Deerfield Beach Artfest with Juneau

A beautiful day at the Beach-dogs allowed today.

 

Sailboat

Chopsticks Already!

Island noodles all around.

A Sunday outing with the kids, their houseguest, Brandon, the O.F. and Juneau. My pups stayed home. We have been having gorgeous weather-cool fronts making thngs very temperate-even causing overshirts to make their appearance.  Juneau led us right to the food court and visited several vendors. Grampy sprung for a BBQ pork sandwich and Juneau got his bites. Island noodles and other good things too numerous to mention or sample were all around us. The artisans are getting stiff-necked about people taking photographs of their work. So I did not take many.  Didn't buy anything either. 

It was great being out on the beach and amongst the teeming throngs-people watching is GREAT down here. Unfortunately I started to "run out of gas" before the adventure was over. Jason kindly fetched the car while Lori sat with me. A nap later I was rested. I will look forward to getting "fixed."- not THAT way but heartwise.

Holding Pattern

"The Procedure" to rewire me has been moved again-Dr. Rosman is more comfortable with the "lab" at Delray Medical. Lord knows I want him to be comfortable! So we wait until February 12. Meanwhile my body has seemingly adjusted to a lot of the new normal and goes pretty much as as I like it to do. We are getting in two walks a day, though not as long as we previously took, we log about a mile per day. "Stooping to scoop" causes a little postural syncope but I haven't toppled yet.

Tasks are getting done-mostly maintenance but some forward progress too.  A long lost cousin contacted me in regard to the family history and that has been kind of fun. It rekindled my interest. She is a long yakker on the phone (2 plus hours) which I am less than enthusiastic about but is an interesting person. She is moving the story back into the old country better than has been done.  Valerie is both a rider and a writer. horse and screenplays.  She was right next to Francis Ford Coppola when he was filming Apocalypse Now. He would dictate and she would type. She has some stories to tell!

I will go to John Prince Park this week. I am hearing from some of my old friends and will go to visit.   I need to get off my duff and do some stuff-take some pictures.  I have been all inward: reading and viewing.  At this point it seems a little useless- lots of knowledge in there and nobody to listen to it.

Broken Distributor Cap

Life has gone on since I last blogged-very nice holidays and lots of fun.  The fall I have mentioned in addition to hurt bones and muscle, fractured a lead on my fancy heart device. For awhile I would be perking along and then all of a sudden "run out of gas," then need to sit or nap. I made a regular appointment with my Electrophysiologist for a routine checkup and they discovered the atrial lead  was working only when I held my arm and mouth in just the right way. Since then it has quit entirely. I am back to my own devices and a pulse rate of 45-50 bpm as opposed to my paced rate of 70.   So a "procedure" was scheduled and I went into the Boca hospital and was out on the operating table and they took a picture.  Seems my ventricular leads were both in the right chamber.  The fix for the atrial lead was to add a new one and leave the old wire in place. Three leads would have clogged the pipe too much. So I am now scheduled for a procedure that includes a cardiac surgeon who goes in and removes the old wires and implants new ones.  Have to go to Holy Cross hospital for that on the 28th of January. Friend Bonnie who types medical reports say this procedure is common and mostly successful.

Meanwhile I am in no distress but am running about "half." Tire easily, get light headed, but can conduct most of the activities of daily living.  I was really kind of relieved to find there was something wrong because I spent most of the fall thinking I was just failing-the curtain was falling or this old chassis was headed for the junk yard.  There may be a more lively chapter or two ahead.

Catch Up

Lori, Jason and the O.F. went to Ruth's Criss Steakhouse for  Turkey dinner on Thanksgiving. The ambience was ritzy, the staff attentive, the food very tasty. We each ordered a different side and Jason went the extra step and ordered all the sides! For his kindness he noted a $30.00 charge for a side of green beans. They fixed it but we noted somebody else had the same problem.  Kind of makes you go "hmmm."  One difference between the commonplace and the ritzy is the quality of the "to go" bags. Although we were completely pleased with the taste of our food we all had the queasies the next day.A leisurely drive home on the A-1-A: Ft. Lauderdale to Deerfield made the perfect outing. We were among the last to traverse it as the high tides and storms washed part of it away along with big swathes of beach.

The war on the snails seem to be working. My nearly bare Bougainvillea bushes are already leafing out and getting showy. A little TLC on the other plants has them looking better too. My master gardener friend Sooz sent organic solutions for snail problems (beer salt, and   tipped over pots). I am completely committed to organic solutions until I find a hole in a leaf-then the poison comes out.

Thayne called-he saw the mail lady was putting mail in my mailbox. The forwarding notice evidently didn't register. I thought it had because there was no shortage of mail here. It was crisp in Wyoming ad they were getting ready to bring the cows back from the mountain pasture. It has been very moderate weather here. Loving it

I have resumed my upper body workouts and only pay at bedtime. Tylenol is effective. We have resumed daily walks with the dogs but Hoey is wearing her pinch collar. I am not crazy about those collars but she is a strong willful girl and it is a matter of self preservation: it is this way or no-way. She seems to enjoy the walks as much as Buster. We still go to the dog park once or twice a week.

I  got to Labcorp for my blood tests and should hear from Dr. Cohn before long. So overall I am doing pretty well.  Mobile, and upright.

The Christmas decorations came out and were arranged and lit. I do like the shiny lights but I probably annoy with my largely secular or pagan displays.

Rich called a few minutes ago..He and Val are in Hawaii to visit Val's daughter, Melissa.  found them a cabin in the forest with hot tub and abundant bird and vegetation life. They helicoptered to a volcano eruption site and followed the magma to the sea. Hawaii has a high altitude of 14,000 feet.

Greg and Lew called as they were pulling out  of their hometown on their migration southward.  

Life is Better

 

Saturday lunch at the Cove was a pleasant interlude. We drove and watched the boats pull up this time as opposed to  our disembarking. I discovered the Green Market-it changes places every year it seems  Afterwards Lori invited me to view the stuff that is going out the door as new stuff is coming in the door. I got some treasures though I pledge to keep it down-enough stuff here already. The remodel is coming right along-I can foresee the end result. I think it will be stunning.  

 

The doggies at play in the backyard. They had a good outing at the dog park and came home full of beans.
Dog people are nice people. It is nice to socialize with them while the doggies do the same.  They got their very first neighborhood walk this very day. The mornings have been on the brisk side so there was no need to beat the heat and I got the  morning soreness out before we went. It went pretty well  though there was some after-pain. I am able to do more and more. The yard is benefiting. Some of my plants needed some TLC.  I went to Ace to see if there was something that would kill snails as they were devastating some plants. The helpful hardware man kind of creeped me out telling how he knows Bug-Getta works because he sees the snails foaming at the mouth. He was a little too gleeful.

Of course I have been reading,reading. reading as well as enjoying some football. The Ducks/Stanford game was a thriller, though I was rooting for the Ducks. Enjoyed the Steelers game for the drama.

Delightful

The weather in Wyoming is getting pretty chilly in my neighborhood-some 19's and 32's on the thermometer. Meanwhile Florida, in my neighborhood, has been almost magically temperate. The door is frequently open to admit dogs and fresh air and the air conditioner rarely kicks on at 76 degrees. A little rain a little wind but nice.

My aches are receding quite a bit and I can now do quite a few things around here. That is a real boost to the old attitude. I can see that falls for seniors have more import- I reflect on getting bucked off a horse onto my head and recovering in a few days, hanging by my ankle from a chain drive International dump truck-that required a cast,  getting run over by a hay sled, and numerous bike and motorsickle rashes but nothing that has has hung on so long or been so dispiriting.

I got an e-mail from Big Lots that they had rope lights for $6.50 a strand and since my last year garden lights are mostly toast and were causing the breaker to trip I went up there. Found a Kay Scarpetta book for $3.00- a big fat hardback that revealed how spoiled I am by the Kindle experience. Not handy at all for reading while dining, requires bright light, and is heavy. On the other hand, books don't need to be charged up. The Kindle reader resides on all of my "devices" so it goes everywhere and I always have something to read and always on the page where I left off..

The kids went to Charm City and brought yummy burgers for lunch the other day. Between their sickness and remodeling stuff, I have not seen much of them so the visit was a treat. They are mending and making progress.

Next time I will have done something interesting-I promise

Election Day 2012

The pundits are nattering about nothing as the ballots are counted. I voted in Wyoming. I'm not sure what the fuss is about-we have a choice between a Democrat wimp and another clueless Republican. The result in either case: we are screwed. The media reminds me of pow-wow announcers-no dead air even if you have to speak in tongues.

Honey found a big ol' poison toad this evening and I had to rinse her mouth and wash her gums with a microfiber cloth. She seems fine but I am not her favorite parson right now. We did get to the dog park yesterday. It had been closed for 8 weeks due to storm related swampiness. They enjoyed their time and slept well. The dog park is one left turn and one right turn-then a straight shot down Highway 1.

Today Amazon via Fedex delivered  a steering wheel knob. In the olden days we called them "necking knobs" because they allowed you to steer and have one arm around your girl (waaay before bucket seats). I had checked West Marine for one, checked the $70.00 price tag and hit Amazon.  I wanted one that flipped down like my brother had in his old Chrysler sedan. I couldn't find  one exactly like it but finally ordered one billed as "Folding steering knob for beginners and Korea girls." ($22.00) I installed it 3 times given my gimpiness but it works fine and I can turn left and right without whining with pain. I am glad to have some (auto)mobility back.

Truth to tell I am getting a little bummed-cabin fever due to the aches from the fall. After the major left arm pain lessened, the ones on my hip and right wrist emerged.  Hurt to sit, get up, etc. but that is much better. My left arm is some better but is still very painful-can't slice an onion, can't lift my coffee cup, have to reach across to close the car door,  and worst of all, I reach a painful spot before my fork gets to my mouth.

But life goes on and I have done a lot of little puttering around  tasks. The vacuum cleaner works right-handed. Jason and Lori have a bug but I got it together enough to put some homemade chicken soup together (no sliced onions), put the crock pot in the van and steering -knobbed myself all 8 blocks to their house.Kept my distance.  Bless their hearts-their house is still in disarray but coming right along.