My little brother brought home a Duckling!

This is just one of those stories you remember from childhood.  I was the older sibling and I just watched this one from the sidelines.  I lived in a small Wisconsin town.  It was one of those towns that you think about when you think "small town America".  A yearly event in the early Summer was "Ridiculous days".  It was really a few days that all the local business' put out all the unsold wares in their stores.  The local library sold unused books.  Charities set up booths etc.  The things at the stores were discounted by a ton and you really had no idea what would be out on the tables in front of the stores. 

My Uncle would bring my cousin to our house and my grandmother would give her and I a few dollars and we would spend the whole day walking the streets looking at all the tables and looking for the best stuff we could buy with our money.  Which at the time seemed like a fortune to two little girls.  Don't worry for our little girl safety in the town.  It was filled with neighbors, cousins who worked at the stores, Aunts, Uncles and friends of all.  We couldn't walk a few feet without someone greeting us and wishing us a good shopping day.

While on one of our trips we passed a man with cages of kittens and baby ducks.  He was set up between the Catholic church and a ladies clothing store.  We looked and walked on.  After our long and tiring day of shopping we went back to my house.  At my house my little brother sat with a baby duck.  A baby duck!  The Catholic church was just a block from my house and he had gone with my other brother to look around.  The man had sold my brother who was little maybe 7 or 8 a baby duck. Knowing my brother even as a small boy he probably worked up some deal so he could get that baby duck.  We lived in the city.  We couldn't have a DUCK!!!  I didn't say a thing, I looked at it and had fun seeing it's little fuzzy body.  Duck made little quacking noises.  I sort of hoped we would be able to keep it because it was so so cute!

A few hours later my mother came home!!!!!!!!!!!  I had never seen my moms head steam like that!  She was fuming mad.  Not at my brother really but at the man that had sold a little boy a baby duck.  She knew how sweet hearted my brother was and how much he would desire a cute little yellow fuzzy duck but the man should not have sold it to him.  Mom, gathered up the little duck with my brother crying and walked the duck back to the man up the street.  She gave him more than a little piece of her mind and the baby duck was gone.  We were all a little sad :(

But as a side note to the story our neighbors across the street, a few years later had a secret illegal duck they raised.  I would go over and look at it sort of wishing we still had that little yellow duck that came to visit our house for a few hours a few years before. 

I am frightened of looking like Michael Jackson!

Background information:  I have terrible horrible allergies, I have asthma and I have never breathed normally out of my nose.  I also have severe anxiety when I go to the Dr because I have been treated like a crazy person for decades by medical staff.  Basically that is it.
I was recently given a consult with an allergist because no amount of medicine was making life worth living during allergy season.  I went to see the allergist in November, he did a bunch of testing and found out I am allergic to trees, grasses and molds.  The things I had been allergic to as a child and took allergy shots for so many years ago I am not allergic to them anymore, I just came up with new ones.  I am so efficient like that.  Allergist ordered 30 days of antibiotics, steroids and then a sinus CT scan.  The CT scan showed a deviated septum so he sent me to the ENT.  I am now waiting for the allergy serum so I can have the pleasure of a shot in each arm 3x/week.  Oh and for that pleasure I get to drive an hour in DC traffic each way!  The fun and joy abound!

The ENT appointment was yesterday.  I am still squirming and getting entirely frazzled recalling what he said.  He sat me in a chair that looked like a dental chair (not a good thing in my case!).  He then had me sniff up some Afrin to decrease the swelling in my sinus' and also some novacaine to numb it.  While talking to me he cleaned off a long skinny black tube device.  I could barely hear what he was saying because I was envisioning him sticking that thing up my nose!  He did!  It hurt a little, was uncomfortable as all get out and I didn't like it.  He said my left sinus' was beautiful, perfect, he could see from one side to the other no problem.  He lifted something up and said "breathe" so I did and it was like a miracle.  Unimpeded O2 flowing into my nose!  It was amazing.  He finished looking around and then moved onto the right side.  That side inside has a totally different story.  Severely deviated septum, which they keep saying is odd because on the outside I look totally straight.  Who would have known? 

So he takes the camera tube thing out of my nose entirely and starts talking.  I guess my nose collapses when I breathe and it isn't suppose to do that so the good sinus wasn't getting air because of the collapsing valve nose.  Which means when I breathe in deeply it closes up.  That sorta makes it hard for air to get in.  I have noticed especially when I am exercising that unless I breathe through my mouth it is impossible for me to get enough air.  Then my mouth gets dry...  not comfortable at all.  So what he wants to do is totally reconstruct my nose by taking out some of the cartilidge and remaking it so it stays open like it should. The more I think about this the more nervous and scared I get.  He said that and my mind went on *tilt*  he was sure I would be most worried about the cutting part and said "the incision for this part of my reconstruction would be at the base of my nose and the scar heals nicely, I will fix the deviated septum"  blah blah  blahhhhhh (I could hear nothing)...  all I could think was "he is taking apart my nose!  I going to look like MJ?" 

I asked my husband what kind of nose I should get and his answer was "you don't get to pick your nose, you get the nose the Army gives you".  Now I am thinking there is a box of "Army noses" and they all look horrible sort of like the birth control Army glasses they give them. He also mentioned that if they want it to stand open it will have to be very wide like an African nose.  I happen to like African noses on Africans but on a middle age white woman it might look weird???  My husband is no help what so ever!

I need to actually sit and think about this at some point so I can ask some sane questions when I go back.  I can't go back until I get a totally messed up sinus CT scan.  He has one on meds, now he wants one all stuffy and crazy.  So I wait for the trees and grasses to start pollenating.  Few weeks I should be ready.  Funny thing is I like my nose.  It is mine, I have never LOVED it or HATED it.  I just figured this was my face and I would make peace with it.  Now I have to go and get a new one.  FREAKING ME WAYYYY OUT!!!  What if I look like Michael Jackson?!!!

Photo repair brag

I have been working on scanning old photos.  It is a tedious process to say the least.  It has proven to be most rewarding though also.  My mom brought a box of photos with her and in it were a few old ones.  One of my dad, his parents and all but one of his siblings.  There are few photos of his family because his mother died when he was a boy.  The photos that have survived many are in rough shape.  One of the photos I scanned was discolored, had spots etc.  I worked in photoshop elements for quite some time with my Mom watching.  To transform it into a photo where you can see the family again.  It was quite the accomplishment for me.