Sunday, May 23
Barbara: Jim was in charge of the Sunday school lesson again today so we had to put it in gear to get there in time. After all, the teacher shouldn’t walk in right on the dot or a little late, which is our standard operating mode since Mineola is about 24 miles or so from Edith’s house.
After church, we found that Big V was entirely too hot to even stay there. Inside she was 98 degrees since the outdoor temps were in the 90’s. Without a cover over her and with her closed up all the time now, there just isn’t any way to keep the temp down. We made the best of a bad situation since Jim was scheduled to meet with the church pianist, Lisa, and her son Chandler at 4:30 to practice a piano, drum, and trumpet special for next Sunday. Lisa called around 2:00 to ask if we could rehearse after the business meeting tonight because Chandler and his girlfriend went to Elephant Day at the Tyler Zoo. We said that wouldn’t be a problem. But, what in the world was Elephant Day…still don’t know the answer to that question since Lisa said we’d just have to go next year to find out.
We returned to Yantis in time for Jim to attend choir practice and then the two of us joined the rest of the members for a business meeting. After the business meeting, Lisa, Jim, and Chandler (who is a junior at Yantis High) worked on their music, an arrangement of Battle Hymn of the Republic, for about thirty minutes. They had anticipated that everyone would leave after the business meeting, but as soon as they started practicing, a group of church members came back inside to see and hear what they were doing. They finally got everything worked out as to who would play what, when, and where and decided to call it a night.
Monday, May 24
Jim: This morning at breakfast we found out that Mother and TJ had a trip to Tyler planned so Barbara and I decided that we’d head to Sulfur Springs and do some shoe/clothes shopping as well as try to talk to C & D Covers about an awning to put over Big V. Since Barbara was sporting some of her new purchases from Saturday’s shopping spree, we decided to take some photos of ourselves and add ones taken on Sunday.
While we were out and about, I received a phone call from Lisa asking me to consider something about the church music. I was thinking she wanted to change the arrangement we worked out, but instead she told me that Pastor David had heard so many comments about our practice session last night that he wanted us to consider putting a group together to play every Sunday morning between Sunday school and church…in
other words, to be his “warm-up act.” I said I thought it was a great idea and that we just needed to settle on the music we want to use…a process that might take us a couple of weeks due to everyone’s busy schedules.
Eventually we made our way back to the lake to wait for Chris to come look at our lot and give us an estimate for a shelter for Big V. To our surprise, the bid he gave us was very reasonable and one that we thought we could handle but needed time to discuss and ponder.
By the end of the evening we made our decision to take the plunge and begin Stage One of a building project for Our Little Lot. This will be the construction of a 20’ X 36’ steel awning to cover the concrete pad and get most of the sun off Big V. Stage Two, when we get Stage One paid for, will be the addition of a 10’ X 36’ lean-to (also steel construction) on the north side of the pad to serve as the cover of a proposed wooden deck and storage shed. We called Chris and told him to go ahead with plans to pick up the steel tomorrow and begin construction on Wednesday.
Tuesday, May 25
Barbara had a new breakfast recipe to try out this morning, so we invited TJ to come over and join us for brunch at 10:00.
Mother has been going through a stage of one step forward and two steps backward with her Parkinson’s disease, so right after noon TJ and I took her to Dr. Drew, her neurologist in Tyler. We explained to Dr. Drew some of the things we have been noticing and he said that we needed to increase the amount of Mother’s physical activity since all her vital signs are well within the acceptable ranges. He was very emphatic in stating that unless Mother gets more physical exercise, she could be immobile in another year.
Dr. Drew suggested a regimen of walking, building up to at least 1,000 feet per day of outside walking (not just walking around the house).
We came back to the house, had a light lunch, and discussed how we were going to handle the exercise program. Mother wasn’t too excited about it, but knows that exercise now is preferable to immobility later, so she agreed to work with us.
This evening we put the plan into action by going to Walmart to do some shopping for a few items. We figured that if Mother walked from the front of the store to the back to get the milk we needed, that would take just a few minutes and result in sufficient exercise for the first time out.
Once we got started, Mother was like a kid in a candy store and wanted to walk through several more aisles than we intended. She kept asking if we had enough of this or that, and had us pick out several items that weren’t on the list. An hour later, we finally left Walmart with a cart load of groceries and a very tired Edith!
Today was a huge day for us. Barbara had Bible study in Yantis, but first we had to go to the lot and do the hundred and one things necessary to move Big V off the pad so Chris could bring in his crew around noon and start building our awning.
To those not initiated in the art of moving a rig, whether motorhome, fifth wheel, or trailer, moving 2 miles includes all the things necessary to move 2,000 miles, and it all takes time. In our case, I needed to take Big V to Quitman (only 9 miles away) to get our annual inspection. Barbara worked on securing everything inside while I tackled the outside chores, and soon we had nearly everything done. Since she was on a tighter time schedule, she left for Yantis and I continued working until I was ready to secure the slide-outs, raise the levelers, and drive off the pad.
It took about an hour to get to town and go through the inspection process (the station that I went to was very busy this morning) and just as I was leaving town, Barbara called to say that they were through with Bible study and she was headed back to Holiday Village. We got there at almost the same time and took Big V to a site in the RV park since we had to leave our driveway open for the construction crew.
We spent a few minutes cleaning off the pad and meeting Joan, one of Linda’s friends who was visiting this morning and wanted to see what we were doing. After a couple of phone calls, we found that the crew was running behind schedule and wouldn’t be starting work until around 12:30. Since we were both hungry, we decided to return to Mother’s house, feed her and fix some lunch for ourselves, and then return to the lot to document the great occasion.
Later in the afternoon our friends Bob and Mary rode up in their golf cart to see how things were going. They stuck around for about an hour and a half as Bob talked with Chris and the members of the construction crew and Mary and Barbara sat in the car and visited.
We returned to Mineola and decided that Mother’s exercise tonight would be to return to Walmart, but this time to check out the clothing section. While Barbara and Mother did that, I wandered through the lawn and garden and the tool sections.
Mother tired much earlier tonight, but got in some good walking while we were there. We returned straight home and Mother went to bed while Barbara and I stayed up to review all the pictures we had taken during the day.
Thursday, May 27
We got around the house early this morning so we could go to the lot and watch the rest of the cover go up. I figured it would be at least 9:00 before the crew got started, but they were already there and hauling steel sheets to the top of the frame when we arrived at 8:15.
Barbara drove me down to the RV park so I could get Big V and bring her back to the lot. That was a slow process, mainly because I had to drive so slowly through the park, let traffic get past when I got to the lot, and then back up through our driveway and get Big V situated where we wanted her under the new awning.
In the meantime, Barbara set about reorganizing our outside sitting area as I brought everything back to the slab from the space under the trees where it had all been temporarily stored. There’s not nearly as much room as before, but it is still cozy and very usable.
TJ brought Mother out at noon to see our new look and this time Mother even walked from the car to the front door and climbed the six steps to get inside Big V and feel the difference in the temperature. Because the motorhome had been exposed to the direct sun all morning it wasn’t as cool as it could have been under the awning, but the difference was noticeable.
After Mother and TJ left we spent an hour or so reorganizing the inside of Big V and making her look more like a home than a storage unit. Who knows, maybe one of these days we’ll have family and/or friends who will want to come visit for a few days and use Big V as their home away from home.
While we were working we got a call from our friend Bob telling us that Mary was in the emergency room at the hospital in Quitman; so we closed down the place and hopped in the car to drive down there and see them before we went on back to Mineola.
Bob was surprised and pleased to find us there and filled us in on what was going on. We didn’t get to see Mary, but learned that she wasn’t very happy to be there, but there just wasn’t much choice in the matter.
After visiting with Bob for a while we returned to Mineola where we spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening getting caught up on chores there…light housecleaning, laundry, mowing, etc.
Friday, May 28
This morning we spent our time around the house. We had lots of regular business to take care of and also decided to do some food preparation. Barbara baked a couple of loaves of zucchini bread and I put together four pans of meatloaf for future use.
For Mother’s exercise plan today we went to the local Dollar General store where she and Barbara walked around the aisles and made a few purchases while I went to the post office to mail some things and buy stamps.
Later in the day Barbara and I went out to the lot to do some mowing and trimming. We weren’t able to follow our usual Tuesday/Wednesday yard work schedule this week because of the construction of the awning, and the grass was more than tall enough to be cut. Unfortunately, I had left the key to our little storage shed in Mineola, so I couldn’t get to the edger and we soon ran out of gas in the mower. But, Gary, our nearest neighbor, graciously loaned us enough gas to finish mowing our front and back yards and the part of the lot behind us that I like to keep mowed.
During the course of our time at the lot today we saw several of our friends. Josh, our sales manager, had his son Joshua with him for the day and we couldn’t resist a father-son picture. Also, Linda, Gary’s wife, drove over on her golf cart to inspect the new awning.
Tonight we just relaxed around Mother’s place and tried to not do too much of anything.
Saturday, May 29
Since we didn’t finish mowing at the lot yesterday, we decided we’d spend this morning finishing that job and doing odds and ends around the place. There’s never any shortage of things to do in and around Big V and we figured this was a good day to take care of as many chores as possible. Little did we know that we were going to receive another wonderful surprise to end this week.
We were about halfway through the mowing at the front of the lot when the phone rang. I lost the signal as soon as I tried to answer, but could see it was from Heather. After several tries and voice mail messages from both of us, we finally connected and learned that Andy’s parents and sister were visiting Heather and Andy in Richardson and wanted to find a good swimming lake for the day. As much as we would have liked the kids and Andy’s family to come out to Lake Fork and see our place, there is no lake swimming to speak of around Holiday Village; so, we agreed that we’d all go to Lake Hawkins, a place where camped for a month or so a couple of years ago and where Heather, Andy, and the kids had visited us.
We had not much more than finished our conversation when Bob Royar rode up in his golf cart to visit for a minute and ask if we could take him to Quitman so he could see if Mary was going to get out of the hospital today. Bob had been taken by a friend to a hospital in Tyler Thursday and was without wheels since he’d left his pickup at the Quitman hospital. Of course, we agreed to take him to Quitman as soon as we finished what we were doing.
Since the Richardson bunch wasn’t going to be at Mother’s to meet us until a little after noon, we went ahead and worked for another hour before heading back to Quitman to drop Bob off and then to Mineola to prepare Mother’s lunch and get things ready for an afternoon swim at Lake Hawkins.
Heather, Alexander, Abby, and Andy’s sister (also named Heather), got to the house first because Andy and his folks had to stop at the Firewheel Mall in Richardson to shop for bathing suits. Heather introduced Andy’s sister to Mother and then we all visited until Andy and his folks arrived.
The first order of business was for Alexander to show us the new hole in his head…seems he lost a tooth recently, but he couldn’t remember the going Tooth Fairy rate.
When we finished at the beach, we all returned to Mother’s house for a few minutes to get some of the sand off and freshen up a bit and then we went to the East Texas Burger Company, a Mineola landmark, for another hour or so of good food and family conversation.
When the eating was done and Alexander and Abby were about to fall asleep in their chairs, we decided it was time to call it a day; but first, there was another round of photos by and of everyone. Then, our visitors got in their cars and drove back to Richardson while we drove back to Mother’s house, took showers, and crashed for the night.
“Everything can change in the blink of an eye; but don’t worry, God never blinks.” – Unknown
From Mineola, Texas
Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams
