We Are Still Here

Hello,

 

On Saturday we drove two hours to see Logan play in a soccer game. His team lost, but he played well. He got sick during the night and apparently he was worried that he might have Covid and we might catch it from him. It is not a likely scenario as the game was outside and we never spent any time indoors with him. We barely even touched. During the game we were a good distance from him. As it turns out it was “just a cold”.

 

On Sunday we stopped at the garden on the way home from church. There were many green beans there. We picked enough for lunch and returned in the evening to strip the plants. The beans were tasty.

 

Monday we were doing the pressure canning. Leroy went to the store to get jar lids. He went to two stores before he found any. These were wide mouth of which I had plenty so we will take those back. Jar lids are apparently hard to get. One store person told him that from time to time they get a small order in. The other commented that it has been scarce for over a year. I found enough wide mouth jars to get seven quarts done. If I see jar lids in the store, I will buy some more. I do not like the idea of buying ahead or hording, but this is my plan.

 

I went and got my Covid booster today. It was quick and easy. There is certainly not a big line of people. In fact I was the only one there.

 

I will get my flu shot in about two weeks. We are still wearing masks at indoor public places. That should help hold the flu in check a bit as well.

 

Paula

Church Flower Garden

Hello,

 

Today, Leroy and I loaded up on tools to take to the church flower garden so we could extract some spend milkweed. We are not sure we like it in this place, because it keeps sending up shoots in random spots. As it turned out most of the diggers were not used, but a lot of pulling and pruning. In the meantime we learned that we could dead head the mums. That was quite a chore as there were many blossoms that were done and many plants to attend to. We know we did not get them all, but they look much better. That is quite satisfying. There are good feelings that go with helping out. In exchange we were treated to lunch. Seemed like a fair exchange to us or almost too much in our favor. After that we contributed a bit of help for the meals that are handed out at the door tomorrow night. Leroy wants a day off, but he was quite happy to do these things. It helps us to feel needed .

 

Then at home, Leroy got the inspiration to cut off that branch that was touching our internet cable. After moving the ladder three times he got the job done. I was happy to have that over. Leroy was a bit nervous on the ladder and I pick up on those feelings. I held the ladder, but you know that I could not have stopped any falling. At least I could hand him the loppers and steady the ladder.

 

Paula

Cancellation

Hello,

 

After getting myself ready to go to that appointment, I learned today it was cancelled. That gave me time to do something else, but I have not yet figured out what.

 

I did make granola, and wash two loads of laundry which dried very nicely it the warm, dry autumn air. This time of year is so refreshing. I even dusted a bit of furniture. Not quite sure how it happened, but the weekly dusting does not get done even though dust continues to reproduce covering many surfaces. Too bad I do not have the power to cancel dust accumulation. Someday I might hire a cleaner. But will I be like others and clean ahead of the scheduled visit?

 

I like to hang out clothes and to bring them in. it seems to me that folding them is the least interesting part of the laundry task. However, because of the open shelves in the kitchen, folding is vital for the neat look even if there is dust around the house.

 

Wonderful, today is the last day to put drops in my first surgery eye. Two weeks from now both eyes will be done. That should be a good day. Leroy and I will not have to exercise our memory so much. Eye drops will be cancelled.

 

We have a new co worker at my job. She is so young I could be her great grandmother if the time line were squeezed a bit. Her mother is younger than my youngest co worker who is in her 40’s. Where do these young people come from? Not going to cancel youth.

 

Paula

Talk to me

Hello,

 

I have an appointment tomorrow at a new place where I do not know the area. I had another errand in that direction so decided to figure out where to go. For some reason my phone lady was not talking to me. That was definitely a problem because readers could be on and the road was not visible, or no glasses and the phone was not visible. Getting close and then checking the phone seemed like the best idea if I did not see a sign. I did just that, but still that did not help me find that left turn. I went past the turn off and came back. Now that I was traveling on the right side of the road I saw the sign. From time to time neither of our phones will talk to us. Pride rode with me as my phone has been functioning quite well lately. Pride before a fall? Makes sense?

 

I did go into the phone map voice setting and adjust; now at home, when I do not need talk, it will talk. I just hope it stays there until I need it again. Surely pride will have to find another ride?

 

Paula

Community Garden

Hello,

 

Sometimes it is hard to realize that a blessing can also be a burden. Right now the garden feels like a burden. There are not so many people using the produce, perhaps because we have moved two times in recent years. There is no sign at the garden at the moment so it is not always know just what space it is.

 

I walked home past the garden and sampled a green bean as well as some small tomatoes. Those beans were delicious. I posted that there are plenty there. Tomorrow morning I will go there to see what is still there. If need be, I will pick enough to can. As I might have mentioned before I do not really like to work to pick the beans and give them away although I will do that from time to time. Leroy is off tomorrow so we could get this done in the morning and then I can still go to work in the afternoon/evening. On a day like this retirement looks much more appealing.

 

There is also broccoli to pick. It is probably enough for two nice sized meals. I did not look over the pepper plants, but brought one home that was on the end plant. Something had bitten this pepper, but apparently did not like it because there were just the teeth holes with no missing pieces. What would do that?

 

I am always pushing or trying to convince people to take red Russian kale, but it is a slow mover. We eat quite a bit of that.

 

Wasting food is not good in my opinion, but what to do with some of it? I give away what I can.

 

Paula

Riding My Bike

Hello,

 

There were some special activities at the museum today. I went with Leroy, in part because, he did not think so many people would attend this lecture which was on John Amos Comenious. The speaker was Slovak. His English was good, but not so much the calm quiet delivery. I had a little trouble keeping my mind on the proceedings.

 

I left after that. Leroy said the next talk was on the native costumes of Slovakia and the Czech Republic. That was very well attended and the room was packed. Many people were wearing some of the costumes and the woman who spoke could relate many interesting facts.

 

 We rode our bikes to the library. This is my first time on the bike since my eye surgery. What a pleasant surprise! I could see ahead of me without tilting my head up, my eyes would roll up and do the job. I also felt that it was easy to balance with this new sharper view.

 

Before this only the middle of my glasses was accessible for distance viewing so I had to tilt my head up which made my neck hurt. Years ago, it helped when I got modified handle bars which allowed me to sit more upright, but this is much better. Now I need to ride more to strength my legs.

 

Paula

Driving after Three weeks off

Hello,

 

I drove to work yesterday. It seems it was probably safer than before I had my surgery. I could more easily read signs. One thing that was a little bothersome was that all of the cars looked so much bigger, so I assumed they were closer than they were. It was even fine to drive home in the dark. The oncoming car lights bothered a little, but not much, nothing like it had been.

 

Monday, when I went to work I only took two of my selection of readers. Yesterday all three went with me, but I only used one of the ones I had taken on Monday. For some reason on Monday I wanted the pair I did not have with me. Is that how it goes sometimes?

 

Leroy took me to the eye dr. for another check up. Everything was good and I am almost at 20/20. It has been years since that was the case. I cannot remember how far down on the charts I could read, but this was amazing to see the bottom line. There were two letters that I was unsure about, the rest were all good.

 

I will go back to the Dr. in four weeks, at which point things should be quite healed. Then bifocals might be my wish, but then maybe not. In the past, I have appreciated having my glasses on from the time I get up in the morning, because they included sunglasses. Now I feel like I am fussing with glasses all the time. A string around my neck helps, but not so much to switch to sunglasses. I certainly have a lot of options.

 

Paula

How Did this Happen

Hello,

 

One thing about my new better vision is that I can see many more wrinkles on my face, plus I have bags under my eyes. Wow, look at that quick change. But maybe you saw that change long before I did.

 

Driving next week seems like a very real possibility. The distance view is great. If the dashboard is clear, I am good to go. I see the eye doctor in the coming week and will learn about how well the eyes are doing and when there will be enough healing so I can be fitted with bifocals.

 

I contacted the ISU students who put in the little free library. The doors are a problem. We do not expect them to fix it, but we think they should know about it if they want to do more of them. The student who stopped this morning took some notes and had good questions. I am sure their next project will be improved. The chosen wood was not a good one.

 

I do know what day it was 20 years ago. I also wonder how many others have died in the intervening years because of people being uncaring about others. As a species we do not do well taking care of all. Love is not the driving force behind so many words or actions.

 

Paula

Two Good Eyes

Hello,

 

My surgery on the second cataract went well even though the schedule was quite delayed. It was a bit of a mental exercise to wait about 45 minutes to an hour, but possible. I certainly liked it better the first time when all went forward smoothly and ended quickly. This time I was getting hungry. I had not eaten anything since 6:00pm. It was a bit after 1:00 pm the next day when we got home and I could eat. Luckily we had some things to just gather and eat.

 

I am now working on getting my blood pressure under control. I believe a contributing factor is anxiety so I am addressing that issue. Are we an anxious household? Leroy is already there, but mostly that is created by the medicine he takes.

 

I can see wonderfully well in the distance. Colors are bright and clear in a way they have not been for years. Everything looks so large. Was I seeing smaller than real because of my near sightedness? Plates and silverware are much larger as is the TV.

 

Now if I can just figure out the readers I will be in good shape. More and more I think I will get some blended lens bifocals. Right now I keep trying to put on glasses when I get up in the morning. It almost does not seem right that I can see without glasses.

 

Leroy is delivering the neighborhood newsletter. Usually that is my job. He helps some, but I do most of it. I will help some on another day when I am a bit more ready to do a longer walk.

 

Paula

No Sabbath?

Hello,

 

Resolves not met! This morning we only washed two loads of clothes and hung them out. Leroy swept the bathroom and kitchen floors. He also vacuumed the carpeting. Seems like working to me. He also took care of some requests for money, both as donations and bills. Leroy looked over the folder of donations and made a list so we can easily see what and how much we have donated this year. We got a couple cards ready to mail and I did Tai Chi.

 

This afternoon will be a little quieter as there will only be lunch to make and dishes to wash along with drops in both my eyes.

 

Leroy is reading now. I have also spent a little time reading so that is good.

 

I got a call from my primary care physician’s office reminding me of my next appointment. I am not sure how it escaped my attention, but it is on the day of my next cataract surgery so that will have to be changed, but it will wait until tomorrow. Leroy thinks I might be a little distracted.

 

Last night in the middle of the night I thought of the fact that I needed to start drops in my second eye this morning. There are only two drops, but one bottle is not out because I have stopped using it. I had to get up and do a search for it so I could calm down enough o go back to sleep. This morning Leroy told me he knew where it was, course he put it there. I thought he might since he took care of it, but I did not want to wake him so I went on the hunt.

 

 

Relax! Relax! Easier said than done!

 

Paula

Sabbath

Hello,

 

I say I do not believe in working on the Sabbath. Big words that are hard to stick to sometimes. Today it was not true. We had quite a few tomatoes in the house that needed attention. Last night we gave some away to a neighbor, but not all. I walked home from church past the garden. I stayed for a book club and Leroy came home ahead of me.

 

I could tell someone had picked many of the larger tomatoes as those vines looked a bit empty. There were some green beans and I saw a larger broccoli head. A fellow neighbor was there. He told me someone in a very nice truck had come and picked tomatoes yesterday. It is a bit of tension between the idea that the garden is for everyone, no questions and that it should be for those who cannot easily afford their food. We had talked to a neighbor and encouraged him to go to the garden. He has a nice truck, but lives in a very small house, so is he rich?

 

Leroy too had stopped by the garden and noticed the smaller tomatoes. We decided to go pick and then can tomatoes. As I picked up tomato vines, I kept finding more and more tomatoes. We picked and picked. There was a lot of small heads or shoots of broccoli, but I think no one picks it. We also picked enough green beans for at least two meals. On the way home we found one neighbor who took three tomatoes and no one else was out.

 

In the end we canned seven more quarts. Leroy declared, “Tomorrow is the Sabbath.”

 

Paula

Life Goes On

Hello,

 

We cut into that giant turnip. It cut fairly easily. I tasted some raw. It was quite easy to chew, not woody, but a little hot. Leroy chopped up about half of it and we created a dish with turnip as the main ingredient. We liked it. It seemed like an adventure to eat it.

 

Our new bed came on the first of the month. We had two surprises. One the base which would raise and low the head, was too large to come up the stairs. We had them take it back. We got a refund, but with, in my opinion, a rather large, restocking fee. Not fair! We will work on getting rid of the fee. The other thing was that it is a sleep number bed, but we only have one “bladder” so only one number works for the entire bed. Apparently we ordered a full instead of a double. Who knew? There was a salesperson who ordered it. We went to the store today, but she was not there. The guy we spoke with seemed sympathetic, but he did not have enough power to change anything. Later, we will once again have to work on that.

 

Yesterday I worked and it was a fine experience. So wonderful to reconnect with my coworkers! I could see my laptop at work so much better than this one at home. I could even do some cataloging. I am not driving so Leroy took me and picked me up. He will do the same tomorrow. While I was there someone donated some young adult books. They were fairly recent issues so I bought them for the little free library at home. I put three of them out and all of them are gone tonight so I put out two more. I like that feeling of having something out there that someone wants.

 

It is so nice to see the changing rocks. Every day or two there are some different ones. Tonight there is only one in there, but this morning there were three. The supply goes on and on.

 

Paula

What Color is that?

Hello,

 

With my new lens I am seeing things in a different light. Or perhaps it is just the absence of the cataract. It amazes me to think that I would have sworn that the mattress pad is a certain color only to find that is now in question. How many times have I corrected Leroy on this take on the color of something? It was quite a few times and I did it with a great sense of rightness.

 

Is that how we go through life, sure of our firm stance in the right corner because of how we see the world? This is a very unsettling thought. The next thought is how can I be more open to the opinion of others? Especially considering that they may see things in a different, but just as right to them, manner?

 

I was so sure that Leroy must be a little color blind in the sense that he could not tell what is what. Course then too color names are a minefield of paint samples.

 

There must be a standard of color shades and names, but who sets that up?

 

Paula