As I was watching TV last night the weatherman broke into programing with a tornado warning. Turns out all the weathermen reported for duty and stayed on the air for two hours nonstop! I knew it was serious when that happened. They run crawlers along the bottom of the screen, but never come on live and stay on. There were tornados very close by. Their weather equipment is just amazing. We knew exactly where the tornados were and where they would be every minute. It was scary!
And it's only 2 P.M.............This day has been a wonderful day all spent outside getting things done in the yard. I heard people over at my new neighbor's house, so I went over at lunch time and went to Sonic to get lunch for them. I felt bad because all her friends were over there helping clean the house getting ready for her and her husband to move next week and I wasn't over there helping. I'm trying to get everything finished here so I can devote my time to gardening at Dad's. Yesterday I spent hours at the garden taking advantage of the weather and some partially dry soil. I got lots of tilling done and planted 4 rows of potatoes. After that I was used up yesterday, too! There is a pattern here......I'm used up A LOT! I just can't do like I used to!
At Christmas this was a huge baseball size bulb given to me as a gift by a cousin. I planted it and left it in the garage. Mom told me the garage was too cold and I should move it inside. I did and this is what it turned in to. Absolutely gorgeous Amaryllis!
According to my work schedule today, spring is officially here. Mom cooked collard greens, hot water cornbread, sweet potatoes and white perch for lunch. Of course, I wasn't going to miss that. After lunch and a brief rest, I tackled mowing the thick winter grass in my yard. It is so hard to mow, but it was very high and thick. As soon as I finished mowing, two of my friends dropped by to visit while I was sitting outside enjoying a rest and some sunshine. I planted some more plugs of zoysia grass in some places that grass won't grow. Also, planted some hostas that a friend shared with me. She is building a house right behind me and is digging up hostas from her old house. This has been my kind of day!
In the past month, two of my former teacher friends have died. Both of them were slightly younger than I am. Weird things are going on. I don't believe either of them were completely retired. They retired from our school district, but took jobs in other places. It's a shame to work your entire life....then die! I am loving my retirement!
We went to Cirque du Soleil Saltimbanco today at the CenturyTel Center. It was an awesome show well worth the $80 tickets. Afterwards, we had dinner reservations at Four Winds, an Asian restaurant. That was also awesome, but we ordered way too much food. There were 5 of us and we all ordered an entre.....big mistake! We should have ordered 3 entres. Overall, good night!
It has snowed nonstop since about 9 this morning, but now it is melting as fast as it is falling. It has been fun and pretty all day, but it's heavy, wet snow that it not very conducive to playing. All the schools got out early. Why? I have no idea. The roads are fine, but I'm sure it was impossible to do school stuff. These kids have mostly never seen snow, so I'm sure it was mostly to just let them enjoy the snow.
I never even got past my flannels and a t shirt today. There was no reason due to inclement weather, so I just stayed around in bed mostly...completely worthless! For several days the weather forecasters have been harping on bad weather coming on Monday. All it did was rain. My new drainage system sort of worked. I think I need to lower it a tiny bit. It still has some water standing in front of the pipe.
Anyone who knows me knows that I have no tolerance for incompetence. Today I had a craving for strawberry pie, so I took a little road trip to Shreveport to a place that I know has awesome strawberry pie. I ordered a piece of strawberry and a piece of coconut. When I got home....30 miles away...I was all set for my strawberry pie. The damn bag had chocolate and coconut in it....NO STRAWBERRY! I was pissed....in fact, I'm still pissed! 
I have spent the better part of the last two days working in my yard trying to get caught up before I have to devote all my time to gardening at Dad's. All the old mulch has been cleaned out and replaced with new pine straw. The rains were coming, so I had to get in gear and get it done. There is not much left to do...just wait for the new growth to come on all the established plants and make a drain through my rose bed in the back. I damed up the natural water flow of the back when I made that bed, so I am digging some of it out and putting a 4 inch PVC pipe down. It will then be covered with mulch and hardly noticeable. I also have ordered 200 zoysia grass plugs and the tool to plant them with. It sounds like a hardy grass that will spread and inhibit weed growth.
and hired the professionals to come 6 times a year and do the stuff that I am, apparently, failing at. Last weekend I went to a Home and Garden Show and signed up to win a free year of taking care of my yard. I didn't win, but, of course, they came and looked at my yard and told me about all the weeds that are in it. They even lowered their lowest price for me because my yard is so small. They came today for the first treatment. I think I did the right thing!
I got a text message on my phone today that my rebate check had been mailed. Now there is no way in hell that they received the envelope contaning all that rebate stuff that I sent to them again just a couple of days ago.
Thank Goodness! CBC came back looking good. I thought it was one of those tests that included cholesteral, liver panels, kidney numbers, etc., but it wasn't.....just BLOOD!
I have Medicare Part B and private insurance, so why would I owe my doctor $121???? Anyone??? Insurance types???? Liz?????
I dread March if the winds are going to blow like this all month. Working outside is out of the question, so I have managed to get the house quite clean and actually get some Christmas and Mardi Gras stuff stored in the attic. My guest room is actually a guest room again and not covered in Mardi Gras, so come on and let's have a visit!!
I can feel spring in the air today even though the ground is so saturated. My morning started in clean house mode, but got sidetracked. Mom did not get her paper delivered this morning....new incompetent carrier, so I stopped everything and took her a newspaper. Her day doesn't go well if she doesn't get to do the crossword everyday. While I was there, Dad asked me to take him to look for a gopher trap. We went to a couple of places he wanted to go to, so that pretty much killed my clean house mode!! I did manage to re-ignite it later and got a lot done including cleaning the garage, which really bothers me if it is not clean because that's where most people enter the house. It MUST be neat and clean! I am always agreeable to taking Dad wherever he wants to go because I know he gets so tired of staying home. I also know he will not be around much longer! My sister-in-law had already offered to take him with her to Bossier City, but he declined. It won't take him long to forget that and he'll think they never take him anywhere....but they do! They take him lots of places.
I bought a new Motorola RAZR phone when I switched to AT&T in early January. A $50 rebate was part of the deal, so the salesperson did all the paperwork (which is ridiculous) for me and put it in an envelope for me. I made copies of it all and sent it off. Today I got a letter that they couldn't process my rebate because it didn't have the receipts and the barcodes in it. I KNOW it did. I was livid and I called to let them know I was livid. They don't much care. I'm sure they hope everyone will just give up and not re-send the rebate info. WRONG! I will NOT stop until I get my slimy, little, stupid rebate in my greedy little paws!
Once again I am helping my doctor to retire early. His staff told me they all need new cars and I should just keep on coming in. Infection showed up in the urinalysis, so I had a shot of rocephin and now am on cipro for 10 days. I am so tired of medicine. I also had a CBC that I have a feeling will not be normal. Usually, I am very upbeat and not at all negative about my health because I always think I am fine and in relative good health, but I don't have a good feeling about this blood test. I hope I'm wrong!
Tonight I still have a slight temp, but not enough to make me miss going my favorite place to pig out on catfish. Trust me...I ate it all. I order a child's plate, but there is no child that can eat that much. I don't eat the fries or the hush puppies, but I do some damage on some catfish. We have a favorite waitress there that always treats us so nice. She always brings us "to die for" onion rings even though we don't order them. She is an avid Mudbugs (local ice hockey) fan. She takes her daughter and her 9 year old niece who has cancer. My dad asked her how much it costs for them to all go the hockey games. He was going to pay for their tickets, but she told him the team gives them free tickets because the little girl with cancer is such a fan. 
Damnit! It is creeping back up and the aches are starting again even with the aspirins I took. I called the doc's office and will be there at 8:45 tomorrow to be worked in. No appointments available!
Today is my sweet mom's 83rd birthday. I went down to take her a beautiful plant this morning and I told her I was all well. Whatever! I guess I lied!
This has happened to me several times and it is always such a mystery. I worked outside at Mom and Dad's Tuesday morning for about 3 hours. Nothing was wrong and I felt great. After coming back to my home and running a few errands I lay down on top of my bed with the warming blanket on underneath me and a blanket on top of me. I could not get warm. Then the aching started....the kind that is a result of high fever. I couldn't understand why I would have fever because I had no symptoms...nothing! I did have a high fever. I tried every OTC fever reducer and nothing worked. Even with all those meds, my temp stayed high. I stayed in bed all day yesterday just miserable. Last night I took a pain pill hoping that I would get some relief from the aching. I did get some rest until about 2 when I took another pain pill and still had fever. This morning I woke up at 6:30 with my shirt all wet. The fever was gone! WTH! I don't get it.
My accountant just called me and told me I was getting money back from federal taxes, but that I would owe $625 in Louisiana income taxes. WTH! Texas doesn't have state income taxes. Even if my retirement was from Louisiana, I wouldn't have to pay, but since my money comes from Texas I have to pay. That SUCKS! By the time I pay the accountant and my state taxes, my federal refund will be used up! RATS! 
I just had to go outside and move everything in the garage that could be tossed around by wind. We have predictions of 60 mph winds coming through here momentarily. Power is already out in Shreveport just west of here, so there is the real possibility of losing power here as well. Our power is supplied by the City of Minden and if it does go out, they get it back in fairly short order. I'm sure they have all the trucks on stand by right now. I like that.
My foot is 100% better. I can even move the joint in the big toe. Unfortunately, the steroid is still in my system thus causing blood sugar issues. The steroid keeps me hungry, but I try not to eat carbohydrates, which would raise it some without the aid of the steroid. Yesterday, I ate boiled shrimp and today I ate boiled crawfish, neither of which would raise my blood sugar, but today it has remained around the 200 mark. That's not good! High blood sugars are what cause nerve damage and kidney damage, so I try to avoid having any sugars that high. Since that rarely ever occurs, I'm hoping this couple of days won't cause damage. 
Today would have been a perfect day for me to make progress with all my outside projects, but NO.....I woke up in the night with yet another swollen foot of death! Gout REALLY hurts. My toe never gets completely well, always being very stiff and painful when I try to bend it. Hopefully, we are going to address that problem. I could barely walk, so I had to go in yet AGAIN to the doctor. I told him that it's a shame I have to come see him more than my parents do. Before I came here, I went to the doctor maybe once a year. I was rarely down! Needless to say, I have done nothing useful today but lie around wishing I could go outside and work in the yard. I got another celestone shot, the magical potion that masks the pain and raises my blood sugar. Since it is a steroid, it makes me hungry, but I have to be very careful not to eat foods to exacerbate the problem.
My brother left today on a little road trip, so that means I am in charge of seeing about the parents every day. When he is here, I don't have to go there every day because he sees them every morning. They really miss him when he is gone. He spent all yesterday morning doing stuff for Dad like planting some fruit trees and getting the insurance adjuster to look at damage on Dad's truck. There is always something that needs to be fixed. Most of it I do not know how to do, but my brother does. He can fix anything. I miss them when they are on vacation as well.
Yesterday the land man came and brought me a check for leasing my few little acres down at the home place. Today I used a $100 gift card from Belk that I have had since Christmas. It seems that I am such a creature of habit that I take the sheets off my bed, wash them and put them back on because I only like one set of sheets that I have. These are so soft and comfy. Unfortunately, they wore so thin that they ripped. Well, of course, that just will not do, so I spent all the gift card plus $25 on some new sheets and a new mattress pad. They had better be soft. They are 300 TC sateen. I bought some 400TC once and they got those little pills all over them, so I am very skeptical about sheets. Also, I am very picky about sheets! Let's face it, I am pretty damn picky about everything.....which probably explains why I don't have a sweetheart on Valentine's Day!!!
I was going through internet withdrawal yesterday because I had none. Usually, my provider is right on an outtage no matter when it occurs, so I called this morning. Turns out it was just ME! All I had to do was disconnect the wireless router and plug it back in! Next time I'll know!
There was a time when my doorbell ringing at all hours was common, but not now! Friday night my doorbell rang twice after 1 in the morning. Of course, I did not even think about opening it. Finally, I did go and look out a window and saw a stalled vehicle out on the street. I did not know whether to call 911 or not. How was I to know it wasn't some drunk who would just kick in my door? Anyone who would ring the bell at a house with no lights on can't be dealing with a full deck anyway. And who on Earth does not own a cell phone! I had the phone in my hand, but it wasn't an emergency. My brother told me it could have easily turned into an emergency and, yes, I should have called 911! Next time I will know!
I was at Dad's by 8 this morning. My brother laughed at me for being there so early. It is sooooo not like me! I told him I wanted to get there while he was there so he could start the tiller for me. He did and I got a lot done. Tomorrow the rains come and winter returns to mess up what I did today. The rain will make the tilled area all hard again, but I will do it again and get it ready to plant potatoes.
I got started in my yard and got half the roses pruned, treated with fungicide and new mulch around them. It's like starting over because all the dead leaves had to be removed from the ground around the plants and new mulch put down. I'm not finished! If this doesn't stop the black spot, I will pull those roses up, throw them away and give up on roses.
Last night Dad wanted to take us all to dinner and talk to us about leasing our 60 acres around the home place. The independent lease hound will pay $100 an acre plus a percentage of any gas if they should happen to drill a producing gas well. Dad already gets money from 13 gas wells on his old home place, but any wells drilled near our current home place have been dry. We don't even know why they want to lease our land, but we all agreed that we would go ahead and take that $6,000 and run. Of course, all the money would go to Mom and Dad except for the 6 acres that my brother and I own there. Dad did say he would give us each some of the money because he doesn't need it.
