20 posts tagged “friends”
...because my cats are sleeping together again.
This afternoon I'm off to McAlester, OK to give the program for the Kiamichi Quilt Guild and then will drive back home this evening. No big deal, right? Well, it shouldn't be, but I'll be driving at night which I hate, driving in the rain which I hate even more, and worst of all, driving the same route that Pam was on when she had that big wreck in March. Now, I know that the odds of me slamming into the back of some damn drunk indian who decided to park her truck in the middle of the highway are next to zero, but I can't stop thinking about it. It's been bugging me for days now. I'll be happy when I'm back home.
Actually, I couldn't have said it that well. Patricia Volonakis Davis has posted something I've been wanting to say for several weeks now, but she said it way better than I could have. She's good at that. If more people on Vox would act like she and Tom do this would be a much happier place.
My very dear friend Pam was in a car wreck on the night of March 5 [1]. Some damn drunk Indian [2] ran out of gas on the interstate and parked her truck in the fast lane. It was in the middle of nowhere. No lights. Not along the road or on the truck. Pam never saw it. She plowed into the back of it at full highway speed. Fortunately, her injuries are pretty light. She suffered a broken left collarbone, broken right wrist, a couple of broken ribs, and a slight concussion. In addition, she has various aches, pains, and bruises that are slowing her down.
Today I took her to the wrecker lot so that we could clean her life out of her vehicle. As they opened the gate to let us in this is the first thing we saw.
That's her vehicle right in the middle of the picture. We both sat there for a second with our mouths hanging open. It truly is a wonder that she's still alive. Here are some close up shots of the damage [3] [4].
After we finished with this job I took her to get her hair washed and styled. She felt like a whole new woman! Then I took her home for a nap.
[1] Her birthday was the next day, but that's completely beside the point.
[2] Yes, I know there's absolutely nothing PC about that.
[3] For you non-Voxers, click on any of the images to view them larger.
[4] That's Pam in the pictures.
Ken left yesterday afternoon to head up to the hunting lease for the weekend. Shortly after 7:00 he called to tell me that his truck broke down and he was stuck. Where was he? Less than 10 miles from the lease which means he was pretty much in the middle of nowhere NW Oklahoma. 20-30 miles from the nearest town. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to drive up there to rescue him (it's about 2 1/2 hours to get there) so we started figuring out how to get him some help.
He was only about 1/2 mile north of the highway and there are two farm houses right where he turns off to go up to the lease. I suggested he walk down there to see if anyone was home at either house. While he was doing that I called my friend Pam whose family is about 40 miles south of where Ken broke down hoping that one of her relatives might be willing to drive up there and rescue him if need be. She called her nephew and had him figuring out a possible plan of action. In the mean time, I called another friend of mine and was able to get a cell phone number for the woman who owns the quilt shop in Alva. Since I have done some free lance work for her and I always stop to buy fabric from her when I'm up there I was pretty sure that she and her husband would be willing to lend a hand.
Ken called back to let me know that he did find someone home and a tow truck was on its way over from Alva. Then he started wondering if he'd be lucky enough for the wrecker to be a flatbed truck that was big enough to haul his trailer so he wouldn't have to leave it on the side of the road. I suggested that he could take back to that farmer's house and leave it in his yard until the truck was fixed. He thought that was a reasonable idea.
The next time I heard from him he was at the garage/wrecker service in Alva. The guy had told him that all the motels were full and he wouldn't be able to get a room. Solution? The guy loaned him a truck (had to change the hitch on it to accommodate Ken's trailer) and is letting him use that for the weekend so he was able to get to the lease last night and sleep in his own bed. Since the garage is also a wrecker service that means someone is on site 24/7. Ken can pick up his repaired truck at his own convenience. Weekend saved! Of course, it remains to be seen what all this goodness will cost us. No matter. It'll be worth it.
As my long time neighbors may recall, Wednesday is the day that I go up to Sooner Quilts to sew with my friends. It's always a good day, but yesterday was particularly awesome. First of all, my friend Toni was back. [1] She got home Tuesday night, but drug herself out of bed to come sew on Wednesday. That alone made the day great. Then, shortly after 11:00 my dear friend Pam (who I haven't seen in ages) called to say that she was in town and on her way up to the shop to sew with us! She had huge news....she's got a new job here in Oklahoma and will be moving back!! Yippee!!!!!! 8:-) Then, as if the day wasn't awesome enough, Pam found an incredible piece of frog fabric on the shelf that Michelle has apparently been hiding from me. Naturally I bought a piece of it and now must go make a little something with it before I put the remainder in my stash.
[1] She had been in Canada for nearly a month visiting her 4 daughters.
Well, I'm back from my quilt camp at Toni's. It was a very productive five days. I managed to finish the bindings on 5 quilts, start an English Paper Piecing class sample, and work on my block of the month project. When Linda saw all of the quilts I was finishing off she was not to be outdone so she brought 5 quilts that needed binding (though she does hers completely by machine) and got them done.
In this top picture the two quilts hanging on the wall are Toni's and were completed several years ago. Starting from the left: Linda's Underground Railroad, the basket quilt Jimmie is hand quilting, (on the floor) one of my fractures, Linda's Just Can't Cut It, my sawtooth star, Linda's scrap quilt, (on the couch) Double Wedding Ring for John's parents.
There was a lot more accomplished besides those finished pieces.
Yup, I'm spending the next few days all the way across town at my friend Toni's house. Her husband is out of town until the middle of the weekend so she's having quilt camp at her house from today through Saturday. I'll be staying up there full time until I come home Saturday evening so you may not hear much from me while I'm gone. But I'll catch up with you guys when I get back!
8:-)
Thankfully, it's pretty much over.
The high points:
1. Friday was my step daughter's 24th birthday. We went out to dinner with her, her husband and his family. We always find his family to be delightful and we had a wonderful time.
2. This weekend was the Road to Oklahoma Shop Hop. I hopped with Darcy and my sister. We had a fabulous time.
3. I had a customer pick up a quilt today. For the first time ever I received a tip! (about 10%)
The low points:
1. On Friday Ken took the dog to the vet and had her put to sleep. A very difficult thing to do, but it had to be done.
2. While Ken was burying the dog on Saturday* he got a phone call telling him that one of his really good hunting buddies died in a drowning accident on Friday. The funeral will be Wednesday.
3. Tomorrow would have been my dad's 80th birthday. I had really expected him to still be around for that.
*Friday night I dreamed that when we went out to the workshop to get Cuddles so that we could bury her we discovered that the drugs had worn off and she was running around waiting for someone to let her outside. On Saturday when I told my sister about my dream she told me I was nuts, but when I told Ken about it later in the day he admitted that before he buried Cuddles he double checked to make sure she was really dead.
Ken went pig hunting again this weekend and I've been left to my own devices. Normally I would use such a weekend to get absolutely tons of work done, but today I socialized a good part of the day. John came to town to spend the weekend with his grandmother, but was kind enough to take a little time away from her to take Wendi and I out to lunch. He also brought presents for us and the fabric he picked up for me on his big mystery vacation. I already know what I'm going to do with part of the fabric he brought, but I'll save that for another post. The visit was lots of fun, but as always, far too short.
This evening I had dinner with Paxton and Strixaluco. A few months ago Strix and I got to talking about Ethiopian food and she mentioned that she hadn't had any in years. I told her we have a very good restaurant here in OKC and if they were interested I would take them there the next time they were passing through. Today was the day. As I had promised there was way too much food and we all ate until we thought we were going to pop! It was lots of fun to finally meet someone in person I've made friends with on VOX. Meeting people online is not new to me (that's how I met my husband), but this somehow takes blogging to a new level for me. I hope to someday meet more of my VOX friends in person.
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