Back In Business

 

We got our desktop computer back already! What we thought would take days only took an overnight. We sure have gotten our money's worth out of our Geek Squad annual premimum.

The rain let up and this morning I went for a mile and a quarter walk at the park. It doesn't get any easier, but I persist. At the park spring is beginning to awaken. The Indian plum is blooming and the moss is heavy on tree trunks. 

This afternoon we planted the new primroses in the blue porch pots.

We have primroses blooming all over the garden that were once planted in these planters. Each year when we change out the pots we plant those primroses in the garden. Most of them persist. 

After  that I sat at the patio table in the sunshine for a while and read my Kindle. Now that this post is done, it's time to walk out to get the mail and then sit and work my online games before cooking dinner. 

Even with all of the physical stuff going on with me, and all of the awful stuff going on in the world, life here at the Reeder Homestead in pretty darn good. 

March 4th

 It's March 4th, our daughter Jill's birthday, the day in 1973 that she marched forth and claimed her place in this world. 

She is now a mother, a daughter, a sister, a niece, a cousin, a teacher, an administrator, an adventurer, and a chainsaw operator.

  Working with Jake to take down a dead tree for us.

We celebrated her birthday on Sunday. Aunt Jan found her an appropriate book.

With son Isaac, celebrating his 23rd birthday in January.

I have lots more fun photos of this hiker, mountain climber, scuba diving, adventurous daughter of ours, but they are stored on my desktop computer, which is now in the Geek Squad computer hospital.

May they both live long and prosper.

March on, Jill!

I'm Not Giving You The Finger

 

                  Just something prettier than my finger.

This is just what my finger looks like the day after finger surgery. 

It was a long day of mostly waiting, as we were early to accommodate traffic, and then our appointment time had us waiting almost two hours before actual surgery prep. 

The surgery went well. The doctor removed a cyst and whittled down two bone spurs on the first joint of my middle finger on my left hand. It was done with local anesthetic, at my request, since I have terrible problems with narcotics and general anesthesia. 

It was weird because I was tented but very aware of the scraping that was going on. Absolutely no pain though. I started taking Advil as soon as I got home and now a little over 24 hours later there is very almost no pain.

The biggest problem is keeping the bandaging clean and dry. I bought some extra large medical gloves to use when I am cooking or eating or reading the paper or whatever.  Plus a plastic bag for showering. 

Gardening will be out for a while. The dressing stays on for two weeks. That will be inconvenient.

The longest/shortest month of the year is ending. I changed the table decoration.

March on.

Getting Things Done

 I had a little time this morning after my appointment so I went out into the garden to get some photos. The garden deck looked inviting, all dry and clean, but I kept moving. 

                  The witch hazel are still blooming.
Sunday we had our usual slow morning, I think. I can't remember. Oh, that was when Jill came over to continue cataloguing our family heritage treasures. I'm so happy that she is interested. She doesn't want any of them yet, though.

Then later we ate pizza and watched the Sounders win their home opener in the rain. We were glad to be watching from home.

                                                 Pretty Hellebore

On Monday we used our new washing machine. We didn't think it was filling with enough water, but later I read about it and the low water use is the new normal. Lots of housework got done.

                     Old style Hellebore with too many blooms to count. 

Tuesday morning is our Zoom meet up, and then we tackled the income taxes, with the aid of TurboTax. It was work, and took a lot of thinking, but we finished, filed with the IRS, and within an hour we got notification of acceptance. The refund was much bigger than we expected. It will pay the property taxes. 

We debated about watching the State Of the Union speech, but I am one who needs first hand information so I can form my own opinion. I watched 90 minutes of it before I gave up. I call it the Stolen Valor Speech. The president introduced one after another of folks with meritorious achievements or tragic circumstances, all the while soaking up the glory for himself. The State of the Union is diminished by him. 

      Oregon Grape is waiting for more warmth to burst into bloom. 

This morning, Wednesday, we were up early to get into the city to the medical center for my 8:00 Echocardiogram. My cardiologist is out of town so I'll get the results in a couple of weeks.  Now I'm blogging, and this afternoon Jill is coming over to do some more family history cataloguing.

Tomorrow I have finger surgery to remove cysts.

 Friday is breakfast and grocery shopping day.

 Saturday we will attend a memorial service for a long time friend. Jeanne was a teacher friend who suffered a lengthy illness from which she was finally released. We are happy for her. Later in the day we have another soccer match to watch.

We are so fortunate to be living here in the mild PNW while so much of the country is experiencing extreme weather.

Here the bulbs are popping up. Tete-a-tete daffodils are blooming. Others will soon follow, then tulips.

We count our blessings. 

Out With The Old...

 ...in with the new.

Some things don't last. Especially modern appliances.

When we had a repairman come out to fix the door on our dishwasher, Tom had him listen to the noise the clothes washer was making. The verdict - the bearings were going out. It would cost about as much to fix it as to buy a new one. If we let it just go until it died, we could end up with water all over the floor. 

We looked online. Washers were on sale at Lowes. Our repairman recommended Whirlpool. We went shopping. Our sales clerk recommended Whirlpool or Maytag. We studied and compared. We bought the medium size Whirlpool, even though I didn't really want the glass top. 

On Saturday it was delivered and installed.

Out with the old.

In with the new. With Tom doing a lot of vacuuming in between. Dirt accumulates. 

Getting it installed.

All done.

The crew was great. The product has been registered. The paperwork has been filed, and some old stuff removed from the file. 

Now I'm just going to enjoy the new washer and not think about the fact of how pi--ed off I am that the old one only lasted just short of four and a half years. :-/.

It has been slow going on this project. Eventually it will be something.

We were going to a protest rally today, but then we had to be home for the delivery, and then we got 40 degree rain, so we are staying home and are on slow mode. I had been doing a lot of walking, so of course I had to pay for that by developing heel pain. I can do time on my stationary bike, but it's not the same and the weight I wanted to shed is staying put. 

On a more positive note, the Sounders Soccer season starts tomorrow, just in time to replace the Olympics. We'll both be watching on TV now, so the cold rain won't matter, at least to us.

Go Sounders!

A Sunday In The Park, and More

 The title " A Sunday in the Park (With George) always makes me think of a famous painting by Georges Seurat, which is actually named "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", that inspired a stage play by Sondheim called " A Sunday in the Park with George". 

My Sunday morning walk was nothing so grand, and fortunately I didn't have to wear bustles and corsets. 

The low winter sun was shining brightly, taking away the chill that still lingered in the shade of the fir trees.

This I where I walk three to five days a week, when weather and other demands don't interfere. The pathways are all paved, and circuitous routes give me my mile plus, with places to sit and rest.

Sometimes crows keep me company. Today there were also people to greet.

Dogs and their people play in the dog park. 

Lawn daisies are sprouting in our mild winter temps. 

It was a pleasurable escape this Sunday morning while I got my "gotta' keep moving" exercise.

When I got home I found Tom in the garden just finishing up a job, and we took a tour of the hellebores blooming here and there. 

These old varieties don't like to show their faces, but they seed freely. 

So Tom collected the seedlings to replant. This bed, a failed area from too much shade and tree roots, was perfect for planting seedlings. The are beginning to take on some size.

All of these seedings came from one plant, but look at the color variation!

Now the rest of the day has gotten away from me. I did get the Sunday paper read, and I fixed a photo problem on my desktop computer by finally editing and deleting many photos from my iCloud storage.

I'm making pozole for dinner and the fragrance of summering pork is wafting through the house. Time to go check on it and prepare for the next step. 

By the time most of your read this it will probably be Monday, but there will be left overs. :-)