August, 2001

Nature Songs ~~~~continued ~

August 6, 2001 - Mother enjoyed the watermelon yesterday afternoon. I took along a cup for myself, but by the time I arrived and parked behind the center, all my watermelon had disappeared. Each morsel was delicious and Mother enjoyed her cupful as enthusiastically once she started eating it. I had to go down the hall to the laundry room and get a washcloth for her to wash off the juice from her face and hands once the juicy bits were inhaled.

The boys and Giggles met me in Mother’s room since Mom had to go to choir practice at church and was on the schedule to sing during the evening service. First thing Giggles did was to take off her shoes and prance about the room on her tiptoes. DynoKid immediately laid across the bed and became engrossed in the baseball game along with Mother while NascarKid chose to chase down the hallway. He wanted permission to walk around outdoors and play, but he had to stick close to us today. Once Giggles got up the nerve to venture out in the hall along with him, I knew it was time to head home with the three of them. It was way after nine before Mom came to pick up Giggles and by the time she had checked her e-mail, it was around ten when they headed home.

We have a list left here with us along with instructions to go shopping in the morning to get supplies for school for the boys. The day before school and they don’t have what they are supposed to have for their classes. NascarKid has to have a Texas Instrument Xa calculator for his Math class. Hope there has not been a run on them. Since he is going to school in a different county maybe they are available here. Tbird and family were in Charlotte Saturday and it would not have taken much time to drive across the state line into South Carolina and buy what they needed. South Carolina had all school supplies available with no sales tax extra added on. That went for clothes as well as actual supplies.

Our beloved Krispy Kreme Donuts are catching on all over the place. Others are falling in love with them. They are being used for banquets and social gatherings as well as weddings. One couple went as far as to make their wedding cake out of the donuts stacked up in the shape of a cake. Another trend that is catching on if handing out donuts to each of the guests as they leave. There is a 1940’s Krispy Kreme Donut truck used on occasion for handing out the luscious clouds of soft and sweet nothingness rings of delight. These are things that were never done here in the South where the tradition of heavenly donuts was born.

I shall skip my water routine today, but tomorrow should be a normal day for working out. The Better Weight Class is taking part with the Cooking Class tomorrow. A special event is planned where the newly formed cooking duo will be there to share tips on cooking with herbs. They have a new cookbook out and will have some for sell. Later this summer they will begin a twelve week series on PBS television and have already been taping episodes for that series. I’ve heard that a lot of people have signed up for this presentation with us.

And so the day has come and gone. We spent two hours away from the house while shopping for the school supplies. BingoKid even came over and made the trip with us. NascarKid took his list of supplies and proceeded through the aisles of Wally World in search of what he thought best for him. He was on a mission and had only one rule to follow. Keep in mind the cost and don’t spend too much. He did well on his choices and cost. BingoKid would report to me where he would be and each time he went a different direction he would take time to let me know. DynoKid and I looked and conferred on his likes and best choices. Finally, he got to go look through the sports department with his cousin as I got his multiplication cards (which are required, but he knows!) and located a pencil box. The other kid was up front playing a video game. At checkout, the boys had averaged about $30 each for their materials to begin a new year at school and that didn’t include a backpack.. They will use last year’s backpacks and lunch boxes. It was interesting that NascarKid chose black when he had a choice and DynoKid picked green.

I looked at the time when Wes left for home with BingoKid. It was close to nine and I had promised Mother I would come over with some watermelon. I call and she is in bed and sounds sleepy. She still wants the melon, but I beg off and promise to take it to her tomorrow. It has been a long day - again.

August 7, 2001 - Plans were to start back to exercise this morning. Like Sunday morning, my body had other ideas. I looked at the clock and it was almost time for the class to begin. No way could I get up there to take in enough of the class. I chose to wait and go to the Better Weight Class at 11 o’clock.. I arrived right on time, but still had to be weighed in before sitting with the others for our meeting. It was an uplifting session for me. All these many months (years?) I’ve been eating by feeling hungry instead of three meals regularly. As you age, apparently, that’s the way you should eat. Small amounts of food about six times a day (no more than you can hold in one hand.) The big meal of the day should be lunch and the smallest in the evening. I feel better about the way I’ve been eating....

There was not a lot of time once I left Quest. I rushed home to fix Mother a large cup of watermelon and brush my teeth again. I had a dental appointment to have my teeth cleaned at one. I put the watermelon in the back of my car in the cooler along with a frozen pack to keep it cool until I could stop to see Mother on the way back home.

OUCH! This was not one of my better visits to the dentist office. Seems I need two fillings and a crown. He cautioned me about being more careful with the gumline on the left side, or I could be loosing a tooth or two. The dental floss does not get to the place that is the biggest problem. I’m thinking of buying a water pick which the doctor says will help with my problem. Oh well, I go back next Wednesday afternoon for over two hours to be worked on and prepare for the crown. I didn’t have to pay the $112 for this trip. They will file my insurance and let me pay any amount due after insurance pays. That helps - but the insurance will only pay half of next week ...

One of THOSE days, I suppose. When I arrived to visit with Mother, one would think she would be happy to have me earlier in the day and for a longer visit. She was happy to get the watermelon, but otherwise, her mood was not in good mode. Seems the nurse was in to see her and fussing about the family calling the office about her care! My niece had called about her cough and what could be done about it. It was more about the doctor and his prescribing only the cough syrup. Not only that but after the first week, it was not given regularly, but as needed. Mother didn’t know, but she should have been requesting some for her cough the past week. She got a “blessing out” about staying in bed in the mornings and about going to bed too early in the evenings. Yet, what should be done when one is so worn out from coughing and in such pain from sitting ....

I had to go to the drugstore today to pick up another of my meds that is being filled by them and they let me know when to come by to pick it up. I no longer call in the prescriptions. I’m going to be making a bunch of trips up there, it seems. Anyway I got a sinus OTC medicine while there. I think I will start going over twice a day and give it to Mother and see if it helps her any. It has no aspirin, so they is no danger of causing excessive bleeding. It is one she used to take when she was home and it worked for her, so it isn’t anything new. What else is one to do! I asked them to check with the doctor and see if he would give her something for allergy or sinus since he felt that was the problem and all he gave her was the cough syrup. That was last week. She still has not had the bone scan either. It should show why there is so much pain on her left side and back.. I would bring her home if I could handle her, or pay someone to come in and take care of her for me.

Trying to get my new classes done online this evening was not exactly a joy, either. The Barnes&Noble message board still has some bugs to correct. I got booted off more times than I care to count. I never did get to the quiz on one of the classes and got only half the answers to another one when I finally got it to work. I attempted 4 times getting one message posted and on and on it went. (Cry, Boo-Hoo, Sob - this hasn’t been my bestest day!!!!!)

BingoKid has come to spend the night with me. That helps the evening pass quicker, at least. Only one more day and he will be back in school. He was supposed to go to school this afternoon and find out about his classes. I didn’t even ask him about them.

I took time to ask. “Yeah, yeah, I did.” Did you find out your teachers? “Yeah, but I forgot their names.” What classes do you have. “Same ones.” You mean as last year. “Yeah. Same ones.” You look forward to going? No answer.... so ends a discussion about school and the Eighth Grade with an up and coming Eighth Grader.

August 8, 2001 - Nothing like getting a head start on things. It’s only 2 a.m. (No, I didn’t get any rest during the afternoon yesterday - it always happens this way ...) but I’m writing my journal bright and early this morning.

As I type, I see my almost freshly painted fingernails and enjoy the new color for this go-round. Blackberry Frost was the color I chose and anyone that has ever seen the bright red color that runs out of freshly picked blackberries can imagine how nice my nails look. They aren’t really bright red, but more muted with a hint of darkness through the shine. I’m reminded of my blackberry picking days and making jams and cobblers with the juice running out the same color I now sport on my nails. Hummmm, blackberry jam is my favorite for spreading on buttered toast. It’s good for adding to a peanut butter sandwich, too. Too bad I don’t have any to eat for now.

We were given some exercises last week in our Better Weight Class to do using dumbbells. There are twelve exercises to do with eight to twelve repetitions and doing them twice. They should be done twice a week with a day’s rest in-between, at least. Of course, I haven’t looked up my dumbbells here at home so I can begin using the weights and follow through. In our session today, only one person had bothered to do them. I was not alone. Of course, most of the exercises are done in our water classes, so I do work on them when I am on my regular schedule. I would also like to begin doing them at home. I need to put myself on some sort of schedule and follow through with it from now on! That includes more than exercise. As of now I seldom do anything with regard to doing it according to a calendar.

For instance, why don’t I still sit down once a week and make out a menu to follow for the week. It works well for me and helps me to get in those veggies and fruits. The fats are more in control, also. When I did that, it was so easy to look at the card placed on the side of the refrigerator and see what I needed. I could do this on Wednesday evening or Thursday and go to the grocery store Thursday or Friday and be set for the next week. I could use the sales that begin on Wednesday and take advantage of saving money if the items suited my needs. This week there are some good fruits on sale. I should take advantage of them.

I was thinking on my way to the dentist about when I buy a pizza on Monday with the boys - a large, one-topping pizza for five dollars. I usually will eat one slice of the one for me. Later the boys may eat some, When Wes or Allan come by they will have one or two slices and that generally leaves me a slice for another meal. That adds up to feeding five people six times which isn’t too bad a deal when you think about it. Not that I need the pizza, but it isn’t an everyday thing for me and I don’t eat the whole thing at one sitting.

Writing down what I consume is something else I haven’t been doing. We were discussing today that if you wait to record your food intake, that it has been proven than you forget at least 30%. Memories are not perfect all the time. If I have it written down first by planning ahead, I wouldn’t have to bother with that, either.

There’s a lot to ponder. Even more important there’s a lot I should be taking action on. Only with action can I expect to see results. Where is my willpower and ability to follow through? Why do I not have the drive I should have? All right! Take heed and take action. Now is the time!

I’m even having trouble with deciding how to work with the new quotes and other journals. I dare not keep repeating the same way of doing them because it will slow the download speed and that’s not good. If I keep them where they are, it takes up a lot of journal space. Do I add one for each day, or at random? Should I make a separate page for recording them once I’ve used them and have them available for future reference? Questions, questions, questions . Now it’s time to make some decisions - one way or the other.

August 9, 2001 - Again today, Ozone level is Code Orange - UNHEALTHY - for our area of the country. Along with the elevated Ozone level is the high temperature of upper nineties. Heat index measures up around a hundred or more. The highest temperature ever on record for each day for the remainder of the month of August is a hundred or more. There is no desire on the part of any of us in this area to have that record reached; much less broken. Our nighttimes are not all that cool inasmuch as the degrees only manage to drop into the seventies.

Growing up with the heat was so much different than what today’s young have to contend with. There were the screen doors with the long coiled spring stretched along midway on the door and connected to the door jam to keep out the flies and other insects. Care had to be taken to keep from slamming the screen as one entered or exited, and yet it was important to always have that door closed securely. Long sticky curls hung from the ceilings to catch the pesky flies and fly swatters were a necessity here in the South. Our weather generates an abundance of summer critters that are such a nuisance as well as a health threat.

Back in my younger days, simple ladder-back chairs were carried out under the shade of a tree in order to catch a wisp of air as fruits and vegetables were prepared for preserving for those wintry days ahead. Jars of the summer’s offerings were labored over for endless hours in a hot kitchen as the water was brought to a boil atop the woodstove to preserve them. Some of them would be spread on large screen trays to dry in the sun as others were packed in huge wooden barrels or clay crocks to age - or hung from the rafters of the porch.. By evening, the family would gather out under the trees once again, or sit on the porch cooling down from the day’s activities. Laid back and carefree? Not hardly. It was a life of strife, but none ever felt that our lifestyle was out of place. It was the norm for one and all.

We were lucky enough to have a long swing hung along one side of our front porch. My grandfather constructed it just as he had done with other chairs and tables for the house. He had a workshop where he would spend hours working with wood and turning it into works of wonder. He would build, shape and sand the pieces into usable pieces and my father would work his wonders with the varnishes and paints. Our swing where I loved to stretch out on and listen to the gentle squeak, squeak of the chain as it moved, was painted brown.

Dad’s specialty was in painting and interior decorating. He wallpapered the walls of the house and while most floors were painted and covered in the middle of the floor with a linoleum, the living room or parlor had a beautiful pine floor shined to perfection with layers of wax.. Dad kept his paints and materials in a small room adjacent to Granddad’s huge shop. One of my joyful memories looking back was being in that small space with it’s rows and rows of cans of paints of many colors. They intrigued me and the strong odor of oil-based paints brought thoughts of new things.

Nighttimes were hot times back then. The windows were all propped open with the wooden sticks with hopes of a cooling breeze. No need for any type of covering, unless one would use a sheet. I remember waving the sheet up and down making a light cooling movement, but usually all sheets were pushed aside. Those of us that slept upstairs were at a disadvantage since that was the last place to have any heat sucked out of our rooms by the night air. Nights were long, hot and muggy here in the South.

Highlights of those hot summer days was a bit different from today. No colas chilled and ready to grab as many may do today. A large pitcher of tea was made each morning and set to one end of the counter to cool. Ice was at a premium since it was used for keeping food cool - there was no electricity for refrigerators. Grandpa made the big icebox that took up a large corner of the kitchen. Twice a week or so, the iceman would come by and bring in a block or two of ice and restock our box. It was insulated with sawdust packed tightly between the metal inside and the wooden exterior. I watched as Grandpa made this particular icebox. When it was time for a glass of tea, some ice was carefully chipped from the side of the block inside.

On rare occasions, there would be lemons. They would be halved and the juice, pulp and rinds were poured into a pitcher along with water and sugar; stirred until the sugar dissolved, and then ice was added to the pitcher. Even more rare were the limes. One of the greatest treats of a summer’s hot afternoon was to sip from a frosty glass of lemonade. The best treat of the summer was to spurge on the cost of enough ice to pack around the metal canister of milk and cream. Anticipation grew as the handle turned the canister around in the middle of the ice, chilled even more with salt, into delightful ice cream. Out under the apple tree, the ice cream was made and served on one of those hot summer days.

No air conditioned houses with windows and doors closed tightly to repel the heat. No air conditioned cars closed tightly holding in the cooling breeze. No fans, other than the hand-held ones which were used to shoo away the insects as much as to bring a little cooling breeze. A strong religious community that looked dimly on people that wore shorts or exposed much skin, at all. It was truly a long hot summer.

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