Hello on Sunday Morning

Dear Friends,

It is a balmy 18 degrees right now with forecasted highs to be in the upper 30's. It will be sunny, but not warm enough for Linda to go out on our deck and get some Vitamin D by way of Mother Nature.

Linda thought that my Saturday update of her condition was a bit harsh. Let me say that when her friends talk to Linda on the telephone or cell phone, she sounds like her normal perky self.
I am with her everyday so I have first hand knowledge of what she can and can't do. Our friends aren't with her when she starts to squirm and appears to be uncomfortable which means she better take another pain medication before the pain really kicks in.
She doesn't lie in bed all day because of her wound issue. She lies in bed when the VNA nurse comes to change the bandages, and she will not go back to bed until night time.

Our daughter-in-law called last evening because she didn't like the tone of my update. Linda alleviated her concern with a lengthy conversation.
I will say that Linda couldn't pick up any of our grandchildren right now. If she picked up any of our three grandchildren, and they squirmed and bumped her wound area, she would writhe in pain, and possibly drop them.

Let me conclude by saying that every medical person over the past week likes what they are seeing. All of them keep telling Linda that the wound is healing nicely, and that she is getting better. I am telling all of you that this word "better" is a relative term. When the open wound seals up, and we don't need bandages replaced, and she doesn't need pain medication or she doesn't need to take antibiotics four times per day, she will be ready to get back to her /our social calendar.

One of her close friends sent her an article of an Apple Orchard / Winery which was having some fun Saturday and Sunday events. Linda is not able to engage in such activities. She is not allowed to drink alcohol of any variety while on the pain meds, and antibiotics. Oh Darn!

Linda sent me out to do a little grocery shopping on Saturday. She had to write the list in detail, and I had to deal with a few coupons which she clipped from the Sunday newspaper. If she had made the list for herself, she would have put something like "Kleenex", and that would have been enough her. For me, she had to write down the particular brand she likes, and she had to write down the shape of the Kleenex box that she wanted. It took her more time to make up the list than it would have taken her to make up the list, and finish the shopping. Also, she had to repeat what she wrote down on the list so that I wouldn't make a mistake.
The other day she told me to get toilet paper. She puts down the brand that she wanted but not the size. I go to the shelf where the toilet paper is located, and I am bombarded with all shapes and sizes. I made a decision to get a four pack that the container said was as good as 8 rolls. Linda wanted the 12 pack.
Three or four times I had to ask grocery staff where items on the grocery list were located.
Linda put down that a particular item was located next to the milk. I figured it was across from the milk case. Not! "Across" I found out is a relative term. I had to ask a guy filling up the egg case where my particular item was located. Linda had me in the correct isle, but 25 paces from the milk case.
I sure am getting an appreciation of what a chore it is to go grocery shopping. I can't wait for Linda to get back to her normal self.
I also must admit that my grocery shopping adventure was for me to purchase about 10 items. Could you image me doing the shopping for a large family?
I might leave the house in the morning and never return until late afternoon.

Speaking of how important a significant other is, I met an Italian friend yesterday who wife passed away about a year ago. He was not doing well mentally. His wife was his high school sweetheart, and you could tell how he misses her so. He like my dad has been going home to an empty house, and I could see it was getting to him. The two of them did everything together, and now she is gone. He told me that he never washed his clothes. His wife took care of them during their whole marriage. For my father, it was the same thing. My dad started washing his own clothes.
Linda and I have discussed, even though she doesn't want to talk about, what would happen if either of us departs this earth before the other. Every time that I do something that Linda normally takes are of; I add the item to a mental list which I have been creating. Even though Linda is irreplaceable, if I did hook up with another partner (hopefully this is way off in the future, and doesn't happen, but you never know), this person should know what she is in for when she gets me.
The person who I referred to in the beginning of this paragraph already has friends wanting to set this man up with some potential partners. From the conversation which my friend and I had, my friend is still in a period of mourning, and I could feel his pain.

On a less depressing note "Life is Good" for the Curley Lad and Linda will be at the top of her game hopefully pretty soon.
We all experience bumps along the road of life, and we all have to deal with them in our own ways.

I did watch some sports on Saturday which included the Boston Bruins losing an afternoon hockey game, some NCAA basketball, and finally the Red Sox in a preseason game which they lost after the manager took out the starters because they had an 8 to 1 lead. The Red Sox lost by a 9 to 8 score.

There is a ceremony today at our Park Square at 1 PM where the Vietnam Veterans are going to read off the names of all the Berkshire County people who were killed in that war. I have never been in the military so I have no clue of what these people went through in that hell hole in Vietnam.

My Marine brother died of a service connected disability after he came home, but I am not sure if he saw action in Vietnam. He was 21 years old when he passed away in 1970.

Our Lt. Colonel son is in his 15th year in the Air Force so he is making up for what his dad didn't do with respect to being in the military.

Well, I have to skim the Sunday newspapers before the VNA nurse arrives.
Linda has already made a mental list of things to do around the house because she is physically unable to do so. She mentioned something about bathroom cleaning. Yuk!

Have a great Sunday.
Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad