Day 385

It's time for a roundup. An update. A look at where things stand.

First and foremost, I've taken myself off all rheumatoid arthritis medications. After the last doctor visit where he suggested sending me to Salt Lake City for further tests and treatments I decided to become a rebel. Or maybe I'm trying to hide or just go into complete denial. I've had enough. I'm tired of the shots, tired of my hair falling out, tiring of feeling icky from the medications. So no more chemotherapy injections, no more anti-malaria drugs, no more $2000+ month TB-causing shots. No more. That plate of pills and shots from Day 352 is quite smaller and I'm happy about it. The absence of all those medications certainly hasn't made me feel any worse, and in fact my bad-feeling Thursdays and Fridays are now better without all the side effects dragging me down.

My biking hit a bump in the road. With the broken bike I was able to limp along a few miles a day until this weekend when it complete busted. My new bike is supposed to arrive today - daily double digit miles, here I come! Sisters, Oregon, 315 miles from my house, is my next destination and I hope to be there next week.

And the most important update - after a little bit of a break, the charity quilts are on the move again. I just finished a top using some of the fabrics from Paula O. I still have lots of the cutest kid fabric in the world that she sent and will start on another one using some of that same fabric.

Paula, thanks again for your generous donation!

Day 384

Patience.

My new word for the week, my new lesson to be learned. As in I'm showing great patience as I wait for my new bike to show up.

Actually, maybe patient fits better today.

I know that it snowed today on the first day of spring, but be patient Mr. and Mrs. Rosebush. It'll be time to bloom before you know it.

Day 383

I finally got my sewing room back together.

I've been dragging my feet for some reason. But after procrastination nipped me in the rear yesterday with missing that pheasant picture, it was time to get moving. I mostly just moved furniture around, swapped some furniture out, and did some re-organizing of things.

I've even found some time to get moving on the next project. I'm making a kids quilt with some of the fabric Paula O. sent me on Day 336.

It was only when I sat down to get back to work on the quilt project that I noticed I had a visitor on my ironing board. (You'll have to look closely.) Guess she thought the best place to be on the last day of winter was a padded surface next to a sunny window.

Day 126

Day 382

I'm mad at myself today. I procrastinated and wound up losing in the end.

My camera has been showing low battery for several days. But since I'm not taking tons of pictures and I'm not doing videos right now, I've kept putting off charging it. And now I'm sorry I did.

As I was opening the living room curtains a bit this morning so kitty could sit in the window, I was excited to look down and see some tulips about ready to open. But then I looked up and saw something even more exciting.

A beautiful, brightly colored boy pheasant walking right across our lawn, just a few feet in front of me.

I ran (I don't run, so it was more of a super fast walk) to grab the camera. I turned it on as I left the den so it would be ready by the time I got back to the front window. But the camera beeped at me. And beeped again, and beeped again. As I tried to take a series of pictures of the pheasant (so I could get the best picture) it only snapped one before it shut off. I tried to turn it back on with no luck. Completely dead battery.

So today's picture is the only picture left in the battery charge. Not the best picture of Mr. Pheasant, but at least I got something.

Day 381: Blue Mystery Revealed

When we first moved to Marsing back in 1987 we lived south of town. South of town meant towards the desert. South of town also meant no city water or sewer. Which then meant well water heavy in minerals and alkali.

While we had a water softener, it didn't prevent the water from developing a rusty tint. It didn't keep our bathtubs and sinks from turning orange. It didn't prevent heavy alkali deposits on everything.

Even though we are now in town and on city water we still have deposits. Nothing like that ugly orange that ruined everything back then, but we do have minerals that leave a white residue behind. It's like that science experiment I did in school - take a pie plate of water and add some salt. Let it sit on the windowsill in the sun and see what's left behind.

So for the answer to Day 377's mystery picture...

While this bowl didn't have any salt added, you can clearly see what happens when just plain tap water winds up evaporating in a blue cat bowl.

Day 380

I tried something new today (and it didn't have to do with my new shoes). It had to do with my camera.

Every day when I take my picture I wind up doing some editing. I almost always wind up cropping it. Sometimes I take out some of the shadows and sometimes I make the color more vibrant. But today I decided to use one of the pre-chosen style/color/format options.

I don't remember what I chose, but I think it makes the picture more interesting. We are having some hard rain - hard enough to make bubbles - which isn't all that exciting of a picture. But I do like it even more now.

Speaking of pictures - tomorrow I'll reveal what that picture was on Day 377. It sure has been fun seeing everyone's guesses!

Day 379

Several years ago I realized I was wearing the wrong size shoes. Ever since high school, I've been buying the same size in all shoes, no matter the style - dress shoes, athletic shoes, hiking boots, sandals. But a few years back when I was buying a new pair of shoes I tried on a bigger pair and found they fit better.

It would have made sense that if a bigger pair fit better, I should start buying other shoes in that same bigger size. But I'm not a shoe person and don't like shoe shopping. Other than that one pair about six years back, all my shoes are old, old. Like eight or nine years old, and in some cases 10+ years. So all these years I've been continuing to wear the same wrong size.

Too-small shoes worn every single day causes bruised toes. Bruised toes bring about bruised toenails. Bruised toenails (sorry for being gross here) brings about a big toe with a toenail that looks like it might want to fall off. And this week I learned that too-small shoes worn for 100+ miles of biking make a big toenail (sorry, again gross) really look like it wants to fall off.

So today was enough. When stopping to pick up prescriptions and some groceries I ran across some athletic shoes 50% off the last marked clearance price. I left with two new pair of shoes in my cart. Guess who is going to wear new shoes (that fit) for tomorrow's denim day at work?

How about you? Are you wearing shoes that fit just right?