Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

Ridgetop

Herd Master
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
Messages
7,274
Reaction score
25,287
Points
743
Location
Shadow Hills, CA
Thanks for all your good wishes. I have missed all my friends!

Surgery was a b***h and I couldn't come home the same day. I couldn't raise my leg at all, no feeling in the thigh muscle, so PT guy at hospital would not release me to come home. Surgeon said that occasionally that happened with the nerve line they put in which is left in for 4 days. It sometimes causes temporary paralysis of the thigh muscle. I could have stayed another day in hospital since the muscle still wasn't working but since I could actually raise my foot a bit and wanted to come home they released me. DH wanted me to stay another day, so naturally once I arrived home, the leg muscle would not work again, and DH was able to say "I told you so".

The first 3 days at home were tough and I was thrilled to have the OXY. However I ran out after several days and the PT contact at UCLA did not return my call on Friday or put in the prescription. I got hold of him on Monday and he kept asking how many I was taking daily. Turns out he gave the pharmacy a scrip for 80 pills and they only gave DH 19. He must have thought I was either selling them or overdosing. I texted him a pic of the bottle showing only 19 dispensed with "no refills" and he called the pharmacy with another prescription. Just in time since I was completely out and the TraMadol was not working.

This time around it seemed like I was in a lot more pain but after a week I realized that I had been expecting the partial replacement to be "a breeze" so just didn't expect the normal pain. I shouldn;t have listened to DH when he said hedidn;t feel a thing with his since he has an extremely high pain tolerance level. :mad: Still couldn't lift my leg the first week and DH had to lift the leg every time I got up to use the facilities and putting me back on the bed. Finally got to the point I could get up alone and go to the bathroom. YAY! Getting back into bed was harder since the bed is pretty tall, but finally was able to fling myself into bed and swing my leg up onto the mattress. Calling
DH when I needed something was fine except when he left his phone in the bedroom! LOL

I had my first PT appointment Wednesday after surgery for the evaluation. Hardest part was bending my unbendable left leg into and out of the car. Started right up with the exercises at home, and am doing ok now with bending the knee. The thigh muscles are working again. Second PT appt was much easier and I am already doing the exercises it took me a month to work up to with the full replacement. :) I only take the Oxy when I have been doing the exercises and am in pain. Sometimes at night.

I haven't been able to get on BYH until now. I tried to get on my computer and a blue screen came up saying the comuter was "bitlocked" and asking for all kinds of passwords etc. to unlock! :eek: DS1 couldn't do anything with it over the phone even with me sending him pix of the screen so I packed it up and sent it with DH when he left for Yantis. He said later thast the iternet had some problems and that may be what haoened but it is goig to 'tX forhi to look at. The screen is crcked and DS1 said I need a new one but I'll wait until theChristmas sales. DS1 willchiose one for me. I don't need a gaming computer, just for emails and business. I like a laptop for the convenience.

DS1 has been doing a lot at the house in Yantis. He has done repairs to the barn. Cleared up, and put up 2x4s to hang equipment off. He found a plumbing store, bought the replacement part for the outside faucet that leaked so badly, and repaired that. He has been watering my plants that did not get put in the ground before we left to come back to Texas, and toting 5 gallon buckets of water out to the field to water the trees during the dry spell. AHe said that the 2 pears and 1 apple that survived from the first planting are 6' tall now and lookto be survivors. The 2 peaches from the second planting are doing well but the horses broke off the apple tree.

He cleared out the tool shed and swept it out. He discovered the remains of as dead aninal in there. He wasn't sure if it was an armadillo or a possum but decided probably a possum since it didn't have scales. Probasbly got in the shed and locked in when we left last time - it was pretty well dessicated. He moved the shelves around and set up another set of shelving we had brought out but not put up yet. Then he moved the large rolling metal Craftsman tool boxes in and replaced all the tools from the marked boxes into the marked drawers. We are missing a few drawers from the wooden cabiunets installed in our tool shed in California so the sockets will have to go in another box on a shelf. Finally he moved the large cabinet that we brought from California out of the spare room where he and DH put it last January because it was raining too much to clear out the tool shed and fit it in. He found a location for it in the tool shed and put it in. Finally he moved all the boxes if tools (lots of them) out of all the other rooms where we had stored them in the house into the tool shed. That made space for the king size mattress that was leaning up against the wall to go down on the floor for DD2, DSI2, and Annabel tosleep on. There is no box springs because when we replaced the mattress on our bed we kept the box spring. I am considering a murohybed in the spare room since I doubt we will have that many guests anyway, and the new Murphy beds use good mattresses. Another project for the future. DS1 also cut new bords for the bases of the island cabinets and attached them together. He put them in the kitchen and said that once the eating peninsula is removed there should be plenty of room. Then he cleaned up the entire house before the family arrived, and moved a lot of the boxes out of the way. DS1 does a lot working on his own.

Don't know what happened but July 6, DD2 went to turn on the tub in the main bath and the lever broke off in her hand! The manufacturer (Grohe) is no longer in business. One reason I have switched to using only Delta products. No plumbers available on a holiday weekend. If DS1 was here he would have been able to repair it but since he is in Texas we had to figure it out ourselves. First DDS and DSIL2 went and bought a new tub/shower set at Lowes. Then DH found out that to use that we would have to chip out the wall which is tiled. NO I said, there had to be something else to do. We called DS1 and he said that he had ordered a special part from a plumbing store in Tujunga when he fixed that faucet himself several years ago. DH went up to a plumbing store and they said it would take a month to get the part and that the part would be $400. DH casme hime andlooked up oplumnbers. He found a local plumber who ordered the part and got it in last week. He came up and installed it but the part was defective! It leaked! The plumber said he would return it and reorder but when DH told him that the old part did not leak - it was just the handle that broke off, the plumber took the everything apart and used the old parts to rebuild the new leaky fitting. Plumbing repaired just i time for the family to leave for Texas.

Friday DH, DD2, DSIL2 and Annabel left for Texas. They took DS1's old Explorer and with 3 drivers drove through the night and day to Santa Rosa where they went to bed early. Driving through the night they expected Annabel to sleep all the way but instead she stayed awake all the way. Talked to DH just now. This morning they took their time getting out of the motel. The A/C was not working in the Explorer but DSIL2 got some sort of stuff he put in the AC and it worked well all the way across Texas. They arrived at the ranch early this evening, looked aroud a bit, went out to dinner, and put Annabel down to sleep. Tomorrow they will go up to the little playground at Fork Lake and drive around a bit before the kids take off to go check out schools.

They will stay in Yantis while they check out school districts south of Dallas with programs for Autism. DD2 originally was looking at loctions north of Dallas, but her husband will be workihng out of DeSoto which is south of Dallas. I told her she had to look for schools and houses south of Dallas since it would take him 2 hours to get to work driving across the suburbs north of Dallas and through the city. They can't put Annabel in an ISD where they do not live so the school district needs to be identified first then they canlook forhomes there. @Margali gave us some good school districts south of Dallas to check out that have autism programs so they will check those ISDs out and then look for rentals. DD2 was arguing with DSIL2 about how much they would have to pay in rent before she even knew where they would live! :rolleyes: I told her they needed to find the right ISD then find housing. Also to lookon 'crasigslist for rentals instead of online on Trullia etc.

DH was surprised at how much DS1 has done at the house, and although the tiling is not finished around the tub in the main bathroom they could see that it was going to be really pretty. Tomorrow he will be able to see all that DS1 has done in the tool shed and barn. :D =D

This morning little Robert (3) had a "Come to Jesus" moment with his daddy. I could hear the children giving their mama a hard time all morning. Suddenly I could hear masculine shouting as DS2 started yelling at Robert. Then screams of distress from a child. Did I rush to rescue my adorable grandchildren from their father's wrath? Heck NO! They are a handful and whatever they did they deserved what they got. Later while the boys were outside playing I came out for something to eat and asked what happened.

Per DS2: Nicholas accidently spilled his milk at the table. DS2 was cleaning up the spill when Robert decided to get in on the action. Robert deliberately poured his milk on the floor and followed it up with dumping his entire plate of food on the floor after it! Hearing his daddy roar with anger, Robert suddenly realized he might have gone a bit too far. He jumped down from the table and ran to hide! DS2 walked over and retrieved him (Robert's hiding skills are not the best). He carried him back to the table, showed him the mess, told him "No No!", and Robert got a spanking. I think it might have been only his first or second in his life. There are times when a daddy has to draw the line. :lol:

I have to stop now - my knee is hurting and I have to go to bed. Now that I have changed the password to get on BYH on DH's comuter, I will be able to catch up with everyones posts. Luckily I remembered to write down the new password - now I will enter it in my phone!
 

farmerjan

Herd Master
Joined
Aug 16, 2016
Messages
11,314
Reaction score
44,317
Points
758
Location
Shenandoah Valley Virginia
Welcome back !!!!!! Glad to hear you are finally doing better with the knee.... Sounds like "normal" with the rest of the family antics !!@%#:lol::lol::lol::lol::gig:gig:gig:gig:gig

Sounds like DS1 has really been working along at the house. Kudos to him.

Hope that DD2 and family manage to find a good school for Annabel. Does DSIL2 have a job waiting? I cannot remember why they were moving to TX... because you all were moving to have a little peace and quiet, besides the total BS of the gov, costs, taxes, etc., in California... !!!! Hopefully they will be far enough away to make visits pleasant and daily "MOM I need this and that and XYZ" not a constant ..... they need to grow up and be on their own instead of you and DH "always" being a convenience for them.... You can love the grandchildren but not have to be their surrogate parents too....

Didn't see anything about the sheep so I assume they have settled in pretty well for DS1 also.

You aren't going to be able to have fruit trees if the horses are in with them... they will strip the bark besides the breaking them off...

Welcome home to your online family.....
 

farmerjan

Herd Master
Joined
Aug 16, 2016
Messages
11,314
Reaction score
44,317
Points
758
Location
Shenandoah Valley Virginia
@farmerjan DSIL2 is a long distance truck driver. The company he works for has an office in De Soto, TX. De Soto and the surrounding area is NOT a good place to live. The better towns like Mansfield, Midlothian, etc are 2hrs from Yantis while only 30 minutes from De Soto.
Somehow I missed the over the road truck driver part. Yeah, just transfer to a different "home office/terminal".
2 hours from Yantis is a very doable distance without being in their "back pocket"... That's great... I was an hour from my family in CT and it was a stretch when I needed babysitting help after I got divorced... and I tried hard to NOT take advantage of my parents..... Close enough for "help" , far enough that you didn't drop in every 5 minutes and I could "live my life" too....
 

Mini Horses

Herd Master
Joined
Sep 4, 2015
Messages
10,560
Reaction score
34,357
Points
758
Location
S coastal VA
2 hours from Yantis is a very doable distance without being in their "back pocket"... That's great... I was an hour from my family in CT and it was a stretch when I needed babysitting help after I got divorced... and I tried hard to NOT take advantage of my parents..... Close enough for "help" , far enough that you didn't drop in every 5 minutes and I could "live my life" too....
Agree with that 200% :lol:
 

SageHill

Herd Master
Joined
Aug 27, 2022
Messages
4,209
Reaction score
15,717
Points
553
Location
Southern CA
Good to see you back - ohhh man sounds like it was really tough after the surgery. Having to stay there --eeeek. But truly scary for not being able to move your leg. That's all behind you now YAY.
Definitely sounds like when you get back to Texas soooo much will be done and you'll have less you need to get done.
Glad you're back - we were all getting a little worried.
 
Top