Bionic Fingers!

I seen something on the news that just fascinates me. They are now working on and have in operation something called Bionic Fingers. This interests me because I have a granddaughter who was born with no fingers, only a thumb on one hand. When she was small she traveled back and forth from Lakin, Kansas to St. Louis, Missouri where she underwent several surgeries that were simply gruesome.

Doctors would take a tiny piece of bone from her toe and transplant it to her hand where a finger should be. Then she wore an apparatus that needed to be turned every day and the theory behing that was that would make a finger grow there. Needless to say, it did not work!

Now many years later, a set of fingers has been specifically built for a man who lost his fingers and retained his thumb. This apparatus is fitted to his hand. Each finger has a motor with sensors that attach to nerves in his arm. When he moves that muscle the sensor in turn moves the fingers. Now that the leap has been made it will be no time at all before this will be perfected and I can just see how this will help a lot of people, not just my granddaughter.

Having been born with no fingers on the one hand, she is what is called handicapped. She never knew this. I am the one who had a hard time remembering she was limited. She never looked on this as a handicap, just a limitation. I would hand her things with both hands and she would look at me funny. "Grandma, I can't carry all those!" Again I had forgotten. Teaching her to crochet was sort of out of reason.

Now she has two little boys, she cooks and cuts up onions, does everyday chores and has recently earned her Masters Degree. But think how nice that would have been for her to actually have 2 hands when she was doing this! I may actually be able to teach her to crochet, knit and all those 2 handed things I do!

One of these days I shall do a special entry on her, but first I have to get her permission to use her name and all the particulars, but for now it will have to do for you to know that I shine with pride over this little bit of fluff who has given me 2 great grandsons!

Please don't talk about me when I'm gone!

I just woke up with that song running through my head! "Please don't talk about me when I 'm gone! Though our friendship ceases from now on. In parting you go your way, I'll go mine, it's best that we do. Here's a kiss, I hope that this brings lots of luck to you." Or something like that!
Made me remember back to when I was in 3-4 grade and we used to play a game called "Gossip". Teacher would whisper something in the first kid's ear like "It is a lovely day for a walk in the woods!" When the gossip was whispered from lip to ear through the class it would come out something like "Lizzies dad talks to himself!"
This was our lesson that gossip is not good and we should not do it. Even if we are saying something nice to start out, when it is repeated enough it can become very distorted. So we do not do a lot of gossiping around here.
My mother had a different take on it. She always said:
"As long as they are talking about me they are letting some other poor soul rest!"
"If you can't say something good about somebody, don't say anything."
"What goes around comes around."
"The chickens always come home to roost."
Mother was a very wise woman and how I made the leap from waking up to the point I am now at is almost more than even I can fathom.
So that is it for the day. Kind of a waste of space, but that is what I am good at doing!

The doggie is running the business!

This is Cosmo!

Anyone who has ever been to Sprinkles Sewing Center knows who this is ! This is Cosmo and he is in charge of the store. While Cosmo is a beautiful little Maltese he came from very humble beginnings having been rescued from the pound in Colorado Springs. He knows a guy has to work for a living, and if he falls down on the job, he could be out the door! That Jerry is a task master that expects a lot out of a little dog! True, he gets to ride in the front seat, but never gets to drive!



When you pull in the parking lot, Cosmo is at the door watching you walk toward the store. It is then that he is deciding if you are on a mission of good or evil! He has a natural instinct to separate the customers from the bad guys meaning to do harm. He will greet you with a smile and a friendly wag. Your job is to say, "Oh, hello Cosmo! How good to see you!" Or something along that line.



Sometimes he is busy in the back, but when the door chime rings he will drop what ever he is doing and run to greet you. He is partial to his humans, Jerry and Cathy, and if he is busy with them you may only get a perfunctory wag, but when he is finished with the current chore he will be back to give you his full attention. Granted sometimes the chore he is involved in is having a little snack, but "treat breaks" are one of the "perks" of the job.



Everyone is his friend, but you need to realize that running a store takes a lot of attention and when you are only 8 inches tall and running on 2 inch legs, it takes a lot out of a guy!



Everything and everyone is his concern and for the most part he does a very good job, but this summer he had a real problem and that is what I want to share with you now. His human got him a new kind of flea medicine. No fleas for this little white doggie! No siree! The next day, Cosmo was not himself. He was lethargic and not meeting people at the door. On the second day the humans were becoming alarmed.



Having eliminated diet changes and all in the list of things that could be wrong, they happened upon the flea medicine! Being good little humans and concerned, they gave the little fellow a good scrubbing. Thanks to the astute humans who were in charge, Cosmo made a rapid recovery and was back on the job the next day!



Seems as though there was something in this medicine that the little silky haired pooch could not tolerate. They had used this kind before and had never had a problem, but apparently this batch was different in some way. Just want to reinforce here, that if you are in charge of a four legged friend, you are very lucky and no doubt have a friend for life. But, it is a big responsibility! They can not talk and tell you anything. You just have to guess.



And if you ever get over that way, stop in to see Cosmo. He is always happy to see a new face, and tell him Lou said "hi!" Oh, and you might visit a minute with Jerry and Cathy, the people he allows to take care of his needs.

Alpaca: up close and personal.

Here is the alpaca, just standing there and wondering just exactly who I am, or rather what I am. It is very cold! This particular alpaca looks like she is wearing a mask. I shall continue to refer to this one as she because she is white in the front and brown on the back. White dogs are female also. Cats are him, no matter what color.

Look, Mr. Alpaca, I have a nice fat carrot for you. Come on over here! Yum, yum!
Now, they have eaten the carrots and they are trying to get me to go back in the house and get more. The one on the right thinks he told a joke so he is laughing!

And there you have the alpaca's that live in the field by my house! I thought they were Llama's when I first seen them. I must confess, I do not know the difference, but alpaca is easier to spell! It sort of rolls off the keyboard, but the double "ll" business just sort of boggles the mind!

These 2 alpaca's are very astute. If I walk across the deck and head out to the duck/goose pond they just look at me and go on about their business. If I stop and look at them they look back at me. If I take a step in their direction, they take a step in mine!

" I start walking their way, they start walking mine!

We meet in the middle 'neath that old Georgia Pine.

You gain a lot of ground if you both give a little!

Ain't no road to long if you meet in the middle!"

Forgot who sings this!

And there you have your lesson for the day! That was not too hard was it?

Peacock Wall Hanging!

As promised, the lovely Peacock wall hanging is now a published work of art! This does not do it justice because it is not really finished! See the gold ribbon between the blocks? I need to sew more all the way around the white and also stitch some in the border. Problem is I am out of the gold ribbon and it is too cold here to venture out for more. I will get that done at some point tomorrow.

Now for the particulars on this. This is an Anita Gooddesign Full Collection in 20 block tile scene in 3 sizes. This is the medium and measures 35" x 29". There are a total of 514,092 stitches in this and since I screwed up a couple of blocks, there are way more than that! This will lay flat when I finish and hang it on the wall as opposed to closing it in the top dresser drawer.

The peacock is a sign of good luck and since the neighbor lady does not have very good luck keeping her peacocks in the yard, perhaps she can keep this on her wall and have good luck, after all. I will give her this for Christmas and it will be a surprise for her because she does not even know I have a blog!!!

We learned in class that we should charge $1.50 per 1000 stitches. That makes the value of this $771.00 and since I worked on this for over a week (Sunday excluded) I would say she is getting a pretty good Christmas present!!

I get to babysit today for the little one that belongs to Janea, who is Lyn's daughter. He is 5+ months old. Don't think he can do much but kind of roll around. Oh, well. It will be a break in the routine and I can snuggle with him and he will keep me warm! Reminds me of an old cross stitch I made once to hang on the wall. I don't remember all of it, but the part I remember goes:

Cooking and cleaning can wait for tomorrow
For babies grow up, we learn to our sorrow.

So dust you just lay there, cob webs go to sleep,

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep!

Author unknown