DIDYOUMISSME?

Well, it's been a long, miserable week. Today I'm catching up. I know I've been away for awhile... mea culpa! I will try to be more active in the future.

Monday I saw the wound care nurse and my IDD, both of whom said the leg looked great and that it would probably be completely closed up by the next visit in two weeks. Great!

Tuesday afternoon I started with a head cold that kept me in bed half of Wednesday and working from home totally on Thursday (which is normally one of the 1/2 days I go in to work).

Wednesday we heard a loud bang sound outside the house. It turned out that a large moving van had driven up the street, then deciding it would not be possible to continue up the street and turn around, began backing four blocks down our one-way street. Unfortunately he backed into the cable wires for our house and that of our neighbor, completely severing the neighbor's cable and stretching ours, causing it to sag, and to pull our phone connection box and rain gutter downspout away from the side of the house. But, we still had cable! A call to the cable company assured us that they would be out that evening to fix the sagging cable. THAT didn't happen.

Thursday I was working from home on an urgent purchase request (PR). I had submitted it and got a call back from my boss that it needed some mods, which was no big deal except that as I hung up the phone my cable went out. No TV, No internet, no changes to the PR. Looking outside it became instantly clear that someone else had hit our already sagging cable line, pulling it loose from the pole and dragging it up the street where it lay like a dead snake. A call to the cable company assured us that they would be out by 8PM to fix and, of course, THAT didn't happen!

Thursday evening, although still not well, Linda and I went to dinner with Fr. Andrew from Uganda who has been in the U.S. the past four months. He has been doing mission appeals all over the country, but took off three days to come to New Orleans to visit friends. We were thrilled and honored that he wanted to spend a part of his brief stay here with us. He had much news about people and places that we know from our trips to Tororo, Uganda. It was truly a wonderful evening. He also brought us gifts from Fr. Deo's brother Innocent. They were woven baskets that were stacked one inside another, like the Russian stackable eggs. Very clever. We can't wait to show them off at work!

Friday, still feeling a bit like a pile of doggy doo, I cleaned up and went to work to make the necessary changes to the PR and send it on its way. When I get there, my internet connection at work is hosed, and it took me a couple hours before I could get to the website to correct the PR. Meanwhile, the boss comes in with another emergency which ended up with me staying until 5PM. So much for 1/2 days. When I got home my leg looked like I'd borrowed it from an elephant.

And, perhaps worst of all, I didn't have lunch even once with the "lunch bunch" from work! I don't know how Big J and Dr. Bob are surviving.

The cable company did FINALLY show up some time during the day Friday, because it was fixed by the time we got home from work.
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All the above was written yesterday (Saturday) but I stopped and never got around to posting it. So it's 7AM on Sunday and I am finishing it up.

Since most of the TV programs Linda and I like to watch are in reruns now we've taken to watching Monk, starting with season 1. We're now into season 2. If you haven't seen it yet, it is really funny and entertaining. Tony Shaloub is perfect in the title role as a disfunctional former police detective who now consults for the police. Occasionally you'll see John Turturo who is equally perfect in the role of Monk's equally disfunctional brother.

After grilling up some ribeyes and weiners, we tried some mulled mead (a heated, spiced, honey wine) courtesy of KenEllie. Good stuff. The spices gave it a "Christmas-y" flavor. We'll have to have some more during the Christmas holidays.

I also watched "Lady In The Water" last night, written by M. Night Shyamalan. Very strange stuff from this guy! Kind of makes you wonder, "If he wasn't a writer, where would he get his outlet for these dark ideas?"

Update on the grandkids... Ian gets more mature every day. He's playing 9th grade football at Brother Martin H.S., making new friends, and seems to be enjoying this new adventure in life. He's easing into the teenage years, and is starting to want to spread his wings a bit and be more independent. Good luck to MD and DLG on that one!

BB is constantly a trip and a half. The things that come out of that girl's mouth are just too funny! She was a little nervous about going to a new school with new kids, but she, too, appears to be very happy. She's doing great and likes her teacher and school.

Molly gets cuter every day. Her bright blue eyes just sparkle. Friday evening we went to MD/DLG's for supper. Even though Molly wasn't feeling too well, you could see how much she wanted to be happy and smiling even through the sickness. And that shock of red... no, blonde... no red... no... redish blonde hair is adorable, especially when DLG puts a cute little bow in it.

The family zoo is fine. Maynard, Gumbo, Craig-er and Evil Greenbird (who Linda calls Precious, if THAT'S not a misnomer I don't know what is!!) are all hanging in there.

The weather has finally become fairly pleasant, as a slight cool front has brought the temps down into the 80's with reasonable humidity. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be "Perfect", according to one of our TV "weather guessers". Here's hoping they're right. Maybe we'll get to do some outdoor activities.

Last weekend we had planted 5 Bradford (Cleveland) pear trees, two in front of our house where the sycamores had been, and three along the side of the 301 Alix/510 Seguin house. Once they grow a little they should be very attractive and provide some much needed shade from the afternoon sun.

That's the end of my keyboard diahhrea for today. Take care, enjoy the weather, and God bless you!!