Love this tribute to our animal friends and upon rereading it, decided it needed to be shared with some likeminded pet fanciers.
Wallie on Animal Friends
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Monthly Archives: July 2018
Asters: Flower of the Day, July 22, 2018
My Past Four Days : Adventures with Sciatica
This is a record of my past four days, as recorded via Skype messages to Forgottenman. I have removed most of his messages to me to protect his privacy. If you skim though the gripes, there are some high points of unbelievable occurrences toward the end that will make it worth your while plowing through this, perhaps:
4:40 PM Thursday
Woke up with such pains in my back. Got in the boiling hot hot tub and that helped. Had to go to town to run errands, but now I can finally lie down. Perhaps I should go into the hot tub again, but I’m so tired I have to lie down first. Man, I’m a mess, boy!!!
9:08 PM
Fell asleep and just woke up 1/2 hour ago. Fed the kids who were all having a fit, did dishes and back in bed with a hot pack heated in the microwave.
11:58 PM
Woke up in such pain that I got in hot tub for long time to try to help my back.. then in pool for another long time, cleaning algae and throwing balls for Morrie.. then put icy hot on back and got in bed. Seems to get worse when I lie down.
12:22 AM Friday
Gotta go take an Advil.. I’ve been taking them all day, Just took a tiny bit of cannabis oil to try to help with this back pain…hot water helped. Icy Hot helped, but only for 15 minutes or so and then it comes back. Damn. May have to go to a dr. So sick of drs. Feel like a hypochondriac. I’m wondering if a hospital bed would help somehow.
1:54 AM
I’m trying sitting up with four pillows and my bolster under my knees. Took some more cannabis oil. I have Oxycontin but don’t want to take it. Took one Advil. Will try another in fifteen minutes if it doesn’t help. Perhaps should try the Icy Hot again. It helped for a short while. Wish I could find my damn Tens machine. It was in my purse but can’t find where I put it. Complain complain, but this is driving me nuts.
3:50 AM
Only thing that relieves my back pain is standing up and I can’t stand up all night. The cannabis has had no effect. Nor has the Icy Hot or Advil. Guess I just need to try to go to sleep.
Forgottenman: 3:50 AM
Maybe a shot of rum?
3:52 AM
I think it would need more than a shot. Just gonna try to go to sleep..talk atcha later today.. can’t say tomorrow.
Forgottenman: 3:52 AM
Maybe try sleeping on the couch with your feet pressed up against the foot of the couch? Kinda like standing?
Took his advice and tried sleeping on the couch with a heating pad on my back and feet pushing against the end of the couch..to no avail.
Forgottenman: 12:21 PM Saturday
How is your back today?
12:23 PM
Still bad. I didn’t fall asleep until 5 or 6 this morning. Better when sitting up but I can’t find the right chair. I’m using a heating pad and just took a Paracetamol pain pill. Water too hot to get in the hot tub. When Yolanda leaves I’ll see if I can get water hot enough for a shower. I slept until 11, which was good. It hurts the most when lying down.. a problem when you are so sleepy you can barely sit up. I tried to make an appt. with a chiropractor but his office was closed today and of course Sunday and the friend who called for me said he’s out of town and his assistant has no appointments available Monday. Poor poor Pearl.
1:05 PM
I think this pill is helping.
9:12 PM
Did my exercises in the pool. Water hot but not scalding. Hot tub too hot to soak though, Might be okay by tomorrow. When I put Icy Hot on after being in hot water it does get very very hot. Must be because my pores are open. When Pepe uses it for massage, it doesn’t get hot at all. Early to bed tonight as I didn’t sleep all last night.
9:22 PM
I’m wondering if I should take another pain pill or leave well enough alone.Trying to drink lots of water to get the toxins out of my system stirred up by that deep massage Wed. that I think set off this attack. It felt wonderful right afterwards but by Thurs. my lower back and left leg were excruciating and have been most of the time since.
11:08 PM
Have a ten o’clock breakfast appt. with a friend tomorrow. Groan. Better set my alarm and get to sleep.
11:14 PM
I took a pill a while ago. Doesn’t seem to have kicked in, though.
2:29 PM
Got up at 4 or five and went into hot tub which was scalding but seemed to help my back, which was excruciating. Put Icy Hot on it which really heated up but 15 minutes later my back was as sore as before. Took a pain pill and iced down my back 
which seemed to work much better than the heating pad and hot water had..Was good enough to meet Sandy for breakfast at 10 and by 12 was still pretty good. Had a birthday party to go to tonight, but I fell asleep twice on the road driving home from my breakfast with Sandy. I guess it was the pain pills. Both times I woke up as I went off onto the bike trail or shoulder. Thank goodness no one was on it, but scared me to death.. So I’m cancelling out on Michael’s surprise 75th party and staying home so long as I have to take these pills.
11:28 PM
Dogs are making a ruckus down below the studio.. don’t know over what. They were banging around running over the ladder and other equipment stored there. I didn’t hear any cat yowling so hopefully not a cat.
1:30 AM Sunday
Oh man. Just woke up and my back is killing me.
2:00 AM
Can’t remember when I last took a pill, but just took a Paracetamol at 2 am..writing it down so I”ll remember. I think I can take 4 a day. This means i can take another at 10 tomorrow morning. I also have a Tens patch on it. I have Oxycontin but scared to take it. Trying to drink lots of water to wash the toxins out that might have been released by the massage..and using the old tennis ball technique, pressing it into the sore spots.
3:42 AM
DAMN!!!! After using Tens and ice on my back, I got a bad cramp in my leg that I couldn’t get rid of, so went out to soak in hot tub. Finally it started lightning and it wasn’t helping my leg so I got out of hot tub, collected my towel and nightgown and then in the dark saw what looked like another wet towel on the ground. I picked it up and it was a soaking wet dead possum!!! Can it get any worse???? I guess I know now what the fuss was the dogs were raising down below the studio earlier tonight.
Forgottenman: 3:43 AM
Oh, I hope you are going to write about this! Such rich blog posts!!!
3:44 AM
I knew you’d say that.
Forgottenman: 3:44 AM
Photos!!!
3:44 AM
No photos. No blog!!! Now putting ice back on my back and leg again.
Obviously, I changed my mind about the no photos, no blog decision. This is Diego looking innocent this morning re/ last night’s nefarious activities.
The evidence of his guilt, still lying by the pool waiting for Pasiano to deal with the disposal of remains tomorrow. Definitely not a wet towel. Poor little thing.
3:47 AM
I’m in for another long night.May have to call doctor tomorrow to come give me a shot or something. I can’t stand another two days of this. OK that’s my last message. Go to bed, sweetie.. I’ll bitch atcha tomorrow..
4:23 AM
Ok.. won’t send this until tomorrow so it won’t wake you up, but….Act three? I was lying on the ice bag which of course melted, soaking the towel around it, my nightgown and the sheets. I was so tired, I just pulled the towel, the bag full of water and my nightgown off, wrapped them into a ball and tossed it off the bed. It hit the bedside table, knocking the glass full of water to the floor where it shattered into a hundred shards..all over floor, under the bed, under the table..over my shoes..and of course I had to clean it up because otherwise I’ll forget and get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom barefoot and shred my feet. F….!!!!! So a half hour later, I hope all the glass is up and once again I am in bed, aching back.. but not getting up again for anything!!!!!
11:09 AM Sunday
Oops.. didn’t mean to send that last message last night, lest you hear the ping of the Skype from your bed and come back out to living room to see the message… Sorry, Forgottenman. Automatic response. Hope you didn’t get up to see this. Still hurting this morning.. Have tried exercises, hot packs, cold packs, sitting up, lying down. Everything hurts. Tried to eat and burned four batches of toast and gave up. This is the pits.
I think it is sciatica.. have looked up all the internet instructions on it. It says not to stay in bed longer than 24 hours, but it hurts too much to move or sit up or stand up. I’m a mess. Considering taking the Oxycontin left over from my foot operation a few years ago. Aren’t I a downer?
In the meantime, I have watched over 40 episodes of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” over the past 4 days while trying to distract myself and/or lull myself to sleep!! That is a lot of riding around in cars, so I think it qualifies me for Fandango and Ragtag’s prompts. And Daily Addictions can certainly not blame me for any lack of alertness–especially on my own attempts to venture out on the road. From now on, I’m staying put!
And looks like I’ve changed my mind about not writing about this on my blog. Here are the links for the three prompts today: https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/07/22/rdp52-time/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/07/22/sunday-photo-fiction-the-ride/
https://dailyaddictions542855004.wordpress.com/2018/07/21/alert-july-22-2018/
From Above: A Photo A Week
Honeysuckle: Flower of the Day, July 21, 2018
Return to the Adventures of Little Duck
(That brought him to a standstill.)
Some of you have been following the adventures of Big and Little Duck, but for those of you new to my blog, since Ragtag’s Daily prompt is “Duck”, this seems a good opportunity to catch you up on their history.
Here are some links to their past adventures:
https://judydykstrabrown.com/2016/09/28/which-way-little-duck-cees-which-way-challenge-sept-28-2016/
https://judydykstrabrown.com/2016/09/29/little-ducks-almost-novel-adventure/
https://judydykstrabrown.com/2016/12/27/duck-duck-goose-turkey/
Duck!!!
I see a duck, do you see a duck???
Merely sculpted by the tide. One of nature’s wonders sculpted of flotsam and jetsam. Spotted on the beach at La Manzanilla four years ago!
For Ragtag’s “Duck” prompt.
Books (For Daily Addictions July 21, 2018 prompt of Obsolete)
Books
The fresh bookstore smell of them,
bending the pages to crack the spine,
notes scribbled in the margins,
underlines,
hearts with initials on the flyleaf,
something to loan or to wrap for a gift,
something propped up on the bathtub edge,
its paper sprinkled with drops-—
pages wrinkled into a Braille memory—
that rainstorm run through,
how he put it in his back pocket.
Poetry touched by fingers.
Single words met by lips.
Words pored over by candlelight or flashlight
in a sleeping bag or in a hut with no electricity.
Books pushed into backpacks
and under table legs for leveling.
Paper that soaked up
the oil from fingers
of the reader
consuming popcorn
or chocolate chip cookies
in lieu of the romance on the pages—
finger food served with brain food.
Passions wrapped in paper and ink—
the allure of a book and the tactile comfort.
The soul of a book you could touch, fold, bend.
Books are the gravestones of trees
but also the journals of our hearts.
Cities of words,
boards and bricks of letters,
insulated by hard covers or the curling skins
of paperbacks.
Something solid to transfer the dreams
of one person to another in a concrete telepathy
of fingers and eyes.
Books are the roads we build between us,
solid and substantial—
their paper the roadbed,
the words the center lines directing us.
What will fill the bookcases of a modern world?
Wikipedia replacing dictionaries,
Google already an invisible bank of Encyclopaedia Britannicas.
What will we use our boards and bricks for,
if not to hold up whole tenements of books?
How will we furnish our walls?
What will boys carry to school for girls?
What will we balance on heads
to practice walking with perfect posture?
What will we throw in the direction of the horrible pun?
Will there be graveyards for books, or cities built of them?
Quaint materials for easy chairs or headboards for beds?
Will we hollow them out for cigar boxes
or grind them up for packing material?
Where do books belong in the era of Kindle and Audible?
These dinosaurs that soon will not produce more eggs.
Perhaps they’ll grow as precious as antiques.
Perhaps the grandchildren of our grandchildren
will ponder how to open them. Will wonder at their quaintness,
collecting them like mustache cups or carnival glass,
wondering about the use of them—as unfathomable as hieroglyphics.
That last book closing its pages—one more obsolete mystery
fueling the curiosity of a bygone era that has vanished
into a wireless universe.
Yes, you are right. These are chairs made out of books.
In response to The Daily Addictions prompt of obsolete Of all the technologies that have gone extinct in your lifetime, which one do you miss the most?
The Daily Addictions prompt is obsolete.
A Vindication of Single Life
A Vindication of Single Life
I will not love for comfort. I will not love for gold.
I will not love for custom nor approval of the fold.
The handsomest of profiles will not win my hand.
Fair face alone will not insure I’ll wear a wedding band.
Those whom others seek to wed are not my man of choice.
I want a man gentle of heart but bold of word and voice.
One with an eye for beauty written in other places
aside from what the world demands in figure and in faces.
That certain novel contour molded by his hand.
A forearm strongly muscled. Sinewy and tanned.
Serious in nature, but not too melancholy.
Capable of fine reasoning, but also fun and jolly.
A man who carries others securely in his heart.
A man I am a part of even when we are apart.
An oddball twist of humor. A unique bend of mind.
Someone glib in rejoinder, but also fair and kind.
I am by no means perfect in demeanor nor in form.
My face is not the fairest and my habits aren’t the norm.
I am not the world’s best dancer nor a very sexy dame,
but I bet someone exists whose imperfections are the same!
Written for these two prompts. Check out their URLS and come play along:
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/07/20/rdp-50-gold/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/07/20/fowc-with-fandango-melancholy/
Flower of the Day, July 20, 2018
I must admit that although I took this photo in my own garden and that I’ve planted everything in it, that I don’t know what it is. It looks a bit like a lipstick plant, but they don’t grow in clusters like this. Ah the mysteries of nature.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 