Early Morning Adventure

Hey, Y'all,
Happy Turkey Day to you all!

Dear Readers,
Early this morning, a new adventure in the Chronicles of Gramps...I was awakened at about 3:30 a.m. by a loud beeping sound. I sat up in bed and immediately thought FIRE Alarm. I got up and started through the house, looking for any sign of smoke or fire. Nothing. I got to the kitchen and saw the back door open and the porch light on. (I was running through the house in my nightgown and stocking feet). I went to the back door and looked out. There was someone sitting in my car just outside the door. I thought at first it was an old woman, because I could only see a profile, and I thought "wonder who is that old woman with the fuzzy looking hair". As I was looking and wondering, the driver's side of the car opened, and Gramps was revealed sitting there in the driver's seat.

I asked him, "What in the world are you doing out here?" He replied, "I was signaling for some help. I went to the bathroom, and was looking for the path. I was afraid the dogs were loose, so I got into the car and blew the horn." He had the flashlight in his right hand, and apparently had taken it with him outside or had found it in the car. I keep one in the rider's side of the car. (Thank goodness the neighbor has dogs that stay alert..otherwise, Gramps could be missing by now!)

"Did you use the bathroom outside?" I asked him. He answered, "No, I used it in there, but couldn't find the way back to the bed. I need some help."

I gave him my hand to hold on to to get him back into the house. He was in his stocking feet as well, and his feet are too tender to walk on even the carport or up the ramp. Anyway, I helped him back to bed, and covered him up and so now he is sleeping. What a way to wake up! (Thank you, Jesus, for looking after him for us!)

I tried to go back to sleep but couldn't, so I decided to go ahead and get started on baking the pies I should have baked last night, but was too tired to. Man! I was sleeping so good! I was kind of keyed up and had difficulty getting to sleep because I was anticipating what I had to do today. I KNEW I should have done my baking yesterday! Ha.

So at 4:30, I got up and began my baking. First, I baked the cornbread for the dressing I will be making later today, then got out the filling for the pumpkin pies. I mixed up the filling before going to bed, so it was ready to pour into the 2 pie shells. When I took out the cornbread, I put the pies into the oven because they were to begin baking at the same temperature as the cornbread baked.

Then when I started to begin the apple pies, I remembered I had used all the ground cinnamon that I had in the pumpkin pies, I realized I would have to wait until later to do the apple pies, and borrow some cinnamon from Laurie, or just substitute cloves. I may just be creative and use cloves and ginger and make an apple pan cobbler instead. We will see. Right now the pumpkin pies are baking at the reduced temperature of 350 degrees. I had to begin them at 425 and then turn down temp to 350 and cook an additional 45-50 minutes.

We had a really good time on Monday evening with Scott, Laurie and their 3 children. I had made a big pot of potato soup and we ate it all. Then we had the German chocolate cake and ate half of that and sent the rest home with them, because we certainly didn't need that, with Gramps being diabetic and me trying to keep my girlish figure. Ha.

Tuesday and Wednesday passed fairly uneventfully. Gramps' therapists came to see him and work with him, and we found out yesterday that they are discharging him for right now from Home Health care, because he has reached the potential for improvement. I can't tell any real difference in his strength, but maybe they can.

I did get my little 32"tall fiberoptic revolving Christmas tree out of the basement, along with the string of lights that go across my fireplace mantle. I also put together two end tables that I purchased at the "gettin' place" (Wally world). I placed the tree on one and the living room phone on the other one. I had borrowed the end table that the phone had been on in order to put it beside my bed so I could put the touch lamp on it.

I think I have told you about Gramps' obsession that he has some of his collectible cars in the basement and was insisting that he had seen them down there. When our neighbor's son, Mitch, came over yesterday to empty the water from the basement dehumidifier, I said, "Okay, let's go down and you can look for them (the cars)". So we very carefully went down the steps, he was holding on carefully to the railing on each side, and I followed him down. Mitch preceded us, and waited at the foot of the steps. When Gramps got down there, he looked around and said, "what happened to all the stuff that was down here?"

"This is all that was down here," I replied. "There wasn't anything else down here, but look around and you will see that there are no little cars down here." He proceeded to look at all the empty boxes that are stacked down there on the two folding tables. He finally agreed that there were no cars to be seen down there, but stated he would go back down anytime he wanted to. Well, as the saying goes, "Baby, that ain't gonna happen". As I told you earlier, there is now a padlock on the door to the basement, and I have the key on my keychain, and he has no idea where the key is to the padlock if he has even noticed the padlock.

An UPDATE on Pam's husband ----Donna called me last night about 10 p.m. with the news that they thought he had experienced a blood clot, but couldn't find evidence of one. However, they discovered that he has developed pneumonia, and so have put him back on the ventilator and are giving him medication for the pneumonia. Please continue to pray for them. It is a very difficult time for them. Their grandchildren, Hannah and Haley, think there is no one like their grandpa, and understandably are quite upset.

It is now closed to 6 a.m. and the pumpkin pies are almost done. I will be taking them out of the oven soon and maybe going back to bed for a while and see if I can sleep some more. This is Blabbin' Grammy wishing each of you a blessed Thanksgiving Day and signing off for now. Reports later on how this day progressed and finished up. Love to each of you, my friends. Bye for now.