title explained

Onward and upward! something that you say in order to encourage someone to forget an unpleasant experience or failure and to think about the future instead and move forward.

My e-mail: jjmiller6213@comcast.net

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Broken down old woman.................................

I looked at the weather map radar this morning and there, to the west, was a beautiful big blob of green that looked like it would be right over me at about noon.  Sure enough, as I ran out to get the mail, I could feel the sprinkles.

....and that's all we got.  Not enough sprinkles to even make the street look wet. As sometimes happens, part of the storm split and went north-east and part of it went south of Brighton.  So, after lunch, I went out and watered all my annuals.  I'm not real good about watering.  I never water my perennial gardens as they have long, strong roots that will find deep water.  I do tend to forget the annuals on my porch and even with a nice rain, some of them are protected under the porch roof.

Well, now I see another bigger blob of green headed this way about about 10:00 tonight.So I am hoping.  It has been so hot-90- and dry here for the last few days, we need the rain and more normal cool weather.  It feels like July and it's only mid-June.
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When I woke up this morning, I remembered.  It is my anniversary.  I was married at 7:00 pm, 60 years ago.  I remember it all so well.  




and our best friends
Arlene and her fiance' Dick.

We had a lot of good years------------





...but four years after this happy family scene, if was over.  Such is life.
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I have such terrible looking hands--especially my right hand.


Age spots--arthritis bumps, red bruised spots.


They look like my great grandma's did when she was 90!!!  Now I am starting to have worse Carpal Tunnel Syndrome problems.  Both of my thumbs go numb and sometimes I get, not an ache, but such a pain in the back of my hands.  I can pull the skin up over my knuckles and it stays there.  I used to do that with my grandma's hands and think it was so funny.  I don't think it's so funny now!
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One day, in mid-August,I was about 14, I was helping my Daddy and the hired men, fill the cement silo with chopped corn.  I was about 2/3 up in the tall structure.  It was a hot day and it was a steam room in that silo.  It was my job to hold the funnel by a rope and walk around and around, keeping the incoming corn level and tamping it down as I walked.

I started getting real dizzy and felt faint.  I decided I had to get out of that silo.  It was a long climb down those rungs to the ground.  I remember shaking my head to clear it and felt like I was just going to stumble and fall down.  All I could see was the house and I had to get to it and lay down.

I heard my Daddy yell, "Hey!  Get back up in there!"  I could feel him pelting me with little stones he had grabbed up from the gravel barn yard.  I couldn't turn and tell him what was wrong.  I had to keep walking.

My mother must have heard him yelling because she came to the back door and opened it up.  Closer and closer I got--my eyes only on my mother until I collapsed and fainted into her arms.

I came too the next morning.  I was naked between two nice cool sheets.  A fan blew cool air across the big metal dish pan, filled with ice.  My grandma was wiping my face with a cool, wet wash cloth.  She had been with me all night as I went in and out of hallucinations.

The country doc had been called and came out and claimed I had a heat stroke.  They had put me into the bath tub with tepid water and gradually added cooler and cooler water and then placed me in my bed.

I was in bed for 3 days.  The thermometer in my mouth every couple of hours to check my body temperature.

Ever since then, being outside in the heat and humidity make me sick.   Once, I was visiting a friend in Florida and decided to mow his lawn.  It was August.  I ended up collapsed on his living room floor with the A/C blowing directly on me.   I shoulda known better!

Now you know why I prefer fall and winter to summer.  I cannot bear the suffocating heat and humidity. 

17 comments:

  1. Heat strokes are nasty and you were lucky to have lived through it. I just got my A/C fixed today. Haven't had it on this season before today. I'd forgotten what it was like to live without one.

    We are about to get some rain on this side of the state. I hope it's a lot because we can sure us it. The grass is burning up every where.

    I hate the idea of our hands getting old. I don't want to quit knitting and using the computer. Even holding a book to read is getting hard.

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  2. What a wonderful life. 60 years of marriage that is something these days. I have Uncle and Aunt just did 70 years of marriage, and both still are alive.

    Coffee is on

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  3. Oh Judy, what an awful experience. That has never happened to me but I cannot bear the heat and humidity. The last few days we've been busy with a project outside and I am just about done for. I need to spend the rest of the summer indoors during the hottest, most humid time of day. I am dreading July and August. You were a lovely bride! xoxo

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  4. My sister and former brother in law would be celebrating 65 years this year if they had remained married. They divorced, though, just as I was getting married, 43 years ago. How do I know they would be celebrating 65 years, they married just shortly after I was born!

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  5. I'm glad we have photos of when we were young and in our prime! Hands, necks, faces, boobs, bums ... everything starts to go ....

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  6. I'm right there with you, Judy. I cannot stand the heat. We landscaped our front yard when we were in MD. It was hot as the devil, but my husband would not stop, so I didn't stop either. I finally collapsed on the sofa and didn't move. It took three days to feel normal again. My body would get hot and then I'd get chills, and I was as listless as a person could be.

    We need rain, too. We finally got some yesterday, and it's supposed to rain this weekend. I hope you get some soon.

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  7. Oops! I forgot to say how pretty you looked on your wedding day. Were we ever really that young?

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  8. You've just always been pretty! Working hands tend to age sooner, don't you think? I have the same issues with my hands: wrinkles, purple spots, large knuckles. But ~ I can still use them!

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  9. YOu were a lovely bride.

    I ask this following, because you have told your story, before. He was abusive, wasn't he? He didn't get abusive, till 4 years before you were divorced? Nothing, the previous years?

    Your father should have been arrested for child abuse!!!!!!!!!

    Looked and read previous comments here. Typically, no one was as blunt as I am. >,-)

    Luna Crone
    My latest post

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    1. He was abusive off and on--a slap in the face and I could reason some of the times because I had acted the spoiled brat. The last time he ever hit me, he punched me really hard in my back. I could have won an academy award for the performance I put on--staggering across the kitchen floor only to fall into a faint in the mud room. He rushed over. He thought he had killed me, I pretended to stay "out" until I had counted to 40 and then revived. Scared him so bad, he never hit me again! After the kids graduated and were gone, with just Jennifer home, he started staying away from home a lot. He worked 9 hours a day and then spent the rest of the daylight each day, working on his golf game. Weekends, he stayed in the City to play golf and came home Sunday evening to get clean clothes, have sex, sleep and---the same routine the next week. When I complained, he stated that was why he stayed away--to get away from my "bitchin". When I stopped complaining, he said that was why he stayed away because he thought I didn't care and had given him permission. On our 25th anniversary, as we were driving to our party, I asked him if he would change anything in his life and he replied, "Yeah. I wouldn't have gotten married and had four damn kids, that's for sure." The 4th damn kid was in the backseat of the car. The next morning, I looked in the mirror--I was 42 years old--there was no way I was going to live the rest of my life like I had the last 25. That was June, we waited until after Christmas and separated on January 19th, 1982. Our divorce was final September 14, 1984--we both cried and clung to each other in that courtroom.

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    2. What a tough lonely life you had from age 17 to 42. Man. How is a 17 year old to choose a good marital partner? I'm just glad you are 33 years out of that marriage. I know you landed in another bad one, but third 'hubby' was the charm. Only next step is to marry an angel ;-) Do send invitations.

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  10. Your hands show a lifetime of work and duty / beautiful :) WHen we leave this planet and shed our bodies it's not what is physical that matters and you know that as well as I do :)

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  11. Oh yeah. Heat Stroke is no joke. A couple years ago my mother got heatstroke... in October! (Texas of course). My cousin also got it around that time, too.

    The doctors say that after you get it, it will forever be a problem in that handling the heat won't be easy. You really have to be extra careful if you've ever suffered from heatstroke even once in your lifetime.

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  12. Just found your blog. My Mum (who would now have been 102) always told me that the golden years were sadly tarnished. Now, well into my 70's I am beginning to understand what she meant but I still have a few years to catch up with you. Stay well and take care. It is good to see blogs from more mature people :-) Diane

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    1. My goodness Diane--I don't know how you ever found my blog, but so glad you did. I have been reading yours all morning. Now--YOU have had a very interesting life!!! Me? Just a farm girl transplanted here, between to fair sized towns and longing to be back on the farm. :-)

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  13. Those hands Judy, are beautiful!! They have changed a lot of diapers, cooked a lot of meals and hugged a lot of people! They have wiped some tears and crafted some beautiful handiwork!!

    And goodness Judi, you were a gorgeous bride!!

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  14. I just love Debbie's comment above and couldn't agree with her more. Your hands are a reflection of all that you've been thru in your life. They ARE beautiful!! And you certainly were a gorgeous young bride!!! Did your husband pass away or did you divorce? I believe you told me that you were divorced but not sure.

    As for the heat, I'm right there with you. I despise the heat and humidity. The older I get the less I can tolerate it. It's been very warm and humid the last couple of days. I haven't been feeling well and thankfully haven't had to go out of the house other then to let the dogs out. We're expecting some heavy storms late this afternoon. Maybe it will cool things off. Summer is definitely coming. Saw my first lightning bug last night and can hear the crickets in the backyard at night now too. Hang in there, lady. Before we know it we'll be shoveling again. : ) xoxo

    ~ Wendy
    http://Crickleberrycottage.blogspot.com/

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