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).

Missed another one, oops

I successfully donated whole blood on the 15th. Yay me. Whole blood is a little easier than platelets for me; only 1 stick. After that, I had an interview with a grad student for their research project. The project is about people and roles they play.

I made RG an ice drop pendant. I got it done just in time for her birthday supper on Saturday. We had a lovely time. JJ had not gotten CD's email about the supper but I had left him a voicemail, asking if he wanted to carpool. He showed up just in time for us to leave and make it to the restaurant.

I've started learning how to loom knit cables. I knitted, I ripped, I knitted, I ripped, and I knitted. And ripped and knitted. They aren't great, but they are discernibly cables.

I found out the power had never been turned off in Mom's apartment. She was paying someone else's power bill, essentially. I had sent the company my POA and told them to discontinue her account but apparently they never got it. I called them on Friday (when I found out she was still getting billed) and that's when I found out the POA wasn't in her file. Grrrrr.

The tatters' meeting on Saturday was lovely. We didn't get our usual time, so we had it 10-3 instead. I tatted around a wood key and made a heart and started a bracelet. However, the beads and thread color didn't work out so I cut it apart before I was quite finished.

We also had two new tatters. Anitra helped one and I helped the other. Both had mastered flowers (1 ring with lots of picots) and were learning chains and bigger rings.

Leigh from Somthingunderthebed.com brought some books and I now have a few more to add to my wishlist.

She had brought this old, early 20th century German tatting book with her. She also talked about having an early 20th century German book without publisher or designer name. She's been trying to identify the designer by finding (probably) her designs in a magazine. Magazine publication was more common than book publication and sometimes have the designer's name; although not always.

Leigh's been looking for German magazines of the same era. However, she doesn't know the names of any applicable ones and neither do any of her contacts. I posted something in social media and someone in my circles pulled up a German catalog. I don't know if it will pan out but hopefully Leigh will find something helpful.

After the bracelet didn't work out, I made some hearts from the thread (and I've been having fun with my coloring page of the day calendar - I work on them whenever, so I'm nowhere near close to today).

The weather has been absurdly warm for this time of year. Not just the Bradford pears have been blooming but so have the star magnolias, tulip poplars, and other trees I don't know the name of.

I went to visit RG and her dog, Dez, recently. Her dog is almost a year old and up to fourteen pounds. Here's a still from a short video of her chewing on one of her favorite things, an antler.

US politics ahead:
When a white supremacist is a trusted advisor in the White House, with an admitted goal (in 2014) of destroying the US government, is it any wonder I'm depressed.