Just Listening.

 Just Listening.

 

Sometimes other folks just need to have someone listen. Actually, think that happens to ALL of us at some time or other, but more often to some folks. Patty needs to have someone to listen right now. So today was my turn to listen. She called again this evening because she knew she would be heard. Not too many comments from me gave her the opportunity to forcefully state her feelings on the particular situation. Understood how she felt without feeling it was necessary to explain my own experiences. But doctors, tests, procedures, and all that garbage can seem so totally unnecessary at some point in our lives. In her case, she knows that she would not likely live through being put under deep anesthetic, so she sees no reason to even submit to any more tests to find more cancer in her lungs or anywhere else. Yeppers, treatments of the type used today are pretty sure to kill anyone who already has a weakened immune system.

 

Then family situations invariably show up whenever families have to deal with far-flung cousins, nieces, nephews, and assorted offshoots of the tree. Whether it is our own tree or the tree of the spouse, the nuts come out in full force after a death. And some of us just don’t need to be around all that drama. Especially right now with covid running rampant, being around others does not really make sense. So, ordering groceries online, staying away from gatherings, and limiting one’s contact with anyone else without a good reason just makes one feel safer. Jennifer told me tonight about a semi-friend that did not get the covid vaccine who took the virus home to his parents. His mom is in ICU now. No excuses.

 

Cleaned out the bed of my truck this afternoon and threw the pieces of chicken wire in the trash bin. Now we can load diatomaceous earth, chicken feed, and whatever in the truck on Saturday. Still need to make out my grocery list because it depends on what is needed before Jenn decides where to go for the best prices and availability. Looking forward to filling up the fridge with cheeses, fresh veggies, and maybe some fruit. The grapes bought at Market Street recently were so tough that it made me disgusted. That stuff is not cheap, but the hens could eat them easier than yours truly. Oh well.

 

Sat here listening to Jennifer trying to talk on the phone and being harassed by her dogs. She has three very active dogs, one ancient Chihuahua, two cats, her husband, and one son still at home. Talking on the phone is an iffy proposition. It reminds me of trying to talk on the phone when the children were little. Never a dull moment! But back then, Lewis swore that the PTA should have helped pay our phone bill since so many calls were about PTA business. Oh well.

 

The lack of rain means that the grass does not need to be cut, so no one around here has a really good reason to gripe, but the hens appreciate anything green right now. Lance suggested planting rye grass so that it would be green this winter and into spring. He is probably right that we should plant the seed pretty soon, but then, the hens will probably be out there picking up the seeds!

 

Patty showed me her latest visitor on her “ring camera.” A nice sized bobcat got a little spooked when the light came on with the motion detector, but it made her a little nervous about letting her little dogs out. That bobcat could easily go over her fence—or sit in the big cedar tree next to her porch! Praying that it will go away and leave her and her dogs alone. Maybe it will catch a few of these danged rats or even some of the rabbits! Sigh

 

Put another dozen eggs in the fridge today, so by Saturday evening we should have at least eight dozen to send home to Ft. Worth for the kids. Lance said that currently they were eating eggs big time. We all just seem to go at it by spells and spurts. Sometimes it will be a couple of weeks before any are cooked around here!

 

Looks as if the State Hospital may be making a new route into the grounds—or something. They have a lot of ground graded up all the way out to the highway, so it would make sense that they were putting in a new roadway. It certainly would prevent some of the accidents that have already happened. At certain times of the day—and while it is dark, around 5:30 to 6:30 in the morning—it is nearly impossible to get on that highway from any of the side roads on the south side of Kemp. And they are often going MUCH faster than 50 mph approaching the turn. Remembering that Donny used to say that the only difference between a state hospital patient and an employee was that the patients sometimes got better!

 

Have tried not to read anything on the news lately. Have even taken to deleting posts on AOL from political or religious sources. Everyone and his kid sister are outraged by something. Well, duh. Things are not going to get any better. Right now, all we can do is try to make the ones we have contact with to feel that we care about them. Kindnesses are never wasted efforts.

 

As we head into winter, it is frightening to think that flu and covid look so much alike. Guess yours truly will go get a flu shot pretty soon. Those shots sometimes make folks almost as sick as the flu, but even so, it is better to feel a little punk for a few days than to be totally wiped out for weeks. Thinking about how we survived the smallpox vaccine—a live vaccine! It made some of us pretty sick, but now we no longer have to deal with smallpox in this country—at least we have not since back in the 50s. Pray that the aliens coming into the country will not bring any horrible diseases with them. We would be like the American natives—unable to resist diseases for which we have no immunity!

 

May God bless you and yours with patience and faith in His love. Rest well, my friends, and know that you are loved.