Wednesday...'cause I got nothin' else

I'm feeling cruddy today. My head and nose are stopped up, my head hurts and my throat is scratchy. I did sleep okay last night although not as long as I would have liked, but I plan on taking a nap very shortly. I haven't been sick for any appreciable time for around two years so I plan on being a big baby over this.

I saw the rheumatologist yesterday. I really like her. She's sweet and very sympathetic to both my pain and my financial situation. She's never charged me a co-pay. I mean...twenty-five dollars to her is not what it is to me, right?

And Zach had a vestry meeting last night so a lot of time was spent on the road and I was wiped out when we got home. I had him fix supper for himself and Tom because I just wasn't hungry and wanted to just rest. He had mowed the yard earlier, which was good because it started raining, so he had a pretty full day, too.

And speaking of rain...Tom spent quite a bit of time on the roof sealing some joins but the roof still leaked and dripped down through the crawl space into the bathroom. The bathroom rug was wet and there was water on the side of the tub. Oh, lord...how can we afford to put a new roof on right now? Why can't we just have a chance to breathe?

But we did get rain and I'm hoping the rain barrel is full enough to fill some of the water jugs I've got out there (well...old milk jugs, to be precise.) The bucket is full and that's about 5 gallons there. I need to go outside and do that today in spite of feeling like this. Some things can't wait until you feel better. I also need to get some cooking and baking done. I don't have anything I can just throw together when I have days like yesterday. And I will be having those days with regularity in about a month, when school starts.

There was an accident last night at our intersection. It's always been a bad one, in my opinion, because to the right you have traffic coming down a curving hill and you can't see the cars until they emerge from behind the trees. It's almost like having to turn around and look over your right shoulder to see. Plus they come down the hill very fast and by the time you've entered the intersection, they're there. And you never had a chance to really see them. I've had to slam on the brakes multiple times. It looks like last night someone didn't slam on the brakes soon enough. I didn't see the accident but an SUV hit a little coupe on the side so I'm guessing the SUV was coming down the hill and the little coupe was entering the intersection.

The police were there by the time we left for church. No one was hurt, but the minute I heard the squeal of brakes and the crash, I thought of those dogs that run loose. They live right on that corner and I have seen them run into the street in front of cars before and I thought a car had tried to avoid them. Not this time.

I've had my own encounters with wild life lately. Coming home from church Sunday, I got to a major intersection and there was a chipmunk in the middle of the road. Since no one was behind me, I stopped rather abruptly but too close to really see where he went. So I eased forward hoping if I was moving slowly enough he would avoid the tires. Somehow he got out from under the car and raced across the road. Whew! In Wisconsin it's illegal to stop for an animal if it will cause an accident (unless it's an animal large enough to damage your car) so I made sure no one was around.

Yesterday I was on my way to Fond du Lac and wasn't even a block from home when I saw a squirrel in the middle of the road just on my side of the center yellow line. The car behind me was far enough back that I was able to slow way down and move to the right. Stupid squirrel ran to the right, in front of the car. Again...I eased forward because I couldn't see where he was and he ran to the left. I know they get frightened by the vibrations and don't know where they're coming from. I'm just glad I didn't have to hit either creature.

I hit a cat once while driving up to see the surgeon. It was lying down in the middle of my lane and since it was on a curve and there was a semi (truck) on my tail...well, within two car lengths) I couldn't do anything differently. There was no side of the road to pull over on and I couldn't tell if there was a car coming in the opposite lane so I couldn't pull over into that lane. I straddled the cat and it freaked him out so that he ran out from under the car and directly under my wheels. I cried all the way to the doctor's office.

I hate killing animals. I hit a raccoon once, late at night, coming home from Fond du Lac after one of Zach's classes. It upset me but not as much as the cat. This was a honking big raccoon and he was just sitting in the middle of the lane with his back to me. I couldn't tell what it was or really see him until I was right on him.

Darned circle of life.

I've been working on a log cabin blanket out of the yarn Jan got from a church rummage sale and gave to me. Bright yellows, blues, pinks. purples and greens. It's an easy pattern that doesn't require any special attention and with my brain of late, easy is necessary. I haven't worked on the beaded scarf for a while. Or the other baby blanket. Or the water shawl (feather and fan pattern) that I'm more than half-way done. So I think I will relax on the bed and knit today. There's nothing in particular I want to watch on television although I'm running through the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, including all the documentaries and commentaries. I'm waiting for Bones, the third season to be available at the library. I used to put several on hold at a time but since they always come in at once and I have to stop everything and watch them, it takes the leisurely enjoyment out of it.

Off to fix lunch and have a nap.

TTFN