This week saw us working on small jobs. There is also some medical news; let’s get to it!
Monday Pam and I went to Mason City to get a biopsy taken on my prostate. (While I was in the clinic Pam checked out the Mason City Walmart.)
The procedure was routine but took time as the first step is to get a shot of antibiotics and then wait for 45 minutes for the stuff to circulate. The procedure itself took about 20 minutes. It was not comfortable (and a bit embarrassing) but had to be done.
Due to my Type-2 diabetes I have been getting blood work done on an annual basis and this is the first time my PSA (prostate enzyme) has been elevated. If biopsy tissue shows cancer cells, the cancer would have been caught at an early stage.
I have a follow-up appointment this coming week to go over the results with the doctor and will have more information to review. If the prognosis is cancer there are a number of treatments available.
Otherwise it has been a pretty quiet week with small projects getting attention. Pam has completed more painting in the library and picked out a shade of white for the upper parts of the walls. Known as ‘Woodland Morn’, the creamy white should offer a nice contrast to the green of the lower walls and bounce some light around the room. Here is a sample on one wall.
I worked on a few small projects, including putting up a bird feeder. The bird feeder had been in storage for maybe a decade or more. In spite of our resident population of outside cats, I decided to get it out and set up. It’s a large unit with three feeding tubes. As the ground is frozen I built a temporary base for it. A trip to the local farm supply store yielded some ‘black oil’ sunflower seeds and a bag of saffron seeds. The sunflower seeds went into two of the three tubes and the saffron went into the remaining tube.
Black Oil seeds have an easier-to-crack shell than the striped seeds and the safflower seeds appeal to songbirds. It took a couple days for our local birds to find and start using the feeder, but there is now some activity every day. We can watch the feeder from the library, kitchen, and my bedroom windows so we can observe the birds pretty easily. It is good to see them getting some food during these cold and snowy days. This time of year, we’re viewing sparrows, juncos and chickadees.
A pair of projects took up some of my time. First I re-arranged part of the garage to improve access to the passenger side car door. Normally I back the car into the garage which put the passenger door close to my ‘big boy’ toys. Up until now this limited the space available to swing the door open. The new arrangement fixes this.
The second project involved the John Deere garden tractor and snow blade. With snow in the forecast for tonight and next Wednesday I decided to move the existing snow away from the edges of the sidewalks. This would give me space to put the new snow when it arrives.
Speaking of snow, here is a photo of some of our snow fighting gear.
Events at the Capitol on January 6th continue to reverberate through the political world. I would just like to include this tribute:
We have begun getting information pertaining to tax preparation. I will have to file part-year Colorado taxes as well as Iowa tax. In addition, we sold property in Colorado and began getting Social Security payments. It will take some time to review all sorts of information and figure our taxes this year!
Photo Archive
I scanned more slides this past week. Those below are from a hiking trip to Hanging Lake in Colorado. The year was 2004.
For more information about the lake, which is considered a natural wonder, do an internet search or follow this link.
Thats it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Penny
Stucco walls. Ugh. Have I mentioned the interior of 702 Main is loaded with stucco walls? Old, fragile stucco walls? The walls and I have been in direct conflict since the start of renovations. Any nail or screw hole into the stucco tends to start a fracture of mammoth proportions. You should see the broken plaster mess around electrical outlets, for instance. It is a design dilemma.
Therefore, rather than installing new wood details (ceiling or wainscot molding, primarily), I’ve hit on a solution. I found an online vendor that sells grosgrain ribbon by the yard, in various widths (Ribbons And Bows Oh My – RABOM). Their 1.5 inch grosgrain is pretty much the width I’ve been using, and it’s available in a wide range of colors. Ribbon is flexible enough to travel up-and-down-and-over the uneven contours and bulges of the plaster walls, ribbon is fairly easily attached using brass upholstery tacks, and ribbon can be removed at will without permanently damaging the plaster. The ribbon solution was used in the parlor bedroom last winter at wainscot height, and it will be used in the refresh of the two downstairs rooms this winter. The overall “look” fits well into a Victorian.
If only Elmo will leave this treatment on the wall, that is…ah, Elmo.
Be Well. Happy Trails.