First Time for This One…sigh

Might as well start out this post with a : “You Knew It Would EVENTUALLY Come to This…” Yesterday I stopped at the drive-through for Burger King to get a quick Whopper Jr. (my little ‘treat’). When I got to the pick up window the lady there said: “And would you like a Senior discount drink for only an additional 49 cents?” Now, mind you … I NEVER said ANYTHING about being a Senior! That one kind of hit me in the face; I’m sure if you’d have had a camera aimed at my face at that specific moment it would have registered some very shocked emotions! Yes, I guess at 61 I am (in some circles) considered a Senior, but I sure didn’t think it SHOWED THAT MUCH! (Dang! Where is Lady Clairol when you need her? And I’d just colored my hair last week!)

Oh well … to quote the old expression: “Ya ain’t gettin’ any younger, ya know!” To that I say…..SIGH………………..

Hugs;

Pammie

PS: It’s a very brisk 27 degrees out tonight, lots of wind; in fact in several areas around here there are power outages. When I drove to my special needs group tonight almost the total area of stores which comprise our local ‘mall’ was in blackness, plus several apartment buildings. I was counting my blessings on the drive home, as there was lots of blowing snow, low visibility and very little in the street light department to help me see.  Thank heavens for home, a nice hot cup of coffee and a couple of chocolate chip cookies to tide me over! (oh, and the added blessing of knowing that my whole family had made it home safely, as well. Husband had overtime working OUTSIDE in that nasty coldness, so I was doubly glad to see he made it home safe & sound!

Decisions & Answers

"Rikki"

It’s been a week today that we discovered our cat’s urinary problems. This morning he ate & drank well and I was happy for a good night with him until I discovered that he hadn’t used the litter box or made the bath towel in the crate all wet, so I turned him over.  His underside was totally dry but there was a bit of blood, also.  This time I burst into tears, prayed and then stealed myself for the inevitable: euthenasia. I called my husband, talked to middle son and then called the vet to make the arrangements.  This would make the third time he’d totally blocked up in a week and the costs of the urethrectomy are way beyond our means right now.  Brought him in to the vets and asked if the vet could just confirm my suspicions before hand. Low and behold, the vet announced that his bladder was tiny! I was amazed and asked about the blood. The vet said that he’s been straining; apparently he’d emptied his bladder into the carrying crate! A quick shot to help reduce the inflamation on his bladder, a question about ’should I start the medication to shrink the bladder now?’ (wait a day) and I was home with my cat again! Will wonders never cease?! The vet was very happy and said: “Looks like he hasn’t used up his 9 lives just yet!”  We have a great vets office; they’re very understanding about costs-he only charged me ‘cost’ for the shot today ($10) so we’re good-to-go for another day. It’s been Wed/Thur/Sat/Mon/Tues/ and now Weds. at the vets and I didn’t realize just how ‘ready’ I was to hear some GOOD news for a change! (He did warn me that we’re ‘not out of the woods yet’, but it’s a start.)

Enjoy your day; I know my family will, with our cat!

Hugs;

Pammie

More ‘News’

Hello, all!

Well, here at ’sick cat Central’ things are (I hope) looking ‘up’. It’s been several trips to the vets since Saturday and we now have the exact opposite of ‘blocked urinary tract’… an incontinent cat! Today’s visit found the vet writing us a prescription for a medication that will help reduce the size of the bladder so he will (hopefully) be able to ‘feel’ when he has to ‘go’; for now we’re borrowing our neighbor’s huge dog crate and confining him to that with a small litter pan and old bath towels. Without making you ‘ill’, this is the best solution so that the whole house doesn’t reek. Ah, the joys of pet ownership, eh? The good thing in all this? The vet isn’t charging me for the daily re-checks!

The other ‘good news’? I think we’ve finally figured out my ‘car problem’! (trying to make this short) I believe the problem lies in the fact that my car thinks the ‘alarm system’ is being tampered with, hence the start right up then die/no gauges thing. I remembered that the last time it did that, I had pressed the little automatic lock button on my key chain (I usually just push the button inside the door when locking my car). Very rarely do I use the keychain button and, now that I think of it, I’m wondering if ‘that’s IT‘! We’re going to do an experiment and both my husband & I will not be using the keychain button any longer and see if that does the trick. A person I was chatting with at church said his friend has the same problem; they just wait 10 minutes and it re-sets and they’re good to go! Crazy, but I think we’ve finally ‘got it’!

That’s what’s shakin’ around here; need to get off here and go iron my youngest son’s clothes for his choir concert this evening.

Enjoy your day!

Hugs;

Pammie

Here We Go Again…

Here we are at Saturday again; it’s been another kind of unusual week:  our cat was overnight at the vet’s, he’s doing better (obstructed tract), my car stopped running on me (AGAIN!) and had to have it towed. Like before, let it sit awhile and it runs just fine so that the mechanics can’t find a thing wrong with it! UGH! Rented another PT Cruiser and upon returning it got a tip from the rental guy for a new car repair place nearby that only does electrical work…just what I need! Have to arrange to get my car there soon (before I’m stranded again). The general consensus is that the problem lies somewhere between the starter and the gauges, as when it ‘does it’s thing (starting then immediately dying) I finally noticed that none of the gauges works, except the digital clock works…go figure! This is, what…the third time this has happened in the past 2-3 months now? Sure isn’t cheap when you factor in all the car rentals! (fortunately the car repair place isn’t charging me for keeping my car overnight and trying to figure out the problem. You KNOW you’ve been there waaay too many times when they greet you by name as you come in the door! Enough of all that…

Tonight is the Homecoming dance for my youngest son; he’s going ’stag’ and hanging out with his friends for the evening. We’re to drop him off at “On The Border” restaurant around 4:45 and one of the kid’s Dads is driving all of them to the dance after dinner. Meanwhile, my husband & I will be attending an annual fund-raiser dinner and auction; we’ve attended something like three years now.  The food’s great and we get to visit with people we both worked with years ago (or, in my husband’s case, is still working with…I’m retired). The great part of this night is that I will be able to closely observe all the workings of their auction! Our special needs Potato Dinner & Auction is this Friday, so I’ll be on the look-out for any tips to make our event more dynamic. So far we have 11 baskets donated and 3 ‘other items’ (like a laser level, a Madame Alexander Coca-Cola collector’s doll and one more thing). I’m getting excited and a bit nervous at the same time; we have several volunteer ladies from the church to help set up and serve. We’re hoping for close to 100 people, but of course, we’ll be happy for even 50!  One of our volunteers is coming in early Friday to scrub, dry, poke holes and wrap in aluminum foil all 100 potatoes! That’s some job; I guess she’s bringing her mom to help out (Thanks, Mom!).

That’s what’s happening here this week; the weather is chilly but (so far) no white stuff. The newspaper was saying we were supposed to get snow flurries and some accumulation yesterday; fortunately for me, I didn’t even SEE that prediction until late last night when reading the paper! As you know if you’ve read my blog before, I’m NO fan of the nasty white stuff, but know that it’s necessary for the continuation of our lake’s health around here in the “Great Lakes State”. (Michigan, in case you wondered).

Enjoy your day!

Hugs;

Pammie

ps: UPDATE: Just got back from an emergency trip to the vets; cat had another obstruction and THANK HEAVENS the vet was willing to do a quick anesthesizing, catherization and flushing instead of sending us to the weekend emergency vets which runs tons of $$$. He’s home now, doing ok but a little groggy from the visit; recheck on Monday.

Got a Few Minutes…

It’s been a bit hectic here, me on my trusty computer ‘comping up’ the tickets for the upcoming special needs group’s fund raiser Potato Dinner. I ‘thought’ I had things under control, but you know how that goes…the minute you think you’ve got a handle on things, they go haywire! Got a call last night that the tickets had to be printed and delivered to the church where our group meets BEFORE 1 p.m. today, as the church was going to have an ann0uncement in their bulletin that the tickets would go on sale right after church. That wouldn’t be a bad thing except…I don’t attend that church which made for some real ‘hussling around’ on my part early this morning. Got to Office Max at around 8:40 a.m. and purchased the brown/tan antiqued post cards then home to get the tickets printed. Simple, yes? NO! For some really weird reason the cute little potato clip art (see a few posts before this one for an example) didn’t want to ‘print’ right side up the way I wanted him to…we had backwards, upside down and a few other alternatives but not the way I wanted. (guess I should insert here that I was attempting to print these in “Landscape” mode…that’s ’sideways’, sort of). After about 12 attempts and many sheets of wasted printer paper I finally got to the ‘tears’ and frustration level. A quick prayer for HELP! and one last ditch effort did the trick. To explain: I have NO idea why it works, but it does. If you look at the screen, the images are goofy, but it printed up just fine so I DON’T CARE!  One hundred cute little tickets later, each hand numbered and torn apart (they come 4 to a sheet) and a half hour trip to that church and we’re ‘good to go’! Whew! Now my next ‘great computer/printer project’ is some how comping up a sign-in sheet for each auction item…again in ‘landscape’ form. Since I’m using ‘Microsoft Publisher’ and they don’t offer anything like what I’m looking for, looks like another long day of ‘attempts’…sigh.  At least you know where I’ll be…sitting here going nuts!

Hope you’re having a good day; it’s cold, raining and 55 degrees out (sure feels colder!). Just put my knit shrug on and some slipper socks…I’m chilly! (house temp says it’s 73…my foot!)

Hope you stay warm and toasty! Enjoy your day;

Hugs;

Pammie

ps: Working on afghan #204 now…

Look for the Blessings

Look for the blessings – that’s the phrase that ran through my mind while sitting in my car awaiting a tow truck … again. Today it was pouring down buckets of rain while I was driving to the local post office. Upon beginning to turn into the post office driveway my car stalled; I was able to start it up again immediately but had no power steering. I manuevered it into the first spot I could (which put me partly in a no-parking zone and also partly on the sidewalk).  After getting my wits about me I called my husband who said: “Was it raining?” (yes) and “Open your hood and see if your Serpentine Belt is still connected”. (Wise man…he’s been through this before with HIS van!). Since I made the call to him inside the post office, I had to walk outside to my van to check…before I even arrived at my car I could see the belt hanging on the ground under my car.  (Look for the blessings)  I called AAA for a tow, called the local Midas (who had my car not even a month ago with the gas tank/brakes problem…remember?), then “Looked for the blessings.”  (1) I didn’t get into an accident because of the belt failing (2) my car WAS off of the road where it wouldn’t be hit (3) I was safe (4) this didn’t happen last night going to or from my special needs group while I had 4 special needs adult men in my car with me on the expressway; the only real problems were that my car needed fixing again/I’d be inconvenienced without a car for about a day/I missed my chiropractors appointment…all of which could be ‘handled’.  Praise the Lord this didn’t happen when I was in so much pain with my back! As of yesterday I’m finally able to stand up straight . . . that came in handy today when I had to climb up into the cab of the tow truck (very high, but they had 2 steps) then the same when the repair place owner drove me home in his (very high up) pick up truck.

Just got a phone call that they can probably get my car fixed and back to me this evening . . . in time for me to drive me son to his school registration (before 7:30). That’s a blessing! Problems? It seems they found a lot of oil leaks on my engine and can’t really assess where it’s coming from until I get the engine cleaned! Good thing? He told me there’s a $20 car wash almost across the street that can steam clean my engine so that they can locate the oil leak problem.

Life just keeps ‘coming at ya’…the secret is not letting it get the best of you.  There’s a verse that’s stayed with me ever since I was flat on my back in the hospital many years ago recovering from a hysterectomy; it spoke to me then and has stayed with me all these years:

“I have learned , in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”  Philippians 4:11

It’s not always easy and it doesn’t always come quickly, but if you look past the problems and try to find even one blessing, it’s a start.  Life isn’t going to get any easier… it only makes sense to (in the words of that old song) “Look for the silver lining.”

Hoping your day is going well;

Hugs;

Pammie

PS: The other blessing? Today is my husband and my 33rd wedding anniversary! (the ‘extra blessing’?…he’s bringing home our favorite pizza and a huge Greek salad!!! YAY…I don’t have to cook!)

PPS: One more thing…took youngest to register for the school year; got to the “Fines” table and learned that they had on record my son hadn’t returned TWO of his books last year to the tune of $122.00! The ladies at the table were really great, searching lists of books that had been turned in since the end of school. BOTH books were on the lists…what a blessing! The $105 that I had to pay for the car was ’something’, but at least it wasn’t compounded by another bill for $122! Now that’s what I call a blessing!

Getting there…slowly

Hello, all; just thought I’d drop in for a very quick note to tell you that today was Day #3 of going to the chiropracter and I’m FINALLY able to stand up straight! Two more days this week, 3 next then if all’s well – maintenance from there.  It’s been slow going (and painful), but I’m doing OK.  I even asked the doctor yesterday if any people ever quit after coming once and knowing upon return that there would be considerable pain that day as well? He said he imagined that over the years a few might have done that. I wouldn’t fault them, believe me! Today was a bit scary because when he said lie down on this sort of stretcher table, I KNEW what was coming …. and I KNEW it would be painful for me (it wasn’t as bad today…not as many vertebrae ‘popped’). Knowing it’s coming and hearing the doctor’s very soothing voice telling me to ‘just relax your shoulders, let all your air out and tip your chin up’ is not a ‘fun thing’, but I know also that, ultimately, this is for my own GOOD and I’m determined to get my back ‘back’ into shape…whatever it takes. I certainly didn’t know (or think) last Thursday that I’d still be going through all this, but perhaps that’s a good thing…sometimes knowing something unpleasant is coming doesn’t make you want to run towards it . . . know what I mean?

Sorry for the long dissertation; weather’s a little cooler today (in the 70’s instead of mid 80’s as it has been; humidity has been around 61 % which makes it feel hotter).

On a good note, am almost done with “Red Rabbit” by Tom Clancy (another good spy-type book by Clancy); probably another 80 pages to go (this one’s a really tiny print/very thick book….just what I needed to take my mind off the pain).

Hope you’re having a good day/night . . . mine are getting a little better every day!

Hugs;

Pammie

ps: Xray results: I have Scoliosis in my lower spine area; looks like it’s been that way for many years (who knew?). Just one more thing to ‘keep a watch on’…sigh.

Well, that was short…

Sometimes, in life, things are as you expect them to be … and sometimes they aren’t.  My excursion into “Facebook” was probably the shortest on record – something like 1  1/2 days, total. I guess I had in mind a place where you could email others you know and be found by people you haven’t seen in awhile; for that, Facebook is good. What I wasn’t expecting was tons of emails from people I don’t know, people I haven’t seen in years (and don’t choose to see or communicate with) and various ridiculous ‘filler’ (like adopting a cartoon cow, or my thoughts on “Mafia Wars”…I don’t even know what that is, nor do I care to!). I realize that one can ‘filter out’ a lot of that garbage, but to me … it just isn’t worth the effort. I can see that Facebook would fill a definite need for people who have loved ones in other cities, or far away places (like my friend who’s brother is in Iraq), but for the most part it was just not what I imagined.  To quote an old expression: “To each his own.” (Facebook just ‘aint’ my ‘own’!)

Hugs;

Pammie

Egg Carton Greeting

It’s hard to have a bad day when you open up a new carton of eggs and there, on the cover, is a big, cheery greeting:

“Good Morning, Beautiful!” with a cute smiley face! I just thought I’d share that greeting, in case you might be having a ‘not so great’ day…like mine, sort of. Let’s start with my ‘new/rental’ ride: a black PT Cruiser! Why, you ask, am I driving this lovely vehicle? Why quite simply because my dear minivan decided to do another ’start then immediately stop again’ yesterday morning just when we were attempting to leave for church (and later, a funeral home visit for husband’s 90 yr. old uncle who died…the ride is 1 + hour away from our house); needless to say, we didn’t make either event.  Later that day my husband went out and tried to start my car…it started up just fine! And again later in the evening and once again this morning!  That’s IT! I cried-it goes to the dealership to see if they can diagnose just what’s causing this! I was just very grateful that we weren’t at church (1/2 hour away) OR the funeral home…1+ hours away and had that happen. Not exactly sure what AAA would do with towing from that far away (even WITH the AAA Gold card) and I certainly didn’t want to TEST it, either!

This  morning I drove my van to the dealership, encountered a nice man in the Service Department who seemed to think I was a bit ‘crazy’…at least that’s the opinion I came away with after trying to tell him that I didn’t want my car to sit there overnight just so he could ’see if it’s just a morning thing’ or not…apparently he thought it might be something like DEW in the engine??? (My guess there-not his) but he kept repeating (like I was either deaf or totally stupid) “Now each time this happened…it was after it sat overnight and you went to start it up in the MORNING?” (NO, you Imbecile! Once in the morning and once on another day in the afternoon!!!) Of course, you know I didn’t say that…I just kept repeating the “once in the  morning, etc.” part. After repeating this mantra FOUR TIMES he finally wrote something like that on the sheet. I also explained to him that I would be renting a loaner vehicle and didn’t really want him to charge me for a full day’s rental just so that he could have my car sitting in their lot until the morning so he could ‘test out his theory’! He assured me that they would hook it up to their diagnostic equipment then reach a opinion based on that (we’ll see….somehow I’m still of the opinion that my van’s going to sit there overnight without anyone looking at it until morning…sigh).

That’s my ‘tale of woe’ for the day; got to go grocery shopping in my shiny black PT Cruiser…BUT I couldn’t figure out how to open the back hatch to put all my bags of groceries in there, so they ended up on the floor and back seat…still worked ok. It’s a nice vehicle; air conditioning, power windows & locks, floor shifter, Ok radio…seems to be good on gas and, at $35 a day, not a bad car. Last time I rented a car it was $45 per day and a smaller car, so this works for me (as long as it isn’t a long time for the rental!).

Been keeping myself busy knitting 3 more dishcloths for part of a friend’s birthday present; I really couldn’t think of a good gift and then thought: she might like some hand-knit dishcloths and a few kitchen implements, so I had fun buying some linen dishcloths, hand towels, 2 nice spoon-shaped spatulas (everyone needs more of those!), 2 big sturdy ‘chip clips’, some pot holders and and little plastic basket to put them all in. Almost done with dishcloth #3; will give them to her Wednesday.

That’s the ’scoop’ for the beginning of another week.  It’s 80 degrees, sunny with a slight breeze – nice, but hot.

Enjoy your day!

Hugs;

Pammie

Like My Friend “Nemo”…

I “Just Keep Swimming”!

As I’ve said before, this has truly been a really crazy/busy/goofy week … especially when it comes to cars! I told you the tale of how my brakes failed on Tuesday; the repair place didn’t get my car back to me until yesterday morning which totally wiped out my going to Knit Night on Tuesday evening AND my special needs group on Wednesday night. That was a bit frustrating but, if I could have chose any week to miss both groups, I guess this one was the best-BOTH groups were really down on numbers which made the two lovely people who are my assistants in both groups have a better evening of it while managing both groups alone.

Thursday found me “with car” again and I happily completed several errands to the Library, Post Office (where I picked up a box of 168 more squares!) and a quick trip to the grocery store.  A little later I jumped in my car to drive middle son to work, turned the key only to find that the car would start then immediately quit again! This drove me nuts! Middle son ended up getting a ride to work from his boss and I waited until my husband got home to drop this latest ‘bombshell’ on him.  After a bit of tinkering with my car he came in the house and said: “You have NO GAS!”  “WHAT?” I sort of yelled; I just got a full tank on Monday and I haven’t driven very far at all!  We called the repair place and, of course, they didn’t have a clue WHY I would have lost an entire tankful of gas after they had to disconnect and remove the tank in order to put in new brake lines. Frustrating, for sure. Husband drove to the nearest gas station and got a gas can full of gas, poured some in my tank and then asked me to ’start it up’.  Low and behold, his guess was right! He surmised that my car had either: “vapor lock” OR  the on-board computer, after having the gas tank removed and re-attached, didn’t read that the car actually had gas…it read “empty”. Once we ‘boosted’ the tank with a little gas, all was fine again, the gas gauge read “Full”. We took a little drive around the neighborhood with my husband following in his car, just to test it out.  This has certainly been ‘THE week” for car troubles!

Today is babysitting my grandson again (as well as tomorrow, 3-8 p.m.) so I know that I’ll be needing a nap come dinnertime, for sure! (Last night we were all feeling a little tired and husband, myself and grandson all took about a 1- 1 /2 hour nap (mine was shorter as I had to get up and prepare dinner) but it was a well-earned rest, for sure.

Hoping that your day is bright & sunny; it’s now a wonderfully sunny day outside after yesterday’s rain. Had to get up early to go drain the accumulated water out of the sandbox; my grandson will SURELY be expecting to go play outside today (even IF the sand is actually more like sand/mud!)

Hugs;

Pammie