It has been a couple months since I last posted anything to this blog. My life has gone crazy. You know, the kind of crazy that resembles being on one of those children’s playground merry-go-rounds. The giant disk that spins with someone pushing it to go faster and faster until someone flies off.
I have had to come out of “retirement” from my truck driving job. Joe has been in and out of the hospital since March 6th….for various reasons and procedures. In between the hospital stays I have had to go with him to make sure he doesn’t do any kind of “Superman” stuff that would cause complications to his healing.
This will be a rather long post. Mostly because of photos to catch up on what has been happening here.
Joe had made me two promises. One was to make a “Press” for me to use in my crafting. The other was to make a table/stand for my ginormous paper trimmer he got me for last Christmas. It has bothered him – a whole lot – that he did not make them earlier. Has not bothered me because I knew that he would make them when he could spend the time necessary.
So…without further ado. Here is the story of my crazy life in March and April of 2014. Seems like forever instead of just two months…..
March 6th he went in for hand surgery to take care of a problem he had with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
Before surgery
After surgery
He did well throughout the procedures. Took a couple hours for the whole process and he was home that same afternoon.
His left hand was going numb. Mostly the pinky and ring fingers and he could not make his hand close enough to get the fingers to touch his thumb. The surgery has corrected that and the numbness has all but disappeared.
After a few days at home, after the surgery, he spent some quality time in his room at his drafting table. He had his “thinking hat on” 😀 He’s “Old School” with his drafting. Pencils, vellum paper, rulers, and stencil gauge thingys.
Joe at his drafting table
He loves it when I come with my camera
Joe is designing a piece of equipment for the Drive-Away business. Something for the “Singles” drivers to connect their vehicles to the back of a bobtail truck so they don’t have to rely on public transportation.
He is having the first prototype built now from his drawings. The equipment has been built and has been painted. It will be a while before the unveiling.
Joe was back in the hospital a week after his Carpal Tunnel surgery. He had another bout of blood clots in his lung. He was a couple days in the hospital that time. There was an IVC Filter put in to catch the blood clots before they reached his lungs again. He is on blood thinner medicine once more.
In the emergency room
Diagnosed with a blood clot in his lung
This was an unexpected bit of news. Thankfully he is one strong old coot and is doing well. This problem had to be addressed and worked on. Now it became uppermost in my mind to be with him when he went back out on the road. Not so much for his physical well being but I felt I needed to be there just in case some calamity ensued while he was all by himself with no one to be there if he had any other problems and was found by the hotel/motel’s housekeeping staff. That would have caused me a lifetime of grief.
Once home and feeling better he went to work on my “Press”. He got to spend some play time with his new friends. The table saw and the drill press 😀
Enjoying some creative time
He had his stitches removed, declared nearly good as new, and we made preparations to get back out on the road.
Stitches removed
Moving trucks from Alabama to Mississippi
We moved a total of 12 trucks from Mobile, Alabama on the Gulf Coast to Tunica, Mississippi to be sold at auction.
We had to be home, once again, for another surgery on Joe’s right knee on April 22nd.
Right knee surgery
Some “good drugs” make him loopy
Joe was in and out of the hospital the same day. He had to remain bandaged for 48 hours. That was the longest 48 hours either of us had been through. Even all the other procedures he has had didn’t seem as long as this one did.
After he had the bandages off and found walking and moving to be considerably less painful he continued on with his projects for me. Poor guy….gotta say that I love this crazy man.
As he began feeling better and better he continued work on my “Press”. It was time to use the router to round off the edges of the pieces he built.
Stacking the pieces together
Clamping on “Sacrificial” boards
Routing off the hard edges
Is that cool or what?!
Joe glued on Formica to the tops and bottoms of each of these two pieces. This would give me a good flat surface when I press the pieces I need to when I glue papers on cardboard or on chipboard. The Formica will be like a “non” stick surface with easy clean up for me.
He then used his router to trim the Formica and make this thing look really good. The router bit broke at one point and caused a fur ball of a mess along the bottom edge of one of the pieces. Joe is really upset with that but I’m not. It will be on the bottom and no one will ever know there is a problem with his creation.
Routing off the extra Formica
This is my “Press”. It has wing nuts to tighten the pieces together over what is being pressed between the plates. It is large enough for me to press anything that is as large as 12″ x 12″. Bonus is he has installed handles on the top part for me to easily take the top off and/or put it back on the rods.
My completed “Press”
And FINALLY! He built a trough thing for my ginormous paper trimmer. The box he built fits on top of a rolling cart we bought from IKEA. This thing will keep the paper trimmer from dancing around on the cart as I use it. Plus he made it a little larger than the trimmer itself so it would be supported better. Less of a chance to damage that heavy monster.
Paper trimmer support
Since Joe has not needed as much “Babysitting” as I had been doing. I got to spend a bit of time in my craft room and make an extremely late birthday present. One of our daughter’s is plum crazy about New Orleans, Louisiana and Mardi Gras or ghosts. I made her a mask as her birthday present.
Mardi Gras mask for my daughter
Her late birthday present
And as if this post is not ALREADY long enough. I’m going to add the YouTube video I made creating the mask. Everything was purchased from Hobby Lobby and/or Michaels. Oh, ya…with the exception of the colored beads. I got them from Dollar Tree for a buck.
Now that should do you for your entire day wasted on your computer reading blogs.
Leslie
Message In A Fold 