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Willette’s The Joy of Love project
BROMANCE
Ok in the interest of disclosure, I didn’t take this picture. I stay far, far away from the mancave when there’s anyone in there I’m not related to. Superbowl Sunday, terry had a few friends over for the game, and one of them was Arthur. They kind of grew up together, worked together, then after high school went their separate ways. About 18 months ago, Terry discovered Arthur was living about a mile from here, on the 6th hole of the golf course that we live on the 10th hole of. (I know, not grammatically correct, sue me). And had been there for years. Terry discovered this by looking at Arthur’s facebook page, where he’d posted some photos of a golf game, and our house was in the background. Anyway, they reconnected, and Arthur comes over frequently to inhabit the cave, eat food (he always brings something.. so he’s not this freeloader type) and they enjoy each others company.
Arthur and Terry
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It’s a gorgeous day. It’s supposed to get up into the low 70′s, perfect for riding around acting all happy and stuff, top down on the car and wind in my hair. Sort of, I mean, usually I wear a hat…anyway. Lovely day. #4 is somewhere north of here on a Boy Scout camping trip, shooting .22 rifles and eating possum omelets and not bathing or brushing his teeth or even changing his underwear. Terry is at work all day. I have no obligations before 6pm. A friend is having a reception for another friend and I was asked to make some food for it, so around 5 I’ll need to put together some finger food stuffs…but it’s only 7:45am and the whole day stretches ahead.
Oh sure, there’s some things that need doing, but nothing pressing. It’s too early to plant the basil and cilantro. The stuff under the cold frame is coming up nicely, tho- lettuces and arugula. I think another cold frame for one of the other beds might be in order. no rush, maybe next year. Menus for the next 2 weeks need making, and groceries bought, but that can wait until Monday. There’s plenty of food for the weekend. A pork roast is in the crock pot for 4th Sunday Dinner tomorrow. The house is at it’s standard level of order (or disorder, depending on who you ask)…and there it is, most of a Saturday, ripe for the picking.
I am thinking a trip to Savannah may be in order. I am out of some foods I can’t get locally: Israeli couscous, a family favorite; this tasty 5 rice blend, good for you too; and rice crackers. I *might* even pay a visit to Mr. Chu’s and pick up something Asian. Pot stickers or mysterious noodles or octopus tentacles. Maybe not. I’m actually ok on most things Asian. Oo except spring roll wrappers. Coming into Spring, obviously spring roll wrappers are necessary. I need to figure out how to make mung bean sprouts, as the mung beans are right there in the jar waiting to be sprouted and they do make lovely spring rolls.
Forsyth Park, Savannah
Savannah is a pleasant 1 hour back-road drive from here. Or I can make it in 50 minutes on the interstate, but why? When I have the time and US 80 is lined with lovely live oaks and blooming redbuds and budding red maples. Brighter Day and Mr. Chu’s are on the same road downtown. Forsyth Park is right there, with it’s FINE Victorian houses (some of them are straight-up mansions). AND there’s a Krispy Kreme shop with a perpetual Hot Doughnuts Now sign on during the weekend. Oh who knows. Terry said if all’s well at work he may be able to get off a little early, but not early enough to go with, given the time contraints of the reception tonight. It’s always more fun when he goes, but that’s ok. The radio will keep me company…or maybe a CD.
CJ moves back in for a couple of months, tomorrow. His lease is up and the lease cycle on the place he wants to go doesn’t start until May,so he’s going to live here,save uphis money for deposits, etc. And we’re both ok with that. He’s settled down, and become…well….an Adult. but that’s a whole ‘nother story.
A couple of weeks a go I had a cold. nothing serious,just the usual sinus-coughy-thingy cold that caused feelings of crud for a few days then went away, but left a cough. it’s happened before. the cold irritates the lung things and causes an asthma like reaction, and even though the actual virus it’self is gone, the lung things are sensitive and a cough begets another cough and before you know it the whole system is irritated and I can’t catchy my breath. “Asthma” the doctor told me. “Inhalers, steroids” he said. Only, thanks to Other Medical Conditions related to my brain and mental status, steroids of any sort are OUT unless it’s a life-or-death situation. The Good Dr. H told me this a few years ago, after I took some steroids for something (I forget what) and they made me flat-out psychotic. Yes, and it wasn’t pretty. It went away as soon as I quit taking them but it was SCARY.
So, most asthma inhalers are steroid based, so I refuse. Yes, breathing is nice,but so is sanity. So, last night I was coughing and coughing and coughing, that dry, wheezy unproductive cough…asthma again. Lovely. The humidifier in the bedroom was ramped up to 75%, a hot shower, cup of hot tea, everything I could think of and it helped slightly, but not much. Rooting around in the medicine cabinet located a bottle of Singulair…joy! Breathing medicine! It had been a good long time, but I seem to remember it helping. 20 minutes after taking one and the coughing stopped. An hour after taking one and the anxiety started. Damnation I hate having a tooky brain. I remembered then why I only took it once last time. Gut wrenching, heart pounding and sweaty palms anxiety, like Grade 5 Stage Fright. All Night Long. And too confused to take a xanax…stupid.
Have you ever noticed that when you are anxious, even when it’s a chemically induced anxiety like that one, suddenly all those small things that you can shrug off during the day will grow and fester and become HUGE MONSTERS UNDER THE BED. Oh I slept, but it was restless and full of dreams about anxious things like how come I couldn’t get the plastic protective layer off the screen of my new white netbook? I don’t have a new white netbook, but in this dream I did, and couldn’t get that plastic thing loose and it was PISSING ME OFF, plus my brother kept yanking it away from me and messing with it and I was inexplicably unable to cuss him out for it and that made me anxious.
Then something about one of the kids would pop into my head and I’d start chewing on that until I’d realize it was kind of a silly thing so I’d repeat over and over until something else took it’s place “YOU CAN’T CHANGE THAT YOU CAN’T CHANGE THAT”
And all that made for a restless night, except that I could breathe without coughing, which was nice.
Stupid tooky brain.
I was still anxious this morning, but at least had the good sense to recognize why, and took a crumb of xanax. Now I’m better, but I really kind of resent having to take something for as basic a function as breathing, then take something to counter a side effect of that, then take something for a side effect of the second med (coffee, for xanax is VERY relaxing and I do need to function) and then something to counter the side effect of the stuff I took to counter the side effect of what I took to counter the side effect of what I took to breathe. Aspirin, that is, for the coffee gives me a little bit of a headache. However, with all that piled on top of itself I can,at least, breathe and function.
Sigh.
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Okey doke. I wound up taking fashion advice from the guy with a combover. What can I say…AND Jo’s startlingly simple and quite obvious (except to me) advice of taking a digital camera to take pictures and see how I look? Maaaan. I wish I’da thought of that 2 hours ago. Oh well. Frames were chosen.
I need bifocals. Whiiiiine. But I’m only 25(ish)! Wot da heck?! I got a gentle and kindly lecture form the Cuban eye doctor about People Of A Certain Age and stuff. Wot? Certain age….phphpht.
So, instead of bifocals, because really all I do when I have to read something is hold it out a ways…you know that Old Guys Who Won’t Give In method of reading “here honey, wouldja hold this for me,my arms are too short” which I used to tease Terry unmercifully about it. I reckon what goes around comes around and if he teases me I will TOTALLY deserve it and try like heck to take it gracefully.
Anyway…where was I…oh yeah. I ended up getting 2 pair of glasses, one for reading and one for everything else. After crunching numbers and stuff,because I have a HORRIBLY COMPLICATED prescription…(see previous post)and glasses are crazy thick for me, it came out better to buy 2 pair instead of one pair of bifocals. AND (ugh) mine are so thick I couldn’t get the sleek and stylish frameless kind because the lenses are too thick for the hardware to screw in. Bah. So, to make up for the sting of having to buy half-frames instead of frameless, AND the kind with the clip on sunglasses wouldn’t work because, again, the lenses are too thick and the clip ons wouldn’t clip on right, I got me some Transitions.
I figured this: The cost of the readers plus the regulars with fancy pants new fangled ultra thin(ish) Transition lenses is STILL less than a regular pair of bifocals,so I saved money! Yes! And I get the whole sunglasses effect with the Transitions, which is what I wanted anyway. Yay!
AND…no fooling with bifocals. Terry got bifocals a bit ago, and has difficulty with peripheral vision and I have enough trouble knowing where my legs end without that kind of handicap.
I couldn’t find round Ozzy glasses. I did look.
I have about 20 minutes before I have to leave for an eye appointment. New glasses, y’all! how about that! I want to get some of those with the clip on sunglasses. The pair I have now are like that and I love them. However, the left lens has a crack, which is why the new glasses, and it’s been 2 years since the last appointment so I can’t use to old prescription. that’s ok, I think I’m getting far sighted in my old age. Well, ok, less near sighted. I’m blind as the proverbial bat, or maybe an armadillo…or possibly a mole. VERY nearsighted. My current prescription is a -9.5 in one eye, and -8.75 in the other one. I can’t see anything further away than about 6 inches. *squint* like Mr Magoo.
Last night I was talking to Terry about what kind of specs to get. Do I want to go all trendy and get something stylish? Or stick with my usual Classic But Boring sensibility. The problem is, I am so nearsighted I can’t tell if they look good on me or not, and frankly, I do NOT trust the guy at the optician’s to tell me if they look good or not. He has a comb-over, never trust a man with a comb-over for fashion advice. A little while ago I went in there with CJ and tried on different frames, and he said I looked really good in a particular style…but…he’s 19. Do I want to trust a 19 year old redneck for fashion advice? I mean…he wears duckboots to church.
So I don’t know. There’s a limited number of frames with clip on sunglasses, which is good because that narrows the choices down significantly. I know I don’t want little bitty lenses, because they’re so thick that there’s a weird distortion that happens, almost like a fisheye lens on a camera, and that’s discombobulating and difficult to walk with. I know this because once, in a fit of (something) I bought sunglasses with little lenses and wound up not knowing where my feet were. In the 1980′s I had the huge lenses, and let me tell you, the bigger the lens, the thicker they get toward the edges. By the time my lenses were finished, they were a solid 1/3 of an inch thick. yes,I could see out of them, but people looking through them into my face and head got quite an odd effect, like my head was pinched in at the temples or something.
Anyway, today I have to pick the frames out by myself. Wish me luck. I’m halfway thinking perfectly round Ozzy type, and let my hair grow long and lank, and get a blue tint to them. If I wear alot of eyeliner, and paint my nails black, I might could pull it off. I already mumble and walk into things.
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Willette’s The Joy of Love project
JUST DO IT
Awesome Facebook photos
Terry
Will
David
CJ
So, I have this friend on Facebook. I knew her in high school and we did that whole reconnection thing. Anyway, her mother has this happy philosophy that once a woman turns A Certain Age, birthdays should be celebrated every month. Now, it’s not the “give me lots of presents” celebration, but that one day a month (hers is the 21st) one should eat ice cream for lunch and do as one pleases the entire day.
I’m thinking an appropriate time to start would be when I turn 50, about 25 year about 4 years from now. Think of it, set aside 1 day a month to celebrate that you’re still living. I would have a Dairy Queen chocolate dip cone,or perhaps a Baskin Robins Jamoca Almond Fudge on a sugar cone. Or maybe, if it’s a warm day, a Chik Fil A lemonade. I wonder what Mom would do if I started sending her a birthday card on the 20th of every month, or flowers every 4th month, or a couon for lunch at Olive Garden…hm.
Is there a woman in your life that you’d love to celebrate the simple fact that she’s still alive?
Ok so a while back I had a procedure called cryoablation and one of the common side effects was promised to be the complete cessation of menstrual periods…about 30% of the time, they said. I figured, since I am once of these people who almost always had the listed side effects, I would be one of the lucky 30%. alas….it would appear not to be so. Sigh. Now, I knew, intellectually, that while it was possible the physical attributes of menses would be gone, the mental and emotional bits would still be there, since the procedure does nothing to rid one of the hormone producing bits and we all know hormones are what causes one to be moody and crave cheetoes.
So, over the weekend I was moody and craving pizza (not cheetoes, maybe this is a change caused by the cryo, but I swear when I was in the grocery store I wanted to buy every single cheap Totino’s Party Pizza in the case…and you KNOW me by now! I am not a $2 Totino’s Pizza type person!) I was puzzled by this, being one who isn’t very good at keeping up with timing and such, until Terry pointed out that It Was Time, hormonally speaking, for me to…y’know…Crave Cheetoes.
And today says he was right. And I am deeply disappointed, but also relieved because it explains the anxiety and general fretfullness of the weekend. You have NO idea how much the idea of no menses excited me. I don’t need that any more…what remains to be seen, is if the cryoablation worked. Am I going to have a nice normal 3 day period, or will it be the 10 day howling at the moon festival of stay-within-20-feet-of-a-bathroom-whilst-eating-motrin-like-M&Ms activity I’ve become familiar withover the last 5 years? If so, it’s back to the doctor and schedule a hysterectomy….sigh.
At least I know now why I was so moody. I guess I’ll have to start keeping up with it on the calendar. and upon further review…I’ll be right there when I’m supposed to be flying to Texas to see Grandmother next month. Lovely.
Filed under: In The Garden
Phleud discovered the solitude of the coldframe.
I’m a little sore, that good kind where your body says “hey creampuff, you didn’t move around much this winter, didja.” Yesterday saw alot of garden work done. Most noteably, the Sally Holmes rose was pruned. “ppht” you say, “you pruned a rose, how exciting.” Not just any rose, Sally Holmes is a monster. A beautiful monster,but one nonetheless. 10 foot vines (this thing is only 2 years old!!) with curved claw thorns that grab and snag and are as long as cat’s claws.
Sally Holmes, ya bitch!
Last night as we were getting ready for bed, Terry caught sight of my arms and politely requested that I wear long sleeves to church today, because not only are there scratches, there are small dime sized bruises where the
“Why do you keep such a thing?” You may ask. Because it’s beautiful, it vines and I can train it along the fence,it reaches out and scratches the paint on Terry’s truck when he drives by, the flowers are enormous and fragrant, and it’s so dense and vigourous it makes a good screen around the vegetable beds.
The very small vegetable garden (that's a cold frame in front)
Anyway, yesterday involved getting that monster pruned, a solid 2 hour job fraught with peril. Then I moved a nearby Zephirine Drouhine rose (a lovely thornless variety) that wasn’t doing as well as it could due to the proximity of the Sally Holmes, and a purple lantana what, while lovely,was too large for the spot it was in. All that digging and heaving was satisfying,but now my arms and back are a little sore. but it’s a good sore!
Today will see,hopefully, getting the gallica moved. If I can do that I’ll be satisfied. However, it’s looking cloudy, and if it rains then I do it later in the week.
You know what? It feels amazing to be talking about the garden,instead of griping about my kids or Terry’s job.
Gracie Cat and Lily Dog inspect and critique.
Filed under: Photography
Willette’s The Joy of Love project
WHEN THEY’RE HOME
On a Sunday afternoon in the Spring, it means one thing: NASCAR. Todayit was the Daytona 500, and Terry and CJ sat out in the Cave, watching it, drinking Coke and sharing laughs.
