Thursday, June 16, 2011

Idjit Klutz

Daughter is out of the apartment she lived in for three years and is living in temporary "quarters".  Holy heavens, she had a lot of stuff.  (Yes, partly my fault.  I figured she'd go to grad school and continue living there for a while.)  What a job!  The place was white glove clean when we left, though.
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Remember, I'm not complaining...

It is 1:50 PM, Thursday June 16.  The outside temp is up to (drum roll, please) 49 degrees, and wonders of wonders, it is raining.  Updated:  it is now 6:05 PM.  Husband (aka J) said it is up to 51 degrees.  Heat wave.  (Always makes me think of the M*A*S*H episode when they sing Having a Heatwave.  A tropical heat waveYa right.)


Update on the Joke (last post).  We haven't had snow right at our house, but it did spit on us in Moscow a couple weeks ago.  It has been rainy and cold, and no two completely nice days in a row since ???
 
According to Wednesday's paper, officially we were an 1-1/2 inches below record rainfall for the two months of May and June combined (not counting any rain we've had since Tuesday afternoon).  Unofficially, we had already passed the record set in 1974 - the year of the floods.  (Flood story another time.)
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Oh, I get so aggravated with Blogger's editing abilities!  Won't let me paste without highlighting everything.  When I hit enter, nothing happens, or it takes several seconds for the computer to respond, and the cursor keeps disappearing.  The header picture suddenly shrunk to a little tiny postage stamp size.  I had to remove it and reload it - twice.  Tried putting a clipart picture in at the top of this post.  Locked up the whole computer. Had to reboot twice just to get Blogger to work again. GRrrrrrr. Vee has had troubles, too. Anyone else?
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(click to enlarge)
One of my thrift shop finds.  5 cents.  Complete.
(Two pieces are cut from main sheet with pinking sheers but never used.)
Is there a 23 inch doll in my "collection"?
  I think my old bride doll might be about that size, but don't want to go upstairs right now to look.*
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The lilacs and flowering quince are now in bloom.  So pretty.  For a few days, one apple tree was gorgeous.  (Blast it, didn't get a picture.)  The spirea and peonies are just starting to open up, and the grape hyacinth and tulips are just now beginning to fade.  No evidence of iris or rhododendron  buds.  The flowerbeds are full of tall grass, so everything looks so messy.

An aside, but when we were kids we used to do yard work to earn money.  I always had to earn my own money for 4-H camp.  Where are the young people now? 

The "garden" now consists of two Early Girl, two cherry-type, and one grape-type tomato plants, two kinds of chives, one cilantro, one green bell pepper, one red sweet pepper, some catnip, and for fun a few snapdragons, pansies, a gorgeous hanging basket of petunias and ? (my mother's day & birthday present).  I stuck some garlic cloves around the tomato plants; we'll see if they grow or just rot.  (We container garden.  Everything is by the front porch because it is the warmest spot this time of year and closest to the water spigot.)
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* Whine, whine, whine - don't read if you don't like whining and blood.  Actually, this is kind of funny if you stop to think about it.
Idjit Idiot Stupid Klutz here bunged up her knee. (No doctor, cuz no insurance.)
*  First (sort of three firsts), just getting into daughter's car, I twisted wrong - I knew when I got in that I shouldn't do it the way I was, but I did it anyway.  Then slept on the floor for two nights.  Way too old out of shape for that.  (The air mattress had a leak.)  I was doing pretty well as long as we were packing and moving stuff.  Then I drove home...


*  Second (sort of two seconds), while still hurting and stiff from the first time(s), I went outside to catch an escapee (cat) and twisted my knee again.  Very sore, but manageable.  Then later in the day I just stepped up a step and SNAP.  I thought I was going to faint on that one.  I screamed. (Guess no one heard, because the cops didn't show up.)

* Then yesterday, talk about being just plain dumb, stupid, idiotic.   I had absolutely no business being out on the uneven ground, but I went "chasing" another cat.  (They aren't supposed to be outside, but pull every trick to slip out.)   I hung my cane over the fence to pick up Miss Spooky figuring I could slowly make it back to the house.  I was doing fine until someone went by and turned up their music full blast right as they got in front of the house.  Miss Spooky is aptly named and went scaredy-cat -crazy  to prove it.  Yes, I had her by the nape of the neck, but she twisted and clawed with all four feet, and I twisted trying to get away from her.

So, there I was standing in the middle of the yard half laughing half crying, feeling kind of sick, with blood running down my arm, and I couldn't move.  My cane was twenty-five feet behind me, and the closest door into the house at least forty feet away.  Stood for a few minutes trying to get my senses back, thinking surely someone I knew would drive by and wave.  Nope.  (We live on a busy street.  How come no one was out and about?)


Ah, cell phone was in my pocket and husband was in town. No answer.  Waited several minutes.  Still no one went by the house.  Tried my husband again.  No answer.  By this time, I was getting tired, really shaky, chilly, my feet  were getting cold and wet, and I'm really mad.  (Me get mad at husband? Never. LOL)  I finally called a friend to come and rescue me.  Thank God she was home watching grandchildren, because she doesn't have a cell phone
 
So the rest of the story is that I can go up the stairs, but not down. (Of course, there are two steps to navigate or negotiate with just to put the dogs out.)  I can't squat or get down on the floor.  So what do I do?  I drop almost everything I pick up.  (Getting good at touching  the floor without bending my knees.)  Getting off the, uh, throne, is tricky.  (Now I know why toilets are generally taller in the handicap stalls.)  Luckily, there is now a bed and a half bath downstairs, but I need/want a real shower and it is upstairs as part of a deep bathtub.

Last week in the middle of all this and way past bedtime, LA Dog starts shaking her head and frantically digging at her ears.  I'm trying to put medicine in her ears, but can't hold her because it hurts too much.  She jumps away and heads for the hills, er, cellar.  SPLASH.  She comes tearing back up the stairs spraying "water" everywhere.  She's soaking wet. (Um, really, really bad words.)  When I turned on the light to look there were even more bad words, because there was "water" clear over the bottom step.  So for two days we were without hot water because the water heater was sitting in sewage.  Luckily, the furnace was turned off because there were several inches of water in the bottom of it, too.


So, with everything J has missed roughly the equivalent of three days of work to help me, work on plumbing, and clean up the mess.

That, my friends, is the way our life usually is.  It is always something.

7 comments:

Barb said...

Oh my gosh!!! Where should I start!?

Having your daughter move is difficult enough, I guess they are always our babies... :0) So glad you got that task accomplished! And the white glove test . . . very impressive indeed!

The weather!! I can't believe that you only got to 51 degrees today - brrrrrr! I think we topped out at 59 degrees or something, I know it was ridiculously HOT (HEHEHEHEH)! Like you, I would love 2 days in a row of warm weather - I'm old and my body just isn't what it used to be!

Blogger! Yes, it's driving me crazy too - putting a cropped picture on my blog is still . . . interesting to say the least, and commenting is hit and miss. Aunt Amelia says it's sun spots (on the sun, not my face!).

Loved the pattern! I still think of you every time I go to a thrift shop or garage sale, and I still go through the patterns, just in case I find something I think you might like... :-)

Garden. Sounds like mine!

Knee and cat scratches! Ouch! Hope you get better very quickly, wish I could help... :-( I'm afraid we are looking at the no insurance thing too, kind of scary.

Flood! Stinky, messy, and, something that would definitely happen to me! I think this is where we can both say, "welcome to my life"!

You are in my prayers sweet friend!

Very Gentle Hugs,
Barb

Madeline's Album said...

I am so sorry to hear about all your troubles. I pray that you are getting better and that you have resolved all the bad luck. My prayers are with you. Have a blessed day. Madeline

Vee said...

Dear heavens! You have been through the wringer. Hope that all levels off and that you are on the mend...now don't wander off and do anything stupid...I mean, silly...I mean, be kind to yourself! Hope that your weather improves a whole bunch, too.

Trudy said...

Oh my goodness! I sure hope things get better for you soon.

Vee said...

That's one way to get me back in a hurry...thanking me for my funny comment. I think omigosh, what did I say now?! Thankfully, it wasn't too awful.

Adrienne said...

Ouch! That was painful to read. Really.

Have you got that knew taped up? It would probably help. I went through a bit of knee stuff last year and it's no fun.

I can't believe our peonies are just now thinking about blooming. That's only about a month late. Veggie garden? At least 3 - 4 weeks behind. I haven't even planted any basil (GOT to have basil) because it really needs heat. We may hit 80 something later this week.

I can't get caught up because of all the rain.

myletterstoemily said...

oh, you poor thing! you have really had
your hands full. 51??? our temp is twice
that. :) WE are having a bonafide heat
wave.