Progress in Paradise...

Progress in Paradise...  Debbie's doing fine.  There were a few changes today.  The most noticeable one: she developed a spectacular shiner (a black eye), with a dark blue/purple bruise extending nearly all the way around her eye.  This afternoon that same part of her face swelled, but it has since gone back down.  The pain and swelling in various other places is starting to recede.  The pain medication she's taking is an excellent appetite suppressant, but I managed to find some food that she enjoyed: french fries and turkey salad from a place that's new to us.  It's called “Juniper”, and it's located in downtown Logan.   Our neighbor Tim D. recommended it to us for the soups (which I bought some of, but we haven't tried yet).  I tried a halibut sandwich, and it was just plain delicious.  The fish was perfectly done, and there was plenty of it – on a nice bun that tasted homemade, though there are enough great bakeries here that it could be store-bought.  It's clear this is a place that we will return to.

In between other things today, I managed to get the lawn mowed.  I also mowed down about an acre of weeds to the west of our house.  Things are looking much neater around the homestead :)

I took the dogs for a walk in which we passed a neighbor's pasture that is currently the home to a couple of beautiful horses.  The horses were interested in the dogs, and vice versa.  Race got a good nose-rub in with the second of the horses in the photos below:

I've posted a couple photos of the robin chicks, in a low nest built in a half-dead tree in our front yard.  Here's what they looked like today – they're outgrowing their puny nest:

D-Day...

D-Day...  A good short (under an hour), mostly in color documentary for those who neither remember nor know...

Light blogging alert...

Light blogging alert...  On Thursday evening I took our dogs for a short walk just before we planned to retire.  When I came back in the house, Debbie was sitting on the bottom of the stairs, looking dazed and a bit confused.  She'd fallen down the stairs just a minute or so earlier – she'd been walking down them in her stocking feet, and the slipped out from under her.  I saw her hand swelling up rapidly, and she was feeling pain in her knee (the one she broke two years ago), head (which had a big bump), and hand.  Time for the ER.

There we had the same general sort of experience we've had before with medical care here – all good.  The people, in particular, were wonderful.  The ER doctor on duty was the same fellow who saw Debbie after her fall in March.  When we walked in, she was the only patient there – but soon afterward, the ER filled up, so naturally things got a little slower.  We were there for a couple hours.  They got her on pain medication quickly, then it was X-ray time.  Lots of X-rays, from head to toe.  The good news: nothing was broken.  The bad news: lots of bruising, a broken vein in her hand (hence the swelling), and the pain in the knee (twice injured already) is worrisome.  We've got an MRI scheduled for next Tuesday to get the knee checked out more thoroughly.

Meanwhile, Debbie is doped up and laid up.  I'm taking care of all the things she normally does, plus helping her out as needed.  She can't (yet) walk or get around on her own, so there's lots to do.

So blogging will be light...

71 years ago today...

71 years ago today ... the Allies invaded Normandy, marking the start of the extended invasion from the Nazi's west (the Soviets were already attacking from the Nazi's east).  After much hard fighting, the Allies brought the Nazis to their knees, and the European front of WWII was over.

I've walked Omaha beach in Normandy, and visited quite a few sites of battles in WWII.  I've also visited three Nazi concentration camps, and the ruins of Soviet fortifications in Estonia, and Nazi gun emplacements outside St. Petersburg (Leningrad).  While I've read quite a bit of history (especially of WWII and the rise to power of the Nazis and the Meiji), but physically visiting the sites of the events I'd read about was more moving, more profound than reading alone could ever be.  On the Pacific side, I've visited Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Okinawa, Tarawa, and Peleliu.  My reading of history and those experiences have shaped me, especially politically.  I wish more Americans could (and would) do the same...