2010 going fast

It seems like just yesterday I was adjusting to writing a 1 before the 0 whenever I had to write a date down. 01/04/10 typically became 01/04/0 and then I "fit" the one in before the zero. Now it's November and with the holidays, these two final months of the year typically fly by. I doubt I will get 2011 right the first time.

Today is Douglas's birthday. Due to a mailing restriction imposed on him by his wife, he gets no presents to open from his family in the states. This blog is a reminder to him that next year we won't listen to her and send it anyway. :) Happy Birthday Douglas!

Thursday 7/22

Today I heard from all my favorite peeps. A client brought in a vase of flowers, my co-workers gave me cards and ice cream cake, the flower shop delivered daisies and roses - my favorite combo. A barbershopper gal sang to me; my son and daughter called long distance. My husband took me out for supper. My sisters-in-law and mother-in-law wrote wishes on fb, as did church family. I got an email from my favorite radio station, too. What a great day!

Flowers

Today Levi needed some motivation to do some studying. I told him I had just the thing for him, in a roundabout way. First, we must change out of our best white shoes, gather a koolaid pitcher and a shovel, then go to Wal-Mart, then the church building, where we will plant about 10 flowers in the front of the building. He asked how that is supposed to help him study?

Since it is so hot outside there is a heat advisory, doing anything in this heat will break a sweat, causing the immediate need for a shower, which is refreshing enough you don't want to get dirty the rest of the day and you'll stay inside and what better thing to do than get that studying out of the way?

We have marigolds and petunias and geraniums and impatients planted now.

Saturday afternoon stuff

Today we both were off work, so we decided to get a couple things done that we've been putting off. Yesterday I ordered some muffler parts for "grampa" the ancient Honda Civic. We drove up north to NAPA after finding out they came in today. A quick browse through Sears, a drive through lunch, and we're back home.

Ray started in removing whatever pipes and bolts were left of the old exhaust, making quick work of it installing the new stuff. He got a phone call just as he finished up. It was his dad coming out for a visit.

Before Ray Sr. got to the farm, we cleaned up the shop floor and pulled another car into the garage. A battery that goes under the back seat needed to be installed, and both Rays managed to handle that chore.

The two guys also tackled a job involving Ray Sr.'s van hatch not shutting and draining his battery somehow. After some tightening of some bolts that look like something Frankenstein's neck would don, and a little WD-40; voila, the idiot light on the dash went out.

Next, we planted an Austrian Pine in the front yard (all three of us) but only Ray Jr. got his hands dirty. :) And with that, we called it a day. Stars Wars I, II, and III are playing this afternoon. I guess we'll just watch t.v. the rest of our day off.

I'm glad all that gone done. Grampa is quieter, the car starts, the tree looks nice, and I'm tired.

If you can't say something nice....

I've recently realized the effect on the body that pain has. Late November and through December, I had the headache that wouldn't go away. In January, I decided to seek medical help in determining the cause of the headache. The internal doctor put me on medication at night that left me groggy in the morning, yet still with the pain. He then requested an MRI which showed no signs of the pain. He referred me to an ear/nose/throat specialist who determined it wasn't my ear, nose, or throat causing the problem, but suggested I take medicine at night and possibly ask my dentist for a mouth guard just in case I'm grinding my teeth at night due to stress, which in turn, causes headaches. Hmmm, I skipped the dentist and bought a guard at WalMart. In the meantime, I also signed up a chiropractor to see if spine alignment might be the problem. The chiropractor decided I needed a neck adjustment and promptly gave me a pinched nerve, to this day, I still have, and am seeing a different chiropractor to remedy. The mouth guard and muscle relaxer combination relieved my headache, but now I deal with not being able to turn my head to the left and a shooting pain down my left arm. Having said all that, I am happy to be healthy, just not in any condition to "write."

I can see where prolonged pain would cause depression. It is a daily fight to overcome, and these battles I have won. The winter weather is not on my side, but the hope of Spring and Summer keeps me going.

Now, I wasn't going to write much of anything, I didn't feel like I had anything "nice" to say, so for now, I'm not going to say anything at all.