Comedy of Errors

Well, I ended up with two things supposed to be happening at the same time tonight. One was our usual Mastermind call, and the other was a webinar to give some in-depth instruction on a system I bought some time ago.

First I had trouble finding the phone number for our conference call. Finally found it and had the online webinar booting up at the same time.

I got on the Mastermind call, and only one other was there. We chatted a little while, and I told her about how this call was supposed to be Thursday, and now it was Tuesday, and... bottom line, decided I'd attend the webinar and come back to the mastermind next week.

In the meantime, the webinar had started, then all of a sudden the screen stopped moving. After a few minutes the webinar went totally down. I clicked back on, and this time the partner of the guy who was going to give the webinar came on and said his partner's internet went down, and the call has been rescheduled to.... you guess it.... Thursday.

Argh! I could have went ahead with the mastermind call if I'd known. But that's the way it is sometimes, a total comedy of errors.

While I was trying to get all these things set up at the same time, I knocked over my glass of iced tea and had to clean it up, and I got my head set wet and had to dry it...

And through all this I'm dealing with itchy ant bites, like half a dozen on my right knee, and a couple of bigger ones on each ankle. That was another comedy of errors, that the llama and I should end up standing in a fire ant hill yesterday. That's a black comedy I fear... okay, red...

Well, that's how it goes! Guess I'll just go back to work, and hope things go better Thursday night and next Tuesday, and all the rest of the days in-between!

Cheers!

I am not the farm...

Today has been a hard day in a whole lot of ways and I didn't get much sleep last night, so I'm a little cranky. If you don't want to listen to me grousing, stop reading right now.

Okay, so here it is. I write a lot about life on the farm. I used to send out an email to interested people a few years ago (TN Tattlers), but quit because I got tired of explaining that I was writing about what time I WAS active, but that didn't mean I was active 24/7, and yes, I still had/have chronic pain and fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I just didn't see writing, "Oh, I was on the couch for a couple of hours today" as being interesting reading.

So I gave up with the TN Tattlers. But I like to write, so now I do it on a more public and a little less personal forum of the farm blog. It gets quite a few visitors, enough so that the website has a page rank of 3. That probably doesn't mean anything to most people reading this, but short explanation is that Google ranks all pages from 0 - 10, and there are a lot more ranked zero than about anything else. 3 is a solid ranking.

Anyway, the point is that I write a lot about the farm and a lot of people read it. Most I never hear from or know who they are. Many comment and we have an enjoyable dialog. Others I hear from I could do without, those being the ones who love to tell me what I'm doing wrong.

And then there are those who are so interested in what I write they want to come visit and see the farm. Many don't even make a pretense of saying they want to come see me, they just "want to see the farm and the animals I write about."

Well, we don't have a petting zoo. We're not open to the public. And for the most part, I don't do visitors. Seriously, when I say I'm turning into a hermit, I am NOT kidding. Especially right now when I am concentrating on starting/growing a business, while still doing the farm work and a little bit of house work, because the guys are also working full time and somebody's got to do it!

So at the moment we do most family visits by meeting family elsewhere, like taking Dad on a mini vacation, and meeting Maria and family and staying overnight at a cabin in eastern WV. Or meeting the Canadian crew this fall in the Pigeon Forge area.

The point to all this rambling is why would I want people I don't even know to come visit when these days I rarely even have immediate family visit the farm? It's just too difficult to take time off to clean and get ready for company, and still get other work done. It's more fun, easier, and less stressful to meet people elsewhere.

And seriously, "I am not the farm"... people can see me without seeing the farm. If people have to see the farm to see me, they're not really interested in seeing me, they want to see the farm. I just happen to be the keeper of the farm animals. And frankly, I'm a little tired of people feigning an interest in me so they can see the farm.

So there it is. I repeat, I am not the farm. If someone really wants to see me, we can meet somewhere besides the farm. Go out to dinner perhaps. Or here's an idea... what about THEIR house?

Hey, I warned you I was cranky!

Retired Classmates

I was just looking at Facebook, and noticed there are a lot of my classmates from high school that list their present occupation as "retired."

First off, it seems a little early to be retiring if you go by Social Security standards. Even with early retirement, you're supposed to be 62 years of age. People in my class should still be at least 5 years or so away from that. So what's with all these retired people?

Of course, for my part, I never worked at any job long enough to become vested for a retirement plan. I was a SAHM, we moved way too often, and I tended to have money making projects, but not so many jobs outside the home.

And while retirement seems foreign to me, I *still* don't work outside the home. (I am such a hermit!) I'm working hard getting a business off the ground, but I sit at home and work odd hours - albeit a LOT of hours - and not even thinking about retiring. Who's got time to retire?

I never did do things the way most "normal" people do them. So why start now?

Jess has got a green toe....

Yeah, that's supposed to be a green thumb, but Jess likes to do things differently.

See, he went to the podiatrist today. He's been having trouble with the toenail on the big toe of his left foot. The podiatrist removed it. (Ooooowwwwww, I cringe as I write this!)

So now to gain the sympathy vote, he's got a bright green bandage around his toe. I didn't think to get a picture of it, and I don't think he'd appreciate me waking him up at midnight to get one.

He says it doesn't hurt, so hopefully it will stay in that condition.

Other news... what's to say? Busy as usual, same old, same old!

What's happening?

First, an update on the "psychotic reaction" episodes. Thankfully, once all that second antibiotic got out of my bloodstream, they went away. I suppose one of these days I'll see the humor in me "being psycho", but that's a long way off for now. It's still too vivid in my mind, too real, too intense, too... scary.

Now, as for what's happening around here. Mostly it's the same old stuff, but here's a short run-down of life on the farm. . .

-> The weather. Everyone talks about the weather. Well, it's summer in the south, and no big surprise that it's hot. Temperatures in the high 90s for days and days and whew! Is it fall yet? And dry. The trees in the front yard are losing so many leaves it looks like fall, but it sure doesn't feel like fall.

-> The farm. Lots of baby chickens, 4 baby peafowl, a couple of baby guinea birds. One heavily pregnant llama (due in late October - 11 months gestation).

-> Jess's garden. He's given up on the tomatoes, but has quite a few watermelons. He ate the first one yesterday, and it was nice and sweet tasting.

-> Jess himself. Sometimes very busy at work, once in a while employs "time-users" like playing cards on the computer. Choir starting back at church after a summer break. Going to a podiatrist tomorrow.

-> Jonathan. Still delivering pizza, and working full-time most weeks, and often even gets into overtime. Started a league playing tabletop war games.

-> me. Crazy busy. ALL THE TIME. Oh, I take a little time off now and then, but most of the time I'm either working on farm stuff, critical household chores (I'll confess, if it's not critical, it's not getting done), and otherwise working online. I want to keep the growth momentum going, especially since I'll lose a lot of time come November with various activities. I'll need to have things in place to keep my two girls busy even when I'm not working.

And there you have it, a short summing up of what's been happening around here!

Psychotic Reactions

All kidding aside, I've been dealing with psychotic reactions the last couple of days. Waking up with anxiety attacks and pretty much having nightmares while still awake. Scary stuff. Feeling I couldn't go back to sleep because I had to stay awake and tell myself to keep breathing or I'd die. Unknown presences looming over me. Did I mention it was scary stuff?

And the cause of all this?

Well, the doctor thinks it was the antibiotic I was taking. Yes, an antibiotic. It seems one of the less common side effects is "confusion, psychotic reactions."

Wonderful. I'm on an antibiotic to get rid of an infection, and I get psychotic episodes instead.

And oh, by the way, that was the second antibiotic in a row I was taking, because the first one didn't do anything at all to help. I suppose I should be grateful it didn't create any bad side effects either. I mean, psychotic reactions from an antibiotic!?!

So it's now week three, and a third antibiotic. I'm almost afraid to start taking this one. I'm not ready to deal with any more strange side effects. But it seems I have little choice since the infection lingers....

Well, I'm off to take another pill. Hopefully withOUT side effects.

It's pretty bad when you're scared to take an antibiotic. . .