COVID Booster Shots Today!

 

Bill and me November 2011 in Milton, DE at a friend's house

At 2:15 this afternoon both Bill and I are scheduled for our COVID booster shots at our local Walgreen's.

Actually I'm 2:15 and Bill is 2:30. 

I forget which number of COVID shots this is but we might as well get them, as old as we are.

Just last year a friend of mine died from COVID complications. I was surprised because I often saw him and his husband at our local Food Lion, where I do the majority of my grocery shopping. Walgreen's is in the same shopping strip. 

A couple of weeks ago I encountered his now widowed husband (Scott) in Food Lion. I felt so bad for him. Like me and Bill, he and David have been together forever. When you're with someone a long time (this year it will be sixty years for me and Bill), you expect to live forever and then when you do die (which we all do), you expect to go together. I expressed my sympathy to Scott and moved on before I got too emotional. He doesn't need my tears.

Even though Bill is much weaker than he was two and a half years ago before his strokes, he's still "Bill." I just can't imagine my life without him. After all, he's been in my whole adult life since I was twenty-two years old. Yes, I was ONCE twenty-two years old. Bill rescued me from a potential life of debauchery, alcoholism, drug addiction and many failed relationships. Bill has been the one steady rock in my life. Yes, I am one of the fortunate few to have someone like Bill in my life. I still can't imagine my life without Bill. 

So this afternoon we will get our COVID booster shots, which (hopefully) will enable us to live a few more months or maybe even years of a nice peaceful life her in southern coastal Delaware.

The Crack Down of ATVs in Philadelphia

One of the main reasons I moved from our seven acre property in Pennsylvania was because of ATV's and dirt bikes.

Bill and I used to live in center city Philadelphia. I grew tired of the police sirens, being harassed by homeless young black men and the high taxes so we moved to seven undeveloped acres thirty-seven miles west of Philadelphia, near Downingtown PA where I grew up. 

I wanted to move (Bill didn't) because I wanted peace and quiet. It didn't take too long until my neighbor who owned the four acre parcel next to our seven acres, sold his land. The new people who moved in subdivided that four acre lot into two two acre lots. The parents were in the front acreage and the daughter and her family were in the back two acres which adjoined our seven acres. 

Unfortunately for us her dad had an ATV which he used to use for deer hunting in mid state Pennsylvania, where he was originally from. He didn't need his ATV to hunt at his new home but he found another use for it. One of his sons bought another ATV and his son-in-law brought TWO more ATV's. What did they do with them? They created a dirt track around the back two acres adjoining our property and would race each other. Yes, I moved to the country for peace and quiet and what do I get? 

FOUR ATV'S RACING AROUND A DIRT TRACK FOR HOURS ON END. 

And that folks is why I hate ATV's. 

Thank goodness I moved out of Philadelphia before the dirt bikes and ATV's took over the city streets.

I hope the Philadelphia police confiscate EVERY DAMN ATV AND DIRT BIKE and destroy every one. 

Some people just exist to make life miserable for others. 

I'm not religious but I thank God that there is peace and quiet in this neighborhood where I live now. Oh we get the occasional motorcycle hordes racing up and down Route One which adjoins our property (no mufflers of course) but not the HOUR AND HOURS (sometimes as long as four hours on a Saturday) at our property in Pennsylvania. 

One of the things I value and appreciate so much, especially at this time of my life is peace and quiet.

I moved out of Philadelphia to get away from the daily police sirens. I moved out of our home in Pennsylvania to get away from the ATV's and dirt bikes. Here, I will only move away on a gurney with a sheet over my head.

Mom Confronts Armed Biker Who Smashed Car Window

It took a mom protecting her children to finally wake up the Philadelphia police to enforce the law against dirt-bikes and ATV's riding on public streets in Philadelphia.

I'm from Philadelphia and lived and worked in Philadelphia many years. Before COVID and my caretaking responsibilities which began two and a half years ago, I used to visit Philly twice a year. I noticed the last time I visited that ATV's and dirt-bikes were riding down Chestnut Street, right in center city. WTF? I thought it was ILLEGAL to ride that type of vehicle on a city street or any public roads! Well, IT IS! But, the Philadelphia Police under the leadership (?) of Denise Outlaw obviously decided to look the other way. WTF? I lived in Philadelphia when Frank Rizzo was the police commissioner and then mayor. While Frank Rizzo had his many detractors one thing you could count on with Mayor Rizzo was such activity would never be tolerated. 

I consider myself a liberal in most respects but I am definitely against this kind of relaxation of the laws that permit this kind of terrorism to happen, jumping and breaking the back window of this mother's car when her two young children were in the back seat. Thank God no one was injured. This could have quickly have escalated into a real tragedy.

As a result of this incident the Philadelphia Police have finally taken action to remove ALL of the illegal dirt-bikes and ATV's from the Philadelphia City streets. It's about time.

Now to lock up those gangs of looters who are stealing and vandalizing those center city stores. 

BOOM1 BOOM! BOOM!

 

Life has a way of delivering punches to the gut just when you think things are calming down. 

That's what happened this past week.

As I was pulling in our garage from our Daily Ride, I was feeling good about keeping our expenses down this month. I was thinking "I can actually save some money this month." HA!

As I was thinking this I saw the dreaded "Tire check" light on my dashboard. Oh no! 

I had that light a couple of weeks ago. I checked the air pressure in my tires and found the culprit. It was my right left rear tire. I filled it up to 32 air pressure and that dreaded dashboard light went out. 

Now it was on again. Okay, I know what it is. About a year ago I had a near flat. I took our car to my local trusted garage and "Herb" discovered a LARGE nail embedded in my tire. Great (sarcasm)! Herb put a large patch on my tire. I thought that fixed the problem. Well it did for awhile, but now the problem was back. Off to the garage. 

Herb checked the tire and said that's what it was, a "slow leak."

He said he had already put the largest patch on it and the bad news was that the tire had to be replaced. The even worse news was that that tire, Uniroyal, was no longer available. It was discontinued, of course. I would have to buy FOUR new tires. Total cost $915.49. OUCH!

There goes my "savings" for this month. What really hurts is that the tires I have now still have great treads. I purchased them brand new in 2018 for my 2010 Subaru Forester which had the original tires. Okay, calm down Ron. At least you have money in reserve to pay for this unexpected expense.

Then as I was finally able to semi-relax and get back to my normal routine, I detected a familiar smell from under our kitchen sink. It was the smell of standing water. 

A couple of years ago I had a leak in my spray nozzle. I'm thinking, "It can't be that, I'm so careful." Well, it wasn't THAT. Upon further investigation I discovered the leak was coming from my garbage disposal. Yes, THAT garbage disposal that I paid $174 to have reset last month. I finally adjusted myself to accepting that unnecessary expense and here I have yet ANOTHER leak. 

Time to call my plumber.  This is going to be expensive. He arrives the next morning and yes, my garbage disposal is shot. This garbage disposal which I rarely use (I put all my garbage in my compost pile at the corner of our almost one acre lot next to the cornfield). He asked me how old my garbage disposal was. I told him that it was brand new with the house, 2006.  He said he's seen this so often, the garbage disposals usually "rust out after 12 to 15 years." New garbage disposal $787.00.  Of course that includes installation and my discount for being a member of their service plan. 

You know folks it would be funny if it wasn't so sad. 

Again, we're lucky here because I do have a reserve fund for emergencies like this. But talk about planned obsolescence. 

Bill and I lived in our Pennsylvania house for twenty five years. Never once did we have to replace our garbage disposal, get all new tires when one tire went flat or even a whole new HVAC system which I had to get several years ago because the original HVAC that came with house that only lasted TEN years. That little baby cost us over $10,000. 

As I'm typing this blog, I hear Bill choking on his morning custard. His esophagus is shot. We can't get him a new one at his age. The last time at the hospital they recommended that he get his good through a stomach tube. We're not doing that. We're managing. Just like we're managing with all these unexpected bills. 

Maybe next month we'll get a break.

Happy 95th Birthday To Bill!

Today is Bill's 95th birthday! 

During our weekly visit to our favorite local fruit and veggie stand (I always get fresh corn) in Milton, the gals found out it was Bill's birthday and wanted to wish him a "Happy Birthday!" 

Of course Bill was mortified and is recovering now but what a nice gesture those ladies did for Bill. 

Happy Birthday Bill!

"Tara" and Bill. She always makes a fuss over him when I stop by to pick up my weekly infusion of fresh corn and peaches.

Random Thoughts While Tropical Storn Oplehlia Rages Through Southern Delaware

 

Tropical Storm Ophelia

As Tropical Storm Ophelia (Thank God it's not Hurricane Ophelia) tracks her way up the Delmarva peninsula and the East Coast, I have occasion to think where I am now in life. Yes folks, there is some heavy thinking going on here.

This morning at about 3 AM I was awoken from a Deep Sleep by the sound of Bill's emergency alarm bell in the electrical outlet next to my bed. Back when Bill first came home from the hospital I put that alarm bell in the outlet so when Bill needed me he only had to push the red button on the bell he had by his recliner chair where he sleeps in the basement. 

Bill hasn't used that emergency alarm for about year now but it does go off with a "BANG!" whenever the power goes off and back on in our house. Early this morning was such an occasion as the outer wind bands of Tropical Storm Ophelioa roared through our home here on the Delmarva Peninsula. 

I get up to reset the clocks. If I don't, the constant blinking of the digital clocks keeps us up. 

I have seven digital clocks that have to be reset every time the power goes on an off here. One good thing about living here on the Delmarva peninsula as opposed to our previous home in Pennsylvania, when the power usually goes off here, it comes back on right away. That's right, it blinks on and off. This morning it blinked on and off SEVEN TIMES! Yes, that is a new record. When we lived in Pennsylvania in the woods, when the power went off, it was off for HOURS if not days. That's one thing I don't miss about living in Pennsylvania in addition to the high taxes, our power always going off. And it did, a lot. Here in Delaware it is a rarity for the power to go off. Of course I was irritated that the power went off at all but then I had to remind myself that at least it came back on. Thousands along Tropical Storm Ophelia's path yesterday and today still don't have power. Which reminds me to be thankful for what I have.

Which also reminds me to be thankful for my health. Yes, I am having problems now. Earlier last week I got a painful crick  in my neck from sleeping the wrong way. God was that painful. Not only am I a hunched over old man now, now I have this situation where I couldn't turn my head. The stiffness was on the right side of my neck. Then a funny thing happened. A few days ago I woke up and the stiffness had moved and now was on the LEFT side of my neck! What's that all doubt? Neck cancer?

Of course being the big baby that I am, every time I have some kind of physical malfunction I think it is the onset of a cancer death sentence. 

I'm having another problem, my partial tooth on the right side of my mouth is digging into my upper gum. How did that come about? It's been working great for years. I avoided getting teeth implants with that partial now I have to rethink that option. Of course I don't want to spend thousands on such an implant. I probably should have had implants ten years ago when I was given the option and was flush with money, what with my part-time job and both of our retirement incomes. Now I'm facing life living on only one retirement income and no part-time job (I'm assuming they won't want an 82 year old stooped over old man at the front desk at the boutique hotel where I worked at). What to do because I really enjoy eating? What I've decided to do is just be very careful with what I eat and not eat anything that I really have to crunch on and chew.

I have a full set of false teeth (cost me over $5,000 years ago when I was given the option of teeth implants). I don't like eating with them though because of all that metal in my mouth I can't taste my food the right way. When I complain about this I think of my Mother who wore false teeth her whole life from the time she was fifteen years old. I guess  you get "used to it" but I don't want to. Eating is one of the few pleasures I have left in addition to reading and my meanderings in my backyard and my fish pond. 

I am so thankful that I can see good though and don't have macular degeneration like my 67 year old friend Howard (he has the wet kind that he needs injections in his eyes) or Bill's dry kind that he only sees shadows. Bill can never look anyone in the eye now can I look into his eyes. I think if I got that way I would make arrangements to Check Out. 

Speaking of which I am way past my Sell By Date anyway. It's all gravy now folks. My father Isaac Tipton

My father Isaac W. Tipton, Sr. 

died when he was eighty in the year 2000. My grandfather Fieldon Tipton died when he was fifty-four years old.

Fieldon Jasob Tipton died at age 54 in 1939

My great grandfather Hiram Tipton

My great grandfather Hiram Tipton - died at age 80 in 1930

died when he was eighty. And my great-great grandfather died when he was only thirty-four years old but then he was shot to death in the Civil War. He lived in North Carolina but he was a Union sympathizer and that's why he was murdered, recruiting his neighbors in his western North Carolina community for the Union Cause. Confederal General Noah Wichter and his Confederate forces heard of John Tipton's "treasonous" action and set out with a calvary of Confederate soldiers to stamp out those Union sympathizers. When He came across my great-great grandfather and his brother-in-law Curtis Bailey, they opened fire and shot them dead and dumped their bodies on the front lawn of the Tipton-Bailey homestead as a "lesson" to any other Union sympathizers. My great-great grandmother Martha "Patty" Bailey Tipton

Martha "Patty" Bailey Tipton Cooper  

was left a widow with eight children

1860 Census for John and Martha Tipton

to raise on her own. She was illiterate. She signed the Widow's Petition for a monthly $8.00 "Widow's Pension" with an "X".

Martha's Civil War Widow's Pension application

And she had to fight years for that modest monthly pension. She survived  by marrying her neighbor Thomas "Doc" Cooper, who was twenty-four younger than she was.

Thomas M. "Doc" Cooper, my great-great grandmother's second husband, 24 years younger than she

Patty in her youth must have really been something because her first husband, my great great grandfather John Tipton was four years younger that she was. 

Thomas "Doc" Cooper was only fourteen years old when Martha became a widow in 1864. Colonel Witcher also tried to murder him by hanging him from a nearby tree. He only survived by feigning death as he was hung and getting himself down in the leaves on the ground below the tree and hiding under the dead leaves. He and Martha married six years later in 1870 when he was twenty years old and she was forty-six years old. 

Martha lived to a ripe old age of ninety-one years of age and died in Asheville, North Carolina in 1915. 

My great-great grandmother Martha "Patty" Bailey Tipton Cooper's final resting place in 

Her second husband, Thomas M. "Doc" Cooper lived another seven years and also died in Asheville, North Carolina in 1922. Several years ago I was very fortunate to find her final resting place in the Berea Baptist Church Cemetery in Ashville, North Carolina cemetery. This was one of the great achievements of my life folks. 

Me at my great great grandmother Martha "Patty" Bailey Tipton Cooper's final resting place. What a wonderful feeling I had when I was able to pay my respects to this wonderful, strong woman who survived the Civil was and raise children. 

I have much research to do on my Tipton line. I've been away from it too long. Some years ago I did find a photo of my great-grandfather Hiram's older brother Baxter Tipton, who also grew up to be a doctor.

Dr. Baxter Tipton

I got this picture from his great-granddaughter. 

Random historical thoughts folks on this rainy Saturday, I never know where I'm going when I get on my blog folks. Today I took a long, winding path down my Ancestry Lane. I hope you found this trip as interesting as I did.

Have a great day!

Home Sweet Home - Delaware

This is an aerial view of the development where Bill and I live. You cannot see our lot and house in this photo though, we're just off to the right. I took this picture from the website of one of my neighbor's who is selling their house. I wanted to share it with all of you to show you the totally flat coastal area where we live, only sixty feet above sea level, one of the lowest in the United States. Across the road (Route One, Coastal Highway, the main drag along the East Coast - follow Route One all the way to Florida) is Hudson Fields. That's where they have occasional "events", sometimes a musical "event" which will vibrate our modest abodes. Usually they use those fields for games or expos. Last week it was the site of the annual "Pow Wow" of the local Indians. Yes, that's right folks. We have local Indians just like they have in Palm Springs.

New background picture here folks!

I took this one last week from our driveway on September 11th last week.

For the past two and a half years this has been my life. As a full-time caregiver for Bill, I don't get out like I used to. Oh how I miss those quarterly trips with Pat. Maybe again sometime in the future I will be able to resume those quarterly trips. But the likelihood of that now seems remote.

I really can't complain though. I love our home here in southern coastal Delaware. We may not have a backyard pool like some of our neighbors (something I wanted my whole life) but I do have a backyard pond full of goldfish.

Part of my Pennsylvania fish pond, I had it looking really natural unlike the pond I have now here in Delaware but I'm working on it.

This picture is of one of the three ponds I had when we lived in Pennsylvania on 7.875 wooded acres on the side of a hill. I loved those ponds and even had my own wetlands filtration system which kept the pond water as clear as a West Indies beach. But alas we had to move because I could no longer afford to pay the ever increasing panoply of Pennsylvania taxes, the school/real estate tax being the biggest one.

So I had move us to the sub tropical, humid, low tax state of Delaware, the second smallest state in the nation where most people don't even know where it is located. I moved to the Rehoboth Beach area because of it's large gay population. I thought that would be a welcoming population but with few exceptions (they've since died), the local gay community is more about fund raising and cliques than they are about welcoming outsiders. But no problem, we live in a welcoming neighborhood of fifty-seven home of straight people who ARE welcoming. In fact, one of the best neighbors I ever had and still do is a MAGA guy. Who would have ever thought? Of course we don't agree politically but we both don't discuss politics, we respect each other's views, which is as it should be. At least he don't fund raise me. But we do look out for each other. He's a widower and has been our neighbor even since we moved down here to Delaware in 2006. He and his wife moved in their house about a month after we moved into our house. His wife was VERY MAGA and we did get into sometimes political discussions  but of course neither one of us persuaded the other to change their views. She's been gone for over two years now and I do miss her because she had a wicked sense of humor. I miss those sessions where I used to visit with her and we would gossip about the neighborhood, trying to stay clear of political discussions, which wasn't always successful. She thought Trump was the Second Coming and Obama was the devil. Oh the discussions we could have now doubt The Criminal Trump but I digress. 

It is ironic I talk about taking trips to other locales whereas I live in a vacation destination. I sometimes have to remind myself I live in a section of the country which is a permanent vacation resort. The only thing is I dare not visit the nearby beaches and towns in season because of the heavy traffic, which gets more congested every year. Last year Pat visited in the summertime for a week and we took the shuttle bus down to the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk which was cool because we didn't have to contend with the summer traffic congestion. But Pat didn't make it down this year because he was busy selling his condo in Canada and moving in and getting settled in his now more modest accommodations in downtown Hamilton. He's also working a lot as a valet driver. In fact he's been working five days at week at his "part-time" job, often leaving at 5:30 AM in the morning and not returning to his home at about seven or eight o'clock at night. 

Pat still want to eventually move to Palm Springs but I just don't see that for myself. I love my home here in southern Delaware and just could not replicate a home like I have now in Palm Springs unless I won the lottery. I worked too hard all my life to get where I am now and I'm not about to throw that away for some eight foot high ceiling (we're ten feet high ceilings here) adobe 1400 square foot (we're 5200 square feet here) hut squeezed into who knows what neighbors. Sure, Palm Springs also has a large gay population and we even have a very good friend who lives there now but I suspect I would run into the same gay clique type situation that I didn't fit into here in the Rehoboth Beach area. Hey, do you think it's me? Probably. But when I talk to our friend in Palm Springs he's always telling about the latest fund raiser he's either having or attending. What is it with all these fund raisers? Probably jut an excuse for a party. Which is basically what fund raiser are anyway if one faces the truth. At this time of my life I need all the modest money that I receive from my small fixed bank pensions and Social Security. I used to work part-time at the hotel but I haven't for the past two and a half years since I've been caregiving for Bill. I don't know if they will even take me back, I'm pretty old (older than Biden) now. And besides, can I even physically do that job now? I don't know.

So here I stay, at our very comfortable home here in southern sub-tropical (which means the weather is very humid in the summertime and mild in the winter). Could be a lot worse. I'm thankful it's not. 

But again, maybe someday I will see a palm tree in person.

Pat and me in Palm Springs, 2018