Heart to Heart

Once again I've been remiss . It has been awhile since I've written. I have been : a) busy, b) tired, c) lazy. ( Every thing is multiple choice now. )

It is just a week away from Spring Break, and I join all teachers in the joyful thought of its arrival! I expect to spend a lot of time during SB just reading and doing nothing. Well, maybe I should do some work in the yard, weather permitting, do some window washing, energy permitting, do some shopping, finances permitting, organizing, time permitting. If there is any time left over after the reading I'll get right to some of those tasks.

Yesterday I spent the greater part of the day at the Cardiovascular Associa;tes' offices. I had some changes in my EKG a few weeks ago and you know how it is in these times, we have to rush off and have tests in order to protect the primary care doctor from litigation.

I had to be there at 11:45 and I had to abstain from ANY form of caffeine for twenty-four hours in advance of being there and abstain from food and drink for 4 hours. I couldn't even take an Advil for my headache that was a direct result of the caffeine restriction. I had to teach until time to go and I felt pretty miserable. I feared that I was coming down with WGA. (what's going around) but the testing took my mind off that in a hurry.

First off they had to put an IV in my arm. I have had enough experience to know just what that maneuver entails. "Let's see here, is one of your arms better than the other?"
'Yes, they are not always successful with the right arm." (Notice I have disowned my arm by referring to it as 'thee arm')
"Well, I think I'll just give it a try anyway.I think I can find a vein here. Let's see if this one will work. Oh, I hope I'm not hurting you too much, I hate to fish around like this but the vein keeps slipping away. Your veins are so small! " (This translates to, see? this is your fault!) O.K. Maybe , I'll give your left arm a try" ( Again ,I wish to refer to it as 'the left arm') We proceed with more 'fishing in the left arm, The ' fisher' is exhibiting more and more angst.
"Sometimes they have to use one of 'the' hands." I suggested.
" I think I will have a look at your hands. Just let me put a piece of gauze over this." I now have matching arm gauze pads! After much scrutiny he found a vein that looked suitable to him. It was located on the right hand in the area just above my thumb and index finger. Finally, success! Whew! That procedure lasted about 25 minutes, Bruce and I ( we became quite friendly) had a long day ahead of us. The nuclear part of the test was uneventful, except that to protect the equipment they keep it quite cold in the lab. and I impressed Bruce by turning blue, then black and finnally dead white (my hands). He wrapped me in sheets and towels in an effort to warm me up. I ended up being the only patient of the day clad in a grey hospital garment and a winter coat and a scarf.

A great deal of time is spent sitting in a room waiting for the pictures to be read. I made the aquaintance of a few other women that were awaiting their pictures to be read. We had some in -depth discussions about health care, doctors and books. I was reading "The History of Love" at the time. They were all wishing that they had done that too. Not "The History of Love" but just brought


a book.
Next on the agenda was walking on the tread mill while being wired up with little patches that were hooked up to the monitor. I was really exhausted by that activity. I finally said I didn't think I could go any longer when they insisted that I could go on to the finish. They said I only had one more minute. Do you know how long a minute is ? I had to sit in a chair and pant for about five minutes before going on to the next act.
The cardio echo gram was the least invasive and rather interesting to see the ultra-sound of my heart beating and the sound of the blood swooshing in and out of the chambers. At one point it sounded like, "wow, wow, wow, wow, "very soothing." Bruce had to take my IV out, no problem there and then I got dressed and left for home, starved, tired and looking forward to all the caffeine I could drink. It was 5:00. Results, Tuesday.


There are 304 days left till a new president

Quote " It will take time to restore chaos, and order...order out of chaos."

President Bush;, speaking of the mess in Iraq, April 13, 2003

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Although St. P's day is tomorrow, we have already celebrated it. Last night we, Karen, Kristin and I, joined Tim, and Paul and quite a few other Irish or psuedo Irish at the Bonnycastle Club to see an Irish Band and have sandwiches and the libation of choice. Paul, Tim and other fellow Hibernians marched in the St. Patrick's day parade. It rained, pretty much all day long. Sometimes it teemed rain but you know that would not stop a few Irishmen from walking, or marching or staggering down the middle of the street. It was a great day for the Guinn..I mean the Irish. The major complaint was how cold their hands got. Some had to pull the sleeves of their sweat shirts down over their hands so that they could hold the cold beers. I tell ya, life's tough in these river towns.

The music was great, they played many Irish favorites, sneaked a Scotish tune in and even a Hank Williams tune. There were four children there, three, four or five year old boys and an eight year old girl that danced all night long. Their energy was limitless. The band members said it gave them pleasure to see those kids having such a good time and spurred them on to play even more tunes. The young girl had the dance style of the River Dancers down pat and except for keeping her upper body still like they do, she is ready to Go. Fun! The band had one woman, I assume a Celtic girl, she played the flute and did a great job with a tin whistle. They said their lead singer was not with them but the fellow that took over for him was good. One guy was very colorful with a jaunty green hat and a Greatful Dead silk shirt on. It was as near to the feeling of being in an Irish Pub as I've had since being in Ireland. Having the young kids there and a grandpa dancing with his little grandson and a grandma with another tot and all the young couples having a convivial time in good company, with a generation older than them and a generation younger than them it was a memorable occasion. I hope I live to see another St. Patrick's Day! (Or maybe more) An Irish toast;" May you live all the Days of your life. Slainte"

Tomorrow back to school. I am looking forward to Spring Break. I've had about enough of waking up at 6AM every day!

310 days left till we have a new president.

Quote for today:" I like my buddies from West Texas. I liked them when I was young. I liked them when I was middle age. I liked them before I was president, and I like them during president, and I like them after preident."

--President Bush, Dr. Seuss-style, February 1, 2006

Snow at last, snow at last...

I've been waiting forever for snow just like this. It is great. We got a day off from school and could sit and watch the flakes flutter down. I called and asked the receptionist at Klon.M. if the entrance hill was cleared and they assured me it was so I ventured down to visit Doc. It seems they THOUGHT it was cleared but in fact it was not. as I was going up another car was coming down and it was a little scary for a minute but I made it. About 15 minutes after I came , the snow plow came and plowed.

Yesterday when we had the really serious snow it was much worse out. We had about 12 inches and I didn't think I had better risk it, so I stayed home! It was a bonus day. I got to sit and read,and read and read. My idea of peace and relaxation. I didn't have to go anywhere or do any thing. The snow was beautiful. The deck railings were a good measuring devise for me, I kept seeing the snow build up on them inch by inch. I had filled the bird feeder and could sit at the kitchen table and watch the birds eat and bicker over the perches. The Cardinals were exceptionally beautiful with their bright red feathers contrasting with the snow white snow. I had wrens, chick-e-dees, tit mouses, finches, and a variety of others. I have to keep the feeder filled because with snow this deep they can't find much food on their own.

It took Fergus awhile to brave the snow. At first he was reluctant to go off the deck. I shoveled a little path for him but he just wanted back in. Finally, he had to go off the deck but he didn't go far. He actually walked out in it today and seemed to enjoy it. He came into the house feeling very peppy. He ran and got his toy and threw it around for awhile.

I do actually love to shovel snow, but you know what? I went out and tried to clean the drive way off but I could not do it. The snow was as heavy as cement. I cleared a small path out as far as the car and puffed and panted back into the house and decided to go with the philosophy that God put it there so he can take it away. But God knew I couldn't wait for days to drive out the driveway so he sent Michele and Jeff past the house and they said," Woah, we need to do Grandma's driveway for her. " I looked out to see what Fergus was barking at and there were the two of them shoveling away. Thank God for grandkids! I am so thankful for them.

Tomorrow, we'll be back in school. My Literature class are reading an exerpt from Maya Angelou's book, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". It will be a good selection to discuss.

There are 317 days left until we have a new president.

Quote for the day:"For a century and a half now , America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times."
President Bush ,forgetting that whole World War 2 thing. Feburary 18, 2002

Safety Net

Remember back a number of years ago when someone tampered with a bottle of Tylenol and changed our whole way of life? Faith and security have gone down hill ever since that fateful day. All pill bottles are now so secure that it takes the strength of Samson to open them. Thousands of other items are "open proof" also. They tout them as being child proof but they force many of us to seek out a child to get them open for us. Even the items that are not potentially harmful if tampered with, are impossible to open because they are 'shrink wrapped'. I have learned to use a stitch ripper outer to get into shrink wrapped objects.

We live in fear of getting ecoli and other even more dreadful diseases from buying pre packaged vegetables, contaminated meat from abused cows, with or without MCD. We must be constantly on alert for scam artists calling our homes and we have shredders now to try our best not to have our identity stolen. We work in schools behind locked doors, with security cameras and must inform our children of the dangers lurking around every corner. Terrorists,since 9-11 are always just below the surface of our minds, the right to bear arms is out of control... it's enough to drive one crazy. I won't even get into the dangerous potential ever present on our Internets. Woe is us!

We do have to burden our children with the knowledge that there are "bad things " in our scary world and we must prepare them to deal with them.

With all that in mind, a few weeks ago one of our schools desided to have a series of drills. Might just as well get them all over with at one time. So, they informed the student body of their plans and did tell them that sometimes "bad things" can happen at school and they were going to have drills so that if they ever needed to take action against these things, they would be ready. They proceded to have a fire drill, then a tornado drill and a drill to practice what procedure they would use if an intruder ever got into the school.

That evening at home one of the students, a kindergarden student, was in the bathroom of his home with the door shut so he had to shout to be heard, said, "Ab, what was your favorite bad thing that could happen at school?"

Ab shouted back, "The intruder was my favorite!"

"The intruder was my favorite,too!" Cool.

Kids are delightful! Resilient too.


323 days till we get a new president.

Quote for today: " What I am against is quotas. I am against hard quotas, quotas they basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate, quotas, I think, vulcanize society."

-President Bush, possible Trekkie. January 21, 2000

PS

PS We are celebrating Stephanie's 40th birthday. The way I wrote in my blog it sounded as if it was her 40th anniversary. Whew! She has actually been married about 12 years as of last July. Ciao,ciao

Anniversary

Last Thursday was our 66th wedding anniversary. When I walked into Doc's room, he said,"Happy Birthday!". Then quickly he said, "Oh, Happy Anniversary!" He does always remember the date. Certainly not a very festive celebration, I walked him in the hall almost down to the end and then he had to sit in the wheel chair which I drag along behind him when he walks. He is much better at walking (with the aid of a walker) than he has been. He still needs assistance getting into bed and getting out of bed. I think he could manage to get out of the chair and sit on the bed but he can't get his legs up onto the bed. His right leg is still pretty weak. All of the personel at Klondike came to wish him happy anniversary and he was very appreciative. Most of them proceded to tell him how long they were married and how long they have been divorced . Not too many people around that stay married.

Tomorrow I am going up to Linda's to celebrate Stephanie's 40th with the Huber family. I bought her a pair of drug store glasses because now that she is forty she'll be needing them. Time keeps speeding by. Fergus has a birthday on the 13th of March and he is 11 years old already!

We have 325 days until we get a new president.

Quote for today: "In terms of the CO 2 issue. I will explain as clearly as I can, today and every other chance I get, that we will not do anything that harms our economy. Because, first things first, are the people who live in America."

-President Bush, discussing his reasons for ignoring the Kyoto Protocol, March 29, 2001