I think I should start a list of pros and cons for moving to an independent living facility. First on the pro list is I wouldn’t have to worry about a plumber. I’d just call maintenance.
Surprisingly, Kyle plumbing had an availability for me from 11 am – 1 pm yesterday. I grabbed it. Ralston showed up just a little after 12:15 and immediately quoted me a price of $309 to replace the float. I assume that included labor. After payment, he soon got started and then called out to me.
Apparently the shut off valve was frozen and needed replacement. I would have been suspicious of that but I had tried months ago and couldn’t budge it so I knew it was legit. Once more into the breech with my credit card and $208 later, he worked on the shut off valve. Pressure from the water heater prevented him from soldering the connection so he had to turn off the water heater and release the pressure.
He did a good job. The toilet works now. $517 poorer, I can flush the toilet without having to lift the lid to jiggle the float. If anything else goes wrong with the toilet, I may put an outhouse in the back yard with corn cobs for toilet paper. Trust me, I’ve been there, done that and it’s not bad. Those fuzzy cobs are better than the best toilet paper.
Today, I attempt to clean the house a little. It’s movie night and it’s Chris’ turn to select the movie. Tucker doesn’t care as long as the treats keep coming.
Tanis has her eyes open, her color is back and she’s more responsive than yesterday. Still no word on the CT scan nor the MRI. For the severity of the stroke, she seems to be doing well.
I admit to despairing a little this week with my brother’s dementia, my niece and nephews having to take off work last week to help out, Tanis’ stroke, the stress on my brother, niece and nephews. However, all have stepped up with this latest crisis, even my brother’s ex. All have jobs they’ve either put on hold or work around the hours of their employment. I’m not sure where all this will result in and it’s the unknown that bothers me the most.
For family members that are disparate, they certainly have come together as one to cope with the circumstances.
Her son Billy spent the night with Tanis and reports they took the crash cart away during the night. She can open her eyes a bit and responds to stimuli on the right side but not the left. Her son David will relieve Billy later today. My brother has a home health care aid in today for 4 hours and his ex, Carolyn, so that helps. I’m sure the next few days will determine a lot.
I managed to get some sleep last night but it was an uneasy sleep. I got up a 7 and had coffee and cereal and then did my morning walk (1.0) miles. I am still too out of shape.
Just as I set out on my walk, I ran into a beautiful branch of frangipani (Plumeria).
The genus is named after the French botanist Plumier who was an early explorer and collector in the New World.
The branches are succulent like Aloe vera and they produce a poisonous latex.
Toward the end of the finger canal street, I saw Denyse pull out to go to work. She sometimes cleans my pool when I’m away on long trips. I really like her. She never hesitates to stop and talk with me and catch up. I really do have good neighbors!
With everything happening to Tanis and Archie, it’s been hard to get back into a routine. I certainly have some anxiety for them, Ashley, Billy and David. I do have a clear schedule today and tomorrow and Thursday I go in for a CT scan to determine my cardiac calcium score. The new cardiologist wants to compare the new score to the old score to see how much more calcification has occurred.
Oh! I have to call the plumber. My toilet will flush but will not refill. In old toilets, there was a copper float you could work with but with the newer toilets, you have to replace the apparatus. I’m too old and stupid to do that any more so I’ll call a professional to do it. Unfortunately, they always have to order the part.
What started as a routine day: blood draw, pick up a friend at an auto repair shop, have breakfast with the friend, grocery shop, turned into a crisis when I found out from my nephew David my sister-in-law, Tanis, had a stroke and a diabetic crisis.
I had just been to Mississippi and returned on Saturday to help my niece and nephew clean up around the house since my brother and Tanis were not physically able to do so. A lot of progress was made and I left feeling like something had been accomplished but there was much more to do.
Tanis is in good hands at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. They are going to try to remove the blood clot and deal with her diabetic issues. Once the surgery for the clot is completed, she’ll be sent to ICU where her sons can visit her. All have rallied around her.
I’m not sure if I need to go back to Mississippi but I’m sure David and Ashley will let me know and keep me updated. Regardless, it’ll be a long recovery for Tanis and both she and Archie will have to rely more on Ashley, Billy and David.
I was asleep by 10:30 pm and stayed in bed until 10 am. I must have been a little worn down by the travel. Luckily, I remembered most of my morning routine, at least somewhat. I got confused in making the coffee but finally got it going.
I put a wash on. Usually, when I unpack the suitcase, which I did last night, I then wash clothes. I just wasn’t up for it so I put it off until this morning. There’s one load of underwear, socks, shirts and another load of bluejeans.
The pool has a few (hundred) leaves I need to remove before I turn the pump back on. I’ll probably do it either late today or tomorrow.
I got news today that I have been negative six times in a row for cancer with the Signatera test. Let’s hope I keep it that way. That’s 18 months cancer free.
Most of the day will be spent washing, drying, folding, and ironing clothes. We are predicted 70% rain so maybe it will occur and I won’t clean the pool today. It’s another reason I’m interested in independent living.
I spent some time trying to turn my printer on so I could print the Signatera report but it wouldn’t oblige. After doing a Google search telling me to check the plug, I finally realized I was pushing the wrong button. Such is my life.
At least I didn’t try to brush my teeth this morning with Benadryl Anti-itch cream. I was up at 7, packed at 7:30, had coffee with Jean and drove to the airport where I backed up and hit a pole. There was no damage to the car – not sure about the pole.
I spent a lot of time sitting in the Jackson airport wondering if I was at the correct gate. They did not list the gate to the Atlanta flight. At almost boarding time, they finally put up a gate, fortunately only one away from where I was.
Atlanta was the usual mad house but I managed to navigate it with minimal trouble. The Jackson flight to Atlanta was 52 minutes and the Atlanta flight to Fort Lauderdale was 1 hour and 24 minutes. We detoured a little on the Fort Lauderdale flight – actually twice, but we made it on time.
I found out there is a special place at the airport to pick up an Uber. Of course, it’s a distance away but at least they now allow Uber to pick you up. We pulled into my driveway at 6:24 pm. I’m exhausted. I ordered groceries, took a shower, and plan to vegetate for the next few days.
I was so exhausted yesterday and didn’t really seem to do much. Maybe I need to read my blog yesterday to see what tired me so. I think the week is catching up to me.
I was so out of it this morning I started brushing my teeth and decided the toothpaste wasn’t foaming up like it usually does. I then realized it didn’t taste right. I had been brushing with Benadryl anti-itch cream. I can truly say my teeth didn’t itch all day long.
It reminded me of the time I used Scrubbing Bubbles instead of spray starch while ironing shirts. I couldn’t figure out why it was foaming so much.
Today was shopping day: grocery shopping at Walmart and home goods also at Walmart. I hate large department stores. It was a comedy of errors. We had finally convinced my brother to use the walker supplied by the VA. You can use it as a stroller or as a seat. Instead, he gives it to Tanis who takes off. My brother figures he’ll use the electric shopping cart. It was not charged. Neither was the second. By the time I found one and brought it to him, he had gotten one that worked. Somewhere in the store was my brother, my sister-in-law, and niece. Amazingly, we finally found each other in the giga-store and made it out alive, albeit a little poorer.
Next, after dropping groceries at home as well as my sister-in-law and niece, Archie and I headed to Ace Hardware to have 3 keys made, and to pick up some room AC filters, light bulbs, phone line splitter, phone line, and staples to keep the phone lines around the trim and doors. I was greeted at the door and a gentleman immediately begin working on the keys. I started shopping, found another worker and he took me throughout the store and helped me shop every item. If I had gone to Home Depot, I would have to hunt for a worker and then they would not know the answer. I’m a dedicated fan of Ace Hardware.
Of course, I left today with the three keys in my pocket and will have to mail them to Ashley. I changed the filters in the room AC, replaced some light bulbs, and worked on the phone. I’m still missing a piece from an old fashioned telephone that hung from a wall with a cord to the phone. I’ll order that and send to Ashley.
I said goodbye to my brother, sister-in-law, and niece. Parting really is such sweet sorrow.
I’ll leave tomorrow on Delta around 12:15 pm and arrive in Fort Lauderdale around 5:1 5 pm. It’ll be good to get home.
Special thanks to Roger and Jean who put me up and put up with me. We had quite a few laugh and giggle sessions after I got back at night. I’ll miss them immensely.
Raleigh, Pucket, Forkville, Independence, Bay Springs. More names that pop up that bring out more memories for me. I’ve been to all under all kinds of circumstances, whether church related or skating rinks, or just trips with my Grandmother Ruby. She had a bit of wanderlust in her which seems to have been passed on to me.
In route to visit my cousins Charles, Minnie Jean and Regina, I stopped at the Sims’ Hill Cemetery to visit some relatives. There are some Tadlocks (maiden name of my Grandmother) and other relatives there in addition to a lot of the people I went to school with or the parents and grandparents of those students.
In case you can’t read it, the cemetery has been in existence since 1874.
It’s an attractive cemetery whose centerpiece is a massive oak tree.
Some of the graves are really ancient.
George W Moore Co C, 28 Miss Cav, CSA
I arrived there about the time a guy started mowing the grass. After a while, he shut the mower off and wandered over and introduced himself as Ron Neal. The Neal family is fairly prominent in the cemetery. I suspect he thought I was drunk as I staggered through the graves. I still don’t walk very well, particularly on grass or undulating ground.
He says he was chosen by default to cut the grass today since the usual person was not available. He’s on the board that controls the cemetery. We talked about the difficulty of upkeep of small cemeteries throughout the U.S. There’s problems with space, materials left out in the path of the mower, money, sinking headstones, and volunteers.
We saw the same with Searcy Cemetery. For years, until he no longer could, my brother would travel over from Brandon and cut the grass. My Dad set up a fund to pay for the mowings but my brother never charged him. My Dad, of course, was the biggest financial donor to the cemetery. My cousin Charles would often cut it, also.
After visiting the relatives at Sim’s Hill, I headed to Minnie Jean and Charles’. It was so good to see them again after all the medical issues Charles has had this past year. Not long after, my cousin Regina from Uncle Ray and Aunt Minrose came in. I hadn’t seen her since she was a toddler. One caveat, she says she saw me at my Mom and Dad’s one year when she was still fairly young. I didn’t remember that.
We caught up with family: the Savell’s, the Risher’s, the Cooper’s, the Searcy’s, and the Hurst’s. In reliving memories, we each learned something new about each family which is kind of neat. When we should have been listening to our grandparents drone on about relatives, we didn’t pay enough attention and we’ve had to piece the information together ourselves. There’s a good warning to the younger generation – listen to your grandparents droning.
I was at Archie and Tanis’ around 10:15 this morning and Ashely and Billy were already active. It was quickly explained to me that a trip to Meridian to eat at Weidman’s was not as important as me going to Walmart and Home Depot to pick up a crock pot, have some keys made, and a blood pressure cuff. Yes, ma’am.
I’ll be there around 10:45 tomorrow. Billy leaves tomorrow, and we will try to tie up loose ends. I owe such a large debt of gratitude to my niece, Ashley, and my nephews Billy and David for their help. I wasn’t much help other than tripping over my feet. What these three have accomplished in 5 days is amazing. David came to help after work, Billy scheduled around his time and Ashley both worked and took time off. It’s really nice when family comes together.
They should rename the town of Brandon Wisteriaville. It’s all over the place and it’s all in bloom. It perfumes the air, crowds out other vegetation, and simply becomes something beautiful to behold. It even smells purple.
It was an interesting day. I got over to Archie and Tanis’ about 10:30 this morning after coffee and grapefruit with Jean and Roger. I try to time it so Jean and Roger are awake and I get a free cup of coffee.
It was decided I would take my brother shopping for a couple of pairs of sketchers so he could simply slide them on and not have to bend over to tie his shoe laces. Also, I was under orders to pick up a couple of pairs of shorts. It was off to Belk we went.
After measuring his foot, I thought he was a 10, one customer service person thought it was 9 1/2 and a second customer service person said 9. That was just the introduction as to what would become.
Archie tried the 9 1/2 and they were too big. Then he tried the 9’s and they were too tight. Back to the 9 1/2 – too big, back to the 9’s – too tight. Finally I found a pair of 9’s that fit him just right. While he was in the dressing room with the shorts, I found a second pair that looked like they would fit and got those in addition to house shoes.
He thought his waist size was 32. The 32’s didn’t fit. We went to 34. They didn’t fit. Finally, 36’s fit and we got two pairs. I was exhausted. The service personnel were excellent and very patient with us.
We returned to his home, picked up Tanis, and my nephew Billy and headed to Burgers, Blues, and Barbecue for lunch. I ordered the red beans and rice and it was outstanding! Atop the red beans was a section of old time country sausage I grew up with as a kid. I grew up with home ground sausage or country sausage usually gotten locally. Both were far cries from Jimmy Dean sausage.
After lunch, I dropped Billy back at the house and Tanis, Archie and I headed to Pulaski by way old highway 80 and Morton.
The house of our grandmother on our mother’s side still looked pretty good. Next stop was the Morton Cemetery to look over the graves of our grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins.
From there we headed to Pulaski to the Searcy Cemetery. I viewed my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents graves as well as my Aunt and Uncle Risher. For the first time, it registered with me that my Dad had an older brother who died soon after childbirth. I knew of the brother but the date had not registered before.
Next was a short trip to my grandparents’ place on my Dad’s side. We called it the Old Place. The original land was 120 acres with 30 acres where the house sat and 90 acres across the road that was farmed.
Dad told me the Choctaws use to come through once a year and camp down by the river and harvest cane. The stuff that grows by creeks and rivers is the only native bamboo in the U.S. and goes by the scientific name of Arundinaria gigantea. They would split the cane and weave baskets. When they left, they always left a few baskets for my grandparents.
As I walked up to the Old Place which was overgrown, I saw a stand of iris blooming. These were undoubtedly planted by my grandmother almost 100 years ago.
The first thing I look for is the magnolia tree planted by my grandparents (or great grandparents). I spent many hours in the branches of that tree. If you started playing among the branches in the spring, you got incredibly dirty from the bark and moss. By summer, we kids had pretty much rubbed all that off and had smooth limbs to play on and grandmother wouldn’t make us take a bath before we came into the house.
Sadly, the Old Place is looking, well, old. Time has ravaged it and it breaks my heart that my dad worked so hard to restore it. You can see the dogtrot in the center. This house holds many wonderful memories.
Grandmother, on cold winter days, would put her heavy metal irons near the fire place to warm them up and then wrap them and put them under the covers to warm the bed for us kids. Also, sleeping on a feather bed is a feat.
Through the dogtrot and at the end of the porch was a long set of stairs to the ground below. We would sit on those stairs and eat grandad’s watermelons he had cooled in the dogtrot. Of course, we had seed spitting contests (I always lost).
I’ll head to Brandon around 10:30 tomorrow morning and see what Ashley has cooked up for me to do. I will be in Pulaski by 3 pm to visit with my cousin Charles, his wife, Minnie Jean and perhaps my cousin Regina.
Spring has certainly sprung here in Mississippi. I can tell the trees have leafed out more in the three days I’ve been here. Pastures are looking green as well as lawns. The long, brown months are over.
One year I picked up a friend from Mississippi at the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport and the first words uttered after our greeting was “It’s so green down here.” He had flown in during the winter months when everything that is not evergreen is dead or hibernating in Mississippi.
Ashley Paige McKay. She’s the spitting image of our Mother.The Reverend Doctor William Watson (Billy)
These two and Carolyn were dynamos this day!
There are several plants that pop up in the spring as early indicators of the season. One is wild mustard. Another is buttercups.
This is the genus Ranunculus and I think the species is laxicaulis. You can’t see the leaves in this photo but the numerous stamens and pistils are evident.
Another is the common blue violet.
Viola sororia. I used to collect this when I was a graduate student at Ole Miss in the Flora of Mississippi course.
Very common in fields and lawns this time of year is false garlic.
Nodoscorum bivalve. In my day, this was Allium bivalve. You can dig up the bulbs and they and the entire plant give off a garlic odor. It’s considered edible.
Spring in Mississippi is beautiful. Strangely, I’ve only seen a few red buds and dogwoods in bloom. Maybe it’s a little early.
I spent the day with Archie, Tanis, my niece Ashley, my nephew Billy, Archie’s ex, Carolyn, and the health care lady, Maya. I managed to get two smoke detectors installed even though it wiped me out. I’m afraid I wasn’t much use to Ashley and Billy. I left at 4 pm and came to Jean and Rogers and immediately got into bed.
I’m not sure what is on tap for tomorrow. I get my orders from Ashley. It was good to see Archie with a good appetite.
Sand Hill, Pisgah, Gulde, Shiloh, Kalem, Forkville. More of these small community names that are coming back to me. I remember going to Gulde (we pronounced it Gooly) for a church function (yes, I once went to church). The Shiloh is not the Shiloh of the Battle of Shiloh fame. There are probably 20 Shiloh’s in the state of Mississippi
Most of these places are little holes in the road (Kalem) but several are larger communities whose school systems were consolidated with a larger system, like Morton or Forest. They are part of my memories as a kid. It helped I had a grandmother who loved to drive the back roads and visit distant relatives (genetically, not distance wise) and I learned a lot sitting in the passenger seat as she constantly speeded up and slowed down as she drove and explained the relationships.
Today was shopping day. Ashley, Archie’s daughter, came to visit and Archie, Tanis and I headed out to see about getting a land line installed. First stop was an AT&T store. We quickly found out that the stores no longer works with the company to establish/re-establish land lines. They were kind enough to get us started with the customer service phone line and after a few false starts, we got Archie and Tanis a new land line. Of course, there is not physical phone line any more, it’s through the modem/internet system.
The next problem was finding a phone for the land line. Everyone sells cell phones these days but very few stores sell land line phones. We finally found a store and I set up the system and I’m waiting for the batteries to charge to set up the phone.
Also needed this day was a new suit case for me. When I checked in at Fort Lauderdale yesterday morning, the attendant at baggage check noticed I had not zipped my bag all the way. I was lacking an inch. For a reason. The zipper, once past a certain point, would not unzip. He zipped it all the way which meant when I got to Roger and Jean’s, I spent 15 minutes trying to get my suitcase open.
We stopped at Belks and I found a Samsonite that I liked. It was 60% off and if I applied for a Belks card, it was another 25% off. I saved $331. Of course, the regular price was outrageous and it really was only worth $50 at the most but they gotta make a living somehow.
The 25% off was good all day at Belk so I bought some shoes and some cologne and two sets of shoes for Tanis that also were on sale in addition to the 25% off.
We bought so many things, we must have saved a million dollars. And spent two million.
Ashley was busy at the house while we were gone. Once back, we rested from our shopping spree and then headed to Genna Benna’s for dinner. Tanis’ son, Billy, came in from Texas and joined us at the restaurant.
Tomorrow, Tanis, Billy, Ashley and I are gonna work together on some things.
