The Caregiver’s Tales: A Blog

On the highway between Johnson City and Dripping Springs lies the unincorporated area known as Henly. When we first moved to the area, it was simply a wide spot in the road. Now, it’s way more than that. As you drive through and look north you can see the valley and the hills beyond. We owe that nice view to a company that sells aggregate. In 2016 they started clearing away the vegetation before they began carting away the hills by the truck load. Strip mining old sea floors. There’s no telling how low the hills will go before they get done.

Less than a month ago, I said I needed to stop thinking and talking about my age, that it was just a data point. But I’ve decided as data points go, it’s a fairly significant one, and it might be the thing I need to talk about. After all, this blog, through the twelve years of its existence has largely been about my journey, from Houston to the Hill Country, through a life with dementia, and life after dementia. Life and death. Nature. So, aging feels a part of that. It’s a stage in my journey.

Green has never been my color except it’s the color of money and the color of nature and both of those are big pluses. Unfortunately, I’ve had more exposure to the latter than the former, especially now that I never really see a dollar. Who among us actually handles money these days. It’s more of a concept than a real thing. But I can’t say I miss standing in line to deposit a paycheck. It’s nice to have the funds magically appear.

My wildflowers are certainly enjoying the cool embrace of our recent wet weather. The Lemon Bee Balm is coming up along with some Queen Annes Lace that was in one of the wildflower packets I sowed. Not many consider the Lace a wildflower. But there it is so I’ll take it. It bears a small resemblance in its flowers and leaves to hedge parsley, which I pull from my gardens when I can. We’ll see how the new visitor matures.

I think finding my way back to books has had a material effect on my sleep. The 3 a.m wake-up still comes but not with a rush that truly wakes me. I simply roll over and go back to sleep, and when I am awake, I look for any excuse to sit down with the book and get on with the story. And if you’re curious as to story, it’s the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I’m on book three. There are eight books, with more planned. I’m not sure how far I’ll get but we’ll see how it goes.

Movie time. Watched two films recently. The fourth John Wick installment, and One Battle After Another. Mr. Wick has now killed approximately 439 people in those four movies. Someone calculated that’s a kill roughly every 1 minute and 11 seconds on average. I found it less entertaining this time around. Plus, he’s taken an astonishing number of falls to little affect. I guess the Baba Jaga is immune to the laws of physics.

Two, two-inch rains, back-to-back, is a good soaking in anyone’s book. And if I kept detailed stats, I’d be able to comment on just how much rain has fallen this month of May. But my stat keeping is nonexistent. I might note it in this blog, but there’s no other record. So, let me sum it up. Monday and Tuesday were wet, rainy days. My rain tanks are full, and the ground is as soft as butter.

We had another good rain yesterday. My gauge clocked in at 2.5 inches, and a lot of that fell in a very short time. I suppose that’s why my phone started blowing up with flash flood warnings. More is promised today once the day warms and the air gets stirred up. We’ve had a nice wet month of May, and some of the local lakes are benefiting. So, it was a nice Memorial Day.