Heading Home....

Wish we could have stayed longer, and wish we lived closer to my father in law, it's difficult to say good-bye. We had a nice 3 hour visit, I video taped a few more stories that Paul told us, he enjoys telling them, and we enjoyed hearing them too. Evidently he tells the nurses and aides his stories too because they came in from time to time and said, "Oh yeah, that's a good one!!", as they heard him telling us.
We all met with Paul's doctor too and hopefully some of the things he has been talking with us about will be resolved... part of the problem is he can't hear the doctor or nurses, and he is also a little forgetful about somethings too, but once his hearing can be helped, it seems to be better. We got new batteries for his hearing device, and the hospital will be looking into seeing about new hearing aids too it sounded like, I hope?

Anyway... after lots of hugs and kisses and good-bye we headed out to pick up Paul's car and some of his things that are in it to bring back here.



Paul had asked about his pecan trees at the house, so I went around back to see if there were any laying around... but this is all I found. I guess the person who is maintaining their yard is harvesting the pecans too.. so at least they are not going to waste.



It was another HOT, HOT day in Texas, at 5 p.m. it was still 102 degrees...whew!






The buildings are pretty cool in the Dallas area, but I absolutely HATE the traffic!!


We also were delayed in traffic for an hour or so because of this horrible accident... there were at least 5 cars smashed to pieces. I'm sure there must have been horrible injuries or worse.






Not much to see along the way... Trains..."Road Monsters"....Odd Highway Signs....





Hey? What the heck? We are heading the wrong way home!! *L* Beverly Hills??








John drove all afternoon, and I'm glad... he said it wasn't real easy towing the car, especially in all that traffic.... So we drove till it got dark, and now we are in Sherman, Texas... we'll be getting up early tomorrow for about 14 hours of driving.. ugghhh... *yaawwwn*..time for sleep....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Paul's Words of Wisdom... "A Gooood Thing to Know..."

Here is a funny video clip (yesterday) from Paul ... I had asked him if he had any words of wisdom to share with us ... He starts out saying.... "This is a GOOOOD thing to know...." *G*

NOTE: Turn off my playlist music before playing this.

Paul's joke for his brother...

This morning I took some short video clips of Paul.. he has a really bad cough, and fluid build up that has him often unable to talk. But he says the Dr. Pepper helps cut thru that junk, and helps him.. it may be true, he was doing pretty good most of this morning, and not coughing near as much as usual.

So, he wanted to tell us some of his jokes, this is one he said he thought his brother, Bob, would get a kick out of, or anyone else who would want to listen to it too, he said. I posted it also on Facebook so his daughter, Denise could show him too.

It was a pretty nice day, a little breeze and in the shade it was about 85..Paul likes it outside. The background noises you may hear on the video are cicadas in the trees..they were really LOUD!



I also have some stories of when he was in the war, on Iwo Jima, and more jokes, words of wisdom, and fun things that we will treasure ... can't wait to get them online later too. We are heading back this afternoon after lunch and a short nap (for both Paul and us!)..*S* I'm so glad we are able to be here... it's been fun and great for Paul as well.

Surprising Paul... So good to see him!

We made it to the VA Hospital about 7 p.m. Paul was sleeping when we arrived...when John leaned over and shook him and said, "Dad, Dad...", Paul woke up, and said, "Who is this?" John said, "It's me, John." His Dad said, "John?! Well I'll be damned!" *L* ...He sat right up and was so surprised...when John said, "Do you know who THIS is?" Pointing to me, Paul said, 'Is it my nurse?"..*L* I said, "No, it's me, John's wife.." He said, "It is? I'll be damned!"..*L*

Then he woke up more, put on his glasses and recognized me.. *S*

He was very happy and surprised to see us. It was a nice visit tonite, for a few hours, we'll go back again tomorrow and Monday morning too before heading back to WI.

Tomorrow I hope to be making some short videos of Paul, and hearing his stories to share with the family too.

Made it .... Deep in the heart of Texas now...

Left OK by 8:30 a.m., heading down the road... more sites we didn't see...




Old rusty bridges, roads to no where, giraffe statues... Ohhh the sights you'll see... NOT! *L*


Large propeller things on semis, for those large air wind mill generator things, I think... lots of them were on the highway.



These boots were made for walking... and that's just what they'll do...one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over YOU....



arrgghhh.... I'm being tortured at all these places we are NOT stopping at!!..*L*
(re: Texas Thrift Shops, and many roadside junk shops along the way)






Waaaay toooo much traffic in the Plano, Dallas area... ugghhh...

And a Caterpillar dome home sales place....


It was a just a BIT warm here in Texas.. 102 degrees... thankful for AC in the truck!
Austin, TX was a pretty city... stopped in traffic however wasn't so fun.

And pretty satellite dish flowers ...








More places we did NOT stop at... Jerry's Artorama, and street graffiti...








Made it to New Braunfels... and had a late lunch, early dinner at Rudy's BBQ... yummmmy ribs!!


Then FINALLY, we arrived at John's Dad old home, to drop off the car hauler trailer until later...



After a fast stop to pick up Dr. Pepper and pineapple for John's dad, it was on to San Antonio to get a hotel room (which took awhile, most were filled up!), then on to see Paul at the VA.



A Snake Farm we did NOT stop on the way to San Antonio... and I'm GLAD we didn't stop! *L*

Fast Trip To Texas ... Day 1

My father-in-law is in the VA Hospital in San Antonio. Last time John went to visit him was in February for 10 days or so...at that time the doctors told John that Paul wasn't doing well, and it could be 2 days or 2 weeks. But Paul amazed the docs and is doing much better and still hanging in there, although his health is not all that good still. John has been wanting to go back down for months, and finally yesterday we just decided to go. I was able to get off work and drive down with him this time.

We left home at 5:30 a.m. this morning, and stopped for the night, about 14 hrs. later in McAlester, OK.

I was hoping we could stop from time to time, just for a few minutes, to take in odd and unusual sights along the way that we came across...but John isn't one for "dilly-dallying", and so, here are mostly photos of things we DIDN'T see along the way..*L*



Not too much to see in IL from the Interstate and it takes forever to go through... smoke stacks along the way.




Nope...didn't see this shrine place either...







I have NO idea where we were ...but it appears we must have been heading north instead of south?? Toronto Road exit??.. huh??..*G*

The Arch in St. Louis, and a bad accident there too...semi (and car?) crash and burn..ughhh, hope there were survivors!






John missed the turn for our next highway in St. Louis because of the traffic, this is an artistic looking building and some kind of sports dome thing we saw along the way, while our english accented GPS lady chewed us out while "recalculating, recalculating" other routes to get us back on track..*L*






This is leaving misery, err, Missouri..*S*... and the Indian statue didn't look any too happy either..*G*








Cool cowhides for sale along the roadside... but NOOOO, John wouldn't stop there either.... I sure wasn't "getting MY kicks along Route 66"!! *G*



"Ohhh, I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee!"... lots of songs are coming to mind along this route..*L*





Farm implements on the highway... and some huge body of water in OK, it was beautiful, lots of water ways, hilly terrain, (mountain like to us Wisconsinites)..*L*

So that was about it for today... John drove over 9 hours, I only drove for about 4 1/2 or so. Lots of highway construction.. ugghh!

Tomorrow, it's on to Texas!

Amazing Finds for Assemblage Use & Tomato Plant updates...

I can't wait to use the latest finds I've come across for an assemblage or two or three... Here are photos of some of the things...

Cool wooden drawers from an old sewing machine (I think), they have great decorative touches on the outside of them, and will be great for shadow box type of assemblages! I also bought some old tools... one from GoodWill and a couple from Etsy. An old plumb-bob and plumb-line, an old measuring thingy, and old wrench thing. Also a cool bling thing.. a pin that spells out "Jesus" in "diamonds"!! And another old wooden box behind them all!




Also shown here is an old letter from some signage I bought a year ago, I finally took it apart, the inside is broken, but the light tubes are curvy and kind of cool too, so I think I can find a use for those as well as the letter D. I also have an old horse from a rocking horse toy that is just crying out to be used with that letter D ..but I have yet to figure out exactly how. *L*



I also am the recipient of some cool old railings from church that were going to be tossed out. I am thinking of refinishing these, with some red paint and walnut stain perhaps... and using them with my assemblages in some showings and prayer stations... it will be really cool to use them to designate an area set aside as a kind of sacred space.

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And, for your viewing enjoyment and update, here is my tomato tree at 6 weeks, and my deck planter too.... I just ate a couple more of these delicious tomatoes tonite.. yummm... *S*