Our darling Carl has been restoring a 1976 Triumph. He and Bruce both share the same job as Graphic Arts Estimators and have worked together for years. They share many other loves, including that of cars.

Bruce has helped Carl through some difficult personal problems several years back and when Bruce stroked, I called him. He and Bruce had been having dinner together once a week for a long time. Carl came every Friday night to the Rehab. When Bruce saw him, he would start folding paper-a must in their jobs. Carl caught on immediately and worked with Bruce for months on getting his skills back for work. As time went on, Carl came every Friday night-and still does-when we got home. It was my night for a lady bath and girlie stuff and Carl took over. Carl recently became engaged to a lovely woman with a disabled son. So when Carl suggested Bruce ride in the Triumph, I was a bit apprehensive about getting Bruce in and out. Last night was it. I had Bruce dressed properly for a convertible in cold weather, but Carl took it from start to finish. Along with his Graphic Arts skills, he also demonstrated some very savy disabled-person skills. I was very impressed. They had a blast and Carl forwarded some pix to my Email that I am hoping to be able to get over here.

We have been having a difficult time with our truck. Engine light keeps going on: probably Catalytic Converter this time. But as all of you Caregivers know, getting a vehicle to and from service is tough. I am having to reschedule our weeks to accomodate this as November is all of Bruce's follow up appointments and the Botox and new PT-OT, so am trying to get our ducks in a row. Bruce does fine in the Honda, but then that means leaving the Honda and me finding a ride to and from work. And of course, weather is now a factor. Snow due tomorrow. It won't stick-we have not had a hard freeze yet, but still have the ramp issue.

So, on to Mr. Extreme Couponer! LOL. We got $1.10 off every gallon of gas today due to his couponing. $12.78 in savings in filling up the truck! He was so proud. We will fill up the Honda on Saturday at 90 cents a gallon off. He used mail coupons for 200 points (equal to 20 cents off) for two weeks; for two weeks did a buy six certain items and get free milk and 200 points. Plus on the six items-each for $3.00 on sale, had coupons for all six items; some doubled, some did not; but ended up paying $1.10 each for cereal, which he eats every morning and snack bars. Free milk-$4.00 a gallon for two weeks. Who is better than Bruce. We now have 10 boxes of pasta for 50 cents a box, enough for us for many months and 10 cans of veggies for free. I thank my fellow co-workers for giving me their inserts. I do not do dumpster diving-lol. This takes Bruce at least two hours every week. Sometimes I have to tweak. He gets most of it, knows there is something there and takes a while to get me to the problem-Aphasia. But we work together. And you all know I am just trying anything that grabs him.

To reward and thank him today we went out for breakfast. Bruce has take out with Jen twice a week, so most other meals are here at home. Bruce woke me up this morning at 5:30am as usual. It has been cold here overnight, but too early to turn on the furnace. My NE'er pre-stroke was never cold. Post stroke another issue. We have a small space heater that does the two rooms nicely. I flip on the heater, go back to bed. We talk for about a half hour and then it is up and at em. Kira had kept me up most of the night. She boxes me in, so I can not get my feet out from under the covers-a must for a Palmer-lol. After I politely removed her from the bed several times; at 4am, went to Bruce. At 5:30 I said to Bruce, please just let me sleep. So it was up and at em at 7am. Good week to all. Debbie