Debate

Tina's post on mowing. sparked a debate between me and my hubby this morning. I had my procedure done in may.( two procedures, I had lead slip back).
he thinks, I am being a big baby and I should be more active and adventurous. So here is my question..... I would like to know what activities any you were doing after your first procedure? if you would be so kind and share. I am not mowing the yard for him!! Ha!

Thank you, Haley





14 Comments

SPARROW

by IAN MC - 2013-08-04 01:08:08

Hi Sally. Please explain , what do you mean when you say a man is a " Turkey " ? It's not a term we use this side of the pond. My wife wants to know if I am one, or not !

Ian
.

Your body will ......

by KAG - 2013-08-04 01:08:24

probably tell you if you're doing to much. Listen to it. I think getting back to a normal routine is one of the great medicines to help healing along with a good attitude and laughter.

That said I'd refuse to mow the lawn too! I've lived in the desert for over 30 yrs now and my rule is that Roundup is the only way to deal with grass.

Enjoy life
Kathy

Thank you !!

by coppertop - 2013-08-04 01:08:32

Just the advice I was for looking for!! my hubby is great retired marine... couch potato nope. get on the computer now to check in on the site.( a bit to much) it is so helpful to me to be on here. So he is not a turkey... ha!! ha!!! Thank you, angry sparrow!!!

Waitaminit, Ian & Mrs. Ian...

by donr - 2013-08-04 02:08:21

Sparrow has described the DOMESTICATED version of the WILD TURKEY, native to North America. The domesticated bird is a absolute dolt of an animal, incapable of surviving w/o someone feeding it.

Then there's the wild version: A wiley bird of tremendous capability. A very strong flier that can escape from any enemy it cannot defeat. A Tom (Male) wild turkey has up to 4" spurs that it can use effectively to dispatch most of the predators that may attack it. They fly like rockets, going through brush & small trees, rather than around them. My #2 Son & I had our initial Wild Turkey encounter (The BIRD, not the bottle - for those living in the US w/ dirty minds) one frigid December in Iowa while deer hunting. We were trudging through the woods in knee deep snow when we surprised a flock of wild turkeys - they took off in a chattering rush (They only gobble during breeding season in the spring) like a thousand fans churning the air. I wish to report that till this day Son & I are crapless, it scared us that badly.

The Wild Turkey is extremely difficult to hunt - it is that cagey & skittish; the Toms can go as high as 30 lbs. Both genders are a magnificent bronze color w/ tips of their flight feathers tipped in brown & black.

Wild turkeys roost on rather hefty diameter tree limbs at night . That protects then from nocturnal predators. As soon as the young poults that are hatched in early May can fly well enough to get to a night time roost, they are essentially safe from most of their natural predators. IIRC, there are three varieties of Wild Turkey native to North America & one to central America.

'They were nearly wiped out at one time, but the Virginia variety (that would have been the variety selected as our national bird, had Ben Franklin been successful) has been re-established in several places & recovered so well that they are hunted to control the population so it does not exceed the environment's capability of supporting them.

Eat the domestic bird - that's all they are good for - they are nothing but a bunch of "turkeys" in the sense that Sparrow described them.

In the FWIW Dept: One of my uncles raised domestic white turkeys. As he described them, they were too dumb to get in out of the rain; very fragile - just not robust birds like their wild ancestors & relatives - & he claimed that he'd seen them die of fright when they saw their shadow in moonlight. Further, they could not fly at all.

Don

Oh Dear !

by IAN MC - 2013-08-04 02:08:30

Thanks for the clarification SPARROW. My wife says I'm a dinosaur turkey !

Ian

OH MY GOSH!!!!!

by coppertop - 2013-08-04 08:08:56

just got in from hiking. Beautiful day in the great Northwest. KAG you are so right about getting back to a normal routine. and I have not had great attitude at all that definitely needs some work. and Don Thank you you are hilarious!!!

Sparrow:

by donr - 2013-08-04 11:08:35

AND I agree w/ you 1000% on the domestic Turkey. Just wanted the folks on another continent to realize that there were two totally different birds & that the other one is a majestic beast in the wild.

Don

Hubby is RIGHT!!!

by donr - 2013-08-04 12:08:10

You SHOULD be more active & adventurous.

May is a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago. You are ready for a starring role w/ the "Flying Wallendas" in the circus - or maybe rassleing alligators at some swamp attraction in the Everglades.

Mowing the lawn w/ a push mower (Unpowered reel type like I used when I was a kid in 1950) would be good warmup for you. (As an aside - the day after I left home to go to college in Sept 1954, Dad bought a power mower.)

Now to be serious: On the way home from the hosp (Wife was driving) we stopped at The Home of the Pot & bought a bunch of lumber for the house we were building. Next day I was using it. My only restrictions were :1) keep the left elbow below the left shoulder. 2) don't lift anything weighing more than 8 lbs using upper arm (weight of a gallon of milk) 3) I could lift as much as I could using the "Curl" method (Curl is elbow against waist, all weight is lifted by forearm only). Wife was there helping me lift stuff. House building was a joint project from start to finish.

Hey, I got a Palindrome for the Spam filter - SJEJS

Don

THANK YOU!!!

by coppertop - 2013-08-05 03:08:25

All of you made my day!! I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard, and to think over the definition of what a turkey is.... oh sparrow, the post you wrote of your daughter tying your hammock up a few feet from the cliff and you rocking through the storm in it. is one of the most beautiful stories I have heard. truly touching. I am so thankful I found this site. Wonderful people!!! great advice givers!!! Hubby, was right I have been baby about the whole ordeal. Take care, Haley

Thanks Don

by IAN MC - 2013-08-05 04:08:27

I now know far more about American turkeys than I did. I assume that you also have 2 types of sparrow :-

i ) the domesticated sparrow

ii ) the wild sparrow ( also known by ornithologists as the ANGRYSPARROW ! )

Cheers

Ian

Bobbie - on Wild Turkeys

by donr - 2013-08-05 08:08:31

Nah - no one EVER calls someone/something a "turkey" in the sense of the wild bird. Very few people are even aware of what the wild variety is all about. The Wild Turkey had darned near gone extinct when they started working to re-establish it in areas where it had been. Amazingly, the three best examples of successful wildlife conservation projects are 1) the whitetail deer, 2) the wild Turkey & 3) The Bald Eagle. The deer & Turkey have become so numerous in some areas that they must be hunted to prevent them over populating their habitat. I was involved in a conservation effort for the deer in Iowa way back in the late '70's. There was one 20,000 acre tract that had a counted herd of 5,000 animals on it - way beyond the land's capability to support them. That same area had an uncountable number of Wild Turkeys on it. Uncountable because the critters are too small to see in their habitat from the air & they can move great distances very quickly. Probably 500 of them - but that was 500 more than there were about ten yrs previous.

I have the same problems w/ my "Kids" wanting to help me get up and /or do anything I'm trying to do. "Dad, let me do that for you!" We've had several discussions about that. I'll tell them when I need help. If I want to dig a hole in my yard, I'll dig the &^%$%^ hole! May not do it a s fast as I used to, but I'll get it dug.

I'm not Paul Bunion. I have neither a broadhead ax nor a Big Blue OX named "Babe." I was just able to do what I did & my activity was predicated on my Cardio's advice to "...not become a cardiac cripple..." Besides, I felt that god after the run-up to getting the PM when I could not stay awake.

BTW: Haley & Bobbie - I refuse to mow the lawn - which we have none of in the Nawth Jawja woods. That comes from using a push mower of the reel variety as a kid in Miami, where the grass grew so fast you could see it.

Ian: Nah, there are a Heck of a lot more than TWO varieties of sparrow. The "Angry Sparrow" is a very small subset of the creature. My bird book has at least 20 varieties - the Angry Sparrow is not listed. It was just identified as a separate species about two yrs ago & lives in the rain forests of the northwest American Continent. It migrates between Oregon & Canada & is the only sparrow that is capable of truly defending itself. It has been known to stare down a Grizzly Bear through an opening in its shelter. It has the longest call of any sparrow, recognizable because it varies among plaintive, comforting & aggressive. Unlike the rest of the genus, it is not a shy creature that runs from any challenge or threat. It stands its ground & defends its turf. Trust me, you do NOT want to challenge one of those to a fight - It will rip out your heart, still beating because your PM is still attached, & hand it to you.

Don

AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRG!

by donr - 2013-08-05 08:08:45

I missspellled Bunyan! You must be a Minnesotan to catch that screw-up! Does anyone read Paul Bunyan stories any more?

Speaking of US/Canadian folklore, have you ever seen a book about a wooden Indian carved into a canoe & set to float from Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean? It was named "Padletothesea." I first saw it in a bookshelf of a HS friend back in 1952, or thereabouts. Next time I saw it was a short while ago in a bookstore in Etlanner, Jawja.

How about Maurice Sendak's classic "Where the Wild Things Are"? We read that to our 4 kids till the cover fell off. They loved it. Then last yr, our youngest was caught reading it to a granddaughter who was only a yr old & she loved it.

The book our kids liked the best, however was "Basic Autopsy Procedures - Illustrated."

Don

For Bobbie...

by donr - 2013-08-07 11:08:49

...The autopsy one is a fiction - except it is a REAL Army training film.

They had a cy of it in 1971 or so when I went to an Army school at Ft Leavenworth, KS. This happened to the class the yr before I was there. They were having a class on River Crossings, always a challenge to an army in the field. Along with the class that film was shown - except that one day, right after lunch they turned out the lights, turned on the projector & what should appear but "Basic Autopsy Procedures" & they wheeled out a corpse w/ a tag on its big toe before anyone got their wits about them & shut the film off.

Don

donr..

by lubro - 2013-08-15 01:08:36

you never cease to amaze us with your knowledge, and your fantastic, humerous stories... thanks for both...
say, during your treks thru waist deep snow chasing deer and being frightened c***less by turkeys (whichever kind you encountered ), did you happen to come across a homely looking squwabbit lurking around?
can't seem to locate the one that frequented my back yard... maybe he bolted and headed to Jawgia...
just sayin....

You know you're wired when...

You have a maintenance schedule just like your car.

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