A good day

12/31/06 Sunday
I’m doing well this morning, in fact I seem to be fairly sharp judging by how well my fingers find the right keys on this laptop. I am always grateful to not be slow when going out in public. Usually I hide when real bad. We are going to the breakfast at the church and Cherie is hurrying as she always seems to have to. We got up early and were determined not to do this last minute arrival time but to no avail. Don’t know what it is but Cherie seems to be unable to do that. Just fifteen or twenty minutes ago she was proudly saying she would be ready early. This is just the way it is. Right now I am going out to warm up the truck

8:02 – It was a very good day. I didn’t have any slow downs, stayed fairly sharp all day long. Church was great. Pastor Dave said they usually cooked for fifty or sixty people at the breakfast but there were only maybe twenty. Because of that I piled my plate up with food. Eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, pancakes, and of course coffee. It was good eatin. We sat with Rita and her husband. There was another guy there but I don’t remember his name. The lady behind us brought in a baby that was maybe a month old and of course the baby stole the show. Everyone had to come over and coo over it or at least the women did. Kid was cute as all babies are. There were some other kids there who excitedly shared what they got for Christmas when asked or not asked. Christmas is for kids. We were asked several times “How was your Christmas?” and Cherie had the best answer “It’s over”. Short, sweet, and to the point without sounding real negative. It was just another day for us and with Cherie’s family being two thousand miles away it was a lonely one.

We went over and thanked Pastor Dave’s wife (forgive me for not remembering her name) for the hot chocolate mix she mad for us. We talked for a short time about their sudden trip to Colorado to visit his mom, who had fallen. Then it was time to go across the street to church.

They had communion today and the pastor read out of the book of Romans. It is the one that describes the communion thing with the significance of the bread and wine. Part of it said that by Jesus dying we have new life. I couldn’t help but think of the parallel to my life and what I wrote in yesterdays entry. Fact is that my literal death ultimately gave me a new life and freed me from the things I had become enslaved to.

When we came home I went right to work on the bus. When I am staying sharp I like to work cause I like to work anyway. The wind was blowing from the north so that was perfect to allow me to burn stuff safely. Burn I did. For five hours straight I hauled wheel barrow after wheel barrow of the crap from the bus. Had to do it a little at a time to insure everything got burned despite being soaking wet. To amplify the heat I threw on two of the tires that had one time been an integral part of the pack rat high rise.

After that was done I got the hose and went into the bus with the idea of spraying the remaining debris out. Sounded good in theory but it only took seconds for me to see it was not that good of an idea. The rat poop quickly turned into a mass of goo with the consistency of a very wet clay. This was not going to be fun. If I had a fire hose maybe but the garden hose would be a slow process. I went and got the big scoop shovel and broom and proceeded to scrap, spray, and shovel it out. Here’s the end result.

By the end of the day I was worn out and had a hard time walking straight with the pain level very high. That’s OK. I was happy to work and happy to not have a slow down so a little pain I can deal with. Hell I deal with it daily as it is. I found two more treasures as I finished cleaning this stuff up. One was my grandfather Rudy’s driver’s license from 1982 and the other was this plaque. In a real way Cherie and I are continuing Lee and Rudy’s love story. There are so many symbols of their love remaining on this farm as well as some remnants of dreams gone by. The bus was full of maps. Many were for places they had visited. As a child I remember Lee and Rudy taking my brother and I camping and to places like Carlsbad Caverns. Some I don’t remember but found pictures of us there. Now Cherie and I will bring this farm back to life.

I am quite tired now and sitting at this chair is hurting so much I need to quit so I will post this and go to bed. I do want to mention that I called Wayne in Toledo up. Wayne’s the guy with MS I had helped get off the street and other stuff. He is doing fine but hasn’t gotten his Social Security check yet but should have the first one by the thirteenth of January. Of course the state has already cut him off cause they know he was finally approved for his SS disability. He was glad to hear from us and greatly appreciated the card we sent.

Night all.