My Trip to Texas - Day 5

As usual, it’s late here, almost 11:00 pm. Here is the recap of the day. I’m not going to apologize for my lack of “voice” in these entries. It’s always late, I’m always tired, and there’s always too much to cover for me be more than basic in my descriptions of the day. Be patient with me for this lack of “entertainment”; it’s difficult to cover an entire day in 5000 words in 30 minutes. +++++++++++++++++++++ After the morning routine with Dad (cleaning, changing, eating) the nurses arrived at 10:30 to give Dad a bath, which of course he hated. I had good intentions of being productive today, which I was I guess, but not in the way I had planned. I had planned to load plenty of bricks and dump them off in the ditch, but somehow while preparing to do that, I got sidetracked and started thinking about the cemetery and how it needed some proper irrigation. After talking to Mary Ann about this and looking around the house (and barn) for some leftover drip irrigation parts, we decided that we would need to buy more 1/2 inch irrigation hose and some emitters. But before any purchases were made, I drove out to the cemetery -- about 2 miles away -- and took measurements of the length of each fence line and counted the number of emitters I would need (counted the number of trees already planted). I calculated that I would need 650 feet of irrigation hose and 30 emitters, so I went home and called the local soil conservation agency. They had some supplies. By this time it was 12:00 noon, and I had some time before lunch would be ready at 12:30. While my sister prepared lunch, I loaded some broken bricks into the bucket of the front-end loader, thinking that I would dump them later in the day. +++++++++++++++++++++ Just before lunch Mary Ann asked me to run a few errands for her (since I was going into town to buy irrigation supplies) : drop off some canna lilies at my aunts’ homes and purchase some coffee. And so after lunch, I went out to the area of the lawn where the canna lilies were growing, which happened to be where the gray water exits the house, and dug up about 30 cannas/bulbs. Remember how I mentioned that this was where the gray water exited? Well, in the process of removing the cannas and placing them in trashbags, I slopped some of the “dirt/water” on my shoes --- gross. I ended up removing my shoes, which my sister had to wash for me. I ended up wearing old flip flops that were around the house as I ran my errands in town. +++++++++++++++++++++ I drove into town, but I could only go about 45 miles an hour as the leaves of the cannas began to whip around too violently in the bed of the pickup truck. I first stopped at my Tîa Golla’s house and left the largest of the three bags with her. I had a quick visit, perhaps about 10 minutes, and drove to my other Tia’s house. I left two bags with her. She was in the back enjoying the shade with her son and a grandson and they invited me to share a popsicle. I stayed on the back porch for about 15 minutes as I enjoyed my icy treat. After my pitstop there, I went to the SCS office to buy irrigation hose. This took longer than I imagined it would  -- about 45 minutes as the supplies had to be located and billed. I only had cash with me and they didn’t accept credit cards... oh, and I had to have perfect change, which necessitated my jaunt to Sonic for Route 44 cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper (I HAD to get change!!!). I then drove back to the SCS office, finished my purchase, and drove to Dollar General to buy coffee for my sister. From there, I drove home but had to stop at my brother David’s house to pick up some work boots (remember that mine smelled like sewer). I finally arrived at the house around 4:00 pm! +++++++++++++++++++++ The ACS office only had one roll of 100 feet of hose, so that was not going to be enough to cover the entire cemetery. I proceeded to phone local businesses: farm supply companies, Wal-Mart, the local hardware store, and a few nurseries. I finally located a place in Snyder, Texas, that sold and had enough hose. Unfortunately (I think), my sister Pat arrived at that time (with Madeline and Felicia), and I began to visit with her/them. Having lost track of time, I lost my window of time to drive to Snyder to pick up the hose, but at least I knew where to get it. +++++++++++++++++++++ I was partially in charge of dinner, which consisted of T-bone steaks on the grill. My sister Pat made baked potatoes and my niece Felicia made a salad. Just before diner, my brother Sammy arrived and joined us. As we were finishing dinner, a passing storm caused the electricity to go out. We finished our meals in the semi-dark and Pat and Felicia went home. Sammy stayed, and we visited by oil lamp light -- it was neat to sit around the table and watch the light flicker and bounce off the walls and each others’ faces as we laughed and reminisced about our college experiences. The electricity came back on around 10:40 or so, and David, Sammy, and I changed Dad one last time before bedtime. +++++++++++++++++++++ Breakfast: oatmeal and coffee Lunch: chicken and gravy, refried beans, and fresh tortillas Dinner: T-bone steak, baked potatoes, baked beans, salad, and sweat tea