Number 6's Blog

Christmas Memories

January 1, 2024

Yesterday one of my favorite Christmas songs played on the radio, Silent Night, and brought to mind a couple of my favorite Christmas memories:

I grew up on a farm in Northern Illinois and was a brought up in the Lutheran Church. Every Christmas Eve the we had 11PM services to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The service ended at midnight with the song Silent Night. Invariably as we left church a light snow would be falling — so beautiful.

One Christmas morning when we were really young we came downstairs to find Jim had opened all the presents. I only remember the surprise as I walked off the stairs and looked into the living room with all the presents opened and Jim laying there asleep

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Posted by molson46

We bought a new, for us, home

December 20, 2023

We closed on our new, for us, home in Trophy Club a week ago. Now the hard part begins:

Move into the new home
Prepare our current home for sale
Selling the house – mostly stress and waiting

The Number 1 reason for our move is to be closer to our youngest daughter and her family who promise to help with Gwen more. Briefly Gwen has fairly advanced PSP (Progressive supranuclear palsy).

Off the top of my head here’s a few other good reasons for the move and also some reasons we should have stayed in our current home:

Good

Easier access for wheelchair – Can get in and out of minivan in the garage
No water heater
No pool

Bad

View from back yard not as good
Loved our neighbors
Very familiar with the area
Costs us $$$

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Posted by molson46

My new iPhone 15+

December 18, 2023

It’s been a week now since I gave up my old iPhone 8 for a brand new iPhone 15+. After using it a week I’m wondering why I waited so long to upgrade. It’s like I transitioned from a VW Bug to a Bentley.

Features I love so far:

Replacing the home button with Face ID was brilliant.
The increase of speed is very impressive.
The battery life blows me away. Of course the iPhone 8 was 6 years old which is equivalent to 90 years in human terms.

I had been backing the iPhone 8 to iCloud so setting up the iPhone 15+ was a piece of cake except for I am having to log into all the apps again except of course for the Apple apps. Maybe if I had used the Apple keychain this part would have been easier.

I picked up the new iPhone at the AT&T store and am paying it off interest free for 36 months.

When I was growing up on the farm back in the 50s and 60s we had a huge phone that hung on the wall. Our service was the Burgess Community phone service. There were 15 of us on the same party line. Everyone’s phone rang for each call. However, each of us had our own ring so we knew the call was for us. Now I have the equivalent of a Cray Computer in my pocket. Sometimes progress really is good!

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Posted by molson46

Ever Day is a Gift

September 28, 2023

I heard Every Day is a Gift on Good Morning America this morning. It’s been whirling around my head all day.

A little background: My Wife has PSP which has confined her to a wheelchair. On top of that she can’t really use her arms or hands. Also, her speech is hard to understand especially when she is “antsy” as she would put it.

Needless to say I’m her caregiver which has completely changed my life as well. The past few days I’ve been feeling sorry for myself. But now I’m pretty upbeat about having another day to enjoy life.

In the future every morning when I wake up I’m going to recite at least the following:

Every Day is a Gift – Reese Whiterspoon on GMA
Stay Curious – Steve Jobs from Stanford graduation speech – Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish, Stay Curious

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Posted by molson46

One hot Summer

September 8, 2023

Today, September 8, the high temperature in DFW was 109. Overall, this is our third hottest Summer in North Texas since we’ve been recording temperatures in 1898 according to the National Weather Service. I find it interesting the local and national TV newscasts state this is the second hottest Summer on record

I’ve lived in the DFW area through all of the 5 hottest Summer:

Year/Avg Temp

2011/90.5
1980/89.2
2023/88.7
1998/88.3
2022/88.2

Lack of rain also accompanies hot weather here and this Summer was no exception. If you don’t count the .2 inches of rain DFW received, which we did not we’ve gone over 60 days without rain. (The record is 84 days).

The photo below was taken on one of the walking trails in our neighborhood. A typical August/September day in North Texas and everything is brown except for trees.

Walking Trail

Although the temperature was 109 today the humidity was 19%. I felt more comfortable outside in the shade today than at Cardinal games in 90 degree, 90% humidity weather.

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Posted by molson46

Broke my heart

August 23, 2023

Gwen broke my heart today. She asked “Am I going to be in a wheelchair the rest of my life?” What do I tell her? Lie and say oh no you will be up and around soon or you have PSP which start with “Progressive” meaning yes you will most likely be consigned to a wheelchair the remainder of your too short, for me, life.

What happened?

Today we brought a man out to fit her for a custom wheelchair which Medicare will pay for every five years. He told her she needed a 60 pound wheelchair which reclines and is very comfortable. She is pretty darn smart and connected all the dots – “I’m in a wheelchair forever and it’s really heavy so no more MDX SUV. From now on it’s the wheelchair accessible Chrysler minivan. Plus he told her he went to A&M but we could see he was not wearing the ring so we both thought he was lying.

What are we going to do? I don’t know. I did not really like the guy either but I don’t like anyone very much. We have an appointment with UTSouthwestern on September 5 for a wheelchair fitting. Maybe we will wait until then?

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Posted by molson46

A Saturday Morning in the life of a care giver

August 19, 2023

Aug 19, 2023 at 1:43 PM: This was my day until 1:30 this afternoon.

Gwen up at 7:00
Fixed breakfast for both of us and ate
Prepared vitamins for Gwen and gave her vitamins
Exercised Gwen’s arms outside before the heat set in
Washed Gwen’s face and cleaned her teeth.
I took a shower and got dressed
Drove with Gwen to the Eataly in Northpark to buy bread. They have her favorite bread.
On the way home ordered Ice Tea and French fries for her at McDonald’s. It was 10:50 and they don’t server fires until 11:00. So we waited in the parking lot for her fries and then got in line to order them
Gave Gwen a shower
Shaved Gwen’s legs
It’s 1:30

This a typical day in the life of a care giver. I hate to be someone like her who needs this much attention in a nursing home.

I’m taking my first break of the day for a cup of coffee.

Then’s us make her lunch and do more exercises.

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Posted by molson46

July blooms in my front fowerbed

July 24, 2023

It’s July in North Texas and it’s hot. Very hot! But some plants don’t seem to mind the heat and are starting to bloom as they do every July. I am blessed to have two such plants in my front flowerbed:

* Black Eyed Susan
* Limelight Hydrangea

Both just started blooming earlier this week

Some tell me Black Eyed Susan’s are not hardy in North Texas and give up the ghost after a couple years. This specimen is in the third year and still going strong

Black Eyed Susans

I had never heard of Limelight Hydrangeas until the Nursery suggest I try them in a Sunny spot at the front of my home. I thought all hydrangeas needed shade to survive our Summers but these babies seem to thrive in the Sun

LimelightHydrangeas