The Need To Travel
As I sit here, BoJangles is at my side, eyeing the keyboard as I type. He must have something he would like to say, but it is my turn today.
Hand is still swollen, but the pain has subsided a lot. I was able to mow the grass in the dog yard today. All the recent rain has the grass growing to new heights! It was so high I had to mow twice. Once with the blade higher, then again with the blade lowered. The Man say I am scalping the grass with the blade too low. He said it was not meant to be that low and to go up a notch. I told him if it wasn't meant to be used, it would not be there.
Anyway, I won that argument. After all this time of me mowing, years and years, I can pick the level I want the blade. I like the grass very short for many reasons. It is easier to scoop poop. Long grass makes it possible to end up with a surprise on the bottom of your shoe. Also, very short grass is not inviting to snakes. I have nothing against snakes as long as they stay away from my yard and do their thing in the woods.
"Wits End" is coming along. It is still very crowded and hard to get to things, but every day I make a little more progress. Yesterday I spent a good bit of time on the stepstool with the drill in my hand. I have been collecting containers with lids. Plastic is preferable and I won't resort to glass if I can help it. Think things like peanut butter. I have drilled holes in the lids and yesterday I attached the lids to the "ceiling" under the loft on the craft end of the shed. I save lots of things for crafts, sometimes useful, other times I might toss it if the project in my head doesn't turn out.
Now there is a lot of different sized containers holding things like popsicle sticks, bottle caps, clothespins, even hearing aid batteries (you never know when you might need something shiny). Now they are out of the way. Last week I put old curtain rods to use on the sewing side of the shed. I slid spools of ribbons onto the rod and used giant cup hooks to hold the ribbon spooled rods in place. I mounted them on the ceiling of the sewing side. The curtain rods came from thrift stores and so had finials at end. I saved those in a container on the craft end.
Needless to say, my goal is to hang everything I can, to leave more space. I had 5 rods of ribbons, 24" each. I have not even touched the fabric! Tomorrow, I plan to use two drawers from the used teachers desk I found on marketplace a few years ago. I was the one to disassemble the desk to use the bigger pieces of wood for another project.
The Man was loading the drawers with the trash to go to the dump!! He thought he was being helpful. I salvaged my drawers and returned them to Wits End and warned The Man to stay out of my junk! I painted them white yesterday. They are only 18" wide, and I found some 4" wide boards that would do and had The Man cut them to size. I can totally cut my own stuff, but he likes to be needed and thinks I might hurt myself. There is no way I could lift the saw with my hand right now.
I found a shelving board that was 4' long and painted it white, too. I am going to mount the drawers on the board at either end. Each drawer with have 4 rows of my apple barrel paints and the space in between with also have shelves that attach to the drawers to put larger bottles of paint and glues and such. The whole shebang will be mounted on the wall. This will free up a lot of counter space to work on.
My cutting table has been installed and as soon as I can clear it off, I will be adding the peel and stick marble looking vinyl to the top surface. Under that table is stacks of fabric bins. The bins are clear, so I can see what is in them.
If I am ever released form the surgeon, my hand and I will be making a trip south. The Man's cousin, Doris, lost her husband last year. He needed multiple organ transplants. He had been on the list for a liver for some time. He had cirrhosis, and oddly enough, he was never a drinker. By the time he agreed to go to the doctor he not only needed a liver, but a kidney and his intestines needed to be replaced. They put him on dialysis immediately and in a helicopter to Miami. This where patients needing multiple organ transplants go to be evaluated for this. It is a last chance measure and very difficult to manage the after care.
He decided against the surgery, and they flew him back home to be placed under the care of Hospice. He died the next day. He was a lot younger that me! This was Doris's second husband, dying before their time. She has not been handling it well. Now she just found out that she has small cell lung cancer, inoperable. She does have a lot of good friends who are there for her, but I think she needs family. She never had any children but does have stepchildren. They tend to lean on her, rather than letting her lean on them. I am not looking forward to the trip, but we need to go and offer her some support.
Poor Doris. She needs you. Your decorating style sound slike mine. I always imrpovised at school. The younger teacghers thought I was a genius. They threw everything in the trash.
ReplyDeleteFamily can be comforting; they can also be indifferent. She has two brothers and one lives fairly close, while the other is in California. My mother-in-law was apt to saving everything, too. She enjoyed crafting and knitting. Always has a project going.
DeleteYou are a good soul. I've never heard of transplanting intestines. I've heard of implanting fecal matter, but not the actual organ. My best friend is going through chemo right now after having both breasts removed. She had every complication possible, even medical malpractice. I am praying she will be one of the lucky ones.
ReplyDeleteThey don't actually transplant intestines. They will remove the non-functioning part and can usually sew the two remaining ends together. If the dead tissue is massive (his was), they will usually source animal or something from another source to do the repair. That was the least of his problems. Doris was in Miami, calling me because they were interviewing her and asking wo would be there for her and help her with the after care. One organ transplant is difficult without a team to support the patient and in his case, they would need to move to Miami temporarily while he underwent all the surgeries and recovery, at least 6 months. She had trouble understanding why all that was necessary and I don't think they were very patient with her. He was not a good candidate for many reasons and in her mind, she thought they could just fix the problem and they could go home. They didn't want to tell her that even if he survived the surgeries, he most likely would die soon after. she blames that hospital and I won't tell her not to. She needs something to be mad at. Now this cancer has hit her hard. She vacillates between crying in despair or being too optimistic. I am worried about her. This cancer, the small cell lung does not hold out much hope for survival. Best they can do is radiation and chemo to add more time to her life. She smoked most of her life and her first husband died of lung cancer under her care. She knows what is in store for her.
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