About Me

I have entered a Zero to Hero Blogger contest, that will last thru the month of January.  The first entry is supposed to be about me.  So what do I say about me?

I have been 39 years old for several years, younger than my youngest child, and can’t really figure out how he was born before I was.  Okay, I spent 30 years as a farm wife (married very young as you can see), then divorced and moved to Owensboro ,KY where I have lived since.  I was diagnosed with Multiple Schelorsis after years of being misdiagnosed as a hypochondriac, lazy, and just plain good for nothing by family, some of which still see me that way.

Learning that I have MS was a relief, after the initial shock, because it was then that I realized I wasn’t really clumsy, but actually as graceful as a ballerina.  It was the MS that made me walk into the walls, door facings, furniture and everything else I walked into.  So I decided to embrace the inner ballerina, and laugh at the clumsy reality, thus the name of my blog: A Train Wreck Looking For A Home.

A.

A New Year a Fresh Start

Just found this blog and love it, so reblogging a few days late.

Positive Changes

Well Christmas has come and gone in a flash and we are now it seems hurtling towards the New Year before everything returns to normal. In Scotland the New Year has always been a good excuse for a big celebration. When I was younger in our house there was always a party to which neighbour’s friends and anyone visiting with friends were invited to pop in. The whole house was cleaned before the event to get rid of the old and make way for the new. Throughout the neighbourhood you would see curtains being hung out, windows and doorsteps washed. Ginger wine would be made from co-operative bought ginger wine syrup to which you added water and sugar and hey presto you then had a ginger concoction to put in nice dark brown bottles, especially bought for the job to make it look and taste very authentic. It wouldn’t have…

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And It’s Getting Even Colder

But before we get to that, the good news.  Next week I start therapy on my shoulder!  I’m doing a happy dance in my brain, since my legs still don’t work all that well, and yes, I know it will hurt, but that will be a good kind of hurt.  I’ll be back in the kitchen, cooking again in two months.  My personal resolution.  Maybe a bit premature, but I’ll do it!!!!

These are my two great grandsons, Eli and Camden.  And they are standing out in the snow, the only photo I have in my library that has snow in it.  We have some snow in the forecast, but I received an email from my Citizens Emergency Relief Team (CERT) trainer today that we are going to have a horrible, humongous cold wave starting next week, with the temps dipping below zero.  So if you are in the Owensboro, KY area, be prepared.  Dress in layers, have emergency equipment on hand, both at home and in your car if you have to get out.  If you don’t have to get out, Please STAY AT HOME, and bundle up.  Have an ample supply of finger foods on hand in case of power outage, don’t turn your heat up too high so you can conserve electricity, dress in layers, and please take care of your pets.  They get cold too.  There is no word about ice or snow, just the extreme cold, and I know a lot of you live in colder areas, but darn it, this is supposed to be the South.  Upper south, but still….

Now for the personal train wrecks.  Believe me, as long as I’m breathing, there will be train wrecks.  I got this really nice cushion for my power chair, since my bum is getting a bit sore from sitting all the time, and today managed to spill my Dr. Pepper on it.  And on my phone, which was on the cushion next to the Dr. Pepper.  A new twist on sticky keys I think.  So, to keep from getting the seat of my jeans wet (I hope) I have a thick towel covering the cushion.  Also, a large wet spot on the leg of my jeans.  If there’s a way to destroy it, I’ll find it.

I’ve managed to drag a second quilt off my bed by getting it caught in my chair.  This takes a special talent.  And yesterday I pulled a panel off the door of the elevator.  Well, I never claimed to be a good driver.  And besides, the door shouldn’t have tried to close on me so fast.  It got me to my floor though, and for the first time in months it didn’t make that horrible sound when the door opened.  Guess I showed it who’s boss, huh?

Just decided to show a few of my favorite photos before I sign off.  On the left are Laurie, Anika, Andrew and Ethan, In the middle is Noah with his Grand Champion steer Asteroid, and on the right is my beautiful niece Amy, wearing a necklace I made for her.  We raise beautiful kids in my family.

A.

Baby, It’s Cold Out There

According to the weather bug on my computer, the temp is 25 degrees.  The sound of the wind whistling around the building makes it feel more like 25 below.  And the place is covered with ice — both the white kind, and the other, black ice that you don’t really see until you slip and fall on it.  This gal is staying inside and taking no chances, even if I could actually walk.  As for trying to drive my power chair, I have a feeling I would be skidding all over town in it without even trying.

I took this photo several years ago, just because it caught my fancy.  I love things like this, old wagons, old houses, old barns.  I had been at a patient’s house when I worked for Hospice, and this old wagon had caught my eye the first time I drove out there, but I didn’t have my camera with me at the time.  That was before I started carrying the camera with me all the time, just for moments like this.  It was a winding country road, and with my sense of direction, I managed to get lost every time I went out there.  Of course, I can get lost in a closet with the door open, so that came as no surprise to me.  Fortunately, Hospice gave us directions and phone numbers, so I could check the directions, turn around and back track each day when I over shot the driveway, and eventually find the right house.  But this old wagon was on that road, so one day when I remembered to take the camera with me, I snapped the photo on the way back.  That was before I took the wrong turn and ended up on the wrong road, but at least I knew where I was then and finally made it to the next patient.

My poor sweet potato leaves passed away a few days ago.  One day they were half way to the ceiling, looking healthy and robust, and the next day they were drooping over the jar and turning brown.  The mint is still thriving and the aloe, but both desperately need re-potting in ginormous buckets.   I guess I’ll have to do more online shopping for the pots and potting soil, which hopefully can be found in January.  I have some plastic buckets if they should become necessary, but don’t think I want to take a pick axe out to try to obtain some dirt anytime soon.

I’ve been cuddling under my half finished afghan while working on another one that isn’t so heavy at the time.  It really bugs me that I can only do a few stitches at a time, but then, I’ve lost the crochet hook I was using, so I’ve had to start a third one using a different size hook.  I’m sure my chair ate the other hook, and when I am able to life the chair up and look under it I’ll find the hook and probably a lot of other things that have been lost over the years.  Losing things and getting lost are two of my things.  If I turn one corner I’m completely lost, and if I put something down for a few minutes it disappears.  I have a game I play called “find the remote”.  My TV has been going for several days and nights because I can’t remember where I put the remote, no doubt in a place where I wouldn’t lose it.  That’s a dangerous thing to do here, because as soon as I put it down, it’s gone.  Don’t know why, don’t know how.  I think things grow feet and they run away from home.  They are probably all parading down Frederica street on their short little legs right now.

A.

Happy (?) New Year

Here’s hoping this year will be so much better than last one.  At least the last month of last one.  I really want to get back in my kitchen and cook something.  I know I can’t smell anything, but still I can remember the smells of the things I usually cook, and really miss that pot of beans and the Mexican cornbread that always go with it.  Mmmm, what more can a person ask for than beans and cornbread on a cold, winter day?

I have a new award, sorta.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here it is. I haven’t decided which one to put in my gallery yet, but I think it will be the one with the picture of the presenter, Don Charisma.  Of course, the other one shows up better, but I’ll decide before my next post.  Don is really a great guy, currently living in Thailand, who is now doing great things with stitching photos together to make up really large, breathtaking scenery.  He’s funny, intelligent, and altogether a great guy who created my angel logo for me.  My knight in mostly shining armor.  You really should check out his blog, http://doncharisma.org.  At least I think that’s it.  If not, so sorry Don.  Sinus headache, remember?

Since I can’t go shopping at this time, I have started online shopping at Amazon.  I think I went a bit overboard on a few things there, but since you don’t actually see the product, just a description, you don’t know until it arrives. Just a few days ago I got a call from the office telling me I had a large package downstairs.  Large?  It was about the size of a coffin.  It is still taking up half my living room.  As you can see, I ordered paper towels, also well, that’s more like a photo of the box with the towels at the top.  So, here’s another one. A dozen packages of paper plates, and a huge bag of paper bowls.  Since I can’t wash dishes at the moment, I use a lot of paper products.  And last, a dozen boxes of Kleenex, although I only pulled one out because I only needed one opened at the time.  Fortunately there was no shipping fee, since the order was more than $50.  The trash bags and Windex are still to come, and naturally they are the items I needed the most.  Except for the Kleenex, since I somehow caught a head cold without ever leaving the building.  How?  Your guess is as good as mine.  I think if there is half of an allergen floating around the hemisphere it makes it to my nose and takes up residence there.

I’ve pretty much slept thru the past few days.  It’s just too comfortable under the covers to move lately, and I have a lot of lost sleep to make up.  Throw a couple of pain pills a day into the mix, and I’m snoring like, well, a lumberjack?  Or maybe more like Max did.  For such a tiny dog he could beat my dad when it came to snoring.

Well, back to the sinus meds.  Doctor appointment on Friday for results of CAT scan.  To tell the truth, I’m not sure I really want to know.

A.

Help Arrived Today

My friend Carol came to visit tonight, bringing me shrimp cocktail, orange crush, and much needed help.  Since breaking the shoulder I have been unable to take out my garbage, pick things up off the floor, or clean up any of the many train wrecks that occur on a daily basis around here.

 

 

 

 

 

Although my neighbors all came around the first couple of days, no one has shown up since then, so I’ve been making do with what I can ever since that horrible day three weeks ago.  I had hoped the kids would do some pickup things for me when they visited on my birthday, but my kids aren’t built that way.  So—I have a fridge full of penicillin growing containers of food, and the garbage containers were overflowing, because I can’t lift them.  Carol swooped in and now things are tidy again—at least until the next train wreck.  And there is leftover shrimp in the fridge.  Yummy.

 

 

 

 

 

I Found It

YES!!!!  This is the scanned picture Anika drew of Max!  I’m so excited and so up in the air about this.  Isn’t that girl an undiscovered talented artist?  And gorgeous to boot. That’s Anika on the left of an Andrew sandwich, with Laurie, Anika’s twin brother, and Ethan in the back.  They are all a couple of years older now, but really a group of good looking kids.  Now I’m wondering which one is going to the UK vs Louisville game with their dad tonight.

Bill HAS to attend the games, because of his job at UK.  Doesn’t that make you want to cry him a river?  My older brother, Tony, used to have to do that job, and after a few years of it I think he got tired of going, but Bill takes one of the kids with him each time he has to go to a game.  We asked him Thursday which one was going with him today and he didn’t really answer.  Just said whoever was the best for the rest of the week.  Don and Mike both started grinning and told him he would have to pretend they were his kids for one of two of the games then, because they were always better than the kids.  I could add a comment or ten on that subject here, but I’ll save that for future blackmail material.  Ummm, I mean for another post.

This is Bill and Ethan last year at the Final Four in New Orleans, where UK won the championship.  I don’t really follow any sport, but I will admit my blood runs UK blue.  I also have several UK shirts.  All for survival of course.  One brother, two kids, a granddaughter, a grandson, all either still in, working for, or in some way screaming GO CATS, so I would be found guilty of high treason if I didn’t at least support the game.  We’re talking basketball here folks, not football.  I don’t think anyone in the extended family would argue that they are not good at football.

I really wish I had remembered to take my camera with me to my party, because Ethan now has a bush growing on his face.  It almost matches his Uncle Mike’s bushy face, except Mike is beginning to (gulp) get a bit gray.  And he’s my baby.  And only 11 1/4 years old, due to his birthday being on Feb. 29.  That wouldn’t be so bad except that he acts like an 11 year old kid.  Janette and I decided on duct tape instead of a plaster cast for him, and we decided to duct tape Noah to him after some of the shenanigans on Thursday.  I think duct tape across Mike’s face would be even better, because when he pulls it off, we might get to see what he looks like for the first time in years.

I’m not sure what this post is supposed to be about tonight.  I was just really so thrilled to find my scanned photos, that now I know where to look for more of them when I scan them in, and WordPress started to crunch the photo but changed it’s mind and let it in.  Must be my lucky day.

I also found someone willing to go to the grocery for me today, so I now have some frozen TV dinners, which are a welcome switch from the soups I’ve been eating.  The first one I ate even had some beautiful, green peas that stayed crunchy when they were warmed up.  What more could I ask for.  The pain level is dropping, so my shoulder is probably healing on it’s own, I ate some crunchy peas, visited with friends downstairs, got a few groceries….I even asked Steve to bring me a couple of the microwavable potatoes so I can have baked potatoes with sour cream and shredded cheese on them.  Didn’t think about getting some broccoli to put on top, but then I don’t think I could hold the knife yet.  But, ya never know.

A.

More Train Wrecks

Or maybe I should say more headaches.  I’ve been trying to add a drawing Anika made for me of Max, my Pekingese dog.  Anika is extremely talented in so many ways, and can draw everything except cats.  She loves cats more than any other animal, but for some reason, can’t seem to draw them yet, so when she was here helping me decorate the pine cones I asked her if she would draw me a picture of Max.  She drew it, sent it to me, and I have been trying to get it on the blog since I received it.

First I scanned it in to my photos, but it didn’t show up when I was downloading some photos to my blog library.  Then I took a photo of the drawing, and have just spent an hour trying to put that in the library, but when it downloads I get a message that says “crunching”, and my only guess is that by crunching it really means munching, because it sure doesn’t show up in the photo library.  So, I’m going to make one more effort here.  Hold on to your hats and garters, because if this doesn’t work out there could be a huge explosion.  BOOOOOOOOMMMMMM.  It still didn’t work.  What does it mean when it crunches your photo?  I’ve downloaded a lot of photos to this site and they have always been okay.  This is the first time they have ever been crunched.  I wonder if they have seen my trash cans and realize how full they are and how much they need to be emptied and the contents crunched?  Yeeks!  I hope not.  That would mean it could also see the items I have dropped and been unable to pick up.

Well, the title warned you this is about more train wrecks.

Like, I’m having to go on scavenger hunts again, since Irene came in last weekend.  All of the things I use were stored within reach on my right side so I could just pick them up easily when needed.  Some of them were moved to the left, meaning heaps of pain if I have to get them.  Some were placed under heavy objects I can’t lift without chance of dropping on my foot.  Just the thought of that makes me wince.  There are a few things I haven’t found yet, but have made it without them so far.  Others are in places I can see but have no way of getting to, because they are just out of reach.

I went online and ordered a lot of stuff I’m running out of, and the deliveries should start on Monday.  And I also signed up for the produce deliveries from Cecil Farms again, starting in May.  This time I signed up for every other week though.  Getting the weekly deliveries last summer was nice, but there was no breathing space in between.  I think this year I’ll need the time to breathe a week between the deliveries.  I also signed up for fresh eggs during the summer, because I’m never sure when the egg lady will show up here, and I sure love those farm fresh eggs.  Plus, I’ll hopefully be getting some fresh pork this year as well.  That will be from a different source, but will be so much better than the pork bought at the grocery.  And at some point before summer I plan on buying a pressure canner, so I can put some of that pork in jars and can it for later.  That was something my mom always did, and it was sooooo good and so tender you just wouldn’t believe it.  I did it on the farm, and it is great to be able to grab a jar of canned pork loin in an emergency situation and just sit back and enjoy it.  Heat if you want, but it really isn’t necessary.  Just open and enjoy.

Now I’m making myself hungry for some fresh collards and bacon or pork loin.  Fresh anything right now would be good.  I wanna get back to the kitchen.  That means I had better get back in there now and heat up a bowl of burgoo.

A.

Blog Of The Year, Second Star

My wonderful friend, Mark Bialczak, in snowy Syracuse, NY has nominated me for the second star on the Blog of the Year Award, 2013, so I am trying to get this in before the year is over.

Mark has a great blog, writing about entertainment, movies, music (which first drew my attention) life and big ideas.  He writes about his life in Syracuse with his wife Karen, in my eyes both a lucky lady, and a very tolerant one.  I am drawn to his blog every time I can get to my blog because of his understand and supporting attitude, his sense of humor, and outlook on life.

The rules for accepting this award are the same as for the first star.  Almost,  Mark included some extra information, which I may decide to exclude, because of the ongoing pain in my broken shoulder, but as a side note to Anne, have Don send you the graphic panel for all the stars.  He included it with Mark’s award, so you can perhaps get it from him and put all of your stars on your site.  If I could get my printer to speak to my computer, and the computer to speak to wordpress I could send it to you, but they just aren’t all on speaking terms lately, so it’s kind of a standoff.  But I will find a way some day to make them all work together or die trying.  Or of old age, whichever comes first.

So, here are the rules:

1.  Select the blog(s) you think deserve the Blog Of The Year 2013 Award.

2.  Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen — there are no minimum or maximum number of blogs required — and present the blogger with their award.

3.  Let the glogger know that you have chosen them for this awar and share the instructions with them (please don’t alter the instructions or the badges).

4.  Come over and say hello to the originator of the Blog Of The Year 2013 award via this link:  http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/blog-awards-2-blog-of-the-year-2013-award/

5.  You can now also join the Blog Of The Year Award Facebook Page.  Click the link here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlogoftheYear.

6.  And as a winner of the award-please add a link back to the blog that presented you with this award–and then proudly display the award on your blog–and start collecting starts.

My nominees for Blog Of The Year, Second Star

1.  spontaneoustomato.com

2.  rebeccanne.files.workpress.com.

3.  therapybread.word.press.com

4.  eve’sapple.word.press.com

Congratulations to all.

A.

Blog Of The Year Awards

My dear friend Anne T. Bell at talesalongtheway.wordpress.com has awarded me my first Blog of the Year award.  I am overwhelmed and humbled by this award, and thank her very much for the honor.  She is an extremely intelligent woman who is filled with knowledge about India, where she lived and traveled for several months, and about many things I have always taken for granted, wondered about, but never taken the time to learn.

 

Rules For Blog Of The Year Award

1  Select the blog(s) you think deserve the Blog Of The Year 2013 award.

2.  Write a post about the blogs you have chosen (there are no minimum or maximum number of blogs required), and “present” the blogs with their award.

3.  Let the blogs you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the instructions with them – (please don’t alter the instructions or the badges)

4.  Come over and say hello to the originator of the Blog of the Year 2013 Award via this link: htttp://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/blog-awards-2-/blog-of-the-year-2013-award/

5.  You can now also join the Blog Of The Year Award Facebook PPage.  Click the link here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlogoftheYear to share your blog posts with an even wider audience.

6.  Finally, as a winner of the award, please add a link bak to the blog that presented you with this award–and then proudly display the award on your blog==and start collecting stars!

Here are my winners for Blog of the  Year.

therapybread.files.workpress.com

spontanioustomato.com

abeautifulmess.files.wordpress.com

bucketlistpublications.wordpress.com

distractedcrafting.blogspot.com

Congratulations to all.

A.