Kitty

This is Greg's mom's kitty, affectionately known as Weaselhead, asleep on my lap in the morning light. She was tuckered out from kitty play. It's hard work amusing a whole group of adults.

We're enjoying a relaxing weekend full of kitty play and Miss Joy visiting. I needed to be away for a little bit. It feels amazingly good to sleep in a real bed, which I haven't done since Jan. 26. Only hospital beds for me since then at Via Christi and then at home.

The surgeon told me Thursday that I can do steps as long as I do them one at a time, so I'll get to start sleeping in my own bed upstairs soon. I just don't want to do anything to prolong my healing time. He said six weeks - not a minute sooner - for full healing. But the motion he said he wanted me to avoid was side to side. And he admonished me to remember, "It's only been three weeks." It will be four on Tuesday, so I'm getting closer to the magic six week mark.

While here I've been reading "The Geography of Bliss" that Trish gave me before surgery. I had taken it to the hospital but couldn't focus much there so I read the first of the Twilight series then. This is a great book. He travels to various places around the world, seeking information about where the people are happiest. It's incredibly well written. The first page hooks you immediately.

Well, I'm off for more kitty play and other important activities. Aren't Saturdays wonderful?

I Missed the Excitement. Thank Goodness.

I had a follow up with my surgeon in Wichita today and got a good report. He said everything seems to be going well. I am to make an appointment for four weeks from now and if I'm feeling fabulous by then to cancel it. He spoke like he didn't expect to see me again.

While I was on the way to Wichita, there was much excitement at my office building. My office is on the second floor and on the first floor is an attorney's office. Apparently early this afternoon a gentleman came into the office there and took five people hostage. He released them pretty quickly from what I understand, but an hours long standoff ensued, ending when law enforcement used tear gas.

Fortunately, it's the weekend tomorrow and I'm guessing any residual smell will be gone by Monday. I have no experience with tear gas but I'm guessing a smell is involved.

I'm not sorry I missed the excitement. I don't think the stress of a hostage situation is something I need to add into my life at the moment.

This is a prime example of you just never know what to expect any day when you wake up.

Crocus

I noticed a few days ago that crocus were popping their little heads up in my front flower bed. Unfortunately, because I had never taken the time to clean it out, you couldn't see them.

Yesterday while I was at the doctor's office in Wichita, Sharon and crew came to the house and cleaned out my front flowerbed and put down mulch and just generally tidied it all up. It's such a huge difference. It's amazing what people who know what they're doing can accomplish. I appreciate it so much.

I've had a hard day today. My heart was beating weird - it started in the middle of the night and lasted until early afternoon. I'm not sure it was in a-fib or not, but it was certainly unpleasant. Thankfully, it went back to normal this afternoon. Ironic that this happened just hours after seeing the cardiologist.

I have a follow up with the surgeon Thursday. I have a list of questions for him. Hopefully all will go well.

I am tired tonight. I didn't get much good sleep last night. I think I'll take a pain pill tonight and see if I can go to sleep and stay asleep for an extended period of time. That would be wonderful. I need some sleep - good, solid sleep. That's next on my agenda.
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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more. Friend me on facebook.com. Follow me at twitter.com. All text and photos on this website are copyright Patsy Terrell, unless otherwise noted. None are to be used without permission. Thank you.

Questions to Ask Grown Ups

Barbara sent this to me and I thought it worthy of sharing here. It's a list of questions to help kids talk to grown ups. I hunted around online to find the person to credit it to, but was unsuccessful. If this is your list, please let me know and I'll give you credit. Very insightful.

I was thinking about how I would answer some of these myself, and also how interesting it would be to hear the answers from some of my long gone relatives.

 1. Tell me what you believe to be the greatest invention so far in your lifetime.

 2. Tell me what scared you when you were little.

 3. Tell me the best way to spend Sundays

 4. Tell me about someone you always had fun with.

 5. Tell me the wish you have for your children

 6. Tell me about something you broke.

 7. Tell me a vivid memory you have of a sister or brother or best friend.

 8. Tell me about your favorite book or author.

 9. Tell me one place you would still like to visit.

 10. Tell me one day you wish you could do over.

 11. Tell me the best way to determine a person's charactar.

 12. Tell me what your parents did for a living

 13. Tell me what you wish someone would invent and why.

 14. Tell me something you wished you had learned earlier in life.

 15. Tell me what it is like to be married.

 16. Tell me a secret of lasting love.

 17. Tell me a tragedy you have known and survived.

 18. Tell me one possession you always dreamed of having.

 19. Tell me if you could have one luxury every single week for the rest of your life, what would it be?

 20. Tell me a story about your mom.

 21. Tell me something you got away with when you were little.

 22. Tell me what makes you feel special when you wear it.

 23. Tell me someone who helped make your life better.

 24. Tell me the most memorable school day you can recall

 25. Tell me about your favorite relative growing up

 26. Tell me what, if anything, you would trade all your possessions for.

 27. Tell me one famous and one not famous person that you would like to change places with for a day or two.

 28. Tell me about a moment of certainty in your life.

 29. Tell me someone who inspired you while you were growing up.

 30. Tell me about the teacher that made the biggest difference in your life.

 31. Tell me about the nicest things people ever did for you

 32. Tell me a dream you remember.

 33. Tell me a story about when you were a teenager.

 34. Tell me if the weather ever scared you.

 35. Tell me about your very first best friend.

 36. Tell me about God

 37. Tell me about your first job.

 38. Tell me bout the first house you remember living in.

 39. Tell me about the town or towns you lived in growing up.

 40. Tell me about your rings.

 41. Tell me what things were like for your parents.

 42. Tell me about your first love.

 43. Tell me how to stay strong when the going gets tough.

 44. Tell me about your first car

 45. Tell me the first time you felt grown up.

 46. Tell me a story about a pet you had.

 47. Tell me about a hero in your family.

 48. Tell me about someone you love with all your heart.

 49. Tell m e how you felt the day I was born

 50. Tell me about your favorite toy when you were little.

 51. Tell me someone who you felt always had your best interest in mind.

 52. Tell me one of your first happy memories.

 53. tell me one thing you like to do that makes you feel comforted.

 54. Tell me what you loved to do when you were little.

 55. Tell me about a poem, song, or letter that you wrote.

 56. Tell me a regret that you have.

 57. Tell me a wish you have for your country.

 58. Tell me about a moment you thought was magnificent.

 59. Tell me one rule you think is silly.

 60. Tell me about your absolute favorite childhood possession.

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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more. Friend me on facebook.com. Follow me at twitter.com. All text and photos on this website are copyright Patsy Terrell, unless otherwise noted. None are to be used without permission. Thank you.

Good News

I snapped this photo of the sunset tonight as we were coming home from Wichita where I had a follow up with the cardiologist. I have been dreading this appointment, but I got good news. This morning when I took my blood pressure it was the first time since surgery that my heart has been beating regular, with no pauses.

The doctor today told me not to worry about pauses, as long as I felt okay when it was happening. I had read pauses and skipped beats were considered something that didn't require treatment and I guess that's his assessment too.

I have a slow pulse rate, as did my mom, and both my brothers. This seems to me to indicate it's genetic. Normally, they consider a slow pulse rate a good thing. But when I was in the hospital, everyone kept questioning it. I kept saying it was always low. They kept ignoring me. Finally, today, he asked about the readings of 48 for pulse rate and how I felt when it was like that. I assured him I felt perfectly normal when my heart rate is in the 40s and 50s. When it's in the 70s it feels fast to me. Finally, he listened and said, "well, as long as you feel normal, that's fine. You might have to have a pacemaker later, when you get older." Like a person who had surgery three weeks ago today wants to hear anything about surgery. But, at least it was surgery in the nebulous "later."

Overall it went well and I don't have to dread it anymore, which is nice. I have a follow up with the surgeon on Thursday. Hopefully that will go smoothly too. I anticipate he will release me then.

I'm too tired to write about much else tonight. It's beddy bye time for me. I am exhausted after today. It's the first time I've had this long of a stretch out and about since surgery. Time to rest.
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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more. Friend me on facebook.com. Follow me at twitter.com. All text and photos on this website are copyright Patsy Terrell, unless otherwise noted. None are to be used without permission. Thank you.

Dinner at Linda's and Great Conversation

Linda invited the Chicks and friends over for dinner tonight and it was so much fun. We never have an opportunity to engage in casual conversation like we did tonight and it was really interesting.

This is a small group of very intelligent women and the topics were wide ranging. We had some thought provoking conversation and some big laughs.

Of course, one of the main topics of conversation was Rebecca Ryan's speech at the chamber dinner last week. I think everyone around the table was there that night and it was great to hear people's observations. I am always curious to hear what these women think. They are great thinkers and give me a different viewpoint.



In many different circumstances I am often the odd person out, with completely different views, but in this group people don't necessarily take that to be a negative thing, which is nice.

We had a lovely time. Linda had gone the extra mile with everything and it was a great night.



I was struck again tonight that I wish I knew how to fit in better. This isn't about tonight specifically, but just in general. I don't seem to know how to think the "right" way. Things that are obvious to other people make no sense to me and vice versa.

This isn't anything new. I've never been able to fit into group situations very well because once I say what I think about almost any situation, people  get uncomfortable, because I am rarely in sync with the majority. I try to ask questions to understand others viewpoints, but that seems to just make people defensive. I don't know how to explain my viewpoints because they're often "intuitive" to me. My brain just doesn't seem to come to the same conclusions other people's do.

We were talking tonight about how much we identify with where we live, as in what town or county or state you're from. I think of myself as "living in the midwest" because I view the boundaries of states and counties and towns as largely arbitrary. I was the only one in the group for whom this was true.

Boundaries for such things were once determined by how long it took to ride a horse from one place to another. To me that has no bearing on our world today and therefore should be reexamined. Why do we still want to live with these archaic divisions when we could be living as a group that is all working together for the good of everyone instead of competing with each other for limited resources in this arbitrary system?

I understand the "normal" way to think of this is that it's a system that has worked for a long time and is a huge economic factor because government is a big employer in many places. But in Patsy-world we could just rethink the whole situation and the money that's being put into communities through government could be coming in a different way, bringing with it different services or products. I don't understand why we don't want to expand our worlds.

Of course, I have absolutely NO idea how to affect that change. And maybe that's the problem - others are just more accepting of the fact that change is very complex. I always believe in my la-la-happy-world that everyone will see the wisdom of rethinking something and jump on board. Of course, this is not true. But, I just can't let go of it because to do so means to accept that possibility is lacking. And I want to live in a world full of possibility. 

I have a whole long list of things that make no sense to me - from athletics being tied to schools to health insurance being tied to employment. But, as usual, I seem to be the only one who sees these things as illogical and therefore worthy of rethinking.

Sometimes I wish I could just think through something and come to the conclusion everyone else comes to. I might not necessarily want to accept that as the gospel truth, but maybe I would at least understand the world around me then. Because, frankly, the world makes little to no sense to me most of the time. I am out here, floundering around, trying to not make a fool of myself, with no understanding whatsoever of what "the norm" is. But at least there is always something interesting to think about.
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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more. Friend me on facebook.com. Follow me at twitter.com. All text and photos on this website are copyright Patsy Terrell, unless otherwise noted. None are to be used without permission. Thank you.

Quivira National Wildlife Refuge

This was sunset at Quiviria National Wildlife Refuge Sunday afternoon. I love going down there and it's only about a thirty minute drive from Hutchinson, where I live. In these days when eco-tourism is of such great interest, I wish we promoted this facility more. It's an amazing place to be, but it's hard to express to people how cool it is without them actually going.

I think you also just have to be a person who appreciates nature in all its forms. Quivira is a huge bird watching area. The birds were settled down by the time I took this photo, but you can see them dotting the sky above the horizon. I don't think I've ever been to Quivira when the sunset wasn't gorgeous.



We saw three otters yesterday. At least we think they were otters. This one and another swimming, and then one on land as we were leaving.

I loved the ripples this guy was making in the placid waters. It seems appropriate for a calm afternoon that he would have the place to himself as he glided through the water.



All of these photos were taken on the last mile and a half of the Wildlife Drive at Quivira. I am enchanted with this photo of the three birds silhouetted on the grasses. It was rare to see only a few of them at a time.



Something like 95% of migratory birds in the US move through Quivira at some point during the year. I'm not a bird watcher, but I appreciate the diversity that offers. In the autumn even Whooping Cranes become temporary residents.



I don't know my birds, but I'm guessing these are a very common variety considering how plentiful they are. I love this photo where you can see the blur of some flying while others are settling in for the night.



Earlier, they were swarming every which way. The sky was just black at times.



I don't know that I've ever shot so many photos directly into the sun before, but I wanted to capture that moment. The beginning of sunset, when twilight is coming, is my favorite time of day when I'm in nature. I love that beautiful pastel you only see at sunset.
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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more. Friend me on facebook.com. Follow me at twitter.com. All text and photos on this website are copyright Patsy Terrell, unless otherwise noted. None are to be used without permission. Thank you.