Perks

I neglected to mention that staying in a hospital for a few days does come with a few perks.

(1) If you're lucky enough to have soaking wet hair when you "go down" as I did, your hair dries into a completely unique and unexpected style. 

An added bonus is that other people actually get to see you that way - many of whom have never seen you on a normal day - so this "look" is how they'll remember you. One more bonus? They also get to see you without makeup. Not many people have had that privilege (and have lived to tell about it).

2) The staff sends you home with a new designer tote bag.

I think I'll start carrying it everywhere. Could start a trend.

3) The best perk, however, was my trio of gorgeous new bracelets.

I can choose to wear them separately or in combination and can coordinate them with many different outfits. 

BTW, does anyone else find it amusing that I was determined a "fall risk" when I couldn't even turn over by myself - let alone get out of bed? Ha! 

All is well in the Keweenaw.

The Tale of the Tooth

I hope you all had a fantastic Independence Day! We sure did! We packed our bags and loaded up the golf cart. . .

and headed off on our annual trip to Copper Harbor. We love to celebrate the 4th with friends in that quaint little town on Lake Superior.

We use our golf cart in the parade and for tooling around town to visit all the shops. I'll share more about our 4th in another post, but one of the things I did in Copper Harbor this year was to take "good old #8" on its farewell tour.

What's "good old #8?"

My right front tooth!

Yep, #8 was scheduled for an extraction on July 7th, so I made sure to enjoy the final brat and the final hamburger I could sink it into. Why would it need to be pulled in this modern age of dentistry? Well, it was beyond repair. Let me explain.

The tale of the tooth begins back in the 70's when I was in high school. About a month after I got braces put on my teeth, I contracted a bad case of the stomach flu. I had a bad habit back then of not ingesting enough fluids when I had the flu. So, as I was walking across our family room headed back to the couch where I was spending the evening, I fainted. Out cold. Landed flat on my face - resulting in a beautiful fat lip and a broken metal band around tooth #8. Two other bands were out of place a bit, but not broken. A trip to the orthodontist was obviously necessary. My right front tooth was very loose, but he gently removed the band and put a new one in place - hoping the tooth would tighten back up in the socket. I had cracked the root in several places. He said the braces saved me from losing the tooth when I planted my face on the family room floor, but he also told me with certainty that the tooth would die one day. How long would it last? He didn't know.  

Years and years passed by, and nothing happened. It seemed like I had successfully dodged a bullet. Then - when I was around 40 - almost overnight - #8 decided to send me a signal by getting noticeably darker than its neighbors. An infection and root canal came next. Several more years passed before #8 decided to develop another infection. The chosen remedy at that time was to clip the root - making the root significantly shorter than it had been. We were just buying time. A dental implant was definitely in my future. That was approximately 10 years ago.

When I was brushing my teeth one day last month, I noticed that a teeny tiny pocket of infection had developed above good old #8. My local dentist took some x-rays. What looked teeny tiny was actually quite large. The good news was: Dead Tooth = No Pain! I now had 2 choices in how to deal with #8. (1) Make an appointment with a specialist in Marquette who could maybe - just maybe - buy me some more time with #8. (2) Make an appointment with a specialist in Marquette to do an extraction, a bone graft (because the bone had receded quite a bit), and a permanent dental implant. In other words, kiss good old #8 goodbye and walk around with a lovely gap for a while! Not a pleasant thought. (No Yooper jokes, please!)

I asked my dentist, "What would you do if it was your tooth?" He said, "The dental implant - without a doubt." The implant was the most expensive of the 2 options, but even IF a specialist could buy me more time with #8, he estimated it would be no more than 3 years. Of course, a bridge would be much cheaper, but who wants to grind away perfectly good teeth to hook the bridge to and hassle with cleaning that every time you eat something? I should add that dental insurance doesn't cover the cost of a dental implant - just the extraction. Cosmetic, they say. I went home and talked it over with Mr. Cut Off. He immediately pointed out that I wouldn't even be questioning which plan of action to take if I was talking about his tooth. My answer would be the dental implant. No discussion. It would have to be done. He was right, of course. That's exactly what I would say. So, I had the consultation in Marquette in June, and we scheduled the surgery for last Friday, July 7th.

We left home early enough to stop on our way for a late breakfast in L'Anse - one last meal - since I knew I'd be on liquids and soft foods for a while. If you're wondering why we had to go all the way to Marquette (about 2-3/4 hours away), it's because he's the only one in the U.P. who does dental implants. That's one drawback to living in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, I'm not a nervous patient, so I opted for a local instead of being put out. (Mr. Cut Off thought I was crazy.) The doctor assured me I would "hate" him for the 2 shots he was about to give me. I won't lie. The shots were bad, but I tend to compare everything to migraine headache pain which can sometimes last for days. Realizing the discomfort is only temporary helps. So, I didn't hate the doctor. He was very fast and very good - explaining what he was doing as he went along. He extracted the tooth, cleaned up the infection, inserted the bone graft material which had been mixed with a small amount of my blood, placed a membrane to hold it all in place, stitched me up, gave me some prescriptions and instructions, and sent me on my way.

About 15 minutes later, the numbness started to wear off - and BAM! It hit me! Severe migraine headache and throbbing neck pain. Waaay worse than the mouth pain I was experiencing - and that was no picnic. As a migraine sufferer, I expected to get a headache, but I was hoping I wouldn't. Not fun. Mr. Cut Off had to stop to buy me some water and a pillow. I took some OTC medication and tried stretching out in the back seat for a while. That didn't last long. Moved back to the front seat and reclined with the pillow and sunglasses. That worked better. Long. Ride. Home. Survived it, though!

It's now the 7th day post-op. I'm still swollen (even my nose), but it has improved in the last 2 days. I wish I could say I look like this.

but I look more like this.

She's like my identical twin! Ha!

After the swelling goes down, I'll look more like this:

Hey, gotta laugh at yourself, right?

Now, I just have to heal. I need to be especially careful these first few weeks to eat very soft foods - nothing hot - nothing carbonated. I'm already getting used to room temperature cream soups and cold coffee! The bone needs to get nice and solid before they insert the screw into it in the middle of January. Then, we'll wait maybe another 12 weeks, and the permanent tooth will be placed on the screw. Long process, but it will be permanent. I have an Essix retainer to wear in public until I get that permanent tooth. It looks like one of those clear teeth whitening trays - only with a tooth attached where mine is missing. Not exactly gorgeous - and I won't be able to eat when I'm wearing it - but we'll see what I think of it when I start using it. I have a feeling we won't be going out to eat very often. On the bright side, it should be a lot more difficult for me to accidentally bite my lip for the next 9 months! So, I'm housebound until the swelling goes down. Don't want to scare the public needlessly.

We've had a cold rain for the last 2 days, but the weather has been pretty great - a nice, cool summer.

I took a walk down the driveway the other day. Our thimbleberries are coming along, and it will soon be picking time.

Unfortunately, Mr. Cut Off put his lower back out on Wednesday, so he's housebound, too. That pain will usually keep him down for a week or so. Please pray for a speedy recovery for him.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Still Here

Yes, I'm still here. Haven't posted much lately, but I was out and about today. Here's the proof:

I snapped that shot as we were crossing the bridge from Houghton into Hancock this blustery February afternoon.

A bad bout of migraines (off and on) has prevented me from posting much recently.

That happens sometimes. Where are those Carter's Little Liver Pills when I need them? Couldn't find them at Walmart!

The thing I find most amusing about that old advertisement is the reality of what those little liver pills really were - a laxative! Seriously! A laxative! Ha! Nope, not gonna help my migraines!

Anyway, I think I'm on the mend again. I'll try to do better on the blog next week! 

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Eulogy to a Lost Love

We knew you wouldn't last forever, but we didn't expect to lose you so soon. We remember the day you came to live with us. You were beautiful, and we were so excited about our future together. It was great fun to spend time with you every morning. You were so shiny and new. . . and you looked so nice in our kitchen.

We had so many good days together, but time passed. Days turned into months, and the excitement of our life with you began to wear off. We hate to admit it, but we started taking you for granted. We forgot what life was like before there was you. We forgot that we had to make our coffee every morning before you arrived. It wasn't automatically ready for us when we hopped out of bed. And the coffee you brewed was hot - nice and hot - not just sort of hot. Sure, you had an automatic 2-hour shutoff, but we could always turn you back on and enjoy more time together. That was meaningful, and we didn't know it then, but it was a quality that's difficult to find in others. Oh, why didn't we take the time to tell you how we felt? How could we have been so foolish?

When you gave up the ghost last week, we knew we had lost a great friend. We had an old friend boxed up in the basement, but it wasn't the same. We liked you better. We somehow managed to pull ourselves together and made a trip to Houghton the following day to look for a more acceptable replacement. After spending a considerable amount of time in the coffee maker aisle, we settled on Mr. Coffee and brought him home with us - even though he used standard coffee filters and we had just purchased a large quantity of the cone filters we needed for you. We were determined to have a good attitude and do our best to make friends with him the following morning.

But. . . it wasn't the same. Yes, we were able to program him, and a fresh pot of sort-of-hot coffee was waiting for us the next morning. We pressed on and convinced ourselves we could live with him. Then, it happened - the automatic 2-hour shutoff. OK, we figured we would just turn him back on to keep our coffee warm a while longer. We're coffee drinkers, not coffee guzzlers, after all. Then, the big IT happened. Within a few seconds, Mr. Coffee turned himself back off. That's right. OFF. Surely we did something wrong. We turned him on again. . . and he turned himself right back off. OFF! I said, "OFF!" That's when the wailing and gnashing of teeth began.

Time to call Mr. Coffee. He has an 800 number. Please tell me which of your programmable models will stay on longer than 2 hours. Oh, none of your programmable models will stay on longer than 2 hours. It's to help absent-minded individuals - don't want them burning down their houses? Really?! Well, what if we're not absent-minded? I was informed that we would have to get a non-programmable basic model with a simple on/off switch. Uh, that's identical to the old friend we had in our basement. He's on the counter now, but we can't be happy with him anymore - not after spending so much quality time with you.

The store gave us a refund on the new Mr. Coffee, and we spent a lot of time and gigabytes looking for an acceptable new friend. Good friends aren't easily replaced. None were to be found anywhere within 100 miles. We were forced to order a new friend - sight unseen. Madame Cuisinart is supposed to stay on for 4 hours, and people say she's hot. She'll arrive next week, and we're trying to remain hopeful that we'll learn to love her as much as we did you. I'm sorry to say that some of our memories of mornings spent with you are already beginning to fade. . .

but we want you to know that we loved you. Oh, how we loved you!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

The Legend of Nessie

Sorry about this short post. I'm still feeling a bit under the weather, but I wanted to share this photo I snapped last week. I looked out the front door one day and noticed this:

Is it just me - or does that pile of rocks to the right of the stump look a bit like the Loch Ness Monster?

Ha!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Longtime Friends

We had a fun and productive week in Saginaw, but I'll talk more about that after I edit the photos. I will say that we greatly enjoyed the time we spent with family and friends. You know how they say it takes a long time to grow old friends? How true!

It's always so good to see everyone at our old church, but it's impossible to talk to everyone. We always have a lot of errands to run in the Saginaw area, but we try to carve out a little time for longtime friends.

We got together and laughed a lot with these 2 chuckleheads.

That's a photo of Bill & Lori - our old breakfast buddies. It's their fault we were suffering from acute sleep deprivation while we were down there.

We were thankful we happened upon Tim & Diane at Meijer's on Monday, and they gave us a tip on a fantastic meat sale at Nixon's in Brant. Our coolers were full on the way home, and those items are now resting comfortably in our freezer. (We promised to save 2 steaks for them, so they better make it up before next winter!)

Butch and Ann invited us over for dinner on Sunday afternoon, so Steve was able to watch a Nascar race for the first time this season. Ann and I have had a running joke for years about snooping in each other's drawers. She's clearly obsessed with the idea, as she mentions it almost every time I see her. They've never spent a night at our house, and it doesn't look like they'll be able to make the trip up this year. 

So. . .

in order to satisfy Ann's burning curiosity. . .

I thought I would post some photos of my open drawers.

Yep, that's the dish towel drawer in the buffet. Interesting, huh?

Next we have the pot holder drawer. Grandma made those.

Finally, we have the silverware drawer. Ta da!

I'm sure those were the drawers she's been wondering about. (Right, Ann?)

All is well in the Keweenaw.

The Election Process

I recently realized the greatest benefit of not having TV at the new house. We didn't have to hear or see 1 political commercial! It was wonderful!

Our primary here in Michigan was held last Tuesday. I have to say. . . we love voting in the Keweenaw. It's so much fun! We thought it was pretty great when we were in Calumet, but things are even better in our new voting location - the township building in Eagle River. Yep, Eagle River trumps Calumet. (A little political humor there!)

We had some errands to run that day, but voting was on the top of our list. Steve pulled up in front of the township building and parked. We had the only vehicle there, but we did notice 3 cars parked across the street by the waterfall. We exited our vehicle and walked into the building. I took a quick survey of the room. There was a table near the door with coffee and doughnuts. (Nice touch!) There were 2 spots for actual voting on the left side of the room - 1 table with a 3-sided cardboard privacy screen sitting on top of it - and a 2nd table about 8 feet away with another cardboard privacy screen on top of it. The poll workers were also there - 3 ladies - all sitting at one table on the right side of the room. Hence the 3 cars across the street. That was it. The best course of action seemed to be to head toward the ladies - which we did - single file for some reason. 

The first lady kindly asked for our I.D. and we filled out our little forms (name, address, date of birth, signature, checked the box for the ballot we wanted). The second lady checked the registration lists to find us and handed us the appropriate ballots, and we grabbed a privacy folder and a black Sharpie marker. We were told to return to the third lady when we were finished - as she needed to tear off the top stub on our ballot. Steve joked that the room was so big and empty we really didn't need those screens at the voting tables; no one could possibly see how we were voting anyway. Gotta love that guy; he's always good for a laugh. After retreating behind our privacy screens and coloring in the appropriate tiny circle, we inserted our ballots back into the privacy folders and dutifully pointed the stub in the general direction of lady #3. She tore off the stub and we walked the 2 steps to that vacuum machine that sucked in our ballots. After a few more laughs and friendly chat we made our exit - just as another man was coming in to vote. Whew! Glad we beat the rush! 

The ladies said they were there for 2 hours that morning before the first voter even arrived. Oh, and you know those privacy folders that held our ballots? It looked like Eagle River has a grand total of about 3 of them on hand! What a hoot! God bless America!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Spearfish

According to Wikipedia:

"The shortbill spearfish (Tetrapturus angustirostris) is a species of marlin native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, with occasional records from the Atlantic Ocean."

So. . . 

my question is. . .

what's he doing hanging off our roof in the Keweenaw?

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Keweenaw Perfume

One more thing this week:

The guy who finished the installation of our outdoor wood furnace told Steve to make sure he wears an old coat when he goes outside to replenish the wood in the boiler. Obviously, a new coat would soon be smelling like firewood smoke. He said smoke is "Keweenaw perfume!"

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Busy?

I'm sure most of us are especially busy right now with 

work in the kitchen,

keeping our homes in order,

last-minute shopping,

wrapping gifts,

parties,

spending time with friends and relatives,

and our final holiday preparations.

There may even be some traveling involved,

so I want you to keep this thought in mind:

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Photographic Evidence

I don't know why Marty & Donna always refer to my mom as my imaginary mother. I have photographic evidence that she's alive and well. Scroll down to see the proof!




Keep going.




Keep going.




Keep going.




OK, here she is helping me pick thimbleberries this year.

Too bad I didn't get her shoes in that photo - they reminded me of rubies.

Next, I have a photo of her all dolled up for dinner out with us recently.

Here she is in her everyday attire.

This next outfit was green, and she was dressed to impress.

Finally, here she was going to a party this past summer.

Boy, that was a weird angle - can't even see her arms!

I think it's neat how she hasn't aged much since she was a girl, and her smile never changes.

I'm not sure what she'll be wearing for dinner at The Hut tonight. I'll be sure to snap some more photos.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Kiss-A-Minute

Since the beginning of my week didn't go as planned, I spent the day yesterday catching up on things around here - laundry, vacuuming, making bread, etc. Steve & I spent some time last evening tweaking the design of the posts for the loft railing. Therefore, I don't have a Sneak Peek Friday ready for you today. I have a short humorous piece for you instead.

When I was looking through the newspaper that had my great-great grandmother's obituary, I came across this little item. I left the husband's nickname the way the newspaper had it, but I changed all the real names to protect the innocent - or the guilty - or whatever. 

If Kiss-A-Minute Carter had been satisfied with only 5 eggs every morning, maybe the marriage could have been salvaged! 

All is well in the Keweenaw.

P.S. Don't forget to set your clocks back before you go to bed tomorrow night!

Can You Hear Me Now?

I've been so busy that I neglected to tell you that I had to make another one of those calls to AT&T a couple of weeks ago. Yep, the April bill was still wrong. Actually, I had to make 2 calls that day. They disconnected me again the first time, and I was finally transferred to a man named "Mumble" during the second call. Well, that wasn't really his name, but I couldn't understand what he called himself. Mumble could tell that I was clearly exasperated with his company, so he told me he fixed the billing problem and didn't even charge me the $5.00 to keep the phone on "vacation mode." Uh, huh. He then went on to schedule the activation date with me. Since our AT&T billing cycle ended on Monday, April 27, I asked him to activate our service at the new house on Tuesday, April 28. Why tempt fate and expect them to bill us correctly for a partial month?

I connected 2 of our telephones to the phone jacks before we went to bed on Monday night, and I picked up the receivers to check them first thing Tuesday morning. Wow! I had a dial tone! 

But. . .

I also had an extremely loud buzzing noise. (Sigh.)

C'mon, really?

Isn't that exactly what I should have expected after all the hassles we've had in dealing with this company?

I put the receiver down and checked it several more times during the day. I was still hoping that the problem would correct itself. I know. . . delusional. Finally, after dinner, I made a call to my mom in Calumet. She had great difficulty hearing me due to that loud buzzing noise and said it sounded like I was calling from the North Pole. I would probably have better reception if I was calling from the North Pole! 

OK, now I'm fed up again, so I decide to call AT&T on the landline phone next - just so they could hear my lousy connection. There was only one problem with that plan. Their virtual operator couldn't understand what I wanted - due to all the "background noise" they told me I had. I tried calling them 3 times and they kept hanging up on me! 

Time for drastic measures. I call them a 4th time using our Verizon cell phone with a crystal clear connection. Now, the virtual operator decides he can't transfer me to the repair line because they don't handle Verizon repairs and gives me the Verizon telephone number! You've got to me kidding me! AT&T can tell that I'm calling them from a Verizon phone, but they can't do one thing right in installing/billing/activating my AT&T service! I somehow managed to get back to the voice prompts before they disconnected me again, and I finally reached a human being. I'm questioned about WHY I'm calling from a Verizon phone if I want repair on my AT&T line. "Because I just tried calling you on my AT&T line and your virtual assistant hung up on me 3 times - because he couldn't understand what I wanted - due to the fact that I have a loud buzzing noise on the line - and I sound like I'm calling from the North Pole!!!" (Or maybe from Maxwell Smart's shoe!)

After checking the line, she said it appears to be a problem outside the home. (Duh.) However, if the problem turns out to be a problem within the home, the service call with cost me $99. I reminded her (again) that this is new construction, and their installation guys installed it, so there shouldn't be a problem inside the home, right?

A repair guy is supposed to be here tomorrow between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Since they failed to show up for their first 3 appointments back when we had it installed, I'm not holding my breath.

Other than that, all is well in the Keweenaw.

Snack Attack

Steve was suffering from severe mouth pain last week with what appeared to be an abscessed tooth. The dentist made an incision in the gum, drained the infection and gave him a prescription for an antibiotic. After finishing the medication and feeling much better, Steve returned to the dentist on Wednesday.

The tooth that appeared to be causing the problem is capped, but everything looked fine in the x-rays. The dentist felt that there was probably something lodged in the gum that caused the infection, and they got it out when they cleaned out the infected area the week before. Bingo! Steve remembered the night he was attacked by his favorite bedtime snack.

We've all been there. The dreaded popcorn hull lodged in between our teeth or along the gum line. That's exactly what happened to Steve a week or so earlier. He vividly remembered the incident, but he thought he got it out. Guess not.

I guess he was fortunate. Eating popcorn often results in a:

Thankfully, he has recovered nicely and he's brushing normally again now. Not sure when he'll eat popcorn again, though.

In other news, guess what arrived this week? 

Our latest AT&T bill for the new house.

That's right, folks. It's still not correct! 

The telephone service is installed, but it's suspended (vacation mode) until we tell them otherwise. The bill is supposed to be about $5, but the bill that arrived is over $70 for full service. They even added on an additional $5 for the payment I made over the phone last month - even though José from Customer Support in Arizona promised me that I wouldn't be charged that additional fee that day. Thanks a lot, José. I take back anything nice I said about you.

None of us really thought they could get it right this month, did we?

Just when my hair was starting to grow back.

All else is well in the Keweenaw.

Italics: The Sequel to The Sequel to The Sequel

I finally drummed up enough courage/sanity/emotional health to call AT&T again yesterday.

When we received the most recent bill, they were still billing us for full service at the new house - even though the phone is on "vacation mode" (inactivated) until we move in. That makes a difference of almost $60 in the monthly bill. I was prepared to cancel our service today depending on how I was treated and how frustrated I became. After all, I've been dealing with this company since late September, and they've made error - after error - after error - after error - after error. Oh, and they've made some errors, too.

I was connected to José from Customer Support (in Arizona). I must say this was the shortest phone call I've ever had with AT&T (about 15 minutes total), and he helped me with no argument. When all was said and done, I made sure to thank him and told him how close I was to canceling their service altogether, and I was pleasantly surprised that he was so helpful.

Now. . . maybe. . . just maybe. . .

I can throw this away. . .

and my hair will grow back. . .

so I can start using this again.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

No News

We had 15" of snow this weekend. Big. Fat. Fluffy. Flakes!

Life did not stop.

Nobody whined.

School was in session today.

The shelves at the local grocery store had not been stripped clean of milk and bread.

The Weather Channel did not send Jim Cantore to do a live broadcast climbing up our snowbanks.

We had 63" from mid to late November 2014. We didn't see Jim Cantore then either.

126.5" fell during the month of December 2013. Nope, no Jim Cantore in the Keweenaw! 

Just sayin'. . . .

Oh, I just remembered. Brian Williams (NBC News) did make it up here in December 2013. I heard he personally shoveled out everyone in the Keweenaw. What a hero.

The snow we had this weekend brought our seasonal total up to 191". That's about 3-1/2 feet below last year on this same date. 

The students at Michigan Technological University in Houghton considered this a perfect week for their annual Winter Carnival. Here's the winner of the snow sculpture competition.

Look for the darkly-clad individual who happened to be walking nearby when the photo was taken. He's at the far left in the photo. That'll give you some idea as to the size of this sculpture. (The sculptures were supposed to follow a vacation theme this year. This winning sculpture portrayed a vacation in London.)

All is well and beautiful in the Keweenaw.

Today's Giggle

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells. . .

Busy, Busy, Busy in the Keweenaw! But, all is well!