Tuesday

Well is so dang quiet here that you just want to stay in bed and sleep especially with the cool temps. The morning started with us once again sleeping in until 7:30 or so, wow I feel like we're on vacation. We did our usual morning routine except for the Cheerios for breakfast with fruit. We discovered we had 2 large boxes we had purchased during the summer when we had company that had kids and they never ate them; so instead of carrying them back to Florida in what we feel will be in a couple days as her dad is getting no better, we ate the O's.

Nancy's dad is having a difficult time eating so his weight has dropped to 158 pounds. He doesn't appear to be getting any stronger and the physical therapy doesn't seem to be helping with strengthening the knee as he is still unable to walk without assistance. So we think we maybe heading out of here by the weekend if not before.

I moved all the fire circle benches under the back porch, weed eated the property and then mowed. We then took a hike to the top and saw no one. The place look deserted on top; but the view was magnificent with the blue skies and some color starting to appear in the mountain ridges. It was in the high 40's in the morning but warmed up to the high 60's by the afternoon and may have been 70 when we headed to Sparta. We stopped on the way and visited with our "mountain mom" Helen for an hour or so. She looks great at 83 and is still going strong. We left her and stopped at Radio Shack to return a phone we bought in August because it keeps dropping calls. There isn't much they can do because we were in Florida shortly after purchasing it. We bought new phones at Sam's Club but these new ones have a built in answering machine so if you call and don't recognize the voice message its us at the same number in both places.

We headed to Allegheny High to meet us with the Dalton Gang. Their daughter Catherine was playing in their final school tennis match so we sat in the warm sun watching her play. It was a tough match but as a sophomore she has some great potential and with a little coaching her game will be hard to beat. The evening came quickly and as the sun set the temps dropped quickly as well. By the time we got to the River Rock Grille I had put on a flannel shirt as well as a jacket over the long sleeve shirt I was wearing. It was nearly 8:00 o'clock by the time we ordered. The food was very good and this is the yuppiest place in town, kinda like a sports bar and the place was jumping for a Tuesday night. I learned the Rays were beaten by the Rangers and out of the playoffs, yuck but they sure gave us some thrilling moments with their history making 9 games out to get in the playoff in the month of September. They truly were the underdogs and I believe many baseball fans were actually hoping for them to be victorious over the other perennial baseball power teams.

We got home around 9:30 or so and Nancy had a discouraging phone call with her sister about her dad's condition, so we are preparing to leave any day now; at least we had a touch of winter and saw many of our mountain friends and family. On Wednesday we are heading over to Eddie and Kimberley's place for a visit and to gather horse dropping for my garden, any how we are making the cabin ready to leave in a moment. We had hoped to stay long enough for her 6 month doctors appointment with Dr. K on the 14th and for her hair appointment on the 11th with Brenda. Anyhow we surely love this place and the folks who make us feel like family, LATER