Closing out the week

Robbin, here. Deb emailed me to write an entry. Her request was contained in the subject line. The content of her email said she was tuckered out and her apherisis went well yesterday but today she is weak. To be exact, the subject said “Please Post”.

Did she mean, “Robbin, please could you write something in the blog?” Obviously.

But did she mean, “Robbin, please let everybody know I am too tired to write, but had a good treatment yesterday and don't want anyone to worry?” Maybe.

Or did she mean that I was to tell you all what I'm doing in her absence and try to entertain and inform?

Why not!

A couple of weeks ago I was eating a hamburger prepared by someone on Team Deb. With this soft food, I'll be darned if I didn't break the inside face of the tooth just in front of my first molar. So on Tuesday, I finally saw the dentist. He said he couldn't do anything until November 4 and wouldn't I like to pay him $95 for the xrays and his time. This is after a 1 hour drive there and 20 minutes of paperwork.

I drove an hour back and picked up my golf buddy (Janusz – Polish for John) and we went to the golf course. We go almost every day. It is amazing what repetition does to improve your game. We're loose with the rules. Balls in the water are not counted. So are balls that we aren't happy with – take another and either play both or just the better one. Cheating? Sure, but there is a method to this. What did I learn from the chip that went over the green. If I take another shot with a lighter touch and it does better, then I learned something. In fact this practice has made many of my regular shots so very much better. At 100 yards I can generally put it on the green on the first try, which was much rarer in prior years. Today I landed on the apron of a 480 yard hole in 2 shots. Two GREAT STRAIGHT shots. That birdie came from a season of hitting a second ball or sometimes a third when I could identify whatever fault caused the prior balls to go astray. Cheating? Yep, and it has helped my game a great deal.

I got home after golf to an alarm ringing. Like the buzzing of the dryer. Did one of the members of Team Deb come by to do laundry? I wouldn't have objected if their machine was on the fritz. But the laundry room was silent. It was coming from the basement. Down there is a box hidden away in a cabinet that alarms us when a high water situation develops in our septic tank. I stopped using all but the most necessary water fixture. The next morning I called the septic people and they promised an afternoon visit. But we had a couple of inches of rain Wednesday so they came Thursday. All I can say is, I'm glad Deb is in Germany and Team Deb isn't on duty. All is well now.

I've been thinking it would be nice to take pictures off the deck of the lake and the forest behind it. Every day at noon, say. For a year. Then put the pictures in a digital frame and watch the seasons go by. That is quite a commitment. I didn't know if I could do it reliably or if after I started it, I'd poop out. So I never acted on it.

Then I read about some software that runs on Canon cameras that would do such a thing. Since a camera is just a computer with an eyeball in the front, a screen on the back and memory in the middle, it made sense to me to write programs inside the camera. With an older canon powershot camera, I can hook a USB cable between it and a computer little bigger than a pack of cigarettes and cheaper than a carton,) which will talk to the camera and ask it to take pictures.

I found my camera on ebay. Bought it. It came. I put in batteries. Turned it on. The lens went out and the screen gave an error. The seller was mortified, took it back and made a full refund. These 10 year old cameras are available for not so much so I bought another on ebay. This one came. I put in the batteries. The shutter won't open. The internet calls it the black screen of death. I reported it to the seller and she said, “it worked when I shipped it”. I'm still negotiating. I believe if I take it apart there is either some gunk on the shutter or the CCD is broken and can be replaced for $10. But I bought a working camera and received a broken one. I'll figure something out.

With Deb gone, I can go to bed early or late and sleep my 8 hours. When she's here we're on more of a schedule. My normal day is getting up and finding at least 2 women in the house hustling to get Deb up and going, preparing food, and getting the day going. I have breakfast and coffee and scram. Deb's got a routine. The feeding tube has a protocol of how much and how many times. There always seems to be a batch of her food in the blender getting ready for a “feeding”. Then the grooming stuff, then emails and snail mail. She and Team Deb complete paperwork jointly. 3 times a week a nurse drops by to give her an IV. Early afternoon she's ready for a little snooze and may sneak in a late afternoon nap too. Especially on an IV day. Then some more feeding and emails and whatever needs doing. They are talking constantly. Laughing and crying and talking. Our house has never had so much talking. Deb is not talking so much, but still there is a lot of communicating. There is a constant buzz. I keep my head down and frequently need to be addressed twice before I catch on someone actually said something TO ME. That something said is frequently: What do you want for dinner? This is one of my perks from Team Deb – I don't cook much any more. I have just to say what I want and it magically appears on my plate later that day. And Deb makes sure it is done the way I would have done it. Of course I'm doing the grocery shopping so I can't pick lobster unless I already bought it. Nevertheless it is a good perk.

After dinner there is some more email and grooming and preparing for bed. She then plants herself in her easy chair and lets Team Deb off the hook for the night. Really, she transfers from Day Shift to Night Shift. We take in an hour or two of TV. We don't watch broadcast TV much and almost never with commercials. Deb's got her shows we record and we watch NetFlix stuff. Lately we're watching “THE CLOSER”. Every night at least 1 episode (a few times 3!). We're watching it chronologically. Both of us really enjoy how the characters develop as the series progresses. We're up to season 4. I think after this, she'll pick up her broadcast shows. Marathon style.

There you have it. Absolutely ordinary. Nothing like the extraordinary stuff I wrote about in India. Just getting milked by a dentist, paying someone to haul our shit away, cheating at golf and practicing the great American pastime, TV. A regular Leave it to Beaver episode.