Good Saturday to you from our corner of the world where we celebrate the first official day of fall tomorrow. This past week the temperatures has been pretty hot and humid but starting today they are going to be more "Porch Sitting" kind of weather. The geese are gathering, and the other night we opened our window to listen to an owl serenading us from a nearby tree.  it was rather comforting and made us both smile to listen to our resident friend. Some of our flowers are finally winding down but Joel brought home two big beautiful mum plants this week for me to enjoy. What a nice gift. We are looking for rays of sunshine where we can find them...

It has been kind of a rough week here in the Dahlen house. Recovery from surgery last Saturday was challenging for a few days but it's much better now. Normal enough now to be ready for next week's kidney stone surgery.  Unfortunately, on Monday I noticed that my eye had an area that was shaded. At first I thought it was from the surgery because I do have a funky eye but on Thursday morning I called the retina doctors in Des Moines and was told to call and go into the clinic here in town to see what was going on. The doctor on call said to me after testing, "Well I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is that your macular in the right eye is stable that's not the problem. The bad news is the glaucoma has gotten worse. I have had a tendency to forget about the glaucoma because that has been quiet for so many years. So it has been scheduled that I will go in for a visual field test and a treatment plan two weeks after the next surgery I  have. This coming Thursday the 26th is surgery. It does not seem to slow down. I am working hard to continue to trust God while praying and waiting for my healing.  Losing my vision is not a death sentence, but it darn right scary to think about.  I trust you God.  

Joel has been able to do some bike riding, some putzing in the garage shop, and quite a bit of caretaking. I have been listening to the book The Women by Kristin Hannah who is an amazing author of historical fiction. They are very few books available on the Vietnam era and especially regarding women nurses. She has done an amazing job combining history with fiction in a powerful story. I waited 2 months on hold through Libby to be able to get the audiobook and it is well worth it. Of course all the talk about Vietnam, the climate,  the environment, and military really brought up a vast number of memories. While living in the Philippines Joel was a forecaster of weather for the pilots that flew to Nam and other places. We both participated in operation baby lift when Saigon fell. But we stood on the outside looking in really and had no clue about all the experiences our soldiers, doctors and nurses were going through. Yes we were in the military during the time of War protests where soldiers were treated like crap when they came home. We didn't experience it ourselves.  Some soldiers became extremely broken by Nam and self-destructive or just plain destructive. Enough said.  The book is an eye opener and I highly recommend it.

A couple that we met at Hope Lodge in Rochester Minnesota while we were staying there for radiation,  are coming by to see us tomorrow.  We are excited to see them.  It will have been 5 years ago in December that we stepped into Mayo Clinic for radiation to begin. Five years already.

On that note I am closing today's scribbles.  Laptop work is more challenging than ever but I am grateful I can still see to do it!  Grateful for two beautiful mum plants to enjoy.  Grateful the stent is no longer making my bladder complain.  Grateful for being done with antibiotics and recovering enough to move forward.  Grateful that Joel can ride bike and get out in his shop.  Grateful for fall temps coming. Grateful for Kristen Hannah's book, The Women.   Grateful for porch sitting, a friendly owl, noisy geese and even Friday night football we can hear from our living room.....another sign of Fall.  Grateful for texts, phone calls, emails, and so much more....

Enjoy your weekend...