October 29, 2017
We have been crazy busy which is why I haven't posted. The first thing I want to comment on is the passing of our dear and wonderful friend Bill Claybaugh. We have known Bill and Julie for quite a few years as they were our neighbors in the marina in Port Washington. Several times over the years we ran into them in one port or another on Lake Michigan and just a few years ago they visited us in St. Simons Island. Bill was a wonderful person-anybody who knew him, loved him, and we can't quite believe that he has gone from us. God bless you, Bill.
The second thing that has consumed us has been Marina. She will be 14 in December so of course she is slowing down but recently her back legs have gotten weaker and this past week she started walking in circles, always to her left. She has also gotten a bit grouchier and is quicker to snap. We ttok her to her primary care vet who ruled out an inner ear infection and referred us to a neurologist. We took her to Charleston to the neuro and left her there overnight so that she could see her cardiologist and then have an MRI and a spinal tap. There was concern that she might have a brain tumor but that was ruled out. Pending the results of the spinal tap, which should rule out meningitis, the doctor thinks she might have had a small stroke and she has CCD-Canine Cognitive Disorder, or dementia. She is home now, not eating well so enjoying a special dinner of ground beef, rice and chicken broth. We have to get her medicines into her somehow. Monday her neuro and primary care vet will have a conference to see where we go from here. It's pretty obvious we won't have her with us for too much longer but we will do what we can to make her happy for as long as we can. Here's poor Marina before she went to Charleston. She looks worse now as they shaved the back of her head and one of her legs!
I did do something fun on Thursday. The Beaufort Historical Socierty has a tour of homes every year and different garden clubs do the flowers for each home. My club was assigned Frogmore Manor, a house built in the early 1800s. It's absolutely beautiful and I had so much fun working with ladies who REALLY know how to arrange flowers. Sharon Sanders, who is the sister in law of the owner of Frogmore, and who knows every historical fact about the area, AND who is an amazing flower arranger, worked with me and I did quite a bit of the arrangement! I was so thrilled to learn so much. Here's a picture of the side I did!
Other than that, we continue to do the same things as always. I have a new piano teacher so take a lesson on Tuesday night, have my nursing home prayer service on Thursday mornings and my bell choir practice on Thursday afternoons and we have been to several cocktail or dinner parties lately! A very lovely lady at church invited us to a cocktail party last week, on Thursday a couple who lives on the water around the corner from us had a cocktail party to introduce us to many of our neighbors, and last night we had a small church group dinner at some friend's house. In between, I am still seeing my eye doc for my shingles-better but not gone. Looks like I will be on an anti-viral med for the next year.
We leave Wednesday morning to drive to Cincinnati for my nephew's wedding. We are so looking forward to seeing the family-it's been a while for some of us. We have another nephew's wedding in December so getting lots of family time.
Mike and Oliver continue to work the "farm" and this week they did the 100 hour serice on the tractor. These two are like brothers!
And finally, just because I love this picture, here is a little Welsh Terrier from my WT Fan Club Facebook group, ready for some trick or treating. Happy Halloween to all!
October 6, 2017
Well, a lot has gone on since I last posted, most of it not good. The day after my last post, I was back at the eye doctor and it turned out my shingles were back in my eye. She said it was probably from the stress of our crazy week with Hurricane Irma. It continued to get worse until it was like looking through a piece of cheesecloth. Last Sunday she started me on a steroid and today I was much better! My vision is still quite blurry but at least the cheesecloth effect is gone! My doctor plans to put me on a low dose anti-viral for an undetermined time to try to prevent a relapse. What a pain!!
I was called for jury duty and the cases were a murder trial and a domestic violence trial. The computer pulls the numbers and I was not called for the murder trial but my number came up for the domestic violence trail. But the defendant looked at me and told his lawyer he didn't want me on the jury!! Good thing, because I thought he was probably guilty. After they sat the jury, he changed his plea to guilty!! I made $23.75 for the day though, so it wasn't a complete waste. LOL!!
So I have been to my garden club meeting and we went to a church small group dinner and had a great time at both. Also saw my dermatologist for my yearly checkup and saw my retinologist for my yearly check on the mole that is on my retina, and all was fine with both appointments. In the meantime, I was seeing my eye doc every 3 days. I have also been continuing with my assisted living volunteering and also bell choir practice. I've also been trying to play the piano as much as possible.
We're just having so much fun here with Mike and Jeannine. We spend a lot of time with them-had lunch out yesterday with them and some friends from the neighborhood across the street. Mike, Jeanine and Oliver are taking a concelaed carry class together next month. They all had carry licenses in their previous states so need to renew them in Soth Carolina. Next Friday, we're all going to Savannah for the Greek Festival.
I can't remember if in my last post I talked about our generator breaking during the storm. So it was still under warranty and Oliver took it back to Lowes to be repaired. But after 3 weeks, it turned out they couldn't find it so they gave him a brand new one with another year warranty! We HOPE we won't have to use it!!
I will try to do better about updating, now that I am feeling better. I think the next entry will be called Fall/Winter 2017-even though it is still quite warm here!
A big bald eagle landed on our dock gate the other night. The picture is kind of blurry because I enlarged it.
We have such beautiful mornings here
Our pool had a calcium problem and they had to drain it halfway and then refill it. Took all day!
September 14, 2017
From one exciting event to another!! Of course everybody knows about Hurricane Irma but unless you lived down here, you don't know how crazy stressful it was! We started watching it when it was waaaaay over by Africa but it got really serious around the first of September. It looked as though it was going to come ashore somewhere between Savannah and Charleston as a Cat 4 or 5 and we took it very seriously. We decided, along with Mike and Jeannine, that we didn't want to go any further away than absolutely necessary. We planned to take 2 cars, 2 trucks and 2 boats so minimum travel was the goal. Augusta is about 130 miles away so we made reservations there, first for Friday through Wednesday, then for Saturday through Thursday, then for Sunday through Friday and then back to Saturday again. Our Governor and Sherriff were having press conferences every day and the Gov indicated that he was going to call for a mandatory evacuation for Saturday morning, so we decided we should go on Friday. By that time, Florida had been evacuated and Savannah had a mandatory evauation starting at 10AM Saturday so we knew traffic would be brutal. But by that time, it lookedlike Irma was going further west and Augusta looked about as bad as Beaufort. So then we started looking at Rock Hill, SC-up near Charlotte, about 200 miles. More reservations made. The guys decided maybe we wouldn't take the boats. By that time, they had been pulled out of the water and parked in our respective driveways, hopefully bows into the wind. We took everything off our deck-including the blades on the ceiling fan and the TV hanging over the fireplace. We had packed both the truck and the car, so then we had to unpack both and re-pack just the car. I can tell you our nerves were jangled!! We were planning to leave at noon on Friday but then the storm went even further west and the Gov hinted that he might not call for the evacuation. So we decided to wait until his 6PM press conference Friday night, which didn't happen until 7:30. When he only called for the barrier islands to be evacuated-which are only like 15 miles from us, we had a pow-wow with Mike and Jeannine and all agreed that we would stay here. --but not unpack the cars! Both of our houses are built to the latest hurricane standards. We have steel bars that attach the roof to the foundation and we have hurricane rated glass in all windows and doors, so we thought our houses are probably sturdier than most hotels! We also sit about 20 feet from the water so even with a big storm surge we didn't think we would flood.
On Sunday morning, we went to church at 8AM. Everything else was canceled but our Rector siad he would do a short communion srevice for those who had not evacuated. Many people left on Friday to avoid the traffic, but there were probably 300 people at church! So they quickly decided to do a full service, including a collection that would be donated for flood relief. After a week of unrelenting stress, the peace that we felt was wonderful.
The storm started Sunday evening and we spent lots of time watching it with Mike and Jeannine. The guys were very worried about high tide and the storm surge and it was very tense watching the dock get closer and closer to the top of the pilings. We finally went to bed quite late and we were amazed at how quiet it was in the house. We couldn't here a bit of wind. Our power went out about 8AM on Monday and we hooked the generator up. We watched as the tide came back in and the guys went out several times, although they couldn't go out onto the dock. The whole dock was rocking back and forth and the gangways were at a 45 degree angle. We thought for sure they would snap. Mid-afternoon, we discovered the generator wasn't working and Mike came over to help Oliver but there was nothing to be done. So Mike brought over his generator to run for a couple of hours to get our refrigerators nice and cold. Then we took it back to them and planned to switch again in the morning. We are so lucky to have such great friends and neighbors here on the "commune". Fortunately our power came back on at about 10PM. We slept well that night and when we woke up Tuesday morning, the sun was shining and it was calm. We surveyed the damage and found that we had about 5 boards that had come off the walkway to the dock and the deck was covered in marsh reeds about 2 feet deep! Our yards were covered with branches and leaves but the boats were fine. Oliver spent a long time cleaning off the dock deck.Mike will have to fix one of the electric boxes that was under water. We spent the rest of the day putting the fan blades back on and hanging the TV and then I brought all the furniture back out, after I had scrubbed the floor. It felt good to have everything back to normal!
Beaufort was not as lucky as we were. Much of downtown flooded-I saw a video someone took while driving their jon boat around the streets. I know several people who had water in their houses but we were certainly blessed, although at the expense of people in Florida, for which we fell very bad.
Oliver took his generator back to Lowes and fortunately it is still under warranty so will be fixed. Not so for his truck-the air conditioner went out to the tune of $1700!! He just got it back today. I had to see the eye doctor today-it appears my shingles may have returned.I have to go back to her tomorrow to confirm it and then will likely be on a low dose anti viral for a long time to come.
We are looking forward to a night away-we are going to St. Simons Island on September 23 for the night. There is a big art show there that we want to see and our vet tech dogsitter will be here with the furkids. They were very stressed out as well but nothing like they would have been if we had taken them to a hotel. Next week I am supposed to be on jury duty but I would not be surprised if they don't cancel court for the week. Hope so anyway.
Here are a few pictures from the storm. This is our end of the dock. You can see the deck is under water and the gangway to our dock is at a steep angle.
This is Mike and Jeannine's end.
And here is all the marsh reeds we ended up with.
Oliver "farming" it!!
You can see that we lost boards on the walkway.
August 29, 2017
Well the excitement of the eclipse is over. I hate to be a partypooper but I didn't see what the big deal was about. We were not quite in the path of totality-I think they said we had 98% coverage. Jeannine's son broght us glasses so I did go out and watch it. It was cloudy but when the eclipse happened, it cleared up. The most interesting part was that all the crickets and cicadas started going crazy. Skipper wore his glasses so that he could look up!
This weekend we went away for the first time in months! We can no longer put Marina in the kennel and traveling is very difficult for her so we haven't been taking trips. But one of our vet techs from our vet's office does house and pet sitting so she came for Friday and Saturday night and we went up to the mountains in North Carolina to visit George and Mary Lee Grove. They live at the end of Tuxedo Park and they also go to our church. They have a beautiful house near Cashiers, NC and although it is a long trip-about 6 hours-and entails LOTS of winding mountain roads, it was definitely worth it! We got there about 5 PM on Friday and sat on their beautiful porch overlooking the mountains and had drinks, followed by a wonderful grilled trout dinner. We sat up and talked for a long time. We have very difficult things going on at church and we discussed everything. On Saturday morning we took a long walk around their 11 acres and then we drove into Cashiers and then over to Highlands for lunch. Another enjoyable cocktail hour on the deck followed by a great steak salad dinner. Sunday morning we went to the Anglican church they attend and ran into people from St. Helenas who we know. We left to come home after church and except for one scary near miss, when a guy pulled out of his driveway on highway 178, right in front of me as I was going 60 mph, we had an uneventful trip and arrived home at 6. The dogs had obviously enjoyed their week-end with Nina and she said it wasn't TOO difficult so she has agreed to come next month, so that we can go down to St. Simons Island for one night. There is a fantastic art show and we will stay right down by the village and enjoy some of our favorite restaurants. She will also be here in November when we go to Cincinnati for Aaron and Hilary's wedding.
George and Mary Lee have 2 darling little daschunds. This is Isla loving with Oliver
We spent lots of time sitting in these chairs looking at the mountains
Here are the mountains
Mary Lee hiking to the meadow
August 22, 2017
Not too much has happened in the past 10 days! I am back at all my old activities and my eye doctor officially discharged me for a year!! We are getting ready for our first get away in mnay months! We didn't travel when we were building the house and since we moved, Marina has declined and it's not easy to leave her. But this Friday Nina, one of the vet techs from our vet's office, is coming to stay and we are going up to the North Carolina mountains to visit friends from Tuxedo Dr-Geaorge and Mary Lee. We are SO looking forward to the drive and visiting with them and just getting away. Knowing we don't have to worry about Marina is such a load off our minds. Yesterday we were walking and she stumbled and fell-which she often does-but when I picked her up, she was bleeding profusely from her foot. I took her home and rinsed it off and her toenail was just dangling. I took her to the vet, thinking it was a big deal, and the doctor just flicked it with her finger and it fell off! The entire nail is gone but the quick wasn't damaged so she should be fine. Next Tuesday we take her to Charleston to see her cardiologist.
Our exterior lighting guy did a great job on our trees. We LOVE how it looks!
This is torwards the river-the water oak looks so pretty.
This is the 2 palm trees by the pool
It's very dark here at night so the lighted trees in front really help
August 12, 2017
Almost another month gone. Soon it will be fall! We've been doing more work around the house, spending a lot of time at church with various programs, and we've had company. The weather has been strange-lots more rain than is typical for summer but since we had more sod put down, we don't mind a bit!
My shingles are totally gone although I am on medicine until next Wednesday when I see my eye doctor again. But I feel fine so I'm sure she will release me, or at least not have me come back for a long time.
Jeannine went to Utah for a week or so and came back with her granddaughter Kadence, who will be 9 this month. Mike and Jeannine's pool is under construction but not done, so Kadence has been over here several times to swim. She absolutely ADORES Skipper so he has a good time when she's here. She is trying to teach him not to bark whenhe's at the pool-not too successfully so far! I think Jeannine will take her back to Utah on Monday. We'll miss having her around. She runs errands between our houses and loves to drive the golf cart around the property!
Bunny and John, Whit, Alex and Jace were here last week-end. We're used to them being here for a longer time but we'll take what we can get! We were lucky with the weather-while we had some storms, we also had lots of sun and we spent hours in the pool. Jace is part fish-he loved jumping off the side of the pool and assumed someone would be there to catch him! It took all of us to accomplish his plan! He's so cute- a very good boy, hardly any fussing, and he is so good at repeating words. he learned to say Ollie right away!! Skipper loved having him around-lots of crumbs on the ground!
We have a guy here today installing out door lighting on 9 of our trees-5 in front and 4 in back. I love to see trees lit up at night. I also got a few more items for the house- our coffee table, which was made in India, arrived last week, and I also bought a cute little chair and table for our bedroom. I have 2 end tables for the great room coming and this afternoon we are going to pick up 2 lamps that I saw that I really like. I think we just need a coffee table for the room upstairs and a few paintings, and we'll be done! Considering we've only been here a little less than 3 months, I'm really pleased!!
Jeannine, Kadence and Skipper
Whit fishing
fun in the pool
Skipper helping Jace eat
Oliver and I went fishing and he caught a shark!
New coffee table
New chair and table
July 18, 2017
Wow-almost a whole month has gone by since I last posted and NOT because we've been busy doing anything. A couple of days before the 4th of July my left eyelid started hurting and was a litle swollen. I thought I probably got bit by something-I am so sensitive to bug bites and swell up whenever I get bit. On the 4th we had a really nice picnic on the dock with Mike and Jeannine. I did a brisket and she made baked beans and dessert and set the table so nicely. It was hot as blazes but we had a great time. We saw dolphins and even an alligator swimming by. But the whole time, I kept complaining about my eye hurting. When I woke up the next day, it was really swollen so I showered and drove over to my drs. office to make an appointment. They saw me about an hour later and suggested that it looked like shingles-she could see the blisters starting to form. She wrote for an anti-viral but then sent me over to see my eye doctor, Dr. K. She said it didn't look like it was in my eye but had me come back in 5 days. I started to get REALLY miserable-the whole side of my face and head hurt and I got more blisters on my forehead and top of my head. When I saw her again, it had gone onto my cornea but not inside, so Dr. K started me on a different oral med and also an eye drop. When I saw her 48 hrs later, it was now inside my eye so she added another eye drop and increased the frequency of the oral med. Another 48 hours and the pressure in my eye had increased so she added yet another drop. When I saw her next-72 hrs later-the inflammation had started to lessen but the pressure was still up so she increased that medicine. I was starting to feel better-up until then I mostly just laid in bed, watching the clock to see when I could have another pain pill. It was really brutal. I saw her this morning and the inflammation is almost all gone, my vision is better and my pressure has come down. I still have to stay on all the drugs until I see her again next week but she's pleased with how it looks. I am to avoid stress-I really have no stress now that the house is done!! Hopefully next week she will discharge me or at least let me go longer without seeing her. Time to get back to my normal life!!
This was what the shingles looked like just as they were getting started.
Oliver went fishing while I was laid up and caught this mackeral-he threw it back afterit got photographed
Before I got sick, we went downtown to watch the dragonboat races. It was fun and colorful. The boat with the white shirts was our church tem.
Skipper and I dressed up for the 4th
We had a yummy picnic
We finally got our new bedroom furniture
June 23, 2017
Today is out anniversary--but neither of us remembered! If it hadn't been for a card from Mary and email from Sharon, it would have passed unnoticed. It's 26 years today and every year has been fun, busy and wonderful.
Oliver had his eye surgery on June 15. It went very well. We had to leave home at 6:15 to be in Charleston by 8 but we were back home by 1PM. For the past week he had to limit his lifting to 10 pounds or less, have 2 different eye drops 4 times a day and wear a guard at night. But we saw the surgeon on Wednesday and he was very pleased. Down to drops only twice a day and no restrictions. It wasn't easy keeping my busy boy quiet for a whole week!
Marina had a blood recheck last week and the results were better than we hoped for! She still has early renal failure but her values for the most part were close to normal so we were very pleased. I had my physical on Tuesday and passed with flying colors-as always. Thanks be to God. We took Skipper and Marina to be groomed and she did very well until they got to her face. She didn't much like that so she is a fuzzy face!
Debbie came Wednesday afternoon and we enjoyed sitting on the porch and enjoying a visit from Jan Winemiller _the lasy that bought our house- and Jeannine. We were up quite late and we were tired yesterday. I went to Summit Place while Oliver and Debbie went to the coffee shop and the consignment store. She usually finds nice things there but no luck this time. In the afternoon we went for a boat ride and got back just as it started to rain. We had lunch and later it cleared up so Debbie took a swim before dinner. She went back in the pool this morning before she headed home. Oliver and I went to Lowe's to buy a lawn mower-he has a riding mower but it won't work inside the fence around the pool- and then we went to WalMart for a few things. Since I forgot it was a special day, we are having brats for dinner!! Tomorrow there are dragon boat races downtown so Oliver will go with me to church-it's my month for altar guild-and then we'll walk down to the waterfront to watch the Parish Paddlers race-that's our church team!!
We have so many deer that live on our property. They are cute but they like to pull up our newly planted plants and the little ones throw them up in the air and then fight each other for them!
Here's Oliver leaving the surgery center. He felt fine.
The only thing as hard as picking a gray color for my walls was finding a rug I liked in the great room. Thank goodness for eBay!!
Debbie and Skipper enjoyed swimming together!
June 12, 2017
We continue to get settled in here and life has gone back to a semi-normal routine. On Thursday Marc (our builder) came to tweak a few things, primarily doors. Seems that the weather here plays havoc with our wood doors and they need to be adjusted. We really are enjoying our screened porch-I think we have only eaten inside one time since we got here! In the morning, I take my coffee and computer and sit on the porch and watch the sun come up. Marina is a very early riser-she starts wanting her breakfast at about 5:30.
Speaking of Marina, she has fallen into the pool a couple of times. She knows where the edge is but she gets distracted and steps right off. Fortunately the water is very warm and she swims well, so she just swims to the end and I show her where the steps are and she climbs right out! We are so pleased with how well she is feeling. We get more blood work done this week and are hoping that her kidney numbers are improved.
Oliver has his eye surgery on Thursday. He has a membrane that has grown over his retina and it has really messed up his vision. The surgery is in Charleston so we will have to leave around 6:15 AM but should be back early afternoon. He has to avoid lifting heavy things for a while and that will be hard for him! On Sunday we carried all the extra tiles from his workshop up into the attic and they were VERY heavy! We had to move them one at a time.
Thanks for following my somewhat more boring life!
here's what sunrise on the creek looks like
And here's wet Marina!
Last night I did a low country boil on my super burner. That's shrimp, corn, potatoes and sausage for those of you who might not be familiar with this southern dish.
While I cooked, the rest of the family relaxed by the pool
June 7, 2017
Lots of activity here! Today our great room furniture was delivered! It goes a long way towards getting rid of the echo we've been living with, although we still need a rug. We had tons of rain yesterday-at one point we thought there was a tornado forming but that didn't happen. Marina continues to feel pretty good-she is eating like crazy and moving around fairly well. Oliver bought some shelves for my storage room today so I was able to unpack a few more boxes and this week-end we should get some outdoor shelving so we can organize the garage. We're getting back to a regular schedule. We have walked the dogs a couple of times this week and tomorrow I go to Summit Place for communion. I am now a Eucharistic Visitor so I give communion to the residents there. Hope everyone is well. Thanks for following us!!
A shelf cloud yesterday
I found this beautiful centerpiece for my dining room table. These are real flowers that are preserved.
We love our new entertainment center!
And our new furniture
June 3, 2017
It's been 2 weeks since we moved into our new house and it's been a whirlwind. So much unpacking, along with the wonderful visit from Bunny and John, along with some tense times with Marina. Today we finally got enough of the boxes in the garage unpacked so that we could park both my car and Oliver's truck inside! I'm on altar guild this month so had to go to church at 7:30 this morning. Monday we are going to Savannah to look for furniture for our bedroom. The rest of our new furniture is to be delivered on Wednesday-we hope the echo will be lessened!
Marina had blood work done a couple of weeks ago and it didn't look good. Her kidney and liver values continue to increase-not a good sign. So her vet wanted a centesis done-a needle into the bladder to remove urine. We had that done Thursday morning and the rest of the day Marina was lethargic and refused to eat or drink. We were so worried and thought that we might have to make a hard decision. But she woke at 3 AM and ate her dinner and pills and was hungry again in the morning. We took her for a good walk and a nice ride in her stroller and she was happy! This morning we took her to the vet and it was confirmed that she is in early stage kidney failure. Her cardiologist changed her meds and we are hopeful that it might reverse or at least not progress.
Had a nice time swimming this afternoon. The weather has been fantastic! Jeannine came over to chat and as she was leaving, we saw a snake by the gate! She went out the back gate and I went to get Oliver but by the time he came downstairas, the snake was gone. Jeannine and I both looked at pictures-she thinks it was a rat snake and I think a garter snake, but either way, it is harmless!
We so enjoyed Bunny and John's visit. Here are the BILs shucking corn.
We had such a nice time sitting by the pool with everybody.
Jeannine and Mike on a boat ride
My new furniture for the porch.
Our poor girl on Thursday night. So happy she is feeling better
After lots of work, our vehicles are in the garage!
