Trying to Think of Appropriate Cuss-Words......

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So you had a bad day, you're taking one down, you sing a sad song, just to turn it around...

("Bad Day", Daniel Powter)

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This just ain't my month.....

I'm wondering if perhaps karma has caught up with my sinful self?

Woe is me...woe is me....(okay, okay, I'll stop whining)...

First, regarding the the sweet Dove Family's nest...

I was so thrilled that Mama Birdie layed two new eggies--- and so I photographed things regularly, in the same fashion as I had done during the first go-round. And I again proudly sent the pics to all my friends and family, crowing with glee that I was going to be allowed to witness the miracle of birdie life all over again.

But then....about a week and a half after Mama Birdie had begun brooding on her two new eggies, we had a spring rain squall. And then after the thunder and wind had abated, I did as I always did and ran outside to check on the precious nest. (I always worried that the wind would blow the flimsy nest out of the tree.)

Well.....the nest was there. But no Mama Birdie....no Papa Birdie....

And no eggies.

Broken-hearted and despondent, I wandered forlornly around under the tree, looking to see if the poor little eggs had been blown out of the nest by the wind. Not finding them, I turned and walked back and forth over the lawn, peering here and there to see if I could find something--- and then I spotted a lone dove egg on the driveway.

Wondering how in the Sam Hill the egg could have made its way out of the tree, across the lawn, and onto the driveway, I ran over and turned the little egg over.... and discovered that a huge "bite" had been taken out of the hapless eggie, and the contents sucked completely out.

Waaaah! I'll bet you Dollars to donuts that it was that wretched, sneaky, beady-eyed, yella-belly, low-down, dirty double-crossing CHIPMUNK!

Sigh...

Next, I injured my stupid self.

Somehow, I managed to get a compression fracture in my T-12 spine vertebra.

DAMMIT!!

The pain was excruciating and I could barely walk. For two days I languished on my bed, hoping the pain would lessen or go away--but it did not. Blaine finally had to take me to the Emergency Room at good ole Olathe Medical Center, where my injury was confirmed by an X-ray.

After I finished ranting and raving to the doctor that I'm "too young" to have this sort of injury, he stated plainly: "Bo, your back has been getting worse for years. Hell, you've been a nurse for nigh on 22 years. These kind of injuries frequently happen to nurses who have lifted heavy patients and medical equipment on a daily basis for that length of time. Your spine is wrecked and you're going to have to accept that fact. "

Sigh....

Basically, I'm in pain 24 hours a day and my daily functioning has been severely compromised. And... I will admit that I have turned whining into an Olympic Sport at which I am a Gold Medalist. But.... I'm not going to let this get me down. I'm a rather stubborn sort and I have decided that I will overcome this problem.

So, as I wait for my follow-up appointment with my regular doctor, I can usually be found lying down--- parked on the living room couch or the futon mattress in the upstairs back bedroom. I try not to take the pain medicine they gave me unless I'm so desperate for pain relief that I can't stand it any longer (which for some reason is usually in the morning, after my back muscles have gotten totally cramped up by laying in bed all night, I guess).

And let me tell you, all these long hours of either watching the ceiling or the TV are getting pretty tiresome and boring....

But I've definitely had some extra time to give some more thought to the mysterious "bubble" that frequently appears in photographs of the upstairs landing--- that spot that the cats are continually gazing at as if there's "something" there--- but yet it's something which I can't see.

Many of you readers have suggested that perhaps it is an Angel, a Guardian Spirit, an orb of a being, or even a ghost. And I have to tell you, I'm extremely curious about it!

So I conducted an experiment, part of which I had done before I broke my stupid back.

I took pictures all over the house to see if the bubble would appear in pics of other locations. And I took those pictures in different variations of lighting--- in order to see if perhaps the bubble is simply "artifact" in the camera's flash function. And I also took pictures of the upstairs landing--- the spot the cats stare at--- and I took pictures of it on different days and in various levels of light (and different times of day) as well.

And... the bubble only appears in photographs of the vicinity of the upstairs landing--- at the top of the stairs--- YEP, THE ONLY SPOT THE CATS STARE AT!

And on one pic of the upstairs landing, where I had snapped the photo from the bottom of the stairs, I was startled to find three bubbles! (Look closely at the upper right portion of the photograph.)

And, as Alice (in Wonderland) would say:

Curiouser and curiouser!

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