Lost and All Alone

Normally I'm so busy I don't have time to think about anything seriously for more than a minute or two.  When I'm not running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I'm usually doing something in the house that needs my attention...right...now.

This morning, however, I've sat down to write and I realize I have nothing serious going on.  Nothing.  Nada. Zilch.  Oh there are things I could do, but they're not pressing.  Nothing has a deadline within five minutes.  There isn't a domino effect in place for five million things that have to get done today.  I can actually sit and drink my coffee and not DO anything.

I feel lost.

These moments are so rare in my life, I don't know what to do with them when I get them.  I feel like I should be doing something....but wait....no, nothing to do.  How weird.

Sister has gone to her day job, and my mom is snoozing in her chair.  Even the dog is snoring on the floor.  I feel so alone.  Absolutely, wonderfully, carefree, alone.  I can sit and sip my coffee, and surf the web.  I've caught up on Alabama's wonderful success in national signing day yesterday, I've rolled my eyes at the latest machinations of Congress to squeeze every last drop of financial blood out of me, and I've even glanced into a bit of celebrity news to try and figure out who these people are.  If I get really wild and wooley, I might just sit down and read a book.  (Yea, believe it or not, I'm still a fan of those big blocks of churned up tree trunks.)

So I'm feeling lost and all alone and I have to admit, I could get used to this...but no...wait....something to do......tomorrow.

Are People Really This Stupid?

A young man in South Carolina is facing a fine and possible jail time by virtue of being stupid.  It was raining outside and he was pet sitting his parent's dog.  Not wanting to get wet, he decided to simply hang the dog out of a second story window to let it do it's business, and then pull it back in.

I ask you now, can people really be that stupid?

Apparently they can.

Someone saw the incident, took pictures and reported it.  Good for them.

This act of stupidity leaves me rather speechless.  What type of people are we raising these days?  What are they going to do when faced with problems more serious than taking the dog out for a walk when it's raining?  It boggles the imagination.

Ouch!!!!

It was 23 degrees this morning when I stuck my nose out the door.  I immediately withdrew my nose from the outdoors, back into the warm house and slammed the door against the encroaching cold.  Three seconds of that was about to become painful, so I avoided it.

We get cold weather here in the deep south, just generally not this soon in the year.  It should be somewhere in the 40s and 50s, not the 20s.

We had a very cool summer this year.  It never got really hot, except for a couple of quick jabs, and we had lots of rain, which is just weird.  The earth never really got a lot of heat to absorb, so it could radiate it back at us.  The "experts" say that doesn't make any difference in what kind of year you have, but I'm not so sure.  Anyway, I've been saying all along that we were going to have a bad winter.  Just saying it though doesn't make it feel any better when it gets here.

And the first cold weather always seems to hurt worse than it does in the depths of winter.  My system hasn't adjusted and its not an instant turnover.  The first few days of cold, I never have enough layers on and I always get that bone chilling cold that you can't get rid of.

It's been getting steadily colder over the last couple of weeks, so I did get a running start.  I had pulled out my boots I bought from LL Bean when I used to live in Vermont.  They are old and worn, but they keep my feet warm and that's what counts.  I also found my heavy coat, made in Russia, (and we've all heard what the winters there are like) and have it on hand.  Gloves, scarves and mittens have all been turned out and are waiting in a basket by the door.

I'm late on winterizing the house, but I stopped by the DIY big box store yesterday and got the materials I needed to get to work.  It's suppose to warm up over the weekend, so I know what I'll be doing.

I went through the yard and picked up all the fallen sticks and made myself a box of kindling and put it on the porch.  I also pulled my little wagon full of firewood on the porch and I'm ready to light the woodstove.  The porch keeps the wood out of the house, but it's also out of the rain and all I have to do is take one step outside to grab a log.  Love it.

I have plenty of food in the house and I just got the heating unit serviced and it's working well.  Next week I've got to call and get some gas delivered, but other than that, I think I may be ready to hibernate for the winter.

I am so blessed and have so much to be thankful for.  I hope you all are having as wonderful a Thanksgiving weekend.

Springy Things

I know that Spring is going to get here sometime.  It is.  I just know it will.  You'd never have guessed it by the temperatures here the last few days though.  Forty-seven degrees is just not normal for here in the first half of May.

 

 

 

And certainly not by the vast amounts of water that have landed on top of us. 

 

 

 

 

Between the two it's been dank and cold here lately, but supposedly there is a warm spell headed this way.  We'll see.

 

In reality, though, Spring has shown up already.  Many things have bloomed and it's been quiet a show.  Here's some of Spring around the farmette.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Off My Feet

I'm kicking back and putting my feet up for a few days.  Not that I don't have anything to do, but I just don't have a choice in the matter.

A while back, my toe started to hurt.  It was an ingrown toenail on the right side of my big toe on my right foot.  No big deal.  I've had them before.  It starts out with a bit of soreness on the side of the nail, but a little work with a pair of nail clippers and it goes away. Didn't work this time, however, and it kept getting worse.  In fact, it got bad enough that I developed a limp.  And an infection.  It was obvious that this was beyond my ability to handle, and I needed to hand it over to the professionals. 

So Tuesday I went to my family doctor and she sent me to a podiatrist.  My appointment was for this morning and off I went expecting him to bring me back in the next day or two to dig out the ingrown toenail.  Not so.  He decided he could take care of it right then and there.

He deadened my toe.  That was not fun.  What he did next, I have no idea because I wouldn't look to see.  It sounded bad and smelled worse.  According to what he told me, he took off the side of my nail (sound), took out the ingrown part and then cauterized the root (smell) so that it wouldn't grow back.

After it was over, I looked at the ingrown shard that he had pulled out, and it was huge!  It was about 1/2 inch long and had been growing straight down into my toe.  Good Lord!  No wonder it was hurting so badly.

So he bundled my toe in gauze and sent me home with good drugs.  I started getting the feeling back just as I got home so I took advantage of the pain killers and spent the afternoon piled up in my mom's guest bedroom snoozing away.  What luxury!  Sister is taking care of the chickens and goats, so all I'm doing is sitting around surfing the web and watching videos.  I'll have to be back up and at it in a couple of days, so I figure I'll take advantage of it while I can.