My Dad's Health and Rain

My Dad in Okeechobee, Florida got hospitalized last Friday for dehydration and bronchitis, and I got in last night after a few days there arranging for the care of his two dogs Buffy and Mindy, watering his gardens and new bamboo plantings, checking in on him at Raulerson Hospital ( my dog Cracker was a huge hit with staff and patients alike plus Dad loved seeing him) and making provisions to keep his basic bills paid as he recovers. Today he is off antibiotics and IV saline as he is learning to drink water MUCH more often when home to prevent a recurrence. He is dramatically better than from even 2 days ago, his appetite returning and all his vitals great. I hope he comes home soon. If you'd like to send him a well-wish e-mail to read once home, his address is:

webstar@wildblue.net

Today here in Tampa we had a wonderful squall line approach from the Atlantic from the NE and in a short time it looks like my yard got a wonderful 1.5 to 2 inches of blessed rain! A second system behind it passed north of Tampa but even down here in south Tampa I got about 30 minutes of followup drizzle.

Dad's watermelon vines have been hit with anthracnose, so I brought home 2 seemingly ripe melons after my cousin Mike there gave melons to friends and relatives in Dad's absence. There is already a large crop of pods on the Asparagus Beans Dad is growing from seeds I gave him so I will coach Mike on their harvest and cooking, His African Jack Beans are thriving despite the lack of rain and I planted into his second garden a clump of Molokhiya he'd started in a 6 inch pot from seeds I'd given them and gave the gardens a few deep soaking the three days  I was there using his windmill pump. Getting home to see his dogs Buffy and Mindy and to tend his gardens is a big motivator for Dad to get better quickly. If you'd like to call him  at the hospital to wish him well from afar the number is:   1-863-763-2151  ext. 2955

Dad is a good guy who's worked hard all his life and turns 81 in September, and is a prime reason that gardening has been a central feature of my life since childhood. He has been wonderful for years now in accepting my homosexuality and now even understands my fondness since 1971 for the benign benefits of enjoying cannabis. His Dad lived vibrantly to the age of 93 and I wish him the same.

John