Backyard salad greens

My back yard is not a golf course. There is grass, but it is a distinct minority. More weeds than grass. And I like it that way.

No, it's not "pretty". But it's not boring, either. And, after some time spent browsing the Internet the other night, I found that I have a treasure trove of nutritional greens, just waiting to be picked and eaten. Some of them I knew about from my Boy Scout days (back when dinosaurs wandered the earth), some of them new to me. Since I don't bother with fertilizers or insecticides, they are safe to consume once they have been thoroughly washed in clear water.

Broad-leafed plantain. Clover, both leaves and flowers. Dandelion greens and flowers. Lambs' quarters (sounds so much better than pigweed). Chickweed (who knew?). And of all things, newer leaves from the maple tree. Just five minutes work gave me a good selection to work with. 

If I had looked into this a couple of weeks ago, I could also have had a huge pile of maple seeds to munch on. But the ones that are still left on the ground have gotten a little bitter. (Supposedly, boiling them in one or two changes of water would take away the bitterness, but that's just too much work for the small amount that the rabbits and squirrels haven't yet got hold of.)

Sorry the pic is a little blurry.

I didn't realize it until after I ate the salad, and it was too late to retake the picture.

So, I made a small salad with some of what I picked, with some cooked and crumbled bacon, shredded cheese, and a light vinaigrette dressing. Not only was it tasty, it was chock full of vitamins and minerals that are NOT found in that silly boring iceberg lettuce that is the mainstay of most "civilized" salads. In fact, just as good if not better than the expensive "spring mix" that is found in the store, and it didn't cost me a dime.

I have had one more "backyard salad" since then, and still have a little left over that I'm going to try boiling and adding a little butter and salt, or perhaps a little lemon juice. They're supposed to be pretty good that way, also. Kind of like spinach or kale.

Nice to know that the uncultivated part of my yard can supply me with salads and greens most of the year, at absolutely no cost to me.

For the more "civilized" garden that I am trying, it's going crazy. We've had an unusual amount of rain lately, which has helped. I've only had to water it twice. The tomatoes are starting to show flowers, and everything is "jumping joints" as the Debster puts it. Should be able to start harvesting some spinach and Romaine lettuce leaves and a few of the herbs pretty soon. Also need to get the tomatoes and squash plants on a trellis before they get much bigger.

That's enough for today. As always, thanks for reading!

Don't forget to use the email subscribe tool at the top left of this article so that you don't miss out on one of my brilliant little essays! <grin!>

God bless

Ron (and the Debster)

Good by, li'l buddy ...

Stempy Johnson

January 21, 2004 - May 11, 2015

This is a tough blog to have to write ...

September, 2004. I'm a newly married 45 year old man. A guy I work with, Bob, knowing I am a serious dog lover, asks me if I would be interested in a small dog, a nine month old mostly-grown puppy. It belongs to his sister & her husband and young son, and her husband is very displeased because the puppy is chewing things around the house, and occasionally has "accidents" before he gets out the door. The dog is half dachshund on his mother's side, and half golden retriever mix on his father's side. ... Not sure I can visualize how that happened, but ... there it is. His name is Stempy, and yes, he had a twin brother named Ren, who is not part of this story.

I've had a lot of dogs in my time, and had always figured that if a dog couldn't knock me down, it wasn't a real dog, merely a wannabe. But a few years before, I was disabused of that notion by a Maltese Terrier mix that literally followed me home one day and wouldn't leave. I named him Fritz, and he was one of the neatest pets I had ever had. I was heartbroken the day he died. Also, my best friend, a big burly lumber-jack type of guy, and his wife had dachshunds . So, I was at least amenable to the thought of another little guy.

Well, Bob brought the mutt to work, and I immediately agreed. Such a cute little thing! He mostly looked like a tiny golden retriever. Slightly shorter legs and a slightly elongated torso were the sole markers of his dachshund heritage.

The trouble began that evening when I took him home for the first time. Remember, I was NEWLY married, for the FIRST time, and had been single and independent my whole life until just the month before. It just didn't cross my mind to check with my wife first. Although the Debster is just as animal-crazy as I, she had just had surgery on her Achilles tendon, and was hobbling around wearing a boot-cast on her foot. So while I was at work she would be stuck with trying to finish his house-training and keeping his chewing confined to dog-toys and not shoes and furniture. She was NOT pleased. She loved the dog, but was aggravated that I hadn't checked with her first. Understandable. 

So, for about a week, I took Stempy to work with me every day. I was managing a small used-car sales lot, and had some free time at work. He would wander the lot with me, play fetch with sticks, and play with the customers. 

Unfortunately, as he became acclimated to living with us and "adopting" us as his "pack leaders", his aggressive dachshund nature asserted itself. He started growling at customers, especially if they got too close to me. Not good. Not good at all! So, I tried keeping him in a crate behind my desk. Didn't work; he would bark his fool head off every time somebody came in the door, and wouldn't shut up until they left. Can't run a business with that kind of nonsense. So, I was forced to leave him at home with the Debster.

Well, she had gotten over her little fit of pique, and had grown quite fond of the little runt, as I knew she would. There were a few issues that developed over time. Our yard wasn't fenced, and he "decided" that the whole neighborhood was his territory, and that the only people allowed were me, the Debster, and Travis, my step-son. Neighbors, not so much. One day, he chased the neighbor's wife back onto her own front porch and scared the daylights out of the poor woman. After that, whenever he had to go outside, it was on a tie-out lead.

Another issue was his rampant adolescent male interest in mating, if you know what I mean. Although, to the best of my knowledge he never showed interest in any person's leg, any four-legged creature that he could get hold of was fair game. Didn't matter what gender, age, or even species. If he could figure out how to get his front legs around the critter, it was open season! I don't know how many times we had to pull him off of one of the cats before he got sliced and diced by their claws. And the Debster's dog Chelsea? Just two years old herself, she bore the brunt of most of his attentions. She would raise Cain and whoop on him, but nothing would deter his ardor. As he got a little older, he mostly outgrew this, as I knew he would. He wasn't the first male pup I had raised, after all. But for the Debster, it was a fairly hilarious experience.

Other than that, he quickly became an integral part of our home. He loved both of us, but as luck would have it, he became more of a daddy's boy than a momma's boy. Maybe because he and I were the only males around, surrounded by females and cats. (Cats are all female, you know, regardless of what "plumbing" they have.) He also became closely attached to Deb's mom, and she to him. Every time she visited, he spent the whole time sitting in her lap loving on her, and her on him.

He sure did like to get comfortable!

Stempy had one annoying quirk. When he got REALLY excited, he would scream. Not bark, or whine, but SCREAM! Sounded just like a three-year-old girl throwing a temper tantrum. There were a few times I was kinda surprised the neighbors didn't call the cops to investigate the "child abuse". 

When he was about five years old, there was a rather alarming development. He began having "fits", when he would suddenly start scuttling stiff-legged with his head off to the side. He would look for me, scuttle towards me, and rear back on his back legs, waving his front paws frantically. If I didn't reach down and grab him quickly, he would fall on his side and just twitch. I would hold him tight and talk quietly and calmly to him, and after a few minutes, he would snap out of it, jump down, and go about his business as if nothing had happened.

The vet diagnosed it as canine epilepsy, and put him on a twice-a-day dose of phenobarbital. That got the fits under control, but also made him a little lethargic. He was never again the highly energetic bundle of fur that he had always been. But we all adjusted.

Stempy & Daisy, taking a break from playing hard

He was a very sensitive dog, quick to pick up when a household member wasn't feeling well. He would snuggle up to and get all lovey-dovey with any of us, even the cats, if we were sick. This was always a comfort to the Debster, especially when she was going through some nasty bouts of depression.

He was a very jealous dog. If any member of his family payed attention to someone, or something, other than him, he had to get in the middle of it. It got to where it was an adventure just trying to kiss my wife goodby on my way to work. But we turned it into a little game, and had fun with it.

About two years ago, a new addition was added to the family, in the person of Miss Daisy, a tiny year-old terrier mix. This little six-pound bundle of playful puppy energy almost immediately adopted Stempy as her very own "chew-toy", mostly by default since neither Chelsea nor the cats wanted anything to do with her. She most definitely kept him busy! They'd be outside, and she would wait till he was in mid-squat, and hit him from the blind-side like an NFL linebacker. Off and running! Initially, I was a little concerned that the sudden increase in physical activity would be detrimental considering the epilepsy. But the vet said not a problem, in fact, a good thing. It added to his quality of life.

Napping with his daddy

Well, a few weeks ago, the morning of April 11, I came home to a sick dog and a frantic wife. Our beloved Stempy was coughing and wheezing and lethargic, hacking up blood. Wouldn't eat, even when a hot dog, his favorite treat, was put in front of him. An emergency vet run gave us the bad news. He had incurable lymphoma in his lungs, with a prognosis of a couple or three months at best.

The vet put him on prednisone, an antibiotic, and an anti-fungal medication. The anti-fungal was just in case the lymphoma was an incorrect diagnosis, but she was pretty sure it wasn't the fungus. Within a day, he was doing much much better. We were overjoyed! He was still wheezing and breathing hard, and a little weak, but he had regained most of his pep and vigor, and even played with Daisy some. One funny side-effect of the prednisone, which is a steroid, is that it made him revert to his adolescence, in a way. He suddenly became interested in the females again. Poor Daisy! He wouldn't leave her alone! It was so funny to watch them tussle, and suddenly he'd have her wrapped up and doing his darnedest to, well, you get the picture.

Things went well until this past Friday evening. I woke up about 9pm, to get ready to go in for my midnight shift. The Debster had laid down with me for awhile, and she got up first. All three dogs were wanting to go outside. Stempy made it to the back door, but before she got there, he suddenly whimpered and laid down. She got to him just as he drew his last breath. He was gone.

We were both devastated. I tried to take off work, but my boss, though sympathetic, said there was no one available to cover my shift and couldn't let me take off. So we picked him up, laid him in his favorite dog-bed, and set it and him in a chair. The next morning, when I got home, we took him to be cremated. We'll get his cremains back in a short while, and they will have an honored place in our home, until it is time to mingle his, and the other pets', with mine and the Debster's.

He's in heaven now**, laying on Gacky's lap, getting to know the Debster's dad, and my parents, and all the other family and pets that have gone on before.

God bless you all, and thanks for reading.
Ron, and the Debster.

** Yes, I know, in theological / Biblical reality, animals don't really have a soul in the sense that humans do, and thus don't go to heaven. I know that when I get to heaven I'll be completely entranced by the presence of my Lord and Savior and that the dog will only be a pleasant memory. But, until then, sometimes you just gotta wink at "reality" and take comfort in these little fibs we tell ourselves.

This year's garden is planted!

A friend posted this to my Facebook page recently, and I couldn't resist sharing it.

Ya see, I was raised right by my father. One is to root for two baseball teams. First and foremost, for our beloved Cardinals. Second, for whoever is playing the Cubs. Hee hee!

I did it! I did it! Finally got a garden in!

I have this really bad habit of dreaming of a big project, and then when I am unable to get it off the ground, just letting go completely.

Well, this year I resisted the urge to think about a big garden, and wind up with nothing. I went with a small garden, a test garden if you want to call it that. A little over four foot square.

I knew I wanted a raised bed rather than ground level, for two reasons. It is easier on my chronically aching back. And, my yard soil is so bad, mostly clay, typical of the Saint Louis area.

So, day before yesterday, I picked a spot near the house that gets a fair amount of sun. The existing plant life needed to go; I didn't want the grass and weeds to work their way up through the new layer of soil and causing problems. So, I thought, briefly, of getting out the hoe and shovel and digging all the grass and weeds out, down to bare dirt. Then I realized that wasn't necessary. The grass had recently been mowed and was still fairly short. Covering it with cardboard would kill it yet still allow for water to drain through.

I had a large corrugated cardboard box that was ready to be recycled, so I opened it up flat, and it was just the right size. I laid it flat on top of the grass, and poked a few holes in it to facilitate drainage and allow earthworms to work their way up into the raised bed. Next, I needed to make the sides of the bed. I didn't have any 2"x8" lumber around, but I did have some concrete blocks. So I used those instead.

Daisy, of course, has to supervise my efforts.

You notice that the cardboard extends past the end of the bed. I'm going to leave it like that. If this works out, I plan on extending it to a full 4'x8' bed next year, and so the cardboard will already be in place.

I had a couple of 40-lb bags of topsoil handy, so I dumped those in. There was also a big bucket of potting mix salvaged from various planters that only had dead things in them. (The Debster's thumb is even browner than mine.) That got tossed in, after I cleaned out the old roots and stuff. Finally, I added three two-cubic foot bags of garden soil mix from the local big-box hardware store. That filled everything up just right. I raked it smooth and called it a day.

Yesterday morning, when I got home from my midnight shift job, I saw the dirt had been dug in and messed up sometime during the night. I'm fairly sure one of our dogs did the deed, although the Debster said that it wasn't them. She said she let them out once or twice during the night (Stempy's meds make him go often and a lot), and she didn't see them go to the dirt. But I know my dogs, and I know that the Debster didn't have a good view of the planting bed from her vantage point near the back door. Not to mention it was a dark night with poor visibility. So who knows?

Anyway, yesterday morning, the Debster had a dentist appointment and Stempy had a vet appointment. On the way home, we stopped and picked up some plants. I got busy.

All told, in this small-ish bed, I have two tomato plants, four Romaine lettuces, a zucchini, a green bell pepper, a cucumber, half a dozen spinach plants, a couple dozen red onion sets, three sweet basil plants, two rosemary, and a clump of onion chives. There is room for more. I will probably add garlic chives and some more onion sets this weekend. (We eat a LOT of onions!)

If I can figure a way to keep the pesky rabbits away from my little garden, we should be able to harvest a little produce later this year. And this fall, if everything goes right, I'll replace the blocks with a 4'x8' wooden box, and add more topsoil to fill it up. The blocks will probably then go into a firepit that I'm kinda sorta planning. But that's for another post later on.

Well, that's enough for today. As always, thanks for reading, and please feel free to share this with anyone that you think might be even remotely interested!

God bless!
Ron, and the Debster

Love, sex, and marriage

The following is a post I wrote on Facebook the other day:

============

Heb 13:4 ESV "Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous."

Physical intimacy between a husband and his wife is a wonderful gift from God Himself, the "glue" that holds a marriage together (Gen 2:24), and the means by which He chose to bring children into this world. As such it is, in a real sense, a sacred thing.

God has made Himself quite clear on this subject.
Physical intimacy between a married man and a woman not his wife is ADULTERY, a SIN.
Physical intimacy between a married woman and a man not her husband is ADULTERY, a SIN.
Physical intimacy between unmarried man and an unmarried woman is FORNICATION, a SIN.
Physical intimacy between a man and another man is an UNNATURAL ACT, a SIN.
Physical intimacy between a woman and another woman is an UNNATURAL ACT, a SIN.
Physical intimacy between a human and an animal is an ABOMINATION, a SIN.
Jesus also made clear (Matt 5:28) that not just the physical act of (sinful) intimacy is wrong, but even mentally contemplating it is as much as sin as the act itself. As a married man, I don't have to actually be intimate with another woman to be guilty of adultery, all I would have to do is to "look on a woman to lust after her".

Do I look for a return to a hypocritical prudery? No, of course not. Do I think that we should make a crime out of all forms of sexual immorality? No. As a freedom-loving American, I recognize, and even cherish, the legal right for any individual to act in any way (s)he sees fit, provided no one else is coerced into it or physically injured by it.

I have many friends and relatives that live in immoral heterosexual relationships, and several that are practicing homosexuals. I love them all, unconditionally. They all, I think, know what I think and feel about this, and with a few exceptions are willing to accept me as I do them. (A few are not so kind, but oh well. I love them anyway, even though they don't believe that.)

I am not naive. Both of my parents had been married and divorced before they got together. And just to add a little more spice to it, I was born on their wedding night. (Talk about a buzzkill on a honeymoon!) Doesn't mean I think less of them. Anyone who knows me at all knows that I practically worshiped them, especially my father.

Some fifty years or so ago, the so-called "sexual revolution" tore our society to shreds. Lifelong monogamy is out. Serial marriage is in; just the other night the entertainer Jennifer Lopez, on American Idol [what a telling name that is!], joked about how many men to whom she has been married. A television show now almost must have a homosexual character to be truly successful. And now, I understand, one very popular daytime drama (soap opera), unveiled a major character as a transgender woman-that-used-to-be-a-man. Who knows what will be showing up in mainstream "entertainment" in the coming years and decades? I sure don't.

Once upon a time, the homosexual lobby pressed for toleration, to be allowed to act as they wanted. That was granted. Now, however, they are going much further, demanding not only toleration but celebration. And they are winning.

It is almost amusing to watch as people fall all over themselves to cater to them. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, went on the offensive against the recent Indiana Restoration of Freedom of Religion Act, saying they won't do business in a state that "discriminates" like that. Yet Apple aggressively pursues business in Saudi Arabia, where homosexuals not only don't get wedding cakes, they get EXECUTED. (O Hypocrisy, thy logo is a partially eaten apple!) President Obama, who a few years ago as a state senator in Illinois, voted FOR a virtually identical law in that state, has condemned Indiana's law. Can anyone say flip-flop?

I am not perfect. Never have been. Never will be as long as I inhabit this body that came equipped with a well-functioning sinful nature. (These days, that's just about the only thing that still works perfectly LOL!) It is only by the grace of God that I will not have to suffer His wrath and His judgement for the sins that I have committed, and they are many and varied, believe me.

But Jesus, the Son of God, came into this world to save sinners like me. He was born of a virgin, lived a perfectly sin-free life for some 33 years. He trained as a carpenter under his human step-father, then ministered to thousands for about three years. He gathered a small group of loyal followers, but was executed by the Roman government at the behest of the religious leaders because He had the audacity to claim to be the Son of God, and equal with God. But that grave couldn't even hold Him a whole weekend! On the third day, a Sunday, He rose from the dead and burst free from the tomb! (Much of the world will be celebrating the anniversary of that event this weekend, as a matter of fact.) He conquered sin and death, and even now sits in heaven waiting for the day that His Father sends Him back to earth to collect His followers. He bestows repentance, forgiveness, eternal life and eternal joy to all who believe in Him and trust in Him alone for salvation. He will save forever all whom He calls.

Do you hear Him calling you? If so, don't wait to respond. Take the plunge! It may seem scary at first, I know it did to me, but the rewards sure make up for it! And the greatest is this: God is now my Father, and Jesus is my beloved Savior, and no greater joy can be found than that!

Preparedness: Friendships, health, and wellness

Well, you never know when things will go straight south on you, seemingly in the blink of an eye.

For a few days, I had been feeling a little under the weather; not really sick, but not 100%, either. But, after my normal weekend off, I went to work Monday night like usual. About 4 am, I began really feeling crappy, but I assumed it was just from being tired, and readjusting to working all night after a couple nights off. Not unusual for Monday nights . But about 5 am, I spiked a fever and became delirious, according to the guys I was working with at that moment. They got my on-site supervisor to our location, and he got me out of the van and back to the office. My wife was called, and she had my brother-in-law lead her to the East St. Louis railroad yard where I work. (She had never been there; I had always discouraged that due to the really bad neighborhood surrounding it.) By that time, the railroad nurse had shown up, and determined that my fever was 104.4. She gave me a couple of Tylenol. They were going to call an ambulance for me, but my wife agreed to take me straight to the hospital.

We got to St. Anthony's Hospital about 7 am Tuesday, and my fever was down to 102, and an hour or so later was below 100. They did some fast talking and convinced me to spend the night, so I could get some IV antibiotics and fluids into me, and some rest. That one night turned into two nights, but they finally let me out yesterday (Thursday) afternoon. I had been pumped full of several different powerful antibiotics, plus several bags of saline. I was initially diagnosed as having pneumonia, but after a chest X-ray, a CT scan, and several blood tests, that was changed to a bad upper respiratory infection.

At home now, I am on orders to rest, and have two different oral antibiotics plus a third one via a nebulizer/inhalation machine.

One truly positive takeaway form this is that since the hospital is a strict no-smoking zone, I was put on a nicotine patch, and that seems to have done a great deal to help me with my smoking addiction. I went two and a half days smoke free. I can't say that I have stuck with that completely, but I can say that from two packs per day I am down to less than half a pack per day, and I foresee being able to quit completely in the near future.

It was good to have my wife by my side throughout; she only left my hospital room to go home and take care of our dogs and run errands; she was right there with me otherwise. What a wonderful woman I am blessed with!

My best friend was in and out several times. A good friend and a Godly man. And, a couple of other really good friends from way back showed up. Also Godly men. The interesting thing about friends like that is that although we hadn't seen each other in several years, just staying in touch via Facebook, when they made their (separate) appearances, it was like we had just seen each other the day before, without a trace of awkwardness. That is a hallmark of a true friendship.

This episode has really impressed upon me the importance of regaining and then maintaining the highest level of health and fitness possible. If I had been truly healthy and in good shape, I might have avoided this all completely, or at worst just been temporarily staggered by it. But because I had let my physical fitness level get so bad, this could have literally killed me if proper, prompt, and efficient treatment wasn't available. What would have happened had it occurred during a grid-down situation?

From painful personal first-had experience, I can tell you that a true "prepper" needs to work on his/her personal preps, meaning health and fitness levels, and solid friendships, with the "beans, bullets, and band-aids" as next-tier projects.

And, most importantly, one's "preps" need to address one's relationship with the Savior. Death can be right around the corner, and it would be the height of folly to be caught unprepared for THAT.

That's enough for now.

God bless!
Ron (and the Debster)

Health and weight loss

So many things going on, it's been hard to decide what to write about. With the onset of winter weather, the rioting and nonsense related to the Ferguson, MO mess in August died down a great deal. But I can't help wondering what will happen once warm weather returns. Might be an "interesting" spring & summer. 

The Debster is doing better and better. She is driving again, for the first time in almost a year. Hooray! And, as she becomes more and more mobile, her self-confidence and attitude about herself have started perking up. Triple-hooray!

My own issues remain. The leg has pretty much healed up, but the other problems still exist. The hematologist has had me undergoing a weekly phlebotomy (blood-draw) to get my hemoglobin count down. I normally don't have a problem with needle-sticks, but those things they use for drawing off entire units of blood aren't needles, they are more like sharpened hollow pencils. At least that's what it feels like going into the bend of my elbow.

The metformin that the doctor has me on to help control my blood sugar was rough on me, to begin with. The literature warned of the side effects, and they weren't kidding. For the first week or so, I was afraid to get more than a few steps away from the bathroom. Wow. Sure am glad that has faded away.

One positive is that because of the changes I've had to make to my diet, I have begun to lose weight. As of about 2 weeks ago, I had lost 6 pounds, and I'm pretty sure that I've lost a few more since then. I don't have a scale at home, though. Just going by the one in the doctor's office. I refuse to obsess over this. I know that I need to lose a LOT of weight. Really. A LOT. Like about one hundred thirty pounds, at least. One fifty wouldn't be out of bounds. But, thinking in terms of those kinds of numbers is guaranteed to only cause despair. So, my goal is to lose FIVE pounds. Once that is gone, then ANOTHER five pounds. It is much easier to think in those terms.

At this point, systematic exercise is difficult for me. I am so heavy that it doesn't take much at all to get me out of breath and my heart pounding. But I know that as the weight comes down, I'll be able to do a little more, and then yet a little more, and so on. And, as the exercise rate increases, so will the weight loss. That is a spiral that is the opposite of vicious! I will say, that even when I was young and fit, systematic exercise bored me to tears. I tended to keep fit by normal but strenuous physical activity, like hiking, wood-cutting, running up and down stairs instead of walking, playing sports, stuff like that. And I suspect the same will happen now. Just looking at a barbell makes me want to run the other way, but I have been eyeing my shovel and spade and garden space a lot lately. That kind of thing.

There were other things I wanted to talk about, like the garden I want to put in, my desire to get into woodworking using only hand-tools, getting ready for the fishing season, and so on. But this has gone on long enough; I'll save those for another time.

God Bless!
Ron (and the Debster)

Health updates and new stuff

Well, 2015 is off and running. At least no one close to me has died yet this year. Whew!

Some good news on the health front. My leg is healing quite nicely. The hard-core oral antibiotic regime of amoxicillin seems to have done the trick, making the short-term side-effects worth the hassle. There is still a little ways to go, but it is mostly healed up. Still have to use the mupirocin antibiotic ointment and keep it bandaged, but not for much longer.

The Debster's knees are coming along quite well. Her doctors and therapists are quite pleased with how far she has come so quickly this second time around. Won't be long and she'll be chasing me around with a rolling pin and/or frying pan, and probably catching me fairly easily. (I'm thinking I probably need to invest in a safety helmet soon.)

Not all the news was good, though. I have been diagnosed as pre-diabetic; my blood sugar numbers and other indicators are just a hair below full-blown diabetic levels. So my doc has me on meds, diet, and exercise, with a follow-up in a couple months with an endocrinologist.

Also have a pretty bad fungal infection in both feet. Doc thinks it may have contributed to the cellulitis, in fact. Podiatrist appointment later this week to begin work on that mess.

There are other issues as well, including weird hemoglobin and platelet levels. Hematologist appointment coming up for THAT. 

Geez. More doctor appointments now than in all of the last 10 years combined. The price of getting older and, more to the point, not taking care of myself to begin with. Let that be a lesson to ya!

Moving on: I've said this before, but I really mean it this time (ahem .. cough cough). Need to work on preparedness levels.

I've come to realize that I can think and talk all I want about "getting/being prepared", but if the Debster and I aren't on the same page, it's going to be tough sledding. My wife, simply put, does not think the way I do about this stuff. She was born and raised in the Great Nanny State of Illinois, and has the mindset that the government, or "somebody", or just "they", will take care of us if push comes to shove. Needless to say, that attitude makes me crazy. 

[An aside: why do people say "needless to say", and then say it anyway? If truly "needless", then don't say it; if has to be said, then don't say "needless". Nevertheless ...]

So I guess that before I get all involved with planning for long-term food storage, extensive gardening, saving money and resources, reducing dependency on others, and all that, I need to work on getting the Debster more willing to back me up. Not that she is fighting me on any of this. She is not. She simply doesn't understand the need for it, and has no real enthusiasm for it, nor much interest in active involvement. And her active participation is crucial to any serious advancement in these areas.

There are a lot of resources out there, both in print and on the Internet, about homesteading, rural living, home-farming and ranching, and the like. But so far, I haven't found much that would be of great help to us in urban preparedness. As I have mentioned before, the "bug-out" scenario, or even moving to a rural homestead, is pretty much a non-starter for us. Any prepping we do, at least for the foreseeable future, will involve a strictly urban environment, in a fairly small house on a very small city lot surrounded by homes, near major arterial roadways. Not the ideal "prepper"-type location, ya know?

Tip for saving money: don't spend loose change. Break a bill if you need to. At the end of each day, toss your loose change in a jar or can. You'd be surprised how quickly it adds up. Every so often, take a few minutes to count it. A pint-size mason jar holds $60 in loose mixed changed easily. And you know those larger prescription pill bottles, about 2" in diameter and about 2-1/2" tall? They will each hold $10 in loose change, with a little room left over. Let it pile up, and then once or twice a year, take it to the bank to exchange for folding money that you can put in your home safe or lock-box with the rest of your cash stash.

Well, that's enough for now. As always, thanks for reading!

God bless you all

Ron (& the Debster)

I want to feel festive, but it just ain't happenin', ya know?

Well, 2014 is almost over. And I have to say, I'm glad to see it go. It has been a rough year in many ways.

So many losses.

left to right:
cousin, Vern Buske, on New Year's Day
brother-in-law, Dan Green, on April 2
mother-in-law, Mary Hicks, nee Miles, on September 16
cousin, Jerry Cline, on Christmas Eve 
(Also, lost a very dear friend, Donna Westenberger, for whom I do not have a decent photo, to Lou Gehrig's Disease on Dec 16.)

My beloved Debster has had two major surgeries, one in June to replace her left knee, and one just two and a half weeks ago to replace her right knee. She has been laid up for most of the last six months recuperating and rehabbing, and still has a quite a way to go.

I've been battling a bad case of cellulitis, which almost put me in the hospital; only some fast talking, almost begging to tell the truth, with the doctor convinced her to allow me to try home treatment first. My leg is still a mess from that. Probably will be for several more weeks, according to the doctor.

And besides the Debster's knees and my leg, we both have other health problems that just keep nagging at us, some semi-serious, some just annoying.

Our van decided to to blow a head-gasket and crack the block. It had to be junked. The Blazer, with almost 260,000 miles on it, is on it's very last legs. Our only reliable car, at the moment, is the 1992 Oldsmobile that we bought from her mom's estate. Only has 96,000 miles on it, but it is still 22 years old, and won't hold up forever under regular daily use. So we're going to have to break down and buy a much newer vehicle by spring, at the latest.

Had to change employers at the end of October. My old employer lost their contract for the job I was on. I got picked up by the new company that got the contract, but although the hourly rate is the same, I lost a lot of benefits, not to mention some hard-won seniority.

My beloved home town of St. Louis, MO has virtually gone up in flames in the aftermath of the Mike Brown shooting in Ferguson in August; the northern part of the county will not fully recuperate any time soon, if ever.

I'm not even going to get into the state of national politics and events; all that does is make me see various shades of red and want to start throwing things.

For years I have detested the American version of Christmas. A holiday to celebrate the birth of the Christ-child is fantastic. I could get into that. Only Easter is more important, as far as I am concerned. But, in the nation, it is all about consumerism and greed, with a thin veneer of charity and love and cheer. Not about Jesus Christ at all. Even in the best of churches, as they supposedly celebrate "The Reason for the Season", it usually winds up being primarily a showcase for parents and other relatives to ooh! and ahhh! over their children in the "Christmas play". The Child has been forsaken for the sake of the children.

Well, you all will just have to forgive me for this, but, as a well-known personage once said, "Bah! Humbug!"

Happy New Year, everyone. 2015 has to be better than 2014. It couldn't be much worse.

Thanks for taking the time to read. I promise, I'll get back to my normally cheerful self in  a week or so, after the "holiday" season is over.

Ron

A family loss, a pet saved, and more ...

We lost my mother-in-law a month ago. At age 92, Mary Miles Hicks finally went home to be with the Lord. I haven't written about that yet, because we are still trying to come to grips with it. But soon I will devote some space here for that wonderful woman, whose greatest accomplishment, in my eyes at least, was giving birth to the Debster.

===

Well, I didn't make it to the gym today. That makes five years in a row now! A new record! Go me!

-----

Earl and Bubba were sitting in the boat, quietly fishing and drinking beer and chewing 'baccy. Earl suddenly says, "I think I'm gonna divorce the Wife. She ain't spoke to me in months."

Bubba thinks on it for a spell, leans overboard to spit, takes a long slow drink of beer, and finally says, "Well, you better think that over some more. A woman like that is mighty hard to find."

===

Mom didn't live long enough to see her beloved Cardinals choke in the NLCS against the Giants. She would have been very disappointed in her team. I know I am. But, they are still my team, and always will be. A TRUE fan is ALWAYS a fan, even when things don't go as well as we would like. Those fair-weather "fans" that bailed just because the Cards lost the series can go sip their wine and stick their snoots in the air. The rest of us will root for the Kansas City Royals, the other Missouri team, to whip the Giants all the way back to California and into the Pacific Ocean in the World Series. And then, we will sit and stare out the window and wait longingly for Spring Training to begin again in February.

===

Gotta give a shout-out to my wonderful niece, Jessica Johnson. She trained as a veterinary technician, and it came in useful for us this week. 

The Debster has an old black cat named Bull. The other day, she asked me if I had seen the cat recently. I thought about it and replied that I hadn't seen him in a couple days. Now, the cat has had a habit in the past of staying out of sight for long periods, only making his presence known if his food, water, or litter box needs attention, so I hadn't paid any attention.

Well, later that day, I went into the pantry in the basement, and found Bull on the floor curled up in a corner. I thought for a second he was dead, but he opened one eye and looked at me, then closed it again. But he wasn't moving.

I picked him up and took him into my office. The Debster called Jess to see if she had any ideas. Jess came over and checked him out. She thought he might have low blood sugar from not eating right. (The dogs sometimes steal his food when he isn't looking, and we don't always catch that right away.)

So, on her advice, we fed him a little Karo corn syrup, just a few drops off the end of the Debster's finger. He perked up some. We got some good moist food, and he nibbled at that, again off the Debster's finger. So, we put him in a box with bowls of food (dry and moist) and water, and continued giving him a little Karo a couple times a day.

Three days later, he is wandering around and pestering everybody, just like his old self. He's lost a little weight, and seems just a little weak and wobbly yet, but definitely on the mend.

Thanks, Jess!

===

Many of you have probably heard of the puzzle game Sudoku. I have been doing them for quite some time myself. Well, recently, I discovered a new puzzle game, called "Kakuro". The only place I have seen it is in the web version of our local St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper (StlToday.com), under the Entertainment / Comics & Games tab.

It is a lot like a numeric crossword puzzle. 

Here is one from the other day:

Here are the rules, as they appear on the website:

And here is the completed puzzle:

I wish I could find a print version of this that I could take to work with me, to work on during slack periods.

===

Speaking of work, I mentioned before that the company I work for had lost its contract with the railroad, and we were all going to lose our jobs. Well, God is good! The company that is taking over the contract has agreed to hire most of us, at our current pay rates. There will be some losses in terms of accrued vacation and so forth, it won't be a union shop, and in general perhaps not quite as good to work for all around. But, at least I will continue working, pretty much as if nothing happened. Same thing, just in a different vehicle. 

Actually, in that respect, I'm looking forward to that aspect of it. The Ford Expeditions that the new company is bringing in are much better suited to the rough'n'tumble usage in a railroad yard than the Dodge Grand Caravans we have been driving. The Dodges are great vans for family use on regular roads, but just aren't built for the rough bouncing and pot-hole filled gravel pits that pass for roadways within the railyard.

===

That's enough for today. As always, thanks for reading, and may God bless you!

Ron

Baseball, football, losing a job and getting a new one ...

Gotta love the Cardinals! Here's looking forward to a long run through the post-season, ending with yet another World Series Championship.

As much as I dislike the Yankees as a team, it is kind of sad to see the end of Derek Jeeter's career. He was a real class act.

AND, for just a bit more sweetness, the Packers whooped the Bears. YAY!!

OK. Got all that outta my system, sort of, for now, anyway ...

The Debster is doing so much better. Only uses the cane and/or walker occasionally. Will be a lot better when she gets the other knee done, hopefully soon. Ideally, I'd like to see it done and have her back home from the rehab center before the snow and ice season gets here. Otherwise, maybe wait till next spring. But I really don't want to have her wait in pain another 6 months.

Been babysitting my six-year-old grandnephew for a couple hours in the afternoon four days a week. That little guy is such a joy. Going to be a little sad when his mother finally gets her day-care situation straightened out and won't need us for that anymore.

The company I work for has lost its contract with the railroad. We will all be out of work as of midnight on October 31, when the new company takes over. The new company says it will be hiring most of us, if we are interested. I've heard a lot of bad things about the new company and its personnel-handling policies, making me somewhat leery of them. But, for now I can't afford to be picky. Jobs are just too few and far between.

So, I put in an application about a week ago, and on Saturday morning went to meet with them. They took copies of my Social Security card, driver's license, and DOT physical certificate. Gave me a check-ride'n'drive, which I aced. So I guess they will be hiring me; should know within a week or so. 

One surprise is that if I am hired, my new boss will be my old boss. Brenda left our current company recently, and when I showed up for the check ride, she was there. Found out she has been hired to manage the new branch office they are setting up just for this expansion.

Here's a chuckle for you:

While driving in Pennsylvania, a family caught up to an Amish carriage. The owner of the carriage obviously had a sense of humor, because attached to the back of the carriage was a hand printed sign... "Energy efficient vehicle: Runs on oats and grass. Caution: Do not step in exhaust."

(Compliments of Backwoods Home Magazine) 

Well, that's all for now. God bless!