Christams Shopping and #2 Hand Update

Jack’s hand is really looking good.  He hasn’t put a bandage on at night since Sunday.   There is a rectangular bruise about 1 ½ to 2 “ x 1 to 1 ½ “ and within it is a big ugly scab about 1” long, ½” wide.  The rest of the hand looks normal.  He still thinks it isn’t healing quickly enough.  I’m surprised it is as good as it is.

I’m using my last day of vacation time today.  We did the breakfast thing and then it was off to do Christmas shopping for the two of us.  This year might be the last year we do this.  It used to be that we would shop on a couple of Saturdays, he’d have the car, and we would buy each other 8 to 10 presents.  But as the years go by, it’s harder and harder to come up with ideas.  We are at the point in life if we need something we go buy it and there isn’t really much of anything that we need in the first place.  Making a list and handing it to each other just looses that surprise factor. 

Back to the shopping.  In early November we said we would make a day of it, go up to Grand Rapids to the big mall, do lunch out towards Cascade to see the old neighborhood.  Won’t that be fun?  Oh, the fond memories of the days of planning and shopping for hours.  We were excited.

Now it’s reality. He tuckers out after a couple of hours.  It’s raining.  Do we really want to drive all the way up there in the rain for a couple of hours in a big mall?  Change of plans, staying on the home front.  Here’s of list of 5 things, pick 3 of them.  One item on my list was a Lands’ End cardigan.  I don’t think he made it out of Sears. 

I’m a planner.  Knew what the 3 things were that I was getting him.  Knew what store.  I even bought myself a pair of black shoes in the 40 minutes it took to get it all done.  JC Penny $10 off coupon - Couldn’t resist.

We had said we would meet in an hour and then decide if we needed more time.  Like I said, I was done in 40 minutes.  He was slowly walking towards the designated area, he looked beat.  We decided on lunch and head home.  By 2pm we both were napping.    

What has started as the new Christmas season tradition is picking winning teams for the bowl games.  Two years ago I picked more winners than he did.  Last year he picked more.  I base my choices on location not on statistics.  Have I been to that city or state?  Did I like it there?  Would I like to go visit that city or state?  Do I like the school colors?  The important things.  Wins and losses, over-rated.

Rose bowl is the biggy.  Of course I’m for Wisc, but we have family attending Michigan State, so they are 2^nd for me, 1^st for Jack.  And as long as it’s either Wisc or a Michigan team and never Ohio State, life is good at the Rose Bowl.  Too bad the Big Ten lets us down more often than not.

Western Michigan plays Purdue in The Little Caesars Bowl.  Those are the good games.  Jack graduated from Western; Jack’s grandson-in-law is a Purdue Alumnus.  Perfect, we can’t lose.

The Armed Forces Bowl that neither Armed Forces team plays in, but Brigham Young and Tulsa do.  I picked Brigham Young - I’d like to see Utah.  Tulsa - tornadoes and flat.  No thank you.

Update to Jack's Hand

It's healing.  At his followup visit, his regular doctor said to leave it get air at least 6 hours a day and no need to return unless there is a problem.  He takes the bandage off during the day so it's actually off a good 12 hours.  And putting fresh on at night. Or like this morning when we went grocery shopping and later out to lunch he left the bandage on so that his coat wouldn’t rub against it. 

As I had said, it looked like a page from a book.  The part of the skin that was near what would be the binding (towards his little finger) has healed the most.  It's the center that still looks yucky, but even that is a lot better than it was.  All the red rawness is gone.

Jack's Hand

Last Wednesday evening, the 16^th, Jack had somehow scrapped a good 2” x 3” top layer of skin off the top of his left hand.  The skin was folder over like the page of a book.  It was awful looking. There was a small amount of bleeding along one side.  Of course he said it was okay, no need to have it cleaned up and looked at.  I taped it up.

Thursday morning I said we should go out to breakfast and then stop at the intermediate care/med station.  No, not necessary.  He calls me at work that afternoon and agreed to go after work.  We get there and it’s a two hour wait.   He said no thanks, that he’d call his doctor on Friday and get a same day appointment.  Sure.

Friday, his doctor is booked, BUT Jack knows he shouldn’t wait any longer as it was starting to hurt worse and constant.  Hurray!  That is, hurray that he agreed, not hurray it hurts.  The med station is part of the facility both our doctors are in.  The doctors rotate covering days in the med station and if they have a same day cancellation, they fill it with a med station patient.  Guess who had a same day cancellation?  His doctor!

Dr Dandouis said it was getting infected and good he had not waited any longer.  He cleaned it up, gave us some non-stick sterile pads, and a prescription for an antibiotic.  His instructions were to take the bandage off every day, leave the wound exposed to air for at least an hour, and then cover with new sterile pad with Neosporin on it.  He also wanted to see him again in a week.

Last night we both thought it looked the best it had been.  Up to then Jack was getting concerned that it wasn’t healing.  It just looked so raw.  With being older and a diabetic healing can be longer than normal and problematic. 

This morning he woke up and said the hand hurt, thinking maybe he slept on it or did something to it at night.  By mid morning it was still hurting.  After lunch he took then bandage off to do his daily airing and asked me to look at it because it looked different.  Oh did it ever.  There was a 2” long, ½” wide light-greeny-yellowish colored glob along the edge of a portion of the original top layer skin the doc had placed back over where it should be.  It’s infected.  He didn’t think so.  I walked away thinking if he doesn’t change his mind in 10 minutes, I’m calling my sister.  He agreed to another trip.

Today is Thanksgiving.  I was half way through putting together the pumpkin pie.  I called to make sure they were open, turned off the oven, and we’re off.  I went in with Jack this time.  Doc said he didn’t think it was infected.  He took some gauze and started dabbing it.  He said if it was an infection it would be liquid and stick to the gauze.  This did not.  What we were seeing wasn’t puss, it was granulation of the wound, the wound healing.  I’m wrinkling my nose, oh yuck; I really don’t handle this type of stuff well at all.  I told him I can’t touch that even with gauze.  He laughed and said he could tell.  Jack chuckles and said I’m not the nurse in the family.  At least I didn’t get light headed and have to sit down.

Good and bad news.  It wasn’t infected, which was good.  But, I was wrong about his needing to go to the med station and that probably is bad.  My fear is he will be stubborn about going because I’ve been wrong.  Jack? Stubborn? BUT, he wants to keep tomorrow’s appointment and that too is good.

Doc Visit Updates / More signs of Winter

Both the dog and Jack had semi-annual doctor visits in October.

We noticed a small red growth on the lower right corner of Česky’s left eye for the past few weeks.  Since it could be any number of things, it would be best if he cut it out and sent it to Michigan State University for analysis.  Because this would require putting the dog under anesthesia within seven months of the last time, he needed to have tests done to be sure his kidneys at 10 years of age could handle it again.   He did more extensive blood work this time.  Test came back great.  Surprisingly good for a dog his age.  One of the healthiest dogs he’s seen in a long time.  Lucky us.

The following week and one small snip later it was done, along with a little teeth brushing and nail trimming while he was sedated.  Results came back this week that it was just a slight infection.  Vet had given his eye a real good look over and doesn’t feel that there is any infection in the eye outside that growth, which is good because that dog wouldn’t let me put drops in his eye without taking my hand off.

Jack’s semi-annual tests also came back real good.  Good enough that he no longer needs to take Lipitor.  His cholesterol has been way down for the past few years.  He was taken off it a couple months before this appointment to see how much of a change there was between then and now.  That just leaves him on insulin, Vasotec, and an aspirin.  He doesn’t have high blood pressure, actually just the opposite.  They have him take it as a blood thinner. 

More signs of winter are the gloves on the table.  I have brown and black pairs and take the appropriate one depending upon what coat I wear.  Haven’t pulled out a winter coat yet, but these gloves had to come out.

It has been an unusual for fall colors.  The Maple out front just started turning colors this past week.  The Ash next to it has been bare for the past 2-3 weeks.  Bradford Pears in the neighborhood are late to turn this year also.

I have to get a hold of Kirk.  We read where they are under a winter storm warning this weekend with the worst being heavy wet snow and the problems that can create.

No new news from the Prague or Troy Hubbells. 

Learning from Elder / Books / Tigers / Family

Been awhile, so this is rather long.

Family:

Kirk called last night.  Northern New York is still on the wet side; they were having a reprieve Friday.  It doesn’t look like they will have more than Thanksgiving Day off.  Too soon to tell how much time they will have off at Christmas.  We are planning on going to Beaver Dam for Christmas this year so fingers crossed that they get a couple/three weeks and then could hit Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Mary and Nick are back from the annual senior baseball tournaments in St. George UT.  Mary said it was good weather and great views; however Nick’s team didn’t win this year.  Bummer.

Tigers:

When we lived in Lawrenceville, Georgia we really got into watching the Atlanta Braves.  We even went to a couple of games.  Back then, Joe Torre was the manager.  That’s how long ago it was.

Detroit Tigers had been doing really good so we thought we’d start watching them.  We tried a few times in August, but had a hard time of it.  There is so much pre-pitch wiggling, waggling, practice swinging by the batter that it took forever between pitches.

We gave it another try during the playoffs.  Not any better, if not worse.  Me, I started people watching during the various games. This is the playoffs.  Win the series and your team is in the World Series.  So how can a 60ish gentleman, sitting in the 2^nd row behind the batter’s box, in a sweater looking like Mr. Rogers, be nodding off?  There was a guy that could pass for Mickey Rooney’s brother.  In another game there were two women about 3 rows up having talk fest.  I mean looking at each other totally oblivious to the crowd noise of a hit or bad call.  That had to be one piece of juicy gossip.  Men would kill for those seats and here are two women jaw-jacking.

Books We Are Reading:

I haven’t been checking out books from the library due to the Nook.  However, in the library last week, I noticed a Pearl S. Buck “Letter from Peking” in large print.  A very good book.  Doesn’t top Good Earth or Three Daughters of Madam Lang, still I don’t think she wrote a bad book. 

Jack picked up books at the library from Charles Cumming, Robert Crais, and Steve Berry.  He’s into espionage-ish / thriller stuff.  About a year ago I started keeping the check out slips that lists the author and title.  That got cumbersome. Then the idea hit me to buy a pocket size address book.  I started writing down the books he has checked out so I have an alphabetical list of the dozen or so authors he likes that is easy to carry.  Yes, I could put it on the computer, but there are times when handwritting them down is easier and quicker than firing up a computer, opening a program, opening a document, entering, printing out a list, and saving.  Maybe it's just me.

Never Too Late To Learn From The Elder:

I’ve never liked yellow flowers.  A couple of years ago Dar mention using yellow in flower beds.  After Jack mentioned I’m using a little too much pink, I picked up a bunch of yellow cone flowers just before Dar and Thom visited.  She suggested we plant most of them in front of the Russian Sage.  Damn, that was a good mix.

Or the value of pruning shrubs short.  My Clematis’ have been doing terrific for years due to a hardy annual pruning.   But it wasn’t until she trimmed back the new Nine-Bark and Viburnum that I really saw the benefit.

Then there is the benefit of not just for sightseeing, but also for shopping that a small purse with a long strap that can be put over the head and across the body is handy.  Dar and Thom are into traveling light. 

And the microwave of 2 cups of water with 4-6 ounces of pasta for 10 minutes.  Summer is the time for salads, but heating up the kitchen to boil the pasta was counterproductive.  I was boiling the pasta at night for the next day up until now.

Who knew there was much to learn from the elders?

Football:

Notre Dame has Jack really grumbling tonight.  They are playing USC and…not doing well.  Western Michigan lost to Eastern Michigan no less.  Here’s hoping Wisconsin and Tennessee win to even things out.

The Weekend

It has been a great weekend.  Weather could not be better. 

Friday I called Martell’s Restaurant to see if their patio was still open for dinner or if they had closed it for the season.  It was hitting 81 degrees Friday and the patio was open.  Hurray!

Martell’s is within a housing development that has apartments, condos, and single family homes all nestled into the woods.  The restaurant and patio, also nestled into the woods, overlooks a small lake. 

I had their fish special, a whitefish on top of lentils and some greens with a white wine sauce.  I love lentils.  Never would have thought of paring them with fish.  Jack had the grilled flat iron steak sliced thin, topped with a buttery chive sauce, served with crab cakes and string beans.  Both were delicious as was the wine.

Three deer even passed by while we were eating.  I had heard someone behind me say ‘look at the deer’.  I assumed they meant somewhere farther to the south along the lake.  But it wasn’t.  It was a doe and two fawns walking hastily between the patio and the street.  The street is about 25-30 yards away and the area between is all wooded.

Saturday afternoon it againwas 81ish and at least for me the majority of the time was spent sitting on the deck reading.  It’s Jack’s favorite time of the year, college football.  Notre Dame won.  Western won.   Wisc. must have had a by week.  I forgot what Navy did.  He’d holler scores and big plays to me through the open living room window.  He can watches two and three games at a time.  And then curse if all three games have commercials at the same time.

Today we took a drive as this weekend and coming week are to be the peek for colors.  We were headed to Hastings.  The intent was to stop at a restaurant we both thought there was on the west side of Gull Lake.  We either were remembering a different area of the lake or it’s now a mini-market.  Hastings was still another 30 miles off so instead of dealing with possible sugar lows, we headed back to Richland and stopped at the Richland Pub for lunch.  No outdoor seating, but good food and Bell’s on tap.

So now we are back out on the deck to write a little and read a little.  The work I brought home just doesn’t seem to be getting done….

Grand Rapids Art Prize

From   www.artprize.org  – “In April 2009, Rick DeVos announced a new ‘social experiment.’ He was going to give away the world’s largest art prize based solely on a public vote. DeVos said the event would take over downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan that fall…

    There was the open call to artists, venues, and voters. Any artist in the world could compete; anyone with property in downtown Grand Rapids could turn their space into an art gallery; and any visitor could vote for their favorite artworks…

   On opening day (September 23, 2009), 159 venue owners opened their spaces to display the entries of 1,262 artists from 41 states and 14 countries.”

The estimate was 200,000 attended over the event over the course of the 14 days.  Most venues are walking distance around the downtown area.  They have shuttle buses that go between the venues.

I had Friday off and talked Jack into going.  This year there are 164 venues and 1,582 artists.  I narrowed it down to three venues, my favorite place in Grand Rapids, the Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park.  I also picked Cathedral Square, and Gerald R. Ford Museum.

The displays at Meijer Gardens were a tad to contemporary for my tastes.  I pile of bent florescent lights?  Glass jars shaped like a bear filled with water, and leaves and twigs stuck in them?  See photos below.

Jack ran out of energy so we didn’t get inside the Ford Museum to view the paintings, but outside had some interesting sculptures. 

Next year, I’d like to get a hotel room and spend a couple of days there.  Jack could go back to the room when he’s reached his limit.

New Nook and Computer

We go to the library every Saturday.  The 4^th of July weekend was no different.  Saturday evening Jack started to read one of the two books he had picked out only to discover it was one he had already read.  The other wasn’t in large print and he got frustrated trying to read the regular print.  Library won’t be open until Tuesday.  As good as time as any, let’s go buy a Nook so that you can connect into the library and download books as needed along with being able to adjust the print size for reading.

Doesn’t that sound simple?  NOT. 

Sunday morning we bring home the handy dandy Nook from Barnes and Noble.  Problems started when I read that it has a wireless connection.  My router is programmed so that only my laptop can connect wirelessly. There would be no connecting to the library this weekend.  We made a trip back to Barnes and Noble and purchased an e-book so Jack has something to read.  Wow, buying a book is like two clicks – done!

Monday, our ace in-house IT guy gave me the low down on how to obtain the MAC code and add it to the router.  Cool.  Got that done and the Nook is running wireless. 

However, it wasn’t until the following weekend that I finally got to the point of getting a log-in for the library web site, downloading the Adobe Digital, figuring out I don’t download directly to the Nook, and it’s an ePDF that we want. 

Searched the library website and found a book to download, but can’t open the document.  After reading a couple of on-line blogs I learned I should not ‘save’ the ePDF, I should only ‘open’ the ePDF and it will download properly on its own to the laptop as long as I have the Adobe Digital software open.  And then connect the Nook to the laptop to do the drag and drop.  Once ya know what you’re doing, it is simple.

Lately Jack’s computer keeps freezing up and I get tired of listening to the grumbling.  To Best Buy we go and pick up a Dell monitor and CPU all in one. We set it up as wireless so that we can still access the old computer to get everything off of it.  Finding where the MAC number was finding a needle in a hay stack. Don’t ask me where I found it. 

Print drivers are no longer on the computer.  Connecting printers requires going the HP web site and downloading the driver for the one we have.

He also needed to get a new email address.  He gets 50 emails a day from gawd knows where and that doesn’t include emails that go right to the junk in-box.  Copying over the old email contacts/addresses was a breeze.  But getting him used to a different way to compose and send an email was a task in itself.

Still have to load the MS Home Office.  No discs, it’s now a download from the Microsoft website.  Sounds easy enough. I got to the point of getting the key #, entering it, but can’t get it to start the download.  It just sits there at 0% downloaded.  Thirty minute call to them resulted in they can’t help me because their computers were having problems.  She did graciously give me step by step instructions and learned that I needed to create a log-in for Microsoft to get the work order number that I also needed.  Give me the good old days of using a disc.

Too many bells and whistles on the electronics that makes it so complicated for the simple stuff we want to do with them.  AUGH!

Flooding in Towanda Pennsylvania .... where Kirk is

I've pulled the following from Kirk's Facebook.  Tad bit of water.  I really should check that Facebook stuff more than once a month, eh?


Towanda, Pennsylvania

 Kirk Neuman The river came up a bit over nite. Glad we live on a hill.

September 8 at 11:49am ·

Mary Ann Hood I hoe you guys are ok love ya

September 8 at 12:29pm ·

Kirk Neuman We're are up on a hill and safe. Still have power, food, and of course Miller Lite. We love you too!

September 8 at 12:43pm ·

John Kevin Waterworth Wow!!

September 8 at 1:19pm ·

Sherry Poad OMG I take it you won't be going back to work for a bit!!!

September 8 at 2:19pm ·

Kirk Neuman Unknown what the schedule is as of now. Waiting to hear what's going on.

September 8 at 2:51pm ·

Sherry Poad Come back to WI!!!!

September 8 at 3:02pm ·

Kirk Neuman Roads are all closed. It's a mess.

September 8 at 3:12pm ·

 

-----------------------------------------

From the local newspaper

 

NORTH TOWANDA TWP. - More than 800 homes and businesses still remain uninhabitable in the Sayre/Athens area, and there are still 70 bridges in the county that remain closed as a result of the flooding this past week.

Jack Under the Weather

Jack had a bout of the “trots” early Saturday morning starting around 4am.  Tummy was a little achy all day so we stayed close to home.  College football is in full swing so it wasn’t as if we would have gone anywhere.  We did skip our usual Saturday breakfast at Stacy’s.

He felt better this morning so we went out for breakfast, but stuck to having a pancake and light use of the syrup to test the waters as they say.  Since he had no stomach problems with the breakfast, we also went out to lunch as he was anxious to get out and about.  Sat out on the patio at Brann’s and split their chicken fingers basket.

Saturday's football was a good day and a bad day.  Wisconsin won. Yeah! Notre Dame lost.  Bummer.  Western won, but they should have since it was a lower division non-conference game. 

We started watching the 8pm Notre Dame/Michigan game, but by half time we were so frustrated with how many commercials they were having we called it quits and went to bed.  Every time the clock stopped, they went to commercials.  It wasn’t just a couple 10 seconds and back to the game; it was the full blown 60 and 90 seconds worth.  I can’t imagine the coaches cared for this, having to stop and wait.  They get on a roll they want to go, not wait.  AUGH!

End of Summer

This really is the year that I’m thinking where did the summer go?  Good thing Mike, Hanka, and Marek came over from Prague and spent a week with us or I’d really be feeling like there was no summer.

We rented a big ranch house across the street from Lake Michigan in South Haven.  I found it on line through our favorite site, vrbo.com (vacation rental by owner).  College buddy of Mike’s, Steve and family, came over from Madison for four of the days.  We spent a lot of time on the north and south patios of the rambling rancher depending upon where the sun was.  Had salmon on the grill and a couple of great salads, both compliments of Steve and Laura. 

Kirk and Amy are near Towanda, Pennsylvania.  Their apartment is a barn recently converted into a duplex.  It sounded really nice.  He’s enjoying the change from inspecting oil pipelines, heat, and no trees of southern Utah to inspecting natural gas line installations in the wooded rolling hills of Pennsylvania.  Amy is going from full time office manager to doing both office duty and inspection duty.  Diversifing, always a good career move.  They plan to be there a couple of years.  They spent the 4^th of July with Amy’s family on the Gulf Coast, thoroughly enjoying their time there. 

BFF Kathy in Virginia Beach said they stayed dry.  Hurricane Irene gave them a lot of wind and rain, but they didn’t have any damage or flooding.  Their power was out for a couple hours, one of the luckier areas around Virginia Beach.

It was unusually hot summer.  Instead of a having the air conditioning on a half dozen days throughout the summer, it was on continuously for a good two weeks more than once.  We had a really nice couple of weeks in August.  Today it’s back to the high 80’s and high dew point.  That will end tonight when the cold front from Canada moves through.  



Hanka, Marek, Mike, Walter, Steve, Laura



Viburnum and Ninebark



Two summers ago when Dar and Thom were here they helped me move a Vibrunum.  It’s much happier where it is now.  It was maybe knee high at the time.  It’s now a tad over four feet.  Regrettably, I never thought to take a picture after moving it.



Last summer Dar and I bought a neglected Ninebark at Menard’s.  It was leggy and all bent to one side where it must have been trying to reach for sun light.  After we had it into the ground, Dar took the shears to it.  I thought for sure she had cut it back too much.  It’s come back straight and bushy.  See photos below the Virburnum photo



Viburnum 2yrs after tansplant







Ninebark, July 2010



Ninebark, July 2011



So the Ambulance Arrives

So the ambulance arrives last night (Monday)… after the fire department’s rescue unit…and at least a couple of pickup trucks.  Firemen like pickup trucks. 

At a minimum there were seven guys in the house.  At least five firemen - might have been six.  Last night I tried to picture each one of them, where they were standing and I keep thinking there had to be one more in the bedroom to be that crowded.  What the heck???

I called 911 around midnight.  Told them that Jack was in a sugar low, he wasn’t coherent enough to drink milk or even sit up, so driving him isn’t an option.  Not sure if just an IV is all he needs.  Don’t come roaring into the subdivision with sirens and lights going.  No need to wake the entire neighborhood. 

Five minutes go by and I’m standing in the spare room that we use as an office, nice night so the window is somewhat open, and I hear the sirens - multiple sirens.  What?  Sirens come into the subdivision.  They kill the sirens a few blocks away, but the lights are flashing and reflecting off the surrounding houses.  First to arrive is the fire department’s rescue truck and two firemen.  

I take them to the bedroom, start explaining that Jack is diabetic when the third fireman comes in.   One of the first two takes out a tube of red gel and tries to get Jack to swallow it.  By this time the fourth fireman comes in with a clip board and starts asking me the usual questions name, age, meds he takes, etc. 

Jack wants no part of that gel.  Gets a little feisty so I said I would try.  No luck and by that time I turn around and the fifth fireman is in the hallway with fireman #4 and his clipboard.

Not even ten minutes pass, everything is happening so fast, and the paramedics arrive.  She starts with the same questions, his name, age, meds, last time ate, what did he eat?  The fireman says that he couldn’t get Jack to swallow any of the glucose.  The other paramedic says it’s no wonder ‘cause the stuff tastes terrible.  Smirks and chuckles all around.

They start the IV.  It takes no more than three to five minutes and Jack starts to come around.  Now, I’m in the second row behind these big firemen because they had said I should get stuff together to take to the hospital.  Jack is none too happy to have unknown people in the house.  Paramedics and a fireman do restraining.  They try to tell him not to move because of the IV.  I sneak down and under two guys and told Jack I’m here and to lie back.  HE DOES.  I’m smiling.  My ego swells.  He actually did as I asked immediately.  Wow.  Smirks and chuckles all around.

Jack completely comes out of it.  Firemen leave.  I make Jack a sandwich.  Paramedics said he was down to blood sugar level of 30.  With the IV he was up to 177, but it would be temporary so that is why he was having the sandwich and milk.

We all agreed he didn’t need to go to the hospital.  Protocol is for them to check in with the doctor on call at Bronson ER for the okay to not transport.  They gave her the statistic and she agreed it wasn’t necessary.

So it’s close to 1am.  Everyone is gone.  I get back into bed; Jack asks a few questions; we relate this to his episode in Prague when we had to call an ambulance.  He says he’s tired, rolls over, and goes to sleep. Me, I’m not ready to sleep.  I read for awhile, then laid in the dark for awhile going over who, why all these people, read again - definitely a tad tired tonight.

Fun and games in the Hubbell house.

Tonight, he’s fine and reading right now.  He did have a bout of the trots, he’s cursing that, thus we cancelled Tuesday night date night.  Life is back to normal.

Wedding and Not So Pleasant Trip Home

My nephew, Joel, married Mandy, his college sweetheart, this past Saturday in a lovely wedding in Thorp, WI. 

I have to say I really like the choices of the bridesmaid gowns.  They weren’t all alike.  They were the same beautiful color, yet each was slightly different.  They fit the bridesmaid instead of the traditional one style fits all.    

I will be heading back to Wisconsin this weekend for my parent’s 60^th anniversary.  I’m hoping the photographer has the photos on line by then.  The reception was at a resort/camp on a lake.  They took a lot of outdoor photos.  Can’t wait.

It was the trip back that regrettably will be a tad more memorable.  We really cruised the whole time until the point of where 294 ends and 90/94/80 merge south of downtown Chicago; everything came to a stop and the left two lanes had to merge to the right without a lot of forewarning.  I looked up and on an overpass, about half a football field/50 yards away, was an overturned semi.  That explained why we were stopped. 

The semi tractor was gone and two huge wreckers were on each end of the trailer working on up-righting it.  The wheels of the trailer were facing us.  We surmised that the wreckers were working on moving the trailer more towards the center of the over-pass in order to get it upright.  Obviously, this accident had happened some time ago and that they must have been letting traffic on the 294 through every now and then.

The only thing we could see once they got to a point of having it about 1/3 of the way upright was that it was a cattle truck.    This was confirmed when we saw three guys running from around the other side of the trailer followed in close proximity by a bull…and we realized that the trailer had live animals in it. 

The bull stopped about the mid way point of the trailer, the three guys continued to run to the safety of the police cars that were blocking traffic from the bridge.  The poor thing started to limp back the way it had come. Oh, the poor thing is hurt.  He might have seriously hurt or maybe even broken his leg.  Oh, how awful for it.

The bull noticed another gent standing near the wrecker on that end and proceeded to charge.  The guy gave a quick thought about getting into the cab and then changed his mind and ran around the back of the wrecker. 

Bull didn’t follow.  Just limped around a bit.  Oh the poor thing. Then everything goes bad.  The officers are getting their shotguns out.  Hollie schmoe they are going to shoot the bull.  Despite knowing it is in the best interest of this injured animal, I don’t care to be here to see or hear this.  I’m covering my eyes.  I’m moaning and groaning.  Oh my gawd.  Oh my gawd. Oh my gawd.  I put the visor down.  POP!  Not a bang, it was a loud POP!  Hollie schmoe, oh my gawd, oh jeez, I can’t.   Jack said the traffic is starting to move and to pay attention to what I’m doing because the bull is still standing.  HOLLIE SCHMOES – OH MY GAWD – OH JEEZ LOUISE.  And the second POP goes off just as we are under the over pass.  Get me the he… out of here. 

Bronchitis

Doc said today for sure it’s bronchitis.  Jack picked up his antibiotic prescription and started the five day treatment.  Already, I see a change.  Maybe it’s just my wishful thinking, but tonight he has not had one of those fits of coughing like he had the last couple/few days. 

If he hadn’t had an appointment today, I would have dragged him to the med station after last night – no if ands or buts about it.   He had a coughing streak last night about 3am.  It’s not that he couldn’t breathe or anything, it was just such a long lasting hacking and hacking and coughing. 

Ahh...I envision a full night's sleep any day now.  And I'm sure he is too!

Incident Triggers Memory of Incident

A couple of years ago a semi took a left turn too fast and too tight that it clipped my car a good one as I was stopped at the stop sign of the street he was turning onto.  The right to left motion was hard enough that it popped the passenger side hub cap off and my car had to be towed. Even though the impact was at about the half way point of the trailer, all I could envision was the rear wheels coming up the hood of the car.  It all happened so fast.

Coming home from going out to breakfast Saturday we were headed west on Howard and a truck heading south on Westnedge was signaling to turn east onto Howard.  Without batting an eye or an “eek” from my lips, I had checked the rearview mirror, had theRav4 in reverse, and backing up before he was halfway into his turn.  Jack finally said, “I think you’re far enough back”.  The vision of those rear wheels coming towards me had come back and this time I was making sure the wheels would not get near me.  So maybe giving him four car lengths was a bit much…

No playing in the dirt and working in the flower beds this weekend.  If this was the middle of winter, it would be a blizzard.  As it is, we have 42 degrees, very windy, and a constant rain.  We ventured out with the intent to buy a pair of shoes and do our weekly grocery shopping.  We got the shoes and came home.  It’s just too nasty out there.

Jack is still hacking away.  He didn't get to see the doc last week, just had the lab work done.  Appointment now set for Tuesday. 

#2 Caught a Cold and Gardening

On top of Jack’s cold, Friday night he either ate something that didn’t agree with him or a very slight diverticulitis flare up.  I’m leaning towards the ate something that didn’t agree with him.  By Saturday afternoon he wanted to go out for lunch.  Either way he wasn’t a happy camper.  Sunday he did agree to getting congestion Rubittusin.   Maybe by the time of his doctor appointment he will be over this.

My tree.  I swore this wasn’t the size of tree I picked out, but when I do the calculation to convert circumference to diameter it comes to 2.7.  My receipt said I paid for a 2.5.  When I was looking at the tree it looked so much bigger in both diameter and the girth of the branches and leaves.  The gentleman I spoke to said that they get that comment a lot and it’s because the tree is out of the ground sitting on the root ball.  He said the only larger one that the 2.5 that they carry is the one that was left over from last year.  I saw that one, but the crown or main part of the branches and leaves was off center.   Dang thing better grow fast. 

Oh, and on top of being smaller than expected, we couldn’t put it where was wanted to.  The Charter TV cable runs through the back yard….6” from where the stake marking the spot to plant it.   So now it’s two feet further to the north.   Such is life.

Of the nine cone flowers my sister and I planted last year, three came back up and one of the two mums is.  BUT, an orchid type lilly that was to only be an annual is coming back up.  Go figure.  This weekend I've also started putting down some fresh mulch.  Love this weather.

Caught a cold, Gardening, and Compromise

Jack came down with a cold yesterday.  He doesn’t take to bed and moan wishing for death to be swift like I do.  He just has a really low voice, a lot of sneezing, nose blowing, and takes an extra nap during the day.  He sounds better tonight than he did this morning.    He also gets over his colds quicker than anyone I’ve ever seen. 

We had great weather this weekend, mid to upper sixties so I took advantage of it.  This fall I failed to cut back the clematis plants.  Saturday’s project was take care of them and whatever that other vine is that came across from the neighbors.  It never bloomed and all but took over one of their apple trees.  It has to be some relative of Kudzu.    And I also got the lawn trimming done.  Neighbor girl does the actual lawn mowing.

I don’t have a lot of tulips, but the few that came up never flowered.  Sunday’s project was to plant a few more and some daffodils.  I also cleaned up along the east fence a bit.  I’m thinking of putting in a Amsonia Bluestar, maybe flanked by a couple of wild indigo on each side.  It’s a narrow strip, but I don’t want the work of maintaining a bunch of perennials.  Looking for more of a wider bush that doesn’t go over 3 -31/2 feet in height.

It was nice enough that Jack sat out on the deck in the sun (with a jacket on) and watched.  Every time he tried to talk to me it started him hacking, so it was kinda odd.  Me just digging away and him just sitting there sneezing and sniffling.

Last weekend we bought the tree for shading some of the deck.  This was a long time coming.  About five or six years I started talking about getting something planted that would shield us from the late afternoon sun.  At the time, I was thinking about the Bradford Pear.  Jack didn’t think we needed another tree for reasons I no longer recall (or…just didn’t really listen).  We bought the side based umbrella, but in the wind it almost seems to want to flip up and over.  He finally compromised and agreed we need a tree.

My idea of compromising is more of waiting until he sees it my way.  In this case, it turned out for the better.  The more I read on-line about fast growing and flowering trees the more I kept coming across the newer Cleveland Pear.  It has the same fast growth, but not the problem of the trunk splitting in strong winds or ice and snow.  New tree goes in on Tuesday.