Castor canadensis

In an era where many are easily offended, I debated whether to write about a certain ongoing hunting expedition.  Then I thought of what offends me:  Kardashians, actresses flaunting jewels that could fund struggling school system for years, current political bickering and disingenuous people.
With middle age, you start to realize that you don't have all the time in the world to be all you want to be.  Solution: amp it up; f@% baby steps, those are ok when time isn't fleeting.  Coupled with the new knowledge that my hourglass has far less sand in it than I expected has given me CLARITY.  
I'm a list addict.  Love plans!  It's been an adjustment to shed my beloved long term goals for more palpable daily goals.  I'm less guarded, more vulnerable, unrestrained, frank and enjoying the freedom of crashing through life more boldly than before.
So, if the following offends, I'm sorry and I'm also not; I have a lot of living to do and life is really messy.  Roll up your sleeves, we're going in!

I've been using a propped up boat as my beaver hunting blind.  Waiting for the rodents to return to the dam to rebuild their fortifications atop the overflows.
Thus far, I have evicted three.

My preference would've been to allot them a section of this ecosystem to do their beavery things, but their zeal caused damaging ripple effects in all too many other areas.  Hence, the need to regain some balance.
If you take a life, you'd better honor it.  And that goes for the grocery store rotisserie chicken too.  Unwillingly, living, feeling, sentient creatures give their lives en mass to us every day.  Don't waste food, it was a life.

The entire beaver ended up in the crock pot.  

All the boys checked out what had been sacrificed for us.

The pelt was unblemished, deserving to be removed, rolled up and prepared for tanning.

My next sewing project.

Beaver and mashed potatoes.

Beaver vegetable and quinoa stir fry.  Bet you've never had a quinoa bowl quite like this!
A feast to last the four of us for days.
This is me with my new prescription safety sunglasses.  I'm gonna need them.  Life is a gift to be savored and lived courageously.

Plan on it and be bold.

Scuba Diving in January--Not Recommended

How did we end up in a lake in January??  

The story starts last year with the ongoing war we've been waging against the beavers that plug, dam, divert, generally bamboozle lake operations here.
Plus, there's a pipe that's been missing its strainer for months and the contractor hired to put it on 5 months ago dropped the ball.
Who ya gonna call: Farm Team!

Flashback to the eve of our clandestine operation:

Surveying all our rented scuba gear.
Double checking everything against my old textbook.

I am certified as a Advanced NAUI diver, but it's been 22 years since I've taken a plunge.
Flynn seems to trust me for some strange reason and gets a quick briefing on what will be his first experience scuba diving experience.

He's a quick study.

The equipment was procured from my old divemaster and when I told him what my intentions were, his eyes grew big as he told me of how his days almost came to an end years ago when he'd been hired to help with a drain overflow problem in Russell county.  One second he was working to clear the pipe, the next he was being sucked into the 6' wide pipe.  His eyes really bugged out when we figured out we were talking about the same lake!
Flynn says he's still ready to rock and roll.

First duty:  installing the new strainer Flynn fabricated.

At this point, we're still feeling Gung-ho!

Note that we are not in the 60' F (yes we temped it) water.

May the polar dive begin.

We take turns going under, it's so stinking cold! Wishing we'd gotten wet suits with hoods.

One job done, we drive to the other problem area and proceed to remove metal grates off the intake pipes.  The beavers had been shoving sticks into the pipes and the newly installed grates were then packed with mountains of mud and sticks making the problem umpteen times worse than before.  Usually, we could wade out and pull sticks out, but now, the water level had risen so much, that even working fro  a boat wouldn't work.

Time flies by, we don't realize how long we've been in the water.

Sitting in the truck, trying to warm up, it only dawns on me later that hypothermia had set in. When we get wrapped up in a project, we tend to forget about everything else.  Here's the video that proves it:

We did it!

And, victory!

All in a day's work.

Ringing in the New Year, Dax Style

2019 THE YEAR OF THE DAX.

This is the year he'll finally grasp the concept of WHOA, NO, SLOW DOWN and COME.  I've been told I'm delusional.
Whoa is definitely something he turns a deaf ear to.

That's OK, I'm good at bailing off the bike. I'd like to know why a pointer is convinced he's a Lab-- can't keep him out of the lake, lily ponds, shower...

                                         video of Dax dryland mushing

Every day is a gift.  I'm so grateful to be alive, quite remarkable considering my escort. 

PARTY LIKE IT'S 2019

Mother Nature is overindulging us with rain.  Tonight,  we expect thunderstorms...
Which means that I won't be able to go to the New Year's Eve party in Auburn
I'd even bought new shoes for such an  occasion... Seeing as Dax has obliterated every single dress shoe that I own.

 Here he is trying to steal said pair of new shoes while I'm in the closet trying to pick my outfit.
He's a ceaseless source of destruction.
 As it appears that my plans will now be to ring in the New Year with 4 dogs while overnighting in the barn with 10 horses, it's gonna be a pyjama party non pareil.

Imagine the debauchery with a crew consisting of me,  Window Licker, Sumo Wrestler, Supreme Leader and who can forget the Demon Spawn!

All bets on Dax not wearing the lampshade,  but eating it.

Wishing you the best of the best for 2019. Looking forward to more adventures in the new year.  Remember y'all,  never give up,  the best is always over the rise. 

Goggles

FINALLY I will have my glasses.  

I spent some quality time Saturday afternoon at an optician's.  Dr. Uzoho had forewarned me that glasses with prisms cost 'an arm and a leg'.  So, I braced myself for the cost of a pair of regular glasses and reader to be about $1500.  Due to internet and phone problems all day long at the store, the three staff members were vexed, frazzled and impatient.  I was and remained the only client.  Seeing folks having a rough day, my inner comedian came out and I used the store as my stage.  I went the full monty. I shall hereon out be known as Crazy Four Eyes.

The associate helping me, now knowing about my job and my predilection for accidents, had suggested glasses with an elastic strap, that's when my Carol Burnett side popped out for a visit and stayed.

By the fifth try, the computer system stopped timing out and losing all the inputted data, and finally accepted the order... I had 3 pairs of glasses.

Prescription safety sunglasses!!! 3 pairs for the price of one.  $750!  The store manager voided all six extra charges for the 6 prism lenses.  Thy should be ready within 10 days.
All through December it has been like Christmas morning every single day.  I'm beyond grateful-- in awe at how fortunate I am to always find and be surrounded by the kindest people.I can't promise my texts will no longer need deciphering, but I feel lucky!

Learning to Love Atlanta

Once upon a time, I hated Atlanta.  Loathed it.  Avoided it like the traffic laden plague it is.  
My tune has changed since I've been a patient a Emory University's Eye Clinic and Heart Clinic this year.

The corneal specialist, Dr. Behshad, gave me hope 3 months ago that if my eyes could be stabilized, there was hope that I could see normally again.

This doctor devotes himself to promoting and expanding specialized ophthalmic care to Syrian refugees in Jordan.  I knew I'd found the right doctor.
Dr. Behshad referred me to his colleague, Dr. Ozoho after my 3 months had elapsed.

Yet another physician who dedicates his spare time to helping patients around the globe. This Nigerian born Canadian specialist deals specifically with eye movement disorders and binocular vision (double vision).  
Dr. Uzoho spent over an hour AND a half working with me trying to figure out why my double vision at a distance is the reverse up close.  DEDICATION.  His office manager left for the day, then his appointment manager left, still he worked to map out why my brain can't make sense of the input fed to it by my eyes.

SUCCESS! First time since Oct 2017 that I can see without double vision.  First time in even more years that I can see up close, not as I am now with +3.50 reading glasses still guessing at what my phone texts read.
I AM ELATED.  I can't wait to have these prescriptions filled and get my glasses. I'll never be able to wear contacts again, at this point, who cares!  Bring on my fancy glasses with prisms in them.  
THIS IS WHAT I HAVE DISCOVERED EMORY IS ALL ABOUT: CARE, EXCELLENCE AND RESULTS.

The cherry on the icing, they never had to dilate my eyes.
To celebrate this day, I took my happy little self to the Bodies Exhibit in downtown Atlanta.  Been on my bucket list for years.

Real human cadavers dissected and preserved by plasticination.

Don't you sit at your kitchen table reading without your skin on???

My favorite:  the entire human blood vessel system preserved with a system called corrosive casting whereby a polymer is injected into the circulatory system and the rest of the body is dissolved, now that's what I love about freaking science!!!
Atlanta really rocks.
Total disclosure here:  I stumbled upon a newly opened slow food cafe that served the weirdest cauliflower tahini sandwich with the best harissa infused pickled carrots. But that's not the part I have to confess about.  It's the pain au chocolat pastry that rivals any I've had in France that I'm fully admitting to eating ALL of it.  Be damned my sugar free month, this was worth the Mulligan!!!

Getting home to the same house I left many, many hours earlier.  No shredded curtains, no eviscerated pillows, no tracking through separation anxiety diarrhea, nothing to greet me but kisses... priceless.

Up for the Challenge

December 15th, I accepted a challenge to go sugar free for a month.  No table sugar, no added sugar to foods, not that I would ever touch artificial sweeteners but none of those either, no honey, stevia or maple syrup, no juices...nada.  Not that I drink, but that's out too, no alcohol.  See how this could be challenging?

Turns out it isn't the gustatory death sentence I thought it would be.  On the contrary, I feel better, more energetic, and I'm loving the challenge of coming up with new recipes.

Also, did you know that coffee is drinkable without sugar??? Who knew!!!
Acceptance of the newest prognosis from the cardiologists took a while.  I went through the gamut of emotions from disbelief, anger (lots of that), despair, loneliness and depression.  So much fun that I decided enough is enough; we'd been through something similar when Cole's cancer diagnosis came in.  Fight is what we did.  We made cancer rue the day it came a knocking.  The war was predetermined, but we did not capitulate or make it easy for disease to win.

I was recommended to use a heart monitor, which I eventually returned because it caused me more stress than anything.  One of the problems it did show is that I've lost the ability to mitigate stress, as my cardiologist put it.  The monitor mistook a 30 minute episode where my heart rate skyrocketed as a form of exercise.  No, it was an aggravating telephone conversation.  Every day had episodes like that-- no wonder I was burning out.  

To add insult to injury, the monitor showed me why I wasn't recuperating at night.  Dangerous roller coaster rides from seriously low heart rates of 20 to 80.  The graphs showed how my heart rate plummets and then, like an alarm goes off in my body, I semi waken and my heart beat rises, then I try to fall back asleep and the whole process starts over again.  Never knew I was so close to dying in my sleep.  I believe data because I have faith in science, so begrudgingly, I accepted to add to my daily pill intake.
The worst enemy is sometimes one's own mind.  Since the realization that the Grim Reaper has been trolling me in my sleep, I've been having restless sleep in spite of the confidence gained by my new pill regiment.  I haven't ever felt so alone as I have recently.  Scared. Panicked sometimes. Abandoned.  Yet, never completely devoid of fight.

This is me fighting.  The twin bed wing added to my King size bed means I can be guaranteed to have all the dogs around me at night.

My reverse version of Cerberus.  Instead of guarding the gates of Hades to make sure souls don't escape.  My Cerberus keeps death form crossing my gates.  Whatever it takes.

The cherry on the icing was to do something I swore I would never do... I brought a TV into my house.  So now if the new transcendental meditation that I'm trying so hard to learn doesn't work, I can flip on a British mystery, calm down and embrace sleep instead of fearing it.

Part of the fight involves further changing my lifestyle.  Part of the reason I embarked on the sugar free challenge was to cleanse my system for a month of sugars to make it easier to enjoy my new low fat, more vegetarian paleo lifestyle.  

Trying to learn to build balanced meals with proper non meat proteins.

Spent a good deal of my vacation time cooking and experimenting.

Ensuring that when I got back to work, I'd have healthy frozen meals for every day.

Tea and anise infused Asian eggs.

Love me some roasted brussel sprouts and poached salmon.  See, I can do this!

Another benefit of the sugar free challenge is that I appreciate fructose more.  Bananas taste like dessert foods now.  Everything is a discovery.

I miss Cole every day, but now I understand why a pest like Dax was sent to me.  I'm on a new path in life and when I lose my resilience and joy, Dax can always be counted on for enthusiasm and sheer pluck.  A new road unfolding and I'm keeping my eye on the little white butt leading the way.

Carry on, Dax, I'm right behind you.