Happy Hump Day!

On the weather front we were supposed to have more snow but it has warmed up and we are currently having what is commonly known as "rain". I'm hoping the Channel Twelve Weather Team becomes familar with the difference in some point in time (although they did sneaky change thier predictions and then act like that's what they said in the first place). Vincent is down here being a Sneaky Cat, rubbing on my pant leg like he loves me but we both know he's actually trying to dry himself off. I went to the doctor's yesterday for my check up, I took my knitting with me and was halfway through a stitch when the nurse stuck her head out and called my name - then she called it AGAIN  but sort of crabby and didn't seem to care at all about sock #2 or where I was stitch wise. The good thing about here is you don't wait for hours to see the doctor but when they call you - you'd better have your running shoes on! I had bloodwork done and a referral for surgeon for an evalution (I have a small hernia that has gotten worse in the past few months) but other than that I'm in good shape. I went to Dr. Carey because all of his patients speak very highly of him - the nice thing about being a home care nurse is you know who to go to - and who to avoid!!

When The Wind Blows

The wind sounded like a train all day yesterday, howling down our chimney and sweeping through the breezeway. All of the trees were swinging wildly - since we've had a lot of rain and snow it gets a bit nervewracking as trees uproot pretty easily in those conditions and the ones around the house are at least 30 to 40 feet tall. Pearl insisted on going outside of course, the only thing that was mildly amusing was I could pitch the rubber frog pretty far with the strong winds. I made her come in finally before her ears blew off entirely!! Jackson has yet another cold - this seems to be his year for them. His room stinks of Vicks, but he seems to be getting better so we can skip the trip to the doctor I suppose. David and I went to a wake in Mannington last night, Susan's Grandfather passed away very suddenly on Friday - I couldn't believe it at all. I can't make the funeral on Tuesday but we went to the wake last night and I met quite a few more of Susan's relatives - it's going to be a huge affair I think. We got there about half an hour after it started and the parking lot was already full - when we left around 7:30 people were still streaming in. Her family set up a lot of pictures spanning his life and had a family album which was really nice - I never really realized how much her Dad looked like her grandfather until I saw the picture of them standing together. There was a picture of the family farm that's been in the family for generations - it was just very nice.

The Perfection That Is Claw

I have no idea why we end up with one token Nasty Cat at all times. Before Claw came on the scene we had Mitzi who began her career as Completely Evil at the age of 6 weeks. Her first victim was my friend Nancy from England - Nancy picked her tiny kitten self up and just as she declared "How cute!" Mitzi sank her tiny kitten teeth right into her hand. I finally had to have her put to sleep when she was about 8 years old and so out of control even I couldn't handle her anymore - I still have scars from her. Claw is not really in the same class, but she has her moments - she was sitting on the couch with me last night and (she does this all the time) for no reason just started randomly hissing and darted off the couch. We've come to the conclusion that she just hates everyone. In other news Pearl and I continue to spy on the snakes in the fence post hole few times a week to see how it's going. And no, I haven't tried to pick them up as I don't know what they are - I'm pretty sure they are NOT Black snakes, Northern Pacific or Garters (they are way too big to be Garters) so I'm leaving them be for now, they're most likely hibernating and will be gone in the spring. We had snow as you can see from the pictures but it's melted so now we're back to cold and clammy mud - how delightful. I'm currently working on sock #2 which so far resembles sock #1, - more or less. Fortunately David will have a Moral Obligation to wear them as I made them myself. I finally went to the Walmart off of exit one and was glad I did - the clearance aisle is FULL of yarn and you have to sort through it -even I can't come up with a suitable project for neon green and orange yarn - but I did find 10 skeins of Lion brand Microfiber yarn for a dollar apiece - it usually costs $5 so it's all mine quite naturally. I will be sneaking back there during the week. I have a doctor's appointment for Tuesday FINALLY after all this yammering about how I have to go for the past two years - I made myself make the appointment  - sometimes that's the hardest part. David didn't end up going to Ray's quite yet, the skin biopsy came back negative so he's calmed down but David will be going to see him in a few weeks when we can plan it better.

SpringSummerWinterFall - All In One Week.

I don't know about the weather in your neck of the woods but here it's just looney. Yesterday it was up to the 60's - which would have been way more fun if it hadn't been pouring rain the entire time. The back roads were a mess - I know because I was on them - and when I got to my 2nd patient's house I stopped twenty feet up the driveway, put the car in park and got out. About 30 seconds later a white pickup truck came whipping down the road and pulled in behind me - it was the patient's son who was trying to get there before I went any further and fell down the rather large hole where the driveway had washed out. He was very sweet and carried my bag for me as we carefully picked our way up to the house. I was trying to stay on the rockiest parts of the driveway to avoid falling and consequently sliding back to down into the aforementioned hole. Thank goodness I'm in fairly good shape as it was a very steep climb! After I was done I pulled over on the side of the road in Ida May which is tiny town that the only place to get beer is the Handi-Mart - you can also get all the gossip - I called the office to let them know I'd decided to head out to Mannington and get that done. After all I was only 15 miles away and if I did that patient today it would be a 15 mile trip, tomorrow it would be a 96 mile round trip. The logistics of this state still get me - trying to figure out where everything is and so forth. But over the past 3 years of being a visit nurse I've gotten very familar with the backroads. I was driving in unfamilar territory - until I saw Gallus Road and I instantly knew where I was and how to get out of there - I think that is so strange now how well I know this place.

The Uni-Sock

I finally finished the first sock and even managed to perform the Kistchner Stitch to graft the toe closed since it's a cuff down sock as opposed to a toe up. David tried it on and it really does fit so I started the second one last night much to Pearl's dismay. She would prefer we spend ALL of our time (except when we're snoozing in bed) outside running around and harrassing things. We found some snakes in an old fence post hole yesterday, I'll post the pictures tomorrow. The weekend passed fairly quietly - and nicely - except that we heard from Ray and he's been having some health issues lately. David is planning on making a trip to NJ this weekend to see what's going on with him. The computer has been behaving  better so we'll take it in next week, David suspects it might actually been the keyboard that was causing the problems, not to mention the cable. The cable guy is coming today to see what's up with that, we can't get any channels over 98 which in itself is a bit silly - I think we had THREE when I was kid, now I'm whining because I "only" have 98...... and then we have to get new phones because ours pooped out last week and we just haven't gotten to it. David hooked up the "emergency" phone which is $7 phone with a cord that makes me feel like I'm back in high school when I use it. I guess looking at this post this just might be National Malfunction Week.....

A Moment Of Zen

I'm planning on doing little to nothing today - I cleaned yesterday and got rid of some more stuff and have some paperwork later, but that's about it. The shower was fun yesterday, I met Susan at the office parking lot and we drove over to Rock Forge together - Susan wasn't sure where the church was but I pointed out that since Rock Forge is about 60 x 30 feet there couldn't be too many churches. It was right on rt 7 and we met Theresa and Jessica there. My hat went over well and everyone even knew what it was supposed to be, whoo hoo - I also gave a gift certificate since I figured Nicole would get a lot of stuff and that way she could buy whatever she didn't get. When I got home David had hooked up the old keyboard to the computer, opps! Word to the wise - do NOT spray cleaning stuff all over your keyboard even if it really really needs it. I did point out to David it was Spanky Clean but he pointed out it was Defunct so the spanky clean-ness was not so impressive. Ack! I'm letting Jackson have the car to toodle around in today, he has decided not to get one of his own since he's planning on the navy midsummer but we have him take the car when available as I don't want him to lose that skill. Speaking of the navy, we heard from Adam, the House Monkey and he is re-enlisted, they haven't given him a definate date yet but the recruiter said either mid-February to March - regardless he is excited to get back in. So we will have a bunch of navy boys come summer. In other news I wrote an email to Best Buys Customer service 3 days ago asking why it takes so long for them to repair a computer despite thier ad stating it only takes 3 days - I got a computer generated email telling me "due to the high number of emails to the customer service center there would be a delay in response" - in other words they have so many customer complaints they can't even get to them!

Knitting My Life Away

I finally finished the Dropped Daisy Baby Hat last night and got all the petals of the flower sewn on - I showed it to David and Jackson and they knew what it was supposed to be, so it passed. As I was finishing up the hat I could feel that ugly sock glaring at me from inside the knitting bag. I tend to be a One Project Woman and having two just makes me crazy. I know quite a few knitters that keep a running group of UFO's (UnFinished Objects) but I just can't - I have to finish it or frog it, but I can't just leave it. Last night at work was upsetting, I got a call around 5 pm that I would have to go to the Clarksburg's area and admit an infusion patient, and they didn't know when the patient would be coming home. I've had a pretty crazy work week - you know how that goes, Monday goes bad and then the rest of the week is just a runaway train and yesterday was no exception - so I just lost it. We're only supposed to be oncall for things that cannot be handled during business hours and instead of telling the hospital no, the office accepted it despite the fact they knew I would have to drive over 100 miles round trip, in the dark in an unfamilar place - that was just stupid. Our office wouldn't have accepted that - it ended up working out and I didn't have to go but I told Susan the next time I AM resigning as this oncall nonsense has completely gotten out of control. David is going to be bringing the computer in to be worked on, it's not doing anything overly bad but I think it needs to looked at and cleaned up. Best Buy still sucks - David called and the tech told him 5 to 7 days and he couldn't guarentee that - doesn't the commercial guarentee 3 days? They are so awful and don't even try customer service, I think they're motto is the We Don't Care About Our Customers. David will be calling around to find somewhere else to go, he should know better after our last experience we had with them. I don't know about other Best Buys but really the one here is slow and rude to put it mildly. In other news however Lantern Moon came through - boy was I shocked! I got a FULL set of replacement needles in the mail yesterday so now I have the set plus 3 spare in case they break - whoo hoo bonus! So they will get a nice letter.