More Memories of Carrollwood Village Drive

There for awhile, after that one hurricane hit and our eldest cat pissed on my computer, all Jim's tests had to be handwritten as there was simply no other way of getting them ready for the kids. He attempted ONCE to handwrite a quiz for his classes and so many complaints came in because of his handwriting that the head secretary called me in and said she understood why the tests and quizzes had to be handwritten but if they were going to be done like that, it had to be in my writing. *insert huge eyeroll here...and here and.......here* It would have been a whole lot nicer if she'd found an old not in use computer at the school for me to take home and use for said projects. Unfortunately, no one thought of that and I spent a few months writing everything out (and people wonder why I always type everything out...I dont think I've actually handwritten much of anything since then...except that diary...)

After 3-4 months went by, Jim and I saw a cute little computer at WalMart. It was going to run us about $400-$500 for the whole works. Thankfully, it was back when they still had layaway. It took 10 weeks but I finally had my first computer. There was only one problem with it. The discs that I had saved all the previous works on....wouldnt work on the computer. This meant everything that I previously had typed couldnt be salvaged for any of the fututre classes. *sigh* Yeah, it meant I was back at zero for the test and quizzes....AGAIN. Ah well.

Shortly after we got the computer I discovered this thing they called online and email. Oh was I ever thrilled that I'd be able to contact my friends and family without having to handwrite a letter and snail mail it. So long as I kept up with the tests, quizzes and worksheets for his classes AND so long as I wasnt bothering him during his tv/reading/alone time, Jim didnt seem to care. I was much like I am in chat now, talk to anyone that wants to talk and cut up really good when Im with friends. I made several friends in no time flat. Sad that my only true friends existed in my online world. They were always wondering why I was online all the time if I was married.

~smiles~ There was a group of us that always managed to gravitate together no matter what nick I was chatting under. They always said that I radiated this certain something and they could find me a mile off with the way I talked. There was a core of about 6 guys that managed to stay in the same room I was in and would make sure the scums and players werent harrassing me and my female friends. There was the Brit that was living in Saudi (who was old enough to be the granpa of most of us), the guy from Indiana (he was married, 2 kids and I was on speaking terms with his wife), the guy from Florida who was a single parent, a guy from Boston and a few others I dont remember. This was back while I was in CheetaChat. I remember a voice chat of sorts going on there...Indiana dude sounded like he was from Bama and the Boston guy...holy cow what an accent. My best times then were in chat with my friends. The Brit was in the process of teaching me some Arabic and was helping me brush up my french somewhat. It was funny watching us talk because we'd end up in Franglais (french and english) or Frarabic (french and arabic). Our damn sentences never were the same language all the way through. He had 2 sons all grown up and living far from him and he rarely got to talk with them. In a way I became a daughter that he'd never had and it made him happy. There was a several hour difference between us though so he got so he'd get up a little earlier in the morning on days he knew I'd be online and I'd stay a little later at my nighttime just so we could talk. I miss him. Last I knew he'd had to relocated to Taiwain due to the hostilities in the Middle East. I havent heard from him since.

During the time I knew him as a friend, I managed to get hurt at the school. It started out as a silly little wound but turned into something extremely serious. One day while decending the metal staircase outback of the school and heading for the multipurpose building (it was built to be used as a gymnasium/ cafeteria/ after school holding tank for the elementary/ summer camp rec hall) to get my then supervisor's lunch (southern momma) so she could keep working. Well I was talking to a friend and my then husband and misjudged a step. Damn I'd been down this set of stairs a hundred or more times and never once an accident. Of course the other hundred or so times I had been alone and not trying to hold a conversation at the same time (ok, so, I cant walk and chew gum at the same time...*sigh*). This time I caught the heel part of my sneaker on the edge of the metal stair and slipped. No I didnt go down completely, but I did manage to nick the back of my right leg. It didnt look serious so I figured I'd get it looked at in a bit when I got back in. Mind you a good 75% of the year down there is unbearably hot and you can break a sweat just thinking about breathing. It was one of those days where even standing in the shade made you sweat. Needless to say the 30 second walk to the air conditioned multipurpose building had us all drenched in sweat. Sweat which trickled its merry way down my back and over the wound and into my shoes. It burned like hell but sweat has alot of salt in it and I thought nothing of it. I got my boss's lunch and something for myself, then headed back to the main building (more sweat into the wound). When I got to her office, I cleaned up the nick with warm water and applied a bandaid with neosporin to it. The rest of the day went without major events. I got home and the wound was hot pink all around but this is normal for me and I thought nothing of it so I cleaned up the wound again...more neosporin and a bandaid. The next morning was about the same. Over the course, of the week it seemed to get worse though so I tried hydrogen peroxide to bubble the infection out. I figured it had worked before and it should work now. Several days of this and nothing worked so I tried Benadine solution to clean it up. Nothing. It got hotter, larger and more weepy with each day. Southern momma's friend got worried that I could be diabetic so she used one of her lancets and tested my blood on her glucometer. Even after 2 sodas that day I still was reading normal in the blood count. The wound got so bad I was using large gauzes and wrapping the leg with an Ace bandage to keep them from slipping. Nothing worked and the wound got worse and my leg went hot and pink all the way around from the knee down to my ankle making walking extremely uncomfortable). Southern momma finally had it and told me to call a doctor and get an appointment or she was going to toss me down the stairs and get me sent to the emergency room. *sigh* The only reason why I hadnt gone up to this point is because I didnt have a dr because the one I had been going to quit his practice and the office he was working out of no longer took our insurance. I hadnt been overly ill and no doctors that I knew of in the area were taking new patients at the time. Thankfully southern momma had connections and told me to call her dr. *whew* Her dr told me to come in right away. I was really lucky she took me so soon as it was the Friday before Mardi Gras and not much was open at the time (most locals played smart and would leave town during that time because of the crowds that come from out of state). Good thing I went. Turns out it was a nasty case of cellulitis. The dr ended up telling me I needed to do a wet/dry bandaging twice a day and take antibiotics. I also needed to cut out the salt from my diet (to this day my salt intake needs to be watched because even the slightest extra salt can bloat my feet). She put me on bedrest for 2 weeks and assigned a home health nurse to come by every other day to take my vitals and check on the wound. Wet/ dry bandaging is no fun and hurts like hell. What it entails is rinsing the wound with a saline solution, placing a gauze on the wound, soaking the gauze with more saline and then placing another dry gauze on top. You wait for it to dry and you pull it all off. The saline draws the infection to the surface and it gets removed (along with any dead skin) when you pull the gauze off. *ouch* Having this type of bandaging also means no getting the wound wet by other methods (ie baths or showers) so showering got to be a pain in the ass as I'd have to dangle my leg outside the tub to get cleaned up. Bed rest meant I could either be in bed (which was still in the livingroom at this point) OR at the computer with my leg propped up. Trips to the bathroom were a chore as I couldnt walk on the leg for the first week and spent the time hopping to the toilet (thank goodness for small apartments). During one of the nurse's visits she told me it was a good thing I went to the doctor when I did because I could have lost my leg because of this and worse yet if I'd waited too much longer it would have spread and become fatal.