More on Monday

Well, I am kind of back, after taking a couple days hiatus from blogging, I thought that I had better get back in the swing of things. I raked a lot of leaves this weekend and had the lawns looking pretty good until this morning.

The wind storm that I woke up to this morning blew most of the rest of the leaves down, along with several fir branches and fir cones. After eating breakfast and reading the paper I went out and picked up fir cones and branches.

I had the majority of them picked up when the wind came back and it was not long before there were as many branches and fir cones down as there was before I started.

Stan got here before I had a chance to pick any more up, so I guess that I will have to try again tomorrow morning. Stan finished the floor tile today; he did not want to do much more because his wife was off today and wanted to spend some time with her.

Aaron stopped by for a while and brought a Veterans Day cards that Becca made for Kathleen and me. They were really cute. Andrea and Brandon also came over for a while I was working; she and Kathleen asked if I would hold Brandon for a while, but with my right wrist in a splint that is next to impossible.

Kathleen is out now; she picked up the grout and the caulk so tomorrow Stan can grout the tile tomorrow. She is also stopping at Trader Joe's to pick up some goodies. I am not sure what we are having for dinner tonight, and I am too tired to care too much.


Well, keyboarding left handed only is not a lot of fun for me so I think I will just say good night.

Full Friday

Another rather uncomfortable night, having that splint on my wrist is really annoying, more so at night then the day, although it certainly is annoying during the daytime. This morning I made myself oatmeal and flax seed for breakfast and then read the paper.

After recycling the paper, I went outside and raked the front lawn, it was not too bad considering that I did not rake yesterday. It was slightly uncomfortable with the splint on my wrist, but not all that bad. Once I finished the front lawn, I moved on to the back lawn.

The back yard was worse; the only tree in the back yard that had dropped all of its leaves was the mountain ash. The apple and the cherry trees had not dropped that many leaves yet. The leaves were dropping almost as fast as I could rake them, but I finally got them all up...at least until I went into the house.

Jack called and said that he would be over about 1300, so when he got here we started putting the cabinets in place. A couple of them we needed to make some modifications to and the vanity I will need to work with Stan to try and modify the plumbing a little.

Jack left about 1600 and I was really wiped out. We needed to stop by the credit union today, but we never made it and I was too tired and Kathleen had a headache.

Kathleen made some spaghetti for dinner tonight, I had lots of fun trying to spin it on my fork left-handed, but I did it. I use to be able to do a lot more left-handed more easily than I can do it now, but I am getting some good practice in right now.

Well, I am tired and my sinuses are giving me a fit, so I think that I will just say good night now.

Thursday's Trudgings

Making my omelet this morning was interesting to say the least. I made it through it; it just took much longer than it usually does. After breakfast, I folded the towels that I washed yesterday and then read the paper and mail.

Kathleen had an appointment with her sleep apnea doctor at 1100, so I went with her since I really could not do anything here. After we left there we stopped and picked up our prescription sunglasses and I had my new glasses straightened out. They really got tweaked in my fall last week.

Then we stopped at George Morlan Plumbing to see if we could find a toilet for the upstairs bathroom. After a couple of hours of looking around we (Kathleen) finally settled on a white Toto Promenade two piece. They only had the bowl there so the set that aside for us and will call us Monday when the tank comes in.

We finally made it back home about 1645; we were both pretty tired so Kathleen reheated up the hamburger stew from the other night. Well this is all the one handed keyboarding that I can handle for one night, so I am just going to say good night.

Wednesday's Woes

This is going to be a short blog tonight as I only have one hand that I can use. This was oatmeal breakfast morning, so after eating I emptied the dishwasher; we are only running the top rack now as it takes too long to fill the whole dishwasher up. We usually run out of things, like silverware, before we can fill it up.

After emptying the dishwasher, I washed the hand wash things that were in the sink. The mail came as I was doing this, so after I finished with the dishes I went and got the mail, it was not until I opened the front door that I realized that I had not gotten the morning paper yet. So I brought both in and looked through them, I recycled them and then went outside and raked both the front and back lawns.

I was about 1130 by the time I finished raking and then got everything put away I went inside and took a shower in preparation for my doctor's appointment. After getting dressed I put a load of towels into the washer and turned it on and then I just waited around for Kathleen to get ready and come downstairs so that we could go.

The doctor checked me over and then had my right wrist and knee x-rayed. The x-ray showed a fracture in my wrist, but nothing in my knee, so I guess that is somewhat good news. So I now have a splint on my right wrist, so it is really hard for me to do very much with that hand.

I also have an infection in my knee, so he prescribed an anti-biotic ointment and some pills that I need to take four times a day. When we got home I put the towels into the drier and the Kathleen fixed dinner. While we were at Fred Meyer's Kathleen picked up some mashed potatoes and sirloin tips in gravy for dinner, it was actually pretty good.

Well that was my day; the doctor also told me that I should not use my right hand to allow the fracture to heal. Now I wonder what I am going to do with my self. I guess that I will worry about that tomorrow, for tonight I am just going to say good night!

Too Tiring Tuesday

Well, I wound up spending the whole night upstairs last night and had a rather good nights rest. When I got up I made myself a Gardenburger sausage patty and then made small pieces out of it and added some mushroom and onion to the frying pan, sautéed it and then added Kathleen's egg white and some egg beaters for a nice omelet.

After putting my dishes into the dishwasher and washing the hand wash items, I went into the living room to read the paper. The mail came while I was reading the paper, so I got it and other than a couple catalogs most of the rest was junk mail. I took that and the paper out front to the recycling bag and then decided to rake the front lawn.

There were only a couple dozen leaves on the lawn so it did not take too long, so I went to the back yard to do it as well. Now that I have been keeping the leaves off the back lawn, I can see where the moss is starting to die out...a good thing!

From all the raking the grass runners were sticking up so I decided to get out my "heavy duty" reel mower, the McLean, and mow the back lawn. First I had to lower the cutting height and then I was ready to go.

A few pushes and I could remember why I started using the Brill, the Brill is about four times lighter and much easier to push. But the McLean’s weight makes for a more even cut because it stays on the ground where as the Brill tends to bounce a little, sometimes leaving the grass uncut.

Once I had the back yard done, I decided that I would do the small east side lawn, that only takes about three passes and it is done. I decided that I would try to mow my neighbor's lawn as well, so I started on her side yard, next to our lawn.

One thing I had not counted on was the fact that her son had mowed it last time and he mows much higher than I do, but that is to be expected with a rotary mower. One of the things that I like about using reel mowers is that I can keep the lawn a lot shorter and it still looks good.

I digress, anyway about half way through her front lawn, I was getting pretty spent, but I did not want to stop and leave her lawn only half done, so I "pushed on", get it I was using a push mower!

Anyway, by the time I finished her lawn, I was more than spent, in fact I was tired enough that I could not clean the mower off or even put it away, and I just left it by the back door and went inside.

I had Kathleen clean off my feet, one of the hazards of mowing in sandals, I could not bend over to do it myself and I was too tired to take a shower and I did not want to leave grass or dirt all over the house.

Finally around 1415 I got up enough energy to make myself a basil and sun dried tomato Gardenburger on dark rye toast and I also finished the rest of the baked beans that Kathleen made for herself last week. I put my dishes into the dishwasher and headed upstairs.

I needed to cut out a larger hole in the upstairs bathroom for the towel closet that we are having made. Jack had called the other day and said that he would be bringing the cabinets over on Thursday so I wanted to have that done before he got here.

I guess Kathleen got tired of my complaining about my chest hurting, so she called my doctor and made an appointment for me to be seen tomorrow afternoon. It has been really sore since I fell last week and every time I cough the pain would take my breath away.

Then I went back downstairs into the living room and crashed in my chair. I got up about 1630 and decided that I needed to wash off the mower and put it away as I probably would not be getting any more energy the rest of the day.

Kathleen and I were going to take our ballots to the library to the drop off box this afternoon, but I was too tired, so she left around 1645. We had also planned on going to the grocery store, but since I was not going I did not think that Kathleen would want to go by her self.

She finally got back home about 1830 and had stopped off at Fabric Warehouse, it was across the street from the library, so it was not really too surprising. Anyway she made hamburger stew with baby carrots, potatoes, onion, garlic and red pepper flakes. It was just spicy enough to be really satisfying.

Well, that pretty much covers my day, now I just need to say good night and call it a day.

Monday Morning Miseries/Magnificent Monday

As I awoke about 0130 this morning and made my way downstairs I was sure that I was coming down with whatever Kathleen had last week. So instead of going back upstairs, I decided to spend the rest of the night sleeping in my easy chair.

I did not feel much better when I finally got up, but I decided to have a bowl of oatmeal and flax seed. The mailman came while I was eating breakfast, so I went out and got the mail. After eating I emptied the dishwasher and then went into the living room and read the paper.

Not being sure how I was going to be feeling, but wanting to be out in the nice fall weather, I decided to rake the leaves in the front lawn. That only took a few minutes so I went and raked the leaves from the back yard.

The more I was outside the better I felt, so I decided to take apart the parts from the sink and toilet that I took out of the upstairs bathroom, so that I could recycle the metal parts. Then I filled the garbage can with as much as I could and took it up front for tomorrows pick up.

I was still feeling pretty good so I went into the garage and got out my spade and marked out where I am planning to put my vegetable garden next year. I wanted to rototill the area but there were two pretty good sized butterfly bushes/trees that needed to come out.

Probably for old times sake I got out my stubbing hoe and started to poke around one of them to find where the roots were. As I found the roots, I would sever them with the stubbing hoes ax end and when I had all of them severed that I could find, I pushed on the tree to see if I could locate any more.

To my surprise I was able to push it over and the root ball came out and I could find only one root that needed to be cut. Once I cut through it I was able to drag the tree a little bit away from the loose soil so that I could cut it into manageable pieces.

O separated the larger pieces from the smaller ones so that I could chip the smaller ones later on. For a second or two I had almost decided to stop and go inside, but I thought that since I had all the equipment there I would test the other tree to see what it would take to remove it. This one was slightly smaller than the first one and once I severed the roots I tried pushing it over just like I had with the first one.

This one was a little more stubborn, and it took just about all the energy that I could muster to finally push it over. Once it was over, I took it apart as I had the first one. I now have a pretty good size pile to chip and also some fire wood if any of the children want it. There are also some apple limbs and fir limbs there, so if you want it, let me know.

I cleaned all my tools and then put all of them away and headed inside. It was only about 1400, and I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather, so after getting a drink of water I went back outside and got my rototiller out and started to rototill the area.

Some of it was pretty well dug up, as I had dug out the onions and garlic that had been growing there, but the rest of it was pretty much sod with the exception of where I dug out the roots of the butterfly trees. I finally ran out of gas...me not the rototiller. I had all to do to clean up the rototiller and put it away.

Once I cleaned up, I made myself something to eat and then I crashed in my easy chair. I kept dozing off and on and finally Kathleen awoke me and said that dinner was ready. She had fixed some orange mandarin chicken with rice and corn; one of her famous yellow meals. Then after finishing dinner we both had an apple and now I am ready to go to sleep.

I feel so much better, even though I am extremely tired, than I did this morning that it is almost like two totally separate days. I am sure that I will sleep well tonight and with that said, I think that I will just say good night.

Sunday's Soreness Subsides

I slept in my easy chair again and I got a little better night sleep. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I was not as sore and I had taken a shower and removed a lot of the scab that was on my knee and then put some lotion on it to keep the scab softer. That way when I bent my knee the scab did not continually split and get thicker.

This morning I decided to have a bowl of Cheerios, Puffed Rice and Go Lean Crunch with soy milk. It was a little warmer today and I did not feel like hot cereal this morning and I had egg beaters yesterday. I still was not feeling very mobile, and Kathleen still did not feel well so we stayed home this morning, so after eating I went into the living room and read the comics and the paper.

Since it was so nice a day, I decided that I would go out and rake the front lawn, so I did. Since there were really not a lot of leaves that had fallen since yesterday, partly due to the fact that there was not a lot of wind and no rain to knock the leaves off, so it did not take very long to do the front lawn.

Wanting to enjoy the sunshine and warm weather as much as possible, I went into the back yard and raked the whole back yard as well. Again there had not been many leaves fall since yesterday, so I finished rather quickly.

Not having anymore to rake...well, I suppose that I could have gone around the neighborhood and found some leaves, but I really was not that ambitious. I decided that I would sweep off the back steps and sidewalk, so I picked up the mats and shook them out and swept them off and then swept the stoop and sidewalk.

I kind of ran out of quick things to do outside, and I really did not want to get involved in something that was going to take a couple hours to complete, so I just went inside. I am trying to train myself how to relax, something that does not come too easily to me. I guess that I have worked so long that I am always looking for something to accomplish rather than, just enjoying myself.

I mixed the left over clam chowder and the chicken and rice together for lunch; trying to clean out the refrigerator and use up things that there were not enough of for a meal for both of us. Then I put everything into the dishwasher and headed to the living room and my easy chair. Kathleen gave me the micro wave heating pad to put on my chest as I was still having a lot of pain.

Through out the day I kept applying lotion to my knee and it has so far seemed to help. My knee feels much better today and I am able to walk without much pain. I think tonight I will even give sleeping in bed a go tonight, I may need to move back downstairs, but at least I will start the night upstairs.

Tonight Kathleen thawed some ham and bean soup that she made last winter, and it really tasted good, I could have had more, but there was not enough for full seconds for both Kathleen and myself, so I just had a little. I was satisfied, but it is one of those things that tastes so good one just wants a little more.

Both my wrists feel much better today, the right one is still a pretty purple but it almost feels normal and the left one does not feel much worse than it does normally. I think that the raking and weeding has helped it by stretching the muscles and not allowing them to stiffen up. The fingers in my left hand are still a little numb, but I now have feeling in all but my little finger.

Well, if I continue to improve as much as I have today, I should be back to my pre-fall condition in the next day or two. So I guess that for now it is time to say good night most of the time.

Still Sore Saturday

I did not get a lot of rest last night as I slept in my easy chair, so that I would not have to try to navigate the stairs with my sore knee last night. I just could not get comfortable no matter what I did. I finally got up and got the paper and set it down on my chair.

I made myself am omelet for breakfast with onions, mushrooms, garlic; red sun dried tomatoes and topped it off with hot salsa. I also made a couple slices of dark rye toast. After cleaning up the kitchen, I went outside to rake the leaves; first I did the front lawn and then went to work on the back yard.

After I had all the leaves raked, I worked on the garlic and onions. I have them all harvested and am now working on trying to get the rest of the area, where I am planning on having the vegetable garden next year weed free.

I spent a couple hours working on it, for as long as I worked on it I did not really get a lot done, mostly because my knee was so uncomfortable no matter what I did with it. I could not lean on my left hand as my wrist was sore as well, so I had a rather difficult time of it all. I also had to get up every so often so that I could stretch out my knee so that it would not stiffen up on me.

I finally called it quits about 1500 and reheated some of the chicken and rice that Kathleen made for dinner last night. While I ate lunch I also went through the mail, most of it was junk and catalogs.

I finally made my way into the living room and read the paper, it seemed like it took me a while to get through it, not that there was that much there, I just kept getting up so that I could stretch out my knee. Now every time I move my knee, I break open the scab that has formed over my knee cap. In fact my whole knee cap is one big scab.

Well, Kathleen is making me some clam chowder for dinner, and she is making herself some beans. I cannot think of anything else to write about, my wrist is not nearly as sore as it has been, at least I can keyboard with both hands tonight.

Well, I guess I will just say good night, I am not sure if I will sleep in my chair again tonight or not. I probably will as my knee is still really sore and I do not want to take a chance of falling down the stairs.

Friday's Fall

I felt pretty good this morning when I got up and since Kathleen was not sleeping on the couch I was able to use the front door to get the paper. I mad myself some oatmeal and flax seed for breakfast and then went into the living room and read the paper.

After recycling the paper, I cleaned the toaster oven as I had noticed that the tray was getting full of crumbs. Then I vacuumed the downstairs, something that has needed doing for several days. Then I went outside and raked the leaves off the front lawn and then blew off the driveway. As I was winding up the electric cord, I slipped and fell off the front steps. I landed on my right knee and when I was able to get up; my knee was bleeding pretty good.

Both my wrist hurt and I had a hard time standing up, but I finished winding the electric cord and put it and the blower away in the garage. Then I made my way into the house so that I could clean myself up and see the extent on my injuries.

My right hand was purple already and I had an abrasion on the back of my hand. My left wrist hurt the most, but there was nothing visible. My right knee had a nasty abrasion and really hurt, my right leg had a couple scrapes on it, but once I cleaned it up the bleeding stopped.

My right knee on the other hand would not stop until I sat down an elevated it. I had made myself a cup of coffee before I sat down and when I finished it my knee had stopped bleeding. It was still oozing a little and was starting to stiffen up.

Wanting to keep in somewhat loose, I decided that I would go outside and dig up my onion and garlic bed: something that was next on my list to do before my fall. So I went back outside and got my spading fork and my weeding pad and old rug to sit on. Kathleen suggested that I take the phone in case I needed to call her, so I took the phone out of my study and also my cane in case I stiffened up and could not stand up.

I must have been quite a site, fortunately the back yard is pretty secluded so about the only one who could have seen me. I did manage to get most of the onions and garlic dug up; it had gotten pretty overgrown with weeds, so it was not just a matter of digging them up but also separating them from the weeds.

Kathleen came out around 1400 and picked the last few raspberries and gave me a couple. I told her that I was only going to work until 1500, as that was as long as I thought that I could work. As it was I was having a hard time getting up because my knee was really starting to stiffen up. I had taken three Tylenol about noon and I was needing to take some more, so I cleaned up my tools and then headed into the house.

I made myself a salad again today, it is something that is easy to do, but I needed something more, so I made a couple sour dough heel pizza toast. After I finished eating I took three more Tylenol and then sat down in my easy chair. For some reason I felt chilled, so I got a blanket and wrapped it around myself.


Well, right now I have an ice bag on my wrist; I am trying to type with one hand an also keep my knee moving as much as possible. Kathleen just told me that dinner is ready so I will finish this after I eat.

Kathleen made a chicken and rice dish with some baby peas in a cream of chicken soup base, it tasted pretty good. We only had one piece of chicken breast, so we split it. I guess it is time to go to Costco again.

One thing I did find out is that it is hard to push myself up from the table, between my knee being so sore and both my wrists being sore makes it really interesting getting up. I have to adjust myself so that I can get most of my weight over my left side and then push up using just my legs and stomach muscles.

Well as much fun as I am having keyboarding one handed I think it is time to call this blog finished, so I am just going to say good night and hope that I am able to get some sleep tonight.

Thursday.'s Taco's

Today started out pretty much the same as the last few days with Kathleen sleeping on the couch, and my trying to keep quiet and not wake her up. She did get up earlier this morning than she had, so I went out and got the paper and put it on my easy chair to read later.

She went to sleep again, so I made myself an onion and mushroom omelet, a Gardenburger sausage and a couple pieces of dark rye toast. After I finished eating, I put my dishes into the dishwasher then I washed the dishes in the sink, from Kathleen last night and also the frying pan from making my omelet and the other hand washing.

As I was finishing up, the mail came, so I went and got it and made myself a cup of hot water, as I was taking the hot water out of the micro wave, I noticed that the micro wave was starting to look pretty raunchy, so after I finished my coffee I scrubbed out the micro wave.

I thought about going and getting the paper out of the living room to read in the kitchen as Kathleen was sleeping again, but it was so nice outside that I thought that I would rake the leaves instead.

So I got my rake and leave collapsible barrel out of the garage and started in, there were not as many leaves as there had been so it only took a short while to rake the front lawn. Yesterday I had started to rake the leaves on the west side of the driveway, better known as the parking lot, so today I finished that as well.

I thought that since I had all the leaves raked up in the front lawn I would mow it as well, so I got my mower out, put the battery in it and went to work. As I was about half way through, someone walking by commented to me that my mower really did a nice job of mowing, but it was not until I released the lever that he realized that it was an electric cordless mower. It is so quiet the most people do not realize that until I actually shut it off.

Anyway, when I finished the whole front lawn, I moved to the back yard. First I raked the lower and middle level and then mowed that. Then I raked the upper level, and even the area where the raspberries are and mowed it.

It was kind of funny to me the by the time I finished mowing the mower was cleaner than when I was just getting started. When I first started the grass was just wet enough that it was sticking to everything on the mower, but by the time I finished the grass was drier and the mower lost most of its grass camouflage.

I still needed to wipe the grass that still was stuck off, but it turned out to be a pretty quick task. I started to go inside, but it was just so nice that I decided that I would put some weed killer on the lawn, it probably is too cool out for it to do much good, but at least I thought that I would give it a try.

I mixed up a gallon and went to work and got just the front lawn and my neighbor's driveway down that also runs along the west side of our yard. So I mixed up another gallon and did the back yard and my other neighbor's side and half of her front lawn. The method to my madness is that by doing the neighbor's lawn that is close to mine, I will eliminate some of the weeds that might creep into our yard.

By the time I finished I was ready to go inside for a while. It was getting pretty close to lunch time so I started to make myself a salad. I have not had one in several weeks as we have been out of salad fixings for a while and Tuesday when I went grocery shopping I bought some.

While I was eating it, I also looked though the mail, as I had not done it earlier. There were several catalogs...I think it is that time of year! I was going to vacuum the downstairs, but Kathleen was still sleeping, or maybe sleeping again, it is hard for me to keep track as she has slept most of the day since Monday.

She got up about 1700 and called the doctor's office and got an appointment for 1730, so I had to change clothes and run her there. The doctor thought that she just had that nasty flu bug that has been going around. She did write her a prescription for some vicodin, but we did not fill it as she still had some.

As we were leaving the doctor's office Kathleen said that she felt like having a hard taco supreme and a nacho supreme, so we went to Taco Bell through the drive in. I had four soft tacos and realized that we had not been to Taco Bell for several years.

One of the reasons that we stopped going was that they never got our order correct, we were either short a few items or just the whole order was wrong. Before most of the time we were just too tired to go back and get the correct items so we just ate what we got. This time we got everything we ordered, but it seemed like it took forever to go through the drive through.

Well, that was my day, it was kind of nice to be able to work outside most of the day, I have been a little frustrated with working on the bathroom with the weather being so nice, but it was something that we needed to have done.

I cannot think of anything else to say so I guess it is time to just say good night!

Weary Wednesday

Well, I just got finished cleaning up after tiling the bathroom most of the day. The day started out pretty much like yesterday...Kathleen slept on the couch again last night, she was not feeling very well again last night.

So this morning when I got up, I went out the back door to get the paper and then read it in the kitchen at the table. I made myself oatmeal again; it has just been that kind of weather that oatmeal sounds pretty good. While I was eating breakfast, the roofing crew came back to finish putting on the copper strip on the peak of the roof.

Yesterday they did not have enough copper to finish the job, so they told me that they would be back today. I did not think that it would be shortly after 0800 though. Anyway, Kathleen got up a little after 0930, so I called Stan to let him know that it would be okay to come on over.

This morning we put down the border tile that we laid out yesterday. Then today we started to lay out and put down the full sheets of tile. After we put down as many full sheets as we could we started to lay out and put down some of the smaller pieces. We finally quit about 1600 with about nine pieces yet to lay out and put down.

Stan wanted to let the other pieces set before he attempted the smaller and odd shapes around where the toilet is. Stan took all his tools home as he is going to be gone until the twelfth of November when he returns from his hunting trip. So with all his stuff gone I will have a little room to move around and work.

Well, it is only a few minutes until the trick-or treaters start showing up at the door. We never know how many to prepare for, some years it is only a few and other years there are quite a lot. Seeing as the weather is so nice we could have a fair number of goblins.

So I think that I will say good night now, so that I can get the door as Kathleen had not gotten dressy again today.

Tiling Time Tuesday

Well, Kathleen slept on the couch last night, so that she would be close to the bathroom and not have to worry about going downstairs in the dark. So when I got up this morning I tried to be as quiet as possible and not wake her up.

I emptied the dishwasher, and then went out the back door to get the paper off the front porch, and then read it in the kitchen so that I would not disturb her by turning on lights. She was still sleeping when I made myself breakfast, but she woke up as I was finishing. She still was not feeling well, but she felt a lot better than she did last night.

I called Stan and told him that he could come over, so he said that he would be over in a half hour or so. In the mean time Todd called and said that they had a cancellation and his crew would be over this morning. I had kind of had it worked out so that he would be here while Stan was off hunting, but things do not always go as planned.

Kathleen needed me to pick up some things at the grocery store, so I made a list of the things that we were out of and went through my coupons and took out the expired ones and the ones that I would use today. I also had over six hundred dollars in insurance refund checks that I needed to deposit at the credit union as well as about a hundred dollars in cash.

I also needed to stop a K-Mart as I had a coupon for a bag of free candy and a dollar off on two other bags, so I ran there first as it was closest, then to the credit union to make the deposit, while I was there I stopped at Home Depot to pick up a couple plumbing items and then on to WinCo to grocery shop.

I finally got back home a little before noon, so I was gone for about two hours. Stan was already here but I needed to put the groceries away before I could get started on the bathroom. Todd's roofing crew got here just as I finished putting the groceries away.

Once I had them working I went upstairs to change clothes so that I could work with Stan. We did some dry wall patching and also framed in the area were we put the dry wall up. Then Stan cut the tile for the border and before we knew it, it was 1800. But we have the entire border cut and laid out on the floor, so tomorrow we will lay out the rest of the tile and then start to actually tile.

The roofing crew was only here a little over an hour, I was amazed at how much moss they got off the roof, but they clean all of it off the sidewalk and driveway. I will have to clean up what fell in the garden, but it does not look that bad.

Stan is going hunting until the twelfth of November, so the tile will set really well by then. Then he will grout it and then we can do the walls, so we will be with out our upstairs bathroom until sometime in the middle of November. It is almost like camping out!

Well, tonight I mixed the leftover tuna casserole with the leftover cream of chicken soup that Kathleen did not want and then had a brat on a whole wheat bun for dinner. Not the most nutritious meal, but I did not have the energy to be too concerned with that. Well I feel tired; I did a lot more running around than I would have like to today, but it all needed doing.

I am sure that there is more that I did today, but right now I cannot think of anything, so I think that I will just say good night!

Miserable Monday Morning

Well, this is certainly not the way I had planned today to go. I got up just before 0600 and I heard Kathleen come downstairs shortly after that, I was busy on my computer and thought that she had gone back upstairs as I did not see her downstairs. As I sat down to read the paper I heard a moaning sound, so I went to investigate and it was Kathleen getting sick in the bathroom.

She must have been in there quite a while and when she went to get up I had to help her into the living room and onto the couch. Next I had to get her two blankets and a comforter just to try to get her so that she was not feeling like she was freezing.

While she was trying to go back to sleep I was busy cleaning up the bathroom. aside from the toilet, I had to scrub with bleach the bathroom garbage can...then I had to try to get myself into the mood where I could fix myself some breakfast. Before I made myself breakfast I called Stan to let him know that Kathleen was sick and it probably would be better if he did not come over today.

After I finished breakfast, I put the dishes into the dishwasher and then washed the pots and pans and other hand wash utensils. I saw the mail truck across the street, so I went out the back door and got the mail, as I did not want to disturb Kathleen who by now was sleeping on the couch.

After looking through the mail, I heard Kathleen in the other room, she wanted me to call Jack and talk to him about the kick plate on the vanity for the upstairs bathroom, so I did. Then I went outside to rake the leaves in the front lawn. Kathleen was feeling a little better and she went upstairs and put on a pair of sweats and came back downstairs, so when Jack came she was sitting on the couch.

Jack stayed about a half of an hour and showed us the tile that he was going to use on the vanity top. After he left I went back to raking leaves. I actually had all the leaves up off the ground when I went into the back yard.

I thought that since I would not be working in the house today I might as well get as much done outside as I could. Since it was not raining the leaves were pretty easy to rake and I wanted to get them off the ground while I could. I started in the middle level of the back yard and then worked on the upper level and finally the lower level until I had raked the whole back lawn.

I think that this was the first time that I had actually gotten the whole lawn raked at the same time in a very long time. Still felling pretty good I decided that I would start working on spent raspberry vines. While I was doing my fall pruning of the raspberries I also tied up the vines that I was keeping for next year. I got about three quarters of the berries pruned and tied up, so next time I work on them I will not have a lot to do.

I finally decided that I would go inside and see how Kathleen was doing. She was pretty much asleep, so I made myself a brot on a bun for lunch. After eating I went upstairs and took the rest of the cove molding off the bathroom and then took the molding outside to my pile of wood and other things that came out of the bathroom.

I wanted to take advantage of the non rain day as I could so I went upstairs and got my hammer and started to pull all the nails out of the scrap lumber. I had taken some of the nails out of some of it before, but I wanted to get the rest out to prevent someone from getting hurt on them.

When I finished I went inside and sat down for a while, but I kept dozing off, I probably would have been better going upstairs and actually taking a nap, but I thought that I should stay downstairs in case Kathleen needed something.

It is a good thing that I did, because pretty soon she asked me to make her some Jell-o and some cream of chicken soup. Since it was almost 1800, I decided that I might as well make myself something to east as well. We had some left-over tuna casserole, so I heated a bowl up in the micro-wave. When I finished it, I heated up another one and that one satisfied me.

Well, it has been an interesting day and I think that the only thing left is for me to say good night.

Still a Sunny Sunday

Today was another beautiful day; I did not get up until 0730 and felt pretty rested. I had awoken a couple times during the night because I was having a hard time breathing and was coughing, lots of sinus drainage. Then after I was up for a few minutes I started coughing again and could not stop.

By the time Kathleen got up I could hardly talk, and my voice sounded really raspy. She said that it was a lot lower than it normally was and sounded like it hurt to talk, while it did not hurt to talk, I was feeling kind of yucky, so needless to say I did not make it to church. Kathleen did not feel too wide awake and so she stayed home as well.

Once I knew Kathleen was up, I gathered up the towels and washed them and while they were washing I started reading the paper. By the time I finished the paper the towels were dry, so I folded them and put them away.

I was starting to feel better so I told Kathleen that I was going to take a walk and see if some fresh air would help me. I wound up walking about five and a half miles and by the time I got home I was tired, but felt better.

Kathleen wanted to go to the Home Depot at Mall 205 as they had some of the cove tile that she needed for the upstairs bathroom. So I went along to lug the boxes, on the way she stopped at Tile for Less to check on something, and we spent over an hour there.

They suggested that she look at Color Tile for something that they did not have in stock, so we drove there and I stayed in the car as my feet were a little sore from walking and standing around in Tile for Less. Luckily they were only open for about fifteen minutes more so she was not there very long.

Then we took off for Home Depot, while she went to the tile section, I went to electrical to look about some canned lighting and baffles for above the sink in the upstairs bathroom. While I was there I also looked at what we could do to replace the square canned lights above the stairs, but I could not find anything that I thought would work.

We finally left and by the time we got home and I lugged everything out of the car it was almost 1800. I changed clothes and Kathleen started to boil some noodles for a tuna casserole. I am sorry to see today come to an end, for one thing it was such a beautiful day and it also means that tomorrow I get to work some more on the bathroom.

I hope everyone had a good weekend, I got a far amount done and even enjoyed the beautiful fall weather. Well I think that pretty much sums up my day, so I will just say good night.

Satisfying Sunny Saturday

I did not sleep in this morning like I thought that I might but I felt pretty rested so when I went downstairs and made myself some hash browns, a couple of eggs and some toast. Then I unloaded the dishwasher and loaded the dishes from last night and my breakfast dishes. Since I used two pans for my breakfast I also washed them.

I had a couple water jugs of water that I set out last night so that I could change the beta's water as it was getting pretty green, so I did that and then went and read the paper. After finishing the paper, I thought that I would go for a walk as Kathleen had just gotten up.

So I went upstairs and told her and then took off for a couple hours. I met a friend and her daughter from church and talked to her for a while and then continued to pick up trash. With the wind blowing as much as it has the last couple days, the trash from the fast food places was all over the place. I filled up five bags of trash this morning and it was about 1130 by the time I got home.

Kathleen still had not gotten dressed yet, so I made myself a brot on a whole wheat bun. After I finished eating lunch I decided to call my Mother to see how she was doing. I had not had time to call this week as I had been working on the upstairs bathroom all week. After talking to Mom and Sue for about forty-five minutes I decided to go outside and do some work...I just could not see staying inside waiting for Kathleen to get dressed.

I spent until 1630 chipping and shredding branches, fir cones and walnut shells. I tried to do some of the branches from the hedge, but they were in my barrel and were just too wet, they kept clogging up the works as they would stick to the shoot and cause it to stall, so I just decided to wait on them until some other time.

By the time I got done and cleaned up Kathleen was ready to go, but I was just too tired and my feet were sore from being on them so long. So Kathleen has taken off now and I am not sure what we are going to have for dinner.

Well, this is a little early, but I am just tired enough that I wanted to get this done before I get too tired later on tonight. I did not get a lot done today, but I feel satisfied, so I am just going to say good night now.

A Fine Fall Friday

I must have been really tired yesterday as I went to bed about 2200 and did not wake up until after 0600. Normally I will wake up a couple times during the night, but not last night, I do not remember waking up at all until I woke up.

Since Stan said that he would be over a little later today as he was finishing up a painting job today, so after eating breakfast and reading the paper I swept and mopped the kitchen floor, then I vacuumed the downstairs carpeting.

Kathleen had not gotten up yet so I went outside and swept the sidewalk and front porch; then did a little tree sucker digging out and weeding. I had not done it for a while as it has either been raining or I have been busy working inside. After a while I went inside and cleaned up and went upstairs to see if Kathleen was up yet...she was, so I put on my work clothes and went to work cleaning up the bathroom.

I took all of Stan's tools out, picked up and threw out all the nails, screws, scrap wood, and drywall and what ever else I could find then I swept the floor twice. Once I had the bathroom looking in pretty good shape, I decided that I would go out and rake the front lawn.

Well, while it was a nice day outside it was rather windy; the leaves were blowing off the trees quicker than I could rake them up. I finally got 99% of them raked up and decided that I probably should mow as the last time I mowed the lawn was still pretty wet.

So I got out my little reel mower and proceeded to mow. I almost always mow on the diagonal, and today was no exception except I went both ways to get a better cut on the lawn. Before I finished mowing there were enough leave that had fallen that I could have raked again...but I did not!

While I was raking Kathleen took off to go pick up the floor tile, a new bathroom mirror, towel rack and other bathroom accessories. While she was gone Todd called about our roof, and gave me the price to clean off the moss, spray it to help prevent more moss from growing and also put down some copper strips to deter it from growing as fast.

It was more expensive that what I could have done it myself, but I am not able to do it myself, one of the many things that discourage me about getting older and not in the greatest health. So I told Todd to go ahead and schedule us in as soon as possible, and it looks like it will work out so that the ten days or so that Stan will be off hunting, Todd will be able to do the work on the roof.

Anyway after I finished mowing, I went inside and cleaned up. It was a little after 1300 so I decided to make myself some lunch. I opened up the refrigerator to see what I had to work with and then remembered that Kathleen had bought a package of Johnsonville Brots and some whole wheat buns, so I made one. After I finished it I was still hungry, so I made another...that one did the trick.

Stan called just as I started eating the second brot, and said that he would be over in about forty-five minutes, so while I waited for him I read the mail...mostly junk.

Stan got here about 1415 and shortly after he got here, Jack, the contractor who is building the vanity and upper cabinets, called and said that he could no longer get the marble that Kathleen wanted for the vanity top, so I gave him Kathleen's cell and said that he would need to tell her and see what she wanted to do. I am just the grunt and bill payer, she get to pick out what she wants for color and accessories.

Today we got the fiberboard cut and put in place and also put a rough coat of compound on the walls. Kathleen came home while we were putting the fiberboard down and showed me what she found. By the time Stan and I finished cleaning up if was around 1800, so I was pretty tired. Luckily Stan will not be back until Monday, so I will have a couple days to rest a little. I still have work that I need to do, but at least I can do it in my own schedule.

Tonight for dinner we had the last of the lasagna from last night and the last of the Jell-o, I was not quite satisfied so I made myself a slice of English muffin pizza, spaghetti sauce with melted cheese on the toast.

I almost hate to see today come to an end, it was so nice outside, but the next couple of days are suppose to be pretty nice as well. Well, I guess that this is it for today, good night!

Thursday's Trials

I was up early again this morning, so that I could get a few things done before Stan got here. So after breakfast I started to read the paper, Toni called and wanted to talk to Kathleen, I told her that she was still sleeping as she had not gotten home before I went to bed last night at 2230. She said it was important so I went upstairs and woke Kathleen up.

Then I went back downstairs and finished reading the paper, but before I finished again, Toni called again and wanted to know if Kathleen could take her to a doctor's appointment, so I went upstairs and wake Kathleen up again. This time Kathleen got up and got ready to get Toni and take her to the doctor's office.

Shortly after she left I took off to go to Home Depot. When I tried to start my Jeep all I got was the good old dead battery clicking. So I got out pushed the Jeep out of the garage a little so that I could get to the hood and then I hooked up my jump starter to the battery and started the Jeep.

I let it run a little while I put the jump starter away and then went to Home Depot. While I was there I bumped into Stan, he was buying some things for himself. He called the house, but no one was home, Kathleen was with Toni and I was probably trying to get my Jeep started. The battery does not stay charged because I do not drive it enough.

I have only put 100 miles on it since the first of July and I have not driven it for three or so weeks and that was only for a couple miles, so making two trips to Home Depot today helped charge up the battery a little...at least I hope so.

Anyway, I got what I had on my list and Stan was right in front of me at the checkout so he said that as soon as he got home he would head to mine. So when I got home I unloaded the stuff I got at Home Depot and then changed into my work clothes.

Once we started we realized that I needed a couple other things, hence the second trip to Home Depot. After getting back the second time and changing into my work clothes again we started to install the ceiling light fixture and the heater/fan/light/night light fixture, but before we did that we needed to fix some things to make everything work properly.

I suggested that we pre-wire the fan/light/heater/night light fixture before we tried to hang it as it would be easier to do it on the ground then after it was mounted. Once we got the fixtures mounted we measured for the dry wall. But like most everything in this house, nothing was square, parallel or plumb, so we had to shim and scab boards onto the existing ones.

Kathleen came home after finishing up with Toni and then called to see how Alyssa was doing and it turns out Andrea was not feeling well either. So we kind of traced the problem to some food that they ate at Ikea. Kathleen called them to let them know as that was the only food that both girls had in common, and the doctor’s office had said that it was from something that Toni had eaten.

Well, even thought we did everything we could the dry wall still did not fit, so we had to do a little on site trimming. We finally got it up and did a few other things and by this time it was 1730 and Stan needed to leave.

So tomorrow morning I will have to clean up the mess, I am just too tired tonight, and then we can get ready to put the fiber board down. I am not sure what else Stan has in mind to do, but he has to finish up another job first thing in the morning, so that will give me an opportunity to get some of that work done.

Kathleen had bought a frozen lasagna dinner last night that she cooked for dinner tonight along with some apple sauce. I know that I was hungry, as I had not had any lunch, but the lasagna really tasted good. Well as I said earlier, I am really tired, so I think that I am just going to say good night.

Working Wednesday

I got up early again this morning so that I could get a few things done before Stan got here, so I had my oatmeal and read the paper and then I started some more demolition. This morning I took the nails out of the wood that we ripped out of the floor and one wall so that no one would step on them.

Then I went upstairs and tore out some more dry wall, took out the florescent light fixture and then cleaned up the mess that I made so that it would not be tracked all over the house. As I was outside the mailman came so I went out to the street and got the mail from him. There was not much there, so I recycled most of it.

About noon I decided to make myself lunch as I had eaten breakfast earlier than I usually do and I was starting to get a little hungry. Since Stan had not gotten here I though I would take advantage of it and eat while I could.

Shortly after I ate, Kathleen left to pick up Alyssa so that she could take her to the hospital. Originally, she was going to watch the grandchildren, but Hayden was coming down with something, so Alyssa thought that it would be better for Dan to stay with them and Kathleen to take her.

Stan finally got here around 1400 as he was finishing up another project. We tore off the portion of the ceiling that we needed to patch, where I had taken out the florescent light, the can light and the fan. Rather than do a patchwork patch job, we thought that it would look better if we replaced that whole section to make it look nicer.

Stan had to leave early and he and his wife were going to look for some windows for their house. He had not realized that it was as late as it was, so we did not get a lot done today.

Tomorrow I will need to go out and get some electrical boxes, new outlets and some switches. I could have gone tonight, but I was tired and Kathleen had some things that she wanted to pick up. Stan has to finish up another job tomorrow morning, so I am hoping that we can go to the store and pick the stuff up and get back before Stan gets here.

Kathleen called a couple times to let me know that Alyssa wan in the recovery room and probably would be leaving there about 1900 or so, so that means that Kathleen would not be coming home until around 2000.

With that in mind I decided that I would make myself a Morning Star basil and sun dried tomato pizza flavored veggie burger and some Tatar Tots for dinner. Just as I was sitting down to eat, Andrea, Toni and Brandon drove up, so I opened the door for them and told them that I was just sitting down to eat.

They waited in the living room while I ate. Then when I got done eating I went into the living room and played with Brandon for a while. He is really starting to crawl around a lot. He was giggling and cooing the whole time he was here.

Well, I am tired, I have not had any time to regroup and rest up at all this week, so I am looking forward to the weekend. I can not think of anything else to write about so I will just say good night.

Tuesday's Tiredness

When I woke up this morning, I was still pretty tired, but I needed to get up so that I could get some work done before Stan got here. I made myself a cheese omelet using the egg whites from some of Kathleen's yokes. Then I loaded up the dishwasher and started it up.

Then I went upstairs and took the laundry downstairs. I washed the light clothes first as Kathleen said that is what she needed most. Then I went back upstairs to go into the attic, but just as I was getting ready to climb the ladder, the front doorbell rang, so I went downstairs to see who was there, it was Todd Mix, who I had called the other day to come out and check out our roof to see if he could fix the leak that developed with the downpour that we had last week.

He said that the biggest problem was the fir needles in the valley, normally I would clean them out when I cleaned out the gutters, usually about five or six times a year, but since I got the Leaf Guard gutters, I have not had to clean out the gutters, so the valleys have gotten neglected.

While he was here he cleaned out the one valley and put a couple tin shingles in the valley where the leak was coming from. I also am having him come back and clean off the front roof and install some copper strips at the center peak and also the two peaks of the dormers. Hopefully that will help with the moss problem on the front side of the house.

So when Todd left I noticed that the washer had finished so I unloaded it and put the whites into the dryer and turned it on. Then I loaded up the dark clothes and then went back to my next task of climbing up into the attic and remove the old bathroom fan and canned light fixture. The hard part was just getting to where they were.

I do not think that anyone besides myself has been really into the attic; I know that a few of the children and Kathleen have been to the opening, but crawling through the rafters and all the other beams in the attic is really hard on the knees.

I have put down some wood in places where I have moved around frequently, but there are an awful lot of places where it is just ceiling joists to kneel on. The there is the problem of not enough room to conveniently use tools, so everything I tried to do took two or three times as long as it should have.

I finally was able to remove the two things that I had planned on removing, and even traced a couple wires to find out what they were connected to. The next task was to make it back to the opening, so that I could climb back down the ladder retrieving my tool bas and light as I went.

After sealing up the trap door in the ceiling, I went back into the bathroom to clean up the insulation that fell while I was removing the light and fan. Then I went downstairs and took the light clothes out of the dryer and put the dark clothes into it. Then I took the light clothes upstairs folded and put away the clothes.

Well, it was far too nice a day to spend inside, so I thought that I would blow the fir needles off the driveway, so I did that and then I decided to rake the leaves off the back lawn and then mow it. So by the time that I got it all done I was pretty tired, so I cleaned up and decided that I would make myself something to eat.

I decided to have a veggie burger on toast and also have some of the mac and cheese with tuna from the other night. By the time I got done eating it was 1430 so I emptied the dryer and went upstairs to fold and put away the dark clothes. Then I went back downstairs and emptied the dishwasher and put everything away.

Since Stan had not called yet, I thought that I might as well read the paper and the mail. Just as I was finishing the paper, Stan called and said that he would be over in a little while. He had stopped off and picked up the plywood, drywall, some lumber and a new bathroom door, so helped him unload his truck and then we went to work.

The floor joists had been notched where there must have been a pipe go trough it at some point in time, so we cut a 2x6 into four pieces and scabbed them to the existing joists. Next we cut a piece of plywood and nailed it to the joists, we needed to shim it in a couple places and since it was about 1800 Stan decided to call it a day.

He needed to pick up some fiber board to lay down on top of the plywood and thought that it would be too late to get started on it when he got back, so hopefully we will get to that tomorrow.

When he left I went back to reading the mail and watched Fox news. Kathleen reheated the roast and noodles from last night, there was not quite enough, so I used the rest of the mac and cheese and tuna. She also had some Jell-o for good measure.

Well, that was my day, I am pretty tired, but at least I feel like I got a few things done today. Here are a couple pictures of the bathroom that Kathleen took yesterday. Enjoy and good night!

This is where we needed to replace the floor, notice the walnuts in the second photo!

Monday's Makeover

I slept pretty well last night and when I got up I felt pretty good so after I ate breakfast and read the paper I went out and raked and mowed the front lawn. It was still pretty damp from the dew, but I knew that if I had not gotten it done when I did, I would not have gotten it done.

Shortly after I finished, Kathleen went out to Home Depot to check on the tile there and whatever else she could find. She needed to get back before noon as Alyssa was bringing her boys over while she went to the urologist to have everything checked.

Shortly after she left Stan, one of our contractors came over and started to work, since I was helping him I needed to be here. Kathleen returned a little after noon and out other contractor, Jack, came over with the base for the new vanity. We are not going to install it yet, but he wanted us to have it so that when we tile we would have something to tile up to.

Today we pulled out the plywood that was at the top of the stairs, so that I could get at the wiring. Then we went to work on the bathroom. First we took the toilet out and then the sink and old vanity. Next we pulled out the old medicine cabinet and then the old linen closet.

Once we had everything out of the bathroom we started on the floor. We took up the linoleum and then the plywood and other flooring so that we got down to the joists. We found a little dry rot in the corner by the shower, so that is why we are going to replace the floor. The rest of it was just a bunch of pieces so we are going to use one piece and make it so that it is smooth, that way the cement board and tile will lay flatter.

By the time we got all that done it was around 1600, so I started sweeping up and then vacuumed the floor and stairs where we had been dragging stuff outside. Then I emptied the shop vac and the smaller pieces of wood, the nails and other junk that I did not want to vacuum up.

For diner tonight Kathleen used the rest of the roast, and boiled some noodles and added some peas. The she mixed some apple sauce and put some of the left over Jell-o on top. I had not stopped for lunch so I was really hungry, but I was also so tired that I could not eat much either.

Now that I have stopped for a while, I realize just how sore I am. Kathleen just left for Lowe's to pick up our fan/heater/light and hopefully a switch so that I do not need to put five switches into the same box.

Well, I am tired enough that I think that I will just say good night and hope that I will be able to get up tomorrow and take the old light, fan and canned light out of the ceiling early tomorrow morning.