Was Feeling Under The Weather Now Feeling Much Better

Last Tuesday, I could not gain warmth. I wore slipper socks, slippers, sweatpants, sweatshirt and a sweater. I crawled under three blankets, piled the pets on top of me and hoped for a bit of warming. Finally, a few hours later the coldness in my fingers and toes subsided and a coziness spread all over.

Around 5:30AM, I awoke to a stabbing pain radiating from my shoulder, under my breast into the ribs and was felt in my back on the right side. It hurt especially bad to take a deep breath or stand up straight, so I hunched over and breathed rather shallow to minimize the pain.

Straightaway, I ruled out a heart attack. No numbness and I was able to walk. I took three 800mg Motrin and waited patiently for the pain to subside and it did. I then considered that more than likely, I'd experienced muscle spasms. I didn't think about it again, although I continued to pop more Motrin and had the feeling that someone had punched me in the back.

What concerned me, was during the hike on Saturday at the Tandy Hills, I became winded quite suddenly. I didn't tell anyone, because I didn't want anyone thinking I wasn't a wild woman or that I was suffering from Gar the Texan's vapors.

I decided that maybe I hadn't experienced muscle spasms after all and a trip to my doc was in order. So, here's your public service announcement:

If it doesn't feel quite right, then it isn't!

My supposed muscle spasms diagnosed by moi, was actually a touch of PNEUMONIA! Yikes! Now, I'm on a healthy round of antibiotics and all should be well soon again.

Being De Christmasized

I've spent the afternoon taking down the Christmas tree, putting away holiday decorations and removing all things Christmas like. Being de Christmasized didn't hurt that much and it definitely wasn't at all what I had expected, but it had to be done.

Having lunch with Durango and Annie yesterday after the hike on Tandy Hills gave me good soup ideas. We had lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, a lovely little salad, soup & bread/pizza place. I love soup, and I love salad, but not necessarily in that order. Since I'm on the HCG Diet, I sorta strayed a bit from my narrow list of foods, but not too far from home. Anyway, after having that most pleasurable lunch, I decided that in the woes of undecorating that I'd put a pot of soup on. Mine was caramelized onions, garlic, beef broth, brussels sprouts, broccoli, parsley, sea salt and a bit of lean stew meat. I was thinking of calling it the 3B soup, but I haven't decided yet.

Then there was a rap rap at the door. It was Ms. Jones. Sometimes I help Ms. Jones with her newspaper software, something called Adobe Indesign CS4. I have some kind of innate ability to intuitively know how software will behave...er wait, that's not me that's this fellow. I just read very well and am sometimes able to figure things out, after a few hours or days. Well, she was not coming by to solicit my help for the newspaper, but to write a grant for the Rig Theatre.

The Rig Theatre was built in 1925 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. It was a fully functioning movie house way back in the 20s in Wink and now the group that owns the theatre would like to bring it back to life. Ms. Jones had a lot of great ideas for uses...family reunions, summer playhouse, classic film festivals and maybe even special premieres.

I'm in the market for a new job, this has me wondering. Do you think I can get work as a grant writer?

Doing The Hills With Durango, The Youngs and Many Others

I received an invitation from Mr. Don Young to attend the Wild Women and Manly Men hike at the Tandy Hills. Anyone could have attended, in fact I believe that Mr. Durango blogged about it and made it a well publicized event. The kids and I had two weeks off for the Christmas Holidays and by the beginning of week two Annie had this to say, "I just want to go somewhere and do something fun." I responded, "How far are you willing to drive and what kind of fun."

The invitation from Mr. Young made sense. A little driving and sight seeing, a little hiking and running around was what Annie and I needed and boy did we ever get it!

Not only did we get to meet Mr. Young and his lovely wife Debra, but we met a whole host of other people. I only have one picture from the event it's of Olive the Prairie Dog, Kimberly Clark and Ariel posing with Annie. I forgot to charge the camera, thus no other pictures could be taken.

Annie and I got a special treat, we got to hang out with Mr. Durango. Did I tell ya I find physical fit white haired men irresistible? Mr. Durango is such a wonderful tour guide. We got to see all sorts of sites and also saw things that weren't so wonderful such as some of the damage done by the oil and gas drillers. I don't understand the treatment the Trinity River gets. Why if we had such a nice river in Wink, I don't think we'd treat it so badly. Well, I'd hope we wouldn't.

Annie and I liked our visit to Ft Worth so much so, that we plan on visiting again.

Below is a YouTube video put together by Mr. Marshall, a wonderful Tandy Hills supporter, of the Manly Men & Wild Women hike.

Annie Draws Inspiration From The Tandy Hills

That's my daughter Annie, posing in her prairie grass. Last year in her science class she participated in an online prairie restoration game. She excitedly related the story to me and then we played the game at home together. I remembered while reading Durango's blog about a place that he hikes frequently, Tandy Hills. I shared the website with Annie and she was so enamored with the prairie and the pictures and the things Mr. Young wrote about the Tandy Hills that she begged me not to cut the tall grasses down in the empty lot next to our house.

"Clouds of busy dragonflies swim on the heavy, morning air. Sky-slashing, Cooper’s Hawks, keep my senses sharp while a growing population of Cottontail rabbits keep Olive the prairie dog on full alert. Life is good at Tandy Hills Natural Area."

After reading those few lines by Mr. Young, Annie's little eyes lit up and she was hooked. Those words and pictures seemed like magic to my nine year old little darling. She asked, "Can we go to Tandy Hills? Will Olive the prairie dog be there?"

Annie keeps very good track of all her money. She's been saving her Christmas and birthday money for quite some time and has amassed a small fortune of $1200. She couldn't ever decide what she wanted to do with it, but said that one day an idea will come to her. That day has finally arrived.

"My imagination is roaming free in grasslands." Annie

With her $1200, Annie purchased four small city lots on the outside of town. Each lot cost $25 each. She and I then did our research and purchased prairie grass seed as well as wild flower seed. Due to the lack of rainfall in our part of Texas we chose drought resistant varieties:

Big Blue Stem, Canada Wild Rye, Porcupine Grass, Indian Grass, White Prairie Fringed Orchid, Common Spider Wort, Purple Coneflower and Wild Bergamont.

She wanted me to purchase the Western Meadowlark birds, but I assured her that once the grasses and flowers were growing and blooming the birds would come.

Now, we're spending time piling up caliche rocks, pruning Mesquite trees and dreaming of a prairie.