The Eyes Have It

Remember that little ditty:  "I see said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw".   Seeing is a gift most of us have and I'm sure take for granted.  When it's gone you realize how much you depend on it.  This week Jack and I have been making trips to the Cleveland Clinic where he got treatment for a detached retina.  Jack's not new to eye issues. He had cataract surgery about 20yrs ago in both his eyes.  He's done very well since then but a detached retina is something that can happen because of cataract surgery.  Plus age, plus being near-sighted as a child, plus being male (more frequently happens to men than women) and a good dose of plain bad luck.   He had some mild symptoms and thought it was something that would go away.  Well, it's going away but that was after 1 1/2 hours of surgery to repair the retina.  We had to be up in Cleveland by 7am today, which meant leaving around 5:30 this morning.  We've had nothing but rain the past few days so we left even earlier just to make sure we'd be on time.  I'm not the best driver in the dark and rain so I told Jack to hold on and enjoy what I called "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride"!   It wasn't too bad but I noticed my shoulders hurting this afternoon from gripping the steering wheel! Ha!   The Doctors and staff were really wonderful.  I'm sure it was due in part to our good friend and Doctor at the hospital where I work..Dr. Gupta...calling ahead and making the arrangements.  I talked to him this afternoon and he said he also talked to the clinic and Docs and told them Jack was a very special person and to get him in quickly!  Way to go Dr. G!  I owe  him big time!  We have to head back up tomorrow morning but not as early.  In the mean time if you,or anyone you know, has had this type of surgery you know they inject a  gas bubble in the eye that stays in there for about a week to keep the repair in place.  What that means is you can't lift your head up for a week.  You have to look down at your feet all the time and sleep with your face down too.  This is not a fun thing and I know this week will be a challenge for Jack.  I'll be doing the driving and many other things around here but I know it will all be good by next week and he'll be back to his normal routines.  If he doesn't go nuts before then.  Jack is not a sit around kind of guy!

Wish us luck!

A Quick Trip

We  had planned many months ago to go to Portland, Oregon to visit Craig and family this week,  but his work schedule had us changing those trip plans to August.  I adjusted my work schedule too but kept a few days to head out this past weekend and see Mom and my sister.   Jack and I jumped in his little Jeep and we drove to the big city.  We even took a different route off the turnpike for something new to see!  However, no matter how you paint northern Ohio and Indiana it comes out flat, farm land and not too much to write or blog about!  But seeing family was fun and we didn't have anything huge planned to do....just hang out and visit. My Great-niece, Brooke, stayed at Mom's too and was given a cooking lesson on how to make bread and Greek pastry.

The bread and pastry came out perfect and it was fun having the kitchen full of YiaYias! (Grandmas of all ages!)

   

We make a mess but Mom's right there with us helping to clean up. 90's the new 70 I think!  The weather wasn't the best.  On Friday it was great...80 and sunny believe it or not!  But Saturday dawned very rainy and only 40 degrees.  We were going to do something outdoor but changed to going to a movie instead.  We decided to go see "Beauty and the Beast".  My other Great-niece, Ella, joined us all ready in her princess outfit!

Check out those boots!  The movie was good but it was in an IMAX theater and holy smokes it was LOUD!  Poor Mom had to take out a hearing aide and I was wishing for some earplugs!  But the girls enjoyed it.  Ella actually fell asleep in the middle and when we asked her how she could sleep through all that loud singing she just said "Because I was tired!"  Well, duh to us I guess!  We left this morning and made it back to the Pines safe and sound and Chubbs was happy to see us. Jordan took good care of him for us this weekend.  Thanks Jord!

The daffodils were happy to see us too!  Spring is slowing happening here....I hope it's happening in your neck of the woods!

Spring Eve

Tomorrow Winter says "Bye Bye" and we welcome Spring.  Mother Nature may not cooperate in the weather department but it's Spring none the less...and I say "Bring it on!"  I'm ready to dig in the dirt and get outside and Spring clean. But first I'm going to look back at the week and highlight a few of the activities around here.

I bought a bunch of strawberries from a co-worker who was selling them for a fund raiser.  I  got myself into a bit of a "jam" over it!

Squished them up..

Cooked them up..

Jammed them up! Yum!   As the week moved on we were lucky to dodge the storm on Tuesday. We did get a little snow but it melted by the next day.  However, we got a little surprise on Friday with another storm that dumped about 3 inches of the white fluff.

Pretty, but I'm pretty much over it by now and thankfully it went as quick as it came.  Saturday we went to visit my son Jack and bring some homemade soup because Evelyn had surgery and I hoped my soup would hit the spot.  Chubbs came too and visited his buddy, Happy.

Happy is Summer's  pup and he and Chubbs get along really well. Chubbs enjoyed the extra attention from our little Summer girl!  We took our Grandsons, Anthony and Cameron back to Ashland with us so their Mom could pick them up.  We had a little time to kill so when Anthony said he'd never been to the "Cheesebarn"...well, we decided to knock that off his bucket list! Ha!

Here's two silly cheese heads!  Grandpa's Cheesebarn is a crazy place that is always, and I mean always busy.  They also have tons of other things they sell in the food department and the boys loved all the free samples too!  Plus the milkshakes were awesome! Anthony said "Gee, I didn't think this would be so fun!"

Yep, a tourist attraction you have to experience!  Then it was across the parking lot to "Sweeties Homemade Candies".

Lots to choose from here but Anthony said he needed to watch his figure because summertime is coming...plus he just devoured a chocolate covered strawberry milkshake!  Today I made a recipe I found on Facebook...Rigatoni Pie.

It was simple but it looks so cool! Plus it turned out exactly as the Facebook one did!

Yummy! Well, that's the week in a nutshell...or a pasta shell! Happy Spring tomorrow...finally!

What The Wind Blew In

It was really, really windy the other day.  I think that day was Thursday.  No, wait, it was Wednesday.  I remember now because Jack was outside cutting wood on his day off.  Anyway, the wind shook the pine trees and the noise was so irritating.  Don't you just hate the sound of the wind?  Maybe you don't,  but for some reason I do.  I always thought I could live near the ocean but it always seems so windy there that perhaps it's not the place to hang my hat after all.   This is what the pool looked like at the end of the day:

I'm thinking of taking it down anyway but I'll still go ahead and put it all back in hopes it will stay until I decide for sure what to do about it.   Besides blowing the pool cover to pieces, the wind also blew in a climate change.  It's been a weird, warm winter here.  Not a ton of snow, so I was surprised yesterday when I woke up and saw this:

The scene was lovely as all the trees had a thick coat of frosting and the ground had a couple of inches of the white stuff.  The roads were  fine and although I didn't see any daylight yesterday,  I did notice last night when I finally got home from work that the snow was almost all gone.

The grass was green again this morning and just a little snow dotted the creek side.  I know Spring is just a week away and my mind is all set for that change.  That's why I was surprised to see this out my window:

Ice sickles.  I didn't think it was that cold but it's only in the 20's.  My mind just wants to think it's in the 50's or 60's I guess!  Well, they do look pretty against the blue sky.  The only other "changes" in the air is the time.  Yep, it's that time again when we change the time...again.  Springing forward.  I don't really care if I have to get up an hour earlier.  I'm used to getting up at all different times of the morning for work and call.  So my complaint?  The same old thing...I now have to change the time on the clock in my car.  My car is 16yrs old.  We bought it brand new those many years ago and it's been a reliable friend that gets me where I need to be.  However, you would think, after all these years,  I would remember how to change the clock without going through the owner's manual.  I mean, I've only done it about 32 times!  I'm hoping I marked the page since Fall.  So don't forget to turn the clocks forward.  Don't forget that Monday will be here a bit quicker and the day will be lighter later.  And I hope what ever the wind blows in your way, it will be fabulous!

Go Girls!

Today is a day for women....I think.  I guess as women we were suppose to call off work and protest...I think.  Not sure what I'm suppose to be upset about though.  One protest sign said: "Resist!" Now, I'm not trying to make light of real issues.  I'm not trying to have a political statement.  I just don't get what everyone (women) are so upset about.  I'm all for strong women. I'm all for equal pay for women. I'm all for having the freedom to use your voice for whatever issues are troubling you or for issues that need brought to light. So go girls! Go do it!  But I personally am just trying to "Resist" the girl scout cookies in the cupboard....the peanut butter ones won today.  With that in mind I also will just feature our little Chubbs who got a haircut and wasn't real happy about it.  So he got the comfy spot on the chair tonight.  You look good Chubbie!  And you smell wonderful too!  And I found a use for my cookie jar that had it's lid accidentally broken.  It makes a lovely vase for some fresh flowers.  They are there to remind me that Spring is almost here! Time change this weekend....now that's something I can get my protest brains around! So silly to mess up everyone's internal clock...men and women...."Resist time change!"  This political nonmessage was brought to you today..National day of Women...by YaYa who hopefully hasn't offended anyone.  Night all.

When I Get Older..Many Years From Now

When I was a kiddo I loved the Beatles.  I was around 10 or 11 when they hit the charts and I, along with my friends, bought the albums, saved Teen and Tiger Beat magazines with their pics and stories, saw them in person at White Sox stadium and screamed my head off.  I went to the movies and saw "A Hard Days Night" and "Help" over and over again.   Yep, I was a Beatlemaniac.  (I must confess I just watched "A Hard Days Night" last week! No, I didn't scream during any part of it). When the song "When I'm 64" came out I sang along and tapped my foot with the best of them.  Never in my imagination did I think I (or them) would actually ever be 64.  Well, some of the Beatles didn't make 64, but yesterday I did.   Maybe it's the song and maybe it's just me, but for some reason I'm a little taken back by the whole thing.  I look in the mirror and can believe the 64 thing but my head still thinks I'm back somewhere before "When I'm 64".   Oh well, it was a lovely birthday anyway.  I took the day off so I could renew my driver's license and just hang out.  I received many wonderful wishes, gifts, flowers, cards, and phone and Facebook greetings.  Thanks for that my dear friends and family!