Bop-A-Mole and the Great White Owl

  Since Sunday, I have been ill.  This is a rare thing for me so I am not sure how to respond to not feeling well.  Things hurt.  There are pains wracking the body but my descriptions must leave something lacking. On the first day of this malady, I started with a severe sore throat and fever.  A good heaping bit of sage/turmeric tisane squelched the throat pain but did nothing to assuage the fever.  I figured since it was not overly high, the fever could just run its course and all would be fine.  The next morning, Son checked on me.  "Everything ok?" he asked.  He had suffered the same malady back around Christmastime so knew that I was miserable.  I told him I was ok other than my head feeling like that Bop-A-Mole game.  "Huh?"  Never mind.....never mind.  It was hard to explain. With few other symptoms, I could not complain.  The low-grade fever lingered throughout the day and come nightfall had risen a good deal.  During the night, it had evidently rose to an extreme but being slightly delirious, by this time, I was unaware.  Morning saw me suffering quite a bit.  Once again...."You ok?"......"No!  The Great White Owl came last night."   Son understood this, handed me a single Tylenol and ambled off to make me an apple pie.  "No use in over-medicating." he said. Ha!


  The Great White Owl is a pretty exact gauge to how ill I am.  Ever since I was a child the owl would linger about in my dreams....terrifying the bejeebies out of me.  This all goes back to my folks.  When I was a tot, I had Scarlet Fever.  I was deathly ill since the medicines of today were not readily available at that time.  I was pretty much bedridden for a while.  It was at this same time that something was terrorizing Pop's chickens.  Each night dozens of hens were savagely attacked.  Most were only hurt but always the remains of one would be found.  Baby pigs were also starting to go missing.  Pop knew something had to be done so he took matters into his own hands.  It was early one morning that Mom bundled me up and took me outside to "see what Daddy has!" I expected something sweet and cuddly.  What I got was a lifetime "fever gauge" and nightmares.  I remember wobbling out to the yard.  When I was just a few feet from Pop, he reached down and picked up this huge barn owl that he shot.  I can remember screaming and bursting into tears as I thought the bird was attacking me.  I guess delirium does weird things to the brain.  Since that day, whenever I have a high fever, the bird visits.   My fever on the second night had reached above 103 degrees.  (Since I was pretty much out of it, I had not taken my temperature during the night but morning's reading was a bit above 103.)

Not exactly a "Great White Owl"  but pretty much how I have been feeling with Bop-A-Mole and all!

  The third night saw me back to Bop-A-Mole mode.  The Great White Owl had visited and obviously helped me through the roughest point.  I felt I was making progress since on the fourth night, even the moles vacated the premises. (I guess maybe the owl scared them!)  That night, I spent making a swing in dreamland.  I was much happier.  Last night, the Great White Owl returned as did the delirium.  The temperature jumped up once again.  

  Hopefully, things are on the road to betterment now.  Two visits from the Great White Owl in one week is almost too much.