Mother Nature----I Want To Go Camping!!

Mother Nature is not having a good year.  She is suffering from memory loss judging from the weather we have been having.  Doesn't she remember that this time of year we are supposed to be in the 60's?  Doesn't she know that in order for April showers to bring May flowers, there have to be a few days of warmth and sunshine?

I know, I know, in another few months we will be complaining about the heat and humidity. But even 50 can feel comfortable if there is no rain or wind to go with it.

I am comfortable at 80-85 degrees.  Any cooler and I freeze my patootie off.  Any warmer and my hot flashes and night sweats have competition.

I would be happy with days in the  80's and nights in the mid 50's, as long as I have my hubby to snuggle up to.

We want to go camping but it's just too darn cold.  Want to go this weekend but if it's going to be under 60 and raining, it won't be worth it since we have a lot of work to clean up our lot from the winter mess that good ol' Mom Nature left us.  I am planning on taking 2 days off next week, hoping that we can get the floor in our camper replaced and put the kitchen benches and table back in place.  I really would like to get all that heavy maintenance type work done early so we can just relax and enjoy the peace and tranquility of sitting outside having our coffee, sitting around the campfire, and not sweating and busting our butts doing work all weekend.  After the major stuff is done we just have to worry about watering the flowers that I plan on getting planted in my containers, and maybe sweeping the sand off our plastic grass that never needs cutting.

Once the camper is re-positioned on the other side of the trees, we will have more room on the door side so we can move the table away from the camper and sit on BOTH sides of it!

I already know we have a potential leak in the cap over the vent in the kitchen area, since a friend stopped in to check on things and told me that the floor under that and the table appeared to have gotten wet.

I can't really complain, we got the trailer at a really good price and it has served us well over the last 2 years.  We bought if from another friend at camp who had it for several years.  She took very good care of it, kept it clean and in great condition.  Many of the issues are because it is so old, 1985 I believe.  This will be our 3rd year with it and we will probably be putting a little more $$$ in it in the way of new floor base, fancy-schmancy stick on linoleum tiles, and hopefully new mini-blinds and curtains.

I can't begin to tell you  how I look forward to leaving the office on Friday afternoon, getting home and changing to comfortable clothes.  I know that my hubby will have everything packed and ready to go when I get home.  Usually just have to stop for gas and maybe something for dinner (usually sliders LOL).

From that point on until we get home Sunday night, all stress, tension, and drama are non-existent.

It's HAPPY CAMP time!!

Five Year Anniversary - Lots To Celebrate!

Five years ago today, February 5, I quit smoking. I also had a heart attack, and that was the reason I quit smoking. The smoking was one of the main contributors to my heart attack; stress and a lousy diet were other contributing factors. A vicious circle to say the least.

The day started out as any other; got up, showered, went to work. Came home from work and hubby suggested we go out to dinner. I thought it was a good idea, but by the time he got home from work, I wasn't feeling well and decided to stay home. Nothing unusual happened, just sat around and relaxed, took a nice long bubble bath and got ready for bed.

I was laying in bed, about 9pm, when I started to have what I thought was a hot flash. Usually they would come and go and a cool cloth on my chest would help it ease up, but this one didn't go away. In fact, it started feeling like someone was dragging molten hot barbed wire across my chest. When they say a woman has different symptoms than a man during a heart attack, they aren't kidding. I didn't have the numbness in my arm, or the pain in my shoulder, jaw or anything else that is considered a common symptom of a heart attack. I had a burning sensation in my chest, and an upset stomach. Then the headache started. OH MY GOD!!! Excruciating, crushing headache, like none I've ever experienced before. By the time the paramedics arrived, my head felt like it would explode, but the burning in my chest had subsided, or maybe I just didn't notice it anymore because of the headache. They put me on oxygen, slipped a nitro under my tongue and rushed me to the hospital.

There, they hooked me up for an EKG, drew some blood, and told me that I had had a heart attack and would require more tests to see how severe and what damage, if any, had been done to my heart. I was admitted to the cardiac unit upstairs, hooked up to a telemetry unit and confined to bed. My husband was there as was my mom and my son, and I finally convinced them that they should go home and rest. Of course I didn't get any rest; every five or ten minutes someone came in to get answers, blood, urine, blood pressure, glucose levels, EKG readings, you name it, I gave it. By the end of the first day they had blown just about every vein in both my arms, and the only way to get blood from me was to dig. OUCH! Finally they put one of those central lines in me so I didn't have to get poked everytime they wanted to draw something, or inject something.

As it turned out, I had an 80% blockage in the left main coronary artery where it meets the aorta. There was another smaller blockage a little further down the artery.

I required a double bypass instead of stents because the placement of the stents couldn't be performed due to the location of the blockage.

Surgery was on February 11, and I was home on February 15.

Strange as it may sound, February 5, 2004 was also a Thursday, just like it is this year.

I'm doing good, haven't had a cigarette since then. Still have some weight to lose, also found out 2 years ago that I have Type 2 Diabetes. I have to take medication daily for blood pressure, Diabetes, and acid reflux disease, but it's better than the alternative.

Women suffer more heart attacks and have a higher risk for heart disease than most men, and the symptoms in women are so different from the ones that men experience, that more women's heart disease goes undetected until it's too late. I was one of the lucky ones.