Black Friday

Saturday November 26, 2011

 

Lots of folks do some heavy duty shopping on Black Friday but not us.
The weather was spectacular – nearly 80 degrees.
Fabulous any time but especially amazing for Late November.

Definitely time to play outside.

 

First a little Backgammon for two at the picnic table

 

and one reader on a swing

 

 

 

Some barnyard basketball,
Good defense didn’t help.  She beat him anyway!

 

 

A little kitty love from a local cat
who lives down the road but likes to
make the rounds in the barn.

 

Then some croquet

already he’s sending her away – what a meanie

Check out the “turf” in this croquet field

 

 

 

It’s a close game

but the victor and runner up

 

Now to tell the whole truth,
We played 4 games.
David won two and came in 3rd twice
I won two and came in 3rd twice
and Carrie was runner up in all 4.

 

A little more reading on the porch swing
as the sun goes down

 

 

Dinner time – mmmm the second best part of
Thanksgiving,  the left overs

 

 

Some after dinner relaxing at the piano

 

and a little more reading

 

SORRY…says Carrie
as she skunks us by winning THREE GAMES in a row!
David looks fairly pleased about it. Hmmmmm  
We’re a game group as you can see.
I know, we’re a “sorry” group too. J

 

 

Ever played Mystery Mansion?  

 

Well it takes at least 3 people but I wanted to get a blog post done

 

so Carrie and David recruited Gracie Goose and Nellie the Polar Bear. 

 

 

Looked like Gracie might win but Carrie pulled it out in the end. 

 

 

It was a wonderful day, no shopping required!

Thanksgiving at the farm

Friday November 25, 2011



First we had to make the feast on this National Gluttony Day.  : - )











When was the last last time you actually saw someone using a can opener like this??






Everybody had a part to play.

Preparation was definitely a family affair.

We had it on the table by 2:00!

We have a special family grace that
we sing at each meal.
It starts out with the words
”We give thanks…..”
So it is very appropriate on Thanksgiving Day.

After we’d gone around the table multiple
times sharing specific things we were thankful
for this year, and then eating more than we should have

……no football or naps just

And an all too early but lovely sunset

And then of course you do have to clean up the mess

before you can make the real fresh whipped cream

and eat the PIE

We closed out the day with a trivia tournament!

Hope you all had as great a
Thanksgiving
as we did!!

A Lot to be Thankful For

Thursday November 24, 2011

 

Well I’ll get the grouching out of the way first.  I really don’t like the short shrift Thanksgiving is now getting as the mass advertising corporate dictators have decided we should move from Trick or Treat directly to HO HO HO.  I refuse to shop on “black friday” and certainly would NEVER consider going out at midnight.  For me the Friday after Thanksgiving to be part of that family time together and a 
BUY NOTHING DAY.  
Less is more as all full timer’s know.  Wish those who weren’t full timers would recognize this too.  Ok enough of “my opinions”.

 

The “more” in my life for which I am
 SO thankful today and every day
includes

the folks whose life change and willingness to share ALL about it made this a realistic thing for me to do too

Howard and Linda Payne

 

My sweet Winnona

My loving family

 

My separated at birth sister Nancy

 

fabulous experiences

 

All the world’s tree huggers

 

the wonderful friends who still live in my hometown,
those fantastic friends whose blogs are all listed to the right,
and all of the great followers of my blog. 
I am always amazed that you
care to read and comment on my life.

How lucky am I…Thank you all so much for being part of my life

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

A few quirks in the works

Monday November 21, 2011

First David’s Story.

A young neighbor dropped by on a Saturday morning with his infant son. The boy had a nasty cold with warning flares streaming from both nostrils. He let his son down to run around the barnyard while we chatted whereupon I learned the boy likes to fetch things and carry them around, including tools I had out and some I didn’t actually have out yet that he was joyous over finding and bringing out for us.

The conversation was short, he fetched the boy and they went off to the woods for some father-son bonding time.

I went back to work and did not think more about it until I developed a nasty head cold with a hearty, productive cough a few days later.   After a week I was about sick of this and figured it must be about to wind down, play itself out and let me get back to well being. Instead, I began having more symptoms from the flu spectrum, nighttime chills, fever, fatigue, achy muscles & increasing trips to the bathroom when I supposed to be sleeping.

Okay, I have been here before, one of those flus that starts out as a cold and closes as a flu. After three nights of this, I decided maybe this wasn’t just a flu, there were just too many symptoms and all getting worse by the day. I just had a feeling this might not be a flu & unlike myself, I called the doctor and to my good fortune there was a 15 minute slot available that afternoon.


At first review of my chart, he chuckled when he read that my first sign of fever was Sunday night, and here it was only Wednesday and I was already whining for help? That was before he listened to my lungs to which he replied, “I see, you were right. Pneumonia, bilateral. This is serious, but it won’t kill you.” That got my attention. He quickly moved on to writing down exactly what I needed to do before returning for a follow-up visit in 10 days to see if he had guessed correctly. You see, he treated me for presumed bacterial pneumonia. Because there are so many causes of pneumonia & there is no time to waste trying to isolate the specific cause, you go for the most likely suspect first, so he could be wrong or only partially right so they have to have me back to confirm success before they let me go.

For those of you not already well acquainted with pneumonia, I recommend the Wikipedia entry as an excellent summary of this malevolent disease.


I must credit my doctor for a job well done. Although we are not out of the woods yet, I am feeling much better. My follow-up visit is still many days off, but I learned yesterday that young boy got over his cold in time and is fine – no pneumonia for him. That was great news because pneumonia is most deadly in children (principally in under developed countries these days), and the elderly (i.e. those much older than me ;)) and those with impaired immune systems. First time for me, and I hope the last.

Now Sherry’s Stories

As those of you who have followed this blog know, I had quite a problem with my eyes beginning and Texas and lasting for a month or so.  Burning, watering, extreme sensitivity to light.  I thought it was an allergy but allergy meds did no good.   Eventually it cleared up, mostly.

When I went in for my annual eye check of contacts, I mentioned this to my doctor who said he saw a minor infection and would treat me for it.  Fine.   BUT the treatment brought the problems back full force-burning, watering, extreme light sensitivity.  In looking into what was up, we found that the antibiotic/steroid drops used to treat this contained sulfa, the only drug to which I am allergic.  So I stopped the drug and the symptoms went away.  I’ll be going back to my doctor for a clean eye bill of health same time David goes back for his.

But the good news is that yesterday I went out and did a 2.5 mile walk/run with EXCELLENT results other than I am abysmally out of shape.  So I will be slowly building back up and though I am happy to be able to run again and hopefully get rid of some of this 15 pounds I’ve gained in the past nearly 3 months, I don’t enjoy running any more than I ever did.

And more good news is that today David was up on the roof doing the final waxing for Winnona. He’s recovered and She’s totally covered now.
That’s the news from here.   Hope you enjoyed the opening sunset from Winnona’s Virginia Camping spot.

Not SO much work Actually

 Friday November 18, 2011

There were LOTS of comments about the pictures on how recent time has been spent. 
Many were about all the “work” and glad they don’t have that any more. 

But of the 11 different things I showed, only 4 were actually work. 
Most of the others would have and have been done on the road as well.
Medical stuff, helping out friends, dinners, walks, laundry, vehicle maintenance and the stupid thermometer.

We actually don’t mind at all stopping by once a year to check up on the farm. 
Do some mowing – how hard is that if you ride??  
I actually like to rake leaves ONCE. 
Those falling leaves are  an important part of fall for me.  I love watching them float down. 
They are fun to play in and it’s so “satisfying” and easy to rake them up. I’d MUCH rather do that than vacuum or sweep even in Winnona.  But I really don’t get the folks who prefer a leaf blower.  I can have everything done hours before they are finished blowing and herding and do it with no noise at all.

Not sure how David feels about cleaning the chimney. 

But you know him, he’s always busy doing something and outside if he can. 

He has a fabulous “campground” to do his work in here so I don’t think he minds. 

And it is GREAT to have an easy place to pull into in our home area
so we can catch up with relatives, friends and medical check ups.

Don’t feel TOO sorry for us. 

We’re actually having a good time and will be back on the road headed SOUTH in 40 days. 

Weather here has been lovely the past week or so. 

70 on Wednesday.  YES!!

We’ve also been able to get all the oil and transmission changes done

where it’s easier to do them ourselves.  Using the “royal we” of course. 

The Medicare ABCD sign up is also DONE!!!

Someone asked about the ankle. 
It seems to be steadily improving and I did a little bit of running on it just yesterday.  
So far so good.  Unfortunately  I’m going to have to start all over working back up to even 5 miles.
But I may be ready to take on Nancy and Bill in their early morning walks by January.
J

We had a great week-end with Carrie and a yummy farm breakfast.

I picked up my car from the body shop and all the hail damage is fixed.
Ruby has a new trunk and a new hood.
She’s lookin’ mighty spiffy.  And rarin’ to go. 

I was really glad to have her back. 
I had to drive a rental Chevy PT Cruiser type thing for a week
while she was gone and boy was I glad to get rid of it.  
Terrible visibility.  The back window is WAY TOO small. 
Seems to me that should be a safety issue.

I’ll take Ruby any day even if this is a 2011 and she’s a 2002.

Same way I feel about Winnona.  You couldn’t give me a new one to replace her!!

The Results Are In and other matters

Monday November 14, 2011

The Results have been tabulated in the Before or After contest.
The Befores have it but  that’s only if you don’t consider the Fence Sitters and the ‘commented but didn’t vote’ as a group.
J

Before=7
After=4
Both=3
Either=2
Commented on my sanity but didn’t vote=3

Lest you think there has been just too much fiddling around.

Here’s some of what else has been going on.
Notice these are all explained  “before”.
J

We’ve been Voting

Lower field Bushog Mowing

Looking much tidier.

Haircut- all 900 hairs
(well maybe not that many)

Eye exam with my favorite doctor Covert where he found I have had
an eye infection since the first problems in Texas
back in May.
L

Raking Leaves again and again and again with no end in sight.

Helping nephew Justin with
home renovations.

Carrie came to visit and we all had
dinner at Eppie’s with Nephew Justin
and his darling daughter Norah Rose

Caught Carrie as she turned around while
the others were ordering.

Playing with Norah Rose.
”Ohhhhhhhhh” she says about Elmo
on her mother’s Ipad.

Followed by a walk down Charlottesville’s wonderful Historic downtown Main street.

Norah rearranges the chairs so she can sit with
her Daddy outside the toy store.

Chimney Sweep cleans wood stove chimney

Nice views from up there.
check out the full moon.

The dirty inside part.

Indoor/Outdoor Temperature Woes.  This requires a little explaining.
SIGH……..
So the story goes, one of us knocked over my favorite temp gadget
and then stepped on it.   So I went to Lowe’s and got another one.
Problem #1.   Outside sensor wouldn’t work. 

3 phone calls later and
a dozen recommended procedures and they sent me another one
which works but I guess I forgot to mention that I wanted it not only to work but to give me the correct outdoor temperatures.   The new one is off by 15-20 degrees.
4th phone call coming up.

Laundry

Fixing Snow guards JUST in case.

Handyman Duckie was hard at work during all the family pictures
so I’ll let him say WHEW dat’s a watta work!

There’s actually more but enough for now!
Ain’t we got Fun!!