Rollercoaster
1:47 p.m. - 2015-11-21


I always thought that as you get older, things calmed down and life flowed on placidly and happily. Wrong. Life is life and it doesn't care how old you are. Things happen, good and bad. This week was especially exciting and not in a good way. I had to rescue an elderly relative from a car accident situation and try to convince that person to see a doctor, then drive that person to a doctor and try to remember what the doctor said. I wished I could take notes, but I was sitting in the exam room chair burdened with the relative's coat, bag, cane, and my bag and purse and couldn't grab my pen and paper. Anyway, relative is OK but we have to watch for any downslide for the next week. In addition, the spouse returned from a business trip and promptly lost his cellphone. He came home from work at noon the day after he got home and said he had left the phone at home, but we couldn't find it. Since the car accident had just happened that morning, I was still a little mentally tired out from that, so having to worry about a walkabout cellphone was trying. We finally found it in his car, in his briefcase, so he had had it all the time but just lost track of it. I was having a day when I didn't eat any sweets, so I promised myself to treat myself to chocolate ice cream the next day. I went for Rocky Road.

In other news, I am on a sewing jag at the moment. I made three pairs of pajama pants for M, a work shirt for A, hemmed about 8 new tablecloths, and am on the 7th blouse for myself. I started using the Sure-fit Design system and drafted a sloper for myself, then started using it to design different shirts and blouses. After I finished each one, I would find out the pattern needed this or that adjustment and so the shirt got better and better as I went along. Since my sister destashed her fabrics and brought them down for me to use, I have plenty of fabric to work with.

My MIL still comes to Sunday dinner every week, so I am trying out at least one new recipe every week. So far I have tried a good recipe for crockpot scalloped potatoes, a crockpot chocolate pudding cake, new salad dressings, and whatever strikes my fancy that day. I have been shopping for a new crockpot since my old (well, not all that old) one developed cracks all around the glaze on the inside of the crock, but I was having no luck at all. I bought three new ones one after the other, and, since you can't open the box and look it over in the store, I examined them at home. All of them had scratches or insufficient glaze with bare spots on the inner surface where food would touch them. I keep having to make a return trip to whatever store I got them from to return them for a refund. I finally gave up on modern ones and found a nice one in a thrift store with a good solid, heavy crock. I tested it out to see if it would hold the proper temperature, and it works great. Back in business!

We've had two good rainstorms lately, and things around here are looking greener.