Wednesday, November 11, 2015

November 10, 2015

A Chat With Another Customer
November 10, 2015



This is not a great picture.  It was almost dark.  It is the Green Parakeets (small parrots) that fly wild in our area.  This was in front of an H.E.B. grocery store in McAllen, where grackles gather by the thousands at night.  Mixed in are flocks of the Green Parakeets.  These are fun, playful birds.  I will return to this area for photos again.


Some of you may be thinking, "So you talked to a customer.  Big deal."  It is a big deal.  When I went deaf, I could not do that.  I could not just have a casual, ordinary discussion with people.  Even for several years before I went deaf, I avoided lengthy chats with people because I knew my hearing problems would be a limitation in such a normal, every day activity.  It was just too exhausting to try to carry on a conversation.

Now with the Cochlear Implant, I do well one-on-one, talking with customers, especially if the office is quiet.  This afternoon, Ron was out, and it was quiet in the office.  There were several customers who came and went, so I stayed busy, but one came and stayed and stayed.  The man is from Nebraska and is just down here for a little while - a brief Winter Texan visit.  He probably stayed for almost an hour, giving me his life story.  He and his wife are looking for a place to retire, or at least spend the winters in years to come.  This is a great place to do those things.

My day did not go as planned.  I had an early morning doctor appointment for a recheck on my bronchitis.  I am better, but not yet well.  I was at the doctor's office for 3 hours. I had more chest x-rays, a breathing treatment, and some foot x-rays.  The last few days I felt like I had a deep bruise in my right heel.  X-rays showed the start of a heel spur and the doctor gave me several instructions and suggestions for dealing with it.  The breathing treatment really did help and I had much better breathing today than yesterday.
This is one of the seven (I think) reasons I don't get many bird photos are our 
son's home in McAllen.  The cats love the same trees that the birds love.

My time at the office was spent paying bills, searching for a missing receipt (found it), and clearing some of the mess on my desk.  I placed an order for some bags that our Sunday School class will be filling with goodies for some children across the river in Mexico for Christmas.  The holidays are rapidly approaching and I am not ready for any of them.

Ron was still out on jobs at closing time, so I locked up and headed home, stopping to get some ice.  Once home, I fixed a little supper, ate it and soon fell asleep in my recliner.  Ron came in after a while and I went back to sleep.  At 11:30 I woke up and could not get back to sleep, so it is now almost 2:00 a.m. and I am typing the blog entry for Tuesday.

The time change really is not to my liking.  The sun is setting as I leave the office.  By the time I get home it is almost dark and I just feel like I can't get anything done, especially in the yard.  I would have trouble living in places where it is dark for even longer periods of time than it is here.

No quilt work is getting done.  The group did not meet tonight.  A couple of the ladies had conflicts and it seemed best to cancel the group.  We hope to get together next week.

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