Need Applicants for Nursing Care

It's been a tough 2 weeks for us this month so far. Both of us got ill around the 12th of May with sore throats and coughs. We went to a local doctor to get some medication for our ailments. Larry had a sinus infection so he got antibiotics for 5 days. Dee had allergy related sore throat with cough, no temp so received allergy medication at $5.oo/pill. Upshot was neither of us responded too well to medication and our illnesses got worse.

On Saturday 22nd, Dee's temp was 101.2 so it was a trip to emergency room. She couldn't catch her breath and was wheezing a lot along with coughing. ER doctor admitted her and started pumping IV fluids and antibiotics. Diagnosis was Upper Respiratory Infection, which I don't know if it's better than pneumonia or not. Dr was also treating lungs with steroids which caused my blood sugar readings to skyrocket over 300 so insulin was being administered to keep it in check. Pretty scary! So....It's now Tuesday and I was released from hospital this morning but have 5 days of heavy duty medication yet to go: inhaler/nebulizer treatments every 4 hours, antibiotics, steroids, cough medication, ya da, ya da, ya da! Hope this time it works. At least the coughing has subsided.

Meanwhile, Larry went back to doctor on Monday morning. Chest x-ray showed he has pneumonia so he is at home on bed rest, $10/pill antibiotics, inhaler treatments and lots of fluids. It has really knocked the sails out of him. Our neighbor has been walking CoCo for him so he can keep resting. We truly appreciate their help.

So if any of you are bored and want to travel to Alpine, TX, like to take care of sick people, can prepare meals and generally hustle everytime the bell is rung to fetch and carry, you're hired. No cash incentives are offered but good wishes are welcome.

We should be back on our feet in about 1 week with better news

Desert in Bloom

These two photos were taken today of 2 varieties of cacti in the area. The blossoms are absolutely gorgeous right now. The huge yuccas are blooming as well, along with one of my favorite, the ocatilla (aka whip cactus).


The temperatures here have been all over the place, 2 days in the low 90's at the first of the week and now about 68-69 degrees the last 2 days with overnight temps in the high 30's. Really weird to run A/C and then some heat at night. At least we weren't in any of the latest tornado paths.

Work here has been very pleasant, 2 days work and then we have 6 days off. Office stays busy for Dee and Larry is out and about taking care of laundry room, rec room, and escort/security. There are 6 different RV groups coming into Alpine next month so telephone reservations are hectic. Groups range from 6 rvs to up to 30 rvs. Most of them are Good Sams or FMCA. One group is all women rv'ers.

The hail storm on Easter damaged one of our slide awnings so Larry is ordering replacement vinyl this week. The Manager's husband here at the Park can install the new awning for us while we are here. Larry also will replace one of the hinges on a kitchen cabinet door as soon as we get a replacement for it. Hopefully we can find one in Fort Davis tomorrow.

Saturday evening is Larry's birthday party so we're having ice cream and cake for him. I've made up the card bingo sets so we can play bingo at the party. It will be for big stakes, a penny a person for each game! If you lose all 10 games you're out 10 cents. In Mesa we always played a dime a game so the potential winnings per game was at least $1 a game with ten people. Should be fun, doesn't matter the stakes.

Hail, Hail Everywhere!

On Sunday, April 11th, we had one heck of a hail storm as you can see by the above photo and the one below. No damage to our unit even though it sounded like we were under siege. Other guests at the RV Park reported that the electric was surging and the automatic electric shut off mechanism would kick off their electricity. Long story-short, the electric company came out and replaced a damaged transformer and then had to also repair their sub-station transformer to correct the problem. About 40 RV'ers were without electricity about 2 hours until the work got completed.



We are on our second day of Workamping, Dee is in the office and Larry is out and about escorting units to their sites, unlocking/locking electrical meters, reading meters, etc. Tuesday he helped post notices to all of the RV'ers whose electrical power was off. He stays busy. Both of us were worn out last night when we were finished. It is enjoyable though.

Today we are having intermittent rain again so all of the Harley riders are taking a rest day sight seeing indoor stuff. We have about 12 in the group of motorcycle enthusiasts. Really nice group.

Twice Dee has been downtown to play bridge and was high first time and bottom the second time. No explaining that one I guess but you have to have good cards to reap the high scores. Had a nice time anyway and she will play Thursday & Friday.

We have the next 6 days off work so we can explore the area some more. That's all for now.

Alpine, Texas Arrival

Saturday evening around 9:30 pm we arrived at the Lost Alaskan RV Park. We planned an earlier arrival but the time zone change with daylight time thrown in (Arizona does not do Daylight Time!) made the day about 2 hours longer than we thought it would be. At least we didn't encounter any severe wind/dust storms that are usual for eastern Arizona and southern New Mexico.

Today we set up the RV and then at one o'clock we went to the clubhouse for Easter lunch. There were about 35 people there so plenty of food to go round. We got re-acquainted with 3 couples that were here last November & December. All 3 couples are leaving for the summer months. We met Walter & Cleone Johnson, whose home base is in Boone, IA. Neither of them were born or raised in Boone but their son and daughter-in-law have lived there for years. Neither of us recognized the Boone connection. Small world though.

We stayed 1 extra day in Mesa so we could get results of Larry's brother's medical tests. He was hospitalized on March 29th and didn't get released from hospital until April 3rd. Hopefully with the right medication they can keep him stabalized now as his pancreas is not functioning at all and his diabetes is all of whack. It's been very difficult for him coping with all of this.

Our new temporary address is 2401 No. Hwy 118, Space E-17, Alpine, TX 79830 If any of you are down this way, call us and stop by.

Spring Break in Mesa

March 22nd Suzy, William and Bill arrived in Mesa after traveling by Greyhound from Albuquerque. They said the bus was full and the trip not "too bad". On Tuesday we celebrated Suzy's birthday. First time in many years that we all have been together on her birthday. We took them to Organ Pizza Stop in Mesa so they could see the famous Wurlitzer Organ that we blogged about earlier this year.

Wednesday evening we drove to Glendale, about an hour drive from Mesa through heavy traffic at 4 in the afternoon, to have dinner at Larry's niece Lori's place. Larry's brother John, his wife Del and another niece Ann and her family were there. Had a really nice evening, but no one took any photos - you're probably glad to hear that!

The above photo shows Maurice "Mo" Cole, William and Bill sitting out on the patio talking music. Mo has had a very illustrious career playing keyboard/organ for the past 50+ years. Some of his famous gigs have been with the one and only Elvis, and many stars at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville. He is a member of the Opry. Mo plays organ on the patio here at Mesa Regal a couple times a week and our Workamper group moves his equipment ($7,500 organ & sound paraphanallia) in place for him. He hooks up all of his own speakers and sound boards because he knows exactly where everything goes. He can play just about anything you request.

This is William, our grandson, age 15 with his new shades! Of course he is way taller than me, which isn't saying much because I'm short. He's 5'6" now, even taller than Suzy. Grandparents have bragging rights so here goes: He gets A's and is on honor roll, plays violin in the high school orchestra and the North Coast Symphany, and just made the high school golf team. This summer the golf team is going to Seattle, WA with their coach to assist at the Senior Open golf tournament. The golf coach's mom is a travel agent in Seattle and is arranging a trip for the team to Ireland next summer so there will be lots of fund raisers for the trip between now and then. The big goal the next week or so is to complete his driving requirements to get his drivers license.

We sure had a wonderful time with them here visiting. We had rain one day but then it warmed up into the 80's so they got to swim one afternoon at least.

Mesa-Phoenix City Tour

We got on tour bus at 8:30 am and headed to downtown Phoenix to the Capital Museum. This photo shows the building. Note the White Pegasus weather vane at the top center of the building. It is completely functional and will be 100 years old in 2012. The Museum tour director told us that it recently had been refurbished and several bullet holes were discovered in it. Apparently the old west cowboys used to do some target practice on it!


Couldn't resist this photo because it shows a partner's desk with a wax figure of the first Arizona Governor. Don't much care for the likeness of the governor, but our daughter and son-in-law have a partner's desk in their office similar to this one.


This photo shows the entrance to the Biltmore in Phoenix. It is built on the original site of Barry Goldwater's home. Note the shrubs in the front are sculpted to read Arizona Biltmore (in this photo only Biltmore shows). Above one of the hills behind the Biltmore is one of the Wrigley homes. It was not on the tour so we didn't get to go inside it. All of the homes in this area start at one million+ and include owners like Alice Cooper and The Shaq. They are so huge they look like hotels.

We had about an hour on this stop so we ambled around the interior and then outside to the central grounds. Next to the main dining room was this huge walk in wine cooler. What a way to go! Average cost of 1 night here is around $250/night and can go as high as $1,500 a night for the VIP/presidential suite. They have a golf course, fine dining and many convention rooms. There are several retail stores on the premises also and many of the prices were very reasonable on the clothing.

The photo below shows the center green area with beautiful landscaping and fountain. Staff was setting up an outdoor buffet while we were there. We were curious about cost but no one ventured over to inquire about the cost.

We then continued on through Paradise Valley, population 15,000, covering 15 square miles. Covenents require 1 acre of land per home with a minimum of 6,000 sq. feet. It was really mindboggling to see some of these homes. The Hormel family owns 2 homes in this area, AZ sports team owner lives here, and can't remember the list of other wealthy owners living here.

We continued on to Scottsdale for lunch and had quite a bit of time to look in the retail shops. There are really high dollar shops and lots of tourist shops. Average cost of individual pizza was $9.00 and an old-fashioned hamburger was about the same price. We opted for Schlotzkys - can beat a rueben on dark rye bun.

Anyway it was a really wonderful tour. Learned more history than I can remember.

Abundant Sunshine All Around

We've been enjoying wonderful weather here while watching most of the weather throughout the USA getting snow. Today is 76 degrees and for the next 7 days the temps should remain about the same.

It's been pretty quiet around the Resort. Larry is catching up on all of his list of "To Do" things like shampooing living & bedroom carpets, washing windows, etc.
I've made 3 more evening bags from ties and thought I was through but Larry was at the thrift store again and brought me 3 more ties. And, our grandson doesn't see how an evening bag can be made out of one tie so he is going to bring me a tie next month when they visit us.

Tomorrow is the City tour of Phoenix area. I will be leaving on the bus tour at 8:30am, lunch stop in old Scottsdale, and then return to resort around 3:45 pm. Should be interesting and will see lots of things we haven't been able to get to yet. Full report & photos later.

Be sure and check out our daughter's Blog http://www.brooksfamilydoings.blogspot.com because our grandson's Winter Ball photos are posted on it. You can just click on the link to the left and it should take you to their Blog.