Payback

As many of you know I took the HP laptop with me to South Dakota last week. This is what I found when I got home today. Taped to the back door.
Payback for sending him a photo of my Thanksgiving Day dinner.

Was told to kiss it

Well, here it is Thanksgiving day. I am miles and miles from home in South Dakota, and I know that Bud has an airport pick up to make at Chicago.......as I sat down with a plate of food I picked up my phone and snapped a photo.
Simply could not resist.

Yum, Yum I feel a nap coming on.

After I finished desert and all, I text messaged it to my husband, because he was a bit upset that he wasn't going to get turkey today.
Can you believe it? His reply was "kiss my but"

When he called me a bit later, when I saw it was him calling me I answered the phone with kissing noises. He told me Becky was going to save him enough turkey for a sandwich when he got home. Plus why should he care. He had turkey a couple Sunday's ago.

I do not know how they fixed their turkey, but it was not dry at all. I actually liked it and I'm not real crazy about turkey. The resturant was only open from 11:00 to 1:00 and you had to make reservations. She told me they had 104, plus I guess Baxta's served and they also had a meal at one of the churches.

After lunch I took another drive out into the country. No I didn't find the building that I have a photo of that I am told is out here somewhere. I really wanted to know exactly where it is, but nobody seems to know.
Has anybody seen this building?

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

Thankful for family and friends, for the health that we do have even tho not always to our liking.

Hope everybody has a good day and doesn't eat too much turkey.

I don't think they know I can understand them

Every time I come out here there are a lot of Amish out here. I don't think they know that I can understand most of what they are saying. Haven't caught any of them talking about me yet. Just waiting tho. This morning I am wearing my gray New York City shirt, a pair of gray sweat pants. And no nonsense socks..... Nope no shoes, I don't have to go outside so I just put socks on. My feet hurt.

Later after I rest after my treatment I think I will drive into Mitchell to Walmart. I need to get labels to make Christmas card addresses and I want the clear labels. If I get them I can see what format I need to use and I can type the addresses and save them until I get home, print them and slap them on my cards in no time flat. Those that go to the church people I will not need to mail, but will need names on them so I know which mailbox to stick them in when they put the mailboxes up at church.

I also need to start Christmas shopping. Need to get it done as quickly as possible. Or at least get ideas on what I am going to buy for people.

I also need to buy something to clean this pc screen with. I see a lot of Bud's thumb prints on the side so I know it hasn't been cleaned recently. He plays a lot of poker on line with the lap top.

Oh, yes, when he called me last night he informed me, we had no heat in the apartment. He called Dale the maintenance man, and they found out it was the circuit board, but he didn't have one with him. So I hope I don't loose any fish. He said it was 64 degrees inside, and the fish tank water was just below the safe zone, so Hope they will get it going soon.

I know I'm all over the place with this post. But deal with it. I'm on vacation and trying to relax so who cares.

Scenes from yesterdays drive into the country

As I went on my drive down to the lake yesterday I noticed these balloons caught up in the tree. Have to wonder did some small child loose his/her balloons or were they set off on purpose and do they have a tag attached to them. Guess I'll never know. Don't think I can climb this tree to get them.



Every time I go down to the lake we come across this road and every time I go, I wish I could go sledding down this hill. OF Course somebody best be down the road a bit and make sure there was nobody coming up the hill or you'd be a dead duck. Wonder if the people who live out here have actually done it before.


A look at the lake.




Bud has always said that someday he wants to stay in one of these cabins for a week when we come out here. They have three at one access and this time around I see they gave 4 & 5 located at the other access. May have to try it, but I know I won't try to cook over the open fire. He would have to bring the small refrigerator and microwave along so that I wouldn't have to run into town (5 miles at least) for food.
Of course if the lake restaurant was open we could always go over there and he could let me eat steak every night.


YEP, that's right I didn't get out of the car. It is COLD out here.
Took the pictures out the car window.

Modern vs primative

Modern or updated vs primitive

I believe this is my 22nd visit to the Ortman Clinic in South Dakota.
Have stayed at 4 different motels in town.

The Ortman Hotel is attached to the clinic. Some of their rooms are very plain, and small. But then some of the amish don't want big rooms, etc,


This room is down the hall from me. Very, Very small with a small bath.
Some rooms are connected and share a bath.



Room is very, very small.


But this bath isn't to bad.



I would feel cooped up in this room.




My bath isn't the biggest, but it isn't the smallest either.



And there is plenty of room to walk around the bed.



There is a table and lamp between the bed and clothes rack.
And look there on the left Yes that is a microwave and small refrigerator. Very nice.
Some rooms are lucky to have one chair to sit on and I have 3.
The six O'Clock town whistle just went off. Only town I have ever stayed in that they blow a 12 noon whistle and a 6 p.m whistle. They also tested their sirens, or I sure hope it was a test it was 1 minute long steady (all clear signal)... the 3 minute long steady is a weather signal. Alternating steady a fire signal (all their firemen are volenteers) and Wail is an attach signal. (This information is posted on the inside of my door. Guess they don't want their guests to be frightened.

How much time till Christmas?

When I think about it, Christmas will be here before we know it. Are you ready? I did put up a small Christmas tree in the living room this morning before I went to have my facial.

Will I have enough energy later to put up the bigger tree in the dining room inside the back door? Well, why not put it in the dining room? We don't eat out there anyway. What meals I do cook we seem to eat in the living room on blue lap trays.
I sure am glad I don't have to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Lately I really don't like cooking any more.

Where will I put the presents? Well, if there are any they most definitely will not be under the tree in the living room. It is sitting on top of a plastic covered drawers behind the couch. Small but pretty.

Perhaps I'll do most of my shopping on line next week when I am off. Hope the Internet doesn't give me fits up there.

Modern Technology

Modern technology can sometimes be very frustrating for me. Here I am about to leave home for a week and this afternoon I could not get on line downstairs with the lap top. Is this what I get for insisting that I am going to take the lap top with me?

I ended up coming upstairs and find that for some odd reason we were not connected to Internet on the main computer either. After trying a number of things -Turning units off and resetting, I was finally able to log onto Internet upstairs again.

Hopefully this will have solved my lap top problem too.

Life is good when things work, but when they create problems I wonder are all these new technology things worth it?

My bags are all packed for me to leave in the morning.

Bud will be leaving ahead of me, only he is going to Bloomington to catch the 6 a.m. flight to Boston, New York to go to Akron, New York to pick up a vehicle that Miles bought off the Internet.
He is to be back on Monday night, probably will be late. Then on Tuesday he is to take his mother to Chicago to Northwest Memorial to have three procedures done on Wednesday. Yep the day before Thanksgiving. I can only imagine what the traffic will be like for them coming back home.
Thanksgiving Day he goes back to O'Hara airport to pick up a couple and their little one. And he is hoping that next week end the trip to Montgomery, Alabama will be a final go. So why did he worry so much about being home alone and me being in South Dakota. Looks like I would have been the one at home alone if I wasn't going West.

I sure am glad Veda and David can stop by and feed the fish, or we might have a few dead ones before I got back.

Anybody hear anything about North Carolina having tornatos recently? Veda has family living down here and they were telling her what damages were done. I sure don't remember seeing anything about it in the news.

I saw my nephew got a Buck when he went out deer hunting.... Good job. But tell me why do people like a sport where they sit out in the super cold and all but freeze to shoot things?

One more Day

One more day and the week end will be upon us. Laundry, packing, making reservations for Bud to take his mother to Chicago on Tuesday for her procedures on Thanksgiving Eve. Yep, downtown Chicago on one of the busiest days of the year. She is to have 3 procedures. One at 9:30, one at 10 and another one in the afternoon. She wanted to go the day before and stay the night. Wish I could be a little mouse. I'm sure that will be a different kind of trip for him. They are booked into the motel right across the street from the Hospital. He is not looking forward to coming home with people going south for Thanksgiving with families.

Doing some of the laundry tonight since Bud is going to Michigan tomorrow. Today they went to Ohio and back. Saturdays are never long enough to get everything done. Plus I have a facial at 10:30 and will need to get my bags all packed too. Hope I don't forget anything, but it seems as tho every time I go out of town I always seem to forget something.

SO, if I can get thru one more day at the office --I'm out of here for a week...Ya

Julie will do payroll tomorrow to get the feel of it since she will be doing it on her own next Friday. I have a little bit of filing to do, but all in all there is actually nothing on my desk that needs to be done. Ya....perhaps it won't be trashed to no end when I get back. But wouldn't bet on it because it will be the end of the month when I get back. There will be lots of billing and probably dozens of invoices from our suppliers to post before we can go to the next month.

Just think a very short time and Christmas will be here. Are you ready? NOT ME, I really haven't started shopping yet. I may do most of my shopping on line this year, I really don't want to put up with all the people out there. The world seems to have gone crazy. Their driving is really bad. They pass you like they are going to a fire and yet there they sit at the next light waiting for it to turn green.
What is everybody's hurry? We should all stop and smell the roses. Take life a bit more easier and simple. Perhaps we would all live a bit longer.

So guess I should get a good night sleep.

Count down has begun

Count down to the week end has begun. On Sunday I will be traveling to St. Louis, to catch my plane to South Dakota. (No, I cannot fly on my broomstick). I know I have been called the wicked witch of the East here at the office, but I cannot fly on a broomstick.
I am so looking forward to a whole week of relaxation, peace and quiet, and definitely my phone not ringing as much as the phone here at the office does.

Yesterday and so far today we have been real busy. Guess with the weather turning colder people are turning their furnaces on.

It will be a busy week before I go. Tonight is Carlos O'Kelly's with the church group of girls. We will be celebrating two birthdays tonight. No gifts, just crazy cards. Unless you really don't know the person, then you stick to nice cards.

Wednesday night I go to Macon for a hair cut. Thursday night it looks as tho I actually have a free night with nothing planned. Friday night I will need to get a few groceries for the household so that Bud will have something to eat while I am gone.

Saturday I have a free facial scheduled. Amy gave me a gift certificate for a pedicure last year, but then the gal who did those is no longer there so, she is going to give me a facial instead. (So I will look all beautiful for my trip away from home).ha.ha.
Honestly tho it does feel so good to have her do a facial.

Had an e-mail from my brother Levi this morning. Guess he spoke with Edward and he is back home and on medication. But did get his movement back in his arm again. Will have to get his strength back again. Didn't say if he is expecting to return to his upholstering soon or not.

COLD---COLD---COLD

Today I feel as tho it is cold out there. We actually had a few snow flurries today too. Nothing that will or did stick the ground is too warm yet.

One man came in to pay his bill and said his neighbors probably thought he was nuts. He was using the lawn mower to mulch his leaves this morning and it was snowing... It was pretty, but I am just not ready for winter to be here yet.

Normally I am hot, but today I could have used a sweater here at the office to cover my short sleeves. My hands feel like they are freezing.
I sure dread winter..........Can I retire and move?

He does have eyes

They did get a photo with his eyes open, but he definately did not open them for his great aunt Verna. I stopped by the hospital on the way to the pet store. So they sent me this photo with his eyes open. They should be able to go home tomorrow.
Tonight I promised to watch a friend of ours 2 children so they could go out to eat with family. Her sister is here from Florida and the grown ups wanted to go to Stoneys to eat. So from 6 to whatever I will be with their two children.

Two Deaths in household

Two deaths in household. Found out this morning that yep, not one but both of my snails had died. The tank was a mess, and I started to do a much needed water change. It hadn't been that long since I had done one so I was a bit upset that it needed to be done already. After all I buy the water by the gallon since I cannot use City water or they would all be dead. So I fished them out and he gave them a garbage grave......

I think they F'd themselves to death. Every time you came downstairs they were at it. I think she just said forget it and died, and he died of loneliness, etc.

So I guess instead of snails I will go and see if I can get a picosumus for that tank too.

I don't think the angel fish are grieving much either. They didn't like me with my cyphering hose, but they'll get over it. Already the tank looks better. I have to get a few more gallon of water, but at least it is a lot nicer.

Mabel -- the most aggressive one in the tank hid from me. Never seen a angel fish that will come to the top and go completely upside down to eat and run the others off so she can have more....Little piggy.
I think he named the other 3 too, but I for the life of me can't remember what their names were. :)

Hope this is the last catastrophe that I have to deal with today.

Isaac Matthew R.

This is how I spent my lunch hour yesterday. Grandma even let me hold him.:)
When I called her to see where they were, etc, I ask if he was in the room. He was not there at that time, but Martha told me they could get him anytime. So, by the time I got there he was in the room with them.



He did not open his eyes for the camera, but when the flash went off he opened them the check to see what was going on before going back to sleep.
Looks like his momma.

Niece had her baby/spoke to my brother

My niece had her baby last night at 11:05 p.m. They ended up having to do a C section. I went over to the hospital at noon to see him. Isaac Matthew R....weighs 8.1 pounds.

Cutie...will have pictures later.

Also, spoke to my older brother. They think they caught it at it's early stages, they were able to give him the medicine and he did not have any spells since. He has his motor functions back again. When they first went to the emergency room he couldn't make his left arm obey his commands. They do not have all the results from the tests that they have run. He has not been on any blood pressure meds. When I ask if he had high blood pressure, he stated he didn't know. To me that seemed a bit odd, I think all the rest of the family has been or is on meds for cholestrol and or blood pressure and some of us on both. Perhaps this spell was a warning and eye opener that he too needs to be on meds to keep things under control.

Bud went to Decatur, Indiana today for a vehicle, and Darwin picked one up in Fort Wayne. Have dinner in the oven and he should be home shortly. Will try and post some pictures later tonight.

Waiting for baby/sickness

My great niece is in St. Mary's not making much progress on having that little boy yet. Her mother is with her, but my other neice that was there ended up in the emergency room. She has an infection and went home.

Late afternoon, one of my brothers called and informed me our older brother had a stroke this p.m. and is in the hospital.

Have not heard anything new on either one of these items.

I hate the thought of the fact that he had a stroke, I remember everything we went thru with my dad when he had his strokes. Also makes me aware how important it is that all of us take care of ourselves. If you have high blood pressure, keep it under control.

So, my day is ending on a different kind of note.... mixed feelings. Will have a new great nephew in the near future, and a brother whom we don't see often since they live so far away not doing so well healthwise.

Thank goodness today was not as nuts as yesterday. Made for a much nicer day!!!!

What will today bring?

A fresh day ahead of us. What will today bring? Will it be a zoo day or not.
Dee, most days when it is like this I'd say I was the monkey. Into a lot of different things and never getting anything done.

I was able to do a bit of updating on my other blog. If you haven't checked it out you may want to.
http://verna-httpwwwbloggercompostsgblogid.blogspot.com/


I was really glad to be able to get out of here and go home by the end of the day. Fixed soup and cheese toasties for dinner the watched TV and crocheted. So a nice quiet evening was very welcome.

Julie once ask me what we do at night time after I get home from work. At her house with 3 little boys there is no time to sit to watch TV or crochet. But since there are only 2 of us in the house anymore I find that some evenings it is very quiet around our house. Sometimes almost too quiet. And since Bud did all the laundry yesterday I didn't have to worry about that either.

Sherri, you commented about not liking to touch other peoples skin....well, I have been taking training to do foot reflexology. And I must say that at times I think I should just have gone in for massage therapy. Some peoples feet are horrid. Then there are those who won't let you touch their feet at all, but will let you work on their hands. I find that ladies feet are much easier to do then men's. Most men's are so calloused that you have to use so much pressure that I find my fingers really hurting by the time I get done. (I'm sure most of my brothers feet would be the same).

I first started taking reflexology lessons and doing reflexology in hopes that I might be able to supplement my income a bit. I don't make a lot, but when I can put all the money back that I make doing the extra things we have it to use when we want to go on vacation. Earlier this year it is what we used to eat in New York City. Thanksgiving week it will be what I use to spend the week in South Dakota.

My massage therapist tells me I do a great job when she gets one, and that I will be able to do as many as I want per day or week after or when I wish to retire from this zoo office. She always has people wanting reflexology and have to wait 6-10 weeks to get in. Guess there are only 2 people here in Decatur who do it anymore. So it is a position I may be doing more research in and getting into within the next 3-5 years.

So the day has begun. The phones are not doing what they did yesterday. So I am going to be positive. It will be a good day!

Time Flys

Time really flys by when you are having fun. Or that is what I have always been told. Today I want to answer this phone by saying "Welcome to the Zoo".... oh, I guess this isn't the zoo after all, but it sure seems that way to me.

Utterly chaos....... These service men are going to drive me to drink something much
stronger then Mt. Dew or water.

They constantly call in and insist on talking to Julie. As tho I didn't know how to look up a few things.... WELL the last guy when he ask for her I Stated NO you can't talk to her, what can I do for you? (She was away from her desk) And yesterday and today she wants to throw them out in the middle of Rt. 51.

After all this is not my first day on this job. If I remember correctly Kim was 5 weeks old when I started this job...and she us more then 28 years old now. SO, I should be capable of looking up parts, warranty and about anything else they want to know.

People calling in. Why if you don't have heat would you not pay the extra and make sure that it was fixed that day?..... Yet when you don't get there the next morning bright and early they will call back and complain that we haven't been there yet.

If I ever change jobs, I want to be in a job where I don't have to listen to people complain...... Perhaps I should go to massage school and learn to be a massage therapist....at least 3/4 of the time people getting massages don't talk to you.

Thanksgiving Day for The Coleman Household

This is Thanksgiving Day for the Coleman household. Since I do not plan on being home on Thanksgiving Day I promised Bud I would cook him a turkey and some of the trimmings on a Sunday. Today is that Sunday. Turkey is in the oven, will add mashed potatoes (Real Potatoes-not box), and gravy and make some dressing. Hope I can manage to make dressing for only two since I used to make it at home for all of us. Then I did purchase a pumpkin pie as desert. More then enough food for the two of us. Being able to eat like this we are greatful and thankful for what we do have I know there are a lot of people in this world who don't have nearly as much as we have.
(I'm not crazy about turkey, so he will have plenty of left overs for enjoyment next week too.).
Thanksgiving week--Lord willing I will be spending it in South Dakota for the week. And on Thanksgiving Day he has a pick up to be made at the Chicago airport. So it is probably best that we have our Thanksgiving Feast early this year.

Extra money

Extra money can be made after work, especially if word of mouth advertising lets people know that you are capable of sewing. Hemming pants are nothing unusual for people to ask to be done, but today I was ask to take the sleeves out of the shirt. That was a first. But since he is wearing it under a uniform and sleeves can't show I battled with the Jersey knit and took the sleeves out of the shirt. Hope it is okay with the guy who ask me to do it for his son.
Gives me a bit more to stash in my vacation fund.
No, you can't get rich sewing for people, but I enjoy sewing so I might as well make use of my evening and be useful.

This week when they Leave

My daughter gave this to me for my birthday. I have it displayed behind me on the bookcase here at the office. Lately I am reminded that the later part of this is so true. We are glad when the service men are out the door and not roaming around the front of our desks. So the quicker they turn their time in from the day before and get out of the office the happier it makes us.

Why do some people always do things late?

Why do some people never do things on time. We requested everything to be in the boxes by the 26th so we could get them to Peoria on time.... Well yesterday someone dropped off another two boxes of things off at Big Lots. We went thru the things and found 16 more stockings...so now the count is 1234.... Julie's dad was going to Peoria today so he stopped and took the stuff to Peoria for us.... appreciate the stuff and the stockings, but had Gary not been able to take the stuff up when he was going anyway, one of us would have had to make a special trip to Peoria.

OH, yes, gas is 1.99 at some of the stations today...GREAT!!!!!

Today another nightmare for the phones and peoples attitudes. People want to have exact times and very impatient...then we have the service men today.. somehow they just don't get everything done that needs to be done...so they are short with the office staff...... On top of that we found out this morning that one of our installers has liver cancer. Not good! He didn't come in to work today. I don't know how much he will be working or what they plan to have him do.

Bud did laundry today, so we have clean clothes, Tonight I sent him to play cards with the fellows from Miles Chevrolet.
Perhaps he will come home in a better mood. Not had any work to do lately and he is not in the best moods when work is slow.