Beach Walk, Doctor, Pack

I took an early beach walk today. I only had to share the beach with the birds and sand crabs.

See the little crab in this picture?

I thought I would get in a little beach time before the warm weather was gone. I got wrapped up with projects and sore thumbs this summer and didn’t get in much in the way of kayaking or beaches.

I went to see Dr Silberberg about my thumbs. This was a 6-week checkup to assess how they were doing. I’m still experiencing some relief from the shots. Pain is gradually returning. I’ll just have to try to manage it the best I can and when it gets unbearable go get shots.

I talked with Karen, Kathy, Dawn, my aunt Dot and Christy today. Things are firming up for the trip up north. One evening will be spent with the Lenart side of the Family and the next with the Gug side.

Interspersed throughout the day I packed. I’ve got the major packing done for VT. I need to put a J’ville suitcase together and I will be ready.

KITTY UPDATE—about 4:30 today I looked outside to see Slash sleeping under the gas grill. I like Slash. He goes way back to the early days of our feeding kitties when Mustache was coming to see us. Mustache is Slash’s dad as far as we know. Slash and his brother Ranger used to sit outside our bedroom window when they were kittens.

I hadn't seen Slash since we’ve been back so I thought I would feed him. He is quite wary of me but has learned not to run away because sometimes I bring food. I put a can of food in a paper plate and started outside only to find Marmalade coming down from the roof. I turned around and split the food on 2 plates and headed back out. Now Meredith had joined the group. I put down the food widely separated to allow Slash to have one without getting too close to the others. They don’t fight but Slash usually gets hissed at. Well, I tried to keep them separated. Instead, Marmalade went over to Slashes plate and tries to eat there. A little bit of hissing to show she’s boss and then she goes to the other plate with Meridith.

This evening I had the usual 4 to feed.

Identifying Marks

We got our flu shots today. We decided to get them at Walgreens. The idea is to have some immunity for our upcoming travel and exposure to lots of people.

The rest of my day was spent on yard work. Not a lot to blog about so I thought I would share an incident from my past.

I was drying my hair this morning and while looking in the mirror I noticed that there was an evident indentation under my left eye. I knew what it was. It’s the location where Robert Mester shot me with my B-B gun. Fortunately the gun was a hand me down (as most of our stuff was) and was not very powerful. The B-B penetrated the skin and was stopped by the bone under my eye. Dr Turetsky, our family doctor, simply pried it out and that was it.

As I age my skin is losing its flexibility and and these old scars are becoming more evident. There’s the one on my forehead from running into a parking sign in front of Bullards. And the one on my nose where a dog snapped at me in our kitchen and caught my nose. I also have a wonderful set of deep lines radiating around my mouth, highlighted by the deepest one where I broke open my lip in Texas 2 years ago.
This revealing of marks is funny only because way back when I was 21 I had a hard time finding an “identifying” characteristic when I took my draft physical. A little background here for you youngsters. In order to maintain the necessary manpower to fight the unpopular Vietnam War the government eliminated most draft deferments for the military draft and replaced them with a lottery. Going to school no longer kept you out of the army. This was before all the state lotteries so the technique employed was not actually a random draw. Instead the “mixing" was done by dumping the 366 balls (you were selected by your birth date) from one container where the balls were ordered jan-dec into a second larger container. The result was an uneven selection of dates near the end of the year. My birthday occurring in Nov resulted in a number 34. The guidelines provided were that if you got a number of 180 or smaller you were likely to be drafted during the year.

I got my letter of “Greetings from the President of the US” in the summer while I was working at the Cape. Again there was prevailing advice that it was better to sign up with the AF than to be drafted into the Army. At least there was less risk of getting killed. That’s what I did. I took and passed the AF test for induction and all that was now needed was to pass my physical. Since I had a scheduled draft physical the AF recruiter said that that would be used. Which brings me again to the physical and finding identifying marks.

When filling out the physical paperwork I had to answer a series of questions. One very reassuring question was “What physical identifying marks do you have?” The room monitor assured us that we all had some kind of scar or birthmark. The obvious reason for the information was to make a positive identification of your body. This was pre-DNA.

“Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box”—Country Joe

I really had to stretch to find something. I ended up listing a small ½-inch scar on my left wrist. I got that mark when the license plate of my motorcycle dug into my wrist as we were lifting it into a car to bring it to the shop.

Now, in 2009, I have marks all over. With 7 surgeries under my belt and skin flexibility waning I could probably fill a page describing my identifying marks.

I failed the draft physical—but that’s another story.

My Little Buddy

I’ve been soaking my thumbs in cold water 2-4 times a day now for a while. Sometimes Brie joins me. I mentioned in an earlier blog that she drinks the water for minutes at a time. Brie is only close to me on her terms and rarely lies down with any part touching me.
When I’m soaking, however, she likes to lie across my leg and drink. She particularly likes to drink right where my hand is by pushing her head against my hand. So at least my sore thumbs have brought a little benefit. I enjoy it when she drinks.

It’s been a month since I got the shots I my thumbs. The pain never went away completely (it’s not going to) but was down a lot in week 2. The pain is gradually returning. The level when I wake up is more noticeable each day.

Today I repaired (hopefully) the small leak I had in my kayak. Besides repairing the leak I mounted a piece of galvanized steel to the rear portion of the keel where my dragging of the kayak had caused the leak.

Yesterday (Sunday) was one of those days that just flew by without my accomplishing half of what I wanted to. There was no animal in the trap. All the kitties are hanging around again since I caught the last raccoon. I don’t know if the lack of a raccoon was the reason or the weekend.  They seem to know when it is a weekend.

I finally got on the treadmill again. That’s were I am now. We will see if I keep it up this time.

Once again this morning the trap had a possum in it. My day began with another animal release.

Rocky Road

For the last 2 mornings I found a raccoon in the live trap. So each day began with a trip to release the critters by the lake. The trap has had an animal in it every morning since we’ve been back. It must be the marshmallows.


I’ve been doing mundane house stuff so I have nothing more interesting going on. The critters at least have made things interesting.

A Day in the Life of

I slept in until after 7 this morning. It was nice to sleep in our own bed after 2 weeks out of town. Sleeping in was a sort of adjustment back to Central time and our regular schedule. It was a rumbly day and a heavy rain was just beginning. Penny and I were going to Waffle house because after 2 weeks we didn’t have breakfast fixings in the house.
I set the raccoon traps last night after feeding all 4 cats outside. I also remembered to check the live animal trap first thing. There in the rain was an adult opossum, quite upset about the rain.

Penny said Waffle House could wait and that I should release the opossum. I grabbed an umbrella got the trap and put it in the CRV. The rain was so heavy and the clouds so thick that it seemed like dusk instead of daytime. I released the varmit at the edge of the reservation in very heavy rain. This oposumThen it was home, change to dry clothes and off to Waffle House.

We were surprised to see Melissa back at WH. She said she was back because she figured out it was expensive to live and she needed to work. Her baby is a good baby and is doing fine. We came back home after WH instead of going anywhere. Penny wanted to start on her Egmont stuff and I had plenty to keep me busy.

It definitely was an indoor day-rain was predicted on and off all day. I called and made an appointment with the dentist to get my crown cemented back in. It popped out while I was flossing the first night I was in Jax. I stuck it back in place and it stayed there with no problem. I just had to remember it could pop out again if I chewed on something gummy. I got a 10 o’clock appointment.

Before going I did some unpacking and soaked my thumbs in icy water. Brie joined me while I did this, drinking the cold water while she kept me company.

Usually I get right in at the dentist but today they were busy. It took more than a half-hour for them to get to me. Have you ever been swimming and pull an old rotted branch up from the bottom and get assaulted with the most putrid offensive smell? Well, that’s what smell was under that crown. I’ve probably had the most horrible breath for the past couple of months. That’s how long this crown was loose. They cleaned the crown and cleared the rot from my tooth and cemented the crown back in.

I picked up milk and bread and lunch from Wendy’s on the way home.

Shortly after lunch our 2-weeks of accumulated mail arrived and I began the job of catching up with that paperwork. I also brought Penny’s CRV to the shop. We just got new tires on it and all the wheels balanced and aligned but there still was a shimmy in the front end when I reached 65-70 MPH. I had driven by the tire place on my way back from the dentist and it was empty. Now, however, it was packed. I decided to bring the car back in the morning.

One of the items we got in the mail was a box with our new backpacks. They look good. We will have to make a practice hike this weekend and try them out.

I soaked my thumbs again at 3 while I watched some of the Ellen show. My apple snack today was scuppernong grapes. At about 4:30 our doorbell rang and it was our mailman. He knew I expected mail that he didn’t have earlier so he double-checked and found the items that his replacement had set aside. He drove by our place in his personal vehicle on his way home from work and delivered the items. Wasn’t that nice?

I made Penny dinner, fed the 4 cats outside, set the traps and joined Penny to watch the season premier of Bones and Fringe.

It continued to rain on and off all day. Tomorrow’s weather is supposed to be the same.

Wrapping It Up

Our grandparent duty draws to an end tomorrow. Here are some highlights from the last 2 weeks.
Lucy Christine

Furniture delivered and in use.

Sophie Stuff:

Karen’s doing a good job keeping up with the things Sophie does. I have a few special moments to share that I had with Sophie.

She has a little plastic tea set and we sit at her table (formerly K&C’s) and brew tea. The teapot has a little spherical button on top that you press to make the sound of tea brewing. One time when I did this she looked at my finger and asked, “boo-boo”? I looked at my fingertip and the button had left a dimple on my fingertip. I explained to her that it was ok and it was just a bump. Then I rubbed my finger and made it go away. This turned into a game wherein Sophie would press each of my fingers onto the button one at a time stating; “bump”, then rubbing the finger and saying, “no bump”. After one hand is done then she says, “other hand”, and we proceed to do the 5 digits on that hand.

She loves the color pink. She likes it so much that she calls her orange crayon pink even though she knows it is orange. She is sufficiently strong-willed that grandpa did not argue with her declaration that the crayon was pink. She got me in trouble, however. She told her mom that the crayon was pink and her mom said that no, it was orange. Sophie held the crayon up to me and said, “Gampa?” The look on her face was priceless. She knew she had trapped me. I normally don’t disagree with a parent but it was apparent that she was playing a game. I confirmed the crayon was pink.

Sophie amazes me with her ability to grasp the big picture of how things work. She learned how to turn on and off all the music and vibration settings on her sister’s little bouncy chair. She even remembers to turn it off when she is through. I sat her in the driver’s seat of our car and she turned on and off everything she could reach. She even unloaded a CD from the player.

Sophie has always liked to see bellybuttons—called “buttons”. One day she saw me without my shirt on and wanted to know if my nipples were buttons. Thinking there was no harm in it I gave the proper explanation that they were nipples. Sophie latched onto the word and uses it, properly, whenever she can. Karen reminds me that we have grandpa to thank for her acquiring the word. Sophie has a very accurate description of how Karen feeds Lucy. Fortunately most people can’t understand the way she says the word.

Sophie and I were horsing around with the camera and this was the result.

Penny cooked many wonderful meals, among them: pasta with meat sauce, tacos, chicken stew, fajitas, chicken and eggplant parmesean and chimichangas.

I struck it rich with stuff for my shop. I ended up with 3’ and 4’ clamps, a featherboard from Woodcraft and some kayak tiedowns and ear protection from Harbor Freight.



I think we helped out while we were here and didn’t interfere any more than necessary with K&T’s lives. Now it’s time to head back home and get out of their hair. I’m happy that they shared this precious time in their lives with us.

 

Grandparent's Day

I got to see all my grandchildren (all 2 of them) on Grandparents Day but not for the whole day. Today was our day to spend some time with C&C. So we saw Sophie and Lucy for a short time in the morning and again in the evening when we returned to Jax.

So it was off to High Springs to spend the afternoon with C&C. Our visit had 2 objectives. The first was a belated celebration of Christian completing his Master’s Degree program. The second was to develop the preliminary design for the kitchen island I will be building for them.

We celebrated Christian’s graduation with a pleasant brunch at Emiliano’s Café ( http://www.emilianoscafe.com/ ) in Gainesville. They serve what they call “Pan Latin” food. Everything we had was good.

Penny and I had churrasco—Argentinean style flame grilled skirt steak with garlic-cilantro chimichurri sauce.

Christians meal was benedict de arepa—corn griddle cake benedict, marinated portabella mushrooms, dijon cream sauce, poached eggs, corn griddle cakes.

Christy enjoyed rancheros emiliano's—black beans, two eggs sunny side up, peas, queso blanco, tomato-jalapeño salsa, avocado puree, and amarillos over crisp corn tortillas.

Although we were all quite full the intoxicating celebratory atmosphere must have clouded our combined judgment and we ordered deserts. My “chocolate decadence” was a huge piece of chocolate cake with cake, brownie and fudge. I ate half and brought the rest back for Karen to have (that half was still as large as a normal good-sized piece of cake).

We waddled back to the car and began the drive back to C&C’s. Christy thought I would like to stop at a tool store called Harbor Freight (http://www.harborfreight.com/ ). She was correct. It’s a huge store with lots of decent quality tools and accessories for a good price. It’s a bad place to go if you are an impulse buyer. I got a cargo net large enough to use on my trailer, some ear protection earmuffs and I found an item there that I’ve been searching for ever since we got the kayaks. It’s a simple device to cinch a tie-down rope in one quick motion, eliminating the need to tie and later untie a knot. I’ll use it for short trips to the bayou.

In High Springs we sat around in their living room talking about the kitchen storage island while Penny sketched out the design on 3-D graph paper. C&C have a 50’s style red Formica tabletop that will serve as the top surface of the island and I will build the storage unit to support it.

I enjoyed seeing C&C, we had a good time. Christy is still one of the best huggers around and I was privileged to receive several of her world-class hugs.

We got back to Jacksonville just before Sophie’s bedtime and for some reason she was clingy to Grandpa. I got to read to her and put her in the crib. She didn’t like having to go to sleep (she rarely does) and after I left the room K&T went in and sang to her and she settled down.

Our job here is winding down. One indication is the length of this blog—I’ve got time to write. K&T have started what will be their normal routine for the next couple of months and the period where it is a good idea for someone to be with Karen for safety reasons is now ending. We can still provide that extra pair of hands when needed and Penny is feeding everyone nicely so we aren’t just sitting around doing nothing. We will likely head home mid-week sometime.

9/11/09

I hope no one forgets the way it felt to be the victims of a brilliant terrorist attack on our country. It is easy to believe that since there has been no attack in years that the battle is over. It isn’t. The next attack will be just as brilliant and most likely larger in scope. We can pray that we will discover any plot before it is executed.
I didn’t do a lot to help out K&T today—I just was here in case of a problem. Penny cooked up a storm and made 3 meals. Now we have dinners through the weekend.

Sophie put on a show for us today. She put on her princess dress and daintily walked around in it. I took some pictures. She wouldn’t put down her cup of milk so I took the pictures with the cup in them.

9/10/09

After Tim left with Sophie this morning I decided to check facebook to see if anything interesting was happening in the world of my friends. I found 2 new friend requests from college friends. I confirmed them as friends and as I was writing to one of them a chat box from Heidi K popped up. I didn’t know you could chat on facebook! It was nice to chat with her. We used to have IM chats quite often but life got busy.
The happiness of the morning faded when I checked our messages on the home phone. One of my friends from work died. Mike had successfully fought cancer and was declared cancer free about 5 years ago. Evidently his immune system was weak and he died because of a bacterial infection. Mike was one of the hardest working and likeable people I knew and it is sad that he is no longer bringing joy to those around him.

We didn’t have to help K&T a lot today. They are settling into their new routines. We are here now to make the day a little easier and make sure Karen and Lucy aren’t alone in case of an emergency.

I’m doing some research on scenic drives in New Hampshire. We’ve seen a lot of Vermont but haven’t gone into NH so we will do some exploring over there. From what I have seen on-line NH seems to have commercialized the leaf peeping industry to a greater extent than VT. We will find out in Oct.

I just looked at Lucy with Grandma and this is what I saw.

Labor Day Plus One

There are many wonderful things going on with Lucy and Sophie but I’m having difficulty finding time and/or inspiration to blog.

Both Penny and I are keeping busy helping out and Penny’s doing some cooking.

Lucy continues to be an “easy” baby for K&T, which is good. Lucy and Sophie went to the doctor’s today for checkups. Both girls are healthy and doing well.

C&C dropped in yesterday and had Labor Day Dinner with us. Tim cooked pulled pork and it was outstanding. Sophie enjoyed all the attention.

Sophie appears to have adjusted to a new baby in the house. She is in the midst of the terrible-twos and is also gaining in her verbal abilities quite rapidly. She is both strong willed and delicate at the same time. She can go from happy and cooperative to screaming, crying and resisting in the blink of an eye. I’m glad K&T have the patience and maturity to handle her. I can see flashes of what the older Sophie will be like and it is good. K&T are doing a good job with her.

I used to like the way Sophie said the word “purple” but now my favorite word is “cantaloupe” followed closely by “yellow” (which comes out as lellow).

We put the new furniture into the kid’s room on Sunday. Now, except for the gliding rocker, I made all the furniture in that room. I’ll have to take some pictures of the cubby holder and sling bookshelf in use.

Sophie’s waking from her nap—time for me to go.

Happy September

This is my first blog in Sept. I think everyone who reads my blog (all 3 of you) know what I’ve been occupied with. K&T had baby #2, Lucy Christine and Penny and I are helping K&T any way we can until they get their new schedule down.

We got the call from Karen around 7 AM on the 2nd of Sept. It took us an hour or so to get on the road. We got the call from Tim announcing Lucy’s birth just as we were entering the hospital from the parking garage and got to see Lucy when she was about an hour old. Lucy is a calmer and quieter baby than Sophie was.

The hospital has enacted stringent rules to prevent the spread of H1N1 flu. Because of those rules Sophie could not visit her sister in the hospital and had to wait until Lucy got home to meet her. K&T handled the first meeting of the sisters nicely and have a touching video of the event up on their web site.

Here are some pictures from the past 3 days.

Now I think it’s time for a nap.