Texas Heat and Broken Pipes! We are Home!

We did one last round of Critter Chores, cleaned and closed up the camper and headed home on Sunday. Due to the heat, we were moving slow. Louis Dean got too hot on Saturday so he opted to leave the goats in their pen and just made sure they had plenty of water and I fed them all the table scraps and even the rest of our fresh vegetables to make it up to them!

It was well after noon when we left the ranch.

We stopped to admire the cotton plant flowers.

It's so interesting to get to see the seasons here in the country and watch the crops from start to finish.

Since there were so many cotton fields last year, I didn't think there would be any this year.

Apparently, a real farmer can get two crops out of one field. 

I know nothing about farming and remain puzzled at how the green corn stalks suddenly turn all yellow and crunchy.

It's so dry here - even with a few recent rains - that I'm surprised anything grows!

We stopped at HEB in Waco for some fresh fruits and a few essentials plus fuel.

I was intrigued by these dish washing detergents.

Normally I buy HEB's brand of Lemon Dish Soap but they didn't have any this time.

The off brand Lemon one smells institutional - and we noticed the difference but had bought several! I'm happy they are all nearly gone now!

I bought one of each of the above.

Will wait for September First to use the Pumpkin and Wine Harvest ones but I may break out the rosemary soon!

Louis Dean was so hungry at this point we decided to eat at out favorite seafood place - The Catch.

Free Beer!!!

One for him and one for me.

Oh, wait! I don't drink beer!

Louis Dean: Can I have it???

But he couldn't keep his eyes from the counter to see if the food was coming!

I need to pay attention and feed him at regular intervals.

When I ask him if he wants to eat something, he'll say no.

*Note to self*

Don't ask!!

I drove the 98 miles from the restaurant to the nursing home in Fort Worth since he wasn't feeling well and he did have those two glasses of beer.

Nita had already visited Mother and Lillian and brought malts with her so I took them some cookies from HEB. I stopped at Lillian's first and we visited and I showed her pictures from our time at the ranch and played the videos from when the quads visited us last week.

I left Louis Dean in her room while I went down to see Mother.

It was a less traumatic experience than the last time but still inexpressibly sad.

Mother looked better on the last visit than she did last night.

After seeing the photo of her on Wednesday, I think I was expecting more than I should.

Mother knew me and she responded when I told her we had just come in from the country.

But I couldn't really carry on a conversation with her. I will probably never again truly talk to her where she understands what I'm saying and that makes me cry to even write this.

But I did okay and she was okay. She had a situation where I needed to get an aid to come help her change clothes. While we waited, I would be talking and she would take her hand and put it under my chin as a mother would do with a  young child and she would pull my chin up and say, "I love you. Always." Then she would talk away for a bit but I couldn't understand her. It's sad. I couldn't understand much of what she said to me and she couldn't understand much of what I said to her.

I told her I loved her and she understood that. She sat in her wheelchair and wanted me to sit in her recliner so I did. That seemed to make her happy. We had prayer together and she had tears when I finished. We both did.Then the aid came in and pulled the privacy curtain and Mother waved her hand and said, "Bye. You go on." 

In real words.

It was a hard visit. 

There's not an ounce of fat under the skin on her face or anywhere, actually. 

I have never doubted that my mother loves me.

She wasn't a good mother but she was the one God gave me and we have all tried to honor her and care for her the very best we could.

Would this be any easier if she had been the kind of mother who gave of herself and sought only the best for her children? Would it be easier if we had memories of her attending our school plays or programs? Who made us lunches and checked on us as we slept at night?

Who took us places and made good wholesome memories with us?

Louis Dean says no one is all good or all bad and that is true - of all of us.

It's true of our mother. And it's true of me. 

I wonder if it will be as hard on my children when the day comes that I am a shadow of the person I am now? 

Just a year ago, Mother looked good. She could walk and she was in good health.

The doctor said she would live to be 100.

Now we are just taking it day by day.

It is a blessing that Deanie, Nita and Lonnie and I are all in this together.

They all comfort me more than I do them and here I am the oldest.

For the first time, I did not want to take a selfie of us together.

Will there be a next time and an opportunity for another one?

I don't know. I just know I didn't want one this time. 

It wasn't the same.

When I got back to Lillian's room, Louis Dean had been fading fast so we headed for home and arrived before dark. While he unloaded the truck - even though I told him I could do it - I went out to the back yard to see how much water was there. It was more than I thought. The water was nearly up to the door of our bedroom when I stepped out. I saw where the hose was that Sherry had turned off but this was more than that would have been. I walked along the stone path by the sand box and looked down and there was a pretty little bubbling fountain amidst the glass block pavers.

Bottom line - we turned the cold water valve off to the back. Praise God for the hot water and cold water turn offs back there! We still had water in the kitchen and utility room and hot water in the bathrooms.

I drew a bath for Louis Dean by filling the tub one third with hot water and then let it cool while we finished unloading. Then I hauled buckets of cold water from the kitchen until it was the right temp.

There was nothing to be done about the leak until today so we went to bed.

This morning Louis Dean went out to survey the situation.

He dug around some until he saw the pipe.

The sun was beating down on him and he was already under the weather.

I made him come in and cool off and he did. For awhile. I was busy doing laundry when I noticed the French door was slightly ajar and he was back outside!

He cut that pipe!

Alas, it was not a water pipe but an electrical line to the gazebo. 

One of two.

It had been gray but the years had faded it so it looked white as a plumbing pipe does.

Time to go back in and regroup.

He ended up taking a nap and drinking a lot of Gatorade.

I took him to Lowes for parts and by late afternoon......

The pipe was capped off.

He can fix the other problem at a later date!

Preferably on a cooler day.

This area is in shade after around 2:00.

Not that shade keeps it from being hot!

Just not as much so.

I hovered over Louis Dean and fussed about him drinking his water and Gatorade.

I made soup for him and he took naps and he took his medicine.

I decided to treat myself to some seriously delicious Peach Tea!

It may be too hot to eat much but we need to drink - a LOT!!

It's brutally hot in Texas!!

And it's going to STAY hot for a good many days!!

Not that it isn't hot in other places where it shouldn't be! 

I'm thinking of Linda in Oregon where it's 100 or close to it these days.

Unheard of! The blessing about that, though, is the low temps at night in the 50's!

Or take my friend, Jutta,

She lives on her own personal island in Finland and it was even HOT there!!!

Maybe not 100 degrees but up to around 90. 

I'm pretty sure they aren't used to that kind of heat!

Now as much as it pains me to use any more water after all the water we will be billed for in these broken pipe and water hose incidents...I must go out to the front yard and water!

I'll close with pictures from Summer in Puerto Rico.

They live in a beautiful place.

Summer loves the beach.

And she loves her Rayne Roo!!!

They are flying back to Texas tomorrow.

I'm so sorry they will be met with this Killer Heat!

Hopefully we will have the water back on in the bathrooms before they arrive!

**Source**