Nov. 11, 2014
Well, it is now Tuesday the 11th of Nov. and
here is what has been happening. Not much earth-shaking, just ordinary stuff.
I made an
appointment with my urologist for Nov. 27th, it is the once a year
prostate checkup. That means I have to get a PSA, e.g. a blood test to see if
there are any cancer cells in my blood (I think). That also means I have to go
to a lab to have them poke my finger and suck out a vial of my precious blood
(I don’t have that much to spare), which I did, at the insistence of Sr.
Amanda, CPS, who ran the clinic at St. Mary’s Hospital for about 40 or more
years before she retired. So she got a nurse to give me a poke, and then went
to the lad downstairs to fill out the form that I got from the doctor (you have
to be referred by a doctor). But it was the wrong form. My doctor uses a
different lab for his stuff than the hospital here, so I had to go to Crompton
hospital in Pinetown where his lab is and get them to send it to the lab, after
which the results will be sent to him at his office. Complicated. I have to go
to collect the bill now, and I am scared!
I finally
phoned the mechanic whom I asked to give a quote how much it would cost to redo
Mike Pillay’s engine (he is our leader at Savannah Park for our Sunday services
and he usually used his old beat up junk to ferry old people to the hospital or
to bring them communion or whatever, until he blew a gasket and his junk just
died.
He got a back
yard mechanic to help him and he only made things worse. (more smoke comes out
of his tail pipe that incence at a benediction). We managed to get it to a
mechanic whom I know and trust and I got the quote from him R14,000.00 Ouch, but it will be worth it. So
I used some of my scio-pastoral money (R10,000) to get things started and
promised that I would find the other R4000 somewhere (maybe some Christmas
gifts will come in.)
I have been
getting up early in the morning to cut the grass. I usually start by 5am and go
till about 6:30 when I clean up a bit, say my morning prayers and have
breakfast. If I am more or less free, I continue again after breakfast from
abut 9 to 10:30 after which we usually have Mass (11:45) Then lunch, and, if it
isn’t raining I go at it again from abut 2 to 3:30, after which I take a shower
with my head covered in a genuined Pick N’Pay plastic shopping bag since I am
not supposed to get water in my new eye.
As I mentioned
before, I have to keep remembering to put in 2 different drops in my right eye
4 times a day and that can get tricky since I can’t always keep the same time
if I am out and about.
On Thursday,
the 6th, I wanted to get my driver’s licence renewed, and I wanted
to do it early but I realized that I needed a few things first. 1) a photocopy
of my ID—I went to the repository about 8am and they kept turning out dark
black copies until they finally found out how to tone it down so that it was
readable. 2) Then go the Fr. Henry who has the authority to stamp it and make
it official 3) then to the provincial to take a letter for him which led to a
long conversation 4) then finally to the
traffic bureau (only 7 minutes away by car). But by this time it was already
after 9am and by the time I got there there was a queue from Chicago to Denver.
I grabbed a form and forgot , in my rush, to bring a pen, and someone was kind
enough to loan me his pen. But, when I had almost finished (many people had in
the meantime skipped in front of me) I realized that I would probably be there
till about 5pm and just left to plan better another day.
On Friday,
after the morning grass cutting, I got Bishop Lobinger to make me a color copy
of the material I was asked to get for the sisters in Mthatha. They are running short of money to keep the
convent going so they have the old timers making school uniforms to earn some
money to keep the place going. There are two colors. One is navy blue—sister cut
me off a sample, and the other, she had no sample, so , being a clever guy, I
took a photo with my cell phone. But
then I needed a color printer which, happily,Bishop Lobinger supplied.
I took this to
my friend Estie (who makes delicious curry) who had already found a shop that
would supply the navy blue, but only now could I bring the color copy of the
other sample (kind of robin’s egg blue). Then, of course, I was forced to test
some of her delicious curry. I happily survived. I let the sisters know that we
would be going this week on Thursday to bring the other sample and to get a
quote as to how much it would cost to have 400 meters of navy blue and 200
meters of robin’s egg blue. At R35 a meter it is going to be quite expensive
and I doubt if the store owner will spend so much money ordering so much
material unless it is sitting nicely in his bank account. So we will have to
work on that next.
I cut some more
grass (weed eater) in the afternoon and
again most of Saturday morning, but this time with a mower. It is actually
harder to push that mower around than to swing the weed eater.
Saturday
evening I was invited out for a supper by my friend from Germany (he works for
Pfizer), Reinhard Maier, and another friend, Silungile Mokoena, who is a
fashion designer. (her work room and office are about the size of a medium
sized closet but she makes lovely things. I want her to help Sinovuyo from
Landsend to learn more about sewing and we are working on that.
Sunday, was
busy at Savannah Park, my outstation. I took Fr. Macarius along, who is totally
blind in his left eye and only 10% in his right eye. He was also just operated
on to improve his vision a bit but it doesn’t seem to be working well. He will
be returning to Zambia next week after his final checkup with the eye doctor.
Then we had a
nice curry lunch prepared by Mike Pillay’s wife, Net (Annette) and came home to
rest a bit.
Monday I got up very early, had some breakfast and took
my filled in form and went off to the traffic bureau where I arrived at 7:40. I
got in the queue that was already there (about 20 people in front of me) and at
7:50 they allowed us to go up to the rooms where the people sit in rows and
rows of chairs, moving up one by one as one is finished. Would you believe it,
I had my fingerprints taken, my eyes were already checked and OK, my papers
filled in, my picture taken by their machine, and the bill paid (R250) and was
out by 8:15. Holy Moses.
Today, Tuesday
11th, in spite of a very light drizzle, I managed between the
morning and afternoon cuttings to get most of what I wanted cut cut. In between
I was able to catch a few winks, take another shower to clean up, do some
pretty deep reading, get some people on Skype, etc. So it was a good day.
My cousin’s
wife, I found out by a Skype from my 97yr. old aunt in Chicago, who just had a
liver and kidney transplant, that she was having a bad day on Sunday and they
had to drain a lot of liquid out of her body which had collected while her
kidneys stopped working before the operation. We are praying for her to get
over all these obstacles. The operation was a success but there are so many
things that can still go wrong Keep her in your prayers.
Hey, that is
more than enough for one sitting. It is time for me to put my eye drops in,
brush my teeth, and hit the sack for an early start tomorrow. I love you all.
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