First Post of 2011

Word Art by Tiffany Richards


Good 2011, everyone!

The morning news is bleak, as usual, but I make a point of reading some news with coffee every morning. I was a little lax on that during the holidays. Part of it is busy, but part of it is just that news doesn’t tend to complement that Holiday Spirit well! I read this morning about a 10-year-old boy in one of our rural counties here in Ohio who shot his Mom, on purpose, knowing what he was doing! There’s not a lot of detail right now, of course, because it’s a kid, a ten-year-old kid! A headline said the gun was a Christmas present. At 10, that could still be the belief that Santa sent him a sign! Now, this is a kid whose had some trouble in school and on the bus, a few incidents according to the article. My mind is asking, “bullying, maybe?”

Another story, the big story on the Google wire at 7 this morning, was about the President hoping he can get the new Congress to help him continue to revive the economy. It’s been slow, and although I don’t agree with his Healthcare solution but commend him for actually doing something, I have to admit that things are better now than they were in 2008. Remember, a community college campus, where the face of the average student has changed to 40-somethings looking for new skills because they are out of work and have been for a while, is a great place 5o hear the bleakest of the stories. There is hope now that there wasn’t before. Sure, it’s hope with a little bit of cynical, “show me,” but it is hope that wasn’t there in the beginning of 2009 when I was one of the new 40-somethings on campus.

Of course, in-coming Republicans want to try to reverse everything. I read yesterday that many are saying they want to “return the country to 2008.” Too bad they weren’t saying exactly that during the election. We’d still have our Democrat governor. With the House Republican and the Senate Democrat, we do have one good thing for us, if they can’t compromise FOR us, they won’t be able to pass anything to do TO us! I just hope they’ll be able to maintain the upward movement, no matter how slowly upward, of the last two years rather than stop it or move it to the downward direction it was in 2008. If spurring the economy means that stocks slow a bit, I don’t mind. If my investments yield a little less when I’m 65, I’ll gladly give that for a job to retire from!


So far, one actual day in to 2011 as far as the plans for the year go, I’m doing well. David and I were in Dayton for Bortrail the first couple days of the year after a quiet and cozy New Years Eve. I didn’t do a show of my train pictures this year. I’m hoping having that woman cave will make it easier to organize for 2011. There were a number of nice shots of John Deere tractors. That made me giggle a little, because I got a great shot of a John Deer Tractor this year too!


The tractor was for sale, all polished up and sitting near the road where we were waiting for a train in Iowa. I just had t snap a picture of it for my Agrirama collection! The farmer selling it stopped by, asked if we were interested in the tractor. We told him we were waiting for a train to photograph and he chatted with us a bit, then wished us luck with the train and asked us if we heard of anyone looking for a tractor, to send them his way. It s a nice-looking tractor!

At breakfast on Sunday, I was talking to a friend about the impending MRI and she started a sentence, “When I had my back surgery…” I had no idea she’d ever had back surgery. You’d never guess that by her mobility and lack of complaining! I had heard about some really miserable stories from people who had such a hard time recovering and was folioing very scared and alone with the impending possibilities of surgical intervention. Stella drew a simple diagram on a napkin to show me what they did on her and talked praisingly about what it did for her. We chatted in depth about what I ought to make sure I ask the doctor and what things I need to be sure I take with m4e after the tests. It made me feel quite relieved of all of my fear. Then yesterday, the physical therapist I worked with, not the one I work with all the time, talked with me while I was doing my hip and back weight strengthening. She’s had a surgical procedure done on her back after a sudden and rare spinal cord infection. She talked to me about the treatment and the gradual gradation form a wheelchair after surgery to a walker, a cane and now she moves quite freely. She said water therapy was a great help. Why is it that the most vocal people about surgeries are the ones with complications? I SO needed to hear the glowing reviews from an “up” point of view! If it’s determined that I need back surgery, I AM going to do well, get all of the information I need, recover well, following the doctor’s instructions to a “T.” disciplined therapy and I’m going to be very vocal about how happy I am to offer some potential relief from the fear and apprehension someone else may be having.

David sent me an article yesterday about the increased number of hip and knee replacement surgeries in younger people. The article sites that people are doing a lot more moving and asking their joints to do more now. More people rum marathons, or 5-mile bike rides. Hey, even I used to walk for a mile in the park every day to get some exercise and relax. I also think with more job that DON’T ask us t move and a greater obesity problem, we are asking our joints to do more. Great paradox that in order to give us some relief from the weight, we exercise more and stress our joints in other ways.


I wish Starbucks would contract with Keurig to produce K-Cups! They do have Verna in Tassimo cups, but for a Keurig maker, I have to do the coffee filter attachment and make my own. I got my bag of Christmas Verona from David this year and really had myself going, “ZZZT!” on Christmas Day after making a whole pot and drinking too much of it! This morning I used a scoop and a half in my K-filter and I made a nice cup of Verona. It’s still messy and I’d love a ready-made K-Cup in Verona. David would kill me if I got a Tassimo maker TOO just to have the Starbucks coffees and where would we put it in our little 50s kitchen anyway?

I’m about half-way through our end of summer vacation in scrapping. I’ll do a scrapping blog a little later and show some of my pages. For now, the coffee cup is empty and I haven’t’ even had breakfast yet! Gotta get going on the day!