9-22-2008

I have been working on my boat recently.  It is not a very big boat (14 ft.), but, is of sufficient size to get me out to a good fishing place and back.  I bought it from a good friend (thanks Dick), who gave me a really good deal.  He and his wife are selling their home on the water and moving close to their daughter in North Carolina.   Anyway, I decided to make some changes to it and those changes are underway.  Fall is almost here, so the prime  fishing time, for me, is past.  Thusly, I can take my time with the changes and  enjoy the project.  You know, like, getting close to the boat, so it won’t leave me stranded in the middle of the bay or something.

Last May I bought a used lawn vacuum from a listing in our local paper’s classified section.  I planned on using it during the fall to collect all the leaves that accumulate in our backyard.  I pulled it out of our shed the other day, planning on putting it through it paces to see how well it picks up the leaves, pine staw, etc, but the darn thing would not crank.  The flywheel was stuck.  Nothing left to do but take it apart and locate the problem.  An hour or so later the problem was resolved and I was happily sucking up our leaves and pine straw for disposal.  Strange, I don’t remember studing yard equipment repair in college.  As a side note, many years ago I worked with a fellow (Frank Fullman) who, when asked how he knew something, always replied, “I studied it in collage (ko-lage)”.  Of course, Frank never attended college, but I have been guilty of using that line very often, ie:  I studied yard in kolage, or I studied boats in kolage, anyway, you get the idea.  It always brings a smile to Jerilyn’s face.  I guess that is why I do it.

I recently read an article in Newsweek (Sep 15, 2008) titled:  Why The War on Cancer Has Fallen Short, by Sharon Begley.  If you are at all interested in this subject you will find out a lot in her article.  President Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971 and very little progress has been made in finding a cure, or preventing it.  The mortality rate from cancer has only dropped 7% since 1971.  This is truly a must read if you are someone you love is fighting this dreadful disease.  The article can be found here:  http://www.newsweek.com/id/157548/page/1

We have been busily preparing for some repair work in our home.  We have cracks in the drywall on our ceilings and walls due to our house settling.  We had about 30 anchors install several years ago and, it seems, the settling has stopped.  A contractor is scheduled to be here Wednesday (9/24) to start the work.  After he finishes a fellow will start painting the ceilings.  Almost all the walls have wallpaper on them, so we haven’t decided what to do about those yet.  We may remove the wallpaper and paint them.   The Decider, no not George Bush, hasn’t decided yet.  Anyway, turmoil will prevail in our little hut for quite awhile.  Jerilyn dislikes any type of disruption, so this is taking quite a toll on her.   I am comfortable with a mess, so I’m not bothered too much.  I think that bothers her also.  At my age I try to keep frettin’ to a minimum.

I recently thatched the yard, with Jerilyn’s help, and put out grass seed with starter fertlizer.   We had a fair amount of slow rain afterward and I assumed the grass seed was well on it’s way to popping up.  Naw!  Here it is two weeks later and the results have been very disappointing.   The seed I put on the lawn between my neighbor and I, who has a sprinkler system, is doing mavelously well.  I reseeded some of the bare places yesterday and made a promise to do a better job of wattering.  I always try to to keep my promises.  

September 16, 2008

Well, it has been quite a while since my last missive (August 4th) and a lot has happened during that time.  With so much to tell, it’s hard to decide where to begin, but, here goes.

   I recently took our truck to the dealer and had some work done to it.  The Automatic Braking System (ABS) wasn’t working and neither was the cruise control.  I paid for the part back in May and it finally came in during the month of August.  This month I took our Riviera to the dealer because the ABS light was on.   It also started missing a beat or two when under pressure, so I instructed them to determine the reason for that and fix it too.  .  I dropped the car off and returned home, awaiting a call letting me know what the damage would be.  In a few hours the service lady calls, I answer the phone and she pleasantly says, “Mr Hale, this is Candice at Suttle Motors.  Are you sitting down?”   It was right then I decided I should be, and so, I answered in the affirmative.  “Well”, says she, “you need a lot done to your car.  Do you want the bottom line of the details?”  Trying to avoid the “bottom line” as long as possible, I say meekly, “give me the details, please”.   By the time she got thru the “details” I was amazed that I was able to drive the car to their shop.  I eventually gave the ok to do the work and the car is home now, purring down the road, whenever needed, running like a new car off the showroom floor.   Oh, that bottom line thingy came to $4500.   There goes my kids inheritance.

   Have you ever wondered if you knew how much time you had left, if you would continue to use it as you do now.   I doubt that I would.  I stand in line at restaurants, wait at auto repair places, wait for my PC to perform tasks that seem to take forever and watch meanliness TV shows & movies waiting for them to get better.    If my doctor said I had 6 months to live, how would I change?   I think my prayers would be longer and not so rushed as they are now.   I would insist that my children & grandchildren let me be a bigger part of their lives and I would include my close relatives & friends in more of my activities.   I would spend less time on daily chores and more time doing the things I enjoy.   I would cherish all the time I spend with Jerilyn.   The sad part is, we very seldom have any idea how much longer we will live, and so, without that motivation, we will plug along, doing the same things, not noticing the water draining slowly out of the tub.   "Man's loneliness is but his fear of life." ..Eugene O’Neill

   Jerilyn and I have a trip planned to Branson, MO, next month.   Needless to say, we have not informed her mother of this yet, because if we do, the trip will surely have to be cancelled.  We have been to Branson before and enjoyed it so much we decided to do it again.  The trip will be via a bus cruise with our good friends Don & Louise.  We will leave on October 11th and return on October 19th.   My favorite show there is Mickey Gilley, but I am also looking forward to seeing the Pam & Mel Tillis show.  I think we will attend 8-9 shows in all. 

   Our yard has been thatched, fertilized & reseeded and we are patiently waiting for little green things to emerge from the ground.  Our next door neighbor has installed a sprinkler system for his yard and we are green (pun intended) with envy.   There I am, standing in the middle of our yard with a water hose in my hand and I hear the hissing start.    I turn toward the noise and there are all these little gadgets spraying water all over his yard.   Ahhh, the differences between the have’s and the have not’s.   

   My project to use my camcorder to record  people telling their life story is progressing quite well.  So far, as you know, I have done my brother Jerry and my aunt Helen.   It took about 30 minutes for each of them to work their way thru their history.   I have about 30 questions for the interview.   Sooner or later, I will bump into a person that will talk for an hour about themselves.   If none do, then I will interview myself.   I know I can talk about myself for an hour.    Since Gladys just turned ninety, I wanted her to be the first, but, she turned me down.  Said she wasn’t interested in passing the details of her life on to anyone.   My goal is to get everyone close to me to set down and do the interview.    

   I constantly change my prayer list, taking people off as they get better, or transition to the other side, and putting people on that need help.  I am a firm believer that praying helps.  We may not always get the answer we want, but we always get an answer.   I remember, as a young lad, asking my dad for something and his first answer was always “No”.   Many times, I was able to persuade him to say “Yes”.  So, I learned at an early age not to give up when you wanted something.  Now, The Lord normally does not answer immediately, but I believe if I ask him over and over, using the experience I had as a youngster, I can convince him to heal the people in my life that are sick, or in need.  At least, I like to think I can.