Memorial Day

Uncle Sam has stopped by for a visit today,

because, well of course, it's Memorial Day.

If you're not one for grilling,

or drinking and carousing,

take the family to a Chinese buffet.

Perks

Mr. Gadget and I have been very pleased with some of the benefits we've received since moving into the 'hood (senior-citizenhood.) There are cheap movies, cheap train tickets, and lots of early-bird dinner specials--just to name a few.

Just the other day we learned of a new one. My computer monitor died, and Mr. Gadget graciously offered to dispose of it. I really love a man who can open jar lids, reach things on high shelves, and who doesn't flinch when faced with having to dispose of dead things.

He called the public works department and was surprised to learn that senior citizens do not have to buy a permit to use the local dump. It's absolutely free. So Mr. G. loaded the expired monitor in his trunk and prepared to leave, although he was a bit apprehensive. This was because of his experience with having to satisfy the aesthetics of the garbage man who refuses to accept garbage that is too smelly, too heavy, too wide, or too loosely tied.
After he got home, I decided to ask him a few questions.

"How was your dump experience?"

"I know people our age generally start having some problems with elimination," he said, "but I had absolutely no problem at all."

"Were the employees dumper-friendly?" I asked.

"Yes." he said. "They directed me right to the e-cycling trailer and told me to lay out my dead monitor in line behind the others."

"Sounds like it was pretty well organized," I said.

"Not only that," he said, "but there was an old guy sitting on a folding chair right next to the trailer. I figure he was there to help the dump babes."

"How would you rate your dump experience?" I asked.

"You mean with 5 being a very satisfying dump experience, and 1 being I'd never do a dump there again?" he asked.

"That seems like a good rating system," I told him.

"I'd give it a 5," he said. "It was an excellent experience and I felt greatly relieved when I left."

Mousetrap

Have you ever read the children's book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? It starts out like this: If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk. Then he'll ask for a straw. Then a napkin. And on and on and on. My recent dealings with the medical community have reinforced a view I've had for some time--that the medical world is a world of mice and cookies. Here's a story to illustrate.

A young woman--well maybe she was a well-preserved senior--happened to mention to her primary care doc that she had some ringing in her ears.

"How would you describe it?" asked the doc.

"It sounds like it's just in my left ear," she replied. "Though I can't be sure."

"Ringing in both ears is pretty common," said the doc. "But ringing in one ear could be a problem." And she wrote down the name of an ear, nose and throat doc and suggested the woman make an appointment to get it checked.

So an appointment was made for a hearing test.

"You've lost some hearing," said the young whippersnapper of an ear doc.

"Eh?" said the woman. I guess he'd heard that one before because he didn't acknowledge the humor.

"I want you to have another test to see how your brain is receiving sound impulses," he said. "It won't hurt."

So the dutiful young woman scheduled the second test and listened to beeping and buzzing while an auditory technician pounded away on a computer.

"Your right ear is questionable," the ear doc told her at her third visit, "but it's nothing to worry about. I'm going to order an MRI just to rule out a couple of things."

The young woman scheduled the MRI without delay because she knew she shouldn't question the decision of a young upstart who thinks he's old enough to practice medicine even though he can't possibly be old enough to shave.

In the meantime, the young woman sensed the sharp pain of newly-discovered arthritis in her finger. She decided this would be her little secret. She also decided--just in case the end of the world is nigh--to eat more cookies.

Pious poetry

Here sits Sister Edwina

who's weary from too many novenas.

She slipped into her bunnies

and then read the funnies.

There's sure to be a papal subpoena.

Meow

Recently I've been thinking about getting a cat. I even broached the subject with Mr. Gadget. He didn't care much for my idea. In fact, he very quickly threw wet cat fur on it.

"Who would take care of a cat when we're traveling?" he asked. "And what about the food bill? Cats can be expensive pets, especially if you insist on buying deli turkey like you did for Sparkle." Sparkle was our family pet. For most of her life she had only 3 legs, and I did my best to make things easy for her, including erecting a handicapped ramp so she could get up on the bed.

I guess he has some good points, but still. I had my heart set on one of those big orange-stripey cats with big feet.

But I suppose if I did get one the construction guys would put me to work digging ditches, and then I wouldn't have time for dollmaking, so maybe it's just as well....

Getting organized

Mr. Gadget is the organizer in our house, so it really wasn't a big surprise when he offered to help me with some organizing in the Treehouse. Any organizing I've done previously was just pretend organizing--nothing remotely resembling the real thing. This recent effort started after we decided to purchase two new recliners for the loft--to allow for more comfortable TV viewing. This then prompted Mr. G. to rearrange some electronic gadgets, which then required him to steal back a big wooden bookcase he had given me for the Treehouse.

Soon he was strutting around the Treehouse with his tape measure. Actually, it was my tape measure. I think a gal should have a tape measure, and maybe a screwdriver too. The basics. And then he was off to Home Depot for some shelves.

Mr. Gadget is ever-hopeful that eventually he'll be able to train me to be as organized as he is, but the effort required to do this is like pushing a dump truck uphill. I'm resistant. Only because the process of getting organized takes away from precious creating time. He tries to motivate me by buying special containers for my craft supplies. See the nice dark brown ones and the lighter brown ones with the basket weave?

I buy cheap containers at the dollar store. Ones that come pre-labeled so I don't have to waste valuable crafting time sorting things out.

Sometimes I find cheap, colorful ones too. It never hurts to add a touch of color.

See that black area? That's my TV. It's at a perfect level so I merely have to move my eyes up from my handwork and not my whole head. The white drawers are holding my yarn stash. Tech Guy donated this piece. There's no telling what he used it for, so I gave it a good airing-out.

I'm almost totally organized now and I'm feeling surprisingly good about it. Maybe I'll just sit here quietly till the feeling passes.....

A Sunday morning visit to the basement

This morning I decided I'd better get crackin' on my top-secret doll project because time's a-wastin', so I asked Mr. Gadget if he might have some wire that would be suitable for creating an armature-skeleton-thingie. He was pretty sure he did, and he invited me down to the basement where he keeps his gadgets and all of his boxes of gadget-related stuff.

While I reviewed the wire choices, he noticed a box nearby filled with an eclectic collection.

"Isn't this the stuff you were going to take the Goodwill?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah," I said. "I forgot about that. Oh, wait. What's that?"

"There's no way that's going to Goodwill," I informed him. "That's going to the Treehouse."

The other crafty one

So Mr. Gadget has completed his table-refinishing project.

He made a valiant effort to revive it from the brink of death--with lots of sanding and scraping and patching and staining. On Saturday when I returned from my trip to the big city the table was in place and beautifully adorned with Mother's Day roses on a white paper doily.

"How did you find the doily?" I asked incredulously.

"I know my way around a pantry closet," he replied. "I'm not just Gadget Man." Sometimes he forgets that in Blogland he's Mr. Gadget.

There's a lot of action in the Treehouse these days. I'm working on witches and bunny slippers. That would be an interesting combo, wouldn't it? And what about a nun in bunny slippers? Nuns must kick back and put their feet up once in a while, don't ya think?

In addition to all this busyness, I'm contemplating taking part in a doll-making contest in the fall. I'm not divulging any details. For now, it must remain top-secret. But I've come up with an idea for a whimsical cloth and clay doll, and it's going to require me to make an armature--one of those wire thingies that acts kinda like a skeleton. I've never made one before, but how hard can it be? Sometimes you just have to ignore those tapes that play in your head--the ones that play over and over and tell you you're not good enough and can't possibly measure up--and dare to dive off the high board. Here's hoping I don't do a belly flop.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all youse moms out there. Youse. That's an expression you won't find in the grammar books, but one occasionally heard in this part of the country. It irritates me almost as much as fruit and newspaper stickers.

Today I'm kicking back and relaxing, since it's my day. No dusting, no vacuuming, no laundry, and nothing else of a housework nature. In other words, a day pretty much like any other day....

So yesterday I trained to the city to see Big City Girl. For the first time I was able to take advantage of the discounted senior-citizen fare. And they even allow us elder folks to buy our tickets on the train rather than having to fret over those confounded ticket machines.
Here's a city scene that tickled me. I guess these pigeons were too highbrow to engage in scrounging for food on the sidewalk.

I wish I was better about taking pictures in the city. I wouldn't photograph buildings or landmarks. I'd focus on the weird characters--always in plentiful supply. The sidewalks of New York are a veritable circus. Next time I'll try to do better. It probably won't be long before I go again, now that the train fare is a bargain and I don't have to figure out which buttons to push on the machine. There's nothing like a fun day in the Big Apple. Youse never know what might be lurking around the next corner...

High stakes

Tech Guy has unwittingly challenged me to a game of fruit poker. You may remember I'm quite fond of various varieties of the game.

Last night when TG came downstairs for his regular late-night snack, he must have noticed the faces I'd drawn on the oranges. He decided to take me on. He raised me a mango.Now I'm thinking I'd better cut up this canteloupe on-the-quick so he doesn't sneak in with another tricky play and get the upper hand.

Moving on to dairy products, TG is a big fan of hard-boiled eggs. This morning I made some and put them in the fridge for whenever he gets a hankerin'.It seemed like a good opportunity to remind him of a few things...

Misfortune

Last night I was having serious doubts about my future. Mr. Gadget and I ordered Chinese take-out, and when I broke open my fortune cookie there was no fortune inside.

What could this mean, I wonder? Maybe it simply means I have to write my own fortune. I have a few ideas....

I'm starting to crank up the Halloween production here in the Treehouse. Any guesses how many of these oranges have pesky stickers on them? Two. You know how much I enjoy peeling stickers from produce. Maybe I'll recycle them...just for the fun of it. I'll take these stickers back to the produce department and affix them to the avocados. We'll just see how they like them apples...

On Saturday I'll take the train down to NYC to spend some time with Big City Girl. She just returned from a vacation in the Dominican Republic.....where she met some interesting characters.

We'll have lunch, then visit a store I've been wanting to check out for a long time. Maybe they'll have some interesting doll fixins'.

Afterwards, I'll board the train for the trip home--where Mr. Gadget will have drawn me a hot bath, chilled the wine, and prepared a gourmet meal. There's no end of wonderful possibilities when one has to resort to writing one's own fortune..