Wow, I think I am nearly well!!!

I haven't coughed in several hours. Wow, that is something to celebrate. I actually have a little energy, and feel a whole lot better. Yippee!!! I think I have turned the corner to wellness!! Now if I could just get dad to follow along. He was feeling better than I was, the kind of relapsed a bit, but seems a lot better today. And neither one of us woke the other up coughing in the night.

I am attempting to layout a bunch of different earrings, and pre-wire all the components once I get that done, then see just how long it will take to assemble them when I figure out all the design elements. I wish Tess would come help with the design part. That is her strong suit and I know there are certain elements she would like to see in them. I figure if I can pre-make the various components then she can tell me which ones she wants together. I will probably just put a few together to "test" them and see what she thinks, and try to get a bunch more ready to combine.

Dad is falling asleep sitting in his wheelchair, I will have to wake him up pretty soon so he doesn't fall out. (hee-hee) He looks so cute.

Tess and Eric went to get his driver's license renewed yesterday and found out he had to have his birth certificate for that. If any of you know of an easy way to cut through all the red-tape of sealed adoptions, please let me know. He has been trying for several years to get a copy of his birth certificate. Unfortunately he was adopted in Louisiana. He knows the adoption agency name and location, but they won't talk to him about his adoption without him actually being there in person. What is a guy to do?? He previously had an Oregon Driver's License, but even the DMV has no record of his birth certificate. If anyone has any ideas on what we can do to expedite this, please let me know. It's not like we can just take a little drive over to Louisiana to solve all this. I would have thought the vital records dept. for Louisiana would have the info, but from what we can tell their records don't reflect the adoption, or since the names are different it is all screwed up. Have to feel for the poor guy. It is really tough to apply for jobs without being able to identify yourself. I know the new law was put into effect to prevent illegal aliens from getting identification, but what about the people who live here??? Little did we know if he had gone before July 1 he would have been able to get it with no problem, the new law just went into effect!! Jeez, I guess everything is about timing!!

The cough that wouldn't end

I think the cough is better. I only had one major coughing fit today, of course it lasted at least 10 minutes. You know, the type of coughing that you think you have finally stopped and you take a breath and it starts all over again. Then you think it is gone and you start to say something and it starts all over again. Of course it happened when I had a customer which made it even better. Dad is coughing less and I think I must be, too. It doesn't feel a whole lot less, but then I realize it has been at least an hour since the last time I coughed and I know it is.

Here are some photos I took at the fireworks last night. The rain began about two minutes before the fireworks, but it was worth getting wet for:

Coughing fool

If the coughing doesn't end soon, I think I will go nuts. My night last night was interrupted by at least an hour of wakefulness due to the cat jumping in the middle of my stomach around 3 am. He wanted to go outside and decided his usual annoying MEOW!!!! wasn't really quite bad enough. He added middle of the night acrobatics to his usual repertoire. Needless to say after being a trampoline I was seriously awake. So of course once I got up and put him out I was subjected to several coughing fits which added even more to my wakefulness. I am not sure exactly how long I laid there wide awake, but it was a really long time. I am taking a conservative guess at 45 minutes. I was nearly at the point of going to get my book and reading, but figured I would never get to sleep if I did. Eventually I could feel myself relaxing and knew I would fall asleep. I slept until about 8:15 am and then had to kind of hurry to get ready to go to work, after getting dad up and readying him for the day.

The shop was busy today, and my friends from Salem were in to refresh their booth and decorate the front window with a new display. They always bring a gift for Cassie, this time a vintage coffee pot, due to her obsession with making coffee. Every bath she takes she makes coffee. I asked her once if she could make anything else to which she responded, after a lot of thought, Pizza. She has been obsessed with a watering can I have in my car. It is a gift from my friends from Salem for my friend Judy, who has her entire guest bathroom decorated with watering can things. Cassie wanted to know what it was, and I told her it was a watering can for my friend Judy. Cassie said, "Cassie like a water garden, Grandma." "Judy no need watering can." I said, but Cassie, this watering can is for Judy. Cass said, "I like a water." I said, "But you don't have a garden, Cassie." But she said, "I like a water, Grandma, no water for Judy." However the last time she got in the car she told Athena, "See Thena, this watering can, this can for Judy. Judy no like a water. Cassie like a water, Thena." I told Tess I might have to take Cassie with me to give Judy the watering can. I think Cassie will understand when she actually sees Judy.

One more day at work, then off to the doctor we go. Dad is nearly over his cough, and I am still coughing like mad. I am just hoping he is that far ahead of me in recovery and I will be better in a couple of days. I am tired from all the coughing, and really getting kind of sore in the ribs. Stupid cough!!!

Hoping for more news on the Tess front. She says it will come to a head by Tuesday at the latest. Either that or someone will go away for a very long time. Wait and see.

Thursday blah

I should just say blah, blah, blah, but I won't. I talked with the PT dude today about dad's cough. He said I should call the doc and see what he thought. The doc's PA said I was right to suggest bringing him in, but it would keep until Monday unless he got worse. I think he is getting better, just didn't want to neglect his care if he needed it. The PA said everyone who has had this creeping crud has carried the cough around for a while (like my friend Maggie in California). He also said I could give him the Coricidin BP with expectorant which I was already giving him. At least it has helped him start coughing stuff up. Gross, I know, but really a relief.

Tess and I ran to the local coffee shop and chatted with a friend of hers for a couple of hours, then on to the pharmacy so I could pick up the cough stuff. We also bought some stuff for her girls. There is major drama on the horizon at her house. I will keep you posted when it is available for public consumption. Let me just say, "I can't wait!!!" and about damn time.

Wish my cough would go away, too, while I am wishing. It is really annoying, but at least it is pretty loose now. Gross, but loose.

Wow, where did the day go?

I can always tell when I have had a busy day like yesterday . . .
I have an invisible day like today.

I think the only thing I actually got accomplished was to run to the store with Tess, and feed dad and myself. We both napped away most of the afternoon, and I read a few pages in my book. Other than that, pretty much nothing at all. I think I did one load of laundry, but got absolutely nothing else done aside from bringing in the mail.

Tess's boss is wanting to carry a line of our low end earrings, so if any of you know of a source of really cheap abalone or MOP disks, either oval or round in about 10-15 mm in any assortment or single colors, please let me know. I have tried the usual sources like Fire Mtn. and ebay and etsy, but not happy with what I have found yet. Jeez, I thought this would be easy. Ha!!!

Here is the lovely little raccoon who thinks she is one of my children. She lives under the neighbor's house and dines with my cats.


Hope you are all surviving the lack of WC, and it was nice to see they are hoping to have it up by the end of the week. :D Yippee!!!!

To the moon and back

Well, maybe not all the way to the moon, but I am tired enough to have flown there under my own power today.

First of all I had to prep dad for a day with me gone, all while showering, fixing breakfast, eating breakfast and making sure Michael the PT didn't see me naked running down the hall (there is no door on the bathroom anymore so dad's wheelchair can fit through. Once I got dressed, got dad set up in the living room, and escaped it was 9:30 am and I still had to go buy gas and get my meager paycheck, then drive the 10 miles to my cousins and pick him up. Of course we had several hours drive ahead of us to get him to his vision appt. in Vancouver, WA. I had planned on just dropping him off and being on my way so I could get through Portland before the rush hour traffic hit. We stopped in McMinnville and grabbed a quick burger at 11 (too early for lunch) and again in Tigard so I could make a bank deposit. Then on to Vancouver and his appt. I said, "I can just drop you off out front and you can catch a shuttle back to the VA in Portland, right?" and he said, can't you come to the appt. with me? What is a kind, loving cousin to do? I figured if I had to go in the least he would do was give me some gas money, right? No. Not only did I buy the burgers, but paid for the gas, too. I told him he could catch up with me on the gas later. (hint-hint) He said, okay. I know he has to give his brother gas when he picks him up on Friday. Needless to say we spent an hour or so at the appt., then another hour trying to straighten out his lodging. He had also been told he would recieve gas money for today's trip and Friday's as well. The travel office said, no just one gas money since he was staying in Portland. They don't care how many times anyone else has to drive up there to make sure he makes it back home. Irritating, but I guess I understand their reasoning. I just hope he gets his service connected disability like he should after all these trips and all the time away.

I finally got away from him at around 4:30 after fighting traffic to get him up to the VA in Portland. He didn't want me to leave him there, he wanted me to wait even longer and go to the billeting office and make sure where he needed to be for the night, then go home. I said, sorry, no. I was going to head home or I would never get there. I had things I had planned and places I really planned to go. I had a $10 off coupon I could only redeem this week for the bead store I went to last week, but didn't have time to go to since I didn't get to go when I had planned, so I gave the coupon away. I went to a different bead store and bought some more sale seed beads to make a couple of spiral weave bracelets or a necklace or something. I also picked up a few charms in a gold plate finish. Tess and I are going to make some earrings to sell in her boss's shop. They have to have a beach theme, but we are going to throw in a few flower and butterfly earrings so there will be a little more variety for folks who aren't looking for just beach stuff. I also went to Michael's and checked out their beading and jewelry supplies. I needed some cheaper plated earwires and such for the resale stuff, too. I nabbed a few things I figured might come in handy. They were having some pretty good sales. We'll see how it all comes together and we will probably make a trip to Newport and a couple of other bead stores tomorrow. Love making new projects, but hate the prep time spent trying to figure out what we need for them. It would have helped if I had seen the pictures of the lines her boss carries now, but at least I have them tonight.

I put off eating anything until after Michael's, so by the time I stopped at Pizza Hut, oh boy (she says sarcastically), I was way beyond hungry. Good thing their food isn't that great so I didn't overeat. I had their buffet. Their new pasta is pretty good. I also knew their buffet would be really quick to eat and I could get salad bar and at least eat partially healthy.

Jeez, I finally got home at 9:30 and dad was waiting up for me. It was a good thing, too. His urostomy appliance had sprung a leak sometime today and had leaked urine all over the place. I came through the front door to about 85 degree temperature and the reak of stinky old rotten smelling urine. Real nice welcome home, since I knew it meant at least another half hour or more before I would be able to sit down or rest to recover from the drive. So I got dad's bed all set up to change his appliance, ran around opening all the windows, and got him to his bedroom and stripped to change all his undies and outies and the appliance and collection bag. I told him I wished he knew when it happened, because not only does it smell icky, it is toxic to his skin. So I had to treat all the new loss of skin, and coat everything in a layer of "diaper ointment" for lack of a better word. He was just getting all healed up, and now we are back where we were.

Tomorrow I am going to the hospital supply in Newport and trade in some of his appliances for a smaller aperture. I don't know if it will help, but it might. And his skin around his stoma is really irritated looking. I sure hope I get a chance to sleep in the morning. If not I may just get him up and go back to bed. I think it will take a few days to recover from today. I hate being in pain like this, but there is nothing I can do about it. Barrie, I know you know what I am talking about. Like my mom said it is suck it up or go jump in the lake (or off a cliff). Guess I will suck it up, ignore the excruciating pain in my back and pray sleeping will calm it down some. Tomorrow will bring more bead stores, so how can it be a bad thing? LOL (Note to self: Rita, put on those big girl panties and move forward.)

All's well that ends well

At least that is what I was always led to believe. I am going to accept it at face value and move on from here. I put together a great swiss steak dinner in the crockpot before I left for work this morning. When I went to work, I still had the scent of onions and browning meat in my head. It was a good incentive to get through the day. :) Not such a bad thing. And wowza was it delicious. And even better there are leftovers for tomorrow!!!

I had an interesting day, with lots of printing customers and work, and a few antique shop folks, too. I created a new "drink" menu for the Thai restaurant across the street from the shop, and made a couple of custom T-shirts for folks who came in. I did some laminating, and created a new form for us to use when people come in to place a specialty shirt order. I really enjoyed the day, mostly because I was so busy I didn't have any choice. One of my favorite families came in. They brought their teenage son in a month or so ago and bought him an electric guitar. He came in today and looked at the accoustic guitars. They left, and I thought that was the end of that story, but they came back a couple of hours later and bought him the guitar. I also finished pricing some earrings my boss bought from one of our locals who brings stuff in to sell to her. I know the family and they never seem to have money for much beyond living expenses and with the cost of gas now, little else. The lady has lupus, and is always needing medicine, or gas for her car, and hoping to find a way to get a few bucks. She has brought in stuff of her own, her mom's, and things she buys at garage sales. Sometimes she has great stuff, other times I can't even offer to buy it. This was one of the good times. There must have been at least a dozen pairs of earrings, a couple of clocks, a pocket watch, and some other stuff including some vintage textiles. All together it made it worth buying.

My other primary duty of the day was just meeting and greeting customers shopping in the antique mall. I had one customer who was obviously transgender. I have no problem with people's sexuality or identity, but I always worry I will somehow offend them by referring to them as male or female depending on how they are dressed. I tried to be tactful and just say I had a customer when talking to one of the vendors on the phone when I had to ask about a layaway. I must have pulled it off because Rachel (although obviously formerly Ralph) was very pleased with the results of the call, and smiling happily thanking me for helping her.

I hope tomorrow will be a restful day because I know Tuesday will be a day of driving my cousin to Vancouver, WA again. I am hoping my granddaughter Athena might like to go with me so I will have company on the way back home. I have to leave Nick there because he has appts. four days in a row!! Wow, it's a good thing they are putting him up in a motel. There is no way we could afford the gas to drive three hours one way four days in a row. Even with the mileage reimbursement there is the expense of meals out, and the hassle of making sure you have the time off from work. Of course I would also like to have money to stop at Michael's Craft store and pick up some more shrink art materials, and maybe do a drive by on at least one of the bead stores I like. :D Imagine that!!!

Well, all you other WC addicts out there, how are things. I miss you all so much!!! Can't believe we have been out of touch since Friday morning. I had just gotten ready to post in the WIA in wearable arts when I tried to refresh to make sure I hadn't cross-posted with Dawn, and bang . . . the site was down. I need my WetCanvas fix!!!! I sure hope it is back tomorrow!! I feel naked and lost without it! Eew, that makes a horrible picture!! I did find a website to turn myself into a South Park character. Don't I look adorable!?!