Plain and Practical

It doesn't take much

to reduce me to tears, I opened up typepad to sign in and after five minutes of looking at their new format and typing things into the help box without success, I finally figured it out.

Stooooopid typepad, where is your sign-in box?  could that maybe be on the screen when I go to your site to use it?  be careful, there's other user-friendly blogs out there for free or less than you charge.  Don't be pissing me off.  I'm one of many, and I know people who have already jumped ship for reasons like this.

Okay, enough ranting.  Here's today's next four skeins to ply:

and the brown stripey on the wheel to reel off:

and I visited a friend at her house and cut out and pinned these five tops as part of my rebuilt wardrobe-to-be, and this morning folded another piece of linen recycled from a tablecloth, lovely thick textured stuff, for kaps--

those are all from tablecloth linens, some are pure linen, some linen-cotton blends, but I love paying $2 or less for a blouse--some assembly required, LOL.  The seams all get hand-finished so those are delightful hours on the bench on the porch, or sharing stories with friends, or maybe even tomorrow while at the farm market between customers.

Going to be a hot one at market in the morning--you think anyone would mind if my feet were in a cold tub of water under the table?  Definitely taking a spray bottle to stick into the cooler, so I can spritz my face and arms and neck with blessed cool water, feels wonderful, and costs nothing.  Peace.

Tossed and Turned All Night

Oh, well, that'll get taken care of soon enough.  I did have Boo, who woke me about every hour and even at one point yowled at husband's computer chair.  Too bad I couldn't explain things for him, but he's catching up zzzzz's in the back sunny window now.

This is one of the best things about Ohio, our clotheslines!

and here's the sculptures, all done, ready for the name plates I'm ordering from an engraver on Etsy today,

and yesterday's spouts, that I'm eating today with a veggie burger--Boy, does it ever give good satisfaction in the kitchen to grow your own salads a couple of times a week, instead of that factory-washed irradiated tasteless stuff from the plastic bag off the grocery shelf.  And soon, there will be fresh garden goodies to munch on.

the brown lentil ones will be put into the veggie burger, and the light green ones on top with a homemade dressing.  The burger itself is TVP and an egg and a few breadcrumbs and spices, it's a great way to use up bits of leftovers.  Lentil soup for dinner with crackers and cheese.  I eat pretty light when it's just me.  Peace.

A Little Help From A Friend

and we got the porch cleaned up:

and we got the shed cleaned up:

and I am wiping down and cleaning the kitchen, dinner is a sprouts burger for me, and a cow burger for husband, and I need to make the bread for the buns this afternoon:

and when you have done all this cleaning and yard work and organizing this is what's left:

Rest of the day a little easier, and out of the sun for sure.  I did another story for the June newsletter so maybe it won't be two weeks late next time around.  Patterns for clothing, then spinning, after dinner a book on the futon.  It's a wonderful life.  Peace.

p.s. Husband's going to get those roasted apples tonight.  Finally.

Thrifted and Shopped

and here's the box of yarns for the MIL, she deserves nice new yarn.  The older stuff I had on hand, went into the box for the men's prison crocheting program:

and I'm spinning this dog hair, with 50-50 wool, for a neighbor:

and here's another wool blanket to wash and dry today for the Traverse City show, where those tough Vikings will enjoy real wool blankets for a fraction of the cost of ordering new ones--and by golly, y'alls knows how I love to recycle!

this morning, a friend is coming over to help with moving all the wood stuff back into the shed and some other lifting jobs.  Afternoon for spinning for the farmer's market, and probably most of tomorrow too, so it's dry and ready in time to label very early on Saturday morning.  The weekend is for laying out the items needed for starting on my wardrobe--fabrics are washed, patterns need to be made from pictures I've saved, I have a blouse I really like that I need to iron and lay out onto paper for making a pattern from it.  It's all good and purposeful and I'm looking forward to having some new things that fit better and look less worn-out.  Peace.

Laying Groundwork Again

I went to the farm market and sold half my handspuns--so this week, carding and spinning is on the menu.  I also boxed up some yarn for the MIL to mail today, she does donation charity hats on a peg loom, and this box for a men's prison crochet program, where the guys make items for veterans and homeless folks with their free time in their cells:

and the carpenter bee traps arrived from Etsy, handmade and promised to be good for getting rid of our hazard in the back yard--I'm allergic and carry a sting kit year round (epipen) and don't want the danger of getting stung:

and here's four pieces of black fabric yardage for skirts and aprons for myself, as well as head coverings.  My clothes are the same ones I started with five or six years ago when I became Plain, they will make good work clothes but sometimes you want to be a little more presentable and not have bleach stains or raggeddy edges   :)  it's hard to look neat and clean in some of my items, so time to get sewing:

I've already baked three loaves of bread and packaged one of those and some of the sprouts for a friend, and there's a paper to be faxed and these two boxes of yarn to mail.  The sunlight is minimal today but it will dry this polyester stuff all right.  Dinner is enchiladas, baked apples and cold pudding for side dish/dessert, jars of sun tea are prepared and waiting.  Time to plant the big flower next to the porch, and water the lavender and cosmos that are coming up as tiny green dots in their containers.  There is an abundance of good things to occupy me today.  Peace.

Health Care In America

sorry haven't been posting as much.  The last week of really pouring on the hours of handwork, then the time loading and unloading, told me I can't put off getting some relief for my wrist/arm/elbow pain any longer.  First thing Monday, I called and got someone else's cancellation with a GP, drove to Grove City, and saw Dr. Haley, whom I really liked.  He sent me over to the hospital for x-rays and while giving her a complete background of my ss number, address, old address, maiden name, last married name, husband and my house number and cell numbers and where I last worked and all that, she said it would be a $200 deposit.  Red Flag.  Um, I want to pay it all today--what is the total?  She didn't know.  Several minutes later, I had my answer--$1000 and a bit more (for the radiologist to read what my doctor would read) for simple wrist and elbow x-rays.  No dyes, no injections, no MRI, no brain scan, just wrist and elbow x-rays.

I walked out.  I checked with the Marysville hospital and although the fees were different they stacked up the same:  $1000.

Meanwhile, Husband scheduled his MRI for his shoulder and it was less than $400.  He's taking my script with him to ask at that clinic if they have a better price.

So there you have it.  You can buy a working vehicle in this country for double the cost of those x-rays.  People around here pay less than that on taxes for their farm for a year.  This is technology that has been around for decades and decades, and requires a tech earning $14.50 an hour (see job postings) to run it. 

This is why we cannot have universal health care.  Hospitals and clinics would simply jack up the prices to whatever they can quote with a straight face, the government would have to pay it, and we'd all be screwed.  My solution?  Let those without insurance go to facilities constructed on our military bases and have this work done.  We have doctors and nurses in our armed forces, and bringing them home is O.K. with me.  We have closed bases we can open up again and staff.  Hire non-coms if needed.  It can't require any more loss of privacy than I already have when I seek treatment.  At this point, I'll let the government x-ray my arm, I trust a military medic as much as the private practice doctor I saw yesterday, and I bet you the military, after years of doing more with less funding, can figure out how to x-ray my wrist and elbow for far, far less than $1000.