Wednesday April 6, 2005
11:10a
     I have an ANSYS Workbench job running, one of the long running types. I've been going out back to smoke and pass the time. I've read the political postings at the ABC message boards. Made a couple of postings there as well. So it finally occurred to me to do something productive, really prodcutive, and write a Journal entry. I've been letting the days and weeks go by without writing like I use to.

     Plumbing. About the second Friday or Saturday of March I made up my mind to call a plumber and have the leaky faucets fixed. The hot water one in the pink bathroom had been leaking for a long time and getting worst. The one in the blue bathroom was the same.
     I had planned to call the Mr Rooter people but Mom wanted to use Shock or some other local one. So I started calling Shock and left a message or two. Lucille had called sometime and gave me his cell phone number and an Ellenburg man's number who use to work with Shock. So I was calling both of them. About Tuesday I talked with Shock and made arrangements for him to go to Mom's house on Friday. That same day at lunch time, Mom said the Ellenburg man had called. I called him back and made arrangements for him to do the job. Then I had to call Shock back about the change.
     I think it was Thursday when he was suppose to be at Mom's. I called him after he was late. He had been out cutting trees and had an accident with the chain saw. Cut his knee up. I think that had happened the day he called. So anyway he sent someone else over, a man who worked with him I guess.
     The plumber fixed the toilet tank in the laundry room. It had started squirting water up to the lid and it would run down to the outside. That was the real reason I finally decided to call a plumber.
     Then he started working on the sink faucets. I had to go buy some WD 40 for him to use to help loosen the handles. That was a short trip to the ACE hardware place down next to Ingles. He got the kitchen faucets done but the hot water handle stripped and was loose. So I ended up buying new handles for that later. He got the hot water handle off in the pink bathroom. But didn't have any washers for it. He went off to look for some. He found a stem but it didn't work. So in the end the leaky faucets didn't get fixed.
     We talked about new hardware and vanities and sizes that I would have to get. He called Ellenburg and talked with him some then I talked with him. He said would be up later in the day to settle everything. Then the worker left. Ellenburg came by about 5:30. He was hobbling on one leg and told about his accident. There was some other talk about who he was and all, just the usual make conversation things. After talking a be more about what was needed to fix everything and me paying him he left.
     Outside he looked over toward the Vickery house and asked who lived there. I told him. Then he asked if there use to be pine trees there. I told him yes and about them growing tall and then being cut down. He said his uncle and he planted those pines.
     I learned Mom had wanted a vanity in the pink bathroom for a long time anyway. I guess it was that weekend I drove down to Easley and Lowes to start looking for the stuff and seeing what was available and how much it was going to cost. I saw the prices for faucets, $100 to $300 for just the simple ones. But I saw 5 and 6 hundred faucets too. The vanities and tops were seperate and you had to pick and choose how to put them all together. I think those were going to be 3 or 4 hundred dollars.
     There was one or two pedistal types that were on sale for a hundred dollars but you still had to buy the faucets. I got kind of sick just looking and thinking about what it was going to take.
     I left there and went to Home Depot next. They had some vanities and tops and some less expensive faucets. I think a set of everything was going to be about $300. I looked around there for a few minutes then left.
     Drove back to Pickens without anything.

     Aches and pains. Monday after that weekend I started to feel like I had got the flu or something. There was body aches and even the skin was sensitive to the touch. I could feel it when washing with the wash cloth at night. So that got steadily worst as the week went on. I kept own working every day too.
     The next weekend was Easter so I was off Friday. Feeling bad and on a holiday. I started taking some cough syrup Sunday or Monday. Felt bad the next week too. I had heard others talk about some bug going around. Coughing up bad tasting mucus. Mom had mentioned that when she was sick the weeks after my cold back in January. So maybe I got it back from her.

Friday April 8, 2005
11:00a
     It really wasn't any fun working and feeling bad. The worst was the coughing and I still have that head pain when I do that. Even early this week I was still coughing up stuff but not nearly as much as when I first caught whatever it was.

     Daniel made a trip down to see Frances, I think that was the last week of March. Then he drove on down to see Mom, that would have been late Easter Sunday when he got here. He drove up into the mountains one day and down to Clemson another. I guess he made some other trips too.
     He had one of those security people come to Mom's one day. It was late when he got there, 5:30 or so. He showed what services they had and Daniel arranged for one where you push a button and it will call the service. It took till after 7:00 for the salesman to get it installed. Most of the time was waiting on the home office to get things set up and tested. We ate supper late that night.
     Mom has been wearing the wrist button and keeps the necklace type next to her bed.
     One of the windy days this past weekend or maybe Monday or so the power flickered off and back on. Mom noticed then that one of the lights on the new machine doesn't burn. I guess that's all it is, just a burned out light. I pressed the help button and it started the called and then I press the cancel button and it stopped. So it looks like it still works ok.

     Work. For the last 3 or 4 weeks I've been doing another engine heat problem. The engine engineers wanted an FEA done with temperature loading. I've been making models and running them, plotting and image processing them into a word document and writting eveything up. I really don't know what I'm doing and just making guesses as to how the engine parts want to move around from the heat.
     The ANSYS thing is solving one of the models now and that's what I'm waiting on while typing this up. I had been using an iterative type solver before and it took 3 to 5 hours to solve. This morning I tried a direct solver and it seems to be faster. I never had any real luck using a direct solver before, it seem to take even longer than the interative type. But all this is new software and applications and I'm just stumbling along like I always do.
     Last Friday I finished up one analysis, wrote it up and send it out. Later that afternoon I got a reply and it didn't seem like he was all that satisfied with what I had done. Basically it was not including the bolt tension holding the parts together. So I felt bad about messing up. I spent some time getting anothe model together with bolt tension before the end of the day.
     Then Saturday after washing clothes came in and started it running. Came back that afternoon to see if it finished. It had so I saved it and left again. That results wasn't any better because of the way ANSYS Workbench treats bolt tensions. They don't work well for things with gaskets between the parts. Monday I wrote that up and send it out.
     All this week has been messing around trying different things and seeing what happens. Still don't know what to look for when things get hot and torqued.

     Tartan and Klits. Wednesday was National Tartan Day, holiday for Scottish Americans. Scott, the nephew, wore his to work. He goes to the Highland games up in North Carolina somewhere. It's not the Grandfather Mountain one but one out toward Raleigh-Durham I think. They still have the one at Grandfather Mountian which is what I remember from the 1960s.

     Leander came up Wednesday and brought food to cook. It was her late birthday dinner with Mom. Her birthday was March 30 or 31. I still haven't remember to get a card for Mom to give her yet too. Seems like I've forgotten to take care of lots of little things these past few weeks.
     I left work early, actually I just didn't stay late like I normally do, so I could get back to Mom's early. I got there about 5:00. Leander had planned on me getting there at 5:30 so we sat around waiting for the food to finish cooking. Mom has done the same thing, try to time supper for when I get there. I wish they would just go ahead and fix things without being particular about having eveything just in time.

     It's been raining yesterday, last night and today. The grass around Mom's house is getting tall now. It seems to have grow fast this past week or ten days. So I will have to get it cut tomorrow whether the grass is dry or wet.

     Robert sent one of his really long emails a few days ago. I think that was last week. He's still working at his apartment, the building business has picked up a lot the past year or so. One of the engineers left to start his own business too. Tanya and Chris are planning to move back to where they use to live. Jobs are better there. Eli and his wife are still in school or going back to school. Eric and his wife are still working at something or other. Karen has moved back from Texas too and back into their old house where some of them have been living.

Wednesday April 20, 2005
7:55p
     Monday or Tuesday of last week Lawrence the boss brought the performance review papers into my office for me to sign. He talked a little about us (or me) getting only 3% increases this year. He had wrote up the good work I do and how I was underpaid for what I do and how I never complain and other good things. But still the man higher up just wrote it up as meets expectations. I didn't mention the three or four hundred hours over time I did last year.'
     So anyway another work year goes by and still I'm not being advanced any.
     All this was posponed from October last year when my annual review was suppose to have happened. They made that change March of 2004. Which was also after the October 2003 review when I got passed over because some one else higher up made Lawrence choose between two of us who he wanted to promote and advance.
     It was always these kinds of things that had happened all the years I worked for Singer and then Ryobi. That happened once to meaning times and I left in 1991. There won't be any walking away from a job this time though. I stuck here and have to work no matter what the company does to me. At least till I get close to retirement and they decide to send me out early and then I'll have to scramble to make ends met till the real retire year happens when I'm 66. If the government doesn't change the rules again before then and if the social security system doesn't get screwed up before then too.
     But I'm sure the politicans will find a way to mess everything up anyway. At least for us poor commoners, they will take care of their rich friends and a political contributors.
     I was sitting out on the porch earlier this evening. Smoking a cig and thinking of the job I had been working on. I thought it was finished these last couple of days. It had to do with a modal analysis on an engine sub assembly. So it pops into my mind that what I had done was all wrong. There was a part missing from the finite element model. I really don't know how I didn't realize that way earlier when I started on it last week. I did have to fix some of the geometry from the CAD model. Always fixing stuff from someone else's mistakes. It may be that the CAD modeler left out the part but I will have to check tomorrow.
     So anway again ... I'll have to start over again on the project tomorrow. At least I didn't send any report out yet and I was close to doing that a couple of times.
     I've started cutting the grass again for this season. I did that a couple of Saturday ago but skipped last Saturday. The Pickens Azeala festival was this past weekend. Last evening I cut the grass. I seldom do that during the week but the weather predictors were talking about rain Friday and Saturday. So it was either cut early this week or wait till it gets tall and hard to cut in a couple more weeks.
     I went up to the festival last Friday night to look at the old cars. Not the really old, old cars but the ones I remember from the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s. Saturday I went up to make videos for Mom to look at. It was mostly the usual things at the festival, people, bands, craft booths, kids rides. The National Guard had a moble rock climbing wall erected in front of the Baptist church. Got to see a couple of men climb up and repell down.
     Sunday I drove down to Leanders. She had been up a couple of times the past weeks. Fixed supper one night and left a bowl. Then when it was raining one time she left her umbrella. So I used that as a reason to go down to her house. We talked about the usual things, life's aches and pains.
     The weather has warmed up enough some days to start leaving the windows open a little at night. I will leave the bathroom window open at the bottom and one of the bedroom windows open at the top. It helps at night to have fresh air, especially after the Winter months.
     There's probalbly some other things I had thought of writing about these last three weeks. But I've managed to forget about them by now.
     Still haven't done anything about the faucets and vanities and stuff. Still haven't done much of anything about what I've thought about doing or needs to be done. Still just letting the days slip by. Maybe not quite as bad since I've at least cut the grass. There's a hedge bush next to the metal building. Well there's three but one is at the far corner and it's not doing well and it's too big so I've been thinking about cutting it down and let it start growing over from the stumps.
     Then there's that brush burning over at my house I've been thinking of doing for weeks, months and seasons. Maybe I'll get it done.
     Oh yeah, I get three weeks vacation this year. I was looking at the last paystub and saw the small print at the bottom about vacation time. I had to go look back though the old ones to see when the change happened. It was in January.

Thursday April 21, 2005
5:00a
     Earl, one of the people I work with, found out about google maps, really fine satellite images. You can see cars good. So I've spent some time the early part of April looking at the places I've been. NTC Orlando, NAS Millington TN and NAS Oceana Va Beach, Dale City, Cape Carnavel. They've torn down some of the baracks and other buildings at Millington. NTC Orlando has been leveled and is being made into a development. Oceans looks the same as well as the first apartment in Va Beach. I think Fort Story is gone now too, that area doesn't look the same. I could find the Joel and Jackie place in Dale City and had to ask Scott where it was.

Sunday April 24, 2005
4:30p
     Friday afternoon the storms came, the thundering, lightening, and wind. I was at work and looked out a couple of times. There was sleeting once and dark, dark clouds another. I went on with working, writing up another analysis. Actually re-writing it for the third or fourth time. But anyway.
     The phone rang and I answered it. It was Mom. The electric had gone off and she was having trouble getting the portable oxygen tank turned on. I told her how and it sounded like she was doing it right but one of the gages wouldn't move when the knob was turned. After a few minutes I tell her I'm on my way. So I tell Earl and then I leave.
     I go out the front way this time thinking I would drive up Edens road. But cars are turning around just past the enterance. So I go back down to Jones Avenue. There was more than normal traffic there and it takes some extra minutes to get to the mountain highway. There was a tree partly across the road. On up the highway and turn on to the Ridge road and on to Mom's house. There was extra traffic all along the way.
     Mom is sitting in the den with the portable oxygen tank. I look at it and adjust the flow rate knob. It was turned up too far. She said she had found the instructions I had written up back in 2000 when she first went on oxygen. The next thirty minutes or so I sit in the den too. Tell about the blocked roads and traffic.
     I go outside to look around a little and smoke cigs. Down at Mom's neighbor's house I see the tv antenna hung up in the power, cable and phone lines. I think about going down to get it the rest of the way onto the ground. It would be a good time while the power is off. So I go do that.
     I conneceted her oxygan tube to the big tank that's been sitting in the corner all these years too. We've used a very few times, maybe only two or three times. After a short while more I leave to go back to work and finish up a few things.
     The traffic is still everywhere, coming up Edens road, coming up the highway and turning onto the ridge. It looked like the highway was blocked down by the big curve. I get down to the Towncreek shopping plaza. They had electric but the traffic light was out. Down at the bridge in front of the bank the traffic is stopped. So I sit there and then creap forward a little and then sit some more. When I get to the traffic light I see Ann street is blocked by a big tree across all four lanes. I turned onto Jones street and then it more creaping along with lots of sitting and waiting. All the while I'm thinking I should have just stayed at Mom's. It takes me 30 minutes to get down to the back enterance to the plant.
     I get parked and go in. Didn't do much of anything execpt read an email reply and then shut down the computer. I stopped by Lawrence's office and telling him about the down trees and backed up traffic. Then I leave again.
     I went by out the front entrance again but it's still blocked. So I go back toward town but turn onto Runnymede road and across the old Holder's bridge on the old road we use to live on. There's traffic backed up at that small intersection too, but I think everyone was taking turns getting through it. Back up at the Pumpkintown highway some people have that highway blocked going back toward the plant and town.
     Across the highway I see Edens road already has taffic cones across it. So I go out the highway thinking of going up Trotter hill where DM and Mickey live. As I drive by the old Mauldin house I see Bob and Edna walking across the big front yard toward where an really big tree had fallen. It was at the corner of that house's lot next to the Horse Store. Trotter hill road has traffic cones across it too. I pulled into one of the parking lots and look up the hill. There's a tree across the road just above DM and Micky's house. It was the one at the end of their upper drive in where Micky parks but it was the neighbor's tree. I couldn't tell if her car was there or not.
     So now I have to figure out where to try next. I drive on out the highway past the old Tweleve Mile school site and turn onto a road that connects back to Trotter Hill road. The going is ok all the way up to the Ridge road and back almost to the water tank. But there's three or four cars stopped there just before the top of the hill. I was getting so close too. I wait it out. Some cars are coming through and I think we're just having to take turns. A couple of the cars pull off just ahead of me. Some men get out. As I get closer I see some county deputies and other men. They're clearing off another down tree. The though crossed my mind that they might stop all traffic till they get it done. But I get through anyway.
     I decide to ride on out to my house and see what's happened there. Down where you turn of the highway onto Gravely road the house on that corner had a couple of trees down. One was across half the mountain highway. Out Gravely road there were several down trees. One had fallen on a couple of trucks, that was at the house some man has rented for years. At another place there were some men finishing up clearing a path. Across the bridge and up pass the next hill there was a power pole down on one side of the road and the pole on the other side was half cracked into. The lines were still up enough to drive on through.
     As I get closer to my house I see less and less damage. There wasn't anything bad at the neighbor's house either. I get the mail and do a quick walk through, kind like I always do. Then I go back to Mom's house. Seems like everywhere I see trees down and other stuff I didn't see the first time through. I did drive back down to Ingles to get a plate of food for supper.
     The rest of the evening is spent eating supper and getting for powerless night. I made another trip to Ingles for flashlight batteries. The ones in them were getting old, especially Mom's flashlight. Mom goes on and lays down after eating. I just sort of stayed up and sit in the dark waiting for regular bed time. Also going out on the back porch to smoke cigs. I smoke a whole pack Friday, it's usually about 3/4 pack but use to be only 1/2 of less. But that was months ago.
     Before I eat supper Mom had said that Jean, one of the neighbor's daughter, had come up while I was gone. She was looking for her mother. So I go down there and see what's new about that. She had gone up to another daughter's house. We talk a little about the storm. I tell them about the tv antenna.
     That moniter and help calling thing Daniel had put would talk some. Mom had already told of about it saying to check the power cord. I guess it was some time when I was there in the afternoon that the moniter people called. The machine had called them about the power outage. I just told them yeah the power is off we had a storm here. That evening a couple of times the power just barely flickered on and off. Just enough to make the moniter say the power was reconnected and then a few seconds later say it was off again. I found the off switch hidden under a cover on the bottom so I turned it off for the night.
     After I had laid down, about an hour earlier than normal, I read a little by flashlight. The phone rang so I had to go into the kitchen, the one in the bedroom needs power. It was Jason wanting to know how things were here and tell about the hospital having rooms to use by people who are on oxygen. I tell him we've go the big tank hooked up. They were sitting in the dark over at Jackie's house to. The rest of the night goes by. I did wake up several times. The first time the clock numbers were lite up and it was only between 11:00 and 12:00. I guess the power stayed on the rest of the night.
     I get up about 5:30 by the clock in the front bedroom. When I get into the kitchen I see the battery powered wall clock is 4:30. I stay up and do my usual morning things. Go outside to sit and smoke. Look at the news on the internet and eat my bowl of cereal. Then I go back to the front bedroom, clean up and then lay back down by 5:30. It's 7:30 when I get up again.
     I get the normal Saturday stuff done, washing clothes, hauling off the trash, geting groceries. After taking the trash off I try driving down by DM's place. The road is still blocked off. Can't get down Edens road either.
     Saturday afternoon is spend cleaning up. I get on top of Mom's house and sweep it off. I guess that's the first time I've been on a roof with a broom. Clean the gutters out. The wind was still blowing hard this day too and cooling off. It wasn't warm Spring day to be outside doing yard work. Then it's pick up and rake up and green leaves and twigs and branches. Mom's neighbor's daughter is back with her husband and one of her sons. They are cleaning up down there too.
     I get that done, clean up and then go ride around again. Get down Edens rode and see trees on one a couple of Bob and Edna's houses. A big one is leaning against the old Mauldin house where they sometimes parke their cars. Then there's couple of pine trees on the side of the grey house above the Mauldin house. Looks like the awning over the front door got torn down. The tree above DM's house had been cleared off. There was nothing else bad around their house.
     Sunday has been about normal. There's still lots of wind today. Mom fixed cubed steak and gravy and rice. Normally I stand around and ask if there's anything for me to do about fixing lunch, but that usually gets a no. So I go lay down for a little bit. Then I get back up latter and she's still fixing lunch. Said I left to soon earlier. Seems like I never get anything right. But that's normal.
     Pretty much did the same Sunday afternoon things. This time up at Holly Springs cemetery there was an elder man and his son. The son was making pictures. The man walked by the truck and started talking. He had grown up in the area but left in 1972. They were back visting and I guess showing the son the old places.
     Robert sent an email about a Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson concert in Greenville in June. I think it was Friday or Saturday I was listening to NPR and local news. They had mentioned them being in Myrtle Beach and I think is was this week or next week. Maybe they will be making two trips through South Carolina. I went to a Nelson concert down at the Littlejohn in Clemson. That must have been in 1987 or so. Maybe it's time for me to make another trip to one of those events. I suppose after 40 something years of hearing about Dylan I should. Typical me, catching things decades after the big time eras.

May 15, 2005 (more or less)
I don't remember
     Two weekends (May 1) ago I started one of my vacation weeks. Didn't plan on doing much except ....
     Late afternoon Wednesday May 4 I get back home from one of my vacation day trips. I went to King's Mountain National Battleground park. Mom mentions that she had called the doctor's office for them to have her prescripton for valium called in to the pharmacy. It was after the pharmacy closed and I tried calling the pharmists at home but he wasn't there. Nothing to do but wait it out till morning. She had let it go too late this time and didn't have any pills left.
     Thursday morning I had gotten up and did my usual routine, eat breakfast, clean up and go lay back down. About 7:00 - 7:30 Mom calls me. She had fallen in the bathroom. Nothing bad resulted. We tried a few minutes to get herself up. I ended up calling the Austin's and they came up to help. They hadn't got out of bed yet I learned later. We get Mom back in bed, they stayed only a few minutes and then left. Mom stays in bed for most of the day, only getting up when she had to.
     Some of the rest of the day was spent going to the pharmacy and doctor's office to get the prescription called in and filled. Mom had been staying in bed most all the time especially when I went on the day trips. I had done only two. She didn't want to be up because she was concerned about falling.
     Soon after lunch Mom calls out again. She was on the floor in the bedroom this time. Lucille called just at that time and I had to tell her what had happened and hang up. I get Mom on the bed again and she lays there. I've forgotten what we talked about then. Lucille came on out and got sat in the bedroom with her. I sit in the den and out on the porch. Mostly waiting for about 5:00 to go get her valium. I probably went into the bedroom a couple of times. Mom was not thinking and talking right. Her speech was slurred and she was saying things that didn't make sense.
     One time Lucille came into the kitchen and she's concerned about Mom having some mini strokes. We tried to talk her into going to the hospital. She really didn't want to go and she wanted to get cleaned up first if she did. She could just barely stand by the bed with me and Lucille holding her up. I finally give up and just go to the kitchen to call EMS. I boke down and cried while trying to tell them what was going on and answering his questions. I get the portable phone and go into the bedroom. I don't remember many of the details about then, just being on the phone and trying to calm Mom down.
     The ems people arrive. The better news from them was that after getting her on their tank of oxygen she was more coherent. Still not happen about me calling ems but she was at least responding to the oxygen. One of the ems people said her oxygen level was low, I've forgotten the number, low 80s or upper 70s. Mrs Austin saw the ems vehicle go by their house and she calls and wants to know if she needs to come up. I almost cry again and tell her to come on up. After she gets her she hears enought of the ems talk to think it is pnemonia.
     Don't remember much about what else went on. I start opening up the living room and front door since that was way they have to go. One of the ems men back the truck up the front. They get Mom on the stretcher-bed and roll her down the hall, into the living room, out the door and
     ...

May 20, 2005 (again more or less)
I don't remember
     I wrote up the events of my vacation week, Mom's pnuemonia and hospital stay, and sent it to the brothers. This is what the following is.
     Saturday April 30. Start one of my vacation weeks. Do the usual Saturday things. Mom says Leander wants to have a birthday meal for me. Mom says she's feeling well enough and brave enough to go to Leander's for it. First time in two or three years she felt like she would go somewhere.
     Sunday May 1. Get ready and go to Leander before 10:30 and spend the day till mid afternoon. Everything goes good. It's good to see Mom somewhere beside in her chair or bed at her house.
     Monday May 2. Go to Easley looking for a door for the outside storage room. It's been in bad shape for years. Do some trimming around the house. Go to my house to get tools for fixing the door. Start looking at the old door and seeing what it's going to take to fix it. Discover the new door is a real exterier door and the old door is an interier door, the new door is too thick. Go back to Easley, swap doors, drive back home and put door in storage room.
     Tuesday May 3. The weather report said it was going to turn stroming later in the week so decide to do a day trip. Go to Mt Mitchell.
     Wednesday May 4. Another day trip to King's Mountain Battleground. Get back home and Mom says she's been trying to get a prescription called into the pharmcy since yesterday. The pharmacy is already closed and I try calling one of the pharmcists at home. He's not there. This time she's waiting till she didn't have any pills left. Wait till tomorrow to start on get her medicine.
     Thusday May 5. Mom calls for me, she had fallen in the bathroom, no major damage. I can't get her up. Call the Austins and they come up to help. We get her back on her bed and they leave. Some of the rest of the day is spent going to the pharmcist and doctor's office to get Mom's valium medicine. After lunch time Mom calls again, this time she in the bedroom and was trying to get out of bed I think. I get her back on the bed. At the same time Lucille called and I have to tell her what happened and then go help Mom. She gets here a little latter and sits in the room with Mom.
     As the afternoon progresses, we try to talk Mom into going to the hospital. But she doesn't want to go and won't go till she gets herself cleaned up. I go out to warm the car up. Mom's not thinking right or talking right and slurring her words. Lucille sees me in the kitchen and talks about it might be a mini-stroke. We go back into her room and talk to her some more. She still won't go. Lucille finally tells me I have to do what I thinks best. So I go to call ems, break down and cry while trying to tell them what the emergency is and answer questions and all that.
     They eventually get here and it does feel like a long time when you really want them. Mrs Austin sees the ems vehcile go by their house and calls wanting to know if it was from Mom and if I want her to come up. I tell her to come on up. The ems people get Mom on their oxygen and she starts to respond better. I think one of them said her level was upper 70s or low 80s. They listen to her lungs and say it sounds bad. Mrs Austin thinks maybe it's pnuemonia. They get her on the rolling stretch, down the hall to the living room and out the front door.
     Lucille asks what she can do and calls DM and Jackie to let them know. Mrs Austin asks and I tell her to tell Mrs Hunt and Mrs Pitman what's going on. They leave, I get Mom's purse and medicine and close up the house and go the emergency room.
     It's mostly the usualy stuff at the emergency room. Jackie came up and stayed a while. Leander manged somehow to get a call to me, she had one of the nurse bring a phone to me. They do the tests and xrays and whatever else and it all looks like pneumonia. Her doctor, his name is Person, gets there about 8:00 I think and admits her to the hospital. He asks some of the legal questions. "If we find you not breathing you want us to resisitate you?", "Do you have a living will?" "Does someone have a medical power of attonery?" Time passes and we follow her to her room. We get her settled in. I've fogrotten when I left, I think I was back at her house before midnight.
     Friday May 6. Mom's hands shake when she holding forks and spoons so we have to feed her. This goes on into Sunday. Sometime she does better at feeding herself. Mostly trips between the hospital and Mom's house. I may have gone to DM and Mickies or that may have been Saturday. Mom seems to be doing ok considering her condition. Still she wasn't really acting or talking just right. Leander gets to the hospital late morning and spends the day. I think we ate lunch in the hospital cafeteria this day. I've forgotten whatelse may have happened this day.
     Saturday May 7. More trips between the hospital and Mom's house, getting things and doing things. Usual visitors to the hospital. Daniel and Francis call, gets Mother's day flowers from Daniel. Some where about here, or yesterday, I learn the doctor had left off her anti-depressant medicine the first day and she missed one mornings' doseage. Also I think I learned he had wrote up the nurses' instruction to give Mom her valium only when asked for. I tell Mom she has to ask for her valium at her usual times, but I really don't think she understand what she had to do. I washed my clothes, hauled of the trash, got some groceries and cut the grass. Spent the evening with Mom then go back to her house.
     Sunday May 8. Mom's upset with the nurses, hospital noises and activities, being told to when to do what. She's a high fall risk and they don't want her out of bed unless a nurse is there. She hadn't slept well or at all since Friday. Leander spends the late morning and afternoon there. Mom tells her about the situation there. There's more visitors during the day. I do the house cleaning and getting things ready for her being back home. During the evening she talks about hearing music all the time. Says she see Willy Nealson's picture on the sides of the bed. There was a storm one day about now and she thinks the bed is wet from the ceiling leaking.
     Monday May 9. I stop by the hospital in the mornig on the way to work. Help Mom with her breakfast. Her mood and confusion is still bad. I go to work about 8:30 and leave for lunch at 11:00. go home to eat a sandwich and then up the hospital. Leander is with her again. Stay there till 1:00 and go back to work. Go back to the hospital about supper time. Mom talks more about the bad situation at the hospital, or her perception of it. Nurses telling her to sit back down when she tries to get up to walk or go to the bathroom. I help her walk around some and she sits in a chair next to the window. The nurse says if she wants to sit she will have to wear a seat belt to keep her from getting up. I try to keep her seated till that gets do. Mom gets upset with me now. The nurse never returns so she decides to go lay back down. I sit with her till 9:30 or so when I think she's going to sleep.
     I go home and lay down but don't sleep any. Get up about 1:00 to sit on the porch and smoke. The phone rings. It's the nurse at the hospital. Mom's really distraught and upset. I go back to the hospital. She's sitting on the edge of the bed crying and wants to know what's going on that making things so bad. I explain to the nurse about how long she's been using valium and what dosage and taking it regularly 3 times a day. Tell how the doctor wrote it up for her to have to ask for it. Tell how she's been to confused with all the recent changes to her life the last few days, pnuemonia, being in the hospital, not sleeping well to know to ask for something she has alway normally taken. The nurse mentions withdrawl and calls the emergency room doctor I guess. He prescribes a seditive. I stay with Mom and starts to calm some and lays back down. Later the nurse gives her the seditive and she eventually falls to sleep. I stay till about 4:00am and then go home to clean up, eat breakfast and lay down for an hour.
     Tuesday May 10. Back to the hospital by 8:00 and Mom is still sleeping. Her breakfast is already there. By 8:15 or so the nurses try to get her woke up so she can eat, take her medicine and start doing the other things they normally do. A physical therpist comes in wanting to do that about the same time but I tell him it will have to be later. I see her doctor at the nurses station and walk over to him and tell him we need to talk. He comes into Mom's room later. Apologizes for her not getting her valium because he thought she was getting. He "reluctantly" changes the nurses instructions to make valium a regular medicine to give her. I'm getting realy tired of hearing him apologize for mistakes and "reluctantly" give Mom her valium which she's taken for 45 years.
     Mom goes back to sleep after the mornings activity. I go sit in the lobby for a while. Leander comes in about noon time and I tell her about the events last night and this morning. There's a session with the physical threapist and Mom doesn't want to be bother with it. It all just simple stuff she could always do like lift her arms and legs, walk a little and sit up in a chair. I go back home about 3:00 pm, doze for an hour, eat a sandwich and then go back to the hospital. Mom's still recovering from valium withdrawl but still confused and upset with everything that's happened. I stay in her room till 11:00pm, lay down on the floor for an hour. She's almost going to sleep but calls out my name once and I say I'm still here. She goes to sleep. I go lay down on one of the sofas in the lobby. Some time later one of the hospital employees brings me blankets and pillows. The blankets have been warmed in a blanket heater. I sleep some till about 3:00am. Go check on Mom and ask the nurses if she's been ok. They say yes. I go home.
     Wednesday May 11. Get up, get the usual morning things done. Get the car warmed up and put the oxygen tanks in it. Go to the hospital. Mom seems to be still improving. She eats breakfast, takes her medicine we wait for the doctor. He comes and asks how she's feeling and doing. It's the usual talk about valium, apolozing, blah blah blah. He says she can go home. There's some talk about some home health care service before we leave. Mom says she will allow that. Leander and I get things packed up and ready to leave. She takes everything in her car and goes ahead. I stay to finish up the discharge process and then go sit with Mom. The nurse comes to explain things. The doctor wants Mom to have a pnuemonia shot but she doesn't want that and says she had one within 5 years. We leave about mid afternoon.
     The rest of the day is spent getting Mom settled in back home. Leander stays till evening, I think, we buy something for supper. When it's time to go to bed I tell Mom to call for me if she has to go to the bathroom. She does about 3:30. It's during that part of the sleep cycle when you're dreaming and can't move. I hear her call but can't get up and have to wait for that to pass.
     Thursday May 12. Morning is almost like normal again. I stay till after she's eaten and laid back down. I leave for work about 8:45 and Leander was to get here about 10:00 to spend the day and fix a meal for supper. I come back at lunch time, everything seems about as normal as could be expected. Mom is still getting better since being back on her regular medicine at her regular times. She talks about what things she thought happened at the hospital and what realy happened. The withdrawl really messed up her thinking and persception of things.
     There's some talk about changing doctors now. Wished she had done that last November after sitting in with her while she was with the doctor for one of her regular visits. There was his usual talk about him not liking to prescribe valium, it might make her more prone to fall, the bone density test and medicine to help build up bone mass.
     I bring up the subject of having someone stay with her. She still doesn't want anything to do with that yet. She thinks it's something for when she can't do anything for herself and it costs to much to pay someone to be here all day. The daughter of one of the men I work with does that kind of work. I had asked him to ask his daughter to call us. She, the daughter, is doing that for someone down in Anderson and if she was staying with Mom she wouldn't have to drive so far. Now I have to tell him to tell her Mom doesn't want that.
     Some time during the dayh this happened. There's some nurse from the home health services who has been told by the doctor to come out and check on Mom, blood pressure, lungs and heart stuff I think. Mom doesn't want anything to do with that either. Leander talks with the nurse too to help explain things and how Mom seems to be doing good. After I get here from work and the phone rings and it's the doctor who says one of his nurse says Mom isn't doing well. I tell him I don't know anything about what happened during the day. Leander talks with him. It's more confusing about communication between health services people, doctor's nurses and doctors.
     Friday May 13. She call for me again during the night when she had to go to the bathroom but we both went back to sleep ok afterwards.
     Morning is again almost like it use to be. I stay till 8:15 or so then go to work. I think Leander came up again this day but later. Mom starts cooking a frozen dinner for my lunch like she use to. This is mostly the first normal day in the last two weeks. Mom is acting more like herself. She's washed dishes and carries her tray with breakfast, lunch or supper into the den like she use to. She will do a little something then say she has to sit down or lay down to recover.
     I spend some of the day at work calling about new doctors. One who she had seen before at the Family Practice was Edens and he's in an Easley practice now. They don't take any new Medicare patients. I called my doctor's practice, they will take Medicare but not Mom's suppliment insurance. I asked the receptionist if the doctors there had any problem signing prescriptions for valium, she said no. I went down to get the forms after work. The receptionist then said no Medicare but she went back to ask about it and then said they do.
     Saturday May 14. Mostly a normal day again. Mom still showing signs of being more coherient and thinking right. She still asks questions about some incidient or other event that may or may not have happened at the hospital. We talk about some of the details of changing doctors. I explained again that my doctor's office will take Medicare but not deal with her suppliment insurance company and that the hospital would still take the suppliment insurance.
     Leander stays at her home today and has to get some things together to send to Mike and his family in Spain. Someone is flying over and whoever goes usually carries extra stuff for them.

Sunday June 12, 2005
5:00p
     At work the last four weeks I didn't some trimmer clutch vibrations and some clutch operating characteristics analysis. The first was mostly FEA work, the later was a mix of FEA and curve plotting.

     When I went on my so-called vacation week last month I did make two day trips before everything fell apart with Mom's pneumonia.
     I went down to Ingles to buy something to drink and eat on during the day. It's orange juice and popcorn. Sit in the parking lot looking at road maps to decide which way I wanted to go.
     I drove up to Mt Mitchell on Tuesday of that week. Went up though Balsom Groove above Rosman. Somewhere along the way a really big plane flew over. I pulled over the side of the road to get out and look aroung but it was already gone. Stopped at the place just before getting to the parkway and made a picture or two. That was where I climbed on the road cut rock cliff back in the late 1960s. I was in college then. While there I heard the big planes again.
     On up to the parkway and headed north just a little ways I stopped at an overlook. The big planes flew over again, it was like at Whiteside Mountain when you just look mostly straight ahead and see them fly by. I started making pictures of them. Wait for them come around again a couple of times then drove up the parkway some more looking for a better place. There wasn't any so I drove back to the overlook and waited some more. They came around a couple more times but I think it was only one making the rounds. So I get started on up the parkway.
     The big plane flew over really low one time as I drove along. Pulled into another overlook area but it had grown up so much there wasn't any place to see what was going on. So I gave up and decided to drive.
     They were forest planes practicing there water bombing tactics for fire fighting. They had a small plane leading the way around and pointing to where the drop had to be made.

     I don't remember much of anything else happening except the driving and riding. I stopped at the French Broad river bridge below Asheville. Walked out on the bridge some and made some pictures. I've learned I get dizzy from the height while walking along the guard rail now. I was wanting to hold onto the rail while making the pictures too but it took two hands to operate the camera.
     There was a river side camping area up stream a little. Probably not an official place but one that had been used by the locals for years before the parkway too. It was sort-of neat to look straight out at the tree tops from the bridge. Back where I parked the truck there was a trail sign, some sort of local trail I guess. One lead off down toward the old road way next to the river. I just walked down it a little ways to water the vegetation.

     One up above the Asheville headed toward Mount Mitchell there were road signs. The parkway beyond Mitchell was still closed from the hurricane storms last Fall. You could still make it up to Mitchell but had to back track to Asheville and around to pick up the Parkway again if you were headed farther north.
     The road was sort of rough in places. They were redoing a short section, about a hundred feet or so. The workers had it dug out down to the quarry dust-stone bed.
     There were some bicylists on up the road in a couple of places. There was a group just before one of the main overlooks and park store places. Just had passed through a tunnel and one was on the side working on his chain or something. Thought about stopping but there just wasn't a good place to do that. It wasn't that much farther up to the park store anyway. After I got there there were some other bicyclists and one or two of them were looking back down the road. I think one of them went back to see what the hold up was with their fellow member.
     All this about bicyling made me think of the 80 mile, up hill, trip from Spartanburg that somone at work made a long time ago.
     At the store and overlook I made pictures again. You could see Asheville and a big road going northward. That turned out to be an I 26 extension up to I 81. I bought a Cherokee history book there. There was a display of pictures and explantions in the middle of the store. It had one of Linville Gorge Falls during or just after the storm last year. It really looked like lots of water going over that, like it probably took trees out on either side of the falls.

     On up Mt Mitchell. It was a turn off to drive a few miles out to the mountain. I decided the last time I was there could have been on the Linville Gorge camping with Ralph and Dad. We went on up to Grandfather Mountain then, back during 1967-68 again. But then again we may not have stopped then and that means it was during the 1957 Mountain Vacation trip that I was there last. The main reason for this trip was to be where I was all those years and decades ago.
     On the road out to the top of Mitchell there were communication towers on one peak. It was mostly like riding a tree lined avenue. The sun was out and it was clear too so the views were going to be good. Passed some park cabins and I guess camping places along the way too. At the end of the road I drove through one parking section and on the the upper level parking. The park visitor building was there. The first business is to go to the restrooms on the lower level of the building.
     I get the camera and walking stick out of the truck and walk up to the very top. The short trail leads up to the observation tower. It's a stone work type, about the third or forth one I guesss. Up in the tower I walk around the deck and make videos, read the picture maps and locations of other peaks and gorges and such. I find Linville and Grandfather Mountain. It was windy up there, it blew my walking stick from where I leaned it against the rail of the deck. Afer making the videos I walk around it again and smoke a cig too.
     At the bottom of the tower is a burial mound of stones. It is for Doctor Mitchell who first explored the area. He died from a fall at a waterfalls somewhere in the area. I make a couple of pictures back along the trail to the parking area.
     At the park vistor center they have a walk through display. There were some stuffed animals there. I buy some trinket for Mom, a painted stone. Outside in the parking area I make another video of the views. There's one young man walking toward the steps to the lower parking area. He's in one part of the video. I'm walking around my truck while making the video too.
     I get ready to leave and drive down to the lower level and make more pictures there. I'm trying to decide if that was the main parking area in 1957 and where the old black and white picture was made. There nothing in the picture to place the exact location. I had meant to bring that picture with me but I didn't. After a few minutes I leave.
     The ride back down toward Asheville is just a drive and ride. Along the way I'm thinking of which way to go back home, the parkway or US 25. At the place where they were working on the road I see they have it filled back in and paved again. The had one of those big line painting machines up there. I couldn't believe they drove that thing half way up thought the mountains to paint a hundred feet of yellow double lines.
     I get off the Parkway and take US 25 back to South Carolina. I messed this up and went the business route instead of the alternate route which I think is I 26. It took a really long time to drive though all those small towns and intersections. I knew it was the wrong thing when just after leaving the Parkway you couldn't see back up 25 to far and had to pull into traffic anyway. Stop and go for twenty or thirty miles through a bunch of towns I remember hearing the names of on channel 13 news. I missed on turn off and had to back track a little. After a while it eventually ran into the divided highway part of US 25. Rode that all the way to US 11.

     On Wednesday of my vacation week I went over to Kings Mountain Battleground. Drove US 11 of course. Stopped at the Cooley Farms place and bought a big bucket of strawberrys. That about all they had, just strawberrys everywhere you looked, on trucks outside the big shead, on counter tops, out in the fields.
     I rode to the very end of US 11 and onto I 85 above Gaffney. I've only been on I 85 up that far a couple or three times since the navy years when I made trips. Once when we went up to the law enforcement memorial about 1991 or 1992. I guess the other time was when I went I did a return trip to Virginia Beach and DC. I don't remember what year that was. But anyway.
     It several miles up to the state line. The exit to the Kings Mountain is just across the line and then you drive back into South Carolina. The road just sort of passes though the national and state parks. They are next to each other.
     At the visitor center there's an outdoor ampitheater. Inside the main building it's the usual store and info place. They do have an indoor theater and show a history movie there. I only stepped inside a few minutes after the show had started. Then I left for the walk around the trail to the top. It's a loop trail and I took the short direct way, I didn't want to walk the whole thing. Besides the top of the mountain is where the tall monument is.
     Along the trial there are markers. One is for where one of the British officers was killed and buried. A big pile of stones behind the marker. It was down in a low place on the mountain. There was another off the main trail too, some other officer died or attacked the top of the mountian along that way, or something like that. The others I just quit reading.
     Near the big, pointed monument there was a tree with a really huge ball of growth around the trunk. A canker or something like that. I made videos along the trail and around the base of the monument. Farther up the trail, which was a paved walkway by the way, I made a couple of pictures looking back across the grassy area at the stone work. It was build in the 1930s. President Hoover was there to dedicate the new monument.
     The older, smaller monument is at the top of the mountain. Oh yeah, it's really just a huge hill. I think that one was build in the 1800s. Made some more videos and pictures, one of my walking stick leaning on the steps. Sat on the steps and smoke a cig. Then I left.
     This wasn't much more than a long ride to do a short walk.
     I drove on over to the state park area, a couple or three or four miles along the same road. There was a small group of goats crossing the road and two cars had stopped to watch. I eased on through that. At the park boundarys you leave the National Park with its signs and enter the State Park with its signs.
     The State Park had a really large living farm place. Buildings, grassy areas, cabin, out house, smoke house, main two story house, barns, sheds, cotton gin mill, fenced in garden area and more. That was more interesting part of this day trip. Just walk around the open area and look and make videos. They had a group of guinnys and a couple of mules.
     I drove farther into the park and ended up driving into one of the cabin, camping areas. It was at the end of a road and I thought it was going to the lake area. But there were a lot of cars parked around the main building there. They were all law vehicles, county, state and other government agencies. Some sort of training going on I guess. I didn't stop and drove around the small loop and left that area. There was one open field area on the way back out and I stopped there just to make a video.
     I tryed another road for the lake and I did get to a boat landing place. It was at the end of a side dirty road. Just a shead with a few boats in it. The lake was still not to be found. The landing was more like a wide place in a branch. It was really grown up. I thought maybe the lake had filled in with silk and other runoff. Some one drove up in a truck so I left there too.
     That's the end of the second day trip. Nothing to do but drive back to Pickens on US 11 again.

     ... Turned out to be the end of the vacation week too. Didn't get to put up a new door on the outside storage room. Didn't get to do any more day trips. Didn't get to do any yard work over at my house. ... I've forgotten what else I was going to do for vacation.