Sunday, January 11, 1998...Moles & Graduating Boyfriends

I’ve just dispatched a large pile of bills, which took a good deal of time; and I don’t feel like hitting the feathers yet, so I think I’ll type.

Early Tuesday morning, after a rather bad night of unsuccessfully trying to get the mole on Joseph’s neck to quit bleeding, awakening the doctor at 4:30 a.m., washing Joseph’s pillow, and such like, we took him back to Dr. Luckey, who put a couple of stitches in the mole. That stopped the bleeding, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. The doctor told us that the reason it bled so badly was because there was a ‘feeder’ vessel to it, and it was one of those strange types of moles that is actually a cluster of little capillaries. The anesthetic that is used when the mole is removed shrinks these capillaries. Then when the anesthetic wears off, they dilate; and that’s why it began to bleed again.

“You wouldn’t think something so small would be so troublesome!” said Dr. Luckey.

Joseph, having lost quite a bit of blood and hardly getting any sleep, was rather woozy after all that, so he came home and went straight to sleep; and he slept for a good long while, too.

Caleb sympathetically asked Joseph, “Are you staying home from school because you have a Band-Aid on your neck?”

The next day he went to school for half a day; but, instead of going to church that evening, he went straight off to bed. He’s feeling fine now; but I think it will take a while for him to build back up all that blood he lost. Larry just tonight removed the stitches.

Goodness! I’m glad that scary episode is over and done with.

This week I finally finished all the mending and altering and jeans patching. (That is, I think I did--as previously noted, certain persons around this vicinity immediately create new mending jobs for me, once they mark the fact that I’ve completed the first order.) After that, I sewed a skirt for Hester for Easter and the dress I’d been planning to make for Victoria for Christmas if I’d’ve had enough time. It’s fake suede, bright fuschia on the skirt and fuschia flowers on charcoal on the bodice. And guess what? Hannah found a little doll dress out of the very same material which I’d made four years ago for Dorcas when I sewed her a suit of this material! (Victoria’s dress is made of Dorcas’ leftovers.) Hannah put the dress on a cute little doll and showed it to Victoria, who beamed and gave it a sloppy kiss.

This afternoon Caleb was looking high and low for his little purple foam football which Hester gave him for Christmas. Suddenly he remembered.

“Oh, I know where it is!” he exclaimed happily. He pulled a little bench away from the wall and peered down behind it. “It’s right back here in plain sight!”

(Of course, it wasn’t in plain sight at all.)

We recently received a copy of a city ordinance with which we are required to comply. Unfortunately, it wasn’t written in English. At least, I don’t think it’s English. What do you think? --
“The type of protection required under ordinance 95-38, shall depend upon the degree of hazard that exists according to the following:
1) An approved air gap separator or an approved reduced pressure principle backflow prevention assembly shall be installed . . . etc., etc.
2) An approved double check valve assembly shall be installed . . . blab blab blab . . .
3) An approved reduced pressure principle backflow prevention assembly shall be installed at the service connection where there exists a plumbing hazard when a containment type backflow assembly is installed. A thermo-expansion device must be provided for within the facility for which such assembly is installed . . . . blah blah blah . . .
4) In the case of any premises where, because of security requirements or other prohibitions, it is impossible or impractical to make a complete cross-connection (backflow) prevention, a reduced pressure principle backflow prevention assembly shall be installed at the service connection.
5) Yard hydrants or hose bibs, which would be used by the consumer to provide water for direct use or aerial application to surface areas, shall be equipped with an anti-siphon vacuum breaker where a cross-connection (backflow) could occur.”

Anyway, whatever all this malarkey is, it shall be the consumer’s responsibility to install it; expenses for such installation and maintenance are the sole responsibility of the consumer.

As they say in Latin, HELLPP!!

On January the Seventh, at the advanced age of thirteen years, Joseph’s virtual Pooch died.

Unlike the Japanese girl whose mother was up in arms over these traumatic virtual pet gadgets, Joseph was reduced to neither weeping nor wailing over the demise of Rover.

Instead, he cheerily pushed the appropriate buttons to go to the pet shop and buy himself a new puppy.

Pup made it all the way up to 23 kilograms that day--a little pup’s head bouncing around on the screen again. At age two, it metamorphosed into a young dog, pacing to and fro.

Thursday Keith and his classmates had a pizza party at school with their blind teacher, Penny Golden. Dorcas and her classmates were busy all day preparing for the Senior’s graduation dinner Friday; Hannah and classmates had already made the mints (cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, flavoring, and food coloring) Tuesday. The tenth-graders always have the major part of the job, helping to plan the menu, putting it all together, and baking and cooking it. On Senior Dinner Day, it is the tenth-graders who serve the tables, too. All this work is considered an assignment, and they each receive a grade for it.

The children think it’s jolly good revelry, and rarely does anyone get a lesser grade than 100% for either of those days. All five older children attended the dinner.

Keith found four balloons at his place--two latex, and two mylar. When he brought them home, Caleb and Victoria immediately assumed they were theirs, especially from Keith, and they have been having a marvelous time playing with them.

Victoria points at them and screeches, “Buh-woon!”

What is there about a balloon that children love so?

Keith gave the two girls in his class journals with pictures of kittens on the cover and on every other page, and a matching bookmark; to the four boys, he gave canvas wallets with a leather piece stitched onto the front with a hand-tooled scene of deer, mountains, eagles, or bears.

Thursday Keith sold his pickup, taking in an ’86 Chevy pickup on trade, which he will also sell. He has bought a ’92 S10 4x4 pickup from Larry, which will get much better gas mileage than his other one--the main reason he sold it.

Yesterday morning Larry and Keith went to Omaha for some parts for Keith’s pickup, which had been flipped end-over-end. Luckily (for us, that is), this occurred at a high rate of speed, leaving the cab in comparatively good shape.

Thursday evening I had Jr. Choir for the first time since before Thanksgiving. It is always splendid fun after such a long hiatus.

Larry got us a new CD/tape player with a built-in microphone, which we’ve been playing with lately. The quality when recording isn’t outstanding, but, for the price, it’ll do. The sound of the CD and tape players is excellent.

And now for the most interesting piece of news:

Hannah has a boyfriend.
His name is Bobby.

Saturday we found it necessary (well, it sure seemed necessary to us) to accompany Hannah to Bobby’s house to present him with a graduation present--a chrome Cross pen. On top of the package, Hannah taped a Daffy Duck key ring for decoration. (One should always strive for a balance between dignity and frivolity, don’t you think?)

She enlisted my aid in writing a poem with my gold pen into a pretty blank card. Here’s what I wrote:

I’ve set Thee before me,
And my heart is glad;
I will sing a new song,
For I cannot be sad!

I shall not be moved;
Thou art by my right hand;
In the path of life
Will I come to that Land.
May your path, upon graduation, hold many blessings.

Bobby presented Hannah with a bouquet of carnations, roses, and alpine asters--evidently a memento of their new ‘going steady’ status. It has now been placed, with a great deal of pomp, on the counter which is best and soonest seen from the door.

Tonight Bobby walked Hannah home from church. They seated themselves on the couch to look at photo albums (I’m up to the 69th album, so they’ll have plenty to look at for some time).

Bobby still had his Bible in his hand.

Caleb, noticing that, quietly asked Dorcas, “Is he going to read to us?”

I told Bobby, “You can park your car on our driveway when you come to church; if we need to get our Suburban out of the garage, we’ll just put it in four-wheel-drive.”

Bobby laughed. “It’ll just look like a squished tomato on your driveway,” he said.

He drives a little red Sprint which used to be my father’s shortly before he died.

Bobby works full-time for my nephew, David Walker, who is the owner of Walker Construction.

They pour concrete walls for basements and such like, and the business is flourishing.

And that’s this week’s news!