Another week gone.

Another week has flown by. This is getting a little scary, seems the older I get the faster time goes by. Everyone I talk to tells me its happening to them also.

I had placed an order at Amazon.com to purchase a gizmo called Dazzle, to upload my analog videos to the computer and converting them to digital. Last week I started doing some of them. It is a very time consuming job but I know it will be worth it in the long run. The older video we have is almost 40 years old, and they will no doubt start to loose some quality with age. Converting them to digital, they actually came out better than the original. This has convinced me to continue with this long project.

Actually I started with the most recently taken video. The youngest grand baby, Savannah, now 4 got to see herself when she was only a couple weeks old, and again when she was about 6 months old.

We gathered in the living room in front of the TV. She sitting next to Na-Na. I put the DVD in and turned it on. As I have seen this video about a dozen times, (from editing it) I just focused on her face as she watched herself.

Words cannot explain the feelings that went through me. Those precious eyes of hers never left sight of the TV. The expressions on her face as she sat with total amazement, laughing at herself as a tiny baby. It was another wonderful memory she had just given me.

I now have my 450 Gig hard drive in my computer about 95% filled. So another order went into Amazon.com for an external hard drive. I will use the external hard drive to store them plus I will burn DVD's, store them in protective covers and put them in my strong box where they won't be exposed to light.
Hopefully they will last longer than I will! I guess it would be safe to check on them every 5 to 8 years to make sure the DVD's still work. Of course there will be several copies made for the "kids" to take home and watch on their TV's.

Tuesday, Tina called and asked about where to purchase a new stove. I gave my advice, she will now be able to make her own decision. Today she called and said her new stove was installed and she is looking forward to doing some baking. I just had to do what any father would do.....I placed my order for Brownies with walnuts! :~)

Today looks like Spring is finally starting to show. It got up around 58 and sunshine. The grass is starting to turn green. The Maple trees have been budding out now for about a week. Then I turn on the computer to update the blog and notice we are in a severe weather alert. What ! Looking outside it's still sunny, no breeze and still 52 at 7pm. But they are predicting rain moving in for tonight and tomorrow, with a high only 46. Monday is a high of only 35 with snow mixed with rain.
Wilma just walked in the room telling me she just got off the phone with Angel. Seems Angel just saw the latest weather forecast, calling for 8 to 10 inches of SNOW on Monday! Dang it ..... this winter just won't leave us! Angel is saying she is moving to Florida! I just can't blame her.....wait for me Angel!!!

Gotta go make me a mix drink and wait for the snow. :~(

Another adventure, another day. Until next time, be safe and God Bless.

Back Home

We are back home from our "Week-end" get-a-way. We decided to cut it short by a day for two reasons. One, the weather....just too much snow and cold! Two, Mom goes into the hospital today for surgery.

So....here is what our weekend was like...

Friday, Jan. 16th.
We had Dakota and Savannah sleep over last night, the phone woke me up around 6am. Angel calling to let us know that school has been canceled because of the cold. So that means that I won't have to drive Dakota to school this morning, and he gets to sleep in!

I decided to get up and let Wilma sleep in. Got the coffee going and proceeded to get my "stuff" together that I'm going to take on our weekend trip. With the temperature hovering around 5 above 0, I wasn't in any hurry to get the car loaded with "our stuff".

Everyone was awake and ready for the day by 10am, so I took Dakota and Savannah over to Angels home and dropped them off. Angel was watching them until Tina gets home from her job.

By 10:30am we had the trunk packed and were ready to leave on our week-end get a way. We weren't in any hurry as we weren't supposed to check into our cabin until 3pm. I assured Wilma that as the Park isn't busy they would let us check in early, whenever we get there.

As it turned out we arrived around 1:30pm. No problem checking in, as the "office" was closed and the security guard checked us in, giving me the key to Cabin #1. We drove over to the cabin only to find out that the water lines were frozen. Drove back to security letting them know; he told us that the manager would meet us at the cabin. The manager checked the "heat tape" making sure it had power, which it had, and then checked Cabin #2. He apologized for the inconvenience, and asked if we would mind moving to Cabin #2. Not at all we assured him, and he left as we moved our "stuff" to Cabin #2.

The first thing we noticed different, was the heat! WOW was it ever warm in the cabin, I'd guess around 80. Wilma made a comment about it being way too hot to sleep in that heat and we would have to turn off the heat, which was a combination air conditioner/heater built into the wall. I saw this was going to be a problem if I had to keep getting up during the night to turn it on and off as needed.

The second thing we noticed is that this cabin was a little larger. That was a good thing, seeing as the cabin was a total of about 8 foot by 14 foot max.!

After getting all our stuff moved in, I commenced to see what was wrong with the heater, while Wilma made the bed.

I noticed how cold the frame was, and the control knobs were next to the outside frame. Could the cold be radiating to the controls making the heat stay on longer? So I proceeded to remove the front grill and filter, then pulling off the 2 control knobs I was able to remove the face plate by the controls, then put the knobs back on so I could turn them for adjustments. Within a few minutes the heat turned off. GREAT, now lets hope that turning up the heat knob will cycle the heat with the temperature of the cabin. Yep it worked! So I was now confident we at least could control the heat in our cabin if I left the front grill and filter off. Just a lucky hunch I had, and I guess Karma was on our side for this one.

As we forgot some food left in the fridge at home, we decided to make a trip into town and get a few groceries and stop at a restaurant for supper. We did that and returned to the cabin for an evening of watching one of the three TV stations available before turning out the lights.

Saturday, Jan. 17th.
Woke up and noticed we forgot Coffee filters! Improvise...Wilma handed me a napkin which worked just fine. Turned on the TV for the local weather, more cold and snow for today and tomorrow. Brrrrr. It was 0 degrees outside, and 72 degrees inside. Another 3 inches of snow fell since we arrived on the already foot of snow on the ground.

Our plan for today was to go to the Casino and donate to the local tribe. But after seeing that the weather was going to go from bad to worse tomorrow, we decided to switch our plan with tomorrows plan. So we will go to the Casino tomorrow, if we aren't snowed in!

So today we are going to head further North.....more cold and snow.....about 47 miles to visit Denny and Kathy.

The ride there on I-75 was pretty bad.

It was 11 am and the plows had not completly cleared all lanes of the expressway. Plus the wind was blowing and snow falling adding more to the snow that we got last night.

We arrived at Denny and Kathy's home around 12:30pm safe and sound in the blowing snow. They have a beautiful home to be very proud of. Their fireplace insert wood stove kept their home very confortable, and Denny said as long as its on, the furnace doesn't come on. A great savings in his fuel bill.
We went out to a restaurant for lunch and returned to their home. Denny then showed us his Pole barn that he and his son built. Wow is that ever nice! He has all the room he needs, and we could tell he was very proud of it. I know I sure would be! Looking how high it was I made a comment to him about how I wouldn't be able to put shingles on the roof because of the height, he said it was pretty high as he fell off of it once putting on the shingles. I'm glad for his sake he wasn't hurt as it looked about 12 foot high to the edge of the roof!

Back inside their home, they taught us a new game. Mexican Train.

Wow did we have fun. We laughed and joked with each other while playing, and Denny told us that the game can be bought at Walmart for around $10.00. Guess where we will be heading in a few days? Angel phoned us while we were at Denny's asking how the weather was. We told her the weather we were having, she said they were having a blizzard with expected 3 to 5 inches of more snow expected. Booo Hooo. More snow to shovel when we get home.

We kept an eye on the snow falling as we played Mexican Train, and around 5pm we decided that we should leave for the trip back to our Cabin. Wilma and I had a wonderful time with Denny & Kathy, and we know we will see them again in the future, as they have invited us back out in the summer.

Our trip back to the Cabin was slow because of the wind and snow covered roads, but we made it without incident. Kybee sure was excited to see us when we opened the Cabin door, as we were glad to see him also. The temperature now around 2 above outside and a confortable 72 inside the cabin. As we were still not hungry for a large meal, Wilma and I decided to eat a sandwich and watch a little TV, (because all we could get on the small 13" TV is 3 channels!) before turning in for the night.

Sunday, Jan. 18th.
Sunday morning drinking our coffee, looking outside and noticed another 5 inches of snow fell. But the sky was clear and blue and the sun was starting to come up.

Wow....haven't seen the sun in quite a while!

Kinda cheered us both up at how pretty the sun glizzened on the fresh snow....at least for me as long as I was in a warm cabin. :>)

Watching the morning weather forecast, it was saying it was now 5 above 0. Brrrr...
We talked about going home this afternoon instead of waiting for Monday morning. Both of us agreed we would be more comfortable sleeping in our bed at home, and the weather could turn from bad to worse Sunday night. So we packed all our stuff and got it ready to be put in the car.

We wanted to make our donation to the Casino, so off we went for a little fun and to see if it was time for our dream of "hitting it big" was going to happen.

Sorry to report....our dream did not happen. But we both had an enjoyable time and will return in the future. Leaving the Casino, we stopped at what Denny called "the really big store". He gave directions to us when we visited him yesterday. And Denny was right, it is a "really big store" with everything you could think of. And great prices too. When we come back to this area in the future, I'm sure we will stop back in this store also. We left the store and stopped at a restaurant for lunch, as it was around 1pm and we knew it was at least a 3 hour drive back home. After lunch we went back to the cabin, loaded up the car and headed home. The roads were pretty clear, I-75 had been plowed and were only a little snow covered. We made good time getting home, arriving around 4pm.

Walking into our home, where we set the heat down to 50, was quite chilly to say the least! It took the furnace an hour and a half steady running to get the temps back up around 70. I even lit the oven and left the door open to help heat the house. Wilma and I donned sweatshirts to help keep warm until the house warmed up, Kybee found the heat vent in the bathroom as the perfect place to keep warm. It feels great to be back home! The neighbors even snow blowed my sidewalk and drive! So there was little snow removal for me to do.

Monday, Jan. 19th.
Today is a paid holiday for me! So I'm planning on going to St. Johns Hospital this morning to be with Dad as Mom has surgery planned. She has blocked arteries in both legs, and the surgeon said it should take about 4 hours for the surgery to place stints in the arteries. She is scared about the surgery, but talking to her on the phone yesterday, I assured her this would be "a piece of cake" compared to her 5 stints put in around her heart a couple years ago. Hopefully it would relieve her anxiety a little, even though I realize any surgery like this is risky. She is scheduled to stay in the Hospital for 2 days, so she should be back home on Tuesday morning.

Monday, Jan. 19th. update:
Mom made it out of surgery ok. She said it was pretty bad pain wise, not where the surgery was but with her back. (She has a very bad back and has had 5 surgeries on her back alone, nothing else can be done to help her with her back.)

The surgeon spoke to Dad and I after the surgery, telling us that her right leg now has 2 stints in the main artery. One by her hip the other a little lower just above her knee. The rest of the artery looked good. Her left leg artery is also 80% blocked, but there was no hurry to repair that artery for at least 6 to 8 weeks.

So if all goes well through the evening, she should be released from the Hospital tomorrow morning.

Until our next Adventure, be safe and God Bless.

More Snow....Even COLDER Cold.

The weather man was forcasting yesterday that we were going to get another couple inches of snow.
I woke up this morning to another 3 inches of snow added to the 6 inches we got last Friday. It was a fine, light snow; so clearing the drive and sidewalk was easy with the Honda Snowblower of mine.

They have been forcasting a cold front to arrive today. At around noon the temperature was 35. By the time I left work at 3:30 it had dropped to 20 degrees. The wind started blowing 30 miles per hour out of the West. Man O Man was the wind cold!

The weather men are saying that it is going down to 2 below 0 tonight. Then only up to around 8 tomorrow. This cold is expected to stay with us until this Saturday before we get back up to our normal "balmy" 34 degrees. Can you see me shivering? ? ? ??

As both Angel and Tina live in Mobil homes, I warned them to leave a faucet running slowly all night to help keep their water lines from freezing. I had to crawl under Angels Mobil home last winter to un-thaw a water line to her bathtub, and believe me that is no fun at all! It got so cold last year that her neighbor saw me under Angels home and came out to ask if I could thaw out her main drain pipe as it had frozen and she has standing water in her sinks and tub! That I just couldn't do. Her son came over with a "torpedo" heater to heat the underside of his mom's mobile home. After several hours her drain started running again.

This Friday is my scheduled day off from work, and Monday is Martin Luther King day, which is a paid holiday for us. I mentioned to Wilma that I have a 4 day weekend and that we should go up to the RV Resort that we are members of and rent a cabin. She jumped at the chance. So we will be doing some R&R this weekend.

Now it's about a 3 hour drive NORTH from our home. Do ya think it will be any warmer there??? Naaaw if anything it will be colder, so we are also packing a portable electric heater just in case we may need it.

There are no plans to do anything on any given day. All we are looking forward to doing is sitting in the "hot tub" and going to donate to the local Indian Reservation Gambling Casino. The last time we were there we broke even after 3 hours of enjoying ourselves. Of course we set our limit to not more that $20.00 each. If we donate that amount then we leave.

We are planning on taking the laptop and hopefully connecting to the web to keep our blog up to date and share some pictures with you.

So we are looking forward to our Winter break this weekend, not looking forward to the cold though. And we hope where ever you are it's warmer than where we are.

Check back again and until then be safe and God Bless.

Snow, Wind, & Wilma's Heart

Friday morning the snow started falling. Kept falling all day and by the evening around our home we had 12 to 14 inches. BLA I hate winter! After working 9 hours at work I came home to work another hour with the snow blower clearing the drive and walks.

Then around 7:30pm the snow plow came through and cleared the street. Depositing another foot of snow across the drive. So on went the winter coat and out to get the snow blower to clear the drive again. Got back in the house around 8pm. Now after a 14 hour work day I thought it was time for a rest, so on the computer I went to get my email. By 9:30 I was in bed for the night.

Saturday was just cold, had to work 8 hours, I say had to because the extra on the pay check helps pay the Christmas bills. The weather man on TV was predicting that high winds will be here tomorrow with 20 to 40 below 0 wind chill! Yikes!!! Then add the blowing snow and yep you guessed right, more snow blowing what was just done the day before. Did I tell you I HATE WINTER!!??!

At 4 am Sunday, Wilma taps me on the hand to awake me, telling me her heart has been racing for the past 20 minutes. Up out of bed I jump, to take her pulse. I really had a hard time finding it! The reason I had a hard time finding her heart beat is because it wasn't racing, it was irregular. It would beat a couple times, then stop, then beat once, and stop again, then beat four or five times and stop again. WOW....get dressed we are going to the Hospital. The wind blowing the snow, temps in the low 20's and streets slippery, but we made it in record time. Of course I went through a red light after stopping, looking, and then proceeding through.

Arrived at the Hospital Emergency Room around 4:45am. They took Wilma right in.

Chest X-Ray, Blood samples taken, IV inserted, EKG taken, 4 Baby Aspirin given which she had to chew up before swallowing, orders from the male nurse taking care of her. Within a half hour a young Dr. entered asking Wilma questions about her condition, any pain, what meds she was on....the usual Dr. stuff. She wrote down all the different prescriptions Wilma has been taking, and informed us she would be checking on the blood work and monitoring the machine Wilma is hooked up to, and would return with further diagnosis as soon as possible.

Within another 45 minutes she was back explaining what the symptoms were to us in more detail, re-assuring us there is no need for alarm at this time. I was impressed with her for her professionalism.

Then within another half hour, she entered with a more senior Dr. who introduced himself as the Senior consultant Dr. on staff. A scare went through me like never before. I was expecting some really bad news here, but he went on to say everything looks ok for now and that Wilma should follow up with her personal Dr. and maybe a cardiologist. Both Dr.'s felt it was fine to be discharged and leave the hospital.

WOW What a relief!

We were out of the hospital and in a restaurant by 9am. Both relieved that it wasn't serious but both knowing she has to check with her Dr. very soon.

Arriving home I told her that I would wrap the gifts today that she was worried about. And she just needs to put the labels on them. I wanted her to take it easy today, and she didn't argue.

All the gifts were wrapped by 2pm. We watched a little TV before we both fell asleep for a well deserved nap.

It's 6pm now as I write this Blog, the wind is still blowing hard outside and the temperature is down to 5 above 0 Degrees F. Brrrrr...the furnace is working overtime keeping us warm. And I feel great the gifts are done, and Wilma is feeling better.

Another adventure in our lives....until the next adventure, be safe and God Bless.

More snow on the way!

It started while we were having supper in the restaurant yesterday evening. When I woke this morning to go to work there was 4 inches of fluffy white snow on the ground.

Now arriving home from work, the local weather man says that Thursday evening we could see a mix of sleet, rain and if cold enough possibly 6 or more inches of more snow by Saturday morning. Auuggghhhh! Already I hate WINTER!

Give me the sunny Florida weather. Listening to XM Radio Orlando Weather it got to 82 today with a low of ONLY 62 tonight. PERFECT! Hopefully when I retire, Wilma and I can "snowbird" to Florida for the winter and get away from this stuff up here in Michigan.


Anyway, I was reading another blog of an RV'er and he had a clip from You Tube. Watching it I was really impressed and just had to add it to my Blog. This must have been very time consuming getting all these musicians from around the world to play the same song without seeing each other.

Hope you enjoy it as I did. Click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

Until next time, be safe and God Bless.

3 days to go and MORE SNOW!

Man-O-Man. We got another 5 inches of snow a few days ago. Today was the first chance I've had to clear out our "runway" so we can leave Wednesday for sunny Florida!

As you see I'm NOT having fun. But my mind is not on what I'm doing, but where I'm going to be in a week. I looked on the Internet for the 7 day weather forecast for Florida, and I really like what I saw. Can't wait!

Tomorrow I'll put fresh water in the holding tank and check for leaks. Keeping my fingers crossed there won't be any. From that point on I will have to set the furnace to run until we get further south in warmer weather in a few days.

Check back soon for updates on our adventurers.

Take care and God Bless.

Oh No....More Snow!

Well as you can see from the pictures I took today we still have about 4 inches of snow on the ground. Kinda getting a little concerned because in a few weeks we are headed for Sunny Florida!

I still have to purchase a deep cycle battery. Get all three batteries installed in the MH (motorhome) plug it in to the electrical outlet in the garage. Wilma then will be able to start loading up the items we will be needing.

Plus I want to (un-winterize) it. Checking for water leaks. Keeping our fingers crossed there won't be any.
I'm un-winterizing because it will be easier to fix here at home than on the road if there is a leak. All I'll have to do then is keep a light bulb turned on in the basement of the MH. They say there is enough heat given off from a 75 watt light bulb to prevent any water lines from freezing. They better be right, because I just know we are still in for some below freezing nights.

Come back again, be safe and God Bless.