Onward

       Me at the dentist with a mask delivering laughing gas!

 This is what I sent to my friends on Power Surge.  I am doing much better and am excitedly getting ready to go to the airport and head to Maine to see Austin

 

 

Life! On April 10th the work on making a bridge for my back teeth (tooth) commenced. Three plus hours in the dentist's chair. Many injections and laughing gas later, I went home with a sore, numb face and a temporary bridge to hold the space while the permanent bridge is ready to put in. A week or so later, the temp bridge broke. More time in the chair. More Novocaine shots. Making a new cast/ mold for building another temp bridge. My cheek has been in pain this whole time. My mouth is too small and it's hard to work in it. That's where I was last Monday and I couldn't zoom,

Two days ago the second temporary broke. I guess I am a tooth grinder. I decided to just leave it and wait for the permanent bridge. Trouble is, the teeth involved are now exposed and very sensitive to everything- even breathing.

So, back to the dentist again. I am hoping we have it fixed for now. I am wearing an altered retainer (from when I had Invisilgn) which seems to be working. The permanent bridge will be ready May 9th (after I return from Maine).

Meanwhile, my right leg is almost always in some degree of pain thanks to my CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome). I have been concerned that I might have a blood clot, and since I am flying to Maine next week I thought I had better get it checked out. After several hours in the ER and an ultrasound of my legs, I know that there is NO blood clot. hallelujah!

I am taking oxycodone with me to Maine, but won't take it right away even if I need it because the drive from the airport to Austin's house is 2 hours and I will be driving a rental car Aleve seems to help some and I wear compression socks most of the time.

I plan to zoom this coming Monday unless I have another crisis of one sort or another.

The Grandparent Gaze

I do not know who wrote this, but it is lovely.

 

“The Grandparent Gaze”

I held your parent once like this,

Tiny fingers, newborn kiss—

Now here I sit, with silver strands,

Cradling you in wrinkled hands.

A circle drawn in love and time,

Your little laugh, a nursery rhyme.

The years, they fly—so swift, so bold,

Yet here you are, and I feel old…

But not in weariness or pain,

More like a soft, refreshing rain.

A reverence I never knew,

Until I looked and saw you.

Surreal, this second tender chance,

To watch another soul’s first dance.

To guide, not lead; to love, not mold—

To hold your joy, and not control.

I watch your wonder meet the sky,

And blink back tears I can’t deny.

For in your smile, I see the grace

Of every storm I had to face.

And now I stand on sacred ground,

With quiet awe that knows no bound—

So humbled by this grand design,

That you’re a part of me, yet fully divine.

A gift I never dared expect,

A love so deep, so pure, direct.

You made me new, though I am gray…

In you, I’ve found my yesterday.

 

 

My Grandma Thompsen and her great granddaughter Courtney 1978
 

Grandma & Grandpa Bob and Mary Sherwood with Courtney, Morgan and Darcy, Tromso 1984

 

 

Grandma Ruth, my mother, with Jimmy, her first grandchild, and his daughter, the first great-grandchild, Sarah, 2002

 

 

 

Me with 6 month old Galileo Brewster Sherwood- my first grandchild. Making me Grandma Sherwood!

 Christmas 2024

I identify as a person who sews

Nancy and Becky 1970

 I have been sewing since I was 10 years old.  I started by making clothes for my Barbie dolls.  My mom bought panels of fabric that had the patterns for the Barbie clothes stamped on them.  

I learned to sew on my mom's Featherweight sewing machine.   My mom sewed all sorts of things on that machine including matching dresses for my sister and I.  If I write "watermelon dresses" Carol will know exactly what I mean.    I can still see my mom at the dining-room table finishing up my dress for picture day at school.

My mom sewing on her Featherweight.  I have it now!

 

 

In high school I mainly wore jeans.  But all of my dresses and some slacks and skirts were home made by me.  I am wearing one of the dresses I made in the picture above.   

I worked for Singer (sewing machine) Company when I was in high school and again after we got married.  The picture is of my step mother, Becky, and me demonstrating a sewing machine at my work.

When we lived in Bangkok I made a lot of clothing including a ton of maternity dresses!  By then I had a fancier sewing machine that I bought while working at Singer.  And I made a little gown that I bought Courtney home from the hospital in.  I am sure all five kids, as babies, wore that gown. 

This is the gown, and a picture of baby Galileo wearing the gown when he was one month old.

For as many years as I can remember  I sewed all of my kids' Halloween costumes.  with five kids that's a lot of sewing.  I remember feeling so sad when I only had two and then one and then no costumes to sew.   It was such a big thing to me.  The kids created the ideas for their costumes and my sewing machine and I brought them to life.  I still have many of those costumes in a Rubbermaid bin in the basement.

I made a load of dresses for my grandnieces, my sister's granddaughters during the eight years I was their daycare provider.   It was so much find finding the fabrics and patterns so I could make matching dresses!

A variety of the things I have made for the girls and for my own kids.

Okay, so what the heck prompted me to write this?  Well, as a grandmother, I wanted to sew some cute clothes for my grand-baby, Galileo.    I bought a lot of cute fabric and wanted to prepare it before sewing it.   I always wash fabric before I sew it.  I know that cotton especially makes a mess of the cut edges when you wash it.  I thought that making a quick line of sewing would help prevent this.  Actually I know that it will. 

I have a fancy sewing machine as well as a serger.  I decided that it would be better to serge the fabric edges.  I went to my serger and discovered that I don't remember how to thread the thing.  Plus, when I tried running it, it was very stiff.  I have not used my serger or sewing machine in over a year.  Maybe even longer than that.   

A serger had several threads that need to be run through it in order for it to work.  Mine has four threads.  And each one has to be threaded just right or everything will jam up and not work at all.   

I am going to have to take my laptop computer and place it next to my serger to watch a video of how to correctly thread it.  I am so disappointed in myself.   What should have been an easy task has turned into a job.  It's my fault.  I need to sew more.  with me luck!

My serger with the bottom open

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 
 

Time travel?

 

 

HG Wells book "The Time Machine" was turned into a movie in 1960. It's too much to write up the whole story.   The part I want to get to is this:  The main character, George, sits in a seat in a machine that transports him through time.  George is able to observe time changing through a large window.   The main focus is on a shop window- a nifty tool to represent the changes in fashion that reflect the changing years.  

Now, why would I write about this time machine?  Where is my mind wandering?  

Just about every morning I sit on the deck and feed Buddy.  I listen to the birds and I look at the trees and flowers.    Watching the buds plump up and then become tiny, bright green leaves, feels like I am watching time move and travel.  The passage of time is both abstract and real.

 

 Each day there is change.  Subtle yes, but there it is. shortly, the leaves will have become a darker shade of green and will fill out and cover the trees.

We age.  A phenomenon that has been observed and wondered about probably forever.  We accept it.  

With babies, we chart the growth and progress.  Making sure the baby is getting enough good nourishment.  And love.  We see the baby's emotional growth and personality.  So much of it "natural" and so much of it inherited by behaving in the ways the parents and other older people treat the baby.  How the baby is expected to walk and smile and roll over.   

The baby is rewarded.  The adults are rewarded too. The time machine keeps moving forward.  And the mystery and wonder and awe continue.  And then...so many explanations and beliefs  and traditions.

And as author Kurt Vonnegut wrote:

“God made mud.
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, "Sit up!"
"See all I've made," said God, "the hills, the sea, the
sky, the stars."
And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look
around.
Lucky me, lucky mud.
I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.
Nice going, God.
Nobody but you could have done it, God! I certainly
couldn't have.
I feel very unimportant compared to You.
The only way I can feel the least bit important is to
think of all the mud that didn't even get to sit up and
look around.
I got so much, and most mud got so little.
Thank you for the honor!
Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep.
What memories for mud to have!
What interesting other kinds of sitting-up mud I met!
I loved everything I saw!
Good night.
I will go to heaven now.
I can hardly wait...
To find out for certain what my wampeter was...
And who was in my karass...
And all the good things our karass did for you.
Amen.”

― Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle