Three full days

Thursday Carol had her eyes examined and while she was doing that I went to the American Legion and joined. Seems like a nice group and a nice club. In fact on Friday 09/04 our favorite entertainer, Jay Smith will be playing there and we will be going to have dinner and dance to his music. Gus and Marilyn Lopes will be joining us as they also enjoy Jay.

More racquetball on Friday and I still feel tired while playing but my game is coming back a little. We also went to Sam's, Home Depot and Lowe's shopping. Contacts at Sam's for Carol and then at Lowe's e bought a new sink to replace our white one in the kitchen. It as a mess for plumbing under the sink and the white plastic sink stains and is not easy to keep clean. Got a stainless one and it has a nice large sized bowl on one side.












Decided to put the sink in on Saturday and nearly got sunk by the sink. It was a longer job than anticipated because of the "mobile home" type plumbing. but I finally got it in and it really looks good. It is also a larger sink than they put in mobile homes. Some before and after pictures are included.












Here is the plumbing before and after. We now have more room under the cabinet. A drawer is the next project.


Tomorrow we pick up Gail at 5:30 AM to take her to the Ft. Myers airport. She is going to Colorado for a week visit with her son Steven. We will pick her up the following Sunday.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I was still worn out on Monday morning from the dive on Sunday but we still went to the YMCA. An hour of racquetball was nearly more than I could handle. My calves were so sore from the swim back to shore yesterday that I had a poor night of sleep. Got our mail and got all caught up on that stuff.

Tuesday I brought the Bus back to the house and washed it .... boy it is big!!!! It really needed it. I then polished the headlight lenses which had gotten hazy from age and were reducing the lighting. They now look a lot better and I am sure will be better at night. Also stopped in at the Venice American Legion Post and got info on joining. I then dug out my military records that they need to see to verify that I had active service in a wartime period. I guess I am going to make it even though the only active service I had was my Enlisted boot camp in January 1953 and my Midshipman cruises in 1954, 55 and 56 that were wartime periods.

Wednesday back at the YMCA for another hour of racquetball. I played better but I was still tired. Still not sleeping well with my sore calves. Went out to the beach and found out how much weight I have to wear when snorkeling to be slightly positive in buoyancy. Nine pounds seemed to be OK but then after I picked a lot of shells I became negative and had to work to stay on the surface. I will start with less weight the next time. Without any weight I float up quite quickly when diving for a shell. With less buoyancy I can swim an the bottom longer and pick up more shells on one dive.

Bob King and I were going to go for a motorcycle ride in the evening but the weather was not good. Raining where we wanted to go!!! I also got started getting information on the Jacksonville area for the Hazelwood reunion in 2011.
Hope to sleep better tonight. Later!!

SCUBA

Well, I made it to the beach to go diving for sharks teeth today. I even convinced Carol to go with me so she could watch our stuff on the beach. There was a good sized group that met up at Venice SCUBA Quest.. about 20. They had some goodies to eat at the beach and some non-alcoholic beverages.
I got buddied up with a young fellow who had never hunted for sharks teeth. The surf was not too bad when we went in and it was not a problem. You need to swim quite far out from the beach to get in the good hunting ground ...... into about 27 feet deep water. It was a lot further than I expected. We snorkeled out several hundred yards .... to conserve our air in the tank... and then decided to dive down. It was only about 13 feet deep!!! The visibility was not good at all, only about 2 or 3 feet. To keep in touch with each other he held onto part of the line for our dive-float. The visibility was so bad we decided to come up and snorkel out further for a while .
This time when we went down it was about 20 feet!!!! So we just kept swimming on the bottom going further from the shore. As it got deeper the visibility did improve and we had up to 10 feet at time. My buddy did find some small teeth and he was pleased at that. I didn't even find one!!! I was looking for the big ones though. When our air went down to 1000 PSI ... from a start of 3000...we turned and started back toward shore on the bottom. When we reach 500 PSI we came up and snorkeled to the beach.
It was a really a long way to the beach. I was really getting tired but I had my vest inflated and could just lie on my back and keep paddling. I was getting small cramps and and I was getting quite tired but we finally made it
In total we spent 1 hour underwater and at least that long on the surface and got down to a depth of 23 feet.
All in all a good day but I am not sure I am going to do another beach dive. It is just too tiring for an old guy like me.

The DELL Exclusive RV Resort

We arrived in Sevierville, TN and the Dell RV Resort on Wednesday afternoon and it is really a top flight resort. We have 2 nights of free camping that we got at the Tampa RV show. This is a resort with only 27 sites that they are selling to those who will buy them. The cheap sites are about $170,00 and the ones on the pond area ... with fancy concrete that looks like stones ..... are about $195,000. They do have a storage shed and the sites are large. We also took a tour of the home sites .... some of the smaller homes cost less than an RV site!!! ..... and it was really quite beautiful. It is on hilly ground and just driving around was exciting. Not the place for us.
The entire area has really grown up and is much more commercialized than the last time we were there about 5 years ago. We did some shopping and I got a good bargain on a drill with a wire instead of a battery. We also had a good dinner at Damon's. Their ribs are still very good.
We will depart here on Friday, stop in Valdosta on the way, and be home Saturday. I am planning to do a SCUBA dive on Sunday to look for sharks teeth. I hope it is a good day for it.

Stuck in Cincinnati

I finally got all of the items cleaned from the do-list at Lori's. We then decided to depart on Sunday, August 16 rather than Monday. It was just a longer drive to Sevierville, TN ( in the Smokies) than I wanted to make in one day. When we got to the FMCA campground in Cincinnati, I fond I had a problem with the Jeep. The 4 wheel drive not shift out of neutral and locked into 4WD in gear. It was drivable but I would not be able to tow it in that condition.

I was lucky and found a garage about a block from the campground and they looked at it first thing on Monday and found the shift cable had worn out, came off the transfer shifter and needed replaced. It was ordered and would not be in until Tuesday so we planned a Wednesday departure.

Back in Zanesville

Arrived back in Zanesville at our parking spot. I still have a lot of items to complete and will be working on them this week. I also had to fix the wiring on the drivers seat in the Bus and replace the grey water drain as it was leaking. There is always something to fix in the Bus or the house in Florida!!!!

Carol's Birthday

Carol’s birthday!!!! We are planning to go to Parente’s in Trafford for dinner. Peduzzi’s, Serafin’s, Jeannie and Susan will join us. Peduzzi’s granddaughter joined us also.
I went to the cemetery and got some info about Grandmother Julian that I did not have. Her birth year is 1861 and she died on March 21, 1921. The lot cost $18.00 and was apparently purchased by her son John. I entered all of the information in my Family Tree program.
During the day I called Wayne and spoke to him. He was, as usual, in great spirits and was thankful that he made it to his phone. He said there were several times while crawling he got very tired and thought about taking a nap but knew he might not wake up!! He said he will do well with a “wooden foot”.
We had a great time at Parente’s and the meals were excellent Italian cuisine.

Trafford day Three

We went early to find a shirt for Carol she had seen at the Fair but they had none in her size so the owner said she would get one for us by the end of the day. This was at a SAT-SUN Flea market. Carol had NAVY put on the front and DD-531 on the back in sequins. When we got it, it really looks good and will a hit with the ladies at the next Hazelwood reunion.
Spent most of the day at the fair meeting old timers and just having a relaxing time. During the3 day I spoke to a friend of Wayne Galore and heard that he lost a foot in a bush hog mowing accident. He is recovering very well but it was very serious since he was not near anyone and they had trouble finding him. He had to crawl over 300 yards to get to his cell phone and could have easily bled to death.
The fair was over about 6 PM and we then retired to Peduzzi’s porch for night-caps and recaps of the fair and all that went on. Just after Jeannie and Susan left we found Jeannie’s cell phone on the floor. Called Susan on her phone and told her we had it. Since we were meeting again on Monday we planned to get it to her then.

Trafford day two

I drove to the Irwin cemetery to get info about my Father’s mother but there was not anyone there that could help me. I will go back on Monday. Carol and I then went to my mother’s grave to measure the headstone so we could get a nametag on it. Her ashes are buried with her father and I want t get a tag on his headstone. After measuring it, we were not able to find a place to get a tag made, but we did get to Dallalo’s food store and got a nice supply of Italian stuff…. Pepperoni, hot and mild sausage, corned beef and other goodies.
Got back just in time to meet up with my sister and visit with Bonnie. Had a nice visit.
We got back to the fair about 4 PM and it was not very crowded at all. As the evening progressed the crowds got larger and by 9 PM it was very active. We kept meeting other old timers and had a great time remembering the old days. We didn’t make it long enough to watch the fireworks at 1030 PM but we did get to see them from the motor home. An OK show for Trafford!!!

On the Road again

Left Zanesville and headed for Trafford for the weekend. Arrived at the school parking lot about 11 AM, parked and walked over to see Bibi Peduzzi. Carol rode down to the street fair site with Bibi and I took care of some stuff at the Motor Home and then walked down to the fair. It was not to open until about 6 PM and they were still setting up the stage and other work was going on.
Carol and I then walked to see our “brick” at the Borough Building, the old home site and then started heading back to the motor home. Stopped in to see Bobby DiRinaldo in his shoe shop and also at the American Legion.
In the evening we went to the fair and met Jeannie there. The music was load and there were a lot of people in attendance. I had to have a hot dog with sauerkraut just for old times. I met up with one of my school classmates, Mary Jean Ruffo and saw a number of other “old timers’ but not any other classmates.
All in all it was good evening. The fair starts on Saturday about noon but we planned to visit my cousin Bonnie Ogle after lunch with my Sister and niece Susan.

Good News

The good news is that the swelling on Carol's finger is going down. She did try to get the ring off yesterday afternoon but is did not make it. Maybe today she will be able to get it off and get better circulation in the finger. At least the finger is not turning blue which would be a very bad sign.

Yesterday was a lazy day as I did very little except finish reading the Marcia Clark book. I still get mad when I think about the injustice of that trial. What a biased jury. At least they nailed him in the civil trial and he is now in the slammer for other crimes.

Tomorrow we leave to go to Tafford for the weekend and I probably won't have WiFi in the school parking lot. I will try though.

Later.

Carol's Bite!!!!

Today started out a bit strange. Carol got up early and showed me her finger that was bitten on Sunday by a wasp. It was swollen greatly.



On Sunday she felt something in her hair while walking to Lori's and when she went to brush it out with her hand she got stung. At first it did not look too bad but later it began swelling and she was not able to get her wedding band off. She took some Benydril and put ice on it. Monday it was still swollen but seemed to be getting better.



That all changed by Monday night. During the night it was bothering her enough that she had trouble sleeping and was trying to get ice on it to reduce the swelling. I wasn't aware of the extent of the swelling until Tuesday morning. When I saw I said let's get to the emergency room or an urgent care facility. We finally got to an urgent care facility and got in about 11 AM, the time they start taking patients. Even though it was swollen it was not serious enough to go to the emergency room.



While waiting to them to open we did get some more Benydril and she took 50 Mg. When we got to the doctor she was concerned about the tightness of Carol's ring and wanted to have it cut off so it would not hamper the circulation. Carol was not about to have her wedding band cut off and chose to see if the swelling went done. If it did not and her finger started to look bad then it might have to come off. A nurse did lube it and try to get it off but it was not even close to possible. She did get a prescriptions for a antibiotic and for a steroid. She is also to continue taking the Benydril plus to periodically use an ice pack on it and keep the hand above the level of her heart. The antibiotic was prescribed because of a redness that developed on the back of her hand and the doctor was concerned of a possible infection beginning.

Good news is that by bedtime this evening the swelling has begun to subside and the itching she felt has pretty much gone away. Maybe she will be able to get the ring off tomorrow ..... but then if the swelling has gone down that far it really does not need to come off!!!!

More Later ........

An Evening Report!!!

I thought would try doing posting in the evening rather than the morning. It may work out and then again it may not!!

I got a little more work done at Lori's today .... cut down the wasp nest with all the dead wasps, got up on the roof and sealed the chimney, re-attached some of the gutter screening, nailed down a piece of "stuff" on the roof that was loose and tested out the cement filled drain. The drain is much better than before but I did not get all of the slope accurate and there is about 1/4 of inch of water that stays in the center of the drain. A great improvement over the 2 inches of water that remained before.

We then went out to the cemetery to see Rob's grave and put some new flowers on it. Also brought back a small angel we had put there and repainted it. I gotten nasty looking over the past year. We then went to B-Wear and got four Steeler T-shirts for Bibi Peduzzi that she wanted. At $4.99 for an embroidered shirt it is a steal. Also picked up 5 Gator ball caps for the Reagles at $.75 each, another steal.

I then spent most of the afternoon reading a book by Maria Clark about the OJ trial. It is really a good insight into our justice system. You won't have much faith in juries if you read this book. I also got the statue spray painted but need to get several more coats on it before we take it back to the cemetery.

So that's about it for this day.

A lot got done on Sunday!!

Sunday was my planned day to work on the driveway drain and I got started at 9 AM. I already had my four 80 pound bags of cement so I backed the Jeep into the driveway so I could have them as close to the job as possible. Rather than lift one into the wheelbarrow I just slid it to the edge of the car and slit it open and let it spill into the wheelbarrow. I just didn't want to be lifting 80 pounds!! After mixing I began shovelling the mix into the drain and filling it to the level needed to slope the drain to the exit end of the drain.

I was pleased that it only took about an hour and a half to mix up 3 of the four bags and I had a good slope in the drain. My back felt like I had been working all day though!! After several hours I smoothed out the cement again and left the surface in a state that was not beautiful but sufficient for its purpose. One more item off the Do-List!!!!!

Since I got my external DVD drive on Saturday I began loading the programs on the Netbook for its operation. It took longer than I expected because the Nero program had a major upgrade and that took as long to load as the original. But that job is done now.

Lori's friend, Brad, came over later in the morning we spent a good deal of time chatting and getting to know each other. Brad and Lori were high school sweethearts but when he went off to college they each went their own ways. He divorced his wife a year or so ago after 28 years of marriage. He seem to be a very nice fellow and I enjoyed his company.

While he was here we found out why Jade (Dawn,s dog) would not go into the yard near the tree. There was a large round paper-like nest of some strange looking wasps. They were black and white and one of these had bitten Jade in the past. We decided they had to go and Brad and Lori went out and got 2 cans of wasp spray that shoots a stream out about 20 feet. They were told it would be best to wait until dark when all the residents are in the nest and they spray both cans into the hole of the nest. So I waited until dark when they finally were no longer going in and out of the nest. Just be sure I was protected some I put on a large poncho to cover me as much as possible, just in case.

They spraying went well and none came out that were alive. The spray was a foamy spray and it coated the nest and even caused it to disintegrate. Some of the wasps were trying to get out but they didn't make it!! Toady the nest Will be cut out of the tree and disposed of.

So much for Sunday being a day of rest!!!

Got work to do!

Yesterday was a busy day starting with about 3 hours of going around to garage sales in the area. At least the garage sales we went to were much better than on Friday. I even found a good book about the OJ trial by Marcia Clark for a quarter. Carol found a number of things at good prices also.

When we got back to Lori's I cleaned out the drain ditch in front of the garage in preparation to filling it with cement to change the slope of it so it will drain properly. That part of the job was easier than expected because I used a leaf blower to blow the water uphill to the drainpipe end to clear it of water. Just to be sure that I have enough cement I got four 80 pound bags even though I think three will be enough. Al least I didn't have to load them as Lowes loaded them for me!!

When the mail came, my external drive for my netbook computer arrived. Wow, won on Ebay on Thursday, shipped on Friday (from St Louis) and arrive on Saturday. Haven't had time to test it out and install the software but will today, I hope...... after the cement job!!!!

While we coming back from the garage sales, Carol suggested I try Ebay to find the tail light for the Jeep. I broke it a couple of months ago and have not found one a junk yard yet. Lo and behold I found many on Ebay and got one for only $59.00 with free shipping. They normally retail out at about $120.00 (Plus tax of course). Ebay to the rescue again.

We all went out to dinner for my birthday with Dawn driving. She has excellent control of the vehicle but, like her Dad, is quick with the gas and approaches stops quickly and has to use a lot of brakes. I hope she slows down some. Some how there must be gene that control driving. My Dad, my sister Jeannie, Rob and now Dawn all seemed to have gotten that gene but it passed me .... or maybe I outgrew it. I do think that my aviation training and instructing made me a slower driver!!!!

Back to dinner!! We went to Zak's here in Zanesville and had a very good dinner. Mexican style but not like most Mexican restaurants. They didn't have 2 for 1 margaritas but they made my first on frozen rather than on the rocks so I ended up with 2 for 1!!!! After all I was the birthday boy. Also they did not come to the table to sing happy birthday which was fine with me. Near the end of dinner I got a call from Joy and that made the day even better. Lori and dawn gave me a very nice shirt and a book about all of the wars that changed the course of history. My kind of book. Carol got me collapsible traffic cone for use with the motor home ..... Neat. It even has a flashing light for the top of it.

Well there is lots of cement mixing to do today.

Happy Birthday to Jim

Well, today is Jim's 74th birthday!!!!! Wow, that's nearly 3/4 of a century. All that time has flown by very quickly and it seems to move even quicker now.

Yesterday we went out to the local garage sales we found listed in the local paper. No real bargains were found and all of the sales were pretty disappointing. We will try again tomorrow and may have better luck.

I did get to complete one more task off the To-Do-List of Lori's and did some research on how to repair the drain ditch at the front of the garage. It slopes the wrong way and does not drain the water out. Naturally that makes a minor swamp in the drain. I was planning to use blacktop to fill it but found it was about three times more costly than using cement. So cement it will be. It is one of the more hard labor intensive jobs so I am going to get it started early ..... like today.

The evening have been great for sleeping as it gets much cooler in the evening than we get in FL. Also the day starts off with very thick fog. This morning the temperature in the coach was 68 degrees when I got up. Naturally I turned on the generator to heat up the place as well as recharge the batteries.

Yesterday I also got my new computer updated with all of the updates and then I downloaded Photo Story 3 and Picasa 3. I don't have many pictures with me but I did load the pictures I do have from my small camera to the computer. They are really great programs.

If you ever want to get a good computer education about most anything go to http://www.geeksontour.com/. This couple has a real good knack on showing you how to use most anything on the computer. I attended a number of their seminars at Bow king Green and really learned a lot ...... that's not surprising though!!!!!

Well that is about it for this day. More when I get around to it.