Palm Haircuts

Our original intent in having the tree trimmer visit was to clean up our palms. The bottom fronds die, but hang on for a long time. Eventually the lowest (oldest) of those drops, along with seed stalks, 'boot jacks' (pieces left straddling the tree when the limb finally breaks off) and trashy stuff. Our palms were long overdue for a haircut. 

I just didn't realize how drastic a cut they would receive...kinda like the shock I've had when I've said, "Cut it short", only to look in the mirror at the end and feel like I'm practically bald! But, as with hair, new palm fronds will appear from the top and our trees will be become bushy, healthy and green!

Before:

After:

The plants under the palms are in shock. They are not happy with all of the sunlight they now receive!

The Mister spent most of the day resting. He found it difficult to sleep last night, so made up for it today with naps. 

I spent most of the day in my sewing space. I'm teaching another quilt clock class tomorrow. Luckily I'll have a few veterans of my first class helping as I will have 17 ladies in the class. 

I organized a few things and looked through my "orphan block" box. I may take a few of the orphans (blocks leftover from a finished quilt, or ones you didn't like, or ones you were experimenting with). I found a few I had forgotten about. As I was putting things away and making my space a bit neater, I happened to put some books up on a shelf. I looked at the book end - a standard metal bookend - and had a brainstorm! I took one of my orphan blocks and made it into a slip cover that fit over the book end! 

With the increased prices at the grocery store we are eating far fewer steaks. However, the Mister came upon a sale of Porterhouse Steaks. I had heard the term before, but didn't realize that it was a "2-in-1 steak. On one side of the bone you have a basic "T" bone steak. On the other is a filet. The steak was huge (for our standards) so the Mister carved in into 3 steaks. I cut the bone in half and had two eager takers for the bones!  They were very happy to take them off my hands!

They also enjoyed a few scraps with dinner. We will enjoy part of the "T" bone end, baked potatoes and peas for our dinner. Yum! 

 

A Tree Grew....

This is a Turkey Oak. This type of tree thrives in poor sandy soil throughout the southeastern US. It earned its name by having lobed leaves that are reminiscent of a turkey's foot. The tree withstands strong winds, produces acorns to feed the wildlife and has beautiful fall color. 

On the flip side, its wood is weak and has no timber value, it is messy and it will grow shoots from runners throughout your yard. 

Regardless....we like it!

Sadly, this tree developed a hole in it. Although an animal might consider it a worthy home, it made the tree weak and vulnerable to winds. 

Our "tree guy" told us we had two options:

1. Cut it down now and remove it.

2. Cut it up after it falls on the fence and remove it.

We chose option 1.

In an effort to strike a compromise:

The tree can still contribute to feeding the critters!

The minute I stepped into the house after mounting the feeding platform

a crow hopped onto it to check it out. 

And...

the minute I stepped outside to take a picture,

he flew off!

This afternoon the Mister called from the hospital. He had passed his walking test (can he walk a certain distance without oxygen, and without his pulse ox dipping below 90? Yes, he can!). He passed his swallowing test - we questioned that one, but pneumonia can be caused by aspiration. Antibiotics had been called into the pharmacy....he was ready to be released.

I sprung the man around 3:30. We are home. He is happy. He sounds good. Now he just needs to rest and recuperate.

We were scheduled to go to the community BINGO and dinner....instead, I ran up and paid for our 'dinner' - $12 for both of us, and picked up chicken fingers and dinner rolls. I decided not to get the salad, shying away from packaged greens because of cyclosporiasis. They weren't ready to dish up the ice cream yet, so we had to fend for ourselves and eat from our own ice cream stash! 

 

Friday, Aug 7

7:00AM: The Mister was in a room in the ER at the main hospital. He was transported, arriving sometime before midnight and was taken into an exam room in the ER. His IV was disconnected as the antibiotics he was receiving were finished. And, there he lay. All night. 

8:30 AM: The Mister was still in the ER exam room. He had seen no doctors. He had received no food and he had difficulty getting a simple glass of water. 

10:30 AM: I was on my way to see the Mister, carrying the pjs he requested and his toiletries. I planned to stop and pick up a sandwich and bottled water (I had just dropped the Corgis off at the groomer). As I stopped to pick up some food, the Mister called. He had finally been given a ham sandwich and juice. I continued on my way and visited for a bit, but had to head back toward home to collect the dogs and meet the tree trimmers. 

2:45 PM: A team of doctors stopped in to review the situation with the Mister. They had no light to shed on the why of his pneumonia. He may be released tomorrow. He is still in the ER room, but they did change him to the only one with a restroom...he got a chuckle out of the fact that he is in the OB/GYN ER room - of course it has a bathroom; what pregnant lady doesn't need to use the bathroom often! 

5:30 PM: The Mister has been moved to a room - hooray! A meal has been delivered to him for dinner. Another "Hooray!" He ranks the food as 10 out of 10! Another good thing. 

630 PM: I visited with the Mister. We chit chatted. It was close to dusk when I left to head home, have a bite to eat, watch TV (my kinda shows!) and head to bed. 

It's a bit frustrating for both of us. This is the 2nd time he's not felt well, gone to the ER only to be gobsmacked with the news that he has pneumonia. Each time he's been admitted so that he could get meds and be monitored. From the patient (and his wife's) view it seems more like he's simply stuck in a room with an uncomfortable bed, with only hospital hubbub coming into the room, and rarely a care giver. I like to think that there is a lot more "monitoring" going on than one is aware of! 

...and then we went to the ER

I had lunch at Angelo's Italian Restaurant with my "Cooks n Books" book club friends on Thursday. We talked about People We Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry. We all agreed that parts of the book were enjoyable, but that it became a bit tedious. 

After lunch I stopped at ALDI and had already decided to do something with chicken breasts, brie and mushrooms. Yay me! I didn't wait until 5:30 to decide on a menu! 

My selected recipe was Creamy Brie Chicken and Mushrooms

by 12 Tomatoes

This is the editor's illustration....but mine looked similar, although the sides of my cast iron skillet were a bit gorped up! Additionally I had seriously halved the recipe, so my pan was not nearly as full. 

It was very tasty. We both enjoyed it. However, as the Mister pushed back his plate he commented, "I feel funny." I asked him how so, and he could only say he didn't know, but he felt odd. He took his temp and it was slightly elevated....again. He had wakened in the middle of the night with a temp around 101°, struggling to catch his breath.  He had actually seen his doctor earlier in the day for a regularly scheduled visit to review blood work, and of course, the low grade temp he experienced in the wee hours or the morning was gone, as was his struggling to catch his breath. He mentioned it,  but the doctor felt all seemed to be fine. His lungs and heart sounded OK, his BP and pulse were fine and his pulse ox was adequate. Regardless, the Mister decided we should go visit the new standalone ER down the street. After almost 2 hours, vials of blood and x-rays, the ER doc came in and explained he had multi lobar pneumonia and recommended he be admitted. The Mister must not be feeling up to snuff as he just nodded ascent - he relented without a fight. 

The standalone ER is affiliated with a hospital about 30 minutes away. He would be transported to the hospital facility by ambulance. They began the admission process. The Mister sent me home. 

And that was Thursday. That was not the way we had imagined the day would go! 

Rainy Day Monday

 

I was able to get an appointment promptly Monday morning with a nurse practitioner at my PCP's office. Jeri confirmed my suspicions, saying, "When you know, you know!", and she's right! For me, that feeling I get with a UTI is unmistakeable, but I know some folks don't experience that. 

Jeri was quick to pick up on the type of antibiotics I might need, as I've head that once you have C-diff, you are more susceptible to a reoccurrence if/when you have antibiotics that impact the balance of good/bad bacteria in your intestines. She also cautioned that I get some good probiotics and eat yogurt. Check. Check. I am sipping my breakfast smoothie as I type! 

We have had some sun....but lately it has been grey and rainy. We can sure use it...but I think folks are getting a little testy! The plants are loving it! 

We received our tax bill for our property in NC. One of the line items was a $ 55 trash management fee. We have a vacant lot. We don't live on it, and we have no trash. I talked with the tax office. She commented, "I don't know why they did that!" As a result, we no longer have to pay that piece of the tax bill. 

I have been less than inspired when it comes to making dinner. I'm in a cooking rut. It might be the heat, it might be that I get so wrapped up with what I'm doing that suddenly it is past 5 pm and I have my head in the fridge trying to figure out what I can make for supper (besides reservations!) Maybe if I look through some magazines/web sites and get some inspiration for dinner on some days coming up, and have time to gather the ingredients I can make something new and yummy. Sounds like a plan, right?! 

August Showers Bring....

 ...mushrooms!

While most people, and my dogs (the reason I was outside...I was trying to encourage them to run around and play) don't particularly care for the rain....

...the fungi obviously came out to play!

Party on! 

Every family within 29 miles, with 3 kids under 9, had to have been there!

 Although we didn't have pouring rain all day, it was gray and rain was on again and off again. The Mister decided today was the day we should go to the aquarium we have driven by for a year and half. It's one of those places that invokes the discussion; I wonder what's there? I wonder if it's any good? Is the mermaid show simply hokey? So, this morning the Mister commented that we should take some time and visit Mertailor's Mermaid Encounter to have our questions answered.

A bazillion families evidently made the same decision! The show began at 3 PM, but it was suggested we arrive before 2, and we must be gone by 4 when the next group comes in. We did. The Mister had pre-purchased our tickets so we were able to bypass the long-ish line of families waiting to buy tickets to the show, and tickets to feed the sharks, and those waiting to buy stuffed animals and other tchotchkes. It was rather crowded, but all in all, the kids were well behaved and we had the advantage of being taller than all of them, so we could see the exhibits...which were all a nice surprise. 

As you enter there're a number of McCaws (at least 8) and an Umbrella Cockatoo, all of whom have been rescued or placed at Mertailor's as their caretakers could no longer perform that role. 

Each exhibit had signs telling about the animals in that exhibit. 

However, this was my favorite sign! 

A few of the fish, echinoderms, cephalopods and crustaceans: 

I was taken by this starfish (echinoderm) - its coloring was magnificent.

Then I realized that the blob next to it was an animal! 

This is the Wobbegon Shark (Chondrichthyes)

For $5 you could feed the stingrays. 

I was tickled by the stingray performing a "Flipper" maneuver trying to get the girl's attention.

Feed me! Quite a trick! 

A fellow doing an introduction to cephalopods told us that the octopus on exhibit is named Octavia.

He also commented about how smart octopi are. 

Here he's explaining how squid eat. 

I couldn't help but wonder if anyone has a relationship with Octavia 

as in the book and movie Remarkably Bright Creatures.

(If you haven't read the book, or seen the movie, available on Netflix, I highly recommend them.)

In my mind I kept hearing the rather disdainful voice of Marcellus in the movie,

and wondered if Olivia has snide remarks to make about we humans! 

The culmination of the encounter is the mermaid show. 

A story is narrated about the supposed history of Mermaids while 

this one swam and sang to music being played. 

I found it fascinating that Mertailor's Aquarium evolved from a company that made mermaid tails (thus the name). It was founded by a young man...he formed the LLC at the age of 14. His tails have been seen on TV and in movies, as well as in music videos and by Lady Gaga! The company evolved and became the aquarium and encounter, having rescue, rehome, conservation, and education being an important part of his mission.  A story more fascinating to me than the mermaid show!!