cutouts

News from Blueberry Hill reveals the creation of two jack-o’-lanterns over the period of the last several days. These were not made from the usual large, round, orange cousin of the squash but from a quarter inch sheet of wood composite material. The first was made about the middle of last week and is about three and a half feet around and is painted orange with a green stem. It has a frame attached to the rear of it to give it strength.

The reason for this creation is that it is to be used as a game for our church’s “trunk or treat” held in the church parking lot tonight. The legs that are attached to the frame causes the board to be at about a 35 degree angle when placed on a horizontal surface and this makes it good target board used for tossing ‘missiles’ into the cutouts for the eyes and/or mouth. These ‘missiles’ are ball-like affairs made with a soft squishy rubber material. The object of this game and the entire occasion is to simply help the young ones have fun and hand out the traditional candy in a safe environment.

After completing this game board, I made the ‘mistake’ of showing it to my younger daughter (YD). She then mentioned the fact that her son – and my grandson (GM3) – was having a party in their kindergarten class and this would be a great game for them. I took the ‘hint’. There was enough of the panel left to make a somewhat scaled down version of the first one. Both of the jack-o’-lantern similes looked fairly decent, the second even better than the first – from experience gained maybe?

Someone else was furnishing the ‘missiles’ for the game that went to the church but I had to scout around for some sort of throwing objects for GM3’s board. Calling around, I found a store that sold beanbags, the ideal ‘missile’ for this age group. These could be bought as singles or a pack of 12 – I got the pack since these could be used for other games. The pack label called them ‘bean’ bags but the small label on each one identified the contents as ‘100% sand’ – but that was OK too.

This morning YD picked up the game board and ‘bean’ bags and left GM4 and GM6 with us so she could help out with the party at kindergarten. When later picking the young ones back up, she said that the kids enjoyed the game and the party. This event was tinged with sadness because one of the kindergarten girls had passed away while at the after school care last Friday.

The young lady had a congenital heart defect that had been repaired earlier in her life and her parents thought everything was OK. While walking across the gym floor, she stopped, sat down, lay down on the floor and died right there. One of her relatives worked there and did CPR on the little girl but she did not revive – hospital personnel told them later that no amount of effort would have helped.

Life is so fragile and yet so many live their lives much like the jack-o’-lantern boards I built – just a façade with nothing behind it or like the pumpkin version with spiritual emptiness inside. The reason this is so sad is that Jesus made a way for us to have forgiveness and happiness that we can have for the choosing but so many choose to try to live without God. Humans without God make a mess of life every time. ec

passport

On a given day on Blueberry Hill, the news can be slim to none and hardly anyone wants to read about the ‘none’ and not many about the ‘slim’. Today seemed different somehow. Down on the corner, where our road intersects with the main highway, there is a fairly large building that houses two businesses. The Spice and I went out to run some errands and as we approached that spot, I noticed something that looked sort of unusual to me.

This ‘something’ was in the form of two buzzards circling that corner. The larger part of the building houses a sporting goods store – guns, archery, fishing tackle and other associated equipment. In the smaller part of the complex, a beauty shop is located. As I pondered this phenomenon, I came up with two reasons that these two hunters of dead meat were soaring overhead.

First, either some exuberant patron of the sporting goods store had caused some small animal to assume ambient temperature just outside the place. Secondly, it might be that someone entered the beauty shop desperately in need of treatments and the buzzards were waiting to see if this member of the feminine persuasion survived the emergency. It was amusing to me – guess you had to be there. The Spice even chuckled a bit but probably more at me than at what I was amused about.

Our main errand was to go the post office and send off for a passport for the Spice. We had both come to this same location several weeks before and they had accepted my paperwork and sent it on to the proper place. The government agency sent it back to me saying that my birth certificate was not of the type they desired. I sent off to the state of Mississippi for the proper identification with the proper seals attached and got it back in about 8 days. This was sent back to the government and in less than two weeks I had my passport in hand.

They told the Spice that she had to have the proper birth certificate so she sent off to the state of South Carolina for this. Several long phone calls later, they told her that they had no record of her birth – I may have mentioned something to her about being hatched in a stump but that wasn’t appreciated very much. Armed with an official letter from South Carolina that basically stated they didn’t know who she was or where she came form, we went back to the post office.

Fortunately we took multitudinous other forms of ID they suggested and all this was finally sent off to the passport office. These things have been known to take some time but hopefully we can it back by April because I do not desire to go on our cruise alone. Red is not my favorite color, especially when it is the color of the tape the government has us involved in.

After another errand, we went by Chic-fil-a for a comfort food to soothe our jangled nerves – a milkshake for each of us. Something else soothes jangled nerves and lives and lot better than this – prayer. This powerful tool for the successful Christian life works every time it is actually tried. ec

roots

This evening’s walk blessed me with a very beautiful sunset. The sun had been down only minutes and the western location of it’s sinking was clear but there was a band of fluffy clouds above that area. These clouds were a bright peach color dappled in light grey from the fluffiness of these heavenly bodies. The clear area was an amazing baby blue in color. My eyes and mind gratefully drank in this natural beauty that God made just for me to enjoy.

During this same walk I came to the conclusion – again – for the umpteenth time that I don’t need to walk as fast as I possibly can every time I come out. In fact, a semi-relaxed gait of long strides not only covers the distance at a fair pace but it seems to be better for my back in that it stretches and relaxes it as I go. This also doesn’t drain my energy level so much that it takes two days to recover. Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks, over and over and over and over.

The garden has been a scraggly mess ever since the veggies quit producing. This mess involves thick growths of grass and weeds that are ever opportunistic to grow in an unkempt area. The old saying that nature abhors a vacuum is ever so true – in fact, it delights to fill it up with anything available, either from seeds nearby or those blown in by the ill winds of weed spreading.

The tomatoes were the only thing still green but had quit producing fruit – then they turned around and started all over again. In varying stages of ripeness, 16 of them were picked and though they were small, it was still a bonus to have this produce in late season. Many more green ones are present and will also ripen if the frost holds off a while longer.

The process of cleaning out the other rows has begun, with the goal in mind of removing the dead vegetation along with the weeds and grass. The first area I started on was where the cucumbers were and I discovered that the wonderful idea of putting a barrier between the cukes and the deer back in the spring wasn’t so great during the removal process.

Concrete blocks and fence wire had made up the materials of the barrier and while I had removed some of the blocks a few weeks back, I finished that up today. The blocks were the full sized 8X8X16 ones and are not light. By the time these last 19 were stacked, my energy was at the dragging level. Then the vines, weeds and grass had to be removed from the wire and it had to be put away.

It was then that I remembered the two small sweet-gum trees growing in the area of my septic drain field line. These had to be removed or else the line would be full of roots. These and their roots were mostly removed but they had spread from a main root several feet away. This root was headed down so I got a drill and bored several holes in it. I filled these with salt and covered the root back up, hoping this will kill the final roots – I need to keep an eye on that.

This reminded me of the roots of bitterness that the scripture warns us about. These will spring up due to holding an offense against someone and will not only defile us but also those around us. God helps to remove these bitter roots when we forgive those who have offended us. Not an easy thing, but necessary if we ourselves are to be forgiven by God – the Word says so. ec

hooey

Shortly after beginning an evening walk I noticed a whole flock, gathering or gaggle of geese on the shore of the far side of the pond. They were spaced out every few feet from the water’s edge to about halfway up the hill toward MIL’s house. The whole lot of them seemed to be at rest, with most even hunkered down or squatted on the ground. Since they seldom stay the night on one of these two ponds, it was as if they were waiting for some signal to fly elsewhere to their evening abode.

It seemed a bit odd to me that they were scattered about in this arrangement and as my mind is wont to do, I started putting human thoughts to their actions. Could there be a deeper meaning in the pattern of the geese on the hillside? In that they were strewn in that fashion, maybe they were trying to give me a message – since I was the only one that would see them at that time.

Could the fact that they were all scattered on the hillside be telling me that I shouldn’t let my thoughts scatter so much. In that they were all so relaxed in their positions could be telling me that I don’t need to be all uptight before I “fly” off to some task I deem important yet odious – just stay cool. Maybe this arrangement of geese was saying to me that if you want to be the top goose on the hillside, you just have to keep walking up the slope – no matter how steep or rough it might be.

Not being an expert on interpretive goose spacing, I really wasn’t sure what they were doing. They probably figured that I was a novice anyway and they could just say anything they wanted to by it and I wouldn’t know the difference. They may have been laughing up their little goose sleeves because of my goose ignorance – much like those in a foreign country would laugh at us when we don’t understand – maybe even some in this country as well that speak other languages.

There is always the chance that their positions on the hillside were nothing more than a reflection of goose pecking order. But I couldn’t prove that because at the time they weren’t pecking – maybe the pecking was done at another event to which I wasn’t privy. Anyway, on my third lap of walking they all started to either saunter or meander further up the hill. Then at the honking signals of the ‘higher on the hill’ geese, they all took flight – causing me to lean more toward the pecking order theory.

Then it is always possible that I am assuming much too much intelligence in the actions of the geese and all this conjecture is just a bunch of hooey, which is very similar to baloney and a close cousin to malarkey. The bad part of the flight was that it started when I was at the far end of my circuit and behind MIL’s house and was unable to count the number of flight participants. The usual number is about 30 but this group seemed to be somewhat larger than that.

Anyway, I had a good walk, as well as entertainment as I went – I smiled, I laughed – mostly at my own thoughts – and even sweated a fair amount. Personally I think God was good to make all that available for me to view and I am grateful to Him for it. ec

sprint

Autumn has begun and it reminds me of the seasons of life and whether I have paid attention or not, I’m in the autumn and maybe even early winter of my life. It seems to me that most folks tend to think a different way as they age. Even though most of my writings do not particularly lean toward the more serious parts of life, the serious is usually underlying them all.

Many older folks would like to be younger and even spend a lot of money on methods and elixirs that promise to make them feel or be that way. The health problems that I have had over the last year have been a trial but I am fighting my way back to a more active lifestyle even as I write. In spite of all this I don’t feel woeful about not being young anymore. I almost revel in the fact that I have been allowed to stay on the earth this long and enjoy the blessings that God has given over the years.

But the thought crossed my mind during a recent walk that begged the question – What do I really miss about being young – or younger? Several answers came back to my mind of physical things that I no longer want to do or can’t do very well – but one stood out above the others.

To set up the scenario, in my younger years I was a runner – or to be more technically correct, somewhere between jogging and running – on a given day, more one than the other. I began this on March 19th of 1969 and my last running mile was completed on November 10th of 1987 – according to my record book – and the running came to a halt because of back problems.

My normal running distance was 2 or 3 miles, occasionally 4 or 5 and usually my first lap was a bit fast and then I would settle into a saner pace to finish up. This except for the last lap and more than all the other was the lap that I miss even today. Most of my running was done on a quarter mile dirt track at a local middle school and as I started into the last lap of my run, I turned the speed up just a bit and then the last 100 yards would be an all out sprint to the finish line.

This sprint is the thing that I miss the most – the exhilaration of the all-out effort, spending every bit of energy that I had left, with only my toes touching the track surface in this feeling of near flight. I never ran track in school nor did I have any other sports interest because of an early morning paper route that tended to take energy away from anything else I might have been involved in – it also served to keep me out of trouble – I got sleepy by about 9pm.

But even this lost ability to sprint pales in comparison to all the things that I still have in my family and in my Lord Jesus Christ. Everything I have that is good, decent and right are found in my God and His love for me and mine for Him – nuff said. ec

flapping

At the beginning of a recent walk I startled a deer, evidently it was at the pond even though I didn’t see where it came from until it bounded across the driveway in front of me and flashed down through the woods. I say flashed because it showed the backside of its tail in typical white-tailed deer fashion as it departed. A bit later in the walk a flock of geese took off from the pond and during my next lap, another flock departed in like manner – about 30 geese, counting both groups.

With a flock of geese being more correctly called a gaggle while on the ground and a skein while in flight, I’m not sure what the process of taking flight is called, if indeed there is a name for it, other than the obvious. Then if they started to take flight and changed their little geese minds, how long would they have to be in process before the name of their group would change and change back?

The pond is down to a mere mud puddle of its former self, albeit a rather large one. It started out at about 3 acres and is now down to just over half of that. Many trees and stumps that were semi-buried on the bottom for fish habitation are now showing their scraggly, knotty selves. Nonetheless, the wildlife continues to gather there and do well.

A new day started and the first event outside of the norm was to go over to a nearby fast-food restaurant to meet some old friends for coffee – even though I don’t drink coffee – possibly that should be friends of long standing - - OK, let’s face it, they were old. We caught up on many past and current events, swapped yarns and stories and just generally had a good time flapping our jaws.

The last of my phone company friends were leaving as another friend from my high school graduation class came into the place. We yapped a while and I excused myself to go on to Wal-Mart to pick up a few necessary items. Even though I did spend almost 42 dollars, the people wandering about the place offered some interesting entertainment.

One main entertainment came from taking note of the folk’s many shopping styles. These were observed in the grocery end of the store and the first noted was the “get-out-of-my-way” kind and I managed to avoid cart collisions with several of these. Then there was the “I-don’t-have-a-clue-my-cart-is-in-the-way” type, leaving their cart in the middle of the aisle as they wander off on a search.

Another would be the “where-am-I-and-what-am-I-doing-here” kind – those who wander around looking at the aisle signs hoping this will key something in their memory as to why they came in the first place. None of these described me as I methodically went up and down each aisle for my basic list items and anything else that struck my fancy – which at times is easily stricken.

I savored the experience of gathering the items and enjoyed the assortment of entertainments I encountered and finally headed for the area of the cashiers. When one can feel joy while headed for the Wal-Mart cashier, he is either a bit wacko or he has a joy from a much higher source. While I don’t deny a bit of the wacko part, my source of joy is God – He is good, all the time! ec

reward

In the general business of life lately, the Spice and I have had very little chance to just chat, get out of the routine and be together. We were finally able to carve out some time to have a ”date night”, or more specifically, a date afternoon. We sought out a nice restaurant with excellent service and a subtle, yet graceful ambiance for our late lunch or early supper – one could call it lupper.

The place could have even been considered romantic even though it was a cafeteria, they handed us our food quickly and we carried our own trays – excellent service. It was in between their busy mealtimes so part of the ambiance was that we could sit anywhere we wanted and the other part was that it was quiet because only about a half dozen diners were in the whole place. During and after the meal we caught each other up on all the things and people on which we needed to be current and even brushed up on hopes and dreams a bit.

We then went to a matinee movie that we had been wanting to see. The movie was “Ratatouille”, it was an animated one but the romance was evident because it was set in Paris, France. This was an expensive interlude – not the price of the movie (99 cents each) – but the coke and tub of popcorn was 10 bucks. We both enjoyed it even though it showed rats in the kitchen – talking ones.

The next portion of the evening wasn’t exactly romantic since we went by the funeral home for the visitation and viewing of a friend that had passed away but we try to get as much as we can out of our time together. From there we came back by YD’s to return some of GM3’s highly prized toys that had been left by GM4 the day before when we were sitting with them.

I’m not sure why babysitting is called that since there is very little sitting and so much chasing around the house. Maybe what we do is ‘youngster keeping from’, since we have to keep them from hurting themselves, each other and hurting our nerves by the shattering process. Though this latter goal is difficult to attain and/or maintain, the young ones are a joy and an amazement to have around as they joy in and learn about the world around them.

A new day came into being and like the last two, my movements were kept to a minimum due to the surgery. The problem area was not the main surgery site but the spot of the “harvested” skin, since certain movements causes friction and an amount of discomfort. Nonetheless I was able to push through that and start back walking and had my best time for 2.4 miles – 35 minutes and 20 seconds.

Because of the great walk I declared a reward for myself – this involved a mashed banana and frozen blueberries, topped with Edy’s slow churned, rich and creamy ice cream in their Vanilla Bean flavor – with real bean specks – and that in turn was topped with several dollops of strawberry jam. Each spoonful danced across my taste buds in a crescendo of delectableness – and as it died down, the contents of the next spoon would start the symphony all over again. All too soon this very healthy dessert was gone and the symphony faded into happy memories.

I delight in many things, this kind of dessert, in my family, in God’s creations but most of all in a loving Heavenly Father that loves me and is working all things out for my good – His Word says so. ec

graft

As I have mentioned before, I don’t usually get out and about in the early morning – this part of the day is spent trying to get awake and make sure all the parts of my body, mind and such are functioning somewhere close to what some would consider normal – whatever that is.

Today was different; I had an early doc appointment and these morning drivers amazed me again. I was buzzing along at or near the speed limit and two different cars, both of them young women, blew by me like a you-know-what out of you-know-where. Nobody should ever be that late for work.

As a retired old-timer I have earned the right to shake my head, give a slight smile and deny that I had ever been that bad. My quick conclusion was that I had not – this conclusion came after a slight adjustment of the halo. The halo adjustment was necessary because I remembered the last speeding ticket I got – and although this was back in the mid-seventies, it was for speeding on the way to work. From my haughty point of view, I don’t think I would do it again – maybe.

The purpose of this visit to my skin doc was to get a basal cell cancer removed (read – CUT OUT). They told me in advance that it would be about a 4-hour visit. This is because she first would cut out the growth; check it under the microscope to see if it was all gone and if necessary, cut again. A second cutting was necessary and after each cutting, they would bandage the wound and I would wait in the waiting room. By the time I finished waiting I had completed 3 crossword puzzles.

After this second cutting, I was called back and told that she had gotten it all but the cut was too wide to stitch together and I would have to have a skin graft – a first for me. This didn’t sound like a pain-free option but it was the only one offered. She first “harvested” a patch of skin from my thigh and stitched it into the skin gap on my head. This “harvesting” of skin was about what I did to my fingers last week with the electric planer – the skin “harvesting” was no fun on either account.

The appointment was for 8:15am and when I finally walked out, all stitched and bandaged, it was nearing 2pm. I was told not to get either site wet for a week – very inconvenient and raising the possibility of a malodorous event or two. On my doc’s advice, I allowed the sun to set without fulfilling my walking commitment – hopefully tomorrow the walks can continue.

I was grateful to be rid of the maleficent growth, blessed because of God’s provisions, joyous because of His mercy and overwhelmed by the love God shows in the salvation that He provides for “whosoever will” accept it. ec

first aid

It was Friday night past and the second son-in-law (SSIL) invited me to go to a high school football game with him. This is the school attended by gruntmonkey one (GM1), she is in the band and they would be performing a full show at halftime. While high school football is not at the top of the list of things I enjoy doing, I do enjoy being with family members and watching gruntmonkeys perform.

We arrived early to be sure to get a parking spot in the area that GM1 would be exiting at game’s end. We got a good spot and wound our way over to the home team side. I brought a foam cushion to sit on but as the night wore on it turned out to be much too thin – that or the metal bleachers were too hard. The home team was getting soundly thrashed when half time break arrived.

During half time the visitors band played first and they did fair, even though we couldn’t hear them very well since they were turned toward the visitor’s stands. Then it was time for the event presented by the home team band and they did a Christmas show. Even though it might have been rushing the season and I might be a bit prejudiced because of GM1’s involvement in it, they did it in impressive fashion. Not only did they perform well, they looked good while doing it.

In the second half of the game the home team started coming back and was only one score down, in spite of the fact that they seemed to be outsized by the other team. They scored a touchdown in the last few minutes and went for the two-point conversion to win – they were stopped short and the game ended as a loss by one point – 27 to 26. At least the home team band outclassed theirs.

It took a while for the band to get off the field and stow their instruments but GM1 finally got to our arranged meeting place and we all headed home. I made my way to our homestead with a tired back and backside – maybe I should have brought a triple thickness cushion.

Saturday morning came and I set about beginning the day with the normal stuff, even though I am not normally a normal type person – even though that is sometimes not the norm – but I do have a friend named Norm – not the norm I was speaking of, even though Norm seems to be fairly normal.

Then I wandered on down to my workshop to finish the game boards for the corn toss game I had been working on. Remaining to be done was to attach the legs to the back of the board – this enables the board to be set at an angle, plus it needed a second coat of paint. The proper sized screws had been lacking but these had been acquired the day before and the legs were then attached.

The legs had to be cut off at an angle and a height to have the front of the board at 4 inches and the back at 12 inches. These were cut and I smoothed the cut with an electric planer – shaving off a thin layer of wood at each pass. As only carelessness can teach, I was taught the lesson that a planer can not only cut wood, but skin as well – and I sprang a quick leak of bodily fluid from two digits.

Grateful to still have the two fingers, I wrapped them with a shop rag and finished up this portion of construction. It did irk me a bit that I dripped blood on the side of one board – but I got it cleaned off. After some first aid, I came back down and put the final coat of paint on the boards. Sometimes we have the need of spiritual first aid right in the middle of a job for God – and He loves enough to sooth our hurts and encourage, does not belittle and will offer us needed wisdom on which to continue – I will say again, God is good, all the time. ec

BBH 409

It is time and possibly past time for another Blueberry Hill report considering the demand for them – one so far – me. Just when we were well on our way to defining in a very literal way the term “endless summer”, the temps have moderated a bit. Though it’s far from being cool, the mid to upper 80s are welcome indeed.

The water level continues to recede on the pond with more land appearing all the time. The slimy, muddy fingers of the shore are reaching further and further out into the water. One of the two front posts that hold up the dock on my side of the pond is now totally out of the water and the other is not far behind it. The 9-member goose family has shown up several times of late, I’m not sure where they go from here but there are several large ponds in the area. It struck me as comical when I saw one of the geese wading from one island to the other – too shallow to swim.

Several of my trees are early leaf droppers and these are starting to do so. The main ones are the figs – only a few scattered leaves remain and many green figs, these latter fruit do not ripen properly. The paw paw trees are also dropping theirs, the smallest one has lost all of them and I’m a little concerned as to whether it will make it until next spring. Since the temps have cooled a bit, it will soon be time for me to start back outside on the cleaning out and re-strawing of the blueberries. Some of the smaller plants have really struggled through the drought we have been having.

The garden is in somewhat a state of confusion with the cucumbers and okra totally quitting and only one or two of the squash plants still struggling on. The tomatoes have quit producing but are still green and it will probably depend on what the weather does as whether they give forth any more fruit. The zinnias and marigolds are doing a great job and look very good out in the midst of the overgrown rows. The growing mass of grass and weeds are not confused at all and are daring me to come out to do combat with them. The last rain we had was just enough to keep these plant pests going.

My evening walks are still going well. Back on the 25th of September I extended the distance of my walk to 2.4 miles and it seems to be helping my back – no idea why. On the 27th, I set out to do that distance but it started raining. The Spice turned back right away but I was determined to get the walk in and continued on. I didn’t mind at all getting wet but I finally quit when it started lightning, in fact, the Spice drove out to pick me up – I guess she figured I lacked the sense to come in out of the rain.

On a recent walk it became clear to me that age had calmed me down a bit, there was a full moon and I didn’t howl at it or anything. The crickets were really casting forth their songs on the airwaves to the nth degree that evening. It was hard to tell whether they were desperately searching for a mate, crowing because they had found one or just making a joyful noise to the Lord. It was probably very plain to other crickets though because it is their language after all.

No matter what language we use, God hears and understands our prayers, complaints and even our joyful noises. He cares enough to answer our pleas, sometimes with ‘yes’, sometimes ‘no’ and many times with ‘wait’ – but He will answer because He is good, all the time. ec

job list

After helping FSIL construct his corn bag tossing game equipment in Texas, I decided that I would make one for us from leftover lumber stored in my workshop. Part of the wood was left from the bathroom flooring and part from a de-constructed platform bed that was made long ago when YD was much younger. Presently the two game boards have been cut, the round scoring hole fashioned and all edges are sanded. Both frames have been cut, put together and are ready for the final assembly.

Remaining to be done is to mount the board on the frame and attach the legs on the end and cut them to set the final angle of the board – and then paint them. This project has been a labor of “like” – I don’t use the term love loosely – and has been worked on between other projects. SSIL came over and helped me complete two of these projects that had been on hold since last Christmas.

The first of these was the mounting of a retractable air hose reel on the garage wall. The project was made a bit more difficult by the fact that it was above head height to keep it out of the floor space and to keep from hitting my head on it every time I walked by. It was definitely a two-man job and after a bit of effort we finally got it mounted to our satisfaction. This was to be attached to my existing air pipe system – I already had a loose 50-foot hose on it but that kept getting in the way.

The final attachments were done the next day – a one-man job. Having compressed air in the garage has been very handy over the years to air up the vehicle tires – also toys, air mattresses and such. My air compressor is kept in my basement workshop and is attached to the other end of the air pipe. Quick-connect outlets for air are also in the workshop to have pressured air in that location.

Our next project was to install a fold-up, in-the-wall ironing board in the washroom wall for the Spice. This involved cutting a large hole in the sheetrock and some electrical wirework. Even with all that, it seemed like the most difficult part of the whole job was putting the door on the cabinet. They left it off because it can be mounted to open to the right or the left – but we did get it attached eventually.

After we finally got it installed in the wall, SSIL went on home because I had to go get some supplies to finish the electrical part of the project. This involved a trip to Lowe’s but that was done before the day was out and it was totally finished that evening. It was a bit irritating to me today to discover that I made the trip for the same type electrical box that I found in my workshop – almost in plain view.

These two projects had been very prominent on my to-do list for quite some time but I had put them off due to health and energy problems – it felt very good to mark them off the list. They would have been there a while longer except for the SSIL’s help. A couple more electrical projects were tackled and completed today – an AC outlet on the island in the kitchen and another one in the Spice’s dressing area in the master bath. They were not difficult but very time consuming and took most of the day to get them completed.

With a grateful heart to God I want to say how glad I am that my health and energy are coming back, albeit very slowly, but I can tell that it is better now than just a few weeks ago. God is good, all the time. ec