Last night, after the surgeon told us that my father-in-law's condition was improving, he suffered cardiac arrest and they were unable to save him. As would be expected, we have spent the day today making the necessary arrangements and hosting the many friends he had accunulated over his life. What a wonderful, hard-working man he was, and how he will be missed.

I thank all of you who have wished our family the best during his open heart surgery.

I am comforted knowing that he did not suffer.  He never felt any pain and never actually awoke from the surgery performed Monday morning.  His last memory was that of his son (my husband) telling him he loved him and his wife telling him the same.

He was a wonderful man, who lived life on life's terms and never left things undone.

He will be missed.

While I missed most of the blogs on Saturday as I had to drive to SC, and most of the blogs on Sunday, as I had to spend most of the time in the hospital with my husband's family (which ofcourse, is my family too), and most of the blogs today, as I again was at the hospital all day, I am happy to be able to report that my father-in-law survived long enough to have the open heart surgery, and did, "as well as could be expected" in surgery.  He is in ICU, not yet having awakened, which the doctors tell us could be two hours from now or tomorrow sometime.

I am so very thankful he made it through the surgery.

I am so hopeful that the surgery will allow him to continue his quality of life, without which he would lose much of his "reason d' etre".

I am thankful that this focus on my family member has reaffirmed my basic belief that we need each other most in times of emergency, and find little fault with each other during these times.  When things are sailing along smoothly, we tend to find insignificant things upon which to focus!  Sad, but true...I guess that is just human nature.

Thanks to those who wished us well.

Happy blogging and I look forward to being able to join the "community" with better participation very soon.

Well, today I will be leaving to drive the 8 hours or so to Spartanburg, SC where my 81 year old  father-in-law will be undergoing open heart surgery Monday.  My husband has been down there all week as they have confined my father-in-law to bed in the hospital.  This man is a really active guy, and it is literally killing him to stay still in the bed and await the surgery!  Every doctor who comes to check in on him is offered the same reproach, "do you know how many taters and beans are ready to be harvested?  Why can't I go home and just come back Monday for the surgery."  They all smile and remind him that 10 days out of his life is worth the return, etc, etc. 

This man is an incredible one. He works an acre garden by hand, yielding so much produce that the driveway is always filled with customers. When he has finshed hoeing and tilling, weeding and picking for the day, he sits in his lawn chair and carves miniature rocking chairs. He has been doing this for years and when I met him he had buckets of these perfect little chairs just sitting in his basement.  He gives them to people he likes.  He gave me a whole bunch of them and I offer them for sale in my store.  He isn't interested in the money I get for him...he LOVES the emails I get from the satifaied customers!  In the winter, when he cannot work the garden, he makes quilts on his home-made quilting frame which is suspended from the ceiling in the basement.  He uses cheater's cloth, but handstitches his quilting designs...he works from dawn until dusk!  Our family has some wonderful quilts!

Finally, or should I say first, every morning this man begins his day (after breakfst, of course) with a 3 mile walk!

So, as you can see, lying in bed, being "still" is not his idea of fun!

Wish him a speedy recovery with me, if you please. 

Our family has been acquiring pets over the past ten 10 years.  The first to join the family was Mel, the cat who masquerades as a lion.  Regal he is and regal he looks...but don't let that fool you...he's not too bright.  His biggest thrill in life is sitting on the exact piece of newspaper you are trying to read!  We have to throw him "decoys"...yesterday's newspaper, placed casually on the floor, as if we are JUST ABOUT TO READ IT.  He will come from afar to sit majestically upon it. Mel lives inside.

Next to join the family was Killian.  When my husband and I married, my husband decided that getting a dog (something my daughter desparately wanted) was a good way to "bond" with my teenaged kids.  Off to the pound they went, being careful to select a dog that Mom (me) wouldn't be allergic to.  Schnauzers and Poodles are the least offensive to my allergies.  So, there she was, a two and half year old, super goofy looking dog, part schnauzer....other part ...STINK!  Whew!  Killian she was named and home she came, but she is an outdoors dog.  She has a lovely back porch and heated dog huts, a tent and more, but she is an outside dog!  She loves to run and play and has WAY more sense than Mel.  (After all, she is my best fishing buddy!)  Killian ruled the outside, Mel ruled the inside.

Next, because my daughter REALLY wanted another kitten, and, what the heck, we already had one, we returned to the animal shelter where she adopted a calico.  She named her Miah.  Miah is very pretty, and sneakier than Mel.  She is also a LOT mouthier.  She and Mel took a couple of days to work out the details, but it goes something like this.  In the morning, Miah bays at the door, reminding us that she (and her silent buddy Mel are HUNGRY).  I open the doors to the large closet that is their nighttime retreat, and feed them.  Within 30 minutes they are chasing each other up and down the hall, making more noise than my children did when they were young! Then, they sack out for the day, waking up in time to remind us (yes, Miah does the reminding) that it is BEDTIME ALREADY!!! So, I feed them again, and tuck them in for the night...all is quiet on the homefront.

And so the story goes, the family lived happily together, humans and cats inside, dog outside.  The children grew up and left home, and so, the animals now outnumbered the human residents.

In July, my daughter decided to move to CA....WAY across the USA!  She had a cat which she had adopted four years ago, and, since she was unsure of where she would actually be living once she arrived in CA, she decided to leave her cat with us....Hmmmm...this cat has been raised as an indoor outdoor cat....I decide that the best plan for our new family member, Dracula, is to keep her as an outside cat.  So, we started her off in the enclosed porch with Killian. It took a few days for them to get used to each other, but it appears they have worked out an agreement.  It goes like this: when I take Killian for a walk on the path through our woods to the lake each morning, Dracula walks 20 feet behind us.  On our way back, Dracula walks right alongside Killian...without any hissing or other unpleasantries.  They "hang out" together on the porch most of the day and then run free in the evening.  They come back into the porch for "supper" and the porch door is closed for the night.  In the beginning, Dracula kept to the high ground, perching on the table or the shelves.  Killian had her pick of the sleeping quarters.  This morning when I went out to take Killian on her walk I found that Dracula had taken over Killian's favorite travel kennel!  Killian was sleeping in her tent!  I think Dracula is now Top Dog!

Tonight I took their pictures.  Killian, now bows before the camera, while Dracula is comfortable in her Top Dog position!

I hope you have enjoyed this chronology.  Perhaps I need to get a life?

I just got in from mowing my lawn and am, once again, suffering the guilt and shame of a serial killer.  As always, I mounted the trusty Cub Cadet and began my whirls and swirls and dodging of trees and shrubs, trying to trim every blade of grass (ok, weeds) to my prescribed height.  All was going well until I rounded the corner of the house. There, in the path of the lawnmower (not an SUV mind you, but a lowly Cob Cadet) were a bunch of impatiens...right out there in the "lawn".  Oh, they were pretty, all colorful and happy showinng off their beautiful little bonnets atop their clothes of lush green...but they were trespassing...had crept into the "lawn", and I had no time to adjust!  Down they went! Nevermore to grace the side of my yard with their beauty.  I looked at all the other impatiens, loads and loads of them bursting out from the side of the house, and I SWEAR I could feel their eyes on me...bearing down....accusing me, "SERIAL KILLER!!!"  I thought about arguing my point with them, but in retrospect, had to admit they are right.  Every time I cut the lawn, I kill a few of those beautiful flowers...the ones that dared to cross the "line" from the garden to the "lawn". 

Forgive me, I had to get this off my chest!

So, in my last blog, I got WAY off topic with artman and as it turns out we have a similar experience.  I was born with a fairly common DEFECT politely referred to as "cross-eyed".  Lots of surgery, exercises and glasses since I was 10 months old resulted in the GREAT vision I enjoy today (yuck, yuck).

Nevertheless, this has afforded me the opportunity to really enjoy life's little bits of nonsense.  One of these is the trip to the DMV to get my new license.

Arriving from FL with a valid FL driver's license, I PRESUME I can simply saunter into the local VA DMV and get a VA one...have my photo taken, etc., but not endure the humiliation of the dreaded VISION TEST.

"Ok step up to the binoculars and tell me what letter is in the box" (Miss DMV)

""Hmmm, I'm not seeing a box here, did you turn on the picture?" (Me)

"OK, SOOOOO, you are BLIND in your right EYE!!!" (you can guess who)

"No, ma'am, I have a lazy eye -- my right eye, but if you close off the view in the left eye, I can see out of the right eye." (I explain)

"I'm SORRY!  You are BLIND in your RIGHT eye!" (uh huh, her again)

"So, what does that mean? Can I get my license?" (I hear your cry, "what, are you a glutten for punishment?")

"The RULES say that if you are BLIND in one eye you MUST have an additional mirror." (Interesting, I'm thinking, where will this mirror be suspended?  Can they really fake vision in a eye by placing an extra mirror in front of my good eye?)

"An extra mirror?  Where does this mirror go?" (I am really getting embarraased now as the crowds of other not-so-patient patrons wait for their turn to be mocked)

"YES, On the Passenger side of the CAR." (OK, now I have to start laughing)

"My car has a mirror there. I think most cars do these days." (Am I nuts?)

So, she finally tires of embarrassing me, or spots her next victim in the crowd behind me and grudgingly grants me the right to have a VIRGINA driver's license".

Thought to ponder...does a mirror mounted on the right side of a car have any beneficial effect for a person who is BLIND IN HER RIGHT EYE?

I have no idea why I thought of this, but I did, so here it is.

About nine years ago I lost a lot of weight.  I didn't try to, I wasn't sick, I'm sure it was stress.  Nevertheless, the weight was lost over a very short period of time.  I'll admit, it wasn't a pretty sight.

HOWEVER....

I was amazed at the fact that EVERY time I stood in line at a grocery store, or at the local Walmart, people I did not know would comment on my weight and tell me I should put on some pounds.  What amazed me was that I could never imagine telling another person, skinny or chubby, that they needed to eat more, eat less, or anything along those lines....ESPECIALLY if I didn't even know them!

Thankfully, in the past year I have put back on some of the weight and no longer have to endure the well-meaning folks who feel compelled educate me on how to achieve normal weight!

Now, how's that for a statement about something completely meaningless?

My post yesterday about my first husband and his DE accent got me thinking about some other funny episodes.

Every year, we had a big Halloween party for our friends in our local community theatre group. (They love to dress up anyway.)  We lived in a house in the woods with a 1/4 mile private dirt/gravel road/driveway. My then-husband, James, decided the number of people coming to the party would be more than we could easily accommodate parking-wise.  So, he asked the folks at the little church at the end of our dirt road if we could use their parking lot for our guests.  They were fine with that and James devised a plan.  Our guests would be directed to park in the church parking lot and then he and another of our friends would give them rides on the trailor behind the tractor up to the house.  Everyone agreed.

On the evening of the party our friend, Rich, arrived in time to help with the parking/chauffering duties.  I opened the door to find this 50-something, very heavy, jovial friend of ours dressed as a ballerina...pink tutu and all!

I said, "Rich! What a great costume!"  to which he smiled and explained, "James said he wanted Ballet Parking!!!"

I laughed until I cried!  James's version of the English laguage always cracked me up!   I could just see him having told Rich he wanted Valet Parking!

Anyone want to share their silly stories?

My first husband once went to borrow a circular saw from our landlord.

He left our trailor and a little while later returned with a look of consternation on his face.  -- He was holding a black umbrella.

He said, "I think Frank must be drunk!"

I asked why he thought so and he said," I asked him for a power saw and he hunted around and handed me this umbrella!".

I laughed until I was crying...in my husband's DE accent, his request sounded like "parasol"!  

I have no idea why I just thought of that....it happened over 25 years ago!