People have been telling me I need to post again, so I will.
Faune Gerber says that she can't comment on my posts now. I was getting some terrible comments from some vulgar commoner who shall remain anoymus, and Steve set up my blog to be for only those who I give a special sign-in route to.
I don't mind people commenting, but some opinions just don't need to be aired on a blog that reaches many people. Lynn knows who I'm talking about.
There was a yelling match between Colton Smith and Janie at Creekside, and he wound up stomping out and quitting. That meant that he was also not going to rent the trailer from me. He and his woman plan to go back to South Carolina or North Carolina one, which is where they formerly lived. There's a drug culture there that is all-invasive, and his mother and I are afraid that he will lapse back into usage, which had landed him in prison before. He had a felony conviction when he was 19, and now he's 23, with no credit, no job, no car, no home, a bad attitude towards society, a 4-year-old child, and is living with either his parents or hers. His mother, Dena, is an emergency-room nurse, and she told me she had to sign a paper saying that she would not eat the groceries bought with Colton's food stanps. Just how crazy is this? It would seem to the folks down at the food stamp office that when someone comes in with tattoos, piercings all over, at least one bastard child, no car, no job, a live-in, thier pants down to their knees, and at least one felony conviction, that they'd not be too consciencious about who eats their food.
I love my country, but I fear our government
Everything has gotten turned upside down.
We got the kitchen floor back down, and I super-insulated the walls. It makes a world of difference.
Janie and I went to Southeasterm Salvage and bought the moulding and corner pieces to match, and I painted them with pearlizing finish. They look magnificient.
Joy, Janie's sister, came from North Carolina for a visit, and she loved the finish. She's interested in renting my trailer, and she picked out wall paper to cover the walls. She can't stand the dark paneling. She also picked out some ceiling medallions for her light fixtures, and she asked me if I'd pearlize them for her. I got up early this morning and put the primer coat on them. One of them had been painted with some ugly yellow paint (they're both salvaged). She willl make me a good tennant, though she can't afford much rent. But I want to help her, and she's lonely living in North Carolina. She comes often to visit Janie, and we have become like one big, happy, loud family.
I saw Barbara at the Down Home last night, and her hair looked like she'd been rode hard and put up wet. Darla Daniel is out of town a lot with Muriel, and Barbara just can't get top the beauty salon. She never does her own hair, and it just doesn't keep. She was there with the Republican Women's meeting. They want me to join, but I just don't have the time.
There was freezing rain during the night, and the Daniel p0astures, across tghe highway, are glazed over with the white ice crystals. It looks like a light snow, but is far more trecherous.
The Family Dollar and the IGA did a brisk business last evening, as soon as the prediction came of freezing rain.
Steve and I are home, safe, warm, and dry.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
I'm back with enough time to write some more.
I'm flooded in at Clairemont. It's been raining so much the last few days. The ground is soggy, and all the rain is running off the mountains and the bluff we live on that Richland's Creek is flooded far out of it's banks. It's all the way up into Rutledge Pike, and Blue Springs Road is covered with a few feet of water. There are all kinds of things that float down the creek when it floods, like barbed wire fences, tree trunks and branches, dead animals, trash picked up in yards and parking lots, and, once, a set of patio steps.
I wouldn't dare drive through that water, even if it was more shallow. So, I'm at home, where I've been for three days.
The house is leaking in two places, where Steve put vent shafts in the attic years ago. They have leaked every time we've had bad storms for years, but he hasn't done anything about it. When insulatiion gets wet, it loses it's fire resistance, and I've told him that, but he seems like he doesn't care. I guess I'll have to climb up into the attic and do the repairs myself.
There are streams of water pouring down across the Daniel property, which is across the highway from us. That land is usually so dry they have to water it to get it to grow hay in the summer.
Wisteria is blooming, and I wonder if this is the spring flood that we usually have in March or April each year. They've called off school for Grainger County for three days. The busses can't get to some of the houses along their routes.
A pond that I had dug several years ago that had now gone dry is full of water today. It's down below the barn, and had been dry for some time. I'd love for it to be full all year long, so that it would attract water fowl. I don't have cows anymore, so I don't need it for livestock, but it's just a lumpy low place without water in it.
The cats were dirty, so I gave them both a bath last night. Stumpy took it pretty well, but Sweety howled and cried the whole time. She was the dirtiest, and many fleas came off her.
The house is cold, and I enjoy sleeping. I'm always so tired. The chemo made me tired all the time, and I guess it's not out of my system yet. My hands still hurt pretty badly all the time, and sometimes it's painful to eat cold food. I can still smell and taste that horrid stuff.
I'm supposed to go tomorrow for all kinds of tests to see if the cancer is out of my body, if I can get out over the roads. We're supposed to get more rain mixed with snow today. I may have to cancel. Janie is going to take me, if we can go.
She's feeling pretty badly today, too, but has her grandaughter's boyfriend working at Creekside to keep things going. We're making some progress.
Steve's office is turning out really nicely, and the Daffodil room is looking bright and clean. James put the baseboards in that room on Monday evening before all the rain got entrenched and the creek rose. Janie and I run over to Lowe's to get some trim for him to use on the corners of the baseboards to make it look a little more 'up-town'.
The floor is finally down again in the kitchen, and I stuffed all the insulation I could into the cavities. It is warmer, and the floor feels much stronger. The wall area that Steve cut out is still needing insulation and sheetrock or whatever we're going to put back on it, but there is some progress, and I'm glad for that. It seems like everything takes so long.
Jamie Combs and a friend, Scotty, caqme to visit me Sunday to see Creekside and me. I gave them the 'fifty-cent' tour, and they were full of praise. Steve wanted me to give an opinion on something, and we were sitting out on the front patio, and he came out and told me that they had to leave.
I was so embarrassed! I would never have asked Jamie to leave my home. She is the most gracious and polite person, and has so much class. She comes so seldom, and I welcome her at anytime she can come. It had been back last summer that she had come last, and I wanted her to feel welcome and for us to have a nice visit. I could have sunk into the ground with embarrassment. Both she and Scotty have called me to tell me that I shouldn't feel badly about that, but my cheeks still burn when I think about it. I should have picked up a two-by-four and hit him over the head. He knows that Jamie is like an adopted niece to me, and that I love her so. This is not the end of this incident.
Scotty and his S.O. have bought a house in Holston Hills in Knoxville, where Steve and I lived when we were first married, and he wants me to come and give him some pointers about their house. He says he knows what he wants, but doesn't know how to get there with his ideas. I'll be glad to help him, and I have lots of material we can use. His house is just four doors down from the house where we lived, and we know some of the same people. He has a very large back yard that he's stumped with, and wants me to help him with ideas.
I had Jamie take a 'professional's' look at my scalp area, and she confirmed that I have new hair growth coming in. I'm excited about that. I've only been off chemo for a week, and already I'm getting hair. FAB! It looks like a soft, dark fuzz, way down at the roots, but it's hair, and it's mine.
Barbara is still fat, ugly, and her momma dresses her funny, but she's my friend. I'm planning to take her out for lunch some day soon, and we're going to wear our hats, and go some place nice. It's been a long time since the old days of 'the Hat Lady's Lunch'. It will be nice for her to get out.
Enough for now.
I love you, Jamie.
I'm flooded in at Clairemont. It's been raining so much the last few days. The ground is soggy, and all the rain is running off the mountains and the bluff we live on that Richland's Creek is flooded far out of it's banks. It's all the way up into Rutledge Pike, and Blue Springs Road is covered with a few feet of water. There are all kinds of things that float down the creek when it floods, like barbed wire fences, tree trunks and branches, dead animals, trash picked up in yards and parking lots, and, once, a set of patio steps.
I wouldn't dare drive through that water, even if it was more shallow. So, I'm at home, where I've been for three days.
The house is leaking in two places, where Steve put vent shafts in the attic years ago. They have leaked every time we've had bad storms for years, but he hasn't done anything about it. When insulatiion gets wet, it loses it's fire resistance, and I've told him that, but he seems like he doesn't care. I guess I'll have to climb up into the attic and do the repairs myself.
There are streams of water pouring down across the Daniel property, which is across the highway from us. That land is usually so dry they have to water it to get it to grow hay in the summer.
Wisteria is blooming, and I wonder if this is the spring flood that we usually have in March or April each year. They've called off school for Grainger County for three days. The busses can't get to some of the houses along their routes.
A pond that I had dug several years ago that had now gone dry is full of water today. It's down below the barn, and had been dry for some time. I'd love for it to be full all year long, so that it would attract water fowl. I don't have cows anymore, so I don't need it for livestock, but it's just a lumpy low place without water in it.
The cats were dirty, so I gave them both a bath last night. Stumpy took it pretty well, but Sweety howled and cried the whole time. She was the dirtiest, and many fleas came off her.
The house is cold, and I enjoy sleeping. I'm always so tired. The chemo made me tired all the time, and I guess it's not out of my system yet. My hands still hurt pretty badly all the time, and sometimes it's painful to eat cold food. I can still smell and taste that horrid stuff.
I'm supposed to go tomorrow for all kinds of tests to see if the cancer is out of my body, if I can get out over the roads. We're supposed to get more rain mixed with snow today. I may have to cancel. Janie is going to take me, if we can go.
She's feeling pretty badly today, too, but has her grandaughter's boyfriend working at Creekside to keep things going. We're making some progress.
Steve's office is turning out really nicely, and the Daffodil room is looking bright and clean. James put the baseboards in that room on Monday evening before all the rain got entrenched and the creek rose. Janie and I run over to Lowe's to get some trim for him to use on the corners of the baseboards to make it look a little more 'up-town'.
The floor is finally down again in the kitchen, and I stuffed all the insulation I could into the cavities. It is warmer, and the floor feels much stronger. The wall area that Steve cut out is still needing insulation and sheetrock or whatever we're going to put back on it, but there is some progress, and I'm glad for that. It seems like everything takes so long.
Jamie Combs and a friend, Scotty, caqme to visit me Sunday to see Creekside and me. I gave them the 'fifty-cent' tour, and they were full of praise. Steve wanted me to give an opinion on something, and we were sitting out on the front patio, and he came out and told me that they had to leave.
I was so embarrassed! I would never have asked Jamie to leave my home. She is the most gracious and polite person, and has so much class. She comes so seldom, and I welcome her at anytime she can come. It had been back last summer that she had come last, and I wanted her to feel welcome and for us to have a nice visit. I could have sunk into the ground with embarrassment. Both she and Scotty have called me to tell me that I shouldn't feel badly about that, but my cheeks still burn when I think about it. I should have picked up a two-by-four and hit him over the head. He knows that Jamie is like an adopted niece to me, and that I love her so. This is not the end of this incident.
Scotty and his S.O. have bought a house in Holston Hills in Knoxville, where Steve and I lived when we were first married, and he wants me to come and give him some pointers about their house. He says he knows what he wants, but doesn't know how to get there with his ideas. I'll be glad to help him, and I have lots of material we can use. His house is just four doors down from the house where we lived, and we know some of the same people. He has a very large back yard that he's stumped with, and wants me to help him with ideas.
I had Jamie take a 'professional's' look at my scalp area, and she confirmed that I have new hair growth coming in. I'm excited about that. I've only been off chemo for a week, and already I'm getting hair. FAB! It looks like a soft, dark fuzz, way down at the roots, but it's hair, and it's mine.
Barbara is still fat, ugly, and her momma dresses her funny, but she's my friend. I'm planning to take her out for lunch some day soon, and we're going to wear our hats, and go some place nice. It's been a long time since the old days of 'the Hat Lady's Lunch'. It will be nice for her to get out.
Enough for now.
I love you, Jamie.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013 AM
Exciting week, as Wednesday, when I got my chemotherapy pump off, it was my last treatment.
I felt like a bird out of a cage! I was so excited that when Penny, one of my nurses, took my BP, it was 180/140. They told me I had to go to the ER, and I refused. They then took my BP again, and it had come down just a few points. I still refused to go to the ER, and asked if I could just recline on one of the recliners we use for chemotherapy for a few minutes and see if I could concentrate and get it down further. It got down enough that they didn't send me to the ER. I just have too much to do.
Janie was in a state of panic, and was stroking my face to try to calm me.
Barbara had one of these spells once in her doctor's office, and she asked the doctor if she could lay in the dark for a while and sing hymns, and she got her blood pressure down in a few minutes. I'll bet the other patients in that doctor's office had pretty high blood pressure, though.
Steve decided that he was vexed over the kitchen floor at Creekside, so he tore it up to replace a sill beam. That's twice in two years that floor has been pulled u[p, and I'm getting pretty tired of insulating it while crawling on my belly on the ground under it. There was, until Saturday, just about 8" of clearance, and it made for rough work, nailing sheets of wide insulation onto the bottoms of the floor joists with a hammer swinging just a few inches from my face.
It seems like we have to do everything twice, at least.
All the kitchen cabinets from that side of the kitchen are now piled up in the dining room.
Such a pleasant place.
It's been raining off and on all week, so the floors of Creekside now look like a ride at Dollywood after a busy weekend.
I tried to work upstairs all day yesterday, and got a closet in Steve's library papered with some cute wall paper that looks just like boards. I put some gynaglypta (looks like stucco) on the ceiling, and it turned out real nice. He likes it.
His office is nearing completion.
I'm about to be ready to paper the front bedroom upstairs, and I'm going to do it in the same wallpaper we have on our bedroom at Clairemont. It's Victorian roses in a sage green on a light gray background. I've found it very restful.
I had planned to use a magnolia paper in that room, but I think I like the green better.
This young couple (not married) are going to rent the trailer, and they're working on it now. Colton is a pretty good carpenter, and he's been helping out at Creekside quite a lot. They don't have a car or furniture, so I'm being patient about the rent until they can get settled. His mother is a nurse, and worked with Judy for several years. She will make good on anything he misses. His step-father just wants them out of their house, and is willing to help with ANYTHING.
I feel like I'm coming down with a cold, and I sure hope not. The chemotherapy destroyed my immunity to everything, and I'm terrified of what a cold or the flu could do to me right now. I'm eating vitamins and preventives.
There's more, but it will have to come later. I'm being summoned, and Barbara's still fat.
I felt like a bird out of a cage! I was so excited that when Penny, one of my nurses, took my BP, it was 180/140. They told me I had to go to the ER, and I refused. They then took my BP again, and it had come down just a few points. I still refused to go to the ER, and asked if I could just recline on one of the recliners we use for chemotherapy for a few minutes and see if I could concentrate and get it down further. It got down enough that they didn't send me to the ER. I just have too much to do.
Janie was in a state of panic, and was stroking my face to try to calm me.
Barbara had one of these spells once in her doctor's office, and she asked the doctor if she could lay in the dark for a while and sing hymns, and she got her blood pressure down in a few minutes. I'll bet the other patients in that doctor's office had pretty high blood pressure, though.
Steve decided that he was vexed over the kitchen floor at Creekside, so he tore it up to replace a sill beam. That's twice in two years that floor has been pulled u[p, and I'm getting pretty tired of insulating it while crawling on my belly on the ground under it. There was, until Saturday, just about 8" of clearance, and it made for rough work, nailing sheets of wide insulation onto the bottoms of the floor joists with a hammer swinging just a few inches from my face.
It seems like we have to do everything twice, at least.
All the kitchen cabinets from that side of the kitchen are now piled up in the dining room.
Such a pleasant place.
It's been raining off and on all week, so the floors of Creekside now look like a ride at Dollywood after a busy weekend.
I tried to work upstairs all day yesterday, and got a closet in Steve's library papered with some cute wall paper that looks just like boards. I put some gynaglypta (looks like stucco) on the ceiling, and it turned out real nice. He likes it.
His office is nearing completion.
I'm about to be ready to paper the front bedroom upstairs, and I'm going to do it in the same wallpaper we have on our bedroom at Clairemont. It's Victorian roses in a sage green on a light gray background. I've found it very restful.
I had planned to use a magnolia paper in that room, but I think I like the green better.
This young couple (not married) are going to rent the trailer, and they're working on it now. Colton is a pretty good carpenter, and he's been helping out at Creekside quite a lot. They don't have a car or furniture, so I'm being patient about the rent until they can get settled. His mother is a nurse, and worked with Judy for several years. She will make good on anything he misses. His step-father just wants them out of their house, and is willing to help with ANYTHING.
I feel like I'm coming down with a cold, and I sure hope not. The chemotherapy destroyed my immunity to everything, and I'm terrified of what a cold or the flu could do to me right now. I'm eating vitamins and preventives.
There's more, but it will have to come later. I'm being summoned, and Barbara's still fat.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
I've been a while posting.
Steve took me shopping the day after Christmas, to buy me lights and things that we (?) will use next year.People were very rude
We rested more right after Christmas, as everyone wanted a few days off. It was good to have some time for just me and Steve. Janie came with some goodies she'd baked, and a plate-full from Mary Ann.
I'm winding down my chemotherapy, as today they take off my pump for (I hope) the last time. It's really bothered me this time, as Janie and I finished papering Steve's office. It is beautiful, and he even mentioned how nice it looks. My right arm and shoulder is sore as all get out this morning, from the efforts.
Colt has not worked any this week. Sarah called once to say that he is sick, but that's all we've heard.
It's been just Janie, Steve, and me there.
That's OK with me.
Steve took me shopping the day after Christmas, to buy me lights and things that we (?) will use next year.People were very rude
We rested more right after Christmas, as everyone wanted a few days off. It was good to have some time for just me and Steve. Janie came with some goodies she'd baked, and a plate-full from Mary Ann.
I'm winding down my chemotherapy, as today they take off my pump for (I hope) the last time. It's really bothered me this time, as Janie and I finished papering Steve's office. It is beautiful, and he even mentioned how nice it looks. My right arm and shoulder is sore as all get out this morning, from the efforts.
Colt has not worked any this week. Sarah called once to say that he is sick, but that's all we've heard.
It's been just Janie, Steve, and me there.
That's OK with me.
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