The story of E.T.

This is what Jillian, a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital, called James. 

But lets start in the beginning. Wednesday Noember 26 ... it was also a Wednesday when 50 years ago James and I got married at City Hall in Manhattan. I know I should write a blog about that if our family after us will be interested about it at one point. 1975 was one gigantic adventure. 

So, this year we went to the 10 am service which Fr Lee had named our churches one Thanksgiving service. There were not that many of our parishioners but we had a potluck meal afterwards and it was good fun. Friends Martha and Jerry came afterwards to the house and we popped a bottle of "Schloß Biebrich Sekt" to celebrate the Golden Wedding day. James and I felt blessed all our lives together but especially this day.

Thomas, another friend from church, came by later and James started feeling poorly. The short waves of dizziness happened again like months before and I was sure it was because he was dehydrated. We had not been good the last few days about water intake.

When I checked his blood pressure later we got a bad surprise. Way to high. Time to go to the ER. Sarah recommended St. Mary's. An Emergency Room is not very fancy but the nurses were so nice. James was cold and so was I and they brought us hot blankets when we needed them. 

Sarah had to work all day at the old shop location and her husband and boys had already gone ahead to his parents for the Thanksgiving celebration on the next day. She offered to come but we were well taken care off and she needed some rest too. We expected her to follow her family the next morning in the second car. 

Later in the night the ER people decided that it would take more work to get his bloodpressure under control and he was admitted. They found a room for him and I staid and tried to sleep in the chair.

Thursday. Thanksgiving Day. Sarah decided not to make that 3.5 hour drive (one way) but give us support. When she was there I went quickly home to get some things for James and have a quick shower. Late afternoon James saw a tiny rainbow in the sky which topped later with a lovely sundown.

Friday. James felt much better and so looked the readings on those machines he was attached to.

His "hospitalist" (hospital department doctor) was great. Concerned, attentive, caring. When he came after lunch James' vital numbers were good. The nurse had to take him for a walk which he enjoyed. He past the test.

And when she disconnected him from those machines, that's when she called him E.T. The glowing red fingertip (for H2O readings). 

Friday evenening we were happy to be home. Grateful. And grateful to Sarah for the support. And of course we felt Helen's concern too. But all ended well. Saturday and Sunday I could tell that James felt much better than in a long time. I felt this all was confirmation that cancelling the trip had been the right decision. And as always we still have fun, talking, discussing, playing cards, doing certain jobs, etc etc.

I must say I preferred the excitement 50 years ago to the one this year. 

These and that of daily life

Back home from our road trip for a month now and not much to report. 

Yes, it is rare that we have a breakfast like that, but we were given eggs from William and Ben's hens and had brought them home. That is always special. But nobody really to play "the silly game" with. We did sent William photos of it though.

Helping Sarah out ... and Owen. He had a huge bag fill of coins from his birthday. Banks don't have coin counting machines any more. Could we ...? The bank gave us those paper rolls. What else do grandparents have to do?

Oh yes. We believe in immunizations. October 28. Flu and covid shot!

Sarah used to do Papa's hair but the poor girl is so busy with her family and working full time. She is always willing but we hate to ask. Got our own tools and #4. I actually had fun doing it. Made my husband happy.

November 4 was election day and there was not school. We helped out with the kids (picking the twins up from a baseball camp) and when we brought them to there house Stella was happy to see Papa. It is such a cute photo.

This year we had a really lovely autumn. Blue skies and sunshine and beautiful colorful leaves. Our camellias were blooming too for an incredibly long time. 

Our community has a nice selection of trees in all different autumn colors. You can see a bit when I took a photo of the little Jesus figure we found on the parking lot when we took our turn for the Meals-on-wheels delivery. 

And other things keep us busy. Our church has a once a month wine club outing. November we went to the New Kent Winery.

I was leading the church ladies (ECW) in a craft day to make items for a bazaar we had signed up for. It was quite successful. And fun!

And of course there are doctors appointments. Another routine visit for James to the dermatologist but yeah (!) he got another "clear" report. But I loved seeing this at the reception. The sign said "Enhanced Patient Care" (with a large bowl of halloween candy in front of it). I didn't read the fine print!

And the season has started! Shopping!

Chocolate Elf on the Shelf!

What kind of Advent calendar is this? 12 days?

Hot Sauce

Oh yes. And here is more. I do not like shopping ... except for food because it is easy for me to make decisions for that. 

But we had to shop for a dishwasher. We heard noice which was not supposed to be there. And we figured that it was the original from when the house was built in 2006. Do we bother to get it repaired? Do we get a new one? We got a new one. 

We were lucky that our plumber had time to install it. He is good. And we were told by the salesperson in the shop not to trust the delivery men with this job. I had to take this photo of Mike the Plumber. 

This generally sounds all ok but unfortunately I also have to report that my dear husband was in terrible pain, probably coming from his spine and running down his left leg all the way to his foot. He had seen Ortho doctors and had PT sessions for quite a while but they didn't seem to help and may be even make it worse. Hard to tell. We were supposed to travel starting November 17 on a wonderful trip we had so looked forward to. We decided to cancel it and concentrate on finding a doctor to figure this out. 

We are over the initial feeling sorry for ourselves and having to do all the cancellations and dealing with reembursements etc. It was the right decision and as my mother always used to say: "Wer weiß wofũr es gut ist?" (You never know what it is good for). 

Of course there are the little things you see the greatness of our God in. 

Here some photos from our garden ... taken today! Pictures taken of the 2 autumn/winter camellias earlier in this blog. They actually started in the beginning of October and are still going strong. Our 3 winter/spring camellias are loaded with fat buds. Something to look forward to.

Still some roses blooming.

And my Christmas cactus who starts to bloom whenever in the year I remember to water it.

Oh, the next Adventure

A lot to tell. OMG!

Tuesday October 15 - The drive from Paducah KY to Nashville TN was easy. The sun was shining and it's only about 2 hours. This week was William's fall break from school which of course was great. 

Ha-ha, we had to talk about the "apple tree". You heard about it in previous blogs = grown from a seed found sprouting in an apple core. It seems to be doing very well. Fun!

The days went by fast. We did what parents like to do: help. One day William had an appointment at the dentist to have baby (?) teeth pulled. We helped Helen sort out things from the "old place" whenever possible. Another day we had time to take William for driving practice. There church parking lot was the perfect place to start that. He has his official learner's permit.

 

William also had the great idea that our visit should not only be work but also fun. He suggested to go to the zoo. He loves that place and so once again we bought a membership. We could not believe how everywhere Christmas decorations where also being put up.

Highlight at the zoo at the moment was the birth of a baby aardwolf pups and I found the Komodo dragon interesting having been on Komodo Island and saw them in the wild. Dangerous creatures. A bite means certain death because there is no antidote.

This statue is about the right size of them.

Helen and William also decided to celebrate Papa's birthday. Helen had baked a nice cake loaf which served well for breakfast too. That was so nice.

On Saturday we tried another garage sale. Helen is always happy if something else is "needed" by somebody else. She has a class to teach in the morning but then she can join us.

At about 11 am we got a visitor. Sophie, a quilter we both know, was driving through Nashville and stopped to meet with us. We both had learned at lot from her when we both had started out sewing quilts. Sophie is travelling all around the US in her camper and showed us her latest quilt she had just finished. So gorgeous. 

This is a quilt which Helen had made years ago with the monthly Blog Lotto blocks. She had done such a great job. Sophie loved it too.

And yes, we also plaid cards. William is very good.

Saturday James and I invited everybody for dinner at a restaurant which seems to be one of William's favorites. This is the second time we went to the Thai Samurai Mount Juliet and Ben joint us too. It is a really nice place. It might become a tradition. James and my curry were very delicious.

Measuring William's hight. You just turn around and he seems to be taller. Nice young man.

Sunday morning we went with William to his church. St John's Lutheran Church had suffered the loss of most of the building in the 2020 tornado including the sanctuary and altar area, stained glass windows etc.

The former parish hall is now being used for the services. It feels very modern with large screens etc. But every time we visit we still see familiar faces including Pastor Rick. 

Their service starts at 9 am, too early for a weekend soft-boild eggs kind of breakfast. But since Helen had Ben and William's hens free-range eggs we decided to have that for lunch. And yes, the family tradition....

Sunday evening dinner was supposed to be our last meal at this Nashville visit and we didn't want Helen to have to cook. We went out again. This time we went to a pho place we had been before. Very nice. It was dark when we were heading back to the house. The highway was full of traffic going a good speed and ... a deer decided to cross the highway ... or commit suicide. Either way, it was a big scare. I was going full speed and there was no avoiding hitting her. Bits of my car were flying away and I could not stop. We slowed down and took the first exit possible. A warning light had come on and the car looked bad but we evaluated and decided that we could continue to drive back to the house, but regular roads not highway. 

First photo next morning. Calls to my toyota car shop at home and in Nashville for some information. It was Monday and we had wanted to leave early for the 600 miles home. The closest toyota place in Nashville was about 4 miles and wouldn't take long but again we avoided the highway and took the round-about way through slow school zones etc. Parts of the car were flapping with too much wind.

The place opened at 7 am and we were there shortly after. They told us that they could do nothing for us. They were not allowed taping or tying anything up, a legal matter. But we were advised to visit the closest Wal-Mart and buy duct tape. 

Well, those shops were not open for a while but I knew that Dollar Tree was opening at 8 am and there was one just around the corner.

We were there 6 minutes before and they were of course still closed. A nice sales person opened just a few inches to tell us that. Before she closed again I had enough time to ask her whether they had duct tape. She thought and said that she was almost sure they did. It was worth it to wait. They were actually very nice. 5 minutes after 8 am I came out with it having paid $1.25 and started taping. 

It took a while and James took a lot of photos of me and my work. And then we went on our way back to Virginia. 

This is the half-way stop.

We checked how everything was holding up. Duct tape was doing the job!!!

We had to drive the last hour in the dark but we knew the roads and all lights worked except the front blinker on the right. But we were relieved when we were finally home. And I am sure, our children too.

Thank the Lord for keeping us so safe. It could have had a different ending in that heavy traffic in the middle of Nashville.