My job.....

Living day by day....  My friend Al got his headlights fixed at the dealership, but just barely...   They couldn't get them to go out, like we did....   You know how a child won't act up when its at the repair shop...

They had other work so they concentrated on a new tire and an oil change for his bike hoping that the headlights would fail...  And as they were ready to give up, out they went....  All of the dash had to come apart and a wiring connection behind the electric switch was to blame....

I took the motorhome over to the Freightliner shop here in Olathe, to get its yearly service completed...  They change the oil and all the expensive filters..
17 quarts of oil is more than I can handle when it comes all at once when the plug is removed..... $300..

Without Loyce, I have to rely on my sons to follow me in the car when delivering the coach and picking it up...   They live several miles from me, so that gets to be a big logistics problem...

Now we are attempting to go camping this weekend, so this will be the first time for me to go thru all the stuff that Loyce took care of...  Solo camping will be a big pain until I get it down...  There are no more pink and blue jobs.... they are all my job...!

Retired Rod

I forgot to answer Penny about Biscuit riding....  She has ridden at slow speeds on the big scooter down to the dogie park in campgrounds...  But she freaks out at higher speeds..  Would need to have a kennel that would contain her...  Even then that would need to be strapped in with industrial fasteners....  LOL

Romeos to Waverly, Mo..

I participated in today's Romeo Ride to Waverly, Mo...  This town is clear over in the center of Missouri on Highway 65...

We left the McDonalds here by my house at 8:30 taking a round about path that led us out of town to the Southeast even though the town of Waverly is Northeast of KC...

I guess we were just enjoying the travel on the motorcycles on US 50..  But once about 50 miles away we turned North on Mo 131 and made our way on a more direct route..   US 24 crosses Missouri from KC to Hannibal and crosses US 65 directly in the center of the state...

Waverly is called the Apple capital of the state and there are several orchards with stores out along the highways in the area...  We went to the Apple Bar Be Cue there in town, which had a special breakfast cook in for the day, along with their normal lunch fair...   We arrived about 10:30 and did order breakfast items...

Some of the other fellows ordered luncheon items which included burnt ends on Texas Toast  sandwiches along with dinner plate sized tenderloins...

We left about noon, and decided to pass on the apple stands, however many of the riders did go, and there are pictures galore of the restaurant and the apple stores on the Romeo web site....   Here

We rode back along the Missouri River thru Lexington, where we have an enjoyable country road along the water....  But it was during this portion of the ride, that I noticed that my friend Al's headlights had gone out yet again...  This is in spite of our attempts at servicing the problem over the last week...

A quick decision was made to return to our repair facility in Independence, Mo and let the pro's have a go at it...   We rode directly there....

Some cursory wiggling and probing didn't turn up any reason for the intermittent loss of function..  So we were forced to leave his bike at the shop...  Suddenly we were two riders with only one motorcycle...

The Goldwing is up to that task, but as a rider, I usually try to stay away from riding two up...  But since we were trapped into this one, I just sucked it up and rode us home...  It was mostly interstate, and the bike does fine at fast speeds with two riders...  Its balancing at stop lights and such that requires advanced skills...

So it was an opportunity for me to work on my riding skills and we made it thru the experience without incidence..

Tonight has been mostly watching baseball while talking with one of my good friends from Des Moines on Skype....  Without these friends, I would be lost....

Retired Rod

Nice messages from everyone...

My heavens, thank you all for being so concerned about me....  I am still snake bit here, but I think I have turned the corner on the massive pain.. Now it is more discomfort pain...  Until the middle of the night, when it starts hurting for real..

I have never been bitten by a spider before that I can remember, and this thing is still swollen and hot...  I have used the special antibiotic ointment, but not as much as I probably should...

Anyway this weekend was mostly watching football with my younger son on Saturday, where the Hawkeyes lost to Michigan State...  Boo...  And then on Sunday the Kansas City Chiefs won again which makes them 5 and 0...  Much better than they have been for a lot of years....

I was invited over to my motorcycle friend Al's home to eat with he and his wife and another couple...   They have turned into a real God send for helping me cope...

And on Friday night an old neighbor from Iowa came by and kept me busy for a couple of hours...  So I haven't been all alone...  And that is a large positive..

Biscuit has been over at Ben's house for most of the weekend with her three grand children...  They cart her all over and wear her out, which is a good thing for her...

That's about it from here...

Retired Rod

Medical Central

I have been under the weather so to speak...  Something went wrong in by back last Friday night at a picnic birthday party for Ema..  I got a big hand full of puss out of my back...

By Saturday the thing was swollen up and painful..   On Monday I thought I was dying...  I just forced my way onto the Doctor's schedule..  They gave me some antibiotics and sent me home...  Cyst...  

I was back at them on Thursday...  As the pain was unbearable...  They had several folks look at it, at KU Med... Professors, where they think I was bitten by a spider of some sort..  They changed all the meds again for Friday.. Its still horribly swollen...

So tonight I am wondering if I can lie down enough to go to bed...  Tylenol and a naproxin finally put me to sleep last night at three AM...

Biscuit seems to understand that I am sick too, as she has laid on me every moment.....

I did manage to go over to my son Chris' home a couple of afternoons while he assembled a floating wood floor in his foyer office...  I kind of sorted the pieces of wood and put glue in the grooves, while riding his office chair..  But that kept him seated on the floor rather than getting up and down for each piece...

So its been medical central around here...  But you know it must be serious when the Doc wants you to call her every day...   Not her nurse, her!  People do sometimes go into shock from these things...  But that would have happened last weekend..  She just determined that I was now living alone..

Retired Rod