The Phoenix rises!

 Monday I was still at Deborah's so I could attend an afternoon follow up appointment with the reconstructive surgeon who sutured my eyelid together a couple of weeks ago. He pronounced the eyelid as healing well and entrusted me to the care of my local ophthalmologist although he wants to see me in a year. I drove home afterwards. Deborah, her children and I did drove up to the new temple sight to check on its building progress. This is taken from the north side of the temple:

Tuesday was a big day:  the plumber was scheduled to return - and he did. When he left three hours later, the stove (propane) was functional, the temporary sink had the new faucet and water lines installed, and the dishwasher was connected (to the water). I no longer need to wash dishes or cook downstairs!! So over the next couple of days I brought upstairs the things I had previously taken down there, such as food and dishes. Of course, where do I put things in the new kitchen? The electrician came about 630 pm and installed a new breaker box to run power to a couple of new circuits for the kitchen. He also drew a diagram of how to wire the three way light switch for two over head lights. So while he did his thing in the bedroom closet installing the wire and box, I was in the attic attaching wires. I only had one connected when we tried the light switch; and it worked! Great rejoicing! However, that was short lived once I connected the second light. And now it does not work.

Wednesday, Nathan the cabinet maker returned and finished all he could do. He has a turn table for the corner cabinet and a cabinet door still on order. And he will trim the doors and should be back this week to resolve those issues. But, as far as I am concerned, I have a kitchen!! I also mowed the lawn in the evening. That night, Rebecca plus four drove in about 11 pm, having driven from San Diego in two days. There was great rejoicing before all headed off to bed for a well deserved night of rest.

Thursday I spent the day connecting wires to the new breakers. I was able to get two of the three lines successfully connected and then ran out of time. I was confused about why I had run a particular wire to a box; it made no sense. So I did not work on that connection. I did go with Rebecca to a flooring store to check out their vinyl waterproof planking. Amidst all my other concerns, it did not occur to me that there might be shortages of flooring, but there are. Fortunately, he has something in stock that will work and I will return Monday to pick up my next project. We also made the trip to Walmart for needed stuff.

Friday morning I headed off to the St Louis Temple. They are in need of volunteers to serve there and I had been assigned the Friday evening shift. Fortunately I had made a reservation at a local motel several days ago; they were very busy that night judging by the volume of cars in the lot the next morning. I was able to check in, change clothes and get to the temple in plenty of time. It was a fast paced evening bouncing from one place to another, but it was a good experience. I hope with future visits to be able to schedule myself to perform ordinances for family members. Work can only be done with reservations. I return in four weeks. But that time I hope to reach out to others interested in going to the temple so I don't have to go solo. I did find a Five Guys near the motel and that was my dinner

Saturday I was on the road home just after 7 am; with one stop at Aldi's, I was home by noon. In my absence the girls had removed the remaining linoleum from the kitchen floor. They had also started organizing the kitchen. Where do you put all the odds and ends that are stacked in the living room? They are using blue tape to mark suggested locations, and in some cases, putting items there. Rebecca made a trip to Walmart to obtain some drawer organizers and we are still playing with several options of finding the ideal location for food, dishes, pans, etc. The girls helped me get the final two old cabinets out of the house and into the barn. Progress is being made!

Today was church. Speakers addressed the topic of patriotism and the constitution. And the choir sang for the first time in over 15 months. Less than a dozen of us, but we sounded good.  By an interesting turn of events, I was asked to facilitate the priesthood lesson, which was based on President Nelson's Conference talk about lessons learned that you want to remember from the past two years. He posed some profound questions; what have we learned? Have I made my home a sanctuary? Have I grown closer to my neighbors? How can I help my quorum better accomplish His work? To quote President Nelson:  "Commotion in the world will continue to increase." Are we preparing our ourselves and families?

It is great to have Rebecca and girls here. Rebecca cooks delicious meals and the girls are helpful and brighten things up around the house.  

More Surgery!

 Monday Nathan came and worked more on the cabinet installation. Some of the more critical pieces require more attention; he measures the space and then at his shop will cut the pieces. Once here, they occasionally require minor modifications, which has to be done at his shop. He left early in the afternoon and shortly thereafter I was on the road heading to Springdale. 

Tuesday morning, Deborah drove me to the dermatologist's office for a 730 am check in. Then she went about her daily routine while I had a small cancerous spot on the lower left eye lid removed. This office has this procedure down to a science. I suspect from the number of people in the waiting room, that there were 6-8 of us having the same  surgery performed. I was taken to a surgical room where the nurse anesthetized the lower eyelid; then the doctor comes in, places a large contact lens protector over my eye and then carves out the affected area. His part took 5-7 minutes. Then the nurse patches the eye and sent me to the waiting room while the tissue is sent to their in office lab to confirm complete removal of the cancerous cells.

 I was able to cat nap for the hour I waited. The nurse called my name and took me back to the same room; there was still a small area that needed to be removed. So the procedure was repeated, but after the patch was removed. I learned that if your nurse looks neanderthalish, she is not as delicate as I have become accustomed to. The doctor came in, did his cutting, patched the eye and it was back to the waiting room again. An hour later, the nurse called my name and led me to another office. "Good news?" I asked, to which she responded that only the doctor could do that, and he would be in shortly. He confirmed that he had been successful in removing all the cancer cells and I could go home. Deborah was called and she retrieved me. This entire procedure took about four hours.

Life with only one functioning eye is interesting. On the way home I tried to envision  driving home with one eye patched. Doable, but not ideal. Two hours later I was at the reconstructive surgeon's office. I had a hole in my eyelid (picture available upon request!) which he stitched back together. Deborah was required to remain with me, so after about a 45 minute wait, they took me back to prep me for surgery. They gave me a local, so that I was partially aware of what was going on, but don't ask me what happened, since I don't know. About an hour later I was released. But the best new was that NO eye patch would be required!!!! Can you tell how happy that made me? And not to pass up an opportunity to celebrate, we visited Chick Filet on the way home since I had not been able to eat since midnight.

I stayed at Deborah's on Wednesday to make sure my eye was healing properly. Miranda came down in the afternoon to visit. All three of us did go visit a lady Deborah knows in her ward that has a glass business. Since I am remodeling the kitchen and added a pantry, it only seemed appropriate to have a frosted glass pantry door.  I am now looking for a fox design to be etched in the door. Anyone have a design of a fox laying down looking at you?

Thursday morning Sarah and I drove home without any challenges. Her family arrived after dinner. Nice to be home, although the temperatures are in the high 80s. Friday morning I was able to qualify the three oldest grands in zero turn lawnmowing; that means less work for me. I still spent about 30 minutes doing around the barn. Nathan came back to complete his work only to discover that one piece needs more trimming. He will come back next week; that will be good, since by then I will have the door pulls and he has the template to drill for the screws. Deborah helped me clear off the countertop with the computer. The computer's new home is only five feet away, but there isn't room for the printer - so it is now in the office. This involved disconnecting most of the wires; but I was able to reconnect everything and all systems are working! Friday about 830 pm we were hit with a sudden, exciting, lightening active, intense 40 minute severe thunderstorm. Rain was horizontal due to strong winds. One of two sassafras trees in the back blew over. .46 inches of rain in that time. We are now at 30 inches for the year.

Saturday morning I had intended to empty contents of the two old kitchen cabinets and stick them in the new cupboards; however, Deborah had other ideas. She wanted to tackle the downed tree; so after a brief lesson on chain saw procedures, she basically cut the entire tree.

 Meanwhile, some of the grands loaded the limbs and debris in the truck. Then Sarah drove the pick up the 100 plus yards to the burn pile where the tree was off loaded for future burning. 

Two hours later, the job was done - and so were we. It was hot!

I did scrounge material to serve as counter tops for most of the kitchen, since the real thing won't be installed until mid August. I was able to get one of the two cabinets emptied and moved to their new home or at least for now. It is still challenging to be cooking downstairs when most of the food and utensils are upstairs. And the only table large enough for when family visits is upstairs. My plan this week is to get the last two cabinets off the wall so that I can patch and paint that final section. Then I need to cut a hole for the sink in the temporary countertop so the plumber can come out and connect the sink and the stove. Not ideal, but functional. The electrician still needs to come out to install new breakers so I can see if I wired the place correctly. Oh, then I can install the yet to be purchased flooring. 

Today was stake conference. It was broadcast to our building. Some great talks on receiving revelation. One young lady had previously lived in Utah and was able to attend the temple on a regular basis. Then her family moved to our stake and trips were less frequent. Rather than lament her inability to attend the temple, she started indexing, which then lead her to family search and then accepting President Nelson's challenge and was able to find 150 names for baptisms. Another speaker shared how some of his family members had parted ways with the church and the impression he received was to love them. And they enjoy a good relationship inspite of their differences.

I Survived!

 Sunday I was still at Miranda's house; since her family had departed on an Alaskan Adventure, Sarah came to stay with me. I was still enduring some pain and discomfort due to the catheter and was in no condition to attend church. So we YouTubed the Mountain Home Ward meeting. The rest of the day I did as little as possible.

Monday was not much different. Stay put and try not to move too much. Deborah's family did drive up in the late afternoon and cooked hamburgers for dinner. It was Memorial Day and that is a traditional meal.

Tuesday came at last; the day I had been anticipating for 11 days. Rebecca pronounced June 1st as Tom Fox Penal Emancipation Day! And that it was!! Deborah drove up to take me to my afternoon appointment to have the catheter removed. And what a difference that made! I felt like a new man. The attending PA also assisted in my surgery and was able to share that my prostate was smaller than normal and that the surgery went smoothly. The lab report shows that all the adjoining lymph nodes that were removed were cancer free, so one could conclude that I am cancer free. But one thing I learned from Sandy's experience is that one is never cancer free, it is just hiding someplace to make a later surprise appearance. They recommend regular testing to monitor increased risk, but I am comfortable that there are still a lot of miles in this body of mine. For now, I am just happy not to be attached to 'Fill-up', my urine collection bag, and am able to do stuff. To celebrate, Deborah took us to Andy's Froze Custard; after all, it is tradition.

Now I need to retrain my bladder to take control of urinating instead of leaking whenever it wants. I am now dependent on my new friend Depends; not too awkward, but at least I don't go around with wet pants. I am learning how best to navigate this new situation to minimize leakage; I can almost tell when that will happen and am working on training my body.

I drove myself home on Wednesday without incident. Good to be home. When I first drove to NWA on 20 May, I had hopes of coming home after a few days. But that obviously did not happen. I was gone for 13 days. And I got to sleep in my own bed.

Thursday I returned to working on the kitchen; some drywall touch up, electrical work and such. It felt good to be active again - at least until I got up Friday when my body reminded me that I needed to take things slower and follow the restrictions that doctor gave me as far as lifting and taking things easy for a few weeks. It is hard for me to sit still when I see so many things that need doing. So I basically did nothing on Friday. However, Nathan showed up with the kitchen cabinets and started installing them; he brought his own help, so I just watched and cheered them on. They were able to install a majority of them that day. Nathan and his young son returned on Saturday for a half day to install the cabinet hinges and doors. The kitchen is taking shape, but isn't complete yet. He will return on Monday to hopefully finish, though I suspect there will be a couple of minor items that will linger. Even though the cabinets will be installed, the counter tops are scheduled to be installed late August; even though I made that appointment six weeks ago, they are that busy. I can use some of the old counter top temporarily and I have some plywood that can be cut to fit. 

Here is the kitchen Friday morning:

And Saturday afternoon:

Today was church. Good testimonies and a good Come Follow Me lesson focused on missionary work. It almost feels normal at church now with the restrictions removed.