75 Degrees to 11 Degrees in 1,800 Miles!

I’ve been not posting our Blog for the simple reason that my laptop is back in Round Rock.  I managed today to put the ‘Live Writer’ software on my netbook, which has limited abilities.

We arrived in Connecticut on Saturday evening, just in time to enjoy a cold snap that drove the temperature down into the teens.  Waking up on Sunday, we found snow on the car, not much but enough for me. We were off to the 9:30 service at Christ the King church in Windsor where we were  warmed up by the greeting we got from our friends there.

We are staying at Tom & Kathy Moody’s home in Bristol.  Their home is kept nice a toasty by the pellet stove in the living room and by Peggy their resident senior canine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went to a Master Mason Degree at Washington Lodge #70 in Windsor on Monday.  This is an exciting time in the Lodge’s year as they Brothers are all preparing for new positions next year.  To demonstrate their proficiency, they ‘step up’ and fill the station that they hope to assume next year.  This Lodge has a tradition of uninterrupted growth as witnessed by the fact that have had no repeat Masters in about 125 years.  The great work done by Brother Charles Jackson {T.J.} and his officers will keep the spirit of that tradition.

Today, we have banking and other financial work to attend to.  Now to try and post this…..

Doctors and Donuts 2013

No, this does not mean we bought the $100k Alfa Gold that I drooled over last week.  At 7 years od, I’m thinking that very expensive maintainace is down the road with the basement A/C, Heated floors and fancy hydraulics.

Yesterday we were up bright and early for Anne-Maries scheduled Spinal Cortisone Injections at Saint David’s Outpatient Clinic on Round Rock.  All of our dealings with the Doctors and Staff of this medical community have been outstanding, No Exceptions!

Dr. M. Ali Kahn was recommended to us by Dr. Loftus after review of Anne-Marie’s M.R.I..  Dr. Kahn is a spinal pain specialist who dis the injections.  He was most attentive in answering all of Anne-Marie’s questions and concerns.  He showed us post procedure pictures which he shared with the other docs on the sophisticated St. David’s Network.  Tis means that all of our care providers are up to speed in real time.  I love it!

She was pre-medicated with a wonder pill that removed all anxiety, to the point that she slept about 20 on the next 24 hours. No hangover or after effects!

The good news is that as of now, she is feeling very few of the leg symptoms after 24 hours.  Did I say good?  I meant great!

On route home, she craved a doughnut.  Strange, we only eat about 5 per year.  Let me remind you, there are almost no Dunkin Donuts down here.  We went to Daylight Donuts in Georgetown which is one of the many smaller franchise donut stores that bake their own every day, unlike DD.

After a glazed old fashioned, she fell into bed.  While she snorked, I had the car serviced and paid a ‘social visit’ to Dr. Grad my cardiologist.  He added a med and has made appointments for me to attend a social event in January for diagnostic tomfoolery.

We expect to head north on Friday or Saturday.

Happy Veteran’s Day! 2013

This young lad is Richard Maier, Anne-Marie’s Brother, circa 1955.  I’m sure he will comment below and fine tune the date as allowed by his memory.

Our deepest thanks to all of those who have served and are serving our counties defenses.

You may want to look here to see a huge flag tribute at Lambert Field on 2011.

 

 

While in this area, we attend Christ Lutheran Church in Georgetown.  By our standards it is a large church with many activities outside of worship.  I attended their Men’s Club breakfast on Saturday.  They are just starting this group, we had about 15 men there.  Their out reach project will be to erect and donate access ability ramps to local folks who are in need.

On Sunday, we were treated to several of the children’s choirs.  The first of which was the youngster’s bell choir.

 

Than we had to youth choir(s)

 

 

 

It’s rather obvious that the children feel more than welcome here!  After the service, you find the youngsters have been given the remands of the communion loaf of bread.

 

Anne-Marie and I went to The Weir Store for breakfast.  Where is Weir?  About 10 miles west of Georgetown in farm country.  If you find yourself in Weir, you will have no problem finding The Weir Store, it’s a the  intersection.  Breakfast, coffee and a newspaper cost $9.00+ with no tipping!  Wednesday is the Weir Country Fried Steak special lunch, you know where you will find me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we went to our storage area to visit our ‘stuff’.   You know all the ‘stuff’ you have in the cellar and garage?  Well, it will follow you if you let it. Our stuff {including the PT Cruizer cost about $120 a month to stay where it waits for our annual return.  Anne-Marie salvaged some cold weather clothes for our anticipated trip to the northeast. Do you see anything you need?  Where were you when we packed it all?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plans:  We are waiting on results of steroid injections to Anne-Maries back on Wednesday.  The Doc hopes that she will have immediate relief of her leg pain and neuropathy.  If is does we will depart to Anderson S.C. (Via Car) on next weekend.  Short term relief is not all bad news as even short term will point to the area that may benefit from surgery. 

3rd Week at Jim Hogg Lake 2013

Stays in the Corps of Engineers parks are limited to 2 weeks stay.   We asked for a 2 week extension which was granted as the park is only at about 25% capacity.  We’ve had a few days of drippy weather, no we have a cold front which will drop the evening to 40°, the locals will suffer with that, out come the snorkel jackets!

 

 

 

 

 

We have been spend much of the time with our torture sessions at Georgetown’s Physical therapy center.  It seem that we have really hurt our muscle tone in out thighs and lower back by the very long periods of sitting.  The sessions there are not comfortable as they stretch us ‘over center’ in the therapy.  The good news is that they are sure I have done nothing to ‘hurt’ my back surgery of last spring.  Anne-Marie has a different problem, we are going to our neurosurgeon for his evaluation of her recent M.R.I.

I did visit round Rock Masonic Lodge #227 on Monday.  At that time the initiated a new Brother, I was most impressed of the display of Masonic Proficiently that was displayed by 2 of their Entered Apprentices.  All work here is learned ‘mouth to ear’ and is about twice as long as My Connecticut Lodges.

I’m shown here presenting Worshipful Master Patrick Artes one of M.W.B. Simon Laplace’s commerative pins.  I was also happy to see Brother Alex Ortiz sitting in the Marshal's chair, Bro. Alex was raised last spring during one of me visits and visited Meridian Lodge in Connecticut where he was warmly received. His Grandmother is a member of our hospital in Wallingford.

Stay tuned for more news as it happens…

Congratulations Red Socks Fans 2013

True Red Socks fans are euphoric with the 3rd Series in 100 years.  My cousin Rose passed away in 2002 at 92.  One of her few regrets in later years was that her beloved Red Socks never won a World Series ‘for her’.  I am not a baseball fan, obviously this little fellow is.

The big news here is that it rained on and off all day yesterday, later in the evening it developed into a huge Thunderstorms complete with lightening and 4.6” of rain in Georgetown .  In South Austin (50 Miles), they had 8” to 12” with serious flooding.  Photos are here. If rains like this hit a flat urban area at 2:00am, folks get caught in bed as their homes are washed away.   The Texas Drought is not over despite this rain, most of it runs off and does not effect the endangered water table. Jim Hoog flood control lake {Where we are staying} is still 6’ below it’s design level.

Our Travel plans disrupted.

Dad used to say that if you ignore the Doctor’s advise there was no sense going to him.  Well our Doctors have put a severe crimp on our mobility for the immediate future.  Anne-Marie’s M.R.I. turned out to look like the aerial view of a train wreck.  She has appointment with our neurosurgeon next week, pushed up from mid-December due to the severity of the issue.  I have an appointment with the same Doc as a follow-up to last springs surgery.  We are both going to physical therapy for our backs.  Lastly, I have had a few issues with chest pain which will be addressed by my Cardiologist.

None of this is really bad, we are pay the price for ignoring routine maintenance.   As in if you don’t take your old car into the shop for a check-up on a regular basis, it is sue to let you down when you need it.

Oh Deer! 2013

The access road leading up to this Army Corps of Engineers is 1.5 miles long.  It is lined by $500K homes on very large lots.  It is also a habitat of a large deer population.  They are the smallest deer I have ever seen and have no fear of us.  We’ve seen them having coffee hour with as many as 8 does.  The buck knows that he shouldn’t interfere and eats by himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While Anne-Marie stayed home and defrosted the ‘fridge, I escaped to attend a ‘certified’ Master Mason Degree at Austin Lodge #12  We had pasta dinner prior to the Degree.  I was very pleased to present one of M.W.B. Simon Laplace’s lapel pins to the Master as well and newly raised Brother Christopher Paul Martin.

Sad news from Connecticut, Brother Charles Genovese passed away after a very long battle with a neurological disease.  Bro. Charlie served Hartford #88 for several years, he was my Jr. Deacon for 2 years.  Hugs & Prayers go out to his faithful wife, Carol.

Anne-Marie is scheduled for an M.R.I. today which should move us forward with her lower leg problems.

Georgetown Return, Fall 2013

Our last communication was from Deming, NM where we spent a relaxing week at the Escapee’s Park there.  It’s 750+ Miles to Georgetown, we made the trip in 2 days which is very aggressive towing for us.  The truck’s engine hardly cooled off during our quick stop at the Passport America park in Forte Stockton, TX.

The area’s most famous resident maybe Pisano Pete, an 11’ tall Roadrunner, we got there too late to get a photo so I snagged this one off the web.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at one my favorite Texas Smoke Houses for Lunch, pretty easy to find something you’d like in the assortment!  Note: You know your in Texas when Coke and Pepsi are NOT an option on the soda machine!

We were very happy to arrive at Jim Hogg Park on beautiful Lake Georgetown.  Of the 175 sites, we picked and set-up on the one that had a broken water pipe as witnessed by a small swap 30’ from our rig the next morning.  So, we moved to a better site.  It’s a rule that as soon as you set-up, you will notice a site that is better than your; So we got the best of the two!  The Lake front sites are about 500’ from us which is the way we prefer it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a couple of days retrieving Anne-Marie’s Cruizer from storage, jumpstart and give it a bath were both required.

 

A sweet 60+ red Hat Lady set up this cute as a button 1965 Airstream across from us.  What caught my eye was the period correct outdoor chairs.

Pumpkins from Escapee’s Site!

 

 

 

 

We are here for 2 weeks while we set-up various Doctors appointments.  Are hope is to travel to New England in late November, hope to see a bunch of friend while there.