Grandma, full tank, power needs, pleasant days

Grandma had a minor medical procedure yesterday to check her esophagus; an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy - doing a scope of the esophagus. She has been suffering with pain swallowing, trouble keeping food down and continuous heartburn. She was diagnosed with a hiatal hernia. The hiatus is an opening in the diaphragm, which separates the chest cavity from the abdomen. The esophagus passes through the hiatus and attaches to the stomach. In a hiatal hernia, the stomach bulges up into the chest through that opening. As with any abnormal bulge in the body, the pain associated with it can produce severe discomfort. There are few remedies for the condition short of surgery, but because Grandma’s esophagus looked clear, there is nothing scheduled to make the needed correction. Mama sat with Grandpa through the prep, procedure and post-procedure. The first question Grandma asked of the attending nurse when the procedure was over was, “Did you really do anything?” She was assured that they had and had taken pictures to prove it.

Nate continues to improve but I think I am getting a touch of what he had. He was a little upset with the kids yesterday because the alarm came in on the black water tank of the camper. That is not a full tank indication that is a pleasant one. The kids were not supposed to be using the potty in the camper since we have two bathrooms in the house, but I suppose they could not resist the convenience and the privacy of the camper bathroom. He had to hook up to the camper, disconnect it from our utilities and find an RV park where he could pay to dump the tank contents. It was all done before I got home so I would not have known about it if Mama had not told me. All I mentioned was that it was unusual for Nate to have parked his vehicle where he did. I think he put the camper back in the exact spot where it had been sitting when he first parked it.

So far, I have not been able to get full power to the camper so in order to run the a/c, everything else has to be turned off – the hot water heater, the fridge, etc. It has been taking a toll on the power in the house because the outside outlet they are plugged into supplies the laundry room, the chefs pantry and the north side of the garage. So, when we try to use the microwave I put in the laundry room (because we cannot use the microwave and toaster oven in the kitchen at the same time), it trips the breaker and we lose power to the camper as well as the fridge and freezer plugged into the north side of the garage. It is a minor inconvenience, but lately we have had to reset the breaker several times per evening. Mostly when we are trying to get dinner ready. At some point, I need to completely redo the breaker box, but that is a project I do not want to take on without serious help. It will be an expensive project that will only be worth it if Mama and I stay in the house for many more years. At this point in time, I am not sure if that is in the Lord’s plans for our later years.

Although you would not know it from the news, we are experiencing cooler than average temperatures for this time of year. Most days, the high temperatures have been 4-6 degrees cooler than normal for August. It is not much, but it has been enough for the trees to start signaling an early Fall. All in all, the mornings and evenings have been very pleasant for early August, which makes the chores, both morning and evening, a bit more enjoyable than over the past few weeks.

We’ll take it.