Wanting to be useful…

The ladies at church want to teach me crochet so I can help with service projects. I joined a crochet group and today I watched a video on making a granny square. It brought back all the reasons I have never been successful at knitting and crocheting. It’s soooooo confusing! I think some folks are born with the right brains for this, but it just makes mine hurt

What am I good at? Cooking, sewing quilts, gardening…each of these are also tough for me when I am physically weak. Sigh… This week I have been feeling very alone. Very NOT useful.

I’m still not taking Motrin, but have nothing to replace it yet, I hurt soooooo bad! My rheumatologist appointment is this week, though.

I guess it’s the body stress from the two tests last week, plus the lack of Motrin are getting to me. Myasthenia is kicking my butt. My muscles don’t work so great and neither does my brain. I gave one of the closing prayers today and forgot what I was saying in the middle of the sentence   I hate it when I am wimpy in public! Today most everything feels like a struggle. It was hard to see, to hear and to think the whole 3 hours of church.

The best news is that God loves me no matter how weak and ditzy I am

Driving and Eating

Every Sunday I think of a million things to say about my drive to and from church. Then I mostly keep it to myself. If I go the long way, I go by lakes. If I take the shortcut, it’s through more woods, less town. The shortcut is winding and hilly and not maintained as well as the main road. Today it had tire paths that were clear and the rest of the road was icy. I came home that way anyway. There were a couple of places where people had slid off the road ;-o

I go slow on this road, looking at the houses back in the woods, reading trail head signs and admiring the Adirondack architecture and landscaping touches. One little house was surrounded by a chain link fence. I started laughing when I saw the HUGE wild turkey caught in the corner. The people had swung open their driveway gate and it made a triangle of fence in the corner. The turkey could have easily gotten out, but was hanging close to the fence line and looking panicked.

Then I saw movement in the back yard…a small back yard. There was a whole herd of deer in the chain link fence! They were milling around, eating something. They must have jumped the fence to get in. Looked like no one was home….imagine their surprise when they pull in!

A woman from church brought me a “TV dinner” made from leftovers of her Thanksgiving dinner. It was turkey, potatoes, stuffing, gravy, winter squash, cranberry sauce and another Tupperware thingy with pie, 2 cookies and a brownie. I just ate the main meal and am blissing out!! It was soooooo good to eat turkey! Mmmmmmmm…….

Now it feels more like Thanksgiving

Sniff…Sob….

see more puppies

Look who is worrying now…

The former middle class is about to go into shock

March 2008….As I’ve said before, the middle class is going to go through tough times. Us po’ folks are used to scrimping and getting by. The next couple of rungs up the economic ladder, people are used to having enough money to meet basic needs and then using plastic when that runs out.

I get $573/month disability and I’m only eligible for $31 in food stamps. What are richer folks falling on hard times going to expect…and what will they really get?

Start your food storage yesterday! Stash some water. Bake your bread. Plant a garden. Sew some clothes. Time to learn survival skills as if your life depends on it…which it very well might.

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November 2008…..Tonight I was reading news, stuff from groups and a few blogs. The common theme was tough economic times.

One guy said he was an auto worker who made $90,000 a year, was laid off and on severance pay. He said he didn’t know what to do…he had never worried about money before.

There was a piece about toy manufacturers. Some parents were begging that there be fewer toy ads because they could no longer afford the expensive toys. They did not want to have to say no to their children.

In one area of four car garages and McMansions, the homes were all boarded up, people were moving and those left were in soup lines and waiting for a food basket.

Sure, part of me feels sort of sorry, but jeepers!….why don’t these people have more to show for all that ostentatious wealth? Why didn’t they pay off their mortgages when money was plentiful? Why don’t they have food stored? No money saved? Where’s their garden?

I scrimped and saved for years to pay off the farm ASAP. No matter how poor I am, a portion of my monthly income is preparing for the future. Are these the same folks that were looking down at me all these years? The ones who didn’t care I was disabled and homeless? If they ever truly get as low income as me…what will become of them?

Over the years some folks have been incredibly nice to me, others have been incredibly mean. I hear you reap what you sow…….

I’m grateful for what I have and where I am. Bad things happen to all of us. We should be loving and caring to everyone. All of us will need help and encouragement at one time or another.

I had visitors!

There was a knock on my door and guess who was there?!?!!  Liz, Eric, Sam and Charlotte When I opened the door I was expecting my upstairs neighbor from the exuberant knock. It took me a few seconds to realize who I was looking at ;-p

This has been one heck of a great day for me Zeke and Aleka wanted attention, the kids wanted to talk, Liz and Eric had stuff to say….for a while it was chaos.

As I keep saying, it’s Liz’s birthday. So…..she came to my house and brought gifts! There was a giant red felt stocking with goodies in it. Sam doled them out. Two long sleeved shirts in my size that Liz found for $3 each!, a box of candy canes, 2 Christmas place mats, 2 Christmas cups & plates, a smaller felt stocking and a tabletop tinsel tree.

I hung the candy canes on the indoor plant/tree that the apartment manager gave me. The stockings are thumb tacked to the wall, the place mats are set out and the tree is the centerpiece on my table. How Christmasy!

Much to everyone’s astonishment, Sam went in my kitchen and did the new dishes and finished up the dirty ones! We all asked if she was OK ;-p

Sam and Charlotte kept the pets busy. It was great to see everybody!

When they left I got to go out and see their “new” Suburban with over 200,000 miles on it. It DOES look new!

Ingrid!!!!!!

It’s my sister’s birthday and I got the goods!

Thanks to you, Merry, my mother and my sister…I got some interesting foods in the cupboard

But, Ingrid…Zeke is going to positively LOVE his treats! I was just being bummed we had run out. After each insulin shot, I put a couple of beggin bacons and three or four dog bones into Zeke’s treat ball. It  keeps him busy for quite a while He rolls it, throws it and bounces the ball to try to get the treats out. Now he will be back in business! He’s out lounging in the snow right now.

Aleka was asleep on the bed. I threw half a dozen kitty treats at her. She woke up real quick and inhaled them.

The oregano looks like you sent me a bundle of pot ;-p  Smells better, though

I had a couple of sample tubes of lotion I got on the free sites and am on the last squeezes. THANK YOU for the lotion!!! I tried shea butter when Heather was on her long hike. Good stuff!

It’s as if you knew exactly what I was wishing I had. How did you do that? Those fingerless gloves are just too cool for words! About an hour or so ago I was wishing I had some red curry…and here it is! I downed my last Airborne sample last week and I really miss Tiger Balm…it was a staple in Vermont.

For those things and more…thank you! And Merry S…thank you again, too!!!!!

I feel extremely blessed

Let’s BUG Liz today!

Happy Birthday Liz!

Send her a birthday card at golfmime@yahoo.com

Reality will hit the fan one of these days

I quit posting economic and food forecasts because most people are not taking them seriously. Before all the latest economic crisis started, I tried to warn folks…but have decided people just don’t WANT to know. If you are brave…go read this blog post.

Are you paying attention yet?

Celente Predicts Revolution, Food Riots, Tax Rebellions By 2012

Time to grow a garden and store up some food while you still can….

Here’s another one called Connect The Dots

Have you folks been out spending money?

I went to Saranac Lake for a mammogram and then took my books back to the library. Quite a few places in town were closed. The hospital called and asked me if I could come in 5 hours early. The best I could do was 4 hours.

The TV was on CNN in the radiology waiting room, so I saw some of the violence I have been missing in Mumbai. Creepy!

Geeze…my breasts continue to fascinate me ;-p I never had this done before! The tech put a cute bandaid looking thing over each nipple. The sticker had a spot of metal on it so xrays could identify where the nipple was. Of course I quickly forgot them and drove home that way. Kinky….

There are plenty of mammogram jokes out there. I can sure see the humor in the whole procedure. The tech put each breast on a BIG plate, then stepped on a peddle that brought another plate down on top of my poor misused boob. Holy Cow! It’s like being pressed into a hamburger patty. Who knew there was soooooo much to smoosh?!?!

I’m glad that’s over for another year or so….

Weather reports via dog

Sometimes I don’t bother to turn the back light on…I just hitch Zeke to his long leash and let him out the door. When he comes in all wet, it’s raining. This morning he wasn’t out more than a minute or two and he came back in COVERED with big, fluffy snowflakes.

Now that it’s getting light out….WOW! Figures…once the snow warning is cancelled, it snows like crazy ;-p