Closing In On the End . . ..

End of what?  End of the family Usufructs Agreement.  A Usufructs is a legally binding "use" agreement.  They have been around for centuries but until the early 1980s were not recognized in Louisiana.

Well my family had a Usufructs Agreement drawn up.  My father wrote it and then his lawyer took over and put it good legal language.  He also had it "peer reviewed" and subsequently had it inserted in the Louisiana Constitution making legal.

That agreement controlled the frontage of the plantation and who could do what with what.  My brother built a log house on my father's part of the usage agreement.  There were four more or less equal area across the front of the farm.  One part had the old family house which I call Angeles House.  We subsequently sold the house to a Morrison who is a share holder.

With in a year of my brother building the log house he died.  He died intest-state ( no will) but the agreement was in force so the log house fell to my father as it was on his area of control.  There were other bank issues that were resolved and my father rented the house.  My father died in the mid 1990s at age 86 and the log house became ours.  By ours I mean his heirs; my brother's children, my sister and myself.

I was in the military and then retired to a town outside of Fort Worth, Texas so I could not provide any management help keeping the log house and it became my sisters duty as she lived closest to the house.  My nephew Johnny lived nearby but my sister did the job anyway.

My sister has since died and Johnny has taken over the responsibilities.   Herrise left it in a good lease and all he had to do was collect the rent and pay for the fire insurance.  

Well, the Usufructs Agreement expires at noon, May 28, 2020.  After that the log house reverts back to the plantation.  We will turn over a nice four thousand square foot log house and the management now falls to the plantation.  We, as share holders in the stock ownership of the plantation, will continue to participate in the proceeds but on a per share basis.  We no longer as subset of the larger family have any responsibility for and to the log houseersonaly.

Basically, it has been forty years since the agreement was placed in use.  It will expire.  Others will manage the place and we will all share in any income on  a pro rata basis.

Quarantine or Social Separation . . .

Well we do not have any Coronavirus ergo we are not quarantined.  But we, like all the rest of you, are practicing, in our own way, social separation.  Let me give you an example.

Last Saturday, our neighbors came over and we all had a glass of wine or two glasses or . . .   Any way we did this on our screened back patio which we now refer to as the porch.  We had the ceiling fan on high to blow all those bad things in the air down, not up and flying around.  We place all the chairs six feet apart except for Judie and I, who sat on the little outdoor sofa.  So there was three couples and one widower.  We had a rare good time and did not exceed the 10 person limit.

Yesterday we ventured into Fort Worth to Costco.  I was just about out of coffee and I get a big bag of beans there and grind them up.  It was coolish day, temperatures are 55 to 60 degrees with blustery winds.  We found this huge line of people waiting to get in to the facility.  We all stood the requisite six feet apart, some with baskets and some waiting to get baskets.  We were strung out a block long.

We were there only a few moments when the line moved up.  We did not make it into the store, we were now the third couple in line at the door, many were behind us.  We observed two fellows wiping down the roll-a-round baskets down with alcohol soaked cloths.  Killing the virus, you know, before the customer got his dirty filthy hands on them.

Then they let 10 sets of us in.  No more than two persons to a set.  No family reunions allowed, so to speak.  Into the store and we found it sort of picked over, tons and tons of water in all sorts and kinds of bottles.  No Kleenex, no toilet paper, no paper towels, but lots of paper plates and lots of baggies to store stuff in.

The staff seemed normal, then we got to the checkout area.  There they had a woman marshalling us into various check lines making sure we were practicing social clearances.  There were all kinds of markings and lines on the floor to guide you through the checkout.

The  couple in front of us were didling around, trying different charge cards, talking on the phone, etc.  The clerks and helper would not let us put things on the conveyer belt or move up.  We had to maintain that social separation.  The couple continued to screw around and you could see the checker was losing patience with them.  Finally, the woman hung up her telephone call, things got straightened out and the check out was complete.  And they continued to just stand there and chat with each other with no consideration to anybody else in the place.

No more coffee grinding machines.  They did not just cover them up, they literally hauled them off and hid them.  Fortunately, we have coffee grinder rarely ever used and now will have to do the duty.  I am sure it will work.

Later went to Walmart, they had close all but one entrance.  And that entrance had a marshal watching you but essentially doing nothing but looking hawkish.  Baskets and cones used to direct you exclusively to one automatic door to enter and once inside barricaded line proceeded further into the store with a station every six feet with towels and hand cleaner.  The first one I stopped at the hand cleaner was empty.

Checked and still no paper towels or toilet paper.  I had to walk all the way to the other end of the store to get my toothpaste, checkedout and then out the only door open.  I got eyeballed by the woman a the door on the way out.  Have to follow the rules, you know.

I wonder what Home Depot and Lowes is like?  Oh well that is another store for another day.

Backup Power Supply . . .

We use ATT Uverse for our land line telephone and DSL connection to the Internet.  When we signed up yea years ago they included a battery back up system so when the power is out the telephone will continue to operate.

Well the other day the power supply died, that it had a red light on it.  That meant the internal battery had died.  Thus either the whole assembly needed replacement, or a trouble call to ATT or perhaps I could replace the battery.  Of course, there were no instructions given with the device.  So I unplugged it and the phone quit as well as the internet quit.  The modem was of course dead.

I unplugged the power supply and it was weighty which indicated to me it had a battery in it.  I moved it over to my desk/work station and opened it up.  It did have an access door and sure enough it had a 12 volt sealed lead acid battery in it.  I extracted the battery and did a search on Amazon and found maybe a dozen replacement batteries at price ranges from $17.95 to $40.00.  I ordered up the $17.95 unit, free shipping but had state tax included so it was about $19.40.  That was okay.

But it was going to take a week or more to be shipped.  Well the unit had a switch on it and I had turned it off when I moved it over to my desk.  So I hooked it all up again, plugged it into the modem and turned it on.  And it worked except I got a red light as there was no battery in the unit.  It worked just fine, powered up the modem and we were in business.  We just did not have a back up for a while.

The new battery arrived a while ago.  Perfect fit.  I hooked it up, installed in the unit and installed the cover door and plugged it into the modem.  I had not unplugged it from house power, but did turn it off to install the battery, a safety thing to me.  Once the battery was installed and the switch turned on it showed a green light and the modem came back alive.

So we were without a land line phone for about five minutes.  And the Internet connection came right back up.  I filed a three month warranty with the "MightyMax Battery" company via the internet.  I suppose the new battery should last maybe another five or so years like the original one.  No matter I know how and where to get a replacement battery now.

Funky Weather . . .

Four days ago I think it hit 90 degrees, yesterday it got all the way up 60 degrees with rain.  The rain kept things cool.  Today it is back up to 77 degrees so it is warming up again.  And the rain clouds, well the blew away or perhaps the rise in temperature sent them off.  I am not a weather man, I just gotta suffer from it like the rest of you.

I am ready for the Coronavirus to slow down and for the temperatures to stay warm.  I want the spring weather to stabilize.  If I have to stay home, I want to be able to work in the yard comfortably.  I guess I am greedy about it.

I had to charge into the edge of Fort Worth to have my car inspected for its annual renewal of the license tag.  Well, we don't actually have license tags but we do have a sticker in the lower left side of the windshield with a date the next inspection is due.  The inspection is not much, sort of basic but the dealer gets $25 and change to do it.

Then you take your renewal paper work, a copy of your current insurance coverage documentation and a check and send it to the county for renewal.  They in turn send you the new sticker to put on the windschield.  Of course, you gotta scrape the old tag off first.  Not hard to do and we keep one of those razor blade scrapers in the utility room to do the job.

It is a nuisance job but it means spring is sprung cause that is when ours are due.  I guess we buy cars in the spring.

The other thing is income taxes and now they have been pushed back.  Even the Louisiana income taxes have been pushed back.  Of course, Louisiana taxes are dependent on your federal tax data.  So if Uncle Sam pushes back, so must the state.  I am not forgiven paying federal quarterly taxes and I will get that out soon.  It is due April 15.  Nobody forgave that.

So far we are healthy and no where near any Coronavirus.  But it is in Tarrant County (Fort Worth) and a lot of the folks work there or send their workmen here to do jobs.  You never know where it will come from but for sure if it is in Fort Worth, it will be here en-mass soon.  We have at this time four cases in Parker County and given the history of it spreading, we should see a big jump soon.

No shaking hands, instead pass the disinfectant wipe or a squirt of hand sanitizer.  Life is changing before our eyes.

Coronavirus . . .

The nation, indeed the whole world, is going crazy over the Coronavirus.  It is serious but made more serious by a media heighten sense of fear.  Roosevelt said, "We only have to fear itself."  Famous words with the declaration of war against Japan December 7, 1941.  Yes, we are in a war but is it more serious than the common Flu?  Apparently not and we have a vaccine for Flu (and altogether to many people do not get their annual Flu shot) but no vaccine for Coronavirus.  This time next year we will have that vaccine and I bet lots of people will not get the shot.

We are killing in the USA more people due to Flu by many thousands than we are from Coronavirus.  Yes, the elderly are more at risk die Coronavirus.  Italy with an unusual amount of elderly folks and as a nation has been hit hard with many deaths.  Iran has been hit hard because they are doing little to prevent the social contact vis-à-vis person to person.  They are being hard headed.  Who knows what is going on in Spain or for that matter in Great Britain or Germany.  The Russians have said little but are up to their noses in it.  And India has put 1.3 billion people on sequester.

We do know now that about 80% of the people infected have little or no symptoms.  They may feel ill but it seems to soon pass.  Youngsters, and I mean really young children, do not seem to be badly impacted by the virus.

Young adults do get the disease just as much as the elderly but have strong bodies and are generally more healthy than us oldsters.  We oldsters all seem to have other secondary issues that make the disease much worse.  So yes, we have a greater risk for more compromising disease and even death.  But we have that risk any way as elderly people, we are nearer to the end of life than to the beginning of life.  That is just plain facts.

Do I like those facts, no, I am one of those elderly that have other issues.  Personally I am impacted by Agent Orange and have Diabetes Type II.  I am 80 years of age so I fit into the wrong category of risk, I am high risk!

My wife has other compromising issues and severe heart disease to go with it all.  And while she is not yet 80 she will be 79 years of age shortly.  She is probably higher risk than I am.

But we can not live a life of fear.  We must live life as we are, we have no choice. We will soldier on regardless of what transpires for us.

Take care folks, give us space and you take your space too.

Knee Update . . .

I saw the Orthopedic Surgeon Friday.  Prior to the office visit I had an series of X-rays taken for the visit.

Thursday my knee started to act better.  It sort of self healed though it was not a complete riddance of pain, but it was now much more tolerable.

The doctor looked at the X-rays and said he did not see anything  to worry about.  No knee replacement but he did see arthritis under the knee cap (probably the source of pain).  He said he could order up a MRI but doubted it would give him much more information.  So that was ruled out.

He did give me a cortisone shot in the knee and it helped a little bit.  I mean today I still feel the knee, it reports to me everyday.  But the knee does not inhibit my locomotion.  It just lets me know it is there.

So no operations, just see the doctor if anything flares up again.  I liked that since it was good practical advice.

We then exchanged a few comments about the LSU Tigers.  He is a graduate of LSU Medical School.  He did not attend LSU for his undergraduate degree.  But as usual, once in the LSU system he becomes totally infected.  And of course since he is an Orthopedic specialist he sees lots of athletes.  His specialty is shoulders, he does not normally do knees and hips but since I am his patient he took care of the knee for me.

The Right Knee . . .

I woke up on December 28th with a right knee hurting a little bit.  I have  had that occur before and then the pain would disappeared.  I have arthritic knees and that is sort of a normal thing for me.  However, by December 29th it was really giving me fits.

I could not straighten out my knee and had trouble sleeping through the night.  I resulted in taking a couple of Aleve tablets that sort of help.  It dulled the pain down.  But when I stood up it was excruciating pain for the first step.  After a few small steps I could move better with less pain.  And after about six or seven steps walk with out a limp.  The knee, however, let me know each time I took a step it was protesting.  The Aleve moderated the pain.

I normally sleep on my side, mostly the left side but sometimes the right side and often switch around during the night in my sleep.  I could not sleep on my side.  If I was on the right side the knee had the left knee on top of it and if on the left side it was top but still protesting painfully.  Enough pain to keep me awake.  By December 30th I was resorting to a couple Motrin (aka Ibuprofen) during the night to fight the pain and get some sleep.

So I resorted to sleeping in a reclining sofa or a recliner chair.  That made me sleep on my back and keep the knee out straight.   Keeping the knee out straight is painful at first but then abates.  I find even during the day sitting in a recliner eased the pain.

I contacted my Orthopedic Surgeon's office seeking an appointment.  They said they would look at the knee but they did not do knees.  They would take me as a patient since I was still a patient from my left shoulder replacement.  And that they would refer me to a knee doctor if I needed it.  The appointment is a squeeze in tomorrow  (Friday Jan 10) at 8:30 AM with a date for an X-ray prior to the appointment.

So tomorrow I will be off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of joints.  I think I may have some Arthroscopic surgery or at worst a knee replacement.  The shoulder work I had done was an emphatic replacement and that was successful surgery.  My left shoulder is better than my right shoulder today. I have a big four inch scar as a reminder of the surgery but I have absolutely no loss of motion and absolutely no pain anymore.

The pain has moved on to the knee.