Changing Seasons

The corn fields are brown and soy beans are yellow. Our son-in-law Brian is already harvesting, and that means Mary Ellen too is busier than ever trying to help out as she keeps working hard at her own job. I will worry knowing their sleep will be shorter than ever.

Everything seems to be changing during this season. At the first of the month, we learned that our granddaughter Tara and family are moving back to Illinois as she became pitching coach at Illinois State up at Normal. This will place their family closer to her husband Bryan's parents too, so I'm sure they are happy as we are. (And Bryan will be closer to his firm's headquarters.)

For Gerry and Vickie, Tara's move wll take away the close geographic association with those three Archibald grandsons. That will be a tough adjustment, but it probably helps that they are overly busy themselves adjusting to changes of their own.

Our month started with Gerry and Vickie's quick visit over Labor Day weekend coming up for the surprise 80^th birthday party for Vickie's mother. Gerry also needed to pick up some dogs he had bought in northern Illinois. Aidan and Payton both had baseball games, but since Maddux's fall soccer had not yet started, he was able to come with them. They drove all night to get here for a few hours sleep before the party. There was time, however, for Maddux and me to have a long grown-up conversation at the late breakfast table about their family's upcoming move. And besides getting to play with his Johnson family cousins, there was time for him to drive the Kubota and to play in the lime pile Gerald provides for the great grandsons' diggings. Since Nelly, the Boykin spaniel, was also with them, we enjoyed a couple of demonstrations of Nelly's enthusiastic expertise diving into the lake to swim and restrieve the ball she loved having Maddux throw out for her. Gerald went with Gerry to get the dogs upstate, and Vickie had the opportunity to visit again with her mother before another all-night drive back to College Station, where Gerry had to be on the softball field at A&M on Labor Day.

That Wednesday night Tara arrived after the long drive from Texas, and we had a brief visit before we all fell into bed. In her honor, I set my alarm to be sure I was up in time to make the morning smell good with cooked bacon for our breakfast before she left for the drive up to Illinois State's ball field and to start her search for housing for their family. The university was furnishing her a room until Bryan and the boys can join her this weekend.

We were still adjusting to that big family change when we got the word this week that Gerry had accepted a new job as hitting coach and recruiter down at Auburn University in Alabama. So he is in the process of moving dog stuff, trailers, and such to various destinations on the way down to Auburn after a quick visit with Vickie, Erin, and Caroline in Belton. Vickie will keep her plans to care for Caroline while Erin teaches, so I am sure this year will be filled with lots of trips between Belton and Auburn.

Our adult children are not the only ones who have been busy. Gerald continues bringing in garden produce, and he had his second cataract surgery last week. Mary Ellen wanted to be with us and drive us home, so we had a good visit and after-surgery breakfast with her at the neatest restaurant up at Thompsonville. It was good to hear how excited Brianna is with an observation class for young children learning to speak English. She will be student teaching next semester. Fortunately, Gerald's eye is healing faster than the first one, which gave us some concerns. (The optomist kept assuring him the eye was alright and that his meds may have caused the slowness.) He is down to two eyedrops a day again on this second recuperation.

However, during all this busyness with eye drops and garden produce, Gerald also had a big exciting project going. In order to get better Internet reception, he bought and assembled a 70-foot tower out by his shop. Roy Walker's crew came with a boom truck to set the tower up on the concrete pad. We sat and cheered as the machine took it skyward. Our neighbor Scott even came over to admire that event. For Gerald perhaps the best part of this project was visits with his friend Roy where they talked and talked about their youthful days in Wolf Lake down in Union County. Both their fathers were in Woodman of the World Insurance Fratenity, and they shared many memories and old photographs of long ago acquaintances.

Katherine was pleased this week to see the letter from Sam's summer intern supervisor that came to her house–a very long letter critiquing in detail his successful first teaching experience this summer in Austin. It will be forwarded to Sam, but I made her a copy. As a former teacher of inner-city kids, Katherine understood just how valuable his work had been. Sam's girl friend had also phoned her about starting her student teaching this semester, so Katherine gets to stay involved as these two young adults change from the teens that used to hang out at her house into professionals prepared to make the lives of young people better. As a third generation teacher myself, I am pleased to see yet another generation preparing for this important work.

So the season is changing, and our lives are also changing in many ways . And that is way it is supposed to be.

Living Life Two Drops at a Time

Yes, I know today is the eve of the election, and I am still listening to political news although I decided awhile back most of the ones I will vote for. However for me, today (November 7) is Day 14. I am rejoicing because starting tomorrow and for the next two weeks, I will only have to put one kind of medicine drops in my left eye two times a day. Life is improving!!

Two days before I had cataract surgery in my left eye on October 2, I had two kind of drops to put in four times a day. Then starting with the day of surgery for a week, it was three kinds four times a day. This week just one kind for three times a day and one kind for four.

When all the dropping started, I did not think I could put drops in my own eye, and Gerald generously offered to do it. And I gladly accepted. And, of course, he took me to and from the surgery and put the extra med in with the first two that day, and he seemed willing to continue. I was grateful for his care, but I thought other people do this, so surely I could too. I was pleased that by Day 2, I started doing the dropping myself.

I remembered that back in 2007, there was eye dropping when I had thecataract taken off my right eye, and I guess I learned to do the task back then. But I had not needed to since and had forgotten how. I vaguely remember lying down on the bed to do this then, but I am so efficient now that I can even accomplish it even in the car when necessary. So I feel pride at my accomplishment.

(Years ago when we were frequently buying contacts for daughters, Gerald suggested I might want them. My eyes would water just watching the daughters put contacts in, and I knew I could never do that myself. I also did not want to spend any more time than I already was searching for contacts in shag rugs!)

At the time of the first cataract surgery, I must have worried about getting the order of the meds mixed up or something because I recall telling the optometrist of my concern when he gave me a follow-up check up. He laughed and said not to worry and then told me about one of his patients who had come in all worried. She had accidentally put her cat's drops in her eye, but the he said she was just fine anyhow. So that was a great comfort back and gave me confidence that I did not have to be perfect.

This time I saw my surgeon on Day 10 for a check-up. He gave me a thorough examination, dilated the eye, and he told me everything looked very good. Now all I have to do is get an appointment for new glasses since that was not possible when I had my June appointment and the cataract was needing to be taken off before I received a new prescription. (I should have known, but I kept thinking my glasses were dirty.)

Tomorrow we will go and vote. Then we will go to the Methodist Church in our village to eat chicken and dumplings at their traditional election day dinner. People will come from miles away to attend to see former friends and eat the delicious food served by these good cooks. Men and women, old and young, will work hard to prepare food and serve it to all of us. We will enjoy visiting everyone and knowing we are helping a bit with their mission project. To me this is America at its best.