What a blessing we had--John's shoulder block worked all through the night. This enabled him to have a pain free night and get plenty of rest. Around 8:00 a.m. this morning he started to get some feeling back in his hand, arm, and shoulder. From then on it has been a struggle to stay ahead of the pain. He has been taking the pain meds as often as he can, but they don't seem to be helping very much. They also make him feel nauseated. We will wait to see how the rest of the evening and over night goes. If he still can't get some relief, I will give the doctor a call in the morning. Right now John's right arm is strapped to his side, so he can't do much of anything except lay down and try to rest. We watched a John Wayne movie marathon this afternoon in the hopes of getting his mind off of things.
Hopefully we are getting through the worst of this and things will look better tomorrow.

John had to be at hospital by 9:30 a.m. so we were able to sleep in a little and take our time getting around this morning. We arrived at the Out Patient Surgery department around 9:15 a.m. John got called in to be admitted almost immediately and from there we went to his assigned room. Over the next three hours he was prepared for surgery and then the waiting began. He finally was taken into surgery around 12:15 p.m.

The surgery went very well. John had a complete tear in his rotator cuff so he had to have the more extensive surgery. At first we thought he might have to stay overnight in the hospital, but Dr. Miller thought he was doing well enough to come home. Right now he is feeling pretty good but we are monitoring things pretty closely so we can keep ahead of the pain. Matt, Hanna, and Rachel came down this evening to see how Grandpop was doing and to bring him a get well card. The rest of the evening was pretty low key--just relaxing and watching TV.

We overslept a little this morning and, as a result, it was much warmer when we took our walk. The humidity was up again, so we only went two miles. Still, we really worked up a sweat.

After breakfast, John headed right up to Matt's to start cutting up the logs they hauled out of the woods over the weekend. He cut up some of the smaller logs, loaded them in the trailer, and brought them home where he unloaded them. While he was home, he received a call from the hospital to set up his out partient shoulder surgery for tomorrow. Everything is a go for Tuesday.

I felt ambitious today, so I made a roast with mashed potatoes and vegetables for lunch. Must say it tasted pretty good. When he was finished eating, John headed back out to do some more wood. He stopped to pick up the wood splitter and took it to Matt's. Hanna volunteered to help split the larger logs and load them into the trailer Even though she volunteered, Grandpop paid her for the good job she did. This will be the end of the wood cutting until his shoulder gets healed up.




We spent a quiet evening staying cool in the AC and watching some TV.

When we woke up this morning, it looked like it was going to be a cloudy, rainy day. By the time we finished our walk, the sun had chased the clouds away and it turned out to be a fantastic day.

It was such a nice morning, we decided to eat breakfast on the front porch, We got busy talking and lost track of time, so we had to hustle to get off to church on time. We made it with a few minutes to spare. After the service we went over to Matt's house to take a look at the piles of wood they moved out of the woods. Looks like we will have enough fire wood for the next three or four years.

Following lunch, we spent a lazy afternoon watching the British Open and then washing the car. Matt came over for supper tonight as Sara and the kids were gone for the weekend visiting her family. We ended the evening watching Design Star and some baseball.

Today we were a little bit busier. The weather co-operated and we were able to take our morning walk. There was no breeze at all and we had a few more flying insects bothering us while we walked.

After breakfast, John headed back up to Matt's where he spent the morning working with Matt and two other fellows moving logs out of the woods. They were using a loader with forks to gather up the logs and place them on a trailer which was hooked up to a tractor. They would then pull the wagon loaded with logs, over the pipe line, and into the field where the logs were unloaded. The logs will stay there until they are cut into smaller lengths, split, and then taken to our house to be used for firewood.

While John was gone, I stayed busy at home finishing up some laundry, cleaning up the kitchen, and getting a wedding gift wrapped. We had a wedding to attend this afternoon, and John got home just in time for a quick lunch and to get cleaned up--we left right on time. We thought this was going to be one of those times where you don't know anyone, but we got seated next to the only folks we knew. It was a very pretty wedding and we had a nice time.

After the reception, we headed into Bemidji. John wanted to stop at the Sears store to pick up a new oil filter for his lawn mower. When we got to the store, we found the parts and service department closed at noon on Saturday. Oh well, that will have to wait until next week. We then made a quick stop at Wal Mart and Luekens Groceries to pick up a few items we needed. This evening we made the raspberry jam and ended the evening watching a movie we got from Matt.

It was a rather lazy day around here--nothing on the agenda that had to get done today. We took our walk nice and early before it got hot--walking a little further than usual. There is another 5K Walk/Run in a couple of weeks and we are thinking about entering it, so we need to get in shape.

After breakfast John decided to get some lawn mowed. With all the rain and warm weather of the past week, the grass is almost getting out of control. He mowed for a little bit and then realized he was out of gasoline. Since I had to make a trip into town to return some library books, we decided to just go in together. While I was at the library, he picked up some gas and dropped his chain saw chain off to be sharpened.

While we were eating lunch, Matt and Sam dropped in for a visit and, as usual, a game of basketball was played before they left. I spent the day doing some laundry and cleaning the upstairs while John got most of the lawn cut. This evening John went up to Matt's to help him weld some pipes onto a trailer to be used for moving logs out of the woods. The logs can then be cut into lengths for firewood. John also picked some more raspberries, so we should have enough now for at least one batch of jam. That will be a job for tomorrow.

For the first time in several days we had no thunderstorms overnight--it was nice and quiet and we were able to sleep without worrying about the weather. This morning dawned clear and sunny with cooler temps and low humidity. A perfect morning for a walk.

After breakfast, we got cleaned up and ready for the day's adventure with Wallace and Becky. We picked them up at the Bagley park a little after 10:00 a.m. and started off with a tour of some back roads and small local lakes. We then drove them around the town of Clearbrook before heading to Bemidji where our first stop was Keith's Pizza for lunch. From there we went to Diamond Point Park which is located on the shores of Lake Bemidji. This is a very pretty park with facilities for picnics, swimming, and boat launching. There were also some very beautiful flower beds around the buildings.




We spent some time walking around Diamond Point and then headed north out of Bemidji to see the lake house owned by John's sister and brother-in-law which is located on North Twin Lake. They are currently in Alaska, so we just looked around the property and walked down to the dock. The day had become very windy, so we didn't linger too long down by the water.

You can't come to the Bemidji area without stopping to see Paul and Babe, so it was back to the downtown area for a stop at the visitors' center and a photograph of Bemidji's famous pair. We found a passing tourist who was glad to snap our picture.



By now it was pretty late in the afternoon, so it was decided to head to Perkins for a piece of pie and a cup of coffee and some more conversation--it was great way to end a fun day.