Back to Being a Buckeye

We're back in Ohio, parked at a campground and living in our trailer so that we don't allow working on Mom's house to overwhelm us as we did with Denny's dad's house last year. It will be a 50 mile round trip drive to get to Ketterburg, so we'll spend a night or two up there while we're working and them come back to work on the rig which has been sadly neglected. I've already scheduled a carpet cleaning, after which we'll haul in the two new LaZBoy recliners that we've had sitting in Mom's garage since March. Then we'll wrassle the mattress and memory foam topper from "our" bedroom at Mom's and switch them out with the set here in the rig. All sorts of muscle-y work will be going on here at the campground, plus whatever work we start doing on the house itself.

The trip up was uneventful, thankfully. In Kentucky we passed the remnants of a horrible accident involving a semi-trailer and by the looks of the cab of the truck it may have been a fatality. Crews were picking up whatever it was the trucker was hauling while a wrecker tried to deal with getting the truck and trailer off the roadway. Surprisingly, accident scenes like that have been rare for us, despite many miles on the road over the last ten years. For that, I'm grateful.

We also had lovely springtime scenery on the way up. Gardeners are aware of "growing zones" or "planting zones"; areas of imaginary demarcation for the best plants to grow in a particular area based on their hardiness and ability to withstand whatever temperatures are in that general area. Driving from the Gulf of Mexico in southern Alabama up to southern Ohio you can see the different rates of growth in the same vegetation; redbuds that were almost totally leafed out in green foliage in Alabama were just starting to bloom in Kentucky.






My favorite spot along I-65? Between milemarker 77 and 78 on the northbound side of the interstate where you'll find this sign: It's not the world's best shot, but at highway speeds the sign is hard to snap clearly.

Tonight, we're dining alfresco; steaks cooked on the grill and a tossed salad. Simple and simply divine. A nuthatch searches for his dinner on a tree nearby and an early butterfly provides a spot of color among trees still bare of buds, much less leaves. We may light the tiny tiki torches this evening and enjoy the stars before the temperatures drop too much. Life feels good right now.

Not to Be

The idea of the Horse Park sounded good to us, but it is not to be. The very nice people at the tire store tried very hard to get our tires in early but it was afternoon before they arrived. By the time we drove out there and had three tires mounted and the new spare put in place it was too late to drive to the park. I was not in the mood to be setting up camp at 8:30 at night. So there will be no horse pictures this trip. We WILL get to the Horse Park though. Someday.

We're camped on the grounds of Mammoth Cave National Park. We've done one of the tours in the past (there are several to choose from, including one where you have to wiggle through 12 inch high holes--no THANK you!) so we're thinking either a round of golf or perhaps a tour of the Corvette Museum a few miles down the road. Horsepower of a different kind, as it were. I think golf will win out, as it's been several months since we've played and the forecast is for a little sun. It feels so good to be outside I don't think I want to be underground in a cave or even inside a museum. Beating a small white ball with a large club is also very good for getting frustrations out and methinks that would be a good thing.

But I have to admit, it would have been nice to have seen all the foals at the farm. The Horse Park now officially goes on our Bucket List.

Blowout

Ah, the joys of being back on the road. About two and a half hours into today's six hour drive a car passing us started honking their horn and pointing at the trailer. Oh boy--that always means a blowout and sure enough, they had seen it on the right side of the trailer, even though they were driving on our left side. Thank goodness for alert drivers! We pulled over and saw that the tire was starting to shred so it had blown a few miles back. We were fortunate to have stopped before the shredded tire started whipping around and taking out the fiberglass side panels and even the underside of the slide-out. Been there, done that before and it's expensive. It would be even worse now since the company that manufactured our trailer went out of business last year (along with four other RV manufacturers.)

Anyhoo, we called our roadside service (boy do we get our money's worth out of them), they sent someone out and an hour and a half later we were back on the road. I called the campground where we were planning on staying the night and asked the man who answered if there was a Goodyear Tire store anywhere nearby and explained what happened. This nice man took the information about the tires we use and called his local tire store and made arrangements for them to order us three tires (we're switching out our special trailer load D tires to special trailer load E tires for more weight bearing capability) As the tires blow/get punctured we have been switching them one at a time but we're biting the bullet and will have them all switched including the spare, which is now seven years old and a different type of tire from the rest. Wes, the campground owner, has arranged everything and our tires should be in tomorrow. If not, the Kentucky Horse Park is out for now. If the tires come in early enough and we're able to get in and get them installed in a reasonable amount of time, we'll trek on up to Kentucky and take pictures until the battery runs out. Yes, I left the spare battery in our newly repaired old camera and the charger in the old camera case. Too much on my mind. So the new camera battery is down to one click; I'm hoping that's enough for a few pictures at least. But the way our luck is running, that's not going to happen.

But for now, there's free Wi-Fi at the campground, I have a glass of cabernet in my hand, there are cows, pigs, goats, sheep and horses here at the campground and the lonely sound of a train whistle in the distance. This is RVing and we take the bad with the good. And for the moment, it's all good.

Sad to Go

No pictures today. Denny and I headed to Gulf Shore State Park after the sun broke out through the clouds up here in Summerdale, but once at the beach the clouds let loose with rain so there was no beach walk nor pictures for us. And naturally, as soon as we arrived back at the campground the sun came back out again. *Sigh*

It's been nice to relax and not think for the last three days. I sat at the computer and realized that I had not worked on my journal since late September (!!!) so I started working on that when the skies clouded over again in the afternoon instead of soaking up some sun as I had hoped. I'm so pasty white I can't stand it but a tan will have to wait (skin cancer be d*mned) until sometime later this summer, I guess.

Tomorrow we'll head north, stopping near the Tennessee/Alabama border for one night, then continuing on to Lexington, Kentucky to visit the Horse Park. It's a lot more driving than we normally do when pulling the trailer, but we want to spend a day at the Horse Park since we've been driving by it and talking about it for the last ten years. This year we'll do it. Because from this point on, if we want to do it, we will. If nothing else the last month, I've learned that life can be too short and that there are no guarantees so we're going for the gusto from here on out. Once we take care of our responsibilities, that is. Always a caveat. For now.

P.S. In reading the fourth to last sentence I wondered how many cliches I could fit in one sentence? Too many apparently. Snort.

Lions and Tigers and ...Bugs, oh my!

After a thirteen hour drive from Ohio to southern Alabama, it would have been nice to be able to say that hitching up to our trailer and moving it out of storage into a campsite and setting it up was a smooth and easy transition.

Not so.

I've already mentioned that we were out of our routine, but there was also the fact that Denny dragged the outdoor grill out of the trailer instead of picking it up so that when it slid off the carpet runner it gouged a long scratch into the wood floor. And despite leaving the refrigerator doors open to air, there was mildew in the refrigerator and the spider webs? Gah! The good news is that there are no signs of mice so far.

But as you can see from the picture above, eventually we settled in and settled down. Shorts were put on, frozen margaritas were blended and as we sat under the live oak tree enjoying the sunshine and the warm Gulf breeze Denny and I remembered why we love this lifestyle so much. It's pure laziness!

We'll enjoy it for a couple of days before we have to return to Ohio and begin to work on Mom's house but I have to say we'll hate to leave here. Sometimes being the responsible one is the pits. But eventually we'll be able to respond to the call of the road and that's all good.

Almost On The Road Again

As I write this Denny and I are sitting in our rig in Summerdale, Alabama. It was a long, hard drive of 13 hours to get here and it was also 80 degrees and humid. When my friend Vicki called to check on me I was griping about sweating and it being hot--this from the person who was complaining about the snow we had three days ago! I'm never happy.

The worst part about being away from our trailer for three months is that we had to be very careful to think about what we were doing because we forgot our "routine", plus Denny started doing my jobs so we were all discombobilated. The two of us had to step back, take a deep breath and stop to think what we should be doing next to get everything set up properly. Eventually we got it all done, leftovers from Ohio were warmed up (there was no way we were going to get into that truck again to drive to a restaurant) and the dishes were washed. The refrigerator hasn't cooled down yet so we may lose the food we brought with us, but the satellite TV is set up so Denny can watch the Masters Golf tournament this week and my Internet satellite is set up so I can surf and e-mail. Patches has had her walk, has been chased by the neighbor's dog and in general is making a nuisance of herself because THIS TRAILER IS TOO SMALL FOR A CAT AFTER SHE'S HAD FREE REIN IN A 3 BEDROOM RANCH WITH A FULL BASEMENT! Major adjustments are in store for all of us. We'll spend a couple of days here and then take at least three days to return to Ohio since our campground doesn't open up until next Friday. I'm thinking a visit to the Lexington Horse Farm would be nice, although way out of our way since we're in Alabama. Hmmm, perhaps I'll check to see if their campground is open yet--I'm always up for being around horses.

And now it's probably bedtime since we got up at 0 dark thirty this morning to hit the road. We're such wimps. Old wimps.

Walk on By

An early morning dental appointment for Denny meant he treated me to breakfast afterward. Shortly before we finished eating, a woman at the table behind Denny got up and helped her mother into her coat. The daughter appeared to be about my age and the mother was older than my mother had been. The daughter carefully adjusted her mother's coat and at that point tears came to my eyes because that is what I would do for my mother this winter as I took her out on various errands. I so wanted to get up and tell that woman to enjoy her mother's company because you never know when that opportunity will be gone forever. But I figured being approached by a blubbering idiot would be just a little intimidating so I let them walk by.

But oh, how I envied them.

Finality

Yesterday we placed my mother's ashes in the mausoleum. Well, some of them anyway--Denny and I are also taking her to Myrtle Beach and Las Vegas since those were two places she loved best in this world. I included Mom's gambling boat "comp" cards and a very large shark's tooth she had found on the beach with her urn, envisioning her perfect place as a long shell-encrusted beach with slot machines. Why not?

The picture above is the view from the mausoleum. This summer my aunt and I will take the guided tour of the cemetery to look for the Wright Brothers, Erma Bombeck, John Patterson (of National Cash Register fame), Paul Lawrence Dunbar (the poet), Charles F. Kettering and many more well-known Daytonians (including the famous Gypsy family the Stanleys which my great-great-aunt married into). My parents are in good company there.

It's the Little Things

I had my brother over for dinner tonight as he needed to sign some official documents for me. I mentioned that his daughter (my niece) was coming over tomorrow to pick up Mom's recipes and OMG! I WAS GIVING MOM'S RECIPES TO ELAINE????????

So tonight I am scanning recipe cards into the computer so that any and all family members who want Grandma's recipes can have a copy. *sigh* I did not need this extra work.

Apparently we're not going to fight over the antiques but over recipes. I have a feeling I'll be pulling my hair out over this estate stuff before the end of summer. I wish Mom had sold it all and taken a month long trip to Las Vegas on the proceeds. We both would have been happier in the long run.

Don't mind me, I'm still fighting this crappy cold/cough/flu/whatever the heck I have and I'm incredibly grumpy about it.

Is it Spring yet?

Day Trip

Okay, so it turned out that Mom didn't go to Massillon, Ohio with the funeral director after all--he must have heard the anger in my voice during our phone conversation so he turned around and brought her back. That really wasn't an April Fool's Day post.

Once that was taken care of it was time to take a break from all this estate "stuff" and drive down to "the boats", which is what we call the gambling casinos on the Ohio River in southern Indiana. Mom, her friend Dottie and I were going to drive down on President's Day for a day of losing money at the slots, but that's the day I ended up taking Mom to the hospital so our excursion never happened. Denny and I decided it was time to take that trip for Mom, finally. I ended up gambling for two hours on the same $20 which is some kind of record for me.

I wish I had taken my camera along with us because Spring is finally showing up in southern Ohio. The daffodils are out, tulips are starting to bloom, weeping cherry trees are a vision of flowing pinks and whites, huge magnolia trees are filled with brilliant pink flowers and the Bradford pear trees look like brides swathed in satin and lace. How Mom would have loved that drive!

We finished off the afternoon by having lunch with Denny's sister Connie, sharing our "usual", deluxe pizza and house salad at La Rosa's. Life is getting back to normal, at least for this day.

Bang, Bang

I have been waiting for the funeral director to contact me about several issues, not the least of which is the return of my mother's ashes so that we may place them with my father's ashes at the cemetery (where all the famous Daytonians are buried, ahem!)

This afternoon the funeral director called to tell me that he was mailing the death certificates to me and oh, by the way, was it okay to deliver Mom's ashes on Monday because he was on his way to visit his parents and he forgot that he had Mom's ashes with him and he was already an hour away on I-71.

WHAT?????

I won't go into the ensuing conversation, but in the end I told him to go on to visit his parents and I'd get the ashes from him on Monday. In the meantime, my mother is on the road and I'm not. How funny is that?

It wasn't an hour later that an unnamed cell phone company called to conduct a survey since I had canceled Mom's cell phone service. I told the girl whose first language was obviously not English that Mom wasn't available because she had passed away but she still wanted to do the survey so off we went with it. Breaking into her own spiel midway to explain that she knew my mother had passed on but IF she were to once again contract with a wireless company would she use "unnamed cell phone company" yes/no, I played the game and answered all the questions for a shot at a gift card for a dead person.

You just can't make this stuff up.

Pure and Utter Crapitude

The last few weeks came crashing down on me yesterday. Darb, Steve and Angela met Denny and I for breakfast and came home with us to visit before having to return to Delaware (OH) and Buffalo respectively. My aunt walked up the street to visit also and then my favorite (ex) sister-in-law dropped by so it was a nice way to spend the morning but after they all left I crashed and burned. The cold/flu/whatever that I have been fighting really kicked in with all the achiness, coughing, snotty nose, etc. and I gave in to it for the rest of the day.

Today I'm better, which is good since I have to meet with an estate attorney to start all the legal aspects of dealing with Mom's affairs. Busy-ness is good; I think less that way.

L'Chaim

Today is my mother's memorial service. Friends and fellow RVers Bill and Diane sent me this and I thought it was appropriate today to share it with you.

Peace be with you.

Something Different

Stole this from Kim to use because I'm out of words for a while.

I'm Learning

I'm learning that one of the best gifts Denny and I can give our sons is to have all our affairs in order, documented, in lists, in folders, easily locatable (a word?) in one place, instructions clear and concise, all "i"s dotted and "t"s crossed. Of course, that will never happen, but I can see now that it would be a terrific gift that would help in what is a very difficult and emotional time. One should be able to grieve before you have to deal with all these details.

Maybe it's better this way, because when the grief really hits, I'm not coming up for a while I'm afraid.

Blogging buds, I love you all. Every comment buoys me. I really will come stalk you all when we finally get back on the road again...kidding!

Maybe ;)

It's Cryin' Time Again

Last night I lost my mother and my best friend.

Thank all of you out there who kept Mom (and me and Denny) in your prayers and thoughts.

Good Morning

A gift for you this morning.

The Next Step

A representative of Hospice of Dayton met with me today to talk about palliative care for my mother. We discussed some options and for now have worked out that Mom will be released from the hospital tomorrow pending her surgeon's approval and moved to Hospice for evaluation by their staff. After a few days if it's deemed reasonable, we will move Mom home where I will care for her with the assistance of a variety of Hospice staff. While Mom would prefer to go straight home, she agreed to go along with this plan (hey--anything to get out of the hospital!)

Yesterday I arranged with Mom's attending physician to stop any further intrusive testing. We are keeping her on her oxygen, her antibiotics and her TPN, although the goal is to wean her off that as it is the possible cause of the yeast infection. She is no longer being monitored continuously and I have stopped nagging her to eat. From this point on, I will return control to Mom (and boy is that hard for a control freak!) She still has no appetite for solid food, although my brother's girlfriend brought Mom some of her homemade cheesecake in the form of tiny tarts and Mom said she ate two of them so "hurrah!" to Deb for bringing those. Mom is only able to whisper now for some reason--her oxygen levels are fine but I guess her energy reserves are shot. Last night I took her her favorite robe and soft throw and she seems to be sleeping more comfortably in them.

Me? I've succumbed to a cold and have started to droop a bit. But tomorrow's another day.

Normalcy

Normalcy

Pronunciation: \ˈnȯr-məl-sē\
Function: noun
Date: 1857
:the state or fact of being normal

Normal: everyday, humdrum. How I long for humdrum. How nice it was the other evening after a long day at the hospital to run to our favorite pizza joint for dinner and just sit and people watch and make snarky comments about the behavior of other people's children instead of discussing Mom's condition. How relaxing to sit for a few minutes playing mindless games on Pogo rather than make phone call after phone call updating friends and family about how my mother is doing on this particular day. How enervating to discuss the possibility of going on a cruise to the Panama Canal or spending another month at Myrtle Beach rather than thinking about the medical decisions I'm going to have to make in the not-so-distant future.

I had an almost normal day yesterday and it felt good.

At Yeast We Know

The yeast has been identified as candida blagrata. Still unknown is whether the fungal infection is coming from the TPN/PICC line or if it is the type of systemic fungal infection that affects the heart valve. The infectious disease doctor wants to try using a different type of antifungal medication (voriconazole) to see if it has a better result than what he's been trying. Mom had a echocardiogram the other day but it didn't positively rule out an infection to the heart and the doctor doesn't want to subject her to a Transesophageal echocardiogram as her health is too fragile. So he's going to try the new drugs, then remove the PICC line (and thus also removing the TPN as a possible source of infection) once Mom can swallow pills safely (it's a problem right now) and then if none of that works, will diagnose it as a systemic fungal infection of the heart valves by default and we will transition into making her comfortable from that point on. Whew, what a sentence that was!

At least today Mom was more talkative and alert. There were still periods of confusion and off-the-wall comments, but she ate some ice cream and pudding without too much nagging. Mom still is refusing all solid foods, saying her stomach is growling too much. We tell her it's because her stomach wants food, but on this point she adamant. No solid food. So be it.

I'll cross my fingers for another good day tomorrow.

Back Down

Last night I spent the night at the hospital again; Mom's temperature was back up to 102 degrees and she was very agitated. Neither of us got a lot of rest, but she made it through the night okay and even was able to eat a few bites of ice cream this morning. I went home to get some sleep and returned this afternoon to find that she was once again kind of out of her mind and very hot and agitated. Her infectious disease doctor explained that the central IV line cultures were clean so her current PICC line was not the source of the yeast infection and that the results of the echocardiogram hadn't been returned yet. I questioned him about the yeast infection effects on her heart and he said that if the infection was in the heart that she was not a candidate for valve replacement and that the staff would simply make Mom as comfortable as possible. That was a kick in the stomach.

A little later the pulmonary doctor came into the room and he was obviously taken aback by her condition. He pulled me aside and we discussed Mom's history a bit and the fact that we had altered her original DNR orders. His advice to me was to reinstate the original orders as a kindness to my mother. Another kick in the gut.

So for the moment, we wait to hear what the echo results are to know where we go. A simple yeast infection means treatment at a local extended care facility and an eventual return home. Or there is the other.....

It's the Yeast of My Worries

The doctors ordered more blood work because my mother started running a fever again and this time they found yeast in her blood stream. Not a good thing to have to fight when your body is already worn down from trying to recover from surgery and other infections. So there will be no going home for a while. Today Mom was really agitated when I arrived at the hospital and was making no sense at all when she said something. She finally fell into a more restful sleep around 10AM and the surgeon who wanted to examine her incision actually walked away to allow her the rest. That was a surprise.

The Megase hasn't kicked in yet to increase Mom's appetite, but I got her to eat a few bites of cheesecake at lunchtime. The infectious disease doctor wants the TPN line out and a feeding tube in but not until she gets another abdominal CT to make sure there are no abscesses there. It just seems like it will never end. It's hard to watch Mom try to sleep when she seems so miserable and I can't do much to help, other than to hold her hand and make soothing sounds.

And what goes through my mind are the lyrics "My heart went up, down,
Like a merry-go-round and 'round,
Like a falling star, down, down,
Oh, oh, oh, dum-didly, dum-didly,
Dum-dum-dum dum." (Do you know where that's from? It's Dickey Lee's "I Saw Linda Yesterday")

A Picture for Mom

Since my mother is in the pulmonary care unit, there are no fresh flowers allowed as they are possible allergens. This evening after dinner I glanced out the back door at Mom's house to look for Patches when I saw a flash of yellow in the corner of the yard. There among the dessicated remains of last year's flower bed I discovered two small patches of these yellow flowers which I know that neither she nor I planted. I've been gradually adding perennials to Mom's flower beds in the backyard as she has gotten older and weaker and less interested in tending the flowers. This way the flowers simply come up every year and she doesn't have to mess with them too much. We've tended to purchase lavender colored flowers, along with the occasional white or pink plant that tickles our fancy. Some make it, some don't, as Mom has a heavy growth of wisteria that she loves that climbs the privacy fence and it tends to shade a lot of the flower bed. So these cheerful little lovelies were a pleasant surprise and tomorrow I'll take a print in to show Mom to brighten up her day. And maybe I'll even figure out what they are for when she asks their name.

Looking Ahead

Yesterday was a better day for Mom. She was able to move to a chair to attempt to eat (eating is still a problem) and she stayed awake a tiny bit to talk to my aunt. When Mom dozed, she actually went into a restful sleep.

The doctors are still clueless over the source of infection and they have backed off the antibiotics to avoid making them ineffective. All we can do is wait to see how Mom's body responds this time around.

In the meantime, Denny has a bad cough that I'm afraid will turn into bronchitis; it's something he gets occasionally when we return to Ohio. So no more sharing of glasses and kisses for a while as I don't need to catch whatever he has and take it to the hospital with me. Bummer.

In an effort to make life seem more normal for us, Denny has decided to start making a spreadsheet of some interesting sounding places to eat from the "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" show on the Food Network channel. While we won't travel to an area simply to eat somewhere, if we happen to be in or near a town on the list, we'll make a point to try it out. Yesterday I used some of our rewards points from our credit card to order a metal detector, figuring to use it to look for gold flakes and nuggets when we're geocaching out in the mountains of Arizona as there is still gold in them thar hills. The two of us decided that we would be optimistic about returning to our lifestyle of travel and this is one way to create some new goals for when we once again hit the road. I have no clue as to when that will actually happen, but happen it will.

One step at a time.

Downward Spiral

I guess I jinxed Mom by saying how well she was doing yesterday. This morning I received a call from Mom's nurse saying Mom had spiked a fever again and wasn't doing well. She's receiving the most potent antibiotics that she can get by IV and they just don't seem to be working. Lab tests show negative for c.diff, urinary tract infections and infections in the central IV line. Chest x-rays shows fluid in the lower lobs of the lungs but her lungs sound fairly clear. The CT of her abdomen didn't show anything obvious so the doctors are stumped. There is talk of more tests and more labs but Mom is so tired and so worn down that I don't know how much more she can handle. I've told the doctor that there won't be anymore surgery and he agrees that she isn't strong enough at this point and he's willing to make her comfortable and leave her alone if she doesn't improve soon. And I think that's where we'll leave it.

Today was a family day; one of Mom's sisters stopped by with her husband and Denny came to the hospital when I couldn't hold it together during a phone call. Later my sister and brother stopped by along with my brother's girlfriend. I think Mom appreciated it, but she was in and out of consciousness all day and very obviously in discomfort if not distress.

The bad days are beginning to outnumber the good.

On the Upswing Once Again

Yesterday when I arrived at Mom's room she was awake and getting ready for a sponge bath. Yay! Her fever was down and I managed to talk her into sitting up in the big chair in her tiny room where she stayed during breakfast. Mom even managed to walk out into the hallway with the physical therapist when he arrived. Double yay.

There's still no word on what caused the massive infection to return, but a CT seems to rule out another abscess or leakage in the colon. The doctors seem to be leaning towards blood poisoning/infection from the central line IV but the lab results aren't back yet for that. Whatever caused it, my mother is once again in a weakened state and she'll have a longer hospital stay because of it.

And so the fourth week begins...

Long Hours and Anger

Yesterday I was very encouraged about my mother's condition; she was alert, watched some TV and read a little bit of the book I brought her. She ate several bites of each meal and made sense when she spoke.

Today? Bad news. Mom's condition deteriorated once again. She wouldn't wake up, was once again a little out of her head and with six blankets on her was still chilled. It was obvious to me that something was badly wrong but I couldn't get anyone at the hospital to realize it or to care. I was *this* close to standing in the hallway outside of Mom's room and screaming at the top of my lungs to get someone's attention. The nurse finally called the attending doctor for me who realized that Mom was worse than yesterday and that something was not right. The doctor noticed the ostomy bag had not been emptied and I explained about the bag leaking badly two separate times last week, each time leaching into area of Mom's surgical incision. Blood work was ordered, blood gases were done as well as a chest X-ray and the doctor said she would order a brain scan if nothing was found in the blood work. Well, apparently infection was found after I finally went home (I was too close to exploding at the staff at this point) and according to my brother who took over in the afternoon, Mom is now back on heavy duty antibiotics. Blood gases were in the normal range with no word on the blood work but Don's girlfriend (a nurse) seems to think sepsis is a concern. So here we go again. And I'm wondering how much of this could have been prevented if the staff had dealt with the ostomy bag situation properly the first time.

The picture above? The Dayton skyline at night as seen from the hospital parking garage, something I've become quite familiar with over the past three weeks.

Appalled

Hospitals are for healing. That's what I thought. Today I was shocked to see how this particular hospital seems to be doing the opposite for my mother.

I've already mentioned she had a colostomy. That means she has to wear a bagging device to collect her body wastes. The device consists of an adhesive disk called a "wafer" that the collection bag snaps onto, rather like a Tupperware lid seals to a bowl. This evening when I was getting ready to move my mother to a chair so she could eat her dinner I noticed her bedding was wet and thought she had an accident. It turns out her wafer was loose and leaking into her open incision and that someone in the hospital had papertaped the wafer to Mom's skin rather than put on a new wafer. WTF??? There were no ET (enterostomal) nurses available to put a new wafer on, nor were any of the more experienced burn unit technicians around (they had all gone home for the night). My brother was told that someone would fix it in the morning. GAH!!! It's almost as if the staff no longer cares about Mom's care now that she is scheduled to be released next week. To say I am furious is a bit of an understatement right now.

Okay, deep breath. But if an infection develops in the incision because of this you'll be able to hear me all the way to Maine.

Stay tuned.

I Hope It's the Drugs

Today when I was trying to get my mother to eat her breakfast she kept staring over my shoulder. I finally asked her what she saw back there and she said "your dad". "My dad is behind me?" I asked. "Yes", she said. Okay. Never mind the fact that my father has been dead for twelve years. So there is still weirdness going on even when the nurse hasn't given my mother any pain medication. That's a bit worrisome considering the fact she's an alcohol abuser.

Mom slept through breakfast today when I was there and according to the nurse she slept through lunch and she was trying very hard to sleep through dinner when I left (it was time for my brother to be the nagger). Social services has sent the paperwork to a local nursing home that can and will handle Mom if she still needs the TPN IV for nutrition. The hospital would prefer that Mom was eating solids when they release her but I think they will release her regardless. The nurse was able to get Mom up to walk to the hallway today which is good, but the mental confusion she's still suffering has me really concerned. But it seems I'm the only one who is bothered by it (maybe it's just the idea of my dead father looking over my shoulder--ya think?) I'll see what happens over the next couple of days. Friday would be the earliest the hospital would release her according to Social Services with Monday being more likely. So Mom is improving physically but declining mentally; not the win/win situation I was hoping for.

On the bright side, our temperatures are supposed to get into the 50s tomorrow. I'm ready for sunshine, daffodils and the smell of freshly turned earth in the flower beds. Yep, I'm definitely ready for Spring.

Sleeping Beauty

Five phone calls and two Cosmos into my evening and I'm thinking I need to get something into my stomach here. Mom slept the day away and I had to oversee a scary-weird PCT (personal care tech) who was male, semi-gay and WAY too weird and rough for my liking to handle my mother's bath and personal care. I realize times are hard but don't hospitals have an obligation to vet these employees? Wow. Okay, I need to eat.

My brother had to leave the hospital because the hospital room is claustrophobic (you have all of 18 inches of room to move around in, literally). He and I have been estranged for years, but he is finally coming around and we are connecting. So something good is coming from all this. Mom is still only semi-conscious today even though she hasn't had dilaudid since 1AM this morning and she's still saying things that scare me. I'm hoping that the sleep she's getting will do her good, but the fact that she's only aware for about ten seconds at a time worries me. But her heart rate is better, her oxygen levels are decent and her pain levels are down. I just don't want her to choose sleeping over life.

We'll see.

Again, many thanks to those who have written with love, care and support--I love you guys!

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

This week my emotions have been on a merry-go-round. We get good news followed by bad when it comes to the status of my mother's health. Friday she was moved from cardiac intensive care to pulmonary care and she was almost chatty at times, albeit a bit goofy from the new pain meds. Yesterday after my Indiana cousin and her daughter left, Mom went into afib. At one point during the visit Mom didn't know who the three of us were, telling the nurse she assumed we must be relatives since we were there visiting her. There was talk of "people out to get your dad", someone might be after Datha (my cousin), gila monsters and that I should put the little tequila bottles in my purse when I go. Okay, so some of it was funny, but most of it was worrisome because I had no idea of where all this stream-of-consciousness was coming from.

The good things this week: being moved, being allowed solid foods, having her digestive system start functioning. The not-so-good: the cath stays in, the afib, the mental confusion and my impression that Mom might start to give up soon. She is very, very tired.

This journey's final destination might not be where I thought it was.

Another World

There is, out there in the netherworld, a group called "bloggers". These are random people who go online writing about their areas of expertise or complaining about motherhood or simply chronicling their lives. And then those of us who write web logs end up stumbling upon other people's blogs that intrigue us and we end up commenting upon each others entry for the day and eventually we create a long distance acquaintance.

While I have seen some instances of vitriolic comments from malcontents on the web, for the most part when a person writes of a personal problem or is stumbling on the sometimes rocky footpath of life, fellow bloggers are there with advice, prayers, offers of personal assistance and/or money. It is a strange and wonderful phenomenon that is uplifting and gratifying, especially when you are on the receiving end of it. And this week it is I on the receiving end.

Over the past few weeks I have been writing about my mother's health and habits as we try to care for her and more recently my posts have been of her surgery. Fellow bloggers have reached out in support and lifted my spirits when I needed it most. These are people I have never seen nor spoken with but they have been there for me and Denny from the get-go.

So all I can say is, watch out you guys, because when Denny and I hit the road once again you may find me ringing your doorbell for a long overdue hug. Fair warning.

P.S. The doctor took Mom off the ventilator yesterday and she's doing okay on her own with just oxygen. She's alert enough to complain--that's a good sign!

Status Quo

After a rough bit yesterday evening when my mother's heart rate once again soared and fluttered, she calmed down and had a relatively peaceful night. When I left at 9:30AM this morning after spending the night she was still pretty sedated and motionless. I'm hoping this all works out.

Thanks to all of you who have commented and written--your words help more than you will ever know. Hugs to you all.

Playing God

DNR. Do Not Resuscitate.

That's what we had on file for my mother. And when I got the phone call at 2 AM that her breathing was getting more labored, the nurse wanted to confirm that my mother wasn't to be placed on a ventilator. TJ (the nurse) said she discussed the ventilator option with my mother and Mom said "no", so I told TJ she had her answer.

At 5:30AM they placed Mom on 100% oxygen and TJ told me I could come in even though visiting hours are 11AM to 8PM. The respiratory therapist changed masks to one that had a rubber seal that was much tighter and didn't allow Mom to be understood easily as well as looking very uncomfortable, so when the doctor came in and pushed for placing Mom on a ventilator for a couple of days to allow her to get some rest from her struggles to breathe, my brother and I once again asked her if she wanted the ventilator. No, no, no. So I asked her what she DID want, and she said she wanted to go home.

"Okay," I said, "if you want to go home, how about allowing the doctor to put you back on the ventilator so you can breathe more easily, and then they can give you a sufficient amount of pain medicine so your "stomach" can heal" (they were limiting her pain meds due to her shallow breathing and low blood pressure). "Then," I said, "I can take you home and feed you some bacon and eggs". That's the only thing she has been asking for since she arrived. This time she agreed and we changed the code and now she looks horribly uncomfortable with the tube down her throat and my brother cried when he saw her and how in the h*ll do you get over the guilt of coercing your mother to do something she didn't want to do?

I came home and got sick.

Update

Slight sepsis. More difficulty breathing. Obstruction in colon, with tearing of the colon walls leading to air bubbles in the abdominal cavity. Ventilator, emergency surgery, colostomy. Somewhat awake and stable today but still in recovery due to lack of rooms at the hospital. Still on the ventilator. But she's hanging in.

'later.

From Bad to Better

The abbreviated story; cancelled the trip to the gambling casino, went to doctor, went to the ER, transferred to the hospital pending surgery, moved out of the surgical ward, on antibiotics.

All of this involved catheters and cat scans and terms like "free air in the abdominal cavity" and probes. The final decision was air bubbles instead of free air, keeping a watchful eye out and pumping huge amounts of antibiotics into my mother for an apparent variety of infections. At least they are working on a solution and the initial diagnosis of a possible perforated something has been changed. Still my mother will be in the hospital for the next few days so we'll both be grumpy. She, because she wants out and me because I have to keep explaining why she needs to stay. We're beginning to perfect this bit of stand-up.

So, little sleep, lots to do, but a little more peace of mind at the moment. I can live with that.

Going from Bad to Worse

Last night my mother started having severe stomach pains and she had a slight fever. She refused to go to the hospital and spent all evening as well as the night on the couch. This morning the pain has lessened, the fever is down but she's still not right. The back pain is still there, but at least she has some color to her face this morning. I look at her and think, "what next?"

On a different note, so far the only pictures I've taken with the new camera have been of items I'm putting on eBay for my mother. The weather has returned to its typical winter dreariness and there's no color in my world right now. Years ago as a surprise for my father, Denny and I secretly planted a ton of crocus bulbs all over the front yard. In the spring they popped up and looked wonderful peeking up through the snow, but the squirrels discovered the bulbs and the following year there wasn't a crocus to be found. I would love to see a crocus right now--I need a photo op.

And a mother who feels better.

Follow Up on the WagonTeamster

These are the most current articles: "Supporters" "Sister" "Investigation"

No word on the condition of the two horses that were not killed at the scene, nor if Clementine the dog has been located.

A Different Kind of RVer

For the past couple of months I have been following the blog of the Wagonteamster. This gentleman built himself a small RV of sorts (kind of like a gypsy wagon) and then hitched four powerful Percherons to it to explore the country. Wandering the back roads, meeting the good people of our country and just taking the time to smell the roses, Bob brought a different perspective to the idea of full time travel.

Today on Tioga and George's blog I found this. Be sure to read the comments following the article also. The dog commenters are referring to is Bob's dog Clementine who was traveling with him and has apparently been taken by someone. This is a horrific end to what was an incredible journey and I hope Bob and the two surviving horses make it through okay.

More of the Same

The last two days have been quiet here. Denny spent most of yesterday putting in a new cat door to replace the one that Patches broke when I accidentally shut her out. Naturally, the tools he needed to do the job properly were missing so the installation took four times longer than it should have and involved a lot more work. Me? I spent the day researching the items I was going to put on eBay for my mom, since she's still suffering intense pain from muscle spasms in her upper back. Unfortunately, she's self-medicating with booze and sleep, so I've had to try to come up with appropriate prices on her items by myself (she does have good antiques).

We're due for heavy rains and high winds gusting up to 65 mph today so I'm crossing my fingers that we don't lose power here. Obviously this will be a good day for housework or starting the massive job of clearing out the basement. *heavy sigh* Our favorite campground in Myrtle Beach sent us a flyer yesterday advertising their camping specials--which is a cruel thing to do at this point in our lives! The goal is to either get my mother back into a physical condition where she can take care of herself or have her settled into some sort of group housing where she can be monitored by this fall. A lot of it is up to her and I don't think she's all that interested in living right now.

In the meantime, we just keep on keepin' on.

Brief and Succinct

Thanks to Non Sequiter for expressing my feelings today.

Mental Health Day

Today was a mental health day for Denny and I; we not only took ourselves out to breakfast, as is our norm on Sundays, but we met with friends for dinner too. It was nice to get out of the house and away from the smell of smoke and the responsibility of another person's care for a few hours.

That's not to say we didn't get some work done today, since we did pull down the venetian blinds in two bedrooms and scrubbed them down and washed the windows as well. I also tried out the macro setting on the new camera by taking closeup pictures of items I'm going to put on eBay for my mom once I get her to write the ad (since she's the one who is knowledgeable about the antiques and collectibles--I just do the scut work). The camera is the same one as my old one, but with some upgrades like facial recognition and "intelligent automatic mode". As opposed to "stupid automatic mode" I guess. There are times when it would be nice to have one of those little slip-it-in-your pocket cameras, but I like the feel and heft of this "I'm-almost-a-digital-SRL-camera", along with the 18x zoom. Because the zoom means that I don't have to walk so far to get the shot I want--heh.

Now I just need some faraway place to photograph....

Sad Times

In the last year Denny and I have attended a lot of funerals. It's weird to realize you are at that age where friends and family members are beginning to succumb to illness and the accumulation of years. What is worse, however, is when you have to attend the funeral of a child of a friend, even if the child is a young adult. As Denny's father once said, "no one should outlive their child".

I don't know of anyone who is comfortable in the presence of death and I, for one, am never sure of the "right" thing to say. I can only hope that by being there Denny and I express our support, affection and sorrow at the pain our friends are suffering. I can never find the words, but they are there.

Someone Has Been Filming My Cat

Because this has been an issue here at Chez Mom lately.

Status Quo

For the moment things are quiet in southern Ohio and I'm hoping it stays that way for a while. Mom is still suffering with muscle spasms in her back and chest but she's trying to tough it out. Denny and I have started moving Mom's bedroom furniture from the small bedroom to the big one in preparation of making the smaller room a laundry room. However, after seeing her property tax bill that arrived in today's mail, I'm thinking we should start pushing independent living housing again--it's expensive to own a stick-built house!

The weather forecast was for another heavy snowfall this afternoon, but it appears we're going to dodge the bullet this time as it all seems to be passing by to the southeast. Even better is that weekend temperatures are going to be in the high 40s to possibly the low 50s, which means we can haul out the large venetian blinds from the master bedroom to the back yard to be sprayed down and washed. It's amazing how yellow everything gets when there is a smoker in the house. Denny also can replace the cat door that Patches destroyed when I accidentally (oops) closed the back door while she was outside. She somehow managed to worm herself through the cat door in the screen door but then was stuck because the house door was closed. And she just stood there squeezed between the two doors until I finally heard her collar bell jingle. My bad.

I think humdrum days are a nice change of pace.

Hospital Redux

I was up early today and when my mother came out of the bedroom it was obvious to me that she was in intense pain. She told me she thought her lung had collapsed because she hurt so bad in her chest and back. This she told me as she was lighting a cigarette. *Sigh* So I loaded her into the van and off we went to the ER to see what was going on this time.

Blood work, EKGs, a chest X-ray and treatment with nitroglycerin seemed to eliminate a heart attack, so my mother was given two breathing treatments, morphine, prednisone, prescriptions for more prednisone, antibiotics and Vicodin and sent home. The diagnosis was muscular-skeletal pain due to COPD.

Mom immediately lit a cigarette upon arriving home and continued to smoke heavily during the afternoon. This past week Mom had been looking and acting so much more healthy; she had been up and moving more, working a jigsaw puzzle with us and watching TV. Now this. Two steps forward, five leaps backwards. I swear I'm beginning to think the woman has a death wish.

And I'm back to wondering whether to insist she go into assisted living housing despite her wishes.

So Many Smart People Out There

Sometimes at night I just "Stumble" around the 'net, looking at whatever Stumble throws my way. I've discovered Photoshop tutorials that astound me, recipe pages that make my mouth water and things that just make me go "huh, how cool is that?"

I love the helpful pages; the ones where people found or created easy ways to do things and put it out there so I don't have to discover it for myself (heh). So here is what I've found recently:

11 Great Hidden Things that Google Can Do Who knew?

Online converter Yup, some of this can be done on Google (see above) but I like the fact you can break down units in so many ways. And where else can you translate text into Morse code?

Basic Photoshop tutorials. I don't have PhotoShop, but I have downloaded the free open source Gimp which apparently is much the same. I haven't used it yet, but it's on my "to do" list. And websites that would give me a leg up are great.

Honing a kitchen knife. I've been doing it wrong for years. Who knew?

Word nerds. I'm not the only one who cringes at mispronunciations and mis-used words.

How to reduce camera shake. As a neophyte photog I'm always on the lookout for tips.

I could go on and on. What are some of yours?

The Brunt is Yet to Come

A "winter event" of up to 12 inches of ice and snow is expected today. "O, frabjous day, Callooh, Callay." (Thanks to Lewis Carroll.) The picture above is the layer of ice that arrived last night, soon to be covered by several inches of snow. Needless to say, yesterday I made sure we were well stocked with basic grocery items and I picked up a couple of movies at the library so the three of us can just veg out today.

Actually, the plans today are to start carrying out the old bedroom set from the master bedroom in my mother's house so we can put in the twin bed set Mom has been using in a smaller bedroom. We're going to eventually make the small bedroom into a laundry room for her, as Denny has decided we can do that ourselves rather than hiring a handyman. Because Denny himself is quite the handyman and I'm a pretty good go-fer. We'll wait more towards summer for that, because I'm still not convinced Mom will be able to manage on her own if Denny and I choose to go back on the road this fall. To be honest, I'm not sure if she cares if she lives or dies at this point.

In the meantime, Denny and I will start the slow process of clearing out junk, moving items to the garage for a sale this summer and preparing the house to be sold at some point. I have a feeling that will happen sooner rather than later.

Nuttin', Honey

I was hoping that the new camera would have arrived by now so I could post some experimental pictures today. No such luck--apparently it hasn't even shipped yet. Sigh.

Denny and I were invited last night to a private Chinese New Year meal by a friend who manages our favorite Chinese restaurant. Thus we were introduced to the hot pot meal, which is basically a make your own soup/fondue kind of meal; you start with a broth, add cabbage, vegetables and a variety of thinly sliced meats, shrimp, fish cakes and all sorts of things I didn't recognize. And I ate it all! Denny, not so adventurous, did give a lot of things a try and we had a wonderful evening with friends celebrating the upcoming year of the ox.

No pictures of all this--too busy eating. Happy New Year!

Decisions, Decisions

Over the past two weeks I tossed out a few living arrangement options to my mother; moving into independent living housing, moving with us to a house in Arizona, buying a small RV and traveling with us while I do the driving, moving into a small apartment or staying in her current home. Mom wants to be warm when it's winter, but all of her family (other than Denny and I) are here in the general Dayton area so she's torn by the idea of leaving them. Wednesday she finally told me that she always assumed that she would die in this house and that's what she wanted. I told her that I could live with that, as long as she accepted hiring someone to come in to do housework and laundry and to have "Meals on Wheels" stop by. I also told her that she would need to get involved at the local senior center because part of her depression stems from isolation and that she needs to interact with people over the dreary winter months. Mom agreed (in theory) so Denny and I are making a list (lists! love lists!) of what needs to be done to make independent living in her home more easy for Mom. Such as having a contractor put in lines for a washer and dryer in one of the bedrooms so Mom doesn't have to walk up and down the basement stairs to do her laundry, putting in a wall safe so she can put her jewelry away when strangers come to the house, arranging the kitchen cabinets so that everyday food items, storage containers and eating utensils are within reach (raising her arms above shoulder level now makes Mom dizzy), putting sliding shelves in the pots and pans cabinet so Mom doesn't have to get down on her knees to get a pan out to cook her dinner and other fix-it jobs like that. Whew! There's a lot to think about when you are trying to think like a quasi-handicapped person.

Being busy is good, because then you don't have to think. Because thinking means remembering when you had the youngest, prettiest, most active mom in the whole neighborhood, one that all the other kids envied. Thinking means knowing that my mother is killing that woman, knowingly and willingly. And that's why I'd prefer not to think too much right now.

A Little Sunshine

Okay, for the moment I'm over that bit of drama from a couple days ago. I think the past year just caught up with me a bit, but it's onward and upward from this point.

The physical therapist stopped by today and made Mom do all her leg exercises plus walk around the hallway (I ratted Mom out, telling the PT that she had been slacking off since the PT's last visit). The home care nurse who also stopped by notice edema in Mom's ankles and recommended she get a recliner to make sure her legs were elevated high enough to allow the edema to recede. The little foot stool Mom uses now with her rocking chair is only about six inches tall so it's not getting the job done. So we hit the La*Boy store and picked out a nice chair to be delivered Thursday. After that, Denny and I dragged Mom to one of our favorite local fast food places, so she got more exercise in one day than she has in the past three months so right now at 7PM she's in bed, out for the night or at least until 2AM when she'll be up having a screwdriver. Ah well, one step at a time.

And me? I assuaged my feelings by ordering a new Panasonic Lumix DHC-FZ28S because my old Lumix DHC-FZ7 suddenly and totally died the day after we arrived in Ohio. To send it off for repair would have cost a minimum of $161.00 with the possibility of it costing much more to repair depending on what was actually wrong with it, so I bit the bullet and went for a new one. With an extended warranty, which means simply that nothing will EVER go wrong with this camera. Denny got a new Casio Atomic Solar Powered watch (love the solar power and how convenient for time zone crossing travelers to have the atomic clock capability) since he's been putting up with Mom AND me this week. And that's saying a LOT!

Shopping certainly soothes the savage beast in me. *grin*

Am I Allowed to Be Angry?

Is that "legal" when you are caring for an alcoholic?

I cried last night when I went to bed. I cried because my mother had just gotten up from one of her "naps" and it was 11PM and the first thing she did was fix a screwdriver and light a cigarette. Am I allowed to be mad that my mother is killing herself and doesn't care? Can I be mad that I'm trying so hard to make her healthy again and she just doesn't give a sh*t?

I think it's time I called Al-Anon. I'm the child of an alcoholic and I need help.

Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot

I took a mental health break yesterday to meet with a group of old friends. The ladies above all met through our husbands' involvement with a Knights of Columbus group and we shared a lot of years of activities there. I lost touch with the group when I divorced my first husband but most of them have maintained a tenuous relationship over the years.

Heidi suggested that we each tell about our lives over the intervening years so there were tales of travel, divorce, loss of spouses and loss of children, going back to school and re-marriages. We shared pictures of children and grandchildren and weddings and there was a lot of laughter and more than a few margaritas drunk. Two of the group were missing; Sue was busy dealing with frozen water pipes at her florist shop and Vicki is down in Texas enjoying the warm weather, so I called Vicki and tried putting her on the speaker phone, but it was too noisy for us to talk to her. She's just going to have to come home sometime this summer, because we're going to try to meet on a monthly basis or so to stay in touch. If the restaurant doesn't lock the doors when they see us coming the next time--heh.

Too Cold to Move

At least that's what Black Beauty thinks--she died on the way to the Ford service department to get an engine block heater installed. I guess the diesel fuel gelled up despite putting in additives to keep the diesel fuel fluid. The truck had to be left for a tow truck (at -10 degrees it was too cold to wait for the tow truck driver) Wind chills were -24 degrees. And people in North Dakota had -42 degrees--how do they stand it?

One more trip out to the chiropractor and then we're done for the day. At least the sun is out so it's warmed up to an almost balmy 3 degrees. So Vicki, no snow angel pictures as promised because it's just too darned cold!

Update

The new weather forecast says wind chills will be at -24 degrees tomorrow. Am I ever glad that we decided to move the trailer south for the winter! There is no way we could have lived in it with temperatures like that!

Still concerned about Mom's thought processes. She's again suffering from diarrhea and it didn't occur to her at all to take Imodium or anything for relief from the symptoms. It appears assisted living would be the best idea for her but I'm not sure she wouldn't outlive her financial resources. I think the stimulation of being around a lot of other people would lift Mom's depression, so we'll have to start crunching numbers.

To all our RVing friends--appreciate the warm weather--I'm thinking of y'all!

It's Going to Get HOW Cold?

Wind chills of -10 to -15. A new truck with no engine block heater and our appointment to have one installed isn't until Friday morning. At least the doctors' visits are over for the week. Results? No need for a colonoscopy for Mom as all tests were negative or clear. Basically the reason she was in the hospital is that she fell into a blue funk and drank the days away while not eating any solid foods. So I'm easing into conversations about good eating and sleeping habits, trying to get her to stay up until 8 or 9 PM instead of going to bed at 5:30 PM (like tonight) and talking about living situation choices. The cataract surgery on her eye has healed well so she can get new glasses now, although Mom admits that she's not really capable of driving yet, physically and mentally. *grateful sigh*

So far this week a home health care nurse and a physical therapist have stopped by and tomorrow will be the social worker and an aide who will do the physical therapy. Mom has already turned down a visit from the personal care aide and I think there's an occupational therapist or some such still to come. All of that was arranged at the hospital while my sister was with Mom, so I'm not quite sure who all we have coming over the next couple of weeks. Mom of course hates all of it and will probably "fire" them sometime next week, just as she did this past summer after she was hospitalized with a similar problem. "After all," she says, "Linda's here to take care of me." Hmm, I'm thinking I'm here to get you back on your feet so you can take care of yourself. *snort*

Patches has been curled up on my lap several times today, something she using only does on cold mornings in the trailer. I don't think she likes the cold weather, the snow, or the nicotine-scented, cigarette smoke-filled house here. Quite frankly, neither do Denny or I, but at least we can understand the reason we're here. Patches keeps looking out the window hoping for a different view than the one she saw last night and it just isn't changing for her like it does in the trailer. We plan to return to Alabama in April to haul the trailer back up to Ohio and I think the cat is going to be happy to be back in her traveling house for once. Even if the house won't be moving again until fall.

In the meantime, there will be many more discussions about lifestyle options, choices, and changes. A different sort of journey for us....

Let It Snow, Indeed

OMG, we discovered the hard way that 4-wheel drive is wonderful in snow and ice. The twelfth hour into our trip we were 60 miles from home when the snow started near the top of the worst hill heading out of Kentucky across the Ohio River into Ohio. Watching semi-trailers sliding sideways downhill does not bode well for the trip downhill ourselves and we started our own slide but Denny managed to get Beauty under control so that's when the 4-wheel drive went on. Even luckier was the fact that no one else lost control near us (there were several accidents on the highway according to the GPS system) so we eventually made it to my mother's house where we unloaded the truck, threw the cooler's worth of food into the freezer and refrigerator, talked briefly to my mother to see how she was feeling and then collapsed into bed.

I've made several follow-up appointments with various specialists for my mom, only to hear on the news that three new storm fronts are coming in over the next four days. Really? Does this have to happen this week? Do the weather gods know how long it's been since I've driven in snow? And isn't this why we decided to travel full time? To follow the sun and only see snow in pictures on other peoples' blogs? Sigh and double sigh. Bah and humbug.

Lazy Sunday on a Saturday

This morning Denny and I are driving to Summerdale, Alabama where we'll park the rig to store it for the winter. Tomorrow we'll be driving up to Ohio in a one-day driving marathon (about 12 hours) unless the predicted 3-5 inches of snow and bad weather delays us. But the point is, the computer will be packed up so I'm doing the Lazy Sunday post today.

Thursday was our day trip to N'awlins with Don and Vicki. Parking by the mighty, muddy Mississippi we came upon a line of cannons manned by the modern military who appeared to be getting ready to fire off the cannons. I asked them when/if they were going to fire the cannons and they said they would be doing a 21 gun salute at noon to commemorate the Battle of New Orleans. The four of us wandered over to the park across the street from Jackson Square where we watched the preparations for the ceremony, which included a color guard and military band, as well as costumed militia and city dignitaries.

Upon closer inspection of one of my zoom shots, I discovered this young soldier-to-be watching the proceedings intently. (Anonymous, leave me alone)

The loudspeakers for the ceremony for the commemoration of the Battle of New Orleans didn't carry across the street, but there was enough pomp and circumstance to keep us entertained for the half-hour program.

The statue of Joan of Arc on Center Street.

A mime of sorts--this was one of the better ones as he took great care to have every inch of himself and his costume covered in silver.

Vicki and I couldn't resist the charms of the gold man who called the two of us "classy and sassy"--he knew us! Heh.

There are still many signs of the damage done by the hurricane.

A juxtaposition of the old and the new on the Mississippi River.

Looking down a corridor at Pat O'Brien's restaurant.

And of course, the obligatory tourist shot of us with our Hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's. It was a good day.

Sigh and Sigh Again

I just finished reading the weather forecast for the Dayton, Ohio area; a winter storm warning is out with a prediction of 3 to 5 inches of snow for today. And the nighttime temperatures will be in the single digits all next week. Of course it will, because we just discovered that our new Ford truck did NOT come with an engine block heater installed (something necessary to keep the diesel fuel from gelling), apparently because we purchased it in Florida and Florida doesn't get that cold. *Sigh*

Nice welcome home.

We Almost Made It

Our plans were to spend the winter in Texas, which we haven't done since the winter of 2001. However, that's not to be. Last night my brother called me to say that our mother had not eaten all day and was too weak to sit up so I told him to take her to the emergency room at the local hospital. Once again, her sodium levels are down, although not dangerously so this time, and physically she's a mess so she was admitted for the night.

It's obvious to me now that Mom cannot live on her own so Denny and I are going to store our rig here in the South so we don't have to pull it through the mountains in wintry weather. We'll return to Ohio, buy some heavy duty air cleaners to try to keep the nicotine and tar levels from Mom's smoking to a minimum and see if having us there with her full time gets her back on an even keel. If not, then we'll have to investigate other living arrangements for her.

Denny and I are going to finish out our week here with Don and Vicki and then pack it all up to head north. We're girding our loins for facing the cold weather, and I'm starting to make lists like mad to make sure we take everything we need from the trailer since it will be parked 770 miles away from us. That makes it a little hard to run out to the trailer to pick up something we forgot, no?

Once again into the fray....

Poor Patches on a Lazy Sunday

On a normal day, Denny washes dishes because I've fixed the meal. On moving day, I wash dishes because Denny has a lot of outside chores to do; emptying the holding tanks, putting away the two satellites dishes, unhooking the sewer, water and power cords, etc. So I do the dishes and Patches has come to learn that means kitty has to ride in the big truck and so she hides behind the couch in the trailer.

Today, since there was a truck stop/restaurant just down the street from our campground, Denny and I decided to pack up, pull out and have breakfast at the truck stop before we hit the road for Louisiana. Patches was happily sleeping in her "cube" when I snatched her up and handed her out the door to Denny, cube and all. She was not a happy camper.

Later we were forgiven, especially when Patches was taken out for a walk but then she got tossed back in the trailer because it was time for happy hour with Don and Vicki who bet us to the campground by about 45 minutes and ended up being across the driveway from us. Since it was obviously 5 o'clock somewhere in the world, Don broke out the frozen margarita making machine and the b-s session began.

Because you are not interested in pictures of slightly tipsy old people, we'll go for whatever my wandering eye culls from the collection today.

Denny and I spent one entire summer driving the roads on the perimeter of the lower part of Michigan. This is a cove near Holland, Michigan. The natives try very hard to keep the tourists from finding these wonderful beaches (kidding) as the roads leading to the beaches sometimes are marked simply as dead end roads.

The tiny Malad Gorge State Park in Hagerman, Idaho is one of those hidden gems that we had almost to ourselves for most of an afternoon. Places like this make some of our favorite memories.

Our stay in Alabama was very damp to say the least. To prove it, there were several interesting mushrooms growing in the campground. You already saw the blue ones, this orange one never grew beyond this shape and size.

Visiting Yellowstone on a cold late September day is great to get away from the normal crowds of tourists, but the steam created by the hot bubbling pools hides a lot of the pools. But it didn't obscure the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

There is no way I'd be in Oregon in late September, because driving in snow with 17,000 pounds of trailer behind us does not make for comfortable driving conditions. But summer in Oregon is lovely as is Mt. Bachelor peeking above the trees and this unnamed lake. The grayish-black rock is actually obsidian, which is glass formed from lava.

Zion; massive colorful rock formations, miles of hiking trails, a Japanese pied piper to entertain us at a weeping wall of rock. You might not come away with the same memories, but you'll leave impressed by the beauty that forced its way from the bowels of the earth so many eons ago.

There have been a surprising number of times when Denny and I have ended up at places where we were the only ones in the campground. Such was the case at The Narrows in Idaho. Out in the middle of nowhere, there were spectacular sunsets, a wonderful nature preserve, a round barn with a grove of trees that hid nesting great blue herons and baby quail feeding around our campsite.

Another shot taken at Zion National Park.

How They Do It In Mobile

In a city where the krewes throw Moon Pies instead of beads during the Mardi Gras parade, without further ado:

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