Me, Myself and Memories

Updates from April, 2018 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Noreen 3:51 pm on April 21, 2018 Permalink  

  It is supper time . . . thank goodness. I have truly worn myself out today. I have been working with doing machine quilting using transparent 100% nylon thread with regular thread in the bobbin. When you sew in the ditch, it means you sew where two quilt blocks come together, aka: the ditch. Steady Eddie is required so as to not weave out of that ditch and make the stitching very apparent when it pops up on the surface here and there and everywhere. I remember seeing the tip of the nylon thread and decided to give it a try. Yes, very little to spy when I veered. As the spool emptied, it had a tendency to coil and twist prior to feeding into the sewing machine. For some time I had not noticed that and I was about to have a hissy fit trying to understand why the thread was breaking so often.

  “Slow Down, You Move too Fast. Gotta Make the Morning Last.” I needed to slow way down to make this project last before it hits the waste basket. All that was needed was to slow down the stitching while keeping one hand at the point of the thread entering the machine allowing the thread to flow through my finger tips with no coils or kinks. I took turns getting the less than great reaching arms and saw the project through. Heck no! There was no way I was going to give up or give in.

  That aspect of the project is done and my arms are weary. Amazing what old people put themselves through. I know I am my harshest critic and that is not going to change. So . . . rest up, tomorrow is another day.

   
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  Noreen 5:30 pm on April 20, 2018 Permalink  

  Yesterday we went to Mankato. As we were approaching it brought back memories of many spring trips to Mankato at this very time of the year. For some reason when it was Confirmation time, Dad, Mom and us kids got into the green Plymouth for a shopping trip to Herbergers department store to shop for the one of the four of us kids who would be confirmed. I am safe in saying the car was green as Dad usually had a green Plymouth.

  Hmm. Herbergers are closing, I should have been a better patron. As you get older, clothes are needed to have one set on as the other set is in the laundry and then switch.

  I am sure Hutchinson had stores, but it didn’t have a Herbergers. My confirmation dress was a light blue with pink flowers on it. It could have been described as a sun dress as it had a light blue shrug to wear over it.

  Confirmation was such a huge deal. It was the culmination of four years of what was called “Catechism.” Every Saturday from 8:30 to noon and every Wednesday with “release time” from the public school. Sundays we had to write the sermon. It was actually outlining it with the major points highlighted and numerous points under each. Pastor Schultz geared his sermons so that we could easily get the outline. We handed them in on the next Wednesday’s class and Pastor Schultz graded them.

  Every good boy and girl dreaded “examination Sunday.” It was always the Sunday before Confirmation. Standing before the congregation during the morning service Pastor Schultz grilled us on what we had been taught in regard to the theology of our faith as well as the Sacraments. Whew, we were glad when that day was over.

  I don’t know why it was important to have a new set of clothes for Confirmation as we wore white robes for both of the Sundays during the services. Red carnations adorned the robes. The song that we had as “our” song was “Master Let Me Walk with Thee.” The class sang it in lieu of one of the congregational hymns. All of this may have been 59 years ago, but it is very much a clear lasting event. I have ripped by sewing studio up one side to another making it more organized . . . somehow the blue worn “Senior Catechism” book usually ends up just a reach away. What’s up with that.

   
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  Noreen 5:13 pm on April 19, 2018 Permalink  

  Yesterday I spoke to the health of my spirit. Something today sparked memories of Dad and his spirit. He had a drive that was amazing. Dad helped Orlin and I have a start in farming at a time when we were working as hired farm hands for Orlin’s sister in the North Redwood area. Dad took Orlin under his wing and before long Orlin was milking cows all the while Dad and Orlin worked on bringing the dairy barn up to speed with concrete and lumber. A decade or so later, Dad was helping Orlin put in pits and slates for raising finishing hogs. Driving an hour or better one way didn’t slow Dad down. He was energetic and enthused to help.

  A time later Dad was a help taking printing equipment apart and relocating it into the very barn where there had been pits and slats. Never backing away from something that Dad had no idea how the end project would operate or work. Dad did have a great ability of vision and logic. How I loved that man.

  Shortly before his passing, Dad and Mom were in St. James with the tandem truck trimming evergreens that were sweeping the earth below them. The boughs were trimmed and taken away. The yard was able to dry out with the breezes and winds moving right on through. To this day when I hear the boughs whisper as the winds and breezes move through, I think of Dad. How could I not.

  Soon I will be out in that very yard getting dirty and clearing the clutter the winter has left. Hard work outside is good for the soul and spirit. What else will be cleared of the excess winter clutter are some of the memories of then. I keep my self busy with winter fuzz and thread work. It allows the mind to ruminate. That is not a bad thing but the soul and spirit have room to make additional new memories as I plow through the spring yard work.

   
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  Noreen 4:47 pm on April 18, 2018 Permalink  

  I am a die-hard. I don’t give in. I don’t give up . . . unless it seems impossible to make inroads to my health and safety. It’s not only the mental health and physical health. There is that all important part of me that no one else is privy to . . . my soul that feeds my spirit.

  In younger days it was who of us four kids would stick it out as we stacked bales of straw and hay in the hot stifling hay loft. In the 60s it was a matter of helping in clearing an acre in Texas so we could make a home out of a chicken shack. In the mid 60s it was stepping up for milking cows, helping with farrowing piglets while I was cumbersome waiting for my own babies to be born.

  It has continued in my life. It is very difficult, almost painful for me not to take care of what each and every day brings. It is not a chore. It does not bring me a heavy heart to make those decisions and those decisions come swiftly. Done, finished and on to the next best part of the day. I have many “best days.” Sometimes I have to pinch myself as to the life I have. It is sweet and each night I say a prayer of thanks for it.

  I have watched many, many snowflakes this winter sitting in Dennis’ chair in our west porch looking out the windows. How wonderful and precious that there was not one flake that had been duplicated. How wonderful and precious that there is not one single duplication of . . . me. I know myself well, and seriously, I don’t think the world could take it.

   
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  Noreen 4:48 pm on April 17, 2018 Permalink  

  What a great day. The sun has been out for the entire day. What would make it better is if I had a place on the patio for my chair that is now three feet deep in drifted snow. It would be fun to watch the birds as they are pecking at the seeds within the Lilacs. I am not good at identifying birds but we have quite the mixture. The littlest of them are busy, busy and then off to the water that has made a pond where our sump pump bubbles to the surface. If in doubt about the day our Lord has given us, we only need to watch, look and listen to all around us. Today . . . my heart sings.

   
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  Noreen 4:13 pm on April 16, 2018 Permalink  

  I looked out the bathroom window this morning and my sweet tooth began to ache. The snow that had been whipped around the last several days had the appearance on the patio porch of pure white Divinity Candy. It almost made me drool. I love Divinity. Unfortunately the bank of ice and snow at the end of our driveway was far from white and desirable. To get some fresh air I did walk down the driveway this forenoon, compliments of neighbor Randy and the great job he had done on the snow removal. Silly me . . . I had taken the scooper with me to the end of the driveway. I took one stab at it and it bounced off as if it were a Nerf scooper. It was nothing more than a mass of snow that was laced with ice. I nicely walked back and parked the scooper.

  I did happen to think of my nephew who has contracts with some of the large parking lots in the metro for snow removal. I wonder how far back in his machine shed he had to dig out the snowblower. Last year he was doing some early field planting by April 11th.

  I am content and have no feelings of cabin fever. This weather will get itself turned around. With the water dripping off of the west awning this afternoon, I am sure enough will melt that we will be able to take more on the Wednesday forecast of . . . snow.

   
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  Noreen 5:02 pm on April 15, 2018 Permalink  

  When state highways are closed due to the snow and wind, you cannot believe how quiet our street is. Our street is the main thoroughfare from HWY 60 to the Swift plant north of our home just across the railroad tracks. Semi trucks are possible 24/7. It had been a long, long time that the morning hours were this quiet.

  This morning I opened an eye, saw it was daylight . . . no snow coming down. It was seven and I was ready to get up and at it as Dennis’ great granddaughter Charlee Bea was going to be baptized today. About that time the phone was ringing . . . roads were closed and church was cancelled. Dennis had not heard the phone so the first cup of coffee for the day was all mine. I sat in Dennis’ computer chair in the west porch of the house and enjoyed all the white that surrounded us. We have a little USA flag on an electric fence post right outside of the porch windows. The flag hung limp. First a very fine snow, then a bit more. It didn’t take long and I could barely see the homes at the end of the block and the flag was standing straight out east as the north winds picked up.

  Here we are at 5:45 p.m. and it is still snowing with winds that are bound to be causing problems out in the open and the roads. Earlier Dennis had shoveled a path to his garage door and that allowed for a surface that was a slippery melting mess. I didn’t fight the day. I went down into the sewing studio and didn’t have any problem whiling away the day. Randy came over before supper with his tractor and snow blower. The snow is wet and heavy and I could hear that as the blower honkered down. We have nothing that we need to leave the property for in the next days. I have no doubt that it is going to be a messy week as spring is here . . . somewhere and all this snow will try to disappear.

   
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  Noreen 4:22 pm on April 14, 2018 Permalink  

  I have heard of “guilt by association.” After today, I believe attitude by association is also possible. Since the time my babies were crawling on the floor of our farm home, the Sears Roebuck sewing machine took whatever thread I fed it. I think since it has sat next to the Bernina it has gotten uppity. I had two perfectly good polyester spools of thread. One to use in the bobbin and one for the top thread. The sewing machine bucked from the first stitch. I made sure both top and bottom were threaded correctly. I turned off the light on the Sears and decided that maybe I would just see what the weather was doing.

  I did shovel a path for Dennis to get from the back door to the garage so he could check on his livestock . . . a tank of Koi and his four cats. It was like shoveling wet cement. The scooper had to be knocked on a cleared area to get the snow to fall off of it. When Dennis went out he took the scooper with him to be able to get back into the house without getting his slippers and the bottoms of his PJs full of snow. Yes, I did say slippers and PJs. All the media have labeled our area as being in the bull’s eye of the most snowfall during today and over the evening. The wind is doing quite the number out there. We will see if the 16″ forecast is going to be correct.

  I came in from getting some fresh air and decided again to crank up the Sears sewing machine. The Bernina was in the middle of an embroidery task and the Sears was to be my backup today. Thinking about it, I got out a new spool of polyester thread and filled the bobbin first with it and then threaded the top part from the same spool. The early 1960s machine sewed like a top. I had gotten out a spool of top notch quality thread as I couldn’t afford any mishaps once the stitching started. It was a spool of Guterman, a German brand. Fancy schmancy . . . I think my Sears Roebuck has coped an attitude while sharing space with the Bernina. No more feeding it the leftover thread from decades ago. It was worth it to have smooth sailing.

   
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  Noreen 4:24 pm on April 13, 2018 Permalink
  Tags: Dennis ( 40 )   

  This is the type of spring that you would want to slap on the back so it could hack up and out what is bothering it. It has become secondary when I think of the weekend coming.

  Speaking of hacking up and out what seems to be stuck, I need to put out an update on my ole cowboy. Dennis is a smoker and I was as sure as I can be, his smoking was causing all the phloem that he needed to get rid of. It has been about 10 days of having the “So Clean 2” unit hooked up to sanitize his CPAP gasket, mask, hose and the humidifier tank. Wouldn’t you know it . . . very little need for the hacking episodes. It is almost slim to none. Over the nine years, I have helped to do the cleaning of the components of the CPAP, complete with using bleach in the cleaning water and rinsing, rinsing, rinsing.

  This process of oxidized oxygen and pressure that is then driven through from the face gasket right through into the humidifier water tank to date is getting a plus from me.

  Of all the medical assists that we have and had invested in for Dennis, this seems to be well worth the money. Dang! I was sure it was the cigarettes and here all along it was just nasty old bacteria hiding in all the crevices.

   
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  Noreen 5:59 pm on April 12, 2018 Permalink  

  We have all heard the commercial that insinuates that we all go, why not enjoy the go. We all have the calling of Mother Nature and isn’t that a great thing.

  This spring Kevin came over and had to do a fix-it on our toilet. The tank is ceramic and will last forever. The lever that makes it all work harmoniously is attached to components that are not going to endure the test of time. Plastic and nylon should not be what the flush should rely on. 

  I grew up when we had a wonderful path to the outhouse. It was just a bit to the northwest of the house and with enough distance from the house that pressing your luck on urges was not taken for granted. I was in first grade before we had a toilet that flushed. It was a stool in the basement. Old houses did not have any area for sufficient closets let alone a room for a toilet. Why would anyone stand the cost of pluming in a toilet on the ground floor when all we had on the ground floor for water, running and otherwise was a hand pump that was hooked to a cistern.

  Times did change. When some changes are made there may be a 14′ x 80′ mobile home on an acre of land, but that does not necessarily mean there is a well for water. One thing at a time. The first was a septic tank with hook ups for the mobile home. The mobile home had a beautiful bathroom combination laundry. At that time we brought water from my folks in cream cans. Water for cooking. Water for heating for quick sponge bathes and of course an ice cream pail . . . one pail needed per flush in the new bathroom.

  Experiences have come and gone. All I am getting at is that stressing over having to hold that lever down to get the toilet to totally flush can be endured until such time when Kevin comes over and makes it all better.  By the end of the day Kevin had nailed it and we have been flushing successfully ever since.