The Chronicles of Nani - MS & Heat

It's been a crazy week this week and I barely got the vlog done, let alone any reading of other blogs, and I'm so sorry about that! I hope I'm going to get a chance to catch everything up this weekend after recording day tomorrow. Video doctor appointments take less time away from the computer than a trip to Cleveland, but are also a distraction from things going on on the computer!

A couple of hectic days for David working from home kind of adds to the distractions too.

Please enjoy this weeks vlog

A Short Post, But Oh, Thank You, Edna!!

First off, I haven't taken the opportunity to say thank you the wonderful Christmas gifts! Here is the view the table that sits right in front of me that I see all of the time when I'm sitting in my recliner:

It includes the beautiful dolly in the dress and hat I loved so much the first time I saw it on Miss Edna's Place. I'm also enjoying the last day today of January's Squirrley on my calendar. Thank you, Edna, the gifts were much appreciated. Including that pumpkin spice tea, OMG, WONDERFUL stuff!


But here I think is the extra big always living thank you on a night like this:

This is the look over the board I call my highchair table on my recliner. It's my very warm legs and toasty feet. Edna made this afghan for me a few years ago and every time we have a night like this I send hugs and kisses and a huge thank you out towards New England. Edna, you're the best and I feel proud and spoiled to call you my friend!

Five Years Ago…

On June 29, 2012

A derecho, Spanish for ”Straight," is a weather event. It’s a long-lived straight-line windstorm associated with a fast-moving group of thunderstorms. There was a nasty derecho in Indiana moving east in the afternoon getting to the Atlantic coast around midnight. The fast-moving storm hit Ohio not too long after its hurricane-like winds left destruction in Indiana. Because of the nature of how derechos develop, they are hard to forecast and often strike with little advance warning. The June 29 derecho in 2012 did a lot of damage and knocked out power in many parts of Ohio, including Putnam County.

David and I had been photographing the barns painted with Ohio logos for the state bicentennial in 2003 together since I moved to Ohio in 2007. We'd just seen and photographed Putnam County’s barn on May 20. When we drove through that area again on July 23, I recognized the spot inhabited by the remnants of a barn. There wasn't a trace of the large Bicentennial logo in the rubble.

May 20, 2012

July 23, 2012

On the local weather at noon it was reiterated that today is an alert day for weather. It's been very cool and today it jumped back into seasonably hot. It's the type of day when atmospherics are right to create some nasty storms. Or not; the wonderful reality of summer storms is that even when conditions are right it doesn't mean things are actually going to happen, but they might happen worse than expected. I think a derecho might be worse than the tornado in that it's harder to forecast and it's certainly seems to be something they can't forecast as soon. A derecho also spans a larger area for a much more sustained time. Of course tornadoes have the wind speed and the twist making it much harder for there to be aboveground structures that can withstand them.

I do enjoy watching a summer storm. I remember occasional afternoons when I worked at the cable company that I would sit on the ledge of the open receiving door with a cup of coffee with our engineer and interns to just watch the summer thunderstorms. Hey, we liked watching the storms and when the nasty ones came in we couldn't use any of the electric equipment. It was nice break.

So enjoy the warm sun, beaches, baseball, picnics and beautiful green blue of summer, but don't forget that mother nature’s glorious summer mood can turn on a dime and when it does stay safely out of her way.

Half Century of Nani

I am officially half-century old. Just to let you know I don't have a problem with being my age so I feel no need to refer to myself as "years young." Everybody has their own personal little idiosyncrasies. Some of mine include hating phrases like "it is what it is," or that someone is however many "years young." It just feels like the ultimate in denial. I have the half-century of history. I have so many personal even public victories to remember fondly and as many mistakes and failures I have learned from. I've celebrated triumphs and fought challenges and I'm proud of every bit of who I am. Heck, I now qualify as a classic, even an antique in some circles. That means I'm worth more old than I am young. Why would I want to deny that?

I was officially 50 on July 29. I met David at the Mud Hens game and it was raining when I went out to catch the bus. Folks, I didn't see any rain on my birthday at all until I was 24 years old. In 1990, my friend Jeff and I we're at midway airport in Chicago waiting for plane to take us home. I saw rain on my birthday for the first time that day. And that was enough rain to keep our plane from landing and leave us with a few extra hours at the airport while we waited for the rescheduled flight. The guy tending the beer cart came to know us pretty well that day. Jeff's parents had dropped us off and my parents were picking us up so we didn't have to worry at all about driving… Since that time I've seen rain on my birthday hit and miss, not enough the delay anything. I really figured on my half-century birthday it shouldn't rain, right?

I tell you, it wasn't a drenching rain when I caught the bus and it had stopped raining by the time I got to the ballpark, but it WAS an absolute downpour that delayed the game for two hours at the start of the sixth inning! But the Mud Hens won and MY Tiger, JD Martinez, was my Mud Hen for my birthday! He was in Toledo on a rehab assignment. His first swing of the bat when he returned to Detroit a few days later was a home run that was the game-winning run. We'll just call that my birthday blessing. LOL

I did have a couple days of computer silence waiting for my "birthday present" from Apple. My power cord for my computer died. I mean it really died; I plugged it in and there was nothing. The battery died and the computer went dark while I was on the phone with AppleCare. It was a good thing I bought AppleCare insurance. The retail value on replacing the power source is $87! It died on a Sunday night and by Tuesday I had the replacement. All it cost me was two days of computer silence. I have my iPad and the TV; so, living in a swing state, I wasn't even away from politics for two days. Although no politics for 2 days might have been a present too.

Well, the couple days of computer silence did put me starting August behind on my page-a-day scrapbooking so I'm going to spend the rest of this pretty sunny afternoon catching up! Funny, 50 really doesn't feel any different than 49 did. Well, except that I joined AARP and I’m waiting for my card while looking for an appropriate coffee mug.

Vacation Time Woes

David and I were supposed to leave on our June vacation Saturday morning but we are still in Toledo. There are lots of issues from a rainy forecast to a 911 call, or two.

The really rainy forecast means the natural light won’t be good for train photographs, there is a higher possibility minor league games would be rained out or delayed and my barometric body will ache more! That’s not such a matter because after a couple of failed attempts at getting in the shower last weekend. One of the EMTs was there for both the call where the transfer chair broke and I needed help transferring to my manual wheelchair Friday night and then on Sunday when I actually belly flopped in the hallway getting up that last step. He mentioned an Aunt with knee problems that mimic the hyperextension and foot drop I have and commented that our stairs and bathroom setup was dangerous. After Sunday he also suggested that we should give up the thought of me being upstairs at all. He’s right, but the shower is upstairs!

My dad started the plan to turn the extra room off our kitchen, that we use for mostly storage now, into an accessible bathroom with a roll-in shower in March. That’s still a couplafew months in the future and it’s not my intention to wait that long for a shower!! We went to a local hotel with a good roll-in for a night and I got a good shower, but I really had to admit that the hotel bed lacked the back support for a decent night’s sleep and I dreaded the thought of folding into the car all week.

So here’s the deal: The bad weather means David got to go play in a couple of poker tournaments at the local casino. That’s something he’s wanted to do and he figured out that it was about even cost to traveling for a day (except that traveling doesn’t have a chance of winning the money back!) I’m staying home this trip and I moved my appointment at The Ability Center up. I hope they can steer me in the right direction for a hospital or nursing facility that will do an assisted shower on an appointment basis until our renovated bathroom is done. I’m also seeing about a home health aide to help me with some things while David is at work, including using that shower when it’s done. David will be going on at least the last half of our vacation because the time and place choice was to attend our niece’s high school graduation. Emma’s been legally my niece for 6-12 years but David’s niece her entire life! Even if I can't go, he needs to. I feel bad that I won’t be able to go. I’ve been to Tori’s and Rina’s ceremony in 2012 and Ben’s in 2013 and I was really looking forward to being at Emma’s too.

Looking ahead, we’ve stepped up looking at used vans for a second car. Something I can drive the power chair into the passenger’s side and not have to climb in the car to travel would help beyond telling! If the upgrades my therapist wants on my chair happen, combining it with a van will make traveling comfortable again. Keeping my fingers crossed!


When I haven’t been waiting for paramedics and crying in frustration in the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on my scrapping and reading goals. I’m close to finished with “Chasing The Scream” which is nonfiction about the war on drugs history and future. It’s a great book that really makes you think. I’ll be doing my book review soon as I’m close to the end of a fairly long book and I’ll give some of my thoughts in that review. After such a serious read, look for my next book to be a fiction thriller again.

Last month was a banner month for my page-a-day scrap goal! I’m ahead again this month too. I’ve been a little creativity-taxed the past couple days, so I used templates for three layouts Saturday and one Sunday morning.


I’ve done some more Art Journaling, my scrap poetry and therapy.

Credits: I’m Your Biggest Fan by Seatrout Scraps, 

Hope Floats by Pixelily Designs, inspired by the song Hero by Loma Vista

Credits: Twilight by Red Dog Designs, Distressed by Created by Jill Designs, 

Alpha from Secret Agent by Just For Fun Designs

Remember the therapy pages are to get the negativity OUT of me and into pixels! It’s not like I’m going to cut off my ear or anything.

And with that comment my mother is looking down at me and I can hear the heavenly echoes telling me Andy Warhol’s work is "an inspired stock boy." :) We always had a fun running argument about the quality of Van Gogh vs Warhol.


Here’s a recent one that’s not so dark! It was for the template challenge at Gotta Pixel:

Credits: Kitty Love by Kristmess Designs, challenge template by Lindsay Jane

And here are this year’s crocuses that I scrapped Sunday morning:

Credits: Signs of Spring Monthly Mix by Gingerbread Ladies, 

“Selfie” hop template by Dear Friends Designs

I didn’t use a template for this one a while back, but I ended up creating a template based on it!

Credits: I’m Your Biggest Fan by Seatrout Scraps, 

Template by Digitalegacies Designs

Of course, if I made a template, there is a freebie!

Click image to go to download

Brrr...This is June?

Good morning friends! It’s 7AM and 46 degrees outside. If this were March I’d be ecstatic about the balmy temperature and sunny day. However, being June and all I’m ready to panic! I mean, we really didn’t have summer last year and after the deep freeze just a few months ago, I’d just hate to think I missed the warm weather already. I didn’t go outside every day just because the high temp was in the 80s because I figured it was only the beginning, ya know? This morning I have R2D2 running steady to heat up the room and it has nothing to do with a chill from the air conditioning. I even gave thought to passing on making a cup of morning coffee to get back into the room with my diligent space heater. But you know me well enough to know I stayed in the chill of the kitchen long enough to get a cup of my morning elixir!

Yesterday was Marco’s birthday! Our little boy cat-dog is 2! The kids all shared Savory Salmon Feast birthday cake at Marco’s party last night and David and I sang Happy Birthday. All three of the kitty-kids were so affectionate with the party spirit and even Marco joined in the singing as we held the plates of salmon feast and serenaded him.

My allergies seem to finally be calming down. It was especially bad this year, but I’ve read it just was especially bad; not just for me. I think the storms we had last weekend must have tamped the pollen down so it’s not flying all over. The rain made everything a robust green and made the trees full and healthy looking. The main drawback to last weekend’s rain is it was the festival weekend at the church across the street and the usual carnival sounds I enjoy hearing that weekend were too often interrupted by the sound of rain and thunder! The festival goers came back when the sun did, but it still hurts the church/school's fundraising when rain interrupts the carnival.

I never went to a carnival that I didn’t ride the Tilt-a-Whirl at least once when I was in my teens/20s. Usually I’d ride it a few times! Nowadays I really don’t go to carnivals; they set-it-up-for-a-week rides really aren’t wheelchair-friendly. It’s still great to listen to the carnival sounds and the happy screeching people on a warm summer weekend. But I’ve found that I can turn the speed up a little on the power chair if I have a smooth and a little open space and spin for some fun. I call that tilt-a-whirling! I can go around about 3 times and then I have the same feeling I used to enjoy at carnivals too! What is/was your favorite carnival ride or game?

Broken Record

That’s a record for this day in Toledo history. Actually, it’s the coldest it’s ever been in Toledo on any day in February in recorded history. In the Naniworld that’s officially called “beyond stupid-cold.” Oh my! As an adult with Raynaud’s disease as a special friend to my MS, I’m once again staying indoors. I think that’s my biggest source of wintertime blues; I’m pretty much in hibernation with a cave but no sleep! Can you imagine how grumpy a bear would be if it was in the cave all winter and weren’t asleep?

I was reading a news poll one of the TV stations from Detroit did on Facebook. The poll asked if kids should be off school because of the temperature. I was amazed, even though I shouldn’t be, t the number of comments about raising kids to be sissies and “in my day…” comments. There was even a comment that said “most parents can afford to properly dress their kids for the cold,” like the word “most” in that statement is okay!

I grew up in Metro Detroit. We most certainly did not go to school on days like yesterday or even today which is starting out at -11 and going to a high of 15. There weren’t days like that to debate. “A new record low” means it’s NEVER BEEN THIS COLD. That makes “when I was a kid we didn’t get to stay home because it was cold” make you sound like a bit of a moron. The winters are getting unpredictably worse, much worse than my generation grew up with. We are breaking records for cold temperatures in the Great Lakes region, they have no place else they can put the snow that won’t stop in New England, they are bracing for ice storms in the Carolinas and Tennessee and let’s not forget the weather that was more of a mess than predicted that shut down Atlanta last year. The climate is in a period of unrest. It doesn’t matter why you think that is, there definitely IS a change from what we’ve known as “normal.”

The meteorological unrest is happening faster than we can adjust to it. If this is what will become normal, there may be a day that there is cold weather protocol for school kids, even adults. Maybe there will be e-learning snow days and more telecommuting or maybe they’ll develop an affordable super thinsulate that can keep kids safely warm while they wait for the bus and adults free from frostbite when they scrape ice form car windows. Maybe they’ll create more effective snow removal or something that melts ice on roads in sub-freezing temperatures without beating up the roads too much. And maybe there will be seminars where states from the south can get ideas for setting up winter weather plans from the states in the north that always had snow “when I was a kid,” but that’s not today and it wasn’t yesterday. Yeesh!

Everybody be as safe and warm as you can!

It's My Half Birthday!

I’ve never made it a secret that I’m not a fan of winter. In fact I’ve done a pretty good job of painting myself a an anti-fan of winter. So what’s an optimist to do to keep from falling into winter blues? Well, as a child of the summer, I celebrate my Half-Birthday! I’m not looking outside at Mother Nature’s gag-gift this year; in 6 months it will be the heart of Leo entering into the dog days of summer when even cats find shady spots if they are outdoors. (which is only acceptable if they are rural barn cats, a little safer from traffic than urban cats on the streets and cats and dogs on the farm should always have access to clean water!)

Now my half birthday isn’t celebrated as a festival and I usually just do something special for myself. I might order a pizza today; I discover a thin crust pizza with white sauce, bacon and veggies at Marcos. I add green olives and banana peppers to it for a little sour bite and it’s SO good! And it’s only 18 points for half a small. Of course since David doesn’t do pizza, it would end up being dinner tomorrow too since I can’t reheat on my own. Unless I didn’t refrigerate overnight. I like cold pizza fine but I don’t care for it chilled. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll just ask David if he’d drive trough and bring me home a McLatte.

One fun thing I did for myself for my half birthday this year is a 2-page scrapbook layout. I had a kit that was a set of journal cards that I really wanted to play with for a while. According to the dates on the files, it was May last year that I got the kit Hello! by Scrumptiously. I wanted to do a pocket-page type layout and I knew I wanted to do a totally narcissistic layout about myself. I’ve said before that scrapbooking is both a loving and giving hobby and a totally selfish hobby all in one. It’s saving your, memories to share with other people but it’s also putting yourself as the keeper of history. You get to be the dictator of the future by directing the past. I actually think that’s fine as long as you aren’t blatantly lying about the resent it’s a wonderful series of family heirlooms for generations to come. I also think that selfishness manifests itself in vanity. Too many scrapbookers don’t include their own completely separate from others in the family thoughts or photographs in their books. Generations later relations and even family friends will wonder about the person who assembled the books. What did she or he look like, what were they doing? That’s just my little scrapping soapbox.

Of course, there’s plenty of me in my scrapbooks because I do think that way. I try to be vain for everyone and use flattering photos of us all so generations down the line multiple greats of nieces and nephews will marvel at what an attractive lot we were. But I want my scrapbooks to hold memories, lot of them, but I want my character and sense of humor to be in them too. I want to look back at my books and remember how much fun being me has always been. Oh yeah, and how attractive we’ve always looked too!

Also my half-birthday 2-pager uses those journal cards and prompts to put a time-capsule bubble around my brain at 48-1/2 years old. Making “right here, right now” ordinary day a time capsule page every now and then is fun too!

 

Credits: Hello!  by Scrumptiously and other papers from my stash

The pages are full-resolution if you want to enlarge them and read on the pages, but if you want to read what they say in simple written form, the contents of the cards are right here:

So there’s my self-indulgent answer to the winter blues. For my birthday festival I encourage everyone to have ice cream to celebrate and last year it was to buy ice cream for a kid. So if you want to celebrate my half birthday with me have a cookie. That’s nice to go with hot cocoa to shake a winter frown away. If you like the snow and ice, go enjoy it! And have a hot cocoa for me when you get in because if I was there, you know that’s where I’d be!

Find the happy, everyone!

I Am Defined

Happy Sunday everyone! Unless you’re reading this tomorrow or on any day that’s not today or some multiple of seven from today, then happy whatever of the six other days this happens to be.

I have finally been defined with a definition I agree with. For years and years I’ve taken forms of the Meyers-Briggs tests, including the all out test that I took for a job interview many years back, and the results always start with E, calling me an extrovert. I’m actually consistently an ENTJ; Extrovert, Intuitive, Thinking, Judgmental, and the description of an ENTJ fits me pretty well except that I am not that outgoing. I’m outgoing when I need to be, when I have to, but I treasure my alone time too. As a rule, extroverts can’t stand being alone. I took a test online that tells what kind of introvert or extrovert a person is, because I love taking personality tests no matter how corny they are although this one is less corny than others I’ve taken, and it doesn’t call me an extrovert. According to my results I am an outgoing introvert. Which if you look at this description; 8 signs you may be an outgoing introvert, it fits me perfectly. And I love the fact that it doesn’t call me an extrovert.

I’m in the midst of a reading dilemma. Remember I said I was going to have an upstarts book and an ereader book going at the same time? Well, I did that. If you look at my Good Reads widget on the right, there are 2 current books listed. One is a hard cover that I got in a book swap and one is an e-book, young adult fiction. I read the Harry Potter series, and the Trylle series in the beginning of 2013; don’t judge! ;) But my current problem is that I’m just not really into either one. They’re both okay, but nor riveting at all. I have a Baldacci paperback in waiting and thanks to Christmas gift cards for both Barnes and Noble for the Nook app and Amazon for the Kindle app, both on my iPad, I have a couple lists of loaded and ready to read books on the tablet. I have a goal of averaging 2 books a month and I’m not even half way through either book with only a week of January left! January and February are usually good reading months for me. I have to come up with a plan to get myself some reading time so I can catch up and start some bocks I’m more likely to MAKE time to read.

I was talking to a friend from our MS support group about the things that make MS easier to live with today than it would have been years ago, say in the 1940s when it was first diagnosed and recognized as an actual disease. Without MRIs, there was no apparent scarring of the myelin to see on the brain or spine images and while it wasn’t a death sentence for sure, it did affect life expectancy just because they knew so little about it. So much about diagnosing and understanding the disease has improved in the many years since then.

The first disease modifying medication was approved for use and became available in 1993 and more medications became available after that; all injectable. The first oral medication was approved in 2010. That was my first choice in 2011, anything to avoid needles. There are 10 medications an MS patient and their neurologist can try, depending on what side effects you want to chance. But just think;25 years ago there were NO options. You were diagnosed, treated the symptoms as best you could and you knew the disease was going to progress with no way of slowing it down.

Back in that day, just prior to a drug for the disease, it wasn’t considered a disability. In fact the ADA was a baby in 1990 with members of congress that still didn’t want it to pass. We MSers were still destined to end up in wheelchairs and there were still people fighting tooth and nail not to have to widen a door for those chairs or anyone else with a wheelchair, walker, cane or just limited mobility or allowed mobility for breathing or heart conditions. We have advocates and are encouraged to be self-advocates in the fight to continue living instead of just existing as helpless invalids; we became legally valid!

But we really acknowledged the internet, tablet, smart phones. The internet means we aren’t hopeless and lonely when we are at home. The incredible ability to reach out to others like us and be cyber support is fantastic. I couldn’t live without my iPad. With the numbness in my hands that has me dropping things all the time and unable to write having my planner and several reading apps in one device, with a padded cover and replacement insurance on it, is such a blessing It also has a notepad, radio and MP3 storage, camera and my social media apps. And it has speech-to-text for every app I’d type in, a godsend for the times when my “fumblehands” just aren’t up to hitting the right keys. This is not an ad for the iPad. It’s an acknowledgement of how technology makes disabilities less disabling. There have been many times in the past year that speech-to-text software,, like Dragon on my PC, has written this blog!

It’s just amazing and wonderful. How many times did I watched Star Trek episodes where someone was carrying around a tablet with information essential for their job on it? I’m just waiting now for the hypo spray that will zap my MS all together? THAT’S something I’d take to our support group for “share and tell!”

My final note today is for everyone in the areas where the current storm is headed BE CAREFUL! The nasty winter storm the Weather channel is calling Juno is supposed to dump a TON of snow and nastiness on the east! We have relatives and friends that are expected to get in excess of a foot of snow. My friend Edna of Miss Edna’s Place will be seeing it in her part of New England as well, what she describes as feet of inches predicted on TV. If you are in the areas getting snow and hurricane winds, stay as safe and warm as possible and the rest of us please send good thoughts and prayers for them. We’ll get a few inches in Toledo and I’ll complain as I see it falling but then I’ll remember that I don’t have it so bad and check Edna’s blog or ask David if he talked to any of his brothers.

Global Climate Change Is Evil!

That clipping is the scariest thing a trick-or-treater can see minutes before the start of candy begging time. That was the weather at the start of the 6-8PM festivities for the kids tonight. It's raining on Halloween for the second year in a row and tonight it's 38 degrees and mixed with snow. I think we need to move trick-or-treating to September next year. It only has 30 days, so we could just switch the 31st to the end of September instead of October.

I didn’t do candy this year of course, but I have a plan to be back at the door with my 150 bags of “stuff” enabling the sugar buzzes next year. I’m kinda glad I had to bow out this year. Not only would I be so cold I couldn’t feel my hands or feet womaning the door but I’d feel guilty for giving candy and encouraging kids to come out in the wet and cold. I heard just a few squeals outside, but I think the majority of costumed cuties found an indoor party, at least I hope they did! This is their night and they deserve candy and costumed fun.

I’ve been thinking of being scary and wearing my “Got Celery?” shirt to give out candy next year, but after last year and this, celery might be just too scary!

Thoroughly Thursday

First, let’s talk about the weather; BRRRR! It’s mostly in the 70s here and in July 80s is okay, really! There have been some hot days, but this is mostly a very mild summer so far. I hope it means there is a mild winter ahead again. I wouldn’t be happy if Global Climate Change ends up meaning Ohio Cooling Change. If we have the Polar Vortex winters every 4 or 5 years and very mild ones in between, that’d be fine. I can plan vacations accordingly.

Now for some snippets from Naniland as of late.

Yesterday I started my day in the arms of three firemen!

Boy, I wish that was as scandalous as it sounds! It would have been more fun. Lately it's been getting harder to get in and especially out of the bathroom. It’s the location of the counter, door and the turn I have to make in the morning to get to the stair-climber. Yesterday I failed. I was holding on to the counter and the walker just outside the bathroom and my balance gave out. I tried to lift upon the counter and David was trying to do what he could to help but finally my left leg was just to weak to keep supporting me and I told David it was no use; I was falling. The cool thing is it was almost a controlled fall, falling slowly so it lessened the impact. I landed on the floor but also hit my shoulder and head on the shower chair. After making sure nothing moved less than it already did, I managed to scoot out to the stairs, but there was no way I was getting up and we called 911.

Folks, if I weighed a hundred pounds I wouldn’t let David lift me on his own. 100 struggling or trying to be helpful pounds is a dangerous thing to lift on your own. I’m a little more /sarcasm than 100. The fire department dispatched three EMS guys. After a few tries at ways that would work, we got one with two of the guys behind me lifting and one in front steadying me and balancing me. I ended up hugging the guy in front and the other two hugging me from behind while I balanced. Then they got me in the stair lift chair and I got down and transferred to my power chair without further incident. It had been over a year and now my safety board goes back to 1.

Social Media

Well, a blog is social media, a personal blog is anyway, but I do some other social media things too. My latest big news on Facebook is my friends list. My 2 favorite teachers from high school sent me friend requests. How cool is that? When I was in high school I was a renegade. I was defiant and a had a huge wall in front of me to protect me from my own teenage insecurities. I wasn’t a troublemaker, not really, but I pushed established boundaries. There were two teachers who really saw through my teenage façade and pushed me to break past my own boundaries. They saw potential and nurtured it. I don’t know if they foresaw how truly influential and precious their influence on me would be for the rest of my life but when I got a friend invite from my broadcast teacher and then my French & humanities teacher those were acknowledgements and rekindled acquaintances that I treasure! Justin Verlander could follow me on Twitter and it wouldn’t mean as much. If you like how I turned out, thank my teachers, a couple of them especially.

Instagram; remember my plan for all coffee vignettes? Well, java_nani has become a bit more than that. I found a great Weight Watchers community there and one subset of that that I enjoy a “share the love” group with. We exchange support and monthly gifts in the mail with each other. The gifts include inspiring and supportive items and also an opportunity to share snacks and things that have been helpful to us. My partner’s box goes out tomorrow and it’s as exciting as Christmas!

I’ve also found a great MS support network there. I’m currently participating in a daily IG post meme leading up to World MS Trend Day, July 31. Here are a couple of the daily photo-posts I’ve done:

Prompt: Love

 

Prompt: Fun

 

Prompt: Sand

Short notes:

- My “training phone” died this week and I made the big leap to a phone that’s smarter than me! I have an iPhone that talks to my iPad and they talk about me in front of my chest (where the phone is clipped) That they share information is both cool and scary to me.

- As of this morning for the first time in 31 years I'm not a legal driver. My license expires next week so I went to the DMV to get a state ID. I seem to be the only one who thinks this is a good thing. I haven’t driven in 2 years and it disturbed me that legally I still could.

- On July 19 it was one month since the TV died. I don’t keep up with my baseball teams as well without the home team play by play. For instance it was three days before I read that Joey Votto reinjured his left quads. But other than the details I’m missing, our teams haven’t been doing well this year and maybe we don’t want to watch? Even the Tigers have been streaky. I still hope we have a TV by the playoffs!

- Tomorrow is Eye Exam day. My eye doc is next to Panera. You know what that means! Lunch tomorrow is a You Pick Two Bacon Turkey Bravo and something else with an apple and a latte! Then it’s come home with a new prescription and finally order sunglasses!

Rainy Day and Monday

 

Carrabba's Mezzaluna - YUM!

 

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer so far! I’ve already been to a baseball game and had a double-scoop waffle cone ice cream. It could snow tomorrow and I’d…be miserable. Snow in June? My world would end. Summer is not about having a baseball and ice cream day once; it’s about baseball and ice cream all the time!

On the second day of summer 2014, Sunday, David and I traveled into the Motherland and caught a baseball game in Grand Rapids, the West Michigan Whitecaps. The Whitecaps are the Tigers A-Ball team in the Midwest League. The Whitecaps lost the game 4-2 to the Fort Wayne Tin Caps, which marked the first game of 4 we’ve seen this year that the home team lost. It’s also the second time we’ve watched part of the Tigers family lose! We were at the game in Cleveland where the Tigers miserable lump started! I’d HATE to think that this year we need to stay away from The Tigers!

Saturday was Bike To The Bay, MS bike fundraiser. You’ll recall my friend, Christine, who has MS with drop foot is the captain of Team Leap Frog which is linked in The Chronicles if Nani’s right column. She biked 38 miles Saturday! Her 44-rider team collected nearly $13,000 for MS so far with a few months of fundraising left. Stop by Leap Frog For MS  and give her a “congrats!”

Monday was a cloudy morning with rain in the forecast. David and I went to do a larger grocery trip. The way the groceries work he stops a few times a week to pick up things we need and dinner stuff and I go every couple weeks to stock up on produce and the things I want to choose rather than choose from home. An example; there are about ten different REV wraps and many flavors of yogurt, but if David’s picking them up for me I have to choose from what I remember. About every month to 6 weeks, we gather all the coupons and do a major “staples and new things” trip. That was Monday.

Now, I have a gripe. I much prefer to shop with my power chair and hand baskets than use the go-carts available in store. First off, I can maneuver between all the tables in the bakery and deli areas with my chair. The carts are just too big not to knock into things. The other thing I noticed is that people in general are not as kind or helpful as when I’m in my own chair. Maybe that’s because there are so many people who use them that don’t "look" like they need them. I think passing judgment like that is cruel because you can’t look at someone and SEE why they need the riding carts. Someone with a heart or lung condition may be able to walk, but not for a whole trip to the store and use of that go-cart is the only reason they CAN walk out when they’re done. I know “back in the day” my knee would be fine until about half way through a grocery trip, then I was dragging my leg and left much of my list unbought. Whatever the reason, I feel better treated when I’m in my own chair. There’s also the space problem in parts of the store and reaching so far up to what’s in the cart.

When we left the store, it was raining, I mean REALLY raining! David pulled up close and I got drenched even trying to get close enough to get in the car. He ended up taking the groceries home and came back for me when the rain let up. I had my book, so all was okay until he came back and I’d been in that cart so long I had no strength and almost no feeling in my legs and needed help to get up.

I MUCH prefer taking my power chair to the grocery store!

Last night we finally celebrated Valentine’s Day! I had bought a gift card for our dinner that we never went out for because of frozen pipes, more snow and then just no time! We had a great dinner at Carrabba’s. David had a shrimp and scallops dish with mashed potatoes and I had Mezzaluna; chicken, spinach and ricotta ravioli. We shared Sogna Di Cioccolato, Chocolate Dream, for dessert.

After getting pretty wet earlier at the store, I managed to get in the house with just a few raindrops after dinner. It was a rain-exhausting but good day.

Seasons Change But They Can Stop Right Here!

We’re about a week away from the start of summer! I think all that snow this past winter left me mentally damaged. It still doesn’t feel like it was that long ago that we had all that snow locking me in the house. I know, I know, to those of you that were out in it trying to drive or walk on ice or in knee-deep drifts, I had it made not getting out of the house. To the people in the Deep South who slept in grocery stores with diapers for pillows being locked in at home must sound like paradise. But let’s just be totally honest; the polar vortex tortured all of us. Even our plow guys went from a couple very lean years to not getting a day off.

But now things are good. The spring flowers weren’t as robust as I’d have hoped and I think I might need to get more bulbs this fall because some of them just didn’t survive the mild winters or got munched by burrowing critters. But right now as I look out the porch windows next to the table I type at I see lush filled-in greenery and trees with blue sky peeking through all washed in the sun’s yellow glow. The colors of fall are nice too, but THIS is the sight that soothes me after months of white and brown outside.

David and I took a vacation south a couple weeks ago. We saw a Columbus Clippers game on the first night and that ended up being the only baseball game of the trip. We had tickets to a Kannapolis Intimidators game in North Carolina, but the weather did us in. We met Stephanie and Danni, friends I know from scrapbooking and met in person at the game. Stephanie’s husband couldn’t make it and David could join in a little on the baseball talk, although b Stephanie and I are friendly-foes doing a lot of Reds-Cardinals talking on that subject. But for the most part the three women were taking scrapbook stuff. After a two-hour delay with the grounds crew trying to squeegee rain from the previous day out of the outfield the game was called for the second day in a row. There was just too much water still on the field. It was cool that we were dry and had all that time to talk! We left with the promise that net time we are in North Carolina or if they make it to Ohio, we’ll actually see a game or at least plan a nice dinner!

Before "the game that wasn’t" David and I met his cousin and her husband for lunch in Salisbury, NC. This is one of the two cousins who urged me to try David Baldacci’s writing. Needless to say it was one of those long lunches with non-stop conversation

Now, you might wonder why, aside from meeting some wonderful people, we were in North Carolina. It’s a David and Nani trip and I haven’t mentioned the trains yet, have I? Look at this:

The North Carolina Transportation Museum hosted the Streamlines at Spence festival May 29-June1. Grounds and the roundhouse filled with gorgeous restored or in the restoration process engines from the 1930s-1950s Everything was all lit up for night photography sessions the first three nights and there were train rides at no additional cost as part of entry every day.

I chose the first night for my night pass. Thursday would be the least crowded and photo crowds can tend to lead to lots of dark photos of butts from a wheelchair. David did all three nights and I got some relax time at the hotel on those nights.

Oh, talk about advertising and mental conditioning! On one of the nights I stayed at the hotel I ordered a sandwich for dinner from Jimmy Johns. All those commercials, I hit send on the order I placed online and immediately looked at the door expecting a knock. I laughed at myself because I realized how silly it was, but wow! The delivery was about 15-20 minutes later, yes very fast, but I think they edit a little of the wait time for the TV ads.

On Sunday, David and I rode the train. It’s the first time I’ve been on a train in the chair and I’m ready to ride Amtrak to Chicago now! The lift hadn’t been used that day and it took a little for them to figure it out, but they did. I enjoyed the short ride and felt really good because several people in wheelchairs lined up for the next ride. Well, SOMEBODY had to be first, right?

Now we’ve been home and I’m “recovering” from the trip. My legs don’t seem to have bounced back as well as I wish they would and I’m struggling a bit at home right now. I’m going to get an opinion from my physical therapist when I go in next week.

We had our first MS group meeting with me as group leader this week. It went well with some new faces and I’m hoping more of the regulars will make it for July.

June 1 was Marco’s birthday; we have no kittens in the house again. I have to admit though, Carla is just this past year starting to act like a cat more often than a kitten, but both Carla and Kaline still have their kitten moments too. Cats never 100% grow up.

Back to the cold?

Brrrrr! I had to make an executive decision Friday morning. It was an easy one though. Wake up temperature was 63° IN THE HOUSE! It was 39° outside and the expected high was 55. I turn on the heat. I didn’t get any grumbles from David. That’s good; I needed to not be chilled like a fine ice wine.

It’s been pretty much highs in the high 50s/low 60s all weekend. Today, it’s a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning, but still chilly. We expect a high of 66, so the heat will still be on and doing its thing. After today it’ll be back in the 70s and I’d like to think that this time the furnace gets its long break until fall. I’m keeping my fingers crossed! There is one good thing I can say about the chilly past few days; they’ve given me the chance to try out my present from last week.


Edna (Miss Edna’s Place) had been teasing about an Afghan that she'd been working on in green. She wasn't showing pictures or giving lots of detail because it was a gift and she didn't want the person for whom she was making it to see it or know too much about it before was finished. I was thinking what a super gift that would be for the person receiving it! Then again green is my favorite color so something handmade in green would be an awesome gift for anyone, right? Well, a week ago Friday afternoon I went to get the mail and there was a box on the steps at the side door. It was addressed to me from Edna. The gift-Afghan she’d been teasing about was for me!

I just love it! It's a beautiful shade of green, thick and warm, and gorgeous! And the contrast stripes match half of my wardrobe. It was a perfect match for the pink shirt that I was wearing when I got the box and another perfect match for the orange MS T-shirt that I wore Saturday morning when David took the photos. Thank you so much, Edna. When I cuddle close to my afghan I can feel the warmth and love a wonderful friend.

Thank you, Edna; I love it!!

While I'm talking about blanket things, I might've mentioned some time ago my white fleece blanket with the multicolored polka dots. That blanket stays on the loveseat downstairs because Carla adopted it and it became known as the Carla-blanket. I think maybe she heard me mention it’s difficult to get great photos of Carla because of her dark fur. She must've figured that white blanket/black cat perfect photo op.

Carla and the Carla Blanket

Credits: Old School by the Designers at Digital Scrapbooking Studio

Earlier this week the blanket came upstairs with laundry from the dryer and was sitting on top of one of the baskets to eventually go back downstairs. I was sitting on the bed reading and out of the corner of my eye I saw the blanket move. My first thought was maybe the Carla was complaining about her blanket being upstairs instead of downstairs. But I saw Marco pushing the blanket with his head and trying to pull it with his claws, finally grabbing it with his mouth and moving. It made me laugh but then the three cats got together to play chase and left the room. I didn't really think too much of it until a couple nights ago when the blanket was missing and David found it. Marco had drug it under the bed where he often likes to play. Kaline and Carla share the kitty-afghans that Grandma made for Kaline and Azzie. But Marco's not so good at sharing and Carla is too passive so I think we may need to find Marco a blanket of his own.


In other good news, we officially have a meeting place for our MS Support Group! There was a senior center on my list of places I was going to call last week, but just before the weekend I got a call from an interested new member who suggested the same senior center and made the introduction for me. Talk about great karma pulling everything together! I met with a rep there earlier this week and by the time I left I had signed a contract for the monthly donated space. YAY! By mid-week I’d gotten that information to the chapter office and sent out an email to our existing members. I can’t wait until we all get together again next month! Now, I’m working on finding a pizza place that delivers to our new location and is in budget! I can’t pick up $5 pizzas and bring them in on the bus!


Well, I need to refill my coffee mug since I need scrapbooking fuel and I’ve declared this a scrapbook-day. There are so many “Christmas in July” events, how about Thanksgiving in June and Halloween in May? Most of the folders I have in my catchup files now are from September on with the exception of the June Vacation from 2012 and our August honeymoon in 2009. I’ve been working on the June Vacation this week, but maybe some September stuff today; fits the temperature! We’ll see what the coffee cup tells me after it’s full again.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Sharing

Flair from Rainy Days by Ginger Bread Ladies

Can anyone use some rain water? I can start by sharing that; I can wring a gallon out of my coat!

I had an appointment this afternoon and it was raining, I mean it was RAINING. I don’t think I’ve ever actually been in rain that hard. And it was a cold rain too. Imagine if you will that you are in a wheelchair in rain that heavy. Think about the difference between sitting and standing and how much of you is exposed to the rain. When it’s raining that hard an umbrella doesn’t do much either. Your entire front is basically collecting the rain and when you lean forward to close the door, well when it’s raining that heavily it doesn’t take long for your entire back side to catch-up in the wetness.

After a wet afternoon at my appointment and then waiting for the bus I’m home now, bundled up and I had some soup and the rest of the sleeve of crackers David left out for lunch. But the sniffles from my cold that were almost gone this morning are back. So if anyone would like a cold to go with the rainwater I’ll throw it in for free!

All right, all right, enough of cranky Nani, right? How about I share something better?

This morning I finished a scrapbook page that’s my first Ginger Scraps challenge this month. It’s for the Mini Kit Challenge. Cherekaye Designs shared a sweet mini kit called Okay Doaky:

I shared Marco’s morning with the cable guys when they came in to replace the box and fix up some connections so we’d be good to go for Opening Day. Well, sure there are other things on TV, Information Discovery for instance; Nani needs her real-crime shows. But the timing that made it important to get it done last month was all about baseball. Marco loves it when people visit to deliver or fix things so he was all over checking out everything they were doing and even if they couldn’t play, he did get a visit before they left.

Credits: Okay Dokay by Cherekaye Designs, Template by Digitalegacies Designs

And now the BEST sharing! If I share a layout on my blog made with a Digitalegacies Designs template, you know it because I’m sharing the template!

Click on image to download

Of course if you use this template, I’d love it if you share your creation too!

Now I think it’s time to share some time with the Keurig maker to make a cup of cocoa to take the rainy chill down a notch. You don’t have to share the icky stuff, but enjoy the template!