While my wife is in the hospital, following two surgeries, I’m keeping very busy. Yesterday I was so busy I forgot to do my regular blog post. Now, on Saturday morning, I’m still keeping busy. So busy in fact that I’ve not planned anything to say today. I need to sit down and make up a blog post schedule. Maybe if I write that on the to-do list I’ll get it done.
Meanwhile, back to the checkbook, budgeting, filing, yardwork, vacuuming the car, income taxes, paying bills, reading, writing, etc.
Dateline: 5 April 2020
Well, the title of this blog post is sure a true statement. I never expected something like this corona virus that would send the world reeling. I never would have expected a stock market meltdown such as we’ve had. And I never would have expected…
…my wife to be in the hospital. On Thursday she woke up to a painful abdomen. It wasn’t long before she realized it wasn’t just gas, that something was wrong. We monitored it, but the pain was tolerable so we went about our normal routine. That is, normal for being socially distant and close to sheltering in place.
Friday morning the pain remained. It had also hit her hard during the night. After a couple of hours we called her primary care physician and arranged a video appointment. That happened but with much trial and error. The doc decided she needed to come in for an office visit. They aren’t doing many of those due to the pandemic, but she said come in before 4. This was around 11:00 a.m. The lab called us back and said we should come in before 3 because they would leave early on a Friday with not a lot to do.
The doc decided she needed a cat scan, so they scheduled it for the Mercy urgent care facility closest to our house, at our request, because we figured we’d be going home afterward. The thing took almost four hours, at which time they said we needed to head straight to the hospital operating room. The problem was most likely a ruptured appendix. We did so, getting there at 6:00 p.m.
Of course, I couldn’t go into any of these places with her. I read in the car. We left so quickly in the morning that neither of us brought chargers and Lynda didn’t remember her new cell phone. Thinking there would be surgery that night (as we were told), I waited in the parking lot, thinking if something went wrong they would call me and let me see her. But Lynda called around 8:00 p.m. and said the surgery would be at 10 Saturday morning.
The surgeon then called me around 10 a.m. on Saturday. They took her early to surgery, got out the appendix laparoscopically, She would be in the hospital a few days due to antibiotics due to the rupture, all of which time I wouldn’t be able to see her because of the corona virus.
In video calls since then, I’ve learned that her heart went into a-fib, she’s quite nauseous, she has an air bubble in her stomach, and water on her lungs. During which time I can’t see her due to the pandemic.
So, today, Sunday, I kept myself busy. I studied for Life Group in case I had to teach (which I didn’t), I had quite a few phone calls and many messages about Lynda. I did some more genealogy research, and I accelerated a de-cluttering effort in the storeroom that I began about five days ago. I actually saw some progress on both research and decluttering today.
And, of course I prayed—much, even almost without ceasing. God has this under control, all of it. He has Lynda’s health, he had the world’s health, and he has my peace of mind.
The nurses told me today that Lynda isn’t in any danger. What she’s going through (except the a-fib) is normal after an operation. Her body just needs time to work through it.
So I will rest easy knowing the Great Physician has this. Amen.
I’ve written about decluttering before. It’s an on-going process here at Blackberry Oaks (the name I’ve given to our property, a name no one else in the family seems to like or is willing to adopt). Most of what we’ve done is relatively minor stuff: getting rid of a few empty boxes; taking garage sale stuff that didn’t sell to the thrift store; etc.
Last week and into the weekend, however, I did something a little more major. In our basement storeroom is a dark nook, set off from the rest of the storeroom by a 6-foot long job in the concrete wall and two book cases at right angles to it, is an area I have never had a name for, but which I think I’ll dub The Graveyard.
At the front of The Graveyard were two boxes with Christmas wreaths and another box of some candle holders. Behind it was a stack of computer boxes. The Apple boxes I knew had our old C-II from the Kuwait years. The other boxes I wasn’t sure what was in them. Then, there were a couple of large cardboard boxes. One I knew was for our first digital TV, the 32-incher we bought in 2008 and were still using. I guess we kept that thinking that if we ever moved, it might be best to pack the box back up in the original container. Yeah, that’s a good reason to keep the box. It’s out of the way.
Well, as we had our family Christmas over Thanksgiving, our son bought us a new digital TV. It’s a smart TV, 49-inches, yet it takes only a little more footprint and square footage than the old one. The box for this one went to the garage. We’re still trying to learn how to use the smart TV, but that’s a story for another post.
Last week, around Monday, I took a look at The Graveyard and decided we could do without that old TV box. We would be going by the recycling center the next day, so I decided it was time to let go of it. As I pulled it out, I saw that we also had the box from the TV stand for that old TV, a stand that it once again sits on in The Dungeon, waiting to be hooked up. Well, obviously I didn’t need to keep that. Both of those boxes went up to the garage, into the minivan, and, the next day, to the recycling center along with the new TV box and some other stuff.
How freeing that was! Much of our clutter is empty boxes, saved for whatever reason we need them. But these particular boxes clearly had no future use.
But there, in The Graveyard, I also found, not just our old Apple computer, but an equally ancient desktop, perhaps also from Kuwait. I’ve been slowly giving up the old computers for recycling, after having someone get the data off of them. I thought I knew where they all were, so finding this one buried behind unneeded boxes was a surprise. It’s now moved to a place where I stage getting rid of computers. Also back there was a dead printer—dead because whatever computer it was used with is no longer in service. It’s also moved to the electronic recyclables staging area.
Once these things were removed, I was able to organize the few things left to be where I can see them. I gathered all the loose wreaths and hung them. Also, I was able to move the free-standing bookcases back a little further into The Graveyard to make that space smaller and make the main part of the storeroom bigger. You can see what the result was.
Decluttering is far from over, In fact, in some ways it’s seems we’ve just begun the task. But this feels good. Real good. Next will be the remaining old computers and other electronics. Then, what’s next? Maybe some real stuff will depart this household.
It wasn’t a normal weekend.
Of course, in retirement weekends aren’t supposed to be all that different from weekdays. But Saturday I did some heavy yardwork, continuing to clear brush and downed trees from the lot south of us, making it look a little more attractive. That was after I had updated the checkbook, updated the budget spreadsheet, and filed receipts, etc.
After this work I got to read a while in the sun room. I may have napped in my chair a little. But soon it was back into the main house to get supper ready. Then the evening was consumed with preparing for Life Group on Sunday while watching television and doing crosswords. I think I had a little time to read in an e-book.
Sunday was up at 6:00 a.m. to do my main study for Life Group teaching. We began in my book yesterday, Acts Of Faith. The class went well, but I expended a lot of energy in teaching it. I felt washed out by the time we got to worship. After that it was to Wendy’s to get lunch to bring home, then to Braum’s for milk, then to Wal-Mart for prescriptions that weren’t called in for my normal trip on Thursday.
After eating I unloaded clean dishes from the dishwasher, added dirty dishes to it, and washed dishes that don’t go in it. Then fix a side dish to take to Life Group party. I sat a little while during the cooking, but not much. Around 3:30 p.m. I left for the party, was there until 7:30 p.m. It was a good time, except I ate way too much and felt sluggish afterward. I brought a plate home for Lynda.
I sat in my reading chair and promptly fell asleep, whatever on TV being totally uninteresting.
So, I did no writing and no reading yesterday. I guess that’s fitting for a “day of rest”. Hopefully it will take only a day or two to recover.
Yesterday was a special day at church, as our long-time minister of worship, Mal McCawley, retired from full-time ministry. Mal’s been at our church eighteen years—this time. He was here in the late 1980s, then came back in 2001, making for over twenty years in all. Including other churches he served at it’s over 30 years of ministry.
To say Mal was our minister of worship is an understatement. He’s fulfilled many roles as an associate pastor. He did whatever needed doing, in a proactive way, but also understanding that he served at the pleasure of the lead pastor. In tributes made yesterday, he was described as demonstrating perfectly “how to lead from the second chair.” Look around, see what needs doing, and do it. Do your assigned tasks, but realize the One who you really serve may have more for you to do.
Mal, God bless you as you move into this next phase of your life. I hope you enjoy your retirement as much as I’m enjoying mine.
My last blog post discussed what was happening with my book Documenting America: Making The Constitution. On Monday, after writing my blog post, I made major progress on publishing tasks. I won’t list what I did. Suffice to say by the end of the day I was further along on all three versions (Kindle, Smashwords, and print) than I expected to be.
The Monday evening happened. A short but intense thunderstorm hit, with winds of 70 mph. Power went out at 10:30 p.m. and was off for just short of 48 hours. A large tree blew over from the wooded lot next to us on the north and is resting on the house. a second, larger tree also blew over but rested against another tree that kept it from hitting the house. Neither one seems to have damaged the house, but I’m going to need a professional service to clear the trees away. So, I’m dealing with all of that and have not doing anything more on Documenting America.
What I did instead was more intensive editing of my Bible study, Acts Of Faith. When the power went out, I was through Chapter 5 with the second round of edits and also with the Leader’s Guide. Reading and editing the printed manuscript was something I could do during the day, even without power. So I stretched out on the floor, the notebook between me and the glass doors to the deck, and read and marked with red pen. I set aside work on the Leader’s Guide as I need to have the Bible study published by September 15. The Leader’s Guide can follow it by a month or so.
By the end of yesterday I had edited all but one chapter. I will finish it today and be ready to type. In fact, I may type those edits before I go back to Documenting America. Acts Of Faith is out with two beta readers, one of whom I’m sure will give me comments. I’m going to send one more chapter to my critique group for comments between meetings.
Then I’ll be enmeshed in dealing with trees and insurance and other aspects of Monday’s storm. I’m not sure yet what my new publishing schedule will be.
In my last post, I told about the de cluttering effort my wife and I are in. I spoke specifically about the multiple stamp collections I’m dealing with, as well as a few other de-cluttering activities.
This weekend, while de-cluttering is still high on the priority list, so is what I call simply “getting things done.” It began on Friday, where I worked in The Dungeon for a good part of the day, doing my normal writing and stock trading tasks. In the evening I finally finished putting loose stamps into that stock book I mentioned in the last post, and on Saturday I gathered all the stamps in one place, while on Saturday and Sunday I put them all in a larger box and into their designated place in the storeroom. Check one item off the to-do list.
Our newer minivan was overdue for servicing. I finally called on that on Friday afternoon, learned they had appointments on Saturday, and took an early one. I learned of a sensor that’s gone bad; it will be replaced later this week under warranty. I also took that van to a nearby body shop for an estimate on fixing the rear tailgate after the fender-bender I caused in June. Ah, me. Much money to be spend fixing that small folly.
Friday and Saturday remained productive for the whole days. Let’s see what I checked off the list.
I could probably add a few more things to the list, but I’d be getting into minutia if I did. Suffice to say the weekend was full, productive, enjoyable, and, if you can believe it, restful. Yes, I had time to watch TV (while working on the stamps and crossword puzzles), to sit in the sunroom and read, to get full nights’ sleep, and to gather with God’s people in worship and study on Sunday.
Whether every weekend will be so enjoyable and productive remains to be seen. This one was, and I thank God for it.
About a year ago Lynda and I came to the realization that we had to begin decluttering. Maybe that realization came longer ago than that, but it wasn’t strong enough to begin taking actions toward making it happen.
Then, in May of this year, when we had to move a bunch of stuff to make way for workers to do a certain task, we saw the stuff being moved was the fruit of over-accumulation and un-noticed hanging on. De-cluttering was suddenly real. We couldn’t just talk about it and think that no longer accumulating meant we were de-cluttering. We had to actually get rid of stuff.
So, since then, we’ve actually been getting rid of some stuff. Perhaps not fast enough and not enough, but we are actually getting rid of stuff. We put out an old exercise bike for a special trash pick-up this week. It’s a bike that worked but which we never used as we have a better one. Wednesday I took a load of electronic items to the County solid waste center. I also took the old microwave that died back in April. That felt good.
About two weeks ago I started tackling the stamp collection. Or rather, collections, for I have three here. I’ve written before about how stamp collecting was a big part of our growing up. From the time I was 8, for the next ten years barely a day went by that we didn’t work on stamps. Our albums grew large. Dad built stamp boxes out of old TV cabinets from Uncle Kenny’s shop. Before long these overflowed, as did our large Harris Citation albums.
I continued collecting into adulthood, but not in a very organized way. We bought the new stamps as they came out and “sort of” filed them. We bought used stamps from dealers and put them in albums. We saved all stamps that came into the house. We soaked stamps off paper and put them in shoe boxes. In short, we did everything we had done when I was growing up.
We couldn’t get our kids interested in it. I eventually lost interest when the pull of career and other interests came on. Two periods of overseas living, with the stamps in storage in the USA and us wondering if they would survive their boxed exile, helped to lessen the desire. By the mid-1990s the collection was in boxes, in closets or the garage, unseen and untouched.
Then, when Dad died in 1997 we had all the stamps in his house to deal with. I was the one designated by the will to handle the collections, so we packed them into our van and brought them to Arkansas, to rest beside their cousins in other boxes. Then, in 2001, my brother made a visit here and brought his stamp collection with him, asking me to sell it when I sold the others.
We’ve known since then that the collections would some day be sold, but sitting down to organize everything seemed to be so big a job that I didn’t want to devote the time to it. Every now and then I did some internet searches about selling stamps, but that was it as far as actually working on them. The stamps continued to sit. I decided there was no point in trying to interest the grandchildren it stamp collecting.
Fast forward now to May of this year. Stamps were pulled from different places. I realized the time had come to do something. The first task was to bring them all together. I did this, and found the work massive. But slowly I’ve been doing more on it. Over the last two weeks I:
So, where does this leave me? I should have all the stamps organized and stored in one place by this time next week, maybe sooner. I’ll discard/place for recycling those things that are no longer needed. I’ll check with one person who I think might want my brother’s collection. Then, I’ll break off to do some other things. I have two books in progress that I’m doing a little on simultaneously, but a little more concentrated effort and I’ll be able to finish and publish them.
It was easy to accumulate over 45 years of adulthood and 43 years of marriage. De-cluttering, which really means de-accumulating, is proving hard. I’m sure I’ll shed a few tears when the stamps leave my possession, not to storage, but for the last time. At that time I’ll tell myself “Better with someone else than put in my coffin with me.”
This post marks the 1,200th post on this blog. I guess that’s somewhat of a mini-milestone. That’s not actually how many blog posts I’ve written, however.
I started blogging in December 2007 on the Blogger [a.k.a. blogspot] platform, naming that blog “An Arrow Through the Air”, a phrase used by John Wesley that I really liked. I posted there until June 2011 when, with the help of my son, I set up this website with a blog. I ported over from AATTA all the posts there, however many it was at the time.
I kept blogging at both places for a while. This one was to be about my writing life, the other more general or personal in subject. It wasn’t terribly long that I discovered keeping up two blogs and writing and working full time didn’t make sense and wasn’t really achievable for me. So I stopped posting at AATTA and focused on this blog. I never did port over here the posts I added at AATTA after the original porting. So, I have some number of posts there that are, technically speaking, in addition to the 1,200 here. How many? I ought to go over there and count, but will do that at another time.
Eventually I realized I could use that name here too, and renamed this blog “An Arrow Through the Air”. That was sometime last year, or maybe it was the year before.
That gets us down to today. As I look through the blinds on The Dungeon windows, I see a cloudy day outside. We are right on the edge of the remnants of Hurricane Barry, with a 50 percent chance of showers this morning. It’s 7:46 a.m. and my first cup of coffee is almost finished. I’ve been at the computer since 6:50 a.m., right after I finished scripture reading (currently in Proverbs) and prayer. After checking book sales (none) and a writing website I follow, I typed edits in three chapters in Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition. I’ll now shift to writing the eleventh chapter (out of seventeen) in the Bible study I’m writing, Acts of Faith—after I tend to my stock trading duties, that is. I guess breakfast will be in there somewhere.
The blackberry bushes in the area still have both ripe and ripening berries on them, but I’m all picked out for this year. I got enough to make several cobblers, and freeze close to two quarts. I’ve done my free food gathering for this year. Time to think about some inside projects, some decluttering tasks and some home repairs to hire done.
This morning I woke about 6:15 a.m. and was able to say the prayer I’ve recently tried to make a morning theme, “I will awaken the dawn.” [Psalm 57:8] Looking forward to a full and rewarding day.
After writing last week about what to write next, I made my decision and did it. I worked on Acts Of Faith Bible study on both Saturday and Sunday. I didn’t spend a lot of time on them, but found the words flowed quickly and easily. Research went well. By the time Sunday was over I was about halfway through Chapter 5. This morning, before getting to other activities, I came close to completing Chapter 5. Not really, because I plan on re-reading and editing it later today. But, as it sits right now, completing Chapter 5 today should be an easy thing.
What else? I began reading Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition aloud to my wife, scratching edits as I go. I read four chapters (out of 32) last night, seeing a fair number of places where it will benefit from editing. I hope to type some of those edits today. The Introduction especially needs both tightening and expansion.
What else? I wrote a letter to one of my grand-nephews. That may not seem like a creative thing, but it is/was. I also baked, a blackberry cobbler—from blackberries I picked—and some banana bread. They turned out well. Then, Sunday morning, I fixed English muffin omelet sandwiches to take to Life Group for our fellowship breakfast. I don’t know that they turned out so well and may not fix them again. It was an experiment, trying something my own mind conceived, so I count that and the baking as creative endeavors.
While being creative, I didn’t neglect other things. As the first activities on Saturday I updated the checkbook and budget. On Sunday I took care of some miscellaneous receipts, the type that seem to defy even a comprehensive filing system. I weeded in our back yard and did other light yard work. I cleaned a matt of bugs off the front of our newer van, bugs that had decided to join us on our last two road trips. Both vans need washing, but that will be a task for another day. Sunday, Lynda and I went for a walk after the heat of the day passed. Not a long walk, but enough to get the juices and sweat flowing.
I kept up with my reading in three books, now having one more to review. Reading I see as sort of a creative activity. As I read my mind is usually thinking about writing, either the writing I’m reading or the writing I could do from the subject I’m reading about.
So, all in all I’m pleased at how the weekend went. If I can be that creative for the full week ahead of me, I will be on Cloud 9.