to it, and getting a desk would entail rearranging the entire LR. That being said, my Dad (interior designer of 50+ years experience) is visiting in April.

I am off to file my unemployment claims and do more job search stuff, but I had to tell someone the good news.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Hmmmm, proactive Tuesday....

Tuesday is a dimming memory for me but I did do physio last night and can walk this morning so that bit of proactive paid off.

In the morning ds and I went hiking along the ridge and I fell badly so will be staying away from rough tracks for the next while and busing as much as possible. We only went .6 miles along the trails but it was a really hard walk even before I fell. I didn't have my hiking boots, just runners (was heading into town via the ridge walk and then the botanical gardens and didn't realize how rough the trail would be) and the hiking poles slipped as well so I went backwards and then rolled sideways so both ds and I thought I might roll off the path and down the edge. Ds deemed I was too muddy (in embarrassing spots) to continue we returned to the B&B (after another harrowing walk along increasing poor trails between the first road we came upon and the road with the bus), cleaned up and then walked downtown. I figured the walk would help 'shake out' the bent muscles.

Ankle is tender this morning (ds didn't like the way my body was bent when he first went to help me up) but aside from that I seem fine. Ended up walking an additional 13K steps after that adventure.

New Zealand is a country where people are extremely active and forget other people may not be as active so I keep getting told walks are great, only to find them bordering on impossible for me.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Internet here is spotty at best. That previous post was made up mostly of something I wrote to you all 22 hours ago but then couldn't get online to post. We are on a side of a hill and my cell phone doesn't work here either. So yesterday, when ds was trying to book another B&B to stay in after I leave and a rental car to pick up his girlfriend from the airport, we couldn't do either because the internet went out on us again.

For the first time since ds had arrived in NZ, it was sunny and we were sitting inside, desperately trying to get messages out. Finally, I said we had to get out into the sun so we took off for town and used my phone there to call and make the reservations.

I'm so frustrated here. My hostess here isn't really set up to do hospitality. If I was staying here for free, it wouldn't matter as much but I'm paying over $200 a night. The house is gorgeous. But filthy. The kitchen is a mess most of the time (I washed up her dishes from the previous day after she left them for 15 hours because I needed the room to cut cheese and grate a carrot.)

She tells us when we can't be in the house. Seriously. So I knew we couldn't be home between 3:15 and 7:30 on Monday night (because she wanted family time with her kids) and tonight if we do come back we have to go straight to our room since she's got a friend over. She did let us cook a dinner last night as she was out at yoga. But we had to wait for her to come home to clean up the dishes because the hot water wasn't working so we couldn't clean up. While cooking, there was not one pot or pan we pulled out that didn't require washing before we could use it. And, while dh found the garlic press in the drawer, it was so dirty we opted not to use it.

The bed is uncomfortable and the room only has a bed and a night table so there is no place to work on the computers or sit when we are banished to our rooms. In all, it is a real challenge.

With AirBnB you pay in advance so it isn't as if we can leave. So we are toughing it out but I'm not happy about it. Dh has working internet at the office so he isn't as badly affected. Ds has nothing when the internet is down (his phone doesn't work even downtown) so he's quite frustrated.

Anyway, two more nights and we are heading home. And The Girlfriend arrives tonight so tomorrow will be interesting.

Today, the clouds have rolled back in (it was sunny a while ago) so I'm not sure what ds and I are doing. We do have a 12:30 lunch with dh and a former client. Ds picks up the rental car at 2:30 and TGF comes in at 10:45.

[Elizabeth]

DONE!!!

I finally claimed the unemployment benefits for the past two weeks! I kept remembering after 7 pm, after which, for reasons unknown, the workforce services computer does not accept claims. On to some more job search stuff!