May 30, 2013

It's Thursday and hot and humid here in DC.  I guess summer has arrived and the drone of air conditioners fills the air, mine included.  Luckily, we have a two zone a/c system so we can keep the lower floor so/so temperature wise and the bedroom can be Arctic cold, which is the way we like it.  After all isn't that why blankets were invented?  And heavens know I keep a bunch on my bed all year round.  No out of season cold front will catch me unaware!

Benjamin came to visit us this week and we shared him with Auntie Kim.  Kim is super active and as you suspect, I am not.  Kim ran him hard during the day and we took turns having him at night for book reading and super cuddle time.

Last night Andy and Stacey were coming to Frederick to pick out blinds for their new house so Jeff and I took Benjamin to dinner and then we loaded him and the carseat (no easy task) into the plane and flew around Frederick for an hour.  We didn't bring a set of child headphones so I gave him my set and I listened to the drone of the engine which under certain circumstances, will put you to sleep!

Today I don't have an appointment of any kind so if I find myself motivated (ha), I will try and pick up the crayons before they get mushed into the carpet and clean the kitchen.

After months of not using my library card to reserve books, I finally figured out how to use the online services and have put a hold on several books.  One of the books I have reserved is about a child's account of Heaven which I'm very interested in reading.

No big exciting news from the Bassett house.  Jeff and I, but more Jeff, are treading water as fast as we can so that we don't go under financially.

I'd love to stay and chat but my house calls me - to do something - anything!

Stay cool.

P

My Weekend

5/26/2013

I know that the weekend isn't really over; but, I decided to share with you some of what I've done so far.  Yesterday, a friend came and got me (I'm not allowed to drive) and we went out to lunch and I brought half of my sandwich home with me.  That half a sandwich will make an excellent bite for my lunch today.

We drove to the library and armed with my list of books/authors I wanted to read I scoured the aisles trying on books for size.  When I select a book I always look at the cover page (I like a nice cover), as well as the inside flap.  I never buy or borrow a book without reading the first page and I look for bigger print type because I don't see as well as I once did.  Who does come to think of it?

I'm new to this handicapped lifestyle and I find it tedious to juggle my purse which weighs 5 pounds, the cane and in this case a bag of books.  While I fought the use of the cane initially, I use it almost constantly.  The biggest problem I have with the cane is finding it every day.  I put it down and then of course can't remember where it is.  I need some kind of locator device that would beep to tell me where the blasted thing is.  Yesterday, Jeff found it inside a closet where I had been shuffling some paperwork for the now defunct battery business.  I was bored with the chore and didn't notice that I had put the cane in the closet while I was working and then wandered away.

Scott came over in the afternoon and we drove to the shop because everybody loves driving around the beltway to visit a warehouse!  Because it was Saturday there was a small blessing in that traffic was minimal.  We took Scott to 5 Guys after dinner where many french fries went to their death.  Scott brought along his dog, a Neapolitan Mastiff who is a big dog, actually more of a gentle giant, and she attracted a lot of attention.

Went to bed a bit late but was up, as usual, bright and early.  Today we are driving over to Andy's houe to bring Benjamin to our house for a few days.  Actually, neighbor Kim and I will split time with Benjamin.  Kim is active (and I am so clearly not) that Benjamin has a better time with her as far as playtime goes.  Mom Mom (that's me) is more of a reading, watching a movie and cuddling before bed.  When you think about it Benjamin has a perfect world.

Now that my blog is being put to bed I will retire to the sofa (Jeff is still sleeping) and start lining up tv shows for the next week.  It's a big job put somebody's got to do it!

Enjoy your day.

P

Ideas

May 25, 2013

Ideas

Ever go to the store, or perhaps on line, and see something that catches your eye, and perhaps your wallet too, and wonder why you didn't think of it?  Of course you have.  Let's just think about a few inventions from our past.  Okay this is where anybody under the age of say 30 will begin to doze off - but the baby boomers should stick around.

Remember when pantyhose came out in the 60's?  No more garter belts unless you were trying to put some spice in your game.  And then we had little plastic eggs stuffed to the brim with a pair of pantyhose.  Somebody thought of that great little gimmicky product and for years millions (okay maybe thousands) of women bought "eggs".

Growing up as a teenager in the 60's,  back when music was at its absolute best, in my humble opinion, my music came from a a teeny transistor radio (remember those?).  It ate up batteries and unlike the radios that came after the first round of portable music, was cheap, and not worth stealing which made it the perfect companion for a day at the beach.  Of course that initial transistor played more static than music - but it was portable and everybody had one.

I eventually convinced my Dad that I needed a radio for my bedroom that ran on electricity not batteries.  We went to the store and I told Dad I needed the biggest radio my money could buy.  My new purchase was so big that it almost didn't fit on my desk.  The antenna was a wire that I taped to my wall which brought me "music" after a fashion.  I didn't mind that I heard bits and pieces of music coming out from Chicago because I really did love my first electronic purchase (okay for those of you who rely on accuracy in reporting), it wasn't really electronic but you get the gist of what I'm trying to say.

We now have power seats in our cars, collapsible side mirrors.  Where were these mirrors when I was learning to drive I careened my little Rambler into a parking lot pole!  Did a lot of damage partly because when I made my initial contact I kept on going forward.  Big mistake!

The invention of microwaves made it possible to fix dinner when you didn't leave something out to thaw.  When we moved from California to Maryland in 1986 our rental house (while our home was being built) didn't have a microwave and I forgot about dinner in the general mayhem of getting everybody out the door in the morning.  Luckily for loose brained people like myself, hot dogs can actually be cooked on the stove!

I have thought of two things that would be beneficial to people.  Actually, one invention would be beneficial to thousands of people - a retractable IV cord.  While I was in the hospital almost every day the nurse would come around and find me wrapped around the IV cord and unable to move!  My brain wasn't working at it's max capacity so the solution which was unwrapping myself was beyond my brain. 

I now walk with both a walker and a cane depending on my move.  Both of these devices some in black (cane) or gray for the walker.  They are necessary but frankly ugly.  I came up with an idea to decorate the cane.  My thought was to provide people with accessories for their canes.  I would call the company Patti Canes and would have some kind of stretchy (think small hair scrunchies) which then you could glue or pin some kind of jewelry to.  There was another patient in the hospital who had a cane just like mine and we were forever mixing up the two canes.  If I had a Patti Cane accessory my cane would be unique and there would be no confusion between "caners"!

My neighbor has just invited me to go out to lunch and is going to take me to the library today.  Other than getting my head "shrunk" twice this week I haven't been out of the house much so it will be good to sniff fresh air and load up my library bag with reading for the next week.

Enjoy your day and the long weekend.  We are going to pick up Benjamin tomorrow and we'll keep him overnight and he'll then spend a few days with Auntie Kim and her family.

P

OCD, Bugs and Varmits

May 24, 2013

How to describe my OCD?  As anybody who suffers from OCD, which is a nasty bit of annoyance, we have routines that must be followed or our "crazy" sets in!  And I promise you that you don't want to see us when we're freaked out about locking car doors or making sure we didn't hit a pedestrian who was walking 3 blocks away.

I, for example, have to double (nah triple) check to make sure that my car doors are locked when parking in a parking lot.  Now in reality I know that the absolute worse thing that could occur while I'm off doing who knows what - is that the car will be missing when I return.  That's it.  See how simple that sounds, no big deal.  Except for me and perhaps others a missing (stolen) car would be devastating and then I'd have to quadruple check my doors!

Before I can go to bed at night I absolutely must check to make sure that the garage door is closed.  It doesn't matter that Jeff has done it and reported in - I MUST see for myself.  In theory we're back to the what is the worst that could happen.  The door remains open all night and a family of squirrels move in to eat the dogs kibble and fight for their place in the garage.  Squirrels are destructive but cuter than those tacky little meeses that continually crop up in my house throughout the year.  And don't get me started on those ugly and huge buggy cicadas due to arrive on my doorstep any day now.  I know people eat them and have pronounced them tasty and the paper will soon be filled with cicadas recipes but count me out.  I'm not fond of bugs so the thought of eating one or perhaps more is not even remotely on my radar.  I may be odd but I prefer my food to be dead before eating. Unless I'm eating pretzels or potato chips I don't want to hear a crunching sound. 

I watch these tv shows where the host goes around the world eating gross icky stuff and he declares, almost without exception, how tasty the head, or other body parts, of a particular animal is.  I wonder what his wife fixes for him when he's home.  And while he has indicated how tasty squirrels are - don't expect to come to my house for dinner - and eat anything but beef or chicken.  And I'm sure that this same gentleman would tell you that squirrel tastes just like chicken apparently tastes a lot like alligator, rattlesnake as well as many other animals that are not directly related to a cow or pig.

So as soon as I'm finished with my cup of coffee and wishing you all a happy three day weekend, I'm going down to the basement (also called the hole) to forage in the deep freeze for something for dinner tonight.

P

Ironing on Tuesday

May 21, 2013

Ironing on Tuesday

When you think of the days of the week, Mondays are special (but not necessarily in a good way) because it starts the week.  Wednesday, everybody knows, is hump day.  You have managed to hang in at work for three days and happily slide down towards Friday and the weekend.  Fridays, are of course, wonderful just because they mark the end of your regular work week and then you have two days on your own to do all the wifey stuff - groceries, laundry, paperwork and maybe you even iron (though I can't imagine why).  I own an iron and it's somewhere in the house but if I was offered a million dollars I don't think I could easily put my finger on it.

Growing up one of my weekly duties was the ironing.  How I hated it.  My mother made me iron the pillowcases, handkerchiefs (remember those) and of course my own clothes.  Long sleeve blouses were the easiest.  When she wasn't looking I simply ironed the collars and sleeves since most of the time I wore sweaters over the blouses.  Easy.  If she noticed, she never said anything.

One of the most dreaded ironing tasks is pleated skirts.  I guess the care of pleated skirts has greatly improved but I wouldn't know because I haven't owned one since I left high school.  I was so traumatized by trying to get the pleats done correctly that I actually allowed one of my skirts to become moldy and then hid it in the trash.  Mom always sprinkled her clothes in advance and rolled them up and covered everything with a towel.  Well the skirt in question was stealthy removed from the basket and sat in my closet until it was no longer an attractive, or wearable skirt.  Again lucky for me that Mom never asked about the skirt.  I wasn't a very good storyteller and she swore that she could tell when I was lying.  Anyway, the secret is out but since my Mom has passed away I can't be ratted out by my siblings.

When I came home from school on Tuesdays there was the dreaded wicker basket filled with damp clothes that needed immediate attention.  I ironed my brother's uniforms when he was working at Kraft Foods (icky job both for me and him).  I wasn't allowed to go out and play (even though in high school we didn't really play, we just hung out) until the ironing was done. Curses.

Of course in between ironing and trying to fix dinner and watch my sister I was also supposed to get my homework done and keep up my grades.  By the time I got married at 18 (big mistake) I was already used to running a house.  The difference between my parent's house and my tiny dingy apartment was they had money - and I had none.

Even though today is a Tuesday I have nothing to iron so I'm going to sit around and continue working on paperwork even though I have zero motivation to do so.

Enjoy Tuesday whether you are at work or sitting behind an ironing board!

P

Thanks

May 20, 2013

Today I want to acknowledge the many people who took such good care of Jeff while I was away.  I know that Jeff really appreciated company and conversation that didn't center around doctors and the mounting pressure from the now defunct battery business.

I want to thank the many people who sent me cards, called me, visited me, sent flowers, plants and balloons.  For someone who was feeling so down on herself it was rewarding beyond words to see the expressions of love and caring.

I am making progress though not quite as fast as I would like.  I dress and put on shoes every day JUST in case the opportunity to go somewhere pops up. 

Yesterday it was a trip to Costco in the afternoon and because I had suffered from chest pains all day and a general funky mood, Jeff took me out to Andy's for a visit with all of them - which included dinner at the restaurant called "Andy's".  At the end of dinner I told Ben that I was going home and that I would see him next week.  We did the extended hugs and kisses routine but he went willingly home with Andy and Stacey.

Today is put away the laundry day.  I'd give almost anything to never have to do that particular chore again.  What a drag.  My assignment for today is to continue typing on my story "The Inside of a Suicide".  I might share it with my doctors.

Enjoy Monday.  Next Monday everybody can sleep in!!

P

Telephones

May 19, 2013

Telephones

Okay I'll let you in on a little secret - that frankly most of you already know.  I don't like talking on the telephone.  Those long lazy chats during high school with my girlfriends is now just a thing of the past.  Why I wonder?  With the advent of all the new cellphone technology should be easier than ever.  So why do I think it's a pain in the rear.  There is nothing to hold on is one issue.  Give me a phone with an actual receiver that I can grab onto.  These new phones is just a palm size piece of plastic that I have trouble operating.  Have the time I don't even remember where I laid down my little cellular piece of communication.  You have to hold this small device up to your ear and more times than not I let the phone slip off my ear OR I push the wrong button and end up talking to Hong Kong!  Or calling my sister at 3:00 in the morning and then discovering my error and hanging up.  I have been forgiven for the early wake up call and after that incident in the hospital kept my cellphone in the locked security closet!

Half the time when I manage to find my phone, I"m short on battery life which bothers me not a bit. I am not a huge telephone user.  And my phone is not permanently attached to my hip or tucked safely inside my purse (which I can't find half the time either)!

The new phones are small and powerful and allow the entire population to reach out and "touch" someone with the press of a button.  But if you're having rather frequent brain cramps (like me), then the phone is no longer friendly or useful.  More times than not I have to yell upstairs to Jeff to help me get myself re-oriented with all the screens and options.  Truth is that Jeff has told me numerous times in the past two weeks how to use the phone and I absorb very little of what he tells me.  Frustrating for both of us.

So to my friends and family who don't receive phone calls from me, it's not that I don't love you or think about you.  Just the technology is, at the moment, overwhelming for me and I'm adverse to using it.  But it isn't just the telephone that gives me trouble - I'm also having trouble running my Tivo remote successfully!

P