After a month of days filled with stress at work, and then stress at home as we transition to the new house, Trip and I decided to join his parents on a spur of the moment trip to the mountains this weekend. Of course things didn't start as planned. We had hoped to leave after a quick packing of stuff after work. Yeah, so Wednesday was the end of the month, which meant that before I left my internet access on Friday, I needed to have all of last month's notes done. So that only took me until 6pm... Anyway, but the time everything was said and done we were on the road at about 8. not the smoothest start to our relaxing weekend, but not the worst. We took the dogs with us, and Raleigh whined most of the way up. His ears were popping? We're still not sure.
About midnight we finally show up at the house. Once we get the dogs mostly settled, we head into the basement apartment to find water in the kitchen and white mold all over the bathroom. Yuck! Clearly something had happened in the 36 hours since Trip's sister left.... There have always been humidity problems in the basement part of the house, but this was something much more. So we decide to head upstairs for the night, since now it was getting close to one am. During our transfer upstairs we discover that one of the hoses for outside irrigation is gushing water. Ugh. Quick decision to leave the water on long enough to use the facilities, and then it's off again for the night. Saturday morning found Trip fixing several leaks outside and then we played cribbage until his parents arrived. The afternoon/evening was much more relaxing. Catching up with family, then we headed to downtown Franklin for the fireworks. We taught Trip's parents how to play cribbage - which turned out to be a more difficult task than imagined. But we all had fun. After dinner and some more games, we were finally watching the fireworks after dark. Of course, there is nothing quite like watching fireworks while listening to the poor taste flirting of a hormonal mountain backwoods teenager. Nothing like hearing 'I love the smell of gunpowder in the evening' ten times...
Thankfully the weekend managed to be relaxing overall. We did more bumming around on Sunday. Trip and his dad went mining while Reva and I spent the afternoon reading. Then on Monday morning Trip and I headed home.
The weekend was not without some sad news. My grandmother has been in the hospital since last Tuesday with pneumonia. This is especially worrisome as she just completed her chemo and radiation treatment for lung cancer at the end of May. I got news from my mom on Friday that she isn't doing well. Unfortunately, this wasn't entirely not expected due to her age and frailty. Today I got the news that things have gotten even worse. Although able to eat and talk a bit on Saturday morning, my grandmother has been mostly unresponsive since an afternoon nap. My dad and his sisters made the tough decision today to remove my grandmother from the oxygen that is keeping her oxygen levels within a normal range. This is in accordance with her wishes to not be kept alive artificially, but it is hard thinking about losing my last grandparent. As Trip and I prepare ourselves for this painful journey, we would appreciate and prayers you could spare.
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