Benadryl and a book review

During my lunch hour yesterday, I took my walk, as always, up the canyon.  What was different today was that three fire engines came up the one way road.  As they drove past, I wasn't sure why they were driving up the canyon. I know the gate is locked at the end of the road and there are easier ways to get where ever they could possibley be going than this particular route.  I did catch up with them, but didn't stand around to gawk at where they were stopped and what they were doing.  I noticed they had climbed down into the creek and up the other side of the embankment...had they found a body?  Crazy thought!  My guess is they were rescuing someone that had hurt themselves on the other side of the creek.  It is quite steep and there are lots of places that you could easily slip and hurt yourself.  On my way back down, I noticed that an ambulence had arrived on the scene as well.  My thought at this point was "did this really warrent 3 fire engines and an ambulence?" 

The other wierd thing was that I started to itch.  Not too bad, but I was itchy all over.  I thought it was because I was hot and sweaty.  By the time I got home and changed clothes - I was covered all over in little welts that looked like bug bites.  Yes, I scratched and they got worse.  I finally took a hot shower, and rubbed cortizone cream all over my welts. That alleviated the itching for a while, but it came back with a vengance.  Ralph convinced me to take a Benadryl to alleviate my skin irritations.  So I had "Drugged" head all evening.  I woke up about 1:30 am itching all over - I reapplied lotion where I could reach, took another benadryl and 2 advil.  It took about an hour to get back to sleep.  Things have cleared up mostly - still itchy on the backs of my legs.  I am tired!  Hopefully whatever has caused the "hives"  will go away.

I have seen this book listed on several different suggested reading lists, so I thought I would give it a try.  It did not disappoint.  At 93 years of age Harry Bernstein starts to write his life story.  There are three books in the series.  The Dream and the Golden Willow follow this amazing story of a Jewish family living in England.  It takes place right around WWI.  The Jews and the Christians live on the same street, but opposite sides.  The story kind of reminded me a bit of Fiddler on the Roof.  Same traditions enforced in their Jewish homes.   With an alcoholic abusive Father and a Mother trying to keep things together living in poverty.  Same issues were dealt with  as outside influences(Socialism) ends up completely changing this family.  This story covers his life from 4 years to 11years of age.  I wonder how much is accurate as it was so long ago?  However - they are his memories and this is his story. I plodded along and enjoyed the story, but it wasn't until the end when I started to think about everything this family went through...I don't understand some of the choices they made, but have no comprehnsion of how hard it was and how this affected the choices they made.  I can't wait to read the other two books. 

May we get much accomplished today...Ta Ta for now