Last August John and I took little 8 year old granddaughter on the train to the Indian Market in Santa Fe. SF was packed with people. The lines were long to all bathrooms, so John decided to stop drinking water. The temp that day was in the 90's. When we arrived back in Alb we had a flat tire. Although our son was coming to change the flat, John thought he would get a head start on the tire change. He began to get dizzy and nauseous. He sat down on the van's sliding door ramp and in a minute he fainted and slid onto the street. His color was ashen and he was cool and clammy despite the hot temperature outside. I was afraid he had had a heart attack. EMT's were there in 10 minutes. Fortunately at the hospital his heart and other signs indicated he had fainted. No heart or circulatory problems. I have captured our day in pictures.
66 comments:
Ok, since no one else has answered the call for a new post, I am stepping up. I hope this is not too indulgent (I love that word since I heard Simon Cowell use it on Amer. Idol.
In an earlier post we were talking about this month being the first anniversary of Carol's Southern Spice. I was remembering what was going on in our house at that time. I looked back at those posts and comments and I did not see anything from me so I guess I had not signed on yet.
I was hoping those two beady eyes looking at ya would get someone moving.
What a cute family Jan. GD is a cutey. John looks really relieved that it was only a faint.
I took the day off today and went out to spend some time with SF for my weekly SF day. He has been bored and cranky for a couple of weeks now and looking for trouble. He's has done some things that made me remember one of the reasons I pulled away from him. I was pondering if I would bring up the problem, like I did last week or just leave it alone. I hadn't made up my mind until I got out to see him.
I didn't go until after noon because after doing some chores I needed to do and getting cleaned up and ready, I worked up a good drowsy and took a little nap.
When I got to the his house, SF was sitting in the garage with his cane. Usually we are going to lunch but he has the WOM now on weekdays and it was after lunch time. He wanted me to drive him around his farm. His property is spread out in several areas near where he lives. We took off and he was telling me how to get to the different places we were going, like I hadn't been running those areas for close to 40 years. I reminded him of that but he kept telling me which way to turn anyway. I guess he just wanted to be in control.
Each place we visited I reminded him of one or two of my more fonder memories of the place. I had lots to pick from. One was out at the place near where we had our crawfish pond. There is also a corral there where we worked cows.
The memory I recalled was right after SF had his open heart surgery. He didn't let any little old surgery slow him down for long. He actually never moved too fast so there was no real difference before or after.
At the time, he wasn't back to riding horses yet but he was still out in the pens trying to push the cows thru the chutes. I usually didn't get down in with the cows cuz I have a tendency to respect anything that is bigger than I am and I wasn't particularly fond of being slammed around.
Since I was afraid SF was going to get hurt, I decided I had better cowboy up and get down to help push some of the cows thru the chute so he wouldn't. I did wait until there was only one old, scrawny, toothless cow and a little calf. I thought, how much damage could they do? I later learned that was only a mistake that a green horn would make. That old toothless thing chased me all over that pen. I had to keep up my speed until I could get in the right position to jump and clear the fence. It was just another time that I provided entertainment for the other cow hands. All in a day's work.
Oh, and cowboy boots don't make the best running shoes!
Carol, what a funny story about the old cow. You are pretty fast on your feet. I have seen you in action a couple of times like the time you jumped on the hood of the car with a typewriter in your arms when a dog was after you.
I hear what you are saying about SF giving you directions when you know your way around his place. I suspect he might be pretty anxious and you are right - needing to be in control. John does the same thing to me when I am driving. He knows I know where I am going but he won't stop giving me directions. Drives me nuts!
Neither does cow shit provide much traction!
I love those afternoon naps. Napping in the daytime was never something I did (except when sick) but in past few years, I love those naps and take them whenever I have an opportunity.
yep, that cow shit is pretty slippery
Jan, it's best to just let them have the reigns.
We just watched a movie we rented at Redbox - Greenberg with Ben Stiller. Don't waste your money or time. It was a real dud. John thought it might be funny b/c Ben S. is in it. Not funny.
How did you leave your SF? It is very kind of you to go out to see him when he is so unappreciative.
My Saints kicked some Charger ass tonight. 36-21.
I am off to bed. Good night Carol.
Hot dog! When the Saints go Marchin in!
Actually Jan, it was a good visit. I enjoyed it and I think he did too. I did decide not to mention anything. One of his cowboys and his wife were taking him out to dinner tonight.
I know it isn't easy to be 81 and alone.
And I know he does appreciate what I do.
Nite Jan.
Jan, I usually like Bill Stiller also. Some people just have a different sense of humor. (RT gave it a 74) I still like to compare and contrast our thoughts with the critics. Something to do.
Like Tomato woman and me. We have a very different sense of humor. I loved Something about Mary(RT gave it a 83), laughed my ass off, and she didn't. Also liked along Came Polly(RT gave it a 26) and Meet the Parents(an 84), et al.
Now if the critics and everyone you know says thumbs down, it's probably a good bet, it's thumbs down.
Jan, Your granddaughter is beautiful! And she looks like such a personality - what a gorgeous smile. You can tell she's very happy to be with grandma and grandpa.
John is such a good sport to give you that big smile while he's laying on that gurney. Except for the mishap, you all look like you had a great trip.
Your pic scared me at first Carol - I thought it was a possum (they give me the creeps for some reason - part of the whole rodent phobia I have... even though they aren't rodents, they sure seem like it to me to me). It didn't look like a raccoon, because it was so dark and the coloring didn't stand out, but then I took a closer look.
Enjoyed reading about your day with your SF. You two got to share some old memories - thanks for sharing them with us.
Watcher beware:
Ever watch any of those finacial shows on TV? Beware, I do think they were responsible for many people losing their asses. They cheerlead certain deals and tons of people invest and everyone losses their ass. But I bet some people, involved with those programs, made out like bandits. I do remember watching one, a news program, that gave a hot tip for a new IPO. It was his pick of the year. I think it was emachines. Lost my ass. Might as well think of them as infomercials with poop to sell.
Dylan Ratigan used to work on one of those financial shows, never saw him on it, and I think he does feel quilty. I think that his passion against the banks and Wallstreet now is probably the result of his quilt.
I still think Susie Orman was right, she said that things won't really turn around for years but these programs, along with the media, do want to try to force a recovery. Recovery will not occur until the mindset of America changes. The shisters got a taste for stealing all of our money and honey, they will never stop until we all wise up.
And all this polling they report, all BS. Someone is paying someone for the results of it. Who is around to poll anymore? Same with their results on what we watch or listen to. It's all a form of manipulation. But unfortunately, it works on many.
It's impossible for me to believe anything they say on the news any more Carol. Feels like they leading around by the nose, or through those chutes like you were the cattle.
... and they constantly contradict themselves from day to day. Feels like the government is decided what news is being reported. I thought that only happened in other countries.
Morning Chloe, didn't hear you come in.
Looks like you and I were thinking along the same lines this morning.
Did you enjoy those couple of days of our, not so terribly hot, front we had?
Temps were still high but there was a hint of that Fall feeling in the air. That's why I wanted yesterday off. I spent more time outside enjoying it. Today is suppose to be going back to same old, same old.
It was 68 here yesterday when I woke up. Hasn't been that low in many months. I drove a few miles south though, and it was in the higher 70s. We must have been in a cool pocket up here,
Yes, I've noticed the same thing - that hint of fall. It's dryer for one thing. Maybe going to be hotter again, but I did notice the extended forecast is trending down to the lower 90s, so we're getting there.
Time to let home prices fall?
I could have told Ca. this years ago - the prices are outrageously high there.. Actually, with interest rates so low, there's no better time to buy. But most people aren't considering buying a home as a good investment, when they know that the value can go down.
Been reading that the economy may be much worse than anyone is letting on. Not sure what to believe.
Best to rent, or get a deal like I gave my roomie, save up a good bit and wait for those housing price to bottom out.
I'm sure you're right, but I sure am glad not to be in that position right now - very grateful.
Me too Chloe!
"I hope this is not too indulgent"
Keep them coming Jan! We haven't seen nearly enough of your wonderful family and all those beautiful grand-kids. I hope you have pictures of them all, and that you will will share them all with us.
Good morning all,
Nice to share your family's adventure Jan...I remember when you mentioned the story...have to
say each time I see a pic of John, he reminds
me of an actor, but just not quite sure who it
is yet...
It seems to be the start of a beautiful weekend, yesterday was another one of the
excellent days...75, slight cool breeze, sunny,
blue skies...this a.m. the temp was 58...no
a.c. went on at all yesterday....
Carol, your visits with SF certainly have a good effect for him, even if he doesn't acknowledge it, pretty sure inside he looks forward to you coming out...
Carol, I think its great you had a good day with SF yesterday. I know it must be difficult to be 81 too. I think men experience it differently than women too. For most women, we seem to be able to draw on our family and friends for comfort. I don't think most men do this very well. John sometimes gets "down" about his age and the loss of some abilities that he had at 50 - even 60. Unlike other men however, he has many friends that he stays in touch with, a few here and many at a distance that he communicates by internet with. He and his brother talk on the telephone every day. I have my family here and some friends also.
Chloe, so good to hear from you. Happy for you that you all had a break in your temps for a while.
Chloe, we enjoy little GD so much. She is one of the most interesting little girls. She had the benefit of having her mother stay home with her until she started school. You can really see this benefit in her personality and her manners. She is a little spitfire and often says exactly what she thinks. But she has beautiful manners. She is very articulate for her age also. She grew up around grownups and has 5 half brothers and sisters so she can hold a conversation with anyone.
"John is such a good sport to give you that big smile while he's laying on that gurney"
Chloe, This pic was taken just before they released him to come home. He was pretty happy to be going home and that he didn't have any heart problems. He did have a bump on the top of his head that didn't need stitches but was painful for several weeks. I think he hit his head when he slid off the car onto the concrete. I didn't know he was going to faint and had turned my head to see about Taelor. Taelor was sobbing when he fainted. She (and me too) thought he had died. She kept saying "I don't want you to die grandpa." She was the one most traumatized.
Good morning Coreen, didn't see you come in here. Some people have said John looks like one of the "Smith brothers" on the bottle of Smith's cough syrup (that was something we saw years ago and don't see any longer).
Coreen, great weather you are having. Our high was in 80's yesterday and we are supposed to have hi's in low 80's for several more days. We are still turning on ac thought but later in afternoon.
Carol, I just blew up your picture of the little animal. I can't believe how his eyes are so bright. They are like little headlights. No wonder some animals can see so well in the dar,
Carol, sometime you might put up a pic of your SF. Would he mind? Would you have to tell him. I like to get a sense of what he looks like.
Speaking of prices on homes now, we bought our home 4 years ago just before prices bottomed out. If we had waited one year we could have saved a lot of money. We will probably have to keep our house for another 10 or more years before we can sell it. The good thing is we bought in the univ area - close to medical & law schools and the main campus is only a mile away so we can easily rent. We could sell earlier b/c houses really move in the area, but don't know if we could get what we have put into it now. We just have to stay healthy so we can stay in the house another 10 years.
I wish I had taken more more pics of the "Indian Market" to share with you. It was a most interesting thing to see. If you blow up the 3rd pic you can see a booth behind us with some Native women and their "wares" It is a heavily attended annual event here in NM. I took few pics b/c I was holding on tight to Tae. We had a difficult time getting around. The 3rd pic was taken on the Santa Fe Plaza where most Native Peoples had their booths and it was hard to move around. I was nervous that Tae would get away from me. Not a good time and place to have a young child.
Hey Carol, thought you were going for a C2C
appearance with that "glowing eyed creature"!!
Jan, the actor John reminds me of will come to me at some point...& still hoping to see pics
of the watermelon mountains...
I like turquoise jewelry...& if I remember both
Arizona & NM offers some unique pieces from
local artisans...
As far as home prices...don't think prices will
be going up in the forseeable future...there is
still lots of pain out there for those in mtge
trouble....
I've been off doing prep work for fishing. Fish rod/reel management. I don't care for that part. I love to buy the stuff, fish, cook the fish and eat the fish but this prep stuff, that's for men. They can get into their man caves and play with this stuff all day/night. Actually, it might not be for men but if I had one, I certainly would delegate those chores, that I don't like, to him. I would also delegate loading the boat to him. That's a macho thing. Takes big muscles at times.
I've also been feeding the kids. I put a mixture of food in the feeder. Freshed the sugar water for the hummers. I have the best squirrel choices, peanuts, corn, sunflower seeds, and some bread in the squirrel bowl. I also poured some of that out in another squirrel feeding area. I separate out the milo to put under the feeder for the doves and added a little corn.
Then night fall comes and the racoons come and vacuum it all up, except the feeder, so far. Last night I thought I saw these two red things in a tree. I got my flashlight and shined it that way and sure enough it was a little racoon looking at me, waiting for me to go inside.
I thought that maybe there wasn't enough left for Rocky and the Rockets so I went in and got some more bread and some of Maggie teeth cleaning Science diet. It's a big bag and she only eats one big chunk after each meal. There will be too much left over so I'm sharing that with the racoons. I'm gonna have racoons with the pearliest white teeth in the neighborhood.
And I need to find some testosterone phermone cologne to smear on my hands. There is something about men that attracts fish to them. Really, I'm not kiddin.
Carol, you are feeding your critters very well. We need a name for you like Ivy's "Bear Woman" Maybe Owl Woman?
I am curious as to why you think that fish are more attracted to men than to women. Is this something you have observed?
Yes, it is Jan. They may not like estrogen and I have been getting better since the change...
Coreen, One of these days I will get a pic of the mountains when they turn pink. I would need to drive somewhere to get that picture. The window of time when they are pink is short and you have to be looking at them from the west. It is a tricky business. Every time I look at the mtns however I think of you and that you want a picture.
I did get some pics of Cadillac Ranch. I have not downloaded them yet to my computer. When another opportunity comes along for a new post and no one else has one, I will put them up.
Carol, if the fish are more attracted to testosterone, then younger men would be able to catch more fish b/c as men age, they have less testosterone. As women age and after menopause their testosterone levels increase without the effects of estrogen.
Well, I just went out to test a rod and reel I cleaned up. It had not been used in quite a while and it was pretty stoved up.
I then rigged it up, Texas style, with a Baby Brush Hog, Junebug/red. A couple of casts and I pulled in a small bass, which I released. I think it helped that I used some WD-40 to loosen the reel up. That's a ""penetrating oil", probably as close as I can get to testosterone. LOL.
I'm just casting off the wharf. I haven't taken the boat out because of the wind.
Jan, I was just watching a top bass tournament on the telly and most of those winning guys were young. We may have something.
Jan, we'd love some pics of those mountains, any color.
And any pics from around any of your cities. Y'all may see the same thing every day so it's not that special to you but it would be to the rest of us.
Tiger was doing well at the Barclays on round one but yesterday, round two, his putter wasn't working for him. Maybe he overdid that rehab. Needs some golf-agra.
Good Evening Everyone,
I want to inform everyone that I'm now considered to be "low class". I just flunked the middle class test. Actually I'm probably "no class", since I have no income or anything. Shhhhh, Don't tell my granddaughter. She is still as beautiful as ever. They grow up so fast now that I hate it that I live so far away.
Jan,
That market kind of looks like how it is when you go to Mexico to shop. Vendors all along the sidewalks. I used to love to go there but now can't sit in a car long enough.
Chloe,
I loved those last pictures of Emma you posted and you have on photo bucket. Keep posting them. I check photo bucket all the time.
Good morning, I kept up with yesterdays conversation, and enjoyed it, but never got a chance to come back until I was way too tired (in the evening). We'll be taking off for a few hours this morning, but wanted to stop in and say hi.
Carol (and everyone else), This is a very good story about New Orleans hardships and recovery. You may want to take a look at it. (I really like the two pictures at the top)
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-katrina-20100829,0,6254494,full.story
"Among Lakeview's residents is Sandra Mann, a divorcee who had dabbled in volunteer work before Katrina, who found herself completely on her own after the disaster. She moved from rental house to rental house while she fought the insurance companies and agonized about what to do with her ruined, two-story townhome.
She spent five days in the hospital with a nervous breakdown before deciding that the only way she'd ever get her life back was to get her home back. "At the end of August of 2006, I fixed myself a cocktail, sat on my couch in my apartment and thought, you've never built a house before," she said. "You don't know how to build a house. But you can do it. And in three and a half months, I did it.""
... So good to see you here Mary. I wish you'd send me some pics of your beautiful little grand daughter!
Mary, Did you ever open up a photo bucket?
Good morning everyone. I didn't get to check in yesterday as I was working on the quilt.
Mary, good to hear from you. I too would love to see some baby pics.
Hi Chloe, We have been watching the news about the Katrina anniversary. It is hard to believe its been 5 years.
Carol, I look forward to hearing more about the fishing.
My grandson, wife and baby Landon who is now 8 months old - are in town this weekend. GS has been attending 10 yr anniversary of Hi school graduation. They live in Colo close to AF base in Wyoming where he is located. I will post pics later. Landon is the cutest baby with big eyes as blue as the sky. They are coming by this morn to have breakfast with us and then will head home.
I looked back and see I did check in yesterday morn. just not afternoon or night.
Putting together a spontaneous BBQ for this afternoon. Unfortunately it got spontaneously hot again. Rats. Hope my clouds come thru for me today.
Hi,
Here are the last pictures I got of Lauren. Some are from when I was there visiting. Can you guess which one is me?
http://picasaweb.google.com/jerwilson76/LaurenWilson2?authkey=Gv1sRgCK_6gOSQrebjdA#
I'm sorry there are so many pictures. I didn't know how to just put up a few.
Jan, I never got to make Lauren a quilt before she came but I still want to. I need to find a class on quilting. I am working on a pearl bracelet for Lauren that will grow with her. There will be links she can add as her wrist gets larger. I am trying to make it so that there is no way it will break.
Mary, I loved all your pictures. Lauren is a beautiful baby. She has such fine, delicate little features. You can already tell she will be a beautiful girl and woman. I finally was able to pick out who her mother is from the picture of Jeremy and her and Lauren. No problem deciding who was Jeremy. He is a handsome guy. Does Lauren look like Jeremy when he was a baby? It is great to see a pic of you. I would have known you anywhere. I think Lauren has your eyes.
I had breakfast with my grandson and wife and baby. What a chunk he is. He is a real cutie - has the bluest eyes. they are on their way back to Colo now. I wish them safe journey.
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