IT WAS LIKE SOMEONE OPENED A VALVE AND DRAINED OUT ALL MY ENERGY

 I MANAGED A FEW PHOTOS THIS MORNING

Thunder, lightning, and rain came in the night, but that was all okay.  I was home in my favorite place, tucked snugly into my recliner with the patio door beside me partially open and the night's cooling breeze wafting over me.  And oh my, how nice that fresh air.  How great, I thought, not to be breathing in hospital air.  Peering through our living room window, the day dawned under clear blue skies.  Sunshine filtered through the green leaves, bringing out Spring's wondrous colors.

OUR REDBUD TREE OUTSIDE THE LIVING ROOM WINDOW IS IN FULL BLOOM

 

With a decent, reasonably good night's sleep finally under my belt (only 7 trips to the washroom) it was the best I'd felt in the past four days.  How great to be home and how great to see Spring's beauty breaking out all over.  But, it wasn't long before I began sliding backwards.  I did take Subie for a slow drive down to the end of Bayfield River Road and back, catching a few pics along the way.  

 OH, NOW LONG I HAVE WAITED TO SEE BEAUTIFUL GREEN FORESTS AGAIN

 FARMER'S FIELDS ARE PLANTED NOW AND SOON WILL BE FILLED WITH SUMMER'S CROPS

Home again, it was like someone opened a valve and drained out all my energy, and I was done for the rest of the day.  I had intended to go to Goderich with Lorraine to pick up my antibiotic medicine at the Walmart Pharmacy.  However, by the time she was ready to go, I was already asleep in my recliner.  She quietly tippytoed out and headed off to Goderich herself.  What a dear soul and what a big mess I would have been in if she weren't here helping me.  I am so indebted to her for stepping forward 4 months ago to rekindle our old friendship and helping me through these difficult times that I thought I could quite ably handle on my own.  Men sometimes can be their own worst enemy.

MY STRATFORD HOME FOR A FEW DAYS

DAY ONE....AT LEAST MY HAIR WAS STILL COMBED

 YOU MIGHT THINK THIS IS A DELICIOUS CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE, BUT NO, IT'S SHEPHERD'S PIE AND NOT EVEN A WHOLE BOTTLE OF KETCHUP COULD HAVE SAVED IT.

 I TOOK ONE FORKFUL OF THIS 'CHICKEN' AND THAT WAS THE END OF STORY FOR THIS MEAL

 TWO FORKFULS OF THIS MAC AND CHEESE AND I BAILED OUT...NEEDLESS TO SAY, I DIDN'T EAT VERY MUCH WHILE I WAS IN THE HOSPITAL....I DON'T LIKE COMPLAINING ABOUT FOOD, BUT SOMETIMES THINGS JUST HAVE TO BE SAID

 THE EAST FACING WINDOW BESIDE MY BED

BY THE SECOND DAY, I WAS MORPHING INTO QUITE A WRECK

Al's Music Box:))  It's Now Or Never is a song recorded by Elvis Presley and released as a single in 1960. The song is Presley's biggest hit, with 20 million copies sold worldwide, it is one of the best-selling singles of all time. It was recorded by Bill Porter at RCA Studio B in Nashville.  "It's Now or Never" is one of two popular songs based on the Italian song of the Neapolitan language, "O Sole mio" (music by Eduardo di Capua); the other being "There's No Tomorrow", recorded by U.S. singer Tony Martin in 1949, which inspired Presley's version. The lyrics were written by Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold The song was published by Elvis Presley's company Gladys Music, Inc. In the late 1950s, while stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army, Presley heard Martin's recording. It is also likely that he was inspired to record this because of his fondness for Mario Lanza who had first popularized "'O Sole Mio" to American audiences and who had died the year before.  According to The New Yor Times, quoting from the 1986 book Behind the Hits, "he told the idea to his music publisher, Freddy Bienstock, who was visiting him in Germany... Mr. Bienstock, who many times found songwriters for Presley, returned to his New York City office, where he found songwriters, Mr. [Aaron] Schroeder and Wally Gold, the only people in that day. The two wrote lyrics in half an hour. Selling more than 5 million records, the song became number one in countries all around and was Presley's best-selling single ever... a song [they] finished in 20 minutes to a half hour was the biggest song of [their] career."  Barry White credited this song as his inspiration for changing his life and becoming a singer following his release from prison.  In the promotional video for the Beatles' 1968 single "Hey Jude," the members of the band jokingly perform a few lines of the song.

Groaner's Corner:(( There was once a handyman who had a dog named Mace. Mace was a great dog except he had one weird habit: he liked to eat grass -- not just a little bit, but in quantities that would make a lawnmower blush. And nothing, it seemed, could cure him of it. One day, the handyman lost his wrench in the tall grass while he was working outside. He looked and looked, but it was nowhere to be found.  As it was getting dark, he gave up for the night and decided to look the next morning. When he awoke, he went outside and saw that his dog had eaten all the grass in the area, around where he had been working, and his wrench now lay in plain sight, glinting in the sun.  Going out to get his wrench, he called the dog over to him and said, "A grazing Mace, how sweet the hound, that saved a wrench for me."

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Friendship Is:: Secretly giving people nicknames so only we know who we are talking about, Always knowing what the other is thinking, Annoying each other and thoroughly enjoying it, Being each other's therapist, Sharing every little detail about every little thing,  Not being able to wait to tell each other stuff, Never getting bored with each other's blabber.
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- An optimist stays up to see the New Year in. A pessimist waits to make sure the old one leaves.

- Two nudists were discussing politics.
One says, “Have you read Marx?”
The other nods, “It’s these blasted wicker chairs."

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After being with his blind date all evening, the man couldn't take another minute with her. Earlier, he had secretly arranged to have a friend call him to the phone so he would have an excuse to leave if something like this happened.  When he returned to the table, he lowered his eyes, put on a grim expression and said, "I have some bad news. My grandfather just died."  "Thank heavens," his date replied. "If yours hadn't, mine would have had to!"

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kelly & Pheeb's Corner

Al's Art Gallery

'THIS POST STARTED OUT AT THE HOSPITAL:(( AND ENDED UP AT HOME:))

Stratford Hospital Early This Afternoon:: I haven't seen my doctor (Bukala) since Tuesday morning, so I have no idea how I'm doing or when I will be going home.  Nobody has told me anything, but I have been treated very well here by the nursing staff.  Lorraine (who lives in Stratford) has been in every day to see me and has been keeping me supplied with a few of life's essentials like Tim Horton coffee and Tim Bits.  You do not want to hear my thoughts on the hospital food!! My first 3 nights in the hospital were very rough, and I suffered from a severe lack of sleep, especially Tuesday night when my roommate, a dearly sweet little old man with Alzheimers, was very disruptive all through the night and the nurses had their hands full.  I was awake through all that.  Luckily, he was moved to another room first thing the next morning, and since then, I have been the only one in this spacious 4-bed room.  I am right next to a window facing east, so I get to see the sunrises.  Sure wish I had some Windex here to clean the window.  I have no idea how long I will be in the hospital or what Dr. Bukala has planned for me.  Luckily, Woodsy/Lorraine (my little angel) brought me my laptop computer on Tuesday, and I have my iPhone with me.  Sometimes, I disconnect the power from my IVTree and the 'tree', and I go for a walk around the halls and look out the windows in a few places.  Oh, how I wish I were out walking with Pheebs somewhere.  Being in the hospital these past 4 days, I've thought of Kelly a lot and all those hospital stays she had over the last few years at London's University Hospital.  She sure put up with a lot and fought a royal battle right to the end.  I don't think I fully understood her difficulties with hospital life until these past few days..........Thank you to everyone for your kind comments and concerns.  I have so many fine friends that I have never met.  Hopefully, I will write my next post from home..............:)) Having just finished writing that last line, I heard footsteps coming into the room on the other side of the curtain.  I knew it wasn't a nurse because they wear soft footwear and walk quietly.  These were solid steps lending themselves to leather footwear.  Could it be??  Could it finally be??  And, just like that, Dr. Bukala walked in around my curtain.  With a bespeckled bald head, this slender, small-framed build of man had the makings of a slight smile on his face.  He asked how I was feeling of course, and then proceeded to tell me all my bloodwork tests, etc, etc, and etc, were all looking good and I could go home:))))) Well, I wasn't long in getting out of that bed and went about putting myself all back together and getting all my stuff packed up in a big red bag.  A few quick messages back and forth to Lorraine and half an hour later I was out the hospital door and into her waiting car.  I was certainly not out of the woods yet because I felt weak and shaky, but oh my, what a beautifully scenic rural drive we had back to Bayfield.  It was a perfect weather day.  Blue skies, puffy white clouds, warm, and everything looked so lush and green.  And the lilacs were blooming. .................. Home::  One of the first things I did upon arriving home was throw my sorry old sack of bones into the shower.  Although I felt much better, I knew I had a ways to go before I would really feel a whole lot better.  Although there is a ton of work to still be done outside, I am already chomping at the bit to get out there and get at it.  Woodsy/Lorraine fixed us up some 'cream of chicken soup' for supper, and that hit the spot.  What little I could eat, that is.  Tomorrow we have to head for the Walmart Pharmacy in Goderich and pick up some antibiotic medicine Dr. Bukala has prescribed for me.  Next Tuesday, I am to call his Stratford office to make arrangements for getting all those kidney stones out of me.  Could be an interesting few weeks ahead.  I'll see if I can slip out and find a few mid-Spring photos in the morning:))

SORRY I MISSED YESTERDAY'S POST BUT I'M IN THE STRATFORD HOSPITAL

Late Sunday afternoon, I felt a slight tweak in my lower left back but didn't think anything of it at the time.  A couple of hours later, I felt a pain growing in my back and beginning to radiate around my left side.  I recognized that pain right away.  Kidney Stone!!  Long-time readers will remember my bouts with kidney stones during our RV Travel days in the Great American Southwest.  My first encounter with a painful kidney stone was near Lymon, Colorado on our way west.  A few years later, I had a second kidney stone attack in Tucson, Arizona.  After returning to Canada after the Tucson stone, I had to have a large kidney lasered out by a Stratford Urologist by the name of Dr. Bukala.  That's where they put a stent in, and then go in and blast the stone into a bunch of small pieces to make those pieces exit the body painlessly through the stent. ....... The pain in my back ramped up Sunday night, and I took way too many pain pills to knock the pain down and ended up making myself sick.  It was a terrible night.  I was no better on Monday morning, and I began shaking again.  Luckily, Lorraine was there and able to get me into the car right away and take me to Emergency at Goderich's Hospital.  It turned out be a long day.  Among other things, they did a CT scan and the results of that scan showed a serious infection in my kidneys.  After the Goderich doctor consulted with my Urologist, Dr. Bukala in Stratford, it was decided to rush me by ambulance to the Stratford Hospital.  A great ambulance crew by the way.  When Dr. Bukala saw me and the condition I was in, he said we had to head for the operating room right away.  So, a short time later, I was on the operating table and out like a light bulb.  He immediately inserted a stent into my kidney to begin draining the infection.  When I woke up in the recovery room, I felt better than I had been feeling for the previous few days and weeks, and maybe months.  When Dr. Bukala came into my room first thing this morning to see how I was doing, he said it was a close call.  He said if I had come into the hospital 12 hours later, with the infection rapidly spreading, I would have been placed in the Intensive Care Unit and it might have been touch and go.  So, right now I am in the Stratford hospital while they monitor my condition.  There is a chance, if everything goes well, that I could go home Wednesday afternoon or Thursday.  But this isn't the end of the story.  Dr. Bukala said he didn't want to deal with the numerous (some large) kidney stones until all this infection is cleared up and under control.  So, I will be returning to the Stratford Hospital over the next three or four weeks to have all those stones removed...... So right now I'm in my room typing this on my laptop computer, which Lorraine thankfully brought me today.  If I make it home tomorrow, I may have a few pictures for you.................

MY FIRST WALK AT OUR FAVORITE WALKING SPOT WITHOUT MY BEST PAL

 MY FIRST WALK OF THE YEAR AT OUR WALKING SPOT AND THE FIRST WALK WITHOUT MY BEST PAL BY MY SIDE

A nice sunny cool Sunday morning found me in the Subaru by myself heading out to the walking spot road where Pheebs and I often went.  It was the first time there this year, and my first walk without her.  It was not an easy walk for me without my best Pal, but I did do the half mile up the road and back.  In my mind, Pheebs was there with me walking the road, bounding along in the ditches, and sniffing at all the new Spring smells.

 TURNING EAST OUT OF OUR PARK EARLIER TODAY ON A FINE MID-MAY SPRING MORNING

 NICE TO SEE COUNTRYSIDE BUSH LINES GREENING UP

 A BUSY SUNDAY MORNING FARMER OUT WORKING HIS FIELDS

 A SWAMPY AREA ALONGSIDE THE ROAD NEAR OUR WALKING SPOT

 HEADING WEST BACK TO OUR PARK JUST UP AHEAD

Seeing how it was Sunday and once thought of years ago as a day of rest, that is exactly what we did.  Sat on the back deck and soaked up some warm sunshine in the day's cooler air.  Loaded up the Subaru with more things for St. Vincent de Paul which we'll drop off on a Goderich run Monday morning.

 TURKEY VULTURE

I attended a Park meeting a couple of days ago where it was announced that our Park's water was once again going to be chlorinated.  Nothing wrong with our Park's water, but I think it may be some kind of Province-wide thing.  But, here's what bugs me!!  Somehow, word leaked out about the chlorination of our water, and now I can't find a single frog in our front yard frog pond.  With the threat of chlorinated water looming over their amphibious little green heads, I figure they have all abandoned ship and hopped their way back to the Park's big pond.

 IT WAS A LONELY WALK THIS MORNING

Al's Music Box:)) Cool Water sung by Marty Robbins is a song written in 1936 by Bob Nolan. It is about a parched man and his mule traveling a wasteland tormented by mirages.  The song is on Marty Robbins' fifth studio album, released on the Columbia Records label in September 1959 and peaking at number 6 on the U.S. pop albums chart. It was recorded in a single eight-hour session on April 7, 1959, and was certified Gold by the RIAA in 1965 and Platinum in 1986. Years after the album's release, members of the Western Writers of America chose six of its songs as being among the Top 100 Western Songs of all time. Three of them were written by Robbins: "El Paso," "Big Iron," and "The Master's Call." Three were written and previously recorded by others: "Cool Water," "Billy the Kid," and "The Strawberry Roan."

 SATURDAY NIGHT SUNSET AT BAYFIELD'S BEACH AREA

Groaner's Corner:(( "I bet you don't know what day this is", said the wife to her husband as he made his way out the front door. The husband was perplexed, but was always a quick thinker: "Of course I do, my dear. How could I forget!?" With that, he turned and rushed to catch the bus for work.  At 10 AM, the doorbell rang and when the woman opened the door, she was handed a box containing a dozen long stemmed red roses.  At 1 PM, a foil wrapped, two pound box of her favorite chocolates arrived. Later, a boutique delivered a designer dress. The woman couldn't wait for her husband to come home.  The husband was smug when he returned from work, satisfied that he had recovered what could have been a very bad situation.  His wife was indeed surprised: "First the flowers, then the chocolates, and then the dress!" she exclaimed, "I've never had a more wonderful Groundhog Day in my life!

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A distraught investor called his financial advisor. “Is my money really all gone?”

He wailed. “No, no,” the advisor answered calmly. “It’s just with somebody else!”

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It was a baby mosquito's first day to fly out from home.  When the mosquito came back home later that day, the father mosquito asked, "How was your journey?" The baby mosquito replied, "It went great, everyone was clapping for me!"

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Kelly & Pheeb's Corner

 LOOKS LIKE WE MIGHT BE GETTING SOME BURGS AND FRIES SOMEWHERE

 WHILE TRAVELING, WE WOULD SOMETIMES OVERNIGHT INA CASINO PARKING LOT THEN GO INSIDE TO WALK AROUND AND SEE ALL THE GLAM AND GLITTER

 AN AFTERNOON SNOOZE AT OUR HOUSE

 LOOKS LIKE A RELAXING DAY FOR KELLY AND PHEEBS

 ON CANADA'S PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Al's Art Gallery