Letter to my Brother

C,

Have you ever played cribbage? I used to play cribbage for hours with my college roommate. After we were married P and I used to play a lot of Cribbage. But it seemed that once we were busy with the kids cribbage was left in the closet.

However, as you know it is important for the homebound to keep interested in life. And I was becoming bored with working Sudoku puzzles and watching movies all day long, I save reading books for at night. Anyway I began thinking that I needed an additional activity. That was when I thought about cribbage and wonder if there was a free computer version. After some searching on the Internet I found one I like.

Let me tell you C Cribbage is a game of skill, and while you have no control over which cards you are dealt, you have a lots of control over how you discard and play the remaining cards. However, I have noticed that this can become extremely interesting (read difficult) on the first day of a new pain patch.

I also have found a couple of good things about being stuck in bed, see Change of Scenery. You get to keep track on the neighbors. Also the Southern Gospel All Quartets Web Radio (web based) station sounds so much better on my stereo then on the PC earplugs I use when in my chair. In the late 1960s early 1970s I remember going to listen to some great Southern Gospel Quartet groups with my Uncle H's family. I was going to DeVry Institute of Technology at the time and staying at my uncles on the weekends. So it is nice to find these old groups are now on Internet radio.

Your brother,
P

Neighborhood Watch

Yesterday morning I looked out the front window and noticed a beat-up scruffy looking vehicle parked in the street in front of our neighbor’s house. As I watched one young man in baggy street clothes got out of the truck, stood looking at our neighbor’s house. After a short wait he walked up to the neighbors house where I could no longer see him. A short time later, he walked back to the truck and the other man got out of the vehicle and both went towards D’s house.

We live in duplex houses and this past Christmas the lady who lived in the other housing unit by D passed away. Knowing this and knowing the fact that D was advanced in years caused me to begin to think of all the horrible things that may be happening. Because I didn’t have D’s phone number I called our next door neighbor and asked her to call D. A short time later she called me back to let me know that D was all right. It seems that these two scruffy looking men driving the beat-up vehicle were from the local television cable company. D had changed from cable television to a dish television system and these guys were from the television cable-company. They were there to disconnect the cable going from the junction box to D’s house.

D thanked both S and myself for calling her because she was also worried when she saw those two guys. If the truck would have had a sign on it stating which company it was from and if the guys had been dressed in some sort of uniform, I wouldn’t have been worried. However, everything seems a little suspicious from the way the vehicle looked, the way they parked it, the way they behaved, to the way they were dressed.

I may have been a nosey neighbor, however I would rather be called nosey then have to explain why I hadn’t been concerned enough to make a phone call.

Change of Scenery

Yesterday I decided to have a change of scenery. Just after Pam backed down the drive to head off to work I went into the kitchen to make some tea. As I rolled into the kitchen my vent stopped working and started beeping. I quickly turned around and raced into my bedroom where I have the spare vent set up. After connecting to that vent I tried without success to get my vent to work. I was unable to reset it or to turn it off. So I transferred from my wheelchair to my bed and somehow managed to turn the wheelchair around. I then removed the defective vent and install the backup vent on the wheelchair. After that transferred back into the wheelchair and brought the still beeping vent into the den. I then brought the external humidifier out of the closet, filled it with water, and plugged it in so it would begin to warm the water.

I spent some time moving my Nebulizer, computer, and a number of other items I have by my chair from the den to my bedroom. Finally I was able to go into the kitchen and make my tea. By the time I settled into the bed I was ready for some rest and a nice cup of warm tea.

I then sent P an email telling her what happened and asking her to call the medical supply company and report what happened. The respiratory therapist called to tell me that he would come out early afternoon to see what was going on. Once he came he spent a long time on the phone with the vent manufacture. When he was finished with the phone call he told me they had decided to send my vent back to the manufacture for repair. Because my backup vent doesn't have an onboard humidifier I will have to spend my days in bed with the vent that must use an external humidifier. My bed is a hospital bed, which is a good thing, so I can adjust the head into an upright position allowing me to sit up.

The nice thing about all this is I get to look out of a different set of windows. Because my bedroom is at the front of the house, I now watch the comings and goings of the neighbors.

Christmas 2008

Early morning Saturday December 20 my youngest son K and his fiancée C loaded boxes of my backup medical equipment, medical supplies, a couple boxes of Christmas presents and a small case of clothes. We left and started driving through the city heading toward my son C who lives in Madison. As we drove through Chicago, we noticed all the northbound entrance ramps to the expressway closed by Chicago police. We never found out the reason why the ramps were closed, but we think it might have had something to do with President elect Obama. One of the nice side effects was that we did not have much traffic to deal with on the way north out of the city.

A couple of hours later we pulled in my son’s driveway in time to see him and my four-year old grandson L shoveling the last of the snow from the drive. Once the boxes had been removed from behind my wheelchair I rolled down the ramp, up the front walk, and up the ramp my son C had made into their house. Once everyone had carried all my medical supplies and boxes of Christmas presents into the house my youngest son K and his fiancée C took my son’s car and spent the rest of the day with her mother.

I spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday resting up recuperating from the trip. By Monday I was feeling well enough to watch my grandson L for a couple hours while his parents had to be away from home. We watched a TV show I had taped about logging in a swamp, a show with a lot of large logging equipment, something a 4-year old boy liked. I also spent a couple hours Tuesday afternoon watching the same show while my son and daughter in-law had to work. The plan had been for my wife P to drive up Tuesday morning arriving in time to watch L, however her travel was slowed because she spent the first couple of hours creeping through a snow storm while driving around Chicago.

Each morning I would wake up around 6:00 – 6:30 in order to take my medicine and use my Nebulizer. Each morning as soon as I would sit up, L would pop out of his room to help me. After the Nebulizer was started, he and I would sit on the couch, under the blankets looking at his books. He would read the books to me because I can not talk for long periods of time. So while I turned the pages, he told me all about the stories. He and I changed our routine after Christmas, instead of reading we would sometimes play with his expanded collection of Matchbox cars. It is truly amazing how those cars could race up and down the mountains we made out of the blankets.


The rest of the family started arriving on Christmas Eve. Son J rode up on Christmas Eve with his brother K and C. Daughter K and her fiancé K came up Christmas morning because of spending Christmas Eve with his family. On Christmas Eve I received instructions not to get too excited about opening Christmas stocking early Christmas morning. Everyone wanted a relaxing morning. So I patiently waited until after a breakfast of Monkey bread and scones before opening my Christmas stocking. Shortly after we opened our stocking daughter K and K arrived. When they walked in Mr. K was wearing the Santa outfit he gave me two years ago and which I re-gifted to him last year.



After everyone settled down we opened the rest of our Christmas presents. We also passed around a couple of catalogs from World Vision, CRWRC and Children's Hunger Fund so each person could select a gift for those who don’t have as much as we do. Before we started exchanging presents P started to prepare some things to munch on. She turned on the oven and a short time later the smoke detector went off. The problem was traced to a breakfast sausage that had been left in the oven and was now on fire. Even with opening doors and windows it was still smoky in the house. When you look at some of the photos I have it appears that we are opening presents in a cloud of fog.

During Christmas afternoon some took naps, L had his uncle K assemble some of the gifts he had received. Son K read a book his sister had received. I don’t think he agreed with the author’s viewpoint because he would often stop and tell everyone how his opinions differed from the authors. Those in charge of the Christmas meal were busy in the kitchen and I was busy with my camera. After Christmas dinner, some returned home because of having to work on Friday. The rest of us spend a relaxed evening. Early Friday afternoon everyone else left for home. It was a great Christmas and I have between 250 – 300 photos taken during the 10 days I spend there. Of course most of them are not usable photos for one reason or the other.

Saturday afternoon my daughter in-laws parents and sister arrived. We had a wonderful time Saturday and Sunday visiting with them and I once again I had the camera out taking photos of them playing with L and his presents.

Early Monday morning C and P loaded the van with all my medical equipment and we returned home. After spending the best part of ten days away from home it was good to be back home again.

One thing L and I did was to show each other how both of us could make funny faces. In fact L took my camera and took a couple of photos showing everyone that his Grandpippy still has a bit of the 4-year old in him.