Monthly Archives: November 2018

The Trip Home

We left Florida, sad to leave family, but ready to get home.  Traveling up the east coast of Florida, we finally saw the sea.  In Orlando, it’s all about Disney and the traffic is horrible.  Driving up the coast was a little less crowded and we drove through small towns and over several bridges.

The sky was so blue.

Past NASA.  It was further away from where we were staying than I thought.  One year, when our children were small, we took my mother and daddy here and did the tour.  It was so interesting.   Back in the sixties, space travel was new and exciting and whenever there was a launch, we would gather in the gymnasium at school and watch it on tv.  I remember I held a boy’s hand for the first time when Alan Shepard took off in space!    He, the boy, not Alan, was sitting beside me and grabbed my hand and I let him hold it.   I thought I was in love.

I love the ocean.

Over marshes and rivers.

Mailbox posts. Some looked like dolphins and some manatees.

Just wanted to show you my arm after being in the hospital.  One young man had a hard time finding my veins.  Stuck me a few times.

More bridges.  Until finally we reached a place where we could get to the beach.  I could not leave Florida without at least sticking my feet in the ocean.  This land lubber needed that.

And there it was.  Very few people on the beach that day. A couple of fishermen and a woman with her little boy.  The water was cold, but that little boy played in it like it was as warm as bath water.

The waves were rolling in.

Just a picture to prove we were really there. It all seems like a dream of sorts.   So much happened in just a few days.   I just wish I had felt better.

Someone built a tiny castle in the sand and embellished it with sea shells.

But we had to continue on.

Down streets under trees dripping with Spanish moss. That’s what says the south to me.  I love Spanish moss.

Past a merry-go-round in one town.

Until we saw this sign. Don’t believe it, folks.  Bags of oranges were way more than a dollar, but we bought a bag and the oranges are nothing like we get in the grocery stores in Indiana. They are so much better.  Juicy and sweet.  The men running this particular stand were salesmen.  They were constantly showing people things and offering samples.    There were the usual tourist gifts. Coconut heads, alligator heads(I wondered if they were real) and t-shirts.

The first night we stopped here to eat.  The food was so good, but I think my eyes were bigger than my stomach and I could barely eat what they brought me.   I think my appetite was still not back, but everything I ate was good.

Just thought this house was unusual.  I like houses of all sorts. There are many wonderful antebellum houses in the south.

Does this not make you think of Scarlette O’Hara and Gone With the Wind?   I can see her now, running off this porch holding up her full skirts.

Some of the houses were not so grand, but interesting just the same.

Wild flowers planted beside the highway.  They went for miles.  Wonder if they got their seed from Wildseed Farm in Texas?

Almost like a Monet painting.

Out of the sunshine state and back into Autumn once again.

The trees were beautiful.

One town had a Confederate burial ground.

So many died in that terrible war.

Sadly this was how things were back in the day.   This was in Madison, Georgia.  It truly was a beautiful town.  General Sherman, in his march through the south, evidently didn’t hit this town because all the antebellum houses were intact.

Some of the towns had places like this in the center of town.

One honored the Cherokee Indians.

We even saw Mulberry Street, but there were no parades.

If you were a child growing up in the fifties, you probably saw this movie on the Walt Disney Show one evening.   It’s about Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear and Brer Fox.  A long time ago, a little boy say at the knee of former slaves and listened to the stories they would tell.   One day these stories were written down for all to read and then Walt Disney loved them so much, he made a movie about them.

t

I bought a book.  There were books written in the dialect of the former slaves and how they told the stories, but it was hard to understand, so I bought one I could read.   This is not the original author.

This is Pat who worked for the museum. She was a font of information about the author and all things Uncle Remus.   Such a sweet lady.

Brer Bear and his missus on the doors of the bathrooms!

We enjoyed our trip, but were glad to be home in our own bed.

 

 

And it was time to put up the Christmas tree and get ready for another holiday.

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving and a restful weekend.  Bye.

There Was Fun

My last two posts were pretty sad, but today I will write about our vacation to Florida and Walt Disney World where we did have some good times before I got ill.

David and I took three boys to Legoland, which has nothing to do with Disney I learned.   I always thought Legoland was in Disney, but it’s a whole other park.  I took no pictures, but it was a fun day.  It was hard to believe the things made out of Legos.  The city of San Francisco was amazing.   Whole cars made of Legos. And of course there were rides, which I did not go on. David took the boys on the roller coasters.

The first day at Disney we were taken to an African restaurant.   We ordered this wonderful bread with all kinds of dipping sauces.

It was so nice to be with family. That is what I was looking forward to the most.  Just being all together.

 

 

Trying different food one has never tried before.

Outside there was a woman dressed in African garb playing on a drum.  Very listlessly, it seemed to me, but how long can one beat on a drum and not get tired?  Anyway, we were looking through the shop in the restaurant(there are shops everywhere in Disney) and we missed our son-in-law.  David came in and said he was playing the drum outside.  We went outside and to our amazement, there he sat playing the drum.

He’s been in a band and can really play.  I could have listened for a long time.  He could get a job here playing the drum.

We went for a ride on the monorail to the Polynesian village.

Gorgeous flowers everywhere in Disney.

Inside the hotel.  Of course there was a shop.

We had some serious shoppers with us. I am not a shopper anymore. I use to love to shop, but I don’t need or want much any longer, so I don’t enjoy just looking.   There are secret Mickey Mouses hidden all over the park.  There was a secret Mickey embedded in the floor here. The boys were having fun looking for them all.

The next day at the park is when it all went downhill for me. I was not feeling at all well and I literally drug myself through Animal Kingdom.  David and I walked through the zoo area and I  had to keep sitting down. You know the rest of the story.  I wish there were a do over for Walt Disney World, but I’m not even sure I want to ever go to Florida gain!

Our son is a Disneyholic.  He bought an annual pass for himself, his girlfriend and her son.  They have already been to Disney World several times.   He’s like a kid in a candy store.  And this is something he bought while on our trip.

Yes, he is the Grinch.  Not really.  And another thing he bought.

A Santa hat that lights up.

We stayed in a very nice house while in Florida in a gated community.

It had a swimming pool and hot tub which the boys used a lot.  After a full day at Disney, they were still energetic and swam until bedtime.   I was wishing I had all that energy.

When the week was over we packed up and started for home.  There must be a word for a feeling that you thought something would never end, but you were sad when it ended.  I was sad to leave despite it all because after all, I got to spend some time with family and that is what it’s all about.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Disney For Me

If you read my last post you know that I am down in Florida in a hospital waiting to be released. It’s been a not fun three days of tests and being jabbed with needles and having my blood pressure taken.  There is no sleeping at night because the nurses come in constantly checking on me. I am dreaming of a bath in a tub and a soft bed with real pillows.

Here I am in a hospital bed waiting for a doctor to tell me whether or not I can leave.  If not for my computer, kindle and a puzzle book I would have been lost.  I’ve kept up with friends and family so I don’t feel so alone.  But being in the hospital is like being in the army. They are constantly asking for your name and birth date and you are always waiting.  We were suppose to be spending these days at Walt Disney World.  No Disney for me and David.  Boo.

I know there is a reason for everything and I am here in this bed for a reason.  But I sure would like to know what that reason is. Is it teaching me patience?   Sometimes I don’t have much patience especially when I have to wait.   Poor David is waiting with me which I am thankful for, but it’s hard on him, too.

Back home there was an ice storm and my dogs, who live outside, have been spending time in their insulated dog house.  Our pet sitter is taking good care of them, but I still worry because if I were home, they would be in the shop with the furnace going.   I don’t think I will ever take a trip this late in the Fall again even though the ice storm was  unusual for this time of year.   The electricity went off I heard and I am wondering if it went off at our house and for how long.

UPDATE:  I was finally released from the hospital hours after they told me I would be released.  This has been the worst stay in a hospital I have ever had.   I would be told they would bring me Advil for my headache. It never showed up. They wanted a “specimen” from me and they never picked it up or provided the medication I was needing at the time. When I was about to check out the RN finally asked me if I wanted her to order the medication. Knowing it would take hours for it to show up I told her “no.”  When I was finally checked out, David went to get  the car and I was told I would be taken out in a wheelchair.  I waited and waited and finally I went into the hall and an RN said, “You are anxious to leave.” It wasn’t until then she called down for someone to bring a wheelchair up for me.  I could have walked down and been going back to our rental faster.  Then the doctor gave me a new prescription and when David went to fill it,  the pharmacy said the doctor had not signed it so they could not fill it. As  I write, poor David is trying to hunt up this doctor to get his signature.  I am very unhappy.  I told David if I needed to go to the hospital again, drive out of Florida before taking me to one.  If you are reading this and live in Florida and have had better experiences in the hospital, I am glad for you, but this particular hospital will get a very bad review from me.  I’m usually pretty tolerant and understanding, but this was too much. Done with my rant now!

So tomorrow I hope we can spend some time with family and maybe find a yarn shop and relax before we start our trip back.  I am so looking forward to being home.  I certainly will remember this vacation!

Have you had horror stories about a hospital?    In my city the hospital is great and I have always been happy with the treatment.    I don’t know what happened with this hospital in Florida.

My next post I won’t sound as crabby. Bye. Oh, and I did get my nice bath and will have a comfy bed with real pillows tonight.

Why I’m Never Making Plans Again

Do you make plans?  Do they always go as you planned?  Or are you like me. As soon as you make some plans nothing goes according to plan.  This has happened to me a lot lately.

When my daughter decided she wanted to do a ten week twenty day physical therapy routine in Indianapolis I said, “Sure, I’ll be glad to go with you.  Then David had to have eye surgery on both eyes and I had doctor appointments I could not cancel.  So I could not go with her every time. Plus our son bought us tickets to Walt Disney World for four days in November and I would miss one week going to Indianapolis with her.  My plans went all askew.

Our oldest son bought us tickets to Walt Disney World and rented a house for us and our daughter’s family and we all were looking forward to spending some fun time together.   The first day in Florida we went to Legoland and had a great time.  Then the first day at Disney I began to feel really bad. It was hot and I thought it was just the heat. I could barely walk around the park without feeling like I was going to faint.  When we got home I went to bed and slept hoping the next morning I would feel better, but I felt worse.  So we went to a new clinic just down the road from our rental and the doctor there sent me to the hospital. That’s where I’ve been ever since. My heart rate is very low and now they are talking about my kidneys.  Help!  So here I sit in the hospital on what should have been a fun day, waiting for the doctor to give me more news. I also have to have more tests………

If you are a praying person, pray for me right now.  Bye.

Halloween

I’m not sure if Halloween is purely an American holiday, but we Americans sure go all out for it every year.  It’s been reported we spend as much on Halloween decorations as we do Christmas ones.  I’m not sure about that because I have never gone out driving to see the Halloween lights, but if “they” say so, it must be so.

I loved Halloween when I was a kid. We lived in a tiny town of about 400 people and everyone knew everyone else or was related to them or knew some of their relations.   I knew the grandparents, cousins and aunt and uncle of my husband long before I met him because he was an “out of towner.”    So, when you went trick or treating, you knew every one in every house you visited.

I don’t remember any of my Halloween costumes except one. My mother made me a white rabbit suit one year with long ears and a furry tail.  It was so hot to wear, but I loved that thing.   I was probably a first or second grader at the time and our class paraded around the school in our costumes, going into each classroom.  Now my school had grades one through twelve in one building.  I had older brothers and a sister in the school at the time so we visited their classrooms.   I remember going in one room and suddenly one of the older boys was laughing and  pointing at me.  I wondered what was so funny until someone told me my flap was down.  There was a flap on the backside of the costume so I could well, use the bathroom should I need to, and evidently I had not refastened it.   I was so embarrassed.   I walked out of the room backward.

In other years I am sure my mother bought those hot fabric masks they use to sell in the five and dime stores and I would find some old clothes of some kind to wear and my brothers would take me trick or treating.   I remember wearing those masks and sweating and the more I breathed in and out,  the sweatier I got. Those masks sell for high prices in antique stores now.

Since everyone knew each other, at each house the person handing out the treats would try to guess who we were before they would give us any candy.  It was a long drawn out affair with names being guessed and I could only shake my head so as not to give myself away.   Finally they would guess who I was and put a candy bar in my bag.  Back then we got the big size candy bars, not the tiny ones handed out now.  I was taught to say “thank you,” and then we would proceed to the next house.  Being a country girl, it was so much fun to be in the “big” city going door to door and seeing all the people I knew.

When we had visited about every house in town we would go back home and mother would put a sheet on the floor and we would dump our bags onto it one at a time. For some reason my brothers always seemed to have more candy than I did.  They would have these big piles while my little pile looked puny in comparison. But still, there was a lot of candy and we got to eat some before we went to bed and then mother would put it up and dole it out a little at a time.

When my children use to go trick or treating they would bring their bags home and dump it all out. I would always look for the Snickers bars and when the candy was put away, the Snickers bars would mysteriously disappear from the candy stash.  My children are old enough now I can tell them my deep, dark secret.  But they very rarely got to eat any of the Snickers bars they got in their trick or treat bags.    I don’t think they really cared because they didn’t like Snickers or at least that’s what I tell myself!

When I got older and thought I was too old to trick or treat I wanted to go out tricking like some of the older kids would do. You could always tell it was Halloween in our town because all the windows of every business had been soaped. I don’t think that’s done much anymore and would probably get kids in trouble now, but back then it was a rite of passage. Soaping was taking a bar of soap and writing or scribbling something on windows.     So one year my very best friend, Mary Jean, and I decided we would soap windows.   We were both terrified of getting caught so we didn’t soap many windows, but we did throw shelled corn on people’s porches and thought we were sooo bad!  But it was harmless fun and the adults in our town knew to expect it and put up with it for one night of the year.    There was some outhouse tipping that was not funny and my brothers told of some cow tipping although I think that was just a myth that came out every Halloween.

Back in the day my brothers use to tell me there were these two men who lived in our barn.  They would tell me they heard them talking and would scare me so much.  I didn’t now why my daddy would permit two men to live in our barn.  I think that was another myth my brothers told just to scare their little sister.  At least I hope so.

My daddy worked nights in those days and we kids and our mother would sit up waiting for him to come home.  One Halloween we were sitting outside looking at the moon and my mother said she saw a witch fly across the moon.  My mother could tell a story and make me believe it no matter what it was about.  I just knew she had seen a witch fly across the moon.  She saw a UFO once(or so she said) and I was forever looking up in the sky for a UFO.    Those were such fun times though and I remember them with such fondness.

So now I watch as my grandchildren celebrate Halloween by dressing up and collecting candy. My grandsons go trick or treating two or three times and don’t usually know most of the people who give them candy.   My one grandson dressed up like the headless horseman this year.

Speaking of the headless horseman. We always watched Disney’s cartoon version which was usually shown right around Halloween.  It would always scare me to death. Poor Ichabod Crane. No one ever knew what became of him. So when I learned that Conner Prairie, an 1836 reproduction village north of Indianapolis had headless horseman hayrides, I just had to go.  My older grandchildren and their mother go every year.  First you walk around Conner Prairie where they have puppet shows, crafts and food booths and a story teller and then when it’s your turn you get on a big wagon with several other happy people and ride back in the woods. Slowly your horses clop along.  You sit there in anticipation. Suddenly, there he is, the headless horseman coming behind the wagon on a big, black horse, his cape flying, his head gone and he is galloping faster and faster.   He is laughing this awful laugh as he comes closer and closer and suddenly he is right beside the wagon and you can feel the horse’s breath right on you if you are sitting in the back, which I was, and you scream your head off until he finally gallops away.  So much fun!!!

They say Halloween is a pagan holiday. It may be for some. For me it’s all about fun. As long a no one gets hurt or too scared it’s a holiday I hope we continue to celebrate.  I don’t go for the gory or bloody or murderous Halloween. I go for more the Casper the Friendly Ghost kind of Halloween.  The candy filled Halloween. The cute costumes Halloween.  The slightly scary Halloween.  Happy Halloween!  Bye.