Birthdays this week, Mama Sick, work

As we enter the last half of month of September there are several birthdates still ahead. Becky’s birthday is today. Nate’s birthday is tomorrow and Mama and Chase’s birthdays come on the 29^th. This always was a busy month for me and Mama.

Speaking of Mama she was sick through the day yesterday. It all started on Saturday evening when she got up from the recliner she was sitting in and complained of being thoroughly chilled. She spent the reminder of the night trying to get warm. By morning she was better but not by much. Through the day yesterday she had short spells of feeling pretty good but the fever always seemed to return. This morning she was fevered again. Hopefully, from here, she will get better quickly but I am not holding too high an expectation for a full recovery today – maybe by Wednesday.

This week is going to be a very hard one for those within ConocoPhillips awaiting confirmation of future employment. This is the week that managers will assign names to roles and fill out their org charts. Those persons whose name does not find a home in a box on the new org chart will be slated for termination through the coming layoff. I am, as far as I know, among that group.

We are awaiting final confirmation, but Grandma and Grandpa have been planning to leave West Virginia on Friday or Saturday this week and come back to Chico. As many of you know we will not make any final preparations until we know they are actually on the road. In ways, it will be nice to have them back in Texas with us. I think Mama is looking forward to getting them back home in spite of the friction that inevitably comes from having parents in the home with their grown children.

Grandpa continues to recover slowly. He is scheduled to see a specialist in Amarillo during the first part of October. Hopefully, he can get some resolution to the questions that still haunt him and Grandma about the underlying cause of his continued weakness and very slow recovery. As it stands right now he has been lead to believe that this is as good as it is going to get and he will have to adapt accordingly. We believe there ia probably a better answer than that, but are not sure.

All the items he accumulated for Victoria’s house while he worked with Norman in West Virginia will be brought down to Texas by Normand and Seth some time later in the month of October. At least, that is the plan right now. Grandpa and Grandma will be driving home in a car that they bought there for their return journey. I have suggested that Mama and I make a run to West Virginia to get one of the trailer loads soon after I am laid off but I have to coordinate that with fixing Grandma and Grandpa Kline’s roof in Chappell Hill and finding employment so we can continue to meet our financial obligations.

It is a time for much prayer.