Becky.......Day Five...........and

she's getting rather belligerent and balky. I even let her sleep in until nearly 0730; but, she didn't get started on her "chores" until late this afternoon. I was going to let her relax tomorrow; but, now I guess she'll have to wax the motorhome and car since it wasn't accomplished today. She also managed to do a little work on the patio and tomorrow she should be able to get the patio furniture ship shape. Sure is hard to get good help nowadays!

A quiet day for both of us.........think she walked around the block a couple of times, did her breathing exercises and the rest of the day we just loafed. Rhonda called and was going to bring the boys up to see Granny; but, end of season baseball activities took a big hunk out of their day so they'll probably make a speed run up from Woodland tomorrow.

Later. Wayne

Becky .........Day 4 1/2..............

We got home about noon and you can see that I've wasted no time in outlining some light chores that will keep her occupied for a little while. Back to a more "heavy duty" list for tomorrow. Wayne

Actually, she's doing great, surfing on computer and resting when she feels she needs to!!!

Becky ---- Day 4...............

It's about 0830 right now and Becky just called me. She was pacing the hallway this morning and ran into her doctor, after a brief chat he told her he'd write an order to let her go home today. She has a return appointment at his office next week and all results of tests will be available then. No telling how long it will take for the paperwork to get completed so I'll head to Chico about 1000. The propoganda the hospital puts out ses they try to get patients out of there by 1100 when they are released so hopefully we'll be home shortly after noon. (Good thing, for a moment I thought I'd have to mow the lawn; but, she should be able to get that done later this afternoon, or maybe she'll let it slide until tomorrow). Lots of laundry and dishes to be done too............should keep her busy for awhile............in the meantime I'll continue working on her "honey do" list.

Later. Wayne

Becky --- Day Three.......

and you can see by the photos that she is up and about. She got unhooked from all her equipment and just has an IV remaining where they can push anti-biotics. I didn't get there until about 1100 this morning and she's been prowling the hallways and doing breathing exercises. I hung around until about 1600, couldn't keep my eyes open any longer so when she settled back for some rest before dinner I snuck outta there. Never did see her surgeon today and the pulmonary doc was in but still no results of biopsy tests. Seems like everyone thinks that she is going home tomorrow.............but no confirmation from the surgeon. I guess when he hears the news he'll probably let her go. Everyone remarks on how "great" she is doing. This is due to the technique the surgeon used...........instead of large, invasive sugery, he opted to make some small incisions between her ribs and remove the tumor and surrounding tissue. There was no need to separate her ribs so we're grateful for that. This has definitely hastened her recovery time. She also said she got a good nights sleep last night..........probably slept better than I did.

I took her telephone to her so she's in hog heaven. Her sister from Missouri called shortly after I arrived so here's a picture of her in a familar pose. Also flowers from the Hoosiers in Indiana arrived today. Other two pictures are of the scenery from her hospital bed...............really not too much to write home about.

That's all for now folks....................later. Wayne

Becky ---- Day Two...................

and she's doing very well. Rhonda stayed over in Corning and left to visit her mommy this morning. They were cackling and giggling like a couple of old hens when I arrived later. Monitoring equipment is being removed one by one and tomorrow Becky should be prowling the hallways as soon as she loses a drainage tube. She's moving slowly but wants to get up move around as soon as she can. The only pain medication she's needed are a couple of vicodin this morning. The appetite is back and she even wolfed down some of that hospital food this evening like it was a T-Bone.

Her pulmonary doctor stopped by and we inquired about the bioposy results and he told us it would take a couple of more days to have them. Right now she's doing breathing exercises 4 times a day under supervision and then they have her working on some exercises on her own..........which she has been doing. That'll keep her busy as her TV is broken.............she doesn't watch much TV but listens to it.

Rhonda headed back to Woodland late this afternoon and Becky dozed awhile after she left but she's been awake all day so should get some good siesta time tonight. I'll be going back tomorrow around noon and will keep you posted on her progress.

Wayne

About 2220 Pacific Time..... Update on Becky.

Hello everyone……….I know that some of you are unaware that Becky underwent surgery today so this is new for you. She asked that I keep everyone updated on her surgery/progress on my blog since it was simpler than trying to shoot out a bunch of emails.

Some background: she saw her doctor when we returned to CA and he sent her in for chest x-rays on April 30. A spot showed up on her right lung and the month of May has been one test after another. Tests showed a cancerous tumor in her lung and it had to be surgically removed. She underwent surgery this afternoon, the tumor was removed and we were finally able to visit her about 1900 after spending time in the recovery room. The doctor believes that after recovery from the surgery she will still have to undergo further treatment as he thinks the cancer cells have invaded lymph nodes that could not be removed. More biopsies are being conducted so we will have more information later.

At the present time she is in her hospital room, awake and talking. They will keep her under close monitoring for the next 24 hours. She will probably spend about 6 days in the hospital………it depends on how well she responds. Her daughter, Rhonda, close friend Judy and I have been at the hospital all day and Rhonda and I will be going back over there tomorrow morning.

That’s all the information we have at this time and I’ll post updates as we gain more information. She is one scrappy lady and this is one step in the right direction.

Thank you for those who have called, sent emails and offered their prayers and best wishes.

Wayne

Day After the Big Event..................

and I needed 5 more caches to get past 1300 so off we went. I poked around in a hole by a tree and couldn't find #1300.........looked like a good hole for critters so I went back to the car for some gloves and then found the cache about 15 feet away stuck in the bough of some trees. Must not have been much of a milestone 'cause now I can't even remember the name of the cache! We hunted around found a few more, including a "Farmer" cache. There's a bunch of these caches around Chico and we nearly got to the point where we would just stop and look around whenever we saw a farm machinery sign. Most of today's caches were easy finds except one in a parking lot near a hardware store. We were all over the place...........coordinates taking us to the middle of the main road. Some guy from the store gave us a "hint"............top of the post he said. That would be find if one were 8 feet tall. A little girl climbed up the pole and didn't find the cache. Someone finally found it at the base of the pole.

We drove down to the Thunder Casino about 15 or so miles from Wheatland and Becky had a players card that had $20.00 worth of free play. We had lunch, Becky won about $17.00 from her free play and then gave it all back to another slot machine. On our way out I dropped some money in a machine and eventually quit when we had recovered the cost of our lunch.

We stopped for a few more caches on the way home and at the last one we shot the breeze with some people who were on their way home. They had spent yesterday volunteering at the event and still had one more event to go to tomorrow where they were also helping out. We asked if they knew what the attendance had been and they thought about 3,300 people attended. Also said we didn't miss much when I told them we missed the dinner. They took a picture of Becky and I before we departed ways.

Heading back to Corning tomorrow morning sometime.

W&B

GEOWOODSTOCK VI........................

the giant, huge, out-of-this-world geocaching event finally arrived today!! And we were there.........it probably wasn't anything like the original Woodstock; however, I'm sure the attendees had as much fun. We arrived around 1000 and found a bunch of cars and people already there. I only own three geocoins so Becky took pictures of them for me at the entrance. The parking lot had a whole bunch of vehicles that were travel bugs that could be logged as discovered. Becky took a bunch of pictures of them and will probably log them........I used to log the TBs but they became overwhelming for me to keep track of so I don't do that anymore. At the entrance I again met the "Retired Professor" who was talking to "Graniteman". We chatted for awhile; or I should we listened, believe the Prof can talk your ears off. Graniteman puts out some interesting caches, seems he has access to tools at work, including diamond drills, that he uses to create some really neat caches from granite. Will have to check him out and see if any of his caches are nearby that we can hunt down tomorrow. They had lots of booths set up peddling their wares and Becky was in Hog Heaven. She ended up with a bag of goodies and probably spent her last month's allowance. The event was held at a farm set up for entertaining kids. They had a train ride, animals, etc. etc. for the kids so it was a fine family affair. One lady had a Skwerl Travel Bug on display that won a race starting in Holland and ending up back in Roseville, Ca. A couple of "cuties" really enjoyed Becky's walking stick, Frankin Bears and everyone who saw him commented on this fine piece of work.

Jeff, of Team 360, had his "Original Can of Beans" there and was also peddling the Illegal Alien Geocoin..........naturally Becky now has one...........I don't know the story behind this coin so will have to do some research on it..........they probably weren't refering to "illegal aliens" from Mars!

They had various contests, a stage set up with a band and things pretty much going on all day. We met Minnie and Mike from San Diego, we had run into them on a number of occasions in Yuma. They were going to wrap up their geocaching and spend the next few days just sightseeing. We finally left the event and started geocaching around Wheatland. Geocaching wasn't too difficult today...................all you had to do was drive down the road until you saw a bunch of people stopped, hop out of the car and sign the cache log. Well it was about that easy for a lot of the caches and we kept meeting the same group of people in our travels. In the next to the last picture we arrived first at a cache and spent considerable time looking for it.............other people and cars arrived and it was stumping us. Finally a bunch of young guys all dressed up alike pulled up and one of them finally found it. They are a group of cachers from Denmark, Team DKO8, who set a record for finding 315 caches in a 24 hour period. More info on the web of their activities. Last picture is of a "5/5" cache we found, accidentally. It's a traveling cache that is supposed to stay in Oregon; but, it was brought down just for the event and will return to Oregon. The only way to find it is to be in the right place at the right time so guess thats how it obtained its rating.

We missed out on the "free dinner", as we were out and about adding about 20 more caches to our find list and missed the dinner hour. That's OK 'cause I can imagine the backed up lines trying to feed over 3,000 people. Becky made it over 1300 today but I'm still 5 short of the 1300 mark. If the weather is OK we'll probably go looking for some more caches tomorrow and that should put me over the 1300 hump.

Not a bad day............enjoyed chatting with a lot of people..............met one old guy from Massachusetts and I asked him if he came here just for the event. He said yes and has attended 4 of the 6 Mega Events ever held. Some people are really NUTS about stuff!

Later. B&W

We're At Beale AFB.............

located near Wheatland, CA where the Mega Geo Caching Event, Geo Woodstock VI, is taking place tomorrow. We arrived here Thursday afternoon, attended a small event in Wheatland that evening and drove down to Roseville today for the Friday Meet and Greet Event. These are pre-events before the "big-un". We saw a few people we knew from other places and met a few more that we only knew through their geocaching names on logs.

Following are a few pictures taken from last night and this afternoon. Last night we split a steak from Bill's Place...the bar was small and very, very crowded but the food was pretty good. We stayed for the door prizes and raffle but didn't win anything. Some Old Guy came up to me and introduced himself as "1whitevette"...........a new fan of mine!! I placed a cache in Corning that no one could find, he and his wife went home thought about it and then he drove about a 100 miles round trip to get his FTF! At both events we met up with "Rock" and "Crystal", middle picture, who are two of the main sponsors behind this event. Also talked to the "Retired Professor" who has the number one rating for caches placed in California. About 2 weeks ago he had placed about 680 and today he said his numbers were up to 705 or so placements. Along this line, he said he met a cacher from Florida who has placed 750 caches. Guess he's got more work to do!! Don't tell his wife; but, the Prof places a Two Dollar Bill in every cache for a FTF prize. Didn't get a pic of the Prof but he saw me and shot the breeze over one of my caches that took him several months to find until he finally asked for a hint. Strange how we remember names and faces. Leaving Roseville Becky took a picture of the gas prices....................I filled up twice at the AFB and the gas price rose 4 cents a gallon from yesterday until today.

Tomorrow we'll spend some time at the Big Event. Probably head for home Sunday or early Monday morning.

Later, W&B

Wednesday.....And The Heat Wave.....................

is over-----at least for the moment. Didn't do much of anything the last few days except try to stay cool. Yesterday and today have been outstanding weatherwise. Tomorrow we have a couple of stops to make in Chico and then we should be on our way toward Wheatland, CA........the home of the gigantic, mega, geocaching event of Geo Woodstock VI!! Have a reservation at the Family Camp at Beale AFB for 4 days and it appears to be about 15 miles from the event so should have no problem getting around. I read in the newsletter today that the event expects to feed about 2,700 people so I image there will probably be over 3,000 in attendance. People have been working on this event for over 10 months. Hope to take a bizillion pictures with my new camera. I shipped my old camera off to be repaired and lo and behold, they sent me a refurbished camera instead of repairing mine, I had the first generation of this particular Canon camera and now I have the fifth generation at no charge! Nice to see a company that really stands behind their product. (This is a plug for Canon cameras).

Rhonda drove up from Woodland this afternoon and now she and Becky are off exploring somewhere. ???? Good, as I still have to download a bunch of geocaches to place on my Palm and that'll take a little time. I've been trying to refigure out how to use the Palm since I haven't used it for 7 or 8 months and after several emails to figure out how to make a software program work I think I finally got it. The software is good but the technoweenie who wrote the programs didn't spend enough time giving instructions to technically challenged users (me). I think I got it working now though.

More later..........hopefully I'll be able to give you a photo tour of a mega geocaching event when we get back.

Later, W&B

Well, It's Another Saturday..................

and we're heading down to Woodland to see kids, take in Brutie's baseball game and maybe try our casino luck on the way home this evening. We haven't been doing too much except try to escape from the heat.........yesterday the patio thermometer showed 101 degrees and the NW news stations were making a giant production of their "heat wave". I had my geocache published in the desert south of Yuma and naturally some "nuts" went out to find it. One cacher posted a picture of his thermometer at the site and it read 112.5 degrees........before he left the temperature had risen to 114! Guess it's really not that hot here after all.

Well, we're off. Later. W&B

Car Show Weekend In Corning...................

things got started yesterday but we didn't make it downtown so this morning we graced the main drag with our presence for a little while. Placed a few caches the other day so am posting some pics of them. Thursday we took Becky's bud Kay down to the airport and then stopped at Rhonda's for a short visit. Thought old Brutus (Bryce) would be sporting a nice shiner but he only had a little blue spot on his cheek. (Some mother's tend to blow things out of portion!!) Becky picked up her Mother's Day goodies and then we headed back to Corning.

Missed the pancake breakfast this morning but arrived downtown in time to take in the "Burn Out Finals". There's a cement strip in front of the police station where the contest is held every year. Some of these guys are kinda impressive, especially, when they keep the tires spinning until one blows out. We hung around until the smoke drove us out of there. There were some nice cars on display..........I liked the little dune buggy that was for sale but no one would buy it for me!

Here's a few pics.

Hey Ed..........just read your comment.........Congrats to you and Linda on a new grand baby! I'm still considering a "chick magnet" but I'm having too much success without additional aids!!

A Quick Update..............

which won't take long because we haven't been doing much the last few days. Still trying to get my geocaching info updated so that we can receive notification on new caches in the area...........still getting notifications from Yuma! I think I finally figured it out so maybe we can get back into the hunt for those elusive FTFs. We've also placed 6 new caches the last week.......had a good one that stumped everyone and it was only in place for week before it got stolen...........then it apparently was replaced by the cache thief, so rather then play games with cache thieves I just picked it up and archived the listing. Bummer! A little different around here than Yuma...........sometimes a new cache just sits there before anyone looks for it..........in Yuma they generally are found litterly minutes after they are published, day or night.

Becky's friend is moving from Chico back to Missouri so we're driving her down to Sacramento to catch a plane later today. Bryce has a baseball game at 1700 so will take that in and then drive back home this evening. Rhonda called yesterday and report that Bryce has a black eye.........seems like he is confused with the old saying "Keep your eye on the ball"........with him it turned out to be "Keep the ball on your eye" as he got wacked with a baseball again. I'll have to pitch him some more crap on that one this afternoon.

Later, W&B

Weekend Finally Arrives..............

and we haven't done too much since our BD adventure on Thursday. We did manage to get 4 caches planted and so far 3 have been found and 1 is stumping the locals. Those who remember my Guru #9 I planted near Ligurta would have no problem. Apparently the cachers in this area haven't seen this type of a hide yet. I even reused the same containers.

This afternoon we were bored so drove out to the casino to try our luck..........which was no luck at all today, we managed to give them the $33.00 that we had won on Thursday. With only a ten minute drive to the casino it sure gets to be too damn close at times.

Weather has been GREAT and it will continue for awhile. Picked up a big pack of baby back ribs at Costco the other day so tomorrow may be our test day..........Becky has been scouring the internet for a good rib marinade/rub and finally came up with a couple of choices which we'll probably try out.

My camera broke down about a year ago and I've been using Becky's (when she lets me) and that means we both publish nearly the same pictures on our Blogs. I finally called Canon today, talked to the repairman and he diagnosed the problem, at least he's pretty sure what the problem is, and said they would pay for shipping and fix the camera with "no charge" since this model has experienced problems with an internal chip. I had hoped they would just offer to replace the camera with a newer model. Becky sent her's in for repair and I think she got a brand new 3rd generation camera for about a hundred bucks or so. Whatever, hope I can get it back before we head toward the NW in June.

That's about it for this neck of the woods. Later. W&B

Birthday Adventure................

started with the "sharp eyed" Becky unable to spot her BD rose sitting next to her favorite chair. I placed it the vase with some fake flowers and she never noticed it! Since we were leaving kinda early she opened her BD cards and emails Wednesday evening. I finally pointed out the rose for her. We started BD at the Rolling Hills Casino with Judy and Bob treating us to a BD Breakfast. Left there about 0930 to visit the various casinos on the to a BD dinner at Steve and Rhonda's in Woodland. First two stops were at the Gold Country and Feather Falls casinos in Oroville. Becky received $5.00 from each of them and we gambled that away. After that I took her shopping at the Army Surplus store in Oroville. She was too picky and didn't find anything worthy of her tastes there; however, I found some containers that I can use for geocache hides and bought a few. From there we stopped at the Colusa casino where "B" received a T-shirt and I think another $5.00. In downtown Colusa we made two stops and found two geocaches. On to the Cache Creek casino west of Woodland where we both were credited with $10.00 each on our players cards.

Eventually we got to Woodland for the BD dinner. Got a pic of dinner in progress with Rhonda slapping her brain cells. Boys were here and there and everywhere and Bryce and his friend Patrick were making BD cards for Granny when we arrived. We had a BD card opening ceremony before dinner.

Eventually we got on the road and still had to stop at Rolling Hills where Becky had another $10.00 of "free money" to gamble away. We made it home about 2200...........a 14+ hour day, over 300 miles and $40.00 worth of gas. End result of our gambling..........we made it home $33.00 and one t-shirt ahead!

Here's some pics of our adventure. W&B