Well, just the blood part. I have been giving blood on a semi-regular basis since I was in college. I find it very odd that although I am a very squeamish person and the sight of blood makes me quite woozy, giving blood does not bother me a bit. I don't watch the needle go into my arm or anyone else's arm, but it really does not bother me.
I give blood at the big honking first United Methodist church in town, because they schedule blood drives every three months or so and I can give regularly. They have a nice open gymnasium in which they hold the drive and no one pesters me about attending the church. I once went to a different church right around the corner from our house and the people there kept wanting to recruit me for membership and even sent the pastor over to talk to me. Ack!
But the thing that drives me loony at this blood drive site is that they always have a television loudly playing The Andy Griffith Show. Continuously. Did I mention loudly? And because there were a lot of people there this past Sunday and it took longer than usual to make my way through the process, I had to hear that insipid whistling theme song more times than I ever thought humanly possible to endure. I have never had any desire to watch that show and my experience at these blood drives has cemented my aversion.
When I sat down at one holding area, a man next to me saw me roll my eyes when the theme song started up, yet again, and guessed correctly why; he then showed me the iPod tucked into his pocket. Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that? That was a big ol' duh on my part, to be sure.
You can be sure that in April when I next go to donate blood, my Christmas iPod Shuffle will be with me, loaded with my favorite NPR shows. Giving blood will be a lot less painful that way.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Ow. And ow.
As my friend Geri says, getting older is not for sissies. I am hurting this morning and moving very slowly. On Friday, we learned that our county's fire officials had lifted the outside burning ban since our rainfall has increased ever so slightly in the last few weeks. So on Saturday morning, we started raking leaves in our backyard and burning them.
We have an acre and while not all of it is cleared as yard (half is fairly thick woods), we still have a large cleared area with lots of trees, and lots of leaves. We haven't bothered raking them up since we had no way of disposing of them. We are outside of town limits, so there is no curbside yard waste pickup. Our private trash collection service will not accept yard waste. Even if the dump accepts yard waste, we would have a difficult time getting all of it there...so burning is our best option, an option that has not been available to us since last summer.
Saturday was a beautiful day to work outside and work is exactly what we did from 10 am to 5:30 pm. We were able to clear the side yard and most of the backyard; there was more to clear than we thought! We were three smoky, dirty, sweaty people when we stopped for the day.
I gave blood yesterday morning at a Red Cross drive so I was unable to work on the leaves the rest of the day - rats. Not! I kept J and A company as they raked and continued to burn. They were able to finish all but the far corner and now the backyard looks great.
Today my body feels the effects of the raking and lifting, and the loss of a pint of blood. I will be almost good as new tomorrow, I am sure, but for today, ow!
We have an acre and while not all of it is cleared as yard (half is fairly thick woods), we still have a large cleared area with lots of trees, and lots of leaves. We haven't bothered raking them up since we had no way of disposing of them. We are outside of town limits, so there is no curbside yard waste pickup. Our private trash collection service will not accept yard waste. Even if the dump accepts yard waste, we would have a difficult time getting all of it there...so burning is our best option, an option that has not been available to us since last summer.
Saturday was a beautiful day to work outside and work is exactly what we did from 10 am to 5:30 pm. We were able to clear the side yard and most of the backyard; there was more to clear than we thought! We were three smoky, dirty, sweaty people when we stopped for the day.
I gave blood yesterday morning at a Red Cross drive so I was unable to work on the leaves the rest of the day - rats. Not! I kept J and A company as they raked and continued to burn. They were able to finish all but the far corner and now the backyard looks great.
Today my body feels the effects of the raking and lifting, and the loss of a pint of blood. I will be almost good as new tomorrow, I am sure, but for today, ow!
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