February 1, 2008

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  The Rainy Day

  by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
  It rains, and the wind is never weary;
  The vine still clings to the moldering wall,
  But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
  And the day is dark and dreary.

  My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
  It rains, and the wind is never weary;
  My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past,
  But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast
  And the days are dark and dreary.

  Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
  Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
  Thy fate is the common fate of all,
  Into each life some rain must fall,
  Some days must be dark and dreary.

  Oh that makes my life sound so morbid...but it is not!  Today however began with lots of ice.  Even walking on the grass was treacherous for man and Melvin(our dog.) 
  Now it is pouring and I suspect as the temperature drops it will again be dangerous to be on the roads tonight.  It truly was a dark and dreary day...on the outside.

  Well...Dr. Mom and Nurse Will are running out of gas.  Our patient is much improved today but looks like a lopsided chipmunk.  I am sorry to say no photos have been allowed.   My weariness has come from trying to come up with food for several different diets and having failed a big batch of lactose free vanilla pudding.  It ended up being vanilla vichyssoise.     Oh and I failed again at another small batch.....ELISABETH I need you!!!  I use to do all this before she took over the kitchen, so I can do it again!   So on the stove top I now have...one small pot of tomato soup, one pot of chicken broth with orzo pasta, and in the fridge I have various flavors of jello...because Will won't eat Elisabeth's strawberry flavor I made him cherry, one and half failed vanilla puddings, vegetable soup and mashed potatoes,  a batch of leek broth....and a bowl of cool whip....oh and 1/4 can of sliced peaches....not counting all the regular food in there....the chewables.   Providing good nourishment is the key to good health and healing....how am I doing?

  Dog bite update.....the biter is still alive and acting normal, for him.   The department of health nurse  said that was an excellent sign...as he proceeded to give me a detailed description of death of a human by rabies....ummmmmmm,  NOT exactly what I wished to hear at this point.  I tried with all my wits to block out all he was saying.   Let's move on to something funny....shall we?

  I love to laugh...and often get too silly for my own good....and being silly and making the patient laugh when it hurts is just not nice, is it?  But I did...and I am.  Laughter is good medicine too.  Today in the mail we got one of those packs of about 100 advertisement cards with some sort of gardening themes.  So while the three of us were eating our various lunch foods I was sorting through them making silly comments.  I got to one that is a clock...like a cuckoo clock only a "sculptured cardinal announces each hour with a happy chirp!"  Elisabeth tried so hard not to laugh....because you see...she has a real life cardinal who will not leave her alone.  He is always at her bedroom window.  He never goes to any other window.  His name is "Tom"....you know, like in peeping Tom?  He is here all year long and no matter what we try he never will go away.  We tried colored construction paper taped to the glass, soap smeared all over the outside, pulling the shade, and applying those cling on hawk silhouettes.   He still comes by every day.  The cats love to sit on her desk and observe his interesting behavior.    He sits on the ledge and looks in and then he continues to fly at the window and bonk it with his beak over and over again....directly onto the hawk silhouette too.       He has his certain times of the day which he is most active and she can tell the time just by that.  One day I came in to see him and say hello....(we've taken to just saying "Hi Tom" now...what else can we do?) and lo and behold he had berries smeared all over the glass where he was "knocking"....I guess he was sharing his meal with Elisabeth!  His mate often sits in the mock orange bush right by the window just watching her hero. 

  So, we will pass on the lovely "Hand Crafted Cardinal Cuckoo Clock" this time. 
  We've got our very own cuckoo cardinal. 
  He must be pixilated! 

  

  This is not Tom, but a good resemblance.

  
  

  • 5:29 pm
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