Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

Sitting around apparently was what I needed. A little rest and relaxation seems to have helped a whole pile of pains I was experiencing prior to surgery.

It makes me wonder if we aren't all hurrying a bit too much. Maybe we need to slow down, take some time off, break away from the bytes and read a book or take a long walk in the woods.

I don't know if my health issues will return when I am back up to full speed, but I have enjoyed this past week of no worries and no rushing. I've had nothing to do but heal from my surgery. That this enforced rest has helped other parts of me has been a surprise and a big bonus.

I think in the United States we put ourselves under far too much stress. It is not healthy. Stress is actually the #1 health problem in this country.

Stress contributes to hypertension, strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, ulcers, neck or low back pain and other “Diseases of Civilization.”

Did you know there are four kinds of stress?

Acute Stress: The familiar fight or flight syndrome, and what we tend to think of when we think of "stress."  The body prepares to defend itself.  It takes about 90 minutes for the metabolism to return to normal when the response is over.

Chronic Stress: The cost of daily living: bills, kids, jobs…This is the stress we tend to ignore or push down.  Left uncontrolled this stress affects your health- your body and your immune system.

Eustress: Stress in daily life that has positive connotations, such as marriage, promotion, having a baby, winning money, making new friends, graduations . . .

Distress: Stress in daily life that has negative connotations, such as divorce, punishment, injury, negative feelings, financial problems, work difficulties, etc.

We need to just feel groovy and forget about it!

Weird Weather

I took no pictures of torrential tropical rains that have fallen this week.

 

As of Thursday afternoon, we have measured nearly 7 inches of rain in our rain gauge here at the house.

 

But around noon on the Fourth of July, the clouds lifted and the sun broke through.

The sight was magnificent, with the sky all blue and the greens vivid  - and very clean.

Even the deer hurried from their hideaways to partake in the sunbeams.

Meanwhile I realized that I had been trapped in my home for a while during the downpour. For some minutes the water ran across the driveway, creating a path through which only a fool would drive.

Though I was still in my nightgown and robe (my tummy still sore from my surgical procedure a week ago), I trudged outside to feel the air on my skin. Lord knows we need a little drying out after that great deluge.

Thursday Thirteen #301

Out the Window . . .

1. A jungle of green and the side of a mountain. I was in the hospital, on the 7th floor - the facility butts up against a mountain.


2. One of the firefighters who works with my husband loading his SUV with flowers, his wife, and his new son. My husband was taking me home after my surgery, and the new dad was taking his new family home. So sweet!

3. A turkey hen with six fuzzy balls of feathers running around at her feet.

Zucchini

4. Zucchini plants growing by inches right before my eyes.

5. Rain coming down so thick and heavy that it really does look like sheets.

6. The big bull with his hackles raised as he bellowed at the raucous kid next door (the neighbor has a new bull).

Green Green Green

7. Green as far as I can see, green mountains, green fields, green trees.

8. Fog-covered mountain tops.

Fog-covered mountain

9. The silhouette of my friend through the window of my back door.

10. My husband's pickup in the driveway, signaling he is home.

11. A pale yellow butterfly flitting amongst the clover.

12. My nephews mowing the yard for my husband so he can take care of me.

13. Little robin red-breast, head cocked and ear to the ground, and a fluffy tailed brown bunny.




Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 301st time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

A Comedy of Errors

I am pretty sure that calling an operation and hospital recovery a "comedy of errors" is not the type of thing you want to hear when discussing such serious happenings.

However, sometimes after it is all over, you have to laugh.

This all started about 10 days ago. I began having a lot of pain and nausea. On Sunday, June 23, I went to the emergency room. I started out at the urgent care in Daleville and they said I needed to go to the ER. So I spent most of Sunday having tests and things run.

An ultrasound determined I had gallstones. Gallstones form in the gallbladder and have something to do with bile from the liver. They can cause lots of problems, ranging from pain to blocking bile ducts. When they block ducts apparently that causes even more problems, some quite serious.

I spent last week in a lot of pain and feeling sick. I could not eat much - everything made my tummy hurt. I dropped about 8 pounds in four days.

I saw my regular physician as instructed and she made me an appointment to see a surgeon. The surgeon saw me Thursday. He looked at me and said, "I have some time tomorrow afternoon, why don't we just get this over with?" So he scheduled the surgery for Friday.

We spent several hours Thursday having blood drawn and answering a zillion questions about my health. This was the pre-registration process for surgery.

We arrived at the hospital at 11:25 a.m.; my surgery was scheduled for 1:15 p.m.

One of the nurses in the pre-op was named Mike. He was a nice guy but he insisted on putting in the IV under my wrist, which was painful. It also meant I had to hold my hand out completely straight or things would kink. He asked the anesthesiologist to put in a different IV while I was unconscious.

I met the anesthesiologist, who seemed nice but in a hurry. Then I met an operating nurse and the surgeon came in. They wheeled me off to surgery, and into the operating room. I could see the big lights, and they introduced me to two other people in the room. The last thing I remember was being told to slide over onto the operating table.

I woke up in recovery. Someone was with me, saying unintelligible things. I remember being nearly unconscious and saying "pain pain pain" or "water water water" at random times. After the nurse determined I was awake, he left me alone a lot (This was a different guy, not the pre-op nurse). I know at one point I was laying there going "hello is anyone there can you hear me I need some water I am in pain hello hello hello." I remember getting a little irritated because no one was helping me.

The doctor came in and told me things went well. He asked if I had seen my husband and I said no.

Later they took me to a room, and James met me up there. There we discovered that my surgeon had not left any post-operative medications for me. This meant the nurses could not give me any pain killers.

One woman stood there for 20 minutes going over my entire health history again (this would be the third time). I am not sure the point of this - do their computers not talk to each other? At any rate, I think in between every question she asked I said, "I need something for pain," but they couldn't give me anything. I just kept on answering questions.

I don't know how long I laid there hurting before they finally got that all sorted out. However, there was nothing allowed for nausea. So in the middle of the night when I started to feel sick, once again there was nothing they could give me.

In the meantime, we discovered that they had not brought up my clothes and shoes, which were supposed to have come with me from the pre-op room. We also discovered that the air conditioning system was not working in the room, and it was hot and stuffy.

They brought us a fan (which the hospital CHARGED us for and we brought home).

My husband was fit to be tied by this time. Most upsetting was the lack of pain medication. He was ready to punch someone in the nose, I think.

Eventually they found my clothes. My husband was afraid to leave me after all of this, so he stayed until about 1:30 a.m. when I insisted he go home and get some sleep. I grew nauseated around 4 a.m. and it was two hours later before they finally gave me something to help that. In the meantime they kept trying to feed me orange-flavored things even though I am allergic to citrus and kept asking for something else. I don't know if there is real citrus flavoring in their jello but it wasn't worth the risk.

After that bumpy start it was a relief to be discharged about lunch time. However, I think they let you go too soon and I would have been better off in the hospital for another day. But this is what happens with drive-by surgery as implemented by insurance companies, not by need.

I hope I never need another surgery.

Drive By Surgery

Friday afternoon I had my gallbladder removed.

I was home by 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Still recovering. I am doing about as well as one might expect given a missing body part.

Will write more later!

Thursday Thirteen #300

I can't believe that for 300 weeks I have done a Thursday Thirteen. That's 5.7 years I have spent thinking about the number 13 on a weekly basis.

Such a number deserves a magnificent entry. And what better way than to point back toward blogs that I read and enjoy? 
 



1. Colleen over at Loose Leaf Notes gets first billing because it was her blog that inspired me to start doing Thursday Thirteen. She's been at it longer than I have. I don't know how many she has done but I think it's probably about 50 more than I have. We have never met but I think we might be real life friends should we ever do that. Colleen writes about her grandsons, her life with Joe, and her musings about the universe. Good stuff!

2. Heather over at Word Trix is also a Thursday Thirteen player. She's right behind me in her count, having posted 295 Thursday Thirteens. Heather writes about books, her life in a northern state, and walks at her local arboretum.

3. The Gal Herself is another Thursday Thirteener who writes about movies, life in the mid-50s (age, not the time period), and popular culture. She's written over 225 Thursday Thirteen lists, so she isn't far behind, either.

4.  Alice Audrey is an author, photographer, and general creative type who also participates in Thursday Thirteen. I'm not sure how many times she's played Thursday Thirteen but I think it's a lot.

5. Author Adelle Laudan is another TT player whose blog posts I enjoy. She writes about writing, the stuff she is researching, and her travels on occasion.

6. Harriet at Harriet and Friends, yes, another TT players! offers up interesting facts and figures. She has an interesting sense of humor, too.

7. Mia Celeste has also been playing TT a long time. She is into writing, gardening, and writing. Did I say writing?

8. Author Shelley Monroe writes her Thursday Thirteen entries from New Zealand!  She writes about her travels, her books, and her research.

9. I also have some favorite local bloggers. Di over at The Blue Ridge Gal writes about her wonderful life with her hubby and her two boxers, Rowdy and Izzy. She has a great sense of humor and takes lots of cool photos.

10. Rebecca over at Shenandoah Gateway Farm offers up home renovation tips and some really great recipes. She is a local blogger, too.

11. Lenora over at A Journal Of Days writes about three things she wants to remember about the time just past. Her entries are positive, sweet, and thought-provoking. She's another local blogger.

12. Tanya shows me my world through different eyes with her blog, Around Roanoke. She sees the same stuff I do but I enjoy her angle. She takes her family on lots of outings to local places that I know exist but seldom visit myself.

13. Becky over at Peevish Pen writes about writing, her horses, and her cats, among other things. She can sniff out a bogus publisher from miles away.

I hope you will visit some of these bloggers and check them out. I enjoy their work and I hope you do, too.


Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 300th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Dark Shadows

In the early 1970s, I watched a soap opera called Dark Shadows. It featured Barnabas Collins as a vampire who watched over his manor. He was in love with the governess, Victoria Winters.

The show also had werewolves, witches, and other supernatural creatures. It ran for five years on ABC, which was the only station we could receive at the time. It originally aired from 1966 to 1971, but I recall watching it when I was older. Maybe it had a reruns.

The show was campy and it didn't hesitate to cross cultures, history, and anything else. Some of the story lines borrowed heavily from classic books, such as Jane Eyre.

The show has a cult following even today. In 2012, Tim Burton made a movie based on the show.

We watched the movie the other night on TV. It starred Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins.

The movie received mixed reviews. The dark comedy, which was set in 1972, showed the characters I remembered best and stuck to the "why is Barnabas a vampire" storyline for the most part, summing up 5 years worth of soap opera in two hours.

The movie featured some nice lines, one big explosion, some blood, a few ghosts, and a werewolf. There were a few flashbacks but they were nicely done.

I did not care for the actress who played Victoria Winters. She played the part very much like a mannequin, and that was not the portrayal I expected since the entire show revolved around that character and Barnabas.

Victoria Winters was played by several different actresses on the TV show, and I am not sure which one I remember.

Dark Shadows falls into the genre of Gothic Romance. I have always liked that type of show and/or book. These stories have a little horror and a little romance; True Blood could be considered a Gothic of sorts, I suppose, based on those elements. Generally Gothics feature an orphaned young woman who is a governess or housekeeper or something in a mysterious old mansion. Someone - or something - is out to get her.

I used to love the Gothic Romances by Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, and Barbara Michaels. At one time I thought I might like to write these types of books. The genre has fallen out of favor, though. It would be an interesting exercise to see what I might do with it now that I am older (and hopefully a wiser and better writer).

It is interesting that the genre has long held an appeal for me, and I wonder if it all started with Dark Shadows. Did I watch it when I was three years old, when the show first came on? I don't know. Maybe I did, and it stuck.

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

We've had so much rain this spring that it has been hard for farmers, including us, to get the hay cut and baled.

 

 

Finally this weekend my husband managed to get the big field cut and baled. It is the latest I remember that field being cut in 30 years.

 

 

He was assisted by our nephew, who loves to help.

 

 

Those tracks in the field indicate where it was still swampy when they were rolling up the bales.

 

 

At this point the hay has lost most of its nutritional value and is mostly good for straw or bedding.

 

 

But you have to cut it to get it off the field and make way for the next cutting.

 

 

It is labor-intensive work.

 

 

It is tough on nice days like this past weekend, but very difficult in 90 degree heat that comes later in summer.

 

 

Hay goes to the cows or horses.

 

 

The cows eventually go to slaughter.

 

 

This is part of the work it takes to make a hamburger, the part that most people don't see.

Magic Mushrooms

We have had a lot of rain and that makes the fungi grow! 

 

 

 

These came up in the yard.

 

 

I had to hurry to get a photo because my husband was going to mow.

 

 

 

I wanted some good up-close shots.

 

 

Including the bottom. I should have just kicked the things over but instead I shot from the ground.

 

According to my field guide, these are called "meadow mushrooms."

Sunday Stealing: It Would Be Nice To Give It A Try

IF I WON 100 MILLION DOLLARS . . .

(Isn't it sad that you have to win not a million dollars, but 100 million dollars? Money doesn't go as far as it used to.) 


What kind of car would you buy?

Probably the same thing I have: a Toyota Camry. I might get the 6-cylinder engine, though. And my husband would get a new Ford F-250 pick up truck of some kind, I'm sure. Although you never know. Maybe I'd go check out the Cadillacs or a Jaguar or something.

Where in the country would you move to?

I imagine we'd stay right where we are.

What kind of house would you buy?

We might build a new one after purchasing some of the property around us. It would have a nice front porch.

Would you give your family any money?

Yes.

What charity would you donate to?

Probably the same ones I donate to now, and I'd set up some kind of endowment at my alma mater.

Would you give your friends any money?

Yes.

Where would you go on vacation?

Europe. I have always wanted to go to Scotland, England, and Ireland. 

What luxury item would you buy first?

I would hire a cleaning person.

Would it change your life?

That much money probably would, yes.

Would you save any of it?

Yes.

Would it change your current relationship?

No. At least not the one with my husband. I am not sure how it might affect my friends.

Would you quit your job?

Yes.

Would you ever work again?

I would continue to write. But I might be the newspaper owner instead of the freelance writer.

What one task would you never do again?

Clean the toilet.

What dream of yours would you be able to do?

More travel.

Would you change the way you dress?

Yes.

Would you change anything about your body?

Yes. I would go spend time at a fat farm if I could find one.

Would you miss anything about not being rich?

No.
 
Who would be the first person you tell?

My husband.

Would it bring you happiness?

I doubt it. But it would be nice to give it a try.



These questions are from Sunday Stealing.

First Fawn

I had my first fawn sighting earlier in the week.

It was dancing around in the front yard.

I am sure it will grow up to love to eat my roses, too.

Thursday Thirteen

Recently I wrote an article about a neighbor who raises honeybees. So I thought I'd give you some bee facts:

 

1. Smoke is used by beekeepers to keep bees calm. The beekeepers do this when they collect honey or relocate a hive.

2. Honey feeds the young of bees and gives them food for the winter.

3. There are about 20,000 different species of bees in the world.

4. A bee home is called a colony.

5. Each colony has three types of bees, a queen bee, a worker bee and a drone.

6. The worker bees are female and they cannot reproduce. Worker bees clean the hive, collect pollen and nectar to feed the colony, and care for the baby bees.

7.  The queen bee is also female, but only she is the only bee who reproduces. The queen’s only job is to lay eggs.

8. Drones are male bees. The drone’s only job is to mate with the queen.

9. Bees store their venom in a sac attached to their stinger. Only female bees (worker bees) sting. The stinger, called an ovipositor, is part of the female bee’s reproductive design. A queen bee uses her ovipositor to lay eggs as well as sting. The worker bees, who are sterile, just sting.

10. Bees see all colors except the color red. They also have a good sense of smell. These two senses help them find the flowers they need to collect pollen.

11. Pollen is a good food source for bees, and when the bees drop some of the pollen, they help with cross pollination. The relationship between the plant and the insect is called symbiosis.

12. Some types of bees die after they sting. Their stingers, which are attached to their abdomen, have little barbs or hooks on them. after they sting, the stinger stays in the victim, and when the bee tries to fly away, part of the abdomen is ripped off.

13. Bees are currently in danger and suffering from something called colony collapse disorder. This means the worker bees in a hive disappear. Without worker bees, the colony dies.



Some info from:
http://www.pestworldforkids.org/bees.html

The photos are mine.

Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a while and this is my 299th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

In Search of Junes Gone By

Tomorrow is my mother's birthday. She would have been 69 years old, which is not so old by today's standards. However, she died when she was 56.

Recently, in early June, I turned 50. I tried to remember what happened when my mother turned 50. Did we take her to dinner? Throw her a party? I couldn't recall. That would have been 19 years ago. Maybe we let the day pass by, because my mother did not like to be reminded that she was growing older. She hated her birthday.

While I may not remember her 50th, I do remember her 55th birthday. That is when I realized that the stomachache she brought back from Paris was more than something she'd eaten. She had returned in early May complaining of a pain in her belly, and we all thought it was from traveling.

But when she was still complaining of it when I had her over for small gathering on her birthday, I knew something was up. It wasn't many days later that she went into the hospital and the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer came through.

Mom was a beautiful woman. She had an Elizabeth Taylor sort of beauty to her. She was skillful with makeup and never went out of the house without looking her best. She was not someone who went to Kroger in a jogging suit, no way. I don't think she even owned a pair of blue jeans for wearing around town; they were for gardening or working on the farm only.

My mother's birthday used to fall on the first day of summer; I don't know when they moved the day. I remember shopping for presents for her, looking for a pretty something with a quarter in my pocket. Until I could drive that was a very limited search. I think it mostly took place at Newberry's, which used to be a big five and dime department-like store in Salem. We spent summers with my grandmother, who lived in Salem, and we would walk to town.

I remember the shopping and the looking, and I can see my mother's face as she tried to look happy with whatever I purchased, but I can't for the life of me remember a single present I gave her. It must have been just so much trash, you know. A hand mirror, maybe, or a small jewelry box, or some little trinket. Life is full of little trinkets, isn't it? Easily forgotten. It is the doing I remember - trying so to find just the right thing.

My mother worked up until she was 50. She started the job when she was 15, working as a file clerk for a company in Salem that made submarine parts or something like that, secret stuff for the government. She worked at the receptionist desk and even though she had been with the company for over 35 years when she left, her title was still file clerk. I have always thought that was pretty sad, but how heroic, really, to have stayed there all of those years, working the same job.

Sometimes I look in the mirror and I see pieces of my mother. I have her hands. I do not look like her; I certainly do not have her beauty. I have never worried about my looks like she did, and while I seldom go out without makeup (I got that from her), I do tend to dress down more often than not. Most people do these days. I look in the mirror now and I see that I am starting to wrinkle, and I have a few skin things. My hair has been gray for a dozen years. My mother colored hers up until the last - her hair never fell out from the cancer treatments. That was how my grandmother knew they weren't working, she said.

My mother's last June was a terrible one. She was sick and in pain, and though we didn't know it, only two months from dying. We knew it was going to happen. In her last June they stopped the treatments because there was no point, and she didn't want to give up. She was angry with the doctors for not being able to treat her, to fix her, to make it all better. She fought to the last, all through June, but it was near the end of the month when we had to call the rescue squad and they took her from home for the last time. She died in August.

June has always been a month of birthdays for my family. At one time we celebrated in June the birthdays of my brother, myself, my uncle, my maternal grandmother, my paternal grandfather, and my mother. After I married a June boy we also celebrated his. 

Once my mother made me a cake shaped like a butterfly. I have a photo of it somewhere; I think I was ten. A special cake for a decade of life. Again, it's the doing that I recall, that action, my mom making me that cake.

I wonder what she would have thought of me this year, my turning 50. Would she have felt old, having a daughter so ancient? She was very young when she had me, too young, really, to be mothering a child. Women do it every day but that doesn't mean they should. We had a rocky relationship, my mom and I. Would she look back now at my life and say, yes, daughter, you accomplished much? Or would it be meaningless because it wasn't her dreams for me? I don't know.

Fifty-six seemed young to me when I was 37, the age I was when my mother died, and it seems even younger to me now, with the age just six years off. Six years to live the rest of my life - I hope not. But you never know. You can't know. When my mother turned 50 she didn't know she had only six more years.

So many Junes under my belt. So many Junes my mother has not seen in these years since she passed away. Time flows by like a gentle breeze, so soft on our skin we don't even notice it. Then we look back and it's like a tornado, the memories all swirling and tossed about. Who can make sense of it after such a torrent of time? Not me. Not you. No one, really. It is what it is, another June gone by.

A Day Late and a Dollar Short - Meme Questions

The Weird Question Meme, Part Two

Q. What is your ring size?

A. I don't know.

Q. How often do you wear jewelry? 

A. Every day. I always wear a watch and a wedding band. Usually I also have on earrings and a necklace.

Raisins in gin

Q. When was the last time you consumed alcohol? 

A. If you count gin-soaked raisins, yesterday. If not, then I had a little wine in 2011. Generally I don't drink alcohol.

Q. Any big plans for the summer?

A. Nope. I am teaching a class this summer at the community college. 

Q. What is your favorite comfort food? 

A. Chocolate. Followed by potato chips.

Q. Do you prefer broccoli or asparagus?

A. Broccoli. 

Q. What color are your bedroom walls?

A. Eggshell. Or maybe the bedroom is moonlight and the living room eggshell. It is one or the other. 


One of my "children"

Q. With whom do you live?

A. My husband, a herd of cows, crickets, stink bugs, deer, coyotes, foxes, and bears. We live on a farm.

Q. Which Star Wars movie is your favorite?

A. The last one. Return of the Jedi.

Q. How about Harry Potter?

A. How about him. He's an all around good guy but Hermione is the real wizard. If you are asking which movie I liked the best, I'd go with the first one. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. 

Q. What was the last movie you saw in theaters?

A. The Hobbit. 

Q. Did you get the popcorn or candy?

My husband bought a bag of popcorn and a soft drink. I bought a bottle of water. 

Q. What is the most romantic text in your inbox?

A. I don't text. Besides, I don't even have anything romantic in my email. 

Q. Have you ever played miniature golf on a date? 

A. My husband and I play miniature golf on dates when we are at the beach.

Q. What’s a phrase you overuse?

A. "That's interesting." It's my polite way of saying, "What the hell are you talking about?" 

Q. Do you always use good grammar?

A. Usually I do in my writing. I speak southern, though. Ain't much good grammar in saying, "Y'all come, we're goin' over yonder, uhwanto?

Q. Do you have an accent or a speech impediment? 

A. See above. I have an Appalachian accent.

Q. What did you eat today?

A. So far I have had a glass of tea and a little chocolate. 

Q. What do you do at work?

A. I write. I make phone calls. I stare out the window. I research things. I create power points. I make websites. I read.

Q. Do you know the rules to any sports?

A. Yes. I know a little about football, NASCAR, tennis, golf, basketball, etc. How could you not know a little bit about that sort of thing? It is all over the TV.

Q. Do you prefer to watch or play sports?

A. Neither. 

Q. What is your favorite kind of hat to wear?

A. I used to wear a big floppy leather hat. Nowadays I seldom wear a hat. 

Q. Do you pray?

A. Getting personal, aren't you? But yes. 

Q. To whom do you pray?

A. Nobody's business but my own. 

Q. What is the closest mountain to your house? 

A. Tinker Mountain.

Q. What size engine is in your vehicle?

A. It's a four cylinder. 

Q. What do you need to do tomorrow?

A. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, and I need to make sure I have everything for class on Wednesday.



These questions are from Sunday Stealing.

Life Events

My father giving a speech at my nephew's graduation party yesterday.
Happy Father's Day!

My nephew and his father, Loren, my brother.

My sweetie enjoying a rare moment of not working. Love you!

My step-mother, Rita.

Trey with his cake.

The nephew opening presents.

Yesterday we celebrated Trey's graduation from high school. He is going to college this fall.