WHATCHA DOING TODAY?

[Jeepers]

Mr. Grrr   

[Mt_Rider]

  DH and I went in to the near town and had supper at restaurant with my cousin, her dd, and my mom tonite.  I don't feel sick anymore but low stamina.  But so much fun.  Talked and talked.  My mom's having such a good time.  They'd taken her around here and there and she was their tour director.  Having a ball.  My dad was ok when we brought him home chicken dinner from the restaurant.  He doesn't chose to join us.    As long as he's nice about my mom going. 

 

My cousin and I enjoyed each other....wish we'd have more time.  It was the same when her sister visited earlier.  Glad both got to meet my mom too, after corresponding with her all these years.  In paper letters/cards, no less.  My mom has watched their kids grow up thru pictures sent.  I'm fairly rotten with email and zero with real letters.  Hoping now that we're established, I can carry this on.    We'll see.  It's nice to have family ties.

 

MtRider  ....gonna REALLY pay for this with fatigue tho.  Knew it but wouldn't have chosen differently.   

[Jeepers]

So glad you got to.meet up with your family and got a break from the past couple of weeks. I'll bet your mom appreciated it too. 

 

I'm busy being lazy today playing a.dumb farm game on the Kindle Fire.  Dang thing is addictive.  

[Mt_Rider]

I have one more cousin coming Memorial weekend with her dh.  Whew.  Haven't seen them since kids and all the sudden...  I did see this one, L, when I took a trip back to the Midwest about 4 yrs ago.  I'll be real excited to see her again.  All of them are just great.  Funny and kind to my mom.  They are coming to pick her brain about her generation in this family.  But all visits so short....a couple days. 

 

RESTING today.  Really feel wiped out tho I've been sleeping better.  Do y'all know it's been SNOWING HERE?  Not.Kidding.     It doesn't stay but it's not nice and sunny.  Hmph.

 

I'm not even going to ask Jeepers about any addictive 'farm game' on a Kindle.  ......      { is it on a Paperwhite or just Fire?}   ....nooo, I don't want to know.....   

 

MtRider 

[kappydell]

Got up early today and have been dragging my butt all day.  I made the mistake of telling my doc at my last visit I hadn't been sleeping well lately, and (being a specialist in sleep disorders) she went into doctor-mode and I am now keeping a sleep log, and setting my alarm early to try to tire myself out enough to go to bed earlier.  The hard part is NO NAPPING.  I end up doing things on my feet so I don't doze off while M takes HER daily nap.  So far the most improvement was from getting a new CPAP mask.  The nurses at "that hospital" ruined my brand new one by cramming the morphine breathing monitors' nasal cannula into it, tearing the silicone seal.  I could not get a new one for 3 months unless I had $300 laying around.  So I got out an old one and struggled along.  It is so nice to have a new one - that works - at last.  I nearly died laughing when "that hospital" sent me a "thank you for allowing us to take care of you" card.  I guess they did not read their survey they sent, on which they earned the lowest possible scores - I could not give them zeros, like I wanted to.

 

So I am in sleep prison.  I have to go to bed at a certain time, wake up with an alarm clock, and no napping.  No late night snacking, and no caffeine after 4 PM.  Don't do anything in bed other than sleeping or sex (so much for reading to lull me to sleep).  No pre-bed TV, or computer, for at least 1 hour before bed time.  Get up right away when the alarm goes off - no "snooze alarm" lollygagging.  Ugh.  The frustrating part is, I've been doing this for 6 weeks, and I got the most improvement by replacing my CPAP mask.  I feel like a little kid again, and not in a happy way.  (sigh)  I may as well go to food prison (diet) while I'm at it, can't be much more tired.

 

The good news is that I don't get the crankies as much as I did before I started all this.  I laugh more at life's foibles, rather than getting irritated by them.  So maybe something IS happening after all. 

 

Picking radishes (planted another row), picked out the early mustard greens as they were starting to bolt, and started picking lettuce.  Beets are getting to a nice eating size.  And I did kill the aphids on the camillia bushes with a spray from an old Jerry Baker book, water, orange peel & dish soap, whirl in  blender, spray leaves, wait 10 days, follow up spray.  All gone now.  We put newspapers down under the zucchini where it touches the dirt, to keep the vine borer moth from laying her eggs in the dirt.  The idea is that the moth lands on the plant, laying her eggs down in the dirt just under the stem, then the larvae climb up on the plant and dig in.  The newspapers make it impossible for her to put her eggs in dirt, and also blocks any larvae from finding the stems.  It generally works pretty good as long as you keep newspapers between dirt & plant.  I did a skim milk spray on the zucchini,  as a downy mildew and TMV virus preventative - it works best as prevention.  So far the garden has been fine.  And I found my raspberry plants today - I thought they died last year, but they are still alive, just not very large.  

ditto the asparagus.  I was tickled to see they were hanging in there.

 

 

[The WE2's]

Defrosted a large ham, sliced it into sandwich thick slices, and got five bags (10 slices in each bag) total.  Three went into freezer and two into the frig.  We enjoy ham sandwiches.  Cost of the ham 3 years ago (in the deep freeze)?  3.76 at one of the Mennonite stores.  Hubby did the slicing (he sees better close up) and I did the bagging etc.  Then we worked a bit more on the van and then did some yard work (on the stopped up driveway whistle) at the homestead.  He used his welder to make a long "hook" and attached it to a pole and unstopped as far as he could reach.  He'll need a longer pole.  It appears that some of the things that went into the whistle and didn't go on through, have sprouted and clogged.  What he did pull out is some really rich looking compost though! LOL  

I had myself a good cry though this afternoon when hubby left.  Our neighbor has a dog that is so neglected and it's gotten REALLY bad this past month.  Don't know what the circumstaces are, but she apparently isn't living in the house.  She "was" coming every morning to feed him, water him and let him out to do his biz.  But that seems to have ceased.  We haven't seen or heard her come of go for 2 days now.  We used to be able to always tell because when she'd lock her car door it would beep, and he (Slugger) would start crying out for her.  We haven't heard him or her "beep".  Today was just about more than I could take.  When hubby left to go back to work, the poor dog started crying and pacing back and forth in his prison...a 4x8 kennel with a small dog house and a tarp stretched over the top.  I looked out to see if her car was in the drive...no.  He kept crying and pacing and then finally hiked his leg and p's out through his "prison" kennel.  So I came in and had myself a good cry.  I'm going to keep a closer watch and if I'm mistaken and she is coming to meet his "basic" needs...there's nothing I can do.  But if it begins to look like he's starving etc., I'm going to call our local shelter and report her.  Normally I would mind my own business but this is the sweetest little fella (a lab/shephard mix) that needs a farm home.  She can't keep him in her back yard because he gets out...used to...so he's confined to his "prison".  He's been shaking his head a lot so I'm betting he's got ear problems.  He's been shedding his long hair (it's been very hot and humid) so has big clumps hanging off him.  With all this rain his "prison" is nothing but a lob lolly of mud and a bit of left over straw that she had put down earlier in the year.  Gotta get off this subject for right now.  I laid awake nearly all night "listening" for her "beep" or his cry to his "owner"...if that's what you want to call her.  She has two tiny yorkies that she has taken with her, wherever she's gone to.  She changes boy friends a lot so we're thinking she's moved in with him and he won't let her have Slugger.  

[kappydell]

omg, poor slugger.  Mary got a wonderful dog years ago because the owner neglected him, and when she went over to remonstrate they said she could take him.  Best dog I've ever seen.   It makes me furious when people forget that to their pet, THEY are FAMILY and deserve it to be forever and loving.  I'd be reporting it, don't wait too long. In this weather he needs a good source of water at least, lest he die of dehydration.  Poor baby. 

Edited May 20, 2019 by kappydell

[Jeepers]

Oh that makes me so mad! I'd go ahead and report her. At least he'll be see to. That's animal abuse. I think they have to keep the reporters name anonymous. 

[Mt_Rider]

Kappy, Good luck with your sleep stuff....and C-pap stuff.  How horrid that they damaged your equipment!!!  Least you got out alive!! 

 

I'm TRYING to keep a more normal sleep schedule.  It's hard!!!  Kinda sliding back to late [wee hrs of AM] sleep time again.  Partly cuz I wasn't feeling well enough to go to sleep.    Some success. 

 

Know what you mean about minding one's own business, WE2.  And when to break that rule....  Hard choice. 

 

MtRider  .....we have more SNOW in the schedule.  Won't stick and need moisture but.....    {dang global warming!}   

[Annarchy]

Report it!!!!

 

AZ has a law, no animal is to be kept outside all the time on a chain or kenneled without shelter from the elements, food & water. TX has a bill in progress for the same. It makes me furious when I see the way people treat their animals.  We’ve watched many ‘outdoor’ animals die in the heat.  

 

I know, I can’t change the world...  

 

sorry..... rant off......

[Mt_Rider]

Hi everyone.  ....I'm not well.  Pray.  Feels like the med for what happened in hospital has outlived it's usefulness.  Now it's too much in my system.  This is why I hate chemical "cures".  Too strong for me.  Swings back the other way. 

 

MtRider  ....blech!

[out_of_the_ordinary]

    ((MtRider))

[The WE2's]

5 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

Hi everyone.  ....I'm not well.  Pray.  Feels like the med for what happened in hospital has outlived it's usefulness.  Now it's too much in my system.  This is why I hate chemical "cures".  Too strong for me.  Swings back the other way. 

 

MtRider  ....blech!

 

We serve a mighty God my online friend, and He's preparing a path for you to walk of this I am sure.

[The WE2's]

Slugger update...owner finally showed up with a bag of dog food.  Hubby went out and confronted her.  She admitted that she has lost her job, moved in with a "friend" ( a dude) and is "looking for a home for Slugger".  We've called several people we know that "might" take him and have come up zero.  The one lady we felt really would have taken him...and said she would ...but she's moving in with her sister in another small town and selling her house here. We just can't re-home him because we'd be in the same situation.  He'd have to stay in his kennel (which we would insist come with him) and us run back and forth to feed, water and pay him some attention.  She says she can't take him with her (even though she took the two small yorkies) because he has "aggression issues" with her room mate's shepherd.  The fact is probably two reasons.  Slugger felt he was protecting her, and our city says if you own more than 3 dogs you must have a kennel license.  I just pray that his new owner will show up soon.  At least he's being fed and watered now...but still out there in that stinkin' kennel...and it's been storming like crazy around here all evening.  He's huddled in his dog house...alone...and lonesome I am sure.  We can't even go into her yard (trespassing?) and let him out in the yard for awhile and play with him.  If he got away from us we could be sued.  Anyone that's in that much of a financial state might very well take advantage of sueing somebody. Now that we've confronted her, if we called the shelter she'd know who did it.  Hubby even told her "his life is miserable...you probably should consider just putting him down".  She didn't like that one bit!

 

[Jeepers]

Sending up healing prayers for Mt.Rider   

[The WE2's]

Hubby prepped the van for the last step of putting on the tape (I think?) while I washed our winter comforter etc.  Then we went to homestead and he dug out the ditch out front a bit more.  We're still having issues with the neighbor lady's teenage boys and their friends.  They park on their side of the road, but it blocks us from being able to back out of our driveway.  Our road is extremely narrow and our side is a ditch and their side is a sloping embankment.  While hubby was digging one their friends pulled up and totally blocked us from being able to back out, so hubby confronted him and ask him to pull further up.  Begrudgingly he did.  So...I called our city's traffic advisory and ask them to consider not letting anyone park on either side of the road.  I told her "in an emergency, we need to be able to get out and others to get in".  So she's put us on the agenda and said they will go take a look at the situation and that they would probably take it up in June...maybe July...but seemed to be familiar with our road.  Like I told her, "you cut limbs off our big maple tree out front because they could damage fire trucks...well...a fire truck couldn't even get down the road with all these vehicles parked the whole block."  I assured her we didn't want to cause any trouble because we know she's got her hands full, but we also need to know our property and safety is not being placed in danger.  Guess this has been a day of confrontation?

[The WE2's]

NOAA radio just alerted us.  There's a severe thunderstorm southwest of us.  Probably will dump some heavy rain on us.  It's doing a lot of thundering and raining already, and this front is about 100 miles away.

[Mt_Rider]

Thanks everyone.  I'm OKAY.  Spent hours in ER.  In the end, after lots of test to make sure, they came to the same conclusion we did.  But we had to check.  They took me off the medication for the AFib.  My pulse rate is regularly too low for a beta blocker type med.  AND everything else came back totally, excellently NORMAL.     EKG included so that will be available for the cardio appt next week.  That appt is also just a follow up and sounds like the doc today doesn't expect me to have any more AFib trouble.  [ except if I ever have anesthesia again]  Actually the doc asked if I felt comfortable with the risk of dropping that med.  YES.  Was hoping to anyway. 

 

So while MS and surgery of any type will always require weeks to fully get back to MY normal, we all think the med was dropping my pulse rate too low right from the start.  And this morning it was just awful.    Sure got me right in the VERY busy ER tho when DH mentioned I had shoulder and neck pain.

 

    Ladies...y'all know those are two ways that women exhibit potential heart attack, right?      THAT'S what sent us in to check for sure.  That's why they threw every test in the book at me today. 

 

SO many other reasons for the symptoms.....     .................but what if it wasn't.         Now we know for sure.  And so will the cardio when I see him next week.  

 

      Thanks AGAIN for prayer, friends.  This month has sure been a DOOOZEY!   

 

MtRider  ......I don't even know HOW MANY INCHES OF SNOW we've got so far today.  Road is pudding again.    No wildfires tho!

Edited May 22, 2019 by Mt_Rider

[TheCG]

We had wild storms coming through last night.  Luckily no hail damage to the vehicles.  Had a tornado watch/warning a few times.  Probably need to get somebody out to check the roof.  Some of our electric outlets seem to not be working now (I did flip the breaker and check the GFCI outlet).  Hoping we don't have to call an electrician.

[Ambergris]

I will always regret not reporting-over and over-the jerk next door, who starved his dog while he disappeared for days on end.  We called animal control repeatedly because she was squeezing through the fence gap to raid people's trash.  We fed her through the fence, and were threatened for it.  Called the sheriff, who couldn't hear what the guy was saying but sent a deputy to make peace.  The deputy threatened us with arrest  if we didn't stop messing with this poor guy's sick dog.  She died a few days later.  Starved to death.  A good nineteen years ago, and I can still see her.

[Mt_Rider]

Hope everyone's okay that were in the path of those storms yesterday/today.... and the flooding that resulted.  My MO friend called yesterday morning and we talked about the impending weather.  Today she emailed and said twice, that she's glad she lives on a hill.  On a big bluff over the MO river.  Can see it but it won't reach them.  Poured all day tho....she's not trying for even a container garden this year.  No drowning rabbits or chickens either at this time.  Good timing to take the break this year.  Might get chickens later in the summer.

 

I'm feeling better.  Able to sweep 6" of snow of porch steps.  SNOW? ...yes it looked like   out there this morning.  Got a lot more snow but melted as it fell all day yesterday.  All melted now and our 'rice paddy' is back.  I walked with the dog this evening.....slow, careful, and not far.  I have a technique if I'm unsure.  [I'm using unsure in place of "fragile" which is probably a more appropriate but detestable word...if truth be told]    Anyway, I go for a short distance one direction from our driveway and return.  If I have more energy I go same distance the other way and return.  That way I don't overshoot my ability and find myself at twice the distance from my return to the vehicle to take me UP to the house.  Also the reason I'm almost never in barnyard by road without vehicle to get me back UP to house.  UP is significant at nearly 9,000'.  

 

MtRider  ....be careful out there in the weather!    

[TheCG]

If I seem incommunicado for the rest of this week and next week, it's because I'm heading out for a conference on Sunday so I'm trying to get everything ready this week.  

[The WE2's]

On 5/20/2019 at 10:24 PM, Mt_Rider said:

shoulder and neck pain

 

Been wondering about these symptoms...anxiety can also mimic.

[The WE2's]

On 5/20/2019 at 8:42 PM, The WE2's said:

Slugger update

 

She's showing up a bit after 5pm...to let him out and feed him.  Today she even brushed some of his awful winter shed that hubby mentioned needed to be done because of the heat!  She only stayed about 15 minutes though, and there were two other pickups that parked in her drive.  Not sure what was going on, but told hubby it wouldn't surprise me if she told her "dude" and her brothers about "that old fart next door" getting into her business.  We don't know if she's stopping by in the mornings...we don't hear her.  Poor pooch...if not...he holds it all night, all the next day until she "drops in".  I just wish the little fella would dig himself out of the kennel ...we know he can (and has) slipped under our side of the fence and taken off.  She's always put an ad in the paper and hauled him back.  Maybe she wouldn't if he got out now??? 

[The WE2's]

Hubby's got the van just about done, should be by tomorrow...but...the friend has pulled a tractor (which he has the right to do) in front of the garage door and took the wheel off to get it repaired.  Said hopefully he could get it fixed this weekend ... so...we're stuck until he does.  Hubby got nearly all the insulation put into the homestead's new bathroom.  He'll have to wait for good weather before he can do much to the ceiling since he's putting in a "fart fan" and will have to open a place in the roof since it's never had one.