Walnuts on My Windshield - Issue #5

Friday, July 9, 2004

After all the "excitement" of the past few weeks, this week has been a bit more relaxed. Nothing major broke, and the only death was a possum that expired in the front yard, after having a run-in with some vehicle.

Scott's thumb is improving steadily. He has only one therapy appointment left to go, and he saw the orthopedist for his six-week checkup on Tuesday. He asked for and received the official go-ahead to play softball, which was nice, since he's been playing without permission for the past three weeks.

Scott had also injured his left shoulder a few weeks ago when he reached around to get something in the back seat of his car. Something popped in the joint and it has been uncomfortable since. However, we are putting to good use the fancy-schmancy ice pack that was purchased for the thumb: with a large ACE bandage, I mount it on his shoulder several times a day, which is what the therapist recommended.

Andrew is under house arrest for several days, because he disobeyed Dad and went to the neighbor's house after Dad told him not to. The front wheels have been removed from both bikes that are his size, rendering him a yard-bound pedestrian. It seems to be making an impact.

Josiah had a blast (literally) on July 5th. As usual, we went to Rockaway Beach (five miles from here) to watch their fireworks display on the 4th. The show was nice, but that town is getting sleazier each year. There were some pretty rude, rough folks over there.

By the way. your prayers would be greatly appreciated concerning a ballot item on August 3. We (and I'm not sure who all "we" includes) will be voting on whether or not to allow a cas*no on Lake Taneycomo at Rockaway Beach. Never mind that in Missouri, cas*nos can only be on rivers and this is a lake. Evidently, enough arms have already been twisted that if this thing passes next month, we WILL have a cas*no. Never mind that the last thing these poverty-ridden, meth-infested hills and hollers need is even more legalized gambling. The lottery is bad enough. The crime and family disintegration that will surely accompany a cas*no would be terrible. Not to mention the fact that all the gambling traffic from the north - and the whole state of Missouri is north of here! - would travel south on 65 to (you guessed it) 160 to get to Rockaway. Do I look like I want to live on a highway as busy as the strip?!?!?!? I guess I'll get off my soapbox and go pray some more now.

Josiah the pyromaniac lives annually for July 5th, when all the fireworks go on sale at half price. For $17.00, he bought, among many other things, two gross bottle rockets!!! All together, he thinks he has about 700 charges, so he will be enjoying fireworks for quite a while. His idea was to shoot them off periodically all year long, but we couldn't stand that. Instead, Scott told him he had till the end of July to shoot them. In any case, there are always lots of explosions happening around here. = )

Jessica is still writing her book about spiritual warfare. It is quite involved and the cast of characters includes several people we know - maybe you! We also took her to the courthouse and applied for her passport, a major step in her journey to China.

Katie will be leaving Sunday for 11 days in Springfield. I think she is a little nervous and a lot excited. We will miss her, and we will also miss her services as webmisstress. None of the rest of us knows how to maintain or update the website, so it will probably be the last week of July before there are more changes. No "Walnuts" next week!

Until next time,
Patty

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This week, I finally finished An American Doctor's Odyssey by Victor Heiser, MD. Because I read it in bed at night, I only managed about two pages before falling asleep. It was written in the 1930s, when sentences were longer and pages were, too. The book had over 500 pages, which is why it spent over six months on my nightstand! I thought it was extremely interesting; about how diseases like hookworm, plague, leprosy, and malaria were treated in poor countries in the early 1900s.

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Quote of the Week: "The easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am." ~ Author Unknown