Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Here we are at November 1st, 2022

 It has been toooo long since I posted so will try to post how things are going.

It seems that my health is kind of OK.  My left side continues to be fine but my right side is slowly or not at all improving.  I can do everything with my left side but my fingers are somewhat numb as well as my right leg.  It does not impair me in any way so for that I am thankful.

I am settled in at 2094 Niles in St. Paul in my house which I am sharing with son Travis.  I GUESS I am getting ready for winter which I have not been here for several years.  Snow will be something I have not been in for perhaps 12 years and I can honestly say I am NOT all that excited about!

Terry is in GA near her daughter.  I have not seen her for several months and miss her terribly. From time to time I get the urge to jump in the car and drive to GA and I may still do that but I am not sure about driving 1100 miles!

You may ask why are we 1100 miles apart???  Well I had two strokes and Terry is in bed 24/7 so her daughter took her to be close to her and my kids brought me to St. Paul.  At my age I am not crazy about having others make decisions for me but it happens and that is life for now.

I am excited for Thanksgiving to come as ALL of the family will be here and that will be grand.  I just hope that the weather is good.  I will have to get a family picture for sure.

For now I am good.  I hope everyone is gearing up for the holidays and excited about them.  I THINK I am excited but really there is streak of sadness in all that has happened over the last many years BUT one needs to be positive and keep your head up as I try. 

To everyone who reads my blog I hope health is good and the holidays are a joyfully time.


  

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Not sure this blog is posting but will try

 Here we are as we are nearing winter time.  It is 7:00 PM and the temp is 41, a bit chilly I would say.  I will try to catch up on what is happening in my life IF that is possible.  

+I admit I have forgotten how to do some of this stuff as the two stokes I have had left me forgetting how to do some things.  SO it is Audrey's 14 birthday today.  She is a wonderful young lady and I wish her the VERY best in the coming year. I tried to post a picture but forgot how to do it.

Well how about that I figured it out.  There she is maybe at the age of 2 or so.
*I am in St Paul in my house and am so so so wishing Terry was with me but that is not the case.  She is in FL and will soon be in GA near her daughter.  With my two strokes we got separated and when we will get back together is anybody's guess.  I miss her dearly.
  • I have had two strokes and am NOT back to myself yet.  My left side is 100% but my right side is perhaps 85%.  I can do pretty much everything but have some tingling on an ongoing bases.  Will it get better, I am not sure.
  • So my life is not what I would like it to be.  Terry is not with me.  I am in cold MN for the winter and NOT in Naples.  Which means I will not be playing tennis this winter and perhaps not any time in the future.  
  • With may strokes the kids brought be to St. Paul and Terry is pretty much in bed so will be in an assisted living home in Peachtree city GA next week.  That is where her daughter lives.
  • With my right hand not doing so well I am going to make this short BUT I promise to TRY to get in to blogging kind of on a regular schedule.  
  • As for now I am kind of doing fine but I would so so like to be with Terry.  Perhaps that will happen again.
  • So for now I hope all are doing well and I hope things work when I try to post this.



Monday, October 3, 2022

October 3, the first Monday of the month

 Here I am having did my 5 block block already and ready for what the day brings.  What the may be is perhaps a given.  Perhaps another walk, some more computer, some TV and then sitting and wondering what my life looks like in the future!!  I know:

*Our farm is way way back in the past and where our farm was is now a wheat field

*Devils Lake ND is only a memory even tho I lived there for 8 years and that is where the 3 boys were born.

So here I am I St. Paul.  Yes my 30 years of teaching here are way in the past, perhaps 15 years ago!!!

My beloved Gail is no more and I miss her greatly.

My wife Terry no I miss her as we have not been together for several weeks.  She is in FL and here I am in  Minn.

So on with my life of late

I am here in my house and a blessing is my son Travis is living with me.  Also daughter Cynthia is nearby and that is good.  

After the two strokes I am trying my best to rehab my physical being.  I do exercises every day and go on at least 2 walks a day.  Are they helping.  Well I would like to think they are but IF they are the progress is very very slow at best.  Yet I have no complains as I can do pretty much anything but do have some numbness in my left side.  It may be I have that to just keep my humble.!!   

The neighborhood has a way of bringing back many memories.  IF I sit at the computer in the early AM I kind of relive memories as I watch kids, big and small, walk to school.  The memories go all the way from walking to Wood Lake School which was a mile and a half to the big yellow bus coming and of course to sitting with special gals on the way home from football and basketball games!!!  The memories are many and for the most part GOOD.  Notice I said most part!  Of course one can NOT live on memories alone.  Live goes on and yes one needs to live for the "now" and the future and not on the past.  So what about the "now" and in the future?  Well for now Terry and I are 2000 miles apart and that is difficult but then life can be that way some times. The future is up in the air for sure.  It seems that Terry is holding her own and my health seems to be stable for now.  What tomorrow or next week or next month brings is anyones guess.  

So I choose to live one day at a time and be thankful for what is.  I know at the age of 75 and a history of 2 strokes the physical state I am in I give thanks as it is pretty good taken everything into consideration.  

I will leave things at this.  I may try to mow the lawn to get some of the leaves up today and then of course get my exercise in too.  Other than that I will take what comes and be thankful for what God has given me.  I am hoping family, friends and all are in good health and enjoying life as the days pass by.



Sunday, October 2, 2022

Checking in again

 Well we are into November and I amWAY behind in on my blog. I will try to give an update on things here in St. Paul.

*As of today I am in St. Paul and Terry is in Naples.

*Terry is in an assisted living place with 24 hour care.  Terry needs help to get out of bed.  However she does eat well and seems to be doing OK.

As for me I have had two strokes.  At this time my left side is 100% and my right side is perhaps at 80% or better.  I can do all the daily things I need to do but I do have numbness on the right side.  

*I would like for us to be together but for now I am in MN and Terry is in FL. 

*The last time I talked to Terry's daughter Kim she did not give me any idea of when OR if Terry would travel to to be near Kim. in GA.

I guess that is enough for now.  I do hope everyone is doing well.

Carmen

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Here it is a week later

Terry

People are thinking Terry should be in rehab and I could go to to St Paul.

I will make this short.  My hands are not working very well.  It looks like it is a ways for either of us being  OK.  I will try to keep you updated when I get better.  Please keep Terry and I in your prayers.  

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Here are at mid week, July 13th

TERRY

Terry is the same today.  As I write she is reading the paper in bed.  I do need to get her out of bed and put clean bedding on as it needed to be done a few days ago.  But at this time all is good.

As I make my daily French Press coffee I was reminded of the time when I started drinking coffee.  It was the fall of 1966.  When going to college I worked under the Work/Study Program.  I think that meant I needed to work to earn money to pay for college!!!  Anyway the longer story is this.  The work study program was part of my $$ package when I started college.  The first year I worked as a janitor in the Churchhill dorm which was mainly for jocks at NDSU.  I worked one day during the week and then on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  The week day was fine as I went about sweeping floors. cleaning bathrooms etc but the weekend was a bit different.  Most of my time on Saturdays and Sundays were spent cleaning up after the Friday night and Saturday night parties.  I will not say what most of my time was spent doing but it was the kind of thing you wanted to make sure to not do it as a life long job!!!  Well to start my sophomore year I WANTED a change and now.  I landed in the barley department where two doctors worked.  They were very nice and the work was mostly fun.  The most fun was when I worked there in the summer of 1967.  Several times a year I was asked to put a small tractor in the back of a pickup and head west to Casselton.  It was there that the barley department had their experimental blots.  That meant there were rows and rows and rows of different varieties of barley and it took pretty much the entire day to cultivate between the rows.  But I got away from my point.  Big Don was my boss.  At times I would work on Saturday or Sunday and during those times I was by myself but when I worked during the week there were others working in the green houses too.  The first time I worked during the week big Don came over to where I was as said "time for lunch break".  When I replied I real did not need that he just said when you work here you need to take breaks.  Well for the next 20 minutes or so we sat around and shot the bull so to speak.  Well what is one to do when EVERYBODY has a cookie in their hand and a cup of coffee in the other hand.  You want to be social so you do the same.  Now I promise you they did not have FP and in fact it was far far far from that kind of coffee but it was hot, kind of tasty and I drank it to be social!  That was the beginning of my coffee drinking.  Later in the year I resorted to a new coffee pot to keep me awake the nights before tests.  And so the story goes.  To be honest I can not remember how I came to start making FP but I promise you it is a step above Folgers and maybe even two steps above Sanka which Mom and Dad drank in their later years.  I did not drink coffee until that time in college BUT I tasted the coffee that Mom brought out to Dad in the field.  Mom would fill a pint jar with coffee and bring it out to Dad in the field for lunch.  I did taste it once and that is probably the reason I never drank coffee until later in life!


Well this is the messy kitchen I woke up to so now that my blog is finished I will get busy and clean it up. Some how the day always goes better when the kitchen is clean.  As I close today I have very little on my agenda so maybe I should get a book from the library.  Some times in Naples I have read 25+ books in the winter and for some reason I have not gone to the library for some time.  Maybe today is the time.  

At 8:50 the temp is 84 with highs in the low 90s today so I will keep the AC on!!

Monday, July 11, 2022

Here we are at the second month of July AND it is John's birthday!

 TERRY

Terry is doing about the same as in the past few days.  I would say that she is staying the same and that it good.  We took a trip this morning but will talk about that later in the blog!


Here is John AND it is his birthday today.  I will not say how old he is but will say he was born in the same year as brother Ronald.  BUT in case you do not know this picture is a few years ago!!!  A man of many talents and he certainly put them to good use over the years.  I do think that at his age now if he needs building done or the like he may spend the money to hire it done.  I will say that still, at his age, he is doing and doing and doing.

I feel like I have put in a days work and it is still not noon.  Terry had an 8:15 doctor appointment this morning to have he hurt foot looked at.  It was a challenge to get her into, out of, into and out of the car as we went to the Dr.   He looked at it and said we should come back in a couple of weeks to have it looked at again.  Not much news for a whole lot of effort.  But she is again home and in bed and feeling OK.  They would not give her any pain meds but said she could take Tylenol to ease the pain.  Hopefully it will get better and hopefully FAST.  I know, I should have had the bed rail up from the beginning BUT!  I am wondering if I can take the afternoon of now that I have put in a full day in the first half???  I know, being a caregiver you are on call 24/7 and that is OK.

I am making progress on my 2023 calendar.  It is slow slow work and I am not sure.  I know there is no hurry but when I start working on something I like to finish it AND if you believe that I have some land in the everglades for sale😀.

With Terry's appt with the Dr. at 8:15 there was no tennis for me today.  I do think I have tennis tomorrow at 9:00.  With few people here now if we play we always play at 9:00.  I would like to play at 7:30 but some do not like the early time and MOST do not like 10:30 as by that time the temp is pretty high.  IF we had played at 10:30 we would have finished at noon.  The weather here at noon had a humidity of 63% and a temp of 89.  Better at 9:00 FOR SURE.

Some of my thoughts today are times with Ronald and John.  John had a boat and water skis so he provided  many trips around the lake and at the age of 10-16 that was a wonderful thing.  The lake days are no more and they were a long time ago.  Actually where we spent hours and hours swimming etc there is NO swimming now.  The Wild Life has it and so to speak it is now for the "birds".  I have always thought that wildlife is important BUT really is it more important than the human race as the lake was the only place to swim and boat for many miles and miles.  Anyway I as so so thankful for the years we had the lake when I was in school.  Now of course thee are not the number of people that lived there when I was at home.  I can think of 5 farms that are now farmed by one or two families.  So the people are fewer and the birds and animals are more so to speak.  I think some people call it process and some would have other names for it!!!

Well at this time it is past noon so will end my writings for today.  For those who read this take care and stay safe in this covid era.