Sniffles

I don't feel very good. I have a cold. It started yesterday with a scratchy throat from sinus drainage. Now I am all stopped up and coughing. My head hurts. I ache all over. I can't take anything because of the medications I am on for high blood pressure. So I have to suffer. I'm not running a fever so I know I'm not contagious. I don't like being sick.

I could have used a 'snow day' today from the library. We were closed on Wednesday because of the weather, closed Thursday because it was Thursday, and open today. I really didn't feel like going in but being the end of the month and I am the treasurer, I needed to wrap the month up financially. I just didn't get a lot done otherwise. I am so far behind on proofing court cases. There are twelve boxes that are waiting for me. Plus I need to start working on the database again. But there is the inventory to finish and some books to get on the shelves and other things that need to be filed in to the correct folders. It's a never ending job. And, of course, I needed to do some research queries. I'm not complaining, though, I really like all that I do at the library. I just wish sometimes that I wasn't quite so overwhelmed.

I think I am going to head off to bed. I think I need some rest.

Snow Days

Up until I retired, snow days were a blessing. That meant that I wouldn't have to get out and travel the roads, worry about traffic, walking across an icy/snowy parking lot, or that the students wouldn't be stranded on a bus in the cold. It was always better to be safe than sorry. But there were many times when we school should have closed but didn't. One time I believe Bolivar was the only school in southwest Missouri to be in session. It's hard for teachers and students when only a few are able to make it in. As a teacher, you didn't want to introduce a new skill because everyone wasn't there to learn it. You had to make sure you had plenty of activities to keep the students busy. And students didn't want to concentrate because of worries of their own, will the bus get me home safely, will my parents be able to make it home, etc. Now a snow day is just another day. I don't have to worry about getting out. I have no commitments that require driving in this type of weather, usually. Except this week it is my turn to make sure the PCCSM Clothing Center is staffed. We are only open on Mondays and Wednesdays. Yesterday we were going to close at noon but people kept coming in. We did leave finally a little after two. The sleet had already started falling, although lightly at the time. I am keeping it closed tomorrow. That's my choice. Parking is not good. The sidewalks will be icy. The roads dangerous. I would feel terrible if one of the volunteers, or one of our clients, were to get hurt.

I like to bake on days like this. I had plans to make cinnamon rolls but when I checked the flour jar realized that I probably wouldn't have enough flour. So I postponed that idea. I do have a brownie mix in the pantry so I think I'll do that. I've got some vanilla ice cream and hot fudge topping so a brownie sundae sounds pretty good for dessert tonight. I'll ask Charles to get a bag of flour when he "makes his rounds" in the morning.

This afternoon I finally took apart an afghan I had started as a Christmas present to my mom the fall before she died. It was actually the first time I've touched it since then. I don't know what I will use the yarn for, possibly a different afghan pattern or perhaps some prayer shawls. I have several skeins in different shades of purple, Mom's favorite color.

My new dryer was supposed to come in today. I'm sure the road conditions kept the truck from making it to Bolivar. I'm in no hurry for it and I sure don't want to be a burden on the delivery man who will be delivering it to the house. I'm looking forward to having a matching washer and dryer again and especially not having to bend over to pull things out of the dryer! Now if I could just get my utility room cabinet installed. It's been in the basement for at least 5 years!

Everybody stay safe and warm.

Bunko, and other things

Thursday night I learned how to play Bunko. I was asked if I would like to be a substitute for the evening. I had missed the first night of play, so I said yes. Mostly because I would get to see some of my teacher friends. I knew nothing about the game other than it takes twelve people to play. I had so much fun. Just getting to see friends and laugh and eat and laugh and play and just have a really good time! I was asked if I would like to become a permanent member of the group but declined because it would mean I would have to host a game night (prepare the meal, buy prizes, etc.). I really wouldn't mind, but with all the other things I have going on I just didn't see how I could do another thing. I did agree to put my name on the sub list so if a regular member couldn't attend, I would. I hope someone won't be able to attend next month!

This morning Charles had to be at the Lodge by 6 to start cooking pancakes and sausage for their fund raiser breakfast. A group of us from the library met there for breakfast and, boy, was it good--especially watching Charles cook! He has to prepare a meal for Tuesday night. I think it's going to be beans and cornbread again. That went over pretty well last time. I offered to make some cookies but he said I didn't have to. Thanks, honey! In order to be sure that he got up in time, we had to set the alarm. I don't like having to get up so early. And I am tired.

It's always fun to help researchers at the library. I enjoy working on the queries we get via email. I spent today trying to answer a couple of questions that came in yesterday. In searching through records I found new information on my own family! And reading through the newspapers with their community news is always a treat. Lots of information about what was going on at the time and lots of family information. One of the things I was looking for was the name of the parents of a certain person. It's like a scavenger hunt. You get one clue which leads you to another clue until you find the treasure. With genealogy the key is to be sure to be able to prove what you've found. I found info on the internet but had to have proof that it was indeed who I was looking for. A search through census records was all it took. I am sure that the person who sent the query will be excited to see what all I found for him. Now, if I could only find the name of my 3rd great grandparents Campbell.

Looks like we may have some winter weather coming. I have the PCCSM Clothing Center next week. If school is cancelled the center is closed. I haven't decided if I want that to happen or not.

Lazy

I am confessing that I am lazy. I would rather sit and watch TV or read or be on the computer than working. That includes cleaning, laundry and cooking. I've never been much of a housekeeper. I blame that on the fact that when I was growing up I had to clean, wash dishes, hang out the wash, etc. I had no help. It was my responsibility and I had to have it done by the time my parents got home from work. I decided that when I grew up and had a house of my own that I wouldn't care what it looked like. I'd clean when I wanted to and not before. How ashamed of myself I am now. I have piles and stacks of things everywhere. I can't remember the last time I dusted. I'm almost out of clean clothes. I really want to do better but it just doesn't seem to happen. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my days "off" meaning that the library is closed and the last two weeks of the month I don't have things to do on the T days. So what did I do today? Watched the inaugration from the time I got up until it was over this afternoon. Now why couldn't I have put a load of clothes in the washer? Or run the dust mop? Or pick up the stack of papers beside my chair? Because I am lazy!

Happy Birthday, Mom

Today my mom would have been 81 years old. This is her high school senior picture, 1945. It's still hard to think of her on special days without my heart breaking. I miss her so much. But if she were still alive, I don't know if she would even know who I was, the dementia was getting worse all the time. Her dear friend, Elaine, wore one of Mom's shirts to church. She said she did in honor of Mom's birthday. How sweet of her to want to remember her friend, especially today. This was "Sanctity of Human Life" Sunday at church. The Sunday School lesson was about honoring all lives. So many times this Sunday is focused on the killing of unborn babies, but our lesson went on to include all humans--from the womb to the tomb. And in the discussion of the lesson, we talked about life support systems, feeding tubes and the removal of such from critically or terminally ill patients. It made me question the decision not to have Mom put on life support to see if she would recover. The doctor had told me that she would probably not recover and Mom had said the night before she wanted to die--but today for a few minutes I felt like I took her life. Thanks to the members of the Sunday School class, they helped me see that it was God's will and that I was simply following her request. It's still hard and especially today when I could have been with her helping her celebrate her birthday. I guess, though, celebrating with Jesus is better.

I love my Sunday School class. I love being the leader of the group. I have learned so much from them--I call them my Sages. They know the Bible so much better than I do, yet they allow me to "lead" the study each Sunday. They are such a blessing to me. We have some really good discussions and I hardly ever can get us through the whole lesson.

What a wonderful week ahead. No meetings! No appointments! It's a free week! (Other than the library.) Yeah!

Snow

It was snowing this morning when I got up. It was pretty to watch. And they promised we wouldn't get too much. The roads weren't bad by the time I got out at 10 to go to the library. It was fun to sit upstairs at my desk and watch the snow fall all around the square. The sun was out before we closed and the roads were even in better shape--for a while anyway. I did hit a slick spot at the 4 way stop on the east side of the square. At least I was going slow enough and there was no one in front of me. I was able to get over on the part that still had snow and was able to stop with really no problem. I've had my snow now so spring can come. It is supposed to be much warmer tomorrow.

Our furnace was having trouble holding the temperature last night. It was about 4 degrees cooler than the setting on the thermostat. We have a call in to the serviceman but he didn't come today. When we got home, though, the house was warm and the furnace was cycling on and off. Don't know what will happen tonight.

I ordered a new clothes dryer today. I've been wanting to get one to match my washer and I decided that as soon as I cashed in a CD that was what I would use the money for. It will be a couple of weeks before it gets here which is okay since the dryer I have works fine. But it will be nice to have a matching set--and not to have to bend over to get the clothes out of the dryer. Now I just have to sell the dryer I have. Rose (owner of the store where I ordered the dryer) said that they could sell it for me. So that is probably what I will do, just let them take it back when they deliver the new one. I am excited. Broke, but excited!

It's inventory time at the library. I have worked hard for the last three years trying to get it worked up so that it wouldn't take too long to conduct. But--I had two different databases and the one I ran off wasn't the one I had prepared for last year. So it's been like a hunting expedition to try to find all the books. That's just on the main floor. There's also the archives floor inventory, actually two separate inventories there. One for the open shelves and one for the closed shelves. The closed shelves inventory is cut and dry--no problems there. It's the open shelves that gives me a pain. I had two separate databases there too and of course I printed off the wrong one. I am deleting all extra inventories when we get finished. Next year will be better!

Tomorrow I have a DAR meeting. I've not been to any since last June. But tomorrow I am to give the "Gift of the Past". Problem is I don't know what I want to take. I have three things that I am thinking about--a glass bottle I bought my mom when I was a young girl, a box of various kinds of gum (from the 30's and 40's) that belonged to my grandmother, or the coconut that my father sent to his mother while serving in WWII. Which one? I have to make a decision.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Brr! I don't like cold weather. At least there is no snow, or ice, to deal with. That's a plus. I woke up this morning to Charles saying that the well had frozen. No water pressure--oh, no! But he was already taking care of the situation and by the time I finally got up the coffee was brewing and things were back to normal. Yeah! I am so thankful that our pipes are hidden deep in the ground so we don't have to worry about frozen pipes. I can remember the days of the trailer where we had to wrap the pipes with heat tape and then hope the electricity didn't go out. And then, if it was cold enough, the pipes would freeze inside the house, regardless of how warm it was. I am glad I have a husband who is wise and plans ahead. When we moved to the hill, he put the water pipes in quite deep and after building the house, frozen pipes are a thing of the past. The light is back on in the well house and the water is running. What more could I ask?

I don't like this cold weather. I have to wear a coat. I don't like to wear a coat. I feel twice as big as I am when I have a coat on. So people see this big red tomato walking down the street. I love red so the last coat I bought is red. So just envision this big tomato with legs walking in front of you. Quite a site! If I could stay home it would be better. But I have a luncheon meeting today and since I am secretary of the group I need to go. At least I get to eat at a really neat place. We are meeting at Bogart's. It's a sandwich shop that has the best sandwiches and salads. I may have to try the soup today, though.

Stay warm. It could be worse.

What a wonderful day!

This has been a fabulous day and tonight is going to be just as good! While I did spend quite a bit of time with the computer--especially the World of Goo, I did get a few things accomplished. The kitchen looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. It's been quite a while since everything has been put away and the counter cleaned off. It probably won't stay that way long but it looks good right now. Charles and I had a rather relaxing day. He has a lodge meeting tonight so that means I get a HOME ALONE NIGHT! Whoopee! We made some hamburger stew for him to take to the meeting. (He is in charge of eats for the guys.) I also made a pineapple upside down cake and a big pan of cornbread. I've got chicken in the grill for me right now. I'm being a good girl and fixing a salad for supper. After I eat I plan on taking a nice hot shower and get in my jammies! I haven't had a night (or day) like this for a long time. I love my grill. I put my boneless chicken tenders on it while they are still frozen, sprinkle with seasoning and cook. Boy, they are good, still juicy, not dried out. They taste really good on a bed of lettuce with feta cheese. Yum, yum.

A Day at Home

For the first time in 13 days I don't have a commitment that will make me leave the house! There is so much I could be doing around the house, yet here I sit at the computer. I've done my jigsaw puzzle, gone through Craigslist, and searched for a new printer. I've yet to "play" a game--although that is on the horizon.

I need a new printer for my laptop. After fighting with my little printer Sunday afternoon trying to print cards for the clothes closet I decided that I would spend my "jar money" on a new printer. I like the little printer. It makes it easy to tote along with me when I know I will need to print something. But at the library I can print directly to the copy machine so I don't need it there. So now I just have to decide what kind of printer I want. Of course I will stay with HP because I really like the quality of their stuff. My laptop is HP and the printer for the desktop is HP. We've tried others but HP works the best for us. I would like to get another mobile printer but they are over $200 so that is out. I don't need a great big one. I thought about maybe an all-in-one, but then again, I already have a scanner. But if I got one it would clear up a space on my desk. Hummmm. Just gonna have to think a little bit longer.

Okay, the World of Goo is calling me.

The World of Goo

Okay, I'm a computer game addict. I confess. I spend too much time at the computer playing games when I should be up doing stuff around the house. I love doing jigsaw puzzles and Valary introduced me to jigzone.com so I do at least one puzzle a day. Then, there's Mahjong Solitare and Pyramids in my favorites list. I bought and downloaded Chuzzle. Zuma and Peggle were added. Now, it's the World of Goo. I'm just learning how to play it. But so far I'm having fun, and isn't that what it's all about anyway? I am trying to limit myself to one hour a day for games and that is all. So far I'm not having much luck!

$135.69

My change jar was finally full. Three or four years ago Valary gave me this really neat jar that I decided to use as a "loose change" jar. I would put change in it whenever I had so much in my purse that it was almost too heavy to carry. This week I finally got it filled. After a trip to Wal-Mart to buy coin wrappers, it was time to see just how much change I had. When the jar was a little over half full I had counted it. There was around $60 in it then so I knew that I should have over a hundred dollars. When I got it all wrapped there was $125.50 that I will take to the bank. There weren't enough coins left to make another roll so I put $10.19 back in the jar. That included the three Sacajawea dollars and the Susan B. Anthony dollar. I'll just keep saving those. Now I have some "mad" money to spend on whatever I want. I just don't know what that will be yet. I will probably just end up putting it in the checking account to be used for some needed item--like help pay for a couple of loads of gravel for the driveway.

This has been a long week. There has been something every day that I was committed to do. I had meetings the last three nights so wasn't home before 9. I have definitely enjoyed being at home tonight. Yesterday was one of those really long days. I had a meeting at 9 AM and one at 7 PM. In between I was going to get some work done at the library. About 2:00 I got a call from my cousin that my aunt had passed out, he couldn't revive her so he had called the ambulance to take her to the hospital. I am her power of attorney so I needed to be at the ER when the ambulance got there. I spent the next 2 1/2 hours sitting in the waiting room--after seeing her for a few minutes. I told my cousin that I was going back to the library and to call me if and when they found out what had caused the fainting spell. Any and all tests they did were negative and they decided that she was dehydrated, put a couple of bags of fluid in her and sent her home. I talked with her about 9:30 and she was feeling better. Thank goodness! I'm glad this week is just about over. All on my schedule tomorrow is working at the library, doing the grocery shopping, and laundry. Next week is not quite so busy--only two meetings, not three!

Back on--partially

Finally! The new modem came today and we can get on the internet again--on the desktop. When trying to go through the wireless router it wouldn't work. So I guess that's the next thing we buy--a new router. At least we have access to the internet at home again and I don't have to go to the library to check email. I'm really not tech savvy, so I consider it a wonder that I was able to get the modem hooked up right and to work. When we first got the wireless router I couldn't get it to work and had to have someone come out and set it up for me. I'll probably have to do that again! It's sad that we have become so dependent on technology. I missed emailing. Then it hit me last night that I could have been calling the people I email. Or I could have written letters to them and used snail mail. But it just didn't cross my mind until last night that I could connect with them in other ways. So, for all of you who read this, I have been thinking about you, just didn't think I had any way of making contact.

The new year has started off very busy. I had my mammogram this morning, early. Then it was to the PCCSM center to work up clothes and get ready for reopening next week. This afternoon I worked at the library and then had a PCGS board meeting at 5. Every day this week is just as busy. It's fixing a dessert and serving at an associational meeting tomorrow, a retired teachers executive board meeting Wednesday evening, PCCSM board meeting Thursday morning and PCGS monthly meeting Thursday night. It has started again--never a day that I don't have something to do or some place I have to go. But that's what keeps me "young". I was actually ready to get going again. I enjoyed the time off, with both the center and the library closed. There were several days where I didn't go anywhere, even staying in my jamies until almost noon a couple of days. But I'm not one to stay home for very long. I need to be out and about and with other people.

Now I'm off to get caught up on my jigzone puzzles....