August 26

     In trying to catch up for the past week I forgot to mention that on Friday night we met with our supper club group.  We meet every other month for supper on a rotating basis.  The host provides the meat and the rest bring a vegetable, dessert, and salad.  Our group has been meeting for over 35 years.  At one time we met every month but shifted to every other month many years ago.  Those in our group are Gary and Pat Hastings, Crawford and Linda Nelson, Steve and Jan Roberts, Moody and Joan Scroggins, Larry and Betty Lane Shirley, and us of course.  We always have a great meal and good fellowship.  

     For today we made it to Kale's house in San Antonio, Texas.  It was really great to spend the afternoon with Emily and then go to get Kale at day care.  Kale will stay home with us tomorrow.  Fantastic!  I am not looking forward to the drive home.  We also have some relatives in Houston that would be nice to see.  But, if we decide to drive back in one day we will not have time to stop and visit.  Until then we are going to enjoy this time with the Burt's. 

August 20-25

     Time has really been flying by.  On Wed, Aug 20,  I walked 3 miles and then worked most of the day in the garden.  Then picked mom up for church.  Church suppers had started back, and since I do not miss too many meals, I had to go.  Then prayer meeting after supper.  After I got back home I realized that my air conditioning was not working.  The temperature was about 80 in the house.  I immediately emailed the installers to set up a time that someone could fix it.
     On Thursday I walked 3.5 miles with Amy early in the morning.  I am so slow that Amy even lapped me.  Then I was passed by an old grey haired lady, and a lady pushing a baby stroller.  The repairman came to fix the air and found that insulation from a side panel had not been glued properly and had restricted air flow, which caused the unit to freeze up with a sheet of ice blocking any air from getting through.  Once that was fixed the unit was checked out and has been fine ever since.  The repairman took a while to fix it causing us to be about an hour late picking up gogo to take her for a doctor's appointment.  I went along to get a free meal.  But ended up just sitting (sleeping) in the doctor's office.  It was about 3 hours in that office.  Got out too late to eat lunch so we drove back home.
      On Friday, Aug. 22, the installers came to re-insulate the house.  Since we are trying to make our house more energy efficient, we added insulation in the attic and under the house.  I am hoping to see a decrease in my power bill, but only time will tell how much of an effect it has.  I hope it is quite noticeable.
     Saturday was a busy day.  Amy's sister, Ginger, was doing a tri-athelon in Athens, GA, so she picked us up and we went to spend the night at Jason's.  We had a great time with visiting Jason and Shelley, and Brooks (chocolate lab the size of a horse)
     Ginger's race was early Sunday morning and by the time we were getting out of bed, she was finishing the course.  Her course consisted of a 400 meter swim, a 16 mile bike ride and a 3 mile run.  She finished 5th in her age group which was fantastic.  We returned home for a couple of hours sleep before starting our next adventure, a trip to San Antonio to see Kale, and Emily and Craig.
     We set out early this morning, stopping for breakfast of course.  We got to Hattiesburg about lunch time and visited with some life-long friends, Chuck and Mary Jane Wood.  We got to meet their grandchildren.  It was a great visit and lots of memories and laughs.  We need to get together more often.  After about a 4 hour visit were we continued down I-10 and stopped at Lake Charles for the night.
   

August 17 - 19

Sunday, Aug 17 was uneventful.  Church, out to eat, nap and back to church.  Typical Sunday.

Monday was a garden work day.  Picked peas, pulled up dead plants and picked butterbeans.  I have a few more plants to pull up and pick clean before I plow up for my winter garden.  We had a storm that ended the garden work, but gave plenty of time for me to take the ALS ice bucket challenge since I was challenged by my oldest daughter, Katy.  Posted video on facebook, so I will not post it here.

Today, Tuesday, Aug 19th was more fun.  I drove to Oxford to meet with some old high school friends that I have not seen in 30 or 40 years.  It was a great time of fellowship and meal.  Bobby Slay, Jimmy Harris, and Hal Phillips and I became close friends when I first moved to Talladega in 1965.  Even though Hal was a year older than the rest of us we all attended the same church, First Baptist in Talladega, and the same high school.  Bobby and I were roommates at Cheshire's at Auburn University.  He and Hal both became pharmacists, Jimmy was a Vocational Rehab counselor, and I a teacher.  We had lost touch over the years, but facebook helped us to reconnect.  We plan to meet every other month to get together again.  It was great talking about old times, and remembering how we were as teenagers and young adults.  Can't wait till next time.  Returned home to continue picking beans.  Tomorrow I should have everything out of the garden and can start preparing for the next planting.

August 13 - 16

This is what I have been spending my time on. This has to be the hardest puzzle I have ever put together in my lifetime.

Almost every piece would interchange with other piece. At one time I had the boats on the bottom located in the wrong place, swapped right and left sides.  Thank goodness the box shows a picture of the completed puzzle.  Even though I think that using the picture is somehow cheating, I did refer to it several times when I realized that I had some pieces in the wrong place.

To catch up for the last few days, the plumber did come and put in the new water line.  I use Raymond Jones, Jones Plumbing, because he does a great job and is very reasonable.  It took most of the day to dig the ditch for the pipe.  There are so many rocks, some large, some small, that he used a backhoe to dig the trench.  Then once the pipe was laid, he disconnected the old system, tapped into the existing water lines, and reconnected my old system to an outdoor faucet.  The biggest change is that after 38 years I will now have to pay a monthly water bill.  But, I now have some advantages that I did not have before.  No brown water after it rains.  No contaminates, bacteria, alge, etc. (good and bad).  Clothes should be cleaner.  Water pressure that does not fluctuate every five minutes.  Buy keeping the old system I will be able to use it for things that use a lot of water outside the house; like washing the cars, pressure washing the house (which Amy likes to do), watering the lawn and watering the garden.

On Thursday, I made my weekly trip to Home Depot and Walmart in Pell City.  These trips usually start with a breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, but since Amy did not go with me, I skipped the breakfast.  The last stop is usually Publix, but I omitted that stop also.  

On Friday, our new windows were installed.  We decided to try to make our house as energy efficient as possible, so new windows were a necessity.  Due to the cost, we could not replace all of them at this time, but we did replace all the downstairs windows, including the big bay window in our dining room.  The next step will be to increase the insulation in the attic and insulate under the house.  Hopefully that will be completed next week.  

I have big plans for today.  I plan to pick butterbeans in the garden and then begin removing the rocks left from the trench so I can cut the grass again.  It will take some time before the trench is covered with grass, but I have to remove the rocks so I won't tear up my lawnmower the next time I cut the grass.  I think that it may take several days to complete this project.  One final thing for today, my knees are not 100% yet.  I have decided that I will ride the bike twice a day and continue walking.  The biggest problem now is that they continue to swell when I am on my feet for a long period of time.  Solution, sit more, and strengthen the muscles around the knees.  Even though I hate to go back to the doctor, I may need to eventually.  I was mentioning that it has been 7 weeks since my surgery to a friend of mine, and he reminded me that I was 65 and it takes longer for older people to heal.  That may be true.

August 9 - 12

     Not much happening at the Locklin house.   On Friday we had more rain.  On Saturday, Amy and I went to walk.  She had a pain in her ankle so she was finished before I even started walking.  Walked 3.4 miles. Knees felt so good that I even tried jogging just to see if I could. Later in the day we made our weekly trip to Walmart.  

     On Sunday we went to church then out to lunch with Go-go (Amy's mom) and G-mama (my mom).  Those names were given to them by my son, Jason, when he was a little boy.  Go-go got her name because she was always on the go, never staying home during the day.  G-mama was short for grandmother.  After lunch was the Sunday afternoon nap, followed by church again. 

     On Monday I slept late.  By the time I got up Amy had finished her 3 mile walk.  We had a tire leaking air so I went to town to have it fixed.  After running a couple of other errands I went to the park to walk. As long as I am up and moving I am pain free.  I walked in the hottest part of the day and did 7  laps which was 4 miles.  By the time I got home and cleaned up it was time to go out to eat with the Sunday School class.  Afterwards we went to the church for dessert and a meeting.  By the time I got home my knees were swelling and hurting. 

     Today I was a total bum.  Legs hurt all day.  Slept most of the morning away.  Iced my knees.  Basically did nothing. I walked around the garden trying to exercise my legs but after sitting awhile I can hardly get up again.  I noticed some fluid on one knee in one spot. I may need to go back to the doctor about that. Hoping it will go away on it's own.   Sitting on my reclining sectional is the most comfortable and that is all I've done today.  

     Tomorrow the plumber comes to connect us to the county water system.  He will need to lay about 500 ft of pipe.  He will also disconnect my pressure tank and put a faucet on it.  That way I can use the spring water for watering and washing outside the house.  Hopefully he can complete it in one day. 

Will know tomorrow. 

August 8

If I thought I was sore on Thursday, I was mistaken.  I could barely move yesterday.  Muscles were so sore that it was a pain to move at all.  Had nothing to do with the knees, but more to do with helping lay sod at the church.  I was helping unload three pallets of grass.  More physical labor than I have done in the last 6 months.  Every muscle in my body aches.  I think this is a good day to lay around and work my puzzle.  I somehow got enough energy to pull some weeds out of the garden and pick a few peas, but that was it for the day.  I decided to go walk, but the weather decided I needed to stay home.  This was the first rain I have had at my house in the last month.  My garden really needed it, but I don't think we got enough rain to saturate the ground.  Maybe we will get more rain soon.  We need one of those all day slow and steady rain.  But this time of the year the rain usually comes with threat of severe thunder storms.  There was a lot of thunder and lightening with this shower.  Now I really have a good excuse to work my puzzle.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Thursday, Aug. 7 - My birthday.  Not that it matters, but I am 65 years old.  When I got out of bed this morning I could hardly walk.  Not a knee problem, but I guess between walking and working in the garden I stretched some muscles that I had not used before.  Well, I decided not to do anything that required walking until the afternoon.  I started working a jigsaw puzzle, which is a great way to waste time.  By late afternoon I was headed to the church to help lay sod around the playgrounds.  As long as I was moving everything was fine.  Once I stopped to rest, the muscles would tighten up and it would take a few minutes to get moving again.  When I got home my wife had fixed my favorite meal, hamburger steak and french fries.  After supper I continued working on my puzzle and rode my bike.  All in all a pretty good day.

August 6

     Wednesday, Aug 6.  For some odd reason my wife wanted to go walking almost as soon as I got out of bed.  So, being the wonderful husband I am, I agreed.  I did not even get a cup of coffee before we left the house.  I ended up walking 3.4 miles.  My knees were fine and only a little pain in the leg muscles rather than the knees.  After returning home I did get to finish my cup of coffee, in fact, my wife fixed a big breakfast.  Maybe there is something I can learn from this.  Walk then big breakfast.  Sounds like a deal to me.
     After breakfast I headed to the garden to pick some butter peas.  After about an hour in 97 degree temperature.  I gave up and came in for a shower.  I had been called to give blood at a blood drive at the Coosa Valley Electric building.  I thought it was the least I could do since I know my sister used 2 to 3 pints each time she was in the hospital.  Even though I had an appointment it took nearly 2 hours before I was finished.  It took 3 different people to decide where to stick me.  I knew they were going to have trouble because I experience the same thing when I get my A1C test.  I got home just in time to swap cars with my wife and head to church.  After prayer meeting, I headed to Walmart for entertainment, no, really for bird food.  By the time I got home it was 9:30 and my legs had begun to swell some and I was in a little discomfort.  I resorted to the ice bags and went to bed.
 

August 5

     I seem to be falling behind on my blog.  On Tuesday, Aug 5, we headed to Birmingham.  After shopping at Costco, we met up with Amy's brother and sister, her mother and two other friends for lunch.  We had planned to eat at a deli at the Summit, but it was so crowded that we ended up at a Stir Fry place next door. The food was very good, even though my mother-in-law did not think so.  It could be that with all the choices on the menu she ordered tacos.  I will definitely eat there again.
     When we got home the county had just finished setting the water meter.  In doing so they dug up a pipe marker that showed where my property line was located.  I will now have to find the other markers and use a tape measure to relocate that property line.  The other boundaries have markers, but that corner was the only one that I knew exactly where it was.  Now I will have to hunt through the woods to find the other ones.  I may be able to wait until someone is interested in the house next door.  They may have the property surveyed to find their property lines.  If so, they will locate two corners for my property and make hunting those markers easy.  Due to the price and the fact that it is a short sale, it may be empty for a long time before someone buys it. At one time I had an option to purchase all the land around me, but I could not afford to do so.  I would like about 5 more acres so I can add a chicken coup and raise my own eggs.  If I do get one I will probably have to get another wife.  Amy refuses to have chickens in her yard.  I think the jury is still out on that idea but we will have to wait a while on that plan.  Maybe I can catch her at a weak moment and she will say yes.  Who knows, it just might happen.

Forty-one years and counting

     Monday, August 4 - Today is our wedding anniversary.  We have been married for 41 years.  I guess we have lasted this long because Amy is the only person that would put up with me.  41 years ago I peeked through a door to the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church and saw that the church was filled.  At that point all I could think about was what if I dropped the ring.  I was so nervous that my knees were shaking.  Dr. T.M. Hamby, just as cool, calm, and sophisticated as ever, reassured me by saying if I dropped it he would pick it up.  I then glanced toward the side door and thought, its not to late to run.  But instead of running I married the love of my life.  I still remember most of that day.  In spite of hiding my car at the hospital, someone squeeled and my friends really messed it up good.  We drove through Wadley and stopped at a gas station to get it washed.  It was messed up so bad that the guy washed it for free.  Supper was at the hamburger joint there in Wadley.  Honeymoon was at Disney World, with a few stops along the way.  One was at Silver Springs, glass bottom boats to see the fish, and another was an Aligator Farm.  My wife loved those (yeah right).  All this traveling in a Volkswagon beetle with no air conditioning.  I can still she her long hair blowing in the wind.  It has not always been an easy road, but we have weathered the storms together, raised three kids, who now have families of their own.  We are very proud of each one and love them as much as we love each other.  Tonight we celebrated by eating at Longhorn's in Oxford and stopping by the bookstore.  We will really celebrate next month at the beach, but for now this would have to do.  I think we are beginning to act like old folks.(Oh no!!!)  All in all it was a good day.

Recovery Update

     The past week has been a blur.  On Wednesday, July 30, I cut the grass in our yard.  I used Map My Walk to see how far I walked while mowing.  The distance was 2.6 miles.  Knees were feeling great.
     On Thursday I met with several people concerning projects that are ongoing at my house.  New heat pumps were installed on the 29th.  Energy efficient windows will be installed mid August, and the adding of more insulation to the attic and floors. These will be installed soon.
     For the last 37 years our water has come from a natural spring on my neighbor's property.  Of course I have had water rights.  Included is the right to build and maintain a structure to cover the spring.  I have not needed to do this because originally we knocked the bottom out of a grease trap then placed it in the spring to act as an enclosed 250 gallon reservoir.  Water filled in from the bottom and was pumped out a hole in the top to my pressure tank.  I have not had this water tested in the last 15 years.  I am sure it would test contaminated.  A couple of years ago my neighbors decided to clean out around the spring, removing all the bushes and trees around the spring.  I supposed this was so they could see the spring better.  The end result - whenever it rains now my water is muddy.  Now the house is vacant and up for sale.  I could build a structure to cover the spring, but that would detract from the way their house looks.  Not knowing if the next neighbors would be protective of the spring, I decided this is the best time to connect to the county water lines.  I will still use the spring water from a faucet at my house, but will disconnect it from the rest of the plumbing.  I will then use it for watering my garden, washing the car, and as an extra water source.  So, I met with a plumber who will do the install from the meter to the house to find the best location for the meter.  This will be installed next week.
     My knees were swollen due to mowing, and by Thursday night after visitation at the funeral home, then to mom's house for supper, then to the airport to pick up Katy, I was experiencing some discomfort.  I applied ice bags.
     On Friday, we celebrated the life of my sister.  This was held at the First Baptist Church and the church was packed.  If you were to rate funerals from one to ten with ten being the "best", this would have been a 15.  A lot of the things that my sister had done for others behind the scenes were brought out by the officiating ministers in the services.  After the services, at the church and at the cemetery, all guests were invited back to the church for a meal.  By the time I got home late Friday night, my knees were swollen again.  More ice and ibuprofen.
     Saturday was spent visiting with my kids at their grandmothers, Go-Go and G-mama.  This was another long day.  My wife took Katy to the airport in Birmingham for her flight back to Chantilly, Virginia, and we visited the cemetery.  The flowers had not wilted and were really pretty.
     Sunday, August 3, was literally a real day of rest.  Amy took Emily to the airport in Atlanta for her flight back to San Antonio, while I attended church.  Sitting, sleeping, and doing nothing provided much needed rest.  Knees were feeling fine.