Friday

3/15/07 Thursday
Well I didn’t get much written yesterday. I know I worked steadily all day long but am not sure of everything I did. I know I measured and marked off the garden area we will plant corn in. There will be lots of other plants we will put there.

3/16/07 Friday
It’s already Friday. I didn’t write much yesterday (Duh, understatement of the year) I have lots of pictures so I’ll be able to recall those parts of it. This morning I am making the herbal garden beds. This is planting time and that makes me real busy so I may not keep up with this journal well.

For my body, this is an ordeal. A big reason for that is how out of shape I am in. Just using the rake leaves me out of breath in about five minutes. I never had a chance to get into physical shape since the coma pretty much wasted this body away. This will be so good for me but the pain part is tougher.
Here's the corn field. Yeah it's not a field but it's where the corn is planted

I stay out there and work till the sun goes down. It’s a lot cooler in the evening hours. Today is an exception as a cold front just rolled in. That makes it just plain cold with a wind that brings it through your clothes directly to the skin. It seems to take me all day to do what could have been done in a couple of hours. I just plug along stopping to rest or sit till the pain goes down.

It is already 11:00. I came in to rest and talk Cherie into making some hot tea. For some reason I became incredibly hungry. This is most unusual as I seldom experience the sensation of hunger. Cherie fixed me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I took a pain pill. Only using two or three a day and intend to keep it down. Fact is they scare me because of my past experience with pain killers.

Some important things to make note of. Things have been in a turmoil for the last few days. Cherie’s mom had felt tired and was disoriented so they took her to the hospital. Next thing you know she is in surgery having her heart rebuilt. Wow! We were just up there talking with her. That was disturbing but the doctors were all positive about the outcome. Wednesday Cherie gets a call from her sister, Cathy. A nurse had told her that mom was on dialysis because her kidneys were shutting down. Their experience with dying relatives in the past told them that kidney shut downs were an indication of death being near.


Now the crying and emotions are opened up. We discuss how we can make it back up there for the funeral, where we could stay, and a host of other subjects. This was hard. I tried to cheer Cherie up and tell her “It’s not over. Your mom is strong. Wait till Cathy talks to the doctor and gets a better picture of what is going on”. That was good advice. Cathy called yesterday. Come to find out, yes mom is on dialysis but it is to help her get rid of the tons of fluids her body is retaining. This is not at all unusual with open heart surgery. That was a big, big relief. There are other issues created by this unfortunate turn of events. Lots of questions about short term and long term care, not only for mom but dad as well. Cathy has been carrying the load and it is a heavy one to bear. I’m afraid it is too much for her to handle. Cherie is talking about going up there to help Cathy and her parents out. She is worried about me if she does. “Who’s going to take care of you? Who’s going to remind you of what your supposed to do?” she said with her concerned voice. I’ll be fine.

Time to get back out there and work on the herbal garden.

7:50 – I’m in for the night. Got the beds made where the herbs and spices are to be planted. The first step was like an archeological dig where I exposed the old rock border.

Here, let the pictures do the talking.