Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Oodah Lolly, Oodah Lolly

Golly what a day.

It all started at 4:30, when I had to get out of bed. 

You know it's going to be rough when getting out of bed at 4:30 is the high point of your day. 

So, I get out of bed at 4:30 and yes, at 4:35 I am scrubbing dog poop out of the carpet.  Rylea does this every 6 months or so.  She gets a stomach upset and has accidents in the house. It usually only lasts a couple of days, but it's no fun for either of us.

Then I went to work and worked my usual 9 hour day.  I left work and went straight to the dentist.  There was good news and bad news.  The good news is that he didn't see any sign of an abscess.  The bad news is, he thinks my wisdom tooth may be acting up.  If it is pressing against that nerve, it'll cause pain throughout my lower jaw, and up into my ear and down into my neck.  So, no root canal right now, but I have to look at the possibility of having to get that wisdom tooth cut out. 

I left the dentist and went to get my state inspection sticker, which was 4 months overdue.  The guy didn't inspect my Jimmy, but hey, everyone knows it's just another tax anyway.  Still, it's good to be legal. 

Once I'd done that, I went to Wal-mart to get a gallon of milk.  On the way, I noticed Jimmy was running hot again.  I got my milk and headed home, praying I'd get there.  I barely did.  Jimmy died just as I was turning it into my driveway.  I noticed that Mike and Dennise's van was next door, so I ran over to deliver the blankety blank cross stitch stitch, which was very well received. 

While I was there, I asked James to come look at my Jimmy.  Michael, bless his heart-- he means well, but he tends to go straight into worst-case-scenario-panic-mode.  He gets so spastic, that I can't even think when he's in that state.  I mean, he was calling around trying to find me a new motor, before we'd even figured out what the problem was.  Thank goodness, Dennise was ready to go home. 

Once they were gone, James and I figured out the problem-- the radiator was clogged up.  So I called a few auto parts houses-- did you get that?  I called, as in on the TELEPHONE!  I found a new radiator and he and I put it in.  I'm good to go.  Now, the important thing to remember is that I had gone straight from work into town, then straight over next door.  Which means, I hadn't eaten anything since lunch at 11:00 AM. 

So, finally, we got the new radiator in and leak checked.  Tired, hungry, dirty and sweaty, I went home and after

getting up at 4:30
working a 9 hour day
going to the dentist
getting an inspection sticker
going to Wal-mart
going to the auto part house
replacing a radiator
not eating for 8 1/2 hours

I get to clean up more doggie poop. 

Ain't life grand?

Monday, July 30, 2012

Music Monday

Training camp starts today!!!!

Friday, July 27, 2012

Fail

Prescription pain killer fail.

I should have known when she said the dentist was going to prescribe something mild.    Yeah, that should have been my first clue. 

Dear Dentist, I don't need something mild.  I need something that will knock this pain out so I can get some sleep, thankyouverymuch.

On the bright side, the antibiotics already seem to be having an effect, so maybe tonight I can get some sleep.


Exceeeept...

that tonight is the opening ceremony of the Olympics. 

Yeah, it's going to be another short night.  But the Olympics only come around every two years. 

Speaking of Olympics, I'll be doing heavy Olympic watching for the next 17 days, so expect light blogging. 


Oh, here comes the torch!  Gotta go.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Toofache

I finally decided that my toothache was something just a bit more than a sensitivity reaction.  I called the dentist this morning and got some antibiotics and painkillers.  Not sure what the pain killers are, but I had to show an ID to pick them up.

Does this mean I'm being disenfranchised? 

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Ten On Tuesday On Wednesday

Yesterday's Ten On Tuesday's topic was "Things I Love About Farmer's Markets". But, being that during growing season, I'm almost always at work on Saturday mornings (when they have the local farmer's market), I haven't been to one in ages. Because of that, I was thinking that I couldn't really do a post on that topic, since I don't really know what a farmer's market is like.

 I tried and tried to think of something else interesting to post, but I figured you really didn't want to hear about getting the oil changed in my Jimmy and mopping my bathroom floor.

But today, at work-- still thinking about the farmer's markets-- I remembered going to one as a child. And I remembered my parents buying a bushel of purple hull peas. And I remembered... Then suddenly, I knew I had a topic.
  
Ten Things From My Childhood That I Miss 

 And here they are, in no particular order:

1. Shelling Peas. As I said, for several summers, my parents would buy a bushel or two of purple hull peas. Sometimes we got them from a farmer's market. Sometimes someone brought them to us. But the fun part was, when the peas arrived, we all sat around in the living room shelling them, and my dad would tell us stories of the olden days. And we thought it was great fun. Which segues nicely into

2. Picking up and shelling pecans. My mammaw had six or seven big, huge pecan trees in her yard. I mean, these things were as big as an oak tree, and every Saturday in the fall, my dad would drive us over, and we'd pick up pecans. Mammaw would give us a Welch's grape juice can with the top cut out-- cautioning us to be careful and not cut ourselves on the rim-- and we'd run out into the yard and pick up pecans. Once we had our cans full, we'd bring them into the house and pour the pecans into a paper grocery bag. Remember them? Once we had enough pecans for the day, we'd go home and sit around the living room and shell them. And my dad would tell us stories of the olden days. And we thought it was great fun. When I was grown and had a home of my own, someone gave me a big bag of pecans. I so looked forward to shelling them, but didn't get very far into the job before thinking, "this is the pits!" But somehow, my dad had made it fun. He could make anything fun...like

3. Painting the house. One summer, we got out and we scraped the house, and we painted the house, and it was so much fun out there working with Daddy. It was the highlight of my summer that year. The next summer, I was so looking forward to painting the house again. Alas, I was totally crushed when Daddy told me we didn't need to paint the house every year. Sigh. But every year we did go

4. Picking Figs. Mammaw had four or five fig trees in her yard, and every Saturday afternoon, Dad would take us over there and we would pick figs. They were so juicy and sweet right off the tree. Even my dad would eat as many as he picked. Then we would take them home, and my mother would cook them down and make fig preserves out of them. Oh, I loved those homemade fig preserves.

5. June Floods. For a long time, every year in June or July, we would get some heavy rains and the end of our street would flood. See, we had this shallow, muddy waterway across the street from my house that went by the simple name of The Gully.
 

Yes, this really is my childhood street.  You can see the dead end and the gully at the top of the picture.  My house is the third from the right on the bottom of the street.  Did I mention that I love Google Earth?  But I digress...

At least once a year, the gully would overflow and the dead end of our dead end street would flood. We kids thought this was great fun playing in the water down there. But, when I was about 11 or 12, the city built up the street level, and the floods ended-- at least until Hurricane Ike came through. That was some bad news, but as a kid, I loved

6. Hurricanes. I was too young to understand the danger. To me, they were exciting and different. Taping up the windows, getting the hurricane lanterns ready. Cleaning up the yard. Dad would tump over the swingsets and everything that could blow away had to somehow be stuffed into our garage. My mother would clean the bathtub really well and fill it with water, so we'd have safe drinking water if we needed it. Oh, and the power outages! I loved the power outages. We'd all sit around by lamplight and tell stories and stuff. Kind of like they did in the old days. I kind of felt like Laura in a little house in the big

7. Woods. Behind my house there was some woods--about 9 or 10 acres worth.


The top street in this picture is my street.  The bottom street is Travis street.  The street in the middle wasn't there.  All that space between Sherrill and Travis streets was woods.


It was just about the perfect place for a kid to play. Those woods were big enough that you could feel like you were really out in the wilderness, but small enough that you couldn't get lost in them. We had camps, and trails, and tree houses, and I loved those woods. They were my safe place. Funny thing about those woods.  I had to ask permission to go next door, but I could play out in those woods all day long and never tell a soul.  But, my senior year in high school, someone bought that land, and put up a housing development. It broke my heart. Like having to give up

8. Halloween. Back in the day, before all this "If you observe Halloween, you're really worshiping Satan without realizing it" hoopla, Halloween was just another fun holiday. We knew we weren't worshiping the Devil.  We were just having fun, and back then, we had sense enough to know the difference.  To us, Halloween was a day to dress up and run around after dark. We were so seldom allowed outside after dark that I think this was the biggest appeal to me. And carving the pumpkin. And the Halloween carnival at Lorena Oats Elementary School. That was even more fun that Halloween itself. Except for the year my mother made me go through the spook house. That wasn't so much fun.

9.  Made for TV movies.  Yeah, they still make them, but now you have to subscribe to the right cable channels to get them.  They don't have the old ABC Monday Night At The Movies any more.  They made some good movies, too.  

10.  Galveston.  My dad told me once that the only vacation he remembered his family taking was to Galveston Island.  So that's where we went on our vacations.  Oh, we went to San Antonio one year, and on the Great Western Tour one year (I was 4 for that one, and am kind of surprised how well I remember that trip), but mostly we went to Galveston.  When I got a little older, my parents discovered that they could rent a cabin on Crystal Beach for the same cost as a hotel room in Galveston, so that's what we did from then on.  But we still went to the island at least once.  One of these days, when I can afford it, I'm going back. 

So that's it.  My list of things I miss from my childhood.  Really, I could go on and on, but the list is Ten on Tuesday, not a bazillion on Tuesday.  I hope you enjoyed reading my list, and I'd love to hear what some of your nostalgic memories are, too.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

One Of Those Days

That's what it's been. One of those days.

See, I have a little idiosyncrasy.

I have a tooth...well, I have several tooth, but one of the teeth I have is weird. It is sensitive to tea. Not herb tea, or hot tea, but plain old Southern iced tea will set it to aching for days.  Not all my teeth. Just the one.

 Yeah, I'm unique like that.

Lately, I've been trying to drink less Coke and replace it with tea, which I don't like anyway. But I figured that if I can learn to drink coffee after 40-someodd years, I can learn to drink tea, too. This is how I discovered my tooth's little quirk.

Well, yesterday I forgot. I brewed up a big ol' pitcher of tea and drank about half of it. I am paying for it, now. I didn't do much of anything today except lay around and be miserable.

I did manage to finish one repeat of my Traveling Roses scarf, but that was just too much thinking.

I knit on my garter rib scarf the rest of the day. Much more mindless. There was a rumor going around at work that last Saturday was going to be our last Saturday. However, that rumor proved to be untrue as we worked yesterday, too. Our production superintendent got fired Friday night. They haven't told us why, but there is all sorts of speculation. I won't go into any details, since I don't know yet what's true and what's not. That wasn't part of the big shakeup I wrote about a few days ago. That was totally unexpected and out of the blue. I do wonder, though, who they are going to get to replace him, and will he be any better. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Dear CoWorker

Why yes, yes I do have some Squeeze-a-nose pliers. And yes, you may borrow them. Provided, of course, that it is not my nose you intend to squeeze. At least, not with the pliers. Thank you. That is all.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

WIPs On Thursday

I know, I know. I'm supposed to do WIP updates on Wednesday, but it's been so long since I've done one, I'm surprised you remember that.

Anyway, now that the all consuming cross stitch is no longer consuming me, I can finally get back to my knitting, and my updating.  So, here we go!

 1.  Charity Scarf:  Completed!!  This project is why the update was delayed.  I was almost to the end, and wanted to finish it last night, but just couldn't make it.  Then, by the time I decided to set it aside, it was so late that all I wanted to do was to go to bed.  So, that's what I did.  I finished the scarf this afternoon. 


2.  Arwen Wrap: No progress


3.  The 2010 Anniversary Mystery Shawl.   No progress


4. Conwy sockNo progress this week



5. Traveling Roses Scarf:
No progress this week.



6. Garter Rib Scarf:
No progress.



7. Fruit Of The Vine 
scarf: Ditto.



8. Orkney Pi Shawl
No progress



9.  Leper bandage:
This is my new waiting project.  When I'm on my excruciatingly slow desktop and I'm waiting 20 years for a page to load, I pick it up and knit a row or two. 


10 & 11. The two sock yarn blankies.
No new squares this week.


I did cast on one new project-- the only one for this year, believe it or not.  So, now I'm back up to 12.

12.  Anniversary Mystery Shawl 2012


I've only done through the first clue, and a couple of rows on clue 2.

So, that's the update for this week. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find something to knit on.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Ten On Tuesday

This week's topic:

Ten Everyday Things That Make You Happy.

1.  Jesse--Well, Rylea and the cat, too, but there's just something about Jesse that just makes me smile.



2.  My flowers

3.  Candles-- especially the kind that smell like Christmas.

4.  Yarn, and yarn stores, and having enough money to buy it.

5.  Ice Cream, particularly chocolate

6.  Old Hymns

7.  Flannel jammies on a chilly day

8.  Quitting time--this goes without saying

9.  Books

10.  Chocolate Milk-- I can't get to sleep unless I've had my chocolate milk.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Music Monday

Normally, I find that whole flash mob craze kind of annoying, but this one is really cool.  It's my favorite Beethoven, too.  

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Modesty

With summer in full swing, and clothes becoming more and more...well, less, I think it's time to give this video another run.  



Call me old fashioned.  Call me out of touch.  Call me a prude bluenose, goody goody.  Call me what you will, but I believe Christian women should be modest. 

Yeah, it's up to them to control their lust, but it's up to us to help them do that.  Our men struggle enough in our sex saturated society.  And Christian women can be as bad as any of them. 

When I see girls --and these days, even grown women-- come to church wearing no bra and a dress that looks a lot like a teddy bear nightie, then you expect men to

1) Not look
2) Respect you
3) Notice you for your mind and not your body

well, then that just places them under a tremendous burden.  Men are hard wired to look.  It's in their nature, and when women dress in such a revealing and provocative manner, that's exactly what they are going to do.

Think about it this way, how would you feel if a man took you to Bloomingdale's or Macy's and expected you not to even look at the merchandise? When you walk around nearly naked and expect them not to look, it's a lot like that. 

It's hard enough to be a Christian in today's world.  Let's not make this any more difficult than it already is.

Let's be the modest women the Bible calls us to be. 

Friday, July 13, 2012

Flowers on Friday

Unless you've been living under a rock, you will know that it has been very hot lately.  How hot?  So hot that my Four O'Clocks haven't been opening until 9:30.

But with the rain we've been getting these last few days, it's cooled off considerably this week.  I walked out this evening and found a Four O'Clock open.  And it was only 7:30.


And for your viewing pleasure, some more photos of my flowers.

I'm not sure what this is.  It was in that packet of wildflower mix seeds that I planted.  I think it's some sort of sunflower, but I don't really know.  I like it, though.  I'm going to try to collect the seeds so I can plant some again next year.


Zinnias and Marigolds


Verbena

Another Four O'Clock


And the ubiquitous petunias.


I think next year, I'm not going to put any petunias in the ground, just in pots.  The ones in the pots are doing so much better.

Things are still up in the air at work...that is, no official announcement has been made.  However, the rumor mill is operating at full capacity.  Oh, don't worry.  As far as I know, nobody's job is on the line.  There has just been some rearranging in some of the management positions. I'll be sure to keep you updated as things develop.

Finally, I think I'm going to have to take my hit counter off of my blog.  It's almost depressing how few hits my blog gets these days.  I'm sure some of it is due to the use of feed readers, but that's not all of it.  I think it's because I'm one of those persons that, no matter how nice I try to be, people just don't like me.  I don't know what it is.  Maybe I'm too dull.  Maybe I just rub people the wrong way.

Maybe it's because I have so little tolerance for the stupidity that is so prevalent in society these days. 

Or maybe it's because I have such a difficult time being two-faced.  I'm not one of those people who can smile and be all friendly to your face, then talk about how much I hate you behind your back.  If I hate you, I'm going to hate you to your face.

Anyway, no matter.  I have discovered one thing, though.  The posts are so much easier to write when the TV is kept off all day.

The good news is, football starts next month!

Life!  Life!  Give my creation life!!!

OK, I think that means it's time for bed...

Or my medication.  One of the two.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Changes

If the rumors I'm hearing are true, there has been a pretty big shakeup at work.  I don't want to say too much until it's confirmed, though.  Let's just say that the all suck ups are going to have to start over...

Short post tonight.  I only have four row left on the blankety blank cross stitch, and I want to get them done. 

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

So Close

I can almost taste it.

But it'll have to wait. There's a bed and a book calling my name.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Tuesday Troubles

Well, today certainly didn't go as I had planned.

I'd taken half day of vacation-- to get some stuff done is what I told myself.  The real reason is that my CDO won't allow me to leave a half day on the books.  So I took it.

What is CDO,  you may ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  CDO is like OCD, but with the letters in alphabetical order the way they should be.

So, I had taken half a day of vacation.  Looking forward to my afternoon off.  I didn't even pack a lunch, because I was going to come home and eat lunch.

Buuuuut...

About 9 AM, Ronnie-- the shift supervisor-- comes running up to me and says, "Do you really have to leave today?"

"Well, no, I don't have to," I say. 

He begs me to stay because one of the other brazers had gotten sick and he didn't have enough brazers to cover for me and all the ones who were already out, either sick or on vacation. 

"Normally, I would never even ask, but I'm in such a bind," he said.  He even offered to give me a dollar to buy something to eat.  But nah, I had some change in my pocket.

I ended up working all cay, but now I still have that half day on the books.

CDO is kicking in...


I don't know what it is lately.  Maybe it's because he's recently graduated.  Maybe because next month he'll be heading off to college, but I've had another of those dreams where Cody is little again.  They make me think of all the things I did wrong when he was growing up.  All the things I didn't know.  All the things I wish now that I'd done differently.

It kind of cracks me up when people who don't even really know me say, "Oh, but you did a good job."  I want to ask them, "How do you know?  Were you there?  Did you see all the stuff I did bad?"

He turned out OK, but that was only through the grace of God, not because of anything I did.



Monday, July 09, 2012

I'm Plumb Tuckered


This is about how I've been feeling lately.  I'm just so tired.  Peak season is like that.

This evening, for example.  I didn't get my soup heated up enough.  I was too tired to get up and put it back into the microwave, so I ate it cold.  Peak season is like that.

The good news is, peak season is almost over.   We might start getting a few Saturdays off.

The bad news is, peak season is almost over.  We might go back to 4 day work weeks.  That's never good, but this year, I've managed to hang on to 14 of my vacation days.  I should be set. 

Friday, July 06, 2012

Tomatoes

If I suddenly turn red, you'll know why.


Yes, that's cherry tomatoes in the bowl. 

Thursday, July 05, 2012

Just Pictures

Going back to work the day after a holiday for some reason always seems like a Monday on steroids.  So today's post will be brief.

First up cross stitch progress.  I'm really, finally, almost through!  


Funny thing, though. I went to leave feedback on the seller's ebay site. I was going to say how it was way overpriced for a graphic copped from the internet and plugged into an unregistered chart generating program, and that had obviously not been proofread or test stitched, and how if it wasn't for a charity project, I wouldn't have bought it, etc. etc... But when I got there, all the seller's items had been removed. I wondered if she got busted for copyright violations. I wouldn't doubt it.

The good news is, the marigolds I thought were going to die are putting out new growth!


This is just one, but all three look like they might recover.  Thanks for the tip, Cyndye.  Next year, I'll know a whole lot more about gardening than I do now.

These are just random pictures of flowers.  



Aren't they pretty?

Finally, Cody has gone off to college orientation.  This is the second one.  I think they have one more before classes actually start.  Boy have times changed.  When I went to college for my freshman year, we just showed up a week early.

As he was pulling out in his truck, I had to fight the urge to run after him, bring him back home, and say, "Don't grow up so fast.  Come back!  Be little again."

But I didn't.

I just waved and said what moms always say...

"Drive fast and take chances!  Use your road rage if you have to!"


Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Introverts

In case you hadn't guessed, yes I am an introvert.

Being an introvert is not a disease, so don't try to cure me of it.  It's not a defect or a disability, so don't try to help me get over it.

Just accept me as I am.

In case you don't quite know how to deal with introverts, here are a few handy rules to help you understand us.


Thank you, That is all.

Sunday, July 01, 2012

Too Much Adventure

I'd gotten a flier from Lowe's.  They had mulch on sale-- four bags for $10.  So yesterday after work, I jumped into the Jimmy and headed to Batesville.

On the way there, I noticed Jimmy was running a little hot.  At first I thought it was just because it's been over 100 degrees these last few days, but I'd made sure to top up the radiator before leaving the house.  By the time the needle got into the red, I knew something was wrong.

I wasn't sure I'd even make it to Batesville, but by turning the heater on (yes, I know) full blast, I was able to draw enough heat off of the engine to get there.

My initial thought was that the thermostat was sticking again.  I'd been though this before.  But never before had a stuck thermostat caused all my antifreeze to spill out onto the parking lot.  That kind of made me think a radiator hose had come loose or busted or something.

I went inside and called Beverly, and she tracked down Mike and sent him up to fetch me.  In the meantime, I wandered all over Lowe's, and I think some of the employees were starting to look at me a little bit sideways.  I told one of them what was going on, and that I was waiting on someone to come up from Grenada, and she told me I could sit in one of the patio pagoda displays.

In the meantime, I carried on a text conversation with my friend Kyle, so I didn't get too bored.

Mike and Dennise got there, and Dennise and the girls went inside Lowe's while Mike and I tried to figure out what was wrong.  We started the Jimmy and drove around the parking lot, but we couldn't find any sort of a leak.  Mike decided there wasn't enough water left in my radiator to build up pressure, so we drove -- in his van-- across the street to Walmart and bought some water.

We filled it up, and let the engine idle for a long time.  We just about decided it had been a freak thing when suddenly, the pressure built up and water started shooting out of the overflow hose.

I didn't know until that moment that I had an overflow hose.

It's the thermostat, Mike declared, confirming what I had first suspected.

About the same time, we heard a crashing and a banging.  A semi was driving through the Lowe's parking lot and hit one of the Lowe's delivery trucks.  Of course, Mike had to go get right in the middle of that.  I went back inside to cool off.

Well, Mike called James, and he said to just pull the thermostat out, seal it up with some high temperature silicone and drive on home.  But, since we had to go to an auto parts store to get the silicone, we just picked up a new thermostat.  OK, Mike sent Dennise to go get it, while we stayed in the parking lot. 

It didn't take long for Dennise to get back with the thermostat, and Mike to get it installed.   As soon as he pulled the old one out, it was obvious that it was the problem.

Finally, after three hours, Jimmy was fixed, and I was able to go get my mulch.  Because, after all I'd been through, by golly, I wasn't leaving without that mulch.


Now, y'all got to remember that all this took place after I'd worked an 8 hour shift in the factory.  By the time I got home, I was plumb knackered.  Needless to say, the mulch stayed in the back of the Jimmy until today.

I did get out-- at 9:30 -- and plant the new marigold I bought to replace the one that died.


Cyndye had suggested that my other marigolds might be a bit root bound, so I dug them up at the same time.  I gently broke up the root ball, and used my garden claw, which is like the best invention since bacon and chocolate-- to loosen the soil in the holes.  I replanted them and gave them a good watering.

This morning, I don't know.  They seemed to have better color, even though they are still a bit bedraggled.  We'll just have to wait and see if they survive.



I got out this afternoon and got some mulch in my front flower bed, finally.


And I spread two bags in the back flower bed, and gave it a much thicker layer.


But then, I got hot and decided to spread the last bag tomorrow evening.

Whatever this is is finally blooming.  It looks almost like a mini sunflower, but I don't think that's what it is.


 It's something that was in that wildflower mix I planted.  Anybody know what it is?