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.

Is there such a thing as too much thinking?

My mind has been all over the place lately.  Thinking has to be good, right?  But it can be distracting too.  Some crazy questions come to mind all the time.  Among them are “Why do lizards do pushups?”  And “What is the difference between regular shoes and orthopedic shoes?”

I’ve been off work a few days due to bad blisters on my feet caused by my shoes.  I’m not one to go to the doctor for every little scratch and am most likely to look up a way to treat myself over the internet.  This foot condition escalated fast.  When I got home from work last week and got my shoes off, I knew I had to call in sick and make a doctor’s appointment.  Lucky for me, they had a cancellation and I was able to get in the next morning.

Now, I’m on foot soaks, medicated ointment three times a day and some antibiotic tablets.  I was instructed not to wear any closed-toed shoes for a week.  That was music to my ears because I hate closed-in toes, especially in the summer.  I went and talked to my boss and offered to come in, if I could wear sandals with socks for the week.  Of course the answer to that was no.  I hated missing the hours, but I figured it was best to follow the doctor’s orders.  The first four or five day I couldn’t have gotten my feet into a sneaker anyway.  They were too sore for that.

 Orthopedic shoes go here

The doctor also wrote me a prescription for orthopedic shoes.  Oh my.  Am I that old already?  I always thought this type of shoe was for old people. 

I went to a place in town I’d never been to before because I had to do my research and find out how much extra all this was going to cost me.  I also called my Medicare provider to see if it was covered.  It sounds like it’ll be a 20/80 kind of deal, but only if the right codes are used when ordering the shoes.  Hmmm…I guess I’m about to find out pretty quickly what that is.  I have to see a foot doctor on Wednesday the ninth.  He wants to x-ray my feet.  I hope I’m not in for all sorts of ailments now that I’m old enough for Medicare.  I’m thankful I’ve been healthy most of my life except for a few strange things that have happened.  Luckily, I had enough sense to go to the doctor for those.  I usually ignore the situation and think it’ll get better on it’s on, or with my help from some natural remedies I come up with.

My research told me that orthopedic shoes can be worn by people of any age and they give more support than regular shoes.  The support is geared to the problem each person is facing, so the shoes make walking and standing easier without the wear and tear on the feet, ankles and legs.  They provide more support.  The toes on these shoes are wider than most footwear and the heels are lower and sturdier.  I sure couldn’t tell that by the wall of shoes he had in the store.  They measure your feet for the right shoe.  That makes me feel better that they won’t be too darn ugly and medical looking.  I’m not too old to not care what I look like.

 Lizard goes here

As far as the lizard doing pushups, they always do that here.  We see them all over the place.  They have to stop and do pushups every few feet.  I’ve always wondered about this so I looked it up too.  My research told me that lizards do this to show strength to others in their territory.  They likened it to going to the gym to keep in shape.  This behavior is supposed to avert physical confrontations between male lizards.  They are showing any other competitors that they’re superior.  They can also do pushups to increase their body temperature.  Very interesting, huh?

I’m also very worried about a friend who had a motorcycle accident a couple of weeks ago.  He’s still in ICU.  Things look good and then they go downhill again.  I’ll be devastated if he doesn’t make it out of this.  I’ve known him too long.  He’s a good guy.  I’m so glad I got to visit with him while in Texas in May.  Right now he has a brain bleed they’re working on.  All prayers would be appreciated.

Aside from that, the weather has dipped down into the upper 90’s, so it’s a lot more pleasant than our triple digits.  We’ll take the break.

I'm posting without pictures because that area doesn't seem to be working right now.  Sorry about that.

I finally had to break down and do it

I’m talking about going to the doctor, which I hate to do.  I always try home remedies first and usually only see the doctor once a year.  I keep a positive attitude and am always optimistic about things, even when times look bleak.  Usually I can fix whatever it is myself, but sometimes it takes the advice of a sister or friend.  This usually always works.

In mid-December I had to go to the doctor when I came home from work with a fever and still had it the next day.  I had a bad cold and a sinus infection.  I think I probably wrote about that in a previous post.  The situation now is a bad case of athlete’s foot I can’t get rid of.  I’ve been trying home remedies for the last few weeks.  I attribute this to having to wear socks and sneakers daily at work.  My feet do not like socks and closed-in shoes.  I like going barefoot and wearing my flip-flops.  The first thing to come off after work is the shoes and then all the other clothes I have to put on for the job.  Anyway, this foot problem is an ongoing thing and I expect it to be as long as I have to work and wear this “uniform.”

After burning my feet with a vinegar bath twice a day, I had to call that quits after three days.  I was intending to kill the athlete’s foot fungus.  Well it seemed to get a bit better, but it also burned the rest of my feet.  Being the determined person I am, I put up with soaking for thirty minutes each time.  After the third day, even my strong will power figured I was doing more harm than good so I went back to my green alcohol and medicated Gold Bond powder.

 Birdbath fun

Just inserting a few pics here to break up the text.  Believe me you don't want to see my feet. 

 

Then I decided to unwrap my poor patio plants and water them and let them get some air.  That led to cleaning up the whole patio and getting rid of leaves and dirt and all the stuff that drifted in over the winter.  Naturally, I was wearing flip-flops to do this entire job, which took a few hours.  That finished my feet off, not to mention my poor aching back.

 Blooms on our Bradford pear tree

 

Since then I’ve had the worst blister on my big toe.  And of course the athlete’s foot is still there too, but not as bad as it was.  It was finally time to go and see the doctor again.  Good grief!  Twice in three months.  I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come.

To make a long story short, I have two new prescriptions to pick up at the pharmacy tomorrow.  Tonight I start my Epsom salt bath for my feet that I have to do twice a day.  “Stop all the home remedies” the doctor said, but the Gold Bond powder is okay and I can continue to use my ointment for the athlete’s foot until I get my prescription. 

This stuff better get rid of these foot problems because I can’t wear my flip-flops until that blister is gone.  I’m crossing my fingers here.

 Raven wanting to play

 

On a cheerier note, I got my car fixed and it looks great. The weather has been fantastic.  I love the 80’s and having the windows open.  And the cats continue to amuse me every day with their antics.

 A beautiful sunrise on the first day of spring

 

I’m still attending the citizens’ police academy and learning so much.  The chief of police came to talk to us tonight and Saturday we get to go to the shooting range and watch a demonstration by the SWAT team.  I can’t wait for that.  More later.

My Cataract Surgery Experience

I thought I’d share with all of you my experience with this because there’s a good chance many of you may need to have this surgery in the future.  Supposedly one of every ten surgeries performed in the USA daily is cataract surgery, so it’s common and routine.

However, this is still scary when you think of the prospect of a doctor cutting on your eyeball.  And of course there are a ton of disclaimers, as with anything.  They have to tell you everything that can go wrong because you have to agree to the surgery beforehand.

 There were charts like this in the doctor's office

 

So cataract surgery is what’s been going on with me during the month of July this year.  I scheduled most of my posts ahead because I didn’t know when I’d be able to get on the computer after the surgery.  They did the first eye on the eleventh and the second on the eighteenth.  Needless to say, the second eye wasn’t as traumatic as the first one.  But it was two totally different experiences.  I don’t know what the reason for that was – a different eye with a different lens implant, a different surgical team, or what?  I had the same doctor for both surgeries.

Both times I was in the operating room for about thirty minutes while they used ultra sound waves to remove the cataracts so they could implant the new lens.  They like to do the dominating eye first because supposedly one can get used to everything quicker and easier.  I’m still not used to it, but that’s another story.  I know it’ll take time, just like getting used to my trifocal glasses I had to get two and a half years ago.  Those glasses took me about two months to get used to.  Luckily I didn’t break my neck on the stairs in the process.

I decided on monovision after I got over the shock of how weird it sounded to make one eye far distance and the other near distance.  Some co-workers and one of my sisters said they loved theirs.  I felt more comfortable with the idea after talking to them.  So my far distance eye was first in the operating room.

After changing into a hospital gown, having an IV put in my arm for the sedative and being dowsed about six times in the eye with a numbing and dilating eye drop I was ready.  I had already been there two hours at this point.

 I received a nice tote bag advertising the place

 

I’m not sure what they hold your eye open with, but it felt like sticky tape to me.  They drape your whole upper body in a lightweight cloth and tell you to relax while they tie you down to a tiny stainless steel table.  They even strap your head in and tell you not to move, BUT they said I can shut the other eye, or blink, etc.  Naturally, I was stiff as a board and couldn’t relax at all.  I was afraid I’d move even blinking my other eye so I waited until I had to blink after it was burning and watering.  The only thing I could see was through a small hole that exposes the eye to be operated on.  But soon they shine a bright light in your eye and tell you to pick out a dot to focus on and stare at it the whole time.  Well there were three dots and they looked like marshmallows to me.

I stared at those as they moved all around and turned color after color as they morphed into different shapes and sizes.  It was like a psychedelic light show with all the colors of the rainbow and then more.  The only thing I remember beyond that was the blood pressure cuff going on and off as it squeezed my arm about every five minutes.  I made add that you are sedated but not unconscious so they can talk to you if they need to.

They helped me to sit up and transfer to my other bed as soon as the surgery was over.  I was a bit woozy and everything was blurry.  Then they wheeled my bed down the hallway and into recovery.  The doctor came in and said all went well and things would still be blurry when I went to my follow up appointment the next day.

I couldn’t eat all day except for the clear liquid diet you have to follow when you go in for a colonoscopy.  It was 7 PM once we left the surgical center, so hubby stopped at Subway on the way home and we got sandwiches to go.  I stayed in the car because I couldn’t see anything anyway.

 This is the awful patch, hard plastic, not comfortable and way too big

 

I had to sleep on three pillows for the first three nights and wear that awful patch, so I got little sleep.  It kept coming off so I’d have to get up in the night to tape it back on.  When I got up the next morning my eye was very blurry, but I did notice how white the walls were and the sinks in the bathroom too.  Everything was so blinding bright that I actually wore sunglasses in the house for the first two days.  My eye gradually cleared and was doing pretty well when it was time to go in for eye number two.

Preparing the patch

The second eye was my near vision lens and it was a very different experience.  First of all, the pre-op nurse was a different gal.  “Linda” from Tennessee did much better with starting my IV.  She didn’t even a leave a bruise.  I still had a nasty looking bruise on my right hand from the first surgery and the other pre-op nurse “Terri,” who was to be my doctor’s assistant in the surgery this time.

 These are my deluxe sunglasses

 

I still had to lie there watching TV with sunglasses on while my eyes got numbed and dilated but “Linda” only gave me about three doses of the drops.  I didn’t think that was enough so I asked for more in pre-op and again in the surgery.

I was finally taken back there where they hooked me up to a heart monitor, like before, and put the blood pressure cuff on, etc.  They taped my eye open again, but this time I felt like it wanted to close all during the procedure.  I don’t think the nurse got the apparatus on exactly right, or perhaps tight enough.  The doctor kept telling me to look up, look down, look toward him, etc.  The vision I was seeing this time had little color and was more like cracked eggshells or a shattered mirror or sheet of glass with lots of tiny irregular cracks running everywhere.  The background color was pale with an occasional burst of brighter color.

After surgery this eye was blurry too but wasn’t as bad as the first time because I had the good eye that was clear.  The next day it was still blurry and it still is almost two weeks later.  It’s not changing as fast as the first eye.  But I have noticed that the paper is clearer over the last couple of days and the far-sighted eye seems to be blurry when looking close up.  Both eyes previously have been trying to do the same thing – see close up and also far away and it makes them both seem blurry at times.  I’m hoping this means my brain is adjusting itself to the new situation.

 The patch taped on for the night.  Be careful here unless you want to wax your eyebrows.

 

I go back on August 10^th and he’ll tell me if I need glasses then.  I hope not because they are a huge pain in the butt.  They’re always dirty and having dry eye doesn’t help the situation of trying to keep my glasses clean.

All my eye drops

On top of all this, there are three eye drops to use daily in both eyes for a different number of days each, so I have a schedule with lots of boxes to check off so I can keep it all straight.  Having eye surgery isn’t a piece of cake, but I figure I can do anything for a month.  Sorry for the long post, but now you know what happens for cataract surgery.  More updates later.

Is it Botox or something else?

From Web MD website

I swear guys; the last couple of weeks have been a total mess.  A week and a half ago I woke up a week ago Saturday with lips twice their size.  What’s going on?  Seriously, it looked like I had Botox injections.

At least I know what I’d look like now if I ever got them.  It’s so unnatural and I can’t drink out of a glass because I spill it on myself.  My lips are too big to feel the glass edge.

I had been dealing with mouth ulcers for the previous three days and this was an extension of that.  You know the kind you get from eating tomatoes and other foods that are too acidic.  I’ve gotten in the habit of washing all the seeds out of tomatoes because I love them so much, but I don’t always do it.  I guess this will teach me.

You have no idea the ordeal I’ve been through with this.  I never get half a dozen in my mouth at the same time.  I probably don’t need to tell you how painful this is.  So, I started out using some Kankar on them because I had that in the medicine cabinet.  That wasn’t doing it, so I got on my old friend Google and searched for a solution to this issue.

Everyone was shouting out praises for alum, yes the pickling spice.  So, I decided to give that a whirl last Sunday and Monday nights.  Now warning, this is not for the faint of heart.  This stuff burns enough to send you through the roof for a few minutes.  Hubby helped me apply it.  The instructions were to count to one hundred and then spit, but not rinse and then go to bed. 

The next morning, things weren’t improved at all so I had another dose on Monday night.  On Tuesday morning, my lips were stuck together, so I gently wiped them with a wet paper towel and then rinsed my mouth.  I felt like crap, but got ready for work, hoping no one would notice.  I stuck some moisturizer in my jeans pocket and used that all day because it felt like my lips would crack at any moment.  That day I also used campho phenique recommend by the pharmacist at Walgreens.  Hubby was a bit concerned at this point, went down there, and talked to him.  The pharmacist said it was the best over the counter medicine for ulcers in the mouth. 

Does anyone remember this stuff?  We used it on mosquito bites as kids.

I had Wednesday off, so I decided to go to the doctor and have this mouth situation checked out.  I’m not one to run to the doctor for every little thing, but I was sick of fighting this.  I really wanted it gone by Thanksgiving.  I was down to eating bland mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs.  Those eggs reminded me how much I hate plain scrambled eggs, but almost everything burns my mouth.

My regular MD is on vacation until December 1, so I had to see the on-call doctor at the office.  He told me I had a virus going on that I most likely got from a water fountain.  Excuse me.  What?  I don’t drink from water fountains and certainly not with my lips right on them.  To make a long story short, he gave me an anti-viral pill and “magic mouthwash.” 

The next two days I had to spend talking all day at work, so that hasn’t helped things at all.  I also can’t just take off to doctor my mouth when I want to.  I did take my prescriptions to work and used the “magic mouthwash” on my breaks, applying it with a Q-tip.  This mouthwash deadens your whole mouth for a while.

Now on Sunday night as I’m writing this, my mouth is better.  I’m almost out of my anti-viral medication but the ulcers are still there (the swelling is gone.)  So, it’s back to the doctor in the morning before my shift at work to see if I can get a refill or if he’ll give me something else.  At this point, I figure what is still left in there will get worse because I have to talk at work for the next three days and then Thanksgiving is a holiday, so best to take care of this now.

I’ll be seeing a different on-call doctor this time because I couldn’t get an appointment, so I have to go in, wait until they call me, and hope it’s before I have to leave for work.

Hopefully, I won’t be having scrambled eggs for Thanksgiving.

Has anyone else out there had this situation?

The poking and prodding has begun

Old woman from pitapixel.com

All laughing aside, this is what “welcome to Medicare” is like.  I haven’t decided if this is a good thing, or not, after everything I’ve been through so far.  But I guess maybe it’s the right thing to do - to give one a complete physical for free.  That’s right – something that is actually free these days, no co-pays or any other kind of pays.  Who would think that was even possible with the prices of things.

So, for those of you not eligible yet, this is what you’re in for. 

Once you’re signed up for Medicare, you have one month to schedule all your wellness visits.  This doesn’t mean all the appointments have to fall in that first month because some doctors and facilities are way out there when it comes to appointments. 

If you’re a female, these appointments include:

A mammogram

A pap smear

An EKG

A complete blood panel

A urinalysis

A Dexa scan (bone density test)

A colonoscopy

Of course, some of these things are given to men too with other things substituted, such as prostrate screening.  If anything comes back that needs further testing, then you’re sent for that. 

So far, I’ve completed everything on the list except the colonoscopy.  Oh joy!  I hate those things. 

My blood panel revealed I was very low in potassium so I had to get a prescription for that and have my blood tested again in a month.  I’ve stressed to my husband that bananas daily are important.  Unfortunately, he sees no importance in veggies or bananas.  Now I think I have realized why I’m so tired.  All this time, I thought I was wearing myself out by mopping up water in the house until the wee hours of the morning from the water heater incident, along with the heat that was draining my energy.

Then when I got to my Dexa scan on Monday, the doctor discovered that my vitamin D level wasn’t checked on my blood panel so I had to have another blood draw.  I hate needles too that leave bruises on my arms for a couple of weeks.  But I have to say the nurses I’ve had recently were better at their jobs.  Maybe they’ve taken practicing on those oranges seriously.

The Dexa scan revealed I’m in the danger zone for osteoporosis in my back, with my hips coming in closely behind.  And here I walk into things all the time in the winter and fall on my rear-end and haven’t even hurt myself on the rocks.  Maybe I was lucky when we’ve been tying up plants in the brutal wind.  Anyway, this result wasn’t exactly a surprise to me.  My mother has osteoporosis so I figure all of us are candidates down the road.  One thing you can’t run from is old age.  Now I’m waiting to see if the medication he wants to give me to reverse the damage is Medicare approved.

Then of course, there’s always the colonoscopy to look forward to…

X is for Xamined by Dr. Mamaw

That’s right.  My Daddy’s mother thought she had the perfect remedy for everything that came along.  She would mix up concoctions for us to drink or rub on all of our “ouchies.”  This didn’t seem to hurt any of us.  Whether it cured us of what ailed us, I can’t say.  We always got better, but it may have been a case of the ailment running its course.

She would mix up lemon juice with honey and a shot of whiskey for sore throats.  Maybe or was the whiskey that made us forget about our sore throat.  We’d go to bed and be much better in the morning.

The only pic I have of Daddy's mother

We used Vicks a lot.  We rubbed it on our chest when we had a cold and we’d even put a dab on our tongue and swallow it.  I don’t think people do things like that today.  In fact, I’m sure there must be a warning on the label not to ingest it.

When we had a bellyache, they instructed us to lie on the floor with our butt against the wall and our legs extended up the wall.  We had to lie there for about twenty minutes.  It usually fixed us right up.

We rarely went to the doctor for anything because we didn’t have the money.  They fixed most things on the farm with old-fashioned remedies.  The only time I can remember any of us having to go to the hospital for incidents was with one of my sisters.  Bonni was always getting into a mishap.  She had to have her stomach pumped once for eating some old medicine out of the garbage and another time when she cracked her head open.  Mama tried to stop the bleeding with vinegar and water, but that didn’t work because the gash was a big one, so they took her to get it sewed up.  However, it did stop by the time the doctor was ready to work on it.  I guess my sister remembered her first trip to the emergency room and her sheer fright stopped it.

Did you have any childhood mishaps or have to suffer through childhood remedies?

Whirlwind Trip down South





My family minus my youngest sister and brother

When I say whirlwind that’s exactly what it is with my family – running non-stop.  But there’s nothing like family and I realized just how much I missed them all.  Usually years go by between visits so it’s always such a treat.  I come back home totally worn out, but it’s all worth it and I’d do it again in a minute.

Most of my trip was unexpected visits to the hospital and doctors offices.  This is what happens when you have a large family and many friends.  Things happen out of the blue.  One of my sister’s best friends collapsed a few days before I arrived and they had to life flight her to the ICU in Austin where they induced a coma for three days so they could keep her alive and run tests to see what happened.  My sister, her husband and this friend had gone up to the hill country for a few days and the girl was fine before her collapse.  Everyone thought she may come out with brain damage because the paramedics that arrived were rookies and had to call in a back-up unit.

It took a full day in Austin as we sat in the waiting room before we could see her.  Her procedure had to wait because two heart attack victims came in that took priority first and she was stable at that time.  They installed a defibrillator and put her on seizure meds, although they had not confirmed she had a seizure causing her heart to stop.  This gal is only fifty-years-old.  Her elderly parents were both there (both in their upper eighties).  Her father was bouncing off the walls from all the coffee he had been drinking while waiting.  He knew of all the coffee machines on the floor and they were all dry except one, he told us.  It turns out she’ll be okay, but can’t drive for six months due to Texas law concerning seizure medication.

A few days later, we ended up in the hospital again to see my brother-in-laws father who has COPD.  We had been eating barbecue at their house the night before and he seemed fine, but they had to drain a liter and a half of fluid off his lungs.  They told me this is a regular occurrence.  The man is in his 90’s.

My mother at La Casona Mexican Restaurant 

My mom has dementia and had doctor appointments for evaluations to see how far this has advanced.  They are hoping to put her on meds to slow down the disease.  We won’t know the results until mid-November because she has more tests to do.  On top of all this, she took a nasty spill in the bathtub back in July.  Her leg and back are still bothering her from that incident.

That was one reason I was trying to rush this family book along, as well as taking my trip, before I actually intended to.  I’d like my mom to be able to read it while she still can.  When I gave it to her, she said it was the best gift I could have ever given her, so that made me feel good about finishing this ten-year project.  She told me a few days later that I was a good writer and it was hard for her to put the book down.  Okay, I know this is my mother, but that was still a nice compliment.

When we all get together, it is non-stop talking and laughing.  I really missed my sisters so much and had so much fun catching up.  We were never in bed before two or three in the morning and back on the go usually by seven the following morning.  All of us figured we could sleep after I went home.  We had to make every minute count, never knowing for sure when we’ll see each other again.

I lived out of my suitcase and shuffled between houses.  That was okay with me.  My ordinary life is so dull compared to the non-stop action that goes on down there all the time.

 My great-nephew Travis

It was lucky for me that my great nephew was visiting from the base in CA at the same time so it was good seeing him, his wife and little boy.  He’s in the Marines and will be getting out of the service early next year.  He’s been to Afghanistan twice and we’re all happy nothing happened to him over there.  He’s a sweet kid.

 This is my brother-in-law Mark with his barbeque pit

One night my sister and I were up and out at the barbecue pit helping my brother-in-law put meat on the grill at two AM.  He takes his barbequing seriously.  Many times, he’ll stay up all night smoking stuff.  It sure is good.  Sometimes they sell extra meat to friends and co-workers.  The only problem I had was my feet swelling up from all the salt.  I use very little at home.  That has never been a problem for me before, but it sure was this time.  My sister said, “Why didn’t you tell me you were on a low-sodium diet?”  Well, I’m not really, just don’t use much salt usually and generally try to eat very healthy.

I went to the county faire and parade, which I haven’t done since I was a teenager.  That in itself is a long story so maybe I’ll save that for another post.

 This is one my neices Jodi in her apt.

I was shocked to see my nieces all grown up with their own households and some of them have little ones now.  It was hard to wrap my head around that.  But the children are so well-behaved so that’s a blessing.

 My neice Reesa with Rylie and Ray

Of course, I ate enough Mexican food and barbeque to last me quite a while.  They eat lots of that in Texas.

Luckily, I made my return fight when I found out ten minutes before take-off that I was waiting leisurely at the wrong gate.  And you guessed it, the correct gate was at the other end of the airport.  Isn’t that always how it is?  I was breathless and my head swimming by the time I made it down there.  Even then, I got a seat in row eight, which was pretty good considering they don’t have assigned seats on Southwest Airlines.

It was a wonderful trip and I took tons of pictures.  I hated to see it end.  I was really wishing I had stayed longer when I got off the airport shuttle here and it was 65 with a stiff north wind blowing.  I had left a balmy 85 down south.

To be continued.