Other than sorting and getting rid of things, I haven't begun to pack. There has, of course, been lifting and hauling and the usual things going on when you prepare for a move, but not the "real" labor intensive stuff. So, will someone explain to me why I'm so sore this morning? I'm a month away from my 58th birthday, and I keep being told that 50 is the new 30. Was I behind a door when that was handed out and missed it? Taking stock of what hurts and what doesn't, I believe I stumbled into 50 is the new 80 or something. Must be another one of those areas where Mom would call me Sherry, Sherry, quite contrary, but don't ask me how my garden grows, I'd have to tell you the weeds have taken over.

I dragged my unwilling butt out of bed this morning, and after taking stock of my situation decided that this was going to be an Aleeve with my morning coffee day. Then I had a stray thought, a memory of Grannie giving a reason why she had a stiff neck one morning. I remember that she said she must have stretched it too far trying to get her nose into other peoples business. I'm not guilty of that, at the moment, but give me a few hours. Something will most likely occur.

In a week or two I will be working regularly in our office 2 or 3 days a week. This is going to make it harder for me to get ready for this move so, I'm working at a much steadier pace than I was before. Today I will have the entire contents of my art supply closet packed. It's all those heavy slates that's causing this soreness. I wonder when I taught myself to paint why I didn't chose a lighter medium to work on? It must have been one of my 10 feet tall and bulletproof stages. I have those frequently and then I have to handle the fall out. Like the decision to move my home. Somebody should have stuffed a sock in my mouth before I could convince everyone that it was a good idea. When she called me it felt like an answer to a prayer, now, I'm not so sure. It figures, right?

I'm trying to stay positive but this is going to be quite the task. Physically as well as financially. That's why I decided to take the extra office work. With the economic climate what it is, Hubby's business isn't doing that well right now, and the extra money every week is becoming necessary. If we didn't have to move we would be Ok on what I make now, but additional expenses, like the cost of the move will wipe out our winter money and that means we will get behind on the bills. When they called me yesterday I was tempted to say no, Hubby doesn't like it, but with a daughter-in-law out of work right now there will be someone to answer the phone. So, I said yes. Nothing like biting off more than you can chew.

I get frustrated, at times, with the people I work for, but they aren't bad people really. The business muddles along because even though they're challenged when it comes to decision making, they don't want to fail. They aren't making some decisions right and those usually end up biting them in the arse, but they are trying everything they can think of. They've started putting personal feelings aside and are trying to work together. No more am I hearing that so and so does all the work. They actually both talked to me explaining why I was first choice for this additional position. So, I said yes. Besides which, I need someplace to get away from this impending move. Out of the house and away from the mess. A good way to gain new perspective on my problems. Who knows, by the time I'm done, I might actually have found that 50 really is the new 30, or at least the new 40.

On Sunday I mentioned that I had to clean out the art supply closet and of course pack things. A couple of different bloggers suggested giving away my supplies and also suggested avenues where such a thing could happen. Although I have not been painting pieces for sale since the Christmas mugs I did for the business I work for, I do still paint. I'm just not cranking things out the way I used to, I'm taking more time with each piece and working it until I'm happy. Sometimes grief gets in the way, but I still gain much pleasure from the process, and still feel the need to create.

I paint on slate, wood, glass, rocks, ceramics, just about anything that isn't nailed down and a few things that are. I painted my own bathroom wall border because I couldn't find one I liked, besides, painting it yourself is cheaper. I own close to 300 bottles of paint, probably 50 brushes because a glass brush is entirely different from a brush you might use on rocks. Plus different techniques require different shapes.

Some folk art styles require round brushes and other styles require flats. Brushes have to fit the area your applying paint to, or work with the medium you're using. I have varnishes, crackle medium, textile medium, float medium and extenders which help keep the acrylic paints I use from drying too quickly when I'm painting fur or something that requires a lot of shading to give the piece depth. Then there are the tools of the faux finish trade. I have those too, combs, sponges, and wood graining rollers.

I think I've posted these before, but I can't find the post in my archives so I'm posting some of my pieces again.











The last 3 pieces were an order of birthday gifts that a group of friends of the birthday gal all ordered. The two Blue Tick hounds are
hers and she had just purchased a new home so a Welcome sign was ordered. Those rocks are quite a bit bigger than the picture suggests, being a foot and a half long each. Once I'm moved and set up again, I can get back to painting again.

Much too late to help my parents, but finally the Bush administration is doing something right. Medicare will no longer pay hospitals and doctors for medical mistakes. Private insurance companies are looking into this as a way to reduce health care costs and it is expected that they too will follow suit. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Both of my parents suffered health problems from the effects of MRSA acquired in the hospital. MRSA is a preventable disease, it requires nothing more to stop it's spread than proper universal precautions and proper hand washing. Yet I spent time listening to doctors and hospital staff tell me that universal precautions won't stop the spread of the disease. These preventable infections affect 1.7 million hospital patients annually and cause the death of 99,000 people a year.

Under new rules to be published this week, the preventable conditions will include bedsores or pressure ulcers (Both of my parents had those), infections caused by prolonged use of catheters in the bladders or blood vessels, hospital falls (Dad had one of those) and the improper use of blood products. If a surgeon leaves a sponge in the wound and an infection develops, the hospital has to correct it and can't charge the patient if Medicare refuses to pay. Dad had absolutely filthy packing in his incision following his gall bladder surgery. The packing was placed there because of the lymph that was pouring out of his wound. Proper treatment to reduce the fluid buildup wasn't administered. The excuse was that he had renal failure, yet he was never referred to a kidney specialist who could have reduced the fluid buildup safely. Nor was his packing ever changed while in the hospital and he was sent home like that. A week later he was back with peritonitis. I wonder why.

With both parents each time they were admitted to the hospital they would be placed in the general population, yet both of them had acquired MRSA which meant they needed to be placed in precautionary rooms. They'd be there a day or so and then suddenly whisked into the precautionary rooms because they would be found to be "active" somewhere. So, how many other patients were exposed to MRSA by the staff? They would handle things in the rooms without wearing exam gloves and then do a less than thorough cleaning with the hand sanitizer. When we would complain about this we would be told "Hospital staff is trained in these areas and know what they can and can't touch." It that's the case, how did both of my parents acquire MRSA from the same floor in the hospital within a year of each other?

The state of Michigan hospitals have been successful at reducing their infection rates by doing nothing more than following well established infection control practices. These practices have saved 1700 lives and 246 million dollars since 2004. How did they do that? By requiring every doctor and nurse to wear sterile gowns and masks when doing ANY invasive procedure to a patient. This includes the wearing of proper precautionary clothing when changing post surgical bandages. In other words, keep it clean and infections don't occur.

The Hospital Association is all ready complaining that too many unnecessary pre-admission tests will take place in order to relieve the hospital of it's responsibility in the matter of the spread of infection. This would not be a bad thing, if it was also required that the test results be reported. Initial tests are much cheaper than the treatment required for the patient after the patient has been given an infection. I know how many unnecessary hospital stays both my parents suffered through, and how sick they finally became from their infections.

Life is beginning to feel like that to me. The enormity of the task of moving my whole home is beginning to set in. Hubby is looking for a different home to move to the spot we have, and I don't think we're going to be able to afford one. If we could, it would eliminate one of my concerns. I really want to take my home, but it may not be in everyones best interest, including mine.

The problem we're going to have is transporting Bashful. It's not like there's going to be a place at the end of the ride for her. She hates riding, she screams and wails the the entire time until you let her out of the carrier. Only in this case she's going to be hours in the carrier. This will be something I'm going to have to talk to the vet about. Due to the fact that she gets her shots 2 times a day, I may pay for her to be kept at the hospital overnight, or for a day or two.

Things like utilities and phone will get switched after we're set up on the new lot, and that may take a day or two. If there was a home all ready there, we could run the utilities in both places which would really help. The phone could be call forwarded and that would eliminate another worry. It would eliminate the necessity of boarding Bashful at the hospital for one thing.

Since I'd like to be out of here by October 1, and settled in before the cold happens and the snow flies, I've been spending time everyday weeding out my stuff. After looking at everything we own, and trying to decide what to do about it, I'm beginning to wonder whether I have OCD or something.

I start out with finding something I forgot I had. Probably haven't seen in a year or so, and saying to myself, "Oh, I can't throw that away." Then reality sets in, I chuckle and into the trash bag it goes. Yesterday I washed a number of items to take to the Salvation Army. All the while I kept asking myself why did I buy that?

I also found my stash of useless Christmas gifts. I'm still laughing at the "beer can chicken roaster". I don't even remember who gave it to me or how long ago I received it. It's a frame that you place an open beer can in and then slide a whole chicken down over the top of it. Put it in the oven and roast until the chicken is done. I suspect it was a Christmas gift I received from a former employer, and since I haven't worked there since 1997, why didn't I get rid of it before now? I thought I had my pack rat tendencies under control, but a few days of junk disposal has made me rethink my position. Next is the art supply closet. Something tells me that's going to take awhile.

The "choonz" the DJ is playin are:

1. America: Horse With No Name and Sister Goldenhair

2. BeeGee's: You Should Be Dancing

3. Chic: Good Times

4. Chicago: 25 or 6 to 4, and Saturday In The Park

5. Commodores: Brick House

6, Eagles: Hotel California, Take It Easy, One of These Nights

7. Earth Wind and Fire: Shining Star

8. Electric Light Orchestra: Roll Over Beethoven, and Strange Magic

9. Elton John: Crockodile Rock, Benny and the Jets, Rocketman (I Think It's Gonna Be A Long, Long Time)

10. Fleetwood Mac: Go Your Own Way and You Make Lovin' Fun.

11. Genesis: In Too Deep and Tonight, Tonight, Tonight

12. Hall and Oates: When The Morning Comes

13. Kansas: Dust In The Wind, and Point Of Know Return

14. Ohio Players: Love Rollercoaster

15. Pink Floyd: Comfortably Numb and Money

16. Queen: Another One Bites The Dust and Bohemian Rhapsody

17. REO Speedwagon: Can't Fight This Feeling and Roll With The Changes

18. Supertramp: Take the Long Way Home and The Logical Song

19. The Doobie Brothers: Takin' It To The Street and What A Fool Believes

20. The Hollies: Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress and Stop Stop Stop

21. The Kinks: All Day and All Of The Night and You Really Got Me

22. The Who: Sister Disco and Squeezebox

23. Three Dog Night: Mama Told Me Not To Come and One

24. Toto: Africa And Roseanna

25. Yes: Owner of A Lonely Heart