Monday, October 27, 1997...Asthma Attack

Many miles southwest of us, people are crawling out from under the same storm that we just finished with. Our storm broke a lot of records, including one set back in 1898. Saturday night we went out to get groceries. The wind was howling ferociously, and the snow appeared to be coming from ten directions at once--and in the middle of that, we could hear, seemingly directly overhead, the cries of Canada geese. They sounded so low, we were afraid they’d never clear the tall trees around our house.

Larry explained to the children that they honk like that “so one of the others doesn’t pull out in front of them.”

Tuesday I made five pumpkin rolls, and Thursday I baked the other six pumpkins and ran them through the blender. I froze over thirty quarts of pumpkin puree. The poor blender started smelling hot, and wouldn’t spin as fast as it should; I don’t think it has enough oomph to act like a commercial blender! I sure hope it doesn’t give up the ghost; I don’t want to have to buy a new one.

Wednesday was school-picture day, so everybody was up early to get their hair just so-so, shirt collars folded just right over sweaters, glasses polished, noses shined. On Thursday, there was only school in the morning, and that afternoon and the following day were parent/teacher conferences. I visited with Hester and Lydia’s teachers; we don’t have conferences with the Jr./Sr. High teachers--they just call us if they need to. And anyway, we are all good friends and talk to each other often; so no student slips between the cracks. Not for long, anyway. The little girls are doing fine and dandy, 100%s right and left, happy as larks.

This week Larry took Dorcas, Teddy, and Joseph to the library, and let Dorcas drive back home. They were in the Suzuki Samurai, which is a 5-speed. Yike! Scary. This is why parents get gray young. Or why they get automatics rather than manual transmissions.

Larry has now hung the doors on that Supah-Dupah crewcab. The inside is gray velour. I’m telling you, that thing is lonnnnnng.

I’ve begun working on the Christmas program, calling all the teenagers to see who wants to say poems or verses, and picking out the songs. Thursday at Jr. Choir, we started practicing some of them.

Dorcas had a biology project--she was to put together a collage on a posterboard, the subject of which was to be ‘Maintaining Good Health’, including physical, mental, and spiritual health. So, instead of delving through dozens of magazines finding appropriate pictures, we decided to take pictures of Dorcas, herself, doing all sorts of suitable things: putting toothpaste on her toothbrush (caption: Cleanse first that which is within), brushing her teeth (caption: I am escaped by the skin of my teeth), reading her Bible (caption: Study to shew thyself approved unto God), another reading her Bible, using my pink/blue mist spot filter (caption: Study to be quiet and to do your own business), reading a Bible story book to Caleb and Lydia (caption: Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it), doing her history (caption: Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of flesh!), two pictures of Dorcas crocheting, one using my multi-image filter (caption: And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet), eating an apple, using multi-image filter (caption: I sat down under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my taste); rollerblading (caption: When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble), riding her bike, using my speed filter (captions: Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain [and] Let us run with patience the race that is set before us [and] He rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race), and Dorcas sleeping, arm wrapped around a stuffed bunny (caption: He giveth His beloved sleep). Dorcas took the posterboard to school today. Her teacher was thoroughly pleased with it, and told Dorcas that she would receive no less than 100%, and probably some extra credit, too, for all the work. (Even I had fun, helping her.)

Friday evening we went to Fremont in a cold rain to get shoes for Hannah. She’d looked all over town the day before, and the only ones she could find that fit cost sixty to eighty dollars, which is a wee bit beyond our budget. The drive was worth it; we found some shoes for only $10. After that, we went to the Wal-Mart Super Center, where we bought an armload of socks and tights for Victoria. It seems that hand-me-downs, once they’ve reached the fifth little girl, are not so nice, even if they do remain in pairs, which is improbable. Also, we found a cute pair of soft, white shoes for her, called McBabys, over which she is absolutely intrigued. She periodically sticks one foot straight out and beams happily at her new shoe, and next she checks out its flavor. Today when I was dressing her, she picked one shoe up, held it out to me, and said nonchalantly, “Djoo.”

Leaving the clothing department, we headed for the grocery area. Now, isn’t that just the way? This is what we always do: we load up the cart with clothing items, after which we pile it the rest of the way full with groceries.....all sorts of cold things such as juice, cheese, meat; things on which condensation forms, to drip down nicely right onto the garments under them.

On the other hand, if we did it the other way around, going to the grocery division first, by the time we found the apparel we wanted, we’d be leaving a stream of melted ice cream, or some such thing, behind us. Such a quandary.

On the way home, we gobbled down quite a bit of our meat, cheese, apple/fig cobblers, and cranberry juice.

Saturday Hannah had a severe asthma attack, and her temperature was 101.5°. I called Dr. Luckey, who gave her a couple of prescriptions, antibiotic and Prednizone, but they weren’t helping quickly enough, and she was getting worse, fast. I called Dr. Luckey again, and he let us come to the clinic at a quarter ’til four, where he was working on his books, even though the clinic is officially closed on Saturday afternoons. He gave her a muscle relaxant shot especially for the upper airways, which untwists those muscles at the top of the lungs and chest so quickly it sometimes hurts. He gave her a shot of antibiotic which would last 36 hours, and another dose straight into the vein. In only a minute and a half Hannah was able to breathe much better. Dr. Luckey also gave her a couple of inhalers. He kept us there for almost an hour, checking Hannah’s pulse (the muscle relaxant shot sometimes makes people’s hearts race) and blood pressure. Both remained normal.

This asthma is nothing to piddle around with. I guess we should just be thankful we live now, rather than fifty years ago or so, when they didn’t have proper medicine for such things.

Anyway, she’s doing much better. I think part of the problem is that some of Hannah’s classmates come to school sick, and she catches things easily. Last week one girl attended class with bronchitis, and she sat right next to Hannah several times throughout the day. To make matters worse, she doesn’t seem to know she should hold a handkerchief or something in front of her mouth when she coughs.

So Hannah caught a virus. And when a person who has asthma gets infection in the airways, instead of the body discarding of it as usual, it causes those airways to tighten, rather than loosen. Trouble begins, and it’s like a vicious circle.

Saturday evening, Nebraska played Kansas State, and we won 35-0. Yeah, I like football.

Our newspaper has pictures showing what the big snowfall in Lincoln and Omaha brought on. Omaha is in bad shape; nearly every tree in the city was damaged by the 9.5 inches of wet heavy snow which fell on trees still covered with leaves. 205,000 people were without electricity, and some are not expected to regain power until Friday, at the earliest.

Sunday afternoon we drove around Lake Babcock and some of the other numerous ponds and lakes we have around here. We took pictures of Canada geese, teals, and a mud duck or two. The trees were filled with chickadees, and they’ve also been frequenting our feeders. The north sides of all the trees are coated with snow, and green leaves cover the ground. With the bright blue sky about, and leaves still on the trees, everything is extraordinarily colorful.

Saturday morning, by some strange coincidence, Larry and I both cut our hair. That is, I cut mine; Larry had his cut by the barber. Nobody seemed to notice until dinnertime Sunday; this, doubtless because I’d worn a hat to church in the morning and had a bad case of hat hair, exacerbated by the fact that I am already a pinhead. So I looked something like Peppermint Patty after having walked to school in a torrential downpour.

“Did you cut your hair?” Hannah asked me.

Whereupon Larry affected a preening pose (as if she’d asked him), one large hand patting daintily on his hair, little (little?) finger extended, eyes batting coquettishly.

“Why, yes, I did!” he exclaimed in high-pitched falsetto.

Caleb’s head popped up. “Tee hee hee!” he giggled. “Is that why you look like that??”

That reminds me of the time my brother, Loren, came rushing into my mother’s house (that’s the way he always comes into anywhere), and went to the closet to place his Stetson dress hat on the shelf. Hester, who was 3 ½, watched with interest.

“That’s a nice hat!” she told him. “And,” she continued emphatically, “it looks funny on you!!”

Funny funny kids.

Victoria has been getting up on her knees lately, and sometimes she actually manages to suddenly scoot forward, after which she looks around triumphantly at us, wrinkling her nose and grinning.

This afternoon, Hester had an appointment with the dentist. She had an abscess on her gum, caused by infection in a baby molar. Since a great portion of the roots had already dissolved, the dentist recommended removing it, rather than filling it, which we agreed to. He was so gentle in giving her a shot and pulling the tooth, it didn’t even hurt her. Later tonight, she took a Tylenol, after which she managed to eat supper just fine. I’m sure glad we switched dentists.

Hannah has now finished the second doll’s crocheted outfit, and started on the third (and last). The project has gone on in fits and starts while she worked on other birthday and Christmas presents. She just finished a beautiful doily for my mother’s birthday, which is October 31st. It is white, with raised pink rose petals around the outer border.

One day Lydia spotted a baby mouse scampering down the hallway just outside of her door. She did what she deemed best: she called for Joseph. And then he did what he deemed best: he put it in his critter hut. This, of course, was exactly what Lydia wanted.

They put bread crumbs and cheese in it, along with leaves and grass and sticks for him to hide in. The hut then graced our kitchen table for several hours, until the littles took pity on Baby Mouse and freed him. Joseph set the critter hut down on the top step at the back door while he aided Mousey Dear in his decampment.

Guess who found it. That’s right; none other than Aleutia, aka Wolfhound, our beloved cannibalistic Wildebeest. Concluding there was no other way to get to the desired morsels of bread and cheese, she decided to simply eat critter hut and all. Fortunately, Joseph discovered her before she consumed it entirely, but now we must put new screen in the poor child’s prize souvenir. Brother. That dog.

Once when she was quite a young pup, she pulled the entire drainpipe off the side of the house and proceeded to chew it flat shut, she did! We named her wrong. She should’ve been called Nanny Goat Gruff.

Monday, October 20, 1997...Bookwork, Baking, and Sewing

I am now typing on a new word processor! It is quite a bit more advanced than my old one, and I haven’t learned very much about it at all--but at least it does do all the same things my old one did, and I do know how to do that. It has grammar check, a thesaurus, a spread sheet, an address book, and a lot more incomprehensible contrivances.

Each week I send an aunt in New Mexico a letter. Then I use that letter, edited, to send to an uncle Illinois. I type the letter, play it out, file it, and record it on a disk. Then I retrieve it, edit it, play it out for my 87-year-old uncle, and let that file disappear into cyberspace.

Sometimes, however, my editing leaves something to be desired.....like the time I asked him if there was still a bear in the arroyo. (They don’t call them arroyos in Illinois.) (And there are no bears around Shelbyville.)

Or the time I told him Lawrence was surprised to receive a birthday card from him--and he doesn’t even know who Lawrence is. So he was doubtless surprised he'd sent the card.

Well, a couple of weeks ago when I asked our aunt if she'd like to send a poem for Hester’s autograph album, I forgot to delete that request when I printed the letter to my uncle. He’s been in the hospital recently, and he’s rather frail, and I didn’t want to ask for something that would be difficult for him to do. So we were quite surprised to find an envelope from Uncle Don in our mailbox last Monday! Inside was a poem:

Labor for learning
Before you grow old;
For learning is better
Than silver and gold;

For silver and gold
Can soon fade away;
But learning and memory
Will never decay.

Don Swiney

At the top of this poem was Hester’s name. That was all; nothing more. But we were all tickled pink!---This was the first time anybody ever knew of anybody getting a letter from Uncle Don, ever. Isn’t that nice?

Tuesday evening Lawrence and Norma came, bringing a cake for Caleb’s birthday. It was a carrot cake, made with cream cheese, with a pineapple/vanilla pudding/ whipped cream topping. Mmmmmmmmm. They gave Caleb three beanbag babies--Sylvester, Bugs Bunny, and Tweetie Bird; a stuffed Dalmation with rubber feet that make him ‘walk’ when his leash is pulled, a little red New Testament, and a big wind-up fly.

Caleb was busily pulling things out of the bag when he spotted that fly. “Eeeeeewww!!” he yelled. “Ick! ICKY!!”

When they gave him that New Testament, I remembered: We had a new Bible for him, too! It’s navy, and has his name printed in silver script. He was quite pleased.

We also gave him a Bible story songbook. It plays ten songs, and really has pretty harmony. The pictures are old-fashioned and pretty, too.

Yesterday was his first day in the children’s Sunday School class. He went trotting off to the door, grinning; and when he came back out, he was still grinning; so I guess he enjoyed himself.

I’ve had so much bookwork this week, and done so much baking, I haven’t had time to do any sewing at all. Oh, yes…I also wasted quite a bit of time getting out every last album I have, putting them in order, and numbering them. I have 73. That’s right; 73. The output has really increased since I got my good camera.

I finished the roll of film in my camera, and discovered there were a few pictures on it from our trip to Colorado, including the children on top of a mountain west of Black Hawk, hair blowing wildly. It was windy up there! We saw an old abandoned mill on the side of a mountain, and, in the valley below, the aspens still had their brilliant golden leaves. Traveling through middle and eastern Colorado, we drove through ferocious dust storms. I didn’t have my camera out in time to take a picture when all we could see were the top two stories of this big building.

We drove by a giant field of pumpkins. But what got our attention were all the tumbleweeds plastered against the fence.

Hannah has been crocheting; she just finished several barrettes.

Norma gave me some beautiful black velvet brocade with bright magenta and burgundy flowers, enough for the bodice for Hester’s Christmas dress. Then she and Lawrence proceeded to travel around all over the countryside looking for the dark plum iridescent taffeta we wanted for the skirt and sleeves. They found it in York, where they also found two suits for Keith at $4 each, and a beautiful dress for Dorcas which needs to be altered, and several pairs of brand-new jeans for the boys at only three dollars each.

Thursday evening, some friends of ours ordered three large pizzas from Pizza Hut and had them delivered to our house. We were quite surprised.

While we were gone last week, somebody put seven big pumpkins on our front porch. We finally discovered they were from one of Larry's numerous second cousins. Friday I cut two of them, baked them, ran them through my blender, and made a dozen pumpkin chiffon pies. I still have a huge bowl of pumpkin puree in the refrigerator, which tomorrow I plan to use in a pumpkin roll, in the middle of which is a yummy cream cheese filling. Esther’s father gave Caleb a large pumpkin for his birthday, so now I have six more pumpkins which I need to cook, puree, and freeze or cook.

Caleb helped me scrape out one big pumpkin. He scooped up a big glob of seeds and goo, dumped it in the garbage. Some seeds stuck to his spoon. He shook it. Still stuck. He shook it harder. Still stuck. So he shook it with all his might and main, flinging pumpkin seeds far and wide, high and low. Some even landed in Hannah’s hair.

Caleb’s eyes widened. “Ooops,” he said quietly, and carefully plucked them out.

Friday night Larry went back to work about midnight, and worked until 5:15 A.M. on. . . . .guess what? It’s a 4x4 crewcab he brought back from Oklahoma, along with another cab frame, which he is starting to put together to make a 6-door pickup! It’s a ’96 Ford powerstroke diesel, and it only has 35,000 miles on it. He’s just finished stretching the frame out by three feet, and boy oh boy, does it ever look long. Today he pieced the cabs together and set them on the pickup, ready to be welded. Yes, the frame will be reinforced. And, did I say?--it’s for us.

A friend of ours gave us two bags of tomatoes, so Saturday I made picante sauce.

Whewwweeeee! I think I put one too many haberñero peppers in it. I stuck a piece in my mouth to test it for hotness----and then you should’ve seen me rushing frantically to and fro, stuffing anything and everything in my mouth: coffee (no good), milk, water, cereal, bread, hats, socks, light bulbs, anything.

Flames were even shooting out of my fingertips, because I got them in the sauce, too.

While I was doing that, Hester was making Oatmeal Apple Raisin muffins. Those turned out extra tasty, especially with a generous helping of applesauce.

Then, to cover up all those tantalizing aromas, --I cooked cabbage.

Glkmph.

But really, it was good.

Saturday night I helped Dorcas finish putting her plants on her bright fuschia posterboard and label them, after which I helped Keith with a particularly recalcitrant couple of accounting pages.

Harry, who gave us the two old computers, had his 71st birthday Saturday, so Keith, Lydia, and Caleb took him a pumpkin pie in a cute little 5” ceramic pie plate. Harry then printed out all sorts of colored pictures of funny animals on his computer, which he gave to Caleb.

Yesterday afternoon, after a big dinner topped off by.....you guessed it--pumpkin pie, we went for a drive south of town, up over the bluffs, then back down again via country roads. The view of Columbus and beyond from the top of the bluffs is pretty this time of year, with the golden corn standing in the field or just being harvested, the winter wheat vivid green, and some of the trees changing color. Esther, who went with us, had never seen the vista from that standpoint before.

Well, so far, I’m most impressed with my new word processor. I think I’ll print this out and head for the feathers!