What Do Ya'll DO All Winter?

[897tgigvib]

Some good non sequitors for day 18 of snowed in:

Are you thirsty?
Huh? Nope, it's saturday.

You never listen to a word I say!
Three cars slid off the highway all at once and nobody was hurt because they all know how to slide off a highway the right way. Now whadja say again?


We're out of vinegar!
I think Welcome Back Kotter reruns are on the tv today. Wonder what Vinny's gonna do too.

There's snow packed on the satellite dish!
Not right now, I'm not hungry.

Course, ya have to train the recipient of the non sequitor year round so that they know that when those ear canals are really ringing, they also know that you're working on tuning them up for background chords for the music you're thinking of. Ya see, some real excellent tinnitus ringing ear canals also means the possibility of great chords. Problem is, only a few can hear the ringing besides yourself, but it is loud enough for cats and bats to hear. I'm sure if you put a stethoscope on my ears you'd be able to hear my ringing, and then you'd know for sure I have it tuned up. It'd drive me batty if that ringing was out of tune!

Time for some coffee!

 

[baymule]

Thanks for all the answers. ChickiesMommaInNH, I used to have hobbies that kept me busy. I used to make needlepoint pillows that I gave as gifts. I had none of them until a couple of them came back to me because the recipients passed away. Then kids came along and I switched gears to sewing. I made lots of kid clothes and crafty items. I even made beauty pagent gowns for my daughter and when she dated a boy whose family were Civil War re-enactors, I made her ball gowns. Then with kids out of the house, I worked at demanding long hour jobs that took up much of my time.

Thistlebloom, thanks for the hug! I needed that! It is hard to go from working 10-12 hours a day running at full speed to not going anywhere and a trip to Walmart to get mom batteries for her hearing aids is a BIG DEAL. I made it through the summer because there was lots to do in the garden and lots of drying, freezing and canning to do. I take mom to the city park that has a 1/2 mile concrete walk so she can push her walker around and get some exercise. But in the cold wet gray yuckky days like we are having, that is a no-go.

Greenthumb, I have drooled over the catalogs and ordered more seed than I can possibly plant. There is not a lot of room on a small city lot! Especially when there are large trees around.

Smiles, your list makes me green with envy! So much to do! I like all of that except
Shovel Snow
Shovel Snow
Shovel Snow


SoLucky and desertcat, my mom goes to a chicken-foot (dominoes) game at church every Friday afternoon for several hours. The ladies "help" her make the plays and enjoy her company, but she isn't what she used to be. It gives me a few hours to have peaceful time all to myself. She has her not-quite-right moments, but she is still cognizant enough to know what is going on. A babysitter or day care for her would be the height of insulting. She used to be a computer junkie, she headed up a weekly newsletter to her former classmates and recieved and sent out emails. Now she can't even turn it on. I get it all set up for her to email a friend and it is hard to watch her mispell words, get the punctuation wrong, hit the wrong keys that take her to the bottom of the page and she clicks on every banner ad that says "click here".

NwMtGardener, here I am complaining about a few weeks of gloom and there you are with MONTHS of gloom. Makes me want to tuck my tail, get into the dog bed and shut my complaining mouth. But that's OK, when it is 110 degrees here for days on end, everything is burnt to a crisp and dead, to touch the roof of a car would leave 3rd degree burns, then you can feel sooooooo much smarter than me because you live in a cooler climate.

Marshall, you always make me laugh. I don't have a snow shovel, would a wide pooper-scooper do? We have enough of the non sequitor around here with mom's hearing aid batteries running low and DH's hard of hearing that he steadfastly denies. Nobody has to play-act on THAT one!

Steve, I think that I might enjoy a little snow. We get snow here sometimes, every 3-10 years. We are total idiots. We don't know how to drive on the stuff and have lots of wrecks. Schools and businesses close because we are total idiots. It hangs around about 3 days and melts and is gone. Then everyone has weeks of wrangling with their auto insurance to fix their wrecked cars. But while it is here, it is pretty. I am glad we don't get snow that settles in like visiting family that stays too long and hangs around loooooong after their first welcome.

It is raining again and will rain all day and night. We need the rain after 2 years of drought. But can't it intersperse a little sunshine inbetween? Whine. Whine. Whine. It has been weeks of gloom. I need to plan better for this. It has been so long since I had time for anything but work, go home cook supper, clean up the mess, shower, watch tv, go to bed, wake up and back to work. I am blessed in that I have a wonderful husband who told me to quit work and take care of my mother. She is just off enough that she can't stay by herself, but way, way, way in too good of shape to be in a warehouse for the elderly. I just can't do that to her.

Thanks to my friends for letting me put into print what goes on in the deep creases of what passes for gray matter in my head. It is helping me see that I need to find "inside" activities for days and weeks like this. I will get on track, it's just going to take me some thinking and doing to find what I like to do. I appreciate all the suggestions for helping to fill the empty part of my day. It has been years since I had time like this and it is a real big adjustment, especially since I have constraints and can't do anything I want. It is like having a 89 year old 5 year old, only with authority on her part. She tells ME "no" I can't tell HER "no."

 

[Carol Dee]

Aww Baymule it seems your humor is still intact. You WILL make it through this and the sun :coolsun WILL shine again. Big Hugs....

 

[digitS']

Oh, you mean what do we do ~ do ~. As, what are our hobbies that could be transplanted to a Texas setting? Not just an accounting of us northerners sitting around with our noses frozen to the window hoping for the spring thaw .

Well, here is an idea, Bay'. I've shared it around here before but I was reminded of it by your needlepoint work and what I read about some study the other day. The researchers did their best to determine what people thought of their future selves. In other words, what kind of people would they be? How would they change?

Without exception, the folks just thought they'd be a little fatter, the guys with a little less hair . . . The researcher had some studies to compare: How had personalities and individuals' beliefs, attitudes, values changed in 10 or 20 years. Not surprisingly, those changes were dramatic! But, people could NOT imagine themselves as being anyone but who they are right now!

I'm not going to ask you to be a Whole New You!! But, how about if you go back in your memories of the Long Ago You. Now, imagine if you had taken a little bit different path moving ahead . . . What did you miss by not taking that path?!?

I don't mean, how would your life be different if you'd married Bobby. I mean, what activities did you give up to go off in the direction you did?

You got tired of something. Maybe it was your needlepoint. Maybe it was only one "point" of your needlepoint. What if you had taken a different path than going on to make clothing? Now, it may have ZERO to do with needlepoint, Bay'. For me, it was music.

Why in Heaven's Name does a deaf guy have any interest in music? Well, maybe you can imagine how I miss it - and, I can still hear with headphones, especially. It is just that the music I used to enjoy so much, doesn't appeal to me and that began 29 years ago when I started to use hearing aids.

So I went back 29 years . . . but I couldn't stop there, could I? I went back further . . . what music did I really like before I became too sophisticated and went off in another direction?

Go ahead and smile: I went back to Booker T & the MG's. Now, I pretty much knew where that group went and where I didn't follow in the mid-60's. But, it wasn't like they died in 1965! What did they do? Regardless of Booker T - what did the MG's do?

I found them playing for the Blues Brothers ! Well, no wonder I lost track of them! The Blues Brothers was like totally retro when they made that movie and all ! I'd already heard all those songs and had my own ideas who did them better in the '50's!

So, what else did the MG's do? The internet is a wonderful thing, Bay' . You would be surprised how much fun I had from that starting point.

Steve

 

[baymule]

I don't mean, how would your life be different if you'd married Bobby. I mean, what activities did you give up to go off in the direction you did?


Steve

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am crying here, more ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!! My EX-husband (spermdonor for my children) of 13 years given name is Bobby. Wait......for.....it.......
My

dear

sweet

husband

of

almost

17

years

is

named
.....
.....
.....
.....

yup,

you

guessed

it--------

BOBBY!!!!!

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[digitS']

Well, we are all in this life together anyway, Bay'. (Counting on my digits . . .)

Forrest: "There was

Dallas, from Phoenix;

Cleveland - he was from Detroit; and

Tex . . . well, I don't remember where Tex come from."

Steve

 

[Nyboy]

Drink: almost everyone of my clients gives me a bottle of wine for Christmas.

 

[journey11]

Baymule, maybe you need a vitamin D-3 supplement? It's called the "sunshine" vitamin for good reason. I started taking it a week ago and already I feel better and not so down or munching out all the time. Your listlessness sounds a lot like how I felt...and very cooped up. Maybe talk to your doc about that (2000 IU is the recommended dosage for the average adult). And try to get a 30 minute walk in daily if you can. As a caregiver, you need some time to yourself each day. Those 2 things can work wonders.

AND the garlic does work too! My DD's have been sick off and on since before Thanksgiving...on their 3rd round of crud now. I've been taking a clove of garlic twice a day and eating lots of citrus and I've not gotten sick yet. And I've been sneezed on, coughed on and used as a personal hankie just about all day long... (Ha...don't want to go and jinx myself! )

 

[Jared77]

Some B complex and B12 will help too. I'd say more but I've got chores and a 4yo daughter to chase

 

[digitS']

At one time, I belonged to a caregiver support group.

There were 2 groups of caregivers - 1 cared for a chronically ill spouse, the other for elderly parents. I was with the former. There was only 1 mother of a brain-damaged adult child. She was a tough lady who seemed to be kind of "trapped" in the Mom role. The spouses had come to the feeling that they may be parents of children but their husband or wife needed them as parents also. They were losing or had lost their partner. The caregivers for elderly parents were having a real role-reversal experience and struggling with with that as well as the care.

"Graduating" from this group didn't look at all promising for any of us. One thing that seemed to help was to encourage each other to "live in the moment" while making personal time just for ourselves. People brought examples of their projects to pass around and we were asked to recount what it was we were doing "just for ourselves" even if it was just getting away for scheduled walks. Of course, our meetings were "just for ourselves" in an important way. When we were talking about the chronically ill person, we would be brought back to recounting what it was that we were thinking about and feeling about the care required.

There were no saints amongst us. We were all trying hard to do our best while just being God's children and caring for one another.

Steve