Let's start with Monday, shall we. I only worked my typical half-day on Monday, but it was a great day. I got to see Henry, who is one of my favorite patients. He is a wonderful man. He reminds me very much of my Grandpa Jack. Henry has a habit of bringing me little thoughtful gifts, and Monday he brought me a Motion Sensing Driveway Monitor, because he was worried about me being by myself at home while Tim is at work. He is so thoughtful. The world needs more Henry's. The rest of my Monday went great. My massage schedule was completely booked up, so that kept me busy. After work, Tim and I went up to Mom's for some bean soup. We came back to the house and watched The Blues Brothers before bed.
Tuesday was the best day I had all week! I had a great morning working at the front desk. Dr. Bowling came in so that I could give him a massage to try to help his sciatica. I got a lot of things done that I needed to get done. The absolute, hands down best part of the day came at 12:04 when I got a call from a very strange number on my phone. My brother's voice was on the other end when I answered! It was SO GOOD to hear that voice. I only talked to him for a few minutes, but it completely made my day. He had spent the better part of ten minutes trying to get someone to answer their phones (Dad was at lunch, my phone was in my pocket, and I didn't feel it vibrate, and Mom was in the shower), but we all got a nice voicemail. I have listened to mine every day since Tuesday. He sounded exhausted because they have been working 20 hour days and it's already 105 degrees there during the day. After a few minutes, I tried calling Mom on the office phone to see if I could get her. She answered! I told her to hang up because Dwain was calling on one phone, and I told Dwain to call Mom on the other phone. It was a great day! The rest of my day wasn't too shabby either. We had a good staff meeting, then my afternoon was booked up with massages. After work, I came home, and Tim and I had a great dinner. We ran out of propane halfway through grilling our turkey, so we made a trip to Mom's to borrow their tank for the night. We also went to listen for turkeys so that Tim would know where to find one Wednesday morning when season came in. We didn't stay up too long though. Tim got his turkey hunting stuff ready, then we went to bed.
Tim got up very early Wednesday morning to go turkey hunting. It was a pretty miserable morning with mist and rain, but he had a very successful morning. Shooting light came in at about 6:30 am, and he called me at 7:00 to tell me that he killed his turkey. That's a short season! He was back at the house by the time I left for work, so I got to see him and his turkey. It was a really nice bird, and he was totally over the moon about it! Once I finally got to work, I spent the morning working the front desk. We only had a couple people on the schedule though, so I was not busy at all. I was able to get a lot done during the down time. I met Sammie for lunch at the Great Wall for some yummy Chinese food, which meant that I ate entirely too much and was miserable for most of the afternoon. I had five massages on Wednesday afternoon for another booked up day. I spent the whole first part of the week working on a Wal-Mart list, and I made that trip to Wally World on Wednesday after work. I had a ton of things to get and wound up spending a couple hours there and more than a couple dollars. I was glad to get that trip over with. I dread going to Wal-Mart more than anything. By the time I made it home and got my groceries unloaded (in the rain), I was very ready for bed. I had done 15 hours of massage in 3 days, and I was tired!
Tim's Indiana Thunder Chicken -- Killed with the Stick and String!
LOOK at those Spurs! This is my favorite picture! Such an awesome view!
Now, that is a beard!!
Different View -- Same Turkey
Thursday (whew, this is taking a while) was another great day! I spent the morning working at the front desk, then had to make another run to Wal-Mart on my lunch break. I forgot to get a couple things for Mom the night before so I got those, and I also got a couple things for Dwain -- I'm putting together a care package for him. Once again, my afternoon massage schedule was full, but I only have 4 appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays instead of 5 like I usually do. I can do five massages a day without burning myself out if I make sure and get adjusted by Dr. Pete and get enough sleep. Those are the two things that I have to do to be able to work hard. I love having a booked up schedule. I like the feeling that comes with working hard. Thursday evening, I went to Wendy's to get supper for Tim and me, then headed home. I had planned on being productive, but once I sat down, I was done for the night. I watched the episodes of Top Shot that I had missed -- Our Direct TV was still not working, so I watched them on the computer. I didn't stay up too long though, because I had a full massage schedule on Friday morning, and I needed my beauty sleep.
I can't tell you how much I love Fridays, but this Friday was a very sad day. Our beautiful Jessica is leaving the office to be a stay-at-home mom, and Friday was her last day. I think she was making a good decision for her family, but I sure am going to miss her. After I got done with my five massages Friday morning (another full day), I stuck around a little bit to visit with Jessica and Sammie. Dr. Bowling and Mary Sue had a sheet cake sent to the office for her, and I ordered some flowers for her. I can't even begin to tell you how much I am going to miss her. I will be stopping to visit with her as often as I can! The rest of Friday was a pretty good day. I had to hurry home, because the Direct TV repairman was supposed to be coming to re-align our satellite. I made it home about an hour later than I wanted to, but Rob the Direct TV technician called me to tell me that he was running late. Turns out, a bunch of their repairmen had quit, so he had to do 11 jobs on Friday. He was a super nice man, and got our TV going again in no time. He still had to drive all the way back to Washington before he was done for the day. Now, that's a long, unending day. I sent him home with a piece of Peanut Butter Pie. I always feel that a little bit of kindness usually comes back to you in some way, so maybe someday when I'm having a tough day, someone will make my day just a little bit better. That's how my Momma and Pop raised me, and I'm very proud of it. I didn't really do much else productive on Friday. It was kinda nice to just lay around after such a long week. I worked 39 hours last week, and of those, 24 were massages. That's the best paycheck I have ever had -- Woo Hoo!! I love knowing that I have worked for my money -- It makes enjoying the things that I buy even better. I got my turkey hunting stuff laid out before going to bed on Friday -- Saturday was my opening day of Turkey Season (I hadn't been able to go yet because of work). The only other thing I did on Friday was watch a couple episodes of River Monsters, and I got a care package together to send to Dwain. I just have to wait on my Flat Rate Boxes to get here. I'm planning on sending him a package every week that he is gone. I sure do miss that boy. I went to bed on Friday beyond excited about going turkey hunting in the morning.
I woke up very early on Saturday. I was headed to the woods before 6:00 am to find my Thunder Chicken. I got my decoys all set up, then settled in to wait. I heard a couple gobbles, but didn't see anything until a little after 9:00. I am almost ashamed to say that I was fighting to stay awake by this point. It was just really peaceful and quiet out there in the woods, and I didn't get enough sleep the night before. I must have dozed off, because I opened my eyes and noticed that there were 4 turkeys in my decoy spread instead of the 3 that I had put out there. And he had a beard!! I sat up as quiet as I could and got my gun pulled up. He didn't have a clue that I was there! What a turkey he was too -- His beard was almost touching the ground! I took my time getting him in my scope and getting ready to take my shot. I was kind of disappointed in him really because he was boring. No strutting, no gobbling. He didn't attack the decoy -- Nothing. He was just walking through the decoys like he didn't have a care in the world. Finally, I felt I was ready to take my shot -- and -- I missed. Please insert very sad face here. I guess I must have flinched or picked my head up or something. My shot went right over the top of him, and he flew off into the trees. I thought about taking another shot at him duck hunter style while he was in the air, but decided against it. Those shotgun shells are expensive. Talk about depressing -- I could have cried! I stuck around for a couple more hours, but all I saw was a couple hens and DC, my Mom's cat. I gave up at about Noon because my stomach was making enough noise to scare off a deaf turkey. After getting a bite to eat for lunch, I laid down on the couch for a little while, then I started working in the yard. I picked up a bunch of sticks in the yard and got ready to mow the yard. I was going to try to push mow our whole yard, which is about an acre and hadn't been mowed yet this year. Needless to say, the grass was tall and very hard to mow. I started mowing at about 5:30. By the time it got too dark to see anymore, I had been mowing for 3 hours. I got the entire west side of the driveway done and part of the other side. I still have about half of it to mow, but it rained this morning, so it's probably not going to happen today. I really do enjoy mowing, but when I feel like I am clearing a field, it's not that fun. I went to Mom and Dad's for supper last night, then came home for a quick shower and bed.
My plan for this morning (hooray, I finally have you caught up to Sunday) was to go turkey hunting again, but it was absolutely POURING down rain this morning, so I went back to bed. I got up and have been being pretty lazy all day. I have got a couple sewing projects I am working on, but I don't really plan on doing too many productive things today. I would really like to finish my mowing, but I don't think that it is dry enough to do that today. I might try to clean up the house some as well, but today seems like a perfect day to be lazy. I would like to go do something with Sammie and Jessica, but I'm not sure what they are up to today. I'll try to call them after I get done with this post. Sundays are the days that I miss my brother the most. Sundays are the days that we have called each other in the last two years to catch up on life. We would talk for a couple hours usually. When he was home, Sundays were our family days. We spent the day with each other. Yup, I miss Dwain a lot today. I hope that the next time he calls, we can talk for a while, but that won't be for a couple weeks I think. He said something about being away from the base for a while.
Anyone wanting to send Dwain letters or care packages can do so by using this address:
LCpl Jolliff, Dwain A.
2D CEB SPT CO
Direct Support North
Unit 73595
FPO AE 09510-3595
The best way to send him letters is to use Motomail.us. It's a free service that lets you send him a letter that will get there in only a couple days. It's like one-way email. You send the letter, then someone prints it out and takes it to him. He can't send anything back that way, but it's great to send him news from home.
Well, now my afternoon has gotten away from me. It has taken me a long time to write this post. I need to go be productive again. Maybe, maybe not. Tim should be heading back home anytime now. He went to Lake Erie on a fishing trip, but he left his phone charger at home, so I haven't been able to talk to him much. I'm sure he will have some good stories to tell. If it doesn't rain us out again, we are going to go turkey hunting again in the morning. Ok, now I'm really going to get busy. I can't just waste a whole day like this. There is too much to do. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their Sunday! Later Gators!! :^)
Operation Saheeb -- Day #20
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