COUSINSI came from a

COUSINS

I came from a large family on my dad's side. He had 9 siblings, although only 5 were alive when I was growing up. I had (and have) quite a few cousins on that side of the family. My memories of them are among the best of my childhood.

My cousin Charlie, my late Uncle Cyril's son, and I hadn't been in touch for years until after his mom, my Aunt Betty, died a number of years ago. She had suffered from severe osteoporosis for about 10 years that kept her bedridden; if she coughed, she could break a rib. I wrote to her occasionally during that time and Charlie found my letters and notified me after she died. He was very sweet in what he said about my writing to his mother.

Charlie and his wife Jeanette have a daughter, Suzanne, who was named after me. (I think that is so very nice!) Here is a picture he just e-mailed me of him and Suzanne and her children. (We exchange grandkid pics every once in a while via e-mail.)



I believe Suzanne lives in Texas or someplace in the South, while Charlie and Jeanette live in Orem, Utah, if I'm remembering correctly. This picture was taken at the airport although which one is a good question. It's from a recent visit, anyway.

I don't have a lot of memories about Charlie from when I was young although I know he was older and I do recall him pushing me down outside our grandparents' house at one point. LOL! We were quite young then. My next memories are as a young adult, and that I liked him a lot at that point.

As it happens, I heard from another cousin just a couple of days ago, my Uncle Linc's oldest daughter, Cheryl, (pronounced with a "ch" rather than an "sh"). She is, I believe, 4 years older than I am and we were close growing up. In fact, she taught me to read when I was still kindergarten age while we were playing school at her house. Here is a picture of her as a young adult (in the middle), taken in the mid-1960's at Lake Roosevelt, Washington, where my dad was a park ranger and she and her family were visiting. I had thought this was also me in the picture, on the left, but now I'm doubting that -- I just don't know.



I sent her a copy of this picture and another one with our other cousin, Janeane, who is my late Uncle Junius's daughter. She mentioned in the note I received from her how much she liked getting the pictures and how that was back when we were skinny. LOL! Oh, so true.

She wants to be updated on my family and how I'm doing, so I will definitely write to her before long. She did mention that Uncle Linc keeps them informed as much as he can. Cheryl and her family live in Washington, not nearly as far away as Uncle Linc is in his home in Logan, Utah; you'd think we could get together and maybe someday we will.

*****

I had physical therapy yesterday and, once again, it made me fairly sore. Sleeping last night was a bit iffy because of that, although I remember dreaming (but not what about). Today is laundry day, which will be fairly strenuous to the arm, too, but I will try to be careful. I was told that cutting the thistles is an absolute no-no unless there is a way to do it left-handed. (Maybe I can find some left-handed clippers.) Typing is pretty much okay as long as I watch my posture, which has long been a challenge for me -- I remember my mom criticizing me for slumping when I was a girl, although perhaps her critical nature may have been one reason I slumped. I'm definitely working on better posture.

I won't have more physical therapy for a couple of weeks. It will be nice to have next week off. I have a couple of new exercises to build up the reps on in the meantime.

*****

I am conversing with my cat Stevie through the office door right now. She sometimes comes upstairs and "talks" to me this way. Other than that, she mainly visits me in the loo. Each of my cats finds their own way to communicate with me -- I love my little furry people.

A NEAT THOUGHTSave the Earth . . . it's

A NEAT THOUGHT

Save the Earth . . . it's the only planet with chocolate!!!

(From my friend Edith in Toronto.)

*****



The above photo was one I took at the Newport, Oregon Aquarium on October 19, 2005. I had a comment on it yesterday by a guy named Steve Worthington who makes bronze animals. They are very interesting, especially the turtles.

I have always loved turtles. I had quite a nice-sized one when I was a girl but my mother made me leave it outside, and I came home from school one day and found it dead, chewed up by a neighborhood dog. I was devastated! We obviously didn't know much about turtles at the time; it probably needed a fairly decent-sized aquarium.

*****

I am feeling quite a bit better today. I was sure yesterday that I had undone all the good work I had accomplished in the previous couple of days -- my arm was that sore! But the icing of the upper arm and shoulder along with the exercises have worked wonders. I was even able to get most of my work at the business done last night and this morning, with just a short stack to be filed tomorrow.

*****

Our weather is beautiful. It is sunny but there is a cooling breeze so it's not getting too hot. The afternoon should be perfect for Jeff to mow the lawn, as he plans to.

PROGRESSThere is a saying

PROGRESS

There is a saying that Steve always used to quote: "If all else fails, read the directions." That applies, I believe, to my flyer from my physical therapist, which I have gradually been reading more and more thoroughly and finding out that I haven't been doing my exercises as often or as many reps as I should have. That's probably okay, though, because I have built up gradually to the number indicated.

Yesterday, folding laundry wasn't nearly as painful as it had been the week before. (I was glad to have my little helper, Socks, too, as shown below.)



The day was so beautiful when the sun came out in the afternoon yesterday that I went outside and picked up all sorts of small branches that had blown off the trees during the strong winds a few days ago, in anticipation of Jeff mowing, which he has just let me know he will do tomorrow. I also cut down a few thistles that are growing by the garage, which is separate from the house. I am doing that a very few at a time. I was given strict orders by my PT not to aggravate my arm.

One thing I was told, as well, and have noticed, is that raising my right arm up is very painful and is a no-no. I do it entirely with my left arm, and that has brought me a great deal of relief from pain.

I didn't work Wednesday night but will work over the weekend, as is necessary. Slow and steady is the answer, with frequent breaks.

It is such a relief to not be in pain all the time! I can't believe I waited so many weeks to tell my doctor what was going on and get the referral to physical therapy. I am glad now for my progress.

*****

With ID thieves out there, I get a bit on the panicky side when I don't get any mail, as was the case yesterday. I contacted my neighbor via e-mail to see if she had gotten any, but they have a post office box in town. Today there was mail, though, so I feel better.

THE VERDICTI have

THE VERDICT

I have tendinitis in my upper arm/shoulder area. The physical therapist used an ultrasound machine on me and gave me exercises to do, plus I am to ice the area every few hours and try not to use the arm in such a way as to bother it. I may go no mail on a number of my lists for the next few weeks in order to help the healing. I will likely also cut down somewhat on my correspondence. As for blogging, that probably needs to be shortened as well, but I won't eliminate that entirely, and I will definitely try to keep visiting blogs. Priorities! ;-)

PT IS SCHEDULEDI was able

PT IS SCHEDULED

I was able to call my HMO's nearest clinic this morning and schedule my physical therapy evaluation for tomorrow morning. I will be glad to get that done. I notice that my arm is fine -- unless I use it! LOL! The muscle where the pain is also seems to be a little bit swollen.

Physical therapy isn't a covered benefit under my health plan so I don't know what kind of cost to expect. I can look in my benefits handbook, I suppose, if I can find it.

I really want this arm to get better. I want to buy some Round Up spray and get going on spraying some weeds around the place. I don't know how long it will be before I can do that, though. Perhaps I should buy the Round Up tomorrow afternoon and do the spraying when we have a clear, calm day and deal with the damage to the muscle later. LOL!

The weather right now is quite pleasant. I hear about a lot of heat elsewhere in the country and in Canada. We are lucky but it's hard telling when that heat will come our way. I wish cool weather to those of you who are sweltering!

MY DOCTOR'S DECISION ABOUT

MY DOCTOR'S DECISION ABOUT MY ARM


I am in between Vicodin doses -- or rather, at the end of one and while waiting for the new one to take effect and pretty well knock me out -- so I will blog quickly in the meantime. I am quite relieved at the moment despite my need to rely on this painkiller for now, as I heard from my doctor this morning and she is putting in an order for me to be evaluated by the Physical Therapy department. I will need to give the order 24 hours to go through, which means that I need to call on Monday to get an appointment set up, hopefully at the Tualatin Clinic, as it is closest to me.

I am also thankful that my arm pain didn't radiate down into my forearm and hand last night the way it did the night before, when I hurt horribly. My night's rest last night was fairly reasonable, although I still can't sleep on my right side.

I do hope that there is promise in this future, possibly including PT, to be pain-free!

*****

The following joke came from my friend Jackie:

Caution

A pharmacy major was taking a course in Dispensing. One day
they were discussing the various labels affixed to
prescription containers, such as, "Take with food," and
"Take with water."

At the end of class, the professor passed out a few sample
labels.

Days later he noticed that one member of the class had
stuck one of them onto his chemistry textbook. It read:
"Caution: May cause extreme drowsiness."

Received from Thomas Ellsworth.

Somehow I can relate very strongly to this joke. LOL!

*****

A few days ago, I mentioned a family member who is in the hospital with some serious health problems. This is my brother-in-law Stan (my late husband Steve's sister Virginia's hubby). My most recent report is that he is in surgery due to a large blood clot in his bladder and a kidney stone in each kidney. His daughter, who blogs under the name of Mrs. Darling, is able to keep the family updated due to her daughter having brought a laptop that is usable from their motel room in Boise. I can't complain about my health problems much when I think about those that people like Stan have.

*****

I received a very cute e-mail from grandson Noah this morning, thanking me for the truck I gave him as a preschool graduation gift. It made my day! (He dictates his thoughts to his mother, who types them in and sends them to me.)