Any day I wake up is a good day

2/13/07 Tuesday
Hope I have a better day than yesterday. Feeling a bit worn this morning and am running below average at about a 5 on the bob scale. Add a headache to that and we’re off to a good start. I always say “Any day I wake up is a good day” and I mean it but sometimes it is hard to feel it. That is a matter of my will, of choosing to not let how I feel rule. Sounds good in theory but doesn’t always work. Still it does cause some improvement.

Had another strange dream as my subconscious mind mulled over whatever thoughts are echoing in this cavernous cavity of a brain. In this one there is Jennifer Aniston and the guy who plays Joey on Friends. They aren’t actors in this dream but are personal friends I have. It seems their relationship has drifted apart and no longer has the spark or dedication it once had. After I witness a mild challenge of wills where both do what they want Jennifer walks over to me to talk about it. We get close but as friends nothing else. Just me giving comfort as she curled up in her sadness.

I am going to stay in bed a bit to see if the aspirin helps this headache and hope the brain lucidity gets better. Then it’s sink time. Pretty much have most of it figured out and the valves are successfully installed allowing me to turn the water back on yesterday. As long as the pipe all fits together it will be functional. I will have to hammer the front edge a little so it sits flush with the counter top. It probably got bent when it was removed. Not a big deal. I also need to cut a piece out of the stainless trim off the old sink to cover the half inch space in the back where the new sink doesn’t quite fit.

While I was working on the sink yesterday I heard a knock on the door. I went to it and saw a thin man with grey hair. “Robbie” he said questionably. That is how I was referred to back in my younger years so I knew this was someone from the past. He said his name was Charles Lewis. Now that rang bells. R.S. Lewis was an old friend of my grandparents and it was his magazines that were piled up in the old henhouse. Charles was his son. I had known him back then and could remember one instance of that. We talked a while. Charles lives in New Mexico but is going to move back into the area to care for his ailing mother. He asked if me and Larry would be willing to sell him some land. I explained that Larry and I don’t talk and I had bought off his half of the farm so I wouldn’t have to deal with him. Charles showed me where the septic tank was and told of being there when it was dug. Come to find out it is not really a septic tank but what Charles called a cesspool. Just a big hole with railroad ties laid across it. Charles said that the mystery tree was a mulberry. He also said one of the trees out front was too and didn’t think the other was an apricot as I had thought. Charles’s visit helped enlighten me on many things I didn’t know or remember about this place. He also told me that a seismic study had been conducted, probably by an oil company, and the guy identified an area that probably was a great place to drill for water. It was close to where I was considering so that was good news. I told Charles to come by anytime he is in the area. He had to get going and was still living in New Mexico.

That’s all I’ll write for now. Hope all of you are doing well. I did see that there is a major storm up in the Toledo area and some blizzard warnings. Nate will finally be able to make some money plowing snow after a very slow season. Be careful out there Nate. Hopefully it will be cleared up when we head up that way next week.

This is one of the migraines that just doesn’t go away. Took the Hydrocodone and even that had no effect. I got up earlier and hammered on the sink to get it to fit better. It was like hammering on my head. Got it fitting good and went back to bed. It is 11:35 now. Cherie has been keeping thing real quiet, mostly staying in the office online. I’ve been staying under covers in the dark. Gonna force myself up cause no matter what we need the kitchen sink operational. May not put it all in the way I want but just do enough to make it functional. I’ll finish it up later when in better shape. Haven’t had a migraine last this long since Toledo. Just for the record, brain damage sucks. Like you didn't know that already.

1:43 – Still doing poorly. My ability to control of my right leg is severely affected. It always feels like it is asleep but without the tingling you would feel. The constant numbness increases and decreases along with the pendulum of my brains abilities. Right now it is almost not there. As I go from the house to the garage I must squint because of how the bright sunlight aggravates the pain in my head. In the garage I only have one door open as that lets in enough light for me to see what I am doing.

Cherie made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She can’t do much else because the sink is still in progress. That is slowly moving forward. I just can’t half ass the job so no matter how tough will do it right. That will save extra work next time. Cherie went shopping. We don’t have any spare funds because of the upcoming trip to Toledo but that’s OK. She doesn’t have to buy anything when she shops. For her it can be a form of relaxation just to look and be out. She often does that when I am in this kind of shape. She waffled around about going, torn because she felt she should stay home and take care of me. I told her I was a big boy and this was nothing new so get out of the house. I did make her set a time to be home. That’s because without it she will be gone till dark or till I call her and ask “Where are you?”.

Writing this entry is my way of taking a break. Better get up and going or I’ll fall asleep and the sink won’t get done.

It’s 11:00 now and I finally got the sink done. I cleared up at 5:00 so the pendulum has swung the other way. I hate it when I lose a whole day. Had to go back to Lowes five times to return the parts I had bought yesterday and get the right ones. That was one part at a time because I wouldn’t figure out what I needed till I got to that part of the job. It is hard to believe I was once a crew chief on B-52’s, well versed in pneudrolics, hydraulics, electronics, fuels systems, and familiar with every aspect of that complex machine. I worked my way through college as a job shop machinist in the maintenance department of an industrial plant where if they broke it I made it and sometimes I’d come up with something to solve a problem. Now putting in a sink is a hard task. It wouldn’t be if I didn’t have this see saw of cognitive ability and the short term memory where I forget what I had read or been told about something. Anyway the sink is in and seems to work fine. I still need to tie it to the countertop but it will work for now. It made Cherie happy and she did her little dance that she does at times like this. I’m beat so will call it a night.