Another year older!

Since I lasted posted I am another year older.  62, which is monumental to me.  First of all 62 is one year older than Gon Gon when he died.  Six years older than when we lost Freddy.  Nineteen years older than Terri.  I get to thinking HOW young they were (and I could list many more) and I wonder why.

As Earl McMillan use to say in class, "When I meet GOD he has some 'splaning to do!"

My birthday was a good day.  I slept in.  Of course it is very seldom I get an early start if I wait for Memama to get up and be sure she takes her meds and we doctor her eyes.

Georgiana had told she was coming over and taking me to dinner.  She arrived with my favorite cake in hand, Italian Cream.  Memama went with us to Texas Grill and we had a nice meal, then we returned home for cake and to open cards.

It was kind of comical, When we all sat down with our cake Memama saw me with the card Georgiana had given me and immediately Memama was up and digging through her cards.  In a moment she disappeared and Georgiana asked if Memama had gone outside.  I told her no, Memama was looking through her files for money to put in my birthday card.  Georgiana walked to the kitchen and checked and sure enough there Memama was, looking at c for cash, d for dollars, e for extra, and m for money.  Memama returned to the dining room table and began writing in a card.

Earlier in the evening Memama had tried to give Georgiana 30 dollars to go toward supper.  Georgiana told her, "Memama, that was my treat."  Memama sat the money down on the table and told Georgiana this is your money, don't forget it.

When Memama finished writing in my card she brought it to me.  What she had written was very sweet.  There was some cash in the card.  When I saw a twenty and a ten I told Georgiana, "I think you just lost your money, and you will play hell getting it from me!"  We giggled then, but later on we had a good laugh.

Actually I had a very good Valentines and Birthday.  Georgiana and I are planning a trip this summer to South Dakota.  For several years I have wanted to go and see the Crazy Horse monument, which will be the world's largest natural stone carved monument when it is completed.  The sculpting has been going on for 48 years, started by a lone individual who went up the mountain every morning with his chisel and hammer and a few sticks of dynamite.  Upon his death bed when he was 82 he was asked if he was disappointed he didn't seen his project completed.  He replied, "One only has to live long enough to inspire others to do great things."  Today this monument has 2000 workers on a daily basis.  The family of the original sculptor heads up the project and not one cent of government money has been spent on it.  When it is completed it will be over 600 feet long, over 500 feet tall, and the four presidents from Mount Rushmore would fit in Crazy Horse's head dress.  The monument depicts Crazy horse on horse back.  (Another statistic I found interesting is the distance from chin to hairline is 39 feet).

For Valentines, Georgiana gave me tickets to ride a steam locomotive two and a half hours one way, then back.  For my Birthday she gave me tickets to a chuck wagon supper and show which is preceded by a tour of an old western town complete with gun fights.

I don't know if you can tell it, but I am excited.

I have the motorhome resting in the barn.  It is going to get a good cleaning and a little maintenance.  I need to pull the rear bumper off and straighten it or find another, and I need to find a new spare tire cover.  Someone was pulling a boat with it last summer and the boat came loose and was just hanging on by a chain.  When they would take off it was fine but when they slowed down, the boat would run into the back of the motorhome.  Grrrrrr!

I'm going to develop a test.  You must be smart enough to pass this test before you are allowed to drive any motorhome.

Actually, we need to quiet some rattles.  Most of them seem to be coming from the cook stove.  On good roads it is o.k., on rough road it is horrible.

Of course with only two of us (3 if Memama accepts our invite), it will be quite different from setting it up for 5 or 6 people.

We debated whether or not to take the motorhome.  Georgiana wanted to take her car, but after riding back from Lubbock in the motorhome and us getting over 10 miles per gallon, she was ready to go camping.  I have found the secret to the motorhome is you have to drive it like you are a retired old fart.  We just set the cruise of 61 and tried to stay out of everyone's way.

I really bought the motorhome to take to tractor pulls I am contracted to announce.  The longest distance I have driven it is about 700 miles one way.  This trip will be about 1000 miles one way.

20 degrees here this morning.  Feels like 5.  I woke in the night to hear sleet pelting the windows.  There is a light dusting of white on the ground today.  Slats called in sick.  That's O.K., with me.  I just hope he can afford to lose the hours.  We had barn stuff we could do today.

I cooked up some bacon this morning and then scrambled a dozen eggs.  I put it all together with some miracle whip and salt and pepper and surprised Memama with bacon and egg sandwiches!  We have a quart of left overs  to use in the next couple of days.

Well.  Make today count.  Wherever you are stay warm.

FATHER, thank YOU for blessing me with another year.  I continue to ask YOUR blessing for good health.  I ask YOUR continued blessings on Memama and for her health.  Bless Georgiana and I as we plan our trip.  Help us to be wise and sensible in our travels.  Thank YOU LORD!

Plans are made to be changed.

It has been a fast and hard week.  I have not been sleeping well and am exhausted.  I feel like if I get still and half way comfortable I can go to sleep.

To top all this, for some reason my skin is crawling.  This is never a good sign.  I'm not going to say I am psychic but usually when my skin crawls a wheel comes off somewhere.  I also have the fever blisters to prove it!

So, let's catch up.

A week ago Pat went to Huntsville to keep Chloe and Carson while Stephanie went to a conference.  On Saturday, Nanny Pat and Stephanie decided to take the kids bowling.  As I understand it, Nanny Pat's first time up to bowl the ball wouldn't come off her thumb, propelling her across the foul line and onto the waxed, very slick bowling lane.  She promptly fell, breaking her right arm just below the ball joint of her shoulder and lacerating her thumb, needing three stitches.

I was in Lubbock for the afternoon when all of this happened and when I got home I learned about it through a phone call with Joni.  Obviously Memama had already heard it because she kept asking me, "Did Pat break her arm?"  After telling her numerous times that I had heard the same thing Memama asked me "What in the world was Pat doing bowling?"

I decided to spin it and told Memama that Pat was taking Stephanie's spot on the women's church bowling league and the Church of Christ was bowling against the Presbyterian's.  After Pat fell and broke her arm, the CoC women had to forfeit to the other team.

For some reason Memama could remember this, even though she seriously suspected it was majorly embellished.

Tuesday Memama had an appointment with her cardiologist.  In October I had taken her and they told us in February we would be scheduling a pacemaker replacement.  We went to the appointment expecting to schedule a date.  After a two hour wait we saw the doctor.  He listened to her heart and expressed his displeasure at her pulse rate of 140 beats a minute.  He began to do some tests on her pacemaker and found that the battery was too weak to do any diagnostic testing.  He asked if we could have the pacemaker procedure done on Friday.  We said yes.  As he began to leave the room he decided to do an EKG.  He looked at the print out and told us, "Let's do this sooner rather than later.  Can you be here in the morning?"

So we were scheduled for an 8 am. procedure which meant we had to be at the hospital by 6 which meant we were going to have a very early morning.  We had a late lunch with Georgiana at Abuello's and talked about possibly staying the night there, but even if we did we would still have to drive to Roscoe to pick up our things.

When we arrived home we talked about it and Memama told me "You decide what we need to do."  I thought and thought, wondering how Memama would do in a strange house and wondering how Memama would do with Daisy and Dexter and the doggie gates that go across some of the doors to limit the dogs access to the whole house.  I finally decided we would just stay at Roscoe.

I woke at 3, even though I had my alarm set for 4:15.  At 4:15 I woke Memama.  We left the house at 5, were at the hospital before 6 and got checked in.  In short order we were taken back, then they sent me to the waiting area before realizing they needed me to help Memama answer some of the questions plus I had the medicine lock box with her prescription information.  Stevie showed up and then Jani arrived just prior to them taking Memama to the back.  The doctor had been by and had some stuff going on in nuclear medicine, so he was late in making the 8 am start time.

Finally they called and told me the procedure was underway and she was doing very well.  In about thirty minutes the called and said they were through and her pulse was 8 and she was being returned to day surgery recovery.  We were allowed back to see her and then they asked us to leave for at lest an hour to allow her to rest and then in the second hour they would get her up and as soon as she was solid on her feet she could go home.

I ran to Sam's and quickly worked down my list.  By the time I loaded the car, I had been gone an hour and five minutes.  I headed back to the hospital and walked in to Memama's cubicle just as they were unhooking her from the telemetry and removing her IV.  It was perfect timing as I had her bag of clothes and her purse and glasses.  Stevie arrived again and came on back to where Memama was.  The nurse told me to pull the car around while she helped Memama dress.  As we were waiting, Jani arrived, then the nurse came out rolling Memama down the ramp right up to the car door.  Jani got her settled in the car and hooked her seat belt.  Good byes were said quickly and we hit the road.

We did go through the car wash and I did stop and buy Memama and I some Nikki's Swirl Shop Frozen Yogurt.  Memama stretched her yogurt all the way home.

Memama got her gownie on and settled in.  She is doing very well.

Memama's pacemaker is actually more of a regulator.  It is in place to slow down her heart and keep it from fluttering.  (When it flutters it isn't moving much blood and she feels rotten).  When the doctor had the new pacemaker in place he used a "blast" therapy to get the pacemaker ahead of her heart at 140 beats per minute, then he programmed the pacemaker to slow it down to where he wanted it.  By the time she returned to her bed in recovery she was at 60 beats a minute resting.  This is going to have to make her feel better.

Thanks to all of you who checked on her and lifted her in your prayers.  If  your were omitted from the updates I am sorry and assure you is was not intentional.  The list was quite extensive.

Who is ready for a weekend!

Happy Valentines!

FATHER, thank YOU for seeing Memama through this procedure, I ask that you continue to be with her and strengthen her.  I lift up Pat for YOUR gifts of healing and comfort.  FATHER there is so much swirling about us.  Keep us focused on YOU and let us know that YOU are in control.

Tough days parenting.

Hello Campers.  I am back on line.  My Computer went out mid January and I got it back last week.  Maybe I should rephrase that.  I got our new to us computer last week.  The old computer's mother board went out and it was no longer available.  Crazy thing was in 2013 I had that computer worked on and we found the motherboard had issues (USB ports were dead.  5 of 7 so we used a USB hub).  I prepaid the shop in Sweetwater for the board and for the installation.  They were going to call when it came in, or if I had trouble before then I would bring the computer in.  I never got the call and when I took the computer back to the shop, the shop was gone.  I did find the technician and he told me he was no longer doing work for the public and he didn't have my motherboard.

I carried the computer to Apollo in Abilene.  This is where Georgiana's son works.  My thoughts at that time were that the power supply was out.  Nope.  I'm not that lucky.  Motherboard.  Apollo searched and searched and the motherboard was no longer available, even from Dell.  The configuration was odd and another mother board could not be installed in its place.  So, Apollo backed up all my data and put it on a thumb drive.

Georgiana's son had a computer (actually he had 7 at his home that had been given to him or left with him).  He selected one and told me it would be a good one.  He began sprucing it up, put a graphics card in it, put a 1 Terabyte memory in it, then downloaded all of my documents, pictures and programs (they were able to retrieve the program keys from the old computer).

So, I have spent a week, on and off trying to set up all my preferences, all my favorites, and load all my user names and passwords.  I've almost got it done, although I am having some trouble with videos on facebook.  I have also gone wireless network for the ISP, the computer and the printer scanner.  Hopefully I will be able to print documents directly from my phone.

I spent the past weekend in Abilene at Georgiana's.  We have made live theatre productions the last two weekends.  Urine Town at Abilene High the first weekend, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at ACT this past weekend.  We were also able to take in two movies, one each weekend.  The first being Night at the Museum, the second weekend we saw American Sniper.  I still want to see Selma.

Late Saturday night I received a text message.  I had actually gone to sleep and didn't hear it come in, but as I was plugging my phone in the charger I checked it and saw the text.  There were two pictures of checks and a message, "Were you aware of this?"

The two checks were drawn on Memama's account, one made out to a gift shop in Roscoe, the other made out to an individual.  The check to the gift shop had driver's license, address and phone number, I recognized the information easily.  The signature was not Memama's.  The other check was made out to this individual, endorsed to her mother on the back and her mother had endorsed it and cashed it.  The signature once again was not Memama's.

I forwarded these images to my youngest daughter with the message, "Do you care to explain this?"

I received no reply.  Needless to say it wrecked my chances of a blissful nights sleep.

On Sunday I received a text saying "All I can do is apologize.  I made a huge mistake.  I will write you.  Love you Daddy."

Pat and I talked when I returned to Roscoe.  We looked at the checks, the dates, and determined that when my youngest daughter came in for Thanksgiving a day early she had taken some of Memama's checks.  It was an older pad, numbers long passed by.  I had asked her (Merrit)  if there were more and she told me no.

Pat and I were doing some banking Monday afternoon and I had carried the check copies to inquire why they were paid when the signature was not Memama's, Pat's, or mine.  The lady began looking and ran a search that was not available to non bank personnel.  It revealed eight (8) transactions in this numerical sequence, including the two we had brought with us.  There were four to WalMart in San Angelo, one to Suddenlink in San Angelo, one to Walmart in Sweetwater, and the two checks I mentioned earlier.  The checks totaled $1065.79.

I felt ill.

My youngest daughter had not worked since mid November, took a family medical leave (for what I don't know), and never went back to her old job.  Apparently during all this time she was financing her folly with her grandmother's checks.

She has asked me for money and I refused, telling her she made a choice not to work and no money was a result of that choice.  I did pay electricity one time when I knew Noble was staying over.

I suppose for me the blatant barrage of her lies pushes me over the top.

We filled out forgery affidavits at the bank, drove to the sheriffs office and filed a complaint, then we returned to the bank with a case number. 

You mess with me is one thing, you mess with my Mother is worse.

I cannot understand for the life of me what Merrit's mentality is.  Over the last three years I have spent thousands of dollars, trying to help her in multiple facets of her life.  Legal, CPS, school, rent, utilities.  I know other people have helped as well.  Memama, Merrit's maternal grand parents, Pat & Hag. 

It may be interesting if we ever get all together and compare notes to see how many of us paid for the same thing.

All I can say is it hasn't worked.  Maybe jail will.  I'm guessing 3 - 5 this time.  We know 180 days in state jail didn't do it.

Noble deserves better than this.  You would think he would be incentive enough for Merrit, but apparently not.

Merrit's Mother says Merrit is mentally ill.  I'm not looking for excuses.  There are none.

I think Merrit is Merrit.  She is 32 years old.  She is way smarter than she acts.  For some reason she thinks she is entitled and rules don't apply.  I am washing my hands.

Merrit, her Mom, and even her maternal grand parents need look no farther than me for insisting we press charges.  It has to stop somewhere.

On a good note, I'm not going to have to worry about where Merrit is at and if she has electricity or water.

Tough deal for me as a parent, but if I don't stand up for what is right, I am doing her no favor.

Father, how I wish YOU gave us instruction manuals with kids.  The how to's and not to's.  I don't know what lies ahead for Merrit, but I place it firmly in YOUR hands, knowing that YOUR plan is unfolding.  Strengthen me in my struggles.