Thursday, November 14, 2013

November 14, 2013

A Great Start to an Outstanding Day
November 14, 2013

This beautiful Black-Crowned Night Heron was waiting to greet me this morning when I went out in the backyard to fill the birdbaths and bird feeders.  Well, he may not have been there to greet me, but he posed nicely for me while I got a few photos.  It was very early and overcast when I spotted him, so the lighting wasn't perfect, but I sure love this photo.  Over the last two or three years I have had occasional visits from the Black-Crowned Night Herons as well as the Yellow-Crowned Night Herons.  A couple of years ago we had three immature Yellow-Crowned Night Herons around for a while and I am glad to see some of them still come around
This Black-Bellied Whistling Tree Duck proves why they are called Tree Ducks.  Actually, some bird lists have removed Tree from the name of these ducks, but I still think of them that way.  He is about 8 feet up off the ground, in our Royal Poinciana tree, waiting for an opening at the bird feeder.  This morning there was a great variety of birds in the yard.  Since we were out of town about 10 days ago for several days, few birds have come around, but word must have gotten out that the feeders are again full.  One of the Budgerigars was back - the green one.  The doves and sparrows were here in droves and a Green Jay kept trying to chase everyone else off the open feeder.  I hated to leave to go to work.

Before going to work I spent time sewing and that also makes it a wonderful day.  I stayed up late last night working on one of the projects and then this morning made another block with a pattern I had bought at the quilt show - the pattern that was driving me nuts!  I think I mentioned that I bought this pattern while in Houston, but the pattern was not well prepared for sale.  Two of the 6 pattern pieces were not the right size.  You can cut it by using them as sold, but you have to make adjustments and there was no reason not to make the pattern pieces the correct size - there was room on the sheet of instructions.  I finally got it worked out and I enjoy making it, I just wish it had been easier to get started.  Here is the block I made this morning.  If you don't already know, I love scrap quilts.
I really felt wonderful  today!  There was very little pain from my arm.  I actually carried my supper tray at Luby's tonight when we went to eat with my mom.  I didn't carry it far before the cashier took pity on me and took it from me.  She has watched me suffer these last few months.  It has been 5 1/2 months since I broke the left elbow and I am just this week feeling like the strength is returning.  There have been two surgeries on it during that time, but it was so encouraging today to be having so little pain. 

Later this morning after I got to work, I did a couple of quick jobs and then  left to run some errands.  I went by the church to talk to one of the pastors about the Winter Texan Banquet.  I have headed up that event for 5 or the last 6 years, relinquishing it to the staff last year after I went deaf.  I will need additional help this year, but we got the ball rolling and again, it felt good to be getting back to normal. 

After I left his office I sought out one of the young ladies at the church who works with the singles and asked her to see if the singles could help us with some of the work on the banquet.  Next stop was the hospital to visit our friend who has pneumonia and blood pressure problems.  I did a little Christmas shopping and picked up my lunch before returning to the office so Ron could go out on a couple of jobs.  While visiting the man at the hospital, I noticed how well I could hear him.  His voice is a little weak and I have had trouble hearing him for years, but I probably got 90% of what he said today.

Crowd noises are still a challenge for my hearing.  When I met Mom for supper we were visiting while waiting for Ron to arrive.  A noisy group came out of the cafeteria and I told her just to wait with what she was telling me until they passed us.  They were really drowning out what she was saying.  We found a quiet room and did well during supper with only a few requests for repeats. 

This afternoon at the office in between waiting on customers, I finished going through the stack of statements from Medicare and my supplemental insurance telling me what they had paid on all my bills.  At one point, it brought me to tears as I saw how God had taken care of my needs this year.  With the terrible insurance I had before going on Medicare, we would have owed well over $40,000 this year on these bills!  Thank you, God that my deafness came this year and not two or three years ago!

I continue to work with the remote for the Cochlear Implant, changing the settings to match the situation I am in.  For example, while I was having breakfast with a friend earlier this week, I adjusted the sound processor to only pick up sounds very close to me.  That takes out most of the background noises.  It works well for that type of setting but if we were at my dining table with the whole family I would need  to increase the size of the area it would pick up, and naturally that would increase background noises, too.  There is still so much to learn about the adjustments. 

I just want to wrap today's blog up by saying:  This was a great day!!!  AND!!!  This was typed using two hands for the first time since early September!  This reminds me of a line in an old gospel song the Gaithers used to sing: "If it keeps getting better and better, oh, Lord, I don't know what I'm gonna do!"

2 comments:

  1. Yea!!! A great day! Glad to hear things are going well for you.

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    1. Thanks, Nana Karen! Things are getting better every day, but today was a big jump!

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