Author: Dackel Princess

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Reasons Boston Driving Is Not For A Country Mouse Like Me

1. Since they are still working on “The Big Dig” everything is a mess.
2. The signs telling you which exit to take get you in one lane and then end, not giving you enough time to actually get over to your exit.
3. Signs that just do not make sense! I wanted to scream!
4. No one actually seems to know where they are going.
5. The pot holes are literally the pits!
6. Double parking. Bad!
7. There was a policeman who followed us all over the city and I swear to God, was as lost as we were!
8. People cut you off and I wondered, do they care about their car?
9. People just walked in front of your car. (while it’s moving!)
10. Traffic going from zero to 70 mph and back to zero in the blink of an eye!
11. Street signs that are either nonexistent or really small.
12. Previously open roads, are now closed due to the “Big Dig” construction.
13. Narrow lanes due to construction. I just knew we were going to be side-swiped!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!



It’s All In The Details

Details
Give me a list and I do just fine. In fact, better than fine. I can accomplish great things. Yesterday Dr. W.’s secretary gave me a list of things I would need to obtain before the surgery. At 9 AM this morning I proceeded to call the doctor who performed the original cataract surgery. I needed to obtain all my records from his office and have them faxed to Dr. W. Of course they needed me to fax them a letter of release. Within 10 minutes I had this done. Whatever did we do before fax machines? Used snail mail I guess.
The next item on my lift is a rather lengthy process of getting a first class physical with my favorite General Practitioner. However, I also need blood work and because of my advancing age, (cough, cough) I actually need an EKG! This is a first.
I arrived at my GP’s office and went up to his secretary’s window and she greeted me.
“Hi!” she said brightly.
“Hi, I’m Tricky!” I smiled and laughed.
“Well, hello Tricky how can I help you?”
She scheduled everything for me and actually had me back out the door in record time.
Then it was off for my monthly visit to the fountain of youth. After nearly 5 years of going to a hairdresser I liked personally, but kept messing up my hair, (you do all remember the ultra short cut back in February?) I have left her and found a new woman. She is a very talented person and I like her work. Still it was hard to make the change.
These fountain of youth visits are taking longer and longer as I get older and older, but I still made it home before the storms arrived.
These were the kind of thunder storms that shake your house and get the dogs looking at you with those questioning eyes that say, “Is this the end of the world?”
The storms have passed now and the sun is setting and I can put my feet up and relax. My list is completed and all I have to do now is enjoy the summer.
The details will now take care of themselves.

My Eye

Yesterday I was driven to Boston by my daughter Amanda. I had an appointment with the leading doctor in corneal surgery in the region. This appointment was my last hope that something could be done to restore the vision in my left eye to normal.
Since having “simple cataract surgery” 5 years ago I have been searching for answers to this problem. The day after that surgery, when they removed the surgical dressings I began having terrible glare and prisming in that eye. I complained, I begged for help and basically over the last 5 years I have been made to feel like I was some sort of nut job. That was, until yesterday.
I met with this wonderful lady doctor, Dr. W. at Tuft’s New England Eye Center. She is young (my age! LOL), confident, friendly, and knew immediately what was wrong with my eye. We spoke of the pro’s and the con’s of the surgery, then she presented what she would like to do. This was no simple thing. She will replace the lens, but if this problem happens the she will do this to fix it, or this or this. She presented about 5 different options explaining each step as she went. At the end I had no questions at all.
My surgery is scheduled for August 22nd. I feel so good and so confident that this surgery will finally give me back my vision and my life.
I was so happy my daughter was driving and that she was with me. She is an excellent driver and is just great in rush hour traffic. There I was having heart failure and she was cool as a cucumber. She asked me if her driving was bothering me. Nope, it was everyone else’s!
She has a convertible and we put the top down and that was so nice. To feel the wind in my hair and the sun on my skin, helped to relax me.
Thanks again, Mandy!
Yippee!! Life is good!

95 Degrees & Rising

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It’s already 95 degrees here in the cold northern corner of the US. 95 ice melting, brow moistening, degrees! How did this happen? Why last week we were barely 60 degrees and in the process of getting a foot of rain! So how did we go from early spring to late summer in the course of a couple of days?
Hubby says I shouldn’t complain, it’s not like I melt, right? Wrong! One of the things I hate most in life is to sweat. In fact I think I would probably be a great athlete if only I didn’t have to sweat to get there.
Hubby says he finds me sweating a real turn on. Yeah, right. Like I believe that one. Let’s just say he will do or say anything to get me out and exercising.
Perhaps that’s why I like to snow ski. In the middle of winter there is very little chance of sweating too much. At least if you dress correctly, and over the years I seem to have this mostly mastered.
I know I am not alone in my abhorrence of sweating.
I was in a store one day in Florida. I was shopping for some summer clothes and I saw a man hopelessly trying to pick out a gift for his wife. After a time he came over to me and asked me what size I wore, as his wife looked to be about the same size and he was going to buy her an outfit. I told him and he held up the outfit for me to judge.
“Oh that’s nice”, I said “she won’t sweat too much with the short sleeves”.
The man looked very confused by my words and then very quietly he said “My wife don’t sweat, she glistens”.
Oh to be married to a man who only wants me to glisten! Now that would be nice!

I Think I Like Winter Better!

I’ve decided I like winter better.
In the winter I can wear flannel lined jeans and turtlenecks and big bulky sweaters and no one wonders what’s under all of these clothes. They just take it for granted that all the lumps and bumps are long underwear or some sort of layering for keeping warm.


If I’m having a bad hair day, I just pull a winter hat over my head. No one questions me about my big old Cat in the Hat cap, they figure I’m trying to keep my ears warm.
But in the summer, when it’s 90 degrees there isn’t much you can do to hide the sins of the supper table. They just sort of hang out there for all to see. Not to mention varicose veins, flapping middle aged arms and the notorious chicken neck!
And the hair? Yes, aside from just chopping it all off there is no place to hide that either. I have short hair anyway, so a baseball cap leaves it sticking out like Bozo the clown!
In the winter it’s so much easier to have good days, and if by chance I’m not, I can at least fool my mirror, and myself and hopefully most people I know with vision disabilities.

Best Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I’ve been cooking and experimenting and I tried this recipe as opposed to the last. It came out great!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Buy the deepest darkest rhubarb you can find, and the ripest strawberries.

Filling:
4 cups chopped rhubarb 1/2 inch pieces
2 cups quartered strawberries
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour

2 – all ready pie crusts (or your own)

Filling: In large bowl, toss together rhubarb, strawberries, sugar and flour; scrape into pie shell. Moisten edge of pie shell; cover with pastry top. Trim, leaving 3/4 inch overhang; fold overhang under pastry rim. Seal and flute edge. Brush with water on pastry. Sprinkle with sugar. Cut 4 steam vents in center.

6. Place foil lined baking sheet to catch drips on bottom rack of 425°F oven. Place pie on rack above; bake for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F; bake until golden and filling is bubbly, 55 to 70 minutes, shielding edge with foil if browning too quickly. Let cool on rack.

Be sure to refridgerate after the pie has completely cooled.

Good-Bye, Baby Peaches

Today I found myself doing something that was really hard for me. It goes against everything I believe in and all I have been raised with.
I thinned peaches on our peach tree.
What this means is that I went outside and climbed up on a ladder, and took off the little baby peaches. Not all of them, you understand, but we tried to thin them down to 1 peach for every six inches of branch.
Hubby did not thin well enough last year, frankly we didn’t know that we needed to be so aggressive, and we suffered the “Great Peach Disaster”.
We nearly wept when we saw the tree. One minute is was beautiful and full of fruit, and a few hours later, kaput!
In any case, back to today. Hubby had been sitting in the yard thinning the peaches on the lower half of the tree. When I poked my head out the door to see how he was doing, he had me!
He called me out, had me get a step ladder and the next thing I knew I was plucking peaches for the next hour or so.
It wasn’t necessarily bad work, but it was sad. I saw all those little baby peaches being tossed to the ground, so that the tree would have a good harvest, not one which would break it apart.


The little baby peaches on the ground.

Hubby checked my work several times and told me I wasn’t being aggressive enough. Then he claimed I wasn’t saving the “big” peaches.
I gave him a glaring look that let him know that people who beg for help, can’t be so choosey!
We’ve left the tree for now, but I think we will have to go through and thin one more time before our August harvest.

The thinned tree branches.

Thursday 13



Thursday 13

Thirteen of My Favorite Ice Cream Flavors

1. My favorite is Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia.
2. Heavenly Hash.
3. A Pure Vanilla Bean
4. Coffee & Cream
5. Raspberry Sorbet
6. Chocolate Swirl
7. Chocolate and Vanilla Swirl Soft Serve
8. Butter Pecan
9. Mint Chocolate Chip
10. Rum Raisin
11. Pistachio
12. Black Raspberry
13. Orange Sherbet

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!