Category: Glimpses of Life

With its white head facing upward, the eagle soared back and forth through the tall trees. I couldn’t make out what he was doing besides gliding. Earlier this year we spotted an eagle’s nest.

Perhaps it was looking for food. Eagles can lift up to 4 pounds approximately. The pest control company we use has put bait out for mice. The previous owners had bait so we assume they may have had problems at one time. I’d appreciate the eagles eating all the mice they can get.

The eagle is patient. Approximately 1 in 18 attacks for food is successful which explains why the eagle is seen “resting” a lot.

Victory comes to the eagle but he has to wait for it. So it is in life. Sometimes we have to do things over and over and over again until we finally get “it.” It might be our struggles with drugs, food, sex, anger, gossip, pornography, etc.

But like the eagle, we need to be patient and continue trying.

Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone. Proverbs 25:15

Note: The eagle picture is courtesy of Office Images.

The first real snowfall of the season gave us 2 inches of white fluff. It started falling Saturday morning and by the time we left church and got onto the highway the slush and ice had slowed traffic quite a bit. One hundfred fourteen cars had been in accidents by the end of the day.

This is Minnesota and people seem to forget how to drive in snow from one year to the next.

By the time we reached our neighborhood 40 minutes later, the local public works department had already plowed our streets.

Snow is very pretty but does have dangers if one is not careful.

By evening time, we continued getting a light dusting of the white crystals.

At around 10:30 p.m. I decided it was time to shovel. Dressing in my outside winter attire which consists of UGG boots, a Land’s End coat that’s warm up to down to -20 degrees, warm gloves and a hat, I opened the door to the smell of night.

At 25 or so degrees, I expected to be cold but I was not. Grabbing the shovel, I started up the driveway.

It was so peaceful. The semi-cloudy sky showed the occasional bright star that seemed to blink down at me saying “thank you for joining us tonight.” There was a stillness in the air. Hushed darkness with only the sound of a shovel going back and forth.

My husband and I were the only ones outside enjoying the night air.

I felt like going for a walk but thought better of it since our neighborhood does not have street lights and I didn’t have a fluorescent coat on.

Minnesota air is dry in the winter so it doesn’t feel as cold as one would expect.

It’s here. Winter that is. The calendar doesn’t say so but the first snowfall has announced it.

No matter that later this week we’ll reach 50 degrees. The snow has made its entrance and for the next few months we will live in a tranquil house. No bugs buzzing, no chain saws, no motor boats on the lake — only an occasional walker passing by.

How peaceful. My soul finds respite from the busyness of this earth. And the slowness of this season gladdens my heart.

[amazon_link id=”B000V57DFY” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]

From city girl to country girl …

For a little while now, my countertop Brita water filter has looked a little reddish on the bottom. I thought it odd but figured I’d change the filter and things would take care of themselves. They didn’t.

The problem was not the Brita which worked beautifully. No — our problem was a sediment filter.

The water from the well goes through this filter and the filter removes any sediment like sand or rocks before it then travels to the water softener. But the sediment filter is not supposed to look like this. It’s supposed to be clear.

When we bought the house, the filter looked exactly like this. We were told that all we had to do was use the red lever at the bottom of the filter and flush it out every now and then. We have been faithful in doing that.

One day, I went to use the water. Just a trickle came through. As the day went on the water supply lessened. I was in a panic. What?!!! No water in the well? Impossible!

My husband had shown me that there is a way to bypass the filter. Of course, sediment might come through then. Aha! I thought to myself. I will try bypassing the filter and see if it helps. Voila! We had water. The filter was clogged pretty badly.

I called the company, Vu-Flow, to see what needed to be done. They suggested we clean the filter. A simple thing, I was told. Turn the water to the filter off (already done) and unscrew the plastic tubing. Then, remove the filter and clean it.

(By the way, the red you see is iron that has built up in the filter.)

I waited until my husband got home so we could try cleaning the filter. I had visions of me standing foot deep in water if I tried it alone.

We had no luck. The plastic tube would not budge.

I called our Home Warranty people. Not being “sediment-speaking” savvy, I explained we had a problem with red coloring in our water and the filter couldn’t be removed. The representative, through no fault of her own, explained that it was probably the water softener. She scheduled someone out.

Later that day, I decided to do some sleuthing. (I like sleuthing — it makes me feel like Nancy Drew, a storybook detective whose books I read voraciously when I was younger.)

I called three or so plumbers. They all gave me the same advice. They could come out and remove the filter and clean it but they felt we could do it. One plumber explained step by step how to do it. I needed to get a device from Home Depot to turn the plastic tubing.

(Notice that if I don’t know the name of something, I call it a device. It’s safer that way and sounds much better than a thingamajig.)

I called the installer who was scheduled to come out through the Home Warranty company and told him that we were going to try doing it ourselves. We have a $100 deductible and I later learned that if it was not covered, he would charge us $25 every 15 minutes. Ouch! That’s expensive. I canceled his visit.

The other three plumbers were very reasonable. One charged nothing for coming out and the other two charged $125 plus parts no matter how long it took.

Back to the sediment filter …

We bought the device and the plastic tubing came right out. One of the plumbers had also suggested I try Iron Out to clean the filter and plastic tubing so I had come prepared to do that.

I put the Iron Out in a pail per the instructions then put the filter and plastic tubing inside. The next morning — voila! again!

This is what it’s supposed to look like.

It’s amazing to me that the three plumbers I had personally contacted all instructed me over the phone on what I should do. By the time I spoke with the third plumber I thought I was an expert at what needed to be done. But, he was the most patient and explained in a lot more detail what this city girl needed to do.

Amazing! I have found that “Minnesota nice” is practiced over and over again in Minnesota.

Our sediment filter flows quite well now. I haven’t noticed the redness at the bottom of our Brita either.

“They” say that if your brain challenges itself that you won’t get Alzheimer’s. Well, at this rate, with all the learning I’m doing, I should be just fine.

[amazon_link id=”B0000DBIKG” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]

[amazon_link id=”B00103XAQC” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]

I was a student at a school. I wasn’t fitting in. Finally I went to my teacher and told her that I couldn’t attend anymore. When I left the classroom, I saw a man who had a gun and he was shooting at people. He was on the top of a hill and I was walking down it. When he shot at me, he missed.

I continued walking downhill. Later, I ran into the back of a funeral. I could see people trying to stop me as I walked passed all the cars to the front. They were talking about a woman and the speaker said “She wanted to make sure that “these” were all taken down.” She was holding a plaque of some kind.

The speaker looked at me and I took the plaque and said “She wants us to have the good words engraved on plaques lived in our lives. They mean nothing on stone.”

I continued walking and saw a boy on the bank of a river. There was a cake sitting on a ledge and he was trying to get a piece. Looking past the cake into the river, I saw the bodies of sheep floating downstream.

Me: What’s that?!!!! I yelled.

Boy: They kill them to eat them.

Me: But these weren’t eaten.

Boy: Sometimes they just slaughter them.

The boy got his piece of cake and I woke up from the dream.

Lambs slaughtered. The school in my dream leads me to believe that this was a dream about Penn State. The news brings it to mind morning and night.

There is more to this story I’m sure. Right now, it appears that innocent boys lives have been slaughtered. The victims lives are affected in so many ways:

• Their perspective of leaders
• Their sexuality
• Trust in people – can it ever exist?
• Self esteem
• Feelings of guilt

It’s almost Thanksgiving time and the wild turkeys in our neighborhood have returned. They peck-peck-peck away at the piles of leaves in our yard. I wonder what they’re looking for?

I never realized that turkeys can fly but apparently they can. I remember an episode on an old sitcom called WKRP where one of the employees threw live turkeys from a helicopter over a shopping center as a Thanksgiving giveaway. These turkeys (which are domestic) died though.

The turkeys never let me get near enough to take close-ups of them. Better be careful turkeys — hunters might get you.

Walking into a Starbucks recently, I went up to the counter and ordered a hot chocolate. While waiting to pay, I noticed Starbucks had “something” they were selling on the counter so I picked it up to take a look.

It’s a “band” that you can purchase for a minimum of $5. The $5 (or any amount you wish to give) is a donation (tax deductible) of which 100% goes to the Opportunity Finance Network “to create and sustain jobs in communities across America.”

Pretty cool, huh? I’m not a band wearer but contributed to this wonderful project. I believe it’s going to be Americans who help Americans get out of this mess that America is in. The band is American made and has the words “indivisible” written across it.

One can also make a donation at createjobsforUSA.org.

What a tragedy this whole thing is. Adults who were told of the molestation of boys — looking the other way.

What were their thoughts? Were they trying to save the school’s reputation? Was it the reputation of the leaders that was considered?

The rioting by the students at Penn State is even more disheartening to me.

Should there not be repercussions for the leaders, people in positions of authority, of a school who have morally committed wrongs? Should we also look the other way?

This makes me want to vomit! I am repulsed by those in our society who want to put the school’s team ahead of the victims.

Parents send their children to school and trust that everything will go fine. And if it doesn’t, those parents trust that the school will do everything in their power to protect their children.

There is little accountability these days. We don’t seem to require much of our leaders.

Some would say “It happened so long ago and we need to move on.”

Tell that to the victims. Go ahead. Tell that to the victims. Ask them how normal their lives are now that they have been sexually abused.

The reputation of a school should not be above the safety of children.

And whether Sandusky molested one or eight boys — he needs help.

So many times we look the other way because we don’t want to be involved. But we are involved. Child abuse affects our society as a whole. And those molested sometimes become molesters themselves.

May God’s grace be with us as we sort through this mess.

Continuing from my last post regarding dental work …

I was having to wear a mouth guard to separate my bottom teeth from the top as that was the only way I could stop the pain, grittiness and the burning sensation that I had in my mouth. It was so unbearable at times. I got to the point where I was wearing the night guard overnight and then about 8 hours during the day.

I went back to the original dentist who did the crown and root canal/composite filling work and he took x-rays again but nothing looked wrong. He then referred me to another specialist at the University of Minnesota.

Unfortunately, as a new patient, I could not get an appointment for a full month with this specialist. About a week before my appointment, I received a call from the office confirming what I needed to bring. The woman said to me “you’re coming in for dry mouth, right?” I said “no, I’m coming in because something’s wrong with my root canal.”

The woman then proceeded to tell me that this specialist did not work with root canals. I explained that I had been waiting almost a month now for this appointment and that the lady who I originally spoke to told me that he would see me.

When I finally got in to see this specialist (who my dentist told me was the cream of the crop in finding out what’s wrong with you) he said “well, the nurse told me what was wrong and we can only help with the symptoms.” He looked inside my mouth to make sure my salivary gland was functioning. Then he referred me to a root canal specialist who he told me had worked on his wife’s root canal. “So he’s highly recommended,” he said.

Needless to say, I was disappointed. I trusted my dentist to send me to the right doctor and come to find out he wasn’t much help. He did give me a prescription for one of his own “concoctions” that included lidocaine. When I went to the pharmacy, they had to make it so I left and had my husband picked it up later for me. Little did I realize that for one bottle it was $70 – 2 weeks worth of swishes. The medication basically numbed my mouth so I couldn’t feel the burning sensation. The same effect, I found out, can be had by using Biotene which doesn’t leave the same numbness in your mouth and is a LOT cheaper.

I made the appointment for the next specialist. An endodontist. These are root canal specialists and this is who I should have been referred to in the first place.

During my first appointment, I told him what was wrong and when he repeated it back, he repeated it backwards to me. What??!!! No! I wanted to scream. “I’m sorry,” I told him. “That’s not what I said.”

The endodontist took x-rays and found nothing wrong with the root canal. He told me there was the possibility that my lingal nerve had been damaged. This happens when the dentist gives you a shot to numb your nerve so he can work on your teeth and accidentally injures the lingal nerve. In March, I had had 3 of these shots. The endodontist explained that this can take care of itself and sent me home with instructions to come back in a month. (Google searches show the damage to the nerve can take up to 2 years to heal itself and sometimes it never does …)

One month later (I always follow their instructions), I was back in the endodontist office. Everything was the same — same pain, same burning, same grittiness in my mouth. After reviewing what we had discussed the last time, the endodontist told me that he wanted me to get a new night guard as the one I had no longer fit my mouth.

I was confused by this instruction but he seemed to be in a hurry so I took the referral to his recommended dentist and left. Bad mistake.

I mulled over what was happening. I stopped and thought about my situation. The wearing of the night guard helps with the pain, grittiness and the burning sensation. It seems to put my mouth in a place where those things don’t bother me. But, since it’s helping, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the night guard.

I called the new dentist office and made the appointment. Then I called back and spoke to the billing office to see what the cost of a night guard would be since I had to pay out of pocket (insurance companies don’t normally cover night guards). $1100. What?!!!! I hung up. I couldn’t believe they were so expensive. I was dumbfounded. Did I really need this?

I decided to call a different dentist office (one I had never been to) and inquire what they would charge. $189. What?!!! I asked the woman to repeat herself. Yes, $189. She told me I could get a discount if I paid cash.

Now I’m really confused. I called the office the endodontist referred me to and spoke to a different woman. I got the same response. $1100. She told me I could get a discount too but I questioned as to why their night guards are so much more. “Better material, better quality, will last you awhile,” … blah, blah, blah. I then asked her what would happen if I had more work done in my mouth — would the night guard have to be re-done or could it be adjusted? She said “it depends.”

Okay. By now it had been 6 weeks since I had seen my endodontist. He had asked me to come back in 3 months. I called his office to see if I could speak with him and, as expected, he was not available. I explained to the woman my dilemma and her response was “No, you shouldn’t have to pay that much for a mouth guard.” I received a call back from the endodontist and he told me that he wanted to see me again to review the records. I made an appointment and decided to do a little research on the internet. (Doctors hate when you do that …)

This is what I knew:

• The burning sensation was probably caused by the numbing shot(s) the dentist gave me when he worked on my mouth.
• The grittiness/leaky feeling, according to an article I read on the internet, might be caused by the filling that was put on the root canal. If the dentist “doesn’t properly prepare the tooth with an etching solution for a specific amount of time, or if they do, but some of your saliva gets onto the tooth after it is etched, the filling may not attach to the tooth tightly and could end up leaking and ultimately needing to be replaced after only a year or two.”

Gently snow falls from the sky

Nose pressed against the window

I see white overshadowing the darkness

It makes no sound – my ears are useless

My eyes behold in wonder

Beauty has penetrated

Softly

And I am here to see it