We are now back on track with another good lesson under our belts.  At the end of the summer we decided we should start to slow down a bit and not try to do so much so that was why we put the farm up for sale.  When we got here in Florida we promised each other to start pulling back a bit and not do so much but that just didn’t happen as quickly as it should have.  Norman redid the master bath.  He took out everything and then tiled the floor, repaired and painted walls and mop boards and put in new vanity and dressed up the room.  He should have taken it slowly but once he got started it was “hell bent for election” and he got too tired so left himself open for the colds that were around.  That took him out of stride for a week but taught him a good lesson -he has agreed to wait on redoing the kitchen until we sell the farm and then have some one come in draw up plans and do the remodel  while we take a cruise.  Now we get the idea.  But I had not learned from his mistake.  Christmas Eve is always my big deal, this year Patty said she would do it for me and I agreed in thought but when it came right down to it I just could not keep out of it any more than Norman could have kept out of the master bath remodel.  I tried to spread it out over three days but did much too much each day and pushed it too far and let myself open to the same cold as a result I am still fighting the bad chest cold and had three times the amount and variety of food for Christmas eve that I should have-  Patty told me but I didn’t listen.  Next year she is doing Christmas Eve and I will do only what she tells me to- Promise. These old dogs still have many new lessons to learn but we get there one at a time.  I learned or thought I had not to climb up on a chair to get something on a top shelf but when I went to put the small tree I keep on the dinning room table away in the linen closet I thought I could do it just once more.  When I put the tree on the top shelf it fell over, I just needed to stand it up again and push it back to the back but to reach it I needed something to stand on.   The only thing that would fit through the bathroom door was the ladder back chairs from the dinning room so I got on put it in the door of the linen closet and put my left foot on the chair.  My knee was bent of course and when I tried to pull myself up enough to get my right foot onto the chair seat also my legs just folded and I landed on the chair in a crumpled mess.  My knees and hips just folded in different directions and I couldn’t move.  I didn’t want to call to Norman to come help me as I didn’t want to take the scolding I knew I would get so I slowly and painfully unfolded my legs and finally got my feet back on the ground.  It has taken three days to get the soreness out of my knees and hips but at least I know now I will never climb on anything again and Norman will remind me often.  That same afternoon Norman went out to put stuff on the ant hills and got stung by a hornet so he decided to spray the hornet nests around the house also.  He got all but one that was too high to reach so he got the ladder and climbed up to get it.  I can’t climb but HE could.  Well something happened and the ladder went out from under him and he fell backwards, smack on the ground –  I was inside and did not hear him but did hear a noise outside when the neighbors came over.  I just thought they were visiting but it turned out that they saw him fall so came to help.  When he got up and checked to be sure nothing was broken he came in.  I knew as soon as I saw him something had happened as he was so white, his color had not yet come back to his face.  To make a long story short- there was no damage done just a sore shoulder and back and two days taking it easy has given him a full recovery but I will not let him forget- all of these things must be done by a younger person not an 84 year old — KEEP BOTH FEET ON THE GROUND !!  So it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks but God it getting it through our thick heads one trick at a time and maybe we are learning.  It is a whole new way of getting things done but we will learn and keep active, just not up in the air.  Have a great day.