Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Um... not so much. At least not in the blogging world. At least not when you go stagnant on your blogging. And it hasn't just been over here either - I went almost a week between posts even at my recipe blog, Deep South Dish.

I can't really blame it on recent events, though that has contributed indeed - at least for this past week or so - though admittedly, I guess even before that, I've had writers block a bit.  I see a few bloggers that just give themselves permission to post a simple thought in a sentence or two or a quote, but for some reason I haven't even been able to do that, because ... as you've probably noticed, I don't much ever just say one line. I'm southern and I'm long winded.

I did have a rough week last week.  First, my dog Sally, the large lab, took ill.  Granted by dog years she was in her 90s (age 12, about max life expectancy for her breed) so she'd been showing her age lately, in her cloudy eyes, the changes in her face and in stiffness when she got up and tried to move around, but suddenly one day she stopped eating and drinking and just sort of went downhill from there, just finally laid down and refused to get up or walk.  I gave it two nights and a day and knew the inevitable had arrived so off we carried her to the vet. That's the first time I've ever had to do that, even with all the pets I've had, but I just could not bear her suffering.

In between that time, my son asked to borrow my rarely used anymore car because he was waiting on a part for his. We both have Mustangs. We had spent the late afternoon earlier over there with the grandbabies so it was evening when he discovered he had a dilemma. That was evening one when Miss Sally first started acting sick. Anyway, off I go to bring the car over to him - and by the way, if you stop driving at night pretty much, you'll find that you're not fond of driving at night anymore - and I'm tooling along when the car suddenly decides to die. At a traffic light. In the middle of the highway. And it will not restart. Right in front of Walmart. If you frequent Walmart, you know that is decidedly not a good thing. Talk about stress!

Four or five phone calls to my husband's cellphone where I get to talk to his voicemail multiple times and tell it I need help to get out of the middle of the road, and there might have been some Mel Gibson $^%& going on in those last two messages {okay, maybe not Mel Gibson bad, but definitely more stress}.  The Cajun finally got my messages, but by then I'd gotten my car to crank by some freak of nature and took it over to the Walmart parking area and wasn't where I said I was anymore.  Husband and son finally show up, and I get the car over to my son's house, he figures out the brand new battery I just bought is bad, exchanges my battery for his and he's all set for work in the morning. I sure could have used a Valium about that time. What a fiasco.

Got home and Sally wasn't doing well, though she was walking still at that point, so I spent the next day and night worried over her {more stress}. Fast forward to the vet's office, a lot of sadness, crying, heartbreak and sick to your stomach stress.

And... nice. There's a Tropical Storm heading right our way.  Just what I need right now. OMG would somebody just shoot me already? {thank GOD that fizzled out}

Next day then I started getting sick and spent several days in bed with flu like symptoms - fever, chills, general malaise, you know. I kinda think it was partly stressed induced {really? ya think?} but to be honest, my immune system ain't what it used to be anymore either since blogging full time and becoming a hermit who doesn't go anywhere beyond the grocery store and Walmart much.  I'm pretty sure that I picked up a bug from the grandkids to be honest, because I often feel a little "buggy" when I get home from visits over there, but this? This was a doozy y'all.

Anybody got any tips on boosting the immune system for work at home bloggers let me know!

Finally got better, but had a lingering cough that is the worse cough I think I have ever had in my life so I've been hacking up a lung here, running around with my favorite Vicks VapoRub perfuming me all day and every night, working with my favorite oils and trying to mend myself because, well, I just don't do doctors unless I have no other choice. {Not that I don't like doctors, I do. In fact, they saved my wretched life once when I was in my 20s - I should share that story some day}  The cough was miserable and tiring, my chest wall hurt so bad that I felt like I was getting pleurisy, and the cough wasn't very productive and getting rid of it was slooooooooow coming, and I wasn't getting ANY sleep. And my throat? RAW.

Then I remembered yesterday that despite all the new medical technology out there and all the new medications they come up with, I'm an old fashioned girl and an old fashioned standby that I know works for me with mucus congested lungs - guaifenesin - was available over the counter now and sent The Cajun to get me some. Dose one and I slept for the first time last night more than I've slept since last Friday.

OMG.  Spend all night unable to sleep and coughing so hard you taste your lungs, and see how you feel.

I think I'm on the mend. Finally. Praise God for you peeps over at Mucinex - I think I love y'all. I told The Cajun, get the MAXIMUM STRENGTH ones, and you can only take one of these every 12 hours so it might take a few days, BUT it seems to be working. Yay! If not, I guess I'll carry my butt to the doctor, where, since my immune system sucks, I'll be sure to pick up an extra germ or three for certain.

What's that got to do with the dragonfly up there? Not. A. Single. Thing.  That's just one of about a half dozen dragonflies that follow me around the garden since the great butterfly {and dragonfly} rescue and they are always happy to pose though I never seem to have the right lens on me. I happened to catch him this afternoon so thought I'd share him with you.

Thanks to those of you who do hang around and read my blather here for your sweet thoughts, hugs and prayers about my sweet ole gal Sally.  That really means a lot to me.

~

The Great Rescue

I barely slept a wink last night, but it was a good thing. I know that sounds crazy but those of you who read here regularly will completely understand. First though, I gotta back up a bit, so grab a cup of coffee and sit awhile. While I know that 90% of you might not have the time to read this entire post - I promise if you love animals, I think that you'll love this story.

You may recall my mentioning that I live right along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. I'm not right on the shoreline, but I am just a block north of it. If I had a rooftop widow's walk, I'd have an awesome waterfront view! Surrounding us are several bayous - yes like the bayous you hear about in Louisiana - and all of the tributaries, marshes and wetlands that go along with them. There is lot of life in these bayous - frogs and turtles, brown pelicans and cranes, herons and yes, even alligators and snakes, to name a few. And bugs. Lots and lots and lots of bugs, including those aggravating mosquitoes.

My Neighborhood Bayou

Last night The Cajun and I were watching a movie - or catching up on Housewives - can't remember which one.  I kept hearing this strange noise, so I muted the tv and thought aloud, "what is that?"  "It's just the mosquito truck," The Cajun replied.  "Oh," I say not giving it much more thought, since the mosquitoes have been about to eat me alive here lately - and it doesn't seem to matter much what time of the day either. Then I started hearing these thumps against the window right by my chair.

I guess I have to back up yet again ... See, I leave the back porch light on at night until I go to bed because I have tons of frogs and lizards in my yard, and the light attracts bugs.  Several of the frogs and lizards arrive at the back door every night to feast on the bugs. This has been going on for years, so I'm used to hearing some thumps - just not this loud. I went to investigate and found two gorgeous butterflies - exactly like the one pictured above - in distress, struggling to fly, slamming into the floodlamps and fallling to the ground. It was the oddest thing ... until I remembered - the mosquito truck. Oh no!  Were they dying from the spray? 

I set out to capture them, which was entirely too easy, then grabbed a couple of nursery pots I had outside and brought the butterflies inside to the fresh air, where I trapped them underneath the pots to hold them overnight.  I didn't know if it would make a difference or not, but they were in such distress that I had to do something.

Well, all told in the next hour or so, I managed to capture and bring in 7 distressed butterflies!!  I had nursery pots, colanders, and salad spinner baskets in use all over my kitchen table and counters to temporarily house all of these beautiful creatures. Then I thought about the garden dragonflies - especially this sweetie and another younger one, both of whom had been following me around the garden lately. I hadn't seen any distressed dragonflies on the porch. Were they already dead?

Y'all, honest to God truth - no sooner had I turned off the light and got ready to go to bed, than I began to hear thumping again. I turned the light back on, went outside and just like the butterflies found both of them also in distress!!  I corralled them and brought them inside to the fresh air.

I barely slept - alternating between pleading to God for their recovery and getting up to peek and poke at them to see if they were still alive. I've never wanted daylight to break so much in my entire life! I finally dozed off to sleep sometime after 4:30 a.m., but woke up about 6:30, anxious to see if my little ones were alive and well.  I carried the first pot outside and lifted it. The butterfly was lying on it's side, lifeless.  It was one of the last ones I'd captured and one of the smallest. I was disappointed.  I held it on the plate, poking at it, when it suddenly launched and flew away!

One by one I brought all of the butterflies outside, let them crawl onto my finger and then once they woke up and warmed up a bit, 5 of them immediately took flight into the morning sky. The dragonflies too!  They sat on my finger for a very brief moment and then, suddenly flew away.  I cannot tell you what joy that brought to me.

Only two of the butterflies were struggling - but one of them, much smaller, quite a bit.  I finally that one into a shady area of one of my flower beds, hoping that it would eventually recover and fly away.  The other one, pictured above - much larger and stronger - I placed on a leaf of one of the shaded banana trees thinking it too would eventually fly off. After about an hour or more, when it didn't move and the sun began to hit the banana tree, I made a spot for it on top of my patio table under the shade of an umbrella and went to retrieve it.  I let it crawl onto my finger and just as I went to carry it to the table, it too flew away!!  I went to check on the last one and it was gone. All 7 of them seemed to be fully recovered.

Now, I don't know if God was listening and answered.  I don't know if these garden buddies would have died had I left them alone outside, or if they would have eventually recovered anyway.  I don't know if bringing them inside made a bit of difference. I don't even know if they are still out there and okay, though I've seen a few of what I believe to be them, flitting around in the garden this morning. All I do know, is that these garden critters bring me such joy and even though I barely slept a wink, and frankly, I'm exhausted, I am about as happy as a gal could possibly be!

Do you have any garden buddies that bring you joy?

Happy Weekend!

~

Wordless Wednesday - My Garden Buddies