Monday, January 25, 2010

Productive day!

After my brother told me he was going to take Mom to the doctor, I got busy in my yard on this beautiful, but windy, day! Wow! I did a lot starting at 9 this morning and I just came in at 2:30. Just realized I have not had one morsel of food today, but I'm not hungry after working so hard. I filled up my dad's truck with yard debris and got 20 hyacinths planted that I got for Christmas. Still haven't touched the backyard yet and I'm not going to today. This old body is tired!!!


Sunday, January 24, 2010

Hello, Miami!

So much going on Super Bowl weekend. Minden St. Jude Auction and Krewe des Ambassadeurs Grand Bal'...CRAZY!

Geaux SAINTS!



Today's the day Louisiana gets to revel in something positive for a change...The New Orleans Saints! We need a win and a trip to the Super Bowl....what a trip that would be!

Today is also my first chance to get back to church in two weeks and I am passing it up. I know my teacher will not be there because he had knee replacement this week. He is an awesome teacher and no sub lives up to his knowledge and presentation. I am just going to hang at home until lunch, then go eat at my mom's. My sister-in-law is cooking her usual Sunday lunch.




We had a great first parade. The weather was very threatening, but held off until we finished rolling.

Friday, January 22, 2010

At last!

Finally, a night's rest in my bed has made a dramatic difference for me. My brother got to Mom's this morning to find that she had already made coffee and got the breakfast casserole out to warm up. He had to go to Hot Springs today, so I went this afternoon to check on her. She said she was doing great, but it does hurt to walk on her foot. I did some cleaning up around her house and planted a bunch of Texas sweet onions and left her there alone. She said she would be OK. I made sure she could reach something to eat although she can stand up and do a little bit of walking. Brother was expected back by 7:30 tonight.

Yesterday, I went to buy a new mattress and box springs for Mom. Tomorrow morning it will be delivered, so I am going there early to strip her bed and wash her sheets. I can't stay long because I have a parade tomorrow in Shreveport that I want to throw some beads in.There may be a margarita or ten consumed tomorrow and a burger or ten from Herby K's!


Thursday, January 21, 2010

WooHoo....a bed!!!!

Tonight is the night I get to sleep in a bed....my bed....and not in a recliner at my mom's. I am sooooooo looking forward to it. Today I was able to attend a lunch for a friend's birthday and actually go to a krewe meeting tonight. It's Mardi Gras time!!! My Mardi Gras jacket has new appliques on it now and most of them are referring to my political leanings....CONSERVATIVE! Lots of elephants and flags and Texas stuff...inyourfaceconservative!!!! and idontevencare! It's 8 P.M. and I am going to BED!


Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Ouch!

Mom is improving each day, but it is a slow process. I watched my brother change her dressings yesterday and it looks very painful. I'm hoping tonight will be my last night to "sleep" in a recliner. I am so ready for a night in my bed. The thing I worry about is her trying to cook breakfast. She has done it for years and my brother always comes over and has breakfast with her. He has done that for years as well. I am making a breakfast casserole to take today, so, hopefully, she will remember that it can be just zapped in the microwave. Her mind isn't what it used to be. We have to make sure she takes her meds every day. She will say she took them, but when we check the container, the meds for the day are still there. In order to preserve my own health and sanity, I have to have a good night's rest!!!


Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Mom update!

Brother took Mom to the doc yesterday. Doc said her foot could look better, but it was OK...not infected. She has 6 to 8 weeks before the pins will come out, but she has permission to put some weight on it. She is still needy enough for me to stay at night. Last night I let her completely take care of herself getting ready for bed, but she had to have a pain pill afterwards because her foot hurts to walk on it any. She was very wobbly this morning and actually fell backwards against the bathroom door, so I got the wheelchair to get her to breakfast. I cook breakfast every morning for her and my brother before I leave to come home. My goal is to be able to sleep in MY bed Thursday night. I have a lunch to go to and a meeting on Thursday night and would love to come home and sleep in my bed. Friday, my brother is going to Hot Springs to pick up a truck bed he bought on Ebay, so I will need to stay with her during the day then.


Friday, January 15, 2010

Worthless!

Worthless pretty much describes me right now. Staying every night in a recliner has taken its toll on me. I am tired even though I come home every morning and take a nap for as long as I need...usually 2 to 3 hours. Mom is getting better, but she still is not allowed to place any weight on her foot. Hopefully, on Monday she will get a bit of a reprieve from that. If not, then I will still be staying the night with her until she can. Even when she can, she will be very unstable. She was unstable even before she had the surgery. I wake up around noon everyday and eat some soup or some crackers and lie back down until I have to go back to her house. My brother is there during the day, but he is mostly outside working in the yard...cutting down trees and cleaning up and burning stuff. He comes in every few minutes just to check on her. Mom hates that our lives are dominated by her precarious situation, so its taking a toll on her as well. We owe it to her and she would do it for either of us if she were still able. She never complained about taking care of daddy either! She is a SAINT!


Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Another new adventure!

We were told by several people that lortab causes brain confusion, so we switched Mom to darvocet yesterday. Her brain is less scrambled, but she talked all night long in her sleep. She took the machine off her face by 10 because it was bothering her. She couldn't get it to fit tight on her face and it sounded like  a hurricane. I don't blame her. I "slept" not so much in the recliner. It was comfortable, but she was constantly jabbering unintelligbly so I never knew if she needed something or was just jabbering. I slept a couple of hours hard when I got home, but I have to be back at her house by 4 so my brother can go to a funeral visitation. What can I say....every day is a new adventure!!!


Monday, January 11, 2010

I'm tired!

Not such a good night last night. Mom was sleeping in her recliner and I was lying on her bed listening to her breathing. It was very labored and erratic....and each breath brought a different noise. She has a CPAP machine, but hasn't been using it since she was sleeping in a chair. I moved the machine close to her and got the mask on her. She slept after that and I slept after I got used to listening to the noise of the machine. I had breakfast cooked and my brother was there this morning before she woke up. I think we will move her to her bed tonight...no idea where I will try to sleep. Her mind is very scrambled and she isn't making much sense! I can only hope it is residual anesthesia causing this. I hate to think this is what our future will be.


Sunday, January 10, 2010

Better night

We had a better night last night. I certainly slept a little more than the night before, but as soon as I got home this morning I slept in my bed. That makes such a difference. We got her all fixed up for the day with all her meds and I think my brother was going to leave her alone while he went to church. He said he would check on her between Sunday School and church, so I could not worry about her while I was off duty. I think I'll go back to bed!


Saturday, January 09, 2010

Mom update

Mom got her toes corrected with pins yesterday. We were at the hospital for 8 hours for a 1 1/2 hour surgery. She is home, but cannot put any weight on the foot for 10 days. That, my friends, is an impossibility at home. She slept in a recliner last night with the foot elevated and ice on it as we were instructed. The chair is one of those electric ones that will lift and help the person stand. We have a potty chair, thank goodness. I stayed with her last night and am home to sleep now while my brother is with her. She has pins sticking out of 3 toes. Yikes! It looks so painful, but she is a trooper and never complains. It is going to be a long 10 days!!!!


Thursday, January 07, 2010

Spoke too soon!

Unfortunately, the tech yesterday only checked the movie channels and the reception on them was beautiful. I NEVER watch movie channels, so when I tried to watch local channels or Fox, the picture was terrible and dark. I called them back today and they are sending someone next week because I cannot be home to wait for them until Monday. At least, they are willing to try to make it right. I'm not complaining......but, do they not know that TEXAS plays tonight on a local channel??????!!!!! I will watch it in my bedroom on a TV with a good picture!!! It's going to be so cold that I will want to be under the covers anyway.


Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Revenge!!!



When my TV in the living room stopped working all by itself, I called tech support for the cable company. Basically, he reset the cable box over the phone and told me I had the TV set wrong is why it wouldn't work after that! I even believed him and thought I had just screwed something up pushing every button on the damn TV and remote. Quite possible for me to do that. I told him to send someone to my house and I didn't care if it would cost me. A very nice technician came today and spent an hour here trying to figure out what was wrong. Turned out it was a bad cable box!!! So there, Mr. Over the Phone Technician. I am not as dumb as both you and I thought! Of course, part of that time the tech was here we were just talking. He was a young guy who had just lost his father, so we had something in common....only his father was MY age! AND....he set up my box different and I have a much better picture and there will be NO CHARGE. I won!

TEXAS tomorrow!



Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Here's the plan!

Ok. It might not happen exactly this way. For one thing, there will not be a cat on the bed because I am highly allergic. If it is going to be 10 degrees outside, I will not be opening the door even to go get the paper. Oh, wait. I have to take my mom to the doctor and the beauty shop on Thursday and she has surgery on her foot on Friday. RATS! There goes my plan!

Sunday, January 03, 2010

What!!!!


Where is Al Gore? He must be hiding under his substantial desk somewhere. Our weather guessers right here in North Louisiana have a low of 13 degrees forecast for Friday morning. What! They even say it is going to be colder here than it has been in years. That's OK with me, but where's Al?

Mom's foot surgery is scheduled for Friday, but her foot has been sore the last couple of days. If there is any infection, they cannot push a pin into her bones because it will push the infection right into the bone. We have to get her foot well!!!

Friday, January 01, 2010

Go tigers!


Thursday, December 31, 2009

Welcome 2010!


Happy New Year!

I have been missing in action on this blog a few days, but I did get a visit from  these sweet things. We did see Avatar while they were here. They left early this morning and are already back in South Carolina. Today I finally went to see The Blind Side. Two movies in two days just has me wanting more and realizing that I have missed going to the movies and zoning out.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Saturday, December 26, 2009

A child is born!

The baby that we were hoping would not come while he was at Christmas dinner at my brother's yesterday made his appearance this morning. Thank goodness he waited a few hours!

Today was a most lazy day until about 2 this afternoon when I started playing around with my new computer. Made my first movie with photos and music. It was fun to toy around with.

Tomorrow I plan to put everything Christmas in the attic for another year. I was a Scrooge this year and didn't have much out. It was just too cold in the attic to look for stuff, so I didn't!

Have been invited to a New Year's Day lunch, then the real partying starts with Mardi Gras. I don't expect to do much partying this year. I'll be afraid my daddy is "watching" me!!!:)


Friday, December 25, 2009

I survived!

Although there were a few bumps emotionally, I managed to get through my first Christmas ever without my dad. Today was much better than yesterday. We ate Christmas dinner at my brother's home with our same friends from  last night plus 3 extras.....an airman, his wife and little girl who are stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base with no family around. His wife just lost her mother in November, so it was a nice diversion for them as well. He is from Indiana and she is from Maine, so we were happy to have them. She is a few days from delivery of a boy, so we were glad today wasn't the day!!!

Failed milestone!

I wasn't able to hold it together yesterday. When I went to Mom's to take her to the candlelight service, she sat down and wrote my brother and me each a substantial check. They had already done this in August right after Dad was diagnosed with his brain tumor, so we were not expecting it again. She said Dad's favorite part of Christmas was being able to give us that much money and she wanted to do it just like he would have. Then last night at our friends' house, she gave it to us and told us it was from Dad. Then our friends gave us a picture frame with a picture of Dad in it from a previous Christmas. Well, actually we only got the frames, but they showed us on the computer the picture they had ordered to go in the frame. Instead of printing it themselves or having Wal Mart print it, they were having it printed somewhere else and it wasn't back yet. Hopefully, today won't be as hard.


Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas everyone!

One more party down last night. Tonight is church candlelight service and our usual get together with friends. We have always gone to my brother's lakehouse for our Christmas Eve gift exchange and meal, but tonight we are going to our friends' home so we won't feel the dramatic loss of Dad not being there.

Tomorrow we are switching things up as well. We always have Christmas dinner at Mom's and our friends join us there for Mom's chicken and dressing. This year, we are going to my brother's home and his wife is cooking duck dressing. Again, we hope to diffuse the pain of not having Dad with us. No matter how hard we try not to, we miss him terribly. I have tears just typing that!


Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Great Day!

When I went to check on Mom today, it was my plan to pick up the rest of the pecans. Stewart had already told her the crows ate them all, but I went to look for myself. Yes, there are hulls everywhere as evidence that the crows had a feast. Merry Christmas, crows!!!!

Then I moved on to another project, which was mulching leaves in the front yard. My brother had already cleaned the back yard before he went on vacation. It took me all morning, but it looked nice when I left. There are very few leaves left to fall, but they were flying when I left.

Home health sent a wheel chair to Mom's today because the wound care specialist told her to stay off her foot and she will need one after she has surgery on her foot. It will give us time to move things that are in the way and her time to get used to using it before her surgery.

I took my brother a box of Kansas City steaks , a honey baked ham from Heavenly Hams, and I made them a box of pralines. They don't need anything, but I wanted to do something for them. They are so good about taking care of Mom and checking on her several times a day. Of course, she is his mom, too, but lots of men wouldn't do as good as he does about looking after his mother.


Monday, December 21, 2009

Full day!

My sister-in-law brought mom to the doctor's office this morning and I met her there. She saw the physician's assistant and we already have surgery scheduled for January 8th. He wanted a wound care specialist to look at it and make sure all the infection was getting gone. He said they could not put pins through any infection because it would just push the infection into the bone. We sure don't want that. It took us ALL day to do those things. I have been home about 20 minutes...made a grilled cheese before I passed out from hunger. I have a lot of things I need to do, but I don't want to do a damn thing!!!


Holy Moly!

Because I am at the computer and too lazy to get up and turn off the TV, I am "listening" to a preacher on TV that sounds like he is dying and gasping for breath! Not sure how much more of it I can take!

It's been a busy weekend with work on the Mardi Gras float and trying to finish making candy and buying Christmas presents. Almost finished......CRAP....That preacher made me get up and turn him off! I would have to leave if I was in that service!

Tomorrow we take Mom to the Physician's Assistant and get an evaluation of her foot. It is still doing pretty well after the foot doctor got all that infection out of it, but she is trying to stay off of it like he told her. He even sent a home health nurse down to change the dressing on Saturday. I don't think she was expecting that.

I tried to take advantage of some warmer weather yesterday and clean up the frozen plants in the yard. Now I have them piled everywhere. I guess I will go get Dad's truck and haul them to a burning pile down at the home place. We need to run his truck, but we haven't been doing it.


Thursday, December 17, 2009

100's gather to protest global warming!


Crappy doodle day!

Actually, it's just the weather that is crappy doodle! At 3 P.M. I thought it was 6 because it has been so dark all day. Today our lunch bunch had our last lunch together before Christmas, so everyone came bearing gifts...mostly edibles! Yep, that works for me.

 My brother had dropped Mom off at my house while I was gone to lunch so I could take her to the podiatrist. That man took the callous off and lots of puss drained from her toe. He didn't even deaden it. When my cousin did that a couple of weeks ago, he at least deadened it first. No wonder she doesn't like that foot doctor. I don't like him either and I never even met him. He could have not hurt her so bad.

Tonight we were supposed to go see "The Blind Side", but my friend crapped out on me. I was glad. All I want to do is sit by the fire and drink a warm cozy beverage!


Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Semi-productive day!



Checked on Mom today and made her an appointment with an orthopedic physician's assistant because we can't get in to the doctor until after the new year. The assistant can evaluate and determine what needs to be done and get the ball rolling. Something has to be done with her foot.Her cousin is an orthopedic surgeon, but he doesn't do feet. He referred her to a surgeon here in Minden. He doesn't want her to let a foot doctor cut on her. He said he would rather read up on what to do and do it himself than let a foot doctor do it. I guess he doesn't trust foot doctors!!

Also, had to call her insurance company because Dad's gap insurance was paid up for a year and she just paid it in April. They owe her a refund. It's kind of ironic that I am having to make all these phone calls since I hate, hate, hate to make phone calls.

Started making my usual pralines and fudge. Thank goodness I had one box already prepared and boxed because my neighbor came over bearing gifts and I was able to hand him one right back. Whew!

Mardi Gras preparations have begun. Worked on the float last night. I will not be riding in the Gemini parade this year. It's just too long and grueling. I was so exhausted last year and when we left the grounds where our cars were parked, we had to pass right by where a fireman had fallen from his truck. That fireman died this weekend. Such a tragedy!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Ummmmm....NO...not yet!

My neighbor invited me to a luncheon at the church for single adults. I told him that I would not know anybody there. He assured me I would. He was wrong. I didn't know anybody and on top of that I was the youngest one there and I didn't have a walker. WTH! I'm old, but not THAT old. Not only that, but there was a program planned for after lunch. I just was not interested in being there, so I left after lunch. Sorry, Mr. Neighbor, I'm just not ready for that yet!


Friday, December 11, 2009

Great night!

Being a former party animal, one would think that my Sunday School party would be boring to me. So not true. It was awesome! Such great people in my class. The name of the class is "We Care" and we truly do care about each other and others. One of our members just opened a brand new event facility in downtown Minden called Orleans on Main. He rents this building for $650 for events. It is beautiful and has tables with beautiful decorations and real table cloths. He hosted the party there for free and even catered the event himself. He is a top notch guy who really gives back to his community. We each brought a new toy and gave them to Toys for Tots.Two Marines were there to receive the gifts.
 Tomorrow night I will be going back to the same facility, but that will be our Mardi Gras krewe party....much different scenario! Also, tomorrow is our neighborhood brunch. OK....I guess I am still a party animal!!!


Thursday, December 10, 2009

Mission #3 Accomplished!

Without even one roadblock, I got all my assignments done today which included calling the companies holding Dad's life insurance policies. They were all very cooperative and sorry for my loss. Now we have to start a file to keep all the stuff in that we will need upon our mom's death. It will save us lots of headaches at that time. We are having to place a value upon everything at the time of his death...land, vehicles, oil and gas revenues, timber...EVERYTHING. It's going to be really bad after Mom is gone because she in in a part of undivided acreage. YIKES! What a headache that will be to get that divided up between 9 grandchildren after Mom and her sister are gone. Her family could just never agree on the division. There is still $20,000 in my grandfather's checking account and he died in 1986. Mom just pays property taxes from it every year and it just sits there earning ZERO percent!!! Now....if I could just get motivated for Christmas. I thought the cold weather would help, but it hasn't  YET! I told Mom today that I was glad Dad didn't have to be cold this year. He hated cold weather and was always cold.


Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Step 2!

Step 1 was to find all the stuff the lawyer needed after Dad died. Today we went to the lawyer for the first visit. Wow! Lots of stuff to do. I have a list of 5 things to do as my homework! Tomorrow I will be calling the companies where Dad had life insurance policies. One of his IRA'a had a life insurance policy that came with it for $1000 if the owner dies from lung cancer or brain cancer. He died from both, but I have to get doctor records to prove it. Mom thought his will was at the lawyer's office, but they did not find it. She and my brother were going to the bank to look in the safety deposit box. I already tried, but since my name was not on the box, I was unable to look in it. Won't really matter if they don't find it because Louisiana law already provides the exact same things the will would say. Half to Mom with full usufruct until her death when it all passes to my brother and me.
UPDATE: The will was in the box at the bank!

Monday, December 07, 2009

Not at all disrespecful!


My great, great grandfather got his finger shot off while carrying this flag in the Civil War. He got gangrene in the finger and put his hands behind his back and pulled the finger off! OUCH!

Check it off!

  • Changed sheets
  • washed clothes
  • worked crossword in paper
  • made potato soup
  • went to bank
  • took soup to Mom
  • cleaned her kitchen
  • went to bank for her
  • took stuff to Goodwill

All before 2:00

Then took a LONG nap!

Sunday, December 06, 2009

My poor mom!

Her foot is bad again in spite of all the high powered antibiotics. Because it is her hammertoe that is causing the problem, we are pretty sure she is going to have to see a foot specialist and get some surgery on it. Our friend, who is a physical therapist, looked at it yesterday and he explained what is happening and he said it is going to continue to do that until part of the toe is removed. I hate for her to have to do that, but she sees a foot doctor every couple of months to get her nails cut. She doesn't particularly like him, but he is the only one who comes to the local hospital.

It's been a long time since I failed to send Christmas cards, but it is looking more and more like this may be the year. I simply cannot get in the mood to do it and I usually enjoy doing it every year. I sure do enjoy hearing from others at Christmas time. I think most of the people on my Christmas list know that I just lost my dad, so they will probably understand.

Woo Hoo! My brother will be back tonight. I have missed him this week.


Thursday, December 03, 2009

New Mom update!

I could tell when I got to Mom's this morning that her foot was better. It was all over her face that she was not in such pain. We escaped going to the hospital this time , but she got another shot. Tomorrow we will get another shot and hope she continues to improve. Eventually, I think she will have to have some work done on that foot due to misshapen toes that are causing the problem. I got all the outside water hydrants winterized for the coming weather at her house.

I also got to have lunch with our lunch bunch today. Seems like a long time since I have been able to meet them for lunch and it was nice.

All my buds down in South Texas are expecting snow tomorrow. They even had snow last year in December while I, at 200 miles further north, have had none! What's up with that? I want snow. Of course, if my driveway iced up I would be stuck because it goes uphill!!!


Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Mom update!

Mom was no better today and in a great deal of pain. She took a darvocet just to be able to go to the doctor, but we went. He thought her foot might have looked a little better, but it surely didn't feel better. She got another high powered antibiotic shot and we will give it one more day to get better. X-ray did not show any bone involvement with infection and blood work was OK, so he was willing to give her one more day before admitting her and putting her on IV antibiotics. She is home resting, I hope.

I borrowed my brother's new carpet steam cleaning machine and got my carpet clean. I don't have very much carpet, but it is light in color and looks much better.

On a very positive note, that stuff doc prescribed for my cough worked miracles! I SLEPT! It is so freakin' cold that I am not motivated to go in the attic and get Christmas stuff, so Christmas cards may be late or non-existent. Merry Christmas and Andrea Bocelli ROCKS, by the way!


Tuesday, December 01, 2009

It's COLD!

I took Mom to the doc today and ended up with her at the hospital getting her foot x-rayed. Doc is afraid of infection getting in the bone and traveling to her heart or somewhere else. He's also afraid of a staph infection. He actually wanted to put her in the hospital on IV antibiotics, but we opted to get a shot today and tomorrow and finish the levoquin that our cousin gave her yesterday. If my brother wasn't on vacation, we probably would have gone on to the hospital, but he would feel like he needed to get back home if Mom was in the hospital. We didn't want him to cut his trip short. He needs the break. If her foot continues to be swollen and painful, then we will opt for the IV treatment. Of course, doc heard my atrocious cough while I was with Mom and he prescribed some industrial strength cough medicine. It seems to be helping so far...it's cherutussin AC with codiene. Maybe now I can stop coughing long enough to go in the attic and find some Christmas stuff and get with the program. A little snowfall on Friday might help me get started!!




Sunday, November 29, 2009

Busy week ahead!

My brother looks in on Mom several times a day and I do once a day, but tomorrow he leaves for a little much needed R&R. I will be checking on her more frequently although I don't live as close as he does, so it requires more effort for me. We have some local guys on her call list to come pick her up if she falls. Her foot needs attention again, so I will be taking her to Bossier tomorrow morning to let doc look at it. On Tuesday she has another appointment, so I will take her to that as well.



I'm thinking of taking a little R&R trip soon. Not sure where I will go. I have two friends who want me to go to D.C. in AUGUST to Glenn Beck's march on Washington. I am just not up for that. It's too HOT in August and it's too far to walk to the Lincoln Memorial. My back won't hold up long anymore. Even working in my own yard requires me to sit down a few minutes pretty regularly. I love Glenn Beck, but not enough to get in that crowd and sweat and hurt!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

FAIL!

Since I have a new computer, I thought  I would test out my skills and try to make a copy  of the DVD of my dad's funeral. It said it burned it, but when I put it in the DVD on my TV, I got an error message. When I play it off my hard drive where I saved it, it has no sound! CRAP! I need some skillz! By the way, I like to have never figured out how to get the dang TV off the DVD mode. I need some skillz! I played the original again on my new computer and sat here and cried like a baby once again! My dad was a wonderful man and now I am second guessing myself wondering if he knew
how wonderful I thought he was!
I don't think  he did!


Friday, November 27, 2009

Mission accomplished!

My brother called me last night and told me Mom's foot was hurting her again. She had not told me anything about it. He spoke with our cousin, the urologist who worked on her foot last time, and the doc wants to see her in his office on Monday. My brother will be in Branson, so I will be taking her to see him Monday.

I worked on Dad's berry plants today. He has a whole row of different types of berries and they really needed to be tied up. I did that and mowed all around them. Dad would be proud. He wanted that done before he died, but we just didn't get to it. His little stool that he sat on while working on his berries was still up there because that is where he did his last bit of work in the garden. I tried to move it right after he died, but I couldn't. Today I moved it because I needed to mow there. I know he is smiling down on me right now. He loved his berries.


Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, we did it! We had Thanksgiving at my home just like we did last year, but without our daddy. We missed him a lot. I talked to Mom last night about missing him and she said she missed him, but she was glad he was not there at home yesterday. Mom had a big water bill and she doesn't use much water, so we knew she had a leak somewhere. Dad was such a worrier that he would have obsessed over the bill and the leak. My brother called someone to come see about it and he found a leak under the house and fixed it for $60. It had gotten so soggy under there that some of the doors in the house were sticking from the house sinking. It's not on a slab and was built when I was 4 years old, so it's old. It will dry out and we will fix the doors for her.

We also talked about what to do with Dad's clothes. I guess that will be our next task, but we must do it. Every little thing will be HARD!


Monday, November 23, 2009

O NO!

I lost my program that held all my addresses that I use to print out labels and my backup program can't seem to find it either. Good thing I printed all my addresses out before switching computers!! I even keep the database for my now defunct high school for our reunions.Crap! That's a lot of data that I have to retype. Fortunately, I was able to re-load the program that I am used to on to my new computer. That's a shocker since I now have Windows 7 and the program was old.

Today was my 67th birthday, my first ever without my daddy. I thought about him all day....well, between all the coughs. All I have done was visit  my mom and lie down all day. There was a lot of stuff that I needed to do because I am hosting my family on Thanksgiving....well, all 4 of us! Tomorrow I am going to lunch with my mom and sister-in-law and some of their church friends, so maybe I can get something done after that. At least, I will be forced to get dressed.


Friday, November 20, 2009

New learning curve!

My new Dell desktop has been all set up and now I have a lot to learn...not the least of which is dealing with a smaller keyboard! WTH! I bought the Cadillac desktop...$1100 worth and it came with a crappy little keyboard. Everything else about it ROCKS though...24 " flat HD monitor and Bose speakers. My computer guru already has me listening to pandora.com, an awesome internet radio sight.