A Trip, a Fall, Bruises and an Infection

A little bit of misfortune befell Misce and me. On Wednesday, Misce tripped and fell over our new home gym while she was putting something away. She bruised a lot on her arm, hip and leg. The pain must have been excruciating. The same day I came down with a bit of a swelling on my right shin and a slight fever. The next day on Thursday, Misce's arm and leg were still bothering her and the bruises looked horrible. I went to work thinking I had recovered from whatever had given me the fever earlier. Within two hours of coming to work, I returned home with a fairly serious fever. At the advice of my doctor, I ended up at the local hospital's emergency room. The attending physician admitted me to the hospital for an overnight stay and a twenty four hour regimen of intravenous anti-biotics. Seems that I had picked up either a staph or strep infection most likely through a cut on my foot. Walking barefoot in the garden can leave one open to such things I guess. While I was at the hospital, Misce's pain from her bruises got worse. On Friday, just a day after me, she ended up in the emergency room at the behest of her doctor. Turns out that her bruises were either bad muscle contusions or even hair line fractures. The only thing the doctors could do for her was a sling for her arm to immobilize it and a prescription for strong pain killers. Oh what a mess we were, she with a sling and evil looking bruises, me with a nearly systemic infection and a fever. Unfortunately she is still suffering while she recovers, the doctors could not do much more to help. I, on the other hand, just need to complete my prescription of follow on oral anti-biotics. This incident had both of us thankful for modern medicine. That said, my heart still aches for Misce as she is still in pain while she recovers. I'm hoping for better fortune for all of us for at least a little while.

Caveman Television

In the past week we've fired up our chimenea several times. It's nothing more than a crude cast iron outdoor fireplace or stove of sorts. We put it about six feet away from the two adirondack chairs in the back yard. It stands like a lone sentinel in the middle of our garden bed layout. We've lit the fire just before sunset and let it burn past dusk into the night. We end up by the fire for an hour or two. Watching the flames dance on the burning wood is entrancing. It is also very peaceful and relaxing. In those moments I think about how long humans have been watching fire and for how long it has served us so well. Cultures even have myths about how we first acquired our oldest and most powerful servant, the myth of Prometheus and Zeus comes to mind. When I think about that long legacy of fire use by humans. I feel like I wake a slumbering ancient memory not quite my own whenever I sit by a warm dancing fire. That connected feeling lets me feel a little like what our most ancient of ancestors felt like when they sat around a warm fire in the cold dark of the night. Deep down inside, we moderns are not that much different from the prehistoric people. We are different to be sure, and conspicuously so in some very strinking ways, but at our core we much more similar to our ancient ancestors. The dancing flame delights the eye and entrances the mind, and put the soul at ease while it banishes cold, darkness, and fear. That is true for us as much as it was for our earliest fire using ancestors.

Garden Delight

This year my wife and I decided to cleanup and transform our backyard. Throughout the spring and part of the summer we worked on our gardens in the backyard. We were so ambitious in our transformation of the backyard, my wife Misce nicknamed it "The Park". We did all the planning and all the work ourselves. I mainly did the layout, digging and building the frames for the beds. She planned what to plant as well doing most of the actual planting. Yes, we both got our hands dirty. Our garden has that signature of two minds and sets of hands working on it. In the spacing and layout of the beds and plantings, you can clearly see my fascination for geometry, symmetry, and visual rhythm. In the mixture and abundance of color, exuberance of blooms, shape of foliage my wife's sense of composition is clearly evident. We, the whole family, like the backyard garden. We managed to transform an ordinary backyard that we liked but didn't think about much into a place we fully enjoy. My wife and I've taken to sitting on a pair of Adirondack chairs at sunset and dusk watching the changing colors of the sky, waiting for humming birds, finches, and what ever else might come or fly by. That time sitting and relaxing in the garden is great for catching up with each other's lives as well as just spending time together. At those times when I feel the calm of our garden, I'm glad that we made the effort to build ourselves this place. The calm feeling, the sights of the garden, and the sights and sounds of the animals it attracts make all the effort we put into it worthwhile. It is our special place.