Random Thoughts on How Life Goes on While Under Stay Home Orders

Mug rug I made.  It was a charity design to benefit
fire fighters in Australia last winter.  Applies all over the world now!

I've been having random thoughts while showering, watching updates and specials on the Covid-19 virus on TV, listening to Classic Upbeat, Classic Country, 60's-90's music on my Echo.  As a matter of fact, Alexa and I have been having all kinds of conversations!  And, by the way, Audible, Chirp and the free books on Amazon have been very popular at my house too. Hallmark Movies and Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and YouTube have all been my friends as well.  I have taken several sewing and embroidery classes online which has been quite intersting.  

6 more face masks finished!

Now my blog has been taking up some time and, oh yes, I've made multiple face masks for friends and family!  I do try to go for a walk around town each day that the wind is not blowing hard (which isn't real often, HA!).  

Filter fun while visiting on
Messenger

My immediate family has formed a group on Messenger and we try to get together each day to update each other and just joke around.  The filters on there are very popular as we are trying to have serious conversations.  All of kids are working from home mostly.  Marianne works from a tiny, one person office she walks a block to each day.  Danny has the Bowling Alley he needs to go to but he can do a lot from his office at home.  Carla and JJ are teaching preschoolers and kindergarteners online (quite a challenge for them as well as the parents) and Carla is trying online speech therapy for children which seems to be working quite successfully.  Just trying to set up a home schooling office at home has been very challenging for the teachers I have talked to!  I have been a guinea pig for Carla and, of course, my very outdated computer had troubles with Zoom!

Carla lives in Casper Wyoming where they have only suggested staying at home and have had no deaths from the virus yet in their city.  She says that the 8PM "Howling and Cheering" for all the emergency responders is very popular up there.  They go outside and everybody howls and cheers including all the neighborhood dogs. It is very cathartic and hopefully appreciated by everyone! Down  here around the trailer park I haven't heard a peep.  I wonder if anyone around town is doing it.....

I am amazed at what is being done for all us people who are at risk in this community.  As far as I know there are no confirmed cases of the virus and the medical center has not had anyone call or come in with symptoms.  Of course we would love to keep it that way!  People have suggested putting up barricades on the highways that go through town but that is totally unrealistic.  Trucks hauling supplies pass through town all the time and emergency vehicles and essentials must still be able to come and go!  It would be nice to think we will be untouched by the virus but I'm very happy that most people up here are abiding by the suggestions and orders the state has put in place for social distancing. I do worry about our safety once the stay home restrictions are lifted and tourists will be coming up to North Park.  Since no one has had the virus and we don't have a hospital, will we be vulnerable?  I think so. One other thought.  We live at 8500ft. elevation.  We have less oxygen up here and that is one of the problems people have with the virus.  They are having to life flight anyone who is sick with the virus to lower altitudes right now from other mountain communities. 

A doggy purse for Linus!

It has been very hard on the eating establishments up here.  They have a tough time keeping their heads above water in regular times.  Our family is very grateful to all the people who have supported the Bowling Alley by ordering take out during this time. I know teachers are working hard and probably stressing over their classes.  I have nothing but admiration for them.  I'm sure parents are having their problems "home schooling" their kids as well.  Good times for all!  Hehehe!

This brings me to what I appreciate about what is being done for seniors and others at risk in our community. Once a month the Food Bank of the Rockies sends a semi-load of food up to Walden for  anyone who is in need plus Seniors and pretty much anyone else as they bring enough food for all, and they don't want to take any back.  We all gather up at the Wattenburg Center and the food is set up like a cafeteria and people bring boxes, bags, carts or anything to hold the cans, bags, boxes, fresh produce, etc.  There is almost always milk, juice, cereal, frozen meat of some sort, dry foods like rice, beans, pasta and breads of all kinds.  Everytime there are some surprise things like bags of pistachios, Christmas candy, a gallon of raspberry vinegar salad dressing, a gallon of whole dill pickles, cases of yogurt, eggs, etc.  They have people there to help you carry all your food to your car.  It is very interesting and appreciated! Well, they have figured out how this will all work now that we cannot gather up there to get our food.  Volunteers will fill boxes for all and then we will drive up there and line up in our cars.  The volunteers will carry the boxes to our cars and put them in our trunk!  Problem solved!  I'll miss visiting while we used to wait in line inside the building but that's the way it is now!  

  A couple of the projects I had to make for the
 sewing class I'm taking online.  This is a trivet
or mouse pad made out of clothesline rope!

This is an i-pad holder that has prairie
points and a "Shrinky Dink" flower
for decoration

Another service the Senior Center is doing is paying a different eating place in town each week on Friday to prepare meals for any senior who signs up and someone will deliver it to our doors.  This will help the restaurants and the stay home people who are at risk!  I guess they are doing a similar thing and delivering school lunches Monday-Thursday!  How cool it is to live in a small isolated community!

More fun filters!

Well, those are a few of my random thoughts.  I have lots more!  Some are very radical, but that is for another time! 
  

Memories from Manville’s Christmas Past

Snow at the cabin!  This was Bob maybe 10 years ago

It’s the end of the year 2017!  It has left me with a lot of memories both good and bad. I’m sorry I haven’t blogged more often to document some of them. I’m getting old and the short-term memories slip away more quickly!  I do love to go back and read the “so many years ago” memories on Facebook. This past week Kathi posted a blog from many years ago about one of our very memorable family Christmases on her Country Chicken Girl blog.

( https://countrychickengirl.blogspot.com/2010/12/manville-family-christmas-part-one.html?m=1 )

We were laughing about it and remembering some more recent Christmas adventures that should be documented! So I have decided to take a stab at it. Kathi wrote her story about her first Christmas with the Manvilles--kind of from a newcomers point of view. My story is about a more recent Christmas adventure. I believe it took place 2 years ago. We (at least me, Bob when he was alive, and whoever of our family that was coming for Christmas that year) always planned to spend it at “the cabin”. It was not a simple “over the river and through the woods” type of trip to get there. It is at least a 2.5 mile ride in on snowmobiles or other tracked vehicles through snow covered meadows, draws, several kinda steep hills, up in the trees, and across a creek that is usually frozen and covered with snow. We have to haul all our presents, food, clothing and sometimes gasoline in on sleds pulled by the snowmobiles. Oh, and don’t forget computers, and other electronic devices.

On this particular year, only 2 of Danny’s boys, Danny, Kathi and I were in Walden for Christmas. Danny insisted we spend it at their house since he had to plow snow at the bowling alley and do some other chores before he could get away. He figured he could only leave no earlier than 4:00 and it would be getting dark by 4:30. He did not want to try going in that late in big snow!  The rest of us insisted we could go up earlier with Chris’s new snowmobile and get everything in to the cabin before then and Danny could get whatever we couldn’t fit when he got there. He still insisted it was not a good plan but was out voted.

Chris, Colton and I headed out from Walden to the end of the plowed road about 2:30. We had 1 snow machine, some of the food and our belongings plus Chris’s Labrador puppy. It was cold with blowing snow but the sun was out when we got there. We unloaded Chris’s machine and he headed out to get the sled we needed to haul in our supplies. He took the puppy with him.  We kept a sled at the neighbor’s ranch which was probably 1/2 mile away. Meanwhile Colton and I organized all the things to get loaded. Oh, and of course there is very poor to no cell service up there. We could not see where Chris was and could not call town to see if Danny and Kathi had left either.

 So after about an hour and no Chris we were pretty worried but had no way of looking for him. Finally Danny and Kathi showed up with 2 more snowmobiles and all the rest of the stuff. We got them unloaded and Danny went off to look for Chris. He had been stuck with the sled. Anyway they came back with 1 sled and the dog and as predicted by Danny it was getting dark. We loaded the sled with the necessities for the night and sent Danny, Kathi, Chris and the dog into the cabin. Kathi had the sled and dog, I think there was another sled involved that they had to abandon so that Danny and Chris could break trail as nobody had been that way yet and the snow was deep and powder. They also left Kathi and the puppy stuck in the middle of a meadow about halfway there. They could break trail and come back for her.

Colton and I had no idea what was going on. At least we had a heated pickup to wait in. Meanwhile Kathi was out in the cold blowing snow in the dark wrestling a puppy that wanted to run in the snow but it was too deep!  None of us knew what was happening with each other!  There was nothing Colton and I could do as time marched on. Should we go back to town and get help from my nephews?  Should we stay put?  We couldn’t call anyone so we gave them until 8:00 PM  and then we would go back to town!  Yes, it was several hours ticking by!  Colton took a nap, I was reading my book, and Kathi was still sitting out in the meadow after 1 1/2 hours not knowing where they were! 

 Finally about 7:30pm  Colton got a message from Chris that they had just made it to the cabin!  They had to go back to get Kathi, the sled and the puppy. Then they unloaded the 1 sled and came back for us and the rest of the stuff. As I recall they had to leave the other sled where it was until the next day but had to go out and get everything off it. It was close to midnight by the time we got everything there and got some dinner!  Needless to say, we will probably listen to Danny before we ever attempt a late afternoon expedition to the cabin again. Bob also always tried to get us to be smarter but some of us never learn, I guess. I say this because there are several more Cabin Christmas adventures that need documenting but they will have to wait.

*Note:  This year Skyler and his wife, Kara, Danny, Kathi and I were the only ones here in Walden for Christmas.  Skyler and I talked about going up to the cabin but decided not to even mention it to Danny!  We had a nice quiet fun time at Danny and Kathi's house. 

Digging out the snow machines and sleds!

Fried Mush

Fried Mush with butter and Maple Syrup!

I’ve been missing my dad lately. He’s been gone for over 10 years but is still in many of our memories. He was a huge family man and I didn’t realize that all the “little” things he did for all of us were not the norm in most families. Mom was the main cook of the family and a dedicated “foodie” (that’s where I get it from) but Dad was the breakfast maker in our family!

Dad was always finding different breakfast recipes to serve us. He had his grandmother’s 100 year old cookbook and would browse through it to get his ideas. He wasn’t into the modern breakfast casserole types of recipes. He would try out these recipes or use our favorites on the weekends. During the week when we all got up early to go to work or school, he made the same thing every morning but that is a whole story for another blog! My siblings and cousins who lived with my parents for awhile are probably smiling right now!  

Even when my dad was in his nineties and living in Florida he would get up and pick fresh grapefruits from his trees ( he was a Master Gardener) and halve them, cut around each section and serve them in china saucers with special spoons for all of us who were visiting him!  By then he was getting pretty slow but we stayed out of the kitchen until he called us to breakfast. He would go out and pick fresh flowers for the table and have it set properly. Mom taught him well!

   

Some of my dad’s favorite breakfasts were different egg dishes and pancakes, but the ones that stick in my mind were hoe cakes, which I cannot make like his and fried mush which I had a craving for this week. It is easy to make but you do have to plan ahead now days. Back in the “olden days” I think fried mush was a way to use up leftovers. I’m thinking we had hot cornmeal mush for breakfast and there was a lot leftover, ha! Not really a favorite in the family I guess!  Anyway, the next day we would have fried mush with maple syrup that we tapped from our maple trees (which was another one of Dad’s projects). Yummmm!  Today, as I was making my fried mush, I realized that the molded (not moldy!) block of mush looked and tasted like Polenta!  Hmmmm!  I never thought about that before—I guess I could go to the store and buy a block of it from the refrigerated section....

Here is the way Dad made it and how I do it—pretty simple.

 Fried Mush

1 Cup cornmeal

4 Cups water

1 tsp. Salt

Follow directions on the box for Corn Meal Mush.

When the mush is cooked butter a large loaf pan and pack the mush in it. Refrigerate it overnight or until it is chilled and set up.

Sorry, I can't make it rotate but you get the idea.
My slices

Nice and crispy!

 Unmold the block of cornmeal and slice into about 1/4 inch slices. Fry in butter or bacon grease until golden brown and crispy on the edges.

 Serve with butter and syrup or jam and jelly. You know I love it with maple syrup! Wrap the rest of the block in plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator for later!  I haven’t tried freezing it but I think that might work too. 

I think I will look up Hoe Cakes on the internet and give them another try.  I never could get them to be as thin and crispy as Dad's were but am willing to give it another shot!  Have a great day! See you at my next blog!

Our Big Fitbit Competition!

The best view from my hot tub

I’m sitting in my hot tub at 5 PM on the first day of fall feeling guilty because I'm indulging myself rather than trying to stay fit!  Now, you KNOW there has to be a story behind this remark!
 Here goes:

The ambiance isn't much, but the beverage and the comfort is great! 

It all began when Carla gave me a new Fitbit last spring. I wore it faithfully for several months and basically used it for a watch and an alarm clock for waking up in the morning. One day early in summer I saw an invitation to join a challenge for the work week from Marianne. I guess she got a new Fitbit for Mother's Day and actually checked out many of the uses for it!  I accepted the challenge as did some of the family and friends. I then realized ( or remembered) how competitive many of us are!  For several weeks Kathi kicked our butts but then Marianne crept up and was getting close. Carla couldn’t sit back so she moved on up. I of course held down last place (except once when Carla didn't wear her Fitbit for several days).  I used the excuses of sore knee and being too old, not to mention a fear of meeting up with a moose or mountain lion!  Carla was complaining that Marianne would wait to see if she (Carla) was ahead and then would go out after dark just before deadline to beat her out!  Marianne insisted she and Brendin had Pokémon Go things they had to do at the park. Anyway, suddenly there was a new person on the list and she kept beating all of us. Apparently Kathi had accidentally invited her and she became the person to beat! I actually had some competition for last place with a friend of Marianne’s who had just had surgery and had to take it easy!  HA!

Here were the standings at the end of last week.
  Very typical with me at the bottom of the list!

June and July went by and I stayed comfortably in last place. Then I went up to Burlington WA for a few weeks.  Marianne’s stomping grounds!  Nothing would do but I had to walk with her. This included four miles on the levee plus a walk with the dog who has knee issues too so can only go to a nearby park (about1/2 mile) and do the Pokémon thing!  Marianne made sure she did a lot of walking at work so I couldn’t keep even! We did some great walks up in Bellingham WA along the bay.

A great sunset on our walk along the bay

A little further down the pier 

 I took lots of great pictures of the sunset there one night.  I still couldn’t catch Kathi or her friend!  One of the events we did while I was there was to attend the Mount Baker Blues Festival! I danced at the concerts and at the after hours jam sessions and got in way over my 10,000 steps goal each
day but still never made it to first place!

Walter Trout at the Blues Fest!
Marianne and I were right up front at the stage!
 I was dancing!
A few weeks after I returned home I went up to Carla’s home in Casper for the Eclipse. Carla had been doing 6 mile walks through the parks. We did a lot of walking around downtown since parking was at a premium.

Carla, Jim, Paul and Caroline viewing the eclipse in Casper

 I did the parks walk and then danced until 1 AM one night at the eclipse festival and then one afternoon at the river festival!  It was dang hot and lots of fun. I got in lots of steps but was never a winner!  I even walked and danced 20,000 steps one day and was still behind!

This was my biggest day when we
 were dancing on Eclipse weekend!
I still didn't win

Dancing to one of the bands at the Eclipse Fest.
Lots of steps!

Now that fall is here and things have settled down I think I have found a secret weapon!HEHEHE!!!  Nobody is going to want to go out in the rain and snow for their walks least of all me!  Besides, after my bear scare I am not wandering too far from the house!  The first two years after I retired, Bob and I stayed up at the cabin most of the winter. I did some snowshoeing but the mountain lions were out and about as well as moose and hungry coyotes.   I envisioned myself trying to run in my snowshoes away from them and decided I needed to exercise in the house! So I got a CD called something like walk away the pounds. I faithfully did it through blizzards and blowing snow right in the comfort of my home!  I really felt in good shape!  So I have now dug out that CD and will see how many steps it has!  Look out everyone!  I might even have to break out my old Richard Simmons Sweatin’ with the Oldies!  I actually loved doing those exercises. 

They are really old school but still get the job done!
 I don't need a Gold's Gym to stay in shape
when I'm off the grid!

This was a few years ago in winter.  The ambiance looks better!

My Latest Project--Recipe Books!

OK, I finally have something for the blog!  This is a recipe book I made for my grandson Thomas.  He has just moved out on his own and I thought he might like some favorite recipes from his summers visiting us up at the cabin.  I am planning on making one for each of the grandkids, personalizing them with pictures of them from "the good old days".  I may even have to change some of the recipes depending on their own favorites from those fun summer days.

Free printable recipe card made with Smilebox Now, former students, don't get excited thinking I'll make recipe books for you anytime soon.  I have 10 grand kids and 3 (right now) great grand kids!  We'll see how long that takes!  I'm thinking if I did do a recipe book for each school I taught at, it would be kind of fun but the pictures for North Park HS might not be as good as WWHS because I didn't have digital back then and so not as many pics--well comparatively speaking.  It's a thought' though.

Izzy Comes For A Visit

Hiking in the mountains is a favorite activity for Izzy, Carla and I.

A few weekends ago Carla and Jim came up with Thomas's dog Izzy for a short visit.  When it was time to leave, Izzy did not want to go.  She loves it up here and is not as naughty when she is here because she has room to roam and has many things to investigate.  She never has been left anywhere except at the vet's, though, so Carla was worried she would try to go home to Casper after they left.  She also didn't have enough dog food for Izzy.  I wasn't worried.  We have had lots of dogs and have always been able to feed them!

Carla pulled out of the drive and Izzy was in the house.  She kept running up to their bedroom and checked out all the other rooms in the house and wanted me to let her outside.  I waited for about 30 minutes and then put her on the leash and took her out to see where she would go.  We ran up the road and much to my surprise, she turned right instead of left and headed up the mountain toward the metal gate!  We barely crossed the first ditch and she stopped to investigate a tree stump.  She turned around and headed back to the cabin.  I guess out of sight out of mind!  I took off the leash and she happily investigated all her favorite places around the house.

Izzy wishes she could climb up on the Thinking Rock with Carla and I.

That night she had a little trouble finding a spot to sleep but finally opted for the top of the stairs--her favorite watch dog spot at home.  About 3 AM she wandered in to our room and spent the rest of the night sleeping on the bottom of our bed.  She was very tired from all her weekend adventures so slept in until I got up.

The next day our neighbors put their heifers in the meadow behind our house.  They are very curious and love to play.  Every evening they come up to our fence to see what's going on our side of the fence.  Izzy was thrilled!  At first she tried stalking them and tried to chase them but they just wanted to play.  It was funny.  Then she tried herding them but as soon as she got them in sort of a bunch, she would try to play with them and they all scattered.  Some just hung out and played butt heads with her.  It was so cute.  Here were all these big black heifers and right in the middle of all of them was this little white dog pretending to be one of them.

Izzy was so busy checking out her special places, digging holes and going over to the pond that she was worn out by the time she came in at night.  She was too tired to get into any mischief indoors.  Luckily she never found the porcupine that got needles in her nose and paws at Christmastime or a skunk.  Her favorite thing to do each morning, though, was to go out into the meadow and find the freshest cow pie to roll in!  Phew! she was a stinky dog but perfectly happy! 

Izzy loves rolling in cow poop!

 As is my habit for visiting grand kids, I pretty much let them do their thing and don't push the baths and clean clothes every day as their parents can attest to.  Years ago I even let the boys play in their Sonic, Batman and Power Ranger PJ's all day and then sleep in them at night.  They didn't care and neither did I.  So Izzy did not get a bath either.  By night she had rolled around in dirt and grass enough the smell had worn down and hosing her down was a major production.  She really didn't like the cold hose water and she is not a swimmer either.  So I just decided Carla could wash her when she came back up for her.

Carla has to give Izzy a cold hosing down after she rolled in cow poop.

Carla did come up and got her the next weekend and Izzy did not want to get in the car.  I finally got in and she got in with me so off they went.  Carla said she sulked around their house for several days because she missed her cabin!

Bob and the Mayo Clinic part 2

Bob was back in the Hospital, this time on the top (7th) floor.

 As you can see by my tardiness in finishing up this saga, tomorrow's are pretty relative for us.  After being away since December 27 of 2011 , we are finally back at our beloved " cabin" in the Colorado Rocky Mountains!  We will only be here for 6 days but so far they have been very rejuvenating.  We have at least seen some sun each day and of course some wind, some rain, and just a bit of snow.  It has been chilly at times but not below freezing, yet.  Bob is acting like his old cranky self which we have all missed for several months!

I  am getting ahead of myself so I must get back to my story.  If you missed the first 3 episodes, refer back to these links:  How Our Winter Went , Annie's Knee Replacement , Bob and the Mayo Clinic Part 1

After Carla left on Thursday our lives settled down to trying to build up strength in Annie's knee and taking care of some things she wanted to get done before going back to work.  We were beginning to make plans for our trip back home.  We had 2 graduations in Nebraska and Rapid City and 2 Doctor appointments in Denver starting in 3 weeks. 

 A week later on Saturday, April 21, Bob was feeling so good he decided we needed to do a little shopping. He needed some cooler clothing. We were planning to come back to Phoenix in June and July to help Annie get her right knee replaced.

Bob and I went to a mall nearby and got him several short sleeved shirts  and a couple pairs of shorts.  He never owned any of these items before!  North Park summers just don't lend themselves to this kind of clothing for these tough old ranchers.  It was a lovely day and when we stopped at Fryes to pick up some groceries, Bob even decided to get his favorite lunch, a loaded hot dog--but he skipped the sauerkraut in accordance with his low fiber diet.  ( Fryes has food vendors out front on weekends.  They had some really good smelling ribs there the weekend before...).  We spent the rest of the day pleasantly, watching a ball game and enjoying the patio.  Bob headed to bed around 9 PM, his usual time.

About 11 PM I headed to bed  ( my usual time) and Bob was having pains in his stomach again.  He had tried all the things the doctors had recommended and even tried a couple of the pills for stomach spasms to no avail.  By midnight he announced that I needed to get him to the emergency room at Mayo's again!  Unfortunately he was going to win his bet with Dr. Frazier. 

Bob, all hooked up for the 3rd time!

At the emergency room we went through the same procedures they had done the last 2 times with the same results--small bowel partial blockage.  They put him in the hospital for observation after CAT scans, X-rays, stomach pumping, IVs (don't even get me started on how bruised his arm already was), and other assorted activities.  Needless to say, he didn't make it to his new room (later dubbed the evil room, although the nurses assured me it was the penthouse room on the 7th floor) until the next morning.  I didn't check it out that much at the time since it was 5:30AM and both Bob and I were pooped.  I knew Dr. Frazier was an early bird but I couldn't keep my eyes open much longer so I headed back to Annie's to get some sleep.  She was just getting up ( another early bird) and assured me she could get her own breakfast and just get some sleep. 

About an hour later the phone rang and it was Bob saying they were getting ready to take him into surgery ( Sunday morning at 7 AM??? ). I got up and headed over to the hospital.  I was just in time to meet the head surgeon and to ask him how long it would be.  He said they had no idea what they were going to find so it could be anywhere from 1 hour to 3+ hours.  We headed out to surgery.

The waiting area.  I took this on another day so there actually were people in it this day.

 Since it was Sunday, the parking lot was relatively empty, I saw very few people in the lobby or on the floor and when they showed me into the waiting room for families I was literally the only person there.  No grey ladies, no volunteers, no families.  Just me.  The nurse said "Oh, it will fill up fast in a couple hours"!  I settled down for the wait.   I called the family and Annie to let them know what was going on, got out my Kindle and settled in.  After an hour or so the piano music started. The waiting room was on a balcony 2 floors above the piano in the atrium.  The piano player was a volunteer and they played a lot of show tunes and old classics

The piano is in the lobby of the atrium.  It is in the back left corner.

and was quite soothing.  Still not one person had come into the waiting room!  After three hours and some reading and dozing and still nobody in the area except me, my kindle, and the music, I started getting text messages from everyone asking what was happening.  Carla informed me she had a plane ticket for Phoenix and would be there the next late afternoon.  Meanwhile I still hadn't heard or seen anyone.  He hadn't exaggerated about the + after the 3 hours!

About 2 :30 that afternoon the main surgeon( Dr. Gray) came into the room and sat down with me to explain what all they had done.  Everyone up to this time had assumed that the problem was adhesions from the surgeries Bob had as long ago as 40 years.  We all had disputed this from the beginning but figured these Drs. had seen more than we had.  They did not want to do surgery before because another scar would cause more adhesions and it was tricky to find and clean up as much scar tissue as Bob has.  They felt they might have to do more than arthroscopic surgery if they ran into problems and that would not be good.  Well, they started with the arthroscopic surgery and it all was going well until they got to a spot on the small bowel that they could not get.  They had to do a 12 inch long incision where one of his old incisions had been to see what was going on.  They found one tumor on the small bowel and another on the inner wall of his skin.  Dr. Gray said they were pretty sure the one on the small bowel was cancer and was the culprit in all the problems Bob was having.  They removed several inches of the small bowel, checked out his liver and all the rest of the system but found nothing else.  They felt the other tumor was not malignant but of course, knowing Bob's history, they were having both tumors biopsied.   Bob was doing fine and would be in recovery at least 2 more hours.  They would be taking him to the same "penthouse" room after recovery. 

The "penthouse room"  AKA "the evil room"!  The chair in the foreground is where we slept.  A window behind me looked out on the helicopter pad several floors below us.

I was so tired by then I went up to the room and asked a nurse if I could sleep in the reclining chair in a little alcove in the huge room.  There was even a love seat and several other chairs in this room.  A nurse brought me a warmed blanket and tucked me in.  I got a nice little nap and before I knew it Bob was back in the room and hooked up to all kinds of tubes.  He was completely out of it and I was assured he would be until the next day so I should go home and get some more sleep.

The next day Bob was still very dopey and he was having quite a bit of pain which he could use the push button every 8 minutes to get more morphine.  He was so out of it he just kept pushing the button like men do with the TV remote until he'd get some more.  Later a nurse told me he had hit the button 468 times in the last 6 hours!  I stayed with him until it was time for Carla to arrive.  She and I went back for awhile but left around 7 to get some dinner and some sleep.  That wasn't going to happen!

About 11PM Annie's phone rang.  It was a nurse who put Bob on to talk to me.  He was on the Magic Carpet Ride for sure!  He begged me to come and bring the police!  He insisted " they" we conspiring against him and we were all in great danger.  Please get the cops and come get him.  I asked him to get the nurse on and she said he had been trying to call 911 and trying to get out of bed.  I said we would be right there.  By the time we arrived a Dr. had come and settled him down and he was asleep when we got to the room.  Carla decided to stay with him at the room and I should get home and get some sleep.

The next day and for most of the rest of his stay it was a wild trip like on magic mushrooms.  Carla and I were upside down, the bed was  hanging from the ceiling, the room was evil, a diabetic group was trying to experiment on him, he was on a snowplow plowing snow in Northern Arizona, there was a big hole in the floor at the bottom of his bed, we were all laying on the floor, and he was on a stage coach out in the desert.  Carla and I were plotting against him and had him tied to the bed ( not a bad idea but not true).

Another view of  "The Evil Room"

  What a trip!  he insisted the room was evil and all kinds of groups of people were floating through it up on the ceiling. The bed was hanging out the window and there were bad things going on in the room.  It just wasn't right.  I believe the feng shui of the room was wrong.  The Chinese are right about this I am sure.  The bed was facing the wrong way in the room and of course the drugs didn't help the feeling.  The very last day he was in the hospital they moved him to a room closer to the nurses station and he felt much safer!  Of course he was finally off the morphine, too.  Bob will never be a good candidate for a drug addict!

Meanwhile JJ and Ozzie had gone to Laughlin for a motorcycle rally and Annie and I were going to meet them in Wickenburg and bring JJ back to help us out with Bob!  We didn't know how or when we all were going to get home.

The next  Friday (the day we had been scheduled to leave for Colorado and 1 day after his birthday) they discharged Bob from the hospital.  Looking back I think we would have been better off to wait another day but at the time we were all happy to get him home to Annie 's.  He was still on the low fiber diet and things were going along OK except there was a little redness around the lower part of the incision but there was no fever and the Dr. seemed to think it was just part of the healing.  JJ was experienced at the packing since she had helped with it when her father-in-law was ill.

By Sunday night (it always seems to be night--have you noticed)?  Bob was acting weird again, feeling pukey and not doing much talking.  He was not running a fever but the redness had spread and we decided we had to take him back to the emergency room!  So Carla, JJ and I took Bob back to Mayo Hospital emergency room for the  third time (4th visit to an emergency room since getting to Phoenix).

Hall to the Emergency Room.  A familiar path for us to take at night.

  At least this time they didn't pump his stomach!  It was going to be a long wait again since they wanted to do another CAT scan and only 2 of us could be in the room with Bob.  So Bob insisted 2 of us go home.  JJ said she would stay and Carla and I jumped on her offer and headed for home.  We were pooped!  The CAT scan looked good.  The incision was infected and they removed staples from the bottom 2 or 3 inches and they packed it and sent him home.  We needed to pack it 2 times a day so it could heal from the inside out.  By Tuesday the rest of the incision was looking red.  Bob drew the line at going back to the hospital, but we called the Dr. and he said since he was going to see him on Friday they would take care of it then.

By Friday Bob's incision looked very red and he'd wasn't feeling that good.  Dr. Frazier took out the rest of the staples in the incision and while casually chatting with Bob and with Carla and JJ hovering above the incision, he took his gloved finger and ran it up the incision like he was gutting a fish!  Bob yelped and the 2 girls nearly lost their breakfast!  I had been hanging back so was glad not to have had a front row seat!  We now had the whole 12 inches to pack twice a day.  The Dr. also confirmed that the biopsy on the small bowel tumor was cancer but the other one was not.  He felt sure they had removed all the cancer, though.  The good news was that Dr. Frazier didn't see anything wrong with us leaving for Colorado the next day as long as we had a Dr. to check Bob wherever we were going.  Our Phoenix stay was finally over!  Annie had been back to work for a week and was doing fine. 

Bob's incision all neatly packed and healing up nicely.  Taken on May 29, 2012.

Now for the trip home, our adventure was still not over!!!

 

I'm Back With Some Great Book Selections!

Eating ice cream in Fredricksburg, TX on New Years Day.

After a 2 month rest, here I am with some fresh ideas and a few pictures. For some reason I just couldn't get motivated to sit down and write even though there is always plenty for me to say!

The girls show off their butterfly pillows they learned to make in my "home school sewing class".

One reason I haven't been working on my blog is because I have been reading some very engrossing books that I feel the need to mention. The first is Tom Clancy's latest book "Locked On".  Bob got it for Christmas and we both read it while we were in Texas with Micah's family.

A very good read especially if you are a Clancy Fan.

This is the back story on John Clarke one of the characters in Clancy's John Ryan books.  Full of action, blood and guts but I liked it.

 It was so good I checked out one of Clancy's older books called "Without Remorse".  They have been trying to make a movie of this book since 2008 but still haven't got it done. These plus several other books Kim wanted me to read, kept me interested so that I didn't have time to write in my blog. Of course we had other things to do there as well.

Bob, Micah, and Kim enjoy the warm afternoon in Fredricksburg, TX on New Years day.

I figured I would have more time when we got up to windy, frigid Casper and I couldn't fit my Christmas book from Paul (11/22/63? Not sure of the date now) into my luggage when we flew up to Wyoming. When I got there, we had a lot of things we wanted to do and I had kind of gotten out of the habit of writing in my blog.

A Taste of some of the things going on in February in Casper, Wyoming!

Carla's and my pottery decorating attempts done at Pottery By You.

We had about 9 deer come visit the house.  These were right under the window in the yard.  Some even climbed several of the front porch steps!

 A coffee or hot chocolate pot Carla and I decorated.

We did a lot of dog sitting with Izzy and I had to sweep up loads of white hair all month as she was shedding her winter coat!

A travertine formation in Thermopolis, WY.  It is formed from minerals in the hot springs.  The water is bubbling up through a pipe and it is pouring over the sides.  The whole thing is a mineral formation that just keeps growing! We spent a weekend there "taking the baths" and sight seeing.

 Then Carla gave me a gift card for Audible.com and I had 3 free to me books to choose for my listening pleasure! I had several books my friends on Facebook had been recommending. It was a tough choice but I finally picked "The Hunger Games".

The Hunger Games trilogy.  You won't be able to quit after reading just one!

 Wow! It was a great choice. Both Carla and I read (listened to) the whole trilogy in 4 days! It is a riveting story for adults as well as teenagers.

Katniss takes aim!

 I can hardly wait for the movie to come out. I hear it is coming in March so maybe I won't have to wait too long. I hope they do a really good job with it.

Some of the Tributes from the movie.  I think there is a contest going on to win an arena Tribute jacket.

 The set designers, costumers and hair designers must have had a great time doing this movie! I am still having dreams with this book in the background!

I kind of liked that the books were audible. The whole story seemed very intimate. (I used ear phones to listen). I felt like I was right in the middle of the action, but maybe I would have felt that way reading it too. One thing I didn't like about only listening was that I couldn't see how the names were spelled so I couldn't remember them as well. Weird, how visual can you get! I guess I will read a review or summary of the book on Amazon so I can see how those names were spelled and I’ll remember them better.

Haymitch and Katniss.  Woody Harrelson is playing Haymitch in the movie.

Well that wasn't so tough to get back in the groove so maybe I will get going on this blog again! We are leaving for Phoenix in a couple days and I do have several adventures to talk about, some recipes and memories, too.