Been too Long Since I wrote Blog

I guess it has been a while since I have written; I was aiming for posts a little closer than the last one to this one but I guess I am not too far past my goal. So, what has been going on?

I got new glasses but they are not right and I need to go back. I tend to have problems with going anywhere anymore so I'll have to work that out. The optometrist is only there on Tuesdays and Thursdays and my body doesn't always agree, not to mention that this last Tuesday was Christmas and even if I felt like going, it wouldn't have helped. When I went in for the eye check-up my inter-ocular pressure was at 29 39 in both eyes. That is high, about twice as high as it is supposed to be. The doc didn't think I was taking it seriously because I probably sounded a little focused on the fact it was the same in both eyes, which seems a little odd to me. Yeah, I do understand my sight is/was in eminent danger based on those readings. Heck, one time they measured at 39 29 in one and I think it was 32 in the other. That doc was having a conniption fit because I was not prepared to just start putting drops in my eyes that I knew nothing about that very day.  Still haven't used the drops even though I do know a little more about them, I still have questions that have not been asked or answered because it never came up again until now. That very high reading was somewhere around 8 years ago, in the autumn--oddly, the autumn part figures heavily in this. Because I was not ready to just start medication without researching it, he insisted I go to an ophthalmologist at least and have my eyes checked again and preferably start on the eye drops. He even found a guy that would  do it mostly pro bono. But every time my pressures were checked by him, three times, once every three months, my pressure was fine. I had my eyes checked for glasses a few more times before this last one, each time it was spring, summer, or winter. Never a problem. Okay, so here comes late autumn and a new eye check, pressures were way high, not at doc throwing a conniption but he was a bit scared nonetheless. He is a bit younger so chances are it was the highest he has ever seen. So he wants me to go to a ophthalmologist, all the way in Springfield. I should go but can't afford it. They sent a referral and the place was supposed to call. The place called because they got a fax and the only legible thing on it was part of my name and my phone number. I told them who sent the fax to them so they could get more info and I have not heard anything back and it has been a couple weeks now. It sounds like they are less concerned than I am.  I am worried, a little. The thing is, it only seems to happen in the autumn, I know the feeling of the eye pressure being high--I didn't realize that is what it was until this last check but it came clear then. I have been having this since I was a little kid, and even complained about my eyes hurting. Not only did no one (mostly meaning medical pros) really seem to pay attention, I was told the eye does not actually feel pain. All I could think of when I heard that is, "I am being lied to."  If one looks up glaucoma, one will find that eye pain is one of the symptoms of high inter-ocular pressure. No wonder I have a distrust of the medical profession. Yeah, that shot won't hurt either, right. It really ticks me off when they lie to my kids too. After they say it won't hurt, I tell them it will. I tell them it will hurt but only a little, that they have had much worse and it will last only a very short time and they can deal with it. THAT is the truth, not that it won't hurt, that is a flippin' lie. Anyway, back the eye pressure. Okay, so the high pressure damages the optic nerve and will kill peripheral vision. Very high pressure can blind one in an evening. If one sees what they call "halos' then one should get to the ER. No one has been very clear on what they mean by "halos" and I see them around all lights at nighttime; but my halos and their halos didn't seem to be the same halos. I think I might have just recently figured out  what they are talking about--I wouldn't call them halos but…it was more like staring at the afterimages of staring at the Las Vegas strip or a carnival midway lights in the dark. You know, stare at the mass of lights them close your eyes and you still sort of see them but they are different colors and act a tad different. And this happens when my eyes are open or closed at times--only in the autumn though that I can recall. So I have had this problem for many years. So far, there is no visible damage to my optic nerve, according to both docs that got the high reading and the specialist that was checking my eyes seven or eight years ago. I have exceptional peripheral vision, it might even be better than my straight on vision but then true focus is not required in peripheral vision. If I stick my thumb in my ear I can see my pinkie when I am looking straight ahead. And that stupid little talent is as strong as ever while my center vision is getting horrid. Gee, could I be medically atypical and the pressure is affecting center vision instead of peripheral? I am not sure if that is possible in glaucoma but if it is, I bet  that is what is happening to me. If not, then I am still medically atypical in the fact that I still have vision by the way these docs are acting. It really irks me that things I want monitored they want to act on and the things I have real issues with (intestinal) I am getting blown off about but that is what is affecting my life in the most negative way. I learned some management techniques for my eyes long ago when I was being blown off on them. I know I need to watch the pressure, the situation could well be getting worse but by golly I am really, really tired of being afraid to eat.

Christmas went well. My youngest wanted a guitar but also knew how much they cost.  Her aunt got her one. I am a nasty mom sometimes. Rather than put it under the tree, I printed out a picture of one and put it in a small box, wrapped it up and stuck it deep under the tree to be one of the last to be opened. She was so great about the fact that the one thing she wanted most was not there. She was happy with the things she got. When she opened the little box and looked at the picture she was a  little confused but when I came walking out of the bedroom carrying her new guitar she almost cried.

I was going to write a little about the elder child too but this is long already and it will take a bit. Hopefully in the next couple days.

The Tuesday Blade

This post about "The Tuesday Blade" by Bob Ottum is prompted by a question I saw on Yahoo! Answers asking if one has read it what does one think about it. When I am done with this I am posting it as an answer but I could not resist saving it for myself. And how appropriate to be posting for a Tuesday.

This book changed my life, really, no kidding.

I read the novel in about 1989 or 1990. I do not remember where the book came from or what caused me to read it. I do remember I started reading it in mid-afternoon and really had trouble putting it down.

I have read reviews of it and most say something like that, "Can't put it down" type stuff. And it is true. I got PO'd when I had to start making dinner or when my then boyfriend tried talking to me. It was a real page turner alright. I was always an avid reader and read pretty quickly, plus it is not a huge novel, I could not put it down to go to sleep, no biggie, I would be a little tired for work the next day, I HAD to keep reading. About 3:30 in the morning I turned the last page, it was only half a page of print, I read it. WHAT? I  double checked to make sure I did not accidentally turn two pages, I hadn't and the text had flowed from the previous page to that one so it wasn't missing anything. I THREW THE BOOK ACROSS THE ROOM!  And almost killed my rubber tree in the process. It also woke up my boyfriend who yelled at me for throwing a book. "Why the hell did you do that?" he yelled/asked. I told him it because of the ending and I couldn't explain it right then picked up the plant and went to bed.

The next day my boy friend started reading it. I caught him and told him he didn't want to do that. But he was insistent and already hooked. Not to mention he wanted to see what I threw a fit about. Fine. Yeah, he was up all night reading it. And you know what?  I was awoken when he threw the book across the room ( not at the plant). I did not yell, I just looked at him. He said, "I see what you mean." And he turned out the light and went to sleep. For all I know that book wound up I the trash even though that seems like sacrilege to me.

It took a bit to process what happened, but this is what I think: The author was churning out one of the best suspense stories of the 20th century and was running a little behind schedule. He needed just another day or two to wrap it all up nice. But he gets a call from his publisher that said "If it is not on my desk by tomorrow you need to pay back the advance we gave you." (Remember this was back before internet or even word processors.) So he quickly jots down a few closing lines and types it up to over-night it to the  publishing company. Due to the preview samples no one bothers to read it to the end and they just printed it up and sent it out to the booksellers.

Some reviewer on Amazon calls it a "twist" at the end.  I don't see the twist. The same reviewer even mentions the reader knows from the beginning who the murderer is. The only twist is from the investigating officers POV; he wasn't expecting it. He sat down on the step and cried. Okay.

How did this book change my life?

It is about 28 years later and I still cannot buy, or for that matter even read, a book of which I have not read the last page. Although, if I have read more that six books by the same author, or three in the same series, I might skip reading the last page until I am actually ready to read the entire book; I shop used book stores now so one gets what one can when it is available. It bothers me not that I know the ending as long as I don't have to go through the "Tuesday Blade ending syndrome" again.

I might wish it on an enemy, it depends on how much I really hate him or her.

The story was riveting and well written until the end--then it was messed up.

I can't believe it consistently gets great ratings. Does no one know what a good ending is? A "twist" or not the ending should be as well written as the rest.

A Halloween Surprise

This summer was miserable for all of us here, human and critter. Both cows had their milk dry up as there was no grass and the hay was poor and the heat was incredible. We had started to dry one of the gals off because we had it on the calendar that she was due to calf in early June but in a couple of days we realized she must have slipped her calf because she was not showing signs  of being PG anymore. We started milking her again but she had dropped the amount and the summer was getting worse and we gave up in about mid-July. We have been without decent milk since then. Not sure at all when we would be seeing more. About a month, month and a half ago we opened a gate to the neighbors field to let the cattle graze it since we got rain and it was turning green (and yes we had permission, it was even suggested by said neighbor) and we have hardly seen them since. Hubby has been driving up there every couple of days just to check on them.  A few days ago, Monday, we woke up to mooing. The eldest cow was in the front yard, her daughter and grandkid were in the paddock; they are not as good at getting out of fences as o' Lil'. Lily was put in the paddock and hubby came back to bed. When I got up and opened the chickens I noticed Lil's bag was getting full--OH! She is going to calve soon. I told hubby what I saw but by the time he went out, which would have been the normal time for him to do so, the cattle had gone up the hill to the field again. He went up the hill the next day, Tuesday, to check on them and came back telling me that Lily's bag was getting full and her teats were getting fat. He thought about two weeks; I gotta say I wondered about that because Lil' is about twelve and her body is well used to giving birth and producing milk and it just wouldn't need as much prep time as a younger gal (production milk cows are usually retired after just two or three lactations). Anyway, we were discussing this yesterday morning, Halloween, and it suddenly occurred to me that it was Halloween and I said (almost yelled) "Oh shit! She is going to have it today!" Hubby looked at me confused like and I could see it dawn on him; he said, "It's Halloween, it's a holiday." You see, Lily *always* calves on a holiday, it doesn't have to be a major one, but it is *always* a holiday. Come 11:00 last night and the cattle were still up the hill so hubby went to find them. Lil' had had her calf around 10:00 to 10:30 pm judging by how wet it was: it is a pretty little bull calf. We will have milk in a few days, real milk.

To put a little frosting on the wonderful Halloween surprise, the chickens, who haven't been laying for about a month and aa half, just started giving me an egg or two every couple days. I have too many young gals that were not old enough to lay before the sun stared its downward track, they won't start now until spring but my older gals we coming back from being broody and I should be starting to get more eggs soon since it started. I need to clean the nest boxes though.

We also need to come up with an appropriate Halloween name for this little guy too.

Freeze, Mushrooms, and a Birthday

We had a certain frost/light freeze the night before last and last night, no doubts about this like the other two weeks ago.

And I never thought I would be so sick of mushrooms as I got last week. Still no Oyster mushrooms but I hit upon a huge patch of Blewits, there where a lot of 'em. Some are in the freezer. A few days ago when food was cooked and being dished up I told everyone, "For a special treat today, no mushrooms!" I received a look of gratitude. And we all pretty much are mushroom lovers here.

We have gotten the furnace vacuumed, wiped down, and blown out, in general ready for another season. It has kicked on a couple times in the last few days but the house is still mostly warm from the summer and it is supposed to warm up a bit again in the next day or so. Hopefully we won't have to use it a lot this year but it would be nice to have a little more winter than we had last year.

My eldest is turning sixteen. For months she has been going around telling us, "Brianna's birthday is November 18th." I have been trying to get her to say "my" instead of her name; I am getting mixed, but poor, results. I'll keep trying. She also has a list of DVDs and CDs with the words "Happy Birthday Brianna" written at the bottom. It is funny, she can write her numbers but if a title has a year in it or she is asking for a specific edition, she brings her list to someone else to write the year down. She tells us what numbers to write but we have to write them. I did get her to start saying the years right; she was saying "one-nine-nine-three" and now she will say "nineteen ninety-three." She is on a day countdown now until "the" day; 20 more days. I don't recall her ever being this excited over her birthday before. We will probably go to the new "Twilight" movie for her birthday. She likes going to the movies, we have been following the series as a family, and it comes to the theaters on the 16th-- seems perfect.

Was it a Frost? And Mushrooms

From late Saturday (Oct. 6th) night to Tuesday (Oct. 9th) morning there have been area-wide freeze and frost warnings; we were destined to get hit with it--so the weather folks said. On Sunday night/Monday morning we MIGHT have gotten a frost. There are three okra plants, in a frost prone spot, that have a few wimpy leaf tips but the tomatillos right next to them are fine. The two okra plants in another spot have no damage, even the eggplant has no damage and if anything is as cold intolerant as the okra, I would think it would be eggplant. What it amounts to is about seven or eight leaves of okra got a little edge damage, it didn't even fully kill the leaf. So, does it qualify as first frost? I am debating with myself over it as I am trying to keep track of things like that in a garden diary. I wish I wouldn't have pulled those green tomatoes.

It is time, here at least, for fall mushrooms. There are lots of different fall mushrooms to hunt; unlike in the spring when it amounts to hunting Morels. Coral, or antler, mushrooms are quite popular around here but there are others that are choice that grow here and if one can identify them, one is in for a delightful treat. Ron and Morg each found a mushroom called Lion's Mane. Lion's Mane is a big mushroom and quite tasty; I have never seen it for sale. We had those and some Coral mushrooms a few days ago. I did some hunting on Sunday and found some small Puffballs and some more Coral; Ron found a good sized Puffball yesterday checking on the cows. (I believe I saw Puffballs for sale in California, at a market, once.) And I went out again yesterday to a different spot and besides more Coral mushrooms, I found some Blewits. I have found a few Blewits before, about seven or so years ago, and these are choice mushrooms. When you can find them for sale, they are pricey. We had a wild mushroom pasta dish this evening and --oh my, was it GOOD--and there are leftovers! I have dried Puffballs before and it turns out well. I would like to find more to do it again. I don't know if Blewits dry well but if I can find more I would try at least one for future reference. I haven't seen any Oyster mushrooms so far this year--another choice mushroom, but I am hoping.

Hummingbirds Are Leaving

All the hummers are transients right now; all my regulars are gone. Here's hoping for a safe trip for them all. It was not a good year for hummingbirds this year; too dry of weather causing almost no flowers and not a great year for the little insects that they also eat. I had very busy feeders this year (not unusual) but there were less individuals visiting and I noticed only one nesting period when we usually seem to have two. I get real tired of making the sugar-water concentrate over the season and having to constantly fill the feeders but I really like the little things and miss them when they go and I am always eager to see the first one in the spring. I hope my troubles of making sure they have sugar-water helps them out. They have helped me since we started attracting them, by eating bugs and whatnot, not to mention entertainment. I have taken a few feeders down so far and am not having to fill the others everyday anymore. I didn't have to fill any today and will probably take another down tomorrow. I had nine up this year and had to fill them all at least once in a day and a half for the less popular ones, and as much as twice a day for the most popular ones. The change happened fast this year, from constant maintenance to almost none in a day. I think it might be because of a lesser number of young this year; they tend to stick around a bit longer than the older ones.

There is one male, in particular, that I look forward to every year but he has got to be getting close to the end of his life. He stands out because he is built a tad different  than the others--he is short and stocky--we call him little fatty.  I have been able to pick out some of his offspring because of the stockiness; he had a real good year about three years ago and a bunch of stocky young ones were born. I kind off have the feeling this was his last year. But some of his offspring come back every year too. We will see next spring who shows up.

The New Rig

First off, I have not tried to put pictures in here yet so this might or might not work the first time around.

So yesterday (Wednesday) we finally found a vehicle. I think it is a good one and so does my husband. He test drove it in the city but I drove it home, then he drove the kid to Ju Jitsu this evening (Thursday--this won't be finished before it turns to Friday so…). He said he liked it better today than he did yesterday.

I am going to start out with what was not so great about it:

1. It has power windows. No matter what anyone else thinks about them, I do not like them, I just don't.

On  the other hand, out of all the vehicles we looked at, only one had crank windows and it otherwise did not fit our needs well.

2. It is white.

On the oter hand, so what. It is not a preferred color to me but it is not my least desired either; which is red. I do not know if it still holds true but it used to be that red was more likely to be pulled over. If the right vehicle otherwise was red, I still would have gotten it.

3. It is older than we were wanting/looking at. It is a 1997.

On the other hand, it has less mileage than all the 2000 and up we were looking at. We were lucky to see 2005s that had less than 150,000 miles, this 1997 had 118,000 miles.

4. It has air bags--driver and front passenger.

What a great feature I DO NOT WANT. Why? Air bags are such great safety features -- unless one is my size; then they are a safety hazard. They tell you if a kid is my size they should be in the back seat until they grow bigger. That ain't gonna happen and I can't drive from the back seat. Not to mention, at this point, no one but hubby is big enough to sit in the front; though Morg stands a good chance of growing big enough the passenger air bag won't do more harm than good--but she is not there yet.

Okay, so far that is it and of the four things I don't care for, one is completely offset and two of the other --oh well, not real biggies. Well, I still don't like power windows but the only real situation is the air bags and that would be a problem with all vehicles but quite old ones

So, now for the rest of it:

It is a 1997 Isuzu Trooper. I was in love with my last Trooper and it was well used and gave its all to us 'till the end. We put well over 350,000 miles on it ourselves.

It is a six cylinder, four-wheel drive, five-speed manual transmission with a limited-slip differential (commonly called posi-traction but that is a brand of sorts, like Jello vs. gelatin). The manual trans was as hard to find as crank windows and, yes, that was something we preferred. I am beginning to wonder if they are even being made anymore.

Here's a goodie, I am the second owner of this Trooper. It is very clean and the interior is beautiful. The seats are not in the slightest broken down. It is missing its back-seat ashtray??? The previous owners were non-smokers, the front one is there but never used(until me). It doesn't look like the back area, the cargo area, has been used even for groceries; it still has the OEM cargo net in there and it is in good shape.

The tires are in good shape.

It has a six month power-train warranty.

It has never been fitted for towing. This is cool because though the vehicle is perfectly capable of towing (we will need that) it has never been put to that stress before; just another clue of gentle use.

The kids, on the way home yesterday, acted like they went from an army cot to a king-size feather bed.

Hubby said this evening it needs shocks, I didn't notice that but we will see in the next few days. It needs a tow package put on. And one of the CV boots needs replaced as well as that CV joint looked at for possible damage. If it needs replaced, that is part of the power train and will be covered by the warranty. Drawback there is that we need to take it to the city or pay the $100 deductable on the warranty to have a local person do it. It was missing a screw holding a plastic cover on the lower part of the drivers seat. Himself fixed that in town this evening when he was there; he didn't have the right one here so he bought a pack at the parts store so we have a few in reserve now. The cargo light is not currently working; it is most likely a bulb and we just are both too pooped to care right now. And the vanity mirror on the passenger side is supposed to light up but doesn't,; also probably a bulb.

The stereo is a cassette deck, a little out of date but the radio plays great, the speakers play clear. It is barely believable this is mine.

These are the dealer photos:

He, he he. I was going to post this about 1:30 AM but it turns out the internet is not working. Its okay, I was surprised I was done by this time anyway. I'll try again at a reasonable time on Friday.