Busyness

The story of Osama Bin Ladin's death has taken over all the news channels. It is a week later and still it is hard not to hear about the man, his family, the compound where he was living, the Navy Seals who killed him and the ones who buried his body at sea. There is a lot of controversy as well, most of it aimed at President Obama. I did listen to the speech the President gave on May 1st and it didn't seem like there was anything bad about it. He seemed to give credit to the Armed forces and all its branches that have worked so hard to help the Arabic people in Afghanistan and Iraq take control of their own countries while still fighting in the war against terrorists since 9/11/2001. But as time goes by I hear more and more that the man should have said more or that he should have said less or that he forgot to give credit to someone or he gave himself too much credit. The whole thing is depressing me. It feels like there is something wrong with having taken out a major terrorist. Or was he? And did he have a long form birth certificate to prove that he was born where and when he says he was?

Sonny hurt his ankle what seems like ages ago, stayed off it for awhile until it didn't hurt to use it...and then he hurt it again and had to start staying off his ankle until it didn't hurt. This past week he has really been staying off it because it has been swelling. He has kept it wrapped and has put ice on it and kept it elevated. And me, now I have two people who need me to carry things to them and fill their drinking glasses. I'm the only one left to feed the dogs and fill the cat's dishes. It has kept me pretty busy when so many new things have been added to my usual dishwashing, laundry, bill paying chores. I'll be glad when either one or both of the Mikes is able to lend a bigger hand.

Lately we have had a man here, Gary, who has been working in the yard. The tornado weather blew lots of leaves and branches and trash up into the corners of the yard. Mike2 and I did some raking and Mike2 and Mike did some mowing, but now that our yard can be measured in acres instead of feet, it is too much. Gary trimmed everything. He cut the branches on the tree that fell so that it is no longer laid out across the yard. He raked the front yard and cleared out along the sidewalk and raked tons of leaves from under the hedges and the trees that line the front of the house. He used a weed eater around the bottom of the fence both inside and out and he trimmed around the rose bushes and the mailbox and the carport. Now the yard is beautiful.

And today, I got a check from the County Judge's office to pay me for having served my Jury Duty in January. That'll pay for what it cost us to have the yard work done. And I got a good laugh when I heard Gary's wife tell him about the money he earned doing our yard work "That'll pay our electricity bill!"

On Friday (yesterday) Mike and I went to Little Rock for his 3rd followup visit after his surgery. He drove. He had his crutches in the back seat, and he had to travel around the hospital in a wheel chair to get his xrays taken and to go see his surgeon, but he is very much better. Even the doctor said so! He does not have to wear his leg brace and he can start bending his leg when he feels like it and he can put weight on it. He still has to be careful not to re-injure himself and he needs to continue going slowly doing only as much as he can without hurting himself. His xray showed, though, that his bones are healing nicely and there was no sign of any re-growth of his Large Cell Tumor. We will go back there in July for more xrays, but all the news was good news. And today Mike was able to go outside and use the tractor while Gary used the rakes and shovels and the weed eater.

And me, I am several paragraphs past admitting to the depressing things in my life and am thinking that I should go out and light the pile of deadwood and leaves that Gary cleaned off the yard and make a bonfire!