The Deerfield Heat

The neighbors across the street Home School. Joshua, Caleb and Benjamin are the boys, Sharon is the mom-tutor, Rick is dad and Defensive Coach. They invited me to a football game about three blocks from here at the Middle School Park Complex- a very nice complex with playing fields, an Olympic sized pool and other well kept amenities. The Deerfield Heat played a divisional team-mostly black, bigger, and faster, with the results you would expect. I left when it was 24 to 0 and the visitors were putting in the second and third string. Joshua, the eldest neighbor kid is fearless and skilled. He either made or was in on every single tackle. His hero is Tim Tebow who was also home schooled here in Florida.

The Heat even has a pep band-not bad. It took me back to my Steamboat Springs days. With graduating classes of 32, you made do with what you had and it was amateurish but great fun.

Some great rainstorms have broken the heat a few times-it is muggy but it does not slow Jason down. He dry-walled the kitchen in the "project house." He can do it all. Flower beds are in. I rode with him to pick up the Mercedes today. He had a rental car while the Mercedes was in the hospital (His neighbor, Vickie, backed out of her driveway and creamed it.) Got to Drive a Ford Edge from Margate-it is a very nice car. Fun to do. I went to Home Depot to get materials for my own project which is more or less trying to salvage another project which set a record for going south in less than half a day. I'll take a picture when/if the project is finished.

A gentle nudge

A gentle nudge from the Wyoming home folk is producing this Blog Entry.  I enjoy blogging but I have to admit that many of my days are remarkably similar providing little fodder for comment these days.  I went to the beach to take pictures to post yesterday but there was yellow "caution tape" strung from one end to the other. The whole of Sout Florida is girding its loins for the onslaught of the snowbirds. The beach is getting a facelift so it looks really crummy right now. The good side is I am starting to hear from some of my snowbird friends (Nicole and Andre are in Croatio now. Email finds me and if I had been home I could have had had a Skype call from Croatia.  But I will see them before too awfully long.  Jeanne and Marc are due any day. Skrables have reservations.

Got a call from from Greg with shocking news. He was four wheeling and a man bumped them from behind three times and he and the girl tat was riding with him went sailing. He has several titanium plates and a box of screws in his face and head. He was flown to Syracuse. The girl had a broken shoulder. Greg had been to their attorney on the day they called. He is still unable to chew and has great pain. I feel so badly for him.  Lew will know when to go see the doc if he starts to slide.

I'm lucky to see the Florida kids pretty often. Jason works intensely at whatever he does and the house is no exception. It is looking great. Before and after pictures soo. While he has some really good tradesmen to do a lot, he still is wallboarding, wiring, landscaping and plumbing as well as tail-twisting on the crafts people. Tom the painter left for the Bahamas to paint a railroad car/ofice yesterday. Max the cabinet guy left for Bermuda today to do a high-end job.

I am staying pretty busy too- I help Jason when he'll let me (not often) and working at my projects around the house.  Juneau comes for the evening walk sometimes.  He is a stitch.

Lizard Poop

I found a night-time deposit on my garage carpet. Lizard Poop.I have declared environmentally correct war on the little varmints. They have practically denuded one of my Bougainvillea bushes. I bought a bottle of Iguana-Rid at Ace.  The active ingredients are garlic oil and cinammon oil. It is environmentally non toxic but to lizards and humans it stinks. It does seem t have reduced the number of the critters in front. The dogs terrorize the ones in back sufficiently-so far. It makes their lives interesting. They leave the chute at a dead run to try and catch a lizard.

Jason is going after the project house intensely. I asked him if he were enjoying it-He said yes. The carpet went in today. It did not match the sample.  He was upset. Lori was there and I suggested we go to my house for awhile and look at it fresh later. He decided it was O.K.  The inside painting is done except for a little touch-up. It is going to be a handsome house. Wish I had taken "before" pictures. 

Friday has become housekeeping day: dry mopped, vacuumed, damp mopped, dusted, washed a couple of windows and did three loads of laundry...and cleaned up one pile of lizard poop. Place looks spiffy.

UN-E-VENT-FUL

Went for my three month checkup on the pacemaker/defibrillator.  They take the history from it and I was cardiac event free.  Rob was doing something over there and I asked him if he was messing with my heart-I felt it. He fessed up and said he was done. The computer says my battery is good for 7 years. Kidneys will probably crap out before the heart does. Oh well.  BP was 114 over 65 at the doctor's Cardiologists love these low numbers but I sometimes feel like I can't get enough compression to get up the hill. 

Went by the ReStore on my way home from the doc's. Nothing big I needed but I got Jason intrigued. He went this afternoon. I bought a tile and two of those things restaurants use to hold the bags of sweeteners-sugar Splenda, and Sucralose.  $3.00. 


Lori got back yesterday. I was keeping mum because she told Jason she wanted three days to hide out and de-compress. They came over this morning and I was so glad to see her. Gave her the tour of my efforts.  She makes me smile. The doggies were delighted to see her, too. 

Pouring

You may have to click on this photo to see the rain but I am telling you it was impressive. Just the day before I had put a canopy over the two tarps already on the patio frame. Mixed results-the original tarp had a blister that held water and drip irrigated my plants. The blister popped and the patio was awash. Jason came over afterwards and parts of the original tarp were hanging down. I told him no one else had a patio cover like mine and he belly laughed. He is very sweet - Mr. Do It Right meets Mr. Make-do. Since he is re-carpeting the project house next door I asked for remnants of the old carpets. He cut them to order and delivered them- said it would keep me out of the dumpsters! I had to laugh at that one-because it is true!

So I have a carpeted garage and some carpeting for the RV- I have always covered the carpets in it to preserve them. Keeping busy doing projects. The mulching is done for now-I doubt that mulching is ever completely done. Jason continues to demonstrate craftsman skills. We hung a ceiling fan and cleared carpets. He powerwashed the garage. Tommy painted it today. He is nearly done. This is Tommy the handyman, not neighbor Tommy whose bid came in at $6000.00 which was about double what Tommy the handyman is charging. Some neighbors we have! The economy down here is rugged but some of these folks need to wake up.

I have been reading quite a bit when it gets too hot outside. Very enjoyable. Mostly old books because they are often "free. ninety nine." As long as I haven't read them-or forgot that I read them, I am happy with them. We also have ongoing Word games on the web. Networking with family is mostly what I do. The games are a little bit addictive. Win some. lose some.

I have to check in with some friends-Natrona County High School's reunion this August. Fiftieth, I believe. I want to get the scoop. How bad do they really look? Just tell me about the ones that look worse than I do. The lucky genes were apparent at the Fortieth -many others were unrecognizable. This is the way of the world.

Labor Day weekend in the Tropics

Tropical mornings with the scent of the earth and vegetation to enhance my morning coffee. And we have had a little coolness break which won't last but gives hope for more. I have been fiddling with plants and garden-re-potting, positioning, mulching -in spurts because of soaked shirt syndrome. When you come in to cool off, the air conditioning makes a sodden shirt, an ice shirt.  I've watched Jason sweat too. Both my boys have wide skills-Matt gardens, builds fences, decks, gazebos etc.with great success. Jason, it seems has a wide array of skills also. The prospective contractor for the house next door gave me an estimate of $12,500 plus. Jason hired two Billys. One Billy was white but as brown as a berry-he and Dustin did the teardown and restoration of the sun room next door in a day sooner than expected and for $1500.00 plus materials. The other Billy was Black and 68! He arrived with a crew on Sunday and commenced to stucco. Then they put in about 4 hours this morning and were happy for a little more than a thousand. So the work the contractor bid for was accomplished for $3500. Considerably below the Integrity Construction  estimate with the "fish" on the card.  I had admired Black Billie's fancy huge Chevy truck. Then I was kidding him about doing such good work on Labor Day making him rich. He said he was rich but didn't have much money. He had taken food to his mother before he showed up here-she was barbecuing for the Labor Day Feast. Guess maybe he is rich.

Jason has been doing landscaping, sprinkler repair, tearing out carpets, powerwashing. directing the laborers, and consulting with Tom Taylor, a neighbor who will get the painting contract if he doesn't try to hose anybody. In spite of my offers to help I haven't done much except relay messages and babysit Juneau who loves to come to Grampie's house.

I had the monthly hour and a half with Dr. Cohn on Thursday. Longitudinal testing makes a diagnosis of Third Stage Renal Failure evident  I have mulled this over the weekend. He took pains to tell me we were doing what's needed to be done to keep from getting worse-blood pressure under control, blood sugar mostly under control, exercise, and appropriate meds.  It is a condition, not a disease that inevitably gets worse. So maybe we can keep it where it is. He is optimistic so I will be too. I don't feel any worse than I did before he told me and that in fact is feeling pretty good.  Got a B-12 shot.

Matt goes to Salem, OR for law enforcement training for 4 weeks.  He received a commendation from the regional poobah- quite a nice compliment.

My cousin Hial has lost his son-in law (48)  to a massive heart attack that occurred in a marathon race, a couple of months ago. Hial's wife, Patty Ann (nee Cunningham), recently  became seriously ill and went into hospice for a mercifully brief time. We all got the email for her death and notice of the funeral. His brother Jim who lives in Casper, and Susie dutifully trekked from Casper to Denver Saturday and were scratching their heads about why nobody was at the church. Made a quick call-they were a week early. SENIOR moment! Don't laugh too hard, your turn is coming...or not.