What Can You Get For a Buck Fifty?

If you shop the day after Thanksgiving you can get a nice shirt like I am wearing in the photo below. Actually, Tuell did the going and shopping. He got two such shirts for $1.50 each, and gave one of them to me. Is that not nice? There is a scanned ticket above verifying that the shirts were originally $20.00. It also shows that they are "croft and barrow" shirts. I haven't bought a shirt from a store in so long that I do not know if that is a good or bad brand!

Nothin' Could Be Sweet-ah!

There is not much more pleasure in life than finding clever and loving post-it notes all over your house after your granddaughters leave. These notes were hand-written by Livian and Avalie, and were placed in places where we would find them after they left from the Thanksgiving visit. What a great surprise, and I am not sure we have found them all yet.

Please, No More Hospital Visits

Last night (Sunday) at about 9:40 I boldly announced to Be, "You need to take me to the emergency room!" I had just washed out the cut in my finger and had seen that the gash was long enough and deep enough to need stitches.

You see, I was ripping a board on my radial arm saw to help secure the new top for our "entertainment center" and I accidentally cut my left index finger. But before we could go, I had to set the TV to record the rest of the football game I was watching, and Be had to wait a minute for the cupcakes she was cooking to finish. Then she had to spend a little time finding her purse. I wrapped my finger in an old towel and kept pressure on it until the nurse in the triage area removed it and said that I had done a good job of stopping the flow of blood. Stopping the flow was of some concern since I am on a therapeutic level of coumadin.

We checked in to the ER, then waited for four others before me to get patched up. One was a young girl who had several stab wounds, and whom the police were questioning as she waited and then went into the area where one sees the doctor. We finally made it in and then waited some more. A nurse came and looked at it. Then a PA came and looked at it. Then he apologized and said he had to go sew up someone else first. We waited long enough that we both had to go use the bathroom, and Be finally went out to the Toyota and got a book. I started trying to solve a math problem for the Problem of the Week contest. Finally the PA came and started sewing the gash back together. It took five stitches, and as he was finishing a doctor came in. Can you believe that his name was Dr. Henry Higgins? At about this time I fainted! I thought I was having a good nap but I woke up to find Dr. Higgins in my face and Be fanning me with a very small piece of paper. I was SO embarrassed.

They took an x-ray to see if the bone was damaged (it was not) and gave me a tetanus shot. Then we had to wait for my blood pressure to come back up. We finally got home about 2:30 am. And poor Be had to drive to Goldthwaite and back today. She was taking Gay Barton there to meet her son David Hancock. Fortunately Lenna was able to go with Be to help her stay awake on the way home. When I started writing this, they had just arrived home.

So the Lord took care of us again. I may have to change my sign at the church's building to: "Gracious God, thank you that I am still alive today and that I still have all of my fingers."

Those Dirty Birds

It has happened again. The first time was during the construction of the new Ministry Activity Center at the UCC. I assumed that the bird was so dirty because of all the dust in the air from the construction.


But last week it happened again. Another bird flew into the picture window of our garage and left a dirty smudge. This time there was no construction, so birds must naturally be dirty.

My theory is that this time the bird was a dove trying to keep from being eaten by our neighbor's cat. By the way, most of what you see in the picture is a reflection of things that are outside the window. I took the picture outside at night. In case you have trouble seeing the dove imprint, I highlighted what I could see of the outline in the third picture.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

You may have heard that, since we last bought a TV in 1972 or 1973, and since the world is going digital, Be and I decided to give ourselves a new TV for Christmas. We watched for a sale, found one, and bought one. Here is a picture of it in our family room. Of course, nothing is easy. Our TV stand needs some work to have room for everything, and I need to install a grounded plug rather than use an adapter. Also, I need help figuring out how to hook up all the peripherals. But in the meantime, I am enjoying FOOTBALL on the new TV. The picture is remarkable, even though you cannot tell it from this photo.

See If You Can Top This

Saturday as I was returning from picking up our NEW TV, I had an opportunity that I could not pass up, even if it made us 8 minutes late to our 42 party. Can any of you beat this price?

Top 10 Reasons I Want to Retire

10. I want to have more time to practice learning Spanish.

9. I want to write my autobiography. I can still remember the people who lived through the Great Depression.

8. I want to practice playing the guitar and the baritone ukulele.

7. I want to do woodworking in my garage.

6. I want to play more golf.

5. I want to fix up our house.

4. I am tired of hearing students say to me that I am a good person and a good teacher, but they cannot learn the way I teach.

3. I want to be involved in more ministries in the church like hospital visitation, the prison ministry, and a "handy man" ministry.

2. I want to spend more time with my wife, and as a part of that, work with her to eliminate the "piles" around the house.

1. I gave an exam last week. Seven out of thirty students passed. There were NO A's.

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I turned in a letter to my department chair today making official my plan to retire at the end of the Spring semester.

Abilene Pretending

You may remember the "Big Country" name. It got replaced by the "Friendly Frontier." Some influential persons thought the label was not good enough for Abilene, so they spent over $100,000 with some "consultants" , who came up with "Abilene Frontiering". Even the spell-checker does not think too highly of this logo.

So I propose "Abilene Pretending." We can pretend that this is a classy city, with lots of good restaurants, and ample entertainment. We can pretend that we have good public transportation that the citizens support. You get the idea.

But the best thing is that we can pretend that there are mountains south and east of Abilene. Some are even snow-capped. We can make a believer of you. Click on the photo below -- and BELIEVE!

It is Handy to be Handy

Be mentioned in her latest letter that I fixed the broken Venetian blind in our dining room. The first picture shows part of the problem with the old blind. One of the pull cords had become so frayed that the blind would not pull up and down without causing a lot of stress. I went to WalMart and bought some string to restring the old blind with.

Then Saturday I found a Venetian blind at a garage sale. I thought that at worst I could take the string off of it and use it on our old blind, because the string from WalMart did not look like true Venetian blind string. But I was not for sure I wanted to tackle that. With all my hesitation, the seller came down from $1 to $.50, so I bought it.


There was some hope that it would be the correct size. But it was not. It was too long and too wide. So in my usual bold fashion, I tackled cutting it down while I watched football on TV. It worked. You see the result. The the new blind is a lot nicer than our old one.

Sometimes it is handy to be handy.

Good News and Bad News

The good news is that the motor was not damaged in Lenna's and Justin's car. The bad news is that the car would not go.

Here is the story. Lenna called us Saturday morning about 10 to say that their car died in the K-Mart parking lot and would not start. They thought the fuel pump went out, because the repairman had told Lenna several months earlier that it could go out at any time. So I drove the van and Be drove the Toyota out to tow the car to Vernon and Fletcher and then loan them the van while the car was being repaired. After a bit of discussion, we decided to tow the car to our house and let Justin check out the fuel filter. He took it off and there was a lot of gunk in it. So they bought a new one at the parts store and he put it in. In the meantime, Be went on by herself to run some errands that we had planned to do together. After changing out the fuel filter, the car still would not start, so Justin said he had done all he knew to do and we should go ahead and tow the car to Vernon and Fletcher. We called Be and told her what we were doing and she was way across town, and it was close to noon, so I aborted on going to garage sales with her. Lenna brought me home and they left with the van.

Monday Lenna called Vernon and Fletcher and asked them to look at the car. That afternoon they said that the timing belt had broken, and sometimes when that happens it bends the valves in the engine and ruins the engine. Clyde Fletcher recommended that we replace the timing belt and see if the engine was okay. I gave the okay, and the good new is that the engine was not damaged. The bad news is that it cost about $490 to replace the timing belt. But Lenna picked it up today (we temporarily (hopefully) paid the bill) and it runs good now. Please pray that the car will keep running until they get financially on their feet.

Justin seems to be appreciated at his place of work. He is back working on a rig now, which means that he will get more pay. Things still seem to be going well with them. Continue to pray. Our God is good and strong.

Again I dress up as myself for Halloween

Rho called the other night and made a suggestion for how I could dress up for Halloween this year. I once before had dressed up as myself, and called it "Narcolepsy Man." So Rho suggested that I do something celebrating the fact that I now have a low white blood cell count. So there you have it! A Count is appropriate for Halloween, and I had the cloak for my Count routine at ACU. Here is the result. One of the close-up pictures shows my face with the white blood on it and the sign I wore so that people could know who I was. The other one shows a close-up of my feet. I could actually walk around in those shoes. Some of the kids at the trunk party at church (which gave us the opportunity to wear a costume) were utterly fascinated by my costume. You could see the wheels turning as they were sorting through why my legs were so short, and they were always pleased when they figured out that I was standing on my knees. The final picture is of both Be and me, and shows that I really was LOW, a LOW WHITE-BLOOD COUNT.

The 10 o'clock News

At 10:00 pm, Monday, October 20, 2008, I was wheeled from room 6717 at Hendricks Hospital and taken home by my wonderful wife Be. I am now in my recliner giving you a late-breaking news report of recent events.

Fortunately, Be was able to stay in my room with me this morning until Dr. Martin (my primary care physician) came in at about 9:30. He felt that my progress was good enough that I could go home after I saw Dr. Heaven, the hematologist. We needed to see the hematologist to work out when I could schedule the bone marrow biopsy, and to work out the details of how I would get the anticoagulants Coumadin and Lovenox after I left the hospital. He even indicated that I could pretty much return to normal non-strenuous activity like walking, teaching, and golf (as long as I rode in a cart) almost immediately. Unfortunately, no one informed Dr. Heaven that I was waiting for him, so I sat in the bed until about 8:20 this evening. Dr. Heaven was a bit miffed that no one informed him about his key role in my release. He went back out of the room and called Dr. Martin. After a while, Dr. Martin called me in the hospital room and asked me if the insurance company had talked to me about the fact that they were not paying for my stay any longer. Of course, they had not. The insurance company had apparently called the nurses station and informed them. I am not sure what the cut-off time was, but Dr. Martin was miffed about that development. (Are you miffed that I have already used the word "miffed" twice? The problem is that I do not know how to spell chagrined.) Dr. Martin said he would call the insurance company in the morning and have a discussion about their decision and the way they communicated it. So that is all up in the air.

Then Dr. Heaven came back and we began to plan my dismissal from the hospital, and my care regimen for the next few days. The short story is that he wrote prescriptions for Coumadin and Lovenox. I will take both for a short while and then continue the Coumadin indefinitely. I may eventually be able to stop taking it depending on the cause of my clot and possibly other factors unknown to me at this time. I am to see Dr. Heaven Wednesday morning for the bone marrow biopsy. You see, I have two conditions plaguing me at the same time. One is the blood clot and the other is a low white blood cell count that was discovered in the pre-surgery testing for my toe surgeries. Those two maladies are probably unrelated, but they are both blood issues. So Dr. Heaven is the focal point of finding the cause and determining the treatment of both.

Unfortunately, Dr. Heaven is recommending a much more conservative approach to immediate future activities. He wants only short, slow walks at first, and gradually build up. He recommends no golf for two months. Aargh! He reluctantly gave me permission to teach a class Wednesday afternoon, but wants me to sit during the class as much a possible. Since I will see him Wednesday morning, maybe he will be a bit more lenient by then. We shall see. But I have committed myself to do what the doctors say, even going with the more conservative one. Persons die from events like the one I had last Thursday.

So what is causing my problems? The clots could be from genetic disorders or as a by-product of surgery and the resultant sedentary recovery time. Both the clotting and the low white blood cell count could be from some form of cancer. I choose to accept the opinion of Dr. Heaven's associate, Dr. Aks, who came to see me Sunday night. When I mentioned leukemia to her, she shook her head and said that I looked too healthy to have that. But unknown to us, she wrote an opinion in my charts that Dr. Martin mentioned this morning. Perhaps the cause of the low white count is the medication Provigil that I take for my narcolepsy. Therefore Dr. Heaven has taken me off of it for the time being. I am going to be one droopy critter again for a while. I am going to try very hard to get much more sleep at night now. As I say that, I see that it is now 11:10 and I am still writing this report. Oh my!

I will not teach my classes tomorrow (Tuesday) and I will not teach my class Wednesday morning. I plan to teach the one Wednesday afternoon, and we will see how I feel after that.

I am going to bed now at 11:50. More to come later.

A Whiff of Mortality

The title is stolen from Garrison Keillor who said the phrase last night in the "Prairie Home Companion" show live from Moody Coliseum on the campus of Abilene Christian University. We had tickets to the show but did not get to go. Instead, Be and I listened to the show together, just the two of us, in room 6717 of Hendrick Hospital. Actually we only heard the first 1.5 hours of the show as a satellite link was lost for the last half hour of the show. NPR filled in with the last part of some former show. I may get to listen to the last part of it this afternoon on the recorded replay. Our tickets were not wasted. We were able to give them to Roberta Brown and Totsy Alderton, both of whom are members of the University Church of Christ where we attend. Totsy's husband was a former elder of the UCC who recently died suddenly of a heart attack during the night. Some of her children were in town and were going to the show so she was looking for a ticket. The fact that Totsy's husband recently died suddenly was a poignant moment for me because I thought specifically of him at 7:56 am Thursday morning. (More about that later.) We were pleased to provide tickets for these two sweet women, yet our tightwadiness showed up. We bought the cheapest tickets and apparently they were quite high up in the arena.

Becky was signed up to go to the Croptoberfest on Friday night and Saturday. She did not go. I told her that she should go because she needs to get the Pagosa Springs photo album put together. But I knew that she would not go. In fact, I knew that I would have made the same decision that she did if I were in her shoes.

I was scheduled to play golf Thursday afternoon but I did not do that. Instead I had chest X-rays, had an EKG, and listened to the blood pulse through my legs. It was during that last medical exam that I had the whiff of mortality. Because of all the missed opportunities listed above, I was planning to title this blog with "What a Revolting Development This Is" until I heard Keillor's phrase. You see, I had walked to school Thursday morning, and I had walked back to the car as we were headed to the doctor's office. I had walked into, and out of, the doctor's office. I had walked into the radiology area of the hospital, and then to the lab where the X-ray was taken. At this moment I do not remember when the EKG was done, but it was.

So I was finally on the examination table and a woman was getting up close and personal with me while examining the veins in my legs, including the upper-most veins in my legs. One leg was finished with no trouble found. In fact, I was giggling several times during the exam because the lady would turn on the sound and listen to the blood pulsing through the vein under scrutiny. It sometimes sounded like whales sound in the ocean, but then she would press lightly on my leg and the blood flow rate would increase with a sound like rrooooeeeeeEEEEEoour. You will need to hear my imitation some time. But finally the examiner's demeanor became more serious, and she said that she had found a clot. She went to get someone else to double check her finding, and also brought Be back to the examination room with her. The second person verified the results, and they said that they would call the doctor and start the procedure for me to be admitted to the hospital immediately. It had been since before 7:30 that morning that I had used the bathroom so I asked if I could go use the bathroom. "NO!" was very emphatically said. I was not allowed to get up! I could have used a plastic bottle, but my enthusiasm for using the bathroom was gone. I finally realized clearly that I almost died at 7:56 am when I had to stop walking to school because I was so out of breath. It was like I used to feel when I had just finished running the mile race in a high school track meet except that I could not recover my breathing nearly as quickly. I even had the bloody taste that I would get because I had used the deeper parts of my lungs that had not been used in a while. It was at that time Thursday morning that I thought of Jack Alderton and his heart attack. But I really did not think that I was having an attack because I felt no pain in my left arm. I just could not breath in enough oxygen.

I now know that it was foolish of me to slowly force my way on to school, but we do not have hindsight when making decisions. And I certainly did not want those students to be deprived of taking my wonderful exam that I had created for them. So I went on. And I made it. Now I have this inner feeling that my life is not worthless, nor is it to be wasted. I already had those feelings before but they are magnified somewhat now.

Please let me return to the saga of the hospital admission experience. They soon found me a room, and these two poor women tried to hoist me from the exam table to the gurney. I finally just scooted over on my on, and they seemed to appreciate it. They were also glad that I did not have lung failure in the process. I was rolled through the hospital to a room, I again scooted onto the room bed, and they told me to NOT get out of bed. Later I was scooted onto another cart and they transported me to a lung exam. I had to breath in some radiated air and hold my breath as long as I could while they took pictures of my lungs from several angles. I held my breath for almost a minute an a half. So you can see that I am not an invalid!. The pictures showed at least two pulmonary emboli in my right lung, and a larger one in my left lung. All indications are that the larger one was what caused my difficulty breathing on Thursday morning and the other two had happened before Thursday morning. It was about 4:45 when the results were coming out of the machine, and Dr. Martin (my primary care provider) was there to see the results as they were being produced. I am getting good care! Also the lab technician asked if it would be okay if he left me on the exam table for a few minutes as he wanted to quickly deliver the results to the radiologists before they left at 5:00. He came back after a few minutes pleased to report that he had been successful. When Dr. Martin saw the results he immediately called a pulmonary specialist to seek counsel. He also scheduled me to see a hemotologist. The main reason for the hemotologist is to help discover the cause of the blood clot. I will save that saga for another blog, hopefully to come soon.

At this time all I know is that I am stuck in this hospital bed until at least tomorrow. I was able to get up and slowly go into a shower in my room, sit on a chair, and with Be's help get cleaned up yesterday. More to come, and I apologize that almost all my blogs seem to be about my health issues. I always thought that I was a healthy person.

Tent Girl

Life comes at us from interesting angles sometimes.


This past Wednesday night, Be and I were eating supper with the Holmans at the Ministry Activity Center at church. Our congregation's Campus Minister/Involvement Minister came to our table with a strange look on his face. He looked at Be and me as he said, "There is a girl here with a big heavy backpack who is needing a safe place to pitch her tent for the night. She is walking across the United States, arrived in Abilene this afternoon, and the Salvation Army will not let her put her tent on their property." After a few questions, we went over to the table where she was eating to introduce ourselves to her. Her name is Cheryllynn, and she confirmed that she is trekking across the USA from New Jersey to California. We agreed to let her put her tent in our yard and use our bathroom, but made no further commitments. It was a strange feeling having someone camp in our yard when we had an empty bedroom, but it was made easier that first night because Jade was staying in the room until Lenna returned from Dallas with Justin. You see Tent Girl and her tent in the photo. Please observe that the tent has no tent fly and is not very substantial. That will be important later.

Thursday she went to the church's building and Derrick showed her around ACU, she sat in on a psychology class, and met some people. As I was walking home after my morning classes to go play golf, she happened to come out of the church office and met me. She was very apologetic, but asked if she could keep staying in her tent in our yard for several more days. Derrick had interested her in staying long enough to attend our 9:00 o'clock service Sunday night that has more than 1000 students in attendance. I readily agreed, went home and told Be, and then left to play golf. This is now Sunday night and Be plans to take her to the Flying J truck stop at Tye in the morning so she can hitch a ride to San Antonio.

Since she has been here several days we have learned a bit about her. She is 28 years old, and is divorced. As she has travelled the USA, she has walked a lot, but has also caught rides (mainly with truckers) some of the time. As I mentioned, she started in New Jersey two months ago, and eventually got to Chicago. Then she started following the old Route 66 west. When she got to Amarillo, she decided to have a look at Texas. She went to Lubbock for a few days, and then came to Abilene. We have learned that when she was deposited in Abilene, she had no clue what to do. So she started crying and praying for God to help her figure out what to do. (I will mention here that before this trip she was not a religious person. But she claims that she has become more so through the sights and adventures that she has experienced.) Quite soon an Abilene city bus pulled up. She took this to be a sign and got on. She asked the driver for suggestions regarding her plight, and he suggested that she come to the UCC for supper and some help. He even made sure that she got on the correct transfer bus, and told the new driver to let her off at the UCC.

We have continued to feel funny with her sleeping in a tent and our room empty, but she seemed to prefer that. She wanted to impose on us as little as possible. However she ate supper with us Thursday and Friday night. Saturday morning she went to garage sales with us, and then Derrick gave us tickets so that we could join him and his family at the Kiwanis Fish Fry. She had lunch with us today, then attended our small group study here and had supper with us. She went to the 9:00 o'clock as planned, and came back soaked at about 10:30 because it had started raining. When she went to her tent, it was soaked inside and out. So her stuff is now drying out in our garage, and she is staying in the bedroom tonight.

It seems that our life is never boring.

One Boot, Two Boots, Three Boots, Four

Tuesday I went to the doctor's office wearing ONE BOOT -- this boot.
















I took with me TWO BOOTS in a plastic bag. These are the boots that I wore several years ago when I had bone spurs removed from both of my big toes at the same time. At my previous appointment, the doctor had said I was doing well enough that I should be able to get out of the big boot and into a "post surgery" boot that would be less restrictive. I told her that I already had one and she said to bring it to see if it would work. For the fun of it, I took them both.



Sure enough, my toe is doing great. She took out the stitches, and said she would get me a new boot. I whisked out my boots and said, "I already have one. In fact, I have two. The previous doctor did both of my toes at the same time." That was a bit of a slam at her husband because he would not do both toes at the same time. She looked at the boots and noticed that the soles were very stiff. In fact, she commented that the soles were wooden, and chuckled about my having "real" wooden shoes. So she rejected my boots and sent for a boot for which the sole is rubber, and therefore a bit more flexible. That is, she sent me home with THREE BOOTS in a bag.

I wore boot number FOUR home. Anyway, I am glad to be out of the klunker boot, except for the fact that I do not feel that I can wear shorts to teach in any more. My foot is doing great, and I should be in regular shoes a week from Tuesday.

Can Someone Give Her Some Help?

By help, I do not mean physical help, rather psychological help. In the pictures you can see two more van loads of left-over garage sale items. Be and Jade went to garage sales this morning, and Be came home with two more commitments for left-over sale items. This is in preparation for another fund raising sale for Taylor's Washington D.C. trip. Granted, one of the commitments was from the Coopers, Taylor's other grandparents. But the other one was from Melaika Fitzgerald, who is about the same age as Lenna, and once lived just down the street from us and went to school with Lenna.

So this afternoon, we went to Melaika's place and FILLED the van. You can see the results stacked on our back porch and driveway. Before we could even get the van unloaded, the call came from the Coopers that their stuff was ready. We hurriedly unloaded the first van load, and then went for another one. The second photo shows what the back of our van looked like when we got home. The third photo shows a hide-a-bed and a rocking chair that are under the stuff you can see in the second photo. Fortunately, the Coopers had their stuff nicely boxed up, so we had no trouble loading it in. In fact, it is going to remain stored in our van for a few days.


Taylor will get some of the proceeds from the Coopers' sale, so she should we well on her way to achieving her goal for the trip. But Be is once again having to go through the massive job of organizing and pricing a LARGE amount of stuff for another sale.


Woe is she! When will she learn?

Better News Than Could Be Hoped

My surgery went well today. Mrs. Dr. Bruton did it, and I like her much better. I do not have a pin in my toe because the area seemed stable to her, so it is held in place by a splint inside the boot. I am to keep my foot above my hip most of the time until my appointment with the Mrs. Dr. Monday. She also wants me to take the pain medicine until then even though I seem to not need it, so I will.

The sad part is that I will be wearing the boot when school starts. But the good news is that I will be able to teach all my classes, and I will not have to go to the pre-session meetings, nor to the opening chapel. Yeah!

Thanks for your prayers. They are working. Love to all.

The Countdown Is On

Monday, my primary care physician was a bit chagrined that I was not able to have my surgery last week. But he ordered more blood tests, and said that he would check the results on Tuesday, and anticipating that they would not be too bad, he would try to expedite my surgery. He followed through, and I am scheduled for surgery tomorrow (Friday) at 10:00 am.

Therefore I have started getting stuff done that I need mobility to accomplish. Yesterday I went to my office and got as much done as I could hope for. This morning I got up early and started pulling up the dead sunflowers in the garden. Be was pleased about that, because she was thinking that she would have do it by herself. And those sunflowers make her itch something crazy. She came back from running in time to help me finish the job, and you see the result in the photo.


I am playing golf this afternoon at the Abilene Country Club. The club is letting the University Church have a "last round of golf with Eddie Sharp." We get a box lunch, a cart, warm-up balls, and 18 holes of golf for $20. That is a great deal, and things have worked out so that I can do it. I feel blessed.

Want to See Something Really Cool?

Here is something I find incredible. Go to the web site http://maps.google.com/ and in the box next to the Search Maps tab type the following address: 1365 Cedar Crest Dr, Abilene, TX 79601, and then click on the Search Maps tab.

Next click on the Street View tab in the top right part of the picture. You should now see a little man and some streets marked in blue. There should also be an "A" tab in the picture. It is supposed to be at our house, but it missed us a little to the left. So drag the "man" to the blue street which curves in front of our house a little to the right of the "A" tab. You should be able to see our windmill now. You can rotate the picture 360 degrees, and can move up and down the street. You can also zoom in a little bit. Is that not wild? I just moved to a place on the street so that I can see both our windmill and our house in the background.

Now for the best part. I want to test your deductive reasoning skills, especially Tuell's. Move the little man to the back of our house and rotate so you can see our back yard. Here is the test: When was this picture taken? First one to comment a correct answer gets a raucous round of applause.

Woe Is Me

Yesterday I was supposed to have my second (and last) toe surgeried. Alas, Mrs. Dr. Bruton would not do it. I am a bit anemic -- my hemoglobin is a bit low and I have a slightly low white blood cell count. She called my primary care doctor, Dr. Martin, but he was on vacation. This is twice that doctors' vacations have left me hanging this summer. Anyway, I will see Dr. Martin Monday to see how to proceed. I surely hope I can get the surgery done before school starts, even though that means I will have to wear a boot into my classes. But we will see. When I know something, I will let you know. Please pray that the correct decisions will be made.

What Can You Learn at the Social Security Office?

For some reason, I have this idea that a blog was originally to be an opinion piece, for which there might be some disagreement. This piece I am writing is my opinion and there are definitely persons who disagree.

When we went to the Social Security office, we learned that since I am drawing social security payments, any children that I have that are still in elementary through high school (not older than 19) could be drawing monthly social security payments equal to half of what I am getting. That means that if Taylor were my daughter, then she would get these payments until she graduates from high school, or drops out of school. Now you can see where this is going. Be and I reasoned that Taylor has already lost over $10,000 because we did not know this fact. We cannot explain why this is the law -- it just is. So the very night we learned this we went to see Guinn and Callie and proposed that we adopt Taylor. We assured them that this would be a "paper" transition only, and our relationship with them, and Gordon, and Lenna would not change. Taylor could even keep her last name. You could see in Callie's face that this was not going to fly, and she said that they would need to talk to Gordon about it. I asked if it could be done quickly because money was flying out the window by the hour.

Two days went by, so I called. I was informed that Gordon had heard of some new GI benefit that "would be even better for Taylor." So I urged them to encourage him to look into this as quickly as possible. No word. Well, of all things, finally on Taylor's birthday, Gordon called her. Fancy that! I do no know how long it had been since she had heard from him, but now he is the "good daddy." I asked to talk to him, and he said that he had an appointment with an adviser the next day. Sure enough, the next day, Guinn was to pick up Taylor for the week-end, so he and Callie came together. With great flourish and smugness, she gave me a sheet of paper that was supposed to settle the question once and for all. Indeed, there is a new law that will take effect August 1, 2009, that will pay increased benefits to children of military personnel who meet certain requirements. Gordon meets all of the requirements.

The short version of it is that if Taylor goes to college (or trade school, or any other such higher education) following high school, she will be eligible for benefits through Gordon. It was too complicated to digest on the spot, so I told Guinn and Callie that I would look at the numbers and see what I found.

But the thing that made me so upset that I have had trouble sleeping, and have sometimes been a bear to live with (just ask Be) is this. Callie said that no matter what I determined, Gordon was not going to agree to our adopting Taylor. Then she went over to Taylor and got really close to her and said, "Your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you too much to let you be adopted. You are worth more than $40,000 to him." At this point, Be said, "What does that mean?" Callie said something of the form that she is worth more to him than any amount of money. Be reasoned that it would be Taylor's money - not his. He wasn't giving up anything. I said that if she meant that much to him, then HE could just give here the money and everything would be settled. She said that was not possible.

Then we got the story of Callie's background. Her parents split, and her mom remarried. The step-dad wanted to adopt Callie when she was 11, and apparently they told her that her dad did not love her, and that was why he was agreeing to the adoption. At this point her tears were flowing, and she reported that an uncle saved her from that disaster, and she quoted the words that he used to describe the step-dad. I will not repeat them. Callie said that she did not want Taylor to go through the trauma that she had to endure. We claimed that the cases were as different as black and white - we were not saying anything about any parents, no relationships would change, and we could get some money for Taylor that she was eligible for. But Callie clearly indicated that she did not trust us. I said, "Callie, you know us better than that." She said, "I think so, but . . ."

Now for the numbers. I calculate that if we could adopt Taylor by January of 2009, and if she finishes high school, then with 5% interest calculated, she would have about $59,000 when she graduates from high school. If she goes for the GI benefits, then she gets nothing if she does no more schooling. The GI bill will pay approximately $8430 per year for tuition after high school, plus $1000 per year for books and supplies, plus a housing allowance equal to a military E-5 category. I made what I consider to be a generous estimate of that figure, $725 per month. At the highest, I calculate that she could be awarded $72, 520 for schooling if she goes four years. I am assuming that they pay the housing in the summer whether she is in school or not.

So it is clear, is it not? The choice is $59,000 for sure which will be Taylor's to use any way she desires, or the potential of $72,000 paid to someone else if things work out right.

My opinion is that I am old enough to know that this world does not run on logic and wise choices. Rather it appears to me that most of the choices people make are based on emotion and self-serving interests. But I cannot seem to learn that, so I keep trying to use what I consider to be logical arguments, and only get frustrated and angry. As an example, consider the kind of "sound bites" that we get from politicians. Is there any logic in most of it? I do not think so - it is mostly emotion and self-serving platitudes.

Well, the end result is that some people are idiots. I leave it to you to decide who they are. Aren't you glad that you do not live with me? Isn't Be Green the best in the world? Yes, and AMEN.

Six Families. Huge!

The advertisement in the newspaper said, "Six families. Huge."
Here is how you count the "families." First, our family. That is, Taylor's stuff and our junk.
Second, the leftovers from a garage sale in the Canterbury Trails area. We do not even know the name of the people, but there were at least two families involved in that sale.
Third, a whole van load of leftovers from the Willingham's estate sale.
Fourth, some things from Lenna and Jade.
Fifth, some really nice things from Steve and Carin Ezzell.
Finally, some things from Gene and Jeanette Linder.

All of these things (except Taylor's) were donated to help Taylor raise money for her trip to Washington, DC, which is to happen in March. These pictures were made during the sale. The recliner in the first picture was for sale but didn't sell. Nothing sold for more than $10, and there were only two of those items. But the quantity of stuff that was sold is indicated by the fact that Taylor cleared $350 in the sale. That was well beyond our expectations. By the way, we sold our dining room table--the only one our kids have ever known at our house. There was a bit of nostalgia in that.

After the sale, we took three wheelbarrows full to the dumpster. Yesterday we took several boxes of items to Goodwill. And we have a stack of stuff to take to the Christian Service Center. Be worked like you cannot imagine on this sale. Taylor owes her -- bigtime!

Bad News and Good News

First the good news. I had the stitches removed yesterday and my toe is doing great.

Now the bad news. The foot doctor has decided to go on vacation during the time when I should have had the pin removed and had the second toe work done. He neglected to tell me about this. I found out when we went to the scheduler to get an appointment to have the pin removed. She started scheduling me for a week later than it should be. Needless to say, I became an unhappy camper since I would be wearing the boot for an extra unnecessary week. Be was with me, so calmer heads prevailed. She suggested we just wait there at the Dr.'s office and talk to him to see if he would let someone else pull the pin at the proper time. So we waited--thirty minutes. When we were called in, we got to see his wife instead, who is also a podiatrist, and was actually the first one I saw when this ordeal started. She was sympathetic with my dilemma, but was unwilling to turn the task over to another doctor in their office. Three of the four doctors were to be gone at the same time, and the one remaining was going to be swamped.

Now some more good news. She inspected my foot and decided on an alternative action. She got a "splint" ready, and then went ahead and pulled the pin from my foot. With the splint on, I can wear the boot for the originally scheduled time, and then get rid of it. But I also can now get my toe wet, so tonight I can TAKE A SHOWER! Everyone here is happy about that.

Now some more bad news. I still have to wait until later to get my second surgery, so I will have to be wearing the boot when school starts.

Now a little good news. My second surgery would have been two weeks later than I was originally to have it, but Mrs. Dr. has started back to doing some surgery also. She had cut back her schedule because of her three young children. But she said that she could do the surgery a week before Mr. Dr. could, if that was okay with me. I readily agreed because I like her better than him. The end of the story is that I appear to be scheduled for the second surgery only a week later than originally planned.

We shall see. One thing I know. One week from the day after tomorrow, I am taking the boot OFF, and then I can drive again.

$50 an Hour

One way to think of it is that one hour cost us $50 this past Saturday. Another way to think of it is that a certain person earned more than 6000% interest from us on Tuesday of this week. Here is the story.

At the Willingham's estate sale on Saturday we looked at their dining room table and 8 chairs. It had originally been priced at $200 and was marked down to $100. The chair cushions will have to be replaced, and one of the chairs has tape holding the arm rest together. Also the finish is becoming "alligator skinned" on the table top so the whole set needs to be reworked. The table is oval-shaped and is 66 inches long and 45 inches wide. There are two leaves, each 16 inches wide. Be was concerned about my ever getting around to reworking the set, and where we would store it in the meantime. There was also concern about whether the table would sag in the middle when the leaves were put in it. So we decided to pass on it, and came home. While eating lunch we discussed how the table would fit in our room and how nice the set will look when it is refinished. Be finally decided that she could live with the table as it is until I can work on it. So we went back to the Willingham's. As we arrived, we saw one of the chairs on the front porch and we got this sinking feeling. Sure enough, Bonnie told us that a dealer had bought a whole bunch of the furniture (very cheaply) and was in the process of moving it. She seemed very sorry that it had been sold before we came back, and she said she would find out who bought it.

On Monday, while we were loading all the items they gave to us for Taylor's garage sale, I asked Bonnie again about the dealer. She did not know much information, but said the place was on Butternut near 1st street, and had a white fence in front of the "store." Tuesday morning, about 11:30, we finished a visit to the Social Security Office and drove to Butternut. We had not realized how many resale shops there are on that street. At the third one where we stopped, the lady owner knew of the Willingham sale and told us how to find the place where the dining room set would be. Then she said, "It may have already been sold because I did not see it still there this morning." Our hearts were sinking again as we drove several blocks and found the resale place. There WAS a fence, but is was not white, and all the goods for sale seemed to be outside.

We entered the sale lot and a quick look told us that the table and chairs were not there. There was a lady and a young man trying to wash a bed frame, but they mostly ignored us. I saw a shed off to the side which had a tarp covering the top half of the wide opening into the shed. I walked over and peeked under the tarp, and called to Be, "Here it is." That got the lady's attention, so she asked if we needed any help. I explained that we had seen the table and chairs at the Willingham's and that we were interested in possibly buying them. We went inside the shed, and there was a sign on the table, $400 -- with 8 chairs. So I started running down the set, telling all the things that were wrong with it, and she just looked at me like a tree full of owls. Finally we told her that we had come back to the Willingham's just after she had bought the furniture, so we knew the price that was posted there. I think Be almost fainted when she heard me say it, but I said, "Well, I will get the process started. We will give you $100 and write you a check right now. After a moment she said she would take $200. I said a few more bad things about it, and offered $130. She said good things about it and finally said $150. I hmmm'ed and haww'd a bit, and I could tell that she had reached her limit. So we accepted the bid. After we had given her the check, she said that someone earlier had agreed to pay her $350, but they did not show up to get it. She said she does not hold anything without a deposit. We went back that afternoon in the van and picked it up. You can see a picture of the table with one leaf in, and another picture of one of the chairs.

We are enjoying the table already, and we plan to sell our old table Saturday it we can. However, there is a great deal of nostalgia associated with that table. It is the only table our children have ever known, since we bought it after we had lived in Missouri only one year.




















Okay, here is the teaser. What was the occasion for our visit to the Social Security Office, and what did we learn there?

Garage Sale Countdown

Taylor has signed up for a trip to Washington, DC, in March of 2009. We agreed to pay half of her fee, but she must raise the other half. So there is to be a "benefit" garage sale to raise funds for her trip this Saturday. She has cleaned a lot of stuff out of her room to sell, and we have contributed some of our junk. But the organizers of the DC trip suggested that students go to other garage sales and offer to collect all items that do not sell, with the hope of selling them at their own sale.

This past Saturday Be and I and Jade went to some garage sales and at a few of them we mentioned about Taylor's fund raising effort. (Taylor was over at the Cooper's for the weekend. If you question why we would make this effort to help her, I think you can figure out where the money will come from if she does not raise it!) One lady took Be's telephone number and said she might call. Sure enough, about 2:00 that afternoon she called and said the items were stacked on the driveway and we could come get them. We took the GMC van and filled it about 2/3 full through the back seat. The people were very nice and helped us load the van. I think they felt sorry for me since I was wearing the boot.

We had also gone to an estate sale at the Roy Willingham house just down the street from us. Roy was a medical doctor and an elder at the University Church of Christ. We mentioned Taylor's situation to our friend Bonnie Willingham, and she asked Be to call her the following Monday to see if there was anything left Taylor could use. It turns out that there were a LOT of items, some of them very nice, left for us to choose from. This time we did not have to take everything, only the things we thought would sell. So Taylor, Be, and I loaded stuff from 4:30 to about 7:00 Monday evening. The van was FULL through the back seat. When I say full, many of you know my reputation for being able to pack, and I had one of my better days! I was exhausted that night, and this flurry of loading and unloading the van is why my post about Eddie Sharp was delayed.

So all of these items are now in our house ready to be sorted and labeled. Want to come help? I have been spending a fair amount of my time repairing some things in order to make them sell better. Some of that I can do with my foot up, but not much.

The pictures show the current state of our house. What a mess!

There is another interesting aspect regarding the sale at the Willingham's. That story will come in my next post.

Sad Sunday

At the end of the worship service Sunday morning, Eddie Sharp announced that he is leaving UCC to begin preaching at the University Church of Christ in Austin. It is near the University of Texas. I always thought he would be here long enough to preach my funeral.

The auditorium was very quiet during his announcement, and you could see people crying. After the announcement as he was sitting down, the congregation gave him a standing ovation. I am sure he will joke that we were so glad to see him go that we stood and applauded when he told us. He has been here 28 years. He gave several reasons, and tried valiantly to explain that he was not upset about anything, and that the elders were not upset with him about anything. One of the factors is that he has a grandson living there. Also, he says that people need a new beginning every so often, and in the past he has been able to do that while remaining at UCC. But this time, he was struggling with finding a renewed energy.

Dickie Hill, the current chairman of the elders, gave a very good response. (The elders had known this was coming for a few days.) He said that the Sharps are now a part of our family, and always will be. He said it is hard when a family member leaves home, and we will be grieving for a while. He encouraged the congregation to be patient with the elders, because no one should make an important decision while they are still grieving. Very well stated. He had a hard time getting through his prepared notes.

In the near future, one of our members, Bill Young, will do most of the preaching, with others pitching in about once a month. Bill is a very good speaker, and he will do some of the office work that Eddie had been doing. We will hire a couple of part time people for a while to do some of the other things, and to help our current staff not be overburdened. Here is a link to a newspaper article about Eddie's announcement.

Well, that's the news from desert Abilene, where all the men are bow legged, all the women are good cooks, and all the children are mutant ninja turtles.

In my next posting, I will tell you why this one was a day late. Things are popping around here.

Recuperation

You see in the picture the way I look much of the time now. I try to keep my foot elevated as much as possible. When the Olympics begin, I may not have much trouble staying in this pose.

Regarding my surgery, the doctor said that my toe was a "classic" illustration of the ravages of arthritis. He did the same surgery on a woman right after he did mine, and her surgery took 30 minutes less time. Usually the procedure goes through well-defined steps: First peel back the skin, then move out the muscles and ligaments, then the nerves, and finally you are at the bone. In my case, when the skin was pulled back, it was a tangle of bone spurs, scar tissue, and all the other. He had to be very careful not to mistake a nerve for a blood vessel, so he had to let more bleeding occur just to be sure. To indicate how good a job he did, he lightly rubbed various parts of my toe (during my check-up five days after the surgery) and I had feeling in all the places. He was very pleased.

In most people, the piece of the bone that gets sawed off comes out in one piece. In my case he had to chisel it up into several smaller pieces to get it out. Therefore I think that no-one should question that my surgery was needed.

It is now a week and 4 days after the surgery, and I am having to hold myself back because I am feeling so good. I went to church today, both class and worship, and made it fine. I took a folding chair from home and propped my foot up both in the Bible class and in the worship.

As a preview of coming news, I will say that my next posting will be about something that happened during the worship assembly today. Happy speculating!

Fix That Toe

I have got some pressing issues out of the way and am ready to start being more regular in posting some daily life details. So I will start with my recent surgery. Arthritis has destroyed both of my big toe joints. I am getting my toes so they will move again via a type of surgery called a Keller bunionectomy. The surgeon has to open up the toe joint, clean off all the bone spurs (which were on top, bottom, and both sides), then saw off a part of one bone. As you probably know, a joint consists of a convex part on one bone and a concave part on the other bone. The part that is sawed off is the concave part from the smaller bone. Then some of the natural encapsulating tissue around the joint is stuffed into the gap and sewed in place. The joint is then held rigid with a pin for 4 weeks while scar tissue and whatever else fills in the gap so the toe will heal in the correct place. To keep from bending and hitting the pin, I have to wear a boot, which is really a cast that I can take off for a little bit if things get itchy or hurting. But I cannot let my toe get wet for the entire 4 weeks to keep from getting an infection.

My blood work indicated that I might have a higher-than-normal chance of getting an infection, so he has put me on two weeks of a very expensive anti-biotic medication. The photos show me pre-surgery, post surgery, and (do not look if you have a queasy stomach) the PIN!




I will give some more details in the next issue of the News From Bo.

Love to all.

Garage Sale Finds

Today, Be and I went to some garage sales. At one we found a serger sewing machine. The people selling it go to our church, and they are preparing to become missionaries, so they will not be needing the machine any more. We did not "need" it either, but I was considering buying it because it was a good price, and was such a cool machine. Then Be had the idea that Sharla might like to have it, so we called her right then. Cell phones are so nice! The short end of the story is that we bought it for her, and you can see two views of it here.

We also bought a new exercise machine. Be calls it a "glider" so I will also. You do a sort of walking motion on it, and it keeps up with calories used, distance travelled, carbohydrates burned, time, heart rate, and some other stuff. We both used it this afternoon. My excuse for wanting to buy it is that I am committing to exercise more, and this seemed to be something I could and would do while I watch TV, or whatever. I hope it keeps me going with the exercise.

Bird Feeder Add-on

When the doves would come to our bird feeder, they would sling food out of the tray and onto the ground like crazy. We were having to fill the feeder every day. Be learned that birds like "tray" feeders also, so she bought one that could be both a feeder and a bird bath. You can see the one she bought in the back of this photo. We started using it for a bath, but it gave me an idea.

So one Saturday, I got out my saw and some cedar that I had saved (for probably 30 years), and constructed a tray that could hang under our feeder. Now much of the sprayed food lands in the tray, and we do not have to fill the feeder nearly as much. We are really enjoying watching the birds feed outside our window.

Grant Rides

If you know me, you know that I have been friends with a remarkable young man for many years. Grant has Asberger's syndrome, and has more mathematical talent than anyone I have ever known. But the things that make him so special also isolate him from the world in general. He is not normal, and society has trouble accepting people who are very different. Thus many of us at ACU have tried to be Grant's friends and supporters. He has been a great blessing to us.

One day it occurred to me that Grant might like to learn to ride a bicycle. I had taught all our kids to ride, and had also taught Taylor how to ride, so how hard could it be? Well, first of all, it is easier to learn when you are young. Also, Grant has to work hard to control himself in stressful situations. But he said several times that he wanted to learn. So we have started. We have to take the lessons in little steps. As we go through the process, you can see the stress building in him. So we agreed that we would practice until he thought it was time to quit for a while, and then we would begin again later.

So far we have had three sessions of about 30 minutes each. The first time he learned to stop the bike with the brakes and not fall down. But he never actually rode on his on. A week later I was able to let go of the bike for about three seconds, but I had to keep him from falling when he stopped. He would only go a few yards, and then hit the brakes.

But this last Saturday, he rode half way across the church parking lot after I helped him get started. He can now stop by himself without my having to keep him from falling. I am expecting that the next time we practice, he will get to where he can ride on his on without my help. That will be a great accomplishment for him. If it doesn't happen, then we will just keep trying until it does.

I feel really good about this project, and so does his mother.

Wonderful New Putter

In March, Rho and Kristen gave me a gift certificate to Golfsmith for my Christmas present. The reason this happened in March is because our families were not able to be together at Christmas, so we waited to exchange gifts until we were together at spring break. Anyway, I had been using the same putter for about 30 years, and my golfing friends convinced me that it was time to update to some modern technology. So after I received the Christmas gift, I enlisted the help of my golfing guru, Jason Holland, and he and I decided what parts to order from Golfsmith. Then he helped me size and build the putter.

As you can see from the second photo, I am loving this putter. I just need to get it grooved before the boondoggle, which is arriving in less than two weeks.

At a garage sale Saturday, I bought a device that knocks my ball back to me when I putt it in the machine, so I am getting some good practice in our family room. Thanks again, Rho and Kristen. This gift is working out great. I even parred the 18th hole at Diamondback Thursday by making a 20 foot putt. Yeah!

First Blog -- From Colorado

We are visiting Rho and his family during our spring break and I asked him to help me set up a blog site. Like a good teacher, he told me to just do it and ask questions if I needed. So far, no questions, but I am not done yet. We plan to drive to Gruver tomorrow to see Glenda and Elene. Then Saturday we will return home. We have heard that some bad storms (tornados) have occurred during our absence. It will be interesting to see what we find upon return.

Here is a photo of us while here in Colorado.