Thanksgiving

Grace For Thanksgiving Day


by Alice Kennelly Roberts

Dear God,

Wherever we may be...On this Thanksgiving Day...

Gathered with loved ones in our homes...

Or many miles away...

We bow our heads, remembering those...

Who shared Thanksgiving past...

Those who have walked with us awhile...

Whose love will always last...

We thank Thee for the joy of friends...

The food before us set...

And for a tiny Pilgrim band...

Whose trials we can't forget...

Help us to sift the good and bad...

The hatred and the strife...

Grant us the wisdom and the strength...

To lead a useful life.

Amen

Showing my Age

I have finally become my father.  Which isn't altogether a bad thing, but, well, you decide.

Last week I was at JC Penney, exchanging a few items.  As I left the store, I passed stacks of jeans with frayed seams, rips, and threadbare areas--old-looking jeans with new prices.  There are racks of jeans in better condition at Goodwill!  Heck, just buy twice as many at the local thrift store for the same amount of money, and rough them up a bit!  Am I out of the loop here?

Then one of our young nursing assistants was talking about a band he likes, named "P____(insert male body part here) Monkey." Said they had some good music. Now I don't like rap, or grunge (do they still do that?) or heavy metal, but there are some sounds out there I really like these days.  However, I told Eric I would never be able to discuss their music with him, because I refuse to listen to a band with that name.  He said I was judging a book by its cover.  I said anyone who willingly names their band something you wouldn't want to discuss with your grandmother is showing more of their character than a simple book cover.
Am I wrong?

Thirdly, Mighty Mom posted a challenge a couple of weeks ago to "show your greyness."  Well, here you are folks:

Unlike my father, who was bald long before his death at age 47, I have hair, white though it may be.

So.  Did I show my age?



PS.  I missed the flu shot from work last month due to J-Man's hospitalization, so now I've come down with a mild case of it.  Hope to answer your comments and visit all your blogs soon.  In the meantime, have a Happy Holiday week!

Uneventful Week

Not much is going on in Scrapsville--well, not much of interest.  There is always work, and always housework. I did get my first full paycheck since early September.  The bank account breathed a little sigh of relief.  I figured out, I only worked 4 days in October.  I was on call sometimes, and I took PDO, but only 4 shifts did I actually work. Except for the pay, I could get used to that!

Took the hammock down this week. Raked 17 bags of leaves--and there are at least 3 times that many still out there, but I ran out of bags.  Got most of the Halloween stuff packed away, but I need to buy another plastic bin.  I'm considering a small storage facility for the Halloween and Christmas bins, as well as the boxes of past tax information, the bedside commode we got, but never used, the artificial Christmas tree, and the boxes of milkglass I own, but have no place to display.  The garage is getting a little crowded.

Let's see: what else?  I took a couple of boxes to the vocational thrift shop to donate, exchanged some items I bought for the J-Man which were the wrong size, and dropped off a shoebox of toys at a local church for Samaritan's Purse.  I made up the box last year and missed the deadline, and would have missed it this year, too, except I heard it mentioned on the local radio station. I had every intention of making up a couple more, but didn't realize the deadline was so soon.

Oh, and took Tandi to the vet for routine bloodwork.  Since we are going up to DD's this Fri. (a 7.5-hr drive), I wanted something to settle her down.  She doesn't like riding in the car and she freaks out at rest stops with all the people and the noise.  He gave her something he calls "Doggy Prozac" that won't sedate her, but will ease her anxiety.  I hope it works. Our last dog loved car rides, but Tandi is so neurotic.  She's also about 5 pounds over what she weighed last year, so she and I started walking some.  We won't talk about my weight, except to laugh hysterically at the mere thought of a 5lb weight loss making a difference.

I finished one of my UFOs, but haven't taken a picture yet.  I need to do that and mark it off Finn's list.

BTW, I'm leaving the poll open until Monday night, so let me know how you feel about continuing the movie trivia game.  There have been only 4 votes so far, maybe because I haven't posted much lately and people haven't seen the poll.  If most all are in favor, I'll restart it next weekend.  What the heck, it's a holiday and a good time to watch movies--if you can outvote the football watchers, or find another TV!

Pothole's voice

Well, I did a (very) little digging, and found out our gal who does the voiceover for the pothole isn't even blond! I coulda sworn she was!

Her name is Dayci and here's her picture:

Cute as a bug, isn't she?

Her resume says she was educated in Chapel Hill, NC,  (Sorry, Jen!) and that she can do several different accents.  I'm thinking this is the accent that'll get her more jobs.

Okay, a small segue into another subject: Movie Trivia.  I took the month of October off while dealing with J-Man's illness and Howloween and now November's half over.  (Sheesh!  Where was I?)

Is this something y'all want to continue or is everybody tired of the game?  I'm going to watch movies anyway, so it's whatever you folks want to do. Let's see if I can manage one of those polls in my sidebar, but if I can't, just comment and let me know your choice.

Oh, and the person who visits from Albuquerque--I'm curious: do we know each other from when I lived there?  If you don't feel like letting the whole world know, you can just email me using the addy in my profile.  Inquiring minds want to know!

Geico Pothole Commercial

I absolutely love this commercial! I don't know if it's the gal's accent or the ditziness, but it cracks me up every time. J-Man humors me and instead of fast-forwarding through it as he usually does with all commercials, he stops and plays it for me.  

It  doesn't take much to amuse me.

Giving Thanks

Gee, it's been a few days since I posted, but it doesn't feel like it. I think I'm still living in Halloweenland. My yard looks like it, anyway. There has been so much to do this week, I haven't taken everything down yet. Tomorrow I need to go back over to the hospital for a competency testing on the new upgrades to the computer system before it goes live on Sunday. Even if census is low, everyone scheduled will have to come on in to work, because the system will crash and nothing will go as planned. That's always the way it is when we go through a major "upgrade." But hey, it's a living!

Today was MD appointment day. First J-Man saw our primary physician and had another clotting test done. These results were therapeutic, so he stays on the same dose of the blood thinner. His color is better, less sallow, and the swelling is minimal. Except for some lingering tiredness, he's feeling well. Everything's status quo.

Then we saw the gastroenterologist who reviewed the biopsy results with us and questioned us in detail about J-Man's meds and medical history. They still have no answer as to why his liver shut down, but Dr. R. is going to research the past medications and one of the ongoing ones to see if there are any rare incidents of liver failure with them. It's possible there was a latent liver problem from even as far back as the stroke and some medication may have triggered a strange reaction. He's still a walking mystery. But there's nothing that needs to be done there, either. Next visit is 3 months.

We have been so fortunate to have the terrific doctors and staff that we do. Because of his swiss cheese memory, J-Man's perceptions and timelines can be unreliable, and I have to be his walking memory bank. But everyone always asks him the questions first, which is so vital to maintaining his dignity. Then, if I have to modify or correct his answers, no one makes me feel like an overbearing wife. We have dealt with many healthcare personnel in the last month and not once have we had an unpleasant experience. Not once.

Well, if you don't count insurance issues.


And we don't.

Photos of the Night

Somewhere I read to leave your setup in place until the night after, so you can take pictures.  For those of us (like me) who are up to the last minute placing or rearranging props, this is a mental sigh of relief.  There was no rain today, only a strong breeze, so it was easy to go out and relight all the candles and pumpkins and take some photos. 

Here are some daylight photos and their night counterparts:

And some of my favorite pictures:

(Y'all were right--this garnered the most goosebumps from visitors!)

(A reluctant Tandi)