Saturday and It Really Cooled Down Today............

.....it may have gotten to the mid 70s; but, not sure about that. It was cool enough that I mowed the "weeds" today..........took a little while but I got her done!

Been having a lot of fluid on my knee the past couple of days so have been trying to take it a little easier. Called Doc's office, naturally they weren't in...........nurse said used cold packs and keep the knee elevated...........fat chance. Anyway I'll see them on Tuesday and see if it needs to be drained......or is this normal.........or ????

Olive Festival in town this weekend and we went over to Woodson Park and looked around, bought some raffle tickets and left. Stopped at our favorite casino and got whupped today. Tried a new Mexican joint for lunch and it wasn't too bad; but, they surely need to wash their windows. If I don't get salmonella, or something else, we might try it again. The price was right.

Time moves on. Later. W&B

Better Day Today..............

temp in low 90s and I got my money back from the casino!

Had Old Folks breakfast and then I went to physical therapy..........damn guy tried to kill me! Still gotta lot of work to do on getting my leg straight. He used "heat" today and then did some exercises. Said next week we'd probably start using some of the machines in the gym. Scheduled 3 sessions for next week, although, he said I could probably get by with two a week. I told him if they paid for three I may as well try to get my money's worth.

Big Olive Festival in town this weekend so may try to partake of some of the festivities..........they got bed races, parade, pancake breakfast and I can't remember what else they do. If it isn't too hot it might be a good way to spend some time.

Pearson's coming up this Sunday so the Twerps can look at my scar and then they'll head for Chico and take the Twerps sightseeing and ???.

Later. W&B

YUK!!!...............................

temperature on the patio reached 107.6 today (I never checked it again after I saw that) and the casino got into my knickers.

End of day. W

Saw The Doc Today............

or I should say I saw his PA who assists in surgery. Kinda interesting, while waiting to be seen, I also needed xrays taken before I saw the Doc, there were these "Old" People stacking up for xrays. They were arriving in wheelchairs, walkers and only one other old guy was hobbling around with his cane. They were all wearing the little compression socks or else they had the tell tale steri-strips still attached to their knees, same as me. Looked like they were all arriving for their 2 week return visit. When I saw them I finally realized that my recovery is doing pretty good since I threw away my cane last week.

Doc said I was doing great, just advised me not to "over do" it and end up going backwards. Got another appointment in a month and he filled out a form for me to continue with out-patient physical therapy in Corning. The PT office is about a mile down the road and Becky ses I could "walk" to my appointments. Don't think so.

Asked about "driving" and told them I had already been driving yesterday. He ses whenever I feel confortable I should be OK to drive. I feel safer with my driving then I do as a passenger.

That's about it........will check in with PT tomorrow and see what they suggest......other than that all I gotta do is walk and continue with exercises. He said recovery is slow and would probably take 6 months or more to get back to "normal"..........what ever the hell that is. I'm able to walk further now then I've been able to do in the last nine months.

That's about it............gotta make a casino run since it's also "Old Folks" day and I don't smell anything cooking on the stove. Later. W

Saw Physical Therapest Today...........

and she kicked me out of the program! Told me there was no need for her to stop by anymore since I'm supposedly ahead of her schedule.........she told me today that her goal was to have me walking without a cane by Wednesday of this week..........I threw the cane away about a week ago. She told me to continue with exercises, work on getting leg straight and keep walking. Asked her about further out-patient therapy and she said to talk to my Doctor..........however, she was sending him a report today and she would recommend that out-patient therapy probably not needed. Will have to see what he ses tomorrow.

I drove down to the post office today and then out to the casino later this afternoon. No problems. The casino was beating me up pretty good and finally hit a bonus on a machine and it put me $10.15 ahead. I quit.

Getting HOT, up to about 98 today and the next couple of days are forecast for 104s. That really sucks! Oh well, A/C working great and if we venture out it will be in the morning.

All for now. W

Made It Through Sunday...........

and I'm starting to get antsy. Gonna see Doc on Tuesday and maybe then he'll give me the OK to get out and about..........right now I'm supposed to be sticking close to home since I have a physical therapest coming to the house...........of course that hasn't stopped me from making a daily casino run the last 4 or 5 days. Only thing that stops the casino runs is a depleated wallet, although I did manage to leave with some of their money the last couple of trips so I'll be alright for a couple of more runs.

PT ses I'm coming along nicely and that I'm ahead of "normal" recovery schedules. She'll be here tomorrow and Wednesday and then maybe after I see the Doc she'll be able to make up a schedule for me to go out for physical therapy. There's an office about 3/4 mile down the road so if I can get set up with them I'll be in good shape. Not sure what to expect in next phase of PT.

Weather has cooled down the last few days..........we haven't even gotten to 90 for several days so that makes things kinda nice.

That's it for now. W

Thursday............

........thought I'd publish pics of the Washington Morris' new puppy, Pedro. Tami sent me some photos of the little "White Rat", actually he's another miniture Schnauzer, that they obtained about a week ago. Can't remember Ollie being that small; but, guess he was.

Therapest was here yesterday and added some more exercises to my growing list. I told her that was a full time job just trying to do them all three times a day and she responded with "that's your job!" I told her I was retired!! Well, will work on them; but, I'm sure they all are not going to get done every day.

Walked around the block a couple of times yesterday and think maybe I should have limited my trip to one instead of two. Live and learn..........I paid the price trying to sleep last night.

We headed to the casino yesterday afternoon and when we arrived we discovered it was another Wallet Night, shortly after 1600 and the old folks were already lined up to get their "free" wallet. Played the slots for a little while, was $10.00 ahead and we decided to leave before the real crowd arrived. I think Becky even quit a couple of bucks ahead.

That's about it for now, weather has calmed down a bit and not as warm has it has been. W&B

Monday Evening........

and it's starting to cool down a bit, still 84 outside; but, will probably open up the doors and get some fresh air in the house when temps equalize.

My physical therapist showed up about 1300, watched me do some leg exercises, added a couple more for me to do, measured my range of motion, asked if I had any questions and when I said "nope"........she left. I think she spent about 15 minutes here and Medicare gets charged $244.00 for the visit. No wonder the government is going broke!

With the addition of some new exercises my knee has really been bugging me........I finally checked my little log book and found that I hadn't had any "drugs" for almost 7 hours. I promptly took care of that little problem. Generally try to pop a pill or two every 4-5 hours and guess I snoozed right through my schedule.

Been watching Fox News on and off all day and looks like hussein stepped on the end of his crank again! They've really been beating him up in the news today........I love it.

Well tomorrow is Old Folks day at the casino so guess I'll see if Becky is willing to drive me out for biscuits and gravy...........not to mention getting our gambling fix.

Later. W&B

Saturday Morning.........

..........first three pics taken August 9th at Enloe in Chico.

Fourth picture taken today, August 14th, about 1130...........Becky was going into withdrawals from not visiting the casino for several days........so despite my protests........she hauled me kicking and screaming that "I don't wanna go" to the casino. I threw away my walker, crutches and cane so I could make the trip just to please her!

Didn't stay too long; but, I managed to leave with $13.00 more than I arrived with plus I had a "free" coke.

Maybe I'll let her take me back in the near future. w

Friday the Thirteenth.............

so guess I'll sit home all day today. Becky out to pick up the mail and stop for some "shopping" so I told her I'd be ready to go to the casino this afternoon. Beginning to go into withdrawals. She reminded me that I couldn't doing any "chasing around", therapest said I could only go to church and treatment appointments or else Medicare could cut me off for home visits. Since I "religiously" attend casino ceremonies I figure casino runs should be OK.

Doing OK, except still having trouble getting to and staying asleep..........can't find a comfortable position for my knee; but, it'll get better. Should have whined for some "stronger meds" when I left hospital. Oh well, no pain no gain.

Getting warmer; but, no triple digits quite yet, maybe this weekend or Monday, it depends on which weather forecaster I watch.

Well, guess I'll continue to do leg exercises and see how things go.

Later, if anything happens. W

Got Home Today About 1600...........

Had my knee operation on Monday. Doc stopped by today, looked at my knee and seemed amazed by his own work! Yeah, really, he checked it out and said "that really looks good!". Told me he had planned on sending me home on Thursday; but, said I could leave the hospital today if I wanted to. Food has been crummy so I told him I'd check out today.

Got a list of "things to do" a mile long from the Doc and from physical therapy. There is no way in hell that anyone could do everything on the "list" every day! At least I don't think so!

So, he wrote a script for pain pills and anti-biotics, gave me a walker and Becky picked me up. Tomorrow some home care physical therapest will give me a call and we can set up a schedule for PT. Beats the hell out of driving to Chico.

Will see how things go...........supposed to reach triple digits this weekend.........bummer.

That's what's been happening the last few days. Later. W

Got Home Yesterday Afternoon............

and we were greeted to mid 90s temperatures. Highway 299 from Redding to the coast is a neat highway..........if you were driving a car........or possibly taking the curves in a motorcycle. In M/H just gotta go a little slower........some OF in a car in front of me was riding his brakes all the way down some of the grades and I probably heated mine up just staying behind him. I finally had to pass him.........he probably thought I was a little crazy.

Nothing but doctor appointments since we got home, I had to go to the VA in Reddings early this morning, then to Chico to see my surgeon tomorrow and then back to Redding for a hearing test on Friday. The only good thing about going to Redding is the VA pays me mileage. I collected $39.80 today so can't complain.

Today was "Free Wallet" day at the Casino.........they started about 1800 and there was a crowd of people today..........I told Becky that it looked like we wouldn't be among the first 500 people (this only give 500 wallets away, first come first served). I was right, they ran out when we were within about 60-70 people from the give away point. At least they picked up our notification cards and said they would add $5.00 of free play to our cards. Still very crowded so we headed home.

In for the night, I don't have to be in Chico tomorrow until 1430 so can sleep in. Really had to make an effort to get up in time to leave at 0700 this morning so I napped this afternoon. Now won't be able to sleep tonight.

Later. W&B

Still In Arcata...............

We slept in and when we got up Fergie started breakfast for us..........blueberry pancakes made with fresh blueberries he just picked this morning from his back yard, sausage and bacon and maple syrup. Doesn't get much better!

During and after breakfast we shot the breeze about the old home town, Falls City, NE. Tried to figure out who was still alive and what they were doing. Since I've never been back to a reunion I didn't know much about the people I went to high school with. Fergie attend our 50th three years ago so he knew a lot more about who's where and what. Did some catching up and then we headed for Eureka. Fergie belongs to a Railroad Club down there so we wanted to see the railroad set up that they have. Man it was fabulous. Becky took a bunch of pictures so she'll probably post some of them on her blog. I took a few pics and here's a description of them. The detail and hard work these old farts put in their models is amazing. I guess they've been working on this setup for over 30 years.

Fourth picture is a "hobo camp", and then they have some people "mooning" near a water tower, and even an airport. Last but not least is Santa sking down the mountain. We probably spent an hour there and could have stayed much longer just trying to see everything.

Time moves on so we headed to another casino for a late lunch. Spent a couple of hours there and I managed to leave $5.00 ahead. It was cheap entertainment.

Looks like we'll be leaving tomorrow, my phone went dead and when I charged it up I found two messages from the VA that I had missed. Got an appointment scheduled for Wednesday and another scheduled for Friday so we gotta get out of here. Later. W&B

Spent The Day Around Arcata.............

Published these in reverse order; but, no one knows. Top pics were taken at Trinidad, a little burg North of Arcata. This is Fergie and myself.........I'm the younger looking one in the red shirt. Nice view of the beach from here. On our way home we found a virtual cache that was titled the Largest Totem Pole, or something like that. It was a big sucker and if you double click on the photo you should be able to read the sign.

We wanted to show Fergie a little about geocaching today so I downloaded a few caches and we went looking for them. Didn't find too many, 6 or 7 I think, but he got an idea of what geocaching entails. First one was about .2 mile from his house. Eventually he and Becky found it. These bottom pics were taken at Trinidad of the inlet below. Lottsa neat rock formations.

There was a little casino at Trinidad so we stopped there for lunch.........senior lunch of $3.25. Not bad, actually very good for the price. Also we signed up for membership cards and Becky and I both drew a card from a pile that gave us some money play on our cards.......we both came up with $25.00 and Fergie drew one for $10. I played my $25.00 and actually was ahead $29 and some some change.............."was ahead" is the key words here. I lost it back to them. Just before we left I invested some of my own money and actually came out a winner! We quit after that and slowly headed back to Arcata geocaching on the way. Nice day and the weather was great, a little overcast; but, overall very nice.

Don't know what tomorrow will bring. Fergie is really into "trains" as a hobby and we might go down to his club house tomorrow and check out what he does in some of his spare time. He seems to be busier now then when he was teaching school. Unfortunately unable to meet his wife as she off doing her things at Glacier Nat'l Park. Maybe next time. Think we'll probably leave on Tuesday sometime. Later. W&B