Monthly Archives: February 2022
Well, Maybe Not So ‘Old Faithful’ . . .
After dropping down to about 28° last night, it finally crawled up to 33 by about noon. And it looks to be warming up a little over the next few days, at least up to the mid-40’s.
I mentioned yesterday about the alternator in our Jeep going out, so we used our ‘old faithful’ Dodge Dakota truck. But when I tried to go into work this morning, it wasn’t so ‘old faithful’. At least at 28°.
It would crank and start up, but it would only run for about 5-10 seconds before it shut down. So after about 5 tries, I gave up and went back inside to get warm.
But when I called into work, no one was there. Turns out that Jennifer, the office manager, who lives in our area, still hadn’t gone into the office because she was waiting for the roads to clear.
So I guess I wasn’t missed.
I got a call from my neurosurgeon’s office yesterday to schedule my 3 month checkup after my cervical spine fusion back in November. But this time it’s a 2 parter.
I go in this coming Tuesday afternoon for a series of Xrays. Then on Monday, Valentine’s Day, I go in for the consultation with Alexandria, my P.A. Don’t know why it’s different this time, but for my 2 month checkup, they did both at the same time.
One thing I’m looking forward to is that supposedly I can start taking Advil again, and my 20# lift limit will go away. Right now I can only take Tylenol, which has never worked for me.
One thing I want to discuss with her is about getting a lumbar laminectomy sometime in the near future. In other words, fixing the problems with my lower back.
Originally I was hoping that all my problems were caused by my cervical stenosis and bone spurs. But while my hands and arms are improving steadily, my legs have not improved much over the last few months. They still feel rubbery and weak, and I’m not comfortable walking very far without having my walking stick in hand.
Note, it’s not a cane. It’s a walking stick. Just sayin’.
What I really worried about with the laminectomy is the recover time, i.e., how soon I can be up and about, drive again, etc.
Guess I’ll know more next Monday.
Thought For The Day:
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IHOPing . . .
Got a couple of photos from family this morning.
This is Chris’ backyard up in Kingsland where right now at 7pm it’s 24° going down to about 19 tonight.
And up in Lowell’s hometown of Pauls Valley, OK, it looks like this at his parent’s house.
Glad it’s up there, and we hope it stays up north. However right now my weather app shows that it’s sleeting/snowing up in Katy, but Brandi says they don’t see anything yet.
Jan and I headed out for lunch about 1:30pm. Or at least we tried to.
About 10 days ago while we were out and about in the Jeep, the Battery light on the dash came on. Now normally when that happens it means that the alternator has stop ‘alternating’, or the voltage regulator has stopped ‘regulating’. Back in the day these were two separate thingws, but now days it’s all one unit.
But when I shut the engine off and restarted, the light went away. And stayed away.
For a few days, at least. And then it came back. And then went away again.
So I used my Torque phone app to check the engine codes and found nothing. I got a Cigarette Lighter Voltmeter and left it plugged in.
And when we were driving it showed the normal 13.6 volts alternator output.
But then the problem stayed away for about a week.
Until this morning, when we left for lunch, and the Battery light came on from the get-go, and stayed. And the voltmeter showed 11.6 volts. So no alternator output. And shutting down and restarting made no difference this time. So we’ll probably drop it off at my mechanic’s tomorrow morning.
So we switched over to our old faithful Dodge Dakota truck and headed out again.
Jan had been wanting to have lunch at an IHOP since she saw a TV ad for their new, limited time, Cali Roasted Turkey Melt sandwich. With roasted turkey breast, bacon, cheddar cheese, roasted cherry tomatoes, fresh avocado & mayo on multigrain bread, it was right up Jan’s alley.
This photo is from their website, since when I took a picture of Jan’s, it looked like this.
Not very revealing.
I went with breakfast, with a very tasty Spicy Poblano Omelet.
And as my side, I got an order of their New York Cheesecake pancakes.
There’s strawberries under the whipped cream. They were fluffy and tasty, and good, but not very ‘cheesecakey’.
We had planned to make a WalMart stop after lunch, but by the time we came out, it was 35° and windy, with a 28° wind chill, so we headed home.
Tonight we’re looking at a low of 28° here in Santa Fe, the coldest so far this year, but no snow.
To help protect our pedestals from the cold, I noticed the other day that Rob, our park owner, had installed these Freeze Mister Faucet Protectors on the extra hose bib on our pedestal.
When the temperature gets down into the mid-30’s, the plug automatically starts leaking, or dripping as it were. And then stops when it warms up. So more leaving your faucets dripping full-time overnight.
Thought For The Day:
“We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.” ― George Orwell, 1984
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