Morning in the country



This mornings sunrise

Living out in the country has it's advantages and it's drawbacks; while I get to view wonderful wonderful scenery and sunrises like these, it also means having a persnickety Internet.  My cell service is a little on the erratic side, too.  If we are lucky we get one bar.  It's not unusual to go outside and see a neighbor outside on their porch trying to get better reception.  Personally I think the view is worth it although it sometimes keeps me from posting and just plain being on the Internet.

Rise and shine

My second problem with posting recently is the little understood or acknowledged problem with Fibromyalsia.  One of the theories of what Fibromyalsia is; is that it is a problem with the bodies electrical system.  In one of the books I've read on Fibromyalsia talks about how one lady complained to her doctor about how she seemed to affect the lighting around her.  Her doctor dismissed it as her imagination till her left the office right after her and saw the street light dim as she walked under it.  Apparently people who have this disease also have problems with electronic watches and computers.  Personally I have gone through 4 watches in 7 weeks, had the lights lights dim in the bathroom, and had and still have freaky, flaky computer problems.  The last has been a really big problem in this last week- sometimes I can get the Internet, sometimes not and this is over and above the Internet problems from living in the boonies- sometimes I can't open any of my programs.  Grrrr....



I hope you

Enjoy

this country morning as much as I did.

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Bad Dogs and Leash Laws

This critter is the main reason why I have been missing from the web for the last week or so.  I live out in the county where there is no leash law.  Dogs are allowed to roam as they please.  They are only required to have a collar and rabies tags.  My neighbor got a puppy about a year ago and sometimes lets him loose.  Consequently there are times when I walk out my door only to get this greeting.  This was taken while I am still on my front porch. This photo was also taken last fall and the dog is now bigger and meaner.

Anyway about a little over a week ago I checked for the dog (something I don't feel like I should have to do) and since he was nowhere to be seen and the owner's car was not there; I went outside with my dog, Rascal. Rascal was a proper puppy and on a leash. Unfortunately this dog and another of the neighbors dogs came around the side of the house and came after Rascal and me; both of them barking and growling.  I was able to control my dog as he was on a leash, but in doing so I wrenched my arms and shoulder, sprained my knee and sprained my fingers.  I was able to keep my dog from getting hurt, however Tom had to come out to chase the dogs away.  He heard the dogs and came to my rescue, for which I was very grateful.  I ended up in the ER from all the jerking around (I only had strains and muscle pulls but by the next day I felt like I'd been beat all over.  I hurt all over.  This also caused a fibromyalsia flare which just added to the pain.  I was unable to lift my laptop, set it on my lap or type without pain so no blogging, no facebook and little visiting of other blogs.

Spalding county used to be made up of farms and houses on acrages where the lack of leash laws made sense.  This is no longer the case.  I guess I am going to have to get politically active and try to get the county commissioners to change the leash laws.  I now have a couple of movies of the dog (the photo is one frame from one of them) and medical bills to show them.  Wish me luck.

Johnina  

Progress

I finally feel like I am making progress in the right direction. I accomplished more yesterday than I have in any day for months. I washed 2 loads of laundry, clipped the nails and brushed out Felicity our 100# very fluffy shedding dog. Her fur gets confused because she lives inside when it gets cold outside we turn on the heat so she sheds, she sheds puppy size hair balls. However she looks so much better when she's brushed and it keeps that hair from turning the carpet white, clogging the drains when Jeremy bathes her or keeps her from gagging up hairballs from licking herself. It needed to be done and I was glad that I was able to do it. I took some still life pics and edited a photo. I also wrote my blog. I know this does not sound like a whole lot to accomplish but for me these were MAJOR accomplishments even if I was not able to go on MSS or Facebook except to post the picture I edited. I remember when these were minor things squeezed in amongst all the other things I had to do that day.
However, there is something I realized today that make me feel great about the progress I have made. I have made great stride in my reading abilities. I used to keep anywhere from 3 to 4 books stashed around the house so that whenever I had a few minutes I had a book nearby that I could just pick up and read. I was able to keep all the plots straight and know what was going on in each book without backtracking. Then medications and fibro-fog hit. Fibromyalsia doesn't just make you hurt it also causes many other symptoms among them confusion, forgetfulness, and other mental conditions. In my case forgetfulness and confusion were real bad. At one time I ran into a friend (no I didn't hurt her ha-ha) at the store and she was in a panic because she could not remember were her car was. I had the same problem but had learned to hit the panic button on my key ring as I wandered the parking lot till I heard my car alarm go off. She thought that was a wonderful idea and it helped her calm down. It's amazing all the little coping skills one can learn to help keep oneself functioning.
My fibro-fog problem that bothered me the most was not being able to read I could not keep track of what was going on in one book much less 3 or 4. I would have to backtrack and reread many times to understand a book. So what I did was I started reading for my grandchildren more than I had in the past. In fact I didn't read hardly anything above a fourth or fifth grade level, because it was nearly impossible. Yesterday while I was taking my photos of my still lifes which was of what I am currently reading; I realized that I was reading adult books and three of them. I am reading "The Story of Pi" because Emily recommended it and was planning to read it this weekend and I wanted to be able to talk to her intelligently about it. I am rereading "The Light Fantastic" as my practice book for speed reading that Emily taught my how to do over the Holidays. You are supposed to read a book you have previously read to start out your speed reading practice. You will notice that I said I am learning to speed read quite an accomplishment even without the fibro-fog. Then I am also reading a book on perspective in drawing and I will have a picture of the book and a drawing to show you when I am done with that one.
I am so glad to have had this realization; It has definitely buoyed my spirits.
Photo edit notes:
My hands shake a lot and the book pic are done in HDR so they are pictures that are aligned and layered. The first attempt at this I could not get the pictures to line up even though I was using a tripod. I tried again using the tripod but also using the cameras timer set at 2 seconds so my hands were no where near the camera when it took the photo. This worked. I was using the free trial of Corel Paint Shop Pro Ultimate for the HDR process

Finished last night

Emily brought this book with her for me to read. She is an English lit. major with a sense of humor. We both have the same slightly bizarre sense of humor and enjoy books like this, authors like Neil Gaiman, and movies such as Nightmare Before Christmas and Monty Python's Holy Grail. I enjoyed this book; it is good satire of "Pride and Prejudice" and the morals and manners of the times. One good example is that the zombies are never referred to as zombies they are unmentionables. Even the publisher has the appropriate name of Quirk Classics.
I probably would not have finished last night but I was using it as a distraction from the fibro pain. This is a good indication of how good the book is and how much I enjoyed it because if it wasn't good enough it would not have been a good distraction.

The dog ate my homework

This is Hiedi.(Sorry could not get picture to upload, I'll try for the picture tomorrow). She was my dog when I was in elementary school and she really did eat my homework and the English book it was in and the bookbag they were in and my glasses that were also in the bookbag. I had plenty of proof that the dog did indeed eat my homework, but that did not change the fact that I didn't have my homework the next day. I did get off a little easier than if I hadn't done it at all. No nose on the ring on the chalkboard (can you imagine that these days). I still had to make up the homework, pay for the book, go without a bookbag and go without glasses till they could be replaced (no one hour back then)and endure my parents rath at having to replace the glasses. It was not the easy way of getting out of my homework in fact it would have been much less painful if I had just taken care of my bookbag and put it where the dog could not get it.

Today I do not have home work but I do have Fibromyalsia and multiple other medical problems. If I do not heed the advice of my Doctor and my BODY and take good care of myself then I end up paying a greater price just like I did when I didn't take care of my bookbag. Today if I push to hard, do to much, get lazy about meds or eating right or the many other things I need to do; I end up by my body slowing down with more fatigue, pain, brainfog and all the other complications that come with my medical problems. Well I have gotten to excited and done too much and am now paying for it. For a few days not as much will be done, I haven't been on MSS or Facebook as much for a couple days, haven't been sleeping as well, but in spite of " the dog eating my homework" I'll get going again and once again try to learn to put balance back in my life.