It's been a rough two days!

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We got home from a rather fun trip to Gilroy California on Thursday night. We went up on Monday and saw a couple of Bill's doctors and I got to do some shopping at my favorite places, Goodwill and the fabric stores. Goodwill was great! I found a couple of faux fur jackets with collars and linings out of fake fur that I could use to make bears out of. I also found a couple of Coach bags the first day, they were priced under $10!!! SCORE!!! Then we went to Bill's first doctor's visit and after that we went to meet his daughter and son in law for dinner for Pizza. The next day I went to the fabric store and found some heavenly fake fur for making miniature bears and some other items. From there we went back to Goodwill and I found some more designer bags. Two of them were Coach bags that one was under $10 and the other was under $20. The other two weren't ever used and were under $8! They're going into my booth space at the antique mall that I sell through in Paso Robles. I also found a few other items to go into the space too. It's great bringing in new (antique or used) items for the space. The fake fur bears will go into the booth space too. Bill's daughter had just come home from a trip to Italy and she brought me a darling cat mug that fits the personalities of the type cats I adore having around the house. They're the kind that are smart but not too bright in other areas. They will get into a small area and not be able to figure out how to get back out of the area without help. Or they will come to me wearing a bag tangled around their middle and are walking with a walk like a belly dancer wanting me to get them untangled. I'm hoping one day to get another cat like that, one that can live in the house with Bill and me. We got to bed after midnight Thursday night and yesterday we had to get up at 7 a.m. so I could go see my pain doctor to get my pain in my neck and the base of my skull checked out. That required an EMG exam and also he gave me shots in the base of my skull and up in the nerves in my scalp around my skull. Talk about "PAIN"!!! He gave me Lidocaine shots to control the amount of pain from the shots in the head and skull area. They helped some but not as much as the doctors hoped. I received the injections and then when they decided I wasn't going to pass out on them from all the shots in the head they had me move to the next room. This was to do the EMG testing. That was the test where they insert a needle into your arm and pass electrical impulses through your nerves in your various nerves. The electrical impulses range from very very light to jump out of your skin strong. Fortunately the nerve damage isn't that bad. My worst problem is from arthritis. That's kind of a good news bad news type thing. At least I'm not going to be the type person to allow the arthritis to keep me down and away from doing my teddy bear work. I just won't be able to do the really strenuous things like I used to do....like digging deep holes for planting trees and roses around the house and things like that. But I can keep doing the milder work like the sewing bears and jointing them and even, maybe, cutting out the joints for them. I left the doctor's office rather high from the Lidocaine and went to the modular home sales lot to check on the costs of placing a modular unit on my lot to replace the home that was burned down by the power company last year. I left there feeling rather depressed. After a bad night's sleep last night from the pain from the testing at the doctor's office I went over to the lot where my house had been to take pictures for the modular home company to figure how large a place I could put on the lot and what kind of lot prep I needed to do for them to put a house on the lot. I spent about 30 minutes down there taking pictures for the company. It was extremely depressing. I really miss my own old home. I'd be working on bears right now and getting them cut out and ready to sew and stuff for the shop. I'd have my furry babies all over the place helping me out with the work. Either the television or the stereo would be going and I would be happier than a pig in mud. Going down and taking the pictures was one of the hardest things I had to do. Especially when I found one of the kitty bones up towards where the front of the house had been. I stood there clutching the bone to my chest and crying like a baby. I gently buried it under the weeping fruitless mulberry tree at the front of the lot. Fortunately the camera is a auto focus so I didn't need to worry about the focus of the pictures so that I don't have to try to retake all the pictures. I'm not in condition right now to try to send the pictures to the Modular home people today so I'll email them tomorrow so I can send the claim to the power company on Tuesday. I didn't think my home, possessions, and collections were worth much but I was really wrong! My next project when I finally get the paperwork finished is to try to find an insurance company to purchase homeowner's insurance from. Right now my biggest project is to get over the depression and sorrow of losing my home and furry babies. There are a lot of people trying to help me out, but some of the sorrow is really difficult to get past even with all the help in the world. As I have said in other posts, make sure you have an inventory of what is in your home and a estimated value of that inventory. Also it wouldn't hurt to have a video inventory of your possessions. I didn't have either and even if I did it wouldn't have helped as it would have been in the house. Keep copies of your inventory someplace safe away from your home, like a safety deposit box, with a trusted family member, at your work place if it is a permanent job. Don't count on a "safe", freezer or places that state that they are fire safe. Some of them are fire safe up to a point but past that point you'll end up with ashes or little squiggles of plastic cd's or other items you save data on. Also periodically update that inventory so that you are up to date on values. It is amazing when you look at the change of your worth over just a couple of years. As for the depressed part of me from the doctor's visit and my depression from going down and taking pictures of what is left of my "home" and lot, I was going to finish the work today but I think that I am going to try to find something happy on TV to watch and hope for the pain and depression to wane and that maybe the pain from all the needles will go away today and tomorrow and I'll start to feel a bit better....maybe some chocolate will help. Or some nice comments from my "myLot" friends will help. To all my myLot friends, have a wonderful weekend and enjoy yourselves! Love and tons of hugs from the crazy bear artist lady....Toni