Life in Weyers Cave

I put the apples in our backyard on Freecycle and they were taken and appreciated. I had been trying to give them away for weeks. The hut is finally scrubbed and glistening. The last thing was the filters in the vent hood over the fryers. The guys took them out and I took them down to the trucking company. They used the the truck washing power hoses to get them clean. It was amazing because the oil was so thick they were black and disgusting. All the graffiti is gone, although we will be painting the hut, sealing the floor, cleaning out the wasps nest, replacing locks, fixing the plumbing, and a few other minor things before I turn over all responsibilities. David has been home today. It seems like forever since he has just been around the house. He has cleaned a huge spiderweb out of the front window and helped me sort out a box of giveaway clothing. Just one box out of the garage helps. If I only had the umph to do 12 I would be sitting pretty! No nibbles on the red house. ...

Dear Parents, I love the south. We were doing a drill yesterday, crawling through a thick forest of undergrowth, complete with thorns, thistles and poison ivy. We were carrying full gear and our rifles, and at the drill sergeant's signal we'd stand up, run for three seconds, and throw ourselves back down on the ground behind our cover and aim our rifles and wait for the signal to start crawling again. For hours. One time I was waiting behind a tree with sweat dripping off my Kevlar helmet into my eyes when my hand started to burn. I thought it was either the sunburn I have on my arms or the thorns I was sitting in, so I ignored it. It got worse, but the drill sergeant was right next to me and we were supposed to be hiding. The whistle blew, and as I got up to run, I glanced tat the arm that had been sitting on the ground. You guessed right. Totally covered in fire ants. I counted over 30 bites, but it's hard to tell the poison ivy, sunburn, and thorn scratches. Ah, w...

I have had so many volunteers to help clean the concessions stand that I can't handle them all. I have $3000 on one insurance quote, so if I can get that from the insurance company and do it ourselves, we will make budget this year. Seems like a bad way to make budget, but hey, it works. David Russell has been working down there all day pressure washing. Then I have a crew of five men coming tomorrow to scrub and clean. I got the computers fixed up for the fast food restaurant. My boss wasn't a bit upset that after I worked for them two months ago, they came back to me when an employee trashed their system and I just did it and charged them myself. Bryan had a problem with someone cutting the ropes holding his sailboat in place in Florida and it landed in a protected wildlife area. He was worried, but handled the situation with more maturity than most older adults. I am very proud of him and the crisis is passed. Apparently, someone wanted to steal his anchors. I got to t...

I had the Dell guy come out to my house to replace the hard drive in my laptop, Gracie. (After my favorite comedienne, Gracie Allen -- Dianna has George Burns). It was so embarrassing. He was a 22 year old named Charles, very sweet, with all the Dell certifications that my boss says I should get that I haven't yet. I was perfectly capable of doing this all by myself. Charles came in, full of confidence. He took one look at Gracie and complimented her. I handed her to him upside down so he could start removing screws. He scrutinized her, looking all over for the little panel you take off to get to the hard drive. I explained you had to loosen the K screws and then take the keyboard off the top. No problem. He removed the screws. (K screws are screws with a K beside them for Keyboard) Then he couldn't get the keyboard off the top. Pried. Shook. Jiggled. I went over, turned it upside down, and out popped the keyboard. There, underneath it, was the hard drive. Charl...

Yes, a fun website. We all like those. This is cultural and scenic and pictures from all over the world. Just pick a spot and go there. And if it says Dubby took it.....

Today David gave a talk in church. It was witty and interesting and I am sure no one fell asleep. He talked about his heritage and how important it is to remember your roots. He retold a story that he made up that he has repeated often enough that I feel we must set the record straight. He said that I have instructed him that he is to tell all of his classes that I don't dress him or pick out his clothes. Actually, the Bliss girls have never been known for having good tastes in clothing. Tammy, definitely the sharpest dresser of all of us, admits that her husband Jeff has outstanding tastes and is important in picking out her wardrobe. I haven't discussed it with her recently, and she has probably learned over the years how to always look so good, but Mom and I and my daughters are not girly girls or clothes horses by any means. That being said, when I first met David, he had been raised in a frugal home and bragged that he had never spent over five dollars on a pair of pan...

For those who can't read left-handed writing: Dear Family, This card sums it up pretty well. I haven't found five minutes of free time since I've been here. The Army is very, very good at what they do. I'm missing sleep to write this, and we have yet another full day tomorrow, so I'll try to get as much in as possible. I'm glad I'm here. I'm not going to fail or quit. That being said, this three weeks has been the hardest thing I've ever done, hands down. Everything you hear about basic training is true. Fort Benning is the only all-male basic base, so the curriculum is much harder than the other ones. Add on top of that my exuberant personality, and I can say I've done more push ups in one week here than I've done the rest of my life put together. We have three drill sergeants for our platoon of 60 soldiers, and they all knew my name by the second day. Ah, well, we all knew it would happen. I'm getting strong. I feel great. ...

David and I went out to dinner at the Chinese restaurant. I read my fortune and thought "this has GOT to be David's" just as he announced that he must have gotten mine. These are the fortunes: An angry man opens his mouth and shuts up his eyes. You take an optimistic view of life. Guess who got which?

I was glad that yesterday I didn't have a lot on my plate, especially in the morning, when one of the small businesses I did some work for a while ago called. One of their employees had tried to "defeat" the Net Nanny I had put on and they couldn't get on the internet at all. SuperDeb to the rescue. I hate the program. Went in and had to go to safemode to delete NetNanny and even then it was being a pain in the butt. Had to call customer support, the computer XP version had never been upgraded, so they insisted I have Service Pack 2 which you can't put on if you can't get on the internet. I had to go to another store in the chain to download the fix. I had actually brought my laptop, but the hard drive crashed (for the third time) on the way there. The other store is the SLOWEST computer I have ever seen 128 meg ram and probably some viruses. It can - no joke - take 20 minutes just for the ONE web page to load. It took two hours just to get the tiny fi...

Oh, oh! Do I get to post this first or did the D beat me to it? We went out geocaching after church today. I went on the geocaching.com website and downloaded a bunch of places near here. Then pulled out the two obnoxious GPS units we have and tried to make them show me how to find the coordinates. Not easy. David, of course, had to grump about how I don't know how to work them, and he wanted to go hiking in the mountains, and I ought to go with his friend who likes to do it instead of him and all his other grump stuff that I don't really listen to. So after about an HOUR we finally made it to Grand Caverns Park and started looking for a "green pill bottle". We found the brush and the stump and TA-DA! Dianna found it. Some kids were riding by on their bikes and were fascinated. Nothing much in there, but we signed the book and went on to the next. The kids found it again after we left, but they understood they had to leave it there. The second one was the one ...

I met two inspectors at the concession stands today to get quotes for getting them cleaned up. Yuck! What a mess. And being the kind of person I am, I had to be cleaning while they were taking their report. First, I tried to sweep. But the powder just kind of blew up over the broom and got everywhere except the direction I was trying to sweep. Then I decided to wash the dishes and stuff around the sink. when the water got on the yellow powder, it pooled up in little yellow beads. It was so awful to deal with! I threw out straws and napkins and paper bowls and stuff that really can't be cleaned. Totally irked me since I can't stand waste. Then as I was leaving, after breathing it in for a solid hour, the inspector said "Oh, by the way, don't breathe that stuff -- it contains asbestos!." Thanks a lot!

I was challenged on the getting old comments yesterday. It is interesting to see the difference that David and I have in attitude about getting older. There was an advertisement a couple of years ago on television where a 50 year old woman said "I don't believe in growing old gracefully. I plan on fighting it every step of the way!"

It is Wednesday already and I haven't posted because not much has happened. We did get David into Dr Buckley yesterday. It was kind of funny, because he is the same doctor I saw last week so he knew me. We were waiting to go in and he called me "Mrs. Fordham, could you come here a moment please?" I went back and he wanted me to show him how to get the CD with David's CT scans from RMH how to work in his computer. We left a box of chocolates which were greatly appreciated. He went over everything inside of David's abdomen, pointed out the stone in the kidney, the thinned abdominal wall, not yet herniated, and the other stuff we won't talk about. It was the most thorough yet laid back visit I have ever had at a doctor's office. David is now more convinced than ever that he is old. 50! Geez! What will he be at 70! I did get to talk to Cathryn the other night, but it was late and I was having a devil of a time keeping my head from dragging. I don't do...

We didn't sell a lot of the sandwiches. Sadly, there were about 800 people less at the Bluegrass festival than had been anticipated and I now have 180 sandwiches in my freezer and another 150 left at the Community Center that I will need to find freezer space for tomorrow. We will try to sell them at Ruritan Meeting on Thursday, but that comes out to what, five sandwiches per person? Ouch! Last night I played for a fundraising concert for cancer treatment for a United Church of Christ pastor. They had the hugest pot luck dinner I have ever seen, followed by musical presentations from about eight different churches. Some of it was quite good. There was a soloist who could easily be professional and sang songs perfectly chosen for her voice and style. There were a few skits and jokes and silly songs. A nice handbell choir that had not been together too long. And then there were the mini-church choirs. One blessed us with eight different selections (think "Rock of Ages" j...

Ruritans are sponsoring a beef barbecue stand at the BlueGrass Festival at Grand Caverns Park in Grottoes. Beef barbecue is a misnomer to me, but apparently around here it means a cheap hamburger bun with sliced beef in it that was marinated in a vinegar and spice sauce before it was cooked. The only barbecue sauce is what you add later. To me, that's a beef barbecue sandwich, or really a sliced beef sandwich, but shhhh -- we don't SAY those things! We were able to borrow the Pepsi concessions truck which, interestingly, has places to put drinks but no way to cool them other than pouring ice over them. Ice is expensive, unless we get it from our community center, but that was all taken for a party last night. Because of the other things on my agenda lately, I did NOT sign up for anything to do with this, but I still have gotten dragged into it. The person who was supposed to sign up the volunteers fell through, and some of the ones who had signed up at the last board meeting ...

Yesterday after the surgery I did great, but today, not so well. I can't eat and even water tastes terrible. I get recurring pains in my abdomen. I can't concentrate and feel really miserable. So I guess I'm not better yet. Bummer. Martha made some wonderful chicken soup and I can't get down more than a few bites. Michele brought over some blue carnations with Ashton and Corbin. We had a nice visit. Telemarketers are making sure my phone isn't left unringing for long. Grr. We ARE on the no-call list. I visited Gail, but was pretty miserable and left early. Maybe tomorrow....

The kidney stone is out. Nothing went wrong. It was big. And sharp. And stuck. I am going to bed now. ************ It is starting to feel strange not being doped on Percocet and wanting to eat again. The people at the hospital were really nice and we talked about Belgium all through the surgery. I really liked the doctor a lot. Now, as long as I don't use the restroom, I am feeling pretty good. Time to solve the crisis where we need a kitchen certified by the state to make sandwiches for this weekend, my camera needs to ship off to Sony, and I think I have some chocolate to distribute. Remind me again who needs some????

David and I continue our battle of "who is the sickest?" Today I pulled ahead, because my stone is bigger (8.5 vs 5.0 mm), PLUS I have a second one still in the kidneys, PLUS mine is stuck and blocking off one of my kidneys. So I get surgery tomorrow. Whoo Hoo! Beat THAT, David!

  This is Annie, my friend who owns the Edeweiss shop on the Paardenmarkt in Antwerpen. It was hard to talk her into getting a picture, but I promised her a copy and said I would be in it so she acquiesced. I love my friend Annie. Her English is excellent and she has taught me a lot and given me a glimpse of the Belgian culture that few people can see. I try to bring her little gifts from the states and she always has something for me. Annie's parents owned a shop where they mixed their own cleaners and she was working in it from the time she was 9. Then when she was old enough, she started her own shop and has had it for over 50 years. She married and had a son, but they have both died and she has no family left. I learn something new every time I meet her and the beaming expression of joy on her face when I arrive is a source of great joy. She is very loving and giving. It is an honor to know her.

We went to church today at 9, and I was feeling some pain from the beginning. By the time I got home, I was doubled over in pain despite having taken two different kinds of pain reliever. I went for the strong stuff and was still totally incapacitated for about two hours. David, meanwhile, was fine. Then I started getting better, while David went down for a nap. I don't think he was doing too badly, though. Now I wonder whose turn is it to be sick?

David is definitely on the upswing, but still sick. I have spent the entire day writing the Children's Sacrament Meeting Presentation which should have been done a month ago, except for the few hours I went to visit Gail. Dianna is hating her job more and more. Seems they have a few really bad workers there at the steakhouse who have been there a long time and drive everyone else off. If they would just let the bad workers go, the good ones would stay. But the bad ones are really lazy and overwork the good ones and the bosses don't notice or care. No news from Allen. Spoke to Cathryn on her birthday and it was great to hear her voice. Talked to Bryan today as well. He will be spending a month in Pittsburgh starting the beginning of this month to possibly establish a new hub there. I wish I could find someone to cut my hair, but am too cheap to go to a salon. I miss Cathryn. She always did a great job. Diane H did it last time, but I think it scared her. Dianna F is left-han...