Last Thursday my left leg started aching. I thought it would get better, but it got more painful over the weekend. I could hardly stand it. And I didn’t get more than a couple of hours sleep each night. We figured it was probably caused by me sitting here at the computer. I sit in my chair with my legs propped up on the ottoman and the laptop on a little lapdesk. I usually cross my left leg over the right at the ankles to get the computer at a comfortable angle. It felt like a charley-horse, but the calf muscle wasn’t cramped up tight. I could walk on it, and flex it, it just hurt like hell.

We thought it might be a blood clot — you hear a lot about that these days. So Monday I got an appointment at the local clinic. The nurse practioner gave me a prescription for Naproxin (high strenght Aleve) in case it was a muscle strain and sent me to the hospital for an ultrasound of my leg to check for a blood clot. The ultrasound was kinda cool. I could hear the blood swooshing through the veins. It sounded like the sound effects from a space movie. The technician poked and pushed and prodded with the transducer all the way down my leg from the groin to the ankle. And she foud no blood clots. YAY!! So I came home and am resting the leg as much as I can by staying off the computer. And I’m taking my pills. The leg is still achey, but it is no longer excruciating. And I have been able to sleep the last couple of nights.

I have a new desk on order for my laptop, so it won’t be pressing down on my legs. It’s called an Airdesk. You can see it here: Airdesks I will be able to adjust it to whatever angle works best for me. And it will disassemble easily when we get ready to move.

mj

Yet another joke from dear Carol.  Thanks, sweetie! mj

My neighbor found out her dog could hardly hear so she took it to the Veterinarian. He found the problem was hair in it’s ears and cleaned both ears and the dog could hear fine.

The vet told the lady if she wanted to keep this from reoccurring she should go to the store and get some “Nair” hair remover and rub in it’s ears once a month.

The lady went to the drug store and got some “Nair” hair remover. At the register, the druggist told her, “If you’re going to use this under your arms, don’t use deodorant for a few days.”

The lady said, “I’m not using it under my arms.”

The druggist said “If you’re using it on your legs, don’t shave for a couple of days.”

The lady said, “I’m not using it on my legs either; and if you must know, I’m using it on my schnauzer.”

The druggist said, “Stay off your bicycle for a week.”

WOW!!! What a weekend! Where to begin?

For us, the weekend started on Thursday. Since the holiday was Friday, lots of folks headed up here to the lake after they got off work Thursday. We were busy all evening, checking people in, getting them into their campsites, and selling firewood and ice. At eleven we locked the gate and came into our little house.

Around 2 am the lady from site 24 came knocking on our door to complain that the people in sites 26 and 27 were being noisy and keeping her awake. Richard went down to sort it out. He found the people in sites 26 & 27 sitting out by their fire talking. They weren’t real loud at that time, but you can’t tell how loud someone was before you got there. So he told them to keep the noise down and came back in.

Friday night was the Fourth. Most of the people coming for the weekend were already here, so you’d think it would be a pretty easy night at the gate. Well, you’d be wrong. In amongst all the people getting firewood and ice, we had a guy ride in on a little 25 cc mini-bike. He said he’d heard that for $1 we would let him use the restroom. I asked where he was camped and he said he and a group were up the road in the nearby housing addition, Baterro Park. I had to ask, “and you don’t have a toilet?” He said they just had a deck. We let him use the toilet but didn’t charge him any money.

About an hour later, just after sunset, we were talking with Rick and Julie when the same little mini-bike came scooting into the parking lot, dodged around the entrance gate and tore off up the beach. Richard shone his flashlight on him as he whizzed by, and called out to him to stop, to no avail. Rick gave chase in his golf cart, but came back a few minutes later without having caught up with the tresspasser. We told him about our previous encounter with the mini-bike. Rick said he knew where the deck was on the hillside.

Things settled back down as it got dark. Rick and Richard both went out on golf carts to do continuous patrols through the campground to ensure there were no fireworks set off and that the “no noise after 10 pm” rule was reasonably enforced. We don’t expect silence, but outdoor radios should be off and people shouldn’t be talking so loud that others can’t sleep.  There were a couple of parties that had to be told to take it down a couple of notches.

Then, when Richard was makinge his rounds just before 11, he found a couple doing the nasty on the boat launch dock.  :shock:  He shined his light on them and told them they couldn’t do that there.   After they got dressed and headed back into the campground we locked up and went in for the night.  Around midnight, the lady from site 24 came knocking on our door again to complain that the people down the beach from her were being noisy and keeping her awake. Once again Richard went down to sort it out.  He parked on the upper level of the campground and listened for a while, but he couldn’t find anyone being noisy.  So he came on back in.

Saturday evening was much quieter.  One guy came up to buy firewood and was telling us how much they had enjoyed their stay.  It was such a nice, quiet campground.  We asked him which site he was in and we nearly fell over when he said “24.”

mj

Will Carol ever run out of jokes? I hope not! :D  Thanks, Carol.

My five year old students are learning to read. Yesterday one of them pointed at a picture in a zoo book and said, “Look at this! It’s a frickin’ elephant!”

I took a deep breath, then asked…”What did you call it?”

“It’s a frickin’ elephant! It says so under the picture!”

And so it does…

“A f r i c a n Elephant “

Hooked on phonics! Ain’t it wonderful?

Yesterday we went for a little drive. Got your atlas handy? Go get it so you can see where we went, I’ll wait right here. Ready now? ok.

We left Prineville headed northeast on hwy. 26 up to Madras. The high desert landscape is relatively flat and arid. There are some irrigated fields of grass. But mostly it is scattered sage and stunted juniper trees. At Madras we got on hwy 97 and continued north. The road wound up hill and down dale, past more irrigated fields. Eventually the road split and we took a left onto hwy 197. Some of the valleys were quite lush and pretty, and then the road would climb back up onto the dry, bare desert. Eventually, the highway dropped down into Maupin on the Deschutes River. The river runs through a narrow gorge, and the town is partly located at the east bank at the bottom of the gorge, and partly on the top of the west bank. We had lunch at a little cafe in the bottom of the gorge and watched a train chug by.

After lunch we climbed up out of the gorge and continued on northward to the Columbia River at The Dalles.  I had been wanting to see the Columbia River for ages.  I imagined it as a huge, wild river.   Well, it is pretty good sized.  About as wide as the Mississippi - a mile or so I would guess.  But it doesn’t have much, if any, backwaters like the MIghty Miss does.  And it doesn’t look very wild.  It was as placid as a lake.  The mountains along the sides are very impressive with bluffs and pine trees.  We took I-84 downstream to Hood River, then turned south on hwy 35.  The countryside here was lush and green with lots of orchards and vineyards on the hillsides.   The roadside was dotted with fruit stands.  We stopped at one and bought some cherries and jelly.  The road then wound south along the east flank of Mt. Hood.

The mountain is a beatiful volcanic mountain standing alone as if striking a pose.  Unfortunately, the sky was obsquered by smokey haze, or hazy smoke.  I wasn’t sure which.  There are so many wildfires around right now.  It made taking pictures pretty much a waste of time.  Anyway, it was hard to tell the snowy mountaintop from the hazy sky.  :(  The road climbs along the side of the East Hood River up to an altitude of around 4500 feet.   We drove through beautiful pine forests, passing several Nation Forest campgrounds and hiking trails. Then we turned onto 26 eastbound and headed home.  Within a few miles, the pine forests dwindled and disappeared, to be replace by high desert once again.

We arrived home around 6 o’clock in the evening.  I was was pretty well tuckered out.

mj

Funnies from Dottie!  :D  - mj

PREGNANCY Q & A!

Q: Should I have a baby after 35? A: No, 35 children is enough.

Q: I’m two months pregnant now. When will my baby move? A: With any luck, right after he finishes college.

Q: What is the most reliable method to determine a baby’s sex? A: Childbirth.

Q: My wife is five months pregnant and so moody that sometimes she’s borderline irrational. A: So what’s your question?

Q: My childbirth instructor says it’s not pain I’ll feel during labor, but pressure. Is she right? A: Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current.

Q: When is the best time to get an epidural? A: Right after you find out you’re pregnant.

Q: Is there any reason I have to be in the delivery room while my wife is in labor? A: Not unless the word ‘alimony’ means anything to you.

Q: Is there anything I should avoid while recovering from childbirth? A: Yes, pregnancy.

Q: Do I have to have a baby shower? A: Not if you change the baby’s diaper very quickly.

Q: Our baby was born last week. When will my wife begin to feel and act normal again? A: When the kids are in college.

10 WAYS TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE ‘ESTROGEN ISSUES’

1. Everyone around you has an attitude problem.
2. You’re adding chocolate chips to your cheese omelet.
3. The dryer has shrunk every last pair of your jeans.
4. Your husband is suddenly agreeing to everything you say.
5. You ‘re using your cellular phone to dial up every bumper sticker that says: ‘How’s my driving-call 1- 800-’.
6. Everyone’s head looks like an invitation to batting practice.
7. Everyone seems to have just landed here from ‘outer space.’
9. You’ re sure that everyone is scheming to drive you crazy.
10. The ibuprofen bottle is empty and you bought it yesterday.

(Don’t blame me - I got this with no number 8.)

TOP TEN THINGS ONLY WOMEN UNDERSTAND

10. Cats’ facial expressions.
9. The need for the same style of shoes in different colors.
8. Why bean sprouts aren’t just weeds.
7. Fat clothes.
6. Taking a car trip without trying to beat your best time.
5. The difference between beige, ecru, cream, off-white, and eggshell.
4. Cutting your hair to make it grow.
3. Eyelash curlers.
2. The inaccuracy of every bathroom scale ever made.

AND, the Number One thing only women understand :
1. OTHER WOMEN

Another joke from Carol’s seemingly endless supply. mj

Bubba had long heard the stories of an amazing family tradition.  It seems that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all been able to walk on water on their 21st birthday.  On that special day, they’d each walked across the lake to the bar on the far side for their first legal drink.

So when Bubba’s 21st birthday came a round, he and his pal Jim Bob took a boat out to the middle of the lake, Bubba stepped out of the boat…and nearly drowned!  Jim Bob just barely managed to pull him to safety.

Furious and confused, Bubba went to see his grandmother. ‘Grandma,’ he asked, ‘it’s my 21st birthday, so why can’t I walk ‘cross the lake like my pappy, his father, and his father before him?’

Granny looked deeply into Bubba’s troubled eyes and said, ‘Because your father, your grandfather and your great grandfather were born in January, and you were born in July…

Thanks to Carol for this picture.  - mj

This great race comes to us from Elizabeth.  Thanks, kiddo!

This is the ultimate Drag Race, but it is between a 1000 HP Bugatti Veyron and a Eurofighter.  This is very well done!

The two will start side by side from a standstill.  The car will go 1 mile, slow down enough to turn around on a full width runway, then come back the 1 mile to attempt to cross the Finish Line first.  The fighter will take off as quickly as possible, go straight up 1 mile, turn around and come back down to about 100′ off the deck to fly parallel to the car to attempt to cross the Finish Line first.

Who will win??
http://www.snotr.com/video/568