Month: August 2019

Seen on the internet. Priceless: "Waiting for a hurricane is like being stalked by a turtle." … And I add… "This turtle might squat down at the coast line and lick his chops."

I’m hearing words like Dorian and devastating in the same sentence. Chuck and I are at peace though. We have our new house with a new metal roof but a flimsy metal roof over porch… We installed a new shed in Lake Placid and it will be anchored tomorrow (Saturday) morning. The garage doors are stuck in the closed position and they will not rise up…. Some stuff including all my art supplies and art papers are in the porch where the art room will be…. It’s nothing I can’t lose if there is a porch leak (I can always recreate and use my imagination!!!) …. Wicker furniture is in the porch but that will dry. So we will hunker down here in Miami which withstood Andrew, Katrina (now has a rebuilt roof), and Irma. Chuck has an appointment with the VA at 1pm. They say even though he is on Medicare, he should sign up as they will help with hearing aids, which I’m sad to say, he needs. Then he’s heading north to Lake Placid taking hurricane supplies for shutters from neighbor George to a friend we have up in Lake Placid. We are so blessed with our friends!!!! So my dears, pray for Florida. Remember as you watch the news, the hurricane isn’t THAT big (isn’t as big as the big balloon), but that is the cone of uncertainty. It might enter Florida at Palm Beach and then head north, south, or west. We (ALL of Florida) have to be prepared. My prayer is: "God bless us. Send angels. Convert those, Lord, who do not believe in YOU." Love Susie

As I typed this title, I wrote Jesus the Fisherman. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus was a carpenter, "by trade", but he didn’t choose any carpenters to walk with him, rather fishermen and a tax collector. Yesterday I had occasion to call upon Jesus the Carpenter when Chuck got stuck in one of his many projects where I have called for help…. As we were leaving Lake Placid to come home for a doctor’s appointment today (the surgeon wants to do an ultrasound on Chuck’s 2 hernias), the garage door wouldn’t close…. So Chuck went into the garage and stayed for quite a long time… He came back to the truck to tell me it might be a while longer, he is looking for a bigger wrench. It turns out that when we unloaded the trailer into the garage there were a lot of poles, wood, pipe, etc and they were stacked in the front corner of the garage, but they shifted and fell into the track of the garage door as it was being closed. Broke a spring? I’m not sure. Lots of banging at a bent track, trying to get the wheels out of the broken track, etc, and the door was all bent and not straight…. I looked at Chuck struggling, and I couldn’t help because I’m not strong and not able to lift half the door, and not supposed to anyway… so I did the only thing left, I prayed, "Jesus the Carpenter, we need help here." I walked out to the truck to get a small tool box of widgets for Chuck and I saw a truck pulling up. The Property Appraiser. Never in our lives have Property Appraiser or Building and Zoning been our friend, but I saw "young muscle." Indeed he was coming to see us because our tax roll had some items on it that we didn’t recognize. I said, "Hi, do you know anything about garage doors?" He looked at the sorry wreck of door, half way down, one side much lower than the other…. and he said, "looks like a broken spring." I said, "you ought to see the other side." The door was literally falling apart on the inside. So the 2 boys, Chuck and the Property Appraiser, went off to the back yard to look at our boat dock which is 3 taxable units!!! Yes! you put a roof on a boat dock and it’s called a gazebo. Put on a little deck and it’s called something else. Three taxable units. OK! So then the nice guy said, "Let’s look at that door," and into the garage they went. Together they lowered the door. He gave us the names of 2 garage door installers and we left for Miami. Sometimes when we get into trouble, a call to Jesus the Carpenter, who must have called for help himself at times, is in order. Thank God.

This weekend was a little costlier that we wished. When we got to the house, the garage door didn’t work, the push button for it didn’t work, and the master bedroom lights didn’t work. At this point one goes to the fuse box. When that doesn’t work, you call an electrician. He actually came at 6pm and found the problem. When the concrete guys put in the pathway between house, slab for shed, and to the dock, they cut an electric wire to the dock and that shorted out the electric to the garage. Ah ha! Problem fixed by Brian the electric guy. Bedroom light and garage door and overhead garage light now lighted! We will call Brian back as we still need electric to the dock to lift the boat and put up dock lights. Thank you Brian. The Air conditioning guys came to open up the vents to the porches, but it was still hot in there. It is so hot this summer, as the nation knows. When the air conditioning guys came, I was painting the bathroom in my underpants as I couldn’t find my painting shorts. It very necessary for me to wear painting shorts as I do tend to bump into my own work. And this time sure enough I was scrubbing paint off hips and thighs. I painted the master bathroom and entry room as they were dark… but my color still looks dark. Could be the lighting, but at least it’s less dark than it was. We are ready for the movers on September 3. Today we go for ultrasound so doctor can make sure he sees a clear path to Chuck’s hernias. Also pre op blood work for Chuck today so he couldn’t drink any wine last night and he sure needed it after the garage door scuffle!!!! I am fine, I swam with Mike for over an hour in the lake and the rains didn’t come. Today looks sunny for a while so I will hang laundry. If it rains we get a third rinse. No problem. God bless you!!!! Angels with us. And Jesus the Carpenter. Thank God!

For a few days we are camping at our home in Lake Placid, in a subdivision named Placid Lakes. Boxes everywhere. We called an electrician (Brian) because the electric wasn’t working in garage he came at 6pm, worked for an hour, discovered the walkway was built over a cable that was probably cut…. $80. Now an A/C guy is here on the button of 9am… We are opening A/C ducts to the "Lanai" where the wicker room is. We talk gently of cutting a doorway between living room and wicker room. It’s Friday and I have boxes to unpack, oh and clean the grate over the A/C intake. Kathie and George are driving up from Miami for dinner! Busy busy. I’m resting Chuck as much as possible and preparing him for hernia surgery on Sept 5… God bless you! Thank God. Angels with us!

I was very frightened when I heard my sister Sarah was in ICU having trouble speaking and moving her right side after a stroke that knocked her flat on her face on the floor. It took about 4 days to "bring Sarah back" and after a lot of testing, micro artery disease is the culprit. Treatment is the common high blood pressure and cholesterol meds many of us already take. We might complain about taking the meds, but it’s the best defense against stroke according to Mayo clinic. Erin and I did exercises with Sarah last night and we realized how little we do… Erin hunched over a phone and PC all day, Sarah and I, while we are active, both spend a lot of time reading, doing art, writing, watching TV. So we 3 women pledged to "move more". I sat outside this morning in Sarah’s courtyard garden with an amazing trumpet tree hanging over me, trumpet flowers blowing against my hair! The 2 dogs come out into the garden to play, sniffing all the wonderful smells, chasing bugs. It is no wonder Sarah wanted to come home! It is quiet and serene, and cool, in the morning garden. The only sounds are birds. Today I will go south and meet Chuck at Building and Zoning to validate Chuck’s shed project. He drove up to Lake Placid with another trailer full. I certainly hope he left 2 towels and a spoon or two as we will be in and out of the Miami house until Sept 17 when we hope Chuck is released from Miami by his hernia surgeon. God bless us!

My sister Sarah, artist extraordinaire, creator of beautiful art; Imaginer of color and shape, walks slowly and crawls into bed, worn out. We are blessed a hundred times because Sarah, felled by a micro artery stroke was found by her daughter soon after the stroke. Erin called 911 who picked my sister off the floor and carried her to a premier stroke center at the Mayo clinic here in Jacksonville. She’s home a week later, unimpaired, but tired. Life isn’t easy and then our body starts betraying us! Little arteries start to clog with plaque. Dentists scrape plaque off my teeth and warn me to floss, but there isn’t a plaque scraper for arteries, until one fails us. We have had a busy first day home. Eat breakfast, get dressed, negotiate to pay a bill tomorrow, meet visiting nurse for an hour, talk with sister Susie (me) and daughter Jennie. Finally, eyes giving up and closing, Sarah sleeps. Let us live our lives with energy. Move a lot and exercise. Make our brains work. Create! So that when one nasty clogged micro artery goes, perhaps a new one is standing by to take over. The brain will regenerate. Trust you will survive. Angels with us.