Tuesday, August 18
Today was, for the most part, not very notable (but we’ll note most of it for the record).
We spent the morning working around the lot, mowing and trimming and generally trying to get everything back in shape after our journey.
With Mother scheduled for surgery on her hand tomorrow, we thought we’d take a meal in this afternoon, so Barbara contacted T.J. and arranged for a family dinner at Mother’s house at four o’clock. While Barbara started on her Mexican casserole, I called Ernie to let him know what we were doing so everyone could clear their calendars.
Around 2:00 pm we took the crock pot to town and plugged it in at Mother’s house and then Ernie and I went on a shopping expedition to find fuel lines for the gas trimmer that he had loaned me. Meanwhile, Barbara and Billee went to the used book store to see if the current inventory had anything that interested them, and then went to the local Sonic for their Happy Hour drink special.
Ernie and I had some luck (we thought) in locating the two different gauges of fuel line we needed, but had to go to two different places to find them.
When we were finished with our shopping, we drove over to T.J.’s house to discuss Mother’s operation and the plans for taking care of her during the recuperation period.
Around 3:30, Ernie and I returned to Mother’s house and Barbara and I started getting the meal ready for serving. About that same time, T.J. came in with a DQ blizzard for Mother’s treat, but instead of putting it in the freezer and saving it for dessert, gave it to her back in her room. Of course, that brought any thought of a meal to a screeching halt, at least in Mother’s mind.
So, while Mother enjoyed her blizzard, the rest of us dug into the Mexican casserole, chips, and salsa.
When we had finished eating, we cleaned the kitchen, packed up our things, and returned to the lot to while away the evening.
Wednesday, August 19
While Barbara stayed home to do chores around Big V, I drove to Mineola and then on to Tyler with Mother and T.J. for Mother’s hand surgery. Dr. Camp was going to tighten up the ligaments around Mother’s right middle finger so her fingers could open and close as they are supposed to do.
We got to the surgical floor at 11:15 and they took Mother back to prep her around 12:00. At 1:00 they called us back to the waiting area to tell us that the surgery would be postponed until close to 2:00. It seems that T.J. had Mother eat a light breakfast before leaving this morning and when they asked Mother whether she had fasted, she was completely honest with them. When I asked her why she told them that, she said, “Well, they asked me, and I couldn’t lie.”
As it turned out, all went well, if not on schedule, and by 4:00 we piled a very stupefied Mother into the car and returned her to Mineola, where she spent the night at T.J.’s house. Mother was still pretty much out of it when I left, but Ernie came over to bring them some supper and agreed to spend the night there just in case Mother needed more assistance than T.J. could give.
Meanwhile, tired from a long day of waiting, I returned to the lake and Barbara and I settled in for the night.
Thursday, August 20
This was just another workday around the lot. We’ve been wanting to clear out more of the gully and stream areas, but keep getting sidetracked, so today’s agenda included getting some outside work done.
Our problem with the gully is that the more briars and vines we cut and pull, the more we find…not very encouraging until the end of the day when we rake everything into piles and see a little progress. It is a seemingly overwhelming job, but watching the trees die from being choked out by the vines encourages us to continue.
We took a break in the afternoon and while Barbara rested, I went to Mineola to see how Mother was doing. She was still napping when I got there around 3:00, but soon woke up and got up to visit. Once the “joy juice” wore off, she began a great recovery. She had even decided that she wanted Ernie to come get her so she could sleep in her own bed (and more importantly, have her puppies with her).
Ernie came over to get her, so we all visited for a while and then it was time for me to go pick up the mail and return to the lake.
After our evening meal, we returned to our work in the gully, cutting, pulling, and raking vines and other assorted trash until it was too dark to see what we were doing.
Friday, August 21
It was another full morning of working in the gully…the progress was becoming evident (even if the end still isn’t in sight), and we were getting quite a bit done. The goal today was to burn off all the accumulated trash, but even with my best Boy Scout skills, I couldn’t get the fire started. I then decided that I’d just work until noon and then call it a day, but while I was cutting and pulling vines, Barbara managed to get a good fire going, so I switched to carrying the trash from the stream to the fire. After two hours of burning, we had disposed of all the piles and could actually see under some of the trees on the north bank of the stream. I calculate that if we could work 8 hours a day for the next thirty days, we might even finish the job. Unfortunately, we don’t have that kind of time, so I guess we’ll work at it during the winter when we’ve returned from our fall traveling.
When the burning was completed, we put away all the garden tools, got cleaned up, and just vegged out for the rest of the day, leaving the lot only to go to the laundry during the evening. Both washers and the dryer were full of someone else’s clothes, so we voted to go back to Big V and try again sometime tomorrow.
On a sad note, we heard from Jean this evening. Nancy Terpening’s mother passed away today and she wanted us to know about it. Nancy, Jerry, and Becky were in Terrell, Texas with the family, but everyone would be going to Blue Ridge, northeast of McKinney, Texas, this weekend for the funeral.
Saturday, August 22
I, for some reason, woke up earlier than Barbara this morning (5:00 AM); so decided to go on down to the laundry. Imagine Barbara’s surprise when she awoke at 5:20 to find me gone! Anyway, by 7:30 or so we were completely finished with the laundry and had everything put away. We worked on the journal for a couple of hours and then went back to bed and slept until 11:00…what a couple of lazybones we were!
When we finally did get in gear, we did a little work around Big V (but nothing strenuous), and then set to work getting cleaned up and ready to travel, since we had decided to go to Blue Ridge this evening to see Nancy, Jerry, and their family during the visitation for Nancy’s mother.
After a trip to Mineola to see the family and get mail from our post office box, we stopped at Sonic to pick up something to eat and then headed up U.S. 69 toward Celeste and then to Blue Ridge, about an 80-mile drive.
We thought the trip would take longer, so we got there very early, giving us a chance to locate the church and the funeral home. The visitation was supposed to be at the funeral home, but there was a big do at the community center right next to it, so the visitation was moved to First Baptist Church.
Nancy and Becky arrived at the church at 6:00 and we had a chance to visit with them and then they introduced us to family members that we have heard about for years, but had never met. Jerry showed up later, and then Amanda (Jerry and Nancy’s oldest daughter) came in with the boys, Daniel and Jonah. Zeke was on call at the hospital this weekend, so he was unable to attend.
We stayed around for about 45 minutes to visit, but then decided to head back to the lake and avoid driving at night. So, we said our goodbyes and told Nancy that we would return tomorrow for the funeral service and maybe have a chance to visit some more afterward.
We stopped at the DQ in Farmersville and then motored on back toward home, taking a short break at WalMart in Sulphur Springs to pick up a few necessary items.
We arrived back at the lot just as it was getting dark and spent an hour or two winding down before calling it a day and heading to bed.
Sunday, August 23
We had every intention of getting up and going to church this morning, but somewhere between intention and doing, we took a wrong turn.
We were up plenty early…Barbara was up by 6:00 and I woke up around 7:00. Since we were going to drive back to Blue Ridge for the funeral, I took the time clean out and wash the car…meanwhile, Barbara went back to bed to read and fell asleep. The long and short of the story is that we just lost track of time, and realized that it was 11:20 and we had to be on the road by 12:00 if we were going to be at the church at a reasonable time.
We both started scrambling and somehow managed to pull away from the lot at 12:03 and head back to Blue Ridge.
When we got to the church, we immediately saw Nancy, Jerry, and Becky, and then soon saw Amanda, Daniel, and Jonah. We visited a few minutes with them and then went in to wait for the service to begin.
After the funeral service, we followed the procession to the Pike community, where Nancy grew up, and where, 34 years ago today, she and Jerry were married at the Pike Baptist Church, also the site of the Pike cemetery where they buried Nancy’s mother this afternoon.
When the graveside service was completed, we stuck around and visited the family for a few minutes. Jerry and Nancy wanted some anniversary photographs, so I went with them to the church and took a few shots of them before we all said our final goodbyes and went our separate ways.
We stopped at a McDonald’s in Greenville for a quick meal and then headed back to Big V and our lot at the lake, tired after traveling like that for two days, but so glad that we were able to be with Nancy and her family after all the times they have been there for us.Monday, August 24
Some days are just workdays, no matter who or where you are, and this turned out to be one of those.
With a major trip coming up for Big V…the original plan was to leave for the east coast on September 1 and return around November 8…we have a lot to do to get ready. The lot has to be cleaned up, everything that we are leaving behind has to be stored, Big V has to be cleaned out and rearranged for traveling, etc., etc., etc.
With that in mind, we spent most of the day doing those things…emptying and rearranging storage bins, bagging up the larger items that will stay behind under the canopy or in the little storage shed, and throwing away “stuff” that we have accumulated but haven’t done anything with yet.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that Ernie and Billee are leaving for Arkansas for a week on Wednesday to housesit at Billee’s sister’s house, meaning that we would take a few things to Mineola and stay with Mother until they returned.
Everything was shaping up just fine until each of us received messages that clouded our well-thought plans. I received a phone call from Cheryl Burton yesterday asking if I could come to Tucumcari on Friday and serve as a pall-bearer at Lynn’s graveside service. Since I was planning to ride the motorcycle to Lubbock this weekend for Lynn’s memorial service, we decided that I should go ahead and do both; but, that would leave Barbara here several days to look after Mother.
This morning Barbara received emails from her high school friend, Dandy Heasley Taylor, that Dandy’s husband, Glenn, who has cancer, is fading, and is not expected to live much longer. Since Barbara is as close to Dandy as I am to Lynn, we had to work out some contingency plans to present to Mother in case Barbara has to go to Abilene.
We went into Mineola this afternoon to do some shopping and to visit with Mother. She fully understood our plight and said that she would be flexible enough in case we both had to be gone for a night.
So, it looks like I will take off on the motorcycle Thursday afternoon after T.J. and I take Mother to Tyler for a follow-up visit with her doctor. I’ll get as far up the road as possible, stay somewhere overnight, and then get on to Tucumcari for the service Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Barbara will hold down the fort here until I return. Or, if necessary, she will leave Mother with TJ for a night.
Whoever thinks life can be successfully scripted in advance just needs to be thinking something else!
On the bright side, we received this picture of Daniel Duke on his first day of kindergarten. Amanda and the boys had to drive all the way back to Knox City after the services yesterday to get home and have Daniel ready for school, but she obviously did quite well with it. She said that brother Jonah guessed he’d help with the laundry, but he’d much rather be at school with Daniel.
Tuesday, August 25
This morning Barbara found an email awaiting her saying that Glenn lost his 3-year battle with cancer last night at 11:00. Dandy is now facing the difficult journey of going on without him, but her faith in the Lord is very strong; so we know that ultimately she will be all right.
Today was the inside cleaning day…yuck! How two people can make such a mess is still a mystery to us, especially in such a small area! However, small is good when it means that deep cleaning can be accomplished in several hours!
Plans are now set for Glenn’s funeral; Barbara will leave Mineola Thursday morning when TJ and I leave to take Mother to her doctor appointment. Once I get Mother over to TJ’s, I will head out on the cycle for the Wichita Falls area where I’ll bunk for the night before continuing my journey to Tucumcari on Friday. I really wanted to attend the visitation Thursday night to see Dandy, but Barbara has convinced me that the added miles might cause a problem in me getting to Tucumcari on time Friday. She will have to convey my thoughts to Dandy as I will have to tell Cheryl hers.
Nothing much going on the rest of the day…just packing, getting the trailer out of storage, etc. We are very fortunate to have made some really good friends here at Holiday Village. Our neighbors behind us, Linda and Gary, check on our property while we’re gone and tonight Gary took me down to the storage yard to get the car trailer out. In addition, Bob and Mary, who are now in Oregon, have given us permission to store the trailer on their lot which will make it very convenient for us to hook everything up next week when we’re ready to leave on our trip.
Wednesday, August 26
Today was one of those “no excitement-just regular living days. We took our time moving around and getting Big V buttoned down and ready to take on our next big adventure, which we hope to begin next week when Ernie and Billee return from their trip to Arkansas.
After doing all we can for the time being and making sure we had everything necessary for an extended stay at Mother’s house AND our separate trips to Abilene for Barbara and Tucumcari and Lubbock for me, we moved to Mother’s house in Mineola and spent the day visiting her and doing a few chores around there.
As we have said several times, some days are just days, whether one is working, vacationing, or retired.
“There are two things I‘ve learned: There is a God, and I’m not Him.” – Church Signs
From Mineola, Texas,
Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams
