The week in review

 There was a post from my cousin Tim's wife, Noreen. After a week, his labs were looking good. He was eating a regular diet. It just seemed such a remarkable recovery from a heart transplant, at least from my perspective, which I admit comes from a place of ignorance. 

Friday, just before 10, a post went up that there was a complete electrical block in the new heart, and he was back into surgery just over an hour later to install a pacemaker.

The latest that I have heard is that he is doing well. 

Latest update: he is showing mild signs of signs of rejection. They are trying to control this with drugs.

This has been a busy week. I tweaked my back helping Tim carry 16 12-foot boxes of siding from the front of the old house to the back. We got it done. 

At the same time I did myself damage, I was coming down with the dreaded 'Dylan-bug' that my son carried home from a California convention. To be honest, I did not realize I'd hurt myself until the flu went away and I was still gimping around. 

It has gotten cold enough at night that dehydrating has begun. Carrots, celery, onions, potatoes, corn and green beans for my 'soup jar'. I will do some potato slices for 'instant' scalloped potatoes. The dehydrate over night. The low oven keeps the house warm without turning actual heat on.

I have been collecting seeds from the garden for drying in the greenhouse. As they dry, I put them in pill bottles and label them for next year. I have Roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peppers, sage, dill, basil, hyssop, and spearmint. That is always such a hopeful thing...planning for next year's garden.

We built a grape arbor today. The back needs attached still, but I did get the four grape vines planted.  

I also planted six raspberry plants Tuesday behind the house in my 'berry patch'.

So, that's what we have been up to. 

At yoga class, the instructor always ended the class with an affirmation, an encouraging word. I thought it was a nice thing. When I saw a deck of mantras at a thrift store for a buck and a half, I picked them up. Midterms are coming up and it is hard to keep myself focused and positive. 

(Example: today at the protest an ugly MAGA rolled down his window and yelled, 'Why don't you all get a life??!!!' I came back from a place of peace and light and yelled, 'We all have lives. What are you doing with yours, loser??!!' He wasn't prepared for a comeback and tried to come up with a retort but it just sounded weak. I sent him off with one more mighty 'LOSER!' One of the protesters laughed with raised eyebrows. I said, 'I just did not want him to feel like he got the last word...')

So...yeah. a little affirmation would probably do me some good. I opened the cards.

Just great. The universe throws me a deck of MAGA mantras...

Plagues and pickles

 Well, I am back home now. We got things done while I was there, but it was plain to see that my daughter-in-law was tired. When we found out that my son was returning home sick, I had this quiet niggling fear that she was getting whatever he had. 

She was. 

In the meantime, I managed to start coming down with the cold William was recovering from when we took everyone out for my daughter's 45th birthday the previous week. 

A plague of plagues.

The girls enjoyed crafts. 

I showed them how to make a jack-o-lantern that stood on its own and and had different faces.

We collected pine cones to make these:

We did not actually get them done. The eyes for ours will be made from acorn caps, and the wings are made from paper hearts cut in half lengthwise. 

We did make bats. 

Even our simple plan to go to dinner Sunday night when my on-the-mend (we thought, anyway) son began throwing up.

In the end, I took my sniffles and body aches home. It was a long drive, but I got here. As I feared, my daughter in law is currently flat out with whatever my son had. I am hoping not to get it. 

I came home to quite a pickle. One of our tenants moved an acquaintance in. He is having mobility issues. We were shocked because we know this person. She has a drug history, and she has a criminal background that goes along with a druggy lifestyle. Burglary, disorderly conduct, assaults, possession. 17 pages of it. She has been incarcerated. She has 5 counts on an open case which will be heard on Oct. 14th.

Most alarming is that she was taking care of her mother during her final months and had a history of taking advantage and manipulating her. She was part of a drug trafficking scheme out of the old lady's home. 

All of a sudden, there were security cameras going up on our house.  Tim caught her smoking dope twice in the same week on the back porch. 

The issue became security. Providing a safe place for the two elderly tenants in the duplex. She is always there, so I tried to message the tenant with our concerns. Much to my surprise, she took his phone saying that it was better that I talk to her. At that point, we feared that she was intending to control the situation with the tenant just as she had with her own mother. 

It is not the pot. It is her history, a history that the tenant is well aware of. Somehow, she convinced him that she had changed. He needed in home assistance. She was going to help him.

After discussing it with the police, we made the decision to start the eviction process. We gave her 30 days. She should receive the paperwork today. The tenant is upset. We feel bad. In the end, we feel like it was the only way to handle it. 

The other Tim continues to improve. He is on a regular diet again. Amazing.

Update

 The 'other' Tim is off the ventilator. His wife Noreen says that he sleeps a lot, but she managed to get a picture of him awake while the nurses had him sitting up. For being 3 days post transplant, he looks surprisingly chipper to me although I am admittedly no expert in this field.

I am at my my son's house. He got home from a business convention in California late last night. He began to feel unwell on the flight home. By the time the plane landed he was decidedly sick. He still had an hour and a half drive from the airport. He made it but date night was definitely not in the cards. He slept all day but managed a light supper, so it looks like he is getting over it

One fairy tea party and a craft day. Bats today, cheese cloth ghosts drying, and they each made a 'squishy'. Tomorrow we will finish our ghosts and we have a pine cone owls to make. 

Tomatoes were canned, peppers and onions chopped and frozen for the freezer. 

 It just goes by too quickly.

That Other Tim

 If you can spare a good thought, this is Tim. Not my husband Tim but my cousin Father Tim. (Oh we do have fun with this...) After 540+ days on the transplant list, the last 117 of them spent in the hospital, he was awakened this morning to the news of a possible heart. 

After a long day, it was decided that the heart was a healthy one and that he was a good match. Surgery started just before 7PM. 

It will be a long night for him, his wife and family and the surgeons. 

While we all wait, filled with hope, we cannot forget there is a grieving family who has made an incredibly generous gift. Remember them, too.

Tim's faithful sidekick Wilson was bouncing with excitement at this morning's news.

Dumb de dumb dumb...

 Jabblog has been on my mind. 2 weeks without a post is unlike her. You are missed, Janice.

I hear there is a movement to remove the 'Kennedy' nname from RFK Jr.

A possum just might be my spirit animal.

Sad truth: we still have a road atlas in our car. If Google maps ever fails us, we have outdated road information for all 50 states.

ARGHHHHHH, Matey! 

Phantom the feral cat has begun to come to the door and meow when he is hungry. He also makes eye contact when I talk to him. 

I am heading east a day early with my tomatoes and onions and cucumbers and peppers and chicken and summer squash and a sewing machine and an armload of clothes for my girls. The weather has changed so dramatically that my vines are dying. I am going to pick all those remaining tomatoes tomorrow afternoon. It is strange that it is all winding down, but the last two days have been long sleeve weather. Septem-brrrrrrrr!

I used my 'new' wok for the first time today. I like my wok a wot. I made a passable chicken stir fry, although I did get a bit carried away with the ginger slices. It will take a bit of experimenting to find the best recipes. 

Trump's ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico backfired on him. The television networks took turns doing the video and audio for trump coverage. The film and audio was shared with all the networks. In a show of network solidarity, CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX are refusing to provide television press coverage. Trump did a ribbon cutting. No one could hear him without the microphones provided by the television networks.

I believe he is at the FO stage.

I did such a stupid, stupid thing. I will tell you what I did  to make you all feel much better about yourselves. It was one of those busy days. I got home from errands with a list of things that needed doing. It was one of those scattered days. Long story short, I got my stuff from the car, headed for the house and jumped right into checking boxes. 

The next morning I had an early meeting. I got into the car and turned the key. Nothing. I dashed back into the house where Tim was eating breakfast. "The battery is dead in the Subaru!" I grabbed the fob for the Honda and flew back out the door.

Tim put the battery charger on the car, and when that didn't work, he figured that it must be the starter, ordered one from RockAuto and jumped into his truck to do his own work. It was just a busy stretch of days. The following day, Tim went out to take a second look at the car, and I was surprised to hear it start. I went to the door and said, "You fixed it!" 

(To be fair, he has a long history of fixing stuff)

He stood looking at me oddly. 

"What?" I asked. 

"You didn't put the car in park before turning off the key." 

When the part showed up today, I very quietly and very humbly handled the return. 

There...don't you all feel better about yourselves? If you can top that story, I sure wish you would.

Nothing but giggles

The worst guard dog in the world:

(But what a good boy!)

This week has been full on.

I have done 5 batches of tomatoes. Today I am going to make ketchup, and then we are going to call it good. I have never made ketchup before but the crazy lady across the road made 70 pints of the stuff last week. (Note that the crazy lady scross the road is my sister.) She had a bushel of tomatoes on her porch and begged me to take them, saying she was about sick of looking at tomatoes, having canned them in about every incarnation you could think of. 

I did not need those tomatoes. I have a crazy glut of them over here, and I am getting a bit sick of looking at them myself, but then I got the idea that if I took Anna's bushel and processed those, it would move me one step closer to about sick of looking at them. I am heading to my son's house next week. That is the perfect opportunity to foist my excess tomatoes off on my daughter in law so that she can get sick of looking at them too. 

Tomatoes. The gift that keeps on giving.

Anyways, when I went to get the tomatoes off my sister's porch, her husband sent me off with a jar of homemade ketchup. My husband had some at lunch time and loved the stuff. I have a juicer and so many tomatoes that I had no real excuse not to make a batch of it for him. But after that, I am done, well and truly. 

With tomatoes, anyhow.

It has gotten cool enough that I can start dehydrating. As the garden starts winding down, I pick the little dribs and drabs of the end of season stuff and dehydrating. All those dried vegetables go into a glass jar. Whenever I make vegetable soup, I just scoop out a couple scoops.

We finished the last birthday celebration Friday night. My oldest has turned 45. That celebration marked the last of the September birthdays, 4 in 3 weeks. 

In between that we are working on the old house. It will be sided in October. Once that is done, we will just close it up for the winter and resume work next spring. We are putting in replacement windows in the attic. Those 4 windows are the only windows that have not been replaced. The house has 26 windows, so that is a big deal. 

Saturday was a nice day. We protested (it is changing, people!) and then Tim needed to mow the lawn at the old house. I needed to go to the library to look up a death registration. So he headed off in the car, and I headed off on foot. A couple walking their dog recognized me as one of the people on the corner and we all offered encouraging words. 

After the library, I began the walk to the old house where Tim was. They must have been selling out a home business. They had new sweatshirts on sale for $5, 5 for $20. I only found 3 that would work, sad, but it was a good find to put away for Christmas. I was also pleased to find a large, heavy wok for $3. We like stir fries here and I have always used a big skillet. I will swap them out. 

I walked on carrying my wok and the folded sweatshirts and met a friendly dog and his human. She commented on my load, and I told her about the yardsale. I commented on her beautiful yard and she invited me in her gate to talk plants. She was moaning about an invasive ground cover which gets a pretty white flower. I said I would take that off her hands to plant along the banks on both sides of the walk leading to my basement door. 

A deal was struck, and I headed off walking with my wok, 3 sweatshirts, and a handful of starts for my ground cover.

I finally made it to the house. Tim was wondering where I'd gotten to. 

We needed to stop at a couple stores. Wouldn't you know, there were bargains there, as well. 25# bags of Miracle Grow potting soil for $3 (down from $9.48) and seed starting medium marked down from $5 to $1.87. The back of the Subaru began fill up. 

We had a satisfactory day indeed, and I came home to process another batch of darn tomatoes.

Chickening Out

 Today was a getting it done day...except I didn't get it all done yet. I spent the day individually packing and vacuum sealing 120 lbs of chicken breast. The lesson of the day was 'cheap freezer bags might be cheaper BUT when you have old eyes, sealing them can be tricky and it slows you down.' 3 hours later, I finally finished. All of it is in the freezer. 80 lbs of it will go east with me next week, and 40 lbs of it is for our own use.

Buying in bulk like that allows me to get boneless, skinless organic chicken breast for $1.75 a pound, an unheard of price, so it makes it well worth my time though. After it goes in the freezer, I can transport it to my son and daughter's house safely. It stays frozen solid for the trip and is unloaded from the ice chest straight into their freezer. Compared to $4.99 a pound for chicken there, this is a very nice savings for them.

I hope to be able to take a bushel or two of tomatoes to them as well. I will go a day early to help her can them.

Anyways, that is today. I have tomatoes to do here and they won't get done if I keep sitting here.

I live his calm measured way of speaking. I believe that we will see him as president one day.

For a bit of silliness:

Something very great: I have a couple meetings tomorrow. We are setting out to recreate last year's very successful Christmas toy giveaway. We have a donation of a minimum thousand new toys. Mind-boggling to me. We have two storage places offering free storage. One place is actually accepting the donations for us, starting in November. This means we do not have to go there every time someone has a donation. 

What is incredible is that this is happening with very little effort from me. I don't know if you remember last year, but I posted an idea on a community helping hand site: 'We live in a poor area. At the same time, we have people going through their children's things to get rid of toys to make room for what Santa is bringing. What if we could get those toys collected and allow people who are struggling a chance to pick out toys for their kids for free?'

And boom! That idea took off. The YMCA offered their gym as a venue. Volunteers stepped up. We collected one day, gave away the next. Even though this was all pulled together in a matter of one month, we literally had thousands of toys to give away. 

The best part was that everyone there felt like they were in the middle of a miracle. I can tell you that it made my own holiday season.

Here we are, not even close to the holidays and the community is reaching out to do it again. I get a little thrill of excitement remembering what a community pulled together in a month and imagining what could happen with 3 months of lead in time.

This post took several sessions, but supper was made (BBQ chicken), those tomatoes were skinned and are in a pot simmering away with the appropriate spices This batch of tomatoes will become spaghetti sauce. The house smells great.

I even got the kitchen cleaned. I am on fire today!

PS: Thanks to DB Stewart.