Busy Saturday, medical tests, FBI tests

Saturday was a pretty productive day. I was able to get out early and use the tractor to scrape, pull and drag, the dirt in the portion of the back yard nearest the septic tanks and get it looking a little more like a back yard. I was not able to get it all leveled out but that portion looks better. Even after seven dry days the deeper parts were too wet to rearrange.

On the other side of the yard it was still way too wet to get to the damaged part with the tractor. I tried but almost got stuck in the soft ground. I did do a little leveling on the outermost edges but I had to get in with a shovel and make the last few changes I could manage. It will have to dry up a good deal more before I can help Mama out with that gouged mess to where she can actually mow the whole yard.

I put the string head on the weed eater and trimmed around the house and trees – as well as the areas where Mama has not been able to mow because of the trenches left from the backhoe work we had done a couple months ago. So, all in all, it looks less unkempt but still far from what I would like to have.

In the afternoon I loaded up the tiller to go to the Cantrell’s so we could get Kim started on a garden. While I was getting ready to tie down the tiller I was getting out of the truck bed and my slick, dusty glove slipped on the side of the truck bed and I fell out of the truck. I did not get hurt but my phone clip caught on the bed and got ripped from my belt. It splintered in several pieces. It is the third one I have broken in as many years. Maybe they sell them in multipacks.

When we got the Cantrell’s we started on the garden patch right away. What was to become a garden was a grassy area so I went over it four times – in differing directions – with the tiller but still could not get the depth I wanted so Mama and Kim began raking the tilled up grass out of the rows and I re-tilled in those cleared patches. That got the job done. By the time we left we had planted several rows of vegetables. With the rains that are forecast for this week she should be off to good start.

Mama is headed to the hospital in Bowie this morning to get a CAT scan. She has been suffering pains and burning sensations off and on with a place on the back of her head and now is the time to get it looked at. While we were living in the apartment in New Jersey she passed out in the kitchen and cracked her head pretty hard.

Neither of us knows how long she lay there but the blood was almost dry when she came to the bedroom to get my help. It took a good bit to clean her up. The doctor we saw after the incident did not seem concerned about it. We all chalked it up to dehydration.

Now, however, with the uncertainty of my job going forward we thought it was time to get the tests done so we could rule out anything medically pressing. We do not expect any bad news but it will be nice to eliminate even the possibility of bad news in the future.

This evening we have our second test in FBI. With Mission’s Conference all last week none of us have had much time to study so we are all cramming today. We’ll see how that turns out.