Another balmy day

It's 11 p.m. and it's still in the mid-50s. Alan and I should go for a walk. Nah!

I've been having too much trouble walking around the house today, let along trying to maneuver around the snow mounds that are still around. 18 inches of snow doesn't disappear during the first warm day.

I tried working the New York Times crossword puzzle today. I was able to work two of them this week. Alan somehow got a "free" subscription to the NYT (not a paper I endorse or enjoy reading) so I've been trying to do the crosswords. Well, I just couldn't do them today. I guess my brain was disengaged or something.

It's been a day of low concentration ability for me.

Alan got all the trash out today -- lots of boxes and lots of bags. Since the garage was frozen we didn't worry about getting the frozen bags into the dumpster, but with the weather warming up, it was time to get them out of here. I think there were 10 bags of trash, not all garbage as I've been disposing it in the garbage disposal (GD)a lot more than I used to.

There's a long story connected with why I hadn't been using my garbage disposal and I don't feel like rehashing it here. Let me just say, lesson learned. If you have a cheap (inexpensive, builder installed) disposal, don't try to grind up potato peelings, they clog up the whole thing and and drains. I never had such trouble with any GD before I moved here and I figured out it's because we always bought the best Sears had to offer.

Well, I've really got to get in touch with a few of my friends from whom I haven't heard since before Christmas. So, TTFN.

What a lovely day

Here in Northern Kentucky it's a balmy 37 degrees -- it's that WARM that Alan said I wouldn't need a coat when I went outside. I guess we're getting used to the cold. It does feel warm today. The porch got up to 82 degrees. My office is 75 degrees, and usually it's 65 degrees even with a small heater going 24/7.

Well, the roofers came today to inspect the wet spot on our living room ceiling. They can't get up there to check it out or fix it because the roof is still covered with snow. Maybe next week. It's supposed to rain on Saturday. Hopefully that spot has been there for a long while and I just haven't noticed it, and when they fixed our roof after Hurricane Ike went through, it really did fix the leak. Well, when it rains, I'll find out.

Health wise? Alan is in bad shape today. His eye (he went to the surgeon today) is not healing as quickly as it should, and so they can't give him a prescription for glasses, so he's still seeing out of only one eye. The new cornea eye he can see from, but not real well. His back is also bothering him a lot.

As of me, I woke up feeling like I was starting another flare-up because sleeping during the night was so painful all over. I did get some sleep, but not a lot. And after I took my pill, I started feeling better. Thing is, I took one of those pills just before I went to bed. So what happened? I don't know, but I've gotten quite a bit accomplished today, and I'm very happy about that.

Our neighbor has offered to help Alan clear out the garage so we can get the car into it. I'm not holding my breath. Alan doesn't see the need to clear out the garage. I on the other hand see it as a fire hazard. But, what do I know?

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Sunporch

I was out on the sunporch today for about one hour just sitting and looking at the snow which is melting very slowly. Today is another cold day -- right now it's only 16 degrees outside.

It never ceases to amaze me that the porch can be so toasty while just past the windows it's so cold. The floor of the porch is really decking and without the "rugs" I have out there the cold air would seep up and make the room a lot colder.

I recall as a child that on sunny, winter days I would go out on the back porch -- which was unheated and got only the heat the sun provided on cold days -- and played school. Dad had put up a blackboard. It was a nice size. I had an old school desk. You know the kind that has an inkwell hole in the right-hand corner, and the seat that goes up and down on hinges? Ours had a back seat and a front seat. In front of the front seat was a children's table. There was also a bookshelf out there where I was able to "store" my "supplies". We didn't have Rubbermaid containers back then, so I had a box in which my supplies were stored.

I think my father was happy I was playing teacher and school all the time. He was a teacher, at heart, and his teaching was something I wish I had appreciated more when I was younger. It wasn't until I was in my late 20s, away from home, thirsting for teaching from the Bible, that I realized what a treasure my father really was.

I must say that I have rarely heard Bible teaching as in depth and thought provoking as my father's teaching. He would give the background to almost every word in the text, whether it was Hebrew or Greek. He knew both. And while I found that rather boring as a youngster, today I recall a lot of his teaching including the Hebrew and Greek sources he quoted.

If anyone ever says to me, why teach a child anything from the Bible, I retort and say, "Because when he is older he will remember it." And that is so true. I remember the things I learned from my father, and other teachers in that small church he pastored, and I know I am not alone because several of my long-ago friends are still able to quote verses we all learned in Sunday school when we were 7 or 8, or even younger, and I can still talk about my father's preaching and they concur and will say, "Remember when your father said ....." or "Remember when you father said ....".

So you see, the sun porch is a place of reminiscing and remembrance for me, and I know I've bored you with this before, but I'm getting old and boring people is something I'm allowed to do, because that's what old people do -- they become repetitive to the point of boredom. Sorry 'bout that!

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It's back!

Well, some of the snow melted, then refroze, leaving us with a four-inch coating of ice around our car. All that snow I pushed off the car apparently puddled and didn't run off and so we have this ice. We did finally get our salt bucket, though. So now, I can at least salt the ice occasionally.

Alan is out and it is SNOWING so hard right now I can barely see the building across the street. They say we're going to get snow at a rate of one inch plus per hour for the next few hours. And i can tell it's sticking already. I'm praying Alan will get back okay.

My home was cleaned today, and I spent some time with my wonderful aide telling her what I had been doing a toothbrush, and we pondered over how to get the stains out of the flooring. We think we have a solution and I'll work on it just as she did today. Hopefully between the two of us we'll get the stained floor looking like new.

Frankly, I would love to have new tile put in there. When you move into a new place and you can pick and choose what you want, how do you really know what you want? I checked out floors for a couple of months and thought I knew what I wanted, but now that I have it, I want to get rid of it. What I really want is those small glass tiles that come in all kinds of colors and I would get them in a mix of sea green, aqua, off white, etc. But I don't think that's going to happen. Alan doesn't see the need for an unstained floor. He knows it's clean, just stained.

I also discovered today that we have or had a leak in our roof. When Ike hit we lost several shingles, but not the entire roof, and they came in a few days and repaired the roof by replacing the lost shingles. Well, apparently they must have miss a few because the stain in the ceiling in the living room is now visible (it wasn't a couple of weeks ago) and I think it's because of the snow and ice pulling on the unrepaired part of the roof. Well, it's Association's problem, not mine. That's something that's covered in our annual fee.

I'm feeling weird today. Not hurting, but funny. Maybe I need a nap. I think that's what I'll do now, take a nap.

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It's melting

Well, after one week of being "housebound" I finally went out yesterday. It did get up to almost 50 degrees and a lot of melting occurred. I started working on my car, certain I would find that the roof was crushed with all that snow and ice on it. The roof and hood were fine.

My driveway was and is still a sheet of ice, so I took the walker and carefully walked with a broom in hand to the car and started working on rhe snow removal. I used the broom and broom handle as far as I could reach from my "stance" to remove the snow and ice and got the mix off the hood and part of the roof, as well as the driver side doors. Then my back was hurting really bad, so I went inside, figuring I'd return to the job in a couple of hours after I laid flat for a while.

Low and behold a nice man, whom I don't know, came over and finished the job for me. His name was "Bob" -- that's all he would tell me. He was visiting his daughter who lives across the street. He wasn't happy at the way my drive and walkway were not salted and that walking on them was very treacherous even for him. Oh, well.

Tonight I will get to the driver's door of my car, put my scrapbooking supplies (minimal) into the car and go to the clubhouse and have a great time with "my ladies" while we scrapbook. I'm going to make cards instead of pages, that is, if I get the chance. Usually, I'm so busy "teaching" that I don't get a chance to do any scrapping.

I have it fixed so that all the "big" items are already at the clubhouse. I put duplicates of everything into the scrapbook clubs bin and we just pull it out and use those cutters, pens, papers, punches, etc.

I'm looking forward to tonight and getting to talk to someone other than Alan, bless his heart. He had a really bad night -- his back. I finally got him to the recliner where the pressure was relieved and he was able to sleep.

I thought I'd be hurting a lot today because of the cleaning effort from yesterday, but I'm not. Yeah! And I put more boxes in the attic, the ones I was avoiding moving because they were the really heavy ones, but the mess is really getting to me. I still have to put my snowmen away -- procrastinating on that one.

So I'm moving on now to get this day's "chores" finished before I leave for some fun!

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I'm still looking

Looking for my piece of the pie that was promised to all Americans when the new administration was put in POWER! I read through that whole stimulus bill (HR1) that Congress passed earlier this week, and there is nothing, nada for which I qualify. Bummer.

So, I'll move on, knowing that I'll have to pay for any cruise I take myself, knowing I'll have to purchase my own food, knowing that my condo fees are not covered by the stimulus, and knowing that anything I put in the bank will probably disappear or be gobbled up by the original bailouts of the banks.

Knees -- better, small ouch.
Back -- small ouch
Fibro -- very ouchy
Activity: I won't talk about the activity I did this a.m., but let me say it was with a toothbrush, in the bathroom, but not on my teeth.

All laundry is folded and mostly put away. I'm working on scrap-booking today. Concepting my pages ready for the Stamper grandchildren album, and gluing the pictures from the tea last August into that album -- it was concepted last August and all set up, but I never put glue to picture to paper. I don't really use glue, I use tape runners which mean you can never remove the picture after they set -- in about 5 minutes.

Recipe from last night, which was delicious:

Two pork chops, boneless (but you could use bone-in chops)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1-1/2 cups bow tie pasta
1 cup peas

In frying pan drizzle 1/4 cup olive oil. Heat the pan and while the pan is heating, sprinkle all around garlic salt and seasoned salt. When the pan is hot, put in the two chops (or however many you need for your family -- actually two chops was too much for Alan and me) and let them cook on that side for two minutes, then turn them over and reduce the heat in the pan to low. The residual heat will give them nice color on the bottom side and will slow down the process.

Next get your pasta ready. Boil enough water for 1-1/2 cups of pasta -- I usually use a 4 quart pot -- and when the water comes to a boil add the pasta, a teaspoon of salt, and the peas. Yes cook the peas with the pasta.

While the bow ties are cooking, move the chops either to the side of the pan or to a plate, add the heavy cream and cheese, use a whisk to mix them together and get the pan drippings into the sauce. Put the chops back in. Turn the heat up to medium and bring the cream to a simmer, then reduce the heat back to low. Stir occasionally.

Drain the pasta and peas. Once again remove the chops, and take out 1/4 of the cream mixture. Put the pasta and peas into the cream mixture and stir so that all the pasta is covered. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Cut the meat, spoon some of the sauce you kept back over the meat, and plate the pasta. I had enough pasta/peas/cream sauce left over for another meal, but I put it in the freezer, so I can have it in a week or so.

Served with a greens salad, my mama's dressing.

I'm telling you, it was so very good. I'm going to put that meal into my "guest" meal recipe file.

Dessert? Left over lemon pound cake with a dollop of lemon curd on top.

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I wonder if I can get some stimulus money

Let's see. I'm not an illegal alien. So I don't qualify on that count.

I don't approve of the work Acorn does, so I don't qualify on that count.

My art work wouldn't be accepted by the National Endowment for the Arts. So I don't qualify there.

I like to spend money. I do qualify there.

My bank isn't on the TARP list, so I don't qualify there.

I have no children that would qualify for free health care. So, I don't qualify there.

I do qualify for medicare -- but that's not in the stimulus package. Go figure.

I do collect social security -- but that's not in the stimulus package.

Given what I've read of the bill, I wouldn't qualify for any stimulus money. So Mr. Obama is doing nothing to help me. He isn't paying my mortgage. He isn't increasing my SS payments. He did increase the amount of the medicare payment I have to meet each month in order to qualify for medicare, and for which there is no choice. Bet you didn't know you have to PAY money to medicare even if you're qualified for the benefits, which I still haven't figured out how to collect.

Enough.

The good news is, I did get all the paper packed up, so I'm down to three boxes of CM supplies and all those boxes will be put in the attic and pulled out whenever someone says they would like something. I still have lots of small albums (8x8) and papers for those albums. I reduced the 12x12 papers to about 1/2 box, the other 1/2 is papers I see using in my grandchildren albums. I have a few large albums left, which I probably will never use. So, please let me know.

So far I've had one taker, and you know who you are.

And, I finished packing up the Christmas decorations. All that's left to box up are the snowmen.

I also folded all the unfolded laundry and did two loads of what, only one of which has to be folded. It's still drying.

The knees? Ouch!
The back? Ouch!
The shoulder? Double ouch!

Otherwise, all is well!



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