What a great day it has been! I knew I’d be awhile with Mom today, and I just embraced what the day offered. It was fabulously full of memories.
The staff at Immanuel Medical Center who organized the COVID vaccine distribution to folks over 80 were fantastic. Someone meets your car as soon as you enter the parking lot. I ordered a wheelchair for Mom since I was unsure how long the line would be.
We got through the line and she sat in the wheelchair until the fifteen minutes was up. She was fine. I thought of when my older brother and I saw the doctor as little kids. Mom would take us and get those dreaded shots. Needles were large and really hurt much more than now. I have a spot on my upper right arm that had nerve damage from a shot I got, and they hit the wrong spot. I have a vivid memory of walking to my brother’s school with Mom and Tom to get the oral Polio vaccine. It tasted like sugar water. I remember overhearing grownups talk about Polio and how terrible it was. I only knew one person who had it. We met him in the 1970s when the man and his family moved into our neighborhood.
Mom was fine, and I wheeled her out through the long corridor. I had to tease her. When we walked out, a nurse gave each elderly person a Dum Dum Sucker. How appropriate! I thought it was cute all the elders had a fun experience. Those nurses (females and males) were so respectful and sweet to the patients. We get to go back on February 26. Hope the weather’s good so we don’t have any issues.
We are so fortunate in Nebraska, especially Omaha. We have so many hospitals and two major medical schools and nursing schools. There is such a wealth of information here, and the people to help us when we need help. Creighton and the University of Nebraska Medical Center turn out top-notch doctors.
Our Veterans Administration Hospital is very good, too. Interns from the two medical schools rotate into the VA and out during their training. I heard this saying long ago, and I believe it. “You want a young doctor and an old lawyer.” Truer words never spoken.
Folks, the Babe is hungry and I’m going to put together the Baked Chicken Salads for dinner tonight. It’s been a busy week, and I think we need to relax on this cold Friday evening. Hope you have a warm night and relaxing weekend. I plan to work on stuff at home and the Babe is spearheading a project to replace the ceiling tile in a rental room at the VFW Post. I’ll hold down the fort with the pups. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see each other tomorrow. Be Safe!
This is a late start today. My gosh, Goldie has a lot of pent up energy. She wanted to play. She finally stopped and now she went off elsewhere to take a nap. I almost need one! She is a sweet girl, and I hope someday I’ll get some strength back to be able to walk her. Maybe by then she’ll walk better. Until then, the Babe is also the dog walker.
By the photos shared today, I suppose it seems I’m feeling a little mushy. Mushy is ok. I know people who are angry all the time. I think they’re just scared because they can’t control everything around them, and it causes anxiety. Anxiety is often what fear creates, and most don’t want to admit they are afraid. They’d rather act angry. Anger can be appropriate, it can be valid, it can be justified. What you don’t want is have it rule you. You lose so much then.
Later, I’ll be organizing the photos I have of Roxie. They’re a look back not only at her, but also of Gavin. They grew up together. They both could be a couple of stinkers at times, but when they were together, wow! They were good together, and she loved to just look at him. She trusted him. He loved her. It was sweet.
I have a little rewriting to do on the children’s book project, and will do that before the end of today. I want it fresh for a meeting I have tomorrow. Not sure how long it takes to get an LLC established, but once my attorney gives me notice, we’ll have cause for celebration!
I want to keep an open mind in 2021. Not that I didn’t before; it’s been a few years since I’ve thought, “Oh, I can’t do THAT!” I’ve listened to both my smart daughter, my sons and their encouragement, and of course, the Babe, who have all said, “Go do it!” Learn how, you’ve got time. By having an open mind, we can have new opportunities. Keep yourself open. I’ve found if I can’t come up with an immediate why I shouldn’t, I need to at least try.
The trouble is, when you want to do a lot of things, all of them different, it’s hard to pick what you’ll do right now. In the fall, I removed all the shiny new art supplies I bought. They went to storage in the crafting room, I can’t have them in my sight right now. I took a month off from writing about Katie Fitzgibbons, and my children’s book caught my attention. It’s “almost done.” Well, the words are “almost done.” I think inspiration got my attention and told me this project will finish soon. The wheels are in motion.
Who knows what other opportunities will reveal themselves this year? 2021 will be good. The nation will heal. We have too many good people to not heal. The politicians all need to take a cold, hard look at themselves. And each other. Term limits will help. New ideas will never come to light by old, stinking thinking. And age has not a thing to do with it. Let’s all do away with stereotypes for groups we encounter this year. No, Republicans are not all old men. Democrats aren’t the only ones with heart and souls. We all have those things. You can be chronologically old yet have young ideas and heart. We all have to get over ourselves. Yes, all of us. We live in a world where we all affect each other eventually.
Thanks for joining me today. I appreciate it and plan to see you tomorrow. Let’s all be kind, be safe out there, too. Pray for our great nation. Let us remember we are supposed to be leaders, not followers. Have a beautiful afternoon.
This is the second to the last day in October. Where did it go? Poof! There are only two months left in this year, this oddity of 2020. A week from now, it will all be over. Halloween, the election, the month of October. And winter-like weather will become the norm. I don’t mind it, really.
The beautiful, lush yellow and gold trees have changed again to brown, sparse, and dull. Not much left for them to do. It reveals all the squirrel nests when the leaves fall. Everyone hunkers in, even the squirrels. Birds are still around, so if you feed them, keep on doing that. They depend on the food.
Our trial online grocery order was a pleasant experience overall. I don’t think I ordered Crushed Red Pepper, but I did order Pink Himalayan Salt. I see the Keto recipes use that. Why? Some claim it has more minerals. There is not a lot of data available, so I’ll use it because it looks pretty. Since it’s not as densely packed as regular table salt, you may need to use more to get the same flavor. I am against excessive salt in food, I just don’t care for the taste. It is lovely to look at, though.
One thing I noticed about the grocery order, they used a bunch of plastic bags. Almost one for each item they bagged. A waste, really. I think they may have several people fill an order, so they each bag their own items. I’d hate to be those workers during a snowstorm or after a blizzard. Those carts can’t be easy to push through the snow. I always think of weird things like that.
Another thing I noticed was the partially packaged grapes didn’t fare too well. The bunch at the very bottom appeared pulverized and dripping when I removed them from their bag. It could have happened moving the bags around in the bins before they reached my car. Don’t think I’ll get any more of those since they’re high in natural sugar. Dang! I thought they’d be a good sub for sweets. Turns out they ARE sweets. Until they’re gone, it’s Waldorf Salad. A lot of salad.
Lexie, Enjoying Her Nap This Morning
I suppose the dogs could eat some apples, too. Just so they don’t get too used to them. Never been a person to feed table scraps to a dog, any dog we’ve had. They would swipe things if they thought they could get away with it.
My scene writing has been interesting. It is like writing a play. You need descriptions of items present if they’re used in or pertinent to the story. Some set the scene for a certain era. You don’t want an electrical plug in a log cabin in the 1800s. Sometimes movies mess up and have errors like that. It’s often overlooked, until a blooper reel comes out, or someone notices and posts it online.
You also need to show emotion. That is through the character’s actions, dialogue, and presence. I could not like what a minor character tells me. I could fake a smile, force a smile, make a sour face, twist face in disgust, wipe a smile off my face, clear my throat to buy time, make a strangled noise with my throat, shrug my shoulders, fidget, squirm, curl up in a corner, wring my hands, give a weak handshake, and/or make a steeple with my fingers to describe a character reaction without saying a word.
It is strange to see Charlie Chaplin with a smart phone, isn’t it? Costumes in a play are so important. If the clothing and accessories are not proper for the era, the entire scene seems “off.” I’ve always thought it would be so cool to be a costume designer. The famous Edith Head, who fashioned the clothing for Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the movies, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and, “The Sting.” When she received her Academy Award for Costume Design, her first comment was, “I got to dress Paul Newman and Robert Redford.” WOW. I remember the audience went wild.
When I was a little girl, besides playing for hours in my room with my Barbie doll and all the clothes Mom and Grandma made for her, I had one of those plastic pose able female drawing template. It was red plastic if I remember correctly. I would draw ladies then create dresses and outfits for them. It passed a lot of hours, and I enjoyed it a lot. Santa really knew what to leave sometimes.
While it’s not required to describe clothing, an author can do that, if it has something to do with the story. If not, then omit it. The condition of the clothing could tell a part of the story – holey hand-me-downs on a little boy, much too old dressing for a little girl, a great grandma dressing like a seventeen-year-old, they all tell you something about the person. Often an author describes the clothing as wrinkled, having an odor, looking disheveled, outgrown, or too big.
A picture or painting on a wall in a crime story can hold the key to solving a crime, be it theft or murder, and requires description, net worth, and how valued the painting is. It’s unnecessary to describe every painting or picture in every single room in a scene or setting. I find it fun to figure all these things out and then implement the new knowledge. Bear with me, I’m a work in progress.
As I take a brief break to get a drink of water, thank you for reading today. Hope you have a beautiful weekend. I hope your Halloween evening is fun and uneventful. We’re not giving out candy this year. Too complicated for us. Between the dogs who bark at every doorbell ring, and the COVID, we’re just not going to this year. I hope all the littles in the neighborhood stay safe and have fun. Hope to see you tomorrow. Take Care!
Kathy Raabe 