Journal: I Quilted!! ... and Scanned Photos

 

Tuesday, I headed upstairs to ... >>are you sitting down? << ... to quilt! 

I haven’t quilted since the middle of October, 2021 – and during those first two weeks of October, I did five quilts.

Oh, my woid.  I just looked in my 2021 quilting file, and discovered I quilted 21 quilts and put together the top of another last year!  No wonder I didn’t get as many albums scanned as I had counted on.  This year, I turned everyone down.  Except Ann.

She’s a close friend, a sweet lady – with nine children, just like we have.  They have one grandchild, and another is on the way.  The quilt is for the coming baby.  Her daughter-in-law is our son-in-law Jeremy’s youngest sister.  See, that’s almost family, right?  In any case, I never say no to her.  😊

Before I started, I had to get several photo albums off the quilt table, oil the Avanté, and dust the table and rails.

It was only 83° that day.  It was nice almost every day last week; but this week will be another matter.  It got up to 92° today, with a heat index of around 105°.  Even now at 7:00 p.m., it’s 90°, and the heat index is still at 102°.  Tomorrow it’s expected to get up to 99°, and we’ve been issued a heat advisory saying that the heat index will be right at 110°.  The rest of the week will be about the same.

This is when one needs to be way up in the high elevations of the Rockies!

I spent an hour and a half cleaning my quilting room, putting away albums and photos, and dusting my machine, quilting frame, and rails.  The machine was oiled and threaded, and the pantograph was printed and ready to be positioned and taped to the table.  I ironed the backing of the baby quilt, and was ready to load it onto the frame.

“Reckon I still know how to quilt?” I asked the ladies on my online quilting group.

They assured me that it was exactly like riding a bicycle.  😅

Fifteen minutes later, I reported, “Well, I remembered how to load the quilt, at least.  But look what’s distracting me, just outside my window!”

It was a crop duster whose loops were taking him directly over our house.  I wonder if the pilot is likewise distracted by li’l ol’ ladies who dash out onto their porches with big ol’ cameras every time they pass over?

Soon I was quilting away.  Even better than remembering how to load a quilt, I remembered how to use a quilting machine, too. 

By 9:45 p.m., I was done.

That evening, a friend posted a picture of a spicy Mexican quiche she had made for supper. 

“Mmmm, that looks good,” I told her.  “I love spicy so much, I often got carried away with the spices when the kids were still at home, and we’d wind up with a table full of little fire-breathing dragons.  Poor things.  I’d jump up and grab cartons of yogurt from the refrigerator, and start tossing them down the table.”  

Wednesday, I started off by breaking my left little toe, just for kicks, I guess.  (That's a pun.  Did you see that??  I made a pun!!!  Amazing.)  I caught it on the rubber pad in front of the sink.  How in the world was I going to cram my foot into my church shoes that night?!

I limped my way up the stairs and got back to scanning photos.  Here are Hester and Lydia from Easter of 1998.

That afternoon, I opened up the closet in the upstairs library where I keep my church clothes – and saw at least two, maybe three, bats perched (can you say ‘perched’, when they are hanging upside down?) up inside the lathing that had been exposed when Larry brought the plaster crashing down last week.  I grabbed a handy can of Tranquil Skies Armor All Car Air Freshener and Purifier – the kind with a skinny straw attached to the nozzle, for spraying into car vents – and let them have it.  They abandoned ship and scrambled off to even fresher territory.

Fortunately for the broken toe, I’ve kept some of Norma’s shoes that I particularly liked, even though they’re half a size too big for me.  I pulled out a pair of dark gold sandals in which she had put soft rubber half-insoles, and, with nylons letting me slide my foot in smoothly enough, I managed. 

By the time I got home and removed those sandals, though, my little toe had turned a dark purple and was protesting quite loudly.  Yeeeooow.

Thursday, my new ergonomic keyboard arrived.  Finally, a real ergo keyboard like I had years ago that’s not just curved, but with a split keyboard, and a slope up toward the middle.  Much better.  So much better.

I wouldn’t have gotten it, since my other keyboard is fairly new (and conveniently has only one receiver for both mouse and keyboard), but that other keyboard, which should’ve been a good one, behaved as though someone had gotten the ‘lid’ put on slightly crooked, putting all the keys on a bind.  I had to stand on my chair and fly at the keys, fingers held rigid.  They clacked like a cheap toy train on uneven tracks.  This keyboard is quiet and smooth, with low-profile keys like the laptop itself, and has a nice wrist pad.  But... I needed to figure out how to make the F numbers on the top row work in the customary way; I use them all the time.

Ah, there we go; that took about three seconds to figure out:  I merely needed to press the F row lock; it’s a toggle switch.

Next, I need to stop trying to use the wrist pad like a touchpad.  😅

Oooo, I like it.  I’m so glad I got it.

That afternoon, I ordered nine 1TB flash drives with multiple types of plugs.  I plan to put all my photos on them and give them to the kids for Christmas.  I also ordered miniature trunks from Hobby Lobby that the flash drives will fit into. 

I had already submitted the order for the flash drives when it belatedly occurred to me that I should see how many gigabytes of pictures I have, in total – that’s including all my digital photos from 2004 on.

Gigabytes, nothin’.  I have 1.29TB of pictures.  And I’m not done scanning photos.  Or taking them, for that matter.

I canceled my order and hunted for 2TB drives.  Here’s what I got, and below is the little box it will go in.  

That’s quite an enlarged view of that flash drive.  Here it is in its true size:

That upped the price a lot, and took away the option for multiple plugs (and I probably couldn’t have afforded them, if I had’ve found any).  Therefore, I needed converters for whatever devices the kids have.

I sent a group text to them, asking what type of plugs work in their various phones.  The usual hilarity ensued, with one saying, “USB type C”, the next saying, “Lightning for iPhone”, and half a dozen others saying “Same, here” – to which I replied, “Guys! (and girls!)  I don’t know who ‘same here’d’ whom!” 

They promptly switched to “Me, too!”  😆

I wrote, “Buncha brats”, which only served to encourage them.

Victoria then posted the most comical pictures of her kiddos, just to add to the muddle.  I couldn’t quit laughing over those photos.  One featured Carolyn holding a small china teacup -- with her toes.  Violet and even Baby Willie were making funny faces.

“Be sure to save all these pictures for potential ‘helpmeets’!” I told her.  (That’s a Biblical word used in Genesis, and regularly mis-defined.  ‘Meet’ is an old English word meaning ‘suitable for’, and ‘helpmeet’ means simply ‘suitable helper and mate’).  It’s always fun to drag out pictures like those on a child’s first date.  Helps break the ice, you know.  >>... evil sniggle ...<<  If a potential helpmeet of any of our children laughed too hard, though, I could always retaliate by dragging out funny pictures of said PHM him or herself.  I knew most of them since they were born, and took lots of pictures at various church functions.

Keith, upon informing me what sort of plug his phone utilizes, wrote, “Now I’m curious 🤔.”  (He must’ve momentarily forgotten about the photos I’m scanning.)

I responded, “Ya jist nevah can tell what might plug inta them thangs” – and sent a picture of a lava lamp.

Of course, then I got curious, and looked to see if lava lamps might come with USB cords.  They do indeed.  You can even get aquarium lamps with USB cords.  

See one in action here: 

Jellyfish Color-Changing Aquarium

I almost kinda sorta need me one a-them thar thangs.

Okay, okay.  I spent enough that day.  I need me no frippery and froufrou.  Besides, it probably looks fake as all get-out.  They always do, when the description reads ‘realistic’.

Hannah added to the conversation with a picture of Levi holding a fishing pole and practicing his casting on their front driveway.  “Here’s what’s happening at my house,” she wrote.

“Didn’t know you had lakefront property,” responded Caleb.

“I hope he doesn’t get pulled in by some big fish!” I wrote, “What with not having on a life vest, and all.  After all, somebody caught a paddlefish weighing 113 pounds not too awfully far from here.”

Hannah replied, “He’s inviting me to try it.  I’ll catch the tree, though.  (Prior experience.)  I was hoping he wouldn’t catch this dogfish.”  She attached a couple of pictures of their Australian shepherd, Chimera, saying, “Chimera is so curious about the fake worm being reeled in.”

That evening, with my toe complaining that it did not want to hobble around the kitchen, I wrote to Larry, “Would you want to bring home some food?”

“Yes,” he answered, “What kind do you want?”

“Mexican food sounds good,” I replied, to which he responded, “Jumping beans?”

I immediately sent him a list of possibilities:  “Escamoles (ant egg sacs), Tacos de ojos (eyeball tacos), Chicatanas (flying ants), Chinicuiles (maguey worms), Chapulines (grasshoppers), Huitlacoche (corn smut), Menudo (tripe soup)...”

He wasted no time in answering:  “I will pick out the food!!”

Then, apparently unable to help himself, he added, “I will see if they have anything with batwings. 😋”

What he got were enchiladas with sides of lettuce salad.  Quite good.

Friday, Victoria sent pictures of Willie eating baby food green beans.

“He looks pretty pleased with his meal!” I said.

“He really, really likes eating, haha!” answered Victoria.

That evening, a friend posted a picture of an American bulldog with a red curly wig plopped on his head.

It reminded me of the time back in 1999 when we got our first computer, and Hannah and I were having great sport despoiling our family Christmas picture.  We had just discovered PaintBox.  Caleb, 6, was standing quietly watching the screen with interest, a small smile on his face, hands linked behind his back, as I put a giant sombrero on Keith... a handlebar mustache on Dorcas... wide sideburns on Teddy... and swapped Hannah’s and little Victoria’s heads.  We were laughing like idiots by the time I put a big red curly Afro on Caleb.

And then Caleb said in a soft, sincere voice, “I wish I had a picture of Mama.”

Hannah laughed ’til she cried.

I’ve made my way completely through the old hymnbook Hester gave me, writing down the numbers of all the songs I particularly like... and now I’m going through it again, and writing down even more numbers of songs I particularly like.  One of my favorites is ‘Strike Your Harps’.  I even love the title.  This is a very special old hymnbook!  I’ll scan the songs I like and make recordings one of these days.

Saturday, we went to Omaha to visit Loren.  I drove most of the way to and from Omaha, as Larry was tired after a long week with long hours every day.

Since I had no books or magazines to give Loren, and forgot to stop at Love’s Truck Stop on the west side of Omaha to get him some grapes, and drove right on past the convenience store we often stop at a couple of miles west of the nursing home, I stopped at the Walgreens two blocks south of the home.  We went to the food section, and I spotted a Chobani Mixed Berry Greek Yogurt drink in the cooler.  I used to get those for him a lot, so I know he likes them.  We got one for Roslyn, too.

We headed toward the children’s section to see if there might be a picture book he would like – and came upon a display of Kinsmart diecast cars.  We chose a bright red 1967 Volkswagen Beetle and a bright red 1956 Ford F-100 pickup.  The doors open, and so does the tailgate on the pickup.

When we got there, Loren was nowhere around, so we went to his room.  He was lying on his bed, not yet ready for bed, and awake.  He said he was tired, so he’d come to his room to lie down.

We couldn’t have picked anything better than those little metal vehicles; Loren was totally delighted with them.  I set them on his dresser by his bright red biplane.  He was tickled that they all match.

I asked how his hip was, and he said it was much better.  The walker was nowhere to be seen. 

He said, “That cut on my hip was this long!” – showing a span of 4 or 5 inches with his fingers.

I suspect that he thought his hip was sore because he had cut it somehow; he seemed to have forgotten that it had been broken.  We explained that the cut was the incision the surgeon had made in order to repair the hip, and I told him again about the fractured ball being replaced with a stainless steel ball, with a stem running down into the thigh bone.

When I handed Loren the yogurt drink, he somehow got the notion that it was shampoo or hair conditioner.  Larry, not hearing exactly what he’d said, smiled and nodded – and after that, I had a debbil ub a time convincing Loren that it was something to drink, and downright tasty, too.

Finally, I got the other bottle out of the bag, saying, “I got some for us, too!” (since Roslyn wasn’t there.)  I thought surely that would convince Loren it was good stuff; but he didn’t pay much attention to us as we guzzled the thing down.  (Well, Larry did the majority of the guzzling; he forgot he was supposed to share it with me, until there were only a couple of gulps left.  Then he handed it back, looking a mite sheepish.)

I finally talked Loren into trying it, and he had to admit it was good.  But he set it down on his dresser, and I knew he’d forget all about it.  I coaxed him into drinking the rest, telling him, “There’s only one serving in each bottle, and if you don’t drink it, it will sour, because it’s made mostly of milk.”

He looked surprised.  “Oh!”  Then, “Really?” 

“Yep,” I said.  “Really.” 

And it would’ve.  Soured, that is.  His room was like walking into a blast furnace when we first went in, as he’d turned the heat on, and set it at 73°!  Exclaiming, I turned the air conditioning on, set it at 68°, and stood directly in front of it, in order to keep from expiring.  Loren, of course, thought that was funny.  (I did remember to turn the temperature back up to 70° before we left – and then worried that it might be too cold for him.)  I think his personal temperature gauge doesn’t work just the best anymore.

Anyway, upon hearing that his smoothie would sour, he promptly drank it. 

Larry told him about various excitements with his truck, and I showed him a few pictures on Instagram.  When I thought it was about time to leave so he could sleep, he hastily assured us, “Oh, I’m not going to sleep!  I was just lying down for a bit.”

I realized he didn’t want us to go yet, so we stayed and visited a little while longer.

After leaving about an hour later, we went to the Cracker Barrel in Council Bluffs.  I ordered a Bacon and Egg Hashbrown Casserole and a Chef Salad.  I’d been wanting to try that casserole ever since reading all the yummy ingredients in it; but I don’t usually wish to eat such a thing for supper.  I decided I would have a few bites, and then take it home to eat the next day, and the Chef Salad would be my supper.

As it turned out, that was too much for me to cope with, too.

I took home at least half of the salad, and had it for supper the next evening after church.

Larry ordered some breakfast entrées, too; but he didn’t save any of his for the next day.  For dessert, he ordered Strawberry Cream Cheese Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup.  That syrup had big chunks of fresh strawberries in it.

He let me have a few bites.  Mmmmm, that was scrumptious.

The next few pictures, taken after sunset, were at a fairly new and very nice real estate development where Larry and his fellow workers have been putting in poured-wall basements for these large, beautiful homes.  There’s a manmade waterfall at the entrance.

It’s a little tricky sometimes, getting his big truck close enough to the basement hole to raise or lift the cradles full of aluminum forms with his boom, on account of the many mature trees that homeowners hope to leave in place.  He showed me the tracks where his truck had sat with the tires against a small mound of dirt just this side of the gaping maw of the basement while he used the boom to lower the cradles of forms into the hole.  Eeek.

Larry had to take more supplies there today – scaffolding, and more forms and fillers. 

I couldn’t get many pictures of the beautiful homes there, as it was well past sundown, and most of the houses were behind big trees.

Today I finished the last of the Christopher Bean Toasted Island Coconut coffee beans.  There was only a third of the amount needed for a full pot of coffee, so I opened the new bag of Scooter’s Blend (dark chocolate, molasses, and dried berries) from Jeremy and Lydia.  You can always tell it’s a-gonna be good by how it smells when you grind the beans.

Tomorrow’s pot of coffee will be 100% Scooter’s Blend.  Which will be better, I wonder?  All Scooter’s, or this pot of 1/3 Toasted Island Coconut and 2/3 Scooter’s Blend?  Every now and then I mix two kinds of coffee and wind up with something that tastes so good, I wonder why the coffee bean companies haven’t already made that specific flavor.

A friend recently asked for advice about severe leg cramps she’s been having.  She mentioned the various things she’s been trying – magnesium, potassium, calcium, plenty of water, walking – and then added, “My husband just teases me that my legs are still growing.”

I told her, “First, put some Buffalobur Nightshade stickers in your husband’s socks.  Next, here are some topical analgesics especially for leg cramps.  I’ve tried a few, and they do help:  Creams for Leg Cramps.  (Of course I’m kidding about the Buffalobur Nightshade. ... ... ... >>...pause... <<  The Sonoran Sandbur is better.)  😂

There’s a little house wren hopping about on the Boston Ivy just outside my kitchen window, not more than 18” from my face.  They’re so tiny and cute, and sing so vociferously!

Tomorrow is Dorcas’ husband Todd’s birthday.  We sent him a folding military shovel with a pickaxe attached.  He was pleased, and said he hadn’t had one for years.

As I often do, I posted some pictures on Facebook from one of my weekly trips to Omaha to visit Loren, and some ‘nice’ lady commented, “Nothing more fun than watching someone else’s vacation photos.”  

I seriously doubt that she was trying to be ‘funny’.  You gotta put in the ‘giggle emoji’ if you want your sarcastic remarks to be considered ‘funny’, don’tcha??

I sometimes just delete comments like that; but this time I decided to respond.  I prefer responding with nothing but the facts (in case I’m wrong about her attitude, you know).  I wrote, “I travel each Saturday to visit my brother, who has been in a nursing home in Omaha since late January.”

There.  Did I accomplish my purpose in making her look bad, do you think?  (And if she didn’t mean anything, well, then, no harm done.)

Chokecherries

If it’s going to be called a ‘vacation’, then I wanna be out in the mountains camping, without a schedule and without a dozen things to worry about and get done, and without needing to hurry home to do all the things I neglected doing in order to go see my brother, which I consider an important thing to do.

And now, I consider it very important to get back to scanning photos.  I have 32,589 photos scanned.  8 ½ albums and one big box to go.  (Or are there two?)

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