Journal: Disorganizations and Discombobulations

 

Last Tuesday was an overcast day, and 44°.

I did the laundry, and worked on the Soaring Eagle quilt.  When I quit for the night, I was alllllmost done with the center panel.

Wednesday morning when I went out to refill the bird feeders, it was cold out there, partly because my hair was still wet, and partly because it was cold out there.  😉  

I blow-dried and curled my hair, ate breakfast, and hurried back to the quilting studio.

Something a friend said that day  reminded me of a picture I took of my mother years ago – in 1987, to be exact.  She would’ve been 71.  I loved the picture, but when I had it enlarged and framed (along with a picture I took of my father the same day), she looked at it, laughed, and exclaimed, “Oh, my goodness, I look like a wild woman!”  hee hee

Daddy, though he liked Mama’s picture, wasn’t much more impressed with his picture than she was with hers.  He, who was a preacher for 48 years, took a look, laughed his big, deep laugh, and said, “I look like a big ol’ jolly bartender!”  😂

A little before 11:00 a.m., I was just about to type to a friend, “It’s a cloudy day here---” when the sun popped through the clouds and shined so brightly on my screen, I couldn’t even see what I was typing.

There were several little house finches at the feeders; I was glad to see them starting to return.  It was 45°, feeling like 50°, on the way up to a high of 52°.  How much quilting could I get done before time for our evening church service?

By 7:00 p.m., the central panel was completed, and the French Braids in the side borders were done.

The new yearbooks (2024-2025) were available, and we bought one after the service.  It’s such fun, looking through it.

On a Facebook Bird Photography group, a woman posted a picture of a Cattle egret and asked, “Is this a blue heron?”

Cattle egrets are snowy white and about 20” tall.  Blue herons are bluish-gray and about 4 ½ feet tall.

Helpful Hatties answering her then got into a fuss over whether it was a Cattle egret or a Great egret. 

Great egrets are 3 ½ feet tall.

Eventually the conversation deteriorated, with people announcing it was an albino Magenta egret, a House sparrow with gigantism, and a Depigmented parrot.  😂😆🤣

Just for comparison, here’s a Great egret.  

Even when they draw their heads clear down toward their bodies, their necks are in an S shape.  When the Cattle egret draws its head down, however, its neck smooshes down until it looks like it practically has no neck.  Plus, there’s a big difference between 20” and 3 ½ feet.

The two lots of mostly-black shoes, six pairs in each lot, arrived that day.  Ten pairs fit; the white sandals and black suede ones didn’t.  The suede ones had too high of a heel anyway; I don’t wear heels over 2 ½” these days, or my feet and knees and sensibilities protest.

I needed black shoes.

I HAVE BLACK SHOES!

(I have plenty of shoes in other colors, by the way, some comfortable, some not.)

I don’t know if these will be any more comfortable than the ones I was trying to replace, though.  Every Sunday night, I have toes that cramp, and it surely must be from my Sunday shoes, since it never happens any other time, and all other days I go barefoot or wear socks.

But at least maybe the variety will give other toes a chance to cramp, too, instead of the same ones every Sunday night.  Equality in Toe-Cramping!  Rah, rah!

I didn’t get to sleep until around 2:30 a.m. that night – and then woke back up at 4:15 a.m., and that was the end of sleeping for the night.  Ugh, why does this invariably happen on those nights when I would really like to get a good night of sleep?!

I finally just got up at 6:30.  The birds were pleased I put their feeders out so early.   Here’s a male English sparrow.

When I relayed this to a friend and sent her a picture, she said, “I am sure the birds were happy, but you probably shouldn’t confuse them into thinking that is always going to happen.”

I assured her, “There’s plenty of food for them to find in the fields and woods nearby.”

In fact, here’s what ornithologists have to say about the matter:

No, birds will not starve if you take down feeders, because they don’t become dependent on them for their primary food source.  Birds are highly adaptable and will quickly find other food sources, as feeders typically only provide a portion of their diet – often no more than 25% to 50%. 

·                  Natural food sources are primary:  Most birds get the majority of their nutrition from natural food sources, such as seeds, insects, and nectar.

·                  Adaptable to change:  If a food source such as a feeder disappears, birds are resourceful and will migrate to a different location or a neighbor’s feeder.

·                  Feeders are supplemental:  Bird feeders act as a supplement, especially in winter when natural food is scarce, but are not their sole source of sustenance.

·                  Study findings:  Studies have shown that birds don’t become dependent on feeders.  For example, a study where chickadees had their feeders removed showed no difference in winter survival rates compared to those that never had feeders.

 

It was foggy at 8:00 that morning, and 39°.  It would be about 45° at 20 ’til 11 when I headed to town for an appointment.  I therefore rummaged up a thick, warm sweater and a pair of gloves.

I listened to rural radio as I dried and curled my hair.  A lady was asking for donations for an organization in a small town a little distance from us.  “People can come and pick up clothing and products that are in need,” she said.

But... why are the clothing and products in need, and just what, precisely, are they in need of?

Bad grammar and poor sentence structure bother my brain.

We had an appointment at 11:00 that morning with a couple of financial advisors from Mutual of Omaha, both of them young men who grew up in Columbus, and who are planning to move back and open a new office here. 

Workers were putting up Christmas decorations in the downtown area as I drove down Main Street.

We met the men at the new public library, where I have met with them twice before.  Larry was finally able to attend this meeting, as he was working in town.

They helped us decide what supplemental insurance we needed to add to Medicare, for which we finally got our cards, along with a letter telling us what we would be getting through Social Security (though the very next day I got a letter – a duplicate of one I’d gotten last month – telling me I was not eligible for Social Security). 🙄  

It’s the Social Security Disorganization, after all.

One of these days when my eyes are behaving properly and I’m not in a giant rush getting ready for Christmas (who am I kidding?  I’m always in a giant rush), I should take some time to look around the library.  It’s really nice – plus, there’s a coffeeshop at one end of the building!

After the meeting, I dropped off some things at Hester’s house, which is only a few blocks from the library, and then took a couple of bags to the Goodwill.

I spent the rest of the day quilting.  By late afternoon, I was mighty sleepy, having had only an hour and 45 minutes of sleep the previous night.  I made myself a tall mug of Celsius, grabbed a handful of mixed nuts and a slice of cheese, and quilted on.  I was working on the lower French Braid.  When that was done, there would be two more wide borders to do.

For supper that night, we had fresh corn on the cob, green beans, cottage cheese, and cherry pie with extra-creamy cool whip.  And orange juice.  Orange juice is really sour, after a few bites of pie!  😶😜  I knew that before I tried it.  So why did I try it?!  🤪

After supper, Larry went outside to work on a vehicle.  While out there, he heard coyotes yipping in a field nearby.  Or at least he thought he did.  He’s hard of hearing, and turns the volume down on his hearing aids when he’s doing something that might potentially be noisy.  Maybe he heard the train whistling at the nearby crossing!

Midmorning Friday, it was 40° and there was a light drizzle, which would continue until 4:00 p.m. or so.  I did a bit of housecleaning, then made myself a tall mug of Tropical Vibe Celsius and got back to the quilting.

Supper that evening was Creamy Chicken Noodle soup with Chicken in a Biskit crackers, cottage cheese, tapioca pudding, and another slice of cherry pie with extra-creamy cool whip.

I quilted for a couple more hours, then retired to my recliner to write the Saturday Skim for my quilting group, a steaming cup of apple cinnamon tea close at hand.

Saturday morning, Hester sent pictures of Keira’s and Oliver’s rooms all decorated for Christmas.  Keira used the ‘Paper Dolls of Fabric’ I gave her for her birthday last April as part of her decorations.

Here’s Oliver with his decorations. There’s a little train that goes round and round that little tree behind him, while playing a tune.

Here’s one of the little girl ‘Paper Dolls of Fabric’ in her snowsuit.  A lot of the doll clothes are made from leftovers of the children’s clothes I made, and Hester remembers some of those outfits.

That afternoon, Levi sent me a picture of himself sitting on the couch, arms lopped over the stacks of Monopoly games that sat on each side of him.  “I have a monopoly!” he wrote.

“That otter keep you board for a long time!” I responded.

“We have 18 sets in total,” he informed me.

“Wow,” said I.  “How does this happen?  (And are all the pieces in the right boxes?)”

He gave me the names of the various Monopoly games, which include Jurassic Park, Yellowstone Park, and even Columbus, Nebraska, our very own town.  Linda Aerni, owner of Megavision, where I used to work, helped create the game for Columbus, Nebraska.

“I used to find new Monopoly games whenever Mama browsed Goodwills and such,” Levi told me.  “Now we buy them anywhere.  It’s become a joke, at this point.  And no, not all of the pieces are in the correct boxes.”

“It was National Monopoly Day just three days ago, on the 19^th,” I informed Levi, and sent him pictures of a Monopoly game quilt.

Since we were now talking about quilts, I told him I was nearly done with his oldest brother Aaron’s quilt.

Levi then assured me that, though he knows I’ve made him a quilt (I let him choose some of his favorite prints from the quilt his other late grandmother had started making, which I deconstructed and turned into two quilts for Levi and his older brother, Nathanael), he has not ‘peeked’ and looked at it, as he prefers to be surprised.  

Then he said, “Aaron loves surprises, too; so I think he’ll like it more if you drop it on him from a balcony.”

🤣 That kid.

Shortly after our conversation ended, this picture of Hannah with Levi when he was a baby scrolled through on my screensaver.  I promptly pressed Print Screen and sent it to him.  😊

At a quarter ’til seven that evening, Larry called.  He was in town, and wondered if I wanted Mexican food for supper.  Yesirreee, boy, did I!  I ordered an enchilada ‘with some kind of gravy on it.’

Larry, without realizing it, had them put a different type of gravy/sauce on it than I’ve ever had before.  It was white, not cheesy, and spicy.  There were beans, rice, and lettuce salad, too.  It was scrumptious, but I couldn’t eat it all.  There was enough for supper last night, too.

Meanwhile, I was getting closer... closer... closer... to finishing the quilting on the Soaring Eagle quilt.  I decided I would get it done that night, and so I did.  I finished cutting it from the frame at 11:30 p.m.  I have 138 ½ hours in it now.  This week, I’ll make the label and attach the binding.

Yesterday morning as I curled my hair, I sipped Sea Salt Caramel Pumpkin Latte cold brew, which I had just made Saturday afternoon.  That’s good stuff.  The sun came up at 7:28 a.m., and the sky was bright blue.  Little birds were already out on the back deck, tipping their heads and chirping at the back door.  I put the bird feeders out, and within minutes they were fluttering back to have some sunflower seeds.

I found the following note sent to me via Facebook Messenger:  “GOOD MORNING SHARAH LYN SWANIEY JAKSON HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS MORNING MY FRIEND SIGNED MRS ARTEMESIA CASSIOPIA IPHIGENIA”

That’s not her real name, but that is indeed how she has spelt my name a time or two, along with various other odd spellings.  Apparently nobody has told her that writing in caps is equivalent to shouting, online, or that you needn’t sign off like that, as your name is right there on your post.  It makes me want to tell her that I will refrain from answering all notes in the future unless they are also notarized.  🤣

But I shall continue to be polite (or at least keep still, when I can’t dredge up any politeness), as I’m not quite sure what’s going on with that lady.

Larry got up and started getting ready for church, but his cold had gotten worse, and he was coughing and sneezing, and his head hurt.  He decided he’d better stay home.

After church last night, I walked out the front door of the church, spotted my vehicle in the lot (or at least the circular emblem on the rear looked Mercedesish), and marched toward it.  With purpose.  One should always stride along with purpose, even if (or maybe especially if) one’s eyes are misbehaving.

I nearly climbed into Fred and Sharon’s black SUV, which is about the same size as mine.  Sharon is my great-niece.

The only thing that stopped me was that I spotted Fred in the driver’s seat. 

I pulled my hand away from the handle, fast.  He smiled at me, but didn’t roll down the window.  Keep a safe distance from the crazy lady. 

So I waved one arm around (the other was holding my Bible and church clutch, or I would’ve waved it, too) in an ‘Oops, wrong vehicle; wonder where mine is?’ manner, or perhaps more of a ‘What on earth are you doing in my car?!’ manner.

This, since I didn’t have a paper sack to put over my head.

I then scurried off to see if my own SUV might be anywhere in the vicinity.

It was, just two cars over.

I climbed in, held up my chin in an ‘everybody does stuff like that’ attitude, and drove out of the lot with great dignity.

I didn’t even bounce over the curb, huh-uh, nosiree!

I continued on out to Walmart, where I picked up an order of groceries.

A little later that evening, Hannah texted me:  “We’ve been on a phone call with some friends for nearly an hour.  Chimera (their Australian shepherd) just pressed two voice buttons: ‘hear sound’ and ‘all done’. 😆”

“Those dogs are so funny,” I wrote back.

“I had been holding his toy hostage so he couldn’t squeak it,” Hannah explained.

“He must feel like his Right to Free Speech has been violated!” I exclaimed.

Last night I made up for two nights in a row of not much sleep, and slept almost 8 ½ hours.

By 11:00 a.m., it was 51° on the way up to 54°, a foggy, overcast day.  A few little birds were at the feeders (and a mouse was in a trap, but we won’t talk about that now).

Some time after noon, my weather app informed me that there was 0% chance of precipitation – but there’d been a heavy mist coming down for over an hour.

I called Eye Surgical Associates to find out when my appointment is.  Did you ever get put on hold for so long that by the time they answered, you had totally forgotten 1) who you called, and 2) what you called them for? 

When I mentioned this to Larry, he added, “Or where my phone had gotten to!”

By midafternoon, it was still overcast and foggy – and the weather app continued to say we had a 0% chance of precipitation all day – yet all day there had been a falling mist, which sometimes became a drizzle.

For supper tonight we had pulled pork with BBQ sauce on toasted pretzel buns.  MMmmmm.  We had bananas and mint chip ice cream for dessert.  Yeah, we should’ve had vegetables, but we just weren’t hungry enough.  There were tomatoes in the BBQ sauce, though!  Right?

Bedtime!

,,,>^..^<,,,          Sarah Lynn          ,,,>^..^<,,,