Compassion for Handicapped Gardeners #6

She's been busy, busy working on the new house and helped with an auction or something like that, She's really pushing to get the house ready for move in day. I havn't even heard as much or often as usual, but she is OK, just working hard!!

^_^ ~Sheri~

Thanks Sherri.

^_^

Sorry- messed up----Thought i was on another forum. Am good at that. I still have'nt lived down years ago putting salt in frig. LOL

This message was edited Jul 24, 2009 7:50 PM

This message was edited Jul 30, 2009 8:21 PM

Hey guys...and by that I mean men and women, ha ha.

The last week has been tough one for my old body. I had several things come up that I really wanted to do (and two of them involved cleaning my house first) so I did them. Now I'm singing the whoa-my-body-hurts-and-it-won't-let-up blues. I've been so happy to go off the tramadol this summer and get my hydrocodone use down to 1 or 1 and a half pills. But that is not cutting it. I'm taking lots of breaks, doing my stretches, trying to get extra rest but it won't let up. So I increased my hydrocodone. I'm staying under three a day though I won't make any promises for today. It really *&^#)ing hurts.

Between the fibro and the heat, my beautiful flowers are getting overrun with weeds. There's nothing I can do about it now, either. I am praying for patience with myself...and trying not to see my body as The Enemy. That just makes me more crazy.

I needed to vent to folks who understand what I'm talking about....
Jacki

I hear you loud and clear Jacki.

If we could combine how your body feels with how my mind was feeling yesterday we could do some real damage.

Instead of applying varnish to the part of my bedroom that I have borwnbagged, I spent almost five hours online with Yahoo. This was my third day with them. Someone got into my account and had my mail forwarded to themselves. From there, they got intoo and changed, my ebay account. Yesterday they tried , ussuccessfully, to access my BofA account. Both BofA and Ebay were very helpful and the BofA service person made it clear how much she liked me and the way I was dealing with her and the problem. Not so with Yahoo; after three days and countless hours chatting with them (twice with a supervisor) they admitted that one thing they were blaming me for was a mistake on their part. They then "fixed" it, with another mistake!!

I was so frustrated. I finally told the supervisor that I had to terminate the chat and that it was very frustrating to me because I take some pride in my ability to communicate verbally, even with people of limited intelligence, but Yahoo had me stumped.

Hopefully, this tale of woe will give you a chuckle and, also, any of you using Yahoo might take it as a warning. Their mail is vulnerable and their help is not very helpful. I've switched to gmail.

I was still to flumoxed today to apply the varnish but Tony, my friend wo works for me, spotted some seed pods in my schotia tree. This was the second year it has bloomed, the first year for seeds. That cheerred me up a lot.

My flame tree is still blooming and all six dogs are doing well.

I'm hanging in, sending soothing, healing waves to Jacki and everyone else.

katiebear

HI Katiebear ^_^ sending gentle {{{hugs}}} to you. Oh how I dread having to deal with customer service of any type anymore. Half the time I get someone who is not very fluent in my language and the other half it seems like i get someone on their 1st day on the job. = very frustrating. I have had to end calls too and admittedly have done so in a not very cool manner on occasion. I must look up schotia tree. If you have any pictures, could you post one of some of your wonderful flora please?
It seems like you were struggling with the heat recently. hope that has gotten better and your A/c is working or else you are having nice breezes.

Sheri

Thanks Katie...I'm getting your vibes way up here in Washington state :) I ended the day feeling better albeit through increased painkillers. It does seem to get to the point where I don't care about anything but making the pain go away. I probably make it too complicated for myself...I have a tendency to complicate the heck out of things when I could really keep it simple.

Sounds like it was a crazy time trying to deal with Yahoo. I hope things smooth out for you soon :)
Jacki

Thank you both. things are clamer today. I got a lot of sleep which always helps. Still tired, but not in much pain. Thank God.

I sometimes get to the point where all I want to do is make the pain go away. Sometimes it's so bad it only slows down if I lie down and don't move (I'll skip the story of the bladder infecdtion when I couldn't even do that) and then I often just fall asleep. Sometimes I would help this along by taking some antihystemen (horribly misspelled but I just woke up). Pain is both exhausting and depressing. I've been on anti-depressents for years. My current doctor - a terrific person and doctor - upped my anti-depressents and also perscribed pain pills that usually work.

What I am focusing on remembering about all my time online was how nice and compitient the BofA person was and how much she liked me. Then I go to the two Ebay people, who were both good. I don't have enough spare energy to stay mad at Yahoo. They are beoming history and that's what I want.

It's another hot, humid, lovely day here.

Gentle hugs to all,
katiebear

remember my bilateral knee arthroplasties last winter? Well it seems that when they say "move it or lose it" they are not kidding!! I have not been very active postoperatively and the left knee shows on x-ray that the arthritis has grossly advanced including a very obvious bone spur formation on the lateral (outside) side of the joint. The spur catches on a tendon sometimes and hurts like @#^%&#% to straighten out the leg and "uncatch" the derned thing.
So, My Dr says the only thing is a knee replacement.. He said it is up to me 5 months or 5 years, however long I can stand it. There is barely any joint space between the femur and Tibia and about 1/2 of the joint space is bone on bone.
this will be 4 days in hospital and then 2 weeks in the hospitals rehab unit. I live alone and my house is just not in condition to do rehab exercises (too cluttered). Needless to say I am really bummed ,,, to put it mildly. BUT, I know it sure could be worse. This still ranks only in the inconvenience department not the life threatening one so for that I am grateful. I am trying to make it a habit to find a place of gratitude in every situation and the best one I can think of is that I don't have to look far to find people much worse of.
So, Please pray for me. I have this new kitten that I don't think I can leave alone yet for 2.5 weeks with 2 adult cats that are not accepting him yet. And then there is Elvis, don't know if my 78 year old mom is up to 2.1 weeks babysitting and I so hate to board him. the place where I have boarded him in the past is owned by a friend of mine, but she admittedly doesn't like poodles and has always said to me "none of the other dogs like him". So those of you who are critter parents can probably understand that I really don't want to take my 91year old (dog years) [13 in people!] baby there for nearly 3 weeks.
Oh well, I know what has to be will find a way to work out.
Like Katiebear, it is just comforting to know that there is a group of friends here that I can share this with and know you will understand.

Sheri

Wowzer, Katie, that is terrible to hear about! (Wowzer? I am dating my brain....) I know so many people who use yahoo! And Sheri, what a disappointment for you about your arthritis!!! Oh, my friends, my heart goes out to all of you.

I also have some bad (at least to me it's bad) news. I am being discharged from PT. It means I've gotten as far as I can go. And it happens to coincide with it being hot here, which as you may or may not know is brutal for MS. So I'm going to standing for 5 min at a time for 3 times in a row and feeling confident to 1 - 2 min. at a time for 2 or three times and feeling quite tentative the whole time.

This has been a hard week for lots of us.

To update, I am no longer able to access my Yahoo account. The chat people told me repeatedly that I needed to contact Tech support. I did, repeatedly. When they finally responded it was with all the same information I'd gotten from the chat people and the (unanswerable) message that is their suggestions didn't work I should contact the chat people again.

Luckily, I had transferred my mail and records to my new account so I sent them a goodbye letter - from another account.

For your friends who use Yahoo you can tell them that the problem is that their support people often get a different response on their computers than the customer gets which reenforces their basic atitude which is that the customer is always wrong.

It is ridiculously hot here. I am clearing out the last stuff in my bedroom so Tony and I can move some large shelves to the part of the floor that is done tomorrow and I can finish the floor. I'm wearing nothing but flip-flops and I carry a small towell to wipe away the sweat that forms even while I'm sitting and typing.

I took a pain killer so I might have another couple of hours when I can work.

Sweaty, gentle hugs all around. As someone once said, we must all hang together or we'll all hang separately.

katiebear

Oh, I'll take a sweaty hug! Absolutely!

HI all, Hug's and prayers to all.
Wish the rain would stop every day! it is so humid and hot and the weeds are growing faster than i can get to them.
But we finished all the hard-scaping for the Aztec garden and will soon have the leveling done GO TEAM. God Bless all.

Nifty use of old parts of "whatever it is I don't know", except for the tire, now I do recognize that!!
^_^ Sheri

Hi all,
Have'nt really felt well the last few days. My containers are looking so good right now with all the colors shinng thru.
Hot weather is finally here. Wish it was'nt. There's so many things i want to do. But don't seem to have any energy. If anyone has any to spare. Please e-mail it to me ASAP. Will send you 5 juvinal delinquint squirrels in trade.They are very friendly. They love to climb on my window and stare in at me like i'm part of a zoo exibit. Than they have drag races on my front porch.

Also have one turtle the size of half a head of lettuce. He has eaten all the tomatoes on the lower part of the vines. And to think, I rescued him from my dog pen and let him go free. That is gratitude for you. Have been wanting to go for a drive in the forest. May take him for a ride. Unless someone else wants him. He is very friendly also and never tucks his head in. Hate to say it but he does'nt eat weeds,just tomatoes.
There is also a long black snake hanging around. If i'm outside and he decides to suddenly surprise me, he will have to go too.
I'm already at war with the deer that grazed on my daylillys this spring. My daylillys are the first greens to come up here in the spring. Maybe i can find some early green something to plant. Deer i wont ship to anyone cause it costs too much to ship them. So you'll have to get your own.
Everyone have a good pain free night and dream of squirrels dancing in the tops of trees.
Vickie

Hay Yawl, Scraps here is checking in to see what is going on in the world. Sorry I have been crazy busy or busy being crazy one or the other lately but my house is getting closer everyday now. Hubs is building kitchen cabinets and I am still staining wood trim and doors. if I had known then what I know now I would not have ask for any wood. Do they make plastic doors? LOL. I will just lay in bed for a month if we ever finish this house. Anybody ever hear of the song that never ends on PBS show? i cannot remember the name of show but it had a lady and a lamb. Well, our building project is the project that never ends or it seems that way. I work a while and rest awhile and it just seems like there is more doors every day. I am surviving on pain pills( ultracet) not really strong ones but I could not move without something. I am so stiff that it is hard to explain. If I sit too long my legs will not bend and constantly seem to swell. My back is the worst part though. If it were my leg hurting as badly as my back I would have it amputated. You kind of cannot do that with your back.LOL. I have planned on having a moving out party and just get rid of everything I do not want so I don't have to move it all. Maybe I will sell it all on craigs list. Dirt and dust included because I have not had time to dust for sure.
Thank God for getting the central air going at the new house because it has helped not to be so hot. Work is easier when you are not so uncomfortably hot.
Oh and I am the proud owner of 2 working toilets now. yay no more driving back to the old house to pee.
I am not supposed to be smoking cigerettes but I have been. It helps with the stress but I know I need to quit. hubs had been on my case about quitting but he has stopped fussing because he likes me better when I am not so stressed? Hummmm, wonder what I did????? I said, honey it is the cigerettes or the looney bin? Heck the looney bin cost and he is layed off right now so I guess he decided to lay off for a while. I know, I know, I need to quit and I will, just not while I am stressed to the max. I quit for 10 years and then got mad about something and picked them up again and now I am hooked all over again. Oh well, this house is going to be a dream come true or the death of me. I miss you guys and keep me Prayed up because I need all the strength I can get.
Love and Prayers to you all, Scraps................. sweating in the Mississippi humidity.
Heat index tomorrow is 100 plus

Oh, scraps, that heat sounds awful! You're taliking about the song that never ends, by Shari Lewis and Lambchop!

"this is the song that never ends,
yes, it goes on and on, my friends.
some people started singing it, bnot knowing what it was,
and they'll continue singing it forever just because
this is the song that never ends,
yes, it goes on and on, my friends.
some people started singing it, bnot knowing what it was,
and they'll continue singing it forever just because

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_47KVJV8DU&feature=related

OK, it's the song that doesn't end. My DD#1 talks about DH giving the Lecture that Never Ends ...

I just got a big help in my garden.

I've two old and "useless" wheelbarrows I've hauled home from the dump. Yesterday the light went on and today I had Tony put one of them in my "little back yard" under a grapefruit tree and fill it with compost and potting mix. It is a perfect height for me to plant and keep an eye on seeds. And I can hold onto the trunk of the grapefruit with my left hand to help me keep my ballance. I can put of couple of old fan covers on top to discourage the dogs from thinking this is a new place to play "king of the castle."

And I have a good place to put a lot of my seed collection and see what comes up. I have so many seeds and some of them are quite old. This will allow me to plant them with spening lot of effort on seeds that might not germinate.

My knees are real stiff today. I want to do some more brownbagging of my bedroom floor so I took a pain killer and now I must get to work.

Gentle, sweaty hugs all around,
katiebear

What may I ask is "more brown bagging of my bedroom floor"? I'm guessing it is some type of paint application

But it sounds like a terribly clever use of the wheelbarrow! May we see a picture?

Srry, I haven't mastered my camera yet. And I need to get my bedroom liveable before I take on learning to do pictures.

Soooon.

kb

Katie, Maybe we can get together and learn that picture stuff together. I'd really like to share pictures but am puter illiterate and have to work hard to learn stuff, also don't have everything i need for pictures. But than i have a MSN2 and you probably have a regular puter.

Wheelbarrows are wonderful. they also make great planters.

Yup, I have a regular old Dell.

I like my wheelbarrow planter. I'm planning where to put the other one. And soon I'll go to the dump looking for more.

kb

you can google Picasso a free photo editing and software program that is very good and makes organizng easy

LOL - you're supposed to organize your photos??? (doesn't organize a thing, not a thing!) I just go into "browse" (below) and wander around inside my computer. Sometimes I find what I'm looking for, sometimes not!

I said "makes organizing easy" not does it for you.

Oh, well.

LOL!

Sounds like you lucked out, Katiebear. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for old wheelbarrows,but no luck yet. I would probably have to come up with a way to brace it so it didn’t get tipped over. Big dogs and small children are among my more lovable garden pest.



I wish you could submit pics too, Cando. It must be beautiful there. When Miss Helen, the woman who first envisioned Amargia, (Kay’s mother) knew her time was short, she insisted on going back to see it one last time. She was from the plains of Oklahoma, but at some point in her life she lost her heart to the mountains of Arkansas. I think she more or less endured the Gulf Coast because she was married to a seaman.


Wow it did an odd doubling of the the whole thing sorry, was in a rush i hit post & ran to Fort Rucker for some things just looked back here ans saw it fixed now God Bless.

This message was edited Aug 6, 2009 3:24 PM

This message was edited Aug 13, 2009 10:01 AM

This message was edited Aug 13, 2009 10:02 AM

My dragon fruit are growing well. I am taking my time moving them to their permanent homes. Tony is helping by digging out areas in the back yard where we can "plant" earthbosesx. I'm also making compost-filled towels out of screen for them to grow on.

Hardly slept night before last due to a stomach ache and made up for it yesterday. Slept from early afternoon until this morning with only a short wake-up break for a snack. The dogs shredded a roll of toilet papre while I slept so I have a little sweeping to do. I'm still kind of tired.

Ebay knew my account had been compsomised but still didn't catch that the thief was using my Ebay name to "sell" over $4,000 worth of books on Half.com. I discovered it was going on but Ebay, Half.com and Paypal all ignored my emails and sent him the money. Now I'm getting irate emails from people who paid him. I am calmly telling them what happened. I'm done with Ebay for now - maybe forever - and I did everything I could to prevent the theft even though I didn't have to do anything so I'm not too upset about it. Just disgusted with Ebay, Half.com and Paypal. I guess they're making so much money they don't mind giving over $4,000 to a thief. Makes me think twice about dealing with any of them.

It's hot and humid here - August in the Baja. I go slow and remind Tony to do the same. My house and garden are coming along well. I started some bitter melon seeds (supposed to be good for diabetics) and they are growing well in this heat.

Hope everyone is having a good day.

hugs all around,
katie

August in the Baja must be a bear (an old espression of my mom's). It's hot and humid hare in NC, so I just cannot immagone what it must be like near the equator. last week has been in the upper 90's wit heat index to 100 or so. What kind of temps and humidity are you living with Katie. I hope you got your A/C working at least in the B/R or some good fans and rolling chairs. ^_^

{{hugs}}.
Sheri

I love the heat and hate the cold but MS is sooooo much worse when it gets really hot. I stop being able to think clearly. When it's cold I'm in more pain and spasticity but I can think. When it's hot I sweat and am uncomfortable like everyone but I am in less pain. But I can't control my body as well either. I prefer the heat by a whisker. Just don't ask me to think.

LOL Carrie, what a good description of heat vs. cold. I'll have to share that wit my Mom. we grumble about one or the other, well compare, not really grumble, but it is very similar to your "whisker" preference ^_^

{{{hugs}}}
Sheri

OMG I nearly forgot - that kiten, Dogwood, has turned into a teenage cat over night it seems. I had forgotten how much energy they actually have. Sometimes he just races around and up over things and makes me laugh out loud!!

Big smile for Dogwood ^_^!

Having survived many winters in Michigan's Upper Penninsula, I think I will take the heat, too. Being here for the summer bonds me to the local Mexicans as much as if I spoke better Spanish. We bond through our suvival. I don't even know the temps; think it's maybe better I don't. I have airconditioning in tow rooms, one the sewing room where I am sleeping while I paper the bedroom. Electric bills get very high if I'm not careful. In my kitchen/computer room I have a good fan and we catch most breezes. I'm better off than people in town as I am right by the Sea of Cortez and it has a tempering effect.

I've spent a few summers here now and I'm doing better than I did at first. I know it will cool off by mid-October and I can then do the work which is hard to do now.

I agree with Carrie's descriptions of heat vs, cold. I have to learn to recognize when my brain has gone heat-fuzzy on me.

katiebear

I'm having a meltdown. I'm out of Yahoo but I've found out the hard way how bad eBay's security is. The person who hijacked my eBay account and defrrauded people of more than $4,000 also was able to add fraudulant feedback to my account. I finally got through on eBay chat - my emails to eBay, Half.com and Paypal have all been ignored. Spent hours on chat - I did get a person who understood the flaws in their system but I have noconfidence anything will be done. And I'm not being allowed to close my account.

I have most of the bedroom floor brownbagged and sealed. Need to finish a small area and then varnish.

I cleaned out my little freezer. And I'm doing a lot of laundry in my wringer washer, including alot of fabric that got dampened with dog pee as we are sleeping in my sewing room due to work on the bedroom and I can't leave the door open because of the A/C.

AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

kb

Katie, Why in the world wont they let you close your account?
Guess i wont join e-bay. i always wait awhile to sign up for anything. Lets them work out the bugs.
With all the hard work you guys are doing. I'm getting the urge to do some painting. Will definately wait till cool weather tho.
Vickie

The computer says one thing; the chat person says something else. I'll keep trying.

kb

Katie,
A round ringer washer that hooks up to the sink or something? I remember one of those from 50 years ago in childhood!

Reading your posts makes me so yearn for the home of my youth years near you! ^_^

Have a blessed day and siesta in the shade on a hammock if you can!

Sheri