Monday June 24 - Thursday July 4 (Stryker)

Monday - Monday
I had a quiet week trying to recover from the trip over. It was not until Saturday that I slept most of the night.

The weather was very warm and dry which meant the farmers could finally get out and plant some fields. Due to the earlier very wet weather, crops were well behind time. More fields will grow Soya Beans this year so there will be a shortage of corn. This will have a wide ranging effect apart from higher prices as corn is involved in the production of many foods.

On Wednesday, we travelled into Defiance, I shopped for a few more items and then Lisa dropped me off at Biggby’s for coffee while she took the car in for a service before their long trip. The farmer who owned the fields across the road from the house was finally able to get his tractor out and till the fields. 

Very early on Friday morning, Lisa and Harry set off to visit their daughter and son in law in Minnesota. On the way back they would go to a family reunion, on Harry’s side, in Wisconsin.

On Thursday and Friday the farmer continued working the fields and this continued into Friday night and it looked as if he was planting, probably breans.

I settled into a quiet life, looking after Bruno, the dog, Guido the cat and watering the flower pots. I also went for a walk each morning before it got too hot.

Tuesday
What a day this was! It began normally but around 12.30, I needed to go upstairs, I had just stepped onto the bottom stair when Guido startled me by zooming up! For some reason I was not fully balanced and I fell backwards. It was not very far and if I had curled up I would have been fine just a bit shaken. However, my left arm was in automatic mode and it tried to break my fall, I heard a crack and knew I was in trouble.

I spent the best part of an hour on the phone to my travel insurance, I get complimentary insurance on my credit card when I pay my airfare on it. I then rang a friend, Shirley, and she took me through to Archbold to Parkview Health. She had to leave me there as she had people at home. After copious paperwork, I saw a nurse, my BP was 124 over 78, excellent considering what had happened, lol, and then a nurse practitioner. It was then into the adjoining hospital for more paperwork and finally an X-Ray.

The Nurse Practitioner returned about 30 minutes later to inform me I have broken the radius at the distil end and it is not a simple break, compound and some tiny fractures, so it might need surgery. Due to my circumstances, ie having to travel etc, it will be X-rayed in two weeks to check on progress. It was then placed in this fancy cast which had been heated and was then moulded to my lower arm.

Another friend, Karleen, came to pick me up and take me home. At least I have had plenty of practice with only one arm!

I relaxed and then had something to eat before Shirley popped in with some IBUPROFEN to keep me going.

Anatomy of a power outage
At around 7 pm I realised the wind was blowing really strongly so went outside to take one of the hanging signs down, it was also pouring with rain and the sky was very dark. Just after 8 pm, the power flickered a few times and went out, about twenty minutes later it flickered again but that was that. A thunderstorm started and went on for a while.

Lisa and Harry have a water pump controlled by electricity so I had to use water only if necessary! There are a number of hurricane lamps around the house so I was not totally in the dark, lol! I read for a while and then went to bed. There was some more thunder and lightning for a while but it was not overhead.

I was woken at 2.10 am with the power coming on, before I could grab the remote for the aircon, it was off again. This also happened at 4.10 am then at 5.05 am the power came back for good, phew. It was time to get the room cooled down! Just to add more fun, Guido had deposited a mouse, fortunately dead, on the other side of the bed!!

Wednesday

I had a quiet day and was pleased the power was back on so I could take a shower. Shirley came to collect me around 5 pm as we were off to Defiance to see “Toy Story 4” as, sadly. “The Secret Life of Pets 2” had just finished its season. Shirley told me she was without power most of the day so I was lucky! It was a fun evening out and I had a wee bit of shopping to do after the film.

Once I had been delivered home, I was ready for bed then as I did not have much sleep last night, lol!

Thursday

It was very foggy this morning and it took a while for the sun to burn it away. I spent a quiet day, again lol, although I did manage to do some computer work I needed to do including updating my blog. Guido did not want to get up today, lol!