Blogger Driving By Spots Body by Side of Canal

I haven't left my office for lunch since April 16th or so when the dreaded Sciatica hit me. I've been brown bagging it to work every day; at first to rest my leg and not drive around while on Vicodin and then because there's no way I'm driving around in the heat that we've been having.

But today I had to go to the bank and I thought a frozen yogurt treat from Mannings Yogurt would be awesome. So I headed there and was driving down Stine Road when I see a bunch of deputy sheriffs cars and I slow down to see what's going on and there...by the side of the road is a body. I could tell the person was dead because there was no drama going on with the deputies trying to revive the person or applying CPR and no EMT's were on the scene.

Now I worked for a funeral home for nine years. I'm used to seeing bodies. Death doesn't scare me, I know it's a part of life and the person laying there in the casket is someone that is loved and will be missed by someone else. But to see someone lying there, on the side of the road, in the dirt and you know he's dead...well that is a little freaky.

I guess this poor soul was tossed into the canal after being hit in the head as the Sheriff's department said it was a suspicious death. Here's the video taken about an hour and a half before I drove by:



Here's the story from SouthwestBakersfieldNow.com.

Man working on roof spots body in canal

Authorities pulled a body from a canal Wednesday with what they called "suspicious" signs of trauma to the head.
The Kern County Sheriff's Office wouldn't specify what head injuries 50-year-old Julio Cesar Brizuela had sufferd.
A man working on a roof in the area of Belle Terrace and New Stine Road said he spotted the body and alerted law enforcement.
"Yeah, it's pretty crazy," said the witness, Damien Smith. "It's not something you see everyday."
The sheriff's office said the level of decomposition indicates the body wasn't in the water for very long.

I'm still sort of freaked out and my heart goes out to the family of Mr. Brizuela.

It's so hot that . . .

This is the temperature right now in my fair city. . .

That prompted me to do another "It's so hot that" post. You can see the last one I did here.

It is so hot today that I saw a funeral procession pull into a Dairy Queen!

It is so hot today that I saw birds having to use potholders to pull worms out of the ground!

It is so hot that I found out the hard way that my seat belt buckle can be used as a branding iron!

It is so hot that you can roast marshmallows on my belly!

It is so hot that you can make instant sun tea...instant, get it?

It is so hot that hot water is coming out of both taps!

and finally...It is so hot that I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walking!

I ran across this cool little gadget on a daily letter I get delivered in my email everyday called LikeCool Daily Letter at LikeCOOL.com. This would be great on a day like today!

Ice Straws you make yourself. Mmmmm, sipping a Margarita out of one of these straws would be Paradise right now. Maybe if I imagine it I'll feel cooler? It's worth a shot, but you can order one of these handy dandy little Ice Straws tray at Amazon.com.

Whats the weather like in your neck of the woods? Can you top my 105?

My Children's Memories of Me When I'm Gone

On my lunch hour I went to New York. Really! I did! I went to go visit my bloggy friend Kathryn at From the Inside...Out. Kathryn is an amazing blogger! She's the kind of blogger I want to be when I grow up. She's witty, imaginative, friendly and she smells like someone threw up an entire basket of fruit! Don't believe me? Go and read her post today entitled Lather.Rinse.Repeat.

Wait, wait...don't go now! I mean go AFTER you read my post. Whew, almost lost you there. Ok...so Kathryn's post is about the scents that remind her of her mother and she wonders what scents will remind her children of her. That made me stop to wonder about what scents my children will smell someday when I'm no longer here that will remind them of me.

That made me remember a conversation one day a long, long time ago when my daughter April was only about 6 or 7 years old and she asked me how come our home didn't smell like Nana's house (my mom). I asked her what do you mean, what does Nana's house smell like? She said, "Nana's house smells good, like food." So I asked her, "Well...what does our house smell like?" She said, "Our house doesn't smell good, it smells like Clorox and Pine-Sol!"

See, I have a very sensitive nose, just like Kathryn. And it is both a blessing and a curse. One thing that I can't stand is the smell of food in the house. I mean I love it when I'm hungry, or when I'm cooking; nothing is better than the smell of my home cooked Meat Loaf Pie! But once I've eaten or when I'm not hungry, I hate the lingering smell of food.

My mom taught me a long, long, long time ago to always add a couple of tablespoons of Clorox to the dish water to disinfect & also make your dishes, counters and hands smell clean and Cloroxey! So while April was still basking in the lingering scent of meat loaf or burgers or taco's or peach pie; her mom was busy in the kitchen washing everything with Clorox to get rid of that smell that she loved.

And then to make matters worse, after washing the dishes I would take a paper towel and put a bit of Pine-Sol on it and walk through the house rubbing everything that didn't move with that paper towel to freshen up the rest of the house!

I can think of worse scents for my kids to remember me by, Clorox and Pine-Sol aren't that bad. My mom is still with me but I can't smell Noxzema or Jergens Lotion or beans cooking on the stove without remembering my mom. What smells remind you of your mom, your childhood, happy times?

Fast Food Guilt!

It's been almost two months since Sciatica changed my life! But I'm fighting back and getting stronger every day.

Since the day I got Sciatica I have not set foot inside a fast food restaurant or any restaurant except Denny's for that matter. I'm not a big fast food fan anyway, and I've been bringing my lunch to work for almost two months. But today I wanted to declare my independence from Sciatica and I braved the lunch-time world and lunch-hour traffic to drive to Jack in the Box as I was really craving one of their Tacos!

During my absence from the real world Jack has come up with several new items on their menu...so I decided that to go with my two tacos for 99cents I would try Jacks Bacon Cheddar Fries.

I ordered everything to go and got into my car to drive back to the office and realized just how greasy fast food smells! Oh my gosh, it almost made me sick smelling all that greasiness!! I honestly was having pangs of guilt (instead of pangs of hunger) at the thought of eating this and the calories and the cholesterol and the carbs!!!!!

Luckily for me my office is very well ventilated and I can hardly smell the greasiness as I enjoy my tacos and fries (which aren't bad, by the way). But it's funny that 30 or so years ago I wouldn't have felt guilty for eating this type of food. When is the last time you had fast food? Or are you a regular user?

I won't wear ugly shoes!

For those who haven't been reading the few posts I've written for the past couple of months, I'll bring you up to date.

I'm an old crippled woman! Seven weeks ago I was an active, healthy, spry, energetic, vital woman...and now I'm an old crippled woman!

Why? How? You ask. Well ...simply put, Sciatica. Sciatica kicked my butt and made me an old crippled woman! Now instead of being active, healthy and spry; I'm limping and making groaning noises when I get out of a chair. Instead of being energetic and vital I get exhausted simply by taking a shower or making my bed!
Ahhh, the good old days are behind me now, at least until this pain goes away and I am back to normal.

One of the downfalls to having sciatica is that I can no longer wear my pretty shoes. Now I'll admit it, I'm vain. I like to look good. I enjoy wearing pretty things. I won't leave the house without full makeup and my hair being done. But Sciatica has taken that all away from me, like a thief in the night, like the income tax man on April 15th, like...well you get the picture.

Because of the weakness in my left leg I have to be very careful when I walk, especially if I'm going up stairs because that leg will suddenly just give out and I crumble like a wet noodle! Awww but Vanity, thy name is woman.

For the past three weeks I have been forced to go to work in one of two pairs of pants I own that are short enough that I can wear my Skechers Sneakers. The ones that resemble these.

I have to wear the lowest heel possible so that I don't die from the pain of walking and also so that I don't fall down. Saturday I decided that I would try to find some dressier black shoes with no heels. Something that would still make me feel sleek and feminine, ok... maybe not sleek cause that would take more than shoes but you know what I mean. Unfortunately, most of the shoes with flat heels all fell under the category of shoes like these:

Oh Sciatica...you may have made me cry and beg for mercy; you may have made me writhe in pain and go days without a shower. You may have made me leave my house with no makeup and greasy hair on the way to the emergency room and to physical therapy. You may have made me dizzy and groggy with your need for medication...but I tell you this!!! Sciatica...as God is my witness...I will never wear ugly shoes!!!!

Mosaic Monday - Dog Days of Summer, Chorizo Style

I was laying in bed, resting my leg for the week to come and happened to check email on my phone and saw that my daughter April had sent me some pictures. I had to get right up out of bed to come and see them on my pc and they really brought a smile to my face so I wanted to share them and join in on the Mosaic Monday fun with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

Here's our puppy Chorizo enjoying her first ever private swimming pool and sporting her brand new, very chic pink polka-dot puppy bikini (the bikini is pink polka-dot, not the puppy). Click to enlarge the mosaic.
She's a true water dog...she loves the water, especially if there are ducks in it!

Here's another mosaic. In the last picture on this one you can see how tiny she used to be. She's already eight months old, but she's still just a puppy to us.

She's a long puppy though isn't she? I can't wait to go visit her again and she if she'll share that pool with me cause it sure is hot here.

I so miss blogging! But my Baby Girl is fine!

Thanks to all you wonderful friends that commented on my previous post and/or emailed me with your good wishes, thoughts and prayers.

My daughter came through her surgery well and according to her doctor who spoke to me after the surgery she should be just fine!

I must admit it was a longggggggg day on Friday. I was up at 5am to shower and get ready to leave by 6am. My mom accompanied me and we made it to Turlock by 9:30am. April was to be at the hospital by 10:30 so we had just enough time to drive her around to do some last minute banking and dog food shopping :-)

They took her back to get her all prepped for surgery & we finally got to see her again at about 11:30 and by noon they took her into surgery. Mom and I headed for the cafeteria to try to force ourselves to eat something. Then back to the waiting room until about 3:30 or so when the doctor came out and let us know everything went well.

After about another hour we got to go be with April in recovery. She was still a little groggy so we sat with her and fed her crackers and tried to get her to drink water and juice. Finally she seemed almost herself & they helped to get her dressed and I ran limped out to the car to drive up to the exit...and of course...wouldn't you know it....I left my lights on and the battery was DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I immediately called my mom & told her what happened and to ask them to not release April yet. Mom said, "But we're already outside waiting for you and April is in a wheelchair". Oh My Gosh!!!

Feeling like the biggest failure as a mother ever; I immediately called road service and they said someone would be there in 30 minutes.

As the hospital had already released her they couldn't take her back in so they brought her by wheelchair to the car and helped her get into the front passenger seat. Luckily she was still on happy drugs and not in any pain, she just closed her eyes and fell asleep. The hospital called Security to see if they could come and help (they never even showed up).

But GM Auto Club is the best EVER. I had told them the details about having a freshly surgeried (hmm, is that a word? Kind of looks like sugary, hahaha) daughter in the car and kid you not, they were there in 15 minutes and saved the day. (But I still felt like the biggest failure as a mother EVER! What kind of mother forgets to turn off the lights??? When she knows her daughter is having surgery?)

Anyway...It was a long day. But that's OK cause my baby is fine and I'm back to work today and at lunch. I'm feeling better but having my leg out of commission was no fun when I had to help take care of April. Thank God for my mom!!

I'll try to blog when I can at lunch, but after sitting behind a desk for 8 hours, at the end of the day I just want to lay down and rest. I miss you all and trust me, I do read your posts on my cell phone in bed but for some reason I can't comment!! Of course, story of my life.

To my family in Arizona that held a big graduation celebration this past weekend; you have no idea how much we wanted to be there. We hope it was a wonderful time for everyone and I want to see lots of pictures!!! Please call my mom and let her know who was there and how it went. She misses you all!