Happy New Year!

May you leave behind all the bad things of 2017, and take the good things with you into 2018.  May 2018 bring you  more good things than bad, and the bad things only irritations.

I wish you all peace, love, and understanding.

Words to live by - for 2018 and always

"Life goes on amidst chaos and everyone doing their best to stay well and sane." (thanks to JMcC)

Five Days of Christmas

Friday - Margaret picked me up about noon.  We stopped at Macalister's Deli for lunch, and then headed for Hillsboro.  It's always fun to reconnect with Margaret's menagerie.  Squeaky (the cat) and Ferg (Jesse's dog) are sweet critters, very loving.  The weather was cold and damp and grey.

Saturday - We started getting ready for our first Christmas dinner - with Matt & Claire (and their "babies" Barley and Hops) and Jesse & Darby. I finished one baby sweater I was working on, and started another. It wasn't a huge meal, but wonderful turkey and country ham, pinto beans, green beans, corn, and (for Margaret and me) dressing left-over from Thanksgiving.  After dinner, we had our present-opening.  There were some lovely choices and some funny choices - but the highlight was Claire's gift to Jesse - a box of "Beard-a-ments".  These are tiny ornament balls on clips to put in a beard.  Jesse did not think it was quite as funny as the rest of us did, but he was a good sport about it.

Sunday - Jesse had had to work overnight.  He and Matt met at the Waffle House for breakfast, and brought waffles back to the rest of us. Margaret went to church, and the rest of us talked and stayed out of serious trouble.  The cold nasty weather continued, but at least we weren't getting the horrendous snow and bitterly cold of the upper midWest.  Matt, Claire and their doodles left in early afternoon, and we just knitted/read/napped away the rest of the afternoon.  Margaret went to midnight mass and I headed off to bed.

Monday - We left Margaret's about 7, ate at Waffle House before getting on I-24 to drive to Nashville to pick up Jean and her friend, Kay.  We headed to Kate's in western Kentucky, getting there about 11.  Lots of good visiting.  It had been a while since I'd been to Kate's, so it was good for all of us. We had a nice dinner of lasagna, artichoke-heart casserole, home-made French bread, and even some mincemeat pie tarts for desert - an unusual, but delicious Christmas dinner. We got back to Margaret's about 7.  It never got warmer than about the mid30s, but we did at least get to see some good sunshine - first in about 5 days. It made for a nice Christmas present.

Tuesday - We had a surprise visit this morning from a farrier, looking for the folks who needed some horses shoed (shod?).  Jesse and Darby weren't there, but once found, got to the house to get the process started.  Obviously, as I told Margaret, my lack of knowledge about horses is vast.  Guess I'll be picking up more info if Jesse keeps up the horse ownership.  Margaret and I left about 11 to bring me back home.  Because of heavy traffic, we spent most of the trip on US 41, even driving into Chattanooga on surface roads - a very pleasant drive.  And the welcome sunshine made it even better.  We ate a nice Mexican lunch on the way home, Margaret got me back in the apartment, and returned home safely.

It was nice to see lots of family, and I hope to see the rest of them before too much longer.  It was a good holiday.  I hope everybody else had a good one, too.

Slothful!

Sorry to have not written much.  Not busy, just slothful.

An old friend, Missy, spent the night with me last night. She slept on the new sofa bed in the living room, which is open to the kitchen.  She lives near Knoxville now, and her mother-in-law lives here at the Terrace.  The MIL is dying, and with Hospice.  Missy's husband is out of town on business, so she is checking in for a couple of days.  I offered to have her stay here last night, and she was glad to have the chance to get away for a few hours. We went out to our favorite Mexican place for dinner, and she's staying again tonight.

Our swim group had it's Xmas after-class brunch yesterday - all sorts of good food, and a chance to see each other in "real" clothes and to chat.  It's always a fun time.  One of the gals super-decorates her lovely home and always has us come there.

I got to play duplicate last night - I didn't think we did too poorly, but we came in last again.  Oh, well - it's always good to get out.

Happy Holidays to all - whatever holiday you may celebrate!

Chilly Wednesday

Pretty cold here - in the 20s this morning when I headed out to swimming.  I took my car in for the annual inspection.  I've learned to go midweek in the middle of the month, and rarely have to wait.  Today I was the only one there when I drove up, and it took all of 5 minutes.  I came home, filled out the online application, and should get my renewal stickers in the mail tomorrow.  They're good!  That was pretty much all for today - and about the same for tomorrow.  I'll just stay in and stay warm (basking in the glow from Doug Jones' victory in Alabama).

Brrrr!

Nothing going on around here, and that's a good thing.  We had snow showers here yesterday afternoon, but up to 10" in the higher elevations in our TV viewing area.  The high today was only in the low 40s, with 20s predicted for overnight.  This is about 10* colder than our usual temps for this time of year.  At least we don't have any precipitation in the forecast.

It's a good time for knitting and binge-watching.

Visit to the Spine Clinic

The good news is that there is no imminent surgery on my back, and no MRI scheduled yet.

The bad news is that I have really bad scoliosis and no discs at all in the disc spaces.  Basically, there is probably some major back surgery in my future, if I live long enough, and the timing will be at my discretion.  But as long as I'm not having symptoms in my legs and pain no more than it usually is, I can wait.  I'm to go back in three months.  And, they will schedule an MRI and potential surgery anytime I think I'm ready.

As long as I don't have pain like I did last Sunday/Monday, I'm willing to wait.  But it wouldn't take many days like that to have me ready to schedule surgery.

Update

It's 41* here now, and supposed to get near freezing tonight. I hope I don't have to scrape the windshield in the morning. My appointment with the spine clinic is at 9 tomorrow morning.  I haven't been to this location before, so will be leaving the house between 8 and 8:15, to be sure to get there on time.  I'm feeling better than a couple of days ago - more like the usual level of pain.  I don't know what happened to cause the severe pain (up to an 8 or 9 on the scale) of Sunday and Monday, but it wasn't there when I got up on Tuesday.  For this, I'm very grateful! I had an optometry checkup last week, and have new glasses ordered.  I'll pick them up on Friday.

The monthly residents' meeting was this afternoon.  I guess there's always drama in any senior living facility, and this place is no exception.  Our Executive Director is leaving as of this week.  At least he wasn't fired, it was a personal decision (he's moving back to Texas where his wife is in a long-time job).  In any case, he's been quite good, and everybody pretty  much likes him.  So now corporate has to find somebody new, and we have to "break him/her in".  In the two years I've lived here, this will be the 4th ED, along with the second corporate owner.  Oh, well...

In the technology department, Comcast/Xfinity sent me a new piece of equipment, saying that it's is "easy to install", and I should be able to do it myself.  Yeah, right!  With great trepidation, I set out to do this chore - along with mental plans for what to do when I couldn't make it work.  To my great amazement, all I had to do was unplug three plugs from the old one, and plug them into the new one, then get on my devices and re-log in to my network.  The whole process took about 30 minutes.  And, what I'm proudest of, I remembered to get the serial number of the equipment and put it in the listing where I keep all my passwords, etc.

Friday Five

I've been AWOL - sorry.

1. This week has been buffeted by family health issues.  No specifics to share at this time.
2. I got to play bridge twice this week.  No master points, but at least today we got some good hands that we played well.
3. The hot water was off in the dressing room I use at the YMCA all week.  I didn't go to the pool Wednesday (bad me!), but did go today.  I just used another dressing room. 
4. I figured out how to borrow an e-book from my library (thanks, Kate!), and checked out Unbelievable, by Katy Tur.  She was the NBC/MSNBC reporter who covered Trump from the day he announced in 2015.  It's a good read.
5. I've gotten a couple of hats knitted out of left-over yarn.  Now to get to work on the socks I've been delaying working on.

A special day

Today is for John.

It's always be his birthday.

He is always missed.

Not quite Thanksgiving

Margaret came for me yesterday afternoon, and she's been cooking all day today.  I've done a little helping - mostly what I can do sitting down.  Then I did the last part of making the dressing - adding the seasonings and stirring and tasting.  I mentioned that I was hungry for a steak, so she got some for us tonight.  Jesse cooked them on the grill - and a lovely medium-rare steak was SO good.

The big news here was a phone call from Sarah (the youngest grandchild) telling me that her Carson had literally gotten down on one knee and proposed to her - ring and all.  I don't think the wedding will be too soon, but they've been together for a while, so no hurry.  We're all excited for the two of them. 

Love and Food

It's gotten to be late November and time for Thanksgiving.

This is one of my favorite holidays and I hate that it has gotten passed over with all the emphasis on Christmas.  And that's really all about shopping, spending money, and commercialism. The radio station playing in the lobby of The Terrace started playing Christmas music on the day after Halloween!  I asked them to turn it off, but of course, that didn't happen.  Sigh...

The traditional Southern Thanksgiving meal is one of my favorites.  It's a lot of work, but since everything is the same each year, there's really not much mental work involved.  I love the turkey, dressing, country ham, cranberries (in all forms), squash casserole, green beans, potatoes (white and sweet), gravy, mincemeat pie, pumpkin pie, and whatever else shows up.

And then there's the family and friends who gather to share in the bounty.  When the girls married, shared holidays with other families, had children, and traditions of their own to develop, John and I started having our celebration on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  The getting-together was the important thing, not a specific day or date.

The number to feed has always been variable.  It depends on which family members are able to come.  So we started inviting friends to join us.  Since there is always SO much food, the number of mouths isn't important.  Plus we never try to all sit down at the same table at the same time.

For this family, the holiday is about Love (and food)!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday Six

1. I've slept well the two nights since that last "Sleepless in Chattanooga" night.
2. Sue asked me about making the Christmas thing with the mothballs in a tank of water that bounced up and down like snowballs, using the mixture of baking soda and vinegar to make the carbonation bubbles.  I hadn't thought of that in a zillion years.  Did anybody else do that?  Do you remember the formula?
3. That terrible line of thunderstorms roared through here last evening, with only about 0.25" of rain.  It was fast, and nothing severe here. I just learned tonight that there was an F1 tornado in the Nashville area last night.  Wow!
4. It did get cold overnight, but turned out to be a nice sunny day.
5. It's supposed to be near freezing in the morning when I leave for the Y.  So I guess I'll have to scrape the windshield.  I hate doing that.  I think I'll try the spray bottle of alcohol if there's frost.
6. Thinking ahead to Thanksgiving, my friend posted pictures of her table already set for dinner.  That couldn't happen in our family!  For starters, we have our Thanksgiving dinner on the Saturday following Thanksgiving Day.  And, our dinner is never for a finite number of people.  Our celebration has always been with the family who can be there in person, plus an assortment of good friends who are able to be with us. It's probably my favorite holiday for sharing.

Tough night

Four hours sleep, in spurts,

Just doesn't get the job done.

Hope better tonight.

Bridge

I played duplicate last night.  For a change, my partner and I did well.  With 10 pairs and 18 boards, we came in 2nd and had a couple of high boards - all for 0.56 MP!  Nothing much else going on.

Five for Friday

• The pool felt really good this morning.  And coffee with my buddies is always a treat.
• I did a couple of errands while I was out - post office, and checking on my Comcast account. They keep telling us that the building is going to switch to our local fiberoptic provider (which we had before I moved here).  It is so much better - and I wish that would happen sometime.
• I'm going to have to start bringing the bird feeders in again.  Some critter cleaned them out last night.  I don't know what, though.  It couldn't have been a raccoon because the feeders weren't knocked off their hooks or disturbed in any way - just empty.  A mystery!
• The folks here at the Terrace have put up a Wall of Honor across from the dining room, with photos of our veterans, back in the day, in their uniforms.  There's a special party tomorrow morning to honor them.  We even have a woman who served in the Air Force during WW2.
• I've placed a pick-up order from my local Walmart and will pick it up in the morning.  I absolutely LOVE this service, and haven't been in the store in several months.  Plus there's no charge!

Tuesday weather

I woke up about 4 and couldn't go back to sleep.  I got up about 5, ate some cereal, and headed for the chair.  To my surprise, I slept hard until after 8!  I really had to make myself get up, get dressed, and go to Silver Sneakers.

We had a lovely hard rain this morning - nothing severe or windy, but an inch in the rain gauge.  The temperature dropped about 15* during the day.  According to the weatherman tonight, there were severe storms with very high winds and some damage in the counties just north of us. I'm glad we didn't get any of that.

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Yorkshire Pudding is a blog I follow. His post today about the "Paradise Papers" and paying (or not paying) taxes is super.  Check it out.

Good start to the week

At the suggestion of a friend, I got some Icy-Hot patches to try for symptomatic relief for my back pain.  I didn't have much pain yesterday when I first tried one, but one time does not a solution make.  On the other hand, it's almost impossible to put a sticky patch on your own lower back - especially when one arm doesn't work very well.  So I don't know if it's something I want to try again (unless I can find some kind soul to apply it for me - LOL).

Monday night is for duplicate.  Partner and I wound up in the middle - not too bad, but no Master Points.

I had a year-end appointment with my financial counsellor this morning.  She is great, and is doing such a good job with managing my assets.  I'm really pleased with the way she/the firm are handling things.  They're not only keeping me solvent, but continuing to grow my "nest egg".  It's certainly comforting to me (and the girls) to know that I can live out my life without any money problems or being a financial burden on the kids.

Sunday Stealing

First Things First

{1} First thing you would do/buy if you won the lottery: First thing I could call my financial advisor and arrange for an attorney. Of course, I would have to buy a ticket first.
{2} First person you call when you get amazing news: My daughters.
{3} First thing you do when you've had a bad day: Head for my chair and some knitting.
{4} First movie you went to without your parents: That was probably 70+ years ago - I have no idea.
{5} First sport you played (Little League-style or in school): Never played sports in school, except when required in gym class.
{6} First major injury: Severed artery from a broken bowl.
{7} First product I use in the shower: Body wash.
{8} First apartment or house on your own (away from you parents!): When John and I moved into the apartment on Garrett St.
{9} First Roommate(s): John
{10} First Time Living Away from Home: Summer away from home working at a resort hotel in Colorado.
{11} First magazine subscription: Jack & Jill
{12} First real piece of jewelry you owned: My wedding ring.
{13} First time staying home alone: I have no idea.
{14} First thing I reach for in the fridge: Ice
{15} First car accident or traffic violation: Rear ended by a truck.

Bonus:  Toilet paper, over or under? Over.  

Five for Friday

1. Obviously it's been a very quiet week.
2. Margaret came over last Saturday to get the transportable plants off my deck, to put in her greenhouse.  We were due to get a frost Sunday night. It did frost, and the tender stuff that was left got shriveled.
3. I played duplicate Monday night with a different party.  We did fairly well, but the scorekeeper screwed something up, and the results never got posted.  Oh, well - maybe next week.
4. My back pain has gotten bad enough that I've made an appointment to see the spine doctor.  Earliest available time is on 8 December.  We'll make it work until then.
5. I substituted at duplicate this afternoon.  The scores got posted, but we didn't win any master points.  Oh, well...