Frozen morning

12/30/06 Saturday
Everything was frozen this morning. There was a coating of frost and many puddles turned to ice. I went out and put food in Skittles bowl, then got him some water. So far so good. Then I removed the baseboard I had left up in the back room in order to put the carpet down better. I woke up with a mild headache so had already taken some aspirin for it.

By the time I took the baseboard outside to remove the nails I was starting to slow down. An hour later I remembered I had gone out there to do that but had gotten distracted and wandered off to other tasks. Cherie and I were talking about what to do with the day when I remembered so I went out to do it before I forgot again. Have to stay focused on one thing at a time or nothing gets finished. Multitasking is something I can no longer do.

Going outside I saw Skittles sitting at the door obviously cold so I decided I would take the time to sit down and let him climb up on my lap to get warm. I wondered why he wasn’t laying on the chair he likes with the big warm cushy blanket on it so sat on that chair and found out. When I sat I felt the cold sensation of water soaking into my pants. “What gives?” I thought as I got up and looked. Sure enough there was a circle of wet. I sniffed it to see if it was cat pee but my smeller wasn’t working so I went in to have Cherie check. She sniffed once and recoiled. “Oh Yeah, it’s cat piss” she let me know. Now that’s how to start a day. I stripped off the clothes and washed my ass. Carman wasn’t happy smelling another cat despite him and Skittles communing at the screen door. Later, when I opened the door for them to “talk” Carman expressed his feelings with some loud hissing.

I had gotten so slow that I was forgetting what I was looking for as I looked for it. This was making basic things hard to do. Imagine standing up to get the hammer that is maybe ten feet away and then wondering what you stood up for. I have tried to explain this result of my brain injury to get a consistent “That’s nothing. I do that all the time” from those who can’t seem to understand. Sure we all have times where we walk in a room and forget why but this is different. For those of you who have smoked pot or gotten drunk it is kinda like that. I have said that it is hard to believe that I used to pay money to get in this condition. This comes and goes so it’s no wonder that my brother would tell Minnie Lee, and most certainly my father and everyone else, that I was on drugs. What an ass he has been.

Anyway it was a short slow down (petite seizure) and I am doing much better. Cherie just got her income tax forms in the mail. It looks like she will get everything back she’s paid in because her income for the year is less than what is taxable. That’s good news cause we can sure use it.

Cherie is going to the laundrymat in Midland to wash my clothes and the blanket. She had hoped to do it at the laundry in Stanton but it was closed. The clothes and blanket smell bad even wrapped in the plastic bag. I’m going to get this posted and paint the baseboards now that it’s above freezing.

Yesterday we went shopping and bought as wisely as we could. We went to a grocery store called Mercado or something like that. Cherie had been there before and was initially uncomfortable because she was about the only white person there but she has adjusted. I like it. They are a Mexican oriented store and make tortillas right there in large quantities. As usual stores that cater to poorer people have better prices and this was no exception. We found milk at $1.99 when milk everywhere else is four bucks or so. We bought two and will freeze one of them. We had already shopped at Walmart and bought things in larger packages to get the most for the money. We had planned on going to Sam’s Club but Cherie was getting burned out on shopping so we did laundry instead. Afterwards was when we went to Mercado cause she had rested up. In all we got food that will last the month and only spent eighty or so dollars.

Gotta go now and get some stuff done while I’m still sharp

I caulked around the wall where the drywall meets the floor to seal it off with the idea of making it harder for bugs and scorpions to get in. It also will help keep the cold and in the summer the heat out. Then I laid the carpet out but didn’t tack it down. Mostly because it needs to be stretched and I don’t have what is called a kicker to do so with. Thinking of making one. I’m not sure what else I did though I know I painted the baseboards and brought them inside so they wouldn’t blow away.

Pastor David called us about an hour ago (8:30). He said that some members of the church had let him know we missed last weeks service because we had the time mixed up. He wanted to let us know that this week’s service would be at the same time and also to invite us to the breakfast they were having at 9:00 in the morning before church. That was sweet and we are again impressed by this church. The fact that whomever knew we missed church because of forgetting the time indicates they read the blog. This again shows how the blog is an effective window into our lives.

The pastor shared how they had needed to go up north Christmas Sunday because his mother had fallen. She is blind, which I am sure David had told me before but I didn’t remember. Another thing he shared was that his dad had died on Christmas so that was always a tough time for his mom. One of the sacrifices of his being in the ministry is that he has been unable to be with his mom on Christmas in four or so years. I told him that in a strange way it was a blessing for her to have fallen for it meant they were together for Christmas.

That’s kind of a hard thought to process but it is good to find the positive in a situation. Sometimes it’s hard to find but good can come out of the most retched of circumstances. I am living proof of that, or at least I think so. When others hear what I’ve been through they often say “I’m sorry”. Fact is, if I hadn’t died at that car wreck (The police report listed me as “dead at the scene”) I don’t think I would be alive today. I suppose that will require some explaining. At the time of the wreck I was running from the law, had five different ID’s and someone else’s birth certificate and was a total mess. I had gone through a two year long divorce and had sunk into a deep depression that had reached clinical levels of psychosis amplified by extreme drug and alcohol abuse. Rational thought was no where to be found. Waking up from coma in a hospital a month later I was a different kind of mess. As they worked to teach me how to walk and talk I had plenty of time to think. There were enough fragments of memory left for me to partly comprehend what had happened. The next two years also helped me gain a new perspective on life and as I recovered more memories and began to understand things better. Then came the miraculous reunion with my wife (Click on “The Love Story” on the right side of this blog to read of that) All in all I am grateful for the wreck as it probably saved my life in the long run.

OK, I’m getting long winded and Cherie is laying here ready to go to sleep so I suppose I should finish this, post it, and hit the sack also. Night folks.