Can we go now? Please?

Change in plans

My mom and I made plans this weekend to go up to the cabin because she had not been yet this year.  We would do some reading, some cleaning and I would do some sewing and we would just spend some time together.

Saturday morning she woke up saying she had numbness in her left arm.  Eventually she became numb in her face and her left leg.  Uh oh. She thought she was having a stroke so I took her to the emergency room.  Where we sat.  And sat.  And sat.  At least, we were admitted right away to a treatment room and everybody was incredibly nice.  Because of her age (85), they were especially cautious with her.  They took x-rays, blood work, CT scan, blood pressure and tested the oxygenation level in her blood.  Plus, visits from two doctors.  We arrived there about 10:00 and she was admitted at 4:00 for further testing including an MRI and ultrasound of her carotids.  It was a very long day.  Needless to say, none of this was what we expected this weekend.

This morning, she was discharged and she did not have a stroke but a TIA -transient ischemic attack (thank God).  She is in very good health but I think this was a warning to her to realize she is not invincible.  She uses too much salt with her food and that is the only change she will need to make to her lifestyle.

The folks at Yavapai Regional Medical Center were so very, very nice and the place seemed to be run very efficiently. 

All in all, it was a good experience (as much as you can have a good experience in a hospital)

I HAVE A COMMISSION!

Hooray! My friend Marge has commissioned me to make two bags for her. She was the one I made this bag for. She wants one made for a friend of hers who buys many of the Raggedy Anns she makes and who was highly complimentary when she saw Marge's bag. Then, Marge wants another for herself in darker colors. I'm kind of nervous but mostly excited.

Serendipity?

I don't know if that is the right word to use or not, but...while making the bed yesterday I was thinking "Hmmm, it sure has been a long time since I was called to jury duty; wouldn't a nice murder trial be fun". Sure enough, picking up the mail at the end of the day I HAD A JURY SUMMONS. Can you believe that? Unfortunately, it was for Phoenix Municipal Court and not Superior Court but the Phoenix Jury Room is really nice and they feed you donuts, show movies, have a really nice kitchen area and also have different rooms you can go to if you don't want to watch the movie. The seats are comfortable and the courts are beautiful.

This kind of thing has been happening more often it seems, where I'm thinking of something or someone and lo' and behold, there it/he/she is. Too bad I can't think how nice it would be to win the lottery and then have that happen. It just doesn't seem to work that way.

Serendipity?

Compliment

While walking the dogs the other day in Ponderosa Park, a van pulled up beside me. The woman driving told me that she had met me a couple of years ago (walking the dogs), and she was interested in their breed. At that time, I told her that they were english springer spaniels and I thought that the springer spaniel was one of the best breeds. She was familiar with cockers but not with springers. In this newest encounter, she said that because of me, she rescued a 5 year old springer from the pound and it is a great dog. I was just thrilled!!! Her comment made my day.

WalMart

First of all, I hate WalMart! I will avoid going there whenever possible and the last time I went in was probably a year ago when my iron quit and I had to have one that very day. But Saturday, I had to venture into one and it wasn't a totally unpleasant experience but there was some drama.

Our microwave at the cabin is ages old and takes 7 minutes to heat tea so I knew we needed a new one. I planned on going to WalMart because I figured it would have the most choices at the best prices. Plus, it was 4th of July weekend and it might have been having a big sale on them. In addition, in Prescott, Joann's is right next door to WalMart so I could kill two birds with one stone.

WalMart had about 8 micowaves to choose from with varying prices. I knew the dimensions of the old microwave but could not find the dimensions of any of the WalMart ones on the boxes. Because I didn't have the purse with my tape measure in it, I had to go find one in WalMart. Thankfully, this WalMart still had its fabric department since so many of them have phased them out. I find the fabric dept. and rip open a tape meaure knowing I will have to pay for it as well but that was no big deal. What's one more tape measure when I probably already have 10?

So I return to the microwave dept. and measure the ones I'm interested in. Of course, they were all much bigger than the old one. So this required a call to the cabin to ask Tom to measure the size of the little table that holds the microwave. With those dimensions in hand I return to trying to decide on a microwave. Once again, most of them are even bigger than the little table. Hemming and hawing between them I finally find a box containing a microwave that isn't on display. When I started twisting the box around to see if hopefully this one has the dimensions, the whole bottom of the box opens dropping the microwave on the ground and almost on my foot. Of course, I couldn't just leave it there without telling anyone so this sent me once again trekking through the store to find an employee. Luckily, I found one two aisles over who told me not to worry about the one on the floor. Fortunately, since it was now open, I was able to measure the dimensions and it turned out to be a little smaller than all the others so I bought it. I didn't even have to wait in line to pay for it.

I get it back to the cabin and was looking at the instructions which strongly recommended against using a three prong adapter on this particular microwave. Because the cabin is so old, this is the way we have to use a few electrical appliances. Now the whole electrical system will probably have to be upgraded just because of one microwave.

More playing with the new camera

Here is a macro of a flower that was taken with the white balance set for cloudy and the exposure composition set for one stop under.



Here is the same flower again set for cloudy but with the exposure set at 0. No editing done on the computer. Pretty big difference, huh?



Macro of a snail. I didn't see if any one was home.




Playing with sepia and black and white. No particular composition. Just point and shoot and see how the colors turned out.