breathing through a clogged straw....

sunrise on my street!

I’ve been living the last few days at its basest level…sleep, eat, take pills, converse with Rob for a few minutes and repeat, it seems. Just when you think you’ve got the whole sickness thing down, you get thrown a loop to see how unfunctional you can really become. I don’t know what I picked up back east on my trip but it is a doozy, let me tell ya.

It all started about Monday afternoon, when I was doing laundry and I bent over to put more clothes in the dryer and it felt like my head and the rest of my body didn’t want to come back up with me when I went to stand back up. You know, that weird dizziness that heralds an alarm that something just isn’t right.  That was shortly followed by the beginnings of a headache that has now turned into a continuous dull roar that analgesics aren’t touching.  Then the lovely body aches started, along with the chills.  The last thing to manifest has been this lovely inability to breathe or rather the feeling that I am breathing through an ever narrowing straw. Now, just a trip to get a cup of tea or to go to the bathroom seems like something I should require a field trip permission slip for.

I went to see my doctor on Wednesday, mostly because Rob insisted. I have a feeling this is some kind of virus and we all know that there’s really nothing to be done with them except wait them out. She gave me one of those z-packs of antibiotics, checked everything and told me that if I continue to get worse after the pack is done, I need to get back to her.  My O2 sats were low but not critical then, but I can tell you right now those darn pills have done nothing, just as I suspected they wouldn’t.

As to the cause of all this, there are many things it could be.  I was back east, in a heavily wooded area where my Mom lives and I got bit by about a zillion mosquitoes.  That’s bad enough, as I have almost an allergic reaction to the bites, they turn into huge sores, even when I don’t scratch them.  These guys seemed to almost like the bug spray I was constantly putting on, too, it didn’t faze them! This year is supposed to the worst ever for West Nile Virus, so I’m very worried about that as a possibility. Also, my mom informed me about halfway through our visit that there had been a deer mouse infestation in the motorhome we were staying in so there’s always a possibility of Hantavirus from the dust they left behind. And, of course, there’s all the strange hotels we stayed in on the way there and back that could have been harboring who knows what.

Some people say I overreact to all these things, but this is how I’ve kept myself as healthy and alive as I have for so many years. I’m a little OCD when it comes to staying away from germs, but it has served me well and I don’t care what people think, as long as I’m alive to keep having them harass me about my idiosyncrasies, it’s all good.

So, I guess I’ll be calling the doc back today, since it is Friday and we all know that if things are going to get worse, they will over the weekend, good ole Murphy’s Law. I don’t think there’s much she can do at this point, except maybe give me some sort of inhaler. We’ve still got days and weeks before some of the tests we’ve done come back.

Rob has been an absolute doll, cooking for me, keeping the house as clean as he is capable of, with all the work he has to do and calling me from his job every few hours to check on me during the day. Thistle, young as she is, has also been just a perfect little puppy, mostly staying with me, sleeping on my lap and really being a good girl. It’s like she knows I don’t feel well and so she’s on her best behavior. The only thing she’s gotten into is a few of Rob’s socks that he left laying around upstairs.  She’s been bringing those down to me sporadically, I think in an attempt to manifest Rob out of one. She never chews them, just carries them around, the little turd.

Well, I’ve complained enough and I really hate writing on my laptop, which I’m forced to use right now as the office seems just a little too far to travel to, even though it’s only about 20 feet from my chair. It’s Friday, and I do plan to go down to the Moose and visit with my friends for a bit tonight, come hell or high water.  I’m going to go insane if I have to sit here much longer by myself.  I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, get out and enjoy the fresh air for me.

The Yingling Circus returns......

Everyone digging into fresh steamed crabs!

I feel like I’ve been traveling for months right about now! We finally made it home from our east coast trip yesterday and I felt like I was still driving in my sleep last night. Every time we go back, I swear the traffic is exponentially worse. It was certainly worth it, however, to see family again.

We all gathered at my Mom’s house in Westminster, Md to give her a memorable 75^th birthday and to give my Aunt Becca a memorable 60^th, as well, and I think we accomplished our goal. My cousins, Camille and Libbie were the first to arrive, beating me by a day, arriving from Ohio.  Libbie could only stay until Monday morning but it was so awesome to see her.  We were talking and I don’t think we’ve actually laid eyes on each other since we were teenagers. She hasn’t changed a bit, still a beauty and a great conversationalist, as well.  Camille and I have always been joined at the hip, even though, we too, haven’t had a lot of face time over the years. 

My cousin Rick and his wife, Shawne, picked up Becca at the airport on Monday, kept her to themselves for a day and brought her to the festivities on Tuesday.  We figure it’s been at least twenty years since Rick and I have seen each other, as well. I spent a good deal of the time he was around, trying to convince him and Shawne to come out here to Buffalo for a visit.

The last to arrive was my Uncle Kip, from Georgia.  He had to miss some of the fun as he runs a newspaper and couldn’t leave town until it had been put to print. He’s looking as handsome and debonair as ever.

L to R :  Rick, Mom, Me, Becca, Camille, Kip

We had a great time all week, running all over, eating everything in sight, shopping our fool heads off and catching up on the family goings ons. I am lucky to have such an intelligent bunch of folks I’m related to, the conversations were fun and we laughed our fool heads off!

I did manage to sneak in a fabulous sushi lunch with Mom and Camille and on Thursday evening, Rick and Shawne brought some live crabs over and we steamed those suckers up for an old fashioned crab feast.  I am proud to say that I haven’t lost my crab picking skills and while everyone else was busy talking, I was busy picking and eating all the crab I could stuff in my poor little western mouth.

Sisters Debby and Kathy and Rob's Mom Eva, with Rob

While I was doing all this visiting with my relatives, Rob spent almost all of his time just down the road at his sister’s house, visiting with his Mom and sisters. He kept Miss Thistle with him for the most part, as well.  Thistle had a blast visiting with her grandmas, being spoiled rotten, of course. At Mom’s house, she had 6 Tibetan Spaniels to play with.  They were all so cute together, the Tibbies are all only about 8 pounds apiece, but that didn’t stop them from enjoying the 70 pound Golden!

Mom's gaggle of Tibbies that played with Thistle

While we were there, we also had a chance to stop in at our old American Legion where we used to be officers and saw a lot of our old friends.  One of my girlfriends, Stephanie, had called everyone for us and told them to come down and we were overwhelmed at the turnout. Even “Uncle Fester” who is getting up there in years and now walking with a walker, showed up to say hi.  My bestest friend back east, Paula, was there, as well.  She brought her daughter, Cassie, who is now 3 years old and quite a little lady.  To keep her entertained, I danced with her half the night and she’s quite a good little rock and roller!

All in all, it was a fantastic visit, although I must admit I’m glad to be back out of the humidity. I had forgotten how freaking hot and humid it is back there! We dropped Camille off at her sister’s in Columbus on our way home, so I even got a little extra time with her.

So, we’re back and back to the grind.  My little ATV was in the shop getting turn signals put on while we were gone so I have to go pick that up this morning.  There’s already a little nip in the air in the evening here, signaling that summer is almost over in Wyoming.  We got home to a fully loaded veggie garden and went right to work picking the fruits of our labor.  The corn is ready, great timing actually.  We called Bob and Beth and gave them a 5 gallon bucket of corn yesterday afternoon, along with just about everything else we have growing. Bob brings Rob firewood off the mountain and in return, we give him veggies, but most importantly, the corn.

I had hired my girlfriend, Rebecca’s, son, Colby, to water the gardens and flowers and lawn while we were gone.  He’s eleven and quite a little businessman. This was his first garden to take care of and he did an excellent job. He came running down the hill as we were unpacking the truck, eager to get paid “real money” and find out if he’d done a good job.  He wouldn’t even accept the cash until we had walked the whole garden and he’d pointed out everything he’d done….so cute. He was tickled pink when I gave him a bonus for doing such a good job. He’s already looking for other things to do around our house for more spending cash.

We did have one tragedy while we were away. We had a couple that was here visiting from Maryland, who were planning on retiring here next year. They had already bought a lot and were working on it. Well, right after we left, Bill and Cindy were out at their lot doing some work and Bill started not feeling well.  Cindy took him in to the hospital and his kidneys were shutting down. They ended up life-flighting him to Casper and his aorta burst and he died. Such a horrible thing to have happen!  Luckily, Karen Henry, from the Blue Gables, was able to go with Cindy to Casper, so she wasn’t alone through all that. Bill did say that he didn’t want to go back to Maryland, but I don’t think this was what he had in mind. Such a funny, warm man, we’re really going to miss him. I’ll be calling Cindy in a few days. I have no idea if she is still going to continue with their plans now that Bill’s gone….poor dear.

Anyway, time to get my butt in gear! Got a lot of soggy east coast humidity to get outta my laundry and get the house back in shape.  The next few days is going to be all about canning green beans, I think!  Have a fantastic day and week.  Be kind and loving  and know I’m thinking about you!

the Yingling Circus rides again!

Full moon out at Mtn Plains Heritage Park

Okay, things are in crazy mode around the Yingling household as we prepare to take off to see the family back east day after tomorrow! I have all kinds of boxes and stuff lined up by the front door, ready to be loaded in the back of Rob’s truck so that we can get this show on the road. At least we are going in the middle of summer this time so I don’t have to worry about the different climates between here and there, it will all just be hot, hot, hot between Buffalo and Westminster. I still feel like we are taking our entire wardrobes. Rob is actually worse than me when it comes to clothes.  Well, that… and he has to take a cowboy hat and a pair of boots for just about every occasion! I tend to not take enough and he tends to take too much.

It will take us 2 ½ days to get there and we always make excellent tracks across the nation. On Friday, we’ll leave around 5 a.m. and make it all the way to Waterloo, Iowa. We’ve got a great route mapped out we take every time that keeps us from hitting any big cities except Indianapolis the entire way there. We go all the way across South Dakota (and it’s a BIG state) on I-90 and then part of Minnesota and then drop down I-35 into Iowa to catch I-80, then we finally catch up with I-70 around Indianapolis and that leads us practically to my parents.  The second night we’ll stay in Wheeling, West Virginia and then it’s just a morning’s drive into western Maryland to get to the folks.

Rob and I are great travelling companions, we always manage to have a blast.  He’s got a zillion cd’s all ready to go for our musical accompaniment and I’ve got bags of munchies to keep his tummy entertained. Thistle has the entire back seat of the truck to herself, complete with bones, toys and her little cooler she likes to drink out of while on trips.  She’s already become quite the seasoned traveler.

So, today, my assignment is to go wash the truck and vacuum out all the dog hair (well, we are at least going to START hairless), get the ice for the cooler and bring all the bags down for packing the truck. I also have to make one more stop at Big Horn Meat to get some more Happy Sticks to take back because I made the mistake of buying three packs of those for the trip last week and we already ate them.  Happy Sticks are big, juicy spiced Buffalo meat sticks they make here in town and they are awesome. I should have known not to get them ahead of time. I’ll have to hide them so Rob doesn’t eat them on the trip. He has a bit of a jerky/sausage fetish, I used to but I’m a vegetarian now. I have to wait until tomorrow to get the dry ice for the elk and lukanka that we are taking along, though, just to make sure it will keep things frozen throughout the trip.

Was talking to Mom yesterday and she has arranged it so that I’ll be able to see my grandmother, Dee-Honey (that’s what Rob and I call her as she always calls and says “Hi, it’s Dee, honey) who is actually my step-dad’s Mom, the first evening we get there on Sunday.  The family dynamics are a little unusual.  You see, my mom married Steve, my step-dad, when I was 17.  At the time, Mom was 37 and Steve was 27. So, Steve is really not even old enough to be my dad, he’s only 4 years older than hubby, Rob! That means Dee really isn’t old enough to be my grandmother, either, because Steve is her oldest son. Did you get all that? Mom and Steve met in law school while both attending U of Maryland back in the 70’s. Steve has been more of a dad, though, than my birth father ever was.  I just love him to pieces. He put up with a pretty angry teenager when they first got married and I’m still trying to make up for it with him 35 years later.

Mom, Becca, Me and Camille

Anyway, I’m getting really jazzed.  My aunt Becca, who is only a few years older and my cousin, Camille, who is 4 months younger than me (although she’s actually my Mom’s cousin) will be the first to arrive after we get there.  I have a feeling us women won’t get a lot of sleep that first night as we always have to stay up and yak forever. The rest of the family will trickle in after that. The only thing I hate about these visits is that Rob and I don’t get to spend very much time together.  His two sisters and Mom also live in Westminster and he’ll be spending most of his time out at his sister’s, where his Mom lives, while we’re there.  Last time we were there, I only got to see the sisters for about 15 minutes when I was picking him up. 

Okay, I’m probably boring you like crazy by now. I’ll catch you all up on the visit when I get back.  Keep your fingers crossed that my health decides to cooperate for the next couple of weeks.  My MS seems to be acting up and I’m taking my trusty cane along because my legs keep giving out on me at odd times. My darn tumors are also giving me fits, despite my being really good about my nutrition, I have a constant ache in my kidneys where they are pressing against some nerves right now. I was really hoping they’d have decreased in size by now, but they are taking their sweet time this go around. I may come back worse for wear because I told everyone not to worry about my dietary restrictions, they are just too hard for others to follow.  I’m taking along as many fresh fruits and veggies as I can to not be a pain in the butt for others but….

Okay, folks, see ya on the flip side!  Have a magnificent couple of weeks.  I’ll be posting on FB, but not on here.  Stay true, be nice and love others!!!

 Oh, just a side note...thank you all my readers all over the world!! Just looked at my stats and I hit over 20,000 reads from 16 countries!! A huge shout out to my friends in Israel and Australia, who are the bulk of the out of country readers!!

we survived....

Thistle with her cowboy rider waiting for parade to start

Fair and Rodeo week has been safely put to bed now for another year. What a lovely week it was! It is always the most fun but also the most exhausting week of the year, in my humble opinion.  There’s almost too much to do. I’m getting to that point in my life, at least, where I don’t have to participate in every little thing, so that really did make it quite pleasant, however.

There were two dances downtown in as many weeks. There was always, and I mean, always, something to go see down at the fairgrounds, whether it be watching the kids from 4-H show off their skills with their livestock in the rings or checking out the entries from the community in the open class exhibits.  I used to put entries in, winning gobs of ribbons every year for my jellies and canned vegetables but I quit after I finally won Best in Show a few years back. It was nice this year to see a lot of new, young names filling in the gaps.

The Parade on Saturday was a huge success! The theme was “Dancing with the Steers” and in true Buffalo fashion, was enormously funny, with really original floats that had people laughing like crazy. Since I was actually in the parade this year with Rob and Thistle, I’m not quite positive how many entries there were but I’m thinking it was way over 50.  We were number 34 in the line.  Of course, it is an election year, so there were a lot of politicians making the parade longer.  Senator John Barrasso even came and had breakfast with us at the pancake breakfast downtown before hopping into his own antique car to join the parade. And, man, you couldn’t have asked for better weather! When the parade started, it was a cool 62 degrees with a nice breeze blowing. Usually, it’s closer to 100, and everyone is baking!

We started out the parade with Thistle looking fabulous in her steer horns and saddled bucking cowboy on her back.  That didn’t last through the parade, though.  For one thing, we found out that she really likes to bark and growl at horses, of which there were many in the parade. She kept knocking her little rider off her back, twisting around in the back of the ATV to get a better barking spot for the horses as they trotted by while we were waiting for our turn to join in the parade line. Then, somehow, she knocked off one of her steer horns about halfway through the parade. I had been worried about the heavy sequined dress I was wearing being too hot, but that was taken care of by the unusually cool weather, so I was not stressing about Thistle losing a few items.  All of the little kids along the route waved like crazy to Thistle and she performed quite well once we were underway. Having the little ATV in the parade was really fun because I was able to drive in sort of a zig zag fashion to get up close to all the little kids lining the street.  The coolest thing was that we were lined up directly behind the high school marching band so we had fabulous music accompanying us the entire route.

Young contestant studying her competition

After the parade, we rushed home to change and headed back out to the fairgrounds for the rodeo. It was a great afternoon of watching calf scrambling, steer riding by the kids, pole bending, rescue racing, as well as the usual events you see at all rodeos.  It was looking like it might be one of those accident filled days, however.  First thing they do is have an “Empty Saddle” memorial for folks who have been a part of the fair and rodeo community and have passed away in the recent year.  They have a friend or relative come out on horseback, with a empty saddle horse in tow, and have a nice memorial speech about each person’s contributions to the community. As they were leaving the arena, one of the riders got bucked off her horse and the ambulance crew had to come out and escort her off the field.  Not ten minutes later, during the mutton busting, a little girl got stomped by a sheep. It was not looking good! Luckily, I think they got all the wrecks over early, though, and the rest of the rodeo went smoothly. I don’t know who was providing the stock, but there were some absolutely stunning horses out there, full of fire and brimstone, making for some exciting rides!

The "calf scramble", always hilarious!

Now, Rob and I are in evacuation mode for the rest of the week. We’re leaving at the crack of dawn on Friday to go back to northern Maryland for my Mom’s 75^th birthday and my Aunt’s 60^th. I spent all day yesterday starting to round up stuff for the trip and this will continue all week. I’m taking back Moose Drool beer for a lady at the Yuengling beer outlet, who wants to trade for a case of Yuengling, gotta bring Fat Tire and a couple of other microbrews for my Dad, who brews his own beer back in MD and loves to try other beer.  I promised Mom that I would also bring elk meat and lukanka sausage for all our southern relatives to try for dinner one night and I’ll have to get some dry ice to transport that back. I also have assorted jellies and produce I’ve made or picked that will be going along. Whew!  It’s going to be great though, to see all my relatives again.  I was just down in Alabama seeing some of them but a few will be joining us that I haven’t seen in eons. 

My uncle Kip runs the newspaper down in Washington, GA and was unable to make the last trip but will be coming this time.  I haven’t seen him since his boys were little and they are college age now.  Same with my cousin, Rick, who actually lives in MD, haven’t seen him probably in over 22 years. I know that he hasn’t met Rob yet and that’s how long we’ve been together. So, it’s going to be a great time. Mom’s got all kinds of fun things planned and we were actually able to logistically fit everyone in her house without having to make anyone get a hotel room. She has a beautiful place, tucked on 5 wooded acres, just across from a nature conservancy in rural Carroll County.  Rob, Thistle and I will be staying in her rock star size motorhome that she uses for her dog show travels, probably along with one other relative, while everyone else will be in the house.  We had to do that because of Thistle.  Mom has Tibetan Spaniels that she breeds and shows and we’re a little concerned that they may be intimidated by the big galoof, Thistle, running around the house knocking over those little 7 pound dogs (Thistle is now around 70 lbs).

The trip will be awesome for Rob, as well, as his whole family just lives about 2 miles (as the crow flies) from my mom. He’ll probably be spending most of his time with his own mother and his sisters while I’m spending time with my family. We have set aside just one evening to visit with friends, wish it could be more, but family comes first on these trips.  So, I called and arranged for all our friends to come down to the Hampstead American Legion, where we used to be officers, that Wednesday night while we’re there so we can at least say “hi”.

Golly, I’m making myself tired just talking about the plans!  May need a vacation from this trip when we get back, ya think? I can guarantee, though, that I’ll be waddling back to Wyoming, stuffed with as much blue crab and other seafood as I can push in myself while I’m there! That’s one of the few things I miss back there.  My best friend back east, Paula, has a brother who’s a commercial fisherman on the Chesapeake Bay and I just know she’s gonna have some Rockfish (striped bass) for me to take home and maybe some nice picked crab meat.

Well, it’s the beginning of another week, folks! A chance to start anew and look forward with hope and resolve to making each and every day count.  Get out there and show everyone what you’re made of. Know that you got me as your cheerleader, I may not be there with you but my invisible hand has got your back, lifting you up.