Joey, Holly, and Ivy, and 2 dogs, 3 ferrets, lots of chickens and some fish
24
Nov
Nothing extraordinary this year. No trips or cruises or long vacations. We just decided to stay put and make food. Jane showed up with her usual truck-load of goodies. Miguel and Jose also joined us for dinner. Holly cooked a turkey (donated by Jose) and it came out darn-near perfect! Super delicious dinner and pleasant day.
Jose and Miguel are from Honduras and didn’t really have any idea what Thanksgiving was all about. So I explained a little. Thanksgiving has become a lot more meaningful to me since I’ve discovered one of my ancestors was on the Mayflower. The actual story of the pilgrims and Mayflower and their first year in the New World is really quite grim and gritty. You can read more about it here: Cousin on the Mayflower
Also, Miguel asked, “Por Que Pavo?” (Why Turkey?). I didn’t know the answer. So we asked Alexa. Turns out that turkey is native only to north America. So the pilgrims had never seen this bird before, much less know how to cook and eat it. So the native American Indians showed them how. Although, there’s no record of the pilgrims eating Turkey at the very first Thanksgiving celebration. Maybe they did. Maybe they didn’t. Who knows? But it soon Thanksgiving became our nation’s first holiday, and turkey became the first traditional dish.
6
Oct
8
Sep
Saturday, September 2nd, I leave from Bush International Airport to meet Jose Francisco in Tampa and drive him back to Houston. He has had enough of life in Florida. Actually, I think he is just frightened of the restrictive laws that Governor Desantis has enacted. Texas laws are still a bit more lax than Florida when it comes to an illegal immigrant… er, I mean ‘asylum seeker’ driving a car without a license. So back to Texas it is!
As I land in the airport for my connecting flight (which happens to be Las Vegas. Yes, I fly from Houston to Vegas to connect to Tampa Florida), Ivy calls me on the phone and asks, “Are you feeling sick?” No, why? “Because I am!” In the background, I hear Holly dismiss, “It’s just allergies!”
Long story short, I drive all the way back to Houston (almost 1,000 mile drive in one day.. ugh!) on Monday the 4th (Labor Day about 2 a.m.) to find Ivy and Holly a bit ill. I’m exhausted beyond any sensibility, but I get up at the crack of dawn and start dealing with more of Jose’s drama. But by 11 a.m., something amazing happened… he found a FREE place to stay for 2 months! One of the women that he worked for before needed a dog-sitter for awhile as she goes to take care of dying mother (some other city, not sure where). This is the same woman who gave us all kinds of Christmas stuff a few years ago (full story here). So it’s kind of amazing that occurred because he had no plan and nowhere to stay. Luck? Or a Godsend? Not sure, but that totally worked out great!
Meanwhile, I’m dealing with Holly and Ivy’s drama as well. Neither was terribly sick at that point, so I ask, “Are y’all going to go to school or work tomorrow? I’m not sure. Holly wakes up Tuesday morning somewhat ill and decides to ‘work from home’. Ivy decides to go to school…. but only about 1 hour later, she calls and says the school nurse has ordered her to go home. The nurse says Ivy might have Covid and that I should check that out. Well, it just so happened that we had several at-home Covid tests leftover from the pandemic, so we did the tests… both Ivy and Holly were positive. I am negative.
I stay in close contact with Jane, as well. She has had just about the same amount of contact with Holly and Ivy as I have over the weekend. So we’re crossing our fingers. Jose, as well, was exposed to Covid on Monday.
By Wednesday morning, Holly is very ill. Can barely breath or stand or anything. Her pre-existing poor health conditions/decisions are making this worse. So we call the ambulance and she is shipped off to the hospital. She spends the day in the hospital. We pick up her in the evening. She’s going to live.
Thursday is just a boring day of laying around the house for these two, and I think Ivy and Holly are enjoying being waited on hand and foot. But for myself, I begin to feel a little strange. By Friday morning very early (about 3 a.m.) I’m waking up in a cold sweat and feeling very chilly. Friday morning I go to find a free Covid test (which aren’t all that easy to find these days), and sure enough the results were positive. So now everyone in this house has bat-flu! Or shall we call it Chinese flu? Or Fauci Funk? Or just Covid19? Whatever. It sucks.
Okay, so it’s Friday afternoon and Ivy is much better. Holly is also. But I’m just getting started. My symptoms are mild so far. I may update this in the morning depending on how I feel. I also learn that Jane has tested positive, too! Omg. Our turn, I guess. My concern for myself is a pre-existing condition of Asthma and respiratory problems.
Btw, YES, for all you progressive white ̶s̶u̶p̶r̶e̶m̶a̶c̶i̶s̶t̶s̶ savior purists and ‘science’ (fiction) Fauci followers out there, we’ve all been vaccinated. But we caught Covid anyway. Yes, we quarantined ourselves. But where and how did we catch Covid? I have no idea. I suspect Ivy caught it at school. Or possible Holly got it from a coworker who was also sick with Covid. Whatever the case, the symptoms have been fairly mild, and we fully expect this to pass like any other flu. I must admit, the vaccination SEEMS to be working and preventing us from utter disaster. But then again, did we ever really need a vaccination at all?
Update: 9/10/23… Ivy is feeling fine and has no symptoms, so we buy a Covid Test and she takes it. NEGATIVE! She is covid-free. So that’s about 7 or 8 days from first sign of symptoms to testing negative. Not terrible. She’ll go back to school tomorrow. Update: 9/12/23 – Holly tests negative and goes back into the office. Update: 9/17/23 – Jane tests negative, and so do I! Hurray!
Gathering data about this experience has been kind of interesting. Maybe even useful for other people? Hope so. Ivy’s symptoms appeared on a Saturday, then Holly’s symptoms began appearing Monday (Labor Day). Jane was exposed on Sunday, and I was exposed on Monday. We began feeling symptoms on Wednesday and Thursday. We mainly noticed that the time from exposure to symptoms was about 2 to 3 days for each of us. Also, it was about 7-10 days for the flu to run it’s course in each of us. Symptoms were mild and no worse than a common cold or flu (which are still very unpleasant, mind you). Plus, it seemed clear that Covid really tries amplify pre-existing conditions. With Holly it was fatigue. With me it was respiratory issues (I have asthma) and digestive issues (Couldn’t eat much of anything). I also felt an uncomfortable amount of fatigue and body aches, so much so that I couldn’t sleep at night.
By the way, Jose did NOT get infected even though he was exposed to it for maybe 6 hours or so. He didn’t take any extra precautions (like face mask or sanitizer), so I’m not sure how he evaded the Covid.
Overall, it raises questions about the whole pandemic and whether the Quarantines ever necessary in the first place? I’ve been following the Texas Medical Center charts (interesting stats here) for more 3 years, and the results seem to say there were obvious patterns and ‘seasons’ or waves of flu just like any other flu. Was there ever a need for a quarantine? Obviously, there was never a need for a $20,000,000 make-shift hospital built at NRG stadium (which never saw a single patient). Didn’t everyone who died in the early days of Covid19 die because of pre-existing conditions (heart conditions, morbid obesity, asthma, etc), and NOT covid itself? I don’t really know the answers. I only know 4 of us (all vaxxed) got infected with Covid and it wasn’t really any worse than a common cold or flu. Plus, how did we evade covid for 3 years even while NOT being terribly cautious… yet then catch Covid after being vaxxed and once the pandemic was over?
26
Jun
It was only a week and 1/2 ago (June 14th) that I spent an early morning in the hospital because of Kidney Stone pain. Now, only 11 days later, I’m suddenly feeling that old familiar pain come up again. This time it was around noon on Sunday, June 25th, when the dull ache of a stone began to appear. This time, though, I know it is a small stone and don’t have to go to the hospital (to possibly have it removed surgically if it is too big). While I was in the ER last time, they took a CT scan and said, “Bad news… you’ve got 4 stones! But good news is they are all small… 1 centimeter or less.”
So I knew I could just pee this one out eventually. It would only be a nightmare living with intense pain until it passed. That turned out to be a lot longer than I anticipated – approximately 12 hours! It was 12:30 p.m. (Monday morning) when the pain finally casually faded away. The stone had moved (I’m guessing) from the Ureter tube and dropped into my bladder. That’s a good thing because the pain stops. But it means it still needs to pass through the Uretha tube… or in other words, you still need to piss it out. That could be painful. Or sometimes you barely feel it at all.
At this moment, I don’t think I’ve passed the stone completely out of my body. Why? Because I’m still feeling a little uncomfortable and nauseous… symptoms possibly caused by this stone still rolling around in there. Not sure. We’ll see…
I’ll update this post in a day or two.
UPDATE:
Okay, it’s a month later, not a day or two. But, yes, I can now say I’m kidney-stone free once again. I went into Hermann Memorial Hospital on Monday July 17th and went through Lithotripsy again. It’s a procedure that uses shock waves to break up stones in the kidney and parts of the ureter (tube that carries urine from your kidneys to your bladder). It was a success! So now, as of July 20th, I’m still recovering and dealing with the usual painful after-fx of surgery. But I’m feeling better each day.
I return to the hospital Wednesday July 26th to have a stent removed and (hopefully) a conclusion to this adventure. Also, the doctor said he would do a study on these stones and try to figure out exactly what is causing them. Maybe he’ll have some answers next week. I hope so.
20
Jun
This meme popped up on social media feed one day, and it trigged some thoughts that have been rattling around in my head. Many years ago, I saw an office cartoon hanging on my manager’s wall listing all the exhausting, reflexive, impulsive responses they get from workers when dealing with everyday work situations. It struck me as profound. Mainly because I saw some of those attributes in myself and wanted to do better. So I actually copied it down and remembered it. Used it to examine (question) some of my own behavior.
Then, for years, I’ve sort of started a mental collection of arrogant and snobby emotional/intellectual excuses and that people use to deflect truths they don’t want to hear. Usually, it my list was populated by excuses (self-justifications) by fat white American liberal Democrats with their selfish arrogant stupidity, but I realized it could be anyone… Christians… atheists… Content isn’t the determining factor; context is. The tools are always the same. These are devices mindless, thoughtless tools… automatic, mechanical, tricks, apparatus, planned, contraption, gadget, instrument, stupid tattoos, … anything that people use in a moment to avoid (deflect) accountability (responsibility) for their selfish behavior and declare a virtue signal.
Bottom line: when you’re confronted (or if you’re confronting someone else) with a truth, our fleshly knuckle-dragging Neanderthal basic reaction is to reject it. Our ego wants permission. We want confirmation (petted). We want our ego assuaged, not our failures exposed and prompted to do better. If you’re clueless/thoughtless, then your flesh will be ‘triggered’… either by a passive or aggressive narcissistic response, … one response will either cut others down in self-defense (aggressive, dominate, combative, blame), or the other response will be to block people and cut them off in an eviscerating shunning move (passive, dismiss, disarm, block, shame, snub, eliminate) which supposedly ‘blocks’ or ‘eliminates’ a toxic person or potential threat. There are the only two directions that every conversation will go with a narcissistic person – either combat or avoidance. Sometimes both within minutes of each other (stab and run). Both intend to shut you up and shut you down. Both are exhausting. Both will blame YOU for having an extensive failure in character (never themselves, of course). Dealing with narcissistic people can be emotionally and mentally exhausting. Unfortunately, this is a reality that anyone in ANY leadership role (even parenting) quickly learns and has to face.
So I copied and pasted the meme here, and began actually writing down all the deflections I could think of. Here is my fool’s list of intellectually-lazy deflective devices: Can you think of more?
The cartoon hanging on the wall in my manager’s office showed a overweight woman drooped over a chair in complete exhaustion. She was surrounded by children each appearing disgruntled. The caption was, “I don’t need to exercise… I already get a work-out each day from my trainees dragging their @$$, flying off the handle, jumping to the wrong conclusion, beating a dead horse, cutting each other down, and stabbing each other in the back!”
The obvious point being was that it an emotional and mental work-out dealing with people’s drama each day. I realized this was more than just a cartoon (meme, we’d call it today). It was a profound truth. Years later I would learn the term “Emotional Intelligence”. If you’re ever in a leadership position… either by choice, or force by pushy abusive narcissistic women… you will be accused of bad behavior…. sexism… arrogance… ‘always wanting to argue’… or being a bully… or any other sexist male stereotype you can think of. No matter what. That’s their ‘out’. That is just a reality of male leadership. You are always the bad guy. And you have to learn how to deal with it effectively.
They strongly want to believe their mythologies (presumption of virtue) only want flattering affirmations (feed that ego!), and/or permission to keep plunging head-long in the wrong direction (narcissistic enablement). People have a whole liteny of ways to deflect ‘negative’ or undesirable commentary (anything that doesn’t flatter and permit). I actually started writing them down
. Today, in the world of News, journalists have even beg
guess.. infer.
presumption, presume
‘If you’re not outraged, you’re not listening‘ literally means if you’re not offended by the same things as me or allowing my bias and offense to transfer to you (carrying my burden, transfering offense), then you’re not listening or you don’t care or are complicit.
14
Jun
Yes, I supposedly had all kidney stones removed last year ().
But, around midnight I was awakened with a familiar pain in my side. Oh, lord, no. Not again. I tossed and turned. No relief.
Finally, I sit up and realize Holly is sitting up, too. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“What are YOU doing?” I respond.
“Nothing. Is something wrong?”
Yes” I answer. “I think I’m feeling this old familiar kidney stone pain.”
After some stumbling around and awkwardly getting dressed, I agreed to going to the hospital. So at 1 a.m. I arrive at the Methodist medical clinic on Studemont street and go through the process once again…
This time they were quicker. Not much business, I suspect. So I got into a room and bed, and was sent to do a CAT Scan within 1 hour. Sure enough, I had a 3 mm stone on my LEFT SIDE… which is the first time ever on my left side kidney. But the scan also revealed 3 new stones on the right side just waiting to cause me pain.
Long story short, they gave me morphine for the pain, but it didn’t really do much. So they gave me Toradol (ketorolac) which almost instantly did the trick. Pain disappeared within 5 minutes. I didn’t experience any side FX as they said it might. Only woozy-headedness and a little bit of nausea (which I already had, and maybe came from the morphine).
The doctor said, well, your stone is small enough to pass. So there is no need for surgery, and no need to stay in the hospital. You can go home.
So, at 6 a.m., I leave the hospital and begin walking home. It’s only about 12 blocks, so I figure I’d just walk home and no wake anyone up to come get me. It was a cool and pleasant morning anyway, so I head home down the railroad tracks. I arrive home just as Holly and Ivy are waking up. So I just jump right into doing chores and daily routines.
So far so good! No more pain. We’ll see what happens next in this ongoing drama of Kidney Stones.
18
Mar
Here we go again. Another ferret has escaped the house. Ivy left the to the cage door open, so the ferret climbed out and ventured outside via the doggy door and disappeared. I searched and searched and couldn’t find him. I also searched the neighborhood the next day. No luck. 2 days pass and I finally gave up. I said to Ivy, sorry, but he’s gone and something probably grabbed him.
She was upset, of course. But right about then, a neighbor posted a pic on our First Ward newsgroup and asked, “Did anyone lose a ferret?”
Yes! That’s Buddy!
But they didn’t publish any info – no phone number or address – so I didn’t know who to call or where to go. Ivy was excited and said, well, let’s just go walk around and see if we can find them.
We didn’t even go more than 1 block when I saw our neighbor. He said “Howdy” and “Whatsupp?”
I said, “Oh, nothing much. We’re just walking around looking for our missing ferret.”
“Is it white?” he responded. I said yes!
“He’s right here.”
He told us the story of how his wife swore up and down that she saw a ferret in their yard. He said she was crazy. But then the next morning he spots a ferret in the yard! He grabs it and puts it in a box figuring it was someone’s pet.
Buddy was obviously stressed and traumatized from his 2 day outdoor adventure, but he was OK. We brought him home and gave him some food and water, and that’s where he stayed for about a week. He didn’t even want to come out of the cage and play or anything. He was like, ‘Life in the wild? um, no thank you’.
23
Jan
I was supposed to go to a dentist appointment this morning, but overnight I began to feel very sick. I felt feverish and nauseous by 6 a.m. Plus, my hand was swollen and hurting pretty bad. What was happing?? At first, I didn’t know.
But thinking back, on Sunday evening I was cleaning up the backyard and moving some old wood boards to a burn-pile when I felt a small sting. It wasn’t super painful. More like getting pricked by a thorn or something. I never saw a spider…. but I’m guessing that a spider is exactly what that was. A few hours later I start to feel sick. My hand starts to swell. I could see two little fang-bites on my thumb. By the next morning, … ugh… I felt so sick.
I called the dentist and cancelled the appointment. That something I never do. But I apologized and explained I feel sick as if I have the flu or something. She chided me for calling at the last minute (about 10 minutes before my appointment). But, whatever. It felt like I had Covid19. Yes, I took an at-home Covid test right away. It was negative.
After thinking about it and doing a little digging on the internet, I concluded that I had, indeed, been bitten by a spider. I considered going to the hospital, but first I consulted the mighty Google and began reading about spider bites. I read that some spider bites are not poisonous, but will still make you feel sick. If not poisonous, then the feeling of nausea and body-aches will go away after about 6 hours. So, sure enough, the nausea and body-aches went away by the end of the day. The pain in my hand, though, lasted a few more days. Eventually, it all completely healed.
Crazy situation! I’ve never been bitten by a spider before. That was a whole new experience.
24
Nov
Today is Thanksgiving, a day we celebrate the first and oldest annual holiday tradition in (what would become) the United States of America. As you probably already know, it is the 1st year celebration of harvest after the Mayflower ship landed in Plymouth rock in 1620. But what I didn’t know until recently is that the Dutton family has ancestor who was not only the Mayflower, but is the guy responsible for founding this tradition of Thanksgiving. This holiday has even more significance now that I’ve learned I had some ancestry on the Mayflower. His name is Edward Winslow. He and his wife, brother, a servant, and young 8 year old child who had been entrusted into his care (check out the story of orphaned or dumped children on the Mayflower) were on the Mayflower in 1620 when it landed at Plymouth Rock. He began writing and documenting the pilgrim’s experience in the New World. Most everything we know about the their first year comes from this one man. That winter was incredibly harsh and cruel. Edward lost his wife and the child in his care, along with nearly 50% of the people on the Mayflower. Edward and his family are on the bottom-row 3rd from right (click to open bigger pic). His brother is the last person on the bottom row. He survived. (entertaining video about this chart by a snarky feminist gggrandchild of Winslow here) (another video with good details here)
Despite the epic loses and tragedies of that first year, Edward survived and went on to establish numerous diplomatic relations with the native Indians – including the Mayflower Compact, the very first seeds of democracy and government in the USA. This is significant because Europeans had already been visiting the Americas for more than a century, but none had attempted to establish a colony/government separate from England. The Pilgrims came to form a colony based (motivated) entirely on their evangelical (protestant) Christian beliefs, and to live in a land where they could practice their religion freely and govern their communities democratically. Edward not only managed to help create a first village and first government, but also a first harvest that would become the first religious holiday (thanksgiving) which would last for centuries to come. It is interesting to note that the Indians who came to the party outnumbered the pilgrims by almost double (90-50). There is a TREMENDOUS amount of information on online about the Pilgrims, Thanksgiving, and Edward Winslow. I can only suggest you search ‘Edward Winslow’ on Youtube or Google to find hours and hours worth of details and data to sift through. The details of Edward’s life are it is VERY fascinating. So much drama and tragedy and triumph in these stories. More than I can write about there. So I encourage you to check out the videos and links below… Links with more in-depth information:
You can also watch this series by National Geographic on the first years of the Pilgrims. It is unique in that it emphasizes the fact that the Pilgrims were not the first white people to come to the Americas. They were not opportunists, but instead oddballs. They were religious folk seeking to stay in the New World, rather than exploit it and get rich. This series is also available on Amazon Prime.
Edward Winslow’s story is well-documented in encyclopedias, museums, and online. Here is a brief 2 minute overview…
Edward Winslow also has a statue in his hometown of Droitwich, plus he is included in a famous 1899 painting of the Mayflower Compact signing…