RV Update…..Actually, Updates In General

First, thanks to all those who commented about Scott’s death, he will be missed. It’s hard to imagine why he felt he had to end his life but there is a reason for everything, hopefully it makes his parents closer.

This Wednesday I’m up for the Doppler test for my legs, that should take about 3 hours and then Thursday I get blood tests and X-Rays and if the last time was any clue, it will be another half day in the hospital waiting. Good thing is it should be one more step in making sure there is nothing wrong with the blood flow to my legs and hopefully a reason why there is so much numbness will be revealed. Neuropathy has been fully ruled out, so something is causing it, just need to find out what it is!

We got a call from the RV dealer, they are finally making headway with the parts to repair the slide topper/awning. They don’t want to install a new slide topper because it will leave holes that have to be repaired and no matter how well you’ll still see them. So, they are having the parts made to repair the mechanism, how cool is that? Collier RV in Rockford, IL ROCKS, pure and simple.

We picked up the RV today and put it in storage so it’s available to use for the Memorial day weekend and to pick out the color for the new slide topper should they have no choice but to install one. I have to admit, I LOVE getting into the rig and driving it, I could drive it cross country I like it so much. Alas I only went about 5 miles to the storage place. The damn toilet wasn’t holding water again, but you know what? Who cares! I can fix eeeeeeeeeet! I priced a new toilet, why you ask? Great question!

If we replace the toilet we can get one that sits higher and has a better flushing mechanism for under $200.00. In the meantime I put some petroleum jelly on the ball and it’s holding water again. When we were done camping the last time I added 5 gallons of water and ice and some Dawn dish washing liquid into the tank, the non-anti-bacterial kind so it wouldn’t kill the bacteria in the tank. I was worried it would create methane gas and with it not holding water I was also afraid it would stink to high heaven but there was no odor at all! Great news! I am getting a wand that has jets attached and when we take the rig to Sugar Shores this weekend (we got the huge lot again!!) I am going to power wash the tank from the tank flush and the wand. If that doesn’t get rrrr done nothing will!

While at Collier RV we saw another great RV, a 2006 Holiday Rambler Admiral with dual rear bedroom slides, a desk and recliner in the bedroom and 22.5 inch wheels. It was our dream floor plan! We can dream right! Anyway, we will hopefully be heading out to Sugar Shores this Thursday night, we’ll see how the week plays out.

Another War Casualty

I started working for a start up in 2002, I bid the job and won it. The job was supposed to last about 2 weeks and I have been there ever since. The first few weeks there the partners son would come in and help out. I recovered corrupted homework for him and helped him with computers and we worked together for a short period, he was a real nice kid. He joined the Army after High School and I haven’t seen him since. He did very well and they trained him for Special Forces and he became a sniper.

He had that job for two years in both Iraq and Afghanistan, he was home this past weekend, while there he dressed in his Army dress uniform, walked out into the driveway and killed himself. I struggle with what to say to his parents, what are the right words, do they exist? I don’t think so, so we say or fumble words to convey our thoughts and we move on while the family is left to try and figure out why their son took his own life.

War is hell and I imagine being a sniper puts you up close and personal knowing who you’re going to kill and preparing each shot to do so and then pulling the trigger. They train you on how to deal with it but I think many of them struggle with the effects after. I can only guess what was going though his mind that was so bad that ending his life was the only recourse for him to feel he had to take.

I cried like a baby hearing of his death, as much for all the men and women who have died as for him. I pray the price they have paid isn’t wasted. My thoughts regarding the thousands who have died mirrors General Patton so I’ll quote him and end with that.

Rest in peace Scott.

"In my mind we came here to thank God that men like these have lived rather than to regret that they have died." - George S. Patton

Where Are All The Bee’s Going????

I read an article this morning explaining that cell phones are helping to kill off bee’s all over the planet. My first thought was no frickin way, how can a cell phone kill a bee? Check out this article for more information. Honestly I don’t know what to think, but there should be a way to change frequency for these devices considering every phone made today is multi frequency capable and how many use the old 900MHz GSM standard? Reading further they suggest it’s possibly phone generated electromagnetic fields but heck electromagnetic fields can vary wildly anyway and since when do we place cell phones directly into a bee nest?

I know 900MHz was just a sample and all phones emit a field so how did the bee’s act in normal situations where people don’t call a bee hive directly? Let’s at least take the study to the next level. To me, if this study is true it would be in our best interest 2 years after the study to do a more in depth analysis and find out what’s really going on.

I know I have 3 cell phones in my house that get plenty of use and the wasps have no problem building nests (maybe they don’t qualify) in my eaves and the bee’s seem to be everywhere and don’t fly away from me when I’m talking on the cell phone. I hope they do another study and we find out something solid soon, if bee’s pollinate 70% of the worlds food supply, maybe we should figure this out real soon.

Doctor Update & Gadgets Gadgets Gadgets….

With Blogger down I didn’t get a chance to post an update. The results came back, the lymphocytes are still around 15 so I wait another 3 weeks before I go in again. The doctor ordered a new arterial Doppler on both legs since the previous test wasn’t done after strenuous exercise so I’m doing that on 5/25. The doc also stated he doesn’t want me to do the Corporate Challenge because of my legs since we can’t get the test results prior to the event which is on 5/26. It’s only 3.5 miles but the numbness in my lower legs seems to kick in around a mile. I haven’t made up my mind yet but I want to do it so I may just go slow and easy. It took an hour last year to walk it, I had hoped to do better this year but now I just want to do it, time doesn’t matter.

Gadget time…

We bought my wife a new phone this week, the Samsung Fascinate and now she has gone from somebody that texting to somebody that it. She also loves the Android phone, welcome to the smartphone revolution hon!

While there I bought the windshield mount and universal battery charger. The windshield mount turns my Thunderbolt into a true GPS unit, it even changes the home screen to look like a GPS home screen, too cool! The battery charger is a rechargeable battery in itself, this will come in handy when there isn’t any power available because the Thunderbolt is one thirsty phone! I also picked up a 2 port USB charger to plug into a cigarette lighter socket.

                   Samsung Fascinate       Motorola P793 Universal Power Pack

                 

                                             Thunderbolt Window Mount

                                    

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!

 

To all the mothers in Blogsville I wish you all a very Happy Mothers Day. I would have posted that this morning but we were in a rush to get to the in-laws.

Got A Bit Of A Scare This Week

First, we’re holding off on another dog for now, but I wanted to thank everybody for their comments and we’ll consider everything you folks said, thanks!

I’m a diabetic, so every 3 months or so I get blood taken so the doctors and I can see how control of my blood sugar or lack there of is going. This test as many of you know, but for those that don’t is called the A1C. 2 years ago, my A1C was 14.9 and I weighed nearly 290lbs. Needless to say neither of these numbers are good, also somehow I went from being a tad over 6 foot tall to 5’11, how do you lose an inch in height!?

Anyway, on Monday I got the call from the nurse who leads with “The doctor needs to see you to go over the blood work results”. My response of course can you give me any numbers over the phone? She tells me my white blood count is pretty low, ok I think, so? I look up low white blood cell count on the web and up pops possible HIV or Cancer…. So I call back and ask for some specifics because now my wife is about ready to lose it. She works for an Oncology office and does not want her husband there as a patient.

The nurse tells me my Lymphocytes are 13 and the norm is between 22 to 40 and then starts explaining stuff I don’t understand but the doctor will explain it to me when I come in for a visit. I went there last night with my wife and we find out there are many things that can cause the low numbers but the concern is also that I’m showing elevated white cell counts for another part of the CBC panel. I don’t have the paper work here but they want to rule out Cancer, HIV is out of the question. Today I went and gave more blood, and EKG etc.. and they took an X-Ray of my back, you’d think this wouldn’t take almost an entire day to accomplish but it did.

One other possible cause is the Diabetic drugs I’m on, specifically the injection of Victoza. A study of this drug produced cancer in test mice but the doctor says the chance of dying of Cancer from this drug is much less than dying of Diabetes. So if I have Cancer it’s probably not from this drug, not that I think the doctor would admit it if it was. My doctor is on maternity leave so I have never met with this doctor before, I believe my doctor would be more up front with me, at least I hope she would.

Here is the good news however, my weight is at 254 and my A1C is at 7.8, only .8 away from my minimum target of 7. My weight has gone up a bit from 248 but I’m working on it. Hopefully I get great news on Monday. While at the doctors office he took my pulse around my ankles and he tells me he doesn’t like the pulse in the right leg, I explain to him we have been through this already with my regular doctor and the tests showed my left leg was 133% and my right leg was 125% better than normal blood flow but he remains unconvinced so orders new tests for PAD AGAIN.   So, I tried to get that handled today as well but was unable to so will be calling them again Monday to get a weekend appointment hopefully.

At this point I’m remaining positive and conversations I had at the hospital point that way as well. Some people have low Lymphocytes but looking at my records shows I’m not typically one of them, until now that is, so maybe because of many factors they will remain low or maybe the blood work will show some other reason for it or maybe they’ll show normal or closer to it.

So cross your fingers for good news! Oh joy, tomorrow I go to the dentist!

Giving Loki A New Friend Saves Money

We pay $300.00 per month for doggy day care to keep Loki from destroying our house. Since we are gone at minimum 10 hours a day for my wife and 12 to 13 hours a day for me Loki can’t be left alone for that long, heck she can’t be left alone for 5 minutes without making the Basenji scream and scaring everybody within a few blocks. Then while doing her scream she tears up everything around her, she just can’t be left alone. She is awesome but a real pain as well.

We have been told she might calm down a bit if we got another dog to keep her company. By getting another dog we could actually end up saving money as well as provide companionship for the mutt.  My worry is we will end up with two dogs that can’t handle it at home but we can return the dog if it doesn’t work out. We would hate to but if it doesn’t work what else can you do?

Initial research puts these dogs at around 45 to 50 lbs at full adult age. The only dog that doesn’t fit that is the already named Thor, he is at 80lbs and has reached full size. Also our research shows these dogs have all been tested with other dogs, people and cats and supposedly are very playful and not timid or scared like the first dog we got last year. If you adopt a scared timid dog it has likely been abused so you really need to have the time to bring the dog around and out of his/her shell. We don’t have that amount of free time. Here are the dogs as the list is today. The adoption fee is $300.00, they have all their shots, have been spayed or neutered and are ready for homes.

First up is Dakota, should we adopt him his name will become Thor. So we will have Loki and Thor, what awesome names! No name picked out for a female yet but we’re thinking about it! What do you guys think?

                             Dakota - Female            Already named Thor! – Male

                 

                       Squiggles – Female                Willie – Male

                    

                    Tinker – Female             Brynn – Female

                    

                      Smiles – Female                    Keebo – Male

                

                                                    Bear – Male

                               

Sugar Shores Campground Pictures

Here is a little pictorial run through of Sugar Shores in Durand, IL.

     The entrance to Sugar Shores           The main buildings and pool area

 

      The work shop and tool shed                              The pavilion

 

                         Miniature golf, the wife loves the Penguins.

 

Frog Pond, quiet now, give it a month!        River view with lots to the right

 

                      Nice lots                                      One of many for sale

 

       Phase II, a lot of lots for sale                Right before I put up the awnings

 

I took many more pictures but you get the gist of the place from these I think.

The trip went very well, the salesman gave his best pitch and of course we had to turn him down for now but believe me when I tell you if we could have bought a lot we would have. Prices were anywhere from $10,900.00 and up but who knows maybe in a few years we’ll be able to give it some serious thought.

While packing everything up and dumping the tanks I discovered our expensive Rhino sewer hose started leaking from one of the couplings while dumping the gray tank. Um, really, $60.00 sewer hose less than a year old and suddenly it leaks?!? So I run clear water through the hose and drain it real good, go into the rig and break out the petroleum jelly and after drying the rubber gaskets, I give them a coating and wipe them down. I put them back together and let it rip and no more leaks, this stuff is as useful as duct tape!!

Speaking of which, remember when I said during our last trip the toilet bowl wouldn’t hold water? Ever since I cleaned the seal and used petroleum jelly on the seal and it has been working perfectly since. Considering everything, a successful weekend we think! We dropped the rig off at Collier and saw another rig was just parked there and their slide topper was ruined, I should have taken a picture, the damage to theirs was significant for both the front and rear slides. Considering the wind we have been having lately it’s no wonder!

The rig is now back in line waiting for the parts to come in. We’re not sure when we’ll be going back out but we’re going to shoot for some time in May. That’s all for now! Have a great week everybody!