More About Yard/Garage Sales

Three yard sales in October of 2014 helped by several friends including their husbands who could price shop equipment. One in January with my Huntsville brother and Pharis helping to pull it off. Three in February. One unsuccessful one yesterday.

Discovered that books do not sell. Discovered that clothes do not sell. Discovered that selling large items works well with a virtual yard sell, but not at all in a yard sale, especially when the Strawberry Festival is on.

Just packed up those books and brought them to Lighthouse Ministries.

Many other items that didn't sell well also went to The Goodwill. Saving receipts for 2015 taxes. 

The last items I hoped to sell just sat there in the driveway yesterday and then I moved them inside the garage. One day I may be able to park in that garage before the house sells.

Dog not for sale

Anyone need something here?

Family heirlooms were given to my husband's family.

Yesterday during the yard sale when I did not sell anything for a change, my out-of-town brother-in-law Danny, married to my husband's sister,  came by for four framed paintings by his wife and one stitched family tree created by my husband's mother. They understood that it is time these get passed on to their grandchildren or kept by them.

While Danny and I  were standing in the front yard, two students I have substituted for came by and Danny heard me rap for them. Danny also highly complimented me for being an angel taking care of my late husband who had Alzheimer's. Yes it was a tough job, tougher than downsizing and getting ready to sell and move.

Happy I could go to the Strawberry Festival on Thursday and enjoy large, juicy strawberries on a stick dipped in chocolate. The high schoolers working in that booth recognized me and I rapped for their kin working in the booth.

Dale Carnegie once said:

Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one, it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves.

So many little jobs in moving. I am excited about moving closer to my family in Huntsville, Alabama, renting an apartment and having a landlord take care of things. I am excited about living more simply and enjoying my good health (so far) in my senior years and then having less distractions so I can work on my dissertation.

However, my house has to sell first. 

Moving, Part Six

I have pointed out that during my caregiving days much else didn't happen. While my husband had been active in home repairs before 2008, I just held on and studied how to be a caregiver, not a manager of taking care of the home. After his death there have been a lot of repairs that have needed to happen inside and outside to put the house on the market.

First off was getting rid of rust stains and installing a new water softener.

Rust on right

Drip made it worse

During my husband's illness, I was not proactive about maintaining the water softener. The result was RUST in sinks, showers, on clothes and in dishes. A whole set of dishes will probably be thrown out.


Pharis had some tricks of the trade, however, to get everything back to normal. Pharis and my brother also got hair out of the drain so the water would go down better in the shower, as I had so worried about it spilling over onto the floor when I showered.

Paris was able to clean the tub and the shower with CLR first
and then the Fast Orange.

Quite a difference from before.  

Old garage door

The garage door was repaired before the first January garage sale and now it secures the next garage sale later in February.

New garage door works like a charm and
allows easy access for garage sale set up. 

Outside in addition to yard maintenance, Pharis has been painting. The house looks fresh.

Jose and John of Admiral Carpet Cleaning

Now for the rug cleaning. According to the realtor at first, the rug had to be torn out and the concrete painted. Then we came down to a compromise.  She recommended a rug cleaner, Admiral Carpet Cleaning (813-654-1397). My main task was to clear the den so it could be cleaned by February 7th when my brother scheduled them to come to the house.

Jose and John were very efficient and were out of the house in less than two hours; Ziggy hung out at Sally and Jake's house while the rug was cleaned and dried. Jake was at the Plant City Senior Center and Sally and I enjoyed a lunch in western Tampa with a $25 gift card I had given her for her birthday--at TGIF Fridays. I thought there was a close one when I selected this gift card, but I was wrong. We talked and talked and as I drove and drove. It would have been too hard for her to use it with Jake and I thoroughly understood remembering days with my husband. Mental note: be careful when you select gift cards for people. I will really miss Sally when I move, but at least she has learned to text now!

Now my rooms are very spacious with clean carpeting because large furniture has been sold and other furniture has been moved to the garage for the garage sale or the workshop for the move.







I have boxes and newspapers! I got them from Strawberry Crest High School where I substituted in January. The cafeteria ladies regularly gave me boxes to fit into my SUV. Those boxes are ready for me in the workshop--some packed and some ready to be packed or repacked and labeled. Of all the times I have moved before, this seems to be the most complicated, but there is a saying You can eat an elephant a bite at a time.

Meanwhile I have another challenge.

Can you teach an old dog new tricks? 

Before

It turns out with my busy caregiving days Ziggy has not taken advantage of two doggie doors in the house to go outside to do his business. John and Juan got out stains and the house smells great. But by a leg of the piano he did a horrible thing. When the piano was moved, it left this.

Admiral Carpet Cleaning did a magnificent job of the other stains, but the acid went to the concrete leaving a hole to the concrete.

After: less than an inch to the concrete that I have to re-carpet. 

Admiral Carpet Cleaning Recommends Club Soda

This morning I caught Ziggy! He peed on my cleaned carpet by that chair leg! He is getting retraining so I can keep this fresh carpet smell! Used that club soda this morning. 

Stay tuned for further reports on my packing,  

retraining Ziggy and 

of course selling and moving! 

Moving, Part Four

I took this picture in June of 3013 so I could write about Shingles. I knew I wanted to write about Shingles, but I didn't know I would do it from personal experience.  Oh I did have a prescription to get my shingles vaccine, but didn't want to spend the money and my husband was going downhill and that was my priority. So this is the first thing that has come back to haunt me. You see I have had Shingles recently with its physical pain and with the realization this might have been avoided. 

The next thing that has come back to haunt me is plumbing. I have well water and  have not maintained the water softener and consequently have rust in the water.  I should have been on top of this in the past. Actually the plumber was called almost a year ago about the rust problem and he didn't show. See HERE.  I didn't keep on the problem, perhaps because I was attending to my husband. 

When the sink clogged up and the wash machine over flowed, I did get a new plumber. He solved that and was to bring someone else in to give an estimate for helping with the rust. Before that could happen, however, Sally gave me another plumber who has put in a new water softener and saving me maybe $700.

How can I substitute  teach all January and have plumbers come to the house? My retired brother from Huntsville recognized the problem and came to Plant City. Together we strategized on what would be needed for the house to sell. 

We went through all my books and had three stacks:

1. Books I need to keep.
2. Books for my Huntsville nephew to sell on Amazon.
3. Books for a yard sale or eventually to donate. 

My brother was honest about what should not be moved. My realtor also is honest about the house. Less furniture will mean an easier move and will allow us to have the rug cleaned. The rooms will look larger. Pharis and my brother both cleaned out the workshop and the garage. When I went through the series on this blog, The House That Cleans Itself, the workshop and the garage were the last two areas that I didn't get to because of my caregiving duties.



The garage is now the designated spot for garage sales. One was held last Saturday and later in February more yard sales will happen.

Saturday, January 24,  we (my brother and I) had another yard sale for my stuff and only signs at the end of the street publicized the event. Even so I made $335.50. Large items included that corner cabinet I featured December 25 on this blog HERE. That corner cabinet would be problematic to move. A large chest was also sold. More yard sales will follow at the end of February. and someone is coming tonight to look at the piano tonight.

The workshop is now the designated place for boxes to be moved and boxes to be packed and put in the workshop. Where have I gotten these boxes? From the cafeteria at the high school where I have been substituting.

The house will be sold "as is" and has yet to be put on the market. The carpet will be cleaned on February 6th rather than taken up.

So much has been done and I have my marching orders. I have this table of stuff to go through before the carpet cleaner comes on February 6th.

Where the pool table used to be

I am so grateful for my brother from Huntsville, Alabama, who was able to come for a week when I just had thrown my hands up in despair at getting ready to move. Logically this retired rocket scientist took me through rooms and we made decisions. He met with the plumbers, and the carpet cleaners. I am so grateful for Pharis who has been fixing things around here so the house will be ready to sell and who is even coming today while my brother is driving back to Huntsville, Alabama.

First Yard Sale

On Labor Day my guests decided they would help a widow [me] with yard sales--their idea. I dared not take them up on this generous offer. Three Saturdays in October seemed the perfect plan. 

My neighbor Cindy down the road loaned me tables Thursday,  and even after her errands came by and helped me set them up in our second backyard where there is some concrete.  

Cindy's tables loaded in my GMC

Friday night, after much afternoon rain, I called Sally and she commandeered her husband Jake to help me put out tools from my husband's workshop on those tables for today's yard sale. Jake always likes to feel useful. Soon my teenager neighbor Esteban came over to help.

You can't see much of the tools, but you can barely see two port-a-potties and a shower chair.  Jake, Esteban and myself then put tarps over the covered tables as it got dark Friday night. It did rain some during the night, but I was ready as I could be. 

I set my alarm for 5 am for Saturday morning. By 6:30 am when their doors opened I was at Weight Watchers. I lost another 6/10 of a pound. I did not stay for the Weight Watcher meeting, but started out for home, fearing that someone would be there in the dark to buy. Just before I got home, in the dark, I put out two yellow signs to direct people to my house. Returning home at 7 am no one was at the house and it was still dark. 

At 8 am I had my first customer. At 9 am Marilyn and her husband George were here. Marilyn even brought lunch to prepare for all of us later. Soon Marianne and Greg were here. Marilyn and Marianne were part of my summer writer's group, and Marianne was the gal I interviewed HERE about her Early Onset Alzheimer's. She is doing great and knows so much about dementia that she was even helping Jake who has a later stage of Alzheimer's after Sally dropped him off. Jake was great at keeping dog Ziggy from running off. 

The day turned out to be pleasant--no rain. Soon this skilled group moved the yard sale down the driveway and closer to the street. People have to be able to see the stuff you are selling if they are going to stop, I was advised. "Many hands make light work" and soon the tables were closer to the street. 

We interacted with all my country neighbors. One, Lee, is a caregiver and he bought those two port-a-potty chairs, the shower chair and the elevated toilet seat from Lowes' that I had written about HERE. I sold all four items for a dollar a piece to this caregiver whose wife has Parkinson's disease. It warmed my heart that I could do this and I prayed with him about his caregiving journey and told him about this blog. Just love your wife, I advised him, even when she is difficult--it's her disease that makes her that way. 

It was curious to me that my late husband had so many cabinets with drawers for his carpentry supplies--maybe a dozen! It was equally amusing to me that men would buy this stuff! Everything went cheaply, and even so I made $409 after Cindy and her crew came back about 5:30. She was pleased that we would be storing her tables in my garage now, ready for the sales the next two Saturdays, instead of in the second back yard as had been the plan. 

Safe and ready for next yard sale

Dog Ziggy and I are tired and ready for bed now. 

Kudos for Outstanding Help

Kenny and nurse

Thursday night hubby and I 

visited Kenny in the hospital. 

DH used his walker and then 

inside the hospital the staff 

provided a wheel chair to 

Kenny's room and then back 

to our car. 

Incredibly when Kenny got out of the hospital Friday morning, Kenny came over to fix hubby's lunch. Today, Saturday, Kenny remembered that the First Baptist volunteer group, "Second Saturday", were coming this morning to install five grab bars for our two bathrooms. You may remember earlier HERE that Lowes and Home Depot would not send anyone out and we were trying Safe-er Grip, Balance Assist and, frankly, that wasn't working since hubby kept having problems walking and grips with suction cups would come off the tile. 

Where was I this morning? I was teaching a class for first-time drivers and I could not get out of teaching it. So dependable Kenny, in pain after his gall bladder surgery, came over this morning to help the volunteers know where to install the Moen Home Care Grab Bars. 

The previous seat HERE hubby rejected--he wasn't used to the Moen Home Care Locking Elevated Toilet Seat With Support Handles. Now there are two small grab bars in one bathroom above and three in the bath where hubby showers and shaves.

A grab bar at the right ushers DH into the bathroom. A slanted one helps him get up from the toilet and into the shower. A grab bar on the wall in the shower has his wash cloths. 

Could I get him to shower today? No. He is exhibiting strange behavior now. Perhaps Kenny will be well enough to help him shower and shave tomorrow before church. Kenny you may recall has him sit on the toilet seat while he is shaved and then skillfully moves him into the shower.

Meanwhile I am writing a post on hallucinations, delusions and delirium and watching hubby go downhill, sadly. I am also working on my dissertation on being dementia caregiver. 

More Baths and Less Talk

Disclaimer: This is not a book review about a very funny book where UK author Nick Hornby rattles on and on about the books he buys each month, but then reviews the books he actually reads each month.  

However, the title of the book has everything to do with the topic of this post.

At the end of August our lives were thrown upside down when my husband couldn't walk. You add a disability to Alzheimer's and life indeed is complicated and my stress and ability to cope with life is hammered. When I showed neighbor/caregiver Kenny the title of this book, we both laughed. Kenny has been helping me with my husband's showers and today's shave and shower was the most successful to date. Hubby needs more baths and I need less talk. It's all about the wife nag factor. I know he needs more baths and cranberry juice to avoid another UTI, but I need to shut my mouth about this fact. 

This morning Kenny skillfully suggested that hubby sit on the toilet while he gave him a razor shave. The idea was that hubby is already in the room where he showers. 

Now I was outside enjoying Pharis and his daughter Dezarae landscaping in Area 8 of my project, The House That Cleans Itself. When I left you HERE last May, one of the plants in the front yard was dying. Those were removed and new croton plants have come to our front door, mainly purchased from a country neighbor about two miles away. Stephanie sells wonderful plants cheaply and gives more help than Home Depot. 

Huge Landscaping Improvements Being Undertaken

Pharis has many plans to save this the yard and improve the house, including the roof. How blessed are we!

Meanwhile I popped back inside and Kenny had gotten hubby in the shower without me! 

I said something when I saw this and my husband snapped back. I should have left them alone--not said anything like the book title suggests:

MORE BATHS AND LESS TALKING

In the midst of many hard days, today is so encouraging. Thank you, LORD, for people coming alongside this journey. 

Going Downhill: What Husband's Dementia Now Means

I wrote on June 5, 2013 HERE.  Before that, July 3, 2012 I reflected HERE. These posts and recent observations show clearly that hubby is going downhill.

Bird house was last project. 

The last thing I recall my husband building, was a bird feeding station that he carefully fixed on a pole that used to house a DirectWay TV dish that pointed south. We changed to cable and we did not need that stand cemented into the ground. Hubby came up with the birdhouse solution. This project was in the earlier stages of dementia and I did note how he seemed confused figuring out some of it. Somehow he has wanted to maintain his equipment in the workshop, and carpenters since then have remarked at how organized this workshop is. I laugh, because I have cluttered up that workshop with items we used to take camping and other junk to go in a yard sale. I long to make this workshop an exercise room and use it for my storage and even Pharis has offered to transform that room.  It's as if I do not want to let my husband's workshop go.  I want that workshop to continue as a carpenter's workshop even as I want my husband to continue to be the same.

But now hubby is going downhill.

How does this make me feel? It is very hard. Thursday night I reclined on our long couch in the den by my husband who was sitting in his spot watching TV. I was occupied by depressing thoughts and trying to pray.

Lord, I do not want things to change. I want arthritis to be the only thing wrong with hubby now. I want that new pill to fix the arthritis and I want him to walk even if it is with the walker. I want my mellow husband back. I feel guilty now going to the store without hubby who has wanted to accompany me everywhere.  The whole dynamics of our marriage is changing in that I have had "the better" and now have "the worse" of those marriage vows.  But, LORD, it is not all about me. I accept that you are using this situation for my sanctification and thank you for so many who have come along side of us. 

I wondered reclining on the couch if I needed an anti-depressant. Then Kenny and his brother-in-law came over. I got up from the couch to greet them. They were over borrowing tools from hubby's workshop. They needed tools to fix a car, but unfortunately hubby didn't have those tools as my husband's hobby had been carpentry, not auto-mechanics.

"What's wrong?" Kenny asked. "I usually see you upbeat."

"He's not getting up to walk and I am afraid of all that is coming." Kenny and Kevin promised to pray.

What do do about dinner Thursday night.  I started it, but hubby wanted to go out, forgetting his limitations. He hobbles to the bedroom to change from his jeans shorts and T-shirt into slacks and a nice shirt. This outing however would not be easy. I packed the 8 PM pain pill in my purse.

Usually hubby would interact with the waitress, but not Thursday night. The walker we took to the restaurant was stored elsewhere and I went to get it when we went to leave. "I don't need that!" But yes he did and does. He has memory of walking, but is in denial about his current limitations.

"Use it or lose it," you hear about walking and artritis. I took the urinal away from him on Friday thinking that going to the bathroom would encourage walking. However, Friday night he wanted that urinal rather than walk to the bathroom and I came to observe that he had peed in his jeans during the day. Slowly he changed out of them as he got ready for bed. I have been helping him and notice all I have to do now that he did over a month ago.

1. I retire his false teeth to be soaked over night. In the morning I get his full uppers and partial lower false teeth for him along with new Seabond that keeps the uppers in place. 
2. Taking meds is a battle of the will. Kenny said that Friday morning after I had left the house to substitute teach, it was an effort to get hubby to take pills. He was stubborn for me last night as well. 
3. Shaving and showering is done with Kenny's help.
4. Dog Ziggy "needs" a ride in the wheel chair--translation hubby doesn't want to use the walker. 
5. He has a worried look on his face, reminiscent of my father and uncle as they aged.  These two relatives did not have dementia, but did have that worried look.  Kenny thinks that my husband's eyes look different.
6. Hubby doesn't answer phones now in the last several days. Friday morning when I got to school and called, Kenny answered the phone and gave the receiver to my husband. 

Yes coconut oil, and Alzheimer's meds have delayed the inevitable. Yes I have been a Pollyanna. It is here, folks, what I interviewed Dolores, LaTane and Laurie about. What I have read in Linda 

Born's book and Linda Fisher's book and other books. What I have heard in the Alzheimer's Association Support Meetings.  Ready or not, here IT comes--the very difficult days of being an Alzheimer's caregiver. 

Friday I finished reading a novel, Crazy Lady by Jane Leslie Conly, to the special education students I have been substituting for this past month. In that novel middle school student character Vernon has to let go to a special needs young neighbor, Ronald, whom he had been mentoring. Vernon experienced anger at Maxine, Ronald's alcoholic mother, and grief when Ronald was carted off to live with relatives in another state. Vernon had done so much for Ronald--sponsored him in The Special Olympics and told others about Ronald saying his first word. Vernon ran alongside the car that carted Ronald off with Ronald looking back in the window. Finally the car sped off and Vernon falls, rolls and hits concrete:

I tried to speak, but nothing came out. I hurt all over. A hand moved up my legs and back, feeling for broken bones. It moved around my neck and rested on my face. It smelled familiar. "Vernon," Daddy said. "I'm here." (p. 180)

My students and I had quite a discussion on all the emotions of Vernon went through in the book. I know that my Father in heaven is there for me now, but I hurt all over emotionally. I must blog whether anyone reads this or not.

This Saturday morning hubby asks me what street we live on. Every time I cough he asks me if I am okay. He is sad he says today. He says he misses Jake and Sally who have been out of town. I miss them also. His son calls from Virginia and I talk with him about the deterioration which is evident to the son after he talks with his dad. Hubby takes forever to do anything. I edit his pills--no vitamins and fish oil--but other essentials have not been taken. He waits in his wheel chair watching TV for over an hour, not sure when he will sit in his padded spot. After some time the spot calls to him and he makes it there when I am in the den blogging.

As I am writing this post Kenny comes over for the ritual shaving and shower. Hubby is resistant to the shower, but we manage. Thank you LORD, for Kenny and the prayers of you all who read this.

Added Sunday, Sept. 29: It's official. I am only allowed one day at the PITY PARTY according to Jean Milsap, 20 year caregiver whom I interviewed in July here. So be it! The lady has spoken! 

Handicapped Husband Adjustments

Hubby and Walker

Saturday afternoon I had a date with my handicapped husband. Alzheimer's is not new to us, but physical handicaps are. It is hard for him to walk even though Extra Strength Tylenol helps the arthritis. I let hubby off at the movie theater with the walker and then I went to park the car.

When I got to the theater, he was inside sitting down waiting for me to buy the tickets to "The Butler". We both enjoyed that movie, but hubby insisted that he had seen it before--strange to me, but I didn't comment. Memory and dementia are strange bedfellows and produce different realities.

At the end of the movie he needed to use the theater bathroom--to pee. I panicked. I could not go in the men's restroom with him. At home he was using the urinal container we took home from the hospital.  I remember hearing a waitress say how a husband was allowed to go to the lady's room with his care receiver wife when the staff blocked off that ladies room at that restaurant. I didn't want to cause a scene. Our issue was not remembering what to do at this stage of the disease, but physically being able to use the facility with an arthritic knee. Somehow it worked out and hubby came out with his walker as if nothing was the matter. Then we walked across the street and hubby sat down on the bench pictured above while I did an errand.

My errand. I have been substituting for many days in a special education class and had promised students they each would have their own books to mark up and read. Although these students are in middle school, the reading level is much lower and I had to get what would interest each and I was able to satisfy most of them with their own book from Mrs. Johnson. Still there were three more books that I had to secure.  I went to Books-a-Million while hubby waited.  Bingo!  Within a few minutes I had a Goosebumps book, Dog Finds Lost Dolphins! and More True Stories of Amazing Animal Heroes, and Extreme Biology: From Superbugs to Clones. . . Get to the Edge of Science for those reluctant readers I am teaching this month--books to motivate them to read that they also can write in. Not only that, but I got a valuable phone number (1-800-353-7034) for those magazines that I wrote about earlier and hadn't been able to get rid of even after writing to the publisher. So far our outing as a couple was working.

Back at the bench, hubby and I went inside nearby Grillsmith Restaurant. These days I am holding the door open for hubby. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner inside the restaurant (me salmon and hubby beef) while he spotted a dog at the outside seating where leashed pets are allowed. We met that dog when we went outside after our meal.

Hubby again waited at the bench while I went to get the car. It is a little hard for him to climb up to our Expedition, but so far it is working. Then I stored the walker in the backseat of our car. (So glad I do not have to lift the wheel chair because it is very heavy.) Meanwhile volunteer caregiver Kenny is going to pick up an application for a handicapped tag for us that I can bring to my husband's doctor (the doctor that almost put him in a nursing home). We are both much happier with hubby at home instead of in a nursing home.

There are practical issues for a home bathroom when someone is handicapped. It was just hard for my husband to get the the bathroom in time when he needed to. We have had some near misses and misses in the bathroom with the result that someone had to clean up the floor and wash the rug.  I thought of a solution. It is so much easier to wash a rug that would cover the area, than to have to reach to both sides at the back of the toilet to clean up where that rug wasn't down. I cut up one rug to add to the commode rug with my Viking (quilting) sewing machine. I used hem facing to sew both sides to connect it.

Custom Toilet Rug

It is hard for hubby to sit down and get up from regular toilets even with the walker.  I purchased a Moen Home Care Locking Elevated Toilet Seat With Support Handles that I happened to spot at Lowes when I went looking for shower grab bars. This elevated seat can be removed when we have company.

Pictured at Lowes

With Total Coverage Rug 

It is crowded between two walls, but it works with the custom rug I sewed.

I also purchased the Moen Home Care grab bars for our shower to be installed by Plant City First Baptists "Second Saturday" volunteers that I found out about at our monthly Alzheimer's Association meeting.


Kenny has been so helpful. He knows just what to say for hubby's showers to help him get in the shower and even shaves him now since he can't stand. It was Kenny's brother-in-law who came over to install that Moen Home Care seat.

Let me bring you your walker, I say.

I don't need it, he says.

Let's bring it just in case is my reply. Most every time we need it because of that awful arthritis.

There's a lot of adjustment with dementia. Add another handicap that the care receiver forgets he has and more adjustments need to happen. I love my hubby, who would make all these adjustments for me if the situation were reversed.

Hubby Walks After Carefully Orchestrated Shower

Today has been such an fabulous day after weeks and weeks of struggle--the hardest of which was a husband who hadn't really walked since August 26th. Today my sweetheart walked a distance! I am glowing.

Walking to His Spot in the Den

Last time I blogged I wrote about his fantasy that he was walking, only to be followed by bring me the wheel chair. Walking has been the goal. I have told him that if he doesn't want to go to a nursing home he has to continue to walk more--not just hobble a little-- and to shave and shower. A gross beard was growing. The sponge baths were less than adequate. Now neighbor/caregiver Kenny had been released from the hospital several days ago and Kenny and I devised a plan.  It was time.  I needed my husband to shower and to shave whether or not hubby felt he needed it. It just had to happen, in my opinion. Kenny reinforced my resolve.

Kenny has a way with hubby that I as his wife do not have. I am the nag--the pill pusher. First Kenny took the Andis Styliner II Trimmer, the one I had purchased earlier when we had a shaving issue. Kenny is magic, a true gift from the LORD in our lives--so much patience with hubby. The two-week beard came off. Maybe we can start to use the shaver if that beard is kept in check.

"Do you want your shower now, or in fifteen minutes?" he asked hubby.

"Fifteen minutes!"

Kenny and I were united when the time came for a real shower. Taking off his clothes was the easy part. Actually getting him to step into the shower was another matter--he had been hobbling better, but was having none of getting into the shower with that weak knee. We decided to put the shower chair half way out of the shower.

Shower Chair Over the Edge

Hubby sat down and then Kenny brilliantly told him to put his two feet in the shower and stand. Kenny monitored his standing up and then moved the shower seat into the shower and hubby sat down. He was ready to shower--a true sit down shower that I had been lobbying for with that moveable shower head. See HERE. Hubby was able on his own to complete his shower.

When that shower was done,  Kenny had him stand and the shower stool was again put half in and half out. Hubby sat down and then put his feet on the rug. He stood and that shower seat was returned to the shower and he dried himself off with a towel. Hubby used the towel rack and the cabinet to walk to the wheel chair. I dried his back and we brought him in the wheel chair to the bedside.

A trick I had been using for most of the time since August 27th, was to have him balance himself with the arms of a sturdy chair, facing that chair. I used this chair when I needed to help him put on or take off pants. It worked like a charm.

Old Chair Does the
Trick In Getting
Hubby Dressed

"Do you want the wheel chair or the walker?" I asked him while he finished getting dressed.

"I will just walk." That he did! The most walking I have seen since August 26th! That hot shower sure gave him some spunk and perhaps continued the healing of his knee. No longer am I fearing the worst.

Among other great blessings today was that Pharis and his son, Junior, came over and did a bang-up job on the yard. It was mowed and weeded.

"It will take some time, but I think I will get this yard looking really great," Pharis pronounced. Pharis and son had used a weed trimmer to transform much of the yard today, but did not get to the roof.

Guinea Wasp

When I came home from getting my second set of fingerprints, Pharis and Junior were waiting for me. The yard looked great, but Pharis had discovered a guinea wasp nest in our yard and been stung by them. They found wasp spray in our garage fortunately (how anyone can find anything in our garage is beyond me) and as of tonight Pharis after taking Benadryl is okay.

What a wonderful day! Hubby is walking again!  He has showered and been shaved.

Today I also talked with a delightful lady who did my fingerprints (more on her story with another post) and discovered that my earlier post HERE was published yesterday as a commentary in two Florida papers:

http://www.theledger.com/article/20130906/NEWS/130909504/0/search

http://www.newschief.com/article/20130906/NEWS/130909504/0/search

I read much of this article to hubby and he recalled events mentioned in the article. Unlike last Sunday when hubby needed to stay home, tomorrow we head for church.