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Friday, Nov. 8, 2024

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PORCH PONDERINGS

by QueenNormaJean maybesnow?!

Rated: 13+ · Book · Biographical · #2198921

Norma's Wanderings around a small section of Montana

Well, hey there!
Welcome to Roundup, Montana! If it's a nice day, we'll sit a spell on my porch and talk awhile.

"All the resources we need are in the mind.” Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th President of the United States of America.

I am the Captain of my ship.
God is my co-pilot.
Often I sail stormy seas,
Am flung onto rocky shores.

What's on your mind today?

Signature for use by anyone nominated for a Quill Award in 2020

Signature for nominees of the 2019 Quill Awards

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Kåre เลียม Enga

Nov 3, 2024 at 2:36pm
In response to "Update"

I don't celebrate Halloween. I don't do parties and the American version is silly imho. Samhain is different. I don't mind real witches and ghosts (hope to meet a ghost someday... but not too soon). If goblins existed I'd probably chat with them.

I did go to the Day of the Dead and the parade. Took photos and video. Honoring/remembering the dead is okay imho.

Odd how events "work" or don't. Call me crazy but... the churches have been there a looooong time. How could one NOT know. Same with you and Halloween... they don't know you by now?

I don't join groups because I can't deal with the drama.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Oct 28, 2024 at 1:33pm
In response to "Ducks in a row"

Yep. The only cure to falling is not falling in the first place.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Oct 19, 2024 at 4:14pm
In response to "Catching Up"

It helps to have the time and focus to do Octoprep or Nano. This year I have neither. No excuses and I shouldn't feel guilty. I did sign up for "13" but we'll see... so much depends...

...on the white rain on the black chickens...

We did have snow on the mountains. Today is gloomy.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Oct 4, 2024 at 4:16pm
In response to "Equinox Storm"

Our Senior Center goes through cycles of drama. Right now the kitchen is fine. Today's meal was good.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Oct 4, 2024 at 4:13pm
In response to "Chico"

We have various hot springs in our area but busses don't go there.

Will you have fish for dinner or is it catch and release?

I decided to not do Octo-Prep. I have an idea and I started a folder to keep my chapters. That seems to work best for me. I have a basic timeline and theme. I'll just start in one place and go from there (literally, like in my IRL travels) to the next stop and the next lesson my character (me) has to learn. Since the conflict is "discovery" instead of an action-driven arch... I should be fine as long as they logically flow from one to another.

I'll have to return to Thailand and spend time in each location.

QueenNormaJean maybesnow?!

Sep 12, 2024 at 11:20pm
In response to "School Drama"

Fear is contagious. Fear spreads just like wildfire, one spark from a fearful person and the whole town is crazed.

Drama is preferred these days. Who can get the most views on their page, who can garner the most interesting story to present to the world. Truth is irrelevant it seems. Just the drama is important.

You do assume correctly that the school handled it better, in my opinion. They threw the flame resistant blanket over the problem and extinguished the fire. For now. Until the next crisis. Which will be when all these crazed parents withdraw their students and claim they are now 'homeschooling' them. I see this happening - people threatened to do this.

And don't get me started on the whole homeschooling trend. Some parents do a good job. Great. But others don't and kids suffer. There is no real policing in Montana for homeschoolers. Sad but true.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Sep 12, 2024 at 6:10pm
In response to "School Drama"

Do people think that dog-eating black-skinned aliens are out to get them? As in crows versus Crows?

The real issue is fear boistered by fear-mongers.

Here... there have been 'threats' in God's Waiting Room. We can call 911 and ask for MST... someone trained in mental health. Instead of peaceful resolution though... we seem to prefer DRAMA. This free floating anxiety with no existential threat is widespread.

May I assume the school handled it better than the parents?

QueenNormaJean maybesnow?!

Sep 7, 2024 at 5:16pm
In response to "Fun Fact"

Who knew??? I love history.

AnotherDreamer

Sep 7, 2024 at 5:09pm
In response to "Fun Fact"

How funny. lol

1 Like

NaNotatoGo!

Sep 4, 2024 at 3:13pm
In response to "NaNoWriMo"

It certainly will.

April 25, 2024 at 2:01am

#1069628

Oscar and Tony and Grammy winner !!!

Nothing but drama. I should be given an Oscar for the longest dramatic role in a tragedy. It continues my friends.

I saw a hand surgeon the other day. He agrees that I do need surgery. And he will also fix my poor arthritic thumb at the same time that he releases the pinched nerve in my wrist.

He mentioned that I should have been seeing a hand specialist since December for all this pain I've been having. {the actress tears up at this} He starts moving digits about. {actress again cries} Yowza. He sure knows where to poke to get a pain response. Yep, that's the place. Reminded me of that EMG test I had a few weeks ago.

So, May 15 I have surgery. I should expect to have a 6 month recuperation. My wrist will be better, my pain should be relieve. My thumb will be rebuilt, and probably never as good as before, but better than it is now. Probably will be a pin inserted, perhaps a metal rod.

But the kicker to all this great news, on the way home from this, the car we are using gets a new noise. And today as we do Meals on Wheels, the noise gets louder. So hubby takes it to the owner, who has a garage and fixes cars. Wheel bearing is going out. Great. I have appointments in Billings on Monday. Will the car be fixed by then??? Well, hmm. No way to know. So now I have to find a ride there. {cue actress for more drama}

Hubby now calls his son in VA who is supposed to be repairing and fixing up the car he bought for us in May 2023. Yep - May 2023. Last we heard, he worried about the compression in the engine. Turns out the valves were in backwards. Great. That was 2 weeks ago. Nothing has been done since. Now he has until Sunday to get it repaired or take it to a shop and have it done. And I stated that he should pay for that repair, not us.

So now I am really earning that Oscar folks. I am mad, I am upset. I am ready to well, never mind. The tension is thick, it's like fog in this house.

I have three options, the first one had something else to do Monday. I have two more options to pursue tomorrow for a ride to Billings Monday.

I think I just may stay awake tonight. All this drama is making me crazy, and now I cannot sleep. Unlike the spousal unit who is asleep at 8 PM. I wish I could forget everything that easily ...

1 Like • Comment • View 6 comments

April 20, 2024 at 10:37am

#1069252

Drama

Here it is, April 20 and outside it's 19°. Chilly start today. I am so ready for warm weather to come and stay awhile. Not just visit for a chat and leave.

I've been busy with the museum. It opens on May 1. A group of us have been rearranging, cleaning, and throwing away junk that's been hidden in closets for who know how many years. Egads. Yesterday I spent a few hours just on one closet. It showed evidence of mice, so I cleaned it out, took out about 6 boxes of nothing but drapes. Drapes. Heavens. We don't use drapes on the windows. Why were they stored for who knows how long? And I found an old framed certificate from the Slovenian society. And who knows how long that was in there.

Roundup and the surrounding area was once home to many ethnic groups when it had three active coal mines. Croatian, Slovak, Irish, Welsh, Italian, and other ethnic groups came here to work in the mines. Many stayed after the mines closed and you can see evidence in some names about town.

Today there is a big deal with our first visitor's kiosk in town. This project has been in the works for about three years. Or more. I forget the timeline now since it's been such an ordeal. Anyway, the other day when I was at the quarterly SE Montana Tourism meeting, I was to get the current SE Montana tour guide. A box for the kiosk and a box for the museum. So as we left, I told my husband to grab 2 boxes - they were in stacks by the door. Two different stacks. One has tour guides for SE Montana and one has guides for Yellowstone. Well, he got the Yellowstone guides by mistake. I didn't see the error til we got home. Bugger me.

Then the lady in charge of the kiosk contacts me, "Did you get those guides? Can I pick them up? We need them desperately." Well, now I have to tell her, No, I made a mistake. I can give you some of last year's. So she responds, "No! I'm too busy to pick them up. I need the current ones. I'll just contact SE MT." Okay. So I email my SE MT contacts, ask them to get on the job, Bring some up, mail some, whatever. Then the lady shows up on my porch yesterday afternoon. "Hi, my plans changed." What? She threw me under the bus, then comes all happy and sweet. Oh the drama. She takes last year's guides. Something is better than nothing. And people don't know the difference.

I won't be going to the grand unveiling. I have church. So more drama. The paper contacts me. "Can you go to the kiosk event?" I respond, No, but I have a friend that will go and get pictures for me. He's good with that answer. So I hurriedly contact my friend, "Can you still go and get some shots for me?" Oh sure, and will do. Whew. Again, drama.

Then I wanted to do an article for the paper on an Arbor Day gathering yesterday. The head of the tree board in town, yes - we have such a thing - don't bother. I have someone doing an article. Hmm. I had a good one all written. Drama.

A good way to relieve stress is by doing gardening. I enlisted hubby and we dug up our front flower garden area after all this drama. Flower seeds planted, old growth cut back, leaves raked. Take that you rotten plants. Take that you horrible weeds. Then we had root beer floats as a reward. Stress relieved.

But today is another day. My journey to relief from the hand problem continues. I see an orthopedic doctor on Tuesday.

2 Like • Comment • View 7 comments

April 11, 2024 at 12:42am

#1068491

Test Results

So - here's the thing. I went and got the nerve test - the EMG. Nothing like lying on a table and getting shocked intentionally for over half an hour. Sometimes my arm jumped off the table, sometimes it just tingled. And lots of times it just hurt. Like sticking your finger in an electrical socket over and over. Then there was this test where thin needles, I took his word for it, I didn't check, were inserted into nerve pathways. You could hear a sound - the doctor explained that was the electrical impulse from the nerve. Then I had to engage a muscle. You could hear the nerve get louder. This part didn't hurt. Thank goodness.

The result? Surprising. I was told I have moderate carpal tunnel syndrome. Seems the myelin sheath of the median nerve, the nerve that controls your thumb and fingers is compressed. It would explain all the pain I've been having. It needs to be decompressed before it advances to the severe phase where the actual nerve that is inside that myelin sheath is damaged. Once that happens, you're pretty much in serious, if not irreparable trouble. But, I thought, how did that happen? I didn't have that problem before I broke my hand. Such a mystery.

Great. Surgery. Again. I swear. And now we hear that the car that is still in VA getting fixed up since May of last year has a new hiccup. So, the finish date is once again pushed back. I am so mad about this, you just cannot understand.

But I am writing for the local paper, got my second check today. Hurray for that! And I applied for a job with the county - secretary/treasurer for the refuse district. 15-20 hours a month. I think can do that. Extra money is good. I am going to quit doing the church bulletin. Already had decided that when this opportunity arose. I easily spend that much time doing that chore per month, and am not paid.

I guess the old adage is true - 'Nothing is constant but change'. These past few years have been the worst for me. I pray for a more quiet period to soon start.

7 Like • Comment • View 2 comments

April 6, 2024 at 11:21am

#1067796

News from Roundup

It's April - what is it like where you live? Last night we heard the large boom of thunder. Yesterday morning we woke to dense fog that gave way to a cool windy day. Then at 9 PM, BOOM! No rain. Until this morning.

Now we have a winter weather advisory. Snow in the forecast for today and tomorrow. But you know, that's alright. Because I live in a dry area. Any moisture is welcome. As long as we don't get a hailstorm like we had several years ago, it's all good.

Like I mentioned before, I'm writing for a local newspaper. It's been fun, seeing my name in print every week. As I walk around town, I see stories. So now I'm in the habit of taking my little camera with me. We don't have a cell phone, which from what I hear, take better pictures than my very pricey Canon SLR that sits upstairs in its carrier. This way, if I come across a photo op, I can snap that photo, and not race home to get the camera.

I have an informal contract with the publisher to submit one to two articles, preferably with pictures, each week. The paper is published once a week. Currently we have a story about to boil over about use of the community center. The school district owns it, and now wants to restrict its use. After 30 years of a pickup volleyball game in the gym there, the closing of the gym to community members is getting everyone riled up. I've been going to the informal meetings of parents and community members. And they are upset. But the meeting last night got into the weeds quickly. More talk of how bad the sports teams are and how bad the administration is, while the reason for the meeting was to discuss the dialogue we need to have with the school board about why the community center needs to be open to the community. Egads. I sat and listened, but it was hard to not stand up and leave. I want the information to write a story when all is said and done.

There are a few new ventures in the works. I signed up to be in the community theater here in Roundup. No driving 20 miles, so that's a plus. But the kicker - it's in the community center. The very one the school district wants to close to public use. Hmm. We'll see where this ends up. I hope we can still do the play there. The setting is not ideal. There is a stage, but the audience is in a gym. so acoustics are horrid.

I also went to a city council meeting the other night. On the agenda was an ordinance about parking vehicles on city streets. The newspaper publisher asked me to go and report back. Well, the ordinance was voted down. for various reasons.. So, no story. But, the council member that is on the county trash board - in charge of the dump - mentioned they needed a secretary/treasurer. The mayor pointed to me and said I'd be good for the job. Again, EGADS! So yesterday I submitted my application for that job. $15 an hour is not bad. Plus only 15 hours or so per month. I can commit to that. Some other task I have may have to go away, but for a job that earns me some $$. We'll see what happens.

I did have good news for my hand. I get to see a neurologist on Monday - a few weeks earlier than originally scheduled. They called and rescheduled for an earlier appointment. Finally. We'll see what this doctor has to say. I do know I'll have an EMG. Here's a definition:

Electromyography (EMG) measures muscle response or electrical activity in response to a nerve's stimulation of the muscle. The test is used to help detect neuromuscular abnormalities. During the test, one or more small needles (also called electrodes) are inserted through the skin into the muscle.

I've had this test before on my legs. Kind of strange, but it doesn't really hurt all that much. My opinion is that there is some nerve damage in my hand. But then, I'm no doctor. so we'll see.

Snow in April - Montana!!!

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