Success – mostly, dental appointment and cooking lessons, study

Yesterday evening I was finally able to install the water line to the frost proof faucet at the wellhouse. It took all of twenty minutes to make the final connection once I had all the parts in hand. It will be very handy in the future. As I was working one of the calves noticed the “something new” on the outside wall of the wellhouse and crowded himself into the opening between the fence I have there and the wellhouse. To keep him out I leaned a pallet against the wellhouse to mostly block the opening. As the trough was filling I walked back to the garage and got a faucet cover to use at the wellhouse. When I got back with the cover I put it on the pallet rung – the bottom of the pallet was facing outward – and went inside the wellhouse to check for leaks. It was brutally windy yesterday, but I did not think about that as I both stood the pallet in place and put the foam faucet cover on the leaning pallet. Wouldn’t you know, the wind blew the pallet over and crushed the faucet cover. I berated myself for not being a bit more careful. It was the last cover I had available to use on the faucet. It probably was not needed but I wanted to take the precaution since the temperature was supposed to be in the twenties. It was just one of those times that I had unknowingly set myself up for failure. I was able to use the very broken cover on the faucet and place the pallet in a slightly more stable manner. I will go back this evening to check for leaks once more and set a more thought out temporary blocking mechanism to keep the curious steer away from the faucet.

Tonight, we are once again slated to spend the evening with our Chinese Grandma. She is going to show me and Mama how to prepare the porridge that she has been making for me. It will be nice to have another Chinese dish in our cooking repertoire. More than likely, I will not be able to eat any of what we prepare because I will be coming from a dental appointment to the cooking class. I am scheduled to have a “deep cleaning” done on my teeth. That requires a full numbing of the entire mouth. It would be unreasonable to expect that the feeling would have returned by the time we are supposed to meet Grandma for our lesson. I cannot express just how excitedly I am looking forward to this appointment. I thank God for dentists. I just do not like to visit them. They always seem to have bad news to report.

We have waited until tonight for our cooking lesson because Yilin’s mama will be there to translate for us. That will be a big help Grandma C. Yilin can do okay, but she does not have a large Chinese vocabulary. Sunday evening when we were getting the girls for Master’s Club, Grandma C was asking what day we were coming, and Yilin did not know the word for Tuesday, so she told her Grandmother we would be there in three days. Shulin, Yilin’s mother, will be a big help in getting all the chatter translated. It will be nice to visit with Shulin as well. She has been working at a restaurant in Dallas for the past year or more and is only in Decatur in short stays. Not the ideal arrangement to raise a daughter, but at least Yilin has the constant of her extended family here; of which we feel we have become a part.

Mama and I spent about an hour listening to a tax lien investing training CD as the evening wound down. The more we hear about the opportunity the more excited we are to pursue it. There are several people at the church that are eager to know more as Mama and I learn the process. It is our hope that we will be able to partner with two couples as we get more involved in evaluating and purchasing the liens and deeds. Last night, the training covered tax deeds. Mama was hesitant to look into tax deeds before we listened to the explanation of how that process works. Not she is not only receptive of the idea, she is wanting to thoroughly investigate it.

We still have so much to learn – but we are moving steadily forward.