Too rainy to report from the deck.... in These titles mean nothing.

The last few weeks we’ve been having a lot of rain. After a wet spring, a dry summer, looks like a wet fall. Though I generally wish people would stop throwing away summer so early when it is so hard to come by. There will be a lot of lovely weather in the next few weeks but I guess that’s called fall.

Monday is Labor day, the third of our summer defining holidays - Memorial Day at the end of May, Independence Day at the beginning of July, and Labor Day, the first Monday in September.

Labor Day is traditionally known as the day before school starts and the day after which you are no longer supposed to wear white shoes. Neither one of those things is true really. School can start any time after the middle of August and nobody cares what color shoes they or anyone else wears any of the time.

I’m barefoot right now. Sitting on the couch in the so called living room. The windows to my right are open and can hear the rain making a complex set of noises - dripping off the house roof, landing on the metal chairs, landing on the deck boards, dripping off the tree leaves. In between it’s pure silence.

It’s almost 7:30 and the air is cool and close to perfect. I’m in a good mood. I have no particular plans for the weekend, but I’m good with that. It feels like last week was busy - to be honest a lot of it seems pretty vague in retrospect. Let me try a tiny tiny reconstruction:

• Sunday
  Nice day but I don’t remember any specifics. Kids were around some of the time. Joana came down and we had watermelon and hamburgers. My cooking is not advancing much even if I do have new pots and pans.

• Monday
  Was my long anticipated Welcome to Medicare physical day. I worked half a day and then went to the woman doctor in college town whom I’d been to see probably twenty years ago and probably ten years ago. She was delivering a baby so I had to wait a couple hours which was ok since I had left my medicare card at home so I went home and got it.

  Mixed, generally positive visit. I tried to be honest with her. My blood pressure - always perfect when I give blood - was somewhat high but she didn’t say anything. 140 - 100 the nurse said who took it twice and pumped the cuff up really tight.

  I weighed 180.5 which was not a surprise. I took my wellness blood test results so I didn’t have to have blood taken. I got a home poo test so I won’t have to have a colonoscopy. You mail in a sample, which I haven’t done yet. They have improved the procedure for doing that so it’s not too disgusting. If I fail the poo test, then I have to have a colonoscopy anyway.

  I have an appointment October 29 at 1 pm - a Wednesday when the bone density truck comes - for a bone density test, a unilateral mammogram, and a breathing test. Yeah, I was honest enough about my winter coughing ‘allergy’, and she listened to my lungs and I will have a breathing test.

  The Buick went back to the shop Monday night for a new right front wheel bearing.

• Tuesday
  John and family were still here. Neighbor Jerry came with his boom truck and took down the dying maple at the end of the clothesline. I was at work so I didn’t have to or get to share in the excitement.
  
  He had two questions. One was whether we were trying to make the pea tree grow and I forget the other one. Jerry is a good guy and he has a boom truck.

  Deb and kids went home Tuesday night. They had a school open house on Wednesday. Their school doesn’t start till after Labor Day. Kids are growing up. Katie has a beautiful smile. Will is just nuts.

  Buick came home with its new wheel bearing. Close that particular parenthesis.

• Wednesday
  John and Hans went home. The family brings both vehicles when they are here for more than a few days or have a lot of different things going on. Deb is from our town too and has a lot of family and friends to visit when she’s home too.

  Jim consented to go to the Dem’s Brat supper. His friend is running for county supervisor and I think he wanted to be supportive. There was a good crowd, a pleasant atmosphere and a general good time. I think many were there in support of Jim’s friend who is very well known and liked and respected.

  I didn’t take a camera - I am so through working those events, but I snagged a pic from the state rep candidate’s FB page.
  

• Thursday
  Jim left early - before I did - to go to the Farm Progress Show with a high school friend. The show rotates between three states so it’s only in Iowa every three years. This year it was in Boone which is not too far from Ames. Rain was forecast but they went only to find the last day cancelled because of rain. I think the guys had a good time even though it was a long drive for no apparent purpose. My kids have the gift of making and keeping friends - they did not get it from me.

• Friday
  Worked from five to eleven. Mailed a couple books on my way home.

• Saturday
  Is today. I just ran the battery on the computer down writing this so I had to move to the kitchen table. I guess I better get moving. I really really want to clean house. And I mean it this time.

Last updated August 30, 2014