It would appear that the majority of her fans are flexing their uneducated writing skills, chomping at the bit to support her petty and vindictive public flounce out of the governor's mansion and into the wild blue yonder of her narcissistic personality disorder. And a more swirling, illogical, misspelled and ungrammatical flood of blind and misguided adoration you would have a hard time finding in the blogosphere, let me tell ya.
Meanwhile, our intrepid Alaskan bloggers and Huffington Post contributors Shannyn Moore and Ak Muckraker are going strong in the face of ridiculous threats of slander suits from the Palin camp. Shannyn is making halibut ceviche and Ak is attending backyard barbecues in the face of this legal folderol, clearly maintaining what is known in the politically correct corporate world as a "work/life balance".
And good for them, I say. Would that Sarah Palin could have done the same thing.
It would appear that Ms. Palin is all for free speech if you are a misguided, half-assed, deposed California beauty queen, but if you are actually exercising that right in criticism of her...no, not so much. Call the lawyers and start them composing blue-backs to help protect the Fairy Princess of the Wilderness from those meaniepoos.
And the truth is, she ASKED for this. She made herself, and her family, with all purpose, public figures. She did it to herself. And what made her think that she would somehow be immune to the kind of public scrutiny and its attending ridicule that every public figure, since time immemorial, has suffered? Did she think that an allowance would be made for her?
WHY?
And what is it with Republican women? Do they not get the concept of "contractual obligation"? Miss California gets canned because she won't get her ass to contracted public appearances, and St. Sarah bows out, mid-term, from her obligations as the duly-elected governor of Alaska and decides to take her show on the road because it's not fun for her anymore and David Letterman makes jokes about her daughters? You were mean to me, so I'm going home to my pretty pink bedroom to lick my wounds?
I mean, PLEASE. Are they incapable of seeing anything, save a pregnancy, to completion?
What intelligent life form could actually buy into this shit?
She is a living, breathing joke, and if she thought that she would be able to deflect the public ridicule by stepping down, she was sorely mistaken, because now the likes of George Freakin' Will is disparaging her.
I don't know about you, but I'm poppin' the popcorn--this is only going to get better.
Until we are all free, we are none of us free.
--Emma Lazarus
As you celebrate today--and you SHOULD--remember that the battle still goes on, and that we must win.
And special shout outs to the Great State of Alaska, who earned a little more independence yesterday!
Back to the surgeons--there's something surreal about hearing someone singing "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" from Grease into your crotch as they deal with your dressings..;-) It all got very silly, which is better than everything being awful at the doctor's office--it's better to be laughing than crying, definitely. The surgeon says three more weeks and I'm back to work, so I'm taking every minute of laughter I can get before the stress ramps up.
Then we went to check out the nursing facility that they'll be releasing Mother when she gets out of the hospital. The last four days in that whole area of my life have been a little emotional, as well as busy, so going to this lovely place back in the woods full of what appeared to be truly happy people and to be treated so well and so attentively gives me hope that this will be a good place for her, at least temporarily and maybe permanently. I hope that she likes it as well as I did.
Then over to the hospital to visit her, and then on to Dr. G's office for MY PCP checkup.
He was in rare form.
He took a look at my incisions, then grinned at me and said, "Your ass looks great!"
"Thanks," I said. "So does yours."
I like him. I don't know why I resist going to him as much as I do....;-)
( Read more... )
This is just heartbreaking. Heartbreaking. To have to face this whole idea, for him, is to have to face the idea that he isn't who he thinks he is, and that his life isn't what he thought it was. It's having to face 81 when he doesn't FEEL 81. I get it. I totally get it.
But the idea of having some stranger decide FOR him what needs doing, rather than being denied the dignity of making those decisions for himself, is far more heartbreaking. And he doesn't understand that that could happen, without too much trouble at all--that he could transition from being a human being to a "case" without too much sweat at all.
So I'll be going over in just a little while to make sure that the bedclothes are changed and washed...and do what I can to reverse the idea that I hate them, and am only interested in "putting them away".
Can someone please tell me how freaking HEARTLESS one has to be in order to refer to one's four young sons as "jewels and blessings" three days after one leaves them alone--on a day that celebrates your relationship with them--in order to dip your flaccid and sorry dick in some exotic hoo hah while continuing to stand firmly on your lies and your "Christian values"?
Jesus, I'm sure, cannot stop puking. And during what pauses he manages in the middle of his puke fest, he is heard to scream, "Get off my side!!"
And these people are "defending marriage"? And gay couples who want to be in monogamous, government sanctioned, committed relationships are the THREAT?
It is like the entire Republican party and their designs on 2012 are marching relentlessly and without thought off the cliff in a suicidal death march. It's almost like they're trying to implode.
Maybe it sounds like I need my tinfoil beanie, but it seems way too programmed to be coincidental....
But I think that Finn has proven himself particularly good at the fine art of finding some of the best napping places around...
Now you know why I don't have a windowsill garden.
He's the reason we can't have nice things...;-)!
He has done a superb job in the last month, and I have no idea how I would have managed without him.
Our fifth wedding anniversary is coming up on Saturday, and I have been thinking a great deal about what my life was like before he was in it.
In a word, it was not as much fun, not as happy, not as safe as it was now that he is in it.
And you know, I am more than grateful for all the things he has done for me--but I think I would feel the same way if he didn't lift a pinky finger. He really doesn't HAVE to do a thing to make me happy--he just has to BE, and I'm delirious.
No doubt this will embarrass the shit out of him, but I don't think I say it often enough, frankly.
If you have someone (or find someone) who is as patient, loving and strong as he is, someone who loves you exactly as you are, someone who is your biggest advocate and your most powerful ally, someone who makes your world perfect no matter what comes, someone who makes you laugh and someone who lets you cry and someone who puts up with you without ever questioning his own wisdom at doing so--grab hold and don't let go.
Seriously.
Well, things have been going along fairly swimmingly, especially for the last few days. Something turned a corner a couple of days ago--I don't know what happened, but I woke up just feeling good and more able to do things. I got all the stitches out on Tuesday, which makes things very much easier (I never realized how much of the pain was connected to the stitches pulling and poking, but I was sitting better immediately after they pulled them out), and I'm finding my energy levels increasing day to day as well. I can actually do stuff without feeling like I'm going to fall down!
Patience is a virtue, patience is a virtue, patience is a virtue....;-)
I did a bunch of stuff yesterday--just a load or two of laundry and some tidying up--but it felt so good to be able to do something other than lying around in bed.
Sometimes it feels like it really hasn't been that long since all this happened, but I realized yesterday that I have been pretty much in bed for very nearly a month, and that's astonishing. Of course, I slept through a good bit of that month, so it's no wonder I've had very little sense of time passing, but a month it was, so even if I feel pretty good, I know it's baby steps until I really get rolling. Which is killing me because we've had so much rain that the back yard is a JUNGLE, and really needs some TLC...
Thank you all for your good thoughts, prayers and other acts of thoughtfulness. You are much appreciated, and I miss you all. With any luck, I'll be back in the swim even more very soon, and I'll be able to catch up on all the doings around the community.
I've been home for a couple of days now, but sitting is a--challenge--and as comfortable as this desk chair is, it isn't conducive. So it's going to be blips and blurbs for a little bit longer--which is a shame because it has been one hell of a lot of excitement for a couple of weeks, and there is so much to tell you, and to reflect on, and to talk about.
Nothing like a doctor hanging over your bed and telling you that you might not wake up from the anesthesia to put some things into perspective. Terrifying and clarifying and glorious all in its own way.
Thank you so much for being such a help and support to my DH, and for all your good thoughts and prayers--they were and are much appreciated, and I credit them for the extent of my recovery. I'm not all the way back yet, but I'm a lot farther along than I was two weeks ago, to be sure.
More later--maybe I'll take some percocet and perhaps that can get me through a complete and update-y post!
I haven't been around much--things have been a little busy.
Mother got a diagnosis of colon cancer yesterday, after having a colonoscopy. She was having a bit of bleeding, which we all thought was due to her being on Coumadin, but apparently she has a little sumpin going on in there.
The doctor is optimistic--he says that what he saw seems very small and well-contained. She's having a CAT scan done today, and the surgeon has been called in. Depending on the findings on the CAT scan, and depending on when the blood thinners clear her system so that they can operate safely, she may be having surgery this week or they may send her home and try it two weeks from now, once the medicine is safely cleared.
I have to tell you, though--I am really, really, REALLY fucking SICK of cancer. I really am. I've had ENOUGH of it. It can go straight to hell and burn there, slowly and agonizingly, till the end of all time. I am TIRED of it trying to attack really, really good people. I am tired of having it go after my friends and family.
I am MAD at it.
Seriously.
It's been raining for nine days.
The novelty is most definitely wearing off.
I'm growing moss on my north side, and the yards look like jungles. What's worse is that trees are now starting to come down, since the roots are sunk in very soupy mud.
Enough already.
But I know what's going to happen when the sun does decide to come out again, because all these well-watered green things will suddenly be energized by sunlight, and the house is liable to disappear completely in the grass.
Bitch, bitch, bitch, whine, whine, whine.
Sorry.
Apparently, she ended up spending the night in her chair, and when she woke up, her right leg was very weak and couldn't hold her up very well. She could move it, and there were no other signs of it, but I think she had pretty much convinced herself that she had had a stroke during the night.
My mother is terrified of stroke. It took her mother (who was considerably younger than she is now when she passed away), and it paralyzed her sister on the left side. So whenever she feels the slightest bit "different", she starts to panic that she is having a stroke. Previously, these "different" feelings have been diagnosed as ear infections, sinus infections, an arm or a leg falling asleep, a low blood sugar... any number of things that have affected her sense of strength or balance. And to be honest, she is at risk for stroke, so her fear isn't altogether unfounded. But because she's so afraid of it, whenever she feels something "different", she gets upset--which will not help her if she is having a stroke.
This morning, I tried to teach my Dad what to do when she thinks that this is happening to her, using the F.A.S.T. anagram. These are tests that everyone should know.
( The meaning of the anagram--a PSA for those who don't know it and should, and cut for those who already do. )
Dad had her do all these things, and she passed with flying colors.
So yeah--I'll be calling over there through the course of the day, and told my Dad that it might not be a bad idea to call the doctor, since I suspect that some of this might be because she finished up her course of prednisone on Saturday, and so didn't have any yesterday.
But my heart has stopped pounding, and I think MY blood pressure is back where it's supposed to be.
There will be time. It's all good.
****************************************
Just an FYI--I'm not going to be doing the DW thing. Now that I have Facebook, as well as That Other Blog that I periodically contribute to, I can barely keep up with what I've got. Besides, I figure that three venues in which to offend the public is enough...;-)
****************************************
I'm doing Facebook fairly regularly now--it has its advantages and disadvantages. I've managed to offend both my niece and my sister-in-law by posting there, even though I'm not actually being myself there--I tend to put on my Sunday self in those posts. No sex, drugs, rock and roll. No swearing and no Wicca and very little politics. I'm being so GOOD, and I still pissed them off. And I did it the minute I behaved like myself.
Go me.
I want DNA tests to make sure that I really do belong to those people (of course, my sister-in-law actually has no genetic connection to me, and that's a good thing because she is crazier than a shithouse rat, with the religious fervor found only in converts, and is slightly right of Tom DeLay, politically). It's going to be interesting to see how my niece manages her "Washington semester". She's coming straight from the redneck right of Georgia and will be dumped right down in the middle of the Obama administration. It'll be interesting to read her observations of what Washington will be like, come the fall.
To the good, I've hooked up with a TON of people I knew ages and ages ago, and find that a lot of the people I went to high school with have grown up to be really lovely people. One big plus is that the husband of one of my high school buddies has been hired to do my Mom and Dad's yard for the summer, and said husband is currently examining my father's demon-possessed lawnmower in the hope of fixing it. Which is better and more exciting news than it sounds like, because no one has ever been able to diagnose what exactly is wrong with it, let alone fix it. But my friend Maggy says her husband has ants in his pants, and needs to be doodling away on something or else he's in her hair 24/7, which is not an acceptable situation. But anyway--that was a cool thing to come out of it, and I can stop wringing my hands over that particular situation.
But getting to know these people again makes me feel somewhat more optimistic about the reunion in October (the 35th, heaven help me), and I'm actually thinking that it's going to be a lot of fun.
Another plus is that I'm getting to know some of Paul's family better, and they are an incredibly interesting clan. I LIKE 'em.
****************************************
One more day of vacation, and then I'm back to the fray.
Boy, did this go fast.
OK--gotta figure out something for dinner.
( Read more... )
It's supposed to rain a lot over the next week, so I'm expecting that they're going to like that.
I'm so excited...:)
There is little more amazing than standing under that wisteria, after the rain, and in the warm air, and just breathing...
( Read more... )
No, I don't know how we're going to cut it.
Yes, it was more fun than a barrel of monkeys to make--but it took FOREVER...
( It's behind here... )
It's just a good thing he only gets one birthday a year!
It was glorious. And very easy.
2 lbs powdered sugar
1 lb mini-marshmallows
2-5 T water
Put marshmallows in microwave safe bowl with 2 T water. Nuke for 30 seconds and stir. Nuke again and again, for 30 seconds each time and stirring between blasts until marshmallows are melted and smooth. Dump 3/4 of the sugar on top of the marshmallow and stir down.
Grease your work surface and your hands with Crisco. ALL over your hands--backs, palms and in between the fingers. You might also want to remove your bling at this juncture as well.
Dump the marshmallow mixture on the countertop and begin to knead it the way you would knead bread dough. It's a messy, sticky business, but that's part of the fun, where I'm concerned, so just get in there and play with it. Regrease your hands and your work surfaces as necessary (it's a good idea to keep a bench scraper handy), and add more powdered sugar as the last bit incorporates. Make sure that your fondant is smooth and workable--if it's too soft, add more sugar, and if it gets too dry to comfortably roll out without tearing, add more water.
Grease the whole ball with Crisco and double-wrap in plastic wrap, then stick it in a ziplock bag, squeezing out as much air as possible. Let sit at least overnight--but it will keep for weeks in the fridge, so don't be afraid to make it well in advance.
Tomorrow, I'm going to dye chunks of it with gel food coloring to be able to make the accouterments for Paul's birthday hamburger cake.
Too fun for words.
It makes a great big mess, but totally and completely worth it.
Did you know that, in spite of what Michelle "I'm too crazy to live" Bachmann says, Jimmy Carter was not the president during the last swine flu outbreak? Gerald Ford was. And it has been speculated upon that his widespread and utterly fail vaccination program may have actually thrown the race to Jimmy Carter, because of it's fundamental fuckupitude. So no--Democrats and swine flu have no correlation whatsoever.
Did you know that you can't get swine flu from eating pork? Nope--you can't. And if you don't believe me, you can slide that portion of double-cut chops wrapped in bacon right on over in my direction.
Did you know that those face masks that make you feel so safe are absolutely no help whatsoever in the prevention of the spread of flu? You'd need a respirator. But you probably don't need it if you are taking the general precautions of washing your hands a bunch (sing "Happy Birthday" twice through while you're washing, and you'll know you've scrubbed enough) and staying out of places where people are sick. Like hospitals and doctor's offices, which are the exact places people are going because they're afraid of getting swine flu. If you aren't feeling well, or if you have questions for your doctor, call, don't spread your germy self all over the waiting room, and certainly do not expose yourself to other people's germs by showing up when you're not sick.
Did you know that 13,000 people have died since January--of the REGULAR flu? Compared to seasonal influenza, swine flu is pathetically benevolent.
Did you know that the swine flu can only become pandemic with your help? Yah, it's true. Human stupidity, like insisting on going to work when you're sick because you want to save your time off for going to the beach, or going to the mall when you're sick because Macy's is having a big sale, or insisting on congregating in large groups of people because whatever is going on is more important than getting sick, or not washing your hands or coughing into your sleeve when you are sick, or not canceling that vacation to Mexico because you don't want to lose your deposit is what actually causes the pestilence to spread. So do your part, and use the common sense with which God bequeathed a melon.
Did you know that swine influenza "pandemics" usually occur every 11 years? So we're actually overdue, by about 29 years. And the interesting thing is that what worked then (wash your hands, stay home when ill, avoid large gatherings, stay away from people displaying symptoms) works now, and what didn't work then (untested and potentially dangerous vaccines) doesn't work now.
Did you know that most people do not die of swine flu, and that most people recover completely, just as they would from regular flu?
Did you know that most of the people who die of swine flu do not die of swine flu at all, but of secondary infection, which is much easier to treat than flu, if caught early? Usually it's strep/pneumonia. So rather than try to kill the flu with vaccine, the best thing to do is to avoid it, and, if you can't, treat whatever secondary infections you might have in relation to the flu, because that's what'll kill you.
Did you know that the incubation period for swine flu is one to seven days? So if you went to Cancun last January, and you haven't gotten sick, you're OK.
Did you know that most flu virus is transmitted by coughing and sneezing? While there may be some virus germs on some inanimate surfaces (which could be easily killed off your hands by washing or using hand sanitizer), most virus is spread by spewing on other people from the nose and mouth. So don't. And if some ignoramus does it to you, keep an eye on yourself for one to seven days to see if you develop symptoms, and start beefing up your vitamins and sleep in the meantime.
Did you know that swine flu is around almost every flu season? There have been 12 reported and confirmed cases between December, 2005 and December, 2009. And only 12. Most of which were in people who had direct contact with pigs and most of whom didn't even spread the virus to their own families.
Did you know that, as a bioterrorist weapon, swine flu is a really stupid choice? Because the virus mutates from person to person as it spreads, influenza would be a really poor choice in a bioterror attack. It wouldn't do what a bioterrorist would want it to do, and most people would survive. So unless you're dealing with a really silly bioterrorist who doesn't want to do anything but make people ache, run a fever and cough for about a week, the idea that it might be some kind of attack is kind of outlandish.
Did you know that the reason why swine flu can kill young, healthy people is because their immune systems work too well, and release dangerous levels of cytokine into their systems, which can, in turn, damage their lungs? So while babies and the elderly and people who have compromised immune systems can have serious ramifications to the flu virus, young people can have problems as well, because they are too strong. So the best response is reasonable and normally healthy eating, getting sufficient sleep, reasonable hygiene, and avoiding stress--like the stress you get from worrying about swine flu.
Did you know that your risk of being killed by a lightning strike in the last five years was about 2,300 percent higher than your risk of contracting and dying from the bird/swine flu? Seriously.
So...I guess what I'm saying is...let's all keep our heads about this, eh?
See, my father has an arrhythmia. He's had it since forever--I tend to think that it has to do with things like regular bouts of malaria and the appended quinine use and stuffage from his childhood. But he's had it for as long as I can remember, and the cardiologist just considers it his "normal". But at his last check-up, it raised concern in his PCP, so he insisted that Dad go back to the cardiologist to have it checked.
The cardiologist says that there is nothing different from what he's ever seen, but because of this "concern", he has my Dad scheduled for a round on a Holter monitor, and an echo, and a stress test. Which is the appropriate response for a physician to make.
Of course, my response is, "Where has the PCP been for the last 10 years?"
Then he tells me that the PCP has put my mother on prednisone for a two week course, to see if they can get her muscles moving a bit better. She's having a few side effects--like not being able to sleep--but nothing untoward.
So I tell my father that prednisone is a steroid, and that they shouldn't panic if her face swells somewhat.
Then the devil took over, I swear.
I said, "Yeah, if her face swells and her testicles shrink, that's a normal side effect."
He starts to laugh.
And then Paul pipes up and says, "Oh, and major league baseball teams will try to sign her up, too!"
My Dad is fairly hysterical on the other end of the phone.
Yeah--we're smartassed kids, we are.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
