Friday, August 31, 2007

5


Five years ago today I was dressed in white, standing in a misty rain, gettin' hitched. It's been one hell of a ride and I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

To celebrate Geof and I went out for Chinese. Nathaniel's work has him about 2,000 miles away from home tonight. He won't be back until sometime towards the end of September. Ahhh.. the life of a trucker.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Stapled

My Mom's surgery was a success although they were not able to do what they intended to do. The aneurysm was located in a bony part of her skull and they were able to expose only 10% of it which was as far as the doctors wanted to go. This meant that they were not able to place a clamp at the base of it. They did place a wire mesh over the portion of the aneurysm that was exposed and that would have caused problems should it burst. The mesh will help create scar tissue which will hopefully lessen the likelihood of it bursting. The rest of the aneurysm that is in the bony part poses no significant risk should it rupture. That sounds weird, but the reason brain aneurysms are serious is not only the loss of blood to the brain, which in fact is minimal if the person has the ability to clot. The real danger is when the blood actually touches the brain. It is an irritant...that part I thought was strange. They will monitor the aneurysm indefinitely to see if it shrinks or grows and take further actions if necessary.

This picture is of her a few hours post-op. It's a bit hard to tell, but the incision starts in the middle of her forehead at her hairline and stops in front of her ear where that little flappy thing is. She had the surgery Monday morning and was released from the hospital Thursday afternoon. She's resting fairly well and isn't in as much pain as you might think....either that or she's not telling us the whole truth. Thanks for all the well wishes, positive thoughts and energy sent her way. It obviously worked!

Friday, August 17, 2007

Chirp, Chirp

Anyone else hear the sound of crickets? Things have been pretty slow around here. Not much to blog about as you might have noticed. My Mom is scheduled for surgery on Monday to have her remaining brain aneurysm clipped. Geof and I are heading down to my folks place tomorrow morning so things will be a lot quieter around here in the meantime.

Nathaniel will be coming home on the 21st instead of the 27th so we'll get to celebrate our anniversary a little early. I've finally decided what I'm going to give him this year. As I mentioned in a previous post, it will be our "Wood" anniversary...I know, it makes me giggle, too! I'm either going to wrap a single acorn or use my wood burning tool to draw a picture of an acorn with the word "solidity" (the symbolism in an Oak tree) written above it on a piece of wood and give that to him. Eventually when acorns are ready to be harvested we'll plant one which will grow into a tree, hopefully, and plant the tree somewhere on our property. I think it's a sweet sentiment and I hope he appreciates it.

Geof is doing well. He's not too keen on the idea of going to daycare, but we talk about it a lot and I try my best to answer his questions. After my Mom's surgery I'll really put my nose to the grindstone to find a job for me and a quality/affordable daycare for him. I know he's going to love it once he gets settled, but I'm not looking forward to the adjustment period for the both of us.

I hope everyone is enjoying the last few weeks before school starts back. I'm very much looking forward to the Fall, mostly for the break in this heat! It's been extremely dry here too so our plants and garden don't look like much this year. Hopefully we'll still get a few tomatoes. We had a late frost in the Spring and got a late start planting so we haven't had any ripe tomatoes and I haven't had a tomato sandwich yet this year! I'm drooling just thinking about it!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Just Say No

With the latest trend in Hollywood including going to rehab, I can't help but wonder what sort of problems "regular" folks are having. I've never personally struggled with addiction (except for cigarettes) but there have been a couple people in my life who have. Fortunately, they never needed an intervention or even a trip to rehab. I was watching some entertainment "news" program the other night and they described the facility that Lindsay Lohan had entered. I was appalled! It sounded more like a spa than a rehabilitation facility! I'm sure it doesn't come cheap either. How does the average person pay for rehab? Does insurance cover it at all? How do you find a rehab center that's right for the individual?

I found out about a site that offers free referral service for finding long or short term drug rehab centers through PayPerPost. I hope to never have to rely on such a service, but it is nice to know that something like this exists. 1800nodrugs.com, the name is pretty easy to remember and it doubles as the phone number. I really like the fact that it is a free, non-profit site that offers service 24/7. They also offer an online drug rehab assessment which helps to find the best program and treatment options that best suit the person's needs. Need help paying for it? They can provide you with all the information you need to help finance the treatment.

I feel like a commercial, my tone a little too chipper. Drugs are scary and what they can do to a person is even more frightening. The social drugs that were floating around when I was a teenager were no where near as potent or addictive as the stuff that is around now. The county I grew up in is completely depressed economically. The major employers shut down, and the unemployment rate rose and so did the number of meth labs. Meth is one drug that really makes me feel uneasy. It's easily mass produced, highly addictive, and to some it's a party drug. As a parent I've already begun to teach Geof right from wrong, but that stuff will always be out there, and I will always worry. I just hope that should I ever need to find help for Geof or anyone I care about there will be places to turn to like 1800nodrugs.com.

Labels:

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Got Wood?

August 31st will be mine and Nathaniel's 5th wedding anniversary. Every year we give each other traditional gifts. The first year was the paper anniversary, second - cotton, third - leather, fourth - fruits/flowers, and fifth - wood. This year I'm having such a hard time coming up with an idea for a wood-themed gift. Oh come on, get your mind out of the gutter, people! We try to keep things very simple and costs down, so buying any furniture is out. I thought about giving him an acorn that we could plant together, but I don't think acorns are ready for picking and planting just yet. Then I thought about a bonsai tree, because Nathaniel really likes gardening, but bonsais can be pretty pricey. So I guess I'm asking for some more suggestions here. I've got a little less than 3 weeks to come up with something. Any and all thoughts and suggestions would be most excellent!

A quick by-the-way...I just got an email from PayPal and PayPerPost saying that I've been paid $10 for posting for PPP. If you would like to sign up just click the button conveniently located below. Just thought I'd share.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Yeehaw!

Our little town had a rodeo tonight so I decided last-minute to take Geof. I'm glad I did because he really seemed to enjoy himself. It was his first rodeo so he didn't quite know what to expect. He even got to go out on the field...is it called a field? Actually all the kids got to go out there. They were all supposed to line up and then chase a calf with a ribbon on it's tail. The first one to get the ribbon won. Geof just got out there and ran around marching to the beat of his own drum. That's my boy! We both really enjoyed ourselves and I remembered something that I had forgotten: cowboys are hot!! Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Geof "patiently" waiting for the rodeo to start



Bucking horse


Geof returning from the "field"


Bucking bull

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Weird Night..or..Oklahoma City rednecks can kiss my ass!

Geof and I camped out in a tent in the backyard last night. It was pretty good sleeping weather after the sun went down. No weird encounters with wildlife in the night although we did smell a skunk!

Speaking of weird encounters with wildlife. I got a call about 3am from Nathaniel. He was in Oklahoma City and had just been attacked by five drunken rednecks. He said he was walking out of a restaurant when one of them said something like, "Hey what are you doing?" Nathaniel told them he was leaving and then one of them punched him in the mouth and the rest joined in. Luckily Nathaniel had wits enough to dial 911 just after the first blow. He said the cops came shortly there after along with a helicopter. There were a half dozen witnesses who helped Nathaniel tell the cops what happened. Turns out all of the men who attacked him had warrants out for their arrest...mostly on assault! They all went to jail and Nathaniel went back to his hotel with a split lip and broken nose as far as he could tell.

I'm just thankful that things turned out the way they did. It could have been a lot worse. Ugh! It just makes me sick that there are animals like that out there.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Filed Under: Did that really just happen?

It all started Sunday afternoon. I went to the library and to run some errands and to have a little time to myself. I ran my errands and was driving down the road minding my own business when out of the blue my car just up and died about a mile from home. Oh yeah...I was in the middle of the freaking road. Thank goodness it wasn't a busy road. I called Nathaniel who just happened to be home this week and he gave me the number for a tow truck. I called and they said it would be about 30 minutes before anyone could get there. I waited about that long, explained my situation to several Good Samaritans who stopped, and prayed that no one would fly around the curve and rear-end me. The tow truck finally arrived just as this carload of very unsavory looking gentlemen stopped. I'm still creeped out about that part. I finally got home but the tow truck couldn't make the turn into our driveway to unhook and unload the car. No problem, we live on the down slope of a hill we thought we could just let gravity roll it into the drive while Nathaniel steered. Ha! That would have been too easy. There was no power steering so Nathaniel couldn't get it turned in time, leaving it at an awkward angle half in and half out of the road past the driveway. Awesome! Luckily there was enough room to at least roll it a little further out of the way of traffic. At this point Nathaniel checked under the hood and decided that something was wrong with the timing chain. We studied the repair manual and decided we'd try to fix it ourselves the next morning because it was beginning to get dark.

We woke up the next morning and began the very involved task of removing half the engine just to get to the timing chain. Nathaniel walked to the auto parts store and got everything we thought we would need. Of course, later we needed a socket in a size we did not have to get the last bolt off, so then I got to walk to the auto parts store. It's downhill one way and uphill coming back...not so much fun when it's hot and humid out. My total came to $6.66. I should have turned around then. The guy behind the counter asked if I wanted to buy anything else to change the total. I laughed and said, "No thanks. Hopefully it's not an omen." Me and my big stinking mouth! I got the socket back home but it was too big for the drivers we have so I asked a really nice neighbor for a lift back to the store. He had originally offered me the keys to his car but his wife came outside and blessed me and him out for not consulting her first. Something about "you go and fucking wreck it and I'll sue the hell out of you!" She's never liked me, always has a sour expression, and from here on out will be referred to as Cuntzilla. At any rate, her husband did give me a ride and I apologized and thanked him profusely. They're an older couple and he is the sweetest old man I've ever met, the rest of his family...pure trash. So anyway, I got an adapter and thought we were finally making progress. No such luck. The bolt was in the engine so tight no amount of force could make it budge. To make matters even more interesting someone (me) had to be under the car, which by the way is still on the side of the road at this point, and shove a screw driver between some gears to keep them from moving. My grip slipped and I banged my hand against the under side of the car. Now I have a purple fingernail on my right middle finger.

After hours of little to no progress a monsoon came along with some spectacular and all-too-close lightning. As we huddled on the porch to wait out the storm we began to realize that our efforts were futile. Nathaniel was due back in his truck, which was more than 21/2 hours away, early the next morning for another month-long journey across the USA and I couldn't be left that long with no mode of transportation. We decided to call it quits and declared the car dead. Nathaniel called in to work to tell them he couldn't make it and to make sure everything was ok on that end, then he called a cab, which was actually some really strange guy (think Deliverance extra) in his car. He took us to the car dealership where we test drove an '06 Saturn Ion and an '06 Pontiac G6. These were our only options so we went with the Pontiac. Unfortunately we decided a little too late in the evening to get everything in to the bank that day so the salesman drove us home. He also picked us up the next morning to get everything finalized. We signed on the dotted line and drove it home and all is now well if not a little sad. It is the end of an era for us, after all. I get to look for a job now and a daycare for Geof, but I think it will all work out in the end. We've been trying to think of some sort of memento from the old car that we could put on or in the new one. I was thinking I might make some headrest covers out of the fabric we used to reupholster the old one. I already love my new car, I forgot how nice air conditioning and cruise control are!

Nathaniel has been teasing me all weekend about tearing up 2 cars in 5 years, he even has Geof picking up the slack while he's gone. The last car was totaled when an old lady fell into a diabetic coma, ran a red light, and t-boned our car. It was me and Geof that time and he was only 2 months old. At least with this one we did exactly what we wanted to do: we ran the thing until it wouldn't run anymore. We only paid $200 for it, shortly before I wrecked the other car actually, so I'd say we definitely got our money's worth.
Page Rank Icon