Week 9 - Knitting and Weather and Reading

Sometimes, one has to wonderful WHY, oh why do we have a cat?  Some would say it's for the companionship, others would say because they wanted to provide a home to a rescued animal...Our Gilligan hates not being the center of attention. So much so, he is willing to sit anywhere to be in your view.  Here, I'm working on a 2 color sock that requires quite a bit of my attention.  Naturally, Gilligan decided that HE needed that attention more than the sock did. He slowly worked his way up onto the table, then onto the arm of my chair and finally onto my lap where my view of the knitting was totally obscured.  Mom snapped this photo as proof.  Silly Kitty!  I ended up putting the knitting down and giving him my full attention for a few minutes.  Then I pitched him off my lap and went on knitting. 

I am the cataloguer at the local library.  That means any book that comes into the library and it's decided that it will be put onto the shelves must go thru my hands.  Occasionally a book crosses my desk that gives me the giggles or stops me in my tracks.  Just such a book crossed my path this past week.  The title is God Went to Beauty School by Cynthia Rylant.  It was new several years ago and I was so delighted by the contents that I got a copy of myself and one for my mom and one for my daughter-in-law.  Written in a poetry-like form, it tells the story of what God saw and did when He went to beauty school, ice skating,  and several other quite ordinary endeavors.  I highly recommend this book for a lovely quiet read that's guaranteed to make you feel good and smile.

We've had a fairly mild winter so far.  Only 3 snow days in December and nothing since then.  And the temps have been so out of normal - mostly 50's to 70's in January and February.  Today, we were sitting in the studio discussing our garden plans for this year when Mom came in and told us that it was snowing...yes, snowing!  It's been snowing off and on all day and no accumulation because the ground is so warm.  They say, if you don't like the weather in Missouri, just wait 15 minutes, it will change.  Today has proven that to be  so true.  

You can barely see it, but that's snowflakes coming down...by the time it hit the ground, it melted.  No build-up...no icy roads...the temps are around 35 degrees but the wind makes it feel much colder.  March is our drought month so this moisture sure is welcome.  We are expecting more rain toward the end of this net week...yeah!!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Week 8 - He Lives!

Okay, that might be overly dramatic....But now you want to know the rest of the story, don't you?  Here goes...

John got sick right after he moved to Utah in 2013...the pneumonia affected his heart and he's been under the care of a cardiologist since then.  He's doing very well and we are perfectly confident in the doctor's treatments and recommendations.  .  

Now, a short while ago, he saw his cardiologist for his regular checkup. The doctor wanted him to see another cardiologist specialist...which he did.  That doctor wanted to have him do a stress test and echo cardiogram in preparation for possibly doing a procedure to help with his Atrial Fibrillation.  He had both of the tests a week ago Friday...on the way home, yes, on the way home!  He received a call from his regular cardiologist that they had seen something hinky on the stress test and he was going in to have an angiogram on Tuesday - no waiting...no discussion!  So, Tuesday morning sees us at the Hospital at 6:00 a.m.  His procedure was at 7:30 and by 7:40 they came in to tell us (me and mom) that they'd found a blockage in one of the arteries in his heart and were putting in a stent...he was back in recovery by 8:30, slightly groggy but awake enough to talk to us and know what had happened.  His regular cardiologist came in to talk to us and said that the blockage was at 85% on the central artery in the heart.  They were able to install a stent and the damage to the heart will take about a year but he should be fine.  He starts Cardiac Rehab in about 5 weeks...some slight changes to diet and carrying nitro glycerine tabs in his pocket - just in case.  He went back to work today - the rest of last week he was off and by the 2nd day he had cabin fever so bad so he's really happy to be back at work.

We are so thankful for the amazing staff at Mercy Hospital...from the wheelchair pusher to the surgeons, from the nurses to the patient advocates...they were absolutely the best!  

All of the above, and they still haven't decided what they want to do about the AFib. I think the heart blockage took precedence...now they can look at what they might want to do about the AFib soon enough.

As one might imagine, last week was mostly about John's situation so nothing much else happened.  This blog post will be short of necessity.  I'll try to post more next time.

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by.

Week 7 - Ummm, I have no words. See for yourself

Let's start off this post with my day on Wednesday...here is where I spent the day.

Yes, that is Juror #41...while I have no argument with doing one's civic duty, spending an entire day sitting on hard wooden benches and waiting for the defense and the prosecution to complete their voir dire process to then NOT being chosen for the jury makes me cranky.  Top that with the fact that they let me have my knitting (bless them) but NOT my kindle or cell phone (I understand not wanting the prospective jury to be able to take pictures or post on the net or research - but they wouldn't let me read on my kindle and I hadn't brought a real book with me!) That makes for a long day and a cranky Sally!  Granted, what probably pushed me off the jury was the fact that it was a drug related case and both my brothers are law enforcement officers and the defense seemed to want to defame the arresting officer...that would not have set well with me, let me tell you!  I can still be called for a case anytime between now and the end of June...if I serve on a case, then I won't be called for a minimum 2 years.  At least this week is over!

Now to other noteworthy happenings here at Pieceful Harbor...that being my crazy husband and his best friend. Our barn was built in 1937 - we know this because the cornerstone says so.  It has the original wooden sides and the original metal roof. With all the wind we get here in the Ozarks, the roof takes a beating and will occasionally lift off the boards.  Such is the case this weekend.  John and his friend, our next door neighbor, decided that today was the day to repair the barn roof.  Now, this is a tall barn - and the 22 foot extension ladder is not tall enough to get him where he needs to be to fix that metal roof.  What to do, what to do......well, in the Ozarks, you use a tractor to lift the ladder in the bucket and then extend the ladder to to top of the roof.  Typically, you would hear the following, "Hey, hold my beer...watch this.'"  

You need a spotter on the tractor.  That's our neighbor, John...he's in charge of the emergency brake on the bucket holding the ladder...and calling 911 if necessary.  

Three screws later, the job was done.  Mr. Wonderful said it brought back memories of being tied to the yardarm on a huge navy ship and changing the airspeed 'birds' many years ago...'Piece of cake", says he!  

I will say, he has better stamina, energy, and balance than anyone I have ever known...And he wonders why I call him my Hero!

I'll have some more news next week....hopefully it's good news....asking for unspoken prayers, especially on Tuesday...until then,

Thanks for stopping by!

Week 6 - Just Keeping Up

This winter, both John and I have had some medical challenges..nothing truly serious, just challenging.  His cardiologist wants him to see another specialist regarding another cardiac procedure for his Atrial Fibrillation...his heart has begun to reduce in size (Yeah!!!) but the AFib is still present and they want to try to get his heart back into normal rhythm.  Another series of tests this next week and they can come up with a plan of action.  My doctor does routine blood tests every 6 months and in October found that my kidneys were shutting down...I didn't even have any symptoms so this was news to me.  She took me off a couple of my medications and the kidneys have now 'repaired' themselves but I can no longer use those two meds...this is fine except one of them was an anti-inflammatory for my arthritic knees....I am now reduced to using pain meds 3 times a day just to be able to ambulate around with a cane at times and I can't stand much longer than 10 minutes or walk much more than 100 yards without crazy pain..  My concern was with addiction and she assures me there is no fear of that with the meds she has me on so I'm good. 

John has been getting things ready for spring around here.  He sent his riding lawn mower in for it's Spring Tune-up this last week.  Today he want out and collected soil samples to take to the Missouri Extension Center for analysis...hopefully we won't need to add any more amendments to the soils so our 'grass' grows well for the cows.  Speaking of cows, how about a cow picture?

From left to right you have Beast, Belle, and Rosie.  Beast and Belle belong to our son and his family in Utah...Rosie is ours.  Rosie is almost 18 months old and the others are a bit over a year old.  They are so fun to watch out in the field.  And easy to spot, even in the snow!

Yesterday we went into Springfield so I could have my eyes checked...it turns out one of my eyes needed more correction than the other and I ended up ordering new glasses...I'm going to try transition lenses this time...that way I won't have to carry around my sunglasses.

It's hard to tell but these are incredibly similar to the ones I'm wearing now...but with an adjusted script on the left eye.  Can't wait to get them sometime near the 13th of the month...

And now, for just a bit of humor...

That's just about all I still fit into!

Thanks for stopping by!