We Are Home!

We left Florida Tuesday morning,  about 8 am and traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee where we spent the night. We left Knoxville about 7:30 am and arrived home in Ripley about 7:30 in the evening. We had no problems along the way, other than some construction, which is to be expected. We came the longer way, up 75 rather than 95/26/77/79/90, because although longer, it is far less hilly, which is much easier on the old Caravan(155,000 miles) pulling a well loaded trailer.

The weather was hot and sunny, until we got within 20 minutes of Ripley when it started to rain lightly. Not a problem as we had an extra Tarp to throw over the trailer until morning.

Everything was fine in Ripley. the power was on, the water came on with no problems, the refrigerators/freezers came on with no problem. The house was cool, but warmed up some when doors, etc were opened.

This morning the sun was out, and it was just like being in Florida. We unloaded the trailer with nothing getting wet, completed unloading the car, and got down to the business of setting up the phone, computers and Dish Network.

We are about to resume nomal Ripley Life with its many trips to Buffalo and other locations.  Gas was generally 3.57 in Georgia, Tennessee, and ohio. In Kentucky  and Pa, it was more like 3.75-3.85. We don't know about NY yet because we have not been far enough East to see any gas stations in NY. Tomorrow we shall see.

Hope to see everybody soon, hang in there. 

They keep changing the blog setup, but we are behind regardless. After a sensational spring weatherwise, we are getting ready to head North. Our plans right now are to leave Satsuma on Tuesday morning and arrive  in Ripley sometime Wednesday afternoon.  The trailer is mostly loaded and tomorrow the car gets loaded, the boat gets pulled and the last minute details are completed. 

We are looking forward to seeing all the family, how they are growing, and what they are learning.  Sunday, we are planning to go to Rochester to attend a fund raising walk for Kat. We will be bringing all three of our electric handicap vehicles in case the 3.5 miles is too much to walk. We now have a 20 ft pontoon boat for Chaut. lake so that should be interesting for all involved.
  I successfully survived the winter and achieved my goal of not having to visit a Doctor or Hospital, but Laura did not.She is still being affected by the"Criket Incident" which we will have checked out in early May.

Our shed is basically done. Needs  a floor and some trim -to be done next  fall.  Other work will have to wait until then also.  Will check after we get back to Ripley.

Spring Already!

First the health issues.My knee was really dragging last week when I spent a lot of time on it, but today it is doing quite well. I am finally getting back to close to normal, with only the issue of getting up and down to and from the floor, which is slowly getting better. Laura is still slowly recovering from "the cricket incident", but has now twisted herself somewhere and is also now recovering from that.

The weather this year has been fantastic, with only a few light freezes in December. This week it has been 80 every day, 60 during the night. No AC or heat required. It has been mostly sunny, with very little rain.It is so dry, they are comparing it with 2008, when they had major grass and field fires throughout Florida.

Last week, we had our annual Turkey Jamfest, which was a huge success. Beautiful weather, 54 people. We have have just concluded putting everything away.

We continue to be busy. Today we went to the annual Seniors day at the Putnam County Fair. The fair is about 1/4 the size of the Chautauqua county Fair. They do a very nice job of recognizing Seniors, with a free lunch, free entertainment, and prizes such as $25 gift cards to the local grocery stores.

Tomorrow, we go to the Annual Clay Electric Meeting in Keystone Heights. This is the annual election of officers, and other official business. We get free entertainment, this year it is Mike Snider and his bluegrass band. We also get a chicken dinner, some vendor give-a-ways, and if we stay long enough, they give away about 150 prizes, ranging from flatirons to large screen tvs, which is followed by the grand prize of one of their pickup trucks. Lester and Sue won this last year.

Friday, Janice is bringing Remy over for a boat ride to see alligators, then we go to the Sr Center for music. Saturday, we are going to Silver Springs to See Glen Campbell on his "Goodbye Tour". He is in the beginning stages of Alzheimers(?). He now uses teleprompters and his family is the band and very supportive.

Sunday, we have at least three choices, one being the Flagler Air Show, another being the art and craft show in Deland,the other being the Balloon fest in New Smyrna.

We just finished a busy weekend of visiting Daytona to see and walk among the bikers on Sat, Visiting Waldo flea market and Micanopy, which is a small town, with many shops and and a huge antique store on Sunday. And then Monday, it was back to Daytona to meet with Mel and Norma and Janice and Don. We saw Jane Saturday night on our way back. The purpose of Mondays' trip was to try and assist Billy Johnson, who was faced with repairing the bus for the "Big Leg Emma" band from Jamestown. They had come down to Daytona to play at the Ocean Deck Hotel Sat and Sunday nites.

The bus broke down somewhere around Jacksonville, and was towed to Daytona. Greg Folts and Billy tried to find a part Sunday and thought they had succeeded, but it had to be shipped in from someplace and would be there on Monday. So we loaded up as many of my larger tools that I could locate and we went off to Daytona. I took Billy to the Advance store, where the part had arrived, but! It was not the right part. The parts man there was very good with their computer system and he claimed they had the right part in stock at another store, and it was $10.86 cheaper. Off we went and the part was there, and although slightly different, was the correct part for the job. We got back to the bus, Billy struggled, but with help from another band member, got it together, and they were able to move on to the next location, Charleston, S.C. The part in question was the bracket that holds the serpentine belt tensioner.

Jerry and Shirley left for home this past Saturday. Jerry was quite busy, replacing a toilet, replacing a leaking water heater, having a new AC installed, installing a new window plus miscellaneous little things like painting walls, and mowing the lawn. He also found time to play a little music at Ebo's, Jay Lou"s and the Senior Center.

Ray mowed our lawn in ripley today and said everything looked ok, so that is good. It is hard to believe that in about 40 days, we will be heading North. We have some work to do, as we need to complete the shed, so we can lock it up securely.Will try to do better to keep current.

wow, where has winter gone/

I have been informed to update my blog, and here it is(some). I have had good intentions, but!





First the most important things. Laura has basically recovered from "the Criket incident", but needs more time to fully recover. She is normally quite active, but was slowed considerably by her injuries from "the Criket Incident". She is now building herself back up to normal speed.





I am doing well, with no Doctor or hospital visits. The knee is doing well, although it still lets me know it is there. I can do most things, I used to do, but getting down on the floor and back up is still awkward.





The weather here for Jan and Feb has been fantastic, with only one short cold spell requiring heat, no AC needed(yet).





The boat is running fine, with not too many river trips recently, but lots of really big alligators. The most recent trip was several days ago, when we had Les and Sues' son Steve and his army friend Rich, along with Jerry and Shirleys'daughter, and granddaughter out and saw one of the largest gators we have ever seen on our river. The gator was nice enough to stay still so that all could get nice pictures of him.

We took the motorhome over to the Bluegrass Festival at Rodeheavers ranch and had a good time.

Then we loaded both crikets on the trailer and went to Homosassa State Park in Homosassa Springs. This is still one of the nicest parks around to see Florida wildlife. Birds, including white pelicans, alligators, manatees, and even Lucifer. Lucifer is still around at 52 years of age. Lucifer is a huge 3000 lb Hippopotamus.

After that ,we went south to Dunedin to witness their Fat Tuesday celebration. Their parade was 45 minutes of constant bead throwing. Without trying, we easily had 10-15 lbs of beads. Following this we went to Tampa to spend the night and in the morning, we went to Busch Gardens. They have a new Ice Skating show which is fantastic. We also saw the animal show, which is adding new animals all the time. We were going to go to Seaworld on the way back but decided enough was enough.

Last weekend we went to Silver Springs for the Travis Tritt Concert. It was ok, but they have eliminated the big speakers that used to be out front, so unless you were closer to the front, it was hard to hear everything.

Last week, Carol Sawyer died, at age 69. Carol was the oldest child of Uncle Frank and Aunt Dora and is a cousin to me. Uncle Roy Holcomb also passed away at 81. Roy was the youngest child of Mark and Beulah Holcomb, and was the younger brother of my mother. Doris Holcomb Mohr.

Until next time.

Woman versus machine!

We have have been very busy during this Holiday period.

Laura lost the battle with the Criket. After using it, she was returning it to its home on the back porch, when she tried to convince it to back up, while she was standing in front of it. This was fine, except it was still in forward gear. As a result, the Criket went forward, quite rapidly, knocked Laura down, partially ran over her, spread eagled her legs outward, farther than they wanted to go. The good part is that the porch railing, combined with a bamboo type shelf prevented the Criket from going any farther, possibly down the steps.

The result was a painful trip to the Putnam County Hospital, for x-rays, which were negative, and an examination, which showed no broken bones, just bruises. But what bruises. We were lucky, in that the emergency room was quiet, and it only took 2 hours total time.

This took place Wednesday night, and Bluegrass in Georgia was to be Thursday thru Saturday.

After some consideration, we decided to go to the Bluerass. Laura felt she could do nothing but sit anyway, and I could use the rest from working on the shed. So we hooked up the trailer and took Criket Jr with us. Thursday morning we went to Jekyll Island in Georgia. Moving around was very difficult for Laura but sitting still was ok. Laura found it to be very difficult trying to get to our seats, so we sat in the handicap section, with her on Criket Jr, and it worked fine.

Today(Tuesday morning) , it is harder for Laura to get comfortable, but overall, she is ok. She has numerous black and blue spots , incuding one huge one on the inside/backside of her left thigh. (pictures exist). So it looks like a matter of time to heal up and be ok again.

We went to Janes' for Christmas Day and had a good time.

Normas' grandaughter, Jessie was here for the Christmas period, and we took her, along with Buford and Norma to Seaworld. It was a cool day, and very busy, but we got to see all the shows and I think Jessie enjoyed it. We also took them for a boat ride, which was pleasant and saw 8-10 alligators, mostly big ones and Jessie got some good pictures.

The weather here in December has been really great. Up to now, we did not need either the furnace or the ac. This contrasts with last year, when we had 17 frosts in December. We had our first frost last night, with another one expected tonight, then warmer again.

I have been very busy with the shed, which has been slower than desired, but I am gaining. Two more roof panels, then the roofing and it will be protected. Windows on the end and a door will come eventually.

More later.

What a difference 2 years (1 year?) makes

Two years ago, we started the worst two year period of our lives, but we survived it and hopefully are better for it. Two years ago tomorrow, we wre scheduled to go to Disney World, but settled for the Palatka Hospital. One year ago we were beginning the rehab from the final operation, resulting in a whole new knee replacement.

Today, we are working on the construction of our new 10 x 12 ft barn roofed shed, which will give us a tremendous amount of additional room, which will enable us to sort through our stuff and be better organized. Today, we completed installing the last of the custom made trusses. Now we have to align, brace and complete tieing them all together and then the roof and finally the door. I can go up and down the ladders, etc, but after a few hours, my legs and knees are sore, so we try and space it out and combine fun with work.

The weather is much more co-operative this year. Last year, during December, Jacksonville had 17 frosts. This year, NONE, so far. We went out on the boat today, with 77 degrees, and a beautiful sunny day. Only 6 alligators, but they were big ones.

Last week, we went to Sea World on Tuesday, Busch Gardens on Wenesday, and Clearwater Beach on Thursday(Winter, the tail-less Dolphin) lives there. Visited with Dick Diamond and toured Clearwater Beach a little. Dick was my college roomate for all four years at Grove City College during 1959-1962. Neither could remember when we last saw each other, but it was fun to get together again. Dick is presently suffering from back and other injuries suffered in a bad fall several years ago.

The story on Winter is that she got severly caught up in a lobster trap rope, and was damaged in the process. Her tail section atrophied and fell off, leaving her unable to swim normally. She was 3 months old at the time and rescued by the Clearwater Museum. The museum worked with some specialty prothesis company and they developed a special tail made of carbon fiber, which has worked, and they are now on #18, because Winter is now 4-5 years old, and continues to grow. A 3-D movie was made (Dolphin Tales) and the DVD was supposed to be released today.

Anyway, Winter has proved to be an inspirational model for numerous children and war vets who have lost limbs and are using different protheses to regain mobility and face life. Winter has proven to be a million dollar dolphin as her story spreads and more and more people come to see her. I was originally unimpressed, but now I believe everyone who comes to the Clearwater area should come and see her.

Tomorrow is my Birthday and we are going to the Deland Flea Market, possibly Alfies for fish and if time, work on the shed.

Like everyone else, we will be busy during the next week. Normas' grandaughter Jessie is supposed to arrive Thursday sometime and Norma wants her to have a boat ride on the famous St Johns, and this is scheduled for Friday(weather permitting). There is also a possibility of going to Sea World again (with Norma and Jessie?). It looks like we are going to be with Jane on Christmas Day?

On the 29, 30, and 31st of Dec. we will be in Jekyll Island, Georgia for an indoor Bluegrass Concert, and may go to Savannah for New years day.

Lester and Sue are due back about the 3rd of Jan, and there are nunerous events going on later in Jan and early Feb.

Heidi wants more pictures, but I have to work at this, so be patient

One year later

I just finished(nearly) composing the latest blog when it suddenly disappeared. I don't feel like doing it all over right now, so here are the basics. One year ago today, was the last surgery leading to the condition I am in now, which is "pretty good". I haven't taken a pain pill for many months. I have no problem eating or sleeping, and I am starting to do things to catch up for the two years of inability to do things. I can walk fairly well, but am still a little clumsy. I need some more time to improve my flexability and endurance, but that will happen. Next week we are going to Busch Gardens and SeaWorld to see their Christmas programs. We will also go to Clearwater Beach to visit Dick Diamond, my roommate at Grove City College many years ago. It has been quite a while since we have seen him. Laura also wants to visit "Winter" at Clearwater Beach Aquarium. "Winter" is a dolphin who does not have a tail. Apparently a prothesis has been fitted so he has an artificial tail which enables him to swim.

We have acquired material to finish the roof on our new shed. We have been boat riding. Big alligators are still out sunning themselves. More later.