Got Wheels!

Borrowed wheelchair

We have ordered a brand new wheelchair. In the meantime, this one from an official organization that lends out medical equipment will do just fine.

Now nothing is safe!

Lady driver! Watch out!

Found Treasure

One physio-therapist's trash is Linda's treasure.

Two weeks ago on my way home from the hospital visiting my mom, I saw these wooden crutches propped up against an old worn out office chair and a stoel out on the curbside waiting for the garbage truck. I passed them and then circled back to pick them up and take home. 

Why do I gather up other folks' garbage? 

Don't we have enough junk of our own?

Well, not any perfectly good wooden crutches!

The crutches stayed only a few days in our garage propped up against the wall.

Now they have flown across the Atlantic and are here in The Netherlands propping me up!

Just wish that my guardian angel had done better than just provide me with crutches. They may be helpful, but with a hurt left knee and a broken right foot, I NEED a wheelchair ASAP! 

Trips to the WC are much too painful, too dangerous, and too many!

Getting Frisky (The Great Pat Down) with TSA

My outlook at the Beltway Apartment in The Netherlands for the next couple of days until my wheelchair arrives. :>{

TSA Houston ( less than 24 hours ago)

"Mam, can you walk through this body scanner?" 

" Well, yes, with my wooden crutches you just scanned. But it may take me over five minutes to get through there, though. I am really not supposed to put my full weight on my broken foot."

That was the beginning of a frisking that beats all frisking/pat downs.

The young gentleman pushing my United Airlines provided wheelchair was then directed to push me to a glass gate and wait.

A kind young lady with an obviously distracting foreign object in her eye directed my "chauffeur" to an area at the end of the scanning machines. Then she speedily told me the " touchy/ feely" maneuvers she was about to perform on me. She mentioned that we could do this privately, but I said to just go right ahead and do what she had to do. I haven't had such a "massage" as this, ever. Arms, back, waist (feeling inside the waistband of my jeans), under the breasts, under the buttocks,legs, inner thighs, and feet. 

Okaaaay!!! 

Then she scanned my regular shoe and my correction boot and finally tested them for "dust," I guess. She even "dusted" the armrests of the wheelchair. 

The amount of time this investigation took, I could have crawled through the body scanner on all fours! And maybe that would have been less humiliating.

The one place I could have hidden something was the correction boot. That hideous, huge black plastic thing could have been full of whatever they were searching for. 

But it only concealed my sore, broken foot! 

And she never even asked to see that!

Dang!

I absolutely hate foot shots, but what else can I blog about today? I broke a bone in my right foot yesterday afternoon while trying to clean the windows of our car. 

Damn gas station driveway! Holes where you could bury the dead!

No weight on it! Manipulate crutches! Order a wheelchair for the airport. Fly almost 10 hours. Take our taxi to the Beltway Apartment.

And then six weeks like this! 

Dang!

Black and White Friday

Blog themes have never been my thing, but I think I will try one while we are travelling the next few weeks. 

So this is my own Black and White Friday photo:

Now that I look at this winter shot of my brother Steve and me descending Mammaw Ridge's front porch steps, I notice a few things. 

First, it seems to have been torn from a photo book ( notice the perforations on the left). 

Also, my Dad's handcrank Brownie camera did not advance the film properly. The roof of the house is at the bottom of the photo. 

This wooden (unpainted!) house was ordered from Sears and Roebuck. 

No stair railings and look at the height of those stair treads!

I remember winter in rural Arkansas as cold, windy, and muddy. The chickens kept the grass short all around the house. And the dirt roads were huge muddy ruts made for slipping and getting stuck in.

Love this photo!

Hospital Idiots

My mom is still in the hospital. She looks a whole lot better than she did four weeks ago, but the antibiotics for the blood and bone infection are taking their toll. 

But that isn't the idiotic part.

Last night at 12 o'clock midnight Mom called the nurses' station to say that she could not sleep. And what did the nurse do? She gave Mom a bath! Not a warm luxurious bathtub bath, but a cold air-conditioned hospital room "spit bath." 

Mom said that woke her up and then she really couldn't get warm and rest.

Hospital Idiots!

Blue Apple Berry Muffins

What do you do when you have apples no one is eating and a dollop of blueberry pie filling in the fridge?

Why make Blue Apple Berry Muffins, of course!

Blue Apple Berry Muffins

Set oven at 375 F.

Ingredients:

1   Butter Recipe Yellow Cake Mix (size 15.25 oz. and pudding is already in the mix)

6-8  Small Gala Apples (cored and diced with peel)

1/2-3/4  cup Blueberry Pie Filling

1/3  cup Salted Butter, softened

3  Eggs

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, beat cake mix, butter, eggs on low speed 30 seconds. 

Then add the apples bit by bit and then adjust mixer up to medium speed for two minutes. 

Add blueberry pie filling last. 

Line regular-size muffin pan with paper cups. Spoon batter into cups (about 3 Tbsp each).

Bake 14 to 19 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan.

Cool completely before frosting, although these taste great without icing.

Makes over 25 muffins.