Eagle season is starting.

Just to let you know for those who watched the show last year, they are expecting the eagles to lay eggs shortly. I have been visiting and they are showing up at the nest more often. Last year was quite the drama with the male eagle cheating on his spouse, the hussy house breaker moving in and some eggs getting broken and finally the old female winning him back. Unfortunately only one egg survived the season and that baby ended up with avian flu. what a year. So if your interested pop in and check out the Eagle Cam

Sunday

After 2 wonderfully warm days half at least, or more of our snow has melted. We are suppose to get a thunderstorm this evening and that should take care of the rest. yippy. I hope that is it for the year.

I love the first snow, the clean crisp look of it, the millions of diamond sparkles on the ground. The way it traces every branch. The sky looks so crisp. Then the reality of it sinks in. The coldness of it. Today Rick brought the dog out and hit the ground., the slipperiness of it. He is going to be sore tomorrow.

So then you start to get very tired of the snow. You can't just bop outside. You have to dress in layer after layer and scarfs, sweaters, wristies, gloves,and thick winter coats just to run to the store for the one thing you forgot. And then to come back and gulp down hot tea to warm yourself up enough to stand taking all the sweaters and coats off. So yes. I am ready for winter to be over.

I am reading a book called American Nomads by Richard Grant. One line he says about his winters in England where he grew up. "Every Winter when the cold, damp gloom descended and the sky closed over, I felt trapped and claustophopic, sentenced to another long stretch in a small dank, overcrowded prison. In winter, my drinking increased, and my politics turned fiery and anarchistic, only to mellow with the first good week of summer."

Boy can I relate to that. You have to have something to heat yourself from the soul on out.

I think my wrist incision is better. It isn't draining anymore, but is still red. Today I was worried I was getting a septic as I was so cold, I just couldn't warm up. I soaked in a hot tub and got even hotter thinking about the doctor. If he is lucky he won't see me tomorrow, only the nurse taking out my stitches. But after the bath and some tylenol I feel better. Right now I have my TENS unit connected to my hand and wrist. I have been having some burning pain as the swelling goes down and the numbness decreases. This seems to help alittle.

I am kind of sorry I told my youngest son about what the doctor said. He is worried about me. No need for anyone else worry until we find out if I have something to worry about. I am calling the new doctors nurse tomorrow. I want to see how long I would have to wait to get scheduled for surgery if I see here. If she is booked for 2 months and can't squeak me in I am going to the other doctor. Seriously though. Don't you think she could bump a cancer patient in front of a nose job or boob job? When I had my breast reduction I would have certainly agreed to rescheduling under circumstances like these. Oh well, we shall see.

Well, back to my book. It is pretty good. Makes me want to hit the road. If it wasn't so expensive I would just travel all the time. Or if I could write like this man so it would pay to travel all the time that would be wonderful also. Since I can't guess I'll just look back at my vacation pictures. Long open roads, not a care in the world. Oh yeah.

Doctors, ARRRGGGHHH

My incision is getting infected. For some reason my body does not like sutures. They do OK for awhile and then my body tries to reject them. Since I have had the unfortunate luck to have had surgery over 10 times I know my body pretty well. So yesterday I decide I had better call the doc. When my sutures from my gall bladder surgery started to get infected on a Friday I decided I could wait until Monday when they were scheduled to come out. Well by Monday I was septic with a fever and my incision opened up. I didn't want a repeat of that.

I called the office, told them my incision was red and draining. That is was getting redder even with the triple antibiotic cream and told her again about my problems with sutures, yes I had told the doctor also, in fact my incision broke open when he did my other hand. I also told her the therapist was getting concerned and suggested I call. Now these sutures are suppose to come out Monday also. So I give her the info and she says they will call me back. Guess what, huge surprise. No call.

This entire office is really ticking me off. What the heck as happened to good patient care. First I had to go through the automated voice thing and push a dozen button to get to the nurse line, then put on hold for 20 minutes while I was on my tracphone and then this. For heavens sake, its a doctors office. Couldn't a real live human answer the phone! It is supposedly a people profession.

So anyway, here I go into the weekend with nothing done about my wrist. So I started irrigating it with half strength peroxide and sterile normal saline and dressing it. If it doesn't look better or looks like it may break open I will take out my own sutures and put some steri strips on if necessary. Now that will tick him off but so what. I am ticked off also. This entire experience with this office and their telling me one thing one week and something completely different next visit has been joke.

I was looking at my scar on my temple. It looked like to me like it was starting to grow the lump back. I thought I was just being paranoid, but then my PT told me she thought it looked like it was coming back. Great. But maybe at least it is growing up again instead of sideways along my nerve pathways. I see that Doctor wednesday. If she can't do the surgery soon I will have to look elsewhere. As bad as this has been to try and get treated I can't help but think about how bad it will be when we go to socialized medicine. From what I hear the waits are even longer. I am trying not to feel doomed due to lack of care, but I almost am getting a fatalistic outlook about this entire thing. Will I end up having to cut the darn thing out myself?


Last but best, the drip is our snow melting away in our wonderfully warm 40's day. Bye bye snow. Hope not to see you again until next year.

winter blond

As a trucker stops for a red light, a blonde catches up. She jumps out of her car, runs up to his truck, and knocks on the door.


The trucker lowers the window, and she says "Hi, my name is Heather and you are losing some of your load."

The trucker ignores her and proceeds down the street..

When the truck stops for another red light, the girl catches up again.
She jumps out of her car, runs up and knocks on the door.

Again, the trucker lowers the window. As if they've never spoken, the blonde says brightly, "Hi my name is Heather, and you are losing some of your load!"

Shaking his head, the trucker ignores her again and continues down the street.

At the third red light, the same thing happens again.

All out of breath, the blonde gets out of her car, runs up, knocks on the truck door. The trucker rolls down the window. Again she says "Hi, my name is Heather, and you are losing some of your load!"

When the light turns green the trucker revs up and races to the next light.

When he stops this time, he hurriedly gets out of the truck, and runs back to the blonde.

He knocks on her window, and after she lowers it, he says...

"Hi, my name is Mark, it's winter in Iowa and I'm driving the
SALT TRUCK!"

Stimulus Bill, selling our soul to the Devil

Why you ask, because it all comes with strings attached. Accept the bailout money and that gives government the right to tell you how to run your business. Accept a welfare check, gives them the right to tell you how to run your life. Let them pay off your mortgage or car, they tell when and how far you can drive and what temp you can keep your house at. Its like selling your soul to the devil. They own you and at what price.

That is why some places are smart enough to be trying everything possible to not take a bailout. If they fail, it was meant to be but if they pull their business out of the hole it remains their business. Free and clear, no strings leading back to the white house. I applaud them.

The stimulus package is just bad business. Full of the type of crap used to pay back favors and everyone from city to state officials leaping forward with their hands out for a piece of the pie. In fact our town is trying to get those giant wind mills. How green, how politically correct. How expensive. Yes.... they work well but are they cost effective? No. It costs a fortune to run them. They break down all the time and repairs are very costly. They have been labeled a failure for cheap alternative energy for that alone. Which is why our officials are going for it. They will be able to have a good reason to keep requesting money, to stay on the dole, to spend out tax dollars for years to come.

The government can't run the government without corruption and cheats robbing us blind. Why let them into your lives anymore then absolutely necessary.

If they would cut taxes and give businesses tax credits people would spend again. Nothing like a good dose of consumer confidence to increase spending. As it is why would I buy something not absolutely necessary the way the economy is going. When even our government says it is going to get worse and be bad for years. They could reverse by doing what has been proven to work. Getting our money back in our pockets. When you keep hearing daily about one after another crook in government being caught with his or her hand in the cookie jar which is our pockets.

This stimulus tax is just government reaching even further into the cookie jar. Don't let your officials sell your soul to the devil. Let them know you don't approve. It isn't to late.

funny photo

I took this shot today and couldn't help but think of this title. Funny.

I heard from the plastic surgeon office. I can't seem them until next wednesday. That will be 3 weeks since they took out the growth. 3 weeks for it to continue to grow. And it turns out she won't take it out in the office. Back to the hospital for a same day surgery. If she can't get me in quick, I go to Omaha. I will throw myself at the mercy of her kindness. She really is pretty good and really nice. So maybe if I get weepy, she will bend and do it as soon as possible. LOL. Use all the skills you have.

We didn't get out for any shots. I did get the cute squirrel above and some birds. Mostly though I needed a nap. I never nap but have been needing one since my surgery. And I have been having some wild crazy dreams.

Rick and I did some talking about the whole thing today. It is getting easy to discus it. Easier to say the cancer word. I have felt like a phony using the word before. So many people have real cancer, scary cancer. Not just a skin cancer and I felt reactionary getting so nuts about it. But cancer is cancer. You can't help how you feel. So.....I can say it now. I have cancer. Now I am looking forward to the day I can say. I had cancer. But it is gone. I am cured. Hope it is soon.

100's attend Global Warming protest.