And here it is! The first letter of 2021! Are you excited?
“Are you?” you wanna know.
I just can’t believe I’ve been doing
this for so long! This is my twenty-third year. Twenty-three years of chronicling
my life a week at a time. And everything since July 14, 2014 is on my blog
site. Guys, that was before I started giving my blogs names!
My year ended up in a five-inch ring
binder. Okay, so it was one three-inch and one two-inch ring binder, but that’s
five, right!
Are you ready for letter facts for
2020?
I wrote 58 letter blogs, totaling 808
pages, 175,024 words, and 3,069 photos. You read a good-size novel this year —
and got to see lots of pictures!
>>>*<<<
I got a cough.
It was just a pesky little annoying cough,
hardly worth talking about. If I was still a smoker, the cough would’ve been
lost amongst the smoker’s cough and never given a second thought. But since I’ve
not smoked in more than twenty years, I don’t have a smoker’s cough anymore. And
that’s why I noticed it.
“Are you getting sick?” Mike asked. He
noticed my cough too.
“No. I don’t think so,” is what I told
him.
I didn’t feel bad and had no other
symptoms. And I hoped it would run its course and go away.
It didn’t. It lingered. I got good at
hiding it and Mike didn’t hear it after a while either.
I spent the next few months worrying
about it. Could I have cancer? It would serve me right if I did. After
all, I told you guys that if I ever got something like cancer I’d blog about
the whole nitty gritty down-and-dirty experience.
Is that what’s happening? Is that
what I’m supposed to do?
So, I Googled it. A sudden and
unexplained weight loss is a symptom. That leaves me out. In fact, my weight
has gone in the other direction!
This week I developed a shortness of
breath. But in my defense, I was chalking that up to the ten pounds I’d gained
in the last few months.
Last week, scooping litter boxes, I
started coughing.
Is the dust from the litter boxes
making me sick? I wondered and went off to Google that.
A possible health threat from
clay-based litters is posed by silica dust, which can be kicked up and breathed
in by both cats and humans. Prolonged exposure to silica dust causes silicosis,
a non-cancerous but sometimes fatal lung disease. Crystalline silica dust is
also a suspected carcinogen, associated with bronchitis and tuberculosis. Although
exposure to this dust is of great concern to those working in mines or on construction
sites, the effects on cat owners exposed while cleaning their cat’s litter box
are virtually unknown.
I’ve been scooping litter boxes for 25
years. Daily for the last ten years or so. Before that we had fewer cats and it
was probably once a week. I decided I’d start wearing a mask when I scoop the
litter boxes, even if it is virtually unknown to get sick from it, and even if
it is too little, too late.
Then a couple of nights ago, I got a feeling
of rawness from the base of my throat down the center of my chest. I equate it
with the way a blister feels when the protective top layer of skin has been torn
away. It. Just. Feels. Raw.
It only felt that way for a little
while then it was gone.
The next night, sitting in the
recliner watching the Netflix original series, In the Dark with Mike, the
feeling came back and lasted a lot longer. It lasted so long I was feeling
miserable and knew something was really wrong.
The next morning, I started coughing
and couldn’t stop.
Mike noticed and made me spill the
beans.
“You need to go to the doctor,” he
scolded.
“I do’wanna go!” I whined like a five-year-old
little girl.
I knew I was going to go but I let
Mike have the fun of twisting my arm and enlisting the aid of Miss Rosie to get
me to go.
We went to a walk-in clinic in Towanda.
I took pictures of some of the beautiful houses
on the way there. Some have historical markers in front of them and because of
a fire in the court house in the early… what? I’m not going to look up the year,
but because of a fire a lot of records were lost and they don’t know the exact
age of many of these stately homes.
“How long have you had this cough?” Loren, my PA-C asked.
“Ten months.”
“What brings you in today then?”
“It’s gotten worse in the last week
and the last couple of days I’ve had a feeling of… rawness down the front of my
chest.” I didn’t know how else to explain it.
“It’s unusual for someone to wait this
long,” Loren said.
“I know, but it started about the same time as COVID…”
“I don’t think you have COVID.”
“No. I don’t think so either, but with
all that stuff going on and since it wasn’t getting worse, I just hoped it
would go away.”
“Given the length of your cough, I suspect
you may have something more chronic going on, undiagnosed asthma, sleep apnea,
GERD, however, as it has gotten worse in the last week, I believe you currently
have a bronchitis. And just to make sure we’re not missing something, I’m going
to order a chest x-ray,” Loren said.
We left the clinic with two prescriptions
and an order for a chest x-ray. I was reading over the papers given to me and
see they have a way of describing what I call a feeling of rawness. My
paperwork lists it as SOB. SOB? I wondered when I saw it. Then it came
to me. Sensation of burning!
We went right over to the hospital to have
the x-ray done. Later in the afternoon I got a call saying everything looks
normal.
I dodged another bullet.
“Peg!” my oldest and much-adored sister
admonished. “We’re getting older now! You can’t mess around with stuff like
that and let it go on for so long!”
She loves me.
This whole thing has gotten me to
thinking about walking on the other side, going to see my parents and
grandparents, daughter Kat, granddaughter Sara, brothers Mike and Ed, and
others that have gone on before me. We will know each other in heaven. I’ll get
to meet Rahab, and Ruth, and other great women of the Bible. Moses, and the apostle
Paul, and, of course, Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. Won’t that be the day!
I’d blog and tell you all about if I could!
It also got me to thinking about my
earthly stuff. I’m not gonna care a bit about any of it when I’m gone and I’m
sure if I go before Mike that he’s not gonna care about my stuff either. He
only cares about it now because he cares so much for me.
“Tell me what I can put your name on,”
I told my handsome son Kevin.
“Your letter books. Your life story,”
he said.
And my heart melted. Someone does care
about my writings! It was more than I’d ever hoped for.
Now let me ask you, my dear friends
and family. Is there anything I have that you’d like to have after I’m called
home? Something to remember me by? If I can, and if not already claimed, I’ll
get it to you.
>>>*<<<
A
shaft of sunlight came through my kitchen window and lit my dried floral arraignment
on fire! I felt inspired to take a picture for you.
>>>*<<<
And a squirrel at my suet feeder.
Since he found it, he’s been back several times
and even brought a friend with him one day — although they had a fight.
He’s also nosing around on the kitchen
patio, up on my shelves of glass where he’s got no business being.
“How do you know that, Peg?” I know
you wanna know.
I heard a crash. I was in the kitchen
and crossed to the door in a few steps. My little buddy here went running and I
had to clean up glass up from the patio stones.
“Can I get some ear corn to feed them?”
I asked my handsome husband.
“If you feed them, you’ll never get
rid of them,” he pointed out.
“I don’t care. I like to watch them.”
“Maybe next week,” he says.
>>>*<<<
I
notice the animal tracks as I go about the daily chores around here. Going to the
burn barrel, I went around the corner and as soon as I stepped onto the concrete,
I slipped a little. There was a sheet of ice under a dusting of snow.
Then I saw this and wonder, did a
deer slip and fall here?
And tracks aren’t the only thing I pay
attention to. I keep an eye on the scat I see in the yard.
Is
that blood? I wonder when I see these rabbit droppings. If he’s got blood
in his pee, he’s got a problem. But just to make sure it’s not normal, I walked
around and checked other droppings in the snow around the property. Most were
clear of blood but there was another with blood. Same rabbit?
“Peg, you’re weird!”
I know, right!
Small town, no town, livin’ in the
country life.
>>>*<<<
You know something?
You’re probably not gonna wanna hear about
this, but that’s never really stopped me before, so here goes.
I got out of the shower the other day.
Actually, it was a week and a few days before Christmas. Anyway, whenever I get
out of the shower, I try not to look at my naked little round self in the
way-too-many full-length mirrors in my bathroom. It’s easier to fool myself
that way. But the other day I got an eyeful. Boy, did I!
This has got to stop! I say to
myself and have to tell you, I was pretty disgusted with myself too! At my weekly
weigh-ins, my weight has been creeping up and creeping up a half-pound, a pound
at a time. It’s insidious! Then you wake up one day and you’re fat… er… fatter!
I’ve
been pretty lucky most of my life, maintaining a normal weight just with taking
care of kids and working. Middle age hits, the kids are gone, Mike and I retired
and the weight started coming on. I tried a few diets, without much success.
They were so restrictive and not sustainable.
Then
I found Curves and the Curves diet. I lost 42 pounds over the course of two
years. Not fast but I didn’t have any loose skin to deal with either.
I’m
getting back on that! I vow. I know it works for me and I can have all the
things I love.
Want
oyster crackers? Yes! I can have them! Only now, instead of eating half a bag
in a sitting, I portion it out. It isn’t necessarily what I want to do. I’d
rather eat as much as I want, when I want. But I put the stubborn in my brain and
on my heart and decided it’s time. I don’t want to be this fat
anymore.
Anyone
who tells you you can lose weight without counting calories or portion control
is either lying or doing it for you.
“So,
what’s a day of food look like for you?” you ask.
When
I don’t feel like creating a meal for myself, my go-to and easiest breakfast is
a half-cup of oatmeal and two hard boiled eggs. Or, like this morning, I can
consult my guide and make up something different. I can have one carb and one protein
on this phase of the diet so I used a homemade tortilla for my carb and two
farm-fresh eggs for my protein. Then I consulted my free list and added
spinach, onions, and salsa. No cheese, no sour cream, but I want to lose weight
so I complied. And you know what? It was enough. I was full and satisfied.
You
can have two snacks a day and a snack can be as easy as a container of yogurt
or you can be more creative. I chose cottage cheese and red beets this day.
And, as you can see, it’s a generous portion too!
Lunch
and supper have the same portions. So, lunch for me has been a salad with ham
lately. I can have as much lettuce and salsa as I want. I just have to portion
out the ham, chick peas, a little sour cream, and cheese.
“Peg!
Where’s the dessert!”
I
know, right! Sometimes a meal doesn’t feel complete until you have a little somethin’
something’. But I’ve been forgoing the sweets and honestly, I’m not missing it
all that much. But I’ll tell you this. If I really want something, it’s in
there. It’s in the plan. They have a small list of approved sweets you can
treat yourself too. But me? I’ve learned it’s better for me to take a cheat
day. One meal, one day a week, and indulge in whatever I’ve been craving, like spanakopita,
for instance.
And
now for a confession.
Instead
of supper, I eat a big bowl — no, that’s not true — a huge bowl of air popped
popcorn with two kinds of cheese and a sprinkle of Farm Dust. Although the
ratio between carbs, protein, fats, and dairy may not be exactly Curves
approved, I do stay within the calorie guideline for the meal. So, there’s
that.
“Peg,
what if you want to eat out?” you ask.
Right
now, with COVID, that’s not much of concern. We haven’t eaten in a restaurant since
the start of this whole thing. But Curves has quite an extensive list of
restaurants and the meals you can have and still stay on the diet.
Two
weeks.
I’ve
been working the diet for two weeks now and I’m down almost four pounds. If I
added exercise, which I plan on doing, I might lose more. And here’s one more
thing. A diet is only as good as the length of time you use it. You stop, the
weight will come back on, so it HAS to be something you can do for the rest of
your life. Period.
If
anyone wants to join me in this endeavor, let me know. I’ll give you the diet, teach
you how to use it, and help you plan your meals if you’d like.
>>>*<<<
Tiger!
Tiger,
Tiger, Tiger!
He
does love to play with a mint. He’ll have me toss that thing for him all day
long! It must be a good size for him to carry and the cellophane gives it just
the right amount of crinkle to satisfy him.
I
wasn’t paying much attention to him when he brought it to me to toss and when I
finally did notice him, he had two of them! That stinker! There’s only one way
he could’ve gotten a second mint. He had to’ve gotten on the dining room table
and fished another one from the jar.
“Peg!
Where’s the candy dish I gave you?” my best Missouri gal wants to know.
The
beautiful candy dish holds Tootsie Rolls so I had to find something else for
the mints. Can’t have the two cominglin’, don’cha know.
Tiger
helping himself to a mint is all my fault.
Sometimes,
on my way out the door to go someplace, I’ll reach in the jar for a few mints
for my pocket. And, of course, that’s a lot easier to do if there’s no lid on
the jar. I immediately went and put the lid on the jar.
Later,
when I went back to my computer seat, I see Tiger has them staged for a game of
fetch. He carried them up and put them on my seat for me. I picked ‘em up and
saw one was broken so I tossed it and let him have the other one.
Tiger!
Tiger, Tiger, Tiger!
I guess he thinks he has to have two
because he went back to the jar for another one. He popped that lid off as easy
as you please. I had no choice. The lid would have to be screwed back on each
and every time! It didn’t stop him from trying to figure it out though. Now, if
he were a raccoon, he’d figure out how to unscrew the lid in no time!
“Peg, your table is kinda messy,” you
observe.
Ya noticed, did ya. Yeah, it is. It’s
where I’d set up to make face masks. But I finished those up this week and with
the vaccine rolling out, I believe I’m done with them. I decided to clean my
table.
“I need a tote to put all of my material
in,” I told Mike. Then I remembered the stacks and stacks of file boxes we have
in the way back. Years and years of receipts and reports from when we were in
business. “Do you think I can empty one of those?”
“What are you gonna do with the stuff
that’s in it?” he wanted to know.
“Burn it.”
“Go ahead.”
I got a tote with a big ole’ honkin’
2000 written on it in permanent black marker. I lugged it into the kitchen. Mike
was still at the computer. “Surely, they can’t go back 20 years, can they?” I
asked.
“I wouldn’t think so.”
In the back of the tote were twelve
files containing the daily sales reports. I took them out and saved the file folders.
Maybe I can sell them for a few bucks, frugal me thinks in the back of
my mind.
I set them aside and was overwhelmed
with the sheer size of the pile the reports created!
“There’s nothing sensitive on these reports
at all,” I told Mike. “Maybe we can take them to the dump.”
Nature abhors a vacuum.
Tiger does too. As soon as there was
enough room in the tote, he had to jump in and check it out.
Then
I went to work pulling receipts, check stubs, paid bills, bank statements, and
crumpling them one sheet at a time!
Tiger loves crinkly crunchy things and stood up against the side of the can to see what he could snag to play with. These are all credit card receipts and, in those days, your whole number appeared on the merchant copy.
I
have two tall kitchen trash cans that I keep for burnables. I filled and burned
them three times. It was time consuming but doable.
“Maybe I’ll just work on that stack of
reports,” I told Mike. So, for now, they’re sitting on my counter, taller than
my air popper, waiting for next week. Then they’ll take a swim in the fire of the
burn barrel.
Then I cleaned my dinning room table! All of my material fit into one tote with a lot of squishing and scrunching.
Now my table’s nice and neat again.
Sitting at the kitchen table, playing
cards with Mike, I look over and see another stack of material I’d forgotten
about!
OY!
Now I’ll have to empty another old
tote!
“You could just buy one,” you suggest.
I know, right! But the much too-frugal
me sees no point in that. Especially when it’s time to get rid of some of this
stuff anyway.
>>>*<<<
Another
job we tackled this week was to start putting up the crown molding. Here’s the
very first piece!
We’re doing the cutting down in the barn
so there was a lot of walking back and forth trying to get the angles just
right.
Oh
my gosh! That reminds me!
“Peg, you have to help me with this!”
Mike pleaded with me. “I watched a video but I just can’t figure out how to do
these compound miters for the inside and outside corners!”
I was feeling a little pissy. “If you
watched the video then you should know how to do it!”
I went with him down to the barn and
he tried to make a cut but it wasn’t right. No matter how many times he turned
it, adjusted the saw, and cut it, it still wasn’t right. Back up to the house
we go and together watched a video. This was a different one than he saw before
but I liked it. The lady didn’t give us a bunch of information we didn’t need
and she didn’t side-track us with a lotta small talk either. It was clear and
concise.
“Okay, I said. I think I’ve got it,” I
told Mike after a couple of viewings.
“Good, because I just don’t understand
it. You show me what to do.”
I’ve
heard this line before. It sounds a lot like, if it’s wrong, it’s all your
fault. I wasn’t having that. “No. Uh-uh. Watch it again until you do
understand it.”
We watched it again. He still wasn’t
getting it. But I was pretty sure I had it.
We went back down to the barn and went
through the steps just the way the lady laid them out and it worked! We had a
nice 45-degree, compound miter cut that fit together perfectly! After that, Mike wanted to start skipping
steps and that was confusing to me. “Let’s just do it the way she showed us and
take it one step at a time.”
And here’s one wall done. It looks so nice!
It really changes the whole look and feel of the place!
>>>*<<<
I
saw on Facebook that there was a garage fire on Wood’s Road. Mike and I took a
ride out to see if we could see which of our neighbors lost their garage. It
was at the Barrett place. There have been so many fires in our area this year!
>>>*<<<
The moon.
I didn’t make an effort to catch it
when it was full but it was still up in the sky when I went out to take care of
the outside cats one morning. It’s just out of full. While editing it I made it
purple and saved it.
Then I made it orange and saved that too.
They’re kinda pretty.
But this is the real colors with no additional photoshopping from me!
Well,
that’s not technically true. I did crop and sharpen it a little. But that’s
all.
>>>*<<<
And finally, let me leave you with this
thought.
The
little girl asked, "Grandma, what do you think this year will bring?
Her
grandmother replied, "It will bring flowers."
The
girl asked, "How do you know it will bring flowers?"
Her grandmother replied, "Because I'm planting flowers."
Let’s all plant flowers this year.
And
with that, let’s call this one done!
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