After I closed out the previous letter, I realized that I failed to mention our success with Halloween visitors. Jennie provided a huge bowl of candy because it never occurred to me that we’d need any. It’s good that she did because we had lots of visitors. The “Littles” of course, and Baylee showed up, too. It was good to see them all. I let kids take hands full to see what would happen and most of them were polite and not greedy. One of them said, “I’ll just take one,” and he did. I was impressed.
Today is November 6th which means I’ve failed miserably with my desire to write one letter a day. Maybe when things calm down a bit after Saturday I can get back on track. At this point in time I’m just wandering around in a fog with no clear destination in site.
This entire week, so far, has been filled with sitting in the living room, Lydia by my side, watching some really questionable movies and eating. People keep bringing us food so eating is a must. Movies make time pass.
Today we are going to Costco for things Jennie needs. She’s been busy building a photo board of Diane. We have tons of photos for her and she keeps ordering more from Walgreens.
Yesterday a small package showed up in the mail addressed to Diane. Unless Amazon is available in Heaven this was obviously something that was backordered. She will be happy to learn that it arrived.
It’s been raining most of the time which suits my mood just right. I’m not as sad as I think I should be and that bothers me. I say I’m not lonely because Lydia is with me every day, but I am.
I trust things will get better with time.
it is now 1406 and Lydia and I successfully returned from our shopping trip to Costco. I’m happy to report that I didn’t run into anything going or coming. That’s the furthest I”ve driven the truck in a couple of years. I’m real proud of myself, I am. The only thing extra I got was a jar of cashews. Everything else was on Jennie’s list.
Today was for celebrating family. Diane said so. It’s the beginning of our monthly gathering to replace the more infrequent gatherings we’ve done for one holiday or another. She figures, and I agree, that as we get older, we need to do these things more often as long as we’re able.
I don’t have any group photos, but I’ve got these:
Here’s Jeff, the father of our Hill Children:
This is Jerrie Anne Diane, our youngest granddaughter.
This is Baylee with Jasper on her shoulders:
Cedric was hidden behind Baylee in the above photo. I luckily got him in frame later. He’s a hard guy to pin down. Cedric is normally the one who wears his little brothers out, but he had help from his cousins today.
Here’s Gilligan:
This is Diane, Lydia, and Jennifer – 3 generations of one branch of our family tree:
You can ignore Jerrie on the left of that last photo. She was introduced earlier.
This is Daniel and Jasper:
Here’s Siah, the youngest:
Now I’ll tell you who is missing: Jeran, Tiana, Heather, and Elisabeth. By my count, that’s 15 people and a dog.
I always have good intentions of capturing everyone in at least one group photo, but this one got away from me. Then some folks left before I realized my failure. I’ll get them next time. I guess I was too busy just watching everyone. Could be, too, that my brain hasn’t recovered from the faceplant I participated in while in Lodi.
Yeah. Let’s blame it on that.
It was a roaring good time made better by Diane’s Sloppy Joes, and her 30 lb custom made Mac’n’cheese.
As with all family events of this nature, no one went away hungry.
As I type this, the calendar tells me that it’s really Tuesday, not Sunday so I’m obviously running a little behind schedule. I’ve decided that I will stop this rigid daily schedule of info sharing and just scribble something when the mood strikes. It’s much easier that way because being on a daily routine makes it necessary to make stuff up when nothing happens to write about. This is true.
Today Diane is going to Portland, all by herself, to get a CAT Scan, then later this week she will visit her doctor for the results and to find out which kind of sauna would be the best alternative to a trip to Arizona. Yes, stuff like that makes my head hurt a little too.
The village of Petaluma lives on Highway 101 about 100 miles from our current location. That’s a reasonable drive for a day on the road. I know, some of you guys don’t get off the road until you reach the final destination no matter how far it is. Right, Doug?
We used to do that all the time when we wore younger people’s clothes. I think that’s something like a refrain from a Billy Joel song.
Diane’s calculating our next step after reviewing the weather on points north. What she saw totally rules out travel on I-5 through the Siskiyou Pass, so we are going west from Lodi to Highway 101. I may have mentioned that as a possibility yesterday. Today it’s a firm decision.
It’s 1035 now and we must check out of here by 1100 so I need to go outside and unplug everything.
NOTICE: There’s a long pause here caused by the need to visit the Emergency Room.
OK. Change of plans. At this time, it is 1908 hours and it’s been a very busy day. If you can do basic math you will see that it’s been about 8.5 hours since my last entry. So, “what,” you may ask, “happened to make it a busy day?” “Well,” I could respond, “Jerrie fell down and broke his crown and bled all over the parking lot. It could have been worse, but a healthy young nurse provided the help that he got.” Yup,
Here’s what happened.
I took Max for a walk around the park, all the way around, and returned him home so I could prepare the RV for launch to our next objective. As soon as I opened the door, Diane handed me a couple of bags that required me to transport them to the local dumpster.
Being of sound mind I chose to obey to avoid damage to myself.
Max accompanied me, as usual, and we deposited the bags in the dumpster and I turned to my left as I stepped away, and apparently stubbed my toe against one of the parking barriers strategically located near the dumpster.
As a result of my foot striking the parking bumper, I tumbled forward, knowing that a painful landing was forthcoming.
The landing never happened, as far as I could tell, because my next cognitive memory was of me in the RV getting my face washed by the lovely Diane. Apparently, there was a disturbing amount of blood on the left side of my face that was caused by the landing I don’t remember. Yes, I’m missing approximately 40 minutes of time from the fall until I regained consciousness sitting on the toilet in the RV. Although I was bleeding profusely, I retained enough legitimate wherewithal to ask Diane to take a photo to commemorate this onetime event. She took two of them.
You can tell by my smile that all was not right with my face. At this point, I was unaware of the amount of damage the fall had caused. Why else would I be smiling like that?
My memory skipped a little here and my next coherent memory I was outside listening to Diane and Dianne discuss the best course of action to address this catastrophe; call an ambulance, go to the emergency room, or wait until tomorrow to see how bad it really is. A trip to the emergency room won the discussion.
Not knowing where the hospital may be, Dianne led us to the closest one around. Diane led me inside and introduced me to the intake nurse and said the magic words that gets you to the head of the line. She said, “I think he may have had a stroke that caused him to fall.”
Boom! I was in a wheelchair heading down the hall to get a CT scan. Once that was done I was strapped to a gurney and a nurse pasted electrodes all over my chest then connected wires to them randomly to initiate an EKG. I also got an automatic blood pressure cuff and an oximeter. All of this was connected to the equipment behind my head. I learned that if I took the oximeter off, it made a bunch of noise. So, I left it on.
They put an IV in my left arm and a short while later a young lady appeared to fill six tubs with my blood. She took this manually from my right arm. She was very good, and I let her know she was appreciated.
Then I laid on that gurney for the next 4 hours waiting for more info from the doctor or a nurse passing by. During that time my face took on a different look.
Later in the day I discovered a wound on the inside of my left lower lip. It, too, was caused by my fall, I’m sure.
I found this one with my tongue. I’m guess it would really hurt if I got some citrus juice on it so I’m staying away from the oranges.
Now that I’ve shared all of this, I must report that I’m feeling pretty good, all things considered. So our plans to move to Highway 101 at the coast. are back in motion. We leave tomorrow morning for Petaluma. It’s 84 miles away and is supposed to take about 2 hours.
The activity Diane chose for her first full day as a 78-year-old was to go watch Mufasa. She ordered the tickets (and popcorn) a few days ago and has been anxiously waiting for this day. We went to the same theater where we watched “Red One”. The seats we originally had there were almost front row but we were able to change them for rows much further away from the screen, and from the speakers. There are 35 speakers on the walls so it’s pretty intense. This time she chose row A.
Before we left for the movie, I cooked us a 5-egg Denver omelet. Diane doesn’t like peppers or onions, but she ate all of her half.
We got to the theater early, which was good, because, surprise, Row A isn’t the back row. Row J is. Thankfully we were able to get two seats in “J”, centered on the screen.
Diane had me cover up my wrinkled neck so it wouldn’t distract from my charming smile.
Popcorn and a soda were included with the ticket to be delivered to us just before the movie was to start. The ticket person alerted the popcorn people about the change, gave us our tickets, and sent us on our way.
Before the movie started, there were 30 minutes of commercials highlighting upcoming movies as far out as July. Then, just before the lights were dimmed, our popcorn arrived. When the young lady handed it to me, I spilled a considerable amount of it all over the empty seat next to me. Not enough to matter, really, but it made a mess.
“What was the movie?” you ask.
“Musafa,” I respond.
“Whoa!” you exclaim. “Didn’t that just come out?” you ask.
“No,” I reply, “it came out yesterday.”
“Then it just came out, right?”
“No, it came out yesterday. To claim it as ‘just came out’ it would have to be the same day. It’s a rule. look it up.”
This must stop. I’m not up to an argument right now. Especially right after watching “Musafa.” It was a great movie. Not only was it a really great movie, it was in 3-D, something we didn’t know until it started. Diane had to shush me because I was yelling for the projectionist to focus the picture, like we used to do on board ships on which I’ve sailed. This time it didn’t work. To rectify it, I took that long journey back to the entrance and got us a couple of proper pairs of glasses. Once we had them in place, the picture was awesome.
Now, I’m not a fan of 3-D movies because I have astigmatism, and it didn’t used to work well with 3-D glasses. Today, they worked great and really added an extra element of awesomeness to the experience. This movie is highly recommended for all ages. Instead of animation, the movie was well acted by herds of animals that could actually speak English. It was pretty amazing. I suggested to Diane that we should get the DVD of “Musafa” so Max could learn English. He’s not able to pick it up from us, but from other animals it should be a snap. Right? She didn’t even respond. She just laughed at me thinking, I suppose, that I was kidding. Though it was difficult, I just let it go.
During all the advertisements prior to the movie, there were several chances for me to get a photo of the one that refers to this entertainment as “Noovies”. That’s really nostalgic for us because that’s what Cedric called them when he was little. Because of that, we still call them Noovies. It’s easier to say for some reason. I think it’s because you don’t need to noove your lips to say it. See what I mean?
Gotta quit now. The Tennessee vs. Ohio State game is just about ready to start.
I woke up at 0600 again this morning. Technically, it was my bladder that woke up. It’s like that part of my body just loves to communicate with me sometimes 2 or 3 times a night. Then, I realize that it’s one part of my body that works pretty good so why am I complaining. I was pretty comfortable laying there in bed trying to make sense of the things ricocheting around in my head, but I could not ignore my bladder’s persistent reminder that it was time to pay attention. So, like every morning, I scratched Max’s back, he stretched in appreciation, rolled over and went back to sleep. He’s never in a hurry to get up.
While waiting for my first cup of coffee to brew I take my pills and eat a banana and stick my Jimmy Dean Breakfast Bowlin the micro. My doctor doesn’t think they are good for me, but they are easy to cook, and I like them. Diane makes sure there’s always a stash of them in the freezer. She’s really good to me.
After breakfast I took Max for his morning walk. That’ usually takes about 45 minutes because he has to sniff all the bushes and trees along the way to see who’s been there. I’m sure he’s got the scent of a coyote often because they wander around in the back throughout the night. I’ve mentioned that before, I’m sure.
Diane was up when we got back so Max greeted to her then climbed into the driver’s seat, where his pillow lives, and went back to sleep. Even then he keeps an eye out for the neighbors so he can see when they get up. Laurie always brings him treats and he’s not about to miss one of those.
The D-M Thrift Shop was on the calendar today so that’s where we went. It’s only open on Tuesday & Wednesday. This table caught my eye and I would have loved to buy it and ship it home to Jasper. He’s our official Spider Man Grandson. He loves that guy. But shipping the table wouldn’t be practical. Still, I think he’d really like it.
I don’t remember where we went after the thrift store, so I’ll just got with “we went back home fore lunch.” Then we watched a couple of Hallmark Christmas movies until it was almost time for supper. We decided we’d go get hamburgers from Culver’s. It’s only a few minutes away and a place we’ve been wanting to try. We got takeout and it was very good. Max was a little bummed that we didn’t eat inside because his “Service Animal” vest showed up in the mail just before we left to get the food. With it, he could have gone inside with us.
This SUV was parked Culver’s lot next to the drive thru lane. Quite festive.
When we got home Diane dialed up another Hallmark movie to watch while we ate.
So you see a pattern here? Hallmark movies are fun. But, we’ve also been watching old episodes of NCIS and other shows we like. Most of the episodes are old enough that we don’t remember them so it’s all good.
Before retiring for the night Diane went through the mail and gave me a stack because they were bills. I’m the one who pays them. Yippee! Oh yes, Max’s vest! I’ll get a picture of him wearing it tomorrow. It’s a little tight, but quite snazzy.
To end the day I took Max out for his walk before bed. We never go far because I’m a little leary of the coyotes. Sometimes on the night walk we can hear them in the distance so we stay close to the lights. Most of the RVs in the park have lights laying under their rigs to keep pests away and I suspect it helps keep the coyotes away, too. I haven’t seen one, yet, so it must work.
Today we went to a movie at one of the most modern movie theaters we’ve ever been allowed to attend. It’s one of the Cinemarktheaters here in Tucson.
Diane reserved our tickets online and even ordered our snacks. When we checked in everything was ready for us. All we had to do was say “Thanks”.
Every seat in the place is a recliner and the sound system is really, really loud. They add “XD” on to the theater’s name to indicate that when you go to one you will be Xtremely Deaf for a while after you leave. When she ordered the tickets, I was allowed to help pick our seats which was a little difficult because neither of us had a clue about how the seats were placed. Turns out the seats we chose were far too close to the screen. Not because of the picture, but because of the sound. A lot of commercials were played before the movie, and the sound was just over the edge of “painful”, so we packed up our popcorn and moved up to the 3rd row from the top. We would have gone higher but there were people sitting where we wanted to be. I don’t know how many seats there are but there weren’t many being used. Actually, there were only 4 of us in there. It was like we had our very own private theater. I suppose we should have expected that because it’s Wednesday, and the movie we wanted to see started at noon. That’s old people time for a movie.
We watched this one …
No doubt you’ve seen it advertised. It’s an excellent movie about Santa Clause but it IS NOT for children. So, if you take children to see it just remember that I told you so. That’s sad because the story line is perfect for kids. There’s just some colorful language once in a while.
I know, most of the theaters now days have all kinds of fancy seating, and we’ve been to a few. It’s just that we haven’t been to a movie in a long time and (at least) I tend to forget stuff like that. So, it was almost like the first time. You’ll have to ask Diane about it. Except for the very loud sound system, I think she liked it a lot. Our next movie is going to be “Wicked”. We’ll take earmuffs for the commercials.
It’s 1000. Max and I have been up for 3 hours, and Diane is busy in the bedroom sorting the laundry that needs to be washed. There’s a whole wagon load of it. I’ve been told to vacate the area around her where she can hear me speak, or to just not speak. My choice. She’s like that in the morning most of the time and I understand. So, I do my best to not talk to her or ask questions until she’s fully awake. But she’s already had breakfast and 2 cups of coffee that normally puts her in a more receptive disposition, so I thought I had permission to speak, but I was wrong. The last question I asked her was “how can I help.” Her answer was to look me in the eye and giving me the universal sign to go way – that’s when you hold your hand out, palm down, then activate your fingers by making them point down, then wave them at the offending person until they get the message. Considering the chore ahead of her, I can understand her desire to not be disturbed while dealing with my underwear and socks. So, I left, and here I am, doing this until I’m allowed to communicate again. That won’t be until she’s ready for me to load the wagon and drag it to the laundromat. The wagon is stored in its original box under the RV. I keep it there, in the box, so if someone thinks they should steal it, it won’t be difficult to do. So far no one has lifted it, even though we were gone for 3 days.
The temp outside was 52 degrees this morning. Inside is was 58. I thought it was pretty comfortable, but I turned the heater on anyway.
There’s a table outside the laundry on which people put things they no longer need or want, free for the taking. Yesterday I got a very nice folding knife with shiny blades in a nice leather case. There were other knives, but I only took one. Every once in a while, a painted rock will show up, too. We have one of them. There was another one on the bench this morning, but I left it. If it’s still there when we take the laundry, I will add it to our collection.
When we got home yesterday, I waited for Patricia and Laurie’s door to open before announcing our return. We didn’t want to bother them because Laurie had a surgical procedure yesterday. Even so, once Patricia saw me and Max near their door, she called to Laurie to come visit. She did, but it was obvious she was in pain. Still, she brought Max a treat, as she always does, and let him lick her all over. He’s helping her heal, I’m sure.
My Fitbit bit the dust on our trip. It want’s its software to be updated but my efforts to do so have not been successful. Diane thinks it’s broken and that I need a new one, but I haven’t given up, yet.
Diane forgot to bring her iPad on our little jaunt, so we took a trip to Best Buy in Sierra Vista so I could get her a replacement. I owed her one because I kinda bent the old iPad and I’m amazed it still works. It was laying on the car seat one day and I needed to get something from the car that required me to kneel on the seat and I bent it. Nothing broke, it just made a nice curve. So, I got her a new one and a cover that has a keyboard attached. I think she’ll learn to like it a lot.
This afternoon we took a short trip to get fuel for the car and some vegetables. I was good to get out and stretch our legs a little. Oh, I do that multiple times a day walking Max, but this was walking without Max. We left him home. As soon as we got home, I walked Max. See what I mean. When we got back to the bus, Max jumped in the driver’s seat and set his focus on the neighbors. Almost right away I hear voices coming in the driver’s (Max’s) window and checked it out. It was Patricia and Laurie talking to Max. When they saw me, they asked if Max could come out and play. They really love him.
So, of course, I took Max out for them. I let him run free from our bus and told him to “get Laurie” and that’s what he did. It’s not far around the front of the bus to their rig, but he ran flat out to get there. The reason was Laurie had treats. She always has treats for him. He’s a little mooch but he’s such a friendly little guy and, as I mentioned earlier, I really think he’s helping Laurie heal. She’s been going through a lot of turmoil with medical issues, so Max is like a breath of fresh air for her. I wouldn’t be surprised if he can sense her need for comfort from him.
I need to add a photo of Max and his new friend. I can’t remember her name and Max isn’t talking about her. I do know that she’s a Shitsu so, technically, they are related because he has a little Shitsu in his DNA.
Temporary Sanity ... 