I SAW A DEFINITE IMPROVEMENT IN KELLY’S HEALTH TODAY:))

ALWAYS A TREAT TO MEANDER THROUGH RURAL SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO

Nice to finally see clear sunny skies again with temperatures slowly on the rise. The past couple of days we have had our furnace running & the day before that we had the A/C on. It was 33F this morning when we got up & we did eventually get ourselves into the upper 40's. Always a bit colder here beside the lake but with today's sunshine it felt warm as long as one stayed out of the shade & wind.

MORE & MORE RURAL FARMS & PROPERTIES ARE INSTALLING LARGE BANKS OF SOLAR PANELS NOWADAYS

When Kelly walked into the living room Friday morning & said she was feeling better I immediately hauled out my laptop & began my post's first paragraph of the day. I went on to say Kelly had turned a corner, the medicine was working, & she was feeling better. By the time Friday night rolled around I had to totally scrap that whole paragraph & start over again. Despite her feeling better Friday morning her day went downhill after that & by bedtime she was sick to her stomach & didn’t take the last three 200mg prescribed Ibuprofens. Sickest I had ever seen her & we both suspected it was side effects. Kelly's body is not used to taking any kind of medication & today she refused to take any of her meds at all.

She came across this disturbing definition of her problem today .  ((Since a pleural effusion is a symptom of another disease, the prognosis depends upon the underlying illness. Pleural effusions are never normal. While they may be associated with treatable illnesses, their presence suggests that the underlying disease has advanced enough to cause significant inflammation of the lining of the lung)).

 

PHEEBS & I CAME ACROSS A ROVING BAND OF WILD TURKEYS THIS MORNING

Off to a better start this morning but figured I had better hold off writing anything until the end of the day. Although feeling better again when she got up Kelly was not able to do the morning walk. I had two pain free hip days under my belt so Pheebs & I headed out the door & scampered our way around the whole trail. It was a mistake & I paid for it the rest of the day. Luckily I have a good supply of extra strength Tylenol here.  And luckily I have another good friend to help me through the days.  My cane has become my right hand best Buddy.  I couldn’t remember where or when we had picked up this cane but Kelly said she bought it at a Thrift store in Borrego Springs California about 4 years ago when she had twisted her ankle on one of our hikes.  Sure has come in handy for me this past while.

I was low on peanut butter so figured that was as good an excuse as any for Pheebs & I to hop in the Jeep & head off through the countryside to Goderich. Walmart has the honey-peanut butter I like so that is where we headed straight-away. But ‘Oh Dear’ I hadn't realized I was in spending mode. By the time I got out of Walmart I not only had 1 jar of peanut butter, I had 2……along with 4 quarts of skim milk, 2 pkg’s of flat bread, a tub of vanilla yogurt, 3 jugs of cranberry-grape juice, a Kielbasa sausage, 2 bags of birdseed, 1 pkg of brown sugar, a Hummingbird feeder, a jug of Oriole pre-mixed bird juice, 2 bags of oatmeal & a new hat. To console myself after exiting the store Pheebs & I slid through a Tim Horton's drive-thru & grabbed ourselves a sausage breakfast biscuit, a coffee, & a carrot muffin. Took the long way home & tried to enjoy the soothing rural countryside while trying to recoup & justify my spending spree.

LOVE THE SMELL OF NEW MOWN GRASS

I knew Kelly was feeling a bit better as soon as I got home. The vacuum cleaner was sitting out & she was on her third load of laundry.  With a few rests in between she finished the dishes I had started, gathered a few things for the Goodwill store together & I was heartened to see her in the front yard this afternoon snipping off some lilac blooms for a kitchen table bouquet.  Her cough & chest pain has lessened & she is finally able to lean forward without too much discomfort.  Sure hope we can get to the bottom of this when we see the Specialist on Monday.  As Kelly said at supper tonight, “I’m going to remain cautiously optimistic”.

NEW HUMMING BIRD & ORIOLE FEEDER IS UP SO ALL WE NEED NOW IS SOME HUMMER’S & OREOS:))

I dragged my sore hip up & down a ladder this afternoon & put our 'Bayfield Bunch' logo on Winnie's back window. Also managed to affix our flag pole holder to the rigs roof ladder.  That meant a few more trips up & down the ladder.   Hung up the Hummingbird feeder, (more ladder work) burned some trash, started up the motorcycle & let it run for a bit. All that done I took a couple Tylenol's & crashed in my chair for pretty much the rest of the day. Kelly remarked the other day that she felt sorry for Pheebs because for her it has been like living with sedentary Gramma & Granpa instead of usually active Mom & Dad.

THAT DEVICE ON THE LADDER IS A FLAG POLE HOLDER…AND I EVEN MANAGED TO GET OUR ‘BAYFIELD BUNCH.COM LETTERS STRAIGHT ON THE WINDOW
MONTANA MIKE got himself an old tractor. It's orange with gray fenders, has a steel seat & I think it's a Ford. I've never driven a tractor, sat on a few, but never got to turn a key, slip it in gear, & drive one away. I've always had a small boy desire to have my very own tractor. There's a nice green John Deere sitting in a field by the road not far from us at the moment. Has a bucket on the front too. And a 'For Sale' sign on it. If I was a really rich guy I would go buy it & bring it home. First thing I would do is put something in the bucket & go drive around a bit looking at whatever it was I had in the bucket. And I'd look for some dirt or gravel to plow, maybe try digging a hole. Maybe put the bucket high in the air, climb up & stand in the bucket to see where I was, if in fact I was anywhere at all. I would enjoy the engine's chugging diesel tractor sound. I'd throw on my old straw hat & with one hand on the steering wheel & the other hand on the fender I'd head out into a big open field & drive around for hours plowing with my imaginary plow on the back. Maybe I'd do a little disking & rolling as well. Plant me some seeds too.  Real seeds.   Yep, I’ve always had a secret desire to have my very own tractor alright..............

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Oh, and about that new Walmart hat of mine. Label says it’s made of paper. Didn’t know that till I got home & read the label of course. Guess I had better stay out of the rain or I could end up looking like a paper mache head. I’ve never been a big baseball hat fan & the blue ‘Las Vegas’ one I have been wearing forever was just getting a little ‘to old hat’ so to speak. Wanted something light & airy for the summer that had a bit of style to it. Not that I’m a stylish guy by any means but figured just about anything would be better than my old blue sweat stained baseball cap. For not ever have being a hat guy decades ago I sure have worn a lot of hats these past 6 or 7 years.  I have written a few posts now & again as to why I have taken to wearing hats but to mention all that stuff here again would just be, well you know……………..old hat:))

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TODAY’S BLUE JAY

GROANER'S CORNER:((

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- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.