on a personal note...

[leashedForLife]

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the ground floor of the State Theatre, after many years of decline, was restored in 2013, with a lot of vigorous fundraising & finally, the generous help of the Friedmans, who provided the funds to buy the building, & donated it to the community as a non-profit public performance space.

About |  The State Theatre, State College, PA

I can't find any on-line photos of the baroque 2nd-floor proscenium, which while somewhat decrepit, was gorgeous - cupids, gilt, plaster carvings, & all. // I hope they kept it.

- t

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[leashedForLife]

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Bellefonte Elementary School, which was once the high-school until the student body outgrew the facility in the late 1950s -

This was the home of the full-size, full-depth stage, with room for Furnell lights, backdrops, sets & props, etc, where the community theatre had our dress-rehearsals & performances.
By turns, I was stage crew, props, costume director, sound & lights, & helped with makeup on a dozen plays & musicals - including Once Upon A Mattress [lights & sound], Pajama Game [costumes], & Music Man [stage crew, wheeling set pieces on & off between acts].

Aren't those oak trees gorgeous? :wub: I love them.

- t

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[leashedForLife]

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some of my fave houses on Linn St -

Gov Beaver's mansion -

the Bush Arcade - still home to the corner Dept Store, today -

a significant woman -

... and the theatre she designed.

Another governor's mansion, just down Allegheny st from the elem-school -

 

[arealhuman]

Some lovely houses there @leashedForLife

 

[Violet Turner]

wi

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No "councils" here, @Violet Turner - I wish!
& my closest friends in the Bellefonte area have both died [my ob-gyn & dear friend of many years, Corene Johnston, was predeceased by her 2nd hubby, John Haag - poet emeritus of Penn State].

I'd have to travel there myself to see it. :shrug: There's no one i can think of that i could ask to stop by, especially as i don't know the street address. // I know how to get there on foot, LOL... maybe i can figure it out via Google Maps - it depends upon whether they have street-view of the surrounding streets, or even the alley.

- t

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would you not be able to put a higher fence up? i know its there fence but i would recommend.

 

[leashedForLife]

wi

would you not be able to put a higher fence up?
i know it's their fence, but [that's what] i would recommend.

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wrong thread, hun. . Oops.

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[Violet Turner]

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wrong thread, hun. . Oops.

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yeah oops!

 

[leashedForLife]

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my weekend-client's mother has dementia, & lives in the desert southwest - his sister, who lives near her, has overseen her care for the past 10-yrs. // The sister phoned on Friday to say she'd taken a turn for the worse, & my client's wife flew out on Sat aft.
The sister phoned tonight around 6-pm local time [East coast] to say their mother had died. Mom hadn't been present, or only present in glimpses, for years - nonetheless, my client sobbed aloud on hearing the news.
I'm glad his dotter is here - I've only known him since Thanksgiving, & cannot offer much comfort; his dotter doesn't seem much affected, personally. Praps she & her grandmother weren't close, or she's lived for so long with the slow dying that is dementia that her Grandma was emotionally already gone, for her.

Still, no matter how old we are & no matter how much relief Death brings, being orphaned hurts deeply - no one else knows us as intimately or for as long as our parents. Our spouses or children, or dear friends, may know us deeply & well, but they cannot have the same shared history as a parent & their child, who lived in the same home, knew the same neighbors, walked the same street, ate at the same table, for years.
A shared history, even having lived in the same era, makes a unique bond - my mother was the last surviving member of her immediate family; my maternal grandfather died before i was born [a volunteer fireman in Phila, PA, he died in a warehouse fire on the Philthy docks, leaving Nana with 7 children to provide for] - my maternal grandmother was 94 when she died, & i was in my late-20s at the time. Almost all my aunts & uncles died before my mum retired, in her mid-70s, & moved to VA from Pennsy in 1998 - only her younger sister, Mary, the youngest in the family, was still living, & she died in 2005.
My mother spent 4 years as the last one standing. Knowing that no-one else remembers the things that U do - family celebrations, personal tragedies, national events & how they affected the family, global news & its tsunami or ripple effects - is a very lonely feeling.

If my client was his former hale self, physically, i'm sure he'd have wanted to be with his sister & mother, to support them emotionally or do anything he could to help, even if that was only hold a hand or listen & bear witness; being quadraplegic, going there wasn't an option, & his mother would not have recognized him, even as a bipedal adult, let alone in a power-chair.
Reality can be a very hard, cold set of facts.

The Celtics have a home game tonight, & i can hear the rapid-fire chirps of sneakers on the hardwood court, & the ref's whistle, but i don't hear any cheering or moans of disappointment; this is a houseful of rabid fans, & they emote! when their team scores, or a bad call is made. Tonight, the TV is just background noise.
- terry

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[leashedForLife]

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I was called twice last night by the client's overnight-alarm, & both times, at 11:30 [an hour after i'd gone to bed, just long-enuf to be deeply asleep, & a few minutes past midnight], he only wanted his son -
who lives with his parents; so I called down to him, & he came up, while i went back down to bed. // He doesn't often call during the night, & it's always been a physical thing B4 - his head in a bad position, needing another blanket, need eyedrops, etc. Last night it was emotional, & there was nothing i could do.

After losing an hour for the shift to Daylight Savings on Sat-night, & a 2nd night short of sleep, this morning I feel fuzzy-brained & dopey.
It's 10 to 8, I've been up since 6:30 [client gets his arms ranged, eyedrops, etc, at 6:45 daily], & i'm going back to bed - finally. // I'll wake when i wake, with no alarm frantically beeping from the client, & no alarm set for any particular time for me.

off to dreamland,
- terry

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[leashedForLife]

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the overnight-alarm went off *again* at 5 to 8, he wanted me to "unlock the kitchen door" for the PCA coming on for her shift -
which of course i already had, at 7:15. He's going to be needy, anxious, & micromanaging for awhile. I am eager for his wife to get home, as that will help him relax more than anything.
On Wed, he has a long-delayed wheelchair evaluation, & i do hope the tech lowers his armrests! - the blasted things are precisely to his body-measurements WHILE IN PERFECT SEATING POSTURE, which with a Hoyer pad, is rarely achieved on a daily basis, plus anytime U use the lift, HE SLIDES DOWNWARD SLIGHTLY on the pad, so that even if U try, U cannot get him into that elusive "perfect" seated position.
having the armrests so unforgivingly set means that if his body is a fraction of an inch lower in the chair, his elbow joint is jammed into the armrest & his upper arm is jammed into his shoulder-socket, affecting his neck, spine, & of course shoulder, & potentially causing a pressure-sore on his elbow, which would be disastrous.
We need at least an inch of play in the setting of that armrest, & 1.5" would be even better. Adding a thin cushion is simple - we can't "deduct" the fixed armrest.

now 8:20, & trying again for elusive sleep...
- t

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[Josie]

good luck finding sleep @leashedForLife !

 

[leashedForLife]

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I never did get back to sleep, yesterday. I gave-up & got up at 10-am, after reading in bed for 90-minutes. Ah, well - at least i rested!

My downtown client broke with a stomach-bug, so i was warned off on Saturday evening for Monday's shift.
"My" client is the lady in a couple, but i do whatever either of them need, when i'm there - they're both wheelchair-users, after all. IMO, it's asinine to even consider making a meal for ONE person in a 2-person household, or doing laundry for ONE, but that's what the bureaucrats expect of caregivers... which is a perfect example of the idiocy of bureaucratic thinking, again IMO.
So i took myself out to dinner at the 99 - & literally en route there, within a 1/4-mile of the restaurant, i got a text from a phone-call that i missed, saying that I'D WON their "$100 worth of lottery tickets" prize! - I haven't won anything since college, when i called into a radio-show & won 2 tickets to a play on campus, so this is a happy shock.

I ate my luscious baked potatoes [each hunk dipped lightly into ranch dressing] & my crunchy fresh cole slaw, then told the waitress who had sold me the raffle tickets 10-days ago that i'd won, & the Mgr came by to deliver them... we took the lottery pasteboards out of the frame & peeled them off the cardboard together, while we chatted.
I now have a fat stack of lottery tickets, & not much idea of how to "play" each card - there are literal rules, & if U take off too many spots, U've messed up that ticket, & it's disqualified. // I've never bought a lottery ticket in my life, the odds are ridiculously stacked against U, but donating $20 to the Pine St Inn to support their homeless shelter seemed like a doggone good idea, so i did, & that $20 bought me a tall man's armspan of raffle tickets, all of which i put into the lottery-ticket bucket, & blimey if i didn't win!...

It seems queer that i've been living without a fixed address since Oct-15, 2015, when i moved out of my fellow chorister's spare room, & now, my donation to a homeless charity has won me 17 separate chances in the state lotteries [12 $2-tickets, 4 each of 3 games; 3 $5-tickets, all the same game; & 1 each, a $20-ticket & a $30-ticket -- the high-tab tickets have far-better odds of winning].

I fully expected to be working today [Tues], but Mother Nature flung another nor'easter at us, & my client told me to stay home - or at least, "not try to come into work". // I'll get some photos to share - it's BEAUTIFUL out the windows, & i have no intention of missing the chance to walk in a foot or more of snow!
That doesn't come along often, & IMO it's very special. I love the silence of snow, the squeak of powder under my boots, the shush of each stride, the tracks of wildlife... i adore snow, the deeper, the better. // I don't have my snowshoes, they're stored, but i have insulated ski-pants, bought at my fave charity-shop, so i won't get soggy.
Off to brekkie...
- terry

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[leashedForLife]

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the views from my upstairs "sun porch" - uninsulated, but a bright daytime space:

thru a single pane, in my bedroom window -

... & from the back porch, to the left -

... & to the right -

 

[Josie]

so much snow!

 

[leashedForLife]

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The final tally was 18-inches deep. I loved it - which can get me verbally or even physically assaulted, depending upon who's listening, if i say it out-loud, in public.

My client's wife safely made it back, in time for her hubby's seating review on Wed - on Tues., I checked the arrivals board periodically at Logan airport, & everything domestic was CANCELLED flags, so it wasn't very encouraging.
Until 6-pm on Tues, the only flights scheduled to come in were 2 from London, & 3 from Dubai.
I don't know if he's approved for a new power-chair - but the review had been postponed 4X, so it was important that he was seen [& his chair].

I have snow-pants & gaiters, & another snowstorm is expected this coming Tuesday. Yay!
CORRECTION: snow is expected on Wed, 3/21. // My host said this morning that snow is predicted for Tuesday - I just checked AccuWeather for Boston...

I bought super hi-tech mittens on seasonal clearance, & gave my now-spare pair of technical-mittens to Ahmad, a housemate from the Middle East - he had no gloves, & was walking about with his hands in his pockets.

cheers,
- terry

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[leashedForLife]

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yay for me! - I have tomorrow off, a rare event - i usually work 6 days of 7, & generally have only Thursday for personal stuff [groceries, errands, any appts are made for Th's, any fun stuff...].
My downtown client gave me the day 'cuz the weather [in her view] is spozed to be ugly; IMO, the snow we're expecting is WONDERFUL.

I want to run a few errands [to CVS for a new bottle of daily-vitamins & a few other items, pick up my mail & packages, etc], then go by train to Beverly, MA & visit my favorite charity-shop. I'm really looking forward to it.

The bad news? -
my weekend client interviewed someone on Monday afternoon, who might take over the caregiving job full-time & live-in all week - 7 days. I really need that 2nd job, it pays over 1.5-times what i earn in 2-weeks at my hourly job, downtown, every fortnight. // We finally have the 3rd PCA we needed to cover all 7 days, & he's only worked there for 2-weeks - all 3 of us may lose our hours, there.

Also, today my downtown client told me that her allotted hours have been cut yet again; last summer she lost over an hour per week [1.25-hrs / wk, 2.5-hrs per pay period], & went from 29.25 to 28-hrs weekly. // Now, a functional evaluation was done under new state standards, & her hours will be cut to a mere 15 per-week, starting in May. For me, that means my wages fall from $655 / 2-weeks to about $350... I have April ahead, when i'll still earn full wages & she'll have 28-hrs covered each week, but come May, everything changes.

Between the possible loss of my primary income [which includes 3 nights shelter, & one ordered-in meal every Sat night] & losing nearly half the wages at my hourly job, I'm worried.

- terry

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[Violet Turner]

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yay for me! - I have tomorrow off, a rare event - i usually work 6 days of 7, & generally have only Thursday for personal stuff [groceries, errands, any appts are made for Th's, any fun stuff...].
My downtown client gave me the day 'cuz the weather [in her view] is spozed to be ugly; IMO, the snow we're expecting is WONDERFUL.

I want to run a few errands [to CVS for a new bottle of daily-vitamins & a few other items, pick up my mail & packages, etc], then go by train to Beverly, MA & visit my favorite charity-shop. I'm really looking forward to it.

The bad news? -
my weekend client interviewed someone on Monday afternoon, who might take over the caregiving job full-time & live-in all week - 7 days. I really need that 2nd job, it pays over 1.5-times what i earn in 2-weeks at my hourly job, downtown, every fortnight. // We finally have the 3rd PCA we needed to cover all 7 days, & he's only worked there for 2-weeks - all 3 of us may lose our hours, there.

Also, today my downtown client told me that her allotted hours have been cut yet again; last summer she lost over an hour per week [1.25-hrs / wk, 2.5-hrs per pay period], & went from 29.25 to 28-hrs weekly. // Now, a functional evaluation was done under new state standards, & her hours will be cut to a mere 15 per-week, starting in May. For me, that means my wages fall from $655 / 2-weeks to about $350... I have April ahead, when i'll still earn full wages & she'll have 28-hrs covered each week, but come May, everything changes.

Between the possible loss of my primary income [which includes 3 nights shelter, & one ordered-in meal every Sat night] & losing nearly half the wages at my hourly job, I'm worried.

- terry

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oh dear, i don't know what you could do.

 

[arealhuman]

Fingers crossed for you @leashedForLife

 

[leashedForLife]

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I've been lucky for this while, to have 3 nice clients - my downtown couple, MTW, & the gentleman on weekends, whose family have been more than kind to me. // While working with the agency, getting $10 per hour while the agency scooped up $16 or more for every hour that i worked, i had some awful clients - or their relatives -- including a drunkard son, who was verbally abusive & utterly unreliable, who lived with his sweet, fragile mother, my client, & flirted with his 18-YO son's girlfriends. Uggh - repulsive behavior.
After those experiences, I've been so happy to have 3 compos mentis clients, who actually appreciate me.
And i like cooking - & cook in both households, so that's been fun.

I really don't want to go back to working for an agency, having my own work feed their coffers, & getting a pittance of what i make for them. Plus being put in impossible situations. Oy, vey!
I've only had 3 1/2 months of decent wages, nice people, & no parasitic bloodsucker draining my earnings... & already, i'm spoiled. ~sigh~ I don't want to lose it. // I worked for the same agency from April-2013 until they laid me off in Dec-2014, then again from March-2014 thru October-2017, & never got a raise above minimum wage.
The C.E.O. was delighted to advertise my re-minted CHHA status, which cost me $1,000 of borrowed money for the month-long course, but she didn't give me a dime more for earning that qualification.

I paid back my friend's loan, but i thought it was truly mean of the agency owner to give me *nothing* for the work i'd done, which allowed her to charge more for my services, & she even fought my unemployment claim - after i'd been out of work for 3 solid months, despite job-hunting like a madwoman, i finally filed a claim to cover the month that i would be in classes, & she counter-filed to deny it.
That was the winter of 110-inches of snow, & i made it thru by working for cash, shoveling snow. I'm not 30 or even 50, anymore; the age-gap between my clients & myself has been shrinking for years, & currently, all my clients are younger than me, which is a novel experience... aside from working with children, & once with a college student, generally my clients have been adults older than myself.

this economy is so unforgiving, & i've been walking a razor's edge ever since 2006, when i cashed out my 401-k to care for my mother until her death. I believed at the time that with hard work, i could replace it - then came 2008, the bubble burst, jobs were nonexistent, & it's been a scramble ever since.
Employers are still covering the work-load of 5 people with 3 employees; profits are high, but wages are stagnant, & the purchasing power of workers is stuck at late-1970s values, while prices for everything have increased, some of them enormously.
I have zero savings, & i'm approaching eligibility for Medicare. Pray God my health holds - without work, i'm lost, & if i'm not able-bodied, i won't be able to work. Personal care is not watching a client crochet & warming a TV-tray in the microwave; it's often physically demanding, & on-call nights are disruptive.

But i must admit, working 6 days a week for years on end was not what i imagined, when i was in college. I worked 60 to 72 hours a week in the summers, making money to return to college, & i worked every year but my freshman year while carrying a full credit load with a dual major - but at the time, i was 16 to 22; now, I work 66 or more hours a week [24 of those on call at night, Fr St Sn], & i'm decades older.

134 credits with a 3.2 GPA, a dual major heavy on science, & here i am. // It reminds me of the summer of 2009, when one of the crew replacing the roof next door was an unemployed professor with a Doctorate, laying shingles in 90 / 90 swelter & full sun. He was lucky that he was in his early-40s & fit - what would he have done, if he'd been 20 years older?
Bl**dy good thing for me, that women* retain more of their muscular strength than men do, as they age.

Life does not go to plan.
- terry

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* : EDIT - plural Oops.

 

[leashedForLife]

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The promised snow never arrived -
I was disappointed - & now the sky looks pregnant with rain. Poop!

I've been lingering over garden-supplies; there's a nonprofit food-&-farm co-op that will find farmers GROUND that they can plant; the farmers then grow stuff, & the co-op finds buyers for it. // I'm thinking of growing baby-mesclun in a hydroponics table, & planting berries & dwarf fruit-trees, or even nut-trees, for long-term production.
Hardy kiwi-vines take 2 to 3 years to come into production, but can produce 35 to 50# of fruit per season, & they're pretty low-maintenance.
I've lots of experience with the more-novel small fruits [gooseberry, currants, wild berries of many sorts]; they sell well, with a decent profit margin, & i love to grow stuff. The big problem has always been having no ground to plant - if the co-op can solve that for me, i'm in. . I've picked elderberries, but never planted 'em, just harvested wild stands; maybe i can find a source... they make a lovely syrop. {not mis-spelt - archaic usage.]

I was also looking at herbs, culinary, medicinal, or fragrant - i've grown them, too, bee-balm was very popular with our hives! Lavender is among my faves, & i just found out that sweet-shrub AKA Carolina spice-bush can be grown this far north. [Spice is for the fragrance - U don't *eat* it, it's toxic.]
Cretan dittany sounds nice, too - makes a tisane, or can be used to flavor beverages.

I also like stone-fruits - i adored our only Georgia Belle peach-tree, & i'd really enjoy harvesting some of those, or apricots, plums, nectarines... & quinces. // It's bl**dy hard to find a quince tree, these days - used to be, everybody had ONE so they'd have a source of pectin for jellies & jams. Now that ppl get their pectin from packets, quince trees have disappeared.

Lots of possibilities...
- terry

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