100 Things That Make Me Happy: Part 7

I'm doing a series of posts of thing that make me happy. To read other posts, please click here.

#31. Psych. OMG. I love this show. I typically wait for it to come out on DVD because I haven't watched regular TV in several years. Besides, the DVD's have no commercials. Booya. If you haven't seen this show, it is freaking awesome. Shawn and Gus are completely  hilarious, ridiculous, stupid, and did I mention hilarious?





#32. The song "Springsteen" by Eric Church. Makes me think about good times. Not necessarily at 17, but just in general.



#33.  The song "Take a Backroad" by Rodney Atkins. Seriously just makes me want to get away from it all. Well. Maybe not quite so much now, considering I do live away from it all. But still, just makes me want to smell pine forests with the windows down and the wind in my hair. 



#34. Gilmore Girls. One of the bestest shows. Ever. Seriously. Perfect mother-daughter show, perfect show for references you're not sure you totally get, and perfect for laughing at two people are probably the weirdest most insanely sane people you will ever watch on television.



 #35. Finding funny videos on YouTube that the military make. It's great to see them having fun while deployed, showing the world they can still have fun and laugh away from home when all they want is to be home.

 

OH.MY.GOD.

I know the average American has their eye on gas prices. It's been climbing non-stop for the last few years. To the point where gas pumps actually cut people off at $75 (or it's the bank . . . or both) while gassing up. And for some, this is maybe half a tank. 

I doesn't cost me quite that much to gas up, but I do have an SUV, so it's not overly cheap to gas up either. It gets pretty decent gas mileage, it drives great, and it's what I use to deliver our publication on my route - so it has a decent storage capacity.

Living in the middle of nowhere typically means higher gas prices, simply because it costs more to transport it to the middle of nowhere. Living in a big city usually means high prices, because . . . because . . . there are more suckers in a square radius that need to fill up? God only knows. All we do know is that gas prices will probably cause more heart attacks than red meat.

Last weekend, my grandmother K, surprised me by giving me Mother's Day and Monday off to go visit family. On my way out of town I stopped at a store to get a bag for my mom's present, as I didn't have anything left that didn't say Merry Christmas or Happy Birthday. I saw the price of gas at the Shell station next to the store and nearly wrecked my precious car from choking.

Now, I know that our little corner of CA is not the most expensive gas in the state, but it sure as hell feels that way. Especially since the number one business in my county is agriculture, which basically means no one is rich enough to pay for this shit.

I'm about ready to start riding a horse to work. There's only one minor detail. On Saturdays, I have to drive over a 6300 foot pass. I couldn't ask one horse to take me over it not once, but twice in one day. Plus it's a pretty steep grade on both sides, the horse would probably keel over by the time we got to the top.

One of my co-workers, my Saturday tech, is trying to move over to our valley, which means, she and I could car-pool on Saturdays. Which would be awesome. 

For my three days at the Sticksville clinic, technically I could walk there, but I have a feeling that if people don't see my car there, they won't really see the "open" signs. Because by now, most people recognize my car, so if they see it there, they know we're open. If not . . . well . . .you know. And if I rode a horse to the Sticksville clinic, it would eat the flowers. Which I'm trying not to kill, thankyouverymuch.

The problem is, Americans are use to and love cheap gas. We've been spoiled. When I got my license at 16, gas was 99cents per gallon. And I know gas was way cheaper than that when my parents were kids and when my grandparents were kids. I mean, could you imagine having a coronary over gas rising to 10cents a gallon from 5cents??? Yeah, me neither.

And I know that places like the Bay Area (San Francisco) or SoCal (LA, San Diego) have probably already hit or surpassed the $5/gallon mark. I'm not jealous by any means. But I do feel their pain.

But, even though we Americans love to drive across our vast nation, take our RV out on weekends, our boats to the lake, we curb that summer traveling enthusiasm a bit when it costs you your mortgage just to take the kids to Yellowstone. We do adapt to these horrific changes. We're bitching about it the entire time, but don't miss out on the fact that we will make changes.

I can honestly say, I never thought I'd think $3/gallon was cheap. But it's looking damn good now.

Book Reviews

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A lil sumthin'-sumthin' to make your lady bits pucker

Oh yes, folks.

Awhile back we had a cow that had a prolapsed vagina. A pregnant cow, with a nursing calf, with a prolapsed vagina. First, the mere idea of this made me cringe in sympathy for this poor cow. Then I saw it. Yikes!

We were in the middle of work, so I didn't snap a picture of my own, but here's the gist:

 If you're hurting in places you can't mention, then I'm sure you're quite normal. This sort of thing happens on occasion and during a cows pregnancy, can almost be normal. Sometimes when a cow lays down, you might see a little something poking out, but generally not quite this size. When she gets up, it gets sucked back in. I think generally the further along the cow is, the more apt it is to happen. However, once in awhile, in early pregnancy, like what happened with our cow, the above image happened.

This is not something ranchers like to see and take care of, because typically this means that as soon as her current calf is weaned, she'll need to be culled before she calves. If you keep her, you'll have to be there for the birth as there are likely to be complications. So, to save yourself the headache, you'll get rid of her before she calves. Also, once a cow has had this happen, she's likely to do it again, and become a migraine instead of a regular headache.

The vet came out and cleaned it up and put it back in. He also put sutures in to prevent a recurrence. 

So, for our cow, she's still out with her herd-mates, nursing a calf that will probably weaned in the next month. After that, we will amicably part ways.

Last Friday, K calls me a few minutes after 5pm saying they had just pulled a breeched calf (meaning it's butt wanted to come out first), and the cow had a prolapsed uterus. She couldn't remember Dr. J's cell phone from the voicemail, and asked me to call him. I did, and left a message. It was close to 6pm when he finally got back to me, and I told him what was going on. He said he'd call me as soon as he was done with a horse he was working on. About half an hour later, he called me back and told me he was on his way. K and her brother had stayed with the cow in the barn. The calf survived, and is doing well.

Mamma obviously wasn't doing so hot because a vital part of her anatomy was hanging out on the barn floor. Not sure about y'all, but when K told me about the prolapsed uterus, I swear I felt a twinge.

Dr. J and K's brother were the two trying to push this poor cows uterus back inside her body, where it rightfully belongs. Some things we gals just don't want hangin' in the wind. Now, I stole the following pictures from another website, obviously, and I feel I should warn you about their graphicness. As you can imagine, this is a bloody and serious mess, and in the ranching world, is a serious emergency as a cow could easily bleed to death. So, I've given fair warning, these are pretty ugly.

 It's definitely a two-person job. The goal is to safely get all of the uterus back inside, without puncturing it.

 In our case, K's brother kept getting back spasms. You can see why, as it's not as easy position to push on something so heavy.

 It's easy to feel sorry for the cow, as she basically has to lie there and take it. Most times, the cow is given a sedative. Also, as you can see, barn or field, it's a challenge to get it back in clean. (FYI, at this stage, this particular cow in the picture, they got about half of it back in)

 It's also easy to see that Dr. J left my grandparents a bloody mess, literally. He had to basically shower before going to his next emergency. (Yes, he had a late night)

 In the end, a cow gets sutured up, and gets lots of antibiotics to help ward off infection.

Just so you guys know, both cow and calf are doing well. Mama cow is still getting antibiotics, and has bonded well with her calf. We are keeping them in the barn at the moment, so we can easily get her in the head-catch to continue the antibiotics. This cow will probably not get culled from the herd. According to my grandparents, it's not likely to reoccur  - not like the vaginal prolapse.

Oh and poor Dr. J had a rough night. After cleaning up after this bloody mess, he went to look at a horse that hadn't been able to pee for a couple days. Wound up having to do some special surgery that he's never done, as the bladder was so damn big and they knew there had to be a stone somewhere in there blocking up the poor guy. In the end, the pee came gushing out and guess who got hit? Yup, Dr. J. Poor guy.

100 Things That Make Me Happy: Part 6

I'm doing a series of posts of things that make me happy. To see other posts in this series please click here. And without further ado, and in no particular order I continue!

#26. Getting some quality horse time in. I know I've already mentioned horses in this series, but I mentioned them in general. And it's my blog, and I can do whatever I want. So there. *ahem* Moving on. Last week I spent about two hours grooming my grandparents horses, one of them being mine. They weren't looking overly wonderful - shedding their winter coats, mud-caked, foxtails, and their manes in dreadlocks. Okay, it was just mine that had the real dreadlocks. I used all the tools I could find, and spent wonderful quality time with the three mares. It was a beautiful spring morning, and the only issue I had was that the wind seemed hell-bent on me eating the horse hair being shed. And of course, I snapped a few pictures.....

Moonbeam

Cloud

 O'My (she's all mine!)

#27. Windows-being-open-weather. You know the perfect weather I'm referring to. The kind of weather that's not too warm, nor too cold. You can have your windows open all day, and your house can be aired out after a winter of being cooped up. Maybe a slight breeze to help move the air around.

#28. Being complimented on your coffee making skills when you don't drink coffee. I can't stand coffee in any form. Walking into a Starbucks is an assault on my nose. However, one of our vets pretty much needs coffee on an IV drip. When he comes over to the Sticksville clinic for the day, or even when work with him on his Saturday, he likes coffee available. So if I know he's coming to the satellite clinic, I make at least a half a pot for him, and when I tell him he gets all happy (weirdo). And anymore, if it's a Saturday, he'll come up and ask, "Would you please make some coffee? You make good coffee." I always look at him like he's insane, because he is for thinking such things. I know I probably make it on the strong side, but I think that's what keeps him functioning.

#29. Texting my mom. We text on a daily basis, and sometimes I end up laughing my ass off so hard, I'd fall down if I wasn't already sitting somewhere. Can definitely brighten a day.

#30. Cuddling with Miss Harriet. There's nothing like being curled up on the couch on a cool day, watching a movie or reading a book, with a purring kitty curled up on my lap. Or stretched out by my side, purring away, and her whiskers tickling me.

A-Z Reflections

Well, I did it - two years in a row. I must be a couple sandwiches short of a picnic, because after barely getting through it last year, I voluntarily signed up for it again this year. *shakes head*

I'm glad I did it again, though. I had several posts written in advance, and some I re-wrote later because I felt like it, or I wanted to get something off my chest, or fill y'all in on my life, because I know you're just dying to know what's going on. Right? Of course not. And then of course, there are the letters that are difficult no matter how hard you try. And I didn't really want to repeat anything I wrote about last year.

I didn't do any "themes". I'm not sure I'm that creative to come up with something that would work for the alphabet, but if I start thinking now, maybe I can come up with something that's not lame enough to make even my horse's eyes roll into the back of her head.

The first week I had a lot of new traffic, people stopping by to leave a comment. Each week, though, brought fewer and fewer passersby, but they were still there. I gained 17 to 20ish followers I think. So, I'd love to thank y'all for stopping by to at least give me a shot, and I'd love to say "welcome" to all those that hit that cute little follow button on the left. Those that followed finally put me over the 100 mark - I'd been sitting just below it months, just waiting to see if I could actually hit it. lol

I tried to visit everyone who visited me, and went through the entire list on the A-Z page and tried to visit 5-10 blogs a day. I followed a few new blogs, but I was careful not to follow everyone simply because there aren't enough hours in the day read everyone's stuff! Especially for someone who has three jobs, blogs in her spare time, and attempts to keep up with the ones she follows. Plus the stack of books I have on my counter hasn't moved much recently (maybe it's because I keep buying more??? Didn't think so.) . . . And then of course there's my fairly recent Castleville obsession on Facebook.

Yes. I need a life. I'm aware, thanks.

Anyway, I will probably voluntarily sign up again next year because I'm about as nutty as squirrel poo. 

I just don't get it.

Last week I received a phone call from a client requesting two things: 1) her horse needed a chiropractic appointment, and 2) she needed a prescription refill for one of her dogs as well as an order of it's special food (diabetic dog), and that she'd pick that up the following week (aka this week).

 

I told her I would try to get Dr. R over here the next week (aka this week) for the equine chiro, and that I would call in the prescription for the pills I don't carry over in the Sticksville clinic and have them here for her. Her and her husband are super-dee-duper nice folks, and if I had any flexibility left, I might just bend over backward for them.

 

As soon as we hung up, I called the main clinic in Town to see what Dr. R's schedule looked like for the next week (aka this week), and the receptionist said it shouldn't be a problem sending him over to the Sticksville clinic that week. Then I told her that I also needed a prescription refill for the same people and to have them stick said prescription in the Sticksville box to send over the following Wednesday. She said (and I quote), "Sure. No problem."

 

Famous. Last. Words.

 

On Tuesday I called the main clinic in Town to verify appointments, and spoke to the other receptionist. After going over appointments, I wanted to double check about that prescription for Mr. and Mrs. Super-dee-duper Nice, because I'm paranoid. She wrote everything down because she didn't see a charge for it in the computer yet and said (and I quote), "I'll check on it, and make sure it's in the box."

 

Famous. Last. Words.

 

Wednesday rolls around, and Dr. R shows up this morning and we do our surgeries, chit-chatting, while I start putting stuff away that he brought me. What don't I find? The prescription I asked about. Twice. Dr. R hears me going, "oh no no no" and asked what was wrong - I told him I didn't get a prescription that I'd asked be brought over. The food, however, had shown up. Go figure.

 

When the phone finally stops ringing around 11ish, I try calling Mr. and Mrs. Super-dee-duper Nice, and while it's ringing, guess who walked in the front door? You got it.

I sheepishly told them the dog's medicine did not get sent over for some reason, but that I had their food. They of course weren't overly happy that they were going to have to drive over the mountain just for that, but seeing as the dog was out of medicine by now, they had to do it. They paid for the food, and I promptly called the main clinic in Town.

I spoke with the first receptionist, and I asked if the prescription refill was over there, and she said, "Yep. I have it right here." When I mentioned (politely) that it hadn't been sent over, she said, "It didn't show up on my desk until this morning and by then Dr. R was gone." I simply said okay and thanks and hung up.

I. Was. Fuming.

 

Now, here is what I don't get. There are two receptionists full-time Monday through Friday. If they know of a prescription that needs to be sent over to my clinic, either they need to inform a tech about it, or they can do it themselves. Oddly enough, that is what I do. Hell, I fill prescriptions because I don't have anything else going on and I'm happy to help out wherever I can.

 

Here's another thing: When I call in a prescription and ask for it to be sent over here, it's for one main reason - saving some poor soul a 40 mile round-trip drive. There are a few people that don't have a car. Or don't have a license. Or can't drive because they're too old. Or they just want to save the gas money if the doctor is coming over here anyway for work, he can bring the medicine, too.

 

That's what happened this time. These folks call in their refills or special orders a week in advance. I try to keep their dog's food over here at all times. I also try to keep a bottle of insulin for their dog.

 

 But what really pisses me off is the fact that I called it in last week, and for whatever reason, it didn't get done. So, when those really nice folks show up to get their order, I'm the one who looks like a douche when it's not here. Not to mention they now have to make a 40 mile round-trip drive (with gas sitting near $5/gal) because someone dropped the ball.

And I don't ever want to hear, "It didn't show up on my desk until this morning and by then the doctor was gone," because don't you freaking remember that I called and spoke to you about it a week prior?!

When I call to have a prescription sent over, it's not a suggestion.