I took the last Vancomycin this afternoon. No more pills! I'm anxious and excited. And I hope no evil C. Diff spores will bloom and start taking over again. My body is on its own. I feel so good that I've almost forgotten how bad I felt. I notice I don't feel great if I drink a large glass of milk or eat a big bowl of ice cream, so I'll only have little glasses and little bowls. I love the Lord so much I feel I might burst!
The other day I got a letter in the mail. It started, "We notice you've had a birthday." I quit reading after that because I thought it was a happy birthday business greeting from Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Awful nice of them, I thought. My husband asked what it said, and I told him, and he seemed perplexed. I picked it up and read it to him out loud and, oops, I noticed after noticing my birthday they also told me that because I'm now 50 our monthly insurance has an automatic increase. Ouch. Just throw some salt on it why don't they!
Aw, there will be no photo documenting this hair style. It's only been three hours and from the middle on down it just looks frizzy. Failure.
I got an email last night. GeoCities is closing down all their free sites and deleting the files on October 26th. Horror of horrors! What a bummer. It was 1997 when I set up my first page there. It was a family page. It was hardly legible because I used a purple galaxy background and purple text. I loved that page! I thought it was beautiful and when someone told me it was hard to read I was quite offended. I didn't change it for six months at which time, I did concede it might be a little hard on the eyes. It was purple though! You can't have too much purple. It's impossible. I had so much fun and connected with such nice moms online who helped me tremendously with preschool education and forming my educational philosophy. That very first page is long gone and how I wish I had saved the files. It would be a hoot to see my first page now.
When our son was seven months old I looked into his eyes and knew I would homeschool him. Before that, I regarded homeschooling as being for wackos. I was fortunate that we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and there was an excellent homeschool group that welcomed the littles in the area. The mothers were so nice and helpful and didn't make feel silly for wanting to get involved so soon even though our son wasn't even school age yet.
I'm going to have to download and save all my files from my one, last, free site that still exists http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Forest/2468/index.html. I quit working on it seven years ago because when kindergarten started I no longer had time to work on it. Gee, I worked so hard to get a few links to it. Now it'll be all gone; a whisper in the wind. It's the end of an era.
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There was lightning all around us tonight. It's part of what I love about New Mexico and about monsoon season. I think it's my favorite time of year.
I've wanted to photograph lightning for the longest time. I was overwhelmed with finding the settings though and when an awesome storm was nearby I was scared to go out. Plus, who wants to get their camera wet! Guess I had a little confidence going since I captured some fireworks.
My first lightning picture. I caught lightning striking in the town. It started to rain so I had to come inside. This new venture promises to be an exciting endeavor but bein' chicken hearted I'm only willing to get out there ifns the bolts are plenty far away. Not bad for a first try. Actually, a second try. I tried a couple years ago in Moab, Utah, and flopped.
And I've been well for three days in a row. I had no being uncomfortable or tender tummied at all today! I read that buttermilk is good to soothe the colon so my husband bought me some and I drank a glass. I gave it a taste then I had to drink it fast because it tastes horrible. It's like drinking sour cream. Yuk. But I haven't felt this well since June 5th so I will drink some every day if it'll keep me feeling good.
A lawyer from Colorado visited last month. He lay down on a sheet of plastic. Put on a beanie. Covered his head with a towel. And shot himself dead in the head. It is so sad. It was the neatest and easiest clean up. He must have been a very thoughtful person when alive.
National and state parks seem to be a draw for people who decide to commit suicide. Is it the solitude. The peace? From dust we come and to dust we shall return? I was at another park once. I think it was Joshua Tree National Park which used to be Joshua Tree National Monument when I lived near it in the '70s. I recall a ranger saying they always immediately investigate cars parked near the roadside when they can't see a driver anywhere. Something about parks attracts people bent on ending it.
A bicyclist was riding by and heard a single gunshot. He stopped and told the guy it's not safe to fire a weapon in this area. The guy said he was just testing the gun. Bicyclist went into the bathroom. Heard another gunshot. Went outside and the man was dead. He killed himself.
They said he had a really beautiful truck too.
It's a Guinea Fowl. Took me two weeks to figure out what it was and it was my mom who told me. About five of them were alongside the road. They're a poultry bird. Poor things. They have a beautiful partridge body and an ugly ol' vulture head. They weren't shy at all.
I've felt fine all day, though somewhat lethargic, so I'm worried tomorrow will be a bad day. We'll see.
I raked the site today and it looks nice. I was inspired by the lady next door named Ann who said she lost two inches from her waistline working here raking sites! She's 70 years old and you'd never know it by looking at her. And she had the most beautiful southern accent. I say had because they left today. Continuing on their travels.
In New Mexico it's too dry for green grass lawns. Everyone has rocks. Many people rake their rocks. Crazy, I know. But for a campsite it really does look nice to pull in to a neatly raked site. It looks clean and fresh and inviting. As I was raking I thought this could be like a total meditative practice. Yes, little Grasshopper, it can. At Huntington Gardens in San Marino there was a Japanese Zen garden and the sand was raked into a wavy design and they rake it into different designs on different days too. I could do that! Wouldn't it cool to pull into a specially designed design in the rocks of your campsite? Oh this has potential. They might come out and see me and ask me how I came up with this idea and they'll want to put a photo of my neatly raked unique designs and patterns in the newspaper with a special inset picture of me. It'll be like those posters where you have to stare and stare to relax your eyes and see the picture. Other people would want to do it too. Pretty soon people in town would do it. Maybe it would spread all over New Mexico. And I would get all the credit for this amazing concept. Maybe my idea would jump continents and Australia will do it too.
But the Japanese already got whole the raking idea in about the tenth century. Details, details, ruining my daydream.
In biblical history it only took a handful of people, one imperfect person at a time, to change the world. Remember Esther, Saul who became Paul, Abraham who was first to hear God's voice, Moses, the 12 disciples of Jesus?
What is it about Sarah that the media jumps on her and slanders her so? Why does she frighten the liberal media so much? It is a certain something, for sure. Of 18 legal cases against her, all ethics complaints I think, 17 were dismissed and on one she paid $10,000 back for taking her children traveling with her.
It's been said that when God opens the gates of heaven, Satan will open the gates of hell. That's what I think is going on. Forty-three presidents have called the USA a Christian nation. Now the 44th president says this is no longer a Christian nation. The enemy, Satan and his demons, control the media. I can hardly find any truth being reported. Couple days ago read an interview with Colin Powell who noted the obvious saying Obama is spending too much money and his ideas for more government and more taxes are a concern. Yeah buddy, it's a concern. That's an understatement. None of the major media outlets picked it up.
A headline says Michael Jackson is America's Princess Diana. Michael Jackson was a pedophile. He was absolutely gifted with talent, but he mismanaged his money and owed millions. He didn't have God in his life. That's why he went so wrong. Even with all that talent, money, and adoration, without walking in the light of God, look how he ended up. Can't they put entertainment news on the entertainment page instead of making it headline news?
On Saturday our friend, Ben, said he thinks now that he made a mistake voting for Obama. I told him softly, yeah, I think so too. We got quiet for a minute. He kicked a pebble with his toe.
Everyone's watching Sarah Palin. She's had the nerve to say the over spending and governmental growth of Obama's administration is immoral. When people hear the truth even when they don't want to listen, they hear it. That's the thing about Sarah. She says it plain and the media hates her for it.
Some guy in Iowa got his own Sarah Palin 2012 sign made up and he put it on his car. I got a boot out of that, so found one to stick on my blog. I still love Sarah! I guess I'm part of the base. Solidly. The other day I read an article about her and her running and I went out and did a jog walk. It felt great! Man, I love Sarah.
On Saturday I drove around for an hour scoping out a site to photograph the show. Spent all that time and ended up walking to the end of the dirt road here. The newspaper guy took photos from the hill, but I went checked it out and if I wanted to include foreground there would be telephone poles in the frame. That's no good. I'm not in favor of telephone wires in photos.
I've been feeling good and bad. I ate one piece of pizza and one brownie last night. Also went on a trash pick-up walk and got hot in the afternoon. Today I had a bad morning. It must be either the pizza, brownie, or walk that my colon didn't like. Am I an Einstein or what. I want another brownie really bad. I made 'em more cakey instead of chewy by using three eggs instead of two, but I like chewy ones better. Maybe it wasn't the brownie that made me feel bad. Maybe it was the pizza? Or the walk? How can I say when I did all three in one day. I've added oatmeal to my diet hoping it'll help. Man, this is pathetic. I'm blogging oatmeal now. Maybe I'll write a book, Me And My Colon. Has it been written already?
The trash left behind by the campers is unbelievable. We even saw a group of about 30 people who were so filthy they camped amidst their own trash. How can anybody do that? They left so much garbage behind that my husband had to rake it. It was too much to pick up piece by piece! Cigarette butts, bottle tops, beer cans, paper towels, toilet paper, plates, fruit rinds, candy wrappers, dog pooh. What I hate most is glass bottles because they break and the babies (or anyone) can cut themselves walking in the sand. I could smell pee in one area which means somebody didn't even bother to walk to the restroom. It's pretty disgusting. Trash pick-up alone will keep all the volunteers busy for a couple weeks. What ever happened to that song, "Please, please, don't be a litterbug!"
I used a new technique to get my fireworks pictures. I got a paper plate and stapled black felt to one side and cut it into a circle. In order to catch more than one burst in a frame you need to leave the shutter open a long time. Problem is, you can easily over expose the photo. When I heard the fireworks being released I opened the shutter and kept it open, then when the sky went dark I covered it and when another firework exploded I moved the plate away to catch the light. I did it on manual setting! That means I told my camera what to do, it didn't tell me what to do. I was on manual setting for exposure, f/11 aperture, 29 second shutter speed, ISO 100, 22mm focal length, Bulb mode which allows longer exposures, and my ultra wide 10-22 mm lens. I had a lot of fun. Too bad 4th of July fireworks happen only once a year. I'm having trouble deciding which of the two above I like best. I think the campers and lake shore are neat to see, but the darker photo makes the fireworks look better. Also, including the foreground makes the fireworks themselves smaller because they're a little farther away.
My oldest aunt has to have surgery. My dad phoned me and told me. I hope they find what's wrong. She's in her mid-80s and she a super neat lady. She's a redhead, or, used to be a redhead and she has the best sense of humor. Her kids, my cousins, they're neat people too.
My sister and I got hooked up on Skype. We like it! With Skype you can make phone calls on your computer. We're saving on cell phone time. And you can include video with your voice. It was a hoot. At first we just sat and grinned at each other! We're trying to improve video quality. I'm afraid my satellite won't be fast enough because you need at least 24-38 fps (frames per second) and I only have a measly eight fps. Consequently, for both of us our voices are out of whack with the video image and the video is fuzzy and/or frozen. I checked my transfer rate and it's so slow that we're going to call the satellite dish man again to see if he can help. Last night I had 30 kbps upload speed. That should be a crime. Normally it's not that slow for us.
July 4th is one of the busiest days of the year for this park. This pic is from last week-end. This coming week-end they'll be parked two, three, and four deep along the shore! It gets wild and crazy. Last year the park had about 109,000 visitors for the 4th. If 1% of those people get drunk and get in arguments and fights that's a lot of work for the rangers.
My Vancoymcin antibiotic started working well for me yesterday. Yesterday I had no discomfort at all and I was able to do everything I needed to get done, and with a dash of joy added. Today I feel very well too. All the days before were not great and Saturday was a bad day. On Saturday I drove our son to swim lesson a mere 15 minutes from here. On the way, my body decided it had to go to the bathroom. I parked fast and ran fast and the bad news is I did not make it to the head in time. I poohed some in my swimsuit. This is life with antibiotic induced colitis. I do like the Vancomycin better than Flagyl. On Flagyl my body ached so much. I thought I was simply falling apart, but now that I'm off Flagyl and the body aches have ceased I realize it was a side effect. One morning last week I couldn't even bend over to brush my teeth. I couldn't kneel down at all or I couldn't get up. I'm glad that part is better. Ninety-five percent of people are cured with Vancomycin. I pray I am one of those 95%.
A kind of funny thing happened on Sunday. I went up to the front to ask for healing at the alter call. I am quiet and my pastor's hearing is not excellent. Well, I told him, "I'm on the last medicine and it's not working," and he thought I said I had asthma. He prayed over me for healing of asthma and kind of loudly too. I was too embarrassed to correct him. His wife laid hands on me too. I figured God knows what I'm needing and asking for even if pastor got the words wrong. I came home and said to my husband, "Honey, I'm healed of asthma!" Hehe. My colitis symptoms did improve muchly on Monday, thank you Lord.
Lastly, I'm doing Bible teaching with my son on the topic of saving sex for marriage using examples in The Word such as how Joseph reacted when pharoah's wife wanted his bod. What did he do? He ran and he ran so fast she was left holding his coat!
Monday right before 3:00pm was the worst. The Flagyl stopped working and I felt very bad. I thought it would be no problem to wait over the week-end for Wal-Mart to ship in the Vancomycin, but if I knew then what I'd be in for I'd have driven the hour and a half to Las Cruces. Now I'm on the antibiotic that my doctor calls the "Big Gun" against C. Diff and I hope and pray it will restore my fauna and flora. My goodness, it's terrible having something like this wrong, and be wrong for so long. It's like living life under a blanket with all the daily joys of life muffled. I will say the Vancomycin is easier to take. It's a capsule and doesn't taste awful like the other does. Would it kill them to put a little coating on that stinkin' Flagyl?
I went for a walk and it was a lovely day with cloud cover. Hot, but beautiful. I felt much improved all day but the walk made my tummy ache. We had a tad bit of rain. In the morning a roadrunner was clucking right under my bed outside the trailer. My dad and his wife stopped by on their way home from Nebraska and we had a really nice two hour visit.
My husband and son are watching "The Three Stooges" and laughing like crazy. I find the Stooges mildly amusing. It's got to be in the genes.
The horses are called Paints. I guess they're a combination Pinto and Quarter Horse. Don't quote me on that, but it's what I read. There was another white horse and he put his head in our truck. That was exciting! They're domestic horses. That's why he was so friendly.
Yesterday I woke at 4:00am and couldn't sleep. At 5:00am a quail started crowing incessantly every 30 seconds and he continued his exultation for 30 minutes. I was gritting my teeth thinking is the next crow going to be 25 seconds or 30. Then I thought, oh dear, but I love the quail. What in the world is the matter with me? I stand at the window and wait to see who will get a drink of water and wonder, will it be a dove, a sparrow, a roadrunner, a mockingbird, a quail, or a squirrel who comes for the next sip. I have to meditate and pray a Proverb. Proverbs 17:22 - A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. So true.
My husband and son are working the kiosk at the Visitor's Center till 3:00pm. 'Tis busy here this week-end. Beautiful day with puffball clouds all around. We ordered my husband a new money clip for Father's Day. It won't come in till Tuesday though. Drats. It's a nice Indian Head Nickel style. He lost the one that I gave him about 15 years ago. He left it on top of the change machine at the laundromat and someone took it. Luckily, he had taken his money out of it. He shouldn't have set it down. I'm going to make him that Nilla Vanilla Cookie Wafer with banana and vanilla pudding recipe for a special dessert. I hope he'll like it.
We're proud owners a yet another chip in our windshield. Yesterday a regular old Ford truck passed us on the left and a teeny rock hit our windshield. Now we have three chips and a crack in it. We may have to think about replacing it!
I'm starting a different antibiotic on Monday. The pharmacy doesn't have it in stock today. My doctor said this next antibiotic is the big gun for use against C. Diff. The Flagyl didn't seem to be working for me this time. He said Flagyl works for a limited time and it looks like I need this other medicine. I haven't felt well for a week. Here's my big whine about it. WAAAAAAAH. And I'm done whining. That's the only whine allowed for that. I have a swollen cold sore on my upper lip that hasn't scabbed yet. That garners its own separate whine. Waaaaaah! Okay, done. :)
My sister wanted to see the 4th of July earrings I made so my son took some quickie pics for me.
In this pic, I look good but you can't see the earrings. I look so nice in semi-light! 
I just took my pill. I take it with food but it still makes my tummy feel, meh, so-so. I used to enjoy having a bedtime snack but now that I have to take this pill with food I've come to hate a bedtime snack.
I gave our son a big pep talk on the importance of writing his pre-algebra problems from the top down neatly and legibly. I told him math develops logical thinking and people always like to whine and say "I'll never use this math in real life," but in reality, they do. It's important to be able to think in an orderly manner. I said a lot more too, but it escapes me what I said. Anyhoo, he responded favorably and has written neat and legible math problems for two days - in a row.
"The Grandmother"
Deer in the distance
Saturday's New Mexico sunset
I thought I read somewhere that after age 50 people don't blush anymore? I still blush and have often blushed easily.
Today my husband said I haven't been doing much dancing. That's a big duh. People with diarrhea just don't dance. But I digress. I am wearing my Peace, Love, Belly Dance top which is kinda cute and I said, "No, I haven't felt much like a belly dancer, that's true." And then he said I still looked like one. That's when I turned red and he said he can't believe I still blush because of my own husband. I don't know why I turn red sometimes! I guess I should just be glad he gets over me being sick so easily. Back in 2005 when I barfed till dawn I thought he'd never touch me again after hearing me doubled over the commode with the flu. The next week, he's kissin' me like always. Men have a short memory maybe. That's a good thing.
There is one time I blushed that I've never been able to forget and I wish I could. It happened at my new job as a city planning intern. I found out I had blown out the competition for this job so I was brimming with self-confidence. On my first day the Director of Planning took me around to meet the employees and the urban planners, most of whom were men. He introduced me to my boss-to-be and when the director said, "And I'd like you to meet Dick," I shook his hand and could feel my face turning from pink to red. Have you ever experienced the unmitigated horror of not being able to stop an oncoming blush! I didn't think any bad thoughts. Really I didn't! I was just embarrassed for him that his name was Dick I guess. There's no way to disguise a blush. You lose all the upper hand, all coolness, once you have a red face hanging out there. You can't cover it up. You can't bring your hands up to your face because that'll just highlight the situation. Sigh. I'm sure the two of them had a good laugh about it later at my expense.
Hey! My husband said there are fireflies outside. Oh boy! I gotta go see some fireflies. We don't have those in California or New Mexico.
I ask you, who could resist? Somehow, we did! Haha! Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
We toured Washington, D.C. yesterday. Got up at 5:00am and got home at 7:25pm. We went on a tour bus. My feets is still sore! My favorite part was the Lincoln Memorial. Wow. It's way bigger than I thought. And we visited the Smithsonian, and saw the Washington Monument, the Vietnam Veteran's wall, the WWII Memorial, the White House. It was incredible. At the National Archive our eyes touched one of the four original existing Magna Cartas from 1215, the original Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the some of the Amendments.
The other night we went to bed and woke up the next morning to find fuel had gone up 20¢ at the gas station we had scoped out. If only we had fueled up before bed!
We're on our way back to New Mexico to chill for awhile and wait for the doctor bills to roll in so we can pay 'em off. I thank the Lord we can pay our bills.
Our son had a great time tonight at a flashlight candy hunt. Also we're grateful for his sharp little eyes. Today he noticed the valve stem on a trailer tire was puffed out. My husband thinks it's defective so he changed it out and put on the spare while we're here in a campground. That kid is so observant. He's worth his weight in gold. 'Tis a driving day tomorrow.
When people kept asking us how long we'd live in a trailer and travel I would say, "I guess we'll quit traveling when my husband says he's tired of driving." Well! He said it yesterday. And he said it again today. So. It's official. As in double official.
In itself it doesn't change anything drastically but it gives us a direction. I always wondered, how would we stop? I didn't think I'd ever want a house, but now! I kinda do. This year there's been no joy in the driving. And I used to wonder how could we all want to stop traveling at the same time? God works in miraculous ways. We all three want to settle down and all the praying I've done asking where to settle? Answered. We'll settle in New Mexico and we all three agree. We all three love it. We all three are ready.
So that'll open a new chapter - the chapter of finding an abode. New happiness to find, new challenges to face. But the chapter doesn't start yet.
Gettysburg. We arrived today and went to the Gettysburg Museum and the 20 minute movie was so good. I almost cried about three times. We'll be here a couple days. There's an auto tour we want to take and maybe a bus tour into Washington, D.C. I was thinking of spending a couple weeks to drive several times into D.C., but we can't take it here for that long. We want to head out west. It's more open there. We prefer the open land. Here there are so many trees and cars and people. We are claustrophobic from it. I told my husband today that I think I have a touch of ye olde depression closing in and I think it's because we're not in a place we really want to be. Course, my lame illnesses of the past two months are a major contribution too, but we just really need some open road soon. I praise the Lord for His answer in perfect clarity. It is an awesome God we serve.
It was a four state day today: Tennessee, Virgina, West Virgina, Pennsylvania. In the median between the interstate going north and south there was a carpet of wild red Iceland Poppies! Quite a sight. I love those flowers. And we didn't know the Bible Belt came up this far. First off, crosses. We've seen about four giant crosses. And on the radio you can find a sermon to listen to any time of day! And on the interstate today was a flashing sign with a warning of only one lane ahead and it also flashed "Christian Enlightenment." Whuh? Who put that in a state sign? The ACLU would be on it like white on rice.
The photo is the side of the road on the way to KOA.
A faraway bear. I'm scared of bears. Do you see the butterfly?
