Sunday Slight

Since I posted all those pictures yesterday, I've decided to turn the Saturday Slight into a Sunday feature, this week only, I think. It seems appropriate since there are lots of little items that are really big items but probably best discussed briefly. So, that's what I'll attempt to do this morning.

On to the Slight details:

• My friend Helen is doing fine and due to get out of a Coeur d'Alene hospital soon. Helen Newton is a member of the Sandpoint City Council. Ten days ago she was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. It's a mysterious disease resulting from a variety of possibilities such as a virus, surgery, etc. The auto-immune system takes over the body's nerve endings. If not caught and treated early, it can lead to paralysis from the neck down. In Helen's case tingly fingers and an inability to walk gave her the clue to get to the hospital emergency room. An ambulance with a nurse was sent from Kootenai Medical Center so that she could begin treatment almost immediately. After being treated with a cocktail of IV meds for five days, she began therapy. She's now living in a hospital apartment as an "independent" and getting around nicely with her walker. I talked with her yesterday and she's gung ho to get home. Helen does not let a little illness get her down when it comes to her City Council responsibilities. For a meeting this past week, she arranged to have a phone set-up in the hospital conference room, but technical difficulties and lack of a quorum shut down the meeting. I'm sure that Helen appreciates the hundreds of prayers and well wishes that have been sent her way.
  
• Annie's posted some neat new pictures on her photo blog (http://www.nnlove.blogspot.com/). She attended yesterday's opening of the new Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle.
• I've experienced an epiphany of sorts this past couple of weeks. It finally dawned on me that living this much further out of town, adding to our animal menagerie, having small catastrophes turn into big ones and combining all the aforementioned with Mother Nature's winter wrath does not make for a stressless life. The concept began to dawn on my slow brain the day Casey's horse blanket strap pulled the frost free hydrant to a 45-degree angle, causing water to rise around the hydrant, causing me to call a plumber, causing the plumber and me to decide that it was best to just turn that hydrant off for the winter, causing me to realize that doing so would also turn off the automatic heated water tanks in the barn which have made life so easy until then, causing the need to buy more water buckets for the horses and to purchase a hose to reach from the other frost-free hydrant to the barn AND another water trough for inside the barn to cut down the distance for hauling buckets of water to stalls, causing the new hose to freeze the first time I used it. I thought I'd emptied all the water out of it, but I thought wrong, causing the need for a hammer to pound what little ice must be inside that hose, causing a hole to form in the brand new hose, causing water to spray all over my pants and immediately freeze on my pants. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention several days of minus degrees which made all this so much more fun, including the buckets in the barn which froze solid within two hours, causing me to go out every night before bed to refill them. Did I mention the day I came home from the spelling bee to find my brand-new horse Lily outside her pasture? Did I mention the trail around the house and the barn indicating all the things she'd gotten into during her freedom? Here I must mention that only a wing and a prayer and an electric fence have taught Rambo and Casey to stay away from their surrounding goat fence where the top wire comes up just above their knees. Nobody told Lily, and nobody had introduced her to an electric fence, so in my absence, she just climbed over the intimidation-impaired goat fence and had a grand time while Rambo and Casey watched her. The only lucky part for me is that horses, once they gain freedom---especially if their other horse comrades haven't gained freedom----these loose horses don't really know what to do with all that freedom besides hang around and make a mess. I spent two hours cleaning up after Lily and another hour chipping the electric fence connecting wire from the frozen ground underneath one foot of cementlike snow. Bill came home about the time I was chipping away at the wire and cussing really loud. Bill didn't think the electric fence would work, but I'm like Helen Newton, and I don't give up until I'm convinced that something won't work. "Just turn it on," I said. "Let's see if she notices when she touches it." First, she leaned against the wire with her chest and nothing happened. Bill was about to do the "I told you so" when she touched it with her nose. I've never seen such an insulted expression on a horse's face. She stepped away with utter disdain and went to the protection of Rambo and Casey who were probably unsympathetically saying, "We told you so."
  Long story short, my epiphany has made me realize that saying "yes" to outside commitments while having an animal farm in the winter time is not a good idea. It takes me a while to realize that the hours in the day did not extend just because we moved farther out of town. And, when you're farther out of town, it takes you that much longer to get home to find out what the animals have done in your absence. So, there's my long-drawn-out story of epiphany. I've learned my lesson and will do my best to stay home to watch the critters as long as winter continues. I did forget to mention the $1,000 worth of fence lumber we purchased the day after Lily went on her excellent adventure. Soon, we hope, we'll have one fewer goat pasture and one more horse which respects an electric fence.
  
• Today is Saints day. Bill, my saint husband, who loves his New Orleans Saints will probably hurry home from church to take in the game. I hope the Saints win, even though I've got a host of Chicago roots. New Orleans can do with the good news.
• Today marks the 60th birthday for at least one of my classmates and probably another two. I can't remember if Robin Melior and Andrea Balch celebrate their birthday on the same day as Janis Puzuhanich, but to all of you, have a wonderful day. You're paving the way for a long line of us who will be starting the next decade this year. I talked with Janis last night, and she's headed to Las Vegas to spend her special day. And, when I talked with Janis, I also talked with another classmate Dann Hall, who's down that way taking in the golfing venues. They're all hoping for warmer weather.
• Guess that's it for the Sunday Slight. May you all have a pleasant day and a good week ahead.