laptop woes, prescription woes, grumpy cat

The hour this finds me typing away on my trusty old laptop is 2:42 AM. I awoke about an hour ago and was wide awake, so after trying my best to fall asleep again I finally gave up and got up. I don't know if I will stay up, or if I will attempt to fall asleep yet this morning. I am pulling an extra shift at my 8-5 today, actually planning on starting at 6 AM. We are busy and everyone is pulling their weight who is able to do so this weekend. 

The last two weeks have been "two steps forward, three steps backward" kind of weeks. I don't know if I can even explain, but there has been a lot of frustration with getting things shipped to our home. Our laptop had given out a few weeks back and so our friend who knows things about computers looked at all kinds of possible causes and thought we might have a dead battery. After much frustration with ordering a battery via Amazon and not being able to get it shipped to our home my husband actually went to Best Buy to purchase the battery directly from the store, only to be told that it was a lot less expensive to order it via Amazon. At Amazon you can purchase them for less than $25, Best Buy will sell you one for nearly $70. So, it was back to the "drawing board" with Amazon and I changed our physical address to our Post Office address and "Presto!" after about two weeks of dilly dallying around...we have a battery for our laptop, but not so fast! Now the battery directions say you can't use your laptop for "X" amount of hours, I think like 12 or 16 hours, after installing the new battery. So, I was still not able to use our laptop right away. 

Some of you might remember that my sister went on vacation a couple weeks back and so kindly allowed me to borrow her laptop, which I still have, but there has been a problem with her laptop and the program I use to type up my blog posts. I use Firefox on my computer, she doesn't have it on her computer and Internet Explorer would boo and hiss at me and would sometimes shut down when I was trying to type. 

In a nutshell? 

I've been basically "shut up" the last couple weeks, I was able to put up posts using Internet Explorer, but it was a chore to say the least. 

So, I guess the stars have all aligned, the sun and moon are doing their thing and I can once again type up posts on our laptop. 

Whew! 

On to bigger and better subjects. 

Well, not really bigger nor better, but on to a new subject. 

Another frustration I had to deal with this week was dealing with the online pharmacy. You know, communication and understanding how things work makes life so easy. If you don't understand how things work you end up with issues like I had this week. 

I have a thyroid problem and so I have to take one little pill each morning and I thought I had set my pills to be auto-filled, but having switched doctors and a new prescription from her office, things were not "set in stone" the way I thought they were. This is where communication and understanding came in, there was none on my end. 

As I came down to having only a couple pills left in my bottle and knowing it is pretty much crucial I have those pills I did the dreaded thing and called in and asked about my prescription. Turns out that it was not set to refill for another 5 weeks or so, but the pharmacy customer service lady was so nice and helpful and put me on hold several times and would come back to let me know she was still working on things. My ear was all sweaty and my brain numb by the time she finally truly got back to me with some information. Because of being so low in supply I was able to go to my local CVS pharmacy and make my purchase there, however, I had to call "this number" and tell them I needed to "finish maintenance supply order". Good enough, I called that number and talked to the Mr. Pharmacist Himself and he was completely confused, he asked, "Are you from the doctor's office." I said, "No," and explained what was going on. You know when you can hear in the pause of the person you are chatting with over the phone that it seems like there are question marks floating over his head like in the comics? We had such a moment. 

Mr. Pharmacist Himself finally sort of figured out what I was talking about, took a bunch of information from me and said he would "give them a call." I assumed "them" was the online pharmacy. I had serious doubts that I would have a prescription waiting on me yesterday when I went to pick them up, just because of all the back and forth, but you know what? Those stars and sun and moon had all aligned just right and the prescription was waiting for me! 

I felt blessed and taken care of. 

Thank you God! 

For loving me and for seeing to all my small needs. 

I have a grumpy cat

Remember when I started this post I said it was "early this morning?" 

When I got up our house was hot, so I opened the french door leading off the dining room to cool down the house a bit and here comes one of our cats. Calico, she is old, probably eight years old or so, she is the worlds loudest and biggest grump. I don't take a lot of pictures of her because she doesn't bring one "warm fuzzies" she is mean to everyone and bosses us all around. Well, she was quite vocal on the patio this morning so I finally gave up and went out to the barn to make sure there was food in the bowls because that is what she normally complains about the most. Well, turns out there was still some food in the bowls, but she needs them all full before she can eat. When I left the barn at 2:30 this morning she was busy munching away. 

Glad we have that taken care of. (notes of sarcasm in my tone)

The other thing I did notice was our other two cats were not around. Hmmm? I wonder where they are? Out looking for food? Surely they don't go to the neighbor's to sleep? Everyone in our barn has had their operation and there is no straying around looking for boyfriends and girlfriend, so I just have to wonder where those two were so deep in the night. 

Yep, these are things I wonder about.

Yesterday I learned something in the kitchen. 

I learned that "low and slow" can be too long for some things. I had a doctor appointment yesterday morning so on my way to my 8-5, I stopped at home and put a couple racks of ribs in the oven to bake "low and slow" for our dinner last night. Well, I ended up working late and so had Mr. Wonderful pull them out of the oven when  he got home. He also baked up a couple of potatoes for our dinner while he waited for me to come home. 

Anticipation mounted all day, I could taste those ribs all afternoon, I couldn't wait to bite into one of them and savor each bite. Well! Not so fast honey! Those ribs had been baking too long and they weren't burnt to a crisp, but the sauce had turned very thick and was setting up hard and thick. Most of the ribs were eatable, but they weren't awesome. Sigh...but now I know. 

The baked potatoes? Were wonderful, just like Mr. Wonderful, himself. 

That's it folks and I'm off to bed

Yesterday morning when I backed out of the garage the sunrise was so spectacular, had I not needed to get on down the road to my appointment, I would have tried to get a couple pictures of it. I can't remember when I've seen those colors together up there in that vast, blue sky of ours. The blue was almost a silver at points, and the sun kept fading in and out of the clouds. I watched it all the way to my doctor's office. What a spectacular display it was. It reminded me of how awesome God is, he doesn't need a paint brush to paint anything, he can just command it to be so...and it is so. 

With that thought I'm going to close up shop here and going to try and get a few more winks before I have to actually get up. I hope your weekend is full of small blessings and you can see God's hand in everything. I know I will be looking for his "wonder and awesomeness" as I make my way through another day. 

centipedes and more

Centipedes

 

 

Centipedes are one of those creepy crawly things that I just don't enjoy. You know how snakes gives one the shivers and shakes? Centipedes give me the same feelings. I use our basement bathroom and this morning when I wanted to take a shower there was a huge centipede in my bathtub! I got the shivers and shakes. My husband was upstairs using his shower and I knew I couldn't ask him for help so I did the next best thing I knew to do. I turned on the water and I drowned the Mr. Creepy Centipede and then I let him flush down the shower drain.

 

I knew the thing was dead, but I was afraid that it would end up being alive so I actually put the plug in the drain to be sure it couldn't come back. All the while I was showering I kept "feeling" something on my feet. Creepy!

 

I felt a little bit "mean girl" as I stood there watching it drown. I hate to kill things, even spiders, but I will kill a spider and clean up the mess with a tissue, but I draw the line at centipedes and snakes. I either run away or I have to kill in such a way that I never have to, in any way, come in contact with it, even with a tissue paper between me and "it".

Does anybody relate?

 

 

Sunday

 

Church was so good today. I love our Sunday School class. We had missed quite a few classes early in the year because of either being sick or other obstacles but we were able to attend the last two Sunday's and it sure feels like "home" to be able to attend again.

After church service was over I visited with a lady who recently retired from her job and she looks so happy. She told me that folks tell her that she comes across as so much happier now that she has retired. I'm so glad for her. I wonder, is it like that for everyone who retires? Does their life become happier and more relaxed once they give up the job and settle into a more relaxed routine? I have a feeling it is different for different folks. She just made retirement look so do-able.


Hazelnut Flavored Decaf Coffee

I love you!

We just purchased 96 K-cups online - I only had three cups so far today because I can't get enough of the flavor. Does anyone have this kind of problem? I have to drink decaf though. Sad face.


Sunday Drive

I had to take my great aunt to her church services this morning. I'm always amazed at how "with it" she still is at 97, almost 98 years old. She remembers where she and I have been, what was said, who lives there, on and on. This afternoon when I picked her up we went the long way home and I stopped and took some pictures along the way. She wanted to see them and I would show her and she would giggle and say how pretty this one or that one was. She would stretch her neck to see what I was seeing on my side of the car. She was with me all the way and I know our next excursion out she will do the "remember when" with me about this trip. I love her muchly.

Following are pictures from our Sunday drive. I hope you enjoy.

 

Even the horses and buggies have to abide by the traffic laws. This was perfect, slowing down, because I was turning in the same lane they were.

 

If you look closely, there are two ladies walking in the farm lane, I suspect on their way home from church services my great aunt attended.

 

A horse and buggy coming from where my great aunt's church was held today.

 

This horse did not notice me, he was watching the horse and buggy going up the road. I whistled at him and he barely batted an eyelash.

 

This is where my great aunt's church was held today. There was a big garage to my right but I didn't dare take more pictures other than this one. I liked the hitching post, it has a tie-rope there with a snap, so a visitor does not have to actually get their big one out from under the buggy seat. It was cozy around there, and so beautiful. This home is placed high on a hill, black top all the way in to the house and barn, they have a little bridge in their driveway. So pretty.

 

After I picked up Beina, we started on our little excursion and found some sheep up on a hill.

 

We found this dandy little shanty. So cute! Beina wanted to see what the picture looked like so I let her see and she giggle and said, "my you can take really good pictures!"

 

I loved this valley, the winding road, all the houses and farms dotting the countryside.

 

I can't explain, except to say, the big tree just spoke to me.

 

Horse and buggy trotting down a pretty good hill.

 

Horse grazing, cattle lazing.

 

Some cool little barns.

 

Sheep taking a break. I love sheep, my husband and I used to raise lambs. I miss that season so much. I miss the sheep and lambs too.

 

More sheep, these were grazing. I like the woods in the background.

 

The same horse from a few pictures back.

 

For me, this looked almost "Biblical" to me. The sheep, the rocks, the brown grass. I can't explain.

 

Same with this one, it is the same view, just at a distance.

 

Ah, not an "Amish farm", but for me, this one always seems kind of "Dukes of Hazzard" for me. I used to work with one of the son's who grew up on this farm. He was a character for sure, for sure, and Dukes of Hazzard, yep, good description!

 

I like the bridge and I like the tree beside it.

 

In our neck of the wood "Bull Country Compost" is the in thing to use on your gardens and flower beds. I found a sign on the side of this barn, which is literally sitting right beside the road, and a cross road at that. The sign is there to prove it.

 

This is on top of "The Funk Hill".

 

I paused and shot a picture of this hill because of the memories I have of it.

 

First memory, when I was a little girl at home, we would have to travel up and down this hill to get to various people's homes in our church district. Back then this was a dirt road with barely any gravel and I remember it being muddy and the buggy wheels would dig in and leave marks the whole way to and from. The hill itself is long and steep and I hated it with a passion. I was always afraid of horses and so buggy rides were never fun for me, and especially on this hill. (I'm still afraid of horses, but I do like to photograph them.)

 

Second memory, when I was a little girl I though "Funk" meant something else. I thought my parents were always cussing when they mentioned that hill. Years later I found out that "Funk" was the last name of a family who had lived on that hill way back in the dark ages or sometime. ha ha!

 

Third memory, my old neighbor grew up there on The Funk Hill and he would tell us stories of playing in those woods and hills and he said that one day he came upon a Blue Racer snake. I never seen a Blue Racer snake, I never heard of anyone seeing one before or since, but to hear him say it, it was a snake that can go fast, real fast and you have to be quick to get away from it. So, I was always on the lookout for Blue Racer snakes when we were going up and down that awful hill.

 

 

After I dropped off Beina, I took another way home and found these trees had gotten caught up on the electrical lines. I didn't stick around too long, didn't feel the safest there.

 

I did pause to get a look at the other side of the bridge

 

This horse noticed me taking pictures. He walked my way for awhile, but he was far away from me, I got in my car and left before he made it to me. It was blitz cold out there today!

 

I remember attending church services here. Nice Amish family lives here. Several generations.

 

I know you can't see the horse plainly, but somehow I like some of these shots, where you see an object in the background and in the foreground you have other things going on. I am probably crazy, but it is my eye that loves these shots. I might be in a league of my own, but I can't help but love it.

 

Love this one too.

 

Can I tell you what I was thinking when I took this? Hmm, well, I like the blue and white sky, then I like the three trees way up on the hill. Reminded me of the three crosses on Calvary for some reason....then in contrast, the other side of the picture you have all the trees and almost no color. It is the contrast that I love in this picture and all the other little things going on.

 

In this maze of trees there was a little shanty. I really liked this area, it just spoke to me.

 

It seems the road leads right into the clouds with the bare trees waving a good-bye.

 

Sometime midst the beauty of Amish Country you come across some junky sights. This is an old couch and chair. The movie, Grumpy Old Men came to mind, in one of the last scenes when the old man dies while he is fishing, isn't he on some kind of sofa or recliner? I haven't watched that movie in ages, but I remember something not fitting in with the fishing scene and thinking it was a recliner.

 

 

I also found these old wheels. I'm sure they have been here for years because they almost fade into the landscape.

 

This horse's owners must have been visiting friends and so they unhitched him from the buggy and tied him to the hitching post. This place looks like it is a business and home all in one and pretty messy for Amish folks, but I do believe they are Amish.

 

See, it is messy, I just got a small shot, the house is off to the right and the business off to the left.

 

Someone has their own little greenhouse.

 

I came upon this house and they have everything decorated for Easter already. They truly are an anomaly deep in Amish Country.

 

My favorite thing in this picture is that flag waving in the front of the house and do you notice the big tree peeking from behind the house? I feel like it was waving a hearty "Hello" to me. Do you see that? Or maybe I shouldn't tell you all my thoughts! ha ha

 

Even the decorative moose by the little pond are decorated for Easter! How fun!

 

Bunny Rabbit was flailing around in the wind. I love the shadow on the stone beside it. Somehow, for me, the gaudy bunny rabbit does not fit in this scene, but it is there, so I captured its picture.

 

Here I see a flourishing tree planted right there by the water. I can think of a Psalm or two that would be fitting right here, this tree looks like it has its act together, branches are all nice and clean, ready for Spring and leaves to grow.

 

Contrasting with the tree in the prior picture. This tree is not so clean and together, it has a messy set of branches hanging toward the ground. These two trees reminded me of folks we might know, some are together, have their lives in order, others not so much. 

 

A corn crib, standing dutifully in a field near a farm.

 

Someone left their tractor out in the field. The animals grazing around it don't seem to mind it's presence. I kind of like it being there.

 

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I appreciate each of my readers coming back and checking things out. I have one or two new ideas up my sleeve for my blog and I'm pretty excited about them so keep coming back for more. I know folks are telling me it is hard to comment on here. I'm having issues commenting on other folk's blogs as well. If you have a comment for me and can't post them here, I invite you to go to my Facebook page, or email me at sage_solstice@yahoo.com.

 

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My Facebook page. Looking in my Rear View Mirror

 

Blessings all!

 



a blip in my day

Vibrant Sunrise

 

Our blinds are always pulled down at night and in the early morning hours when I'm getting ready for my day I generally don't take the time to look out any of the windows. For some reason I noticed some bright hues sneaking in through a crack in our living room windows and I took a moment to check it out and when I opened the front door I was just in awe. The vibrant sunrise was beyond anything I could describe. I tried my best to get a good picture of what was in front of me, but the photo below doesn't begin to describe the reality.

 

 

 

 

Online Shopper's Woes

 

I have an Amazon account and for a couple years now I have been able to do more and more of my shopping online. It is a luxury and has completely simplified my life until just the last few purchases I made. All of a sudden they are telling me that our address is "not deliverable".

 

Unfortunately and very frustratingly, our physical address and mailing address are not the same. We don't have a mailbox because of where our driveway is situated and we would have to cross the road to get the mail and it is just not the safest spot to do so. For that reason we opted to have a PO Box, and the trouble is our PO Box is not in the same town our physical address is in and when mail/packages gets sent to the post office of our physical address, they send our mail/packages back to the shipper.

 

Ugh!

 

Double UGH!

 

The real problem is that these sites like Amazon ask you for a physical and mailing address and then when the shipper doesn't read those correctly, they end up causing us issues. I called and spoke to a variety of folks and I've been stunned with how condescending they can be. The one fellow I spoke with was so awful, something inside of me rose up and wanted to slap him through the phone. He was chewing something while he was talking down to me and so I actually asked him if he was chewing gum and he said he wasn't. I, proceeded to tell him I know he is chewing something and I thought he was unprofessional.

 

Neither of us "won" this fight. sigh 

 

Fast forward a conversation or two, I had the "displeasure"  of talking with the post master at the post office that should not be getting our mail if the shippers would read their information correctly. So, being at wit's end I called Mr. Postmaster and asked him if there was any way we could get packages forwarded to us when this happens. He, too became very condescending in tone and had the gall to say, "Well, what is wrong with you just using your correct address?"

 

UGH!

 

I explained to him again our problem, that we have to provide both addresses and the shipper chooses the incorrect address.

 

You all get it, right?

 

He got it the second or third time around and then agreed that I have a problem, but no there was no way he could forward anything for me.

 

Sometimes I wonder about folks in customer service.

 

 

 

Dinner and a Ride

 

We made dinner plans with our Amish friends for tonight and ended up at one of our favorite restaurants. After we were finished with dinner and nice conversation we decided to go the long way home. We spent an hour or so driving around, and finally ended up in the fellow's "hometown", which is not a town, but out in the middle of Amish Country.

 

I thought it was cool to listen to my husband and his friend talk about various places they noticed and remembered certain incidents or folks. One little conversation had my friend and I in stitches and calling our husband's "old men".

 

My husband pointed out that the family who lives "there" had a few dwarf children. My friend's husband misheard and questioned, "They got a divorce? 

 

Oh mah goodness! It was a moment for sure!

 

My friend straightened them out quickly midst giggles and finally our "old men" got on the same page and understood each other again.

 

Whew!

 

I guess dwarf and divorce do sound a lot alike, come to think about it.

 

If this is a sign of things to come as we age, I think we are going to live be living in "hilarity"!

 

As we traveled the highways and byways we also made a pit stop and I had a chance to take a few pictures. We stopped by a winery in the area, we didn't go inside, but took in the countryside around it. We also noticed this wall of old wine barrels. It is the backdrop for many engagement pictures, even my son and his wife had their engagement pictures taken here.

 

 

 

I really like this picture. The scraggly tree in the middle of the picture and the little out buildings tucked into the countryside. The fence, so straight, and dutifully making its way around the fields.  

 

These two dogs didn't really like us stopping there and taking pictures. They protested heartily, so I snapped their picture and it did nothing, they still barked up a storm.

 

I like the sky being a backdrop to the leaf-less trees up on the ridge. The little out building makes the hill and fence look homey to me.

 

There was a creek lazily flowing through the property. There was some trash in the creek so I didn't feel like getting a huge section of it. I wanted only the pretty section.

 

By the time we headed the nose of our car towards home the sun had gone down completely and the very dark night came out and a one bright eyed headlight and one regular eyed headlight followed us much of our way home. That bright headlight shining right into my rear view mirror nearly blinding me. I was so glad when he finally turned off.

 

That was my day. I don't like conflict and the whole shipping problem IS a problem for me and for that reason I will have to have another chat with someone from Amazon to see how to resolve this issue. But problems are only a small part of life so I don't want to dwell on it too much. For me it is much better to try and take in what God has to offer. This earth is his and I believe he wants us to enjoy our surroundings. The early morning sunrise, I take it as a gift from him. Time spent with friends driving through old countryside stirring up memories, that is a gift from him.

 

Thank you Jesus for all the small blessings you provide me. Even with the shipping conflict, you show me where I need to change, maybe I should have had a bit more grace with the gum or food chewing customer service personnel and not have told him I thought him unprofessional. Help me to continue to grow in your love and peace and grace.

 

Amen

 

Thank you for reading and being here! If you enjoyed this blog post, you may want to go over to my Facebook page and "like it" so you always get updates when a new post goes up. Also, please feel free to share with your family and friends. Blessings all!

 

Looking in my Rear View Mirror

 

I am doing a giveaway on my Facebook page. I will be choosing the winner on March 23, 2014 at 6 PM. Go to the pinned status on the Facebook page to find out how you can sign up for the giveaway.

i found some signs of spring

Springtime is upon us.

 

The date on the calendar said so yesterday.

 

I went out to find spring yesterday and the following is what I found.

 

 

Two teams of horses. Two menfolk. Plowing the field.

 

 

If you click on this picture you will see more of the tree in the background.

 

I love the tree.

 

I love the farmer and plow and team of horses.

 

I love, love the two farm dogs sniffing in the dirt. I bet their noses are overdosing right now.

 

 

As I continued up the road I found this cabin and lake.

 

When I got home and pulled up this picture I noticed the barbed wire fence.

 

I love the barbed wire fence.

 

I was told by my coworker that this scene is awesome in the summer time. I can see that. I will return this summer for an updated picture of the cabin and lake.

 

 

This is what I saw when I drove in our driveway last night. Rays of sunlight streaming down through the clouds. I tried a few different shots. I like this one, how the ray of sunlight seems to come down and mingle with the tree tops.

 

Did you find signs of Spring yesterday, other than a date on your calendar?

 

I'm ready for spring to be here, for warmth to envelope us and for my shoes to be tucked into the closet and for sandals, flip flops and bare feet be revealed.

 

My favorite way to be is - barefoot. Nothing feels more free-er than to be barefoot. I'm still a little Amish girl in my heart and in my feet. wink wink

 

Happy Spring!