Saturday, April 9, 2016

More Adventures, and Misadventures

This has been an interesting and busy week.  On Monday I had invited Almita & Rueben here for dinner, and Tony wrote saying he could come here on Monday too.  We figured the more the merrier, so that was the plan.  I made a yummy split pea and ham soup with the ham bone from our delicious Easter dinner.  Almita brought over some Hawaiian dinner rolls to have with it, and I made sugar-free peach jello with diced peaches for dessert.  It was a nice evening, and everybody got enough to eat.  Later, after Almita & Rueben left, I was helping Jim move back some boxes we store under the table (that we had moved into the bedroom to allow us more space for dinner).  I apparently pulled a muscle in my shoulder resulting in a painful spasm in my left trapezius muscle.  I tried to deal with it by myself for two days, but on Thursday I had to go to the local Urgent Care center, where we sat and waited 3 hours before being seen by a nice PA.  He ended up having the nurse give me an injection of decadron and an injection of toredol, and sent me away with prescriptions for a 5 day course of Prednisone, and another for 30 tablets of Flexeril.  I slept like a baby that night!  What a relief.  
 
On Wednesday Almita & Rueben took us birding.  It was a grand outing and we had a marvelous time, but some of the roads were rough, and I had to take a pain pill and a nap when we got home.  I will include a few pictures of birds we saw that day.
 




 
I can't remember the names of all the wonderful birds we saw, but the ones to the left are called stilts!  As you could see, Jim was having a good time too.  The last ;picture is just to show you what a beautiful area we were in, and it was a warm and perfect day too.  Later that day we went over to Almita & Rueben's RV for dinner of delicious cheese burgers with all the "fixins" and potato salad.  I brought a dessert of Oreo Ice Cream pie.  While we were there Almita showed me the first of four books she has produced of her photographs.  She CALLS herself an amateur, but her pictures are INCREDIBLE and the books are really AWESOME.  She let me bring home three of them, that we have been pouring over.  They are a marvelous expression of her passion for nature, and all the wonders of this great world God has given to us.  I could never produce anything as beautiful as these books, but we are very grateful she shared them with us.

Thursday night Jim sat down to watch TV in his easy chair, and it broke again, dumping him on the floor.  So on Friday we went looking for another, better chair.  


 We brought this one home, and set it out.  Before Jim could sit down, Millie was in it!  She decided it was a good choice, and Jim has had to move her out of it whenever he wants to sit there.
Right now, Jim is on the couch, and Millie is in the chair!

Today we went to play Candy Bar Bingo, and Diane and Steve showed up to join us.  The last two weeks we have had no luck winning candy bars.  Today we made up for it winning six bars.  It was a good day!!!  

I have a tip to offer to some of you RVers out there.  I read a recent tip about cleaning kitchen and bathroom faucets using water and vinegar.  I don't deny that the solution works, but I have another one that I use.  If you have dentures, and soak them clean with tablets like Polident or even the generic tablets from Wal-Mart, here's an idea to re-use the solution. In the morning after you brush and rinse the dentures, you can dump the solution into a sink half filled with water.  Using a soft cloth, you can clean the hard water stains off the faucet and knobs, and also clean the sink bowl.  
 
It's so good not having pain today.  Truly a good day, even though it has been overcast and it's going to probably rain all night.  Hopefully there will not be any rain on Tuesday when we travel up to Silent Valley, where we hope to stay for a month.  Since our screen room has seen better days, and is in pretty decrepit shape, we have decided not to keep it after we take it down Monday.  We have found a free-standing screen room we are going to buy next week, so that will be part of our next blog.

Take care and stay well..................and enjoy this wonderful world.



 







8 comments:

  1. At what wetlands did you go birding ? Looks nice.

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    1. They took us to the San Jacinto Wildlife area. This was only our second outing like this. Pastor Ric and Wendy took us to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Area in Socorro, New Mexico last year. That was a wonderful outing too, but Almita & Rueben are very knowledgeable and it was great hearing all they information they shared with us. We look forward to going out with them again when the opportunity presents itself. I might pick up a second pair of binoculars for myself so we can both see at the same time!

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  2. You sure did have a full week! We enjoyed meeting your brother, Tony, but what a shame you hurt your shoulder moving those boxes after we left. Good to hear you're so much better now.

    It was fun for us to take you and Jim out to the San Jacinto Wildlife Area even though it turned out to be so windy out there that day. At least you did get to see several species of birds. Glad to know you enjoyed the outing and you sure got some good photos, too!

    Thank you for the compliments on my nature photography books. I really am just a "point and shoot" amateur who is greatly helped by the good cameras and lenses I have. It was my pleasure to share my books with you and I'm happy to know you and Jim enjoyed them.

    Congrats on winning six candy bars at bingo and the new chair you bought for Millie ...uh, I mean for Jim. Ha, ha!

    Weather forecast looks good for your trip to Silent Valley on Tuesday. And now that you're pain-free you can look forward to really enjoying your time up there.

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    1. The box I lifted is one I have lifted many times without any problem. I guess I just grabbed it at the wrong angle, but all is good now.
      I especially loved the picture of Rueben feeding a deer. And we loved the page with your wedding AND your 50th anniversary. So special. The future members of your family will really treasure these books and stories of your experiences.

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  3. Read the one to Tony, too. YES! Do get your own binoculars. Taking photos is great and I do that all the time, as you well know. But SEEING with your own eyes is the real experience and blessing. I do hope we'll go out again when it's clear and not windy.

    Again, I'm so happy to know you enjoyed my albums. Feeding the deer was truly a memorable experience for that one time. It's not good to feed wildlife and we don't ... except for that time. Couldn't resist because they came right up to our campsite. The photo of us "when we were young" was taken a year after we were married. Rueben and I look at that photo and us now and say, "what happened?" Ha, ha!!

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    1. I think you and Rueben are awesome, and still look great too. The hiking and biking seem to have kept you both in great shape. Thanks for all the great things you have shared with us, and for your friendship, which is such a blessing. I'm logging off the computer for tonight now. I am VERY grateful for Rueben's offer to help Jim take the screen room down in the morning. It is really hard for me just because I'm sooooo short, in case you hadn't noticed. LOL. Bye for tonight.

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  4. I'm just seeing this response. Thank you for such kind words! Rueben has ALWAYS been in great shape. I envy his metabolism. Me? I have to work at it. He rides his bike 8 miles most days. I need to get back to riding my bike but at least I'm walking 40 min. most days (with Rueben). I'm a Munchkin, too. In fact I've lost 2 inches which has taken me down to 4'9". :-(
    Your friendship is a blessing in our life, too!!

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    1. A munchkin? That's cute. You mean I'm taller than you? The last I knew, I was 4'10". OMG, I didn't think I was taller than ANYBODY. LOL. I don't bicycle because of my knees, but we walk and love to swim. I can gain weight just looking at food, so I have to really work at losing. Bye for now.

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