IT'S THE QUACKER PATROL SQUAD!

Today provided one of life's little pleasures, an unanticipated moment, at least for this old lady (old beating heart, but often metaphorically young at heart.)

Thursday was one of those days. I had a flu shot on Wednesday, even though I had chronic bronchitis. My physician OK'd the shot. Its effect plus other meds did not make for a "feeling well" day Thursday (nor Friday).

After stopping at City Hall to pick up city related mail and small stipend for the previous month's work, I made a pass by the bank drive-thru to cash the check. Then I drove to an overlook to make the "landmark on Bull Shoals Dam" shots for FOTO FRIDAY before returning home.

I did not lock my SUV for the short photo session.

Once home I decided to count my cash--OOPS-- $5 short. I called the bank, but the drive-thru teller, a friend, left for the day. The friendly teller who answered my call said the teller balanced for the day. Short of breath, I left the house to the SUV twice to see if it slipped out of the envelope. NOPE!

However, I reasoned if some one was going to steal $5, why not take the whole $45 envelope? It was all there for the taking.

Friday I vegetated with laptop and TV. However, my friendly teller called to tell me she had realized the shortage after I drove away; my $5 was safely in an envelope awaiting another drive-thru by me. NOT FRIDAY!

Saturday, I trekked to the SUV for a trip to WalMart and a few needed groceries for Life Group Potluck.

Bad news! the Start Battery was DEAD (this is a Hybrid). I had not shut the driver's door after Thursday's searches . Husband charged it up and I completed my shopping. However, I noted the backup camera and sensors were non- functioning.

Saturday and Sunday are not days to search for an automotive electronics expert, so it was the main task for today, Monday. With two phone calls I found an expert in Mountain Home, about a 30 minute round trip from home.

Access to his location was difficult, requiring a left turn across a 2-lane US highway with an intersection. The proprietor gave me directions to his business which avoided the potential traffic hazards with which I was familiar.

I knew the directions but seldom used the route; today I did. There were several photo ops along this route. I had my recently purchased "car camera" with me (Canon PowerShot A1000IS).

However, I continued to my destination. The expert fixed the problem in less than 30 minutes. I hardly understood a word he or his lovely wife said, but he only charged me a minimum fee. I profusely thanked them.

Knowing I would return the same route, I turned on the Canon. One spot was a beautiful large pond with many geese and ducks. I thought I saw two swans but they were so far away, I'm not sure. I doubt swans could winter here.

Safely parking the car, I stepped through a multitude of down feathers--must be shedding time--toward the pond. Geez! these ducks were not timid. I was besieged withraucous quackery, no doubt thinking I brought afternoon treats. The geese stayed on the opposite side of the pond, not accessible with vehicle or camera.

Two sets duck scouts waddled out of the water in a hurry to check me out, followed by two small patrols marching in duck squad formation.

This photo op stop made my otherwise mundane day! I paused to enjoy the moment with the quackers. I'm sure the ducks expected treats, but I had none.

I proceeded further up the street, turned around and came back by the quacker squadron lined up along the road with puzzled looks. Glad they weren't armed, or I might have been in trouble.

Then I stopped to make a scenic rustic post and hay bales I spotted as I turned on to the busy US highway toward home.

[The pond is worth a second trip with NIKON and the longer telephoto!]

PHOTOS [I gotta learn how to place captions one of these days]

Top to Bottom: (1) Rustic Post + Round Hay Bales; (2) Quacker Scouts #1; (3) Quacker Scouts #2; (4) Quacker Patrol Squad #1; (5) Quacker Patrol Squad #2.

I hope these photos will enlarge with click or double click. I tried a new technique in placing them.

OUT TO LUNCH

Because of a litany of appointments and duties, as well as another light (Thank the Lord!) chronic bronchitis bout, I am "out to lunch" for a few days, but will be reading and, in some cases, lurking among all of you.

Hmm, "out to lunch" may not be the best description...as one of my duties is to re-organize my diet approach as it is stalemated. Some changes in our daily life routine has upset the diet and exercise wagon, which I need to reset, to accommodate my current needs.

Meanwhile I post two photos, (I missed FOTO Friday).

The photo of myself is cropped from a 2002 photo. I am trying to find time to "stitch" it and Luckie's together for my "About Me" part of my blog. Although taken at my heaviest, that's characteristic of most of my adult life, so might as well go with it.

The Marigolds is a "Straight Out of the Camera" photo. I don't know why I love this picture, as it is somewhat mundane. After a shower, it was a last minute shot that caught my eye on the way back into the house....totally unplanned and hastily composed.

It would benefit from some editing insofar as lighting. It was an overcast day which some film photographers call "losing the light." Digital photographers can "find" the light through digital "darkroom" photo editing software.

Ear Aches - Misplaced Confidence in Healing

Childhood diseases are a given when kindergarten and public education exposes students to unknown, random viruses and bacteria spread by a multitude of persons and agents. Even though I had the obligatory small pox vaccine, the other contagious epidemics of chicken pox, mumps and both kinds of measles did not pass me by, not to mention every variation of cold virus known to man.

My siblings and I were elementary students (grade school) during the polio epidemics. My susceptibility to viruses worried my parents, especially after a classmate with severe asthma contracted the dreaded paralyzing disease. When the vaccines became available, I was first in line.

However one childhood malady incurred far more often -- earaches. With colds, bronchitis or any respiratory infection, I developed earaches, one ear or both, a source of excruciatingly, tear provoking pain. In those years there were not many forms of relief. Most home remedies were aimed at alleviating pain, not the primary cause, infection.

I was subjected to home-made blistering mustard plasters, vaporizers, Vicks nasal drops and Vaporub and Metholatum or Musterole Ointment, warmed olive oil in the ear. Eventually, the earache would be relieved, but more often it ruptured which to my young mind was an horrifying event of blood and pus.

Physicians then had a procedure of "lancing" which essentially put a small hole in the eardrum for drainage after a shot of Novocaine. Lancing did not rip and tear the eardrum like spontaneous rupture.

At one point in my childhood my parents relied on a family friend, a chiropractor, for preventive health and medical needs. I am unaware of how he became our primary source of medicinal consultations, but the entire family got adjustments on a regular basis. Since he was a rancher, I wonder if he and Daddy has some cattle or land deals.

Although my young bones sounded as if they were popping and cracking, the adjustments usually did no harm, caused no distress and may have been helpful.

Chiropractors certainly have their place in our health system. My parents, especially Dad, who did a lot of physical labor in his management of a lumber yard, really seemed to benefit. He and Mother had migraine headaches which they attested were relieved by an "adjustment."

The time spent away from their rambunctious offspring was probably the curative factor, rather than the "adjustments."

In the area where I now live, chiropractors are in heavy demand among the elderly population of aching backs, necks and extremities. Some patients go to a chiropractor after exhausting orthopedic and primary care physicians whose medical advice and treatments have failed. These patients invariably become ferocious disciples of chiropractors.

However, one earache event convinced my parents of the need to return to a primary care physician, then called a general practitioner.

I had double earaches, and was screaming with pain, all day and all night for several days. Mother made appointment with the chiropractor. Since Mother did not drive, Daddy took off work to drive us to the chiropractor's office.

After jerking my head, neck and back in every contortionist move, he ordered Mother to make hot salt packs, homemade sachet-like bags to be applied to my ears continuously until relieved. Mother whipped up some little bags out of scrap materials, filled them with rock salt and heated them in the oven. God only knows what temperature, but they were blistering hot....so hot I forgot the ears were aching; instead they were scorching.

These packs were in addition to sweet (olive) oil ear drops, mustard plasters, vaporizers, OTC nose drops and chest rubs. I'm surprised a soap enema wasn't included.

Oh yeah! there was the home-made hot, and I do mean HOT, lemonade, which was the juice of lemons in a glass of very hot water. The hot lemonade was a cure-all for almost any illness in my home. There are a number of recipes; most contain honey and some have rum or similar alcoholic concoction. In my home there was no alcohol. I don't remember the honey either but there may have been a dab.

My ears were blistered from hot salt packs, my chest was burned from mustard plaster and my throat was scalded from hot lemonade. Misery heaped on misery!!!

Nothing worked. Then one night both ears ruptured at the same time. I was screaming and yelling at the ugly, yucky disaster, thinking I was dying, even though I don't think I understood the word at that age.

My screaming and yelling was louder than usual; I could not hear myself!!!

Mother sat up with me the rest of the night and near morning I fell asleep. The pain was relieved, but that did not prove to be the end of it.

The infection spread around the ears on both sides and tonsils/sore throat aggravated discomfort. This event convinced them to return me to a general practitioner.

There were few effective drugs but I was placed on a round of sulfonamides, the only antibacterial in common use. Fortunately it worked. A compounded prescription for Aspirin, Phenacetin and Caffeine with Codeine powder was also prescribed for other aches and pains. We called that concoction "Cold Powders."

Earaches are SERIOUS; they may lead to more serious disorders such as hearing loss, mastoiditis or infection of other nearby structures surrounding the ear.

To read really scary earache tale see Remembrance of A Childhood Illness – Part One: Blowing Smoke, Remembrance of A Childhood Illness – Part Two: In Which I Almost Go to Heaven and http://anarkansasstamper.blogspot.com/2009/08/remembrance-of-childhood-illness-part_07.html by Remembrances of An Arkansas Stamper.

From then on my ear were lanced when needed. Scarring from so many eardrum ruptures is primary cause of my moderate hearing loss today.

There are many home remedies for this common childhood malady; most involve some method of heat applied to the ear. A Google Search, home earache remedies, results in 89,600 hits. My recommendation to use them only until you can see a physician. There are antibiotic, anti-inflammatory ear drops now along with a multiplicity of oral antibiotics.

Having earaches is not limited to childhood. Adults have earaches, no matter who may pooh-pooh the idea. Wind, hard sneezing, persistent or spasmodic coughing and/or sudden temperature changes cause my ears to ache.

I have been battling an annoying mild earache for about a month. I think it is a mechanical effect of some persistent allergy sneezing fits. Ringing in the ear is very annoying. I have not cleared the pressure yet. I bought a decongestant yesterday. The other ear vacillates with some pressure, too. I see my physician Tuesday.

In my adult life I have had only one other encounter with a chiropractor:

In the 1980s I had severe carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands. The stinging, tingling pain became so severe, medication only offered sleep for a few hours. Only holding my hands under cold water provided temporary relief. The attacks were more prevalent at night.

This disorder is a compressed nerve that comes out of the neck area of spine, across each shoulder, down the arm crossing the elbow to the underside of the arm, traveling through a "tunnel of bones" at the wrist into palm. Compression causes burning, tingling, stinging pain from the ring finger to the thumb. The pinkie finger is excluded.

Trying to avoid surgery, I decided to give a local chiropractor a try. My insurance would pay for a series of treatments. Since this is more in the line of chiropractic practice, it seemed worth a try, but it also failed.

I had bilateral carpal tunnel release surgery. Now there is mild compression some where along the very long nerve, causing occasional discomfort. Surgery is not in the immediate forecast. Nor is a chiropractor.

[Photo: a few items I currently use to alleviate earache - the red earmuffs replace heating pads and hot salt packs. I wear them as a preventative against wind well into Spring. Hydrogen peroxide- a few drops are as first aid remedy for ear wax . removal. Olive oil and also mineral oil can be warmed and instilled in ear blocked with a cotton plug. The tiny blue dropper bottle is a popular prescription pain reliever, Auralgan. Sudafed (available generically) is a decongestant.]