Sunday, July 22, 2007

Good morning, folks,
This morning is bright, beautiful, and cool. Love it.

A very dear friend of mine is suffering terribly with several physical ailments. She is in her 50's. This friend, has a mitro-valve prolapse, extremely severe fibromyalgia, plus, she has recently been diagnosed with central pain syndrome. She is in constant, severe pain. The specialist she went to recently, (about 7 weeks ago), put her on a drug to help with the pain. Now she is so bad she can barely brush her teeth. It is such an effort to get through a day, or even a night. I looked up the drug she is taking on the Internet, and the side effects are unbelievable! She suffers a lot of them anyway, so is the drug causing an increase and new symptoms, or is it from her debilitating physical ailments or both? Sometimes I really wonder what the doctors are doing. Aren't we all just their guinea pigs? Do they really care? Of course when she called the specialist, (he wasn't in on a Friday), the nurse suggested she go to the hospital. Then she called her family physician shortly thereafter, and he wasn't in either. Again, the nurse suggested she go to the hospital. Well, okay. Drive all the way up there, and they more than likely would give her a strong dose of something for the pain, and say, "You really need to see your regular doctor." How frustrating! Please pray for this woman! She really needs it! She has an appt. with the specialist next Wednesday. She can't even drive, so I am going to take her up.

How come we can send men/women into outer space, that costs billions of dollars, but there isn't money for research to help people like my friend???

Yesterday I worked outside almost all day. I worked on a corner flowers/bushes area near the driveway and front walkway. I was trimming the forsythia and discovered a bird nest nestled below some overhanging branches. I left the bird nest and just trimmed around it. Not sure what bird was in it, but it thrilled me to find it. Neat. Hubby and I tilled the garden yesterday. I have a zucchini the size of Rhode Island. It wasn't that big the other day, and then the rain came! Wow! Huge! Not sure what I am going to do with it yet, and more coming on. For the first time in years, the zucchini is doing well. Hmm. Why did I plant so much?

The garden is doing well, at least my plants are. Hubby is discouraged with his corn. We have only picked about 12 ears of corn so far, and there is hardly any left to pick for supper tonight. That should be the end of the first planting. Not enough rain. The second planting, "candy corn" is doing well though. It is the best and most delicious corn. We should get a good crop of it. The third planting is well on its way too. He hilled-up the third corn yesterday so it doesn't blow over in a wind storm. (hopefully, anyway.) He dug down into the potatoes and brought out a nice size one. He was surprised at this because of the lack of rain for the last two months. Now we have to keep a constant eye on the dogs, as they love potatoes. Especially Woodrow, he will sneak out to the garden and dig up his own! Stinker!

I am getting a kick out of the battle between my husband and the squirrels that keep invading the bird feeders. He has now put a piece of metal, about two feet long, around the pole that holds the feeders high off the ground. Has this stopped the squirrels from climbing the pole? No!
They are still getting on the feeders. He is getting frustrated. Soon he will probably have the metal all the way up and down the pole. We'll see how that works!

I am going to donate both of my books to various domestic violence shelters across Ohio. I have talked to ten so far that are willing to accept them.

I signed up for a Writer's workshop in Cleveland. I will attend this next Friday, July 27th. It sound really good. I will have to leave around 5:30 in the morning to make it there in time because it starts at 8 a.m. It lasts until 5:30 p.m. Plus, I am going to enter a poetry contest with a couple of my poems.

Until next time, have a great week, stay safe, be blessed, and learn all you can about domestic violence and abuse. It could save a life! Every life is precious. Again, please pray for my friend.

Best regards,
Becky