Settling In

 The Grace Village maintenance men moved the equipment and supplies from the old workshop to the new last Monday. My husband has been busy unboxing things and figuring out where to put them. The new shop has some cabinets and drawers but they don't correspond to the layout of the old shop. The man who works on stained glass projects has pretty much finished stowing his things. The other guy who does furniture repair and restoration mainly uses the center table. He has been unable to do much in  the shop as his wife fell and broke her collar bone about 2 weeks ago. 

This detached garage has two front doors, but the one on the right has been blocked with a wall of pegboard.

My husband's workbench is between two windows; it gets lots of natural light.

Lots of things still in boxes, but progress has been made.

The glass worker will have his station here where there is cabinet space for his glass and tools.

My backdoor neighbor offered me a peony. It smells so nice.

I will have an epidural injection of steroid on June 10th. The pain management doctor uses Kosciusko Community Hospital every other Friday. Otherwise he is in Fort Wayne. I was surprised when he hit my knees with the little hammer and there was almost no reflex jerk. I see on the internet that lumbar level 4 is mostly involved with that reflex; both of the nerve roots are badly pinched at that level in my spine.

 After the injection I am to see the nurse practitioner at Fort Wayne Orthopedics to report any improvement or lack of improvement in pain level. Because I prefer not to drive to Fort Wayne often, I needed to fit into her schedule for Warsaw. She only comes every two weeks. I could have seen her June 24th, but my community is having a neighborhood garage sale. I want to participate so I can sell a few items that I have been gathering together. So it will be July 8th when I report back. 

Finds

Last Friday we went to a church rummage sale. We bought a jigsaw puzzle for $1. After tomorrow choir will be done for the summer and I should have time to do puzzles.

This morning I went to an open house at one of the independent apartments. The family was offering items from their deceased mother's household. I picked up the knee highs and the little Amish figurines. This lady's husband pastored in Pennsylvania; she is now buried there next to her husband. I suspect the boy and girl were something she acquired while living in that state.

Her death is a sad tale. I knew her through Winona Literary Club and choir. On the morning that choir was singing in chapel I saw her limping in. I thought she must have sprained her ankle or hurt her foot. In hindsight I realize that she must have been in shock yet came to sing. The lady who stood next to her told me later that the injured lady did not sing, just mouthed the words because she found trying to sing was painful.

 She had tripped in her apartment and fell against a piece of furniture. I don't know if she called her son and he called an ambulance, but somehow she was transported to the hospital. The ankle was broken plus several ribs plus she had lacerated her spleen. It was later discovered that she had internal bleeding, and the doctors could only find the source with a risky surgery. She decided to go on hospice. She grew weaker and weaker; after about 10 days she died. She was 90 years old, but you would never know it from looking at her. She was well and strong and active in vocal choir and chime choir. Life circumstances can change in an instant. Treasure each day.

Almost Ready

 The new woodworking/hobby shop is almost ready to occupy. The closing on the property with the old shop takes place May 24th or 25th. The people hired to do the painting are supposedly going to move the equipment and supplies and workbenches, etc. So far, nobody seems to know when, but obviously it needs to be soon.

My husband supplied the movers with a floorplan with the equipment represented with templates. He and the other two guys have finished boxing up supplies. Once everything is moved, I expect to see very little of my husband for many days as he gets situated in his new workshop. 

They did a lot of fixing up and sprucing up of the old garage now converted to a shop.

The new heating/cooling unit is mounted up high so it won't take up valuable floor space. It is a heat pump. It has a remote controller for changing the temperature.

There are 3 windows plus a backdoor with a screen door that has a window to allow air in.

There are two overhead doors, but one was blocked off with a wall of pegboard. (Sorry I didn't get a photo of that; you will have to wait until things are all set up.)

An epoxy floor replaced the pitted cracked cement. Lots of outlets were added and a new breaker box to up the capacity of the electricity for all of the machines.

Things the guys really wanted that were nixed were a sink and a urinal. No running water. They walked to the Robin Hood Community Center for a bathroom. They jerry-rigged a water source in the old shop with jugs of water and a sink and will have to make do in the new shop as well. The man who does stained-glass needs water to ground down edges. Two of the guys live within easy walking distance and can use their own condo bathrooms. We will have to invite the third guy to use ours if he needs facilities.

Last night we turned on the furnace in the evening and I slept with my electric blanket on low. Later today we will probably have to turn the air conditioner on as it gets to 80 degrees. 

I have some plant growth in my patio plot: cheddar pinks and Asiatic lilies.

Along the side of the house is a blooming bush whose name I never obtained. Some years it hardly had any flowers (I think because of pruning at the wrong time), but this year it looks pretty good. My irises only have 6 buds so definitely not as good as in the past. My neighbors' peony bushes have the round globe buds already. Won't be long before they bloom.

I finally have a hanging basket on the porch. I first bought a fuchsia; we have a chain hanging down from the porch ceiling hook. The crook of the pot only fit part way through the link. My husband was working in the garage when he heard a crash. The plastic pot had fallen and split into pieces. I thought I might buy a pot but I really wanted a plant to hang not sit on the porch. It probably would not have received enough sun anyway. I saw a calibrachoa on sale at the grocery store and bought it. I have grown these in the past; they ended up with powdery mildew a few years. I hope this one doesn't get that problem.

I saw a pot of verbena for $5 and added it to the geraniums.

I bought a pillow to use with my porch rocking chair. My scoliosis makes one area of my spine bulge out, and the hard polywood slats hurt my back. Most of the pillows are too poufy. This one I bought at Walmart has a zipper; I took out some of the filling.

Now it feels comfortable and if it gets flat I can add back more stuffing. Spring always makes me feel happy after the cold winter.

Peabody Tulips

 We did not get to North Manchester last spring during tulip time. On Sunday we had a nice Mexican meal at a restaurant in the town, then headed to Peabody Retirement Community. I was a little disappointed. There were not as many tulips as in past years. The timing was good, however, as most of the flowers were open.

The area around the carillon tower was planted in tulips as usual.

The red bud trees are also in full bloom throughout northern Indiana.

It was a pleasant day but quite windy.

This iron bench used to have tulips plus a few other things like hyacinth and daffodils. Now the tulips have been replaced with irises. I love irises so I enjoyed them. With irises you don't have to dig up the bulbs and replant new ones as Peabody has regularly done through the years with the tulips.

An area around a fountain and pergola that used to have tulips now has narcissi.

I noticed more rogue tulips this year, that is bulbs in a different color than the planting which were probably holdovers from last year. With the extra responsibilities from the pandemic, it may be that Peabody did not have as many staff to work with the tulips or perhaps they had volunteers in the past and don't now.

My husband went with me to Fort Wayne to the orthopedics complex today. I had only been seeing a nurse practitioner in Warsaw. This was a huge place with imaging and offices and a "hospital" attached. I got the impression the hospital was for day surgeries or procedures. There is an orthopedic hospital near Lutheran also in the neighborhood though.

I saw my x-rays which definitely show degenerative scoliosis. I wasn't surprised because the physical therapist mentioned that something was wonky back there and asked if I had been told I have scoliosis. The MRI images were explained. I have severe lumbar stenosis (narrowing) in several places. The nurse practitioner showed us an almost normal level, then scrolled down to compromised levels. In the normal one you could see a round figure where the spinal cord travels. In one of the degenerated ones, it was so squashed you couldn't see a circle at all. My options were to try epidural injections or do nerve conduction studies if I thought I wanted to have surgery. With two cervical spinal surgeries in the past 17 months I didn't think I could face lumbar surgery without giving the injections a try. Recovery from lumbar surgery is lengthy and hard. I thought I would finally meet the doctor, but she said he would have only come in if I wanted to know about surgery or if the images had something she didn't understand. 

I have a referral to a pain management doctor who does the injections. She thought he sometimes comes to Warsaw, but on his web page I see no mention of that. I should hear from his office this week. If the injections help, I should know within a few weeks after I receive them. So I plod along through the medical protocols. My husband did ask if we could have an application for a handicap card to hang on the mirror of the card. It is  good for 6 months. Hopefully by then I will be better.

Posies

 I bought some plants for my front porch late last week. Because of cold weather and lots of wind, I mostly kept them sheltered in a back corner. Now, though we are having rain, we will finally have a streak of warm days, even hot days (up to 80 degrees). 

I still would like to find a hanging basket. I keep looking around at stores, but so far nothing has struck my fancy. 

My flowering quince bush has lots of pretty coral blooms now. The iris leaves are getting taller. Maybe by the end of May they will bloom.

Tonight I am fixing chicken fajitas in honor of Cinco de Mayo. I have a package of grilled chicken strips in the freezer; I bought a package of tortillas and have some small colored peppers and onion to add to the chicken. A package of Mexican rice to quickly cook in a saucepot should be adequate. I should go slice the peppers and dice the onion, but I had some coffeecake around 4 p.m. and don't feel very hungry. 

Future Reads

 Last week I went to the North Webster Friends of the Library sale.

I did find some books to purchase. Actually, I want to read a series by Beth Wiseman on Hoopla so these purchases may wait a while.

The closet book I will save for the day we move into an apartment which will probably be 5 or 6 years ahead. We will need to efficiently use limited space. We have some condo neighbors who will be moving into my husband's sister's former apartment. They are having a patio slab installed and redoing the kitchen. They also wanted a new sink vanity in the bathroom, but there are long delays in getting things like this because of the supply problems.

The Jody Hedlund book is Christian historical romance. I have read some of her other books and enjoyed them. Terri Blackstock writes Christian suspense books. Suzanne Chazin is a secular mystery/suspense writer; I have not read any of her books before. The cost for the books was $1 each.

Landscapes of His Grace : a Visual Devotional was published by Charles Stanley's In Touch Ministries. Apparently Mr. Stanley is quite an avid photographer.

Since he has traveled all over the world speaking and ministering, his photos reflect lots of diversity. 

There are devotional entries with comments and Scripture and a photo facing the written page, followed by 2-4 more photos. The main thrust is seeing God not only in His Word but in His world (creation).

I wish they had labelled below or next to the picture where it is or what it is. Instead there is an "index" in the back that correlates with the page number. There are over 200 glossy photos. It resembles a coffee-table book and must have been expensive to publish. The book jacket says $40, but I assume this was sent as a gift to donors. 

I just started it yesterday. It should be a nice resource for several weeks. I will flip back to the index because I do want to know the places photographed. The first photo was a barn in the Grand Tetons that I also photographed. We got up really early so the rising sun would shine on the barn. Looks like he did, too. Probably a lot of people will just drink in the beauty of the photos without using the index.

I am scheduled for an MRI on Thursday (Cinco de Mayo); the follow-up at Fort Wayne Orthopedics will be May 10th. In a week I should have some answers and hopefully some options to relieve pain.