Nose Pat-a-cake

This morning before getting up Ms Kitty positioned herself beside my pillow and while I’m indulging her in our morning activity of baby talk and chin scratching she is observing that raised lump in the middle of my face. I guess it was more noticeable because I was lying on my back.

She put her nose on my right nostril for a few seconds and when I began to laugh she moved back but continued to focus on my nose. Using her right paw she reached over and patted my nose about six times while turning her head to the side. This is a gesture she uses when trying to figure out something. Still curious she repeated the nose patting six more times.

I don't know if she solved the mystery or lost interest but she was soon off to the kitchen for breakfast and then to see what she could knock off of the end table in the living room. A cats work is never done.

Button, Button

The phrase use it or loss it even applies to sewing on a button. For many years I made many of my clothes and for many more years I have not sewn anything. I lost a vital button off of a favorite pair of slacks and could either throw them away of replace the button.

It took a while but I finally found the button box, the thread box and the box containing the needles and thimble. Fortunately the needles were the kind that has a split top to draw the thread through not the kind requiring the thread to be guided through the eye. I had enough trouble threading the easy kind.

My button box was suffering from malnutrition and the right button was not there. I was sure I had saved the detached button and put it in a safe place. To quote my son-in-law Marc, “That’s a place that only small children and thieves can find.” However I was finally successful in finding the original button.

Unfortunately Ms Kitty chose this time to be very loving and insist on rubbing against me as I tried to be accurate while threading the needle and placing the needle in the button hole. After much effort I finally achieved what once came so easy that I failed to regard it as a blessing.

In my youth I thought I was responsible for all the wonderful things I could do, but I now know it was Heavenly Father in the driver’s seat all along and I was only the recipient of the gifts he bestowed.

Black Jack

I have four great grandchildren younger than my Jack-in-the-box antenna ball. And it shows the many rain, snow, wind, and sun seasons it has lived through. It was covered with cracks and dirt.

My kids gave me a new one two or three years ago but I couldn’t get the old one off so it was still on when I drove through Jack’s a few days ago. While I groped for change the young man at the first window said, “I’ll be right back”. He returned with a new Christmas Jack ball and said it was the last one. He said that my Jack needed to be replaced. I explained that I was unable to remove the old ball. He called another young man that came out to the car and took off the old ball and put on the new one.

I’m now ready for next Christmas. I was so impressed and grateful I did the phone survey. Now I have a new antenna ball and will probable win the $10.000 for taking the survey.

InThe Home Stretch

At this time of Life (I was asked to share this at RS)

When I was younger ‘A wrinkle in time’ was just the title of a book but it is now plural and takes on a new meaning.

I’m here to represent the oldies and moldies. My life might be described as mirth after metapause I like to laugh and I’m happy
.
I am 78 years old and I have been retired for 14 years. For the first 12 years of retirement I was my sweet mothers care giver and was some what confined in my activities.

I was orphaned at the age of 76 and for the last 2 years I have been free to do what ever I wanted to do, within reason.

When someone says,” go” I’m ready. Last year my granddaughter Paige and I took a road trip across the USA. We planed the trip in three days and drove 10,086 miles in 50 days and visited 35 states. Last month Kati Mead and I took a cruise to Mexico
and at the end of this month I’m flying to Hawaii for 10 days.

Two weeks ago during the night my cat, Ms Kitty, jumped on my left ankle and caused a superficial phlebitis. The doctor told me to stay off of the tread mill and that was welcome news, because I hate the tread mill! I now had an excuse to take time off from the gym and not feel guilty. I go to the gym because like the hour glass of time I’m growing bottom heavy and my hour glass figure now more nearly resembles a bowling pin.

Because of my ankle injury I bought 2 prescriptions. That’s unusual. I’m in good health and don’t wear choppers and only wear glasses for seeing. I don’t take any medication and haven’t bought a prescription drug for over a year. At that time I had taken in a cat that had 3 kittens, and she thought Ms Kitty was a threat to the kittens and attacked her. I thought the fight was over and pick the mama cat up, I was wrong she was still full of fight and I got a bitten. Here is the surprising part I went to the Chino Hospital emergence and was the only patient there. No waiting! That’s a tale so rare it’s worthy of my journal.

Maybe cats are hazardous to my health.

Ms Kitty is a loving and entertaining companion. I put some of her escapades on my blog and some of my readers suggested that I write a book about her. Lately she has been fascinated with my knitting and is determined to get the yarn, so I keep it in a bag with a zipper and keep it closed. Yesterday I found the zipper on my knitting bag down about 3 inches and a bunch of the yarn was pulled out. Out smarted again!

I wouldn’t believe it either if I didn’t know Ms Kitty so well.

My expenditures are a little less than my income and I have no debt. I don’t use credit cards. My home is paid for and I rent part of it to 6 wonderful people. The 4 missionaries have their own 3 room apartment. And 2 ladies, mother and daughter, share a large bedroom in the rear of the house they take care of the house and cat while I travel. This means I’m not alone, but I have privacy and freedom.

I sleep as late as I want and I leave the dishes in the sink if I feel like it. I have no one to answer to but myself and Heavenly Father, although my daughter keeps a close check on me to be sure I’m doing what I should do. It seems we have changed positions and she is now assuming the roll of leader.

I have a loving family but the duties of a great grandmother are not as demanding as that of a grandmother and that leaves a lot of time to play with the Red Haters, eat out and go thrift store shopping. I still can’t find time to do things I don’t like to do. I heard somewhere that a grandmother is a mother that has been promoted and I have been promoted twice and as strange as it seems the higher the promotion the less the authority.

Many of my peers that I planed on spending time with after retirement are off on a trip to Paradise. Like the dinosaurs my generation will soon be extinct. That’s OK because I have a passport, like to travel and I’m always ready to go.

My plans, wants and needs seem to change from day to day. I thought about redecorating my home but I’m not convinced I’ll be around long enough to justify the expenditure.

I think about washing the car and then someone says “go” and I’m off. Oh well, if I wait long enough it will rain and nature will take care of that problem.

My car is a 2000 Toyota Corolla. It gets better gas mileage than the new ones are laying claim to and I have no one to impress, it’s paid for and I’m happy with it.

I was scrappily married for 10 years and have been happily divorced for 49 years and am still waiting for Mr. Right to come along. I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for over 45 years. I love the gospel, my life, my family
and my church family.

I would tell you more but I was only given 5 minuets on the program and I can’t begin to count my blessings in that short amount of time

New Food Please

About 2:00 pm this afternoon I went to Pet Smart and bought a large bag of cat food. The missionaries brought it into the kitchen and set it on the floor. Ms Kitty was very interested and looked it over. Because she has opened a large bag of cat food in less than five minuets I quickly put it in the walk-in pantry, while she watched.

About 6:00 pm Ms Kitty was in the kitchen looking at the pantry door and meowing. I went into the kitchen and she continued to cry and look at the door. I opened the door and she went to the bag of cat food.

This is the first large bag of cat food that Ms Kitty hasn't open before I got to it. I'm getting smarter.

She had food in her dish but she knew the new food was in the pantry and made it clear that she wanted it!

Out Smarted Again

Ms Kitty has been trying for a week to get my knitting bag open. It has a long zipper opening and I felt sure it was safe.

Today I found the zipper open about three inches and a wad of yarn pulled out a little way. I would say this was impossible if I didn’t know Ms Kitty so well.

Parking Boo Boo

My friend Kathryn went out to lunch and stopped at the 99 cent store. I parked in a handicap parking place but forgot to hang the handicap card from the rear view mirror.

When we came out of the market the parking lot cop was by the car. I went to the car and he asked if it was my car and said the police were coming because there was no parking card in view. I told him we both had a card but forgot to display it. He said we should leave right away I did! Maybe part of my disability is forgetfulness…but I think I have now taken the cure.

Ms Kitty Strikes Again

Sunday evening my ankle started to itch and I discovered a very dark red/purple lump about 1 ½ inches across. It looked bad! I applied ice and elevated my foot.

Monday morning my doctor had me come in at 11:30 am. He must have been concerned too. He asked if I had bumped against something. I couldn’t remember anything that could have caused this superficial phlebitis. (Meaning bleeding from a vein under the skin and not life treating.)

This morning when I was waking up I remembered Ms Kitty running across my legs before I got out of bed Sunday morning. It hurt and I kicked and yelled at her but went back to sleep and thought no more about it until this morning. She weights about 15 lbs. and when all her weight was concentrated on one foot on my ankle it was like being poked with a pole. She often walks across my bed with out a problem, but this morning she was racing and jumped on my legs. I'm sure we were both sorry.