YES, I AM REALLY A GIMP AND I NEED THE CART

For those of you who read this blog, but do not know me personally, part of my physicallness is that I walk with forearm crutches. I was born with Spinal Bifida and supposedly, I have walked with forearm crutches longer than anyone else in the country. At the age of 52, I have walked with crutches 47 years. There are people older than me, but none walking longer. I have never used a wheelchair, except when I had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands. Then my husband was the one that really used it, because I could not turn the wheels. So my mobility depends on crutches.

That background brings me to the grocery store. When I shop I have to use the motorized carts. Now, I do not believe the stores are obligated to have them, but I am glad they do. Without them I cannot shop by myself. Earlier in my life I used to hold the grocery cart with one hand and crutch with the other. But several years ago the grocery carts were made larger and I am 4 ft 6in tall,too small to make this work anymore. The benefit of the cart is mostly for carrying things for me, I cannot carry and walk.

So...I go to the grocery store and there is one cart available for use. This is great. I get in the cart, unplug it and start out. I usually have to go in through the exit door, because people leave their regular carts blocking the path to the front door. I work my way over to produce and see another woman in a cart. Ok, first you need to know that gimps check each other out. And we can call each other gimps, but no, you may not. It is just the rules of the game. And may I suggest that if you do not know that rule, you might not actually be one of the club?

I pass the woman, glancing sideways to see if she has a cast, a cane, anything will do. But, alas, no. There are crutches in my cart. Maybe she has a lung or heart disorder, ok, hidden handicaps count. The woman notices me and smiles. "Hi, I just didn't feel like walking today, nothing is wrong with me, isn't that funny?" I stopped my cart. "No, it isn't." We stare and I go on. I can not believe the encounter.

One day I went into a large department store and I was waiting in line for a motorized cart. The wait was to be approximately 20 minutes. I was the last in line and fully alright with the fact that if I could not wait, then I could come back later. There are only so many carts. A tall large young gentleman comes in and sits behind me and he is asked if he is waiting on a cart also. He says no and continues to sit in line. All of a sudden a woman appears on a cart, motions to the gentleman behind me and all of a sudden he can walk very fast gets on the cart the woman is exiting. Now she had gotten this cart by telling a customer she worked for the store and would put it away. I stand up and yell, "Hey, there are people waiting in line for the carts you have to wait your turn." Immediately I am told by the greeter that they have nothing to do with this. "Yes, you can call a manager and people can get carts in order." No response. The gentleman is now wheeling away with the cart. The woman who procured it for him comes over to me. "You just need to be grateful that you are not as handicapped as he is and smile." My reply, "He may be handicapped, but he has to wait in line like everyone else for his turn." Her response, " I said smile, you are not getting the cart." At this point I exited the store.

Another situation was when I had a cart and could not get out of its parking place because of a young family of five children and a mother who had turned to face me, all staring. "This is a crippled person, she can't walk she has to use a cart. Her legs don't work." "Excuse me, please. I need to get through." No one moves, but the youngest one does wave. Finally is desperation I go through the exit to enter the store. One of the children says, "Mommy, she went in the wrong door." Her mother sugerly answers, " I know honey, crippled people can't read, so she doesn't know." My cousin often asks me how I do not slap people. I am not always sure. Note to those not in our club: If you or your children have any questions ask me. I have real answers to your questions and I have had practice, they are polished and ready.

This is not to be a post on how I, Traci is treated, but how the world sees handicapped people. The view that disturbs me the most is that generally the handicapped community does not label themselves that way, it is just a part of our physicalness, like having brown hair or blue eyes. But with the new trend of self-victimiztion and entitlement, at least with motorized carts and parking spaces, everyone wants to be a gimp. Everything seems to be a handicap. If people limp, are tired, feel depressed and are bipolar, they have a false belief that they are in the club. You are not. People!, it just is not that glamorous.

If you really need a cart or parking space that bad, ask, I will let you have it first. But you are not part of the club. Now, if you insist on trying to be pledges, let me give you a few rules with those carts you love so much. When you get through using the cart, bring it back in the store, park it in the designated spot and plug it in. A card carrying member just might need that cart later. Or Low and behold, you may come back tomorrow and want it yourself. And Card Carrying Members I have noticed many of you are lax in this area. Do you not want to keep your present status? Back to pledges: If you want my parking space, by all means cut me off before I slide into the spot myself. But pledges, please, please, have the good graces to limp as you walk in the store or at least grab your chest and slightly lean forward at least until you saddle up to the cart right inside your door. There are not enough motorized carts and parking places for all of us. So pledges, mind these rules - Card Carrying Members are watching you.

Fall Garden

With the onset of family sickness we had here in the spring and a family surgery in the summer combined with the heat - I did not get a garden in this spring/summer. So I was determined to do a Fall/ Winter one, plus the cold frame. Fortunately, the weather has changed early, which has given me perfect condidtions to go out and play in the dirt.

The first day I tackled the front garden which is not a very big space but was housing , no kidding, 7 ft weeds. I am trying to make this a perrenial garden, but so far there are only about 4 or 5 in the area. The Hycinth Vines and the Moon Flowers have done the best this year. They were a first year try. We picked up 45 bulbs with 6 varieties the other day, so they will go in next week.

Next on the "to do" list were the areas around the tree in the back yard and a circle of stones that had the 7ft weeds also. Each of these jobs in the weeks, months, before had loomed in my head as taking "FOREVER"! In actuality each time I went out to work I only spent 2hrs. I got what I wanted to accomplished in 2hrs and didn't burn out working then.

Then the day came when I woke up and knew it was time to weed the bed to be the actual vegetable garden. It was very frustrating at first. My Trusty Trowel and I were barely able to gain 2ft in 1/2 an hour. But as the grass came up, finally, it loosened as I went along. I finished the bed in about 1 1/2 hrs and measured it to be 1yd x 6.5yds. It's a little more and less in different places. I don't seem to be able to dig a straight line - ;)

I finished off that day with pruning the Pussy Willow in front of the porch. The view is much better now and I can actually watch the birds from inside now. This was all done last Friday, with WONDERFUL INTENTIONS to work the weekend. But we all know how that goes.

Monday I was back at it, but not until later in the day. I planted 2 rows of seeds and was just glad I made it out there. Tuesday I planted 7 more rows, each row being a different vegetable. Basically I am doing lettuce, spinach, white and red radishes, carrots, beets, and winter squash. I will plant again in 2 weeks. And then again in 2 and when frost is eminent I will do a planting up against the wall.

Wednesday I was beginning to think I would not make it outside, but I did. I did not do alot, but I was able to move the cold frame to a new location. I want to have it there now mostly so the pups get used to it being there. Eventually, which now means next week, I will put pots in it with soil and insulate them with wool and newspapers. Inside I bleached clean the sprouter and seeded the 1st tray.

So starts my Fall/ Winter Garden. If you have one let me know how it is going!

HOW QUICKLY SUMMER PASSES

This summer seems to be over and done with before we knew it. We started out the season with both us having terrible sinus infections. With that and the rain, I did not get a garden prepared or really planted this year. After the sickness passed I worked on putting perrenials in the front yard and some kitchen vegetables, but nothing came of the food part.

What did come this year were wonderful Moon Flowers! I have planted these before with no success, but this year they not only came up, but they are gorgeous and so much fun. What a wonder to look out your front door after dark and see a beautiful white large flower.

A few others came up this year. My Job's Tears are doing well. They are from the grass family and have little "beads" at the end of the tassels, that look like corn stalks. My maternal family has been growing these in our gardens off and on now for over 100 years. They are a delight. There is also a large Night Shade Plant, some Sweet Williams, a Purple "Bean" plant flower plant from Cousin Betsy, Shasta Daisies,and a wonderful speckled flower that I have no idea about. Hopefully these are all perrenials or will re-seed and the color will take over next year, without much effort.

So how did your summer go?

GROWING FRENZY

I love to grow plants. And with the winter that we are having here it is an unsatiable desire to see green live beings in the house.

My winter gardening started with my traditional paperwhite bulb in my kitchen window right after Thanksgiving. It was so cold in my kitchen window (How cold was it?) that for several weeks there was just the beginnings of a sprout, and green, but no height to the plant. I then moved the plant behind the tinted area of the window, which gives it a bit of warmth and the height definately caught up with itself. I was beholding sweet smelling white flowers in no time at all.

I was gifted before Christmas a Red Amarylis and I started it at the same time. I now have on our table a living Valentine. It has produced 6 blooms so far and looks like it might produce more. My next bulb adventure is to start crocus/tulip bulbs on Candlemas (Groundhog Day) and hopefully they will be blooming by Easter at least. These and the paperwhites I enjoy giving out to the women at Quilting and Ladies Aid and I love to hear the stories of how their bulbs are growing.

On the dreariest of days I started sprouts for salads. Last year I went to our bulk store and asked if they had seeds for sprouting. They looked at me kind of funny and shook their heads. About half way home I realized that I needed to think outside the box. I turned around and went back to the bulk store and bought one container each of every spice that was still a whole seed. So this gave me a good reserve for creative salad sprouts with such a variety as mustard, cumin, fennel.... The options are only limited by the seeds at the store.

Sprouts are wonderful. In just a few days they are growing and exciting. My hard part, ask my DH, is that I become emotionally attached to the little plants and let them keep growing. Then one day he finds the overgrown sprouts in the trash and I am starting over again. This year, I am making a concentrated effort to use them, and so far it is working.

Before I was married I had a cold frame that I used often in the winter and enjoyed lush green salads of leaf lettuce and spinach. After the addition of husband and pups, the coldframe was just not it's old self. It had been stepped on, jumped on and hit with a lawnmower. We moved it once, and the afore mentioned just seemed to happen again. Because of my handicap it is important to me to be able to work in the cold frame from the back patio, which has a roof, so I am not slipping on ice, etc. So I called a friend of mine who has the gardens where we got married. I wanted to know if he thought I could use a "rubbermaid" type clear tote as my cold frame on the back porch. He showed me a reasonable cold frame from Cook's Garden and it was assembled and brought to my concrete back porch. The back porch faces south, so I have good sun and I can manage it now in all weather.

Now to planting the cold frame. I have searched the internet obcessively to do this the "right way". And finally I decided to experiment with my ideas with just a few pots, and if that does not work - revise, revise, revise. My present idea is to fill the pots with potting soil, add seeds of lettuce and spinach and insulate the pots by lying them on newspapers and putting crushed newspapers between the pots.

I want to mention that I did buy two small clear totes for planting. One I have put to the left of my kitchen sink, filled with potting soil and seeded once. The result was that all the seeds came up, but they were very thin and spindley. Back to Google Search and decided that I needed to raise the tote closer to the window and leave the light above the sink on, so the plants were not struggling so much for light. The grocery store supplied me with the makeshift shelving and I have replanted. I will let you know how it turns out.

The second tote, same size, I still want to experiment with outside beside my coldframe. The main reason is that I want to show women in apartments, low income housing units etc, how to garden in small spaces, all year around. Totes can be bought rather inexpensively. So can potting soil, clay/plastic pots and newspapers. There is not only a joy, but empowerment, in growing even some of your own food. So as I plant the coldframe, I also am planting a couple small pots in the tote and work on tweeking this system. Hopefully I will have answers by Spring and can share this information with others.

In between these growing food adventures, this last weekend, my husband and I went to the Conservatory. It was so green and warm on one of the more frigid days of the year. Not only was each and every room a vegetative joy, but we had the added pleasure of the Orchid Show. Orchids of every color imaginable, all over the conservatory. I love orchids, but I also love the Tuxe, the oldest kitty at our house who also loves orchids. In fact she can eat a $25 orched down to the dirt and say - Yum, can I have another Mom? - so we haven't had anymore orchids. But, when we went to the conservatory gift shop I was delighted to see orchids in terrariums. That is our solution. I immediately found a 1/2 price small orchid and started making plans. The next day I took apart the 5 terrariums I had, sifting through and pruning and discarding and now have four terrariums with a variety of plants, one a special orchid terrarium. I hope this works. It is lovely and non-edible.

And last, but not least today, I put some tiny peat pellets, (Have you watched them expand and grow? It is true entertainment.)in three cheerful colored half moon-shaped containers, with matching saucers and planted Lambs Ear (orange 1/2moon), Sensitive Plant (Green 1/2moon) and Polka Dot plant (purple 1/2 moon). These were a gift from my DH during the after-Xmas sales at Waldenbooks, they just looked fun. And I have been wating to grow more ornamental plants. I have sowed and placed the little 1/2 moons in the tote beside the kitchen sink and am anxiously awaiting my first signs of life in them.

So I will keep you up to date on my growing adventures. Are you growing anything this winter? Do you have any suggestions for me? Happy Green Thumbs to us all!

In Memory of BFF Sheila Rice

I met Sheila at the library. She always told me - where all good people are. Somehow she ended up in my car one day. And my life has been forever changed and fulfilled. There are so many instances and days and memories that keep flooding back to me – so I have a few I would like to share, some of my favorites.
Sheila was a storyteller and mostly she talked about her sons and their wives and their children and their children all the time. As you know, she loved all of you. And her stories made us know you too. She knew how to have a whole life – friends, family, interests. And mostly she told stories of Larry and because of that, we all love him so. Sheila loved being a deacon at Brighton Presbyterian. She liked visiting and talking to people. They just need a story and to laugh she would tell me. And she loved the children and the babies. Always the babies.
It was not long after we met that Sheila and I discovered that we both like to read and write and drink lots of coffee. I had never met anyone so well read in my life. We would talk about books and pass them back and forth. When I talked about starting a writers group, she told me she was the 1st on board. And she definitely was. She added the sparkle, the focus and the needed distractions. We decided on venues for everything by where the coffee was best. If there was not any coffee, she threatened to leave. Someone always seemed to find a cup after that.
She loved this city and everything that was happening. She always encouraged others to come to the library and hang out and to go to the events. We went to many together. We watched movies, learned things and laughed always laughed.
One day Sheila heard of an injustice on the women's side of the county jail. She asked me to take her there. We had barely walked in and people already knew her and came up to talk. One officer came up. She shmoozed him. Sheila asked him about, his wife, his kids, laughed, told a funny story from the past and then he asked what brought her there. Sheila mentioned the problem. When she got done the officer started to explain, and said, - You don't understand..and Sheila answered with, - no I don't and either will the people that read the newspaper article. The problem was solved by that evening.
Then there was the declining bus schedule. That was not the “type” the city was trying to draw, she was told. The Type, answered Sheila, and she explained how her life and the life of her children were enriched by being able to use the bus system. The gentleman listened and answered with – I am ashamed, Mrs. Rice. She quickly retorted with – I do not want you to be ashamed, I want you to fix the bus schedule. That's how Sheila was – to the point, but making you smile. The bus schedule never properly got changed and I was blessed with becoming a regular driver for Sheila.
Some days when Sheila and I were together everything we said and heard were song cues. We sang often and loud. We became like a well rehearsed Vaudeville act. We sang and told jokes at Tai Chi and in restaurants and in the car and at the library. She knew how to make a celebration out of anything. If the day was boring, she told the waitress it was her birthday and we got desert and sang. It was forever before I figured out when her birthday really was.
I have a big hole in my heart – but it is so filled with memories. And I am more of a person because Sheila loved me and I love her. Not often do you find someone who will sing with you in a restaurant well after the waitress has kind of asked you not to. But I was blessed enough to be a part of her life to the end. A gift beyond measure. So if you see me singing loudly in a restaurant, as I am drinking coffee – please join in the chorus with Sheila and me.

June 27, 1936 - October 5, 2010

Summer Cooking

The mighty bean has saved me one more time. Actually over and over again, since this summer I seemed to revel in cold bean salads. Other than cooking out, I am totally at a loss as what to fix in the summer for supper. Fall and Winter cooking is more to my liking. If you follow my blog at all you know that I enjoy making breads and soups and the like. This does not fit the incredible hot summer we experienced.

It started with my DH mentioning that we needed something cool for supper and mentioned he liked what we had eaten previously at an Indian Restaurant. "I can make that.", I responded and made a cold lentil salad the next night. After supper DH complimented me on the Indian lentil meal and then it dawned on me. I bet he doesn't want this every evening this summer. I have to find more recipes.

So the next day I put in my Google search engine - Summer Cold Bean Salads. So if you know how to search you can find a lot of bean salad recipes. But, I never follow a recipe. And I seldom can make the exact same dish twice. But they give me lots of ideas.

First of all I keep my ingredients to a minimum. Each week at the grocery store I usually buy the same vegetables: about 12 tomatoes, 1 cucumber, 1 green pepper, 2 shallots, 1 avocado. Then I work at dividing these up into 2 - 3 bean salads a week. I did add fruit: in black bean salad I added mango and in various others I added some crasinets. I also keep almonds, peanuts and walnuts on hand, to add that little extra.

Then I got into pasta salads. I use the "practically no carbs" pasta and used the same above vegetables. What varies then in the meals? Why don't they all taste alike? The herbs and spices I use. That is what changes the dishes, with the same ingredients with each meal.

I did make Gazpacho this summer also. But, of course, with a twist. I left all the vegetables just diced. The first time I made it with V8 juice, but it was a little too much for DH's tummy. The other times, I used regular tomato juice.

Cooking out is by far my favorite summer meals. Often this summer DH lit the coals and we enjoyed many a meal from it. This is a very simple meal for us. With DH eating meat and me being a veggie, all the meals I make are generally vegetarian with meat on the side for him, which he usually cooks on the George Foreman grill himself, since I overcook meat to death. When we cook out, meat is king, and I need to figure out what to have. Often I have a potato and onion put straight on the coals. Then I went through a phase of having processed veggie burgers on hand, followed by "trying" to make my own. Then through my Depression Cook Book I read of using eggplant for "meat". This is the absolute best "veggie burger" I have ever had at home!(The eating out version being the black bean and brown rice version at Ruby Tuesdays.) I brush the eggplant with olive oil and grill. Then I add just what you would for a regular burger. Or I switch off and just add parmesian cheese, salt and pepper.

What is great is that if I buy an eggplant, slice it and parboil, then I can freeze the egglant "burgers" and have them always ready to grill. You really need to cut them 2 - 3 inches though or they are hard to physically maintain on the grill. I also can have them all winter on the George Forman, when DH decides he wants a burger and chips.

So, from the house, where the wife woke up freaked about supper each day, supper is getting easier, even in the summer. Now that Autumn is upon us, look forward to new installations of what's cooking here!

What I've Done On My Vacation - Summer Turns to Fall

So that is how it feels as I write the first blog in so long. What happens when we write so regular and then stop? Well, that probably should be the topic of another post. But... I digress by the second line.

I went through quite a spell telling you about what I cooked and how to do it yourself. I hope to continue to do this, soon. But, what I think I have been doing most is just that - cooking. Each week I cook dog food and yogurt about twice a week. Cat food is done about once a week to 10 days. Kefir cannot really be done in the summer, it spoils in the extreme heat, but we are back to making it once a week for breakfast and that needed snack before supper. Greek yogurt we still did in the heat and added cereal to it for a cool breakfast. But now, we will concentrate on Kefir and oatmeal for our breakfasts. I haven't done cheese or bread during the heat, these are acts resumed in the fall also. My goal is to added bagels and english muffins to my adventures.

The front garden of wildflowers this summer just flourished and some are stil blooming. But, alas, the vegetables were a complete flop. The only ones I will be harvesting are root vegetables. I still believe I must be a root farmer. So this winter I hope to read up much more on vegetable gardening and get it right. I am looking at going back to the Victory Garden garden of WW2, which allows for draught and over rain conditions.

As many of you know, we don't do mainstream television. We get tv in the way of movies from the library and Netflix. This summer we have genuinely enjoyed and obcessed on Foyle's War, a BBC Series. It is wonderful! The back drop is WW2 and they are mysteries with the head of the police department being Christopher Foyle played by Michael Kitchen. We have watched all 6 seasons, and at the end of the war, we wondered what we would do now. Many weeks we watched almost every night, or sometimes two a night, which is unheard of in this house! Do yourself a favor and look it up. We are following it up with World at War, about WW2 also. When we were dating we watched and learned of the Civil War, and now at our 2nd year of marriage, we are learning of WW2.

For several weeks many of our thoughts and energy have been devoted to our friend, Sheila and her health. Her struggle is hard and long and we have been organizing taking meals to her and her brother Larry and anything else we can.

The last 2 months we have been redoing the furniture in the Living Room. For Christmas we had a new table and benches. We added an amour for my musical instruments first and added a bookcase for current reads, library books and DVDs. Today my DH assembled a Ventless Gas Fireplace, readying for the plumber to install and two futons to replace our sofa and love seat. I have figured it out, my DH collects furniture. ;) And as our former cleaning lady stated, he obviously has better taste than I.

I took a Botanical Illustration course this summer, which was a dream fulfilled. It was very frustrating at first since I have not drawn much since my hand surgeries. But I stuck to it, and I do believe I can approve much. In the class we focused on pencil and ink drawings. The ink were done with a fountain pen. I was not sure about this, but ended up enjoying it a lot. I started with black ink, but ended up with sepia. I will be doing more of this.

I am teaching about 8 women to tat this month. It has been nice to have a taste of teaching again. Tatting can we so frustrating in the beginning, but these ladies and hanging in there and I think they will be fine. Many are finding needle tatting easier, which is fine. I also added Mary's Lace (Mediterranean Lace) to the class and it is nice to see others using these ancient laces.

I also added a Tai Chi Class at the County home in addition to the one on the Alzheimer unit. I have taken my 1st quilt to my Thursday Lutheran quilters and they helped me finish it and all signed it for me. And I helped cook at church for the Octoberfest. It was wonderful cooking with the women, as always and I am looking forward to baking Springerless with them in October.

So, I have not been lax this summer, I do not believe. But it is time to do and blog. I am back - what have you all been up to?