Same Snowman, Different Style

   #3                     #2                    #1

I did it again.  I used the same pattern and changed 1 thing to make a new pattern.  I have them numbered in the order I tatted them.  #1 is the original.  #2 the first change and #3 the second change.  I do like the second change better than the first change.  They are different in where I make the joins on the rings.  They both have the same number of stitches as the first one, although I have also been making the new ones with the same 2ds in the area where I join the top to the bottom, just to make them join a little better.  Otherwise, the bottom circle stretches out the joining area of the top circle.  It isn't all that much of a problem, but I'm quirky that way!  

Right now I'm tatting a lot of Christmas things.  I want to be able to sell some to offset some bills.  I did sell a few necklaces and a couple of bracelets, but I use split rings to connect the clasp to the work and the first day, someone's split ring came off.  Luckily, they still had the lobster claw clasp, which is more expensive.  I want to purchase one of those cold heat soldering things so that I can seal the split rings closed.  It is only a problem with the necklaces and bracelets, though, so I want to make as many Christmas ornaments as I can.  I was told to call the high school to sign up for their craft fair in November!

My dad helps out a lot, with me being disabled, but I can't ask him for more now.  He just paid for my car to have a used engine put into my car.  My ex only makes $8/hr, which is what I was making in 1985.  He's an EMT.  I graduated with an associates degree in nursing in 1985.  I've been using my ex's car, when he's feeling generous, but now that he's in a paramedic class, it isn't very often.  I figure if 5 people from his station are going to the class, he should be able to car pool with someone.  I'm the only person that thinks that way, though.  Now that my car has been repaired, he realized his car's registration is overdue and he was wanting to use my car.  He said that I told him I'd take care of the registration.  I couldn't possibly take care of it without his input as there is information I need to fill out the form, but it's still all my fault, especially if he gets ticket ted for it!  We have basically the same car.  His is a Dodge Caravan and mine is a Plymouth Voyager.  His is one year older than mine.  One has a 3.0 engine and one has a 3.3 engine.  He says his has the better engine, whichever one that is.  But they are both automatic transmission, but his car sputters around 35-44 mph and he was told to run it in low gear until 45 mph and then put it in drive, or overdrive.  It only has one- a D with a circle around it.  I haven't checked mine, but it doesn't sputter anywhere, either.  I think if the car sputters in drive, there is something wrong with the car!

I've been fighting for social security disability since 2002.  It's been an uphill battle and I can't go uphill!  I walk with a cane and if I have to do grocery shopping, it can put me out of commission for a couple of days afterward.  When I go to Wal Mart I use their motorized wheelchair cart!  I had a hearing in May, but wasn't able to get there, because I had no money and no gas.  I called and they said it would be rescheduled.  I called last week and was told it had been dismissed in June and I had to start again from the beginning.  That person sent me forms to fill in and I got that the same day that I got paperwork on being turned down in June, with information saying I had 60 days to appeal from when I got that paperwork, so I'm not quite dead in the water!  I was in a car accident on Friday, November 13, 1998. I've always been big, and was wearing layers of clothing to be warm so didn't have my seat belt on.  My face hit the windshield and my knees hit the dashboard.  I have a disc in my neck and one in my lower back that aren't quite right.  They aren't herniated or anything, just enough to cause me pain.  My knees were shot, not broken, but with weight and the injury, over time I was unable to work.  I had been working at a county prison, which is a large area for me to walk all over during the night in addition to everyone complaining of a head ache so making extra trips here and there.  I got a job a few months after the accident where all I had to do was monitor my patient's breathing during the night.  After about 3 years, I wasn't even able to do that anymore as prolonged sitting was a problem, as well as walking.  They say I've shown I can't work as a nurse anymore, but at my age and with my education, I should be able to get a job.  My education was very specific: I was prepared to be a nurse.  I can't work at McDonald's because of the physical problems, but even if my body worked well, my short term memory is shot.  I'd take an order and forget what it was by the time it came up.  Last week I wanted to stir something on the stove.  I got up from the couch and by the time I got near the kitchen, I'd forgotten what I was going to do.  Seeing the stuff simmering helped me out, but I've burned things because I forgot I turned them on.   My son 'lost' his bike and my ex called the police with the idea that it may have been stolen.  He was the officer who had ticketted my car for not moving it for street sweeping.  I've paid some of my own and some of my ex's tickets, but I have a hearing coming up on the ones that this officer ticketted me.  He asked me why there is a hearing.  I said I forget things a lot and that it got to the stage of needing a hearing because when we were ticketted, we didn't have money to pay on it, then it doubled and we still didn't have extra money, then I was given a payment schedule that I really couldn't keep, so I was told to plead not guilty and go before the judge about extra time to pay it.  The officer didn't hear all of that.  He just heard that I wanted the judge to give consideration to the fact that I didn't have the money.  He's a jerk, what can I say.  He was polite and pleasant with my ex, but came on with me as a total ass!  If he only knew!  If he had to wait for my ex to pay tickets, he'd still be waiting!  I didn't tell him the part where if I do remember something, I could tell my ex and it could still not get done.  He's been the car mover and laundry do-er.  But I had to send my son to school in shorts on a chilly school day because after I nagged him about starting the laundry a couple of times, and he said he'd do it, he forgot!  My son asked my ex why I nag him.  He told my son that I nag him because I'm a bitch!  If I didn't nag him, nothing would get done.  The garbage, laundry and car moving.  Granted he has an awful lot to get done, but I shouldn't have to say, every week, that today is garbage day.  If I ask him to put some of our son's things in the wash, I shouldn't have to ask him to put it in the dryer and then bring it up so I can get it folded.  The laundry is in the basement and the stairs are too steep for me to go down there safely.  Oh, well, Same stuff, Different day!