End of August!

Tomorrow is Sep 1.  I am back home after a visit wit the Feagins.  Penny and I did a little more cleaning up and painting for T&K but didn’t do as much as we had anticipated.  We both got sick on Monday and stayed in bed all day.  Today I am about 80%.  I still have a headache and slightly upset tummy.

I did manage to paint T&K’s garage door and wood front and power wash their driveway.  No windows this time.  Sale of the house doesn’t appear imminent and it was too hot to do that work if it can wait for cooler weather.

I also converted Lucy’s crib into the toddler bed configuration and she seems to like it.

Sophia also made me a person on the computer.  That translates into a avatar for me (called a Mii) on their Wii.

Poor Karen had her car act up and the House A/C act up at the same time.  I’m hoping the fixes are simple and not too expensive.

We stopped by Christy’s work on the way home , brought her lunch and dropped off the clothes that we bought for her.  Her work is set back from the road on a nice long well cared for driveway that has a couple of ponds on each side of it.  I wandered around and took some happy snaps of the ponds.  Here are a few.

At the Feagins’ Sophie and I planted 2 tomato plants and some Basil for a Fall garden.  I set up containers the same way I do it at home so the plants should be low maintenance and hopefully produce for them.

planting basil

all done

note the dirt on the forehead

 

Sophie also clowned around with grandma’s glasses

Sophie did Lucy’s hair

 

Lucy  being cute

I haven’t tried to do much since I got home-I’m still a little yucky from being sick.  So I’m going to go relax and worry about what needs to get done tomorrow.

Hot Time for Winter Garden

I’m trying for a fall crop of tomatoes this year.  Today I planted 5 plants, 2 Defiant, 2 Talladega and one Better Boy.  I also put in an eggplant.

The planters I use are plastic water basins.  I make a reservoir in the bottom  by cutting the bottom of a basin off and inverting it inside a whole basin.  Then I cut out a hole in the center and stick a plastic flower pot in it for a place where soil and roots can get below the waterline.  Finally I use PVC pipe to carry the water to the reservoir.

Next  the basin is filled and watered and the plants are added.

Finally I run a couple water lines to the PVC pipe and run the water until water pours out the drain hole I made in the side of the basin at the top of the reservoir.

The water line is one of the zones  of my sprinkler system so I can set it and forget it.  The plants get watered twice a day. The water fills from the bottom up.  Excess water drains out the hole.  The plants can drink all they want when they want and the soil never gets too wet for them.

I’m hoping for tomatoes in 70-90 days – early November. This is the first time I’m trying a second crop.  Wish me luck.

I went out to the shed to put a coat of polyurethane on the bookcase and I discovered I hadn’t stained one whole side of it .  So instead of poly I stained that side.  I haven’t had enough experience using stain to do what I consider a good job.  The side and shelf tops came out acceptable but the inside sides show wipe marks.  Fortunately that area will not be readily visible when the shelves are full.

I gained some useful experience on this project so the next time I use stain I hope to do a better job.

I was then going to put a coat of poly on it this evening.  When I opened the can I had I found it was too old to use.  So finishing will be delayed.

Tomorrow is my doctors appointment with the hand surgeon in Pensacola.  Everybody is hoping I do have de Quervain’s Tendonitis, including me.  It’s something that can be fixed.  Keep your thumbs crossed for me.

Folk Music

Our PBS TV station is fund raising and therefore rolling out shows that attract older viewers who have money to donate.  Last Wednesday they broadcast a program about Peter Paul & Mary.  I watched part of it yesterday and part today (I recorded it on my computer)  and really enjoyed it.

Now I don’t usually like seeing the old singers out there still singing their old hits when they clearly have lost their voices.  It bothers me and sometimes seems pathetic.  PP&M are different.

For you youngsters who missed the folk song era I’ll explain. During the 60’s society was in turmoil.  The civil rights movement with marches and riots in the cities, the Cold War and the war in Viet Nam left my generation angry and determined to do better.  A good deal of the message for change in society and to end the war came from folk music which became very popular on college campuses and even spawned TV shows like Hootenanny .(Google it if you don’t know what one is. )

PP&M were on the top of the folk heap and I was in that time of life 16-21 where the words in the music could touch deeply and even help form opinions and beliefs.  What makes PP&M interesting (and most of the real folk singers,too) is that they are committed to getting a message out and not in making money.  PP&M started with songs sung by The Weavers and took off after they recorded their arrangement of “Lemon Tree”.

Their arrangement of “If I had a Hammer” a radical (for its time) anti-war song clearly showed the power this group had and the Government  wasn’t able to silence them as they did the Weavers.(Joe McCarthy era)

The high point for PP&M came with their singing “Blowin in the Wind” at the civil rights march on Washington – the same platform where Martin Luther King gave his dream speech.

PP&M had a special sound and their message changed with the times.  Songs addressed war, freedom. love, and just basic folk music.  They broke up for 7 years but reunited when Paul wrote a song about the goings on in El Salvador (again Google it if you are not aware of our CIA’s activities at that time) and called Peter and Mary telling them they had to sing this song. They stayed together after that.

They gave John Denver’s career a boost when they made “Leaving on a Jet Plane”  a huge hit.  And everybody knows “Puff the Magic Dragon”.

Besides the nostalgia of the program I was happy to see Mary singing “For Baby” to her granddaughter – my favorite song to sing to K&C and now Sophie and Lucy.

The bottom line—they can still sing and they love singing together.  They still have a message of humanity, hope and activism

More Medical Stuff

Yesterday I had the EGD and all went well.  I didn’t get silly after the anesthesia. I only got very possessive of the cup of ginger ale the nurse gave me.

I got a call from the hand specialist yesterday and have an appointment with him next week.  This will be interesting because if what I have is not arthritis but instead de Quervain’s Tendonitis

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00007

then there may be a surgical solution for my thumbs that is simple, out-patient and heals in 10 days.

I’m not getting my hopes up yet.

More next week.

EGD Not GED

Tomorrow I have a redo of the EGD (Esophagogastroduodenoscopy) (stick a small camera down my gullet and biopsy some “interesting” cells).  The doc didn’t gather sufficient cells last time and needs a second look.  There was no indication of cancerous or pre-cancerous cells just some areas he wanted to get a better sample of.  I read up on the EGD and it is difficult to get sufficient biopsy material when the cells that are wanted can only be seen with a microscope.  So he’s going back in to gather more cells to make sure what’s going on is only interesting and needs to be monitored versus something warranting some sort of medical treatment.

I definitely have Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) with a complication called Barrett's esophagus.  That condition does warrant monitoring because it can lead to cancer (only a small number of people develop cancer from this).

The fun part is all the foods and activities I am supposed to avoid:

To prevent heartburn, avoid foods and beverages that may trigger your symptoms. For many people, these include:

• Alcohol

• Caffeine

• Carbonated beverages

• Chocolate

• Citrus fruits and juices

• Tomatoes

• Tomato sauces

• Spicy or fatty foods

• Full-fat dairy products

• Peppermint

• Spearmint

If other foods regularly give you heartburn, avoid those foods, too.

Also, try the following changes to your eating habits and lifestyle:

• Avoid bending over or exercising just after eating

• Avoid garments or belts that fit tightly around your waist

• Do not lie down with a full stomach. For example, avoid eating within 2 - 3 hours of bedtime.

• Do not smoke.

• Eat smaller meals.

• Lose weight if you are overweight.

• Reduce stress.

• Sleep with your head raised about 6 inches. Do this by tilting your entire bed, or by using a wedge under your body, not just with normal pillows.

Tomorrow Penny will once again get to see my post anesthesia silly sense of humor and I won’t remember anything about my morning after I am sedated. 

Bookcase Today

I spent most of today working on C&C’s bookcase.  I worked on it until 11 AM and the left it on the deck under our new lightweight canopy while Penny and I went to lunch and ran some errands.

We’ve had thunderstorms each day lately but the skies when we left were not threatening.

But the weather surprised me.  The storms had been coming out of the north.  Today one came in quickly from the south and it dumped a lot of rain.  I got home in the middle of the storm and dashed out to see if the bookcase was OK.  It was getting wet on the bottom but it was mostly OK.  I lowered the canopy so it would protect better and went into active management of the water trying to puddle inside the canopy.  All is well with the bookcase and I continued to work on it when the sun again came out and dried up all the rain.

Here’s what it currently looks like.

Here’s what it should look like when I’m done.

After the glue set today I went out and put the bookcase in the shed (in case it rains tonight).  One more good day and I should have the woodworking done.  Then it will be another few days for sanding and finishing.

On my way back into the house I discovered I had an audience—Meredith and Buzz were watching me from the roof waiting for their evening grub.

The Last Harvest

We’ve had hot weather all week but also some rain in the evenings.  The grass likes it when it rains and proceeds to grow rapidly.  So today I mowed.  It’s not a great idea to mow when it feels like 104 degrees outside.  It looked like rain so I got the mowing in.  It didn’t rain, it just stayed hot.

I also took down the garden today.  I gathered up a bunch of small green tomatoes, a couple of peppers and some okra.  I don’t know  if any tomatoes are usable but I do know that there will be no more tomatoes this year.  The plants are all gone.

 

The Last Harvest

Tomorrow is our 38th wedding anniversary.  We’ve no specific plans yet except that it will be an “us” day.  Likely location for lunch is a new restaurant in Uptown Station called Clemenza’s.  It’s a sister restaurant to Fat Clemenza’s a Sandestin  establishment that we like.  They have brick oven pizza, Italian sandwiches and pastas.  We went there last week, however, so maybe we will instead try another place.

Buzz and Meredith have shown up every night since we’ve been back.  Our being out of town didn’t make them disappear this time.

On the other hand a raccoon has been showing each night.  I haven’t seen him but he has cleaned out the feeder and climbed up to the hanging bird feeder and knocked it down the last 2 nights.  I’m not setting the trap for him tonight because if I caught him it would mess up our us day.  I’ll set it tomorrow.

Heat Wave

I haven’t blogged since July 20th.  Fortunately Penny accidently posted her blog on my site on July 28th so the gap doesn’t appear as large.

The primary reason for the gap is that I was in Jacksonville with Penny for 10 days helping T&K fix up their house for sale. When I am there I tend to put in little computer time thus the gap in blogs and the 300+ recent events on Facebook to catch up with.  We did a lot of work at K&T’s but a lot remains.  We figure we did about 1/3 of what needs to be done—but we selected the most important and visible work to do first. We are removing old paint and glaze and repainting and glazing the windows and doors.  I also pressure washed the garage and front door awnings and the front and back door areas.  We may be back later to do more but we had appointments to keep at home and Tim’s parents are arriving in Jax for S&L’s combined birthday party this weekend.

some garage awning before and after

Penny hard at work

As the words to that cleverly worded America song goes “the heat was hot”.  It was hot all week in Jax and Penny and we successfully kept ourselves hydrated.   It is usually hot here in NW FL this time of year with temperatures and humidity in the low 90’s.  But this week  the heat wave that has cooked the center of the country edged east and provided us with hot hazy weather that feels like 113 degrees.

We got back in town on Monday around 7PM and it was apparent that it had rained.  I did my usual walk-around of the house and yard to make sure all was well while we were gone.  Before we left I did some work out on the deck in wet weather.  I threw a tarp over my shade pavilion so I could work on C&C’s bookcase out there.  I thought it would drain any rain water.  I found the whole thing collapsed and the tarp holding a wading pool amount of water on the deck.

I checked on my video surveillance camera and found that a very heavy thunderstorm had moved through at 4:45—less than 3 hours before we got home and that heavy downpour was the cause of the collapse.

While in Jacksonville we did go to Sophie’s gymnastics class (as documented by Penny in the previous blog).

upside-down sisters 

We also were there for Sophie's beach party. That was a nice party.  Everyone got along and the rain held back and allowed us to finish up without rushing.

So far I haven’t accomplished a bunch since we’ve been back.  I did unload the car and realized I had just about every power hand tool I owned in the CRV along with the pressure washer a ladder stand and an assortment of hand tools-and I used every one of them and even had to buy  a new one (a heat gun).  Penny figures we had over $1,000 worth of stuff there and that is probably conservative.

One of the appointments we came back for was my regular doctor’s appointment.  I’m now on a supposedly stronger pain med for my thumbs but so far it is not doing better than what I was on.  I’ll give it more time.  I’m also being refereed to a hand surgeon.  It may be time to see if this can be fixed.