So We Became Nomads

 This new series of journals or blogs will be about my daughter and daughter in law changing our lives in May of this year, 2020. The Year that tried all our patience and let us know what we are made of. 

And so it begins... May 24th, 2020

One week ago today. I almost died and I am not kidding.

My family asked me if I felt sick. If I had a clue as to what was going to happen on Sunday. And I said no. I had no pain. I was dizzy and a little light-headed. a little disoriented but no pain.

On Saturday I felt kind of crappy. I had a headache, a really bad headache. Someone in the household saw me and asked me how I was feeling? I said fine. She said you don't look fine. But I was hesitant to complain. I kept saying I'll be alright. I've always been all right.

Saturday night were the first clues that I was in trouble. I was still in denial. Megan had come in and had seen that I had a fever, I said I'm going to be fine but she went out and told Wendi. Wendi came in and felt my forehead and I was really hot and she said Mom we're going to go for covid-19 in the morning. I said no I don't need that. I don't have covid-19. But she said we're going to do that at 10 in the morning and I knew she was determined and I said okay.

In the middle of the night sometime I tried to get up and walk to my commode and I was wobbly. I was wobbling from place to place I made it there and back to my chair and that was a miracle. And then on Sunday morning Wendi came in to get me to go to covid-19. It was around 9 I think and and she was going to help me walk to the commode and as soon as I got out of my chair I was so wobbly my legs felt rubbery like Jell-O and I fell into the bookshelf in the living room. ( Wendi tells me this morning that I never asked or waited for her to help. I just got up and tried to walk.) Wendi help me to the floor and then it was kind of a blur. I know that someone in the household came in and helped me up off the floor to my chair and people were saying and if they were going to call the ambulance. I said no, I don't want to go. Don't call. I'll be all right.

But I wasn't all right I was deathly ill. They called the ambulance to get me to the hospital but before they could get me into ambulance, I started vomiting and I kept vomiting on and off and aspirated. I only remember the first vomiting, Wendi working calmly to get an IV in me and they were trying to keep me from choking to death. and then I don't remember anything else about the trip arriving in the ER nothing. I don't know how long it was until I woke up still in the ER on a monitor with a blood pressure that was 100 / 50 and a pulse of 114.

I could feel that they were doing test I felt them do the Covid testing and the burning. I felt different pokes, lab test, urinary test I knew that I had an IV in my arm. Well actually I had two sites in my arm. The one Wendi put on the back of my left hand and one in the bend on the left arm. The one in the wrist was bothering me. It just kept moving around and because it wasn't connected to really anything,was just there moving around and finally It dislodged and it leaked blood all over the sheet and me and and then they came and took care of that. The staff were very attentive, constantly checking me, blood pressure's every 15 minutes probably I don't know, I had no sense of time because it took me a while to even wake up and respond when things were being done and cognitive questions which I failed several times.They were checking everything. Wendi told them I had an autoimmune and that my Sed rate may be high along with my WBC. I had to go down and get a CT scan of my skull of my head and then another CAT scan of my abdominal area after it came back that I had an acute UTI and my white blood cell count was 20,000. I remember when they told me that I was so shocked at High number to have no symptoms. I could remember stuff for a fever and chills and I had a headache I did have some reduced urinary output but I just I don't drink enough so I didn't think anything about it.

I was in the ER what seemed like all day while they stabilized me and then they came in and they said you will be staying with us and I said for a UTI? They said this is not a regular UTI this is a severe UTI and I said okay I'm sorry I was admitted on Sunday. Monday I can't remember what kind of testing we did but Tuesday they did another CT scan on the kidney area because I have a known history of kidney stones and they told me that I had a kidney stone the size of my kidney that it was an emergency and that my kidney was being compromised. I had moderate to severe damage to the kidney and that dr. Yavari my doctor would have to be called and he was called on that Wednesday I mean on that Tuesday and then on Wednesday afternoon I was in surgery. They could not give me a lithotripsy because of stone being too large. No one can pass that size stone But they did place a stent.

I will have to have surgery to remove that stone in a few days but after 6 days in the hospital I am home and feeling some better.

I survived being Septic, dehydrated, kidney failure and infection, UTI and I am so grateful. Life is so short and this was a huge wake up call for me to take better care of myself and to communicate with my family instead of being so stoic. We are not an island. I wanted you all to know how much I love you. Always, Kimmee

136Sylvia Chao, Sherry Flowers Murkland and 134 others

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Biscuits from a can or Homemade with Love?

 My cousin Ed and I were having our morning chat and he showed me his breakfast this morning, which was a beautiful biscuit with a sausage in it. After I stopped salivating I asked him if he made them and he told me they were bought  and he added the Jimmy Dean Sausage.. It looked yummy and I told him that they look like the ones I make. 

He asked if "I remembered the old days when the biscuits came in a tube that you slap on the counter?" and I told him, "Yes and I Like them."  We both laughed. Then he asked me if I remembered Lewis Gizzard and I told him that I did. 

He shared with me a line that he wrote. "there ain't no love in canned biscuits"  

So that started me thinking about biscuits. I only like the ones in the can that are the jumbo flaky ones, or else I want them homemade if possible. 

Cracker barrel has some really good ones and I have been told by my daughter in law that mine are just as good. I don't know about that. lol. 

Bar none, the best biscuits I have ever had were made by my Aunt Thelma. You could show up at her house unannounced and she would tie on her apron and get about to fixin a spread to equal any Cracker Barrel. 

Her biscuits were made in an iron skillet. I always made mine on a flat tin sheet. It was an old one and I don't know if I have it anymore with all the moves but it made some good brown and crispy edged biscuits. I like them brown with butter melted all over the top and inside too. You could put a piece of sausage with an egg and a piece of cheese and we are talking some kind of heaven. You could just put homemade jam or jelly in them or honey if you like but anyway you cut them, biscuits are great. lol  

I love that the conversation with him led me to my Aunt Thelma today because she was so special and such an amazing cook. She lived to be 102 + years and was a card. 

I hope that all of you have fond memories of biscuits and I may have to get out of my comfy recliner this morning and make a good ole favorite Biscuits and gravy or maybe even tomato gravy, Yummy, 

Y'all have just the best day and I am sending you love across the miles. Always, Kimmee

PS. As you all can see, I had to make the biscuits and gravy after the campground owner dropped off some homemade apple butter. How could I not? LOL

Doll Museums That I Have Visited

Doll Museums... Just those two words are exciting to those of us that love the Art of Dolls be they antique, vintage, collectible or modern.
My particular penchant is for the antique works of art pre 1900 or shortly thereafter.

 My first collection was bought for the express purpose of opening my own shop.  Becoming ill changed all that and 500 dolls went to live with others. I don't lament that because they saved me at a time that I really needed it.. Here are some pictures of a display I did for a Historical Society. I brought about 100 dolls and accessories and talked with the public about them all day.

I did many such displays for Historical Societies and after I became Historian I did more.

One of my favorite Museums to visit was the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum. The first time I visited, the dolls were not individually labelled. There were cards with numbers and if you had a particular question, you wrote down the number, went to the file and looked it up. There were a group of us that went to the Museum, all doll enthusiast online and we met to visit the Museum. I  became the identification for the Museum. Each case that we would go to, I would tell them what the dolls were, the approx, year and any info on the company that made the doll. In those days I was a walking encyclopedia. I became kind of an oddity that day with the Museum Officials following me and quietly listening to what I was saying. I did not recognize all of them but I did recognize most of them.
We had such fun viewing the 9,000 dolls on display at any one time and I told them of the doll I had from a close friend of Mrs Strong.


 https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/margaret-woodbury-strong-and-the-making-of-the-strong-national-museum-of-play-the-strong/PQICXcY_ELWwIA?hl=en

The next doll Museum that I loved to visit was the Lightner Museum, a treasure trove of amazing antiques. Among the many displays in this wonderful Museum is a fantastic Doll Museum. This Museum is located in St Augustine, the oldest or one of the oldest (disputed by the fine folks In Pensacola, Fl) cities in America. It would do you well to spend a couple of days or more exploring this fair city and allow a half day for the Museum to see all of the displays to their full potential.

I loved the museum.

I hope that you have enjoyed visiting some of the dolls around the world with me and I thought that perhaps I should share my favorite doll with all of you. She is a 20 inch ABG or Alt Beck and Gottschalck shoulder head model on a kid body and she is marked 1278 DEP #9. She is the only doll of this model I have ever seen and although she is listed in the Cieslik German Doll Encyclopedia, they do not have a photo of her. I found her in the antique shop that I used to work in when I lived in California called "The Nice Twice Doll Shop" and she came to me from the son of the original owner. Her name was Mrs Hinz of K&H dolls of Santa Clara and this was one of her favorite dolls. She has her original dress that she does not wear due to fragility but has a wardrobe and cedar chest filled with goodies. Her name is Victoria and she was the sole bisque survivor from my first collection of 500 dolls. All of which were sold to care for me when I became ill in 2004. She has been with me for 31 years now. 

Tje F(1830-1913). The hotel of happy r

Was It A Cobra Or Was It A Hog Snake? That Is The Question!

February 20 at 9:00 AM · 

One of my friends had one of these snakes on her timeline this morning and it jogged a memory.
I actually came up on one of these as a child cutting through my backwoods to go to Aunt Elma's house. I knew about snakes . We ate em. we skinned em. We picked em up off the road to save the buttons on them and I knew which snakes were dangerous and which ones weren't . I knew that it was unlike any snake I'd ever seen. I would jump right over the back of a black snake if I saw it and not even break my run. But this snake reared up on its hind and its head laid out flat and it looked at me. I was probably about 8 or 10 years old maybe or less and it scared me to death. I mean I stopped dead in my tracks. The snake had a a pattern on its top of its head and it was swaying a little bit looking at me and I froze It didn't move and I didn't move. Finally when I could take a breath, I started backing away slowly and when I thought that I was safe enough from it, I started running like the wind back home. I didn't know if these snakes could chase you. I didn't know anything about them. I've never seen such a snake. But when I went to school the next day I went to the library. And I told the librarian that I had seen a snake the likes of which I ain't never seen before. And we pulled out an encyclopedia and she told me it was a snake that was not from our country normally. So that meant to me that somebody had , had that snake and Let It Go. I told Daddy Bout That snake and he went out there and look for it but it was long gone.
I will never forget coming up on that snake. It scared me to pieces. I hope y'all never run up on a snake that looks like that or at least unless it's being taking care of by snake charmer. Because that was one scary day in the life of a little kid who used to run through the woods every day to go see Aunt Elma. After that I still did run through the woods to go see Aunt Elma but I was very, very aware of every step that I took and I never saw that snake again.
Sometimes when I look back on that that day I wonder if I really did see that snake. Every fiber of my being tells me that it was a real snake and that its head was flared and I could see the pattern on the head. I could even see it swaying just a bit when I come up on it. But the librarian told me that snake is not indigenous to Northwest Florida or Alabama or Georgia. So who knows where that snake came from? I'm telling you I saw that snake and I won't ever forget that day when it made me have a heightened awareness of my surroundings.
I had been a child that just ran through the woods barefoot, picking up straw and making straw houses without a care in the world until I saw that snake.
A snake like that will change you and it sure did me...

I hope y'all have a wonderful day , free of things that hiss when you run up on them...Always, Kimmee

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  Gloria Peacock Kimmel Here's what I remember the head looking like but I was terrified and some things were probably lost with the rain running down my leg..

  

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•  yard as usual but just kept going & leapt out into the yard & kept running to the patio where they were standing. "What did you want? I couldn't hear you." I said. Mom turned me around & pointed back at the base of the drop -- I had jumped over 4 rattle snakes, 2 of which were coiled & rattling. Had never seen any in our yard or in the schoolyard which backed up behind our yard, tho' there were corn fields all around us & the school & there were plenty of snakes in the - mostly black racers. We notified the school the next day. When daddy got home he got his shotgun & got rid of them because they hadn't moved from the area & he was afraid they were nesting. Not as bad as your encounter, but made all the kids in the area more cautioete or hide th

Alternate Reality

I just had a futuristic dream. The people in charge were inhumane beings.  A person could be exterminated on the spot if caught doing something that they felt were not within the limits of "their" accepted behavior. 

Many were fighting against the present government. They were going to get rid of the beings or try to establish life on another planet. 

 My team went at night to establish a colony, and I had just joined the resistance fighters. 

The other planet had wild animalistic type beasts on it, and we were having to kill them to take over the planet. We were doing that at night  on the dark planet and coming back to the Light planet during the day. 

 I was so new at knowing everything that we were doing. It was my first week of training, and I was still writing down the rules.

  

One rule was if you heard the siren, you stopped what you were doing and sat down on the ground until they came to you and checked your chip. 

I was inside the house, in the bathroom, when the siren went off, and I did not know if I was supposed to go outside and sit down or to sit down inside the house. I knew that if I made the wrong choice, it could mean extermination,  so I was in a quandary about what to do. 

I saw my team sitting on the ground across the street, and the eradicators were coming toward them. They were dressed in their usual tactical gear with shields in front of them, Helmets that covered their entire heads and a baton in front of them. They advanced as a team to my group, and I watched as they put the baton over each one. 

The baton would read your inserted chip. If your papers were in order, then all was well. If not, then you would immediately be snatched up by the goons and taken to the large cargo truck that was nearby where you would be exterminated. 

I woke up just as I was walking to the front door to go out and join my team...... 

Pretty cool dream. I wish it had lasted longer or that you all could see it in my minds eye like I do. 

I have no idea what it means or if it pertains to what is happening today, but it was interesting to see the oppression and also the spirit that would fight to change it. It left me with a sense of hope that whatever is thrown at us, we will overcome. As we always have.... I may expand this into a short story. lol