61 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 4-20-16”

  1. Good morning. Schools are closed again today. So far, we’ve had about twelve inches of rain with more predicted today and tomorrow. Thousands of people have been evacuated. It’s a mess in Houston.

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  2. We didn’t go to the Y today.
    I spent the first hour getting her dressed. She hasn’t had breakfast, maybe won’t.
    She is sitting in her LazyBoy. She sat there for twelve hours yesterday.
    It’s getting bad.
    It happened suddenly, starting Monday.
    This could be a life changing situation.

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  4. oh, my goodness, Chas. prayers going up even as I type.
    oh, Chas. I have no words.
    Is Elvera able to speak to you or is she just sitting?
    Praying for strength for you, physical, spiritual, and emotional.
    And for wisdom as to how to handle the situation, even as being the servant you are.
    Your love for the sweetest woman in the world is speaking very loudly to us all.
    May His peace surround you in the midst of this grief.

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  5. Good Morning….I am so sorry about all the flooding in your area Ann…praying it comes to an end soon….
    My heart aches to think of the changes you face Chas…and I am so thankful she has been blessed with a kind and tender husband….praying for His strength to be extended to you as you walk this path my friend…..

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  7. Chas, has she been to the doctor? Is she on medication? My father-in-law is on meds that are supposed to slow the progression, help with the symptoms, something, and they seem to make a difference. They won’t stop the disease, but can help some.

    I’m so sorry, and I can’t even imagine.

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  8. Good morning. Yesterday was on the edge of true hot weather here in Atlanta. I keep watering the new ajuga plants and hope they don’t scorch.

    That flooding sounds really bad, Annms. When we last visited son in TX we saw a lot of flooded fields. I had never seen anything quite like it. So, I am assuming this is even worse than what we saw. It’s sad especially for the poor who have no insurance to cover replacement of losses.

    Chas, I do hope she will do a turn around if you can find the right medications. For it to be so sudden, perhaps something else has happened that can be remedied. I pray y’all can receive thorough medical attention to cover all the bases of what might be wrong. So glad that God has blessed you with strength of mind, heart, and family, church, and friend support. That makes a lot of difference. ♡

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  9. Thanks for the concern and prayers everyone. She has been to the doctor. We were there a week ago yesterday. She has medicine. She was functioning Sunday. The situation has been coming on for a couple of years. These events started Monday.
    Chuck is presently on vacation in St. Thomas (Virgin Islands). I will likely call him when he returns, possibly Sunday, and we will discuss our options. We have a “reservation’ payment for Ardenwood, an assisted living place in Greensboro.
    I can take care of her, but this (almost) 86 year old man rung out of energy quickly.

    Fortunately, he disposition is still sweet and easy to manage.

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  10. Chas, take her to the Dr and have her tested for a urinary tract infection. That is the #1 cause of a sudden change in mental status in older women. I have seen it time and time again in the ER. I am praying for you!

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  11. Interesting photos, Donna. Those type fire escapes look pretty scary to me, although not as scary as a blazing and engulfing fire.

    Is that concrete cat one which spewed water at some point, or is that hole in its mouth where hisses poured out? I know there is a story behind it 🙂

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  12. Chas, I am really without words. I know this is heartbreaking for you and your family. I have watched it happen in my own family and it is hard. I will offer this cautionary tale. I have a friend whose parents live in PA. Last year this time they had to put her father in assisted living. At that time they tried to get her mother to move in as well. She wanted to remain in her home. Her father quickly moved from assisted living to full time nursing care. This year her mother needed to enter assisted living. There was no space where the father is so the mother is in a different facility and the children have had to clean out the family home and put it on the market.
    You have told us many times of your plan that whenever something happened to one of you the other would sell the home and move into assisted living. I think you know the time is rapidly approaching when you are going to have to make that decision. My hope is that you will move closer to your son and his family. Frequent visits will be good for Elvera and for you as well.
    So many of us here feel we know you deeply and through you we have gotten to know Elvera. I think all of us are hurting just a little bit this morning FOR you. You are a good husband and you will make the right decisions.

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  13. Because after the way we started our morning we need a little pep in our step this morning—especially me since we went to see James Taylor last night and didn’t get home until midnight. One of the songs he sang was written by Chuck Berry. I am not a James Taylor fan, this was something Mr P wanted to do. It took me a minute to recognize the song. Turns out I shared the Elvis version with you some months back because I woke up singing it. Elvis took it to numbers 9 and 14 on different charts. Here is the Chuck Berry version.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awi3zM1U6gE

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  14. Chas, what RKessler said. Sounds very much like a urinary tract infection. Happened to my stepmom very suddenly like that about three years ago. They treated it and she was back to functioning in short order.

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  16. What mumsee said — since this particular downturn is so sudden, I’m also thinking there could be a secondary cause. Might be worth a trip to the doctor.

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  17. The building in the header is Warehouse One, one of my favorite pieces of history at the port. Longshoremen once upon a time carried cargo on their backs in and out of the 1917 structure and up and down those stairs, if you can imagine that — railroad tracks also run inside the first floor. It sits on the end of the dock and is one of the first things to greet ships entering the port.

    They’ve filmed many movies and TV shows here and there has been talk of someday converting it into condos, but that would be a challenge.

    And yes, the gargoyles include drain pipes. 🙂

    From Wikipedia:

    ___________________________

    Municipal Warehouse No. 1 is a six-story warehouse built in 1917 located on the outermost point of land on the main channel at the Port of Los Angeles. It played an important part in the establishment of Los Angeles as a major center of international trade and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its role in the development of the region’s international trade and commerce.

    …. Over the years, as items were held for various customs or other reasons, Municipal Warehouse No. 1 became the home for a number of unusual items. In 1949, a group of camels being imported from Australia for a Shriners convention were held at the warehouse while quarantine requirements were met.[18] And when an American museum imported the railroad car that carried Winston Churchill’s body to burial, the railcar got no further than the port and was stored for many years in the Municipal Warehouse No. 1.[10]
    _____________________________

    From the port’s website:

    ________________________________________

    … Warehouse No. 1 is a massive structure built of board-formed, poured-in-place reinforced concrete. Construction of Municipal Warehouse No. 1 began with the first foundation piles for the building driven into Huntington Fill on August 2, 1915. By the end of November, more than 3,000 piles had been sunk, and the first concrete was poured on January 28, 1916.

    The building was completed in the spring of 1917, considerably later than planned, with the originally projected 8- to 10-month construction schedule dragging on to 19 months. The reason for the construction delays was not well documented. The delay in the construction schedule may have been related to the heavy rainfalls of January 1916 and the wet 1916-17 season. The construction costs were similarly inflated, from a budgeted $300,000 in 1915 to the final accounted expenditures of $475,792.53.

    Warehouse No. 1 sits at the south end of berths 59-60. A series of railroad tracks terminates inside the warehouse. These, along with Signal Street connect the warehouse to the remainder of the Port. A parallel set of tracks terminates at the transit sheds on the opposite side of Signal Street. Thus, rail cars and trucks can pull up to the transit sheds on the east side, and ships can dock at the wharves on the west side. In addition, the warehouse is functionally related to all transit sheds at the Port and businesses outside the Port, because warehoused material would come from and be distributed to all these facilities.
    ____________________________

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  18. Ann, the ark-worthy rain & flooding sound horrible. Prayers that the rain at least lets up …

    James Taylor was one of my college boyfriend’s all-time favorite artists in the 1970s. We went to one of his concerts at the outdoor Greek Theater in LA’s Griffith Park, way back when.

    I’m off the vet’s with Annie early this morning for the followup test for her “crystals” — almost time to shove her into her carrier. Fun times.

    Praying, Chas, keep us posted.

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  19. Oh, Chas, I am so very sorry.

    I echo what others have said about having her checked for a UTI, or other possible physical problem. She may have seen the doctor last week, but a UTI (or something else) could have come on since then.

    You may remember that I took care of my Alzheimer’s-afflicted MIL for several years, here in our home. Mary was feisty as can be (not sweet of disposition at all, unfortunately), but suddenly slipped into being quite docile, not caring about anything at all. Turns out she was sick. I forget the exact cause, but she had to be on antibiotics for a while, & her feistiness – for better or worse – came back as the infection went away.

    I am hoping & praying Elvera’s situation is due to a temporary, easily treated illness.

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  20. Donna – Our cat Peanut (now deceased, sadly) once had bladder stones that needed surgery to remove. Fortunately, they never came back.

    After having to rush Rudy to the vet last Memorial Day, because he could not pee (which I discovered accidentally, thank God), we have been feeding the cats a cat food for urinary tract health.

    I miss Peanut. She was special. She came to me at a time when things were very difficult for me emotionally, & was a sweet comfort.

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  22. Donna, we have a place similar to that but real along the Salmon River. The porters (often Chinese) carried on their backs everything that was needed up to the town of Florence, a mining community. Incredible. Nearly vertical with barely visible trails and foot holds. True mountain goat territory. There was a wagon road up on top but not passable a lot of the year. We can still see the little rock homes they built. Amazing how that worked and the evil treatment they often but not always received. Some fit right in and were admired and appreciated. Others just kept to themselves and sent money back to the home country. Still others were murdered by unscrupulous people for money or prejudice.

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  23. Interesting — bales of cotton were among the most common goods that had to be hauled out of this warehouse in the early days, the union was a good thing for those guys.

    Of course now we’re automated and the union salaries are 100 to 200,000

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  24. Polly Bemis would probably be our most famous Chinese person around here. She led quite a life if you ever get a chance to read her story. She talks about her time living in Warren, near Florence and then later down along the river. Her home was rebuilt after a fire and is still there but only accessible by boat or foot.

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  26. Chas- take the advice of the ladies and get Elvera to a doctor.

    I love old buildings. The decorations, like the gargoyles, add character. Unlike the boxes built for efficiency. Around here, new buildings in older parts of the city are adding some of the decorative character.

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  29. I have a headache, sinus and allergy related without a doubt. Each time I go outside I get a runny nose. Since it has not rained in a few days, the pollen is once again accumulating on the car.

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  30. Remember how BG got a ticket for being a minor in possession of tobacco products? Well I almost forgot too, but we had court this morning. No fines, no court costs. The District Attorney was being very nice to the Mama. She got 30 hours of community service. I took her to lunch and broke the news. This is the LAST time I am going to court with her. She is 18, almost graduated, and will be 19 in September. Her Dad told her that in 3 short years of driving she has paid more fines and been to court more than he has in 40 years of driving (and he was hell on wheels in his younger years –BK –Before Kim)

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  33. Chas, I echo what others have said about a UTI. It isn’t just true of women, either. For any elderly person, a sudden change may hint at a UTI–we’ve had that with my father-in-law.

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  34. I now have cat food to give away since Annie Oakley’s on a special-forever prescription diet. Will take it to work, I know of at least 2 cat owners who might appreciate it.

    AnnieO seems to like the new food, thankfully.

    I did a story on the old warehouse some years ago and got a full tour, it’s really pretty awesome inside. It’s home mostly to port archives and, outside, to a colony of feral cats (fed regularly by local cat ladies) and many pigeons and seagulls, street racers, film crews — and photographers who go there for the best shots of the breakwater from the long, now mostly abandoned dock with a string of old warehouses behind this one.

    Glad you called the doc, Chas. Could also be something related to the new meds (which may even cause UTIs in some people, that can be a side effect of some medications). The doctor will know what to do, hopefully some antibiotics and she’ll be good to go.

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  37. End of Miner (which turns into Signal). Way out there. 🙂 Great history in that old building.

    There was talk during the waterfront redevelopment meetings of maybe replacing it somehow but it was quickly realized that not one would ever be able to take that building out, it’s there for good.

    And who would want to? 🙂 As Peter said, those gritty old places have the most interesting architecture.

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  39. It’s also a popular spot to just go and “park” — for the romantic reasons at night, i’m sure, but during the day people often drive out there just to take in the incredible ocean & harbor views, watching all the huge container ships glide in and out of the port. As one of the waterfront developers once said, it’s a form of “live” theater that really is quite fascinating to watch.

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  41. I went to town this morning to get photos of trees in bloom. Last year was a bad year for tree blooms–a freeze at the wrong time turned the weeping cherries from pink to white, for instance, which I was afraid was a permanent change but they’re pink again this year. And wow, what a pretty year it is for trees so far. No dogwood in bloom yet and the redbud are just starting (I always think of those as being the first two in bloom, but around here they aren’t), but azaleas and tulips are out too, and dandelions everywhere, and violets are beginning to bloom in some places. (Our yard has profuse dandelions, but no violets yet.) Weeping cherries are easily some of my favorite trees, though I didn’t discover them until I moved here. Our driveway has several Bradford pear trees, very much not a favorite, and we have 20 or so trees in all, including some small fruit trees that don’t bear anything. (We do get pears some years, but none of us eats pears!) The fruit trees and Bradford pears were planted by my husband’s late wife. If I were planting trees, they’d be weeping cherries, dogwoods, or fruit trees of a variety the family likes. But at least there are plenty of the pretty ones in town. And we do have a catalpa tree, which blooms a bit later in the season but has amazing blooms when they do come out.

    Yesterday we went to our favorite state park, and found two new species of duck and lots and lots of butterflies, especially spring azure and a treat for me, two courting pairs of mourning cloaks. (I usually just see that lovely species of butterfly for two seconds as it flies across the path and disappears, so to see a pair flitting around and chasing each other, and to be able to watch them for two or three minutes and then see a second pair a few minutes later, and then see the second pair land on a fallen tree to mate, was delightful.) Spring beauty was everywhere, and bloodroot and violets (some purple, some yellow) were blooming too. I usually hate April in the Midwest, to be honest. Growing up in Phoenix, I planted sunflowers in February or it would be too late, and waiting through all of April and sometimes into May for spring has always been hard to take. So to have spring start at the tail end of March and have April be actual spring is a treat. I’ve already seen at least half a dozen species of butterfly!

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  42. I could hardly believe it, but there is an evening primrose already in bloom by the mailbox (for the guard bee’s pleasure). And I saw crepe myrtle bushes\trees in full bloom at our nearby mall. Those are summer plants, y’all! We are earning that name, “H’otlanta,” this year.

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  44. Well, last week I made our last payment on our trip to JHRanch in June. I was holding on to money to see how much today was going to cost me. It didn’t so I just booked our tickets to Oakland, CA for June 2nd. Once again I will ask you to pray for our trip and especially pray for us while we are there. I am pinning a lot of hopes on this trip for both of us.

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  45. Amen.

    Fascinating video, Donna. I have so few memories of the wharf area–it was not considered a particularly safe location when I was growing up. Our elderly babysitter’s husband was a fisherman (jumped a Yugoslav ship and swam to American circa 1930) and we would drive down to pick John up from time to time, but never lingered.

    I’ve never seen that building before. And the marina beyond? Obviously a lot has changed in my hometown since I left for college, oh, 42 years ago! Yikes!

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  46. I am feeling very isolated. I have really worked on my attitude about Guy and even I am tired of hearing myself complain about him but I just have to check in with someone to make sure I am not crazy. I am convinced he manipulated things at the office to get me to come home and work. The company is moving into a new space in May and I asked if I would have a desk in the commercial department. He told me no. Then he asked why I would want to give up the freedom of working from home.
    Today he wanted me to pull some permits in calling around to find out how to do it, I was told that I could not do it the city would have to pull them. They will charge 25 cents per copy and $25 an hour for the research. I told him what the woman told me. It wasn’t what he wanted to hear so he asked me if I copped an attitude with the clerk. I told him no, when you are asking for help you ask nicely. He told me he had heard me on the phone with other women and it slung attitude towards them.
    Earlier this week he told me that I didn’t put $ signs and commas in pricing and had left out some other details in an extension. I went back to what I had saved on my computer and it was all there.
    Mr. P is really pushing me to take the job I have interviewed for but they are still interviewing other people. Every time I start feeling a little better about myself he pulls something like this—Guy I mean.

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  49. She doesn’t have urinary tract infection. She doesn’t have a mild stroke (Polly suggested).
    The doctor agreed that those were logical possibilities, but tests showed that she had a mild case of pneumonia.
    I will explain later, maybe tomorrow. Now, I have to explain to chuck because he has seen me at the hospital on “find friends”.
    I already have the prescription.

    It’s a weird feeling to be sitting by while a guy takes a urine sample through a catheter from your wife.

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  51. Ah, but there was a secondary cause that’s treatable, hope she’s feeling better soon — glad, too, that it was caught and addressed quickly. You did good.

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  54. Much off this is redundant to most of you by now. But this is the e-mail I sent to Chuck, Mary, Elvera’s sister and mine.

    I took Elvera to Pardee Hospital this afternoon. Spent three hours there having tests done. The doctor says she has a mild case of pneumonia.
    What happened is that she was acting normal Sunday, but began to slow down Monday. I didn’t think about that until recently.
    But Tuesday, she didn’t have breakfast and sat for 12 hours in front of her TV set. No, she didn’t move for lunch.
    She slept in her bra and panties last night. Never done that before.
    This morning, I couldn’t get her dressed for the YMCA, so we didn’t go. She was just sitting around.
    The only thing she had to eat yesterday was a small bowl of salad I fixed. Today, she ate half a bowl of soup. But after I noticed that she sat at the kitchen table for two hours, I decided to do something. First, I called Polly. Polly said that it could be a urinary tract infection of mild stroke. I should call her primary care.
    Primary care understood, but told me that she required tests that she couldn’t perform. I should toke her to ER immediately for tests.
    I did that. We stayed over three hours.
    The tests the conducted were:

    Complete blood count
    Comprehensive metabolic Panel
    Cardiac screen’
    Magnesium
    Urinalysis
    Chest x-ray 2 views
    ED 12-LEAD EKG
    Head CT w/o contrast.

    I don’t know what some of these are.

    I got the prescription filled. It cost $0.57. Blue Cross must be paying something.

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  55. I am so glad you took her. I had pneumonia once. I didn’t know what was wrong with me but I went to the doctor,told him I was too tired to get out of my own way. He x rated my lungs. It took a couple of weeks on meda to get over it. I was 34.
    It explains why she just sat.
    Your love makes me smile.

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  57. Chas, part of her cognitive issue could be a combination of the infectious process along with low blood sugar due to not eating. Having pneumonia would also lower her oxygen saturation, again effecting the mental status. I am so thankful she has you to love and watch over her.

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  59. I am feeling emotional over all this as I read through it. Thankful for how it is working out.

    Tonight I got sick and threw up. Art was trying to help me, and Miss Bosley knew things weren’t right, and she was staying close by in a chair watching over me. I have eaten a few things, but am not sure it will stay down. I am hopeful that it will. Art had to finish cooking the hash brown and onion potatoes I had started cooking.

    I did receive an email about the guest blog post for Southern Writer’s Magazine online blog which said it looked great and would be posted in 90-120 days. That response made me feel good.

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