Sunday, October 17
Jim: After a fair night’s sleep last night, I got up early this morning, packed the car, and prepared to leave Lubbock to return to Mineola.
Leah was still asleep when I left, but since she didn’t have to drive nearly as far as I did, she could afford to sleep in.The plan that Barbara and I had was that if Jimmy Clint was going to be held in the hospital for any further length of time, one of us could return to Lubbock on Tuesday or Wednesday to continue putting the house together so Jimmy could make an easier transition. Little did we know at the time we made the plan that it was just wasted time and energy (the plan, that is).
Anyway, I spent the day driving as fast as the law allowed from Lubbock to Sweetwater to Mineola, making only three short stops along the way and completing the trip in only 7 hours and 15 minutes, a new record for me.
I had been in the house only a few minutes when we got a call from Jimmy Clint telling us that his cardiologist had released him from the hospital because they needed that room for another patient, even though Jimmy was supposed to be examined Monday morning by his neurologist and internal medicine specialist. After talking with a friend who is very familiar with the system, we found that this is not an uncommon occurrence, and that the admitting doctor can dismiss a patient, even though another doctor might disagree with that decision…go figure!
Luckily, one of Jimmy’s friends was available to pick him up and take him to the house where he could start getting settled in by himself. We spent the rest of the evening staying getting my stuff unpacked and put away and in staying in touch with Jimmy to see how he was doing.
Barbara: Since Jim had the car, I was left without wheels to attend church; so after getting Edith ready for church with TJ, I tackled the beginnings of moving knick-knacks, books, etc. out of the hallway and the hutch in the living room. Between this activity, checking on Jim’s travel progress, and preparing lunch for Edith and TJ, I kept myself pretty busy.
Once lunch was over and the kitchen cleaned up, Edith and I decided that a nap was in order. As I told Jim, it was my duty to take one for him also since he was behind the wheel and not able to get one in at that time. Don’t really think he appreciated the sacrifice I was making for him. Go figure!
Monday, October 18
Today was the beginning of a huge house cleaning operation as we prepared to have new carpet laid in Mother’s living room and hallway. Barbara did a lot of dusting and together we hauled all of Mother’s knick-knacks and assorted treasures to the garage. Then, the heavy work started, as every piece of furniture had to be picked up and carried to the garage as well. After a few hours, it looked as if we were having the garage sale to end all garage sales!
When the living room and hallway were cleared out, we dusted and swept every corner and crevice and then I wet-mopped the floors before laying down a swath of insect repellant along the baseboards. By the end of the day, the place was sparkling (and very empty, except for one of the couches, which we left until we could have some additional help tomorrow morning).
Visitors today included Keith, Mother’s physical therapist, and Ann, the occupational therapist from At-Home-Healthcare. Both of these folks have worked wonders with Mother in helping her to regain some mobility and the ability to do more for herself. As a bonus, Ann and Keith are very pleasant, very professional people who help to brighten our day, as well as Mother’s.
Tuesday, October 19
While Barbara stayed home with Mother, I got up early and drove to Yantis for the weekly prayer group. When I returned, we did some last-minute dusting and cleaning in the living room and hallway, and then waited for the carpet layer to arrive.
Around 9:30 the carpet man arrived and went to work after helping me move the couch to the garage. It was interesting to watch him work (by himself), as he measured, cut, and did all the different things necessary to get the carpet down. He worked very quickly and efficiently, and by 12:30, all the carpet was laid and secured and we had all the furniture moved back in place.
When the first sections of carpet went down, we began to have our doubts about the color…it looked much too dark, but by the time the furniture was placed, we knew that Mother had selected exactly the right shade for the room…what a difference it made!
We were going to take our usual nap during the afternoon, but decided instead to start moving all the “treasures” back to their appointed places. Barbara wanted to change some things around and as usual, she was right about what needed to be done. By the time she was finished, all the knick-knacks were set in the hutch so they made sense (there is history involved with every piece, and now each section tells a story).
We finished up the rooms in time to get ready for Sophie to arrive and watch Mother while Barbara went to her Bridge Club at the church and I went to Our Little Lot to do some work in and around Big V. I had in mind to do some mowing, but with the days getting shorter, I found that there was little time to work outside, so I made myself useful by doing some much-needed cleaning inside.
By the time we got back home, we were worn out from all the day’s activities and spent an hour or so watching TV and checking email before putting Mother to bed and then crashing in our own bed.
Wednesday, October 20
Happy Birthday to Cousin Michelle Sandley!!!
This seems to be a week of plan changes…We started out the day with the idea that Sophie would be over to stay with Mother from 9:00 – 12:00 and Barbara would go to Bible Study at the church while I did yard work at Our Little Lot. But, we didn’t get very far into the early morning when Barbara suggested that we go looking for a new bed for Mother.
We have been talking to Mother about getting a bed that would allow her to change mattress positions…not a hospital bed, which is too confining, but a bed that has many adjustment features of a hospital bed, but which is more comfortable and functional.
Barbara did some research and found that a company in McKinney makes such a bed and has an outlet store at Canton. Since Canton is a city that we have only passed through (at 70 mph), we thought this would be a great opportunity to see what is there and maybe even see the site of the Canton First Monday event, undoubtedly the largest flea market in the state.
After checking our mail and then getting breakfast at Sonic, we made our way to Canton through a series of back roads out of Grand Saline. When we got to Canton, we immediately found the grounds for First Monday (and they are huge and sprawling…will have to go there someday to see what it is all about, but Heather and Andy and others have told us that a person can find anything there). But, we had no luck in locating the store we wanted…later, we found that the “store” is a stall that is open during First Monday days, so we’ll either have to go back to Canton during that time, or take a day to go to McKinney to the big store.
Unable to accomplish what we set out to do, we took some more back roads to find the community of Van, the site of Lindale’s next football opponent. Now, we’re not particularly football fans of anyone these days, but our friends Heidi and Curt have invited us to come watch Hannah’s drill team perform, and our options were to go to Van this Friday or wait another week and go to a Lindale home game.
We didn’t make any firm decision about which game we will attend, but after seeing how small the stands are at Van (not very many and all on the same side of the field) and the narrow, winding roads leading to Van, we are inclined today to go to the game in Lindale on Halloween weekend.
We found our way back to Lindale and then decided that we had time left in the morning to find the ranch where Heidi is the food service manager. It took us a couple of stops and some telephone book searching to figure out where we needed to go, but the trip was more than worth the time.
The Rocking C Ranch is a Christian-based working ranch that provides for a variety of camp experiences and also teams with the Lindale schools to provide ranch experiences for elementary school kids. It is located in a beautiful setting northwest of Lindale and south of Hawkins on Texas 14.
Once we arrived, Heidi gave us a grand tour of the cookhouse and dining hall and showed us some of the sights around the ranch. She didn’t have time to give us the full tour, but promised to do so when we all had time to visit again. And...next time, we'll make certain we have our trusty camera along, too!
After our delightful visit with Heidi, we returned to Mineola to while away the afternoon and evening with the usual household chores and activities…nothing exciting, but Barbara did get to find time to visit Leslie at the beauty shop and get her hair cut.
Thursday, October 21
The big news of the day was a phone call from Mike letting us know that they were boarding a plane and beginning a two-week visit to East Asia…Our thoughts and prayers, as well as those of many others, will certainly be with them as they travel to visit old friends and meet new ones during this time.
Outside of that phone call and my visit to Dr. Bankhead’s office to let one of the local vampires draw blood for some tests; this was an uneventful day…just the usual chores around the house until we took time tonight to beginning burning CDs of yesterday’s Bible Study class.
Friday, October 22
After getting the day started, Barbara and I decided we’d go to Staples in Mt. Pleasant to get CD labels that we needed for a church project that we do. Our friend Lisa records her Bible Study lesson each Wednesday morning and then Barbara brings the recorder home and we download the lesson to our computers, edit it, and burn anywhere from 16 – 19 CDs to be distributed to class members who want them. We’ve gotten the process down pretty well, but we wanted to do a little extra, so Barbara designed a label that I print and then stick onto each CD. Last week we ran out of labels and had to find some more and the closest place we could find the Memorex labels we like was Mt. Pleasant.
We got Sophie to come over and stay with Mother for a couple of hours while we made the drive to Mt. Pleasant to buy labels and then do some quick shop-looking next door at Dollar Tree, one of Barbara’s favorite stores.
When we returned to the house, we had lunch with Mother, rested for a bit, and then went to work on this week’s edition of the Psalm 23 CDs. Later, we had a visit from Ann, Mother’s occupational therapist.
Around 4:00 the UPS man showed up with a package…Mother’s new bidet seat that we had ordered a couple of days ago. We weren’t expecting it until Monday, so this was quite a surprise. As soon as we got the package inside we opened it and decided to start the installation process in Mother’s bathroom, including removing the old toilet seat and cover, cleaning the toilet thoroughly, installing a new set of handrails, and then installing the bidet seat (fastening it to the toilet and hooking up the water and electric lines.
Later, we went over to TJ’s house to see how she was doing after having hand surgery this morning in Tyler. Her friend Marge and taken her to the doctor and brought her back home. We decided TJ could probably use a little supper, so Barbara cooked up a grilled cheese sandwich for her while we were over there.
When we returned to Mother’s house we just chilled out for the evening, watching a little TV and doing some computer work.
Saturday, October 23
Today was very unremarkable…just a day of housework, cooking, and laundry, followed by an evening of producing the CD’s for the church Bible study group…not very exciting, just life at Mother’s house.
Sunday, October 24
Since TJ couldn’t get out or drive because of her wrist surgery, Mother wasn’t able to go to her church this morning. Barbara and I hired Sophie to spend most of the day watching after Mother and we went ahead with our regular Sunday schedule…attending Sunday school and Church at Yantis First Baptist Church, spending the afternoon working around Big V, and then returning to Yantis for choir practice and the monthly business meeting.
Right at the end of the business meeting we received notice that a storm was brewing in the area and a tornado warning was sounding. While many went on to the Family Life Center for shelter and the game night that was scheduled for the evening, Barbara and I decided we would head south as quickly as possible so we could get back to Mother’s house.
We faced a lot of wind and some rain until we crossed the 154 bridge over Lake Fork. From there on, the rain gradually diminished. We made a quick stop at Holiday Villages to check on Big V and close the windows and then drove on south. We were completely out of the rain by the time we got to Quitman and it was dry as dirt in Mineola. Mother and Sophie didn’t even know there was a warning out.
The rest of the evening was fairly quiet except for a brief rain shower that was quickly followed by clear skies. We finished the day by watching a little TV and then going to bed to read before falling asleep.
Monday, October 25
This ended up being a very full day for the three of us. Mother and I both had dermatology appointments in Tyler. My appointment was at 10:40 at one of the Tyler Dermatology Associates sites, and Mother’s was at 1:30 at the other site across town.
It didn’t take nearly as long to get to Beckham Street as we thought, so we arrived quite early for my appointment. While I went inside, Barbara and Mother drove across the street to fill the Vibe’s gas tank. What none of us knew was that the P.A. who was working on me was ready as soon as I got inside, so it didn’t take any time at all to have the examination, schedule another follow-up appointment, and get back outside.
With time to kill before Mother’s appointment, we decided to go to Dollar Tree on the Loop to see what we couldn’t live without. Mother was in an adventurous mood, so we got her into her wheelchair and wheeled her through the store aisles where she could see what was available. And, sure enough, she found several items she thought we needed around the house. This was the first time to go out shopping with the new wheelchair and it was so successful that we are now looking forward to more adventures like it.
We were all hungry by the time we left Dollar Tree. Mother suggested going to Red Lobster, so we got directions to the restaurant…found when we got there that it was only a couple of minutes from the site of Mother’s appointment, and went inside to enjoy a great meal in a wonderful atmosphere.
We got to the dermatology clinic right on time, but unlike my visit this morning that got rushed through, Mother’s appointment went way longer than we were told it would. Mother was there to have a squamous cell cancer removed from her arm. The procedure was supposed to take only 45 minutes or so, but we ended up staying until nearly 4:00. We never did find out why we had to wait so long for the procedure to begin, but all went well in its own time. When they were done with the surgery, we made an appointment for a follow-up date to have the sutures removed and then headed back to Mineola.
Mother had stayed awake for the entire day, so she was one tired puppy when we got back to the house. We had a quick bite to eat and then Mother decided she was ready to go to bed for the night.
Gene and Michelle were guests at our house tonight. They are in town for a few days before returning to their place in Kansas.
When we found out that they were here, we invited them over for finger foods, conversations, and a couple of hot rounds of Rummi-Cube.
After a lot of talking, eating, and good-natured jibes at each other for our varying styles of play, we decided that we were all weary with well-doing and called it a night. And…as the bottom photo shows, Spike spent much of the evening just checking on us!
Tuesday, October 26
After all the activity yesterday, I completely forgot what day it was and missed the weekly prayer meeting at Yantis FBC…don’t know what was going through my feeble mind.
The only other big ticket item on the agenda was a trip to Quitman to take Mother to see Mr. Roberts, her attorney, to make some adjustments to her Will.
While we were there in Quitman, Mother decided that she wanted to absentee vote which was really great! That didn’t take much time and when we returned to the house; Barbara had a late lunch waiting for us.
The rest of the day was spent just doing some normal household chores…nothing exciting, but all of it necessary (at least we thought so at the time).
Wednesday, October 27
Birthday Greetings go out today to Cousin Paula Wright in Graceville, Florida!!!
Hey…This was a date day for us…the first we’ve had in a long time. We got Sophie to watch Mother for the day, fired up the motorcycle, and headed off to see parts of East Texas north and east of us. We were hoping to see some fall colors, but it’s still a little early for that. There were a few patches of early color changes, but the real sights will be coming along in another couple of weeks. But, we thoroughly enjoyed the ride and the time to get away for a few hours…Thank you Mother and Sophie!
Thursday, October 28
Barbara spent most of today working around the house and checking recipes for some meals she wanted to make in the near future. We did go to Walmart together to buy a bill of groceries, then brought them home and got everything put away…really exciting stuff!
As we approached the house, we were blown away with the abundance of color some fall flowers have given the front of Mother’s house. We’re not sure why we hadn’t noticed them before…guess we just took them for granted. Not a good thing!
By the time I returned to the church, I was able to get the recorder and return it to the house…and that was about the extent of the activities and excitement for our day…just another “normal” (whatever that is) day in Wood County.
For the second time in a week we had visitors at the house…we’re getting to be real social gadflies! Tonight our guests were Ken and Donna Good, who have just returned to Holiday Villages after spending several months working at a Corp of Engineers campground in Idaho.
We met Ken and Donna back in the spring, just a few days before they were to leave for Idaho. They had spent some time in a campground south of Artesia at one point in their lives and had even attended First Baptist Church in Artesia, probably at the same time we were there…talk about a small world!
Friday, October 29
We spent the morning cleaning and cooking…regular activities around here. We had to make another run to Medicine Chest for a prescription for Mother. The folks there have become like long lost friends to us and it’s always fun to start out the day receiving their smiles and conversations!
We are really glad that we re-thought our position on facebook access as we’ve thoroughly enjoyed catching up with the life and times of family, friends, and former students. Another plus we have found is that we can catch glimpses of the grandkids from others’ walls which is exactly what we did to capture Jimmy as a crayon, Abby as a witch (how can someone so precious be called a witch?) and Randi sporting her new school athletic jacket. Now that is what one calls a definite plus!
Since it was Halloween weekend, all the beauticians, stylists, operators, whatever the commercially correct term may be, were dressed in costumes and their theme for this year was The Wizard of Oz. Leslie, our friend who we first met at the shop in Lindale, but who has now set up a booth in Mineola, was outfitted as the Wicked Witch. I told Leslie that I had heard some of those stories about her, but she was polite to me anyway (and did a beautiful job with Mother’s hair.
This evening we had Sophie come stay with Mother while we drove to Lindale to watch a football game. Well, we didn’t care that much about the game, but we did get to see Hannah perform with the LHS drill team.
Heidi had even made each of us a sack lunch complete with hotdog, homemade potato salad, chips, dessert, and candies as well as a drink. Now you can’t beat service like that!
I was particularly interested in watching the halftime show which featured the Lindale High School band, a very traditional military style band and the Canton HS band, a decidedly corps style band. Both of the bands performed well and were good representatives of their respective schools.
Halftime went extra long tonight, but we were still able to get back to Mineola and Mother’s house within a few minutes of the time that we had told Sophie to leave. We sent the rest of the evening catching up on email and other correspondence before heading to bed around midnight.
Saturday, October 30
Barbara decided that today would be a great time to try out another round of new recipes, so after a quick trip to Walmart for a few items, we went to work in the kitchen. By the time we were finished, she had made homemade applesauce, pear sauce, sweet potato soup (yum-yum) and a couple of batches of cookies.
In between recipes she also took care of laundry duties as I tried to keep up with the dirty dishes which were piling up by the minute.
This afternoon I tackled some yard chores, trying to stay even with the mowing and trimming…just an awful lot to do around here to keep up with things.
Tonight was just quiet time for us as we watched a little TV, checked email, and did not much of anything else…did have two trick-or-treaters show up tonight. Luckily, we had a dish of candy in the living room so we could share with them.
“The test of love is in how one relates not to saints and scholars but to rascals.” - Abraham Joshua Heschel, Warsaw-born American rabbi and Jewish philosopher
From Mineola with love,
Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams
