Ahh, Silence

This is the first Saturday of July and Durwood's off having breakfast with his Census 2000 pals and I'm all alone in the house.  ALONE.  I even turned off his oxygen machine so the only sound I hear (beside the constant buzzing in my ears) is the rhythmic tick of the antique clock in the living room.  Soon it's low "bong" will echo through the house and it'll be officially 11:00 o'clock.

Man, three hours of knitting last night did nothing good for my sore shoulder.  In fact, it feels sorer now than it did when I went to the chiropractor last week.  I'm sure Dr. Paula would tell me that it gets worse before it gets better but I don't have to like it--and I don't.  I highly recommend that you avoid falling on a concrete floor while holding 40# of Kingsford charcoal if at all possible.

Yesterday when I picked up Porter for our walk there was an enormous pile of dirt blocking their driveway and 2 guys with Bobcats were moving it as fast as they could.  DS & DIL1's neighbor, Butch, had put orange cones around the pile and was standing in the shade across the street directing traffic.  When we got back about an hour later the pile was considerably smaller but while I watched 2 more dump trucks drove up and dumped their loads.  More dirt!  The Bobcats kept up their frantic pace moving all that dirt into the backyard to regrade it so it's less like a swamp in the spring and when it rains and also flatter.  Just for the record, Porter did NOT like the loud big-boy toys at all.  I'd have loved to drive one of those cool little Bobcats.  They look like such fun.

Durwood's brother, BIL1, had his hip replaced last Wednesday.  All went well and he got home late on Thursday.  He called yesterday to thank us for the get well card and to say that he's feeling great.  He said that everything's fine but when he got home from the hospital and was moving around something didn't feel right downthere.  He did some checking and discovered that when the doctor used superglue to close the incision he'd also glued BIL1's scrotum to his thigh.  (pause while you fall down laughing... ... ... ... ...)  I asked if he'd gotten SIL2 to help him out and he said no, he just peeled it apart and snipped some hairs.  Ouch.  Sounds like a painful process to me.  Glad you're all right and on the mend, BIL1.

July 6--Stickley Brothers, Desk.  Grace had known that her mother kept a lot of useless things but it wasn't until she started emptying out the Stickley desk in Mama's sitting room that the full impact hit her.  She had lowered the desk panel to find that every niche and pigeonhole was full of paper, little rubber banded packets of papers.  The great majority of it looked to be cash register receipts.  Why had she kept them all?

Well, I couldn't answer the question and was too sleepy to keep writing so I packed it in for the night.  Time to shower in my solitary splendor.  Dudes.
--Barbara