Another day of not being much good for anything. I did manage to get to town and buy canned dog food to use in feeding Shorty her monthly heart worm pill, plus a few items to take with me on my trip tomorrow. I even made a check to pay a couple of bills before I leave. With my fine motor coordination gone, I spent over an hour sewing a button on a shirt to take with me. That kind of thing still drives me nuts, but I still don't know of any way to shed five or ten years. I'll turn in this evening with some things unfinished, but it seems that's the way things are now.
Monday, September 2, 2024
Best laid plans. A little after 9:00 AM I headed east on my drive to Michigan for the Old Car Festival. The drive seemed normal until I approached Coffeyville from the west. Approximately at the city limit I drifted too far to the left and drove over a curb, destroying two tires and damaging both wheels. The EMT guys found my blood pressure awfully low, and took me to the hospital. It turned out that I was taking twice the blood pressure medicine than I should, and was dehydrated. I spent the rest of the day in the hospital and was there overnight.
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
In the morning I was feeling OK, and Lori came to get me. The doc in charge decided to skip the tests I was supposed to take and released me with a referral to a cardiologist in Wichita. My car was on a trailer at a cousin's place in Tyro, so we stopped there and retrieved the stuff I had packed to take with me to Michigan. I was home in the afternoon and felt fine, but determined to pay attention to staying hydrated. I contacted some of the folks who were expecting to see me at OCF, to let them know that for the second year in a row I would miss it.
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
The "highlight" of the day was an appointment with my doc to follow up on yesterday's hospital adventure. She wants to see me next month after I've been to the cardiologist. With my Camry out of action, I went to town in the Suburban. I found it running low on fuel, so I went down to the gasino to fill it up. It comes in handy occasionally, but is such a voracious gas hog that I don't drive it often. Today it took 25.3 gallons, which cost a little over $70. It's a good thing that I don't have to do that very often.
Thursday, September 5, 2024
My morning activity was shopping. I called salvage yards in search of the right wheels for the Camry. The second place I phoned, in Winfield, apparently has them. I'll find out for sure tomorrow when I go see them. In the afternoon I took care of a little chore I should have done already. After I filled the dogs' water pail I turned the water on to a trickle and set the hose by some very thirsty plants to give them a much-needed drink. It's been a long time since we had any rain, and the forecast shows little or no chance of any for the next ten days. I don't know if we're officially in a drought, but it sure feels like one.
Friday, September 6, 2024
In 1965 a sergeant at Fort Belvoir told me, "This army is just one damn disappointment after another." Today was along those lines. Aiming to check out those Camry wheels, I set out for Winfield in the Suburban. I didn't get more than five miles before the needle on the temp gauge was up in the red zone. It turned out that there is a leaking coolant hose causing a loss of coolant. I won't get into all the details of dumping in two gallons of water at a time to drive just a few miles, but I ended up at the Winfield Walmart. The auto shop there can't deal with leaky hoses, so I walked across the street to a dealership, where I was told that they were too busy to even look at it. There was nothing I could think of but to phone for help. Lori and Donna were both out of town, so I called Zack. As soon as he was able, he came and got me and took me to the salvage yard. The Camry wheels there looked like the right ones, so I bought them and Zack brought me home with them. By then I doubted that I was in good enough shape to drive the Suburban home, so there it sits behind the Winfield Walmart. I think Lori will be able to drive me around tomorrow, so we can go fetch it then. It's depressing being so old and helpless.
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Lori, Donna and I went to Winfield to fetch the Suburban. We took a few gallons of water, but didn't need much of it because Donna and I fixed the leaking hose that was causing the overheating. We left the "new" wheels at Walmart to have tires installed. Then the girls took the wheels with new tires to Tyro and brought home the Camry with the two new wheels and tires installed. While they were doing that, I took care of some spraying. I attacked johnson grass along the road to the west, and used up the weed killer that was in the sprayer. That took a little over half an hour, and at the end my back told me it was time to rest. This being Saturday, it was my movie night. With my diminished sense of taste eating restaurant meals has lost its charm. For the movie I saw Reagan to see how Dennis Quaid handled the role. He didn't always look like Reagan, but he did the voice very well. Penelope Ann Miller is excellent as Nancy Reagan. In secondary roles, Dan Lauria as Tip O'Neill and Olek Krupa as Mikhail Gorbachev do nice turns.
Sunday, September 8, 2024
I actually did a little work today. There was some weed killer left in a pail, and I put it in the sprayer and used it up. By then my back was telling me to take a rest. Later, when my back felt better, I trimmed twigs and small branches off a fallen limb in the yard. Again, the job took half an hour, and at the end my back told me that was enough. Is that my new limit for any physical exertion? I hope to recover enough to work more than half an hour. We'll see.
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Monday, September 9, 2024 Today I'll include a photo of something I did today. That was picking up and bagging the twigs and small branches I trimmed off the fallen branch in the yard yesterday. That bag will go in the garage and the contents will be kindling when we get to wood-burning season. In the afternoon I went into town and saw the small engine repair guy about my sick splitter, and he's willing to work on it if the problem is in the engine. I think it is, so I'll take the machine to him tomorrow. My second stop was at the post office to pick up mail and resume home delivery. I ended up at Walmart, where I restocked on some items that are sometimes out of stock when I run out and need more. Tuesday, September 10, 2024 Today's project was getting the splitter
hooked up to the Suburban so I can tow it to the
small engine repair guy. That sounds like
a simple job that should take a few minutes, but
it was more complicated than it sounds, and ate
up a few hours.
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Wednesday, September 11, 2024
I was going to take the splitter to town, but the Suburban wouldn't start because the battery was down. I put a charger on it and went grocery shopping instead. On this anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attack, there were appropriate commemorative ceremonies. What is often forgotten is that some Americans, even in high offices, took the attack as permission to forget who we are. We are the United States of America, and should never perpetrate the dishonorable behavior that sometimes took place in the following years.
Thursday, September 12, 2024
At last I got around to taking my sick splitter to Dave, the small engine repair guy. I towed it with the Suburban. That relic is such a gas hog that I don't drive it any more than I have to. With that little chore out of the way I parked the Suburban at home, took the Camry into town, and brought home another 46-pound bag of dog food, and put it on the feeder. Then I dived deep into catching up. I went up to my office above the shop and spent the afternoon going through a mountain of old bills, receipts, and back mail, which I brought into the house for more detailed sorting. More remains in the office for me to bring in and include in more sorting. There's a lot to do, but I hope I can get it all under control in a week.
Friday, September 13, 2024
Much of the day, several hours, I sorted stuff I carried down from my office. This was the first sorting, putting everything into piles in the living room — receipts, tax forms, car insurance, etc. Next will be sorting the piles by year and month. By quitting time, 5:00 PM, I was pleased at how much I had got done. The problem is that at some point I took the billfold out of my pocket so I could reach my knife, and now I have no clue where I left it. My driver's license is in there, so I will need to find it before I drive anywhere.
Saturday, September 14, 2024
What are they thinking? Sorting old bills, mail, and receipts, I find some that are undated. Sometimes the day and month are there without the year, but too often there's no date at all. Forgive me if I'm being too picky, but I find that inconvenient. Today I continued sorting and organizing receipts and papers, and made good progress again. I started putting some piles into boxes for later sorting. But I still failed to find my missing billfold. That presented a dilemma: should I skip movie night, or go ahead and hope that I wouldn't catch the attention of a traffic cop? I decided to do it, and made it to the theater and back home without being pulled over. The movie was Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. I thought it was well done, and good fun, but not having seen the original film I expect I failed to get some of the gags.
Sunday, September 15, 2024
Found it! A little before noon I went up to my office, where I had been sorting and opening old mail last week. There, lying in plain sight on the computer table, was the billfold I had taken out of my pocket so I could easily reach the knife that I carry in the same pocket. What a relief! I've been dreading all the work that replacing its contents would require. I celebrated the good news by walking up to the cemetery for a visit with the old-timers.
This photo from thirteen years ago shows Parker Cemetery pretty much as it is today. I think this original section has a few more stones in it now. After my cemetery visit I caught up on a few odds and ends: running fresh water for the dogs, setting water to run under bushes suffering from the drought, moving a bag of kindling into the garage and out of the weather. The forecast shows no rain coming, but better safe than soaked.
Monday, September 16, 2024
It was running-around day. First I printed out a copy of my 2022 taxes and took it to a CPA in town. I don't trust myself to do my own taxes anymore. I'm afraid my age combines with my TBI to greatly increase my chances of making dumb mistakes. I'll feel much better letting somebody who knows what he's doing handle the job for 2023. Next was a drive to the co-op in Hackney to pay my part of the fertilizer bill, $535 and change. A couple of stops for grocery shopping finished off the day. I expect tomorrow will be pretty busy too, at least in the morning, so I'll need to turn in earlier than usual tonight.
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Another big day. I didn't plan it that way, but as the old saying goes, Stuff Happens. My morning appointment at Four County Mental Health went exactly as planned. I sat in a chair and bent the therapist's ear for an hour. Piece of cake. I came home and took care of another bit of business. I phoned my bank, Social Security, and other organizations that send me forms in January and February for doing taxes, and requested new copies of everything that got lost when my mail was interrupted last winter. Another piece of cake, although Social Security seems to be overwhelmed and took forever. I ran into trouble when I decided to take an inspection tour of the wood lot. The first part went well. I walked down the road and around the loop at the south end, within a few feet of the next road, Vine Avenue. All the way down and all the way back I found the road surprisingly clear of the knee-high brush that infested it earlier in the year. The only obstacles were a few fallen trees and branches. Apparently back in June when we got the mowing tractor fixed, Zack ran it over much of the road and cleared most of the vegetation. I was nearing the last part of my tour when the unplanned interruption happened. I was climbing over a fallen tree. I stepped over the main trunk, but slipped and fell, straddling the secondary trunk. This is where my physical condition came into play. I was too weak to get off that smaller trunk and get my feet under me. I just lacked the upper body strength to grab a branch and pull myself up. I was down for about twenty minutes before I finally managed to get off that secondary trunk and on my feet. By this point I was too unsteady to walk normally. I was lucky to have a cane with me, and made my way back up to the house. I wasn't able to open the front door with any of the keys in my pocket, so I wobbled my way around behind the house and came in the back door, which fortunately was unlocked. It took an hour of lying on my bed with the air conditioner running before I felt recovered enough to get up. This adventure drove home the message that I need to establish the habit of regular exercise to recover enough muscle to get up on my feet without it being a frightening struggle. Being so incredibly weak is depressing.
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
One trip to town was a waste and the other definitely wasn't. I went to the pharmacy and bought vitamins. Then, as I headed home, I discovered the ones I already had in the car. At this point I probably have enough to last into 2025. As I was going to town my phone rang, and it was a call from Dave, the small engine repair guy, letting me know that my splitter was finished and ready to bring home. I went back to town with my tow vehicle, the Suburban, and fetched the splitter. It's now parked behind the shop, ready to go to work when I have the time to use it. That may be tomorrow, or maybe Friday or Saturday.
Thursday, September 19, 2024
It was today. Not feeling up to more spraying in the heat of the day, I fired up the splitter and attacked the pile of wood that's been waiting for months. I split the whole pile, and stacked it where it will be out of the way when I bring the truck to fetch it. Splitting is less daunting than spraying. Somehow it's less taxing physically, and I don't need to use a cane to stay on my feet. That's good, because there's a lot of wood to cut and split before burning season arrives, and there will be a lot more during the winter. The coldest it gets here is in February, but the last fire in the stove and the fireplace is likely to be sometime in April.
Friday, September 20, 2024
This morning I had a cardiology appointment in Wichita. I had planned to drive up by myself, but Lori volunteered to take me. The doc confirmed that cutting Amiodarone to one third of the previous dosage was a good thing, as the amount needed declines with time. He examined me and found no serious problems. My next appointment will be at the local hospital here, so I won't have to travel to Wichita. By the time I got home this afternoon, the heat was well on its way to an afternoon high near 100º F. I did a little spraying, but the heat persuaded me to wait and do that after we get a break in the weather. The forecast says that will happen Sunday, after another 100º day tomorrow. This afternoon I did brave the heat and pull some weeds behind the shop, but any more of that will wait until the cool of the morning tomorrow.
Saturday, September 21, 2024
I did a little more weed pulling behind the shop, but gave it up when the heat of the day came on. I'll hit it again tomorrow, and maybe clear a place to park the splitter, which is still attached to the Suburban. The main job of the day was laundry, due to my depleted supply of clean sox. I think I washed enough of them today to last into October. Dinner tonight was tuna tostadas, with chopped onions and jalapeños. This week's movie was Speak No Evil, in which a couple and their daughter accept an invitation to stay with people they just met. That turns out to be a bad decision.
Sunday, September 22, 2024
"How terribly strange to be seventy." So wrote Paul Simon in Bookends. He was in his twenties. I remembered that line this afternoon when I walked up to the cemetery for another visit with the old timers. It's even stranger to be 83. People you remember as teenagers have died as grandparents in their eighties. How terribly strange. The last of my folks' generation died more than twenty years ago. I remember them when they were old, of course. But in memory they are younger people in their forties and beyond, which now seems impossibly young. A common mistake of youth is to feel that those you have known all your life will always be with you. Well, yes they will, as long as memory lasts. But it's only in memory that they still live on. Does it scare me that I'm circling the drain closer and closer each day? Not yet. You don't exist, then you are born, then you live until your time runs out, then you don't exist anymore. That's the way life has always been, and always will be. Maybe when I feel closer to the drain it will worry me.
Monday, September 23, 2024
One event today was a surprise, and another one wasn't. The non-surprise was planned the other day when I did laundry. What I washed then was enough to fill the Maytag, which left bedding to be done. This was the day for that. Along with sheets, a mattress cover, and a pillow cover, there was one pair of sox. I had it all on the line by noon, which normally gives everything time to dry. This cloudy day was a different story. This evening I was able to bring in most of what I washed today, but the sox needed more drying time. That's fine. Tomorrow will be soon enough for those. The surprise came this afternoon in the form of a phone call from an old friend I haven't seen since I was in California three years ago. She missed out on my wreck and the months of hospitals and rehab centers that followed, so I had to tell the whole story again. I think we were on the phone for a little over an hour. I made a note of her number so I can call her occasionally before I make another trip to California. Around five Donna came and mowed the yard, and Lori laid out my pills for the next three weeks. Two prescriptions ran out, so I will need to refill those tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Well, I went to the pharmacy and ordered the pills I need, but they weren't ready when I left. I will get them tomorrow. While I was in town I took some of the new copies of tax papers I ordered to the accountant's office, spent an hour in the dentist's office for maintenance, and did some grocery shopping. From the oppressive heat of August we have descended into cool weather. The mornings are downright chilly now, with most days starting under 60º F enough to keep me inside until later in the day. Maybe tomorrow afternoon I can get a little done outside.
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Shorty got a ride this morning. Leaving a dog in the car in hot weather is no good, but in cooler weather like this it's OK. So she rode along when I went to town to pick up the pills I ordered yesterday. While we were in town I bought meat for sandwiches, pickles, bread, and other groceries. The chilly day kept me inside until afternoon, then I got outside for some yard work. I attacked some small trees and big weeds behind the shop, clearing the way for mowing the area and parking the splitter. I hope to get all that done tomorrow and split some wood. I'm way behind where I should be at laying in a wood supply for cold weather.
Thursday, September 26, 2024
The morning highlight was taking the 2023 1099 form that came in yesterday's mail to the CPA office. I think we're waiting on two more 1099 forms to arrive so he can do my taxes for last year. In the afternoon I did yard work, cutting little trees and dosing the stumps with Tordon, trimming some inconvenient branches, and doing a bit of mowing. I'm pretty pleased that I was able to keep at it for almost two hours, and was able to get to my feet a couple of times without it being a major project. I'm still feeble, but I think I'm making a little physical progress.
Friday, September 27, 2024
Today's highlight was yard work again. Again, I spent a lot of time trimming branches and cutting off little trees and dosing the stumps with Tordon so they won't grow back. I also bagged a lot of wood chips from around the splitter. That kind of stuff will go into the stove one or two handfuls at a time to keep the fire going.
Saturday, September 28, 2024
First up this morning was a drive to the recycling center with plastic containers, aluminum pans, and empty cans. After that I went on to Winfield to check out the Defore auction to see if they were selling anything that would make me stay there. I saw a couple of items I might have bought if there were enough to keep me there, but nothing worth staying and waiting. The time was better spent in the yard. The important part of that was unhitching the splitter from the Suburban. I got it off, but I wasn't able to roll it to where I want it. I just don't have the muscle for that anymore. I'll use it where it sits and move it when I have somebody here to help. This week's movie was Thelma. I drove up to Wichita in June to see it because I didn't expect it ever to be shown down here. So it was a nice surprise to find it playing at the local cineplex. I enjoyed the second viewing as much as the first. June Squibb, Richard Roundtree and other good actors make it an enjoyable story.
Sunday, September 29, 2024
A friend from Nebraska dropped in today. He was visiting way out in western Kansas, and on his way home he made a long detour to come and meet the old man in person. From watching my YouTube videos, apparently he thinks I am OK. It was a lucky thing that he was here, because when I had another getting-on-your-feet pickle he was able to get me up. He's a big fan of my old truck, and he helped me get some gas in the tank so I could get the old thing started. My upper body strength is pretty much gone, but I'm still able to walk. So we took a walk down in the wood lot. We toured the whole thing, walking around the north loop, then down to the other end and around the south loop. I still had some energy left, so we walked up to the cemetery for a visit with the old timers. After my friend headed for home, I got back to work on wood. After the big oak outside my shop was trimmed a couple of years ago, a pile of branches and parts of branches remained under the tree until today. I went through it all this afternoon, putting a lot of it into one pile to cut up with the chain saw later and a smaller pile of pieces that are ready to go to the splitter. I think I'll be ready to start splitting tomorrow in the cool of the morning.
Monday, September 30, 2024
Cool of the morning was right. It was close to 10:00 AM before the outdoors felt comfortable for working. I started up the splitter and spent the rest of the morning splitting wood until the splitter ran out of gas a few minutes before noon. I refilled the tank, but I couldn't get the machine restarted. I was beyond ready for a break, so I went inside to have a drink and check email. I extended the break with a trip to town for groceries, after which I came home and did more splitting. While I was at it I shot a picture of the splitter and me.
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