January, 2007

“I can hear the Chickadees!”

It is mid January now and a lot has happened, which I will tell you all about here. Thanks for your patience. I feel like a rubber band, which has been stretched to the limit. I sort out the priorities and then go for it.

This big news is that Joe can hear. . .What he hears is like a loud telephone conversation. He does not hear individual voices and says he hears some music! He doesn’t know where the sound is coming from, but searches for it. He then will come and tell me what he hears. The smallest of sounds can be heard and are at times, are very loud, like the rustle of the newspaper. The click of a lady’s heels on the floor and the flush of the toilet are extremely loud. He is doing very well and thanks GOD often for this marvelous blessing of hearing. Everyday there is a new adventure.

We have a lot of appointments. His Prime Care doctor in Bainbridge VA Clinic was on vacation, when we were there to get Joe’s stitches out, but we will see him again soon. We are headed for Albany for a stress test, which will see how his heart is doing. Joe says he is falling apart and I tell him that I would work to get him put back together.

I too have been having my checkups. I encourage you all to do it too. So far all is well and that is nice to know.

One afternoon, I was busy inside, when I heard a loud nice, like a plane breaking the sound barrier. I went to the door and a voice hollered, “Call 911, call 911.” I did and then walked briskly down the driveway to find, that a young lady was headed for work at Springbrook on Route 28 and caught the loose gravel, lost control of the car and slammed into the huge tree on the edge of Joe’s property. Before long, there were a lot of folks who had come to help. The emergency squad was there and checked her out. Before long she was headed for Bassett Hospital with the emergency squad and all was quiet again. I checked the next day and “Jennifer” was OK, but shook up, nothing broken. She was one lucky gal.

Hazel McShane, my 93 year-old Jamaica friend, did leave on December 19 for Jamaica. She was bound and determined to go and she went. I expect her back next week. I pray she was able to get her project done.

Joe has a new grandson, David, who weighed in a little less than 7 pounds and has a lot of dark long hair. Mommy and Daddy are real happy. Jessely’s Mom came from Peru to help her out for awhile. There is a problem though. Little David has a hernia and is due for surgery soon in Albany.

My oldest son, Andy, is waiting for an appointment at Bassett for Carpel Tunnel on one hand. He suffers a lot with pain. We are all anxious to see him get it done.

The weather has been quite mild. It was almost like spring, BUT it changed last night with bitter cold. Freezing rain caused much concern. Fender benders were everywhere. I just walked down to the Cooperstown library on my lunch break and darn near froze. One good thing is that this is January and we are almost to spring. . .

The lakes and pond have not frozen over and the ground is saturated with water. Lawns are like sponges. Every time it rains, some areas flood. It is a serious problem in my mind. I wonder how soon we will experience heavy flooding again.

My youngest son, Mark came for a number of days and removed the wet/Damp insulation and replaced it He then covered it with a layer of moisture barrier. What a nice job he did. There is still work to finish, but we will continue when it gets warmer. I have to get a dehumidifier and set it up down there. We will finish, get some more STUFF out of the cellar and we will be done. This has been an awful job and I am thankful that I was not hit as hard as some. Help was available and I/we thank GOD for that.

When we have time, Joe and I pick up cans /garbage on nearby roads and we are surprised that so many people throw it out onto the roadways. One day we picked up near $5.00 worth of cans, enough for two gallons of gas. I hate to see our roadsides littered with all this. My thought is, if you bring it in your car take it home in your car. It would be nice to see the beauty and not the tarnish.. .