Now that we have a wheel chair for Hubby it is a lot easier to get Hubby around  in the house and out to the car.  He’s even nicknamed his wheelchair "Speed Buggy".  Dennis, bless his heart, worked all day yesterday out in freezing weather, (started out when it was 12F degree’s outside), and built the wheel chair ramp for the porch.  We’ll be able to get Hubby into and out of the house now without worrying about him falling on the stairs.  Plus, now I don’t have to worry about anymore of the steps breaking and sending me for a tumble again.  That’s been a small worry of mine because if I get hurt on them again, who’s going to take care of Hubby?  This takes a lot of worry off of my mind in more ways that one.

The cats just had to get into the picture.  The ramp still needs a little work on the front so that I don’t have to lift the wheel chair and the posts need to be cut off even with the rails but Dennis will get it done I’m sure.  It’s so much easier on my knee’s to walk up the ramp rather than climb the stairs…especially when I have to carry in groceries.

Through this all, Hubby has been able to remain optimistic, and when he isn’t hurting he’s actually in pretty good spirits.  His biggest gripe is the about the loss of being able to eat anything he wants.  Hubby has never been overweight and has always had a love of eating.  He still has an appetite but he’s scared to eat because it causes such tremendous pain.  So yesterday when he was willing to try something new it was a cause for celebration…especially when it didn’t make him hurt.  You can’t imagine how wonderful it felt for Hubby to be able to eat and it not hurt.

We have a computer desk in our bedroom and one in our livingroom.  Last year in May I bought Hubby a new desk for the livingroom.  That has worked well because he has his own personal space for his computer.  You may remember that a couple of years ago I sat up the desk in our bedroom to be my own personal desk area.  That worked pretty good while Hubby was working out of state for a few months but when he came home it didn’t work so well.  The biggest problem was that he goes to bed with the chickens.  If I sat at the desk and used my computer after he had gone to bed I disturbed him.  I ended up dragging my laptop back and forth which made it a royal pain in the keester. 

For some time now I have been using our kitchen table as my personal desk space.  It’s been alright, at least I’m not having to drag my laptop back and forth but instead I end up shoving it to one side when we’d sit down to eat.  That can be a pain too when I have my notebooks trying to type all of my recipes into the computer. 

So recently I decided that I’m going to get rid of the love seat in our livingroom and put a desk just for me in its place.  Its a dual recliner love seat and the foot rest on the side that I sit on it really hard to put down and consequently I have a difficult time getting out of the stupid thing.  It’s pretty much shot, the material on the seats is torn, the padding in the arm rests is so worn down you can feel the wood underneath.  It’s time for it to go.

This is what I’m going to replace the love seat with (minus the crap on the desk because seriously is it me or is it just stupid to have a clock sitting beside a computer when the computer has a clock in the lower right hand corner?):

Now my livingroom with have two computer desks, a chest freezer, and our TV in it.  We are not even any where close to conventional…and since we don’t have company much, I’m good with the way it’s going to be.

If I’m in the mood I’ll post the before and after pictures when I’m all done.  I’ve got my work cut out for me today because you just wouldn’t believe what all is in my livingroom right now.

Yesterday afternoon Hubby was in the bathroom and had just gotten out of the shower when I heard him yell at me to come here quick.  I jumped up out of my chair and ran in there.  He told me he needed some clothes quickly.  The wind out side had the power lines that come down from the electrical pole to the meter on the house just a swinging and swaying in the breeze. All that swinging and swaying had caused the line to rub against the roof of the house…a tin roof at that…and cause the rubber coating to wear down to the live line.

I ran and flipped the main breaker off which cut the power to the house and then called Entergy to let them know that we had an electrical emergency.  With those lines outside still swinging and swaying they were arcing and sparking every time they rubbed the metal roof we had a huge possibility of having an electrical fire.  I asked them if they could give me an estimation on how long it would be before someone got here.  The service rep told me that it was considered an emergency and that some one would be dispatched immediately but she couldn’t give me an estimation on how long before they got here.

While we were waiting on Energy to get here, Hubby and I sat where we could watch the arc and spark show so just in case one of those little sparks decided so smolder into a fire we’d be able to grab the garden hose and hopefully be able to put out the fire.

Entergy finally got here within 30 minutes and had it all fixed within another 35 minutes.  Oh and the temperature outside at the time…94F.  We got a little warm but it’s fixed now and we won’t be sleeping in puddles of water tonight, nothing caught fire and all is now well.  We are counting our blessings and just really relieved that this didn’t happen day before yesterday when we were gone.

I do not have much of a green thumb, so any time that I am able to get some thing to grow I am thoroughly surprised.  About three summers ago I made a flower bed and planted a couple of small rose bushes.  Once they start budding out I am apt to go out daily and start checking to see how many buds they have on them.  Today when I checked the tangerine colored rose I found 15 buds and the red over white rose bush has 10 buds on it.

As I was looking at them I got to wondering just how much they had grown over the last couple of years.  Seeing them every day makes me less aware of just how much they have grown.  I knew that I had taken a picture and blogged about it when I had added some ground cover around them a couple of years ago so  I decided to find the picture that I took back then.  This is what they looked like May 1, 2006.

And this is what they looked like yesterday.

Here is one of the tangerine colored roses up close and personal, just as it’s starting to open up and bloom.

The tangerine rose has really grown, the other one not so much but it’s a hybrid rose so I didn’t really expect it to grow as quickly.  I’m just amazed that they are even still alive after last years hot dry summer.

Finally, Hubby got the lawn tractor fixed and did the first mowing.  I’ll be spending a good portion of the day mowing the grass again and again.  It was so freakin’ tall that it will have to be layered down hence the mowing and mowing again and again.  This is an example of how high it had grown.  The pool is 42" high and as you can see, Hubby doesn’t get off the mower and move anything.  I’d have moved the pool ladder if I had been mowing.  Why have to use the weed-eater anymore than necessary?

I bought this hanging basket Sunday.  I thought these double Petunia’s were really pretty, especially the contrast of lavender and dark purple.

Now if I could just get Hubby to work on getting the pool releveled we’d be all set for summer…all of that rain we’ve been getting hasn’t been kind to the pool.  Then all that I need is for Elrod to get here for the fun to really begin.

It’s rained and rained and rained around here lately.  The flower’s are blooming and the grass is a growing and growing and growing.  Like that little energizer bunny it ain’t lettin’ up.

The mower needs a belt so the blades will cut and it’s been ordered and will be here next week.  Maybe by then we will have had enough dry days in a row that we (meaning I) can get the mowing done.  If not, I’ll have to keep using the weed-eater to cut me a path from the house to the truck….seriously, that stuff is almost as tall as I am.

We’ve had half way decent weather around here for the past week.  We’ve had a little rain and some really nice spring like temps.  So nice was it that I ventured out of the house, camera in hand.  My rose bushes are starting to leaf out.  My Easter flowers as Hubby calls them have started to bloom. 

When I lived in Oklahoma I had over 100 Daffodils down the edges of our driveway.  I love seeing the Daffodils bloom and I had yellow, white, green (the are really a yucky yellow color) and red ones (another really yucky yellow color).   When we moved our here to the middle of nowhere, I discovered that some of the previous people who lived here had planted Daffodils, Iris’, and Vinca Major; which is a really good ground cover and grows like crazy.  I have planted a couple of rose bushes and some tall garden Phlox.  I planted the Phlox right by the steps so that I could see them every time I go outside.  I hope to get some different colors this summer.

Now I’m just waiting the day out to see if March has come in like a Lion or a Lamb.

Oh and I’m no longer in crisis mode on the packing.  All that is left is the few things that we pack at the last minute.  OMG I just realized that Hubby will probably be shaving his beard this weekend.  It’s one of the safety requirements at the nuke plant.  They can’t have beards because it impedes the safety of breathing equipment in the event that the equipment need to used.  Happy happy joy joy, I hate his beard.  It’s so wiry and coarse that it’s like kissing a brillo pad and no amount of conditioner seems to help. 

I guess I’m doing pretty well for a last minute notice.