Springtime

Just thought I would checking and say "howdy." So, Howdy!

It has been a rainyish day and we are waiting for a "severe" storm this evening. We are supposed to have a hard freeze, 25 degrees, Monday night, the 14th. It is a bit late in the year but there was a year, maybe 4 years ago, where it got down to the high teens on the 20th of April so just because it is past the "average" date doesn't mean it is odd.

\It does mean we have to bring in our seedlings. We don't have much place for them. If we did we would probably have a better garden because we could start almost everything inside in early March and have stuff planted out by mid to late April. Oh well, maybe one day we will manage to find a place inside. I haven't felt much like gardening so far this year but it one of those things where if I don't do it now my future self will be kind of mad at me. I hate that.

Another thing I haven't felt much like doing, but in this case am just about compelled to by unknown powers, is spring cleaning. It didn't get done last year because of my surgery. I am not positive much of it got done the year before because I was so sick. It isn't pretty. Morg has had the chore of vacuuming the living room for a while now. Typical, she has not done a good job at nooks, crannies and corners, I have done some of that over time. However, there was about three inches of dust and animal hair behind the entertainment center.

Speaking of Morg, she is doing her first paid job last night and tonight. A neighbor who does floor stripping and other stuff for stores around here needed a couple replacement hands for a job and he has called on Ron a couple times but still needed another so Morg went. They left at around 8 pm and got back around 3:30 am. They finish it up tonight but it won't be so late, probably around midnight or 1 am.

We have 3 kinds of Daffodils and usually they overlap in bloom with one kind fading as another is coming heavy into bloom and the third doesn't bloom until the first is all gone; all 3 are in bloom at the same time this year. The guy done the road, the one that does floors, told Ron last night none of his has bloomed at all. That is a little odd.

An there are almost no Morels. This is sad.

The ticks are starting to come out. This is sad too.

The Bar Mitzvah Trip

I still am not fully recovered from the trip but then I haven't had much chance to kick back from it as I have had to catch up on chores since I got home. I do not understand how there was so much laundry when I got back. It was all done when I left and there were two less people in the house but easily more laundry needing done than if we would have stayed home. This amount does  not include the dirties Morg and I brought back. I had to ask who else's laundry I was doing. It turns out Himself cleaned up some of the pile of clothes in closet he had been building up; clothes that were worn for only a short time that could be put on again that he puts on the boxes in there and then forgets about. I wish he would do it more often, and not when I am away, he had two full loads, plus, stashed in there. I did two loads yesterday -- after the drive from Illinois, and two more today, I still need to do another to catch up. Then of course there was the kitchen. Wonderfully not a mess but not really clean and most of the dishes were dirty (but in the dishwasher, yay!). There was no meat set out to cook so food took a while longer than should have. No bread so I had to make some…on and on.

I did get to bed about 1 1/2 -2 hours early last night and got to sleep to my normal time for the first time in five days and got a two hour nap this evening. I did not want to get up. I felt I had to. I still feel a bit brain dead but decided I would try to write about the trip. Sitting here though, I wonder about waiting until tomorrow, I would probably do a better story. 

Okay, it is the next day whether you notice it or not while reading. Let's see if I can get this done. I keep seeing typos in everything I have been  writing, hopefully that won't be as much of a problem today.

So, Friday started out too early. My sister wanted to be gone from here before Morg and I usually even get up. She got here, Ron checked out the vehicle, oil and tire pressure, etc. and I got into the driver's seat and away we went. I do the highway driving so we will get where we are going in a reasonable amount of time; I do the standard 5 to 10 MPH over the speed limit and she does 5 to 10 MPH below the highway speed limit. I guess I should mention, in preparation of driving here my sister sent me the directions her mapping program gave her from her place to mine. There is a highway intersection south of me, it is a standard four-way intersection. She needed to be traveling north on one of the highways and cross over the other one. The mapping program had her turning left on the east-west highway and drive for something like 250 feet and then turn right, or back north, at that point, supposedly to stay on the one highway. Really, this is a straight cross over. If she would not have sent me the directions to check I have no idea where she would have wound up. That program was designed to get people lost, I am sure of it, but she was insistent on using it. I don't need a map to find Chicago though so the issue did not come up again for a while. This part of the trip was pretty uneventful, we talked and made jokes. Just a little before crossing the Mississippi we stop at a rest stop and there is a line to use the restroom, not too long but there none the less. This was a big restroom that had close to 15 stalls and lots of people moving around. My sister was in the lead and in a stall already, Morg was in line in front of me, someone steps out of a stall and a moment later another stall gets vacated, Morg is still just standing there. I gave her a little push telling her, "Go, one opened up." And then told her, "I am sorry, I didn't realize you didn't know how to wait in line for the toilets." But she didn't. With all the people in there moving around she was just really confused. There were more people in that bathroom than there usually are in our local WalMart -- in a lot smaller place. We get back on the road. More un eventful drive time. We arrive in the Chicagoland area. My sister makes a comment about what great time we made.

Unfortunately, at this point that mapping program comes back into play. We had trouble finding the hotel. But we finally found it, got our stuff out of the vehicle and checked in with the family. They were at a restaurant not too far away and they wanted us to come join them. The had already been there a while and needed to go to a service at a certain time and it was getting close. When we got there everyone was eating dessert; and by everyone I mean they had a large room full of people, somewhere around 60 people I think, maybe more. Here, I got to meet my new nephew and nieces. My brother, at almost 60 years of age decided to adopt three more kids, the youngest being somewhere around 3 yrs old. He had adopted two others years ago, the eldest is 13, I think, and special needs. We all think he is insane. Pictures were taken. People kept trying to get me to eat dessert. I am not a big dessert eater and eating it with nothing else on my stomach was in no way possible; it would have rapidly vacated my body through one route or another in a very embarrassing way. Everybody needs to go to the evening service so we go back to the hotel. Nice place but the room was a ways away from the elevator and I had to go outside to smoke; I could have smoked a cigarette on the way down it was so far away. No biggie really, but the wind was. I found a nice place to smoke that pretty much broke the wind from any direction, so I thought; sometimes the wind would blow straight down the building. There were cameras at every door, at the elevators, and in the hallways. No doubt these are meant to create a feeling of security rather than paranoia but I am not normal. The TV remote would only line up to the TV right if you were sitting down on the middle bed, seemed strange to me. My sister started looking at the hotel menu for food, $10 sandwiches, $9 salads and the same for a cup of soup. There was nothing I really wanted to take a chance on even if I was willing to overpay for the food; between the condition of my teeth and what my guts can handle, just not worth it. Incidentally, I did discover that Countrytime lemonade is a no-no for me now. I had gotten one at a stop and spent a lot of time on the toilet for drinking it, kind of like the bowel prep one has to do for a colonoscopy -- not nice. So no food for me that day.

The next day we had to get up too early, and after a few midnight trips to the toilet, to get ready for the Bar Mitzvah. After the mapping program got us lost, my sister called for directions and we managed to get there before it started. This is the first Bar Mitzvah I have been to and did not know what to expect. It was long. I found out it was not that it just seemed long, it really was long. My nephew decided he wanted to do five readings instead of the standard three; it added a lot of time. The woman leading the singing had a most remarkable voice but even failing that her enthusiasm in getting people involved would have made up for it. She was wonderful, they are blessed to have her in their congregation.

 But I have to say the clothing shocked me. Women, young and not so young, were wearing skin-tight, very short dresses, most were sleeveless, and only one woman had hosiery on (besides my 11 yr old niece). Only the young women had the shape to pull off the dresses but they seemed better suited for going out to a club rather than going to a temple. And I am sorry but if you are 20 or more pounds overweight, I don't care how stylish it is or how much it cost, you should not be wearing a skin-tight dress, it *will* look like crap. The service ended and they were serving all sorts of sweets in the other room. Oh yay. So many people. And more pictures taken. People start leaving for the reception at the golf course, this is to be where we are to eat. We leave but I had failed to realize that my sister wouldn't be able to follow the directions she was given, and I did not get them.

Out on the road… It is supposed to be about a 10 to 15 minute drive to the golf course, we are lost the mapping program keeps sending us to weird places. We, at some point realize we are kind of close to the hotel so we decide to stop there. But that mapping program was still trying to get us lost and we almost didn't find it. At the hotel we get directions to the golf course and make it there two hours late, just in time to see them putting away the last of the real food to set up an ice cream bar. They pulled a couple things back out for us. I wish I would have gotten more chicken but I wasn't sure if it was spicy, it kind of looked it but wasn't. I didn't even reach the end of the buffet table before it was pulled back off; not much of a chance to eat. It was very loud though; kids were dancing, they had a DJ and more people than had been at dinner and the Bar Mitzvah put together. I could hardly hear anything anyone was saying. But people were taking pictures. Morg had stuck pretty close through all this, if I walked away from somewhere she would either follow or stay there leaning against a wall, but she decided she wanted to check things out  in other areas of the party so she asked if she could. A little surprising to me, of course she could, it was a private party for her cousin. I told her to go do what she wanted --within reason; I always qualify that statement. She mentioned later that she thought there were more people there than she had ever seen in her whole life. That is an exaggeration but more people than we have seen in the last year is probably not. This place had a couple other receptions going on, actually one was a wedding and reception. While I was out having a smoke there were people carrying in big flower arrangements. People all over the place and no one was helping them at the door. I went out of my way a couple times to open the door for them, they were quite thankful. One time, I was getting my coat on and there were these two teenage girls talking, one had on this really cute flat boot but her other boot was a medical boot. They are right next to me, I lean toward the girl, all serious, she leans toward me to hear what it is I am going to say. I whisper to her, "Your boots don't match." This was so not what she was expecting. There was silence for a moment then she busted up laughing and tells me she is making a fashion statement. Decent comeback.

I am not really sure how long we were there, leaving was somewhat of a blur. We had to go back to the hotel so Morg could get her swimsuit and shorts/t-shirt to go to the rec center that was planned next and then we went to my other sisters house while arguing with first sister about her crappy mapping program. She kept insisting it worked in the cities. Really? Really? Why do we keep getting lost following it? Seriously this thing was sending us anywhere but where we wanted to go. We find my sisters house finally after calling for directions. It is a madhouse with everyone getting ready to go to the rec center. I send Morg off with sister two while sister one and I stay and visit with my dad. I guess I ought to mention, we stopped at a gas station and was unable to get the key out of the ignition, it would not turn to the off position. I tried a few things at my sister's house but it is in the ignition switch and nothing I knew to do. I called Ron and he verified that other than taking out the ignition there is little that could be done and with the air bag neither he he nor I wanted to do that; of course he couldn't until we got home anyway but… He did suggest trying some penetrating oil shot down next to the key *might* help. They didn't have any but got a neighbor to run home and get some we could borrow. I sprayed it in and worked it around a bit but it did not help right away. Everybody but Dad, sister one, and me left. A little while later the sister tried it and still the key wouldn't come out. I called Ron back and talked to him a bit and made the mistake of letting him know I let Morg go off to the rec center without me even seeing the place and wasn't expecting her back until about 1 - 1:30 AM. He is a worrier and he made this funny little sound. I am surprised I haven't heard about that since we have been home. Sister and I visit with our dad for a while and then go back to the hotel with all the "security" cameras. I did stay up until Morg got back; she claimed to have fun.

Next day, it is brunch at sister two's house, a casual but catered affair. We had to get up too early and pack up to vacate hotel room because sister one wanted to start back in the afternoon rather than wait until the next morning. We made decent time getting there because we did not depend on stupid mapping program. There were a lot less people but still seems very crowded and lots of cameras. I was sitting on the couch watching a slide show of family pictures on the TV, Morg was sitting next to me, and flashes started going off behind me. I am so tired of being on one camera or another, I drop to the floor and start crawling along the couch to get to the corner of the room where there are huge windows with light coming in were no picture would come out -- NO! Someone is standing there looking out the windows with a baby. I start to crawl un der the coffee table. Morg is laughing really hard at me causing Susan to come over and start taking pics of me under the table. By this time a lot of people were laughing. It was kind of fun. The food was a little disappointing; the croissant was a little stale, I have had much better lox (Morg said it tasted like fireworks smell), and it was the first time I had had kugel, I was unaware it was a sweet dish. I am assuming it was the lox that went right through me taking everything else with it. I narrowly avoided a very embarrassing situation. Most of the non-family left, everyone is exhausted; at one point I was a little afraid sister two was going to fall down the stairs when I saw her standing at the top of them. We said our good byes and *I* got the directions out of there to the highway and off we went in the late afternoon. I really would have preferred to leave the next day.

After some time driving I ask my sister if Lincoln would be alright to stop in, I had thought to push on to Springfield but with the time it was and as tired as I was I kind of wanted to stop. She said sure, whatever I wanted but then realized she was thinking of Litchfield, which is south of Springfield by an hour -- no way! We still had a while to drive to Lincoln and by that time it was getting dark so it was pretty easy to talk her into stopping there. We used to live in Lincoln. It could be considered a creepy town, we lived in a beautiful but very haunted house there. The motel we were looking for didn't have their sign light on, and I don't mean the vacancy/no vacancy one. There were cars in the lot but otherwise looked as though some shady business was going on there and so we passed that one up and found another. But the guy that answered the phone couldn't give us directions there and that %$&*# mapping program sent us to the wrong end of town. After we turned around and drove all the way back through town to the other end of the road it had located the inn but told us to make a U-turn on a road to get there. Not only are U-turns illegal in IL but sitting at the light we were supposed to make the U-turn at we could see the inn a little ways down the road -- meaning the U-turn would have taken us back in the wrong direction. We got there, there was a little confusion on the room, the guy who couldn't give us directions gave us a room with one bed for the three of us. Sister one did specifically ask for a room with two beds, we got a different room and then stayed up late talking and laughing. But I didn't have to go outside fr a cigarette for the first time in days. I sat by an open window to smoke; it was a smoking room but it seems a little odd to smoke in a real building anymore plus neither my sister smokes nor does Morg, so...

We wake up too early to start out again, we don't wake Morg until about an hour after my sister wanted to leave though -- still too early for our habits. I wanted to go by the house on Tremont St. that we lived in, there was another place we lived there but I wasn't as anxious to see it. My sister has gone by both places as an adult but I hadn't. I told her to find our way to the house and I could find the way to the Interstate from there no matter where we were in town. She was old enough to drive when we lived there so she had better memories of it. We found it and stared at it a bit, it was a house on the corner so we got to stare at two sides. No doubt if there was anyone home they were wondering why people were staring at their house. It was a big house. It had had the whole north side planted in lilies of the valley when I was a kid and I hated moving from that more than anything but it is too early in the year to tell if they are still there. They added a garage in-between the house and the old garage that we had turned into an rental apartment. One of the trees I used to love to climb had grown to where it would not be an easy climb anymore. And onto the interstate we went, me ignoring what that stupid program said to do. Getting much further south, close to the Mississippi cross-over by St. Louis, I look around and comment how it is kind of nice to look around and *not* be able to see for miles. But here I also realize I did not verify what exchange I wanted at the St. Louis area to avoid downtown St. Louis. I did this last time, dang. So my sister pulls out that stupid mapping program and what it tells us is garbage --go 26 some miles and take exit 40C. But any exit 40 is not going to be close to the river, the mile numbers get smaller close t the state line and we were already closer than 40 miles to the river. She suggests maybe they mean exit 4C. I see a sign that says I-270 to Memphis and really think that is the one I need to take even though Memphis is not the right direction from there. But I fail to take it. Looking at the map later I discover I was indeed right. There was no exit 4C. Back into downtown St. Louis. I did get to point out the Gateway Arch to Morg where she promptly confirmed what I was saying about there was no way Percy Jackson could have jumped out the window into the Mississippi; and it is closer to the river now than it used to be before the floods in '93. And this time I veered left instead of right in one of the spaghetti messes they call highways around there and actually avoided the worst part of downtown. While driving on this massive highway system I started wondering why no one was driving in the forth lane; all this congestion and that lane was empty. I popped over into it and picked up speed appropriately. About 10 minutes later I suddenly recalled why no one was driving in that lane. I was back in MO where it is illegal to drive in the left lane unless passing. Crap. I should have realized that since I was purposely driving in the left lane in IL when I could, just because I could; it is illegal in a lot of states but not IL. So back in the third lane I go. I find the right exit and we are headed home.

We stop in Mtn. Grove, the town my family calls "town" when we go to town, to get gas. My sister comes out of the station after going potty and she says something about it being good to be home and then says and this isn't even home yet but feels a lot more like it. We arrive at my house and unload our stuff, Ron checks out the car for my sister, tire pressure and oil stuff. We go over the direction out of here closely since she got badly lost last time. Away she went. I told Morg to get the wet swimsuit out of her bag and the rest could wait but I wanted her unpacked before she went to bed. She did the swimsuit and got on her computer. I reminded her to unpack a little while later, she said "Okay." A little after that I went in and dumped the suitcase on her bed so I could put it away. The next day I only had to tell her twice to do something, it was almost like she was eager to do her chores. Did she miss them? It is usually three times and then I yell, "Get it done!" She actually thanked me on this trip for yelling at her -- that is another story, related to the trip but different. Yet I haven't raised my voice once since we have been home. My sister called when she got close to her home. I was so surprised because it was in the average time it would have taken to get here to there. I was expecting if everything went well it would be at least another hour before I heard from her. I am proud of her for not getting lost and driving a normal speed.

I have already complained about the laundry so I guess that is it. I need to post this before that guy drops the tree on the power line anyway. He might not but it isn't looking good for avoiding it Ron says. Oh gosh, and that reminds me, a woman I was talking to at the reception asked where I lived. She was from Poland so didn't know the Ozarks. I tried to tell her where I lived and then told her I lived in the woods. Her face went blank; I think she was thinking a tent or something. I told her "I can't see a neighbors house from mine" and she smiled and relaxed but thought it was amazing. 

My "Procedure"

So I had my colonoscopy today. And missed my soap opera because of it; ah well, I can catch up on the fan pages or watch it tomorrow morning on the Days of Our Lives website.

As anyone that has had a colonoscopy knows, it is not the actual procedure that is bad, it is the prep for it. Two and a Half Men’s Alan Harper (Jon Cryer) called it industrial strength colon-blow. The term fits so well I like to use it. Due to having had rectal cancer I have had many colonoscopies. Thankfully they are not near as often as they used to be; as a matter of fact, my last one was 2 years ago. That seemed like such a huge gap. I was expecting that I would have a follow-up appt. after this to discuss findings. None was scheduled. There were no labs to wait for or anything. NOTHING-NOTHING-NOTHING And I don’t have to have another one for 5 years! I cannot tell you how so utterly awesome that is to me.

The biggest issue today was they had trouble getting the IV in. My hands are so bruised; the nurse was even saying as she was wrapping them up that when I took the wrapping off it would look like I went a couple rounds with Mike Tyson. All I could think of was is that my hands would not be were the bruising would be if that were so. The main problem was I became a bit dehydrated from the medically prescribed diarrhea--veins don’t stand up if you are not hydrated. Some of it was just bad luck--it happens. The nurse, who has placed IVs in me before quickly and painlessly, tried my left and missed. She went to the right and stopped an instant before she blew the vin. She said that was enough for her she was getting the anesthetist to do it saying he was really good and never missed. He went to the right and went right through the vein. I felt so sorry for the both of them; oh the looks on their faces, they felt so bad.I kept telling them that it happens, don’t worry about it, I don’t get upset until the 6th or 7th time. He went left and managed to get it but in a vein right along the bone. I found that to be surprisingly more painful then the average IV--that’s okay, just don’t move that finger much and it won’t rub much, right? Oh I was sooo glad to get that out. And the backs of both hands are very purple.

I am still a little buzzed and kind of hungry. Food and a nap or nap and food???? 

Writing With Nothing to Say

Not really anything has been going on so I just haven't had anything to write. My life is mostly boring; I like it that way. I got my excitement when I was young. And if I need drama there is my soap opera--he he he.

Had an issue with the dogs last week, well, a week and a half now, I think. I don't know what happened to start it but all three wound up in a brawl. It is not fun separating three large fighting dogs. Both Ron and I got bit. Angus needs to be kept apart from the other two. He spends most of his time apart from them anyway so it isn't that hard to deal with.

Yesterday afternoon I typed this out in an email to a friend about what has been going on and I am just going to copy and paste it here because other than the dog fight, really nothing has been going on, too cold.

In my town (the place I live not the town we go to the store at) there is a property going up for auction for tax issues. A lot of talk about it for many reasons but mostly it is sort of a prime property except the dude has a pile of old roofing that is twice the size of my house that the EPA now knows about and so has to be cleaned up, properly; it is going to be costly. Still, it has a *really* good spring on it that has never in memory stopped. During the big droughts in the 30’s it was the only spring still flowing and everybody would take turns driving their cattle to it in a day; it kept everybody's cattle alive right around here when others were dying  for lack of water all over the place. The guy that had the place is a real ass. We are friendly with his parents; his dad won’t talk to him though his mom still does. He has 3 kids that won’t have anything to do with him. Because of him another guy we are friendly with is going to prison for 3 years (probably to keep his son from going) and he isn’t going to survive it, he doesn’t have 3 years left in him. I don’t remember what started it but the ass decided to call the cops on the other guys for something stupid and then it was discovered that the backhoe they had had for 15 or so years had been stolen from the state or something 18 years ago--my years are a little fuzzy but they bought it stolen, they did not steal it, and have had it for quite some time; we have been here 13 years and they had it when we moved here. I am thinking how that turned out might have a bit to do with the guy bailing on his place here and moving to Springfield. It might be a bit bad for his health for him to stay.

The only other thing I can think of is the brother of the woman that lives up the hill stopped by on his way to go get the truck of a neighbor that was supposed to be on the hill with the cemetery. It was a good thing I saw him and started talking to him, Ron wound up giving him a ride because it was still close to a mile to go and it was not on cemetery hill; it was on the paved hill--which made much more sense. You see, the truck’s owner’s grandson had been driving it and had been taken to jail the night before. I thought they must have wanted him pretty bad to get him at cemetery hill--the cops almost never leave pavement. He was pulled over on pavement and managed to convince them not to impound his granddaddy’s truck. But the story isn’t as interesting as it started because the cops didn’t leave the pavement.

Best possible police response time if called -- 45 min. I live in about as close to lawlessness as exists in this country. I don’t mind.

So, that is the big news here.

Tink's Birthday

Tink had been on a countdown to her birthday for quite a while. As the amount of days until her birthday dropped under a week, she started getting a bit stressed about it; she wasn't seeing preparations for it, I guess. She had spotted a CD that was supposed to be for her birthday about 2 weeks before but she hadn't seen anything else. The day before her birthday, Sunday, I wrapped her presents and put them in a visible, but out of the way and hard to reach, place. She calmed down. And she didn't touch the presents that day.

So, Happy Tinker's birthday. She told both me and her dad "Happy Birthday," I assume she told Morg that too. We did our morning chores and where having a little sit-down time before I got up to make her a no-bake cheesecake, which is the only kind of "cake" she will eat. The next thing I know, Morg is saying, "Did you know Tink has some of her presents open?" That is what we get for turning our back for a minute. She had 3 out of 4 DVDs opened. She decided it was her birthday and she wanted her presents. I had to go get the remaining gifts and protect them while we got everything else ready.

I got the cheesecake ready and we sand "Happy Birthday" which Tink can't stand. She blew out her candles and then opened her last DVD. She wasn't as interested in the other 3 packages because they were not the right shape for a CD or DVD but we coaxed her into opening them. They were shirts, one with Alice in Wonderland, one with Pocahontas, and one with Scooby Doo. She did like them and even held them up in front of her to "model" them of sorts.

A little while later we headed into town for a movie. We still owed Morg a movie for her birthday but a chance for us to go did not correspond with a movie we/she wanted. But there is a movie playing right now that Morg did want to see and not one Tink has mentioned but she does like going to the movies. So we all went to see the Thor movie. It was entertaining and Tink did real good. There is a movie coming out very soon she does want to see, "Frozen" is the name. But this time we are hitting the matinee like we usually do. I could believe the cost for the 4 of us, and it isn't a pricey place.

We got home after the movie and Tink immediately started her Christmas countdown figuring her birthday was over.

Today has been a hard day for her but I am not real sure why. She seems angry. We have had some internet issues today, very slow connections and at least twice it just stopped working but came back before I could call about it. That might be the cause of the mood.

Oh, and the cow is recovering nicely.

A.W.O.L.

The milk cow we have had for years, the matriarch if you will, had her calf on Friday the 15th, in the mid-afternoon. This was unusual because she has always caved on a holiday of some sort. I was really expecting the calf on Veteran's Day. And as it turns out the calf was a little over-cooked--it really should have been born a few days before--right about Veteran's Day. It is a bull calf and we decided to call it A.W.O.L. because it didn't "report for duty" on time. And he had to be retrieved, he wasn't coming on his own. He was a bit big with a big head and his front feet were not in the right position. He got stuck and we had to pull him. It wasn't easy, between the cow and Ron both giving everything they had, that calf still almost didn't make it out. It was taking so long we both thought the calf was probably dead. Ron is not a little guy. We only managed to get one foot forward of the nose so the rope was only on that one leg, and he was using all his weight and strength pulling. I wouldn't have made a dent, I am half his size and am still coming back from a few years of malnutrition. Ron was pulling so hard I thought he was going to pull the calf's leg off, but at this point we didn't have hope for the calf. And then the little guy, with just his head and one foot sticking out, opened up his eyes and looked right at me. So the calf was still alive but still stuck and now we were afraid of killing it but the cow was the primary concern. I really do not know how to explain all this well, a stuck calf is something that kind of needs to be experienced first hand to really understand, it goes beyond just the standard "cow needs a little help so we gotta pull the calf." This guy was *stuck.* Sometimes when it is this bad, in order to try to save the cow, someone goes in and cuts the calf up to take it out in pieces. Either that or the cow will most certainly be lost. But that did not prove to be necessary. And since I already told you we named it I am sure you deduced that calf is still alive. He was a bit slow coming to his feet but that was a very traumatic birth soo…

But now the cow. Even once the calf is out, the trauma of the birth is still an issue for the cow. A pinched nerve during birth is common anytime a calf needs pulled, let alone one this stuck; heck every once in a while it happens on an normal birth. The pinched nerve issue will put a cow down because she can't feel one or both back legs. If they stay down, they will get worse because their own weight will start shutting off blood flow to the legs and you loose them. If you can keep them up, sometimes the feeling returns and everything is fine. Getting an animal that weighs roughly 1000 lbs. from a laying to a standing position is not really something that a person can do without the help of machines. And sometimes it injures the cow.

But Lily, though unsteady, stayed on her feet after the birth. Heck, she is a tough Irish gal. Everything seemed fine until Saturday midday when she was laying down more and not getting up easy when coaxed. Then a few hours later she lay down by the fence next to the creek bed and after getting a little time to rest was coaxed to get up, she tried and couldn't. This is a problem. A bit later her rump started to slide under the fence. Ron started calling around for help, we had to get her out from under the fence and we had to get her up. While this was going on she managed to get herself out from under the fence. What a good girl she is. She was in stage 2 of milk fever, we should have noticed the signs in stage 1, she drug it out longer than that stage usually lasts, she was dragging out stage 2 pretty long too, thankfully. By the time a cow hits stage 3 the chance of saving them drops significantly. Ron found someone with the stuff we needed but it was most of the way to town to go get the stuff, treatment for milk fever and these things called hip huggers that are used with a tractor to lift a down cow. We also had a neighbor at ready with a tractor to use. But since lifting an animal that size often does damage in itself the best thing to do is give the med for milk fever and hope they get up on their own. We were ready to cut the fence but we couldn't let her slide down the slope into the creek. She made that unnecessary; she never was good at respecting fences anyway. It did take two doses of the med but about 45 -50 min. after the first dose she could be coaxed up. She looked around for just a moment and didn't see her calf so she headed right to the calf pen, which she knew had to be where he was if she couldn't see him, unsteady but with purpose she made her way there. Of course he was there, she knows that where the calves are put for safety at night, and by this time it was night. She started nosing the hay and started eating. A bit later when Ron went out he gave her some grain in the calf pen but she followed him out, took a big drink of water and walked right into the milking stall -- where she believes she should eat.

Today she is a little off her feed but is standing. We will give her another dose of the treatment today if Ron can find a place on Sunday that sells it. If not I guess a another special trip to town tomorrow and we will hope some molasses on her feed, both making it more palatable and adding calcium, will get her going.

She is 12, we have had her since she was under 6 months old. For the last 9 or 10 years this gal has been giving us milk and meat (by way of offspring), she really does a lot for our family, is part of it, and her loss would be horrible.

On another note, hunting season, firearm, started this weekend (one of the reasons the cow wasn't up on the hill when she went into labor and would have made the situation deadly). But it is almost 70 degrees out, not good for hunting deer. I am in a t-shirt. And good golly is it windy today. When I let the chickens out this morning a gust hit that actually blew some of them up against the fence. Sitting way down here in the holler means we don't usually get much wind at all so to have gusts like that is incredible. I am glad I don't live on the ridge.

Some Things About My Tinker

Just some little things that probably seem like nothing to most people. Tink is soon to be 17 and she has been counting down to her birthday for, gosh, over two months now. We had been wondering if she could keep more than one countdown at a time; earlier this year we found out she could, at least she could do a long and short count. A short count is under a week, a long count is, obviously, longer. We found out just this last month she can keep two long counts as we approached Halloween and she had her birthday countdown. So that is pretty cool. I wonder how many counts she can keep.

Today there was something that stood out that really put me to writing this. She has had a DVD, for quite a few years, of "An American Tail." If you don't know the movie it doesn't matter, it is an animated kids movie. There is an "Extra" on the DVD that is a counting game that is about the level of a 5 - 6 year old. A bunch of coins drop that are different colors and have different symbols on them and then it asks for  "How many  ______?" and list the numbers 1 - 10, or something, and the kid has to choose the right amount to move on. Tink always did great with the first two levels, well, once we actually got her to listen to what was being asked for, but the third level asked for combinations; instead of "How many hearts?" or, "How many blue ones?" it would be "How many blue hearts?" Tink was not real keen on the combo questions. Today she is wearing a Halloween t-shirt with a big owl on it along with a few ghosts and a handful of bats. I asked her what was on her shirt, she told me "owl." I asked her what "that" was as I pointed to a ghost and she said "ghost." I asked her how many ghosts and she counted them for me, (there are three). Then I asked about the bats; she told me what they were and I asked how many and she told me six, there are six. I then asked how many black bats and she counted them and said four. I am standing ther just amazed but don't want to get too excited and freak her out. I asked "How many orange bats?" And she counted the two orange ones. Pretty durn good for a kid diagnosed as so low functioning we were never supposed to be able to potty train her.

And not to be indelicate, but she is able to handle her monthly period herself with the use of adult diapers instead of pads or tampons; and she does not potty in the diapers, they are for her period and she knows it.

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that our internet went out for for a little bit and how Tink did. The day after I wrote that our power was knocked out. The power Co. said someone knocked a tree down on the line. It was out for a few hours. That was not as easy for her as just the internet, there was no movies she could play or anything. Ron pulled out an old Littlest Pet Shop game that hasn't seen the light of day in eight years and three of us played, Morg was too busy being a teen. It took one game for us to remember how to play, a second game went pretty weel, and you have to understand the whole time Tink is playing she is angry and crying. Towards the end of the second game every time she moves her piece she kind of grinds it into the space it landed on. By the third game she is in quite a state and between her turns is running into the other room and throwing herself on the floor, amongst other things. About halfway through this third game the power comes back on. Tink starts crying differently and saying, "I missed you" and "I love You" and started hugging me. It wasn't me she was talking to though, it was electricity that she loves and missed. That is okay, she tells me she loves me all the time. Okay, so the power is back on and she runs around the house turning on all the TVs and setting up the movies, and gets her computer up and running --- then she sits back down to finish the game, happy as could be. Ron and I were both surprised to no end; we didn't expect her back to finish the game.

She has been getting very good at answering yes or no, or similar, questions without being prompted for an answer. That is good because now we are sure if it is one or the other and not that she is just repeating the last word we say: "yes or no?" "no," or "no or yes" "yes." Aside from being much easier on us it shows a new level of understanding for her.

She knows the days of the week, maybe by name, maybe not, I used to make her say them but haven't in a while, but she gets dressed herself on every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday now. That means she is going to town for french fries in her head. I am not sure why she got the Tuesday and Sunday but I do know where Thursday came from. On any other day she chooses "home" over "town." if asked, she will get dressed to go to town on an off day if she has to.

She can also find November, her birth month on a calendar.

She absolutly will not allow me to sing, hum, dance, or anything of the like, nor will she tolerate whistling; I think the whistling hurts her ears but that doesn't account for the other stuff, not that I am the only one she doesn't want to sing.

Children are raised, and disciplined, very different now than they used to be. I was sort of in the mid-transition period, now we are sort of in the latter-transition period. Right now even yelling at a child is easily construed as abuse. When Tink goes into a full-blown meltdown -- otherwise unreachable -- If I get into her face and yell her name, she will focus on me and I have a chance, right then, to reach her. I have shocked many a person, even Ron initially because of the force of my voice, to the point of where I could see in their faces that it might be abuse. But if I can catch it, her attention for a split second, I can then talk to her and start calming her. If a good meaning person who is so sure I am doing the wrong thing interferes, and it has happened, the chance is lost. And it is usually the person tells me a child tunes out yelling but will listen to a whisper. Yeah, she can't hear the flippin' whisper while she is in meltdown. I am not totally against spanking, obviously there is an "age out" time and Tink doesn't fit anymore but that isn't why I brought this up. Before we left Colorado, Ron had some appt. in a hospital, Tink was right around 3 years, Morg was under 6 months. Ron was in with the doc, or tech, or whoever, and Tink was starting to stress. She laid down on the floor and started making swimming motions. I thought that was very cool and resourceful of her to come up with such a mild stress release compared to some of the other things she had done or could do. Two elderly women were sitting in the chairs that backed the ones I was in with tiny Morg, unaware that I was the mother of the girl swimming on the floor. One said to the other something about how a good spanking would make that child behave more appropriately in public. I turned my head and politely asked the woman, me with a new babe in arms, if she was spanked as a child. She proudly stated she was. I told her, "In that case, it doesn't work, because what you just said was one of the most inappropriate things I had ever heard." I did take a moment to tell her about Tink being autistic and how people always seem to know how to raise other people's children. Then, speaking about fears of false abuse reports, just a few minutes later, Ron comes back and we have to walk a little ways to a different area of the hospital, Tink walking with us easily until she realizes we are not leaving yet, she stops in the hall, people all around us. I have Morg in my arms and gently give a directional push to Tink's shoulder--she would not hold hands at that time, and calling on every scrap of theatrics she had, and it was a good amount, she threw herself into the air and onto the ground 4 foot away from where she had been, slowly picks her head up and turns it to look at me with a confused and scared expression. As I said, the hallway had many people and I am now standing there looking very much like I just threw my child, forcibly, to the ground.  I heaved a big sigh, stuck my hand down to help her up and calmly asked her not to do that anymore as people do not realize that she is pretending. It worked, for both her (for that visit) and the people in the hospital.

I am not sure she would technically qualify as autistic anymore. If the diagnosis is anything like it was when she was first diagnosed, four things from three separate categories of symptoms, she might not. She would still be what is commonly called PDD-NOS, which is pervasive developmental disorder - not otherwise specified, and is an "almost autism;" three things from three categories or seven things from only two categories instead of the four from three. She is mid-functioning, instead of the low-functioning she was initially diagnosed; still a long ways from self-responsible but not as hard for a care-taker. Aside from food issues, understanding the spoken word has always been Tink's biggest problem. That is getting better and in a way almost contrary to what "studies" say about learning languages. It is almost like her language learning is in slow motion and given another 50 years, or so, she might have the spoken language skills of a 10 year old. Thank goodness other things go quicker. The kid is far from stupid. And her "acting" is not autistic in nature. Repeating lines from movies, over and over, is very autistic; to understand the interplay of acting is not; she has always done her acting.

I used to read to her all the time. I can't remember when, specifically, she decided I was not going to do that anymore but she was quite adamant about it. Years went by and we would occasionally try to read to her to no avail. Then, one time, she let Ron read to her to get her ready for bed, he kept it up. Then he kind of needed a break so I tried, nope, had to be dad. So for a bout 3 1/2  to 4 years Ron has read a story to her, first time he really could not, I don't recall why, she got mad and would not let me. The next time she put up with me doing it, now if he can’t I have to (I have no problem with it) but if he can, I cannot.

And she handled Ron being gone okay but she is glad he is back. He didn't get to see Lake Erie but he did get to add two more states, Indiana and Ohio. I have travelled more in one year, more than once, than he has in his life. I wonder sometimes if we should have opted for the RV life instead of homestead life; it was an option at the time.