Woman in chains

Just two weeks ago I was unloading a load of straw. I had to manually push 30 4x4 bales off a lorry. It was hard physical work, as the bales were wedged on the load. I got a bit short of breadth doing it, but at the time didn't think too much about it.

That afternoon I used the tractor and loader to move the 30 bales from the roadside to a stack in the yard. Later my calf muscle was sore, I estimated that over the afternoon I had pressed the clutch pedal about 300 times bringing in the bales. The tractor has 130 hp, so the springs in the clutch are pretty stiff. That evening I was breathless lifting 25kg bags of meal to feed cattle, I was glad to be finished work for the day. That night I again got breathless going upstairs to bed.

Next morning I got up early, as it had rained heavily all night the cows had to be moved to a fresh block of grass. My wife gave me a lift near to where the cows were that night, it was raining heavily and by the time I got back to the house for breakfast I was really short of breadth, again. I took it easy for the day apart from going to the mill for half a ton of meal for the bulls, again throwing the bags into the back of the jeep I became short of breadth. That was Friday of the bank holiday Paddy's day weekend. Any time I exerted myself I was finding it hard.

I took it easy for the rest of the weekend, on Monday I tried to do some work in the yard, the bulls had to be mucked out and gates had to be hung in a shed to do it safely. I managed to hang two gates, but it had taken me 2 hours to do what would normally take me 20 minutes, I was shagged. I went home and called the out of hours GP as it was a bank holiday.

The doc suspected that I had a clot in my lung, it had started in my left calf, hence the pain the previous Thursday. There was an intermittent pain high up in my chest too, it felt like someone poking me hard in the chest with their finger. I had no choice, off to the regional hospital 35 miles away. 

Being a bank holiday Monday the A&E dept. was bedlam. I got seen by a triage nurse pretty quickly after arriving at 4.30pm. It would be after 1am on Tuesday morning before I'd see a doctor, 5am before I got a trolley (not a bed) and 8pm Tuesday evening before I actually got a bed. 

There were a lot of cops passing in and out of outpatients, sometimes they had a prisoner with them, sometimes not. They were going out for a smoke, one guy was in pjs. must have been on a witness protection programme or something. There was a big revolving door at the exit, and the prisoner got in the same section as me at one stage in the revolving door, the look of panic on the cop's face was priceless. Didn't know I had such a bad reputation.

The other prisoner going in and out for a smoke was a young blond woman, they had a 4 ft chain on her wrist attached to either of the two prison wardens with her. This woman was really striking, not that tall, her long hair was tied in a ponytail, she had a scorpion tattoo on the nape of her neck. After I got my trolley bed she was in the same ward and used to pass me a few times a day with her guardian in tow. I used to nod to her and she'd smile or say hi as she passed. 

I didn't see her again after I got moved to a real bed. I stayed in hospital for a few days getting tests and scans done. There was a big delay getting an MRI done. Eventually on the Thursday it got done and a lovely doc called Lamese looked after me. When I was leaving the hospital she surprised me by shaking hands with me, I was surprised because I didn't think doctors shook hands because of hygiene and all that jazz. Turns out I had a clot on my lung, they gave me drugs to help break it down. I'm still on drugs today to prevent another clot forming, and it looks like I'll be on them for life.

About a year later I was paying for diesel at a local filling station and there behind the till was the woman in chains. No chains this time, just a big friendly smile. She had more tattoos on her arms and I complimented her on them, She spoke English with an Eastern European accent. I've been back to the filling station a few times since, but haven't seen her. I hope she's ok and able to keep out of trouble. 

I hate March

If I die of natural causes it will be in the month of March. It's when I am at my lowest ebb, most stressed, even though it is spring, for me the winter isn't over yet. Last year there was a heavy fall of snow in early March after a fairly mild if wet winter. Same again this year, no snow and hardly any frost all winter then snow again in late February and early March.

Our seasons have changed, there can be no doubt about it, plum trees flowered in January this year, but now it is colder than it was in January, some buds are struggling to burst on the hawthorn, but it is like as if spring has been put on hold for now.

Our birds are finding it tough too. Yesterday as I drove into my yard I noticed a sparrow hawk perched on the gable over the front door, he didn't fly away as I approached, I say 'he' because males are smaller. He had no fear of me, if anything he looked hungry and miserable. We try and have an unkempt garden to provide food and shelter for wildlife, perhaps he had his eye on a blackbird or the pair of wood pigeon who have started nesting in the ivy on the garden wall. If our top predator birds like a sparrow hawk are having trouble surviving then it is a good indicator that the whole ecosystem is in trouble. I see hawks regularly flying along the road about 6 feet above the ground then diving through a field gateway, or hovering on a stiff breeze watching their prey, but I rarely see them near the house or in the garden, but that's the second time I saw a hawk in a garden this week. 

Occasionally I see a barn owl too at dusk, I believe he roosts in the roof of an old house in the yard, s/he's the reason I don't lay rat bait in the yard, but I haven't seen it since the autumn. There are also some pheasants who gather up the scraps of meal after feeding cattle. For anyone who thinks wild game meat hasn't been fed GM food, I hate to tell you but you might want to re-think that one next time you are ordering something gamey in a fancy Dublin restaurant.