The Andy Griffith Show - The Taylors Front Porch

The Taylors' Front Porch

Pull up a chair! Have a sit-down an' shoot the breeze with us. Later on, maybe we'll go down to the drugstore to get a bottle of pop . . . maybe see what's showin' at the Grand . . . . What you gonna do tonight, Barn?

March 08, 2023 - Msg 118801:

Hello Everyone!
HAZEL, good to see ya. That gardening plan sounds good, but It is definitely
not one of my 'fortes!' My wife is a pretty good flower gardener, but has
never tried foods. I do see Spot on FB now and then, and he still plants
collard greens and corn.
ROmeena, we are also getting warmer temps this week. I think our 'winter,' such
as it is, is over for this year. We will be in the 80s all this week.
BTW, did Eddie's leg heal OK?

Well, we are getting a new roof put on our house in a couple of weeks.
Talk about sticker shock tho! Our current roof (asphalt shingles) cost 5000
20 years ago, this one will be 18,000! The current roof is missing a few tabs,
but doesnt leak, we just want to have a good one on the house again.
Our hot, dry summers can give roofs here a beating!

Well, hang in there folks. God's blessings,
MDC

March 08, 2023 - Msg 118802: Good afternoon, porch! It's another gray and cloudy day here in north Texas. Not warm, yet not actually cold at 54°. It would be a pretty good day to get out there and plant some things, but I just don't have what it would take to do it.

Friends, I need to ask for your prayers. For some time now, I've been fighting the effects of the scoliosis that is remodeling my body. Some of it is really kind of funny, and I just laugh it off. For example, as my spine bends and twists, it has reduced my total height from 5ft, 5.5in. to a squatty little 5ft, 2in. That means sometimes I can't retrieve something from a high cabinet shelf, and I know I was the one who put it there. Or I will burn the underside of my forearm on the top of a pot I'm stirring, and I've cooked with that pot for 50 years and never burned myself. I'm now sitting on two wedge pillows in my car, so I can see over the wheel and dash!

Okay, those are minor inconveniences. The real problem is - the movement of my spine is remodeling my entire chest cavity, and my lungs are compromised. The upper right lobe of my lung is non-functional anyway, thanks to the radiation it took when I had the cancer in 1979. The doctor thought I "might" live two years at that time, and here I am, almost 44 years later, so I am NOT complaining. I'm grateful! But now, the scoliosis that was diagnosed when I was 15, and had lain dormant all these years, decided to start moving. That's how I lost 3.5" in height. In addition, some of its twists and turns have reduced my lung space, and you can't blow up a balloon in a little bottle. Translation: My lungs can't inflate fully. It has gotten to the point that I need oxygen supplementation. I carry a pulse oximeter at all times, to monitor my O2 level. I have one under my pillow on my bed, and I have one beside my recliner. I spend a lot of time in that recliner these days!

I have a floor-standing oxygen concentrator here in the office, (Medicare paid for it) with two lines that can be attached to it - one going into my bedroom so I can use it at night, and one going into the living room to my chair. That one can also come here, to my desk by my big window. Those concentrators, which make their own O2 and never need refilling, are a fairly recent addition to the delivery of oxygen, and flat beat the socks off the old, impossibly heavy old green oxygen bottles that feeble little old people were having to lug around everywhere they went, and had to be refilled or replaced frequently.

The floor-standing concentrator models like I have are also too heavy to move around, but pretty quickly after they were developed, the lighter, personal models hit the scene. You've probably seen them in commercials on TV. They are a godsend, but they're terribly expensive, and there are two different models. One weighs 8 lbs., and Medicare pays for it. One weighs 2.something lbs., and Medicare does not pay for it, last I knew. Guess which one I want?

Why? Well, just imagine carrying a gallon of milk with you everywhere, weighing more than 8 lbs, vs. carrying a quart of milk, weighing slightly more than 2 lbs. Add to that the weight of my handbag, which probably weighs at least two pounds. It holds all the junk any woman lugs around, plus my diabetic supplies. So I'm not excited about adding another 8+ pounds to my burden. Therefore, I'm adding the weight of an old friend, a doctor with whom I worked for 35 years at the hospital. We'll get this figured out. I don't plan to just pull back into my house, like a turtle in its shell. God has granted me all these extra years, and I don't intend to waste them. So, if you are so inclined, please pray that Medicare will wise up, and the lighter models will be paid for, for us old gals and guys who aren't as strong as we used to be, and could use those little lightweight concentrators to add a little freedom to our lives.

MDC, I hear you and definitely agree with you on the roof thing. My roof is just five years old, and I'm hoping I can avoid having to replace it again. Yes, insur@nce pays for damaged roof replacement, but that deductible is on a percentage basis, and has risen considerably in the last couple of years. It could sink my little boat if I had to cover that. However, the roofer who did this roof somehow rolled the deductible in and I didn't have to pay it. Talking to my friends, that seems to be a pretty common experience. Not sure just how he did it, but he did, and I appreciated it. Anyway, keeping a good roof is important, because if it fails, the damage that can result beneath the leak can be pretty expensive, too.

Well, Trinket is sitting here looking at me, all big-eyed and bored-looking. I know she's wondering what it is about this clacky thing that I play with, and why I seem to prefer its company to hers. Guess I'd better go smooth her little ruffled feathers. She has a point. After she has shared my bed and kept me warm all night, and protected me from things that go bump in the night, it's not fair that she be relegated to a little fuzzy bed under the desk in the daytime. So, a little recliner time is in order, I think. Such a sweet little puppy she is! Blessings, friends. Keep looking up! --Romeena

March 09, 2023 - Msg 118803: Well, good morning, porch - and where is everybody? It's chilly and gray and raining here in north Texas. I'm feeling a little out of order this morning, or rather this afternoon. Trinket and I slept until nearly noon, and I'm thinking that the warm bed would still feel pretty good. I'm having a little trouble breathing, I'm fine when I can use my O2 supply, but since it comes from a floor-standing, rather heavy concentrator, I'm confined to the area that its lines will reach. I need to get one of the carry-around ones - the one you see advertised on TV - but I need a prescription for it in order for Medicare to cover it. I have a call in for my pulmonologist, but don't know when he'll call back. It's late afternoon now, on a Thursday, and his office is closed on Friday, so probably won't hear from him until Monday. Meantime, I'm very thankful for this floor-based unit. With it, I can reach my chair, my desk and my bed. Right now, I think I'll head for my chair. It's raining outside right now, not much to see from my desk, and it won't be too long before it will be time to go to bed again! Wow, this surely doesn't sound like me, does it? I'll be back to normal again when I get that portable oxygen device. And no, I haven't forgotten about the "Asa fund" - I'm just leaving enough time for any contributors to do their thing. I think about everyone has done it though, so I'll finish that up over the weekend.

Blessings, friends. Keep looking up! --Romeena

March 09, 2023 - Msg 118804: Well Romeena, I’m so sorry you are having to deal with that awful scoliosis!! I just hate it. Please call David or Brittany if you aren’t feeling like yourself or need help with the oxygen situation.
Check in again soon and let us know how you are doing. I know you have a great support system with your big loving family but I also know you are fiercely independent and hate to ask for help. Just remember we all love you and want to help if we can. You have my phone number if you ever want to talk.

Boo

March 10, 2023 - Msg 118805: Awww, Boo, thank you for the good wishes (and prayers) and yes, I do have a good support system. I try not to lean on them too much, they all have their own loads to carry. My girls do what they can, but they're 250 miles away, and that's a hindrance. David is as busy as a one-armed paper-hanger, installing and repairing a/c units, and so is Brittany. Her real estate business is really going strong, and she does it all while enduring some serious back pain, but she never shows it. I thank God every day for my family.

You are so kind to offer encouragement, and I appreciate it. I just spoke to the girls in the pulmonologist's office, they've set me up with an appointment for Tuesday, either a tele-visit, or I'll go there if we can figure a way to get me some oxygen for the trip. I literally can't be without it for more than about 2-3 minutes. Is a problem!! I've known and worked with (and liked) that doctor for 35 years, so I figure he'll have an answer when they actually talk with him. The problem is, that portable unit I need is very expensive, and I need Medicare to pay for it. If anyone can convince them, it would be Dr.H. I guess we'll see.

Yes, Boo, scoliosis is an awful thing, but I just can't complain. It was first diagnosed when I was 15, as I said earlier, with dire predictions made by the doctor. According to him, without a surgery he wanted to do, I would be a twisted mess in a few years, would never carry a child to full term, and could even be in a wheel chair in a few years. None of that happened. No further movement in my spine, I bore four children, rode horses, and lived a normal life. So, if now, at the end of the road, some of the effects of scoliosis are beginning to manifest themselves, I can't complain. God has been good to me. I've had the opportunity to enjoy good friends like you, and even was spared the misery of seeing my husband deal with the effects of a big stroke - God just took him on out of here, to wait for me on the other side. I watched a frail little friend, as she dealt with the difficulties of pushing her tall husband around in his wheelchair after his stroke. No doubt she was thanking God that she still had him, as she should, but I was grateful I wasn't in her shoes. After a while, that is. I wasn't, at first! Giving him up didn't come easy.

Well, I could go on and on. Thanks, Boo! You got me started thinking and reflecting, and I needed to do that. Bless you! Bless all you porch friends - have you any idea how valuable you are (WE are) to each other? FLOYD, thank you for maintaining this porch for us. We may be small in number these days, but we are mighty! Good things happen here.

Blessings! Keep looking up! --Romeena

March 11, 2023 - Msg 118806: You’re welcome my dear. Please let us know what happens when you see the pulmonologist. ❤️

Boo

March 11, 2023 - Msg 118807:

Hello Friends! I write this saturday evening, but I also say Good Sabbath,
as 'technically' today is just that, for as the spanish language says, it's Sabbado. :)
I don't recall if i mentioned it here, but this year my parish church is celebrating
50 years, and i am on the steering committee for that, so have been busy going thru old
albums in the church office to do a pictorial history.
Also, I had my yearly echocardiogram this week, and have been trying to get the results
on my "portal" but it is always a hunt, not very user friendly. But I also have my yearly
visit with my cardiologist next week, and he will let me know. Hoping for an even better EF.
And NASCAR is here this weekend. You may recall that I helped with concessions for a few
years in the mid-2000s, and it was fun, but a few years was enough. ha
RO--I am so sorry to hear of your misery. I think it is really weird that medicare
pays for one type of O2 machine, but not another! I will indeed say a prayer for both
situations. I hope your weather is improving now. We are back to sunny skies here.
I saw "the Bookie Barber" with Medwin, Bill Medwin, the other evening, and got to wondering
what happened to our MBM? Sure hope he is OK, and perhaps just didnt want to stick around.
Concerning the ep, I love Barney explaining a 'compelsion!" But it seems like Andy should have
figured things out when the same 3 guys returned the very next day. Ha.
BOO--how goes Sean's job. Hope all is still working out well for him.
Well, that's about it from the west end of the porch.
Prayers,
MDC

March 14, 2023 - Msg 118808: How did your appointment with the pulmonologist go, Romeena?

Boo

March 14, 2023 - Msg 118809: Hi MDC, Sean’s job is still going great, thanks. He was out a few days with flu but is doing much better. Have you gotten your echo results yet?

Boo

March 15, 2023 - Msg 118810:
Hello all. Sure is slow on the porch these days, but good to see
Boo stop by. No echo results yet, and it's still not in the patient
portal. (I hate that thing, very hard to navigate too.) Oh well,
I'll find out at my appt next week. Good to hear about Sean, except for the flu of course. Glad it was not covid. How about Erin. Prayers
continue.

GF--are you getting any snow from this 'noreaster' blowing in?
Hope your snow joe does the job, but keep warm. Pappabear called
today, and we had a nice talk.

RO--did you try the collagen powder yet?

We are to get some rain on Wed., which would be nice, as we had been in the 80s,
and it's too early for that! :) rain will cool things down a bit.
All is well here, but I am concerned with this whole bank situation,
and prices. Our gas here jumped 50 cents a gallon in just the past
few days! Seems like we are more concerned about what pronouns to use
than what evil china is up to buying up all our food processing plants.
I am again seeing prophecies being fulfilled with all that is happening.
Please keep your lamps full of oil. Prayers for all.
More later,
MDC

March 15, 2023 - Msg 118811: Hi MDC. Erin is hanging in there but today was not a good day for her. She has been trying so hard on the job and isn’t being treated fairly. I’m afraid she might be dealing with discrimination on the part of the owners who are evangelical Christians. Erin has been working hard and well for them and they hurt her today. It’s the last thing she needs right now. She has been sober for months and it isn’t easy for her. Tonight she told me “what’s the use? I want to start using again”. I know for the addict it is typical to want to use during times of emotional distress. I just wish that people understood that so many like Erin deal with mental health issues that could literally turn deadly. Erin has Borderline Personality
Disorder, anxiety and depression , as well as addiction and multiple health issues. For her to continue with sobriety, show up to work every day on time and go above and beyond is huge and I’m encouraged. It feels like a gut punch when people (especially Christians) make life even harder. I ran into her employer recently who told me that Erin is doing a very good job so I know she is working well. Please pray for Erin’s continued sobriety, strength and mental health. I probably don’t say it often but I love her so much, through everything. These last few months have been like having the real Erin back. It would be devastating if she relapsed.

Boo

March 15, 2023 - Msg 118812: Boo, we will pray for strength for Erin...Sometimes that is all we can do, It’s a difficult world out there and things are not easy by no means, so as Romeena keeps reminding us we need to continue to...”Look Up” ...

MDC...We had about 2” from this snow event, but it is March in Ohio so anything can happen....My Joe has had a easy season this year so far, but I’m not OVEREXPECTING quite yet...lol

G-F

March 15, 2023 - Msg 118813: Thank you, G-F.

Boo

March 15, 2023 - Msg 118814: Just read on Sean's facebook page that our Romeena is in the hospital for a few days due to respiratory issues. Prayers that things get worked out and she is back home soon. We love you, Ro.

Boo

March 16, 2023 - Msg 118815:

ROMEENA--prayers for your recovery indeed. So sorry to hear of your
breathing problem. Hope you will be back with us soon.

Boo- I finally got my echo report today. I actually drove to my cardio's office
and got a paper copy. They said lots of issues with their patient portals right now.
As I see it, its just something else for hackers to go for. :( Anyways, it was a
good report. EF is at 55%. Doc appt next week to go over it.

Tonight's episode was my all time favorite, Miss Peggy helps the bachelors.
I absolutely LOVE the singing on the front porch... THE best scene of the whole series
to me; and it takes me so far away from the world issues going on right now.

We are getting a good rain rain tonight, and also had some earlier.
It is very needed, but now with the snow runoff in northern az, many of our creeks
are running very high.

GF, glad things were not too bad for you regarding the snowstorm.
I'm sure you are waiting for spring to be 'sprung!' :)

Saint Patty's Day coming soon!
Later,
McMDC

March 16, 2023 - Msg 118816: Sending healing prayers out for Romeena,along with much love. Prayers being said for Erin,Asa's family and all who need them.

Happy Birthday to Mavis! She said she wants to go frog giggin' on her birthday-if anybody wants to go along,just let us know & Spotty will swing by and get ya!

************
possum u.a.r.

March 17, 2023 - Msg 118817:

I saw a good photo of Ro with some of her family in her hospital room.
Sure hope things get better for her.
Prayers,
MDC

March 17, 2023 - Msg 118818: Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Continued prayers for Romeena. worried about her,as I know you all are.

The one day of the year that I use my "given name" in my sign off-check it out-lol

*********************
o'possum under a rock

March 17, 2023 - Msg 118819: Continued Prayers for our Romeena....Texas Strong 💪🏻..Your Porch Family....G-F

March 17, 2023 - Msg 118820: Prayers for our lovely Romeena. We love you Ro❤️
Big Maude

March 19, 2023 - Msg 118821: I exchanged some texts with Romeena yesterday and she is still in the hospital and going through testing. She is in good spirits and hopefully will be feeling better soon.

Boo

March 20, 2023 - Msg 118822:
BOO--thank you for the update. I was wondering about her situation.
I will keep up the prayers. Sure hope they can figure out what the
cause is.
As Barney once said how he was "buzy,buzy, buzy" that's kinda me right now.
I have been preping things for getting our new shingles soon, and then the city
is paving our street this week, and today at church we had a ministry fair
that I helped at.
Possum, I love your "Irish" name, and actually wait for it every year!
Thanks for popping in.
Sure hope everyone else is doing OK. These are very strange times, but
I'm glad we still have this porch to visit, and set for a bit.
Take care friends,
MDC

March 20, 2023 - Msg 118823:

Oh, hey to GF too.
Glad the snowstorm was not too bad. mdc

March 20, 2023 - Msg 118824: Welcome Sweet Springtime,we greet thee in SONG!!

Happy First Day of Spring,y'all!

It doesn't feel like Spring here at my rock- our low temps last night were right at the freezing mark! Nice weather coming later in the week,though.

Thank you so much for the update on Ro, Boo. Been mighty concerned about her. I'm glad she is in good spirits and pray that things will improve with her health very soon.

Oh, since you mentioned my Irish name,MDC, thought I'd tell you that I actually do have some Irish blood ( hope Ernest T. doesn't wanna fight me!) and have distance relatives in County Cork.

Well, y'all remember to act like somebody-take care,all!

************
possum u.a.r.

March 20, 2023 - Msg 118825: DISTANT,not distance relatives!

possum again

Let me know if the porch needs a sweep Archives
This version of The Taylor's Front Porch has been created to pay our respect to the original porch found on Mayberry.org. Thanks to Frank for all the work he did for Mayberry on the web. We've tried to make this just like Frank's Porch. This is also a tribute to Ollie's "Trivialities" site which was another homage to Frank's porch but is no longer with us.