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| Me and my younger "James Dean look-alike Isaac back in the day when we were young and pretty. Photos taken from an old 8mm film. We're both squinting from that bright light that the old 8mm cameras had to use. Film taken in 1958. |
Oh my goodness, it's been about ten days since I've updated my blog.
All is well here at Casa Tipton-Kelly. Bill has made the transition off of home hospice care, which means no more bi-weekly visits from Corrine, our wonderful hospice nurse.
Bill's health has stabilized albeit he is weaker. Very gradual though, nothing dramatic. What is noticeable though his deterioration of cognitive functions. He knows it too. But we're managing. We finally got over the stuffing wash cloths in his Depends to catch any "drippings." But Bill is still mobile, not in pain and knows who I am. That's my benchmarks for continuing to take care of Bill.
My big problem now is keeping ticks off of me. I've had a couple more ticks bits which resulted in infections. As much as I try to avoid the ticks I'm still discovering them on my legs and inner thighs but thank goodness none in the nether regions (remember that one last year)? I have a routine now when I go outside, I always wear my combat boots with my pant legs tucked in. Sure, it's a pain to put on and zip up those combat boots but well worth it not to go to bed at night and feel a sore spot on one of my legs and discover yet another tick imbedded!
Now when I come in from outside I completely change my pants and take a shower. Yes, every time.
Last week I awoke to the swooping roaring sound of one of our local crop duster bi-planes. Thank goodness, finally spray for the mosquitos. Now we have nary any mosquitoes outside. At least I don't have to fight them now. The mosquito spray is supposed to take care of the ticks too but I'm not taking any chances. I still found some ticks on my legs after the mosquito spray.
Bill and I are settled into a comfortable routine now. I continue to miss my quarterly trips with Pat but those trips are out of the questions now. Pat can't afford to take the trips anyway because he took quite a loss on the sale of his condo in Hamilton, Ontario. He had to get out of that situation, the costs were just too horrendous. His monthly "maintenance" charge was $890 a month! And he wasn't getting anything for it! I don't want to embarrass him with divulging all the details but suffice it to say he's in a new dwelling in Hamilton. It's a very small house, which is what he wanted, and not far from the center of Hamilton where all the activity is, which is what he likes. Pat could never live here in quiet Delaware where I live. He would be bored to death. He needs a lot of stimulation. I like to visit places like Philadelphia, Palm Springs, Los Angeles and Canada but I prefer to come back to my home base here in southern coastal Delaware in my very quiet neighborhood.
This morning I was talking to my one remaining surviving brother he lives in the old family home in southeastern Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. He's having a lot of pain in his right leg. He misses our younger brother terribly. They were always very close and talked almost daily. Isaac (my brother) lives along with his ten year old cat "Ditto". She's good company for him.
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| Me and my brother Isaac (Ii'm in chair and Isaac is slumped over a hassock) watching TV in the Fifties. I was about twelve years old and Isaac eleven. Check out those curtains, they were plastic! |
He has a son who lives nearby who visits him often. He also has two daughters but we won't go into those stories. You know, "families." Isaac is convinced that I'm going to be the last surviving member of our family. I don't know about that. I did tell him that I he can have one of my grave plots at Northwood Cemetery. I bought two plots after our father died in 2000. I was planning for one plot for Bill and one for me but I've decided that Bill and I only need one plot. If Bill dies before me I'll have him cremated and keep him with me in a jar until I die. His ashes can be buried with me thus I have that extra plot. This is ironic that I probably will be buried next to my MAGA brother. Yes, he's one of "those" but we both know not to "go there" when we talk. As he told me when he reached out to me last year after a year or so of estrangement over out latest blowup (political), "Ronnie, you're still my brother and now your'e my ONLY brother."
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| Me and Isaac at one of our family reunions 2011 - photo was a candid shot (the best kind, not posed) taken by my friend Mark Himes. Where are you these days Mark? |
And he's right, set aside political differences but for the life of me I still don't see how he can support The Criminal Trump and the Traitor Coward Republicans. I'm no fan of Joe Biden either (terrible communicator and probably too old to be president) but I would vote for Joe Biden in a casket before I would vote for any of these Republicans now.
This is Friday night here in southern Delaware. I just finished rewatching the "Breaking Bad" series. Even though I saw this whole series several years ago, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it again. There was so much I had forgotten. And rewatching it I found I felt differently about the characters. For one I don't like Walter White now. I actually liked Gus Fring. I understand him. I found him sympathetic. Does that make me a bad person? And Jesse, he brought everything on himself. I had zero sympathy for him. What a douche! I hated Hank during my first watching of "Breaking Bad" but now I liked him. He was just doing his job and he was good at it. I followed up watching "Breaking Bad" but watching the whole series of "Better Call Saul" which was equally good. But I did end up hating Saul, or "Jimmy" which was his real name. Now I'm looking for another good series to bury myself into. This is how I spend my time now, taking care of Bill, taking care of myself, avoiding ticks while working in our backyard and watching a good movie or series in the Tipton Cinema. It's a good life folks!
Dinner time now. Corn on the cob tonight, Royal Farms biscuit and Good and Easy Beef Stew.
Recipe for "Good And Easy Beef Stew"
2 lbs lean round steak cut into cubes
1 can Campbell's Chicken and Mushroom soup
1 packet of Lipton Onion Soup Mix
1 cup of white wine
Mix all together and put in Crock Pot on low for eight hours.
Serve over mashed potatoes.
DELICIOUS!!!
6 comments:
Hello Ron,
I am glad during this time in pride month you and Bill are doing well.
Several mentions in your post could take me on a tangent but I refrain.
Happy to hear that Pat is doing well. I love looking at real estate and such. I know all things are relative but I never understood the outrages of HOA/monthly maintenance fees. Especially in New York. Good god some of those fees are more than my mortgage. I live in a small unit of about 35 residences. We pay, rounding up, $500. I have nothing to show for it but if I am correct we are a little less than average for Denver. We have no pool. We have no grounds to speak of. We have a club room. Nothing really interesting in there except it is on the top floor. We have 8 floors. There is only one unit on the first floor and the eighth floor. Oh yes, we do have male and female saunas on the eighth floor. Of all the years I have been here they never worked. This week I get a notice that the male sauna is now back in operation. Who knew!! I am a combination of you and Pat living-wise. I like a quiet area but I want to live close to where all the action is just in case I want to partake. I don't have to be in the middle of the mix. I tell you, truth be told some days I want to live in a cabin-400-500 sq feet-in the woods but close enough to town without thinking it is an expedition to get into town for provisions.
Love the pictures.
Be healthy,
Victor
XO
PS--I should have said "small building." My unit is 835 square feet. Just fine. If anything I would like another multipurpose room-bedroom/office/television.
VRCooper,
Just got off FaceTime with Pat. I would like to extend an invitation to you to join us on a Zoom call sometime. I think the three of us have a lot in common. As to the outrageous HOA fees some developments charge, I think a lot of them are pure rip offs. I'm lucky where I live now, it's a modest fee just to take care of the grounds. Started at $250 a year and now I think it is $300 which is for a reserve fund to repave the road. Pat was getting NOTHING for his $890 a month HOA or "monthly maintenance fee" as they call it in Canada.
I actually like to live near where all the action is too but not live in it. I did for a number of years when I lived in Philadelphia but I had enough of that life full-time. I do like to visit occasionally though but then retreat to the quiet of suburban living. I like quiet at this time of my life. Living in the woods is appealing to me to, but not all the time. I do like a mixture.
Glad you like the pictures that I post on my blog. There are so many I haven't posted. I will try to post them before I check out.
Ron
Ticks! No to ticks! Worse than scorpions !
Good to see you posted another update about the goings on at Casa Tipton-Kelly. It's always good to hear the latest news from you. I had to laugh out loud when I say the picture of you and brother in the living room watching television. I recognized the drapes as being plastic before you even inform us of thm. My grandmother used to buy plastic curtains at the Southern Dollar store in the early 60's. Oh she was so proud of them because she could hand wash them and the rinse them with a hose on the clothes line in the back yard. She died in 1989 and she had been using the same plastic curtains until the day she died. Oh and the 12 ft dining room table had a plastic table cloth on it as well!Haha! Life is full of stories like these and give us a good chuckle from time to time when we look back on them. Ron, Glad you are doing fine. Here is a story about a tick bourne disease a friend has as well as his older brother and wife. It has almost caused their deaths and they have serious health issues that will never go away. I have researched it online and You Tube and this is a serious illness called Alpha Gal. Be safe, be careful and Be Happy. So says Woody in the now sweltering Southwestern Ohio.
ALPHA-GAL (ALLERGY)
Galactose-alpha-1, 3-galactose, or Alpha-Gal for short, is a delayed allergy to mammal meat affecting a growing number of the population. This allergy is initially caused by a tick bite. Since the reaction to eating mammal meat is delayed by several hours, the proper diagnosis is often missed or misdiagnosed. People who are afflicted with the Alpha-Gal allergy have to be constantly vigilant about the ingredients they consume because an allergic reaction can be severe and life-threatening.
Delayed allergic reactions to red meat have been shown to be caused by several tick species worldwide (e.g. Ixodes ricinus in Europe and Ixodes holocyclus in Australia), with evidence suggesting that the Lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum) is the primary cause of reactions in the U.S. Lone Star ticks carry a sugar called alpha-gal, which is also found in red meat, but not in people. Normally, alpha-gal in meat poses no problems for people. But when a Lone Star tick bites a person, it transfers alpha-gal into the bloodstream. As a result, the person's body produces antibodies to fight the sugar. The next time that person eats meat from a mammal (including beef, pork, lamb, venison, goat, and bison) the meat triggers the release of histamine, a compound found in the body that causes allergic symptoms like hives, itching, and even anaphylaxis (a reaction that leads to sudden weakness, swelling of the throat, lips and tongue, difficulty breathing and/or unconsciousness). Fish, turkey, and chicken are not mammals, so they don’t have alpha-gal.
Most allergic reactions to foods occur almost immediately, but red meat allergic reactions can occur up to eight hours after a person eats meat. Often the reaction can be in the middle of the night and the connection to something they ate hours ago isn’t made easily.
The allergy most often occurs in the central and southern United States, which corresponds to the distribution of the Lone Star tick. In the Southern United States, where the tick is most prevalent, allergy rates are 32% higher than elsewhere. However, as doctors are not required to report the number of patients suffering the alpha-gal allergies, the true number of affected individuals is unknown.
I would love to join you and Pat on Zoom--vrcnyny@gmail.com
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