Fragments From Floyd

Well, you asked

What did we do with the dead fawn? Well, that was one of those ups and downs I spoke of Thursday. Ann, wearing the gloves that morning, offered to carry the limp and lifeless fawn to the truck. I would pull it off in the woods somewhere between the house and the top of the road, where the beetles would finish what the buzzards and crows hadn't taken care of by the end of the day. I left the house an hour later, bound for the parkway, and up the road a half mile, I first met a hiway department dump truck rounding one of the 9 blind curves --not an easy side-by-side passing, but we managed; then another quarter mile, here came a DOT road grader--an even more massive challenge to pass, but good: it was at a relatively wide place in the road, and I reached the hardtop, the first leg of my morning journey completed. But no. I'd forgotten, in all the traffic encounters, to deposit the deer. So I had to turn around and head back into my own dust to the one place in the first mile of dirt road where I could pull off and leave the sad spotted form of what briefly was almost a deer. It wouldn't have been much of a calling card to show up at Chateau Morrisette Winery with a carcass in the truck bed .

Leavings

Long story short: I now have a dozen books in the Winery gift shop and at Poor Farmer's Country Store in Meadows of Dan. Monday, I'll go down mountain to Explore Park on the Parkway near Roanoke and put some books on the shelves at the Roanoke Trading Company, good both for the fact that it gets parkway traffic and that it has a strong education emphasis. I can see some possible connections that might arise from the book with environmental groups in the Roanoke area--a compatible group of potential Slow Road Home Readers. Also on Thursday, from a kind and well-timed prompt from blogger and author Caroline Kettlewell, I sent review copies and supporting paperwork to have the book considered for the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville next March. Later in the day, I received a request for a review copy (and a review should come from it) for the Alabama Writers Forum (bama being my home state) to appear in their Spring 07 First Draft magazine. So things are moving along slowly but more or less steadily.

Build an Ark

We needed rain. Boy howdy, last night we got it. Bummer though, as a bonfire church outing was planned for this weekend, and here down our valley. Ann worked hard mowing and fretting with clearing a place before we knew the pasture would be cut by the planned weekend, but it kept her out of trouble. Anywho, yes, we got a frog choker last night, including one VERY CLOSE lightning strike that set off the surge protector on the computer system and tripped some breakers on wall outlets in the kitchen. Appliances seem intact this morning, we haven't checked yet to see if the 2 x 12 bridge is still in place, but Ann and Tsuga just left to reconnoiter. Oh btw, she discovered a massive snapping turtle yesterday afternoon--no, make that T-dog discovered it, and it did NOT want to play tag. It lunged at an overly-inquisitive dog snout and darned near got a bite of it.

Healing Arts and Crafts

I celebrate my six month anniversary of my return to clinical work as a physical therapist, and soon maybe, some reflections on that very different "hat" from the one I wear in my setting here. But meanwhile, a couple of links. Exercise Pro offers a free download that does everything but print out the very nice customized exercise prescriptions that therapists use in practice. For anyone really into stretching, strengthening or balance exercises, this 75MB download is incredible. And I'll tell you about a book I just got yesterday ahead of my actually reading or using it. If you or someone you know has Fibromyalgia, Myofascial Pain Syndrome or any muscle-centered pain condition, I can tell you that there are means to control those pains, and this book gets a good foreword endorsement from David Simons, one of the foundational clinicians in the study of trigger point pain. The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook brings the lay person an understanding of and means for self-care in this perplexing kind of muscle pain--of which I am both personally and professionally familiar.