“The Eye of God”

Posted on by

One of my favorite authors, James Rollins, writes fiction based on fact. I just finished reading “The Eye of God” and learned that James agrees with me, at least fictionally, that we live in a world of parallel universes. It’s like the parallel aspects are shadows that are ready to take over each time we encounter a situation where a decision necessary. For those of you who know a bit about quantum mechanics, this isn’t news, but we have these decision opportunities all the time. What happens in the universe of the choice I didn’t make. For example, if I choose to turn right at an intersection, what happened to the ‘me’ that turned left? That is, of course, a simple example, but give it a little thought and you will see that your life is filled with countless decisions every day. Usually, my decisions choices involve a “what should I say, write, or do in order to stay out of trouble?” Sadly, in my conscience universe I seem to live in the one where I always make the wrong choice.

Or, do I?

If the experiences I have are the ‘up’ side, the ‘down’ side must be pretty profound.

I am, I believe, living in a world where I at least perceive my actions as being the correct ones. If you laugh at some of the stupid things I say or do, or just give it a half-smile, I’m in the right place.

Thanks for the use of your eyes, and your time.

 

Urgent Care or a Movie – Hmmmm.

Posted on by

Thanks to all of you who sent my thumb good tidings. It appreciates it immensely. I know because I asked, and it nodded approvingly. Honest. It did so in a manner that limited the pain.

Today Jeran and I spent some time in our yard moving blackberry vines to the burn pile where they will await further attention once the rains come. I’m going to burn them to smithereens. We also moved one complete azalea, and many branches from one of the several rhododendrons that populate our yard.

Here’s Jeran ready to transport the first load. In all, there were four trips. Jeran drove most of them, learning how to drive the lawn mower. He did a really good job helping me, and I appreciated his company. I have no idea where he came from. Perhaps he was left behind when Jennifer showed up and went garage saling with  her Mother. That had to be it.

DSC_6712

Actually, I knew Jeran was coming up to help me so his arrival wasn’t a surprise.

After gathering all the vines and branches strewn around the place, Jeran took a break and took about 50 pictures of various things from his vantage point on the swing. He took this one of me as I was cleaning up the remaining pieces that we chose to leave on the ground. My method was to run over them with the mower going full blast, shredding the remaining, offending debris. In case you’re wondering, yes, those are wings on the back of my shirt. Sadly, they are partially covered by  my festive suspenders. The wings belong to “Figment”, a very small Disney World dragon. I know this is true because on the front of the shirt has “Figment” in large letters. I think Diane got it for me as a testament to my flighty behavior.

DSC_6738

Throughout the day, while three generations of ladies (Diane, Jennifer, and Jean (Diane’s Mom)) were out having fun garage saling, I would get occasional texts reminding me to eat, drink water, rest, take my meds, etcetera, with the ultimate threat of a visit to Urgent Care upon their return to  have my thumb checked by an expert. Since they didn’t return until almost 4:00 pm, and Urgent Care opened at 12:01 pm, I figured it was an idle threat. I validated the idle part by suggesting we go to Scappoose and see “Red 2”, which premiered today. The offer was accepted, we went, had a great time, and I ate an entire bag of popcorn using only my left hand.

On the way home we stopped at Rite Aide and purchased a thumb immobilizer, which is what the doctor would have given me had we chosen to waste 4 hours of our afternoon at Urgent Care. So, we got to see a really fun movie, and I got popcorn.

Now I have a stomach ache.

It’s always something, right?

I Broke My Thumb, but The Toilet Works !!

Posted on by

I’m guessing that puts thoughts in some of your heads that make you go, “Hmmmm.” Diane did the same thing, but she wanted me to go to the emergency room to have a professional look at it. I didn’t think it was necessary because I was tired, hungry, and just wanted to sit down for a while in a quiet place and wait to see if my thumb would turn a different color. That’s usually what my body parts do when I break them.

Not this time, however. It didn’t even swell up. It just hurt. A lot. For a long time. All the way to my shoulder. “How,” you may ask, “can a normal human being hurt their thumb that badly on a toilet without slamming their hand under the lid?” It’s complicated, but I’ll see if I can explain without pictures …

You see, Wednesday, Daniel and I worked diligently to accomplish our goal of getting the linoleum put down. We did that, but I was an incredible mess by the time we were done. The glue was everywhere. If you leave it on your hands long enough it will glue your fingers together. I know that’s can. Daniel helped peel from my sticky fingers.

After cleaning up a little, we used a really heavy roller, that we got from Don’s Rental, to squish out the air bubbles under the linoleum. There weren’t many bubbles, but the roller smoothed out the flooring nicely. Once that was done we called it a day and I went home. Sore and tired.

 Yesterday the goal was to get the toilet installed. Doing that required us to replace the sheet rock behind the toilet. I have no memory of why we found it necessary to remove it, but we did. Replacing it was a simple task that required only two trips to ACE Hardware for drywall screws and whatnot. Jack was working today so we got to see him on one of the trips. One of the ex-Mayors of St. Helens was working today, too. He’s Diane’s cousin so we greeted to him, also.

While getting the drywall bolted to the wall, Daniel asked one of the children to clean the toilet so we could install it when we were ready. This caused a complication in the other work going on around the house which Diane was supervising. She had all three of the resident kids, plus a couple of their friends, cleaning up everything, from the roof down, all the way to the street. It was impressive because all she had to do was give instructions once, then walk around the house once in a while smacking a large spoon into the palm of her left hand. They all realized the threat and worked really hard. Besides that motivation, they were all working to earn money for the Columbia County Fair which started yesterday. The fair also has a rodeo which is always fun to watch, partly because Jack, Jack’s first wife’s brother, is the rodeo announcer.

Sorry. I’m getting a little off track, aren’t I?

One of the children took a feeble stab at cleaning the toilet, but it wasn’t quite good enough to install on a brand new floor. So, Daniel cleaned it up again, then we added a brand new wax ring, set the toilet bowl, and bolted it to the floor. It was during this last evolution that I think I broke my thumb. Here’s how I did it … I had already tightened the left bolt and was working on the right one, while resting my chest on the toilet seat. I was using a box end wrench to tighten the nut and it was going well until the metal washer shifted to one side into a position that would not have allowed the plastic cap to be snapped to the underlying receptacle. You know what I’m talking about … this little bubbles on the sides of toilets that always get sucked into your vacuum cleaner if you don’t secure them properly.

Anyway, I felt a compelling need to adjust the washer to allow the cap to get by it so it would snap in place. I did this by losing the nut a little then used the box end of the wrench to push the slippery washer back into place. Sadly, I didn’t loosen the nut enough the first time and had to exert far more pressure than necessary to accomplish the task. Of course it slipped off and, since pressure was being applied in the direction of the toilet, the second joint of my right hand slammed into the toilet bowl really, really hard. It hurt a lot.

After the pain receded to a tolerable level, due to the rapid intake of air while make the “SSS” sound through clenched teeth, I looked at it and determined that it wasn’t a job ending injury, because it wasn’t purple, I realigned the washer and tightened the nut. Then Daniel attached the tank, and the plumbing, and we were ready for the “flush” test to see if it leaked. It didn’t so we quit while we were ahead and so I could go home and ice my poor little thumb, which I did.

Diane wanted to take me right to the emergency room, but I showed her that it wasn’t an odd color and the only time it hurt really bad is when I try to touch my injured thumb to my little finger (on the same hand). I cannot do that. So I don’t.

Now it’s Friday and a lump had started growing on my injured digit which, Diane thinks, might be because I’ve been typing all this time. I explained, however, that typing does not required me to touch my thumb to my little finger, so it’s OK. Still, I sense that she will find a way to get me to Urgent Care so they can take a picture of it and see if there are any bone fragments floating around in there.

I’ll let you know how that goes.

Oh … Diane wasn’t really smacking a spoon in her hand to keep the kids busy. They all worked really hard and were a huge help getting things cleaned up outside. Diane was pleased, as ware Jennifer & Daniel.

Now I must dress and mind Diane and go see a doctor.

Cheers.

OK – So I Broke My iPhone

Posted on by

Now I have no way to communicate with anyone unless I use email, text, or the house phone. I’m … I’m just … just shattered! The world into which I was thrust, and learned to inhabit, has ended. I will never be the same again … until the new one arrives. That will happen when I find time to call AT&T to see about my mishap.

Actually, it still works fine. It just looks kinda sad, and I can’t carry it around in my hip pocket any more.

I really don’t understand how dropping it on a linoleum covered floor would break it when dropping it in the driveway, and on various sidewalks, didn’t. All it got then was little dings and dents and it still continued to chug right along. Even this time, with the screen glass front riddled with cracks, it’s still chugging along, but it’s a hazard to my health and welfare.

First, the dazzling cracks are mainly on the upper end of the screen, perfect for slicing up one’s ear while pressing it firmly to hear a conversation while in a noisy room, or in the bathroom when the toilet has been flushed, or just because you can’t hear very well — stuff like that. So, yes, it still works, but it concerns me.

Second, while texting, something I find myself doing more and more, I fear the little cracks will slice my left thumb to shreds so tend to avoid words that require me to use my left thumb while in landscape mode. I’m walking a narrow dotted line down a path to permanent injury unless I get it replaced. And the dots are getting farther apart.

So …

“I promise, Mom, I won’t carry the new one around in my hip pocket and I won’t drop it.”

“Ever.”

“Honest. “

“I will quit texting at 10 pm, on the dot, every night, except weekends.

“I will not take naughty pictures of myself and post them for the world to see.”

“Just for my friends.”

“No, I unfriended Johnny when he shared the last picture.”

“I know, it isn’t the first time, but it won’t happen again.”

“I promise.”

“Really .”

“Honest, it won’t happen again.”

“I will be good. VERY good.”

“Oh ,pleeeeeeeze, Mom!”

“I’ll die if I have to use that old pink razor flip phone again. It’s ancient.”

“I know, it still works, but it’s painfully hard to text on and it doesn’t have video chat.”

“All my friends have new smartphones so it should be such a big deal.”

“I’ve gotta have a good-looking phone that my friends will envy. An unbroken one they will not make fun of.”

“It’s imperative for my social life that I have a new, whole smartphone.”

“I’ll die if I don’t get one.”

“Why do I pay insurance on the phone if I can’t get a new one?”

“OK – why do you pay insurance if I can’t get a new one?”

“No, I didn’t break it on purpose so I could get a new one.”

“It just … fell.”

“I’ll run away to Spain if I don’t get a new phone.”

“I’ll live there forever and never come back home to show you my babies.”

“All six of them.”

“Oh.”

“You already packed my bag.”

“You hate me.”

“I’m leaving and never coming back.”

“Wait. You’re taking me to school tomorrow, right?”

“Noooooo. Not the bus. You know I hate to ride the bus.”

“If I had a new phone, though, I’d do that.”

“At least for a week.”

…

Hairballs

Posted on by

For some of you who visited within the past few days, you may remember that one of the desserts was a cherry pie. I ate the last piece tonight. It was a good thing, too, because Panzee barfed up a world-class hairball that filled the entire pie tin. I’d show you, but Diane wouldn’t let me take a picture of it.

It was totally awesome. I didn’t know dogs could do that.

Just saying.

Ozzie, Swimming, and Blackberry Vines

Posted on by

They’re finally gon … ‘scuse me … sadly, the Namponians departed this morning amid hugs and smiles. Lydia and Cedric spent the night, again, and they kept Maryssa awake until well after midnight. Actually, we were all up past midnight which really tosses my internal clock in the trash. That’s because, of course, the dogs don’t care when I go to bed because their sole focus in the entire world is getting up at the crack of dawn so they can get their pouch and canned food. This morning it was 0515 when they made their wishes known.

Last night Bob was making frequent attempts to at least touch Ozzie, knowing that holding him was probably out of the question. Maryssa wanted to hold him, too, but he wouldn’t let her pick him up. So, I just picked him up and transferred him to her arms. He glared at me for only a little while before accepting the fact that he was trapped in a stranger’s arms and I wasn’t going to rescue him. He sat in her lap for half an hour, at least. Here’s proof that at least one of them was happy …

DSC_6695

Yesterday we went to Uncle Jack’s and Aunt Wynette’s house to swim in the pool. They have one of those and it’s awesome. The kids always love it. Special for us was the inclusion of Gilligan and Baylee who have never had the pleasure of swimming in a large pool. They had an absolute ball. Gilligan, the consummate daredevil, spent all of her time bobbing up and down all around the edge of the pool until her little hands and feet had sore spots on them from pushing herself to the bottom using the pool edge and from pushing off the bottom to get back up. Over and over. Here are some pictures of all the fun we had …

Here’s Baylee, just floating around …

DSC_6549

… and Jennifer keeping a watchful eye on Gilligan …

DSC_6556

 … Steffani giving Maryssa a piggyback ride …

DSC_6563

… Lydia and Maryssa playing catch with Gilligan …

DSC_6599

… Jeff teaching Baylee how to float on her back while Jennifer watches …

DSC_6625

… Diane enjoying the antics from the safety of a shaded area …

DSC_6629

… Maryssa and Lydia received wise council from Uncle Jack …

DSC_6688

After everyone left I went outside and eradicated as many blackberry vines as I could in the back yard. I got lots of them, and they got me back. I learned that it’s probably a smart thing to wear long sleeves when working with blackberry vines, but I didn’t wear them because the barbs really stick to clothes, but they just scratch your skin and are easily removed. It hurts, but it really makes the job easier to do when you don’t have to constantly remove the vines from your clothing. I also removed a dead azalea and I’m pretty sure I dismembered more than one rose-bush in the process.

DSC_6703

DSC_6704

Yesterday morning, before lunch, we had a revisit from the doe and her babies. They were trying to play with Breezie in our back yard while mom was in the next yard. After playing for a while, Mom convinced the twins it was time to go and they wiggled their way through the fence. Too cute.

DSC_6516

This afternoon, after collapsing on the couch for a short period of time, I took Jeran to his piano lesson. He’s doing really well for the short time he’s been taking lessons. The up side of it all is that he really loves taking the lessons. He’s going to be great one day. I’m looking forward to the time when we can play duets together, like my Mom and I used to do.

Now I’m going to rest some more.

The Namponians

Posted on by

Namponians are a rare breed, in the overall scheme of things, who wander in a seemingly aimless manner from their designated territory to surrounding ‘countries’ spreading joy and happiness in their never-ending quest to take over the world with their seemingly benign mannerisms. There is, however, a method to their madness because on these quests they bring children, exposing them to life outside the sphere of influence controlled by the Namponian elders, most of whom spend their days caring for the previous elders. It’s a vicious cycle maintained by the vast majority of Namponians who may travel about, but always return to pick up the mantle of support required by contracts initiated in their names at birth by those whose fruit of their loins they are. There’s no escaping this homing cycle. That’s why it’s not difficult to have them visit because the hosts know they will not stay.

In the case of Diane and myself, the Namponians arrived yesterday afternoon. The family unit is composed of two adults and a young female whose teeth I thought were silver implants until they removed her braces. Now they are white and very attractive teeth. To celebrate the occasion of their arrival, local fruits of other related loins descended upon us to visit and discuss the next time we may inhabit a location where we can breathe the same air. That is a requirement, to establish the next gathering as a primary point of business. That, and for the young, no matter where they are from, to eat pretty much everything within their grasp, sometimes retreating to dark corners so they can consume their rations in privacy. This time, however, the youngest four retreated to the roof with their bags of rations where they sat, ate, and plotted the overthrow of their respective family units.

OK – I can’t continue this. It’s mostly lies, and you know how I hate to be caught telling lies. Namponians are real people. Honest. They do tend to stay within a few miles of their homes, like deer, but they do visit outside the invisible fencing surround their territory once in a while when the elders randomly turn the fence off to see what happens. Oddly, as many enter and leave during these occasions so the population is always in stasis. This simplifies the budgetary process.

The following photos are provided as proof of this invasion and to provide others a visual reference as to the manner of their physical makeup in order to identify them should they invade your space.

First, we have three of the local FOLs, Jeran, Cedric, and Lydia, and 1 of the 3 Namponian FOLs, Maryssa, on the roof, where it got pretty cold once the sun went down. We eventually put the ladder back up so they could return to the warmth of interior.

DSC_6490

Next are Bob and Steffani whose loins produced the Namponian fruit.

DSC_6504

Here’s the FOLs again, with their midnight nectar, Namponian Orange Juice. It’s really Sunny Delight. We just let them believe it was NOJ.

DSC_6510

Then we had the annual “Who’s Taller” competition, which Maryssa won overall. But, Lydia’s butt is distinctly higher than Maryssa’s. We attribute this difference to the grandfather, brother Jim, the transplant Namponian.

DSC_6472

And, finally, the four FOLs, still consuming.

DSC_6470

I have to add that the FOLs were unable to consume everything so there was plenty remaining for Daniel to gratify his dietary needs when he arrived around 8:30 pm after a hard day working the innards of INTEL.

It was a good day.

Vaccums, Sprinklers, & Lawn Mowers

Posted on by

This is my 365 blog entry since Thanksgiving 2011. If you are obsessive, and do the math, it will be readily evident to you that I haven’t written one a day. The only time that happens with regularity is when we are traveling someplace. Then dailys are required so those who wonder can travel with us vicariously.

Vicariously. That’s a nifty word. My brother, Jack, taught me that word in 2010. I’m sure I heard it before then, but never associated it with anything I do so didn’t give it much thought. It was he, Jack, who suggested daily reports when we took our USA Tour after retiring from my day job so he could travel with us vicariously. So I did that. All those blog entries were created with Apple’s iWeb which ceased to exist in November 2011 so the only copies available are on my computer. I might just start putting those out there on this and just change the dates.

Jennifer gave me today off so I could rest. She said I’ve been working hard and deserved it. I agreed. So, while resting I vacuumed the house and we rearranged the living room. We did this mainly because Bob, Steffani, and Maryssa are going to be here tomorrow and it’s an unbreakable rule that when company is coming you either have to paint the outside of your house, or paint three rooms, or clean and rearrange everything so it will look different from the last time they were here. We actually clean fairly often even when visitors aren’t expected, but when they are it gets done twice as hard.

The livingroom remake includes addition of the ‘new’ rug Diane purchased. Looks good. After Diane was happy with my work, she sent me outside to fix the in ground sprinkler that someone ran over. It’s the one at the end of the driveway in an area that has no pavement on it. People aren’t supposed to drive there, but they do it anyway. I don’t know who did it. Might have been me. So I cast no blame on anyone. It just happened. While fixing it I moved it away from the driveway about six more inches. I don’t know if that’s enough. We’ll see.

When I finished fixing the sprinkler I was released to, finally, mow the yard. I was going to just do the front, but wound up mowing and bagging the entire front and back yards. I finally finished about 9:15 pm. The moon was bright, but just a sliver, so I had to use the mower headlights on the last 1/4 of the back yard. I’ve always wondered why riding mowers have headlights. Now I know.

Now I must go shower and remove the stench of mown grass from my body. Then I will plead with Diane to dress my blackberry and apple tree wounds. Next year I will not sustain those kinds of wounds because I’m going to remove the low hanging fruit bearing limbs and eradicate the blackberry bushes. I’m also going to remove a forsythia thing that just sprouts willy nilly out of the ground, and another flowering bush that’s about eight feet tall and is composed mostly of dead sticks.

I forgot to mention that, while rearranging things earlier in the day, we saw a doe and two spotted fawns stroll through the yard. Very adorable little creatures. We’ve seen lots of deer, and evidence of deer who eat the flowers, but never tiny fawns. It was a special treat. They looked almost exactly like this, but different because this isn’t our back yard. I got this photo from the web. But, these are pretty much the same size as the visitors.

deer-fawn1

Now I must go. Hope everyone had a pleasant Saturday.

VA, Village Inn, and the ReStore Store

Posted on by

Today Diane drove me to my PT appointment at the VA Hospital on Pill Hill in Portland. I endured about 45 minutes of severe pain from EB then we went to the Village Inn, on Wielder Avenue, near the Lloyd Center, for breakfast. From there we went to the Habitat For Humanity ReStore store near Mall 205, which is, oddly, near I-205.

At the ReStore store we purchased some different festive ceramic tiles for the bathroom project, but all we went there for was to see if they had any pedestals that might fit the sinks Diane and Jennifer purchased last week. They didn’t, but we learned they allow returns.

So, while Daniel and I worked on the bathroom, to secure the overlayment flooring, Diane and Jennifer returned to the ReStore store to return the sinks and pedestals in favor of ones that match. This meant, of course, that they timed it just perfect for Portland’s rush hour traffic on Friday afternoon. They returned around 6:30 pm after stopping at Fred Meyer in Scappoose for salad to go with the lasagna that Lydia cooked. They got a watermelon, too. It was all very, very good.

As mentioned above, Daniel and I secured the layer of flooring, to which we will glue the linoleum. Because of that, it has to be absolutely smooth, with no nicks and divots due to the screws used, all of which were secured a tiny bit below the surface of the wood. Daniel used floor leveling compound to fill those divots, and the cracks between the board. Tomorrow we can see about cutting the linoleum. I’ve been wanting to do that for days, now. Just cut some linoleum. It doesn’t have to fit. I just want to cut it. With my knife.

While waiting for Diane and Jennifer to return, after we had done what we could do in the bathroom, I watched TV with Lydia and found out what I’ve been missing. We watched “The New Girl” which is all about sex and weird relationships. There are morals in there somewhere, but all of them are pretty loose ones. It’s funny on the same lines as “The Big Bang Theory” which Diane and I really like. I think there are 22 episodes stored on the DVR for later viewing, when we have a chance to sit down at home. Lately that’s been difficult.

I need to mow the yard again, too. The grass continues to grow even though we haven’t watered it all year. It’s still kinda green, too.

Did I mention hat Daniel and Jennifer laid out the new tile in a desired pattern for the wall? They did it wrong, of course, because some of the new tiles we got have a kind of rorschach pattern on them, and they are all the same. Lydia and her OCD-ness fixed it by ensuring all the patterns were lined up in the same direction. It’s going to look right nice when done. That will happen one of these days. I keep telling Jennifer that but I don’t think she believes me. She’s resigning herself to a life with nights interrupted by children using their bathroom who don’t know how to close doors quietly and who don’t realize gravity takes over when you let go of the toilet lid.

That’s it for today. Gotta save the cat from Panzee now.

Nicks, Dings, and Other Things

Posted on by

Today Jeran told his Dad, Daniel, that he’s surprised that I haven’t hurt myself yet while working on their bathroom. Little did he know that I’ve managed to collect memorable scrapes and punctures over the past week about which he is unaware. Most of them, I admit, were collected yesterday when Jennifer and I installed the tub and I connected the plumbing through a tiny little hole in the floor that was surrounded by screws with their pointy ends poking out.

Installing the tub wasn’t really a big deal – Jennifer and I just mixed up a 50 pound bag of thinset mortar, in one of her festively colored storage containers, for lack of a better option, and dumped it on an old tarp I’ve been using to cover the loads in my truck when I go to the dump. This mixture was situated in the area where the tub would sit then we just laid the tub back down in the gooey mess. Jennifer sat in the tub to get it back to level then stayed to enjoy the heat generated by the curing mortar while I wounded myself, over and over, connecting the drain. But it’s done, and it doesn’t leak. The fancy faucet even works. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll remember to take the camera to capture a picture before we put the walls up. I’m sure everyone is clamoring for one of those.

This morning, after coffee with Larry, Larry, and Lisa, and another trip to the church parking lot with Larry to  revisit the black top patch repair job, I returned to the bathroom project. Today was Daniel’s day off and he was eager to get to work when I arrived. Our goal was to get the overlayment down on the floor. That involved replacing the toilet drain which, in turn, required removal of a bit of floor so I could get the sawsall in a position to whack the drain off at a reasonable level. Once done we had to make an ACE run to get a sleeve and a piece of 3″ ABS piping for the drain. We only needed 3 1/2 inches of piping but 2 feet is as short as they’ll go so it cost $6 for that 3.5 inches. That’s OK.

Next step was to put down a layer of roofing felt between the subfloor and the overlayment. I don’t know if roofing felt is appropriate but its way better than the really thin paper we removed on the destruction part. We wanted to do it in must two pieces but there were just too many things sticking out of the wall to allow us room to do that, so we did it in four pieces. One piece had to have two holes cut, one for the toilet and one for the A/C vent. The holes weren’t perfect, were totally fixable, but I’m not going into those details. Let’s just way the overlayment is down and looks great. Next is the linoleum. Tomorrow.

The evening ended with Diane, Jeran, and I going to the movie to watch “Despicable Me 2”. Totally fun movie. We laughed almost non-stop throughout the entire thing. The movie was Jeran’s reward for helping Diane all day long without complaint. He was tasked with cleaning up their patio and surrounding area. It was a hard task because he wasn’t sure what should go and what should stay. When Daniel and I returned from ACE Jeran was just tossing something in the dumpster and reported that he’d “found an easier way to clean up the patio.” Daniel asked him what that was and Jeran said, “I just throw away the things Grandmas tells me to throw away.” Makes sense to me. There’s no need to make decisions using that method.

Diane worked in the living room, dining room, and kitchen the last two days straightening things up, and today it was vacuuming and shampooing the living room/dining room carpets. Not an easy task. Jeran helped with a lot of that today, moving things around for Grandma. Jennifer pitched in when she got home from work.

Cedric & Lydia were participating in Pacific Camp at their church, as they’ve been doing all summer, so weren’t around to participate. They did, however, appreciate the results of everyone’s efforts.

Tomorrow, as I mentioned, is linoleum day. First, however, Diane will be driving me to the Portland VA Hospital for my physical therapy on my right shoulder. My therapist, EB, doesn’t a great job, but I don’t think what’s wrong is going to go away. So, I’m prepared to live with it and skip these trips. Therapy isn’t really helping and the next option is surgery. I’m too busy right now to entertain that option. I’d be one-handed for longer than I can go without going to the bathroom and I know Diane wouldn’t help me with that. I’ve asked before. It’s always a resounding “No! Never!” She will, however, change my Depends when necessary.

They’re pullups.