Quick update

Today is my first day back on my computer for almost two weeks.  As many of you know, I had eye surgery on the fifteenth.  My eyes were swollen shut except for a tiny slit.  My last thought in the world would be to get on the computer.  I couldn’t see to do anything.  This included reading and watching TV, so I listened to music while I iced my face.

My husband said I looked like I had gone a dozen rounds with Mohammad Ali.  I felt like that too.  The whole idea was to get rid of this constant eye drip and the only way was surgery.  I have to use eye drops and ointment for another ten days.  The ointment is like looking through a foggy cloud.  Imagine putting Vaseline in your eye.  You get the picture.

I’ve iced my face for at least fifty hours now.  Everything is getting better slowly.  Tomorrow is my first day back at work after this ordeal.  I’ll be wearing sunglasses for a while and have permission to do so.  Otherwise, I would have to talk about my face all day.  No thanks.

This time of year probably isn’t the season to undergo surgery like this, but I have no family close by so I wanted to get it over with.  I could still talk to them by phone and it doesn’t matter what I look like then.

So for anyone who receives cards from me, I apologize for falling off the wagon this year.  I didn’t even put out holiday decorations nor do any cooking.

I’m sleeping in a recliner until my stitches come out on the second.  Actually, I’ve found this arrangement to be much easier on my back, which is a good thing because exercise is out right now too.  Usually that’s the only thing that can get me moving in the morning.

I’ll give you more of a story on this whole trial when I can see well.

I hope you all had a very Happy Yule and Merry Christmas, as well as a great upcoming New Year, which is right around the corner.

More updates from the desert

Sorry for my sporadic posting.  There never seems to be enough hours in a day for everything.  I’ve been working as much as I can because I’ll be having eye surgery on the fifteenth to correct my dripping eyes.  I’m looking forward to this as it gets very old after several years with a runny eye situation going on.  I’m constantly asked “why are you crying?” at work.  I get tired of explaining to all the customers and carrying Kleenex in every pocket. 

I have to admit I had this situation under control for a short while by using the correct formula of eye drops for my dry eyes, but my bottom eyelids have tipped outward just enough to let the tears flow down my face all day long, instead of into my tear ducts.  This surgeon is going to tack my bottom eyelids up.  I’ve been waiting about three months for this surgery, so I’m looking forward to having this problem solved, but I’m nervous at the same time.  I’ve watched a lot of You Tube videos on these procedures.  The doctor told me to stop doing that because it was too scary, but actually all the disclaimers I had to sign were much scarier than the videos.  Of course doctors have to cover themselves for any scenario.  Hopefully, none of these possible bad things will happen to me.  I’m going in with a positive mind.

I’ll be off work for a minimum of four days due to swelling and black eyes.  I have to sleep in a recliner for the first four-five days because I have to sleep on my back all night and there’s no way I can do that with my back issues.  The recliner will be much better for me.  I can’t turn over if I want to and it’ll remind me not to.  I did sleep in a recliner once years ago when I broke some ribs.  It’s actually not that bad.

After the surgery, I’ll have to apply ice packs to my face all day long, as well as use eye drops and ointment on the incisions and stitches.  It’ll be an ordeal, but I’m hoping all goes smoothly and I’m back at work soon.  I got permission from my boss to wear sunglasses while I have black eyes and stitches because it’ll sure look better than my bare face.  I’ll have to update this situation later.  I’m hoping the sunglasses I found are light enough to be acceptable.  It’s very hard to find ones that are barely tinted.

I’m sure I’ll receive other instructions on Thursday and Friday.  Right now I’ve collected all the stuff I’ll need, supposedly, so I’m ready to get this over with.  I’ll be off the computer for a few days, at least, because my vision will be blurry due to the ointment.  I’m sure I should rest my eyes anyway and not be looking at a computer screen.  I did buy an audio book to listen to because reading will be out of the question too, as well as TV, at least for the first few days after.

 This is from Pinterest and is like the fox in the backyard

On another note, a few days ago we had a gray fox in the backyard.  It was beautiful and looked so well-groomed and perfect.  It came to drink water from the pans we have all over the yard for the animals that happen by.  Water is hard to find, in the desert, so we help them out.  We really wanted to get a picture, but the camera wouldn’t shoot through the glass windows and we knew he would run if we opened the door, so we just watched him.

We’ve had a few days in the forties and nights in the upper twenties, but nothing horrible yet, thank goodness.  I really hate the cold.  I know bad weather is coming soon though because December and January are the coldest months here.  I was shocked when my sister told me it snowed in south Texas on Friday.  They were colder than it was here.  Snow is a rare event there.  That makes only the third time it’s snowed there during my lifetime.  I remember the first time I ever saw snow.  I was about nine and it snowed only enough to cover the grass and dirt, but we kids were bundled up and out there trying to build a snowman out of whatever snow we could salvage.  It was a muddy snowman, but we were very proud of ourselves for all that effort.

I can’t believe Christmas is almost here again.  The years go by faster all the time.  I’m so unprepared this year and, due to the circumstances, I’m not putting up a tree.  I don’t have the time and I’ll be on bed-rest after this surgery anyway.  I can’t bend, or do anything much for a few days.  I hate to deprive the cats, but I have to.  They love that tree so much, but I’m not up for sweeping up broken ornaments every day and putting the tree back together.  I’m sure the rest of you are a lot more organized than I am.

Stay warm and well everyone.  I'll be back as soon as I can.

Cold weather is coming

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  Our weather has been lovely for this time of year, but by Monday we have a cold snap coming in and it’ll be quite chilly for the immediate future.  Our lows will be in the twenties, but feeling more like the teens the weather station says.  This is devastating for me to hear because I hate cold weather.  I’ll just be glad to get it over with.

 This sunset is from a couple of weeks ago

 

We have been enjoying some nice orange and gold sunsets almost every evening.  That keeps me running for the camera.  I don’t have the photos downloaded yet of the latest ones.  I’ll have to post some later.

A whole new set of “blow-up toys” has appeared in the yard of the house three doors down from us.  The people who bought that house moved in last summer along with one of their kids who has kids.  So I imagine all these toys are to impress the grand-kids.  You would need a whole bay in the garage to store this stuff, but hubby mentioned they probably rented it.  That does make more sense.  While driving by in daylight, I did see a big dinosaur in back by the pool.  I imagine he’s there all year and isn’t a rented toy.

In other news, my hand is recovering slowly from my “big ouchy” I received on November 1^st while preparing for the tile job in the bedroom.  I damaged a tendon so now I have a gigantic cyst about the size of a quarter on top of my hand.  I went to the doctor again this week.  He told me years ago they used to call them “bible bumps” because the missionaries would get into accidents and they had no medical treatment for things like this, so they would drop heavy bibles on the cysts to make them go away.  He said this doesn’t work and I’ll only end up with a sore hand if I try it. 

He told me he could drain it, but there was a 30% chance of it coming back.  Of course I told him to go and get the stuff and do it.  But he wants me to wait another six weeks and see if it goes away on its own.  There’s a slim chance of that happening.  Then he told me it wasn’t so bad, but I let him know I didn’t intend on becoming friends with it and I want it gone.  He told me since the gash was barely healed he didn’t want to lance it yet because I could get an infection.  I personally felt he just didn’t want to deal with that right then.  So I guess I’m going back in there in six weeks to have it lanced.  No one seems to understand I just want to get things done and over with and move on.  I don’t want to have to keep going back for the same thing for weeks, not if I can help it.

In the interim, I’m to be careful for another couple of weeks and then I can resume my usual duties at work.  I do notice this hand cramps a lot so maybe that will resolve itself at least.

I’m also preparing for eye surgery on the 15^th.  That’s kept me running to get all the stuff I need for that because I’ll be confined to the house for a while.  It took me the longest time to pick out a lighter pair of sunglasses I can wear to work once I go back.  I’ll have stitches and bruises on my eyes so my boss told me sunglasses would be okay while they’re healing.  Part of my surgery will be paid for because the reason I’m having it done in the first place is to get rid of my running eyes.  That situation is driving me crazy.  So while I’m not looking forward to two black eyes, I can’t wait to be normal again and not have Kleenex in all my pockets to wipe my eyes every two minutes all day long.

I’ll be off work for four days because I have to keep an ice pack on my face.  I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get on the computer at all during that time because of the swelling from the surgery.  I’ve watched a few eye surgery videos and it seems I can expect for my eyes to be heavy and sleepy and I’ll want to rest them.  So thinking ahead, I bought a mystery audio book I can listen to with my eyes closed.  We’ll see how that goes.

Naturally, with all this going on, I’m not putting up the tree again this year.  I hope the cats will forgive me.  I only do it for them and will actually be glad to get the holidays behind us again.  They roll around way too quick for me.

Happy Thanksgiving

It’s time for us all to remember to have an attitude of gratitude.  We have so many blessings in our lives, despite all the horrible things going on in the world today.  The news stations seem to have an endless supply of all the crazy and stupid things that people do.  I could go on and on about this subject because there are so many things that I have opinions about, as I imagine all of you do.  Sometimes we need to vent those feelings and using a blog to do so is a good way to do it.  There will always be people on both sides of any issue that comes to light because that’s just human nature.  We aren’t all alike.

But it’s Thanksgiving, one of the most important holidays of the year.  I want to look past all the allegations of sexual misconduct coming out in the news daily and all the ungrateful athletes and other people who dishonor the flag.  I really think this country pays these people more than they’re worth anyway and if they don’t like things here, or respect this country, they should go home.  If I was an owner of these sports teams they’d be fired in a heartbeat.  Where is the gratitude for all the blessings that all these people have?  Why did they want to come to the USA in the first place?  They have nothing to complain about because there are many people that are far worse off than they are.  I guess I’ll never understand their way of thinking.

We should all be grateful for the simple things that a lot of these people take for granted.  We have food on the table and a roof over our heads and warm clothing to protect us from the cold.  We have jobs and are willing to work for the small necessities of life.  There are so many in this country that are less fortunate than that. 

 This includes our pets too and not just the people in our lives.

As we sit down with friends and family let us all be thankful for the fellowship and the food we can share.  Nothing is for certain and next year can always be different than today.  None of us make it out of this world alive.  Let’s try to be nice to our fellow man while we’re here and can make a small difference in someone’s life. 

We were always taught growing up that things could always be worse and today I realize they can be.  I grew up on a cotton farm with my siblings and we did live in poverty at the time, although we all had each other and parents who loved us and we made the best of the situation we were in.  I don’t think any of us would go back to that time today, but we know we can make it if we have to and growing up like that makes you grateful for your blessings and more tolerant of things that life can dish out.

A pumpkin full of kittens

Go forth everyone and cherish this time with your family and friends.  Put your differences aside and be grateful for all your blessings.  Happy Thanksgiving to all.

As a side note, my father would have been 93 on the 22^nd.  But he passed away at age 55.  None of us knows how long we have in this life, so we should make every minute count.

Quirks, Irks and Mishaps

As usual there’s always way too much going on in daily life around my place, hence I’m a bit tardy with this post.

When I was eating breakfast about a week ago, I heard a loud thud on the large windows we have in the family room.  We have three windows across the house facing the desert and many a bird has met their demise by hitting them while flying at full speed.

The first thing that entered my mind was the fact I was going to have to find a shovel to bury another bird, thinking it was probably a quail, or pigeon, or perhaps a dove.  I was not up to this task because of the mishap I had while we were preparing for the tile job in our master bedroom and closet.  But I hate to throw dead birds into the trash bin because I think they do deserve a proper burial.  I guess maybe this is a quirk of mine.

 Wow!  Isn't this something?

I got a surprise when I looked out to see a bird of prey knocked out on my patio.  This never happens.  They are too adept at flying and usually chase other birds they’re hunting into the windows.  I grabbed the camera and stood there taking pictures and willing him to wake up and fly away. 

I’m happy to say he did eventually come to his senses enough to fly into the desert where he probably sat a spell until he was revived enough to carry on with his daily routine.

The mishap I mentioned earlier is to my right hand, which is still bandaged three weeks later.  I guess this is going to mean another trip to the doctor.  My mistake here was not going to the doctor to start with and treating myself at home like I usually do.  I’m sure this will just be another battle scar of life to the old bod.

 Isn't this beautiful tile?  It looks like wood.

As mentioned earlier, we put tile in the bedroom and closet so we had old carpet and pad to tear out before the tile layer got here to start the job on the first of November.  Just getting this stuff out and the rooms down to concrete was such a big chore that it wore us out.  Of course all the furniture had to be moved first before any removal could be done as far as carpet and pad were concerned. 

The first day was spent draining the water bed and getting that out of there first, and then came the frame pieces and finally chairs and dresser and chest of drawers, etc.  Then we had to remove everything from the lower half of the closet.  We took four days off work to get all this done, which we needed and then some.  We had furniture, bedding and clothing in every room in the house.  Of course, my cats loved all this excitement.

 Raven snuggled into the bedding we had piled on the couch.

The next day we had to rip the carpet out and then the pad.  The first thing I did was step on the tack strip barefoot.  Duh!  How stupid was that?  I was hauling loads out of the closet and working in the construction zone barefoot.  It was all rush; rush because we only had a couple of days to prepare everything for the tile guy.

By the time we got to the carpet pad we were worn out, but had to get down on our hands and knees with putty knives to scrape up the remnants.  I really don’t know what kind of glue they use for carpet pads, but I think it’s meant to stay there a lifetime.  We made the mistake of leaving all the pictures and sculptures on the walls.  I got up to get the hammer to pull out a tack in the cement floor and fell against the wall because I was so tired.  This knocked an Indian metal sculpture off the wall and it gashed me good and deep across my right hand in two places.  I’m lucky it missed my head. 

Of course I ran for the bathroom sink leaving a trail of blood behind me.  It did cross my mind to go to the emergency room.  My hand looked like a fillet of meat.  I thought I may need stitches.  But it was late in the day and the emergency room would have cost a fortune, not to mention hours of time we didn’t have, so we finally got the bleeding stopped enough to use a band aide to patch it together.

So I kept doctoring this hand twice a day and bandaging it up.  After about a week I decided I should probably see the doctor for it.  Of course, this was impossible too because you can never get an appointment when you need one, so I spent an entire day sitting in the waiting room to see the doctor on call for the day.  They gave me a tetanus shot and also an antibiotic shot along with a prescription for antibiotics.  They said I had done a good job with it so far.  I can say that shot in the rear end made me forget my hand for a while because it hurt so bad I could hardly walk for about three hours. 

I headed to the pharmacy and then to Walmart to get a new heating pad.  Mine is about twenty years old and I’m not sure it even works anymore.  I got home just before dark.  I couldn’t believe it took all day to deal with this.

I’m back to work, but doing easy demos while my hand is healing.  It’s still a bit swollen and red and itches like mad.  I think I’m allergic to the ointment they gave me, the bad aides I’m using, or something, so I’ll have to make an appointment on my next day off and see if I can get in again to have them look at my hand.  I’m ready for this to be well, so I can move on to other things.  I have to keep it dry so I have to put on a glove and rubber band around my wrist so I can take a shower.  It’s getting old.

 This is my hand these days.  I wasn't thinking about the camera when this first happened.

I’ll end this long post with the irk portion.  Three of my neighbors have Xmas lights up already!  Good grief!  This is even earlier than last year!  Doesn’t anyone celebrate Thanksgiving anymore?  I know the house down the block at least remembers Thanksgiving is after Halloween and before Xmas because they have a whole new load of large “blow up” lawn ornaments for Thanksgiving.  As annoying as this looks, at least it’s not Xmas lights yet.  It irks me a great deal to see Xmas decorations go up before Thanksgiving.

 This is one of the prettiest sunrises I've seen since living here.  The whole sky was like this.  It was amazing.  It was about 50 degrees but I stepped out on my patio in my pj's and got this shot.

 

We should all be so thankful for all the blessings we have every day.  But the holidays have become so commercialized.  Decorations are showing up in the stores earlier every year.  I just really hate this, but I know it won’t change.  We had Halloween costumes in Costco in August and then Xmas trees up in September.  Ugh!  What is this world coming to?

Dog and Cat Diaries

Some of you have probably seen this before, but it’s still funny every time I read it.  Hopefully, this will bring a smile to your day.

The Dog's Diary

From internet search for dogs

8:00 am – Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am – A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am – A walk in the park! My favorite thing! 
10:30 am – Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm – Milk bones! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm – Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm – Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm – Dinner! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm – Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm – Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm – Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

The Cat's Diary

 Photo from Tumblr

Day 983 of My Captivity

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates my capabilities. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a “good little hunter” I am.

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of “allergies.” I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow, but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released, and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously a moron. The bird must be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now…