Journal: ♫ ♪ O Sole Mio ♪ ♫

 

Tuesday, I went to Omaha to visit Loren.

Because of our insurance company’s refusal to help us with the Botox treatments for my eyes, I had to cancel my October 11 appointment, and my eyes are getting worse every day.  It was over two months ago that I sent them the letter from my eye doctor, along with a letter of my own, asking them to reconsider.  We have heard nothing.  I plan to call them in a day or two. 

If I sing while I drive, my eyes aren’t too bad.  Strange, how that works.  It’s because the singing redirects nerve impulses, especially those nerves that originate near the ear and travel, among other places, directly to the eyelid muscles.  My doctor showed me a diagram of that nerve network that controls those muscles.  Amazing, really – especially when everything works the way it’s supposed to!  The doctor didn’t say this, but in my study of Benign Essential Blepharospasm, I’ve learned that rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, both of which I have, can bring this rare problem on.  It often starts with dry-eye syndrome – and mine did.  Anyway, my voice box is getting stronger!  😄 🎤

I found Loren asleep in his room when I got there.  I rattled around until he woke up.  He’s not nearly the light sleeper he once was, probably because of his medication, and also from getting accustomed to the commotion at the nursing home.

One of the magazines I gave him was a Car & Driver from his brother-in-law and son-in-law.  On the cover was the word E-volution, which stumped Loren for a bit.  He hesitantly sounded it out.

“The ‘E’ stands for ‘electric’,” I told him.

From then on, he thought that everything we talked about was ‘electric’, including the mountain lion roaming southwest Omaha, and the pickup we took to South Dakota.  He usually knows about Larry’s pickups! – they have Cummins motors, almost always.

1959 Chevrolet Impala with retro camper

When I told him a while later that it was time for me to head for home, and that it was almost time for his supper, he asked, “Is it electric?”

“I hope not,” I grinned at him.  “We wouldn’t want your fork and spoon to electrocute you!”

He laughed, “No, I guess not.”

Sometimes when he gives me one of his old familiar sidewise looks and grins, I wonder, Is he kidding?  I don’t know; I cannot tell.  But I kid back just as if he was kidding, and he laughs.  Sometimes I have to repeat or explain myself several times; but he always laughs when he realizes I’m teasing him.

It was a beautiful autumn day, with a blue sky and colorful trees along the roadsides.  The eastern side of the state has a variety of trees that turn all shades of brilliant reds, scarlets, burgundies, oranges, golds, and yellows.  The farther west one goes, the more it’s various hues of gold, mixed with the greens of the evergreens such as pines, Douglas firs, cedars, etc.  Still pretty, but I do love all those brilliant reds. 

I got home at about 6:30 p.m.

After supper, Larry changed the rear tire on his big BMW motorcycle, and then of course he had to go try it out.  Charles, our nephew and Larry’s boss, told him to use the company credit card to buy the tire, since he wore it out going back and forth to Omaha to see about and to work on the new truck.  Michael, my late nephew David’s son, who took care of a good deal of the business while Charles and Susan were in Scottsdale, Arizona, decided the same thing at the same time, regarding that tire, and sent the man who works in the office to find Larry, cash in hand.

Larry turned it down, telling him that Charles had already beat him to it.

I told Larry he should’ve said, “Well, I’d take it, but I’m afraid Charles and Michael might compare notes!”  😅

Charles and Susan returned from Scottsdale (a suburb of Phoenix) a week and a half ago after a long seven months of getting treatment for Susan’s cancer, which had metastasized.  They are very hopeful that the treatments she received have been successful.

Remember the dried beef and barley soup, the Italian zuppa, and the loaded cornbread mix we got from a vendor at the Hill City Quilt Show?  Those were so good, I ordered enough to give the kids some for Christmas.  It was an odd website, though; you place your order, and they send out an email notice telling you that you will soon be getting the invoice. 

I received the order two days later – a heavy box crammed full of zuppa and cornbread – before I got the invoice!

I emailed them:  “I found the box on my porch today!  Thank you!  But I have not received an invoice yet.  I need to pay you!  Aren’t you afraid I’ll grab all that yummy food and go on the lam to some South Sea Island, you’ll never see a penny from me??! 😆”

They responded with an LOL, telling me they are very trustworthy (they meant ‘trusting’), and re-sent the invoice.

That one, I found – and then I found the original, too.  They had landed in the folder (in Outlook) for invoices from Prairie Meadows, because those who provide various services to Prairie Meadows, and Grasslands Gourmet, too, use the Square Up app for sending invoices, and I have a ‘rule’ in Outlook to drop emails from Square Up into that folder.

After supper, I put together a couple of Ohio Star blocks for Malinda’s Cross-Stitched Teddies quilt.  Two down, eleven to go.

I laid out a dozen of the ten-inch blocks, just to see how it would look. 

I posted a picture – and someone immediately wrote, “96” x 103” – the perfect size for a queen-sized bed!”

Huh?  I wonder how she pulled those numbers out of the sky?  (Besides, 96” isn’t really wide enough for a queen-sized bed.)

I replied, “The blocks are 10” x 10”.  There will be 49 of them, and the quilt will measure 75” x 75”.”  I try to be matter-of-fact in the face of absurdity.

Not easily dissuaded, she responded, “That’s exactly right for a queen-sized bed with a hangover!”

hahaha  I really wanted to tell her that none of our beds have ever had hangovers, but... I did know what she meant. 

Instead, I wrote, “A queen-sized mattress is 60” x 80”.  But this will be for our 6 ½-year-old granddaughter, who has a twin-sized bed.”

She did not answer.  Maybe she had this quilt mixed up with someone else’s quilt?

When an abrasive person on Facebook writes something like the following, then I am glad I have not been unkind:

“I hope I meet you someday.  If not here on earth, then in heaven.  You have a good sense of color (that made me laugh – ‘I hope to meet you in heaven; you have a good sense of color’), design, very intelligent and interesting.  And I’ll bet you’re very organized to do all you do.  (She bets wrong, but I’ll not disillusion her just yet.)  I used to be, until I had a stroke.  I used to travel and quilt too.  Not so much now.  My ability was taken away.”

That’s sad, isn’t it?  “I’m so sorry you can no longer quilt and travel,” I wrote back.

Then, upon seeing my pictures of the rain I encountered on my way to Kearney, someone wrote, “I hate rain!”

I ignored it the first time, but she said it again.  So I responded with this:

When I was quite young, my father, who was a minister for nearly 50 years, gave one of his rare ‘topical’ sermons, with the subject of rain, which is often used as a type of God’s Word, or sometimes great blessings, in the Bible.  Daddy more usually used the ‘expository’ method of preaching, going verse by verse and ‘giving the sense’, as it says in Nehemiah.  Anyway, I often remember that sermon, all these years later, when it rains.  Daddy changed my view on ‘rain’, with that sermon!  I usually enjoy the rain (except for when it comes through my ceiling, heh).  Here are some of my favorite verses about rain:

James 5:18:  And he (Elijah) prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

Leviticus 26:4:  Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

Zechariah 10:1:  Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.

Isaiah 55:10:  For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

Psalms 72:6:  He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.

1 Kings 18:41-45:  And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.  (A favorite story of mine.  I particularly like the part about Elijah running down the mountain in front of Ahab, who was in his chariot, which was being pulled by his horse.)

Hosea 6:3:  Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

Jeremiah 5:24:  Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

1 Kings 8:35:  When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them: ...

Jeremiah 14:22:  Are there any among the vanities (idols) of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.

Isaiah 45:8:  Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

Acts 14:17:  Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

James 5:17:  Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

Job 37:6:  For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.

Zechariah 14:17:  And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

Job 5:10:  Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields: ...

2 Chronicles 7:13:  If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; ...

 

Rain has indeed been a desired blessing the last couple of years or so, when we have had a drought in our area.  I don’t like it when people gripe constantly about the weather.  After all, “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it!”  (Sidenote:  Did you know that when the King James Bible capitalizes the entire word ‘LORD’, it is the equivalent to the Hebrew word ‘Jehovah’?)

One of my online quilting friends, upon looking at my photos from the Threads Across Nebraska Quilt Show, remarked, “This lady was photobombing a lot of your pictures!  LOL”

“She was!” I laughed.  “She didn’t seem like a person who would go around grabbing the spotlight at every opportunity, but... there she was!  And there she was again!  And again!  (She was probably getting awfully tired of me and my snapbox, haha.  I tried skipping an aisle, in order not to be bothering her... but I think she tried the exact same tactic at the exact same time. 😅)”  Poor lady.

She was actually in even more pictures than anyone will ever know, because I trimmed her out of quite a few of my photos.

Another friend just completed an old-fashioned crazy quilt with all sorts of exquisite embroidery, velvets, and satin ribbon.

“It is very heavy,” she remarked.  “I had one layer of batting, the top fabric, the muslin foundation, flannel cushion between muslin and backing, and then the backing.”

All that stuff adds up.  I’ve heard and read where people are discussing how intense quilting makes a quilt ‘really, really heavy,’ and I wonder, have they ever picked up three or four cones of thread?  Do they weigh a ton?  Huh, do they??!!  

Think about that, and then pick up a stack of fabric.  What does that weigh??  😏

Or, for a more accurate comparison, fill a box with cones of thread, and fill an equal-sized box with fabric.  Which one is going to weigh the most, do you think?

Thursday night, I finished the last of the 13 Ohio Stars and laid out all the blocks in order.  It was ready to be sewn together.

Friday was a beautiful day in the 70s, bright and sunny.  Upstairs in my quilting room, I opened the windows, the better to enjoy the breeze and the birds chirping.  They don’t sing at this time of year like they do in the springtime, but they do chirp.  ♪(^∇^*)♫

I sewed for a while... and then sent an email to Nebraska Quilt Company in Fremont:

“Ever since I had my Bernina – a 200 updated to a 730 – serviced, it has skipped stitches.  It did not do this before being serviced.  Quite frustrating!  I’ve cleaned and oiled it, tried new needles, a different bobbin, different thread, readjusted the tension in both bobbin and top thread... but nothing helps.  It continues to get worse.  May I bring it back in?”

Someone named ‘Loren’ soon answered in the affirmative.  (I wonder if this ‘Loren’ is a man, or a woman?)  I put the machine into its big rolling case and got out my 180.  Thank goodness I have a backup machine!

By a quarter ’til midnight, Malinda’s Cross-Stitched Teddies quilt top was together, all but the borders.  The quilt measured exactly what EQ8 said it should right now:  70” x 70”.

Saturday morning, I put bedding in the washing machine, watered the indoor plants, made a marinade for a couple of porkchops, then showered, washed my hair, and cut it. 

I made coffee, played the piano while it brewed, then dried my hair and put a few waves in it.  After I ate, I cleaned up the kitchen, then went upstairs to my sewing room, where I cut a couple of borders for the Cross-Stitched Teddies quilt, and sewed them on.  It was another sunny, blue-sky day, 62°, heading up to 67°.

In answer to several questions regarding this quilt:  the cross-stitched blocks are 10”, finished.  Before adding the ‘frames’ to them, they were not uniform, as they were originally cross-stitched onto one piece of fabric, and when I cut it apart, I could not cut the same size of blocks.  I did not interface them, as the fabric was sturdy enough.  The nine-patches are 2”, finished.  The smallest patch in the nine-patch is 9/16” finished; the middle and larger patch is 7/8”.  And right there is why I don’t often give away my EQ8 patterns and designs! – I invariably come up with oddball sizes that would doubtless aggravate anyone to whom I gave such a pattern!  😅

A good friend wrote, “That turned out so cute!  You definitely have a quilters mind!!”

“Thank you!” said I.  “But... is a quilter’s mind full of lint and thread schnibbles?”  🤣

After our morning church service Sunday, we went to Kurt and Victoria’s house for lunch.  We like to take something to put in their larder or to eat with the meal.  This time, we took a jug of kiwi/strawberry/apple juice and several cartons of yogurt.  Victoria had baked New York strips, carrots, and potatoes, and she mashed the potatoes and made gravy.

I learned via rural radio this morning that West Point is flushing their hydrants today.  The city is informing people that if they refrain from using water, it will minimize the chance that they will get discolored water. 

I think the most appropriate response to that is “Duh.”

It was a pretty day, with a high of 78°.

Recently I was chatting (by text) with Levi, who’s 13.  He has an AI (Artificial Intelligence) app on his phone for generating poetry.  (He likes to write poems, and he’s good at it.)  He offered to use his app to make a poem for me.

“I could get one about what you do when you break your sewing machine,” he said.  “Can you give me prompts?”

“Okay,” I laughed, “here you go:  skipped stitches, messed-up timing, broken needles, whirring noises.”

In seconds, his app generated the following:

 

In a cozy room where stitches sing,
A quilting machine, a cherished thing;
Its needle danced with grace and care,
Crafting quilts with love to share.

 

But one fateful day, a sad dismay,
The machine began to go astray;
Skipped stitches, a tangled thread,
Mischief in each woven spread.

 

Timing’s tune, a discord found,
In this symphony of threads unbound;
Needles shattered, their song askew,
As the quilt-maker wondered, “What to do?”

 

With weird whirring noises, it complained,
A mechanical heart, feeling strained;
Yet in the chaos, hope did gleam,
For a quilter’s spirit is a resilient dream.

 

With patience and hands so steady,
They mended the quilt, once so unsteady;
Stitch by stitch, they found their way,
To mend the fabric, bright as day.

 

For though the machine may break and strain,
In the hands of a quilter, it’s not in vain;
They’ll overcome, with love and might,
To bring their quilts to life, so bright.

 

For an AI app, that’s pretty good, don’t you think?  Levi plugged in a few more prompts, and sent me a couple more poems.  AI assumes, for the most part, that quilts are generally made entirely by hand.  Furthermore, whoever programmed this particular part of AI believes quilts are wonderful things, handcrafted with love.  😊

Today Levi told me about the quilt his other grandmother, who passed away last month, made for him several years ago:  “It’s something about the little blue train that could, and she sewed buttons on it.  Lots of buttons.  There are purple squares, yellow ovals, red circles.  It’s a neat quilt.  I loved that thing until it was too small for me.”

I said, “Maybe it’ll be exactly the right size for a lap quilt one of these days when you’re 85-90, sitting in a wheelchair.”

“Nah,” said Levi.  “When I’m 90, I’m going to have a heated one. 🤑”

haha  He’s such a funny kid.

This morning, Charles told Larry to use his Walkers’ credit card for my eye treatments, and then they will deduct the amount from Larry’s Christmas bonus.

So...  I got an appointment for Wednesday, November 8 – and the only time available was 8:00 a.m.; otherwise I would’ve had to wait until January.  That means I’ll have to get up before 4:00 a.m.

But I’ll be able to see at Thanksgiving and Christmas!  My eyes have gotten bad, this last week.

I’m thankful for family who cares about us.

I just sent a note to Caleb and Maria:  I’m drinking a cup of the Tazo Vanilla Bean Macaron tea you gave me – and it really does taste like vanilla macaron!  Yummy. 

Every time I have some, I’m going to remember Eva helping me get things out of my gift bag, me reading the box – “Vanilla Bean Macaron” (I didn’t see the little words ‘Black Tea’) – and asking her, “Is it macaron cookies?” 

She nodded, trying to be agreeable, but then frowned, shook her head, smiled, nodded again – but hesitantly. 

I thought, Looks like I’d better read that again. 

And then I saw, ‘Black Tea,’ and said, “Oh!  Is it tea?” and she grinned happily and nodded vigorously.  😅

Tomorrow I will take my machine to Nebraska Quilt Company, and then continue on to Omaha to visit Loren.  And...  I shall sing as I go! 

“ ♫ ♪ Singing I go along life’s road, ♪ ♫ praising the Lord, praising the Lord! ♫ ♪ Singing I go along life’s road, ♫ ♪ for Jesus has lifted my load.  ♫ ♪ ”

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