What is that?

What is that? Recently I have been asking myself that question about a lot of things. As my eyesight fails many items appear strange. The details fade or are gone. If handy I will touch the item to help decide what it is. In a recent blog I wondered if I was going to go blind or die first. Well it seems at ;east that I am going to suffer poor vision before I die.

I can not usually read my iPhone. I use a magnifying glass. Which I carry in my my pocket at all times.

I sit on my porch several hours a day. For entertainment I watch John work in his yard and gardens. There are 13 satsuma trees, a dozen or more other fruit and nut trees, and several dozen blue berry bushes. I think John checks every bud every day. When John is across the yard (100 plus feet) I have trouble seeing him. Except when he has a red hat or shirt on. Then I can find him by the spot of red in the trees.

Fortunately my vision has not worsened recently. I hope that it stays this good until I die.

World War II Fruit Cake. The old PrunePicker and his brother George Edwin Monson/

In 1942 I was 16. I was spending a few weeks with my sister Thelma in Weedpatch, California. I helped my Thelma make a fruit cake to send to our brother George. George was a Marine fighter pilot in the Pacific. George enlisted  some time before Pearl Harbor and was soon in the thick of the Pacific War.

Do you think that the Monson family was proud of George? We made a great big fruit cake. We wrapped it in a rum soaked cloth and mailed it off to the Pacific.

In 1944 I was 19. I was spending a few months as a Combat Engineer in the Pacific.

Out of the blue came this big delicious fruit cake from my beloved sister Thelma.! My sister Thelma won the Pacific War with her fruit Cakes. Thank you Thelma!

Will I die before I go blind? OR Will I go blind before I die?

Last August the oncologist told me that I had less than a year to live. These two questions have been bugging me ever since. Never thought of them before last year. Then things started to happen.I will discuss the die question and then the blind. The blind has just recently came on strong.  I hope the oncologist is wrong. After my radiation treatments my breathlessness improved for a while and then started to decline. My lung cancer shrunk and then the month later it started to grow. Last week it really got real bad. I asked John to hook me up to oxygen. It really helped. Seemed like the cancer shrunk a little.  There was a little improvement but on a base so bad that I am still bad off and getting worse.

Now for going blind. I am doing that. I pull out a mag glass with my iPhone. Can not read most box labels from my wheel chair. I will not be able to do my income taxes. Hope the4 government can make it.

On top of die or blind my esophagus is closing down. Takes five minutes to get a dime size bite down

There are thoughts of getting me into an extended care home. Very tentative. I am not that helpless yet;

Good news! Yesterday t got my first Coved shot. Safe at last.

Picnic on the Bogue Chitto River

 Ny granddaughter Katie said "we are going to have a picnic and you are invited". Oh Boy! the old PrunePicker loves a picnic.

The picnic was at the Bogue Chitto State Park. The park is about ten miles from Franklinton and believe it or not is on the Bogue Chitto River, The river rubs out of Mississippi. flows south about a mile from our home, through the park, and joins the Pearl River by New Orleans.

Bogue Chitto is Choctaw for Large Creek. This is Choctaw Country. How appropriate. Katie and her daughter and her Mom are Choctaw thanks to the heritage of my wife Jackie. I must say, They are friendly Indians.

Here are some pics of the river, park, and the picnic.

 and

Sure was a nice picnic!

New Years Eve or a Combat Landing?

 I did not know where I was for a moment. Justin fired a large fireworks and Katie got a great photo. There were fireworks everywhere. I thought I was overseas in the Pacific again going in on a combat landing.

 But I was in the front yard of John and Kerry house in Franklinton, Louisiana. You might see me hiding out on the porch. 

Here is a pic of two the explosives team.They are Johnny Lynn and her friend Sinclare.

John Adams congratulated the girls on their fine job. No misfires!

The old prunepicker's contribution to the festivities was wearing a funny hat. Furnished by Katie.

Happy New Years everyone.