Trailers and toilet seats

2/16/07 Friday
Good morning Y’all. Let’s see, what momentous event should I record for posterity? You know, something important I’ll want to remember later. Ummm…OK, here it is, our toilet seat died. Oh Yes!…Oh NO! Not that! Now sitting down is a balancing act holding the seat with one hand hoping it doesn’t slide off to the side carrying your butt with it. From that moment on it is a precarious perch. That just became a priority item. Who knows how old it is but my guess is it is the one that has been there since my grandparents fixed this old house up. That would make it close to forty years old. It might be much newer than that but it really isn’t relevant. It could be a couple days old but regardless it’s broke, gave up the ghost. I suppose it could only take just so much. We killed it. So where to you buy toilet seats at? Lowes and Home Depot have become our main source for just about everything. I think we will stop by the Habitat for Humanity’s “Restore” to check on used ones first.

I seem to be doing well this morning. Couldn’t go to sleep last night so stayed up till 1:00 studying farm stuff. Didn’t take notes and can’t remember a thing I studied so in a way I just piddled away the time. Fact is the things I studied are somewhere in this brain and might rise to the surface at a later date when I need it. Cherie is going to call the DPS office to see what we need to get the trailer registered. We might need to hook it up and take it down there.

So far that’s all I can think of that needs to be done today. It’s to warm up to sixty degrees or so today so if there is nothing Cherie would like me to do inside I’ve got plenty to do out. If I have to hook up to the trailer I think I’ll take it to the landfill and pick up some of the telephone poles there. I’ll take the chain saw and cut them to whatever size I can handle. I’ll take Cherie to help. Between the both of us I’m sure we can do this but we both definitely need to be careful not to pull a muscle or something, being very much out of shape. That’s it for now. Time to get moving.

2:10 – We just got back from Midland. Getting the trailer done was much simpler and cheaper than we thought. That’s the advantage of having a farm. We went to Restore but they didn’t have the right kind of toilet seat. On the way back I started having a disturbance with my hearing. The sound of the radio would shift so it sounded like it was in a big hollow room and next to one ear. Then it would change to the other ear as would the tone of the song. I went straight to bed where I am writing this. The wind is howling outside. Pretty loud. Need to cover up and avoid stimulus. Slowing down so it is a petite seizure. Hope it clears up soon.

5:47 – This is so frustrating. It is 68 degrees out on a cloudless day. It is windy out with gusts up to thirty miles per hour, which I actually enjoy except the sand it whips up. The first decent day we’ve had in a while and I’m laying in bed with my head covered. This time it isn’t a migraine though I do have a headache.

These petite seizures, or slow downs as I prefer to call them, are seldom the same. Some are physical in their symptoms and others cover a wide spectrum of brain activity. My ability to process information is the most common of these but others are sometimes fascinating. I’ve had times when different senses are amplified in a big way. I’ve had my sense of smell so acute I can detect the difference between people and receive a myriad of inputs that are overwhelming. The exhaust of cars and the smell of the rubber on their tires, the smell of hot metal, flowers from some distant downwind site, different hairsprays, colognes, underarm deodorants, what detergent was used to wash with, and on and on. When my sense of taste is attenuated it can be a sublime wonder of indulging ecstasy, providing the food is good. If not it is an unpleasant experience. These types of attenuation are usually short lived, only lasting minutes to perhaps an hour.

There are times of great confidence and a feeling of…basking in the glow of life? It’s hard to describe or I can’t find the words for it. Kinda like you feel when you one a race or some great prize or honor. I’m sure we all have that at times so it may not be attributable to the brain injury. Actually it is because in my studies of brain injury there have been several reports of this type of thing. There is a guy in California who regularly experiences times where he feels religious or something like that. Where he has the sensation of being connected to everything and even grains of sand become significant parts of the universe type of feeling. The kind of sensation one gets with a religious experience with the singing, raising your hands, and all the emotions that can invoke. Great sorrow, repentance, relief, joy, and all of that. This is associated with a part of the brain called the amygdala. It is also where the strong emotions of being in love are traced to. The amygdala is a part of the hippocampus a memory center dealing with emotions including fear and anger.

So as you can probably tell I’m back from the slow down. Pisses me off to lose part of the day right when I can get the most done. Wish I could arrange for the slow downs to come during crappy weather when there is little to do or at night while I sleep. Enough whining. We got some good stuff done this morning while I was still sharp. Getting the trailer plates I already covered but there were other things of equal significance. We stopped my the Texas Department of Human Services to learn what they might offer for us, particularly for Cherie’s medical needs. Not really anything because you must be indigent and that means a monthly income of less than $250. The lady was real helpful and referred us to a new doctor in town she had heard good things about.

After that we went across the street to the County Extension Agent’s office. These guys are essential when it comes to agriculture and handle a great many areas that pertain to us. I asked the secretary, who’s name escapes me but she knows us by name now, about educational resources. She referred me to their website, which has a bookstore with tons of books related to agriculture. She said that they could often get the material at no charge so if I would make a list she would see what she could do. I was sharp and enthusiastic at the time so shared some of my vision for the farm. “That’s going to be big” she exclaimed. It will be if it all comes to fruition but we’ll have to see. I told her what I now tell so many “If you reach for the stars and you don’t get there, you at least have gone farther than you would if you never reached in the first place”.

We stopped by the drug store for a hamburger. The waitress was glad to see us. It’s nice to be recognized and greeted when you go in for a hamburger. After a life of fast food it’s a change. Darryl came in while we were there and as usual just gave a perfunctory greeting. “Hi, things going ok?” he said without waiting for an answer as he hurried on to accomplish whatever missions he was on. Then we ran to Midland to find something for the toilet seat. That’s where I started slowing down so that pretty much is the end of the day.