care

Two Advil PMs last night. Slept with a patch. Soreness mostly gone this morning. Googled it up. Called "clenched jaw pain". Caused by stress. No big surprise there.

Stress affects the body in many ways. All bad. I'd always figured on death by gradual suffocation. Now, I wonder if stress won't get me first.

Mary: Treatment in Yellow

Hotdogs and peach wedges for lunch. Taking care of myself. Careful chewing.

We did our Walmart thing. Gas and groceries. The sun came out.

We watched The Last Stand (2013) from Netflix. Spanish language option. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivers. Bad guys. Good guys. Action to improbable extremes. In short, Mary loved it.

Skipped my after supper nuts. May skip the party popcorn. Taking care of myself.

80.1 °F, clear.

Flextor

The sun never showed its face today. But, that's alright.


Poached flounder for lunch, with stewed rutabaga, tomato and steamed asparagus in some kind of phony Szechuan sauce.

Been researching mobility scooters all afternoon on the internet, emailing the results to Ellen Scott of Tennessee Brace in Fayetteville. Looks like what I want is the modern successor to my old Pacesaver Jr. It's called the Pacesaver Plus III Jr. Made in the U.S., so it costs double what the usual made in China scooter does, but it's what fits my needs best.

Yesterday, Mary put one of the Flextor patches on my jaw, just in front of my right ear. Dr. Tidmore had given me samples to use on my lower arm. Bottom line, today the pain has gone away. Woo hoo.

73.4 °F, overcast.

steamy

Partied with Ruta Lee last night. Episode "Armored Car". Immensely likable, Lee stayed busy throughout her career, but never quite attained star status.


I woke up this morning with a rapid pulse. Big belch and it slowed. Strange.

Another steamy day. I couldn't take much sun.


Lunch was George's corn, squash, tomato and beans, together with more pork chops. Mary cooked the corn as per George's instructions: two ears in shuck, five minutes in the microwave. Worked very well.

We watched Jack Reacher (2012) from Netflix. Spanish language option. Tom Cruise supplied us with two hours of adequate action/suspense.

Grandson Johnny has been Skyping me on the iPhone during the day. Wants to get back onto his old Warcraft account. Abuelo would have to pay, of course.

82.9 °F, mostly cloudy.

kisses and hugs

In a fair mood this morning when Deborah brought Mother for her weekly visit. Relief when there was no mention of cds or checks.

Delores called, in a state. Marion had insisted this morning on moving his tractor. She was scared of what more he might attempt, as she needed to go to Fayetteville on some legal business. Hinted that I go over and babysit. Eventually accepted my suggestion that I call him and invite him to let her bring him over here.

I called. Marion didn't sound good at all. Certainly in no mood to my house. I didn't press him. Felt bad afterwards. But, if Mary and I left Mother here and drove over to his house, he'd know Delores arranged it. Not good.

Big juicy pork chop for lunch, with sweet potato, tomato and George's snap beans. Yum.


Our scheduled game of rummy was interrupted by a visit from brother George. He had been to Ethridge earlier and brought back tomatoes, yellow squash and corn for us. :-)

After Deborah picked up Mother, they were to go by Marion's to see how he was doing. That was some comfort.

After Mother left, I helped Mary buy grandson Johnny's ticket back home. Jet Blue. Bogota to Orlando for the 25th. $445. She's supposed to reimburse me. I know how that goes. Kisses and hugs.

124 lbs.

82.4 °F, clear.

nice guy

Partied with Rhodes Reason and a 1956 Buick Special last night. Episode "Motel Robbery".

Festivities concluded with Adolf Hitler - The greatest story Never told ! The Truth about WW2 on YouTube, a series of videos portraying Der Führer as actually a right nice guy once you get to know him. Weird, but fascinating. Lights out at 3:15 am.



For lunch today, we each had a chicken drumstick, a spicy cheese tamale and mixed steamer vegetables. Guava juice on the side.

Nephew Todd brought his sister Denise & her Leah over on the golf cart. It took all four of us adults to keep up with Leah Marie. Her specialty nowadays is remote controls and cell phones.

Brother George has been bush hogging Mother's near front field, evicting a family of rabbits from their home in the process. Stopped to chat me up a bit while I was down at the outpost. We avoided heavy topics.

81.3 °F, clear.

dodging

Managed to dodge harsh realties all day.

Antonio was blocked from accessing his account at First National online. The computer would issue a code to Antonio, which he would enter into his cell phone. He had five minutes to do it.

The problem arose from Antonio being in Bogota. It was complicated by the need for Larry Lance at the bank up here to perform the routine using his cell phone that was already in the system. Antonio could not communicate with Lance in a timely fashion. This morning, he asked Mary and me to help by contacting Larry Lance at the bank.

After a frustrating eternity of going back and forth between Antonio and Lance in Spanish and English, I began to understand the crux of the matter. I had Lance enter Mary's phone number into the system and let him go back to his business. Mary and I would use two telephones, Mary's cell phone to communicate with Antonio ready at his computer in Bogota, mine to obtain the code at this end and give it to Antonio on my phone.

The bank security program now had Mary's phone number. Uh oh. Big mistake. Only Mary's cell phone could access Mary's long distance carrier Boss Revolution for calling Colombia. She, therefore, brought me the AT&T land line phone for me to use with her old calling card. That card couldn't be used with my cell phone. Good. Now all we had to do was enter several series of numbers to use the old card. Aaagh!

There I was, with a phone in each hand, talking to and listening to Antonio, in Spanish, on one side, interacting with an automated banking system, in English, on the other side. Two layers of security. Five minutes to get it done.

I did it.

Afterwards, I caught my breath. Mary went to the bathroom. I surprised myself by giving out a little chuckle. From the bathroom came another chuckle. Soon, we were laughing uncontrollably. Felt good.

In the midst of all the confusion, Victor Amaya showed up. He may have been glad when he received a call summoning him back home post-haste.


Mary and I had cod-fish for lunch, with stewed jicama, plantain and a mixed vegetable steamer. guava juice on the side.


Time for a little sun and breeze. First thing was to snap one of the hibiscus flowers. The plant had begun to bloom Tuesday before last, but no good shots.


Mary beckoned me down near the field. There were white objects that had caught her attention from afar. Turned out to be mushrooms. Some rather large.


She did some weeding in the flower beds. I tagged along.


She worked until it was time to cool off with popsicles.

Been a full day.

76.5 °F, clear. (Frankewing)

peacefulness

While Mother was under the hair dryer this morning, watching her movie, I managed to catch a few rays.



Carne sudada for lunch, with stewed potatoes, corn on the cob, tomato and green beans amondine. Honeydew melon as appetizer.



Mother was fairly lively while we played cards, though her memory is now like a sieve. The game was interrupted by a surprise visit from Humberto and his grandson Cristian. Good thing Mary had some meat and potato left over.

They were leaving to work on Humberto's lot when Deborah returned to pick up Mother. So happened that just then Bill Spence arrived with a bucket of cucumbers from his garden. So! It was he who left cucumbers on our porch the other day.

After Mary left for Maricruz', I took the Rally out for a spin. Might as well get used to it. The Pacesaver is driving a little strange. Don't think it will last much longer.

Down at the outpost, I took a few experimental shots with the Sony, then waited in the peacefulness, until the first deer appeared. The dusk was delicious.

123 lbs.

75.6 °F, clear.

episodes

Seasons Two, Three & Four of Highway Patrol arrived in the mail Tuesday. Last night, I partied with Gail Kobe in episode "The Search". Then, with Ward Wood in episode "Kidnap Copter". A Google search turned up no picture of Wood's familiar face.

I had a ball, noting location references in the third episode I watched, "Travel Trailer" and trying to look them up on the internet. 57 years have passed since the filming, but I got lucky with two references. No information on the manufacturer Westfield, Inc., long out of business evidently, but found their old Westerner travel trailer listed on YouTube. Also learned that Clover Field in Los Angeles County is now called Santa Monica Airport.

Got up this morning with an elevated heart rate. Been a while since that happened.

Mary had a rough morning. When we set out for Co-op to get the scooter tire fixed, she didn't make it out of the garage without a demoralizing mishap.

For some time, Mary has been favoring her left while driving. Tends to grab the center of the road, afraid of driving off the right. Looks for parking spaces with an unoccupied space on the right, afraid to swipe another car. Claims it's because she's lost peripheral vision in her right eye. I mentioned to her that niece Rachel has vision in only one eye and seems to have no trouble driving. Didn't help.

Anyway, she parked in the garage too far to her left yesterday. Pulling out this morning, she scraped against the door, damaging the automatic opener. Efforts to adjust it only left her in a highly agitated state. We had to leave the door open. She hates to do that.


After the scooter tire was fixed, we stopped at the Taylors' for eggs. Waiting for Mary to come out, I was entertained by three guinea fowl snatching insects in the grass. Under a tree, there was an interesting cage with some animal in it. Hmmm. When Mary returned to the car, she guessed it was a rabbit. Lately, she's been inclined to call any smaller critter she doesn't recognize, a rabbit. On closer examination, I saw it was a raccoon.


After a stop at Kroger for bananas, we headed home for a late lunch: a salmon salad. I hadn't quite finished mine when nephew Chad paid us a visit. Listened patiently to his recurring leitmotifs. The only newsworthy item was his finding a new girlfriend. There go his savings again.

Company gone, Mary and I managed to watch the first part of Phantom India (1969) from Netflix. Documentary by Louis Malle. French, with English subtitles. This is the way I would make a documentary! Thoughtful and brutally frank. As soon as I began watching, some kind of weight or cloud was lifted from me.

A few minutes before Mary left for Maricruz', we had a good rain shower.

Mary returned. Marcelino came. Just left after repairing the garage door opener and installing the new toilet tank lever. $50 for this and the previous visit.

79.0 °F, scattered clouds.

week to week

Feelng a little better. Maybe I'm coming out of it.


Tilapia for lunch, with patacones, sweeyt potato, tomato and steamed asparagus.

To Centennial for my monthly injection. Brooke passed me through without a major wait.


Paid brother Marion a visit. He has his next procedure Wednesday. At Delores' prompting, he showed me were the frame object was implanted on his skull. Been rather depressed Delores tells me. The clutter and foul air in his house alone is enough to depress anyone.

It's a toss up as to who will last long, me, Mother or Marion. At the moment, I seem to be ahead. But, that changes from week to week.

Onward and upwards.

82.8 °F, clear.

of thumps, coups and flats

Lawlers for lunch. Very long line. Mary volunteered to walk to the takeout window.


Gas at Walmart, ate our sandwiches in the parking lot, then went inside to shop. Nephew Chad came up to me in the beer & butter aisle. We exchanged brief pleasantries. I refrained from asking too many questions. Mary ran into Nayeli, Margarita's daughter, in the cheese and cold cuts section. She kept trying to look away from my camera, but I finally caught her.


A number of times, I spotted Cates who used to work with us at the quarry. He makes me smile every time I see him. He's somewhat challenged mentally, yet has always been convinced he's one clever fellow.


Outside, waiting for Mary, I heard a thump. A white sedan had just backed out into a parked red Chevy pickup. My initial and natural reaction was relief that it happened to them and not me. Then, I felt sorry for those involved.

Back home there was little I wanted to do, beyond watching reports of the military coup in Egypt.

The left rear tire of the Pacesaver is now flat. Sigh.

78.1 °F, clear. (835 Yell Rd 1/8 mile S downtown square)

delicate

Little Hormel dinners for lunch.


Wild Petunias in prime condition are difficult to find. Very delicate.

The act of creating can sometimes leave one with an inner piece.

73 °F, clear.

Africa

When stress becomes intense for long enough, the sufferer loses sight of the future. With hope gone, the pain becomes unbearable. Hell on earth. Any tradeoff then seems acceptable.

Unbearable pain activates a defense mechanism. Sensory information is blocked. Unfortunately, that includes sensations of a pleasant nature. The tradeoff. In it's milder form, this mechanism is called depression. Some functioning in the environment continues. In it's extreme form, the mechanism is called catatonia. Institutionalization is required.

The phenomenon can be seen clearly in the animal kingdom. A zebra being eaten alive by hyenas, having lost all chance for escape, freezes, wide-eyed. It no longer feels pain. In this way, Nature shows her compassion.

I miss Africa.

82 °F, mostly cloudy.

under

Rained some.

Rounds with Mary: Co-op to repair the scooter tire. Kroger for my Symbyx. First Farmer to deposit two checks.

Cod fish for lunch, with stewed acorn squash, corn on the cob, pickled beets and patacones. Guava juice on the side.

Watched Easy Money (2010) from Netflix. Swedish with Spanish subtitles. Young man gets in too deep with drug dealers.


Outside, I noticed George with Bill Spence in Mother's field. Good chance to try out the Sony's 20x zoom to the max, resting camera upon the scooter's handle bar. Sony's image stabilization helped too.

Life continues fixed somehow, fast under the Sword of Damocles.

74 °F, partly cloudy. (Cornersville)