Well, well, well

Well,

Long time no see. :) Life. What can I say? I noticed it's happened to a lot of bloggers. I still read some blogs at work when I have time. Like 3rd shift.

I am still working my very stressful job, still working swing shift. Minus one co-worker since the beginning of December. Which has made it even more hard because now the rest of us have to divvy up his work and our shifts are different. And even harder when one of us has a week of vacation because that puts us at 12 hour shifts all week. Money's good......BUT. At 62 it kicks my butt. BUT...on the horizon (hopefully.....all toes and fingers crossed) they have posted the job for the 3rd time (post all in itself) and one of the ladies from the other mill up the street is applying for it!!! YIPEEEEEEE! I am so happy. I want to get back to regular shifts so bad. I am only here for 2 more years and I am retiring. Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise and sweep me away.

So, enough about work. I saw my list on my last post and I'd like to go through it and see what I did and didn't do.   

) To try to stash at least $300 a month, all year  (this didn't happen)
2) To try to eat better and less (this did happen. A result of it is #3)
3) To be active and try to lose some of this fat off of my body(proud to say I lost 30 pounds!)
4) To replace all of my windows and my floors(nope.....dang it)
5) To try to get back into my crafts (crochet, sewing and woodworking) and make all of my birthday and Christmas presents(YES! I have and will continue)
6) To ride my bike (motorcycle) more, at least once a week, even if it's to the store and back Nope :(
7) To try to get out of the house more and not be such a hermit  nope....I have gotten worse
8) To be more patient (this has been so hard the last 5 years, and I don't know why) I've tried, Lord knows I have. 

So......some good, some not good. Oh well. We all are a work in progress until the end aren't we? I am anyways.

ruminate

[roo-muh-neyt]

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR ruminate ON THESAURUS.COM

---

verb (used without object), ru·mi·nat·ed, ru·mi·nat·ing.

to chew the cud, as a ruminant.

to meditate or muse; ponder.

verb (used with object), ru·mi·nat·ed, ru·mi·nat·ing.

to chew again or over and over.

to meditate on; ponder.

And just the other night, I learned something about myself. Well, I already knew it. Just didn't know what it was called. Rumination. I ruminate. Thereby adding more stress to the stress I already have at work. Only I take it to the extreme, about situations that happen in my life that bother me. But I read an article on how to stop it when it happens. https://www.everydayhealth.com/depression/depression-and-ruminative-thinking.aspx

So anyways......I will post this. Whether anyone reads it is another thing. I am alive and well (for the most part) and just trying to make through each day like everyone else. I hope to be back soon but you know how that goes. I hope everyone is doing good.

TTFN

Kat

The New Year

As I contemplate another year of my life gone, I wonder how much of it I have left. And although that really doesn't matter, because I have no control over it, I know I am on the downhill slide.

This always brings me to remember a conversation I had with Jeff, not too long before he left this earth. He asked me if I ever thought about how much of my life I had left. Was I halfway? Was I close to leaving? He was 46 when he had a massive heart attack. His prediction in that conversation was that he would live to see at least 70. So that he was over the hump on his downhill slide. Oh, how wrong he was. Oh, how I wish he was very wrong.

So as I think about how much life is left, I think about what I should do to see that I have as much as possible.

I am not good at resolutions. I think about them. I have made them in the past. And like a lot of people I have abandoned them not long after making them. They are work. You have to make a conscious effort to keep them. And truth be known, with me, failure is inevitable.

So with that being said, I will make an attempt at some New Year's wishes....not resolutions.

1) To try to stash at least $300 a month, all year
2) To try to eat better and less
3) To be active and try to lose some of this fat off of my body
4) To replace all of my windows and my floors
5) To try to get back into my crafts (crochet, sewing and woodworking) and make all of my birthday and Christmas presents
6) To ride my bike (motorcycle) more, at least once a week, even if it's to the store and back
7) To try to get out of the house more and not be such a hermit
8) To be more patient (this has been so hard the last 5 years, and I don't know why)

Honestly, #3 & #7 are going to be the toughest. With my job and the hours that I work, it's going to be very hard.

I will be 60 this month. How did I get to be this old, so quick?!? Where did my life go? It goes by way too fast. But at least I made it this far. So many die young.

The best of luck to you all for 2017. My wishes for this world are for more kindness & understanding, less violence & hate, and more love, laughter and happiness.

TTFN,
Kat

Winds Of Change

Wow, I didn't think I'd be back here.

I've been reading some of my posts. A little bitter sweet to say the least. So much has changed, and yet so much is the same.

I no longer work for the same company that I did for 15 years. That was a life changing experience for me. I was lost. But things have a way of working out eventually. I now work for another large company making more money. I also work swing shift work....changing shifts every week. This week I am on 3rd shift. I work in a man's world. There are not many females 'in the field' here. Tis ok. I can weather it.

I no longer have my canine babies. I now have feline babies. My most spoiled of them is Nubby, who I love with all my heart. She makes me laugh. I think I might have written a post about her on one of the other blogs that I abandoned. I have a total of 6. Two inside (Mister is an inside/outside kitty, Nubby is total inside), and 4 outside, one of which is totally feral. The four outside are due to negligent people. Two are from mama....only the two girls are left. Thomas was killed by a car out at the road and I found him in the ditch back in the fall. Joker has been missing for over a year now...he just disappeared one day. Swinky just appeared one day, and the total feral I believe is Thomas' father because of his coloring and markings. He lives in the woods next to the shed and my pump house.

My crochet has been pretty much non-existent. I have crocheted some hats. That is about it. I have a room full of yarn and all things crochet.

I taught myself how to sew. So I have 2 sewing machines and bunches of fabric. I was gung ho for a while making purses. That too has fell by the wayside. I don't know what is wrong with me. I know my job is part of the reason why, because of working different shifts every week. My 3rd shift week all I do is eat, sleep and work. NOTHING gets accomplished that week. Being almost 60 and working like I do it takes a toll on you.

One thing that hasn't changed is that I am still single. And I'm ok with that. I don't have time for myself, much less time for a guy. Men are time consuming. :)

I did something last fall that I've never done. Cut all my hair off. It was so dang short. Shorter than Sharon Osborn. I've had long hair my whole life. I'm growing it back out. lol.

The only bill I have is my car....and normal monthly bills of course. I'm trying to fix up my little dump and stash cash at the same time. I'm in relatively good shape at this age in my life.  I can't complain, there are others out there in this world who have it way worse than I do. I am thankful for what I do have.

Not sure if anyone will read this, I probably am not on any reading lists anymore. Tis ok......I'm just one little fishy in a big sea of blogs. It's basically one little piece of my history and timeline. When I'm gone I doubt any of my family will know that this exists, and it'll be lost in time and space.

Anyways..........

TTFN
Kat

Turning The Page

Here.

Mr. Lick Lick

Leo & PeeWee               Misty         

AKA Leo, aka Lelo, aka Lelo Pelo, aka Pelo Pelo, aka Mr. Mr, originally known as Leo Canetta.

It is with so much sadness that I am here to tell you that my beloved Leo has crossed over Rainbow Bridge, hopefully into the loving arms of his human daddy.

Born March 30, 1998 Leo was one of 6 pups born to PeeWee and Misty. He is predeceased by his doggie parents and by his human daddy, Jeff. He leaves a loving grandmom/mama behind.

His life was one of grandeur. His daddy had him for 10 years and spoiled him rotten. He fed him from the table with his own fork. His daddy left the door open for him all day while he was at work, with the a/c or heat on, so Leo could go outside and go potty. His daddy cooked special spaghetti sauce and put it on his dry food. Leo always had his own steak and baked potato.

When his daddy passed on he went to live with his original mama again and went from a city dog to a country dog and loved it. He chased squirrels, birds and lizards to his hearts' content.

He was a lot like his doggy daddy in his demanding ways and sense of humor. His doggy mama came out in him in his loving nature, barking and tenacity in getting a laugh from his human grandmom/mama. He had his mama's looks and coat. His bark was a combination of both his mama and daddy. He was a stubborn little boy who sometimes wouldn't listen and just did his own thing.

After I posted last weekend my boy had two seizures. I knew at that point that it was time. Actually past time. I originally had made the decision to put him down a month ago, and a friend of mine in FL guilted me into not doing it. Against my better judgement, to satisfy my selfishness of wanting to keep him with me longer. I hate it when I don't go with my gut. After seeing him seize I was totally mad with myself because I let my weakness get the better of me.

I called the vet Monday morning and made an appt. for Saturday morning at 8. This past week has been so hard on me, knowing I was on a countdown of having my boy with me. I have taken this coming week off from work because I need the time to myself. I will probably jump on the bike and take off for a few days and just go where it leads. I need to feel the wind in my face and try to come to grips with this unfortunate event. This is the first time ever in my life that I have been totally alone. Friday morning was the very hardest. I didn't sleep well all week, but Friday morning I woke before 2, laid in bed for an hour and finally got up at 3. It hit me that this day would be our last routine morning, routine night. One more sleep and he will be going to his daddy again.

So if you don't hear from me for awhile rest assured that I am just trying to heal. If you don't have or never had animals then you don't know the void they leave in your life when they are gone. There is a huge hole in my heart right now.

TTFN
Kat
xoxo

Sunday Love And Did You Know?

Happy Sunday!
Just wanted to send you some love today. We all could use a little extra love right? :o)
And did you know that crochet has made it's way into country. It's small but something you may or may not know. If you are a country music fan, which I am 40% country, 40% classic rock and 20% a mixture of other music, crochet is involved in one bands' almost every appearance, and a crochet amigurumi animal is in another's video.
Zac Brown of Zac Brown band always has a different crocheted cap/hat on. I noticed today on a clip of his on CMT that he had a cute blue and brown one on. I'm always checking out what he's wearing now since I have a love affair with hats. :o)  I like the band and their songs. I just wonder who it is that makes his hats. Just curious mind you. I think it's pretty cool. :o)
Taylor Swift's new video has a part where she's talking on the phone to someone and there on the bed  next to her is a cute amigurumi animal, it looks like a bear but I could be wrong. But how cool that our craft has made it's way into country music?
On the crochet front, I started a lapghan for someone for Christmas and was so stoked because it was flowing so smoothly and quick. Smoothly......yea, so I thought. I feel like a complete moron but I finished the 1st half of the second part of the pattern, Drop in the Pond by Elizabeth Ham, and held it up and discovered that I erred, somehow, how I don't know, but after the 1st row of the second part you would have thought that I would have noticed it. I am so ticked with myself that I am not and have not crocheted today. If you have been reading me you know that I love little projects and just struggle badly with big ones. The enthusiasm and energy I had for this one was being utilized quickly, that is, until I discovered my error.












So today has been a laundry, cookie making day. I baked some cookies for a back sale for a family going through a rough spot in life. I originally thought I would make some muffins. But then I opted for easy because I had planned on finishing the aforementioned project. Procurement of dough was had yesterday morning with the intention of baking today. Which happened.  And I was a good girl. I only had 4. 3 Peanut Butter and 1 Chocolate Chip.
It's also a rainy day in Georgia. We are receiving weather that's coming from Texas. It poured last night and guess what??? My venture on the tin roof was not for naught!! NO water pouring through my porch roof directly in front of the door. Hallelujah!! :o)  We are supposed to have rain for the next few days. Which is fine with me. We need it and the temp is moderate. And I think all of my hummingbirds have flown the coop. I haven't seen any in a few days. I'll keep my feeders up for a few weeks for the stragglers headed south.
I hope your weekend has been everything you wanted. Cya soon!


TTFN
Kat
xoxox

Kat On A Tin Roof

Haha……….yes the title is correct. I, the dumbo that I can be sometimes, got up on my roof this weekend. Believe me, I paid for it and am still paying for it. I actually did a lot of work outside this weekend and between my back, hips, legs and arms, I don’t know what hurts worse.  But I digress……….back to the roof.  Since I moved here I have not cleaned the roof off except to get up on the back of the bench closest to the house (I have a bench that goes around the whole back deck, with the exception of the stairway down, and the bench has a back ledge about 6 inches wide) and with my rake, rake off what I could reach. I am surrounded by pines, oaks and sweet gums. The majority over the house is pine and oak. So I had a large build up of pine straw, oak leaves and acorns. We are talking 13 years almost.  The last 3 times it’s rained I have had water leaking on my front porch right in front of the door. And that is due to the fact of the buildup of pine straw, acorns and leaves and it was backing up under the flashing. I had to do something. And I’m too proud, stupid, whatever you want to call it, to call on one of my guy friends to come do it for me. I hate asking for help.

So, here I am, up on the roof. I got up there real easy. Just put the 10 foot ladder on the back deck up to the roof and climb up. The tricky part for me was getting down. Yea………….    And I couldn’t even trim up all the trees over the roof because every time I tried to get close to the edge enough, my head and my stomach would start doing whoopdeedoo’s and my legs would turn to jello. AND to top it off I had the wrong shoes on to do the job. The tennis shoes I put on, to do yard work in, were slippery on the roof. Early on I took them off and tossed them down to the back deck so that I wouldn’t slip and fall. (Oh, and I did have my cell phone in my back pocket) I am also paying dearly for that too. Even though I sprayed myself all over before starting yard work on Saturday, I am covered in chiggers. :o( For those of you who do not live in the south and don’t know what chiggers are, consider yourself lucky.  They are little microscopic bugs that make you itch. BAD.  They live in the trees and spanish moss.  I think I was ok on the ground but once I got on the roof is when I think I got them. My ankles are covered, I have them on my legs, I lot on my underwear line on both legs and top, and a couple on my torso. Uh huh. Yea, sux to be me now doesn’t it?

And to top it off I couldn’t get off the roof. I had to call one of my friends’ husband (because she didn’t answer her phone or text messages as she was taking a nap) and plead with him to come get me off the roof.  He laughed, and he came to help me down. And while he was there he got up on the roof and finished off what I could not. Lesson learned. NEVER AGAIN WILL I GET UP ON MY ROOF. Now I’m waiting for it to rain so I can be sure that nothing else is going on up there. I’m pretty sure it was the buildup. It was pretty bad.

                                                                

My view from almost the peak, looking toward my driveway.

                                                                         

My boy, Sunday after I got done cleaning off the back deck of roof debris.  It was kinda funny, while I was up on the roof he was pacing down on the ground looking for me. I had both doors open to the house and he was constantly on the move. I called to him several times but he couldn’t hear where I was calling from and he couldn’t see me up on the roof. I felt sorry for him.

                                                                 

Another snake. Saturday morning when I was just getting started on the yard work I happened to look down and there was this baby snake. It was chilly, 50’s, so he wasn’t moving too much but I had no clue what this snake was. So I smushed it’s head. Come to find out it’s a milk snake, a non poisonous one. How was I to know? I wasn’t taking any chances. Leo can’t see but he likes to smell them, which he did with this one when I was standing on it’s head. Well, he’s a dead milk snake now. I was on the lookout all day for more. I sure hope Leo doesn’t come upon a rattlesnake while I’m at work. They’re looking for food now to hibernate soon.

                                                                

So I thought this was interesting. See that see-through thingy at the top? A while back, I don’t remember when exactly but it’s been quite a while, I started folding the sleeves from the yarn and putting them in this container. I pulled them out Friday night to throw them out and thought I’d see what all I had. These are a lot of the yarns, not all, that I’ve either finished a project with or started and the sleeve fell off. It looked like a lot more when I was sorting them out but now it doesn’t look like much does it?

So that’s it for me for now. Our weather is awesome right now. Not too hot, not cold. Goldilocks weather.   I hope it comes to you soon, where ever you may be.

TTFN
Kat
xoxo