Three Tuesday Tidbits

1. Remember on my old blog when I posted about Steve Job's last words?  If not then go to my old blog,  www.incarolsworld.blogspot.com and read about it because it was pretty cool.  It is the post on November 1, 2011.  Anyway, I was thinking about that and wanted to call my friend Debbie's husband Wayne and tell him about that if he had not heard it.  I thought it might bring him some comfort.  She passed away ... oh my gosh, was that just day before yesterday.  The 2 weeks since she had her stroke have seem like lasting a year or something.  Anyway, I called his cell and it immediately went to voice mail like he might have turned off his cell.  At the hospital he had her cell phone with him so I called that number.  It rang a few times and went to voice mail ... except then the greeting started.  It was my friend, my friend that died, it was her voice on the recorded greeting.  Well, it was her phone so of course it was her voice on the recording, I should have expected it since I have heard it a million times, but tonight it was a shock.  I know that recording will be a treasure to her husband, but tonight it was a real shock to me.  I was not prepared to hear her voice.  I really was not prepared to hear her voice.  And you know how you get a song "stuck in your head?"  All day I have been humming, singing, thinking about the song she wants played at her funeral, The Spirit in the Sky.  I can't get it out of my head.  Luckily, I like it too. 
2. 
   My granddaughter was in the middle of eating her lunch when my daughter came in, took off her shoes and got ready to babysit her niece for the rest of the day.  Taylor evidently decided she suddenly needed to wear her aunt's shoes, and she proceeded to walk very well in them across the room, holding white cheese in one hand, cheddar cheese in the other, and the white blobs on her face and bib -- that is cottage cheese.  Need I say she loves cheese? 

3. 

   see the black seed nestled
    in tiny green leaves?
   This is also what 4 o'clocks look
   like with the blooms closed

I love my 4 o'clocks.  In the evening they smell so good.  If I can keep them alive in this heat --today was 106 -- they will attract butterflies and hummingbirds.  I also love to hunt for the seeds.  As far as flower seeds go they are huge.  They are nestled in green leaves though and even being big black seeds in the pale green leaves they are easy to overlook.  It reminds me of hunting for Easter eggs.  I just love to hunt for them.  I usually find about 20 a day on the few large bushes I have.  It calms me, somehow, looking through the leaves for the seeds.  It is a joy to find them, realizing each little seed holds who knows how many blooms in it that will in turn produce seeds.  This year I have been planting them as soon as I harvest them in the hopes that my fence will be lined with them by next month.  This is what they look like:

blooms opened up

 

    

seeds I harvested tonight

and the smell?  Sweet, delicious, homey. 

My Friend Passed Away Today

My friend of 50 years, much like a sister to me, passed away today.  She had another stroke.  Because of my religious beliefs I know that she is in a better place.  She is no longer in any pain.  She is reunited with people she loves.  She is more than ok.  She would not want us to cry, but at the hospital I did and her husband did, and I am sure her sister and niece did too when they got the phone call.  It just seems weird.  One minute you are fine and in the blink of an eye something can happen and life changes.  After her first stroke she was not able to swallow.  Just yesterday at the hospital when we were trying to wake her up to see if she could possibly swallow some lemon ice for the therapist I told her "remember how we have spent 100's of hours talking on the phone ... you have to get better so we can do that again."  I also told her remember how many times we have gone just driving around, drinking Dr Pepper from Sonic, and listening to the radio, swaping every secret thought we either had ever had?  We have got to go driving around, and to do that you have got to get better.   Well, it will be a while until she and I get to do that.  The 11 days she was in the hospital I know she never recognized me.  Because she had not made any progress the hospital was going to discharge her soon and told her husband he would need to put her in a nursing home.  I know for a fact, from our hours of talking about things, that she never, ever wanted to be in a nursing home.  Maybe she heard that and decided nope, not going to a nursing home. Her husband told me today when I asked what he was plannng for a service  that  there were some songs she would have want played.  She loved Elvis.  He was going to have think about what  gospel song of his she would have wanted.  He knew for certain she wanted the song Spirit in the Sky to be played.  A song from our high school days.  It was written in 1969, I think.  Here it is ....

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPPlGFh6OpQ