Oh ********* !

There are 4 basics to propane delivery.

1. Don't hit anything with the truck
2. Don't get the truck stuck.
3. Don't do anything stupid.
4. Deliver propane safely

Today I broke all 4.

My second delivery of the day I am at a house that is clearly unoccupied. The billing address is different than the delivery address. No tracks of any kind.

I walk the driveway (it's been a couple years or more since I was there), then back straight off the road toward the garage door. I decide I am too close to the building, so I stop and start to pull forwards. It seems the drive is a little higher than the yard. My left rear wheels slide off and I end up with the truck next to a tree.

Oh ********* !

I am able to pull forward and get away. I get out with only a broken clearance light lens and some scrapes on the tree.

A few deliveries later I have a brain fade and try filling a 325 gallon tank like it were a 500. By the time I realize it the tank is 95% full.

Oh ********* !

Radio doesn't work right. Cell phone is out of service. We get the situation under control and I go on.

A couple deliveries later I get called to a customer out of gas about 20 miles away. Looks like a good delivery. House is off the road a ways. Tank is next to the drive about halfway out to the road. I start up the hill. cross over a narrow culvert and all the sudden the truck slips sideways.That is a poor photo, but the right rear wheels are close to sliding down an embankment. I call the office and they tell me Art is already headed my way. That is because for some reason the truck I am driving has no tools of any kind. I can't do a leak test, light pilots, anything. So since the customer is out of gas a serviceman is required to checkout the system and light the pilots.

So while I wait I wonder up toward the tank. There are no footprints in the snow. There is snow on top of the lid. I realize there is no way the customer looked at the gauge to see he was out of gas. I raise the lid ... He has 15% in the tank.

No, I am not pleased. I just drove 20 miles out of my way, with a serviceman driving 30 miles out of his way, for a customer who is NOT out of gas.

Another "Oh ********* !" moment.

About that time he comes wondering down the driveway. I am afraid I was rather abrupt with him. "Well ... I don't know. My wife said we were out of gas because the furnace doesn't work". So he called us. I am still waiting for Art, so he goes back to the house. Shortly before Art gets there he comes back. There was a breaker tripped in the breaker box. He reset it and the furnace started working.

Oh ********* !

So Art gets there. He backs over the other side of the embankment with the pickup, chains it to a tree and winches me back on the driveway. We unhook and I start to back out to the road. All the sudden my back wheels slide off the drive again, the other direction. The front wheels slide off as well, and I have one of those "Oh ********* !" moments. The truck rocks sideways and I just KNOW it is going over. Finally the liquid stops sloshing and the truck stops rocking. Art said he thought it was going over, too. This shot doesn't do it justice

That is my customer looking at the truck. Along with every neighbor within a 20 mile radius. I am surprised there is not a TV crew on scene. If we had a stand selling hot chocolate and coney dogs we could have made a fortune.

If you look closely in the next photo there is a cable running to the top of the tank. Art pulled the truck around, tied it to another tree, and ran the winch cable to the top of the tank to stabilize the truck.
THAT is how close he thought we were to losing it. So finally 4 Seasons arrives and pulls me out.
That flash of orange in the spot mirror is 4 Seasons' wrecker.
He finally gets me out.

John (did I mention the boss showed up as well?) said we could hold off a day or two on the delivery. I did not argue.

It was definitely an Oh ********* ! day.

By The Way, since this was his first time running out of gas (he is a "will-call") the girls told him there would not be a special delivery charge this time. I bet he looks at the gauge next time before he calls.

I'm feeling particularly uninspired...

I'm feeling particularly uninspired today. Don't know why. We are making good progress on the remodeling job. Window, walls, ceiling, floor, water, drains all done. We have one power wire to connect, I need to run a gas line, and we can move the washer and dryer in and put them in place.

I enjoy Menard's, but I am tired of going there for a while.

I've GOT to do some tax papers by the end of the week. Nothing much, I think it is all done but the filing. Then I have income tax papers to work on. They have to be done by the end of February, but other people don't have to mail 1099's out until the end of January. Makes a tight deadline.

We have quite a bit of time we need to spend in the shop, but I have trouble getting excited about a cold shop. It never seemed to bother dad, but it sure slows me down. WVHG wants me to deliver tomorrow. I said I would, but the more I think about it the less sure I have time. I just checked my To-Do List. It has 54 items on it. There would be more if I listed everything.

Make that 55. I need to replace a tail light on the Dodge. Someone backed it into a tree in the dark last night.

Well, I need something positive before I quit on a downward tone. Junkyard had a replacement light in stock for "only" $35. I guess that is positive.

I have been frustrated with padlocks. Dad acquired a rather varied collection over the years of all sizes and shapes and different keys. I bought 4 keyed alike ones a few years ago. That worked out so well I bought 4 more ... and 4 more. Now I have a whole ring full of padlock keys. We have red key locks and blue key locks and green key locks and that one odd one and the one dad had for this and ... you get the idea. I told Aman I was about ready to spend a good chunk of money and get a couple dozen all keyed alike.

I was in the Clearance Aisle (Suprise! Surprise!) and stumbled across these heavy brass Brinks resettable combination locks for just over half normal price. So I bought all they had. I probably spent more on padlocks in one shot than dad did his entire life.

I sat down in front of the TV that night and reset them to the same combination. Except one. It would not open. Well, actually there were two. The default was 0-0-0-0 and one was 0-0-9-0. I stumbled across the right combination and got it open. But one would not open.
I called the Brinks toll-free number. Young lady (OK, she sounded young) listened to my problem, asked my address and said she would send a replacement. Got it in the mail this week. Brand new shiny in the package. So now I have several padlocks I can open without a key!

I love it when a plan comes together.

And I found a company with excellent customer service. Even better!

And I am going to owe income tax! Hey! As Gramps said one time, "Paying taxes is bad. Not having to pay them is worse."

The Day in Which I Catch You and Me Up

Actually I borrowed the title from Jill's blog. I didn't realize it had been over 3 weeks since I updated! Let's see ... what has happened since the first of the year? No weddings. Been a funeral or two, a new baby (not in our family, but close. Kelsey (used to be Sheets) had a girl last week), a broken arm (Sue's mom), just living.

The big thing around here has been remodeling. Remodeling is kind of like replacing tractor tires. You need one replace ... but you ought to replace a pair as a set ... but then you have 2 new ones on one side and 2 old ones on the other ... but then you have 4 new ones on the back and 4 old ones on the front ... soon you've spent $12,000 to replace 1 tire.

I don't think we are going to spend $12,000 on the bathroom (actually I KNOW we are not) . But we started out replacing the tub for Sue's birthday present. I know, violates my principals about appliances not being gifts but it was what she REALLY wanted. The first thing you need is a Master Carpenter. But we started replacing the tub. When we got the tub out we found newspapers from 1949 under the floor as a kind of underlayment so we have a pretty good idea how old it is.

Well, you just about have to destroy the cabinets it is built into to get it out. And to have room to work you may as well pull the sink cabinet. And while you have gone this far But you know, if we move the washer and dryer in here we could put a new tub / shower in the other bathroom. And we could make a new door and close the old one and then build a new closet and a pantry well you get to this pretty quickly.

I have to thank Aman. If it were not for him I would not have tackled this by myself. In fact, he has done most of the work so far. Sue and I had to take off one afternoon for a funeral visitation, Aman, Adam, Sue, and I took off most of one day to go to Sue's folks then get some supplies, I've had other things I had to take care of. Aman has gotten stuck with most of the dirty work by himself. And then Friday he and Becky got a flu bug of some kind. So we kept the boys Friday while they recovered. All this carpenter work really wears you out


I had hoped to have the initial job finished in one week. We would have if we had been able to stay at it. Well, I better go act like I am working. later Y'all

hammer

For David's birthday one of his presents was a music box. You tap on the sides and it plays different music. David and Adam really liked making music. They got the extensions and crevice tool from Grandma's vacuum cleaner and used them for trumpets or horns


Grandma was amused,but not too enthused about the boys blowing on the dirty vacuum accessories. She cleaned them up so the boys could have their fun, and when they left put them back on the vacuum cleaner. Yesterday when he was here Adam apparently decided the best thing to do to make Grandma happy was trade. So he took the extension tube off the vac and stored his hammer in the holder.

Grandpa is already looking for a trumpet for next year ...

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES ...

Midnight
56 degrees F

7 AM
19 degrees F

Don't you love Illinois weather?

Thanks to Steve for his weather site at Marshall,Illinois

http://www.ai9t.com/weather.html

Daddy's Hands

If there was any song I would wish someone could sing at Dad's funeral, this is it. But I don't know I could stand to hear it right now.

Daddy's Hands by Holly Dunn

Hear it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q_E6pUwySg

I remember Daddy´s hands, folded silently in prayer.
And reaching out to hold me, when I had a nightmare.
You could read quite a story, in the callouses and lines.
Years of work and worry had left their mark behind.
I remember Daddy´s hands, how they held my Mama tight,
And patted my back, for something done right.
There are things that I´ve forgotten, that I loved about the man,
But I´ll always remember the love in Daddy´s hands.

Daddy's hands were soft and kind when I was cryin´.
Daddy´s hands, were hard as steel when I´d done wrong.
Daddy´s hands, weren´t always gentle
But I´ve come to understand.
There was always love in Daddy´s hands.

I remember Daddy´s hands, working 'til they bled.
Sacrificed unselfishly, just to keep us all fed.
If I could do things over, I´d live my life again.
And never take for granted the love in Daddy´s hands.

Daddy's hands were soft and kind when I was cryin´.
Daddy´s hands, were hard as steel when I´d done wrong.
Daddy´s hands, weren´t always gentle
But I´ve come to understand.
There was always love in Daddy´s hands.

Daddy's hands were soft and kind when I was cryin´.
Daddy´s hands, were hard as steel when I´d done wrong.
Daddy´s hands, weren´t always gentle
But I´ve come to understand.
There was always love .....
In Daddy´s hands.

Richard C Bumpus

We lost Dad Saturday night about 10:45 PM. I kind of browsed my digital photos of Dad. and this one of him talking to Danny Gard seems the most natural. It's probably not a real good picture, but it really was Dad ...

edit: Rather than start a new post I'l just add to this one

I got this mail:

"Mike, what is going on?? I'm drawing conclusions that I don't want too so I must have missed something in the past few weeks. "

Well, I have a little time so I'll give the long version. Dad is one of those people who never had a hobby. He farmed. From when he was in grade school until just the last few months Dad farmed. 5 years ago this fall we were working on a culvert in a field entrance and when he (a young 69 year old) bent over to pick up a log chain he almost passed out. We convinced him to go to the doctor. He was anemic and some tests didn't look right. A colonoscopy discovered polyps in his colon. Further testing showed them to be malignant and a kidney was involved. More testing got the Dr's really concerned. It seems the cancer was advancing toward the heart.

Quickly they scheduled surgery to remove one kidney and all the cancer they could. Testing showed this to be a kind that did not respond to any chemo at the time. Hopefully they got it all, because if not there was nothing much to do about it. After he recovered enough from that surgery they worked on the colon. It was found the cancer was too close to the anus to reattach, so they did a colonostomy.

The next year a retired neighbor helped me on the farm, which was great. I'm a lousy boss. If I have to tell you do this and then do that and then do something else ... I'd just as soon do it myself. Dale had been a farmer so I could say "we need to do this..." and turn him loose. If he saw something needing done he did it. The fall of the second year my son-in-law came to be a part of the farm. Which worked out well because Dale had taken to driving a school bus and just loves it. Just like Dale, I didn't have to boss, just point him in the direction. Dad recovered, but was never as strong as before. He did some field work, but did not spend all days in the tractor. He helped, and when he got tired he went home.

I'm going to skip to more recently. A year ago next Wednesday tests showed the cancer was back. However, there was now a new experimental drug that was supposed to be effective. It was "only" $46 a pill and you took 4 a day. Fortunately Dad qualified for a clinical trial that got the meds for a LOT less.

We noticed a change in Dad all through November. He was cold all the time, less active. The last half of the month he lost his appetite, had trouble keeping food down, just quickly declining. He developed a cough, and one day commented something had popped in his side. He suspected it was an old hernia. But we could not get him to have it seen about.

For Thanksgiving he said all he wanted was a few mashed potatoes and some noodles. We got one of his favorite cooks from the local restaurant to fix him some. He ate a couple bites of mashed potatoes and 3 bites of noodles. And they didn't stay down. Last Monday Mom got him to step on a scales and he weighed 138 pounds.

Mom finally called Doc Steve (Steve is a GP MD who was raised across the field from Mom and Dad). He told Mom just by how she described Dad's condition it sounded like an infection, but he really needed to be in the hospital. I got the local ambulance to quietly come get him and we took him to the hospital.

His diagnosis was there was a leak between one lung and the chest cavity, he had an infection, and his kidney was not functioning well. By mid week it became apparent he was not strong enough for the surgery. Also his blood pressure was too low and his blood was too thin for dialysis. The final outcome was pretty much assured. We all discussed his condition and his wishes and Mom signed a DNR form with the sons all agreeing to it.

He declined rapidly. From Friday morning, when his condition gave a glimmer of hope he might recover, to late Saturday evening when we lost him, was a quick and sudden slide. We had just late Saturday signed the papers for hospice to take over his care. I'm not sure anyone from hospice but his admitting nurse even saw him.

In retrospect it seems like sometimes you want to be careful what you pray for because you might just get it. I watched a couple other guys go through a long drawn out slow decline to the end and have to admit praying that Dad be spared that suffering. It also comes down to whether you actually believe all this faith stuff you've been talking about all your life. If I really believe it, why am I delaying Dad getting there?

So it has been a tough week. Actually a rather challenging 5 years. And for the first time I am facing a Spring with no safety net. It was just over 3 years ago Dad's Dad passed away. Now this. We all know this time will come ... but it doesn't make it any easier.

Oh! Arrangements:
Visitation Monday 5-7 PM
Funeral Tuesday 10:00
all at Prust-Hosch