It's Official ---- I'm Old!

Last Saturday Jim went for an overnight with Ron to go fishing at Mark Twain Lake. This is highly unusual as he hardly does anything without me, his social director. It just so happened that I had washed the sheets that morning, mostly because Jim had them all ripped out from being tucked under the mattress. You'd think he was over 6' tall the way he can tear the bed up! I guess he had an active night! And it also just so happened that I went to J C Penneys that day and bought a new comforter set which I immediately put on the bed when I got home. I had been looking for a long time and finally found one that I thought was really nice and a good bargain.

My plan was to go get my hair cut & roots done at Celeste's house Saturday evening and Laura decided to ride along with me. We planned on going out to dinner beforehand so when I picked her up in the old "hood" I begged her to go to Ponticello's with me. It had been years since I was there and it was just the same as I remember. Of course I couldn't resist talking to our waitress and telling her that I used to live in the area and hadn't been there in years. She asked where I lived and when I told her St. Charles she said that probably 75% of the people she served also used to live in North County but had moved over the bridge. I had a great meal of the Ponticello's special salad and pizza. Talk about memories! I remember when Dad used to bring pizza and salad home when he thought we were all sleeping so he could pig it down himself!

We drove over to Celeste's, she did my hair, Mike started up his firepit and we sat around and talked and laughed for awhile. The whole time I had in the back of my mind that I would get the whole, clean, new comforted bed to myself that night. I was really looking forward to it. Nothing against Jim, but you married folks know what I'm talkin' about!

I got home around 11:45 and went to bed shortly after. I pushed Jim's pillows to the side and carefully arranged mine in the middle of the bed. I stretched out, with my arms & legs spread out, hogging the whole bed and felt like I was in heaven. Everything was great until about 5AM when I woke up because my hand was on fire. Carpal tunnel! I was in severe pain and I couldn't get rid of the numbness and burning sensation for about 30 minutes. Well, so much for my "heavenly" night of sleep!

I've been dealing with carpal tunnel and had gone to the doctor who sent me to a neurologist for testing a couple of years ago. The results were that I had mild carpal tunnel, so I bought a splint and withstood the suffering up till now. I knew the pain would just get worse and I couldn't imagine going on my JCI trip to Turkey and waking in the middle of the night in a strange country, a strange room & a strange bed, so I called my doctor first thing Monday morning. She referred me to a specialist and I made an appointment for Tuesday morning. I predicted to Jim and a few other people that I would have to go through more tests and a bunch of other crap before anything would be done. From past experience, I've learned that's usually the way these things go, and for that reason alone, I put off going to doctors as much as possible.

So I went to the doctor (a hand surgeon) this morning and was I shocked when he didn't take x-rays or send me to a lab or anything to run more tests. It took about 10 minutes where he explained carpal tunnel to me (I didn't tell him I was an expert as I already had it during my pregnancy 23 years ago and had self-educated myself via the internet) and did a few little pin prick tests before he explained the surgery. Unfortunately, due to my trip coming up in 2 weeks he advised it wouldn't be good to perform the surgery and then me having to haul luggage around. So he suggested a cortisone shot. Now, I remember my mom getting cortisone shots for the arthritis in her elbow and thinking that's a drug for old people! Plus, I don't really like needles, but I didn't feel like I had a choice so I took it with a grin. Hopefully, it will last until I get back and have surgery at the end of November.

Now, if I can just get past the colonoscopy next week............

Washers

The annual washers tournament was this past Saturday and boy was it hot. I originally started this tournament when I was a single mom living in Florissant, my partner was Laura (we were a pretty darned good team!) and it was the last weekend in September. Well, there were a couple of years when it got too hot so I moved the tournament back to the first weekend in October. It was meant to be an end of summer/beginning of fall party where the weather was cool during the day and cooler in the evening so as to have a bonfire. Last year was pretty hot during the day but it cooled off enough in the evening for the fire. This year, we almost broke a record at 91 degrees! It was so hot that when Janet & I were playing a practice game before the start of the tournament, I requested we take a break in the middle so we could go into the a/c to cool off. I was sweating so bad and the tournament hadn't even started yet. We never finished the game and Janet says I quit because I was losing but I have grown out of my sore-loserness and I swear it was only because I was hot.

Although I was a little bummed out about the poor turnout this year, it worked out pretty well because we put off starting the tournament until Ronnie demanded that we needed to begin or it would get dark before we finished. So we braved the heat & beating sun for a while until Jim said we needed to break so he could spray Yard Guard since the bugs started getting to us. (At least we didn't have to contend with a cloud of dust & floating particles from the farmer cutting his crops down below like last year!) Everyone practically ran into the house for a cool-down. Once again, big brother Ronnie got us back out there to finish the tournament. He was also the one keeping track of the winner's & loser's brackets and who played who. Would you care to guess who won the tournament?

Next year I'm thinking of moving the tournament back again to avoid the heat, or, better yet, virtual washers anyone?

Aaaarrrrr Matey!

I went to the Pirate Festival for the first time over the weekend. This was the second annual at Rotary Park in Wentzville and Jim was not very thrilled with this idea but since I'm the social organizer in the family and we were meeting friends, he went along with the plan. (However, he didn't bring home the eye patches I asked for from his work.) We were greeted at the gates by some "Frenchmen" who very jovially took our $20 entry fee and boosted my ego by flirting in a fake French accent.


There were alot of people dressed in costume and it was really funny to see these adults who seemed to think they were from a different era. They all spoke with English or French accents and said things like "ahoy me hearty" and other stuff I couldn't understand. I didn't even like Pirates of the Caribbean because I couldn't make out what they were saying half the time! It took about 10 minutes until I was getting the rolling eyes look from Jim. We had come upon some craft booths and ever since we got married, he's not so keen on shopping. I whispered to him "okay, so it's lame and we'll never come again".


We decided to make the best of it and have some beers. Next thing you know, we came upon a few pirates wearing kilts! I couldn't resist being snide and telling them that I never saw a pirate in a kilt & I didn't know there were Scottish pirates. Jim & our friends lingered in the background probably afraid that I would embarass them until I motioned for them to come listen to the history lesson from the kilted pirate. I won't get into the details, but did you know that pirates were really the good guys and they weren't thieves? I learned a whole new take on pirates that day!


There were a couple of stages set up to look like ships and some actors performed skits that were quite comical. We saw a battle between pirates on a ship and the French and/or English, their accents changing at will. I'm chuckling to myself just thinking about how seriously these people took their parts. I guess you'd have to commend these actors for being able to portray a sea battle with no water in sight.

I think you could compare them to the Civil War reenactors. I just wonder what they'll come up with next. Whatever it is, they'll probably sucker me in at least once!