Monday, March 10, 2014

BIRTHDAY WITH TRAVELIN' BUDDIES AND VBF!

Last Thursday was my 66th birthday. I suppose I'm still considered "young elderly." I'm saying that, anyway. My TB friends in Arkansas sent me a surprise package that brought me to tears - for all the great times we've had together, times we've laughed, cried, considered life in general, had lunches and birthdays, trips and New Year's Eve dinners together. I've missed them, of course, but it has now been long enough that I really miss them. Jean, Carol and Charlene sent me this... They have a special meaning and the shirt - well, this is a family-friendly blog... Suffice to say we are precocious old ladies. Jean said this is scores for Scrabble and we had some doozy words!

Sunday afternoon my VBF Bren brought me this little book and I read it all after she left. I couldn't believe the parallels to my own life: Snowdown (though I never lived there, many of my Thorne relatives are buried in the cemetery of the church that's there); describing stops at Oldham store; the author and I had the same teacher (Mrs. Hovater) at Annapolis Avenue School in Sheffield. Her dad worked construction for TVA and moved a lot during her childhood; Willard did construction for TVA also and we moved a lot. Her family rented an apartment in Iuka from Miss Bama Akers, who is a cousin on Paul's grandmother's side of the family. His family rented an apartment from her when he was a child, too. Paul's mother was a classmate of Armisted Haines, a cousin of Naomi's father.  Just kind of spooky, all the similarities. Loved the book and the lessons she learned from the love of her family, home.  Bren said Fredda had reviewed the book at a DAR meeting recently. Thanks, Bren and Fredda!


Friday night Paul took me to Dinner Bell in Corinth for my birthday. Good filet steak! Delicious strawberry shortcake (to go, which I ate the next day). Amy's birthday card arrived - and there's a prize package on the way from her! Love prizes! Soooo many Facebook birthday wishes! Over 100! 

And Saturday was such a beautiful day - I ate my lunch on the deck. Oscar was there, on his leash since I can't trust him to stay when a sudden distraction pulls him away. He was in one of the metal chairs and suddenly jumped down, landing awkwardly. I petted him, took him in, and realized he had hurt his foot. A nail hung in the metal chair bottom and it was bleeding, loose and hurting. I cleaned it as much as he'd let me, put Neosporin on it and gave him a half dose of Metacam, his arthritis medicine. Sunday he just wasn't himself. I doctored it some more and he licked and licked it, which is what they do. This morning I called and got an appointment for the vet and Dr. Brad nipped the whole nail off; otherwise, he'd just hang it on everything. He cauterized it and wrapped it in a self-stick bandage. Oscar didn't know what do think. First of all he was shaking, had on a muzzle and golly-bill, he cut off my whole toenail! Brad and his vet tech Sam are so good, kind and gentle. It was over in seconds. O didn't know how to walk with the bandage on and I told him to leave it alone. So far he has. I know he's been scared and confused. I think this is the first time he's been injured in any way. (The arthritis was a gradual thing; as far as a trauma, this is the first.) Not a happy camper.

I was going to take him for grooming in the morning, but decided it'd be best to wait about a week. Brad said give him Metacam for pain every day instead of the alternate dates I do for arthritis. Just too much of the vet's office for him, plus a sore toe, he can not surely want to be bathed and have a haircut. My baby.

This morning I went to WMU, then to Brook's for bacon for Aunt Ginny (she finally had to have bacon at $5.41 a pound or maybe 12 ounces), to alternate with her sausage. Went by to see Marsha and wished her well on her mission trip - she leaves Friday and returns the next Friday. Eleven from her church are going to an orphanage in... oh, me... she's told me - South America, Mexico? Out of the country...Stopped at the pharmacy for probiotics. Stopped at AG's and left her mail and her bacon. Home and dozed in the recliner a bit (after O's doctor visit); two trips to town today. 

Tomorrow - no "plans" that I know of. Wednesday I go to Muscle Shoals to the dentist for cleaning; then to Hobby Lobby and possibly Lifeway Christian Bookstore if I have enough energy. I really dislike going anywhere alone; maybe I'll see if Charlotte wants to ride up with me. I think I may be getting aged old, the other side of 65... Oh, me, how did it happen? Well, by God's grace. I'm thankful for all I can do. So thankful for friends. Love them all and have been so blessed with such sweet, faithful friends.

And then Thursday, Paul goes to Tupelo to have a "procedure" in the office - the surgeon is going to cut out that cyst, deeper this time and with a larger drain. So Nurse Pat will need to have her supplies at the ready for the next two weeks at least. I'm sure he'll have a return visit at least by then. I hope and pray this time he gets it deep enough that it will drain completely and heal completely from the inside out and not heal over whatever infection it is that it heals over. This is going on two years of this. Last Friday I think it was, was a very bad day for Paul, with chills and fever. When the cyst drains, though, he gets immediate relief. But it's still there. Nancy told me her mother and daddy (Willard and Herbert) used to put salted fat meat on cysts she would have when she was a girl. Mama used to mix bacon grease and sulfur powder and put on ringworms we would have, out in the country. Maybe I need to just buy some fatback and slap it on his behind!

G'night all my friends... Ones who know my secrets and ones who just read what I write here! lol Love to you all!

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