Another Minnesota Day

Hello,

Today Sophia went to day care because Leroy and I will be visiting friends after his class is done for the day.

“Give me a list of jobs,” I told Brian.

“Don’t worry, I can do that,” he said.

It was a nice list, but I did not finish it because I was dragging most of the day. My stomach has not felt good, even at times painful. Yesterday Sophia complained a little of the same thing. Could I have caught some small upset from her?

I did manage to hang out some clothes and get them back in the house. I also vacuumed the downstairs level, as well as pulled some weeds along the back of the house and some thriving dandelions. Other than that I have not been moving very fast.

This morning on our early walk we observed some mallards mating. There was one female and six males. Just as we got closer a seventh male hurried up to join the group, but he was too late as the rest of them flew off and away from us. How do ducks know there is an available female? Sound, sight, or smell? Somehow I was surprised at this activity, but then maybe it is geese who mate for live and none of this vying for the female stuff. It seemed more like dogs around a female in heat. As I have said before there are always new things to learn.

Many of the trees in the park are beautiful and covered with blossoms. This increases our time with spring. It would be nice to take a long trek from the south to the north to extend the joy.

Paula

In Minnesota

Hello,

Granddaughter, Sophia and the dog Cloe act appropriately happy to see us when we come. A wriggle, jiggle, shouting, whining, no holes barred welcome is the best kind. The great thing is that it can’t be bought on the market at any price. Mourners used to be for hire, but not joy spreaders. Grief can be faked, but not happiness?

Today Sophia and I have spent the day together. Most of the time we were indoors, but some out. While she was occupied with the small slide or the sand I did get a few weeds pulled. Brian now has some winter onions whether he wants them or not as I brought up three of them. Perhaps you know that winter onions just keep coming back if you do not pull all of them. They do not form big bulbs, but are more like green onions.

When Brian and Jen were gone in December, Sophia enjoyed helping me “wash” dishes. She stood on a chair, but it was later deemed unsafe by her parents as the chair could slip. Today when I told Sophia that I was going to take care of the dishes she raced ahead of me, slid a chair over to the sink, and climbed up ready to help. Thinking that Grannies can get away with anything, I hooked my foot around the rung of the chair thus anchoring it as we proceeded to get the work done.

This morning we did a video chat with the Utah cousins. Olivia spent quite a bit of time talking to Sophia and I. Almost two year old Nora did too, but her conversation consisted of going in the tent and yelling to tell us that she was asleep. It is fun to see these girls interact a bit more with each other. I am grateful for the webcam which allows them to see and speak easily with each other.

Paula

Leroy Learns

Hello,

Leroy is taking another continuing ed class in St. Paul. So I will go along tomorrow and enjoy the company of Brian, Jen and Sophia for a week. Leroy will be learning new things as well as doing a little visiting.

Daughter Sarah thinks he does this a lot. Leroy says that he gets two weeks a year. Because he can use the free board and room at Brian’s he has been taking full advantage of it. Lucky for me!

I learn some things too, such as it is nice to hang out clothes even if it is a gray day. Two loads flapped in the breeze and got almost dry. Some of things were dry and some had to be strung out around the house resting on furniture that did not care if they were a little damp. Sometimes I think I am the only person in town who still hangs out clothes, but I keep doing it hoping that I will start a trend. One woman today told me that she felt guilty when she saw my clothes out there. Maybe guilt will move her to do more than feel.

The congregation will soon vote on a candidate for the position of Pastor. Now Leroy and I have to go back to trusting that God will provide something that is just right for us. It had been nice to just let that thought float off into the air when we knew that we would be here for another day, month, or year. Now we are coming back to the hard edge of doubt. Everything has worked out so well for us, but will it do that again? Seems there are no guarantees.

Leroy spent a good bit of the morning in the garage packing up things that he is fairly certain he will not need before we leave H also spent time taking down one of the metal shelving units. So we are back to discussing if it is a good idea to move the units or not. Will we need them? Should we get rid of them and get something that is easier to put up? We are not in total agreement on this issue. Can you imagine that? I think they are worth keeping, but Leroy thinks it is a pain to take them apart and put them together.

Paula

Redbud Rules

Hello,

There is a redbud festival in Chariton. They have some activities, but mostly for children. I personally think they should make a requirement that all homes have at least one redbud on the property so that they could make it into a larger affair and attract more tourists. One of the neighboring towns does that with mass tulip plantings. It is quite popular.

There are some problems with this plan. The first problem is that redbuds do not bloom exactly on schedule. Tulips do not either, but they can ship them in from Holland. Blooming trees would be a harder shipment. Someone commented that this year was almost a perfect match for the blooms and the festival. The second problem is that someone would have to think of some interesting activities for adults, because unfortunately, just looking at beauty is not enough to hold people’s interest for very long. The third problem is that someone would have to be in charge. The fourth problem is that someone might think it is government interference if they are required to plant and care for a redbud. So that gets rid of that brilliant idea in a hurry. But wait there is the Cherry tree celebration in DC. How do they get that figured out?

Just as a side note there are many redbud trees in town and they are beautiful. Added to that is a variety of other blooming trees. It is fun to go around town just to see what is there.

Seasons are a good thing. The flowers are so beautiful after such a long absence. Not sure they would be so noticeable if they were here all of the time.

Paula

Redbud Trees

Hello,

The redbuds are in full bloom here. It is beautiful. The state park has many of them sprinkled in the timber. They grow at the mid height so as you look through the trees they create a band of color.

The water was glass still with the reflection there to double the effect. It was great to see people out fishing. Hopefully they were drinking in the beauty surrounding them.

You can see some of the trees at http://picasaweb.google.com/psbradway/RedBuds#

I did have to eliminate one picture as I looked rather sour and unhappy. It would not do for you to get that impression of me.

However these computer issues could create that look permanently.

I tried to upload the pictures to Facebook, but had no success. First I did not have the proper file downloaded (I thought it should have been good since I just recently uploaded some things.) Then I had to check in as the administrator so I could download the file. Back to the guest where I had stored the pictures, upload attempt, and learn that there is an error and it would not work. For the moment I am abandoning any more tries. There is only so much failure that I can endure with the computer.

I did print off my contact lists for three of my email accounts. I have corrected two of them. Some were duplicates; some were addresses that had no name so there was no way to identify them. At least it is easy to write to them. One of the lists is on 31 pages with just six names on a page. I have not tackled that yet. The other lists were two or four pages. It seemed more manageable to me. For reasons not know to me I have some names on one list that Leroy might have written to, but I can not imagine why I would have them. Leroy swears that he did not use my account. Could he had forgotten or not even noticed? Anyway I deleted those names. My list is now shorter by 20 people. How is that for progress?

Paula

computer mysteries

Hello,

On Friday I was looking at my yahoo mail account when a screen came up asking if I wanted to close the tabs. I selected cancel thinking that I would just continue. In a matter of seconds the entire machine was shutting down, followed by a short rest, before the computer turned back on without being prompted by me. When I got back to yahoo mail I discovered that I could not reply, forward, or create a new email. After sending out my letter on my other accounts and posting it on the blog I talked Leroy into going over to church with me to see if I would have better luck with yahoo there as I had forwarded the letter to that account. I need Leroy because there is a password at church and I do not really want to know that, then they can never accuse me of doing anything with the computer.

For reasons not know to me at the time there was no trouble using yahoo. Back home yesterday the problems were still there. After clicking on more images than I care to count I finally got into yahoo help to learn that it might be a problem with the browser that I was using. When I changed the browser I could again use it. That is a relief; we were beginning to think that there was another virus on this computer in spite of our precautions. Maybe all of this is just another good brain cell growing technique. Surely I am smarter now than I was two days ago. If nothing else I am learning new lessons in patience.

I have taken some more pictures of the flower in my house that is now fully open. It is quite beautiful. Barb, thank you for this wonderful gift. It has taken it three years, but it is well worth the wait. The address is http://picasaweb.google.com/psbradway/CliviaAmaryllidaceae#

Leroy has ridden his bike a few times this spring and I went out for five miles for the first ride of the season. It was nice to get out even if my neck/shoulder hurt a bit afterwards. I also notice the tingling in my wrist. Maybe I should get a recumbent.

Paula

Life in a Small Town

Hello,

Coming home from looking at the blue heron rookery, we followed a tractor pulling a disk and an ammonia tank. The road was small and it was not possible to go around this rather slow moving machine. The far reaching arms of the disk were folded up to the sky. As we went into town the guy would move into the middle of the road or even on the left side of the road.

“Did you see how close that disk came to the wire?” I asked.

No one else had noticed, but after that we watched carefully. Some passes made us gasp as the tractor went under them. It looked impossible to get by without snagging the wires. We were not sure that they were electric wires, but he managed to miss everyone. As someone said, “He must have done this before. That is why he is moving around the road.” After a bit he pulled off and we were able to get by.

In other machine related news, we have Brian’s old car. It was really our car before we went to Slovakia. Unfortunately before we could get it home it developed a problem with the turn signal. Brian got an estimate from his car repair person in the Cities. That came to about $250. We took it to our local friendly repair guy. The total bill came to $150. There are sometimes advantages to living in a smaller place. We are pleased that we did not have Brian get it repaired.

Moving on to a machine of a different type, I went to get a movie from Redbox. They have a touch screen that for some reason is difficult for Leroy and I to use. Either the numbers will not come in or we get a string of the same number. Today, after starting over at least three times, I think my fingernail hit the one above and I got two letters that I did not want. The woman working in the service area of the store came out and helped me. She had absolutely no trouble. GRR. I think she really is not responsible for this box and did not have to do this good deed. I am happy that she did. It seemed she used the tip of her finger more than the pad as I was doing. Next time I will have to try that to see it goes better.

Paula

Walking on the dike

Hello,

One of my yoga friends does some work for the conservation people. She makes observations. I do not totally understand that, but she knows some good places to go see nature at its finest. This morning after yoga, three of us headed off to some little know wetlands.

As we started on the dike Meg commented, “Look out for ticks.”

Basically I paid little attention to that as I think it is too early for ticks to be functioning.

We quickly saw ducks and some geese. At the side there was much evidence of beavers working some time ago. They had dropped a number of trees. I could not figure out why they would do that and just leave them. It did not seem like typical animal activity. Meg said, “Notice that there are no branches on the trees. It is probably because they have eaten the smaller more tender twigs.”

Then it was on to the blue heron rookery. There were no birds flying around this area so we thought we would not disturb them. Meg noticed some blue heron flying from the other side of the dike. “They might have moved their rookery,” she speculated.

Sure enough we saw them going to partially leaf hidden nests in a dead tree beyond us. They flew in gracefully and sat on or by the nest for a short time before they departed. I took pictures, but I cannot see either nest or birds even though I know they were there. Isn’t it great that our eyes work as well as they do?

On the walk back going into a head wind we saw a small animal run out of the trees in a distance, then it was followed by several deer and another small animal. Meg, after considering a bobcat or cougar, identified the smaller animal as a coyote. It stopped and looked back at some more deer following it. She thought we were scaring them even though we were a good distance from them.
On the drive home Meg found at least five crawling ticks in her hair or on her arm. She then reported that the reason she had talked about ticks at first was because one was making its way up her pant leg.

At home I did a strip search with the help of Leroy. He found one on the back of my thigh. Creepy!

Here are the pictures that I took.
http://picasaweb.google.com/psbradway/Birds2010Spring#

Paula

Leroy's Feet

Hello,

Leroy met with a foot doctor today. He was getting quite anxious about it thinking that he might do some surgery. Leroy pictured himself lying around moaning with his foot elevated or hobbling around for days. At it turns out this guy is all for nonaggressive treatment. He cut off this dead skin thing (Leroy can’t remember the name) growing on the side of Leroy’s little toe. He recommended Leroy do the same as it will probably return. Seems to me the tricky part of that is keeping flexible enough to reach his foot to cut it off. I envision a future of Leroy saying, “Paula, would you cut off this growth?”

Maybe I should tell him to do yoga as I might cut off more than is required. But then the idea of doing minor surgery appeals to me. Who knows? It might give me some leverage.

Then one of Leroy’s big toe nails is incredibly ugly because it has been removed at least twice and grown in malformed. Sometimes it is too tall so Leroy uses a small, small sander to file it off. The doctor said, “I do not like to do that because it makes so much dust, but you can keep doing that on your own.”

Then the last concern is that Leroy has toenail fungus. Since it is so stubborn he did not recommend much but tea tree oil rubbed on it. Leroy is going to give that a try.

Consequently, all of his angst came to naught. That is good. At least now the side of his foot does not hurt since that growth was cut off. He can do anything that he wants to do such as walk, ride the bike, and get disgusted with me.

Paula

Green Paint

Hello,

The room that houses the computer used to be a green, a yellowish green that no one in the congregation liked. So it was repainted. I had gotten used to it, consequently I was not bothered either way.

We have a porch swing that had been my parents’. We think it is over twenty years old. It is rotting and needed to be painted. “We do not need to move it again,” I assured Leroy, “but I would like to paint it.”

There is a lot of paint in this house from who knows what source. Leroy figured it would be ok to use some of it. Since we know the green is not a popular color we chose that. There was a small part of a gallon and an additional almost full gallon.

This afternoon we painted most of the swing. The green certainly looks better outside than it did inside. We figure that it does not matter if it washes off as we can repaint multiple times with our rich supply of paint. We did not finish the swing, but will do that fun job tomorrow. We may even give it two coats.

Do you have anything you might like painted green?

“I suppose it looks so good now that you will want to move it,” Leroy grumbled.

“Depends on where we are going, how much room there is in the truck, and if there is a place to put it,” I said, “But probably we can just leave it.”

We do eat on it every once in a while. It sits in the grass so it will not have a much longer life. For some reason I seldom sit on it. I guess I am not one to just sit outside without something to do. Reading in the sunlight bothers me. So when I am not moving around I am indoors.

Paula

Reading Material

Hello,

It is time to read some of the things that have been around for some time. So today I finished a Lutheran Women Magazine that can be returned to its owner. Then it was on to a Yoga magazine. It is not finished, but soon it will be so it can also be returned to its owner. Next it was time to finish reading a theological argument about the stance of the bible on homosexuality. That could also be returned to its owner, Leroy. The upshot of the paper is that it is not obvious. Not surprisingly words are not so clearly translatable from another language and time. Seems to me we have some trouble in the same language, time, and face to face.

There is more to read in You can’t afford the luxury of a negative thought. That has been on the reading pile for a long time as it is read in spurts of energy, but only a few pages a day since it is more of an attitude fix. Then there is the book about antagonists in the church. Plus daily prayers are read from A Forgiving Heart edited by my friend Lyn Klug. Every morning Leroy and I read devotions that include Bible passages, prayers and singing (he sings, I play the piano).

Each day the newspaper is read from cover to cover with some articles skipped and some skimmed. But the comics are covered more carefully, looking for that laughable item.

Animal, vegetable, miracle is half finished, but put aside. Partly because I agree with the philosophy, but have not the will to live that way.

Just for fun I will start reading Flight of Passage by Rinker Buck. This was recommended by the person who loaned it to me.

Who has time for TV?

Paula

Random thoughts

Hello,

Babysitting and substitute teaching have something in common. Neither a babysitter nor a sub knows exactly how the usual authority person crossed their t’s.

Olivia wanted her doll wrapped in a blanket for the night. When presented with my wrapping job, she informed me that it was not right. Rewrapping gave the results of still not right. One more time for the rewrap, but it was still not right. Now I had to keep my temper under a tight wrap. One more time not right and I had to explain to Olivia that I was not mom, and I was doing the best that I knew. Finally she let it go with just a few tears and baleful looks. I remembered being in the elementary classrooms and being told that it was not like the teacher did it. After a time I got so I told the students up front that I did not know how their teacher did everything, but I would try my best. Usually that helped to pave the way.

For Easter it is great to have a meal planner come visit. I do not like to plan meals. Actually I do not like to plan much of anything. I would rather do. When Brian and Jen came I took Brian to the grocery store to buy the things that I do not usually get such as meat, sugar peanut butter, and cereal. Brian first made meal plans, picked out the things, and then ended up doing most of the preparation. I was quite happy to just follow orders. Such as cut up this onion, or stir the pot. It worked out well. I told Miriam she should do the same when she visits and she informed me that she did not want to visit if that was required.

I think she is more like me in the meal planning territory. We do it at the last minute or almost the last minute.

Pictures of our Easter festivities are up on the following web site.
http://picasaweb.google.com/psbradway/Easter2010#
The first picture is my plant that is blooming after living with me for three years. I am so pleased with it.

Paula

Observations

Hello,

Family and simple pleasures are the best.

Absence does lead to joy when revisiting.

Color adds beauty.

New hope comes with a bud opening.

Laughter is a universal language.

Frustration takes energy.

Deep breathing energizes.

Talking is a gift not to be taken lightly.

Cars are just machines.

Opportunities abound.

Perfectionism is a curse and a blessing.

Sticks can be moved.

The earth is pliable.

Time is elastic.

Have a great day.

Paula