Cliff's new toys

Yesterday we went shopping at Lowe's, and Cliff finally got the new drill press he's been wanting.  

Here you see a happy man.

He's been wanting one of these mop buckets for years, too.  Yesterday he parted with the $60 it cost and brought it home, as well as a new mop.  
What's that you say?  
Why yes, he does mop his shop floor.   
You will never see me as happy as Cliff was to get a new mop or bucket.  Never.  My housekeeping style is casual, at best.  Sometimes it's even nonexistent.  

A couple of boards with holes in them, to put hooks on and hang his valuable stuff on.

Like this.  He will have to paint the new ones first.  

He will put them right up there.  You may be wondering why there are mirrors hanging in Cliff's shop; they are there to reflect light, and hopefully make it brighter.  Never throw away your old mirrors:  Send them to Cliff.

A perfect day

We had a nice family gathering in the shop today.  Cliff's brother Don was here, and my daughter volunteered to make lasagna for the group.  I made a pineapple sheet cake.
Before everyone got here, I took Iris and my granddog Titan for a walk.  Titan wasn't sure about the horses; he figured maybe they were just Great Danes, like him.

My daughter made the lasagna in my kitchen.  Cliff's sister had breakfast and supper covered for today, but she and the sister-in-law went on a day-long shopping trip.  So I'm glad Rachel took care of the noon meal.  Don't forget, I made the cake.  

Some of the people had gone home when I took this.  My tardy oldest grandson had not arrived yet.  We chose to eat in the shop because it looked like quite a crowd for the trailer house.

My husband gave our daughter some sort of fatherly advice while Heather looked on.

Nephew Scott, his two kids, and a friend were among the guests.

Scotty asked me to get my guitar and sing.  These are the most enthusiastic fans I have had in years; in this picture they are listening to me sing.  Haily was especially impressed, so I must be better than I thought.  Of course, I was singing "The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", which impresses all little kids.  
Isn't she a beauty?  

She's grown a lot since the day I first met her.  

After everybody left, Cliff and his brother went back to work sanding a couple of old tractor fenders.  Some of the group did a little target practicing in the pasture.  I brought Iris and my granddog, Titan, to the house for some much-needed rest.  

We were pooped after such a big day.  Titan isn't quite as big as the couch yet, but he's working on it.  

Warmer weather

It was almost shirtsleeve weather today; what a welcome break from the bone-chilling cold.  
Yesterday I went for my first walk in days; there was a crust on the snow, which was still about four inches deep, even after a couple days melting.  My calves are letting me know about it today; that business of breaking through the crust atop the snow is very tiring.  I walked again today, but not nearly as far as usual.  I'm trying to build up to it again.  
My daughter and her family came to visit, bringing along my great-granddaughter Kami.  I can't believe how grown-up she acts.  

Rachel saw I was preparing to take some pictures, so she fixed Kami's hair a little bit.  

Here you have a dog-whisperer in the making.  Actually, there's peanut butter in the ball Iris is working on.  Kami found this very interesting. 

When it comes to farm equipment, you have to start kids young these days.  Last summer you couldn't get Kami on a tractor, so she's coming along nicely.  

As usual, Cliff's working on a project.  Kevin, the son-in-law, is supervising.  Or maybe he's just visiting with Cliff.  

On the other side of the shop, grandson Arick is working on his truck.  

Laying on the cold concrete just seems to be the thing to do today, but not for me.  
I've enjoyed my Nook; it's been a good day for it.  

What would become of the shop expansion, with Cliff in the hospital?

Cliff had been having heartburn (we thought) every time we went for our walk, as we were climbing the steepest hill.  When my visiting friend Joanna suggested I should get him to the doctor about that, I took her at her word and made an appointment.  Meanwhile, we went ahead riding our motorcycle every chance we got.  Somehow I had forgotten all about the fact that you can't take anything for granted!  We were having a blast, and nothing could spoil our enjoyment of life.  

Nothing except maybe a four-way heart bypass.  Yeah, that'll do it.  

Cliff was sent to a cardiologist on Wednesday and they put him straight in the hospital; an ambulance took him there from the doctor's office, because the doctor said, "I can't in good conscience let you to drive a car."  

What?  We'd been running all over the countryside on a motorcycle.  How could this be?   
An angiogram told the story, four blocked arteries; one of them was narrow and "weird" according to the cardiologist, so stints weren't even an option.

We spent that afternoon together in a hospital room, stunned beyond belief.  At one point Cliff said, his voice breaking, "We'll have to sell the bike."  

"Maybe not," I told him.  "The doctor said something about your being able to resume normal activities in three months."  

He didn't seem convinced.  

The thought crossed my mind that it was surely a good thing we'd gone ahead and built the shop; Cliff had already had seven years enjoying it.  I didn't expect him to die in surgery, but I figured this thing would definitely shorten his life span... thanks to all the information I was hunting up on the Internet.  

Ailing people and their relatives should be locked off the Internet; it'll scare you to death, and if you're not sick when you start googling up symptoms, you will be when you're done.  

After four days in the hospital, Cliff headed home, hugging his "heart" pillow.  He wasn't supposed to lift over ten pounds for three months.  As you can imagine, he didn't stick to this rule; but he'll tell you that for the first several weeks, he couldn't have lifted anything heavy if he'd wanted to.  Believe me, he tried.  Thanks to his wonderful job, we didn't miss a paycheck and most of the over-$100,000 hospital bill was paid by insurance. 

He sat around the shop a lot, wishing he could get back to work on the shop addition he'd begun before all this stuff happened.  Left to right, that's David, one of our neighbors; Tony, the guy Cliff rides to work with; Cliff, of course; and one of the twins next door.  Cliff was letting that unfinished lean-to drive him crazy; he hates to leave a job unfinished.

He wasn't supposed to be outside if the temperature was over 85 (for the rest of his life, actually), and he wasn't supposed to exert himself for three months.  So he watched the neighbor boys do a lot of his work.  He drove me crazy pushing the limits of what he was supposed to do, but today he seems very much back to normal.  We're still riding the motorcycle.  
As for the addition to the shop, family members stepped in while Cliff was still too weak to pick up a hammer (he tried, but was weak as a kitten) and finished the job.  I know I have pictures of that somewhere, but I couldn't find it.  His sister and her husband, the daughter's entire family, and the next-door twins, at least one of them, pitched in to help.  


Looking back, I still wonder why it didn't occur to me that a person having chest pains every time they're doing something strenuous probably isn't having heartburn.  Most likely it's angina.  Remember that, because it might save the life of someone you care about.  I still shudder when I realize Cliff was so at risk that the doctor wouldn't let him drive four miles to a hospital, and yet we'd been riding the motorcycle all over the place.   

Craigslist keeps on giving

Cliff and Jim were behind the old trailer house the other day getting ready for its demise, and I went back there looking for a photo op.  My eyes landed on a large dog pen we acquired when we purchased the mobile home in which we now.  We've never used the dog pen.  The lady who sold us the mobile home simply threw it in.  

"Hey, I should take a picture of that and put it on Craigslist," I said.  

Cliff agreed, and he, Jim, and I discussed asking prices for awhile.  

I figured fifty bucks ought to get it out of our way, left, and returned with a tape measure.  I knew if I didn't include dimensions in the ad, someone would be calling and asking for them.  

Within a half hour, a man called and said he'd take it; he and his wife would be here within an hour to pay us cash.  He wondered if he could pick it up later, and we told him that was fine.  

We all sat in Cliff's shop and waited for his arrival.  

We were watching activities like this, as clouds gathered.

We hang out at Cliff's shop a lot in the evenings.  It's the place to be.

By the time the guy got here, rain was pouring from the sky.  

He gave Cliff fifty dollars and said he'd be back in a couple of days.  

He showed up yesterday, as promised.  

By the way, immediately after he called and said he wanted the pen, we got two more calls.  

I should have asked more.