Smokey Mountain Breakdown

I gots nothin’!

Well, almost nothin’.

By this weekend I expect to be goatless. It’s been a long time since I’ve been goatless, but it’s just not safe here for the goaties anymore. I’m keeping the sheep to keep the grass down should it return before the house sells. This should make it easier for me to get the house ready to sell. I’m hoping to be moving by mid to late spring, depending on how fast I can get the house ready. The goats have really been holding me up in that respect.

I’m just tired of being a nervous wreck all of the time about them and not having enough money to fix things so they are safe…so I’m safe. I hate it that I can’t continue my dream here, because I really do love this place and the people here. I’ll just start my dream up somewhere else.

But…I think I’ll always write about this place.

I’ve had my head down polishing “The Ghosts are Dancing”. It's the first piece I've developed completely off the blog. Honestly, I miss doing them here. But I can't if I want them published. I hate that. I think I have two more passes until it’s completely ready to run with the big dogs.

The Ghosts are Dancing

Joel woke up earlier than usual. He felt Trudy’s long braid of red hair tickling his arm. He heard the hard rain on the roof and the plinking of the gutters, like pennies pouring from the sky. He thought about sleeping in, since he couldn’t do anything in such a downpour.

He thought this, but heard the groaning and the popping. It was a sound like no other, like the earth screaming for mercy. First, a sound like a giant chewing tin starting high and raggedly ripping low, then--a sound like a rifle shot. Joel sat up in the bed and strained to hear. The noise made him afraid and he shivered in his bed. He felt like a child, hearing a new sound never heard before, never imagined. The sound made him want to cover his face. The sound made him want to hide.

Joel sat on the side of the bed. He moved Trudy’s hand back under the quilts. Lord, Jesus, he thought, what is going on out there?

It must have been seventy degrees today. I was out on the porch in shorts and a tank top. No lie. So, while I’m hurting for the folks in the Midwest, I’m sort of enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. We have an entire week of it ahead they say. We’ll prolly have a big old snow following it but it won’t stick.

I don’t have much for you today except a foggy picture of the herd in the mist….So let’s see what’s going on in The Plain Talk’s From the Record today…

I like:

Suburban goes on submerged safari

Dovetail trailer leaves the nest

And

Chevrolet chicanes off road

There’s also one item that I think should have been more properly titled:

Damn…that’s a big purse!

But they played it safe and titled it:

More than $10,000 worth of items stolen from purse

Now, I know that my buddy Sue can easily cram that much value in her Fendi, but it would be challenging for me. And I have a really big clunky purse. Not a Fendi, obviously.

So, so sorry...I don't have a food article for you today.

I did have an amazing Shrimp Po-Boy at the Shrimp Dock in Knoxville, but I was so hungry that I forgot to take pictures of it. You'll just have to trust me...it was really yummy.

Anyway, I was in for my kidney doctor checkup at UT. He comes in by himself and sits down next to me...this is never a good sign. I much prefer it when they breeze in with a gang of baby doctors in tow. I love baby doctors...they are just so cute!

So, I'm shedding like a gram of protein in my urine every 24 hours. This is evidently a lot. Evidently, if it doesn't stop it, my kidneys will start to fail. Anyway, he wants a kidney biopsy. Now, the last time I had a biopsy, I ended up in the hospital in a coma for six months with a gang of nonsocomial infections and had to learn how to walk again.

So naturally, I am a bit reticent about saying, "Why sure, doc...go ahead and stick a great whopping needle in my innards! Sounds like fun to me!"

He tells me this isn't a big deal and I even get to be awake for it! It's an outpatient procedure...but sometimes they keep people overnight. So, I guess which one clotting disorder chick gets to be.

So, I'm sitting there and I feel that stupid thing my chin starts to do when it crumples up and then that hot heavy feeling in my eyes.

I say, brokenly, "Well....you know.,..it's just...it's just...well, every time I walk in a hospital I wonder if I'm ever going to get to go home again."

He pats me on the back and I don't feel better. I'm afraid.

And the crappy thing about it is...I felt so good today. I really did. I still do.

So, I convince him to give me another month. To try to do another draw in a few weeks and come back. It's more to give me the time to get used to the idea of having this done. And to give me a bit more time to hope that maybe this is just lupus weirdness and it will correct itself.

So, I guess I'd better get writing...'cause it looks like I've been handed my deadline.

Sorry...I got nothin'. Don't have a food post...I'm in the week where I eat ramen and rice so I don't have anything for you.

BossyToe, however, came to the front door to have it es'plained...one more time...why she can't come in the house anymore. She quite enjoyed her childhood as a house goat and was feeling a bit nostalgic.

Well, Childe Rabbit was gone from the gourd patch this morning. I choose to believe that one of his parental units came and got him and put him someplace much safer.

I've been really busy with some graphics work today. Thank the powers that be I've got a guest FPF tomorrow or I'd be running around my neighbors houses with my digital saying, "Hey! Whatcha got to eat? Can I take a picture of it?"

So...other than that...the phone connection has been really painful today.

Bell South...You are so dead to me.