Nature Songs ~~~~continued ~

August 28, 2001 - First on the agenda today is to set aside time to write checks and get some bills paid. It’s that time of the month which prances up much too quickly to suit me. Second would be to finish my rewrite of the story for my writing class. If only I could locate my I Shall Wear Purple book! There is a quote in it I would like to use in my story.

The yardman who works for Allan needed to be paid today so I hung around the house waiting for him to come for his check instead of working out. Excuses, excuses. I can make good ones for getting out of doing things sometimes. Whether this is an excuse or a real need I will not worry about. I only know that I must get back to the water. The pain level is going up since I’m not doing the workouts on a regular basis. Exercise gets the endorphines pumped up which in turn keeps the pain level down. More pain on the right side than I have had in the past. The head has bothered me throughout the day.

I messed around and didn’t leave the house until close to seven this evening. First off, a stop at Subway to pick up half a turkey on wheat sub for my meal today. then some time spent with Mother. I worked on the pictures while I was there. Only got close to thirty pages finished....lots more to do....

I was an air-head while there. Those CNA’s and the nurse are going to start cringing when I come around. Thoughtless? Reckless? Irrational? Probably all that and more. Mother wanted to go to the bathroom. She wanted to go by herself. I did look in the hall for some help, but all were busy and not in the hall. I proceeded to push her chair into the bathroom and left her with the caution to be careful...”I’ll be all right. Don’t worry about me.” Those famous last words of hers... It wasn’t long until I hear, “Stormy Jeanne... Stormy Jeanne .. come here a minute.” There was Mother half on the floor and half off her chair. It looked like she may have tried to sit down too soon and missed the right seat. By the time I got out in the hall and called for some help, she was all the way down on the floor and sort of twisted up in her chair leg rest.

When I left, she was in bed and sort of fussing at me for saying I should have called for help before they had to pick her up. In her words, “Well, I thought I could go by myself. I didn’t need help....” How does one get through to her that she is not the person she was forty years ago? If she had been at home, I still would have called someone to come help. No way could I do anything to move her. Then we both would have to have help, if I so much as tugged on her once.

I’ve got the mail all sorted and the bills ready to write the checks for them. One of these days I will begin doing all of this online without having to write checks and mail them out. That is, if the places have the service to receive payments by email. I’ll have to check with Cotton and see how she does it. She pays all of her bills that way. I have my phone done online and payroll deducted, but have never added Mother’s phone to it. I should combine hers with mine. It’s one of those procrastination’s I keep making. So, in the morning I will pay hers separately once again.

One legitimate reason for running late this evening getting out of the house was not exactly all my fault for dragging my feet heading toward the door to leave. The phone kept ringing time after time. Cotton called from New Jersey to check on how things are going down here. NascarKid called to see if a CD I allowed him to order for his birthday had arrived. He thought it would be here in three days. It wasn’t and still isn’t here.

An important call among all of the calls that I answered was Lady. She was checking to make sure I still wanted her to come and work longer tomorrow since she has some spare time. She also didn’t want to get me out of bed by coming early (10 a.m.?) She plans to work about five hours for me tomorrow and get some of that spring cleaning done for me in time for fall. Now to decide, should I have her to take down the Christmas tree? I’m about ready to give it away just to get it out of the house so it won’t be put up again not to be taken down. About time I stop having a tree up at Christmas if it has to remain standing for so many months pass its prime. If it were a beautiful creation, it would be one thing, but the beauty of this one is in the fact that the grandsons did it all.... there’s much to be envisioned mentally instead of by sight. After all it was done with Love by most of them.

Interesting fact mentioned on the evening news today: it has been determined that those people that suffer the sharp pains in their heads while eating ice cream are people most prong to having migraine headaches. This condition can be checked and confirmed by an optometrist when he dilates the eye. I never knew that the eye would show effects of migraines. I do know that I have the sharp pains when eating ice cream too fast or drinking icy drinks too fast and I do have migraine headaches. The only help they offered was one that folks have known for ages... eat more slowly!

The County Fair opened today with rides for the young ones, displays of all sorts of goodies on display as well as the animals, arts and crafts and other exhibits. Tomorrow is Senior Citizen Day and they can attend free of charge. Guess I should get another oldster to go with me and traipse around the fairgrounds to take a gander at all that is to be seen. It has been about twenty years since I’ve been to a fair. On the other hand, why break the fair-less streak? If I were to go, it would be more to my liking to take in one of the evening programs where I could sit in one place and enjoy!
I got some more unsubscribe and removes taken care of on my email today. It’s unreal the amount of spam that finds its way into homes today. It’s worse than the junk mail that comes with the snail mail each day. I’ve got to get into my program and figure out how to block so much of it since there is always some that finds it’s way only one direction and fails to leave a way to get rid of it. My next move is to start sending some to the higher powers that be and let them intervene on some of the smutty stuff.


August 29, 2001 - Things went a little differently around here today. Not that I did that much, speaking for moi. Most of my time was spent going through the huge pile of mail and writing checks for those things that needed to be paid. Anymore, I have three checks a month for Mother; her nursing center care, telephone, and number of medications over eight. She is on eleven meds. Least ways, her meds are not outrageously expensive like mine are any more. Yet, I can’t really complain all that much, because there is a huge savings from the original amount listed. It’s her candy stock-pile that is an expense growing correspondingly with time.

That mysterious imp who happens to throw things into my shopping cart when I walk through the aisles of stores has hit home. It for some strange reason is ordering stuff through the mail now. Part of today was spent choosing some things to brighten the days for Mother. I ordered a shelf extension to fit on top of her television so we an still put her little Christmas tree there comes this Christmas season. This new TV set happens to be sort of rounded and stuff won’t sit atop. All the things ordered were at a special price or had free shipping except one. I’m watching for a special dress to order for her. She had enjoyed the animal print lounge dress the most of anything she’s had in a long time. Another gospel music video will be coming probably by next week.

The nurse called bright and early to let me know that the doctor had seen the results of the testing done on Mother on Monday. She has a few gall stones, but not enough to cause the problems she has been experiencing, so he is conferring with another doctor for his opinion. The right hip is not broken which I didn’t feel was a problem anyway. However, he noted something strange about her back - a dark unexplained spot near the spine. He has finally ordered a bone scan again to investigate her back further. Hey, isn’t this what I’ve been requesting for who knows how long now? She has a history of back problems so I am amazed how each new doctor skirts all around it before finally looking at the problem and then amazingly finds a problem.

The amazing magic-spinning Lady came mid-morning today. She spent a little over five hours with me today as she had time and pitched in to do more work today. She got the Christmas tree down for me. Thank goodness!! It bothered me much more than most would ever know. To smile and joke to visitors about it is one thing, but having to live with it is quite another story. Now to get the boxes down stairs for storing. Wonder if they could be hidden away.... She emptied some of Mother’s clothes out of the drawers under her bed so other things can be stored there. I’m thinking of putting blankets, sheets and things of that nature there. If some of the afghans I’ve made were added, the space will be filled.

Throw in some time spent working on the pictures for the album of Buddy Boy and posting the rewrite of my article for the writing class, my time passed quickly. It was late by the time I got over to spend a little time with Mother.


August 30, 2001 - Birthday day for Allan. He now is forty-one - a difficult age for me. He is the age his father was when he died. NO, I don’t expect anything dreadful to happen this year. Quite the contrary, I only hope and pray for many future years filled with happiness and prosperity. I wrote a poem to include in the album I’ve been working on and told Allan that working on the album was my present to him for his birthday. It’s going to be much more than he had expected. I’ve bought stickers to use throughout the pages to correlate with the seasons and activities and still working on an idea for a title on the front of the book.

My pain medicine ran out. It is the one pill that cannot be refilled so I had to cal the doctor’s office. Then it was a game of waiting for the phone to ring to let me know when the prescription was ready. Once I got to the doctor’s office, the receptionists were busy so - another waiting game. Once I’d signed for the prescription, it was another game of waiting at the drugstore to pick it up along with three more that were ready. (That was another $86!) This time the voice dialed my number to let me know that my prescriptions were ready and waiting. That nagging headache is still bothering me.

I took Mother some more candy I picked up at the drugstore for her that was on sale. For around two hours I sorted and cut, fitted and pasted pictures as she listened to one of her Gaither videos and last Sunday’s sermon from church on cassette. When the CNA came in to put her roomie to bed, I was asked by Mother to clear all my pictures off her own bed so she could go to bed at the same time. It was after eight p.m. when I got back home to call it a night and got myself a dish of ice cream.

Chilly Day. Chilly beginning of the Labor Day Weekend. I was planning to start in full time back at Quest next week. Already those plans are askew ... Monday, Quest is closed for Labor Day and Wednesday I go to Flat Rock for the theater outing. My intentions are meant to be well intended.

There was a message for me when I came in a while ago. The nurse that used to work with Mother is retired, but she has been doing the water exercise class with me and left a message for me to call back. She said that they were all concerned about my missing so many sessions at Quest and wanted to know what was going on. Her daughter knows how my Mother is doing since she now works at the nursing center, so there had to be another reason besides Mother. It took a little explaining to cover the past two weeks which was followed by some friendly concern about me doing too much. However, she was glad that I wasn’t taking care of any of the children.


August 31, 2001 - Today is my brother’s wedding anniversary. Guess he has been married about forty-five years now. Maybe I’ll call him sometime today and wish him well and bring him up on Mother’s progress or like of progress. He is not doing all that well with his health. Getting around is a real challenge and he is using his cane in order to be able to walk. The Doctor tried cutting out one of his medications, but he had repercussions and had to go back on the. Pill. His illness these past two years has been an undeniable dilemma for his family. Until his health became unstable, his family had no idea what has been involved all these years of working with first Dad, and then Mother.

Word down the grapevine leads me to believe that the three families are planning to meet here at the house after lunchtime and travel to Virginia together to the family retreat. Sounds like maybe Allan and Buddy Boy will be in the same area with Wes and his family. That means that Buddy Boy and BusyKid will have a good time together. It would be interesting to watch the two of them together outdoors as they explore the new environment..

This is the first year that I haven’t taken part in the quilt show at the Morganton Festival. The Festival is set for next weekend and sounds like an exciting time. It is the twentieth anniversary of the Festival and many things are planning n that respect. Perhaps Ms. Jay and I will pay a visit to the Jailhouse Museum to see the challenge quilts and projects - and take in a part of the booths to see how things are going this year. Not all the booths are there on Fridays, but there are enough to wear me out as I walk around the Court House Square taking in any new ideas for things to do. The food row is most difficult because it is hard to choose which food to eat. Let’s see, last year it seems that we enjoyed a gyro made with chicken and grilled onions. Be nice if there was a lemon-berry slush to go along with whatever I may choose. I’ll ponder that from now until next week and decide whether to go or not.

My step granddaughter was the first to arrive after lunch. Word had not reached me that she fell at the Armory here in Lenoir several weeks ago. She had the ambulance take her to Frye Regional Hospital in Hickory and t he Ambulance fee was over $600 because it was a trip out of the county and $5 a mile, too. Her ankle is still swollen and stitches were in her knee yet for an ugly jagged cut, but another place which was deeper below it isn’t healing well. She fell on rough pavement as she was leaving the Armory.

Tbird and the rest of the family were not too far behind. She had an article she downloaded and copied from an Internet newspaper site to show me. Her ex-husband’s dad died in Indiana and he was a very well known figure in the city since he worked with the Boy’s Club for many years as well as taught in the high school. Although she and the son were divorced, the two of them have stayed in contact through the years and been friends. His dad thought a lot of Tbird just as she admired and highly regarded him.

It wasn’t long until the cars were collected here and everyone was piling into them getting ready for their trip. Allan didn’t drive all the way down here since they were going his direction and it would have been a lot of backtracking for him. They were to meet him up the road. The three cars loaded and ready, they headed down the drive around two o’clock heading to Virginia and the Campground where they would be enjoying family life togetherness over the long Labor Day Weekend. Tbird called about nine this evening to tell me they are all settled in. It worked out that they are all in the same house together. Wes and Allan upstairs and Tbird and her crew downstairs. Two other families were to be with their household as well.

Good thing I happened to remember the banks will be closed Monday. I drove to the credit union and couldn’t help but notice how much heavier the traffic was with the holiday travelers going to and fro... Surprising how may campers and RVs were mixed in with all the regular heavy Friday traffic. I bought me a Japanese chicken dinner before backtracking to the backroads for returning to my own neck of the woods. I spent about two hours with Mother and had my supper there before I ever made it back home.

I’m back to three dogs for the weekend. Bingo is here again ... I looked up and there he was prancing into the house as of he were the owner, though his steps have slowed a bit with his age. When I mentioned I didn’t know he was coming, Wendy answered, “Oh, I figured you wouldn’t mind his being here a few days, so I just brought him on over.” He seems happy to be where he has company all day. It dawned on me that Charlie’s name should be changed to be similar to the other two dogs’ names: Bingo, Oreo and Charlio - The Three Dogateers: loyal defenders of the house.

‘Course I didn’t rest during the afternoon. Here it is 2 a.m. and time to begin on the new month.... and another day.




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