"Autumn Trellis" + Miscellaneous 11-20-09

I like blogs with pictures, so here is a picture that has little relationship to the rest of the post.

"Autumn Trellis" Del Thomas 34"W X 51"L Machine pieced, Raw-edge Applique w/straight stitch edge, Machine quilted. I donated this quilt to the Surfside Quilters Guild Live Auction to be held at their December Fest meeting on Dec 8, 2009.

I'm listening to the website http://www.theradio.com/ - 50's #1 recordings. I am indebted to Anne Copeland for sharing the URL with me in 2008. It is really a strange mix - Nat "King" Cole singing "Looking Back", followed by Phil Harris with "The Thing", then Elvis Presley doing "Don't be Cruel". It is amazing to me that these songs make me feel so good! I was a miserable teenager in the early 1950s and felt that I could never be happy - so how can the music of those years have such a positive effect now? The only conclusion I have made is that they were the high points of my dreary days - the good memories. They remind me of people and places that were happy, if only I had been able to recognize them. Mario Lanza always brings to mind my great high school crush Al Lavarato, who (of course) did not know I was alive. Domenico Medugno singing "Volare" reminds me of the boyfriend I was ready to marry the moment I met him and who turned out to be a teenage gigolo. "Blue Suede Shoes" brings back my closest friend Diane, who I lost touch with 45 years ago, whose boyfriend left his blue suedes under her bed one time. She was grounded forever and her dad nailed her windows closed!! I wonder where she is now. Show tunes take me back to the musicals presented by the drama/music department where I happily worked for four years - strictly behind the scenes. Frequently now when I am doing general stuff on the computer I am also taking a walk down memory lane. Can't do it when I am working on the SQG newsletter - too distracting.

I have to mention my fabulous dinner tonight. I resurrected a container of fantastic butternut-carrot soup from the freezer, toasted a couple TJoe's wheat free frozen waffles, dribbled some lemon/olive oil mix on cold cooked broccoli, poured a glass of Lactaid milk and set out the container of yogurt. It was so good I wanted to eat it all over again. Simple pleasures. I will have to make some more of the soup soon. Maybe I will freeze all of it in individual containers - it seems so much more delicious after it has been frozen for a few weeks.

With the weather getting colder and more humid my arthritis is sneaking back in. My hands in particular bother me. But I have found that the analgesic patches help a lot. I cut a strip off (about 1" x 3") and wrap it around the joint that is killing me. Almost immediately the pain lessens and it works for about eight hours - depending on how many dozen times I wash my hands during that period. Then I just peel it off and put on another. It doesn't even take my skin off. Great stuff. I warned you this post contained miscellaneous stuff!!

Now, back to the newsletter. I can't work on it for hours at a time because my eyesight deserts me and I can't use them at all for a couple hours. It is better to work for about 1-1/2 hour, then take an hour off. I try to look away from the screen frequently and get up and walk around every now and then. The PTherapist says to get up every 20 minutes! She doesn't understand it takes me five minutes to just figure out what I was doing when I stood up.