Taking a break between visits to the ICU to see Mom, we made a mandatory stop at Steak n' Shake where we enjoyed a couple of their famous shakes along with a burger and chicken fingers. I'm pretty sure we covered most the food groups during our meal.

September 2, 2014 - Tuesday
50 degrees/partly cloudy/calm
Pentoga Road

Sargie brought us back to Pentoga Road in the dark hours, late Sunday evening, after a non-eventful drive from Indiana. Thankfully, traffic was light and we made good time. 

Mom continues to heal, although I'm sure not nearly as quickly as she'd like. Most of the tubes, IV's, and drains, have been removed, and according her nurse in ICU, she actually took several steps yesterday. She was very tired last night and given some pain medication, but she's doing well. Hopefully, today will be her last in ICU and later this afternoon, Mom will be moved to her new digs on the cardiac rehab floor. Again, thanks for your prayers and well-wishes. 

It's a mixed bag of pictures today as some go back to last Wednesday evening's fishing expedition. Though fishing was fairly good, the flat tire I experienced on the way home wasn't nearly as entertaining. 

The good news? I caught a decent mess of bluegills and perch

The bad news? I had a flat tire!

I timed my departure from the lake, about twelve miles away, so that I'd be home before dark. 

The spare? Check. Jack? Check. Tire wrench? Check. 

The spare tire was fastened to the trailer by two 9/16's nuts. 

9/16's wrench? Oh-oh.

In the end, I called Yooper Brother Mark, who had absolutely nothing better to do than sit around, waiting for a distress call from me, and asked if he might grab a wrench and come visit me on a remote township road.

Once he arrived, it took at least three minutes to mount the spare and begin our drive home. Since it was after dark, I closely followed his taillights and we made it home in good shape. As always, thanks, Mark. 

The rest of the pictures are from our trip to Indiana. There are none of the hospital or Mom as there is a strict policy of no photos or electronic devices in the ICU unit or on hospital grounds. I did take a couple of pictures of Mom after surgery, but those are for her, personal, and will be viewed after she fully recovers and we have our wild and crazy victory party later this year. 

Well, okay, I did take this picture of the sign that said not to take any.

There must be ten gajillion windmills dotting, what used to be, the Central Illinois farm country. We'd been driving through heavy rain and it cleared just long enough at sundown to take a picture.

The dining room in the senior citizen's community where Mom lives. We stayed in her apartment and ate a great meal in the dining room. 

We traveled through Loves Park, Illinois, where I spent my young childhood years. It's in northern Illinois, seventy miles west of Chicago, almost on the Wisconsin border.

I sprang Brutus from the kennels early Monday morning and the three of us settled back into life. It had rained extensively while we were away and the end of summer wild flowers are beautiful.

I spent part of Monday wrestling a new tire, purchased on the journey, onto the rim so I will once again have a spare for the trailer. The tire went on the rim okay, but I'm having difficulty getting it to seal. I've tried a tourniquet to no avail. My next attempt will be to use a ratchet and strap to compress the tire.

Mark and Sheri came out last night and I sent several bags of tomatoes, beets, cucumbers, and whatever else, home with them. With all the rain we've received in the past two weeks (over three inches) the garden is currently producing in overtime. It was good to see our friends and catch up on all the latest news.

Sargie has today off and hopefully, will be able to rest before she resumes her regular work schedule tomorrow. The girl drove a lot of miles and has done so much these past few days. She's not only been there for Mom, but also did a wonderful job of propping me up when I was worried, exhausted, and probably not always in the best of moods or very good company. Thanks, honey. I love you.

So, life resumes on Pentoga Road. I'm going to continue to wrestle with that spare tire this morning, then there's a shed to finish, a garden in which to work, the area where I'll be expanding the garden this fall to prepare with the backhoe, wood to work up, and whatever other chores need to be done, all before America's Got Talent airs this evening. Okay, that might be an exaggeration, so maybe I'll just think about all the above while I'm getting another cup of coffee.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

Life resumes at a snail's pace. Speaking of snail, here's one crawling up the door on the storage shed.