During
December 2014 as I considered “the Christmas Letter” and how 2014 disappeared
so quickly. I realized that 2014 could be labeled “the Replacement Year” or maybe
“the Year of New Events”. I then decided
that it would make a better blog than Christmas letter. While I was contemplating the 2014 blog, 2015
took off at lightning speed and now it is February 2015. Hope your Valentine's Day was happy!
All homeowners know about home maintenance. When you live in one place a long time the “big jobs” seem to hit the neighborhood at the same time. Some of these big jobs include painting the house, re-roofing, replacing the furnace, or water heater, or washer/dryer or carpets. The list is endless. Now that our motor home has reached 10 years old, similar needs arose.
March: Seeing Double!
While taking in a Friday evening baseball game. I went out
beyond Center field for a fish taco
dinner. It seemed like I was walking against a flood of incoming fans. After I
ate, I began the walk back to our seats behind the third base dugout and felt like I was a
bit tipsy. Nice trick for someone who doesn’t drink alcohol. I sat down in my seat and looked up at the
giant scoreboard that has a huge picture of the batter. To my surprise I saw
two heads! One sat right on top of the other.
Out in the field I saw two center fielders each catching the ball, and
there were two of the same ump on third base. Fascinating! I was looking forward to the fireworks after
the game. However, Derrille informed me that seeing double was not
normal!!! AND we were going to the
ER. On the way I noticed every oncoming
car had an identical one on top of it. WOW! When we checked into the ER the
lady slapped a neon yellow form on my paperwork that indicated I may be having
a stroke. Did you know seeing double was a sign of a stroke? I knew I wasn’t
having a stroke. I could pass all the test easily….except lift my left arm
because I needed a new shoulder…coming soon.
I stayed in the hospital overnight and received every test imaginable. What I needed was an ophthalmologist, and they are not available or on staff. The diagnosis indicated I had 4th optic nerve palsy. The muscle needed to lift the eye for focusing decided not to work. On Monday I visited the ophthalmologist who confirmed the hospital findings. Treatment: none. The wonderful brain will heal itself. When I returned to Bremerton, my ophthalmologist Dr. Sorenson checked me over and decided it was the 3rd nerve not the 4th. He said it would take about 6 weeks to correct itself. If problems continued my glasses could be fixed with the addition of prism. In six weeks everything was back to normal.
April: Shoulder Replacement Time! I received my new left total shoulder replacement, to match the right side one I got the previous August. I was disappointed not to see the handbook I'd written for them following the right side. But....if you are contemplating this surgery, just let me know and I can email the process to you. It is amazing what you can't do with only one working shoulder!
I am
thankful every day for the pain free full range of motion and the ability to perform tasks most people
take for granted. (myself included prior to surgery) The number of muscles
needed to move the shoulders/arms and how they interconnect with the whole body
amazes me. Per doctor’s instructions I no longer swim 55 minutes of laps with
the crawl stroke anymore. Now I use the
crawl stroke for one length of the pool and do a variety of moves to complete
the lap. After 40 minutes of pool time
my shoulders begin letting me know it’s time to quit swimming. However, I feel so blessed to still be able
to swim at all. As I’ve stated to many of you, I endorse “replacement parts”
for old people.
June: Goodbye Ashley! A significant event in our
lives this month was the need to put our beautiful Ashley to sleep. Two months shy of her 18th
birthday her health failed to the point that a quality of life was no longer an
option. Sad, but necessary.
As a side
note: quirky Murphy took over the Alpha Cat position with an observable change
of personality. This is his normal state: asleep! Unless he meows loudly for pets or food.
July: Replacement! My convection oven quit while trying to
bake cookies for the young kids at the beach. The nut-free chocolate chip
cookies baked just fine. Then I started baking the rest of the batch. Those cookies and my pan had
burn spots. The oven refused to bake! The fix meant replacing the microwave/convection
oven. Not an easy task for an older RV. We
ordered the oven through Sonny’s our Port Hadlock RV repair shop. The crew even
came to the RV park in July for the installation.
They removed the old unit
and took the new one out of the box…new, shiny, clean and dented! The dent had obviously been
done at the factory. So they replaced the old unit and ordered another one. We were still located near Port Hadlock when
it arrived and they again came to the park.
At the same time we also replaced the bathroom faucet. In November 2013
we had replaced all the sink faucets.
However the bathroom one kept leaking. The problem was only fixable with
a replacement. The replacement is not as
“classy” as the previous on, but it works
The Port Hadlock guys replaced some interior caulking for us. Six months later we aren’t thrilled with that
job and may have to redo that ourselves. We apparently used faulty thinking
that someone who caulked for a living would do a better job than we could. Oh
well!
August: One
“new” event included Jeff, Julie and her kids, Jillian 15 and Nick 8, moved
into a lovely home in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
Their new friendly neighbors have welcomed them warmly to the neighborhood.
Jeff meets lots of neighbors when he walks Nick to the school bus stop and
waits with other kids and their parents. We are very pleased to call Julie and
her kids, family.
September: Replacement. While staying at Humbug Mt.
State Park in Southern Oregon we had a new digital TV antenna delivered to the
park. Somewhere along our travels the old non-digital antenna broke off a part. Derrille installed it so we
could pick up local TV channels when traveling, like down I-5 on our way to
Sand Diego.
October: A second “new” event: Jason proposed to
Desiree and she of course said yes!
Since the ring went on her finger, wedding plans have exploded onto the scene. A small wedding is scheduled for Oct. 17, 2015 here in San Diego. What fun to be in San Diego and share in the process. We have enjoyed meeting Desi’s family too and went to her parent’s home for Thanksgiving.
Since the ring went on her finger, wedding plans have exploded onto the scene. A small wedding is scheduled for Oct. 17, 2015 here in San Diego. What fun to be in San Diego and share in the process. We have enjoyed meeting Desi’s family too and went to her parent’s home for Thanksgiving.
A third “new” event: This one not as special as the others.....We enjoyed beautiful, warm and very warm
weather this year. The higher
temperatures caused us to act on a long talked about plan. We put window awnings on the RV this year to
help keep us more comfortable as the temperatures climb, especially in Arizona.
November: Replacement! The
old comfortable lawn chairs died this year. The soft cushioning could be seen
poking out and around the metal supports
that pushed through the thread-bare fabric. Even after a try at sewing the
fabric closed again, the insides pushed through to the outside. We have been looking for replacement for a
while. Then Nancy and Paul, our Chula Vista neighbors showed us their
chairs. They rock gently, have a comfy
feel and are available at Camping World. The chocolate brown fabric appears stronger than what we had before.
We ordered them and had them sent to the RV park. We also went to the Cover Store and ordered
some very nice covers to protect them as they sit outside year round.
Another long discussed replacement occurred the week before Thanksgiving. We bought a new 2015 Lincoln MKX. Our ten year old Ford Explorer told us it was tired of being towed up and down the west coast. It had 108,000 miles driven and an additional 80,000 miles towed. Towing caused front end problems that we no longer willing to support. Derrille took it in for an oil change and was informed that the back tire was ready to fall off. The service manager was surprised it hadn’t fallen off on our trip south. So we fixed that too. Then we gave it to Jason who uses it for running around San Diego. We expect the Explorer to still be road worthy for some time, just not behind the RV. Jason is thrilled since his ride needed to go to car heaven. Jeff is still using my 21 year old Corolla as a backup for his new Forerunner.
We have never had anything as fancy as the
MKX, but decided to go for it! We only
get a car every ten years or so. The technology in cars far exceeds the old
car. The Lincoln dealers offer a class to learn about the multitude of features
on our new car. I really like the heated/AC cooled leather seats and the backup
camera. We still haven’t quite figured out the dash heating system since the AC
comes on when you need defrost on the window.
Hmmm I’ve read the book but it still doesn’t quite make sense.
We also like the speed limit sign that shows
up on the dash, so you don’t have to
wonder what the speed limit is for this
stretch of road.
We could have made a tape
for America’s Funny Videos when we tried to figure out if the car was locked.
Derrille took me to the chiropractor and we exited the car. Derrille went to
check the handle and the car opened. We locked it again. Since the car
automatically unlocks when key fob is within range and you touch the handle, we
had to assume it was locked when we touched one of the several locking systems….and
just walk away. The engine is so quiet; that
we pulled into our friend’s driveway and begin to exit the car. Something didn’t
feel right, and a ding went off. It took a minute to realize Derrille hadn’t
depressed the button to shut off the car. LOL
Lately the car alarm has turned on for no apparent reason. We are still working on that one.
Owning a smart phone
certainly helps learning how to operate the navigation, climate, entertainment
and phone features on the control panel. I find it a bit mind boggling to “see”
a phone call displayed on the monitor and the name of who’s calling.
Seven days after buying the
car we headed up to San Juan Capistrano to join Desi’s family or Thanksgiving
dinner. At Carlsbad, all 5 lanes of I-5 northbound became a bumper to bumper
mass of cars barely oozing forward. For thirty miles we traveled between 0 and 10 MPH.
The expected travel time of one hour, became
three hours at this snail’s pace.
Halfway there we inched along and stopped again. However the Mercedes
behind inched along and didn’t stop!
Thump! The Mercedes hit our new
car with less than a week old and fewer than100 miles on the odometer. What to do! Well, we just stopped in this massive traffic
jam and got out to check the damage. We didn’t see anything there or at our
destination stop. However when the back faced the setting sun, we saw a dimple
and crease where the bumper bends in for the license plate. We took the car in to check on bumper damage.
No damage. However to fix the nearly
invisible dimple estimate ran about $800. We decided not to fix it. As we tow
the car around the country, it will surely to receive a few more dings.
January
1, 2015
We used to celebrate New Year’s Day
with football bowl games and cheese balls. Then the powers to be began spreading the games out
over a week. So we began to move from Chula Vista, CA to Sun City, AZ on New
Year’s Day. This year two bowl games
were scheduled for New Year’s. We rose early (not an easy task for me as some
of you know). We planned to see the last
half of the Oregon/Florida State game, and then watch Alabama/Ohio State. We
parked the rig and I ran the satellite up.
It went up but couldn’t lock in.
For a fan such as Derrille this could be a traumatic event. Just then our lovely neighbor JoAnn arrived
and informed us dinner was on and to come over. I asked if the football was on
at her house, and she said it could be. So she fed us and allowed to watch both
games. Bless her!
Replacement part!
The satellite repair involved
a pin that had sheared off. The newer models have a longer pin in place. We called the local satellite guy. He was on
his way to Yuma for three weeks. Egad! Right at this crucial football
time! With Derrille’s coaxing he agreed
to stop by on his way out of town. The fix sounded like just a couple of
minutes of time. Yeah, right! The repairman needed a strong vise to
release the broken pin. No vise. So he decided to take the base off motor home.
His unit was installed in November and about 10 minutes away from our park. He took
it off his unit and put it on ours. Voila! It should work. It didn’t.
He tried and tried. Finally he phoned someone who knew our less than a
year old satellite didn’t have the new software it needed. That someone sent
the new software via my computer and we were up and running in a matter of
minutes. However the 15 minute fix took him about 2 hours. He was late for his
dinner plans in Yuma. Perhaps I should
consider the TV installation of 2014 actually took one year. Hmmm
The rest of January 2015 flew by with me: getting a bee sting in the pool the first week, food poisoning the second week, and taking a splat onto the cement patio the third week. My chin swelled up with a racquet-ball sized lump of deep purple. My palm and shoulder muscles hurt with bruising and my knee had some scrapes. I was worried about my new shoulder, but all my bi-weekly PT exercises provided protection. After a week the swelling subsided and the purple did the yellow/black thing, then disappeared. You can bet I hear Derrille constant reminders to "be careful" exiting the car, stepping onto the patio, in stores etc.
We have moved into the New Year and wonder what it will bring our way. One of our joys of life continue to be spending time with our friends in each of our “home” areas. Thank you for being there.
May the rest of 2015 be good to you and yours!
