AUGUST, 2003
~Let me show kindness now
as I shall not pass this way again."
~ William Penn
August 2, 2003 ~ Quick Touch and Go ~~ It's been busy, busy, busy. One would think after working on three class projects for five weeks, it would be time to take a rest from the computer. No so! The computer beacons and there is nothing else to do but follow its lead. This time the action is found at The Place where the PSPers keep up to snuff' on their skills and help each other learn new activities to do with Paint Shop Pro. Already have a challenge done which is an animated deep sea picture. Now the Sig. Swap is going on where everyone that joined in is busy making new signatures for the one who's name was selected. It only began yesterday and boy do we have new tags being posted. My member has seven that I've made for her, and I've received five for me. This is the time to work really hard and enjoy the challenges as new ideas are put to work making signatures for each other. We have one of our fold who makes exceptional brushes that has agreed to write up a tutorial to share some of her expertise with the rest of us.
Here at home the computer has been shared with the grandchildren this week. Allan has been here a lot with Buddy Boy who is out of daycare and awaits the beginning of school. Hopefully he will be beginning school a week from Monday. He will be here with me most of next week since Allan has his second back surgery Wednesday. When he gets out of the hospital he will be staying with me until Cotton arrives. I have a mountain of clothes on the bed he will be using. Best I get to folding and hanging clothes, towels and etc., so the bed can be made up and the room put in order for him to use. This is the room that the smaller grandkids have referred to as "their" room and they have done their share in getting things out of place.
Mother is probably wondering about what happened to Malachi. She worries that something is wrong with him when he doesn't come to see her. I've missed going over now for two days straight so in the morning I have to get myself and Malachi over to the nursing center, no ifs, ands or buts about it. I can't believe that the first of the week I took nail polish remover and polish to do her nails and started removing the polish from her thumb. I mentioned that her polish had held up better than usual and she agreed. Taking another look at her hand I saw that all her nails were the same. Someone had come in to visit her and had painted her nails, Silly, silly me. There I had taken part of the polish off the thumb so being that my polish was a brighter red than what she had on, I had to put another coat on all her nails so that they would match.
Bending over the bed Wednesday evening to kiss Mother bye, I noticed that she didn't have her cross and necklace on. She had no idea what happened to it. Giggles was up on the bed beside Mother so she could give her a kiss, as well as trying to take Malachi's leash out of Mother's hand. They have this little game they play of who does Malachi belong to. Mother enjoys this tete-to-tete of words with Giggles so I didn't try to interrupt. Suddenly Giggles spoke up and said she knew where the necklace was and climbed over the side rail to pick it up off the floor. The strange thing about it being there is the fact that the frail chain had been woven around the cross tightly. Mother could not have done that to the necklace if she could see because of her shaking. One has to wonder at the happenings taking place in that room. The piece of bubble gum was finally gone from under the head of her head, after a month of laying there. The visit before that I collected candy wrappers from three different places around her room. Again, it would have been impossible for Mother to have done it. Her broken blinds are down and gone. Wonder how long until something is put up to replace them.
It's really getting me down to have to go over to the nursing home and deal with Mother and her problems. No one else bothers to come around which weighs heavily on me. I thought about leaving the birthday card for brother there in her room, but chances on that he will not be around to get it. I've got to get it to him. Aug..3 Another Sunday Begins ~~ Not unlike any other day of the week or so it seems nowadays. I miss the sanctuary of peace and atonement brought about with regular church attendance. What once was home is now a foreign zone in so many ways. The weekly bulletin relates facts and activities which seem so far away with unknown names far outranking the known. Time changes things and the church is no stranger to change. The major difference for me is in the fact that I'm no longer around to witness and know what is taking place within the church family. I feel more like an outcast of the family; one no longer with the ability to shoulder a part of the Christian community.
Many friends have moved on from this mortal life which becomes more desolate for many among us. Desolate? Yes. The news foretells of a turn around in the economy. Not so for our area. With the passing of time more and more industries of our area find the luring of moving our of the United States to greener pastures abroad. Yes, literally greener as in the color of money bills. Lining the pockets of a few with more money seems to outweigh the health and stability of our nation. As of Saturday the unemployment rate for our area has risen to 9.1%, a hefty jump from only a year ago. Families are hurting and fearful as the workforce continues to shrink and replacement positions becoming fewer and fewer. Will there be families turned out of homes when loan payments come due and there is no money to pay the huge amount facing them? Only time will answer the question.
Medical costs are also affected by the closing of industries. No work/no insurance needs no explanation. People out of work are in no position to take up exhortative premiums due on their policies. One example aired on television was a man who lost his position with the company filed for bankruptcy. Only he and his wife were affected, but insurance payments of over six hundred dollars a month can't be paid when one is not working. One prescription along for him has been paid mostly by the insurance as he only paid a small fraction as coppery. To continue his medication, he needs to come up with close to four hundred dollars a month; an amount not included in assets of drawing unemployment checks for a while. These families affected this time had no warning with time to look around for help. Children are no exception. With school beginning, families are unable to meet the needs of their children as they return to classrooms.
July has been no exception for breaking weather records - again. Seems this is the year for breaking weather records. There were only three days when the temperature reached up in the nineties which is most unusual. No less unusual was the fact that there were nineteen days of rain compared to the average of three. And then there are the thunderstorms that abounded. Duke Power Company has instruments for measuring lightening strikes. July's lightening strikes added up to an average of 4,000 strikes a day in this one general area of four counties.. There are some beautiful lush, green lawns everywhere one looks which is definitely better than this time last year. Mowers are having to work overtime to keep these green terrains from becoming too shaggy.
The Grandchildren will be back in school about midweek. It seems strange that one will be in high school and two will be in middle school. Then there will be one in Second grade, Kindergarten and Preschool . BingoKid has already spent over two weeks in band camp as the band prepared for upcoming events. He has signed up for the Jazz Band, too. NascarKid begins school with soccer, followed by wrestling. DynoKid can play on the soccer team along with big brother, but when wrestling begins, he will be the manager since the Sixth Graders are not allowed to take part in the events. Or is it the other way around. Can he not play soccer this first year? He may be just opposite of what I remember. As always, time will tell.
August 6, 2003 ~ Wednesday Downsville Supremeo ~~ There are the best of times; there are the worst of times and then there are the Stormy times. Times always seem to pop up when nothing seems to be going quite the way you would expect them to. Responses from others are opposite of what you desire, want or need. In other words, nothing goes right. For the past little while I've tried to overlook how I've felt and how interaction with others has been. Then the time comes and there is an overbearing awareness of everything happening the wrong way. Nothing puts you down in the dumps more than feeling awful and so many things going wrong.
Several days surprised me as I moved about and seemed to have all my energy back again. Good, that part of my being unable to do so many things had passed. But that was not to be. Only two days later and as I get up from the bed I am very dizzy, having to grab hold of the corner of the dresser to get my balance and wait out the dizziness. The rest of the day I lugged around the heavy exhaustion and feeling bad. It is still with me and I know not why. The doctors know not why. The family is much like everyone else about remembering for any length of time that something may not be quite right with me. In this case, I am winging things by myself as best I can.
This being the time that Mom is back in school getting ready for the opening for the school year, I've had NascarKid and DynoKid. They've been asked each day to do something for me. DynoKid usually comes through, but this year he has not be as reliable. Maybe it's the fact that he is getting to that age of trying to take charge of himself. He does begin Middle School this year. That means no more long trips over the mountain and out the road to the school in the country. School now is closer than where they live. In fact it is on the same road leading to their home. Already, I've met Mom with them there at the school so she could take them to orientation and find out about their classes and teachers.
Yesterday they said they would vacuum for me. Did they? No, a convenient time didn't jump to attention for them. The younger one did put the slip cover on the smaller couch and it looks sort of good. The older boy made a not to successful attempt to put the other on the larger couch. His attempt took only a few minutes. He left one side barely over the high curved arm. Nothing was tucked in anywhere and when Dad came to pick them up, he guessed that DynoKid had been successful. The other couch? Dad plopped down on the covered end to watch TV a spell before heading home with the boys. When they left for home, no vacuuming was done, the couch appeared to have a high side and a low side.
Today I am sitting in the waiting room for one day surgery. All surgery now comes in to this area, but in reality, Allan will be spending a night or two in the hospital. His room is not assigned until after the surgery since it will give a little more time for him in the hospital than if the surgery took one of his days. The doctor's office called yesterday and asked that he come to the hospital earlier than what he was told during pre-op. Little good that did. I sat with him waiting for his surgery for three and a half hours. During that time nurses sped pass his cubicle and ne'er a glance towards him. The receptionist came by about two hours into the stay and got him a warm blanket. At the three hour point I had to go out and find a nurse to bring another IV bag since the one hanging above him was almost empty. It was empty until she got back with the IV solution. Finally they came for him and he was on his way to surgery. It was two fifteen when the nurse called to announce that surgery had begun and he was doing fine. This is a long day.
August 7, 2003 ~ Thursday And The Rest of The Day ~~ Trusty laptop went with me to the Hickory Hospital yesterday, thus I recorded some of the events of the day which became a very long, long day. Shortly after the nurse informed me that surgery was underway I did some quick adding of time and determined that I could possibly be with Allan about the same time the valet service for Same Day Surgery closed. I decided to move my car while I had the chance because otherwise there would have been a great distance to cover in order to get to my car. The parking for surgery is located across the block at another spot behind the Hospitality House. The Cafeteria was closing down by the time I would have walked over to get a late lunch so when I left the hospital there was a quick drive by fast food for a cheeseburger and diet soda.
The new parking space was on the green deck of the parking garage located at the opposite corner of where I had to return. I didn't bother with the valet on that end of the hospital since it closed at 6 PM. The trudging through long corridors made me wish I had remembered to bring along the cane I always carry in the car. In fact, I had back tracked to enter the hospital to avoid the steep walkway. Once back in the Same Day Surgery Waiting Room I joined three other pairs waiting for the phone to ring. By the time Allan was out of surgery I was left all alone sitting in a silent corner of the hospital. Surgery was three and a half hours and the surgeon related that he had removed spurs pressing into the nerve. At five fifteen, he was not yet in recovery, so the doctor said I should get some supper and take my time going up to fifth floor since it would be close to an hour before he would be in his room.
Surgery? What surgery? Allan was in good spirits and jovial as the nurses rolled him into his room after six PM. One would not have guessed he was returning from a long surgery as he was wide awake and trying to take charge of his care. When time came to check his blood pressure. The nurse would come in saying, "I need to take your BP." He replied, "No, you can't have it." Wes and family came in with a bottle of diet mountain dew and a strawberry shake which he had mentioned on the way to the hospital he was going to have Wes bring to him. I related the message when I called to report about the surgery. Allan was surprised to get it so soon. The shake turned out to be his supper. There was one more thing he had Wes to do before we left. He helped Allan get out of the infamous hospital gown into some gym shorts. We could all see the long incision along his back. It's much longer than the first incision from surgery #1.
When I called Wes at home to relate that surgery was over, there was a big surprise for me. BingoKid answered the phone and before I could say anything about Allan, he had something to tell me with bunches of excitement in his voice. He and Papa (His only grandpa) had picked up a golf cart which Allan had bought. He was telling me about driving it and where it was parked - under the carport beside Allan's truck. He also told me to be careful because it would really speed in reverse when first going in that direction. Me? Be careful? Turns out that it was to be a present for me and Allan hadn't meant for me to have it just yet. He hasn't liked my riding my chair around out in the field and down slopes. Guess the chair will be a reminder of what may have been as it sits all alone. I so far have refused to use it in the house. But more and more I'm beginning to feel that the time is here when I should be using it. The rolling chair kept in the kitchen certainly is being used much more.
Something good happened yesterday. First and foremost, Allan reported that the pain in his left foot was gone. That means the pressure is off the nerve.
August 14, 2003 ~ Cyber Granny Turned Hippie? ~~ Maybe! Maybe not! Guess it all depends on who is doing the labeling. In this case, it's my daughter who has come home to help out with her big brother while he recuperates following his back surgery. This month marks a year since I've been to my beautician. I've been primary hair trimmer during this past year. The hair has been getting longer and longer. At one point it looked so scraggly I had to take scissors in hand and snip off about two inches in order to get a thicker look. The comment of looking like a Hippie was made after my saying that I needed to do something with my hair.
Actually, I don't remember the last time my hair was this long. It's been that long ago - perhaps college age. Those that have commented on my hair seem to like it longer. Yes, it includes Cotton, too. Well, she did say something about it being good to have a Hippie-looking grandmother as well as she liked it. The biggest problem for me is having to wash it more often. The jell I use to give my hair some body and help hold it in place also causes it to look droopy after the first day I use it. For that reason I've been considering getting a body permanent.
Anyone watching Thursday evening would definitely refer to me as being a Hippie. Cotton and the grandchildren were riding around the driveway, yard and field in the golf cart. When they came in for supper, DynoKid was unhappy that he didn't get a chance to drive. Big Brother would not surrender the driver's seat. Naturally, after supper I had to take DynoKid out and allow him to drive me around. Before long we were joined by two more jumping on the back to sit and hold on. There were some bumpy spots to drive over and when on the incline we were tilted sideways. All in all we had a good time. I enjoyed the ride as much as the kids.
Ouch! Oh! Moaning and groaning didn't help much early this morning when first I tried to move. Why should I have thought about the aftermath following that golf cart ride yesterday? It took a while to turn over much less having to sit on the side of the bed. It took several attempts before I managed to sit on the side of the bed and reach the medicines. For the moment, I chose to take only the pills that would possibly help alleviate pain. Pain was signaled by the smallest of movements. Literally, from head to toe there was pain. Even here late at night the pain still reigns. Along with the back of my neck pulsating with pain it didn't take very long for it to spread upward. Mid-back made it hard to turn or reach and there was that pain I've known so well extending outward into the hips and down both legs. Walking has been a challenge even with all the doctoring up with the meds. A general weakness takes over all too quickly when I try to do anything.
Cotton came to my rescue midday when she drove down from Allan's house to take Malachi over to visit with Mother. There was no way I could have walked from the car to her room, much less keeping up with the dog, too. Cotton helped Mother to eat her lunch and spent about one and a half hours with her. I'm not sure when I'll be over to the nursing center. In fact, I'm not sure about a lot of things any more.
