Home, little accomplishments, Dodger

It was nice to get home last night. At this point I do not plan on traveling for at least a couple weeks. The men from the church are at a campground about an hour from the farm for a weekend fishing trip. Mama wants me to go tonight to fellowship with the group, but I do not know if I am up to any more miles or late nights. I will see how I feel tonight and what time I get out of the office. Mama has to pick me up tonight since I drove a truck to the office this morning. That may postpone my departure somewhat.

Not much got done on the apartment while I was gone. Grandpa has not been feeling well for the past week or so. I did get the good news that even though an inch of rain fell in the span of less than an hour on Wednesday night the apartment and shop were completely dry. I felt a sense of accomplishment in that. Now we can proceed with some confidence as we complete the insulation and sheetrock throughout the apartment, laundry room and shop.

I do have to admit to being a little discouraged with the project. It has taken a lot longer than I originally anticipated and some of the delays have been weeks long. I will keep pushing through and eventually we will get done but it has been a little disappointing that much of the work has had to wait on me. I think my dad must have felt the same sense of frustration as he worked on the house in Chappell Hill over the many years that project was going on, but he persevered – as I will also. It will be worth it when we do finally get done.

When I called Mama yesterday afternoon she and Grandma were at the vet’s office waiting news on Dodger. He had been in quite a bit of pain through the morning and Mama assumed that there was something stuck in his mouth but she and Grandma could not give him and relief. The vet’s diagnosis was that he had been bitten in the face by a copperhead. He will survive but he will still be in some pain for a couple days longer.

He seemed okay when I got home last night but Mama was following the doctor’s orders to not feed him for 24 hours so he was very hungry. The only way I could tell that he was hungry was that he followed every person who headed that direction into the kitchen. Then he would stand at his bowl and look up at each of us. It was kind of pitiful. As I left this morning he went out with me as he usually does, but I am not sure I did the right thing in letting him follow that routine.

I will find out sometime later.

More travel, storms, family news

I rode over to Borger yesterday with a coworker from the Decatur office with the intent of getting a truck here and driving it back for use in the Decatur office. That part is going to work out well. Today I will travel most of the day visiting my staff in Guymon, OK and Dumas, TX. Tomorrow will be in Elk City, OK and then home. It is the second week I have been out of the office and away from the farm and Mama.

Last night I texted Chase but I did not think he texted me back until this morning when I saw his reply. It would not have been a good evening to get together. There was a storm blowing through the panhandle with very fierce winds. Amarillo looked like it was being swallowed up in a sand storm as I drove in late in the evening yesterday. The real storm came through after 10 p.m.

I left one of the windows in the hotel room open a little to watch the storm as I lay down to sleep. My room is on the fourth floor of the hotel facing west. I was wakened at 11 p.m. or so by the tornado alarms sounding and the violent rain beating against the window. I learned this morning that no tornados touched down in Amarillo although there were numerous funnel clouds spotted. I am still not sure how that is done after dark, but that was the official report. The real damage was done by softball sized hail.

The forecast for the farm is for the same storm to strike there today as it tracks slowly east. I do not know if the intensity will be the same but I do hope the rainfall will be as heavy as it was here. I did not hear how much rain fell but I am pretty sure it was over an inch. As I drove in this morning, there were multiple signs set up to warn of high water – which had run off since the signs were originally set out. It is not the most comfortable way to get rain but it seems like the most common in this area.

Brittany and Andrew are now in Mississippi at his new assignment. I think it will be a four year stay. They are very happy about the housing they have and the proximity to Cori and Nate makes it an easy trip to go over and hang out with them in Pace, FL. They were all at the beach yesterday and Mama was very jealous. I am not sure how the beach would be for her right now but I have a feeling she would make due – recent surgery or not.

She got her stitches out yesterday so she feels free of the constraints they imposed on her to keep them dry at all times. Showering was her biggest concern so now she can do as she pleases without the additional worry. She is attempting more range of motion but has to avoid any twisting or pivoting on the knee. We are not sure how long that motion will continue to hurt but the constant nagging pain of the joint is gone. Recovery is on the way.

I hope to concentrate on the apartment over the next several weeks and set a move in date for the first week of July. Considering I have been working on this for about a year the whole occupancy thing is kind of anticlimactic.  It will be nice to have a comfortable place of our own. Maybe Mykenzie, who was not at all impressed about the past two places Grammy has been living – the rental house in Amarillo and the mobile home on the farm – will feel better about this home for her Grammy. Grant and Blake could not care less about where they eat or sleep. They love the play opportunities the farm gives them.

Viva la difference!

A short long weekend, Mama, the contest

Even though this was a long weekend it was still too short to get everything done that I had wanted to accomplish. I did manage to get the roof sealed up in a way that should be more or less permanent. It will be less of a problem when we roof the taller portion of the shop but for now it should be rain resistant (vs. rain proof) for the time I will need to count on it alone. I was on the roof or the ladder from 8:15 a.m. until 4 p.m. to get it done. Then I worked inside the apartment and finished up the insulation. I quit about 7:30 p.m. I was so sweat-soaked that Mama had me hang my cloths outside until they dried. She has special gloves for handling such items.

Only two more plugs to wire in and the electrical work will be complete also. Grandpa was hurting too badly yesterday to do much. He tilled the garden on Saturday while I was working on finishing up some last minute items in the apartment and it may have been too much for him. The garden has never looked better. Right after he got it done we got a little over a quarter inch of rain; perfect timing for once.

Mama seemed to be hurting a little more this weekend than in previous days. She will see the doctor today so we will be updated on what should be hurting and how much it should be hurting. She will get the stitches out during this visit which will help some, but it will not affect the deep hurting she has been feeling in that knee.

Saturday evening she was feeling poorly so I went out to shut up the chicken coop and gather the last of the eggs. I found four in one nesting box and saw two in another – along with a pretty large rat snake. It was near dusk, and very low light so I could not be sure it was a rat snake. I went to get a hoe and a short stick to handle the snake and once I got him out of the nest I cut off his head. At that point the egg he was swallowing popped out of his mouth.

All during the cornering and pinning him, throwing him on the ground and lining him up for the fatal blow, he kept the egg in his mouth without breaking it. I took the egg to Mama along with the other eggs but she would not keep it. That one was fed to the dogs. What was weird is that as I pinned him to get a grip on him to get him out of the next he raised up his head and it looked like I was dealing with a cobra because of the way the egg he was swallowing distended his head.

I wish he had elected to eat the mice in the coop rather than the eggs but it was a poor choice on his part. I am not sure which Mama dislikes more, the mice and rats or the snakes. I think right now the prize would go the mammals, but it could be a close contest.

Speaking of contests, while Norman and Seth were here they issued a challenge to Mama, Victoria and Grandma. Each of them would set aside twenty five dollars in a pot and whoever lost ten pounds first would win the pot; one hundred and twenty five dollars. So far Mama has gained one pound and Grandma had gained two.

I do not think that was the point of the contest.

Travel, medical issues, more travel

I got home from Eagle Pass yesterday in the early afternoon. It was about nine hours on the road and other than seeing multiple police check points and dozens of officers either clocking cars with radar, in pursuit of offenders or talking with someone they had pulled over, it was pretty uneventful. I drove a little over 1100 miles round trip, but it was well worth the effort. Now I have to catch up to my regular work.

Lately I have been getting a rash on my shoulders, my upper back and my chest. It has been recurring for about a year now. At first we thought it was an allergic reaction to something in the t-shirts I was wearing so Mama changed laundry detergent – several times. Still it persisted. We looked at just about everything I could think of. When we showed the rash to Grandma a couple days ago, she knew what it was: shingles. That made perfect sense. It does not help me deal with it, but at least it identifies it. Mama is after me to show it to a doctor and I probably should but there is very little they can do to treat a viral infection.

Grandpa took Grandma to the doctor while I was away and they did an ultrasound on her gall bladder. It will have to be removed soon. The surgery is listed as “emergency” for scheduling purposes but that means something different to the hospital than to Grandma. She has been telling everyone she talks to that she is having emergency surgery - sometime next month. To her it is really funny. If she tells you, be sure to laugh.

Mama is doing much better. Rather than get her stitches out yesterday, the doctor’s office moved the appointment to sometime next week. It did seem a little early to have the stitches out only ten days after the surgery, but I do not make those decisions. At any rate, she is on the schedule to have them removed at a later date. Until then she will have to shower with care. That is the part she likes the least.

She has been walking without any assistance of crutches or canes although she takes a walking stick with her as she moves about the farm. She still has a slight limp but that is going away. She is still not able to pivot on that knee. It may require physical therapy to start developing that strength, but she is not in pain any longer. That is the best part. She is planning to have the right knee done as soon as possible. I am thinking October or November but she is thinking sooner. I have a feeling the doctor will be on my side but we will find out.

I will be heading to Borger next week – after the Memorial Day Holiday. It has been too long since I have been there. Over the past several months I have had pressing work related matters to deal with as well as awaiting word from Licensing, so I have not been able to venture far from the office. Now that several of those matters are settled, or well under way, I can get back into a routine of making my rounds every month or so.

Grandpa made progress on the apartment while I was gone but with doctor visits and other matters of the home, he did not get too much further. I still have some work to do to seal the roof edges so we do not get any rain finding its way into the shop. One hard, wind driven rain got the shop and apartment pretty wet. That kind of shut Grandpa down on any sheetrock work.

Further sealing that edge will be the focus of this weekend.

Progress, permanent guests, travel

There was a lot of progress on the apartment this weekend. Norman and Seth did most of the sheetrock on the ceilings throughout the apartment while Grandpa worked on all of the electrical runs. The wiring is almost complete. I still have a few outlets to cut into the laundry room since Grandpa thought the ones I had cut already should be moved and we still have the oven wire to pull into place. Other than those few items we are done there.

While they worked inside, I worked on sealing up the roof. I was on the roof in the hot sun most of the afternoon and at one point I got pretty overheated. I took a short break while all the rest of the crew went to Nocona to celebrate “Fun Day”. I learned about the event when I had gone to the lumber yard early that morning. Even Mama went. Seth piloted her around in a wheelchair.

I did get one part of the roof (where the two buildings that make up the whole shop are connected) sealed up for good but there is still more work to be done.  All in all, I did about a quarter of the work in one day. It will take putting a roof on the tall part of the shop to finally seal up the connecting edge but that will not happen soon.

I will look today when I get home where Norman and Seth left off on the sheetrock because they worked through the day yesterday while we went to church. I did not go out and look after Victoria and I got home from the evening service. Mama did not go. She was in a good deal of pain and the knee was pretty swollen after an active morning.

Norman and Seth will be leaving this morning so we said our goodbyes last night. He felt badly that he had not gotten more done and I told him I felt that way every weekend. I assured him that he had done what it would have taken me four or five weekends to do. I consider myself a month ahead because of the effort. Now Grandpa can work at a slower pace to get more of the sheetrock done and I can do the tape and mud in the evening when I get home. I am very pleased.

The really odd thing about Norman and Seth’s visit is that Grandma insisted on keeping Moca. I have never known her to be so taken over any animal but she is definitely taken with that little dog. The dog sleeps in her bedroom on a special bed. Grandma hovers over her whenever she has to go out to use the bathroom. It is a big dangerous world out there and anything could happen to the tiny pooch.

In ways she is right to fret some. My biggest worry is a hawk getting Moca. She is not much bigger than a medium sized rabbit. Norman said that one night not too long ago an owl was making its approach for the kill when he stepped out of the house. His sudden appearance dissuaded the owl from its prey. That was all Grandma needed to hear.

Even though we are ahead for the moment I will not get very much farther this week. I have to leave tomorrow to drive to Eagle Pass, TX. I am slated to participate in the rollout of a new driving monitoring system the company is installing on all company vehicles. Not the most pleasant assignment. In the location I am traveling to there are sixteen vehicles. In my location I manage one hundred and seventy five. The scale up could prove problematic but I have until the week of the 23^rd of June to get a plan together.

The following week I have to go to Borger for some prep work there. The only bright spot in the two week period is Memorial Day. I will be off on Monday the 27^th so I will have two full days to work on the apartment over that long weekend.

We are not in the final stretch but we are a lot closer.

Brittany and Andrew, Norman’s truck, Mama

Brittany and Andrew were at the farm when I got home. Brittany came out to meet me so she could be the first one to give me a hug – no competition from Mama with her bum knee. (That used to be a competition the kids had with each other and Mama.) I got to show them the apartment and shop. It was fun for Andrew since the last time he was here he helped nail up a lot of the OSB sheeting on the exterior walls of the apartment.  At that time, the frame was all that was on the slab. He enjoyed his work being put to good use.

They are on their way to Andrew’s new duty station in Mississippi where he will be in flight school. They have metered their trip there in about six hour legs. The first leg was from Colorado Springs, CO to Amarillo, TX. There they visited with Chase and Makaila. The second leg was to us, in Bowie, TX. The third leg will be to visit friends in Hot Springs, AR. Then finally to wherever it is they are going in northeast Mississippi. Norman and Seth stayed the night at a local hotel to allow Brittany and Andrew to have the bed he was sleeping on.

After arriving home from spending all day in Dallas yesterday looking at trucks, without success,  Norman got online again and found a truck for sale that had been posted only about four hours prior. It was in Decatur, so they all got back in Grandpa’s truck and headed over. It turned out to be the one he was looking for. It is not the one he needs to haul hay down to us, but it is a great truck to support his landscaping business back in West Virginia.

It had been used by a company that does custom combining of grain. They are the original owners. They had used it for a service truck so it has an air compressor with an electric starter, a fuel tank with an electric pump and a large tool box bolted in the bed. It was perfect for him and Seth.  We were all pretty excited and relieved that he now has it especially considering that they actually bought and drove away with a truck in Dallas only to have to take it back because something was wrong with the engine. (Fortunately, the seller gave them their money back.)

Grandpa is starting the electrical runs in the apartment and Norman is talking about following behind putting insulation and sheetrock. Today they will get off to a slow start because Grandpa and Grandma are going to take Mama to her follow up appointment with the orthopedic surgeon. Grandma wants to see if there is any help for her with this doctor so I am sure that will be discussed while they are there.

Last night I got the tub set up with a chair so that Mama could shower without getting her knee wet. The doctor’s office told her she could remove the wrap and bandaging so she could clean up so we did –after her shower, just to be certain we did not mess up. Grandma had helper her wash her hair earlier in the day so last night she felt like a new woman.

I do not remember a week without a shower bothering me that much.

Rain, the search goes on, Mama

Well, we got rain last night. As I was leaving the house to go to church I was listening to the radio. The announcement was made that the storm headed our way in North Texas was producing tornados on the front and back sides of the of the storm line. The farm was a little to the west of the heavy thunderstorms but I called Mama to let her know. The funny thing is that I had just told her that the front headed to us was not expected to produce any tornados. I think everyone was caught off guard by the intensity of the storms that hit through the night.

On the way home from church I got into the heavy rain. Everyone that was still moving was going about thirty miles an hour because it was nearly impossible to see in the dark with the blowing rain. Water covered both lanes and the lightening was intense. Even the big rigs were pulling off to the side to wait it out. I only had to cover about fifteen miles in those driving conditions to make it to Bowie, so I kept going. It is a rare thing in this area to not be able to drive out of a storm within a few miles.

It was when I was going through town that I really got into some trouble. All the streets I normally take were flooded so had to pick a way home and stick with it. At several points I drove through two feet of water and I had to run a stop sign to make it through one intersection where the water was deeper than two feet. Once I got to higher ground I was okay and I did get clear of the storm as I made my way through town. The car got a thorough rinsing off through it all.

When I got home the power was off and had been for some time. Victoria was sitting in her car charging up her phone. She does not use it for making calls. She uses it as a net reader so her reason for maintaining a charge is dramatically different than Mama’s determination to keep her phone active. Anyway, we all made it safe through the storm and even got a good night’s sleep.

By this morning the power had been restored and sometime today Grandpa will look at the rain gauge and give Mama an update on total accumulation at the farm; I will get the news from her. I am excited to see the big pond. With a runoff like we had last night I am hoping its level rose noticeably. At the very least, the garden and the meadows got a good soaking. The news now is that more of these storms are headed our way tomorrow through the weekend.

Norman is getting a little discouraged because they looked at ten or more trucks yesterday and none of them worked out right for him. The ones he really liked were just out of his price range and the ones he could easily afford were not worth the price being asked. They spent all day in Dallas and Ft. Worth looking but came home without the prize. I am not sure if they will go back out today or not. He has a deadline of next Wednesday to get this done or go home empty handed for this trip.

Mama is getting along much better. She will see the doctor tomorrow. They will change the bandages and evaluate the incisions. It will be the first time Mama will see the surgery sites. I am not sure what she is expecting but I know she will be shocked by the size of the cuts vs. the pain she has endured as a result of them.

I am curious to know how much improvement she will see once the healing process is done.