Monthly Archives: November 2022
Huddle Up . . .
For Two Reasons.
Though it got up to 82° on Friday, that night it went down to 42. And the last two days it never even made it to 60. And we’re looking at low 40’s at night for at least the next week or so. So it was finally time to deploy both of our space heaters and turn on our heated mattress pad for the first time this season.
BRRR!
And lunch today was at Texas Huddle once again, though we didn’t have Juana, our usual server, since she was working the patio area. And though we like her a lot, it was not enough to sit out in the open patio, even with a bunch of those big propane heaters scattered around.
Jan got her usual Cheddar Mushroom Burger with a side salad, the Keto version with no bun.
But I went a little different this time with 10 wings, half Flaming Raspberry and half Mango Habanero, their 3rd and 5th hottest sauces.
But I did want to try their hottest, Flamethrower, which is what is in the small container at the very bottom. It was hot, but not as hot as the Blazin’ sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings.
And I wasn’t a big fan of how it actually tasted. Just kind of strange.
The past Friday a string of dump trucks started bringing a lot of fill dirt for the new area of the park.
Turns out that due to new flood plain regulations, the entire new part of the park has to be raised about 2’, which explains why the new garage is built up so high.
So I guess there’s going to be a ramp up from the street into the park, and a retaining wall between us and the new part.
What’s funny about this is that none of this area flooded even during Hurricane Harvey back in 2017. In fact as far as anyone remembers, it’s never flooded in this area.
Jan and I watched A Christmas Story for the first time this season, and probably not the last. But Jan and I both agreed that something’s changed with narrator’s voice. Parts of it sounded OK, but other sections just sound funny. Like maybe they had to redub part of it with another actor.
And for a little bit of trivia, Bob Clark, the director, only got to make A Christmas Story because his previous film, Porky’s was such a big success. So without Porky’s there probably would be no Christmas Story, since every studio had turned it down.
Also Bob Clark is in the movie as Swede, the neighbor who’s out on the street looking at the leg lamp with Ralphie’s father.
And Jean Shepherd, the writer/narrator, is in the movie as the man who points Ralphie to the end of the line in the toy store.
On that note, WalMart will be happy to sell you your own personal Red Ryder Carbine BB Gun, complete with a compass in the stock. But WalMart’s version is better, because, according to the movie, Ralphie’s model only held 200 shots, while this one holds 650.
Thought For The Day:
You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!
November 13, 2009
It sure was Friday the 13th…
Today was not a good day, travelwise that is.
It started out pretty good, though. We pulled out of the Turkey Creek RV Park in Branson right on time at 10 am, heading for Memphis about 265 miles away.
But things went down hill fast after that. Less than a mile from the park, we encountered a steep climbing right-hand turn. I was only going about 25 mph, I mean, I was still in 3rd. The problem was that, although the turn was to the right, the road actually was banked to the left, because another road came in from the left at an angle.
As I went around the corner, this caused the coach to rock pretty far over to the left for a few seconds. And of course a lot of stuff came loose and went sliding over that way as well. What we didn’t realize was that this caused the slide to lift up from the floor slightly, just about time that one of the cat food bowls went sliding under it. And then the slide came back down, trapping the bowl underneath it.
But we didn’t know this at the time. We had other problems.
The road I had chosen (Well, the GPS had chosen…) turned out to be much more hilly than I had expected. The GPS can show you curves, but not hills. So as soon as I could find a place to pull over, I tried to find a new route.
I found another way to go that was about 40 miles longer, but didn’t appear as curvy as the original route. Luckily we had only come about 8 miles, so it wasn’t a big deal to turn around. And 30 minutes later we were passing back in front of the RV park going in the opposite direction.
Well, the new route was a little less curvy, but turned out to be just as hilly. The only real plus was that the road was better, even 4 lane in places.
But because of all the hills and curves, it was still slow going. Finally about noon we stopped for a bathroom break. Walking back thru the coach I notice that the slide was tilted back off the floor about two inches. A little hands and knees inspection reveal the culprit…the aforementioned cat food bowl.
And boy was it wedged in tight. After moving the slide in and out slightly didn’t help, Jan as finally able to break the bowl with a basin wrench. Thinking ahead, I had positioned a thick book under the slide so we could clean out the broken glass before letting the slide all the way down.
But now the book was stuck. And nothing we tried would free it. This was starting to look like an Abbott and Costello routine.
What I need was a pry bar of some sort to give me enough leverage to lift the slide slightly to free the book and then move the slide out, letting it come off the pry bar. But I just didn’t haven’t anything that big.
After spending about a hour fooling with this, we decided to wait and try to fix it when we got to Memphis…actually West Memphis, AR.
We finally pulled into the Tom Sawyer RV park about 2 hours late, after dark, in fact. After we got hooked up, I unhitched the truck and drove about 10 miles over the river to a Home Depot in Memphis and bought a 3 ft. long piece of 3/4 inch galvanized pipe.
Getting back to the rig, it took about 10 seconds to free the book and set the slide back in place. And all it needed was the right tool…a honkin’ big piece of steel pipe.
The slide still works just fine, so hopefully no harm done.
And hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day…
November 13, 2010
Friday Night at the Opry . .
As I posted early this morning, we didn’t get back from the Opry until almost 1 am, so this post is a combination of Friday and today.
We started out Friday morning with a walk around the park before coming back to the rig to get ready to head out.
Jan and Brandi were going to have a Girl’s Day Out while Landon is in Day Care. Brandi starts back to work this coming Monday after her 3 month maternity leave and she’s had Landon in day care for a few hours each day to get him used to it.
I think it’s really more to get her used to being away from him.
While Jan and Brandi were having fun, I got to work on the toilet.
I had two tasks in mind. First I wanted to work on the the seals so that the bowl will hold water again, and second, I wanted to work on the mount some more.
Well, one out of two ain’t bad.
I disassembled the bowl from the base and clean the ball and all the rubber seals. Finally I used a tip I saw on RV.Net a while back. Someone had suggested using plumber’s grease. Plumber’s grease is 100% silicone grease, the consistency of Vaseline. It’s waterproof, non-toxic, and unlike Vaseline, it will not harm the rubber seals. I coated all the seals, the mating surfaces, and the ball with the grease.
Then it was on to the second problem. This toilet is pretty new. I replaced it while we were out in Las Vegas this past March.
Thinking the easiest thing to do would be to replace the old one with a new one of the same type. Wrong!
Although the toilet itself is the same, they changed the mounting holes on the base. The original base had 4 mounting bolts, two on the front and two on the back.
The new one has only two mounting bolts, one on each side. I got a new flange that fit over the old one and provided the correct mounting holes, but it also raised the mount up about 3/8 inch. This made it hard to get the toilet seated correctly so it wouldn’t rock. I’ve tried using different types of shims, but the construction of the toilet base makes it hard to get the shims to fit.
After fooling with it for about an hour I made it better, but it’s still not perfect. I have an idea on how to fix it, but it’s going to take some more work, and I ran out of time today.
But the good news is, that after remounting the toilet, it now holds water just fine.
After taking a shower I picked up Jan at Brandi’s about 4:30. I did get some Landon time of my own, feeding him a bottle. By the time he was finished, he was falling asleep again.
Leaving Brandi’s we headed down to Dickinson to eat a light supper at Monterey’s Little Mexico before heading to the Alvin Opry. We usually just a bowl of their Chicken Tortilla Soup beforehand, because we always go out for a bite to eat after the show.
Which is why we don’t get home until around 1 am.
We were really looking forward to tonight’s Opry because it’s Legend’s Night. This is where the singers dress up like and imitate their favorite stars.
First up was Rhonda Walters doing a dead-on imitation of Kitty Wells. Rhonda is known as “The Queen of the Alvin Opry”.
Then we had Abby Gough doing a great Reba McEntire.
Next we had Earl Epps doing George Jones (before his hair turned white). Earl looks and sounds like Jones, and has a number of records to his credit, including this cut of Be Bop Blues.
Then Rhonda was back, along with Kim Lanier doing a hilarious take-off on The Judd’s, Naomi and Wynonna. They’ve done this several times before and it’s always a hoot.
Ruben Perez is always a surprise because he’s someone different every time. This time he did a great send-up of Little Richard doing ‘Lucille’ If you click on the link above you’ll get a 30 second clip of his performance.
Finally we had Julianne McBride as Brenda Lee. Julianne is only 13, but has a great stage presence, and a fantastic voice. She can really belt out a song.
What stunned me about her performance and appearance was that in 1958 I saw Brenda Lee on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. She was just 13, the same age as Julianne. Pat Boone was the emcee that night, and what’s amazing is that Julianne looks just like I remember Brenda Lee looking then.
After the show we went to the IHOP in Pearland, along Rhonda Walters, her husband Ron, and our long-time friend, Maria Sutton.
That was about it for Friday, a long day and a late night.
Today, Saturday, was a Girl’s Movie Day with Jan, Brandi, Linda, and Piper, going to see the new movie “Morning Glory” at the 11 am showing, and then after the movie, Chris and I met them at Mario’s Italian Restaurant in Seabrook at 1:30.
Before meeting everyone for lunch, I went by the office and paid the rent for the month, and then made an trip to Home Depot looking for new toilet shims. Part of the problem is finding something that will work and still be hidden by the base of the toilet. I’ll keep looking.
Had something real strange happen this evening. Jan and I were just sitting here watching TV and the generator suddenly started up all by itself. Took us a few seconds to figure out what that loud rumbling noise was. There were some pillows kind of laying against the dashboard where the switch is, but I sure don’t think they were close enough or heavy enough to cause the problem.
Will have to see if it happens again.
November 13, 2011
. . . and I didn’t wake up screaming even once!
Since we had a 375 mile trip to Gulf Shores, AL today, we wanted to get an early start. So I was up at about 6 am, started coffee, and then went outside to hook up the toad and stow the satellite dish. Then after checking the air in my tires and letting in the window awnings, I went back inside to wake Jan up, but found her already up and in the shower.
A little later Jan fixed us a breakfast of some of the banana nut and sourdough bread Aunt Virginia had given us last night.
Dee – Licious!
We pulled out of my cousin’s Northgate RV Travel Park about 8am, got on I-65 and headed south.
A little south of Montgomery Jan decided she wanted to drive for a while, so at our next rest stop we traded places and Jan drove for about two hours until we turned off I-65 onto AL59. I Kindled and kat-napped for a while, and just enjoyed the scenery.
And Jan did a really good job. As I said, I didn’t wake up screaming even once. In fact Jan is one of the very few people I feel comfortable sleeping while she’s driving. But she doesn’t like to drive in traffic on city streets, so I took over for the last 50 miles.
I’d been a little worried about whether we could get a site at the Gulf State Park since it’s very popular with snowbirds this time of the year. But apparently we beat the rush this year because we had no trouble getting a spot.
We got into our site about 4 and got set up. The only problems was when we tried to start the truck and found the battery dead. I guess there must be a problem with my charge wire, as it should keep the battery charged from the rig. I’ll have to check it out.
About 5 we headed out for supper at one of our favorite local seafood places, DeSoto’s Seafood Kitchen. Jan had Shrimp and Oysters, and I had the Seafood Platter. You can’t get seafood much fresher than this.
When we got back from supper we found this email photo from Lowell and Brandi. They said it was a early test run for Landon and Santa.
Here’s last year’s photo. Santa seems to have aged well.
Looks like Landon’s not going to be one of those kids that’s terrified of Santa.
November 13, 2012
A Real Cutie!
We got a photo of our new great-niece, Annisten Morgan Robinson. She’s a real cutie!
I’ve started getting calls from computer clients wanting to schedule some help when I get back to Houston. So it looks like I’ll be busy again this winter just like last year.
After coffee for breakfast, we heated our some of our Lambert’s leftovers from yesterday. And we still have enough for another meal. At $12.50 for 3 meals worth, that’s a real deal.
It was a busy morning on the phone. We talked with our daughter Brandi a couple of times working out some details of our Thanksgiving trip to Marble Falls, TX. Then we talked with our grand-daughter Piper to see if she will be able to join us in Marble Falls.
About 3:30 Jan and I headed out for some shopping and then dinner. Our first stop was Tallulah’s Treasures in Orange Beach.
Tallulah’s is another of our favorite shops. Formerly known as Tootie’s Yellow Broom, this is another place we’ve been coming for years.
Just a fun place to walk through, even if you don’t buy anything.
Our next stop was for dinner at The Gulf, a new place that just opened last week. Located down at Alabama Point / Perdido Pass, it’s the first business in what’s to be a beach boardwalk attraction.
Built from shipping containers, its novel construction frames a beautiful view of the bridge over Perdido Pass and the Gulf.
The only problem with this beautiful location is its history. There used to be a large restaurant/hotel on this location, and we ate here a couple of times over the years. But in 2004 Hurricane Ivan wiped it off the beach. The only thing left was the foundation.
I hope The Gulf has better luck.
Jan and I both had their Angus Burgers and shared an order of fries. Both were really good, not quite Five Guys good, but good.
And of course the view was fantastic.
Leaving the restaurant, we headed home with a quick stop at a CVS for a few things.
All in all, a very nice day.
November 13, 2015
Happy Friday. . .
Well, today’s promised ‘Mostly Sunny’ never appeared, not even a peek. But it was in the 60’s, and nice enough to finish up reinstalling my outside door handle.
Yesterday afternoon I left the job like this, with the toothpicks sticking out like little spikes.
I warned Jan about it going in and out of the rig, and then last night I tripped over the door mat in the dark and almost impaled myself. But luckily no skin was broken.
Remember, I do these things so you won’t have to.
So the first thing I did today was to use a pair of nippers (end flush cutters) like these to cut off the bundles flush with the rig.
I was happy to see that it took some effort to cut through the bundles of toothpicks. But I was quickly ready the next step.
Pilot holes.
So out came my favorite power tool: My WORX Power Screw Driver.
I bought it a couple of years ago, and it’s held up great.
With its lithium-ion battery it holds a charge for months, so it’s always ready to go when I pull it out of the bag. Plus it’s strong enough, with enough torque to twist it out of my hand if I don’t hold on tight.
The WORX also has two ‘cylinders’ that each hold six screwdriver bits. The cylinders snap into place and allow you to quickly change bits. One cylinder holds standard bits, like slot, Phillips, etc., and the other one holds TORX, and Star type bits.
When I ordered the WORX I also got a set of these, a 1/4-inch Hex Shank Drill Bit Set.
These bits chuck right into the driver, and stay in the bag with the WORX.
I first drilled a pilot pilot hold into the toothpick bundles, using a 5/64” bit and then a pilot hole with the 1/8” bit shown about. I put a piece of tape on the bit as a depth stop, since I didn’t want to drill all the way through the wall and out the other side. That would be bad.
The holes done, I mounted the hardware and started putting in the screws. And I quickly discovered that it was very difficult to screw the #12 screws into the wood by hand. So out came my WORX again.
Unlike a large drill, the WORX is very controllable so I didn’t have to worried about over-tightening and stripping out the screws. Which as I said is what I think happened at the repair place in Prescott.
It turned out that even my driver had a problem with the toothpick-Gorilla Glue combination. Not from too little power to do the job, but me holding it against the torque. But I quickly had the 5 screws in place and here is the result this evening.
Today being Friday, it was time for a Whataburger run, with a little Wal-Mart shopping thrown in. Funny, but it used to be a Wal-Mart run with a stop for Whataburger on the way home.
But unfortunately we were once again back to the same routine with the same cashier. I tell her I want a #6 with Cheese with only these ingredients, Ketchup, Mustard, Tomatoes, and Grilled Onions. She looks at me and says, “You want lettuce on that?”
“No. Only these four things.”
Finally it looks right on the little screen and we moved on to my burger. And after I tell her my order, once again stressing the ‘only’, she looks at me and says, “So, no lettuce?” Sheesh!
Back in the early 70’s when Jan and I were both in college, we worked together as the Grill Team at the then busiest McDonald’s in the country, which was in Birmingham, AL. They had the first playground, the first Ronald McDonald Birthday Parties, and we were one of the 5 locations that tested the Quarter Pounder before it was rolled out to the rest of the country.
It was really a great job, Jan did the buns, and I ran the grill. There was no breakfast then, and they didn’t open until 10:30am. Jan and I would walk in the door a few minutes before 11am, put on our aprons and paper caps, and hit the grill area. Then at 2pm, we would hang up our aprons and walk out the door. So no cleaning, no mopping, etc., Occasionally on weekends we would work other hours if there was a University of Alabama game in town that weekend. Then it was a real madhouse when multiple buses would pull into the parking lot.
Anyway she wouldn’t have lasted 10 minutes at that McDonald’s, or any other place I worked over the years in college.
One thing I picked up at Wal-Mart was some more of the these Hot Hands Hand Warmers.
I discovered last night, when it was 43 degrees, that I didn’t have another package like I thought. So that was a necessary item to pick up.
But while I was doing that, I also found these, much to my joy.
These are adhesive foot warmers. You just peel off the film, put them on the floor and then step on them in your socks (they warn you not to put them on your bare feet).
And boy, do they work. My feet have been warm and toasty all night. The only problem is that I only picked up 2 packages to test, and since it’s supposed to be in low 40’s every night until we leave next Sunday, I want some more.
So it looks like another Chicken Express run is in my future.
With a stop at Wal-Mart.
Wrapping up, Brandi and Landon say, “Happy Friday!”
November 13, 2016
Back to College . . .
The Electoral College, that is.
or they didn’t tell me there would be math on the test.
Several people commented on Facebook about yesterday’s dryer repair. Our friend Chris Yust suggest that I just buy a new dryer.
Well, as long as I can fix the old one for a $2.65 fuse and 3 hours of work, I figure I’m making $333/hr. for my time, since a new one costs around $1000.00. And it gives me something to blog about.
Our friend Donna Huffer suggested we just go to the laundromat and be done in an hour and a half.
First off, I’m pretty sure Jan would get rid of me before she would get rid of her washer/dryer. She delights in throwing a load in, getting it started, and 5 minutes later she’s back on the sofa with her Kindle, 40” TV, and the computer.
Plus those times we have gone the laundromat, it’s usually 3 or 4 hours, not one and a half. I guess maybe if you go at 3am, but not any time we’ve been.
Jan and I headed out about 1pm to have the Turkey & Dressing/Fried Chicken Lunch Buffet. Just as delicious as usual. If we have one complaint it’s that they don’t have mashed potatoes enough. If you have gravy on the menu, today’s Turkey & Dressing, Chicken Fried Chicken, Chicken Fried Steak, etc., there should be mashed potatoes.
Just sayin’
When we got back a little after 2, I took a nap for a couple of hours since I’ll be on a gate tonight, 6:30pm to 6:30am. So back to work.
November 13, 2017
Monday, Monday . . .
I spent a good part of the weekend and all of work today on the phone with Godaddy trying to straighten out my client’s email problems. If I had any hair left, I wouldn’t have any hair left.
And I’m really glad I have unlimited minutes on my phone. I was finally able to get our incoming email working again, but not our outgoing ones. It all just bounced back, so customers were not getting their order confirmations.
I’ve done a clumsy work-around using a Gmail account, but I need to get this fixed. Of course, my ultimate objective is get the email completely off our in-house server, but to do that I need to get root access to it, which I don’t yet have. It’s the only password I haven’t figured out, but I’m still working through all the different combinations of the list I found on one of the machines.
Then I’ll not only move the email, but also the shopping cart itself, completely eliminating the in-house server and then everything will be up on Godaddy.
Tomorrow Jan and I are heading over to Kemah to have lunch at Stomp’s, another of our favorite local hamburger places. We’ve been eating here since they first opened six years ago. And their burgers look something like this.
And their fries and onion rings are great too.
After that we’ll check out Sundowner Canvas on up 146 in Kemah to see if they can make our new window awnings. It would be nice if they have some large pieces in several blue colors, so we bring them home and drape them over the old awnings to see what they look like on the coach.
Assuming they will do them, I’ll have them make two of the small rear window awnings, then I’ll take the two bigger awnings over and have them duplicated.
So we’ll see how it goes.
November 13, 2018
The Run Around . . .
Today was my day for getting my head BBQ’d, so we were out the door about 9:15, heading for the Dermatologist’s office up in Webster.
At least that’s where we were told to go when we made the appointment last month at their League City office. And the text I got yesterday morning confirming my appointment said to go to the Webster office.
But when we got to the office about 9:50 for our 10:15 appointment, we were told that we were at the wrong office, and should have been at the League City one. She offered to reschedule our appointment, but I said, “No, call them and tell them we’re on our way.”
And by pushing the Malibu a little more than usual, we made the 10 mile run from the 3rd floor of the Medical Building at Clear Regional Hospital down to the League City office just off FM-646 in just over 15 minutes, arriving at 10:13, two minutes before our 10:15 appointment.
Only to be told that the first receptionist was wrong, and our appointment WAS at the Webster location. So while she called the other office to tell them, Yes we were supposed to be up there, we turned around and headed back up to Webster, a little more sedately this time, much to Jan’s relief.
Getting back there once again, they took me back to a treatment room, and after wiping my head down with acetone to prep it, the Physician’s Assistant used what looked like a large Sharpie pen to cover my scalp with the photo-reactive solution.
Then instead of the 30-60 minute wait for the solution to dry like I had read, I found out that is was a 2 hour one. Lucky that I brought my Galaxy Tab 4 and Jan brought her Kindle Fire to keep us occupied out in the waiting room.
Back in the treatment room, the technician wheeled the Blue UV Light over and positioned it over my head.
She said it was on a timer, and noting it was set to 16:40, I said, “So 16:39 is not enough and 16:41 is too much?” She said, “Well, we don’t want your head to burst into flames.”
See I told you that might happen. And then, after giving me a pair of goggles to wear, she turned it on.
And I would have sworn my head WAS on fire. I didn’t realize they had it set on ‘Extra-Crispy’
The tech said that some people said it felt like a million angry fire ants were feasting on their head.
That was an understatement.
But finally it was over, and after getting the post-op instructions, and getting an appointment for a second shot at immolation a month from now, we headed up to Bay Area Blvd. to have brunch at Snooze, only to find that it wasn’t really open yet. That’s tomorrow.
What we had been seeing was a series of pre-opening meals given for community leaders, so we headed right up the road to once again have breakfast at The Egg and I.
Coming home about 2:30 we first made a stop at the Santa Fe PO to check the mail. I was hoping my new permanent SD driver’s license had come in, and it had. So now, thanks to the revised Vision Statement I got from the ophthalmologist last week, I can now legally drive at night.
And while on the subject of ophthalmologists, I’ve got my follow-up appointment with a cornea specialist to check out the slight yellowing of my left cornea that the Sam’s Club optometrist mistook for a cataract.
Then it was on to Snider Transmission to check up on our Dakota. Kenny said it was done and they’d done a short test drive, but that he still wanted to a longer one, maybe an hour or so, to double-check everything. So I told him we’d pick it up tomorrow afternoon.
November 13, 2019
Just In Case . . .
My main accomplishment at work today was to order a new high chair for my client. Well, not him personally, but for his baby.
I did leave work about a couple of hours early since I wanted to wrap up all the outside travel-prep this afternoon, rather than do it tomorrow morning like I usually would. But since it’s suppose to be 40° and a 90% chance of rain tomorrow morning, I wanted to get pretty much everything down now.
(Weather Update: It’s not going to 40° with 90% chance of rain tomorrow morning. It’s now supposed to be 38° with a 95% chance of rain.)
OH Boy!
It only took me about 90 minutes to get everything packed away, disconnected, and tarpped. The whole ‘tarpped’ thing was a ‘Just In Case’ job. As in ‘Just In Case’ the oil leak is not fixed.
This way we don’t have a oily mess to get off the windshield before we can drive around in Kingsland.
And since it’s supposed to be in the low 40’s overnight I also plugged in our RV’s engine block heater so the oil will be all warm and toasty tomorrow.
Our first stop tomorrow will be at the Buc-ee’s up in Katy, about 90 minutes on the way, for coffee, and we should know then if the problem is fixed. Or at least we already had oil on the truck by then last time. So we’ll see, I guess.
I plan on pulling out of our site by 8am, and hooked up and on the road by at least 8:30, but hopefully earlier. We want to get up to and around the bottom of Austin before the rush hour gets going.
November 13, 2021
Back Home–A Quick Update . . .
First off Jan and I want to thank everyone for the large outpouring of the prayers and well-wishes. They really meant a lot to us.
Besides fixing the 3 deteriorating discs, the neurosurgeon said he found and removed several ‘major’ bone spurs impinging on the spinal cord.
And this morning I’ve already noticed some improvement in my hands, arms, and legs. But we’ll have to see how it goes down the road.
I haven’t needed to take any the pain meds I was given so that’s good.
Once again, thanks to everyone.
Greg and Jan
My One Year Anniversary . . .
One year ago today I went under the knife for my Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF).
And at this point I’m probably 90% back. Which I guess is pretty good, since I was told it could be up to 2 years to get back to normal.
Or at least as ‘normal’ as I’m going to get, anyway.
Still to be discussed is whether or not, or when, I’m going have an operation on my lumbar area. We’ll see.
You can read my post from one year ago before.
Our faithful readers may have noticed that for the last month or so my blogs have been short, spotty and even non-existent.
Well, there’s a reason for that.
About six weeks ago, I went to bed one night feeling fine, no problems that I knew of, and then woke up the next morning with a stiff, sore neck. And during the rest of the day, in fact the next 24 hours or so, I pretty much became, I guess you could say, severely handicapped. And I have the newly-issued blue handicapped placard to show for it
I have difficulty walking. My legs are weak and rubbery and I have no sense of balance so I have to have some sort of support when I’m when I’m walking. And, unfortunately my legs weren’t the only problem actually.
The upper part of my body is worse. I’ve lost pretty much all feeling in my hands. I have no grip strength, and my arms won’t go up any higher than my shoulders. And this goes back to why the blogs have been so spotty, because I really can’t really type anymore. I’ve gone from being a fairly accurate, fast touch-typist, to falling back on hunt and peck, which has degenerated into hit or miss with emphasis on the ‘miss’.
I cannot feel if the keys have been pressed, I have to watch each key press, so each blog every night has been pretty much as far as stuff that I comment or say, been pretty much an exercise in futility.
To help write this I’ve been using an Android app called Otter, which is a very good, and free, Speech To Text converter. It allows me to dictate my thoughts and export them as text files via email, which I then paste into the blog.
At this point, I’m using a walking stick, called that because I refuse to call it a cane yet.
It’s one of a set that Jan and I took to Europe back in 2019. And so that gives me enough support to kind of weeble-wobble along, as Jan calls it, from place to place as I do now.
I also purchased one of those rollators, I.e. wheeled walkers, that you can sit in when you need to. I bought that specifically for when we went to the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit last month. And it worked great.
And I had planned to use it at the Nutcracker Christmas Market today, as well. But Jan and Brandi cajoled, I.e., threatened me into not going, and just resting up for tomorrow. More about that in a minute.
But I will use it for our second Van Gogh exhibit on the 21st of this month, if necessary.
Now to the cause of all this.
So after two sets of X-Rays, and MRI’s on my cervical and lumbar areas, it shows severe deterioration at the C4-5, C5-6, and C6-7 areas of my neck, as well as the L4-5 and L5-S1 areas in my lower back.
In other words, it seems my spine has started to come apart at the top and the bottom.
Now according to the radiologist report, some of the damage may be ‘congenital’, which to me means ‘from birth’. So it took 73 years to show up?
But when I ask my neurosurgeon about that, he said it really just means ‘a long time ago’.
Now it’s true that in my ‘wild and crazy’ youth, in my ‘PJ’ era, (Pre-Jan. Somehow, ‘BJ’, Before Jan, just doesn’t work here.) I got, well, let’s just say, majorly banged up a couple of times, once when our helicopter didn’t want to fly anymore. And when I explained those circumstances to my doctor, he agreed that they might be a contributing factor.
But that’s all under the bridge now.
However, the most important thing he said was that, due to the fast progression of the symptoms, I was at risk of becoming a paraplegic, or even a quadriplegic, if something wasn’t done pretty quickly.
Not words you want to hear, believe me. So I was happy to hear that my Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF) was being scheduled for the following Friday, November 5th.
Breaking it down, Anterior means they get to your spine by going in through your neck under your chin. Cervical means in the neck area. Discectomy means removing a disc, and Fusion means fusing the vertebrae back together afterwards.
Now, in hindsight, and reading about the symptoms caused by disc deterioration, it seems that I’ve actually been experiencing some indications of the coming problem. But in my case, never having been 73 before, I attributed them to the fact that this was what being 73 was supposed to feel like.
My symptoms are caused by the deteriorating discs, the pads separating the vertebrae segments, coming apart and bulging against the spinal cord that runs down the center of the spine. In addition there may also be bone spurs involved, small bone growths also pressing against the spinal cord.
So the procedure will consist of cutting a hole in my neck, probably on the left side, to avoid the esophagus, and then scraping out the bad discs on the 3 levels, C4-5, C5-6, and C6-7, and removing any bone spurs they find.
After the missing discs are replaced with plastic carriers containing a slice of cadaver bone, I will be bolted back together, using a titanium strap and screws.
Titanium, because it is inert to the body, and doesn’t show up on airport scanners, though some people have said this was not so for them.
So instead of “I see dead people”, I guess it’s going to be, “I am dead people”.
The titanium strap is actually only there to hold everything together until the cadaver bone and my vertebrae grow together and fuse into one solid piece. To facilitate this, I will use a bone growth stimulator on my neck for 30 minutes several times a day for a couple of weeks or so..
And I will have to wear one of those hard plastic cervical collars for two weeks afterwards, which means I won’t be able to drive during that time. So Jan will take over driving duties for a while.
As I said, under the circumstances, I was happy to hear that my surgery was scheduled for the following Friday, the 5th of November. But that was not to be.
At the Pre-Op conference on the Thursday before, it was suddenly discovered that . . . Oops, my surgery not been scheduled at all. And that there were no openings until the following Friday, the 12th. In other words, tomorrow.
Major finger pointing between the doctor’s office and the hospital going on.
I’m not a happy camper, believe me. Especially since my symptoms have been progressively worsening during the ‘lost’ week. And the longer things go on, the more possible it is that some of the nerve damage might be permanent.
So tomorrow’s the big day, and I was supposed to be at the hospital at 6am, but I just got a call a few minutes ago, pushing it back to 5:30am.
Well, I wanted it as soon as possible so I guess I can’t complain.
What’s funny is that though Jan is allowed to visit me during visiting hours, she’s not even allowed to wait ANYWHERE in the hospital during the operation, except the parking lot. So she’ll come home and wait for me to call when I’m out of recovery and in my room, I’ll call her to come up. And even though I had to have a CoVid test to be operated on, Jan doesn’t need one to visit me.
Though this is nominally a one-day outpatient operation, my neurosurgeon wants to keep me overnight to monitor changes in my nerve symptoms. So though my 3 hour procedure should be over before noon tomorrow, I won’t get released until sometime Saturday.
Finally, I can’t say enough about my beautiful wife and how supportive she’s been in all this. I know it’s probably trite, but she has been my rock. I don’t know how I could have gotten through this as well as I have without her help.
Sweetie, I love you so much!
After a cold night, though we were warn and toasty in the rig, we were on our way over to our local Denny’s for our favorite Ultimate Omelets.
Luckily for us, Hugo our favorite cook was on the grill and it was as delicious as always.
Then it was on to WalMart and then HEB before heading home.
What was really unusual today was all the traffic around that area. It was bumper to bumper on both sides of the Interstate. Don’t know what was going on.
In a sad occurrence two planes, a B-17 Flying Fortress
and a P-63 Kingcobra collided during the Wings of Dallas Airshow today. Six people are supposed dead.
We saw both of these flying in the Wings Over Houston Airshow a couple of weeks ago.
A real shame.
https://rumble.com/v1txcyk-b-17-bomber-and-a-smaller-plane-collide-at-dallas-airshow.html
Wrapping up, last night was the monthly Alvin Opry show, and it was probably the best one yet.
The dance floor stayed crowded,
and we got to see some really great performers, like legends Justin Trevino,
and Tony Booth,
along with Tim McCasland.
But I think our favorite performer was Pat Varley, who we’ve known since the old Alvin Opry days, probably about 20 years.
But her voice is just as great as always, and she really knows how to belt a song.
Hope we get to see her again soon.
Thought For The Day:
Don’t try to figure me out. I am a special kind of twisted.
But then you already knew that, didn’t you.
November 12, 2009
Throwed Rolls and A Burnt Eagle…
Jan and I left about 10:30 for the 90 mile run to Carthage MO and Colaws RV Salvage
On our way we stopped off about 30 miles up the road in Ozark for lunch at Lambert’s about 11:15am.
Lambert’s is famous for their throwed rolls. And, yes, they do throw rolls at you. Although we’ve never eaten at this location before, we’ve eaten at the one in Foley, AL a number of times, and it’s always been great.
Jan and I both had the fried chicken. We ate until we were stuffed and still had take-home.
Leaving there we headed west to Colaws. Colaws is not just an RV surplus place. It’s also a RV junkyard, a place where old RV’s go to die.
And I really lucked out, They have golf carts that we used to drive around the lot until we found a burnt-out 1999 American Eagle, the same model as ours, but the ‘VS’ floorplan, not our ‘NS’. But since I was looking for wheel well fender flairs it didn’t matter. The parts I needed were intact.
I think it shook Jan up a little to see something that looked so much like our home burnt to a toasty crisp.
After making deal on the parts that saved me $300, Jan and I went into Carthage while waiting for the parts to be removed. I needed a 15/16 socket and Jan needed some stuff from Walmart.
About an hour later we picked up our parts and headed home. But the last 1/2 mile took us 30 minutes due to car accident right down the road from the RV park, Finally we go home about 5:30 pm.
Tomorrow we leave for Memphis on our way to visit relatives in Athens AL.
November 12, 2011
Cousins, Aunts, and Uncles . . .
This morning we had a lunch date with two of my favorite cousins, Anna Jean and Marjorie. They’re sisters and it’s always a real treat to get together with them.
Anna Jean and Marjorie came by our rig and picked us about 11, and we headed to 306 BBQ on US72 toward Huntsville.
A long time ago this place was know as Hickory House BBQ, and was one of the best in the area. But it closed and became an Antique Mall for many years.
But now it’s a BBQ place again, and it’s really good. Pulled Pork, Ribs, Chicken, Turkey, and great sides. We’ll go back next year.
We talked at the restaurant until about 1pm, and then came back to the rig and talked for another couple of hours. It’s really too bad we only get to see them once a year or so.
About 3:45 we talked with my Uncle Theo and Aunt Virginia about getting together for supper tonight. So about 5:00 we drove over to their house, and then over to the local Cracker Barrel.
Getting back to their beautiful home, we talked for another hour or so before heading back to the rig, accompanied by some of my Aunt’s delicious banana nut and sourdough breads.
We plan on leaving about 8 tomorrow morning for a 370 mile trip south to Gulf Shores, LA for six days before heading back toward Houston on the 19th.
We don’t know if we’ll be able to get a site at the Gulf State Park where we hope to stay. We weren’t able to get a reservation because I forgot about Friday being a holiday, and they aren’t open on the weekends, so we’ll just have to take our chances.
Gulf State Park is popular with Northern Snowbirds, especially the Canadian species, so the 500 sites at the park can be filled. But we have a couple of backup parks in mind, if necessary. We’ll see.
November 12, 2012
A New Great-Niece . . .
Well, weather.com said the rain would start here between 11 and 12 noon. and right on time, it started about 11:30, not really heavy, but just steady.
About 10:30 we got an email from Jan’s sister Debbie to let us know that her daughter-in-law Laura had given birth to our new great-niece, Annisten Morgan Robinson, this morning. The ‘Morgan’ is significant because that’s the maiden name of Jan and Debbie’s mother. In fact Morgantown, WV is named for the Morgan family.
Our daughter Brandi called a little after 11 to talk about our Thanksgiving trip up to the lake near Marble Falls, TX. We’ll go up on Wednesday and come back on Sunday, so we’ll only have a couple of days back in Houston before we leave again, at least for a few days.
Sometime in there our power glitched for about 10 seconds before coming right back on, so I guess it wasn’t weather-related.
A little later I called the Honeybaked Ham store back home to reserve a ham and a turkey breast for Thanksgiving. I plan on picking them up on Monday to avoid the rush later in the week.
Next I called Galveston Bay RV Park to confirm that our site would be ready when we get there next Sunday. Looks like we’ll be in site 80, the same site we were in the first 2 years we were here in 2008 and 2009.
My next call was to American Coach to follow up on my battery disconnect questions. They confirmed that the disconnects should have shut off everything, and that since it only turned off partially, it was possible that some engine electrics may have been intermittent, which might have caused my fuel problem last week. If the fuel pump lost power for a short time, long enough for the injectors to run out of diesel, it would act just like the tank was empty.
They said I should talk with Spartan to follow up. I’ll probably wait until we get back to Houston for that, but I’ll know more this Saturday since I’m going to top off my diesel in Foley before we leave the area. That will give me some idea about how much fuel my diesel tank now holds.
About 2pm Jan and I headed out for some errands and ‘linner’. Our first stop was the Wal-Mart in Gulf Shores for some groceries and supplies. Then heading toward Foley we stopped off at a Winn-Dixie looking for a couple of things that we couldn’t find at Wal-Mart.
Then, after a quick stop at a Family Dollar, (Jan was looking for a small squeegee for the shower, we headed on up to Foley. Then after a stop at Lowe’s for a new screwdriver bit, we drove right next door to our ultimate destination, Lambert’s Throwed Rolls. Jan had her usual Fried Chicken, and I decided to try the Chicken Fried Steak.
Jan said her Fried Chicken was some of the best she’s ever had, and of course the veggies there are great. And my CFS was fork-tender on the inside and had a great crispy-crunchy crust.
We’ve eaten at all three Lambert’s and it’s always delicious.
Leaving Lambert’s, we drove a little further into Foley to check out Dodge’s, a local gas station, to see if we can get in and out in the RV since they have a good price, $3.75, for diesel. Looks like it will be good place to stop on Saturday as we leave.
Coming back to the park we stopped off at the Wal-Mart Market to gas up the truck. There’s some sort of gas war going on there, so I only paid $2.96 for unleaded. Nice!
November 12, 2015
Chore Day . . .
Today was the first nice day in a while, so I decided to get back on my Lighted Door Handle Repair. I recently found that all 5 screws were loose, and could not be tightened. They just spun. Taking it all apart, I found that it looked like the RV repair place in Prescott had over-tighten them when they reinstalled the handle after the wiring repair for the blowout damage. It wasn’t that way before. They probably used a power driver and got carried away.
I had originally thought about using JB Weld to fill in the holes, and then maybe drill and tap them, but several readers suggested gluing toothpicks in the holes to fill them in. So that’s what I decided to try.
Since I wanted to really lock them in, I wanted to use Gorilla Glue, because it expands as it hardens. Some people don’t like it for that reason, but it was perfect for my use. You just don’t use very much of it. Here’s how I started.
The bowl of water is to dip the toothpicks in before I put on the glue and stuck them in place. Gorilla Glue is moisture activated and one surface needs to be damp to start with.
First off I trial-fitted a bunch of toothpicks in one of the holes to see how many I needed. And as it turns out each of the 5 holes needed a different number.
I wanted the fit to be slightly loose to allow for the expansion of the glue, so I had to use some trial and error to find the right amount. Then I dipped the toothpicks in the water and slung off the excess.
Next I put a light coating of Gorilla Glue on the half of the toothpicks that were going in the hole.
Inserting them in place l left them to set while I did the other 4 holes.
Here’s the ones on top where the light is.
Gorilla Glue normally sets in a couple of hours, but since it’s in the mid-60’s today, I wanted to let them go overnight. But when I did check back a few hours later, I found them rock solid with only a small amount of glue squeezed out.
Looks about perfect.
Tomorrow I’ll use nippers to cut the toothpicks down flush with the side. Then I’ll drill a pilot hole and give it a try.
More tomorrow.
A few days ago I squeezed (and I mean ‘squeezed’) under the rig enough to be able to spray our Power Gear hydraulic levelers with silicone spray to keep the seals lubricated. Next I cranked up the rig and raised and lowered the levelers a couple of times to distribute the lubricant around.
I kept the air bags dumped so the rig wouldn’t try to inflate them, and I noticed that we were still pretty level with the levelers raised. So I decided to leave the rig that way since it would keep all the dust off the newly greased surfaces.
Our rig has the optional switch to dump the airbags when the engine is running and, since dumping the bags drops the coach about 8 inches, I actually used it one time when we were surprised by a ‘low’ railroad underpass on a scenic back road.
Based on the signs we would have cleared it with a couple of inches to spare. But you never know how many times that road has been paved over since the signs were put up, and I really like my rooftop AC’s. So I dumped the bags and carefully drove under, listening for any $$$$ sounds.
Anyway, since we now weren’t using the pads we put under the levelers, I pulled them out today and spent some time hosing all the mud and gunk off them, and then stowed them away in the bay.
Another job done.
Wrapping up, we may have to rethink the whole ‘gate guard’ thing as a way of making money. Why make $150 a day when we could be making $200 an hour. And if we split up, we could make $400 an hour.
But it looks like we’d need a dog. Or two.
When we were visiting New York City in July of 2009, Jan always kept ‘bum money’ to give out as we toured the city. She said that the bums and drunks gave the best directions when she asked.
Of course she had more fun with this ‘New York City Panhandler.’
Actually it looks like they both did.
Jan said that checked another item off her bucket list.
November 12, 2016
A Design Flaw . . .
After another cool night and a overcast morning, our hot coffee really hit the spot.
After letting my WORX driver charge overnight, I was ready to get back on my Splendide washer removal/repair/re-install.
So after putting the last 8 screws into the new plywood top piece, I went around to the outside dryer exhaust vent and removed the vent cap and released the hose clamp so the vent hose would come loose when I pull the washer out of the cabinet.
Next I removed the doors and then the bottom retaining bar. Then I put my newly upgraded dolly into place in front of the cabinet and started pulling the waster out using the canvas straps I installed several repairs ago.
The washer came out pretty smoothly into the hallway. At this point I had planned to unhook all the hoses and cables and roll it out into the kitchen But I decided to just take the top off right there
With 4 screws out the lid came off and the fuse was right in front of me.
And a quick check with the ohmmeter showed me that the Thermal Fuse Unit (indicated by the red arrow) was indeed bad. It only took a couple of minutes to replace the bad one with a new one, leaving me one more spare for next time.
With the lid back on, I was ready to slide the washer/dolly over to the opening and then things went bad. A design flaw showed up.
The platform I built just sits on top of the dolly and is not fastened down. I figured the weight of the washer would keep it stable. I didn’t want to fasten the two parts together
I was wrong.
As I pushed it into place one of the dolly wheels hung up on something and the platform and washer fell off the dolly. I was able to stop it from hitting the floor but it ended up on its side, jammed between the fridge and the cabinet opening.
Bummer!
It took me another 45 minutes or so to get things back in place and the washer finally started into the cabinet. I did do one thing right, though.
To make it easier to slide the washer into the cabinet, I sprayed silicon lubricant onto the cabinet floor along the pathway of the rubber feet.
And this worked great. The washer slide in smooth as silk. I’ll have to remember this for next time. Back in, I went outside and pulled the vent hose out through the opening.
I told Jan I was either wildly confident, or forgetful, but I immediately started a washer load without actually testing the dryer first, but luckily for me, everything worked fine.
For both the first and second loads. But I think I’ll wait a few days before I put the doors back on. Wouldn’t want to jinx it.
For dinner tonight we finished off the last of Jan’s Chicken Vegetable Soup. Like a lot of dishes like this, it gets better the second day.
Tomorrow for lunch, it’s back to Barth’s for Jan’s favorite Turkey & Dressing and Fried Chicken. Then it’s back to work on a gate tomorrow night.
November 12, 2017
Made In The Shade . . .
I noticed that, unlike our previous movie dates, Jan didn’t seem especially enthusiastic about going to see Blade Runner 2049. I figured that at least part of the problem was the fact that the movie itself is 2 hours, 44 minutes long. So with coming attractions, we’d probably be looking at over 3 hours.
And since the movie didn’t even start until 4:40pm, it would be almost 8pm before we were out, and going on 9pm before we got home. And since Jan often falls asleep on the sofa around 7:30, the movie might be problematic.
So I asked her to tell me the truth, did she really want to see the movie? After hesitating a couple of seconds and said, “Noooo.” She then said she was only going because she knew I wanted to see it, and in fact, she didn’t even like the first one. She said it was too dark and dismal, and it was always raining. Well, that’s the first I’m hearing about it in the 25 years since it came out.
I mean, how can you not like “Time to Die” speech?
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.
What a lot of people don’t know is that Rutger Hauer, playing replicant Roy Batty, ad-libbed a large part of this. The scripted speech was much longer, but Hauer cut out most of the lines, and then added in the last two lines, leaving this.
It’s been said that at the end of the scene, after a few moments of stunned silence, the film crew erupted in applause, amid a lot of tears.
I may just catch the 10am show by myself Wednesday morning if I can.
Since the movie wouldn’t be taking up our afternoon, I decided this would be a good time to remove one of our window awnings to see about getting new ones made for our rig. I figured I’d take down one of the small rear window ones to take into a local shop.
First off I started by clamping the flange that connects to the torsion spring. This allows me to control the unwinding of the spring.
Next I removed the screw that fastens the flange to the tube.
Then I pulled the flange off the arm while holding the vice grips to keep the spring from unwinding. After lowering the arm to the side of the rig, I carefully unwound the spring, counting the turns so I would know how many turns to rewind it.
At this point I put the now-loosened flange back on the arm.
This let me now drill out the rivets so I could remove the spring.
Now pulling the tube from the other end, I could pull it off the bottom of the awning fabric.
So now I should have been able to pull the fabric off the top rail, but it wouldn’t budge. So I removed the screw right above the rail that holds the first link of the cover in place.
This let me pull the fabric and the cover segment out from the other side.
This let me see that the reason the fabric wouldn’t come out is the fact that the rail was crimped on each end.
Normally if they want to lock the fabric in place they just use a small screw through the rail and into the fabric.
But after I use a screwdriver and a pair of pliers to open the channel, the fabric slide right out.
So Tuesday, I’ll take it over to a marine canvas shop in Kemah to see what they can do. So hopefully the rig will soon look like this.
Tomorrow it’s back to work.
November 12, 2018
Brrrr! Cold . . .
Another Monday at work. I finished working on the one machine using a new shielded cable that I picked up over the weekend. And I also finished adding the First Class rates to the Shipping program
Now it’s just a matter of prettying it up and then start testing it, trying to break it by entering unexpected or weird values, like ‘aa’ for the package weight, or ‘1sf43’ for the Zip Code.
Tomorrow morning, at 10:15, I have my first session of PDT (Photodynamic Therapy) at the Dermatologist office. Back in September I found out that the patchy, scaliness on my head was not eczema or psoriasis, but actually actinic keratosis, a pre-cursor for Squamous Cell Carcinomas.
And long-time readers will remember that back in July 2014 I had a Squamous Cell Cancer removed from my head while we were up in Elkhart, IN. So it fits, I guess. So now I’ll have the PDT procedure to head off any further complications.
They’ll coat my head with a chemical in the form of a liquid or cream, let it dry for 30 to 60 minutes, and then expose the area to a special wavelength blue light. The pre-cancerous areas absorb the chemical more than the non-cancerous areas, and when the light is used, the chemical activates and burns the selected areas out, leaving me with a somewhat severe sunburn for a few days.
So if my head doesn’t catch fire, I will have to wear sunscreen and a hat (which I already do) for a few weeks. Then in another month, I’ll have to do it again. And hopefully that will be the end of it.
At least this time I shouldn’t end up with another big divot in my head like I did when the Squamous Cell Cancer was removed. At least I hope not.
Assuming I survive the procedure, and it’s not after 2:30, we’ll have brunch/lunch at the new Snooze- An AM Eatery
Brandi, et. al, have started planning the upcoming Thanksgiving meal. Plus Jan will be Landon-sitting most of next week, with Landon out of school.
Brandi’s going to take him to work with her on Monday, then I’ll take Jan up there Monday night and drop her off to look after Landon until Thursday when I go back up for Thanksgiving dinner and then bring her home.
So it’ll be just me and Karma again.
It’s going to be Brrrr! Cold here for the next couple of days, at least for the Houston area. We’re looking at 37° tonight (Monday) with a high of 47 tomorrow and then down to 34 Tuesday and 32° Wednesday night.
So I’m really glad our new Lasko heater is working out, plus our old Lasko is still hanging in there, maybe because it heard I was getting ready to rip it apart if it didn’t start working.
November 12, 2019
40° and Raining . . .
With a full schedule of errands Jan and I were on our way up to Webster to have first have brunch at Snooze once again. One of our favorite places, and we go often enough so we’re recognized every time.
Next up was a stop at the Webster Post Office for Christmas stamps. There was a line out the lobby door and only one clerk working. So it was a slow process, but it was sped up by the fact that several people got fed up and just left.
Then it was on up the Interstate for WalMart visit for a few things. I did get a slightly larger tarp to cover the truck windshield. I’m hoping that this won’t be needed, since I really hoping that my oil leak is fixed. But it makes such a mess of the windshield that it’s worth not taking a chance.
Next up was stop right across the street at the Sam’s for fill up the truck. The price has been holding steady at $1.97 for a few weeks now. And probably will through the Thanksgiving travel days.
Our next stop was supposed to be me dropping Jan off the Friendswood SuperCuts to get her hair cut. Then I would go back down to Estrella’s to get mine done. But her SuperCuts was closed for some reason, so she read in the truck while I got mine done.
After that we stopped off at the nearby Kroger to pick up some stuff for Chris and Linda. They don’t have a Kroger near them in Kingsland so we always have a shopping list for them when we visit.
Finishing there we had planned to go right across the street to get the truck washed for the trip, but by then it was after 5pm and they were closed. Maybe tomorrow.
Finally heading back toward Santa Fe, Jan remembered a TGF Hair Salon right next to the HEB on FM646 so we stopped there so she could get her hair done.
And now she has a new favorite place for her to get her hair done. She really liked her cut, so she got the girl’s card and she’ll be going back.
Tomorrow I’m going to take off a little early because I’ve still go a number of things I need to get done before we leave on Thursday morning.
And these are things I would normally be doing the morning before we leaving on a trip, like disconnecting us from sewer and water, letting in the awnings, picking up the leveler pads, etc.
But it’s now supposed to be 40° and raining Thursday morning, so the more I can get done tomorrow night, the better. Hopefully all I’ll have to do is disconnect power, pulling in the slide, pull out of the site, connect up the toad, and be on our way.
And to help that along, I did a trial run, pulling in the slide this morning, and it worked fine. So hopefully it’ll still work Thursday morning.
But you never know with a 20 year old RV.
November 12, 2020
The Kindness of Strangers . . .
I spent the morning wading through the paperwork and website info, much of it contradictory. trying to figuring out how to get our new Jeep registered and tagged in South Dakota.
I even called two different offices, the state DMV and the Minnehaha County version, getting pointed to two different sets of ‘necessary’ forms to be filled out.
And all of this aggravation was to save $55. Which is what Dakota Post, our South Dakota mailing address company charges to process all the paperwork for you.
So tomorrow I have a 11:30am phone call appointment with them to take it all off my hands. At this point I’ll consider it money well spent.
I guess I got spoiled when I originally registered/tagged the Dakota and our American Eagle back in 2007/2008 when we were using the late, lamented My Dakota Address as our mailing service. They didn’t charge anything since Terri Lund just walked it over the courthouse right next door.
But My Dakota Address went out of business a couple of years ago, so we switched over to Dakota Post in Sioux Falls.
About a month ago I ordered Jan a used copy of this World Geography high school textbook, since she’s always been fascinated by the subject and wanted to do some more reading on the subject.
And then about 2 weeks later we received another copy of the book, also addressed to us. But the invoice inside the box said it was for a address in a small town in Iowa.
After failing to contact either the seller or the buyer, I decided to just send it on to Iowa. I included a letter telling what had happened, and saying that if he was feeling generous he could send me a $5 bill,to cover the $4.92 book rate postage. Otherwise, don’t worry about it.
Well, today I got letter back from the gentleman, thanking me for forward his daughter’s high school textbook to him. He said that her school wasn’t letting them have textbooks at home during the CoVid homeschooling. And he included a $10 bill, telling me to buy myself a Shiner or a Lone Star Beer, or “whatever it is you guys drink in the Lone Star state.”
Does Coke Zero count?
Nice guy.
Another thing that showed up in the mail today was our missing South Dakota Absentee Ballots, only about two weeks late. Way to go, USPS!
November 11, 2021
Under The Knife
or Adventures in ACDF.
Our faithful readers may have noticed that for the last month or so my blogs have been short, spotty and even non-existent.
Well, there’s a reason for that.
About six weeks ago, I went to bed one night feeling fine, no problems that I knew of, and then woke up the next morning with a stiff, sore neck. And during the rest of the day, in fact the next 24 hours or so, I pretty much became, I guess you could say, severely handicapped. And I have the newly-issued blue handicapped placard to show for it
I have difficulty walking. My legs are weak and rubbery and I have no sense of balance so I have to have some sort of support when I’m when I’m walking. And, unfortunately my legs weren’t the only problem actually.
The upper part of my body is worse. I’ve lost pretty much all feeling in my hands. I have no grip strength, and my arms won’t go up any higher than my shoulders. And this goes back to why the blogs have been so spotty, because I really can’t really type anymore. I’ve gone from being a fairly accurate, fast touch-typist, to falling back on hunt and peck, which has degenerated into hit or miss with emphasis on the ‘miss’.
I cannot feel if the keys have been pressed, I have to watch each key press, so each blog every night has been pretty much as far as stuff that I comment or say, been pretty much an exercise in futility.
To help write this I’ve been using an Android app called Otter, which is a very good, and free, Speech To Text converter. It allows me to dictate my thoughts and export them as text files via email, which I then paste into the blog.
At this point, I’m using a walking stick, called that because I refuse to call it a cane yet.
It’s one of a set that Jan and I took to Europe back in 2019. And so that gives me enough support to kind of weeble-wobble along, as Jan calls it, from place to place as I do now.
I also purchased one of those rollators, I.e. wheeled walkers, that you can sit in when you need to. I bought that specifically for when we went to the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit last month. And it worked great.
And I had planned to use it at the Nutcracker Christmas Market today, as well. But Jan and Brandi cajoled, I.e., threatened me into not going, and just resting up for tomorrow. More about that in a minute.
But I will use it for our second Van Gogh exhibit on the 21st of this month, if necessary.
Now to the cause of all this.
So after two sets of X-Rays, and MRI’s on my cervical and lumbar areas, it shows severe deterioration at the C4-5, C5-6, and C6-7 areas of my neck, as well as the L4-5 and L5-S1 areas in my lower back.
In other words, it seems my spine has started to come apart at the top and the bottom.
Now according to the radiologist report, some of the damage may be ‘congenital’, which to me means ‘from birth’. So it took 73 years to show up?
But when I ask my neurosurgeon about that, he said it really just means ‘a long time ago’.
Now it’s true that in my ‘wild and crazy’ youth, in my ‘PJ’ era, (Pre-Jan. Somehow, ‘BJ’, Before Jan, just doesn’t work here.) I got, well, let’s just say, majorly banged up a couple of times. And when I explained those circumstances to my doctor, he agreed that they might be a contributing factor.
But that’s all under the bridge now.
However, the most important thing he said was that, due to the fast progression of the symptoms, I was at risk of becoming a paraplegic, or even a quadriplegic, if something wasn’t done pretty quickly.
Not words you want to hear, believe me. So I was happy to hear that my Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF) was being scheduled for the following Friday, November 5th.
Breaking it down, Anterior means they get to your spine by going in through your neck under your chin. Cervical means in the neck area. Discectomy means removing a disc, and Fusion means fusing the vertebrae back together afterwards.
Now, in hindsight, and reading about the symptoms caused by disc deterioration, it seems that I’ve actually been experiencing some indications of the coming problem. But in my case, never having been 73 before, I attributed them to the fact that this was what being 73 was supposed to feel like.
My symptoms are caused by the deteriorating discs, the pads separating the vertebrae segments, coming apart and bulging against the spinal cord that runs down the center of the spine. In addition there may also be bone spurs involved, small bone growths also pressing against the spinal cord.
So the procedure will consist of cutting a hole in my neck, probably on the left side, to avoid the esophagus, and then scraping out the bad discs on the 3 levels, C4-5, C5-6, and C6-7, and removing any bone spurs they find.
After the missing discs are replaced with plastic carriers containing a slice of cadaver bone, I will be bolted back together, using a titanium strap and screws.
Titanium, because it is inert to the body, and doesn’t show up on airport scanners, though some people have said this was not so for them.
So instead of “I see dead people”, I guess it’s going to be, “I am dead people”.
The titanium strap is actually only there to hold everything together until the cadaver bone and my vertebrae grow together and fuse into one solid piece. To facilitate this, I will use a bone growth stimulator on my neck for 30 minutes several times a day for a couple of weeks or so..
And I will have to wear one of those hard plastic cervical collars for two weeks afterwards, which means I won’t be able to drive during that time. So Jan will take over driving duties for a while.
As I said, under the circumstances, I was happy to hear that my surgery was scheduled for the following Friday, the 5th of November. But that was not to be.
At the Pre-Op conference on the Thursday before, it was suddenly discovered that . . . Oops, my surgery not been scheduled at all. And that there were no openings until the following Friday, the 12th. In other words, tomorrow.
Major finger pointing between the doctor’s office and the hospital going on.
I’m not a happy camper, believe me. Especially since my symptoms have been progressively worsening during the ‘lost’ week. And the longer things go on, the more possible it is that some of the nerve damage might be permanent.
So tomorrow’s the big day, and I was supposed to be at the hospital at 6am, but I just got a call a few minutes ago, pushing it back to 5:30am.
Well, I wanted it as soon as possible so I guess I can’t complain.
What’s funny is that though Jan is allowed to visit me during visiting hours, she’s not even allowed to wait ANYWHERE in the hospital during the operation, except the parking lot. So she’ll come home and wait for me to call when I’m out of recovery and in my room, I’ll call her to come up. And even though I had to have a CoVid test to be operated on, Jan doesn’t need one to visit me.
Though this is nominally a one-day outpatient operation, my neurosurgeon wants to keep me overnight to monitor changes in my nerve symptoms. So though my 3 hour procedure should be over before noon tomorrow, I won’t get released until sometime Saturday.
Finally, I can’t say enough about my beautiful wife and how supportive she’s been in all this. I know it’s probably trite, but she has been my rock. I don’t know how I could have gotten through this as well as I have without her help.
Sweetie, I love you so much!
