I'm Angry - I Think I Have a Right To Be Angry

I'm running really tight on time right now, and I have no idea why. Maybe I took an extra long time in my morning meditation, but my morning fast-walk was pretty much within my normal time span. Maybe I'm running late because I'm disgusted and saddened and angry right now. I'm angry at both DH and myself. 

This quote from Vincent van Gogh just about 
sums up my feelings right about now. GRRRRR

I'm angry at myself for being stupid enough to want to shovel the driveway in mid-afternoon. It's a long driveway, and it takes serious time, and I was going really slowly. But 1/3 of the way done, my armpit began to hurt. So I switched to do all of the motions with my left arm as much as possible, finished the driveway, did my errand, returned home, and since it was continuing to snow, I let it pile up. Today I have pockets of ??? under my underarm tape that weren't there 24 hours ago. And they're a bit tender to the touch. I'd be really concerned about it, but I see my Surgeon on Wednesday, so I'll have some answers then (and probably get scolded, which I well deserve). 

I did NOT have any lymph nodes under the 
armpit removed, because biopsies throughout 
the area showed no signs of cancer. But, Doc 
did a bunch of biopsies, so I have serious 
stitches under the armpit. That's what seemed 
to break open yesterday. I see her on Wednesday, 
so I'll just hang in until then. 

I bought DH two really nice valentines almost two months ago and gave them to him yesterday morning. He took a glance at them, said he'd been too busy to get me anything, tossed them to the side, and dove into reading his morning paper. I'm going to retrieve those cards today and shred them. He doesn't deserve them, and I'm angry. Did I mention that I'm angry? LOL

I might just shred the two valentines I purchased for 
DH. He certainly doesn't deserve to get them. I haven't 
had a decent Valentine's Day for more the a decade, and 
I think I'm really tired of being taken for granted. 

I also had a large, multi-point email ready to send to a place where we're thinking about placing some of our inventory for auction. And ... it disappeared. I've looked everywhere, tried almost everything, but no success. I can't seem to retrieve it, and I really need to because I had worked on it for more than an hour and it was finally asking all of the questions I had. I'll try again today to retrieve it. I usually have auto-save in place, but that only works for so many times before it starts overwriting. Still, even an overwritten older version would save me a LOT of rewriting. 

I'm hoping I can recapture the letter I was working on 
last night. I was working on the laptop, so I might have 
a small chance of retrieval. Otherwise, I have to rewrite it, 
and it was long, and comprehensive, and I'm pretty sure 
I'd forget a germane point by now. *sigh* 

So, that was my day yesterday. Some good things, more bad things, and anger - a lot of anger. What a crap way to spend Valentine's Day. Have an excellent Tuesday and may all of us have a truly excellent day today. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Happy Valentine's Day to All of my Online Friends!

Time away from doctors seems to be limited in my life right now. Next Wednesday was only scheduled for a post-op check and breakdown from my surgeon in the early pm. But yesterday I got a call from the Radiology Department and I'm now scheduled with them shortly after 9:00 am. I'm not sure if I'm actually getting my first radiation treatment at that time, or if it's just laying out what they're going to be doing and what it will accomplish. Either way, my morning is with Radiology which has a building all of its' own, and then I'm back at the Piper Breast Center in the afternoon. I'm a popular gal - LOL. 

The radiation center is located in the Ritchie 
Medical Center which actually has its' own 
no-charge parking lot. Yippee! It's right across 
the street from the main hospital. I'll probably drive 
over today to get a look at the location and how to 
get there efficiently. 

I know Claire wants to come along, but I'm asking her to attend the post-op appointment, not the radiation one. I don't want to overtax our friendship, and I value her presence and attentiveness, but I think I can handle the first radiation appointment without her and having her there all day would be an extreme waste of her time. 

My daffodils are blooming 
beautifully (this is NOT my 
plant, but I have four lovely 
blooms on my plant near my 
kitchen window). Of course, 
now that they've bloomed, they'll 
start dying back to bloom 
again at a later time. Still, it's been 
a lovely gift. 

I'm sure DH thought (in some warped way) that the surgery would be the end of all of this. He's got no idea how long this is all going to drag on. He's already talking about not being able to plant a garden this Spring because he'll be too busy doing other things. I fail to see how a garden could negatively impact other things on his agenda. It takes a day to get everything planted, but then it's just maintenance. The plants do their thing. My lovely daffodils from my swimming friend are fully in bloom, brightening up my kitchen. We'll plant them when they die back, of course. DH is thinking that might be the only plant he will have this coming summer. Maybe he's right ... hard to tell at this point. 

I've got a couple of chicken patties in the refrigerator, that 
might make for a very nice lunch. 

So, today I'm going to enjoy a day off without doctor appointments. I'll figure out what I'll cook next week, but I think I'll be OK. I can always cobble a soup together for the crockpot and just let it cook overnight. Flexibility over these next few weeks will be key. Have an excellent Valentine's Day and I'll be back to wrap up the week tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who has commented, I'll be getting to comments later today and (hopefully) catching up. *hugs* Slava Ukraini. 

All in All, It Was a Nice, Quiet Sunday

We had a really nice Sunday. Since Valentine's Day fell in the middle of the week, we celebrated yesterday instead. DH bought two racks of ribs earlier in the week, and I slapped them into the crock pot with our separate BBQ sauces, set it to cook for six hours, and let it do its' thing. Later, when we pulled everything out, it was "fall off the bone" tender. Perfect! I had bought him a mini "Death by Chocolate" cake earlier in the week, and he bought me a small carton of my favorite "ice cream", so we had a lovely dessert while watching TV. All in all, a good day. 

I bought DH a mini "Death by Chocolate" cake earlier 
in the week to celebrate Valentine's Day. He had it 
last night as I was eating my "Nada Moo" iced dessert 
that he got me for the holiday. Perfect! 

I've been working on a repair for an older customer.  She had a lovely beaded trivet - you know, the thing that you put hot pots on, etc, to protect the table surface. Over the years bits and pieces had been repaired, but the entire center had self-destructed and she loved the piece. She couldn't guarantee that she had all of the beads, and indeed, she did not. I counted beads and re-graphed out a design that was close to the original, and settled down yesterday to bead as much as I could while we were watching/listening to golf. I was toodling right along when my needle snapped. *sigh* I know I have a box of needles in my craft room, but I'm damned if I was able to put my hands on it. So, I'll get another one from the shop tomorrow and continue the work during the week. It's a fun repair - these are the kind of repairs I love to do. 

I'm using what's called a "Big Eye 
Beading Needle" for this repair because 
it uses a 1mm thick cord - quite thick 
in the realm of beadwork. Unfortunately, 
the needle is soldered at the top and 
bottom, and one of the solders broke 
yesterday. So I've gotten some work 
done, but need another needle before I 
can continue the repair. 

Today is starting out with lots to do, however. I have a 7:30 am appointment for my semi-annual dental checkup (DH and Chickie have their appointments later in the morning). I'm not expecting anything bad - but I've had a slight gum infection in a back corner of my mouth, so I'll be sure to have him take a look at that. Next week I see my orthodontist, so it's going to be two weeks of tooth work coming up. 

I'm off to see my dentist. Dr Bernie (rear) and Dr Phan (front) 
are both fabulous people and excellent dentists. I've been 
seeing Dr B for more than 30 years now - we're growing old 
but we're still most definitely keeping busy. He has restricted 
hours these days - semi-retired - but on the occasions when 
I've needed to see Dr Phan because of an emergency, she's 
been wonderful. So I won't have a problem sticking with 
my dental office when Dr B finally retires. 

We're expected to bounce back into warmer temperatures again this week, so the few inches of snow we got last week will be history by mid-week. It's the warmest winter we've had in our state history and it's been absolutely delightful for me, although all of my friends who adore winter sports are quite upset at the lack of white stuff on the ground. 

Argh. just ARGH! 

Oh, and DH is now mumbling something about not being able to go out of business until NEXT YEAR IN APRIL. Oh no ... that's absolutely NOT sitting well with me AT ALL. So, on that depressing note, I'm out of here. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Happy Valentine's Day to my Friends and Family

Happy  "V" Day to all of you. I have two cards in my backpack for DH, and I'll probably buy a flower or two for him, but we usually celebrate Valentine's Day rather low-key and the days of gifts and other sweet things is far behind us. I've seen sweethearts in their eighties acting like teenagers first in love, but that really doesn't describe DH and I at all. So that's not going to happen. No violins and surprise bouquets of flowers. 

I love a bouquet of flowers as much as the next 
person, but it's likely that if I get one at all, it will 
be from myself - LOL. We're not very romantic 
people any more, as we were in the days of our youth. 

Since I actually slept until my alarm went off today, I'm in a bit of a rush too. I have a bunch of things on my "To Do" list for the day, and I'm extremely grateful that I have enough cooked food to avoid having to do much in the kitchen today. We'll do our usual chicken for dinner and my grocery shop will be minimal. I will, however, make sure to drop by the Co-op to get my next Collagen for the week - their 2nd Wednesday each month sale is too good to beat. 

This would be a great card for DH, but he doesn't 
quite "get" my love of Gnomes. That's OK, I got
him cards that he'll at least understand - LOL. 

So I have quite a few things on my to-do list today, but first on it, after posting this blog, is getting to the pool and working off some of the stress I'm building up. There's a lot to do today, and even if I don't have to spend the day in the kitchen, I'll still be quite occupied. 

DH does eat chocolate, even though I don't any more, 
but he really doesn't need the calories, and he has 
plenty of munchies around the house. So no, I won't be 
getting him a box of chocolates either. A simple card 
will just have to do. 

So, I'll throw a question out to my readers. Are you with the one person you love? Is that person the same one you originally married? In my case, I'm with that person (even thought he drives me crazy more often than not), and yes, it's the same person I married. I question my judgment on occasion, but stick with the program. So, how about you? Can you share a bit with me? How you met, or what you find most wonderful about that person? And is it the first person you married? Or is it the one you should have married, but it took you a while to wake up to that fact? In any case, have a wonderful "V" Day and celebrate as you feel best. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Happy Presidents Day - Monday Holidays and Cooking

Happy Monday to all. It's hard to believe that February only has a short time longer, and then we're into March and the threshold of Spring in the Frozen Northlands. Time continues to march on, and I'm quite grateful for that. I know a lot of my on-line friends have today off to celebrate "President's Day", but I'll be working. We don't close for most of the Monday holidays. 

                    The Monday holiday dates this act established were:

• Washington's Birthday
• Memorial Day
• Columbus Day
• Veterans Day

                    Also celebrated on Monday:

• Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Labor Day

When I was young, back in the Stone Age, we had February 12th for Lincoln's birthday, followed by February 14th for Valentine's Day, and February 22nd for Washington's birthday. We all loved February. First, it was a short month of only 28 or 29 days, and second because there were THREE holidays in that month. It was like sweetness overload to a child. Lots of things to celebrate and learn about. But then, the government, deciding that there were other worthy Presidents and that we couldn't have a specific holiday for each of them, merged all of them together into the new category of Monday holiday, and now we have "Presidents Day". Meh. That's not nearly as fun nor as special as individual days. 

I gave DH two Valentines (which he didn't open), and 
he said he couldn't find where he stashed the Valentines 
that he bought for me. So that part of the belated holiday 
was "meh". The meal, however, was really good, and 
our hockey team won their game, so it wasn't a total 
loss. 

DH and I celebrated Valentine's Day late, choosing to celebrate yesterday instead of in mid-week. He picked up a lovely seasoned roast from the store and it cooked to perfection. I'm starting to trust my digital thermometer. It went off nine minutes before my timer said the minimum amount of time in the oven should be, but I went ahead, trusted the thermometer, and pulled the roast out of the oven to proof on the breadboard for fifteen minutes while we got the veggies put together. It was absolutely a perfect medium rare - exactly what we had wanted. If I had ignored the thermometer and gone with the timer, we would have had overcooked meat and would not have been happy. 

I have one of these digital thermometers that I 
bought from Target a year or two ago. It wasn't 
very expensive, and it's doing a great job. I'm 
still learning to trust it, though. 

After dinner we settled down to watch two episodes of "Vera". All in all, it was a delightful and relaxed Sunday for both of us, and something we dearly needed. 

So today it's back to normal. Back to the cold (although we will get above freezing for a little while today), and back to the routine. DH picked up some pieces of extra-large foam core for me. I've been cutting foam core to mount our artwork onto so that we can put pieces out onto the sales floor and sell more art. We have a LOT of it from the places we rented with lots of different wall space, and I need to get these into our art bins for people to look through, buy, and take home with them. Later this week, when I'm finished with the prints, I'll start matting and shrink-wrapping the original art (mostly watercolors or gouache watercolors). I need to get those displayed in some fashion as well. 

Have a wonderful Monday and enjoy your Presidents Day if you get the day off from work. I plan on being back here tomorrow morning, so enjoy your day and I'll see you again tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Olympics Competition, Valentines Day and Rushed, As Usual

The Olympics are winding down. We still have major competitions remaining, as well as final games in team sports such as ice hockey and bobsled, but I see the end in sight. I'm always sad when they come to an end. I adore watching them, and I miss them a great deal when I'm stuck with the regular and more mundane competitions. Still, it's been great so far and I still can look forward to more, so I'm hanging in there. 

In Women's Ice Hockey, we're back to a familiar 
final match-up - the USA v Canada. This is a long 
rivalry with a lot of games behind them, and it 
should be an excellent game. 

Today is a swimming day, so a short blog and a rush out to the pool. In an hour I'll be sitting in the parking lot waiting to enter the building, and in 1-1/2 hours I'll already be several laps into my mile. It's been wonderful to get back to the pool. I'm not much of a treadmill fan, although I was good and did my time on the treadmill six days a week during the worst of Covid (after my broken ankle had healed enough to allow me to actually put weight on it). Getting to return to the swimming pool was a huge step in returning to a "normal" life again. Even though I'm not swimming six days a week any more, I rather enjoy the switch off that I'm doing now. The best of both worlds, so to speak. 

Monobob was a new Olympics competition this 
year. A single woman, a single bobsled. The American 
women crushed it with the USA taking both Gold 
and Silver in this brand new event. 

Looking at the photos I took on Friday and what I needed to do with them, I've decided I'm doomed. I need to retake the entire series, but in a 4 x 4 grid instead. I'll start working on the details today at the shop, and pulling product samples once again. Gotta do what I've gotta do. I'm also looking carefully at other people's pages for similar products and how they're arranging them. Some ideas I'm incorporating, others, I'm ignoring. I think I can do this, but it's saying "You've wasted an entire day and have to retrace your steps once again." Le sigh! 

Yesterday was Valentines Day, and DH bought 
me a lovely card and a single perfect rose which 
he had waiting at the dinner table. He had earlier 
told me that my gift was my new faucet (and 
the kitchen plumbing which was quite expensive) 
and I was fine with that. I took a photo of my 
rose with my new faucet behind it. Happy 
Valentines Day to me - LOL. 

So, I'm out of here. I'm hoping it didn't snow overnight because I'm REALLY not in a mood to do a quick shovel before leaving for the gym. I can't say for sure, and I didn't take a look out of the window, so it will be a good (or bad) surprise when I walk out the door. Have an excellent Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Football, Swimming and St Valentine's Day - Lots to Talk About

Happy Valentine's Day to all of my friends and readers. It's been quite the year between last V-Day and today, lots of bad times, lots of good one. This year sees me with a new refrigerator, wall oven, toilet and sink faucet - so at least those stresses are out of my way for a while - LOL. All in all, life is progressing, this year is much better than last year, and despite the Bengals having lost last night, what I saw of the game was highly entertaining and truly a battle, not a runaway, as has so often been the case in the past. You should be very proud of your team, Cincinnati. They did VERY well. I absolutely LOVED the half-time show. All of these musicians who populate my play lists and who I listen to often while working in the kitchen on my days off. I was bouncing throughout the musical interlude. 

Happy Valentine's Day to all of my friends 
and readers. I hope you have a good day and 
allow yourself a treat or two to celebrate one 
of the less obnoxious holidays. 

I have alarms set on my phone to remind me to set up my swimming reservations for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Today was the first day I could reserve Thursday, so when the alarm went off, I dutifully went onto the website, which said that some locations were having a problem with their reservations system for some classes. Sure enough, mine was having an issue. It suggested trying the phone app, so I tried that without success. Then it suggested I phone the YMCA directly. 

I already had my Tuesday and Wednesday 
reservations for swimming, but needed my 
Thursday 5:00 am slot. Ed noted my name 
down and will slot me in. I feel for him, 
he'll get a lot of phone calls for our 5 and 
6 am groups. 

Although I felt very sorry to call Ed - he's usually pretty busy first thing in the morning with checking people into the gym when the doors are unlocked - I needed my reservation. I waited for a bit, though, letting the first wave of people check in first. Then I called my friendly "Gate Gargoyle". Fortunately Ed knew exactly who I was when I called, and after making sure we were talking about Thursday, he said he'd make the reservation for me - no problem. So ... hopefully that will be the case. I'm quite sure a balky reservation system isn't something Ed really needs on a Monday morning. 

Ed is our Gate Gargoyle, guarding the gates to 
our YMCA. He's been there for quite a while 
now, and gives us some latitude such as allowing 
us to wait in the vestibule on really cold days 
instead of having to stand outdoors in sub-zero 
wind chills. We're pretty lucky with our Gate 
Gargoyles, in general. Brian, who worked before 
Ed started, was also a total sweetheart. 

As I stated in the first paragraph, it's St Valentine's Day. As I recall, sainthood was actually stripped from Valentine a few Popes ago, and it's probably just as well. The holiday itself has been taken over with sappy hearts and little overweight cupids with non-aerodynamic wings and horrible aim, shooting arrows at unsuspecting victims. In any other scenario, Cupid would be declared a public nuisance at the minimum, a public danger at the most, and would certainly be scrutinized and possibly prosecuted as a public menace. I guess he got a lot of slack since he was the son of a Goddess. It doesn't pay to anger Deities. 

The couple I expected to win Gold at the Olympics in 
Ice Dancing, did. I can't wait to see their routine while 
I catch up on Peacock today. Papadakis and Cizeron 
from France have been the front-runners, for really 
good reasons. They're breathtaking and ground-breaking 
in their routines. Sorry if I gave you a spoiler, but 
their victory really wasn't unexpected. 

I've had a lovely time watching the Olympics so far. The curling has been awesome, I loved the Ice Dancing finals last night, although I'll be watching the better competitors on Peacock today because I had to go to sleep long before the top contenders were on the ice. We're into the final week of the Winter Olympics now, and I'll be sorry to see them come to an end. I adore the Olympics, and having things available to me on streaming has made them so much more convenient. 

Not everyone celebrates Valentine's Day, with 
good reason. For those who don't, have a 
lovely February 14th. 

So, I'm out of here. My pool reservation has been made, and I have two valentines sitting on my desk waiting to be addressed to DH. I got a lot done on my photographs yesterday, but have to figure out the next step today, so I'll be playing with the computer and seeing what will work. Ideally I'd like to get my Etsy pages live this week - I'm really behind on my schedule and that's not making me happy. Have a glorious Monday and a very happy Valentine's Day. I'll be back tomorrow. 

I'm Spinning Too Fast For The World To Catch Up With Me - Guess I Need to Slow Down

I had a lovely, if chilling, Valentine's Day, and I hope all of you also had an excellent day. Thank you to Dreamflower and Linda Hoyland for the spectacular Valentine's Day e-cards. They brightened my day, despite our freezing cold weather. 

I started sewing up my sweater on Saturday morning, but it didn't take long to realize I had put the sleeves on backwards, so I'll pull everything off on Wednesday and reattach them properly. I'm not sure how I managed to mess up something so basic, but what can I say? "S**T HAPPENS". 

No matter when, no matter what good intentions and how 
many times directions are read and reviewed, Shit Happens. 
I'll get this mix-up fixed on Wednesday when I have time 
to deal with it slowly. 

Things haven't been working smoothly around me lately - maybe I'll blame a solar flare or the stars being out of alignment, but I'll have to spend part of today on the phone with my credit card customer service to find out what's going on (or not going on). Two different things, wrapped up together. (1) I purchased an e-class on Friday, but I'm not getting confirmation in my in-box, and (2) I paid my balance off in full (it was a large amount because Voodoo was part of that balance) and I have the confirmation number, but the money is still in my bank account. So ... time to find out what's going on!

After phoning my credit card company and speaking to an account manager, my payment is real but will take one more day to come out of my bank account because today is a holiday in the USA, and they show that the amount I paid for my e-class is also on my record as a pending payment. I guess I'll have to let the world catch up with me. LOL

I'm going to have to phone my credit card company and 
find out what's going on. I paid the balance, have the 
confirmation number, but the money hasn't been taken 
from my bank account. Don't they want their money? 

Except for those misses, Valentine's day was delightful. My usual light breakfast of oatmeal with fresh fruit, and a dinner that DH cooked of cashew and wild-rice stuffed chicken breasts, a creamed rice as a side dish, and seasoned green beans. He also bought me the next season of "Vera" on DVD and gave me a Barnes & Noble gift card (always welcome). I realize that many people stream their entertainment, and that DVDs are becoming extinct, but I don't stream and I'm not looking into changing that until after I've retired and I can spend some serious time with the electronics of this house. I'm most certainly NOT there yet. 

I love the series "Vera". I got DH into it 
too, and he bought me Season 1 for 
Christmas and Season 2 for Valentine's 
Day. Maybe I'll get Season 3 for my 
birthday? 

So, even though I'm dressed in a multitude of layers, and not looking forward to driving to work and then back home again tonight (it was -18 F yesterday morning, and currently is -17 F, so yeah ... it's REALLY cold), I'm sure I'll be fine. A bit cold, but fine. I hope all of you have a wonderful day, and once again I urge you to be kind, stay safe and please, please wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Grief and Loss - Reaching Out

It's always hard when one goes ahead on a road you can't follow. It's always hard to lose an anchor, a loved one, a friend and confidant. It's an unexpected emptiness when turning a corner and not seeing the person you expected, when wanting to ask a question, or to share good news. It's an emptiness that never truly gets filled. It's the death of someone beloved, and this happened to two members of my extended family - on and off line - this past week. 

Near death experiences often mention a long tunnel
lighted at the far end. I'd probably be looking for the
graffiti, but that light is rather mesmerizing, isn't it. 

In my own family, we lost a cousin, a father of two. It's on my sister-in-law's husband's side of the family, so a distant cousin by marriage, and I can't say if I ever met the man, but my nieces and nephews knew him and know his wife and children. The memorial is scheduled for today with the funeral scheduled for Wednesday. This death was hard because he killed himself and that will leave lots of questions behind for his immediate family; questions about what clues they missed, what they might have been able to do, and a lot of second guessing. It's tough to lose a family member that way. It seems to add extra sting to death's grip. 

Maybe we move through the clouds into a type of
vortex. A force of nature on an supernatural plane. 

In my on-line family, a dear and long-time friend lost her mother over the weekend. In this case there was an illness as well as a respectable age, but it's still not going to be easy for those who are left behind. My heart goes out to her daughter and son who will be missing her presence. 

This tunnel exhibits a nice Fibonacchi curve in it, the curve
that exists throughout nature in almost every living thing. 

It's an odd thing about death. It occurs around us every day - plants, animals and people are always being born and dying. It's common. But it also is the Great Mystery - that journey that continues onward without signposts or road maps. Many people believe that you meet again with loved ones and move into a condominium in the clouds. It's that old "My Father has many houses" message and I'm sure that celestial property values are determined on piety and proximity to the Big Dude. But that's totally NOT my thing. 

If I'm going to consider tunnels and star-shine, I'm going to go
with dimensional tunnels to the stars. We are all made from
stardust and powered by energy and light. If we believe Einstein,
matter is neither created nor destroyed, it merely changes form. 

On the other hand, when you think about those words, "My Father has many houses", and consider that we are all light, energy and stardust, perhaps they do make sense after all. We are members of the cosmos and matter is neither created nor destroyed, it merely changes form. Matter can become light, and light can be starlight, moving into the universe and joining with light from billions of stars throughout the void. Here, there are indeed 'many houses' and lots of room since the universe is expanding. 

In the end, how will you be remembered by those you
leave behind? If you will be remembered with love, then
you will have lived a successful life. 

So, to wind down, do we meet our loved ones again? Will we recognize them if we do? I suppose it's possible, I certainly can't discount that possibility. But to be a mote of light in a universe of stars? That will be heaven for me and I will ride the solar winds and play in the galactic clouds. 

On that note, I'm moving along. DH's Valentine's celebratory meals put four pounds on me so it's back to the gym for a serious workout today. LOL Have a good Monday and I'll return tomorrow. 

Color in Flowers for Valentine's Day - Runway Tomorrow

Runway fashions aren't available yet, so I'll be posting about last night's Project Runway in tomorrow's blog. That means I need to pull a blog out of the ether, so here we go. How about color. Everyone lives in a world of color, although the perception of color and the depth of colors each of us perceive are different for everyone. Of course you know about color blindness - that "shade to grey" that is experienced in the red and green tones for many people, predominantly men. But were you aware that each of us sees color quite differently? 

In fabric, these flowers would be using an ombre technique. moving from
the intense depth of color near the center to the much lighter colors at
the edges. Mother Nature can dye with a sure and practiced hand. 

Of course there are categories of color - blue, red, yellow as the primary colors, orange, green and purple as the secondary colors. But the variants, the shading between the colors and how the material displaying the color can make the difference in perception also affects how everyone's color perception is slightly different. Since it's Valentine's Day (have a great one, BTW), let's take the time and look at some colorful flowers. 

I remember walking in the high mountains and seeing clumps of blue
Columbine flowers, just like these. So beautiful. 

In Colorado, where I grew up among the mountain peaks, there was a preponderance of blue flowers in the upper reaches of the slopes. The Columbine, in blue, is the state flower and it's a beauty. DH has planted Columbines for me here, but without the elevation, they are yellow and pink. It's those high mountain meadows that allow for the blue Columbine. 

The Indian Paintbrush is a splash of brilliant red against
the background. It's an opportunistic flower with a wide range
of comfortable areas in which to grow. It's found from Texas
to the Rocky Mountains and is hardy in both harsh weather and
hot sun. 

For red flowers, we had our Indian Paintbrush flowers. These opportunistic flowers loved disturbed earth and grew in multitudes alongside the high roadways. I would walk a couple of blocks to the river and cross over the bridge. On the other side, as the road continued onward towards Independence Pass, would be the road cuts and I would often find Indian Paintbrushes there. 

Black Eyed Susan flowers are often considered a weed flower, although
you can grow them from seed. They are altitude friendly, so we found
them easily in Denver, but they were less common in Aspen. That
extra 3000 feet of altitude made things a bit harder for these sturdy
blooms. 

For yellow, there were Black Eyed Susan flowers, usually considered a weed, but what a pretty one! I don't know anyone who planted these on purpose, but when they came up and bloomed, they were usually very welcome. 

Roses come in many colors, and they also accept dyes quite easily, so
there are some real technicolor blooms out there. I tend a bit more to
the conservative, so this is a nice assortment for me. 

Of course, I have to mention roses too, because my mother planted roses along the front of our home in Denver and because it is Valentine's Day, the day when roses are often part of the gifts given to a loved one. The variety of roses is astounding, they are colorful and actually pretty hardy, but small things can bring them down - too much water or some species of insects. Roses are prized, however, and new varieties are being developed all the time. When I was in Portland I visited their rose garden. It was exquisite and quite amazing. I highly recommend it (along with the zoo and the Japanese Garden in the same large complex) if you're ever in Oregon. It's a great way to spend a long day. 

The International Test Rose Gardens in Portland, Oregon, have been in
existence and operational for more than 100 years. It's a perfect climate
for roses, and there are multitudes of varieties being tested here. Visitors
can wander throughout the garden and look a the variety of blooms. 

So, Happy Valentine's Day to all of you. I'll be back tomorrow with fashions from the Runway. Enjoy your day and be kind to others. 

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

We're entering the deep freeze for a couple of days now. Right now it's -6 F (-21.1 C) and we're only going to get colder over the next 24 hours so that tomorrow morning's wait in front of the gym doors will be held at -10 F (-23.3 C). Yup - it's a cold time in the hot town tonight and I'm going to be bundled at my computer desk in my sweatshirt and a lap throw while watching Project Runway tonight. The good part to the cold, because we're supposed to "...look at the sunny side..." is that we're not expected to get any snow along with this cold front. Yippee ... shiver. 

When we add any wind at all, the temps will drop even farther. Our -6 of
now could easily be -26 when the wind hits. It looks like a lot of us
are being hit by this cold front: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North
and South Dakota and Montana. along with parts of Nebraska are going
to be hit. I'm really feeling for people on the Rez who live in old,
drafty trailers without heat. People will die from this cold front. 

I had a couple of hours to spend on my Owl project yesterday and it's coming along nicely. Then I made an error late last night and decided it was best to just leave it for the day. Of course, that was when I was just trying to get one more thing done, so that's probably why I messed it up. But, I'm almost finished with the first tier of the second cascade. There's a lot still remaining, but it's all good. 

The big corporations often manage to wiggle out of a
lot of their taxes, but little guys like me end up actually
paying a lot. And of course, as self-employed people, we
are taxed doubly on social security. It's not fair, but
we'll be retiring soon and be out of this rat race. 

DH and I met with our accountant last night for our corporate tax appointment. I'll make an appointment for our personal taxes soon, those are a bit more complicated, but not too much. Despite the many complaints we both have, we actually keep really good records and can get our hands on the items we need when necessary. It's more a matter of organization, which sometimes is lacking a bit on my end. I am super organized, sometimes I have to hunt a bit more for items like annual license fees for the cars, etc. 

I guarantee I did NOT buy a Baby Yoda valentine's
day card for DH. I got him something much more
romantic. He might drive me crazy, but he's still
my man. 

Here we are, the day before Valentine's Day. I did buy a card for DH when I was at the store yesterday. It's always a question whether or not he will actually open it. Sometimes he prefers to leave cards unopened, just looking at them like a yummy dessert that shouldn't be eaten. I've never quite figured that out, but whatever - LOL. 

It's a Project Runway night and I'll be watching and taking notes
to share with all of you. If the Runway photos are available for
me at 3:30 am, I'll get those plugged in and you'll have my PR
post on Friday morning. Otherwise, it'll be Saturday. 

A reminder that tonight is Project Runway night, so I'll be writing as I watch. With luck the Runway photos will be up in time for me to plug them in and post tomorrow, otherwise my post will probably be a complaint (legitimate) about the cold weather. I also have an appointment with my dermatologist tomorrow and I hope she can come up with a few miracles for my hands. I guess I'll have to wait and see, but I could use a new med or two or twenty - LOL. Have a great day, stay warm, and I'll be back tomorrow - a little colder, a little older, and maybe a little wiser.