And in the Local News. . .

Source: WYFF, Channel 4, Greenville, SC

Dateline: North Charleston, SC

“Charleston County deputies said a 44-year-old woman angry at a man for not returning home with beer on Christmas beat and stabbed him with a ceramic squirrel.”

I think she needed her Christmas spirits.

A Strange Sort of Christmas Miracle

Mr. Fixit went into the hospital to have his kidney stone taken care of yesterday morning. Instead of removing it, they inserted a stent which is supposed to relieve most of his discomfort. They decided on this sort of temporary solution because in a few weeks the kidney will be removed.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the stone has proved to be blessing even with the attendant pain and his continuing discomfort after the surgery. Without the stone, the doctors might not have found the large tumor in the kidney. We were told that 90% of all tumors in kidneys are malignant, therefore, the doctors recommended the complete removal of the kidney. His age is a factor, also.

After the first of the year, he is scheduled for scans of his whole torso to see if there is a spread. After a review, they will schedule the major surgery.

Mr. Fixit was shocked. He had no symptoms whatever. He is scared as any of us would be. I try not to let him see how scared I am because that would upset him even more.

Our sons were great. They spent a major portion of the day with us yesterday, and they kept his mind occupied. It helped me more that anyone can imagine. I didn't tell Mr. Fixit about the mass at first, and I was dealing with that, too. I didn't know if I made the right decision about not telling him. I think I was right not to tell him something that would be greatly upsetting to him. I knew he would know the whole story in a couple of days.

So as it stands, he is still uncomfortable, but I can't help but feel immensely grateful for that stone. It may have saved his life.

Medical Problems

Mr. Fixit is experiencing a not-too-pleasant problem--he has a kidney stone. They gave him medication to see if that would take care of the problem, but no success so far. He is to see a urologist Monday. It's painful for him,  but it could be a blessing in disguise.

Bad News, Good News

Perhaps I should say, “Worst News. . .” I’m still very unhappy with our television situation (no satellite service), but there are a few compensations.

Now that we are using just an outdoor antenna, I get only NBC, Fox, PBS, and a CW station. Mr. Fixit gets more.  The local NBC station also has the “This” channel; it’s mostly movies, bad movies, in my opinion. But the main channel is HD. I never knew what I missing without HD. The problem is I don’t watch NBC programming. The CBS channel which has the programs I watch is an adjunct to the CW channel; it isn’t broadcast in HD. I sometimes get the Fox network, but there is only one show on that one I watch. We do get 3 PBS channels, thank heavens. The newer programming is HD. The best part is that I discovered that one PBS channel has Bob Ross, the painter who paints “fluffy little clouds” and “happy trees.” They also have a couple of craft shows during the day. The only problem is I get busy and forget to watch.

In addition, I’ve found that Youtube has lots and lots of old tv programming and old movies. There is the Classic Mystery channel, mysteries from the U.K., and Mr. Fixit has many 1930’s b/w westerns to watch. I can also stream from the free list on Hulu and ATT Uverse.

I still feel deprived, but being able to watch “Wild, Wild West” and Miss Marple on demand helps a little.

The Creep Factor

For the last few months, our local Walmart stores have been featuring those guys from a reality television show that look like the lost members of ZZ Top in an advertising point-of-purchase display in the optical department. I think their show is something about ducks. They make Billy Gibbons, of ZZ fame, look normal.

The life-size cardboard display creeps me out something fierce. I try not to look at it as I pass by to leave the store. I always want to look over my shoulder to be sure “he” isn’t following me like the topiary in The Shining by Stephen King.

Mr. Fixit called my attention to another p.o.p cardboard display featuring Will Ferrell, an actor who’s work I’ve never seen. He (Mr. Fixit, not the life-size cardboard Mr. Ferrell) said, “Did you notice that his eyes follow you as you walk along?”  I stopped to look, but I didn’t see anything unusual about the thing’s eyes. As I walked away, I saw Mr. Fixit was right—the eyes do follow you. Talking about creepy—whew!

Then a few days later we were in a different Walmart.(Yes, we do spend an inordinate amount of time in Walmart.) There was another life-size cardboard female person. I have no idea what “she” was selling, because as soon as I noticed her eyes follow my movement, I got the hell out of Dodge.

I would really like to know if the duck guy’s eyes do the same thing, but I don’t want to get close enough to find out.

Cooking

I am not known as a good cook. Oh, I cook things that Mr. Fixit likes, but I have a lot of cooking oopses. Things get too brown ( I like to think of them as having chocolate on them), or they come out undercooked. It’s seldom I hit it just right.

Today is the exception—my sweet (as opposed to savory) corn muffins look pretty! I’m so proud.

 

When Mr. Fixit saw me taking the photo, he had something to add to give it a little oomph. This is the result:

He must have a dozen of the 101st Airborne caps. This is the latest one, I guess.

I get excited about corn muffins; he gets excited about his caps.  To each his own as they say. We are such fun people!

Yes, Lucinda, there is a Santa Claus

The last few months have been quite trying here at the Fixit residence. Murphy Law’s is in full force. It’s been difficult financially, emotionally, and physically. This morning the worst came.

Our car had been making a funny noise that Mr. Fixit couldn’t seem to hear. I could hear it, and it seemed ominous. I suggested that he take a a look. Our car is a little (little being the operative word) foreign job. That means that there is  little room to work under the hood. I nagged a little and suggested we take it to the dealer.

The upshot of that visit were dire warnings and a repair estimate of over $1,100.00. I can’t describe what I was feeling. I hit rock bottom.

Our car has 90,000 miles on the odometer, and we’re a few months shy of paying it off. We talked it over and decided we can’t do without a car. (Mr. Fixit’s truck is old, too.) We also decided to have this one fixed instead of buying a new one. I would like to have at least a year without car payments.The dealer let us have a loaner, and we left the car at the shop.

On the way home, I noticed that I had the warranty book in the little pouch of papers that Mr. Fixit took out of the car when we left it at the dealer. As I flipped through it, I noticed that 100,000 mile warranty seem to cover our problem. After we had lunch, we went back and asked the service rep if our problem was covered under the warranty. We weren’t very confident. I told Mr. Fixit that we shouldn’t be surprised if they found some way not to honor the warranty.

After the service rep conferred with the service manager, and he, in turn, did a little research, they informed us that the repairs were, indeed, covered.  I asked how much our bill would be. The rep looked at me as if he didn’t understand what I said. He then understood my question. He said, “The whole bill will be covered.”

Relief swept over me. I said, “Now we can have Christmas.” After we left the office, I had another little emotional moment in the parking lot. I said to Mr. Fixit, “I talked to God, you know.”

So, Thank you, God, and thanks to the guys in the service department. We’re more grateful that you can ever know.

Remember and Laugh

November 29 was  my younger brother’s birthday. He died before his fiftieth birthday in 2006. I was reading some of our email recounted in my old blog. This is one of my favorites.

I had a terrible cold, and, in a moment of silliness and boredom, I wrote to him my discovery of the anti-gravitational property of snot. It seemed to be flowing uphill. I went on at some length. His reply:

“Sorry, but your febrile reaction to the rhinovirus you contracted must have had a deleterious effect on you synaptic responses.

In other words, the fever made you goody.

It is a well known fact that nasal mucus has anti-gravitational properties. The infamous  “Green Papers” covertly obtained by former “Area 51” employee, Hugh G. Schnoz, graphically describe the “black operations” and secret research as related to alien/human hybrid viral induced sinus drainage and the gravitation warping properties of said drainage.

The papers can be downloaded at www.slickerthansnotonadoorknob.org.”

I still miss his wit and his run-on sentences more than I can say.