Other Stuff

Lately it seems that all the news here has been medical. Surely there is more going on in my world, eh?

The club is beginning to gear up for the annual Fall Festival, held Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving in the community center with the largest auditorium. All the art/craft clubs have a set of tables laid out with items their members have produced for sale. For me it means jewelry selection - a committee I'm on - is now meeting every Wednesday until  the festival rather than twice a month. I doubt it means lots of new submissions on my part, but I am working on a new project of cuffs of copper on leather. I’ve been learning several new ways of coloring the copper, both via heat and chemicals. Then there’s shaping and texturizing, and seeing if I really have all the stuff I need to cut the leather and rivet the two together.

A new mesquite tree went into the yard. The thorn in my finger seems to have finally gone away after sitting just above the surface enough to get moved inward with the most minor touch. At least I hope it’s gone. I thought so last week too but it spent another couple days disabusing me of that conclusion.

Meanwhile some plants are blooming. Not many, just the ones which do after a rain regardless of season, like orange bells or sage. Oranges are starting to show on their trees,  green still, but promising. Our snowbird neighbors have returned. Across the back fence the corn feeder is set out again, bringing in pigeons, doves, quail, rabbits, rats (I’m sure, just haven’t personally seen one), and many other waiting appetites. Rich commented he’s seen more wildlife while sitting on the patio with a cigarette than he’s seen in years. Missing (to me) species include the local hawks and owls, but they’re after the diners rather than the seeds. We glimpse lone coyotes and hear their evening group concerts.

My San Marcos Hibiscus has been blooming for weeks now. Since I’m out in the yard for something other than pooper-scooping these days, I have noticed the seedpods left after blossom drop. Many are split wide open. Also empty. Natch. But three were just opening and had seeds, so I plucked them and got immediately on line to research propagation. I was amazed at how hard it was to get the right plant, regardless of inputting all the right information. Even after that hurdle, there was a dearth of information on propagation. Some sites insist they don’t even grow here. Some claim no information is available. A couple allowed as how it was by seed. Period. After a frustrating half hour, I finally found that the seeds need to be scarified so water can get in, and need to be kept in very poor soil at 80-85 degrees. Spring was suggested for planting, and next to the house as a good location. Come to think of it, that’s where the “parent” is.

We were emailed a sonogram of the latest great-grandchild to be, this time on Steve’s side. An arrow points to the alleged proof that it’s a boy. I squinted this way and that and at no time could I even tell there was a fetus, much less tell what the arrow thought it was pointing at. Time will tell. Say, next March.

Meals are getting more interesting. Rich has taken up cooking. Not all of it, just adding to the menu options. Some sandwiches, soups and stews, burgers, almost everything that requires both more than a microwave, and someone very ambitious to clean up all the pots and pans collecting around the counters. Me? I do appreciate the food but I’m still a microwave fan, heat and toss the tray and leave a spoon or fork behind to clean. Besides, that stuff always has the nutrition info on the box as well as portion control, so I know just what and how much I’m eating, instead of guessing.

Rich also got way into local driving this week with 2 round trips to the hospital. On the way home I asked him if he’d had any problems. I was thinking in terms of finding his route OK, with many more turns than a pop-on-the-freeway route. Turns out he had some issues, but not with the route. His answer concerned all those other drivers who seemed determined to kill him. Yep, no Minnesota Nice drivers down here.

I told him a story Steve loves to relate about one of our first local ventures out and about after getting the house. We had just left South Mountain and were back in a neighborhood. At the intersection ahead of us a family was trying to cross the street. Managing a toddler and a stroller was a challenge. They had started into the intersection, seen us approach, and halted. Instead, we stopped and waved them through. Just before reaching the curb, the father ran back to get a close look at the lower front of our car. Our windows were down, and he called out to us, pointing to the car license, “I knew you weren’t from Arizona!”

Rich could appreciate that.

ancestry.com processed my spit a couple years back. Every once in a while they email me to make sure I know how marvelous they are  because they now offer much more detailed analysis of the results. At least I think this is why. They must have figured out by now that I’m not interested in buying any more kits despite receiving their emailed pitch and “sale” offers for over a year. This time I actually clicked the link to see what I might learn. There were a couple under-one-percenters in the analysis of who my ancestors had been in the original report.

I was right in thinking it might be interesting. I was wrong in thinking it might be “more” correct. After all, much of the family history is well documented back several centuries. Ancestry added Norway and Iceland in. Partly I can forgive that because we know there are ancestors from Sweden and Denmark, and it’s likely Norwegians intermingled. Migrations happen. Since Iceland was settled by people of the same stock Mom came from, though we likely don’t go back to those particular lines, I can still understand their inclusion.

I can also see how they added parts of the US that migrants settled after arriving from Europe. We have the records that prove that. Nothing new. BUT: there are losses. There were a couple of intriguing under-one-percenters that disappeared. I thought this was supposed to be more exact?

But the worst is when they deleted the French ancestor. His name was LeSeward, and came here and fought with Lafayette. We even have a photo him! So Ancestry? Boo, hiss. This one I don’t forgive.

This morning I saw something unusual. The bathroom window was open as I got up, and it’s my habit to look out for a view of my local world. The unusual thing wasn't seeing a hummingbird feeding among the orange bells. It was that it wasn't even two inches long. It’s the wrong season for young ones, and it was in full silhouette so I couldn’t try to identify it, but it was a great sight to wake up to.

Oh, you really didn’t think there’d be no health stuff, did you? I can’t immerse myself for a couple weeks, so no pool walking yet. No showers for a couple, and then only briefly and well-dried afterwards. However, baby wipes ain’t just for babies anymore. They are lovely for getting those spots that really should be washed instead, but this solution falls within the Doc’s parameters. At least nobody’s holding their nose and running away screaming when I approach. Polite folks all.

I got a few surprises in the recovery process. The bandaging placed over the leg incision included a fat gauze pad held in place by a clear plastic tape. I hadn’t even thought to explore what might be there until a day after getting home when my pants caught a corner of the slightly peeling contraption and yanked it a bit. Ouch. I tucked it under to stick to itself and not catch on clothing and forgot it for a day. When I checked again, more had peeled off. I decided to carefully finish the job. As usual when medical adhesive is on my skin for several days, the remaining tape brought bits of me with it. Bigger ouch. For two more days. It’s pretty healed over now though. That gauze pad, though, was nasty! Something definitely died under there! Took 4 baby wipes to feel like I’d crawled out of the dumpster and could return to civilization.

I’d like to stay there.

Steve’s recovery is still a bit shaky. He still sleeps in the lift chair but can’t settle on blankets or no blankets for any length of time. Walking is often wobbly, particularly at the start, and best done with assistance. Rich and I got him out to his primary doc this afternoon because he needed to show up in person to request more percocet. Not enough remained in his bottle to get him through another day, and he has to last longer than that before his gizmo gets working.  About that, though, I noticed that they finished his procedure with a long wire outside of the skin hooking the battery and electrodes together. We can’t understand that. As it is, it’s nothing but a snag hazard. Our understanding is the wire is subcutaneous. He called his cousin who’s had the procedure and suggested it to him for his pain. She doesn’t understand it either.

There will be questions.