...back in the saddle again

After the saddle bronc riding fiasco last week, this is a much safer place for Dad and his new saddle.

This will guard against the saddle's identity theft unless the thief has the same initials.

Front view of our new leather furniture which is really quite comfortable if your hip doesn't go into a muscle spasm when you try straddling it.

Pretty tooling on the leather. This was handmade by Stacy Jensen.

You can choose what you think the saddle horn is trying to tell you. Is it to sit where the arrow is pointing or is it the I V brand?

More tooling on the breast strap.

Hand made, leather, silver conchos, all the whistles and bells...

This new saddle is pretty exciting and well-deserved for this cowboy.

Lily of the Alley

Recently Dad bought 3 horses and is excited about his purchases. He has been riding one of the mares named Lily. The other day, (Thursday), Lily and he decided to create their own rodeo. It is the Dodge finals going on in Pocatello after all. They were riding past the other horses and Lily decided she wanted to play with them and not be saddled with a rider. When Dad tried to tell her otherwise, she quickly showed him her desire by trying to get him off her back. Before he could really show her who was boss, she had him off her back but with a foot caught in the stirrup due to his overshoes. She dragged him a short distance and when he hit a fence post his foot broke free. Luckily, there are no life threatening injuries and he walked away from the incident. (He did catch her and ride her again for about an hour.) When he checked to see what damage was done, he found a huge knot on his shin, very sore ankle, and a hugely swollen upper arm. We decided it wasn't bad enough to go to the emergency room but re-thought our decision later that night. There were no breaks or cracks to the bone, but the doctor told him to keep the arm elevated above his head so that the blood wouldn't pool around the membrane of the muscle and cause more pain. The first picture is today, Easter Sunday. The second picture is day 2.

Diverticuwhat?is

I don't usually enjoy this time of year especially going into winter. I do appreciate that Halloween is over and the time has changed. I am looking forward to renewing my morning exercise sessions. I am looking forward to being more healthy & energetic. This past week has laid me low though. I came home from work Monday with pain in my abdomen and chills and fever. My left side was in pain. I slept it off and went to work Tuesday, had my hair done in IF, then came back home to experience the same thing only this time I didn't sleep it off. Stayed home Wednesday and Thursday. I was figuring I had some kind of intestinal flu but this was getting ridiculous. I felt well enough to go to work Friday but went into chills and fever again that evening. Saturday I went to Community Care. I had an elevated white count (infection) but they couldn't see anything in the intestines with an x-ray such as that I was constipated, etc. They sent me to the hospital for a CT scan. It showed that I have diverticulitis. Now I know what is causing the cramps and pain I've suffered all week.
Jenny had this and had to have part of her intestine removed. I asked how bad mine is and the PA said the guy who read the scan said it wasn't pretty. Since it came on so fast, I can't see how mine can be so bad as to need surgery. It is usually pretty treatable with antibiotics and diet and exercise. One more reason to get back to exercising.
I have to back today to see if my white count is down and then I see a surgeon tomorrow about doing a colonoscopy...something I've never gotten around to doing for the past 2 years.
Once you get as miserable as this disease makes you, you'll do anything fast if you think it will help. I'm definitely looking forward to feeling better.

O Canada!

Canada was the overall popular choice of vacation for us this summer. It even won over an Alaskan cruise. Actually, it was a desperate decision made by me to get us out of town to somewhere that wasn't too hot and within driving distance in a week's time. Vancouver was the lucky metropolis to receive our tourist interest (and money). The Olympics will be held there in 2010 and I'm sure had they known they were in the running for the McGarry 08 vacation, we would have been solicited much like they do the Olympic committee.





(I am so not good with this blogging thing. How did I get italics and how do I get rid of them? The typical ways are not working! You get to be the guinea pigs as I try new options and they don't work out the best as you will attest to in this collage.)

Click on these pictures to see whales, the Vancouver skyline, the Vancouver aquarium, and Granville Island.





We were not that impressed with Vancouver. It was a huge cultural difference. Tons of people, mostly pedestrians or cyclists who cost you much travel time as you yielded to them over and over. By the time we sort of figured out how to have a better time, it was time to head to Victoria Island which will be featured in the next blog.

As for vacationing with your 2 teenage sons for the last big vacation together, it wasn't all that I envisioned. When I wasn't watching the spectacular scenery, I was reading "The Secret Life of Bees" out loud to the patient chauffeur while Brandon and Logan put their earphones on, took motion sickness pills or migraine headache pills and mostly slept through the traveling. Can't say how much they enjoyed the trip, but Dad and I really enjoyed it as far as getting away from home and relaxing. After about 3 days out, we were all pretty ready to return home to the States. I guess we're just not the vacationing type. We either need to do it more often to learn how to do it better, or just give it up.

Satisfaction

Tasty ripe Alberta peaches fresh from Broulims, $16.95 a box. Take that box, add mother and 2 determined daughters, and you get.....

Sorry to say that during my canning years, I never taught my girls how to process food. They may have helped, but they never really learned how to. It's probably been 10 years since I canned. The last time I did, half the jars didn't seal. That was a lot of work not to mention money, so I got discouraged and haven't tried it since. Then last week I was talking to someone who had a similar experience and she asked me what kind of lids I used. I told her they were Kerr, the kind my mom always used. She said her lids were Kerr lids too and she wrote the company about the problem. She changed to using Ball lids and hasn't had a problem. So far, the 14 jars we did Saturday all sealed and hopefully that will happen again tonight. We're pretty ambitious now. We think we're going to do some mustard pickles and some salsa. It's really actually enjoyable when there are 3 people doing the work instead of just one.

Failure to Blog

I have been chided this week by a co-worker who has recently started blogging about my failure to blog. I haven't posted anything since January. So, I thought I'd get brave and try to be more patient with the picture downloading time and do better. I decided to use the HP to see if it's faster than the laptop. I found the cords to connect the camera. Check. I took some pictures for a new blog. Check. I connected the cords to the computer and camera and downloaded the pictures I wanted, there were 4. Check. I logged onto my blog and had to change the snowflake background. Check. I started a new blog. Check. I previewed the blog. Check. I decided it wasn't exactly right. It needed a different picture so I went back and downloaded another picture. Uncheck. It wouldn't go in the file I wanted it to go. Uncheck. I made a new file and it seemed fine. Check. I went back to the blog but it looked like I had lost the entire blog. Uncheck. I started it over again. Check. Saved it this time so I wouldn't lose it. Check. Lost it. Uncheck. Started over again. Check. Lost it, but this time I found the other two (you have to look in drafts). Check. Chose one to edit. Deleted the picture I didn't want. Check. Tried to import the better picture. Error message--lost internet connection. Uncheck. Tried again. Same thing. Uncheck. Decided to try different browser. Check. Tried again. Same error message but in a different format. Uncheck. Tried again. Uncheck. I am bound and determined to update by blog. Decided against rebooting the computer since that has its hazards. Uncheck. So here it is. My first blog since September. No pictures. Just words. Just checking. No worries. I'll try again next week when I have an extra 3 hours to waste on my failures to blog!