Me, Myself and Memories

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  Noreen 2:09 pm on October 7, 2026 Permalink  

  Hoppity Hump Day 

  We were without service, internet, from yesterday noon until this noon.  I called the Fedium number and they went through what they could , finding no answers.  As the phone call was nearing to an end with no solution, I looked down.  After my marathon of window cleaning in my bedroom porch, it also took in a lot of moving of items to get near the window.  I had set the leg of my old Sears and Roebuck sewing table on the glass cable and crimped it good.  Really good.  Within an hour of letting the gal on the phone know what I had done, we were back in business.   There had been three extra feet of cable that had been on the floor, right about where my feet end up while sitting at my HP laptop.  The tech was kind enough to run it from the entrance to the home, up under the windows and tack it with a small brackets.  Well done!

  Grammie . . . live and learn.

  My Wednesday luncheon guest brought about a good visit.  Marianne is going to PT, after she had fallen and had broken her arm, and is done about 12:30.  I had gone to the grocery store earlier, so it wasn’t a big deal to prepare a lunch.  Dennis doesn’t do “noon”, but he will enjoy all the fixens with his supper.

  The evening meals will be the ones that are easy for several days, as my window cleaning marathon will take some recovery time for the shoulders . . . actually one good shoulder.  Some don’t get it, but for me . . . clean windows . . . priceless.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:19 pm on October 6, 2026 Permalink  

  Freaky Tuesday 

  With Dennis’ help I decided to finish the remaining six windows of my bedroom porch.  

  The prep work takes quite a bit of time.  For the north windows to be tipped in, the bottom sash needs to have something for it to lay on, so the top sash can lay on it.  It is all doable, doing it slowly and safely.  It is a once-a-year task.  Surprisingly, the no-see-ums came through the screens.  Yuk.

  When Dennis wants to go in or out of the house, he taps his cane on multiple places of the screen door for the boxelder bugs to fly off to allow him to be on his way.  As I am doing this posting, the screens on the south windows of my bedroom porch are about 18″ from me.  It’s like a horror show with flocks of the boxelders glomming to find room.

  The area where the Country College was in, Karen, is now going to be the location for the physical therapy.  Everyone is wondering how that will serve those that need help as the area is not all that large.  The Opera House Ass’n owns the building and it is on the historic registry.  All that were gun-ho years ago to re-purpose the building, they are all in their 90s’.  Anything to bring in some rent money for up-keep.

  A light supper by way of Dennis.  I like that.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:24 pm on October 5, 2026 Permalink  

  At Last 

  Company coming from a distance is wonderful.  Having the normal quiet when all have gone home is . . . priceless.  The patio porch kitties agree wholeheartedly. When Dennis has all three walls of the slider windows of the porch wide open to air the porch out of cigarette fumes, you know it could have choked a horse.  

  This afternoon, I tackled two of the eight windows in my bedroom porch.  The house and window screens had been washed off last week, thus making it a bit easier.  Admittedly my bottle of Windex is 50% white vinegar being used with a nylon scrubby.  The two windows facing south is all I am doing today and the water marks are no more.  I won’t mind going to bed this evening with the aroma of the vinegar.  It smells . . . cleaning in progress.

  Before the bugs have the sun shinny on the west front door, I hope I get that done before supper.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 12:35 pm on October 4, 2026 Permalink  

  Sunday 

  Sunday the fourth of October and all is well.

  Dennis had a great birthday party yesterday afternoon at the VFW.  Dennis’ four kids did a great job of putting it on for him.  Dennis thought he was going to a benefit for his cousin Bruce, recovering from cancer surgery.  I had been talking that up for several weeks.  All of his nephews and nieces were there from Morris, MN; York, Nebraska and Windom and all that lived here and the.  

  Susie from Silver Bay was prepared to take Dennis home with her for a week or so.  Last night before we went to bed, Dennis got his bag out so he could pack this morning.  This morning as he was getting his breakfast bag and coffee ready for the patio porch, we stopped at the coffee pot and Dennis took my hand.  “I really want to stay home.  Can I stay home.”  How could I not!  I may have wanted a brief respite, but not badly enough to deny Dennis his home.  We do know how to do this together every day, every week. 

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥  

   
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  Noreen 12:23 pm on October 3, 2026 Permalink  

  Saturday the 3rd of October 

  A great way to start the month: haircuts and pedicures.  What is hard to fathom is seeing that the next card from Maria states November 7th.

  The air is chilly today with winds having their way with leaves that are way too egger to leave the trees.  The lilac bush on the northwest corner of the house had to give a surprise by popping out a beautiful sprig of a bloom.  It looks forlorn as no longer are there any leaves left on the bush.

  At a few minutes after three this afternoon, I will need to get Dennis out of the house and up to the VFW here in town.  His family is planning a surprise birthday party for him.  My part is to get him there.  It’s a good thing he decided to take a nap after we came home from our spa date.

  Naps for fellows such as Dennis are good for his soul.  He has worked hard all of his life and still believes he is a person in his 20s and 30s, thus we have a good supply of items for me to clean him up and stop the bleeding.  He needs to be able to try and participate in activities of his younger being, perhaps those of his 60s and 70s would be safer.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 12:49 pm on October 2, 2026 Permalink  

  The Bugs 

  The bugs are out.  Boxelders, Asians, and wasps are all fighting for space on the screens of my bedroom porch windows.  Denise stopped in to wish her dad a happy birthday.  From the customers coming into Casey’s and the farmers trying some bean harvest are fighting the Asians really bad. 

  Dennis’ son came from Arizona.  He and his latest gal pal drove as she had never been out of Arizona this far.  They stopped in when they got into town yesterday afternoon at 3:30, stayed for 15 minutes, long enough to exchange names and then left, reportedly to find something to eat.  No, I do not have food on hand for anyone stopping in when I don’t know what day they will arrive.  Denise had been as Casey’s since seven this morning and she had not seen them.  I had to agree with her, that the bar stools should be checked.  Hmm. 

  Our Hometown Cafe posts their daily menu on Facebook each day.  Shrimp basket or jumbo shrimp were included in the options for today.  Dennis likes shrimp and I plan on taking him out for his birthday supper.

  As I am in my bedroom porch, seeing what goes on, life never ceases to amaze me.  The latest was a woman, carrying a bag that told me she had been up to the BP gas station, north of us by five blocks.  The bag was in one of her hands and the other hand held that of a toddler.  The height of the toddler did not come anywhere near to her waist.  The woman’s stride made the little fellow’s feet miss a beat from time to time as he wasn’t able to walk . . . more like being dragged.  Oh so sad.

  Yes, Stauffer Avenue is celebrating Dennis’ 90th birthday, complete with new owee bands on his right hand.  Gotta love that fellow.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 1:40 pm on October 1, 2026 Permalink  

  The Sun 

  The sun decided to make a showing this afternoon.

  Within 24 hours our home has been washed off and the yards have been mowed.  Both tasks look like someone enjoys living on Stauffer Avenue.

  A design is stitching out and it is quite a large one.  Keeping in mind the design needs to reflect what it is being stitched on.  Can’t have little mushrooms stitched on a 60″ x 12″ table runner.  12″ designs on either end works.

  While I was waiting for thread color changes, I glanced through some items on my shelves.  The most recent that I picked up was the Schafer Family History by AL Schafer.  It is lengthy and bound in an epco binder.  His sequence of events does get bifurcated from time to time.  I will say that Megan and Nicholas made it to print in family genealogy, so it brought forward recent additions.  I now wish I would have copied Art’s obituary as he was the last and added it.  I will tuck Al’s manuscript back onto the shelf for now.

  I have chicken salad for sandwiches and potato salad, both heavy with onion for our supper.  Maybe a nine pm apple pie snack. 

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:08 pm on September 30, 2026 Permalink  

  Hump Day 

  The air held enough mist that cars going by had their windshield wipers on.

  A cool cloudy day is the perfect day to get the house washed off of all the winter’s grime of 2026 taken care of as well as this summer and early fall’s grime off.

  Dennis was the straw-boss while Tom manned the container that Dennis has always used.  It can, with a flip of a switch, apply water and soap at the same time, and then turn on the plain water.  Soaping down the house with the cheapest laundry soap the Family Dollar has really allows the dirt rivers to run.  The concrete drive had lots of soap bubbles.  Even the windows on the outside don ‘t look as dirty as before.  Water marks?  Oh yes.  I will take it slow and steady with the tipping-in process.

  Though we have not as yet had a frost, the rain has really knocked off leaves from the trees.

  The studio has been returned to a manageable work space with the good tidy, tidy.  I did pull the next design.  Depending on what company the designs are purchased from, each company favors their own choice of threads to use.  I have been working with a company with designs that uses Floriani threads.  I only have collected Isacord threads as that is what Bernina sewing machines and the OESD design company uses.

  Online, I have accessed different thread companies and have been able to print off the numerical number of their thread colors and the companion color number of the Isacord.  As I have printed off most of the independent designs that have the color numbers to be used to achieve success, it’s a great tool.  On the designs from OESD, the Isacord number of thread needed is sitting in my storage bins ready to be lucked out.

  Working smarter . . . not harder.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:22 pm on September 29, 2026 Permalink  

  A Normal Day 

  The household on Stauffer Avenue had a good quiet night’s rest on Monday night.  It was obvious that Dennis’ CPAP was not giving the lbs. of pressure prescribed or needed for some time.  This loner should serve him well until he meets with his provider in November when he will be eligible for a new machine.  Each machine is issued for a period of five years and they don’t budge on that.

  We had a very heavy rain shower this morning and dribbles since.

  This morning I spent helping a friend close a ten year run on her store.  Though the store has been closed to the front door bell ringing as customers came and went for sometime, there was a lot of window dressing items: tables, racks, shelving, display cabinets, odd pieces of actual furniture, etc. that had accumulated over the ten-year period.  Karen had been selling the last of it on Facebook.  Wednesday at five p.m., the last key will be turned back to the Opera House’s committee . . . who Karen had been renting from.  She will be ready for a different chapter in her life.

  As I go about my business in and around town, there have been more and more Elm trees getting the red paint trim on the trunks of them, getting them ready for removal.  Not all trees are effected at the same time.  Hmm.  We have one on the acre.  Thus far no red paint.

  I had mentioned that Sunday had been a busy day for me multitasking in the studio.  Well, well.  I still have not gotten back to the studio.  Many used spools of colorful thread had been used and they now need to go back into their designated bins.  If I don’t do tidy, tidy, it will be less appealing to begin the next stitching.

  Going here and there, being able to help others, it is very reassuring and comforting for me to get back to and continue participation in my own life.  

  With that I will take my leave.♥

   
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  Noreen 2:49 pm on September 28, 2026 Permalink  

  Monday, Monday 

  Unexpected things throw a monkey wrench into a Monday plan.

  My plan was to tidy up in the studio.  Saturday, I loaded a stitching design and it was a huge 62,000 stitch one.  Twelve noon, the stitching began.

  As one color of thread was stitching, it gave me time to multi-task.  The HP printer has not been able to be used for the second month.  It was deemed to be “off-line.”  I decided to see if I could work with it.  With one too many tries, the HP support was initiated.

  The chat support turned into allowing the entity to take over my computer as the query of the non-working printer entailed more than I could have immagined.

  I needed to stay off of my Dell computer and have my phone handy as I would receive prompts to assist.  I watched the goings on from my chair as the laptop monitor was going into places on my computer that I could never have imaged. 

  My sewing machine was stopped and started each time my phone needed me.  Ironically, when the phone rang the screen displayed “Potential Spam.”

  At five thirty, the printer was working from both of my laptops, one downstairs and one upstairs.  My Dell laptop had been cleaned of unbelievable amounts of malware files.

  I had agreed up front on the amount that would be charged for the cleanup.  It began with the HP support.  At one point the Microsoft Security file was seen.  Last but not least, the last message came from a geek squad team #9.

  My stitching at five thirty was far from being done as it had been started and stopped so often.  Yes, it makes enough noise that a phone conversation cannot be carried.

  I made supper and then returned to the studio to let the machine embroidery work until it was finished and that was seven thirty.  The design turned out perfect with not one stray thread or a broken needle.

  This Monday morning, we needed to make a trip to the Mayo Store as Dennis’ CPAP machine quit Friday during the night.  Sleep for either of us had not gone well Saturday or Sunday night.  Dennis had multiple interruptions as the Atrofib, a heart that does not have steady beat and a heart that Dennis has, would cause him to stop breathing and with no machine to give him that puff of air for his heart to begin beating again . . . yea, not conducive for good rest.  We each slept in our recliners for those two nights.  Generally, after not breathing, a limb will jerk arousing the heart.

  We are home from Mankato with a loaner machine.  Lets hear it for a good night’s rest.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥