Ten on Tuesday Revisited

I gathered them all up and looked them over. They are pretty boring, except for the first one, which I hardly expanded on. I decided to do that, so here we go.

From Stories from the Mist, Ten on Tuesday, location, Crescent City, California. Because we don't live there now, some of my answers are a little subjective.

Nov. 10, 2015

1. Ten things I'm thankful for. (What my parents taught me, the 8-1/2 years I spent living in the desert (Midland), the chance to have fun living near Hollywood California in my teen years, my first husband, my daughters, beating cancer, my second husband, the chance to visit Kosovo twice, living in California again, the chance to live in Wisconsin)

2. Ten things I miss from the Midwest. (Autumn leaves, snowy landscapes, spring, fall, Lake Michigan, Aldi, my daughter in Indiana, my husband's health, ethnic food, northern lights....they don't happen often but they can't be seen from California)

3. Ten things I've gained. (See # 6) 

4. Ten things I lost. (See # 2)

5. Ten things I'm afraid of. (Spiders, spider webs, heavy traffic, expressways, mountain roads, crashing into a river off a mountain road, walking alone in the dark, really big spiders, walking into a web, touching a web.....yes, I listed them again)

6. Ten things I love about where I am. (The California point of view here, because I posted this when I lived there---ocean views, the Smith River, nature trail walks with my husband, time spent with my younger daughter, our spacious duplex, a view of the sunsets, rocks, going to the shooting range in the mountains, fresh air, no summer humidity)

7. Ten things things I would change if I could.

8. Ten Poems I've written (This will take some digging)

9. Ten pets I've had (Desert tortoise, Horned Lizard, Garter Snake, White rat, Mouse, Praying Mantis, Parakeet, Dog, Cat, Bunny)

10. Ten places I've lived.
(Lawrence Massachusetts---place of birth, 
Inglewood California---age 3 to 4-1/2, 
Midland California---age 4-1/2 to 13, 
Bell California---age 13 to 15, 
Bell Gardens California---age 15 to 19, 
Highland Indiana---age 19 to 20, 
Hammond Indiana---age 20 bought our house with 1st husband,
Dyer Indiana---a brief time when we rented our house out for 2 years before moving back to Hammond, 
Crescent City California---moved with my second husband from September 2014 to Feb 2016, 
Hartford Wisconsin---March 2016 to Present)
...those are in order)

Rest

Yesterday I spent most of the day having fun arranging my plants and rocks. The day before I did laundry and took the sower curtain down, washed it, and hung it back up. I really didn't know that was going to make my shoulders and sides of my neck hurt as much as it did. But instead of resting, I did stuff all day yesterday. I was hurting last night. I don't take anything stronger than aspirin. Rest helps. I'm doing lots of resting today.

The shower curtain lost some of its pictures in the wash, so we decided to buy a new one, especially since after all that trouble it still has mold spots at the bottom. My hubby promised to take the old one down and hang the new one, since I found out that much activity over my head is a real set-back.

My hair is still falling out by the handfuls. I'm going back to taking vitamins (in addition to the biotin) and am trying to eat better. It's the ole' "post surgical hair loss", and it usually lasts about 6 months. So it looks like I have 3 more months of loosing handfuls. It's alarming, but all the forum posts I've read assure everyone their hair will grow back. It could take awhile.

I had to close the windows this morning. It was a bit chilly, but they are open again now. It's been raining again. My daughter in Indiana has a birthday tomorrow. Her hubby bought her roses and sent them to her work.

Today I had Fun

Usually I take a nap after my hubby leaves for work. I think it's been mostly from boredom. Today I got an idea, and I was no longer sleepy. I decided to turn my one-shelf window set-up into two shelves. I don't like my plants to be crowded, well, the little ones can be, but the bigger ones I like to have spaced out, sort of "on display". Having two shelves also gave me room to display some of my favorite things.

Here is my shelf with plants bunched up. All the ones in the window sill also need to come in before winter, because they are in an open window, against the screen.

The plants against the screen in the open window.

Another view of the one-shelf set up. 

Here are the two shelves (that's an Albanian flag to the left, my hubby is Albanian).

Here is the wooden table with the shoe rack below it. The table was a kit that I assembled by myself because I wanted to do a project. The two handmade bowels were given to me by my daughter in Indiana. She bought them in Arkansas.

Here is the small green one with an impression of Dill.

Here is the large blue one with an impression of Thyme

The bottoms of the bowels. I had to stabilize them a bit.

Rocks from California. Yes, I really did bring heavy rocks. My hubby gathered the black ones. I found the heart-shaped one.

An amethyst necklace I made for my mom years ago. It has a few real amethyst stones in it. I never wear it because it doesn't go with anything I have, so I put it in this delicate pink stemware I found at a resale shop. To the left is Aloe aristata, bought from Flora Pacifica in Oregon.

My black jewel orchid, which I've had for maybe 20 years. Or it might have been my mom's, or a combo of both plants. We each bought one from a store long gone.

Ink wells that my grandpa collected eons ago.

A basket of rocks. Yes, I love rocks.

The kitty planter that was my moms, currently un-planted

And to finish things off, I added some more jewelry I love but don't wear to my ocean wave vase. Why should my jewelry box have all the fun?

Looking inside, two bead necklaces I made years ago and a starfish set, earrings and brooch, bought in Florida in 1995. Yes, I have worn them, but not often.

No Alarms

Yesterday I had my 3 month check up and X-ray. Results, excellent. Chance for future problems, slim, unless I stress my remaining movable neck joints too much. Chance for setting off airport security alarms...none. The metal in my neck is Titanium, and it's even MRI safe. Oh well, so much for setting off all the bells and whistles. It is possible for the joints above and below the fusion to eventually fail, but it doesn't happen to everyone, and if so, usually several years down the road.

I also need new glasses, simply because the ones I have are 10 years old and the lenses are cloudy. I tried to get new glasses when we still lived in California. The optical department at Fred Meyers in Brookings Oregon was close by and I found nice frames. The problem was the first time they put someone else's prescription in my frames. The second time it was my prescription but it was off. I still couldn't see well. This time we were less than 2 weeks away from moving. I had no choice but to get my money back. We were out of time.

I was kind of shocked when I started looking for glasses here because 95% of the frames were ugly thick black or dark plastic things. I don't care HOW FASHIONABLE they are supposed to be, to me they look like crap. Anyway, I'm on my hubby's vision plan from his work, and they only accept certain places. Since the Sofia Loren brand is always the one I reach for, as it turned out, Sears Optical was to be our go-to place. We drove out on Saturday because hubby had the day off. I lucked out and got a walk-in exam. The doc was good, an older man who was sharp as a tack. I felt good about my exam. My new script is only slightly changed from my old one. He also told me that I have some very slight yellowing of the lenses in my eyes. He said it is a very slight beginning of age-related cataracts. I asked about how this could progress. He said it might be 7 years before I need surgery. Let's hope my eyes and neck hold out, so I don't "fall apart" all at once.

We have been enjoying cooler, dryer weather. We've had some torrential rains. It's really green here. The lawns have been green all summer, no need to water. I've heard there are droughts in other areas of the Midwest. I don't ever remember having humidity in Wisconsin in the past. There was never a need for air conditioning at the cottage.

Looking back a little over a week, we had a good time with my older daughter, her hubby and his 2 kids. We went swimming one day, ate dinner at Perc Place, had a good time talking and laughing. My younger daughter appreciates having some furniture, which was the main reason for the visit.

Oh dear...it's Tuesday, and I didn't do a Ten on Tuesday.....ok, quick:

10 Things I Need to Do

1. Sort and file old mail
2. Clean out my closet
3. Repot some of my plants
4. Take more walks
5. Go back to healthy eating
6. Stop being so lazy (related to having no energy?)
7. Get my energy back (related to being lazy?)
8. Seriously sort out all the stuff in the bins in the bedroom
9. Sleep better...new pillow? (Maybe why I'm tired and lazy?)
10. Get better pictures of the mommy deer and her fawns and the Sandhill cranes

Busy!

My daughter in Indiana and her family are coming up tomorrow. They are bringing her sister some furniture.

I have the apartment all straightened out. Feels good.

No meteor showers for us, just rain showers, pouring rain for hours. We needed it.

Hubby and I needed to visit a government building today. I was disappointed my neck hardware didn't even cause a blip on the body scanner. Before stepping through I told security and showed them my scar. They joked that it must be cheap metal. hahaha Then mentioned it's probably titanium. I really wanted to set off all the alarms LOL

I'll write more later, after the weekend.

Moving Day

My daughter is in her apartment. She has a nice view. It's quieter on her corner because she is away from the highway. We are exhausted.