Snow and Flowers

Hello,

I hear many complaints about the cold and the snow that we have been experiencing in April. For some reason it does not bother me so much. Again I think about how little I really have to experience it as I have a warm house, warm car, and warm clothes. There was not so much wind so even walking to church was quite comfortable. One thing is for sure with these temperatures I do not have to fight for my space on the sidewalk as others avoid the outdoors.

On the way home from church I walked by a house where many interesting things grow. Sure enough some brave yellow buds were coming up close to the ground. They were far enough from the sidewalk that I was not sure if they were crocus or not, but it seemed likely.

Sunday afternoon it started to snow. Because the street and sidewalk had retained some of the heat from yesterday’s sun the snow did not pile up there even though the grass and trees collected quite a lot. One thing nice about the spring snows is that we do not have to shovel. Although I like to shovel so I do miss it a little. It is so satisfying to see the clear space open up behind me when I look back.

The pink Christmas cactus is once again starting to bloom. There are at least five buds opening and perhaps ten more on the way to becoming real. One bud is on the white cactus. It can’t keep up, but needs to feel worthy of its existence.

Paula

Library Plant

Hello,

One library plant has not thrived, in fact it has lost a third of itself. I am not sure what it is called. It could be the pony tail plant or red-margined dracaena. Because it does not have a swollen stem base I consider it not a good possibility for the pony tail plant. However that base stores water and this plant has been frequently over watered. Once I had to take it out and let it sit outside to drain off after I had dumped water out of the base. I am not sure how it got so much water, but I would suspect people were dumping their water bottles in there when they did not want to drink all of the water.

My boss said, “That plant needs to go in the garbage.”

“I could take it home and compost it,” I volunteered.

She rolled her eyes a little at me and repeated, “In the compost?”

She knows me too well. That plant is still in my house languishing in a corner.

I wonder about cutting the stem and starting a new one as well as repotting it. I have not found information that tells me it would be ok to cut the stem and re-root. I will repot when the weather is better and I can tend to the mess outside. Most of the plants that come to my house live a much longer life and some even look much better. There are two plants at the library that I did cut off stems and they now look great. One is so perfect that several people wondered if it were fake. The plant hospital is open, but not for violets. My parent violet is struggling to survive. The two violet shoots look as if they might make it, but I am not betting on them yet.

Paula

Missing Sock

Hello,

Because the carcinoma was taken off Leroy’s shin the surgeon suggested that he get some compression socks. Even though our friends recommended getting some for the long flight to Europe, we did not do that. Now I am thinking we could have gotten a bit more wear out of them.

Leroy only got two pairs as he felt he could wash them out over night. Instead I did a load of black clothing and included them. That was easy, but hard on my sense of schedule as I “never” wash clothes in the evening. I had some wool socks in there that I always hang up so I decided to hang these as well since they needed a cool dryer. One pair was up on the rack very quickly, followed by one sock. I kept expecting to find the fourth sock, but it did not appear. I went back and searched in the washer, followed by a search in the dryer. Then I checked the clothes rack carefully, but that sock did not appear. I have heard all about socks disappearing in the wash, but I had not often experienced that, especially after our children left home. I complained to Leroy, “Where could it be?”

Leroy looked in the same places, but also did not find it. I finally got a flash light and found that sock hanging on the bottom of the clothes rack in plain sight!

Today I washed those socks again and looked for them so I could hang them on the rack. But one sock was missing. I checked the dryer and found it tucked up against another item that could take a little more heat. I rescued it and put it on the rack to dry. Do you think it just does not like the rack? Sound too much like a torture device?

Paula

Friday Shopping

Hello,

The first part of my shopping moved quite speedily. I do not spend much time looking at things that are not on my list. As I have mentioned before shopping is not something high on my list of fun activities.

At the grocery store I was amazed at the number of cars in the parking lot. “What was going on?” I wondered. In the store it was not much of a deal until I got to the check out where many people seemed to have landed at once. They opened an additional lane, but people ahead of me moved over there. I looked at the other lines and decided to stay where I was. In this store we put our own groceries up on the conveyer belt. The woman ahead of the woman ahead of me had not removed anything from her almost full cart and it was her turn. I grabbed my purse off my cart, slipped ahead of the woman ahead and told the other woman I would help her unload her cart, both to move the line and I was wondering if she has some not obvious health issues. She did not seem pleased with the help. “Do you think it will take so long?” she asked.

Because she had not told me to help or not, I said, “Well it could be awhile,” as I started putting her things on the belt while the checker was waiting for some action.

This woman did not crack a smile or seem pleased, so I suppose I overstepped my bounds. However the woman ahead of me smiled broadly as I proceeded back to my cart.

While I was putting my groceries up the checker moved one of those portable dividers in the slot and come close to getting my fingers. She apologized. I said, “You missed me, you will have to try harder next time.”

The people, who were close enough to hear, burst out laughing.

The car needed gas and the station on the way home had a good price so I pulled up to the pump only to see, after I got out in the cold gale blowing on the top of the hill that I was driving the car with the gas cap on the other side of the car. I burst out laughing at myself.

For some reason it took some thought about how I should maneuver around to be properly lined up for fueling. I put in my card. The display on the pump wanted my zip code, and did I have my rewards card. I had already done this before. My poor fingers and head were complaining about the cold, but I got that done.  Now, however, it did not work saying my credit card was not valid. I groaned and hopped in the car driving to a station that was close but beyond my home from this direction.

At least here the wind was not so fierce and I felt much more comfortable going through the steps, however this time I told the pump that I had a debit card, which I really did not; I had gotten the wrong button. Now I must see the attendant. She asked, “How can I help?”

When I told her about my dilemma she just laughed with me. I asked to do a prepay which was not a big issue. Finally I got gas in the car and I could go home.

Paula

Saturday Work

Hello,

Last Saturday, I was relaxed in my preparations to go to work because I leave an hour later on Saturday. I had a vague feeling that I was forgetting something, but did not think of anything important. After I got to work and started settling in I realized that I had forgotten to bring my lunch. I could buy lunch in town, but I was the only one working on Saturday, so leaving the library was not an option.

Sometimes someone will bring some random food item to share with people at the library. I was hoping Saturday would be the day. However, no one got my mental message.

I was grateful that I had filled my snack bag with the nut and date mixture. They were my morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack. Certainly not much variety, but filling none the less.

I was not very busy with patrons, but had a bit of my desk work to do so I was able to keep myself busy. It seemed to me to be an interesting observation that almost all of the patrons before noon were males. In the afternoon most were female with children. Could one make a theory about such? If so, what would those theories be since we really have no idea why anyone chose the time.

One of the women, who came in the afternoon, an older woman, was disappointed that my boss was not there because she wanted some help with her husband’s tablet. “Do you know much about computers?” she asked.

“Depends on what the problem is,” I responded.

“It will not let him on Fb,” she said.

She had the password so we could open the tablet. She then said, “It is in airplane mode. Why he would do that I do not know.”

I was able to show her how to get out of airplane mode and how to turn on the wifi. She had a password for his FB account, but the message was that it was incorrect. I told her, “If you get the right password from him, it should work. Or this is how you get a new password from the company.”

I hope it all worked, at least I did not hear from her again. I was pleased with myself. There were many things she could have needed for which I would have been no help. Did I look smarter than I am?

Paula

Bradway Health Report

Hello,

Leroy has had the second squamous cell carcinoma removed from his leg. It was a small one and it only took one pass to eliminate it. He is in no pain although he is supposed to treat it with respect and not do any biking for three weeks. He cried a little about that, but recovered from that loss. The surgeon also told Leroy that he can expect more of these visitors on his legs as he has already had two in about the same spot.

Yesterday after the extraction, he stayed home and watched movies. He tells me he was quite tired in the evening. I personally suspect that it was from too much inactivity. His spirit does not know how to handle that. Today he went back to work with the idea that he would put his leg up when he could. Those mostly sit down jobs can be done with a certain amount of disability.

Last night I got up to go to the bathroom. We never turn on lights for such a trek. My toes smacked into a bookcase in the hall. It was quite a toe stub pain that shot up to my brain. “Pay attention!” was the response from the head.

I managed to miss any other hazards on the rest of the trip. However my toes still hurt after I got in bed, but not enough to keep me awake for long. This morning when I stepped on that poor abused foot, I could still feel some discomfort. It was particularly noticeable in morning Tai Chi class as the toes are bent in various poses. Healing will come and I have learned a lesson for a while, “Pay attention when walking around in almost darkness.” In time I will feel totally confident and zoom along at a reckless speed and disregard once more.

Paula

Easter Sunday Morning

Hello,

We set the alarm early so Leroy could get to church on time. He was assisting at the 8:00 service. He plans to get there an hour early to tend to any last minute details as well as gather his thoughts to the appropriate venue. I did not have to be there until 8:45 to participate in singing the Halleluiah Chorus at the end of the 8:00 service.

Since we were not leaving at the same time I just got breakfast ready and helped him in any way that he needed so he could leave the house at 6:30 for his cold, brisk, early morning walk. It was 17 degrees F. when we got up. All went smoothly and he left the house on time, he probably even got there ahead of time.

I then cleaned up the kitchen, selected and gathered my clothes, took a shower, figured out that I needed a backpack to carry my dress shoes, got out my walking shoes, got out my coat, hat, and scarf. As I usually do I combed out my hair putting it in place so it would look ok when dry.

Leroy and I had read the devotions, but now I reread them as I usually do with an additional time of meditating and writing in my journal.

I looked at the clock and saw that it was ten after. With thoughts of “Oh no how did it get so late?” I hurriedly put on my warm outer wear and sped out the door for the mile walk to church.

On the way I saw no other people walking and no cars until I came to the main drag where there were only three cars in sight. At the church there were almost no cars in the parking lot. Inside I could tell that no service was in progress. That mystified me as the first service should be almost finished. I was getting ready to take off my coat when another person came in the coat rack area. Finally I asked her, “What time is it?”

She looked at her watch and said, “It is 7:30.”

Oh no, I was at church an hour and fifteen minutes early. What now? I did not have anything to do during that time so I just turned around and walked back home. Arriving in enough time to make the bed and read for almost 25 minutes before I headed back out. That meant that I got in a three mile walk before the service.

The real downer is that my hair was still a little damp when I set out the first time. Because it was so cold I had to pull my hood close to be comfortable. When that happens with my hair, it flattens into some odd postures and will not rebound.

I wore a dress and I am grateful for the legwarmers that I bought a couple years ago. I was prepared to be outside for so long.

Consequently it was a bad hair day for me, but a wonderful Easter. As is often true, the service moved and touched my soul.

Paula