They have all left. Some sooner than others. M1 and J. left this morning. It is quiet--nice. Nothing is moving! Mr. Cat may come out of hiding soon. I must vacuum and put a few things back where they belong.
Always glad to see them come. Equally glad to have my house back after a few days. The deer are probably glad it is quiet too. J. found them quite annoying--he needed them to leave "his" territory!!
Now, On the the laundry, and the next adventures!
Random musings of a middle aged knitter.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thanksgiving gone to the dogs!
A. and J., grand puppies, with emphasis on "puppy" joined the fray for the big Turkey ingestion! Egged on by Z., we had pandemonium for much of the day, with litter mate like pack wrestling. WWF has nothing on these two! High maintenance, but cute as can be, they stole the show from the turkey--which was luscious, yummy, and worthy of a Rockwell painting (and I don't even like Turkey!)
As for black Friday, there is no interest. We all decided that there was nothing that we needed, wanted, couldn't live without, were willing to fight crowds for, or was such a deal that it could not be resisted. Sorry retailers. Maybe if you did not start your holiday hype in July, we would care more about a "Christmas Holiday Shopping Season". We are doing lots of "home and hand made" gifts anyway. Besides, the Internet is a wonderful place, where you can get almost anything without leaving home!
And there is pecan pie left--:)!
As for black Friday, there is no interest. We all decided that there was nothing that we needed, wanted, couldn't live without, were willing to fight crowds for, or was such a deal that it could not be resisted. Sorry retailers. Maybe if you did not start your holiday hype in July, we would care more about a "Christmas Holiday Shopping Season". We are doing lots of "home and hand made" gifts anyway. Besides, the Internet is a wonderful place, where you can get almost anything without leaving home!
And there is pecan pie left--:)!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Waiting Rooms
M1 had some surgery yesterday, and I was her "person". They will not let you have surgery without a "person"--hopefully a "responsible" one.
Once we checked in, we were taken upstairs to the surgery waiting room. The purpose of the waiting room was to have a place to wait--and if you are a knitter you already know this--they are a knitters dream come true! Absolutely nothing to do for hours, but sit and wait--allowing you to indulge in guilt-free knitting.
I had my "stuff"--a large bag with several projects from which to choose, and so that I would not be bored. Once they took M1 back to get ready, I added a bag of her "stuff"--which is where I think the responsible part came in. So, I had lots of time to work on my Christmas socks while we waited for them to actually take her to the surgery. Then, I was escorted back to the waiting room, pager in pocket, to wait some more.
The hospital was very efficient about periodic updates (unaware that a knitter was not at all concerned about how long this would take, and would not leave her rows to be a pest to the lady who seemed to be orchestrating the "waiters".) They regularly paged me about where we were in the process. I tired of the socks, pulled out a dish cloth, finished that, and returned to the socks before they summoned me to the recovery room. In the waiting room, (as well as others) I was the "knitting lady". Apparently, not that many people KIP in hospitals, as at times, I even had an audience.
As it turns out, there are not that many people who are good at waiting--or at least did not plan for the waiting. As a whole, they are a restless bunch.
There was cell phone addicted lap top man, dismayed that his mother had scheduled this for a Tuesday (he told several people on the phone that Tuesday was not a good day for him!---never mind that the mother was having the kind of surgery that seemed to required a visit by the priest--who spent more time with her than laptop boy. There was the lady who took off her shoes, curled up in the chair and tried her best to get engaged with the readers digest---but somehow just couldn't resist calling everyone she knew in between articles to help pass the time (because she certainly did not have anything of importance to say).
There were the groups---several. A brother, wife, and daughter for a knee replacement. A lady who was with her dad, but needed to be home by 2 for the cable guy. A bunch (about 6) who seemed to wander in and out, visiting some relative 2 at a time, they whole time chatting about how out of it she was (duh!) and the revenue the post office was trying to generate (?). There was the advanced directive couple, who apparently had enough time in the waiting area to contemplate their own fates, and summoned hospital personnel to help them fill out and get theirs witnessed.
There were the slouchy pants teen and is younger red-haired brother (about 12) who seemed never to have seen a hot water dispenser before, or was conducting some strange type of experiment with hot water and a paper cup out of boredom. Slouchy pants boy was only interested in the cookies--although complained that they did not have any really good ones (Lorna Doones and Cinnamon Grahams) a fact that did not seem to stop him from conspicuous consumption of the "icky" ones.
The waiting room had a coffee station--which was also irresistible to any hospital personnel walking past---so there was s steady stream of badged people dropping in to get a cup of something. I am sure that the in-house consumption far exceeded that consumed by the "waiters".
There were the matching mother and daughter waiting for someone---they spent their time leafing through the magazines.
The theme with all the waiters is that they had nothing to do --except to bother the lady at the desk--about stuff like --is there any news? (duh! You all have pagers too!) or will you keep this bag of stuff while I go to the cafeteria? Or other queries that the lady never seemed to have an answer for.
Since the whole point was to wait for the person having the surgery, I am amazed that these people seemed completely unprepared to wait. No one brought any type of amusement with them. Certainly the teens must have hand-held game things that are portable--or I pods, or (gasp) homework! No one brought a book. Only lap top boy brought work--but he was not so much interested in working as complaining that his mothers scheduling was preventing this---except that if he had stopped complaining about her, he probably could have gotten some work done in between the priests visits. There were the older people--some with adult children, who seemed to need something to pass the time, as it seemed to hang heavy for them. But no one seemed to have planned for the wait!
The winner/loser of the day was waffle man's daughter. She did not have to wait, as because he had taken two bites of waffle, they cancelled his surgery. She was also the loser, as she would have to do this all over again once he was rescheduled---except that next time she will have to hide all the waffles too!!
I don't know how the lady at the desk copes with this everyday---maybe they share some of the drugs from the surgery rooms with her--as she was surprisingly happy!!
Once we checked in, we were taken upstairs to the surgery waiting room. The purpose of the waiting room was to have a place to wait--and if you are a knitter you already know this--they are a knitters dream come true! Absolutely nothing to do for hours, but sit and wait--allowing you to indulge in guilt-free knitting.
I had my "stuff"--a large bag with several projects from which to choose, and so that I would not be bored. Once they took M1 back to get ready, I added a bag of her "stuff"--which is where I think the responsible part came in. So, I had lots of time to work on my Christmas socks while we waited for them to actually take her to the surgery. Then, I was escorted back to the waiting room, pager in pocket, to wait some more.
The hospital was very efficient about periodic updates (unaware that a knitter was not at all concerned about how long this would take, and would not leave her rows to be a pest to the lady who seemed to be orchestrating the "waiters".) They regularly paged me about where we were in the process. I tired of the socks, pulled out a dish cloth, finished that, and returned to the socks before they summoned me to the recovery room. In the waiting room, (as well as others) I was the "knitting lady". Apparently, not that many people KIP in hospitals, as at times, I even had an audience.
As it turns out, there are not that many people who are good at waiting--or at least did not plan for the waiting. As a whole, they are a restless bunch.
There was cell phone addicted lap top man, dismayed that his mother had scheduled this for a Tuesday (he told several people on the phone that Tuesday was not a good day for him!---never mind that the mother was having the kind of surgery that seemed to required a visit by the priest--who spent more time with her than laptop boy. There was the lady who took off her shoes, curled up in the chair and tried her best to get engaged with the readers digest---but somehow just couldn't resist calling everyone she knew in between articles to help pass the time (because she certainly did not have anything of importance to say).
There were the groups---several. A brother, wife, and daughter for a knee replacement. A lady who was with her dad, but needed to be home by 2 for the cable guy. A bunch (about 6) who seemed to wander in and out, visiting some relative 2 at a time, they whole time chatting about how out of it she was (duh!) and the revenue the post office was trying to generate (?). There was the advanced directive couple, who apparently had enough time in the waiting area to contemplate their own fates, and summoned hospital personnel to help them fill out and get theirs witnessed.
There were the slouchy pants teen and is younger red-haired brother (about 12) who seemed never to have seen a hot water dispenser before, or was conducting some strange type of experiment with hot water and a paper cup out of boredom. Slouchy pants boy was only interested in the cookies--although complained that they did not have any really good ones (Lorna Doones and Cinnamon Grahams) a fact that did not seem to stop him from conspicuous consumption of the "icky" ones.
The waiting room had a coffee station--which was also irresistible to any hospital personnel walking past---so there was s steady stream of badged people dropping in to get a cup of something. I am sure that the in-house consumption far exceeded that consumed by the "waiters".
There were the matching mother and daughter waiting for someone---they spent their time leafing through the magazines.
The theme with all the waiters is that they had nothing to do --except to bother the lady at the desk--about stuff like --is there any news? (duh! You all have pagers too!) or will you keep this bag of stuff while I go to the cafeteria? Or other queries that the lady never seemed to have an answer for.
Since the whole point was to wait for the person having the surgery, I am amazed that these people seemed completely unprepared to wait. No one brought any type of amusement with them. Certainly the teens must have hand-held game things that are portable--or I pods, or (gasp) homework! No one brought a book. Only lap top boy brought work--but he was not so much interested in working as complaining that his mothers scheduling was preventing this---except that if he had stopped complaining about her, he probably could have gotten some work done in between the priests visits. There were the older people--some with adult children, who seemed to need something to pass the time, as it seemed to hang heavy for them. But no one seemed to have planned for the wait!
The winner/loser of the day was waffle man's daughter. She did not have to wait, as because he had taken two bites of waffle, they cancelled his surgery. She was also the loser, as she would have to do this all over again once he was rescheduled---except that next time she will have to hide all the waffles too!!
I don't know how the lady at the desk copes with this everyday---maybe they share some of the drugs from the surgery rooms with her--as she was surprisingly happy!!
Monday, November 03, 2008
Radon no more
Today we "mitigated" our radon. It may not make a difference, but why take a chance.
So now I have less carcinogen in my house, and a flying saucer on the outside!!! Not exactly a home improvement that your friends will be impressed to see, but useful none the less. Ready for resale too!!
So now I have less carcinogen in my house, and a flying saucer on the outside!!! Not exactly a home improvement that your friends will be impressed to see, but useful none the less. Ready for resale too!!
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