It's a hell of a notion

‘cause nothing ever goes as planned, it's a hell of a notion. ~ Styx lyrics

Saturday, I had plans at 7 AM to drop my son off at school where he was going to go with his track & field team to an all day competition.  I had just found out about this so I did not plan to attend.  I already had the whole day and night planned.

However, Saturday morning I found myself sitting in front of this sign…

I know my knitting need some resuscitation but this was uncalled for!  

No, seriously on Friday evening I attended a play that my friends daughter was in.  I got home at 11 to be told I did not need to take son to the school as he would not be attending the competition.  I was told he got hurt while weight lifting at 3:30 in the afternoon.  I was home until 5 but I never got a call from the school.  He told them not to call and for whatever reason they chose to listen to him.  He smashed his finger in between a 45 pound weight and a 60 pound weight.  The trainer cleaned the wounds.  Sons finger was in a splint and he said he was fine and was going to bed.

The next morning I am being told by daughter that she heard it was a compound fracture.  I woke son up, looked at it and took him to the ER to have it checked.  He admitted on the way there that the trainer had popped his finger back in place and said he should go have it checked.  If I would have been informed when it happened I would have been able to take him to his dr. and if son would have told me everything he would have gone that night even.

We get in the ER and after the doctor stopped “mashing” (son’s words) his finger they take him for x-rays.  They can not stitch it because it has been too long.  The nurse enters with a needle.  Son doesn't like needles and after chasing him around the bed he finally agrees to get it in his hip if I hold his hand.  Ignore the fact that he is 16, has a five o'clock shadow and stands over 6 foot!  He's a baby!

The nurse said she hadn’t had to work that hard to give someone a shot in a long time.  When she left I said he deserved something out of this drawer....

He didn't think it was funny!  

So he paced in the little cubicle and I actually knit.  I had started Jewel  the day before and I was able to get several rows done in between going to get him something to eat and drink.  

Doesn't hospital lighting and colors make it look so purdy? NOT.

After a total of four hours he was diagnosed with a dislocated finger, lacerations and severe contusions due to a crushing injury.  We were handed 16 pages of instructions (forget about saving a tree here) and a prescription.  He has to follow up Thursday with his primary to check for tendon damage as he couldn’t bend his finger.  Since Saturday some of the swelling has gone down and he is now able to bend it a little.

We stopped to get his prescription and these fell in my cart…

an Easter lily and an Easter cactus.  When I got home and the man came out to help carry things in he saw the flowers and asked if he bought me flowers again….some had fallen in the cart on St. Patricks Day too!   I said “Yes,Thank You. I love it when you spoil me like that!”  He just shakes his head.

After a couple of hours we all pile in the car and my day actually got back on track.  We stopped to buy movie tickets to be assured a seat then went to the Chinese Buffet.  A little while later the kids went to sit with their friends, while the man and I were happily ensconced in the back row to watch….

#1 daughter got me reading the books, then I got #2 daughter reading them and she got her friends reading them so we were all happy.  The books were better because they explained the relationships but the movie was pretty good.  The man didn’t fall asleep which is a high rating!

On Sunday the man and I actually went somewhere alone!  No kids!!!  It was only Sam’s Club & Maine Source Foods to stock up but it was nice and quiet and nit picking free.  Ahhhhhh.  Enjoyable! And then we came home to them saying who did what and who didn't do their chores while we were gone ...back to reality...back to the nit picking.  And after having  had a little alone time even that was enjoyable!

Spring Sense

But the newest research is showing that many properties of the brain are genetically organized, and don't depend on information coming in from the senses. ~ Steven Pinker

“don’t depend on information coming in from the senses” is the key phrase…can you imagine yourself without your sense of touch, smell, taste, sight and sound or not having a reaction to them?

Imagine Spring coming and missing...

The touch of the sun on the back of your neck while gardening or the cool breeze when the sun goes down giving you goosebumps.  

The rich loamy smell of the earth as it awakens

The jaw clenching tartness of fresh rhubarb or the simple sweetness of the first strawberry 

The chartreuse leaves of the daylily pushing up from the ground, the bright yellow of the daffodils and forsythia, shades of purple from crocus and vinca minor, the intense blue of the sky against the white fluffy clouds 

The clap of thunder or gentle fall of a Spring shower, the uproarious sounds of the song birds as they find mates and care for their young, the sound of the first peeper and some of his friends.

I do believe life would not be worth living.

Early Start

“If you start soon enough, you won’t have to run to catch up.”

Mother Nature has provided us with unusually warm Spring like weather.  So with that thought in mind we have started on the Spring to do list and boy have we been busy.  We purchased all the wood, insulation, shingles etc to put the dormers on the front of the house.  Now to just get everyone’s time schedules to sync together to get them done.  We installed all new kitchen cabinets, purchased all the parts needed for the riding lawnmower, cleaned up the back yard around the wood pile, overhauled the pantry shelves getting ready for this year’s canning, raked and burned off most of the garden, worked on emptying a shed we want to take down, worked on dismantling a barn that was on the property and had fallen over, got one load of manure on the garden and the list goes on and on.

The poor man is exhausted since he also works from 6-5 M-F and 6-noon on Saturdays.  We both know the sheep need shearing but neither one of us has mentioned it. He has titanium rods in his back so it is not one of his favorite chores. I have everything ready to start the seeds, cell packs all washed, soil mixed, but that too has been pushed aside while I stained the cabinets, sanded and poly-ed them.  Now I am working on redoing a dresser for #2 daughters room. 

We did take a break this weekend when #1, Sir T and Baby O came up for St. Patrick’s Day.  He is 10 months now and boy has he grown and he is walking!  I said it before and I will say it again…being a parent was great but being a grandparent surpasses it.

Today I should be working on the dresser or starting seeds but #2 son is home.  I need to make a Dr’s appt.  I think it is allergies and he thinks it is bronchitis.  Either way he sounds horrible.  Maybe they will change his allergy meds which don’t seem to be working this year.  While everyone else is enjoying the warm weather, listening to the peepers, seeing the grass slowly turn green…he is sneezing, hacking and complaining!

This warm weather may turn around and bite us in the butt so I am going to enjoy it while I can.  I worry about the fruit trees and the frog eggs in the pond 

if it should return to normal temps but I am not looking forward to mowing grass just yet…and snakes of which I have already seen enough!

Twitterpated

Flower: [about two birds fluttering around] Well! What's the matter with them?
Thumper: Why are they acting that way?
Friend Owl: Why, don't you know? They're twitterpated.
Flower, Thumper, Bambi: Twitterpated?
Friend Owl: Yes. Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime. For example: You're walking along, minding your own business. You're looking neither to the left, nor to the right, when all of a sudden you run smack into a pretty face. Woo-woo! You begin to get weak in the knees. Your head's in a whirl. And then you feel light as a feather, and before you know it, you're walking on air. And then you know what? You're knocked for a loop, and you completely lose your head!
Thumper: Gosh, that's awful.
Flower: Gee whiz.
Bambi: Terrible!
Friend Owl: And that ain't all. It could happen to anyone, so you'd better be careful.
[points at Bambi]
Friend Owl: It could happen to you... 

[points at Thumper] 

Friend Owl: ...and you, and...
[Flower looks at Owl shyly]
Friend Owl: Yes, it could even happen to you!

This was #2 daughter’s favorite movie...Disney's BAMBI.  I thought of it today when I was outside and the birds were chasing each other.  Then I noticed my first robin of the season.  I have noticed the birdsongs changing.  I saw a bird fly away with straw in it’s beak, I assume to make a nest.  Soon I think I will be twitterpated with Spring.

Confucius & Mom always said..

Confucius say “She who rides bike peddles ass all over town.”

Whenever I think of bike riding that phrase comes to mind.  My mother use to say it…to her it was a dirty joke.

And why am I thinking of bike riding?  Because the elder children bought me this….

Big Red

As if conspiring to keep me from enjoying it Mother Nature has produced more snow, slush, ice and rain since I got it than all winter.  As the road is already in horrible condition with the rocks, potholes and areas of loose dirt, I am not about to try dealing with snow and ice too.  Plus new bikes don’t have fenders on them anymore and the ass your pedaling all over town quickly becomes wet and cold in inclement weather conditions.

I had not ridden in twelve years and it was a good ten before that.  While I got right on with no problems all the gear changing needs to be learned.  Many things have changed since I saved all my baby sitting monies and bought my "newest thing on the market" ten speed many moons ago.  At a dollar an hour no matter how many kids I was watching, it was a whole lotta saving going on.  This bike is an eighteen speed with shocks and quick release wheels, things not thought of back then.

So Big Red and I have gone out several times.  The rear rack makes carrying things possible.  In this instance the bag holds a coffee can full of goodies for the sheep and chickens.  A basket and a bell in the front and I could be like the witch in The Wizard of Oz.  I don't have to worry about a tornado taking me a way, I just hope I don’t fall and break a hip!  

"Get a bicycle.  You will not regret it if you live." ~ Mark Twain, Taming the Bicycle