Weird Weather of '09 #13

Kate - not good. Hope you didn't do too much damage to your hand. At least it's not the middle of summer.
It was so nice here until about 4:00. I almost came in to put gloves on to finish mowing the lawn.

It's time to head to Costco to get a case of those hand warmers. Rachel loaned me one last year after the Green Elephant and it was awesome.

Yeah? That's good to hear. I still feel guilty letting them freeze their little fishy butts off though... I'll keep watching for a tank, but I don't have much hope of finding one big enough that I can afford.

not sure - it was a laser sharp pain in the middle of my wrist - like something snapped, but ? I iced it for 3 hours, and took some Ibuprofen right after I decided that the pain was something I ought to heed, rather than considering it a nuisance. Sheesh - can't believe my brain even considered continuing with the rocks...
However - I could only sit still for about 20 minutes, so I wrapped it with ice & a towel & a sling & weeded with my left hand instead. This will be a fun night - I did not burn off all my energy, so sleeping will be a challenge. Plenty of time to reflect on avoiding any future foolish moves!

I have had so many hand/wrist issues. Some breaks, some repetitive motion, some arthritis, some sprains. Everything but the breaks seem to haunt me - I get different types of pains reocurring all the time. Sometime while using them, some not.

So I'm an advocate (even though I don't always practice it) of stopping/changing what you're doing, icing, using anti-inflammatories, bracing, etc. OTH, I should more often take my own advice. But, as you well know, there's just that one thing to finish . . .

One thing to consider is in a couple of days if it is still hurting (tendon sheath) to keep moving it slowly and not too much. Because fibrin can fill the inflammed area and lock the tendon for good. It it is a joint capsuel rest it.

Katye, Hope you heal quickly!!! There is a lot of mental anguish when you have things to do and your body is yelling NO.

I have been trying to get the GH ready for winter. Is there such a thing as overkill with the bubble wrap? I don't want to block out all the warming rays with it. I put a layer of the big bubble wrap on, then I did a second layer with the regular size bubble wrap. Then I put a layer of the reflective foil type insulation about 2 feet up on the sides . I only got one side done so far with the extra layers. I also bought some acrylic clear panels to try to on the outside, especially on the roof. I just haven't figured out how to attach them yet. Is this overkill? It sure would have been an easier project if would have emptied the GH first. I have been working on this for the last 2 days, and I didn't want to leave the babies out in the cold, or drag them in and out more than I have to. The poor little GH is packed to the gills, and I still have things to bring in.

keeping the plants warm is first & foremost. Light is secondary. the point is to keep these plants' root systems alive, so they will continue on next spring. Healthy root system = healthier plant.
SOME protection is better than NO protection - I would err on the side of caution, Lynn.
Bubble wrap has worked well for many folks in colder climates - it should help you here, too.

Wrist - wore a brace today; makes typing interesting. Quite frankly, I have no pain as long as I don't move it laterally, or do weird motions with my thumb. hmmm - that sounds kinda funky.
I have put no pressure on it, nor weight. It was definitely a wake-up call. I shall become ambidexterous before the week is gone.

Hi all, been busy with life again. Our friend that lived in the nursing home passed away, so I've been busy taking care of things. Almost have all his things moved out (some into my garage to deal with later) and attended to the funeral home. But of course because we have to move big stuff, it's supposed to rain for the next 5 days. We had a couple of really cold nights (bird baths froze) but now it's supposed to be upper 40's at night along with the rain. Hope we get some dry spells so we can get the furniture. So far the nursing home has been very helpful, so I hope it continues if we can't things out due to rain.

Katye....hope your wrist is on the mend, not a good time to have an injury!!

I too have been busy and mostly absent.

Sopher, I can't believe that you have had snow already! Way too early for winter, but your colors are to die for! We go up into the mountains to see glorious color like that...what a joy to have it in your own yard!

Katye, hope your wrist is nothing critical and heals quickly. It is no fun working with one hand (been there a couple of times, but fortunately it was my left wrist I broke, so still could write!)

Lynn, Your greenhouse must be stuffed! Sounds like you have it well winterized though.

Sally, You are such a wonderfully caring person to take so much on in the care of your family and elderly friends. I will be hoping for dry weather in your area for you (I am doing the rain dance here, and it's not working so well) so you can get everything done.

I had moved most of my tender stuff into the GH a couple of weeks ago as I overwinter quite a lot of plants and it takes me two full days to get it all moved in and situated. This last weekend was a mad rush to get cuttings taken of all of my tender babies that stay outside to perish (coleus, impatiens) before we were hit with the threatened 20's. Won't complain that it didn't even freeze and so many things now look like they went to a very bad barber....at least it is done.

Sally, I'm so sorry for your loss. You did such a great job of making his last year interesting. And it's wonderful that you're taking care of the arrangements for his last possessions.

I don't have a spouse or kids and my brothers are all older than I. I will depend on the kindness of someone like you if I make it to a ripe old age like that.

Kathy

Looks like the rain is coming in and going to be here for awhile, at least it’ll make it warmer outside. I’m not ready for the cold this year. We didn’t get enough hot days for me to look forward to the cooler weather and I think I got my quota for snow for several years last year, though a white Christmas would still be nice, especially because now I could walk to my parents/grandparents house in the snow if I needed to.

I moved the few plants I’m not going to gamble with leaving outside in earlier this week. It only amounted to three planters and one is an experiment. Last fall I harvested tomato seeds from heirloom tomatoes I got at the store. A bit late this winter/spring I tried to sprout them. I put them in the refrigerator in wet paper towel for a couple weeks, no change. Took them out and kept the paper towel moist, no change. I finally gave up, but didn’t get it tossed out for awhile and when I open up the paper towel to toss it, the seeds had sprouted and dried up. I said some choice curse words, but decided to toss the seeds into some spare dirt I had. Well one of the survived, but is just now putting out flowers, so I’m going to see if it’ll do it’s thing inside.

Pony, I have the same problem. I started a small pond this summer and I’m now trying to figure out what to do with the fish over the winter. I have cats too, though you can get supposed cat proof aquariums.

Katie, I’m with you on the wrist pain, and also don’t follow my own advice, but I only have one issue; I have tendonitis in the tendon that goes down my thumb of my right hand and I’m beginning to get it in the left hand. At least it doesn’t affect my typing, just handwriting, and it’s getting to the point you can do everything on the computer.

Kayte, do you having natural leaning towards ambidexterity? That was the good thing when my thumb went; I’m fairly ambidextrous naturally. I was already doing sports left handed and a few other things. I can write better than my 8 year old left handed, the only real problem is I’m slow and the letters are shaky; not well enough to use it for anything I’d need, but interesting. I also taught myself to draw left handed, which was really interesting. Some of my favorite pieces came from that period; it made me think more about what I was doing and at the same time be less set into having the piece turn out exactly as it was in my head.

Hope our friends in the foothills to the south fared okay and haven't lost power. The winds are always worse there.

Sharon, Lynn, Julie? Everything okay?

I heard on the news--the weather is crossing the Oregon border and is on it's way.

power flickered here off & on this afternoon (or so I was told), the front yard has limbs down, the grass is somewhat visible from the leaf/evergreen litter, but only a little wind in Bellevue where I work. Weird how it is so different from one area to the next.
I heard about rain into Saturday, a break on Sunday & then more starting Monday. Gets dark about 6:30, so less time after work for chores. I still have beans growing & tomatoes trying to ripen on the vine. Those that are on the interior of the plant are fine - those on the exterior look like they came from outer space. Cukes are gonzo, as is all the Basil. the lettuce, broccoli raab, cilantro & onions aren't phased. yet.
4 months ago was June - boy did that time fly! 4 months from now I'll be in a state of mind for ANY sunlight & temps above 40° will be considered balmy.
I am off to bake Pony's pumpkin bread. I made tortillas with roasted new mexico chiles, cilantro & feta cheese. Very tasty. Now i need dessert.

The wind has been ferocious today and the rain is supposed to start any time now. Lots of people in Portland without power today. I've not had any problems but when I was driving to the market I decided to just go home because trees and wires were coming down. I don't mind rain but the wind is nasty. I was going to work in the garden but no way - I curled up by the fire and a book. Hope everyone else is doing ok.

I have left everything, bulbs and all in the ground and will probably lose them unless we get good snow cover. Due to the sudden freeze my trees have just started with color and now 5 F 2 nights ago they will probably just fall off. Oh well there is always next year. I have had to chain up my truck to get to the lower property where I store tires for winter, and to haul up the rest of the firewood trapped in the snow. I tore up the hilsides so new native alpine plants can seed in the new area I tore up. I got my truck topper on and hauled it up. So everything is where I can over winter it safely. I hope the cold will leave and melt some snow.
We are starting to get the SW wind but it is still cold. I am taking my motorcycle down to Missoula tomorrow for a service work. Planned on riding it but no. Put it in my trailer that I had to rescue today also. The sun and clear nights have ended with this front coming in. With the cold air it looked like you could touch the moon it was so magnified 2 nights ago.

I'm here, we have power, it has been really windy all day. I had a dentist appt this am, came home and gathered seeds all afternoon. Are we still going to have a seed swap this fall/winter?

Katye, how are you doing today?

It didn't blow much here, at all. And while it was kind of rainy and windy in downtown Seattle, it wasn't bad. And it was fine on the way home, tonight, too. I seem to have missed everything. Call me Mr. Magoo!!

Slightly breezy here today - the strong wind is gone. Now a little rain with a few sun breaks so far this morning. Cold, but a nice day!

Haven't had much time on the computer as I have been dealing with the issue of Mom's break-in. :(((.
We haven't had a huge amount of wind, but Rarejem and I are a lot more protected here than are the people more on the plains such as Enumclaw and Buckley.
Thank goodness we have not lost power, either as that used to be a very common occurrence here and we are not populated enough to get any priority on getting it restored.
Thanks for all of your thoughts and concern!
I hope to be back in the land of the living soon................Sharon

How is your mother doing? Hope she's ok after such a traumatic happening.

I'm not sure the reality has hit her yet, and it may not ever as Julie's DH has been a wonder in helping get her place cleaned up and back in order. She stayed with me until yesterday, and seemed to like the attention she got from me and from the grandkids. She is in the early stages of dementia and it has particularly hit her short term memory so some of the things that happen day to day elude her at times. It is very hard to deal with her situation as she is also terrribly hard of hearing and doesn't handle her hearing aids well. She is also pretty stubborn. Yesterday we replaced her TV and she said to take it back as the new one has too many commercials.
Guess you can probably tell why I am a little loony myself right now!

So that's the secret to getting rid of commercials! Bless her heart, she seems very sweet. It sounds like you have your hands full taking care of and watching out for her. How lucky that all of you live so close to one another. She is blessed to have you.

Glad you're doing okay, Sharon. I've found with my parents that they just don't exhibit the dramatic responses anymore that most of us do. I think their bodies just don't allow them to experience the highs and lows like they used to. In this case, that's good.

I laugh with my dad that my generation at least had some early exposure to electronic devices as children, so we have some of that programmed into the brains we developed. But for those people who were born in the 1920's, none of these new devices is normal. IMO, that's why their understanding of TVs, computers, microwaves, etc. is the first thing to go.

I'm with your mother, if taking back my TV would reduce the commercials, I'd be all over it. Hang in there!

I just record the shows I want to watch and ff through the commercials. 1 hr shows last 38min.

I'm sure all of us with DVRs can do that, Steve. It's just that it's a little hard to figure that out when you're 90+.

My dad at 93 is a computer whiz and loves email. If we don't answer his emails within a few hours he calls to make sure we're alive. He drives my kids nuts.

My dad uses email, too. But he doesn't install software or program DVRs . .

Even though I have cable for the first time in 7 or so years, I still find myself watching a lot of my shows online. I can watch them when I want to, less commercials, I can go back if I miss something and skip things I don't care about; it's wonderful!

If this is something that interests you I strongly suggest checking out http://www.hulu.com/ and http://www.fancast.com/

I was just saying that with Dish 500 you can preprogram the shows and have them recorded and give her the shooter and show her how to Fast forward. Its only one button to FF and one to play.

Thanks for that link Laura - I'm going to try it while I'm in the kitchen.

Many feel they've been successful having lived for years without much of current technology, so it's irrelevant.
I grasp this well from the perspective of having a childhood that was technology-free: such a contrast to what my son's was.

Hulu.com is amazing. Thanks for the other link, Laura. You can also watch most of your programs during the regular season online on the network's channel.

Like Mom and Lynn said, our wind was nothing major. Finally got some rain too, so I am thrilled (I hate watching the forest droop from thirst!). It is also wonderful to smell the woods after a wind storm...just like bringing in a fresh Christmas tree!



Helping get G'Ma's affairs in order was the first time that it REALLY hit me that she was born in 1918... I know that she is 92, but the date really put it in perspective.
Wow, the changes she has seen!

We really wish that she was more electronically oriented, but have long ago decided that it was futile. After MANY episodes of having to try to figure out what she had done to her TV and cable box to have her only channels showing the ant races, we finally wrapped the remote control for the TV itself in duct tape with only the ON/OFF and VOLUME buttons showing so she couldn't push anything else. Channels are changed from the Dish remote. It solved most of our problems with the old tv, and funny thing....the thief that took the TV decided to leave the duct taped remote behind!

Myself, I don't watch much TV, but when I do want to, I love the DVR! It's the only way to go!

I too loved HuLu but I got a virus a year ago from a download. So I don't use it. Maybe my firewall was turned off I don't know.

I tried out Hulu but the video runs way behind the audio, so I am hearing sound that doesn't go with the video. i have a relatively new computer with all the bells and whistles and I made sure I had all the required programs to run it. Does anyone else have this problem?

Hi All, boy have things been happening while I was off attending to other things. Read that....too tired to deal with the computer. Things are pretty well done know, amazing how much stuff you can have in one room!!

Sharon...so sorry to hear about the break in, maybe a blessing she doesn't really comprehend. We used to laugh about my Dad with the remote, he used to push those buttons in his sleep!! LOL The cable company finally gave me the factory code to reset it so I didn't have to keep calling them. Mom at 95 can still use her VCR after I program it, she's almost blind in one eye, so it's a little difficult for her. It'll be hard on her if that thing ever quits, hard to find VCR's now. Had it repaired once already.

Sounds like everyone came through the weather o.k. Good to hear. We had rain for a few days, but not as bad as they had predicted and it's warmer now. Actually pleasant yesterday. Think I'll try to clear some leaves off the road today while it's dry, can't have our walkers slipping on wet leaves. Wish I had someplace to overwinter plants, I bring in just a few. Whatever will fit in the bathtub!

Sofer.....all I can is brrrrrrrr!

We got treated to a squall that moved through yesterday. It was raining in sheets sideways - only safe place was inside the house. Our garage had a mini-flood for about 20 minutes. Then it stopped just as suddenly as it began. wild. Right now it's a balmy 52°, with a large cluster of cumulus headed this way.

We've been clear for the last day or so, but everything was soaked day before yesterday. Our driveway was flooded, which was a lot of fun.

I have been on a mountain in e. wa. near Tonasket hunting with old friends. the weather was : cold hot rainy crystal clear and sunday night was a movie of drama in the clouds. the wind from the south heavy with moisture was colliding with a north cold front during the sun set and WOW! pictures to follow when I get home.