Finally Bimini

Oh, you just thought you were going to get bimini pictures for free.  Sorry, it will cost you.  I have had Bronchitis for the past week.  As in COPD, Bronchitis, Asthma, cold, which I caught from WHOMEVER!  The COPD, I caught from Lark cigarettes, the Bronchitis, I caught from Doc Williams sugar coating COPD (caught from Lark cigarettes), the Asthma (caught from the Bronchitis, caught from Lark cigarettes) and the cold (caught from the little shithead that grabbed my cart, wiped his nose, rubbed it all over the handle of the Wal-Mart basket I carefully selected a week ago last Thursday.)

Because of my COPD, I have a Nebulizer, which treatments I have to take 4 times a day.  It involves a liquid medication poured into an inhaler, hooked up to an air pump with an in-and-out breathing aparatus.  Oooo, I just love getting old.  So, I'm much better than I was on Saturday, Aug. 21, when "it" had me in its grips.  I go back to Doc on Tuesday at 2:00 for a follow up.  Can you not wait?

And now we have picutres of the unfinished boat, which I totally intend to have finished by next season.  This Labor Day weekend is the only reservations we have left at Rayburn.  After that, it's literally first come, first served.  However, Jim and I are headed (most weekends in the fall) to the Baton Rouge KOA with our RV.  Jim has season tickets to the LSU games and I have many dates with the Denham Springs, LA antique shops.

The Bimini

The Back Deck Re-Upholster

Bimini Up and Close

The Front Seats - Still Need to Upholster the Reclining Cushions - Piece of Cake

The Front Center Seat needs special re-upholstering.

Must have Sunset!

Or Sun and Set

And God...

Ruffinista:  "It doesn't take a village, it takes one person, determined, never looking back, doing the best that they can."

The Eyes Have It

Mr. Ruffin has had a tough couple of weeks.  First off, I've written before regarding his UNdexterous hands, er, claws.  He was minding his own business in the shower last week...now Jim is an intense man, he was brought up playing football by the "no pain, no gain" theory (did I mention that he ran into the goal post in high school and knocked himself out?)...so as I said he was in the shower shampooing his head intensely...clawing his scalp to make sure EVERY piece of grime and sweat would be washed away when BOINK! I heard swearing and hollering.

"What happened Jim?" 

"I poked my eye out washing my hair!"

"You WHAT?!"

"I poked my eye out!"

Sure enough, when he got out of the shower, he had busted the blood vessels in the white part of his left eye.  All red, blood red.  He got dressed and lay down and I put some eye drops that Dr. Shelby had given him previously in his eye.  It stopped stinging so instead of going to the emergency room, we called Dr. Shelby's office and made an appointment for the next day. 

Next day rolls around and GUESS WHO IS 30 MINUTES LATE for his appt. with Dr. Shelby?  Jim Ruffin, that's who (I hate to go with him anywhere sometimes because I am a fastidious ON-TIMER.).  They would not see him.  They said he was too late.  Jim borders on being blind usually, well not actually but his eyes are terrible and he's always losing his glasses.  So he blows them off and just lets the eye heel by continuing the drops.  Until he uses them up and has to go to Wal-Mart to get some Murine...fast forward to yesterday after lunch.

"Hey Susan, will you put some Murine in my eyes?"

"Sure Jim, just a sec."

Well he goes ahead and starts without me and puts some in his right eye.

"Hey Susan, this shit burns."

"Well, maybe your eyes are tired.  Let me do the other eye."

"Ow!, this shit really burns, damn!"

I look at the bottle and have the worst feeling in all of my life, like my liver and stomach and heart had been pulled out of my insides through my left nostril...

"MY GOD MAN, THESE ARE EAR DROPS!!!!"

Jack Rabbit Jim jumps up, tears to the bathroom, turns on the faucet, and starts splashing his whole body with water...then does a backflip, hangs his neck over the sink looking upward, screaming, "SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASH!"  So I douse a washcloth and wring it over his eyes with warm water for it seems like 2 hours but was probably only 5 minutes.  He jumps in his work truck and drives to Dr. Shelby's office.  Well they're only too glad to see him immediately, without an appointment, for free.  Go figure.

He's okay now.  He'll be 61 on Saturday.  We're two peas in a pod.

Quote for the day:  "Can a blind man lead a blind man?  Will not they both fall into a pit?"  Jesus

A Day in the Life

5:30 a.m. - Yawn....Hello osteoarthritic right knee (swish leg under the covers), meet osteoarthritic left knee (swish other leg under the covers - it's cool to feel the sheets touch my skin yet so very excruciatingly painful)...it's time to start the day (raise both arms in the air and flex fingers with Heberden's nodes five or six times).  Swing feet to the floor.  Yeah, there they are, those poor swollen ankles I was so hoping would find the fountain of youth overnight (injured in a car wreck 40 years ago and never properly healed)..."you sad, inflamed arthritic dogs you."  Push myself out of bed and grab the wall for balance.  "This is the way, to start a new day."  Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.  Grab executive chair at desk for balance on the way to the bathroom.  Wince trying to roll it out of my way due to osteoarthritic shoulder.  It's only an executive chair on rollers but it feels like the starting left tackle on LSU's football team has hit me.  Ahhh, the dressing room, getting closer to the bathroom.  "Hello, Mr. Wall, mind if I hold you up for a sec?"  Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.  Enter bathroom.

5:35 a.m. - Turn on shower.....

Just kidding, I would not put you through any more torture...or laughing.  Bette Davis was right when she said, "Getting old is not for sissies."  Who would have dreamed in my immortal 20s that I could really turn into one of those OLD people who look like shit?  No, no, don't go there.  Of course there are millions of older people who are beautiful and lean and svelte and prospering as geriatrics.  These people aren't real.  They're all from Jupiter or Manitoba or somewhere.  The real old people are us, the flabby, wrinkled, liver spotted, thinning haired, shrivelling, arthritic, "no photos please", inhabitants that move less and less each day.  You could kind of say we're perfecting slow motion.

Maybe it's the hotness of August that has gotten to me (it was over 100 again yesterday) or perhaps I've been rode too hard and put up wet too many times.  When Jim and I were at Rayburn this weekend, our conversations kept drifting to either our ailments or the wonderful days when we tent camped and hiked miles and miles.  Except during those wonderful days of tent camping and hiking, we were complaining that we wished we were older and had an RV with air conditioning and could sit and look out at a lake somewhere.

And now sitting in my palatial office space in Mansfield, LA, I'm wishing I was burning up at Rayburn in the 100 degree plus weather.  Never satisfied.

Ruffinista words of wisdom:  You know you've been married 28 years when he's totally comfortable confiding the following phrase:  "Susan, my hernia hurts when I fart."

Say Anything

Hello, I'm still here, I just have not been finishing any of my blog posts.  I'll have a good one started and then Mr. G insists that I do some work and the next thing you know I've lost my train of thought.  Geez, where does he get off thinking he's so important. 

We've had some excellent weekends (or in my case, 4 day vacations) at Lake Sam Rayburn with lots going on.  Clif, being home for the summer interning for Balar Engineering, and I re-upholstered the boat in luxurious off-white leatherette.  Actually, we did a pretty good job.  Clif laughed out loud when I brought home a whole bolt of off-white marine grade vinyl (15 yards) to the tune of $200.  Seems I did my ciphering wrong and only needed 7 yards of fabric.  Criminey, it's not like I'm Treasury Secretary or something.

And since Jim and I were tired of being burnt to a crisp all the time, we finally forked over the dough for a bimini over the boat this summer.  Burgundy.  I wanted navy but the votes were 2 to 1.  I lose.  Hmm, really need a picture to show you how great it looks:

Now don't you think navy would have been prettier?  Actual pictures to come soon.  In the mean time I'll leave you with a few pictures from this summer:

Looking North on the lake you cannot even see land on the left - 114,000 acres.

Tarzan Island right in the middle of the lake.  Jumping off the rocks is scary.

Mr. Ruffin, a/k/a Captain oh my Captain

More island.

The house that almost fell into the lake until the owner reinforced the corroding bank and then got fined by the Corps of Engineers for reinforcing the bank and not leaving it au natural...wait a minute, isn't this a manmade lake?

Always end with a fabulous sunset.

Stop back by soon, but not too soon.

Inspiring words from the Ruffinista:  Life is just one beautiful sunset after another.