Hard to believe Oct 18 was last report.
We have been very busy, at times, and in general have enjoyed very nice weather. The AC was used a little, as was the furnace, which developed a little problem, which was quickly resolved. It is great to let mother nature provide the heat during the day and cool things down at night, so sleeping is easy.
Before Lester and Sue got here, we took criket to the air show at Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
The Blue Angels were sensational, there was a jet truck that did 300 mph, and lots of stationary planes. The show was excellent, and there was only one problem. 100,000 people trying to get out of a packed limited access military installation at the same time. We sat for an hour in line without moving one inch, and it took 2 hours total to get out. At the time it was frustrating, but it still was enjoyable.
With Lester and Sue here we have been on the road a lot. We went to Volusia County Fair and watched/listened to Brenda Lee, who is now 65 like the rest of us. She put on a interesting show for the old folks.
!We went to Seaworld one day, they have a new bably killer whale (one month old) who was swimming around with its mother. We finally learned what the different critter is that is part of the Blue Horizon dolphin show. It is longer and thinner than the dolphins and darker in color. For those who are interested, it is something called a false killer whale.
We have been to numerous flea markets, and several home shows.
The music scene is firing up again with the return of the musical snowbirds. Between the Senior Center and Jay opening up Lou's Ponderosa again, we have jam sessions twice a week. We just attended River Fest in Ormond Beach, and earlier we attended the Jamboree at Barberville. It took us a while to find it but there is lots of of our kind of music in this part of Florida.
We got the tire problem on the boat trailer resolved, and checked the motor out, bought a new depth finder, cleaned up the boat and dumped it in the water. It is behaving very well, but for some reason, alligators are hard to find. We did do some shrimping but they are basically gone and it takes a lot of throws of the casting net to get enough shrimp to eat.
When we got here we checked with the surgeon who took x-rays and said to go ahead and use the knee, excercise it and come back in 3-4 weeks. I was able to walk some in a very wobbly fashion, which still felt great to do. It has been 5 weeks and we went back to him today. Let me preface this with the fact using the knee did not work, it started to hurt in some situations, and about the 1st of November, it became more and more obvious that "it is time". The x-rays showed that additional deterioriation was taking place and he said " Do you want to do it before or after Christmas". We said "before'
Surgery to install a new knee joint is now scheduled for Dec 9. He said I will be in the hospital for 4-5 days and then recommends going home for rehab (to stay as far away from other people who may be housing "bugs"). So now, on Wed, we have to go to St Augustine to see a heart Dr, our own GP DR , and have bloodwork done. In the morning we have an appointment in Palatka to have Lauras' ear canals cleaned out so she can hear again.
Assuming no problems show up in the blood tests and pre -opt, we go back to the surgeon on Dec 7 for paper signing, etc. Then we go back to St Augustine to pre-register with the hospital, then the surgery on Dec 9. Wish me luck on this because if we have any problems that cannot be rectified in time, the next available surgery date will be Jan13. I do not want to wait that long but whatever happens, happens.
This whole deal started Dec 18, 2009, so whatever happens, it means I will have gone, in essence, a full year without being able to walk. I am ready to walk.
Before I finally updated this thing, I looked at Kat-nap and Mohr Life. There are some beautiful pictures of all of the kids. If you have not been reading these blogs, you should do s
I promise to keep readers of this blog informed of our progress through the steps that are (hopefully) going to end this nightmare.
