Numbers down, Costs up, Fraud & POSTCARDS!

Friday September 28, 2012
Charlottesville, Virginia

 

 

The numbers are still down.

 

As expected, David’s numbers have dropped back down from the boost given by the miracle drug.  Everything but his platelets is low.  He’s tired and doing the best he can.  We have no idea how long it will take his white and red cell counts to come back into the normal range.  He says maybe never.  The doctors at Moffitt say they look good and will continue to improve.  I’m trusting them and taking the platelets as a good sign.

 

 

Greenfield Mountain Farm is getting a face lift.

 

We had planned to paint another two sides of the farm house while we were back here this fall on our way home from New England.  With an old farmhouse that usually means some repairs before you can scrape, prime and paint.  Obviously none of that can or did happen so we have had to hire someone to do the carpentry and painting on the house.  This is an unplanned for an expensive hit to our budget.

 

 

 

The work is going on now and we’re crossing our fingers it will be completed before we have to leave for Florida and David’s 3 month Stem Cell Transplant Evaluation.

As you can imagine, it is a lot of work to handle two carpenters and 3 painters and their questions.  David has to be available but in the house with a mask on for a lot of this.

We’ve never paid anyone really to do much of anything in the original renovation and subsequent up keep of this farm so it’s a really new situation for us.  This is the sort of thing David likes to do and it is sad for him that he cannot.

David’s brother Roger came for a couple of days this week on his way to Alabama and was a real help with lots of not so fun clean up of brush, tree limbs, dead trees and heaven knows what else.  He was so busy that somehow there are no pictures of all the many things he did.  Now that’s a bummer.  He’s quite a worker.   THANKS ROGER!!

Winnona is hanging out in Charlottesville rather than in the barnyard so that the workers have plenty of room for their vans and trucks.

 

It’s a good thing I check my account every couple of days.

 

On Wednesday I did a routine check of our credit card statement on line and found $1300 worth of on line charges we did not make.  I called our bank immediately and cancelled the card.  I will have to fill out fraud papers in order to get the charges removed.  They will issue new cards.  We will have to change all of our on line automatic payments.  For people who were full timing that’s quite a pain! 

 

I have no idea how our number was lifted but it must have been through an on line company from whom we purchased something since we both have our cards.  Be careful out there and if possible get a Virtual Account number from your credit card company to use for on line purchases. 

Does it seem to you that life sure is a lot more complicated these days?  What I don’t need is some more “business” to attend to.

 

But what I am happy to have MORE of is postcards.

 

 

While we were in Pennsylvania a postcard arrived from Pam and Vic of the Big EZ Travels.  It’s of the purple Iris growing along the Metolius River in Oregon.  Beautiful and a place we had hoped to go in the summer of 2013.  At this point we have no idea where we’ll be next summer.  But I’m still dreaming.   Thanks Pam! 

 

 

 

Al and Karen of Wish Upon an RV Star sent a beautiful card from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado.  It’s a place she knew I really was looking forward to visiting.  How thoughtful of you to remember Karen.  Thank you so much!

 

 

 

 

Late last week TWO postcards came from out of the county.  Can you believe that?

 

  One from Victoria British Columbia with a wonderful note written in the most beautiful script I’ve seen in a long time.  Penmanship including my own is a lost art.  Yours is beautiful G, I can’t decide which side to put on the mirror, the picture or the penmanship.  REALLY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And my friend and neighbor Diane sent me a postcard from her current travels in Ireland a place I have visited and absolutely loved.  I know she is hoping I can return there.  Me too but Winnona doesn’t swim.  I guess I’ll have to get Erin & Mui to give me some lessons on how to do both kinds of travel.  Although the latest medical and farm facelift expenses make that less than likely.

 

 

Thank goodness for the postcard bright spots.  It’s been some week, that’s for sure.  I’m trying to visualize life returning to the free and easy that it was last year.  When it rains, it sure does pour.