Dad, sickness, hunting, internet woes continue

Martha sent out an email about Dad’s current condition and the bottom line is that there is little change in his health other than a gentle slipping away. When she talked about him not having a good appetite, I can sympathize since I got the chance to feed him one afternoon. When she mentioned that he often spits out his food, I can also identify with that because he had such difficulty swallowing when I was feeding him. The discharge of food makes it a challenge to get his medicine into him - especially if it is in tablet or pill form. The caregivers and hospice are doing the best they can but it is only a matter of time until he goes home. Fortunately, we have a blessed hope that lies beyond the grave and can see the man we have known all our lives being made completely new in a moment, in the twinkling  of a eye.

The sickness that started with Savanna - or maybe Victoria - passed to Grant, then to Mama and now to me. I woke yesterday with that intuitive process our physical bodies use to alert us to a change in state. I did not initially feel that bad and was getting ready to go to church when I started to burn up with fever; then the nausea set it. Needless to say, I did not make it to church - nor did Mama. She is starting to get her strength back while I continue to struggle to get the fever contained. She was very pleased with herself this morning because she had lost six pounds. Although it is not the diet plan any of us would choose, it is, none the less, very effective. Hopefully, if we really desire to lose weight, we will figure out a less debilitating method - of we really want to lose weight.

Nate and the boys have been squirrel hunting the past few mornings and evenings. Even though the squirrels are fun to watch they are quite destructive. Having had to replace the spark plug wires in Victoria’s car (because the squirrels chew through them to make a nest on her engine) and having had to throw away a lot of items in storage that had been damages by either the rats or the squirrels, we are on a full blown assault against the rodents. So far Nate has removed two from the property and is sure to get several more as this week winds down. They will be leaving on Saturday so he and Blake are quite determined to get the kill count up before they go back to the Pensacola area to continue their deputation there.

Nate and I are both working from the church this morning since the internet is still not functional at the farm, A technician is scheduled to come out tomorrow to check the situation over and I have high hopes that we can get it rectified, but I will not hold my breath. I know something is wrong, not only because the signal is very weak, but because my data allotments are being used up even when the modem is turned off. I tried everything I knew how to do and finally traced it back to a faulty modem but getting the service company to acknowledge that took six phone calls totalling three hours on the phone. If a technician cannot rectify the problem I will have to work through the challenge of getting out of the contract we have with them.

Avoiding that fight would be my preference.