Enjoying Autumn--Virtually

Things Are Looking Up

(Written last night)I'm feeling right mellow after the shrimp tostado and the chicken tacos Justin brought me for supper. They were from Taqueria Fast who can park a food truck on our corner anytime they like. Fresh, fresh, fresh tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, and avocado along with ceviche shrimp made my room smell wonderful.  My mouth is singing.

 Also I got a new roommate last night and she's not chatty. She plays the TV constantly but at a very low volume. And the sound of her COPD machine is actually kinda soothing. Plus I've learned the value of keeping the privacy curtain pulled.

I'm still not very mobile  but am getting better at using a sliding board to transfer from wheelchair to bed and back. Having Physical Therapy and that's good, even when it hurts.

And The Administrator decreed that I should have a new mattress and lo and behold, it was made so!

I went back and updated the fairly nasty review I'd left on their site. They really are trying to address my gripes.

But their food's going to have to take a quantum leap to be better than Taqueria Fast. And they need to understand that a dish of canned pears is NOT a Fresh Fruit Cup, as the menu described it.

                        

Places I'd Rather Be

Miss Birdie iand the Frisky Oreo

Why, honey, how fine to see you! Come right in and get you a chair -- just shove that wheelchair out the way.

Dor'thy said she'd let you know what happened and where I was and I calculated I'd see you afore long. Is them tangerines? Oh my, how good they smell.

No, I weren't at the hospital but a few days before coming to this place and I told Dor'thy not to let anyone come visit till I got to feeling some better. In the hospital seems like they's always someone -- nurses, doctors, aides, and I don't know what all -- popping into the room to pester you about one thing or another and to ask a lot of questions. You'll not believe it but though my name was on the door and though before they give me a pill, they would look right quick at the little wrist bracelet and then they would ask me to tell them my name and birthday for the world as if they hadn't just then read it on the bracelet. 

Birdsong Gentry, 10- 6- 22 - Law, how many times did I say it!  Most as many times as I had to explain how I come to have a broken ankle and my shoulder wrenched plumb out of socket.

You hain't heard the whole of it?

No, it weren't nothing to do with the truck nor was I driving. I wasn't doing nothing more dangerous than walking back down my driveway, looking through the mail--mostly advertisements like always but there was a postcard from Lexter's grandaughter-

I'm bad to lose track of where I was. You want to know what happened. Well, it was along of that new Florida feller's bull-- the one that looks like an Oreo cookie --feeling romantic.  The Florida feller don't have but three heifers, all  three like the bull, solid black with a great white band around their middles. So the bull was happy with those three but oncet they come in season and he had doctored all three, he got restless. 

And Worley Medders had just turned  five open cows and heifers into that pasture on the hill behind my house-- they are a sight on earth, them pretty Jerseys.Worley gets top dollar for them from dairymen. Worley had wanted to hold off on their breeding till he sold his old bull and brought in this fine champion one he has just contracted for-

Well, I'm getting to it. Here I was, walking down my driveway without a thought for anything but for Kimmie's letter and the trouble she is having with her boss who, from what she said, is just a-sniffing round her and making comments about how pretty she is and him a married man. 

Well, I was so deep in that letter and thinking of what I could tell Kimmie, that I didn't pay no mind to the dreadful bawling  Worley's cows had set up. At least not till I heard hooves clip-clopping along the hard road and a great bellowing almost in my ear.

And the next thing I knew I was knocked off my feet and rolling down the slope  into my garden till I fetched up against Bernice's boy's tiller, which he had left there till he had time to till under the last of the garden. I looked up and plague take it if old Oreo hadn't busted through the fence and was getting right familiar with them Jersey cows.

Just about then Dor'thy come along and like to have a fit making sure I weren't killed. She called 911 and while we was waiting for them, I got tickled at what Worley was like to say about old Oreo breeding with those pedigreed milk cows of hisn. 

It tickled my funny bone so that I busted out laughing.

Lord, Miss Birdie, cries Dor'thy, and goes to staring in my eyes and feeling of my head to see was it hurt any. Whatever is there to laugh about?

Honey, says I, you call Worley Medders and tell him he best
get over here and see about them cows.  And ask him does he like milk and cookies.

Well, I had a time convincing her that my wits weren't addled. Dor'thy ain't never been much of a one for funning. But I see you a-grinning.

 Everwhat, here I am laid low by a frisky Oreo. Right now though, I'm looking forward to watching Miss Hillary give that orange feller down-the-road tonight. To think I have lived long enough to vote for a woman for president -- I've already made sure that the folks here can get me to the voting place.

No, Really

So many folks in the area have offered to come see me and bring me treats but, really, John and Justin have it covered.

And, as I told a friend, I'm not just grumpy but also haven't had a  bath since last Sunday, and am sleeping a lot in the day. Believe me, I'm best as a virtual experience.

But I can read my email now! Not download it but read and respond on line. So there's that.

Addendum: Honesty compels me to report that as of four o'clock yesterday, I've had a bed bath, been sky lifted into a wheelchair, and rolled down the hall to the 'beauty parlor' where a very nice little CNA washed my hair. I am a nicer, better smelling person, though not quite ready for prime time.

Good and Bad and Really Bad

Looking on the bright side, I've been allowed to leave off the sling and can use both hands to type. I've gotten a bit more mobility in  lifting my legs. And Justin brought me sushi, dark chocolate and olives . . .

The dark side -- I'm in a nursing home/rehab facility. With a roommate who seems like a nice person but is far more inclined to chat than is my comfort level. I've explained to her that I don't hear well (which is true)and hope that will excuse me from too many girlish confidences.

Worst of all, the wi-fi is spotty. I'm unable to download email. THIS is seriously annoying.

But all in all, I feel like I'm improving bit by bit. Maybe they can work on my grumpiness while they're healing my body.

W. B. Yeats Warned Us...

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   

The falcon cannot hear the falconer; 

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; 

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, 

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned; 

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity. 

Surely some revelation is at hand; 

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi 

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   

The darkness drops again; but now I know   

That twenty centuries of stony sleep 

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Inspired by the video of two women calling themselves The Trumpettes. They referred to the Deplorable One as a golden god, sent from above to save us. 

Thanks to All Y'all

Many thanks for all the kind messages and good wishes.

I'm doing okay but it's going to take a while, drat it!

Quel Bummer!

So . . . I'm in the hospital with a dislocated and broken ankle (upon which I cannot put any weight for six weeks,) a dislocated shoulder, and a honking big laceration just above the other ankle. The dislocations have been put right and the laceration has  been sewn up with many, many stitches, inside and out, plus a bit of duct tape (or its medical equivalent.)

How did this happen?

Well, I was coming up the steep road by the garden in John's big truck and I decided to stop and get some pumpkins for the Fall decor. I put the truck in Park, mashed the emergency brake, and started to get out.

Which is when the truck began to roll. Backwards and down hill.

Hanging on to the steering wheel, I tried to pull my left leg back inside to re-stomp the emergency brake but the truck was picking up speed and beginning to slew from side to side.

Upon which I realized that my options were limited-- bail out or be dragged.

I let go and things were a bit of a blur after that but I found myself rolling downhill through a nice grassy field. Over to the side, the truck continued to hurtle down the road and at last into the branch at the side of the road. 

My cell phone was lying in the grass a little way off and I crawled to it to call John. He had heard the crash and was on his way.

He called 911 and I got my first ambulance ride, watching the mountains disappear behind us.

This has been a a painful, frightening experience but it could have been much worse. (Cue Funeral March.) 

And at least it took my mind off The Book.

 (No, I still haven't heard anything . . . )                                     

Feeling the Fall

It's gotten cooler -- but we're still resisting closing the windows yet. The quilts and comforters feel good at night. 

In the house I'm rounding up the sea shells and various bit of summer decor and packing them away to make room for my fall treasures. Out with the ferns in vases; in with magnolia leaves. I'm working on new throw pillows in autumn hues for the living room but first a bit of fall cleaning needs to happen -- or maybe I could call all those spiderwebs my nod to Halloween . . .

Time to bring the pumpkins and winter squash up from the garden . . . to take down the tomato trellises and tidy what remains.

The barns are full of hay and John and Justin have been working on the woodpiles . . .

A flush of shitakes after the last rain caught us off guard. These are past their best but were still worth sauteeing and freezing for later use. Some went into a gravy- rich beef stew -- the first of the season and some went into the ramen noodles we had for lunch. 

Now that it's cooler and the heat of the stove will feel welcome, it's time to think about wonderful soups and big pots of chili and smothered chicken. . .  roasted vegetables and homemade pizza and stromboli. Maybe some pumpkin bread and and apple crisp. Homemade doughnuts come to mind -- I made some once, long ago -- perhaps it's time to try it again.

What says Autumn to you?

Pink Clouds

Sweet Autumn

Thistle

Maple Leaf on Rose Geranium

Saffron Crocus

Goldenrod

Wild Michaelmas Daisies aka Asters

Ironweed

Thistles

Elderly Thistles