Dr. appointments, lawn issues

Mama and I have dental appointments this afternoon. We have rescheduled them several times so I hope we get to follow through with them today. I have to interview four ladies today to see if I can find a backfill for Judy Calhoun, here in the Borger office. Such interviews are not to difficult but I can only pick one. I have prayed for the wisdom to get the right one and get her started soon. We need the help.


I did get my blood work done yesterday as part of the health assessment and the numbers partially proved a point. My total cholesterol was down ten points in just two weeks. My triglycerides were down by seventeen points and my LDL – the “bad” cholesterol – was down by 8 points. None of the numbers were high to begin with but the fact that they could fall that much after fourteen days of proper eating was proof enough that Mama and I need to eat differently than Grandma and Grandpa do.

My blood pressure readings were about the same, not good. My weight and the salt titration levels in my blood contribute to that elevation. I do not want to go back on blood pressure medication so I will again concentrate on diet and see if it will come into proper range again. The stress levels at work do not help any, but I will have to learn to deal with that in better ways.

Later today I have a hearing exam scheduled. I am being evaluated for a study of some new hearing aid technology. I do not know if I will qualify, but I will get an independent evaluation of my hearing problems; something I have been putting off for a long time. The woman who scheduled me asked Mama to come also. During their testing they will use Mama’s voice to test my hearing. I am not sure how it will work, but it will be different from anything I have had done in the past. After all, hearing voices is the issue I need help with.

After I mowed the yard here a week or so ago, the weather turned hot and the growth I was being threatened to be fined for has withered into the dust that is our front yard. It seems pathetic when I look at it now; especially compared to the farm. We could water the yard but it will never be a lawn. I think Mama misses that. We had a pretty good lawn at the Fairfield house. It cost me a fortune in water bills but it was pretty nice, especially for this area.

At least we do not have a neighbor that is as obsessed with the lawn as the neighbor we had in Victoria, TX . With the kids we had normally in the house and the kids that would come from the neighboring houses, we had some pretty big bare spots right next to his very lush and green grass. He would try not to step in our yard as he placed the sprinkler at the very edge of his yard and I had to constantly remind the kids to stay out of his yard when there were no real boundaries that they could see in the front. Things got tense a few times until he realized that we meant him no ill will, we simply did not care about the grass. I told him that I could raise grass or I could raise children, but not both. I stuck with raising children and let the yard suffer. Here, there is no such problem.

I read a marquee at a church in Panhandle this morning. It had some good advice: keep your words sweet, you may have to eat them.

Please be praying with us for a baler. It is the last piece of equipment we need to put up hay at the farm.