Pacing & Self-Care

 Coffee break this AM as I plot out the rest of this fine day… Rainclouds finally dissipated, as of yet I haven’t taken my “normal level” creek photos: it’s still running high, not as high as it was last week but things are pretty soggy around here!

But if we have one good day of sunshine and warm temperatures, things should dry out enough that I won’t have any problem hitching up and getting the horse trailer maneuvered down to the barn this afternoon. (When it’s muddy, things are a little more complicated since I can’t circle around on the grass. I’ll have to drive it up to the road, back up to turn back down our driveway and then get myself backed up to the barn when I loop back towards our house.) Many of my girlfriends rely on their husbands to do any complicated trailer maneuvers but I’m proud of the fact that I taught myself - necessity being the mother of invention & all that! My Tetris puzzle in the truck bed is coming together - all I lack are the lawn chairs and the fire pit. John’s bringing the firewood!

I am also being extra-conscientious of things but as we all know, accidents can and do happen - here’s a harrowing report from my friend in Kansas… she’s a little older than me, was enjoying a good ride last month and then landed in the hospital due to this freak accident: (need to get her a card in the mail)

Hillsdale spring fling was great! Until it wasn’t. Barry and I did the first fifteen miles and he fought Janeen for her head the entire time. Turns out her hack was ineffective with a new snap on bridle because the hack was on top of the halter. So he was, in essence, using just a halter….lol. Well, nothing to do about it out on Trail! Siri was good. She had a mild looky see on a couple things, went by the gun range like a rock , and I swear they were shooting cannons. We get back to camp, she’s tired…first ride back after a couple years, we are one trailer and just forty feet from our pens and very relaxed, riding on the buckle, when she saw “something”.  Folks, she exploded. Reared and spun to the left, hard and super fast. I came off on the gravel road over her right shoulder. Then, while she was still on her back feet she stepped back onto me. Than she panicked again cause she didn’t know what she was into and proceeded to do a fast tango on my legs as I covered my head. Finally it quieted down…. Seemed like ten minutes but was actually microseconds. I lay in the road, Barry screaming at me to see if I was all right. I put a thumbs up and he caught Siri and took them to the trailer. Shannon Gibb Chastain ran over and I wasn’t gonna move cause I thought I might have something broken and was stunned. I told her to go up and tell ride mgmt. 

 So after I tried to sit up three times and got dizzy and nauseous I agreed for Barry to call an ambulance. Note I’m in the road, lying on my side. So Barry went to get enough reception to call someone, I’m alone…. Lying in the road with my helmet still on…. And a pickup truck comes down the camp road, DRIVES AROUND ME, and continues on. No one else comes down. No one. Shannon was back, the ambulance gets there fairly quickly, and they take me to the hospital. Just Shannon and Barry. 

No bones broken, a concussion, crush injury to right calf muscle and a perfect bruise and hematoma of a hoof print on my upper inner right thigh where she stepped on me and then slid, removing all the skin, and a stepped on right foot. 

I’m lucky. Barry forgot my helmet and insisted I wear his that morning. I finally gave in and wore it. So now we get a new helmet instead of a casket for me. I have a concussion and a road rashed helmet, instead of worse, thanks to my best friend!! 

Today everything hurts but I’m okay. Thank you to all that asked about me.

Miles to Go Before I Sleep

 I’m trying to avoid dwelling on the fact that the highlight of my day is often the time I tuck myself in between the sheets to have another valiant try at a good night’s rest. Last night was fairly decent with merely one potty break and my normal “hourly tolls” - brief awakenings at 4, 5 & 6 AM. Peran was up shortly after six, however, so I listened to his footfalls upstairs until he finally came downstairs to sit on the couch with his coffee about 6:30. I got up at 7:00.

I am lucky to have Dr. M today; she had actually mis-remembered when they were going out of town (it’s actually next month). I’ve got a lot to do to finish packing & loading for this weekend’s fun event. What I normally pack into the extra stall in the trailer (hay/feed/buckets etc) has to be arranged in the bed of the truck like a Tetris puzzle alongside the lawn chairs & other camping gear. I’ll also take the mini firepit that I bought for Peran several years ago which I don’t think he has ever used. I believe there will be a food truck at the ride but I’ll swing by the store to get sandwich stuff and snacks…

I’ll have to trust the care home to take care of my mother - a new nurse stopped by yesterday who has big plans to do some occupational & physical therapy with her. I wish her the best of luck!

I ordered some new herbal supplements with the hope it might help - I had never posted in my herbalism group but I got some sweet replies from the hippies, ha ha!

Some Gore & Eclipse Watching

 Tish made a special request to see Sheila's spleen (we're still waiting for the biopsy report; of course it was a complicated one - sometimes there are several pathologies going on in an organ simultaneously)

                                                          Action shot (intra-operatively)

                    Slightly deflated (the surgery trailer looked like a slaughterhouse; Sheila lost a              considerable amount of blood but luckily did not require a transfusion)

                                Many folks took much better photos than me, but it was still a sight to see!

               Dusk occurred at 1:43 PM, with streetlights coming on & much cooler temperatures

Obligatory Bluebonnet Photos

 My friend came down from Arkansas (she now takes the award of “longest distance client”) since I have to do ear surgery on her little dachshund - I could not believe, after decades of living in Texas she has never taken the obligatory bluebonnet photos!?! Yesterday the weather was picture-perfect; today it is gray and overcast - not so good for Eclipse viewing but we’ll see?

The Path of Totality

 “Eclipse Fever” is gearing up around here and, while it will be neat to see, Monday will be an ordinary workday for us. Schools are closed, hotels are booked up, various entrepreneurs are renting out their homes as AirBnB’s and their pastures for RV parking! More power to ’em, I guess.

But I was wrong about my mother’s wrist: she has a hairline fracture, ugh! I have not seen the actual films but the plan is to treat it with a splint and pain medication. As you can imagine, she’s been absolutely miserable but I did manage to get out yesterday for a few blessed hours of riding with my friends. While the original plan was to go up to Lake Ray Roberts (north of the Metroplex), several people were concerned about potential traffic, so we decided to go over to Wyatt Ranch in Glen Rose. I was running a little behind schedule, so I told my friends to go ahead and ride out and I would catch up to them. I never dreamed that Alex, after her extensive travels & trail experience, would balk at the shallow Paluxy River!

But balk she did, and after a little “discussion” culminating in an awkward dismount (she reared, I stepped off, fell on my ass but held onto the reins), I wound up riding a shorter loop on the other side of the river three times** until they returned and Alex reluctantly followed Susie’s gelding across the waters. All‘s well that ends well - at least I can say she’s had her shakedown cruise for next weekend’s ride where she’ll be toting my cousin’s young adult son. I’m putting his daughter on Mr. Silas and I will put blinkers on Baraq to calm him down as I escort them through the Intro ride. I’ve got to go rearrange the horse trailer (since I rarely haul three) and not forget to send off the blood samples tomorrow for their updated blood tests which expired April 4.

** I almost rode all the way into town to have an ice cream at the Dairy Queen but came upon a fence. Bring back open range!!! (Ha ha, you know I’m kidding)

We made a new friend - Braden, the ranch owner’s son (he was fishing) He tried mightily to coax Alex into the river with blades of grass & sweet talk

The Beginning of the End

 …vs The End of this Beginning?

Everyone has been complimentary of our “new remodeled” building, even as there remains much to be done. The walls are (mostly) bare, we’ve got to finish out the back, where surgery/radiology, isolation ward & kennels will be… Misti made labels for the cabinets in which we’ve spread out the pharmaceuticals, and our new lab equipment was installed last week.

But then yesterday morning when I made my usual “check-in” call to my mother, she reported that she had fallen & bruised up her R arm. It doesn’t appear to be broken, “only” discolored (she bruises so easily!) and swollen around her wrist & top of her hand. I realize full well that I could be wrong about her fragile old bones; I thought her facility had mobile X-Ray capability but apparently they do not. The house call physician will be by to see her today, but I didn’t see the point of dragging her out to sit at the ER where she might be exposed to other germs. Her facility had a minor Covid outbreak last month. She managed to eat half her cheeseburger (which is her usual habit anyway) last night. I’m a little spooked since Carla’s mom suffered a fall, the week before she died - similarly didn’t seem badly hurt, just bruised & shaken up, but she declined rapidly.

And today I won’t have Dr M’s help - they’ve gone to CO to visit family. AFAIK Sheila their GSD is doing fine, we await biopsy results on her spleen. I’ll throw in some gory photos later, gotta get on with things now!

No Foolin’

 My not-so-new reality: I will generally awaken between 2 - 4 AM (I always hope for earlier bcz it’s easier for me to get back to sleep). My sleep stats via the FitBit average 1 hour of “awake” time overnight. If I’m lucky, I won’t hear DH’s snores echoing from upstairs (which I did Sat night; fortunately I could sleep in an extra hour on Easter Sunday)

Speaking of which, whom do I petition about this so-called “holiday”??!!?? I spent a few hours in the kitchen Saturday**, prepping my holiday-meal foods: fried cabbage & glazed carrots, then went ahead & cooked the rib roast Sat night. The final plans wound up being for me to bring my mom to church in Irving for 11 AM services, then convene at Victoria’s GP’s for Easter dinner.

**also devoted some badly-needed time to straightening up my dining room, on the offhand chance we would use it (we did not, but since we do NOT utilize it on a daily basis, it had been used as an auxiliary storage area!) I almost dragged P in there for our Sat-night dinner, but I found “The Ten Commandments” on TV, so wound up staying in the living room…

So Easter Sunday was kind of a major production, since I had to load up the food in my car (desserts & side dishes), go pick up my mom (transferring everything to her car since that’s what she’s comfortable riding in), drive to Irving, etc etc. Mom seemed to enjoy herself, but cannot carry on ordinary conversations with her combination of mild confusion & poor hearing. She was repeating herself a lot, but dug into her enchiladas with great vigor. (Easter dinner: Adela made her famous fried chicken, plus enchiladas/rice/beans/guacamole. I brought deviled eggs, cabbage, carrots, chocolate cake, apple pie & baklava) I took a couple of photos which I shall download later - this morning I’ve got to get on with it as Dr M’s aging German Shepherd has a splenic tumor I’ve got to remove.

General busy-ness & fatigue = no riding, but planning for next weekend. My friend Carla buried her mother Friday; I was able to pop by for the graveside service but couldn’t go into town afterwards. Carla was gonna stay with her poor frail father (94) this weekend.

                                   Harvesting fresh peppers (Apache variety is A+!)  for salsa

                      Victoria tagged Z with the cascarone (confetti egg); zoom in on hair