Sunday, July 17, 2022

Weekend, done and dusted

 I went into this weekend with great plans. Plans actually completed? Zero. 

I had an awful stomach problem last Wednesday and Thursday. It went away. I made my great plans. It came back. It went away. It came back. I began to notice that I was fine until I ate. I began reading, like I do, and came to the conclusion that I was having a gallbladder problem. I was miserable, but went along with the diet to see what would happen. Sure enough. Things started easing back. I am also drinking a lot of ginger tea, since ginger is good for relieving inflammation. 

I am much better today, which leads me to think I am on the right track. 

I expect that at some point, I will probably have to see a doctor, but I'm hoping to delay things for just a while. My newest granddaughter will be here in less than three weeks, and I'll be waiting at home with big sister anxious to meet her. 

So, I spent most of the weekend curled up with a book I picked up some time back. It is an Aldine Reader, Book Seven  (which was for seventh graders, ironically enough). It was printed in 1921. The readings are quite advanced to what we see in seventh grade nowaday. Complex themes about war, and dying for God and country, patriotism, duty, honor, written by Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Daniel Webster Henry Ward Beecher. Alfred Lord Tennyson and the like.

I saw that they had the story of Rip VanWinkel in it, and I was curious. William reads steadily, but he's reading James Patterson's middleschool series and getting a huge kick out of them. Quite a different level. He's also younger, having just finished 5th grade. I was kind of curious and so I began to read the story out loud to him. It is a 200 year old story, and some of the words are quite old fashioned. There were several stops to define words (shiftless, flagon, tory, draught, etc.) but he became quite engrossed with the the tale. He loved the part about the little men bringing Henry Hudson back every 20 years so that he might view his town and the river named for him. It was very cool to see him take such an interest. 

I spent this afternoon curled up listening to the thunder moving through the area. We need the rain, so I really cannot complain about that. 

I also watched Shadowlands. What a sweet movie. I spent a lot of time reading about Douglas Gresham when it was done. Thanks for the tip, Northsider!

20 comments:

  1. Shadowlands is great, and I did the same (researched Douglas Gresham) when I saw it years ago. What an interesting story. (Hope you are feeling better.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just ordered Lenten Lands by Douglas Gresham. Have you ever read it?

      Delete
  2. Sorry to hear you have been feeling unwell. I hope you feel better soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think I'll need to pay attention to my diet, but things seem to be settling down now.

      Delete
  3. Shadowlands is amazing Debby. I have watched it twenty three times. "We read to know we are not alone ".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 23 times. Well. By this point, you can probably recite the whole script. I just ordered Lenten Lands, written by his stepson Douglas Gresham. Lewis died only 3 years after his wife. Ironically, it was the same year that Gresham's natural father commited suicide. Those poor boys had witnessed an awful lot of tragedy before they were even 20.

      Delete
  4. I hope you get the tummy problem sorted before the visit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Much better today, thanks. Some minor upset, but so much improved.

      Delete
  5. It has been way to long, I'm guessing four decades, since I read that story. I can't remember Henry Hudson being in it at all. Perhaps it was the version of the story I read. I could sum up all I remember about the story in one pretty brief sentence.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He wasn't actually in it. At the end of the story, an historian (the son of one, anyway) recounted that he had also been told stories of haunted beings in the mountains, and related that they allowed Hudson and the crew of the Half-Moon to come back every 20 years to take a look at the changes in the river and the town named for him.

      Delete
  6. Do a little research on Chanca Piedra-the "stone breaker". It's an herb used for kidney and gall stones in south America. Works amazingly well. Best

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for that information Hummingbird.

      Delete
  7. My sister had her gall bladder removed last month and it was a pretty easy procedure now that they do it laparoscopically. She just had 5 small incisions and it was out-patient so she was home in a few hours. You should check in with your doctor because her doctor said you don't want it to lead to infection.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tim had it done years ago. I know that it is not a big deal, not really, but the timing is sooooo inconvenient.

      Delete
  8. I have Shadowlands on my shelf, but it's been years since I watched it. Perhaps I should dust it off. -Kelly

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You know, I think I saw it in the final days of my marriage. I cried my head off, because I thought that I would never have that in my life. The memory came niggling back to me during one of the final scenes.

      Delete
  9. I've never seen "Shadowlands" -- it came out while I was in Morocco and I never caught up with it. I'll have to do that sometime soon! I used to love reading old books when I was younger. I read my grandfather's old copies of "Lad, a Dog" and similar books by Albert Payson Terhune. I wonder if kids would read those now?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I loved the old books too. They were the books that my grandmothers had on their shelves. I remember falling in love with PollyAnna. Everytime that we went for a visit, I'd grab down one of those books and read until I had a headache, trying to get as much of it read as I could before we had to leave.

      Delete
  10. I was just tickled with the interest my grands took the "old" books their g'ma had on the shelves. One loved Ann of Green Gables so that I bought her the set. The older fell for Jane Austen. I had a set of books, The Annals of American History that had all the great works published each year from 1692 on. They even tackled that, and read what they enjoyed. And I still hear words like nevertheless and notwithstanding slung around.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, Joanne, you've made my day!! I'll keep reading aloud to William and see where it leads!

      Delete

I'm glad you're here!

Weary

I am sure that everyone has seen the video of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. I lived in Baltimore for a couple years while my...