Just thoughts on last week

The events of last week are already blurring; drugs, pain and an inability to process all the stimuli contributing I am sure. In the emergency room: kept asking where it hurt. What I told them wasn't the 'right' answer. It wasn't where you have pain in a heart attack OR gallbladder attack. But I am sorry, I was feeling it where I have always felt that pain, on my far left under the rib cage, but not UP under it. They kept telling me that I was baffling them. Blood pressure: when I went in, was some ridiculous number like 217/134. They gave me nitro to open the arteries; both for a heart attack and stroke. They must have also given me massive does of blood pressure lowering meds as the days following it was never above 100. I think on Wednesday night it was 80/50. Asked if I had reactions to meds, said no. Made me drink a bottle and whatever else I could get down out of some kind of fluid. Nasty. Took me down for a cat scan @ 9:00pm Tuesday went alright, all the normal feelings associated with one. Came back to ER and immediately started having an asthma attack. Asked for albuterol twice. Answer: the Doctor has to order it. Then came a "treatment." Had forgot how scary it is to feel your lungs filling up with fluid, each breath becoming more labored. After that was under control they took me up to a room, single thank God. The night was still full of interruptions but I didn't mind them. I hope I was a good patient. Even when they asked if I had to go to the toilet and I said no. Then I thought about how long it would take to unplug me and she was here now, I said I would try. Couldn't believe how much was there, but 'didn't have to go.'
Got back from the surgeons a little while ago. He took out the drain which was an experience in itself. But the pain only lasted a few seconds but whew! Asked what my white count had been. when I went in it was 11,000 and started me on antibiotics right away. Later it was 13,000 which even I noticed as drugged as I was that it had gone UP. He told me it had gotten to 17,000 which is when he knew I would have a date with him soon. Asked him how big a gallbladder is and how big mine was. A normal gallbladder is thumb sized, mine was as big as the palm of his hand. So the pictures we have of it are about life sized. Amazing! Thank the Lord for good hospitals and the great people who staff them.

Life in the Wind Tunnel

Today when I went to take my "meds induced" - read (2) 500 vicoden pain pills- nap I told my husband that on pain of death he was not to turn down either of the fans that were blowing on me in the family room. The ac was on to a comfortable 72 degrees for everyone else but that is on the warm side for me. As NO ONE wants me to dress any skimpier than I have been the solution is to put the ceiling fan on and then posistion a fan to directly blow on me.

Just when I think I am about through the big M, a new height of hot flashes hit. Someday....

Rails to rails

When we moved here 15 years, 51 weeks and 5 days ago we were told by our realtor that the railroad tracks that are slightly more than 2 blocks from our house "would never see another train." In fact the railroad company that owned them had been bankrupt for years and the next step would be converting them to "rails to trails." Several more years went by with no trains. The most exclusive subdivision built houses right up to the railroad right of way and sold those houses with the added feature of having a bike trail right off your property.

Then some company bought the defunct railroad and started using it again. Not much, not often but trains were running again. In the time that the trains didn't run there had been no upkeep of the rails. Since the time that trains have been running again there has been almost no upkeep. The railroad crossings have been maintained but the ties are rotten and actually missing in many places.

Fast forward to now. As you may recall Honda is building a new plant 18 miles to our west. One of the selling points was an existing railroad (!) to haul supplies in and cars out. One of my friends, whose brother is a train nut and knew all about the improvements, had told me quite some time ago that the rails would be upgraded to a 40 mph rail. But time had gone by with no sign of any improvements on the way. Then one day when coming home from the park, Kent and I noticed that the rails had orange hash marks on them. The marks were no further than 4 feet apart, and some were much closer. I meant to get a picture of them the next day but forgot to take the camera. Several days passed and I vowed that tomorrow would be picture day. The next day with camera in pocket and dogs on leashes I returned to find that gravel had been dumped on top of the ties deep enough to almost cover the orange marks. I was heartened though to find a place about 50 feet down the tracks where for some reason they had not dumped gravel. So that is what you are seeing in the pictures. The state of the current track, etc. Natasha told me that each tie will cost $100 to replace. Kent has seen the machine in operation on the railroad behind the farm. A machine sitting on the rail will pull up the spikes holding in the existing tie, then an articulated arm will push out the old tie (or what is left of it) push in a new one, then put down the new spikes.

Pie anyone?

Pickles, anyone?

This was the year of the pickle. About 5 years ago, Grandma Ellen canned her last jar of pickles. We have one remaining jar, whether it will ever be opened and consumed is a question for the ages. How does one finish off the "last one" when you know it is the "last one"? Anyway we have since tried growing cucumbers every year to make our own, only being successful one time until this year.

This year Kent took to heart the advice from his father: keep them picked or they will quit growing new ones. As it has happened his trips have lined up this past month in such a way that we have canned pickles all month. Our downstairs "fruit room" is lined with shelves. On those shelves rest quarts of dill pickles. On the floor rest 2 gallons of cucumbers which will over the next week (hopefully) ferment into a crispy kosher type dill before coming to rest in the extra refrigerator. Already residing in the before mentioned fridge is a gallon of sweet refrigerator pickles. Having put my foot down about making anymore pickles last week, Kent decided to lift my foot off his neck and make just one more batch: this being the fermented ones. I conceded as the only effort on my part would be the cutting off of the blossom ends of the cukes and packing them into the jars. It was his work to pick, clean, lime and then clean once more before handing them off to me. Once packed, he got to make the brine and apply it. He set out on Saturday afternoon to glean the patch for new cukes. It had been 4 days since they had been picked. The first picture at the top shows the rejects that didn't make it into the house. After he brought in several 5 gallon buckets of possibilities I winnowed that down to just under a 5 gallon pail full which he then limed. When he took out all the rejects after we had packed the 2 one gallon jars he had an overflowing 5 gallon pail and a huge basket full. He put those in between the corn rows knowing that he was going to till the corn in last night.

Yes, sweet corn season has taken a "time out" at our house. The "second coming" will be in about 2-3 weeks according to it's planting interval. Then as an experiment, he is planting again today with a projected picking time of late September. This is a gamble because the slightest bit of cold weather will tinge the corn and make it taste like field corn or as Dorie used to put it, "horse corn." (She would NEVER buy anything but white corn as she was so afraid of having "horse corn" passed off as sweet corn.)

Sweet corn may be temporarily "out of season" but the 'maters are just starting. Usually they overlap for at least a month but not this year. At least not yet, anyway. So we won't overdose on BLTs and sweet corn for at least 2 weeks!

It's that time again!

On May 1st, Kent planted his first rows of corn. We always watch with great anticipation as the first few green sprouts appear in the rows. They grow even when it is cool, but if it is warm with rain they seem to grow inches overnight. Eventually they tassel out and then the ears start to form. When the silk begins to dry, mouths are watering in anticipation of the treat to come. Every few days the ears of corn are "felt up" to see if they are big enough yet. Usually 3 or 4 ears are sacrificed when they are picked only to be found to be "too early." Finally the day arrives when the ear picked is worthy of bringing into the pot of boiling water. It is also "too early" in reality, but is close enough and anticipated enough that it is enjoyed. The next day a pot will be waiting as he comes back into the house with the first pig out of the season. Summer has truly arrived!

Art in the Woods

Our favorite place to walk is seeing some improvements lately. One of the local art teachers is spearheading a project to place art in the woods. In addition to a sunflower house (which probably won't happen due to the deer), several sculptures have appeared. Also some strange snakes have made their presence known.

Why my house is never clean

These two piles of hair were combed off one cat and one dog 2 days after their last brushing. Yewww!

Happy 4th of July

A quiet afternoon today. The parade was it's usual B'ville self. The Honor Guards from the American Legion and VFW, the High School Band, all the politicians running for office in the fall, a whole bunch of tractors (why I don't know why but without them the parade would last about 5 minutes) some of which were antiques, a few old cars and finally the new ladder truck from the Fire Department. The American Legion hosts this parade and the festival afterwards at the Pavilion in the park. At 1:00 they rededicated a plaque in honor of the 3 men from B'ville who died in "The Great War". Of course at that time they didn't know they would be fighting again in less than 25 years. Originally there were three tress planted along with the plaque but they have been gone for years. It was just a plaque surrounded by random trees. Now three new maples surround it and it has been moved to a place along side the tree and plaque for our first soldier killed in Afghanistan.



Our town has always been appreciative of the deeds of our armed forces. From Liberty Park (the Civil and Spanish Wars) to the Memorial Pool (dedicated to those who served in the WW II) and special plaques around show this honor and respect. The Legion is even named after 2 of the young men from WWI. Down at the courthouse in our county seat stands a brick wall with the names of veterans of all the wars fought by our country. It gives me great pride to know that my husband and his father are both represented on that wall and that both of my brothers served their country too.

One of these days I'll post Jake's Voice of Democracy essay.