Amazing Weather

From frigid below zero on Monday

 

to over 60 degrees today - what a variance in temperatures.  But like they say in Chicago - "if ya don't like the weather - wait a couple of minutes."  Anywho - it was so nice a day that I decided to go hunting arrowheads down the mountain on the logging road.  Spent about 2 hours walking around scouring the washouts but didn't find anything to bring home.  However, I did find some neat rocks

 There's some interesting topography out in these mountains.  If you could shift the lime rock outcropping on the right  - back to the left, it would fit perfectly into the lime rock on the left.  Don't know how long ago these rocks separated and shifted apart but it's been 100's to 1,000's of years.  That's my walking stick leaning against the little sapling near the center of the picture.

This is a picture looking back toward where I was standing when I took the first picture.  Just over the edge of this ridge, straight ahead, is a waterfall about 7 - 10 feet wide, located about 30 feet down the the side of the mountain, and falls about 15-20 feet into a stream.  This stream feeds into Wolf River which is a main tributary into Dale Hollow Lake.  The Obey (pronounced obie not obay) River is the other main feed for Dale Hollow.
Those of you who follow this blog know that my wife, Cathy, has had some pretty severe issues with her back and legs over the past few years.  Back in December 2014, about 8 weeks after her back surgery, Cathy fell and hurt her back and hips.  Went through all the check up processes and it seemed to be the consensus that she had some deep tissue bruising and muscle strain in her back, which was where the surgery was performed.  Anyway - everyone said it was just gonna take time and patience but it would heal.  Cathy had been taking muscle relaxing and pain meds to help he cope.  She hates taking pain meds and only took them at night.  So - here we are in February and the pain seems to be getting worse instead of better.  Back to the Neurosurgeon for a second opinion.  This time he takes an MRI and low and behold they find two compression fractures in her upper back, just above the surgery site and a fractured tail bone.  Now ain't that something.  Sure wish we'd have found this earlier and avoided some of the pain.  So - now we go back on Monday (9 Feb) for a kyphoplasty procedure where they'll inject some sort of bone cement into the upper back fractures to permanently stabilize them.  Doc says that should relieve the back pain caused by the fractures but the tail bone fracture will just have to heal over time.  They can't do this procedure on it. This is a same day procedure so there won't be any hospital stay.  Any relief from the pain she has been experiencing will be a God send.  We've been back and forth to Cookeville hospital and the Neurosurgeon so many times lately that we're getting on first name basis with all the staffs.  That may not be a bad thing.  In the mean time - we'll keep on truck'n and smill'n - like everything was just peachy keen......