I am realizing I am a hermit. I need to get out. Somebody tell me to get out. And tell me where to go. Living in the sticks is probably wonderful if you have family/friends/support but if you don't, it's just lonely. In a city you may have trouble breathing the bad air but there are places to go, support groups, different kinds of religious groups, classes.

While I'm waiting for direction, here are the latest socks on needle. I really really like this yarn except for the red/white stripes. Why did they put that in there? It's Opal yarn and I still love it.

I belong to a postcard group. Someone sent me this gorgeous card of Secret Harbour Beach, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. This is a perfect picture to think about while trying to relax. I would love to be there reclining under a palm tree. I wonder what kind they are? Coconuts? Dates? Ummm. Yum.






I am copying this idea from my darling friend Christina. Instructions:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open it at page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence/ phrase.
4. Blog the next four sentences/ phrases together with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig your shelves for that very special or intellectual book.
6. Pass it forward to six friends

I've just mentioned the book I'm currently reading so I looked around next to the bed and found Murder Being Once Done by Ruth Rendell. Coincidentally, I first heard of Ruth Rendell from Christina who heard about her from her mom. Rendell writes two kinds of mysteries: one (such as this) features Chief Inspector Wexford and are lovely British mysteries with a cop you'd love to go home to. The others are dark, complex, fascinating stories of minds going wrong.

In this novel, Wexford's doctor tells him he needs to get away and relax. Since he already lives in the idyllic countryside, he can't think of where to go to that would make sense and ends up in London with a nephew. The nephew happens to be a murder investigator, Wexford happens across clues and tries to help but the nephew shows no interest and Wexford feels unappreciated. He goes ahead and solves the crime, later to learn that the nephew badly wanted his help but had been told by Mrs. Wexford to make sure her husband forgot about work and just relaxed.

Page 123:
"I don't understand your generation. You accuse us of being promiscuous and casual and so on, but you're the ones with the unclean minds. I honestly don't care if you believe this or not, but Lulu lived here with me for four months and we were never lovers. Never. I supposed you're going to ask why not. The answer is that these days, whatever happened in your time, you can sleep in the same room as a girl and not want to make love to her because you're not frustrated. No one any longer has the power to force you into unnatural celibacy, you're free to have the girls you do want. We didn't attract each other, that's all, and we weren't in the positon of having to make do with any port in a storm." He held up one hand. "I'm not queer. I had girl friends. I went to their places. No doubt, Lulu saw her boy friends at theirs."

Lulu has been found dead and Wexford just can't help following the clues. Rendell's characters are individuals and realistic. Some of them, like Wexford, are very intelligent. Some are very colorful ( ohhhh, should I put the "u" in colourful or not???)

The Los Angeles Times: "Undoubtably one of the best writers of English mysteries and chiller-killer plots."

Notice the price is $5 because I cleverly bought it used. The original price was $11.

Labels: postcards, Ruth Rendell, Virgin Islands

I finished these socks for a sweet couple.













I called the hospital this morning and learned that the final bill was $2,010 not $5,000 andddd they have a discount policy that if you pay it right away, it's cheaper. The bill was $834. What can I say? Nothing useful.

My friend Patty, a nurse, told me the reason I feel so sluggish is because I take beta blockers. She suggested a different medication so I'll have to call the doc on Monday to see what he says.

This is what it's been like around here lately.

This is the book I'm reading, Midnight's Children by Salman Rusdie and a pill bottle. The book is one I'm enjoying more than anything I've read in decades. In fact, in the front it's compared to The Tin Drum and 100 Years of Solitude and those are my favorite two books ever. It's just delicious language.

The pill bottle holds some little beta blockers which I've been taking for about a month. I got to the point that I dreaded nighttime because I'd go to bed and hear my heart beating .. beat, beat, beat, nothing, beat, beat, beat, nothing. This makes it better but how much better I don't know because I'm uninsured and broke and this is a cheap fix.

Yesterday as I was eating lunch at work, parts of my left hand became numb. I noticed a red spot near the thumb but didn't know why it there. I said outloud, My hand is numb, but the person I was talking to didn't hear, I guess, and continued with what she was saying. I thought I'd heard that this kind of thing was a sign of a stroke so I left work, went to the emergency room. I called my doctor first and he said go to the emergency room. I knew what he meant was I'm going home soon so go bother somebody else but what could I do? Waiting til the next day was advice I wouldn't have given anyone else.

At the ER, they did the following list:
1. EKG
2. Blood work

The bill isn't determined yet as something happens in their system at midnight but it's over $5,000. That's all they did. I didn't see a doctor, I saw a nurse and Physician's Assistant who told me that everything was normal and it was probably a pinched nerve. He sent in a wheelchair to take me to x-ray to have a CT scan done of my head but I refused to go. That was just incomprehensible to me.

On the way out, I was asked for a $500 deposit and I'm sorry to say I paid it with a credit card that I just paid off. When the office opens, I'll call and ask if they have charity care or any other ideas because I can't pay this bill. I'm billed out.

The morning, I got email from the credit card company I'd just paid off telling me my new bill is online. The $500 hasn't posted but my bill was $22.48. What? I had paid the whole thing. Everything it said I owed, I paid. So I called India and had the mechanics used to calculate interest explained to me. I pretended to listen because I didnt understand it all then whined that I had given them a lot of money and it took me a long time to get that money and couldn't they take this $22.48 off?? They ended up taking off $10 of it.

Honestly, I am trying to so hard to get out-of-debt. I have dear human people I owe money to and I regret that the most. Or, I mean, they most deserve payment. But I can't pay them until I feel a little less wobbly here.

It's a wonderful book. I wonder if the two young ladies at the credit company have read it. I think it's set in their country.

I have lived in this house for almost five years and for the first time, I saw my bad cat cross the road the other day. He has to go outdoors because he refuses to use a cat box. The other cat, the good cat, was held at the vet's for five days recently due to illness and I think the bad cat was relieved to have him gone. He has hissed at him since then, refused to share food (just walked away), and I think it's why he crossed the road. But he won't live long this way and I'm unhappy about it.

Meantime, I have knit this pair of socks and this other sock. They are big socks as some people are not thoughtful enough to have small feet.











Further complaining, I have an earache. It was supposed to storm today so I put up the shades and happily waited. Then I heard that Prattville Al had serious destruction and felt guilty. It's just that I work odd days and was glad to have the day off during the a storm. It rained here about five minutes.