Having the entire day to myself, I decided to dress very casual and simply allow myself to go in whatever direction which moved me. Since I hadn’t spoken to my dear friend in days, I decided to give her a call to see how she was, along with bringing her up to speed on a number of recent happenings, along with filling her in on some news that came my way which she got a few good laughs out of. The both of us have insisted for years that we don’t live in a city, but rather a bloated village where everyone talks, and likely half of it’s hear-say gossip, and we all know how little of that tripe is fact.
After I got off the phone with my dear one, I decided to grab my camera and take a long drive out in the countryside, and glad I did because after stopping and taking several photos, I was reminded once again how peacefully quiet it is in many of those areas which had me feeling as though I was in another country.
Since I’ll be babying these black gnat bites for days, I made sure to give myself a good spraying of insect repellant before I stepped away from my vehicle, and since I did a little extra reading about those vile black gnats, they’re definitely a force to be reckoned with, and not to my surprise, some of them carry diseases. What really shocked me was reading where they’re even able to kill chickens if their swarms are large enough. I can only imagine what they’re doing to all the other birds and animals in North Iowa. Yes, it was said they mostly focus on biting from the shoulders up, and even if you have heavy clothes on, you still have to make sure your sleeves and collars are tight because they’ve been know to land and then and then crawl in those darkened areas to feed on blood. One of the articles said their bites create pain and swelling, but nothing was said about people like me having allergic reactions to them. I think our County Health Department should get all the info they can on them and post it on their website or send out informative fliers.
When I returned from my drive, I placed another over-due call to my friend who’s going thru a life transition, and for whatever reason, we ended up on the subject of our city’s health care system which we both believe has gone from bad to worse. Fortunately we now have alternatives with the independent clinic in our downtown, Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinics which are sprouting up all over Iowa, along with Mayo Clinic which took over Albert Lea’s hospital and clinic. I couldn’t have spoken any more highly of my experience with Mayo Clinic last year, and since I’m now in their system, it’ll be all the easier to make future appointments if need be. It seems there’s not a week or month that goes by where I’m hearing of another doctor or nurse either retiring or taking a job in other cities. MercyOne has definitely evolved into something I never would’ve expected, but as always, whenever there’s a big corporation taking over, that’s when things change, and usually for the worse.
With all of my appointments for tomorrow readied, I decided to head over to my work in progress and get cracking on getting it completed. Since I hadn’t been there in weeks, I had to reacquaint myself with what I considered the most pressing, and once I was back up to speed, I steadily worked for nearly three hours until what I’d started was completely readied for the next step.
Now if I would’ve dropped everything about a half hour earlier, I could’ve made it home before the downpours started. Oh my goodness! There were moments when the rain was coming down in sheets. After it began to let up, I made a mad dash to my vehicle and headed in the direction of home. I was careful to watch for those intersections which were filled with water, and slowly crawling thru them. It’ll be interesting to find out how much rain we actually did get.
With the sun out, perhaps Clear Lake will continue with their annual fireworks on the lake. Truth be told, it’s been many years since I was over there, and not missing it one bit. Too many people, too much noise, and definitely too much drinking. I told my friend today that for whatever reason, watching and playing with fireworks has never been my cup of tea. Yes, I still miss the picnics my mother would host in my younger years, but that was long ago and nevermore.
I’m wishing all of you a safe and happy 2024 Fourth of July, and if you’ve been taking in too much giggle water, stay the night or have someone else drive you home. Ok?
Tonight’s One-liner is: To love and to labor is the sum of life.
