Mothers and other matters

My mom's short term memory is still very bad. One of her therapists suggested getting her a tablet or the like for intellectual stimulation. I ordered a Kindle Fire for her and got it connected and downloaded a few things for her; a few books (yay for free books) and some games. Then I took a little notebook and wrote down how to operate the Kindle.

Enjoy some flowers, just because

When I saw Mom on Saturday, I showed her how to use it, but of course, she forgot. And she can't find the little book I started writing in. I called her today and walked her through turning it on and opening the book she wanted. May I say, 'thank you Kindle for being fairly simple.' If it had been complex, I could not have handled it over the phone.

By the way, the Duke Power thing still isn't straightened out. Yesterday makes my 3rd attempt to get the POA on my mom's file. I am really not happy with them. At least she's no longer paying the power bill for a place she's not living. 

Tomorrow is International Women's Day. I can't take the day off, but I can wear red. And I will. And if you are seeing this today (Tuesday - I hope to post it at lunch), Kiva is offering a free trial. I think today is the last day. To give you an idea how well it works, I've deposited about $150 dollars for Kiva loans. I've loaned out $680 dollars. Kiva makes money available to local lending institutions, who lend the money at lower rates, the borrower repays the loan, the lending institution keeps the interest and returns the capital to Kiva, who returns the money to my 'bank'. I can withdraw or loan it out again. Obviously, I loan it out again. Sometimes, I also make a donation to Kiva to help with their operating costs.

Tonight is my date with Carry. I still can't find the present I bought for her. I took it out of the car because I was worried about breakage. What did I do with it?

I finished the loom knit cable. I did cables in the opposite direction for the last two, just for practice. I also went ahead and bought a couple cable needles.

I've been playing with my coloring page of the day calendar. I have at least 2 or 3 that are partially colored, but I can't find them.

US POLITICS AHEAD
I swear, it's like lawmakers aren't even pretending to be serving the people. They're serving the corporations, or whoever has the deepest pockets (see the latest health care bill where a HEALTH INSURANCE company collects the penalties someone pays for being uninsured).

Supper at a Cracker Barrel: I managed to get my car problem straightened out and even made it to Cracker Barrel on time. My problem was that I wasn't certain if it was the right Cracker Barrel. There were two possibilities: the one that I've been meeting my Dad at & the one that we met at last time. The latter is closer to me so I stopped there, thinking that if I didn't see him, my Dad was probably at the other one.

He pulled in as I was pulling out. Good timing, that. We were seated right away & I gave him his birthday present, in a wrapsack. The waitress came to take our order and when she'd left, his present had disappeared. No, she didn't take it & it didn't drop of the floor. He hid it. Like I've long said, if I'm a smart aleck, blame my family; it's their fault.

We had a nice supper, then afterwards we sat in rocking chairs on the porch in the lovely weather. The moon was full, though not visible from the porch. Kathy, my stepmom, knitted, I tatted and we all talked. Dad gave me a picture of himself & my brother from my brother's wedding day and an old stone tube bead necklace. The pendant had broken but I think I can replace it. The stone is a dark blue, I suspect it might be sodalite.

They also found a bookmark with my initial that they'd meant to give me for my birthday.

Dad & Kathy identified the nut that I found the other day (that I've been using as a worry stone type thing). It's a hickory nut. They come in this thick rind (that can be dried & used for dye). The nut is then about 2" across. Once you break it open, it has this little dab of nut meat.

site of the day: Kiva, an organization that makes it possible for people who have money to lend money to people who don't (so I can lend money to someone in Mexico so she can expand her grocery store business. She expands her business, she repays the loan, I get my money back with a little interest. I can either keep it or loan the money out again). This rocks!

tatting: I've made progress on my necklace. I decided to enlarge the rings after the 1st five and after 10 I started adding the beads to the chains. That may have been too soon. I hope not. I'v also decided to only use 48 beads and my next choice is whether to do a couple bald chains to frame a chain to suspend a pendant. I don't have anything suitable but I have to figure out what I'm going to do in only 3 more chains.

clothes: black ~slippers & slacks, dark green Geoff polo, green amber jewelry (ring, necklace & post earrings), ~rope band, hematite band, floral band ring, & my hair pulled back, about half in a ponytail & the rest loose. Over the ponytail elastic I'm wearing a hair slide, except mine is a simple leather cord in a figure 8 with a green black & green cabochon set in 'brass' filigree over the center. It also has brass rose bead, brass coil & another brass rose bead on either side of the bottom part of the '8'. Descending from the rose beads are the same black & green cabochons set in 'brass' filigree (one from the 2 center rose beads & then to a triangle of 3, 2, 1 & a total of 6 brass dangle drops from the outside of the triangle of cabochons). The stick is simply brown wood capped by a rose cap the same as the rose bead & a brass dangle drop to match the others.