Wednesday December 31 2008

Pine Street, Pinedale's Main Street

Showing how they clear the street by shoving it into

the middle. Eventually the piles of snow will be hauled

away in big dump trucks and they do that in the middle

of the night. If they plowed it all to the sides, you

wouldn't be able to get on thesidewalks. Obo's

is where I buy gas. Also where the new meat

market is. And the Parking Lot at the Grocery

Store - The road you see on the Hill in the

background of the parking lot goes up to our house.

NEW YEARS EVE

Another Year Gone By

What color is New Year's Eve? I am just glad that the daylight is getting longer. I didn't write yesterday, seemed like there was never a time to do it, so am squeezing it in today in stages. Anyway yesterday I put in the history about the massacre at Wounded Knee so you'd have something to read on the anniversary of that horrible event.

TUESDAY: It was warmer and sunny today. That sure helped to clear off the roads some. Joe went to the ranch to feed the cats. He said there was about 7 inches of snow out there, and drove right in. It was good for him to have something to do while we had our painting meeting.

Our small Tuesday painting group met here at our house yesterday. I made some lunch - Shrimp Linguine, salad, zucchini, sourdough bread and key lime pie. I had done all the food prep the evening before, so it made the meal easier to finish up. Kay, Wanda and I were the only ones who were here the whole time. We had a productive day working on art. Anyway, I had a very enjoyable day and worked on a pastel piece that I already had started and was happy with the way it went. A few more times working on it and it might be finished.

Charm dropped by after her haircut in the morning to say hi, but she didn't paint or stay for lunch. They are snow machining in and out of their place now. They got their vehicles out on Christmas morning. I guess they snow machine to their vehicles about seven miles.

About 3:30 we quit our meeting and I went down to the clinic. This was the day to get the dressing changed and protime for coumadin. The protime level was good again. It took a while for Barb to change the dressing because she needed to keep running for supplies to some other room. But she made the way it sits on my arm much more comfortable with no adhesive tape. That was getting annoying. All is covered with a knit elastic "sleeve" about 5" long. If you want me to take a picture of the picc line, I will.

Since I cooked a dinner at noon, I made us clam soup with salad and the french bread for dinner. It was plenty. Very tired again and went to bed to watch TV right after dinner was cleaned up. If I did any thing else of importance, I forget what it was.

WEDNESDAY: Today another blossom on the amaryllis plant popped out. The flowers are so beautiful! Joe went to coffee and took the dogs with him early this morning. He saw his niece Joslyn down at Ridleys. And he bought a really sturdy snow shovel which we needed badly. While reading email I had some yogurt with toast and tea, and then Bonnie called and said they would be in in about 45 minutes, so I got out of my pjs and stuck some of those canned cinnamon rolls in the oven for us to snack on.

Craig and Joe worked on putting in a surge protector that would protect the well pump from burning up and the rest of the house as well, into the breaker box. There will be a little more work on that because I think Joe said they need a couple more breakers before it would be done. They also went down in the crawl space and hooked up an electrical outlet to plug in the heat tape that was put on the pipes. The heat tape seems to have solved our water freezing problem. But Joe had put a really ugly and l - o - n - g heavy duty extension cord from down there and plugged it in his bedroom. So we were able to get that out of the house after they got the new outlet in the basement. Also they had gone to Rock Springs, Walmart etc. yesterday, and picked up the right kind of surge protector for my laptop and the new printer. Bonnie got behind the desk and got that all plugged in right. I'll probably be able to use the wrong surge protector I bought somewhere else. Next time I'll read the box better. We still need a short phone connection. They said they have one I can use.

Bonnie and Craig were going to go skiing for a few hours. They may have been here longer than they intended though, so don't know if they did or not. We are only about 15 minutes from the ski hill at White Pine. Bonnie and I fixed some potato soup for lunch and they joined us. More visiting.

As they were leaving Joslyn came over to visit. She has some days where she needs to wait in town, just kind of hanging out. So we had a fun visit with her, mostly about horses. She raises a lot of colts on their place in Nebraska.

So that brought me up to time to head to the clinic for the picc line flushing. I stopped in at the post office for our mail and received my prescriptions that had been mailed from Smiths in Jackson. (I'll tell you more about that tomorrow. ) Then filled up my nearly empty tank with gas and got some copy paper and a 3 hole punch for my " organizing the papers on the house into a notebook" project.

Tonight is the torchlight parade at White Pine - they ski down after dark from the top of the hill carrying torches and Charm is going to ski in it. Probably tomorrow there will be photos on pinedaleonline of the torchlight parade. I asked Charm how we would recognize her. Then Charm and Jim, Gina and Bob, Joe and I and whoever else can come, will go to the Stockman's for dinner. I know for certain Joe and I haven't gone out for New Year's Eve in over forty years. So that should be very enjoyable and fun.

Remember I said that there were some earthquakes in Yellowstone a few days ago so now they have counted more than 250 and said they were located beneath Yellowstone Lake. I'll keep you posted, or you can go to http://www.pinedaleonline.com/ and look for that headline for more information.

Yellowstone National Park was jostled by a host of small earthquakes for a third straight day Monday, and scientists watched closely to see whether the more than 250 tremors were a sign of something bigger to come.

Tuesday December 30 2008

Joe Shoveling the Back Deck

Not in the mood for writing, so will catch up tomorrow. Stuck this day in history so you'd have something to read. The book "Black Elk Speaks" is a very good account of this era in our past.

Today is the anniversary of the massacre at Wounded Knee, which took place in South Dakota in 1891. Twenty-two years earlier, the local tribes had signed a treaty with the United States government that guaranteed them the rights to the land around the Black Hills, which was sacred land. But in the 1870s, gold was discovered in the Black Hills, and the treaty was broken. People from the Sioux tribe were forced onto a reservation, with a promise of more food and supplies, which never came.

Then in 1889, a prophet named Wovoka, from the Paiute tribe in Nevada, had a vision of a ceremony that would renew the earth, return the buffalo, and cause the white men to disappear. This ceremony was called the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance scared the white Indian Agents, and they moved in to arrest Chief Sitting Bull, who was killed in the attempt. The next leader they focused on was Sitting Bull's half-brother, Chief Big Foot. He was leading his people to the Pine Ridge reservation, seeking safety there. But it was winter, 40 degrees below zero, and he contracted pneumonia.

Big Foot was sick, he was flying a white flag, and he was one of the leaders who had actually renounced the Ghost Dance. But the Army didn't make distinctions. They intercepted Big Foot's band and ordered them into the camp on the banks of the Wounded Knee Creek.The next morning, federal soldiers began confiscating their weapons, and a scuffle broke out between a soldier and an Indian. The federal soldiers opened fire, killing almost 300 men, women, and children, including Big Foot. One of the survivors was the famous medicine man Black Elk, who told his story to John Neihardt in Black Elk Speaks (1932).

Sunday December 28 2008

Here is the new desk with the laptop and the file cabinet in their own area. The wireless "thingy" is hooked up there - sits next to the lamp. The black book looking "thingy" is my external hard drive. This is quite a roomy spot in the living room, behind the sectional. And this arrangement still gives way plenty of space for the living room area. This is about the last place to photograph and show you how the house is looking. I asked the furniture delivery men to move the file cabinet to this corner, because I had filled it with all that goes in there. They seemed to be glad to do it, but said it was heavy - I wasn't surprised and glad not to have to move it myself.

The family gave me a printer for Christmas and it is sitting on the file cabinet now. (I will hook it up in a few days - I probably have enough to do for a few days and want to have a quiet uninterrupted time to do the printer. Even with the laptop there are still lots of cords stuffed down behind the desk. There are places that need artwork or decor hung on bare walls, but still thinking about what will go where.

Last night I made some phone calls, and especially enjoyed talking to my sister Gloria for a while. We had a good visit. She had a bunch of her family visiting over Christmas and they had left earlier in the day. I tried to call Iris and didn't get her so will try another time. This afternoon I talked to Betty Pfaff and she had some great skiing stories to tell.

Today, as usual when I get up, I had lots of plans to get things done during the day, but as much as I would like doesn't get done. I got the dogs brushed and they enjoyed that very much. Raven made it clear she didn't want me to stop. I did vacuum - after brushing the dogs. I'm planning on having the small art group come over on Tuesday and will fix us some lunch. So need to get the house cleaned up some.

Guess the Power Company had enough complaints about them turning off the power in the coldest part of the year to put in new equipment, and they are now going to wait a few months until they do that. Good thinking!

Can't believe it's nearly New Year's Eve and a new year coming up. Well, better go get a "shower" and ready for watching some TV and bed time.

Saturday December 27 2008

TALK ABOUT HISTORY!

This is a photo Betty had of my high school

girlfriend's wedding. Me on left. then Doreen and

Dick, and my first husband Mike. We were

matron of honor and best man.

About 1958

'
'

Guess too much hasn't been accomplished (by me) today. Scott came to plow out our garage door this morning about 10:30 this morning. He did a nice job. And said he would come back again every time it snowed about 6" and/or blew. He also shoveled off the steps by the driveway. So we're set for a while I suppose. I will gradually get the snow off the deck, at least so the dogs have an area to sit out there, but not until the wind quits! It was supposed to have been about 20 below last night. It didn't feel too bad when I opened the door in the wee hours to let the dogs out. And wow! I was looking back in the innards of pinedaleonline and see that there have been at least six earthquakes near West Yellowstone today, from 2.5 to 3.5. I didn't feel anything. It probably happens more than we hear about.

So..... I only barely got the car out in time to get down to the clinic and get my picc line flushed before they closed - they are only there until noon on Saturday. I'll do it myself again tomorrow. Joe asked if I wanted to go to lunch, which meant he would like to. So afterwards we went to the brewery, renamed Wind River something, and I had soup and salad and he had a BLT with salad. I brought most of the salad home, it was so huge. Perhaps lunch tomorrow.

I've been shopping on line for an economical tall pull on pair of winter boots. It sure does take a lot of time to do that browsing. I wish it were easier to compare, but I've just been making notes of styles and stores. Makes me think I'll make do with the waterproof warm "boot/shoes" that I have. Shoes and socks are getting real hard to get on anymore, as well as coats and pullover things. I also checked out the http://www.drycorp.com/ waterproof cover for the picc line Bonnie found, and asked Barb at the clinic how it sounded to her. She thought I should try it, so I'm going to order that. It's supposed to keep the site dry in showers and such.

Charm reminded me -there will be a "planned" power outage throughout the area tomorrow (Sunday) from 2:00 until about 4:00 P. M. I guess the power company is replacing some major equipment. I hope it doesn't last longer than that. Wonder why they don't plan those things in the summer?

I finally got the carbon monoxide monitors out of the boxes and batteries in them. They have major instructions to read - I'm about half through that. So far they aren't going off - so I guess we're safe from CO now.

Betty called for our weekly visit. She sent me the photo above - she and her Aunt Ann are looking through her old photos. And she inspired me to do the photo essay below because she wanted to see the plows and plowing etc. - so scroll on down for some new pictures.

Saturday December 27 2008

PHOTO ESSAY - SNOW DAYS

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. Sunset Yesterday

Scott Came to Plow

This kind of shows how he uses the plow to

drop it into the drift and drag the snow backwards.

Joe Watches The Plow
(Bad Picture, My reflection in the window)

Street Plow a Few Weeks Ago
(the pictures "got lost" so didn't get
on the blog then.)

Street Plow - He came by Again Yesterday.
He has done a nice job with the roads.
We pay our share of this in the
Home Owners Association.

Raven Next to Garage Drift
She's about 2' tall, so I suppose at this
point the drift is 4'. But It was taller -
Probably settled down and/or the wind blew it.

Not Like At the Rach,
But this is a day and a half's worth.

Could Barely Get In and Out the Front Door.

I shoveled this off Yesterday.

Sunrise This Morning.

It cleared off pretty good with blue sky

until in the afternoon, but no more snow.

The wind is still moving the snow around.

Friday December 26 2008

This is the Aspen Trunk Wastebasket

Craig and Bonnie Made. Isn't it beautiful!

.

Here's a picture of the moccasins

Nancy Smith sent.

I love them.

Well..... the wind howled and it stormed and snowed all night - all day yesterday as well. This morning it's not snowing (at the moment) but the wind is still very strong. It blew a lot of the front yard clear of snow down to the ground including the driveway. The front porch has snow piled up to the window. The front walk is totally bare, an anomaly. There is a 5' drift packed against the garage door however, extending out about +20'. It's garbage day but although I can't see that corner directly, I bet the garbage can - which sits beside the garage door - is buried in the snowdrift.

The back deck is piled about 4' deep, being blown off the roof, and snow in the back yard is at least up level with the deck. In the back yard snow has to be 4 or 5' deep there in places - since the deck must be 4' off the ground - i.e. yard level with the deck and more deep drifts piled on the deck. I put the dogs out the front door this morning because once down the steps they can walk around there and do their business. It all changes around hourly. Not sure it got as cold as they predicted. We're supposed to have snow for the next week. I'll take some pictures. The sun is trying to shine and there's patches of blue sky.

Later in the morning the dogs were ready to go out. They dove off the corner of the deck and were able to get over to the part of the yard which isn't very deep. Raven frolicked around for a while. Sparky watched. Then coming back Sparky tried to jump back up at the corner and got hung up. He rolled his eyes back and forth between jumping back up and coming up the totally drifted stairs. Raven made a track up the stairs and finally Sparky decided that was the lesser of the two evils and came up Raven's track. The snow was over his back.

I can see several of the neighbor men out clearing their drives with shovels and snowblowers and getting their garbage cans out to the street. And the big snow plow is going around clearing the roads, so they are on the ball with that.

I flushed the picc line myself yesterday, and likely will stay home and do it again today. Can't get the car out. But we are arranging to hire Gina's grandson Scott to come. He has a snow removal business. He might be able to come later this afternoon. Doing laundry. Might try to hook up my new printer. I heard there was to be a planned power outage on Sunday, but don't know for how long.

Here is a really cute Holiday dog video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUtPKbMwnRo

Thursday December 25 2008

Roses from Joe

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MERRY CHRISTMAS

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Our Tree a few years ago at the ranch.

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May the Lord Bless and Watch over you

and your loved ones this Christmas 2008,

And may He bless and prosper

the work of your hands in the New Year 2009!

'

Joe got me beautiful long stemmed red roses for my Christmas gift. It's too difficult to figure out what to get for him so I didn't try to buy anything. The family sent him shirts and maple syrup, and me a new printer, which I'll put to good use, once I go buy some paper. I haven't got one sheet of paper in this house except post it notes.

Yesterday while I was gone to the clinic etc., we received a very nice Christmas gift. Someone, we don't know who, came and shoveled our sizable cement drive area in front of the garage door. (Our driveway is gravel to the road though). Joe asked if I knew who shoveled the drive and I said "I thought you had shoveled it". I haven't even got a clue who might have done it. Joe said a couple of dark haired kids. So ..... whoever came and shoveled out our garage door, we thank you very much. That is truly what Christmas is about, in my opinion.

We have snowy weather, blowing the drifts, and lots of small flakes falling. Can't quite tell how much has fallen because of it being blown around but maybe 5 or 6 more inches? For some reason, it feels like a dreary day out there, and I don't want it to be dreary. I want it to be beautiful. There is beauty in small parts. It will probably be more beautiful when it clears up. It doesn't feel very cold. Guess it got down to about 4 in the night and is about 20 now. Well, enough of the weather report. We're snug here in the house.

I had asked Joe to take me out for dinner today, but then decided yesterday, I didn't really want to do that after all. And now I'm glad not to go out in the weather. I just don't want to do a big dinner, the cooking, and have a bunch of leftovers to deal with. Joe says he doesn't care what we do. So we're having T-bones and pumpkin pie. I forgot to get the whipped cream yesterday though.

O. Henry's short story "The Gift of the Magi" is still well known. It was published in 1906, and he wrote it while sitting in a booth at the front of Pete's Tavern in New York City. It's the story of a young couple, Jim and Della, who are very much in love and very poor. They can barely afford Christmas gifts. But Jim wants to buy Della tortoise shell combs for her long, beautiful hair. And Della wants to buy Jim a fob chain for his one prized possession, his pocket watch. Jim sells his pocket watch to buy the combs for Della's hair, which she no longer has because she sold her hair to buy the fob chain. And of course, Jim no longer has the pocket watch.

Wednesday December 24 2008

Charm and I at Lunch

Charm is one of the special blessings

in my life.

Sunrise Christmas Eve Day

Not much to write about yet. Probably another day much like the last few. At 8:30 a.m. it was 22 below zero. Don't know what it was in the night. The first thing I do when I get up is go turn a faucet on to see if we still have water. And the news is just full of the way people in other places are having awful events with the cold and snowy weather right now. Joe went out to the ranch, and I'm hoping he has no trouble with the roads and getting in there. I don't know how much snow is out there now.

WOW! Nancy sent a wonderful care package with fun things. Bonnie brought it over since Nancy had sent everything to her in one package. It was just like Santa had come and just gave me a lot of joy. And that way I got to visit with Bonnie too. Nancy sent a pair of deerskin moccasins with my spirit colors in beading on the front. I didn't ask yet, but I'm sure Nancy made them. They are wonderfully soft and finely made. Also a fun thing was a back scratcher made out of a palm branch, the wooden part - if you can imagine the scratcher part being the wide end. It is all smoothed off without the spines. And VERY long. It certainly evokes a gift from the Southwest - they are in Wickenburg. THANK YOU MY SPIRIT SISTER, FOR THE THOUGHTFULNESS OF SENDING GIFTS. All I have for you is my best wishes to you both for the Holiday Season and the coming New Year, and thank you for your gift of friendship.

Yesterday had a nice phone visit from Sheral. They are visiting at their son's place in Denver for the holidays. They had been to their daughter's and other son's in Texas for Thanksgiving. The second daughter is on a cruise to Hawaii with her family, and having a ball I'm sure. They are my adopted family.

Charm and I are meeting for lunch at the Bottoms Up to celebrate her birthday. I really enjoyed seeing her this afternoon. After that I'll go to the grocery store, clinic and P.O. again. Might make some Christmas cookies. Might not. Might write the Christmas Cards. Or..... Might not. Have the pumpkin pie filling ready to bake a pie tomorrow. And hopefully the doctor is in his office so I can call and order prescriptions that I've procrastinated on.

Well, I'm pretty resigned now to the fact that I'll have this PICC line in my arm from now on. And am going to put up the hand held shower head that Betty gave me. That should work much better to get some kind of shower/bath and keep the line dry. I just have been in denial about this. To see a hand held shower head somewhere always seems to be a symbol of an invalid or infirmity. So I rejected installing it so far.... because..... I'm FINE! And Bonnie found a website for a place that makes a waterproof cover for PICC lines - will investiage that. She said it says "in the shower or the ocean". I don't know why I almost never think of googling things.

The new washer (second one) is making funny noises this morning.

Better go take my morning medicine. I keep forgetting to do it lately. Only can surmise I must feel pretty good.

Tuesday December 23 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR BEVERLY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU

WITH LOVE AND HUGS

FROM YOUR MOM

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.

.

.

Happiness is contagious. The happy people you know are party to your own happiness. Moreover, the happy people you do not know and will never meet also have an influence on your happiness. Happiness (or misery) is epidemic.

Monday December 22, 2008

.

B Troop Soldier

(Ft. Huachuca AZ Memorial Troop

In the collection of the Ft. Huachuca Museum)

14x17 Pencil Drawing

by Lynn Thomas

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.

.

GET WELL SOON TWILA!

.

.

Slept in late this morning. Went so sound asleep with too many blankets on and woke up about 1 a.m. soaking with sweat. I never do that - icky. It snowed during the night and was about 20 degrees this morning. Not sure how cold it got, but probably just in the teens. No wind all day. We have 5 or 6 inches of snow and it came down most of the day - just a guess. Joe went to coffee again, took the dogs, so I guess this is getting to be a regular routine now.

Looked at email and read every one's blogs, and after some breakfast I mopped the wood floors. Lot of good it did. I don't know how but the Raven is still finding mud somewhere and the clean floor lasted about 20 minutes without muddy tracks.

Hope this is not more info than you want to know..... After lunch I figured out how to get a better sponge bath by sitting on my bath stool in the tub and just running the water out of the faucet, soaping up, holding up the arm with the picc line to keep it dry, and then carefully rinsing. It felt a lot more like a real bath, still not my favorite shower though.

Twila called me last night and said she still had the three cats I brought her and said that they are fat and happy. I suspected that was so, but was so glad to hear they are safe there, because I did wonder. Guess they are getting along with her cats o.k. Twila had some neck surgery and said she is doing pretty well. She has a friend that has come to help her and tells her to sit down and not to overdo.

I called to see if the car was finished, but he still hadn't started work on it. Said it was next - wasn't that what I heard about four days ago, three days ago, etc. Yes, thought it sounded familiar. Anyway it was snowing pretty hard again, and I called Gina and asked her if she would take me to the clinic and then to get the car about 4:30 and she said yes. Wouldn't you know we waited longer in the clinic this time than ever have - quite a while, but when Amy took me in it wasn't even five minutes before she was done flushing the line.

Next we went by the post office. Joe hadn't been for a while so we had quite a stack of mail. And received a fruit cake from my steadfast friend Joan in Sylmar. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness, Joan. I got a card from her too, and Diane is there visiting from Apache Jct. - so big HI to Diane.

Then we went and waited a while in the auto repair shop. They had a girl boxer dog and I think we sat on her furniture according to the paw prints. The SUV was done about 5 p.m. and I drove home through the dusky snow covered streets. Gina and I agreed we wouldn't want to be out on the highway trying to get somewhere with the snowy, low visibility weather. Thank you so much for the favor of driving me, Gina. I was glad to get to visit with you while we waited.

Joe got the car in the garage with his truck and snow machine for me. I'm still going to try getting the SUV in the little garage door - he says it won't fit so he's probably right. I just want to check to see if it's any easier than the way we're doing it now - i.e. an accidental paint scuffing waiting to happen.

Fixed some leftovers for dinner and since I've now got the external hard drive hooked up, looked in there for some photos and stuck a few old ones in the last three days blog - check below. Am about ready to go watch some TV.

"Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord."(Psalm 112:1,7)

Sunday December 21 2008

Charm

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

TO MY DEAR FRIEND CHARM

Best wishes for many more

WONDERFUL years!

Stayed very quiet today. It is warmer and NO WIND. So I took the dogs out for a little walk around the back loop. They need to get out like that a little more often. There are three dogs across the street and two came over, one went back and one walked with us. Two of the dogs are black labs, and look just like Raven. The other has the head of a Australian red heeler and the body of a welsh corgi. It is a cute female and very friendly. She is the one who wanted to get acquainted. Sparky tried to keep her away from Raven for a while, but it didn't work. Then she tried to come right on in the house when the walk was over. I wonder what her name is.

I got the laptop set back up, hence am catching up on the last three days. Had a bunch of emails. And played some Spider.

Betty called a while ago. I forgot to ask her if she got snow. Her Aunt Ann is arriving to spend Christmas and several more weeks of special time with her. They will have a great time.

So this afternoon I had to flush the picc line by myself and I didn’t really want to do it, but guess if I do it the first time I’ll start to get used to it. I puzzled over all the parts and syringes for a while and then got it figured out. And felt nervous and a little worried about getting it clean enough so it doesn’t get infected. Anyway I got the job done. It seemed to work o.k.

Guess I've decided not to put the big tree up, but still have a small lighted one. I might get it out and bring it in. I have the Christmas cards for everyone on the new desk to write out and send and no ambition for that either. I'll try though - you may get them belated.

Saturday December 20 2008

Mailboxes

This was a much quieter day. I worked on getting my new desk drawers filled with the things that should go there. And am well along with getting the studio more organized.

At 11:30 I went down to the clinic to get the picc line flushed. They are only open on Saturday in the morning. They had to call a man to come in. I liked him, and he was very quick with doing it. My friend (who is going through breast cancer - and is a nurse at the clinic) is doing it the other week days, but she's not there on Saturday.

Since the car is in the repair shop, I've been having to drive Joe's truck. I worry about dumping his snowmachine out going up one of the hills - think of that happening!! The truck is VERY high, and to get in anymore I have been using my two step Rubbermaid step stool. I put his lariat around it and pull it up into the cab when I get in, and then let it down again when I get out. So for that reason I'll be glad to get my car back. Boy I used to be able to hop right into the trucks, and it hasn't been that long ago either, but can't do it any more.

It was cold and the wind was blowing. Everyone has been saying how cold it is right now. I can hardly bundle up enough to keep warm when I get out in the wind. The dogs just stay in the house and sleep.

James had Jim Allen come today and he went down in the crawl space and closed up those vents and insulated them. Joe had brought a couple of big rolls of insulation from the ranch. Jim took a look at everything down there and thinks it will be o.k. now. He's coming back to finish something up though. I'm feeling good about all the people who are coming to fix things and they all seem very qualified and sharp about fixing our situations. So guess we are getting a good list of people to call on when things go wrong in the future. This place is sure getting a good shaking down, and I guess all new houses going through this. James got me the builder's phone number and when we get the bills and reports we will have to talk to him. That might be an interesting conversation.

Bonnie called and I asked if they would like to come over and share a pork loin roast with us. She brought vegetable, wonderful whole grain rolls, mashed potatoes and brownies. I added baked onions, fresh apple sauce and the gravy. We had a nice meal and a good time. They brought us a beautiful wastebasket made out of a hollow aspen tree. It is really nice. They had gone up into Irish Canyon and found the tree. They also made one for themselves. I'll take a picture of it ASAP and show you. I had wanted a new wastebasket for beside Joe's chair, but love this one so much I put it by the new desk and I'm sure it's going to stay there. (He's got a fine plastic one anyway.) What a nice addition to our home too. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YET ANOTHER GIFT, BONNIE AND CRAIG. IT'S SUPER DUPER!!

Friday December 19 2008

This is a photo of a fire near Big Sandy Lodge with smoke jumpers parachuting in. I am standing in front of the lodge on the shore of Mud Lake. We fed the firefighters 3 meals a day for over a week and there were lots of them - maybe sixty or eighty.

Guess I better catch up the blog, or you'll be wondering what happened to me. Friday morning Joe woke up at his usual early hour and found that the water in the house was totally frozen up. Figured the best thing to do was call James in GA, and let him go the proper route to getting someone here. He called the seller's realtor and said to get someone up here in an hour or we’d get our own plumber. A nice man from Bridger Mechanical soon came and went down in the crawl space and checked things out. He had to go to Sand Draw for a while and in a few hours was back with most of what he needed to get our pipes fixed. By that time the water had started running thank goodness and no apparent leaks. He insulated the pipes that were showing and put heat tape on them where they came under the foundation. He thought that was where they had frozen. There are some open vents that are letting the wind and cold come in and those need to be closed and insulated. Hopefully this solution will be good for when it gets to be minus forty. It was only one degree this morning. Apparently there was no permanent damage to the pipes. ..... I’ve had about enough stuff going wrong for sooo long. Probably more stress than anything.

Took the car to the repair place. By evening I called and they said he had put it on the computer and nothing was wrong with it. I talked to the mechanic and he said he did find it was a little hard starting when it was cold and if I wanted he would put in a new fuel filter and some spark plugs, but he couldn't work on it until Monday. I decided to leave it there instead of going to get it and take it back again on Monday. At least it won't be a major bill.

Before the plumber left I had to get the carpet swept where the new desk and file cabinet would set in the living room, and clear enough room for the furniture delivery guys to work in the dining area and studio. Before noon the truck from the furniture store arrived and they brought the desk, a table for the studio TV, and a couple more chairs. They also brought a new table top for the dining table so hopefully now the leaf will work properly. They sure had to lift and yank to get it open and closed and I told them that I wouldn't be able to do that - the table is very heavy. Also way too big for two people to leave the leaf in. Finished the vacuuming, in fact mopped the wood floors 3 times, with Raven still finding mud to track in. I decided to quit mopping for a while.

It was snowing flurries off and on. Joe went out to the ranch to feed the cats so I hoped he wouldn't get into a storm where he can’t see the road. But he did fine. He loaded up his snow machine into the bed of the truck and brought it back so he could continue to go to the ranch when he wants and feed the cats. I went to the clinic at 3 p.m. to get the picc line flushed. I don't have to wait long and they get it done quick. Then went to the grocery store and was in there for about an hour and a half. I felt like I've been overdoing things after just getting this tube in my arm, so am just going to rest for a few days, and get to bed early.

Thursday December 18 2008

Bev's Front Door- Palm Trees are Shivering

Finished! Aren't they Cute?

Almost Done - notice t-shirt

Clay and Bottom of Snowman
Notice the lawn is still greeN.
We haven't seen green here for 4 months.

Front Door Again

They are having snow in Las Vegas. Beverly had about 5" on her lawn last night. So that's more than we have here. Clay has been out playing in the snow since it started day before yesterday. Walked home in the snow (he never walks home), has been building snow men with his friends all over the neighborhood, having snowball fights. In one of the pictures he's out in the dark building a snowman in his t-shirt, for heaven's sakes. Anyway I'm putting some pictures of the Las Vegas snow storm of the century. All the roads were closed in and out of town, the airport was closed, you probably heard that on the news. School was closed today although it rained in the night and all the roads cleared off. This will be Clay's first and only snow day off school. Beverly said the mountains are beautiful with the snow on them this morning. They are supposed to get another day or so of this.

It's been sunny and calm here, but still c-o-l-d. Today has seemed pretty quiet, although at about 8 this morning we took my car down to the repair place and left it to be fixed. Hope he does a good job. It's supposed to be done today but haven't heard back from them yet. Bonnie and Craig came over about 10:30. He wanted to straighten out the coat hook he put up a week or so ago, so he did that. It will never come off of there now. Joe had gone for his haircut, but got back before they left. We visited and talked about mountain lion hunting, and hounds and wolves and Jim Baker's place and dams on some of the lakes used for irrigation. Bonnie brought Joe a coconut cream pie - we had some after lunch and it's about 1/2 gone, since Joe had two pieces so far. I had to try a small piece and it is deee-licious. THANK YOU BONNIE AND CRAIG FOR THE WONDERFUL GIFT OF PIE. HUGS TO YOU.

BTW Craig said about the ice and condensation in the attic that natural gas will put out gallons of moisture in a fairly short time and probably that venting the furnace into the attic put enough water in there to make all that ice.

Am slowly getting paperwork done and phone calls made and post it notes thrown away as things are accomplished. I went to the clinic about 3 p.m. to get the new PICC (correct spelling - don't know what it stands for though - I could google it I guess.) line in my arm flushed with saline and heparin, and the chemo pump taken off. I will go at the same time every day except have to do the flushing etc. by myself on Sundays, so am learning how to do that. Still no pain in the neck/shoulder/back thank goodness. I feel pretty good. I mopped the floor when I got back from the clinic. Somehow Raven is still finding mud to track in although the ground must be frozen and is covered with snow. Maybe we could go get a taco or something to eat out when we go pick up the car. I tried to call them but just got an answering machine.

Looking forward to tomorrow when the last of the new furniture will be delivered

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'Some people no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty -- they merely move it from their faces into their hearts.' - Martin Buxbaum

Wednesday December 17 2008

A couple of the show walls with

some of my artwork from when we

took the Big Piney Show down.

Mine are in the center the top panel

and right center in the lower.

The day has been sunny, cold and calm, about 20 degrees. Hard to believe almost a week until Christmas, and I haven't brought the tree in yet. Maybe tomorrow. Woke up feeling pretty good this morning - i.e. no chest neck shoulder pain this time. What a relief.

After Joe left to go to coffee, the furnace guys knocked on the door to finish up something in the attic. They were only here about 15 minutes. But that is when I woke up - about 9 a.m. or so, I don't even know. ..... I felt like cleaning up the house and did some laundry, since we hadn't been able to do laundry for over a week. And I brushed the skiff of snow off the deck so the dogs would have a drier place to sit. They seem to like their deck. I've mostly sat and got through the backed up email - a good thing!

I got my new driver's license so guess I'm good for another five years! Glad they are optimistic about me.

Joe forgot to get his protime blood test yesterday, so he went down this afternoon. Now it's 4:30 and don't know what I'm going to fix for dinner. Not much else to write about, it's been a pretty quiet day. Bonnie and Gina called to check on me. THANKS YOU GUYS!

Beverly called and told me about the snow they are having and how much fun Clayton is having in it. 5" so far. She thinks they will close the schools tomorrow because they have no snow plows in Las Vegas. And she is a little worried about driving to work in the traffic there.

Tuesday December 16 2008

Not sure I ever showed this painting or not. I've done several similar of this scene of Shadow Lake, our side of the Cirque of the towers, and the continental Divide - Wind River Mtns. It was hanging in the Big Piney Library when we were there taking down the show so I photographed it. It was bought with community members donations through the Friends of the Library and is in their collection. I like it better in real life than in this photo.

We left for Jackson and my chemo treatment about 7:30 this morning. Gina drove her car and came to pick me up and then brought me home. The weather was cold, cloudy in Pinedale and eased up some as we went north. There were some snow flurries here and there along the way. There was fine dusty snow on the road, so every time we met another vehicle it blew up and made the visibility more or less obscure. We had a little bit of every kind of weather. The ice on the Hoback river is closing in, and the water was all kinds of colors - blues, greens, white and almost black in places. As usual they have more snow than we do, perhaps 6 to 8 inches.

Drank the two bottles of barium "stuff" on the way up starting at 8 a.m.. Got up there about 9:30 p.m. It was the beginning of a long day. They gave me the contrast stuff through a needle in my left arm where they had drawn my blood tests. I had three CAT Scans, head/neck/; neck/chest, and abdomen. I am at the therapeutic (very good) level of blood and it only took one stick with the needle and it flowed really well this time, thankfully we are getting the coumadin at the right dose.

After the radiologist doctor checked the Cat scans, they could see that the blood vessels above the port were Occluded - (Occlude: to close up, to jam). Place your hand above your heart as if doing the pledge of allegiance under the collarbone, and that is the area that all the veins(vessels?) are scared. They don't know if they will go back to normal or not, and I don't know what the results of that can be - there was just too much info today to absorb and I didn't ask how serious this is. The abdomen scan of the size of the tumors looks about the same as last time.

Carol said "So this is why you were in such pain". It's been a year now that I've been having this pain and telling them all along - it has gotten worse and longer each session until it was up to 5 or 6 days the last time before it resolved. That has been what was causing all the pain. All the chemo and saline and heperin flushes they put through there couldn't get distributed.

So they didn't use the port today. Carol with help from Judy, put what they call a pick? line into my upper right arm almost under my arm pit. It will function the same way to get the chemo drips in as the port has. But it takes a lot more maintenance. I'll have to go to the clinic here twice a day, except on Sundays I'll do the maintenance myself. In the afternoon I did get the chemo through the pick line. It was a long day, for them too, with all the different procedures going on. I got a huge amount of information and still more to come.

The old port is in my left chest. They will do small surgery in the operating room with anesthesia to take out the old port on Jan. 6/7. On the afternoon of the 6th I'll go up for an appointment with Dr. Meno in Wilson, stay overnight at the hospital's Hitching Post Motel. There might even be some time for seeing the galleries or a little shopping. On the 7th I will have the surgery in the morning and probably get chemo and then home. I understand all that they say is happening, but not sure I get the terminology right so you can understand it.

Gina's son-in-law was getting a hernia operation this afternoon, so she was able to go to their room and visit a little bit. It had to be a long boring day for her, but she did get over to KMart to shop a little too. She also had me come out to see the most amazing "nativity" scene all built up over a graceful large branch, with a Christmas/hospital theme. She has a photo of it on her blog, which like she says doesn't do it justice( click on horseback up on the right. Lot's of little animals and rooms with activities going on. What patience it must have taken to build.

Coming home we had every kind of weather again. We started from Jackson at early dusk and had some light through the canyon and Bondurant. It was just as beautiful a ride home as it was going up. On our side of the Rim there are some cabins in the trees to the west. We saw the most awesome sight of about 6 of the cabins looking exactly like they were on fire, as in flames leaping from the windows, all orange and reflecting orange high into the sky as if onto the smoke. It was quite dark by then. The only other thing it could have been was some kind of phenomena from the weather, with fog and low clouds, but no lights from other homes looked like that, and not all one color, and the six houses were all giving off such an orange flame-like light. We haven't heard yet that it was fire though. The only way it could have been was if it were arson, or maybe something with utilities all at once. There is nothing about fires on pinedaleonline.

From below the rim we were in a blizzard which didn't last too long coming out of it about Daniel Junction where it was plumb clear with the stars shining. Gina brought me home about 6:30. I had baked a dutch apple pie for them - not my best effort. We had cereal for dinner, and soon I went to bed. I just couldn't get comfortable so tried the recliner and watched TV there. I know I was exhausted with all my body had been through, but all I could do was twitch and wriggle around trying to get in a position to sleep. Finally I did go to sleep on the couch, woke up several times feeling o.k., putting dogs in and out and making hot cups of tea. The radiology guy said to be sure to keep hydrated and flush all that nasty stuff out so every time I'd wake up I'd drink a cup of hot tea. I finally fell into a good sleep.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING CARE OF ME TODAY, GINA. I ALWAYS ENJOY GETTING TO SPEND TIME WITH YOU AND VISITING. I LOVE YOU. So..... all in all everything is going along pretty well.

Monday December 15 2008

Wendy, Melita and Ruth at Obo's

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Ruth and Big Piney Librarian Debbie

in The New Gallery Space.

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Can't believe I slept for almost 14 hours, with maybe 3 awake times in the middle of the night. When Joe woke me up to say he was going for coffee at 8:45 I looked at the clock and realized I was supposed to meet Melita and Wanda at the library at 9 a.m. to go to Big Piney and take down the Mixed Media show. Joe said he'd stay home to be here for the repairmen who were coming this morning, and also the washer was being delivered this morning. I thought about staying home, but decided I'd let Joe take care of it all this time. I've been doing almost everything since we started down this road.

So I started getting dressed really fast, but then the furnace repairmen got here. Then one of the faucets in my bathroom wouldn't work. Had to show that to Joe. Then I remembered to show him the place where the rug was wet in my bedroom. Together we figured out that condensation was dripping down out of the furnace duct in the ceiling. Then I realized that the repair men's truck was in the driveway right behind my car. Joe said he would move it but he only went half a car length and said I could get around. I had to insist that he move it back far enough for me to get out. It was 9:20 when I got to the library. Put all Kay's boxes from my car into Melita's and we were off.

It was hard to believe how quickly we got to Big Piney compared to the amount of time it always took from the ranch. We were down there in no time. Charm and Ruth soon arrived too and we had the show down and packed up lickety split. It wasn't even eleven but we decided to go to lunch anyway. Charm was heading down to Evanston to stay with some friends for a couple of days so she hit the road. The other four of us went to the new Obo's which is a quite magnificent quick stop gas station, brand new. It has a huge deli, store and fresh meat. We picked what we wanted from the deli - so much to choose from it was hard to decide. Then we started on home, stopping at Kay's to leave off her artwork, Devan's, and Sandy's. She didn't go this morning because they were working cattle and she was feeding the crew just as we got there.

Melita took us back to our cars and we unloaded our artwork. Then I went out to get my pastel snow scene framed and picked up another painting Ruth had framed. I will photograph it and show you later. After that I stopped at Rocky Mountain Home Center and finally ordered the window shades. The are double cell pleated shades. They said the shades might be ready and could be hung before Christmas, so that will be nice. Also went to the post office to get our mail.

When I got home the furnace and vent pipe were all fixed and working fine now. Gene said that there's a lot of ice and condensation up in the attic, and it probably wasn't going to go away until next spring. Also the exchange washer has been delivered. I am washing a load of laundry tonight. This washer is much noisier than the one that broke. And one reason I liked the first one was how quiet it was. But maybe that was a symptom of it's demise, I don't know. I just hope nothing's wrong with this one.

Been trying to blog yesterday and today all afternoon, and just now getting around to it. I fixed leftovers for dinner, and baked a couple of apple pies. James called from GA and said he had been talking to quite a few people about our furnace and the builder over the weekend. He had a lot of information to share. And said that I should just present the photos, bill, explanation of the situation to the builder. But we're going to wait a few weeks until James gets back to Pinedale.

So another long day. I'm not feeling so tired though after all that sleep last night. Maybe I SHOULD go to bed earlier on a regular basis.

Sunday December 14 2008

Community Choir

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Nativity Scenes

Nativity Scenes

Christmas Tree - There were Several
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Woke up early today and made waffles for breakfast. Started to work in the studio room, and got quite a bit done. I also was busy with other things too. The weather hasn't been as bad as predicted here and we got maybe another couple inches of snow. I swept off the deck again, and it's pretty easy to clear off with dry snow and not too much of it. Joe cleaned off the front porch and sidewalk.

I've been looking forward to this afternoon because Bonnie had invited me several weeks ago to go with her to the Community Choir Concert today. I've never been before. Well the time got away from me AGAIN and I was a little late getting ready, but it worked out fine. We got to the LDS church in time to get a good seat, and as the time neared for the program to start the church filled up with lots of people. The choir was wonderful, singing all different styles of Christmas carols, and sometimes the audience sang along. Afterwards we went into their event center where there were more than 50 nativity scenes set up and some refreshments. It doubles as a basketball court and the nativity scenes were set up along three of the walls - that's how many there were. I never knew there was such a variety - large and tiny, made of many many different materials, all styles and colors. They were so beautiful, and all brought for display by the town residents. Such treasures, I took lots of pictures but you know how I've complained about my camera, it won't take very good pictures indoors in poor light even with a flash. But I was able to make a couple of the photos work. I had a great time and THANK YOU VERY MUCH DEAR BONNIE for inviting me to go along with you. It was a wonderful experience. The cookies weren't bad either.

As soon as we got back home Joe asked if I wanted to go downtown for a sandwich and I said sure. We went to the Bottoms Up and had prime rib french dip sandwiches. I went to bed almost right away about 7 p.m. and slept pretty good except for getting cramps in my legs - maybe up with them four times.

We're still using the electric heaters that Craig and Bonnie brought over and have stayed reasonably warm. Craig described how the heaters work. There are some halogen lights that shine on to something copper inside, then a fan blows out the warm air. So they use a lot less electricity. The weather is very wintry right now. Mostly cloudy with small snowstorms coming through. It got to about -10 here last night, but someone said that it was -27 over on Forty Rod. It might have been lots colder at the ranch too. Both Bev and Deb called today to see if we were staying warm enough, and Betty too. I never did get time to blog today so will catch up tomorrow.

Remember Beverly's tree blew over on the neighbor's house - 7 or 8 men from their church came over at 7 a.m. and cut it all up and stacked it in Brent's yard. He will be making lots of trips to the dump to haul it all away. The neighbor's house wasn't hurt at all ..... so lucky.