Painted Clothes

 Pinterest offers such a wealth of creativity, and even when I can’t actually be creative, I can think about and plan, maybe even dream about the projects I’d like to do.

I’ve seen a lot of painted denim, both jeans and jackets. This project has been on my back burner for years, a prepandemic idea. I had even purchased a sort of denim jacket to experiment on.

With another denim project in mind, to make a rag denim wreath with my granddaughter, I had a need for old denim. When my daughter called from the thrift store that jeans were on sale for fifty cents each I told her to get me 10 pairs and I was in business. LOL

Three pairs went to a friend and family, to wear. I cut two pairs up for the wreaths and had pockets and tops for other projects. No excuses not to dive in and try some painting. My hesitation is based on fact I have not done any art work for over a year, and find it hard to get started.

But get started I did. Not bad for a couple days work.

Dead Batteries

 To clear off the top of my bedside table I crocheted two little holders for the television remotes. I thought I was being very neat and efficient.  Said holders hang off the corner of my bed frame at the head, handy to pick up and replace. 

Not too long ago I went to use the remote that changes channels and it didn’t work. I couldn’t get my favourites list on screen and couldn’t select a different channel directly. I assumed the batteries were dead as I couldn’t remember when I had changed them last. 

It must have been quite some time as one battery had leaked and I had to clean the crud off the remote.

Everything nice and clean, new batteries, all set. 

Not.

Within the week the new batteries were dead. Maybe this was because the batteries had been in the cupboard for a long time. I replaced them again, with high hopes, but the replacements were from the same stash. Just in case I purchased new batteries.

A week passed and the batteries died on me again, but this time I was prepared with a pair supposedly fresh and new which I replaced forthwith. 

Dead? How can that be? I was perplexed. I started pushing the variety of buttons on the remote in an attempt to get the remote working. I was tired of these marathon viewings on whatever channel I was on when my remote channel changing failed.

Suddenly the favourite channels banner was across the bottom of the screen. With a push of another button the TV guide of channels and listing of shows was on the screen. 

It was a ‘light bulb over the head’ kind of moment. I knew exactly what was wrong with all the batteries.

 Absolutely nothing.

Every time I put the remote in its holder it somehow pressed the cable button and turned it off. Except for the first batteries that had leaked, all the batteries I had tried and discarded were most likely good. 

Such a funny cause and effect. Who would have thought that slipping the remote into a pretty crocheted sleeve could cause all that trouble. 

But I’m ready if any batteries fail for real, with the set of new ones I’d purchased, and if I get the discarded ones back from my son-in-law I’ll be Girl Scout ready for any AAA emergency. 

Flying Fish

 I have a new project all laid out on the table and find my creativity blocked. Or maybe it’s more a bit of fear of the unknown. 

So, of course, I start playing on my iPad to avoid getting started.  One bit of this was looking through my photos. I came upon a couple of pictures I’d taken at the local arena. 

It’s been many years since this community centre was built, with its gymnasiums, its meeting rooms, the seniors centre and of course the two ice pads. 

When you enter from the back parking lot there is a spacious lobby area, with a wide stairway leading to the upper level of the arena. The landing has glass doors that open to the walking/running track that surrounds the arena seating. This is also where the elevator opens.

The town was very involved in the building of this community centre, in decisions made and in fundraising. One project that was a call out to the community was the flying fish.

The fish are handcrafted creations by people in the community. They are strung across the ceiling in this back lobby area and are at eye level if you’re on the landing by the elevator. I think it’s a wonderful statement that the building belongs to everyone, not just the skaters on the ice.

A Little Knowledge, or a Lot

 It amazes me how active, adult, working people are so, ignorant is the wrong word, so I’ll say unaware, of what I consider common everyday knowledge.

I was having a conversation about the new vaccines for COVID-19, and found my friend was very, and I mean very, much against the new vaccines. She was determined not to take it. And then today I see her commenting on a Facebook posting about how these vaccines are experimental, and not approved by the FDA.  That is so wrong, as all vaccines have been granted emergency authorization by the FDA.

Yes, there have been articles and ‘breaking news’ segments on the harmful effects of these vaccines, but with further investigation the drugs have been found safe.  All drugs have potential side effects and that is to be expected.

What surprised me was that she was condemning these new vaccines and didn’t understand how vaccines work. “Look at smallpox, polio, measles,” I said. “We are vaccinated for these and those diseases have been almost completely obliterated. “Even chickenpox”. 

She disagreed with me on chicken pox, said there was no vaccine for it but when we googled it there is a one time only, vaccine given around fifteen to eighteen months.

“But what about shingles”, she asked. “Even though you don’t see chickenpox much anymore people still get shingles.”   Shingles is different I explained, it’s not contagious. Only people who have had chickenpox can get shingles.  It’s a form of flare up of the original virus from something in the blood.

She didn’t understand the basic science of vaccinations and how they work, didn’t actually understand what her children had been vaccinated for.

I may be feeling a bit superior in my knowledge, as I worked for thirty years as a Registered Nurse and was constantly learning about new diseases, treatments and cures.  And since my retirement, and especially since the pandemic, I read voraciously on the streaming news networks  

It all depends on where you get your news as to whether you trust the science that Covid is a dire threat to all mankind, and accept that we need to take appropriate precautions to prevent its spread.

Or you listen to those who try to convince you it’s all a great hoax, designed by the government to limit our rights, so that you do not want, and will not obey the laws about masks and closures and lockdowns.

 It’s all so confusing with so many ‘so-called’ experts giving their opinions.

Sometimes I think it’s too many trees to get a good understanding of the forest. Time will tell, when the final truth wins out.

Expressions

 Two of my granddaughters were here last week. I was sitting on my kitchen stool and regaled them with a near miss I’d had. I was sitting on the stool, bending over for something in the cupboard when the stool started sliding backwards, off the mat and across the wood floor.

“It really moved on the floor,” I laughed. “If not for the chair I backed into I would have been ‘ass over teakettle’ and on the floor”.

My youngest granddaughter was stunned. “What?” 

I guess she’d never heard me say that before, yet it’s one of my favourite expressions.

And speaking of colourful expressions. Have any of you ever heard of Zach Rushing?

He’s from Mississippi, from the South where all communication is full of the most descriptive and very entertaining idioms. He does videos on Facebook though he’s often been in Facebook jail, as he calls it, for his language. He admits he has no filter.  But I find him most enjoyable as his take on topics like the difference between men and women really make me laugh. 

I like how he says someone dulls his shine, when they put him in a bad mood.

Another I liked was “If you’re going to come at me to put your two cents in, I’m going to come back at you with a quarter”.

Talking to someone like that would keep you on your toes, all that elaboration could make one confused.

Everything in Threes

 I am a firm believer that everything comes in threes.  Well, maybe not kids because I only had two, but lots of other things out in the universe. Ask any nurse and they will probably agree. Threes, every time. 

Some things are just strange, and I’ve seen enough to be a believer.  Like strange events during a full moon, but that’s a whole other issue. 

Back to threes.  I’m no longer working so don’t experience the three, second hand, so to speak. Now the three rule is up close and personal.

Like the fall of 2019. I fell in November and broke my tailbone. Lost my balance in the bathroom and landed very heavy on toilet (#2). Then just before New Years I fell again. So I thought I was done, over, going to meet the new year free from that number three hanging over my head.

Nope, no way, not in the cards. I fell again on New Years Eve, face forward this time giving my poor tailbone some relief. But this time I was badly bruised all down my left side which scared my kids when I finally owned up and showed them. In the back of my mind I have to wonder if the next two will be more serious, because I firmly believed there would be more.

Number two occurred in the bathroom which I think is the most dangerous room in the home.  I wasn’t hurt but did make a mess as I knocked the shelf into the tub and everything went flying. Same room, I lost my balance and again hit the wall and rebounded to the toilet, missing the floor.

This time I had to be done, and oddly enough I was. Who knows, not me for sure, why I fell so many times in such a relative short time since I have not fallen since.

But the weird threes have still been happening. 

I make an instant breakfast drink every morning. My routine is to make my coffee, pour my juice, add the vile tasting stuff I take to it, and make my drink in the little blender.  I bought this piece of kitchen equipment because it was small and the blender part comes off and becomes a travel mug. Not that I travel, but it means one piece, one less glass to wash. 

There’s no variable speed and the button is right in front, just push it and it goes. Do you see what’s coming? I’m doing my routine but accidentally moved something on the counter, that hit the ON button, before I’d put the lid on, that whirled that milk all over my counter. What a mess.

I’m not so superstitious that I immediately begin counting when something like this happens. I only start the count with number two.

Because of my MS I can’t sit up for long periods. So after being up in the daytime I go to bed early in the evening. I live in a studio type apartment so my bed is like a couch to me. I have my iPad, my books, and my crochet. So I settle in for an evening of television with my bottle of Pepsi and am good to go.

Except that I got tired of taking the cap on and off and just left it off. And proceeded to knock the bottle which then emptied into the open drawer of my bedside table.  Caught it all, not a single drop on the floor. Lucky for me I had a organizer in that drawer, and each section was full, my carefully stored, nice and handy items floating in pop.

As spills go that was easier to clean up than the blender mishap.  Now I’m counting. One more to go.

Sitting up in bed, or semi reclined as is more often the case, is not conducive to drinking from a cup or glass. I drink water from a bottle, as I do my Pepsi. I try to avoid those cups and glasses because I tend to make a mess when it dribbles out the side. I need to add mug to that list.

I have suffered from a bad back for decades. Before this pandemic hit I was laid up, had sciatica and so much pain I could barely walk. The walker I used outside I had to use inside, even as small as my place is. At that time I also had a bedside rail installed to help me get in and out of bed.

(My back pain is so much better that I have to think that the falls and that broken tailbone actually did a readjustment of my spine lol).

I kept the bedside rail as it’s handy to lean my iPad against when I’m crocheting and watching a movie on prime.

Number three.  I had a coffee and was sitting in my chair, but needed to reference the crochet pattern on the iPad which was charging by the bed. I picked up the coffee and moved over to the bed. I’m reading the pattern and casually picked up my coffee, and not really paying attention, failed to clear the bedside rail, thereby dumping said coffee into the bed. This was a make work project as I got the sheets, the comforter and me. Still not a drop on the floor. 

It’s such a relief to get that trio of happenings done, and to feel pretty secure that I have no new countings on the go. 

Everything happens in threes, so beware. 

Grit my Teeth Math

 I always liked math, the regular math, not the new math and not fancy math like calculus or trigonometry.

And I was good at math. Hell, I do my tax returns without a calculator and some of that is tricky stuff. 

Since I enjoy word games I figured I’d like a numbers game too. Not. Not sudoku at any rate.

Why can I never finish a sudoku game? I get partway done, hit a snag, get irritated  and quit. 

It is so frustrating that this game has defeated me. Even worse now is this word whiz game on Facebook. I love words and consider I have a pretty good vocabulary yet I totally suck at this game. 

You play it in a group, though I play with one friend only, and she trashes me totally. 

Today I sent her a message. “I hate you and I hate this f**king game.”  She wrote back LMFAO.

I’m still playing. And I’ll still try the evil, demented sudoku puzzle when the newspaper arrives.

I’ll play but I don’t have to like it.