Category Archives: Elements of Truth

March Madness & Hair

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At this time every year, I acquire a strong interest in NCAA basketball. This is when it gets exciting. Yesterday I watched #12 Oregon beat #5 Oklahoma and #1 Gonzaga beat #15 Southern University. Oregon cruised to a win while Gonzaga had a tougher game making the halftime announcers wonder if they have the moxie to live up to their #1 ranking. I heard one announcer say that, “at this point in time, the world is flat” in the world of NCAA basketball meaning the ranking doesn’t mean a thing. That’s an apt description because no matter what the odds makers predict, each game is up for grabs. Take the #15 Florida Gulf Coast University’s win over #2 Georgetown … sweet win for them. FGCU is a new school in only their 2nd year of eligibility and they played like a seasoned team. Fun to watch.

Now I’m gearing up for tomorrow’s games for Oregon and Gonzaga.

OK – enough about basketball. I’m sure that the 3 or 4 of you who read this are already engaged in this yearly event. Maybe it’s only two of you. I don’t remember.

Due to an inordinate amount of criticism from Linda, I’ve decided to abandon my estrogen therapy. Hopefully the one breast I’ve developed will deflate allowing me to once again wear my manly shirts. You just can’t imagine how silly I look wearing just half a bra. I’d add a picture but Diane won’t take one.

My beard is coming along nicely despite the estrogen. I may have already mentioned that it’s soft enough that Diane quit complaining about it. She just doesn’t like the way I comb it. All that’s left on my bucket list now, with regard to hair, to grow a pony tail. The estrogen therapy slowed things down a bit but, thankfully, didn’t stop the hair from growing completely. I would like to kickstart a growth spurt with some testosterone but I don’t know anyone who has extra. Most of the guys I know barely have enough for themselves, let alone an excess which they could loan a friend in need.

No doubt you’ve guessed that I really didn’t ingest any estrogen. Diane didn’t think it would be a good idea for us both to be wearing panties. And the half a bra thing? Pure fiction. I’d never, ever cut a bra in half. Unless it was for an art project.

I finally used my new saw today and have all the baseboards cut for the bedroom. It took a while to get all the paint off the two boards I bought from the Restore place, but not nearly as long as it’s taken Doug to get his laundry room project done. Just saying … Now I need to go buy some extra shoe molding to finish it all off. Then all I need to do is put a finish coat on the many pieces, and nail them into place.

Bored? Me too. Time for bed.

Gout & Other Terminal Illnesses

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It’s a sad state of affairs when a serious case of life threatening gout settles in ones’ left big toe making it necessary to limp AND use a cane to remain vertical. Yes, I’ve had it before, and survived, but I’m not sure about this time. I’m on day three now so time is short.

The cause, I’m almost positive, is the 3-4 pounds of shrimp surrounded by as many pounds of Zhen’s special lo mien noodles. Understand, I didn’t ask for that much, but that’s what I got and I know better than to upset a Chinese cook.

It took me two days to devour all of it, but I did it. And, it was really good. I must admit that I inflated the amount of shrimp, but not the noodles. This batch or noodles had beef, chicken, pork, and shrimp, unlike the noodles I had two weeks ago that came with only shrimp, with straight shrimp. That batch didn’t bother me at all so I’m thinking that maybe the problem this time is with the beef. Whichever it was, it’s really doing its job this time. Diane’s getting seriously tired of my moaning all the time and keep trying to get me to take some drugs. But, I refuse because I’d rather writhe in pain, on my death bed, my current state, than to get hooked on ibuprofen. No sir, not me.

Actually, the toe is getting better, but I’m not holding my breath for a total cure. But, this afternoon I was able to walk a little further without my cane than I could previously. Walking with a cane is something that should be taught in school with an eye on the future for students who have the prospect of living to an old age because they will need it. Learning when a person is old, and already teetering when vertical, is extremely difficult for some of us.

I thought I had another terminal ailment today, hence the title, but it turned out to be a false alarm. I just had gas. Lots of it.

Myanmar Checks In

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I have evidence that there are at least 75 people, in the world from 22 different countries, who made the mistake of looking at my blog. Most of them show restraint and only looked once but there were 17 who looked from Myanmar. I suspect the 17 looks happened because one person found this by mistake and talked to her friend.  Their conversaion probably went something like this …

“Hey Mya, look at this please and tell me what it is this person is trying to say.”

“I’m sure I do not know, Nu,”  Mya responded. “Maybe Than can figure it out. He is such a whiz at this kind of thing.” For clarification, Than is Nu’s boyfriend. Of course I’m guessing … he may be Mya’s boyfriend. Surely he’s someone’s boyfriend.

As a result of that brief conversation, Than contacted 14 of his friends seeking wizdom about what the “crazy American” is bantering about, but none of them knew. Consequently, they never returned. That makes me sad. Again, I’m guessing that they don’t know because I don’t get a lot of feedback from folks who read this either by mistake, or on purpose. Probably no news is good news in that regard.

I’m honored that they visited once, much less 17 times. And I regret that they couldn’t figure out what I was talking about. Now I’ll probably go to bed tonight wondering how I could word things differently so everyone in the world can make sense of what I’m trying to share. I’ll add a request to anyone that comes up with a reasonable answer to please reply because I’ve been wondering myself. For a long time. Diane has been wondering a lot longer than a long time. As soon as she finds the answer I fear she will leave. Therefore, I must keep her guessing, so please play along …

Additionally, 13 from Great Britain, and 9 from Canada checked in, and I appreciate that. There was also one person from Chile who, I think, replied to one of my entries to explain how confused she was about my entry. I think it was about my comparison of Twighlight & Hunger Games. I can’t remember if that was one of my lucid moments, or not. I’ll never know because I rarely read anything I write. Once it leaves my fingers, I’m generally done with it.

Closer to home, Diane’s computer is still giving her fits. I believe I mentioned that yesterday. Tomorrow we’ll find out if it’s the internet, or not, because I’m getting rid of the DSL and going back to cable. I suspect all of you are just thrilled to know this.

The problem, you see, is that cable totally spoiled us because it got to the point where it was so blazing fast it actually burned my fingers. Shifting to DSL was a $$ consideration, but we’ve decided that it was a bad, bad move. Well, Diane decided it was a bad move beause her really old computer just doesn’t function well on DSL. That, and her Hotmail account was hacked, which she thinks is related to the DSL connection. Maybe she’s right. Anyway, it’s a valid reason to switch back to something a little more speedy that will allow us to view a video without having it pause at critical moments during the streaming process.

Today we enjoyed another quiet day visiting with Diane’s Mom, Jean. We did this after church, and a stop at KFC for some dead chicken. The ulterior motive was to view the last two episodes of NCIS which we missed because our DirecTV service was, for an unexplained reason, off the air for a long period of time. Just for selected channels, like the ones we enjoy watching. So, we sat around Mom’s table eating dead chicken, potatoes, gravy and coleslaw, then retired to the living room to see how good she was with her Comcast remote control. Turns out she’s pretty darn good at it.

Now we’re home, and I’m going to watch the last half of “John Carter of Mars” while Diane’s watching one of the 15 HGTV shows she records. Maybe it’s only 10. Either way, I’ll surely be in trouble when she reads this.

Cheers.

The 2nd Day After

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Wow! It’s Saturday and I just woke up! The last thing I remember was eating Thanksgiving dinner last Thursday then sitting down on the couch for a nap afterward. I’m not sure if I even went to bed. I’ll have to wait until Diane gets up to find out.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. With the exception of Alan, Alicia, Arianna, Bob, Brian, Carol, Cheryl, Chris, Daniel, DanYell, Donna, Gene, Greg, Heather, Heather, Jack, Jay, Jeff, Jeffrey, Jerrie, Jim, Julia, Juliette, Kathie, Larry, Laura, Logan, Martin, Maryssa, Mike, Ray, Ruth, Sarah, Shene, Shirley, Steffani, Steven, Susan, Tianna, Tyler, Wynette, and Valerie, a large pat of the Cate clan, was at our house. I know … I missed a few, but remember, I’ve been unconscious for about 36 hours. I think. Two that I know I missed live in Arizona, they’re young, and I’ve never met them, so I have a reason.

Those who made it to dinner were  Bailee, Cedric, Daniel, Diane, Gilligan, Jean, Jeran, Jerrie, Jennifer, and Lydia. I know. It’s sad that those who attended only made it up to the “L’s”, but we all had a good time and there was plenty of food. Like normal. And, we were all able to sit at the same table. I heard that somewhere in Connecticut a crowd of 25 was expected. Nothing has been heard from that part of the world since the holiday. Perhaps they, too, are still sleeping.

 Back to reality …

Since Diane didn’t get up until 10am or so, I didn’t get any work done this morning. I would have, but we had a date at the Walters house to watch the Oregon vs. Oregon State civil war football game. The entire Walters household are dedicated Ducks fans, as are we most of the time. Today, however, to ensure I backed a winner, I dressed for the occasion,

Either way I was a winner. However, as Dan pointed out, either way I was also a loser. Not only is that just a mean thing to say, I thought it was inappropriate for a son-in-law to call his well respected father-in-law a loser. I didn’t pursue that for two reasons; I like Daniel, and he’s way bigger than me. Just a friendly pat on the back from Daniel can be fatal. Oh, there’s third reason, too … what he said was totally true. When dressing  I failed to consider both sides of that coin. Truly, my heart was with the Ducks who won handily.

After the game Diane took me home and forced me to change into some work clothes so I could see about fixing the leak around her Mom’s (Jean’s) chimney before it starts raining again. On the way to Mom’s house we stopped by ACE to get the supplies I thought I might need. I had to rush because the light was fading fast and I’m just not comfortable tramping around on anyone’s roof in the dark.

After a thourough inspection of the chimney flashing I discovered that much of it was loose allowing water to seep in and leak into the garage. This is kinda what I suspected and was prepared for it. That was unusual because generally I’m never prepared to fix anything until I see what I’m dealing with. Doing things this way allows me to make multiple trips to ACE Hardware in order to effect a solution. I don’t know what came over me that caused me to obtain a solution before I knew what the problem was. It was kind of mind boggling.

One of the reasons we went to Dan’s and Jen’s to watch the football game was because we have DirecTV service which doesn’t carry the Pac-12 Network. It’s the only provider that doesn’t. But, by not being able to watch it at home we were treated to a terrific afternoon. It was very relaxing for us both. But, because of DirecTV’s obstinance in making the Pac-12 Network available, I’m switching to Comcast. That means I will also switch our internet provider from CenturyLink back to Comcast. CenturyLink is cheap because it’s really, really slow. Diane isn’t pleased.

Speaking of Diane … her computer is currently going through it’s third malware scan because something(body) hacked her email and/or her computer. The first scan found 146 malicious items. The second found 40+. The third has only found 2 so far. But, the security software won’t run because something has apparently imbedded itself so deep into the system that online solutions suggest that we just reformat the hard drive and reinstall windows. If it comes to that, I’ll just get her another computer because this one is 5 years old and I’m surprised that it’s still working. Actually, that’s a terrible lie. It’s been working well for all these years but I have had to reset it to OOB condition. That means Out Of the Box, as in brand new. I hate to do that, however, because of all the security patches involved in getting it to where it is now. There’s hundreds of them. I don’t know if I have the energy. Perhaps I’ll just set up the laptop in front of her and see if she notices. It would be lots cheaper to do that. Yes, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll leave it to her to let you know how things go with that.

Now for some good news … Tom called this afternoon and we had a nice visit. He’s home, didn’t have hiccups any longer, and he’s getting around with just one cane. This is amazing and it makes Diane and I so happy. While discussing the blessing of being rid of the hiccups, he started hiccupping, again. I can only believe that I jinxed him by talking about it. Makes me feel real bad, but I gave him Diane’s hiccup solution which he said he’s going to try. She just eats a marshmellow. I hope it works, Tom.

While talking with Tom I discovered that he’s one of the five people that read this. I’m blessed.

Dreams and Diane’s New Vacuum Cleaner

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Today started out nicely because I found a pair of work pants that has knees. Diane hides them so I’ll wear out the ones that don’t. This causes two irreversible problems … my knees always look dirty (but they really aren’t … honest) and whatever washcloth I use in the shower becomes permanently stained the color of whatever kind of dirt I was kneeling in. Red dirt is always the worst. As luck would have it, I should have used my kneeless pants because all I did was lay under the “new” motorhome and get rust in my eyes while loosening bolts on the rear gas tank brackets. I may explain this at a later date. To do this required that I lay on my back so I didn’t even get my pants dirty. They’re good for another couple of weeks, now.

Another plus today was Diane got up early and had coffee ready for me. She hadn’t, however, let the dogs out. Had she done that, I may have caught another hour or so of sleep.

The first thing Diane made me do was help make the bed after I’d ingested a couple cups of coffee. I don’t mind helping with chores because that’s something I normally do. In fact, I get in trouble all the time for taking over a task Diane is doing, that she wants to do, and she yells at me. Really loudly, too. Sometimes I’m afraid the neighbors will call the police for domestic abuse, or something. But they don’t so maybe it’s not as loud as I seem to think it is. As you may already know, my mind plays tricks on me like that.

This afternoon we received the new vacuum cleaner Diane ordered on eBay. Yes, it’s really new, too. Not like the old $10 Rainbow she’s been using for the past 3-4 years. No sir. This one is either brand spanking new, or it’s been cleaned really well and sprayed with something that smells like a new vacuum cleaner. It’s very quiet, compared to the old Rainbow. This afternoon, while lunch was cooking, we tried it out. That’s why we know it’s quiet. It’s also easy to use, so now I might not have to vacuum all the time. I will, however, volunteer if necessary.

It’s good the vacuum showed up because it’s been about 3 months since the Rainbow died. Things are getting a little dicey around here, but I didn’t notice. Diane told me that so I took a shower thinking that would solve the problem. Apparently that hasn’t been working well.

I took a picture of this butterfly in disguise that was rushing across Diane’s bedside rug before we vacuumed it. 

 

That is, of course an out and out lie. It wasn’t rushing at all. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t even moving. It just stood there looking at me, daring me to pick it up. Little did it know that I don’t pick up strange caterpillars in disguise. So, it was a pointless dare. When I was younger, maybe, but I’m not taking any chances this late in life with all those STDs flying around out there.

Oh yes. That’s not Diane’s bedside rug, either. It’s the one outside our back door that the dogs wipe their feet on before coming back into the house after running around in the soggy yard. I wish.

Now, let’s discuss something of great importance to me. I’ve been thinking about this for the last hour or so and it’s caused me to question even my reality. It’s about The Matrix, as in is it really our reality? I mean, are we all soaking in a tub of goo with tubes and wires stuffed into our arms and legs? I don’t know what caused this to leap into the viewable part of my brain, but it did. Perhaps it was another thought I had about how we all live in a time machine. Seriously. Close your eyes and think about that for a minute.

When you open them, write down all the places your mind just took you. If you don’t think it took you anywhere you must have distractions in your life. Try it in a quiet room. If that doesn’t work, you may need to go to Triple A and get some free maps to see what you’re missing.

When I close my eyes I can go anywhere I want. Mostly it’s places I’ve already been, doing things I’ve already done, but I get to pick the place when I’m awake. I don’t have a lot of control over where my mind takes me when I’m asleep but I do believe that when I’m dreaming, I’m really there. It’s so spooky that I’m always surprised when I don’t wet the bed.

OK … I didn’t mean to go there so things are going the wrong direction. I better quit.

Day 12 – Arizona Bound …

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The reunion is over and we we had an entire day to ourselves to recuperate from the stress of the last year and a half. Actually, the stress was all mine and it about drove Diane nuts.. My stress stressed her out to the point where she was just downright mean to me sometimes and that just made things worse. I just couldn’t make her understand that none of it was my fault. She would only calm down when I threatened to get a lawyer. I even told her I wanted a divorce, numerous times, but it did no good. She just doesn’t believe anything I tell her anymore. I suspect that’s probably because most of what exits my mouth is fiction. So, I’ve earned her distrust.

Even with all my antics over the past 44 years, 5 months, 15 days, 6 hours, and 27 minutes she’s still here. I find that amazing and I’m grateful, every day, that she still loves me. I think she loves me because she tells me she does and I believe pretty much everything she tells me.

As the title for this entry suggests, we’re heading east to Arizona, to prolong this summer just as long as possible. It’s 80 degrees out here near El Centro, California so we don’t expect to encounter any snow until we head north to take another peak at the Grand Canyon on our way home.

Yesterday, to relax, we went to Breakers Beach on NAS North Island, the northern tip of Coronado Island. It’s pretty close to one of the air strips, but it wasn’t noisy. Just about the right kind of noise to not be annoying. Reassuring noise of helicopters, and jets, letting us know we are were safe.

The beach is enormous and lies just north of the famous Hotel Del Coronado. It’s a peaceful place and perfect for relaxing. We set up our chairs on a patio about 1/4 mile from the water’s edge then I walked to the water with my horribly swollen, gout riddled big left toe. I learned that walking barefoot in loose sand with a foot like that is way harder, and more painful, than wearing tight shoes and walking on asphalt. But, I did it. I stood at the surf line and waited for the incoming tide to cover my feet. The water was so excruciatingly cold that once was enough, then I limped back to my chair, and my bride.

We went back to our room, ate supper and didn’t do a thing the rest of the evening.

This morning I cooked a dozen eggs and the larger part of a pound of bacon for breakfast. I did that because there wasn’t any room in the cooler to take them. And, we were hungry. That done, we packed our stuff and headed east around 1100. Stopped for some very expensive gas, got some on my face (don’t ask), went back to the lodge to wash, then away we went.

Changing Plans, a New Roof, and My Ditch

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Now I must be serious, at least for a short time. Most of you know that’s hard for me to do and will tolerate this diversion from the norm, so I only ask those of you who wound up here by mistake to please have patience while I make an attempt to shift some gears.

For some reason, at this point, speaking about gears, I’m compelled to insert a “vrooooooom” right here. Silly, I know, and it’s not going toward the serious side of things as I had intended.

The serious “stuff” is that Diane and I made a decision to remain on this side of the Rocky Mountains the remainder of this year. The original plan, as of this morning, was to drive to Charleston, SC to attend the annual USS Cleveland reunion, but some things got in the way of those plans, taking a trip east out of the plans. Therefore, we will miss seeing Charleston, as well as points north, as was our desire. To those of you in Connecticut, whom we love to pieces, we send our regrets. There will be another time, we promise.

Our roof is going to be replaced beginning next Thursday. From start to stop it’s going to be a 3-day event. Pretty amazing to me because it’s a total ripoff and replacement of 3 layers of shingles. Tons and tons of shingles. One of the biggest cost factors is disposal of the old material.

We’re extremely happy that Mark’s Custom Exteriors could rearrange their schedule to accommodate us before we have to head south on Sunday. Even though it’s cutting it close, we’ll be here to ensure every nail is hammered in properly. I’m going to do that be wandering around on the roof, putting a little “x” on each one of them with my handy magic marker. No nail gets covered up until I “x” it. Normally that would add 2-3 days to the job, but I’ve been practicing this and have devised a way to do it without all that bending over, or crawling around on my hands and knees. I’m simply going to pre-“x” them before they’re loaded into the nail gun. I know, it seems kind of pointless doesn’t it? But, just for fun I’m leaving some of the nails blank just to see if someone comes to get me to “x” it. I seriously doubt they will, and I will not complain because that would just be silly. Who would do something like that?

In a precious entry I reported that I was being allowed to rent a small excavator to enlarge the ditch I dug, manually, that’s intended to drain water away from our driveway, and keep it out of the garage. I know the ditch works but it needs to be deeper and I’m just flat out of the energy required to hammer my way through all those rocks and roots. As it is, I’ve succeeded in killing the tree whose roots I severed to reach the back yard, so it’s something I’ll have to address before the floods loosen it all up and it topples into the neighbor’s yard. It’s OK that I killed it, because I was going to cut it down anyway … it has a terrible knot-forming kind of disease that just doesn’t look good. The birds love it so Diane was kinda wanting to keep it, but I sood my manly ground and killed it anyway. Actually, I didn’t mean to kill it. It just kinda worked out that way. Apparently it’s OK because I’m still sleeping inside.

Weather … we haven’t had any measureable rain for the past 2 months. That’s unheard of in Oregon. We always have rain, right? Most people believe it rains in Oregon all the time. We get our share, for sure, but it’s a bit sparse this year. I think most of it was recently dumped on Louisiana and the surrounding area. The folks who moved here from California, and there are more than a few, think it’s just fine that we’re not having any rain because that’s what they’re used to. Real Oregonians, however, do not thrive well in dry weather. We get all wrinkly and it’s not pretty. We need moisture. Thankfully, Diane is an Avon representative so I have unlimited access to all kinds of moisturizers when I need them. Lots of them make me feel pretty, so I use them on rainy days, too.

I think it’s time to terminate, now, since I totally lost track of where I’m going with this. Truth is, I never had any certain direction in the first place. Just like normal.

Distractions

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I’m a victim of distractions as are most of us. We begin an activity with the honorable intention of seeing it through to completion, but it rarely happens because of one distraction or another. For most folks the distraction is usually an emergent important need while for the rest of us it could just be something shiny that catches our attention. Or, something moves at the extreme edge of our peripheral vision and we just have to see what it is. Or, one project simply melds seamlessly into another, and another, and another, etc … with the result that nothing gets completed and the original project is totally lost in the clutter of mental active. Frequently, I suffer grievously for those sins because all of the unfinished projects flash through my mind without solidifying into any kind of coherent memory which would thereby allow me to categorize them into a list that could be used to prioritize their completion. No, instead they manifest as little brief flashes of light with just a bit of meaning declaring them to be something I should be concerned about but disappear too quickly to comprehend before being replaced by the next flash.

After this happens for more than 15-20 minutes at a stretch I find it necessary to start talking to myself as a diversion to allow me to focus on something besides the flashes. Other people talking to me during these times have no affect which is the nature of the sins previously mentioned because I’ve been known to respond in a logical manner leading the questioner to believe I knew what I was saying and took my response as definitive thereby locking me into an agreement to either do, or not do a specific “thing” when, in fact, I have no memory of anyone speaking much less me answering. So, when the time comes for me to honor whatever obligation it is that I may have agreed to, and I don’t do it, or I did it and shouldn’t have, I’ve learned to take my punishment without whining too loudly. Loud whining is frowned upon. Actually, soft whining is frowned upon, as is mime whining where no sound is involved. It’s just body language. Some people just don’t communicate well when body language is involved.

At this point I’m going shrug my shoulders, roll my eyes, and quit.

Gout and Other Fatal Ailments

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Greetings to you all from the middle of nowhere, on the outskirts of Vernonia.

Camping is going well, but the temperature soared to about 105 degrees today. A good time to be on the interior of anything that has a working air conditioner. Since Diane took me to my VA physical therapy this morning, A/C for us wasn’t an issue. But it was for the tent campers, with whom we share our space, who suffered the brunt of the heat. They went for a ride in their car to escape it while we were gone, but Oz was trapped in the RV with just a fan running. So, we talked the tent dwellers through an emergency start of the A/C system so Ozzie would be comfortable in our absence. The tent dwellers took advantage of this new turn of events and stayed inside with Ozzie to ensure he was getting the full benefit of the A/C’s blissful cooling nature. It was a benefit to all of them.

After my physical therapy appointment, to address my persistent, crippling hip and leg pain. The therapist, Jed, was a new one and was assisted by Rebecca, who is attending Boston College and is doing her PT internship at the Portland VA Hospital. Whew! Jed is therapist who concentrates on bones, not just muscles, and he fixed me up and I walked out of there without limping. I was so amazed that we went to Elmers to celebrate by having breakfast. We had pancakes & eggs with Bacon (Diane) and Sausage (me). Diane’s bacon wasn’t cooked long enough so we brought it home. When cooking bacon for Diane, one must test it by holding it approximately 6 inches above a clean plate, and dropping it. If it just lands, without fanfare, it’s not cooked enough. If it shatters like a plate glass window, it’s just right. She didn’t send it back. We put it in a box and brought it back to the camp ground.

On the way, we stopped at the Fred Meyers located at the intersection of Highway 26 and Cornelius Pass Road. It’s a bigun. All I was after was earplugs for Jennifer so she could sleep because Daniel sleeps very loudly.

When we returned to the campground, we sat in the incredible heat for a very short while, then piled into the buick for a ride to a park by the Nehalem River in Vernonia so the boys could get wet. They did that while the rest of us sat in the sweltering heat by the river. Granted, we had an option to get into the river, but declined. Instead I, personally, napped in my chair. When I awoke the shade was gone and the sun shined brightly on the exposed parts of my tender body. It made me sweat. A lot. Panzee accompanied us and also found it necessary to take one step too many and fell into the river. Then she stood in front of everyone and shook it all off. Quite amusing.

Finally, after Jeran finished his marathon swim about 100 yards down the middle of the placid river, we returned to the campground to release Ozzie from his nice air conditioned motor home.

Here’s Jeran’s triumphant return …

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All that riding caused my hip/leg pain to return with the added benefit of gout in my left big toe. Nice. After the adults watched me walking around, trying to figure out which leg to limp on, I was given permission to sit for a little while before being forced back up to cook supper. We had hamburgers with all the trimmings. Since I forgot the little BBQ grill, I used our electric Griddler which worked just fine. During this evolution I had to remain standing until everyone had eaten before I was allowed to sit and eat.

Now I’m fed and Diane did all the dishes. In all honesty, she did all the prep work for supper, too. I just cooked the meat which wasn’t a big deal at all. I just sat in a chair and watched the Griddler do it’s thing.

It’s 8 pm and finally cooling off a little. I may survive after all. Most everyone is sitting around the campfire waiting for it to ignite. I’m not sure that’s going to happen.

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Delays, Golf, Apple Products, and BBCs

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Howdy – it’s been a few days since I’ve been allowed near my computer and I’ve missed talking with all of you. Well, honestly, I didn’t miss talking with you, really, because we rarely actually talk. I would miss it, however, if we talked more. Does texting count as “talking”? If not, maybe it should. I guess that means emails count, also. That being the case, I guess I talk to people all the time, every day, as we all do.

Yesterday, however, was a special treat because I was actually allowed to speak in person to an East Coast Cutie (ECC) who most people call Cheryl. I don’t know what the other people call her … maybe Mom, or Aunt Cheryl, Honey, Dear, Sweetie, Love, or something like that. What prompted that conversation began as a text to my shirt pocket, where my phone was currently residing. It was from Susan, another ECC, wanting to know what my address was. Since I couldn’t answer right away, I forgot about it until a while later when Cheryl called and left a voice message asking the same question … “Uncle Jerrie, what’s your address?” As soon as Sunday Service terminated, I extracted myself to the parking lot where I promptly returned the call, full of curiosity as to why this information was needed. All manner of things flittered through my tiny brain, like they’re sending a hit squad to take me out for some sort of East Coast Infraction I made during my last visit, or they were sending lots and lots of money for just no reason at all, or, perhaps, there’s a pending visit by someone and we’ll have to clean out a bedroom. The possibilities are endless. And, I’m still curious because the short conversation I had with Cheryl didn’t reveal anything significant, other than the fact that we’re still related, and I can rule out the hit squad, I think. I learned, too, that Ruth is learning to get along with Lyle gone. A tough but necessary task.

All in all, it makes me go “Hmmmmmmmmmmm.”

It is now 0800 and Diane just mosied in from the east wing indicating that it’s time for me to stop, get dressed, and head for the golf course to meet Doug. She makes me do this every week, now. So, there will be a short pause as I make myself ready for another nice morning ride and visit with Doug. Perhaps I’ll find the balls I lost the last time out. Perhaps, not. Perhaps I’ll find someone else’s balls. Doug always finds balls and he gives me all the Nike brand balls he finds because I’m not nearly as picky as he is when it comes to free balls.

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That break represents about an eleventy-two hour pause during which I golfed really, really good for two holes, then went back to normal for the remainder of the game. Still, it was good.

I also stopped by to see cousin Don and get some sage advice about replacing the exhaust manifold on my truck. I went home and rested a while before tackling it, then wound up mowing the yard when Diane took her Mom to the store. I believe I’ve explained previously that I normally don’t mow when Diane is home because she’s terribly allergic to the smell of cut grass. Still, I screwed it up because all the windows were open in the house while I was mowing and the house filled up with that unmistakable smell of spring and summer activity.

After Diane returned from the store, she immediately set about getting ready to go play Bunco with her group. She picked Heather up on the way to replace Jennifer who couldn’t play because she had to work. Before Diane left I got to help cut up a pan of brownies that she was taking to the Bunco Girls.

Then it was time to tackle the exhaust manifold. I had previously squirted some Liquid Wrench on all the manifold bolts and all of them came loose very easily. I was just short of amazed since they’ve been in there for so many years. Considering how easy that part was I decided to just get to it and removed the left (drivers) side manifold. Then I got the new Chinese replacement I purchased on eBay and bolted it right up. Unfortunately, the set I got doesn’t have the correct configuration for the LH side. The bolts fit, but the part that connects to the exhaust pipe points straight down, and the old one kinda aims out and back. I left it on anyway and figure I can jerrie-rig it with some flex pipe, or a lot of muffler tape. Maybe both. Now all I have to do is torque the bolts with the handy torque wrench Don loaned me. That will be tomorrow because I packed up my tools and quit once I discovered the discrepancy in the configuration.

I sat around for a while, resting, then took a shower so I would be nice and clean when Diane returned from Bunco, then ate the rest of my supper. I had 3 brownies and a banana. And a glass of water. When Diane returned, she had some leftover blueberry cobbler she’d made and asked if I wanted some. I said, “yes”, of course, then she asked what I had for supper. Being a fairly honest person, I told her, then she said I couldn’t have any cobbler. So, I might just eat another banana instead.

Apple Products … I have to say I’m ‘sold’ on them. I got all my ‘Apple toys’ at Best Buy in Hillsboro, except for my iPhone. I got that from AT&T a long time ago. I’ll be able to upgrade it next month, but I’m going to wait until the iPhone 5 comes out so I can get an iPhone 4s really cheap. That will be in September. Until then, my old one will work just fine and I’ll be content with the remainder of my “stuff” until then. I have plenty of them. And, I have a new iPad 3 because I dropped my old one in the hot tub. Turns out iPads don’t float. I wasn’t worried, however, because I knew it was insured through Best Buy. So, we took a trip yesterday after church to take Diane’s Mom to lunch, at McGrath’s Fish House in Beaverton, after which I went to the nearby Best Buy to get the soaked iPad replaced. This time I got a white one. I also bought insurance on this one, as well as two years of technical support, should I need it.

Now I’m going to eat my banana and go to bed because I have to be up early in the morning to deliver the Subaru to the mechanic for a repair estimate for everything that’s wrong with it. Shouldn’t cost more than an arm and a leg. That won’t be a problem because I’ve got one of each that anyone who wants them are more than welcome to.