Author Archives: tbavendam

The other night we went to the Songwriter’s Rounds at the Commodore Grill in Nashville. We have been going to these over the past 6 months while Craig was working through his nerves about getting up on stage again. He played a lot as a teen and young adult in front of audiences and thenContinue reading “I am a groupie”

While I was a surgeon, I don’t think I ever cut myself in the OR, but I not infrequently cut myself in the kitchen. Generally not too bad and pressure and a well placed band aid or two are enough. With one cut, I should have gone to get it sutured (and knew it) butContinue reading “ER visit averted”

A 1971 Chevy Impala in my condo parking lot.

We are now free of brown paint on walls and trim in the house. It has been an amazing transformation and like many small projects (“let’s pain the brown wall white”) it evolved into a much bigger project. All that is left is a second coat of white paint on the brown trim on theContinue reading “And we have a blue door…”

I was aware of Hurricane Helene. I wondered what its path would be across land. Thursday morning I decided to look at the prediction. S___T! The path was predicted to go directly across this area – with us in the center of the path. We were NOT ready for heavy rain. After completion of theContinue reading “Our hard work has paid off – our driveway survived 4 inches of rain in 24 hours”

After my last post Craig versus Gilda, he spent another full day “under the hood” so to speak with extra maintenance work making sure he was selling the best version of a 1957 tractor. He said he was done for the day and went out to close up the shop. The next thing I knewContinue reading “Craig won – Gilda has new owner”

Gilda is Craig’s 57 International Harvester tractor that was replaced with Katie Kiota last December. Getting Gilda ready for a new home has been on the “to do” list since March. Craig brought Gilda back to life after it have been sitting unused for 20 years. It has taken A LOT of work over theContinue reading “Craig versus Gilda”

Craig and I just passed 14 months of partnership. It has been an amazing 14 months. It has been fun to look back through our photos and see how much life we have experienced together. Last night, after he got out of the shower, he asked me where my flip flops were. I put themContinue reading “The Rural Life – Swinging Naked at Sunset”

The terrace we built the end of June looks like it has always been there. I love looking at it and knowing we created it. Fortunately, we have had dry weather the past month and have not lost more soil. Our current plan is to locate some long (20 foot) phone polls and put themContinue reading “We’re back to work!!”

I have been going to blog for a few weeks but I have so many swirling thoughts and feelings that I haven’t been able to. Since I left clinical practice in 2002, I have followed politics more than ever before. After retirement, I stopped cable in part to separate myself from MSNBC. I stayed adequatelyContinue reading “Discombobulated”