Long weekend

I picked a great day to attach onto a long weekend. We got snowed on Monday, and it's still coming down now, Tuesday morning. I took the day off a long time ago, thinking we'd use it to come home from Grayling. We ended up coming home late Sunday night, in order to beat the storm. I got to spend all day at home Monday, being a lazy bum.

It was my turn to have back problems, which partially explained being a lazy bum. What would have helped it feel better faster would have been to get off my ass and spend at least a half hour on the treadmill. But instead, I laid on the couch, watched bad movies all day, and popped ibuprofen like candy. It feels much better today. No back spasms like Tim had a few weeks ago, but a deep pinching near the tailbone with plenty of sciatica. Enough to have me feeling just a teensy bit sorry for myself, and contemplate the dreaded possibility of future back surgery. This is nothing new, I've had this kind of back pain on and off since I was 21. It's just that it happens so rarely now, it really is a rude surprise when it does happen.

We were up in Grayling to celebrate the homecoming of our friend Rodney who's been with the National Guard in Mosul, Iraq for the last year. They've been celebrating for basically a whole month now, but it was our turn to go up and have a big barbecue. There was no question what I was making: Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie. Neighbor Dave told us there might be 25 people coming, so I got out my lasagna/roaster pan, and repeated what I had done last August. It took 36 cups of sliced apples, and weighed out at 18 pounds by the time I was done. There was enough for everyone and then some. We enjoyed ribs, smoked chickens, 3-meat shredded barbecue, hot wings, baked potatoes, kielbasa with sauerkraut, monkey bread, 'sin' pie, chips, and more...*groans, holding stomach* And plenty of beer, including Tim's homemade stuff. He made a cherry wheat which turned out well, and would be more suited for summer time drinking. But he'd been wanting to make that one for a while. We made a label with a 'President's Day' theme to put on the bottle. I took a one-dollar bill, and a pic of Rodney, and with the help of the scanner, Photoshop, and much frustration, came up with a basic label where Rodney's face replaces that of good old George Washington. A friend of Tim helped out and came up with another similar version which ended up being the one we used.

Rodney had military laptop on which he was showing some things that had been downloaded and shared from various soldiers while he was there. Homemade music videos, footage of Stryker vehicles, planes, and plenty of stuff you would never see on CNN or any of the other major news outlets. Except maybe Al Jazeera. He warned us there was some gory stuff on there, and he was right. Hmmmm. So *that's* why ballistics and brains don't mix well. I'm sure some of these were nothing more than grisly war trophies (they were all pics of dead Iraqi insurgents. Literally blown to pieces.). But if this war wasn't going on, these young men might still be alive. There was also a clip of the careful preparation made by Iraqis of the suicide bomb used to destroy the mess tent at the base in Mosul. With an accompanying soundtrack of a religious chant (that alone is enough to make the hair of a born-and-raised Westerner stand on end after 5 minutes), you saw how the ball bearings were carefully layered between sheets of plastic explosive, wrapped in a cloth jacket and then fitted to the suicide bomber. Then there was footage the insurgents had taken spying from a distance, when the bomber walked into the tent and detonated the bomb. Rodney had to help clean up after that one. He didn't give too many specific details, other than 22 Americans dead and 50-something injured.

On the way up north on Saturday, we stopped in to see my mom. She'd broken her leg a week before. It's a hairline fracture and she's doing fine, with Ron there to take care of her, but it's a reminder of how fast something like that can happen. She was up north with a group of her old friends, taking a walk out in the snow, and her left foot happened to find a patch of ice in a hollow on a snowmobile trail. Down she went, and then they had to get a truck out to the back of beyond where they were to get her out of there. Her knees are fine, they've been checked out, but she'll be in a cast and recovering for 6 weeks. She was supposed to go out to California to see Bryan last week, so that was a major frustration. She doesn't like anything that slows her down anyway.

We didn't have time to visit Grandma Kueffner (the one in the nursing home.). Mom told us she fell too, and now she won't be able to do anything, including go to the bathroom without help. No broken bones, but a severely bruised hand. She's on anticoagulants anyway, so all you have to do is look at her crosseyed and she bruises. Why did she fall? Because she's gotten so weak from not moving at all that she simply can't now. This woman really has nothing wrong with her. Nothing. Other than normal allowances for being 92 years old. But she does nothing but sit. She doesn't read or even watch TV. She doesn't like to read the paper, because it's 'too much'. So that pretty much limits the already scant subject matter we can discuss with her. I certainly don't expect her to be another Jack Lalanne, but wouldn't it be nice to at least retain enough strength to be able to relieve yourself on your own? *Sigh* Use it or lose it.

And on that note, I plan to do double duty on the treadmill today, to atone for my sins!