Last Day

This last day of March blew in like a lion, cold and wet.  The weather warmed up to the mid 50's but clouds hid the sun most of the day.  What else was there to do but goof off with the family.

The boy sitting next to (grandson) Luke is his friend who stayed the night.

Last week we started working the jigsaw puzzle Allie selected for her birthday present.  When Duane and I left today it looked like this.  The family finished it this evening.

Duane's first eye surgery tomorrow.

Louise and Duane

Blindsided

When we arrived in the piney woods of east Texas in March, we were greeted with chilly, wet weather.  We were not too upset because we had lots of doctors appointments scheduled.  Those, along with pickleball three times a week and weekly visits with our kids and grandkids kept our minds off the weather.  Now that we have whittled our doctor visits down to two days a week, we have time to think about riding the motorcycle to our other activities.  Unfortunately, spring weather is not compatible with bike riding.  If the sky is sunny, the air may be cold and windy.  If the air is warm, the sky promises rain.  Promised rain fails to appear or sunny skies cloud over and drop showers on a day when we have nothing planned.  Today and tomorrow we have lots of time to ride, but last night's low of  60 was also the high for today.  Rain moved in and sliding temperatures followed.  The next few days we can look forward to lots of clouds with lows in the low 40's and highs in the low 50's.  The warmer weather is scheduled to return on Thursday, which we will be spending in the hospital.  After that Duane will have to ride by himself for the rest of our stay here.

O well, we'll just have to take it as it comes.

Louise and Duane

Hard Job

Rainy and cool made this morning a good one for laundry; cloudy and cool made this afternoon prime for a walk up and down the hilly road.  The rest of the time we sat around watching successive episodes of the tv series Bones, reading and playing on computer during commercials.  For some reason we never watched this when it was current, but really enjoy it now.

Relaxing is the name of the game until Monday.

Louise and Duane

Passed PASS

Well, that was not at all what I expected!  When I arrived at my pre-op screening today, I was checked in by initialing and (electronically) signing the usual privacy documents.  Then I initialed and signed my pre-admittance papers for the hospital.  After a bit Duane (at my request) and I were taken to an exam room where a nurse checked my blood pressure, blood oxygen level, and temperature, went over my medical history, and gave me pre-op instructions for the next week.  Next a doctor examined my lungs/breathing, and skimmed over my medical history.  He said that since my blood work was current and I had had an ekg within the last ten years, no tests were necessary.  He pronounced me unusually healthy for a person my age and said I was good to go.  I was told to allow 2 hours for this procedure.  We were out of there in 1 1/2 hours, (some of it spent waiting), thanks to my recent annual checkup , my current inoculations (flu, pneumonia, shingles),and my overall good health.  This process is called PASS for Pre Admittance Surgery Screening, which earned me a Patient Arrival Notice. On the day of my surgery, the notice tells the hospital admissions clerk that I'm already checked in with the proper paperwork.  One more pre-op visit with my surgeon, and I'm ready for the big day-except for the nervous wait of course! (LOL)

We get to relax for the weekend, then back to the eye doctor on Monday for Duane's first laser treatment. 

The fun never ends.

Louise and Duane

Getting Ready

I received two phone calls today setting up appointments to ready me for surgery next week.  Tomorrow I have to undergo a pre-op screening.  This will take two hours to determine if I am physically healthy and strong enough for surgery.  I filled out the paperwork online and won't have to do that when I arrive tomorrow at 1 pm.  I imagine I will be given tests such as EEG and EKG.
The next appointment after that will be next Wednesday, the day before surgery.  This will only take 15 minutes or so while my Dr. and I discuss exactly how the surgery will go.  I will have the procedure on Thursday afternoon and go home Thursday evening. 

I'm looking forward to having things back where they belong.

Louise (and Duane)

KOA

When it comes to doctors' appointments, we seem to keep on adding.  Duane's eye appointment netted him three more--two to clear the cloudy vision problem in each eye and a follow-up.  My visit to our regular doctor for a yearly checkup netted me a visit with a gynecologist, which in turn prompted  some (relatively) minor surgical prolapse repair next week.  The good news is that we have been able to corral all of these appointments within two months, and can now look forward to resuming our travels sometime in the first part of May.  Between appointments Duane has been making summer travel plans.

Next week--surgery for both of us.

Louise and Duane

Shades Of Old Glory +

They grow thistles big in Texas!

Spring Has Sprung

The weather here in the Piney Woods of east Texas  has finally warmed enough for our son and his family to start cleaning the swimming pool,

and to have cookouts down by the river. 

Trees are flowering 

and leafing out

The grass is bright green and jacket weather has arrived to stay.

We're all happy to see it!

Louise and Duane

Nothing Doing

Much of doing nothing sums up our day today.  We played pickleball all morning, then, except for a quick trip to Lindale (the closest town to our rv park here in Texas), we kicked back and relaxed for the rest of the day.  Duane watched tv and did whatever he does on computer.  I read my book in the afternoon, watched tv and worked Sudokus and Cryptograms in the evening.

Kinda wears me out thinking about all that activity!

Louise and Duane

Bettalatenevah!

When we are visiting any grandchildren around their birthdays, we try to take them shopping to pick out a birthday present.  Tonight was our granddaughter Allie's turn.  She started out her special trip with unlimited soup and salad at--where else? 

Done stuffing face and ready to shop.

Allie has a creative streak, and like to shop at stores such as Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and The JoAnn Store.  Hobby Lobby was closest.

She was pleased with her choices--a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of soda cans, and a package of new micro tip markers.  One can't have too many markers.

That was fun!

Louise and Duane

Leftovers

Some fun pix from our two day stay in Trenton:

The twins enjoy an afternoon bareback horse ride around the pasture.

Coy and Alyssa don't ride but they can run down the driveway to the gate and back.

Emma tying her shoe while wearing work gloves.

While the twins and Grandpa fished Tuesday (see Working It blog), Coy explored a tackle box

.

Cleaning the fence line (see After, After, Before, After blog), I found a tree full of these thorns,

a salamander,

and the Texas state bird, a mockingbird.

Back to normal today.

Louise and Duane

After, After, Before, After

On day two of our trip to Trenton to help the kids with their new property (see Working It blog), for some reason I didn't remember to take pictures before we started a job.  

Our first task was to empty out one of the buildings on the property where the kids' have their gym.  This area was full of tools and equipment that we loaded into the enclosed trailer where Duane is standing.

After lunch we worked at the new property.  In this spot was a pile of logs and branches from the tree on the right and the one lying in the back.

They now make up the top half of the brush pile.

Next to that area is this corner which is also on the brush pile, except for the bits and pieces of trash left by the former owner.

We cut four trees, cleared a dozen thorny vines, removed a tangle of old barbed wire, and picked up a couple of piles of twigs and other debris.  Now it looks like this.  Much better.

While Duane and I were busy with this job, a guy came with a front loader.  He picked up the pile of bricks that used to be the rear wall of the house, and loaded it into the trailer on the left.

During the last two days, because of the family's busy schedule, we didn't get to visit as much as we would have liked, but we did manage to get some of their projects checked off their wish list.

Tired, but feeling good about that.

Louise and Duane

Working It

This morning we drove two hours from Tyler (TX) to Trenton above Dallas.  Our goal was the "fixer-upper" property our son Duane Jr. and daughter-in-law Brandey recently purchased.  We are here for two days to work on some of their outside projects.

Our task for today was to build a dog pen.  We drove to their present residence and dismantled the dog fence, drove it to the new property and got to work.  While Duane drove fence posts, I picked up anything that could hurt the dogs' feet and cut saplings and thorny vines away from the fence line.  Next we wired hog panels (premade sections of fencing) together to make the pen.

Duane removed door frame that was falling apart and we put hog panel over that too.

Duane Jr arrived from work in time to help attach the gate.

Next the guys stapled plastic to the open side of the house against the rain predicted for tomorrow.

Meanwhile the girls exercised their horses while I visited with Coy and Alyssa.

After working hard we rewarded ourselves with a fishing trip to the big pond.

(Across the pond Coy is chatting with Grandpa.)

Emma caught the first fish (admired by Alyssa).

Emma caught the second, while

Gramps caught the third.

Emma caught the most  "green (moss) fish"

but Ava caught the only "stick fish".

Alyssa and Coy enjoyed some time with Gramdpa while we waited for the girls to gather their fishing equipment.

Before we left Jr (sitting on my left) told us what was next on his wish list.

After supper we found a motel room and called it a night.

More work on the agenda tomorrow.

Louise and Duane

Rolling Along

Since Monday night pickleball in Tyler (TX) usually attracts only the better players  Duane went to play with them.  I have a hard time keeping up with them, and opted for different exercise.

I took a 2 mile/40 minute walk along the country road that runs past the rv park.

Beautiful walk on a beautiful afternoon.

Working tomorrow.

Louise and Duane

Experiment

This afternoon  I finally got around to starting an experiment I've been thinking about.  I took a hammer to an old brown jar, a green olive oil jar and a green wine bottle.  

It made enough shards to half fill my rock tumbler.  I added some fine grit and set it to rolling for the next three days or so to take off the sharp edges.  

I am hoping to have some nice pieces to make into a sun catcher.

More later.

Louise and Duane