Sandra Swanberg

I have to admit that last week went pretty well. Mom was moved to a rehab facility. They seem very nice and the place is immaculate. They have her undergoing aggressive therapy and even though by the time I see her she’s very tired, she looks and sounds good.

I had a great time at the dentist office too. I was getting two crowns and even though I was in there for about 3 hours it was fun. We were joking and cutting up. And there was no gas involved. One of his drills was even no match for my teeth when it broke. Okay so maybe there was a small issue with the drill to begin with, no harm done at all. I’ve known these folks for years and we all agreed it was nice catching up and believe it or not that was the best part of my day. The rest of it was fixing problems at work which let me tell you was more painful. I did major housework yesterday-dusting and vacuuming and even solicited dad’s help with the steam cleaner. He did a fabulous job. We had an assembly line set up. I’d vacuum and he’d follow me with the Shark Steamer. After that it was on to Walmart which is always a joy. <snicker> I had to look for a few things that aren’t normally on the list, so that involved some searching high and low. Let me tell you that women’s underwear size 5 white briefs have gone the way of the Do-Do Bird. My mother is very tiny and there is thong, bikini, low rider but no briefs. I guess they think that the only people who can fit into size 5’s are girls and heaven forbid they wear granny-panties. I finally found one package. Whew.  Now to switch subjects, I’ve also been waiting to hear from the rehab center about mom’s porta-potty. I heard one story that they had them there and another they needed it. So I’ve been driving around all week with this lovely throne. The good news is they had it taken care of all along.  And that’s about it.

p.s. Glad to hear you are recovering nicely from knee surgery Jackie.

I don’t think I know if I’m coming or going these days. I could be doing both at the same time. Hee.

Birthday celebrations are over, mom seems to have stabilized-she’s in a rehab center to help get her strength back, and there’s still a pile of work on my desk that’s getting handled very slowly. We are expecting some sleet tomorrow morning but I doubt that will happen. We will get the rain today but I just don’t feel Mother Nature’s presence in ice form coming our way. Call it intuition. Saturday I will have to stay at home all day. The cable guy is coming out -yes my favorite people. When they installed cable for two other rooms in the house they ran the wire underneath the awning in the front of the house and then down past a window. It looks horrible, and my house now has the appeal of a backwoods shack. I gave them a piece of my mind when I called but the guy really didn’t care (can’t say I blame him he’s just there to take the call). He held firm saying the window for fixing such things is between 8a-8p. Good grief. I really should take a picture and post it, then send it to the BBB if anything just to make me feel better. What has me so irritated is the installation guy never offered me an option of where to string up the new cable and instead made the decision. Like I wouldn’t see this? Come on people. He could have run it through the attic but no that was more work. Thank goodness I’m on blood pressure medication.

It’s off to the dentist this morning for crown work, then off to work-work. On my return I swing by the rehab center and pick up dad and see mom. Then its home for dinner which has been around 7:30. If I stay awake past 9:30 it will be a miracle. Happy Thursday.

Boy did I fall asleep quick and hard last night-on the couch. I think I scared my dad when came out into the living room this morning. I guess he wasn’t expecting a big blob on the couch to be moving and telling him good morning. Hee.

I’m enjoying thawing out from the big freeze. This past week we’ve been in the 40s and 50s and it feels like spring. On Monday we are meeting with the rehabilitation staff to get a status update on my mother. So far from what I’ve seen she’s made progress everyday in speech, occupational and physical therapy even though she was too tire to do physical therapy yesterday. So I expect they will say she is progressing well and is moving in the right direction for home healthcare.

Today we have lots to do, go to the hospital and run some errands to the bank and grocery store. Lore, Dad and I will meet Cherie and Jackie for dinner later on after another trip back to the hospital. Tomorrow cable is coming out to install another connection so my folks can have TV in their temporary quarters. I have some work-work to do as well. And that’s about it from here.

I do have some helpful links to share. These were on the news the other night and are store coupons that you can print out and use. Although I still see more coupons in the Sunday paper, these might come in helpful when you don’t get the paper.

Smartsource.com

Shortcuts.com

Cellfire.com (this one is kind of neat since you can download the coupon to your grocery store rewards card or cell phone)

So I think you all know about my mom, that she lost her balance while vesting me, broke her hip, and has been in the hospital since December. The good news is that she may be released sometime late next week. It’s been a long and painful road for her but I’m so happy that she is getting better every day. My folks will be staying with me for awhile until she is strong, and well enough to travel back home. I’m no longer a couch potato running errands here and there, going to the hospital, and of course working my fanny off. I also got sick myself during that time and I’m still recovering ever so slowly. On the work side we still don’t know what the status is of our employees in Haiti which has me worried. The good news is that the airport wasn’t damaged as badly as first reported, but the estimated fatalities are jaw dropping, between 40K-50K. My heart goes out those people. In other news Libby had a little infection in her bottom and had to where the cone of knowledge for a few days. Poor thing. But she was a trooper and seems to be on the mend. Sherlock didn’t like the cone of knowledge either since he likes to bite and like her ears (I don’t know why he has that fetish and yup, even the vet can’t figure that one out). So having been cut off from ear access, I came home one day to find the cone of shame severally pock-marked and chewed up! This weekend is going to be filled with errands, going to the bank, grocery shopping, and a little work-work. But on Saturday all of us are going to our fave Italian restaurant to celebrate Lore and Cherie’s birthday. Jackie, Cherie’s sister is going in for knee surgery the following week so we are celebrating early. I have a big meeting today that I prepared most of yesterday for that cropped up at the last minute so that threw a small kink in my goal of getting somewhat caught up. Oh well. That’s the way it goes right? I’m seriously thinking about writing again. Might as well do something productive right? Well happy Friday y’all! Let me know what’s going on with you.

I know , I know, I’ve been on hiatus. And I’m sorry. But things have kept me busy–both work and personal stuff. But don’t worry. I have a new look and I’ll be back to blogging soon. Stay tuned!

I can’t believe the days have passed so fast. One moment it was Wed, the day before a nice 4 day long weekend and now it’s Sunday? Where does the time go?

So I’m still waking up as I write this. It’s cloudy, gray and dark. Eight o’clock in the morning looks like eight in the evening and it’s supposed to rain later. The sun will most likely have a hard time making an appearance and even though the temperature is mild, it will turn colder later on. Winter is right around the corner and our first freeze is even closer. I made another trip to Walmart yesterday. I had to return some shirts that didn’t fit right, and I needed a few more do-dads that I’d left off my grocery list from my previous trip. I did score with a winter coat so I’m glad I returned. It’s all black, button’s up the front and is lined inside. I’ve been looking for a winter coat for awhile. You see I’ve been wearing a windbreaker to work which is very practical but not necessarily attractive. It’s so embarrassing when I have to walk over to the big headquarters building and enter looking less than professional in my windbreaker. Now I have a sleek looking, NYC stylish knee length black coat. Yeah! Now I just need a new smart looking briefcase to replace the plastic bag I’ve been carrying around. Happy Sunday.

Hello! Yes I’m here. It’s me and I’m really blogging. I know I don’t blog as much as I used to but you see I’ve been a little preoccupied lately with two new doggies, work, and de-cluttering. Sherlock and Libby have become the best of buds. They play tag and tug-of-war. They wrestle on occasion and steal each other’s toys. It’s real fun to watch when one of them isn’t looking and the other sneaks up to the sofa and grabs a stuffed bear. Poor Sherlock can’t see that well but his nose is in perfect working order and he can smell when his toy pile, that he garners in a corner of the sofa has been depleted. Over the past several weeks, I’ve worked on getting my house organized. I have successfully tackled the sunroom, laundry room, and three bedrooms, getting rid of everything that was just taking up space. My neighbor friends took a few things and what was left over was packed up in the car and taken to Goodwill. I think I’ve made seven trips to the drop off by now. Oh my gosh I feel so much better. The sunroom no longer looks like a wherehouse and the cabinets in the laundry room have space for extra groceries like paper towels, canned goods, napkins, and paper plates. I finally feel like I’m utilizing the storage in my house to its potential.  I had laminate flooring laid in the hallway and three bedrooms. Wow my house looks totally different and looks updated and clean. Oh and the amount of dust-how does one accumulate so much dust? I clean house every other week. Oh well that’s another story. Thanksgiving was great. I went to a friend’s house and had the moistest turkey ever. Yum. When I left her house last night which I think was around 7:30pm I saw all the shoppers lining up outside BestBuy. As I’m writing this they must be shopping in full swing. I will have to venture this afternoon for groceries so I hope everyone is home by then. On a completely different note, it seems that everything in my house needs replacing. For instance, all the light bulbs are going out, I need to re-calk the tiles in the bathrooms and around the kitchen sink. I need to do some paint touch-ups and the sliding screen doors in the sunroom need to be rescreened and have their rollers replaced. Me thinks the house got some ideas when the carpet was replaced. <g> Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving and hope everyone is having a nice holiday.

Boy what a day I had yesterday. Let me just say that I giggled from morning to evening and hadn’t laughed so hard for so long in a very long time. The day started pretty normal. I woke up and made coffee. Then I feed Sherlock and took him for a walk. After we got back I got on the computer and did a few things. As I looked out the window I noticed the people gathering for a neighbor’s garage sale.
Quite the crowd had gathered.

I don’t know what got into me but I decided I wanted to switch the position of the golf carts in the garage. Lore’s cart doesn’t work very well and it was parked behind one that belongs to a snow bird who rents. We agreed to house his cart in Lore’s garage under the condition we could use it when we were in town. So I tried to start Lore’s cart up and when it didn’t do anything I saw it wasn’t charged.  I plugged in the charger and noticed a funny smell. I lifted the seat and whew, it smelled like rotten eggs. Upon closer inspection I saw corrosion on the batteries. About that time Lore was waking up and I asked her to call our friend who takes care of her house when she’s away. She came over and I asked her about the cart, and said it wouldn’t start, funny smell blah, blah. I was just about to tell her about the batteries when she went out into the garage and tried to start up the cart. BOOM!!!!! It sounded like someone had fired a shotgun. Soon all the retired garage sale visitors were in our yard watching battery acid ooze down the drive way. Another neighbor asked if everyone was okay and that’s when I noticed smoke coming from under the golf cart seat. And Kathy (the lady who takes care of the house) was stilling sitting on top of it. She said “What just happened?” I said, “Get off the cart its smoking.” After she got off the seat, which took a little coaxing, I went over to the cart and opened the seat. The battery had exploded. Lore came out in her pajamas to an audience of around forty people. Sherlock was just wagging his tail wondering what all the fuss was. I put him back inside and grabbed the hose while several men moved the golf cart out of the garage and onto the grass. Then the neighborhood watch truck showed up. I thought for just a brief moment if I should make coffee for everyone but quickly decided against it since battery acid was still creeping down the driveway. It looked like the golf cart had been shot and bleeding to death. I hosed the driveway down as Kathy and ten other people diagnosed what had happened. No quorum for a diagnosis though. Poor Kathy had been sitting on a powder keg! After about an hour and much discussion about the incident things returned to normal. People went back to shopping at the garage sale and I went back into the house then proceeded out to the porch where I laughed my butt off. Kathy asked Lore if I was crying and she said no she’s just laughing at your expense.

We then got ready for the day and had lunch with my folks at a local restaurant we all enjoy. Then Lore and I headed down to the town square, had ice cream and watched big snapping turtles at the dock. Soon a storm rolled in and we headed back to my parents place and visited for a couple of hours before heading home for the night. All in all the day was filled with surprises and laughter. I couldn’t have asked for more.

I know I haven’t blogged much lately but I’m having a difficult time balancing work and social life. It’s an ongoing struggle and sometimes I fail miserably. But now that I’m on vacation I have some time to think about my strategy moving forward.  First is acceptance. I accept that the workload isn’t going to change and that it’s most likely going to get worse. I also accept that if I get one task completed daily, it’s a productive day. I shall leave office stuff at the office once my car leaves the parking lot-of course within reason. There will be days when I won’t be able to do that but they shouldn’t be as frequent as they have been. I also will carve out time in the morning to write, and with any luck perhaps time in the evening too if I’m not too tired. I guess in a way this is my serenity prayer. LOL

Now to the good stuff. Had a wonderful time last weekend at my chapter retreat. We had a wonderful guest speaker Vicky Taylor who came to talk to us about a unique way to plot our books. There were also goodie bag galore and I won a cute little ceramic candy dish. It’s cream color and in the shape of a gourd, and the handle is in the shape of a grapevine. So even though it has a fall theme it could probably stay out all year long and hold candy! After our workshop we all went to Flip’s for lunch and I had one of the best burgers I’ve sunk my choppers into in years.

Florida is great but the weather is questionable. It’s going to rain today but tomorrow should be sunny. There is a little cool front that will blow threw but I guess the natives have been praying for some cooler weather so I guess it’s all good. The neighbors across the street are having a garage sale so I will be waddling over in the next hour or so to see what trinkets may be lying in wait for me to purchase. I took Sherlock out for a walk this morning and I was pleased he did his business. But he got distracted with a flock of Ibis who were birdie talking amongst themselves and I had a hard time getting him focused back to walking. Thank goodness I had some biscuits with me. Because he’s severely sight challenged he relies on his smell and hearing. So when we walk all the different noises can get him distracted and he stops to listen. Sometimes I even have to pick him up, walk a few feet, and then put him down before he continues onward. It’s really quite funny. My puppy family will be growing in the next week with a new addition. Her name is Libby. More to follow about her but let me say she’s just a doll and gets along great with Sherlock.

It’s Friday people. Enjoy it!

Where did the week go? It’s Friday already and the past four days have gone by in a flash. The last thing I knew it was Monday. For me it’s been work, work, work, since my project is getting close to implementation. There’s so much to be done and the days are becoming just as short as daylight. Unfortunately I’ve picked up a new habit in my daily quest to unwind-computer games. I swore I’d never go there but do you know you can play them for free to try them out? That’s where they get you. My personal computer drug of choice, Fishdom, a match 3 game. Arrrgh. It’s so addictive, the levels, buying stuff for the aquarium. And these games are so pretty now. I remember way back in the cavemen days when they were mono looking, like Tetris. I look up at the clock and hour has passed and it feels like five minutes. I sure hope I don’t turn into a hermit because I just can’t stop playing with those fishies!