It's a boy!

Welcome to world Sam.


And the happy family.


Aren't they all just beautiful ?

Life and Death

Well, even as I celebrate a new life in my circle of friends, sadly, I lost an old one this weekend. I never knew Tim Young's last name until he died, but he was a fixture in lovely downtown Northampton. He was at every single music event it seemed. He had a smile that could light up all downtown.

We never spoke much but he would always stop me on the street to do his trademark exploding knuckles greeting. He made you feel cheery, even if you didn't talk. I used to think he was a neighbor, because I would often see him drive out of the condo parking lot next door, but I've heard he lived somewhere else downtown. I guess he must have just had a friend there. Of course I haven't seen him in the five years since I left Noho, but my world feels a little emptier just the same, knowing that he's gone.


Rest in peace Tim. [photo via IHEG]

We're having a baby

Sorry folks. I had a post in mind but my friends are having a baby and are live blogging it. I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for updates. We're at 1 centimeter dilated and holding at the moment. I'll post in the morning. I hope with a happy birth announcement.

Update: It's a boy. But we knew that already. Welcome post pending pictures of our newest little lefty.

A tree grows...

Keep those happy growing thoughts coming, please. It's working.


You can't see the teeney little sprout that's just below the three of these branches, but I'd be happy enough if just the three grow to full size.

Meanwhile, with all the rain here in the last few days, how damp did it get? There was a little ghost mushroom growing in the soil of my other big potted tree. Was going to get a picure of that too, but it's shriveled up already now that the sun finally came back out again. Man, did it feel good to sit and bake a while on the back porch this morning.

Castles made of sand

Not exactly sand castles, but just wow. Didn't think I would sit through eight minutes of this but I couldn't turn it off.



If you can't see the embedded video for some reason, here's the direct link. I just love this kind of stuff.

Update: I didn't realize when I posted this that it's from a Ukranian television program. Thanks to JimBob in comments for finding a translation for the storyline.

It was in 1941. They were in love. They had a child. But World War II had began. And he gone to war to protect his country (Soviet Union). She was waiting for him to come back alive. She got the letter about his death. Obelisk with a star on the top - it's the memorial to all people from Soviet Union, who was died in this war. In the end of story inscription : "You are always with us."

Hold the mustard!

This one is for Sam. Wonder if Stretch was ever tiny enough to pose for a hot buns picture like this?


[pix credit]

Four minutes you'll be glad you spent

Having a rough day. Got hit with a mega-anxiety attack this morning. I get this flutter thing in my chest sometimes. It's like I can't quite catch my breath and I get dizzy. It usually only lasts a few seconds but it lasted a long time this morning. Which of course freaked me out and sent me into a panic attack. It passed but I haven't felt well at all. I'm sure I'm fine and it's just my hypochondria, but I ended up lying kinda low. I did run across this really sweet video though. An orangutan and his dog.




Best four minutes of my day. Direct link to the video here

Happy Equinox

Just realized I forgot to wish everyone a blessed autumn equinox. Hope you managed to celebrate. I actually didn't do anything special for it myself this year. The shoulder was finally feeling strong enough to take care of some long overdue errands on Monday and after three hours of driving around town shopping and doing two loads of laundry and some housework, I guess it overdid it. It was killing me again yesterday so I had to take a couple of pills and got zoned out.

It's not my favorite anyway because it ushers in the dark. I'm already not liking the shorter days. Nightfall has been coming around 7:30 making me wonder where the hell the summer went. Seems like just last week it was still light at 9:30. This is my worst season. I struggle every year with seasonal affective disorder. My anxiety goes up and my energy goes down until the winter solstice.

On the bright side, my electric/water/sewer bill finally arrived today. I've been nervous about it ever since last month when I got shut off because I was a day late in paying. Don't want to go through that embarrassment again. But the good news is it was only $50 total. This place has its problems with being damp and a bit musty but cripes it's so cheap to run. And I don't understand why my daily useage rate is so low because they said they had to raise the rates but every month, my per diem goes down. Maybe it was because I took a couple less showers in those horrible couple of weeks when I couldn't take off my shirt without screaming in pain but I would have thought that would be cancelled out by the outdoor faucet that the painter left dripping and I didn't notice for a few days. Who knows? I'm not complaining.

Meanwhile, the shoulder already improving again today, the too short haircut is already starting to grow out a bit and looks less raw, I have a refrigerator full of food and my Ti plant is definitely growing five new branches. So there's that.

Hope I'm wrong

So my neighbor comes out and hooks open his door. Tells me there's a bird in his house. So I'm sitting on the porch waiting for the bird to fly out. It doesn't. Neighbor comes out instead, shuts door and says it's gone. Goes around to the side of the house.

I didn't hear any joyous, I'm free now, kind of bird songs. Pretty sure I heard him open and close his garbage can before he went back in and the birds in the tree sound sad. I think he killed that bird. Weird.

What a bargain

I always feel a little weird buying food in a drugstore. I mean I remember when drugstores had little soda fountains in the back where you could buy a vanilla coke, but buying groceries doesn't seem quite natural. Of course, these days you can buy clothes and small appliances too.

Anyway, I'm loving the Walgreens near my house. Don't know if it's just that the store is really well run, but they're well stocked with everything you might need and their pharmacy is great. Really smart and helpful pharmacist. And I got a great deal on olives and tuna fish there. Buck a piece for large cans of black olives and small cans of solid white tuna. I stocked up.

Power Bob

I cut my hair yesterday. Got a little sissors happy. I forgot that it got curly again and it's way too short right now. But just as well I guess. I paid the price today with the shoulder. It's twinging like crazy. Probably should have waited a week but it was so too long, it had to done. It will grow out to where I wanted it in a couple of weeks and I won't have to do it again for at least two months now. So there's that.

Meanwhile, a gigantic Daddy Long Legs has taken up residence in my recycling bin. I mean we're talking Godzilla sized spider. I know they're harmless but they still squig me out.

On the other hand, I think I only have one squirrel and he's been a riot. I guess there must be something in the beech nut pods because he's taken to hanging from his feet at the very end of the branches of my big beech tree and gathering them. I can't believe either the branches don't snap or that he doesn't fall off. Unfortunately, I can't get a decent photo with my cheesy camera. I think it's weird I only have one squirrel, but honestly, I've never seen two at once in the yard.

It's working!!!

Thanks to everyone who is sending growing thoughts to my Ti plant. It's working. It now definitely has at least three and possibly five new branches starting to bud out of that bare stick. So the question now is, do I leave it in that little pot with the idea that being a little root bound will force it to grow or do I go ahead and repot it into the bigger pot, as was the original plan?

Also wondering if there's any reason I shouldn't just bury the stalk right up to the base of the new branch to get rid of the ugly old one from the original plant?

Feel Like I'm Falling for Fall

While I like the miracle of spring flowers the best of anything in a way, fall is really the best season in terms of weather. Raining today, but it's been just gorgeous. Warm afternoons, cool nights. And I'm excited about my first fall here in my new little city. If I recall from my first visit, the colors out this way are very close to the New England palette.

They're starting to change already. Apparently, the dogwoods are the first to turn.


Took this two days ago and more are already going red. Still mostly green though, so far. And since I'm thinking about it, this Noggin short has been my favorite fall song for years now.



I expect you can all join me in humming along for the rest of the day. You're welcome.

Exciting

Okay so my marigolds were an epic fail. As in complete disaster. They were so sick and bug ridden that I dumped out the planter last night. But the good news is, I think Jonathan's Ti plant may just come back from the dead again.


Yeah, I know it's pretty pathetic looking right now, but if you click to embiggen the photo you might be able to see the teeny tiny nubs at the top of that stick. There's three so far and it looks like maybe another one farther down might be trying to sprout. If they all grow, the plant will end better looking than it has been since I planted it in the first place.

Please send the little guy some good growing vibes. Thanks.

PS: Yes, it's sitting on one of the lawn chairs that killed my shoulder when I scrubbed it clean.

Still alive and getting well

Sorry I dropped off the grid here. It was a bit of a rugged week but the shoulder is healing and staying off the computer helps so I shortchanged this blog. But it's going well. I'm down to one pain pill at night so I can sleep through. But I'm such a wimp with pills, I've actually been sleeping late all week because one knocks me out once the pain eased up.

Anyway starting to feel more normal, and I've been able to do some housecleaning that badly lapsed when I couldn't move at all without screaming. I expect to start updating regularly here again. Also planning to go see the folks this afternoon for a bit. Haven't seen them since Labor Day when we had a fabulous dinner and a really fun card game afterwards.

Man are my card playing skills rusty and my family are card sharks. I used to be a pretty darn good player but I totally misplayed a few of the hands. Hate that, since we were playing teams. Obsessing about it afterwards, I realized I had failed to keep track of what was already played. But in my defense, the shoulder was starting to hurt at that point so I was distracted. Next time I'll do better.

A tale of two blood draws

I've had a lot of blood draws done over the years. When my thyroid went, for a while there I felt like a pin cushion. I was having draws about three times a week -- sometimes more. Some are good, some not so good. Anyway, neither of these hurt during the draw but I thought this was a funny contrast. To be fair, with my cheezy camera and my inability to raise my arm, the first one looks worse than it does in real life and the second one doesn't come close to how awful it looks. But the story is little amusing.

This first one was done at the lab. She was very nice and I didn't even feel a pinch. I was surprised to see any bruising the next day.


This second was done at the hospital by a nurse who expressed horror at the tiny bruise at the first site. She was also the one in charge of teaching the student EMT guy who did my IV placement and she gave him a hard time. This is what her draw looked like the next day.



Meanwile, the best one was the IV guy. That wasn't worth photographing because you can't see where it was and that's the biggest needle.

Wild Kingdom

I know a lot of people think that human interaction with wild animals is wrong but I think this is very cool. It's different than Steve Irwin because he's not trying to get them riled up. He's just talking to them.



I think it's pretty damn amazing.

With a little help from my friends

I'll be sending private thank you notes but just wanted to let you know your kindness and generousity made me weep this morning. And all the good thoughts helped.

Happy to report I talked them out of admitting me and got them to treat me in the ER. Spent 7 hours there with IV saline drip and more tests and I'm feeling much better. I have orders to drink less water and eat more salt. Ironically I was doing the opposite for my health.

The worst part is I'm supposed to drink gatorade. I don't like gatorade. There's only one flavor I can stand, but fortunately the store had it and it was on sale.

Meanwhile the shoulder is still untreated. Couldn't get the ER people interested in it either but the consensus seems to be it's probably bursitis which can't really be fixed with anything but time and meds. Finally broke down and did a google search on it last night -- always a risk for a hypochondriac like me -- but it was okay. It rarely requires surgery and I've been doing pretty much what needs to be done. Apparently it just takes a long time to heal.

Going off the grid

I'm well and truly fucked up. My blood work came back and my sodium is critically low. Doctor wants me to check into the hospital. I don't have insurance. I still don't have a job. My shoulder is so bad today I don't think I can drive to hospital anyway.

Glad I'm here in this little town. My sister is coming down in a bit to help me figure out what to do. Meanwhile, whatever happens, I have to rest the shoulder so I'm staying off the computer for at least two days. Presuambly I'll be back.

Groggy blogging

Well, the doctor's appointment went well. I like the doctor. My blood pressure was the best it's been a while, 130 over 80. I thought it would be worse because I had only been taking half my pills to make them last longer because they were running out. Of course, my shoulder wasn't as bad as it's been while I was there because I worked it out that way so I could drive. Went right after a hot shower and the mid-afternoons are when it feels the best. I had a quite a bit of mobility so I'm not sure I conveyed how much it hurts. And of course, by early evening, I was dying again.

He gave me some pills for it. Not so sure they are helping with the pain so much as they make me not care that I hurt. But they do make me really sleepy so I've been pretty much sleeping through the night. It's a bit of a tradeoff because they knock me out so much that I'm stiff in the morning from not rolling over. But that passes and the sleep is good. So there's that.