He Will Be A Fisher Of Men

Another great fishing tale... looks like my Nephew, Austin officially has the "fever" after hooking this 6 lb 9 oz. large-mouth bass yesterday afternoon after school ALL BY HIMSELF!! His Dad was not even to the lake yet!!
Fishing Fever= Fishing for Dad and Son 24/7... sounds like summer fun!!

Stuck In A Rut

I am deeply saddened today after spending quite a bit of time with my Grandmother last week while we were back home working on our land. Her mind is stuck on the same subject as it has been for the last few months- she spends who knows how long each and every day trying to figure out "how to get out of here"... every time I visit her she babbles and rambles on and on about "going somewhere else" and how "she can't take it anymore"... I cannot understand 90% of what she babbles but, the 10% that I can decipher comes down to her wanting to go elsewhere. I tell her that the only other option at this point is the nursing home and she then threatens that "I (she) am going to find me another place to go live"... I ask her why and what the problem is and get nothing in response. Again, she is stuck in this mindset and I do not know why I even try to reason with dementia.
My Mom and I took her to Callaway Saturday and she kept babbling the entire time about the same thing over and over and over. I fussed at her several times trying to get her off the subject and try to get her to enjoy the pretty scenery- to no avail. She is just plain ol' bitter and angry. It is sucks! When we "walked" her to the car that morning to head to Callaway, it took us over 10 minute to get her from the kitchen to seated in the car. And then as soon as I crank up the car, she starts steadily rattling on about how she can move home and take care of herself.... and I am steadily asking her how she can take care of herself with a broke hip.. who will cook and clean and wash clothes and drive her to her appointments ... and she just dodges my questions.. and then starts up again with the rambling. I called her yesterday and had the exact same conversation AGAIN only this time I could not get her off the phone. She just goes on and on and on about the same gripes... it makes me want to stop calling her... I just do not know how much I can take of the same conversations over and over with her. What's a girl to do?

The Family That Fishes Together...

My family is officially famous! Looks like my brother and nephew showed 'em all up at the local fishing tournament last weekend in Pine Mountain!

I am so proud of them! And the fish fried up well this past Saturday night during our stay last week... Good times with our family! Yeehaw.

Monday Morning Traffic Woes

Today was definitely a Monday-type Monday. I opted to not get up and go to boot camp this morning since we were in Pine Mountain from Wednesday morning to Sunday evening- we did not get back home until almost 10pm last night! Hubby was leaving early this morning for his 2-night trip to his project in Alabama and I needed more than 4 hours sleep in order to function at the office today. I hit the street around 6:45am and about 5 miles down Johnson Ferry Rd, the "Low Tire Pressure" light comes again- instant terror! I am thinking "no, no, no, not another flat tire!!!" I stopped at the next service station and got out and all 4 tires seemed okay... but, I went ahead and dug around in the trunk and found my pressure-checker-thingy... and wouldn't you know- the rear right tire was 10 lbs less than the other three. So I paid my $0.75 and filled it to the same. I went ahead and pulled up to the gas pump to fill up my car and then drove down to the coffee shop for a cup of joe to go. I measured again with joe in hand and the tire had already lost 5 lbs!! I made a U-turn and went to the Goodyear up the street... 30 minutes later and one nail less, I was patched up and headed back to the rat race. And then something worse happened... not to me, but to some poor soul on I-85 Northbound. I was going around 75 mph like everyone else and all of a sudden all these cars start slowing down (more like slamming on their brakes)and swerving around to dodge a white pick-up whose hood was vertical! I could not believe it! Some old Dodge Ram pickup and the hood was straight up and how he managed to pull that off the interstate with no damage is beyond me... I finally made it to the office safe and sound by 9am... whew!!!

Phase II Land Clean-Up

We have officially started phase two of our property clean-up back home in Pine Mountain. We rented some heavy equipment and Operators and starting pushing down trees, uprooting old stumps, etc. this past Saturday. Hubby and I ran our chainsaws cutting up the large trees into smaller lengths for easy handling- we buried some and burned others. We worked sun up to sun down on Saturday and then sun up to mid-afternoon on Sunday. We were so surprised at how much we debris we cleaned up! I forgot to mention that the previous owners used to dump their old junk on one part of the land too- I am talking YEARS of dumping...NOT fun to clean up other folks crap! Unfortunately, the bull dozer we rented cannot get close enough to all of the junk to relocate it... so we are renting a track-hoe with a grappling hook to pull the debris to relocate it. The track-hoe will be delivered tomorrow and we will be starting back to work tomorrow as well. Why not use up our precious vacation days to do manual labor for free? My kind of vacation! The worse part is the fear of ticks, inhaling all the smoke from the burn pit, non-stop sweating due to the high levels of humidity, and running around in uncomfortable work boots. I just hope the end product by this Sunday makes it all worth it. And I just hope we get our entire To-Do List finished by Sunday too.

After we finished our work last Sunday, we did swing by to see my Grandmother on our way home. Boy, she was full of bitterness that visit. It is so frustrating to spend time with her since she seems more and more bitter and angry all the time now- even Hubby got to witness it this time around. I think at this point in our trip down dementia lane I have just got to accept the fact that no matter how well she is taken care of physically, she will never be happy again- never be happy any where or in any place. It just seems like her record is scratched on the bitter groove and it just keeps playing over and over. I do not know how the Caregivers deal with it day in and day out. I know it has to be hard on them too- especially enduring it 24/7. This is just another reason I should count my blessings every day....

Endurance Is A Gift

Today is Good Friday and here I am at work. It is so hard to believe that April is almost half over and it makes me wonder where did the first 1/3 of this year go already? We are headed back down to Pine Mtn tomorrow... not necessarily for the Easter holiday... just to do some things on our neverending To-Do List. I will head to the store today to buy my Grandmother some Easter goodies.... I always like to show up with gifts for her. Sweets always make her smile. Since our conversations lately have been so limited due to her diminishing communication skills, I try to bring gifts to stimulate her mood- which makes my visits much more enjoyable. I do not know why I carry this ongoing guilt for not going down to visit her more often. I keep telling myself that every other week really is enough... but, that guilt feeling is always lingering. And now as her dementia increases, her ability to communicate her negativity towards me (since I am her main target) has dwindled. I am not having to call down there every single day to talk to her- she just does not remember if I call any more or not. She really does not ask and when I do talk to her, she does not ask why I did not call the day before. Yet, I still religiousy call to talk to her at least every-other-day. Of course, the conversations are mostly about much of nothing- very limited, very brief- and on those days that she does try to say something, it sounds like babbling and I cannot make out much of any of it- very stressful!! Oh well, I am going to visit her for a couple of hours on Saturday any way. Hubby will run some errands while I am visiting her and then we are meeting up with an Equipment Operator around lunch time and going over to our land to do some work-planning. We are gearing up to do some more work on our property starting next weekend- Exciting! I love to watch progress on our future home land... We will then head to the south end of the county to consume oysters with other friends and family (while they are still in season)... and then probably head back up to the City that night. I know it is a long day trip but, I decided against staying for Easter service in our hometown Church. I really do want to go but, the fact that ALL those folks attending the service will be inquiring about my Grandmother- it just does not sound like something I want to endure. I am saddened that I cannot take her with me, but I am not willing to attempt that with her broken hip and all. And I am not ready to answer the same questions over and over and justify why she is not there. Is that just awful of me or what? Oh well, I cannot help it if I am not ready for it. Period.

#5s A Charm?

I was blown away today when I heard the news that an old friend of mine from college had her FIFTH son this morning. Yes Number 5! They had four boys and were really hoping for a girl this time... imagine that... I remember her saying that last year sometime---- "I just hope it is girl... four boys are a huge hand-full... I cannot imagine what our life will be like with five! Hee Hee" Well, you are about to find out my friend! Good luck with that one.

I Spend 33% Of My Life Waiting

So here I sit in the El Paso airport waiting... waiting...waiting... and waiting some more... the story of my life! This trip's itenerary has changed so many times I have lost count. After discovering some serious issues yesterday on our job site here in El Paso, I had to call our company travel agency last evening (since our Denver office was already closed at 7pm EST!) and change my early flight this morning. I was supposed to fly Frontier early this morning to Denver (which probably got delayed anyway because of the snowstorm they had this morning) and then connect to Atlanta. I really need to stay longer this morning so I could attend our bi-weekly Progress Mtg with the Owner/Engineer on site. I wound up having to buy a one-way ticket on Delta to Atlanta for early this afternoon for the cheap price of $915!! Crazy I know! Well, I went to the meeting and was packing up to leave afterwards only to find out that there was a hostage situation on the interstate somewhere between the jobsite exit and the airport exit. With the border wars going on just a few hundred yards away from here, who knows what kind of craziness this hostage situation involved! So I had to take the "transmountain" route the back way around the city and up through the mountain range. Needless to say, I drove like a mad woman trying to get the airport at least an hour before my flight time... and then I get to the ticket counter. And wouldn't you know- the flight is DELAYED! Over 2 hours!! And because of rain/thunderstorms in Atlanta... WHY me? Why does this always seem to happen to me? Especially when I am so ready to be back home... rain, wind, snow- you name it- one of these conditions ALWAYS delays my flights!!! And always when I am by myself on an out-of-town work trip... weather is not my friend I tell you.
This whole day has been turmoil for me... I stayed up way too late last night trying to prepare for this big on site meeting earlier this morning and then all of my worrying put my stomach into knots. And unfortunately, I had to use the jobsite porta-john when my upset stomach turned worse- NOT fun at all. It is bad enough having to use it but for that ritual? And then when we got into the meeting with all the project players, they dropped a big ol' bomb on us and informed us that the Owner's electrical/instrumentation people need two additional weeks at the end of of our Project Schedule to complete their work on integrating the new system to the old one. That would extend the project until the first or second week of May! And they want our written "plan" submitted ASAP for the duration of the project work- great- it is a good thing I worked on it half of last night! Now I just have to put my butt into high gear tomorrow in my office in Atlanta and finish it before the FedEx man arrives. Why is it even the best laid out plans just never happen the way we intended?? One of my life's biggest mysteries...