New Year’s rain, setting up the kitchen, storage projects, Grandpa to the doctor

It rained all day yesterday. The temperature was at or just above freezing throughout the morning into the late afternoon. I am not sure how much rain we got in total but we ended up with a lot of ice. Victoria had to go to work in all of that mess but she made the drive easily enough considering the weather. She was home before dark but by the evening the temperatures were steadily above freezing; as was also the case this morning.

Since it was not practical to do any work outside Mama and I worked on the kitchen. We got all the cabinet drawers and shelves lined with various liners Mama had bought. Then we started setting things in those spaces to start organizing. It took a lot longer than I had thought it would but the result was worth the time and effort.

We are still missing several boxes of serving ware – plates, bowls and glasses – but we know where to put them once we find them. We have yet to set up the cabinets in the laundry room and pantry because those need to be prepped and painted before we fill them. Once we have those in service we will have plenty of space for everything we have and then some.

We are talking about getting a gas cooktop instead of cutting in a gas range – which would give us even more space in the kitchen by leaving in place the cabinet I need to cut out to place the range, but Mama has not made up her mind yet. Either way I will run gas to the house to accommodate the new appliance.

I still have a huge amount of work to do on the well house and the garage in order to get my working space set up but that will come in time. I am starting to get more shelving to use in the organizational effort but other, more urgent, projects have taken precedence. If Mama ever wants to park in the garage she will have to let me finish some of my storage projects.

Mama is taking Grandma and Grandpa to Wichita Falls this morning to see a cardiologist. The appointment has been a long time in coming. Grandpa has had some very bad days with dizzy spells and exhaustion (sometimes several days in a row), followed by days where he has felt quite good (also several days consecutively). It is reasonable to assume the problem is his heart but the cardiologist is the right person to seek advice of.

Pray that it goes well since Grandma and Grandpa have had some pretty bad experiences with health care professionals. To hear them talk, you would think that the level of incompetence in the medical field is exceeded only by the incompetence of our current congress.

I hope that is not the case but there is a small air of truth within the complaint.