It's Worth It

If you think eggplant is good.

You should try any other food.

It’s much better.
(The only thing good about an eggplant is looking at it.)

Sometimes, a week goes by in a hurry.  Sometimes a week goes by without taking any photos.  That wasn't this week, but I didn't take very many photos.  

Health Update:

We went to Omaha again on Monday for a two-weeks-from surgery post-op check up.  I'm sorry that my doctor is only in on Monday afternoons because 3:00 appointments make for long days.  He removed the stitches, and I was rather surprised how painful that was.  Just imagine pulling out rather thick hairs...slowly.  

So, we are still on ear drops and antibiotics, and "come back again in two weeks."

I was looking at my calendar to see what I did last week.  There was nothing there.  I think one of my resolutions should be to put a few notes there everyday.
We aren't talking resolutions around here until March.

 Thursday night we went to Lorene's for supper.  It is always nice to see them.  We like to spend time with the boys, but it's hard to spread ourselves out with all the things that need shown and told.  Zane and Barry are getting old enough to play games so we ended the night with the kid's version of 'Apples to Apples'.  The weekend sped up from there.  Lorene and the kids stopped in again on Friday.  I had an extremely annoying and very long phone call with our phone/internet company.  All I wanted was to find out two forgotten email passwords.  What ensued was a very long conversation to change all four email passwords with a man I could hardly understand and who could hardly understand me.  I don't hear well, even on the phone and an accent doesn't help.  Then, my voice isn't very loud and often raspy, so it wasn't all that great on his end, either.  After a call that needed every ounce of patience on both sides, we were so relieved when it was all over we could end with an audible smile.
I was earlier on the phone with the business end of the same service but I don't remember what that was about and I'm not going to spend my energy to try to remember it.  I mean, phone calls take so long nowadays. Click one if you want English, click two if you want to listen to the animated servies, click three if you want to talk to someone who's first language is Albanian, click four if you want to change to a more expensive service, click five if you want to hear the list all over again.  Click nine to end this call.  WHERE are the people!!  I don't call unless I want to talk to someone. I do like chatting.  The typing is better than trying to talk and listen.  However, passwords cannot be done through chat.
During this phone call, the boys were shut out of the room, but part way through the call, Zane and Barry sneaked in, closed the door behind them, pulled the Lego box quietly out, and began to play.  The amazing thing about this is that they played: without clattering the Legos and whispering as they played.
Seriously, believe me!! a 7 and 4 year old boy playing so quietly they did not disturb my phone call.
I gave them lots of cookies when I was done.
Then Saturday, we went to a work project where Jim spent the day framing and I spent the day chatting with cousins and helping cook supper for 20 people.  I tired myself out more than I thought I would.  I'm not used to standing so much.
Sunday I was tired and had a nap.
Monday I was tired after a 6-hour drive in the pickup and pulling a trailer behind.
Today I am taking it easy.

On our way to the doctor we picked up a couple reels of pipe on the way. We've done this before.  Jim gets the reels loaded up on the trailer and we leave the trailer at the 'store' until we are on our way home again.  We had a little time to spare so Jim left me at the Good Will, while he filled the pickup with diesel.
I found these.

And a Zane Grey, but it won't photograph well.

I also found these on facebook since I forgot to take my camera on Thursday.

And....drum roll please....

The only photo I took this week. 

(We are not paying attention to the one with the books)

I love this crazy little plant.  It is some sort of cactus-y thing because it has spikes all over the stems.  It doesn't take much water, two ice cubes per week.  My son gave it to me on Mother's Day last year. And it blooms every so often.  These tiny blooms, a touch smaller than 1/4" across cheer me up immeasurably.  It is always amazing if I can keep a plant alive for any length of time and even more so if it blooms when it is supposed to.  It looks like there are several other blooms waiting to happen,  I've never had more than three at a time before.  

It's Tuesday Again

Another week has gone by.  

Another week of recovery, medicines and naps.  

I feel pretty good, really.

This is similar to the last ear surgeries when my ear drums were repaired.  It was a much simpler thing, though, with a faster recovery time.  

I didn't do much.  It's the beginning of the month so there are things that have to be done with our business, bills to pay, invoices to send, papers to file.  

Employee withholding to be sent.  

And there is the problem.  

Jim and I spent a couple of hours this morning on business stuff. I was ready to do the payroll and looking for my checkbook which wasn't where it was supposed to be, I realized that the information I use to deposit said withholding was gone as well.  I have no idea where those two items are.  I went back to look in my notes to see when I made the last payment, and discovered that it was

 done two days after surgery.  

That's bad news.

 It means that it is very likely I put them away...somewhere. And it is also very likely that I will never remember where I put them.   Drug induced fog is very real around here.  I was taking pain killers around the clock at the time.  

As soon as the tax information is into the accountant sorting files is next on my to-do list.  Perhaps it will show up then. 

Not much happened this week except a lot of sitting, knitting and the very most important house and office work.  

And snow melting.  

Here are the photos of the aftermath of the storm. 

My daughter gave me a very pretty bouquet to cheer my couch.  

Here is my lovely view from my corner of the living room.  I spend most of my life here. 

'Ears to You!

We aren't going to discuss resolutions this week.  

Anything to do with keeping up with my normal life came to a screeching halt as those who read last week's blog may have an inkling. 

Because, that ear didn't get better, it got worse.  

The antibiotics made me sick.   I got new ones, the swelling got worse, I made another appointment.  

I laid around most of the week, tired from both the sickness and the oxycodone.

So, now I am sitting on a king-sized bed in a motel in Omaha waiting to have surgery this afternoon.  

That 'ear infection' turned into an enormous abscess in the mastoid area that has to be cleaned out surgically.  This sort of thing doesn't happen anymore due to the effectiveness of modern antibiotics.  However, my left ear has not heard of the advances in medicine and spends most of it's time thinking of new (and old) ways of turning my life upside down.
At one time, the doctor, the resident, the PA and three nurses were in the examining room, looking at my swelling. 

I don't have any photos of the swelling.  Suffice to say it was a good three times as large as shown in last week's photos.  

It was extremely uncomfortable, but not as painful as I expected.  In the doctors's office yesterday, he drained 10 ccs of liquid out of it (sorry about that for you squeamish folks), and that made a big difference, but it wasn't any fun. Neither was the putting in of the drain, which he knocked out the first time and I had to endure the putting in of a second one.  

All that HURT!

I sort of wish I had a photo of me wearing my glasses perched above my ears, so they wouldn't come anywhere near the swelling above the left ear, but I don't.

I have a few photos of the aftermath of our 16" of very windy snowfall from last Tuesdays storm, but they are safely at home in my camera.  

I'm starving to death.  Surgery time isn't until 1 pm.  

It's a Blizzard Out There!

I really fell down on the job with taking photos this week.  I did my usual living in this house things.

I wrote three letters, I played my piano, I worked my small amount of office things needing done the last week of the month...and I only walked three days out of the week.  

There is a reason for that.  

I worked so hard for an hour and a half on Friday cleaning the office in the shop building, that I figured it would account for an 'exercise' day. You know, up and down, on top and underneath, vacuuming and scrubbing.  Saturday I spent so much time making jello, and chicken pot-pie with homemade pie crust and chicken just cooked that morning and de-boned, that I forgot.

And from there....it's a medical issue. 

I woke up about 3 am Sunday morning with drainage from my left ear.  (That's the one that is defective.)  It rapidly turned into not just continuous drainage but incredible swelling and pain around the ear area.  So, I spent Sunday fighting the pain and thinking about all the 'what ifs'.  

We already had an appointment in Omaha scheduled for that BAHA hearing assessment, but it turned into a medical appointment instead.  We left for Omaha early since there was a blizzard heading our way.  We were hoping that we could get an earlier appointment, but that didn't work out.  Thankfully, the snow held off until about 30 miles from home and we were home before dark.  

I'm loaded up now with a high powered oral antibiotic.  The doctor put a wick in my ear to hold ear drops in, and I'm on pain killer.  The swelling hasn't gone down yet, but at least I feel better. 

And, there really is a blizzard going on out there!