Rain, Bricks, Manhole Covers

What a roller coaster these past two weeks have been. After a vast improvement, Stumpy took a turn downhill. He stopped walking on his “bad” leg and went back to being lethargic. Monday morning the 21^st I noticed his paw was swollen. He hissed at me when I tried to handle him.

The infection from that bite does not want to heal up. The Vet had to drain more pus out and shoot him up with more antibiotics. Stumps fever was 104.4°. When is this going to end? It has been over two weeks now…..

On the Stumpy front: I’m hopeful all is well. He is again walking on that sore leg, and the Dr. just gave him a quick check over and all seems as it should be.

We have had so much rain and humidity these past few weeks. The “monsoons” kept us from rowing for nearly a week. The Black Warrior River was way high, flowing fast and dirty. All kinds of crap was floating in that river. Thursday we were able to get out and had a great row. We did a long stretch rowing all eight which is always an adventure. We were all soaked from water splashing up from the oars when we docked. It was still invigorating!

The wood cabinet doors, drawers, and house doors are swollen from the humidity. Some will barely close. I thought I was Oliver Douglas from “Green Acres” the other day. I tried to slam the side door shut to the driveway. It has one of those door knobs you push and turn to lock the outside knob. The damn door knob came off in my hand! Fortunately I was able to take the thing apart and repair the thing.

Saturday night Em had a wonderful dinner at his home in Birmingham. He grilled up a huge fillet wrapped in bacon. It was a game day in Tuscaloosa. I left at 2:30 in the afternoon just missing the traffic. I had Em laughing when I told him I was going to drive up on my own. There was no way I would drive back with Gary having to listen to his horrible music! Gary is one of those who will switch out a radio station or song after only about 20 seconds of listening. That drives me CRAZY!!

A good friend of Em’s Jerry was there. He is such a nice guy. I was being teased for my passion over bricks and manhole covers by the others. Jerry said, “I’ve got a City of Birmingham manhole cover that was dumped on my property if you want it!” I nearly had an orgasm!!! We worked out a day to meet for me to get the thing which was today, Friday the 25^th.

If that were not enough, my friend Buck called Wednesday with news of a listing on Craigslist for Graves paving bricks also in BHAM. I was able to pick up those 31 bricks today on my way home! Life surely is good!

The back of my truck:

I was waiting for Debbie to call this morning when my cell phone went off. NOBODY calls that number. It was Debbie calling to confirm our morning walk. She told me my line was busy. I picked up the phone and it was dead!

I called the AT&T number and went through the voice mail Hell. They performed a test on my line and told me all is fine, the problem is in the inside wiring. They ALWAYS say that!

After our walk, I took my spare dial phone to test the line at the box. I plugged the line into the box and actually got a dial tone! DAMN! Now I have to trouble shoot the lines to find the short. I did not have time to do that as I needed to get on the road to Birmingham.

On the drive home I went crazy retracing my steps from the last time I used my landline. Then it dawned on me. I got some very coarse steel wool to use in cleaning the grease off the iron stove top. When I put the steel wool back there was a bare phone wire it shorted out. Testing my theory out sure enough, there were the bare wires that were shorted out. I have a land line again. I take back all the horrible things I said about AT&T this morning!

Thursday in the late afternoon, I met Tim, Liz, Roger and Diane at “Innesfree”, a local “watering hole”. It is within walking distance from my house. I arrived in my Utilikilt! I know I got lots of looks! At this point of my life I don’t care. I was so comfortable!

One of their draft beers was a wheat beer from Atlanta. It was so good! A blue cheese hamburger and fries was my supper. Since I was walking I had three beers over the course of the night. We would have stayed longer, but the football game was on the big screen with the volume turned up so high to make things uncomfortable.

When I got home, I cranked open a beer and enjoyed that with Stumpy resting on my lap on my front porch. It was a warm humid evening. The ceiling fan was turned to high to keep the mosquitoes away. It was a perfect ending to the day….