Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

We told ourselves that today would be a relaxing, down day, and so far we have been able to just stay around the neighborhood and chill out.  It feels great.  I awoke with a headache, so about mid-morning we went out into the 40+ degree weather and tried, for the first time this year, a walk around the block. It felt so good to get out!  I made it around the block with no problem, although I must admit that I took a nap this afternoon.  A loving family, a new grandson, understanding friends, supportive prayers, and the ability to nap when I want to do so.  I have much to be thankful for!

Tuesday evening turned out to be a rather wild day in Florida.  Storms were predicted, and they came in during the early evening with very strong winds. Unknown to us, we actually had tornado warnings for Pinellas County.  Hmmm.  A tornado.  In Wisconsin, that is a part of living in the state. When the warnings come in, one just watches the TV and the clouds outside, and then heads for the basement if threatening weather appears.  But a tornado in Florida?  That is something we had not considered since we have no basement into which to retreat should threatening clouds swoop down.  After some thought, I guess we would have to retreat to the more enclosed areas within the house -- either the tiny coat closet in the hallway or the bedroom closet in the guest room. We have the security of the wind-resistent windows and doors, so I think we would be safe; however, a tornado is something I had not really thought about before.  We have already determined that if a hurricane heads this way, we will just get out early.  A tornado, however, does not give that much advanced notice.

The only consequence we had from the storm was to wake up early to the sounds of our charging phones beeping loudly as we lost power in the house.  After we both took quick showers before the 50 gallons of hot water in the water heater cooled, Rick drove to McDonald's to get us a fast, hot breakfast. By the time he arrived home, the power was back on.

I struggle each day with the desire to do many things around the house, and then find that I do not have the energy to do much at all. I threw in a load of laundry, and then watched Rick vacuum the whole house.  Terrazzo floors are fantastic, but we could vacuum each day to keep them clean.  Maybe that is a good thing. With carpet, the dirt just sits there, undetected.  At least with the terrazzo, we can see when we track in dirt and sweep it up, making the house cleaner.  After he vacuumed the main debris, I dry-mopped the whole house to pick up the dust.  At the time, it felt good to exercise.  Last night, I ached all over.  Maybe I over did the cleaning a bit.

Rick and I had found an area rug for the living room at the furniture store, but it was both too large and way too expensive for us.  Steve suggested that we look at rugstudio.com.  He has had good luck with their products.  We actually found the rug that we saw in the store; however, we are still not sure we can get it in the size we want.  We are going to wait until we have the sofas in place (probably sometime in February) and then determine the size of rug we need.  The good thing about the rug online is that it was about half price from the rug displayed in the furniture store.

A square jars holds change while the round
one works for my lancets.

Later in the afternoon, we went to Home Goods to look for some decorative jars for the bedroom.  Rick needed something to hold his spare change, and I wanted an enclosed container for the lancets I use when I test my blood.  We found two jars that we liked, so we bought them.  While we were there, we also found another rug -- for one-seventh of the price of the furniture store rug -- that may be a contender for the living room in the future.

Another stop yesterday was to a millwork shop that we have used in the past.  We got the laundry room doors there last year with the intension of replacing the other room and closet doors in the house with the same style of door.

The current doors in this house are terrible.  They have probably all been in the house since it was built in 1960, and as hollow-core, cheap doors, they are all starting to delaminate.  For now, we have glued them back together and slapped on a fresh coat of paint to clean them a bit, but they still look pretty tacky.

We had to wait for our saleswoman for a while, so she suggested that we go to their new showroom and look around.  In the showroom we found Paul working.  He is one of the partners for the shop.  We started to tell him about our problems concerning bedroom closet doors.  The current doors are 1960 original doors, and not only are they short on the bottom part to make room for much-needed storage on the top part, but also they are falling apart and do not really fit our modern lifestyle.  Rick talked about closing off the upper part, but we badly need the storage space it provides since we do not have a basement in this house.

The bedroom closet doors are held together
with glue and paint.  They need to go.

The guest bedroom has the same configuration,
so they also need to be replaced to match
the other doors that we want in the house.

Paul said, "I had the same configuration in my house.  Why don't you take out the whole frame, keep the storage shelves above, and just put in two eight-foot slide-by doors?  They are a tall and majestic, and they look great in my house."

We had not considered larger doors, but we think that with a little rebuilding of the structure and frame, we can have the closets that we want internally with the matching, clean look of new closet doors on the outside.

Our door budget took a bit of a hit because we also decided to order pre-hung doors instead of trying to strip the original frames.  I am afraid that they may contain lead paint, and I do not want to deal with that hassle or health-hazard right now.  The bid came in, naturally, at twice the price of our original budget, but that bid includes the four slide-by closet panels for the bedroom closets.  Rick has to figure out a bit more on the engineering side of rebuilding the interiors of the closets, but we are excited about the potential results.

We are thankful for the progress and decisions that we have made so far, so we are looking toward putting the plans into action when we return after the holidays.

Furniture, Water Softener, and the Old Oak Tree

Monday dawned with a list of chores to complete around the house.  Since we had to wait for the tree service man to arrive, I started the laundry.  Did I mention how much I appreciate all of the hard work Rick did last year to enclose the laundry room?  In this house, instead of having to go down a dozen stairs to a laundry room in the basement, I just take the laundry down one step into the clean, beautifully-tiled laundry room.  What luxury!

I planned to dry-mop the bedroom and to sweep down the cobwebs outside, but remember what I mentioned earlier about plans?  Well, before I could do either of those tasks, the tree service man arrived.  We have used Jeff's service in the past, and he is authorized to evaluate trees for the City of Dunedin to see if the tree warrants removal.

So the huge, old tree gets a pardon from the city.

Jeff took one look at our leaning live oak in the backyard and said, "I can almost guarantee that there is a 99.9% chance that the city will NOT give you a permit to remove that tree."  He declared the huge tree very old but healthy with well-grounded roots holding it in place.  He also reassured us that in the unlikely event that the tree DID fall on the neighbor's house, we would not be liable for the damages.  What hangs over on his property is apparently his problem.  Since the house is currently in an estate trust, and thus vacant, we have no one to worry about at the moment.

Jeff's news has presented us with another turn in the road.  Removal of the tree would have allowed us to build our fence behind it with a straight fence across the back of our lot.  Now we will have to reconsider the configuration of the fence.  I hate the idea of building the fence with a "bump out" to accommodate the tree, leaving it in a no-man's-land between the neighbor's chain-link fence and our vinyl fence, but we may have no choice.  Our other alternative is to build the fence straight across to as near as we can to the tree on either side, and to try to fill in the "gap" with bushes like oleander or hibiscus. Rick wants the bump-out; I need to study the area more. The fence question is something we will have to face this spring.

After Jeff left, we went to the furniture store to try to figure out the sofas.  We had taken some fabric home to see how two Temple sofas would work, and we found a fabric that we liked.  We also selected a fabric that would work for pillows, although neither of us was greatly thrilled with our choices.  Rick, in particular, was very hesitant. He was not sure about the fabric, the cushion construction, or the pillow choice.  I want to stay with a neutral sofa, terra-cotta accents, with yellow and aqua tones for sub-accents.  We found a fabric that would work for the Temple sofas and a terra-cotta --although plain-- fabric for the pillows.  Rather boring, but functional.

I just feared that Rick would not be happy unless we looked at some higher-end sofas.  He found two stores in Tampa that carry Sherrill which is the brand that we have at home in Green Bay.  He reasoned that if we added a couple of hundred dollars more to each sofa, we could have better construction, better fabric, and a better frame than the Temple.  I knew at that point that he was not going to be happy with the Temple unless the Sherrill came in at thousands of dollars more than the Temple.

While we were in the furniture store on Monday we received a call from the plumber that we had asked to the house to give us a bid on a water softener.  The water in Florida is very hard.  Supposedly, Dunedin has the softest water in the area, and that is not saying much!  A water softener will help save our appliances and my skin, so we somewhat feel that it may be a necessity.  When Rick first contacted the plumbing firm, the man he talked to estimated that we could get a softener for between $1400 -$1600 installed.  OK.  We had that in the budget.  They talked about the unit that we wanted, and the man said that he had an identical unit in his house that served him well.

When an estimator came to the house, he declared that we would need a larger unit for the house, and he detailed how we could bring the water from the front of the house where it enters the structure (weird, huh?) to the softener that we want at the back of the garage.  When I asked why two people who were here only part of the year would need a larger unit, I did not hear a logical reply.  When we received the call at the furniture store, the estimator said that he had been able to "just squeak your bid under $2500 at $2495!" Such a deal!  Say what?  He has got to be kidding!  How did a reasonable estimate suddenly increase by $1000, especially when Rick found the original unit that we wanted online for about $500.  Needless to say, we are not going to accept an outrageous bid for a water softener.  We want to go to the plumbing place and asked to see an itemized estimate.  I will not put in a larger unit, and if the majority of the bill is for labor, then we will plumb the whole thing ourselves and have the firm come in to just make the final connection to the whole-house main line.  Another alternative is to call a different plumber for a new estimate.  Did I mention that we hate working with contractors in Florida?

Meanwhile, back to the saga of the sofas.  Today (Tuesday) we decided to wait until Tampa traffic settled down and then visit the furniture stores in the area that handled Sherrill furniture.  Traffic in this area is bad, and it increases even more once the Snowbirds return.  I swear that half of Ontario winters in Dunedin; even the Toronto Blue-Jays have their training camp down here. And traffic going into and out of Tampa each day is horrendous, so we had to wait until at least 9:30 to venture into the city.

The first store was located only 17 miles from our house, so the drive there was not too bad.  We knew the minute that we walked in that the furniture was more upscale than the Temple dealer.  We sat on various sofas, finally finding a couple that "fit" us.  One of the problems with the Temple furniture had been that the sofa we would have purchased was not on the floor, so we could not get a "feel" for it.  For those of you who are less than 5' 5", you know what I am talking about.  I am only 5' 2", so finding a sofa small enough to fit my frame is a real problem.

However, we did find a sofa that we liked.  It is a Henredon which is a step up even from the Sherrill line.  Yes, each sofa will cost us about $350 more than the Temple would have, but we found an excellent fabric, cushion construction that we like, an exceptionally well-built frame, and even pillow fabric that will bring in my terra-cotta, aqua, and yellow.  Rick is happy, and I am happy. We found some other accent pieces, but I did not buy anything more once the tax, fabric protector, and delivery fees were added to the bill.  Was the final total more than we had anticipated?  Yes; however, we reasoned (rationalized?) that we had been willing to spend $2000 to get the tree removed, and since that did not happen, we had some budget money that we could put toward comfortable furniture.  The sofas will take approximately 12 weeks to get here.  I tried to talk the salesman into a "buy one, get one free" scheme, but he did not agree with my desires.  Rick said that if the house someday starts to slide into a sinkhole, I can grab whatever I want, but he is going to drag the sofas out of the front door!

We spent most of the day working on this furniture choice, and I am glad that we are finished with that decision. We did not get home until after 4:00 p.m., but I feel that we spent the day well.

I hear rain outside right now which is far better than the snow I know our family members are experiencing in Wisconsin and Minnesota.  Thursday is Thanksgiving.  The weatherman predicts "the coldest Thanksgiving in a decade" with temperatures "only in the low 50's" the whole day.  I think I can hack that.  We will miss being with family for the holiday, but we will make our own celebration here and take advantage of the day (and day after since I am not crazy enough to ever shop on Black Friday) to just stay at home and relax. After all that we have done in the last four days, I think we deserve a little break.

Little Turkeys and Rotting Fences

This morning dawned with a predicted "cold front" coming through the state.  Ha!  To those of us raised in the North, a cold front means that when you step outside, the -30 degree weather sucks the air right out of your body, making moving, breathing, and even thinking slightly painful.  To Floridians, a cold front means that the temperatures today dropped down to the low 70s!  What wimps.

We went to church this morning, and we were again greeted very warmly.  The congregation is small (only one child went to the front for the "children's lesson"), and because many in the congregation are elderly, never once did the Pastor ask anyone to stand.  That was all right with me this morning as I was rather tired.  The service lasted a bit long, but it gave me enough time to rest so that I had energy to shop and to do a little around the house after lunch.

We stocked up for our Thanksgiving feast by buying a small -- although still expensive -- Butterball turkey breast.  I might try it in the crock pot this year if I can find a good recipe.  If not, I have an almost new oven that will work just as well.  Rick and I also went to Kohl's and bought a new Cuisineart Griddle/ Grill/ Panini machine.  That will replace the old George Foreman griddle that definitely has served us well in the past but is now ready for retirement.  I like the new machine because all of the grill pans just pop off and can go into the dishwasher. Not only is that easier but also much more sanitary in the end.

Owen's first Thanksgiving outfit and pose.  What's not to love?

We were delightfully surprised yesterday when Lindsay sent us "first Thanksgiving" pictures of five-month-old Owen. He is the new love of our lives, and his shirt says, "Everyone is Thankful for Me."  We truly are. He makes us smile, renews our faith in discovering the world all over again, and keeps us happy that he has joined our family.  His adoption becomes final in December, and that is the greatest Christmas gift that this family ever will experience.

This afternoon Rick concentrated on starting to remove the rotting north fence.  Steve and Chris had

Rick removes a section of fence from a
rotting fence post.

The Saws-All easily cuts through the wood
to separate the fence into sections.

The sections come down, one by one. Since
two could not cut at the same time, I sat in
a chair.  Every good job needs a supervisor!

Once Rick detaches a section, he cuts
it in half to carry to the curb.

each put back one section after it blew down twice, and when we looked out this morning, that same corner section was down, leaning against a small bush, and taking out a branch on the bush in the process.  The Saws-All and a little muscle power made short work of the first sections of the fence. Having the cooler temperatures also made the job much more enjoyable.

In this city, we can only put out construction debris and yard waste on Mondays.  They do collect garbage on Thursday also, but that is just for regular garbage cans.  By taking out four sections of fence today, we had about as much debris as they would pick up on Monday.  We'll take out the rest of the fence over the next week, stacking the sections so that the second and then last third go to the curb in the next two weeks.

Rick said that he felt good getting back to work on the house.  I know that my medical limitations has totally changed our viewpoint on remodeling the house, but today renewed my faith that we can still make progress.

I did a little and feel pretty good this evening.  A little light exercise is good for me, so I have to keep that up each day as I slowly regain my strength.  Tomorrow, unless it is raining, I would like to take a broom and sweep down the soffits and sills of the house.  We have cobwebs everywhere, so a good sweeping will begin the process of clearing the house for paint.  I would imagine that while I am doing that, Rick will take another crack at taking down more of the fence.

We are making progress.  While we may not move as quickly as we have in the past, we are still moving forward, and that is the greatest feeling in the world.

Choices and Questions

After a fairly sleepless night in the guest room after Rick snored me out of bed, I awoke rather late (7:13 a.m. EST) to sunlight streaming through the window.  Today turned out to be a beautiful Florida November day: sunshine, a slight breeze, with highs in the low 80's.  Strangely for us, being in this beautiful weather and seeing both turkeys and Christmas trees on display is somehow surreal. A call from my mother in Wisconsin reminded us that they are having temperatures in the low teens right now.  I think I like the Florida temperatures much better.

We took advantage of the day by going down to Largo (about 8 miles south of here).  We wanted to find the clinic where I had chosen my rheumatologist.  When we were at Mayo, Rick and I spent over three hours researching sites and doctors in the area.  I thought I had chosen a well-qualified doctor with good reviews from patients.  The facility itself is very nice, but Rick has started second-guessing my decision just because they are across the street from a hospital that has less than a grand reputation.  I will have to check to see if the doctor is affiliated with other hospitals; he is freaked about the fact that the doctors all own the clinic, making it a for-profit operation.  I just want a facility where I can get blood work done, consult with the doctor to have my treatment coordinated with Mayo, and try to get on with my life.  I hope this is the right place.

After finding the clinic, we started furniture shopping.  Thus far, Gladys has cast-off furniture-- our old sofa from our camper and a couple of Ikea chairs in the living room.  The sofa was custom-made and expensive, but it is not a full-size sofa, and it is starting to show its age by having cushions that sag at the top.  Plumping them up restores them, but only temporarily.  The Ikea chairs are comfortable for a while, but they, too, are not made for full-time living room comfort. Currently, only the wonderful cherry tables that Rick made will be a permanent part of the living room decor.

We debated on whether to purchase a new sofa and two recliners, or to buy two matching sofas.  We like the chair idea, but since we would need two different recliners to match our individual sizes, then the question comes in as to which chair would be positioned to use when watching TV.  Additionally, the chairs would have their backs to the front door, so seeing the back side of a high recliner is not the most ideal view for incoming guests.

Our other option is buying two identical sofas, one on each side of an area rug with our coffee table in the middle.  While this option is more expensive, it will give us more seating, a cleaner back-side look from the door, and a lower profile over which to see the rest of the room.  We went to a store in Largo that specializes in sofas made by Temple, Inc.  Temple is a made-in-the-USA furniture manufacturer in North Carolina.  They make sofas with shorter depth and height for shorter people like we are.  If a person cannot find a sofa to fit her in their stock line, Temple also offers tailor-made construction.  One can choose arms, backs, cushions, and finish designs -- for a price, of course.  We like the fact that the company does not skimp on the design elements; the frames are all hardwood instead of particleboard, the frames are more heavy-duty than normal, and the company is energy and recycling conscious.  I would rather buy and support a family-owned company here in America than a facility overseas that uses both cheap labor and cheap materials.

After much discussion, we narrowed the selection down to one stock Temple sofa that seemed to fit our needs.  We brought four material samples home, eliminated one almost immediately, and then worked with the remaining three.  From those, we both like the color scheme on one and the slightly better quality of material on the other.  The jury is still out on the final selection.

As usual, Rick then began to doubt what we had decided upon.  The height of the sofa seat we chose is a couple of inches higher than the Sheirl sofa we currently own.  Now he worries that the new sofa would be too high.  Actually, we sat in a similar (although not exactly the same model) Temple sofa in the store, and it was very comfortable.  He is worried that we did not sit on the sofa we would be buying, but we both know that fabric choice and simple manufacturing components all factor into how the sofa will fit and feel.

He now wants to look at a store that carries Sheirl sofas like the ones we have in Green Bay.  While I am not opposed to looking further, I can honestly state that I am happy with what we have chosen from Temple.  They are good quality, will last us well for the time we spend in Florida, will fit our decorating style, and will be less expensive than a Sheirl sofa.  I am not convinced that Sheirl is the way to go, but I will try to keep an open mind and look.

After lunch we made a quick trip to Target to get some badly-needed supplies, and then we came home.  I was exhausted by that time, both from being out and from my lack of sleep yesterday.  Rick was antsy, so while I took a nap, he went out with a transit to measure our back yard.

Putting up a privacy fence is going to be a priority very soon, so he was anxious to survey the land.  We are on hold with those plans until Monday when the tree service comes in to let us know if we can remove that giant tree.  For right now, all we can do is remove the old fence and draw plans for the future.

I know that Rick was irritated that I could not go out and help him.  He does not blame me, but he is having a really hard time not having me there to help or at least to work along side him.  He always has done the majority of the work, yet having me out of the picture is difficult for him to stay motivated.

We will not do much while we are down here this trip.  Both girls called, and we had a delightful call on Facetime interacting with our new grandson, Owen.  We miss him and the rest of the family.  This will be a strange Thanksgiving with no one around; however, I am sure that we will manage.

Tomorrow we need to go to the store and stock up on food for the week.  Actually, yesterday we took a ride around the neighborhood and saw a Schwan's food delivery truck.  Since we get Schwan's Foods in Green Bay, we asked him to stop by our house.  He obliged, so we now have food in the freezer that are all-time favorites.  We plan to leave the refrigerator running while we are north for the holidays, so if we do not eat out the freezer before we leave, that is OK too.

Tensions are high tonight.  We are not in agreement about the furniture, the reality of my limitations is starting to make itself known, and we are concerned both about finances and family members at home.  Maybe a good night's sleep tonight will make Sunday dawn brighter.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig

We are home.  After three years of hard work, we have finally gotten Gladys to the point that when we walk through the front door, she feels just as much like "home" as does our long-time home in Green Bay.  And being able to fit into the contours of our own bed last night was pure bliss.  We both slept very well, although the Eastern Time clock still only said 6:15 when we awoke this morning.

Thursday was a long, long day for both of us.  The third day on any trip is a killer, and since Rick had already driven 1000 miles, he told me that he just dreaded getting back behind the wheel of the truck.  Neither of us had a particularly restful night, so that added to the problem.  Once again, we arose early and headed down the road before stopping for breakfast.

Coming out of Montgomery, we faced several miles of stoplights and limited access road before we crossed the border into Florida to get back on the interstate.  The drive to Florida seemed to take forever.  There are no major cities along the route and traffic was manageable, but anticipation of getting home and just plain fatigue made the trip seem endless.  We took breaks to stretch when we needed to, but we did not loiter either to eat a long lunch or to purchase local delicacies such as freshly boiled peanuts. (Ugh!)

On Thursday we started a count of how many Snowbird campers we passed.  Thursday's total actually surprised us because we thought that most Birds would be down here by now.  Not so.  We passed eight 5th wheel trailers, seven motorhomes, and no travel trailers.  I guess trailers are starting to be out of vogue as people find 5th wheel trailers easier to tow.  Today, we counted four 5th wheels, four motorhomes, and one die-hard travel-trailer.  We both agreed that we are glad we no longer have the care and storage issues of a trailer, and with my achey muscles, I am glad that I do not have to climb up into a trailer at the end of the day.  Eh! Gad!  I really am starting to sound old!!

Once we crossed the Florida border, we were able to see our first palm trees.  That is always my brain's signal that we are again in Florida.  For the first time, however, we experienced a new sight.  As we got into southern Alabama yesterday morning, we saw cotton fields in bloom.  We have never travelled through the Southern United States at this time of year, so this was a new sight for both of us.  The plants themselves had reddish-brown bark. Do they start to die off as the cotton ripens, or is that their natural color? I will have to look that up.  The cotton bolls themselves were plump and white.  We smiled because along the shoulder, we could see clumps of cotton bolls lining the road.  We do not know if they blew from the fields or if they blew off a truck of picked cotton.  The fields were quite a sight, so we have fun learning something new about a product that we end up wearing each day.

This morning we awoke well-rested, but I soon learned that my desire to do something and my energy to accomplish those tasks are still miles apart.  After showers this morning, we started some laundry, and then I decided to scrub down the two bathrooms.  Ha!  I cleaned the toilet, sink, and mirror in the master bath, and I was exhausted. Remember what I said earlier about "plans"?  Rick reminded me that we had only left Mayo Clinic a week ago, and that I have to take things easy.  The physical therapist told me that I should do my stretches, "live life" -- that is, do what I can with the energy that I have -- and then rest.  I wanted to do more, but God was laughing.

A trip over to Steve and Chris' house was a great respite.  The fruits of their labors in their yard really paid off.  It looks great, and we hope to be in their position some day.  We enjoyed seeing them and hearing about their plans for this year. They took time from their busy schedules to help us get the car ready to drive when we arrived, so we are eternally grateful for their help.

We took a walk around the house when we got back home.  Our yard service has done a great job with the trimming and grass, so much so that the temporary patio blocks that make up our front sidewalk now have trimmed greenery (read: weeds) that will prevent the path from turning into a mud patch in the rain.  A paver sidewalk, therefore, is on hold until next year.

The leaning live oak presents a fencing issue.

Our biggest (literally!) issue is the live oak tree in the back yard.  It is on the back edge of our property, and the canopy is split into two major branches since power lines go through it.  The tree is leaning over the neighbor's house behind us, and the whole thing will make putting in a fence a royal nightmare.  The tree is humongous, so we expect that we will have to pay a king's ransom to take it down... if we are even able to do so.  Dunedin protects live oaks, so we may need special permission to even remove it.  We would love to do so because then we could put in a fence and plant new shade trees in the back yard in more appropriate locations.  That may mean spending more time than we originally wanted to down here to make sure the trees last through the summer, but those plans are all in the future right now.  We are having our tree service come in on Monday to learn if we are able to remove the tree and, if so, what the cost estimate will be.  I may have to lie down after I hear of that expense!

The rickety old wooden fence on the north side of our property is falling down, so that will be one of the tasks that we would like to tackle while we are here.  Saws-All to the rescue!  Once the fence pieces are at the curb, we can figure out how to add a new fence to the yard to get us our privacy back.  We have wanted a new fence for two years now; the time is now right to install one.

Our north side fence has partially fallen
once, and it needs to come down.

The walk-around also revealed our need to paint the exterior of the house. Rick has high hopes of getting the house washed, primed, and covered with two coats of paint yet this year.  I feel weary just hearing about it all.  I will do what I can to help, even if that is only being a cheerleader-in-a-chair holding his water bottle as he works.  He needs to listen to himself as he talks to me by remembering that if he does just a little each day without working himself to exhaustion, the task will be completed in the end.

Painting, new furniture, a new water softener, and a fence will be our goals for this year.  That list is ambitious considering I do not know how much I will be able to help.  The other plans for remodeled bathrooms, lanai patios, re-landscaped yards, and a remodeled garage all will have to wait until later.

After all, we have lots of plans, but we don't want God to laugh at us too loudly.

Four States and Three Major Cities Later

After a blissfully restful night, we were both awake at 4:30 a.m., so we decided to get ready and to leave Illinois early.  We made good time and watched the day dawn clearly as we traversed Kentucky.  Our breakfast consisted of left-over muffins and orange juice at one of several stops at Rest Stops along the way.

Once again, traffic was fine until we got to Nashville, TN.  I do not know what it is about Nashville, but each time we go through the city, our GPS gets all mixed up.  Lindsay named it "Victoria" because she said the the voice on the GPS "sounds like someone named Victoria." OK. Whatever.  At any rate, Victoria apparently was listening to good old country music instead of paying attention to the roads because, had we followed her directions, we would probably be in Memphis tonight!  Traffic was terrible through the city, but with our old-fashioned paper maps, we were able to soon be south of the city.

Although we started in 30-something degree temperatures, we again were blessed with a clear, sunny day.  (Side note: an e-mail from Stephanie in Minnesota told us that Rochester was receiving the forecasted snow that we were trying to avoid as we left Wisconsin.) We actually made good progress today, traveling through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and two-thirds of Alabama.  Unlike their northern problem city, the cities of Birmingham and Montgomery posed no real problems.

Our hotel tonight, just south of Montgomery, is not in the location Rick had envisioned. He is disgruntled about it, but we are both too tired to go further.  After a little problem with the first room, we are now settled into a new room for the night. Rick is probably as exhausted as I am right now, so we will try to settle in early tonight.

We have approximately 500 miles and a seven hour drive ahead of us tomorrow, but if we have the stamina to do one more day of this travel, we will be able to sleep in our own house in our own bed tomorrow night in Florida.  That luxury will be worth whatever it takes to get there.

"Man Plans..."

My very good friend Bonnie told me that her mother used to say, "Man plans; God laughs."  In the past month, Rick and I have found that saying to be so very true. We can have all the plans in the world, but if that is not what God has in mind, those plans are all for naught. We know who is really in charge.

Our original plans for returning to Florida and for continuing our remodeling of Gladys meant leaving on October 25.  We had lofty ambitions: purchase new living room furniture; power-wash, prime, and paint the outside of the house; install shutters; add stone around the foundation of the house; select, paint, and hang seven interior doors; remove the leaning oak in the back yard; remove the north fence; install a new white vinyl fence; replace the front patio blocks with a new paver sidewalk, and perhaps (phew!) have a cement lanai patio slab poured in the back yard.  We had arranged for financing of all of the above -- we hope -- and were eager to begin.

Such plans!  However, since approximately last February, we both had noticed subtle changes in me.  I started having slight problems swallowing some types of food.  Then I noticed achey muscles and fatigue.  This was followed all summer with progressive weakness, more pain, and even greater fatigue.  By the end of the summer I had seen three doctors in Wisconsin.  The third, my regular doctor, said that I might have a condition called "polymyositis."  He advised me to see a local rheumatologist for treatment.  Stephanie, our daughter, urged us to get an appointment at Mayo Clinic to have the diagnosis confirmed.

Instead of leaving for Florida, we took a detour to Rochester, Minnesota.  Fourteen days and over 22 tests/ consultations later, I had a confirmed diagnosis.  I have a rare (read 10 people in 1 million!) condition called "dermatomyositis" and "mixed connective tissue disease." Basically, my autoimmune system is attacking my muscles, leaving me with muscle and nerve damage, weakness, and extreme fatigue. There is no cure, but I can be treated with medication.  I am now on that medication which has some nasty side-effects, but it is worth them to slowly regain my quality of life.  I can now move, for the most part, without pain.  I have regained some of my energy although not my stamina yet.  Rebuilding muscles, restoring nerves, gaining strength, and increasing my energy level will not happen overnight.  Some people take over two years to get back to "near normal."

Throughout this all, the love, concern, and prayers of my family, beloved friends, neighbors, and pastor all have helped us both endure this detour in our life plans.  I told Rick, "We were headed down the road with a clear goal in sight, and then suddenly we were forced to turn a corner.  Now we have to chart a new course and find a new path to get back to those same goals."

Our trip today is the first part of that new course. Although our youngest daughter did not want us to go, I will not let this condition totally destroy our plans.  We watched an inch of snow fall while we were still in Minnesota, so we knew that if we were going to drive our truck back down to Florida, we had a very limited window of opportunity before weather would make such a venture either dangerous or impossible.  The weather forecast for Wisconsin showed that we had one clear day this week -- today -- to get out of the state before another rain/ snow mix was headed for the state.

After an almost sleepless night (insomnia is one of the side effects of the medication I am taking), I got up with Rick at 5:00 a.m.  I am too weak and tired to drive safely, so we knew that Rick would have to do all of the driving.  We normally take two days to get to Gladys; this trip is planned to span three to four days since we did not know how I would travel or how tired Rick would be doing all of the driving.

The day dawned clear, and we had beautiful sunny weather all day.  The weather was cold.  We noted frost on the roofs of the houses both in Wisconsin and in northern Illinois.  Traffic, even at 5:30 in the morning, was incredibly heavy, so the drive through Milwaukee and Chicago was pretty tense.

As we drove through the east-central part of Illinois, we noted an area that gave testament to the monster tornadoes that ravaged the state earlier this week.  These rare November tornadoes destroyed whole sections of towns and resulted in eight deaths.  At one point, we passed a farm where the barn was intact but the house was leveled.  The fields around the area were littered with huge pieces of twisted metal, roofing, boards, and other storm-tossed debris. Suddenly our little shattered plans were rather insignificant in thinking about what thousands of newly-homeless people now face.

We pushed a little further than we originally anticipated, arriving at Mount Vernon, IL, a little after 2:30 p.m.  We had stopped earlier for a hot lunch, so that gave us enough energy to do the last hour of driving.  When we arrived, Rick went to fill the truck with gas while I crawled onto the bed.  I was exhausted.  I planned (there is that word again!) on taking a short nap; incredibly, I woke up almost two hours later.

We are in for the night.  We'll have a light dinner in our room, relax, review the maps for tomorrow, and see what happens in the morning.  While we will set an alarm, if we awake earlier, we may leave earlier.  If not, we will take the day as it comes. The weather reports tonight show that rain/ snow are forecast for the upper Midwest, so the further south we go, the better we will feel about avoiding dangerous winter weather.  We hope to stay tomorrow night in a hotel in mid-Alabama, arriving in Florida on Thursday and at Gladys on Thursday or Friday.

That's the plan at least.