Appliances and Fleas

Just a note: Originally I wasn't planning on posting so frequently, but I find that so many interesting things or memorable things happen on a daily basis. It also will help me to remember this whole year if I post frequently. Read at your leisure! :]

This morning we drove down to Op Share to pick up a stove and fridge for a family in Rockcastle. Jenny drove which was lucky because it poured buckets the entire time we were on the interstate. Visibility sucked with all the fog and driving rain. Once we got down there the rain had stopped (lucky for us!). Unfortunately the fridge wouldn't fit into the back of the truck since it has that camper/hood over the bed. A new life lesson I learned today: if a refrigerator is turned on its side, it needs to be upright for 24 hours before being plugged in and used. And the old ones aren't supposed to be tilted at all.

Since it was an old fridge, we had to leave it and just take the stove. Tomorrow we're driving down in Robyn's (open bed) pick up to get it. Because we were waiting to deliver the stove, we instead did a follow up home visit to a participant. This participant had received one of the air conditioners Family Advocacy was distributing in the early summer. She told Jenny over the phone that the house had been infested with fleas, but she had put down sawdust to deter them.

As we walked up to the house, the husband greeted us, just as nice as could be, but fleas? I wasn't sure I wanted to walk inside. The husband went outside to work on his truck, and Jenny and I talked with the wife. She was sitting on the couch with a cigarette in hand, big smile, and small tattoo on her forearm reading: Elvis Lives. A layer of sawdust was prevalent throughout the house. The woman showed us her legs, covered in scratched sores from the flea bites. She said she had relegated the dogs and kittens to the porch, still, I kept imagining I could feel fleas crawling on my bare legs as I sat on her couch.

The house was cool thanks to the window air conditioner CAP provided. The woman was very appreciative. She also told us she was trying to quit smoking because the doctor told her that if her lungs were a gallon of milk, only 1/8 of it was getting any air... or something like that. She was late-middle-aged and said she'd been smoking since the age of 9.

The day ended early since Jenny has to drive to McCreary County tonight to speak to another group. Spread the Good Word: ELVIS LIVES!