Has it been that long & what's next?
Well, according to the records (oh, and they're never wrong, are they) it's been a while since we've written. A while being defined as more than a week, more than a month even. OK, sorry about that. Apparently, though, you all are too busy (too nice?) to mention it & demand a new post.
So, we deduce we have busy & nice friends. Yay, us! Thanks, y'all, it's been a wild & crazy winter here in the Valley, so our posts have been minimal...OK, non-existant. Y'all didn't even notice, didja. S'ok....we understand. So, here goes our catchup post!
Zoom back to January..it was warm & sunny for most of the month here, we got back to the house for a week, then we came back to a week of FRRRRREEEZING and SLEET! What's up with THAT? We hadn't seen sleet since we left NC, and we sure as heck didn't MISS IT. But, here it was. They closed the highways here, since most of the highways are relatively elevated, with overpasses over all the little streets. You could still get around on the frontage roads, which run alongside the highway, but have stop lights at all the little streets. Of course, there was one couple that decided they could evade the roadblocks and run the highway.....they were running drugs. And since they were the only ones up there, and they'd had to run around the barrels to GET there, of course, the on-the-ball cops went up to check 'em out. No one said drug runners were the sharpest tacks in the box, that's fer sure. Busted, with about a zillion dollars worth of weed. Oh well, there's more where they/that came from. A lot of stuff comes across this little river down here...
in cars, trucks, rafts, etc. With luck, half of it gets stopped. The rest usually ends up in NY or NJ, to get shipped back down 95 and out 40. It's a big business here and it's keeping the Valley economy booming. Sad but true.
Skip February - not much happened exciting or otherwise. It was chilly some days & we worked weekends. Went to Mexico & got a turtle or 2, had lunch & got a haircut.
Fast forward to March, and I finally get in to see a rheumatologist. Yeah, aches & pains haven't gone away....he takes a few x-rays, pokes around a little, watches me stand and walk, and does a bone scan & draws some blood. Twice. Surprise, surprise, surprise. The dude determines I have osteoporosis (apparently, pretty significantly), osteoarthritis, narrowing of the facets in my sacro-iliac joint and fybromyalgia. Oh, and heel spurs & plantar fasciitis, probably from standing up for the last 4 years 'cuz I couldn't sit down! Sooooooo, maybe there IS a reason it hurts all the time. What can be done you ask? Yup, most sane people would, so I did too. Sad to say, not much. Boniva, and manage the pain (with drugs & exercise - yeah, I had to use spell check on that word!)
OK, so I trust Sally Field - after all, she's the Flying Nun, right? She's all over print & TV, telling us how wonderful Boniva is and how it makes her feel sooooooooooooooo good. OK, I've grown up with her, and I trust her smiling face. She's so cute, how could I NOT? Oh, just let me tell you, the biatch LIES!
I took that thing, JUST LIKE IT SAYS ON THE BOX. Empty stomach, didn't eat or drink for an hour after, stayed UPRIGHT, heck, we even went square dancing. O.M.G. THE W.O.R.S.T. case of heartburn from my belly up to my NECK. Remember, I've had ULCERS, and haven't had heartburn like that. Then I felt nauseus all day, so couldn't eat much. Dick finally got me to down some raviolis, but I really wasn't interested. Finally, about 3 am, I lost it all. From both ends! Once it finally got all out, I felt a bit better, but then got a monster headache & trouble breathing, so sleep was just impossible. Of course, that morning, had a foot dr appt at 10 am, so by then I was pretty tired. So was Dick. Then, waiting TWO HOURS to see the doc didn't help any. All he could say was, "so are you gonna continue with the Boniva?" So, who's stupid here, him for thinking I was gonna keep taking that crap, or me, for trusting Sally Field?? His great diagnosis is, plantar fasciitis & my left leg is longer than my right, and let's put a lift in the right shoe. So far, it's really not helping. Not making it worse, but, not helping. And that's where we are on the whirlwind of pain management.
On to bigger, better & more cheerful! The weather here is simply fanTAStic, the orange trees are in full blossom and smell simply WONderful. The flowers are all a-bloom, my internet shop is keeping my busy (I've had a few wholesale orders, and my dear friend Diana has been a steady customer), the pool is keeping Dick busy and Bailey's been a real good girl. She's not messed in the house or camper, she doesn't chew stuff up (well, nothing that's not hers), she barks when someone comes too close to the camper and she really doesn't eat much. Plus, she does get me/us out & walking, which is really a good thing, even if it does hurt like heck.
The residents here in the park have been much more pleasant this year than last - I don't know if it's because it's our 2nd year here & they're more comfortable with us or they know us better, or maybe 'cuz the the weather's been so much nicer so they're in a better mood. Dunno, don't really care either. They're nicer all around. Not much cleaner - we still have to pick up the litter they leave, but they're nicer.
So much nicer that we're coming back here to work next winter? HA. No. On so many levels, and for so many reasons, NO. But we won't be far off - we'll be up in our warm, cozy little house, all on one floor, hopefully painting (hear that honey?), letting puppy out in her own fenced yard (while I stay inside in the warmth), and have I mentioned, I get a bigger office! Yay, for both of us...honey will have space of his own & not be over-run with sewing stuff & fabric, and I won't have to pack up my sewing machine(s) every time we want to eat at the "cutting" table. One of the guys (old men) down here finally went into an assisted living center & sold his doublewide, so he had a yard sale & we picked up some fabric storage pieces & some other stuff. We've already taken it up to the house, but all my stash fabric is still here. In EVERY spare space. And then some. And I'm going shopping for more before we leave. There's a lady here who is buying it wholesale, then selling it off at cost to us, so it's running waaaaaaaaay cheaper than quilt shoppe prices. Gotta stock up while I can!
Geocaching - nope haven't done a single one this season. Just haven't really been up to the hiking. Biking? Nope, haven't been on one all season. Swimming? Nope, Dick has, but the pool's just been too cold for me. Hot tub? yup. every chance we get. Birding? A bit. Beach? Um...once, for the Sandcastle Days. That was fun & they were neat. We did get to Hidalgo this year for the Christmas lights...I'm pretty sure they're still not uploaded yet..one day, I will, one day.
Ok, that's enough catch up for now. We've got just a couple more weeks here and we'll wrap up & pack up. We'll have at least one more jaunt across the border - I'm sure there's some tschochky (junque) I haven't bought yet that I've gotta have & Jose needs another haircut. Funny, a Mexican in a doorway tried to get him into his shop last week by telling him he needed a haircut; Dick was gonna tell the guy that was kinda rude, but, he didn't want to get shot, so he just kept quiet & we kept walking!
Y'all take care of one another, use resources wisely, re-use when you can.
So, we deduce we have busy & nice friends. Yay, us! Thanks, y'all, it's been a wild & crazy winter here in the Valley, so our posts have been minimal...OK, non-existant. Y'all didn't even notice, didja. S'ok....we understand. So, here goes our catchup post!
Zoom back to January..it was warm & sunny for most of the month here, we got back to the house for a week, then we came back to a week of FRRRRREEEZING and SLEET! What's up with THAT? We hadn't seen sleet since we left NC, and we sure as heck didn't MISS IT. But, here it was. They closed the highways here, since most of the highways are relatively elevated, with overpasses over all the little streets. You could still get around on the frontage roads, which run alongside the highway, but have stop lights at all the little streets. Of course, there was one couple that decided they could evade the roadblocks and run the highway.....they were running drugs. And since they were the only ones up there, and they'd had to run around the barrels to GET there, of course, the on-the-ball cops went up to check 'em out. No one said drug runners were the sharpest tacks in the box, that's fer sure. Busted, with about a zillion dollars worth of weed. Oh well, there's more where they/that came from. A lot of stuff comes across this little river down here...
in cars, trucks, rafts, etc. With luck, half of it gets stopped. The rest usually ends up in NY or NJ, to get shipped back down 95 and out 40. It's a big business here and it's keeping the Valley economy booming. Sad but true.
Skip February - not much happened exciting or otherwise. It was chilly some days & we worked weekends. Went to Mexico & got a turtle or 2, had lunch & got a haircut.
Fast forward to March, and I finally get in to see a rheumatologist. Yeah, aches & pains haven't gone away....he takes a few x-rays, pokes around a little, watches me stand and walk, and does a bone scan & draws some blood. Twice. Surprise, surprise, surprise. The dude determines I have osteoporosis (apparently, pretty significantly), osteoarthritis, narrowing of the facets in my sacro-iliac joint and fybromyalgia. Oh, and heel spurs & plantar fasciitis, probably from standing up for the last 4 years 'cuz I couldn't sit down! Sooooooo, maybe there IS a reason it hurts all the time. What can be done you ask? Yup, most sane people would, so I did too. Sad to say, not much. Boniva, and manage the pain (with drugs & exercise - yeah, I had to use spell check on that word!)
OK, so I trust Sally Field - after all, she's the Flying Nun, right? She's all over print & TV, telling us how wonderful Boniva is and how it makes her feel sooooooooooooooo good. OK, I've grown up with her, and I trust her smiling face. She's so cute, how could I NOT? Oh, just let me tell you, the biatch LIES!
I took that thing, JUST LIKE IT SAYS ON THE BOX. Empty stomach, didn't eat or drink for an hour after, stayed UPRIGHT, heck, we even went square dancing. O.M.G. THE W.O.R.S.T. case of heartburn from my belly up to my NECK. Remember, I've had ULCERS, and haven't had heartburn like that. Then I felt nauseus all day, so couldn't eat much. Dick finally got me to down some raviolis, but I really wasn't interested. Finally, about 3 am, I lost it all. From both ends! Once it finally got all out, I felt a bit better, but then got a monster headache & trouble breathing, so sleep was just impossible. Of course, that morning, had a foot dr appt at 10 am, so by then I was pretty tired. So was Dick. Then, waiting TWO HOURS to see the doc didn't help any. All he could say was, "so are you gonna continue with the Boniva?" So, who's stupid here, him for thinking I was gonna keep taking that crap, or me, for trusting Sally Field?? His great diagnosis is, plantar fasciitis & my left leg is longer than my right, and let's put a lift in the right shoe. So far, it's really not helping. Not making it worse, but, not helping. And that's where we are on the whirlwind of pain management.
On to bigger, better & more cheerful! The weather here is simply fanTAStic, the orange trees are in full blossom and smell simply WONderful. The flowers are all a-bloom, my internet shop is keeping my busy (I've had a few wholesale orders, and my dear friend Diana has been a steady customer), the pool is keeping Dick busy and Bailey's been a real good girl. She's not messed in the house or camper, she doesn't chew stuff up (well, nothing that's not hers), she barks when someone comes too close to the camper and she really doesn't eat much. Plus, she does get me/us out & walking, which is really a good thing, even if it does hurt like heck.
The residents here in the park have been much more pleasant this year than last - I don't know if it's because it's our 2nd year here & they're more comfortable with us or they know us better, or maybe 'cuz the the weather's been so much nicer so they're in a better mood. Dunno, don't really care either. They're nicer all around. Not much cleaner - we still have to pick up the litter they leave, but they're nicer.
So much nicer that we're coming back here to work next winter? HA. No. On so many levels, and for so many reasons, NO. But we won't be far off - we'll be up in our warm, cozy little house, all on one floor, hopefully painting (hear that honey?), letting puppy out in her own fenced yard (while I stay inside in the warmth), and have I mentioned, I get a bigger office! Yay, for both of us...honey will have space of his own & not be over-run with sewing stuff & fabric, and I won't have to pack up my sewing machine(s) every time we want to eat at the "cutting" table. One of the guys (old men) down here finally went into an assisted living center & sold his doublewide, so he had a yard sale & we picked up some fabric storage pieces & some other stuff. We've already taken it up to the house, but all my stash fabric is still here. In EVERY spare space. And then some. And I'm going shopping for more before we leave. There's a lady here who is buying it wholesale, then selling it off at cost to us, so it's running waaaaaaaaay cheaper than quilt shoppe prices. Gotta stock up while I can!
Geocaching - nope haven't done a single one this season. Just haven't really been up to the hiking. Biking? Nope, haven't been on one all season. Swimming? Nope, Dick has, but the pool's just been too cold for me. Hot tub? yup. every chance we get. Birding? A bit. Beach? Um...once, for the Sandcastle Days. That was fun & they were neat. We did get to Hidalgo this year for the Christmas lights...I'm pretty sure they're still not uploaded yet..one day, I will, one day.
Ok, that's enough catch up for now. We've got just a couple more weeks here and we'll wrap up & pack up. We'll have at least one more jaunt across the border - I'm sure there's some tschochky (junque) I haven't bought yet that I've gotta have & Jose needs another haircut. Funny, a Mexican in a doorway tried to get him into his shop last week by telling him he needed a haircut; Dick was gonna tell the guy that was kinda rude, but, he didn't want to get shot, so he just kept quiet & we kept walking!
Y'all take care of one another, use resources wisely, re-use when you can.
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