Our RV Adventures

Jan’s doing great, slowly getting her strength back. It’s just going to take time for her to get back to 100%.

We pretty much just laid around the rig today and never even went outside. I tried to get up the gumption to go outside and do the awnings, but no luck. I’ll try again tomorrow, I guess.

My BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo) that first hit me a few weeks ago seems to be slowly fading. Every reoccurrence has been less in intensity, and due to Jan’s illness I never got a chance to start the Canalith Repositioning Exercises to combat it.

The last time I noticed anything was a small swirl when I got out of bed a couple of days ago and that was it. So as it stands right now I’m not going to worry about it unless it comes back.

I’m relearning Spanish

I recently came across a new Android app (iOS and Windows Phone too)  that’s fun, addictive, and educational 

And Free. I forgot free. (Well, it’s free if you watch an ad now and then)

It’s called Duolingo and it’s a fun, addic . . . I already said that, didn’t I. Anyway it’s a fast way to learn a new language.

Developed a Carnegie-Mellon University and funded by a McArthur Fellowship and a National Science grant, it can teach you one of 23 different languages with 22 more coming online soon.

Although I had 3 years of German in high school and college, I don’t have a lot use for it now. And though I never had any formal classes in Spanish, I became pretty fluent during the almost two years we lived in Colombia, South America when I was 13 – 14. In fact my younger sister, who was about a year old when we moved down there, grew up speaking Spanish as well as English.

But we both forgot it when we moved back to the states and didn’t use it anymore. However when we spent a week in Puerto Vallarta in 1997, I noticed that it came back fairly quickly, and then faded just as fast when we got back. So I thought Spanish would be a good place to start, and of more use to me than German.

The lessons are short exercises in subjects like Food, Animals, Clothing, Phrases, etc. that increase in difficulty as you progress. The app monitors your errors, corrects you, and reintroduces the question at a later time to double-check that you’ve retained the correction.

And there’s no memorizing verb declensions and vocabulary lists. You literally just pick it up as you go along.

Check it out. Maybe you’ll learn something.

The Headline of the Day: Chelsea Clinton denies worshipping Satan.

Thought for the Day:

Jan really relished her first night back in her own bed. She’s getting around better and better all the time.

But her favorite thing was to be able to take a shower again, the first one since Monday morning before she got sick.

About 12:30 Jan got a call from Clear Lake Regional Hospital asking about her recent stay, and also giving her the login info for MyHealthOne, the hospital website area that has shows all of the tests done and the results, procedures done, and diagnoses.

Really helpful for Jan since she likes to document everything. We also got the phone number of her urologist so she can set up her appointments for next Wednesday and Friday.

About 4pmwe headed out for dinner at Phở 20 and then HEB for some supplies.

This visit to Phở 20 we both went for something a little different. Or course we did start out with our favorite House Crunch Salads.

Then, both wanting soup of some kind, we got the White Meat Chicken Phở with added veggies.

Normally their phở comes with the broth, the slices of white meat chicken, and rice vermicelli noodles. Then there’s the garnish on the side.

This gives you jalapenos, cilantro, Thai basil, bean sprouts, and squeeze of lime juice. All great additions.

After tonight this phở has become my new favorite dish here. Well, along with the House Crunch Salad, or course. I’ve always liked soups, Hot & Sour at King Food, Chicken Tortilla Soup at Monterey’s, etc., so this is a great addition to my choices.

One thing kind of interesting about Jan’s stay was the nurse anesthesiologist  who came by on Tuesday to put a stent in for the anesthesia for Jan’s procedure the next day.

Just talking, she ask if we were from around here. And when I told her that we had a house here, but that we were really full time RV’ers. She turned around with a big smile and gave me a fist bump, saying, “So are we.â€

Turns out she’s a contract nurse. She and her husband are semi-snowbirds, spending summers in the New England area and winters down south. But pretty every season is spent in a different area of the country. Then where ever they are, she has no problem getting a job at a local hospital.

Neat!

Looks like the weather this weekend will be nice enough for me to reinstall my rear awning and then take down the big one on the passenger side to take over to Sundowner and pick up the other rear one,

The Headline of the Day:  There are 340 canine stylist in Hollywood.

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