Rainy Season?

 I took this screen shot at 4 PM....after a full day of moderately heavy rain. We had almost 3" of rain in total...and as you can see, there is more to come. 

I believe it may be safe to say that we are in the rainy season! Hallelujah! Our plants are so much happier, and I think it may also be safe to say, "It's a jungle out there!"

I had a terrible night:

I was awake almost more time than I was asleep! What I came to realize, sometime before 3AM is that I seem to have acquired a UTI. Ugh. I have all of the symptoms....and of course, it's the weekend! But, besides running to the bathroom, and swallowing a glass of water, which made me run to the bathroom sooner, repeat, it dawned on me that my recent bout of C-diff could change the way any infection that normally requires antibiotics is treated. Apparently, once a person has C-diff they are more susceptible to a reoccurrence. I'm not sure why, but that's what the literature is telling me. From this point forward I must be sure that the antibiotics I am given do not impact bacteria in my gut, and focus instead on specific areas of my body. I have felt a bit better today, but I know the problem persists, despite drinking a ton of water. Everyone is telling me to drink cranberry juice, but I've read it is not effective in treating a UTI and may help in preventing one. I used to 'flavor' my water by adding some cranberry juice, but discovered it was such an irritant to my bladder that it had me running to the bathroom more than I cared for. Anyway, I'll see how it goes tonight...keep drinking water to flush the system, see what tomorrow brings and check in with my doctor on Monday.

Between bathroom trips, and partially due to the lovely rain that kept me inside, I feel I've been very productive today! 

I finished the bag for Tim and the quilt blanket and bag are ready to be sent off.

I completed the last paper pieced blocks for Desert Oasis. My next step is to put all of the triangles I've made...100 of them(!) together to make the border. 

The pieces that I finished today (above) will be sewn together as the corner units of this border.

I've already finished all of the other triangles....100 of them in all! 

We had planned to go to the Crystal River summer outdoor concert series tonight, but decided that given the forecast, we should stay home, and stay dry! I guess we have lost our sense of adventure!!!

Oh, How I Used to Love Fridays!

 When I was a working woman I loved Fridays! A Friday marked the close to my work week. I could feel the coming release, the recession of stress and the anticipation of the coming free time. That free time clearly marked by every tick of the clock as time progressed through the weekend. Now that I'm retired...a Friday is like any other day, except the afternoon traffic may be a bit more frenzied, and I can sense the exhaustion of younger folks when we are all at the grocery store, or WalMart, or wherever. 

Today the Mister and I had an appointment in Ocala at 2 PM. We decided to drive through Dunellon, FL and grab a bite for lunch, and pick up some straps for the bag I am making at a local sewing store.

I love eating at Sweeties Café, but it was time to try other restaurants in the area. Lugo's Grill offers Cuban sandwiches. Who doesn't love them? Our mouths were watering as we pulled up to find the parking lot cordoned off and a sign on the door, "CLOSED - Opens August 11". We were crushed. Onward we drove to 2 Rivers Bar & Grill. It had good ratings, and quite a few cars in the parking lot...always a good sign in my mind! We entered the restaurant to find 5 people seated, one being 5 months of age! I guess patrons of the bar on the other end of the building were responsible for the cars in the parking lot! Janine suggested that we take any available table/booth and promptly brought the menu. I selected a booth....only to feel like a 10-year old kid with the seat being that much lower than the sticky, plywood table. Only sticky because of years of washing.

Janine, who knew the folks at the other tables, and two others who came in by name...regulars, was very personable, and brought our menus. Seriously? The prices were certainly pre-inflation...an Italian sausage smothered in sautéed onions and peppers; $14. A hamburger, with cheese, sautéed mushrooms and onions; $14 - each with a side. 

If you want a good meal, friendly service and great prices, stop by 2 Rivers!

From there we stopped at the sewing store to pick up some nylon strapping for the bag that will hold the quilt and other items for Tim as he gets his bi-weekly dialysis. 

And, by the time we returned from our meeting, it was time to begin the evening routine. I didn't have to stress over what to have for dinner: leftover meatloaf, corn on the cob and Mac salad. Yum! 

We had more rain today, almost another inch, and there is another green blob heading our way! Hooray! I shall not complain...until I do!

Book Club - The Frozen River

 Today was our book club. I was the moderator. The book that had been selected was The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon. 

I am in awe of how the author constructed a complex historical fiction novel with many webs around life in Maine in the 18th century, midwifery, women's roles, a murder! The novel uses the diary of Martha Ballard, a midwife who chronicled her daily doings from 1784-1812 as the basis for much of her story. 

What intrigued me the most was that Martha's diary survived. It was transcribed by Robert & Cynthia McCausland, beginning in 1982. The process took over 10 years, and is comprised of 1400 pages.

Images of each page of the diary, and the transcription may be explored at https://dohistory.org.  

Ariel Lawhon includes relevant excerpts from the diary, but has conventionalized spelling and capitalization to make the entries easier to read.

I found a fascinating interview with Ariel Lawhon:

Another book about Martha Ballard was written by Laurel Thatcher. She wrote A Midwife’s Tale, The Life of Martha Ballard Based on her Diary 1785-1812. This is not a work of fiction, but Laurel shares pertinent parts of the diary and then discusses different aspects of life in Maine including health issues, social networks, economic roles and women's work. I found it rather challenging to read, but it considered to be a masterpiece. 

PBS aired a
film in their American Experience series about A Midwife's Tale. I found it to be excellent, and a good tie in to 

with The Frozen River.  

This is all probably more information than you want to know...but since I found these resources for the book club, I figured I might as well share them again! 

After the book club I worked on making a bag for our Dialysis patient friend. The quilt I made will fit in it, and he can carry a book, his phone, a pen, etc. I will pick up the straps tomorrow. There is a shop nearby that specializes in bag making. They have great nylon straps that are more durable than anything I can make out of fabric. 

We had rain! Four days in a row! This morning it poured-almost 2"! Even in our sandy area we had some standing water on the roads- for a short period of time. We had more rain late this afternoon. Maybe we are finally in the rainy season...aka the monsoon season! 

Is hamburger $8-$9.99 a pound in your area? No wonder hamburgers at some restaurants are $22!!! For dinner we had a meatloaf made with 50/50 beef and pork. It's the way my mom used to make meatloaf...and it was great. 

Silly (stupid?) Tools

 Several years ago, for some reason that I can no longer recall, I bought this silly "vacuum".... most likely from Amazon. It's a desk vacuum, or a crumb vacuum... or something like that. 

Needless to say, I rarely use it. It lives on my desk....somewhere. Today I found it, covered in dust. I pulled it out because I cut some "Minkie". Minkie is a synthetic, incredibly plush polyester knit. I use it as backings for baby quilts, and for quilted "blankets".  Today I finished quilting the blanket for the Mister's friend's husband (Tim). He's undergoing dialysis and the facility is always cold. We decided that I could make him a 'blanket'. I wrote about it on Sunday. 

I finished the quilted blanket and needed to trim it before putting on the binding. One icky thing about Minkie is that when you cut it, you are inundated with little fluffies. I had pieces of brown fluff all over the cutting board...and window sills..... and on the floor...oh, and stuck to my shirt!

I remembered the desk vac, grabbed it, dusted it off, and remarkably it still had a charge. Not only did it suck up all of the little fluffies...but it has broom-like bristles on the bottom that scrubbed the imbedded fluffies enmeshed in my cutting mat. It's a winner!

Oh, and the finished blanket? Here it is:

I've put some coordinating fabric on the long arm and will make a bag. Tim can carry the quilt, books, a phone, whatever, to keep him occupied during dialysis. 

The quilt consumed most of my day....after my 7:30 AM dental cleaning appointment 😳

My cleaning appointment may have been worth its weight in gold. I have not been really comfortable at this particular dentist's office. It's the second I've tried in the area. The first was very 'corporate' and always presented me with a detailed dental plan, prices, and payment options. This second office turns out to also be a corporate office. It seems to thrive on numbers, pushing lots of patients in, and out. Today my usual hygienist had called out. The office had called in a temp. She works, part time, at a dentist in a nearby town...a dentist with a private practice. A dentist who, after a bit of investigation, I learned had a 5.0 rating with over 425 ratings on Google, and very positive ratings on other sites. It sounds like this may be the dentist I am seeking. What a great find. Serendipity! 

Rainbow of Colors

Who doesn't like a new box of crayons? 

Those prefect, shiny points;

That distinct, memorable crayon smell!

A side note: schools, teachers and kids often need crayons. Sometimes as the new school year approaches, there are great prices on crayons. If you have the opportunity, adopt a class or school and bring in some school supplies that can be shared with needful students. 

One thing that may be even better than a new box of crayons....

A new, HUGE, box of colored pencils!

I have a handful of Prismacolor pencils that I acquired many years ago. Many of my pencils have been reduced to nubs. My palette of colors is limited. I decided that I would expand my collection and fill in holes in different hues by purchasing individual colors. I stopped by the art section of Hobby Lobby and found that Prsimacolor pencils were $1.25 each! Seriously? While I was in California I thought I'd swing by the Dick Blick art store...it's a bit of a haul on my bike so I looked online and found out that individual pencils were $1.23 each, not a price I was willing to expend that much energy on! I thought that I'd look at sets. The price per pencil in sets was better....the 150 color set was $135....that's only $ .90 per pencil. I decided it was a good price....but, maybe not now.  Then, because I had put it in my cart at Dick Blick, online, I received a notice that there had been a price drop....now the 150 colored pencil set was only $120....or $.80 per pencil! 

SOLD!

My pencils arrived today. I can't wait to dig in and play with color...

I have lots of choices! 

This morning I began quilting the blanket for Tim. I'm getting better at communicating with the quilting computer...but on the last two passes we had some disagreements. The computer decided that the quilt was shorter than what I tried to convey to it. I tried to change it up for the last pass, and again, we had a disagreement about the location of the bottom of the quilt. Certainly it is all my fault. I'm failing to communicate with the computer. No problem. I finished the last little bit guiding the machine by hand. I have some clean-up to complete, but that part of the quilt is finished. 

After lunch I played Hand and Foot with some of my new friends. We had a lot of fun, but alas, I did not win! 

We had more rain this morning. The thunder rattled things in the house. Several of my friends commented that they were tired as they couldn't sleep with all of that noise going on. In the last two days we have had over 2.25 inches! 

'Maters, Mozzerella, Meatballs & Mushrooms....Mmmmm

 After my appointments with the Gastroenterologist and the Orthopedic guy, I returned home to debate, "What's for lunch".  I am not one of those folks who has a menu for the week mapped out. As mealtime approaches, I make my way to the fridge and peruse the contents. 

Based on what I saw, especially the Burrata cheese - one my new favorites in cooking - I decided it had to be a Naan bread pizza. 

Super simple:

• Grab the Naan bread out of the freezer to let it defrost for a few minutes.
• Turn the toaster oven on "Air fry" at 400°.
• Spread some bottled sauce on the bread.
• Cut up a large mushroom, two small tomatoes, and a few meatballs.
• Run outside to snip off some Basil leaves - wash and cut up.
• Sprinkle the food on top of the sauce.
• Put some chunks of Burrata cheese over the other stuff.
• Sprinkle a shredded Italian cheese mix over all.
• Bake for about 10 minutes...

Ta da.....

My orthopedic appointment went...as I expected. The MRI didn't have anything good to say, but it wasn't the worst. Besides some disc bulging, severe stenosis at points in my lower back and impingement of nerves in various locations, I'm doing OK. I wanted a magic pill, but kinda knew that was not to be had. He suggested PT....I do most of the exercises prescribed previously at PT...so he offered to leave it in my records and if/when I'd like to start again, or start with a different therapy center, all I need to do is call. He said I could get an injection, although he thought "the nickel counters" may require a stint of PT to show it is not effective before they'd pay. I asked about the hip pain I experience that makes it difficult/uncomfortable to walk, he just gave me that look and said, "Yeah, that's your back talking to you." Life will go on, and I am truly blessed that I am not in excruciating pain. 

The best news of the day? Rain! Lots and lots of rain! (We seem to be in a feast or famine cycle). Thunder and lightning began around 4 AM and the rain poured down. I love sleeping with a rainstorm going on...but then again, if I know it's a storm, am I sleeping?!! The day cleared, and a succession of new storms came over us beginning around 3 PM, bringing more lovely rain. 

Dinner time looms. Opening the fridge tells me we are going to have a stuffed salmon I picked up at ALDI, some leftover quiche as a starch and caprese salad (more Burrata cheese and basil - yum!)

Tonight I will indulge in a glass of Chardonnay - a huge improvement over the Magnesium Citrate cocktail I had last night! 

Sunday Doings

 I didn't go outside to work in the garden today...at all! I stayed inside as I wanted to make a quilted 'blanket' for a friend of one of the Mister's classmate. Her husband has to have dialysis twice a week. She commented about how cold it is in the center when he is held prisoner by the machine. So....the Mister and I went to the local quilt shop to pick out some manly fabric. 

The gal at the shop suggested a panel. That wasn't really what I had in mind, but we looked and found something that the Mister liked, and I figured I could work into a quilted blanket. Last night I cut the images out of the panel and this morning I was ready to get to work:

8:00 AM Sorted the blocks and cut pieces for sashing

Apologies about the quality of the pictures...the sun played havoc with my camera.

9:00 AM  Sashing sewn on most of the squares

10:00 AM Panel borders, with sashing are laid out to help me decide whether to put sashing between the boarder and the central green blanket. Vickie tests it out. She liked how she blended in with the green!

11:00 AM Sewing the borders onto the green batik fabric

12:00 PM Blanket loaded on long arm. It has a brown 'Minkie' backing that will be soft and cuddly.

Lunch for me was the same as breakfast....pineapple jello. I have one of 'those' tests tomorrow, requiring a clear liquid diet and later, prep to clean out my system. Oh, joy.

We went to the local theater production of Mary Poppins.  The cast and crew, 50 folks were involved, did an excellent job. 

Upon our return I prepared my evening cocktail of Magnesium Citrate - ick! I will be happy tomorrow when this is all behind me 🤣...and when I can eat real food!