Catching up

I haven’t been here for a couple weeks so it is time to catch up on things.

First off and most amazing, I now have beautiful golden salmon colored TOENAILS.  This is thanks to my grandson who thought that I really needed to have my toenails polished with Keva’s nail polish.  After 15 minutes of wrestling with him to prevent it, I finally gave up and let him do it.  They are a sight to behold!

I never could understand why women polished their toenails anyway.  Most people’s feet are not attractive enough for someone to want to call attention to them!  Mine are not an exception to that standard.   And now they have a pretty golden salmon paint on them, with a generous amount smeared on the skin.  Consider who did it and that part of them were painted while Grandma was vigorously protesting.

How long does it take for nail polish to wear off?  I figure that by the time Rachael comes after me in October it should be gone… I hope.

New Mexico has had a very dry spring and early summer.  When I first got here, Albuquerque weather men were saying that it had ben the driest first six months of the year since the late 1800’s with only two tenths of an inch of rain.  Every day we would watch as dark clouds gathered over the mountains and then moved on without giving us any rain.

Then a little more than a week ago the storm clouds began dropping teasing drops of rain from time to time.  And this week we have gotten two days of good rains during the night and one during the afternoon.  The desert is responding with enthusiasm.  Our back courtyard now has all kinds of grass sprouting; the rose bushes are putting up new sprouts and the wild flowers are popping up everywhere—no flowers yet but the stems and leaves are growing like mad. The sage brush, most of which has been brown and gray looking is getting green.  Many of the trees which had no leaves and only dead looking branches are sprouting leaves and some even have blossoms.  I’ve always been fascinated with how the desert responds to moisture. 

Seth stayed home with me today.  He had been going to work with Kerra this week and I was getting really depressed.  I only have my camp chair to sit in but that makes my knee hurt after using it for a while.  I can’t use the sofa because it is too low for me to stand up from.  Chairs and sitting surfaces have to be at least 22 inches high for me to get up comfortably.  The normal sofa may be 22 inches high if no one is ON IT but when you sit down the cushions compress and you end up 18 inches off the floor!   So I was spending 16+/- hours of the day closed in my bedroom.  I couldn’t open the blinds because I wasn’t able to reach the cord so it was very dark.  I am not able to sit in my camp chair very long at night when everyone is home so I am going to the bedroom shortly after supper.  (That was all right when I first got here and was tired, but when I caught up on my rest, it was different)

Most days this summer, Seth has stayed home and he has kept me entertained, but this week when he was going with Mom every day I was getting really depressed.  I struggled to keep from crying when anyone was around.  Evenings were okay because I went to my bedroom not long after supper and no one except Seth was bopping past.   Yesterday morning it was a real hard thing to do but I managed.  This morning, I went back to the bedroom because there were not people walking past all the time and if I was leaking tears there was not much chance of anyone noticing.  Keva was in and out but she is wrapped up in her own world so she didn’t notice.  Seth was in once and sat down beside me on the bed, so he wasn’t looking straight into my face; he didn’t notice.  I was almost home free till Kerra came in.

 As soon as she saw I was crying and asked why, the flood gates opened.  She first attached a cord to my blind. Now I can open it in the afternoons.  Being able to see the mountains will be a big help.  (Pretty soon the kids will be back in school and I’ll have to cope.)  She talked about figuring out a way for me to be able to sit in the living room where there’s the TV and dogs to distract me. :o) 

 And then my Seth came and said he would stay home with me!  Bless him!  He is very tender-hearted and loving.  So this morning he was outside for a while and came in discouraged because he wanted to build me a box for getting in the cars but the drill wouldn’t cooperate with him!  Then he came in and we figured out how to fix his baseball game.  He glued the ramp on and I figure out how to attach a piece of cardboard to the one guide so it wouldn’t keep catching the marble. 

Now he is playing the marble game and we are both watching a game show.  

 And I was finally able to stop crying. 

Tomorrow we all have eye appointments.  I needed one before I left Ohio, but we didn’t have time, what with my therapies and doctor’s appointments and Rachael’s work schedule.  I think my reading glasses are okay but my distance lenses seriously need replacing.  When Notah said they all needed to get their eyes checked, I asked Kera to make an appointment for me at the same time.   So tomorrow’s the day.

Chloe looks like a little blimp. Her puppies are due on August 8^th.  We have a small problem because that is the weekend of camp meeting. So I don’t know what we will end up doing.  We all think she is going to have four puppies.  Her ‘hubby’ was a slender long legged tan Chihuahua so her puppies should all be tan with black points. Rachael said I can have a baby girl.  I seriously hope she has two girls, because I’m afraid the owner of the little male may want a girl!   We are waiting anxiously.  This is her first litter and with any luck she will not have any problems.

So that is all the catching up there is to do today!