back in the saddle

Bobby is back behind the wheel!!! :)
I am too tired to count up how long it's been, but as of today his 2nd new chair is adapted to drive the van. And that makes me a very happy person.

And this Friday is also our church's annual ladies ornament exchange...at my house. So each day I've been trying to tackle one area of the house. Tuesday evening a young girl from church came over to help with the Bethlehem scene. I'll have to write more about that Saturday. :)

I didn't totally finish cleaning the kitchen this afternoon, but I did put a huge dent in it. So hopefully that will be finished tomorrow and I can tackle the living room, which includes putting up my AL tree and my NC tree. :)

So I've not dropped off the face of the earth. I've just been dreadfully busy.

green tomatoes

Before our first freeze last week, Bobby reminded me that I need to empty everything out of the garden before the plants died. I knew I would have a handful of this and a handful of that, but I was NOT expecting a bucket and a half of green tomatoes. 

Now I like fried green tomatoes...once or twice a year. They're at treat, and anything beyond that is too much acid for my stomach. So here's two recipes I've tried, and liked, though it's not done a lot for emptying the buckets.

Baked Green Tomatoes
Heat oven to 375.
Slice thick slices of tomatoes and place on cookie sheet.

Top with pieces/cuts of uncooked bacon.
Bake until bacon is mostly cooked.

Add cheddar cheese.
Top with bread crumbs.

Heat until cheese is melted.

I would make this one again!

Green Tomato Soup

chopped onion
chopped potatoes
3 slices of sausage, rolled into small balls
5 medium/large green tomatoes
chicken broth
water
1 T salt

Bring to a boil. Lower to medium and simmer until potatoes are done.

It smelled better than it tasted! Still had the green tomato tang, but Bobby said he'd eat it again. Not bad, but not sure I'd serve it to guests.

Next up to try is green ketchup. The thought of that doesn't appeal to me, but it had very high star ratings on allrecipes.com   So we'll see.

twirling with the leaves

More than once the last few weeks I've been amazed at the little whirlwind of leaves I've seen while walking or driving. And the visual aptly fits how I'm viewing life at the moment.

The municipal election has come and gone, and I'm no closer to a decision about what I need to do next year. Just when I think I'm going to keep going until I have a clear sign otherwise, things get a little crazy and I start thinking I might as well reconcile myself to the fact I'm in a new chapter in life.

Quadriplegics (and anyone with a spinal cord injury, I assume) do not sweat below their level of injury. And when they do sweat at the head, it's not the body cooling itself as we learned in school. It's a serious condition called autonomic dysreflexia (called AD in chat groups) where the blood pressure rises so the brain will know there's a problem somewhere. I guess it's the body's way of circumventing the broken nervous system. Since the nerve endings can't deliver pain warnings, the body tells the brain in other ways.

Bobby's AD kicked into high gear on Friday, and was intermittently giving warnings all weekend. We had already decided Friday night if things weren't better by Sunday night then we were calling the dr who did his colonoscopy to see if they could work him in and check a few things. He not only woke up with a fever Monday morning, but the earliest the dr's nurse could see him was in almost 2 weeks. I told them we couldn't wait that long. So I called his general practitioner, explained what was happening, and he saw us that afternoon. We're still not certain what the exact cause is, but he's on some fairly strong meds that will hopefully knock out the two possibilities we're thinking may be the cause. If by noon tomorrow we're not seeing any improvement, I'll call the urologist's office and see if we can get things rolling there as well. If nothing else, it will help us know what we are/aren't dealing with. I don't want to postpone things and then be stuck in the hospital over the holidays next week.

It was a bit of an emotional relief to listen to a soundtrack for our choir's Thanksgiving song while on hold with the dr's offices.

I come to your house, O Lord, in your presence to abide; to find true peace and quiet rest found only at your side. I come into your house, O Lord, to lift your name on high. I will give you all my worship, O Most High!

I found it neat and interesting how simply praising God for his attributes at a time when I felt like doing anything BUT being thankful made such a difference in my emotions. So my soul is still twirling in circles like the leaves, but it's mostly feeling playful and joyous now instead of turbulent. It is good to give thanks to the Lord!

November

The month of thankfulness and gratitude...and I'm struggling with it just a tad.

Today I picked stuff from the garden and had time to prep it but not put it up. My brain is screaming "It's November! Die, plants, die!!!" and my grandmother's inner voice is reprimanding me and saying I should be thankful when God provides. And my father-in-law would say in his deep southern voice, "Hard times are coming. You better be prepared." And I remind myself that he lived during the Great Depression and witnessed extremely hard times, so I should listen. But being the lazy, spoiled American that I am, a part of me wants to be irresponsible and just pull it all up and toss it in the compost bin. But then I see another large pile of rabbit poop, and realize that I'm still feeding the wildlife as well. That did NOT make me happy this spring when they demolished most of my garden, but now that my freezer is almost full and there's not as much for them to eat on, it doesn't bother me.

Maybe with the colder weather coming later this week the problem will resolve itself. Or else I might start taking vegetables to church and gifting people. That thought has crossed my mind more than once!!

Did that really happen?

Monday night of this week, we heard a crash, and then our power cut off. No flickers, no storm, just the noise as if a transformer had exploded or something. We wait a few minutes to see if it will return. It didn't. Bobby checked to see if anyone on our street had lights (school side did, but not anyone on our grid's side) and did briefly see some lights down the road. We waited, and the generator kicked in. After a few more minutes, I call the power company, and am told that 12 people in our area are without power and a crew has been dispatched to find and resolve the problem.  About ten minutes later there's a knock on the door. I tell Bobby to answer it, fully expecting it to be a crewman wanting to know how we have power when no one else on our grid does. (That's actually happened before.) It was a young man who said he had swerved to miss a deer and landed in the woods. His cell phone battery went dead as he tried to make a call, and he was wondering if he could use our phone to call someone. I give him my cell phone, and could hear his side of the conversation. I was a bit shocked. Usually when someone wrecks on our road, people want to know if they're okay, if they've called the police, how fast where they speeding, if they're in a safe location and is it okay if they stay at our place until family/police can get there. There was none of that. They asked if he could go to Chik-fil-A (a ten minute drive away, and it's about 45 degrees outside). He told them the air bag had deployed and the car was stuck in the woods. He didn't mention that he'd hit a light pole and not a tree. I don't remember all the details of what was said, but I got the impression he was left without help. When I went back to get the phone, I realized his nose was bleeding. I don't know if his chin was or if his nose had just been dripping down his face. I got him a warm wash cloth, asked if his family was coming. He said they only had one working car, which he had just crashed, and wanted to know if we could help him or knew someone who could get his car out. We didn't, so I asked him if we could take him anywhere. Since I had heard them mention Chik-fil-A I thought we might take him there to meet his family. He had mentioned earlier he had a relative down the road (where he had left from) and his home was about 25-30 minutes from us. Bobby looked shocked and gave me one of those looks. So they get in the van and off they go. About the time they should be arriving at the boy's house, I get call from the person he had tried to reach. They had no idea where our road was located, and were mostly concerned about the car and getting it. When I told them Bobby was taking him home and they should be there, they said they'd go back home. Fifteen  minutes later I get a text wanting to know where they are and asking if I could call and find out. Since Bobby can't use his phone while driving, I couldn't. I did try to call him, though, as well as start googling the number the boy had called to see what I could find out. I quit answering my phone's rings at that point as I had no answers for anyone. Bobby then called and informed me they were at the police station and he'd update me when he got home.

The young man went to sleep once he got in the van, and Bobby couldn't get him to wake up enough to give directions to his house. So he drove him to the police station, where they eventually searched him, arrested him, and then took him to the hospital. He had 10g of cocaine in his pocket, and I'm not sure what all else. I texted the person to let them know the police had taken him to the hospital. They wanted to know which one, but I had no other information to give them. I didn't mention the arrest or the drugs. We were both wondering the next day if he was okay, and if the injuries were sustained from the wreck or something else. He had to be going fast (which a lot of people do since our road is paved) to have landed that far off the road and taken out the power.

The police were kind of shocked and laughing about a handicapped person delivering a dealer to them. They asked him if he wanted a number. Bobby wants to know if I was trying to get him killed. I simply want to treat people the same way I want to be treated. Had I been hurt and alone after a wreck, I would have welcomed assistance. I hope the boy is okay physically, and I hope this is the wake-up call he needs. My prayer for him now is that someone will introduce him to Jesus, and that he can recover from the bad choices he's made so far in his life. It all still seems like a weird dream.