Still On The Mend

I felt good yesterday and decided to spend some time at my house.. I got there bout noon and built a fire in the wood heater since the temps were in the upper 30's with a little wind blowin..

It went down hill slicker than snot on a door knob after that tho.. The firewood I got delivered was too green to make a good hot fire to get the house warmed up any time soon and a new leak in the roof decided to form after we had a bad wind and rain storm last week right above my 2 month old Technics stereo reciever/amp and its fried now, and I turned on my kitchen stove to make tea and a good cup of coffee and it aint workin now for some damn reason..

So when the Mrs. called at about 5 I had her just come and get me before anythang else went all to shit..

It was nice to get out a while but I aint ready yet to get very active.. I've been completely exhausted all day today and have spent most of it in bed nappin and restin.. But the fresh air was good and Miss Minnie Pearl was sure glad to see me..

The VA failed to make me an appointment to get my stitches and staples out last week and said to just come to their ER and they would do it but I said piss on it and took the damn thangs out myself.. I had the tool for takin the staples out in my med kit already and the anti-bacterial for it too.. Now all my zippers have healed up real good and havent had any problems with any of em..

My breathin is still real weak tho and I get short of breath real quick.. It seems that my astma is a lot worse now to me.. But I thank a lot of it is just the candles the Mrs. burns over here.. I didnt have any trouble with it at my house yesterday.. But my wind will come back to me eventually when I can get out of the bed and out of the house long enuff to get some exercise for my lungs..

But I thought they were just bullshittin me when they warned me bout bein down for 3 to 4 weeks if I had the little cuttin and 4 to 6 weeks if I had this big one.. Its startin to make a real believer of me now since its been a coulpa weeks and I'm just now gettin out of bed a little.. Sure as hell dont look like its gonna be in any hurry to get well soon but I guess I should consider myself lucky that I'm doin this good this soon knowin what bad shape that gall bladder was in and how long it had been that way..

But we aint had the best weather here for healin either.. Its been cold, wet, rainy, windy, snowy, some sleet, and finally gettin a little sunshine today..

Hope everybody had a good Christmas ..

Redneck Held Hostage: Day 8

I miss my porch and my tree and Miss Minnie Pearl !!

I was healin right along real well till evenin before last when I did somethin stupid that has set me back a coupla days.. The Mrs. went on a shoppin spree around town and came home with her arms full and the door locked and was yellin for me to unlock it.. I couldnt get all the way to the door in my wheelchair so I got close and thought I could hop that last coupla steps.. One hop and I felt that icy cold searin hot pain run down my side under my ribs..

This is Thursday and I feel like I'm at about the stage of healin I was at Tuesday.. And I HATE it !! I guess I should know there are gonna be some set backs along the way but that dont mean I have to like it..

I had to get out and take care of my electric bill yesterday and that required a visit to the bank to do a little jugglin and then to the payment center and I made a swang by the house to collect my mail and look it over.. Everythang was in order but there was one of the cats dead in the middle of the yard.. Its just gonna have to wait till I get a little better before I can do the deed with it tho..

They must have cut thru or near my diaphram cause it has been hard to breathe since and even harder durin times of high humidity and there has been thick fog the last coupla days and a few hours of thunderstorms early this mornin..

Mostly its just depressin to sit around here with most of the windows covered and a view of not much more than a 50 foot stretch of barely traveled street.. A far cry from the hustle and bustle of my view from my house and the busy street and businesses and people walkin by all the time..

Somethin round here destroys radio reception so I aint got to hear my Talk Radio and the girls have their programs on TV most of the time but I dont give a shit bout TV anyway..

So I'm ready to get the hell outta here and back to my own house and comfort and routine and porch and tree and put these fuckin crutches back in the corner and be able to have the ease of rollin ALL around in my wheelchair and on my scooter and the love and company of Miss Minnie Pearl who dont give a shit if I get up in the middle of the nite makin noise fixin a cup of coffee and listenin to my music real loud..

I'm ready to fill my big ol 6 foot bath tub with steamin hot water and soakin my sore ol ass in it instead of tryin to see if I can at least get my whole big ol body wet in this gotdam wash tub-size thang the Mrs. has..

I LOVE my freedom at home and what I have here aint even close so if I have any more of these fuckin set backs I'm really gonna be one pissed off Redneck sunzabitch !!

The Energizer Bunny

Considerin that I was more-or-less FIELD DRESSED and then most of me put back together 5 days ago, this ol Redneck is hangin in there pretty good..

Yeah, I caint have anythang done the easy way.. It always has to be the hard way.. They couldnt just do the scope on me and get it done quick, easy, and less painful and me be healed up sooner, they had to do the full rip and cut me from flank to flank all the way across my belly and thru all my abs and belly muscles..

But I'm a tuff ol bird and am bouncin back pretty quick any way..

The first thang I gotta do is thank the Good Lord for sendin me the best and most professional bunch of doctors and nurses that He could find.. Never in my life have I seen such a truely competent and compassionate group of medical staff..

But there always has to be at least one turd in the swimmin pool and this one happened to be in the most unlikely positions in the whole fuggin hospital.. God's own representive there, the Chaplain !! This old SOB was such a self-servin, self-promotin, arrogant asshole that it just made me sick to my stomach to see him in the hallways..

And once again I got to be an inspiriration to somebody else.. On Friday evenin I got unhooked from all my I.V.s and oxygen and was free to move about and the next chapter in my recovery was to have my bowel functions return.. That had to happen before I would be allowed to be dismissed from the hospital..

I knew from experience that a tried and true method to get that in motion was to have a good cup of coffee and a smoke, so I found what was to be the best the hospital had to offer in the way of coffee and put my pack of cigs and lighter in my pocket and proceeded to the smokin area downstairs..

Seems that the best coffee they had to offer was some of the worst I've ever run in to tho and left me mostly unimpressed to say the least, but I met a guy down there that was due to have his gall bladder taken out on Monday usin the scope but he was still wary of it since he was not a regular VA patient and had heard a bunch of the horror stories that have been spread about the VA and their hospitals..

The guy was in near mortal fear chain-smokin with shaky hands and was a little hard to convince that just 2 days earlier I had walked in in the mornin and a coupla hours later had the full-cut gall bladder removal and was then down havin coffee and a cig and tryin to shit so I could come home.. I even pulled up my shirt and showed him the trail of staples and stitches across my belly.. It just kinda left him with a blank look on his face..

I made sure that I passed on that I had seen many VA hospitals and medical staff and this one had the best I had seen.. I dont thank he was fully convinced but the relief on his face was obvious.. I wish him well and hope his recovery comes along as well as mine has..

The transition from the good pain meds I was gettin at the hospital to the ones you get in a Rx for when you go home leaves a lot to be desired but I'm makin do and movin around a lot less and a lot slower now..

The main thang was that I get enuff pain relief soon after my surgery that I could do the coughin that I needed to do to keep my lungs clear and not have pneumonia set in.. I got the point across to my docs and nurses that if I didnt get the pain meds I needed to do that, that I just wadnt gonna lay there and put myself thru the misery and that they would just have to deal with the pneumonia if they didnt cooperate, but that I would do my part if they would just kill enuff pain for me to be able to suffer thru the gut-wrenchin to do the coughin..

They must have taken what I said at face value and knew that I wadnt bullshittin em and hooked me up one of those morphine I.Vs that all I had to do was push a button and it gave me another dose.. It was set that I could only give myself so much and that if any more pain relief was needed they had to give it to me in other ways.. My morphine kept a record and they could tell what I had tried to get and knew from the sound of me tryin to cough that I was keepin up my end of the deal and they tried to also keep theirs..

But now that I'm home and on the less effective pain meds it sometimes leads to some cold sweats when I'm tryin to cough up some of those difficult hair balls that come along every now and then.. I cheated too and borrowed an oxygen machine from a friend that really helps to dry up some of the coughin..

The Mrs. is doin her part too and playin the part of Florence Nitengale and Betty Crocker rolled into one and cookin me some good Get Well Food and almost drove me nuts hoverin over me at first..

There is a lot more to tell but right now I'm at about my limit as to how long I can sit here and now I need to move to a more relaxed and comfy place for a while..

I hope evrybody has a great Monday..

Merry Christmas

Redneck Central-South

Took a coupla days gettin stuff together but I got to spend 3 days/2nights at the farm and did some serious campin and huntin and shoopin..

The first day was great.. Nice and warm.. That night it turned cold and windy as hell.. Couldnt make coffee in the mornin cause it was too windy and dry and just stayed in the sack till late and then the wind layed some and I got up and built a small fire and had some good boiled camp coffee..

That evenin I went to the Stabbin Cabin in the back and sat and watched a shit-load of deer mill around but the one I was lookin for wadnt in the bunch.. Didnt see any hogs either but I saw traces where they had been around there..

That night the wind changed and it got warmer overnite and was really comfy by early the next mornin and I got up early and had coffee as usual..

That evenin I went to the Stabbin Cabin again and finally saw the deer I was waitin on and dropped it.. Gutted it and hung it and waited till the last mornin to skin it and quarter it..

Couldnt wait to get home and into a hot bath and put that fresh liver in a skillet.. Best liver/onions/brown gravy I've had in a long time..

I put the rest of the meat in ice water overnite to bleed it some more and let it age a little more too before doin a final trim and packin for the freezer..

Spent the day yesterday doin the trimmin and packin and freezin and put a big pot of fresh ribs on and then soaked em in sauce all nite and put em on the grill to smoke and caramel this mornin.. I caint describe in words here just how damn good those ribs were for dinner today !!

The Mrs. and the Kid were havin a fit for me to come over here and visit em some today so I wrapped em some ribs and came over..

Miss Minnie Pearl thanks she has died and gone to heaven now !! She is gettin the bones from the trimmin and some meat I culled from around the bullet wound..

The Mescans usually have their Mass at the Catholic Church next door on Saturday nites and she almost always barks at em till she is hoarse but I chunked her a few big bones with some meat still left on em to her right about the time everybody started showin up for Mass last nite and I didnt hear a peep out of her all nite..

My surgery is still ON for Wednesday mornin and I'm busy tryin to get my house ready to padlock for 2 or 3 weeks.. Looks like I'm gonna need that rest period after doin all this doin..

With all the liftin and strainin and workin and I've been doin and the weather I have my bad shoulder and my back really givin me fits right now too.. I hope the doctor gives me some good pain meds !!

I dont know how soon after I'll feel like sittin at the keyboard but I have some serious rantin to do bout the Enemy Within.. Not even shootin the Big Bore till my good shoulder was black and blue eased the rage much.. I thank the booger-eattin-moh-rons have gone completely off their fuggin meds now !!

So get ready for me to do some major hell raisin soon as I can sit up here again.. Maybe even before I go Wednesday.. The weather is supposed to go all to shit later today and I may shutter the house and move over here early.. Its just hard to leave that wood heater with my bad shoulder needin it like it is..

Sure is nice to see ya'll still stoppin by and good to see Don visit and leave a note too.. You may have the snow and weather in Kansas but it aint as bad as the fires and mudslides from where you just left, Buddy !!

I aint heard from Papa Ray lately tho.. Hope he is doin good..

And I'm still keepin you in my thoughts too, Ranter..

I hope everybody is avoidin the Christmas Confusion and are enjoyin the Season.. Merry Christmas..

Time Warp

We are havin really shitty weather here and I have resorted to diggin out the old 8mm home movies from the 50's and 60's and watchin em..

Its a hoot I tell you !!

Not really much of anythang new goin on here with me.. I've been hangin out in the house stayin warm and eattin and havin a coldbeer or two and havin a snort of Sour Mash every now and then..

Miss Minnie Pearl has been a BAD DOG and kept shittin on the livinroom carpet and has been banished to her house again till it gets real cold..

Judgin by listenin to the news lately thangs in the world are swirlin round the toilet bowl faster and faster.. Its just gettin too damn crazy out there to keep lastin the way its goin.. I just dont understand the way people are on a suicidal trip to hell in the Fast Lane !! Nobody has any second thoughts bout the future and how they are gonna deal with it.. Its all about TODAY..

I did get some news from my daughter, thru my Mama tho.. She got washed out of the Navy on a Medical Discharge.. She didnt listen to dear ol Daddy when I tried to tell her that she had too many busted up places to make it thru Navy Dive Trainin.. At least she tried..

The Mrs. is havin trouble with her car now and looks like I'll be here on a regular or semi-regular basis to keep her wheels runnin now and should be able to post sometimes..

See ya'll again soon..

Gotta Slow Down Some

Got to feelin a lot better and have been busy as hell tryin to get some thangs done at my house so havent spent much time here..

Gettin ready to start the cookin at my house tonite and then come here to do more in the mornin.. I dont have a wheelchair here and some thangs I just need it for to do and besides I just trust my oven more for cookin my rolls and bread.. Too damn much work to put em in an oven that I aint used to..

I wish for everybody to have a safe and bountiful Thanksgivin ..

Still Kickin

I've just spent a miserable 4 days with an attack of my Chrohn's Disease and still aint up to 100 percent again yet.. Sure am gettin tired as hell of chicken soup too..

Bein sick has left me with little to relate other than the effects of it and I'm really sure you dont wanna hear the shitty details !!

The bright side is that I finally let Miss Minnie Pearl in the house with me to keep me company and she took to bathin me with sympathy and her tongue and rarely leaves my side unless she has to..

I'm gradually gettin back to almost normal except I tire real easy now and still caint get very far away from the bathroom.. But its just so damn aggravatin to see so much I need to be doin and just dont have the energy to do much of it, but I am tryin to tackle small portions of it at a time..

The pisser is that a good cold front is gonna come thru tomoro and its gonna be the perfect time to be at the farm and get a deer or a hog hangin up.. The store is out of my favorite Sugar Cure right now but is puttin it at the top of their list to order more.. Gotta have it to make my special Virginia-type Smoked Hams !!

Thangs are slowly gettin worked out and a little bit more organised now so maybe it wont be so long till I post again.. Hope everybody is doin better than I have been and I hope to have the comments back ON soon so I can hear from Ya'll.. See ya soon..