Happy 1st Birthday to Rachel McClellan!
We were certainly spoiled this summer with children and grand children visiting us almost non stop since June. They brought a lot of joy and happiness into our home and were a source of great comfort and cheer for us. But that all came to an end last Monday; brother Steve and his wife, Susan, departed for CA after spending a week with us. They helped prepare us for the quieter Empty Nest phase to follow their departure. We have been on our own since Monday and have survived!
Things of interest about being on our own: the dishwasher gets run every three days instead of daily; the washer and dryer see use twice a week instead of daily and the amount of trash generated has decreased significantly. Personally, I prefer having family here!
After Sue and Steve departed on Monday, Sandy had an appointment with the oncologist to get the results of the previous week's PET scan. Not what we had hoped for: colon still has cancer and the liver cancer has increased. We both felt that she was doing so much better, so this update was a big blow. We came home to 'mourn' this report for a day or so. And then the next couple of days were difficult for her. Psychosomatic? After a bit of struggling, Sandy chose to have faith-- Faith that God's promises are real. She continues to move forward with faith that eventually all will be well.
Sandy felt good enough to go with the missionaries to teach a lesson to a gentleman they are working with. It was a good lesson. On Friday we drove out to Oakland (30 miles out) to see the now retired physical therapist that made a Hospice house visit a month or two ago and gave Sandy some exercises to do. He and his wife are strong advocates for a healthy lifestyle through good eating, exercise and alternative sources of healing. They introduced us to two medical devices they find helpful to them: the 'bio mat' and the 'bemer'. You can youtube these and learn more about them much better than if I try to explain them to you. Sandy tried both for a short period of time. As we drove home and into the evening, she had much more energy than she has had the past several days some of which carried over into the next day.
Then Bill called the next morning; in his prayer and meditation, he felt prompted to loan us these two devices for the next several months to try them out. That's several thousand dollars of equipment. We felt this was an answer to our prayers. So we went back for another visit and came home with these two devices. We have started to use them as instructed and remain optimistic about positive outcomes.
One of our rental homes had some tile cracking in the bathroom floor. This was a new tenant who had moved in within a day or two of the previous tenant leaving, so I did not have time to make this repair between tenants. So this week I showed up prepared to replace just the six or seven bad tiles. Unfortunately, I discovered the tile had been laid on plywood, and not a concrete surface; the whole floor would eventually crack and need to be replaced. So I had to return the next day to remove the tile, install hardiboard and then tile. That was an all day job (home about 6:30pm) and Sandy informed me I can only be gone half days in the future. The next day I grouted the floor.
Friday morning we did what the military would call a "health and comfort" inspection of one of our rentals. We did so because he lets the lawn grow much too tall and has had a car parked on the front yard for several months. The car has been brought to his attention several times, but he always has an excuse. My goal was to see what the inside looks like in the likelihood he would give us addition reason to ask him to move on. but it was clean and neat and in good repair. So the plan is to see if the car disappears in the next 7-10 days; if not we will ask him to move on. Having lease violations is one thing, but not following through with what he says he will do grates my teeth (can you hear them now??). And finding tenants is not a problem.
I have been working on the big tree, up to 28 inches in diameter, this past week. Most of it is cut and ready to split; an interesting challenge with only a 16 inch chain saw.
This is the tree shortly after it fell. A big thanks to Dan and Ian for helping remove most of the limbs which were then burned.
This is the tree Wednesday:
And finally Saturday evening:
And this is where it moved to.
It helps to have a tractor with a bucket to lift and carry the logs to a central area for splitting. The big day is set for Labor Day Monday at 8am!
Hope you have a great week!
Tom and Sandy
No comments:
Post a Comment