Life...

This photo is from 2011....just such a pretty, unique plant.    I am not sure what it is, but thought some of you might enjoy seeing it.

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I took Roger to a psychiatrist in Carmel, Indiana yesterday...that is approximately 100 miles away.  To no avail...he did not think he could help him break this coughing.  There are certain things that will always trigger his coughing.  So it made me think it was maybe behavorial.  But then some of the time, I can not spot a trigger...he just starts coughing.  This dr. talked to him/us for a couple hours and said he did not think he could help him.

But he does want him to try a couple new meds...one an inhaler with steroids to try using for the cough itself.  And a new med that is supposed to give new energy, and allow him to concentrate.  He said there is nothing in it to ease pain, but that he always has people saying that it helped their pain.  He wants to hear back from us on how it works.  And to go back to our ENT if it helps...because it is much easier to go to the ENT, plus insurance covers the ENT.

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I have spent the afternoon trying to get the yard mowed....it is almost done.  And I broke down all those boxes this morn and they are out for the garbage man to pick up tomorrow.  I also went and picked up Lorelei...she is going to spend a night or two here.

I have not had time AND energy to touch anything that needs done inside...maybe I will get to that in the morn.  Tomorrow is allergy shots for Roger.

I hope that you all have a good day tomorrow...

Edited to add:
Ruth has identified this flower as Larkspur...thank you so much Ruth! 

Not much happening...

I have taken a break from de-cluttering...how many ways can you express that?  I call it freeing myself of items, Or letting go or sending them to find a new home.  What term do you use?

But how crazy is this:  I found these old 'catalogs' and was happy as a clam.  Though how do people know clams are happy, anyway?   I thought I had thrown them all away a while back when I ran across them but either I stuck them back or else these are more I had saved.  On the back was this:

What a rush of memories this elicited...bringing back some of the best memories of my entire life.  I lived at what was my favorite spot on earth when we had this address.  I had to shed a tear or two.  Sort of wishing I could go back to that time, but not if I had to go through all the rest of what has happened since then.

When we lived in Tennessee for a year and a half, I got started getting these...they are maybe 6 or 8 pages long.  It is a book catalog....all I did was choose the books I wanted, mail in my choices, and they were mailed to me free of charge.  I think I could keep them as long as I wanted if I remember correctly, and then stick them back in the bag and send them back.  Free of charge.  Oh, I am sure our taxes paid for them...but we didn't have to go to the post office and pay to mail them back.

Each book only had a line or so describing what it was about.  Only a few had pictures showing the book cover and it was a very small photo.    So when the books came, it was sort of like getting a Christmas present.  I could not wait to open the bag.  (They were mailed in a zippered cloth bag.   Through these books is how I found one of my all time favorite books, Tisha, by Anne Purdy as told to Robert Specht.
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I am hoping to return to the chore of getting rid of things before the week is over, but it won't happen tomorrow as we have an appt in Carmel, Indiana, which is basically Indianapolis....just on the north side.  I shaved Roger's head, and tried to trim his beard today.  I am not good at it.  I don't know what happened but part of his beard just wants to grow so wild.  It did not used to do that. He cannot do that trimming, but he can shave, so am relieved he can do that. 

Anyway, another day will be the yard, and another day Roger has to go get allergy shot, but that doesn't take long.  Hoping that is all that we end up having to do.

I hope you have a good week and that you find time to do the things you want to do.

The fun continues.....

I spent the biggest part of yesterday afternoon and this afternoon in the basement....again....  I even mananged to find a few more empty boxes yesterday.  This will lead to a fun day of breaking down boxes in the future, but the time is not yet.

I also was working on some shelves down there.  I found this cigar box...

and a  bigger box that were full of old family photos from Roger's family...from his dad's side.  There are photos of his great-grandmother in both photos above.  She broke her finger, I don't know which one, but she was going to cut it off and Roger's mom put a stop to it and took her to the dr...she was going to cut it off because she didn't want it to heal and be stiff and crooked.

In the first photo, where she is wearing a long coat, that is a parrot on her arm.   Don't you know she had to really be a character..she lived in Montana at some point in her life...   Roger remembers her...she used to babysit him....and he remembers loving her so much.  And he said it about killed his dad when she died. 

Here she is again...Roger does not remember who the man is.  That girl on the left is his grandmother, and that is his Great Uncle Jack standing between his grandmother and the man.  I did know him...he was a little bitty guy and was a jockey when he was a young.    He did not talk about it....but had told Roger's dad that this or that jockey would come in and might find a roll of money in their locker with a note telling them to 'throw the race.'  He refused to do it, and he was beaten up pretty bad.  He quit and never raced again.  He lived in fear for his life for a long, long time...not even sure he ever got completely over it.

I thought this was Roger's dad, but Roger says it is his dad's brother.  And I guess I can see it...but was so hoping it was his dad cause his dad was a Quarter Horse jockey in the Terre Haute area.

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I have no idea who this is, and neither does Roger.  I just had to show it because of how he is dressed....and holding all those birds.  Do you reckon he was dressed like that when hunting, or did he dress up for the photo?
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I would be ashamed to tell you how much stuff I carried up out of the basement.  Some Roger took to the garbage cans for me, and other went to the garage to be donated.  A LOT of today's donation was books.  Some yesterday was books, but not near like today.  I even donated a few books that had been favorites of mine.  I figured the way they were packed away that I would never go to the trouble of hunting them out to read.   Still, I held on to more than I should have.  I wish I knew someone personal that would want them.

And guess what else I found?  An 'under the bed' storage thing FULL of VCR tapes of The Simply Quilts show that I used to tape when I worked.  I thought I had gotten rid of them, but I found out I had not.  Now they are gone!

I also have a stack of books started that were once Rachel's that she wants me to keep for her....and a couple cookbooks that she wants.  So, a bit is being done, but sure not fast enough for me.  I am just thankful I can work on it again. 

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I am reading this...The Tall Woman by Wilma Dykeman....it and The Far Family  got together...they happen to be two of my favorite books.

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We just had a downpour of rain, but it seems to have passed on.  It thundered just a little bit...and moved on.