Friday, January 22, 2010

If Only...

click on photo to read article in larger image:

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Home again.

I just realized that I neglected to say the results of Rich's heart zapp. Actually, I'll just say, "IT WORKED". His heart is beating normally now and his breathing is much improved and it seems to get better each day. He just has to start getting active again, which he wasn't able to do while his was having the breathing problem. Hooray.

Regarding the return trip from New York:

Turned out the truck was OK after all. Guess it's just an old "warm weather truck" and the temps up north were more than it could bear. The guys put a charge on it overnight and when we got up Monday morning it started right up. Rich drove it to town and filled the tank just to be sure all was well. It was, and we managed to get on the road by 11:00 am. Normally we try to start a long trip around 3 or 4 am. So getting a late start for us meant not being able to get our normal 900 miles on day one of our trip and only got about 550 miles before we had to stop for the night and that left us with about 1000 more miles to go.

I wanted to make that 1000 in two days but Rich loves to drive and he wanted to do it all on Tuesday. So, we did. We started at 8:00 am and arrived home at 12:15 this morning. A long grueling drive and boring for the cats and me, but though he was tired, he truly wanted to do it so we did. When we arrived home we were both exhaused and fell right into bed. But it was oh, so good to sleep in our own bed again.

We took a lazy day today and will probably do the same tomorrow. And of course, there's the laundry to do and the unpacking and other such "after a trip" things to do. The cats are happy to be home and be able to roam the whole house instead of just having only one room to play in.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR!




Sure is.... haha. (Writing this from near Albany, NY)

We drove to New York to spend New Year's Day with our daughters and their families. Because the weather wasn't going to be good, we decided to take the 4 wheel drive truck instead of the new car. Remember, we just had a new transmission (well almost new) and a brand new battery put in the truck last month?

Well, about 3/4 of the way to Albany the truck began doing things it shouldn't. We did get here and had a great day with the girls et al. But, Rich was concerned that maybe the altenator was bad as we were having trouble starting the truck, but it couldn't be the battery ('cause it's new, right?). Well it sat there out in the cold cold cold outside for a couple of days and now it won't start at all. We put a charge in the battery but still no starting. It was in our plan to head home tomorrow, but it looks like maybe we'll have to have the truck towed to a service station and get something fixed.

Too bad we didn't take the new car. Oh well. Such is life. Don't know when we'll be going home now. Hopefully we'll just be delayed one or two days at the most.

Then, today we couldn't find the cord and modem and mouse for the laptop. Spend a while looking for them and they finally showed up under a sofa cushion. Ir's been some week.

It's cold here and we're no longer used to cold weather. Florida just doesn't get down to 7 degrees (at least not in Port Charlotte). Luckily I have no need or reason to go outside. It warm enough in the house for me. We are staying with #4 daughter, Wendy, and her hubby Ken and daughter Alexis in their lovely home on top of a hill and the wind is blowing hard and sounds like a train about to go right through the house. There's a lovely fire in the fireplace to keep us warm, and they won't let us help with anything. We are supposed to just sit and be guests.

We have our own room where our cats stay. We don't allow them the run of the house because they are fraidy cats and Wendy has a very large dog (Satchmo)and three cats (Oliver, Blue and Squeaky) of their own. Don't want any animal clashes. Velvet, being a social person loves it when Alexis stops by for a visit but Lacy continues to hide under the bed when anyone but Rich or I come into the room.

So, really not much happening here except reading on my Kindle and watching TV. Tomorrow everybody goes back to work or school, so we'll try to get the truck fixed and get on our way home as soon as we can.

So that's it for now. So long. Catch ya later.