reasons to be happy for the seasons

heading home about a week ago...some time after 5pm on a tuesday or thursday - pretty sunset that i wanted to share:



peace.

reasons to get up at o'dark in the morning

just wanted to share a photo with you-all...this is the only one i got after fussing about getting in the right place and right magnification, etc.



he flew away right after that...7am before an exam...

peace

thanksgiving...

this is the easiest year so far...still miss mom, but not as hard this year as in the past few years. not sure why, maybe a change in home-location, maybe it is just distance-in-time. maybe it is that we have discussed plans for when we are a bit more settled and can invite the "strays" like we did with mom...we were invited to go to my dean's house, but we are staying home and having meatloaf tonight and being grateful that we are here and all seems to be going well in our world.

the semester is almost over (i can't believe it) and things are wrapping up and coming together, mostly as planned - i need to rearrange some things for next semester, but that is fine - first semester is the learning semester and then 2nd would be the refining semester - hope fully 3rd will be smoother (snile - tip'o the keyboard to mom).

hand has healed and the boy is fine - still, he wants to go outside and roll around and bully the other cats in the area...still some issues with range-of-motion with some of the more precise motions of my pinkie, but all seems to be well and progressing. typing is no longer painful, yay!

ankle is better, but not 100% - guess that happens as you get older...it will improve, just as the hand is improving.

overall, i am happy and glad to be here/now. grateful to my sweety, without whom i think i would not have gotten this far and had as much fun; grateful for my mom, though she can no longer be with us for a meal; grateful for my mom, dad, sisters, brother, brother-in-laws, and sister(in-law) without whom i would not be the woman i am; grateful for all my friends, old and new, near and far, without whom i would not have survived to this point.

peace and love to all and safe journey through the day and your lives.

...and then...

so...my hand is getting better - still not 100%, but maybe 98% - having problems closing into a fist without pain, but i think it is a matter if using it, not permanent damage.

anyways...there i was, minding my own business - putting the gas into the shed for the guy who has been cutting our grass (LOVE HIM!) and then heading up to feed the neighbor's cats (she is having surgery and is not home) - like i said, i was minding my own business when "WHAM" and "CRACK" i fell flat on my face when the outside of my right foot went down much further than the inside and i heard it crack... flat out and clawing the ground at 6am, dew still around and cold and in my work clothes...i am sure i cursed very loud and colorfully and then had to assess my foot and see if i could go and feed the cats and then head out to work...man, that hurt. made it to the cats...not too bad...made it to school...OK...had a hard time driving home after standing on it for most of 8 hours... still not sure if i broke something, but it is better now than it was bruised and swelled up almost immediately, but i didn't take my shoe off, so it didn't have anywhere to go... one of my cohort told me that it is possible to break a "high" ankle bone (no clue, but he has more experience with anatomy than i do, so "whatever"). man, that was 5 days ago...still bruised and a bit sore.

fonda doesn't get how i just keep going...i am not sure how i keep going sometimes, but there is not much other options, so i do. if i don't work, i don't get paid. if i don't do it (whatever "it" may be), who will? no other options, i gotta do what i gotta do, and damn the pain that maybe along with it. so far, i have recovered fairly quickly and all has been well, so i will carry on with things the way the are going.

still looking for FT work...it will come when i am ready, i guess. i am getting ready to apply to about 10 or so positions along the east coast and back into the mid-west (sigh)...i would LOVE to stay down here! but...i will go to where the jobs are for now and see what happens from there. i think fonda is a bit homesick - we need to make arrangements for us/her to go up and see her mom and daughter...i wish she would feel able to go without me...she has much more flexibility with her time than i do. i understand not wanting to make that drive alone and all that, but i also understand the missing the family bits...oh, well no forcing the issue (not that she won't comment on this later [smile]) (lvoe you babe!)

anyways, here i am limping along and now i need to get back to school work so i can be ready for the last few weeks of school...not to mention it has been five years since mom died...but that is for another post (maybe).

peace for now.

recovering

so...i am recovering - after i posted those pictures i went through the rest of the day...the pain got worse, as did the swelling, and it was starting to feel warm...this lead to a thursday night trip to the ER...tried to go to urgent care, but they had no x-ray (and it was time for them to go home) so, they sent us on to the ER, with the threat that there maybe i.v. antibiotics (add a few $$)...got there, quickly in and seen by a nurse. manipulated by a p.a. and x-rayed by someone else (both of the last two i wanted to sock, they hurt me as they manipulated my hand, but i guess it was for a good reason)...2 hours later, and no i.v. antibiotics (yay!), the p.a. and the nurse sent us home with a prescription for 2 wide-spectrum antibiotics and some hydrocodone for pain...three days later, the swelling is down, the pain is less and the cat is *still* purring...little shit! he makes up for it by being cute 95% of the time.

i have done no school-related work this weekend because it hurts to write and that is what i need to do...sigh. i guess i can type a bit (obviously) but even that is slower than it was - i have to move my left hand because my reach with my pinky is so restricted. guess the exam corrections will have to wait a bit longer (evil grin)...anyways...i am a lucky girl and glad i adheare to the idea of "better living through chemistry."

peace for now!

ow-y day

franklynn decided to let himself out on a walk last night...cold, damp, dark, windy...

found him in the woods, about 5-10 feet in (beyond a small raspberry cane, with thorns, of course). he just stood there, howling and he waited for me to crash through and then to pick him up. he hissed at me, batted at me a bit and growled...i was aware, but not worried - he has bitched like this before.

got him - walking back home, about half way there, he decides that he doesn't like being held and that i am the awful monster that he has to bite to death...



notice all four fang marks (the long ones are from his top fangs ripping out of my hand)



now i am sore, swollen and crabby. blood was just *dripping* off my hand last night - he got some on his neck, from where i grabbed him. fonda brought a quilt and we wrapped him up and took him the rest of the way with me dripping and crying back to the house.

he is fine - obviously a bit freaked out last night, but he was OK enough to come and sit next to me on the couch while i cried...little shit. he was all purrs this morning and i am sore...don't want to feel this without some pain meds on board (naproxin - only)...very glad he is up-to-date on the rabies shot! i guess i need a tetnus shot - last one in 2007 (bummer)...

i will recover (back of hand to forehead and all that, with a dramatic sigh)...the cat is fine and will live to bite another day.

enough complaining - peace

busy girl

so...i have been a busy girl...but, at school-stuff, not extracurricular. also, there have been two students from my first teaching experience who have died...right before classes started, one of my former students was shot in the back and died...no leads, as far as i know...very sad. he was a young father and had some good prospects towards basketball at a 4-year college in virginia. then, from the same class, another student was found to have killed himself just outside of his home - he was reported missing and then found a day or so later. he was a sweet kid who had just finished his first year at college. such a waste of life. i have heard people talking in the hall about "being gay is no reason for a 19-yo to take his life" but i am not sure if they were referring to that student or not - but it makes me want to be more out in class and be a role-model...i am just not sure how out i can be without jeopardizing my job/future jobs. it is a sad time when you cannot be yourself in a job for fear of losing that job. but, i also need to remember that i am in a fairly small-town county and i need to take it slowly. i hate not being able to talk about fonda openly - not like we haven't been together for 17+ years or anything like that. grrrr. frustrating that i am still talking about my "sweety" and not my "girlfriend" or my "wife" or just "fonda!" ok - enough bitching! i will do it as i may and be OK with it, eventually.

anyways - i finally took one day to sew and finished the main part of the scrappy quilt with mom's fabrics - it is a big conglomeration and is about 70x80 and it is likely to be an office quilt - we shall see - it needs a border and then, of course to be quilted...i need to find a good mom-fabric for the back. it has some good mom-fabrics and then some additional katie- and fonda-fabrics. i think she would have liked it. it is a sew and add and then add some more and then trim straight and then use the trimmed-off stuff for the base of the next piece...i think it will be a good office quilt (it is damn cold in the current office).

ok, i think it is time to start psyching myself up for teaching to a bunch of sleepy students, not all of whom want to be there, but they show up none-the-less because attendance is part of the grade : ) (evil that i can be). taking about meiosis and mitosis is hard - but easier than atoms, i think...i just asked doc how he does it (teaching, research, advising, personal life, sleep...) he hasn't gotten back to me yet - probably sleeping : )

peace for now.