Apr 29, 2014

low motivation again

First of all, if anyone is wondering how my area fared with the round of storms hitting the Southwest, there was a tornado near Birmingham (Bessemer) and some fatalilties reported though nothing like what OK and AK have been going through.  While it is cleared out now and the sun is peeking through the clouds, another round is due in by mid afternoon till after midnight.  As before flash flooding, hail, straight line winds, thunderstorms are a possibility.  The alarm sounded once, for a tornado watch.  One lightning strike sounded entirely too close and scared the bejeebers out of me to say nothing of the two critters. I don't know that it was terribly windy out and I have emptied out 1.5 inches of rain from the gauge for the 48 hour hour period.  We'll see what happens.  I'm prepared to head to my safe place, with hard hat, radio, batteries, chargers etc.


Yesterday would have been DJ's birthday. Bear with me or skip over this part.   It was not a good day emotionally for that reason.  I could only think of how we might have celebrated the day.  Sunday I would have been baking a cake of his choice and preparing his favorite meal.  He loved my turkey breast dinner so that might have been it.  Or he might have asked me to fix pizza.  "Poor guy" suffered through a lot of pizza crust recipes till I finally settled on one that I like.  We should have been off to Golden Corral, not me sitting alone at the table with Oscar hopping at my lap wanting a bite of my hamburger.  I miss him so much.  I try to tell myself that I should be grateful for the years I did have DJ in my life---and I am---but I am greedy enough to have wanted that to last a bit longer.  I did appreciate the call from his son and daughter-in-law as well as my mom.  One of my sisters sent a thinking of you card to bolster me up too.  I know grief has no timetable but I also know he lives in my heart as he did for the 35  years we did have.  Some days are just harder to get through.  Easter and his birthday were two of them, I guess.  This was taken this past winter.  My two boy all snuggled up.



I was off to the guild sew-in at Friendship Quilters with Jane on Friday and Saturday.  Terri was able to go with us on Saturday.  Mom asked me what I ended up doing----and I thought she meant as a sewing project when in actuality, she wondered what I ended up making as my food contribution, LOL.  I'll answer both queries, the one she wanted to know and the one I volunteered.

I made both the Oatmeal Butterscotch Bars and the Cinnamon Roll Bread.  The leftover bars I handed to Robert when I went down to get my hair cut.  I had made him some oatmeal scotchies when he had put the flooring down so I knew he would enjoy them from the comments about the cookies at the time.  The cinnamon bread (I made two loaves, one to share and one for coffee break time) is good.  Just don't expect it to be the texture of a real roll as it is more dense like a pound cake.  The only other tip is grease the tar out of the pan. I think I swirled one loaf too much and the cinnamon/sugar mix sunk to the bottom and was like welded to the pan.  The other pan stuck in just one corner.   I sliced it and quick flash froze it so it reheated nicely in the microwave for a little nosh with a cup of iced coffee a little bit ago.

2nd, I did what I consider "boring" sewing.  Friday really it was more like un-sewing.  I am re-doing the dust ruffle on the bed in the master bedroom.  Since I gave away the bed frame and substituted it with a basic metal frame minus head and foot board, the previous one I made umpteen years ago will not work as it is 4 inches too short.  I needed to selvage the base unit and also use the skirting as my prototype.  It has inverted pleats at intervals and I need a total of 356 inches cut 16 inches the width of the fabric.  It is that pretty blue scroll fabric you see on the unpacked bag to the left with the spools of thread on it.  I only got as far as cutting out the sections I need.

Saturday, I did said cutting and seamed a quilt back for the Brioche and Baguette top.  I also cut a bit more binding and seamed all that.  When I got home, I essentially unpacked the car and that is as far as it got.   Sunday I had laundry to do, cooking to do, groceries to get, etc  or in other words, the things that did not get done when I was sewing away from home and running between St. Clair and Calhoun County.

On the critter front, I got a baby gate the other day so Oscar can at least have more room to roam in the kitchen rather than go straight into his crate but with a degree of separation between him and Skyler.  10 bucks at Walmart and worth it.  Skyler climbs up on the back of the couch and gets on the pass through looking down on the proceedings.  He can get to the other side if he needs to.  This morning that sort of backfired.  Oscar was in the back yard hopefully taking care of his potties and Mamacita came up when she saw me ready to be fed.  Skyler was back in the bedrooms or so I thought.  I was letting Oscar back IN when I saw the panicked cat.  Oscar apparently did not spot Skyler even though they came within a foot of each other but Skyler quickly hunkered down under the kitchen table/chair.  The next thing I know Skyler is leaping over the baby gate like he was at horse doing one of those Olympic events.  What do they call that anyway---steeplechase, dressage???  I need not have worried about picking him up bodily and putting him on the other side as he can do it quite handily.  Oscar, on the other hand, can get his paws at the top of the gate, hop a bit but I don't think he can leap over with those short little legs.  He has a good vertical jump on those muscular legs but horizontal, not so much.  Oscar seems to get tired of doing laps in the kitchen and then crawls in through the open door of the crate to nap or gnaws on his rawhide bone that is in there.

I cannot help but wonder what DJ would think of all this.  He always knew I wanted another cat but a dog??   Okay, the other cat is outside and shared with the neighborhood.   Oscar has been good for me though.  We walk which I needed to get back to so even if we are not gone for 30 minutes roaming the neighborhood I am getting out there. 3 or 4 times a days worth so it has to count.   Up and down the incline is getting easier and I have lost a bit of weight because of this.  I do need something or someone to care for and boy, I've got that in spades.   Susan said she had to wonder if they were sent to me from above.   Could be.

Well, since my neighbor Michael mowed and weed whacked on Saturday and with two days of rain and more on the way, I really need to go sweep up the kitchen floor before thinking about lunch. I don't care how much I wipe me feet between me and Oscar, we are dragging stuff in like crazy.  I vacuumed yesterday which was not a fun job with the awful humidity that was yesterday.  Mopping is futile till after the rains are done and little doggie footprints can be dealt with.  In spite of my low motivation the past two days, I hope to get back to the dust ruffle and get that cleared out.  I have plans to replace the valence I had made that matched the dust ruffle but there is the picnic challenge and a baby shower gift to do first.   Set goals, meet goals, right?




4 comments:

  1. So good to hear your safe and hope tonight will be no different. I keep watching tv and seeing all the destruction and can't believe how much damage has been done. I can imagine how difficult DJ's birthday was for you, no matter how much time we have together when they are gone it never feels like enough. I agree with Susan someone upstairs brought Oscar into your life for a reason, he may not be able to answer you but he sure can listen. Your Oatmeal butterscotch bars and cinnamon bread sound so good my mouth is watering as I type.
    Take care.

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  2. I am glad to hear that you are safe, too. Keep safe through the rest of the storms. (I have been in shock every time I see those horrible forecast maps.)
    Sorry that you have had a rough patch. You are handling it well because you are able to talk about it. As odd as it sounds, it helps me appreciate the people in my life more.

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  3. Glad the storms passed you by, here too, lots of local prep - shelters set up, warning system, but we were all lucky this time. Funny how things will be going along fine and then all of a sudden you are overwhelmed with memories and emotion, brought on by a song or a smell or a date on the calendar, birthdays are tough. Sounds like lil' Oscar is doing his part :) . And you are doing so well - walking, sewing, baking, getting out and about - keep it up, hang in there, know you have all of us cyberfriends to talk to !

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  4. Grieg is hard...you are doing just what you should be doing and my heart and prayers remain with you.

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