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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Daily Photo- Huey P. Long Bridge, New Orleans, LA, Dec. 2007

Good morning, America, how are ya? 
Don't you know me, I'm your native son?
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone 500 miles 'fore the day is done...

(Yeah, I know, that was an IC train and this is Santa Fe... artistic license.)

Friday, June 18, 2010

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Friday, June 11, 2010

Daily Photo- Twentymile Bottom, Natchez Trace Parkway, MS, Dec. 2007

Is all this humidity really necessary?

I like the rain; saves me money on my water bill.  Gets me exercise mowing the grass when it's over.  Makes my plants happy. 
But the humidity... me no likee so much.  Went to a baseball game last night, and it was pleasant, temperature-wise, with a nice breeze.  But minutes after getting out of the car, my hair was plastered to my neck and frizzy (and I have straight hair.)  Sticky all over and just nasty.
I can handle the heat, I can handle the cold- but hot and wet or cold and wet I just don't care for.  How about some hot and dry?  Or cool and dry?  Now I understand the attraction of Colorado in the summer (but not really Florida in the winter- it's still HUMID there!  And any place that has so much rain that it causes enough rain delays to take THREE DAYS to finish a ballgame is not high on my list of places to live.)
So anyway, whoever is up there laughing your ass off at us walking around with crazy frizzy hair and muttering to ourselves- KNOCK IT OFF, WILL YA?

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Daily Photo- Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, St. Louis, MO, Jan 2008

How Route 66 originally crossed the Mississippi River

Monday, June 7, 2010

Daily Photo-Hoover Dam, NV/AZ, USA, May 2009

Looking into AZ from the NV side of the dam

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Daily Photo- Prague, CZ, March 2008

Hradcany Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, Charles Bridge and Vlatava River

Friday, June 4, 2010

Daily Photo- Yosemite National Park, CA, USA, May 2009

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls, Yosemite Valley

Adventures in Husband-sitting

Thomas decided yesterday that our lives have been too dull as of late.  So, he decided to liven things up a bit by swallowing a toothpick from a sandwich (it was a club sandwich, he thought it was a particularly tough piece of bacon.)  So I get a text from him, "T is taking me to the ER. Swallowed toothpick.  Will call when I can."  Very matter-of-fact, right?  Nothing to worry about, right?  Right.

One of his student workers picked me up and we headed to meet him at the ER.  He'd had x-rays by the time I got there, and was looking miserable and sheepish at the same time.  We were told he would have to be knocked out and have minor surgery to remove the damn thing, and that would be about another four hours from then.  So I ran home, fed the pooches, grabbed the laptop and a book, and headed back to the hospital.  (Did I mention it was POURING rain the whole time?  Yeah.)

We settled in to wait; then, they needed the room, so poor Thomas was moved into the hall to wait some more.  Yay.  All this time, he can barely swallow, can't eat or drink, and can't talk.  Miserable.  We finally got to talk to the doc, and at about 6:00 (we'd been there since 12:30)  he went in for "surgery".  Came out about an hour later with about a 2" piece of toothpick as a souvenir (gag.)  Home by 8:30 or so.

This makes the third time in eleven years of marriage that we have been to the ER for him.  Once when he hurt his back, once when he had a really bad allergic reaction to medication, and yesterday.  None of them have been great days for either of us; it ain't easy seeing the person you love the most all hooked up to wires and IVs and on a backboard (for his back injury), or struggling to breathe (allergic reaction.)  I am profoundly grateful that we have survived all these adventures, because any one of them could have been much worse.  But I told him this was the third strike, so he was going to have to find someone else to entertain him next time.  Yeah.

(And I am also aware of the irony of yesterday's post about insurance; again, I realize how lucky we are to have it.  Karma's a bitch, ain't it?)

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Budgets...

So we found out today that we will have more taken out of our paycheck (100% more) for health insurance.  No merit raises this year, either, even though we both had stellar evaluations, and possibly none next year either.  Thanks a lot, Texas; if we get our damn governor out of his $600,000-a-year rental property in the hills and in a more practical residence, maybe we could have a little extra?  The insurance thing would be a little easier to swallow if the services we received were at least decent and the docs weren't quacks; every time I leave there feeling like an idiot and worse than before.  Just walking in the door costs me $25.  The system is BROKEN, and while the reforms are a good first step, we have a long way to go.

(At the risk of sounding like an ingrate- I am profoundly aware of how lucky we are.  We HAVE jobs and we HAVE insurance.  Doesn't make the dollar stretch any farther, though.)

And BTW, BOR- Up yours too!