Wedding and Not So Pleasant Trip Home

My nephew, Joel, married Mandy, his college sweetheart, this past Saturday in a lovely wedding in Thorp, WI. 

I have to say I really like the choices of the bridesmaid gowns.  They weren’t all alike.  They were the same beautiful color, yet each was slightly different.  They fit the bridesmaid instead of the traditional one style fits all.    

I will be heading back to Wisconsin this weekend for my parent’s 60^th anniversary.  I’m hoping the photographer has the photos on line by then.  The reception was at a resort/camp on a lake.  They took a lot of outdoor photos.  Can’t wait.

It was the trip back that regrettably will be a tad more memorable.  We really cruised the whole time until the point of where 294 ends and 90/94/80 merge south of downtown Chicago; everything came to a stop and the left two lanes had to merge to the right without a lot of forewarning.  I looked up and on an overpass, about half a football field/50 yards away, was an overturned semi.  That explained why we were stopped. 

The semi tractor was gone and two huge wreckers were on each end of the trailer working on up-righting it.  The wheels of the trailer were facing us.  We surmised that the wreckers were working on moving the trailer more towards the center of the over-pass in order to get it upright.  Obviously, this accident had happened some time ago and that they must have been letting traffic on the 294 through every now and then.

The only thing we could see once they got to a point of having it about 1/3 of the way upright was that it was a cattle truck.    This was confirmed when we saw three guys running from around the other side of the trailer followed in close proximity by a bull…and we realized that the trailer had live animals in it. 

The bull stopped about the mid way point of the trailer, the three guys continued to run to the safety of the police cars that were blocking traffic from the bridge.  The poor thing started to limp back the way it had come. Oh, the poor thing is hurt.  He might have seriously hurt or maybe even broken his leg.  Oh, how awful for it.

The bull noticed another gent standing near the wrecker on that end and proceeded to charge.  The guy gave a quick thought about getting into the cab and then changed his mind and ran around the back of the wrecker. 

Bull didn’t follow.  Just limped around a bit.  Oh the poor thing. Then everything goes bad.  The officers are getting their shotguns out.  Hollie schmoe they are going to shoot the bull.  Despite knowing it is in the best interest of this injured animal, I don’t care to be here to see or hear this.  I’m covering my eyes.  I’m moaning and groaning.  Oh my gawd.  Oh my gawd. Oh my gawd.  I put the visor down.  POP!  Not a bang, it was a loud POP!  Hollie schmoe, oh my gawd, oh jeez, I can’t.   Jack said the traffic is starting to move and to pay attention to what I’m doing because the bull is still standing.  HOLLIE SCHMOES – OH MY GAWD – OH JEEZ LOUISE.  And the second POP goes off just as we are under the over pass.  Get me the he… out of here. 

Bronchitis

Doc said today for sure it’s bronchitis.  Jack picked up his antibiotic prescription and started the five day treatment.  Already, I see a change.  Maybe it’s just my wishful thinking, but tonight he has not had one of those fits of coughing like he had the last couple/few days. 

If he hadn’t had an appointment today, I would have dragged him to the med station after last night – no if ands or buts about it.   He had a coughing streak last night about 3am.  It’s not that he couldn’t breathe or anything, it was just such a long lasting hacking and hacking and coughing. 

Ahh...I envision a full night's sleep any day now.  And I'm sure he is too!

Incident Triggers Memory of Incident

A couple of years ago a semi took a left turn too fast and too tight that it clipped my car a good one as I was stopped at the stop sign of the street he was turning onto.  The right to left motion was hard enough that it popped the passenger side hub cap off and my car had to be towed. Even though the impact was at about the half way point of the trailer, all I could envision was the rear wheels coming up the hood of the car.  It all happened so fast.

Coming home from going out to breakfast Saturday we were headed west on Howard and a truck heading south on Westnedge was signaling to turn east onto Howard.  Without batting an eye or an “eek” from my lips, I had checked the rearview mirror, had theRav4 in reverse, and backing up before he was halfway into his turn.  Jack finally said, “I think you’re far enough back”.  The vision of those rear wheels coming towards me had come back and this time I was making sure the wheels would not get near me.  So maybe giving him four car lengths was a bit much…

No playing in the dirt and working in the flower beds this weekend.  If this was the middle of winter, it would be a blizzard.  As it is, we have 42 degrees, very windy, and a constant rain.  We ventured out with the intent to buy a pair of shoes and do our weekly grocery shopping.  We got the shoes and came home.  It’s just too nasty out there.

Jack is still hacking away.  He didn't get to see the doc last week, just had the lab work done.  Appointment now set for Tuesday. 

#2 Caught a Cold and Gardening

On top of Jack’s cold, Friday night he either ate something that didn’t agree with him or a very slight diverticulitis flare up.  I’m leaning towards the ate something that didn’t agree with him.  By Saturday afternoon he wanted to go out for lunch.  Either way he wasn’t a happy camper.  Sunday he did agree to getting congestion Rubittusin.   Maybe by the time of his doctor appointment he will be over this.

My tree.  I swore this wasn’t the size of tree I picked out, but when I do the calculation to convert circumference to diameter it comes to 2.7.  My receipt said I paid for a 2.5.  When I was looking at the tree it looked so much bigger in both diameter and the girth of the branches and leaves.  The gentleman I spoke to said that they get that comment a lot and it’s because the tree is out of the ground sitting on the root ball.  He said the only larger one that the 2.5 that they carry is the one that was left over from last year.  I saw that one, but the crown or main part of the branches and leaves was off center.   Dang thing better grow fast. 

Oh, and on top of being smaller than expected, we couldn’t put it where was wanted to.  The Charter TV cable runs through the back yard….6” from where the stake marking the spot to plant it.   So now it’s two feet further to the north.   Such is life.

Of the nine cone flowers my sister and I planted last year, three came back up and one of the two mums is.  BUT, an orchid type lilly that was to only be an annual is coming back up.  Go figure.  This weekend I've also started putting down some fresh mulch.  Love this weather.

Caught a cold, Gardening, and Compromise

Jack came down with a cold yesterday.  He doesn’t take to bed and moan wishing for death to be swift like I do.  He just has a really low voice, a lot of sneezing, nose blowing, and takes an extra nap during the day.  He sounds better tonight than he did this morning.    He also gets over his colds quicker than anyone I’ve ever seen. 

We had great weather this weekend, mid to upper sixties so I took advantage of it.  This fall I failed to cut back the clematis plants.  Saturday’s project was take care of them and whatever that other vine is that came across from the neighbors.  It never bloomed and all but took over one of their apple trees.  It has to be some relative of Kudzu.    And I also got the lawn trimming done.  Neighbor girl does the actual lawn mowing.

I don’t have a lot of tulips, but the few that came up never flowered.  Sunday’s project was to plant a few more and some daffodils.  I also cleaned up along the east fence a bit.  I’m thinking of putting in a Amsonia Bluestar, maybe flanked by a couple of wild indigo on each side.  It’s a narrow strip, but I don’t want the work of maintaining a bunch of perennials.  Looking for more of a wider bush that doesn’t go over 3 -31/2 feet in height.

It was nice enough that Jack sat out on the deck in the sun (with a jacket on) and watched.  Every time he tried to talk to me it started him hacking, so it was kinda odd.  Me just digging away and him just sitting there sneezing and sniffling.

Last weekend we bought the tree for shading some of the deck.  This was a long time coming.  About five or six years I started talking about getting something planted that would shield us from the late afternoon sun.  At the time, I was thinking about the Bradford Pear.  Jack didn’t think we needed another tree for reasons I no longer recall (or…just didn’t really listen).  We bought the side based umbrella, but in the wind it almost seems to want to flip up and over.  He finally compromised and agreed we need a tree.

My idea of compromising is more of waiting until he sees it my way.  In this case, it turned out for the better.  The more I read on-line about fast growing and flowering trees the more I kept coming across the newer Cleveland Pear.  It has the same fast growth, but not the problem of the trunk splitting in strong winds or ice and snow.  New tree goes in on Tuesday.