The Mountain Thymes

I'm very comfortable with my new medical wrist band.  Wasn't sure I would like it because I haven't worn a watch since retiring 17 years but it's light and comfortable and I forget it's on my wrist.  I hope I never need to push the button but it's comforting to know I can communicate immediately if needed.   Blue Cross Blue Shield NC recently announced a new health fitness program for all members.  FitOn Health is the best benefit available for access to gyms and many other health programs.  I called BCBSNC to speak to a rep because I figured nothing could be that good.  Each month members receive  $112 to spend on fitness options of their choice.  Since I'm already a gym member this program now pays my monthly membership costs and I get two free 30 minute training sessions each month if I choose to use them.  I can also purchase equipment like yoga mats, dumbbells, videos for home use, nutrition videos, etc.  The rep told me that B...

 Just a quick post................... This is my new Medical Guardian Mini-lite portable protection device.  Now if I fall and roll down the mountain while gardening or fall and can't get up it will call Monte Alban and have them deliver Mexican takeout and a Margarita to my address.  Just kidding................   If I need help I press the button and can communicate back and forth with a real human.  If I don't respond medics will be dispatched to my address.  This allows me more independence and removes worry or concerns from my children. The lockbox didn't arrive with this order but will arrive Wednesday or Thursday. I'll wear it when showering but not to be submerged in the gym pool.

 The driveway snow and ice seemed as if it was softening and melting at a pretty good rate and I had been storing trash bags in the Toyota for two weeks. Today there were five bags and I thought I'd take the truck out to the transfer station to toss bags, plastics, and wine bottles.  When backing out I guess I backed out a little too far out and got hung up on a patch of ice. So dropped back a little more, turned the front wheels at a different angle and slowly trying not to spin thought I could catch the wheels on gravel.  I tried putting it into four-wheel drive.  Cliff told me years ago how to do it, but like anything that I don't do often, it was erased from my memory.  That one wheel found the ice and and just kept spinning.  My neighbor further up the road,who is a retired South Florida firefighter and now a volunteer for Bellview St. 17, came to my rescue.  He showed me how to put it into four-wheel drive then offered to take all my trash becaus...

 Ah...technology, one of the many perplexing issues that haunt me.  As soon as I get one figured out, another jumps in to confuse me.  My new laptop mouse pad is so sensitive sometimes I can't find the arrow or it runs around the screen hiding on me.  Mark told me I could go into settings and adjust the size and sensitivity.  So many choices when you go into settings .  I did adjust the size but couldn't figure out the sensitivity fix.  There must be a five-year old somewhere nearby to help me.  Next solution was to purchase a mouse.  Why did the lady in Walmart look at me as if I was from another planet when I asked her for a tailless mouse? Then I needed to choose a color from all the pretty ones, two-toned, ergonomic, or just plane black.     I picked the calming lavender package where she pointed to the small receiver which stays in the laptop.  Excited about easily solving that issue....alone.....no assistance from a ...

  I bought these Cougar Storm boots online from DSW about three years ago when I spotted them on sale.  We haven't had any worthwhile snow in many years.  Snow showers that melt hours later is not snow.  I craved a measurable amount of soft white snow, the kind that brings a hush to the mountains, a calm peaceful feel when you open the door and there's silence..........  When the Chattanooga weather reports predicted three to six inches consistently I dug out the boots from the back of the closet and they set by the kitchen door in anticipation of finally being worn.   I couldn't roll snowballs so I built my snowman.  It's wearing my homemade gardening hat, a fresh carrot that didn't go into the beef stew, two grape eyes and two fallen oak branch arms. By this point the snow had quickly changed to sleet/rain mixture and I went inside.  Boots are wonderfully warm and comfortable, good to forty below, but I'll find that out. Yesterday was twent...

 The past two days have been rough.....body and mind rough.  I didn't like myself but couldn't get away from myself.  Where ever I went, there I was.  I blamed the barometric pressure, the gloomy dreary dark sky.  This morning after my yoga class one of the ladies recognized my mood and asked if she could hug me.  That I needed badly.  Hugs.  Badly needed.  On the way home it hit me.  I'm approaching January 21, the second year anniversary of Cliff's death.   Temperature was in the forties all through the night.  Just right for sleeping.  Forty-five when I got up to start my day but quickly dropping into the twenties and very windy with snow showers.  I bundled up to fill the bird feeder and make sure the suet was filled.  I thought I saw a head peeking out of the bluebird house down by the garden.  As I walked closer I noticed the birdhouse hole had been chewed larger.  Squirrel saw me approaching...

  Front yard full of deer this morning.  I counted eight coming from woods across the road.   I bought a new TV which is still in the box sitting in the living room  Janice gave me two names of people who could help me get the old one down so I could set up the new smaller one.  The first handyman she uses broke his arm doing a job somewhere else.  The second one had a pipe burst the other night after  temperatures dropped near the teens.  So the TV sits in the box until I can find someone else.   I'm not sleeping well and it's making me crazy.  I fall asleep fine....until about 3:30 when I can't go back to sleep.  Last year at this time my mind was chatting in my head with all kinds of sorrow and issues.  This year I'm not sure why.  The mental fatigue catches up with me some days and I forget too many things.  I lost my small zipper pouch that I keep cash in and retraced my steps to the places I had been b...

  Mountain gals and one hubby gathered New Years Eve at Janice's house for takeout Chinese.  Lynn, Me, Libby and Frank, Janice, and Jacky....doing the selfie. Jacky is the baby of the group.  The rest are late 70's, early 80's.  Frank has had dementia for about 6 years.  We gathered at 4:30 and were back home by 7.  Real party animals. Jacky read a list of do's and don't for the new year.  Do not clean your house, do laundry, or throw things away on January 1.  You will be throwing out "good luck" for the year ahead.  If a tall dark handsome man bearing a gift is the first person to enter your house, it's good luck for the new year.  I'm still waiting!   We had days of pouring rain after Mark left.  Weather was wonderful while he was here.  Nice to see the cascading again. One morning recently right outside my kitchen window.....   Doe drinking from the birdbath.   Still figuring out this new laptop....