Essential Oils

I used peppermint oil in Germany to treat headaches. It worked. When we came back to the States, I tried it with peppermint oil I could find over here. It didn't do anything except make my eyes water.
Then, recently, I found some that does work. It is therapeutic grade and works nicely.
But I also wanted to try scents. I'm allergic to a lot of fragrances, but not from real flowers or herbs. So it seems that it is something else in fragrances that make my head hurt and sometimes makes me sick at my stomach.
I've gotten some oils at WalMart and Hobby Lobby for scents, not for putting on myself or consuming internally. I even still have apple and cinnamon from our stay in Germany.
But I decided I wanted something Christmasy to use in my diffuser. I stopped at a place called Sensational Scents and got several small containers. I hope I like them.

Blackberry Wine

We sampled some blackberry wine our neighbors made. It was very good. Maybe we could try that some time...if we ever get any blackberries from our vines.

Early Voting

Last year was the first time I voted early. I did it again this year because there was no line last year and I was hoping to hit the same this year. There were a couple of people there already voting, but absolutely no waiting!

Free Magazine

I was in a drug store waiting for the pharmacist to talk to me about my medications when I saw a couple of free diabetes magazines. I picked one up and was reading through it. The name of the magazine is Diabetes focus, fall issue. An article in it by Michele Stanten mentioned a new study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine reviewed data on about 32,000 women. It said that in women over 30 are at a higher risk for heart disease through inactivity than being overweight or having high blood pressure, or smoking.
Wow.

Snack

I picked peppers today. Then I decided if I split one of the medium-hot ones (tiburon), and filled it with cream cheese, it would be a decent snack. I usually make poppers out of them, but I didn't want a big production because I had washed the storm doors and the exterior walls around the doors and just wanted something easy to eat. I was a little worried that the peppers might be too hot to eat raw, but they were good. Not as fancy or as good as poppers, but easy and on my diet:)

Shop Vac

I brought the small shop vac to the porch to vacuum up those orange lady bugs. It turned cold and the lady bugs went somewhere else but I still had the shop vac on the porch. So I vacuumed the spider webs and other junk from the porches and carport. Then I took the shop vac back to the basement before I was tempted to do something else useful.

Verizon Upgrade

My new wireless device lets me see data usage! That is a big deal to me. I want to keep my bill in a certain range and guessing how I'm doing isn't easy. This device doesn't involve calling a Verizon worker to check for me. Yea!

Computer Mess

I accidentally downloaded a mess. I took my computer tower to a computer repair person after trying hard to undo what I had done. I got it back today and have spent a while trying to get bookmarks back on my computer. Finding my blog was one of the longest issues. Another was trying to get back into my audible account. Their service people have always been helpful and today was no exception. I think I have everything conveniently accessible now:)

Don't Upset Them

I have a lot of orange ladybugs. I had more yesterday, but a lot today. I read about them because I don't like them sitting on me, pinching me, crawling around in my house, whatever. The thing I read said they are looking for a place to hibernate. They put out a smell to attract others when they think they have a good place. They will live in the walls. The thing I read said they don't hurt anything, but I don't like them anyway.
The article said not to upset them as that causes them to release that smell along with blood. It also said that since they don't harm anything, just set them free away from the house.
I've been vacuuming them up. I hope they aren't upset by that. But I'm not releasing them. I think they would come back.

Hickory Tree

Hickory trees are among the first to change colors around here. This one was softened by the morning mist this morning.

Cool Days

 This camilia bush is in full bloom.

 Since the temperature has been cool, the blooms are lasting for several days.

This is a very double rose. Both roses have a lovely fragrance.

24/7

When a place advertises that is open 24/4 but tells you that you've contacted it outside of their normal working hours, my first thought is they aren't smart enough to have a good business. I know this isn't always true, but still.

Dress Code

Today I found out volunteers are supposed to observe the same dress code as the employees. I can dig out my school clothes. But I really like my Teva hiking sandals. I can wear closed shoes, but it seems to me that unless I show up in my housecoat and slippers, they should just say, "Thanks for coming!"
What do I know? I've already had one person tell me she is willing to not wear jeans, but if they say tennis shoes are out, she's gone.

Podcasts

I really have trouble getting podcasts onto my iPod. Today, for the first time with my new iPod, I managed to get some of Nathan Lowell's Solar Clipper books to actually sync with my iPod. Not all of them, but several. Why am I so bad at it? I don't have a clue...really.

Happy Halloween!

I did this ceramic witch a long time ago. The mushroom put itself there:)

What's the Point?

I was reading somebody else's blog. He was mentioning depression and said he felt like, "What's the point?"
It sounds awful to tell somebody else what the point is because nobody knows how somebody else feels. But I have considered the "What's the point?" question.
I finally decided that some days I really don't feel like there's much of a point. But the question is, how do I want to be remembered? Well, for my family, friends, former students, I don't want to be remembered as a loser. I want to be thought of in positive ways. So, for me, sometimes that's the point...not for me but for those I care about.

Pinched Nerve

Yesterday I had a pinched nerve in my neck. I couldn't bend over enough to keep from scraping my head on the car when I got in. I couldn't turn or bend or lean to one side or the other. I used the electro therapy and a heating pad off and on all day.
Last night I slept in whatever position I managed to collapse into. This morning it was fine! I don't know if I did something that helped, or if it just worked its way loose.
I was really happy to have some flexibility back.

Diffuser

I'm putting eucalyptus oil in the diffuser trying to combat allergies. 

Electro Therapy

I have a pinched nerve, I guess. I bought this a while ago for the next time I felt like I had a crick in my neck. I got it at WalMart for about $10. It's like a TENS unit. Today is the first time I've used it. I'd go to the chiropractor tomorrow except it's a holiday:(

So this little electro therapy unit, a heating pad, and Aleve is getting me through.

Cute Gourd

I took the picture with the peppers so the size of the little pumpkin would show. But it isn't a pumpkin, really. It's a gourd. I gave it a couple of coats of orange acrylic paint after trying to sand the lumpy bits off. I'm going to paint a face tomorrow.

Jana Deleon

Leigh loaned me an ebook by Jana Deleon. It was the first in the Miss Fortune series. It is light reading, like a book sit com. The first one is free on Amazon. She has another series with a free first, too. I've downloaded it, too.
The Janet Evanovitch books are funny to me, too. I like books with action but these are nice to read between the scary stuff.

Bow Hunter

A guy was bow hunting on our place for a few hours this morning and longer this afternoon. He came back empty-handed. He said there were deer all around but he just kept scaring them away. Yesterday he said three were running right toward him but he shot too soon and missed. He is evidently very pleased to hunt. He said this is his second year bow hunting and he got one last year. He thinks maybe it was luck.

Plan for Tomorrow

Tomorrow I'm going to cook down the tomatoes and peppers I have sitting everywhere. I'm going to try not to put so much pepper in that the mix will be too hot for Larry. So I'll probably put some peppers up diced, make some poppers to eat tomorrow, and make the tomato/pepper mix.
If it dries out enough, maybe I'll weed whack the rest of my rose strip that runs parallel to the road. I did half of it yesterday. I might have finished but I managed to choke it and couldn't restart it because my arm was shaking like crazy. I don't ever notice it while I'm using the weed whacker, but when I stop, it takes a while to recover the use of that arm.

Althea Cuttings

Today a friend brought me four althea (aka Rose of Sharon) cuttings. I'm not sure fall is a good time to try to root them, but now is when I have them so I stuck them in with some other plants I'm rooting.
My friend said they are small, double pink. I hope they root.

Candle Simmering Pot

I made this simmering pot in ceramics a long time ago. Today I went to Hobby Lobby looking for a diffuser. I didn't find one, but I bought sweet orange essential oil because I thought it would make a nice fragrance in the kitchen. I used it with a tea candle in my little simmering pot. The fragrance was light and pleasant but totally overpowered by the apples.

The apples are from our tree. The bowl with water in it also has salt to prevent the chopped apples from discoloring.  This is about half of what we picked from the tree. We got about two WalMart bags of apples from the ground and took them to a kid who has chickens. They are cute puff-headed chickens...he said they are Polish chickens.

Larry's Ribbon

Larry's pony tailed palm got this blue ribbon at the county fair. When I brought it home, I took the ribbon off and put the plant back outside.

Well, it's going to frost sooner or later, so I've started getting stuff in. Mostly plants go in the greenhouse, but I had this one inside last year so I put it back yesterday. 

Larry hunted up his ribbon and put it back on the plant! He was proud of his ribbon:)

Odd Idea

Another volunteer at the hospital said his optometrist told him he needed reading glasses. He said he didn't, but got the glasses because the doctor said he needed them. He then decided that since he couldn't read without them now, the glasses caused him to need glasses! I told him he was probably used to figuring out what the words were without glasses. Once he started reading with glasses, the words were sharp and his brain rebelled against interpreting the fuzzy words. Getting glasses doesn't make you need glasses!

Cornbread Patties

Larry made a soup today and I decided it really needed cornbread. There are various ways to make cornbread and we pretty much like all of them. Today I decided to chop up three cayenne peppers, and an onion to add to the mix. I put them on the griddle like pancakes. They were excellent. I didn't really expect Larry to like them as he doesn't like hot peppers nearly as much as I do, but he raved over them. I can't have cornbread very often because it isn't low-carb, but once in a while is fine:)

Volunteering Today

The ice machine was down today so I had to put on a bonnet and push my little carts into the kitchen area to get ice for the patients. There was only one patient in isolation so one box of disposable gowns was enough. One county newspaper was delivered so I handed those out to the patients. Then one of the departments gave us some papers to make into packets to use when swing bed patients are admitted.

It's nice when there's something to do when I'm there.

Sorry Home Tech Support

Larry's new Kindle Fire arrived today. He didn't know how to do anything with it as it is a step up from his old one which wasn't a fire. I didn't know how to do anything with it either, as it is a step up from mine. When I got mine, I thought it was interesting to fiddle with it until I figured it out. His lip started twitching when he tried to do anything. So he asked a question, I held out my hand, I found whatever he wanted and handed it back.
I thought this was going to be intuitive and interesting for him. Wrong. I can't even offer to let him have mine and I could take the cool new one...he doesn't know how to use mine, either. Rats.

Little Things

Some days little things go right. I tried to return two bottles of pickles. I had the receipt. Walking up to the door of WalMart, I dropped the bag. One of the jars broke. I retrieved the unbroken one and the pickle-juice spotted receipt in one hand and dropped the dripping bag in the trash. I went to customer service, put the damp receipt and a jar of pickles on the counter. I said that she probably wouldn't reimburse me for the broken jar currently residing in their trash. She asked if broken glass was left on the ground. I said it had remained in the bag. She reimbursed me for both jars of pickles! Way better than I expected.

The other little thing was the garbage truck. The driver saw me headed for the trash container with more trash. He waited for me to put it in before he dumped the container.

Nice people today. Both of those people would have been totally justified with leaving me with my mess.

Baskets

I took a lot of cuttings from my hanging baskets today. The baskets went into the greenhouse once the trimming was done. I put the cuttings in little soil plugs for next year's flower boxes. The baskets will hold over and go out in the spring. I did it that way last year and they filled out nicely.

I still have plenty of cuttings to take from the flower boxes.

Birthday

I always think of when my children were born on their birthdays. Lately I've been thinking that there's nobody alive who remembers me from then. I don't even have pictures from that early. 

The birth of a child changes your life forever. I wanted that, so much. We both did.

Thank you, God.

October Flowerboxes

 The flower boxes on the south side have the gardenia cuttings I took last year. About four of the cuttings have already been given away. I don't want the impatiens saved, so I spent time cutting them off and taking them to the compost places.

Now I have this one trimmed down enough so that I can see the cuttings. It took a while to get them out of the mass of roots so I could plant the cuttings individually in large pots for next year.

I got four out of this one. There are two more flower boxes with some successful cuttings.

I have eight azalea cuttings from this year to replant, too.

The coleus and angelwing begonias will go into the greenhouse as cuttings so I'm just sticking them in the greenhouse plugs.

Houseplant Pineapple

This pineapple is from a top Larry planted. He could plant this top and get  a pineapple at some future date. He has stopped doing that, though, and I'm glad. The plants take up a lot of room in the greenhouse.

Hair

Today I got the last of my perm cut off. My stylist showed me how to use the odd heat wand I'd gotten at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. She said she thought it was going to be difficult to use on the left side because the barrel turns by itself...up. I guess I'll figure it out. Or maybe I'll wear my hair turned under on the right and flipped up on the left. It won't make much difference because my hair won't hold a curl anyway. I'd just like it to blend together instead of sticking out like straw on the ends. It has been so long since I haven't had a perm, I really don't remember much about fixing it.

Hair Appointment

I called today to make an appointment for a trim. I asked if I could bring a thing with me that is supposed to curl my hair so she can show me how to use it. She agreed to try. When I know how to use it, that is no guarantee that I actually will. She thinks it is funny that I'm only willing to spend a couple of minutes on my hair. If this thing takes very long, I've wasted that money. But I've had it a couple of months now and am evidently not willing to experiment with something hot near my face.

Apples and Soup

I had all this stuff I'd picked. Then I picked a basket of tomatoes this morning.

So I made a vegetable beef soup with lots of tomatoes and peppers, the left over white beans in the refrigerator, an onion, some ground chuck, and some elbow macaroni noodles.

Then I peeled and sliced most of the apples and sauteed them in butter with artificial sweetener and cinnamon.

It all turned out pretty good. 

Does it Matter?

I wish it didn't make me crazy when somebody tries to tell me what to do. I try to consider whether it makes any difference and let a lot of it go. I've gotten to the point where I don't go ballistic over it. But really, why should anybody micromanage me? I'm not sure staring at somebody coldly and then doing what I wanted to anyway is better than a fit...on the other person. But it's better for me.

I'm not talking life changing matters. Do you peel the carrots before cutting off the tops and bottoms? I don't. I cut the tops and bottoms and peel what is left. Do I think it makes any difference? No. Do I think I should be treated like an idiot? No.

Why are you going that way?

I want to.

 It takes longer.

 You drive the scenic route all the time.

 Blah, blah.

Tried a Music Tape

Last night I thought I would try listening to an Enya tape, but use the tips from the self-hypnosis tape. It was working well until the second one was a Christmas song and the drums started up! Evidently I like the drums better when I'm planning to stay awake.

The Long Way

We went to the doctor today, about a forty-minute drive. On the way back, we found they had dug all the way across the road. We had to drive back the way we'd come, and return home by a different route. It was an extra two hours. We couldn't see why we were stopped. After a while the people in front of us started turning around and then we could see we weren't going to get through any time soon. Sitting in the sun waiting...nobody telling us anything...fun.