Journal: A Wonderful Early Valentine's Gift

 

Hmmmm... I just discovered that a Swiffer duster cleans off the laptop keyboard right handily.

The laptop I restored back to factory settings for Larry is working fine and dandy, though the Windows 10 download failed.  Twice.  It’s okay; Windows 7 is good enough.

Hannah has been going through some of the bins and totes from Loren’s detached garage.  She found a can of rolled coins in one of them.  It was heavy, so, curious, I weighed it.  10.6 pounds.  Too bad the majority is pennies, rather than one-dollar pieces!  I did find a few dollar coins floating around here and there; they are now corralled.  None of them are of note; they are each worth no more than face value.

I found a little bag of wheat pennies; they were probably Mama’s, as I, too, have a little bag from her with approximately the same number of pennies in it.  They are most likely worth no more than 3 or 4¢ each.  It doesn’t look like we wound up with the 1943 Lincoln cent cast in bronze instead of zinc-coated steel at the San Francisco Mint, more’s the pity.  That one sold for over $1 million about ten years ago.

At a quarter after six Tuesday morning, we received notice, with pictures to prove it, that we had another new grandson!  Kurt and Victoria now have a baby boy, William Elliot.  They will call him Willie.  He was 8 pounds, 11 ounces, 21 inches long, and was born at 2:22 a.m. on February 8^th.

I told Victoria their baby looks just like one of those reborn,  lifelike dollies that the very best doll artists make.  💞

So now each of our three at-risk daughters, Dorcas, Hester, and Victoria, have had their babies safely, and all are well, baby and mother – and even the daddies are doing okay, into the bargain.

We are very thankful.  God truly gives us more blessings than trials.  I have carefully counted them up, and the weight has fallen very heavily on the blessing side.  💞😍💖🥰💝

We now have four grandchildren who have birthdays on February 8.

Later that morning, I got ready to head to Loren’s house to continue the clearing out.  First, I needed to drop off a load of things at the Goodwill, and then I would take the New York Beauty quilt to the post office and mail it to Paducah for the Branson quilt show.

No, first I should eat breakfast.  Where was the short-order cook??  I wanted waffles!

But time was a-wastin’.  I made do with granola cereal and a glass of milk.

Later that day, Victoria sent pictures of Baby Willie with each of his sisters, who are totally pleased with their little brother.

Janice’s sister Judy helped me at Loren’s house that day, and Amy came for a little while, too.  She packed up Janice’s Princess House Fantasia crystal for Emma.

We got one of the china hutches all cleaned out.  Judy took a few knickknacks.  I’m keeping Janice’s china, as it’s just like the china various friends and relatives gave us for our wedding, and which I later gave to some friends of ours whose house burnt to the ground, taking all their belongings with it.  The rest of the dishes in the hutch went to the Salvation Army.

I cleared out a big cupboard and started on the rolltop desk.  Larry arrived a little after 7:00 p.m. and helped me for a while.  It was slow work, going through all the photos and cards and papers in the drawers on the china hutch, and more in the drawers of the rolltop desk. 

Larry measured the big leather loveseat to see if it will fit through our door.  Maybe if we get a run at it.  Maybe if we knock the front wall down?

We went to the Apple Barrel Restaurant at Sapp Bros. truck stop for supper that evening.  We arrived at 7:40 p.m.  They now close at 8; it used to be 11:00 p.m.  (Some restaurants close at 7!  Whyyyyy???  That’s suppertime!)  Larry was quite sure we could order, they could cook it, we could eat, and be gone by 8.  Nope.  It was more like 8:30.  So we tipped the nice boy who was our server a little more than usual.  I had a BLT, fruit, and blueberry pie.  It was nice to sit there and let someone wait on us.  We were tired, and our backs and necks hurt.

The BMW was chockful of stuff, but the Salvation Army and the Goodwill also close early these days – sometimes at 5:00.  Closing time used to be 9.  When we got home, I carried in a few things I wanted to keep.  There are now about a dozen boxes in my living room that I need to sort and put away.  But... they can wait until Loren’s house is done. 

I’m telling you, I am definitely planning to throw out a good portion of my own things that are stowed away in the basement!  If I haven’t used them for the last ten years, why on earth do I keep them?!  Too much stuff, too much stuff.

Hester, who had been discharged from the hospital on Monday, sent a picture a little after 6:00 p.m. – Keira and Baby Oliver, both in the car! – they were on their way home; Oliver had been discharged from the hospital.

Early Wednesday afternoon, Larry and a car salesman arrived at our house, wanting me to drive the 2016 Mercedes-Benz GL450 SUV that was sitting on the driveway.

I drove it; liked it.

A couple of hours later, after all the legal ramifications had been properly considered, we headed off to Big Country Auto to trade Loren’s Chevy Silverado pickup on the SUV.  The pickup was worth considerably more than the Benz, so this gave us more to put into Loren’s account for his future care.  We will drive the Mercedes instead of the BMW, which is unreliable, with its penchant for going into limp mode at whatever it decides is the most inconvenient time possible.  It did it twice the last time we were in Omaha, and Larry had of course forgotten the scanner with which he can clear the codes in another coat pocket.  Our hearts sank – but he turned off the vehicle... waited a minute or two... turned it back on... and it ran all right.  But it doesn’t make for a very relaxing excursion, when one’s vehicle won’t behave.

Victoria invited us over after church that evening, while also explaining that they’d need to go to bed by 10:00 p.m.  Hee hee... she reminds me of me, giving out detailed instructions and information to everyone whether they want them or not.  haha

That’s okay; I love her just the way she is. 

I put gifts in a bag for Emma, who turned 16:  I had a cup made for her that has a picture of a pretty Baptist Church called ‘Emma Baptist Church’ – it’s in South Carolina, I think; and I got her an old-fashioned-looking necklace with a small pendant that looks like a round, stained-glass window, and put that into the mug; I also got her a hair clip from the Lilla Rose collection that Hannah sells.  For Grant, who turned 9, we got a 1:24 heavy diecast white Corvette with red interior and opening doors, trunk, and hood; and also a soft blue and gray sweat jacket with fleece inside.  For Baby Willie, we had six little onesies.  Three have dump trucks and other big equipment printed on them and say ‘Daddy’s little cuddler’; the other three have animals printed and appliquéd on them and say ‘Mama’s little snuggler’. 

There are more baby boy gifts ordered and on the way.

We drove to church in style that evening in the Mercedes-Benz GL450, and afterwards we went to Victoria’s house.

Carolyn and Violet know that their Grandpa Jackson has dentures.  Not quite understanding how these things work, they were attempting the other day to remove their own small sets of teeth.  Unsuccessful, Carolyn informed Violet that the reason they couldn’t pull their teeth out of their mouths like Grandpa can is because “They’re too slippery!”  😄

Thursday was another busy day at Loren’s house.  At 4:30 p.m., I went to the Salvation Army to unload the BMW.  I took a couple of boxes home, too.  My stomach was growling, so I had a few crackers with peanut butter and honey and a bottle of Fuji Apple & Pear Alo Aloe Vera juice.

Then back to Loren’s house I went, and I didn’t come home again until after 11:00 p.m.  Larry and I took a little break to go to Andrew and Hester’s house to see Baby Oliver.  They had chicken noodle soup in the crockpot.  Victoria made a huge potful last month, froze it in small-family-sized amounts, and gave Hester some.  I would have recognized her chicken noodle soup recipe even if Hester hadn’t’ve told me who made it.  😊 😋

Hester was telling us that baby Oliver had smiled at her on purpose a few times in the last couple of days.  So there I was holding him, talking to him, and he was looking straight up into my eyes (how does a tiny newborn baby know to look right into your eyes??) – and all of a sudden he smiled from ear to ear, and wiggled all the way down to his toes.  Twice, he did that.  Yesirree, Hester had been telling the truth:  that wee infant is smiling at people on purpose.

It makes us happy when we can see that our children’s homes are full of love, and their new babies, even the one who was two or three weeks early, are bright and alert, with all the little gears turning properly in their sweet little heads.

That evening, Bobby invited a couple of the young men from our church who are also Sunday School teachers and sometimes preach in Robert’s place when he is gone to come and look at the books in Loren’s large library.  They chose quite a lot of nice books, and one of the young families took a set of Laura Ingalls Wilder books (the more historical books, not the Little House books).  They also helped Bobby move out a mirrored dresser and bed for Joanna.  

We were happy when we got back to Loren’s house to find quite a lot of books and the bedroom set, except for the tall bureau, gone.  There’s light at the end of the tunnel!

And Baby Oliver smiled at me.  Little blessings mean a lot!

Friday morning found me once again getting ready to head to Loren’s house for more clearing out.  I cleaned out another closet and a bunch of drawers in the lower level.  I filled the Beemer twice (don’t want to get the Mercedes dirty) with stuff to donate (and a few things to keep), and filled and overflowed two large trash bins.

Later that afternoon, Robert and Margaret came and got all the rest of the books from Loren’s collection; we’re putting them into the school library. 

The piano went to Robert and Margaret’s daughter Michelle, and Michelle and her husband David took the big grandfather clock, which was an award Loren won while selling for the Chamber of Commerce (unless it was the NFIB).  He won award after award with both organizations, from 1974 right on through 2013, except for those years when he was preaching.  He retired in 2013 to care for Janice, who had cancer.

That grandfather clock will be perfect in the new house David and Michelle are building.  I found three more flags on sticks for their little girl Gracelynn, and she sat happily on the piano bench waving her flags and smiling at us all.

Whatever decent furniture nobody wants, Robert and some friends will store in our church’s huge basement area.  Many people put nice furniture they are no longer using in the basement there, and then young people who are getting married and/or need to furnish a new house can come and choose whatever they need.

One of the things we’ll donate to the cause is the hospital bed Loren got for Janice.  Several of us offered to move it for him after Janice passed away, but he didn’t want to get rid of it; I don’t know why.  I think he was showing signs of dementia even back then; but we didn’t recognize it for what it was.  That’s a common symptom:  the person doesn’t like to get rid of or change anything. 

After leaving Loren’s house, we went to the Dairy Queen in Schuyler, since Columbus’ is under reconstruction and won’t be open for another month or more.  I got a Flamethrower Burger (hot! hot! yummy! yummy!) and a Royal New York Cheesecake Blizzard.  It was good, but, as usual, I couldn’t eat it all.  And I’d thought I was so hungry.  I’d had a not-too-big bowl of grains-and-nuts cereal at 10:00 a.m., and when I went home and unloaded some stuff from the BMW at about 4:00 p.m., I had a handful of Triscuits and a bottle of Al­o Aloe Vera juice.  Nevertheless, I couldn’t finish that burger.  Larry was happy to find it in the refrigerator the next day at lunchtime.

Once again, we didn’t get home until almost 11:00 p.m.  My VeryFitPro watch said I had trekked 9,886 steps that day.

Saturday afternoon, we went to see Loren.  We took him a nice end table with drawers, some bright, soft, cotton Mexican blankets that he and Janice got in Mexico many years ago, a couple of soft fleece throws in gray and gray/white stripe, a large framed sunset/river picture to hang on the wall, and a bright red heavy metal 1:24 biplane.  I remembered to write his name with permanent marker on the bottom of the plane, but forgot to put nametags on the blankets.

Today I called and apologetically asked a nurse to do it for me.  She said she would, “if the blankets are still there – and if the tags will stick to them.”

“Thank you so much,” I said; “I know you have more than enough to do!”

She laughed, and agreed with me good-naturedly. 

Ah, well; it seems to make no discernible difference whether things are labeled or not; people – including Loren – abscond with anything that’s not fastened down.  They also carry their own things out of the room, and then leave them in odd places anywhere in the home.  The airplane will probably fly away before we get back to see him again.

Yep, in nursing homes, things go missing... and things show up!  Loren is missing both pairs of shoes – but has a totally different pair of shoes on.  He says they are very comfortable – and that he found them when he was outside mowing the lawn.  (Lawns in Nebraska at this time of year are dormant, and often iced or snowed under.)  He said he hopped off the mower, picked them up, and lo and behold, they fit perfectly!

He also told us that ‘they’ (whoever ‘they’ are) had told him he would be discharged that evening, in just a couple of hours – but after that, they refused to talk to him.  “Businesses are like that,” he informed us, with a shrug.

He was very happy with his bright and soft Mexican blankets, the picture we hung over his bed (we made sure the nail was sturdy, and the picture was not too awfully heavy), and the bright red ‘Country General’ biplane we put on the end table we carted in.  Good thing we didn’t bring the other end table, because the wife and daughter of the man with whom Loren shares a room had put a nice air purifier in the corner in which I’d intended to put the second end table.  We have not yet met the man; he’s been elsewhere each time we visited.

There’s room for a chair; we’ll bring it next time.

Loren might forget a lot of things, and come up with wild stories about things that never happened, but he does remember that he ‘lost’ his wallet (though now he thinks he lost it there at the nursing home) – and he knows the exact dollar amount that was in it:  $92.  He’s got the amount right.  Several friends and family have suggested giving him his wallet with some fake cards in it; but it’s the money that’s concerning him, not the wallet or the cards.  If I should do that, he would then be all concerned about the missing money.  Besides, it’s a moot point, since the directors at the home specifically ask that residents not bring a wallet.  That would be one of the things pilfered right quick-like.

So I said to Loren, “Well, you get free food here, right?”

He smiled and agreed, “Yes, they have very good food, three meals a day – and it’s all free, every time!”

I continued, “So all you need to do, then, is to eat, and eat, and eat, until you’ve gobbled down $92 worth of food—” (of course he’s done that long ago, but he has no real understanding of the cost of food) “—and then you’ll be perfectly even!”  I made a smooth motion with my hand, palm down.

He grinned.  “That’s a good idea!”  He nodded, still grinning.  “I’ll do that!” 

The Mormon Bridges

He was also missing his glasses, and said someone had taken them three or four days earlier, and he’d spent all his time looking for them, ever since.  So we all walked to the nurses’ station and asked about the glasses.  One young nurse brought out a plastic bin full of ‘lost’ glasses, and shuffled vigorously through them to see if we might spot Loren’s in the mix.  She kerplunked them down on the counter lens side down, and then tossed them all back in the bin and gave it a good shake to settle them into it better.  Good grief.

“Good thing glasses are tough,” remarked Loren with his characteristic wry grin when he means the opposite.

The nurse told us, “He had them on this morning; I’ll go look in his room for them.”  She trotted off... and soon returned, sans glasses.  Then she told us quietly, “We’ll watch for them; but, just so you know, he’s one of our ‘wanderers’, and he ‘collects’ things – and leaves things behind in strange places.”  

Ah.  That would explain the odd collection of stuffed toys and dolls on his closet shelves!  When I asked, “What’s all this?” he shook his head like he really didn’t know, and then said, “That must be Norma’s stuff!”  The doll is going to have an aneurism, because she’s upside down and all the blood is rushing to her head.

He pointed out the grand piano in the dining room, and said that a lady had played Christmas songs on it earlier while they were eating.  “It was very nice,” he said, “and helped muffle the noise.”  (Of old folks’ dentures clacking, or what, I wonder?)  Then he added, “But the balls hit the wrong wires.”

I laughed, knowing he meant ‘hammers hit the wrong strings’, and asked, “Is it out of tune?” 

He nodded and made a face.  “Pretty bad!”

He’d be able to tell, and it would bother him, I’m sure.  Last time he was at church, he sang nicely, and right on tune.

Missouri River

He was soon ready for us to go, bidding us adieu first, as opposed to waiting for us to do it, and shook both of our hands in a loving gesture, thanking us for – “um, whatever it was you did.”  😄

He went away, trotting purposefully down one hall, changing his mind, retracing his footsteps, and then trotting just as purposefully down the other hallway. 

“He’s off to continue his collection,” said Larry, as we waited for the door to open so we could get out. 

As we stood there, the woman with whom Loren has been friendly came marching over with a couple of empty Doritos bags.  She’s a pretty lady, and seems healthy enough, but... 

She plopped the bags down on a pretty side table with a large silk hydrangea plant on it (rather than throwing them in the garbage can that sat nearby), and proceeded to inform us (with sundry *#@%&*! words I don’t use) that ‘they’ (those rascally, elusive ‘they’s again!) don’t know what they’re blankety-blank talking about. 

I had first smiled at her, but at this point, I ignored her and looked steadfastly over her shoulder.  She started walking closer to me, since I wasn’t paying her the proper attention. 

I looked at her. 

She stopped, just in the outer circle of my airspace.  Then she commenced to slapping her own face a couple of times, in defiance of ‘those people’ who had evidently irritated her in some unknown fashion – or perhaps to punish herself for those bad words. 

I went back to ignoring her, and then some other visitors came along and told her she had to ‘go back’, pointing in the other direction.  She obediently trotted off.  The door opened, and we all fled for our lives.

We (meaning Larry and I; we left the other fleers to their own devices once we got outside) drove north alongside the Missouri River as the sun dropped lower in the sky, looking at all the Canada geese and the wild turkeys.  I think we were in our right minds.  I think.

These are muskrat huts out in that swampy area, I think.  They look too small to be beaver huts.

Anyway, I’m glad Loren is well, and despite asking for his car that morning (the young nurse told me this), he appears happy and cheerful.  He was happy that we had come, and he didn’t beg to go with us; so I was relieved about that.

While he does not seem unhappy, he does know he’s corralled.  Still, we kept him in his home and fairly independent as long as possible, and were glad we could, though it wasn’t always fun and games.

We ate supper at Penny’s Diner in Fremont.  There are still no menus (because Covid lurks menacingly on such things as menus), so we have to order via QR code with our cellphones.  The thing is, you can order anything you want, so long as it isn’t food; the girl doesn’t know how to make it... or they don’t have it, one or a-’tuther.  Poor girl; she was new at the job, and all by herself.

When we got home, I tried to edit my pictures, but I was soon falling asleep.  I gave up and went to bed.

I did zoom in on the pictures of Loren’s room – and discover that the collages (framed photos) of our family that we left on the dresser last week weren’t there.  

“He probably left them in Norma’s room,” remarked Larry.  😅

Oh, I did find last week’s missing pants; they were in a bottom dresser drawer instead of the closet shelf where I’d put them.  I thought Larry had checked that drawer, but he had not.

Sunday, I finally got the waffles I’d wanted last Tuesday; Larry made them for our lunch when we got home from church.

After the service last night, we went to get some groceries, and came upon Andrew in the beverage aisle getting some energy drinks, because, he told us, it was his turn to do the nighttime feedings for Baby Oliver.  He seemed downright cheery over the prospect, which, I imagine, was because he is.  Is downright cheery about it, that is.  Thursday evening when we were at their house, as we sat down at the table to eat, someone asked who was going to pray, and Andrew said with a smile, “I guess I will; I have a lot to be thankful for!”

We went to Loren’s house to put out the trash; but first we ate some of those groceries.  I had chicken fajita rice with green and red sweet peppers and onions, orange juice, and a sliver of cheesecake with chocolate drizzled on it.  Larry had some sort of rigatoni meatball dish, and New York cheesecake.  Then I cleaned old food out of the refrigerator and freezer while Larry hauled out the trash.

He opened an old trunk out in the garage – and extracted a very old crazy quilt flimsy (a ‘flimsy’ is the top part only of a quilt – no batting, and no backing).  I am not fond of most crazy quilts.  This one is not particularly well done, as the corners of the blocks don’t match.   They’re often a good inch off.  I covered the leather loveseat with it.  The loveseat is considerably more valuable, and a whole lot more beautiful, too.

Maybe I’ll finish that quilt someday; I really do dislike unfinished projects, even when they’re not my own.  Or maybe I’ll give it to some quilting lady who adores crazy quilts.

Home again, we put the groceries away; and soon I was in my recliner with a heating pad behind me, a vaporizer blowing steam into my face (it helps my eyes), and a mug of hot coffee beside me.  I edited a few dozen pictures and then hit the hay.

Today Robert started removing light switch covers and suchlike in preparation to painting at Loren’s house.  Bobby (and probably Aaron) collected the rest of the furniture they wanted.

I stayed home and washed several loads of clothes.

Dorcas sent some pictures of Brooklyn wearing a ‘First Valentine’s Day’ top.  She's the prettiest little thing.

This evening, Judy wrote to tell me that she and her husband Randy had had a nice visit with Loren.  “He was really happy to see us,” she wrote, “and he knew us right away.  We visited for about an hour.”

She thought he was making perfect sense while they were there – but he sent them home with a belt in which he wanted more holes punched, and it didn’t occur to her that it must belong to someone else, since it was ten inches too big for him, and they did in fact find one of Loren’s belts in a drawer.  He had two, to start with.  He can sound so very plausible, it’s sometimes hard to realize that the things he says are total fabrications.  I’ll take the belt back (without any new holes punched in it) when we go there next time.

As I have mentioned before, in researching Lewy Body dementia, I learned that many patients never do forget their friends and family.  They hallucinate, make things up, do odd things, forget everything under the sun – but they may always remember family and friends.  That doesn’t happen 100% of the time, though; some do forget.  I also learned that patients can have both Alzheimer’s and Lewy Body dementia at the same time.  The doctors only know this for certain from autopsies.  I do hope Loren goes on knowing us; it’s so much nicer to visit when that’s the case, isn’t it?

A little while ago, Victoria sent some pictures of Violet holding Willie – and a live movie grab of Violet yawning hugely, followed by a heartfelt eyeroll, even while she picked right back up with the singing – in the middle of Home of the Soul during last night’s service.

That child would make a monkey laugh.

Bedtime!

,,,>^..^<,,,           Sarah Lynn          ,,,>^..^<,,,