Posted by
William D. Dannenmaier on Sunday, July 10, 2011 12:52:16 PM
Sheila and I spent this morning, June 22nd, visiting the local VA representative. My goal is to get the Veterans’ Administration to supply the drugs I currently (am supposed to) take for eight dollars each a month instead of the current two hundred dollars total a month. The gimmick is that if you can be approved for one combat caused problem, then all medications, including my heart medications, would be at that cheap price. The VA Rep and Sheila spent an hour talking about me. Their final agreement was that it would be easiest to prove that I was insane and with that proof I could get the heart medicine. I’m not certain how complimentary their discussion was. Anyway, I have an appointment for July 26 with the VA doctors in Clarksville.
Sheila has spent several months now writing a history of Cumberland Furnace for the Community Center and Historic Village Association rather than spending her time cooking delicious meals, keeping an immaculate house and attending to her husband’s every need while listening to his wise ideas, as all wives should. Her history is now up to the construction and running of the furnaces. This morning, taking a break from the computer during a thunderstorm, she asked me if I knew the difference between a hot blast furnace and a cold blast furnace. I replied, “Certainly, a hot blast furnace is a time when a wife doesn’t like something a husband is doing, a cold blast furnace is when she has given up on him.” That answer cost me a fifteen minute lecture on the subject.
I had the misfortune to see a small dog – thin and shivering, hiding under a bush while I was mowing the grass by the blacksmith shop a few weeks ago. Naturally I brought it home. Hungry? Yes. It ate all food in sight. It was also a bouncy thing, jumping around and up on any person available. Sheila took its picture and made posters, which we distributed, hoping some individual would claim this lost, almost adult, puppy. After a few days we gave up. In the meantime, continuing to eat, it expanded its activities, chewing up a favorite book of mine, which it took off of the back porch table, and chewing up insulation Sheila had put around the window opening onto the back porch. That dog was a genuine pain. Reduced to desperation and not wanting to take it to the pound, Sheila used the telephone and finally found a “dog rescue” person who was willing accept it. Not only were Sheila, Andrew and I glad to see the exit of that puppy, but so were our two cats and three dogs.
Last night we celebrated the 4th of July with our usual fireworks demonstration in Cumberland Furnace. As usual, we drew crowds from who knows where. There must have been two or three thousand people here, cars lined the highways and road, filled the Community Center acreage, the church driveways and many of the yards of neighbors. Considering that the population of Cumberland Furnace is probably less than two hundred, it was crowded, but everyone had a good time with bands, singers and, finally, a couple thousand dollars worth of fireworks, purchased at a discount from a warehouse. The darned thing wasn’t over until ten and I was unable to get to bed before eleven. Consequently, when I tried to work on a political essay this morning, I complained to Sheila that I was having problems. She replied that I was just tired, I needed a rest and should work on it tomorrow. She added, “When you are tired, you are not your usual brilliant self.” I asked her if she realized that the word “usual” really qualified the word “brilliant.” She giggled.
For anyone still reading, a bit of advice from a mature and sadly experienced friend. Never – ever- drink a quart of apple juice while watching a movie prior to going to bed.