catching my breath...or at least trying to...

It all started August 28...

(morning) - Dustin called me at 9 a.m. complaining of severe right side pain, and told me his boss told him to go to the doctor or ER. The way Dustin made it sound, I thought it was something similar to what I experienced in May when I had appendicitis. So I left work, picked him up, and took him to St. John's Mercy Medical Center to the ER. They did an ultrasound & chest xray, ended up diagnosing him w/ costochondritis (inflammation of the cartilage joining the rib cage and breast bone), and gave him 2 days off work. (He was back in Urgent Care Saturday, then to a PCP Wednesday of this week - turns out it's just a severe muscle strain in his rib cage. Luckily that's all it is! They were thinking cracked ribs for a while, which unfortunately you can do NOTHING about.)

(evening) - I was leaving to go to mom & dad's, about 8:30 p.m. The apt complex was repaving our half of the lot, so we had to park at the opposite end. Long story short, they pulled up a couple of those concrete blocks you park behind (on the part of the lot NOT being repaved) and left the metal rods (about 6 or 7 inches high) sticking up out of the ground...completely UNMARKED. You guessed it. It caught & punctured my leg, then ripped down to the top of my foot. (The picture is from last Friday, while I was sitting in Urgent Care waiting to get my tetanus shot. Let me assure you, the night it actually happened, it was a bloody mess and looked a HELL of a lot worse. I'm lucky I didn't need stitches! TWO ER trips in one day would NOT have been fun!

Other than injuries and phone calls / visits to doctors, insurance companies, and apartment complex managers (don't even get me STARTED on that last one...), I've been trying to "keep on keepin' on" by making sure I made time to get out and celebrate the long Labor Day weekend:

Much of it I spent in Millstadt, IL (and the surrounding towns) at Millstadt's Homecoming "fair", Smithton taverns, and Paderborn bonfires. Not to mention a birthday party in Hecker with BBQ and homemade ice cream - yum!

Monday mom & I made the trek to the Hecker Community Center (aka, the HeckerDome) where the Moving Vietnam Wall was on display for several days. I was at the "real" one when I was younger, maybe 7 or 8, but at that time I didn't understand or appreciate it. To me it was a big mirror that caught my reflection dancing and twirling and giggling. But to see it - even the miniaturized version - as an adult, knowing what it MEANS and being able to appreciate it, gave me goosebumps. Mom & I stopped at the table to look for our cousin so we could find him on the wall and get a picture. And there it was. Panel 49 E, line 51: Daniel Branson. (Pay no mind of my capri clad legs reflected in the memorial!)

Many people had placed mementos - cards, pictures, flowers, a can of beer, etc. - at the base of the wall, which was just neat to see. My absolute favorite picture I captured, however, is below. I managed to catch ONE person gazing at the wall, with no one else around, and had overheard him talking about being a Vietnam Vet himself. This picture says so much to me...