Sunday, September 30, 2012

Cherokee says I need to update my blog, and I've been lazy about it lately, so I'll take this opertunity to post.
Steve is home, and has some really ugly tendonitus in his left knee.  It has his whole leg swollen, and he's on some crutches I had out in my garage for just this purpose.  He is quite clumsy with them, and knocks over things all over the house.  We took him to Doctor Duck the morning after he got home, and Doc gave him some injections in his knee which were very painful (I had to hold him down), but ineffective.  Doctor Duck thinks it's gout, but I had told Steve it was tendonitus even before he got home on Thursday evening.  He brings on these bouts with tendonitus by sitting for too long at his computer and tucking his feet under his desk chair.  He's tucked in with a renewable ice pack on the sofa as I write.
Things have gone very slowly at Creekside.  The chemo keeps me weakened and tired all the time, and I can't be there to keep everyone busy and inspired.  They seem to be riding the clock.  I finally told Tom to take this last week off, because he's getting on Janie's nerves and making more messes.
After Janie had cleaned the upstairs getting ready for wall paper, he took Steve's cut-off saw up to the day room and set it up to cut wood trim.  It created a horrible mess, and Janie was livid.  You could see the dust in layer even on the walls.  Then he used a wood-cutting blade to cut and fit the marble window sill for one of the rooms.  That made Steve mad.  I have a water-table tile saw, but he said he didn't want to use 'that thing'.  The water guard was lost long ago, and it's messy, but that is what it was designed to do, and that is the proper tool for cutting stone, tile, and marble.
Everyone is angry, and I'm the one in the middle who is taking all the fire.
Stucco gave me a fair price on repairing the overhangs on the house, and I was able to 'Jew' hin down to an even better price.  It's local work for him, and I'm willing to deal with his trauma-dramas.  It's good for both of us.
He's doing a pretty good job from what I can tell at this point, and we're such good friends.  Cherokee comes and brings Steven, their grandson.  Cherokee can't get Steven to obey her, but he does just what I say.  When I tell him he can't do something, he'll stand and stomp his feet and scream at me, but he doesn't do it, either.  Cherokee just turns her head so Steven can't see her and grins.  He knows that I'll get up and go get him and smack his little legs if he doesn't mind me.
He's a beautiful little boy, and has an incredible amount of energy.  I don't know how Cherokee manages him.  He clings to her, and cries if she wants to go to the bathroom or leaves him, even to walk down to her car to get cigarettes.  It will be a melt-down when Shawn gets out of jail and he and Tina (Janie's daughter) take Steven to live with them.
They are so much in love, and Tina goes to the jail to see Shawn every time she can.  Shawn has got saved while in jail, and it sounds like a genuine conversion in some ways, but he and Tina are planning to live together without benifit of clergy after his release.  Tina says they are going to attend church together, and I asked Janie how that might fly with a minister.  She says that the church shouldn't judge, but I told her that judgement had already been made about that matter.  God said that we shouldn't do it, and that's final.  To observe that someone is not doing God's will while professing His name is not being judgemental. 
Janie and I are in the process of papering Steve's office, which was Maude Lowe's bedroom years ago.  I say we are in the process, because when we papered one wall, the dust from the saw on the landing outside the room had so coated the wall that the wall paper came loose and buckled terribly during the night.  The work will have to be repeated, but we have a lot of that paper, so all is not lost.
Mary and Lawrence came to visit me week before last.  I'd say that she had to make him come, as he just doesn't visit.  It was good to see him...and HER.
Mary is a good head of our family, and takes her responsibilities seriously.  She makes peace and keeps us in line as much as she can.  God always knows what He's doing.
I have some stepping stones that I've promised her, and I need to get them on the truck and get them out to her and placed before winter, when there will be so much mud.  She, as a heart patient, can't lift so much, and I, with my tempermental port in my right subclavien vein, am not supposed to lift.
I don't know how we'll get this accomplished, but there is almost always a way to get things done if you're willing to work at them.
The court date for Randy Reagan, was somewhat disapointing.  He got time, but it is to be served while he's serving the time for the crimes he had committed before he broke into our home.  I got a judgement for $35,000.00 against him, but I don't know how the court expects me to get anything while he's serving seven years for his crime.
The white truck is giving some trouble (nothing major) and Steve wants to take it to Jefferson City to get it fixed at some dealer there.  It's going to cost $300.00 there, and I told him that Gordon Treese could do the same work for much less.  He still wants to go to the dealer, so I guess we will.
The City Council of Rutledge has decided that Dwight Bull has to have his parking lot paved that services his new restaurant, and is fining him $50.00 a day until it's done.  He said that it will cost him $18,000.00 to get it paved.  There are many businesses in Rutledge that do not have paved parking, and I'm intrigued that they have singled him out for prosecution.  I don't like the man, but fair is fair.
As luck would have it, just as I'm writing this up-date, I've been interupted by Stucco, needing some materials.  I think I have them stored in our storage locker, so that means that I have to get dressed, fix my hair, and go to the other side of Rutledge to the locker and try to find what he needs.
I'll try to get back to this and write more later.

Saturday AM

I'm up ahead of Steve, so I have a little time to post.
Sister Valentine came up this week to deliver some pants she's hemmed for Janie.  Jamie, as everyone else, has taken quite a shine to Sister Valentine.  I think everyone loves her.
She had also hemmed a dress for me.  It's a Leslie Faye, which is one of my favorite brands of dress clothing.
Chemo was not so bad this week, as Dr. Corcoran lessened sonme of the dosage of one of the medications that was causing the burning in my mouth and hands.  They both still burn, but not as badly, so I am more at ease when eating or touching anything cold.
Work at Creekside is going slowly.  Tom is doing a great job on the window trim, but he's having a hard time fitting the wood around the windows because of the brick sills, which stick out into the rooms.  He's going to have to grind them down a bit, and doesn't want to do that until the floors are finished, as the dust will get into the seams.
I think Steve and I will be finishing the floors this week-end, and carry over into Monday and Tuesday.
Janie is going to be off until Thursday, as there's little she can be doing.  She said that she would come by to check to see if the grass needed mowing.  We like to keep the yard looking nice there.
I got a good deal on a small Singer sewing machine at Goodwill this week.  I haven't had time to try it out yet, but it looks nice, and has all the 'bells and whistles' that I have on my Brother that I bought several years ago.
I've still been busy altering my clothes to fit me better.  I've always enjoyed sewing, but I rarely have the chance, and this terrible illness has given me the impetus to do some.  I used to make my clothes, but I wouldn't want to wear anything that I made now.  I can do alterations, though, and I stay busy with it when we're home and I'm not busy with other things.
I think Steve misses me when I'm upstairs sewing, as he comes up often to check on me.
I got some silk flowers at the Family Dollar, as they were 40% off.  They will be useful for decorating my hats.  The Cancer Resourse Center loves them, and are always glad to get more of them.
Dennis and Nancy Acuff saw us at the Down Home last evening, and they thanked me profusely for the hand-painted flag I had left on their door for Nancy.  She had always wanted a picket fence in front of their house, so I painted a flag that had farm scenery, fronted by a picket fence.  I had taken it to them a couple of weeks ago, but had not found them home, so I left it on their door.  She said she just loved it.  She's a sweet lady, and I'm glad to give her something nice.
Stucco got the stone put around the front door at Creekside, and it looks really nice.  He also repaired the stucco on the columns, and installed the porch railing.  He did a good job, and it shows well from the street.  Steve and I painted the stucco repairs last night.
Georgia Knoght's obituary was in the Knoxville paper this week.  She had managed the store for the Knoxville Rescue Mission many years ago that was near my house on 4th Avenue.  She lived across the street from me, and was a good neighbor.  Her son, David, held her funeral, as he is a minister.  He was just a young boy the last time I saw him.  All the old houses on that block are now gone, including the one that I had owned.  There are many memories from that block and that time.
Steve tried some new chemicals in the fish pond in the yard at Clairemont, and the water is clear and nice.  You can actually see the fish now.  It looks so good, I hope he will keep up his efforts.
Janie got the Cadillac cleaned up while I was in Chemo on Tuesday, and it looks like a new car.  I'm not one for keeping a car clean, and Steve is not, either, so it was nice of Janie to do that for us.  That car has sure been a good one.  Cherokee now has one exactly like it, and she loves hers, too.
It's time to get off this computer and get to work.  I'm going to do some sewing until Steve gets up.