Good morning

Today's puppy pictures

7/16/07 Monday
It’s a good morning. My body suggested I did a lot of physical work yesterday but I really can’t remember doing much physically. Oh wait! That’s right, the weather said there was high pressure in the area now so that explains the stiffness and increased joint pain. It always comes with a change in the weather. So I took a pain pill this morning. I am extremely careful taking this stuff. Having once gotten addicted to pain killers (Oxycontin) after breaking my ribs I have a great respect or probably fear of the potential problems they can bring. However, on the other hand they allow me to get stuff done versus laying in bed with pain. So there is a careful line I walk. It would be a good idea for me to start stretching and perhaps practicing some of the martial art kata’s I had once known. I just don’t remember them anymore but have enough residual memory left to make some up that would be good for this body.

The puppies are a great source of joy for us. What powerful medicine it is to laugh and love them as the scamper and play, then come up to us for hugs and kisses. When I ran into the Steve we knew from first church of Stanton (Boy, there are lots of Steve’s in our life here) I mentioned we have puppies now. His comment was that they must help us feel less lonely. So they are aware of the loneliness yet still do not reach out. We are no longer lonely because of the good people from Midland who are becoming good friends.

Amy had commented on this blog two days how good it was that we had found good people, not for the things they have and are doing for us but for the friendship and fellowship. That is a good point and one I feel a need to emphasize. There will be some who think we are just preying on others beliefs and good nature for personal gain. I know this for I know human nature. To the pure all things are pure (Titus 1:15) but the rest suspect the motives of all and presume they are evil and self serving. Fearing this I had made the point that I would gladly go hungry for fellowship. Now I realize this fear makes me just as guilty of suspecting motives as others and by no means am I pure. Confused might be a better description.

So it’s a good morning. Steve (jib, Janie’s husband) said Janie’s back was in real bad shape with a lot of pain. I hope she didn’t do to much when they were here helping us with the water heater and new cabinets. But pray for her if you would. Speaking of that, Cherie has left for the chiropractor this morning. I am doing as much housework as I can get her to ask me to do in order to help her back get better. She is finally starting to write things for me to do on the dry erase board we bought for that purpose. One of those tasks is to fix the bed frame which is made for a different size mattress. I’ll have to be careful when I move the mattress and bed springs in order to do that.

Looks like there are lots of indoor tasks for today but I would like to finish the shelf system I am making to store wood on the back wall of the workshop. Here is a picture of a brace I made for that. I really enjoy being able to hand cut the joinery. Takes me back to the days I sought to learn and practice the old ways of woodworking. It’s a lot rougher than the work I used to do but not too awful bad for a hand saw and chisel. You can see I use old wood I have scavenged here at the farm. The good piece of two by four came from some wood Jib Steve had laying around in his garage and gave me. We do pretty good with other peoples leftovers and what they would have thrown away.

It’s the middle of the month so the budget is on full swing. With the price of gas I won’t drive the truck unless absolutely needed and we won’t be going anywhere we don’t have to. When we drive into Midland we will plan to get as much done in town as we need so as to be efficient with the gas. I should have gone with Cherie this morning and perhaps done laundry but she was running late.

I will attempt to remove the screen from the Sony Vio laptop Steve gave me because it evidently will fit on this one thus saving me a couple hundred dollars to replace the one I broke. I also will see if I can do something with our printer as a paper guide gear broke in it, rendering it unusable.

So lots of inside work. I told Cherie I would fix my own breakfast this morning so should do that before it slips this mind. It’s time to get moving.

3:00 – Having a bad slow down. The kind of partial seizure that makes walking and talking hard. Been going on for an hour. Put the baseboard back on in the kitchen anyway. Took a while. Got nails instead of screws. Got the wrong tool for spreading the patch stuff on the wall. Lots of back and forth. Go outside and get lost. Forget what I came for. Now that it’s done I must lay down. This seizure brings a headache. They also drain me and leave me tired and weak. Will probably fall asleep. Fighting to stay awake to finish this.

It was a rough day. I was just clearing up when I had another seizure. It’s not fun when this happens. There have been times where I have five or six of these in a day. Then there are the ones that last a whole day. Fortunately that doesn’t happen much anymore, probably due to the medication. I got angry and that cleared my head up some but still didn’t help me walk better. Getting angry is never good and part of the emotional control problem that comes with the TBI. I got over it after I fixed the bed frame that was the source of anger. That was not easy to do while my brain was working in slow motion.

I went outside to do something that I can’t remember now but I found Trixie chewing on a dead rat. Instantly I said “NO” and knelt down to push her away. Trixie growled at me and came back after the rat. I said no again and Trixie ignored me. I smacked her and she growled at me again so I smacked her with a loud “NO” again. She growled at me and went back after the rat, who’s foot had been chewed off. This time she got a serious smack and she got the message. The rat was soaking wet so I figure they got it out of the pool. Wherever they got it I think it was diseased and probably already dead. Not good at all. We will be keeping a close eye on them both. With Skittles, our former outdoor cat, gone the rat population will be coming back. All the weeds don’t help as they provide cover and food for the rodent’s. I need to remember to call Leroy and see if he has a shredder for his tractor and would be willing to bring it out. Steve and Janie already said they would pay to get it done. I just need to remember to follow up on that. Damn short term memory doesn’t help. I just had Cherie make a note on our to do board so I can get it done.

It’s late and time to get some sleep. Tomorrow we will run into town to use Steve and Janie’s washer and dryer. That will save us at least ten dollars over going to the laundrymat. Every penny counts. I’ll try to find something to do over there like weed the front area. Cherie will be able to make calls to set up appointments with farmers for her to collect cotton samples. I don’t think I got much done today. Cindy had asked Cherie if all I did was piddle around in the garden back when they had brought over the hot water heater and cabinets. Cherie didn’t know what to say. Some days I get a lot done and some nothing is accomplished but it is always more than “piddling” around. I do the best I can with what I have.

Night all.