Nature Songs ~~~~

May continued ~~

May 28, 2001 - It was a very long, sad and most busy day yesterday. A day that left me exhausted and emotionally drained. A condition that has carried through to today and will not leave me. A dense sense of loss permeates through my very being. One of the thoughts leading to that sense is the knowledge that Auntie did not want to die. She had a lot of living yet to do. We had talked of making a trip together to New Orleans to see her son. There was talk of us going to the beach house for several weeks together. She had dreams and plans of things which included her son coming to North Carolina to spend a whole month with her.. He was already scheduled to be off work and supposed to arrived on June 4th.

She saved the package from England which I ordered for him which had the two books he wanted me to order online for him. One chapter included his name throughout. She never opened the package and never saw the novel written with him included as a character. Arriving at the church and meeting with the family before the service he brought me the book meant for his mother. The first of the second chapter was dated and signed by him denoting that it was originally meant for his mother and passed on to me. I carried it with me to the sanctuary with me for the funeral which was a celebration of life and love for a lady that loved life and loved her church. She gave to the church anytime it was in need - an organ, folding chairs, office equipment, golf cart for use at camp and just recently a bedroom suite for the little house fixed up for the new pastor to use until his family has had a chance to find a suitable home for themselves. There was much more, as well as money and tuition fees - she was very generous with her love of the church and of God. All without fanfare and very few ever knew where the gifts came from.

Most bothersome for me are the phone calls I’ve had with Auntie. After returning from the beach we talked and she mentioned being scared about the results that had been spelled out for her by the doctor there. Her own doctor had not even bothered to contact her after receiving the reports she dropped off at his office. His nurse did call in refills for the medicines prescribed at the beach, but there was no mention of how she was doing or any checking up on her condition by them. She was concerned but wasn’t sure what to do. When she had the stroke and found out she had to have the surgery on her neck, she called me! In the hospital and hardly able to get the words out that she struggled to say, we talked. “Shug, I’m scared. You know with all this other stuff going on with me, I don’t know what will happen.” We talked awhile but her fear was deep. She wanted to live. I know she wanted to live the last time she walked into the hospital as well. She would not allow herself to be carried inside even as hard as it was for her to move and breathe.
Shug is the name she used for me most of the time throughout our lives together. Her oldest sister always called me Shug and some of the others joined in. They picked it up from my brother called me Sugar Jeanne when he had trouble with my first name. Now there is one less to use that endearing name of trust and love. Auntie loved and trusted me as who I was all the time we knew each other. Not once did my speech ever become a hindrance for our togetherness.

Tbird will find out tomorrow more about her condition. She isn’t feeling well at all and if anything is probably weaker. She is supposed to have complete rest, but that is not an ability that she has within her. Testing of the hardest sort has been placed upon her and now I know that her trip to the Land Downunder is very iffy.

Visiting with Mother this evening, I wasn’t surprised to see the daughter of Mother’s next door neighbor standing outside a shut door crying. She hasn’t been doing well at all. When I left, I stopped and held the hand of her roommate who was sitting outside the closed door and was noticeable upset. She said her roomy wasn’t doing good at all and she was scared - her roomy was making these strange noises when she breathed. As I started to leave, she asked if I would be back tomorrow and I told her I would see her tomorrow.

I also took time to let one of the CNA’s that takes good care of Mother know what happened yesterday. Hopefully she will pass on my unhappiness about how Mother was cared for when we returned her back to her “home” completely exhausted about five. I will certainly be letting them know. Today’s crew was not mostly the regular group since it is a holiday. I was assured that Mother would be undressed and put to bed as soon as the supper schedule was over. At 8:30 p.m. when I talked with her, she was still sitting up! I was not and am not a happy camper about them leaving her having to sit like that after being up for so long without a break and all the being moved in and out of cars and such - not to mention the mental anguish she had endured adding to her exertion.

May 29, 2001 - Time to get back to the normal routine of my lifestyle. I’ve missed out on the water exercises since last Wednesday. The bagel I had in the microwave Thursday morning when the phone call came was found and thrown away Saturday morning. So much for breakfast that morning. My bag is still packed and ready to go to Quest. Guess I will change the water bottle packed inside it and get some fresh. Then off to test the waters of the pool. OH! And how I look forward to the steamroom!!

Dad brings DynoKid and NascarKid over and they will be making the trip with me. Since this is Better Weight day, they can sit in on that class with me and see what I am doing to try to better myself in yet another way. Who knows, they may get the idea that there is more to food than just pizza! How I wish!

Mother is out of Cokes and I Hafta remember to buy her some today.

Comes midafternoon and the boys have appointments to have haircuts in Morganton. I promised I would not forget to get them there on time. Afterwards, I’m to get Giggles if Dad is not at the Daycare and keep her in the car with the boys until Dad appears to take charge for the rest of the day. Mom will be at the doctor seeing what the verdict may be for her during this time.

Somewhere in-between, NascarKid needs to bring some more mulch to put around the flowers we have been planting. He got some around my Japanese Maple tree and covered the black plastic I put down earlier. There’s one flower and two shrubs that need to be planted as well. Wonder what else this day may offer?

I got my laptop back yesterday. It was like meeting my old friend after a long time apart. I missed it more than I should admit. No one should be dependent on one object all that much. My missed entry, May 23 is now in place since I got it back.. All is up to date now.

YIKES!!! The pool at Q4L is closed until further notice - it broke down on Saturday!!!! OH me, OH my!!!!!!!

*O-R-G-A-N-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N * I can spell the word. I know the meaning of the word. I can pronounce the word. I am thoroughly familiar with it and yet - I have absolutely no control over it! There are times it could be carried out successfully and there are those that do so with absolute organization; no matter what! Perhaps that is the key to why I am not successful at organizing my life and surroundings. I am not so dedicated to being organized that I will turn my back on things that arise for others. Things in my own life will go without being done because I see a need for me somewhere else. There too, is that element of being capable of doing some of the things needed in order to be organized such as some of the work involved.

Today happened to be one of those topsy-turvey days that I often encounter. Plans were that I would work out in the pool. No to be, because a worker was regrouting around the pool and got grout in the water and made one great big mess. The pool is closed until further notice. My Better Weight class went as scheduled and the boys sat over to the side of the room and behaved quite well while I took part in it. DynoKid even took part in some of our discussion about salt and the amount some people use. Strangely enough, none of us in the group use a salt shaker which surprised our leader

The rest of the day was not as planned. I got a call from Tbird that she had a doctor’s appointment, but no one to drive her up to Asheville for it. Her strength has been next to zilch since she has jaundice and this is day nine and counting... She is having to rest at home since she gives out so easily. I offered to drive her up there, but we had to cancel the boys’ haircuts this afternoon since I would not be taking them. Because of the time element, and the fact Mother was out of Cokes - again, I left the boys with her at the nursing center for a short time until Wendy could come by from her classes to pick them up. BingoKid was home alone and I didn’t dare leave three of them in a house alone, even for a short time. On the way over to pickup Tbird, it dawned on me that I left my handbag on Mother’s bed. I laid it down so I could take the lid off her glass for refill with some Coke. No time to turn back to get it, so there was a prayer that all would go well as I continued on the journey without my driving licenses - or money- or whatever it is that I always have to have handy when I go places.

Turns out that it was a beautiful day and a great time of day to be making the trip. The mountains were so pretty today with that light smoky look for which they are named. There was just enough of the smoky look to soften and blend the mountains and trees giving a picture postcard appearance to the day. All-in-all it turned out to be a much needed break from what I’ve been through lately and served to be a healing time for me. The traffic was not very heavy and driving was easy as daughter and mother got to spend some quality time together. While in Asheville, some of my book was read, too. It was all a relaxing experience.

May 31, 2001 Acting Commander-in-Chief Momma Jeanne took three grandsons in hand and marched outdoors for another day of toil and fun. Mulch deepened in places to meet my son’s standards as well as my own was first on the agenda. Some water had to be drawn out of the Spa before plugging it in to begin heating the new water. The morning temperature of the water in it was 62 degrees. While NascarKid seemed to work better by himself and went about the chore of planting some more plants around the front of the house the other two had a new task.

Shovel, hoe and sharp eyes were needed to help pull out some thin slabs of rock from a pile which Allan brought here years ago when he took down a wall and chimney of a house being torn down for the Boulevard to be built. He has used some of them at his own house, but I have had designs in mind for a while about using some here. The boys helped me begin making a reality out of that thought. We started on a patio between the outside spigot and the new herb garden I am playing with. The herbs are growing and could even been trimmed back to help them thicken up with new growth. The outline is in place, but rain forced us to stop early.

Of course the boys were in hopes of finding spiders and snakes. Momma Jeanne had not desire to see either, but shovel was in hand, just in case it was needed for a copperhead if it had not run from all the noise the boys were making. Guess they did take off, since none were sighted. I used to always see a black snake around the house somewhere which made me a lot more comfortable because they will hunt out and kill poisonous snakes. Modernization had no doubt taken its toll of them along with other important aspects of nature. We have seen more ticks than I’ve seen in several years all together. Hot, dry weather seems to be bringing them out in droves.

Hot, dry weather has caused a major problem for all of us that depend on the City Water Works for our water supply. As stated in the local paper:
”A public water official said Tuesday that municipal water customers may have to deal with their water having an unpleasant taste and odor until an algae bloom in Lake Rhodhiss dissipates.
Blue-green algae are microorganisms commonly found in the environment. They may have become abundant in Lake Rhodhiss because of recent drought period and high temperatures. Although they can cause unpleasant taste and odor in drinking water there is no known health risk associated with drinking the water.”

I haven’t cared for the city water since having to join them. I much prefer the well water I had before. What we are being served now is much worse. Even the clothes have an odor after being washed. At least adding two softener sheets does help camouflage the odor left in the clothes. A touch of lemon helps the drinking water, but it still does not taste good. All the shelves at the stores are depleted of bottled water lately and the sale of sodas is up also. Until there is enough water to dilute the water in the lake and/or the temperature drops the prediction is that the algae remains. That sounds as if it may hang around all summer. Makes one wonder...

Looking back:

MAY, 1998
MAY, 1999
MAY, 2000

Sign Guestbook View Guestbook

Lenoir,NC 28645
United States

All of my writings on this web site are copyrighted. Reproduction and/or distribution of the written works on these pages in any form is prohibited.