Winter Continues

Monday our trip to Paducah was aborted after hearing that morning about local wrecks on the slick roads. We decided it was a good day to stay home although we did run into town in the afternoon since Katherine did not have an aide on that day. (The roads were fine by then.) Sam and Josh were outside in the snow playing football despite Josh’s cough. Wouldn’t you know that when the kids could have had a snow day, they were already off for President’s Day?

Tuesday we traveled down to Kentucky with the pickup over the beautiful bridge and
across the Ohio River, where a lot of Southern Illinoisans like to shop since Paducah is only an hour away. We were replacing some aging appliances that we figured were costing us too much in electricity and water as well as not working as well as they once did. We broke up our comparative shopping trip with a restful lunch at Olive Garden—one of the chain restaurants we don’t have in Marion—so that was fun, and their huge salads are delicious.

Although the store we bought from offered free delivery and would install for a fee, Gerald elected to haul our choices home in the pickup. He wanted the challenge of installing them himself. We drove home through the snow-dusted brown roadsides with white clouds overhead diluting the blue of the sky but giving blue tint to the woods on the horizon. It had been a good day.

Yesterday morning Gerald volunteered to take me up to Mt. Vernon to see a dental specialist that my local dentist wanted me to see. We left the farm shortly after six for this 7:45 appointment. He dropped me off and found a place nearby to get breakfast. I thought I was to get an incomplete root canal redone that was first done fourteen years ago. After more x-rays and a consultation, however, the specialist advised me to not do this. So we were back to the farm fairly early in the day, and I ate breakfast and read the paper while Gerald started installing the new dishwasher.

With this new one, I won’t have to constantly fix the tines with bread wrapper ties to hold them up. That did not bother me, but I did not think glasses were coming out as shiny as they should. Gerald found a clogged copper tube under there that might have been the reason for the cloudiness. I’ve keep wondering if he wishes he had let the store folk install it. It has taken a little longer than he thought it would. He found various faults with the way the last dishwasher was installed. He had to make a trip to town for something. He needs his new glasses that will be ready at the end of the week, so he is having some difficulty seeing under the counter. He wants to get done, so he can start to build more batting tees for Gerry, which will require some pre-building shopping in Cape Girardeau. Nevertheless, he enjoys learning new things and needs to keep busy with projects. I am trying to keep from feeling sorry for him and just realize it has turned into a couple of days’ entertainment for him. I am sure it will be done perfectly this time, which the “professionals” did not accomplish when the previous dishwasher was installed.

I don’t think placing the new washer and dryer where the ancient ones sit in the garage will take him long. I belatedly pointed out to him yesterday that the boxes for the new washer and dryer already out of the pickup and sitting in our garage both said that unloading/installing was supposed to be a two-man job lest there be back injury. He said he hadn’t noticed that warning on the boxes—but he used the fork lift on the tractor to unload.

I was supposed to have a long postponed eye exam yesterday an hour before my usual pickup of our grandson Sam from his trombone lesson after school. However, the optometrist’s office called to say a couple of other patients had been late and gave me opportunity to reschedule. I was glad to go to town a little later. Katherine was at the hospital for her Tysabri infusion, and I wanted to be able to stay around when I took Sam home until she returned, so I could help her out a bit. That worked out well since Gerald was still at work with tools spread all around the kitchen, and he didn’t mind my being a hour late with supper when I offered him sandwiches and a reheated bowl of homemade soup from Monday.

By the time he finishes these projects and the latest winter book he is reading, obtains the supplies for the batting tees and refines his plans, he is hoping his outside shop will be warm enough to go to work on the tees without too much heating expense. That should keep him busy until spring planting time when he will likely help our neighbor Scott and our son-in-law Brian a bit. Oh, yes, we will need to celebrate his 80th birthday before then too.