Decision: Rough Time At The Old "Farm" Today

Well, dirty dishes will get you every time. Mom is feeling down today....right on schedule in the sequence of events that have followed each chemo treatment. She was doing them up and got too hot, then hotter, and then had to sit down.
She says it's like the first treatment all over again. I wonder if that is because she had to go an extra week....sure helps explain why the doctor said can't delay more than a week with this schedule. Next treatment will be January 19 and should be the last one.......nobody will be happier than Mom for that to be true.
Keep her in your thoughts and prayers. She has been remarkable through this whole ordeal but a little extra word of encouragement and support couldn't hurt.

Decision: Has It Been Long Enough?

I called Aaron and asked him....he said "no Mom, I'm OK". Puzzled? I was.....LOL! I just wondered if I had given him a big enough break. After all, we had just spent 7 days in a row together in very close quarters!
He has had one heck of a time since we got back. He had to move equipment to a 'tax free yard' before midnight New Year's Eve and then move it out again after New Years Day. (He tells a better account of it than I).... but, suffice to say flat tires and expired plates made it mostly impossible. So, he gave it up, wrote a check for shingles, and spent Thursday and Friday shingling the front roofs.

I went over my list of missing things with him but he hasn't seen any of them. Actually, he hasn't taken everything out of the Expedition yet so there is still hope!

Decision: First Food of 2009

Got up but didn't have breakfast. Got on the computer, Mom came down from upstairs, and soon we were watching 'Dr. Phil'. Checked email and found invitation to Denise's blog (http://denise-angelwhispers.blogspot.com/); then Molly found me online and we 'IM'ed for awhile. Soon, I got hungry and Mom too. As she sat bundled up in her chair (getting ready for her next nap), she said 'Ice cream sounds good (explaining water isn't tasting good right now)'. So I jumped up and out to the kitchen: I got the last slice of Apple-Cranberry pie and two scoops of Butter Pecan ice cream for me; for Mom, I dished up three scoops of Whipped French Vanilla (she can't have the nuts right now). So, there you have it.....the first food of 2009. YUM, YUM!

HAPPY 2009 EVERYONE!

Mom just went to bed....."don't let anybody say I didn't see the new year come in.....I'm going to bed". Yes, that's what she said as she disappeared into the dimness of the Entry Room and headed up stairs. I grabbed my phone anticipating a call from one of my kids and hoping the Alaska kid didn't wait until it is midnight in her time zone....LOL. But, the circuits are too busy and suspect I will either get a call after I go to bed or in the morning (daylight)!
Enjoy the rest of your night...now I'm going to bed!

Decision: Pride 'Wenteth' Right Smach-Dab Before This Fall......Will I Ever Learn!

I don't think I even know where to start with this one.....but here goes!
I am OnCall this weekend (and this whole week past, for that matter). Anyway, I make the schedule so you would think that could have found a way to get out of it when we had two weeks in a row that those originally scheduled have left the company. But, I couldn't get any volunteers, so here I am.
Now the pride part: when I went in to bed, as I placed the OnCall phone on the chair, I remember thinking (with pride) how incredibly lucky I had been given all the time I spent without my laptop handy this weekend not to get a call….huge, gigantic, enormous mistake….. First call came at 3:51 AM from Vikranth in India; he was trying to work on instance ASCP (whatever that is) and it was down. All the other instances were up but that one. Even though it was nearly 4 AM in the States, he wanted me to wake somebody up and find out when it would be fixed…..couldn't’wait. OK, so I asked him for his phone number, which he gave to me at the ‘speed of light’. I asked for it slowly, and he obliged….after all, my brain never functions at the ‘speed of light’ even when I am awake.
So, I know how to reach him....all I have to do is find somebody who can fix the thing. We have a list of Oracle OnCall people (that's the software he was referring to) but the person who is supposed to be called for this particular issue, does not have a phone number listed. (Sometimes the information we are given is just to 'appease' and isn't really of value when you actually try to use it.) So, I pick another person and number that I think will do and call him. Now there are at least two if us in Michigan awaken at 4 AM.....oh joy!

These pictures I took show me 'waiting' for the third call from Vikranth and on the phone with him on the fourth call....he called about every half an hour. But, when 6 AM rolled around, I put the phone on forward (to the CSD....6 AM guy was there) and TURNED IT OFF!

Maybe I can get some sleep now......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Decision: Raising the Roof...(correction).. Roofs

Finally! The entire house has a roof, and another roof, and still another ......... somebody loves his 'pitches'. We'll see if he still loves them when it's time to shingle, and of course, pay the taxes.
The second picture is in the back above the 'magic snow door'. The picture I took of the entire back was through the trees and I really couldn't get the detail because the roof color (snow) is the same as the sky (snowy). I'll either have to wait until the shingles are on, or maybe next weekend I will get there while the sun is still shining.....LOL!
Inside there is a plethora of work being done too. Here Angelica has just finished 'stuffing' one of the outside walls in Ethan's room. She continued on to the bathroom (behind and to her left). Currently, these are the only two defined rooms....defined, insulated and slated to be drywalled for living in as soon as the real electricity is turned back on. Currently when occupied, the house is powered by generator.....gas operated generator. Aaron says he might as well be burning dollar bills -- $100 bills.

Decision: Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head?

Actually, no, I am not at Aaron's 'cause, yes, that has happen a lot at his house. I am asleep on the couch in the apartment. I feel 'raindrops' on my forehead and I remember thinking for a brief moment that Aaron's ceiling was leaking. Then I remembered that I am not at MC (Michigan Center) I am in Adrian. I turn my head to see 'the cat' on the fish tank. I slap the arm of the couch and yell "hey". The cat goes up the wall, pushes off, flips threw the air, and takes off like a shot. It was worth being woke up sprinkled with water to see that! (giggles)

Let's go back to a couple days ago when I returned to Adrian from my weekend in MC and rural Onsted. There was a note: We have a cat now, so don't be 'freaked out' if you see it. Then yesterday I did see him....sitting on the floor looking at me like 'Who are you?' My thoughts exactly...who are you, too? 'I am Aunt Marlys' I offer...then he went from looking curious to puzzled. So, I still didn't know the name but at least now I had a face.

So now, back to the 'raindrops': without knowing his name I have to call him 'hey'. It turns out I was on the right track. His nickname is "H" and his full name is Horatio Cane. Ok, so that could be why he likes water, and asks probing questions, and is skittish?.....well that part I am not sure about. But, taking his picture, I learned a bit about the real Horatio Cane and why he wears those sun glasses.....I took 5 pictures of this cat and could only get one (no matter how many settings I changed on my camera).....could only get one that didn't show his eyes as glowing and that was because he turned his head. So now we know that the famous "H" is really an alien (and not the kind that comes up from Cuba)!