From the East Wing, Hornets Round Two, End of Dog Days, Touring the East Wing

Greetings to all and welcome new friends to The East Wing,

No, there’s no danger of one the residents of the Hornet Nation embedding themselves in my letters. I don’t even know it they use email. I do know they have brave warriors, but unlike the US Army and the news media, there’s no embedding with BobbyRay & the Hornets. Those little s.o.b.’s (sons of bees)

My encounter with the Hornet Nation just keeps playing out. Starting last Wednesday and getting progressively worse, to the point of seeing a doctor on Friday. 10 full days after the attack, an allergic reaction from the hornet venom turned most of my body into a scratching post looking for a cat. A systemic reaction of epic proportions.

As the welts got bigger, redder, and wider, I struggled to figure out what I had encountered that would produce such a strong allergic reaction. Nothing came to mind, I’m thinking something the day before, not 10 days back. When I woke up Friday morning with a distinct change in my voice, it was time to see the A Team.

Now the guy who provides my medical service, I’ve known for some time. I do work for this company at the professional level and he provides for my medical needes. We’re buds, me and the Doc. Ya really gotta know this guy to appreciate his since of humor. He takes one look at me and says “Ya ever had this before?” “No” Then as if pulling all his medical skills and resources together for a major decision on my condition, he says “ya got it now” And there it was, it had finally been diagnosed, it was what I had feared most of all, it was “I had it now” I felt such a since of relief, just knowing the diagnoses was half the battle. I asked the doctor, “can ye fix it?” “Yep, but I wanta find out what caused it first” Then he started a series of questions dealing with my world and what had changed to trigger such an allergic reaction.

We talked about any chemicals I had put in or on my body. Toothpaste. Deodorant, soap, shampoos, then looked at my head and said “never mind about the shampoo.” Then her hit upon the magic button when he asked. “have ya been stung by a bee in the last week or two” I said, “no bee, just hornets”

At this point the good doctor looked me straight in the eye and in his most professional voice said “this you will recognize direct from the East Wing BobbyRay”. “ There Ya Go”

I didn’t know hornet venom hangs around in your body for such a long time, it does. I didn’t know it can make so miserable, it can. I may rethink my animosity toward those hornets. After all they have now attacked me more than I attacked them, and ever body knows that hillbillies get even, even get even with hornets. The Hornet Nation will be revisited again from the East Wing. The drumbeat of war may be in the late summer air as September stumbles into fall.

Wow! Are the 2girldogs glad to see the Dog Days of Summer pass by this year. The Gray Lady is in her glory back in her personal bird sanctuary across the road south of the East Wing. It is such a pleasure to watch an emerging forest develop on that land which has not seen a plow for over twenty years now.

With that field being both to the south and west of the house, back when it was being farmed, the only thing ya could say for sure was sand will blow into your house. The best decision we ever made, me and the she, was to place the land into a government wild life type program. Now I get paid a little money. The 2girldogs have a place to play, and we all get to enjoy watching Mother Nature at work.

Sophia the Republican Cat, of course has a different point of view about the end of Dog Days. In fact, Sophia seems to have a different point of view on most everything around here. She now goes outside to potty just because I got outside cats. She goes across the road into the 2girldog playground. She has asked that a fence be put in the middle of the 40 acre field to separate it so the 2girldogs can’t get into her half.

I didn’t even know she had a half. Said she and the 2girldogs negotiated it out and she got the half closest to the house ‘cause her legs are shorter than the 2girldogs, so she’d have to walk a lot farther to get to the other half of the field.
When I discussed this with the 2girldogs they both agreed her legs were shorter and she would have to walk a lot farther to get to the other end of the field than they would. DUH!

Nobody ever said I had Einstein Dogs, I guess the closest they would ever come to Einstein would be that Gray Lady James is German Short Hair Pointer, and everybody knows about Mustina being half bird dog and half good for nothing but be your dog, dog. ‘Course another way to look at it is they are stuck with me, so maybe we’re ‘bout even. But I don’t get my own couch in the East Wing like they do.

I often receive email asking about my background, where I come from, are all these stories I write real, what is the East Wing, are the 2girldogs and 1cat and 1wife real or contrived figments of my imagination.

I’ve talked about this stuff before, but new friends visit the East Wing and ask much the same questions. So I’ll take a shot at answering some of those questions again and if I get sidetracked, the rest some other time. As far as my background:

I was born in Starke County Indiana, then lived my first 10 years in the Mountains of Southeastern Kentucky. Returning to Starke County in the mid 1950’s made for an interesting childhood. Yes, I did grow up in Downtown Toto.
I’ve splashed in the headwaters of Southfork with my Grandmother Lou, and walked the back roads of the mountains. I know Quicksand. Have traded knives on Saturday Morning in Salyersville.
I’ve seen Morning fog so thick ya had pull it apart with your bare hands just to go to school at Tip Top. There were no fog delays in the mountains, ya just dealt with it.
Experienced both segregation and discrimination early on in life, one in the mountains, the other in Starke County. Didn’t like either. Glad both are going away, the sooner the better.
An Accountant / Business Consultant by trade, a Story Teller by choice. When I can paint a picture in your mind with words from my brain to fingers to keyboard to your monitor, to your brain, I’ve just told the story, you’re the illustrator.

Are my stories real? Wanta come over and ask the 2girldogs, 1cat, 1wife, I’m sure they will vouch for me. Although the 1cat may have different opinion. I do truly delight in embellishing detail in stories. It’s kinda like adding shadows to pictures to make ‘em more vivid. ( an example of detail Is, don’t think of black and yellow butterflies,,,,,,,, there ya go thinking of those black and yellow butterflies)

What is the East Wing? The East Wing is named such ‘cause it was built after the original house, built on the east end of the original house. The west wall of the East Wing is the original siding of the house. The North and South walls of the East Wing each have 12’ of floor to ceiling glass with a 4’ center glass sliding door. The East wall has a total of 18’ of floor to ceiling glass, with a 4’ center glass sliding door. The East Wing Floor is Red Oak laid in a design of my own creation while the ceiling is tongue and groove knotty pine.

There’s a 14’ vaulted ceiling with the 12’ additional window space above the glass doors on the east end of the East Wing. Two ceiling fans can move the air in the East Wing, they hang not from the apex rather from the angle portions of the vaulted ceiling.

The East Wing is illuminated by three lights each from the ceiling fans as well as two wall mounted lights on the East Wall. The wall lights are dimmer switch controlled. The West Wall of the East Wing has a gas fire place and two oil lamps.
That’s a physical description of the East Wing, but it’s more than that, much, much more than that. It’s where I keep all my stuff. All my toys are within arm’s reach of each other. Computers and stargazing telescopes sit huddled together in the East Wing. There’s no television, no radio in the East Wing. It is unlikely there ever will be television or radio in the East Wing.

This is the quite space, the place to read, to think, to look outside and not get wet, cold, or hot. This is the place to visit with the little brown eyed friend of mine, the hummingbird on the other side of the glass. The place to watch the change of seasons, the snow storms, the lighting storms, the sunshine, hear the thunder and see the rain and not get wet. The place to smell the outdoors. The place to talk to the animals. A place to pray.

My East Wing is filled with such diverse stuff on the walls and shelves as Pink Flamingos and Singing Nuns to Ceramic Chickens, a 12” R2D2 Pez Dispenser, a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, along with antique pop bottles, both valuable and junk, a slinky, a yoyo without a string, a pooping moose. And a 4 pack of Sarsaparilla. Angels, both large and small, antique bottles, both Jack Daniels and Avon. Oil Lamps and candles, and books, lots of books. Computers and telescopes, telescopes so powerful I can see yesterday. Not only yesterday but a thousand light years past yesterday. Talk about looking over your shoulder! But I can’t see tomorrow, wish I could. But maybe better off not.

Mixed in on my computer table is the expected computer stuff along with a laser pin light which I use to play the 1cat like an old violin out of tune and out of time, and my digital Casio which I use to photograph the 2girldogs, 1cat and the little brown eyed friend of mine. The 1wife does not take kindly to the Casio photo sessions. Photos of the 2girlsdogs and Sophia the Republican Cat are on the Facebook Page.

Most of my home time is spent in the East Wing. Regina starts her day, every day, with a quite reading session in the East Wing. One of the most spectacular photos I’ve ever taken happened just by chance one very early morning in September several years ago when I snapped a picture of Mustina just outside the East Wing with the background yard filled with Sunbeams. I will have to hunt that picture up and post on Facebook someday.

For those who may well have heard me describe the East Wing before I again apologize for boring you this evening. I know I have described the East Wing before, but it keeps coming up in the Email so I thought I would give a quick description one more time. Now one good thing did come out of reviewing the description of the East Wing, I don’t think I ever told anybody ‘bout the Pooping Moose before. A Moose and it does. We’ll talk ‘bout that Pooping Moose again.

Another beautiful late September Summer Sunday has come and gone. The days do get short come September. I don’t expect to see the little brown eyed girl too much longer, if at all. I did not see her today, she may be already gone. But she’ll be back when its springtime’s in the valley. I’ll feed her again, and she’ll remember me.

It seem the darkness comes almost before ya know this time of the year, but the days will get longer come December, colder but longer.
As usual you company is so much appreciated in the East Wing.
Stay safe in Iraq and Afghanistan
From the East Wing The Hornet Nation Round Two, End of Dog Days, Touring the East Wing.
I wish you well,
BobbyRay