We Need It & We're Gonna Get It

The remnants of Hurricane Isaac are due to arrive in our drought-stricken area tonight and all weekend long.  After a baking summer of 90 and 100 degree temperatures and only 2 inches of rain --- HERE HE COMES!

My footprints are still there, weeks after the last 1-inch rain!

The ground is like cracked cement. Most of this rain, coming hard and moving slowly, will run off the fields and into the creeks, flooding low-lying areas, and eventually make it's way down the Mississippi River, back to New Orleans. Those poor souls!

I have a million things to do, but Priority One is to drive to town and pick up the stuff we're going to need if the electricity is knocked out.  Did I say IF? With these trees crackle-dry and some of them actually dying, the wind will tear a lot of them down. I pray there are no tornadoes, but I'm sure we'll be out of electricity, regardless. The question is: for how long?  Four and a half years ago, it was off 6 days after an ice storm.

Good Morning, Sunshine!

Good Morning, America!

Suck it up, help one another...

Keep the faith!

Hang in there and be strong!

Good Morning, World!

Simmer down, smile...

PEACE!

Go with God!

c. 2012 CC Godar

Natural Beauty

Starved Rock State Park (Utica, IL) is known for it's beautiful rock formations and numerous waterfalls. 16 of the 18 canyons in the park have waterfalls, however all of them were bone dry when we visited there in August during the drought of 2012.  What a disappointment!  It was very hard to photograph the waterfall canyons with the contrast of bright morning sunshine and deep forest shadows.

Here is Eagle Cliff Overlook, just south of the dam on the Illinois River. By the time we got there, we'd already climbed enough steps up to overlooks and down, so we just snapped this photo showing other people enjoying the spectacular view.

Workin' for a Livin'

There are two mules who take turns towing the cruise boat up and down the I&M Canal in LaSalle, Illinois. I don't know if this one is Moe or Larry, but he sure is a sweetheart. And I'm sure towing the boat along is easier work than pulling a wagon or a plow.

The I&M Canal

The 96 mile ditch known as the Illinois & Mich- igan Canal is the Erie Canal of the great Midwest. It was opened in 1848 and helped make Chicago the giant city of the heartland and Illinois the most populous inland state. It was built to link the Great Lakes to the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. Originally, it was 60 feet wide and 6 feet deep, with 15 locks to assist barges in navigating differences in elevations. The barges were pulled by mules or horses led along the towpath. The Canal was closed in 1933 when the Illinois Waterway was completed.

Lock 16, LaSalle, Illinois

After years of economic decline and neglect, concerned citizens wanted to restore it as a historical park. In 1984 President Reagan signed a bill authorizing the establishment of the I&M Canal National Heritage Corridor.

Today, visitors can use 61.5 miles of the towpath, from Rockdale to LaSalle for hiking, picnics, backpack camping at designated sites, fishing, canoeing, snowmobiling and bicycling. There are four state parks along the canal.

At LaSalle, there is a full-size replica canal boat at Lock 16 that offers leisurely guided cruises pulled by a mule. The rope from boat to mule was so long it made it difficult to get a picture of both together.

Flat People

Old Downtown Utica, Illinois

 These flat, iron, silhouette sculptures were seen all over the Starved Rock State Park area.  

At the I&M Canal Park, LaSalle, Illinois

My favorite, also at I&M Canal Park

I need to find out inform- ation about the artist.

Something to Think About

Starved Rock State Park, Illinois

Watch this video and tell me what you think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xR8rnUmtGU

Then make your voice heard by writing in Ron Paul for President. He was cheated out of the chance to make his views known to the electorate during the Republican debates. He's the only real candidate for peace that we're ever likely to have. Yeah, I know he won't win. But we'll send a message.

Shabby to Sheek

We were wettin' our whistle at a sports bar in old downtown Utica, IL when I spotted this lovely lady calling to me from across the street to come and see. So I grabbed my camera out of the van and went to take a look.

Oh, glory! This tiny shop was simply stuffed with stuff.  You could barely navigate around other shoppers and we were there before the weekend crowds from Chicago had arrived. I bet when they get the crowds, they get a lot of lifted merchandise too. I actually got claus- trophobic and had to take a quick look and skedaddle. I would have loved to have had the chance to explore, but bumping into and wiggling around 5 or 6 other women browsing about was just more than I could handle.

I WISH I could buy this shop! But I know it's just a pipe-dream, because this is a major Chicago tourist destination. 

Senseless Acts of Stupidity

While on our hike at Starved Rock State Park, I was disgusted and outraged over some of the things we saw.  On every one of the park's interpretive signs we came across, some idiot had used a Magic Marker to scrawl, in big black letters: "Tea + Carlos."  

Translation: "I love you, Carlos."

Then we came upon this message deeply carved in a rock and attributed, I suppose, to said "Tea." These people had to have a hammer and chisel to carve like this in solid stone, wouldn't they? This seems like pretty intentional vandalism to me.

And here's a tree with an unusual growth on it's trunk, forever marred by the senseless carving of some lovers' initials.





Crossing a bridge spanning the top of one of the (dried-up) waterfalls, I looked down, and at the bottom I counted 11 empty plastic water bottles.



What's WRONG with people?

My husband gets exasperated with me because I let "little things" like this spoil my adventure. He says I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders ---when there's nothing in the world I can do about the things that bother me so. Here is a photo of him, carrying his empty water bottle and trail map back to the trailhead, to dispose of properly.  It takes so little effort to show respect for the beauty of our natural world. So I just have to repeat...

 What's WRONG with people?

Before the Tornado

Mural of Utica, Illinois in Joy & Ed's Bar, showing the nearby area wiped out in the tornado.

On our short camping trip this month, we visited Utica, Illinois, the hometown of my husband's fishing buddy.  On the wall of this bar, Joy & Ed's, is a mural of a part of the old downtown area which was destroyed in a sudden tornado on April 20th, 2004.

Detail of mural showing the Millstone Tavern & the Ambulance Service Bldg

The house our friend grew up in is hidden by the lady's head on the left. Fortunately his mother wasn't home at the time. And she wasn't at work either that day at the Ambulance Service (the blue building beside the tavern), so it obviously wasn't her time to go. However, his best friend was killed in the Millstone Tavern, along with eight others, as he grabbed two children off the street and rushed them inside to what he thought was safety. He died a hero because the children survived. That whole block was demolished.

How It Should Be

Summer 2011

This photo is how our farmland here should look right now. It was taken last year at about this time. These are healthy crops of corn and soybeans. This year's crop will be half what it should be, because of the summer-long drought we've been in. Farmers are having to liquidate their livestock herds because there's no feed left in storage and their pastures and ponds are dried up. Food in the grocery store is predicted to go sky-high this winter. Why does this feel like the beginning of the end?

Shabbona's Rock

After a summer of temperatures in the 90s and 100s (with only about 2 inches of rain), it finally cooled off and we went camping the weekend of August 13th. We drove 3 hours away, to Starved Rock State Park in northern Illinois and had a wonderful time exploring it's beautiful forested rock canyons.  My husband couldn't believe I was tearing up and down those trails, when I can barely walk across the yard at home. I told him:

ADVENTURE TAKES PRECEDENCE OVER PAIN! 

SHABBONA'S ROCK, Utica, Illinois

Please Excuse CC...

Please excuse CC's extended absence!

Wow! I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted to this blog! When I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia on May 1st, I more or less gave up on life. I've unknowingly suffered with it for several decades, just thinking it was the aches and pains of growing old. But this winter I became so sick, I literally could not raise myself out of bed, I was so weak and full of pain. I had severe insomnia from the pain, too --- I was a mess.

After all kinds of blood tests and a sleep study, all things being normal, I was finally referred to a rheumatologist and diagnosed with the dreaded, no-cure condition of fibromyalgia (known in previous generations as hypochondria and laziness). Besides previously being prescribed Nexium for my acid reflux and a thyroid pill (taken in the morning on an empty stomach), and a sleeping pill and an anti-anxiety pill (taken at night to sleep), I was put on the newest of three fibro pills, Savella.

The side effects have been horrendous. But the pain was cut in half. So I kept on with the treatment, even though it was causing extreme constipation and its after effects, dizziness so bad I walked like a drunk, and a mental fog so bad that simply posting to my blog was next to impossible.

A PAINFUL SMILE        8-13-12

I think I've turned the corner, though. I hit rock bottom last Thursday, and my husband got me in to see my rheumatologist the next day. He adjusted my fibro-med dosage and put me on 2 more pills (one was for arthritis, just in case the remaining pain in my hips and knees was coming from that --- and the other was to "help" the fibro-med, whatever that means???)

I had a good, hopeful day on Saturday (when I overdid it in my garden) and a crummy day on Sunday (payment due for overdoing on Sat.) --- and it will be like this, I guess, for the rest of my life. I'll have good spells and I'll have bad spells. When it's bad, I'll just have to remember that it's only temporary and I'll circle back around to good, just hang in there... It's too early to tell if the drug cocktail will work, but I'm feeling well enough today to attempt to post on my blogs.

AND SO IT GOES...