The Good Banter Thread

[Big Lou]

On A Different Topic

I've been up all night due to an extra drug I took last night to beat back unbelievable cranial pain. None of you have asked but it may help to explain my slighly scewed personality a bit better by outling my delightful health challenges.

During my second and last corporate gig after retiring from the military I was giving a speech one day when a co-senior manger casually mentioned that I was shanking during my talk. Well, that was the beginning of a long and winding road to discover what was going on inside of Big Lou. To make a real long story short the final verdict was that I have (in order of severity): Complex Partial Seziure Disorder resident in the left side of my brain (a form of Eplipecy). Slowly progressive memory loss. Slowly progressive loss of cognitive functions. Slight, possibly progressive frontal brain lobe shrinkage in excess of normal aging. Post Tramatic Stress Disorder brought on by my upbringing. REM sleep disorder (reality nightmares, night terror, normal nightmares, dream induced reality illusions). Four unrepairable spinal disks, two at the top and two at the bottom. Internal artifical left shoulder. Depression. Severe Acid Reflux Disese and my constant companion, pain. As you might imagine I keep about four doctors, a behavorial therapitst and a private pharmacist well paid.

Thank God for decent insurance. In addition to the above I am still an occasional nice guy and of course a stubborn, optionated, pain in the rear. My life is very sedate and controlled yet I have successfully and thankfully adjusted from a workaholic to a more therapeutic lifestyle. )

 

[Fishylove]

Aww I hope your head feels better soon Lou! Good Morning Lou!! Sounds like your pond and garden may bring you much needed solace? That's what ponding does for me too. I'm hoping to get everything done the way I want it before I can't do by myself anymore. I too can be a bit stubborn, in the fact that I don't like to wait for people to get around to helping me do things unfortunately it may be my down fall lol. But the docs want me to stay active so I just do it slower than when I was younger ( which is VERY frustrating as you know Lol ) but I get it done eventually!

 

[CountryEscape]

Big Lou, that's quite a list, and I hope that someday some of those items can be knocked off completely. Praying helps, as you well know, and relaxing next to a pond ... best medicine I know of!!!
Fishy, I have 2 sisters that have had back or neck surgery. At least 3 of us 4 sisters tend to over do in the lifting department. I was told by them to slowwwww down, don't get in their positions. They now do much less, almost no lifting, worrying about more problems, and I am still doing my level best to get things done, since I don't have anyone to lean on. The good news is I don't have anyone holding me up, but the bad news is that I don't have anyone to help me either. My choice, and I am happy with it. I get an incredibly huge amount of work done by myself, tend to work better solo than in a team at times. There are some things I simply will not do. I didn't use any rocks in my waterfall or ponds that I could not lift myself. I figured the tractor could lift them, but I would have to scoot them out of the bucket, and sometimes that's harder to get them in place. So, I settled for what I could handle. Very tempting, though, to buy larger rocks, but it turned out pretty well anyhow.
I have been extremely fortunate both times I dug ponds that the weather cooperated. The first big pond only took me 10 days (2 weekends, and I think I took off one day through the week, too) to dig, including each evening after work (which was about the right amount of digging before it got dark). Pretty good for a then 53 year old petite woman! Of course, getting the liner in (yep, did that by myself, too, when then boyfriend didn't show up until 2, and I was ready to lay it out at 10 ...) and all the plumbing done took longer, but the end result was 99% done by yours truly. It's an extremely satisfying accomplishment! I have to make myself allow others to help, though. I'm envious of those of you with significant others, or kids that want to help. Now I need to get my fire pit dug and created, so I can have friends out for weiner roasts!
Saw this sunrise this morning. Sometimes I hate living on the "prairie", surrounded by farmed fields for a mile in every direction, very flat, but on mornings like this (and evenings for the sunset), I sure appreciate being able to see a long distance uninterrupted!

 

[Fishylove]

Beautiful CE! Yes, I am very lucky to have such a caring husband ( although my kids couldn't care less, unless I bribe them lol ) Don ( my husband) doesn't like me lifting or doing too much, and will jump in with both hands if I ask him too. He likes the pond and everything I'm doing but he's really not interested in the hobby per say, lol he'd rather be hunting My dad helps me also if I ask, he helped me with the stairway to the back drive, and he just turned 72 yesterday! I swear he's in better shape than me! Now that he doesn't have to take care of Mom ( today is the third anniversary of her passing of complications from Parkinson's disease, she was 74, and could no longer swallow ) he has time to take care of himself. Walks 6 miles and works out at the gym 3 days a weeks and on the days in between he walks 3 miles I'm so glad he's healthy and doing well. I hope to have him 20 or more years.
It's hard for me to settle for what I can handle, but I do it, I've found I get more done that way not having flare ups lol.

 

[sissy]

See back in NJ we did not pay tax on food or clothes or shoes and here in VA you do .I think they should not be taxed they are a necessity ,naked starved people not a good thing :sad: I think those kind of taxes hurt children more and people who are struggling .I have all my yard work so that is my gym .Well hoping my weather holds up because I still have to tackle rebuilding the water fall and putting in the new filter .I did put out 10 big bales of straw and a salt block and apple block and cleaned the deer water tanks really good yesterday and cut out all the low branches on the trees in the woods so they would not hurt themselves .I also put out 4 pieces of used dried out quilt batting for one eyed for the winter .So far can see the owl took 2 of the pieces and adding them to his nest for winter .I got my grass mowed and now today have to dig dirt and move it to a low spot in my lawn and cut some roots popping up through the ground before they damage the lawn mower .

 

[Big Lou]

Sissy you are one busy gardener!

 

[mogsie]

hey they tax everything here in uk, i think george harrison had it right with the beatles song "TAXMAN".
just had some flash flooding in the garden about an hour ago, rain was crazy, mirka got sent home early from work as the coffee shop she works in was flooded, and parts of the town has been closed. here is a few pics i got.....

 

[callingcolleen1]

At this age, everybody has something! If they say they don't, they most likely hide it well. I got arthritis, asthma, allergies, sore tired worn out bones, lifted a ton of very heavy rocks and cement blocks this summer and now I think I'm paying for it!! House is very old and in need of everything new! Can't afford to fix everything, so I do what I can. In spite of everything I still find myself happy....

Happy to have hubby home and eating more!

Happy to have friends that understand and to have coffee with,

Happy that I still have a job and when my hubby got cancer, the boss who I used to not like, gave me 100 dollars to take the hubby out for one last dinner before they butchered him!

Happy to have puppies to love and snuggle!

Happy that me and my sister Glenda are speaking again!

Happy that my mom is still able to drive and help with the puppies when I was in Calgary!

Happy to just have a place to call home, that may not be much, but it's paid for!

happy that my pond I build myself brings me so much joy!

Happy to be happy and not cry anymore and worry about my Sweet Pea, cause he's getting better!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Wow that's some big flood you got going on Mogsie!! Hope you make out OK and hope the fish don't swim away!

Big Lou.... thinking of you too, hope you can overcome depression, and hope that headache goes away fast too

 

[mogsie]

hey that was just after 30 mins of rain, here we go with round 2 as it is starting again ! typical english weather

 

[j.w]

Big Lou hoping you find comfort for your ailments so you can enjoy the years to come w/ your lovely wife Cathy and your pond/fish and we sure enjoy your company and good sense of humor and stories. You have lots of talent in your artwork and I do enjoy seeing what you come up with. Hope the things that hurt you don't bring you down too much. Praying that you feel better and sure glad you have good health insurance.

 

[j.w]

hey that was just after 30 mins of rain, here we go with round 2 as it is starting again ! typical english weather

Wow Mogsie that is some torrential downpours you are getting. Nice waterfall tho down your stairs and hope the fish don't float right out of your pond!

 

[Fishylove]

Wow mogsie. It's only done that a couple times here

 

[capewind]

There are some big medical issues here. Yup, we all have something, some big, some small... my advice to all (including myself) is just take one day as it comes, live it for today, and to be grateful for what we do have. I dont mean to sound like I am minimizing, as frankly, it sucks, but I try HARD to be a glass is half FULL kind of person, even if most days I am feeling like it is more than half empty. They say attitude is half the battle, so I am battle for a good attitude;-)

 

[Fishylove]

Totally agree cape!