Spring is in the air

But it is coming very slowly.  This is good.  Because we have a major flood coming our way again.  The slower the melt the better. Fargo ND got dumped on last week....so that stuff all comes intoour river network here in Manitoba. So I'm not wishing for really high temps right now.  A slow melt will ease the situation and not cause major flooding on the Red River that runs through the city...AND right behind my new house!!

So you guys in the US quit wishing for spring if your river runs through us.  .OKAY....let's do it nice and easy. Don't make me come  out there and give you a knuckle sandwich..heh..

Yeah..I'm feeling a like a little bad ass today. 

Bro is still in the hospital.  Still on antibotics for the mystery infection.  He seems to get spaced out every time they hook up that IV.  His vitals are good...no problem...just this mystery shit.  I have calmed down.  I have stopped terrorizing his nurse and doctor when I am there or on the phone.  It gets me nowhere.  They are doing their best and I understand.  But I just want them to understand  that even if all of us cannot be there 24-7 ..we are taking notes ...and we care.  I have seen a lot of people in the hospital and are just left without an advocate.  Someone to speak in their behalf if they cannot. 

That being said....I have a horrible problem with going to the hospital.  It fucking scares me to death.  My blood pressure must be over the top when I do go.  I have to talk myself into it everytime.  I did the same thing when my mom was in the hospital before she died, then Gordon when he had heart problems....I don't want to see them sick and I have to crank up everything in my mind to get there.  I am wringing my hands as I am writing this.  I am pretty sure that is the reason I got lost going home last week from the hospital.  I was a nutcase.  Plus it's in an area of town I am not familar with. 

But I will go back tomorrow to see for myself "what condition his condition is in."  ...even if I have a panic attack on the way. 

This came from my good friend Jude .. it sums it all up

Because more and more Seniors are texting and tweeting, there appears to be a need for a STC (Senior Texting Code.) If you have reached the magical golden number of 60 or above you qualify and these are the codes for you.


ATD: At The Doctor's



BFF: Best Friend Fell



BTW: Bring The Wheelchair



CUATSC: See You At The Senior Center



FWIW: Forgot Where I Was



FYI: Found Your Insulin



GGPBL: Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low!



GHA: Got Heartburn Again



HGBM: Had Good Bowel Movement



IMHO: Is My Hearing-Aid On?



LMDO: Laughing My Dentures Out



LOL: Living On Lipitor



OMSG: Oh My! Sorry, Gas.



ROFL... CGU: Rolling On The Floor Laughing... And Can't Get Up



TTYL: Talk To You Louder--



WAITT: Who Am I Talking To?



WTP: Where's The Prunes?



GGLKI (Gotta Go, Laxative Kicking In)
 
Haaaaa I can so relate.  Thanks Jude I needed a good laugh.

Little bro is still in the hospital

He was supposed to come home two days after the stint or is a stent?  was put in but he now has contracted a mystery infection in the hospital.  The suspect is the catheter.  He has fluid around his lungs and it makes it very hard for him to breath. He also is very confused.  I was up to see him again today and he could not stay awake long enough to talk to me.  They had given him large doses of antibiotics and stuff to drain the liquid from his lungs.  His breathing was very labored. 

He knew me and greeted me as I came in but in an instant he closed his eyes and fell to sleep.  I stayed while the nurses did all the stuff nurses do....he had just had lunch (which he didn't eat) and they cleaned him up.  He has to wear a diaper because they need to know if he is peeing.  He has heart problems along with type 2 diabetes so kidney function is a worry.  It was kind of funny because when I came in and tapped him on the shoulder he woke up and said HI!  We talked for a  bit ...but he was mostly repeating what I had already said to him. Then he snoozed....I sat for awhile and then I went  to the nurses station and had a talk with the head nurse and his doctor about what condition his condition was in. When I got back....  I woke him up again ...yes I pinched his cheek... heh... He had no idea I had been there before and said HI!  and we did a little small talk.  ... and he fell asleep.  Finally I saw no point in staying there so I pinched his cheek one last time and said I'm going home.... and he said HI. I told him I would see him tomorrow and he was very alert and thanked me for coming.....so that's all I got.

Then I got lost going home.  The Health Science Centre where is being housed is far away from where I live.  It's downtown where I never would normally drive. Sure ... years ago I used to work in that neighbourhood but everything has changed so much I don't have a clue anymore.  I have been up to visit him twice and always turned where I supposed to turn.  Today I guess my mind was elsewhere and I missed the turn.  Be damned it I could get back on track.  I drove through the most seediest parts of town trying to get back home.  On the horizon I could see the sky scrapers down town where I should have been, but be damned it I could head back to it.  Winnipeg has a river running through it.  When you end up on the wrong side of the river it's a bitch trying to find your way back to the other side.  Fudge....People ... it took me 20 minutes to get to the hospital and 1 1/2 hrs. to get home.  I  saw a lot of stuff on the other side of the river.  In fact I crossed the same bridge twice and two over passes. And the downtown sky line only kept on getting dimmer.  Finally I came to a place I remembered being before.....and within 20 minutes I was at home.  

I have a portable GPS system which was NOT connected because I think I know everything.  I could have pulled off and connected it or called Gord for directions....but I was a little embarrassed that I could not find my way back home in my own city. 

I guess I have my own comfort zone in the South part of the city and don't like to drive downtown.  I now know where I made the mistake and that will never happen again.  ..if it does I'm pretty sure I will drive around like an assehole and do it all over again.  It was like a mini vacation.  See the seedy side of town...and lock yer doors.

I apologize

I signed up for the photo challenge this time around but forgot about it as my brother was hospitalized on Wednesday with heart problems and it slipped my mind.  I put something together earlier in the week but I haven't finished it yet.  I will work on it this afternoon and try to get it in.

Thanks
Joan

I'm in business

Lap top, IPad and my big ole Dell who sits on the desk on the other of the room.  I have been having a great time trying to figure out the IPad...and thanks to my friend Donna I finally got it wired up.  You are god sent.  

Disjointed thoughts.

I lost track of time.  The clocks Sprung up today!!  Gord and I had just finished lunch ...ummm apparently at 11:00 AM when I went to do a little blog trolling and found out on Donna's (Texas) site the time change had occurred.  Duh.  Man... the day went fast after that.  Dog still hasn't figured it out yet, she didn't ask for her supper until an hour later.

Wow, this will be the first time I won't have to drag my pathetic ass to work on Monday after THE CHANGE.  I feel a polka coming on I'm that happy.  Or I might just do some Old Time Rock and Roll.  I have lived through both generations and part of the third. 

I'm making a Pork Loin Roast.  Smashed taters and corn.  How original?  Yeah I'm not even hungry yet.

Tomorrow we are expecting better weather after the mini blizzard this weekend.  I am looking forward to the floods.. seriously ... it means this crap is melting. 

Penny did a poop in the snow today in the figure 8.  She is so smart. Tomorrow I going to tell her to do a number 3.  That's a hard one to do..  I wish I had my video camera running. .She twisted and turned so many times and there it was ... like magic.  A perfect 8.  I could have put that on UTube and it would have gone viral.  THEN Dave Letterman would have called me and asked Penny and me to come on his show. Where Penny would have been asked to do a number 8...and she probably would have done a normal #2.  She is really good at #1's so I can't boast about that.

My friend Kat who left this planet last summer always loved a show called "The Trailer Park Boys."  Now that I have NetFlix I watched it most of the afternoon. My sense of humour is pretty warped...but hers was even more so....so while I watching all the TV shows from series 3 ... I laughed and it almost felt like I was laughing with her because she loved that show so much.  I knew what line in the shows would have made her piss her pants.  Sometimes she would phone me out of breath laughing just waiting to tell me the antics of her Trailer Park Guys.  I never really got it, because we couldn't pick up that show on our TV. But now I know.

I wish we could have shared that....because I really really miss her.  We met  each other on blogger about 5-6 years ago.  She was tough, a little rough around the edges and had many stories to tell.  She was an excellent writer.  I still try to edit everything I write because she would catch my mistakes in a heart beat.  She made me a better writer because at that time I poured it out without really spell checking anything. Grammar....nope she could never tame me...I write like I think. I drove her crazy...but for all my flaws she took me into her nest of bloggers.  We were brought up in the same city...so that was a connection.  Plus we liked to laugh.  Really hard.

I was thinking about old blogger friends tonight.  I decided I was lethal.  I have met up with 4 blogger friends and three have died.  So, if you want to keep on living...don't meet up with me.  I think the first one is still alive but she has moved on and we don't communicate anymore..that shit happens.  The second was Ellen who I met via friends of friends and found she lived in the same city I did.  She had just recently married her husband Curtis after that she found out she had Kidney cancer.  We became very good friends, but never met until she was terminally ill and almost unable to communicate.  Before she got ill her husband Curtis started his own blog and we became good friends.  After Ellen died Curtis almost stopped blogging because he was devastated.  Slowly but surly as time when by he started up again.  Just as he was getting back on his feet he developed a terrible blood disorder that took his life last summer.  Also this summer my dear friend Kat died of cancer. Over a year and a half of pain and misery....she rallied and rallied. I will never forget a Facebook message she put up...she said.....I now have Stage 4 cancer  ... I was always an over achiever. 

I guess I didn't really kill them...they were all from Canada and Winnipeg was there home one time or the other.  That is what brought us all together.  The first blogger I met up with was from the USA...so apparently I don't kill Americans.  Just my own people. Opp's I am wrong Curtis was an American who married a Canadian. He was a war vet from West Virginia and he met Ellen on the Internet and they both fell absolutely madly in love.  It was real love.  Two people later in there lives found love after bad experiences in their lives.  And within 5-6 years of a wonderful marriage it all fell apart. They loved each other  so much.

So, I guess what brought this on today is watching Trailer Park Boys....for the first time and trying to figure out why she liked that show so much. It's a really off beat show and it does make me laugh.  I have four more seasons of it to watch and I will try to figure it out what about it made her laugh until she peed her underpants....as she called them.

She would yell a me if she saw this post..  so shut up...Kat ..she is still trying to boss me around.

Kat, Ellen, Curtis  .. I miss you guys every day when I crank up the computer.  While I am sad that you died I am forever grateful to have met you.

balonie

Net Flix came to Canada

I'm just wondering how you guys in the "states" as we Canucks  like to call you like it ... if you have it. 

It was magic for me.  In two minutes I was watching movies.  We never  rent movies, nor do we go to the movies...so I was blown away. 

I can only watch on my computers right now because it requires Xbox or Wii to stream it in the TV...but I will worry about that once we decide if we want to keep it.

I have a month of free Net Flix to watch...and then will make my decision to keep it at 7.95 a month.  That is cheap. And there are sooooooooooo many.....

What say you?

Dine in tonight

I bought a frozen soup mix today at Super Store.  After I got it home it seemed it was a little short of all the hearty veggies they promised.  Carrots, beans, spinach, corn and pototoes. They were little tiny pieces of vegetables suitable for an infant.  On the right you will see the huge frozen soup mix that was to be added mostly for weight.

Look at the tiny pieces of carrot that was in there.  Not even a bunny wabbit would nibble on that.

Now the beans ... seriously you call these beans?  There was 24 of them in the package ... 12 for each of us. 

Spinach...yum... I counted about 8 frozen pieces  ... 4 for each of us.

Cubed potatoes and corn.  Have you ever seen such a small cube of potatoe? I didn't count them but I think they threw in a few extra.

I made the soup and didn't use all the those cubes of whateverthehelltheywere... but I added all the stuff I think soup needs...some farmer sausage...onion...left over spanish rice, real carrots and somemore veggies that aren't microscopic.  Now we will have something to chew on.  Damit. Plus we have chewy hard rolls to got with it....

Then I made a banana loaf.  With walnuts. 

yeah....it's been a fun day.

PS..we just ate it...it's tastes like ass............just so you know...it was horrible.  Not the banana loaf... the poop soup.
Just a reminder to myself.....don't buy shit. 

Score

I ordered an IPad on Friday.  I hope she will get along with my ancient Dell desktop and my refurbished Toshiba laptop.  I have rammed all of them up, so they still have a life.

I hope I don't have computer fighting going on after I go to bed.  My Dell is a big ole mother F*ker and has a lot of miles on her.  She has recorded all my emails, blogs and face book for many years. She struggled in the years when I was just learning to do Digital Scrapbooking with various software.  It took out every ounce of her ram to do that....and finally when I saw she was suffering I brought her into the shop and gave her some more ram.  Ever since then she is like an old dog on meds.  Very grateful and wagging her hard drive.

She wasn't too impressed when I linked in the Laptop, but hey...more nap time for her.  Now with the IPad... I don't know how she will react.  Another new kid on the block.  Personally I think she will be like the mom and kick their asses when they try to mess with me. 

Hey it's always a crap shoot when you introduce your computers to each other. 

I'm so glad I have lived to see this day.


Balonie....tucking them to bed.

I thought I had lost my party ways

But yesterday we went to my nieces engagement party ... that was fun. I, of course was very skeptical because I don't believe in leaving the house unless it's on fire or we need groceries.  I spent the afternoon trying to be sick.  I needed an excuse to NOT attend.  It was way over on the other side of town....will I know anyone there? ...  (umm it's my family shithead) and the new extended family... I was seriously  troubled by this.  UNTIL her sister emailed me and asked for ride because she had to work until 6:00 PM.  She only works a few blocks from our house.  I said ...hell yes!!  It just took that little motivation to get me grounded.

You know, I finally took a good look at myself.  I have sat here for eleven months whining about all the things I previously said I wanted to do once I was retired .. and I have done none of them. Yes I dabbled in some crap...but couldn't concentrate.

Last night was so great.  Talking with real people..seeing new things.  Making an ass of myself...which everyone seems to enjoy....the old Joan might just be back.  I sort of missed her.

For some reason

I am only getting one post at a time show up...and then older posts shows up to click on....

I don't like that.  I went into settings to change it but can't find the trick ... it must be this newer template that screwed it up. 

It's Friday night...just waiting for the other half of my life to appear.  He should be here soon .. after all it's Pizza Night and he wouldn't miss that for the world. 

I'm going to order the IPad tomorrow!!!!!!!!    I just peed a little bit in my granny pants.  Speaking about Granny stuff...I bought a grocery cart thing a ma doo today. Something which I should have done years ago to haul groceries up the outside steps plus the inside steps to the kitchen.  It doesn't look like an old lady shopping cart.  It looks like a back pack for the elderly..haaaaaa except it has wheels on it and you don't have to wear it.  I put two 12 packs of cola and groceries in it today and brought it up my outside steps and into the foyer...and then drove it up the next 6 stairs to the kitchen.  Easy peesie.  Now... I think of this shit.  In our  new house we will still have to take groceries in from the garage, but it will be like two steps...but still this little baby will be mine forever. 

This is a bad picture it looks like a penguin.   But the top part flips over and there is a huge amount of space to put the stuff.

this is it's backside..mit lots of zippered pockets to put your drugs in while you shop.  I especially love the big honking wheels.  I might even put my laundry in it to take downstairs.  Who knew somebody in ...according to the tag designed it in Germany and had it made in China???

I don't normally name stuff I own ... but I am thinking something skunky.  Let's call he/she Flower.



My things own me

I am at a loss of words to explain the weather, nor do I want to dwell on it at any length.  But ... THERE IT IS... I'm getting a tad pissed off.   It was cold last year too...but this year is different.  We will be moving 4 miles further south this year so next year I should be basking in the sun by this time.....heh.

I was thinking about all the stuff we have  that will have to be moved.  Which is just STUFF,  Then I read a favorite blog .....she, her husband and children spend their lives sailing around the world.  They work and travel.  There last stop was New Zealand to aquire more money to sail.  She talks of travelling light because of their lifestyle, but I think it could be more than that.  This is what she says about your stuff.

Toast Floats

Your things own you.


It is a mistake to believe the common myth that you buy things and then you own them. In reality, you work very hard at some task and then convert that effort into stuff which then consumes your very reason for being. You pile and store and stash. You organize and inventory and display. It lives in your basement and under the bed. It sits in the driveway or hangs on the wall. And every bit of that stuff has ties to your soul, your reason and your sanity. It requires effort to keep it and money to sustain it. It needs a place to live, and it builds friends and a following and a life of its own. Your things are alive in your life, influencing your behavior and decisions in ways that even your family frequently fails to achieve.

Now that my friends is someone who get's it and has the words to say it.

That's better

I just gave the  template a pop of colour ... it's drab enough outside we don't need it on here.

I got a hundred bucks burning a hole in my pocket. 

I'm going out in this terrible weather to put out the fire.

I should have known better

It has been warm for two days...by our standards!  That means the dog doesn't have pee icicles hanging from her bum when she comes in from the cold. That was short lived.  Back in the deep freeze.

March is just around the corner.  This usually means we are going to get the crap beat up out us by that one last Colorado Low.  It's always in the back of your mind .... will she hit or miss us.

I remember the worst storm ever in March 4th.1966.  I lived in a small apartment here in Winnipeg with two other girls, one being Gord's sister Tessa.  Tessa was to be married that Friday in our hometown about 75 miles away. Gord went home on Thursday to help out with the arrangements and I was supposed to follow on Friday after work with his brother and girlfriend.

I can't remember where the other roommate went to that weekend but she wasn't there. 

On Friday morning when I got up it was storming.  I made it to the bus stop.  The bus almost made it into the city center where I worked but it got stuck.  The driver told us to get out and try to get another bus going back home.  It was storming so bad you could hardly see a foot in front of you in a open area.  I crossed the street with all the others.  We stood and waited.  We waited...and waited until we were almost frozen.  Finally we saw a bus in the distance and it picked us up and started to drive us back south to our area of town.

Within two blocks from my apartment he got stuck and were asked to get off..  I assume he was going to call for help but we weren't allowed to stay on the bus for warmth. Just get off!  Lucky for me I was only two blocks from my apartment.  I remember trudging through huge snowbanks and two blocks seemed like forever. 

When I finally got to my street I realized I was stranded and didn't have any food in the house in case this was going to last any longer.  We lived pretty frugal in those days.   There was our favorite  little mom and pop shop on corner that was still open when I got there.  I still remember I bought a 6 pack of coke, a pack of smokes, some bread and balonie..haaa...how befitting. However, it was Friday and payday and I didn't have any money in my pocket. I asked to write a cheque and it was agreed to because they knew who I was.  And then I trudged back to the apartment half a block away. 

I was socked in.

We didn't have a TV.  But we did have a radio so I could get updates on the weather.  We lived in a basement apartment suite.  The windows were covered with snow I couldn't even look outside.  Every now and again I would go to the main level to look out to see what was happening. The snow banks only got higher.

But we did have a phone.  So I could keep in contact with  my family and Gord and his family.  But is was used sparingly because it was "long distance."  LONG DISTANCE .. was a dirty word in those days. You only called long distance if someone had died.

I spent Friday in seclusion listening to the radio, watching the snow from the door of the apartment block, drinking coke, smoking the odd cigarette and eating balonie sandwiches.  Man it was lonely.  The radio reports told me we might be socked in for a few more days.

Everyone that couldn't get a bus home or a ride was stranded downtown in the place that they worked or in large department stores which took them in. Eatons and The Bay...put a lot of people up in there furniture departments where they had beds and mattresses.


Saturday:  I spent most of the day listening to the radio, reading books I had already read and was getting a little antsy about the wedding.  Would it still happen?  Long Distance ..... I was left out of the loop.  Gord's brother Ron was still in the city as well with his girlfriend.  He lived about three blocks from me and his girlfriend had left her job just in time to get to his apartment on Friday.


Around 5:00 pm Gord's bro and his girlfriend showed up and knocked on my half covered up, snow laden apartment window.  I was never happier to see anyone in my life.  They said the plows were out  and the wedding was going to happen on Sunday. 

We left for the country that morning.

My poor mother in law.  She had all the food for the wedding supper on Friday prepared  and it had to be redone.  It wasn't a huge wedding .. maybe 40 people...and she had to try to save it. .  She was able to save a lot of it  but I felt so bad for her.  She wasn't well at the time and she threw her heart into making a beautiful supper.  She was able to save some stuff...but not the potato salad.  We have a running joke about how mad mom was that her famous potato salad was ruined by the storm and had to be redone.  Peeling potatoes was not her favourite pastime.

I remember going home that Sunday for the wedding and you could hardly see the ditches on the side of the highway because the snow was so high.  If I remember correctly it was only one lane...and you had to be careful.

They did finally get married, the food was good and they made their baby to be Christopher legal. Trust me this was not a happy event for all the parents...as they were devoted Mennonites and Lutherans ....but that is a story for another day. After all this was 1966.



 After the wedding I went home to my parents house to give them shit for not taking my "collect calls."  Like I said they were getting a little tired of me calling collect...heh. But yeah they were glad to see me. And I was so glad to see them.  I wanted my mommy.  suck.

I tried to find pictures on the net of the storm.  But no luck. 

Hope we don't see another one like that.  It was kind of fun looking back. 

Balonie....backing up the truck..