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.
