6 Quirks

I really hate lists. Maybe that's a quirk (?) Anyway, here's my list:

1. I love to wear toe socks, collect weapons, buckles and harmonicas. Ok, so those are all quirks, but I’m including them all as one.

2. I probably have a bigger stuffed animal collection than any of my kids or grandkids.

3. The ringtone on my phone is the theme song from “Inspector Gadget.” It’s very typical of my favorite toys. I like all gadgets. If it’s electronic, sharp or useful for survival, I like it. You can never have too many ways to make light or start fire. You wouldn’t believe how many light sticks I have in a drawer.

4. You can never have too many pockets. My favorite outfit would be my cargo pants (6 pockets), fishing shirt (4 pockets), my tactical vest (I lost count of how many pockets it has) and a fanny pack. Fill those with all my gadgets and I’m in heaven.

5. I’m not neat, but I am orderly. Right, probably best described as OCD. When I wash dishes (if ever), I put all the spoons, plates, cups etc together by group. I really need a chair and a tv. When I work on my computer, I have about 5 different windows open and if they are not in the right order on the taskbar at the bottom, I close them all and open them in the right order.

6. I am not as germophobic as some people, but I keep hand sanitizer with me most of the time. If I touch something someone else touches I am antsy till I can wash my hands.

I just gathered up my flashlights from the grandkids who were playing with them. Now I need some hand sanitizer.

Twist

Happy Birthday, Nene!

I don't usually write my memories about my family like everyone else does. Mainly because my brain doesn't seem to work and remember anything long enough to write it down. I'm going to try and do better this year. So now I'm one for one.

When I was in elementary school, a cute little blonde girl moved in next to us. I've always been attracted to cute little blonde girls, so she and I used to play together. At least until Inklings and Nene teased me half to death about liking her. Cindy, said cute little blonde girl, and Nene were friends and played together at our house, but I was so traumatized by then that I would hide anywhere so they wouldn't find me, which of course encouraged them to look for me. Once I hid in the cupboard with the pots and pans.

Nene and Inklings had a secret club, which of course, Sticks and I knew about. I thought they called it the Secret Sword Club and had tiny swords made of stick pins. The clubhouse was under the stairs where our hamster used to hide when he got out of his cage.

I'm sure there's a million other memories floating in my cerebral limbo, but I felt that Nene and I grew closest when we were the only siblings living in this state. We had to travel 320 miles to her house on our way to the temple, but I looked forward to the visits. Later she moved about the same distance to the east and we visited there for a variety of reasons. Now that she's in Ireland I just need to figure out a good way to get there for a visit, too.

All my sisters seem to have gotten the beauty and talent. I got the short end of that gene pool, but I'm proud to call Nene my beautiful, beloved sister.

Happy Birthday,

Twist

Yup, Me and Daniel Boone

Here in Kentucky we like to go hiking at Christmas time. This year our first trek was to Pilot Knob, near Clay City Kentucky. This spot is famous because Daniel Boone climbed to the top when he first arrived in that area. That was his first view of the Bluegrass. The view from the top covers several hundred square miles. We could see buildings in the city we left about 30 miles away.

The hike to Pilot Knob is about 1.5 miles to the top. Most of the hike is climbing up. The temperature was below 30 most of the time. We were dressed warmly, but it was windy at the top where we stopped for lunch, which fortunately, consisted of hot chocolate. My heart was sure pounding hard on the hike up, but the return trip down made up for it.

Since I could see several cell phone towers, I called my friend Jerry to let him know where in the world I was today. On the way up we had some sleet falling, but on the way back to the car it turned to rain, which was unfortunate because the interstate overpasses started icing up causing multiple wrecks, none of which involved us.

We hiked to a very historic, beautiful spot and got home safely in bad weather. All in all a good day.

Merry Christmas!

Twist

Happy Holidays

Dog gone it, but I like this song I found. I guess it's the survivalist in me. Here are the lyrics and a link to hear the song.

http://www.seeqpod.com/search/?plid=81f625b5dc

Chipmunks Roasting On An Open Fire
By Bob Rivers


Chipmunks roasting on an open fireHot sauce dripping from their toes
Yuletide squirrels fresh filleted by the choir
They poked hot skewers through their nose
Everybody knows some pepper and a garlic clove
Help to make them seasoned right
Tiny rats with a crisp golden coat
Will really hit the spot tonight

And now when Santa sees his tray
There'll be some homemade chipmunk jerky for his sleigh
And every hungry child is gonna spy
To see if chipmunks really sing when they fry
And so I'm brushing on some honey glaze
To keep them crisp and juicy too
Let's hope they get served many times many ways
Tasty Chipmunks; good food

And so I'm offering some recipes
From chipmunk pie to chipmunk stew
I'm not really sad that it ended this way
Furry chipmunks to you?

Oy Vey to Oh, Boy!

As I left off last time I was due for a root canal. Monday was the scheduled appointment, and believe you me, I was early. My blood pressure was a little high as I went into the office. They thought I was nervous about being there. On the contrary, I was thrilled to be there to fix my tooth, but you'd think they'd factor in all the ibuprofen I was taking and the pain. Now, had I known how the procedure would go, I might have been more anxious. Once they numbed me up I was doing ok, until they put a rubber patch over my tooth and mouth and stuck a big rubber stopper in my mouth to bite on. That arrangement makes it pretty hard to swallow, which really did make me anxious. It's probably a good thing that they didn't monitor my blood pressure during the root canal.

I've been quite lucky all my life, the oral surgeon says it's because some of my teeth have 3 roots instead of two....like the one that needed the root canal. As he went into the nerve of each root, it was clear that the novocaine didn't help much in the root. I nearly came off the chair 3 times as he worked. Fortunately, after that, the rest was comparatively easy.

When I got home afterwards, I quickly discovered that not only does novocaine wear off too fast, but that ibuprofen doesn't work very fast. I wandered around the house holding an icepack to my jaw, moaning to myself and Laura, desperately waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in. Laura and her dog, Orion, were both freaking out and Laura had to go to work before I was doing better.

Doing better only meant that the tooth didn't hurt much anymore. In the process, it seems I picked up shigellosis from my granddaughter, Tamra. This is a kid's disease, but it has high fever, vomiting and diahrrea as it's symptoms, which kept up for over 24 hours. Monday and Tuesday I was recovering from the root canal, Wednesday I went to San Antonio for training till Friday. I lost 6 pounds and still do not have much appetite. Tamra's mother informed me that shigellosis will stay around for 4-6 weeks if you don't get major antibiotics. I had ampicillin for my abcessed tooth, but don't think it was strong enough to clear up the shigellosis.

Friday and Saturday we dealt with Laura and Niels' wedding and reception, which all went well. Tomorrow I'll call the doctor to see if I need another round of antibiotics.

Let's see. My tooth is fixed. The pain is gone. My daughter got married. I lost 6 lbs and don't want to eat a lot now.

I know there's a down side in here somewhere.....

Twist

Oy Vey!

Oy vey is a common phrase among jewish people. It means oh pain. That pretty much sums up my past week. I went to Fort Worth Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for training at work. I started having a tooth pain Monday or Tuesday and it got progessively worse. I called my dentist on Wednesday, but they were not open. Thursday morning I finally got the office and told them I thought I had an abcessed tooth. I was hoping to get a prescription of antibiotics faxed to me where I could start on the regimen. They told me they could see me at 8am Friday. Since I probably couldn't have filled a prescription anyway, I set up that appointment. The only way I made it home from Fort Worth was to take a drink of water about every minute or so. For some reason it made the pain ease up.

Friday the dentist's assistant xrayed my teeth and they decided I needed a root canal. I went straight from the dentist's office to the oral surgeon, but they were booked until Tuesday. They did promise to work me in if possible. Friday came and went without getting worked in. The pain on Friday was easily the most intense pain I've ever had in my life. I started the antibiotics and darvocet pain killer, but didn't notice much difference.

Saturday, the sharp pains were gone, but then it became an intense ache whenever pain medication wore off. The only thing that seems to help is to take 3 or 4 ibuprofen. I can only hope that they can work me in on Monday. If not, I have an appointment scheduled for Tuesday before taking off again for San Antonio on Wednesday.

I have a feeling it's going to be another long week.

Twist

When Garage Sales Go Bad

We had a garage sale today. We've been building up, saving up for it for about a month now. Chris & Tandy had a lot of things stacking up since they got married, at their house, our house and their storage. We sold quite a few things. Our only advertising that most people saw were two boxes with our address on them. We strategically placed them at two of the most popular corners of our area. The results were fantastic. Lots of stuff got bought up.

A blog or so ago, I wrote about survival kit stuff, in particular, how to start a fire. I asked Sticks and others what their favorite odd method is of starting fires. No you may think I just got off track, but in actuallity, what I did was discover a way to make a fire. You put a garage sale sign box out on the corner with a bottle of water inside. The sun's rays shine through the water and are magnified enough to set the box on fire. Fortunately, a good samaritan passing by saw the smoke and used some of the water in the bottles to put the fire out, then let us know about it.

I don't think I can carry a cardboard box and 3 liter bottle of water around to light a fire in case of emergencies, but it is sure a principle I can adapt.

Do you smell smoke?......

Twist