My Week in Review

Hey, y'all,
Well, now I'm gonna tell you about my last week (beginning with last Friday to today). It hasn't been really great, but surely could have been much worse! 

Last Friday began with much sneezing and snortin' and blowin' of the schnozz. I must have used up a mega roll of toilet tissue keeping the drip from my nose wiped away. I ran out of kleenex and had to resort to the toilet tissue. Thank goodness for a good supply of that! Then my temperature began to spike and by Saturday morning, much coughing with a four degree rise in temp. Slept in my recliner from Friday night on and will probably do so till my cough is gone. I did very little of anything in the house, including eating. I did call a couple of my Sunday School class members to tell them I wouldn't be able to come on Sunday, so they had to manage the lesson without  me. 

Sunday morning dawned and went till about 11:45 a.m. and I had jabbing pains in my front left shoulder. I thought it could be my heart, since I do have heart problems, so I called my oldest daughter, Carol, who was at church. She knew I wasn't feeling well, so she answered her cell phone."What should I do?" I asked her. 

"I don't know," she replied. "Call Teresa and ask her." Teresa is my daughter who lives in Alabama and has had nurse training. So I called Teresa. Her advice was to call 911. So I did, and waited for them. 

In the meantime, I printed off a copy of my medications, took a nitro tablet, put on my housecoat, got my billfold with insurance info in it, along with my keys, and by the time I had availed myself of the bathroom, I could hear the sirens. 
I thought, "Boy, I'm providing some excitement for the neighbors! Ha!"

Well, the upshot is, I went out to meet them (they were surprised that I was walking, but you know me, I must do things in grand style). They helped me into the doorway of the rescue squad ambulance and sent the fire truck on its way. By that time, sure enough, some of the neighbors were out gawking, just like I would  have been in their place. (Are you getting tired of reading this yet? I must admit, I can be rather wordy.)

We went on to the local hospital emergency room where Carol met us, having gotten there before we did, and after spending six hours in the emergency area, having EKG run, giving blood, CT scan and X-rays made, they told me my heart enzymes were good, and I had no blood clots, and to go home and rest. So, praise God, and a lot of prayers, I'm sure, and a good staff at the hospital, I knew I was okay. I believe (as I did before I went) that it was just pain from the coughing I had been doing. The doctor did tell me that he had consulted with my cardiologist and that I was to call the office and see him this week. I saw him on Tuesday and he told me to increase one of the meds that I was already taking. 

By Monday I was already back to quilting, and finished up a quilt for a great grand nephew who was born in California, about the same time as my newest great grandchild here in Texas. On Tuesday, I began working on my granddaughter, Amy's, quilt for their queen size bed. I went to visit my cardiologist, went to the library, had lunch at Freddy's steakburgers. Yum! That made me feel much better. Then went to Hobby Lobby. That improved my attitude even more. Ha!

Wednesday was supper at the church, followed by choir rehearsal. More sewing during the day.

Yesterday morning, I decided I needed to get out my walker and take a walk down to Kroger's (about four blocks from my home) and pick up a few items for my Sunday School class get together yesterday afternoon. I have pictures of that little soiree that we had. We each brought pictures of ourselves to the meeting so that we could see what we all looked like when we were much younger (from about 60 years ago). We were really quite good lookin' chickadees! At least, we think so. Ha. We were celebrating my birthday (we had snacks and little birthday cakes) and also saying farewell to one of our members who is moving away to another town.

   There were actually nine of us (I was taking the pictures) and while I know it may actually look like there were more, some people were in pictures more than once. We were busy filling our faces when I made these, so the laughter was behind and not evident. :) We  had a great time together. I'd say the average age of my class is somewhere mid eighties. I love them all so very much. They are a delight to be around. We only had one absent, and she was at home, mourning the loss of her little dog that she had to have put down this week, due to the doggie's illness.

Then this morning, I collected all the trash, changed the filter in the air conditioning unit, and FOOT-SWEPT the living room floor. You are asking right now, maybe, how does one foot-sweep a floor? Well, if you're wearing socks, and there are a lot of scraps of cloth, and clipped threads, and pieces of tissue (used) lying all around in the floor where they missed the waste basket, you simply walk around and swish it all together into a pile in your socks, and then when you have it all in one place, you pick it up and put it into the trash. You then clean off the debris on your socks and put that into the trash as well. You will have dusted the floor, and cleared up what was in the floor, and "Voila!" you now have an acceptable looking floor again. 

Well, that is my week in review. Thanks for listening (reading) and I hope to be writing a new Sleuthin' Sidekicks story in June, God willing. 

This is Blabbin' Grammy signing off for today. Thanks to all of you for reading my stuff. I enjoy writing it all. Love to all my friends and family. More later. Bye for now.  

The Night

The night had seemed very short, because I'd slept mighty good, even with all the noises surroundin' me. Believe it er' not, the nurses comin' in n' out didn't bother me much. Y'know, when yer' used ta' sleepin' in doorways like we wuz', we appreshiated a good bed when we got ta' use one. 

The nurse come in and turned on the light. "Good mornin'," she smiled. "Did you sleep well? I need to get your vital signs and if they are good, I have orders to remove the IV's from your arm. Let me check your arm bands and make you are who the orders say you are. Then you will be getting breakfast and the doctor will be in to check you all,  before you're dismissed."

While Nurse Nancy checked us out, I looked over at Lucy and winked. We sure was gettin' the royal treatment, I thought. Hmm, this was alright. I was anxious to see Clancy and talk to the Lieutenant, but in the meantime, I wuz sure gonna enjoy the good stuff.

A couple a' hours later, we wuz on our way to the station. The day wuz clear and bright; I remarked ta' Lucy about the birds a' singin' and the air smellin' so good. It didn't take no time fer her to agree, 'cause we wuz both so glad to be alive, after last night's scary doin's, don't cha' know?

We sailed inta' the station house, jest a wavin' and smilin' at the guys and gals in thar' like we wuz some a them celebrity tevee stars. They all clapped their hands at us and smiled. 

"Hey, Shannon, your lady detectives are down here," the desk sergeant shouted up the stairway. 

"Where's my little Clancy? Where are ya', boy?"

Here he came, his little ears jest a' flappin' and his tail a' waggin, and a' yippin' like crazy, jumpin' down the stairs and inta'  my arms. Oh, my! I was as glad ta' see him as he wuz ta' see me. He licked my cheeks, catchin' the tears as they run down my face. "Oh, you sweet little Clancy, you! Oh, how I missed ya'!"


Lucy Mae just stood back and wiped 'er eyes, smilin' ta' see us both so happy. The fellers kinda' stood around and hemmed n' hawed. 


The Looie came down and escorted us up to his office so we could talk. "Your carts are sitting over there in the corner. We've been taking good care of them for you. Have a seat, ladies, and let's have us a little chat. I gather they took good care of you at the hospital?"


"Hello, Lieutenant Shannon! Yes, we had good keer over thar'. They wuz really good to us. Thank ye fer gettin' us over thar, an' all. I expect we woulda' been goners if we hadn't a been rescued? Do ye know what Gloria had planned fer us?"


"Oh, yeah...she had planned to take you into your neighborhood by car, and hit you over the head while you were unconscious, leaving you dead. She had some whiskey she was going to pour into your mouth and over your clothes, to make it look like you had got drunk and just fell and hit your heads."


"Why, that old witch!" cried Lucy Mae. "The nerve a' her! She's jest a evil old woman!"


"You're right there," replied the Looie. "You know the gun you turned in, ladies, was registered to her and was used in the shooting over on Castle Way. She had gone over there the day before Xenia Clark was killed, and shot her girlhood friend, Geneva Hyde-Smythe. Gloria was singing like a canary when we got her back to the station in the interrogation room. She couldn't talk fast enough when we showed her the journal. She was bragging about how clever she had been and how she had fooled everyone, until you got to snooping around."


"Didja' find the necklace in the purse? I fin'lly figured out it musta been blackmail payment from either Xenia er Geneva. And the page from the telephone direct'ry had somethin' ta do with some coins 'er somethin' like that, cause coins comes after coffee alphabetical like. I wuz layin' in that nice bed last night a' doin' some thinkin', don'tcha know?"


"Yes, you're right, AnnaBee, as usual. The necklace had been Xenia's last payment, and Gloria had forgotten about it being in the purse. We found a set of coins in Gloria's house when we searched it. She told us that she had had the coins for several weeks as payment from Geneva. She carried her purse with her to Geneva's house with the gun in it, shot Geneva, and then ditched the purse with the journal and the gun in it, getting rid of the evidence, she thought. She thought that when the trash was carried out of the park and put into the city dump with all the other trash, she was home free. She didn't count on two little old ladies finding her out."


Lucy Mae spoke up, "What about Cookie Jack? How are we goin' to tell him that within two days, he lost both a' his mamas? His birth mama, and his adopted mama are both gone now."


Stunned, I looked at her. "You're right, Lucy Mae..but then, he really didn't have 'em to begin with, did he? One of 'em sold him, and the other one lost him to the system. when he was no bigger than a Jack rabbit, so ta speak. I think we oughta see to it that he gets the necklace and the coin collection. Whatta' ya' think, Lieutenant?"


"I think you may be right, AnnaBelle. We did locate a brother of Xenia, who may be interested in helping Jackie, since he would be an uncle to Cookie Jack."


"Say, that's great! Now, if you don't need us anymore, I think we need to get on outta your way so you can do some work. I wanta thank ye ag'in fer savin' our bacon last night! We got some people we want to visit with today. We gotta check in with Pastor Joe and all. Come on, Lucy Mae, my friend, let's make tracks."


We got our carts and I put Clancy on his leash, and we headed down stairs.


"Just one minute, ladies! Keep your noses clean today! I can't keep spending all my time and the time of my men, rescuing you out of trouble. Like you said, we've got work to do! Now get out of here!"


"Gee, do ya reckon he wuz mad at us, AnnaBee?"


"Nah, he was smilin' when he said it."


When we left, we didn't notice the Weasel following us.


The End

A Buzzin' In My Ears

A buzzin' in my ears, along with the sound of voices, dragged me from a state of unconsciousness...where was I? Why did the inside of my mouth feel like cotton was stuffed inta' it? Kinda' muzzy like. I moaned, and heard a man's voice. I was confused. I lay there almost like one dead.

"I think she's comin' out of it, nurse," I heard a voice say.

"Nurse? Where in the heck am I?" I croaked, opening my eyes, looking around. "Hey, Lieutenant, what are you doing sitting here next ta' me, and where's Lucy Mae...How'd I get here in this bed? What happened anyway?"

"Well, my little crime-stopper, you've been a busy little bee, as usual, getting into all kinds of trouble, and keeping the department busy pulling you out of it. What do you think happened?"

"Where's my little Clancy, and Lucy Mae? Are they okay?"

"Yeah, Lucy is over here on the other side of me, and one of the boys has Clancy. He's livin' it up down at the station. Lucky for him, Lucretia Borgia didn't give him any chocolate drink, laced with a Mickey. Lucky for you all, that one of my undercover men followed you and was watching her house. He saw her draggin' you out of her house to her car parked out back. What were you thinking? I could just shake you!!"

Oh, my head was bangin' away like a trip-hammer. I was still havin' trouble connectin' ever'thing. Why couldn't I remember? I tried to sit up. There was a needle stuck in my arm, connected to a tube runnin' fluid into me. "What is this? Why is it in here? Whose house? What are ya' talkin' about, Looie?"


"Just take it easy, AnnaBee...You were at Gloria Simmons' home and you and Lucy had just had a cup of hot chocolate laced with knockout drops. You were dead to the world (almost literally) when one of my men caught her dragging you out to her car. He took her into custody, and called 911. They came and brought you all to the hospital. Gloria gave him a song and dance about how you got sick and she was takin' you to the hospital. We found the journal in your jacket pocket, and we know the whole story. Lucy Mae is over here on the other side of me and recovering, too. Now lay back and relax awhile."


"Oh, yeah, yeah, now it's comin' back ta' me...I never figgered she'd catch onta me like she did. Hey, Lucy Mae, are you awake? How are ya', friend? I'm sorry I put cha' in danger like that!"


"That's okay, AnnieBee, we're friends through thick n' thin, ya' know."


"Say, Lieutenant, how'd ya know ta have somebody follerin' us?"


"I had a man outside the station who saw you turning in the opposite direction of where the Mission is located and knew you were probably still on the scent of trouble, so he just kind of ambled along slowly after you. Sure enough, there you went, headlong into the lion's den, thinkin' you could take care of yourselves. Here, have some of this water." He had noticed I was rubbin' my tongue over my dry lips.


"I reckon maybe we owe ya a big thank ye for the rescue, Lieutenant Shannon, and also one ta tha' one that saved us from Gloria."


"If you two could just stay out of trouble for awhile, that would be nice. But, we are here to serve, as our motto says, and I'm happy we could rescue you girls again. You two get some rest tonight and I want to see you tomorrow. They're going to keep you overnight. We still have things to talk about. Goodnight,now."

He left, and I looked over at Lucy Mae and grinned. She looked back and asked, "Wonder what we'll get for breakfast, AnnaBee? I hope it'll be good. It's been a long time since our last one."

"Hmm. Yeah... I wonder about that necklace in the purse and where it came from?" (to be continued)

Hey, Y'all,

Hannah is the one in the green shirt, holding her little cousin

Just wanted to wish my dear little great granddaughter, Hannah, a happy birthday! I love you, Hannah!

Cardiologist's Report

Hey, y'all, 
This is just a note to family and friends who are interested...wanted to give you an update after seeing my cardiologist...I seem to be doing okay...echo cardiogram turned out more or less same as last one. Pace maker is still doing about 50% of my heartbeats which is in normal range. He told me to just pace myself and only do what I feel like doing. (That suits me, all right) The aortic valve seems like it might be a little narrower but not appreciably. He says these echos are not completely reliable. If it goes down to say .7 millimeter we might have to do something. Sounds like he might agree with what Dr. Kelly said three years ago..."She's a walking time bomb. ha." As Brenda Lee Johnson of "The Closer" says, "time is passing, tick tock, tick tock. 
Lost my credit card again today...just can't seem to keep that little piece of plastic where it's supposed to be. Must have pulled it out of my dress pocket when I got my keys out to unlock my car, or maybe, just left it on the cashier's stand. Anyway, I have called and cancelled it. No charges after mine were on it. No harm, no foul. 
Tha-tha-tha-that's all folks. :)

Tragic

Happy Birthday Celebration with Amy

Hey, Y'all, 
Well, today is a break day from A to Z and I wanted to take the opportunity to share some pictures of our time spent with grand-daughter, Amy. She and Matthew came over to Carol and Daryl's home where we had yummy sandwiches prepared by my daughter, Carol, (Matt's mom), and then we had ice cream and cake for dessert. Grandson, Matt, made the sourdough bread for the sandwiches. 

I made the pictures of Matt and Amy for my blog and also for my family photos kept on my 'puter. For many years I have been the family photographer and have quite a few on it. 

This has been a  busy week for me, with an appointment kept with my eye surgeon who has turned me loose to have new prescriptions for my eyeglasses. As you may know, I have had Lasik surgery on each eye to remove scar tissue from previous cataract surgery, and my sight is much improved. (Praise God and a good surgeon!)

This week I have appointments with my podiatrist, my family doctor and my cardiologist. I reckon by the end of the week, I should be thinking I'm either in tip top condition or ready for one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. Ha ha ha. 

Here are the pictures:

Grandson Matt and Wife, Amy (ain't they cute?)

Presenting the cake to Amy (all lit up, the cake, not Amy)

Happy 25th Birthday

 Ah, wouldn't it be lovely to be 25 again? I'd have 54 years ahead of me. :)

Anyway, it was a great time and we watched an episode of "Sherlock Holmes" the modern version that is a BBC production, and enjoyed the time together. We really missed the family that was not there. Love  to all of you.

Thanks to all of my blogger friends reading my posts, and all the support you are giving me. See you on Monday! A to Z continues then. This is Blabbin' Grammy signing off for today. Much love to each of you, my friends and family. Bye for now. More later.