I'm Growing Mold Between my Toes

Another gray, cloudy day - good for sleeping in. I was snuggled under the blankets this morning squeezing the last of the sleep out of the night when off in the far distance I heard this obnoxious ringing going on. It wouldn't stop - just kept on and on. When I finally rose to the surface of sleep I realized it was my phone and that anybody calling at that hour of the morning meant an emergency of some sort. When I got my eyes unstuck and was able to focus on the clock I realized it wasn't THAT early - it was already 8 a.m. I haven't slept that late in who knows how long.


It was Big Brother calling to chat. Of course when you're in the hospital they have you up at some ungodly hour poking and prodding and getting you ready for the day as if you have somewhere to go. So we chatted for about a half hour. He seemed to be in good spirits, which helps my mental state a lot. He still can't use either arm, so I'm not sure how he dialed his cell phone, but he did. He lays it on the pillow beside his head and puts it on speaker phone and that seems to work quite well. Poor guy is probably bored out of his gourd.


Anyway, I got the clear dope on this surgery that he will be having tomorrow. Apparently it's the bone behind his eyeball that shattered - the one that holds your eyeball in place. The eyeball will have to be removed and a plate placed behind it. If he doesn't have this surgery his eyeball will recede. Not a pleasant thought. At this point there doesn't seem to be any vision loss, so let's hope things stay that way. The thought of having an eyeball removed - taken out of the socket - laying there on the table while they insert a plate just grosses me out. I had to chuckle when Big Brother stated that he hoped the doctors didn't decide to play a game of ping pong with it!! See - I told you he seemed to be in good spirits.

On the mold front - last night when I got in the shower I noticed all this black fungus looking material that seemed to be growing between my toes. It was enlarging as I watched. I thought to myself - I know I didn't get THAT dirty when I was outside working today. Ick. So I grabbed the bar of soap and the wash cloth and started scrubbing but it didn't disappear. Upon closer examination I realized it was black mold!! It rained again all day yesterday. I had started to mow the grass when I came home from church because it was so tall that small children could get lost. When it started to rain I told myself I wasn't going to let a little rain stop me and kept on going until the grass got so wet it just gummed everything up and clogged the chute going to the bagger. Okay - I had to give up. But in the meantime I was wet in places I didn't know I had before. And you know what happens to things that get damp and don't get dried off like they should. It's been so wet around here for so long that fungus has attacked my toes because they're always wet from walking in the grass.

Seriously, Folks, I'm just joshing - my feet are clean - I'm just being facetious. I'm just darn tired of all this water. When I got up this morning the temperature was already in the 70s but the humidity was 86%. Now that's some serious humidity.

So I went out and took a couple more pictures of my flowers before the next rain beats them all to pieces. My rose tree has opened up - the flowers come in clusters and each individual flower isn't real big, but together they make quite an impression. And the fragrance is heavenly.




Here's one of my favorite irises. It's called Temper Tantrum. Maybe that's why I like it. It's not one of the big huge German irises, but I just love how the blues and purples blend.

So another day of wet stuff. Ole is making progress on the ark.

Love Lena

An Update

Things are looking up a bit - at least some things. We're gradually losing our "lake front" property. The water is receding very slowly and the forecast is for a whole day of sunshine and no rain today. Our driveway is no longer under water so it's easier to get in and out now.

You can't imagine how nerve wracking it is to watch that water come so fast and there's nothing you can do about it. And then there's all the politics that go along with it - "they" won't allow us a dike because it's not "practical." I'd love to know what their definition of "practical" is. It's especially difficult to watch this governmental body dishing out all their rules and regulations and making decisions that allow other households that aren't in the floodway getting all kinds of help and we, who suffer from this every time there is a heavy rain or spring runoff get nothing. Legally, we can't even build a dike at our own expense because of our proximity to the river. Why did we build here, you may ask? When we bought this property back in 1972 it had never been under water. In the last 10 years there have been 3 major floods and our house has been a little island. Fortunately, our house has stayed dry, but you can't imagine the mess we have to clean up every time this happens. Oh well, griping doesn't do any good so I'll quit.

I had my second mammogram yesterday. I was brought back to the radiologist's office and offered a big long explanation that involved words like "biopsies" and "tumors" and "cancer" and all those scary words. Then they did a second series of x-rays and I sat and waited for the results. After an hour of all kinds of horrible things going through my mind I was called back again and the word "calcification" was explained to me. Apparently calcifications can range anywhere from malignant to benign and anywhere in between. So that's the latest word - I have some calcifications that they want to watch very closely and will be going back for another x-ray in 6 months.

Okay then. I guess I have to spend the next 6 months with "that" thought hanging in the back of my mind.

On the Big Brother front - I talked to him several times yesterday. The doctor has postponed surgery until next Tuesday due to all the swelling still around his eye. His broken shoulder still has not been casted - I suppose they're waiting for decreased swelling there also. His son arrived in El Paso yesterday and will stay through the surgery. I'm so glad there is someone there with him. After my experience with Ole in the hospital twice last summer, I know that you need some kind of a patient advocate in order to survive in a hospital these days. Someone who can ride herd on what's going on and look out for the patient's best interests - not the hospital's. Nephew sent me a picture via cell phone yesterday. I was horrified at how awful Big Brother looked. He looked like he'd been put through a meat grinder and then someone beat the tar out of him afterwards. Look out for those 10-foot ladders, Folks.

Since the water decided to recede Ole headed out for the Back to the 50s weekend at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds last night. He had intended to leave on Thursday and not come back until Sunday. But due to the water factor he'll be back tonight. I, on the other hand, stayed home doing the sump pump watch, etc. Lovely Daughter and Lars had intended to go with him if he had gone for the weekend, but due to the short trip they decided to stay home. So Lars and Lovely Daughter came out last night and Lars made pizza for supper. He's quite a pizza aficionado - it was SOOO good. Then we watched the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It wasn't at all what I expected. It was a very long movie, and one of those that I'm glad I didn't spend my money going to a theater to see.

Speaking of movies, have any of you watched Slumdog Millionaire yet? I watched it a few weeks ago and thought it was TERRIBLE. Whoever voted that in as best picture of the year - well, their taste is most definitely only in their mouth!!

A few entries ago I promised you some pictures of my backyard this year because the peonies and irises were outdoing themselves. They hadn't been this beautiful in years despite the horrible winter we had. Unfortunately the heavy rain beat me to it and kind of messed up the flowers. Lots of them are on the ground, etc., but I did take a few shots this morning to share with you. Please keep in mind they aren't as spectacular as they were a week ago.

In this picture you can kind of see the "lake shore" behind the flowers. Under normal conditions you wouldn't be able to see any water in this picture at all.

Well, People, I had better get my backside off this computer chair if I'm going to accomplish anything today. My project for today is to get some carpets cleaned and then it will be a contest to see which cat urps up on them first. Seems every time I clean carpets somebody vomits within 24 hours. I really want to replace my living room and dining room carpet with laminated flooring like I have in my kitchen. Then it would be a piece of cake to keep things a bit cleaner with all these animals in the house. So far I haven't been able to talk Ole into doing that though. It would be so nice to just have some large area rugs that could be washed.

Enjoy this lovely day, everyone.

Love Lena