Keeping up with the Jones' is NOT necessary!

Here is a note from Theresa about Bruce....

********

This isn't funny but just a note. 

 I guess Bruce wanted to keep up with the Joneses

with this health thing. 

 He had a couple small strokes in the last two weeks and in the hospital and has had lots of tests because the doctors haven't figured out all his symptoms don't jive with the stroke.

 He is in good spirits no other symptoms. 

 Today is the last one a full body pet scan.  He could not walk and lost his strength  in his right hand so I called 911.  

He went in on Thursday.  

This morning he was able to walk to the bed  they took him down with just holding onto the nurse's hands.  He is working his arm and hand and that is improving.  He has spinal stenosis and that might be causing the legs not working.  Also something in the injury from his accident last year is showing up.

He is in one of top 100 hospitals in the country outside of Denver and best in Colorado for strokes so we are fortunate

 this didn't happen in the middle of Texas. 

 We are very close to our daughter's so that is very helpful also.  Hopefully we will find answers in the next day or so. 

 Hope all the others are doing well.

*****

Changes....

Changes are sometimes subtle,

sometimes dramatic,

 always full of "remember whens?"

Within the past week or so we saw Bill's (of Monique and) home move to Nature's Resort,(Correction: Alamo)

 then that cute little cottage of Russ & Patti's hit the road.

Going...

Going....

Gone!

Work has begun on the new game room.

Foundation is poured,

playing Scrabble is just around the corner!

It has rained a bit....a very, very little bit.

Just enough to turn the Texas dust on your windshield muddy.

Not enough to threaten our severe drought status.

Birds flock to sprinklers...even hummingbirds are taking baths.

And it's hot...Africa hot every day. 

But you knew that already.

The Walking Wounded!

Yea!

Drains are all gone...

staples, too!

I AM FREE!

Bad news is I have a slight infection...just on the surface.

Good news is...I GET TO SHOWER!!!!!

I know ALL are happy to hear that!

No more so than me!

Grabbed John and we posed as

The Walking Wounded Warriors.

Notice how high his arm is?

That's NEW! Daily arm/shoulder exercises are paying off.

Look out in the pool when John returns to volleyball.

We are both well on the road back...

Geesh...what a turtle neck I've got!

Back among the Living...Sort of!

It's been quite awhile since I did a post.

My brain has been lulled into hibernation by lots of pain meds, and I just haven't been up to blogging....but I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Tomorrow I have the last of the icky drains and about a gazillion staples removed from my new, belly button-less stomach.

Yes, I now belong to that rare club of alien beings without navels.

Wan'ta join?

Don't recommend it...it's freaky!

I've started cooking a bit, Jim still has clean up duty (and is NOT pleased about that). I'm eating more, too.

How in the world did I get three hernias,

 and what caused all my complications????

Mysteries.

Nothing like a near death experience to put life in perspective.

I should be out and about by next week.  Looking forward to the Memorial Day doings around the resort...super happy hour, flag pole ceremony and a Memorial Day picnic. 

I am so ready to be there!!!

Alaska Report from Les & Janet

From Les and Janet who spent the past winter in Homer, AK instead of beautiful south Texas:

In our heads, that Neal Sedaka song "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" runs constantly. We have been enjoying what Alaskans call "The Break Up."

Spring is here - maybe even summer soon.

 Snow is gone, the harbor now has more boats than eagles,

RVers are making their way into town and crowding this little hamlet of less than 5,000.

A black bear came into our yard yesterday and visited for a brief time. Right at this moment we have three moose lounging in the middle of the fiddle ferns and eating the nasty pushkey.

 And hundreds of eagles have made their way back to Homer where they set up house in huge nests - the largest ever recorded at 2,000 pounds. What a bachelor pad!

We've seen gray whales return from Mexico to their home in the Bearing Sea and enjoyed fun little sea otters flip on their backs eating the razor clams that we also like and dug during minus tides all last year and then enjoyed with gusto in chowder all winter. Janet has been tide pooling for "sea lettuce" and dog mushing.

It's a balmy 34 degrees when we wake up and gets up to the 50s. For us, it will be SUMMER when it hits 60 with 18 hours of daylight. Time for the flip flops to come out of hiding.

Yep, it's The Break Up.

 

We are no longer a cheechako - a newbie. We survived a winter in Alaska. The ice cleats are stuffed away, our vehicle no longer wears studded tires, Janet no longer has to crawl out of one side of the car when the lock on the other side is frozen solid - really S-O-L-I-D. Les has learned that to truly experience Alaska

you gotta grow a beard and ponytail.

 He says he looks like Gene Hackman's love child.

Visualize that for a moment.

The cats survived as well. They loved the Toyo heater, running around the 500 square foot "mansion" we've rented and watching the window for eagles that fly by. Alaska buzzards, they're called. We just call them awesome.

 

Let summer begin! It's time for biking and fishing.

Gee, we could do that in Texas!

 Hope to see all the Sandpiper improvements

 when we return this fall.

Updates from the Healing Air of Sandpipers....

John is back from San Antonio where the stitches swaddling his new bionic shoulder were removed....

A video of Laura walking practically effortlessly on her new knee only a month from surgery are circling the globe....

And me?

I'm getting better every day but boy, do I have stories to tell.

My routine minor laporascopic hernia repair turned into a 4 hour open operation to fix THREE-That's 3!- hernias, with mesh supports being used, extra skin and tissue removed. 

 Then a fun 2 days in ICU with

7 blood transfusions and critically low blood pressure. 

Days of heavy bleeding, bed baths at 4 AM,

 sugar free vanilla pudding (my diet hi-lite).

 A full week in the hospital saw me home late last night. 

 I'm drugged up, connected to icky looking drains

and bandaged like a mummy...but I'm HOME!!!

Hey, Phaleta...I lost my belly button too!

Lanny & Donna are either just here

 or about to return in the next day or so...

all the wounded peeps return to the healing air of Sandpipers.