Thoughts, prayers and friends

     I’ve been trying hard to get my thoughts together to blog, but alas, the squirrels are always the winners. I have so much to say but choose not to say some of it. I have many thoughts that I filter through. Many have wondered what’s been happening in my world for I have seemed unusually quiet. While this blog will probably not answer those questions it will probably spur more questions and after all that is my favorite thing....stirring up thought processes. People creating stories for fun. Idea invoking conversation. Changes are inevitable, can you be the change?

     So many changes in my world, but with those changes sometimes it seems as if nothing has. I usually do a “year in review” as most of you have or maybe a funny tale of a happening that would only happen to me. But this blog is rambling.....no particular subject no specific happening, just words on a page the reader may or may not be interested in. 

     I decided I would start one of the “good things” jars for the new year. The one where you put a note in every week of something good that’s happened. Something you can refer back to when it feels your life is going to hell in a hand basket or to read on New Year’s Eve to reflect on the year. It didn’t take but a few days in and I already had the most excellent entry.

     Many of you know my heat has been out downstairs for a little over a week. Thankfully it wasn’t freezing outside and I don’t mind bundling up in my easy chair. It is comforting to me for some reason. I had heat upstairs if I got too cold but coming down in the am to let the dog out was definitely a quick way to wake up for sure! Naila wasn’t having it that I wanted to stay in bed anyway. She looked at me like I was all kinds of crazy when I told her we could just stay in the bed. Could have been because she had no idea what I was talking about but, hey, who doesn’t talk to their dog like they understand?

     My lifelong friend Eddie Pilcher has always worked on my heat and air since my first house. We’ve always joked that I am his first wife. His wife will call sometimes when he is here and even ask if he is at his first wife’s house! LOL Eddie and I are always cutting up and having a good time no matter where we are and I trust him to shoot straight with me whether I like it or not. I texted him when I first noticed the problem but thought I had fixed it. It wasn’t that I had fixed it as much as I had bypassed the system and it was warmer outside so I didn’t notice it when after that one bypass it didn’t work again. Imagine my surprise when I call and he says he is officially on vacation and won’t be back for a week. You know finances are tight when you would rather sit in the cold and let your buddy tell you the truth than have someone charge a service call and tell you. So I waited the vacay out. After all, Naila didn’t seem to mind.

     I have been praying a multitude of prayers with so many different subjects I’m sure Jesus is pulling out his notepad because of my haphazard prayers, requests, and otherwise ramblings to him. I’m so thankful he understands and can decipher my brain when it doesn’t even make sense to me. My prayer yesterday was a continual “Lord, you know my finances have taken a hit the last few months and I will just have to sit in the cold if it is a major fix. Please, please, PLEASE, let it not be major”. Giddy was not even the word I would use to describe me yesterday when I was on the phone with Eddie. I was praising the Lord for SPIDERS! YES, SPIDERS! Seems those pesky little creatures had decided to build a nest of sorts over two of the burners outside. We are both in awe of how the gas smell didn’t harm them. Needless to say, Eddie cleaned off the burners and tada, HEAT! Some may say God doesn’t hear but I say he sends spiders if that’s what it takes. My children would say it is still cold in here but I’m so happy at 67 I will not complain at all. 

     My half bath has been in disarray for over a year. When I get in a mood it can get bad. The wallpaper had been up since they built the house and the bathroom was the only place left that had it remaining. You know what happens when I get in a mood and have time on my hands in the bathroom? I started peeling wallpaper. It didn’t’ help that there was a seam right next to the toilet. It called to me with every visit. Twenty year old wallpaper is ridiculous I might add. Whomever put the wallpaper on the walls without priming it has a voodoo hex on him. I said some pretty nasty things while peeling little minute pieces off the wall. The holes it left in the sheetrock could not be hid. Enter yet another wonderful friend!

     If you don’t have friends like mine you just have acquaintances. I may have to wait until their vacation is over or they have time to fit me into their schedule but I know I can ALWAYS count on them. I can not love these people enough. Just before Christmas a friend had one of his guys come in and mud and prep the walls for me in the half bath. Finally, yesterday I got the paint on the walls and on me of course but not on the floor. Time for the sink and toilet to be put back and I have a whole new, wonderfully modern half bath.

     Sunday I was visiting with Mom and Dad and told Daddy I needed to go paint. He hasn’t been speaking the last few weeks. We know our time is few limited with him and the time with him is precious even if he doesn’t know we are there. Sunday was a wonderful day for he was bright eyed and was trying to talk. His words are very hard to understand but the little mockingbird was talking. I asked him if he would help me paint. He said “I will help you”. This tore at my heartstrings because I knew he would jump up from that wheelchair and have a paintbrush in his hand again in an instant if he could. I hugged him and told him I knew he would if he could and he repeated he would if he could. Many times he and I have painted together. He taught me how to cut in without making a mark on the ceiling or baseboards. He taught me how not to put too much paint on my roller as not to get splatters on the floor. I know he would be proud if he could see the bathroom. Not a single drop cloth was used and only one slight boo boo on the ceiling. 

     Since Hunter has moved out and a few other changes around here it sure has been quiet. I wear my “ears” often. My hearing aids can be connected to a device that streams the tv directly to my aids. I call it “my ears”.  It is a wonderful apparatus and I would recommend it to anyone that has to have hearing aids. The sound on the tv is mute and when my ears aren’t on all one hears is the refrigerator and ice maker. My silly guard dog, ok, she isn’t a guard dog but she is loud, loves bunnies. When sitting in a quiet space reading you can’t imagine how high you can jump when she jumps up and starts barking at those silly things. She will make you have to peel yourself off the ceiling like Sylvester the cat. How she hears them or the neighbor’s dog I have no idea. Sometimes she runs to the garage door barking. I’m always afraid of mice when she does that so it makes me hyper aware. I might need a garage cat. If I weren’t allergic I would have one today. It would be an argument between the two who was the boss because Naila is the princess even if it is in her own mind. 

     If I could teach this dog to dust and sweep floors I would be set. She is here all day wandering around I would like to think she needs something to do while she guards the house. Her long hair loves to gather up the dust bunnies and hide under the couch. One time I moved the couch and thought there was an entire dog under there!! If anyone knows of someone that can train a dog to dust, let me know. I would like to add them to my list of awesome and amazing friends. 

     If you don’t have a set of friends like mine be that friend. I have found when you give your time and effort to your friends’ lives they will invest back into yours. Much like a hug, what you give away you get back in return. Make a phone call and check on those closest to you. Write a quick text or DM and let them know you appreciate them. Pray over them without ever letting them know. Be the blessing to someone who may need it at that particular moment. We never know what another person is truly going through. 

     Have a wonderfully, blessed, sunny day and remember, if you ever need a little entertainment peek into my life. There is ALWAYS something happening.