Country Bumpkin
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Posts by Country Bumpkin
The “Pact”…………
0May 17, 2013
by Country Bumpkin
in Uncategorized
First off, let me say that I haven’t made a “pact” since I was a kid. Second this pact was made to help motivate me and my little sis to blog. Third……. ah forget it, I am not sure if there was a third thing to tell. I do know that there is a shared reward if we meet our goal; trouble is I forgot what it is!!!
So, what have I been up to since last I stopped by for a visit with you? Well…… more family drama than I care to share or deal with; more of Mimi’s family drama ditto to mine; a little, call it minuscule amount of wedding planning for the little one and that should about sum it up. Oh yes, and thoughts – big thoughts about having a yard sale. My garage is stuffed to the gills, my basement can’t hold any more, my shed door is starting to fall off from the strain of holding it all in; time to clear it out!! Trouble is, it is a bit overwhelming to do ourselves and it just isn’t the type of task that you can have a friend, even a good friend, come and help you do.
Other than all of that, life just seems to go on and on.
I am almost done cleaning up the greenware, have one more piece to finish this coming Saturday and then it is time to pick out the stains. Note I said stains, not paint; because to achieve the look that I have described to my teacher one has to use stains. Using stains will save me money in the long run as I won’t have to have the pieces fired again; at least that was what my teacher said. And who am I to argue with a 70 something woman, who comes up to my arm pit and tells such wicked, wicked jokes that we are laughing till we cry??
and so ends my first post of the 60 day pact – geez, I hope that I make it 60 days!! Hope you aren’t sick of me by then.
First day of spring
1March 19, 2013
by Country Bumpkin
in Uncategorized
and what did I do? Well, the wife of my father’s best friend died last week and her funeral was today. So we got up at the crack of dawn and made the 2+ hr journey to be there for her funeral. We were almost to I96, which would get us there in under 2 hrs so we would have time to pay our respects to the family, when we saw the electronic sign announcing that the road ahead was closed due to an accident. So I got off on the next exit and went south to pick up I94, which would take us a slightly different way and be slightly over 2 hrs.
The weather was cold, it was starting to do that snow flurry stuff and if I couldn’t “hot foot” it down the road we would be late. And of course we hit 3 almost total white-outs on the way, as well as those folks who won’t drive the speed limit and won’t keep out of the passing lane either; needless to say, we were walking into the funeral home just as the organ started playing the music for the start of the service.
Afterwards we briefly met with the family and then headed out to the cemetery. It was cold and it was snowing but I didn’t mind it one bit. Snug in my long johns, thinsulate hiking boots, extra heavy coat, ear muffs and my hands jammed in my pockets on top of my gloves and mittens; I was as warm as hot toast. Of course the hiking boots did look a little crazy with my dress pants, but hey, at least I was warm!! The pastor said a few more words, we prayed the Lord’s prayer, he said the 21st Psalm and then that was that. I took the rose that was offered and went back to the vehicle where sweet hubby sat because he doesn’t walk so well on uneven ground covered in snow. I just couldn’t stay and watch them lower the casket; I can’t handle that just yet.
Back at their church we were fed lunch; now usually I don’t complain to often about food given freely at church meals, but this had to be the most bizarre luncheon I have ever attended. We had Swedish meatballs in a white gravy on noodles, cool baked beans, some pasta dish (I skipped that one), tossed salad – no dressings, assorted jello salads, cheese slices, rolled ham or beef slices, rolls and dessert. Our own church does a meal after a funeral, it is basic – meatloaf, green beans, mashed potatoes, tossed salad and dessert. The dishes today mostly didn’t go together – it was almost like a pot luck kind of thing, except their ladies’ group organized it.
After we ate, we did a little visiting with the people that we knew and then started the long drive home. We had to get gas because “hot footing” it there meant the vehicle ate more fuel than it should’ve. Then we started back the way that we came because we were going to stop in at the little one’s fiance’s apartment and drop something off for them. Had to leave the freeway twice on the way home and run parallel to it. Once was for a one vehicle and a jack-knifed semi-truck accident, the other was for an accident where one vehicle had hit the base of the overpass/bridge. I swear whenever the weather is the least little bit off, people drive like idiots!! I saw more people swerving, slamming on their brakes when no one was in front of them – then I would get up next to them and they would be talking on their cell phone or texting, one guy was just stuffing his face with food.
Now we are home and should be up in bed; but sweet hubby is sleeping beside me on the couch and I had to let you know all about my day.
Being at a cemetery on the first day of spring and standing there in a snow storm, well, that is actually pretty sad.
Hope you had a better first day of spring in your neck of the woods!!
Learning something
1March 3, 2013
by Country Bumpkin
in Uncategorized
new!! I have started taking ceramic classes – not that I really need a class in how to clean up a piece of greenware, but more so I can sit with other people while I am doing it and learn about the painting process.
I have a large sized nativity scene that my mother bought me years and years ago. It has made a few moves between houses and it has sat at our current house for almost 17 years. The box that held the majority of the pieces looked like it had been kicked in toward the bottom and of course one of the big camels was completely destroyed. A donkey and a lamb were missing an ear each, another large camel had developed a crack in the base besides losing his head and one of the three wise men had lost his head. (Not totally though, I found it in the box!)
So our teacher is going to make me the camels, fortunately she had the mold set as it is very old. She repaired the donkey and the lamb as I had found the ears in the box and she will be putting on the wiseman’s head with her repair stuff.
She really had to employ her repair stuff today!! I had cleaned the angel up and made sure that the words on her banner were carved in deep enough – though not too deep – and I had worked on the feathers in her wings to make them stand out. I had her laying on the table when I decided to work on the camel.
I picked up the camel’s body and cleaned that up, though in trying to remove a rather large bump of excess greenware I managed to put a small hole in him. I set that down and worked on his head. Then I tried to see if the head really fit well on the body so that she could repair it. Yup, just call me klutz. I managed to drop the head on top of the angel and broke it into three pieces. No one at the table could believe it, except me because I am used to dropping stuff.
So, the teacher took it and used her repair stuff. She told me that next week I will just have to smooth the repair stuff down and make sure it is as cleaned up and has as much detail added to it as I would like and then it will be safe to fire it in the kiln.
I have 4 more weeks of classes left – not sure if I will get the whole thing done by then, so will probably have to sign up for some more to get it finished.
The next thing to do after it has all been fired is to decide on the paint colors and get to work on that part.
Another weekend
3February 2, 2013
by Country Bumpkin
in Uncategorized
and I can’t even enjoy it properly. There is an awful lot to do when a parent dies and your siblings live out of state. It blows my mind with some of the things that they come up with; false accusations, angry statements over things that shouldn’t even matter. Of course in talking it over with others that are “older and wiser” it seems that they are reacting out of guilt. Their guilt comes from not being here before their father died.
I remember all the times I called the one who hasn’t been up here to visit since about 2006. Our father would get ill and have to go to the hospital and I would call and report that. He would get better and I would call to report that. I then would urge them to come visit; I would be told “I can’t, I can’t away from work” etc, etc. And then a month later I would see pictures on Facebook of them enjoying a four day weekend at a beach. Guess they found time to get away from work for that, eh?
So, if they are feeling guilty for the things that they couldn’t seem to do all I ask is please don’t come at me in anger for things that I know nothing about, things I can’t change or things that you think you’re entitled to just because you happened to be born before I was. Yes, folks I have dealt with all of that in the two weeks since the funeral.
My Saturday will be spent getting packages ready to mail, buying extra postage for the acknowledgement cards one sends after the funeral, filling out and addressing said cards and getting them stamped. Add to that the chores of doing laundry, picking up the house, and a few other tasks; my Saturday is shot. Sunday we have somewhere to be and will be gone most of the day. One of these months, or years I will get a full weekend.
If I could
2January 19, 2013
by Country Bumpkin
in Uncategorized
turn back time. Yes, we all remember those song lyrics – ok, maybe those of you who are musically challenged don’t – at least most of us remember the chorus – If I could turn back time………….
Just read my last entry and thought, I wish I could turn back time. When I wrote that 18 days ago my father was only in the hospital and no one had told us yet that he was close to dying; in fact we didn’t even hear that until slightly more than 3 and 1/2 hours before he passed away. There was just no time to prepare; we tried to digest it while we ate lunch; we tried to deal with it while telling his sister-in-law, while discussing with her how to tell my sisters that they had given him 3 to 10 days; and we even were still dealing with it when we came back to his room to find that he had already passed away while we had sat in the family lounge waiting for his dialysis to be done.
Of course I went out to the funeral home’s website to see if anyone had left a comment on the guest book only to find that my ex-husband had left a really snarky one there about how he had wished that he and my girls had gotten to know my father better while he had been married to me. Really? Seems like he wasn’t all that concerned about much to do with my family anyway. Always had reasons why we couldn’t go to reunions or family get-togethers; to the point that we stopped getting invited to attend. I was looking for comfort or a memory that had been shared and I got snarky.
I remember growing up and my grandmother would always tell us she loved us – every time we walked in or out of her house; whether it was to go to the store or for the drive back to our house 3 hrs away. Her reasoning was that you just never know if that will be the last time that you get to tell someone that you love them. And I sit here and I try to remember if I had said I love you when I was leaving after our annual Christmas dinner or did I just say thanks for dinner Dad and good-bye?
For those of you that know me, you know that my relationship with him was not always the best. As my parents’ marriage deteriorated so did their relationships with their kids. Some of us just moved away from the pain and bitterness that was constantly spewing and others, it seemed, just didn’t let it faze them. Only if you really knew each other did you know how the other was affected. For me it was easier to just listen to my mother complain and say some of the worst things a parent could say to their child about their other parent; it wasn’t till years later that I started trying to seek out the truth – not that I ever found all of it; just found enough to perhaps balance out some of the things that got said. And enough to realize that totally walking away was probably not the wisest thing I have ever done.
So, I can sit here and be all full of regrets, not that that will change anything; or I can take this as one of those life lessons that smack you in the face and learn from it. I learned before that one should take time to find out both sides of a conflict before making a decision and that one should never rush into the decision. I also thought I learned that one should always say I love you before leaving those you love; just in case and so you don’t have regrets. Maybe I didn’t learn that one as well as I should’ve; if I could turn back time maybe I would find out that I did or maybe if I didn’t; at least I would be able to say it while he still could hear me.
Happy 2013!!
0January 1, 2013
by Country Bumpkin
in Uncategorized
WOW!! It sure seems like time is flying faster and faster as I get older. Hope you have celebrated all your holidays with your loved ones!
Christmas dinner with my father and his sister-in-law was pretty good, waiting for a table for an hour and a half while the hostess slipped in a few bigger parties in front of us wasn’t though. I was supposed to write to the corp website and voice the complaint; too much has happened since that evening for it to get done.
My father suffered a fall at his nursing home and is now laying in a hospital – not quite sure that he will pull out of it this time. It put a sober note to the holidays!
Christmas day brunch – became either “lupper” or “lunner” depending on what you call your evening meal. It went well considering we haven’t entertained anyone in a couple of years. My niece said I worried about the whole thing too much. They gave us a couple of jars of bread n butter pickles that they had put up this past summer following my grandmother’s recipe. I would swear that my grandma had made them herself; what a wonderful memory brought back to life!
And now it is the New Year and we are up in “Hooterville” as Cin (my official little sister) would call where Momma lives. I can’t think of a better place to spend the holiday. Good people, good food and good times!! Hope you spent your New Year’s Eve with people that you love (or at least enjoy) and that this New Year will be so much better than the last for all of us!!
Now, I am going to settle back onto the couch with my cup of coffee and a piece of coffee cake and enjoy the music of Air Supply that Momma has put on for our enjoyment this morning.
The holidays
0December 20, 2012
by Country Bumpkin
in Uncategorized
are fast approaching and I am far from ready. The tree is up and it’s bare limbs mock me every day. Sweet hubby has done some baking but it too is far from finished. I have most of the shopping done; have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to go back to Meijers to get the ham, GFS to pick up more eggs and a veggie tray; K-mart to pick up something for Mimi; Ollie’s to pick up something for the fiance of the youngest and then home to clean, decorate, pack cookies to ship to the assorted in-laws, finish doing cards, go to the post office and in between times eat and if I am really, really lucky maybe a quick nap.
The oldest one is arriving early for the holidays and will be showing up sometime tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully all the presents that I ordered online will start arriving by Friday – that would be a good thing!! Have already received some of them, just waiting for the rest.
Tomorrow night we will take pizza to Mimi. It will give her a chance to visit with the oldest one and also the littlest one when she shows up after work. Then Sunday there are tentative plans to visit with Pops and have dinner with him and his sister-in-law. Christmas day will find us hosting my niece and her hubby; now this is making me nervous as she has never been here, we have always met at restaurants.
I guess I better call this a night since it just slipped into Thursday already.
G’night!!
Straight No Chaser
0December 12, 2012
by Country Bumpkin
in Uncategorized
that is group that I will be seeing tonight at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. My nephew had posted about them on Facebook and so being the curious sort that I am, I headed over to YouTube and searched. I found a video of them performing at YouTube headquarters and watched all 42 minutes of it. My favorite song was The Christmas Can-Can which can be found at 17:30 mark in this video: Straight No Chaser in concert at YouTube it is really funny. (fast forward past the interview for more singing)
This was a present from my girls - chauffeured by the youngest one, out for dinner at a restaurant (not sure of the name) that I think is Italian, and then the concert. Of course, the oldest one won’t be here as she is hard at work in NYC and won’t be home for the holidays till the 21st.
Today started with picking a couple of our friends up at the airport. They were coming in from Hawaii where they had gone for their 25th anniversary. Lots of little interesting stories on the ride home and I am sure the next time we get together we will hear some more.
So, my day will be long – I think that I will be taking a nap this afternoon – but it will end with this concert and that will be really fun!! I can hardly wait!
Two more sleeps and
0December 5, 2012
by Country Bumpkin
in Uncategorized
a wake up then it will be the day to see the surgeon to get cleared to drive and resume living. So looking forward to that visit, I don’t even care if it involves more bright lights in my eye!!
Not much is going on at the moment. Seem to be napping and sleeping in more than getting things accomplished. Today sweet hubby made me bacon and eggs for brunch while I took a shower and chatted to Momma on the phone. He also made me pumpernickel toast which I slathered with harlequin pear jam that found it’s way here from Momma and Jay’s!! Brunch was a hit!
Some people are having difficulties and are in my thoughts. My sister-in-law who is a quad is hospitalized with pancreatitis and a bad gallbladder. They nixed gallbladder surgery as it is very difficult to do with the way her colostomy is positioned. So they are giving her massive doses of antibiotics to try to get it to heal. One of my other friends had a family at their church who lost everything in a house fire. They are collecting things to help them out as they got put into a condo for the moment. They mentioned that the husband had his computer burn up. I am wondering if we have any that would be alright to donate – or if, like many things around here, the computer would be too out of date/old to be of use to anyone.
Today I haven’t done much. Went to the mall to pick up the Christmas ornaments that we had put on layaway – best thing ever invented. Came home, made some phone calls then left to go eat dinner at church to help the youth group raise money for their annual trip, then to church because it is Advent so they have a special service on Wednesday. They had the first and second graders sing a song during the service, it was cute; don’t ask me what they sang as I was not quite focused on the music.
Now sweet hubby is already up the stairs and I should be heading up that way too.
Hope you had a slightly more productive day in your neck of the woods!!
Trying to get back on track
0December 2, 2012
by Country Bumpkin
in Uncategorized
Well, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote. Oh, I had plans of getting the Christmas tree put up Thanksgiving weekend, then that got switched to Monday; which was doctor day for hubby so we switched it till Tuesday and added doing laundry to the list as well. Now, I am not sure what happened to Tuesday; I just know that the tree didn’t get put up and laundry didn’t get done.
Wednesday we had to head into Detroit to get hubby his monthly shot and he wanted to get some Mexican at one of his favorite spots – only it is over in Westland so we called our friends in Garden City to meet us there. After dinner they invited us back to their house so off we went to there, as we really haven’t visited for quite a few months. By the time we got home it was going on Thursday and I had a bunch of calling to do to find venue’s for the youngest one’s upcoming wedding.
Thursday night sitting in bed watching the latest Sons of Anarchy episode I began to see black dots and swirls in front of my eye and I was getting a bit of a headache so went to sleep hoping it would pass. Friday morning the few dots became more like a bunch of pepper had been spilled in my eye so it was off to our eye doctor for an exam. I was examined first by one of her residents, a very tall, very nice man (she trains a lot of eye doctors) and then she came in for a look – so it was double the real bright lights in an eye already hurting. She said that she couldn’t really see any sign of retinal tearing only that I had a few “bleeders” that were causing the dots. I was sent home with instructions to make an appointment with their retinal specialist for the coming week and the direction to call the office immediately if my vision became worse and to follow the instructions on their answering machine for assistance.
Out we went to dinner to celebrate the youngest one getting engaged. We drove her and met our future son-in-law at the restaurant that they picked out, getting there just ahead of the Friday night dinner crowd. I was enjoying a wonderful dinner and having laughs with them when suddenly it was like having a brown opaque contact over my eye.
We finished dinner and headed for home. Called the doctor’s answering machine and followed the instructions for contacting the “resident on call” which put me in touch with a different resident than the one I had met earlier. She was very pleasant and very concerned. She had to examine my eye, so more drops and more bright lights. After the exam she made a few phone calls and made arrangements for me to go to an eye clinic in Royal Oak the next morning. We went home to wait for the morning.
Shortly after we got home the resident called again to tell me that there had been a change of plans and instead of the clinic I had to go to a retinal specialist at a hospital instead. Oh boy.
Woke up Saturday early Saturday morning for the journey into see the specialist. More drops, more bright lights and an ultrasound of my eye and guess what?? It was a “small retinal tear” that would require surgery; oh, by the way have you eaten today?? Ate breakfast so that pushed the surgery till 7pm as I also had a few people ahead of me.
Got through the surgery just fine. Was in recovery and wanted to go home; so as I was dressing to go home I suddenly became very nauseous. This was due to the anesthesia that they used on me. It took 2 hours for the pharmacy to send up a drug to handle that so I could ride home without puking my guts out. Unfortunately it took so long to get to me that I had a few big urps, which when I told that to the doc during my post-op exam on Sunday he was a bit concerned as that type of movement could hurt the eye.
So here it is Sunday night, hubby has been doing laundry because I can’t lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk and can’t do any chores till my appt on Friday and I get “cleared”. Nope, the tree isn’t up and it doesn’t look like that is happening any time soon. The plans for popping over to Momma and Jay’s to help put up the outside lights on Saturday had to be ditched because of having surgery instead – can’t drive up and surprise anyone when you can’t see!!
Hopefully the eye will heal soon and I can get back on track with decorating the house.
I know that Monday I will be driving riding with the youngest as we look at venues for the wedding. I had already set up the appointments and as long as I am only riding in the vehicle it is a do-able thing. When I get home from that, I will probably need a nap before dinner.
So, that’s what is new in this neck of the woods – what’s new in your’s??