Blogging Friends Are The Best...

I started on my reading tour this evening and the first blog I went to was overgoodground.blogspot.com . She always has a quote either under her header or just to the right side and today she got to me right off the bat with this quote...

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts."~Rachel Carson

I had said something in my post yesterday about the crap I'm slogging through but that I see things like the sunflowers in various stages and it lifts my spirits. After I had written yesterday's post I got a call from my orthopedist's office. They had me get an MRI on my hip Wednesday because the last injection I got for the bursitis didn't do much of anything so they wanted to make sure there wasn't something they weren't seeing. There was... I have a torn cartilage in my hip. My doctor is out of the country right now but I have an appointment July 25th to talk with him about my options. From what Carol's brother (who is an orthopedic surgeon) said it is probably something that can be repaired laproscopically (sp.?) and my brother, a family practice/e.r. doc, agreed. So it is another hurry up and wait but at least I know what not to do to keep the pain in the hip to levels that I can deal with... and one of them is to not mow the yard which is what I was doing when I flared up the hip this last time. I also have to be careful about lifting anything very heavy because the weight puts more pressure on the hip.

So that is why Farmlady's quote got to me right off. I think I'll have to steal it for my sidebar for a daily reminder and that is all the physical stuff I am dealing with right now. I don't want to dwell on all that so I will be looking for things to photograph and share to with you because it lifts my spirits. I also wanted to say to my blogging friends... you never know what you might write or the photo you post that may touch someone in ways that you might never know and to tell you how thankful I am for our blogging world.

The Finished Job…

My baby brother sent me these photos… He came in from his shift at Fast Track at the hospital where he works about 11 p.m. on last Wednesday night, heard the ruckus and knew what was happening.   He managed to snap a shot of yours truly doing one of the things I most love to do… DEMOLITION.   I had my hammer drill with the chisel bit and I was gettin’ it done.  He knows how much I love my power tools.  And while a lot of times when I’m really concentrating on what I’m doing I might stick my tongue out of the corner of my mouth,  ala Michael Jordan, I do NOT do it when using my hammer drill because the dust is gritty and tastes nasty.  Anyway, after he did the caulking around the firebox he was kind enough to send me a photo of the finished project.

By the way… that is mostly my t-shirt hanging down, not my belly… 

But here is the finished project and it was done and dry for them to entertain probably about 30 family members for Thanksgiving today.

And they were thankful for so very many things, but one of them I know for sure is that I ran down and helped bust out the old tile that they had been wanting to change out for several years and then helping get it all back together in time for Thanksgiving.

And it’s good to know that there are folks in this world that are thankful for me… at least once in a while.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with many blessings.  I know that despite everything else in my life I have many more blessings than woes and all of you that stop by and visit and have become my friends through this blogging world are right up there after my family, and once in a while, before them…

Thank You Lord...

I have been going through massive withdrawal. I thought my computer had finally died on Thursday. It went into 3D mode and locked up so I had to manually turn it off. When I tried to turn it back on.... nothing. I tried later in the day... nothing. Now I'm starting with the cold sweats. Having had extra medical bills with my stupid rib I didn't have any reserves and was looking at next month before I could get a new computer.

I just wouldn't believe that my connection to the world was gone. I wasn't ready to sink back into the abyss of total anonymity. Yesterday I tried several times to coax the baby back to life. I sweet talked it, I told it how important it was to my life. I finally decided that I would have to start thinking about writing it's obituary. I was in the total pits.

I took off all the clamps and folded it's lid down and wiped it clean... but I couldn't yet bear to put it in the closet or the trash bin just yet. I was in mourning... big time.

I was sitting here watching golf and decided to try to turn my computer on one more time. I raised it's lid and tentatively pushed the on button, and walaaa!!!! Lights started turning on!

I am doing the happy dance as well as I can with broken ribs. And my first thing to do was let you all know that I'm not out of it yet. I've got to start looking for a computer that I can afford. I dang sure didn't like being disconnected from the world.

Now I've got to start catching up with you all... and being very sweet and nice to my computer.

Home Again, Home Again...

For me, there is nothing much better than getting home...

To these two smiling faces.

To my own bed.

To home cooking.

To my life out of a moving truck.

Back to the red dirt.

Back to my blogging friends.

Thank you for your travel prayers and all the wishes for me to get over this dang cold.

Thank you for checking up on me.

Thank you all for your patience and know that I will have stories and pictures to share with you as soon as my brain starts functioning again.

I missed all of you and I'm so glad I'm home again.

More to come...

Well, There's More To Add...

I don't know if you remember me writing a post about losing my a... or not, but now, obviously from the photo, there's more. It seems I'm also shiftless. My poor laptop is slowly but surely going to pieces.


The best thing about it is that it is my laptop going to pieces, not me. If I had realized how, in times of stress, pain, heartache, loss, and in good times, joyous moments and feeling great times, sharing my life is so cathartic I would have started blogging a long time ago.


Of course I am beating my laptop to death with all the blogging, reading other blogs and leaving messages, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera (from one of my all time favorite movies), but I think that is a small price to pay for the peace of mind from just putting myself and my thoughts for the world (or not) to read and contemplate (or not).

It isn't so much that I think my thoughts are so all-fired important to the masses, it is more like I like to throw it out there and see what comes back to me. So far I have had wonderful things come back to me, such as my Red Dirt Woman doodle (thank you Rick), friendships all around the country and even another continent (thank you Nola). I've enjoyed reading and posting on other people's sites, some of which are right here in my own backyard, in a manner of speaking (thank you Lisa J.) others I come to find by my love of critters such as dogs (thanks, Hallie), horses, and family (thank you, Ree) and so many others.

I guess I'm finding (in my older age) that the world is such a wonderfully diverse place that even if I live to be one hundred, which is not entirely unthinkable thanks to my gene pool, I will never, ever tire of exploring all the places I'd like to go and meeting all the wonderful people I'd like to meet. Of course if I live to be one hundred I probably won't remember them all, but I would enjoy meeting them at the time.

I think that is well worth being a shiftless old woman that's lost her a..., don't you?

Update...

Guess I ought to give you all an update on Missy's snake bite. She is doing better each day. Her ability to move her finger is almost back to normal and no, it's not the one she flips at me, if she would ever do anything like that.. It's the ring finger of her right hand. The bruising is going away finally. The snake only got her with one fang on the ring finger of her right hand next to where the pinkie lays, between the first and second joint. Her second joint swelled (swolled=Okie) up about 4 times normal. We weren't sure that it wasn't going to burst open at any moment. It was so swollen that her finger was weeping sera out of the pores along the top of her finger. But the doctors and nurses watched her carefully through the night and determined that it was safe to bring her home, but if there was any more swelling, pain and/or fever I was to get her back to the ER, so she got watched a lot at home also. I know that she is feeling better because she announced this evening that she is going Friday to Noble's City Wide Garage sale and if anyone else wants to go she is leaving at 8 a.m. and that's that!!

Thank you Lord for the small miracles in our life.

Keep it between the lines and stay cool. This heat is dangerous.