Another Red Letter Day.

I got up and out of here shortly before 8AM to join Dick for breakfast. Because this was the two week followup with Dr. Fehrman.

Tim from Custom Care and Transport picked us up at 9AM for the 9:30AM appointment.   It was raining, a blessing for today as my plants  and pots all got a welcome drink of water.   It was a steady gentle rain that had to make the earth very happy.

Dr. Fehrman is pleased with the healing so far.   He did remove the stitches   -- Yeah!!!!   We have to go back in three weeks and at that point he hopes that the serious shrinking (sounds gross but means the shaping of the stump for the prosthesis) can begin.   But in the meantime, he can now bathe and does not need dressings.  So we are truly blessed.   The bottom still has a darker look but is warm and seems healthy.

I went to their lunch area and got a cappuccino for fun.  When I got back to the entrance (I had called Tim and we were waiting for him to get back from Sheboygan) a sweet lady, named Melba, was talking to Dick.   She is 91 and looks lovely.   Her father had lost limbs which kind of started the conversation.   Anyway, she left with her companion just before Tim arrived so we sere not bored.

When we got back it was almost 11AM.   I stayed with him until it was time for his trip to the dining room then went on my way.

I had lunch at Dairy Queen with my friends.   A nice break in the day.   When I got home, I took a nap.   Boy was Roxie glad.   I think she probably thinks that I have finally come to my senses.

So the day is winding down.   Tomorrow is the big wedding.    I will stop on my way to Hilbert to drop some clothes off for Dick but basically will just be celebrating.

  Hope you have something special this weekend also.   I guess, just the somewhat cooler weather will be special

Love you all and God does too.

Mary

What a red ;etter day!!!

I was home all morning,  paying bills and cleaning.   

Then at 11:30AM, I went to Rocky Knoll, just in time for the end of Dick's PT session.    Yippee,  he stood on his prosthesis between the parallel bars.   I am not sure how long he was up that time.   BUT, when he went for OT in the afternoon, he did it again and stood for 50 seconds.  It was a bit painful, but he has not put pressure on for over a month and the prostheses will be needing adjustments.   When we took the prosthesis off, there was very little redness, so Dick and I felt really good about that.

Tim from Wisconsin Prosthesis will be doing an initial evaluation on Tuesday.   At least if he gets the stitches out tomorrow.   

We had lunch together with Bob.   I brought soup and a cheese and basil sandwich.  

We played a couple games of rummy after all the therapy excitement was over with.   He won.

So, I am going to bed early as I have to get up early to be there before breakfast.   We will leave shortly afterwards for his appointment with Dr. Fehrman.

Saturday, I will not go at all because of the wedding.

Hope your day was at least half as exciting as ours.  

God love you all

Mary

My table

The table with the food and friends

Another view of my table

Another Hot Day.   Bart and Barb called this evening and they are even hotter.  Of course, they may have a bit dryer heat too as they don't have the moisture in the air that we do.

It got up to 98 on my car thermometer.  It was quite comfortable when I went grocery shopping at 8AM but had heated up a lot in just the time I was in the store.

I cleaned this morning, the kitchen and Dick's desk, then packed up and went over to have lunch with and spend the afternoon with Dick.    I got there just as he finished OT.  Then we went right down for lunch.   After lunch he had PT.   We played Yahtzee and Rummy the rest of the afternoon, except for the hour at the On the Rocks Saloon that Rocky Knoll hosts every Wednesday from 3PM to 4PM.

So nothing terribly exciting.   

As long as this heat maintains, I don't think there will be much exciting.  Everybody is just trying to stay cool.

God love you

Mary

Another HOT day.   This spell is not supposed to break for several days yet.   Thank God for Air conditioning.   I remember, years ago, we had no relief.   When Dick and I and Jim were living at Creekside, we had a year like this and I remember one day that Dick said.  "I don't care if this heat lifts tomorrow, we are getting air."   And we did.  I think it saved Jim.  He was trying to sleep during the day at that time as he was a 2nd shifter.  He was sleeping on the deck and in the basement to survive.

Aunt Helen called the next year after we had our conditioning.  She said that she was totally miserable and could we come to get her.   I called Dick and he drove out to Falls, picked her up and installed her on the couch in the living room.    She said later that we saved her life.  And well we might have.  

She was not a cat lover, but she napped in relief from the air conditioning and she told me that she felt something there.  She opened her eyes and her was our Taco just looking at her.  They observed each other for a bit and both felt quite comfortable, so Helen went back to sleep and Taco went back to wherever he was.

She kind of liked my cats because I told her stories about them and they became "people" to her.

Today, I just hung around home this morning and then went to Rocky Knoll at noon to have lunch with Dick and spend the afternoon with him.    I brought my lunch and some treats for the guys.   Rich was out for lunch with friends but Dick, Bob and I enjoyed them.

Then I watched Dick's Occupational Therapy and then we played Yahtsee and Rummy to pass the time until Dinner. 

I am home now,  Had a pasty for supper and am beginning to settle down for the night.

A good night's sleep will prepare me for the rest of the week.

Love.

Mary]
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Here is a poem that I have in one of my books that addresses heat like this.   The tells of heat 60 to 70 years ago so it is not a new thing.

SUMMER EVENING MUSIC

I dream of summers long ago
When I was a child.
On the dead end street
All of us, from toddler to teen,
Gathered in the twilight
While the sounds of Hildy
Playing her squeeze Box
Mingled with the sounds of us '
Shouting.

Hildy's Mom was in heaven.
Her Dad often stumbled home late at night
And her sister took care of them.
Hildy couldn't run and play with us.
Her neck couldn't hold her head straight.
She walked strangely.
But she played the music
That filled the air in the
Twilight.

We played kick the can, or tag
Or hide and seek on the gravel road,
Our feet calloused from running barefoot
Since school let out.
I still feel the humid musky dampness
Of the dark.
We played until too tired to care
That it was really too hot
To Sleep.

 Hildy came to church for a while.
Then someone complained.
They said she upset them
Because her head wobbled and whe
Walked funny.
I remember that Mother was angry
And we didn't understand.
She was, after all,
Just Hildy.

She went to a nurshing home
When she got old and her Dad was gone
Ang her sister married.
My younger sister cared for her there.
She said that they liked to spoil Hildy.
I was pleased to hear that.
She deserved to be spoiled
For providing the summer evening
Music.

Another Hot day and it is supposed to get even hotter by Thursday.   I saw 95 on my car thermometer.

I left at 9AM for Bible Study.   We had 10 of us there today and a lovely discussion of Psalm 1.   The introduction to the Psalms, with that lovely phrase  - They are like a tree planted near streams of water, that yields its fruit in season:  "Its leaves never wither; whatever they do prospers."   Such beautiful poetry in the psalms.

I shared lavender cookies with everybody. 

Then I went over to Mother's.   I brought her samples of the tea breads and cookies that I baked.  Leif and Nora were there.   They are in Wisconsin until  sometime late next week after Shane and Georgina's wedding.   We had a lovely visit and shared some Ireland experiences.    Then we lunched.   I had intended to be with Dick for lunch but called and let him know I would be late.  

I got to Rocky Knoll at about 2PM.   He was just finishing his therapy.    We got back to his room just in time for Mike from Accessability who brought the rests for his motorized chair.   Now he can rest the stumps on them and they won't have to dangle.

So it has been a really good day.

We played  a couple of rounds of rummy.   We each won one game.   Then we went to supper together.   I ate some chili that I had intended to have with him for lunch.   After Supper I came home and had just time to feed the cat and do a couple of quick chores before the CWI Board Conference Call.  That went well.   Tomorrow I can get that information coordinated as to what I have to do and do the Sheboygan Branch newsletter before I go to spend the afternoon with Dick.

So I hope you sleep as well as I hope to.  God bless you and keep you

Mary

Happy Sunday.   I went to Mass at Rocky Knoll again at 10AM.  I helped bring a couple people down, one of them being a resident in Woodland Village who sits at Dick's table at lunch.    He broke both of his arms in a horse accident.  So, after I took a man in a wheelchair down, I went back and asked him if he would like to go and he did.   The trick the first time or two is to find your way there.

It was a lovely Mass.  The gospel was the parable of the man who planted his fields and his enemies planted bad seed in it.    Father used that parable to remind us that as it would have been difficult to separate the plants until harvest.   We to cannot be judgemental of others but have to leave the judging up to God at he Harvest.

I left pretty much after Mass, after I stopped in to visit with Dick for a few minutes.     I finished loading the car with all the things for the tea.   I took a table and chairs,   strawberry bread, pepper cheese sandwiches, lavender cookies and apricot cream tea sandwiches.   I also brought my teapot, and a setting of dishes for "my" table and the cork ornaments that I made for favors.   There were other things too.   Debbie O Grady brought just as much or more.   And Kate has tons of lovely tea things.    We set up tables in the back yard, on the porch and n the side yard.   The food was all set up on the dining room table and what a spread.

Kate had prepared beautiful teapots and cups with matching saucers full of gorgeous flowers for the tables and a drawing.  She gave Debbie and I our choice before everybody got there while we were setting things up.  Such a sweet thing to do.   They are beautiful and I took mine over to Dick after we finished cleaning up.    Actually there was a bit to do yet but I needed to get  to Dick as I had told him I would be there.

It WAS HOT.  But we did sit out under the trees at the tables to eat anyway.   With the shade and a gentle breeze, it was not too bad and the company and cold drinks made it possible and even fun.   Some of us shared pictures and/or stories of feisty and influential women in our lives.    I shared Aunt Helen.      

We had a nice crowd.   About 20 which was very heartening.    Next month our meeting will be Irish Fest.

So. That is the day.    I will input a couple of pictures tomorrow.

Bobbie and Bill visited Dick this afternoon.    I thought they probably would so knew he would not be alone.

Love

Mary