I’d Rather Be Chasing Windmills

With our lives being so quiet of late, hubby and I have both been enjoying it all while we can. All systems are now a go with the Solar Panels and come July the new roof, the reinforcement of the rafters and the installation of the panels themselves will begin. Nat is anxiously awaiting for this project to get started, along with being able to watch and learn. It’s another “guy” thing!!

As for myself, I’m still puttering around the house and keeping busy doing whatever I can find, along with a sit down now and again to watch a few television shows that I know Nat wouldn’t watch in a month of Sundays. It’s my “soap opera” time, I suppose. Along with everything else holding steady, so too my health. The diabetes thing has cleared itself away, the old body is back to relative normal and except for the lump under my arm, I’m feeling like my old self.

The lump under my arm has been there for eons. Actually can’t remember how long I’ve had it, but it’s been over 30 years. It’s just a small little nodule that sat there under my skin and gave me no trouble, until last week. While watching television one night, my underarm began to get extremely itchy. Thinking nothing about it, I scratched away like a squirrel digging for nuts. God, it really was itchy!! However,  without realizing what I was doing, I scratched so much that damn little nodule decided to pop open and give me a good red, mushy, lump above the skin. I kept checking this bump now and again and it didn’t seem to be giving me any trouble except for the inconvenience of its location – rubbing against part of my bra. One day I showed Nat, and he agreed with me, that I should at least have my Doctor look at it. Once the redness around the bump faded away, I gave the Doc a call.

My Doctor wasn’t exactly sure what this mushy lump was, until I explained and she pretty much agreed. I had itched so hard and between my fingernails and seam on my t-shirt, I must have broken the damn thing open and the blood decided to swish its way out of my body instead of staying inside where it was warm. She ordered an ultrasound and would give me a call with the appointment date. As everything goes with me, once I arrived home, things had changed. As it happened, I wore a lacy bra the next day and while out shopping, the lace on the bra must have rubbed again that lump enough to brake open just a bit of the soft skin tissue. The damn thing was now oozing yucky white stuff. After showing Nat, we decided to wipe things down and put a bandaid on the lump to keep it in tact. However as time wore on the oozing continued. Nat and I still wiped the lump clean and as we continued to do so, the lump was getting smaller. I was now wondering whether to cancel the ultrasound scheduled for the next day. Nat advised that I should go anyways and the technician would at least be able to give my Doc a final report on what was going on. He was right. The ultrasound technician told me that I had to continue to squeeze that yucky white stuff out and that I would end up with a small little hole. She still took an ultrasound picture to send to my Doc, and once finished we applied a clean bandaid and I was on my way home. End of lump.

Once Nat and I arrived home from the hospital around 3:00 and were embarking from the van, he heard a noise and thought he saw something from the corner of his eyes. Oh God, he was right. Another chipmunk had wandered into the garage and was messing about with my husband’s head. Nat had every intention of going to fix the bird feeders, but suddenly he would have to deal with this first. He was determined no more dead chipmunks in his garage! He grabbed for the broom and began banging everything in sight – the garbage bins, the work bench (over and under), the buckets, the empty boxes, the pile of wood scraps, the cupboard, the table saw, the work boots – you name it, it got banged! The little bugger laid low and kept quiet for as long as he could, and after a few minutes silence decided to change hiding places. As Nat kept banging on one side of the garage I tried to head him off on the other side hoping to steer this little pest to the garage door. Suddenly we spotted him scampering along the cement ledge that lines one side of the garage. We switched places. Nat would poke close to where we saw the little guy and I would block the chipmunk at the other end with the straw broom clutched in my hands. Without any warning the chipmunk scurried right in between us and across the garage floor so fast, he shocked the hell out of us both. No, he didn’t run for that big garage door opening, he had to scamper to the other side!!! What the hell for, couldn’t he see that big opening and opportunity to freedom?? Was there something he was looking for on the other side before he left?? So, again, we changed sides. Nat was now banging away on trash cans, shovels and the lot, while I kept watch near the door hoping to steer him out to wide open spaces. Nope! The little bugger scurried back to the other side from whence he came. Seriously, does he have a death wish?? We were now getting hot, sweaty and frustrated. Chasing chipmunks is hard work and nearly impossible. They’re small, short fast legs, can climb anything and can tease the hell out of two older people that just want to get on with the rest of their day!!!

By about the third scurry across the garage floor, Nat’s blood pressure was getting as high as the air pressure outside. Suddenly he’d had enough. ‘Forget it”, he says. After giving him my “what the hell for” look, he told me he was going to set the trap. Good idea! Why didn’t I think of that myself, as the sweat was poring down the both of us from the heat and anxiety of chasing a bloody chipmunk with a corn broom. So the trap was set – peanut butter on the inside – and once he sniffed away at the sticky goodness, the door would be tripped and he’d be trapped. Shortly after supper Nat checked, and sure enough, we got ‘em!! Serves him right for giving us such a hard time, as he could have been enjoying the great outdoors so much sooner. With all good intentions, Nat released our now enemy across the street but kept the trap set just in case a relative was still looming about, but so far, so good. So much for fixing the bird feeders!

With our adventures behind us, we got ready for Karly’s 20th Birthday Party on Saturday afternoon. I was asked to bring a pasta salad and we were on the road right after a small bite of lunch. The rain decided to hold off at least until the BBQ party was over and we all had a great time sitting out on Marilyn’s deck and getting caught up on the family news and events. Nat brought his camera and managed to snap some great photos. Then, as Karly was opening her cards and gifts, I grabbed the camera and snapped away. I managed to get some great shots of Karly and her brother, Lucas, Shawn and his girlfriend, Linda, Marilyn’s mom, Sadie, and even dear Susan, who hates having her picture taken at all. I pretty much covered everyone and then after eating a truly delicious ice cream cake from Dairy Queen Laura asked her two kids, Karly and Lucas, to go the back garden around Marilyn’s pool. As Laura was trying to take pictures of her children, and with some effort, trying to get Lucas to act natural, I snapped away at all of them. I took shots of Lucas goofing off, of Lucas behaving himself and posing nicely with his sister, and of all three of them looking at the pictures their mom had taken on her phone. I snapped away like a crazy person and got some great shots – or so I thought!

After Nat and I arrived home, I put the camera in the office for later while Nat and I took it easy and watched some of the golf game. As Nat began to watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs later that evening, I wandered into the office to load the pictures into iPhoto and couldn’t believe my eyes! Only Nat’s photos were showing up. I turned the camera off and then on again, I searched around iPhoto to see if I had done something wrong – God knows it can only happen to me!! All of the pictures I had taken were not showing up at all. Seriously, I couldn’t figure out what had happened. It was soon afterward I began to think (which lately hasn’t been too successful) and my only thought was I had been pressing down on some other button just behind the picture taking button. For some reason this other little button gave me the illusion that I was actually taking pictures. God, I felt soooo stupid after the discovery. I was quite pleased with myself thinking I had managed to get some shots of our grandchildren that we don’t see very often. I’m hoping next time Nat will give me a shake and put me through 20 questions before I decide to use his camera. It’s now becoming quite scary that my mind isn’t doing what it’s suppose to do – remember things and how they work!! Duhhh!!