Happy Independence Day, America!

Have a safe and fun one!

The toe is nominally better today. Though several people have strongly suggested I seek medical attention, I won’t be doing so. The only real options are a hospital emergency room or one of the emergency clinics, and quite frankly, I can tell that at the worst it may be a small fracture, and I don’t need to spend that kind of money to have a medical professional tell me to stay off of it for a while. That’s really the only thing to be done, and the only benefit of seeking out a doctor would be getting some real painkillers. I’m not shelling out a thousand bucks or so for painkillers. Generic analgesics will do. Welcome to the American health care system.

Anyway, it’s no worse today and seems to be slightly less painful, except when trying to walk or when something touches it. I’ve put on a pair of sneakers with firm soles, and that helps somewhat. Otherwise, I’m just going to keep the walking and standing to a minimum, keep using the cane, take analgesics as needed, and push on with life. Though I do expect to be very, very cranky for a while, because truly, it’s about the worst pain ever, and you know I hate being forced to sit around and not putter around the house and yard whenever I feel like it. Sure, I like being lazy, but not when it is thrust upon me without any choice!

Lin is off at the farmers market. I’m grumpy about not being able to go, and I guess I could have, but I would have been a slow moving object. Just one person (or large dog) stepping on my foot by accident, or bumping into me, and I’d have been on the ground wailing. I miss not getting to go, because I like seeing our farmer friends, looking at what interesting veggies are available, and seeing the cool arts and crafts. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll be able to go next time. My toe better be a whole lot better in two weeks! I’m hoping it shows vast improvement in a few days, because I might like to drive somewhere. This is the first time I find myself grouchy about having a manual transmission in the truck. Why did it have to be my clutch foot that got injured?!

Anyway, I’m going to be stuck sitting for a while. I imagine that may lead to a lot of babbling on my blog … and a lot of little crafty things getting done and books being read (not a bad thing really). Speaking of which, I think I will try again to work on the jewelry idea I had last night that I was about to work on when I found myself on the floor writhing in pain. Nothing kills the desire to create quite like tripping on a cat and busting up a toe.

And the cats have been trying to kill each other all morning. All I can do is make loud noises in their general direction and shake my cane at them. Shaking the cane seems to work. The cats fear the cane, which is good. It’s been keeping them out of my way. I really don’t want to see any cats in my way for a while.

I think my toe and I will survive. Neither of us is very happy right now, but the swelling is really minimal, and it amazingly hasn’t turned any unusual colors (yet). The pain is still pretty awful, but it seems to be localizing to just the toe and immediate area. I’m walking with a cane. I’m going to assess the situation in the morning and determine whether it needs to be looked at by someone more medically professional that myself. I doubt I’ll bother. It’s obviously not broken, but it certainly has been jammed and wrenched.

Might take a while to heal, and that’s going to be the worst part of it all. How am I supposed to go about my usual daily life with a messed up toe and walking with a cane?! I don’t even think I will be able to drive the truck, seeing as the ouchy toe is on my clutch foot. I have things to do and cannot be stuck toddling around with a cane and not being able to drive!

Interestingly, the culprit who caused this damage –one medium sized black cat named Myu– has been in hiding since it happened. Probably a good thing, because I am somewhat annoyed with her at the moment, and should she throw herself down in front of my feet again, my cane and I would plow right over her.

Though I do have a nifty keen cane to use. It was made by one of Lin’s relatives that lives out in Tennessee. Hand carved and so lovely. I’ll have to take a photo of it to show you. It feels weird using something that is really a work of art to move my aching body around the house, but it’s the only cane we have, and I need something to lean on.

When I wake up tomorrow my toe will either be worse or better, so I am sort of eager to go to sleep so it can be tomorrow. I just wish I didn’t have to go to the farmers market in the morning. It’s possible I may have to send Lin alone with a list. But I want to see my friends and it’s Independence Day! Provided my toe hasn’t fallen off or gotten any worse, I’ll probably hobble around the market with my fancy, fancy cane … and feel stupid. I’m sure I look stupid walking with the cane, and I have no idea what shoes I may be able to wear. Ugh. Why me?! Why this weekend?!

I’m going to go to sleep now. The quicker I get to sleep, the quicker it will be tomorrow.

Send happy thoughts that my toe is WAY better in the morning!!!

The drafting table has to leave the kitchen, and I am turning the cats into winter hats … just as soon as I am capable of walking (or even sitting) without pain.

I had gotten out some beads and wire and planned to sit at my kitchen work table and fuss around with them. I needed my pliers and other jewelry stuff. I start walking from the kitchen to the den to get said things, when Myu jumps in front of me, throws herself down and demands attention. Unfortunately, I was in mid-step, and the cat was now under my quickly descending right foot, so I threw my weight to the right side to avoid stepping on and killing the cat. My left foot swung wildly, slid across the floor, wedged under the very tight edge of the drafting table stand, with one toe in particular jamming itself under the somewhat sharp metal leg … as I started to fall forward.

I did what I always do when experiencing a pain unlike any other pain I have have ever experienced and went limp and dropped to the floor right where I was, howling and, of course, cursing loudly. I think that was the only thing that kept me from sitting here telling you I broke my toe. Well, I don’t think it’s broken. It moves, and a manual examination and comparison of both feet indicate that everything is where it should be and feels solid. I have ice on it now, and it doesn’t seem to be swelling, though it’s going to be a horrible shade of bruised blue, and it’s going to be excessively painful for who knows how long.

When I say excessively painful, I do mean excessively painful. I can’t express how painful it is without cursing like a sailor, so I won’t even try. The toe hurts. The foot hurts. The leg hurts. The hip hurts. The small of my back hurts. I hurt. I did not need this. This sucks beyond words. It’s a holiday weekend, and I can barely walk. And the PAIN!!! OMG! THE PAIN!!! It is unreal. Almost the worst pain I have ever felt in my life.

The next time one of the cats pulls this stunt, I am stepping on the cat. Whichever one it is, I am certain it will make a nice winter hat or maybe the lining for some gloves. Perhaps the two survivors will learn not to throw themselves down in front of moving humans in tight quarters (like doorways or near tables).

And that table has to move ASAP. I have maimed myself on it one time too many.

How did I allow myself to run out of my allergy pills?! How stupid! I would have sworn I went and got more some time ago, but it appears I meant to go get them and never did. Since June was so damn hot and dry, I really didn’t need them at all, so I never noticed. Well, we’ve had rain. Rain means mold spores. I need a pill, and I need it now!

Unfortunately, Lin is at a party, and by the time he gets home, I won’t feel like going to the drugstore. I guess I know where I’ll be heading first thing in the morning. Provided I can still breath enough to go anywhere.

I’m going to go rummage in the bathroom. Maybe there’s a pill or two left of one of the ones that knocked me on my butt too bad, so I stopped using them. I suspect I threw them away though. Dammit.

It’s completely stupid to allow myself to run out of a pill I sometimes need to take to breath well enough to even get out of bed! Gah!

Supposedly there’s a 40% chance of more thunderstorms today. It is a little cloudy. I wonder if we’ll get more rain? I could do with another cooler day with another long slow rain. Yesterday was wonderful. I finally got to spend some quality time outside in the garden.

I seriously need to go buy groceries and bake some bread. I am also feeling seriously tired and a little achy. I am at that point in the morning where I have to decide between downing a few cups of coffee and pressing on or going back to bed for a couple of hours. I will admit, I am leaning heavily toward getting more sleep. The cats agree. They’ve had breakfast, and all three of them have gone back to bed. I think I’ll join them for an hour or two. I love cuddling on the bed with the kitties on gray and cloudy mornings.

The carrots, scallions, and dill are now chilling in vacuum-sealed bags in the freezer! Yippee!

I left the one dill plant most likely to produce a proper head of seeds unmolested, and instead of pulling up the others, I just cut them back (leaving a few leaves) to see if they will grow again. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. Doesn’t matter, as I have enough dill for a year stashed in the freezer already.

The most enjoyable aspect of this morning is the fact it started raining a few minutes after my last post, and there’s been a nice slow rain going for over an hour. I have the windows open, and it feels so good. Also the smells in the house right now are wonderful!

The weirdest thing about this morning was the appearance of hundreds, if not thousands, of mayflies. When the rain let up for a moment, they rose from our yard like a cloud. The cats went crazy trying to bust through the window screens to get to them, and the birds descended and had themselves a nice lunch … which only added to the insanity level of the cats. It was strange walking out to the garden to get the dill amidst all the bugs and birds. Strange and weird, but sort of neat!

When the rain lets up again, I’ll be going out to pull up the cucumbers. Since it’s likely to be cooler today and the beans are blooming, I’ll leave them be long enough to see if any beans set, but I better see some beans in the next two days, or away they go too. Then the only thing left in Bed One will be the marigolds and one lonely okra plant with one lonely pod on it I am allowing to dry for seed … and the dill plants.

I think while the soil is moist (wet) today, I’ll pull up the Early Girl tomato plant. I cut it back when it stopped blooming, and it hasn’t shown any plan to grow any new leaves. It gave us some pounds of tomatoes already, so I’m willing to let it go gently into that good night. I’m also debating pulling up the Better Boy as well. It has two small tomatoes on it that have been sitting there not growing or changing color for weeks and weeks. It also doesn’t seem to be blooming anymore. I think it’s time has come. Maybe I’ll leave it for the birds, since they seem to fancy the Better Boys best of all. Might make them leave the rest of my tomatoes alone!

Aaah. Rain, lower temperatures, and good work done in the garden. Today, so far, has been a very good day.

Here at Casa de Orb, there’s a whole lot of dangerous looking lightning, and about three drops of rain so far. It’s actually raining elsewhere in town. I am feeling cheated!

Though I will say that heavy lightning is a great motivator for working quickly. I got those carrots pulled and and topped in record time, so I could get back indoors.

The carrots are in the post-blanching cooling phase (sitting in ice water). After all the scrubbing and brief boiling, the whole house smells of carrots. It’s nice. It’d be nicer if I liked carrots, which I really don’t. Oh, I eat them, but only because they are good for the body. In general, I could do without carrots … except in stew. Stew has to have carrots in it.

Well, it’s getting darker and darker. I think I’ll get back to the carrots now. I want to move on to the other things. I’m finally feeling motivated. That might have something to do with the fact that it is currently under 80ºF outside, for the first time in forever. Gosh it feels so good! I guess I don’t really care if it rains or not, so long as it stays this cool for just a little longer.

I’m having my morning coffee, in preparation for going at the garden this morning. At 83ºF, it’s pleasantly cool outside. It’s also cloudy. There’s thunder rumbling just over the horizon. Might we get some rain? As much as I want to get some things done in the garden today, I would not be at all upset to have to call it off on account of rain. In fact, it would be so glorious to experience rain, I might even work on the garden out in the rain. It’d be really great to get some rain. I miss rain. Rain is good. Please let it rain!!!

Anyway, I don’t feel like processing a bunch of carrots and herbs today, but it has to be done at some point. The sooner I get it done, the sooner I can start getting the garden ready for the next round of growing things, and it would be nice to just pull a pack of frozen carrots out of the freezer for dinner, without the pulling, washing, cleaning, and cutting having to be done on the spot. The coffee is giving me the energy to do it (I’ve been so low on energy the last few days), but the willpower is still lacking somewhat. Too bad there isn’t an additive to put in coffee to give one willpower!

And there’s some cat news this morning. Overnight, my sweet and adorable baby, Tora, has become a teenager. Yes, the cat who almost never got into anything, who was always sweet and wonderful, has become a bit of a terror. Tora is developing an attitude. She’ll be a year old next month, so it isn’t like I am surprised by this change. One year old kitties are terrors of the worst sort. I’ve noticed that’s when they begin to push the boundaries of acceptable behavior just like human teenagers do. Hopefully, this is a stage she will outgrow quickly –more quickly than the other two, who are just now, at 3 years of age, beginning to clue into the fact that there are things they are never allowed to do.

The thunder is really rumbling now. The radar shows it raining to the south of us and to the north of us. With my luck, we won’t get a single drop at my house. I’m keeping my fingers crossed though, because I would really like to have some rain today. Not even for the garden, which has been recently well watered, but because it would be nice to have some kind of weather other than hot and awful. It could even hail, and I wouldn’t be too heartbroken about it. I just need some sort of weather other than the weather we have been having! Of course, if it does rain, it will only make the heat worse when the sun comes out (which it will), but still, it’d be nice while it lasted.

My coffee is done, and I think I have the willpower to get pull up the carrots and do all the things I need to do to get them into the freezer. Once I get them done, maybe I’ll feel like doing the same with the dill and scallions … and pulling up the non-producing aphid hotel cucumber plants will just be the icing on the cake. I’ve also done research on the beans, and my fears that they won’t set fruit due to it being too hot turns out to be true. I still like how easy those beans are to grow, but now I know not to bother planting a second planting during the summer. Live and learn! I am consoling myself over the waste of an entire pack of seeds with the fact that beans, even when they don’t produce anything edible, help increase the nitrogen levels of the soil they grow in.

Well … I am off to work on carrots. Maybe I’ll get rained on while doing so, and that would be just fine with me!

I have unilaterally decided we will be having fast food from Sonic for dinner tonight. I’m having a craving for a disgustingly greasy and totally unhealthy extra-long cheese coney and deep fried jalapeños … and a large cherry lime slush.

Though I don’t know why, I feel the need for comfort food, and Sonic is one of my ultimate comfort foods.

Mmmmm. Sonic.

I will never let the dirty dishes stack up again.

I will never let the dirty dishes stack up again.

No really, I will NEVER let the dirty dishes stack up again!

Oi. Why did I ignore the dishes so long?!

I have died and am living in my own personal hell.

Eh … it’s not so bad. Too damn hot though.

Lin announced this morning he may be away from home for two weeks. It’s been a while since that’s happened! He won’t be all that far away really, since he’ll just be over in San Antonio, which means he could come home sometime, if he felt like it, or I could stop being a weenie about driving in SA and go see him … and the multitude of other friends I have that live there. Still going to suck though, unless this heat lets up. It’s bad enough being stuck in the house for fear of burning to a crisp when I know he’ll be home come evening. Being stuck here alone 24/7 and being stir crazy will be downright awful.

Speaking of the heat, they say it’s going to be even hotter again today! Nooooo! The UV index is in the extreme range, which means normal people can be out in it for about ten minutes before skin damage begins. I am not normal, which means my pasty complexion has to stay inside or be very quick about what I am doing out there. I know I have been griping about the heat a lot lately, but truly, it’s just been remarkably insane. There’s a small chance of rain in next week’s forecast, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that will happen so things will cool down just a touch. I need to get outside and enjoy some sunlight and fresh air!

Lin is back from Ken’s Tacos with breakfast. Time to stuff my face and then decide if I want to go do some shopping today. I need new jeans. I hate shopping for clothing, especially blue jeans, but there does come a time when new jeans are required … like when the knees blow out and the butt threatens to split. So, yeah, I do need some new jeans soon. Also, I have a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby and a need for a new seam ripper. Target and the craft store are all in the same area, so might as well do that too. Provided I can convince myself to leave the house and do anything. At the moment, all I want to do is go back to sleep. Hopefully a huge bean, egg, bacon, potato, and cheese breakfast taco perks me up.

Already 90ºF out there. Today will be a horrible scorcher.

I sat down to babble. I even started to babble. Then I began to strongly feel the effects of gravity on my body, most notably my eyelids. Since I am now a half-melted puddle sitting on a desk chair with mostly closed eyes, you get the super-condensed version of what I wanted to babble about.

I need to have an adventure of some sort –a get-away vacation– preferably to a large urban metropolis.

I want a new body mod of some sort.

I don’t know how much longer I can stand being stuck in the house due to the extreme heat, UV, and ozone. I am seriously only able to spend about an hour every early morning outside. The other 23 hours consist of either deadly heat or biting bugs. Sometimes both at the same time. I’m not even trapped this much in the house this much during the winter! I am getting stir crazy.

Yup, that about sums it up, so … goodnight!