Tag: my family

Oh, This Day!

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Close Up of a Pile of Cut Down Tree Branches. Stock Photo - Image of logs, nature: 164688458

This is what our sidewalk looks like today.

I take Patty to the hospital for her rehab. Here, the tree service is camped in the middle of our parking lot, sawing down most of the trees. All right, some of them are in bad shape and like to fall.

Back to the hospital to take her home. The session has made her cheerful. By now they’ve got trunks and limbs all over the place, so instead of getting out of the car in the parking lot, Patty takes the sidewalk. Damn. It’s blocked by sawed-off branches. Going around it she slips and falls, making a mess of her elbow.

Now it’s started to rain. Thunderstorms are predicted. I can forget about getting any work done on my book.

We’ve cleaned up and bandaged Patty’s elbow. I offer to take her  back to the hospital. No thanks. To the local walk-in wellness center? No, she doesn’t want that either.

Please drop a prayer in the box for us.

Update: So we did decide to go to walk-in wellness after all, and guess what? No doctors or nurses working there today! I guess we’ll try again tomorrow.

Trying to Catch Up… Again!

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251,711 Catch Up Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images - iStock

I’m way behind in my work today, the viewership is way down–and the WordPress problem that I had last week, with the comments failing to display… it’s baaaaack!

Man, this is getting old. Welcome to the Age of Nothing Works.

(And suddenly Robbie only wants dry cat food… What’s that about?)

Going about my chores last night, a new character for the book I’m writing, Ozias, Prince in Peril, popped into my head, along with what she’d be doing in the story. I’ve learned that it’s usually a good idea to stop what I’m doing and write it down in case I forget it overnight. Enter Aylen, the old nurse of the late King Flosi, who may have a loose screw somewhere but is otherwise sharp as a tack.

Where do these characters live when they’re not breaking into my plots? It’s so cool, the way that happens. It’s like I knew these people, once upon a time, and now they’re coming back. Do you think that’s weird? Welcome to the world of fantasy-writing.

By Request, ‘How Great Thou Art’

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Michele asked for this hymn–How Great Thou Art, by Home Free. I can’t hear this song without remembering my mother and my aunts singing it as they went about their housework. How I miss them! But “in my Father’s house are many mansions”–and Our Lord Jesus Christ has prepared a place for us (John 14:2).

The Disappearing Toad

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I’ve always liked toads; they have a lot of personality and make pretty good pets. Here’s a toad demonstrating one of the secret techniques of Toad-Jitsu–burying himself in sand to elude a predator.

The biggest, fattest toad I ever saw was camped out under the electric bug zapper by night at the Sea Spray Motel, Beach Haven–snapping up every bug that fell onto the shuffleboard court. Did he have it made, or what?

The second-biggest were the ones in Aunt Louise’s garden: “hoptoads,” she called them. Something about her garden really drew the toads. Well, she was an awfully nice lady. Toads pick up on that.

‘I Need Thee Every Hour’

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I remember my mother singing this hymn as she went about her housework. My grandma used to sing it, too. I Need Thee Every Hour, sung here by the Mennonitce Hour Singers. Background sets by God the Father.

Our Anniversary Today

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Vintage 1955 Photograph Couple in a Fishing Rowboat on the Lake | eBay

Forty-five years ago it was, 1977. We were both working for The Bayshore Independent at the time, Patty as bookkeeper, me as managing editor. We were going to go down to Elkton, MD, and get married. So I asked our employer for two days off.

“Can’t you do that on your vacation?” he replied querulously (always wanted to use that word!).

“It’s not like I get married often,” I said. So we got the two days.

Fancy circus wedding? No, not for us. We got married in a little chapel and then went fishing. Steamed crabs for supper that evening at the old Howard Hotel. With the kung-fu class going on upstairs. Heee-yah! Thump!

Yes, it’s Anniversary No. 45 today. Thank you, Lord: for all the goodness in our lives.

By Request, ‘How Great Thou Art’

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First things first! We have a hymn for you, requested by Erlene–How Great Thou Art, sung by Alan Jackson. My grandma, my mother, and my aunts used to sing this as they went about their housework; this hymn is rich in memories for me.

Our Anniversary’s Tomorrow

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Birthday Cake With Red Candles Showing Nr. 45 Stock Photo ...

I thought I ought to mention it: tomorrow it’ll be our 45th wedding anniversary. It’s sort of caught us flat-footed this year–Patty’s back spasms, all sorts of veterinary activity, my heel spur giving me the devil… I have a feeling that I ought to be giving her a car or something, but all I’ve got is a cake.

Ah, well. Last night a fly got in here and Robbie chased it around the living room. It’s been a while since she felt up to doing that. We celebrate small things.

It’s probably a good idea always to do that. Thank you, God, for the small things that save our sanity.

A Hard Week for Us

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

2,945 Sleeping lizard Images, Stock Photos & Vectors | Shutterstock

We’ve had a hard time of it, these past few days.

Patty had extremely painful back spasms.

Robbie stopped eating.

My heel spur went back to hurting me all day.

All this with our 45th wedding anniversary coming up on Monday!

Patty blamed our old office chair for the spasms, so we ordered a new one. I cobbled it together last night… and so far, so good. No more spasms. Yet. And Robbie finally ate a whole can of cat food.

Oh, I had a dream last night that was hard to wake up from! We haven’t had a vacation this century–but there we were at the shore house we used to rent every year. We were on our way to the beach, to wade in the surf.

If you’ve been praying for us, we appreciate it.

And yes, I overslept this morning. On to breakfast.

Read the Customer Reviews!

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

robbie picture

As you can see, I am not dodging live missiles on the Garden State Parkway this morning. We bagged Robbie’s appointment with radioactive iodine, and our regular vet says there are other things we can do by way of treatment.

The main reason for this change of plan was Customer Reviews. From now on we don’t go anywhere without first reading the Customer Reviews.

And the reviews for this place, at the other end of the state, were terrible. Angry, scathing, bad reviews outnumbered the so-so/not-that-awful reviews by at least 10 to 1. (We didn’t find any really good reviews.) Crikey. Dr. Moreau would’ve got better reviews than this place.

The lesson is, read the reviews before you take the plunge. I’m convinced we saved ourselves a world of hurt. (Like, for instance, kill your pet and then hit you with a bill for $5,000 or more. Out of the blue, as it were.) There are villains out there waiting to take advantage of us. Learn from other people’s experiences.