Shhhhhhhhhhhh

Carrie And Santa

We dressed warmly and piled into my car for a trip to the Flea Market on the opposite side of the town in which I live. The trip took about 20 minutes, mostly because we had to get off the interstate and circle back around on the service road to get to Ye Olde Flea Market. It's not really called that but because of the lateness of my years, I can't remember exactly what it's called. I figure it this way. Why cram all that useless information into my brain. I'm saving room up there for important stuff, like my name, address and how to dial 911.

This flea market has grown tremendously since my first visit there 10 years ago. Then it was junque, cheap imported, break as soon as you open it up, stuff. Off brand tools that a good torque would cause them to snap into. I never went back. I didn't go back until a couple of weeks ago so I wasn't aware of how much expansion had happened. Rows and rows of seller stalls, branched out tin covered vendor buildings sprawled across what used to be open field with every imaginable display of stuff you could live without but you end up with it anyway. I go because of the books. Book sellers with their wares lined neatly and categorized in rows and rows of shelves. Three dollars for hardbacks and two dollars for paperbacks; I like these prices. On the most recent visit, I bought 3 of the J.K. Rowling books for 3.00 per hardback. I have number 1 in the series and when I find number 2, I'll have the whole set for a mere pittance of what they would have cost in the book stores. I want to start reading them; I want the whole set before I start.

The best part of the trip is the people watching and there were plenty of 'peoples' to watch. I note all the nose rings, tongue rings, the tattoos, the clothing that doesn't exactly appear in the latest fashion mags, and then I start to wonder where these people find employment. Do they remove all these accoutrement's that adorn their eye brows, lips and nose before they surrender their application for scrutiny? Does the interviewer ignore all this hardware or maybe the hardware disappears for the interview. I could see and watch them all day. I like to see the faces. How can so many faces be in one place and no two faces appear identical. The minute spacing between the eyes, the spaces from lip to nose, from cheekbone to cheekbone and from cheekbone to chin all contribute to faces that appear unique to each person. We are a collection of spaces. Without those differing spaces we might all appear as copies of each other. I still like to look and take note.

Funnel cakes frying in oil, gumbo, burgers, fries, chili covered french fries; fragrances announced to all what was available for purchase. Families lounging on picnic tables in the middle of this market taking a break to supply nourishment to their young crowded in. More people watching and it was a freebie entertainment bonanza.

Daughter who had wondered away from Carrie and me called me on my cell phone. She was on aisle 200 and was calling to report that Santa Claus had been spotted. I whispered to Carrie while taking her hand to guide her through the crowd "Santa is here". She looked up and like a sunbeam, a big smile crossed her face causing her eyes to crinkle up; her whole face was smiling. Carrie has never made it to see Santa in her young 4 years of life. She has heard stories and seen many pictures but to see Santa in person has never happened for her. Most children experience fear when they see him for the first time and are too young to understand who he is. With Carrie, we waited until she was 4 yrs old and had watched movies and seen pictures of the big guy with the white beard and red clothing. She was ready.

Fearless she faced him and you could see her excitement. He was sitting on a chair behind and to the side of a table where the photographer was signing people up to have their child photographed with the Big Guy. Carrie didn't notice. She headed straight for him and when she reached him she threw herself onto him and wrapped her arms around his waist for a big hug. She clung to him for a while then stepped back and asked to sit on his lap. From her perch, she beamed at us. That was one happy child. No fear. She had finally found him, this man she had heard so much about. We had her photographed with him and she begged to stay right where she sat. I coaxed her away with promises to take her back to see him and on December 12th he will be downtown for the Christmas celebrations and I plan on keeping my promise.

Carrie is a bright child. I almost shy away from telling her this Santa lie. She remembers everything and someday she may question the lie we told.

I hope she doesn't notice if there is a slight difference in the Santa's. The one we visited at the flea market had on oblong wire rim glasses that sat on the end of his nose. This is something she might take note of and question the difference in the Big Guy's appearance. It will be interesting to watch her reactions to the next jolly fat guy in the tasteless red suit.

I would cancel Christmas but for the children. The children are Christmas.

Oh Christmas Tree

With reluctance I made my way to the Little House in the back yard, pulled open the door and stood looking at the blue totes stacked one on top of the other and knew that I would be sifting through each one for the decorations for the tree. The tree was an easy find. I had put it in a wheeled garbage barrel so I wouldn't have to drag the dilapidated box it came in across the grass and into the house. It took about 2 hours to set the tree up. It's one of those that has the colored coded branches and each branch is set into it's hooked position and starting from the bottom with 10 branches in green code, then up one layer to the red coded ones and so on till you reach the top where hopefully you will have inserted the correct color on each level. Oh fun.

This will be the last year I will use this tree. Much to the chagrin of my friend who couldn't believe I was still using this tree apparently manufactured before the dinosaurs were born; she was on the phone with me the entire time and amid her fits of giggles at my less then christian language while doing this, I swore that next year it will be a pre lit tree with 3 sections that fit together and you're done.

I am going to find an ice pack for my heel and then I'm going to find the feather pillows on my bed where I will lay my head followed by my tired Christmas decorating body!

And a good night to all.

Manipulation/Parkersburg WV Medical Care

My poor sister has my sympathy. She had to go to the surgery suite and have a manipulation. A manipulation is when the surgeon anesthetizes you and then he flexes the leg as far as he can breaking up the scar tissues. This is to enable the knee to 'bend' or to get more flexion.

They told her when to come in for this procedure and the day before, she phoned the surgery suite to find out she wasn't on the schedule. She had to call the doctors' office and they said they would call the surgery center and put her on the schedule. They had forgotten to do this. Strike 1.

During the procedure the doctor was only able to flex the knee to 120 degrees. He was hoping to get 130 to 135 degrees but this wasn't possible. Based on this, her flexion would only be 110 to 113 with physical therapists help. At this time he should have notified her physical therapy group of the amount of flexion he was able to do. He didn't do this. Strike 2.

She goes to physical therapy and they flex her knee back to 118. This was accomplished by holding her down while the physical therapist flexed her knee amid painful gasps. The physical therapists didn't check with the doctor on how much flexion they should be striving toward. Strike 3.

Doesn't anybody there communicate with each other on these patients? When sis goes to the doctors office she learns all this information on her flexion and her limits. This is after she has attended physical therapy for a week and the therapist have cranked back on her knee and unbeknowst of her limit.

Please don't let me ever have to be at the mercy of the Doctors in Parkersburg, WV nor the therapists also.

Three strikes and you're out!

Boo to You

I sat here and typed and saved and typed some more. I did this all in Microsoft Word program. I decided to try doing it there instead of here in the blog spot. I figured I could copy and past it here when I was finished. After many phone interruptions, I had it to the end, closed it with the closing sentence, checked the spelling, grammar and all that and came here to copy and paste and hit "publish".

*)))&&^)_++++&! The *())&&+...L((( thing wouldn't paste it to this blog.

I want to thank you..you who suggested I do it in Microsoft. You know who you are. I'm closing this now so you can take this as my closing sentence and now I'm going to my email where I copied and pasted that blog done in Microsoft to see if it will paste from there to here!

I Should Be in Bed

My vision is beginning to blur and my body to ache. I should go to bed and I don't know why I seem to be stalling. Maybe it's because the husband has just left town again and going back to the bedroom feels so isolated. I could just stay in the living room on the sofa and I might just do that. Who's here to direct me to do otherwise?

My legs are stretched out in front of me with my ankles crossed and feet resting on the coffee table. The laptop is balanced on my lap and bobbling around as I hit the keys on the keyboard. I'm a typist that has fingers that skim the keyboard quickly and sightlessly as I pound out my bit of daily history. I'm going to drag my blanket over me and find an old movie on the tube to fall asleep with while listening to the furnace click on and belch forth warmth. Yes, finally we have cool weather and for this I'm grateful.

Bright and Early

Maybe not so bright but it was early when the husband climbed into his truck and headed for Oklahoma. From that job he plans to go directly to the big job that is coming up and will keep him busy until Christmas. The second job is here in Louisiana and if they get a break in the job, he will be able to come home for a day and if not, I won't see him until Christmas and that's only if he finishes that job.

I watched him drive away as I stood on the carport. From my place I could see the roofs of the neighbors across the street and to the sides of my house. They glistened. White crystal covered the roof tops and the lawns. No, it didn't snow but it did frost. The huge maple tree in the front will be dropping more brown crispy leafs which I used to spend hours bagging up and putting beside the curb for pickup by the city truck. I didn't look forward to this chore and it always seemed that the only person that enjoys lawn work here was out of town when that big maple started shedding.

Have I mentioned before how much I love my lawn tractor? Normally I use it for grass cutting on this minuscule by need of a lawn tractor to mow it. I don't care. I know I don't have an acre to mow but I still have the little tractor that starts right up the moment I twist the key and minutes later I'm driving it back to it's storage place, smiling at the small bit of time that has elapsed. My other argument for buying this little jewel was the fact that we could mow over all those leafs instead of bagging them and that's exactly what we do. I'm in my element I tell ya. You might talk me into giving you my stove but there isn't a chance in the "hotter'nHell" summers that we have that my tractor is leaving here.

The Thanksgiving dinner went well and I even had help with the cleanup. The kids took their plates to the living room and sat in front of the big screen. I could hear them laughing and talking with each other; Carrie, not to be left out and left with adults, carried her plate to the coffee table and hung out with them. Casey, a young female 20 something friend of Lesie's, is leaving in January for National Guard training. Casey doesn't even tip the scales at 100 lbs. I think she wears a size zero. I almost didn't recognize her with out the piercing rings in her lips; she still has the "from elbows to shoulders tattoos" though. I didn't see a tramp stamp but her jeans may have been concealing one. I'm not a fan of tattoos nor piercings. One can be salvaged but the other is forever. For Christ's sake, get a damn pen and paper if you must sketch. I was happy she could be here with us. My heart hurts to think of her being shipped off to the sands of Afghanistan and even if she returns she may be minus an arm, both arms, leg or both legs. I shall worry about her.

I loaded most of the leftovers into one of those huge aluminum pans used to bake a turkey and it followed the daughter and her family home. Christmas dinner will be a ham or a prime rib roast. The roast always goes over well; everyone likes prime rib.

Carrie spent the night and as soon as she appears, we have errands to run. She thanked me for her new car booster seat. That's a sad state of affairs when a 4 yr old recognizes the need for a new seat and is appreciative. To me that just shows how much she disliked the old one.

I was on my feet most of the day yesterday and I noticed a little burning in my heel toward the end of the day. Ice and salve. It continues to relief the burning. I'm hoping if I continue with the salve and ice I won't have to have surgery on this. Time will tell and a month to be exact is the time I'm allotted to judge whether this is working or not.

I'm outta here to perk a fresh pot of coffee and watch the news. Carrie will be up soon and my day will be consumed by her. She's a voracious little time hog.