Joan on the Road...of Life

Subtitle: What a Stupid Thing To Do
While chopping tomatoes for our daily capelinni Jim managed to drop the chef's knife on the floor. Don't ask me how that happened! It then bounced and whacked him in the shin resulting in a cut on his leg about 1-2 inches long and not too deep...maybe 1/8". Generally that would not be a problem

But, being in the middle of chemo, his blood platelet count is low. What do platelets do? Help the blood coagulate. So the cut continued to ooze blood even after pressure was applied, leg was elevated and ice bags laid on. Finally, about 11 Jim decided this might not be a good thing and called his oncologist. "Go to the emergency room and then have them call me," was the advice.

We've not done the emergency room thing very often so we were not prepared for the long hours of waiting. After the initial triage by a nurse which only took a 30 minute wait, we must have been put at the end of the line. We waited from midnight to 3 AM to get admitted to the actual treatment area. Once there we quickly were seen by the doctor and nurse. They called Jim's oncologist who said that based on the platelet count Jim should either get a platelet transfusion immediately OR go into the Cancer Center this morning at 8 AM to get it. That's a no brainer...don't want to make that 90 mile drive with no sleep :)

Then came the wait for cross matching blood, thawing platelets, and then the IV routine. All this took another 3 hours, including a 30 minute wait just to get the release papers printed !!! Yikes!

Finally, at 6:30 AM we were good to go. Through all this I was cold (nurse finally got me a blanket to wrap in) and we had no reading material. So our only entertainment was watching the comings and goings of the other patients and the continual flow of paramedics bringing in accident victims and geezers. Lots of sad stories there and a pretty depressing scene. Certainly there were many people who were more of an emergency that Jim was. But oh the waiting was painful.

On the way home we stopped to pick up a coffee cake for an easy breakfast...unhealthy but comforting. As we sipped coffee at about 7:30 we agreed that going to bed sounded mighty good. And it never felt more wonderful. I was exhausted. We slept untill about 11...not a full nights sleep for sure, but enough to get us through the day and into a normal night. Thus concludes the adventure of the whacky knife :)

Posted by Joan at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is so hot that we don't need the water heater on. The tap water is warm enough for a shower!! On the way home today the car temperature outside read 107! Probably hot enough to fry eggs :)

We stopped in Corona and met Granddaughter Mary for lunch at Pomodoro Cucina where Jim ordered.....what else...Capellini Pomodoro! They were apparently trying to save money on the AC because it seemed pretty warm but then we stepped outside and it was broiling! It was a tasty lunch though. I had a very delicious spinach salad and ravioli stuffed with butternut squash simmered in a brown sugar and butter sauce with sage leaves. YUM!

The MH was nice and cool when we arrived home so I just hung out playing FarmTown. Jim of course had to go shopping. It's like when we lived in the midwest and he always had to go out in the deepest snow for something :) The male conquest I guess.

The nice surprise of the day was that the "Service Engine Soon" light went OFF. Monday it came on while driving home. Maybe I told you that. The manual said to run the car through three driving "cycles" including filling the tank with good / new gas. If the light didn't go out after that process it would need service. The light is an emission thing indicator. Thankfully, it went out today so no trip to the car dealer :) Yeah!

Posted by Joan at 09:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's amazing how many people at Time Warner Cable didn't know what they were talking about! Jim went over to exchange the modem, all excited about getting high speed internet on cable. Then he talked to someone who knew the score. No internet available at our park! The reason--the park never put in the upgraded cable. But even the park staff said just call Time Warner! :) Oh well. To me it's no big deal. To Jim...speed is everything :)

We had a successful doctor/ chemo visit today. Blood counts were ok so chemo 2 of 4 is done. I went out for lunch to Taco Bell and had my fave #4 combo lunch. The clerk asked if I was over 49. Sure!!! So he tells me I can get a free small drink with refills at TB...just ask. Did you know that?

Our trip home seemed shorter because I drove and Jim played DJ on our Zen (personal music player). We have to go in again tomorrow for a blood booster so we'll play music and talk shows. Time flies when the brain is engaged :)

Posted by Joan at 09:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday we made the long trek to the oncology center for Jim to get round 2 of chemo. Blood tests said "oh no you don't." Damn. White blood count was low so he got a shot of neupogen and was rescheduled for this morning. Yesterday we missed the rush hour. Today we'll be leaving in just a few minutes and be at the height of rush...7:30-9:30. Oh well, I think it is an attitude problem! (Wait a sec while I give myself and attitude adjustment! )

It's very likely we'll make this trip 3 times this week. Maybe once next week. But we'll surely get through this. Actually it gives us something to do in the blistering hot weather. This week looks like all 100+ days out here in Hemet. One AC seems to keep the MH comfy but after a few days it gets claustrophobic.

Jim was in heaven yesterday when he discovered we could get high speed cable internet from Time Warner while parked here at Golden Village. He picked up the installation kit but has yet to get it working. Tech help says maybe it's a faulty modem so Jim will be working on that this week.

I've got to get to the library and restock my shelf :) Nothing but junk reading here right now although we did just finish a great story..Tom Mix and Pancho Villa by Clifford Irving. It's a golden oldie but a great read.

Posted by Joan at 06:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

All went just fine in our move from Orange, CA to Hemet, CA...about 60 miles. This will make our trips to the doctors about 90 minutes but the rent in Hemet is half the price in Orange. $605 per month plus electric. Cable is free and has almost all the channels we want including Fox Sports West...Angels baseball. So I'm happy. We actually cut off our Direct TV in January so we'll leave it off for the next several months.

I don't know why I get so anxious when we're moving. Guess we're not doing it enough so I'm afraid we'll forget something or maybe something won't work and we'll get stuck somewhere. When we are really on the road I get more relaxed, knowing that usually everything works fine.

I'm really tired though. Didn't get enough sleep last night. Probably had one too many glasses of wine.

We had a surprise visitor yesterday. Granddaughter Hilary stopped in and while we were chatting Grandpa noticed she had a very low tire. So he checked all her tires, pumped them up and then we waited to see if the low one would go down right away. He did find a nail in the tire. It seemed to be a slow leak. Grandpa gave Tom a call and he happened to be in the area so he stopped by and followed her home. She had an exciting day....packing for vacation, flat tire, and getting ready to fly out for vacation at 7 this morning. Guess the family got off OK on their trip to Washington DC and Disneyworlld. Fun times!

It's 97 degrees here in Hemet...that is one of the downsides of being out here. But it should cool off nicely tonight. What we need to do is adjust our living schedule and get up earlier to enjoy the cool morning. Think we can do that? I don't know :)

Posted by Joan at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After sitting still for 7 months we tend to have a lot of "stuff" sitting around unsecured. Stack of books here, stack of dvd's there, flowers on the ledge, baseball hats on the dash. We're moving out to Hemet tomorrow so today is the day to find a place for everything and put everything in its place.

This really won't take us long to do so we'll have time to run up to the fruit stand and stock up on tomatoes, corn and beans. More BLTs in our future. Tomato season won't last long.

This afternoon we'll pack the bikes and chairs in the van and put up the awning. That way we'll spread out our physical activities. Tomorrow the weather in Hemet will be in the 90's so we want to get an early (?) start...on our way by 11 for a 90 minute drive.

Yesterday son Jim took us to lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. I'd never been to one of these and really enjoyed my pizza. Ate the whole darn thing :) i ordered the 5 Mushroom Pizza...yummy! Jim had a Morocan Salad that included beets, squash, dates, cranberries...yikes. It was so big he only ate half. We've enjoyed being close to his work so we could enjoy lunch together pretty often.

So it's our last day at Orangeland. I'm a little anxious about moving just because it's been awhile and I always expect that something won't work right. I'm not sure why because 90% of the time everything functions fine. On the very bright side this is a step toward being on the road again...so I'm smiling!

Posted by Joan at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday afternoon some of the girls and I went to see Julia & Julia. I was so pleased that I could see the movie with Laura because we'd shared the book about a year ago. I think I wrote about it here and how much I enjoyed it. The movie is pretty good and I think it's not just a chic flick. I'll probably pick it up on sale and we'll enjoy watching again.

The guys hung out at Party Central. I heard that Tom and Evan were found sleeping in the outdoor swing! Grandpa Jim played a bit of bocci ball with the guys "even though he had a sore shoulder"....and of course he beat them! Old guys rule, he says.

I get such a kick out of seeing the picture of Jim with son Jim and the grandsons....my Jim is the short one. I always think of him as my big guy..but the others tower over him at six four and five.

We finished up the celebration weekend eating leftovers from Famous Dave's. Lots of ice tea and water were consumed :)....not much beer and no champagne. Wonder why?

This week is one of doctor appoinments and getting the MH ready to move at the end of the week. Dusting, vacuuming, packing away stuff...wow! I guess it's a good thing my energy is coming back :)

Posted by Joan at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm on major sensory and emotional overload. The 50th Anniversary party was an enormous success...one surprise event followed by another. And they "got me"! I cried several times...but so did all the girls and some of the guys.

The 2 PM pickup was by Laura and Steve who arrived with a picnic basket filled with gourmet snacks and a bottle of champagne and glasses. Of course we had to sample the goodies like French bread with goat cheese spread and fig jam :) We killed the first bottle of champagne and then headed for PartyCentral...aka Renee and Tom's home.

Here's the happy couple...me with my newly growing hairdo!

A celebration banner welcomed us as we walked in amidst the claps and cheers of the whole gang (total 18 people now). My first OMG came when we walked in the family room where one wall displayed four poster size repros of our wedding. Our wedding pictures are all black and white unretouched shots but the resolution was great and these huge pictures are just wonderful. We were stunned!

The granddaughters put out a spread of appetizers and the first of many champagne corks popped. Total count I think was 16 bottles of champagne. That was after one run to the store for another case :). We chatted for a bit and then Renee proposed a toast which left us teary-eyed. Granddaughter Naomi followed up with a notebook cotaining letters from each child and grandchild. OK...I could not even read those. Left them until this morning when I could read them and get teary eyed in private.

Special T-shirts were presented with pictures of all the grandbabies and then Renee brought out a big board with 15 baby pictures....Name the Baby. Bryan and I tied for the prize, naming 13 of 15 babies. Pretty good since they all look a lot alike.

Grandson Jim got us all arranged for group pictures that turned out great. What a joy to have the whole family together. Son Jim's lovely Elaine took a lot of shots for me ...197 actually!! Naomi got lots of pix and little Evan was snapping shots with his Mom's Canon camera. Budding photographer at 3-1/2.

Evening was coming on and I was wondering what was for dinner? No one was cooking! Then Renee gave the high sign that food had "arrived"...catered in from Famous Dave's BBQ!! Oh was that a great treat for everyone. Ribs, pulled pork, brisket, chicken, beans, slaw, cornbread...we stuffed ourselves. Mind you this is all to the accompaniment of champagne.

Grandson Jim was walking around with his camera in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other. No sooner did you take a sip than he topped off your glass. Tom lit up the firepit, Grandpa was serving as DJ and toes were tapping. We wore off a little of that dinner with some dancing and singing.

The grand finale was a video montage of 50 years in 15 minutes. OMG!! Pictures flashed by accompanied by favorite music taking us through chapters of Babies, Love, Family, Adventure, Celebrations....starting with our wedding and honeymoon shots through our many trips, parties, graduations and births. The absolute surprise was a video clip of my Mom and Dad wishing us Happy Anniversary. Jim got this clip of them this spring when he took a short trip to Illinois. I was once again blown away.

I know Jim spent untold hours weeding through scanned pictures and capturing video from our home movies. 20,000 plus pix and boxes of video. Laura said she had taken on the first 30 years and picked out pictures of people. Mary went through and selected scenic shots. Zachary recorded an original "Zach's Theme" on the piano that closed out the video. We are still in awe at this creation. What a treasure!

Throughout the evening many toasts were offered, all very sentimental except for one....Evan! He grabbed two plastic champagne flutes, banged them together and said "Attention" . Then he very clearly stated that we shouldn't touch the rocks because they were wet and hot and we shouldn't swim if we were drinking. He was very serious and bowed at the end. Very adult, very articulate but totally out of context. He knew it was an important occasion and that he should say something very important. We could not keep from laughing!!

Our chauffer brought us home by midnight, totally exhausted and emotionally overloaded. That's the way a great party should end!

Posted by Joan at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

That would be 50 years of marriage for us :) Wow! It seems like we never had any life other than together. We're in the process of getting zooted up for a family party to honor our 50 years together. We have no idea what the kids and grandkids have in store for us today but I'm sure I'll need a box of kleenex. Tears of joy!

We've had mostly good times in our marriage. I was thinking that the marriage vows really describe married life pretty well...something like "to love, honor and cherish, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health." Yep...been there, done that! We could add "through screaming and shouting, in sunshine and rain, in dancing and singing!!"

We asked ourselves the other day how we'd managed to have 50 pretty happy years together. We came up with a few ideas that you've heard before but we did actually strive to live this way. Never go to bed angry. Always say "I'm sorry" even if it's just I'm sorry we're fighting :) Hug and kiss every day. Take the monkey! Jim says I'm an expert at moving the monkey so that was his guideline. Give 100%.

I"m sure the kids and grandkids will have stories to contradict these ideas...like how they heard me tell Grandpa to get the effing banana out of his ear. Sure ...remember that's for better or worse :) There were some worse times. Like the time I was so mad I decided to leave everyone, backed the car out of the garage and missed the door. Didn't get very far :)

We were married in Gurnee, Illinois on a hot, muggy Midwestern day. Sunny morning and stormy afternoon. It rained so hard that my brother-in-law backed the car up on the church lawn, wrapped me in cardboard flower boxes and carried me into the church. (At least that's how I remember it :) It was so hot I remember the sweat pouring off Jim's nose as he put the ring on my finger. The ladies of the church provided a reception and then we went to my Mom's for dinner with the family.

The church we were married in, a little white country church with beautiful stained glass windows, is no longer there. The hotel we spent our wedding night in, Moraine on the Lake, in Highwood, Illinois, is gone. Our honeymoon cottage on Lake Holcombe doesn't show up on Google. But WE are still alive and kicking, looking forward to a great day with our wonderful family.

More on the celebration tomorrow. Maybe even a picture or two :)

Posted by Joan at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nick Russel's quote on his blog this morning really caught my eye. "You have to at least try to live your dream if you want it to come true." I think that's what we have been doing lately ...and it's a good thing.

We've been sitting still for 10 months and have been very focused on other things...not our travel dream. Often I thought we'd never get on the road again. But now I can see and feel that we'll be back out there. So we'd better get ready!

We got the dash AC repaired. The RV tech told us to run the AC once a month for 15 mnutes to keep the seals tight. The AC had been slowly going down hill because the seals were dried out..or something like that.

Son Jim is helping us get the tow bar repaired. Actually, it's the tow base plate that attaches under the car. Seems one day awhile back we went to lunch, turned into the restaurant drive at the wrong angle and the base plate wacked the curb. Result...a bent plate so the tow bar assembly would not fit in. The guys removed the bent plate, a new one is on order and that will be fixed soon.

The pump that circulates transmission fluid while the car is being towed has been on the fritz for awhile. One of those "sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't" things. Jim called the RV guy who fixed the electrical problems and he came today. Thinks he's isolated the problem and will be back with parts next week.

By the time this is all done I'll bet we'll have laid out $1000 but we'll be set to hit the road next spring. First stop, Tempe AZ! Spring training. Go Angels!!!

Posted by Joan at 07:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We're being kicked out! Well we knew this was coming because we'd signed the "lease" last January. But, dummy me, I thought the management might take pity on us and let us stay another month. NOPE! Evem though there are empty sites all week long we must take our 1200 dollars and leave. What kind of business management is this?

This RV Resort, Orangeland, has a monthly policy that you can only be here 7 months. Then you have to leave for two weeks, then you can return (to your same site!!) for another 7 months. August 21st is our deadline. They say it is part of their legal requirements. Ok..I can see that they don't want to have a whole park of permanent residents.

But they have people who have lived here for 28 years. Yes!! And they will tell you this in the same breath that they say you need to leave. So OK...we're leaving and we're not returning. We'll head out to Golden Village Palms where the rent is $600/ month and you can stay as long as you want and the amenities are 10 times what they are here. What's the downside? It's out in Hemet where the temps are still running in the 100's. And...the trip to the doctor is 2 hours instead of 30 minutes. Well, we've done that before.

Now that we are down to one/two doctor visits per week that won't be so bad. We've done it before. We'll just download some talk shows and toodle along the highway listening to commercial free radio. We do look forward to cleaner air, better biking and walking, exercise room and lovely pool complex. We'll just get up earlier to enjoy the coolness of the desert mornng.

Posted by Joan at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My friend and I took a little vacation lunch in the Orange Circle this week. I'd wanted to show her a little store I thought she'd enjoy--Dragonfly something or other. She's "into" dragonflies because she feels her mother, who died few years ago, has come back as a dragonfly and sort of watches over her. It's a lovely concept.

We ate lunch first at the Filling Station where we shared a quesadilla and a lovely Chinese chicken salad with mango, peanuts, mint and a balsalmic dressing. Quesadilla...OK. Salad....exquisite! We sat outside under shady umbrellas and tried to ignore the loud traffic and focus on the ambiance of the setting. We should have tried the funky restaurant next to the Dragonfly. It's called Rutabegorz and is a vegetarian place, I think. We could have had a quiet, off-street, outside table. Next time!

After meandering through the many rooms of the Dragonfly my friend bought a few gift items. She said she's found the perfect place to put together unique gift packages and she won't have to shop anywhere else! My Gurnee Girlfriends will know just what it's like because it reminded me so much of Door County, WI.

We strolled down the street looking for a final stop...something shady, cool, refreshing...ahhhh....an ice cream shop. With root beer!! Not just one kind of root beer, but a huge case filled with a variety of brands. Naturally, we decided on root beer floats. Black cows to me!! We got two mugs with ice cream and picked out Route 66 Root Beer to complete the treat.

I'll admit to being out of steam by the time we hit the ice cream shop but, all in all, a perfect little getaway :)

Posted by Joan at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have outdone myself!! For our Sunday brunch I created Eggs Benedict con Pomodoro. We are big on tomatoes this summer so when I decided to make Eggs Benedict I thought why not add a tomato slice. A wonderful addition but the stellar part was the Hollandaise Sauce. WOW!

I used Laura's famous recipe for sauce. She whips it up at the drop of a hat. Here it is:
Whisk 3 egg yolks and 1 Tblsp. lemon juice in a small saucepan.
Add 1/2 stick of butter and whisk continuously over low heat.
When that is melted add another 1/2 stick of butter and whisk until the sauce is thick.
(That's 1/2 cup butter total.)
The sauce should be very smooth and thick. If it breaks and curdles, add 1/2 to 1 Tbsp. boiling water and whisk hard.

OK...here's a picture of the perfect Eggs Benedict con Pomodoro. Too bad I didn't think to take the picture before I ate the first one :)

Timing is everything when you put this together. All at the same time you need:
Lightly toasted half of Thomas' English muffin Original
Warm slice of Canadian Bacon
Room temp thin slice of tomato
Poached egg - Three and one-half minutes is what I do
Stack that up and cover with....
Hollandaise sauce

I am still savoring the flavor. The sauce was absolutely, exquisitely perfect!!

Posted by Joan at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday eve I was merrily cooking BLTs when I created an overload...electrical. AC, microwave and toaster just don't work together. So a breaker popped and handy Jim reset that. Later in the evening he noticed that the house battery charger wasn't working so he turned that on...popped a breaker. Ooops! this is not good. The way we were set up the power to the outlets was coming from the battery. Mind you this is all happening at midnight...bedtime...brains are zapped.

We turned off ALL electrical stuff to reduce load on the batteries. Went to bed, couldn't sleep wondering what the hell is wrong and how much time and money will this take. Morning coffee session we were wrestling with the problem and I said," why are we having a power issue when we are plugged into the power pole on the site?" Well duh?! Light bulbs go off and Jim remembers that we can bypass the batteries and use power direct from the power pole. Most of you are probably set up that way. We had our system set to assure that if the park power failed the batteries would seamlessly kick in and maintain computer power with no interruption.

Ok...so my "dumb" question led us to resolve the issue temporarily but we still needed a fix. We also had a very important doctor appointment to get the results of Jim's CAT scan. Jim called a few mobile RV guys and found one who could come over late Friday. In the meantime we headed off to the doctor.

The good medical news is that Jim's lung tumors continue to decrease in size. The not so good is that they are not yet small enough to have the RFA procedure. We were very impressed that Doctor VDM had consulted with the RFA radiologist. Together they remeasured the tumors and agreed that another two rounds of chemo should do the trick. So six more weeks of chemo for Jim. The doctor is very optimistic that this will work and then the RFA treatment will get rid of the tumors. Then Jim can say he HAD cancer.

Jim is of course disappointed at more chemo, but encouraged that there is a good end to this :)

The RV repair guy arrived finally at 5:30 and was done by 6:00...voila. The problem? A loose power connection on the breaker panel! Geez! Jim could have fixed that if he'd thought to look there....never occured to us. We should have remembered..."always check your connections"....be it the washing machine, the computer or the power panel.

After this stressful day we relaxed with a glass of wine, chicken and mashed potatoes and a ballgame!

Posted by Joan at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)