A Little Help Here, Please...........

**I did call into work to say I wouldn't be coming in today. Twisted my hip out again. Everything is cool.

**Spent yesterday on the recliner. However, at 9:00am, a commercial is on tv; a car commercial about auto parts. "Holy Crap"! I yelled to BH. "We have to get the car up to the shop for an oil change by 10:30"! Now you know we have to take both vehicles so we can come home together. "I'll drive the van; easier to get in and out of than the car" says me.

Back home; on the recliner; pop 2 ibuprofen; get out the heating pad; have a cup of coffee and a couple of cookies; fall asleep.

**Wake up at 12:30pm. Really? I thought it was about 3:00. Crap. Fall back asleep until said 3:00pm. Another cup of stale coffee. Still in pain. "Let's do the bills" I say to BH. We get those done; "you're going to mail them tomorrow, right?" says he. "NO, I Want To Mail Them Today!" Geez, what is it with men?! And we now have to go back to the garage and pick up the car.

"I'll drive the van" says BH. "I'll drive" (me).
(BH): "But you're going to the store, right?"
(Me): "Yeah, buy you can just drive the van back home.....never mind. You drive the van."
(BH): "I'll mail the bills on the way home"
A little background here: BH is in his ratty, stained, wholely sweat pants which he does not want to change into his jeans to get the car. Hence, he wants to drop me off and leave. I, too, am in wholely, paint-marked sweatpants, but I don't give a crap!

We proceed to get into the van; me on the passenger side --- my right hip is the one I can barely move. I have to step up about 18" to get into the van ---- Get the picture?! I have to twist my body to slide into the seat.

(Me): "Ohhh, this is not good. I have to twist my hip to get into the seat. Ow, ow, ow, shit"
(BH): "Why didn't you tell me that's why you wanted to drive the van?"

Right about now, I'm mentally recalling CSI episodes in which a spouse is murdered without any immediate evidence acknowledged.

Got the car; got into the car, which feels like getting into a Corvette at this moment; went to the store and home. 2 more ibuprofen and on the recliner. BH does dinner -- Hungry Man dinners. Easy enough.

Talked to my son's fiance last night; wished her Happy Birthday. Told her about my hip and my medical capabilities. She tells me to apply ice. Heat makes it feel better, but the ice reduces the swelling. OK! I'll do it! Did it. And it does feel much much better! Thank you, Keri! (she's in school for nursing).

Well, it does feel better today. Not wonderful. Just better. I told BH I think I'll get back to putting our bedroom back together. He said "NO". "OK, but I'll do it tonight". "Fine" he says. That's the plan.

I managed to get the room painted Wednesday. We had to move a dresser into the hallway; remove the drawers from both dressers. They have been sitting on the floor and sofa in the family room for 2 days now. Curtains and blinds are still sitting in the spare room; carpet still needs shampooing before we can put all the furniture back in the bedroom.

I still have to get the rest of the house cleaned, tons of laundry to do, get to Walmart to get a new cell phone; drop off daughter's summer clothes to her and get some groceries in the house before we leave for NY. Oh, and packing to be done.

I hope all this doesn't come back to bite me in the arse -- besides my hip!

Thank you, Judy, for your well wishes!

I'm Really Too Old for This.......

Spring cleaning.......I'm getting too old!! I did it again. Threw my hip out. Every year. I don't know how it happens; I try to be careful as I'm pushing dressers, armoires and beds around a 9x12 room. Picking up and moving smaller pieces of furniture and paraphenalia to another room; stretching and turning to wash down the ceiling and walls and painting. I should use the step stool; oh, I can reach the ceiling ok (with my arms stretched as far as they can over my head). Something is out of reach; I won't move closer to the item, I'll just twist my torso and stretch to reach it---Yikes! that hurt.

How the hell did I throw my hip out again, I wonder. It's my own dumb fault!

The bad part is, today I still have to shampoo the carpet in said room and rearrange the furniture(thank God for BH), hang the blinds and curtains and put all the embellishments up on the walls.

There was a time, not too long ago, when I could have a room done in a day and a half. Didn't matter what room or how much had to be done to it. Crype, I could have my whole house Spring cleaned in 2 weeks. That included washing all walls and ceilings, painting, wallpapering, sewing new curtains, and moving all the furniture by myself!

Now it takes me 3 days to do one room! 3 days! This is a big chunk of my ever decreasing life span. Days I could and should really, be doing things more to my liking, more to my enjoyment. Don'tcha think?

Well, at least half the house is now done. The kitchen, dining room and family room will have to wait until we get back from NY.

Oh geez, and there's still the outside work to be done. I also threw my hip out last year after raking leaves out of my junipers. Once again, twisting my body with the rake. That was bad. Took about 2 weeks to get better. You'd think I would've learned by now, right? This must be another sign I'm getting too old to do this stuff - loss of memory of the consequences!

I'm not a sedentary person. I clean hotel rooms, for God's sake. All that bending, stretching, walking, pushing - I should be in shape for a little housecleaning! Crap!

It's supposed to rain for the next 3 or 4 days. Oh that'll really help. The grass will be 10" high when I get around to weedwhacking. (sigh).

I've been knitting. Trying to finish the second red sock. Got past the heel; working on the instep. No spinning. (sigh).

BH has all his work done outside. All the wood cut, split and stacked for next year -- well until Fall. He won't go into the woods now because of the ticks and soon to follow mosquitos. He has the yard all raked and cleaned up, storage shed cleaned and re-organized and all his fishing gear cleaned, organized, reels have been re-lined. Fishing season starts in 3 weeks. Bass fishing. I can't wait!

I don't fish. But I do love it when he's out of the house at 5:00am and gone until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Especially on my days off. Especially. I can putter. I love to putter. In my gardens; in my house. Things that are not on the everyday list of "needs to be done - today".

Ah, someday. An apartment. That's the key.

I'm Still Here.......

I haven't forgotten about the blog. I thought about it every day. Just been so busy around here. Spring cleaning you know. Yes. Spring. Cleaning. I know. I can't believe it myself! There's only so much dust and grime I can take. I do have my limits.

The weather has been beautiful; warm and sunny. Really boosts my energy level. Got the spare bedroom done; the hallway and linen closet; the bathroom and now moving on to our bedroom. Closets are cleaned out; winter clothes stored; summer ones put in the drawers. Now I have to wash the walls and ceiling, the blinds, curtains and bedding and paint the room.

I want to get at least this much done before we head back to NY to visit my dad.

Then I can tackle the kitchen, dining room and family room.

The flower beds need to be cleaned up and mulched; weed whacking is at a "needs to be done now" status. Luckily it's raining this weekend! I can't think about that right now; I'll think about it tomorrow; afterall.......tomorrow is........another day!

And.... hold on to your bobbins.......I've also been spinning and knitting! "Impossible" you say; "no way"; "not this gal" ? Well.......

Yep! Pretty good, huh? The brown cabled socks; the blue/glitz 3 ply (I have 4 full bobbins) and the red/glitz 2ply which is another pair of socks in the crocodile pattern, one finished; the other half done. Sorry the pictures aren't terrific, but I was in a hurry to get them posted. You won't believe this...or maybe you will....this is the third time I've written this post with the pictures. Tried twice yesterday; ran out of time; couldn't get the draft to show up as a continuing post, yadayadayada. Deleted the whole damn thing and started over.

Well now that the wheel is warmed up and the needles are smokin', I think I'm going back at it. It's 5:30 am; I have an hour and half to kill. I've been getting up at 5:00am these past few mornings; don't know why; except that I get into this early rising mode every Spring and Summer. I love getting up early. By myself. Peaceful. Quiet. I get things done. If I'm quiet. Fishing season starts in a few weeks. BH will be getting up early, getting out on the lake. Then I can really get things done! Peacefully. Quietly. By myself.

It's Been How Long??..........

Holy Cow - is the world spinning at mach speed or what?! I didn't realize that so much time has elapsed since my last post. Wow!

Been busy - very busy. Easter came and went without a hitch. Actually the only holiday I get gaga over is Christmas. The rest is just the year moving on.

**Son moved into his apartment last week. Well, moved isn't quite right. He does have some stuff over there; the rest is here - and probably will be for quite some time!

**The bunny is gone with him. I kind of miss her. The first few days it was like "oh, I gotta feed the bunny"; "oh, I gotta let the bunny out of her cage". Silly me! And everytime I walk into the dining room, I see a big empty space where her cage was. Kind of sad, really. Kind of happy, really. Now I have to find a piece of furniture for that empty place!

**We went to other son's and fiance's last weekend. We never got together over the Christmas holiday. Tried to get there for Easter, but she had to work all weekend. We had a great time! Got to see their 52" flat screen TV , mounted on the wall, with 6 speakers placed around the living room. Geez! Oh, it's nice - huge picture, clear as all getout, sounds like you're in a movie theater, but holy crype -- I could think of hundreds of things I'd rather do with that kind of money. Know what I mean?

**Still in the "Spring cleaning" mode at work. Probably last another 2 weeks. Yuk. What a pain in the arse.

**Tomorrow I plan on cleaning out the spare room that was previously known as "son's room". Spring cleaning and all. Then I can move the many tubs of wool back into the closet that is now stored in the old house. Since I painted that room last Summer, I just have to wash the walls down, clean all the bedding (I need new bedding because the bunny went crazy making holes in the blanket and comforter and tore up 2 pillows! -- isn't she the cutest thing!) and shampoo the carpeting.

**Next is cleaning and painting our bedroom. Double closets there that need to be emptied out.

**Might have to go back to NY to help out with my dad. Looking at the end of April/beginning of May, according to my sister.

**Daughter has made 3 trips to the doctor in the last 3 weeks. One was a result of going to the ER with chest pains. Diagnosed as a panic attack.

**She is still having trouble with her cat, who has diabetes. Goes along for a few weeks just fine, then seems to run into trouble. Always after a visit to the vet, too. Don't know what the hell is going on there! She (daughter, not cat) called tonight to say the cat was acting strange again. She (cat, not daughter) was just at the vet Monday for blood test and check up.

**Stepson will be going back to Seattle soon for work. Now we're on hold until he finds out just when. We will be taking him to the airport -- again.

**I have to track down and clean out 8 super large storage totes that belonged to our friend in the nursing home. Long story. She bought them when she moved to her apartment. Asked us to store them for her. A few months later she told us to go ahead and us them, or give them to anyone who needed them. We did. Now her brother informs me that she will be going into Assisted Living. She told him we have her storage totes that they will need to pack up her apartment. I know I'm going to have to buy about 3 of them to replace the ones that I have given away. She had 11 in all!

**I look out the window and see the Stella d'Oro's are starting to come up. Crap!! I have to thin them out and plant another area. Better get at that next week. I still have to clean up the flower beds around the house and put down new mulch. Might as well get out all the lawn ornaments and landscape lights too.

**Believe it or not, I have been doing a lot of spinning! and still keeping at the knitting. Yea for me!

**Spring has sprung -- and the race is on!!