I'm leaving the title of this post blank until I finish- then maybe I'll know what to call it. I see that it has been 2 weeks again. You know, after living with personal computers for 22 years, since I began selling them in 1987, I have been very reluctant to even turn one on. I can't really figure it out, but most of it has to do with my physical weakness- my new laptop that I picked out and Entre gave me when I retired- it is a wonderful unit, but it weighs about 6 lbs. and for me to go get it from the charging station using my walker and return to either the chair or bed is usually more than I can undertake. I can also sit in my home office at the desktop and do it- that requires that I move from wherever I am. This slug-like existence is below what I characterize as life, but it is what I have to deal with now, and I am determined to do so with grace, using humor as my weapon against self-pity. So many amazingly wonderful things are happening to me that I refuse to allow them to go by unrecorded. Since I have 2 weeks to go back through, I think I will do it in reverse, beginning with this morning, but first a word about my cousin Susan. Cullen wrote yesterday that she is making tremendous strides in her recovery at TIRR. He has located quarters for himself to stay over there, so he will be splitting his time since he will be doing Susan's job of running the ranch business until she is recovered. (Their son lives there in Devers on the ranch & manages the dailies, but Susan & her mother are the owners of the ranch, and Susan is the Business Manager.) So the fact that Susan is on the mend is wonderful news for our entire family.
OK- this morning we all slept in. Steve is on call, but he didn't get his first call-out that required he leave the house didn't until 11:00, although he got up at 6:30 to locate some pipe in Houston for one of his Exxon Mobil contractors. I've always kidded Steve that he just thought he managed to escape working in the "family business" (referring to his dad's 30+ years as an employee there). Instead, Mobil has been Steve's account through 3 different jobs he has had in the PVF industry. So once he got up to leave, the phone rang, and I heard him answer & tell Stratton that it was Betty Lebus for him. I think I've noted here before the bond that formed almost immediately between the two of them over gardening. Betty was once again bringing a meal to our house, but I fell back to sleep & entirely missed her visit. (That was probably OK with her & Stratton- they got to talk to each other.) Bless her heart, she mended some clothes that he had brought down for me to fix- simple chores that I could have done in a couple of hours in the past- they sat, unrepaired, until Betty picked up the bag they were in & took it home & fixed them herself. Once I woke up (we're talking after noon here)and turned my oxygen up a notch, I devoured a plateful of the best home-cooked food you can imagine. Baked chicken, succotash, sweet potato pie, garlic bread, a potato casserole of sorts- and Stratton said there is dessert but no one has brought me any yet, nor do I even know what it is, but I'm sure it is good. Sated and pilled (I have meds for before and after almost all my meals, and I am told that the amount of medication doubles after transplant!)I decided to blog.
OK- back to yesterday- it was one of those Red Letter Days of this entire experience. I think I have mentioned (but maybe not) that Steve and I have been Season Ticket holders for the Broadway Show Series, which is a touring group of musicals (and an occasional play)that have been on Broadway in recent seasons, including most Tony Award winners. Bob & Margaret Harris were our partners for 15 years, and it made for a really fun Saturday, about 6-7 times per year. Once they retired & moved to League City, they began their new lives as part-time RVers, and that meant that they would always miss 2 or more performances, so they decided to stop purchasing their 2 seats. The BSS works like many other venues- your loyalty is rewarded by better seats each season so long as better seats exist. After about our 12th year, we had reached 6th row center orchestra, and they don't come much better than that. So we set about finding two people who wanted to commit the time & money to the new season, and it ended up being Bettie Nixon & Patty Edwardsen. Yesterday was our first play of the 2010-11 season, and it was the annual children's musical, which was SHREK this time. Of course Steve & I had been hoping that I would be in the hospital by this time, so we had decided that if this turned out to be the case, then we would justr give Betty & Patty our tickets because they each have a middle-school aged granddaughter, and this turned out to be a great show for ALL ages. However, I wasn't called, so it was going to be the 4 of us, and then Steve realized that he was on call this weekend. Stratton had said he was ready to come back down, so he did, arriving as usual in the middle of the night Friday along with Lucy, his pound puppy who is now 18 months old and is sporting a cast on her front left leg where she was hit by a car. (Their yard is fenced- but she was in the front with Stratton and just took a wild moment & dashed into the street, probably after a squirrel, at the wrong moment. Amazingly, the tire ran over her paw but didn't fracture any of her bones! She's a darling dog, extremely affectionate, and finally, after several weekends of exposure, Bo Peep is beginning to warm up to her and play. In her doggy mind, I'm sure she has always been afraid that Lucy was here to stay or to replace her or something- she has never been aggressive, because Bo is a totally non-confrontational dog, but she has not wanted to be around Lucy. So Steve got to stay home with 2 dogs and a cat and telecommute while we went to see SHREK. After the play, we met Bob & Margaret and Kathy & Alexandra Richardson at Kim Son for dinner. All of this activity was made possible by very careful planning. I can make it on 5 liters per hour oxygen flow if I am sitting down and quiet, but I cannot walk anywhere at all, nor talk and walk, because I desaturate immediately. So we took the wheelchair that Bettie's mother has but never uses and 2 of the large canisters of oxygen plus my little liquid portable. The Hobby Center also has wheelchairs. We valet parked, so Stratton drove up in front of the theater, got out & told the valet that we needed a wheelchair, one was retrieved, and Bettie Nixon pushed me inside the lobby while she, Patty & I attempted to keep the oxygen on track in its little carriage on wheels. We looked for all the world like the Three Elderly Female Stooges! Once inside, Bettie had to surrender her driver's license as collateral until they got their wheelchair back! After that, an usher took me to my seat and kept the chair in the wings, returning to get me for intermission & after the show. It all went quite well. We had a great time with Bob, Margaret, Kathy & Alex and ate wonderfully prepared Vietnamese food amid great fellowship.
Moving backwards, on Tuesday (I think- I was writing everything down & quit because it was too far to the wall calendar- now I'm wishing I had made the effort) Kathy Crawford from Entre and Joel McBride came & brought Schlotsky's lunch. Joel & I are the 2 longest-serving people in the history of the Entre payroll: he started in April of 1987 and left in April 2009 to work for a large company called Heico, but his office is inside Bo-Mac, so he has continued to be a familiar face at Entre. I started in September 1987 and retired Dec. 31, 2009. Kathy turned around and came back that afternoon with a potful of taco soup and a bag of tortilla chips- another superb meal made more memorable by great conversation.
I'm going to post this because I'm about to fall asleep- but I will begin next time with the wonderful visit I had with our oldest daughter Brittany & our niece Summer which occured a couple of weeks ago- the visit I was about to describe when I fell asleep the last time- hence I know that I have caught up-! And now I know what to call this chapter......................
Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn't got time for the waiting game
Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days I'll spend with you
These precious days I'll spend with you
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