Death

I went to a funeral today. During the service, the pastor said "Death is not the end, death is just a transition to another state". I hope when I die, I transition to Colorado. I really like Colorado. Or maybe somewhere warm with a beach. (JK God!)

Uh-Oh

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Maybe you should clarify??

Facebook

I just love it! I've gotten back into contact with so many people from childhood through high school. I'm even getting in touch with people I really didn't know that well back then. I was an unbelieveably  shy kid/teen, so it's fun communicating with these folks now. 
About a week ago, I had a friends request from someone who had been a very good friend in HS. She also lived at the other end of the road we moved to when I was 16, so we spent a lot of time together. Once out of HS, she got married and I went to school in Ky. We just lost touch, so it was great hearing from her again. All this reminded me of a story.....


Several of the boys in my neighborhood had motorcycles back then. Of course, I thought that was cool and was forever getting rides. One day, the friend I spoke of above, Cyndi and her then boyfriend (now hubby), Frank, had walked up to my house. Hobbled may be a better word for it as Frank had an injured leg and a cast up past his knee. My parents house has a patio-type front porch, maybe a foot off the ground, and we all sat on the edge of it. Frank had his injured leg stretched straight out in front of him, between 2 of the azealeas my step-mom had planted that summer and was so proud of. As happened a lot, a few of the neighborhood kids gathered in the front yard. One of those kids was a boy named Keith, who had ridden his older brother Phil's motorcycle to my house. Phil was at work and I'm still not sure if he knew Keith was riding his bike. He pulled up and parked in the front yard. We were all talking and I had gotten up to admire the bike up close. I started asking Keith to let me drive it, just around the house once. He was not very agreeable, but I kept at him. He finally asked if I had ever driven one before (I had not) so I told him, yes I had, many times. He finally, reluctantly handed me the keys. The bike was parked to the left and side of the patio, parallel to it. I hopped on, pushed in the clutch and cranked it up. I was so excited. I remember looking at Cyndi and grinning as I popped that clutch out and.....immediately lost control of the bike. I went careening towards Frank's outstretched leg. Poor guy had to dive out of my way and I remember being impressed that anyone could move that fast with a cast on. I fishtailed all across the azealeas, destroying every single one of them in the process, then flipped off of and wrecked the bike when I hit the driveway. Thank goodness I missed all the cars. Everybody was running around and yelling, except Frank, who didn't look very amused. Keith was yelling that Phil was gonna kill him, then come after me, and making everyone swear they wouldn't tell Phil about this, my step-mom had run outside and was yelling about the azealeas, Cyndi was laughing her head off and I was inspecting myself for any exposed bone fractures, which I was sure I had several of. Keith and I worked for over an hour picking azealea material out of and off of the bike, after which we washed and shined it back up. Keith was sweating bullets the whole time. We had to have it back in the same condition it was in when he took it, and it had to be back in it's proper storage spot before Phil got home from work. 
It's truly a wonder I survived into my 20s..... And I bet Phil still hasn't been told by anyone about this!

The Garden

At its peak. Zucchini on the right, cucumbers on the left, maters standin tall in back. There is also potatoes behind the zukes and cabbage behind the cukes. I had to pull out all the zukes a coupla weeks ago cuz I got infested with squash bugs and borers. I also have a lima bean on the metal frame in the back right. It has just hung out, a tiny little thing, all summer, but all of a sudden, its growing. It had flowers today..! Might get a pod or two yet, we'll see. 
Gonna start working on my fall garden in the next week or so. I've told all my neighbors to feel free to pick all the maters & cukes they want as those plants are dying back. I've still got somewhere around 30 tomatoes in various stages of maturity and many, many more flowers. I hate to cut them down while they're still producing! Looking forward to starting my new stuff tho!

Don't mess with the old guys

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My Little Garden

I'm so proud! I'll be even prouder if stuff grows!

I have tomatoes, romas & better boys (?), 7-8 squash and zucchini plants, corn-that is now waist high, ichaban eggplant, carrots, potatoes, spinach, cabbage and onions. I plan to start some bean seeds in the next day or so--limas, soy & purple eye peas. I'm thinking about butterbeans too. I love beans and one of my favs is anasazi beans. I have some dry ones....wonder if I can sprout and grow those too?? Worth a shot! I've been looking at fall crops too. My spinach is not doing too good, but it is a cooler weather crop so I may try them again for fall. I am definately trying brussels sprouts in fall too...my fav veggie! 

My boy, Bacchus

He's home. I worked all night Sun and got off work at 7am on Mon. I went to breakfast, then picked him up at 9am. He did not like the carrier at all, but I can't say I blame him. I brought him home and held him for a few minutes, but he was more interested in going out on the deck with Tibbe & Liu-Liu. I piled up in the recliner planning on getting a little sleep. About the time I dozed, he crawled up on the arm of the chair and woke me. He crawled onto me and just started purring so loud. I just held him and let him sleep while I held him. Poor baby was so happy to be back home, and I like to think with me. I wound up with very little sleep, but with a happy, well loved little guy. He is still on meds. One is a powder that I sprinkle on his food and the other is a pill. OMG...have you ever tried to make a cat swallow a pill? He threw me all around the kitchen. These pills are to keep him calm, but getting him to take it greatly upsets me & him! I tried hiding them in his (wet) food, but he ate all around them and left them sticking out of the food. I went to Petsmart today and got a pill pocket-you hide the pill inside this tasty treat-great idea in theory. He wolfed up the treat and spit the pill back out. I gotta call the vet and see if I can crush it up and sprinkle this on is food too. I don't think I can go through this every night and he is supposedly going to be on these for life. I'm just so glad to have him with me again. He slept curled up at my side last night and up until about 2 mins ago, was curled up on the recliner with me. He's such a sweet little guy!

Don't make him mad

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Rough Week

I have 3 cats, no children and am a 50 year old single woman. So, my cats are my children, my babies. I love them dearly. That being said.. Last Fri. I went to brunch with a friend. We spent the day looking at trees for her yard at a nursery, then visiting Lowe's & Home Depot. We both bought several new plants. She dropped me off at my house, and I put my purse inside, then headed straight back out to water my garden(s) and to get the new stuff planted. I went in briefly and Bacchus was lying in the kitchen doorway. That struck me as odd as he's usually at the door to meet me, but I picked him up and rubbed his chin, then put him back down and headed back out to do more work. I went to hook up the hose to water the back garden and it just hit me that he had immediately laid back down when I put him down. This is not his usual behaviour, he's very active. I went back in and he was lying in front of the water bubbler, with his head propped up on it. I called his name, twice, and he never opened his eyes. My heart just froze. I picked him up and loved on him for a minute. He looked at me, such a sad look! I put him back on the floor, standing up. He started to shake all over, then his back legs collapsed. I grabbed him up, ran to my neighbors, Wanda, house to get her to hold him, and I rushed him to the emergency pet hospital. As I carried him in, he started crying like I was hurting him. The vet came in and felt his belly--I was afraid he'd eaten a plant and was poisoned--and said that his bladder was full to rupture. He had a uretheral blockage and had not been able to pee for who knows how long. He'd been acting ok the night before, but it could have been happening then too. They did bloodwork on him and his levels were way too high. They had to cath him, but the doc told me he wasn't sure, b/c of the incredibly high potassium level, he might not survive being anesthesized. He's die if the didn't tho, so hey did. He's a trooper and came through all ok. They then told me that this was usually caused by crystals and that they will usually require surgery to create a new, larger opening for him to urinate through, which was going to cost between $1800-2300. OMG, I don't have that kind of money, but I knew I'd do whatever I had to to keep him well. He's my baby. Sat around noon, I called them to see how he was. The doc said he was not doing as well as they'd hoped, he was very lethargic and was refusing all food. They repeated his labs, thinking that those may not have normalized. She called me back tho and said that they were all fine. I asked if I could come by and visit him and she said that was fine and to bring his favorite food to see if I could coax him to eat. I had spent the day at my neice's helping her work in her yard, and was sweaty and dirty, but I didn't care. I left her house, picked up some tuna at the grocery, then headed to the hospital. They took me to a room and brought him in. I sat on a built into the wall wooden bench and thy put him down beside me. He was pacing up and down rubbing his body and face against me and started purring. I popped open the plastic cup of tuna and he wolfed it down. The tech brought in a cup of water, and he drank that too. They wound up leaving him with me a little over 2 hours. He wound up curled up along side my leg, sleeping with his head on my leg. God!! it as good to see him acting normal. The vet tech laughed b/c she said he had refused everything they tried to feed him. I think he was just scared. He was in pain, in a strange place with people he didn't know. He just needed to see me and know I hadn't deserted him. The vet called me the next morning and told me that whatever I did to him had turned him into a different cat. he was alert, eating like a horse and being very friendly. So, they kept him through mon morning. They removed the cath sun morn, but he wouldn't pee, so they had to put it back in. They told me that he was more than likely going to need to surgery. I had to pick him up on Mon and take him to my regular vet. Seeing as how I don't really have a regular vet, I took him to a friend's vet. They are wonderful! They left the cath in and treated him for the iritation and inflammation to his bladder and urethra. They took his cath out Tues morn, and when I went by to visit that afternoon, he had peed twice!! Looks like he won't need surgery after all. He will be there until Mon morn, when I'll pick him up once I get off work. One girl told me they might not let me have him b/c they are in love with him. They say his so sweet, cooperative and loving. Everytime they pass his cage, he'll roll over on his back for them to give him a belly rub. She said they all just automatically stop now to rub his belly. He loves that! I can't wait to get him back home!     

This and That

Wasted day! I was going to get some much needed housework done today, but woke up at around 3am with a major headache, just a step away from a migraine. Was awake until around 8am, then I basically slept all day.  It's almost gone, now just a mild thump right behind my eyes. What a pain, literally and figuratively. Oh well.
My sister is coming for a visit at the end of the month. I can't wait to see her. I miss her so much! I'm hoping the weather will be nice, and we can enjoy the outside. I have been doing some geneology research and have found a gravesite of an ancestor who migrated here from Germany. I want her to go with me to track it down. She loves this stuff as much as I do (right Kimmy!!??). 
I think I'm going to go all out on my garden this year. I've got seeds to grow corn, soybeans, black eye peas, broccoli, zucchini, squash, spinach, cabbage, carrots and I am going to try onions and garlic too.  I'm going to buy some tomato and eggplant plants too. The eggplant did so well last year. Just call me Farmer Cindy! Gotta hit Home Depot or Lowe's. I love growing my own veggies!

Busy Day

So, yesterday I went to my friend's house. Her dad is more or less an invalid and spends most of his time in his hospital bed set up in the back bedroom. My friend, Weezy, bought her parents house several years ago and they all live there. Which turned out to be a good thing because:

a) Her dad's health has gone downhill fast and her mom can't care for him alone

b) Weezy went through a bout of breast cancer several years ago. For some reason, the chemo really messed with her system and she has developed neuropathy in her hands and feet. Not good for someone who works as a physical therapist. She was put on leave from work because of this-she nearly had a wreck returning from a patient's house b/c her foot had slipped off the brake & she didn't know it. Yes, the neuropathy is THAT bad. So, in addition to losing her ability to drive, she is looking at having to go on permanent disability. She's very depressed and worried about her future.

So, she had bought her dad a VCR so he could watch movies back in his room. She couldn't get it set up and I looked at it last week and saw that she needed more cables to hook it up correctly. I had to work over the weekend, but told her I'd come over on Tues to help her set it up. I went to pick her up, we went to Best Buy to get the cables, then went to lunch. We stopped at the AT&T store and she talked to them about the crappy router they have, which only allows her to sign on if she in the same room. She wound up buying a router/modem combo and I told her I could set it up for her. I feel so bad for her. It's not that she can't do it but she no longer has any fine motor skills, so handling the cables, phone plugs..etc..is impossible for her to do. After meeting my niece at the shelter to help her choose a new kitten, we headed to Weezy's house to get this all set up. The VCR was relatively simple and I had it up in no time. I tried to program the Direct TV remote so he didn't have to keep track of another one, but it wouldn't work. Bummer, but he was OK with having 2 remotes.

Now, on to the router/modem combo. We went back in her dad's office to get it all set up. First thing tho was to get the filters on all the phone lines. 2 were simple, but for the 3rd, the plug was behind the cali king bed in the master bedroom. Ay-yi-yi, that thing was a bit@# to move. We only got it a few inches from the wall, but it was enough so that I could reach between the headboard slats and get it switched. 4th plug....I just thought the 3rd was a bit@#. OMG...First, we traced his phone line to the wall to the right of his desk.....behind a bunch of folding chairs and 2 card tables that we had to move. We did that, then got the filter plugged in and the phone in the correct side of that, leaving the other side for the DSL line. I then go over to where all his hook-ups are for the computer and tried to trace the line going from the computer to the wall. It actually traced to behind the desk...?? I wondered if he'd had a splitter on the extra long phone cord and went back to trace the phone line from where I had just put it to the desk phone, but no.....? Ok, I'll admit here I'm not a whiz at this, I'm just someone with (usually) some common sense in this area who can figure this out. I went back to the desk and took a second look. The desk is actually bolted to the floor and can't be moved, so I got on the floor and climbed under it. Eureka, there's a 2nd phone jack where the DSL comes in. Problem is, there's a 2x4 standing upright about 4-5 inches parallel to the baseboard. The jack is one of those with the guard that flips down...so that to change it, you have to hold the guard open with one hand and change the line with the other. I got the old line unplugged no prob, by holding it open with one finger and pressing the tab & pulling it out quickly. It was awkward, but I did it. Getting the filter plugged back in tho was a pain. I'm under the desk, on my stomach b/c it's not tall enough for me to be on my knees. There is very limited space between that 2x4 & the wall and no matter how hard I tried, I could not hold the guard open and plug the filter back in. Weezy handed me a flashlight and I propped that on the 2x4 and leaned it on the wall so that most of the light shone on the jack. I attempted for another few minutes and could not get it. I was hot, sweaty and frustrated. I thought for a minute and ask Weezy for some heavy duty tape, such as duct or masking. She found some masking and I taped that guard open and got the plug in..YEA!! Setting up the new router/modem was easy, just pop in the CD & follow the directions. Weezy was behind me the whole time and I swear I could feel how anxious she was about this. She wants to be able to use her laptop anywhere in the house, instead of just in her dad's office or right outside it. I finished up there, then we took the CD to her laptop. She wanted to try that herself, with me supervising. We followed the instructions and as we are going through the steps, her "You're connected" icon came on. She was so excited! We got to the last step and I dunno what happened. The icon indicated that she no longer had a connection and the last step on the screen was for us to connect to the internet. It took us to that step, but would not connect. She got up and let me take over. I went through everything I knew to do and could not figure it out. She was so disappointed and I determined that she would have wireless connection before I left!! I decided to close everything, eject the CD, restart the comp and then start from scratch. I was so frustrated! I sat there and it restarted. I was reaching around to open the CD drive and the connection icon indicated she was connected. She sat down and logged on, got on with no problem!!!! I guess it just needed a restart to finish loading the new software. We took it into the living room and tried and it worked!! I asked her to take it to her bedroom & try. I stayed in the living room with her mom and in a second, we heard her squeal. It worked there too! When I left, Weezy was one happy lady!! It made me feel good that I could get this done for them. They all kept thanking me over and over and talking about how much they "owed" me for doing this, but they don't understand how much I like doing this kind of stuff, even if it does get frustrating. I told them that this was like one of the word puzzles I used to love so much, and that it was fun to figure out how to put it all together. They think it was work, I think it was fun. Besides, I love them all so much and like being able to do what I can to bring a little.....joy (?) to folks who haven't had a lot of joy in the last few years. Doing this is better than sitting around bored at home!