The Perfect Tiny Tree,and the Imperfect Doctor

  My friend Lori and I went to Kentucky on Saturday to pick up her new horse trailer. When we got there we discovered that she had the wrong kind of hitch and would have to have it removed, and buy a new one and have it installed. So we went home trailerless. However,when we stopped for lunch I found this branch on the ground at the restaurant. It makes a perfect tiny tree!

It would make a great tree next to a little haunted house.

It's probably almost 2 feet tall, I think. (I didn't think to measure it until just now.)

The girl siting in it is 4" tall.

I thought of having my 'Huckleberry Fuzzy' pose in it.

This is the polymer clay boy I made, which has been named after my son Fuzzy. You can see his 'Day' HERE.

But I just rearranged my desk drawers a few days ago,and the old thing about putting something in a safe place,or a better place, and then not being able to find it still holds! I couldn't find the clear box I had put Huckleberry Fuzzy and some other dolls I made in The really stupid thing is, it WAS in the drawer I thought it was in! It was just hiding under the miniature Rockem Sockem Robots that I need to repair,and I didn't see it...until later when I was rearranging some other stuff and put something in the drawer! Typical!
 

So I had to use a stand in. The girl sitting in the tree is an unfinished  doll I've had sitting around here for a while.

She's only had one boot painted so far.

Her head, arms, and boots are made of paper clay. She has a wire armature. I think when I get her finished she'll have braids and be wearing a green plaid dress.
  I had another appointment with my useless doctor yesterday. A thyroid level of what is called THS should be no higher than 5. That's the highest it should be. My gynecologist said he liked his patients to be somewhere around the middle,2.5.Yesterday's doc showed me my records, which showed that my thyroid was over 8 when he started me on the medicine a couple of years ago. It has been various numbers, down as low as 4.something at one time, but was recently back up over 5. I told him I'm still feeling choked and having trouble swallowing sometimes,and have had a couple of fluttery heart instances since he upped my medicine by one half a pill once a week.(My cardiologist's assistant seemed to think that was hardly worth the trouble.) I insisted that something is definitely going on in my neck. He said my thyroid couldn't be enlarged or he'd see a goiter.I'm not sure that's strictly true. When I insisted again that something is going on in there, and that it was suggested at the cardiologists that I have my thyroid ultrasounded,he finally relented and agreed to send me. He also had to be pressed to do something about my medication, since he only raised it half a pill one day a week and I'm still having trouble. As it is he only raised it another half a pill one day a week. I also had to remind him after he logged in the new prescription, that if he was raising my dosage I would need more pills a month! He had to go back and correct it! Why don't I just take care of myself at this rate!
  He also made another fat crack this time too:"Are you trying to lose weight?" "Yes..." "What are you doing to try to lose weight--eating more?! Ha!"

I am so sick of that guy.

Feeling Better, But Feeling Sad

  I have had so many things keeping me from posting lately. First of all, there was all this stuff with my heart. It now looks like it wasn't my heart that was the trouble. That's good news...I think.  I had to wear an overnight monitor last week, and today the doctor's office called to verify that nothing irregular showed up on the monitor. (I felt some flutterings that I was sure would show up on it,but they assure me that all was normal.) I think a lot of my problem was stress. I will say that I am feeling better too. I still have a stress test coming up, and there are still issues with my neck that need sorted out. I have to see the primary care doctor for that though. The nurse I saw at the cardiologists suggested I might need my thyroid ultrasounded. Now I have to get the doctor to have that done. He's a worthless dud though,which I have mentioned before. He's the one who makes all the fat cracks and has basically said that I'm fat because all I do is sit around all day and eat chocolates. He also pretty much said that nothing is exercise unless I have paid for a gym membership. (He said my mowing the yard for two hours with a non motorized push mower is not exercise! Let him try doing it!) I'd love to get another doctor,but I didn't think that was a good idea with all this stuff to be sorted out. So I still have to see him again,(Great!),and find out what's going on with my throat/neck.
  I did find out tonight that the reason my cholesterol was higher the last time I had a blood test was probably because my thyroid had worsened. Apparently that happens. I wondered what was going on, because I haven't had meat or animal fat for 30 years next month,and my cholesterol has always been perfect.
  Now that my heart is more or less normal and I am feeling better I should be posting more often.
  My Aunt Edna, who was my mother's only sister,passed away last week. She was one of those cases of someone who pretty much gave up after going in a nursing home. She was quite old,(almost 86),but was in pretty good health before suddenly having a small stroke about a year ago. Out of my mom and her 4 siblings, there are now only two brothers left.

My aunt Edna, (Left) and my mom Lelia,(Right) with their brother Curtis's wife Janie.

Emma and I went to my aunt's funeral yesterday. I really don't believe in 'viewings'. It seems barbaric to me. I know lots of people of my aunt's generation approve of it, and her daughter held a viewing for her. I knew my dad believed in viewings, so I had one before his service. But I had the funeral directors make sure he was in a separate room where those who wanted to see him could, but those of us who didn't want to didn't have to. I just prefer not to see my loved ones that way. I would rather remember them as they were. Emma and I tried to avoid seeing my aunt,but it was difficult.

My Aunt Edna,(Left) with my cousin, and my mom on the right,with me. The little girl is my sister.

  It's a shame that a lot of family members only see each other at funerals. I'm guilty of that too,as there were many second cousins there that I had never met or hadn't seen since they were tiny.
  The saddest thing was that my aunt's two sons didn't even show up for the funeral. There had been attempts made to contact them and let them know that their mother had passed away, but they didn't respond. Nobody knows if they even found out she died, let alone when the funeral was. She raised them as a single mother for most of their childhoods. They were handfuls too. Nobody was really surprised they didn't show up,and their sister admitted she preferred it that way. (You may have read about these guys before, in part 2 of my posts on How I Coveted My Cousin's Toys.)
  To return to happier thoughts,I have some fun Goodwill finds to share with you soon. See you then.