Woke up sharp.

1/24/07 Wednesday
Woke up sharp this morning. Always a good start for the day. Running an 8 on the bob scale. It’s going to get up to 48 degrees so that’s a great break from the cold we’ve had. The rest of the week is predicted to steadily warm up.

One of the few things the president said in his State of the Union address that interests me was his push for energy efficiency. He mentioned wind and solar electric generation and that bodes well for this farm as it indicates funds will be made available. I want to make this a model farm that can be used as an example of what can be done. One of the things I ran into during my research was “Agritourism”. Now that’s a concept. Groups and organizations paying to see your facility.

Today I want to take advantage of this time of mental clarity and get as much done as I can so I’m getting up and moving fast. Never know how long it will last. Some of what I have on my schedule does not require allot of mental agility. I often save some of the simple tasks for those slow times when it helps to focus on just one thing, thus distressing the mind and helping to get through the partial seizure. Despite that I’m gonna get the hallway carpet installed. Then I’m getting on the business plan.

Cherie just made this fantastic breakfast casserole from a recipe she got from her sister Connie. Thanks Connie, send us more. When I first got back with Cherie her culinary abilities were...well, not as refined as they are now. She has turned into a fantastic cook though she still is not confident. Her normal statement as she brings a dish in is “I don’t know how good it is”. I keep telling her “Honey, when you bring it in I want to hear you say “Your going to love this. It’s fantastic”. She never does but I’m working on it.

10:19 – I went out and buried the compost along with the cat litter from Carman’s old cat litter tray. Cherie had gotten a bigger one in hopes he would stop peeing on the floor like he did in front of the other one. I just had one of those dizzy spells where my head suddenly feels like it was pressurized with a pump. Now I am having a hard time finding the keys on this laptop. Damn, another slow down. Hope it doesn’t last long. Yesterday was such a good day. Headache is on the way now. Cherie just brought me some aspirin cause I forgot to take it several times already.

This slow down involves the part of my brain that controls physical movement, or at least the part of my brain they taught to operate my right leg. Still fairly cognizant though I do have to focus in order not to forget what I am doing. Running a 6 on the bob scale. Just have to be careful to be conscious of where my right leg goes and keep a finger touching a wall or something. That helps me not fall over or stumble. Gives me a reference point thus helping balance. Took a quick break to record this so back to the carpet. Took a picture of the empty floor for a before and after look. I know it’s not much but for me every step I accomplish is good. Cherie just left to do laundry in Midland.

It’s almost 1:00 now. That was a mercifully short slow down. Am doing much better. Works for me. Only lost three hours. Time to get back to work. As you can see from the short choppy sentences am not up to speed but running a 6 on the bob scale.
Made a pot of Bob coffee (As in super strong where you can taste it) Keep checking in folks as I add to these entries as the day progresses.

Headache progressed to migraine level. Pushed on despite that. Not the best job on the carpet but I don’t think it’s too bad considering I really don’t know what I’m doing. I remember my former secretary’s son, Bobby, bragging about he could seam carpet where you couldn’t see it. Not even close to that here. But I cobbled together the scraps I had left over from the backroom the best I could. Took all day to do what a proffesional can probably do in twenty minutes. When we get the funds later to rebuild the house it’ll be taken care of but for now it is much better than what we had.

It was a hard day overall but at least I got the carpet done. Cherie had a hard day also with a headache that was with her for a good part of it. She was worn out by the time she got home from doing the laundry. I put the threshold in I had made a week or so ago out of an old piece of baseboard but unfortunately the kitchen door wont close now. I’ll have to take it off the hinges and shave it down with the hand plane.

There is nothing scheduled for tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll be in better shape so can get more done. The leak under the sink seems to be getting worse. It overflowed and I had to empty the pans out this afternoon. At this rate I’ll need to get up in the middle of the night to empty them out. Amy E-mailed me and said she would come up on the ninth of February providing the weather cooperats. She’s bringing a sink and faucet that she had just replaced even though they weren’t very old. Slow but sure things are coming into place. We are blessed.

I heard a scratching sound as I sat in the office working on this entry. Thought maybe it was Skittles doing something outside like climbing the screen door as he sometimes does. I looked out the door window and didn’t see him so sat back down. Heard the sound again. Sounded like Skittles was using the side of the house for a scratching post. I went outside to see but Skittles came around from the front of the house. NUTS. In retrospect it was kind of a knowing sound. I think one of the pack rats who’s nest I destroyed found it’s way under the house. So how do we get rid of it? Don’t want to poison it cause Skittles may get a hold of it or if not him one of the hawks that cruise our area. Maybe I’ll open up the crawl space access that I had blocked up because of the bees and let Skittles go hunting. Not sure if I want to do that either. Went under the house once to take pictures after we bombed the bees and to get an idea about how our plumbing was. Had hard enough of a time getting this broken old body in and out of there so there’s no way I’m crawling down after a rat. Besides I don’t know for sure there’s a rat down there.

Night all