Reality Bytes

Denial is a powerful thing.

Reality hit me when I made a quick run to the store - the silent sound that comes with pre-hurricanes was punctuated with the sound of whirling tires as people made last minutes dashes for food, water, gasoline and other supplies. Who knows where our lights, candles, etc. are - but I do know we have a way to cook and also the PiMag water filter we purchased has a unit we can install which can filter the nastiest water to perfection. We will also fill the tubs, pans, etc. just in case. I don't think we'll get it that bad though.

The huge store's shelves were rapidly emptying and it was mostly silent except for the sounds of the registers. People were strangely silent and hurried.

We are going to get SOME of the hurricane. Mobile, 40 miles away from us, is under mandatory evacuation along its coastal line as are other parts of the Gulf Coast. We've had some hard rain, then a reprieve. It is dark, hot, and humid. "H" spent the afternoon putting the patio furniture, etc. away as much as possible since the garage was already full.

Ex son-in-law bought a new power washer and he and grandson are out power washing the windows and the cement. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak, I'm glad. That will get rid of Ivan's debris in my outside windows finally.

I think I will run out tonight to rent some videos. We can watch these on our personal DVD players. "H" watched as his store closed out and found one dirt cheap for me. He has to go to work tomorrow. Yag. One hates to leave with a major 'cane coming in.

We stay glued to the TV - probably will into the night.

Nurse daughter is on call - I hope they don't call. During Ivan she told of hand pumping breathing apparatus for their patients - now the hospital is wiser hopefully and has plenty of generator backup. I like my "chicks" tucked under my wings during events like these. Daughter in Mobile has her chicks tucked.

We wait.

Captivity vs. the Runs

Can't stay on long today - got a blood clot in my arm vein from an IV. So have to stay "elevated." I couldn't resist peeking in on blog. Maybe if I put the keyboard higher?

And, I'm thinking of Madonna's song, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." I think that's how it goes. Well, I'll be good and then maybe I can have fun an a week or so. The surgeon is going to crap - but it really is a good thing he put the surgery off, ya!

"H" has long left the house, to "look for gas." However, with another man living with us, I'm finding that a lot of men have the runs. Tee hee. What I mean is, they can't stay home - must get in the car and do mysterious errands all day. What is that all about? Us women - well, you know where we are at when out - usually shopping most likely. Or we have run into a friend in the grocery store. But we come home and tell you all about it. (I do have one guilty secret - an occasional stolen moment in a tanning bed.) Not guys. Very quiet about their outings are a lot of guys. Not that I want a house-pacing irritable male who wants out of his "cage" peering out the windows through the blinds like a poor pussycat who can't open the door.

From what I hear, gasoline is not to be found anywhere - and I don't think it would be a good idea to deplete what you do have out cruising - just in case Gustav makes a turn east - there isn't enough room in any one of our vehicles to evacuate four adults, one very, long lanky tall boy and two cats in cages. We would need to "caravan" out of here. We have no camels for the caravan and vehicles need gas.

I heard male #2 rumbling around in the night, well, just about all night. Between going up to visit daughter at work and snacking, I think he filled their two cars. We should be pre-evac prepared.

When "H" gets back I will probably feel guilty for talking like this - he's probably out gathering hurricane supplies. Ya suppose?

"H" makes a great "Paw Paw" though! This is "nightmare comforting." Closeness, protection, and prayer for peace. Boy, did I long for that when I was a little girl.

As it is, we are having a brassy, sunny, cheeky day. I just wanna go out. Somewhere. I can't. Ah, where's my books?

A week in a glance...

Wow, are we surprised? McCain has picked Sarah Palin, a "little known" Alaska Governor to be his running mate. I am just laughing - a long standing feud over drilling the Alaskan wilderness will be a moot feud, so to speak if he's elected. From what I saw of the Democratic convention, there was an electric atmosphere - amazing and exciting. Some say if Obama can deliver what he promises that he might be the Savior come back to rule. But I hardly believe Jesus would need to be elected. Anyway. Onto my favorite, home grown things. Here are photos of last week:
Driving to Mobile in the tropical storm


Coming in off the beach for post wedding luncheon


On the way to GB hospital






Our 24 hour "getaway to the beach"




Another trip to GB hospital...

Exotic Males & Medical Madness

Ah, Gustav! My life is filled with exotic foreign men today - the first...Gustav! Is he from Russia, the Balkins? Rumors are he's an exciting one, a likely category 3 or 4 which means you don't want him to land on shore, for sure in our town. Looks like we'll be on the dangerous east side. Gustav's probability shows a size storm that took out most of the Gulf Coast before. So we wait in suspense, watching, for the rest of the week, preparing to evacuate or stay. And I am reminded, size does matter. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

We went to the hospital, leaving the house at 4:00 a.m. after scrubbing my body twice in the night with a burning antiseptic soap then endured all the pre-op prep. I made it through R. N. #1, the surgical physician's assistant, and the OR nurse. She came in and sounded the alarm. Five minutes before surgery the surgeon came in, cute thing he is, and quizzed me about the antibiotics - well, seems as if I still have a small, but lingering sinus infection and he was not about to begin working with bones, metal, grafts, etc., etc. with possible bacteria floating about my body. (Seems his office person had not passed that tidbit of information on to him when I informed them last week that I was not well.) Since he is so very cautious I am so very impressed.

Sooooooooooo - he sent me home, with a two week surgery goal. I was pretty looped from the pre-op meds so I merely laid there looking at him with a silly grin on my face, lost in my weakness for Italian men.

"H," my Norwegian husband, was rounded up from the cafeteria where he was eating breakfast with a man he met that was there for his ex-wife's surgery. "H" got the low-down on the man's testicle removal and marital experience and had quite a conversation in progress.

I was introduced, thinking this man, Ivan, or was it Igor - or perhaps something Greek - my head was swimming - was perhaps an old friend of "H's". I mean how often do us girls meet a stranger and offer the news that one of our ovaries is missing? Only to a close friend, if then. But we ("H," Ivan, and I) had a pleasant breakfast - and I am more convinced than ever that I need to stay away from the combination of mind-altering substances and food as the food suddenly becomes irresistible.

I loved where the hospital is - the location and atmosphere reminded me of a small town - where everyone says hello and at least appears friendly rather than short tempered and grumpy.

The hospital ER staff where I had grandson Sunday did not even look at him during admittance and he was wristbanded as a girl. The resident didn't look at him either, all the time addressing us with questions referring to
"she." I finally asked him if he had the wrong patient, as grandson was obviously of the male sex." Resident still didn't look up.

Back at today's hospital, the facility was spotless, the food good, and everyone so nice AND efficient. I am actually looking forward to this surgery now.

In the meantime one of the Pastor's from our church came to visit, and we were having a fantastic visit, when the nurses came in and said the doctor would be very unhappy if I didn't attend to nature's functions and peed the bed during surgery. Soooooo.....not used to running around in front of holy men while in split back hospital gowns, I backed my way out to the "loo" as graciously as I could. We had a great visit with the pastor who is from England. Then we all gathered in a circle, including the pretty little veteran nurse, and prayed for the surgery. What fun! I should have had my camera.

Soooo - that was today and it just barely hit the noon hour - Wow! I hope I have sobered sufficiently to go pick up the boy. I came home, took a snooze and the family went their separate ways, so its me n' the boy probably for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow

Well, finally, after suffering since Oct 2006 - - - tomorrow morning, I'm doin' it. Will be back on line after I get home from the hospital - when I can sit. Don't know much about recovery, they told me I'd get all that info upon discharge. Looking forward to a few days of sleep. Nice, quiet hospital out on a Gulf island - just hope that new hurricane that is forming is a dud.

Talk to you all later. Will miss you.

What kind of Piercing am I

OK - so I'm a posting maniac tonight - grabbed this from Coyote's blog, not that I would ever have the guts to get a piercing - hmmm - or would I? This made me smile:

You Are an Eyebrow Piercing

You are unique, quirky, and more than a little eccentric. You cultivate the weirder sides of your personality, and you don't mind sharing them. Ever since you were a kid, you've had strong opinions. You've never been like everyone else, and you're okay with that. And you've always been able to tell people exactly what you think - even when they don't want to hear it. You love to create, dream, imagine, and communicate. You live in your own universe. And unlike most people who live in their own little world, you're happy to invite anyone in!

What Piercing Are You?

Tropical Storm and NEW blogger

Left home this morning to go visit Doc Lovely's staff. Dire predictions were afoot about the weather, but I felt I HAD to go before surgery and was glad I did, he always is into a ton of research and I got a few tips which I clutched to my chest on how to heal more quickly.

But, yes, there was a bad storm. The traffic lights were out at the first intersection after I left the house, so I turned and took the shortcut to Mobile. The causeway over the bay was flooded so I made sure I drove the bayway. Lots of rain, lots of wind, and tornado watches afoot. Still, I was only ten minutes late and endured 3 hours of a certain blood test, got instructions from his end on how to get through surgery and heal faster, so that's out of the way.

I'm thinking - let's see, two more months - September and October to endure "Hurricane Season." Ok, its an annual thing, why worry.

Speaking of a parallel hurricane: Elections!

Obama picked his running mate - Joe Biden - I never could get by Biden's smile which is still brilliant despite kicking himself as his foot enters his mouth occasionally. He's probably ok, though. The comment on POTUS was that this team will appear less "elite." Obama, an elitist? Oh, come on - they are trying to tell us that McCain is a down home boy? I don't think so. So, the last two months are counting down to election. I will be so very glad when its over...speaking of storms. Why does it always seem like it takes forever to get there?

On my left is Babe's Blog link - a friend who has decided to start blogging - how about hopping over and saying hello?

Dogs, my Mother, then there's cats

Ah, my mother's dogs. The top dog is Cocoa. A nice little mixed dog, sold supposedly as a Sharpei, would be better in a no other dog household. She feels neglected and pouts. But she's sweet. The next one is George, also a Sharpeai, dimwitted, bad tempered, very ill, blind dog. He has to have his face and butt washed "because of his wrinkles." He has an awful type of cancer. Her dogs get this cancer and she feeds them "steroids" to keep them going and Tums for their upset stomachs and the smell emanating off the poor creatures is unbearable.

The next dog is Wiley - a little Whippet who cocks his head side to side and was the King of the house until Zoey, who I call Cleopatra because of all the Kohl around her eyes and the way she "lounges." Zoey is a handful but sweet. She's also incredibly smart - any dog that would let me train them is incredibly smart since I'm the opposite of the dog whisperer. (I have suspicions though that when we train dogs to do tricks for treats, that we are the ones that are really trained - as she would do the tricks when she wanted the treats.) She decided she was my dog while I was there. Only dog I ever let sleep with me. Awwwwwwwwwww.

These dogs are spoon fed oatmeal twice a day from my mother's own cereal bowl. They get their anal glands squeezed at the vet about once a month - they eat, cooked especially for them, chicken, and hamburger and rice. Also they get dog food three times a day, laced with chicken broth, vegetables and other additives "so they will eat." So, now you know the reason you can't tell what the black dog is, other than a black blob. The one before him looked like a barrel with a cork for a head. Wiley is starting to get a fat middle and I've NEVER heard of a fat Whippet.

They also have their own trust fund for their care after my mother's demise. I keep hoping she will not get more dogs for someone else to worry about caring for, but if one dies, she adds another. Since I am a kind-hearted (or mentally deranged) person, I would take them, but.... George - I would take for the long sleep potion, but the others I would make Florida dogs out of, but "H" just does not like animals, so that would not be good. Probably not good for me either.

Anyway, she also knows every dog within a three mile radius of her home and keeps checking them, daily, if she thinks they "aren't being taken care of" - climbing fences to take them food and water. Yeh. She's 82. I dread getting a call someday saying, your mother was mauled by three pit bulls and also broke her hip climbing into their yard - !!!! followed by a six month period of taking care of her and four to six dogs while she recuperated.

She has a dog cemetery full of them. Now the urns are accumulating. Somehow, I have managed during my last two visits to avoid going to the dog cemetery many miles outside of town to chop weeds out of the cemetery. No, not just off the dogs' graves, but out of the whole cemetery. I think she cajoled my nephew into that duty once.

I do not think she is a normal dog owner although I've heard of people going to great lengths for their dogs...and it seems to me cats get the "short shrift" in the whole deal of the cat and dog world. Few people like cats compared to dogs. I prefer cats because I'm tired of raising children. Don't get me wrong, I love kids to pieces, its just that I've been raising them since for 45 years, if you don't count trying to mother my little sister when I had no idea how to do that, prior to that 45 years. All the kids in my life are pretty much "self-care" right now, the last one is very close. I would love to have a or THAT special dog - I'm just getting selfish in my old age I guess.

Cats are cool - they clean themselves up, you pour food in their bowl, they don't gobble it up all at once - they don't eat each other's poop and then lick your mouth, they usually don't get real pushy, uh.........oh we won't talk about shredded drapes, and clawed sofa arms..........or an occasional mysterious scratch on the belly when I wake up....

Scenes from the Wedding

Buffet in Portabella


Friends from Work


Ready for "The Walk"


Husband to be - years of service to his Country


Wedding Cake


Unity Candle


one of the Bride's Maids?


Finishing touches to hair


Me & my girls (I was tired out of my mind - five trips downtown wedding day alone - finishing up the decorations - I'm so glad its over - but it was pretty, wasn't it? We fell in bed thinking we would never recuperate, but felt great the next day!)

Starlight Cafe

One of my favorite songs by Tom Kenyon is "Starlight Cafe." We went to Gulf Breeze to dinner the other night and when the pictures came back they looked like how I would picture the Starlight Cafe where one could get drinks made of stars and "tell all our friends everything we would ever have liked to say." But first a plaintive verse whispers seductively, "Take me across the river..........to the Starlight Cafe."

Don't you just love it when unexpected adventure and beauty confronts you - must be just a taste of heaven, just a taste.

School & 'Canes & Busy-ness

Hurricane headed to the coast.

First day back to school. I love the art photo - in its silence it says so much.

Sitting here with my cup of coffee in the absolute silence. I get mad at myself for not being more productive, but I love this routine. Get the boy up and off to school. Get my coffee, blog, and start the day.

Hate to see school start in a way, in another way I like the routine. I worry - I hope he's as successful this year as last year. He never did learn his time tables well enough to snap them off quickly.

My kitchen island is piled with stuff - SIL is convinced I am having a garage sale this weekend. No, number one - after the weekend it is two days until surgery, number two, I can't get to all the stuff in the garage that needs to go to the garage sale because of all the unusable trash out there that no one will agree to part with - which is piled way high. Now, if he wants to help get it out, I'll label it. If he wants to borrow tables from his church and run the ad to the paper and nail up the signs, and set up something to hang clothes on, I'll sit outside and take the quarters. Until then, I guess stuff just covers the kitchen island and floods the garage. I hope surgery gives me my abilities back. Like doing garage sales...but until then.....

Don't get me wrong...he's got me started on some projects I had been dreading, and I did manage to work through them somehow. It's good they are done.

No one knows where the "hurricane" is going yet - but we have enough food. And an outside gas grill to cook it on. The flashlights, radios, and other emergency gear are scattered who knows where. I will worry about that when they get a better fix on the storm. That, and filling all the vehicles with gas and making an escape plan.

Life in Florida. It's ok. No, its grand. It's moist outside, its green, its warm, I can see palm trees out the window and I know I don't have to cope with snow, ice, and 70 mile an hour winds blowing the snow and ice to the point where I can't see the road while I'm driving. Its ok. Its grand.

So its another day in Paradise. I'm going to go vacuum the floors now...I hope. Then work some more cleaning up this study. I shredded a huge garbage sack full of stuff yesterday as well as helped SIL on his cleaning binge - my living room coat closet is rearranged, most of the linen closet - uh, what else has he tackled? I pioneered and worked on the boy's room most of the afternoon and got it so he can at least get to his clothes to get dressed for school.

I'm looking at my calendar for the week - its a heavy week - I need to have lunch with an old friend today.....yes, I need to....I must be feeling better, I'm even making a phone call now and then and gathering with friends now and then...tomorrow "H" and I head for a 24 hour beach getaway....., Weds. post wedding bridal shower luncheon, have to be in Mobile on Thursday...pre-op on Friday, business meeting on Friday night and seminar on Saturday.

So, I'd better get moving!

Modern and Ancient Healing

I woke up the other night with a terrific nightmare going - I dreamed I couldn't breathe and was dying and was crying out for someone to help me and there was no one. Thankfully, I woke up. Woke up to find I truly couldn't breathe through my nose at all. Thus began a zoomer of a sinus infection. I blame the obviously extremely sick girl who was at the appointment window at the optometrist's office - she was so sick, I couldn't believe she was trying to work. She was coughing and sneezing constantly and didn't even attempt to cover her mouth or nose...I wanted to tell her to do their customers and herself a favor and go home and get well. Then I remembered the U.S. is moving toward doing away with sick pay. Beware!

So, this morning I've been digging through unused antibiotics as it is spreading to my lungs and broncials as usual. I'll call the doc Monday as I don't want the complications of bronchitis with surgery. Self medication? Yup?

And I'm going out to find a neti pot - and try an ancient remedy as well. From a book review:

Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri). The most thorough and practical presentation of how to use the neti pot yet. Notably, the book shows the place of such 'nasal therapies' in India's great healing traditions and their relevance for treating common diseases.

I'm also going order a bottle of Nikken's "Immunity" - a compound of various mushrooms known for killing bacterias and viruses and use it up. I can truly say the "Jade Green" supplement has tripled my energy - which was pretty low - so maybe I now have something approximating normal energy.

Last night I had a unique experience with muscle testing. Will relate more about it later. I'm off to Everman's for bubbling water and a neti pot and some organic veggies.

Later.

Before and After and the Tortellini

Here are the before and afters - still have a ways to go - but its amazing how life changes drastically in six months, and I'm not taking about weight loss, that's only the surface changes.

BEFORE:


AFTER:

AFTER:
Tortellini points the way: I am agonizing over surgery - my surgeon's name is Giovinini - I almost cancelled with him today, and began searching for a new surgeon but lo and behold, I began supper and a message from beyond right on the front of the Tortellini package points the way:



You all know I have a weird sense of humor, right?

'Round my Study/Studio

Click to enlarge and find the fun stuff.

Camera Back on Line................

Pre-paint Study
Hattigrace hosted the Art Party
A small part of "H's" book collection
My missing kitty and grandson
A painting by Lauren at the Art Party
The most comfortable seat in the house..........