It rained off and on all day. It was a good day for a movie and a nap.
Rudbeckia in the rain
I worked inside on woodcarving Christmas Ornaments. 26 are completely done. The rain held us hostage in the house most of the day.
Chance is very depressed, he laid outside in the rain for quite a while. He misses his friends. It always takes him a day or three to get over their visit and be content with his two old fogies.
We had company for the day, Jen and Andy came because it was a nice day to be out and about. They brought Miney and Little Elvis so Chance had company too…and it really perked him up to see his favorite people and his friends.
We went out for late lunch /early supper and then talked my other baby brother and she who sees robins first into a pontoon ride.
The lake was quiet. It was cloudy and cooler. I was thankful that I grabbed a hooded jacket.
Toward the end of our ride we saw a couple of loons. The daylight was fading fast.
No hope to see the Perseid Meteor Showers during the night because of the clouds. I heard that grandson Adam saw quite a few Friday night. At 200 an hour you are bound to see quite a few if you have clear skies.
It was a long day yesterday. Chance had his bloodwork, everything is fine except he has some inflamation that shows up. (probably from arthritis…go figure.) His Tick Panel was negative. They changed his medication. He got me up at 5:30 AM because he had to poop….not quite the squirts but almost….thank goodness he was vocal enough to awaken me. He was under the weather most of the morning but perked up in the late afternoon and even wanted to play ball.
Far Guy had a Eye Doctor appointment he needs new glasses for reading and night driving. His eyes are pretty good for an old guy. What cataracts he has are small and the cute little teenage Doctor said he will probably never have to have cataract surgery. He has been struggling with a stye…well it is not a stye it is a chalazion…and now he must clean his eyelashes twice a day with special “stuff.” The VA is supposed to take care of his glasses but since the VA Doctor wrote the order incorrectly he gets no benefit…which really pissed him off.
I am waiting for a referal for my hand/arm. I even wore the brace when I had a nap. If I take enough Aleve I can survive.
It was my turn to cook supper, so we had Naan Bread Pizza. Far Guy likes lots of mushrooms and peppers on his, I like mine plain with just meat and cheese.
After supper we went for a drive. We saw nine deer.
Twins with their mama vegging out in the bean field
I have been having some troubles with my arm, carpel tunnel problems. I have been to physical therapy and was fitted for a night time brace. It worked fine for many months and I was pain free. Now the pain is back and not allowing me to sleep for very long at a time. Brace or no brace it is still painful. We thought perhaps I was wood carving too much, but after three days off it is no better…my fingers go numb and the pain goes all the way to my shoulder. So I am off to physical therapy once again. Bummer…the brace is a pain in the butt. I have knocked myself in the head many times with it. ( It is hard plastic and is formed to the shape of my hand and arm so I cannot bend my wrist at all.) I can also remove the brace in the middle of the night without waking up…it might be time to schedule the surgery. Far Guy gives me a daily brace report..it was on. it was off. you were sleeping with your arm in the air again. where was your brace? (Chance had it one night…it was on his back)
I have many projects that I am working on…I am painting some of the Christmas Ornaments, I have 12 more to carve from scratch and about 6 that just need to be sanded. Three more afternoons and I could be done with the carving.
I have two new hobbies/projects that require two good arms. I have ordered supplies for one and the other I have most everything. But that is hobby “stuff”…
I have “stuff” that I have been working on outside that needs to be done before the snow flies. I just don’t have time to baby an arm.
We had lotza company, many little kids (five that were five years old and under). Mostly they were gentle and gave soft pats and hugs.
Hugs
Then there was a tag team of huggers.
Could someone save me?
Far Side saved me, she said I was a good boy and very patient.
This week I have an appointment at the Vets. I have to have a blood draw whatever that is. Sometimes I spit out that pill I get twice a day…eat the cheese but spit out the pill then I get some peanut butter. I have figured it out!
I am walking better, I am not wobbly and falling down like I was…rest and the new medication brought me back…that and lots of love! I still sleep soundly and often, but I am an old dog. I am not allowed to jump out of the car by myself. Far Side has strips of towel that she slips under my belly and she holds my back end up as I jump down. Coming down the steps they use the harness that I hate or they stand at the bottom and help guide my descent. Good thing it is only half a stairway (six steps)…I could not make it down a whole flight of steps. I can make it up the steps unassisted just not down them.
That address was Far Guy parent’s address from the late 1940’s when the house was brand new until they sold it in 1994.
You can go home again, but it is different. A few weeks ago I took outside photos.
It is called “The Cottage” and it is a place for people with disabilities to meet with their counselors. The property was always zoned commercial since it is right along the highway.
Yesterday we stopped by to see if we could take some photos to share with Far Guy’s sister and of course the blog too.
The gal was very friendly and invited us right in. This is taken from the back deck, no one ever used the front door. It seemed strange that you could walk right in…the porch used to be there…with a box for boots, a pencil sharpener and a closet where the broom and the dustpan was kept along with the garbage can and the ever present bag on a hanger that held the clothes pins. You used to enter the kitchen from that old porch.
The old closet.
The kitchen. The cabinets that are solid oak have been painted white. The sink is still the same old one. They added a dishwasher. The stove is in the same spot as is the refrigerator. The old porch door used to open into the kitchen and there was room for a table and chairs….the space seemed so small now.
We wondered if the old phone cubby was still there.
Phone cubby. You had to stand here and talk on the phone…it was a black phone and had a short cord. Underneath the phone was a stand that held…the phone book and a set of encyclopedias. Now it is a cubby for artwork. All the trim that is now painted back in the day was natural wood trim that was varnished.
Far Guy’s parents old bedroom, just room enough for a full size bed, a cedar chest, a tall chest of drawers and a dressing table with a large mirror and a padded bench. On that dressing table was a box that opened up and it contained jewelry that Trica and Jennifer were facinated with.
The bathroom. The toilet is where the bath tub used to be. The doorway was made wider to be handicap accesible.
The Living Room. That love seat has the “Christmas Tree Spot” and I noticed that Far Guy’s Moms touch is still in the house…her fancy light switchplates are still there.
A hanging lamp is still hung in the living room…just a different one.
The Dining Room looking back out the way we came in.
We ventured upstairs. They just use the two bedrooms up there for storage. The ceilings have been redone. The stairs are still the same and so is the old railing upstairs…but a new hand rail has been added to assist the climb upwards.
So much for our trip down memory lane this week. We think it is great that this home was updated and that it is being used again. “The Cottage” is a perfect name for it.
The carpet used to be a two tone gold color, before that Far Guy says it was a grey color. The kitchen and hallway used to have linoleum, the bedrooms had hardwood floors.
Relatives on my side of the family have an autoimmune disorder called Celiac Disease or Celiac sprue. When you have the disease you are very sensitive to gluten. When you eat gluten you may have a variety of symptoms; bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation or vomiting. There are about 200 different symptoms.
My Dad was diagnosed in about 1999. In retrospect his brother Adolf most likely died from it in 1998. My Aunt Anna was diagnosed a number of years ago about the same time as Cousin Geraldine.
My sister Julie has been diagnosed with it and her son Jacob who not only has the gluten intolerance but a dairy intolerance also.
Our youngest daughter Jennifer was diagnosed about two weeks ago.
Cross contamination in kitchens, the same spatula used to flip a pancake and then used to flip your egg can cause you to become ill. Using the same toaster for regular bread and then gluten free bread. If someone in your family has Celiac then you are better off having the whole household go gluten free.
From the Celiac Foundation:
When people with celiac disease eat gluten (a protein found in wheat, rye and barley), their body mounts an immune response that attacks the small intestine. These attacks lead to damage on the villi, small fingerlike projections that line the small intestine, that promote nutrient absorption. When the villi get damaged, nutrients cannot be absorbed properly into the body.
Celiac disease is hereditary, meaning that it runs in families. People with a first-degree relative with celiac disease (parent, child, sibling) have a 1 in 10 risk of developing celiac disease.
So far I have escaped this disease. I do not eat certain foods…pancakes which I love but rarely eat. There are also certain places I do not eat…some resturaunts are worse than others…some must not be as clean as my system likes. Here at home I adhere to a clean side and dirty side of the kitchen and if they meet, then everything gets disinfected. I also have a limited amount of fru fru on my kitchen counters.
Sometimes flowers are best left to where they grow and bloom. These Daylilies are growing over at my brothers along the edge of the road and they have a perfect tree backdrop.
Our days have been cool and our nightime temperatures are fall like….really unusual for August. Somtimes it is too cool to have the windows open!
I finished two bunches of woodcarved Christmas ornaments that are headed to Oregon and New Jersey later this week. The count is 60 ready to paint, 12 painted, and a few more to carve.
Four of my baby brothers grandchildren that have been visiting. We met three of these children for the first time, the oldest we had met before when he made his first trip to Minnesota a few years ago. They sure do liven things up. They thought my request to line up on a pile of dirt was great fun! (They were all supposed to be saying cheeese!)
The oldest caught his first fish today, but the motion of the boat put him to sleep so he missed it. Up until the fish today, they have just caught weeds….but they were thrilled with that too!
My Baby Brother and his wife hosted the first annual rendevous at their lake cabin. Their cabin was supposed to be finished, but it is way behind schedule, last week it got a roof and shingles. We made good use of the kitchen that is not a kitchen yet and the porch and the garage. Everyone brought lawn chairs and we sat them up in the “kitchen”.
The porch
Many relatives showed up, it was about 72 F and partly sunny so it was a good day on the lake.
The food was fantastic, my brother did hamburgers, hot dogs and corn on the cob on his wood fired grill. It was potluck so there was many salads and chips and special treats from Germany and Japan. We were missing only a few people. (Trica, Katie and Ben). My baby brother had five of his grands there and my other baby brother had ten of his there, only one of our grands showed up and that was Noah.. Lots of “little ones.”
No one went away hungry and if they did it was their own fault. I took potato salad…my usual go to pot luck food when I have time to cook potatoes and eggs.
I am going to focus on sunny thoughts.
1. My husband is in the kitchen cooking. He will be baking eggs in cupcake cups inside a muffin tin. He says we should call it a cupcake tin. Soon he will ask me for some direction..yup… am I done with the eggs? “Yes.” Next he will ask me how much milk? Nope… he must have guessed. ( He just decided I was cranky.) His Doctor wants him to eat more protein…and eggs are one thing he can add to his diet…I suggested yogurt too.
2. Chance is good for today, he pooped and peed and drank some water and waited for his pill to be wrapped in cheese. Don’t we all wish our pills could be wrapped in something yummy.
3. The phone rang and I didn’t have to answer it. It was BBW asking us to supper…hot dogs and smores. (Baby Brother’s Wife)
4. The weather is lovely… sunny and 70 F…just perfect.
5. I have the potatoes and eggs cooked up for another installment of potato salad.
Well that’s about it for today. Five sunny thoughts…any more would be a stretch of my imagination.
I have a happy place. It is a place where I have my camera and some time on my hands.
I was thrilled to see this field in sunflower rotation again.
Getting ready for the big show!
Bees in flight!
Another car drove by and parked. A lovely young woman asked me to take her photo in the field…she had to show me how to work her camera phone…as you recall I don’t do phones.
She appreciated the sunflower field as much as I did. We chatted away for a while. She is a Senior with one semester left at UND. She has a phone in her camera but she and her Mom are Nikon people…she also takes photos with film. Her name was Rebecca. I told her about our Grandson Noah attending UND and moving into an apartment almost on campus. She said she wished she had lived closer to campus and that she should have attended all the events that are set up the first week of school for students to make friends and get aquainted. She was excited about finishing her last semester and then going to the UK. She was in her happy place too!
Some of the heads are beginning to point downward under the weight of the seeds forming.
So I got to be in a happy place for a little while and meet someone who enjoys photography as much as I do.
Never can tell who you will meet out standing in a field.
I played driver yesterday, it was a cloudy day and I knew the sunflower field was in full bloom. I could double back for photos after I dropped Far Guy off at his Physical Therapy appointment or “learn how to walk properly with a walking stick session.”
On the way into town I saw that the Buffalo (Beefalo most likely) were grazing in the field next to the sunflowers…JACKPOT. If only the herd stayed put until I got back. They were even near the approach where I could park the car.
Far Guy told me to “be careful” about five times….either he repeats himself a lot or he thinks I pay no attention to him.
I stayed near the car, the buffalo were quite curious about me…oh I wanted to get closer to that fence…but I have great respect for buffalo and not much faith in that fence…even if it is electrified. (Falling in the lake and getting trampled by a buffalo all in one week did not appeal to me.)
Low and behold there was even a baby…he was on my photo bucket list. I had photographed one at the Zoo in Winnipeg…now I have a photo in a field…maybe next in the wild…who knows.
Buffalo butts and a baby.
another baby
Jackpot! Buffalo on one side and Sunflowers on the other.
What a perfect morning taking photos. I had one thought…what if I went into the sunflower field and then took a photo…would I get sunflowers and buffalo? My second thought was “tresspassing” so I remained on the road right of way. Sensible decision.
Cousin’s Bonnie and Wayne shared some fun photos with us by email, we thank them for sharing!
This one made us both smile. Far Guy is in cousin Jay’s #10 T-Bird, helped along by his father. This must have been around 1957 –1958 sometime.
Uncle Jimmy built this for his son Jay. Note the string steering and the front wheels are wider than the back.
Far Guy thinks that there were races of some sort in Grand Forks, ND this T Bird had no motor it was a push car. (There are no hills to speak of in North Dakota.)
The traffic out and away from our home is horrible. People passing in no passing zones, even trucks passing two vehicles at one time. It is crazy, does the whole world have a death wish or what? Lots of tourists…in another two weeks they will be heading home.
We prefer our quiet country road.
Don’t get me wrong, we do have traffic.
It is just a different kind of traffic….hit and miss.
We have been woodcarving Christmas Ornaments just about every day, the patio looks like a woodshop. We are nearing the end of the carving. We have 70 ready to paint and 3 painted. I will attempt to paint a few this week to send home with visiting relatives.
Chance is a bit better for the moment, he sleeps most of the time but attempted the stairs all by himself yesterday. Taking the Vets advice I took him swimming, I slipped on the slime covered concrete pads at the boat landing …I made a big splash…it was a warm day so I was much cooler. Far Guy did not laugh but I am certain he felt like it. Chance just looked at me like “Wow… you want me to do that?” We wandered around in the water…swimming is just not his thing. Luckily the water cushioned my fall so I was not injured.
