Friday-10am

What a week!  

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First of all, before I forget, I have to tell you that due to Iggy sending me a link to the Fargo police department notices--what we witnessed was listed as a property removal/standby for property exchange.  ??  But a couple days later I saw that girl walk out to that same SUV with a very large guy.  They did not seem unfamiliar with each other in their silence.  She took some papers and a few things out of the back seat--he got into the vehicle and drove away--she came back in the building.  I have seen the SUV in the parking lot since then, too.

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Sadly, it appears likely it could be domestic violence and she went right back to him.  Not positive, of course--but that's my guess.

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It was not raining on Monday when I went to the dentist.

Was hot, though--almost 90 again. 

When I take the senior bus (actually they are vans) I am there early so I always bring a book with me.  You have to wait to be picked up, too.  This is a shot from the chair I sit in that faces the door so I can see the van when it drives up. 

The appointment went quickly, at least.  Let's just say my back wasn't the worst it has been when I've left the dentist so I was feeling pretty confident that I wouldn't be wracked up for a couple days.  But--there are disadvantages to being one of the youngest people on the senior bus.

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The van arrived and the driver jumped out and went to the back of the van, opened high the back door, took out a walker, and proceeded to magically raise a seat from the floor like they can do in these new vans.  I'm observing the already full van--a white haired small lady in the passenger bucket seat, a woman in the bucket seat behind the driver who complained "when are we going to get to Sheyenne?", and in the other bucket seat was a tall, thin man who looked folded into his seat with his knees high in front of him.  None of them so much as glanced back to look at us.  This was a load of cranky old people.

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The driver asked me if I thought I could climb in the back.  Lowering his voice he added--or I could ask him to climb back and you could take his seat.  

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This guy didn't look like he could have crawled between those seats in the first place--and he would obviously have to greatly disturb and bump Miss Sheyenne.  Not one of them ever turned around.  I knew they could hear the driver.  Have you ever felt the tenseness of a warm van full of seniors who have no intention of moving from their spots and are anxious to get moving?  

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Well, my automatic response was not to bother any of them, of course.  (Minnesota Nice is deeply ingrained from birth.)  They all had a good 20 years on me.  I certainly wasn't going to ask them to inconvenience themselves any longer than absolutely necessary for me, right?  So, optimistically, I crawl into the end of the van to get to the folding seat behind Miss Sheyenne--which wasn't as easy as I had imagined in my head.

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The driver uses prayer and patience to replace the walker alongside me--and we finally drive away.

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Miss Sheyenne immediately complains she can't feel the air conditioner.  (All the crawling and then the maneuvering of myself and the walker had heated up the van, of course.)  The poor driver (and he has grey hair--most of them do) is made so nervous by Miss Sheyenne's complaints that he cracks open a back window next to Folded Man and asks him if that is okay.  Folded Man grunts.  Miss Sheyenne harrumps like he is a worthless driver.  I have 88 degree wind blowing up the back of my head--LOL!

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Apparently, I am the closest one to drop off.  So now I have to crawl out!  Which I manage to do, as the poor driver is commending me on my agility and thanking me profusely.  Agility is relative, just like everything else in life, I guess.  I look like a young whippersnapper to them at 62 with no gray in my hair.  But by the time I managed to get my 90 year old body turned around and sitting on the back of the van I told him to "give me a second" before I jumped down.  He didn't know it, but I had to sink into the pain for a moment there.

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Showered with a barrage of gratitude, I jumped down the few inches (my legs are too short), and he stopped talking long enough to surprise me with a big hug.  I felt badly for him--having to shoulder on with his cranky seniors.  Any other passengers on my trips have always been so pleasant before.  Maybe it was the heat and humidity?  Or was there a full moon?  ROFL!

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Anyways, I wished him well and hobbled off as he was trying to get the walker back into the van without lowering the folding seat--a task in and of itself.  I knew he was trying to save time because Miss Sheyenne was impatiently waiting--and probably judging him for taking the time to hug me. 

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As I limped up to my mailbox beside the elevator telling myself--"never again"--it dawned on me!  I should have just told him to ask them to send another van.  If that ever happens again I shall do exactly that.  I always bring a book with me.  I can wait longer.  DUH!!

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For two nights I couldn't sleep--knees swollen--hip and back were giving me grief--was up for good in the middle of the night--had to take naps (I am not a napper) because I couldn't keep my eyes open.  Didn't even read books or write letters.  

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Never again.

Minnesota Nice be damned.  ;)

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I was actually awake for sunrise...

...not by choice... 

...somewhere around 5:30am. 

We've had a lot of thunderstorms, too.  Mostly at night.  The porch has been so wet that Karma has to either sleep under the chair in the corner of the porch (only dry spot) or stay inside to loll. 

We even had one day that was almost cloud free for a few hours. 

I'm about halfway through Pandora's Lunchbox.  I shall be reading food labels even more than I was before.  And there are so many things that aren't even on the labels--whew!  Food has become quite an industry, but you'd think it would be regulated a lot more than it is.

I've been really interested in books about the food industry lately.  I just started Born With a Junk Food Deficiency and the first part is actually about the pharmaceutical industry.  That's a whole other can of worms!

For fun--I wanted to read "The Cat Who____" series from the beginning.  The Cat Who Could Read Backwards is the first one and the other one I have is actually the third one, but the library lady brought it over anyways, because number two is on the way and she'll bring it next time.  So I actually only have three books to read.  I'm slow so that's fine.  I started number one at the dentist's office.

Ruby introduced me to this series many years ago and I read a few of them.  I have always wanted to go back, start over, and read them all.  Love Qwilleran, the older newspaper man, and his cat, Koko, solving crimes.  Very midwestern flavor.  Perfect summer reading!  I'll think of Ruby as I read them--just like I do every time I watch Big Bang Theory.  :):)

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Dagan and Leah were here on Tuesday and Wednesday night.  The sewing machine is working again! (Should be for $90, right!)  There were still a couple brief glitches sewing on the neoprene, but that was due to the squishy, stretchy fabric and not the machine this time.  It even sounds different!  There had been a rattling underneath and that is all gone.  She sounds solid again.  Ahhh! 

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Leah got her pouch put together on Tuesday, but really wanted to put a double fold binding around it so she went to Joann's before work on Wednesday (remember she's on later hours for a while) and came over and did just that on Wednesday.  Dagan brought over the sewing machine on Tuesday and the Joann's stuff and my extra folding table on Wednesday.  I was not in great shape and was very tired, so I forgot to take any pictures--but it was so nice to see them a couple days in a row.

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Oh, and Dagan tried to send in his pacemaker check over the phone and the automatic dialing wouldn't go through--like it was the wrong number.  ??  So he has to get ahold of them.  He might need a new machine sent to him.  But I'll be seeing Dagan again briefly for that some time soon. 

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Also have been slowly going through a big box of card making stuff that a friend of Leah's mom didn't want anymore.  We are picking out all the stuff we want and the rest goes back into the box and we'll give it away on freecycle.  There are stamps, ink pads, paper, glitters, etc.  But the thing that absolutely delighted me was this!

How many of you are old enough to remember these?!  You bought this white spray that looked kind of like snow (to us kids, anyways) and sprayed the various stencils on your windows.  OMG!  This brought back memories.  Not that we even had these...can't remember now if we finally talked Mom and Dad into letting us get them or not.  But we had neighbors who had them and even store windows were decorated with that white spray and stencils of all kinds.  What a hoot!!  I don't think I can give these away, even if I never use them for anything.  :)

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Well, that's been my week.  I finally was able to read a little again yesterday.  We're supposed to drop into the low to mid-80s now for a few days.  Still predicting random rain storms.  Not so bad when they come at night, I guess, so we can see some sun during the days.    

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Lunchtime already.  I am not moving quickly--LOL!  Well, stay comfortable and dry this weekend.  Hope to be back sooner next time.  :):)

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"If you can always smile at life, life will also always smile at you."

The Mother at Pondicherry

Sunday-10:30am

Well, I don't miss everything, I guess.  Even though I never saw these patrol cars pull up (turned out the black one in the front there by the tree was an unmarked car)...

...I did watch as... 

...three policemen escorted this woman clutching her dog in her arms and wiping away her tears... 

...and hauled out the carrier (cat? small dog?)...

...to her car.  They watched as she and her pets climbed in. 

She just sat in the car and it looked like she might have been on a cell phone.  The two policemen in the regular car left.  The one in the unmarked car sat there for a good ten minutes before he left.  I watched for over an hour.  She had the backseat window cracked down, but never left.  

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Now I am not absolutely positive, but remember when I saw the patrol cars and ambulance here a little while back?  Well, they escorted a woman (who looked a lot like this one) who was walking and holding her upper arm like it was hurt to the ambulance.  

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I'll probably never know, but the writer in me always wonders what the story is.  ;)

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I actually did some scribbling with my watercolor crayons on gessoed pages in the manila folder journal and smeared around with a baby wipe.  Could use more layers of color, I suppose, but I was just glad to have a short playtime.  :)

I figure these only take me a few minutes each and I have the whole journal to color backgrounds on all the pages...so that's something I can do little by little.  Color always lifts my spirits.

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This is what it looked like this morning when I got up.  Apparently I may have slept through another thunderstorm.

And guess what?  That car is still sitting in the same exact spot.  The mystery deepens.  If I ever hear any gossip at the mail boxes I'll let you know--ROFL!  ;)

The sun was attempting to peek out between the cloud cover for about ten minutes. 

Karma was out grazing on her cat grass. 

Yesterday there was a bug of some kind that flew under that chair and Karma spent a good hour under there trying to find it.  

She hasn't forgotten. 

Why does she suddenly whip her head around and just know I am there on the other side of the glass door when I haven't moved or made a sound?  How does she know?

Another mystery I'll probably never solve--LOL!

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We've been having evening and late night thunderstorms.  Had quite the light show on Thursday night and lost electricity for a short while.  The rain clouds just keep rolling through.

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Leah said that Blow's Sew and Vac got a hold of her and my sewing machine was ready to pick up.  She was going to try to pick it up yesterday because they're not open today, but I never heard.  (They were off visiting last night.)  Leah said if she did get the machine she might come over to try to sew the pouch today.  I pray my old machine will actually work again!  :)

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Tomorrow I go back to the dentist's to have them fix that filling that fell out.  No need to say any more--LOL!  I'll just be glad when it is all done and I am out of that chair and have hobbled home again.  ;)

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I had a wonderful time meeting Pam from the library!  She brought me four books and has a couple more I mentioned on order already.  They only have Pam and one other lady to deliver books, so it will be one of the two ladies who will come back until I might get my own volunteer one day.  They'll return in three weeks.  She said I can just return the books I am done with (normally on outreach we can keep them for six weeks!) but, since I will have some more books coming in pretty soon that are just from other branches, they hate to tie those books up for six weeks just till they get to me, you know, so they'll come back in around three weeks.  What a sweet woman.  Well, she's a book lover.  I've found book lovers to be quite exceptional people on the whole.  ;)

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  I even dropped down from two-DVDs-at-a-time to one-at-a-time with Netflix--which will start July 1st.  More reading time.  I didn't realize how much I missed library books until I had that small stack sitting on my table.  I hope I can get back into the swing of things with making reading a regular part of my life again.  Been so many years since I was a regular library patron.  I'm sure it's kind of like riding a bicycle--LOL!  :)  And I've got the Janet Evanovich series coming a couple books at a time from Caroline, too!  Whoohoo!

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That's what's happening in Fargo.  Or all I know about what's happening--which is never much--LOL! Have an exciting week!!  :):)

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Note: I just discovered that I cannot highlight anything at all on blogger.  So I can't enlarge or change the font or add any color today.

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"The world was hers for the reading."

Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Thursday-10am

Good morning!

We had a few days with these gorgeous clouds rolling through the 80 degree skies. 

Too hot for me, but Karma's a heat-soaker.  That's an old jacket string tie I found in my sewing box that I gave to Karma.  It's too thick for her to chew and eat, but it still reminds her of a string so she loves it.

Believe it or not... 

...these pictures were taken on different gorgeous days. 

I'd pull back the chair cover for Miss Karma... 

...but I've been inside... 

...with my struggling wall air conditioner. 

When I first moved here (8 years ago) I couldn't even run it on high for very long and I have the shivers.  Now I can run it on high all day long and it will still be 72-75 degrees in here.  Does take out the humidity, though.  Last year the maintenance man took the AC out and cleaned it for me--and this is the best it does.  The test has been when it started to hit the low 90s on Sunday--and it has managed to maintain 75 degrees, so I can't complain.  Expected to hit upper 80s to 90 again today--and possible thunderstorms...well, for the next three days.

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Oh and I forgot to show you my Amazon goodies from June.  Remember my double walled glass cup fiasco?  Well, I found a different one.

This one is glass all over--even the cover!  So you have to be careful with it and don't drink too fast or you could burn your lips, but I have really liked it so far.  Doesn't stay hot as long as the metal thermal cup, so I just have to drink faster--lol!  ;)

No metallic taste and cleans up beautifully.  You can see the water spots when I drip-dried.

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And with great optimism, I purchased this book...

...hoping to attempt to learn to draw faces, which is a huge challenge for me.  I figured I want to learn to draw faces before I can really learn to paint them.  I'm only hoping to lean more towards realistic and less towards cartoonish. 

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Which brings me to...well, what I am able to do or not do recently.  I have finally had to face the fact that I am not as functional with this darn sciatica.  That I have some days where just doing the normal everyday things has become a real challenge.  This has created frustration and an ongoing internal battle between me and my body...which, I learned the hard way with my fibro, changes absolutely nothing about the facts and just makes me even more miserable. 

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So...for now...I am trying to accept that this is happening and am in the process of an internal shift.  Struggling to shut off the mental lists of what I want to do or make.  Telling myself that I am on summer vacation--like the times I actually got to go to a cabin on a lake in Minnesota when, other than meals and making it down to the gross community shower building, I had no responsibilities or plans.  (These are the things I have to do to trick my chattering monkey brain into leaving me be--ROFL!)  That it's okay--and enough--to read and watch movies and play with Karma.  When it's okay to sit (yes, even sitting is painful many days) I can keep up online, blog, and write letters.  That it's okay if I don't create anything at all for a while.  That's become very much an extra, above-and-beyond activity for me right now.  Just for now.

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I have to stop fighting the sciatica...being angry with my body.  Doesn't change anything.  Probably makes matters worse, actually.  

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Acceptance.  

Not always easy.

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So, yesterday I was wondering if there was some way for me to get library books.  Snooped around online and found out they have an Outreach program here in Fargo!  I talked to the lady on the phone and she is coming over tomorrow afternoon!  With a few books!  Whoohoo!!  :)

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I really needed something fun to look forward to.  (Do you know how frustrating it is to have new toys you can't play with--LOL!)  So, I am excited to meet Pam who runs the program.  They're short of volunteers right now, but later I will probably have my own regular person.  Sweet!  :)

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I see all these great book reviews on blogs--but haven't the money to buy the books and can't get to the library.  Now I can make a list and email any books I'm interested in to Pam.  I won't be limited to only the free kindle books at Amazon.  (Not that they aren't wonderful!) 

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So, anyways--that's why I've been blogging a little less often lately and have had less art or crafts to show you.  Looks like it is probably going to remain like this for a while.  I'll be popping in just to chat, regardless, of course.  Right now, Karma is curled up inbetween my legs on my sweet new recliner under my rolling laptop desk.  It's clouded over, but they're not dark storm clouds...yet.  A quiet morning in Fargo.  :) 

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Since I have been trying to shift inner gears and find acceptance of further limitations and pain...life has gotten a lot better.  Not that you could tell one bit by the surface--ROFL!  But I am finding myself filled with gratitude again.  Ahhh!  I really don't do as well when I lose my inner peace and calm.  (The sciatica had gotten on my last nerve there for a while.)

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Oh, and I want to note how very grateful I am for my snail-mailers!!  I know you're patient with me...and I do so love the quiet contemplation of pen-in-hand conversations.  I may be low on cards, but I have lots and lots of paper and envelopes.  ;)  

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So tomorrow I shall be reconnected with the library after eight years! 

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Life is good!!  :):)

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"There must be always remaining in every life, some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathless and beautiful."

Howard Thurman

Saturday-9:45am

We had a couple sunny days this past week (including my trip to the dentist day--go back Monday the 24th to fix the filling)...

...but most days were a mixed bag or totally overcast. 

It did jump up about 10 degrees this week, though--from 70/50s to 80/60s.  Hot enough that I shut the place up and put the AC on.  I've kept it closed and after a couple days--well, my bones started to feel a little better--LOL!  So, for now, I am keeping it closed up.

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Note: Just thought I would let everybody know that the Pacifier Boy (who sometimes doesn't have the plug in his mouth, BTW) is not deprived or lonely.  From what I can tell, he cries because if he just cries long enough he finally gets his way.  That's him in the motorized car.

Center of attention and very happy zooming around the parking lot.  I have no doubt he probably stands in his apartment doorway crying because he wants to go drive his special car.  So don't worry about him.  The parents have just taught him what works in their family. 

Anyways, Dagan and Leah were here on Wednesday.  Leah wanted to make a bigger phone pouch (hangs on her belt) for her new cell phone.  The one she bought for her old phone is on the left.  Leah got the pattern made and cut out of the neoprene on the right...but that's as far as we got.  :(

Some of you might remember all the trouble I had with the quilt store sewing machine repair guy in town...well, I knew it still skipped straight stitches here and there, but I was hoping it would work okay using the zig zag.  Nope.  In fact, it got worse and worse until it was missing half an inch of straight stitches in a row!  *sigh*  We read the instruction booklet and tried everything we could think of to no avail.  So Leah took the machine with her when she left and is going to drop it off at another place in town--Blow's Sew n' Vac.  [Such a funny name! I know. I know. I am so juvenile--LOL!]  We'll see if it is just too old to fix or not.

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My mom bought me my sewing machine when Dagan was crawling, so it's 38 years old.  With his heart problems he was so skinny and then he's long waisted to boot--so it was impossible to buy him baby clothes where he didn't look like he was a drowning in fabric little stickman.  I sewed most of his clothes for several years--lots of jumpers, overalls, and knit t-shirts and pants.  Does anyone else remember the Stretch&Sew stores?

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From the time I began sewing I let him pick out the decals for the front of his overalls or the breast of his one-piece jumpers.  Guess what I found in the box of sewing paraphernalia?  

I wish I had a picture.  (I usually seem to forget about the camera when I have company.)  There was my Dagan--38 years later--looking through these decals and smiling.  I remember standing in the aisle at the fabric store with Dagan on my hip taking down the ones he wanted to see as he seriously made his final decision on the one or two he could pick.  We spent a lot of time in fabric stores back then.  :) 

I do remember the next one he wanted me to use was the train.  But then, before I could sew a new outfit, he decided he wanted to be a big boy and use the potty chair...and those jumpers and overalls just drove him plum crazy.  He wanted pull-on pants, of course...and these embroidered decals have waited in this old Avon container for nearly four decades...just to be held in Dagan's hands and see his smile again.

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Miss Karma loves the heat.  I pull back the chair cover on days it looks like it could rain any minute so that she can use the chair...to bathe... 

...or take a toasty snooze. 

I have the table all set up for playing with the gelli plate this weekend.  Thinking positive, right?  (This will be a real sciatica test.)  Wish me luck!  
Have a glorious weekend!!  :):)

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"It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into the doing that matters."

Mother Teresa

Monday-10:30am

Okay, this is proof of how (artfully) conservative I have normally been all these years.  This week the Artist's Playroom challenge word was bizarre.  Believe it or not--this felt totally alien and most bizarre to me the whole time I was doing this.  

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You may remember for one of the 21 Secrets workshops I made up this manila envelope journal (there are drawing papers inside for pages).  We had to put a couple layers of gesso on the manila envelope cover...and then next we were supposed to scribble with watercolor crayons all over it.  Scribble.  Then blend with a damp baby wipe and finally rub with a paper towel.

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Well, I wanted to try the gelatos I have barely played with so I grabbed those.  They were very pale--as you can see more so on the inside of the flap.

So I took out my Lyra crayons and scribbled and baby wiped and scribbled and baby wiped until I got what you see above.

Then on the backside I did a different color scheme (which seemed richer without that first layer of gelato sticks the front cover had).  OMG!  I couldn't believe I was doing this!  And it was fun!!  :)

Something else that seemed bizarre to me...I used white cloth hockey tape and taped it all over some pieces of butcher paper... 

...to use as table and page protectors as I worked.  My own version of making my own washi tape.  Not sure if it will work well or not, but this was also something that seemed so odd (bizarre) as I was prepping the butcher paper that it made me giggle to myself thinking of how, the very first time I have ever touched the stuff, loyal hockey folk would probably be appalled by what I was doing with good hockey stick tape--LOL!  This is hockey country, you know.  ;)

And then...I had just mentioned to someone last week how I miss what's going on around here even when I am sitting right there by the window...and, shortly after I had made that pronouncement, I looked over and saw this!  No lie!  A fire truck and ambulance...practically under my window.  I had totally missed them arriving and I was sitting right there!  In my defense, the fire alarm hadn't gone off--LOL!

A few days later...I did notice a police car come zooming in...but...had missed the other police car and the ambulance that were already sitting there!  Good Lord!   

I prefer to think it is because I am so absorbed in whatever I am doing, right?

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But I wished I had missed this. 

Older brother teaching younger brother how to tear leaves and small branches off one of our young trees. 

If you click to enlarge...that younger brother is way to old to be sucking on a pacifier. 

I know they live at the end of our hallway because the pacifier boy opens their apartment door and stands in their doorway and cries and cries...right in the open doorway.  They just ignore him.  As they do when he's outside and cries and cries.  All with the pacifier in his mouth.  That useless pacifier.  Too bad the rest of us aren't able to ignore him as easily as his family.  ;)

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We went right back to chilly rain yesterday.

The storm clouds roll past... 

...but more keep coming. 

Supposed to have thunderstorms again later today, too.  But the temps are supposed to jump up about ten degrees to around 60 at night and close to 80 during the days.

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Miss Karma wanted to be warm under the throw. 

She peeked out for a while after snoozing a couple hours, but crawled back under for a couple more--LOL! 

Since I am not up to standing for the gelli plate...I may do some more of this bizarre scribbling and baby wiping.  With the help of the 21 Secrets workshops, I may just beat back my OCD tendencies and become a loose woman yet!

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Have a fun week!  :):)

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"Begin growing from where you are - not from where others think you ought to be by now."

Steven Douglas Lawrence