Journal: Cleaning, Cleaning, Cleaning --- and The Chair

Last Monday, I was about to remark to a friend, “You’d think we lived in Wales or Scotland or Ireland, with the names our children have been giving their offspring,” when I decided maybe I should look it up before making comment.  My word, I done larnt me a thang or two!  I discovered that ‘Oliver’ was the most popular boy’s name in the United States in 2020.  I would’ve never guessed such a thing, as it’s been a good long while since I’ve heard of anyone naming their baby Oliver here in the States.

Hester, as I might’ve expected, knew this.  “LOL!” she wrote back when I gave her this piece of news.  “I did realize that, but we liked the name so much that we just decided to go with it anyway.  I figured there would be about five other Olivers in the hospital.  We only saw one, though.  😄”

I inquired into Baby Oliver’s and her general well-being.

“We’re doing good!” she told me.  “He’s spending some time in the sun today.” 

She sent me this picture.  The baby has been a little bit jaundiced, so they’ve been letting him sleep in the sun for a while each day.

We named most of our babies what we thought were quite ‘unique’ names for the times – and then most of those names, with the notable exception of Hester’s, promptly made it to the top ten baby names list within a year or two.  😄

Tuesday morning, I headed off to Loren’s house to continue the clearing out of Stuff and Things.  By a quarter after five, I had taken the third load of the day to the Goodwill.  I went home to drop off some things and to feed Tiger kitty, then had a snack – a few Triscuits with a piece of string cheese, and a jar of Oui yogurt – before heading back to Loren’s house. 

Robert and Margaret were filling nail holes and removing wallpaper around the upper edges of walls upstairs; I was clearing out things in the lower level.  Judy helped for a while, too.  I finished the main rooms downstairs and then delved into the area under the steps.  It was huge (or at least it seemed that way, when looking at all the stuff crammed in there).  I’d gotten some of it cleaned out last summer before I ruptured the disc in my back and had to stop.  The next items that needed to be dealt with were heavy, so that ended that. 

Hannah had pulled a few bins out of the cubbyhole last week; but it was still only half done or less.  Why put stuff in places where it’ll never see the light of day again?!  Just get rid of it, for pity’s sake!  (I’m talking to myself, thinking about some things in my basement that have got to go, just as soon as I have a spare moment to gather them up.)

First Victoria, and then Lydia, sent us pictures for Valentine’s Day.  💖  Malinda was all decked out in a cute pink dress Lydia had made.  She’d worn it to her Valentine’s Day party at school. 

Larry, Teddy, Caleb, and Ethan came to Loren’s house that evening to get most of the bookcases, a free-standing cupboard, the dishes for Emma, and the bicycles.  

Larry, with Ethan’s help, brought home the big leather loveseat.  They set it on the porch, and then Larry sent Ethan home, since it was a quarter after eleven, and Ethan had to go to work early in the morning. 

Totally starved, Larry and I ate a late supper of beef fajitas with rice, green and red peppers, and onions.  Mmmmm.

Then we took out the old faux leather loveseat and, with a great deal of difficulty, got the new (and big!) leather loveseat in.  

Did I say ‘we’?  It was mostly him, with me keeping up a running dialogue of helpful remarks such as, “Ohhh, that won’t fit!”  “Ohhh, it’s going to hit the archway! [or doorjamb, or whatever.]”  “Ohhh, don’t hurt yourself!”  “Ohhh, let me help!”  “Ohhh, don’t bump the piano!”

Did I mention that the new loveseat is big?!  We would have to move some décor on the wall and turn a bookcase to another wall in order to fit the loveseat where we wanted it.  But Larry decided to wait for Teddy’s help before doing any more.

Wednesday morning, I washed the previous day’s dishes, changed a litterbox, brought in some things from the BMW, and then went back to Loren’s house to get a little more done.  I had only a few hours before it was time to come home and get ready for church.

I got back to the faaaaarrrr side of that huge cubbyhole/closet/auditorium under the steps that day — and discovered it turned yet another corner, and went back even farther!!!  It wasn’t an L shape; it was a U shape.  Good grief, we could fit the entire Liberian army in there, with room for a few Côte d’Ivoireans, besides.  That’s one monstrous cubbyhole, and it was packed full.

My back is all right now, but I proceed with care.  After a long day of hauling stuff hither and yon, I can point out that exact vertebra that got injured.

Hester sent a video of Keira holding Baby Oliver.  First she compared their hands – “His are so tiny, and mine are big!” (though hers are actually slender and small) – and then Oliver made a soft cooing baby noise, and Keira said, “Awwww,” as if he was the sweetest little thing she’d ever seen or heard.  She patted him gently and lovingly.  Then, as the baby waved arms and legs and put serious effort into slurping on his little fists, Keira glanced at Hester and said with some concern, “He’s getting swiggely!”  hee hee

The rest of Baby Oliver’s and Baby Willie’s gifts arrived, so I stuck them into bags (green Cabela's bags and white Hy-Vee bags, since I had nary a solitary baby bag to my name) and stuck them in the Mercedes to take to church that evening.  I instructed Hester and Victoria to kindly pretend they were baby gift bags.  😅

It was good to sit in church and listen to God’s Word that night.  I more than enjoyed it; I needed it.  As King David wrote in Psalms 119: 105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”  And verse 114:  “Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.”  I love that entire chapter.  Did you know that in each of the 176 verses of that chapter, the longest in the Bible, there is a word that means ‘God’s Word’?  They are such words as these:  “Testimonies, law, ways, precepts, statutes, word, commandments, and judgments.”

We had a baptismal service that night.  Three of the sisters of one of the young men who was baptized sang together, as a surprise for him.  They are good singers, and it was beautiful and touching.

Another young man, a nephew-in-law of ours, mentioned during his testimony that his favorite verse is Jeremiah 40:31:  “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

I thought of the beautiful wooden plaque that I’d gotten off Loren’s wall, and which was now hanging on my own kitchen wall.  It has an eagle and the first part of that verse carved into it.  After the service, I texted our niece and asked if she thought her husband would like it.  She was sure he would, so we gave it to them.

Thursday was another day of working at Loren’s house. 

If I could get that everlasting, unending maze of a cubbyhole done (why do two people need five large rolling suitcases, 3,602,912 duffle/carryon bags, and 26,983 backpacks?!) (I never exaggerate), I would start on those particular things in the attached (and heated, thankfully – it was only 11° that morning) garage that I could handle.  There were all sorts of kitchen items out there – some were Norma’s; some were Janice’s:  dishes, pots and pans, mixers, juicers, thermoses, lunchboxes, etc.  When you can’t fit it all in the kitchen, you don’t need it!!!  🙄  There are oodles of tools big and little, cans of fuel additive and paint thinner and windshield washer fluid, toolchests small and large, and other unknown (to me) jetsam and flotsam that the menfolk will have to take care of.  Out in the detached garage on high shelves were bins and totes (and totes and bins) full of things; again, both Janice’s and Norma’s.  One day last week, Levi shinnied up onto those shelves and passed totes and bins (and bins and totes) down to Nathanael.  Hannah then took quite a few of them home to sort through.  She has not been at all well for the last couple of weeks, and couldn’t work at Loren’s house, as the dust was bothering her a lot.

But the light at the end of the tunnel is growing ever brighter!  😅  The closer I get to the end of any project, the more I want to hang on ’til it’s done.  Gotta finish!  Gotta finish!  Gotta finish!  Loren himself has often described me as ‘a bulldog with a bone’.  haha

Robert, with some help from Margaret, got all the ceilings painted that day.  It’s a vaulted  ceiling, and quite high.  He has a tall ladder with legs that can be adjusted for stairways, with telescoping aluminum ‘work planks’ to stand on.

I told him, when he was high above the staircase, as I’ve told Larry when he was working on our roof, “If you make any loud crashes, please make a series of smaller crashes thereafter, so I will know you are still alive.”

The ceiling is a much brighter white than it was previously.  The new paint has lightened up the entire house significantly.

I finished sorting things in the cubbyhole and worked the rest of the day in the garage.  It was chilly out there that day despite the big heater; but I kept at it until a quarter ’til midnight.  I’ve just about reached the end of everything I can do; the men in the family will need to do the rest. 

Friday, I emptied the Beemer at the Goodwill (since it’s on the way, and has easy access), then went to get the things out of Loren’s garage that I’d sorted, boxed, and binned, and took them to the Salvation Army.  That’s my preferred secondhand store, but it’s a little more difficult to unload things there.  However, the workers always come hurrying out to help me; I do appreciate that.

The drywaller was working at Loren’s house that day.

I thought I was done with the stuff that I could do, but just before I left, I spotted a large tub full of muffin tins, ceramic oven dishes, etc.  They could go to the Salvation Army, but they’re dirty, and I have no inclination to stand at the sink washing dishes to take to a secondhand store.  If I can’t wipe it clean with a fiber cloth, it’ll go straight into the trash.  I’m heartily tired of all the stuff.

I went back home to put away the things I had decided to keep.  There was a pile of about a dozen boxes in my living room.  (I thought I was tired of stuff and things?)  I was stiff and sore, so the first thing I did was pay some bills.

When that was done, I told myself, Okay, gotta git bizzy, stiff and sore or not!

I have discovered, when I started removing pictures from frames, the better to store them in smaller spots and to give frames to the Goodwill, that Janice and Norma both had a penchant for putting new pictures in old frames – and leaving the old picture behind the new!  I removed an inferior 8x10 of Loren and Janice (taken with a poor quality camera, and printed on lesser photo paper, and faded from hanging in the sun) – and found a beautiful studio-quality, full-length, black-and-white photo of Janice’s parents on their wedding day, which was, I think, in 1941 or thereabouts!

Behind an 8x10 reprint of George and Laura Bush, with a note at the bottom congratulating Loren on his top sales for NFIB (unless it was the Chamber of Commerce), I found a picture of Daddy.  Behind another 8x10 of Kenny’s family, I found our family. 

“Oh, the insult!!!” I cried, waving it around for all to see.  

They laughed.

They laughed.

I paused for a cup of coffee and to check my email.  Annnnnd... I had received an email telling me that my New York Beauty quilt had been accepted at Paducah!  (The quilt did make it safely there last week, for the upcoming Branson show.)  We’re going to the Paducah show.  😃  I shall now start planning our trip there.  The show is from April 27-30.  

By late that night, I’d plowed my way through a good deal of the boxes and bins I’d brought from Loren’s house, sorting and putting things away.  Any new items will be gifts for the children and grandchildren.

Saturday afternoon, Larry and Teddy came to turn the bookcase so the loveseat would fit on the east wall.  The bookcase doesn’t look very pretty like that, what with its blank side toward the majority of the room, and I will now have a difficult time trying to get songbooks from the bottom shelves with the doors.

They forgot to put the curio cabinet back; it’s still all whoppyjaw several inches from the wall.  I need to dust the things that go atop the bookcase, reposition them, and rehang the pictures and shelves Larry removed from the wall.

I put the last load of clothes into the dryer just as Larry came back home, saying, “Are you ready to go?”

We were going to visit Loren and take him a rocking, swiveling, reclining chair with a separate slip-sliding ottoman.  (I think that’s how to describe it.  😉)  Oh! – it’s a glider.

At the nursing home, we pulled under the front awning, and Larry got out his hand truck and loaded the chair and footstool onto it.  I held the door open for him, and in we went.

In the nursing home lobby next to the interior door is a place where you take your temperature by positioning your forehead in front of the reader.  There’s an electronic sign-in device next to it where you type in your name and the name of the resident you are visiting.  You mark all the Covid-19 questions “Nope, nosireee, huh-uh, and not-on-your-life”, then put the door code into the lock on the door (the code is on a sign on the door itself – and don’t forget to put in the * after the number), and you’ll be In Like Flynn.

I gave a nurse at the front desk the belt Loren had sent home with Judy last Monday, thinking it was his (and had somehow outgrown him), pointing out the letters in permanent marker near the buckle – ‘Fior’ or ‘Flor’ or something on that order. 

She looked.  “Oh!  Florian!” she said, and added, “Thank you for returning it!”

Then she went around and made sure nobody attempted The Great Escape while we brought the chair through the door.

We have found Loren in the commons area right inside the door visiting with other residents each time we have been to see him, and Saturday was no exception.  He happily jumped up to greet us when he saw us walk in.

Loren is always glad to see us.  He remembered that Teddy had stopped by to see him earlier that day, and was pleased about that, too.

We picked up a curious entourage as we walked along, and by the time we got in his room, there were eight of us.  😳

As we went trundling down the hallway, I explained to Loren that we had gotten the chair for Lydia some years back, because one of her babies liked to be rocked, and she had no rocking chair.  I’d gotten it at a secondhand store at quite a good price, maybe five or ten dollars.  No longer needing it, she had given it back to us.

He smiled and nodded.  “How much did you have to pay for something like this?” he asked.

I told him again that I’d gotten it at a secondhand store, and hadn’t paid very much at all, even though it was practically like new.

A slender woman in neatly creased (but crooked) pink pants was standing beside Loren’s closed door, quite as if she was waiting for us.  She shuffled forward and gave us a piercing stare.

Then, “Did you find the two missing items?!” she demanded.

Loren, not seeming to know the answer, or perhaps merely focused on opening the door for Larry, paid her no attention.  Larry didn’t answer, because he didn’t hear her.  (He’d forgotten his hearing aids.)

So I smiled at her and responded with a cheery non-answer:  “We’ve brought Loren a chair!”

When Loren opened the door, Mrs. Pressed Pinkpants, frail though she seemed, hurriedly preceded Larry into the room.  She scurry/shuffled quickly to Loren’s metal cupboard in his closet, opened the top drawer, and took out a pair of his socks.  (Were those the ‘two missing items’?)

Loren did notice the socks in her hand.  “Are those my socks?” he queried.

She did not deign to answer, but went to the head of the bed, and began pulling down the top corner of the bedspread, quite as if she planned on climbing right on in.

Then she stopped with that pursuit and made her way to the foot of the bed, where she caressed the gray-striped fleece throw we had brought last week.  It’s sooo soft.

Approving, the lady smiled and continued to stroke it.

The striped Mexican throws were nowhere to be seen, nor was the red biplane.  The pictures I’d placed on the dresser two weeks ago had not magically reappeared, either.

There was, however, a stuffed skunk and a feathered bird (not a real one, mind you) on a shelf in the closet.

Meanwhile, Larry was setting the chair in place, pulling the hand truck out from under it, and positioning the footrest (backwards, but in position, nonetheless). 

“Where did you get this chair?” asked Loren.

I retold the story about Lydia and the baby who liked to be rocked.

He smiled, nodding.

“How much do you have to pay for a chair like this?” he asked.

“Not very much,” I said, “because we got it at a secondhand store.”

While this went on, the woman with whom Loren has made friends hurried in. 

“Where did he get that?” she asked suspiciously, pointing at the chair.

“We gave it to him,” I said, smiling at her.  I need to learn her name.

“I know you did!” she said, nodding.  “And I said, ‘Holy —’ (I cringed) ‘—moly!’”  (Oh.  Whew.)  She nodded decisively.  “That’s what I said!”

She then tried ordering the other people out of the room – “You all need to leave!”, but Loren told her, “It’s okay; they can stay here.  They’re with Larry and Sarah Lynn!”  He pointed at each of us in turn.  😲  (They are?!)

Ms. Ladyfriend sat down with a disgusted ker-plop in Loren’s roommate’s chair.

The room had undergone yet another metamorphosis, and the previous roommate’s bookcase, model cars, large flatscreen, and nice armchair were no longer there.  However, the bed is now full-size (as is Loren’s) rather than single, making the room feel considerably smaller.

Nevertheless, the people, they kept a-comin’.

A woman entered, pushing a man in a wheelchair.  They did a glum and stoical circle of the room, staring at The Chair, and generally putting themselves in the way of all the rest of us.  We sidestepped, sidestepped again, and sidestepped once more.  Still the glum circles continued.

Mrs. Pinkpants walked over and seated herself on the roommate’s bed directly opposite Ms. Ladyfriend.  She lifted an ankle onto one knee, purportedly to put on the socks she had hot-fingered.  Finding the foot already clad in a slipper-sock, she puzzled over what to do next.

Loren went and sat down next to Mrs. Pinkpants, just across from Ms. Ladyfriend.

Along came the hapless roommate (if indeed he was the roommate).  He entered, then stood and stared at the three-ring circus his room (if indeed it was his room) had become.

Feeling sympathetic, I smiled at him and said, “Lots of people here!  Is that your bed?”  I pointed at the bed currently being sat upon by Loren and Mrs. Pinkpants.

Mr. Hapless Roommate immediately took a shine to me and adopted a debonair attitude, moving right in and putting his hand on the wall beside me.  He jabbered something, but I couldn’t decipher a word he said.  I smiled agreeably and backed up. 

He stepped forward, getting in my airspace, and went on babbling, what, I could not begin to hazard a guess.

I nodded and smiled, peered over his shoulder with great interest, and raised my eyebrows in mock surprise.

He turned around relatively quickly to see what was attracting my attention.

Works every time.  I learned the maneuver from Laurel and Hardy, who once marched through a town, stopping at each street corner to gaze skyward in mute amazement.  As soon as a crowd had gathered around them, also gazing upward in wonderment, they stealthily exited the group, proceeded on to the next corner, tipped back their heads, and stared in astonishment at the sky.

Finally, after several like episodes, the camera rose high above the little town, and the panoramic view showed groups of people on every street corner, all of them looking heavenward.

Loren got up and came to try out his chair. 

“The footstool is backwards,” I pointed out – though now, looking at pictures online, I think I was wrong, and Larry was right.  Let’s not tell him, okay?

Larry, unable to hear me on account of the forgotten hearing aids, looked at the bed instead of the glider.  “What’s that?” he asked.

Loren stood up and turned the ottoman around.  “Yes, that’s better!” he agreed, sitting back down and putting his feet on the footrest.

I then took the opportunity to inform him, pointing at Mrs. Pinkpants, “She does have your socks.”

He went and charmed those socks out of her with no trouble whatsoever.  Then he didn’t know what to do with them.  He handed them to me.  I didn’t know what to do with them, either, because Mr. and Mrs. Wheelchair Excursioners were in the way.

But they soon continued their room circuit (mostly pivoting in place), and I was able to squeeze past and put the socks back in the drawer from which Mrs. Pinkpants had extracted them.

Loren invited Ms. Ladyfriend to sit in his ‘new’ chair.

She got up with a flourish, flounced over to it, and ka-floofed herself into it.  She wiggled around, and then proclaimed, “I’m in love, I’m in love!”  (It is a comfortable chair.)

No bad words this time, thankfully.  Maybe Loren told her not to talk that way.  He does seem to take charge somewhat.  😳

We didn’t stay long, as I feared that the longer we were all in that room, the more of Loren’s things would go missing.

We told everyone goodbye and headed for the door.  Loren thanked us again for The Chair.  “What do I owe you?” he asked.

“Not a thing,” we assured him.

“Bye!” said Ms. Ladyfriend, giving a little wave of the hand.  “Bye!”

“Goodbye,” I replied, waving in return.

“Bye!” said she, smiling.  Then, “BYE!” she said loudly in Larry’s direction, having evidently discerned that he is a bit hard of hearing.

He, probably thinking she was talking to me, started walking down the hallway.

“BYE, BYE!!!” she called after him. 

Wild turkeys

He sauntered on.

“Bye!” I said, waving a hand.

She shooed at me with one hand.  She hadn’t been talking to me, after all.

I laughed and went my merry way.  Loren laughed, too, so Ms. Ladyfriend smiled and let us depart with no further ado.

The Excursioners came after us for a few paces, Mrs. Wheel striding with purpose in an endeavor to stay up, and Mr. Chair giving the wheels mighty spins every now and then in an effort to help (but only succeeding in shooting himself perilously off kilter).

Mrs. Pinkpants pointed dramatically in the other direction, and Mr. HapMate added his own pointing finger, and the Freewheelers, susceptible to all this persuasion, made an abrupt about-face and rolled off on another course without so much as a token protest.

We made our exit with many probing eyes on our backs.

We decided to eat supper at Panera Bread.  They have scrumptious soups, salads, and sandwiches, and we have only had one or two of each of them.  I like to get something New and Different when we go to restaurants.  I ordered a small cup of chicken/rice/vegetable soup and half of a Ranch bacon chicken-salad sandwich.  Then I wound up eating the other half of Larry’s sandwich (something hot and spicy and delicious) because it was too difficult for him with his dentures.  To my credit, I did give him the majority of my soup to make up for it. 

While we were there, Hannah texted, “Need a Foot Bucket?” – and she sent a picture.  She was sorting through bins from Loren’s garage, and had found a vinyl pouch/bag that Janice had made, about 15 inches long by 9 inches wide, with a paper taped on the side that read, “Foot Bucket.”

“Haha!” I replied.  “What in the world??  You know,  I might very well need a foot bucket.  I just didn’t know it ’til now.”

“I searched the internet,” wrote Hannah, “but it seems no one else has been enlightened to this innovative product.”

Janice often made vinyl coverings for things in order to protect them.  I have found covers and holders large and small, from sewing machine covers to magnifying glass holders to tool pouches.  This one has us stumped, however.

Joanna did discover that the thing fits on one’s head, providing said head is not too large.  😅

Before leaving the Panera Bread parking lot, we decided to try out the CD player on the Mercedes.  In the manual were a few remarks that would make one think the player could hold six discs at a time, but we could find no way to do it.  In the main manual was a reference to a ‘digital manual’.  I hunted in the pouch holding all the manuals for this ‘digital manual’ – and found a thin packet with a CD in it.  We plugged it in, downloaded the manual, and then, with a bit of effort, found the various controls we’d been searching for.  Or at least some of the various controls. 

We can’t figure out how to turn the radio off without turning off the entire dash computer; we can only turn the volume down until we can’t hear it.  We put an Old Fashioned Revival Hour CD into the player, and managed to switch the thing from radio to CD.  However, Larry inadvertently started the navigation system, and then the syrupy-sweet voice of Ms. Navigational Lady kept butting into the Old Fashioned Revival Hour Quartet, saying, “Make a hard left turn, then make another hard left turn, in order to execute a U-turn and go back the other way!” 

Utterly rude, if you ask me.  She evidently believed we wished to go to New York City.

I fiddled with it... Larry fiddled with it – and then, quite by accident, one or the other of us got the navigation turned off.  Now, if we only knew what we had done, we might be able to do it again one of these days.

I did learn how to turn the display off whilst leaving the CD playing, which was good, since the thing is as bright as the airstrip at Denver International, making it difficult for the driver to see the road after dark.  If there’s a way to simply dim it, we did not discover it.

Halfway home, I could tell Larry was getting sleepy.  I resorted to my usual nattering:  “Are you falling asleep?”  “You’re getting too close to the line!”  “Hey!!!  Are you sleepy?!” etc.

He, as usual, insisted he was not.

The Mercedes begged to differ.

“BEEEEEP!” it said.

Larry peered out the window.  “Huh?”

“Read the dash!” I exclaimed, pointing.

The display on the dash read, in bright orange letters, “ATTENTION!!!  You need to stop and take a break!!!”  Under this warning was a picture of a coffee cup with steam issuing from the top of it.

Larry argued with the dash just as he argues with me.  “I don’t need a break!”

“Ha!” I said.

This is what one should say when one knows one has won the argument, whether the other party knows it, or not:  “Ha!”  It’s an extremely accurate and distinctive exclamation. 

We got home at 11:30 p.m.  I thought I was cold, so I put on flannel nightgown and fleece robe, cranked up furnace and space heaters, and turned on the heating pads in my recliner.  I poured myself a cup of steaming coffee and sat down in the recliner.  In 90 seconds flat, I was boiling hot.

I debated the issue with a friend:  is it the donning of said nightrags (should be a word), or all the work of getting into them, or the steaming cup that turns one from a frozen popsicle to a toasted pop-tart?

Today I went on a hunt for a cabin near Paducah where we can stay during the AQS quilt show, which is from April 27^th to the 30^th.  I wanted one that was under $150/night – well under, preferably. 

I found one.  Only one under $200 was still available, or at least one that was within an hour’s drive of Paducah.  I hurriedly reserved it.

It’s an A-frame on the high banks of Lake Barkley, and there’s a wraparound deck with wooden stairs all the way down to the water’s edge.

Brrrrr... it’s cooold tonight, only 2°.  The wind chill is -21°, with the wind blowing at 35 mph.

I’d better head for the feathers!  I’m falling asleep.  Sometimes I start falling asleep in my recliner... finally bestir myself to struggle out of it and go to bed — only to be unable to go back to sleep.  Aarrgghh.

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