It's the start of something. . .

. . .it's beginning to feel like the very start of Fall coming soon. To a theater near you. The humidity is gone. The air was crisp this early morning when I got up with Gracie. Sweater weather. Still a lot of dew to get the sneakers wet. The sun is bright. The air is fresh. Neat. But, it's early 'cause Fall is 45 days away. We're due for some more humid summer weather before Fall descends completely .

Gracie has discovered she likes to eat dead worms. Paul and I both found this out, as we've both been trying to pry her mouth open and reach our fingers in to get them out before she swallows them. Yuck. Paul says they're probably good for her diet. (?!)

Well. . . it's been since Thursday since I wrote. Friday I had my meeting with the pulmonologist in Sayre. We left Gracie at home because we thought we'd only be gone 2 hours at the most. (1/2 hour there, 1 hour appointment, 1/2 hour home) Wrong.

The doctor: I liked him. He was amusing. (He said the surgeon in Rochester was C.Y.A.)He and his very nice intern met with me. His intern: a lovely lady from India whom I had trouble understanding, but as I said, really nice. I was asked question after question. Then the doctor decided I needed to go to the pulmonary lab and be tested there, and then go to X Ray and have an X Ray of my chest. His office was on the 5th floor, and from there I went to the Pulmonary Lab on the 9th floor, where I waited my turn to blow into a blowing contraption, first quickly, then slowly, then completely, then puffing, then. . .you get the picture. The doctor there said it would be about a half hour. That all came out okay LOL. They printed out the results and I took them with me down to the X Ray department on the 2nd floor, where I had to wait for a dressing room. Then after that back up to the 5th floor to talk with the doctor and intern about the results from the tests.

There was one small section (two red numbers) from the breathing tests results' papers. The X Rays seemed to tell why. My esophagus (windpipe) is slightly misplaced by the enlarged thyroid. The doctor said it was a good thing I'm having my thyroid taken out.

When we got home, we didn't go out for our usual Friday night dinner. We figured Gracie had been alone long enough, and we were both tired too.

Not sure if I mentioned this or not, but my operation has been scheduled for Thursday, August 26th at Strong Hospital in Rochester. We'll find out what time the day before, but I will be staying overnight irregardless.

We had dinner guests last night: Lue, her 12 year old grandson Ryan from Connecticut, Lue's sister, Sharon and her husband Mike. Paul cooked his famous Cornell chicken. Delicious. I made a lo-cal, low fat chocolate pudding pie for dessert. Ryan is here til Thursday for Grandma's Annual Summer Camp. Lue is taking next week off from work, and they're going to do things together. For ex. One thing they're gonna do - Ryan wants to go to Corning Glass and make a Christmas ornament.

August 7th is my son, Jil's, birthday. He says he's 28, but we know better.

Since he's 12 hours ahead of us, I called him Friday night, around 10 PM, which was Saturday morning 10 AM in the Philippines. He was busy working when I called, and continued on after we hung up. He's a medical transcriptionist for a company here in the states. We talked for quite some time. He was very interested in hearing all the family news. . .mine, Paul's, Nancy's. Epril was getting him a birthday cake. She was out with a group of wives, from the service club Jil belongs to. The ladies have been busy helping out an orphans' group in Cagayan de Oro. This is a small city near Jasaan, the small town where they live. Nancy and I know CDO and Jasaan. (Cagayan De Oro is where we flew into for their wedding two years ago. )

We got a lovely letter from Bonnie, Paul's oldest sister. When she writes, she'll write one letter of all her news, and make copies for her other siblings. She mails them out. She doesn't have a computer, but her daughter-in-law, Barbara, reads my blog and prints it out for Bonnie to read. Bonnie wrote how much she enjoys reading it and hearing all the "exciting" news from Paul's family. Thanks, Bonnie! And thank you, Barbara!

I think it's neat how many different groups of people read about The Woods Edge Crew. Jil, at one time, wrote me how to tell how many read it, but I've forgotten. Jil could you tell me again?

Okay. I guess that's all the news from this end of the woods. What's happenin' in your neck o' the woods?