Posted by
William D. Dannenmaier on Saturday, October 22, 2011 12:03:27 PM
I have learned why Sheila
has put up with me all of these years, a question which has also
puzzled my older children. I discovered this quite by accident.
Sheila bought a cake and it has been sitting on our kitchen table for
some time, an unusual state of affairs as I like cake. Sheila asked
me why I wasn’t eating more of it. I replied the icing was too
sweet and too thick for me. I only enjoyed it if I first scraped off
most of the icing. Sheila replied that she liked the icing. That is
the answer to our relationship. Sheila likes sweet things, thus she
likes me. I am sweet.
I have my new hearing
aids. It is my suggestion that universities create a three semester
hour graduate course in the care and wearing of hearing aids for
senior citizens. Knowledge, however, is only part of the problem.
Vision and elderly, reluctantly nimble, hands are the other parts.
It is my present conviction that I shall die of old, or at least
considerably older, age before I’m comfortable with their care and
use. Of course, wearing them creates another problem. I hear Sheila
when she is mentioning jobs that need to be done.
While I’m thinking of
it, and while Sheila is still on hold on the Internet trying to get
information about those hearing aids, one of the nicest things that
has happened to me is Sheila, and she has five step-children who
agree with me. Also, I don’t know that I’ve ever thanked Bill
for my annual subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal. I consider
it the one best source of news available – to me or anyone else and
I look forward to its arrival every morning in the mail.
Andrew is still headed
into the Air Force. If I heard him correctly, he is scheduled to
leave in mid-January and will join the engineers, which means he will
train at Fort Leonard Wood, where Sheila and I were employed by the
army for two years. We left there when I had an opportunity to go to
the Warrior Preparation Center in Germany. I still remember Sheila
cheering and dancing down the hall in the engineering building at
Fort Leonard Wood, where she was employed designing books, when I
asked her if she would mind giving up her job to go to Germany with
me. She never did TELL me she would like to go.
Speaking of Germany, an
incident I remember well was when we were preparing to leave there
and return to the States. All of our furniture was gone and we were
getting by on meals we purchased at the Post Exchange. One day,
Sheila bought fried chicken and a dessert. She divided the chicken
up in the kitchen and gave Andrew a leg. Now, Andrew didn’t like
chicken, but he liked the looks of the dessert. Anyway, he took his
chicken leg in the other room and returned a few minutes later saying
he had completed his chicken, now he was ready for dessert. I asked,
“Where is the bone?” Poor Andrew looked shocked and said, “Oh!
The bone?” I retrieved the chicken leg from the trash, washed it
off and handed it to Andrew. When he had eaten the meat off, he
received his dessert. Children can be a lot of fun if watched
carefully and not taken seriously.
Stephen has always enjoyed
working with plants and animals. When a student at Austin Peay he
became the volunteer caretaker of the aquarium in the biology
building and also planted flowers and shrubs there and in the
library. Among his plants in the science center atrium were three
banana trees. Now in Springfield, Missouri, he will be pleased to
note that the banana trees which he continued to care for as long as
he was at home, have continued to prosper in his absence. In fact,
Andrew reported that the one now has small green bananas growing on
it.
After writing the above, I
took a break and sat on the back porch watching our Sheba. At
fifteen, her age is showing. She stumbles often, has difficulty
moving from lying down to standing and wants lots of affection. When
I mention these problems to Sheila and suggest that it might be kind
to take her to the vet for a shot, Sheila looks me over more
carefully than I am comfortable with, especially if I’m pushing
myself up out of a chair or doing some other strenuous activity at
the time.