The Latest Pneumonia War is Nearly Won...

Well... they call it the "Show Me" state right? ... as in; "Hello. Welcome to Missouri. Let us show you some genuine Missouri Pneumonia!"

The day before the last post I started in on a case of the flu that rapidly went south. I hoped to avoid the pneumonia of the last two cases of "Flu" I've acquired. FAIL. Turned my lungs into bubbling, gurgling cauldrons incubating some new version of choking cowboy respiratory goo.

Came close twice to getting my remains hauled to the ER... something about my lungs being so full of fluid I could hear the bubbling and foaming if I left my mouth open...

... and choking on the lung I was trying to hack up.

Buuuut I dodged all that... and now on day 15 with more than a week of damn near nothing but laying on the couch waiting for the impact of dirt being thrown in my face, I think  I'm coming to think I'll survive.

Much progress made in the last 36 hours. Got to feeling so chipper yesterday afternoon in fact I forced myself onto the truck seat to go stumble around the "Premier" Bass Pro in Springfield. Live or die I had to get the hell out of this trailer!!!

The place is huge. Thankfully late on an Easter Sunday traffic was light. That allowed me to waddle around slow as I pleased.

The first view inside the front door is like peering down through a thick forest into a sunlit opening in the woods... It has an amazing "calming" affect...pretty cool.

I did discover an attribute of being sick as a dog; When you're hacking up chunks of whatever is falling apart inside... people tend to give you a wide berth... keeps your stroll pretty peaceful... heh heh heh...

The whole store is like walking through a park or a forest where vendors have displays set up every little bit in more open meadows to sell stuff. Fish tanks and other "tanks" every little bit... running water... very nice.

From Alligators to Turtles and great big fish... the natural displays made for a nice couple hours just strolling around from one leaning post to the next on a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon.

This morning, after the latest storm passed... a misty, grass frosted sunrise...

Some folks have been asking about Arlo... yeah, he's still with me... we are... ummmm... a test maybe. It turns out, as he's grown, Our personalities mesh poorly. That doesn't remove responsibility, so... unless and until somebody came stumbling along that fell in love with him and he with them... he can't be just "dumped" as an inconvenience. We'll just work it out.

The family runs a small herd of mixed cows. Either some longhorn or short horn thrown in there... They make for some nice sunset photos if you're in the right place at the right time...

... and able to prop the camera on something to steady it from the hacking going on ;)

 With my lungs beginning to function again in a tolerable fashion... I'm trying to tinker a little here an there with the tool case I'm working to shape up. It continues to come slowly.

Hopefully I'll keep gaining back from this latest slapdown... so I can get back to building up that lame arm... and get on down the road to wherever and whatever it is I'm getting to.

- Brian

Landed on Bit of High Ground in the Ozarks...

Survived the run east. Nearly blew out of the Wally World resort in Hays Kansas. Rocked to sleep by the howling Kansas wind.

Pulled into my daughter's Missouri place quite some few days ago... Can't help but admit, I'm still quite a bit adrift... If I'd wrote about it all you'd have seen was; gonrn roa;lkj;lak ;ajk djdi isidkna

Sooooo... I mostly just pulled in my head and tried at keeping my mouth shut.

"The Ozarks"... they say that like... The Ozark Mountains... um... wait... what? ha ha.

It's pretty round about... and a rolling country... but mountains? um... no. ;) Simple fact, I have a need for seeing tall mountains around me on the horizon. And for my camp being set deep in them. I'll be hungering for that vision 'fore I haul out of here.

Been pretty much just tinkering. Help with the finishing of their shop building... with those things where I can reach down rather than up. Reaching down I can do real good. Reaching over my head for a light switch or some other still needs some work.

The morning "coffee" view from where they parked me is fairly good...

Their sunset aren't Arizona grade... but they don't hurt your eyes either.

Been working on a small project for a few days. It's far from my best work... all things considered, but it'll do. I'll have my leather tools consolidated and convenient to use when I get back to Cochise... or maybe in a camp along the way somewhere... not knowing at this point where my road is going.

I built it as a closed box and then cut that in half so I have matching boxes that will hinge together in a clamshell configuration. I built the same sort of thing a few years back, before we stepped off... but that was the wrong shape/orientation... so we'll see if this evolution works out better.

Inside I'll put a few tool rack shelves to carry the tools... as well as some other miscellaneous arrangements for odd bits and pieces...

It takes some getting used to going from Arizona to Missouri. Dry to Wet! Been raining nigh on to every day. Skies are often grey. Had to look at the map to make sure Missouri wasn't in Seattle!

Pretty typical, the motor is not quite cooled off and there's the guy with his eyes looking off there at the horizon just over those trees...

The shop is 98%...  Things aren't quite lined out to start the house and timing says if there's to be a garden and such this year they need to get a move on that... so I guess that's what's on the schedule this week... marking out and getting to work on building garden beds and a chicken coop that'll sit right along side...

I told her that needs to happen quick anyway... a friend of theirs mentioned that sometime next month is the start of tornado season... uhhhh... hell no! I'm outa here come the start of that sucker!

Sooooo... that gives me a month or six weeks to figure out which way to point the radiator when the time comes... with a bit of luck and arbitrary stubbornness this bum shoulder will be strengthened up enough to carry the load then too.

- Brian