Just had to share this

Good morning.  I received an email from a friend with this message and found it interesting.  True, and interesting.  We get blamed for a lot but when you look at the power used by later generations, no comparison. 

Fat Budman and Skinny Squeak are happy the ridiculous cold night will turn into a warm day.

No surgery for Carole tomorrow.  We will find out more with the second opinion today.

 

The message that made me smile this morning. (my nut twisty donut helped too)

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In a checkout at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.  So they really were recycled.

But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings.  Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.

But too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

 

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing." We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smartass young person...

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off... especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.--Benjamin Franklin.

 

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Another sewing method stitch

Greetings.  Enjoying your weekend?  Mine has been spent sanding and sanding and sanding and priming and sealing the monster fridge cabinet.  In the house.  What a mess.  We did get it in after cutting 4 inches off the bottom and then gluing it back with brackets.  I never saw plywood this terrible.  Hairy.  Wavy.  Rippled.  No sanding done at all.  But I made progress and will start painting it today.

I really like the blue house with these colors and think I will use more blues in this bottom area.  I'll remove the brown door frame and use a softer gray for the house trim and a dark gray for the roof.  As I was plugging along with my mind on other things, I realized I was no longer using the full stitch sewing method that CL taught me.  Could it be that after all these years decades of doing the half stitch first that there could be TWO full stitch sewing methods?  Why didn't anyone tell me?  I am so grateful to CL for sharing with me, and I'm assuming this other method is also used by stitchers, but I never found out!  So for those of you that are not hoop and stabbers (like me) and prefer a sewing method (you never pull the needle out beneath the fabric) here's what I found myself doing.

Start bottom left, bring needle to top right and insert horizontally....

 

 

 coming out at the top left....

 

 insert needle at bottom right to make the cross, while moving two threads over to start the next stitch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The back looks like this.

 

The needle is always horizontal and pretty easy to do.

 

 I like it!  Are there any more?  I'll still use the half cross method but when using variegated threads, these full stitch methods are perfect.

My sister and I are still discussing the ablation and are making more calls tomorrow.  Her nurse friends told her to hold off.  They know of ablations being done all the time, but have never heard of the complete cut off involved in the AV node.  What if you enter an establishment or venue that has something interfering with pacemakers?  Not enough to harm anyone, except maybe someone relying on it working perfectly.  We know about cell phones and microwaves but what if you are near a cell tower?  Too scary.  Not enough answers.

 

Have a great start to a fabulous week as we approach the end of September.

WHAT????  I've been in a fog since middle of August and can't believe what the calendar is telling me.

 

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My heart goes to...

Vera.  Thank you everyone for entering, for praying, for lifting my spirits.

 

 

 

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Spending money

Hey!  The sun is out and tomorrow will be in the 70's!  Mark is in the garage cutting the fridge cabinet that Dominic made so we can get it in the house, and then put it back together.  Geez.

 

Ran errands this morning and flew through the antique shop at the mall.  I'm cheap enough to squeeze a 1938 nickel until the buffalo poops, but I've been loosening up a bit lately.  So I came home with these.  The blue bucket is an ice cream maker?  Don't know don't care.  I pictured it with greenery at Christmas on my front porch.  The little firkin (?) seems to be pretty old.  I'm not knowledgeable about antiques and values so I don't know if I paid too much.  Too late. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The guy working the counter was surprised at the reasonable price.  Does it look old?  Sure is dirty enough to have been around for a while.

Now about Carole.  She was told by a very nice doctor, to have AV node ablation this Wednesday.  Yikes.  It's not the type of ablation you get for Afib if you don't have a pacemaker, because this procedure shuts off the electrical outlet and you are totally dependent on the pacemaker.  She asked him what happens if the pacemaker fails or malfunctions, and he said "you die".  Really? "Really."  Fairly simple procedure that kills around 6% of patients within the first two days following the ablation.  It is to stop her rapid and irregular rate, but not the Afib, which I don't understand so we are going to her cardiologist Tuesday at 5, and telling the hospital to schedule her later in the day Wednesday in case she backs out.  We need another opinion even though this doctor is highly respected.  There is no going back, no fix, no reversal.  Why can't she have the safer regular ablation?  For now, she is going ahead expecting to be less weak, less breathless, and off several meds.  The one I was concerned about, the dangerous one, he told her to stop immediately.

 

I'll be back tonight with the winner of the heart.

 

Thanks for visiting!

 

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Shredding

Good day to you.  Everyone well?  Hope so.  I worked on Eliza a little and although this linen is not coarse, I have been shredding the DMC like crazy. 

This has happened before but because of pulling out a good number of errors in this piece, it's become maddening.  Just this morning, two times.  The arrow shows where the thread comes out and you can see one is fine, the other shredded and broke into several pieces.  Another piece...

 

 

I never had this trouble with my old DMC skeins.  Maybe because this is 32 count and I never used higher count linens in prior stitching years.  Whatever, it irks me.

This is what the original design looks like and I didn't care for the wacky vase so I changed the symmetry, colors, and fill.  In my defense I didn't change everything - the handles are the same.

Here's where I am and the color I'm considering for the house.  The Uniform Blue is spot on with DMC 413, I'll probably go with the Gentle Art thread.  I haven't followed many of the recommended colors and would prefer the house to not be a color used elsewhere.

And here's what I got yesterday.  I saw the wood frame and metal wheel which made me think it was an old-timer, but my husband said it's a contractor's wheelbarrow.  Still older but not what I thought.  It was free for my bathroom consultation at my cousin's.

I now have several with metal wheels so I think that's enough.  This will go in the back yard somewhere.  I also bought two oak whisky barrel halves that Lowe's had on clearance for 1/2 price.  No where else around here has them any longer, just the newer light wood versions.  Mark drills the metal bands and puts little stainless screws through them to hold the staves in place. We learned from prior barrels!  They stay intact even when rolling to move. I think I'm finished with hanging baskets and will just fill barrels next year.  Next summer.  Summer.  ((sigh))

The cake is gone.  I was going to tell my husband that it slid off the aluminum plate and hit the floor. But he knows that floor dirt would never come between me and chocolate.

 

If you're looking for a really nice (large!) bundt pan, I recommend the Simax.  I have the 10" and would like to get the 8" and the European.  Very very nice stuff.  Several sources online in various prices.  One is here.

I need to find a small project for my Magma (I'm still in love with it) for the doc this afternoon.  The last time she was there, before the hospital stay, she waited 2 1/2 hours in the waiting room.  I'm taking a cooler with snacks.

I have two things I want to post.  One is about what the doc recommended yesterday, and another is storage of threads.  As soon as my head is on straight!

 

Have a great day!!

 

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One of my favorites

Chocolate zucchini bundt cake.  Intense, extra moist, luscious.  I posted the recipe on my food blog and finally put a link to it in the top right column.  It was included in a post back in 2012 but is worth repeating. 

One thing I love about bundt cakes is they don't require icing which cuts down on the calories.  But their greatest feature is the self-healing trick.  I always take a slice right away and then close it up.  No one can tell that I'm an impatient piggy unless they measure the humps.

This is mom's aluminum cake pan, I have another that is larger and locks with a handle.  But this wooden acorn top and the embossing is my favorite.

 

And here's something interesting.  Mark closed the garden and look what he found.  Two completely separate peppers on one stem.  Cool!  Today will be spent baking sausage/rice stuffed hot peppers in spaghetti sauce for the freezer, jalapenos stuffed with breakfast sausage, and a few zucchini casseroles with diced ham. They all freeze well.

 Silk mums and a 5 day candle will be put on my parents' grave for their anniversary.  My cousin has been bugging me to stop and give her some ideas for a bath remodel so I will get that out of the way too.  Mark was searching for mushrooms in the woods behind my brother's house and found a perfectly good old white porcelain farm sink with drainboard and high back buried in mud and brush of an old junk pile close to a steep ravine.   How could old farts with bad backs rescue several hundred pounds of cast iron out of dense woods?  We're thinking.

 

Enjoy your day.

 

Thanks for visiting.