Best of October 2017 - Grandma, Transport Chairs, and Grandchildren

This is the most important piece of equipment I've bought in the last couple of years.

It is a "Transport Chair". I'd gone to a pharmacy on the southside to buy it. (LadyTee had bought one for her aunt awhile ago and let me know where to get it).  I wanted it for my grandmother, as I take her to Emory Hospital for her medical appointments from time to time. She walks super slow, yet she somehow wants to blend in with the crowd and walk just as fast. That's not good. And I thought hard  about a solution to the problem.

So I decided to buy a wheelchair. And when I walked into the pharmacy to ask about a wheelchair, they told me about the transport chair. (Just that fast I'd forgotten the name of what I needed just that quick). They put it together and showed me how to use it.

My sister cautioned me on presenting this option to grandma. "The elderly don't take well to that type of thing," she said. I said it would be easier for us both. Well, I showed her the chair, told her the plan and she was all for it.

She took to it well, and she enjoys being transported back and forth.

Just like she took to her new great-grandson Justin well. I heard from my sister that she enjoyed seeing him for the first time!

I think this is her 6th great grandchild. There are now 2 girls and 4 boys. And she has gotten to spend time with them all. (Even though Justin was knocked out during his visit).

When I took her to the doctor last week, she talked about her time with Justin. And she could hardly get her whole story out without being full of giggles.It felt so good to see the joy in her eyes and hear the joy in her voice.

Later that evening, after I'd taken her home after her appointment, I thought about our time together. I thought about how she is like a child now, and how I prayed that I would have patience in helping her get to her appointments. I did, and I was happy for it.  And I was happy to talk to her about her about her new little great-grandson.

That had to be one of my best memories from October 2017. And it's something I'll never forget.

Ten Tuesday Thoughts

1. It is only Tuesday, and I am already ready for the week to be over. I am SO glad that Friday is a holiday. That means a 3-day weekend for me, and I'm going to make the best of it.

2. I have 940 hours of sick leave. That works out to 23.5 weeks.  That is real close to 6 months of sick leave. It's good to have that much, but I hope I never get sick enough to use big chunks of time.

3. I have a terrible habit of turning my cell phone ringer and notifications off.  There is nothing worse than a ringing cell phone or notifications dings in our EXTREMELY quiet cubicle area.That's not the bad habit, though, as I am just being mindful of my fellow employees. The bad habit is not turning it back ON after my workday. Now, I will hear it vibrating and ringing if I am listening to something (music, talk radio) on my headphones, but it is a problem when I am not doing that,  or if I am running errands after work.  And at night when I get in the bed, I see I have phone calls. I need to figure out a way to remember to turn it on or put everything on low.

4. I hate these psychological dependences on cell phones. I remember when we didn't have cell phones, when you better stop and call somebody from a pay phone and keep it moving. 

5.  I am doing a lot of confusing paperwork right now. Might be best if I could work from home, but it sucks to need a piece of data from a computer in the lab... and not be at work, where I can just run to the next room and get it.

6. I tell you... Donna Brazille is pissed off. She is spilling much tea on the DNC. And she said if we don't like it, we can go to hell. Well alright, ma'am! I might get the audible version of her book just to see what the heck was going on during that election year!

7. I voted today. I wasn't going to, because there will be a run-off in our major mayoral race, but I did anyway. It took me all of 3 minutes and I was done.

8. One of the people running for a position was arguing with the elderly campaign workers. Apparently they were too close to the polls. (I think you have to be a certain number of feet from the polls if you're campaigning).

9. I wanted to holler out, as I drove by, "I hope you lose!!". I don't understand why anyone would want to fight with these old folks. And this candidate has been leaving WAY too much mail in my door. I rarely go through my front door. And I live in the hood. That mail in the door makes it look like I ain't home. She should know better.

10.  It was cold last week, but now it's warm this week. I believe it was even 80 degrees yesterday. This means I can still wear my capri pants, even if this is the last week to do so.

That's it for my Ten Thoughts on  a Tuesday!

Monday Night Musings

It's Monday once again. And this Monday was special because daylight savings time kicked in and we are suppose to celebrate this beloved extra hour of sleep. But I haven't been sleeping the best lately, and it was disturbing to wake up to CRAZY sunlight this morning. So I think I need to adjust what time I actually wake up. We will see.

Another Mass Murder. So here we go, once again, a mass shooting. A guy shot up a church and killed 25 people. And this time, there were children murdered, one as young as 18 months old.

This type of thing is beyond sad and tragic when it happens. My thoughts and prayers are with these victims and their families. My thoughts are always... what is the root of the problem? What makes one resort to running up in somewhere killing folk, because you know this whole thing has the most horrific of consequences. And then, to make things complicated, we are all conditioned now: we know the race and religion of the perpetrator right off.  If it is a brown or non-christian, non-white person, there is IMMEDIATE outrage. But when it's a white male committing these horrific acts, it is Oh poor guy... he has a mental problem.

Terrorism is terrorism. An overwhelming percentage are carried out by white men. And as per usual, it is another white privilege exercise. Because you know congress can't upset these gun lobbyists...

And now, the actual solution to the problem seems to be that you best go to church armed with a gun.

How CONVENIENT for the gun lobbies! Someone's about to make some money! 

Imagine that. A shooter comes in, and we all have a gun and we all start shooting. Wow.

I will be thinking about that for a minute.

My Weekend. I had a decent weekend, especially after the strange week I had last week. I had some sinus issues that were giving me fits, had me all stressed out and depressed, so much so that I had to take a sick day off from work. It felt good to wake up Saturday morning and be able to breathe correctly. And it was nice to leave the house and not be super cold. As a matter of fact, the days could have been mistaken for a spring day. I went and got a haircut on Sunday, and that turned out good, for a good talk with my barber afforded some work through some of my personal issues and complicated feelings about some goals I am thinking about for the new year.  A pep talk is always good for the soul.

Saturday night, I attended a VERY special birthday party. Mama Adrienne celebrated her 40th birthday.

40 is such an important milestone.  I would think that was my most important age milestone to date, and I can only hope it is one of her most important ones, too. I think she is celebrating all month, but I was fortunate enough to join her for one of her parties. And the cake... it was breathtaking,

It was a good time, even though I suck in group situations. I am working on it. But it was good to see her, as I haven't seen her in quite awhile. I can only hope her 40s will be yet another great decade of growth, change, and love in her life. I am sure ALL that will come to pass!

Sunday, my sister and Notorious J were over. I am so happy to be able to keep him and give her a

break. She was able to get some of her lesson plans done for the coming school week, and I was able to spend a good amount of time with him. I hate that I didn't get up early enough to cook Sunday dinner for them. I didn't think she was coming over, but she did! So we just had leftovers from the fridge. That is Sunday dinner enough. And I got a chance to spend quality time with my sister and little nephew.

Song of the Week. "Sending My Love" by Zhane. 



How wonderful, soothing and awesome is that song? And it makes me think of love.

*checking to see what year that song came out*

1994. Hmm... I was 24 years old. I can't really remember much of what was going on around that time. That song came out 23 years ago.

Oh, yes I do. *raises eyebrow at that year*

And I don't listen to much R&B now. Do we have any good R&B music now? Not that poppy ish, but some real sangers?

If I have to ask the question, then that is not good.

Oh well.

I am looking forward to a productive week. I was a bit miffed about coming to work today, so I had some communion before hand and blessed my whole week. My emotions and attitude have been a little left of center this past month and I am desperate need of some correction. So that is the direction I'm going in and thinking on. Damn these hormones of mine and this menopausal craziness.

Looking forward to a great week... on purpose.

And I wish the same for you.

Friday Freestyles

As always, this week has flown by like jet plane.

And I want to post, but I like a lot of pictures and visuals, and I can't get my pictures to transfer in a good time. I can get them to upload, but transferring them from my phone to my computer is a BEAST. I am not sure what that is about. I mean, it takes hours and hours. It's just odd.

Then there is that 5 or 10% of the time when everything happens immediately.  That's really odd.

So I think I will load up pictures/ideas on the weekends. It bothers me not to get some writing in any form done everyday. Sigh.

Anyway, just some stream-of-thought thinking. I have to solve those problems.

It is FRIDAY! And best of all, it is PAYDAY.

So as always, I will spend around 30 seconds imagining what it will be like to ball out of control with a whole check. Then I will roll back to reality and spend the next few minutes paying bills online. LOL

This has been a strange week, as I have only worked 3 days this week. On Halloween, I had to take off and take my grandmother in for her 6 month regular medical appointment. She hasn't been doing all that great lately, as my uncle took her to the emergency room the night before. But she was okay at the doctor's appointment, and she may have been suffering from some type of infection. She has some dehydration issues too. So there was much talk about that. But I got her to her appointment and back home without many issues.

And then on Thursday, I took off because I felt like crap. I sometimes have issues with my right sinus cavity and it was just terrible on Thursday morning. I spent most of the day in bed. I can remember the time I felt okay, when the pressure eased up some: 1:24 pm. I was feeling awful all morning, and I blew my nose at the time and it was as if flowers bloomed over my head. Thank goodness. I was impatient and full of anxiety all morning.

Picture of the Week. So I was folding clothes, and I pulled a piece of clothing from the dryer.

My nephew Justin's hoodie. How cool is that? It made me smile. Of course I have to rewash it in that ol' expensive baby Dreft detergent, but it was just funny to see a piece of his clothing mixed in with my own. For some reason, it meant much to me.

Song of the Week. So what I consider some good music came out this past week. Most notably, Mississippi rapper Big K.R.I.T. came out with a VERY good CD titled 4eva is a Mighty Long Time.

A very good ADULT CD. Free of trap. Thank goodness.

It is very mellow, very jazzy, and has its moments of conscious thought. So good to hear adult rap music for a change.

One of the songs I liked features Jill Scott. "Higher Calling"



That's such a good mellow love song. I liked-ed it.

That is it for me. I am looking forward to the weekend. I think Justin will be over. It's always good to see him, as he is growing and changing by the day. He was here this past weekend.

He weighs 7 pounds, 11 ounces now, and he is 10 weeks old now. How cool is that?

WAY cool.

Have a great weekend!

Friday Freestyles

Friday!

And I have finished for the day.

And there is NOBODY here at work. Everybody has SPLIT!

Wow.

It is tempting to leave. But alas, I will not.

This last week has been pretty nice out, all fall-like and what not.

But this upcoming week it's going to be super COLD in the ATL.  And I'm trying to get my mind right for that. I am just now getting accustomed to the 60 and 70 degree weather. I am not at all sure I am ready for the 30s and 40s this soon. YIKES.

But it will be alright.

I tell you one thing: sexual harassment is on its way out the door. Women coming out telling on EVERYBODY.  Jokers losing their jobs over what happen years ago. It makes me think about seed, I tell you. Don't plant those types of seeds in the ground. They might come back up.

I know a couple of years ago, there was a guy who had worn some shorts and he had some BEAUTIFUL legs. I almost said "You have some nice legs!"

But I caught myself. That could be misconstrued in all kinds of ways. I just kept it moving.

My follow up comment would've been "What kind of products do you use on your legs?"

Just because I may have been able to buy the same products to use on my own legs. That's all.

But hey... you can't say that type thing. Man, you really have to think about the little things.

Sexual harassment goes on at my job. But I have found that the women don't want to cause trouble for the guys who run up on them.

But I can see the fear in their eyes.

And that is sad.

Sigh.

On to lighter matters! 

Song of the Week. So... I don't like trap music much. BUT I will listen if I LOVE the beat.

One trap rapper I don't like is that doggone Young Thug. I have NO idea what he is talking about and he just looks scary. And he wears dresses, which confuses the hell out of me. BUT he has a couple of recent songs I like, and much of that is because it is experimental.  I think I posted this song last week.




I love the blend of horror and trap rap and the references to The Shining. And I could make out what  they were saying, even though they are not saying much of anything at all. I think I just like that beat too.

However, something else came out. And I have liked this song for a minute. "Family Don't Matter"



Wow. Trap rap fused with country music. How GENIUS is that.

So... let's talk about this.

1. First of all when I finished watching this video, I texted the Cowgirl Cre. She owns a horse that she boards in a barn. I told her that she must've directed this video! LOL

2. I have NO idea what he was rapping about. It all felt like a bunch of random words thrown together. I looked up the lyrics, and yes... it is RANDOM.   And the vulgarity is unnecessary. I guess I would have to be a twenty-something year old dude to understand that. .

3. I am sure Millie didn't know what he was talking about either. But she sang that song! She memorized her words and she worked it! Go Millie! (whoever you are!)

4. This has to be the most confusing song I have ever heard. Ever.

5. That crocheted pullover he had on had me confused on some other level.  


Not anything I will listen to on a regular basis, although it is on my spotify playlist.  It  shouldn't come up often since that list has some 500 songs.

I just found it interesting on a creative level.

Alright that is it for me. I am looking forward to the weekend! I have a reading on Saturday at the Barnes and Nobles!

There you go! Can you read that 0.02 font?  If not, click on it. 

Maybe I should have put that up earlier this week.

Nope, because I forgot all about it.

I would like to read something a little different than I have been reading, but I am not. I can't figure out what portion to read where I can snatch that portion out and it sound okay. So I am sticking with what I have practiced very well.  

It's gonna rain like crazy. I may catch an Uber there and an Uber home. We will see.

That is it for me!!

Ya'll have a great weekend! On purpose!