September 27th, 2009

So Long, Duke Boys!

On the northeast corner of 112th Avenue and 18th Street, stands a rundown brown house with a dirt driveway and ramshackle garage. In the back is lots of empty land, mostly mud. Living in this house were a couple of young-adult-type boys/men who were usually out tinkering in the driveway or the garage on some hot-roddy type pickup truck or car. And if they weren't out there tinkering, the fruits of their labor could be seen in the driveway, the garage, or sitting in the back forty. PA affectionately dubbed them "the Duke boys," after Bo & Luke Duke of the Dukes of Hazzard. And after seeing a woman in skimpy shorts at the mailbox one time (a la Daisy Duke), we felt that the moniker really suited them. Even if we never saw them out playing in the mud bog, the condition of their trucks told us that they must have spent plenty of time out there. The trucks were usually covered in mud. Who needed to go to the backwoods when you had this nifty-neat mud bog in your very own back yard!

Yesterday we were on the way to PA's house with a bench that we had been keeping for her. As we waited at the light on the corner of 112th Avenue & 18th Street, PA noticed that the Duke house appeared to be empty, and no muddy trucks were in the driveway, the garage, or in the back forty. We figure this property is going up for sale soon, making way for some fancy-schmancy apartments or houses or something else in the name of "progress."

So long, Duke boys! We'll miss your muddy trucks and seeing you tinkering on them in your driveway. Where ever you have gone, I hope there are plenty of muddy roads and hills for you to play in!

*****

Take Two Aspirin and Call Me in the Morning

My right knee has been bothering me for several weeks now. It's been stiff, can't bend it very far, and if I forget to turn the bottom half of my body at the EXACT same time I turn the top off when I'm setting off to walk somewhere--the excruciating pain reminds me of my mistake. It's been a real chore to put on shoes and socks, my jeans, cut my toe nails (or "tony nails as one of my kids used to say when they were little); cross my legs, drive for very long (longer than 5 minutes). What's been a mystery is that at the same time, I have no problems or pain in walking if I'm careful not to make any sharp turns; standing doesn't make it hurt; I can operate the exercise machines at Curves relatively pain-free.

At the same time, DC has been having problems with his shoulder again. He saw the doctor a couple of years ago when it first bothered him, who promptly diagnosed it as "frozen shoulder," gave him some anti-inflammatory drugs and a set of exercises to do, and sent him on his way. The problem was cured then, but it's recurred recently so he's been doing the exercises again. Yesterday he decided we needed to buy some extra-strength Advil to see if that helped any. We've been out lately--since PA & Ezre have been gone we've seldom had a need for it. So, off to Walmart we went. Just before bed he took one. I decided I'd try it too, to see if it helped my knee feel any better. Voila! I was able to bend that knee way farther than I have been able to in quite a while, although I got carried away and was reminded I wasn't totally cured. The best part is--it's some 21 hours since I took that one little extra-strength Advil, and I'm still relatively pain free, can bend the knee, and I don't have to lay my jeans on the floor and shuffle my foot into the pants leg far enough that I can then bend down and pull it the rest of the way on. I don't know how long it will last, but I'm happy to know that taking another "ESA" will probably take care of it for a couple of days, if I need it in the future.

****

The House On This Page

I've been asked whose house this is at the top of my blog page. Well, it's the house I lived in when we lived in La Grande, until we moved to Portland when I was 7 years old. Sort of! I got to thinking recently that this house isn't what I remembered, but I knew it was my old house because one of the useless facts taking up space in my head is my old address in La Grande--1001 11th Street. And this house is on 11th Street, the house number matches, it's on the back side of Eastern Oregon University, the same house with the scary overgrown garden I remember being afraid of as a child (I was sure a lot of snakes lived there) is still kitty-corner some 50+ years later. Then just the other day I was going through a crate of pictures that were in Josephus Awrightus' old closet, and I came upon my *real* house! Definitely a LOT older-looking than this pretty yellow house, but it's the house of my memory. Since my scanner's not working too well, I may ask Heffalump to scan it for me and I'll make it my opening photo--more realistic for early 1950's than this charming home.