GOOD BYE 2016!!

Dear 2016,

You have been a rough year.

Obviously, there have been some bright spots.  Such as Bill's job being phased out and the buy-out he qualified for.

But there have been a lot of dark spots as well.

I'm glad you are just about over, 2016.

2017 - It's your turn.  Please be better!

I will see about a year in review post, probably tomorrow.

In the meantime:  Happy New Year, everyone.

Christmas Eve 2016

Yes, I know it's been just over two months.  I'm still here!  There just hasn't been anything spectacular to blog about.

Billyboy is still working on the pachinko machines, our side business is doing very well.  At some point, he will most likely need to get a "regular" job - but that might be problematic in this area and in his area of expertise.  But we are still chugging along, trusting God to get us to where we need to be.

Over the last few months, we've been attending a different church.  We have been unhappy with our church for a very long time, and we have not attended it in over 2 years now.  And in those two years, we have heard from them exactly once - and then only because I made a mistake on a tithe check we mailed them!  We have discussed going back to the Methodist church and attended one for a few weeks before we realized we did not like that particular church that much.  We've visited a few others and one Sunday we decided to visit a Baptist church that we visited years ago.  We were there on a day when another smaller church was visiting with the idea of combining the two churches, and they would be meeting at the sanctuary close to us.  We really enjoyed it and decided to continue to visit.  And then we realized that we were attending a Baptist church but it's actually a lot closer to some of the things that we enjoyed in the Methodist services.  For one thing, they observe Advent.  I don't know of any other Baptist church that does that.  Some of the prayers are occasionally given by women - which never happens in the Baptist church!  We met with the pastor and really liked him.  Tonight, there was a Christmas Eve service - candle light, and with the final observance of Advent - and Communion/Lord's Supper.  We are either joining it tomorrow or next Sunday (New Year's Day.)

Otter is doing very well.  She's gotten a couple of raises at work and her reviews have been very good.  She's basically been told that she's being groomed for management at some point.  She is a very hard worker and has been full-time for a few months.

Maggie is at my feet at the moment - hogging the blanket I have on my legs.  She's been very playful lately, we switched her back to the Pedigree food because the Iams did not seem to be satisfying her, and I think she likes the Pedigree better.

Froggy's middle kid got married in November.  Otter and I were able to go, it was in McKinney Texas which is a really neat little town.  We finally got to meet Froggy's grandbaby, who is absolutely precious, and he was really cute during his parent's wedding.

OK, that's about it.  Sort of caught up but there really has just been "normal life" going on and that is fine with us.  Especially considering that this time last year, we were expecting Bill to be out of a job at any time.  But we didn't anticipate it being like it was, and that is just one more example of God taking care of us.

Sunday Oct. 23, 2016

If I can't think of a title, I'll just use the day and date.  Today, obviously, I can't think of a title!

I also can't think of a whole lot to say, but Froggy will get after me if I don't at least post something.  Can't upset Froggy, now, can we?  :)

It has been very nice weather lately, cool at night and in the early morning then nice during the day.  We have had 40's overnight a few times, which is actually late.  It will eventually be winter, but it's been a warm fall so far.

We normally have already gotten firewood by this time but we aren't getting any this year.  Yet.  We have quite a bit left from last year, since the winter was so mild.  We may not actually need to by any at all for the coming winter.  We will if we need to, but we have a lot still.

I've been busy with crochet the last several days.  I'm working on scarf/hat combos for specific people and I also made a bunch of cotton wash cloths.  I finished the blanket for J that I started a while back, Otter has ordered another scarf for him (which meant that we had to go shopping for yarn!) and then I am thinking I might make a poncho or another shawl for myself.

Maggie Moo seems to have lost a little weight.  We stopped using the feeder system we had and went back to a regular dog food bowl and a regular amount for her.  She's also been getting a few less treats and more exercise.  I had to tighten her harness a little bit, and she seems more energetic.  We also stopped using the watering system because there is a specific bacteria that can cause uti and bladder infections in dogs; it grows in water that is left to sit for days.  Like the watering system.  So, she has a good sized plastic bowl for her water and I wash it often.  It's large enough that it lasts her a day and usually the night, then it gets washed and refilled the next day.  She is still supplementing her diet with grubs that she finds in the yard!  But she's a little less rounded - just a little bit!

It's been a nice weekend, I did a little thrift shopping yesterday (didn't find anything), saw Otter for a little while and then today I have cooked several things for the freezer and I've crocheted a lot both days.  But it's back to work tomorrow, Monday's on it's way!

OK So it's Tuesday

And I don't really have a lot to talk about, but I am going to try to get back into the blogging thing!

I don't want to upset Froggy, after all!  :)

I was looking back over some of the stuff I posted in the past.  This year has not been very busy at all, especially compared to last year.  The last 3 or 4 years, we were dealing with Bill's job/hell-on-Earth situation and then last year had a lot of car/Otter/Otter's roommate/Otter's multiple moves happening.  But this year has been fairly calm.  Which is a Very Good Thing.

The Presidential election is in a very short few weeks.  I will be so glad when it's over!  It's one of the dirtiest I can recall.  I'm not impressed with either of them.  I'm not normally quiet about who I vote for, but this year I may be.  It's just not a good choice, either way!

I like this one:

And this one:

But I think I have a better choice:

Maggie Moo & Babbicat!  (Babbiecat is J's cat).

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun?

Or when you just get busy and forget about blogging.

It's been over a month since I last even thought about blogging and that was on Star Trek Day.  Guess I'd better get caught up.

Well, for starters Maggie Moo has spent a lot of time visiting the vet.  Her ears were still bothering her so she had to spend more time on the abtibiotic and steroid plus the vet injected the ointment into both ears again.  She finally got over that and then she had a spot come up on the top of one of her toes on her right foot.  We thought it was a tick at first, it was not noticeable on a Thursday but on a Friday it was there.  But it was too late to call the vet so we had to wait until Monday morning.  By Monday morning, it was obviously a cyst and was much larger.  The vet saw her that evening and told me to bring her back the next morning because he was afraid to leave it on any longer since it was growing so fast.  Because of her age, 12 years, he didn't want to put her completely under so she got a little stronger than a local but not quite anesthestized.  He said it came off easily and while she was groggy he also got a few of the skin tags she's developed over the years.  The cyst that was removed from the top of her head a few years ago acted like it was trying to come back, it was a little larger, so he hit it again too.  She was in a cone for a few days and was not happy!  I don't blame her, but that was the only way we could keep her from chewing on her foot.  She got pretty good with that cone, she was very proficient at running into my legs.  She figured out how to eat and get water with it.  But she was glad when it came off and stayed off.

I took Otter and her best friend to see the 30th Anniversary special showing of the movie Labrynth.  It was a lot of fun, we had pizza for lunch and went to a book store since we had plenty of time before the movie.  The movie was very good, it has always been one of my favorites.  But it was also very emotional, for all three of us.  I had plenty of kleenex on hand and we needed them!  I'm glad that Otter was finally able to see it on the big screen, she had only seen it on dvd.  The movie was re-released on blu-ray for the 30th anniversary and I bought it as soon as I saw it.  We had a copy, but it moved out with Otter 2 years ago!  It was released in two versions, one is just the movie but I bought the special one which is neat.  The case looks like a book.  It has a special "Remembering the Goblin King" but I have not watched it yet - too emotional!

We tried a new recipe.  We made pizzas on frozen garlic bread.  We used the sliced Texas Toast version.  It was actually pretty good, but they were not very filling.  We will probably make it again, but we will use more sauce than we did the first time.

Texas played ou and it was not our year.  Since I never got around to getting a Longhorn sticker on my newish car, we didn't have to deal with any of the idiots this year.

Speaking of the newish car, it did have a problem.  After I got my oil changed, the "check engine" light came on and the oil change place checked it for me (it was a couple of days later.)  It was the vent valve to the gas tank and was covered by Chevy's warranty so it didn't cost us anything.  Which is good, but I must admit that when I saw the "check engine" light my first thought was the 2002 impala and all the trouble we had with it!

Otter and I went thrfting one day and we both found several things.  I found a couple of skirts, a nice cardigan sweater and I found this:

It's probably not handmade, but it is also not new.  It's at the very least vintage.  It has a Made in Japan tag, and it was made back when that actually meant something special.  I handwashed it, but I didn't have any place to lay it flat to dry so I had to hang it over the shower curtain rod.  It stretched out a lot more than I wanted it to, so I hung it back over the rod but sideways this time.  Then I sprayed it with water until it was between damp and soaking, and it stretched out sideways.  As it did, it pulled the length back up a bit which is what I was hoping it would do.  It's still longer than it was when I bought it, but it's not too long to wear.  And I will find an occasion to wear it!  It's hanging over the shower curtain in this picture.  It's very delicate and was $2.00 or possibly less.

October 1st was two years since this:

That's Bill's car (the el camino) with nearly everything Otter owned at that point.  She has more furniture, etc. now than she did then so it would take more than one truck load to move her.  Not that she's in any hurry.  The two moves in the same complex last year were enough for her for a long time.  She did consider moving last summer, but that would also have involved a job transfer to another location her employer opened in a near by town but she decided against it.  She's been in her current apartment for nearly a year now and she's going to see about renewing her lease when it expire at the end of November.  She would like a 6 month lease but is probably going to have to sign for another year.  She likes her apartment, it's not too far from work or us and it's close to a lot of things.  But she would like a slightly cheaper rent and that would probably mean a little farther from work. She is thinking that IF she did decide to move to a cheaper apartment, it would be easier to do that in the summer as opposed to the Fall/Winter since her lease runs to the end of November.  Either way, she likes being on her own with no romemate to worry about!

September 8, 1966

 The world as we knew it changed forever.

And it changed for the better.

No, it's not just around the corner.  It's already here.  Use a cell phone lately?

All because of the extraordinary vision of one extraordinary man.

I can't even imagine, and don't want to, where we would be without it.

LLAP

5.6

When we moved to Oklahoma in 1993, we knew that bad weather was part of the deal.  But we never expected earthquakes!

In November of 2011, there were a few small ones and then one very big one that hit in the middle of the night.  It was interesting, to say the least.  At the time, it was the highest on record for this area.

Until yesterday morning, that is.  We were sitting on the couch enjoying coffee and discussing out plans for the day at about 7:00.  Maggie Moo was acting really weird.  She's an affectionate little fluff most of the time and likes to be with us.  But she was acting like she wanted to glue herself to me, she was leaning on my leg and acted like she was surgically attached to me.  We also noticed at about the same time that the morning bird chorus was suddenly silenced.  At 7:03, we heard a very strange sound almost like a sander or grinder and it was coming from the direction of the outer kitchen wall which is the west side of the house.  We looked at each other, Bill said "what is that?"  Then the couch started shaking and the floor rippled - we figured out that it was an earthquake at that point, obviously.  We got up and went very quickly to the door frame and Maggie Moo went right with us - I called her name but she was going anyway.  We had the tv on and I must have turned it to one of the local stations because the channel changed and the weatherman was on.  He was in the midst of a forecast when he suddenly started saying things along the line of "OK folks, we seem to be having an earthquake."  It seemed to last for a long time, the hardest part of the shaking was probably about a minute but the actual quake was a few minutes long in duration and we felt most of it.  Once we could tell that it was over, the tv was still moving slightly and we could hear what was probably everything in the china cabinet vibrating still.

It took a little while, but the strength was revealed to be a 5.6 which is a pretty big quake.  It was centered in Pawnee, which is about 50 miles west/northwest of Tulsa.  It was shallow, just a few miles deep, which is why we could feel it so strongly.  It was huge and was felt as far as Memphis, Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, parts of north TEXAS.  There was quite a bit of damage at the epicenter, no deaths but one injury and at least one fire caused by either the gas lines being ruptured or the electric lines.

There have been several aftershocks, although we haven't felt any.  According to the news this morning, there were at least ten.  It also appears that it was a previously unknown fault.

Maggie Moo was a goosey girl for a while, but she got back to normal after a couple of hours.  The birds did start singing again, but we didn't hear them for several hours.  There was a weather radar picture released that was taken at the time of the earthquake hit - all the birds took off and there were so many of them and so fast that it appeared on radar!

We didn't have a lot planned for this weekend, I got my flu shot Friday afternoon and I can never tell how much of a reaction I will have.  Otter went with me, we decided to get them at the same time.  She got hers first and then I got mine.  It was 5:39 when I got mine.  About 3 minutes later, I felt cold - not like a severe chill but definitely cold.  By the time we got to the front of the store and got cokes out of the fridge section, I was feeling warm. Not hot flash warm, but warmer than normal.  I dropped her and J off (he was visiting and went along with us) and headed on home.  I felt ok then, but in the 15-ish minutes it took us us to get home I started to crater.  We had Digorno's pizza for dinner, I had a drink and went to bed early. I felt like I had a low grade fever and was slightly achy, I didn't sleep too well and woke up with a headache yesterday morning.  I didn't feel as bad as the night before but I did not feel too good.  Bill had a couple of errands and I decided to ride along with him.  Obviously, that was after the shaky start to the morning!  But mostly I spent the day parked on the couch, with a crochet hook in my hand part of the day and the tv remote as well. I didn't actually nap, but I did rest and stayed on the couch.  I went to bed somewhat early last night and slept better.  I woke up this morning with a slight headache and didn't feel 100% but I was still better.  I've been taking it easy for the most part today, although I did ride along when Bill went to the booth.  It's been a much lighter reaction this year than last year.  I am not complaining at all about that!

OK, Froggy. I blogged.  I told you I would, and I did!  :)

Late August 2016

I can't come up with an interesting title.

I don't mean to neglect this blog.  But there just isn't anything exciting going on.

I'm pretty much over the sinus infection, which is a good thing.  I'm hoping that I have at least 2 1/2 years before the next one - or longer!!!

It's still warm, it is Summer after all.  But it is cooler than it was and the signs are there that Fall is on the way.  I think we are going to start getting our firewood pretty soon.  We didn't get the full amount last Fall that we normally get, but then it was such a mild winter that we hardly used any of what we had on hand.  We're not going to take the chance of a mild winter and not have enough firewood.  Bill is probably going to get the first truck load in the next week or so and then I think probably a couple more loads.

At the moment, there are 7 pachinko machines in the living room.  All of them are restoration jobs for customers.  He has two that he's almost done with, one of them is his machine that is destined for the booth and the other one is a customer's machine.  He's keeping pretty busy with them.

Maggie Moo has been her usual silly beagle self.  I took her out in the back yard this afternoon, she has not had much interest in tracking lately.  Until today.

She was extremely interested in something and she followed her beagle nose all over the side of the back yard close to the shed.  We have not seen raccoons lately or any sign of them, but I'm thinking that they may be back.  I don't think she was tracking a cat's scent.  She had that nose to the ground and she was sniffing deeply.  She went from the back of the yard to the front of the back yard and then to the corner of the house where the fence attaches.

She went to the corner of the house/fence and then along the house back the direction she'd started from but in a different spot.

She was concentrating very intensely.  I can see why beagles are used to hunt with, just from the way she was tracking whatever it was.

Then she went back to the rain barrel.  She had started for it when she was walking towards the front but I called her away and that's when she went on to the front of the back yard.  But on her way back, she zeroed in on something and it was apparently very strong and possibly very fresh.  She stuck her entire head under the stand the rain barrel is on and she did not want to come out.  Whatever has been underneath it was probably pretty recently.  I will not be surprised if it does turn out to be raccoons.

I just hope it's not skunks!

Two Years, Six Months

Since my last sinus infection.

The count starts over today.

The allergy issues I've been dealing with this week are probably allergy issues, but they also masked what turned out to be (big surprise) a sinus infection.

I could really do without these things.  They are not fun, they make me feel like crud and the antibiotic does unpleasant things.  But, at least the antibiotic also cures the sinus infection so I don't gripe too much.

I guess I should not be surprised.  After all, there were yogurt coupons in the paper the other day and that usually only happens right before I need to go buy a bunch of it.

Sigh.

Figured I'd Better

post something here before Froggy gets on me about it!

Beat you to it, Frogs!!

Anyway.

Bill's been busy with pachinko machines and got another one ready today for the booth.  It's in a cabinet, he sold one with a cabinet out of the booth last month.

I've been working on a crochet project which should have been finished a long time ago.  But after I was about a third of the way through, I decided that while it was nice it was not what I wanted for the person it's intended for.  So, I frogged the entire thing out and then started over with a totally different pattern.  I've had a lot of interruptions as well as some tendonitis, so it's taken me weeks when it should have been days.  But it's now through, except for the millions of tails that I have to weave in.  That may take longer than it did to crochet the entire piece!

Maggie Moo may need to go back to the vet about those flappy ears of hers.  She's acting like they may be bothering her again.  I'll talk to the vet tomorrow and see what they suggest.

She was sprawled out like this the other day, seems like she would not have been comfortable but she apparently was because she was snoring.  Loudly!

And that is all I can think of today!

OK, So It's August

It's Summer.

It's hot.

It's supposed to be.

I keep hearing people gripe about the weather and how hot it is.  I keep responding:  This isn't hot.  You do not know hot, unless you grew up in S. TEXAS.  Then, you know hot.

OK, enough griping.  :)

Two in a Row!!!

I know, I'm bad at blogging lately.  I will try to be a little better. Can't have Froggy mad, now can I?

What's new.  Well, I'll have to think about that.

I don't think I mentioned it, but Otter was promoted to full time at her job a few months back.  She's not quite a supervisor, but she is the senior associate in her department and has basically been told that she's in line for moving up at some point in the future.  Moving up basically means that she is being groomed, prepared, watched, etc., because she is managerial material in training.  Hopefully, that sentence makes sense!  She had an excellent review last week and got another raise.  She's a hard worker, and although she hates to admit it - she is very much a Borg Queen in training!

Maggie Moo has been to the vet twice for her ears this summer, she's on the end of a steroid round this week and I'm hopeful that her ears are cleared up this time.  Frasier always groomed her ears and the vet always commented on how sparkling clean they were.  But since he went to the Rainbow Bridge, her ears aren't happy.  She's a happy beagle, just with unhappy ears.  She has not had many walks lately, but that's because a) it's summer and hot and b) it's summer and hot and that means humid.  The heat isn't so much of a problem for me, but the humidity is.  My asthmatic lungs don't deal well with humidity.

Otter went to TNT last month, the cosplay convention in Tulsa.  I'm not posting pictures because her face was visible in all her costumes but she and J had a great time and enjoyed the weekend.

Bill's been busy with pachinko machines.  He sold one out of the booth last month, and has had quite a few restoration jobs.  It's doing very well.  It's not going to be a living wage out of it, but it's a very good supplement.  He has done some job hunting, but there is not much out there at the moment.  He's either extremely overqualified or underqualified.  I think it's time to start thinking of jobs other than in his field of electronics engineering.  When he got his degree, electronics was expected to be a growing field with a bright future.  However, that prediction is not exactly what happened and we have been seeing evidence of that for a few years.  But we aren't worried, God has brought us this far and He's not going to abandon us.

It has just been a somewhat boring summer, and that is actually good.  So, Froggy - two this week!  No complaints will be accepted from you.  :)

Yeah, Yeah. I Know.

Been a while!  As Froggy reminded me.

There just isn't anything spectacular going on.  Normal, quite, calm "real life" and that is about it.  I'm not complaining, it's still a nice and obvious change from what we had been dealing with concerning Bill's last job.

Speaking of Bill, he had his annual skin cancer check last week.  For the first time in more years than I can remember, he did not have any.  He had three or four little spots that could become skin cancer in the future and one of them was probably close, so the doctor froze them all and the big one was frozen twice.  Because of the size, the doctor was afraid it might not all freeze so he wants Bill to go back next week so he can look at it and freeze it again if it needs it.  But that's all, no cutting, no slicing, nothing!  It is such a nice change.  The doctor said that Bill should get two weeks of back rubs, but Bill settled for lunch that day. :)

Beyond that, it's just normal and quiet and I'm not complaining.

7 Days

Since the last time I managed to post anything here.

Froggy, you must be slipping.  You haven't reminded me once.  :)

Last Thursday, there was a really bad storm.  It was pretty much totally unexpected and it was actually starting to become tornadic at one point.

There was almost no warning.  It was lunchtime and I had thought about going out for lunch but decided to stay in and I'm glad I did.  We had rain chances but nothing bad was expected.  The first hint was when my cell phone started making the Alert sound - it is very loud and very shrill.  The entire screen said "TORNADO WARNING. TORNADO IN THE AREA."  It wasn't raining or anything, I turned the radio on and they were doing the normal mid-afternoon show.  I thought that the cell service provider must have had a problem and sent out a bad message by mistake.  And that's when the Tornado Sirens started sounding.  When they go off, it's best to pay attention and take cover.  The boss was in his office but had heard my phone alert so he was coming up the hallway to see what the noise was, when the sirens started.  He ran back towards his office for his phone and I was already in the area we decided is the safest spot - the bathroom which is on a north outside wall but the center of the building is a glassed-in atrium and the glass makes it a very unsafe spot.  Bill called me at that point, he was at home and was watching the noon news.  They were on the storm warning by that point and they were calling out the exact area of Tulsa I work in as being in the firing line of a rotating cloud.  He was telling me what the news said and I was telling the Boss.  Then the cloud started to move more south and not southeast, and the rotation stopped.  At that point, they cancelled the tornado warning but were still putting out a lot of warnings in the direction the cloud was moving because of the fact the cloud had shown rotation already.

The Boss opened the garage door to check the sky and by that time,the cloud was right there.  It was well east of us and we were safe, but it was still pretty scary to look at.  These pictures were taken with my cell phone and make it look a lot lighter than it actually was.

No, these are not "Hey Y'all Redneck Last Word pictures!

After the cloud had moved a little further south, that's when the real storm hit.  The one that was behind the rotation.  The rain was very sudden and very, very heavy.  The wind was even worse.  There were trees ripped out of the ground all over Tulsa and the surrounding areas, trees that were broken into pieces, limbs thrown everywhere.  It was a very, very severe storm.  I've seen rain forced sideways by wind before, but not like this.  Of course, Otter was at J's house and that particular town was right in the direction the cloud and storm were headed next.  They were aware of the weather and stayed inside, ready to take cover.  J's house was ok, but there were two incidents that were confirmed to be the work of a small tornado in the general area.

When I got home, which took a while because of several street lights that were out and also because of debris in the road in some spots, we still had power but we also had limbs down in the back yard.  But  there was one place in particular, a church in south Tulsa that literally had a wall ripped off just because of the wind.  Bill's dad had a tree limb down in their back yard - but they don't have any trees.  It was split off of a neighbor's tree, then the wind carried it over the fence and into their yard.  It was not a small limb, either.  Parts of the Tulsa area and surrounding area just had power restored today, Monday.  Bill cut up the limbs from our tree Saturday and also helped his dad with the one in his yard.  Most of it is now in our woodpile, Bill thinks we got about 1/3 of a rick out of it.

Yesterday, Sunday, Bill mowed the yard.  I was standing beside the rock garden when a grasshopper bounced by me.  And landed right in the center of a zigzag spider's web on the trellis!  I had not even seen the web, it was so well camoflauged in the honeysuckle.  Pretty much as soon as the grasshopper landed, the spider was on it.  She moved like lightning and had the grasshopper wrapped completely in silk in just a couple of seconds.  It was amazing to watch her.  Then she moved it to another spot in the web and then a few hours later when I was walking around the yard with the beagle I checked on the spider and she was happily consuming the grasshopper's innards which were probably liquified by that point.  I hope she stays around.  She's probably not quite quarter sized yet, and they can get much bigger.  She can stay in our trellis and eat all the bugs she wants!