Retired Rod

Fine art of doing nothing.

2012-01-30T00:35:00.003-06:00

I've been perfecting the fine art of doing nothing and enjoying it to the utmost. But finally at about 3 PM I jumped on the bike and rode way over East of Apache Junction. I was gone for almost two hours, and I haven't paid too very dearly in pain tonight.

I rode so far, that I had to stop and get some fuel on the way back. I looked down and noticed that I only had one bar on the electronic gas gauge. I was enjoying the ride so much that I had spaced off the lack of gas in the machine.

I thought it was an anomaly that my dash temperature gauge was recording over 80 degrees this afternoon, but I just now checked and the official afternoon temp at the airport was 81. That is the warmest that it has been out here since we came in December. Now I know it was warmer than that while I went home for surgery, but for me, it was the warmest I have experienced.

I contrast that to last night about 1 AM when I suddenly decided that I needed to head to the campground bath house . the wind was blowing a gale and it was barely 50. I didn't look, but the wind was sustained at about 25 mph. The flags were straight out from their poles, and the fronds on the palm trees were making that flapping sound where they are all stretched to one side of the tree trunk.

I had put on the new western hat, and found that it needed to be strapped under my chin in order to keep it on my head. Needless to say I walked rather quickly and was quite glad when I arrived back in the Motorhome.

So whether its 81 and dead calm or 50 and blowing a gale, it can all happen in one day out here in the desert. Its a really good thing that I staked down that dinning canopy with the 10 inch aluminum stakes. Otherwise it would have been in the next county last night!!!

Retired Rod

Swap Meet turned out not to be a good thing.

2012-01-29T00:01:00.001-06:00

I suggested that we go over to the big Mesa swap meet this afternoon, but Loyce was wanting to go off to another Jo Ann's fabric store. I said that I would only get to sit in the car for several hours at these stores. So she headed on out without me.............

Well I was ok with that because I had my scooter pants on, and the helmet was right on the chair...... First it was off to Wendy's for a junior cheese burger and a value fries. Its been a couple of days since I was at Wendy's and I was starting to have serious withdrawal symptoms. LOL

After that I went to the big swap meet on the scooter. The place was jam packed. I never even got inside the fence before a car tried to shove me over out of the lane I was in. It wasn't that the driver didn't see me because he looked right at me. It was like he wouldn't give up a space for me to exist. He was aggressive toward me and the motorcycle. There is really nothing you can do in a situation like this, but just remove yourself. You can't retrain the driver, just get over it.

But that kind of destroyed my frame of mind for putting up with the crowd. I went into my favorite cheap tool place and purchased a big set of slip joint water pump pliers. I walked the C aisle. Sort of browsing the stores, but still at a fast gate. Faster than the other patrons, so they were kind of in my way. I went most of the way to the opposite end and then crossed to the D aisle.

But by now, I was in the wrong frame of mind to be shopping. I just walked back to the bike giving up on the shopping trip. The people were in their Saturday mode, where some were power shopping, while others were doing the stroll along thing about four people wide. Completely blocking the aisle. I needed to get away from the experience.

After leaving the swap meet parking lot, I just rode the bike for about four miles. The traffic was still quite crowded, but folks were better citizens and didn't push me off the street. Eventually back in the RV park, I parked and sat outside. Biscuit sat with me and we took an nap under the dinning canopy. It was 79 outside, and it has been several months since we have experienced that kind of warmth.

Eventually the park rangers brought a new motorhome to the site behind us. Of course that was excitement for the rest of us seasoned campers. But I decided to hop on the bike and head back over to Wal Mart and purchase some small steaks for supper. Again I was enjoying the zone of riding. I was in my element.

When I returned, the new motorhome had its four way flashers going even thought it had been parked for a couple of hours. I walked over and knocked on the door, but didn't get an answer. Returning home, I sat for a while, and then noticed that several people were over at the neighbors to the East. So I walked over there and inquired who owned the new coach.

The guy hoped up and said oh yea, I never turned off those flashers...... But then we got involved talking about motorcycles, when he noticed my hat with the Sturgis patch on it. That took another half an hour.

The steak dinner was quite good and the door didn't get closed until about 9 PM. Its getting warmer around here......

Retired Rod

Cooler and out on the scoot!

2012-01-28T00:01:00.001-06:00

OK, I know I can never convince any Apple owner that a PC is even close to the beloved Apple. So that is a fight that I don't choose to pick. My wife likes her Ipad too, but I can't begin to figure out what key strokes will do what I want next. I just sit and look at it.......it doesn't even have a back button or a mouse. The big button on one end returns you to the main screen cancelling all programs that are running. I am lost!!!

So if macs never need updates ever, ever, ever, so be it. But I am not sure how anything can be up with the latest developments if it is never updated. This big update on W7 is service pak number 1 and W7 has been out for three years now, so perhaps windows has saved up for years with new stuff to put on all at once.

Remember I usually run Linux and do not support Windows much either, because they also take over your machine and do things for you from their home office. But this laptop has windows, and I didn't want to just toss out something I paid for.

-------

Thanks for all the nice comments about the new hat. It is made by the Head n Home company in Monterey Bay, California. It is not considered, a cowboy model, but rather reminds me of the boonie hat we wore as part of the military uniform over in Viet Nam.

The hat company claims that it is a Monterey Bay, California hat with the addition of western scallops around the vent mesh. But where does cowboy stop and western begin. They do make a line of what they refer to as cowboy and that has a rounded top with a crease in the middle where this hat is flat on top and doesn't have any crease. I made the name clickable above if you are curious to look at their other styles.

Our day here was supposed to be sunny and nicely warm, but mid morning a deck of clouds came rolling in, and the warm up slowed. We finally made 70 but it took much longer. I stalled around wondering if it would rain, but didn't see anything on the radar.

So finally I went out on the scooter, riding up to the center of Apache Junction. The main street is crossed with nasty expansion joints, that made my surgery cry. I stopped at Harbor Freight. Needed some small needle nose pliers. Of course they had an assortment for cheap...

Next it was Wal Mart in the older part of downtown. This Wal Mart has a really big host of characters that frequent it as clientele. I thought about Al, and his camera taking pictures of folks that are unusual, but just can't bring myself to do that. I had quite a bunch of stuff under the seat when I returned home.

For the rest of the day, we just hung around here at the motorhome. Our computers kept us busy, until the afternoon required a nap. We never did start the car....

It was after dark before the sky cleared of the clouds, but we are sill in the mid 50s long after all our neighbors went off to bed. Of course I am a night owl............

Retired Rod

A hat and another Quilt Show

2012-01-27T00:01:00.004-06:00

OK, first of all, I must explain that I have the automatic update feature of Windows 7 turned off, and only allow updates when I want them. Most windows systems are set to automatic updates, and happen behind the scenes when users never even know it is happening.

This is also true of Apple machines and to some extent the Linux OS that I use at home. So, for you Apple owners that tout that you never ever even have to update your OS, that is because Apple controls your machine and updates it for you. And that may be just fine, if you do not want this responsibility.

But please be advised that Windows will do all of this for you too, unless you take over and want to do it for yourself, like I do.

Now why do I do this? Because we are on a measured line with the Verizon Aircard, and may be just about to go over our limits during a month that a biiiiiiiiig update is scheduled to be executed. So I control these updates when I have the excess band width at the end of a monthly cycle. Or do them at home, where we have no measured limit on band width.

And no I did not start the day out by updating windows 7...................LOL

It was country store day again here in the park, and I had decided that I was going to go buy that suede leather hat that I didn't purchase last week. Since we didn't go to Quartzsite, I am allocating that gas money toward the new hat.

So I got cleaned up and went up on the motorscooter. But........... I couldn't find the hat vendor!!! What? But I noticed another vendor with the right hat on, and asked him where the hat guy went. OH, you mean my brother? He thought sales were poor here last week so he is over at View Point RV today at their store.

We talked for a while, and I told him to tell his brother that he was missing sales today here at Valle Del Oro. Of course the vendor here pointed out that it was only about three miles over there, and why not just go get one?

And since I was on the scooter anyway, that was what I did. View Point is about 2 miles North of here on Ellsworth Rd and about a half mile back to the West on University Drive. Even in traffic I think it was only about 10 minutes up there. But parking once I was in the park was entirely another matter!

I drove around and around looking for that illusive spot to open up. Even the corners and half spots were full of golf carts, but finally I lucked into a spot as the car in it was leaving. I marched right into the ballroom. Man these parks are all just alike. The main building is a little older and looks more like Mesa Spirit than VDO but still you almost have to have a sign to know which one your in.

My hat man was right in the middle of the room, and as I walked up, and he remembered me from last week. He said "Steve called and said he sent you over!" And in just a few minutes with a charged amount on my Visa card, I owned a new hat.

But I'm not too sure that his business was any better over there than it was here at VDO.....

When I got home, Loyce was all ready to go to the Phoenix Quilt Show at the Arizona Fair Grounds. But I had left a note before I went so she was waiting calmly...... The fairgrounds are back over in downtown Phoenix where I 10 and I 17 merge. 17 heads North towards Flagstaff from that corner. We were there by noon.

Now I had to become scarce again for a couple of hours, and the fairgrounds charges $7 to just sit in the car. It costs $10 to get in the door, and since I didn't care to stay or go in anyway, that was extra money to apply to the new hat.

But.... North of that corner is a Ham Radio store, and every year I go up there and look at new radios. So off I headed. Biscuit was still in the car, so she rode along too. I am happy to report that I didn't buy any new radios...........and really wasn't tempted by any either...

Then, of course, it was back thru a Wendy's and Biscuit had her doggy kibble and before you know it, time was up to go back and get Loyce. She had another big bag of goodies when we met. I didn't even ask what was in the bag..........

We sat outside under the dining canopy when we returned and absorbed the 73 degree day.........Ahhhh!

Retired Rod

More W7 updates and Shopping with Loyce

2012-01-26T00:03:00.001-06:00

I started in doing updates on windows 7 again this morning. I spent about an hour or more with varying success. Adobe PDF file reader was causing me some trouble and no longer would update itself. I had a version 9 something.

I used the revo uninstaller and completely removed it from the computer. Then when the machine was completely clear of PDF readers, I went back to the internet and installed what I thought was the latest Adobe reader.............Not......some off brand thing was substituted. So Revo again to remove the impostor. Now read that selection a little more carefully before down loading the actual Adobe reader, which turned out to be a version 10. And it seemed to live under the W7 service pak 1 environment much better.

I went after the official updates from Microsoft for a while loading groups of programs three different times. But finally Loyce wanted to go over into West Mesa at Dobson Road to the Jo Ann's fabric store there. Something she was looking for was only at that store.

But as I dropped her off, I told her that I was going to the Bass Pro shop up in the North end of the shopping complex. And I would be back after while........ I walked the entire store but didn't see anything that I really wanted, well other than several new guns and fishing rods...... But those things get really expensive so I came back to Loyce's store.

She wasn't even close to being ready, as it takes her over an hour every time she goes in. The stores are like Wal Marts as they all have the same things, but things on sale seem to vary. Loyce should go to work for this company because she is so familiar with their business.

Once she was done, I surprised her by taking her back over to the Bass Pro telling her that I needed to check on one more thing. But parking in front of the Islamorada Fish Company. She still was in the dark, as we entered the store, and it turned out to be a side entrance to the restaurant.

She ordered the big burger and their fresh made potato chips, but I had fish and chips, which was cod and french fries with a side of ranch dressing for dipping. Came with some slaw as well. It had the same options on the chips that the burger did but opted for the regular french fries. Ya, I know I'm boring.

We messed around in the store for some more time after we ate, and eventually came back home. Since I saw 70 degrees on the car thermometer, I decided that it was time to go ride the scooter for a while outside of the park and at regular speeds.

I was gone for over an hour and was up to 50 mph at one time, but mostly it seems like you sit at the lights waiting for the traffic to go again. At one point I found a really bumpy part of Meridian Rd South of the old downtown Wal Mart here in Apache Jct. It shook my insides and the new surgery wasn't liking that very much, so I had to get off of that road.

Anyway I came back home, and I am not seriously pained tonight after the experience. So with some judgement, short trips to go get things and eat at Wendy's are back on the menu with the scooter.....

I'm sure as the days press on, I will be able to ride longer and stand the bumpy roads better, but for now I am just satisfied getting to go out at all.

Retired Rod

And I just moved the cursor over the update Icon on the task bar, where it stressed upon me that I need to get two more W7 updates...... Will it ever end???????

Car wash and the bread maker arrives.

2012-01-25T00:01:00.001-06:00

Too much fun, as I booted the lap top, and windows 7 continues to ask me to run yet more updates. I just declined to get started today because I was afraid that it would become another all day deal. I still have enough band width left on our Verizon Air Card this month, but my will power just wasn't into it.

I jumped on the motor scooter and motored up to the office here in the RV park. I was told to report up at the office when I got back. This morning, I thought it was about time that I went up there and did what they wanted.

They asked when I got back, and I answered last week. They asked what day, and I wasn't sure, perhaps it was Thursday............. Heck, I don't remember, I'm retired........ So they just recorded it. But Loyce was telling me it was Monday when we got here and I wasn't all that truthful.

All they are going to do is prorate a $30 charge, what's a day or two one way or the other.....? Well she was going to go straighten it out, but then I saw on the email that Wal Mart's site to store had received my bread maker...... I grabbed the car and headed out.

Stopping by the car wash, I ran the very dirty car thru the automatic wash. They have an area where you can dry the car and have free vacuums. We had a mud rain again last night, where you get about a tenth of an inch of very muddy rain. Man I was glad to get that cleaned up.

Back to the site to store experience. I had to go to the back of the store where the service desk is used mostly for prospective employees applications. I showed the email on my phone to the clerk, and she typed in the numbers. Excusing herself, she headed back into the warehouse. Returning with a box, she began attacking it with scissors. She explained that the product was inside the brown pasteboard box and she is supposed to inspect it that nothing is damaged.

We were in luck as the breadmaker box was almost pristine. She printed out a ticket and I had to sign that I had received the product, and then another receipt to get out of the store. But I had other purchases, so I had to go thru the cashier checkout. That gal wanted to ring up the breadmaker again, so I had to explain the site to store and show her the receipt.

She wasn't sure, and had to call a supervisor cashier. They discussed the propriety of my paperwork, and decided that if I could get past the guard at the door, they were good with it. I paid for the yeast and flour to make bread and headed out.

Folding up the tickets for the site to store in my pocket, I just waved the receipt for the groceries at the door guard, and he waved me right thru. Man that was easy...........

The poor motorscooter sat all afternoon, as I was away with the car and then as we opened and cleaned the new machine. Tonight we had fresh honey wheat bread along with our supper.

After dark, I went out and covered the scooter. It hasn't left the park yet as I am not completely pain free, and willing to do battle with the local traffic. Every day is an improvement, but I'm not out of the woods yet.

I had hoped to go over to Quartzsite for the show this week, but riding for 3 hours over and then walking the show all day seems like too much. Especially when you consider that it is 3 hours home again.

We are to have temps again in the mid 30s tonight, so the heaters are on! The local news claims that warmer weather will be here tomorrow! Yea............

Retired Rod

Updating windows.......... and driving South out of Mesa.

2012-01-24T00:01:00.013-06:00

I have been staring at the message to update windows for the last couple of weeks. It wasn't there when we left home, but showed up right when we got out here to Arizona. Of course the download would have been much faster and unlimited at home...........

So as we near the end of our verizon monthly billing cycle, and we had the remaining band width, I decided to go ahead today. Its a service pack for windows 7, and downloaded compressed at about 300 megs.

It took foreeeeeever, and the machine needed to be rebooted about a dozen times. And once it was installed, then there were corrections to the service pack that needed downloaded and reinstalled... That required me to reboot twice more.

This whole thing then caused some of the applications to need to be updated, as they began to scream and hollar. It was mid afternoon before I quit with the computer. Picasa was also updated, and moved to 3.9. I didn't even know there was a 3.9, I though we were current with 3.8......

Then google + wanted its turn and downloaded a bunch of drivers and stuff that I hadn't done before.

I'm not sure that I am done, because I keep getting balloon messages as I cursor over the task bar. Update me!!! And Me!!!

We finally tired and went out for a drive down South of the RV park into the San Tan Valley and then the Florence, Az area. We drove the old downtown, and got caught in traffic just as the Pinal County workers were getting out of work for the day.

We drove back the Hunt Highway into Queen Creek where we stopped for our daily Wal Mart fix. Didn't take me too long, but Loyce enjoys her time in the store so we were there for quite a while.

We were quite cold here last night down to 40 or so for a long period of time. We only had the electric heaters going, and woke up to icicles on our noses as the sun came up. But thank goodness for the propane that we purchased, as we fired off the heater in the back bedroom and warmed things right up.

As morning progressed the sun finally warmed the rest of the rig. We are painted very dark, and that absorbs the heat nicely, winter and summer........ We have another couple of days with cooler night time temps before we get back into the warming trend. Well it is January!!

Retired Rod

Relaxing on Sunday

2012-01-23T00:01:00.002-06:00

It started out sunny and kind of warm for a morning here in the desert. I was motivated to go out and open up the trailer. That motor scooter was calling my name. At least get it out of the trailer and get it started.

That took a while since the trailer has been loaded with all kinds of stuff (junk) that seems to overflow from the house. Eventually I was down to the bike and its tie down straps. It started like it was just yesterday that it was stored. December 9th was about 6 weeks ago, so you have to like the fuel injection system.

Ever so carefully I pulled it from its wheel chock. This is done by rocking the bike forward and back until it overcenters the chock behind the front wheel. This is what I was worried about causing me pain and trouble, but other than some instant trouble there was no lasting effect.! It has been about 5 weeks now.

I did just park the bike on the concrete and go inside and rest, or get involved with football. And its official as a super bowl now since there is a Manning playing in it! Ya, right...... Missing the field goal at the end of the first game was a bit exciting though.

As the afternoon progressed, our weather deteriorated. First the clouds came and then the damper air. Then much cooler. Not cold, mind you but back down to 60 at sun down. So as the sun was setting, I went out and did ride once around the perimeter of the RV park. About 2 miles.

I parked the bike under the dining canopy, and put its cover over it. We are to have a cool snap, with the actual rain and cold coming on Tuesday night with a low of about freezing. Perhaps that will be the cold point that turns the corner into spring. And perhaps more scooter riding as I get stronger...........

Retired Rod

Oh, to answer Penny's question, Biscuit weighs about 13 pounds now that she is a year and a half old. She is mostly skinny with a lot of hair.

A day trip.........

2012-01-22T00:01:00.002-06:00

As we were sitting eating breakfast, Loyce and I tried to decide what we needed to do today. In the process the subject of the Tucson Quilt show came up. Its this weekend, and she has gone to this show for the last three years in a row. First on a bus with some of the ladies from Mesa Spirit RV Resort, and the last two years driving down ourselves.

Some discussion proved that she really would like to go again this year, but was holding back due to my issues riding in the car and pain and so forth. Since I managed to ride all the way out here to Arizona, I wasn't about to disappoint her.

So in an hour or so we were on the road headed to Tucson. That's almost two hours from out here in East Mesa. We drove the interstate all the way, and arrived about 1:30. I dropped her at the door of the convention center, and had the job of making myself scarce for a couple of hours.

So I headed on out to the closest............... well where do you think I would go? Wendy's of course!!!

We got the small burger combo, and Biscuit got some dog kibble. She doesn't get french fries, that's my hard fast rule. She got some treats and water once she ate her food. But no people food. I went back into the restaurant for a refill on diet coke and to use the bathroom. Then I had to take Biscuit to the vacant lot next door. That took a while, before we were back to the car.

Next we drove around the downtown area where we found an outdoor activity going on in a community area. I wanted to get close enough to determine what was happening, but that just wasn't going to happen. Every time I got within a block or so, the streets were blocked off and I was hustled along in the opposite direction.

Perhaps it just wasn't my day, but by then it was time to drive back to the convention center and pick up Loyce. She had her sacks of loot, and we had connected with our cell phones that she was done.

Of course she hadn't had any lunch, so that came first. It was right about dark when we got home, but at least Loyce enjoyed her day, because she spent the entire time on the way home telling me about all the things she had seen. Now she has been there four years in a row!

Retired Rod

Biscuit gets a new do, and the Propane man

2012-01-21T00:01:00.014-06:00

These days begin to blur, as we have completely shifted to living here in the desert! I'm still quite fragile, so heading on out and doing all the tourist stuff is on our back burner. The motor cycle is still parked inside the trailer, which keeps me down and in check as I am not heading on out by myself but rather tagging along on Loyce's errands.

And so that defined our day today, starting with finding the propane guy. 7 AM became 8 and then 9, before I gave up and went out with the car to find if he was even in the Valle Del Oro park. We have street after street here and they are not straight. So I had to drive a long time before I finally found him. Of course had I started with the South side rather than the North.............

Well, since we are right inside the gate, he was saving us for LAST. Sure glad I didn't sit outside at 7 AM waiting... It was after 10 AM when he arrived and drug out the big long hose to the back of the rig. We were completely empty and our tank is 30 gallons. You are supposed to put in 80 percent so that would be 24 gallons.

The driver ran in 24 and a half gallons before shutting it down. Some folks routinely run in 90 percent in these tanks so an extra half gallon is nothing. The price was 3.76 which was $91 but then there is the almost 10 percent sales tax here in the Phoenix area, so that made the bill $100. Wow.....

Now we have propane!!!! Yea, we can cook something on the stove now, and run the heat in the morning when its so cool outside. We aren't leaving any time soon, so propane to run the fridge won't be required but I'm glad we have that option again.

On to the big deal of the day, Biscuit needs a haircut. And she had a noon appointment, so we took her almost immediately after the propane guy was gone. The shop was called Paws and Claws and Biscuit went there last January as well.

And yes I took her picture tonight when we got home, but she looked at me like it was my fault that she had to go thru such an experience.

She had really grown a lot of fur while we were in coooold Kansas City, so now she looks more like the dog we remember from last summer. She seems to be able to look right into my soul with those big brown eyes. I can't help but wonder what questions she is asking me......

She has done nothing but sleep since she came back home about 4:30. Must have been a really tiring day for her. There were dogs all over the shop waiting their turn. Maybe its a good thing that she can't tell me how bad the experience was.

Otherwise, we just shopped at the local produce grocery store here in Apache Junction. Its called the Superstition Ranch Market up on main street. Produce is all this little market handles. Local fruit as well, and the prices are well below Wal Mart or any of the local grocery stores. People haul basket after basket to their cars. Much of it comes in directly from growers in Mexico where the season is many weeks ahead of us here. I should have had the camera with me because the colors of the shelves are gorgeous.

I'm not sure what else we did today, but cooking supper tonight with the burners on the stove was a big improvement over the steamer!!!

Retired Rod

And just because of what Rick suggested in his comment about Murphy and inviting things to go wrong, I had the LP guy leak test the fittings that I installed yesterday before he left. It was declared to all be in tact without any leaks. Don't want to loose $100 worth of propane, or worse yet start a fire.

Into the RV Park Routine.....

2012-01-20T00:01:00.002-06:00

Suddenly we are back into the routine of the RV park. Thursday is the park's swap meet in the main dance hall. Not only is it in the hall, but it is in the parking lot outside the building, and in the atrium surrounding the swimming pools. Vendor after vendor.

We didn't get around too quickly, but finally went up a few minutes before 11 AM. There was no place to park! We drove around the building in the parking lots and out in the streets for the first block around the main building. Not a spot to be had. So we just milled about until someone came out and left. Trouble was that there were a number of us seeking the single open spot.

We finally found a spot that we got to first.... Then some lady behind us was so unhappy that we were taking the spot that she wanted, she jumped on her horn and didn't let up.....People!!

We spent a couple of hours walking, but didn't buy much. I ended up with a small bottle of vanilla, and small support to go under the steps of the motorhome. It has a screw post that extends as you turn the top of the support. You place it between the ground and the bottom of the underside of the steps. This takes the pressure off of the step's support arms. Price $13.

Loyce bought several items, but one was a sequined sun visor. She said it was $2. Flashy!

We did go off to the Jo Ann's fabric store later in the afternoon, and then to the Apache Junction RV Parts store in downtown Apache Junction. There we purchased an extend a stay valve to install in the RV's LP tank hose. These things are made of brass and are $50. Ouch!

Back at the rig, I installed the valve body between the tank and the regulator. These are kind of neat, as they have two ports that allow you to add a hose to connect your grill to the big tank of your rig. And the second allows for a hose to connect a smaller tank to the rig as an extend a stay tank.

An extend a stay tank is the same as the LP tanks used RV trailers They can be filled at the local LP bottle filling station. That way you don't have to break camp and drive the entire motorhome to the LP station.

Since our LP tank is officially bone dry right now, it was easy to add this valve. But it could be added at any time, just by turning off the main supply valve. But I knew there wasn't any way to make a mistake with the tank being empty, so today was the day.

Oh and on that note, the LP delivery truck only comes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so we were out of luck for Thursday. We run almost everything on electricity here in the park, but what is slowing us down somewhat is the lack of the cooking stove.

Tonight we made supper in our rice and veggie steamer. One white potato and one sweet potato. Half a bag of broccoli florets, and some chicken breast pieces on the second layer. It all steamed in about a half of an hour. Didn't come out too bad......

But still, we hope to get our LP tank filled tomorrow just the same. They said somewhere between the hours of 7 and 10 AM. And you have to be there, because they won't fill it without a check or a credit card!!! Cash on the barrel head!!

Retired Rod

Park Models, Bread machines, and using up the LP.

2012-01-19T00:01:00.001-06:00

We are just recovering from our whirlwind trip out here from Kansas. Not signing up or volunteering for anything in particular. But rather basking in the sunshine and high temps of 68 again today.

Loyce was out walking the dog, and noticed a park model that was on an open house, so she stopped and went thru. She thought I should go look as well, so I walked back down the block for a quarter of a mile and went thru as well.

The unit is 20 plus years old, but has had lots of improvements. But they want way too much money in my estimation, so we had a long discussion on what the price should be for that unit. It was nicely remodeled, but I am afraid that if I tried to sell it next year, I couldn't get the price back.

That is sort of a lesson in investing a lot of remodel and repairs into an older unit. But perhaps it will sell, we shall see.....

I also set out to find a bread machine to use here in Mesa using the internet, and the phone. I was not successful. Most stores do not carry them. Or they carry the very cheapest models. Some of the posh stores carry the most expensive models, but we just can't justify a $300 machine.

So I finally gave up and ordered a Breadman from Wal Mart, using their site to store ordering procedure. You go on line and order the product but rather than shipping it to yourself, you have it sent to your local store. Then they call you and you go pick it up. I have never tried that before, so we will learn something new.

And last, we tried to cook some dinner tonight and found that our LP tank is completely dry! BONE dry! We didn't find anything that looked to be a leak, but tried to decide what we had done wrong. That's when we discovered that the heater was not in the off position. It was set at heat and a thermostat setting of 66 degrees.

So it looks as though we had 5 weeks of the coldest part of winter where we were heating the closed up motorhome with the LP heaters. They must have worked to perfection, because they sucked the life out of the on board storage tank.... Dumb! Just the flick of a small switch on the thermostat would have prevented this. I guess it is only money, but it could have burned the rig up with us not here.....

Usually we shut off the 12 Volt disconnect switch at the door, which would power down all the appliances, but since we left the fridge going on 110v ac, the low voltage had to run as well. So by leaving on the 12 volt stuff, that meant the heater thermostats were also live. Oh well, what are you going to do?

We are well aware that it is quite cold back in the mid West, and that we bolted out in the nick of time, so if you are freezing tonight, we are sympathetic.

Retired Rod

Setting camp back up!

2012-01-18T00:01:00.001-06:00

The sun came out this morning as I saw 43 on the dash of the car, while I was going after that proverbial half gallon of milk. We needed to make breakfast and had our supplies were several weeks old. Remember we just packed up our clothes and left 5 weeks ago.

We did not clean out the fridge or anything, but we did close the slides and disconnect the water and sewer. Without water pressure the biggest flood would have been limited to the half full water tank onboard.

After breakfast, we began to set up our camp again. Opening up the trailer and setting out chairs and bicycles and the stuff that defines our camp. Now remember we are in an 1800 space RV and Park Model park. We have about 35 feet of width by perhaps 55 feet of depth on our site.

All went well until I tried to set up our easy up style of 10 by 10 dining canopy. There wasn't enough room between the motorhome and the utility trailer. I did have room if the trailer was moved. That required stuff on the ground to be piled on the concrete patio, and then the trailer hooked up to the car.

Now I am still post surgical, so moving fast or lifting things is out of the question. I was putzing around and not making much headway, when our neighbor from the park model across the street came over. We just met Bob for the first time this fall, but he treats us as though he has known us for years......

He helped me connect the trailer, and guided me to get it moved over about three feet but not far enough to be on the neighbor's lot, and so on. We did get the canopy up, but I had to sit down for an extended rest period. He sat under the canopy with me and talked for the longest time.

Eventually we had the stakes in the ground to hold the canvas roof from flying away, and I put out the rope lights up under the fabric. It really seems quite bright out there after dark. I never did get the bar be cue out as I had planned, as some late night Wendy's intervened, and another trip to Wal Mart for some quick supplies.

Loyce was organizing the inside of the motorhome all day and surfing the web with her I Pad. That has become her new past time. She enjoys her new toy immensely, and that is good.....

Tomorrow will be another day, but it will be hard to beat today, as we had 68 mid afternoon. I know it is to be really cold back in Kansas tonight, so we are here in the nick of time!!

Retired Rod

The last day of travel.

2012-01-17T00:01:00.002-06:00

So where were we? Oh, I know, laying in bed listening to the Union Pacific 100 plus intermodal car trains as they zipped thru the center of town at blinding speeds. But I don't think they can go thru at 79 like Sam from St Louis suggested. Something about the town, and how big it is. But you train folks know better than I do.

They double stack the semi truck bodies on really low cars out here, and cars are somewhat nebulous as well, because they share one set of trucks under the ends of two cars without any couplers. That way two cars have only three sets of wheels. They are so long that I lost count as to how many cars there were. But they do have 5 power units, 3 on the front and 2 on the back.

These were about every 15 minutes all night long, and once in a while they passed each other on separate tracks going both ways right in town. But at least we were several blocks away from a crossing that required the whistle to be blown. The one West of us required two longs and a short and then another long. You train folks will have to explain what that means.

But about 4 AM I fell back to sleep, only to be jarred out of bed at 7:30 when Loyce burst back into the room from taking Biscuit out for a potty break, announcing that it was snowing outside. Or rainy sleeting, if you like. "Get up right now! We're leaving!"

So we packed and hit the road, and it rained and Snowed for quite a while as we headed West to Holbrook. But eventually it stopped and we thought we were out of it........... Uh, not exactly...... From Holbrook, we usually turn South toward Payson, which caused us to run right back into the storm.

At Heber, you begin to climb up over the 7,600 ft mountain range between there and Payson. It was a white out, with wet slushy, sloppy, clingy snow. The car windows fogged over and I was really glad that I had ordered 4 wheel drive for the CRV. It was quite sure footed, but I think my finger imprints are still squeezed into the steering wheel.

Once over the top, in about 15 miles, we descended back to about 5,500 feet and instead of 27 degrees it was 37. At that point the snow returned to rain. The trip down to the valley was overcast and rainy, but not slippery.

We took the back way into Mesa coming from the North, slipping thru Usery Mountain Pass. That comes out right on the same street as our RV park. So by about 2 PM we were extending the slides and hooking back up the water on the RV. Unloading the car took a while, and putting stuff away inside caused a nap to be in order.

We had enough car time in the last three days, so we haven't moved since we arrived. But tomorrow will be at least a Wal Mart day, because we have no milk or bread or any other perishable...

It was barely 60 when we got here and overcast for most of the rest of the afternoon. It only cleared up in time for the sun to set..

But we are home to the valley, and I am excited!

Retired Rod

I can see Arizona over the hill!

2012-01-15T21:54:00.001-06:00

Just watching the news and learned that Greenbay lost big time to NY! Wow what happened to all the favorites?

Tonight finds us in New Mexico, but only 20 miles from the Arizona line in Gallup. We arrived about 5 PM, and had to go on line and see about the pet friendly hotel.

Most were out on the farthest part of town, but this joint was right on old 66 flew the days inn flag. The office seemed OK but the actual rooms are quite old.... But they take your dog for an additional $10. So here we are!

We are right across the street from the tracks. Lots of them, about every ten minutes for a new train.

I did say it doesn't take long to load up a CRV, so yes we just headed on out. Took a big bottle of Tylenol and figured I would know in about 25 miles if it was a mistake.

Only about 280 to go now! Can't turn back now! Closer to go to Mesa now!

Be there mid afternoon. Yea!

Retired Rod

On the road again!

2012-01-14T22:01:00.001-06:00

What the heck happened to Denver and Tim t ?

We are watching the game in a motel in Liberal, KS,

Very few folks in this really old dog friendly motel on a Saturday night.

Only 800 miles left to go!!!

Retired Rod

Going for a burger and other musings.

2012-01-14T00:01:00.006-06:00

The sun came out this morning and improved moral around here quite a bit! We were scheduled to go out to lunch with my oldest son and his family, except his daughter that is in school.

Right on time, they arrived here ready to take us to a small Burger Bar over in a small town in Missouri! We all had burgers and fries, and a bunch of extra stuff and enjoyed our selves in conversation. The restaurant wasn't too busy, but we hope they will do more business because of the contest that they are part of.

The contest is for folks to come and get a free burger for every one that they order, and then go online and vote for the best burger place that they go to out of the 9 or ten in the contest. I know this was a fairly good burger for sure, but will not be here to go to all the others and make a good vote.

Well, perhaps I will just vote for the one I went to and let the other folks vote as they see fit.

We spent the rest of the day trying to decide what we need to get organized to take back to Arizona. I am certain that the day's high temp of 32 degrees has warned us that winter is here for real and that we need to get on back out West, least we get to enjoy the whole thang for ourselves...... Twang intended.

The heater in the house here seems to run every ten seconds, but at least the wind has become more bearable and we are likely to be above freezing in the morning, or perhaps sometime in the next couple of days....

I didn't look at the long term weather, because that would mean that I was planning on being here long term! Which I am not.....

Retired Rod

Winter's Charm?

2012-01-13T00:01:00.000-06:00

This morning when it became light outside, I peeked out the window on the front of the house. And yes, everything was covered in White Frozen Glaze! Since it had been in the teens outside for several hours, the snow was a frosty rime rather than the wet drippy stuff that seems to come in spring.

But!! Since the ground was relatively warm the night before, a bunch of the rain had not stuck to the ground but rather had melted. So we didn't have any depth to the snow. Maybe an inch or so, but the tops of the long parts of the grass were still sticking out thru the snow.

The sidewalks and the driveway had frozen with ice underneath and then the snow on top, but it was like a crust. I didn't even try to shovel it, as it would have taken an ice chopper to blast it off of the hard surface drive way.

We must have some rule about how much snow we are to receive before the snow crews come out with a plow, because we never saw one all day long. The forecast is for it to be above freezing sometime on Saturday, so perhaps they will just wait for the sun to do its thing.

Loyce went out to do some shopping this afternoon, but I elected to sit right tight here at the house and not bounce around in the car over the snowy crust. It was a total internet kind of a day for me. Biscuit slept off and on at my feet.

We are bundled up here in the house tonight like it was an igloo, and expect to see temperatures in the single digits before morning. The wind is also projected to continue in its 20 mph range like it has been for most of the day.

Yep, we stayed just a week or so toooooo long, but then the docs had everything to do with that, so we just grin and bear it!

Retired Rod

Waiting for winter??

2012-01-12T00:01:00.001-06:00

Now we have gone and done it!! We were flirting with winter destiny screwing around here in Kansas in January! Now its about to bite us in the backside. We went to Red Robin tonight and it was about 40 degrees, but the wind had changed to the Northwest since earlier in the day.

As if that's not enough, it began to rain and the wind began to blow while we were in the restaurant. And the temperature went down to 28 degrees. So it is below freezing with rain coming down and the wind at about 30 miles per hour. The weather service calls for the chance of snow at 90 percent...... The low tonight is forecast to be 16 F. The redeeming grace is that they are not calling for too much snow in total, but we have been gone for all of these storms in the last several years.

I guess I will just have to get back in the game plan, "for winter!!" I'm mostly out of practice, because this used to be standard procedure when I lived up in Iowa.... How quickly we become a patsy to these things...

Well anyway today was "fix the garage door closer electronic sender day!" You know the push button coded outside control had given up. But I got lucky, as only the battery was shot! It only took a nine volt battery that I already had on hand.

The next project was to go renew our automobile and household insurance. Rather than just send it off in the mail, I wanted to personally go take the check over. Messing around with insurance is the best way to find yourself without coverage! The check was hand delivered, and the cards to go in each vehicle were printed and handed to me on the spot. I also got the receipt for the check with the agents signature on it should there be any doubt about when it was paid.

These insurance folks have paid a minor fortune in claims for us this year with the roof and all the vehicle repairs from our hail storm, so taking chances with this stuff just isn't in the cards.

We will be leaving here in the next week or so, so I decided to go over to the barber shop this afternoon and get a slight trim. It was only about 4 weeks ago since the last complete do, but starting over will get me well into late February before I will need to go again. And perhaps I can stretch it out into March, which will get me back here to go to the regular folks.......

Tonight at Red Robin, I ordered a cheese burger and fries. When they brought the meal, I was famished, so I didn't even look at the sandwich, as it was all wrapped up in paper and only the lettuce and tomato were visible. I just bit right in. It was really full of Mayo, but didn't taste a bit like cheese burger! Well it turned out to be a California Chicken. It had bacon and some kind of pineapple. The cheese was white and without any noticeable flavor.

Red Robin offered to fix the sandwich, but I would have had to wait for another while all five grandkids would be done eating and wanting to go home. So I just stuck with the Chicken. It was underwhelming. One of my son's went and asked for a price adjustment, which I wasn't going to make a big deal about. But the next thing I know, they comped the meal....... So Red Robin knows how to keep their customers coming back.

That's enough fun for one day, when I am supposed to be sitting at home driving the recliner..........

Retired Rod

Loyce just let Biscuit out, and the snow flakes are about the size of quarters...............

Slow life while healing!

2012-01-11T00:01:00.000-06:00

I got up this morning and began to pack clothes into the suitcase! You know all the extra stuff I thought I should bring back to Kansas just in case. And now I am equally convinced to take it back to Arizona as well.

Well that didn't last too very long, as I tired of thinking about the trip and then worrying about the trip and how well I will be able to stand the car ride. I do need to get myself together a little better, as we have really moved back into the house and spread things all around. Really! There can't be that much to pack, because it all has to fit back into the back of that little Honda CRV! But no matter, I will forget stuff just the same.

We both spent the day just kind of hanging out. Loyce was reading some of the blog posts here on Retired Rod, and that always gets me into trouble for telling things that aren't like she experienced them. So I caught some trouble over my attitudes...... LOL!

By mid afternoon, I was off in a cooking mode again surfing the internet for the best bread stick recipe. I found one that claims that it was better than Olive Garden's. Really? It was very simple and mostly just a rehash of the roll recipe that we all call the quarter cup recipe. But no eggs and just water. So I made it up in the bread maker.

It was too dry, so I had to watch the dough as it was mixing and add water a tsp at a time until it cleaned the sides of the pan. Otherwise it was just white bread with more butter in it and 2 tbs of sugar. When the dough cycle stopped, I knocked it down and hand kneaded it a bit before cutting about 18 sticks and rolling them out on the counter in long rope sticks.

I filled the brownie sheet clear full, and let it rise for 30 minutes in the oven, which was barely warmed for a minute or so before turning it back off. About 15 minutes of bake time at 350* and yes! They were softer and spongier than Olive Garden's.

I cooked up a pound of turkey sausage and a jar of marinara which I added to a small package of whole wheat spaghetti, and we were in business for a "multi plate full" supper. I think I ate half the pan of sticks myself.

Caused me to dose off after supper for a while too. Yep we're eating pretty good here!

Retired Rod

Since I will get emails requesting this I'll just add it right now....
(Copied from the internet with creative commons rights)

Easy Italian Breadsticks Recipe

1 cup warm water (Plus 2 tsp if dry in the bread machine)
3 Tablespoons butter
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

Topping:

2 Tablespoons butter (melted) (I used 4 TBS)
2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (I skipped this as my Parmesan was ooooold)

Place ingredients in your bread machine in order listed. (I creamed the yeast for about 5 minutes in the warm water and sugar.) Run the dough cycle. When complete, divide the dough into 12 (I did 18 for smaller sticks) balls and form into 4-6-inch ropes. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes or until doubled. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Furnace periodic maintenance.

2012-01-10T00:01:00.001-06:00

It seems like yesterday now, but this morning we had the local furnace folks came to our house to do the fall heating season maintenance. Since it is mostly well beyond fall, I must first explain that we couldn't seem to get them before we left for Arizona back in October and November. They were scheduled up!

In the month of September we should have made the appointment, but failed to do so with the surgery and all we had going on. So Loyce made the schedule for today while I was still recovering from this latest surgery.

I have to admit, that I was less than enthusiastic to see these folks today because things aren't broken and messing with them may well just cause trouble. They were to be here between 8 and noon. And again, that proves that their time is way more valuable and mine is worth nothing, because I can just sit here and wait for them. But heck that's all I'm doing anyway is sitting here and waiting.

They took the entire heater apart checking all the electrical components and pressures. I had cleaned out the air filter, but they also replaced the humidifier pad and cleaned out that box. They spent about an hour and a half messing with everything. They didn't find anything to replace that cost extra money, and since we paid for the service last summer their was no charge today.

I guess that is peace of mind that we can leave the house and keep the heat on while we are gone. So that's OK. My problem with this system is that we have had way more repairs in the 6 years that we have lived here, than any other heat and AC plant I have ever owned. Every time they come, it seems to be another $500. So I am a little gun shy.........

I also went over to the lumber yard again this afternoon and purchased a small container of dry wall compound to repair a few places on the walls down in the family room in the basement. I did get to walk around in the big store for a while which is a first since I have been home again from this surgery.

That still causes pain, so I am ever so slowly regaining my strength, but of course not fast enough for my peace of mind!!.....

Retired Rod

Sunday and the Crock Pot

2012-01-09T00:01:00.001-06:00

And I ate almost all of it! Since I have been staying up almost all of the nights and watching TV, I have been watching the food channel and the shows about Drive Ins and Diners and Dives. The host, Guy, with the White Spiked Hair, goes back to the kitchen and watches or helps cook the specialty items of each joint.

He seems to be a good cook in his own right, and often surmises the process before the local cook gets it complete. But that gave me an idea to do some pulled pork for sandwiches here today. I seldom have recipes to follow as I am a dumper. That is just dump what you have in the pot and cook it.

I purchased a three pound little pork shoulder roast yesterday and this morning I put it in the crock pot with a chopped onion that I sauteed and some apple juice, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and a small can of tomato sauce.

I didn't cover the roast with the sauce but it was about half way up the side of it. I left it on low for several hours, and came back and turned the meat over every now and then. The onion and vinegar smell filled the house all day.

About six hours later, I checked the meat with a fork and it was easy to flake off of the big roast, so I took it out of the pot and went thru the pulling process, shredding the entire piece. I dumped the juice thru a sieve and saved some of the clear liquid. To this I added about a small bottle of KC Masterpiece Bar Be Cue Sauce, and about a half cup of Jim Beam whiskey.

This all mixed with the pulled pork and went back into the crock pot for about another hour. I had saved enough of the extra apple juice mixture to add into the meat as it cooked down during that time.

At about 4 PM I had made a fresh loaf of Whole Wheat and Honey bread in the bread maker. The whole meal was done about 7 PM.

There's not much left for left overs, but tonight I feel really stuffed as I type this for some reason.........

Retired Rod

Wal Mart and the rest of Tom Sawyer

2012-01-08T00:01:00.001-06:00

Back to the West Wal Mart here in Olathe for another oil change. Man its amazing how fast these miles pile up when you are zipping all over the country. I know I was just blogging about getting the oil changed this fall in a whole bunch of vehicles.

But we had over 4,000 miles since then on the CRV. Of course 2,500 of that is the trip down and back from Mesa, Arizona. And while we did come back about 5 days sooner than we had planned and will stay here about 3 weeks longer before we go back, the mileage will remain the same.

Wal Mart puts a sticker in your windshield that adds 3,000 miles to your current odometer reading and gives you three months, then requiring the oil to be changed again. But most vehicle owners manuals now days will allow 5,000 miles and 6 months. Again Wal Mart is just marketing their services. However, Loyce sees the sticker and starts in poking at me that it needs, needs, to be done right now. Wal Mart knows that it works!!!

I had used synthetic oil last time to boot, which may even increase the mileage to up to 10,000, but since we will be traveling another 1,300 in a week or so, I decided to start over on a new change. I was there at about 11:30 which must be before other patrons think about their oil, because I was first in line.

I asked about the 3k interval with synthetic oil and the fellow readily admitted that the sticker would be completely wrong, but that was what corporate had set the software that prints the stickers, to print. He said that 5K would be no problem but didn't think 10K was recommended. We had 4,200 so what the heck change it out!

Synthetic is expensive even at Wal Mart, as the service was $59 for the good Valvoline Syn stuff. But, he hand wrote the sticker allowing 5K miles and didn't specify a date. That should help Loyce in feeling her car isn't over due for service.

All while this was happening, she was out with the 4 oldest grand kids in the other car. Having a lunch at a fast food, with a play place. And then to the theater for the latest Chipmunk movie. I give praise to the lord for not making me go along on that one..............

Biscuit and I spent a quiet afternoon reading the rest of the Tom Sawyer book from so long ago. The English from 1875 is so different from today, that you have to pause and determine what each paragraph actually is trying to relate.

I remember when I was about 10 years old, my father and I read the book together, with him reading and explaining what was happening as I mostly listened. There are many references to African Americans, that would have only been free from slavery for about 12 years at that time. The N word is used throughout the text. I couldn't help but wonder how I would go about reading this to my 9 year old grand son today. Things have really changed in 135 years.

Retired Rod

Recovering from the trip and tests.

2012-01-07T00:01:00.001-06:00

Good heavens, I wasn't expecting so many nice comments about being able to head back to Arizona. But as some of you have alluded, I have to get better and be able to travel in the car without the vibrations from the road causing so much pain. (Thank You for all the well wishes!)

That will just take time, as I have experienced this before having had so many trips for these surgeries. We kind of made some tentative plans about a couple of weeks away, but again I need to get over the night pain that comes with this surgery thing. And get so I am not needing the pain pills, so much. Or I'll never be able to get up in the mornings.

I just sat here in the recliner most of the day, reading the internet and then starting up my laptop, because Loyce wanted to use the printer, and it only works on a microsoft operating system machine. It is a driver thing, as it does not have any linux or ipad software. As far as the Apple, they have proprietary cables as well, so nothing that isn't Apple will work with the I pad. That is why I have stayed away from Apple, but Loyce likes the little thing so I just say yes dear...

But with Microsoft running on the laptop, the printer wakes right up and prints out the stuff the boss wants. Of course that meant that the laptop needed to run most of the rest of the day downloading the updates it has missed since we used it last before we left Arizona.

I have been reading Tom Sawyer again on the book reader that is part of Google Chrome Apps. It is a really old book, so it can be downloaded for free. It has captivated the rest of this evening, and I never even turned on the TV. That means that I have missed Gold Rush on the discovery channel, but they run the stuff over and over, so I will see it eventually.

Recliner driving has allowed me to get over the pain and trauma of going to the hospital yesterday, and I have not had a pain pill all day, so perhaps I will be headed to better recovery here in the near future. At least that is the plan. Just hang around and get better so we can get out of here sometime yet this month....

Retired Rod

Visit to the Doctor's

2012-01-06T00:01:00.001-06:00

First off let's just cut to the bottom line.........I got a signoff to head back to Arizona today!!!! Yea!!!!

But it wasn't without its scary moments......

We were up at 6 and dressed and gone by 7:15. Its a 45 minute drive to the hospital, and perhaps longer in the morning traffic. But things rolled right along, so we were there on time at 8 AM.

First stop was the Lab where they wanted blood work. I lucked out and there was almost no one in the waiting room. After checking in, they called me before Loyce even got the car parked.

I haven't had the best luck with this group of folks as they seem to never get any blood on the first poke. But this gal stuck me and swirled the back end of the needle around in a circle cutting the heck out of the other end. It sent me almost to the moon... Yeow! but of course that made me bleed inside, and she got the blood. Not the smoothest deal, but it worked as far as she was concerned.

Tonight, I have a big black and blue spot where she did this dirty work, but that was just the start of the tests.

Next it was to the Radiology Lab to test my kidney output. That took a while to get registered and wait my turn. Once back in the room, they start another IV line and shoot the radioactive dye into your body. Then after 15 minutes, they give you a really big dose of diuretic thru the same IV. The result is that you start peeing your head off....

That's when they start filming you as the flow comes out of your kidneys. You have to lie really quiet and make sure that you don't move............... The technician told me he could see where the recent operation connected the little tubes inside of me.....

Now it seemed like the worst was over as I waited in the doctor's office to get back to an exam room. Of course the diuretic still kept on working. About three trips back to the restroom later, we were in the exam room. The resident doc came in and removed all those nasty staples out of the front of the newest zipper they installed in me. Boy I was glad to see those things go! It hurts a little as they pluck them out, but compared to catching them in your undies when you don't expect it, getting rid of them is welcome no matter how much the process hurts....

Well eventually the main surgeon comes in and says that the test didn't work as the dye blew out of the IV line and they couldn't see anything. I was going to have to go and do the test all over! I began to protest that that couldn't be, because the tech was describing what he was seeing as the test went on.

I explained that I felt the dye go up my arm and down into my Aorta. Right after that they began to explain that they were seeing my kidneys. Nothing blew out of the IV, and the IV sight wasn't festered.

The doc disappeared for the longest time, but finally came back and said he had been on the phone with the radiology folks. They finally agreed that I was fine, and wouldn't tell him what made them think otherwise the last time he called.

He surmised that they had me mixed up with one of the other patients, that did indeed have all these bad things happen. But that they wouldn't admit to it on his second call. This was really important that they decided I was OK, because doing the test over again like the doc told me the first time didn't sound a bit fun.

I was feeling a bit like a pin cushion the first time, but to go have it done again just because they couldn't keep the patients names straight, was going to cause me to be greatly upset........

All during this activity, I had to excuse myself to the bathroom three more times as the diuretic continued to do its job.

After that, the doctor's visit became a discussion of Arizona and the fact that my surgeon wants to visit and play some golf and do a general R & R. We talked about the weather, and I suggested the middle months of February as it would be nicely warm during the day, but not hot like the middle of March can become. He is making the reservations!

So for now the pressure is off, and all I need to do is heal up enough to travel back to the great Southwest... Can you see me doing my happy dance?

Retired Rod

Back to the Hospital for more tests.

2012-01-05T00:01:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow is another big day at the Hospital, and I am a little more than concerned about what nasty things they will have planned to arrest me here in Kansas for the rest of the winter.

So my mind isn't on blogging much tonight.....

Retired Rod

2012-01-04T00:01:00.001-06:00

I spent my first day out and about today. Post of the latest surgery. That was two weeks ago. I believe that I am much ahead of where I was last September when the last surgery big was performed. But this time I didn't have organs removed, but rather just some things re plumbed.

I drove the car over to my jeweler watch repair guy about 8 miles from here. I felt every bump that the car hit, and at one point I stopped for a rather long traffic light, which I was thankful for. It gave me a few moments to regroup my insides from the trauma.

But it has always served me well to get up and get going, which I feel has sped my recovery every time. So I may have to take an additional pain med tonight, but tomorrow I will be stronger. And on Thursday, I have to muster enough strength to drive all the way back to the hospital downtown and face the docs for the same tests that I failed last fall.

Tonight I have been sitting here watching the Iowa Caucus results. As a former Iowan, I have attended these meetings, and have even stood and spoke at the front of the room for a candidate. No other state has this kind of accountability for what you believe.

As I type this, there is a spread of 18 votes between the republican front runners. Amazing, but remember that Iowa chose Huckabee last time and he didn't get the nomination in the end for the republicans. They did choose Obama and we all know they were correct with that one.

So short of me turning this into a political blog, and blasting out a bunch of personal views that are bound to offend at least 50 percent of my readers, I will just say this has been an interesting evening of reporting to say the least.

Perhaps I will just hang around here tomorrow to build up strength for the visit to the hospital on Thursday...... But if I had to leave for Arizona tonight, it would take quite a while to get there based on my ability to go about 50 miles per day currently. But I'll get stronger again, I'm sure.

Retired Rod

Family Christmas that was delayed.

2012-01-03T00:01:00.001-06:00

With all the family coming for afternoon lunch, or New Years dinner, we were getting things together today for the feast. We have a bar be que over just East of the Missouri state line that we like, (Jack Stack) and Loyce had ordered a take out pack of meats for our meal. She ducked out about 11 to go get the package.

Mel our dil made cheesy corn and baked beans from the same restaurants recipes, that can be found on line. Danielle our second dil made cole slaw and brought a scrumptious chocolate pie. I had made the diner rolls from scratch with the bread machine, and Loyce pealed the potatoes which I mashed and loaded with way too many fat items like sour cream and such.

We had a fresh fruit bowl that Loyce made yesterday, and chips and cheese dip along with little smokey sausages in the small crock pot. Even though there were eleven of us, we didn't make too big of a dent in all that food.

So we watched TV all afternoon and opened presents and enjoyed the new basement room, until it was time to dig out the bar be que left overs again and clean up some more of the feast!

It was well after dark, when everyone decided to head on home. The kids were becoming tired from no naps except the three year old jonked out mid afternoon up in our crib.

So Christmas is official, here at our family, and we got to use the new TV down in the new family room to watch the ongoing stream of New Years Bowls. Well now that's about perfect isn't it?

Retired Rod

January Christmas

2012-01-02T00:45:00.000-06:00

We are having our family over for the Christmas that was skipped last week when I was a tad too sick to get out of the Hospital. Even then I wasn't in any shape to have a party once I got home. The first couple of days were sleep, sleep and so forth.

So for no particular reason other than everyone has the day off, tomorrow will be the day that both of my son's and their families will be here to open belated presents and have all 5 grandkids run all thru the house all at once. Biscuit will be beside her self trying to decide who to chase!

Today, Loyce was out doing all that last minute stuff and wrapping presents that she has had for months. I was holding the chair down over in the corner trying to keep out of her way. I did resist running the TV for most of the day, and stuck to the internet for entertainment.

But tonight, the Dallas and NY football game pulled me away from that no TV pledge.

It was a bunch cooler here today, as we had 62 on Saturday, but with a wind from the South at about 30 miles an hour. It really reminded me of the Rio Grande Valley for the day. But today we were in the 40s all day and that wind seemed to still be here. Of course since this is Kansas, the sun was shinning both days, but that can be a bit deceiving at 40 degrees and windy.

I have had the bread machine out for the last couple of days, practicing up to make a fairly good loaf. It has been a couple of years since I have made bread, and it was a skill that was not lost. I think we just got tired of the home made stuff all the time and got lazy and bought Wal Mart Bakery bread instead.

So messing with that has kept me entertained as well. Cutting off a big ole slice of hot bread and slathering it with butter and honey can keep a man's attention fairly well. I thought about Bayfield Al's peanut butter, but refrained since that practice is hard to stop once started..........

So perhaps we will have two Christmas' in 2012 this year, if we live that long........anyway.

Retired Rod

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!!!

2012-01-01T00:01:00.001-06:00

Well heck yes 2011 is gone and it is now 2012!!!! That is good for everyone because we are looking at the prospect of many new things for the upcoming new year. And for me, I am hoping that it will mean better health and not so many operations!!! One can hope can't one?

Now of course no one can know the future, and I am certain that I really don't want to know what is in store for me health wise but!! I am wishing for no new operations and the opportunity of having some form of planning for my upcoming year, rather than checking in with the doctors and seeing what their schedules are like for the things that I will need....

Now I don't think I should jinx myself with that kind of a resolution, since I have little to do with its outcome, so rather it will just be my wish for 2012.

So where ever you come to me as a reader, I wish for your health and prosperity for this new year as well! And I know some of you are facing your own health issues and procedures in this new year, but for sure here's to quick and successful outcomes!

I know from experience that after 7 or 8 times under the anesthesia, that there is and will be life on the other side of these procedures............

Retired Rod

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Pain pills and loosing football

2011-12-31T00:01:00.000-06:00

I still haven't left the house yet since returning home last Sunday from the hospital. I am still needing the codo what ever pain pills and they kick the stuffing out of me and make me sleep in way late in the morning.

That slows the whole process down for the day, and it seems like the day is just gone before it begins. Perhaps tonight I will only take just one kind of pain pill, and that will have me waking up earlier in the day tomorrow.

I said that last night too, but by 2 AM the pain rushes in and I give up and take the pills....

As I sit here and type this entry, I am watching my Iowa Hawkeyes in the Insight Bowl with the Oklahoma Sooners. Iowa is having a really difficult time looking like they are even in this game. That is troubling for me, but Oklahoma was picked way high in the beginning of the season. Only to have a bunch of injuries that set them back in some landmark losses. Of course those injuries are mostly healed tonight, so Iowa seems to be in way over their proverbial heads. I graduated from the U of Iowa back in the early 70s.

Bob Stoops, Oklahoma's head coach graduated from the University of Iowa and was a player and then a coach on our team, so that inside knowledge of our team isn't helpful either...... Oh well, we won last years bowl, which was this exact same game in Tempe, Az. The Insight Bowl.

Nothing else new here......

Retired Rod

Still parked along side the road......

2011-12-30T01:27:00.000-06:00

Perhaps I should explain, that the reason for the second operation had to do with how the surgeon attached one of the little tubes on my insides and the apparent scar tissue that formed inside. This had nothing to do with the amount of time spent in a recliner as a post surgical patient, but might have reflected on the way I was put back together.

Of course no one is blaming anyone, and these things happen. But, the recliner driving this time is mostly because I am having a bunch more pain from opening up the same incision a second time. Perhaps it will back off some in the next few days. If I am lucky and the rains don't come............

I spent most of today back up in the bedroom where I have a reclining eurochair that used to be in the motorhome. I am doing my best to lay low...... And I think I have taken fewer pain pills.

But tonight, I am back down in the main recliner talking to a good friend up in Des Moines. He seems to know when to call and keep my mind off of the instant situation as we remissness flying and ham radio fests of the recent past. The TV wasn't all that good tonight, so his call was quite welcome.

Loyce went over and bought me another bag of Wendy's so I wouldn't run a quart low on french fry grease, but I surprised her and didn't eat too many of the fries. It does drive Biscuit the dog crazy though, because she thinks I am going to give her the left overs.

Narry a french fry will ever cross her pallet if I have my way, because we just don't want to get that started. Our old dog wouldn't leave you alone when french fries were involved. She was soo spoiled....... So Biscuit pays that price..

I didn't even read the blogs today until after the evening news, so perhaps I am letting up on the computer some....... Naw, that won't catch on.....

Retired Rod

Recliner Driving

2011-12-29T00:01:00.001-06:00

Recliner driving! I had never thought of it as an occupation, but perhaps that is my job of choice for the next several days. All of my guidance on the blog commenters tells me to hang back, so I am following that advice.

I was up quite late with the pain, but finally I went to bed and sleep. That makes the morning drift off into mid day before I am dressed and back downstairs. So my day is a lot "over" before it begins. Most of that day was spent in the recliner driving mode.

Or perhaps it is running the big desktop computer here on the end table beside the recliner. I get lost in the internet, and somehow the days seem to slip away. Then in the evening, I seem to be a junkie on the Discovery Channel watching the gun shows and the moonshiners.

I'm also hooked on the Gold Rush folks on Fridays. So perhaps that will allow for my recliner driving while I get over this surgical set back.

It was wall to wall sunny today, but the temperature barely reached 50 degrees in the very middle of the afternoon. Now that we have become more accustomed to the Kansas winter that really doesn't seem too bad, but it is just a matter of time before we get a good covering snow, and then I'm going to be in a toot to get the he!! outa here.......

Retired Rod

Christmas Sleep!

2011-12-27T17:52:00.000-06:00

I was going to write something yesterday on the blog here, but once I was upstairs in bed on Christmas night, I just crashed. I slept for 12 hours waking only to take a few more pain pills and do the necessary stuff.

I never left the bedroom all day Monday, napping and letting the TV run even though I wasn't watching most of the time. I finally woke up just in time to go to bed on Monday night.

Well that didn't do me much good since everyone else was sleeping. So, I watched TV all thru the night. Oh and took a bunch more of those disorienting pain meds.

So now on Tuesday I am all messed up, not knowing if it is daytime or night time. But I have managed to go down to my chair and read a bunch of the blogs that I have missed over the last couple of weeks. And I have laid off of the pain pills that were putting me to sleep so badly. And I have managed to stay awake all day, and just perhaps I will sleep at night tonight, like more normal folks will.

Chris, my oldest son has been in and out with his mother (Loyce) for much of the day, and has helped in purchasing another hiking pole, that I use in place of a cane to get me around the house and such. He also went over and purchased another wedgie pillow at the wholesale medical supply store where he has an account. Again we had to leave the one I had in the RV, since there wasn't room in the car for all this stuff.

So I am sure that the docs would think that I am improving about normally, but of course that isn't nearly fast enough for my standards because I am still house bound on pain pills. But just when you think you should go "get er done" like Larry the Cable Guy would say, the surgery pain comes back to remind me that driving the recliner is the best bet for the near term.......

Oh, and by the way, it is to be 70 in Arizona this week, all the way until Sunday, so that is working on me too................. Better quit looking at the Wx out there........

Retired Rod

Out on Christmas Day!

2011-12-26T00:01:00.001-06:00

Ok, all those good wishes worked as I am now home. Both of my son's have been over to check out if dad is still just as ornery, and the recliner is much more comfortable as I write this blog.

I just can't type on those darned smart phones with my big fingers. The resident doc came by about 7 AM and told me the plan was to kick me out sometime this afternoon, so get the calls made that are required.

Of course that took the head surgeon to agree, but he has 4 kids opening presents this morning, and we don't get him back until afternoon. Everything was done to plan for his arrival at about noon, and he signed the necessary papers and yet another of the residents removed the drain bulb out of my front.

The hose on that one was wrapped way around inside my insides, and after removing the sutchers that held it in, he just pulled like heck on it. I thought my intestines would follow it out, and yelped like a dog that had been run over.

I had a central line IV that was also stitched into my neck, and that had to be snipped out and yanked as well. This hospital thing is not easy to ever be comfortable with...

After a few office visits, I hope to get back to Arizona sometime this winter......wish me luck........

Retired Rod

Xmas Eve... at the hospital!

2011-12-24T19:27:00.002-06:00

Now that's not what you would wish for, but the doc is right, as I just wasn't strong enough to go home yet. My intestines weren't fully awake yet so another night.

It is really quiet around here, so patients and staff are mostly gone. Maybe we will get some sleep tonight for a change. I hope to get out tomorrow.

The helliocopter just landed on the heart unit, so I'm not so unlucky.

Merry Christmas to you and Yours!!!

Retired Rod

Still.not dead!

2011-12-22T21:49:00.001-06:00

I am recovering in the hospital, but I have a lot more pain since they went right thru the old spot from last time. So I have pain buttons that need pushed or you pay the price. Perhaps tomorrow will be an improvement!

Retired Rod

Here we go......

2011-12-21T00:01:00.001-06:00

I have to be at the hospital by 7 AM and surgery is at about 8:30. This is again an open abdomen surgery where they cut right thru the same place that they opened in September. That means all the healing that I have gone thru in the last three months will be right back to square one.

I am not looking forward to this experience. Perhaps it won't be as bad this time, but I am not overly convinced of this outcome. I do hope to get back to Arizona by the first part of February............

I'll blog with the Android phone when I get myself somewhat under control again..

Rod

Blood sugar meter, and my Christmas watch.

2011-12-20T00:01:00.001-06:00

It rained and rained all day, but the temps were still above freezing, and that is good because if that had been snow, it would have covered the house. But slowly we have been loosing the temps all day, and tonight it is still raining and down to 36.

We are to be at freezing by morning, and if the rain doesn't stop, you know what will happen next......

I spent most of the middle of the day researching blood sugar testing meters. This required a lot of reading and you tube watching on the internet. But slowly I decided that I liked the Freestyle Lite by Abbott Labs.

There were two different meters that were both Freestyle Lite. The second was called a Freestyle Freedom Lite, and had bigger display numbers for those that were visually challenged. But you gave up some features to get the big display, like the back lighting and strip lights.

The little light shines on the end of the strip where you are drawing in the blood, which I thought was helpful here in the winter, when daylight isn't up before you are. The strips have test spots on both sides rather than in the end, so that helps with placing the meter on the blood spot depending on whether you are testing the right or left hand. You can't just keep poking the same finger all the time......

It also takes the smallest amount of blood to test of any of the machines out on the market, and you can test on your arms. So over to Wal Mart, with Walgreens as a backup source.

Wal Mart had both models, but the boxes are sealed and unless you had done your research ahead of time you wouldn't have any idea what was really in the box. I grabbed the straight "Lite" without the big display but with the light system.

But that was when I learned that the strips are over the top expensive. Makes sense, small amount of blood and no machine coding, equals higher price. 50 strips were $63, Wow.. The machines are much cheaper at $18 for either one. I think they almost give you the machine so that you will use their strips.

After sales taxes I had $85 in this new machine idea. I will take it with me to the hospital, as they want to test your sugar about every 3 hours, and their machines use about a quart of blood each time. I told the docs that we would be using my machine, and they agreed that the hospital equipment was from the dark ages.

I also received a Christmas present from me, to me, in the form of a new watch for the collection. Loyce helped me pick it out the other day last week. It is a midnight blue ceramic bracelet, skeleton dial, automatic movement. It is so light, but can be a bear to size. So I spent better than an hour tonight getting the bracelet shortened up for my stubby arm....

I got it out of the mail box when Loyce wasn't looking, as I was afraid she would say I had to wait until Christmas to open it........... But I might still be in the hospital, and there would be no way to size it there.

Most of the time, it is recommended that a jeweler size ceramic bracelets, since they use teeny tiny collars over the bracelet pins. Takes tweezers to even pick them up. I had to take out 4 links, driving out that many pins and not loosing the tiny collars. You put them back in with a jewelers hammer, so careful is the watchword. Pun intended......

Anyway that was my day, and Loyce was gone all day shopping, and I didn't even ask where..... do I really want to know?

Retired Rod

Snooooooooooooo!

2011-12-19T00:01:00.001-06:00

The only news around here is that the sun disappeared today and the clouds came strolling in to replace it. That will change to rain tomorrow, and then on Tuesday, they are actually using that "S" word......

And I don't mean shovel either, although we should go see if we still have one because we may have to use it. I do think they are talking about less than an inch of the S stuff, but that is how it begins around here.

First you get just a dusting and it melts or evaporates. You think to your self that that wasn't too bad...... But then you get the next dose, and it is enough that you need to go clear it out, and before you know it there are piles of the stuff all around you.

Our lows are to be in the 20s this next week with daily highs barely above freezing. Thank goodness we don't live any farther North than we do. We used to live up in Iowa, but now I think it would kill us to go back....

I accomplished absolutely nothing here today and have nothing to report other than computer time and recliner driving.......

Maybe I will do something tomorrow................ And then maybe not..

Retired Rod

Replacement Chair and the Vet's Office

2011-12-18T00:01:00.001-06:00

Thank you all for your concerns on this further surgery thing!!! I will just barge on over there on Wednesday and turn myself in like going to jail, and before long they will have me on the stretcher and knocked out...... And from there on I won't remember a thing.... Well until I wake up anyway....

If you have read this blog since last month, you will remember that I loaded one of the recliners into the motorhome to take with us to Arizona. That displaced the motorhome's Eurochair back into the house here, but it doesn't really match much of anything so Loyce carried it up to the bedroom where there is space for the little used uncomfortable fellow.

I made the comment that I didn't like taking the recliner in and out of the motorhome all the time, because it scratches up the leather cover, so it is staying put for now. So that left the spot in the family room where it used to reside......... Do you see where this is going?

Yes the pickup and myself were dispatched to the Nebraska Furniture Mart to get a replacement chair today. And its Christmas.... There weren't any parking spaces in their entire lot. And its bigger than a football field. For those of you that don't like crowds, there wasn't a bit of space in the store that didn't have a hoard of people standing around or sitting on the display furniture or standing in line to go pay....

And to make matters worse, I didn't see anything that was remotely like what Loyce and I discussed. Not even close. I finally decided that the one that would work was fabric and not leather. I called Loyce and ran it by her. We decided that a new chair didn't have to be leather. Our furniture is mix and match anyway. Mostly mix! The important thing was that it was the correct color, so I had the salesman write it up.

After paying at the desk where the long line of customers were waiting for the cash register, it was back outside to get in the pickup line. I counted 12 lanes of customer pickup with at least 10 cars or trucks in each one. And yes it took about another hour to get the chair loaded on board!

Including the trips to the store and back home it took over 4 hours to enjoy this experience...... It was after dark as I was loading the box into the house. But hey, because we decided on a fabric cover we saved about $100, or did we spend....? Always wondered about that saving thing when you just wrote a big check. But that corner of the room is now full again, and that is what is important, and oh, incidentally Loyce liked it, and that is a great big plus because I didn't even want to think about what I would have to do to return it!

And Loyce spent the afternoon over at the Vet's office with Biscuit, getting annual shots and all the planning that goes along. We hope to get her spayed before we head back to Arizona as well this month.

She is now over 1 year old and has been in heet once, so it is time. And yes we know that there are several theories about how long to wait before having this procedure, but our Vet likes this schedule, and since we like the Vet, we will do it her way.

And it was in the 50's today and very sunny so being in KC didn't seem so bad.....

Retired Rod

What to do?

2011-12-17T00:01:00.001-06:00

Well rather than banter on about how the day went, lets just cut to the chase and say that the Docs laid out several options that were all, take a chance on seeing how you do and possibly have to come back from Arizona or get surgery there in the upcoming weeks.

In the end I decided to just bite the bullet and get this over with right now. So I have surgery scheduled for next Wednesday, early in the morning. This is the full boat type deal where they open me up just like before, and I start all over with recovery.

Perhaps I won't be in the hospital quite as long, but all things will have to go completely right to get me home by Christmas eve or day...... Otherwise my Christmas dinner will be on a hospital tray....

Travel back to Arizona will be in 4 or 5 weeks........ Looks like I will be enjoying winter from my chair in Kansas for most of the nasty weeks. Hope things will be OK in Mesa while we are gone.... Oh well that is the least of my worries now.

Retired Rod

Looking for a pair of pants and a loaf of bread..

2011-12-16T00:01:00.001-06:00

We saw the sun today, but that came at a big price. Overnight the clouds cleared out to the East, but the clearing cold streamed in behind them. It was in the early thirties mid morning, and I'm not sure it ever made 40 all day.

I had to find the bigger and thicker coat in order to head out on my shopping trip in the middle of the afternoon. I had found a specific pair of Wrangler pants at the local Wal Mart, and I wanted a second pair. But in my rotund size, the local store only had the one.

I drove to the newest store in old downtown Olathe, but they didn't even have any Wrangler products. Each store has their own buyers, and perhaps this fellow didn't like Wrangler. What to do?

The next town to the South is about 8 miles away and has a Wal Mart out by I 35, so I headed that way. There I hit the jackpot finding the pants and a couple of fleece tops that I like as well. All in the extra extra extra extra, well you get the idea......

Anyway, I got to grocery shopping and managed to spend another $50 over and above the clothes. But tonight I was able to make some hamburger and hashbrown soup that I like, that doesn't seem to upset me as much as other things.

Later tonight, our son Chris came over with a fresh loaf of sour dough whole wheat bread that was hot out of his bread maker. To me fresh bread is almost cake like when it comes fresh out of the oven. The butter slathered and melted into the coarse, fresh cut bread. It was warm enough to steam my glasses as I smeared it all over my face.

We got to watching the Turtle Man on the Animal Planet Channel. This fellow grabs wild animals with his bare hands, and kept us busy and laughing for a couple of hours. Man this guy is nuts, but we enjoyed watching him crawl all over stuff grabbing snakes and stuff.....

This worked fairly well to keep my mind off of the fact that I need to muster at the Doctor's office tomorrow to try and decide my fate as far as the next step to fix my insides.......

I guess it will be what it will be.......

Retired Rod

Warm and a Haircut....

2011-12-15T00:01:00.002-06:00

Every once in a while we get a funny condition here in KC where the Southern flow of air coming up from the El Paso area charges in here like a freight train. And with it, it brings very warm air. That must have happened over night.

As we got up this morning it was in the 50s but still raining. The rain didn't completely stop, but it began to slow up to where it was just spitting. This makes the car mighty dirty, but hey, its warm anyway.

I looked on the weather service web site, and found out that Phoenix only had 53 degrees, and that we had 60. Can you believe that KC was actually warmer than Phoenix? I'm sure that it got warmer in Phoenix sometime today, but I had to head out, so I never found out.

One of the good things about being back here in KC is that I can go back over to my favorite barber shop and get a good haircut. One that I am familiar with and trust to not be a shear job. There were several folks in front of me so it took about two hours before I was ready to leave. You can believe that there were a bunch of un truths told in that amount of time.

Back here we worked on several projects on the computer, and got caught up in the TV for the rest of the night.

There's not much else going on around here, other than waiting to get into the doctor's office and find out what our plans will be for the future.

Also our warm weather is very short lived, because it is supposed to be 20 degrees colder tomorrow!

Retired Rod

Cold and Rainy

2011-12-14T00:01:00.001-06:00

The rain and 40 degree weather continues and my spirits are just as gray. We can't get into the Doctor's office for several days, so I am puzzled as to why we had to rush so fast to get home. But that was not my decision.....

I spent most of the day addicted to the desk top computer and its 22 inch monitor. It is amazing how you can become so used to a new device in such a short period of time. Then when going back to the lap top that you thought was quite large, realizing how much you gave up.

The house seems cold and drafty since we have heat pump heat until it gets below freezing. The fan runs endlessly, but we use electric heaters to warm up the areas that we are siting in. I haven't even tried the basement, as it is a poured concrete foundation and even thou I insulated everything for days in the remodel, it is still going to require a bunch of heat.

At least the blogs report that Arizona isn't much warmer and we are perhaps better off in the house here than stuck in a 400 sq ft motorhome, with not much more to do than surf the web.

Retired Rod

An admission of error!!

2011-12-13T00:01:00.001-06:00

After 775 miles of driving in one day, today was almost a complete stay at home day. Of course that wasn't completely true because we had no perishable groceries here at home. We left about everything in Arizona, mainly because we didn't have enough room in the CRV to haul all the stuff.

We did put the seats down and had it stuffed clear to the ceiling, but mostly it was things like my tool kit and Loyce's sewing machine. And of course our personal belongings like clothes and pillows. But no room for an ice chest or anything big like that.

So off to Wal Mart for me this morning for eggs and milk. I'm not sure what all I purchased, but it rang up well over $100. Yea, Wal Mart, it really is the $100 store.

Now for an admission of not knowing what I was talking about!!! I'm surprised that no one busted me on driving past Jessie and Ginger at Liberal, Kansas and seeing what I thought to be their RV Park. NOT!!!

They are at Liberty, Kansas, not Liberal, Kansas......... Liberty is in Southeastern Kansas and miles and miles away from Liberal. I just happened to read one of their blogs today and realized my mistake. They are working for the Amazon distribution center in Coffeyville, Kansas. This is right on the line with Oklahoma on Highway 169. Liberty is about 10 miles North of Coffeyville.

Anyway so much for my knowledge of this situation. But perhaps it won't matter since these fine folks are going to be relieved of their duties on December 23rd, since the Christmas shipping season will be over at that time. It does seem like a good job for full timers to look into. It only lasts three months and you are out of there. But it is 10 hour days.

Its overcast and the high today was in the mid 40s, so I am missing Arizona greatly already......

Retired Rod

Back to KC

2011-12-12T00:01:00.000-06:00

We didn't get off until 11 AM mountain time on Saturday, and drove straight thru to Albuquerque. We grabbed a pet friendly motel and spent the night listening to the folks upstairs and next door.

This always freaks Biscuit out and she will bark or not sleep or whine or all of the above. So we may as well have just kept on driving. Finally at about midnight, all was quiet and in about 5 hours the neighbors began to get up. So that meant that Biscuit was up too.

We were on the road at 7:30 mountain, but we set our clocks ahead for Central time since we would be in Texas in the next couple of hours.

It was a long day of driving and Kansas is way too far across when you enter the Southwest corner at Liberal and drive to the Northeast corner at KC. We did do a cursory wave at Jessie and Ginger as we passed their park North of Liberal. There's not a tree in the entire place so seeing their rig was no problem.

Its taken us over an hour to unload the stuff out of the CRV. Man was it packed! Two days and 1100 miles, door to door.........

Retired Rod

Returning for Christmas..... a little early.

2011-12-10T00:07:00.001-06:00

We were up before dawn this morning, leaving the coach as the sun came up. We were headed to the distant clinic that we thought we knew about. Its location anyway. Wrong! There seems to be two of these facilities that are owned by this very name brand Clinic.

And since it was a 50 50 chance, of course we went to the wrong one. But have faith, we were sufficiently early that we managed to get over to the other location and only be 15 minutes late. But they weren't all that organized either, so it didn't seem to matter much.

The outcome of that visit wasn't all that good, as it seems that my surgery before thanksgiving isn't successful. So we have decided to head back to KC for further consultation. We were leaving here on the 15th for Christmas anyway in our previous plan, but now we will leave in the next couple of days.

Since the RV is on its prepaid and somewhat expensive site, it will stay behind and we will just travel by car. Driving back into the frozen world of I 40 needs to be completed with pipes that are not susceptible to that cold. So if we shouldn't really be living in the RV in those places, but rather a motel, we may as well do it that way anyway.

We spent the afternoon trying to become organized to leave the rig by itself, and our car is much too small for everything we think we need to take along. I guess when its full, its full. But I really do need to take my underwear............ LOL

Retired Rod

A day to kick back

2011-12-09T00:01:00.016-06:00

It was another carbon copy of the day we had yesterday as far as the temperatures went. Too cool to do much in the morning, other than Loyce and Biscuit went on their morning walk. But not nearly as far.

We stopped into the sales office yesterday to get a map and the current list of park models for sale, and this morning we determined that a lot more of the park is now considered doggy area. Seems that there are a lot more of us coming with our pets now, and things are staying empty while they are turning away folks that have pets on board.

Also it is hampering sales of their park models as most customers need pet friendly park models. The ones available are three to one non pet. So the park management has opened up a bunch of perimeter streets to pets.

The idea is that you can now walk the entire perimeter of the park with your dog or cat and never have to cross out of pet area. Still there were only three park models available the day before yesterday in pet area that were used. Really?

Loyce keeps asking me what I want, when she goes to Wal Mart, and I always answer that I don't know, so this afternoon I took the car and went grocery shopping for things that I wanted. To be clear, I can't eat much of anything after all of the surgeries that I have had in the last year.

So I spent the afternoon buying potatoes and breakfast cereal and stuff like that from Wal Mart. Loyce stayed home and made her vegetable chili that she likes so well, and went to the swap meet country store and stopped by the quilters group and gave them the fleece blankets that she had made over the summer for their donation to the local hospitals.

I stopped by the sales office to clarify where the doggy area boundaries currently are. In the process, I learned that a park model that I was curious about last year was back on the market. It sold when I was considering it last year, but it wasn't in the dog area anyway. Well this year it is in the new dog area.

I told Loyce about it when I got back from Wal Mart, and out of curiosity, we had the sales lady open it for us. It is 14 years old but still in fairly good condition... It is expensive for how old it is, but does have an Arizona room. We thanked the sales gal and came home.

Next Wednesday is the big open house around here, so it won't last beyond that day.

I on the other hand, have a really early Doctor's appointment in the morning over an hour from our park. So this writing needs to be declared over with, as I need to go to bed..

Retired Rod

2011-12-08T00:14:00.001-06:00

Before dawn this morning we were at 36 degrees and I thought that it was going to be another tough day trying to warm things up. It was about 43 when we were eating breakfast after the sun was out for a while.

By late morning, we became involved with a oh no we can't scenario with the local Doctors office and the one back in KC Med Center. I was a new patient and couldn't be seen until January 18th. And the KC folks seem to think I need follow up yesterday...... The phone calls flew and all of our patience was tried. But it got warmer.

We hung around the RV knowing that the phones are much more reliable here as we can see the cell tower out the coach windows. By about 2 in the afternoon, Loyce had stripped the bed and gathered the towels to head to the laundry.

Behind the scenes, the KC folks were working on my behalf, and a call came in that I miraculously had an appointment here late this week. Now someone has pull, back in KC.

By that time the temps were up to almost 60. That's the go or no go temp that says ride the scooter or not and since I haven't even gone for a simple ride out of the park since we got here I was dying to at least go around the block. Something I hadn't done since back in September.

I was able to head about a mile South of here to the local Wendy's and have a burger on my own. I didn't go too far since I am trying to find my scooter legs, but the big square that I rode totaled about 10 miles.

Back at the park, I rode the park again more slowly, but for a while today, I saw 50 mph on the scooter speedo. Wow! While I was in the city, I had 68 degrees but as I was riding past the cattle farms to our South out in the country the temp was 63. This also equaled the official weather service high temp for today.

Back home the sun dropped below the horizon and the temps followed quickly. The forecast is 36 for tonight, but slowly we eek out little bitty amounts of warmer days. Perhaps just a trend that isn't colder will be sufficient between now and the end of the year.

Retired Rod

Sorting out health insurance.

2011-12-07T00:01:00.001-06:00

We spent the day messing around with all the folks back in Iowa and Kansas trying to determine if I have any insurance coverage for the doctors here in Arizona. Perhaps we were a bit rash in thinking that I would have.

But the folks up in Iowa, where I used to work years ago, were adamant that the coverage was good to go anywhere. And after sitting around and talking to the Kansas Doctors and the Arizona Clinic where the Kansas docs want me to do follow ups, I think we have it sorted out.

By this time it was late in the afternoon, and we decided to head out to try and find this clinic. So we drove a long way in this endeavor. But I must admit that I took a scenic route that included some of the desert highways.

As we returned back to the Mesa area, it became dark, and we were in the 5PM drive time. That is sort of a slow endeavor of taking your life in your own hands, but at least we are 2 people in the car so we can drive in the HOV lanes on the freeway.

I never knew what HOV stood for, but I am told it is a high occupancy vehicle. But it only takes 2 people to be high occupancy. It is amazing that so few cars and trucks qualify for this privilege.

We reached about 55 degrees this afternoon but it never did freeze last night, even though the weather folks had predicted 30. I know most of you folks don't feel a bit sorry for us.......

Retired Rod

Wal Mart Pharmacy

2011-12-06T00:01:00.003-06:00

At least the sun came out this afternoon, but it wasn't a bit warmer. We made it to 55 degrees today, but that was only for an hour in the middle of the afternoon. As soon as the sun went down it was back into the 40s once again.

I have had a bout with food poisoning or perhaps the old infection demons that have plagued me since the surgery in September. This has taken me completely out of the picture for the last couple of days. Loyce fought with the Doctors back in KC to get me a prescription, and they claimed that they had called it in.

But the Wal Mart over on Signal Butte Road had never heard of the KC docs or the prescription. We went round and round.

As it turns out, the nurse was putting the Rx on the pharmacy's voice mail system which is completely ignored by the Wal Mart folks when they have more business than they can handle at their window. They do listen to the Voice Mails after they close and try to get them filled for the next day......

Loyce finally got the pharmacy and the nurse on the same line together about 3 in the afternoon. It was to be filled by 6 PM, but when she went after the script she had to wait another hour or more before it was filled........

I remember we had these problems last spring with this particular Wal Mart..... so nothing is changed.

Other wise we did the laundry and all of those domestic jobs for most of the day.

Retired Rod

Maintenance Logs and shopping!

2011-12-05T00:01:00.001-06:00

Today I spent the day updating our maintenance log for the motorhome. I used the blog to remember all of the service that has been completed. This was way time consuming. But it never was above 55 degrees outside, so play outside was mostly out of the question.

We did drive down to the San Tan area again this afternoon, and Loyce did some additional shopping while I sat back in the car. That doesn't give me a whole lot of fun stuff to write about here. So rather than type random thoughts, I will just stop for today.

The sun was back out this afternoon, and should be back for the next few days, but we will not go beyond the early 60s in any day of the next week. So it will remain cool for our activities. That scares me because it means more shopping.............. Eww!

Retired Rod

More Cold and Dreary!

2011-12-04T00:01:00.000-06:00

It was raining when we woke this morning, and as I type this late tonight it is still raining. We reached around 58 degrees again, but rain was off and on all day.

Loyce wanted to go fabric shopping as she had some Jo Ann's coupons that were about to expire, and she never lets any coupon expire........ That left me sitting in the car for about an hour, playing angry birds on the android phone.

We drove around some of the town for the first time this year, as the Jo Ann's that she likes is way out in the South end of the city at the San Tan shopping center. The Saturday traffic was typical big city Christmas shopping traffic, but since we live in Kansas City, we are very used to this. And since this is the fourth year we have been here as RVers and the 5th in the last 6 years for winter trips, we are seldom lost out here in the East suburbs.

We used to use the GPS everywhere we went, but now we don't even take it along. Rather, we get in those husband and wife heated discussions about which way is the best to take of the several options we both know.

We dropped thru the old Mesa Spirit park, just to have a look see of how busy they were. And it is even more of an empty park this year. The folks that have park models of course are here but RVers are in a thin supply. We hope that the census becomes improved after the first of the year. A large part of the business is annual full time residents, so the park will continue to exist, but it can't be a big money maker for its owner.

Checking the weather forecast tells us that it will be late next week before this weather pattern changes, and it may even freeze here on Monday night. That is about dreary for the beginning of our winter RV experience..

Retired Rod

Odd jobs at the campground...

2011-12-03T00:01:00.001-06:00

I spent the morning washing that motor scooter. It was the sponge and bucket of soapy water arrangement, because it was way too muddy to just spray it off. Even then it took a couple of passes with the sponge rinsing in between, to see if it was clean yet.

The mud was all in the dash and handlebars and took a wash rag to get it out. And even as I looked at it tonight, I could see where it needs more attention. I used the chamois for about a half an hour on it the way it was. But trust me, tonight it is covered up with its cover.

The weatherman says we are not done with the rainy stuff here and we are struggling to make the high 50s in the daytime. Still it has stayed about 40 ish at night so the electric heaters have been all we needed to keep things warm.

We headed off to the Mesa Swap Meet late in the afternoon, but it was almost three by the time we arrived, so Loyce decided to pass because there wasn't enough time to walk all the rows. I went directly to a tool stand in row D and purchased a converter to convert the 30 amp socket in our power pole back to a 15 amp regular cord. We don't have a 15 amp plug in the box, which is quite unusual. But this is more of a trailer park than an RV park, and they don't allow any tent style vehicles.

When we are sitting still like we are here, I often add a 12 gauge cord into the back slide. This allows me to plug in the second heater without stressing the breakers. We seem to connect the heater and hair dryers and more all on the same circuit, which pops the breakers. So the extra cord is plugged into the power pedestal and bypasses the motorhome wiring.

And before anyone brings it up, I understand that I have a 12 gauge cord plugged into a 30 amp breaker which would not be safe. But I only have a 13 amp heater on the cord by itself. The 12 gauge cord should be good for 20 amps, so we should be good to go. Still UL would not approve.

Retired Rod

Nasty weather

2011-12-02T00:11:00.001-06:00

Why yes it was cold where we came from, and perhaps it did follow us here to Mesa, Az. But I'm not sure that we brought it with us, as some may have accused......... I would suggest that we ran from it as the weather forecast said that we would enjoy some snow if we stayed up on Highway I 40.

Tonight that snow may well arrive in the Flagstaff area and higher locations to the East. That is exactly where we were................

We were awakened this morning as it began to rain rather heavily even though the forecast said there was only a 10% chance of rain. So I guess we were in that 10 % part. It was a nasty kind of rain because it was raining muddy water. The dust that was kicked up in the air was being rained back down.

I had removed the motorscooter from the trailer and it was sitting outside on the concrete patio. The cover was still in the trailer, as it was only a 10 % chance.......LOL. It is a complete mud ball now still sitting right where I parked it last night. No sense covering it up now as perhaps subsequent rain may wash away some of the residue...

But this morning I still needed to go sign up for a mail box here in the park. They assign each family a box, that is not numbered with your site. Its completely different. So with the weekly thursday country store in progress, I braved the crowd and parked about two blocks away and walked to the post office within the main office building.

It was more simple this year, as they have dispensed with the deposit for the keys, but trust you to bring back your key. But should you loose it, it will be a charge to remake the lost key. Well that was much easier than last year. I didn't even go into the big ball room where all the vendors were set up. The outside folks were all under their sun canopies which were now converted into rain canopies.

One other little task was to drive up town to the local Office Max and have our gate passes laminated. After three months of flashing the passes at the gate folks they become quite tattered. And on the scooter it gets completely destroyed. So for a $1.29, I had them laminated into plastic covered cards.

Since the temps were in the mid 50s for a daily high, we just hung around the house today and used the day as a recovery day from driving for the last 5 days. We thought it was too cool to enjoy much of anything, and with the foggy overcast we just lacked motivation.

The sun did try and break thru mid afternoon, but the next thing we knew it was raining again. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

Retired Rod

We arrive!

2011-12-01T00:01:00.009-06:00

Today was kind of compartmentalized. The beginning was waking up to the sound of the LP heater running even though the electric heaters were both on and running full tilt. That generally spells cold outside! I just rolled over and slept another half hour.

I got up about 8:15 and went to the dash of the motorhome to look at the electronic thermometer......28, and the sun had been out for a good hour.. Must have been a bunch colder than that, but I never looked, some things you just don't need to know....

We messed around and had breakfast and read some of the computer blogs, and eventually it was over freezing so we went out and hooked up the water and sewer. After showers and clean clothes we drained the tanks and disconnected. We were on the road at 10:15.

The second experience of our day was the trip up and over the mountains where we reached 7600 feet at one time and drove thru the ponderosa pine tree forest. You would think you were in Colorado in the early fall, as the leaves were yellow or mostly gone, and the temps were about 50. We even saw snow along the roadways.

But from 7600 feet you must come down, and down and down. First down to the town of Payson, at about 5000 feet. This is quite the community, and it was bustling today with traffic at every corner. They have a large casino, which was abundant with cars parked everywhere..... we pressed on....

And down some more in a serious 6% grade that descends for about 50 miles. I used a lot of engine exhaust brake as the rpm's were above 2500 or more on the diesel. The scenery is drop dead gorgeous, but I was very busy making sure the top heavy motorhome didn't lean too far with too much speed as we wound our way down the curves and switch backs.

Then just like that the temps on the dash gauge were in the 70s and we were at Fountain Hills. I turned and parked along the road as Loyce went thru the Wendy's drive up window. We had all the motorhome windows open as we enjoyed our burgers.

We cut across the North side of Mesa and over the Salt River basin to catch the Red Mountain Freeway back to the East. We are almost locals here because this is the fifth year out of the last six that we have wintered over. No GPS needed now..

A quick stop to fill the diesel tank, and into the Valle Del Oro RV Park where the gate guard knew about our reservation and called the office that we were on our way.

This was the last compartment of our day, as we registered and paid for all three months. Next we were led to our site which we picked out last year when we put down the deposit. From 4 PM on, we spent the evening unpacking and setting things up for our long stay in one place. It was 79 degrees, as I backed the motor scooter out of the utility trailer and rode it around the park.

This camp has 1800 spots, so you can ride for quite a while and never leave the property. Of course one fellow had to yell at me for going past his place too fast........... I looked down and I was doing 18................ And yes the speed limit is 15, but some folks have themselves wired a little too tightly.

While it got cooler outside as the sun set, we have not even turned on an electric heater as I write this.

It is supposed to be much cooler in the next several days, as the storm that we were running from will come over this area as well. But perhaps it will just have some rain and cool temps...... None of that Snow stuff!!!!

Retired Rod

Day Four

2011-11-30T00:01:00.006-06:00

We arose from our sleep today to do it all over again..... Hurry and get breakfast over and pack up. We were up earlier than usual, because our body clocks are still on the central time zone. So with that fact working on our side we rolled at 10AM.

We were only moving from Albuquerque to Holbrook, Az today which is about 240 miles. The scenery on this drive is quite stunning, as long as you don't look at the buildings and the housing that folks live in out in this country.

There are still a lot of old ramshackle motels and gas stations that remain from the mother road era. Some of them are still used as housing for less fortunate folks and in many cases they are all boarded up and falling in on themselves.

But look at the buttes and bluffs and the desert, it is the actual backdrop for the animated scenes from the movie Cars. I expected to see a sign for the town of Radiator Springs, which is of course mythical. We stopped in the truck stop on the West side of Gallup.

The truck stop was quite busy as folks tend to fill up before entering Arizona, which has a few cents more gas tax. We filled and then slipped back to the back lot with the semi trucks that were parked while drivers caught up on their hours of rest.

It was 100 percent sunny but the wind was cold as it was barely 58 degrees. We left the door closed for our lunch, but the truck door window was open for some of the fresh air. We rested for about an hour before getting back on the road.

We arrived here at the KOA in Holbrook at 3 PM. I was all driven out, even though we had only actually traveled for about 4 hours. This KOA is a really basic campground with gravel everywhere. You can't tell where a campsite is or if it is a park road because there is no difference, all gravel! So get close to the power pedestal, and don't hang over onto your neighbors, and you are good.

The other RV park here is called "OK RV park", but we looked at it the last time we came here and it is anything but, OK.

It is forecast to be 22 degrees here tonight, so we did not hook up anything but the electric cord. We will take on water and dump in the morning. It feels really cold outside as I type this but I haven't had the nerve to look at the temp gauge.

The locals don't think it will be that cold from listening to the local news, and we hope they are correct, but also we hope this will be our last night of sub freezing temperatures. Its only 170 miles to Mesa tomorrow.......

Retired Rod

Day Three

2011-11-29T00:01:00.002-06:00

We sort of got off to a slow start today because we needed to have that chin wag with Mac and Lynette... Of course we wanted nothing more than to stay there with them and make it a day of talking about all things, with nothing in particular on the agenda. But they had plans for the afternoon, and we needed to get on the road.

So with hugs and hand shakes we were off, at the crack of 11:30. But we were headed West, and the best part of that is that in just 100 miles or so, you go into New Mexico, which is Mountain Time Zone!! So we get an hour back, which means we really left at 10:30.......well sort of like that anyway..

We are looking at bad weather toward the end of this week, and they have even mentioned SNOW! I 40 is really too far North for travel in the motorhome this time of year, so we have to get a move on to get South into the Phoenix valley.

As we drove West into New Mexico the elevation begins to climb rather rapidly. I have the Altitude as a selection on the GPS when we are going into the higher ground and watched as we climbed. At Santa Rosa, we stopped at a McDonalds and by then we were seeing 74 on our temperature gauges. We lunched with the door open which was pleasant.

As we climbed toward Clines' Corners, we lost that temperature rather quickly. It is over 7000 feet as you arrive there, and the temps were more like 51. We pressed on West for Albuquerque. You descend down into town as Albuquerque is on the Rio Grand river and my GPS read about 4900 while we were on the bridge.

Of course you immediately begin to climb again as you continue. We got off at the Flying J truck stop for some fuel. It is always a zoo, and today was no exception. If you stay on that frontage road and head West about 4 more miles you come to the American RV campground, which is where we landed as the sun began to drift over the horizon.

This is another of those concrete and asphalt cities that have not nearly enough space between you and your neighbor. But it is to be freezing again tonight so the small picnic table that is outside our door will remain vacant during our stay anyway. We are right along the frontage road of the interstate and the traffic on I 40 is roaring by so lets hope it dies down some before morning.........

After dark, we trekked back into Albuquerque to find the closest Wal Mart. This turned out to be a number of miles South of the interstate which was giving us some pause, thinking we were going to be lost, but in the end I never plugged in the GPS. I had brought it along thinking I might need it, but my manlyhood didn't allow for its use.

We are driving into some rain tomorrow which will become frozen on Thursday if we get bogged down. We hope to stay in Holbrook tomorrow night which has a forecast low of 22 degrees. That is never fun in these RVs...........

Retired Rod

Amarillo by morning, oops were already here.........

2011-11-28T00:01:00.006-06:00

Its amazing how things seem to happen about the same year after year. Last year as we were headed West to Arizona we pulled into the Oasis RV park West of Amarillo, and were met by Mac and Lynette from Garnett, Kansas. They were in a site visiting their daughter Christy and SIL Dusty, who live in town.

So as we pulled into the Oasis this afternoon, we noticed right off that there was a Heartland trailer with a golf cart on the back in the second row. So they are here again, but not at their site. We assume that they are visiting their daughter again, and perhaps may plan on pulling out tomorrow or the next day so we may not actually get to talk to them.

We are parked a couple of spots away, so unless they bolt out at dark thirty before we get around in the morning, perhaps we can wave hi before they leave.

Boy it was cold last night in Oklahoma City. The wind picked up and the temps went into the mid 30s. Not freezing but the wind took away the little warmth we had in the rig. We had both electric heaters running full tilt for most of the night. It was a sleep in your sweatshirt kind of a deal.

As we were leaving this morning at 10 AM it was still only 37 outside, and the hoses rolled up so stiff that it was hard to get them into compartments. The wind continued, and this time we were traveling West with the wind out of the Northwest. I went for an hour in 5th gear eating diesel fuel at about double the normal rate.

The sun did warm us up into the 50s as we were crossing Texas headed for Amarillo. But now as we head off into the evening darkness the temps are falling again rather quickly. However, tonight the wind is not as ferocious and the heater is keeping up better.

We could turn on the LP gas blower heaters, but neither of us like the noise that they make. I just looked on the weather forecast and we are slated to have 27 tonight so I had better go roll up that garden hose before bedtime.

We hope to make Albuquerque tomorrow..........

Retired Rod

Twin Fountains

2011-11-27T00:01:00.001-06:00

I always forget just how noisy it is here in the Twin Fountains RV Resort. We are right at the corner where I 44 joins I 35. So we have two interstates that become one for about eight miles before I 44 heads off to the Northeast and becomes a toll road.

So with that description, can you guess where here is? We are still several miles North of downtown Oklahoma City, and Twin Fountains is one of the nicer campgrounds that we will ever go to. It has concrete sites and blacktop roads. The main building is a log cabin that is clubhouse sized. It even has a pizza restaurant inside along with several big screen TVs.

I called ahead when we were still North of Wichita and asked if we needed a reservation, and was told no as they had lots of sites. When she asked how long we were, I explained that we were towing a trailer and had a car too. She said I needed her big site and told me not to worry.

It was about 5 PM when we pulled in, and to our surprise, we were given the long site on the East side of the pond that has the two fountains in it. Its winter, and the pond is red with Oklahoma muddy water, but the squirter things that spray up in the air are still running. The site is over 100 feet long.

This morning it was raining cats and dogs while we finished packing up the rig and Loyce put a lot of stuff into the CRV. This is new for us, as we have driven a Camry car in the past, which didn't haul nearly as much. As we left town, right on que, the rain seemed to go away.

We only stopped in Emporia for Wendy's in the truck stop and a few gallons of diesel, along with a few bathroom breaks at the toll road rest stops. It was windy, and we fought that all day long. It was to our side and behind us most of the time so it didn't drop fuel mileage much, but it blew us all over the road in gusts.

We had to wash out the water system after arriving here as it was full of the pink stuff. This is much easier when you are on full hookups. Still we had to get the water heater going and the black tank with some chemical. I filled the fresh water about half way too so we would have something to use the potty with while we were traveling.

Oklahoma doesn't have restrooms at their rest stops, so the potty is the one you have with you. It looks weird to see the pull offs with nothing but green dumpsters alongside the roads.

So we are spending the first night of our winter trip tonight, and I couldn't be any more excited........

Retired Rod

Babysitting and loading things out.........

2011-11-26T00:01:00.001-06:00

Our day today was sort of consumed as we became babysitters of the six year old and the two year old grand daughters. We can't complain because we put our feet under their parents table yesterday and left the entire mess over at their house. LOL

So while the girls played in the new basement, we were organizing our stuff to get ready to head out for this winter. I spent the morning working on loading the utility trailer. It already had the motor scooter inside but we haul a lot more stuff than that in the trailer and it all needs loaded up.

So we are busy beavers here trying to get ourselves back into the RV mode. The motorhome hasn't moved other than from storage to the house since we went to the Black Hills the first week of August. To say we are totally settled into the sticks and bricks home would be an understatement.

I can't go at this work too long without sitting down for a while, so I spent as much time in the big chair as I did outside. Perhaps tomorrow will be a better day........

Retired Rod

Turkey Day!

2011-11-25T00:01:00.001-06:00

Oh my goodness did we have a lot to eat at my son Chris and his wife Melissa's home today. They smoked a 14 pound turkey in the electric and wood smoker starting at 5AM this morning.

We opted to bring the 10 pound spiral cut ham with the brown sugar glaze that only took about 2 or more hours, so we had to be up by about 9 AM!!! But hey at least we brought food.

We got a little crossed up as Chris and I decided that I would make the mashed potatoes, and Loyce and Melissa decided that I didn't need to go to that much work. Just out of the hospital and all. So I was up before Loyce and peeled about 10 pounds of spuds and had them in the pot ready to cook when I found out that Mel was making them too.

So, we had mashed potatoes coming out of our ears. When we were cleaning up, I mixed the bowls of potatoes together so that no one would know who's were who's. Take home left overs and have some of each, LOL. Maybe they can donate some to the food bank.........

Anyway it has been a long time since I have had that much to eat, and all on one plate mind you. And we had pumpkin pie and pecan pie with whipped topping for desert later in the afternoon.

Of course we men had to sit in the family room watching the football games and the gals had to play with the youngest baby that John and Heather graciously brought along. John is Melissa's brother and her mother and father were there too, so some of the kids had grandparents coming out of their ears.

I didn't get a count of the number of folks that sat down but it was two very large dining tables full. And the kids table as well.

Just family fun. As one of the Maxine cartoons said, I told Chris that if he didn't want so many folks to come over for dinner, all he had to do was leave the Turkey a little under cooked and sort of raw and they would all find somewhere else for next year.

He looked at me seriously, and said "Ya Right!!"

Hope you had a good celebration at your family get together as well!

Retired Rod

Thanksgiving Wishes

2011-11-24T10:33:00.000-06:00

I never write big long blogs on Holidays, because no one is on the internet reading blogs anyway. They are with their families having fun and watching football!

So let's just wish everyone a:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Retired Rod

Warning Medical Explanation!

2011-11-23T14:07:00.001-06:00

I'm going to go ahead and describe this surgery because I think it is really interesting how this was done. If you are squeamish about hearing these things don't read on...........

I have been going to the Kansas University Hospital which is KU as in Basket Ball Champions umpteen times. The Hospital is a teaching university hospital and is on the cutting edge of most things. And this procedure that I had, was right up there on that edge.

Scar tissue had formed on and in one of the little tubes that comes down from my kidney and they needed to remove it. Rather than open me back up from the front with a big incision, they used ultra sound and Xrays to put a needle into my back and into this tube. They put a plastic tube over the needle and put it into the little kidney tube. Then the needle is removed, leaving the tube.

Then they put a wire into the plastic tube. Next they remove the plastic tube and leave in the wire. Then they slip in a little bigger plastic tube and take out the wire. I was left with this tube in overnight while they drained the kidney until the fluid coming out was clear. That was Monday's procedure.

Then yesterday I went back into a bigger operating room where they used successively bigger wire and bigger tubing until they could insert a laparscope and remove the scar tissue. Then like a blood vessel in a closed artery in your heart, they inserted a plastic stint inside the kidney tube. It will stay there for a couple of months, while the whole thing heals around it.

I will have no sensation that it is even in there, but it will keep the passage open, until they decide to remove it. They will watch it with radio active dye and a camera that can see the dye.

I was told that only a few years ago the only way to take care of this problem was to go thru the complete abdominal surgery route again. Not a pleasant thought....

So while I sit here and type this, I can feel the unpleasant feeling of where the needle and tubing were inserted in my back, but I am told it will be gone in a day or two. All I had was a band aid over the place they went in, for last night, and the surgeon took that off today at noon and told me I was good to go........ Like in go home, which is where I am right now at 2 PM on Wednesday afternoon.....

I still had two days of staying in the hospital with them keeping me up all night, at least every hour on the hour for something like my vitals, or at 4 AM this morning, the phlebotomist was certain that I need to give her another vial of blood for them to test. Since I knew I was going home anyway, I just pleasantly declined to let her stick me. She wasn't a bit happy about it, but I said absolutely not!

So I was up at 4 AM for all day........

I think I will try and take a nap.......

Retired Rod

Hello from the Hospital

2011-11-21T20:57:00.001-06:00

The first day of this fun is in the books.. I was knocked out mid afternoon and had a tube put in my back. No one said this was going to be easy. The big surgery is tomorrow. I will be under a lot longer for that one.

This little smart phone is hard to type on for me so see ya later......

Retired Rod

Cold and a Recliner for the MoHo!

2011-11-21T00:01:00.002-06:00

This was the coldest day we have had so far this winter. I don't think we got over 36 degrees all day. Burrr....

I decided to take my bigger recliner over to the motorhome in the pickup today and switch out the Euro Chair that came with the rig. If you aren't going anywhere too far or plan to sit in the chair for extended periods, I get along using the Euro Chair. But if you are going for all winter, its a Lazy Boy for me.

I had to go get my son Ben to help me lift it up into the motorhome as the main floor is about chest high when you are standing on the ground outside. We wiggled together and managed to get it thru the door when it was on its side. We had taken the back off, or it would never have made it.

I am certain they will put the ten pound lifting restriction back on me after tomorrow, so that had to get done now.

We also put the anode rod back in the water heater with teflon tape to seal it up. You just know it will be after dark and below freezing while I fill the water tank and heater in our first campground after we leave here. It is always below freezing as we travel to Arizona, unless we take the most Southern road which is I 10.

We took I 40 last year and had temps in the teens in Albuquerque and Holbrook. No water hose on the rig on those nights. Just plug in the electric and wait till morning. I do let the gray water go though before I take off to travel. I usually don't worry about the black unless it has been about a week.

So we are sitting here listening to the heater drone on in the basement with a space heater running as well. We have to have thanksgiving you know.

Since I need to be up at 5:30 or so in the morning, I will sign off for now..... Wish me luck......

Retired Rod

PS: Thanks for all the well wishes that everyone has been leaving, I really appreciate the positive support. This will be my 6th surgery in the last year, so I am more than depressed about it........

Lake home inspection

2011-11-20T00:01:00.001-06:00

A whirlwind trip today to the lake home. Loyce feels that she is really backed up getting ready to head out for Arizona and asked if I could go by myself. It did waste all day of just driving along. Over 400 miles of Missouri farm ground and wooded land.

At the lake place, I found everything to be in order, but of course the water has evaporated out of all the toilets and sink traps. That is usually the first order of business, to go around and run all the sinks, showers and flush the toilets.

I checked the heat to make sure it came on and warmed up. It had that burned dust smell, so I don't think it has been started yet even though it was below freezing outside several times. We set it at 45F so it will take several days of cold to cause it to begin to run.

I went to the dock and put air into the floating boat lift. It is automatic and will air itself if it goes down, but I always add extra air until it bubbles out of the back of the floats. Back in the house I decided that since there was absolutely nothing in the big fridge I should turn it off. I did remember to dump the big Ice Cube bin first, as that would have made quite a mess. I left the doors open and put blue painters tape over the light switches.

So after turning off the water at the entrance valve I left to come home. It was almost 8 PM when I got back here to KC.

But now I will sleep better knowing that everything was OK in November. It will be more than 12 weeks now before we get back.

That all depends on when we get to leave in the first place. I guess that depends on how my body reacts to the laparoscopic surgery. And that things don't go really wrong and I get another incision. That would kill most of our plans for this year.......

Retired Rod

Bum News

2011-11-19T00:01:00.001-06:00

I spent the day back at the hospital having further tests, and then the Doctor's office where I got some bum news.

I have to have another procedure to go in and fix the surgery from September. Of course the surgeon acts like it will be no big deal, but it does require me to stay at the hospital 2 nights and I will be put under twice, and that sounds a lot like more surgery to me.

The good news is that it will be done next week as I was almost in tears that it would delay or perhaps negate the possibility of going to Arizona. I really live for my trip in the winter.........

We did swing back past the furniture store and pick up that last table later this afternoon, and I went down stairs and put it together in about 45 minutes. Since it was just like the one I did on Wednesday, I didn't even look at the directions........

Monday back at KU Medical at 8 AM.......... Bring your tooth brush........

Retired Rod

Babysitting and a TV stand

2011-11-18T00:01:00.001-06:00

We were baby sitters today, which kept us kind of house bound for most of the day. At least Loyce never left the property until after the grand child went to her own house. As for me, I made one trip back to the local Best Buy.

I didn't purchase a table to go under the TV yesterday as the truck was full of packages of new wooden furniture, and I didn't want the extra weight on top of the TV. So back to Best Buy this morning. After looking at all the tables on hand and finally selecting one, the sales lady looked in the computer and decided that they did have one in the warehouse.

She disappeared for the longest time, and eventually I went to the store room door and inquired if she was still back there somewhere. And she was but wasn't finding the TV stand. She found some assistance once they finished unloading a semi truck that was rather full.

So just in the nick of time, she came out with a big box on a two wheel dolly. She led me to a cash register in the home theater section of the store that was a long ways from the register that we started at originally. She rang up the box and asked for $97. The tag on the display table said $179..... Whoa, I just kept my mouth shut, and swiped the credit card.........

She led me to the front door where the door man looked over the box and told me to go get the truck. Once in the truck, I examined the sales slip and it had a $90 discount on it for a discontinued item.. Well, what do I care if it is discontinued? It will still work as a TV stand...... My good fortune!

Once home, I was loading the box into the house and managed to let it get away from me and it banged rather hard on the ground. The table was glass, and I thought I had broken it. It rattled...... I opened the box right there in the front yard and found the glass........... still in tact!! I was hearing the parts card with all the hardware rattle. My heart was still fluttering as I thought I was toast......

Loyce came out and we carried the pieces down to the basement. I was kept busy for over an hour as I put part Q into hole XX and secured it with the enclosed itty bitty allen wrench. Eventually it was together. Was I ever careful with the glass shelves........

And on the tables that the furniture place assembled before they delivered last week, we kept looking at one of them trying to understand what was wrong with the finish on one of the shelves. Last night, we decided that we were looking at the bottom of the shelf because it was in up side down!

By getting down on the floor and looking up at the underside, it was finished nicely. We discussed calling and taking the table back, but it is 20 miles up there. Loyce thought she would get another table and give them the wrong one back.

But in the mean time, I began to take the 24 allen screws out of the table to see if it would come apart without breaking anything. It did! It only took about another hour to get back together right. It looks much better tonight sitting here beside my chair.....

I asked Loyce if she ever had an Erector Set when she was a kid, since we were putting so much stuff together in the last several days... She said "No, but I think one of my brothers did." I am certain that playing with that set helped me put many an item together as an adult.

We still have another table to pick up at the furniture store when it comes in supposedly tomorrow. I think I will go on strike.

Retired Rod

Back to the Furniture Store

2011-11-17T00:01:00.002-06:00

I found out what that $60 delivery fee that I paid to Nebraska Furniture Mart was also good for besides just bringing the stuff down here on the truck! They put the furniture together before they come!!!

We had ordered a coffee table to go along with an end table and it was to show up today. So we had to drive back up to the speedway exit and go get in line to pick it up. Of course we couldn't just do a pickup, we had to go shop all of the big store again.

And yes that meant we had even more treasures that Loyce came away with. Now back in line to get that table, and that was when we found out that they come in a box completely in pieces. She also bought a couple of small side tables for the basement, and of course one of them was not in stock. But we did pick up the one they had. And, it was in a box in pieces as well.

While Loyce was shopping, I ended up looking for a TV for the basement, and picked one out only to find that they didn't have that either. It will be two weeks before they get more, so I just gave up. We should be gone from here by then.

But I ended up stopping at Best Buy, where they had the same TV for only a few dollars more. They would have price matched NFM, but when they found out they were out of stock the price match deal was gone. If you can't get it today over there, then our price is what it is. Then I found out that they only had 2 at Best Buy. And our Olathe store was out as well. So I paid the extra money and felt glad to just get one.

By now the back of the pickup was beginning to look a little full, so we drove home and began to load all of this into the house. The assembly procedures began after that which took quite a while as we have no experience like they do.

I did get the TV up and running in the new basement room, so now it is official that I can go down there and hide! Putting together furniture that was made in China with Chinese bolts and nuts is slow going. Their quality control on their hardware is not like US made stuff. But we need to keep the overall cost somewhat low so that means "Made in China!"

I don't think anyone will come over and turn our coffee table over to see if it has a USA stamp on the bottom........ And if they do, perhaps we need friends that are less particular!! LOL

Retired Rod

By the way, the pressure cap for the Onan is also special order and will take several weeks to acquire so that is off our list before departure now......

Fixing the Generator

2011-11-16T00:01:00.002-06:00

Mid morning, I called up to Cummins Central Power and inquired about my order for the cooling fluid recovery reservoir for the generator in the coach. It took a while but the fellow finally found the order. It has been 12 days since I was up there to place the order.

He finally decided that the part was in the building somewhere and he would find it by the time I came up there. I worried that it might not be there and the trip would be for nothing since I am so many miles away. He reassured me that it was there.

So Biscuit and I left the house. She was driving Loyce nuts following her while she was cleaning and I was instructed to take her with me! We drove the 30 miles mostly on the interstate system, so we made good time.

Once in the building, the fellow had the box right on the counter with all the other will call orders. We opened the box and I looked at the tank. Boy it didn't look right. The fill and the pass thru where the oil dipstick goes thru the center seemed on the wrong side. The man assured me that the tank was the part number specified and that once I got the old one out it would be OK. I still wasn't for sure but paid the $133 for it and a new cap and left.

Traffic seemed to be getting heavier as I came back home, but perhaps I was just antsy about the tank being wrong. I left Biscuit with her mommy and I took the truck over and traded it for the motorhome.

Of course none of the hoses would come off of the tank when I tried to get the tank out, and I ended up cutting the smaller one just to break it free. Luckily it was plenty long. And to make the story shorter, when the two tanks were on the bench side by side, they were the same!!!

I was disorienting the tank because the bolt holes were on the top, and I was certain they were on the left side. So by rolling the tank the quarter turn but keeping the fill holes on the left, turned the whole thing around. Then it all lined up just right!!

Naturally I had broken the factory hose clamps when I was trying to get them off. They were the use once style where a robot crimps them into place. Uncrimping is the same as bend heck out of them, so it was off to the auto parts store for clamps and some antifreeze.

The book recommends that the coolant be changed every two years, and it has been since 2008 so I drained all of it. It only holds a gallon. After replacing the plug, I set about re filling the system. The new fluid went everywhere except in the filler cap. It took the coolant oh so slowly, gurgle gurgle as the air bubbled to the surface. It took 30 minutes to get it in.

After starting the genny several times once I got about half of it in it seemed to take the rest. Eventually no more could be poured in. I put most of the rest in the recovery tank and buttoned up the case again.

This is when I discovered that the pressure cap that I thought I had purchased to replace the old one was really a replacement cap for the recovery tank. The fellow has sold me the wrong one. I'm not sure why he would think I wanted to replace the no pressure cap on the recovery tank and not the 13 PSI radiator cap.

Maybe he was so intent on selling me the tank he didn't think about the cap. But anyway I get to make the entire trip again tomorrow to get the right cap. I'll call first to see if it is in stock........

Diesel fuel over in Missouri where it is usually much cheaper was $4.07 today while gas was exactly a dollar cheaper at $3.07. I don't think I have ever seen a dollar spread on diesel over gas. This was at the Flying J where trucks were in a line for blocks to get into the pumps.

I was driving the car and filled up with the gas as it is $3.19 back over here in Kansas. That paid for half of my Wendy's bill when I got back home. LOL

Retired Rod

Waiting at home........

2011-11-15T00:01:00.001-06:00

One of those days, where you have a delivery coming and they give you a time window that they will arrive. You know, between 10 and noon. Well noon came and went. So we called and they said Oh, Well maybe it will be 1!

So one came and went, but this time they called us, and said they were right around the corner......... Ya, right......... Then 2 came and they called again and said we were next....... And low and behold they came in about 15 more minutes.

This was the furniture company that was to deliver the new couch that replaced the one that went to the new basement. The fellows were quite nice and carried it all the way into our back sitting room next to the kitchen.

Loyce must like the new couch a bunch because she chased her beloved Biscuit off of the seat in almost a heart beat. "Get off and stay off!!!" Eww, I haven't had the nerve to go over and sit on it either, I'll get the same treatment if I know what's good for me.......... Maybe after she goes to bed.......

We also purchased a lamp to go on one of the tables, and when we opened he box, there were three lamps in it. Seems as though we had purchased a set of lamps and didn't even know it. I thought the price seemed a little high for one lamp, but then what do I know. Anyway it was late in the afternoon when we got all the stuff put together and the old carried away.

So that spent our day. Just sitting around waiting for the truck....... Well I read the internet and caught up on all those blogs that I didn't read yesterday.

Oh, and I think I wasn't clear about the diesel fuel thing yesterday, I wasn't worried about the price of fuel, but rather stations are out of fuel! The shortage reported North of here has stations running out of fuel completely and folks have to wait until they get more. I was concerned that we might get tight down here in KC and wanted to have enough in my tank to make it as far away as possible.

Since there are refineries in West Texas, I surmise the availability down there should be better....... I hope!! Or perhaps this is just a real short term deal and prices will drop as soon as everyone gets their winter heating oil barrel filled.

Anyway our tank is topped up and we have no way to store any more, nor would we want to as fuel oil is a fairly large fire risk.........

Retired Rod

Diesel Fuel and Washing the Coach.

2011-11-14T00:01:00.000-06:00

I never turned on the computer all day today, as it will waste my time and nothing gets done. Perhaps I will be ok if I don't get all the blogs read before trying to accomplish the days projects.!

We have read yesterday that there is somewhat of a shortage of diesel fuel up in the upper Northwest. South Dakota and Nebraska seem to be the center of the problem. But it is driving up fuel prices all around here, and I was able to confirm that by going on line and looking at local fuel prices which are close or over the $4 mark.

Since car gas is about $3.25 that is quite a spread from gas to diesel. I managed to find a station that had $3.79 fuel so I went and got the motorhome and filled its tank to the very brim. Prices may stay the same or rise and fall before we leave, but if we have a shortage that stretches down here to KC, at least we would have enough fuel to get to Northern Texas. Oklahoma and Texas have fuel because it is pumped out of the ground there.

After filling up, I brought the coach home and began to wash it. It is rather slow going, but with some rest every now and then, I managed to work most of the afternoon and got the entire coach washed.

The sun started to go down, so I had to go put the motorhome away at the storage lot. A lot of time spent and not much gained. The water spots from the unsoftened water here at our house are all over the coach, and have replaced the white streaks from the rainwater of the last few months in storage. Is that progress? Lets hope so.......

I do know that I was very tired after the day of washing outside. So even after 8 weeks I am not up to full stamina. One day at a time.

Retired Rod

Blowing out the Sprinkler System

2011-11-13T00:01:00.001-06:00

I never know what a day will entail here in KC until I check with Loyce as to what is on the appointment schedule. And today was the annual blow out the underground sprinkler system day, since it freezes rather solidly here in Northern Kansas.

If you have never seen this process, it takes a lot of air. So much so that they bring a tow behind free standing jack hammer compressor. I think the fellow said it was 150 cubic feet per minute. Most of my compressors struggle with 6 cfm. It does take a lot of volume to blow out the lines in the yard.

They hook up the air line and back blow the back flow valve, once the water is secured. Then they open each zone in the system allowing the water to spray out of the sprinkler heads. We have 9 zones, so it takes a while as the water in the lines is replaced with air. This is where all the volume is required because as air comes out some heads water is still being pushed out of others. Eventually they all blow air and then it is time to go to the next zone.

I have never left KC without having this task complete. I don't trust that someone would come and complete it just because I made the appointment. They do have a port where they can run the system with a remote, as long as it is in the on position at the controller, but having them run the main box always seems better.

I did mow the yard for the last time this morning as well. This is the first time I have mowed since the surgery, and even though I use a John Deere tractor for the main portion of the job, I felt every bump and jostle. No springs on riding mowers!! I did use the walk behind Lawn Boy to trim around the plantings and house for a while, and believe me I could not have finished the job with it! Still not out of the woods that far to be sure.

The remainder of the afternoon became football games, until Loyce announced we were going out for Saturday night. We went to Red Robin where I could get my plain hamburger and some of their tasty french fries. I still need food without too much spice, since they also resected my bowel in this process. That was done last year as well, so I know it will take several months to get back to normal after that.

But I am that much closer in my goal of meeting John Brown for a Burger at Fuddruckers in Mesa. Umm, sweet potato fries!!!!

Retired Rod

Veterans Day at the Elementary School

2011-11-12T00:01:00.001-06:00

Loyce and I ended up over at the Elementary school where Caden and Ema attend 4th and 2nd grade. They were putting on a Veterans day celebration assembly and all the related service veterans were requested to attend. Ema had pleaded her case for me to come at the birthday party night before last.

The kids sang songs and they showed a video of solders leaving their families behind as they went off to war. Being politically correct, they left out any scenes of war activities, thank goodness. Then the kids all went into the audience and got their parents or grandparents that were veterans and we all crossed up front where the kids had to announce who we were and where we had served and our service branch.

Caden was all set to do it, but then Ema came running up when she saw us in line and didn't give him much of a chance as she grabbed the microphone and rattled off all the pertinent facts. I think that was alright with Caden, because he seemed nervous about talking in front of the whole school. But not Ema!

They played more songs and then sang America the Beautiful which was followed by Taps on two bugles.

I always have trouble with Taps, because we used to honor our fallen soldiers in Viet Nam as they were sent home, by bugling Taps under the yardarm flags in our administration circle. Often times it was a buddy of yours that they were bugling to his resting place, and that was tough! The bugle has a somber sound and the bugler often time extends the final notes in the cadence which seems to accentuate the finalness of his task.

Dah Dah Daaaaaah, Dah Dee Deeeeeee, and at the end, Dee Dah Dah, Dah Dah Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! To this day the tears well up in my eyes every time I hear this eerie sound. Takes me right back, 40 years later.... Luckily the high school fellows that they had enlisted to play the song didn't know how to drag those final notes and I got thru it without loosing it completely.

Without the Principal even saying anything when Taps began, all of the service people stood at attention automatically! Folks from Iraq and Desert Storm clear back to some very elderly WWII vets. Time honored and service wide, this tradition is as firm now as it was in WWI.

I'm not sure if the kids understood how powerful these traditions can be, but they are very aware of their surroundings and the actions of their elders, so they will come to understand fairly quickly.

Other than school, we had a fairly quiet day here in Overland Park and Olathe, Kansas.

Retired Rod

Shopping!

2011-11-11T00:01:00.001-06:00

Loyce, "Well come on lets go!" Me, "Do I have too?" Loyce, "You said you would!" Me, "I did?"

The subject of this little adventure was going to Nebraska Furniture Mart, our big warehouse style furniture store on the West side of KC, Kansas metro. Its in a big new business complex that also houses the Nascar racing track.

As you remember, we had moved her sofa that was here in the family room to the new basement yesterday, sooo.... Now we need a new one!! She had that all planned out long ago, but I was just let in on the little secret this morning.

This furniture store is larger than a football field and has two floors, so most of the time I am in there I am lost, but of course Loyce on the other hand knew exactly which door to go in and which escalator to take up to the sofa living room display area. To me, I just wanted to bolt out to the car with Biscuit!

Eventually I picked out the piece that I liked and sat down on it without saying too much. I just waited. And before long she came over and said something to me and then stopped and looked at what I was sitting on and said, "What's wrong with that one?"

I guess it is lucky that we have been together for 43 years, because we do have about the same taste in stuff. I bought her the Honda CRV and she never even went to look at it until I brought it home. She loves its color, so I got lucky.

Anyway she picked a couple of small tables, and one of them I had already seen and liked. So we went to the checkouts and arranged the payment. We did decide to upgrade the sofa to the next more expensive one, because I began to look at the upholstery carefully and decided that it was a fairly cheap grade. So I had to get her back over to look at the next more expensive model. It was a tad darker, and then she changed one of her tables too. The salesman was hating us by about then.

This seemed to kill a lot of the afternoon, and when we got home, I had a door that needed cut off to go over the new carpet. I had to dig out the table saw in our messy garage. That turned into a cleaning and straightening project. And in the end, I couldn't get the fence close enough to the blade to just skim off 3/8ths of an inch, so out came the skill saw and I cut it off by hand.

If I had started that way to begin with the cleaning project would have been a lot shorter. But now we have the doors back on to cover the storage areas, so it is looking more finished.

We received a call from the store that they had all the pieces here in KC and that they would be out on Monday. They had a big sign outside that said "Free Delivery Special", but that didn't apply to our purchase for some reason, but I didn't even bother to listen to the why part. I just hate stores that advertise things that turn out to not be how it will work out when you get there.

I could go after the stuff with the utility trailer, but then how would I get it into the house? And the utility trailer has the big scooter in it ready to go to Arizona, so it would be a big pain. I guess the $60 fee to get it delivered isn't so bad after all.

Retired Rod

Happy Veterans Day (Remembrance Day) to all of our past service members! I served in Viet Nam in 1969 at the height of the troop numbers in Country. Nixon became president that year and began pulling out the troops, and our unit came up for removal before Christmas, even though we were scheduled to stay until March of the following year. After that, I never thought that Nixon was such a bad fellow..........

Birthdays and Carpet

2011-11-10T00:01:00.005-06:00

It was Delaney's birthday party tonight, at Chuck e Cheese, and we were privileged to attend. The kids run and run all over this place, spending their tokens that you purchase for about 25 cents each. They sell packages that include the party, pizza, drinks and tokens all at once so it is hard to know how much the stuff costs individually.

She was five last week, and that doesn't seem possible!!! Anyway I took some bad pictures with the cell phone but I will include them anyway.........

She was busy blowing out the flame on the giant 5 candle while her sister Ema (center) and cousin Clare look on.

This was the cake before we cut a bunch of the top row off so everyone got a piece. She had both Grandmas there too, so she had a pile of presents to open up, but she was almost more interested in going and riding another kiddy ride and spending her tokens.

Since it is a school night, we adjourned about 8 PM and headed back for our respective homes.

-----------

We were awakened this morning with the carpet layers calling about 7 AM saying they were coming right over to get started on our floor. We both tossed on some clothes and got ready for their arrival.

I had moved all the chairs and a table out of the room the night before, but they wanted the bar fridge moved away too. They rolled up the cord and put it in the small bedroom that I had tiled several weeks ago.

These fellows worked as fast as they could go and took no breaks. First the tack strips with concrete nails were installed all around the room. Then the metal strips in all the doorways were put in with bigger nails that they hammer drilled into the floor.

One of the guys began carrying down the pad rolls, while the main guy was cutting it in sections and gluing it down. Next came the carpet itself. It was in three rolls, and they struggled to get the big roll around the corner at the bottom of the stairs.

By about 11 they were vacuuming the newly installed and finished room. 76 yards installed.

Loyce needed a sofa moved and a hutch, so she offered to pay some extra cash money if they would help us. Lets see, tax free spending money, why sure we'll help. The sofa is a sleeper with the bed that pulls out and weighs a ton. We took the cushions off and the mattress out but still it is way more than we could handle even if I hadn't had surgery 8 weeks ago.

We spent most of the afternoon moving smaller stuff into the new room and trying to get the space incorporated into our living area. Until now, we have always been waiting for yet another tradesman to come and install something else, but now it seems like it belongs to us!

Retired Rod

And For Sandy and others......

I posted this picture of Abby and Biscuit back in July as she was sitting under a very determined Biscuit that wouldn't get out of her car seat, for those that missed it I will repost it again.

Look at that grin! Bif Cut, Bif Cut!!!!

Another Oil Change....... on the RV!

2011-11-09T00:01:00.001-06:00

It seems like I spent all day getting an oil change on the motorhome. Perhaps that is because it did take all day.

I left the house to go over to storage about 11 AM, and pulled in behind the motorhome with the pickup. You know the drill in the storage places, move the motorhome and park the truck on the exact spot that you have rented, and then drive to the gate.

Of course the gate code number entry box is down low to the ground for cars, so you have to get out of the motorhome and walk across in front of the vehicle and enter the code by crouching down to its level. Then you have to run as fast as you can back to the door and wait while the steps extend, scurrying up into the coach. Jump in the seat with your foot on the brake, and try to get the electronic push button shift to engage drive. About that time the gate starts to close and you have to try and beat it the second time. With my recent surgery, I just waited at the gate for someone to come along and open it for me. About 10 minutes was all.

It was already noon by the time I got back to the house with the coach which made me late already. Loyce was still at her doctors appointment, so there went my ride. I drove straight to Freightliner service in Olathe, calling my oldest son Chris in the process to see if he could pick me up.

I did make it about 1:15, where I learned that the appointment was just set as PM which meant sometime after lunch, and the ticket writer said " your about right!" Chris came about 1:30 and retrieved me from the dirty truck garage. They have no waiting area at all just a counter that you can lean against.

It was still raining and the parking lot is all gravel (Mud). Biscuit was with me since I didn't want to leave her all alone all day, so grand daughter Abby got to hold Biscuit in her car seat again like she always does. That is such a gas to see, because Biscuit is as big as Abby. Bif Cut, Bif cut she screams endlessly. She's three..

Chris got me back to our house about 2 PM, where Loyce was home. She had to go over to the elementary school to be with Abby's older sister Claire for daisy scouts, so she announced that we were leaving in about 20 minutes. This is where it gets kind of dicey, because Chris just left me off.

So we rode back over to Chris' house, but I did get a Wendy's burger in the process. By now it was 3:15. At about 4 we suspected that the coach should be done, so he drove me back over to Freightliner. Now the garage is less than a mile from his house so this isn't a big deal. Still raining like cats and dogs, I just jumped out and he left.

That was when I found out that the brake light switch warranty recall repair had gone badly and they didn't have the oil change service even started. They offered me one of the office chairs where a fellow was home sick, and I just hung around for another hour.

In the meantime, Loyce, Chris and Mel had made Potato soup and I learned that supper was back at Mel's kitchen. Loyce just watched this process, as I think Chris was acting as head chef. Anyway I drove the motorhome back to Chris' house after paying the $275 bill. They changed both fuel filters, which adds another $50 to the total.

By now it was totally dark and still raining that misty windy 40 degree rain. I ran over several curbs in the process. I just can't see in the mirrors at night to negotiate the turns like in the daytime.

After eating, I was still worried about the rainy darkness, and politely excused myself to drive back over to the storage place, where I lucked out when someone had just opened the gate. It was almost 8 PM when I got home with the pickup. 9 hours later...........

And people wonder why I do these things myself..................

Retired Rod

More Doctors!

2011-11-08T00:01:00.001-06:00

Part of the reason that we are staying here in KC is to get all this last minute stuff out of the way before we leave for Arizona. Of course with us older folks, we all have to go to a myriad of Doctors. They all have their specialties and it seems like we never catch up with them. But the fellow that has been left out is the family doctor.

So this morning it was my time to go back to the root doctor and catch him up. If I need prescriptions or other things while we are away, it is a whole lot easier if he has seen me a couple of months ago. I seemed to pass his inspection but of course he had to change my prescriptions all around....... What else is new?

Our weather here turned off all rainy, because it seemed to warm up a bit and a warm front hit cool air and then the rain came. The afternoon turned cloudy, foggy, and kind of steamy even though it never was much more than 60 degrees.

As I headed over to Wendy's in the middle afternoon and then Wal Mart to look for some fleece pull over shirts, the windows were steamed. I ate the sandwich in the car, and that didn't help with the drippy effect.

Wal Mart didn't have what I was looking for and I ended up going to several more Wal Marts in the area. Eventually I found what I was looking for, but that took the rest of the afternoon. Living in a big city, we are lucky to have 5 Wal Marts within a few miles of our home.

With the time change, it was almost dark by the time I got back home. I really seem to be depressed about the dark after the time goes back to standard time. It must be a psychological thing, but it is real. I'm sure I will get used to it in a few days.

Now it is late at night, but the lightening is flashing rapidly and the rain is pouring down outside. Perhaps it is quite alright that we are here in the warm sticks and bricks house rather than our RV tonight.

Retired Rod

Time for a new battery and Noodles!

2011-11-07T00:01:00.000-06:00

Just a lazy day around here today. I determined early this morning that my blood sugar machine was on the fritz and had to read the book to figure out what the only symbol on the screen actually meant. It was just two arrows pointing in opposite directions.

Read the book, gasp! Oh, its been so long since I used it the battery has gone flat. So fairly early this morning I was over at Wal Mart looking for a replacement. Nope not in the pharmacy where they sell the machines. Nope not in Jewelry where they sell those flat type of watch batteries. Nope not in electronics, but the fellow there did tell me to go to the photo department several aisles over.

And even then I had to sort thru bunches of cards and thought I was out of luck but right there in the middle of the rack was the peg with the one I needed. I did get back out of there fairly quick, as I went to the tobacco checkout counter that is listed as 10 items or less.

But other that that trip, I never left the house all day. I had the Nascar race running most of the afternoon, and browsed the internet and browsed. I'm not sure I ever napped. Oh, I know I got started making homemade noodles for Chicken and Noodles. My grandma made them and so did my mom, so I know how, when I get so inclined.

That kept me busy for a couple of hours off and on. But Chicken and Noodles is a really good comfort food so I enjoyed the results.

Of course it seems like it is the middle of the night as I write this, but the clock only says 10 PM. Gonna take a while to get used to this time change stuff...........

Retired Rod

Calls quit, football and the time change.

2011-11-06T00:01:00.001-05:00

Boy I'd like to report about all those phone calls that I have been blocking, but.......... It seems to have all stopped yesterday afternoon. I got all mad at the guy and threatened him to call the authorities if he didn't stop with the harassment. Could it be that that was all it took?

But we haven't had a single call again looking for Gerald, or trying to get a loan. Perhaps it is a weekend thing and they will be back on Monday, but the call blocker is waiting.

Of course today was Saturday and watching the Hawkeye football game occupied the middle of my day, and the Hawks won........... Barely! They played Michigan and after a couple of turnovers on the Wolverine's part, the Hawks were ahead. Michigan mounted a comeback in the 4th quarter and were not to be denied. They were still in a goal line stand with 2 seconds left that could have tied the game, but somehow they passed incomplete and Iowa won.

I get so tense during these big games that it just drains me for the rest of the afternoon. I watched other games, but didn't seem to care much. A lot of aimless TV.

Tonight is the time change, and as you know I collect watches, so I have been sitting here changing the time on oodles of watches. Messing around with each one making sure it still works. I think I am now ready for the time to change. But hey, I need to change all the clocks in the stove and microwave and cars and............

Perhaps tomorrow.............

Retired Rod

Phone Calls

2011-11-05T00:01:00.001-05:00

For the last couple of weeks I have been receiving cell phone calls, looking for Gerald. No body here by that name and hang up. 15 minutes later is Gerald there? Looking for auto loan, need Gerald. What the heck?

These are almost always far Eastern voices like they are from India or one of those countries, and they are in a room full of callers talking all at once in the background. 4 or 5 calls a day began to reach my phone and now they don't hang up. They keep talking to you and you can't hang up on them either because they somehow hold your phone on the line.

I have called T-Mobile, my carrier and they claim they know nothing about this. At first I thought it was individuals looking for me (Gerald) to make them a loan to buy a car. The phone numbers are random from area codes all over the country. But then after several calls today, I began to get repeat numbers.

Not only are they burning my phone minutes, I have spent a lot of time on the phone with T-Mobile trying to resolve what to do about it. Their only suggestion is to change my phone number. I've had it for 10 years, so changing it now seems like leaving all my old friends behind.

So in desperation I typed the phone numbers into google. That brought up WhoCallsMe dot com which has responses from all the other folks that have been called from these numbers. Sometimes it is an auto loan, and others claim to be an attorney doing collections. The callers threaten to have the police come and arrest you. We don't have debtors prison here in the US so that isn't going to happen.

I looked up 7 different numbers that have called looking for Gerald Coffie, and in every case it is this same group from India that is badgering folks. Its some kind of a scam to get your social security number and other pertinent facts so they can steal your identity.

This afternoon I downloaded an App on my android phone called mobile manager that will block unwanted calls from specific numbers. It will block everything that isn't in your contact list if you want, but I do get outside calls that are for us, so that seems too drastic.

I loaded all the numbers that the auto finance folks have been using into the blocker, and so far I am now call free. But it is only a matter of time that they use a new number I don't have blocked. Every time they call now, that new number will get blocked.

So beware of calls for auto loans. Collection agents, and the like. Now days they are probably phony, and their origin is usually outside of the US. The phone company says they can't do a thing about it!

Retired Rod

Looking for Parts at the right Dealer!

2011-11-04T00:01:00.005-05:00

Today I decided to go directly to Cummins Central Power up in North Kansas City even though it is more than 30 miles away. They have several Midwest states as their territory and KC is one of them. Cummins is also Onan so I went right into the parts counter.

Again I had to wait a while as other customers were ahead of me. But soon it was my time, and the fellow at the counter knew exactly what I needed and the model number that I was using was the right number.

He looked it up on his computer where he had complete exploded drawings of the entire machine with part numbers and inventory lookup. The problem was he didn't have it in stock. There were several in his other stores, Omaha and Des Moines were the closest. But we decided that I had time, so just order the tank from the Cummins facility in Tennessee. It will take a week and they had more than 50 so we will get one. Pricey little item at $125.

It took about 45 minutes each way, and I will have to make the trip again next week when the tank comes in. By then it may be too cold to install it here in KC. At least we will have the parts........

Also mid afternoon, we got a call from some carpet installers that we didn't recognize. But they identified themselves as Home Depot installers, and confirmed that they had our new carpet in their warehouse. Whew! I wondered if we would get this done before leaving here.........

So the appointment was made for next Wednesday. Again they will call by 7AM to let us know a 2 hour window that they will be arriving in. You know, we will be there between 9 and 11. I guess they don't mind wasting my time because theirs is way more important...... We aren't paying a lot for the installation, which is a special that Home Depot has running right now, so perhaps we will put up with what ever it takes to get it done.

The rest of the day was routine, reading blogs and napping with Biscuit on my lap. She loves to snuggle in the big chair, but is way more jumpy at the slightest noise......

Retired Rod

Generator Parts

2011-11-03T00:01:00.002-05:00

I try not to write a blog when I am steamed about something that happens during a day, because it always comes off as a rant, and makes me look bad and not the person that steamed me.

It is now fairly late at night and I have forgotten about today for a while, but still just thinking about it seems to cause me to go grrrr. But lets see if I can just report the facts as they happened.

Remember that I need the overflow tank for my Onan generator that I found cracked the other day? So I drove out to Olathe Ford RV in Gardner, Ks as they are listed as the closest dealer. I waited at the parts counter for a while until a lady decided to help me.

I asked for the coolant recovery tank for a 6 KW diesel Onan. She had a chart of the models and I pointed to the specific model on her chart HDKAH. She seemed perplexed. She said they just order parts from the Cumins dealer up in North Kansas City. Now what is it that you want?

She didn't like my model number even though it was directly off of her hard plastic chart that they look up oil and air filters from. She told me I was wrong. She asked me again, "What is it you need?" Eventually after looking at the computer for a while she declared that there was no such thing in the generator.

"You need to go get your model number straightened out and find out what the part is called before I can help you!" and with that she sat down at her desk with her back to me and started calling someone on the telephone. At first I thought she might be calling Cumins, but no it was a completely unrelated matter for someone else. She was just done helping me.

I have never been able to do business with these folks very well, but they are our only game in town here locally. My younger son purchased his RV here, and my older son took his in for repairs, and they ripped the steps off of his 5ver because they forgot to fold them up and caught them on a concrete post. They still haven't made that right. I'm not sure what I expected by going out there in the first place. I guess I should have known better, so it is all my fault to begin with.....

Anyway, I drove back here about 15 miles and the windows were all steamed over most of the way on the inside............

Retired Rod

Rving Friends

2011-11-02T00:01:00.001-05:00

Today was just another one of those cool fall days where the sun is out, but the wind seems to blow all the leaves around the yard and house. You go outside and you want it to be warm, but it just isn't!

But then it is the first day of November, and winter is a lot closer than any of us want to admit to. This week end is the time change and things will really seem dark and dingy once it is dark when we are eating supper.

But the definite highlight of our day, was late in the afternoon, when Lynette and Mac of Mac and Nette's Retirement Adventures, stopped by our house here in KC. In fairness, we knew that they were coming because they called last night and said they would be in town doing Doctor visits and such.

We hadn't seen this fine couple since we inadvertently stumbled on to them last fall in Amarillo, Texas. They spent the winter in Yuma, and we spent it in Mesa, so even though we were both in Arizona we seemed miles apart. Well, we both read each other's blogs so not that many miles.

Some how we ended up down in the new basement room which has no carpet and very sparse furniture, but that didn't seem to matter as we were all talking a mile a minute catching up on all the stories that we needed the rest of the details on.

When you read the blogs, you only get a small snippet of the facts and happenings, and that causes almost more questions than answers. So it becomes what about this and what about that. Three hours just disappeared. We needed to let them get back on the road because it is over an hour back to Garnet where they are parked in their old home town. But it was almost 8 PM before they left. Sorry about that, but it seemed like old home week.

Since we haven't been able to do much in the way of RVing due to my health issues, we seem to be completely out of the loop, so perhaps we pry a bunch of info all at once, but then I know we enjoyed their thoughtfulness to stop by.

So that was the end of our day but a delightful surprise!

Retired Rod

Beggars night!

2011-11-01T00:01:00.001-05:00

I sometimes wonder how I got started blogging every evening. Seems like it would just be easier to pass on some of the nights that we haven't done much for the day. But no, I feel like I have to explain nothing. So here goes.........

This is Halloween, and Loyce likes to have all the kids and grandkids come over here for Halloween, so she was cleaning and getting the house ready for that all day, and I have learned to keep myself small during these times.

Now obviously I can't change my rotund size, but by keeping myself small, I mean sitting over here in the corner and not making a mess anywhere... Just speak when spoken to and otherwise stay out of the way.

Fast forward until tonight, when we had the extra large bucket of Original finger licking good chicken with all the fixins. Both sons and their wives and five grandkids polished it all off. The kids and parents canvased our neighborhood for all the goodies available, and then they were back about 8PM devouring it as fast as possible.

The sugar highs set in and the younger ones began to cry and not listen to their parents. So the party was over just as fast as it started. Tomorrow is a school day! I meant to take some pictures of the costume get ups, but I'm still not moving fast enough to catch younguns when they are on a sugar high.

Anyway Loyce thinks Halloween is one of here special times of the year, and we will never ever leave before the first of November. Never!

Retired Rod

Generator Maintenance.

2011-10-31T00:01:00.002-05:00

OK, I said I needed to get started working on the motorhome if we are ever going to get out of here. So I dutifully headed right over to storage and traded the truck for the motorhome this morning. It started right up like it was only yesterday that it was put away.

Diesel engines are like that, since there are no spark plugs or electrical components that make spark, if you have enough battery left to heat the glo plugs and spin the starter, they come right back to life almost instantly.

Once back over here, the problem was to change the oil in the Onan generator. I pulled the coach up in our driveway. The neighbors can't complain about a vehicle in your driveway that is currently being driven. So no matter how large, if it hasn't been parked without leaving for three days, the city is blind to its presence no matter how many calls they get.

I rolled under and pulled the plug with the drain pan almost at once. It only holds three quarts, so it doesn't take too long to drain. I left it open to get it down to the last drop, but the wind was blowing the little stream all over so I had to plug it back up.

The problem with the genny is that I have never been able to get the oil filter off up thru the bottom access panel like the book instructs. There are hoses and stuff that make it almost impossible to reach around and still get a good enough grip on the filter. Remember the Jet Ski? Same thing.

So I began disassembling the case around the engine inside. This isn't too bad of job, and after about thirteen ten mm bolts the front panel came off. I grabbed my favorite three finger oil filter wrench and the filter was off and in the drain pan. The new one spun on just as quickly.

As I was adding oil, I noticed that there wasn't any coolant in the plastic overflow tank...... And that it was cracked. That sort of shut down the project, since I don't have another tank, and on Sunday have no way to find one. I just bolted the genny back together and cleaned up my tools.

I had another project to fix the rider side shade in the windshield, so I started on it deciding that it had just fallen to pieces. And, luckily I had all the pieces, so after a while I had it reassembled and working. It was becoming later in the afternoon, so the rig had to go back to its storage lot. The day was over.

I will have to get working on finding a source for that evaporation tank before we leave out of here. The crack is in the top, and I can add mixed coolant to it and get by if we need to run the genny for anything, but since it is dry, that's probably the way to leave it for now.

So maintenance seems to have identified a larger issue, but at least it still runs and we are headed for repairs for next time. Perhaps that will be in the desert!

Retired Rod

Happy Halloween!!!!!

Pumpkin Farm for the kids, and I hang back.

2011-10-30T00:01:00.001-05:00

I knew that today was the day that Loyce was taking the older grand kids to the pumkin farm South of Gardner, Kansas. With my recent surgery, I had been excused from this task, and my DIL Daniel would be going along to help maintain order.

Grandmas are not very heavy in the disciplinary department. So having one of the moms along is a must. But I was not required just the same.

I decided that since my older son Chris and his wife Melissa were having a garage sale, I would stop by over there for a while and help keep them company as they waited for customers to arrive. By the time I went over, most of the trade had already gone thru the garage, so I wasn't in the way, and didn't have to help much with any customers either.

He did have a small TV on one of the college games, and we watched that as we shot the bull. Before long here came grandma and Danielle with some very dirty and tired kids so I left the garage for home.

Back here things got slowed down a bunch as I became interested in the remaining college games. In fact things just stopped and I watched games until just a little while ago. How does that happen? I did just finally change the channel to something I can watch on mute in order to catch up on some of the blogs, but the day is gone and I didn't do a lick of work.

Perhaps that is good for my surgery to heal up a bit without any trauma from bending and twisting, but the Doctors are certain that you need to keep moving in order not to get stagnated. So somewhere in the middle has to be the correct answer. I need to get started working on the motorhome if we are to leave out of here after thanksgiving.

Retired Rod

Cardinals Win!

2011-10-29T00:01:00.001-05:00

As I am sitting here listening to the speeches after the Cardinals have just won the World Series for 2011, I can't help but feel sympathetic for the Texas folks since this has happened twice now. They came so close down to the last strike twice last night.

I think that La Rusa means so much to the Cardinals teaching them to never give up even with only one strike left in the whole world, ya just never give up!

Today was kind of a bust as I had to go back to the surgeon, and he didn't just sign me off as good to go. He is just not that kind of guy. If your not just perfect, he wants to know why. Now I have to go back in two weeks. Oh, and he has a fellow Doctor that was his intern down in Scottsdale. So I'm not going to get out of his sight any time soon.

It was after 4 PM when we got back here since it is almost an hour up the interstate to get to KU Medical Center from down here in the Southern sticks. The day was just gone. Loyce went to do some quick shopping and Biscuit and I sat here and surfed the web.

Watching the World Series is much more tense when the team involved is one you have rooted for most of your life. We began following the Cardinals when we began to vacation in Lake Ozark in the 1980s. Once we owned property, all of our neighbors were from St Louis and game days were celebrated with fervor. Often we planned a day at the game in the center of our week long vacation we took each year.

So Congratulations Cardinals!

Retired Rod

Hitching up..

2011-10-28T00:01:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting here thinking about leaving for Arizona, when it dawned on me that Loyce would want to take her new Honda CRV and that we would also take the car towing stuff in case we had to tow the car for some reason.

You can't use what you don't have with you. So all the Toad stuff will be in the trailer, along with the tubs of fabric so my dear wife can do her sewing crafts. And, Oh by the way there will be a scooter in there too. You know over in one corner......

Since we do not intend to double tow, Loyce will just follow in her car. But still, once you get there, there is the problem of parking the trailer in the exact spot that the park spotters say you have to on your lot.

It is about impossible to back up the little trailer with the motor home. You can only see it in the camera TV next to the radio on the dash, and by the time you see it in the mirrors it is way off kilter to one side or the other.

A couple of years ago we had installed a hitch on the back of the Camry, so we could just back the thing around with the car once we arrived. The Camry will pull the trailer, but I wouldn't want to do it for long distances because it is just a 4 cylinder car and it is too much for it.

Again we now have the CRV and it has no hitch, so I found one on an ebay store and ordered it. Arriving a few days later, Loyce wondered who or how we could get it put on. She stashed it in the garage, thinking I was nuts.

But this afternoon I installed it. You have to take the rubber mounts down that hold up the muffler and that caused more trouble than actually putting on the hitch. Using a pry bar and a really big screw driver and some bad language I eventually got it off of the mounts.

I knew I couldn't lift the entire hitch by myself, so I started to find stuff to put under it. A paint can and a brick. Then I went for the coat hanger and made some hangers to grab each end and pull them up into place. Slowly it was raised until I got a bolt started into the nut plate. Then a second, and from that point it was no problem. Well until that pesky bunch of rubber mounts on the muffler had to be dealt with again.

But we have a hitch on the back of the CRV and that makes us one little step closer to leaving. If we had to, we could hook up the car as a Toad, and then put the trailer on behind the car to double tow. The car wouldn't be pulling the weight and most of the braking would be the motorhome. Still that would require that things be in the go slow mode until you got the feeling for how it all worked together.

Retired Rod

Doctors again!

2011-10-27T00:01:00.001-05:00

Just sitting around here, after going to the doctor for lab tests this morning. I hate that but they won't let me out of it.

This afternoon, I went down and made the concerted effort to finish the mop boards around the rest of the room. I just forced myself to stay at it. It didn't take too long but I am so put out with fighting the entire project that I can hardly go down there and sit in the chair.

Our son Ben and his son Caden came over and brought Loyce some flowers for her birthday. She likes them a lot because she has them right on the island in the middle of the kitchen. I am looking forward to getting out of here but that won't happen until we do Thanksgiving. So it is about all that I can stand to just sit here with out making any progress toward that goal.

The house is painted and the basement is mostly done, and the carpet is out of my hands. Damned Doctors are holding us up, and I need that oil change on the motorhome. But even if the list was totally complete and the packing was done, we couldn't go a place because of the family Thanksgiving.

What's a guy to do?

Retired Rod

I didn't sleep well, and Biscuit is groomed.

2011-10-26T00:01:00.002-05:00

This day was mostly a bust for me as I didn't sleep very well last night. I kept walking up about every half hour in fairly sever back pain. I feared the fever was coming back, so I kept taking tylenol every four hours. But sleep wouldn't come.

This morning Loyce called the Doctors at the KU Med Center and they didn't want to mess with it at all for fear I would need to be rehospitalized. So the long and short of it is that I am back on the strong Anti Biotic again.

Loyce has been calling around making all kinds of appointments for all of us and took today to finish some of that work. Biscuit was the subject of that attention today as she had to go to the dog shop and have her long hair cut back. She was over there early in the morning, but we later learned that she wouldn't be done until mid afternoon.

So she sat in her little crate and howled for the lady all day long. She doesn't like the place or the very senior lady that runs it. The lady has arthritis and is beyond retirement age, but is forced to continue to work. She is grumpy, grumpy when you get there and we have asked ourselves why we continue with her. But we have, and Biscuit has provided quite the challenge as she will not sit still and moans and brays the entire time.

In the middle of the afternoon, I went down and began to paint more mop board. I suppose about 25 more feet, and then after cleaning up the brush and roller, I filled the rest of the nail holes in the room. That will help me see the end of this project for the enamel white, but I will have to go back and touch up the brown walls again. I have nothing but time.

When Loyce came home with Biscuit and my prescription, we both fell sound asleep in the big recliner in the middle of the basement room. That is not like Biscuit, she is a pillar of energy, but not after grooming.........

She is still in the chair beside me all zonked out as I type this. I think this is only about the third or fourth time she has been groomed so in many ways she is still a puppy.

Retired Rod

Loyce thanks those of you that left Birthday wishes!!

Purchasing carpet.

2011-10-25T00:01:00.001-05:00

Today I learned the curse of remodeling your basement. Since basements are full of stuff that is necessary to run your house upstairs, and the house has to be supported by posts or weight bearing walls, it is necessary to frame all around these things.

So you end up with cut up floor plans, and closets out in the middle of the room, and posts that have to be carpeted around causing seams where you otherwise wouldn't put them. So as I went over to the local Home Depot to order the carpet for the basement, I learned that the room is 600 square feet but.............

In order to carpet the room with a minimum of seams that run straight thru the room, I will need to purchase 680 square feet. The additional 80 square feet will cost over $200. I am tight, as most of you know, and do not like to waste money, so most of that cut up 80 square feet will seem like money wasted.

On top of that, the normal lady that runs the carpet desk was gone on her day off, and they had to call for a replacement person that took quite a while to show up. But then he didn't know how to run the computer system. He couldn't even change the color selection. Not the carpet selection, just the color to one selection lighter.

They had to call over the intercom all over the store for another lady that ran the entire store to come over and help the first guy. So while I was trying to get used to paying $200 more than I had expected, the store people were stumbling all over themselves trying to write up a simple purchase.

I did manage to get control of my emotions and decide that I was going to see this thru, and the last lady did get the transaction finalized before I bolted out the door. I did have the $50 measure invested, and I would have lost that money, and the next folks would have probably lost just as much in the cut up room. It is just how this sort of thing goes.

Back home, I went back down and began to paint the mop boards. Crawling on the floor caused my stomach muscles to be used far more than standing up or sitting. I made it about 2 and a half hours before I couldn't stand it any more. So mid afternoon, I was washing out the brushes and roller.

I did change to the brown wall color and went around and painted out my mistakes where the white was on the wall color. But after that brush was cleaned I was in the chair and sound asleep for the rest of the afternoon.

Tonight I am watching the world series, and as a cardinal fan I am scared to death by the texas folks...... But I don't want to jinx them so that is all I will say about that.

By the way, Loyce is 39 today................again! LOL Happy Birthday dear!

Retired Rod

Winterizing the small scooter!

2011-10-24T00:01:00.012-05:00

Today I decided to winterize the Kymco People 200 scooter. Folks get mad at me for just writing the blog and not including pictures, so here is the Kymco.....

I tried to sell this scooter when I purchased the Suzuki, but it didn't have much interest on Craig's list. So like usual, I would not just give it away, so I kept it. It has been at the lake for the last couple of years and I have ridden it down there when we were in town. But this fall I brought it back to KC for the winter.

We will take the Suzuki with us to Arizona, so it won't need winterizing, but this one will remain here, so I do some special stuff to make sure it starts next spring. Of course the major enemy of all small engines is gasoline.

The stuff turns to a gunky varnish when left for long periods of time without being used. For that reason, I usually use Sta Bil in the fuel in all my small engines because you never know how long it will be before you start them again.

But the darned scooters seem to be sensitive even when Sta Bil is used. So I began draining the gas tank and running the carb dry. Today while it was so sunny and mid 70s outside, I drained the gas out. This requires that the seat and the storage compartment underneath be removed and the gas lines be disconnected from the carb.

This seems straight forward, but I had forgotten one little fact. Gas will not just come running out of the tank thru the tubing. There is this valve on the bottom of the tank, that requires the engine to be running and create a vacuum on the second hose to open the primary fuel line. It took me a while to remember how this all worked, and by that time I had run all the gas out of the carb.

I had to bend over and suck on the vacuum line and hold it against my tongue while the gas ran out of the tank. My bend over is still compromised, so that began to cause pain long before the little stream of gas emptied the tank. Eventually it was empty and we were done. I will put the battery tender on it before we leave the house.

In the basement, I managed to go paint the door jamb going into the shop area today, which is the final door that needs to be painted. Once it was dry, I rehung the door and installed all the hardware back on the door. Now there is a mile of mop board to fill all the nail holes and paint. It will take miles of masking tape to keep the enamel off of the walls.

Tomorrow I will go see about ordering carpet. There is some question about whether it will be installed before we leave. Perhaps it will be, and perhaps not, but it will be what it will be. Eventually we will get to use the room........

Retired Rod

So why do I blog?

2011-10-23T00:01:00.001-05:00

I keep reading all these posts about why I blog, and it is interesting to see the reasons that people list as their reasons for blogging. And perhaps the most valid reason That folks come to is that they have met the nicest people because they became readers of our blogs. And that has happened to us as well.

As we have floated around the campgrounds, you just never know when you will be checking in and have a fellow blogger come walking up to the office like last fall when Greg Mc Henry came up behind me and asked how I was getting along. He knew we were headed West out of Oklahoma City and Amarillo is a nice comfortable destination. Because we all seem to frequent the same campgrounds, just like clockwork, in we walked.

We spent a couple of weeks with Rick and Paulette out in Desert Hot Springs a couple of years ago, but that was more planned as we were headed to San Diego that year. Still no nicer people are to be found..

But the real truth about blogging is somewhat self serving........ I write the blog as a diary or log of our daily activities so I can look back a couple of years later and see what I was doing or perhaps more importantly, thinking back on that day.

So with that in mind, I was reading the blogs from last year in the fall as I went thru the surgeries, while I was desperately trying to get organized to go to Arizona. I had the first surgery on October 1st and the second on November 16th. That second one was when they informed me that I had Cancer.....

That was the day we bought Biscuit, so I didn't even say anything about it. We were elated to have the new doggy but devastated to learn why I was so sick inside. What a mixed set of emotions.

So I blog as a log, for myself and Loyce, as we often look up and read what we did on a certain day.

Some days are kind of a bust, and that sums up today, as the highlight was when the carpet measurer came to our house at about 1 PM. He had a laser device and a tablet computer that was job specific and electronically connected to the laser. In less than a half an hour he had an exact diagram of the room complete with exact measurements. I signed the tablet with a stylus pen and he was off.

Today, I managed to paint the last door after I took it out of the frame, and I painted about 20 feet of the mop board. Cool, only about 125 feet left to go.........

Retired Rod

Thoughts on Arizona and finishing the paint!

2011-10-22T00:01:00.002-05:00

I think we have a chance for it to warm up this weekend and on into the following week until about Wednesday. I am talking mid 70s for every day and none of that freezing stuff at night. That is a welcome relief, as we are used to the warmer weather here in KC and Arizona.

Speaking of Arizona, we have 5 weeks to go before we head on out for points West. We have reservations again in Valle Del Oro where we plunked down $250 last year on a specific site that is two streets farther North from the street where we were last year. Also we are that much farther from busy Superstition Mountain Freeway 60. That should reduce the noise level a bit, but we will be parked with our windshield facing North. That means the bedroom on the back will be on the freeway side, so maybe it won't be much quieter. We will have several more rows of RVs between us and the South fence.

I haven't paid much attention to the information coming out of the park, because most of the folks haven't arrived down there yet. It has been in the high 90s almost every day, and I think folks got a lot of that this summer, so they are not rushing back to those conditions.

Since we reserve our spot for three months, and February is really the nicest month of all, it only makes sense to not get there so early. Folks have asked me why rent for three months in a row? And I can only answer that because once it becomes after the first of the year, almost everything short of boondocking is totally reserved.

Also with the reality of my condition after this surgery, I will need to be on full hookups almost every night. And there is the local hospital that I used last year about a mile away, should that be needed.

But what we have learned in the past is that we become bored with our surroundings in the second year of anything we do. And I am sure that by March 1st we will be pulling up the stakes and moving on. Anywhere, just some place different.

Today the painter finished the outside of the house about 3 in the afternoon, and I had to pay the money. More than 3K, but remember I never lifted one finger, outside of going outside and bullshipping once and a while. Still seems high...... But it is the going rate around here. 2 guys worked for 4 days, and there was over a 1K paint bill. Quit thinking about it, it will just make you nuts.

I worked some in the basement again today, but only finished one door jamb and rehung the door. My drive for the project has completely left me, and it seems like total slave labor by now. I still have another door and jamb to finish as well as the mop boards all around the big room.

They are coming in the morning to measure for the carpet, but I am told that we may not get it finished by the time we leave for the Southwest. Perhaps one of my kids will have to be over here for the carpet install. Surely they can get it installed in the next 5 weeks.............

Retired Rod

Another Work Day!!

2011-10-21T00:01:00.003-05:00

Last night I went out about 10:30 and put our car and truck out in the street. I knew they would be back early and be ready to make paint fly. It was below freezing, but he went to the store and picked up the paint and it was warm. As it warmed outside and was above freezing the paint began to fly.

I turned around and went to the basement and began my own painting project.

Mid afternoon, I went to Home Depot and investigated the purchase of carpet for the new remodel, and learned that you have to have them come and measure your project for $50 in order to purchase carpet.

But the $50 applies to installation which is $97 for any size of room. Wow that is cheap, and they had some special deals on carpet, so I think we have a carpet vendor. I brought home samples and Loyce picked one almost instantly, so perhaps we have that decided if nothing jumps the track.

Back home our house is now completely dark brown. Windows, doors, the trim and everything. Tomorrow they claim they will paint the trim and do all the small jobs to make us a finished product.

We continue to progress. I do have a full time job, its this sticks and bricks house. I seem to work on it 24/7........

Retired Rod

Knock Knock Knock!

2011-10-20T00:01:00.001-05:00

About 7:30 this morning, I heard a knocking that sounded like someone at the front door. But the knock wasn't a friendly kind of a knock, more like a pounding. Bang bang bang bang. Then it went away. For a few moments anyway, and it was back. Bang bang bang.

As I awakened, I realized it wasn't out in front but rather on the side of the house to the West. And it was hammer pounding. The painters were back and hard at it. The outside temperature was 34, and there was a frost on the ground in the shadows.

Eventually as I was eating breakfast, our neighbor that runs the painting crew came in the house and we discussed the colors that Loyce wants to use. I say that because it isn't democratic here at our house about the colors. She has ten votes and I have one. So brown is in, and much darker than I would have chosen. Think a fudgesickle brown with mocha coffee trim. It will look ok in the end, and I really don't have much of an opinion as long as it fits into the neighborhood and isn't purple or something.

They must have replaced a whole bunch of the nails in the siding because the pounding lasted almost all day. They have industrial square packages of caulk that are about a foot square, and they emptied a couple of them.

We have plastic all over the windows and paper taped to the driveway and concrete where things aren't to be oversprayed.

I just worked in the basement and left them alone. It never was over the mid 50s outside, so the basements was much warmer. I finished the shelves that I had begun yesterday and painted both sides of a door and took the jamb all apart and filled all the nail holes. This job is so slow. In all the days that I have worked on the trim wood, I have used about a half of a gallon of paint.

I think that much of that has been washed down the drain, as you have to clean up your brush and roller quite often because the paint dries on them while you are sanding and preparing for the next application.

After I went to Wendys this afternoon, I was just sick of working on the project and sat upstairs in the big chair reading blogs. I did drive around some after going to Wendy's and found that after about 2 miles, it still made the surgery hurt. So I'm exactly ready to head to Arizona quite yet.........

Retired Rod

Ignoring the painters

2011-10-19T00:01:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure it ever got up to 60 degrees today, but that didn't stop our paint contractor. By mid morning, they were all hooked up to the water with a gas pressure washer and with several ladders against the house washing commenced. I have decided that they paint houses every day, every year and don't need supervised.

So with that said, I didn't even go outside to watch for one moment. I have plenty of paint work in my own basement to keep me very busy, and I went down and began to work on that in the late morning. I only took one break about 4 PM to go get a Wendys and went right back to work. I finally quit about 7:30 tonight.

It is so slow painting the door jambs and doors. I'm not even sure what I accomplished, but I know one complete door was painted and the back side of another. They built in a book shelf, and nailed the shelves in with the air nailer. So I have been knocking the nails out with a block of wood and my big hammer. I did manage to get three of the shelves out and sanded and painted. I painted the support wood with the brown wall paint. Perhaps traditionally it should be white like the shelves, but that would take forever, so brown it will be.

Without a nap today, I am feeling a bit killed tonight, so perhaps I will sleep better. Only time will tell me that however.

The painting work remaining seems endless.......

Retired Rod