Yippee skippee.

Today, I do feel as if I've over done things just the slightest. The PT guy was pretty interesting. I think that he was trying to assess how far I would push myself. I got 8 degrees more flexion than I did two days ago. My extension is as good as it gets. I did the stupid exercises.😉 I did the stupid walking. 😉 As we passed by the bottom of the stairs, he asked if I had done the stairs. I hadn't. I didn't even think that was a good idea, but... up the stairs I went, 15 steps, and back down them again. He said, "I honestly would never have believed you are just one week out."

I'd made stewed chicken gravy for supper tonight, something that can be chopped while sitting, and dropped in a pot and left to simmer gently until it is supper time. After Josh left, Tim and I ate. 

Today is my 68th birthday, and you know, it just felt like a special day. Tim was watching tRUMP blathering on about south African genocide. I was amazed at Cyril Ramaphosa's self control. ("I'm sorry I do not have a plane to give you." Cripes. I just about fell off the couch.) I was also pleased to see that ABC called it out right in the headline, that tRUMP was pushing a false narrative. CBS and NBC did not. 

I said, "You know, I want a donut. It's been since January that I've had a dessert, and I just feel like today is a day to celebrate." He said, "Do you want to come with?" I discovered that I did, which may have been pushing it just one step too far. 

But...did I tell you how long it has been since I've eaten a donut?

Depending on tomorrow, we might just go to the new house. There's plenty of little things that I can do that don't involve walking around and it has been over a week. 

Good News (unlike the national news)

 

Saturday was a good day. I felt like I had kicked this thing in the behind. I met with the home nurse who was quite impressed at how I was getting around, and that made me feel good. I spent the day with no pain killers, (big improvement) and I went to bed with a dose of extra strength tylenol PM. I fell asleep promptly, and slept until I woke up at 3 in some pretty awful pain. 

And stayed awake. Migrated from bed to the couch. Back to the bed after a few hours. I just could not get comfortable. It was not cool. 

That means, because I was tired, Sunday was a wash out. I was dealing with the final hurrah from the narcotics. (Do. Not. Ask.) It was miserable. I was back in bed by 7. I skipped the night time tylenol and just took two OTC sleep aids. My leg was twinging, little jolts of electricity, and quite by accident, I got an idea. Using a heated massage on my foot and ankle really relieved that pain. 

I slept like a rock, which made this morning a pretty good morning. 

For one thing, I was able to take my first shower. I was told by the home health person that my dressing would be removed by the person coming on Monday, but at the hospital, they said that I could remove it myself and shower. So. I went with the advice that I liked the best. Since the visiting nurse wasn't coming until after lunch, I removed the bandage as soon as I was out of bed, climbed into the shower and took the longest, hottest shower and it felt like heaven. 

I made my first cup of coffee since all this had happened, and that tasted pretty good too. 

I got some dishes washed. Tim did two loads of laundry. We planned supper. My meal preplanning was just great, I'm glad to say. 

Tim headed out on the business of his day and I settled in to ice my knee and wait for the pt person to arrive. Here's something else that I'm really, really so happy about. She was very pleased to see that I have 100% extension and 95% flexion with that knee. She said that as soon as I get the staples removed, I'll get the other 5%. My therapy will not consist of range of motion, because I've already pretty much got that back, and from what I understand, the ROM is the most painful part of the PT. I'll simply be strengthening that knee. She says the incision looks great, and was amazed at how little swelling and bruising I had. She was pleased that I'd consider my pain at a 2. Reading the notes, she said, as I have heard, over and over again: "Your response to narcotics is not uncommon." The question really does beg an answer then: why did the hospital find it so hard to believe?

Anyways, all good news. 

I iced my leg and watched two very old movies, movies that I'd never seen. Postcards from The Edge, which struck me as so sad. Despite the triumphant closing song about leaving Heartbreak Hotel, she didn't. 

The other movie I watched was "The Remains of the Day". How did I ever get to be 67 and never see it? I don't know. I could not tell  you, but I LOVED that movie. I was quite surprised when my daughter classed it as the worst movie she's ever seen. It was about perfect in my mind, and in the end, when the pigeon flew down the chimney, and the new American owner ushered it out of the window and into the sky, I almost cried to see Mr. Stevens closing that window of the old house. Closing the door to his own cage, albeit one that he had chosen for himself.

I borrowed a page from Catalyst's blog. He and Judy's Friday night tradition is pizza. They buy a regular store pizza and top it with their own toppings. This is something that I used to do when the kids were young. I don't know why I stopped. But I gimped out to the kitchen, topped a cheese pizza with pepperoni, onions, mushroom, peppers, broccoli, another layer of pepperoni, and a good covering of grated mozzarella and some italian seasoning. Easy peasy, and Tim thinks it is 'perfect'. 

Kudos to CBS' Wendy McMahon. This is what ethics looks like. 

The Importance of being Unconscious.

 I think, strangely, the toughest part of this, for me is the lack of sleep. The pain is bad, but you know, you can work your way through pain if you have the knowledge that it will end, and that things will get better. (They are getting better, by the way, and it is only 3 days past surgery.)

But the overnight at the hospital nearly did me in. 

It was so noisy, and it really was not the fault of the nurses, not really. They had two post surgical patients who were doing a lot of yelling. One of them probably was a patient with dementia. So it was noisy. And what I tried my best to do at the beginning of the night was to take care of myself as best I could. I know that they were pleased that I was up and walking, and not only walking but walking well. 

That made me glad too. 

But there was also plain carelessness. My two goals for that first night were to be up and sitting in a chair and to stay in control of the pain, and they listed when I was due for more pain medication right on the white board there with my goals. 

So, I was up and when I finished in the bathroom, I came out to the chair to tick that first goal off. I was trying to be as easy as possible for my nurse, who was very nice. Soft spoken. But when I sat in that chair, my feet did not reach the floor, and having my leg just dangling, was excrutiating for my knee. I asked for my leg to be elevated. The nurse said doubtfully, "They don't want it elevated." I said, "I can't take this. It is too painful." 

She whisked out of the room. I assumed she was going to ask for advice, but she did not return. I sat there in my chair in agony, and even worse? My call bell was on the nightside table. I couldn't get to it. My walker had been moved to the other side of the room, a safety protocol I think, to keep strong willed patients from marching all over their room unsupervised. 

My supper was delivered, and though I was told I would get a regular diet, I was delivered a cup of broth and some blueberry yogurt frozen ice thing. In hindsight, I wonder why I did not speak to the young man who brought my meal, ask him to go get a nurse. I don't know. I honestly can't tell you. I just felt sick with pain, and I hadn't eaten in 24 hours, and I. Just. Don't. Know. 

I ate, because it seemed like the thing to do, and truthfully, the broth and the frozen stuff really did fill me up. Finally, at shift change, the night nurse came in and was introduced, and the day nurse was a bit horrified to find me sitting there with my supper tray in front of me, still in my chair. I had been forgotten. That's the reward of being a stoic, I guess. 

They were dismayed that I'd only had clear liquids for supper and sent down, right away for a turkey sandwich. It came with a cup of fruit and a bag of chips, and let me tell you, although I thought the pain was more important than food, turns out that I was wrong. I ate every bit of that supper. 

I said, "I can't stand this pain anymore. I really can't. I need to go to the bathroom and to get my teeth brushed and go to bed." 

Very efficiently, they helped me get that done. 

I was given a pain killer, which I took like the obedient patient I was. 

The yelling went on. I adjusted my television to one of those 'sound of nature' programs and tried to will myself to sleep, but I was up every hour on the hour. The compression machine alarm kept going off, and they were getting upset with that. It squeezes your legs to prevent blood clots, and quite honestly, it was very soothing...in between the alarms. They finally just unhooked it all together. 

They assured me that they'd left the machine that ices the joint functioning. I honestly did feel like it wasn't working, and mentioned that, but was assured that it was. 

The IV alarm went off twice in the night to let them know the antibiotics were done. 

The patients kept yelling. 

At 3:09, I heard a triumphant shout "Hooray! I did it!" followed by a lot of cheering. That's when I began to be a bit irritated with the nurses. 

I asked to go to the bathroom, and the nurse came in. She apologized for the rowdiness in the hall. (I had not mentioned it...) She put down the bedroom and left the room. That's where the second mistake of the night happened. I thought she was in the room. The other nurses just stayed right in the room. I made my way to the bed, made it up again, and waited for her to return. She did not. Once again the call bell was across the room on the table. 

Finally, in desperation, I got myself into bed by myself. I could not hook up the ice to my knee. My door was closed because I requested it. I couldn't get my siderail up. I couldn't reach my button. I was so exhausted that I was nauseous and I was in a lot of pain because I didn't request my pain killer. I laid there in a mess trying to sort out when I had the last dose. At 5AM a person came in to do the labs, and I poured out my tale of woe to her. 

She got someone to come in who put up my bedrail, got my call bell for me, complained that she'd unhooked my leg things on purpose because of the alarm, I tried to explain that the gentle squeezing and ice felt very nice. She hooked me up once again, gave me my pain killer and swooped out of the room. She was not happy, and she showed it. 

Once again, the ice machine, squeezing machine began to beep, and when I rang my bell, she was very much annoyed. "That's why I unhooked it!" Unhooked it. Swept back out the door. 

By that point, I was feeling pretty nauseous. I know that I throw up when I am exhausted. I always have. But at this point, I was feeling as if it was partly due to the pain killers, and I didn't know what to do. I mean, I needed pain relief. 

Long story short, the next nurse to come in found in the throes of dry heaving, and I was beyond all caring about the poor nurses at that point. I cried. I said that there were things that were beyond their control, and I am sorry for that, but also, there were things that weren't beyond their control. Regularly checking on patients for one thing. 

The morning nurse figured out that my ice machine was not working because no one had put ice water into it, so there was no cold water to be pumped through. I was a mighty mess, people. 

Long story short, a primary care physician came in to tell me what they were sending me home with, drug wise. I said, "Please...is there a pain relief that is not a narcotic? I really think that is why I am throwing up." He said, "Oh, we will give you something for the vomiting." 

They did. 

It helped. 

When the nurse came to read through the prescriptions that would be waiting for pick-up, once again, I said, "I think the pain killers are making me sick. Isn't there anything else that I can have that is not a narcotic?" and she said, "This is not the same thing that you had in the hospital. I promise you that it will be different, once you are home."

I got out of there and home without getting sick in the car and I fell straight into bed and slept face down, feet hanging off the bed, for 2 1/2 hours. I came out to the couch and slept for two hours more. As night closed in, the discomfort began to increase. I took the anti nausea stuff and waited a bit before taking the pain killer. 

Spoiler: It was not different, and I got sick. 

I was also awake at 5am in bad pain, and unwilling to take anything for it. 

I struggled through the day, but in the end. I got through the day, and it was not fun, although at that point, I was pretty sure that I was not going to die. 

Last night, I went to bed and couldn't get comfortable. I had nothing for pain. I finally got up and did exactly what you are not supposed to do. I took an OTC sleep aid at 3 AM, and fell blessedly and soundly asleep. I slept until nearly 9, and got up, made myself my own high protein breakfast and...now I'm sitting here at the computer like any other morning...

In hindsight, Bob-ert, the advice I would leave you with is to be very clear about what you need and what you don't need. It would have been helpful to have an advocate sitting there to be my voice when I couldn't seem to get anyone to understand what I needed. 

And...whatever it takes, get some sleep!

The post op post

 It is not great, but it is survivable.

Ready or Not

 Spoiler: I did go work at the new house. 

*sigh*

I had a lot to do here at the house though. I told him that he is simply going to have to help me.

"Sure," he said. "I am here to help."

On my way out the door, I pointed to the brand new turkey call on the kitchen table. "Why don't you take this to the new house. You can practice calling in turkeys when you put out the corn."

And he cheerfully replied, "I figure I can practice while I am sitting around here with nothing to do."

This is what a turkey sounds like: 

I need to keep that fellow busy, I guess. Too busy to spend hours with his new call. It would drive me crazy to listen to that. It would be very sad if I get a new knee but lose my mind. 

I have to report to the hospital by 10. I got everything done that I wanted to do. House cleaned. Refrigerator cleaned out. Lasagna made. Yogurt in the yogurt maker. 

I really am ready for this to be done and over. See you on the other side. 

Late Edit: I just have to tell you this. It made me laugh so hard. Sue, over at My Quiet Life in Suffolk found a book of old Saints and weather lore, and she reported that May 14th is the Feast Day for St Boniface who was martyred in 754AD in Germany. What makes this so funny is that my new knee is coming on May 14th, and the surgeon's name is Dr. Boniface!

Some Very Good News

 I could not help but think about the 11 year old that was swept into the creek. I felt so horrible for his mother. There's no good time for something like that of course, but it seemed even more awful that such a thing would happen on the evening before Mother's Day. 

The water rescue was ongoing, and police were patrolling the bridges, but then darkness fell. And all night long, I kept thinking about that child. How awful it would be not to know where your child was. Hoping against hope that somehow, he'd managed to get himself out of the water before he was swept into the Allegheny. 

Was he a friend of my grandson's? Was he a kid from our street? A kid that walked past our house on the way home from school? Maybe I'd talked to him... My mind whirs off like that, and the whole thing was troubling. Tim and I talked about it on the way to the new house to work some more after he got back from church Sunday morning. 

There was nothing on the news about it that morning. 

There was nothing on the news about it that afternoon. 

But Tim saw the water rescue as he went on his nightly walk. He stopped and talked to a neighbor about it. A kid across the street saw them, and came over to relate the story. He was standing on the bridge and he saw kids walking on the bank. He saw one kid fall in. His arms were over his head, and he just disappeared. 

But facebook came alive with inquiries. I stay out of that mess because everyone knows what is going on whether they know what's going on or not. And god help you if you question someone whose story is just not quite plausible, but I read the comments and saw that:

1) the 11 year old child was rescued.

2) there was no incident (which was hotly disputed by the woman who called 911 after seeing it happen from the 5th St Bridge.) 

3) there was an incident but it was a woman who fell in. 

4) the search for the 11 year old child was ongoing.

You see what I mean. There were many comments, and many of those comments came from people who swore they had personal knowledge, but the information was all over the place. 

So...I kept quiet and waited for news. 

Except there was nothing reported the following morning, but FB had a post that they were looking for the child downriver at the junction of the Conewango and the Allegheny River at a place called Point Park. 

Tim and I drove to the new house wondering about that. 

We listened to the evening news. No mention. "Something isn't right here," I said. Tim repeated what the boy had told him and the neighbor once again and we mused over it. 

I contacted the editor of a local online news publication, and related the facts as we knew them first hand. What the boy had said, the fact that there was a water rescue ongoing. 

I didn't get a response from him right away. His business is facts, and I knew that he'd get to the bottom of it. He did. 

And this was the headline this morning. 

I can't even tell you how happy this made Tim and I. It was wonderful to have a reason for rejoicing. 

I planted my distressed plants today. My previously purchased distressed plants looked mighty fine, and some of the bulbs I planted are showing growth. It was a beautiful day, hot and sunny. Tim worked in the house. Tiger, the AWOL cat, showed up today for a visit while I was working, and I was so pleased to see him that he got a full can of catfood all to himself. I have a bit of a sunburn. 

I forgot to take a picture of the faucet. The brand name is Brizo though. 

I'm getting the house ready, doing a last load of laundry, cooking a couple more batches of food so that Tim doesn't starve to death, just getting things set up. 

I won't be working at the new house tomorrow. 

Another day.

 Tim did more plumbing work, and when I was not required to 'hold this right there like that', I was clearing out the living room space. It contains four extra cabinets that we did not use in the kitchen. They will be finally pulled out of the livingroom and returned to the old house until we find a place for them. 

I've contacted Habitat for Humanity. We've been stockpiling stuff for such a long time. If we saw something on sale, we picked it up. Tile, two kinds of flooring, the kitchen cupboards, lights, both indoor and outdoor, I can't even tell you what all. But now that the job is winding down, we see that we have things that will not be used, and the idea of passing them along to a place that we know will do good would be an awesome way to 'pay it forward'. 

Once the livingroom is emptied out, we can begin to move furniture in. Our plan is to do this slowly and mindfully. We know that everything will not fit, so we have the luxury of being able to pick the things we love best. Mia will be taking a good bit of it for her house, which will help us winnow through stuff too. 

It's like doing the whole Swedish death cleaning thing...our kids are lucky! 

Anyways. 

We put the bathroom light up. Hung the mirror. Tim installed the 'canister' cartridge and now the water valve works. He went out and started work on the kitchen sink. 

I continued pegging away at the mess in the livingroom, sorting all the 'stuff' into electrical, plumbing, painting, saw blades and hole saws in one place, screw drivers in another, probably a couple dozen pencils or markers, half a dozen tape measures, wrenches, pliers, screws, nails, tape, ad nauseum. I also got kind of irritated with him. "Where do you want this?" *holding it up* and the reply came over and over, "Just throw that out, it's no good." 

The question begs an answer...so...we were saving this why? Honest to god. I was throwing away empty packaging. That's something that he could have done...but he doesn't. The extra clutter makes it hard to find stuff. Really, half of my job has been "Find me a pencil" or "Find me a phillips screw driver." 

So. Anyways, he now has a huge storage rack with bins as well as a cabinet and a 7 drawer storage unit in the basement. Hopefully, he will use it to keep organized. He's got shit everywhere. 

So. That's my pet peeve. 

But back to today. It was nice to be hoeing out. We haven't really got any pictures to show, just this, which stinks because I was in a hurry and didn't notice that I had not shown the lights. 

And yes. There is a toilet seat in the back seat of my car right now, along with another batch of plumbing things that we will need to finish up the kitchen plumbing tomorrow. Exciting note: I'll have a dishwasher. I haven't had a dishwasher for 30 years and this was a non-negotiable for me. I am pretty tickled about that.

But pictures of pipes and whatnot are deadly dull, so I kept on cleaning. I suppose I could have taken a picture of the kitchen faucet. I had a friend who was an interior designer. She liked to enter competitions and she had scads of things that she used as design elements. She had a faucet that she said was $1000, something that Tim found fascinating. "What does a thousand dollar faucet even look like?" he wondered. It seemed so ridiculous to us that anyone would spend that kind of money on a faucet, and he wanted to see it, out of pure curiosity. So. She gave it to him. Can you imagine? She also gave me an armload of fabrics for upholstering furniture, something that I passed along to another friend who made some magnificent drapes for his new apartment. 

Anyways. So...I could have taken a picture of Loretta's faucet. Maybe tomorrow. 

I hung out the hummingbird feeder I received for Christmas, and the lawn ornament that I'd received for mother's day. I watered plants and played with cats and emptied that space out. 

When we were done for the day, we came home, changed clothes and headed out for supper, and then stopped at Lowe's to get the plumbing supplies and a toilet seat, which we kept forgetting to buy. They had a special on azalea bushes ($9.99!), so I bought one for the new house. I also got 3 distressed plants, a lily, dianthus, and sea thrift, to round my plant frenzy off to $20.00. I couldn't help smiling to think what that same $20 would have got me had I been able to get to one of Northsider's carboot sales! 

Tim is going turkey hunting tomorrow morning, but then we'll be back down working for the rest of the day. I will get my new flowers planted and be as much help as I can be for Tim.

Tuesday will be a stay at home day. I am very much looking forward to that. I'm tired of this craziness of being between two places. Every time that I look, I've got a clock stopped, because I have forgotten to wind them. But, anyways, I'll use Tuesday to get all the last minute stuff done, and a lasagna put together for another meal for Tim, and then I'm as ready as I can be for my new knee.

And...after all this time, I'm ready. I dreamt last night of marveling over being able to walk and walk. Of course, I also dreamt that I discovered I had lice, so...I'm not sure what to make of all that.  

Thanks for the movie recommendation Jackie. I may have time to watch it after the surgery.

The Day that Goes Wrong

We had quite a day today. We managed to continue working, but everything that could go wrong seemed to do just that. 

I built the cabinet for the bathroom. It was IKEA, Godmorgan. We got it, along with the bathroom vanity a couple years ago, when they were being clearanced out. We got the vanity, the sink, and the cabinet for $360. 

Bonnie wanted to know about the set up under the sink, so I took this picture from my old post. It's from IKEA's website. We bought it in white, of course, but it has drawers underneath.

So Tim was working on plumbing, and I was in the livingroom putting together the matching cabinet, listening to a true crime podcast. Those things are addictive. Or maybe it is just me. I don't know. But I was listening to a podcast and assembling the cabinet. I'm really impressed with this furniture. It is so perfectly engineered. Everything fits together as it should, and it comes with a 10 year guarantee, and honestly, in 10 years we will be looking at 80 and won't much care. Anyways, I've gotten myself all off track. 

So I was putting together the cabinet and feeling as if I understood why kids love Legos. 

  

When I was finished, I cleaned up the bathroom light fixture to install. Tim was working on the bathtub/shower controls and he tested the shower and bathtub to make sure nothing leaked. When he was satisfied, he went down to the basement to turn off the water. I gathered up all the drop cloths and rags that we'd been using to sponge down the tile in the bathroom, and headed out the front door to hang them to dry. I heard a commotion. Tim had turned off the wrong water control and we had water spraying all over the bathroom. He tore back down to the basement and turned off the correct switch this time, and came back up the stairs. I was sopping up lots and lots of water. Even worse some small parts on the water valve had shot out. We found everything save one small spring. I think it went down the drain, actually. 

Tim was very frustrated. The good news is that although it was a lot of water, we got it all up and no damage was done. I said, "Well...I needed to get the floor mopped anyway."

We hung the cabinet, but it took frustratingly long time because it was being hung in an awkward space to the right of the sink, on a short wall. If we had not been rookies, we would have known to hang the cabinet before installing the vanity. Live and learn. 

Tim had to buy a new 'cartridge' for the bathroom valve, whatever that means, which irritated him.

We came home and worked to get some preparation done for the move, but  we both felt like we accomplished very little of our to-do list and we were a bit tired and cranky.

After supper, we heard that a boy was walking along the bank across the river from our house. He fell into the high river and was swept away. They mounted a water search and rescue, but he has not been found and now it is dark. 

The day before Mother's Day, and somewhere in my town a mother is not celebrating. 

Our irritations seemed quite ridiculous in light of the tragedy. 

Step by Step

 

Got the vanity in today. I really do like the sink a lot. I did the building of the vanity while Tim did the plumbing stuff. 

Tomorrow, he will hook up the bathtub/shower combo. I will be building the matching cabinet that will hang to the side of the sink. We'll get that hung, put the light up over the vanity, hang a mirror. 

Go us. 

Oklahomans have voted in a curriculum change. 

It has been chilly here. Freeze warnings tonight. 

Catching up again.

 Well...today was a big day: 

Not sure what my sister will do now that I'm not going to be walking over regularly to use her bathroom. She can always come over and use mine. I surely would not begrudge her. You will note the window right next to the toilet. I was very opposed to that. I argued that. It did me no good. You can bet  your bippy that there will be privacy film on the lower part. 

We are building the vanity right now, and will hang that tomorrow. It's quite exciting to see it all coming together. All these things that we've been collecting are being dragged out from their storage places. Some of them have been stored so long that I can't even remember them. 

Senility makes life so much more exciting, don't you think? 

I started out the day sponging down the bathtub surround again to smooth out the thinset. Tim is very unhappy with the large scale tile. He thinks it is too large for the space. I'm okay with it. We're sure not ripping it out. He's already making plans for it "if it doesn't hold up". (Note to self: Don't let him take a hammer in the bathroom.)

I've been promising to show Dave my plants. I have 20 tomato plants and 12 pepper plants. They all look happy. I've got a dozen cucumbers started inside. They look happy too. 

I had my 'class' today for the knee replacement stuff. They want us to have a walker, which we can rent from the hospital. I hadn't even thought of a walker, but we stopped by Goodwill, and we got one that looks brand new. It was marked $15.99, but had a half off tag, which means it should have been $8, but somehow, it wound up costing $4.99. So. Good news there. I told my sister about it and said, "It's really something that will be nice to pass forward when I'm done with it." Turns out her youngest son, who was badly injured in Iraq by an IED is going to have a knee replacement in the near future. "Tell him he can have my walker..." 

One thing that surprised me was that they said I'd need home health care for 2 or 3 weeks. I surely did NOT like the sounds of that. I was envisioning people who come into your house and sit around all day doing your house work and keeping an eye on you. How do you take a nap if you're tired with a stranger in your house? And let's face it: I'm just not comfortable with the idea of strangers in my house, period.

My sister laughed at me. "They're not talking about home health aides. They are talking about a nurse who comes in, makes sure that you're okay, reports back to the doctor if there are any issues, etc. 20 minutes, tops, and they are back out the door." Made me feel better. That I can live with. 

As Tim and I walked into the hospital, church bells began to ring out across the town. They went on and on. I said, "They are probably celebrating the new pope." 

He'll continue on the work of Francis, which is encouraging to me, although I'm not Catholic. 

He's not reticent about his views on the current American politics. 

Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, has quickly established himself as a progressive leader in the mold of Pope Francis, championing immigrant rights and social justice. He has been outspoken in his criticism of right-wing U.S. politicians, particularly Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. In a widely circulated post, Leo XIV declared, "JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others," directly rebutting Vance's attempt to justify restrictive immigration policies with Christian doctrine. Leo has also condemned Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and criticized his administration’s collaboration with El Salvador on deportations, highlighting the moral cost of such policies.

This progressive stance has sparked a fierce backlash from the American right. Far-right activist Laura Loomer was among the first to denounce Pope Leo XIV, labeling him a "WOKE MARXIST POPE" and accusing him of supporting "illegal aliens and open borders." Loomer specifically pointed to Leo’s support for Dreamers and his condemnation of Trump’s use of the term "bad hombres," calling it "racist". Other MAGA-aligned commentators, like Sean Davis of The Federalist and strategist Joey Mannarino, have echoed these criticisms, accusing Leo of pushing a globalist and leftist agenda that undermines national sovereignty and Catholic tradition.

Despite this right-wing outrage, Pope Leo XIV remains steadfast in his advocacy for immigrants and the marginalized, urging the Church to "build bridges" and "receive with open arms everyone-everyone-who needs our charity, our presence, our dialogue, and love." His leadership signals a continued commitment to social justice, even in the face of intense conservative opposition.

(Cue the cries of 'separation of church and state!' from the same people who want to put the ten commandments in every classroom.)

Interesting side note: He went to Villanova University, just outside of Philadelphia, not far from where I've got family. 

I read this today:

It reminded me of this: https://www.reuters.com/business/bill-gates-give-away-fortune-by-2045-200bn-worlds-poorest-2025-05-08/

I hope that everyone has a good weekend. 

Back, Bathrooms, and Hummingbirds.

Today started out kind of jumping around. First of all, I really tweaked my back moving a shelving unit Saturday. It wasn't that it was all that heavy. I think that I just twisted wrong. It initially hurt, but working in the damp and cold aggravated it something awful. With a bad right knee and knotted muscles on the left side of my spine, I was really in a pickle. I had to lift my legs with my hands to get into the car. 

I tried to avoid making things worse the next day, but predictably, that did not work at all. I pulled in a lawn chair to 'back butter' the tile for the bathroom, but even reaching those out to Tim did not help the situation. 

Tim bought a heating pad for me, and I used a lot of Ben-Gay, but by bedtime, I have a confession. I had one temazepam left from the last time that I twisted my back wrong, and lord knows how old that was, but I took it anyway. I went to bed with my heating pad. 

I am pleased to say that when I woke up this morning, I certainly wasn't 100%, but I could move, albeit slowly and carefully, taking special pains not to twist anything. 

Tim had to go to the reassessment hearing. We bought a house for $30,000 5 or 6 years ago, and they appraised it at $138,000.  We are honestly confused by this. We expected an increase, but it is a 1140 square foot, 2 bed, 1 bath house that they listed  as being a two family dwelling (how that mistake was made is not clear). They also said that it had a fireplace. It does not. It is a very old house which sits over a hand dug earthen basement. The basement is not a useable space at all. It's sole purpose being to access the drains and pipes of the house. 

She made the changes, but the thing she was most interested in was the neighbor's house. Like us, he owns multiple houses, which are poorly maintained, the porches covered with garbage and debris. The woman taking the notes at the meeting advised Tim to take those pictures to the next meeting, that they will certainly impact the property values of our houses. This neighbor has long said that he is friends with an official on the zoning committee and so he will never be cited. I guess, in the end that turned out to be good news for the neighborhood. 

So. Tim felt better. 

We had to get down to the new house right away. Tim had set a trap for the raccoon. We caught one, but that very night, another helpful raccoon wandered in to do a quality assurance check of the cat food at 3:30 AM. Tim set the trail cam up to keep an eye on the livetrap, and sure enough, there was something in the trap this morning. It was Tiger, who I hadn't seen for a while. 

When we got there, he meowed at us. We opened the door to the trap and he followed me into the garage to get breakfast.

Then we got to work. We finished the tiling. Tomorrow, we will grout it. 

Tim did grout the floor. I did manage to make myself useful sponging the excess grout with him later. 

I heard Tim talking in the living room. A humming bird had managed to get itself inside. I picked him up gently and carried him outside, and was delighted that he sat on my fingertips for quite a while looking around in an unbothered way. Finally he flew off, straight up to the very top of a huge pine tree. 

It is not a good picture because it was a quick snap with the phone. 

I sent it to my sister who lives within sight of the new house. She didn't know the hummingbirds had returned, so she was delighted too. 

This is her picture from last year. She was sitting on the porch enjoying a sunny evening, and this fellow flew down and landed on her toe. He sat and watched her for quite some time. 

I will close with a laugh. 

or this...

We bought the bead board that will go around the bottom of the bathroom walls. We will install that tomorrow, and then we'll be ready to put in the bathroom 'appliances'. Pretty excited about that. 

oh...and I bought the shower curtain today. 

Food for Thought

Shorty

 

Incredibly helpful neighborhood raccoon faithfully shows up at o'dark-thirty to feed cats. 

Today we worked on tiling the bathroom. The green is water proofing on the cement board. The gray is the color of the bathroom. We are about 1/2 way done with the job. Tim is upset that it is not perfect. We will finish the tiling tomorrow, grout it. Then on to the next project.  

I meant to take pictures of my happy pepper and tomato plants for Dave. They are not in the ground yet. We don't plant our gardens until the end of May. Tomorrow, I will try to remember to do get pictures of my plants though. 

Catching up.

 It has been a busy week. I got back from my son and daughter-in-law's house and was up the next day for a early morning pre-op appointment at the hospital where I am having my knee replacement. Such an efficient set up. You sign in, and you go from the nurse who does your history, to the anesthesiologist who asks his questions and tells you about the general anesthetic and also about the nerve block they use that makes the first few days bearable. Then down the hall for an EKG, a chest x-ray, down to the lab, and then you are done. Before I even got home, they were calling me to ask if I wanted to attend a 'what to expect' class a week prior to surgery. I took them up on that. 

Only thing was that for whatever reason, the chest x-rays needed to be done again, so I had to go back Wednesday. 

And then I had a pre-op appointment this morning, with my own doctor, which I don't quite understand since they pretty much just asked me the same questions that I'd answered at the hospital. Indeed, they are the same questions that I answer at the beginning of every doctor's appointment. They also are not at all involved with this surgery.

I did find out about the whole recorder thing. It's a speech to text thing that types up the office visit. It allows her to go back through and pick out the pertinent details instead of requiring her to type as she talks. She is a slow typist, she tells me. So. That explains that. 

One thing that came out of this meeting is that Monday, when I was at the hospital pre-op thing, my blood pressure was 98/53 or some such thing. I made a mental note of this. It certainly explains some difficulties that I'd been having. I brought that up today. My weight loss has reduced my blood pressure enough that I've halved that medication, which made me very happy. I've lost 4 more pounds since my last visit. 

So...we're working on the bathroom right now. I painted it. I think I told you that I wanted it dark. Tim wanted it lighter. Interestingly enough, we got a Benjamin Moore paint. The first thing is that it covered beautifully with just one coat, unlike the Magnolia Home Paint we got for the kitchen, which required two coats. The best part is that when it dried, it was not as light as Tim wanted it, although not as dark as I wanted it. It compromised for us. 

The shower controls are in (spoiler: Not Moen, who has been sending me coupons and discount offers like crazy. Amazing what happens when you say you'll never purchase another product from them. Another spoiler: those coupons will not be used. I may not have mentioned it, but I am a little stubborn.)

Tim waterproofed the cement board around the tub. Tomorrow, we'll be able to install the tile. 

I've gotten all my bulbs and seeds planted in the flower garden. Yesterday, I planted 4 shrubs. Two of them I am not at all sure about, but the other two look pretty healthy. I planted my peppers and tomatoes sometime back. I just transplanted them from their little trays into larger cups. They look quite healthy and happy. I took two trays of cups to the greenhouse and I'm expecting great things. My starter trays are full once again with cucumbers and jalapenos. 

I filled in a ditch. 

We've got a coon or something in the garage. He is strong enough to pull the lid off the garbage can and he helps himself to the corn. We have the trail camera set up. 

Some hero tore down the Ultra Maga sign along the highway coming into town. 

Just the Facts

Going to my son's house was a nice little mini-vacation. I had to cut it short by a day because I had a pre-op appointment sprung on me, but at this point, I really want nothing more than to get this knee taken care of, so I simply returned a day early.

I got there Thursday, and the youngest girl was so excited to see me. The first thing she wanted to do was to show me her bedroom. She has made the move from a crib to a regular bed. Plus...there is a fish named Lucy sharing the room and this is something that I needed to see right away. Her vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds since I saw her last, and that part is fun too, holding actual conversations with her. 

I met the oldest girl at the bus, and there was joyous shouts of "Grandma!!!!" and wide flung arms. 

The guest room is new too. It used to be the nursery, but now that 'baby' has moved down the hall, to the room directly across from her sister's room, which is where the old guest room used to be. New paint, new furniture, new art on the walls, new bedding and curtains. I was the first guest to use it, and it was a very comfortable room.

The competition was a long day, but fun, and another gold medal came home. She thinks that she is rich. 

The following day was too short, but I was on the road by noon. It was a windy day, and the trip was exhausting. Truck traffic was heavy and the wind was causing the trailers to veer. I hate that. I got home by six and was in bed by nine. 

The pre-op stuff went well. I have a knee replacement 'what to expect' meeting on the 8th, six days before the surgery. 

It was a beautiful day today. I spent the afternoon in the sun planting flowers at the new house. The cats meet us at the house now that the weather is nice. Spaying is in their near future. 

Tim got the bathroom ceiling painted, we got the paint for the walls. He decided against the darker wall color and we went with a lighter gray. Compromise is everything. 

Home again, home again. Stir fry for supper, 

Our local news had a reporter who was one of 100 reporters invited to tRUMP's first hundred days press conference. It was easy to see why. He interviewed Marjorie Taylor Greene to get her take on tariffs and the 'under represented people of Pennsylvania'. He talked about 'illegals'. He was enthusiastic. There was one side to all this controversy as far as I could tell. 

Meanwhile, the tariffs have resulted in a 49% drop in Chinese imports alone. This is expected to have a ripple effect. Layoffs at the docks, followed by layoffs for long haul truckers. They are predicting COVID level shortages on store shelves by the end of May. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/economics/product-shortages-empty-store-shelves-loom-falling-shipments-china-rcna202812

All properties in our county are being reappraised for tax purposes. We got our first appraisal back. They have determined the property value has increased seven-fold, which is crazy. This is an 1104 square foot house, two bedrooms, one bath. The average price for houses here is $87 a square foot. This is not a luxury house by any means. $138.000 is crazy. 

So that was today. Still burned out.

Yet another customer service adventure.

We have the grinder pump ready to go. Tim has to pick up 50 feet of 3-12 wire...or is it 12-3 wire? Once that's hooked up to the breaker box, our drains are ready to go. The water has been hooked up for some time now, but it has not been turned on in the house. Tim did not water coming in until there was a way for it to drain out. 

We're going great guns on the bathroom. We have gray tile for the floor and I finished putting it down today. The tile for the shower is 12 x 24 large ceramic tile that is lightly veined in gray, like marble (but it is not). The only thing that we need to buy at this point is the white beadboard for the bottom half of the wall and a quart of dark gray paint for the upper wall. The picture is not our bathroom, but just an picture shamelessly stolen to give you an idea of the look. 

We bought a MOEN shower/tub assembly. Tim opened the box to install it. Much to his surprise there were no instructions. I went online to their website. It asked for the model number, which I put in. I received a 404 message. Thinking that I had typed something wrong, I verified the number, typed it in again, and got the same message. Page not found. 

Looking around on line, I discovered that I was not the only one with the issue. So...I called the help line. 

Predictably, all their operators were busy.

They gave the option of holding (approximate wait time was given as 4 minutes) or leaving a number for call back. 4 minutes did not seem bad, so I continued to hold. After 5 minutes, I received another message, giving me the option of holding (approximate wait time: still 4 minutes) or leaving a number for call back. I left my number. 1 hour and 22 minutes later, I hadn't gotten the promised call back. I went on their website and filled out a form. Model number. no instructions, can't access instructions on line, please advise. But when I hit send, it gave me a message. I needed to include a picture of the item. Since I was in the car, and the faucet was on the kitchen counter, I had to wait a few minutes, but as soon as we got back to the house, I took a picture. Before I could hit send, everything was lost. Just disappeared.

Tim said disgustedly, "Forget it. We are returning it." 

Because I am a stubborn woman, I tried their customer service line once more. There was a one minute wait this time, and so I waited. My call was answered. I explained the problem. 

"No," she said. "We do not include instructions in our products anymore. They are available on line."

"But I keep getting the 404 page not found response," I explained. "We're putting a bathroom together, and I just really want the instructions...that's all we need."

She asked for the model number. I gave it to her. She asked when it was bought. 

"Last week, at Lowe's," I said. 

"Do you have proof of that?"

I was a bit flabbergasted. This was an expensive faucet. It was not a clearance item. They had the item set up as part of a display on the way, and Tim had selected it from the display. It was one of several of the boxed items on the shelf.  

She jumped on my hesitation. "Do you have a receipt?" 

"Of course we have a receipt," I answered, and I was starting to get irritated. "Do I have the receipt with me right now? No. But this is a faucet purchased last week from Lowes!" 

She got irritated right back. "I'm trying to help you and I am trying to determine if the item is under warranty." 

I said, "I am not calling about a warranty. I am calling about instructions." 

She made some spluttery noises, and I said, "You know what? Forget it. We'll return the item to the store. I'm done here." 

And I was. 

I got an e-mail which included instructions along with the disclaimer "While these instructions are not for the assembly that you have, you can use them for your product." Except they didn't answer Tim's questions about our installation.

I replied to the e-mail, stating that the product was being returned and that we would never buy a MOEN product again. 

The reply came quickly: they offered us 75% off our next MOEN product. 

Yeesh. Marked as spam and deleted.

I'm all packed and ready to get up early tomorrow. I'm headed east for 4 days with my son and his family. I had to cut a day off the end of it, because of an unexpected appointment with the orthopedic surgeon, but I'm looking forward to this more than I can say. 

Good night!

My town: 

The Allegheny River is running pretty high. 

When we move, the town nearest to us has a post office and a church. Not sure how many people live in the town, but the population of the township is 450 people. 

What's Shaking?

 It has been an aggravating bunch of days. The new washer we installed was 'walking'. Vibrating itself right out of its place. We have never had a washer do that before. We thought we had the problem fixed by putting a rubber vibration absorbing mat underneath it. We were in a hurry, things to do, places to be, holiday weekend, etc, and then we received a phone call the next morning that the door wouldn't open. A mechanical issue on top of everything else?!!!! It was a brand new $1800 washer! 

So...although we were headed out of town, we turned around and went back to her house to assess the situation. 

The part that wasn't relayed in the telling of the story is that the door wouldn't open because the damned thing had 'walked' once again, and pinned the front of itself against a door molding. 

We simply didn't have time to trouble shoot it and spend a day working on it, so I said, "We're going to have to do this after the holiday. Can you do without a washer over the weekend, while we figure out what we're going to do next?" 

She said that she could. 

That thing has been hanging over our heads all weekend. We've installed many washers in many places, and we've never had this.

Today is Tim's birthday. He wanted to go have lunch at his favorite little restaurant in Pleasantville. They are only open until 2, but we had that darned washer to figure out and a carload of tools, since he wasn't sure what we would actually need to solve this problem, if we could even solve it at all. 

My guess was that it was not level. It's a front loader which we have not got a lot of experience with. Maybe they are fussier than top loaders. Tim was reading up on it while I was getting ready to go this morning. He said, "They say that there are four packing bolts that have to be removed. If they are not removed, it will cause a serious vibration." 

Now...surely it could not be that easy...

But...I am happy to say that it was. He sat down with the owners manual, read where they would be found, climbed back there to have a look, and lo...there they were. He removed them, Deb tossed her weekend of laundry in and we started up the machine. This time, we waited. We sat right there and watched it through the whole cycle until it began to spin. 

Smooth as silk. 

If we said it once today, we've said it a dozen times..."Oh, I'm so glad that washer is figured out..." and we are. Best birthday present ever! It was sorted out so quickly that we met up with my sister and brother in law and had lunch out. We ran to the Mennonite Grocery and picked up a few things, and then came home. 

It's been a quiet night. Tomorrow, we'll hit the road running once again. We're putting the bathroom together, which is exciting. The Township employee is coming to put the electronics back in the grinder pump for the sewage system (each property has its own grinder and pump which pushes everything into the main line). Since our property sat vacant for some years, the electronics were removed and will be replaced Wednesday morning. We will be able to hook our drains into the system. Yay!

Tim has this crazy idea that we can get the bathroom done before my knee replacement, and I can recuperate there. I don't know if all that can happen before the 14th of May, but we'll see. We've got all the stuff to get it done. 

It would be nice. 

You know what else is nice? We've got a ten day forecast and no snow predicted! 

Our Easter was nice too. I hope yours was as well.

Good Friday

 We headed up to Levi's to buy some lumber to finish Tim's shed for "that which is of vital importance and cannot be gotten rid of. And furthermore, it can't be stored in the garage because...just because". 

We started out of town and the new washer we installed yesterday had a door that would not open. So. We turned around and went back. 

We got that sorted. 

We turned around and headed back into town, but there was a big sale going on at one of the historic houses going out of town, and Tim saw a cabinet that might work in the basement for small things"That are of vital importance and cannot be gotten rid of. And furthermore, it can't be stored in the garage because...just because."

It turned out that the cabinet would not work because it did not have shelves.

Luckily, it was not a wasted trip...he found a turkey hunting vest that came with a free hat. He also found a ceramic coated cast iron skillet that I did not want but he did. 

I wandered off, looking and did not see anything that I really wanted. There was a lot of art, and there was a painting of the Battle of Bunker Hill/the Death of General Warren, which, of course, is the man our town is named for. I played his grieving mother at a historical presentation once. 

But while the house we live in now is grand enough to pull off a print like this in an ornate frame, it would probably look kind of silly in our rustic little cabin. Plus it was $75. Those two things. 

There was a lot of gorgeous furniture, but I went right on by. Because I know I've got gorgeous furniture to get rid of. 

And while I was being so sensible, I walked past table after table of interesting things, and I noticed this tote which contained a 12 place setting of these. And I told myself quite firmly that I needed dishes like I needed a swift kick in the pants. But I couldn't help noticing that they matched the kitchen. They were marked $5 for all, which I was sure could not possibly be correct.

While I was staring at them, having a very sensible conversation with myself, Tim walked up with his turkey vest and the ceramic coated cast iron skillet which I had specifically said that I did not want, since I have a nice cast iron skillet (albeit without the ceramic, which was  orange, which did not match with the kitchen anyways). He said, "I think this skillet is from Belgium." 

He said, "What? Did you want those dishes?" 

I said, "They are pretty. They do match with the kitchen, but no, we don't need them. I'm sure that $5 means does not mean the whole box," but just that quick, Tim said, "Let me ask." 

The man who was not in charge scurried off to ask the woman who was in charge, and came back to say, "Yes. My wife says that is the price for all of it," and so it was done. 

Tim said, as we were driving away, "The tote will come in handy and the dishes will look quite nice with your new silverware," (which I also needed like I needed a kick in the pants, but that didn't stop me then, either.)

I'm not sure what is happening to me, people. 

We got to Levi's only to discover that the sawmill was closed. It was Good Friday. I'm sure he thinks we are heathens. 

I spent a couple hours digging in the dirt and planting bulbs for next spring. Crocus, grape hyacinth, daffodils, tulips and iris. I know that they are usually planted in fall but according to the advertising, it said that I could plant them as soon as the danger of frost was over in the spring. So. I guess that means that they establish over the summer. I don't know, but it will be a good experiment. 

We worked on Tim's shed for a while, but then it began to rain. 

We put everything away and headed for home. The rain stopped by the time that we pulled into town. Natch. 

We had a return to post and after the post office, we stopped in at Lowe's because Tim wanted to price shower/bathtub controls. He knew what he wanted. He'd seen them in Titusville, but wanted to compare the price. "We won't buy it until Wednesday though," he said. We have property taxes to pay next week.

While he was looking, I was looking too, and I shouldn't have been, but I found columbine plants on clearance for $4 each, and it reminded me of Weaver and how she loved her aquilegia. I stood looking at them. Tim found what he wanted, and decided to use the Lowe's card, which would delay the payment until after the taxes were paid. I said, "Well...if we're going to do that...," and grabbed two columbines and two salvia plants. 

I can't wait to go back up and dig in the dirt some more. This day made me very happy. At least for the next week, temperatures are supposed to remain warm. 

Senator Van Hollen's trip to El Salvador was very encouraging. His press conference was very plain spoken. We need plain speakers right now. He says that more senators will be headed to El Salvador. 

Senator Murkowski is saying it out loud too. 

I am encouraged that people like Jerome Powell are speaking up. Public Health groups are speaking out, calling for RFK Jr. resignation. Some officials in that department have left rather than violate their own ethics. People are speaking out. 

So must we. 

Who's a good boy?

Let's have a nice story today: 

Not My Day

 So...I had to get a new picture for my driver's license, and so I did. My wallet was in another vehicle, and we were headed out, and so I put it in a safe place intending to put it in my wallet once it was retrieved from the other vehicle. 

Yeah. I know.

It will turn up. 

Today has been a frustrating day. A washer in a tenant's house needed to be replaced. It is a small house. She is a person with small decorative touches EVERYWHERE. The good news is that nothing was broken. The bad news is that the new washer doesn't fit in the space that the old washer fit into. 

In the process of trying to make this happen, I got my fingers smashed but good. Interesting phrase. Did you ever stop to think about it? It was not good. I almost cried. 

It sleeted and rained through out the day. Seemed to rain the very worst when I was out in it. 

Tomorrow we have snow in the forecast. We also have 'plan b' for the washer.

Compromising

 I really do want to be clear that my 'dilemma' for lack of a better term, was not whether I should replace the knobs. I knew that eventually I would replace them. It is just something that I did not need to do right now, not really. 

But the beige didn't match, and that bugged me. Everything else was so perfect...but the knobs did not match. 

And it was stupid, because when Tim and I married, I lived in a house with a kitchen that was functional. It was always something that we wanted to do, but we had five kids between us and Tim felt very strongly that kids needed to go to college, or at least some sort of vocational school, and so that was the priority. 

Tim is a machinist. a precision machinist. That was a pretty secure job until Reagan's NAFTA sent those jobs overseas to be done by other machinists in other countries who would do the job for a fraction of the cost. (Think Mexico or Eastern European countries). That began a long period of layoffs for him. At one point, he was laid off from 3 different machinist jobs in one year. 

So...yeah...the kitchen took a back seat. Keeping a roof over our heads, raising kids, cutting firewood. Those were hard working years, but we did okay. We both kind of saw the writing on the wall, and managed to get our house paid off before things went entirely to hell. 

And in his frustration, Tim said, "I will never depend on a company for my living again." 

And that's when he got into buying fixer-uppers.

We moved into town probably about 2010 or  '11, and we live in a hundred year old house. And it is a nice old house. Don't get me wrong, it needs spruced up outside, but it's a gorgeous place on the inside with all the quirks of an old house. No closets for one thing. Doors on every room. The kitchen needed updating too. Old cabinets. Limited electrical outlets. A design that probably was just fine a hundred years ago, but today...well...it just doesn't work. Tim talked about a new kitchen...but...well...it didn't happen, and I didn't push, but we made an awful lot of nice kitchens for tenants and for home buyers. 

So...it's worked for us, and now we are building our own house. We've been collecting things for the new house for a long time, and now, at last, all those pipe dreams are coming to life before our delighted eyes. 

After 27 years, I have a new kitchen. Well. Pretty much new. The cupboards are reclaimed from someone else's tragedy. A tornado dropped three trees on his house and since he never liked the lay out of his kitchen, he decided to use the insurance money to fix the house and to build his own dream kitchen. We got his old cabinets for $500. 

(He left the knobs on the doors and drawers.) 

But yeah. I scrubbed all those cupboards out and they look good as new. We had an Amish carpenter build the sink cupboard to match the existing cupboards and it does. The appliances are new. The design is my own. We picked our color and our countertop. We have a antique butcher block to move inside the house when the ground is dry enough to let the tractor close enough to bring it through the sliding doors. Looks something like this: It will be my kitchen island. 

Guess What? Ellie K's comment reminded me! She told me the story about her butcher block before, and it triggered my memory that I'd written about my butcher block 5 years ago, when I got it. An old very popular restaurant had closed in 1996 after a family tragedy. After the owner died, the contents were sold. I stood in line with over a hundred people. I wasn't even sure that I would get in on the first wave of people, but I did. I went straight to this table, picked up the tag and went straight to the cashier and bought it. I got in at 9:15 and I was on my way home at 9:45. It was so very crowded, and it was in the early days of covid when no one was quite sure what we were dealing with. The crowds made me nervous. This is our butcher block though. I'd forgotten that I wrote about it, let alone had a picture. It has been standing patiently down at the old house, carefully wrapped and waiting for us to get around to building that darn house we'd been talking about. 

Above it will hang another auction find: 

Once the windows are trimmed and my shelves up, and the microwave bought for in the corner, the kitchen will be pretty much done. 

And then we'll be putting the bathroom together. 

All this to say, with all we have to do, I felt very silly about wanting new knobs for the cupboards. I mean, I'm a very lucky woman, and we've got a lot to do. 

But they didn't match, and it was just one of those things. One of those ridiculous things. It is surely something that I could have done at some point in the future. There was no need to do it now. None. 

It was Mary Moon's comment with a link to some gorgeous knobs that got me doing some internet looking. I looked at stainless steel ones. I just felt like they needed to be more organic, if that makes sense. I mean, I spent hours looking. I found some beautiful ones that I wanted something awful, but they were almost $5 a piece. 

In the end, what I came up with was a compromise. I got these. For $30, I got 35 of them, and the important thing is that they match. I'm not going to be groaning to myself every time I look at that kitchen. They match. They'll work. They will keep me happy until such a time as I don't feel guilty about replacing them if I still want to. 

I spent this morning putting up the brushed nickel trim around the ceramic tile. Tim picked it out, but he didn't like it after it was up. I'm not sure why. I think it looks just fine. 

I also had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. I was surprised that the visit was recorded. Probably because I argued against the medication. I hadn't been rude. I'd made it very clear. I told them that I thought they were being unnecessarily forceful about the medication. I made it clear that I'd only had one high A1C reading. I made it clear that everything that I'd read is that medication should only be used after two high readings AND after it was determined that it couldn't be controlled by diet and exercise. I mean, it's moot now. My readings are once again in the normal range, which indicated to me that whatever was going on could obviously be controlled by diet and exercise. 

She agreed that I'd done great. She was pleased with the labs. She was pleased with the weight loss and she agreed that I was taking it very seriously. She also said that most people 'struggle'. I guess that explains it right there. I guess that we reached a compromise as well. She understands that I am not 'most people'. I understand that she doesn't mind being proven wrong, and that I don't need to feel bad about sticking to my guns with her. So. That's good. 

We're having a thunderstorm. I do love a nice thunderstorm. On that bright note, I'll log off and get supper dishes done.