Happy Birthday party for Kennedy

Welcome to our newest Follower, Rex Kusler.  I checked out your blog, Rex, and found it an interesting read.  Rex is an author, and his current Las Vegas Mystery Series has two books published with the third in the series due out soon.  I love mysteries, and will be checking his out on Amazon.com.  He is currently writing his ninth novel.  Welcome aboard, Rex!  I'm glad you are following along with Katie and me! :)

On January 16, my eldest granddaughter had a birthday - she's 9!  The following Saturday was her Birthday Party, which was held at Dave and Busters.  If you don't know that place, it's kind of like a Chuckee Cheese, but for kids who are a bit older and adults.  I had never been there before, and had a great time.  We had a long table, food and drinks were brought out, and each child received a "credit card" that had a set amount of money on it to play all the games.

 Kennedy's beautiful chocolate cake.

 Waiting to blow out the candles - Make a Wish!

 Brother Gavin, enjoying the food and games!

 Brother Graydin, race car driver!

See the blur where his hands are?  He's driving fast!

Kennedy with Dad and Mom - Happy Birthday!

Everyone had a great time, the kids love those games and won tons of tickets which they turned in for prizes. I was tired and left to go back to tom's house and rest right after the cake was served, so I didn't see what the prizes were, but I'm sure they loved what they got.

Tomorrow I'm getting my old Escape SUV back to use while I'm here in Santee.  My son is bringing it down to the RV park, and I'll drive him back to work.  He has a car there he wants to bring home, so everyone will get what they need.  I have two medical appointments (annual checks) on Wednesday, so it will be nice to have a car to drive.

I am making a mystery dish in my slow cooker tonight.   This is the first time I've used this slow cooker.  I cut a filet mignon into three slices and seared them in the frying pan.  Then I put some olive oil in the bottom of the cooker, added the meat slices, put half an envelope of onion soup on top of that, poured in some Marsala wine, water, added marinated artichokes on top, and topped it all off with sliced apples.

I'm cooking it on high for 4 or 5 hours, then I'm going to add some sour cream to make a rich sauce, and put the whole thing over rice.

I think this might be delicious if the meat was chicken, but I didn't have any chicken defrosted, so I decided to use the meat.  This is a round filet mignon that was wrapped with bacon that was in a 3-pack from Costco.  I love filet mignon, but I didn't like this meat, so I decided to try something different.  Even if I don't like the meat, I figure the artichokes hearts and apple slices might be good side dishes, and hopefully I'll have a nice sauce for my rice.

I'll let you know if it was a HIT or a MISS.  Usually my mystery dishes are HITS, but I'm not betting on this one.

UPDATE:  I ate dinner before I published this post, and it was delicious - except the meat.  It was still tasteless and tough.  I won't be buying that at Costco again, but the apples and artichokes, in their thick wine/onion/sour cream sauce over rice was really, really good.  Second helpings good.  I think next time I'll try a chicken breast and throw in some baby carrots; that would complete the dish and give me a couple of leftover meals, too.

Yesterday afternoon, and then again in the early evening, Katie and I took a walk to the closest lake and walked along for a bit.  The sun was down, and the sky was so pretty.  The ducks were still swimming around, they seemed to be coming to the edge of the lake where they could sit by the reeds.  I wonder where they sleep?

 Sunset - Santee Lakes

 

The Palms at Santee Lakes

Time to get that second helping, and then take Katie out for our last walk of the day.  It's overcast this evening, no sunset shots today.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Monday evening, everyone!  :)

“Go forth and be happy!”

A big WELCOME to West Tx at Heart, our newest Follower.  West Tx at Heart doesn't have much info, and isn't showing a blog, but he lists his occupation as "Dad First," so we can figure it's a man with children.  Well, West Tx at Heart, we're happy you are following along with us, and hope you enjoy reading about our adventures!  :)

This afternoon I had my appointment with the doctor who did my surgery, and he said all is good, and literally said, "Go forth and be happy!"  He's a real cutie with a fun personality, nice to have in a doctor, right?  He also said he took out my appendix for good measure while he was in there, and I was really happy about that, since that's what I was so worried about with the stomach pains - I thought I might end up with a burst appendix, which wouldn't have been good in the middle of the Arizona desert. Now I'll never have to worry about that again.  I got a two-for-one surgery!  :)

The parking structure at the doctor's office is large and not built for RVs, and there was no street parking around the building - all the spaces were taken, so I had to park quite a distance away and walk to the appointment.  I was a little worried about it, but the walk to and from went fine.  I stopped at Costco and Best Buy on my way back and did more walking.  I'm really feeling soooo much better today than I have.  I'll probably be tired tomorrow, but...    I can see "back to normal" at the end of the tunnel.

I made those stops because I want a new tablet.  Real bad.  Really, really bad.  It will be my Christmas, birthday and get well present to myself (I can rationalize anything).  But it's really expensive, and the one I want won't be out for a few months, so I'm going to wait until I can get exactly what I want.  Maybe I can save the cash up by then, too.  Here's what I want:

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime 64G tablet w/Android 4.0, called “Ice Cream Sandwich” with an Asus Transformer Prime TF201 Mobile Docking Station/Keyboard.

It has fabulous ratings and reviews, and I can't wait.  I've been wanting something other than my laptop for a while now, but haven't seen anything that looked good until now.  It's going to be hard to wait!

BTW, to any of  my followers that have received e-mails from me in the past – I’ve been hacked again and my contact list has been sent bogus e-mails.  It has a link, please just delete any e-mails from me, especially if it doesn’t pertain to our blog business and arrives with only a link.  This one is not a virus, I don’t think, just spam, but don’t take any chances. 

I’m sorry if you get any of these e-mails from me, but there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it.  I’ve changed my password on my current e-mail address, but the one that’s being used is an e-mail address I had years ago, and it’s been closed for years.  When I’ve sent mail to that e-mail address, it comes back to me as a bad address, so I don’t know how they are sending mail with it.  It’s such a pain – whoever is doing this, I hope Karma gets them back.

I've been slowly cleaning and putting things back where they belong, and have my laundry ready to do - if I feel like it tomorrow, I'll go to the Laundromat here in the park and get it done.  Or Sunday if I'm too tired tomorrow.  It will be nice to have everything clean again!  Then comes the vacuuming and dusting and polishing.  Also, I have my new Oxygenics shower head, and I need to switch out the shower head.  Lots of things to look forward to doing.

I've decided I did pretty well in Arizona while I was there. I got my solar installed as well as the catalytic propane heater, then when I got to Quartzsite I changed out all my light bulbs to LEDs at a good price per light, got my "hair hat," and ordered my new shower head and what I needed for my privacy curtain.   So I did accomplish everything I wanted to do, and if I had stayed for the show, who knows what "stuff" I would have bought that I didn't need. 

The privacy curtain  mentioned above  is a curtain rod, a long spring loaded rod, that I put from wall to wall between the cab of the truck and the "house."  I wanted something that I could just open and close easily, so I also ordered some curtain rings with clips on the end.  I put up the rod and put on the rings, and clipped on my privacy curtain that came with The Palms.  It has Velcro all across the top, and it attaches to little Velcro stickies that are all around the cab windows.  It's pretty easy to put up and take down and does block out any viewing from outside the cab, but I wanted a "curtain."  This is working fine, and is easy to just slide open and closed.  I'm not sure I like the way it looks, though.  The only rod I could find that is long enough to reach across the entire living area was white, and it kind of sticks out like a sore thumb in front of the green it’s against, so I'm going to live with it for a while and decide later if I like it or not.  I would have preferred a darker color.  I'll take a photo and post it in a future blog post and show you how it looks.  It's definitely convenience over decor, though, so we'll see what you all think.

It's been a good day!  From Me and My Dog, have a great Friday evening, everyone!  :)

Back in The Palms

A big WELCOME to our newest Follower, Jim!  I don't see any information at all about you, Jim, but you're our 200th Follower, and we are very happy to have you along on our adventures!  Welcome aboard, I hope you enjoy following along with Katie and me on our adventures!!

Katie and I loaded up The Palms on Monday and drove down to Santee Lakes RV Park. We were two weeks early, so we lost the site I originally reserved, but I was lucky to get one at all!  I didn't realize what a snowbird area this is, and there were only three sites available for a 30-day term. Two were very short and close to neighbors, and one was more for a longer rig and had room on the sides, leaving enough space between rigs.  After being in the desert for six weeks, I didn't want to have to look into people windows every time I glanced out my window, so this one works fine for us.

So, we're here for a month.  I haven't been out much, just for Katie's walks.  We aren't going far, but I'm trying to go a bit further each time.  I'm finding I've lost my day to day "routine," and guess it'll come back as I feel better.  I'm still resting a lot, but I see the surgeon tomorrow, and I'll ask him if I'm taking it too easy on myself, or if I should be doing more at this point.

Tom's house is so comfortable, and the big bed in the guest room was a dream to sleep in, but it sure is nice to be home.  Now that I'm feeling better, I'm finding myself getting a little bored.  Too well to sleep all day, and not quite well enough to be running around doing my normal stuff.

Plus, I'm disappointed that the TV here isn't very good.  I'm only getting a few channels, and not the ones with the best programs.  I had a "box" for the old TV that was in here and I got more channels, but I gave it away, thinking I didn't need it with my new digital TV.  But I'm finding the few channels I'm getting are only digital, and I get none of the "air" channels.  I think I used to get both when I had the box hooked up.   Do you think I still need a cable box, with the digital TV, if I'm on the antenna?

When we drove in on Monday, I saw more large birds along the entry road lakes than I saw all last June.  I finally stopped and got the camera.  I'm hoping to get lots more when we're walking more.

This little guy was sitting in the middle of a puddle in the road.

There were tons of ducks of all colors, too, fishing and swimming.  They were really loving the rain!  We had a couple of days of grey skies, but for the last couple of days it's been really nice here, and the weekend is supposed to be HOT.

Even though I'm not posting as much while I'm recovering, I am still reading all your blogs, and can't wait until I'm back to normal and having as much fun as you are! 

That's it for today - From Me and Katie, have a great Thursday evening, everyone!  :)

Receiving packages in Quartzsite, and... my new card

When I was boondocking in Quartzsite, one of my fellow campers told me about Quiet Times.  It's a small store on Main Street, and the owner will accept packages for people for one dollar (or two dollars for larger packages).  I had ordered some things for The Palms (more about that in a future post), and also an Oxygenics shower head.  I had been looking for the shower head for a long time, and even asked two of the local larger vendors at Quartzsite if they'd order it for me, and they couldn't get one.  Finally I checked on-line, and The Home Depot had them, and I ordered one.  Unfortunately a couple of packages arrived after I left, so I called the owner of Quiet Times and she said she'd "refuse" the packages even after they were delivered, and they would go back to the sender, who I called and had them resend them to me at another address in San Diego.

My understanding of General Delivery at the post office during the "season" is that it's just awful.  General Delivery is only open from 11 to 1, and the lines wind outside and go on and on, and if you don't make it to the window before 1:00, you have to return another day. I thought Quiet Times was a far better alternative.  There are a few parking spaces in front of the building, and a larger parking lot behind the building, off the alley, which is where I always parked The Palms.  So... if you need to have something sent to you while you are in Quartzsite, check out Quiet Times, you'll be glad you did.  Here's the info:

Have packages mailed to:

 Your Name

C/O Quiet Times

90 E. Main - Box 2813

Quartzsite, AZ  85346

 (928) 927-8081      

There is no mail delivery to Quiet Times, the street does not have a mail person, so packages or envelopes have to be sent by Fed Ex or UPS, or the Post Office will return them to the sender.

Remember back in August 29, 2010 when I posted a photo of the business card I made up to use when I started full-timing?  That was before I even bought The Palms, I just couldn't wait to feel like a full-timer.  Well, I wanted to update the card, and here is the new version. What do you think?

I thought using my Blog header was a good idea.  So, as soon as I'm back in The Palms and have my printer handy, I'll print out a bunch to have ready - next time we meet up, I'll give you one!  :)

Tomorrow is my granddaughter, Kennedy's, 9th Birthday Party.  We are all going, along with seven of Kennedy's friends, to a birthday party venue for a couple of hours, then I'm going to drive over to Santee Lakes and talk to them about checking in early next week.  I want to see if the site I have reserved will be available early.  Yup, after two weeks I start thinking about moving on, and I guess whether it's in a guestroom at my son's house, or an RV  park, two weeks is when the yearning to move on starts.  (Oddly enough, I didn't get hitch-itch at Quartzsite.  I was ready to stay for the duration, so I guess sometimes I can last longer than two weeks.)

From Me and My Dog, have a great weekend, everyone!  :)

Getting sick on the road

When I first started reading RV blogs and forums about two years ago, it was mentioned that full-timers (and also any RVers, I guess) should carry a list of their meds and medical history in the rig with them, in case of emergency.  When I first started out on the road as a full-timer in June of 2011, I put together a "master" package and a few copies of any pertinent medical history and the reports of surgeries or procedures I've undergone.   Any time I've been to a new doctor, they always have lots of questions, and I'm a poor historian, so I can bring the packet with me and either hand it to them, or use it as a reference in answering their questions.

I have all the documents binder clipped together, with the cover page listing the documents chronologically and any meds and over the counter vitamins with the dose I take every day.  I've found this to be so easy, and I'm always able to give the medical professionals the correct information.

When I arrived at the Blythe ER, I got one of the packets out of my cupboard and brought it in with me, and they took it to attach to my file.  Now that I have another surgery under my belt (literally!), I am going to call Kaiser's Medical Records department and request a copy of the surgical report and photo of the CT scan showing the problem area.  I'll make some copies and attach to the packets I have on hand.

In my desk at home, I had a file, "Medical," into which I'd place any medically important documents concerning issues over the years that could be useful later.  These documents are what I used to start my "master" file.  It was really easy since I had most of the paperwork, and I requested any that I didn't have, but wanted to bring with me.

Something new that I'm going to do (and you might think about) is add my Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care to each packet.  I was asked at both ERs if I had one, and they both suggested I give my doctor a copy that could be attached to my file at Kaiser.  I will bring in a copy, but also have copies attached to my binder clipped packets, just in case.   I hope I'll never need to use one of those packets again, but if I do, I'm ready, and that's a good feeling to have.

Talking about being sick, Merikay wrote a blog post about being sick in an RV, and it was very interesting. Check it out for her ideas and insights about getting sick on the road  during their first big trip.  :(

I took a photo out my guest room window of The Palms, regally watching over my recovery room:

The Palms, standing guard.  Isn't she beautiful?

 

And here's Katie guarding me from inside the room.  Every time there's a sound throughout the house, Katie is on guard, mostly because she wants that door opened so she can run around with the grandkids, and run outside.  I have a nice window overlooking the front yard, where The Palms is, and also this window that looks out onto an atrium.

Katie is so used to spending lots of hours in a small space with me, that staying in the bedroom most of the time hasn't been a problem at all.  This room is at least twice the size of The Palms, not counting the full bathroom, so we are in hog heaven as far as space is concerned. Get me out of here before I get used to it!!  :) 

Just kidding, I think this weekend I'll be moving out to The Palms, and soon thereafter Katie and I will be driving down the freeway to Santee Lakes RV Park for my scheduled month before we get back on the road.  I'm looking forward to going back there.  This will be the first time I've repeated a stay at any park, but it won't be the last.  There are definitely a few places I'd like to revisit.

When I downloaded the photos shown above, I found a few I took leaving the hospital in Blythe, and this is the one driving along the highway back into the town of Quartzsite.  Already in early January you can see the influx of RVs and sellers and RV sales places.

      Approaching Quartzsite, January 5, 2012.

It will be more than two weeks until the Big Tent fun starts!

As The Palms was roaring across the Arizona and California deserts toward the San Diego Kaiser Hospital, the sun started setting when we entered San Diego County.  It was beautiful, and the way the clouds were formed where the sun was setting, it looked like there were two suns.

San Diego Sunset, January 5, 2012

And one more photo of my son Tom and daughter-in-law Trish with one of his cars.  This is a large, framed professional photo; it was leaning in a chair against the wall in the dining room, not yet hung.  I thought it was such a cool photo, I took a picture of the picture to have on my computer slide show.  The photographer used the selective color option that I like to use with my camera.  They are such a beautiful couple.

Tom and Trish at Balboa Park, San Diego

Hopefully my next post will be written on the dinette table in The Palms.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Thursday, everyone!  :)

We passed 100,000 Total Pageviews :), and the Final Ride

I noticed a couple of days ago that we passed 100,000 views.  That's pretty exciting - thank you all for stopping by to check my posts, and helping to bring us over the 100K mark.  Never when I started this blog did I think I'd have so many readers and followers. 

Welcome to our new followers:

Kerri, who is a single mom, and hopes to someday become a fulltimer - she's looking for the right rig.
Michael and Dee, who have a beautiful Jayco Seneca 35GS motor home.
Lana, who is planning a move from Houston to a life on a farm, with a cabin in the woods.  Sounds good to me!
Jim - who doesn't show a blog or any other information.  Jim, if you've got one, let me know, okay?

Because it's been so uncomfortable to use my computer in bed, I've just lately gotten caught up on my regular blog reading, and haven't had a chance to read much past your most recent posts, but I will, I will... 

Welcome to you all - I really appreciate you following along with Katie and me as we continue having adventures in The Palms. 

Today I drove The Palms down to the Kaiser building in San Diego, to the Plastic Surgery department, where a nurse took out my 16 staples.  I've never had that done before, and was a little apprehensive about it, but it didn't hurt at all.   The nurse said everything looks good, so I'm almost done with check-ups.  I have an appointment with the surgeon who did the operation on Friday, January 27th, and assuming all goes well, I should be released after the 27th.

It was really nice to get back into The Palms.  I had gone shopping after I left the ER in Blythe, and rather than putting everything away (except for fridge and freezer stuff) I put the grocery bags in the shower to keep them safe, and today I finally went through them to see what I had. I cleaned up a little clutter - I had stored my hats, mittens, gloves, and assorted other things in Katie's crate on the passenger seat of the rig, and when my son, Tom, brought Katie home, he put all those things on the couch so he could bring Katie's crate with them.  So I got all those things put away, and The Palms is again in good shape.

I enjoyed driving her again, 1/2 hour to Kaiser and 1/2 hour back.  Pretty short trips for The Palms.  On the way home I stopped at a Super Cuts. I was already weeks, maybe months, past due for a haircut, and after laying around in bed for two weeks, boy! did I need a haircut!  It was driving me crazy.  Luckily I got a good hairdresser, and I was really pleased with the cut she gave me.  Nothing like a good haircut to make you feel better, right, ladies?

When I first got here to Tom and Trish's house, Tom told me about a friend of his whose father had died, and he asked Tom if he could borrow one of his cars for the funeral.  Tom was getting it ready, polishing it up, etc. for Reese to pick up the next morning.

I thought it was a really touching story, so I asked Tom to e-mail me some photos of the car.  He also sent along an explanation, which just touched my heart.  I've edited Tom's text just a little, and here it is with the photos:

1968 California Special Mustang

 
"This is the car that my friend, Reece, drove his Dad's ashes in to the funeral service at Point Loma this week. Full military honors - he fought in the Korean war.

"He and his Dad had restored a 65 Mustang fastback when Reece was 15. It was his first car, so he thought it would be fitting to give his Dad his last ride in a vintage 60's Mustang. (Reece regretfully sold the 65 about 14 years ago).

"This is a 1968 California Special Mustang. A rare one-year, California Ford dealer-only limited production Mustang with only about 4000 being produced in 1968. There are said to be less than 2,000 left today.

"This car has the original 302 motor with a C4 automatic transmission, power steering, disc brakes, air conditioning, power door locks and a whole lot of chrome under the hood!"

Isn't that a sweet thing for Tom's friend, Reese, to do for his father's last ride?  A really nice "human interest story."

Tom was going to sell the car on E-bay, but after getting it ready for Reese, he's decided to keep it for a while.  Tom has been an entrepreneur since college, currently owning and operating five different businesses, one of which is restoring classic cars.  Most are 67-68-69 Camaros, but he does have other cars he's restored through the years, including some Mustangs. 

As a side note, the morning of the funeral, Tom was driving along the freeway with one of his employees, and the guy said, "Do you still have the California Special?"  Tom said, "Yes, why?"  The employee, who had worked on that car for Tom, said, "I just saw one driving in the opposite direction - it just passed us."  Then Tom explained that the car he just saw was his California Special, and explained the situation.  Weird, huh, that with all the freeways in San Diego, they would actually pass each other?

I was showing Tom some of the blogs I read, and when I showed him Denise's blog, and her Harley, Tom said, "I have the same one."  (I think the handlebars are different, and maybe some other things, too, but it's the same model?)

I asked him to send me photos of the motorcycle, so Denise could see it - here it is:

These are taken at the shop in his office building - he "stages" the vehicles, usually in front of his house, when he puts them up for sale.  He's not ready to sell the Harley yet.

Denise, Tom thought your Harley was beautiful!  And of course, IT IS!  :)

See?  Even if you're in bed all day, there are still some interesting things that happen.  (Well, I'm doing some walking at least a few times a day to get back some strength, not laying in bed ALL day.)

From Me and My Dog, have a great Wednesday evening, everyone!  :)

Quick update - Happy Birthday to Me :)

Just a quick update - thank you all for your caring and concern!  I was discharged from Kaiser Hospital Wednesday morning, and I'm recuperating at my son and daughter-in-law's house, here in San Diego.  I couldn't have better care, and each day is a bit better than the last.  Still somewhat difficult doing normal things, but that will all come soon, I'm sure. 

Also, today is my 67th birthday!  Sure glad I've made it this far, and I can honestly say I'm healthier today than I was last week.   I'm happy to have this episode in my rear view mirror, and now it's all forward to smoother sailing.

As a side note to my hospital stay, I was so fortunate to have for one day as a room-mate a woman I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking to.  Her name is Dawn, and at 73 years old, is married to Paul who will be 90 this year, and they have been volunteers at Yosemite National Park for more than 19 years.  They are entering their 20th year of service and were recently honored by the park for their work.  He does the camp hosting duties and she does other volunteer work.  And get this:  they don't have an RV.  They TENT CAMP!  It was a chance meeting, and when we left, I felt like I had a new, good friend.  I'll be curious if any of you know Dawn and Paul.

Katie is doing great, happy to have me home, and won't leave my side. 

I probably won't blog for another few days, but wanted to let you know things are moving forward, and getting better.

From Me and Katie, have a great Friday, everyone!  :)

I'm finally on the mend-in the hospital

Thank you so much for all your caring comments and e-mails.  You will never know how much they meant to me.

Right now I'm sitting in a Kaiser Hospital in San Diego. I called the Kaiser Nurse on Monday and she said to drive to the closest emergency room, so I went into Blythe.  I was there all night, from around 8:30 pm to 7:30 am Tuesday. I had a weird diagnosis that I won't go into, because it was wrong. I stopped at Quiet Times to pick up a package, dropped off my library books, dumped tanks and filed the water tank, and was driving out toward the 95 to go back to La Posa West when my phone range.  It was my doctor from San Diego. She said the radiologist at the Blythe ER had gone over my CT scans again this morning, and he had misdiagnosed the pictures, and my doctor wanted me to drive to the nearest Kaiser ER right now.

I told her I was in Arizona, the nearest Kaiser ER was in San Diego, but I'd rather be there, because that's were I'm from and my son is there with his family, and they can take care of Katie.  I never went back to my campsite, just left everything there and started driving.  I called my neighbor Hazel, who has been great, and she will take care of things for me.

It took five hours to get to San Diego and I was still feeling okay.  My doctor said if I started to get ANY stomach pain I was to drive to the side of the road, call 911 and have an ambulance drive me immediately to the closest ER.  That gave me more confidence - to have her permission to do that, and still try to get to San Diego.  There was some worry about an intestinal rupture.  We stopped once for gas and potty for Katie, and Arrived early evening in the ER check in, where we waited for hours to be seen.

Kaiser Zion ER is the only Kaiser ER in the entire San Diego area, so, although it's large, it's really busy and constantly moving people in and out.  From what I was told, they planed to build another hospital with an ER in South San Diego, but were not allowed to, unless the opened up the ER to the people in the area that don't have insurance, and let them use it.  Kaiser declined. You can imagine what would have happened - but I don't want to be political on my blog, so...

I was finally seen, they did another CT scan of my abdomen, and scheduled me for immediate surgery, where they took out a foot of my lower intestine, which was incorrectly shaped, or something weird. (While they were in there, the doctor told me later, they also removed my appendix.)  I'm just now feeling pretty "with it" so I need to get more info from my doctor.  Nothing else wrong, no cancer or anything like that.  So, surgery around 1:30 Thursday night (Friday morning) and it's now Monday at 8 a.m.  I'm still having a problem getting around, but MUCH better than before.

I think I'm going home tomorrow, and I'll be at my son's house in their guest room.  I'm thinking when I feel better I can live in his front driveway in The Palms - using the couch as a bed - until I'm back to normal and then find a place to stay around San Diego for a while. I know it can take up to a year to totally recuperate from major surgery and I want to take it easy.

So that's it.  It really was something, just not appendicitis, and now - thank goodness - it's been fixed.

Again, thank you for all your concerns, I'm definitely on the upswing now and will post again soon with another update.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Monday everyone!  :)

Feeling a bit better - Santa photos

Just a quick update - thanks for your concern and comments, I really appreciate every one!  I made it through the night pretty easily, and this morning I'm feeling a little better.  I'm still going to keep the wait and see plan for now, though.  I won't take any chances, if the pain gets worse, I'll pack up and start driving,  but so far, so good today.

I was walking over to the dumpsters last week, and who should I see?  A man with a white beard and a red RV!

He said his name was Santa.

 

Santa's Post-Christmas hide-out.

Katie likes her orange squeaky toy guy right in the middle of her chew toy.  She gets them together, then starts chewing on the chew stick.  Maybe she thinks she's sharing it with the little orange guy?

 

Bless us, O Lord, and these our gifts...

Oh, Man, I love these seeds!

 

Quit taking my picture!  Let me eat in peace!

 

 Sweet Katie, resting outside on her rug.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Wednesday, everyone!  :)

Hair Hat, and Starting the year off sick. :(

WELCOME to our new followers, LilNomad and Richard.  I don't see any info on either of you, but if you have blogs, I'd like to check them out, let me know.   Thank you for following along with me and Katie on our adventures.  I'm expecting 2012 to be a wonderful year for us, and I'm glad you'll both be along for the ride!  Welcome aboard!

Not a great photo, I took a million shots, but this is the best of the hair hat.  This is with the grey hair.   (I don't know how people take those great pictures of themselves, extending their arm and snapping the pic. It sure doesn't work for me!)

 Hair Hat - it works best on me if I brush all my hair out of the way.

I took the hair out (it's attached with Velcro) one day and wore just the visor, which I really liked.

New Years Eve was a quiet evening, spent around the fire with the Dingbats.  We have a few new people who have arrived - the more the merrier!  One of the women organized a little gathering and some people brought wine, champagne and nibbles for everyone.  I'm not much of a wine drinker, and champagne is too dry for me, so I brought along my Irish Coffee in my traveling mug.  It was perfect for drinking around the fire.

We had clear skies, with the moon making it's way across the sky as we sat outside.  Katie and I were in bed early, but I read one of my library books until after midnight, so we heard the noise at midnight, and were awake for the beginning of the new year.

I like the sound of 2012.  Do you say 20-12, or 2000- 12?  I keep saying 2000-12, but I'm hearing it pronounced in the media as 20-12, and I like that.

On January 1st, the Dingbats gathered around an afternoon fire and shared BBQ hot dogs, potato salad, beans, etc.  It was a beautiful day, and the food was delicious!

On Tuesday morning I woke up early with bad stomach pains that lasted all day (and I felt like I had also come down with the virus going around). I was worried about the pain, and finally I checked on-line for  appendicitis symptoms.  It was kind of a toss up - I had the symptoms, but they could have meant other things, too.  I decided to adopt a wait and see attitude.  Most people that listed their comments on the MD.com site waited at least two days to head off to the doctor.

I was awake most of the night, not in great pain, but not completely comfortable, and finally dropped off to sleep.  Katie and I woke up at 11:00 this morning, and although the stomach pains have decreased, they are still there, maybe 30 percent of the pain the day before.

 Same site, but I moved the rocks way out - now it's quite a large area.

Turns out, we are REQUIRED to have AT LEAST 15 feet between rigs, 

and you can pretty much mark off what you want to be your campsite.

Finally in the late afternoon today I went over to talk to Hazel, who is a retired nurse, to check my symptoms with her knowledge.  I also wanted her to know that if I took off in the middle of the night, or sometime tomorrow, I was heading to Kaiser in San Diego, and I wanted her to know I'd try to be back for the Big Tent show.  If the pain is worse, I'm not going to be walking around the campground saying goodbye!!

I did nothing today but sleep and lay on the couch reading.  The funny thing is, I don't seem to have the virus - I guess it was just allergies after all, because it's not bad at all today.

I'm pretty confident I'll feel better tomorrow.  Hazel gave me some Pepto Bismo, and I just started taking it.  Cross your fingers for me.

David, one of my followers, and whose blog I follow, was going to stop by for meet on his way through Quartzsite to Mexico, but unfortunately I had to cancel.  I was more worried about giving him the virus, but as it turns out we were probably okay there, but my stomach pains would have made for an uncomfortable visit.  Sorry, Dave, we'll meet again down the road.  

Our moon rising late this afternoon:

A little earlier these machines flew overhead - it's so fun watching them power themselves across the sky. 

 Close-up of one of the flyers. 

Santa Claus is here - I guess he doesn't go directly to the North Pole after Christmas.  But, heck, he needs some R&R after all that hard work, and the long flight, right?  I'll post photos of him and his rig next time.

From Me and Katie, have a great Tuesday evening, everyone!  :)

Happy New Year – Welcome 2012!

 

Thank you to all our Followers and readers for joining me and Katie on our full-timing adventures, starting June 2011.  We've learned a lot, gone to many places, met a lot of great people and pets, and gotten very comfortable in The Palms.  We continue to enjoy full-timing more and more each day.  Here's  looking forward to the future!

For 2012, Katie and I wish for you:  all the champagne, ribbons, balloons, jewelry, flowers, toys and Happy Day tickets you could want for the entire Happy New Year.