kappydell

we got one stimulus check last week. Mary assumed it was hers because she had just filled out a request thru social security (she does not file taxes, does not make enough). I kept wondering where mine went and finally checked the website. Turned out the one that came was mine....it went in the joint account like my tax return. OOOOOOPSIE. Mary was very embarrassed and apologized all over the place for spending 'my' money. For heavens sake we have a joint account for joint expenses and the like, so no biggie to me. I have never been much on that MY money YOUR money thing anyway. If I cant trust you we don't live in the same house. Nice to know more is coming later though. And no, we have not spent it all already. The planned for purchase items are not available right now.

Yay! Question answered. SpaceX launched 60 of them, they look like a string of pearls now, but as they climb they will spread out and disappear. For communications, internet was specifically mentioned in the article. OK! TY snapshotmiki (you notice I got it right this time, LOL)

Tonight as we watched 'the voice" our neighbor called. "go look up in the sky".....there are bright lights in formation. they look like satellites, but there are 12 of them, which is a little much. Military maneuvers? 12 of them is very biblical.... maybe one of the heavenly signs reminding us to look up? Do the three days of darkness loom up on us? Im inclined to think military formation headed somewhere from north carolina marine base. We shall see....or we shall never know.....but it IS odd. Picked lettuce today - romaine, curly black seeded simpson, buttercrunch, and red something-or-other. Munch and crunch time!

Its 3:30 AM and we just came out of our tornado room.....one went over us but did not touch down until it was past. Funny what you grab....I grabbed a cup & the full thermos of coffee, a water bottle from the fridge, and the $2000 check from our tax return (I was thinking that the state revenue dept would be hard to convince that a tornado got the refund check so they needed to print another....who knows how long THAT would take). Did not grab my glasses (go figure). Dogs were amazingly well behaved in our cramped shelter area - no bickering - Now i am watching TV to unwind enough to sleep. I got in early tonight, and was sleeping nicely, then the weather alerts woke me up. Cant complain, they worked as designed. So did our 'tornado room"... a huge walk in closet with no outside walls in the master bathroom. One of the reasons we picked this floor plan was the large closet - Big enough to hold a couple of recliners....or cots....or a small office desk with filing cabinets.....big enough to hold us and a passel of critters - and the big pantry. No more excitement, please

today we basically sat around waiting for storms. we battened down the hatches, fed the animals early and I made scalloped potatoes & ham for dinner. Today I missed most of all going tp church and I felt for the first time my weakness in the face of covid, especially when I heard about the police arresting a person at walmart who not only was out without a face mask, knowing he had covid virus but was going around coughing in people's faces. I am surprised someone didn't beat him up before the cops came. But I am feeling vulnerable - between my afib, my aortic anuerism, my hear murmur, high blood pressure, etc I definitely wear my mask everywhere. I am considering cancelling physical therapy until Georgia stops increasing in covid cases, especially in the face of those who simply will NOT take precautions, at all. I still tire so easily after surgery I am sure that is another risk factor on top of the heart stuff. There are times I could get scared if I was the panicky type....lets just say my concern level is rising, LOL. I already do not shop - poor Mary is willingly doing it, but I feel bad for her. I hate being a burden and I feel like one. Now you know why I bake her homemade bread and try so hard to cook what she likes as often as possible. Tonight we are watching the storm coverage on the weather channel. We know the areas where the tornadoes are hitting, and we know people in those areas. a couple of friends are hosting at a campground - tornadoes coming their way in 10 min. They may be gathering up all the happy campers to go to the shower/utility building which is the only brick building in the area (no tornado shelter at their park). May their guardian angels watch over them. These storms should screw up my sleep tonight. Oh well...all we can do is prep and hope for the best! Get out yer best hatpins, ladies, its gonna get a mite breezy!!!! I need a loony tunes fix! I don't

Voistina voskrese! And yet again: CHRISTUS RESURREXIT! RESURREXIT VERE! Alleluia!

THE LORD HAS RISEN! AMEN as us old skool catholiics, eastern and asian orthodox, eastern catholic, and anglicans would say: CHRISTUS RESURREXIT! RESURREXIT VERE! Christ has risen! Truly he is Risen! In the midst of all our turmoil, a beacon of hope shines again and beckons us to follow!

The last couple days I have found it hard to get motivated to DO anything, so I am proud of what I finally did accomplish, against my recaltricant spirit. On Friday we put the slip covers on the old recliners that we had moved to the living room so we would have seating there in case we wanted to watch TV #2. I was pleased with the results, they look very nice. Moved things around. Mary wanted the TV console out of the master bath where it has been stashed since my surgery (back in January) so she could tile the living room floor (which also looks very nice, BTW.) I basically did it to please her, she wanted her bathroom back! Then I tried to make sourdough bread again - epic fail. I had so much sourdough it overflowed the bowl while proofing (messy oven) and I could not seem to add enough flour to make it firm enough to make loaves. Heck, it was not even firm enough to KNEAD. So I finally poured it into loaf pans like batter bread when I got tired of beating it, and it rose fast. It took forever to bake and get brown, and when it did it tasted OK but the crust was so thick and crispy it crunched as I ate it. Hard on my less than perfect teeth, too. So I set it aside for crumbs.....it should make crumbs that rival Panko for crispiness! Next day I woke up still grumpy from the sourdough failure.. Could not figure out what I did wrong (I think I finally did figure it out though but it took all day). So I set up to make my regular bread - 3 loaves and a pan of rolls for those who insist on eating some fresh from the oven (most everybody I know, including me!) But I was crabby as all get out. I was clutzy - dropping things, spilling things; I could not focus well, and NOTHING went like it should have not even the simplest tasks! Every other word out of my mouth was cussing (I have struggled with that for years) and Mary finally left to go work on the boat to get away from me. Heck, I wanted to get away from me! So I did the only thing I could think of....kitchen prayers....."Lord, I don;t know what has gotten into me, I am cussing up a storm and it does not even register until it leaves my lips that I am offending you with every breath. HELP! I can't do this alone! I trust you to handle this because I am epic-ly failing. Thank you." After I got the bread set to rising I went to make crumbs from the sourdough bread (made LOVELY crumbs, BTW). Then the blender started making odd noises. Uh Oh, I thought, I broke it! That figures! With trepidation I picked up the blender container from the base, and crumbs showered me, the stool, the floor, the astonished kitten at my feet, and I just sat there. No cussing. Then laughter, loud and long to the point of tears. And I thanked God for breaking the cuss cycle, and admitted to Him that THAT particular disaster was something I would never have thought of in a millon years. The base had come unscrewed - the blender was fine - and as I cleaned things up I had to admit, that was certainly a creative way to get my attention and snap me out of the crabbies. Funny, too, if you thought about it! What else could I do but laugh? The new batch of bread turned out fine, Mary came home and had hot rolls as an appetizer, and I made a hamburger & pasta hot dish for dinner. And my attitude was much better, my mood lighter, and I could again crack wise instead of cranky. Who says God has no sense of humor? He certainly elbow nudged me and winked....

Well, still working with my primary care doc to try to figure out why my ankles are swelling so bad. All those tests showed no heart issues. She switched some meds to try to eliminate any that cause water retention. Its gonna take a while...I with the virus did not preclude my taking her salad veggies (hard to clean them) because I am knee deep in various lettuces. Baked bread today. Dinner was home made bread,, hot out of the oven and baked chicken. I have been brining my chicken in an effort to get out more of the blood that seems to remain near the bones and it works. All I did today was brine them, then when ready to cook them, rinse, dry off, spray with PAM fat spray, sprinkle on some dry crumbs & herbs, spray with more fat spray and bake them 1 hour at 375. (Usually I go 350 but the bread called for 375 so I baked both at the same time. Mary was all smiles, she LOVES hot homemade bread, but then again, who doesn't? Nobody here.....Since Mary went out & got frozen bread dough I used that (she was trying to make it easier on my arthritis; did not have the heart to tell her that kneading bread is not a problem....opening plastic packaging IS....but why rebuff her kindness?) The sourdough will snooze in the refrigerator a day or two, then I will wake it up and make fresh bread again - we go thru a loaf a day.

Misty of Chincoteague....Black beauty......National Velvet......Pippi Longstockings series.....The Happy Hollisters (a family of mystery solvers, similar to Nancy Drew).....and Sue Barton, Student Nurse (series of 7 books). Any sci-fi by Isaac Asimov. Any mystery or police procedural books....Ed McBain's 87th precinct series....any Perry Mason story.....any short story anthology by Alfred Hitchcock ("stories that scared even me" was particularly good) any sci fi by andre norton (who turned out to be a woman writer, LOL). And most of those shown above. I always left school with a huge load of library books to read.

LOL, no the ham schnibbles (little bits & pieces cut off the non spiral sliced part of the ham bone, too small for breakfast biscuit sandwiches) The fattier ones I use for beans, which can handle some fat; ;the lean ones are for omelets & fried rice. Thats what I meant to put down. I need to proofread better.....TP is more scarce than meat around this area, glad we have plenty stocked up. But its too scarce to eat, even if it had any flavor....(snicker, snort, snicker)

Tired today. Got up early (6 a.m.) so I could go to grocery during granny hours. Very nice - lots of face masks & gloves, everybody cooperating to keep ample distance, etc. Not an unruly mob scene like Walmart was last time I went in there. Got a sale ham, spiral sliced that was not on list, but Mary was OK with it, it will make nice scalloped potatoes & ham for at least 4 meals, plus 'schnibbles" to flavor beans & omelets & stir fries & casseroles. Then with the bone I make pea soup which we both love. So that ham will see plenty of mileage. Also got 4 spray bottles and 6 gallons of sweet tea for our friends down the road. The woman is very careful to disinfect (she and her husband are both high risk, and their grown children that live with them are still working, one is with sheriffs dept so he is exposed to everything under the sun). She shares her gloves & masks which she has extras and we both keep an eye out when shopping for things the other family uses. She had no luck finding spray bottles so she was tickled to get 2 quart sized ones, which she promptly filled with bleach water to disinfect the sweet tea jugs before taking them inside. They go thru LOTS of sweet tea, 3 of the 4 drink it constantly and only she remembers to buy it. So when we are out we get some. We also gifted her with 2 cartons of cigarettes; since both of them smoke the same brand they do not last long. The governor here is cracking down on social distancing, and the police are arresting those who refuse to comply. He says they will be cracking down the next 2 weeks so we plan on staying zipped up. After shopping, napped a bit then went to physical therapy and worked hard. So I am sore and creaky tonight, but it is a tired soreness, not a 'uh-oh' soreness. We shall see if I get those obnoxious leg cramps waking me tonight (would not surprise me one bit). But I believe in working out with a will and the results are worth it. Soon the first 6 weeks of PT will be complete, and I do not know if I will get any more so I am picking their brains and paying close attention to workout exercises & their execution. Today the therapist told me I am what they call a "sandwich" patient....a BLT...no bending, lifting or twisting. I thought that was a cute nickname. The hospital doors are locked and I have to call in to have someone from PT let me in, take my temperature, ask me "the questions" and then I can go in, but exercising with a mask is a pain as I am a mouth breather when I work out. It gets hot. But not as bad as the therapist who also has a face shield. We look like a medical masquerade party, for petes sake. Or a MASH party which is what they used to have once in a while when the MASH TV show was running. Everybody would wear scrubs & face masks and drinks were dispensed via IVs. (I caught more than one college student dumpster diving behind the hospital I worked at back in the 70s looking for IVs. Hope they washed them, lol). I will be going to bed early (for me anyway) around 2 AM. Tomorrow I'll be boning that ham so we can fit the meat in our freezer somewhere in smaller packages. I'm setting up potato water sourdough sponge tonight. Mary is craving home made bread so I'll make my usual 2 loaves plus a pan of hot rolls for dinner tomorrow. Mmmmmm. Sheltering in place is making me FAT!

More planters filled and placed along the garden fence. Some folks put up Christmas tree lights, we plant flowers for those exercise walkers (we have quite a few of them) to enjoy as they stroll past. We are out of the 1 inch pvc pipe needed for a watering tube for the wicking pots. Looking for a substitute - an old hose, for example. The flowers (petunias and zinnias, nothing fancy but colorful) are pretty. Hyacinths to feed the soul - a quote from somewhere or other - came to mind. So far Mary is resisting making wicking pots out of kitty litter pails, do not know why as they will be out of sight. Oh well. We also discussed getting goats which she thought would be cool until she realized I did not mean as pets, but for milk....and meat.....so no goats. The zucchini and melon transplants died. Too cold? Will have to start seeds now. Green beans are not doing very well either, but they do NOT like it cool and we have mostly days in 50s right now - OK for cool weather crops but not for the warm weather ones, like beans. Tomorrow I go to store early for granny hours, and get a few last items for us and our neighbor. Governor is 'suggesting' a shut down of even food & pharmacy trips for next 2 weeks. Sheesh.

https://www.wired.com/story/surveillance-save-lives-amid-public-health-crisis/ the problem is not so much the surveillance per se.....to me anyways, I'm boring..........but in what the powers that be choose to DO with the information. We all KNOW how hard (impossible) it is for those bean counting bureaucratic control freaks to resist using it to advance their own personal vision on everybody else.....after all they do not want to waste all that perfectly good data any more than they want to waste a perfectly good crisis the unscrupulous will use ANYTHING to advance their desires.

Yeppers, our Walmart was roped off too down to one entrance. Of course, since this is the largest one in the area folks were coming in from all over the area. No handicapped parking nor any riding carts, so I had to schlep across the whole parking lot to get in just to pick up a script. Today we plan on doing flower planters. M is insistent about flowers and from the comments the morning walkers make they enjoy seeing them, too. So today is the day. While we are at it I will try to get a couple of kitty litter planters done as well, and take photos of those for an article I am submitting to backwoods home magazine. They like photos with their articles. I see they are still printing me writing - this last issue had an article I sent them before we moved down here permanently. (And a big thank you to Pope Francis for making daily plenary indulgences available to those who pray for Covid victims. I was saddened by not being able to go to Easter mass or mass for Divine Mercy feast due to the virus. At least I can earn indulgences for my beloved dead souls....that makes me happy. (Its a Roman Catholic thing to offer up intercessory suffering for those who have passed on, and to obtain indulgences for them to help them through purgatory. Though to some it seems weird, I find consolation in my trials & tribulations knowing that I can use them to help someone else. I like to call it the special "alchemy of grace" turning suffering & frustration into joy and victory. For me it is just one more reason why God allows suffering.....to give me the opportunity to turn it to goodness. Thank you to Francis for making it easier to do more of it and double up the merits of my intercessory prayers as lowly as they may be. )

Went for more tests today per my Primary doc....she took one look at my swollen ankles and sent me for heart tests. Also put me on Lasix but it has had no effect on the swelling. I can only imagine the next step will be to go to a heart doc. Hospital was pretty locked down, but I find the smell of disinfectant reassuring. Rain has passed, Mary went to get garden dirt so we can start working those new pots. Here are pics of last years pots (and she bought 6 more, lol) but wants flowers in them all so I guess I will be using kitty litter pails for my onions & salad stuff. The main garden is planted nearly full. Phase two will start when sweet potatoes come in. Mary does not like okra so it also got bumped into the kitty pail pot division. No problems, we have LOTS of those things and are emptying more all the time, LOL. our wicking pots from last year.....more in the works this is the garden as of this morning - lettuce on left side about halfway back; left front is onions & kohlrabi. New stuff everywhere else... Marys flowers, so far.....awaiting transplanting....into the stack of pots to their left except for the one I am saving for a rose bush

Mary & I did another top up run....I got early refills on my meds so we can stay isolated as this virus thing does ITS thing. Got some flowers for our front yard wicking pots....Mary wants something pretty, and so do I. Pulled up the winter kale (trying to bolt) and ate a nice big salad from the lettuce planted in Dec. Nice & curly & crisp.....black seeded simpson, I think. the romaine is also getting to picking size. Pulled a couple onions and chopped up some of the winter's radishes still in the fridge topped it off with some savoy cabbage for texture. Kitchen sink salad my hubby used to call it. Tastes like springtime! Our freezers are both full so we concentrated on things for the pantry shelves and on pet foods. Mary did not want to wait until tomorrow when my pension check and her social security check arrives....she thinks it will be a mob scene tomorrow so we went today. I have med tests tomorrow anyway, trying to find out why my ankles are so swollen. Lasix (water pills) does not seem to help either, so hopefully tests will help us figure it out. Hoping I can get rid of the Lasix....I don't want my blood pressure getting too low now. And yes, there is such a thing as too low, LOL. Rainy and blustery this evening; we will have to turn the heat on tonight. And WE2's you can certainly get a halleluia from me and a sung Gloria as well! What wonderful news!! Even in these dark days there are miracles if we but see them...

WE2s wrote: We've got the mineral containers I am jealous! This is not cattle country, so when I hunt for mineral containers I just get blank looks. Those half-barrel planters were on sale last spring when I saw leons' You Tubes, so we tried those and we are sold. I love his video esp the part about using other recycled containers....I just KNEW those kitty litter pails would be good for something! I was impressed by his videos - not only does he remind me of my late truck farming uncle in demeanor, he really knows his stuff. If my recycle center allowed trash picking Id have lots of used big pots, but no such luck....the dumpsters are monitored and 'freecycling' is strictly a no-no. Ditto with used tires for a potato tower.

Dont feel bad, Mr Rider....I am seriously thinking of stopping my PT for a while, and I am doing very well there, but I am high risk. Starting to get worried a bit. And the self watering tubs are on "gardening with leon" you-tubes. He does all sizes of pots, with all kinds of recycled materials, and also how to do various veggies in pots. Very educational. We got more pots on sale (the fake half barrels) and will be making all of them self wicking. We tried them last year, Mary thought I was nuts. But they worked so well she is eager to do more of them this year. I am eyeing the kitty litter pails for smaller self-watering pots, each will hold 1 tomato or 1 pepper....pole beans in pots I have also had success with, except (LOL) I kept having to upright then because the wind would blow over the pots with poles in them. Didnt hurt the plants any, just kinda amusing.....they grew horizontally almost as much as vertically, LOL. The kitty litter square pails will hold several pepsi cans (or bottles) as water & air reservoirs same as the big tubs have, and are all recycled. I just cant beat that price! (Green Acres, indeed!!) The only real expense is for potting soil and last year I had a huge surplus of peat moss & perlite so I can mix my own this year. Cowgirl, I also want a tornado shelter....safesheds.com has some nice above ground ones engineered to F5 and they do financing. The thing that impressed me were the videos of the shelter that took a direct hit from an EF4 and had a pickup truck wrapped around it. The owner of the shed (he got one for his business) said folks were astonished to see his employees emerge from what looked like a garden shed unscathed amid all the rubble.....too bad he didnt get video of the looks on their faces!

I ran across this in one of my notebooks....written back during the last pres race after HC's "deplorables" comments were exposed. Imagine Hillary Clinton belting this out like Ethyl Merman to the tune of "There's No Business Like Show Business" "There's no liberals like old liberals, The best liberals I know. Handing out the freebies to the masses,, Forcing businesses to foot the bill. Then we'll cite the need to raise more taxes, because the businesses went over the hill! There's no people like media people, a politician's best tool. Manipulate events so they will sever see, How far they've strayed from reality Interpreting it as truth over the news TV Lets go! On with the show! Lets go! On with the show! I guess you can insert your favorite politician for the lead singer....

Went granny shopping, getting up at 6 am to get to store by 7 am. Haven't been awake at that hour (unless I stayed up overnight) for quite a while. Was moving pretty slowly, so I did not make the store (Krogers) until 7:15. I was astonished at how many folks were there, at least 100, and enough to form long lines at 3 checkout lanes and use ALL the self checkouts besides. But! I got almost everything we had on our list. The meat area was busy, but employees were standing by with cartloads of meats, refilling displays as soon as they were emptied. Only 3 items had to be substituted for, and I found adequate substitutes. Even at two packages per person I was able to get some hamburger for our prepping friend who was out of it. Still no hand sanitizer anywhere in town, but I did get two large bottles of Palmolive antibacterial dish soap (has chlorhexadine in it) to use in our showers as a body wash. Why dish soap? No antibacterial liquid soap was available, and h]the few bars that were there were super expensive, and dish soap rinses clean in a reasonable amount of time, so it should work on a body as well as a plate. Snoozed until Physical Therapy time - had new exercises, and wow, they hurt to do! Not a "damage" hurt but a muscle complaining due to exertion hurt. I guess if its hurtin, its workin. I take on as much as I can because I do not know how long I will be able to get PT, an I take copious mental notes on the exercises & stretches just in case I have to go it alone. Now its time for more snoozing. Chainsaw Mary has a birthday today, so she gets her favorite dinner: grilled porterhouse steak, mac salad and sliced fresh tomatoes.

Had a doctor appt this AM. We were offered choice of telephone or in person, went in person so she could look at swollen ankles. Very bad since surgery, so she has ordered a battery of tests to try to figure out the cause. Staff was suited up from head to toe and she chided us about being vigilant with masking. I am going to step up my dieting, trying to lose the 10 lb I have gained since surgery, and would like to lose more if possible. Time to skinny down; tired of not being able to shop the sales rack because I am plus sized. Glad I got hair cut extra short - hair places are all closed down, we have curfews, the works. Only venturing out during granny house, masked & sanitized, to get meat tomorrow AM early. It goes very, very fast so I am not ordering for pickup in 3 days, only to be told "oh we ran out..." Rather just go in and find that out so I can make substitutions on the spot. Garden is coming along - picking lettuce now, kohlrabi is getting big. Still eating on cabbage picked from garden when we re-planted those rows in spring. The garden fresh heads last much longer than the who-knows-how-old store heads. Loving the coleslaw! Thinking it is time to make Mary some creamed cabbage & kale on Friday as a lenten treat, over mashed potatoes.

Yep, work around the house is a sanity saver. Chainsaw Mary bought extra chains for her chainsaws, and extra gas for saws and genny if we need it. And we too have had the pleasant surprise of finding hand sanitizer that was stashed. Thinking ahead and prepping will pay off I think in the days ahead. Mary now goes into stores if we need something (or if our shelter in place friends do, we always ask them when we are going into town);; I remain in the car to monitor our purchased items (we go to multiple places) and keep the firearm handy, as I wait and watch for her to come out - she feels I am an at-risk person due to surgery 8 weeks ago, so I am the "safety overwatch" dept, esp since she knows I will not hesitate to do what needs doing if something hits the fan. I still have that law enforcement checklist in my brain....danger? check... proximity? check.....imminence? check.....alternative options? check.....check field of fire? check.....after 26 years its probably pretty ingrained, LOL.

IF you can find them, alcohol wipes (sold to diabetics, usually near the testing supplies) are the untimate "wipe" and individually wrapped....maybe not too many folks have thought of that yet, lol. Our governor ordered medically fragile people to STAY HOME....dept of health will issue rules on how they can access services, etc. Fortunately he defined medically fragile quite narrowly and I can still go out, but we'll limit it anyway to "granny hours". Garden is growing nicely, picking fresh lettuce. Planted it back in Dec and it came up slow, but it sure is nice to have right now as a special treat! also picked up Kroger's order this afternoon. Nice to have plenty of eggs again; they gave me two loaves of bread because they did not have the kind I originally ordered. I am whiling away time compiling recipes from Mrs S and writing articles for the backwoodsman magazine. They had one this last issue that I forgot I wrote, on "how to network". I have one on re-using plastic bottles in the works now, just need to take pics to sent in with it. Also went to PT today and they worked me hard. I am beginning to see results, which is gratifying...it is getting easier to do things. Asked if they were going to continue PT and they said that post surgical patients were considered higher priority than others so they do not backslide and un-do whatever it was the surgery had repaired. OK by me, its working.