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Super Loud Thunderstorm

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:11 pm

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We were shaken out of bed last night or I should say at 2 AM by a super loud clap of thunder and lightning that brightened the room like someone turned the lights on. It moved through quickly though for which we were thankful. Chance took offense at it and ran to the glass double doors and barked at it. She wanted it stopped right now! The extremely loud thunder only lasted maybe ten minutes but it rumbled and grumbled the rest of the night. I would say the rain that came with it amounted to four or more inches. We had to go down to College Station to the doctor this morning. The road was awash in water. All the creeks and rivers were over the banks and in some places the water was right up level with the highways. Anymore rain and it would have flowed over the road. We passed many stock tanks(ponds) that were over full and flooding out into pastures. The most of the rain had passed by the time we left home at 8:30am for our 10 am appointment. I drove carefully as the roads were wet and it was still drizzling in areas. The traffic was for the most part traveling at a reduced speed. We arrived in time and spent a good five minutes with the doctor. He took out the sponges and vacuumed out the crud and said continue the drops and come back in two weeks. As he was disappearing out the door I asked if the infection was cleared up. He turned and said, "for the most part. It's still a little red." They renewed the prescription and I made sure it was for the lower priced one. We have an appointment to go back in two weeks. We came home in about the same amount of time it took to drive down there. It wasn't rainy any more but there was a large amount of road crud splashing up from big trucks and cars passing going the opposite way. I'll have to remind dr to check our washer fluid because I used a fair amount of it. It's a bit cooler than I like it here and with the damp my knees keep saying, "Ouch!" but I'm sure summer is just around the corner. I wish though that I could find that corner. I need a map!
I'm sure the plants, etc. enjoyed the storm a lot more than Chance and I did. Even dr with his hearing loss heard the thunder last night. Chance has been napping the day away. She had a busy night what with barking at the thunder and sitting by my side of the bed to make sure it didn't get me. I had to put my hand on her head so she knew I was still there or she whined about it. Dumb dog! I wasn't going anywhere in that storm.
dooley

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Not My Favorite Week!

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:28 pm

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Despite being in the 70's all week and no rain, it wasn't my favorite week at all.
Monday was nice and sunny and warm and I went out and sat on the porch. I've been having some problems with an earache and the warmth made it feel better. I let Chance out on the porch with me. She was enjoying the sunshine, too. Another dog went past on the road and Chance thought she should bark at it. I told her "no bark." She didn't listen so I told she had to go back into the house and started after her to shoo her inside. She doubled back right in front of me and I tripped over her and fell flat on my face on the concrete porch. I think my nose tried to move to the back of my head and I'm sure if I look closely I'll find a dent in the concrete. I was afraid to get up and see what was broken. My nose was bleeding all over the place. I yelled and dr came to see what all the yelling and barking was about. He got cold compresses for my nose and helped me up. I got lucky or blessed because nothing was broken, not even my nose. It had a small scrape where my glasses pushed into it. My fingers on one hand were bruised where I tried to grab the porch post to keep from falling. But, no major damage. I was a bit shaky the rest of the day. The next day I didn't let Chance out with me. She was out on the back deck.
Wednesday we went and did some major grocery shopping. Thursday, I broke down and called the doctor's office to see if I could get in anytime soon to get my ear looked at. Wouldn't you just know they could fit me in on Friday morning. I just love going to the doctor. We got up early Friday morning and went down to College Station to the doctor. We got there at 8:30. I waited until 9 to get in to see the doctor. That happens when they fit you in among other appointments. The doctor looked into my ear and said, "It's full of crud." He called and got me into see the ear doctor. The ear doctor was around the back of the building and across the street. I got lots of directions for getting there and though I had no idea where it was, I found it easy enough. After filling out tons of paperwork and getting my picture taken for their records I got in to see the doctor in less time than the family doctor. The ear doctor looked into my ear and said, "It's full of crud." He pulled out the trusty little vacuum cleaner and vacuumed my ear. It sounded just like a vacuum cleaner, too. Then, he looked again and I have an ear infection. Well, I knew that already. He put little sponges into my ear and squirted some ear drops in it and told me to come back in a week to get them taken out and let him check the ear again.
Coming home we stopped to pick up the prescription for ear drops. We didn't pick it up. They wanted a hundred and thirty dollars for it. I didn't even put my hands on the bag to find out what it was. I just told her I didn't have a hundred and thirty dollars for ear drops, we needed to eat this week, too. So, the pharmacist faxed the doctor to see if there was something cheaper. It took all afternoon and finally we got some for closer to thirty dollars. So, we get to eat this week, too. We would have anyway because we did the shopping on Wednesday. After having put the drops in three times now and what the doctor put in, my ear has stopped hurting. But, I will finish the drops and go back on Friday to get the sponges taken out.
It was a beautiful day on Friday, 76 degs and sunny. Today it was 72 degs and cloudy but it hasn't rained on us.
Tomorrow starts another week with sunshine and 68 degrees. It's bound to be a better week than this one.
dooley

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I'm Waiting

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:50 am

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I'm waiting but not patiently. It's been more than cold enough for me here this winter. I know it's been warmer than most of the country but you all should know by now that I'm not a cold weather person. So, I just looked at the 10 day forecast. Tomorrow will be 66 degs with mostly sun. I'll take that for sure. I might even be able to go outside without the cold to make my ears hurt. But starting on Tuesday we have temps in the 70's for five days and only rain on one of them. Hurrah!! There is rain for Wednesday but it will be 70 so I can take the rain. It calls for isolated showers so maybe they will isolate elsewhere. Then, it's back to the 60's and rain on Saturday and Sunday. Well, it's still January so I guess I can't expect 70's all of the time. Well, I can expect it but I don't always get what I expect.
There are things we can do outside. There are things we can do inside, too. Maybe we can open the doors and let some warm inside, too. Chance will like it. She likes sun and warm, too. We've had rain for four days now and it's been cloudy and gloomy and cold.
I guess you all feel sorry for me now, right! Probably not! I can handle that. I'm just waiting for summer.
dooley

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Frustrating Day!!!

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:01 am

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I think I want to go back and start today over. I woke up to bright sunshine and Chance wanting to be let outside. dr got up and let Chance out. I dragged myself to the bathroom and then got dressed. I came and turned on the computer. I never turn it on, dr does it after he lets Chance out. I usually just pull the covers over my head until I'm fully awake or Chance comes back to whine at the side of the bed. I went to the kitchen and make Zucchini raisin muffins for breakfast and a pot of Russian Caravan tea. When I got the muffins in the oven I came in and clicked on the internet symbol and started the connection for the dial up. It started to dial and then disconnected and said the line was busy. So, I went back to the kitchen. After getting the muffins and tea ready I came back and tried again. Same thing. Well, after about a dozen tries and restarting the computer and checking out all of the computer lines I called the internet server support line. I used my cell phone because you can't use the regular phone and the internet at the same time with dial up. Anyway, after an hour and twenty minutes with the tech support guy, I hung up on further along than when I started. He was in India and half the time I couldn't understand him and the other half he couldn't understand me. He said in an hour his supervisor would call. So, I waited for someone to call. My cell phone battery was beeping the last twenty minutes of the call so I plugged it in to recharge and discovered my cell phone must not recognize 1-800 numbers because the minutes were deducted from my cell phone. So, we made a trip to town and bought more cell phone minutes for the card. I could have done it on the phone but I was frustrated and shall I say a little miffed and wasn't thinking clearly. Anyway, no supervisor called so when we got back, I called the support number again. I got another guy and he ran through the same routine the first guy did but his English was a bit better. He finally after 30 minutes said it wasn't the server. It must be my modem and I should call the computer company and tell them to restart it. I hung up. I didn't even remember to tell him good bye!!
I don't know about modems except you need one to get on the internet. I called my trusty computer person, namely number two son. He took me to the control panel, to systems, to Hardware and we uninstalled the modem. Then, we backed out of everything and restarted the computer. There was the modem back and when I clicked on the internet symbol and started the connection everything worked just fine. Number two son said this is the first thing those computer tech persons should have done. He said if I had called the company they would have done the same thing he did and charged me an exorbitant price. So, at 4:40 pm, after wasting a whole day with people who didn't know what they were doing or trying to figure out what to do next I am finally back on the internet. Next time I will call number two son first and see what he recommends. If he recommends I call the tech support people I will bash his head with something hard. I do need to call around here to people I now know and find someone here who knows computers and can give me reliable advice. If I know what is wrong and they can talk me through it, okay. But, I need to know where to take if if they can't do that. Number two son lives halfway across the country and number three son who talked me through some other stuff lives way up north. Tomorrow I will make some calls and see what I can find or where I can take it if I need more expert advice.
I'm not a complete computer dunce and if I do something once, I can do it again. I have a book of notes on how to do things that the boys have talked me through. But, mostly I can only do surface things and I'm afraid to try to do anything that might fry everything.
Now, I think I feel better. I can take a deep breath and breathe free again. dr can walk into the room without a frustrated computer user "hollering" about that "d" computer not doing what it's supposed to do. He knows even less and left to his own devices would have thrown it out on the trash pile.
He was nice enough to buy me lunch and a new phone card so I made him supper. I also helped him order a didgeridoo from an online store. I can wait for Chance to hear him try to play it. I'll get out my earplugs now.

dooley


Last edited: Tue Jan 12, 2010 3:42 am

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Do I talk too much?

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:04 pm

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I was looking at these blog stats at the top of this page and it says that I have made 280 blogs. That seems like an awful lot of blogs to me. So, do I talk too much or maybe make that type too much.
It's the beginning of a new year, 2010. It's the beginning of a new year, 69 (that's years). So, I thought I would start by writing a blog here, if I can get my fingers to type. It seems to be cold here today, but I actually sat out on that long front porch in the sun and read my book this afternoon. The sun really felt nice. Of course, I have on a thermal shirt, a sweatshirt and a padded flannel shirt. Still, it was 41 actual temperature and maybe about 60 in the sun. I was thinking it was cold, but it's not zero or below like much of the country or even the world north of the equator is now. I lived in Wisconsin for about 40 years and in Illinois before that so it's not that I don't know about cold and snow. But, since 1989 I've lived in the Sun Belt. Hot in the summer but tolerable in the winter except for a few weeks. They might seem like short weeks but they are long weeks to me. I have never been a cold weather person. I like to sit by a fire with a mug of hot tea in the winter time. I have a mug of hot tea here but no fire to sit in front of without burning down the house. Heat coming out of a vent is not the same thing. Am I complaining about being cold? I think so. I apologize to the people who live where it's cold and don't have a fire or a cup of hot tea.
We began the new year with my birthday. We ate breakfast at the Texas Burger. It has a good breakfast fairly reasonable. We went down to Huntsville and had lunch at the Chinese Buffet. It's a good place for lunch if I remember I don't have to try everything just because it's a buffet. I don't actually. I don't eat shrimp and those beady little eyes in the crayfish turn me off of them. Mudbugs some call them and I'd leave them in the mud myself. Do I owe an apology to the Cajun people now? We went and did a bit of shopping. After just having had gifts for Christmas I didn't need more things. But I'd been wanting a new travel mug for that mug of hot tea for when we go out and about during the day. That's the one thing I complain about Texas Burger. They don't serve hot tea. So, I bought a new travel mug. Then, I found a travel atlas. I like to check the atlas when people mention someplace and I don't know where it's located. I really need a good world atlas but haven't seen one of those here--yet.
We came home and stopped and bought some bread. Here it is January 5th and I haven't made bread yet. What kind of way is that to start a new year?
We didn't go to the farmer's market because it was just too cold and damp to sit outside. My knees don't like the cold. dr's shoulders don't like the cold either. It might be okay if it wasn't so damp. It rains a lot here and the ditch keeps full of water.
So, we started this week by taking down Christmas. I thought when we moved from Arizona to Texas that I sorted out our Christmas stuff and only brought the special stuff. But, they have a thrift shop here that has all sorts of stuff and we stop there every time we go to town(which seems almost daily.)
We never leave there empty handed. They do good work with the money. They help the homeless and give out food vouchers and clothing vouchers, etc. I buy a lot of material there. They get new remnants from fabric stores.
Anyway, I filled several storage tubs with the Christmas stuff. I finished and went to make my mug of tea. There on the table were three Christmas bowls and a stack of Christmas serving plates. They went into the top of the cupboard. Then, there were the Christmas mugs. They got put into a box. Now, I'm done. Except for the little Father Christmas sitting there staring at me. So, he can just set there until next Christmas.
Yesterday, I decided that I'd better get back to my sewing. One day before Christmas I was feeling extra ambitious I think. I cleared off the island table in the kitchen and cut out all kinds of aprons and tote bags and filled up a storage tub with things to sew. I only got it about half emptied because there was so many other things to do. I made a start yesterday. I sewed two garden aprons, a kitchen apron and a regular half apron. I should have stopped with one garden apron, a kitchen apron and the half apron. One of the garden aprons is really crooked. How did I manage that? I guess it must have been easy. You know what I do with things when they are giving me a hard time---into the corner. That corner has a lot of things I'm going to have to sort out one of these days. But, this apron didn't give me a hard time and it's a good apron, it's just a little crooked. It also has a puckered seam. I may just send it off somewhere. I do that once in awhile, too. dr told me after I finished an apron once that no one in their right mind would buy it. So, I gave it away and the person really liked it.
Now, dr says I'm still jabbering away so I guess it's time to quit and go start some soup for supper.
dooley

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