Disconnected

         At the end of last month/start of this month, Richard’s only living sister said she had been wanting to go to South Carolina to see their mom.  Richard has too and thought that perhaps they could go together – or else at least meet up.  His sister Jean feels somewhat in the dark because of a feud that has taken place between her and the youngest brother – who has taken it upon himself to become mom’s caretaker – although I think more responsibility has fallen upon his wife.  I don’t know if it’s something she has dealt with before, but Richard’s sister does not understand.  She believes that the youngest brother and his wife are preventing phone calls and supervision.  What a mess.  It doesn’t sound to me as if Jean has ever dealt with dementia.  That’s where there mom is at.

        Last week Richard heard from Jean’s husband. They were in the process of traveling to North Carolina where Al has a relative who had been given two weeks to live.  They figured they would go and see their mom on the same trip as North Carolina and South Carolina are not that far apart.  It was a random decision on Richard’s part, but he decided he would go and join them right then.  Thus we picked up Jai from school last week and headed to the airport to drop off Roland who may be returning home today but may not return until tomorrow. We don’t know.

        Thus Jaime and I have had a reign on the house without Richard’s presence.  No cowboys or Sci-Fi.  Hardly any TV at all (I did watch a few recordings when I had been alert enough to do so) ironically Richard and I have both had colds or allergies or perhaps even COVID – though I don’t know how I would have contracted the latter.

        We’ve both been taking medicines – though I think I have taken more.  I have definitely slept more.  I’ve had tea with honey and am frankly tired of all the liquids that I’ve been sending through myself.  They all come out.  Usually whenever I cough.  I’d rather be asleep.

        I debated on whether to even go to Church on Sunday.  I wish I hadn’t gone.  I wore a mask.  I got so little out of the services.  I got even less out of the training meeting that I needed to attend.  I’ll probably mask up for the meeting that may or may not be held at 4:00 this evening.  Thus far I am feeling better.  I don’t remember ever having recouped this quickly from whatever – but I also have never been so doped up with over-the-counter and home remedies every four hours.

        I’m in a fog as I type this.  My head seems disconnected to the rest of my body.  I don’t even know if any of it makes sense or not.  I guess I can delete it once I have it figured out.

CBQ#324

 Can you remember the address of one of your childhood homes?

         I lived at only one address for the majority of my life.  Just so happens the home where I spent my childhood is also the same as the one my mom had to leave when we put her in assisted living.  She, herself, had lived in that home for over 50 years.  

As I mentioned in this post the streets in Salt Lake are numbered around the temple.  We lived in a non-incorporated area.  Our street number was 6850 South which apparently some neighbors knew as the name “Twin Peaks Drive” though I remember mom telling me she knew of only one family who addressed their mail with the “Twin Peaks” caption.  6850 is going to be so much easier to find than “Twin Peaks”. 

Twenty or thirty years later we were incorporated into the city. New street signs were installed all over the neighborhood.  Our street was marked “6850 South” – it was right after that installation that all business computers received the message that “this landline belongs to a resident living on “Twin Peaks Street” – not the “Drive” that I had grown up with.

It was frustrating ordering things and having the orders delayed because drivers could not find “Twin Peaks” anything.  Oh, duh, city.  If you’re going to enter that street into the computers as Twin Peaks, than why not mark the street itself as "Twin Peaks" instead of 6850 South?  We would tell people “It is 6850 – there is no sign anywhere indicating that it is Twin Peaks.  PLEASE RELATE THIS INFORMATION TO YOUR DRIVERS.  It seldom ever got related. Whenever the drivers did finally show, they were even more frustrated about it than we were.

 

 

 

 

CBQ#193

 How much of a people watcher are you?

 When we lived in Salt Lake I watched people all the time.  Mostly while waiting for the bus or the train.  I would watch people in cars – observe their expressions.  Share emotions with those around me – seeing the looks they would give to one another or to the surroundings.  

https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2021/02/25/lawmakers-unveil-massive/

I’ve also observed patrons at a mall.  I’ve never done it to be nosy – only to make the time pass.  It is often fun to pick up an expression of disbelief or wonderment.  I don’t seem to do it so much since I’ve lived in Oregon.  I think because I’m observing nature.

My Answers to "The Complete Book of Questions"

 Richard and I had gone to Roseburg yesterday to run some errands.  Just before returning to Myrtle Creek, he took me to a used book store which he has gone to quite often.  He purchased four books and I got two.  One was a Complete Book of Questions.  Another journal or conversation prompter.  I have exhausted the dashes (mentioned in this post) and am now taking a new approach – though I doubt I will be posting all 1001 QA’s. 

  

CBQ#314 & 316

 

How many bones have you broken? How many times have you had stitches?

 

        I have not broken any of my bones.  I have experienced torn ligaments and tendentious (here) but no broken bones – at least on myself.  My brother, Patrick, broke the same arm at two different times.  The first time was my fault.

        My mom had dropped my brother and me off at my cousins’ house to spend the night. I thought it would be fun to jump from the closet to the bed – or perhaps it was the younger of my two cousins who was the instigator.  Patrick and Michelle seemed a lot more cautious while Ross and I were the adventurous ones – often inviting trouble – but not intentionally.

        So three of us of us were enjoying ourselves and Patrick just observed.  We finally were able to get him to work up the courage to jump.  He finally made it to the closet.  I pushed him out so that he could enjoy the fun (or maybe he was just taking too long; so many years ago, I can’t remember) only my push made him fall between the closet and the bed and he landed on the floor and broke his arm.  I imagine he started wailing – which put an end to our fun.

        Mom said when she came to pick us up, our worried Aunt Fern greeted her at the door – not wanting to let her in until she was able to break the news to her so that mom would be prepared.  Several years went by before Patrick had been goofing off in the back of our neighbor’s pickup.  I wasn’t there so not sure of the details but heard that he somehow managed to fall out of the truck and landed on that same arm he had already broken and had to wear a cast.

       

        Although I had never broken any bones, I have had to deal with getting stitches.  Long before Patrick’s broken arm, I’d been spinning around the living room and ended up losing my balance and wacked my face into a corner of the end table creating a gash between my forehead and right eye.  I don’t recall how many stitches my mom said I had to have.  There is no visible scar although to this day my right eye appears to be significantly smaller than my left as there is more skin folded over my right eye than my left.

Thoughts for my Journal part 2

          Sometimes the chickens behind us will fly to various branches of the cherry tree.  They will roost there for a while.  Bonnie will often climb the hill to watch them in hopes at least one will fall into our yard.  I don’t know if they were in the tree of Friday night, but evidently the storm knocked at least one into our yard.  

    She’d been clucking all night.  I guess she was scared and wished to return to her own yard.  I would have not anything about it except for Jai and I left the house on Saturday via the back yard – and there was a white chicken near the door.  Thankfully, Bonnie was not behind us or the white chicken would now be a corpse in my yard.

         Jaime and I had used the back door in order to dodge Bonnie.  I took Jai to the hair salon.  We also went to the store to get some clips for her hair. 

I was concerned about the weather, but the rain did cease long enough for prom night to end.  Jai always looks beautiful, but that night she looked stunning. 

         She and her friends met at the Grand Victorian and took a limo to Roseburg.  They initially went to Red Robins – which is always so crowded but ended up at Denny’s which was not.  When they returned to the Grand, the limo driver pulled into the lot so others could see just who was getting out of the limo.  Jaime thought it was hilarious as she dubbed those getting out as "the school nerds". She said it was really fun. 

              Last week the bishopric secretary stopped by Richard’s classroom to tell me that I was needed.  I was to talk with a member of the bishopric and was told that the Relief Society presidency was being released and as I was part of that presidency, I would be released.  I was told I had been chosen to accept the calling of ward RS secretary.  Relieved that I had wasn’t or hadn’t been called as president I accepted the position of secretary. The counselor told me the name of the new president and swore me to secrecy that I would not tell anybody else.  I didn’t.

         Instead of our usual Tuesday 10:00 meeting we had decided to do lunch as a last hoorah.  Our former president was ecstatic to released.  The second counselor seemed to have mixed feelings and was the only one kept in the dark as to any hint of the new presidency.  Apparently the former secretary had the names of each member of the new presidency. We ended up trading positions in presidency.  She blabbed out of excitement I suppose.

         The change of presidency was announced in yesterday’s sacrament meeting and we were set apart before Relief Society started.  It was kind of a cool way to start off the meeting.  We were very low in number.  I counted 15 sisters seated aside from the presidency. 

         The Elders had prepared a nice mother’s day treat for us.  They had set up tables adorned with tablecloths and a marigold for each chair circled in the center of the table along with this thought.

 

         I don’t remember having had mother’s day fall so early in the month before – but yet I had three reminders pop into my feed along with this reminder that happened on a Friday.  Rochelle had sent me a link for the opportunity to attend their ward so I could hear the kids singing in their program.  Only it turns out our wards take place at the very same time and did not get the link until after the fact.  Tony called and Emma and Eliza sang over the phone.  That was nice.

         Hope that all my readers enjoyed mother’s day as well.

Thoughts for my Journal

          I cannot believe tomorrow is Mother’s Day.  The weather isn’t speaking volumes of how Mother’s Day has looked in years past.  Yesterday we had sun showers all day.  The rain has been pouring all night and this morning.  Not to mention the hens have been cackling.  I can’t sleep with that!  Nobody rescued them from whatever they were cackling about nor did the rain drown them out as they seemed to be louder than the pounding rain.

https://funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/1577805/Chicken/

         I must have slept at some point – and hard as I had another weird detailed dream.  I don’t know where Richard and I were or why.  The neighborhood was not one that I remember.  Somehow we got separated and I went to a house in which I know the woman but chose instead to go to the house next door to wait for Richard when I heard his voice inside of the first house.

         I went to the door and was greeted by one of the woman’s relatives.  I had remembered meeting her before  and apologized for my interruption.  I was led to another room that somehow continued to get larger as I looked around and saw many people – some eating food and visiting while others sat with dark expressions giving off vibes that they really didn’t want to be there.

         I sat down and observed and spotted a couple from my mom’s ward who I have not seen for almost twenty years.  I went up to them to ask how they were doing.  They didn’t seem to recognize me.  I said that we had lived on the same street when I was living in Midvale.  Some facts were distorted in my dream, but I somehow woke myself up remembering more details – and what I could have said.  Like I had served in Young Women’s with their niece and how we had dressed Tom and the bishop up as Ladybugs.  I also thought about the time when I was pregnant with Jaime and Pam and Elena had offered to throw me a baby shower (which Jaime attended when she was almost two months old).

         I have no idea why I would have dreamed about them. 

 

Jaime has her prom tonight. We are going to the salon to have her hair done.  I hope the rain doesn’t damage.  I really hope she will enjoy herself and have positive memories of the night.

Tomorrow will bring some interesting meetings.  More on that later.

Addicted to Bingo

          When the boys were younger and we were poor, we would find activities within the community that were either free or inexpensive.  We would often go to the library or join a group from a chapter of the Foresters.  Every once in a while we would go and play a few rounds of Bingo.  It was offered at a dollar a card.

          Richard had noticed that when he takes Jaime to church on Wednesdays that there seems to be extra cars parked around the building belonging to the Elks club.  Seems that Bingo is starts at 6:00 but goes until 9:00 or so.  He thought it would be something we could do while we wait for Jaime during the hour she is gone.

          Bingo is NOT something I could do every week.  It’s a once-in-a-while somewhat fun time, but it would get boring week after week for me personally though I know there are some who thrive on it for some reason.  They are nice.  All of these Bingo players and hosts/hostesses.  I do like the people and their attitude, but it turned out to be more expensive than we had predicted. 

One has to purchase an entire packet for 11 dollars.  There are at least 15 papers of cards in which players are marking from two to six cards – depending on the game or pattern.  And there were so many helpful to guide us on the process of each game – what was expected and what each card contained.

Jaime was with us for the entire time as the youth will be going to the temple on Saturday and so did not have an activity scheduled for last night.  It was fun to watch Jaime having fun.  She won a Bingo.  Neither Richard nor I had won ourselves – but we were there just to play and have fun.  Winning would have only been a bonus. 

It was fun.  I was impressed by all of those willing to assist.  Several had invited us back – and perhaps we will.  Maybe once in a while.  But not every week.  We would not be playing all of the games anyway as one of us would have to take Jaime to the church and then pick her up.  I think that would be a good time just to leave . . . that’s when I start getting sleepy and desire to go to bed.  I would rather sleep than play Bingo.

Bonnie Goes for a Stroll

             Before going to Church on Sunday, the Elders had asked if we could pick up a person that they are teaching.  They asked if they could teach this individual at our home.  They came over last night.

          Richard had asked if they could eat with us but they had an appointment set up for dinner with another member.  However it cancelled and the elders let us know.  Richard decided to do a breakfast which somehow never turns out the way we plan as some of the food gets cold while whatever else is being made.  However there were no complaints.

          Unsure about how many people would be eating – as we heard there might be two extra people and then Jai had also invited one of her friends – but it ended up with just six of us.  The three in our household and the three missionaries.  But before we sat down for our breakfast dinner (some of which was still cooking) I asked the elders if they would mind walking Bonnie over to the house of resides the one they are teaching. 

 

 

 

 

What Goes Around Comes Around . . or so it seems

          Last week Richard took Jai and her friend prom shopping.  I had planned to go with them but was feeling dizzy and nauseous and thought it might be better just to stay home – not that it was a huge sacrifice on my part NOT to go shopping.  Anyone who has read my blog from the beginning or just certain posts KNOWS that I am not a shopper by any means.  Jai’s not much of a shopper either or girly, although she has been interested in dressing up for prom in something frilly.

          Jaime had chosen a tiered pink dress that really did not seem to fit her taste.  I don’t know if she really liked it or just felt pressure from Richard and Ruth.  I know she got the shoes just to shut them up, but was not comfortable wearing them. When she modeled the items for me, I noticed that the back did not zip all the way.  She was hoping for alterations but the fabric seemed to sheer to really work with.

          Ruth had also chosen a dress and shoes.  Richard paid for Ruth's dress and shoes with the expectations that she would pay him back – although neither one of us see that happening.  I think her own dad purchased a second hand car for her to drive.  We don’t know how she is able to afford gas.

          I had her try on my green dress – which she looks really good in by the way.  She said she liked it but not as a prom dress.  Understandable.  But the more she thought about it, the more she had talked herself into it.  Meanwhile we had purchased two more dresses as options.  One we brought home and she tried on yesterday – and although she liked the look of it, she is not thrilled with the feel.  The other is set to arrive on Monday (so much for wearing that on Easter)

          And now a member of our ward has also ordered a dress and has offered to take Jaime shopping.  This sister has had a lot of difficulties come up in her life and has conquered them in a variety of ways.  Sometimes it seems to me that she tackles her problems in much different ways than I myself would.  From my observation she sometimes seems to create mountain out of molehills.  But I could be wrong.  I know she’s much more aggressive than I am.

          She really didn’t have to do that – especially as I don’t think her financial situation is the greatest.  But I could be wrong about that, too.  She said she considers Jaime one of her girls and really wants to do this for her.  Perhaps she felt inspired. Who am I to deprive her of blessings?  Thank you.

Melted Snow

 It's hard to imagine that there are members of our ward who are currently snowed in

Nature's Foolery

 

In 1974 Chiffon aired a commercial with the caption “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature” – but isn’t it really the other way around?  The sun shining to make us think it’s warm when it is less than 50 degrees outside.  Last week we had one day when the temperature rose to over 80! Over 80 degrees when every other day had a high of 59 or less.  Give me a break!

I see the wind is blowing.  I don’t actually see the wind, but rather the movement.  I know it is cold because I’ve been outside.  I took the pictures less than two hours ago.  One can no longer tell that snow had fallen in the yard – but it is still evident in the hills.  It’s Mother Nature who is fooling us!

The Option of Zoom

 

Today is stake conference. There are several who are eager to go to the Church to attend in-person meetings that haven’t been an option for many.  In October they had encouraged it.  “Attend where you can but a zoom option will be available for those not comfortable to meet in person”

My desire to zoom vs. meeting in person has nothing to do with the pandemic or fear.  I don’t like crowds nor do I appreciate sitting in the back rafters.  For as much as I normally get out of in-person attendance, I might as well be in another building.  I am surprised there is still that option. 

Thus far I haven’t been in awe as I was with the last meeting – wishing that it could have been recorded just as general conference so that I could/can rewatch some of it.  I am grateful that I am able to review the general conference meetings. 

Have been reading posts left on the "Come Follow Me" facebook page and continue to be grateful for those who participate with such profound thoughts and insight.  Grateful for technology that allows us to share positive thoughts.