Dang, it’s too cold to go outside even though the dogs need to be encouraged to go out and pee before bed. Brrr. That 50 degree weather last week has made the return to winter a real challenge.
And it’s happened again – a barn cat finds out where I go after I’ve made friends with them in the barn and suddenly they figure out the dog door and they’ve become another indoor/outdoor cat. And for years people have asked me why I don’t leave them in the barn. I try, I really do.
Just finished the finale of All Creatures Great and Small and this time I cried when the woman held the goat’s head in her lap while Siegfried euthanized it. I recognize the scene vividly from my past.
Hank went home today and Moe goes home in the morning. Hank is a wind up toy but Moe is a gentle soul that wouldn’t make a wrong move. I wish she were my own dog.
All day every day I think of things I want to say on the blog but don’t stop and write it down so by the time I sit down to write I have forgotten. Ugh.
And I got an order for the Sled pattern and can’t find the single copy I had a few weeks ago.
This is what I’m working on tonight.
My primary care doctor recommended this treatment – radio frequency – for my shoulders. Does anybody know anything about it? I’m sorta – no, more like quite – miserable with shoulder pain and inability to lift my arms to do anything such as comb my hair, get dressed, put my seatbelt on, reach for anything – I could go on and on.
I wish I’d been able to watch the US Hockey game this morning.
So what else was I meaning to talk about? I know I haven’t written my Garner history – I’m probably putting it off because it’s so much work.
Hi Mary,
I don’t know anything about the radio frequency treatment, but if I were in that much pain I think I’d try anything! I hope ya try it and it works for you.
Love seeing all the furr family, Barney is pretty smart, he knows where his bread is buttered! 🐾💕 Mortie, I love ginger kitties, I have two myself.
I’m liking that quilt block.🌞
Wishing all a joy filled day with many blessings!
Sherri – you’re right – I’m calling today
Mary I was thinking this morning after getting caught up with Louisa E.’s blog where she wrote about matchstick quilting being hard for her that you must be frustrated with it too due to your shoulders hurting. I hope you can find some relief soon as this is such a part of your quilting life finishing your quilts.
And I’ll gladly send some snow to you and Jo in Wyoming as I’m so over all if it here. Winter started early last year for us and it’s made for longer and higher heat bills and hard to manage walkways. I’m ready for spring.
Kathy – Louisa has been working on challenge quilts – small and solid colors. She framed a couple or them – she does lovely work
I have 4 cat’s I feed outside, I don’t have a barn but we made some little houses for them, last night we got about 30 inches of snow and I could not find any of them, when my son went out the oldest cat was in one of the little houses, but ran when he went near him, I hope he went back in. I wish they would come in, but they won’t, All your cat’s look quite comfy. what a beautiful puppy, love the fabric of that block your working on.
Oh my! I haven’t heard of that radio frequency thing before either, I hope you get relief! Darrell hurt his lower back last Sunday morning getting up from chair at church. Still hurts but better a bit every day. Usually his back pain is only a couple of days, this has been a week. If I apply pressure it seems to help.
His truck has been out of commission too but finally think it’s solved.
Barney looks sweet under the table. He just wants to be near MaMa too. I hope he gets along with everyone in the house! Hugs! 🤗
Mary thank you for sharing the new technology for your shoulders. I’m sorry if I missed the information, but is your rotator cuff torn? I wonder how expensive this is and if insurance will pay anything. It sounds hopeful. I feel like I could use this on my whole body. ha ha. we’re all on the same road.
Linda – right before Christmas I partially tore both rotator cuffs. I’m exploring various treatments – I looked into stem cell but the cost was $13,000!!!! This radio frequency treatment is much less – $400/treatment.
Consider acupuncture. Not sure if it’s available by you but a few treatments completely resolved my shoulder pain
Thank you for sharing about your difficulty with mussel problems. I have had 8 vertebrae surgically repaired and the mussels have become very weak. Also my husband has major heart damage, but God has strengthened the half that does function has surprised even the heart doctor. His difficulty now is his legs and knees are aching after a round of golf. this sounds like something to check into.
The block you worked on reminded me of a quilt I had made for a great-granddaughter and with dyslexia it really gave me fits.
Almost forgot! Your new star block with the cute fabric is wonderful!
Hi Mary, I would try the new treatment. I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt and maybe it will help. I also have a funny story about our barn cats. The first two we got – Artie and Patsy and quite smart and if the dogs are outside and the cats are relaxing on the furniture on the deck (which is under cover) when we open the door for Ty dogs they will rush the door to come in too. And yesterday my son in law came home from being away for a few days and as he’s unpacking his car and the front door was open Patsy sauntered in came into the family room and flopped on the carpet like she owned the place. We just chuckle. I totally forgot about all creatures great and small. I will have to see if I can see a rerun. I think it will air next week. Have a good day.
I’m sorry you’re still in a lot of pain from your shoulder injury. I don’t know anything about the radio frequency therapy, but it sounds promising.
I’ve been thinking – it seems like we haven’t heard anything from Sandy in New Zealand for quite a while, and she was a fairly regular commentor. I miss hearing how things are going in NZ. I hope she’s ok!
I shall miss the winter Olympics. I have just been glued to the TV for the last two weeks. Yesterday I had only had 10 minutes to watch the hockey game and it was in that 10 minutes that the sudden death occurred. What a triumph. However, I think both teams played well.
I love All Creatures .I’m always sad when the season is over for the year. It is too short for me.
I love seeing Barney in the house! I’m so glad he’s so persistent about getting in the warm, though I suppose you aren’t. When we lived in the country and I had outside cats I would let them in when it was really cold, but we never had a dog door so they could sneak in on their own. That’a tricky situation.
It was zero here this morning. It doesn’t seem fair after a blizzard and over two feet of snow last week.
I’m sorry about your shoulder pain. I’ve had that before for years. In my case, it was caused on one side by repetitive movement at work paired with fibromyalgia, and a bad move by a chiropractor that tore something on the other. It got better when I didn’t do that job anymore and gave them both a lot of time. I never went to the doctor about it, which was probably stupid. I know it’s terribly painful. I still have to be careful with them or the pain starts coming back. It’s so frustrating to have your body limit you when you’ve been doing those same things for decades.
Yes, it’s winter still and very cold in SW Iowa too. 0 this morning. I overslept and slept the best ever sleep last night. I think I need to shovel more snow.
Mary, I would try the radioactive for sure. I had what you have in both shoulders, but only one for me. It took 2 sessions of PT to get my shoulder to work properly. It has held for at least three yrs. I hear a little crunch sometimes, but it goes away. I try to do the swinging of my arms every day for exercise. I am of the theory that natural remedies will work. God made our bodies to last and most often is self-healing.
Loved the photos today as always.
Oh Barney is a smart cat. I hope he stays warm.
I hope the Radio Frequency works on your shoulder.
I love watching the Olympics. Got up at 9 am to see the start of the second period of the ice hockey. I’ve never watched ice hockey before this year. What an amazing team. I felt bad that the one guy who made the winning goal lost his two front teeth earlier in the match. No guards??!!!
Carolyn – I wondered the same thing! Did you see that a sports dentist offered to fix his teeth for free?
I don’t know about radio frequency, but i list to a lot of frequency music on Utube. It helps with body healing.Good luck.
Both my sisters have had back injuries and suffered with a lot of pain for a long time. Kathie has been getting radio frequency ablation treatments for a couple of years and has gotten a lot of relief. She convinced Julie to talk to her doctor about it. She has gotten relief after years of surgery, drugs, etc. which really didn’t help. Talk to your doctor but I think it’s worth a try.
We also watched All Creatures Great and Small. Hated that Hilda the goat had to be put to sleep, but if you have animals you love, it’s a fact of life and we’ve all been there. I read an interview with Rachel Shelton, who plays Helen, about why she wasn’t in most of the episodes this season—she was 6 months pregnant with her first child! They worked around it.
Cold and snowy again here but I have some kind of virus and don’t plan on going anywhere. I don’t get sick very often and I don’t like it!
Sue – ooh, this is encouraging news!!! I also wondered why Helen wasn’t around. I have sat with many animals as they were euthanized – it’s hard but necessary if you love your animal and want the best for them.
During the first episode I told my husband that the actress playing Helen was pregnant. Mostly shown behind something, a table or fence, wore bulky sweaters and jackets, and really never interacted with little Jimmy. He watched a bit and agreed. I’ve been a fan of All Creatures from the beginning—got used to these actors and have enjoyed the stories in this series.
Barney is a smart one! Mortie is so elegant and handsome!
-1* this morning and we have to go to SF for jays one week check up on his eye. We will go to Costco and maybe to Culver’s and might stop at Kwik Star and check out the bananas and ice cream. I obviously won’t get much done at home today!
I’m sorry your shoulders are still giving you trouble. Does your chiropractor do ultra sound? That has helped my knee and my hip. I haven’t heard about this new thing you’re talking about.
People wonder if we are in those snow storms but actually we need to be. It is soooooo dry here!
Stay warm….it’ll be better tomorrow.
Joy – it’s a cold day for travel! I’m glad I only have to go to the grocery story. Good luck to Jay
I watched All Creatures Great and Small last night, too. I wondered if you were watching it, Mary! I absolutely love that show and hate that it’s come to an end again for awhile. We got rain where I am in Virginia, but family in Northern Virginia are affected by the storm and some schools are closed. It’s much worse further North. Here we’re having horrible wind. It started yesterday afternoon and continued all night and still going this morning. I know nothing about Radio Frequency Treatment but wonder if it works for an arthritic shoulder. I do not want to have shoulder replacement surgery. I’ve already done both knees and my right hip. The left hip will probably be next. I tell everyone I’m going to replace everything and by the time I’m 75 (a little over 4 years from now) I’ll be all new!!
Susan – I, too, love that show and hate that I have to wait so long to watch it again. Becky says she won’t watch anymore because it’s too sad and she didn’t like Siegfried this season – he was kind of a growly old man but I think it was for a reason – next season he’ll have a girlfriend, I’ll bet.
You shout say spoiler alert when you tell the end of a show. Very in considerate for those of us who haven’t watched it yet😖
Dale in Eastern NC
Dale – I didn’t tell the end of the show! And why didn’t you watch it when it was on? And you should learn to spell – why don’t you unsubscribe if what I post bothers you so much?
That was auto correct. There are times I can’t watch things when I want to. Have I ever complained about one of your posts before?
I am sorry if I stepped on your toes. I am in tears writing this.
I should have apologized to begin with instead of trying to explain myself. I do apologize.
Apology accepted. I have to be so careful of what I say so I expect the same from my readers. The last thing I want to do is offend anyone but I hear from many people every day and its not always flattering.
Mary, so sorry to hear your shoulder isn’t improving. That suggested treatment sounds promising though I haven’t heard any personal examples. I gave up watching All Creatures a number of years ago after a program about euthanizing a dog. Too many sad memories so I didn’t see the point of subjecting myself to that. Now I mostly watch sports. Even signed up for Peacock so I could watch more Olympics competition. Enjoyed the curling the most. And Iowa basketball! Iowa has really picked up the pace again this year, though Iowa State is doing less well, but still fun to watch. Spring training for baseball has started though our local team, the Washington Nationals, have almost completely turned over, so I’ll have to learn a new roster. Ha! You’ve got to love the ingenuity of cats. Maybe once the cold relents Barney will revert to his barn cat status. My cat haunts the living room heating vent in the winter but moves to the basement the rest of the year. Keep thinking spring is coming!
Karen C. In MD
Karen – Barney has several soft chairs with heat lamps hanging above in the barn so I don’t think he’s cold. He’s still in here this morning which is a new twist. And this is the Cat Distribution System at work again. Ha! I watch lots of sports, too – looking forward to March Madness
Mary, Barney just wants to be where you are! Is ge doing alright with the other indoor friends?
This winter weather sure has been crazy this year. We set or tied record highs here on Saturday (almost 90) and tonight it is going down in the 30’s. Then I see that monster snowstorm up east – you know it’s bad when it gets a name. Praying for all those in its path.
I too was sobbing at that part of All Creatures, Brought me back to having to put my last horse down. Broke my heart. I always say it is the hardest part of loving these animals so much. The acting of the nativity also brought tears to my eyes – the sweetness of it all from the children and I absolutely LOVED the pups standing in for the sick kiddos. Maybe a bit also of it being Lent and thinking of Jesus coming down to earth to save us.
So sorry about your shoulder. Wish I knew about the therapy but I do not. Hopefully you’ll get some good info from one of your readers……..
Take care everyone and stay safe and warm. Spring can’t get here soon enough in my opinion!!!!
Oh my! The kitties and pups. They all look so cute and cuddly and fun, but I don’t think I could manage one at this point in my life —I can’t even manage DH— so I will keep on enjoying your pets from afar. 🙂
This Ensculpt thing is new to me. I will do some research on it because like you… reaching is very difficult for me. Any improvement would be wonderful.
Are you impacted by this new storm that is sweeping up the east coast? I hope not. I’m not sure how far west it extends. It sounds like you are cold enough without anymore snow or winds. Soon you can look forward to gentle spring rains? Yes?
Linda – we do not have a flake of snow and none in our future that I know of. I’m sorry you can’t manage a pet but I understand trying to manage a husband – I have my issues there, too.
Hi Mary!
Yes, Radio Frequency Treatment. I had never heard of it until last week. Our pastor had a stroke in November which has left his left arm immobile and with a brace, he can walk with his left leg but he doesn’t have complete control of it either. He was recommended Radio Frequency Treatment for his arm and has had two treatments. Tonight he showed us that he is able to lift his left arm partially, something he was unable to do last week even with weeks of OT and PT. I don’t know much else about Radio Frequency Treatment but for our pastor, we’ve seen an improvement in movement.
Old Man Winter wants to hang on a little longer here, too but I take heart that I don’t live on the east coast. I’m sure sorry for what they’re going through right now, though. Spring is about a month away so I’m looking forward to seeing blooming crocus, tulips and daffodils.
Have a good night’s rest.
Mary Beth
Good for Barney! He’s no dummy! He looks so cozy beneath the table. I hope he slept warm there. I love cats. We had a visit from a granpuppy…..a caramel lab just tall enough to rise up and grab things from tabletops, unroll the toilet paper and grab gloves and any cat food he can find. He’s home now and our cats are much happier that we’ve returned to our slow paced life. Gaston was a whirlwind!!!!!!