WA is back

I am back. I want to thank Granny for carrying on in spite of her stress and problems with Ray's illness, and I thank Gadfly for pinch hitting for me during my bout with that viral respiratory infection. I also thank those who expressed concern for me; that is kind of you and I appreciate it.

Wed. PM update: Egads! I've been trying to play catch-up on all that I missed while ill and mostly incommunicado. Scanning favorite blogs, checking email, catching up on family doings. The Is America Burning email lists almost 2,000 entries. Several others list 75 to several hundred emails. No way I can read all of them; I'll just have to delete them unread - the enewsies, that is. Pains me to do so. Avid reader that I am and a sidebar and links junkie, it can take a long time for me to complete just one, so it is impossible for me to read all those. Deleting them unread is like a chocoholic throwing out all the Easter chocolate candies without even biting off the ears of the chocolate bunnies.

Backtracked and checked out Granny's Rocrebel blog to see what's been going on in her baliwick. Granny always has a full plate and yet somehow manages to not only take care of it but to pile on a little more. I hope that Ray's condition is not serious, and also hope that Granny's cold doesn't evolve into a viral infection like I had. It was miserable. Great-grannies' bodies do not bounce back as quickly as they did in our younger years. Illnesses knock our socks off and have lingering effects. Steroids help but they have undesirable effects too.

I was able to see grandson Gene only once, due to my illness. I didn't want to expose the family to the bug. He is back in Tennessee but his wife and children remained here in Texas. Monica is continuing her college classes, working for her degree so they opted for this continued separation. Gene will be coming back on a 3 day pass soon, so I can see him then. Since Bush wants a third bite at the apple, Gene's unit may be sent back to Iraq for a third tour, rumored to be scheduled for the spring. So many of our troops who escaped being killed or maimed are being sent back again and again. I've read that some are on their 4th TOD. A number of our young in the extended family are either in Iraq or scheduled for deployment to Iraq. It is worrisome.

Pee wee great-grandsons Joshua and Lloyd are in flag football this season and just scored a resounding victory in this week's game. Josh is quite fleet of foot and made a couple of touchdowns so is hero of the day. I would have preferred that the boys had opted for soccer but Texas is traditionally a football state, especially in the small town hinterlands. Hyperactive Lloyd is brother to the miniature beauty queen I posted about some time ago. Llacie is a blue eyed, fair skinned blonde but Lloyd reveals his mother's hispanic heritage with his black eyes and hair. He is one of my pets and is so mischievious he drives his mother bonkers. He tags at my heels and asks scads of questions that sometimes stumps Great-grandma. Once he was hanging over the arm of my chair studying me intently. Finally he asked, "Grandma B, why are you old?" Good question, kid. Because I haven't died yet.

97 year old Mother, who was with Hospice around the first of the year and for whom we had already made pre-need funeral arrangements, has bounced back like gangbusters and drives the care givers nuts at the nursing home. She climbs over the side rails or the foot of her bed to escape and recently took a tumble when doing so and fractured her shoulder. It hasn't slowed her down much. She is the source of considerable exasperation and also great amusement at times. She is fiesty, independent and quite opinionated. You go, great-great Granny!

Everything is much the same as before I was down and out. Life goes on apace . Grandson Stephen has quit the Pro Golf circuit and is employed locally but maintains social contacts from his tour days at his home in Kingwood. Grand daughter-in-law completed her college and is employed by an Architectural firm. At the bottom of the totem pole, ofcourse, but already has an assignment to design a low level system structure. Daughter Wild Child and hubby firmly embedded in their RV on the river and reluctant to return to conventional housing for the winter. Just wait until a blue norther hits the thin skin of that RV or the river comes on a rise. Then it's bug-out time. Daughter Dot and retired fireman husband offer little threat to the fish population in the Gulf on their frequent boating excursions but what they do catch is welcome to the table. They donate all the sand trout to Dot's father (my ex-husband) but they keep the speckled trout and redfish. Daughter Jo has resumed her second job of teaching nights at the college, a hard go of maintaining 2 jobs full time.

That's about all the news that's fit to print. Hope that answers all your questions. When I get caught up I'll email personally. Cheers.....WA