Three flat cats

Petey practices social distancing ... lest he wants a smackdown.

And a bird in a can.

I saw five tiny eggs in there earlier and decided to take a photo.  Mom was not around, or so I thought.  I had the camera resting on the edge of the metal and flashed that bulb about six times, couldn't figure out why the eggs weren't showing.  After I almost lost an eye to a tiny wren in panic mode, I realized she was sitting on them.  This is right at the back door of the garage where the cats come and go without being seen.  I can't move the can, the stool is on cement making a shepherd's hook impossible for hanging.  Cats and coons can easily climb that stool.  If we get a downpour, she will be flooded.  I need to think of something rather quickly, storms are forecast.

Carole's friend's husband has been transferred to Cleveland Clinic after numerous errors and false information.  How frustrating when you can't see them or speak face to face with their doctors.  The friend who lost a husband after bringing him home was mine, not Carole's.  

Bad news Mrs. O'Neil, we think your husband may have had a stroke.  

We need to do an MRI.

Next day

Good news Mrs. O'Neil, the MRI shows he did not have a stroke.

Next day

Bad news Mrs. O'Neil, the MRI shows he had a stroke.

How many MRIs did he have?  One.

She has been very pleased with the communication and information from the Clinic, very glad he was moved there.

We need to take Carole next week but only one person is allowed to accompany a patient, so since I can't drive, Mark will take her for the day and I will stay home.  Carole is ticked and plans to call them and ask for a variance.  I told her to let it go, I don't think all three of us need to be exposed to three different departments of testing and such.  They are diligent in disinfecting, but three old farts at one time from a family of only five is not a good idea anyway.

Hope your Memorial Day was good. 

 Various neighbors had large parties this weekend.

Stay safe.

**********************

Memorial Day

Every year on this day I am reminded of the thousands of young men who lay with their fellow soldiers so far away from home.  Far enough that family did not get to visit their grave, honor them with a funeral, quietly tell them they are loved.  The solitude, the silence, many buried where they died in fields.  What would the world be today without their sacrifice so very long ago?

Lorraine in France

And continuing today.

Arlington

Memorial Day.

Hope you all take the day to remember and honor.

**********************

The good the bad and the nasty

Hey buds!  Memorial Day weekend.  Wow.  That's all.  Just wow.

First the good.  I missed out on 123 and other sites shipment of 36 count Heartland PTP because I was waiting for a money transfer.  It came, but the fabric went.  After searching for two days, I found a piece!!  And a piece of Legacy (whatever the hell that is)!!  In stock, happy dance.  Hope I like them.  She has a half yard of 40 Legacy in stock but I got the last of the Heartland in higher count.  If you email her, she will let you know what is in stock for shipping or needs ordered.  Free shipping over $35 for the weekend.  https://stringtheoryneedlearts.com/


The bad.  More cats.  A sweet faced smaller fluffy apricot has been hanging around and crying at the windows.  Mine want to kill her/him and I can't stop Petey either.  They do not want to be in the house once warm weather arrives and they will howl like a banshee.  This beautiful visitor is truly in trouble, but I'm sure other males will be coming around and the fighting will continue, neutered or not.

More bad.  My wonderful state of PA has allowed my Medicare supplement to raise my monthly fee.  I sign a contract for A YEAR in which time I am not allowed (by law) to change providers, drop the plan, or switch to another.  Yet they were given permission by the PA Dept of Insurance to raise the amount I agreed to for the year.  Seven months of increase and I will bet another in the future.  That my friends, is horseshit. Good for gardens, bad for finances.  And allowing generic drugs that were Tier 1 last year to be moved into Tier 3 that carries a $435 deductible is also that horse thing.  Good Rx is free and cheaper, yet we are forced to pay for a Medicare Plan D contract.

Still on bad.  Carole's dear friend has been dealing with the local hospital after her 77 year old husband took a bad fall and broke his hip in three areas.  She can't see him, the staff is limited, he is not getting proper care, help with eating, no one comes when he calls for bathroom assistance, he fell out of bed (no rails were up) on to the broken hip, has had a stroke and bladder infection while there, and she gets no answers.  How many people are dealing with these emergencies and elderly in nursing homes that are on their own.  Terrible.  My friend's husband recently died and she was not allowed in for his final days so she hired a service to remove him from the hospital and once home, he died within hours.  She is thankful she defied the hospital and was able to be with him.

On to nasty.  Our irresponsible residents in an adjoining city decided to party and raised our Covid cases by 18 in one week.  Asymptomatic, only two with slight illness, but because of that increase we are not going to green as all the other counties around us.  So ticked off as the entire county is toward this individual.  How many people did the positive 18 come in contact with before it was known?  No masks, no distancing, just party time.  And he had symptoms at the time!!   Not a source of fertilizer but certainly a horse's ass.

And here's my progress albeit slow.  I found more errors and am ignoring them.  I also changed the 928 to 927 for contrast and used the wrong blue for the G.  Don't care.  I plan to continue with the border next, a break from the eyelet stitches.

Thank you Marlene for the ripper with the rubber suggestion, getting one this afternoon.  Yes ladies, it's a stitch ripper with a rubber tip.  If I could find my silicone finger I'll bet that would work very well also.  I bought them for protection from the iron when pressing small items and for some reason, they disappeared.  How could that be?

Hope you all have decent weather this weekend and enjoy sitting outside.

Stay well, be safe!
Thanks for visiting.

*************************

I was wrong

assuming the over one would continue to go well.  Who is the trickster of needlework?  The one that hears your confidence and sets you straight.  That makes you miss that one thread of linen.  That tricks your eyes into counting one more or less on paper and fabric.  Hides your needle.  Moves your floss out of order.  Does she have a name?  My mom called me Flossy long before I ever had an interest.  Is that too kind?  How about Needler?  Shall we name a stitching trickster?

I have never had this issue with DMC before but it is shredding like hash browns.  Ending with a feathery piece of floss and a ball on the backside is very frustrating.  There is no way to frog on this count without it happening and the green monster appeared for every word since the last post.  Not only did some of the linen color lighten in those spots, I can't get the dark floss color out.  Tried tape, tweezers, and removed the majority, what's left isn't that noticeable (in sh).  Very difficult in the tiny spaces between over one stitches.

I made some progress and I do like the over one being prominent with the change to dark floss.  The chart color is the apricot of C and D.  The light 712 for the eyelet isn't showing well but I don't plan to change that.  I need to make a decision on the wonky upper alphabet before too long.

I thought I would be moving my baskets into larger pots and tubs today.  But I did not expect this much pain.  It will be much better in a year or so, I'm sure.

Have a good day folks!

Thanks for visiting.

**************************

36 over one

And I did it.  I didn't like it.  But I did it.  How many times have we said that during our lifetime?

There isn't a lot, just a few words down each side and I thought it best to stitch them as I continue the border rather than all at once.  It is pretty tedious for me but I think I finally have it right.  I didn't lose the floss behind the linen even once.  But frogging over one on 36 is the beans.  Called for color is a beautiful apricot but I had such a hard time because there wasn't enough contrast to see the linen threads well.  I tried a little darker, but ended up with the darkest color in the sampler in order to make it doable.

I'm having my postponed toe surgery early tomorrow morning and will be with ice and raised foot the majority of the day, hope to make some progress now that colors are set.

I got my Bubble Gums and sweet potato vines, flowers completed.  The Amish greenhouses are plentiful and beautiful, better than my local nursery.  My large baskets were $13 and 4" pots $2.50.  The great majority are mixed flowers or colors which are beautiful but I'm leery of trying anything new.  The one time I did, they were spindly and half dead in July, too late to get replacements.  It was a real crabby summer.

Part of the book order came in today, the rest is vacationing in Pittsburgh for the last three days.  First time I was disappointed in the condition and threw out a few.  I am still waiting for a medical shipment that has been stuck in Orlando since May 7.   DHL, not the post office fault.

I have two pulleys found many years ago and thought I would use them as hangers this year.  Not sure what will hang from which, could be wind chimes, flowers, birdhouses.  The large rusty green one is hard to see with the greenery background so I plan to spatter some red paint in with the rust.

I wanted to place an order with 123 for a few linen colors but I didn't have enough in my Paypal so I have to wait a few days for a transfer.  I prefer to pay from a balance instead of linked bank or card.  Hopefully it won't sell out before the order goes in.

Going to bed early tonight since my surgery is scheduled for 7:30.  I am so grateful that this doctor does minor surgeries in the office, no outpatient stuff to go through.  After you pass out from the pain of the deep injections between the toes, it's not too bad.

Be well and stay safe everyone.

***************************

Today, it's yellow

After many color tries to replace the 3024 that doesn't show very well, yellow may be the one.  The last option was a light teal and I liked it, so why did I move on to yellow?  Because color choice creates a brain blockage.  A hindrance to progress.  Usually changes are implemented rather quickly but several options worked so well here that I am in a pickle.  I may go back to the light teal which looked really nice with the 975.  Damn.

I've been seeing old sampler charts that I really like and may find one day, or not.  Doesn't matter really.  I remember thinking I had so much stash ...  until .... Flosstube happened.  I'm not even in the Junior League.  But still enough to keep me busy.  Now about the linen.

I watched the Attic's video and was really surprised, and confused, at the difference in color between thread counts.  I need to educate myself and take a few reference notes for future orders.  This screen shot from the video shows the vast difference of the same color in different counts.  Parchment (front) and Old Gold (back) in 40 and 46.  Newcastle is the name of 40 count like Cashel is 28 and Belfast 32?  Why would Newcastle and Bristol dye so differently if the linen is the same except for count?   I thought Newcastle was a type of linen, but it refers to the count?  Can't we just say the brand, like Wichelt or Zweigart, and a color name and count?  Are they named because they are woven with different threads, thickness, or texture?  Am I the only one clueless?

I'm so glad they showed this, not that I would be adding 46 count to my linen drawer, but it sort of explains why my 28 and 35 count of the same color, aren't.  Or does it?  I just don't understand why.   And as I said, I need to familiarize myself more with terminology and names.  I heard "Legacy linen" so often in videos and I don't know if that is a color, a type, or a count!  And what is Silkweaver?  Another company that dyes their own like PTP and WDW?  Where the hell is my notebook.

Today was a beautiful warm May day but wearing a mask in a greenhouse was like a humid August day.  I couldn't stay very long and kept going outside for air.  Three Amish places and all said this past Saturday was the most crowded they have EVER been since starting their business.  I buckled and got my usual Bubble Gum tunias, simply because other varieties do not grow as well for me, and I want instant gratification.  Planting a variety of smaller plants in the barrels test my patience.  Neighbors probably wonder why they hear a crazed woman screaming grow you little bastards.  One place had a few left, everyone else was sold out, so I got two and a larger one with the three Vista colors.  And guess what?  I'm going back tomorrow for the last two baskets.  I love the Silverberry but I need color. 

My sister lost 14#!!  That's exactly what I found.  I was hoping to have the books for her by now, but I don't.  I ordered from a store in Toledo Ohio, about 3 hours away thinking they would get here quicker.  Tracking shows - from Toledo, to Glendale Height IL, to York PA (they just passed Pittsburgh), to Harrisburg PA, to Warrendale PA, to Pittsburgh PA.  I'm east of Toledo.  The books went west to IL, then shot east past Warrendale and Pittsburgh to York and Harrisburg in central PA, then back west to Warrendale and Pittsburgh.  Both orders from two stores followed the same path.  I expect delays since the PO is overloaded and busier than ever, but five distribution centers seem like a huge waste of man hours.  And gas.

Oh that hurts my brain.

Have a good week!

Stay safe.

***********************