Independence.

 Independence.

 

The trip to Henrietta this morning was not hard at all. Stopped and filled up the truck with gasoline, got a something or other with scrambled eggs, sausage, wrapped in some kind of tortilla at Whataburger. Got a cup of coffee with some creamer and mixed that up before driving off. The lady asked me if hot sauce was needed. Nope, can make a mess all by myself without hot sauce. Anyway, got to the nursing home before anyone was easily available to open the door, so had to wait two ding-a-lings before it was opened to me. Interesting doorbell. They ask you to take your temperature: 97.6. They also have a page of questions with a sign in and out sheet. That probably helps somehow. See shrugging of shoulders.

 

Stayed through lunch—she refused to even taste breakfast. And lunch looked good going down, not so much the other direction. By that time Lesli was there and she said she stayed until Anne went to sleep. Then Les had to go home and feed her boys. She said they were much easier to feed than the dog who does not want to eat. My guess is that Snoop is upset without Anne there. But that is just me and my way of thinking.

 

Before all this came up, it did not feel good to get in the truck and go somewhere by myself. The traffic made me feel very nervous for some reason. It worried me that a mistake made by me would cause some kind of accident. Got to thinking about it and decided that the old woman was not anymore dangerous than some of those other folks out there. So will just decide where to go and how to get there as each situation comes up. Patty said that she has made up her mind that she can drive around here in WF just as easily as she could put up with getting her friend to take her. Must be a little whiff of independence blowing in the wind!

 

Lay down earlier to rest with what might have been a headache that tried to shift into a full-blown panic attack. Sylvia was all over me trying to get my attention, and Thompson stood there and barked at me as if he could fix something if he could just get me up. These dogs! Took a nice little pill that tends to calm things down almost immediately. Think the entire freaking world could use a few of these little white pills!

 

Anne talks about maybe going home in the near future. Don’t see how it could happen, but nothing is impossible. Would ask that you pray for her and her children. This is hard on them. Losing a parent just hurts. And Lesli and Tilak’s boys really love their Memaw. Erin had not been home in six years and had not seen either his sister or his mom. A lot changes in six years. At least Anne’s house is pretty much just basic stuff and not piles of whatnots and knick knacks. It makes me realize that the old woman needs to get busy and get rid of so much of this junk and stuff. Even the workshop still has things in it that will never be used. Can’t see one of my boys or grands using those impacts and all those sockets and stuff.

 

Found four eggs in the coop today. The cooler it gets, the happier those hens must be. Had some leftover cabbage that did not get used already and they really attacked it. It was really a sweet bunch of cole slaw mix that mixed well with some hamburger with diced tomatoes for dinn-upper. Nice to have things easy to throw together for a meal. Jennifer filled up the pantry with cartons of essential foods: black beans, diced tomatoes, tomato soup, tomato sauce, corn, black olives, and other veggies and soups. Life is so much easier with canned foods. We hardly can imagine how people lived before foods were preserved or canned in some manner. Root cellars would have had to be essential. Can’t wander from one place to another if you are dependent on a root cellar for your carrots and ‘tators!

 

Roger and Susan Thonton were telling us about a young woman who has a bunch of goats that she leads around and takes to places to let them eat up all the weeds or whatever grows. She takes them to a place across the street from Roger’s parents’ house in Petrolia. Susan wanted to feed them something and asked if she could. Then she took them some honeysuckle. Guess they liked it, too. Would love to be able to have a couple of goats like that for my weeds, but the city of WF would be on me like ugly on an ape. Noticed all the Johnson grass and other grasses growing high on the right of way coming back from Henrietta. It used to be that some farmers would cut, rake, and bale that stuff. It was good hay! Here we are still in drought and the old woman is wanting bales of hay—and nary a critter that needs it.

 

As usual, just about as dumb as a modern history book and twice as scatter-brained. Good time to remind you that we have been living—most of us—in one of the most peaceful times in world history. God has given us time to become more than we could have otherwise, but the question is: have we become more or less? What would be YOUR answer?

 

Rest well, and find reasons to be joyful. Make good use of the time we have left. You are loved.