Dot`sThoughts

Friday, August 08, 2008 7:36 PM
Subject: Friday, August 08, 2008 7:36 PM
Subject: Hoping for the best- Health/Shop/ crochet/ garden


Hoping for a slowing of Arthritis and no more kidney stones so I can finish what I have started.

Here I am trying to decide what to write about today. Think I have finally won the kidney stone battle, at least for the time being. Yesterday, I was even feeling up to going back to the Hospital Wellness Clinic to use most of their exercise equipment, bands and weights. Still can`t do much that requires moving the right arm in a certain out-ward position due to tendinitis with a pinched nerve in the shoulder socket. Dr says it would require an op to release the pinched nerve and remove the pain. But, I am not doing an op, at least not now, unless the pain gets unbearable. I have discovered that taking a muscle reliever before going to bed helps with the pain. I just worry if the relaxer might cause some problem with the sleep apnea and using the C-Flex machine every night for sleep apnea.

I am hoping the arthritis doesn`t cripple my fingers any more crooked than they already are so I can continue building in my wood shop. Can`t hold a regular sewing needle or other small items without dropping them, but can use my tools with their larger sixes. Glad hammers and most other tools come with larger handles. Right now I am still in the process of building a bottom kitchen cupboard. I added the back on yesterday. Checked with the local Curtis Lumber co. and they no longer sell the tops with the gold fleck on white backward. They wanted to sell me new tops for all the kitchen cupboards to make it all match. But, at my age, it doesn`t feel necessary to spend that much money when the old tops are still in good condition. Only problem is you can`t buy just what you need, they only sell tops in 8 foot sections. So, I am already thinking what i can build to use up the rest of the 8 feet. Thought of just buying plastic laminate for the top, but it won`t bend to cover the high back section and i do want the back section to match the style of the other older cupboards. This cupboard will have a kitchen stove sitting between it and the older ones. So, I looked for one that wouldn`t stick out like a sore thumb. I thought of buying the Butcher Block top, as that wouldn`t matter that it didn`t match. But then I got to thinking about how I would need to keep restoring it and with my fingers, that might become harder as the years pass. Had the doors put on my cupboard , but one center edge didn`t properly connect perfectly with the center edge of the other door, so I have removed some screws and filled the tiny holes with wood putty. Next thing to do is to re- add the doors, hopefully hitting properly this time. Guess having double vision isn`t much help as when you are bending your head down working the prisms lined glasses don`t stay lined perfectly. I need to find something to support both doors wide open so i can better line up the doors. Ever look at some of the bought cupboards and notice that some of the doors are not properly lined up. My daughter just bought new kitchen cupboards and that was the first thing we noticed when they put one of the cupboard up on the wall. One door was about 1/8 inch above the other. She was a bit irritated considering the price she paid for them. I don`t think people today are as proud of their work as the older ones were. Maybe it is because most work is done with machines leaving them little head work to feel proud of. I guess since they get the same pay for each hours work , regardless of the results, they don`t worry about perfection. With mine, it was such a speck off that I could have done a little shaving to make them meet right and no one would have noticed I shaved it. But, problem is that every time I looked at it I would know. Every time someone told me how nice it looked, I would know.

I learned years ago to add the smaller enlargers (similar to the pencil enlargers) onto the crochet hooks which makes them large enough around to enable me to hang onto them better. They don`t work so well on knitting needles. I just finished the small crocheted clown to match the colors in the baby afghan I crocheted for the next great granddaughter. My grand daughter decided she wanted to have her daughter on Sept. 4th ,which is my birthday. Isn`t it great having a granddaughter who loves you so much that she wants to have her baby on your birthday? Now, the Dr agreed to do the op then, but lets see if mother nature gets in the way causing her to have the baby earlier. Since she is expecting the first week of Sept., I worry that she might be disappointed and it might come earlier. Will just have to wait and see. Either way, I am happy she was thinking of me. Will know more after her apt. with the Dr on Monday. I had one of my daughters on my older sister`s birthday. She has 4 boys and would have loved to have had a daughter. They just both celebrated their birthdays on July 27th.
As long as the new great granddaughter is born healthy, that is what realy counts.

I can hear the music from the ice cream truck going down our road. With all the rain every day, he can`t be doing very good business this past week. His music has me thinking of ice cream. I have Banana Split and Black Raspberry in my freezer. I finished the Maple Walnut a couple days ago. The root beer is also gone. I liked adding that to a mug of root beer. As close to the root beer floats i loved as a child. I remember after graduation, when I started working at the hospital, I would allow myself a Root Beer float on pay day every week. OH, How I looked forward to that one treat. Sometimes I splurged further and bought a Banana Split, with the banana, the three kinds of ice cream, the three types of toppings and the nuts sprinkled over the top and all topped with a cherry. My mouth waters just thinking of those delicious banana splits. I sometimes still make them at home, but not as often as I did when I was making them for Walt. Maybe i will close this off and treat myself to a ice cream soda. Glad i don`t get this hankering very often or it would undo all my hard exercise work at the clinic.
Ha Haa.
I should be out picking more string beans, but hard to do that in the rain. If I don`t pick them soon they will get too big. Have three large cucumbers that will also need to be picked in the next few days before they get so large they are filled with more seeds. I know there will be more ripe tomatoes waiting to be picked as they were almost ripe yesterday. Gave away more lettuce yesterday as it is growing faster than I can eat it. Have a lot of large peppers to take care of soon. I freeze a lot of them. Still have three more in the freezer from last Sept to use up. Have some of this years string beans already in the freezer. Still have a few canned jars left from last summers crop. Living alone, i don`t use them up as fast as I used to. Usually I have so much zucchini that I give lots away. This year that is the only thing not doing so well. The heavy rain seems to be knocking the blossoms off to early.

Well, I didn`t tell you, but I did stop and make the root beer with ice cream float and must admit that it sure tastes good.
Has stopped raining, so i should go check on the garden boxes.
So, I`m off before the rain starts again.


Since I haven`t posted this yet I will add what I picked from my garden earth boxes a few minutes ago.
I picked a few green string beans, a lot of yellow string beans, some lettuce, 3 large cucumbers, 7 large peppers, 7 large tomatoes and some cherry tomatoes. Glad I took out the large strainer my youngest sister gave me years ago as it was so overfilled that the peppers and cucumbers were just balancing on top of all the rest. I was afraid I would dump off some before I managed to get them into the house. My sisters husband used to have a garden and he often needed a larger container to carry in his veggies. That is why she thought I might also like owning one. He had a normal ground garden with little space and still did well. She lost him 4 years ago from an accident -falling from a ladder that was balancing on the tree in their back yard at the camp where they lived. My older sister lost her husband 2 years ago. Been 6 empty years since I lost Walt. I have one sister still married and he was in the worst shape having by-pass surgery over 8 years ago. I worry the most about my only brother who just was told he had bone cancer in quite a few places. Still waiting to see what the Dr plans on doing next. I feel he has gone through enough. Removing the gland , he was able to beat cancer in his throat, lost the battle with his leg along with kidney stones and other problems, and now this. I do a lot of praying. He is the only brother we have left. One of my younger sisters has emphysema and just won the battle of double pneumonia and I also worry about her. Guess we all have people we worry about. Keeps us from thinking too much about our own problems. There is always some much worse off than we are. So, I do feel lucky that so far my problems are some I can live with.

Hoping for a slowing of Arthritis and no more kidney stones so I can finish what I have started.

Here I am trying to decide what to write about today. Think I have finally won the kidney stone battle, at least for the time being. Yesterday, I was even feeling up to going back to the Hospital Wellness Clinic to use most of their exercise equipment, bands and weights. Still can`t do much that requires moving the right arm in a certain out-ward position due to tendinitis with a pinched nerve in the shoulder socket. Dr says it would require an op to release the pinched nerve and remove the pain. But, I am not doing an op, at least not now, unless the pain gets unbearable. I have discovered that taking a muscle reliever before going to bed helps with the pain. I just worry if the relaxer might cause some problem with the sleep apnea and using the C-Flex machine every night for sleep apnea.

I am hoping the arthritis doesn`t cripple my fingers any more crooked than they already are so I can continue building in my wood shop. Can`t hold a regular sewing needle or other small items without dropping them, but can use my tools with their larger sixes. Glad hammers and most other tools come with larger handles. Right now I am still in the process of building a bottom kitchen cupboard. I added the back on yesterday. Checked with the local Curtis Lumber co. and they no longer sell the tops with the gold fleck on white backward. They wanted to sell me new tops for all the kitchen cupboards to make it all match. But, at my age, it doesn`t feel necessary to spend that much money when the old tops are still in good condition. Only problem is you can`t buy just what you need, they only sell tops in 8 foot sections. So, I am already thinking what i can build to use up the reat of the feet. Thought of just buying plastic laminate for the top, but it won`t bend to cover the high back section and i do want the back section to match the style of the other older cupboards. This cupboard will have a kitchen stove sitting between it and the older ones. So, I looked for one that wouldn`t stick out like a sore thumb. I thought of buying the Butcher Block top, as that wouldn`t matter that it didn`t match. But then I got to thinking about how I would need to keep restoring it and with my fingers, that might become harder as the years pass. Had the doors put on my cupboard , but one center edge didn`t properly connect perfectly with the center edge of the other door, so I have removed some screws and filled the tiny holes with wood putty. Next thing to do is to re- add the doors, hopefully hitting properly this time. Guess having double vision isn`t much help as when you are bending your head down working the prisms lined glasses don`t stay lined perfectly. I need to find something to support both doors wide open so i can better line up the doors. Ever look at some of the bought cupboards and notice that some of the doors are not properly lined up. My daughter just bought new kitchen cupboards and that was the first thing we noticed when they put one ot the cupboard up on the wall. One door was about 1/8 inch above the other. She was a bit irritated concidering the price she paid for them. I don`t think people today are as proud of their work as the older ones were. Maybe it is because most work is done with machines leaving them little head work to feel proud of. I guess since they get the same pay for each hours work , regardless of the results, they don`t worry about perfection. With mine, it was such a speck off that I could have done a little shaving to make them meet right and no one would have noticed I shaved it. But, problem is that every time I looked at it I would know. Every time someone told me how nice it looked, I would know.

I learned years ago to add the smaller enlargers (similar to the pencil enlargers) onto the crochet hooks which makes them large enough around to enable me to hang onto them better. They don`t work so well on knitting needles. I just finished the small crocheted clown to match the colors in the baby afghan I crocheted for the next great granddaughter. My grand daughter decided she wanted to have her daughter on Sept. 4th ,which is my birthday. Isn`t it great having a granddaughter who loves you so much that she wants to have her baby on your birthday? Now, the Dr agreed to do the op then, but lets see if mother nature gets in the way causing her to have the baby earlier. Since she is expecting the first week of Sept., I worry that she might be disappointed and it might come earlier. Will just have to wait and see. Either way, I am happy she was thinking of me. Will know more after her apt. with the Dr on Monday. I had one of my daughters on my older sister`s birthday. She has 4 boys and would have loved to have had a daughter. They just both celebrated their birthdays on July 27th.
As long as the new great granddaughter is born healthy, that is what realy counts.

I can hear the music from the ice cream truck going down our road. With all the rain every day, he can`t be doing very good business this past week. His music has me thinking of ice cream. I have Banana Split and Black Raspberry in my freezer. I finished the Maple Walnut a couple days ago. The root beer is also gone. I liked adding that to a mug of root beer. As close to the root beer floats i loved as a child. I remember after graduation, when I started working at the hospital, I would allow myself a Root Beer float on pay day every week. OH, How I looked forward to that one treat. Sometimes I splurged further and bought a Banana Split, with the banana, the three kinds of ice cream, the three types of toppings and the nuts sprinkled over the top and all topped with a cherry. My mouth waters just thinking of those delicious banana splits. I sometimes still make them at home, but not as often as I did when I was making them for Walt. Maybe i will close this off and treat myself to a ice cream soda. Glad i don`t get this hankering very often or it would undo all my hard exercise work at the clinic.
Ha Ha.
I should be out picking more string beans, but hard to do that in the rain. If I don`t pick them soon they will get too big. Have three large cucumbers that will also need to be picked in the next few days before they get so large they are filled with more seeds. I know there will be more ripe tomatoes waiting to be picked as they were almost ripe yesterday. Gave away more lettuce yesterday as it is growing faster than I can eat it. Have a lot of large peppers to take care of soon. I freeze a lot of them. Still have three more in the freezer from last Sept to use up. Have some of this years string beans already in the freezer. Still have a few canned jars left from last summers crop. Living alone, i don`t use them up as fast as I used to. Usually I have so much zucchini that i give lots away. This year that is the only thing not doing so well. The heavy rain seems to be knocking the blossoms off to early.

Well, I didn`t tell you, but I did stop and make the root beer with ice cream float and must admit that it sure tastes good.
Has stopped raining, so i should go check on the garden boxes.
So, I`m off before the rain starts again.


Since I haven`t posted this yet I will add what i picked from my garden earth boxes.
I picked a few green string beans, a lot of yellow string beans, some lettus, 3 large cucumbers, 7 large peppers, 7 large tomatoes and some cherry tomatoes. Glad I took out the large strainer my youngest sister gave me years ago as it was so overfilled that the peppers and cucumbers were just balancing on top of all the rest. I was afraid I would dump off some before I managed to get them into the house. My sisters husband used to have a garden and he often needed a larger container to carry in his veggies. That is why she thought I might also like owning one. He had a normal ground garden with little space and still did well. She lost him 4 years ago from an accident -falling from a ladder that was balancing on the tree in their back yard at the camp where they lived. My older sister lost her husband 2 years ago. Been 6 empty years since I lost Walt. I have one sister still married and he was in the worst shape having by-pass surgery over 8 years ago. I worry the most about my only brother who just was told he had bone cancer in quite a few places. Still waiting to see what the Dr plans on doing next. I feel he has gone through enough. Removing the gland , he was able to beat cancer in his throat, lost the battle with his leg along with kidney stones and other problems, and now this. I do a lot of praying. He is the only brother we have left. One of my younger sisters has emphysema and just won the battle of double pneumonia and I also worry about her. Guess we all have people we worry about. Keeps us from thinking too much about our own problems. There is always some much worse off than we are. So, I do feel lucky that so far my problems are some I can live with.