Got a cough! 06-27-23

 

Had to have a picture and this is one of my favorites from Facebook.  I think I will have a mat like this on the INSIDE of my door.   I'll add "Check that the outside doors are locked."

My news is that I have a terrible cough.  This is the first illness I have  had since the lockdown and mask wearing when  Covid struck in 2020.  Really amazing since I usually have bronchitis every winter.  I went out to dinner with neighbors on Friday evening and one of the guys had a cough.  If I had know of that before I got in his car I would have stayed home.  But at the restaurant he kept coughing and I was stuck.  He claims that he just has allergies, but I recognize a bad cough that is not an allergy to anything.  Anyway, I treated myself when I got home, but by Sunday night I had a scratchy throat and knew I had contracted his cough infection.  By Monday night I was whooping it up pretty bad.  Fortunately I have a supply of Fisherman's Friend cough lozenges, so I can  control it somewhat.  I wore a mask when I took the boys to school and hope they do not catch anything.  A friend suggested a Covid test and I have at least a dozen test kits, so I did the test (such tiny printing!} and it was negative  I really don't have any symptoms other than the cough. 

I am just resting and drinking fluids and sucking on Fisherman's Friend.  Hope it goes away quickly.  Fortunately I don't have anything on my calendar this week except taking KoKo for grooming on Thursday.  He is pretty shaggy.  Maybe I can do some sewing, doesn't take a lot of energy!  Or, as always, read. 

#   #   #

Goodbye 2021 12-31-21

Hope you are all enjoying New Years Eve in your own way.  KoKo and I are being quiet and peaceful - until the fireworks start.  So far only a few and not close by.  I just hold him and pet him and talk softly and he survives, shaking and growling.  

I did have to go to the pharmacy this morning, but masked up and distanced.  Nothing else on my calendar for more than a week.  I did have the booster on Dec 22nd.  I had waited until there was nothing on my calendar for a few days because I reacted so strongly to the number two shot.  It was a wise move as I spent about three and a half days with headache, temperature, ache all over, wiped out.  But I'd rather do that than have full blown Covid.   I certainly know people who have it or have it in their family, but no hospitalizations so far.  Scary stuff.  

Here is to better luck with 2022.  

#   #   #

Sewing, Book Group 07-21-21

After the pandemic shutdown I am just not accustomed to having so much to do!  Yesterday especially, I actually had four things on my calendar, after weeks, months of blankness!  First we had to go for our morning walk about 7:15am because it warms up fast and by 8am it can be over 80F - summertime!  Then there was a QGuild ZOOM Board Meeting at 9:30am, at 11:30am KoKo had an appointment for booster shots and the vet's office was backed up so it took an hour instead of the expected 20 minutes or so.  I sewed all afternoon before taking my friend Dick out for sushi at our favorite place "Fish in a Bottle".  Carol has been in Texas for a week, returning today.  And then I sewed late into the night to finish the Challenge quilt for Surfside QGuild to turn it in today on the very last possible turn-in date!  

The reveal date for the Challenge is the August 10th IN PERSON guild meeting in a new meeting place.  So, I can't show you the finished quilt, but here are some teasers.  I doubt that anyone in the guild actually reads my blog, so it won't be too much of a reveal. 

This is the quilted background.  We had three FQ to include - at least 4" of one and 2" of the other two - and the theme was "Bucket List".  The blue on the left and the orange on the right are two of the fabrics, the other was used in applique.  The quilting suggests the different terrain of California, Oregon, and Washington.  My imaginary travels take me up I-5, Hwy 101, and US395.  

And here we are in the Lexus heading north.  Someday soon, I hope!  Sometime after Aug 10th I will post an image of the whole quilt.  It isn't my favorite I have ever made, but it forced me to sew and it does fulfill all the requirements. 

Dessert at Book Group was a lovely homemade cake at Nancy's house.   I didn't realize how much I missed the welcoming living rooms and tasty desserts  we enjoy each month.  For over 40 years we have met in the evening, but everyone is now retired and we find it is more difficult to drive after dark, so gradually we have switched to 11:30am with everyone bringing a sack lunch and the hostess providing dessert as usual.  What a lovely plate with the white cake, blue napkin showing a bright lemon; we also had lemonade to drink.  It was a lovely meeting.  The book was "Signature of All Things" by Elizabeth Gilbert.  It was a real struggle for me with a very unsympathetic "heroine", but the others seemed to enjoy it and we all learned something about science and research - mosses in particular.  Not a book I will recommend.  And I read it on Kindle which I don't much enjoy, I miss the feeling and sight of a REAL book.  One funny thing is that when I am done reading, my hand automatically reaches out for a bookmark to mark my place!  I guess after 70 years of marking my place, my brain is hard to retrain.  

#   #   #

 

Covid vaccine #2 02-24-21

 

After having the #2 vaccine on Monday at 3pm, I felt okay.  Then at 6:30pm on Tuesday the reactions hit.   Chills, fever, aching joints, headache, sore/itchy arm - the works.  We went to bed early after Tylenol and Benadryl and slept most of the night.  Today I feel much better.  Still have the terribly painful, itchy arm and slight headache, but able to go for our walks morning and evening.  They say that this "affliction" shows that the vaccine is working.  I'm not going to complain about the discomfort because it is much easier to endure than having Covid.   We took it easy today and will do so tomorrow.  I have been sewing half square triangles - no brain needed!   I am committed to sewing for an hour every day.  Maybe longer, but at least an hour.  Might accomplish something. 

#   #   #

KoKo post 02-21-21

KoKo is my housemate and keeps me sane.  He needs to be fed, loved, bathed, walked, pottyed, brushed, bathed, and entertained.  In turn he entertains me, keeps me moving, snuggles at night, and listens intently to everything I say.  He is the perfect housemate.

KoKo likes to walk the wall in the backyard.  It overlooks, a weed grown slope, a metal fence, a gravel road that belongs to the water company, a flood control channel, a chain link fence, a block wall and a tract of "garden" homes.  The taller buildings are apartments on a parallel road.  The other end of our yard overlooks a park that is little used - mostly lovers, dog walkers, and guys tossing footballs or frisbees.  

 

Today was bath day and KoKo is now squeaky clean and curled up in his bed with his best friend, Froggy.  Froggy is going to have some shoulder replacement surgery, necessary to keep his arms from falling off!  I don't know quite how to do it, but some artificial joints may be necessary.  Poor guy, I'll bet he has more surgical scars than any frog on record.  He is the same age as KoKo, seven years old on May 20.  Old for a doggy's froggy, eh?

Tomorrow I have a date for my 2nd vaccine.  Fingers crossed for no side effects. 

#   #   #

I'll have to try harder! 02-06-21

It is really difficult to think of anything to blog about.  As for many of us, my days are so much the same.  I'm not even motivated to take many pictures when we go for our walks.  I know I am not alone in this problem.  I belong to a Facebook Group "Elder Orphans" which I enjoy and learn a lot from people who are dealing with the same sorts of things I am dealing with.  Today there was a post with many comments from members who are having the same Covid-19 problem - nothing of interest in their lives.   This evening I looked back through pictures from years past.  And found these taken on February 5, 2020, when the boys in the cul de sac and I went to a local ice cream shop after I picked them up from school.  We did go a few times after this, but the pandemic curtailed our "Ice Cream Explorations".   And they stopped going to school, staying home with their dad who had to work from home.  

This is at Rich Farms Ice Cream in Placentia.  It is a large space and did a good business.  They have dozens of different flavors.

Emmanuel had mint flavor.

Julian had something blue - don't remember the flavor. 

Julian is actually sitting still for a minute.  He is a wiggle worm and likes to make faces. 

I do see them occasionally.  Isolation is a bitch, isn't it?

#   #   #

 

New Year's Dinner 01-02-21

Nothing special for New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.  I just don't do holidays anymore.  A wreath on the door for Christmas season and multiple flags for 4th of July.  I can't tell you why!  I just lost interest about a decade ago.  I think it is part of being old and deciding to just be my own person and do whatever I enjoy.  

I do enjoy going out for meals, but that isn't something I can do right now, so I prepare food to eat; minimal cooking - microwave, toaster oven.  Today I had the urge to eat something special so I ordered takeout from The Wild Artichoke in Yorba Linda.  I have always enjoyed their food, which is rather pricey, and have picked up take out a couple times in the last six months.  Tonight I called and ordered their special salmon with capers, risotto, and veggies.  KoKo and I drove over to pick it up at 5pm, rather early for me, but it just seemed like a good time.  Beautiful sunset driving home; flashing behind buildings and trees like a film strip.  

The picture doesn't do it justice - much more colorful. 

But very delicious and enough for two meals for me, so I will enjoy the other half tomorrow evening. 

 

I ordered carrot cake for my neighbor, Mark-to-the-South, because he does love it.  I don't think it will be as tasty as the carrot cake from Katella Deli in LBeach, but I can't currently drive over there.  I delivered it to Mark when we went for our evening walk and he told me he has had the first of the two vaccinations.   He retired from the hospital where he maintains and repairs equipment, but they keep calling him back part time.  He'll have his second shot soon.  He says that some of his fellow employees are declining the vaccine,  They seem to want to see how effective it is with other people.  DUH!  

#   #   #

From the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection 11-15-20

I was looking for a quilt to post tonight and came across this Ruth B. McDowell quilt from 2004.  I was immediately struck by the pre-Covid gathering of teenagers on a street corner in Pacific Grove, California.  This is such a typical teenage group which we would hopefully not see in our current situation.  There is the chickie in the striped shirt who is getting most of the attention while her friend stands half off frame on the left, patiently waiting for.....??  The boy next to her has a soda, this was pre-cell phones.  The guy on the far right has found something else to look at, but the other four boys are still in the game.  This is all straight edge piecing and Ruth has a knack for capturing the body language of each figure.  She cuts the stripes and plaids to accentuate the posture and eliminates faces to just show the attitude of the figures.   I especially love the shoes!

"The Street Corner"  Ruth B. McDowell - MA  2004  55"W X 41"L

Commercial Cotton Fabrics, Cotton Batting, Cotton Thread

Machine pieced and quilted. 

#   #   #