Last Tuesday was our
friend’s funeral, and, as predicted, I didn’t go, because I had
pinkeye, of all things. Some of my kids
and a couple of friends recommended I use colloidal silver, so I went hunting
in my cupboard.
I didn’t find any
colloidal silver, but I found something that might be even better:
Ofloxacin eye drops, specifically prescribed to me for a case of pinkeye I had
a while back. There was still over half a bottle of it. One eye in particular – the eye that that young
(I think she was 12) eye doctor injured a few years ago – hurt. I’ve had pinkeye before, but I’ve never had
it hurt so badly. I ordered some
silver, just in case...
By the
way, our elderly friend who died in September at the age of 98 was the
father-in-law of our friend who died a week ago Friday.
I’ve just about
collected all the family’s Christmas gifts. Maybe tomorrow I’ll start wrapping and bagging
them. Or maybe I’ll put together a
pillow for Leroy; I have one more Whirling Star block made for that purpose.
Larry went back to
work for a few hours after the funeral.
During a stop at a local truck stop, he spotted a big, soft, caramel-nut
roll at the cash register, bought it, and brought it home to share with
me. One of our friends makes them and
sells them at a few businesses around town.
We warmed it up a bit and slathered it with butter, and that was our dessert. The main course was beef stew.
That night, I
finished piecing the second border for ‘The Heavens Declare Thy Glory’.
Wednesday, I attached the border to
the quilt and added the third and final border. After putting together some large pieces of
batting, I loaded quilt top, backing, and batting on the frame and quilted just
a bit before stopping for the night.
Thursday
morning, I began getting ready for our annual
Thanksgiving service and dinner at church, but didn’t fully decide to go until
about 9:30 a.m. It seemed my eyes had
recovered fairly well, and I figured if I was careful, I wouldn’t pass it
around.
Victoria
texted, “We are driving by Lake North, and we saw more than 15 bald
eagles in the trees and flying around.”
I responded, “Wow!” Then, “Side note: I resent people who are ready for the
Thanksgiving dinner in time to go driving around Lake North.”
Victoria’s answer: 😂😂😂
“I’m getting ready,”
I told her, “but one eye is sure being troublesome. I don’t know if this is a good idea.”
“Wear an eye patch,”
she advised, “and don’t look anybody straight in the eye.” hee hee
By a
quarter after ten, I was ready to go, and I sure wasn’t going to back out then. “I’ll put more drops in my eyes just
before we leave, try not to get too close to anyone, and just lean over my
plate and shovel in the food,” I informed several of my offspring. 😂
We started with a
service at 11:00 a.m. There was first a
medley by the brass instruments, and then the congregation sang a few
Thanksgiving songs. The strings then
played several songs, and after that my nephew Robert Walker, our pastor, gave
a short sermon that included many favorite verses about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving night be a national holiday, but
it’s certainly an attitude we would all do well to cultivate!
We finished with a
song, and then went to the Fellowship Hall for dinner. We sat across the table from cousins of Larry’s
and their families, another cousin at the far end of the table, and Kurt and
Victoria and their children on the other side of us.
This was what was on
the menu: turkey, mashed potatoes and
gravy, dressing, sweet potatoes, corn, lettuce salad, orange fluff jello, a
frozen cream cheese/cranberry sauce/ pineapple concoction (I love that
stuff), chocolate or white milk, apple, berry, or orange juice, tea or coffee,
and for dessert, apple, pecan, or pumpkin pie, whipped topping, and ice cream. Larry had a tall, tall slice of apple pie,
with oodles of slices of apples in a sour cream base with a crumble topping. He let me have a bite, since I didn’t get any pie;
I was too full. Mmmm, it was sooo good.
The young people
over the age of 13 serve the tables.
The
first snow of the season began while we were eating. There are windows all along the walls of the
Fellowship Hall on both the east and the west sides, so we had a clear view of the
big windblow snowflakes. It wound up
being just a skiff covering the ground, but for a little while, it was coming
down with gusto.
One
of Larry’s cousins’ little boy who was sitting next to me and who has always
been too timid to talk to me forgot all about his shyness in his excitement
over the snow.
“Look
at the snow!” he exclaimed, pointing out the window.
“Yes,
it’s really snowing!” I said, smiling at him. “Do you like snow?”
“Yes!”
he nodded enthusiastically.
“So
do I!” I told him – and then he absolutely beamed at me.
I
just might be the only li’l ol’ lady he knows who loves snow; I know for a fact
that his grandmas and great-aunts don’t like it! 😄
Levi thought it was pretty funny when I met him in a hallway after the dinner as he was going around with a vacuum pack strapped to his back (that way, they only have to hold the hose and nozzle), and I didn’t recognize him for a moment. He has contacts now, so wasn’t wearing glasses. Plus, he’s gotten several inches taller than me, and his voice is getting lower, lower, lower.
Afterwards, we drove
around Lake North. The eagles were still
there, not only looking for fish, but also for any weak or ailing ducks or
geese they might be able to pick off without too much trouble.
Hannah texted, “I
was just sewing a stuffed dog toy back together, and Willow (her Australian
shepherd) was impatiently waiting, working herself up with little growls and
then, eventually, little barks. I said, ‘It’s
no. No, no.’ She rushed over to the buttons and pressed ‘yes’.”
That doggy is so
smart and funny!
Home again, I went
back to quilting Leroy’s quilt, getting about a third of it done.
Friday
dawned bright and sunny. By noon it was
24° and windy. I went out to refill the
bird feeders wearing sandals (that is, I was wearing sandals;
neither the birds nor the feeders had sandals on), and nearly froze to death.
Larry
had gone to Oklahoma that day to pick up a bucket for one of his large,
motorized chunks of wheeled steel. He
left at 5:30 a.m. – and wouldn’t get back until 3:30 a.m. the next morning.
I
cleaned a bathroom and the kitchen, then spent the rest of the day in my
quilting studio.
My cousin Fred posted this:
That afternoon, I spotted
the most beautiful ... uh, Dalmatian Siamese?? cat strolling down the sidewalk,
so I opened the front door and called ‘kitty-kitty’ – and it whirled around and
came dashing to greet me. And then while I was petting it, suddenly a twin popped right up beside me! Before I could blink, an inky-black one was
there all of a sudden, and all three were scurrying around me purring and
patting on my hands with soft little paws! They’re young, maybe less than a year old. They’re all well-fed and hale and hearty...
and I sure do hope they haven’t been dumped. After I came in the house, they trotted up and
down the sidewalk, looking at windows and door, meowing loudly. 😐😶😥
They have blue, blue
eyes, and charcoal-brown ears and tail. One sat on the front porch and meowed its head
off. Oh, dear, I do hope they
belong to the neighbors!
The glossy black one
meowed loudly while looking at the front door – then tilted his head back, looked
up at my sewing room window, and meowed even louder. That probably means he’s seen my light on up
there and has seen me in that room at night.
That afternoon,
having only had a packet of oatmeal for breakfast, I got hungry earlier than
usual, and thought longingly of the pie I had not eaten the previous day. Siggghhhhh... I consoled myself with a handful of
Deluxe Mixed Nuts and a slice of Pepper Jack cheese.
I
finished quilting ‘The Heavens Declare Thy Glory’ sometime before 2:00
a.m. ‘Star Spangled’ is one intense
pantograph!
Saturday,
I got ready to go visit Loren. My eye was much better, after faithfully
dosing it with Ofloxacin eyedrops for several days. I didn’t think I was contagious anymore, and I
planned to be very careful about washing hands and not touching my eyes or
face. (It always makes my eyes, nose, face,
ears, and neck itch, the moment anyone says ‘Don’t touch.’ 😄)
An
order of whole beans arrived from Christopher Bean Coffee Company. Listen to the flavors I got: Apple Cinnamon French Toast, Winter
Wonderland, Gingerbread Crème Brûlée, Pumpkin Spice, and Autumn Spice. Mmmmm.
The colloidal silver came, too. I
haven’t opened it; my eyes are nearly well.
These are Fremont
& Elkhorn Valley Railroad cars.
Years ago, these cars were part of a train that traveled through scenic
parts of eastern Nebraska. Sometimes in
the evenings, we’d see the train moving along, windows all lit up, and people
in fancy attire sitting in the dining car eating fancy meals.
Ducks and geese are
migrating, and long Vs of them were coming down to settle for the night on open
areas of the rivers and lakes.
It snowed through
most of the drive to Omaha, but the wind kept it from accumulating on the
roads. It was cold. But the biggest problem was my eyes, not
because of pinkeye, but because of Blepharospasm. I’ll be so glad when I get my next Botox
treatment, and will be able to keep my eyes open normally! Whew, Blepharospasm certainly made things
difficult that day.
This is the North
Branch of West Papillion Creek, and beyond are a number of beautiful homes,
many of which were damaged by the tornadoes of April 26. None of the houses have blue tarps on them
anymore. Hopefully, all the roofs that
were torn off in those awful tornadoes have now been repaired. Some new homes are going up in areas of
northwest Omaha where houses were simply wiped off the earth.
Loren isn’t doing
well; I don’t imagine he will live very much longer. He was all tipped sideways in his chair, and
wasn’t able to sit up straight, though I tried to help him. When one of the nurses, seeing the problem,
tried to help him, it was clearly going to cause him pain, so she let well
enough alone.
I got home some time
after 6:00 p.m.
Victoria sent pictures of
Arnold; he’s 10 months old now. This
first shot made me laugh.
I ate a quick supper and
hurried up to my quilting studio to put the binding on ‘The Heavens Declare Thy
Glory’. I used the last few strips of
glow-in-the-dark fabric, interspersed with strips of black fabric, to make the
binding. It took 5 hours to sew it on. By some miracle, that binding, despite the
multitude of diagonal seams in it, went on without a single seam winding up at
one of the corners. Astonishing. 😅
I have a total of 114 ½
hours in this quilt. It measures 81 ½ "
x 81 ½". The Whirling Star block is
from EQ8. The printed fabric on the
quilt top is ‘In Space Planets’ by Elizabeth’s Studio. I used 40-wt. Stone Blue Signature thread on
top, and 60-wt. Medium Blue Bottom Line in the bobbin. The batting is Quilters’ Dream wool. The glow-in-the-dark squares in the backing
is ‘Space Planets’ by Camelot Fabrics.
Who knew, I could even ‘quilt it to death’ with a pantograph! 😂
I worked hard to match the interior points of those diamonds in the border. About the time I’d pat myself on the back and
think, There, now, I’ve really got it down pat!, the points would be so
far off, they were nearly in another quilt!
Victoria sent pictures
she took of the Jackson kids, Teddy and Amy’s 9 children: Ethan, 20; Emma, 18; Lyle, 17; Jeffrey, 16; Josiah,
14; Leroy, 13; Grant, 11; Warren, almost 10; and Elsie, 8. In one of the pictures, they had their three
big Anatolian shepherds, and the six children who weren’t keeping the dogs
sitting nicely for the photo were all holding cats, four of which were
marmalades. The other two were black and
dark tortoise. All four marmalades had
their heads craned down at the ground. “Me
go now!” hee hee
Bedtime!
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
