It’s January 2014… wow… Surprise. I’m still here… I’m guessing that some of you reading this are not as surprised as my doctor and I am. Early in 2013, and again in May 2013, as you may have read in earlier posts, based on my condition, it was doubtful I would live until the end of the year. God evidently has other plans and is not ready for me yet. So, I am still making the most of my time here and doing what I can to still have fun, visit with friends and people who love me, and also relax and take it easy when needed.
Well, after several weeks of working on the shell puzzle that my friend Mary Lou lent me, its finally finished. This was a challenging and very fun puzzle to complete. Pam and I started assembling the puzzle as if it were different puzzles, since it really is puzzles within a puzzle. I think we had 6 separate puzzle boards going at one time. When we finally had enough of each section completed we put it on one large board and started to connect the sections. Now that we have finished the puzzle, and we have so many hours in it, we aren’t ready to take it apart. Look closely at it and you will see why. If you click on the pictures below, they will enlarge so you can see them in more detail. You will also be able to see the shapes of some of the pieces. Some pieces are shaped like a pair of eye glasses, a shell, a tennis racket, and some other unusual shapes. One of the challenging things about this puzzle, besides the outside of it which is a scalloped shell shape, is that many of the pieces did not interlock, they just fit against one another. This made it very tricky to move the puzzle board while keeping the puzzle intact. This is the first puzzle we did in which we did the border last. It would have been almost impossible to start with the outside edge and work inward. It was easier, we think, to work in sections, then finish the outside edge last. In case you are interested, this puzzle is 27″ x 27″, and over 1000 pieces, some of them small.
Since we finished this puzzle, we started and completed, a new puzzle of a bakery. It’s lots of fun and a lot easier than a few other puzzles we completed recently. The pieces seem to be more of the standard puzzle pieces. After doing lots of puzzles, I think we prefer the puzzles that have more unusual and interesting shapes, rather than the puzzles where the pieces line up in rows and are about the same size and shape pieces.
In addition, I’m still adding photos, cards, and other items to my door poster. It’s filled in quite a lot since I started it in July 2013. I had no idea how it would progress and be filled in when I began the door poster. Now, it’s so full, I’m running out of places to put things on it. Seeing it evolve and change as pictures and other items are added really is fascinating. I look at the poster frequently, and all the time when I’m laying in bed. It warms my heart so much to see pictures of people who mean a lot to me, and the cards, pictures, etc. that people send to me letting me know they care about me, think about me, and love me.
When I was at Arnold’s Wildlife Center recently, Sue Arnold let me have some peacock feathers so I added them to the sides of the poster. I got thinking the other evening, now that I have this wonderful door poster created, that I am not able to close my bedroom door. I don’t want to take anything off of the poster, so I started thinking of an alternative to how I can have some privacy in the bedroom for when the times comes that I might have visitors and need to change my clothes, or have a nurse help me. I came up with a solution… I bought a tension curtain rod and a long curtain panel. This way, I can put the curtain rod up over the door frame and hang the curtain. It can be pushed to the side when not needed and pulled closed when it is. Pretty clever idea… glad it was put into my thoughts.
Here is what I see when I’m laying in bed looking the door poster.
One of my close friends is friends with Artist Peter Max. When she saw him recently, she told him about me and he took a white baseball size card out of his pocket and he drew an angel for her to give me. It’s proudly displayed on the top section of my door poster. I feel very special and honored that they both thought so much of me to share my story and for Peter Max to draw this angel for me.
Several of my high school classmates have still been keeping in touch with me, you may have read a story I wrote about it the end of September and early October 2013. Also, in an earlier story I wrote about how Lois and I used to read Shel Silverstein books when she was confined to bed. The poems and stories always made us laugh. Over the years, I still read the stories and I share them with others to cheer them up too. Well, a few weeks ago, I got an unexpected package in the mail from Joan. When I opened it, I found a small stained glass angel, which I promptly hung on my door poster. Also in the package was a biography of Shel Silverstein. What a great surprise. I love to read and I read several novels a week. This is a nice change and I really, really enjoyed reading the story about Shel. I learned so many things I didn’t know about him. One thing that comes to mind… he wrote A Boy Named Sue that was recorded by Johnny Cash. I had no idea that Shel was the composer of that song. He also wrote many other songs and lyrics, and even won a Grammy. Shel was born in September 1930, and died in May 1999. When he was in the service, he wrote and drew cartoons for Stars and Stripes. In the mid 1950s when Playboy magazine was starting out, he drew cartoons for the magazine, and continued to do so for many years. He also lived in the Playboy mansion, sometimes for months at a time. He also had several houses around the USA, and even lived on a houseboat some of the time. If you ever get a chance, get the biography called A Boy Named Shel by Lisa Rogak. After reading this book and learning more about Shel, I went to Utube and did a search for his name and I found a video of him and Johnny Cash singing part of A Boy Named Sue, and several other videos of him singing and reading poems, etc. It was very interesting and entertaining.
I’m still making myself get out of my apartment almost every day. Some days I go to the grocery store. Other days, I go to various stores just looking around, or picking up things I need. I also get together and have lunch or go places with my friends, and also sometimes with my mother. Today, mom and I went to a Green Market and walked around. Just as we were getting ready to leave it started raining really hard. One of the vendors was very kind and let us stand in his booth until the rain let up. I came home and did some laundry, and ate a little bit for lunch. Tomorrow, I am having lunch with my mom and her sister. I still can eat, but the quantity of food I can eat is getting less and less.
Years ago, I had really short hair, it’s getting time to cut it short again. I like my hair short, but then I have to get haircuts about every 3 weeks because my hair grows quickly. Having long hair means I don’t have to get it cut very often, and most of the time I wear it in a ponytail, or pulled up with a large hairclip. In many ways, it’s easier to have it long. When I get it cut, I’m going to donate my hair like I have done previously. My ponytail will be sent to a company that makes wigs that are distributed to people that need them.
I’ve been asked what I do all day now that I haven’t been able to travel. Some of the other things that take up my time, besides writing my blog and things mentioned above, are reading books, listening to music CDs, taking naps, and watching a few television shows, mostly Ellen, NCIS, NCIS LA, Jay Leno, and Jimmy Fallon. I am usually awake until about 2 a.m. and I get up around 9 a.m. A few friends sent me DVDs, so sometimes I watch them. One series I received is Season 1 of Touched by an Angel. I used to love watching that show when it was on TV. Another friend sent me a set of the Carol Burnett Show. It’s been great fun and lots of laughs watching those shows. I used to watch Carol Burnett many years ago when the show was on TV. The cast and guests are so funny in the sketches. Lots of clean humor, and lots of clever characters. Sometimes the silence or look on a characters face makes me laugh or smile. Many of the sketches I remember, but every now and then there are some I don’t remember watching. I still enjoy watching ones I have seen several times before.
Recently, when I have had friends visit, we have read out loud and in funny voices, Oh, The Place’s You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein books of poems like Where the Sidewalk Ends and the Light in the Attic, and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, as told to Jon Sciedszka. We laugh so much and have fun when reading them. Laughter is so important. It changes a sad mood into a happy one pretty quickly. I tend to be too serious sometimes and laughing is really a good thing to do often. In a post sometime the last half of 2013, I put links to some of these books in a story. You can do a search and find them on the Internet, or you can read through my stories and find the link. You might also read some of the inspirational poems, etc. as you go back in time through my stories.
