Journal: Crystals and Pearls, Doctors and Quilts

People have been asking me if I’ve used my ‘new’ Bernina Artista 730 yet. 

Don’t tell anybody, but my new Bernina is still in its beautiful big Bernina bag!  I did put the old machine away, and I’ll soon need to get the new one out and do a bit of mending and hemming on this and that... but I’m anxious to finish the Atlantic Beach Path quilt and get a couple of other VIQs (Very Important Quilts) made.  Plus, I never do like to quit in the middle of whatever I’m doing, in order to do something else. 

You’d think I’d have gotten over that, after having nine kids and getting interrupted every other time I took a breath, wouldn’t you?  Instead, it seems to have made the DIM! Syndrome (Don’t Interrupt Me!) worse, if anything.  🤣  (Though if I must be interrupted, I try to do it with aplomb, and cheerfully.)

Larry thinks it’s strange that I don’t do what he does when he gets a new toy.  That is, drop everything and play with it.  Me, I hate leaving things unfinished... and I like to complete one thing before starting another.  So I dangle ‘New Toy!  New Toy!’ in front of my nose, and work as fast and furiously as possible on whatever I’m doing at the moment, in order to get to that toy.

My Swarovski crystals finally came!  The mail lady tried to deliver them while we were gone to Texas, but the little package required a signature, so she didn’t leave them.  So aggravating, when shippers do that, as I must then reschedule the delivery or go to town to pick it up at the post office.  But this time, the lady had me sign a card which will be my permanent signature on record, so she can leave future packages here even if I’m not available to sign for them.  Anyway, the crystals are beautiful.  I might need more... but they’re kind of pricey.

Here are the glass earth-toned beads and the pearls I will also be sewing onto the quilt.

I had a doctor’s appointment in David City at 4:00 p.m. that afternoon for a routine mammogram.  Any medical tests labeled ‘routine’ have been given that label by someone who did not have to take said test.

I’d never had this particular procedure done before, and while I’m brave and courageous and daring and confident and self-possessed and poised in other venues, I was entirely chicken and scaredy-cat about this one.

Because of arthritis, I couldn’t move my head far enough out of the way of the machine, and it kept hitting my face.  My neck and shoulders were quite sore for a couple of days thereafter.

On the way out of town, I crossed first the Loup and then the Platte River.  Hundreds of geese and ducks were swirling over the Platte.  I wished I would’ve had time to find a place near the banks to stop and take pictures, but this is the best I could do.

On my way back home, having survived the test, I stopped at one of my blind friend’s houses to do a bit of work on her computer.  I updated Java and Firefox, and made Firefox the default browser.

Home again, I headed upstairs to console myself with the quilting machine.

The hexagons I’ve been quilting lately are quite busily printed, and thus the quilting doesn’t show up as well.  If I counteract this by using the print itself for my quilting template, it presents fairly well.  Pictures here.

When I quit for the night, there were only four more rows of hexagons, plus the borders, to go,

Wednesday, the neighbors’ big black Lab went strolling past our front porch in his gangly way, elbows and knees akimbo.  (Yesirree, he has elbows and knees.)  He glanced up toward the front door and wagged his tail, even though I wasn’t there (I had just happened to look out the kitchen window).  Silly ol’ doggy.

My neck and shoulders were hurting, but I didn’t want to put on Pain-A-Trate or IcyHot or Spring Chicken, because our midweek church service was that evening, and I prefer to smell like DKNY Golden Delicious or Clive Christian No. 1 Imperial Majesty parfums par excellence.

What?!  You don’t think I wear that stuff???  Hmmmph.  Just because it costs $1,000,000 an ounce and $12,721.89 an ounce, respectively...  😮

Many times when the service is over, there’s a friendly face that spots me all the way across the sanctuary and gives me a warm smile. 

That’s Nathanael.  And that’s just the sort of thing that gladdens a Grandma’s heart.

Later that night I finished quilting another row on the Atlantic Beach Path quilt, and then there were only three more rows of hexagons plus the final borders left to do.  More photos here.

Thursday, it looked like gardening weather here.  But looks can be deceiving.  It was bright and sunny, yes; but the wind was howling down the hillsides at 50+ mph.  I saw several long-haired chihuahuas and one woolly mammoth go sailing past my upstairs window in one half-hour alone.

(Or maybe they were tumbleweeds and I had the wrong glasses on.)

I had thought Wednesday night that there were only three more rows of hexagons left to quilt, but when I rolled the quilt forward Thursday, I discovered there was one more row than I’d supposed.  Atlantic Beach Path photos.

I think... I hope... maybe... there just might be enough batting.

The other day, a cousin who is some years older than me remarked that I look like our Grandma Swiney.  That’s the first time anyone ever said that; most think I look like the Winings side of the family.  😊  I loved my Grandma Swiney – and I loved her beautiful long white hair. 

One time when we were there, I (about age 6, I think) was going to sleep on a cot in her room; Daddy and Mama had the spare bedroom.  I took a bath... walked into her room – and was scared half out of my wits when I found a ghost in there, all dressed in white, with long white hair that hung past her knees! 

It was Grandma in her white nightgown, and she was combing her hair.  I’d never seen it out of the braids she used to wrap around her head so neatly.

She realized right away that I was startled, though I didn’t say a word.  (My eyes were probably enormous dark saucers, though.)  She quickly put down her brush and gave me a hug and said, “It’s just your grandma, combing her hair!”

I was amazed about that for a long, long time. 

I only remember sleeping in her house that one time.  Any other time we visited, we parked our camper right on N. Broadway, in front of her house.  I loved the sound of the occasional car traveling the brick street during the night.  To this day, that particular sound of tires on bricks makes me think of my grandma.

I thought Grandma lived in a great big house with a great big back yard full of tall trees and flowers and bushes with stepping-stone pathways curving through it.

I was really surprised, upon going back to it after Larry and I were married and had several children, to discover that her house was rather skinny and tall (another lady rented the upstairs), and the backyard was quite small, really.  To a child, things seem bigger.

Anyway, Grandma would make applesauce, with just a little dab of cinnamon, not much.  She’d pull homemade bread out of the oven, get some homemade butter from the dry sink, cut a fat slice of steaming hot bread for me (I loved the heel), butter it generously, put some warm applesauce in a heavy stoneware bowl, and I’d take it and go outside.

My favorite place was an old wrought iron bench under the flowering wisteria vines.  There were tall, tall pine trees all around, lilac bushes here and there, and the ground was covered with flowering plants of all sorts.  The trees were full of birds, and if I sat very still, they might hop right down to the other end of the bench.

So there I’d sit, dipping my warm buttered bread into the warm, cinnamon-flecked applesauce, everything in the world exactly perfect.  Good memories.

I went with Larry to Omaha Friday afternoon, first following him there, he in his boom truck, me in the Jeep, to have his truck worked on.  We left the truck and came home together in the Jeep. 

A Waxing Gibbous moon was shining in the dusky sky when we got home, and a cardinal was singing boisterously in the Black Locust tree.

After supper, I got some more quilting done.

I quilted most of the day Saturday, and finished the third-to-last row is done.

My letter from the hospital arrived; the results of the test are negative.

That generally makes me think, ‘Well, I wasted my time and money doing that.’ 

Oh, well; now I know, anyway.

After Larry got off work in the morning, he went to Genoa to work on a man’s Jeep.  He got it painted that evening.

We visited Loren and Norma after church last night.

Norma’s birthday is today; she’s 81.  Friday she is to have the cancerous sore in her mouth removed at a hospital in Omaha.  The doctor believes the surgery will be successful.  Norma has lost quite a bit of weight, being unable to eat much.

We gave her an umbrella that looks upside down... but when opened, it finally turns right-side out, snaps into place – and the top side is black, while there’s a big, bright fuchsia-colored dahlia printed on the inside.  We also gave her multiple bottles of protein and other non-dairy health drinks, in the hopes that she’ll be able to gain a few pounds. 

We are going to Omaha to be with them Friday when she has the surgery on her mouth.  Loren and Norma were describing their previous visit to that hospital, telling us what to expect when we arrive: 

“One of those guys who takes your car will approach ---- what are they called?” said Loren.

“Those are called ‘carjackers’,” supplied Larry helpfully.  😄 

(I think ‘valet’ was the word Loren was looking for.)

Please pray for Norma, that she will recover well from this upcoming surgery.

I love the beautiful old song, I Need the Prayers of Those I Love:

1. I need the prayers of those I love,
While trav’ling o’er life’s rugged way,
That I may true and faithful be,
And live for Jesus every day.

Refrain
I want my friends to pray for me,
To bear my tempted soul above,
And intercede with God for me;
I need the prayers of those I love.

2. I need the prayers of those I love,
To help me in each trying hour,
To bear my tempted soul to Him,
That He may keep me by His pow’r. [Refrain]

3. I want my friends to pray for me,
To hold me up on wings of faith,
That I may walk the narrow way,
Kept by our Father’s glorious grace. [Refrain]

We had Schwan’s Classic Supreme pizza tonight for supper.  Yummy, it’s good!

Bedtime!  Tomorrow, I hope to quilt all day.

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