Not a good start

12/14/08 Sunday
We didn’t have the best start for the day. Had gotten up and let the dogs out before we got ready for church but when I went to check on them a couple of minutes later they were no where to be found. I called and called and still no sign. We let Ben and Gretchen out of the kennel at the same time we let Rascal and Trixie out so the whole bunch were gone. This has happened before. It’s never good. After a while I got in the truck and went looking for them. At first I thought they might be up by the Mennonites property but they weren’t. After driving around our acres and up the road there was still no sign of them so I went home hoping to find them there. Nope. Cherie was out with the binoculars looking but didn’t see a thing so we both headed out to look, Cherie in her car and me in the truck. Seeing dog tracks in the sand I headed towards the abandoned house they led to and sure enough the whole pack was there. It is unfortunate that these things escalate my anger level. The longer I drove around and looked the angrier I got. I hate that. When I got there I was screaming mad and they knew it. Rascal and Trixie wouldn’t come when I called so that didn’t help. I can’t blame them. There is a hole leading to a crawl space under the house and that was where Trixie was. I had to reach in there and drag her out by the collar. I drug her all the way to the truck and threw her in with Rascal. When found them I called Cherie so she had arrived by now.

Ben and Gretchen I left to make their way home on their own. I’m sure this is a place that Gretchen has checked out to have her puppies in. There is little doubt she will be having puppies soon. In fact, I go out and check to see if she has on a regular basis. After all this anger we decided not to go to church. There is plenty to do around here.

Yesterday we went to the Sunday school Christmas party. We drove around and around but couldn’t find the community center it was held at so when we saw a couple walking their dogs we asked and got directions. The party was a great time but crowds and lots of activity are hard on me. I was fine when we arrived but by the time it was over was doing poorly. Seeing how I was moving one lady asked when I hurt my back. She said “You were walking fine when you got here”. I tried to explain how my brain’s ability to operate my right side can be hampered by stress and too much to process but it’s not easy to convey. Just getting to the truck where I was away from it all helped. Of course, on top of it all I had one of those headaches and that didn’t help.

The best part of the Christmas party is what they call a “white elephant” gift exchange. For this we picked out some of the video tapes we have but when I checked them out on the VCR it died. It’s been going downhill for a while and wouldn’t rewind tapes without some coaxing but now it’s dead all the way. So we have a hundred or more movies that we can no longer watch. I don’t even think you can buy a VCR anymore. What a shame. There are some serious classics in there that we had hoped to watch. Now they are just taking up room.

By the way, I did make it to the VA hospital where I went to the emergency room like they told me. When the doctor looked at the lump he was puzzled but thought it might be an abscess that needed to be drained. They drew blood to see if my white blood cell count was up, which would indicate an infection. Meantime, while waiting for the results he brought another doctor in to look at it. That doctor said it looked like a lymph node and vetoed the thought of draining it, saying that would be a bad idea. So now they will have a surgeon look at it next week sometime. With Christmas so close nothing is definite. When the lab work came back there was no elevation in my white blood cell count and that seemed to confuse the doctor, who was sure it would be. They gave me an antibiotic shot and some Amoxicillon pills to take. I will despite not being keen about it.
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I’m having another bad headache. Just regular headaches I don’t even talk about but the ones that bring extreme sensitivity to light and sound I make note of in order to keep track of them. Cherie and I were talking about it so I went back to see how long this last run has been. It looks like about two weeks but this journal only goes back to the last week of November when I got the new hard drive and started over. Fortunately I’ve got the rest posted on the blog with the exception of private notes I didn’t want made public. Those are gone now. I have to wonder if this resurgence of my headaches is related to whatever is going on in this body. I have stuff to do so must force myself on. I did lay down for about a half hour but now will get my sunglasses out of the truck to help make things a bit more bearable. Made a shelf that I put in the closet for Cherie. She’s working on getting things cleaned up and organized, which I greatly appreciate. It’s been a sore point but I won’t go into that here.