Sunday, May 30
This was definitely not one of our usual Sundays. Because I was leading the congregational singing and playing a trumpet special for the offertory this morning, we got a very early start on the day. We made sure that Mother was up and around (and fed) and then Barbara and I took a few minutes to take some shots of us in our “Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes.” Barbara had a new outfit for the day, but I had to make do with a suit that I got right after we retired almost four years ago.
I met with Pastor David and several other church members to go over the order of service and have a brief prayer before going to the sanctuary to warm-up and get in some practice time with Lisa (our pianist) and Chandler (Lisa’s son), while Barbara took pictures of the going’s on.
When we got to the “meet-and-greet” part of the service, I noticed that our friends Gene and Carolyn had come up from Mineola. They’ve joined us for services before, but it was still a pleasant surprise.
With that part of the service over, we moved on to the hymns for the morning and those went well. David had asked me to do the morning prayer after we sang “Victory in Jesus” to give Amber, his daughter, time to get to the piano for the special music (and Amber did a beautiful job with the selection she had picked).
When I went back to the pew where Barbara, Jean, and Carolyn were sitting, I noticed that two of our friends from Holiday Village were sitting on the other side of Barbara; Linda, our closest neighbor, and Margaret, Linda’s next door neighbor, had also come out for this morning’s service…just like old home week this morning.
When the sermon and invitation were finished, Lisa, Chandler, and I began our offertory special, an arrangement of Battle Hymn of the Republic for trumpet, piano, and muffled snare drum. I was a little nervous because my trumpet had sat for nearly an hour and I didn’t have a chance to warm up just before playing, but the offertory prayer was long enough that I was able to blow some warm air through the trumpet and get it back to a temperature where it was more likely to be in tune with the piano.
The music went very well (I thought) and we received many compliments when the service was over. I took time to get all my things packed away and went to the foyer where Barbara was taking pictures of our four friends. We then said goodbye to David and Lorrie and Barbara and I got in the car and headed back to Big V for a quiet lunch and an afternoon nap (I thought).
The afternoon was a lot of fun for us as we ate our lunch in Big V and a lot of visiting. We’ve seen Gene and Carolyn a few times lately, but it’s been a long time since we’ve just sat and talked. They are a very interesting couple and a lot of fun to be with. Gene, an accomplished accordionist, knows a lot about music, so there’s never a shortage of things to talk about.
Gene and Carolyn left around 3:00 and Barbara and I spent a couple of hours puttering around the lot before returning to Mineola for the evening. Choir practice had been cancelled and the church was having a “Fifth Sunday” activity instead of preaching, so we voted to get on back to Mother so we could feed the puppies and get Mother fed which would give TJ a Sunday night break.
Monday, May 31
Today is Memorial Day, both actually and legally. It is a day to honor American soldiers who have died in military service. No one is exactly sure when and where the first Memorial Day celebration took place — there are about 25 towns and cities that claim to have held the first celebration — but it evolved after the Civil War, when people put aside a day to honor fallen Union soldiers. After World War I, it became a day to honor soldiers who had died in any conflict. In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday on the last Monday each May. – Writer’s AlmanacFor our part, it was a fairly quiet and uneventful day. We spent the morning cleaning house, doing laundry, and getting lunch ready. I baked a loaf of jalapeno bread and grilled some pork chops outside while Barbara worked on the veggies. TJ joined us for lunch and we had a really nice “family time” together.
As you can see from the picture, Mother’s house had an American Flag flying proudly out front. One of the Mineola service organizations sets out flags as a fundraiser and many homes and businesses have Old Glory flying during national holidays.
I worked on last week’s journal during the afternoon, trying desperately to get caught up (I didn’t, but I tried very hard) and then we made a trip to Walmart so Barbara could return a package of lettuce that was very bad, even though the sell date was for tomorrow and was guaranteed fresh until June 1.
Barbara: At first they told me at customer service that their policy was "no return on food products." I quickly pointed out that the package stated, "guaranteed fresh". The lady stuck to her guns in such a superior way that my dander was up and I decided that I'd like to talk to someone else. (Hey, at least I smiled at her as I made that request...more than she gave me...or at least that I could see.)
Next up...customer relations supervisor. The "cheerful" clerk explained the situation. The super looked at me, the package, and back to me. Then she asked for the receipt. That required a trip to the car...oops...efficient Jim at taken all receipts into the house. Back to her...I explained the receipt was at home, never thought to bring it, etc. She said, "No receipt, no return."
By then, it was a matter of the silly package says "guaranteed fresh" what part of that says you have to have a receipt...long story...this lady makes a call and I get Edith's 88 cents back. Yep, you read that right...all that hassle for almost an hour was for 88 cents. Isn't that a hoot?
As I said, that was an adventure in itself and by the time we left the store, we agreed that based on our experiences of the evening, if it had been our first trip to a Walmart store, it would have also been our last.
Once we returned home, I found the lettuce receipt and took it to Wal-Mart since the lady practically accused me of stealing the package out of their trash...sure enough we had bought 2 just 2 days ago and I was given the other 88 cents. She actually almost, not quite, appologized.
Finally the rest of the night was just a quiet evening at home.
Tuesday, June 1
Mother has been going through a “1 step forward and 2 steps backward” stage with Parkinson’s the last couple of weeks and the last few days have been three steps backward, so first thing this morning Barbara and I went to Dr. Bankhead’s office here in Mineola to get the earliest possible appointment this week. As it turned out, we were able to get a 10:15 appointment today, which was just great. Actually, we could have gotten a 9:15 appointment, but we knew Mother wouldn’t be able to get ready by then, so we chose the later time.
We got back to the office with Mother at a little after 10:00 and had to wait only a few minutes until one of the nurses got us, took Mother’s blood pressure (tried to take it, that is…that had to wait until later) and other vital readings. We were then ushered into a waiting room until Dr. Bankhead came in a started her work. Dr. Bankhead has not only a wonderful sense of humor, but she is great in giving each patient full attention as she asks questions and listens to the answers. One can tell immediately that when she is with a patient, that person is the only person in the world as far as the doctor is concerned.
After talking to Mother and us, the doctor ordered some blood tests to check for various vitamin and thyroid deficiencies, possible reasons for Mother’s extreme fatigue of the last few days.
While we were waiting for the blood work, Barbara and I decided that we might as well sign up to have Dr. Bankhead as our GP, so we sat down and filled out the necessary paperwork. Since neither of us ever sees a doctor unless it’s an emergency, they will probably never find any of our records. Dr. Bankhead will just have to take us as we are and figure out what we need.
As a result of Mother’s visit this morning and the doctor’s statement that her blood pressure was a little on the high side today, we decided that we’d all start checking our blood pressure 2-3 times a day. After the first reading, I decided I didn’t want to get that much bad news. My BP is pretty much off the charts, so I guess I’ll be finding out more that I wanted to know about health care under sociable security.
We had an earlier than usual lunch today and just as Mother finished and headed to her room, our friends Gene and Michelle stopped by to visit for a few minutes. They have been so busy trying to sell their place in Kansas and get the new house built down here that we just haven’t had time to talk to and about each other. Even today’s visit was a condensed version, but it was really good to just sit down and visit for about thirty minutes.
Later, we drove out to Gene and Michelle’s new house to give them a couple of extra sets of eyes to check out the place with the builder. They are getting very close to closing on the deal, but wanted to make sure that everything was done correctly. We each found some things that others had missed and got them on the check sheet to be taken care of later, so I guess it was good that we were able to go out there today.
Once we got Mother back to the house and fed the puppies, we headed north so I could work on the lot while Barbara went to her bi-weekly Bridge meeting at the church. I spent my time setting water on our plants and “front” yard and hauling trash up from the gully to start a new burn pile for later in the week.
Wednesday, June 2
Happy Birthday today to Zeke Duke in Knox City, Texas!!!
We started the morning with a really nice surprise. When I got up to have my morning coffee and check my email, We found a couple of emails from Whitney with pictures of Little Jimmy with his birthday gifts…also a picture of a little sign, “Garden Thyme,” that we sent Whitney for her birthday. Whit also sent a really sweet note thanking us again for the gifts. It is easy to see that Little Jimmy is going to be a natural for the cameraman!
After fixing breakfast and taking care of business around Mother’s house this morning, Barbara and I drove back up to our lot to do a little work there. It seems that the more we do, the more we see that needs to be done and were grateful that we’re able to get away from Mineola for a couple of hours at a time to whittle away at projects on Our Little Lot.
We’ve talked for a long time about putting up a mock street sign at the corner of our property line and Gary and Linda’s property line. Some time back Linda got a golf cart for riding around the park and because of her proximity to our land, we suggested that she could save time by driving down our easement, connecting with our driveway, and then heading down Geronimo to the clubhouse or wherever she needed to go.
Barbara talked to Bob the other day about finding a suitable post so we could make a street sign. Last night, Bob brought a pretty good length of 4” X 4” post for us to use if we wanted. Before coming out this morning, we stopped at Walmart to buy some things we thought would work for street signs and when we got to the lot, we started to work. I helped Barbara fashion the sign boards and then I left her t go dig a hole and set the post.
Finally, we were finished with our respective jobs and I got a trusty heavy-duty stapler and mounted the signs on the post. Then, Barbara went to get Linda so she could see the new intersection of Little Lane and Linda Drive. Linda was, of course, delighted with the new sign and couldn’t wait to show it to Gary, who was off the property at the time.
This afternoon I went to Mother’s back yard and cleaned out some of the flower beds. It’s been hot and dry here (high humidity, but no sign of rain). The plants that we want to raise are wilting, but the grasses, clover, and other greenery in the flower beds are flourishing…go figure! Mother came out to survey her estate while I was mowing. She was very pleased to see the new blooms appearing on the hydrangeas we set out a few weeks ago…now if we can just get those zinnias blooming!
Tonight we just took it easy around the house and worked on writing text and choosing and editing pictures for a couple of weeks of the journal and blog.
Thursday, June 3
I was up and about early this morning…don’t know why I woke up so early, but I had time after having that first cup of coffee to finish reading my morning mail and then water the flower beds. We are going through a short (we hope) drought and have the sprinkler system set to water on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; but with the heat we’ve been having, the flower beds can’t go two days without water, so we’re having to hand water them on the “off” days.
Once we got everyone underway and had breakfast, Barbara and I left Mother at the house and went to Lindale to get our hair cut and do some shopping. Besides our haircuts at the Walmart Style Shop, we needed some cinder blocks and posts from Lowe’s for the lake lot, Barbara wanted to do some shopping for Mother and herself at Cado’s, and then we returned to Walmart to buy groceries and supplies for the house. When we left Mineola this morning, we didn’t know what we’d do with all the time we had before noon, but found out by the time it was over that we didn’t have enough time.
When we walked out of Walmart with all the groceries, we decided that we’d just let the Colonel cook our lunch, so we drove across the lot to KFC and ordered meals to take back to the house.
After our meal, Barbara broke out the new outfits she bought for Mother at Cado’s. She told Mother that we bought the lunch because we spent Mother’s money buying her clothes. Mother just laughed and was very happy to see what we had purchased. She tried on two pairs of the pants and a top that matched both of them and declared that she was pleased with them.
While Barbara did some brainstorming and fixing things inside and on the patio, I set fire to the burn pile and hauled a few more loads of trash up from the gully. We were hoping that the promise of rain would come true tonight and wash the lot clean, but it turned out to be just another empty promise.
When we saw TJ today she asked if Mother had told us about the little old ladies tea party tomorrow. We said we hadn’t heard anything about it, so TJ said that she was hosting a tea party/luncheon for two of her friends and Mother tomorrow at noon and that Barbara and I could have a “date day.” I said that was great because there was a lot of mowing and trimming that needed to be done at the lake and we could get that done during the morning before it got too hot. Barbara said, “That’s my husband, the great romantic!”
Friday, June 4
We started the day early this morning, hoping to get everything ready so we could start working at Big V by 9:00. Once we really got rolling, Barbara put together a sack of sandwich makings and helped Mother get dressed while I took the Vibe to Walmart for gas and went to the post office. When I left Walmart, I decided to drive by Dr. Bankhead’s office to see about an appointment for next week. After three days of checking blood pressure and watching all the numbers keep rising, I figured I’d better get over my aversion to doctors and find out what’s going on and what to do about it. Besides, all I have to do is send the bills to Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, right?
I guess it was my lucky day to set an appointment, because they have a slot just waiting for me at 8:15 Monday morning.
When we got to Holiday Village, we stopped at the sales office to visit with Josh about an idea Barbara had for developing a directory for the park…pictures and basic information about the residents and property owners…much like the yearbooks she sponsored in school. Josh seemed to think it might be a good idea, so he is going to visit with folks “in a higher pay grade” about it.
We also asked if it would be possible to have our new hammock delivered to the lot while we were on property this morning. When we first asked about it, Josh told us it was very heavy and could only be moved in a pickup. Since we are limited to the Vibe and the motorcycle, we just let them keep the hammock in storage at the clubhouse. Later, Josh said he’d have it delivered to us, but that didn’t happen, so this morning was just a gentle reminder and Josh said it would definitely be delivered today.
We went on to the lot, unloaded the mower and other assorted tools and things for the day at Big V and then Barbara started mowing while I went to find Bob to use his pickup to move our trailer in the storage lot. Char, the lady who runs the clubhouse and manages other park facilities, said that our big trailer was blocking access to some storage buildings in the lot and asked if we could move it to another slot. We’ve tried for several days to get it moved, but when we visited Bob and Mary last night, Bob said they’d be on property today and he’d be glad to help.
While all this was going on, we received a call from TJ to let us know that she was taking Mother to Dr. Bankhead this afternoon to get a cortisone injection in her swollen right knee. We didn’t know whether we should return to Mineola to help, but TJ said she had it under control.
Once Bob and I moved the trailer and got it re-set in the storage lot, I returned to Our Little Lot to do the trimming, clipping, and mowing that Barbara couldn’t finish because of the slope involved. When I finished that, I started watering a couple of flower beds, but was interrupted by one of the park employees who was delivering our hammock. As it turned out, I could have easily moved the hammock by myself in the Vibe (with the seats down, of course); it wasn’t nearly as heavy or bulky as we had been told.
Before Bob and Mary left this morning, Barbara had asked them to come back for lunch and told them that she would call Gene and Michelle, who were doing the final walk through and becoming TX homeowners, to come, too.
Just as I was getting ready to open the box and put the hammock together, Gene and Michelle arrived and shortly thereafter, Bob and Mary joined the group. So, before we knew it, we had a party going on at our place. Barbara, Michelle and Mary took advantage of the air conditioning in Big V while Gene, Bob, and I sat outside in our new patio area to eat and talk.
Of course, there was also a picture-taking session that went along with all the frivolity. I didn’t think we even had the camera with us today since all we had planned to do was work, but I guess I should have known better. Due to a little verbal prank Gene pulled earlier in the day, Mary repaid him by sitting in his lap (bottom middle). Therefore, Barbara felt that it was only right to take a photo of Michelle with Bob (top left).
I gave the hammock a try and declared that it was okay. I’ve never been a big hammock fan (it’s hard to have a hammock when you live in country that doesn’t have trees), but this one is free standing and needs trees only for shade.
Back at the house we unloaded the car and settled in for whatever was going to happen the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Saturday, June 5
This may have been one of the most “nothing” days we’ve had in a long, long time. We had every intention of either driving the 13 miles to Grand Saline to take part in the last day of the Salt Festival or doing house work and yard work, but neither of us slept well last night…when one was asleep for a couple of hours, the other was awake and vice versa. As a result, we ended up being sleepy all day and tried to play catch up by taking naps (alternately, of course).
We finally got untracked enough to fix lunch and then felt exhausted again…maybe it was the overwhelming heat and humidity, but we were just zapped all day long.
Later in the afternoon our friends Gene and Carolyn stopped by for a few minutes to visit. They had been out and about and were headed back to their house over by Lake Holbrook (about 6 miles from Mother’s house). We invited them to join us at Holiday Village tonight for the monthly bingo blowout, but they were tired and headed on home.
After making sure that Mother and the puppies were fed and comfortable, we drove out to the village, parked our car on our lot and walked over to the clubhouse to sit with Bob and Mary and have dinner before bingo started.
I’m not sure what standard time we thought we were on, but we were an hour early of what we needed to be, but that gave us plenty of time to visit with Bob and Mary and other property owners who were out and about for the night.
Bingo wasn’t nice to us tonight, although each of us came close a couple of games; but it really isn’t about winning (although you might not be able to convince a couple of the residents of that) and we did meet a very interesting couple, Larry and Mary, who shared the table with Bob, Mary, and us. Did we take out camera? Of course not, so we’ll just have to take pictures of new friends another time.
“I think the teaching profession contributes more to the future of our society than any other single profession. I'm glad I was a teacher.” – John Wooden, legendary basketball coach (1910 – 2010)
From a hot and humid Mineola,
Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams
