CLAY AND WATTLES

New Dishwasher

Sharon said it would be here Thursday and it was. Paul had talked to Randy Williams about installing it, and he picked it up yesterday and installed it, ran it through a cycle, replaced something in the hot water cut-off under the sink, made the top of the washer fit flush with the countertop, and had supper on the table when I got home! Just kidding about the last part.

I can hardly wait for it to get full so I can see how quiet it is! The bottom rack has more usable space, too, and I like the silverware basket with holes for each individual piece - not all jumbled in one section together.

Randy did stop by the house to see if everything was alright. I was in the back yard and he found me there. I think Oscar the Terrible had gone back inside and I had been cleaning up after him. Anyway, Randy said Oscar had tried to open the door when he arrived to do his work. Paul always comes and lets him in now so he can put Oscar in his kennel. I'm sorry, Randy, that he bit you once. He's bitten Amy before, too. It isn't that he's a mean dog - he is so very sweet and I know that and Paul will even admit it, but he is sooo protective. But Randy said all the time he was there he and Oscar had a really nice conversation while O was watching through his wire kennel. He's just "high strung," as my Goobie used to call me. Not that I barked and bit...

I would have paid Randy on the spot when he stopped by, but I thought Paul had. So he's taking his check by his shop today. It was well worth the installation for all he did in addition to saving Paul skinned knuckles, time on the kitchen floor, pushing and pulling, and enlisting my feeble help to get the thing in that small space. When one gets old, one can justify paying for other people to help them out! But we got Randy just because we like him and he does great work.

Edgar Sawtelle

Finished. Had read reviews comparing it to "Hamlet." Read synopsis of Hamlet and it's true. No wonder it turned out so sad. (I can't remember reading Hamlet, maybe in high school, but I have seen the movie. I'm sure the "play was better.") It's a thought-provoking book and one about choices and how peoples' decisions affect not only them, but others as well.

Stepping Up

I did the first day's lesson last night (instead of watching the political speeches and I'm sure I got the best end of the deal). It was pretty amazing. I also knew there was a time in the next day or so I'd want to re-read the notes we wrote when Mama was in the hospital, and last night seemed to be the time. I'd forgotten she had asked Steve if her eyes were still blue and her pupils black. And that she insisted that her milk be two percent. Always "two percent." And that red was not a good color, but if we had on blue, that was okay. But that she wanted to be sure her blood was red, though. And that after a particularly terrible-horrible-awful day or two or three, she wanted to see her face in a mirror, to "see if she was really here again." We were so rushed and everything happened so fast -yet in slow motion - that we lived from one minute to the next, literally, not knowing what to do. When we were finally informed about Sanctuary Hospice House we knew we were - there. Decisions. We knew what she wanted, no codes; we finally knew what had to be done and we cherished her, loved her all the way through it. Reading back over the notes, dates, times, medications, trips, people, phone numbers - we ran on instinct and rode on the wings of God because that is the Only Way we could have done what we did.

Yes, she is worshipping the King now and that is the "real world," the real heaven. She has no idea how she really impacted our lives, nor had we realized all of it then, but do just about daily now. She was a quiet, unassuming little lady, but so much stronger than we or even she knew. She has, indeed, Stepped Up. We love you, Mama. Thank you, family; you know I love and cherish you. And thank you, God, for allowing us to be her kids.

Rythym

"I got rythym." Well, really, not much. But the heart rythym is better. The blips are fainter and not as "regularly irregular" but more "irregularly irregular," which is better. I know that probably makes no sense. If you were in my body it would! :)