"Over the Hump"

Went down to the nursing home to see my dad today. He's going downhill pretty fast. In fact, he was taken over to the hospital (next door to the home) to have some chest x-rays because they were afraid he was developing pneumonia. He was also a bit dehydrated and was given some liquids thru an i.v..

Just got back from going by to see him again and this time he was sound asleep, so I didn't disturb him. Won't be able to find out anything from the x-ray results until tomorrow. (One of those things where you hope for the best, but expect the worst.)


Got outside and mixed up more quik-crete mortar mix this morning and tried to level out the walkway a bit more. Also mortared the bricks that I had previously laid. Then got out the push-mower and went down to my folk's house and finished up the trim work there, and back home to do a little I missed here last night. Finially this afternoon I got back to finish work on the walkway, remortaring and patching a few places that had cracked from not setting up good, and using about 3/4's of a bag of mix that I had left in some other shallow places. As far as I'm concerned, this project is now finished, or at least, all I think I can do with it. If I decide to do more to it I'll have to buy more "mix" as I've already used up all 9-1/2 (80lb. each) bags I had of it, and thus far invested something like 17 hours of my time off from my "regular" job, and at least $60.00.


'Was thinking about emailing eBay and seeing if they could get a seller to respond to my numberous emails regarding items I had won from him back on the 15th. & 19th. of August which had yet to arrive. They weren't all that costly, but one of them was that copy of The Forever People V1 #1 (1971) that I needed to, not only complete that particular set, but all four of the "4th. World" Kirby sets from the 1970's. (The other books were copies of JLA #107(1971) which was the introduction of the Quality characters in the first app. of "The Freedom Fighters", plus 3 misc. issues of The Fury of Firestorm from the 1980's, including a #1).

But I decided to check my email just one more time and sure enough, I'm glad I did because I had finally gotten a reply. According to him they have indeed been mailed, media of course (which peaves me in a way since I paid seperate shipping fees for these items and they'll all be mailed at once; which means he could have sent them priority). So I suppose I'll wait yet another week and if they don't arrive, email him yet again.


Sitting here listening to a "Best of Artie Shaw" double l.p., which is one of the Big Band people I like from the 1940's. Benny Goodman's another of my favorites, as is, of course, Glen Miller. All of these guys used a lot of woodwinds in their music, which I like a lot since I "tried" to learn how to play both the clarinet AND sax "way-back-when" I was in the high school band. Really wished I had mastered at least one of those instruments.


Got the auction coming up Saturday of my late father-in-law's estate, which will put a close to most of my casual visits to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and probably cut way back on my picking up any new comics (since the Waldenbooks, there, was one of my main sources for new stuff). I know I'm already behind on issues of both Supergirl,Justice League and Justice Society by now. And what with both my wife's work schedule and mine, plus the fact that she's not all that close to her other family members, I'd dare say that these trips will be made now only maybe every six months or so.


Tomorrow it's back to the grind again at my regular job. Just never enough time to really relax.