2012 January 28

This was the view out the windshield on the way to Sam's Club yesterday morning.  Mixture of freezing rain and snow.  Fortunately it it didn't last long.  There were some amazing clouds on the southern horizon after the rain/snow ended.  The clouds looked like snow covered mountains.  I thought I took a picture of them, only to find out later that it didn't save.

This is what sunrise looked like this morning.  If you've been following this blog for very long you will notice that the position of the sun is creeping northward all the time.  Compare today's sun with the sunrise on December 6th.  Notice that in December, it was coming up right on the edge of the RV and now is over the storage shed.

We've been to WalMart for a few groceries and to get Ella's prescription.  This is the first time that she has gotten one of the three month for ten dollar prescriptions.  Nice!


On the way home from Wally World we realized that we hadn't gotten potatoes.  So we stopped at Dahl's grocery and bought potatoes and sour cream.  I'll make a potato chowder for 'lupper' (that's lunch and supper).  Ella goes to work at five this evening so we'll eat a late lunch/early supper.

2012 January 27

Not much sun in the sunrise this morning.  Snow is predicted but has not begun.

Frost on the truck makes it look like snow

Is it a sign of Spring if your house plants start to bloom?


Ella goes to the doctor for lab work this morning.  It is required before her cataract surgery.


She works a few hours this evening while I have no agenda for the day at all.

2012 January 25 and 26

         "Good morning, Veterans!  I was a soldier once, and young."  I'm sitting in the VA Hospital waiting for a physical.  In comes a small, stout man wearing a black, felt top hat and greets us with those words above in quotes.  He sits with a groan and recites a poem about Fort Benning School For Boys.  Then declares, "I have a destiny with death," and begins to weep. I replied, "We all do.  But I hope he's patient." 

I arrived at the VA hospital about 10:30 this morning for an 11 o'clock lab test.  it was a fasting lab test so I hadn't eaten since about 6 o'clock yesterday. I have a 1 o'clock appointment with a nurse / administrator about my medical records from Broadlawns hospital.  The actual doctor's appointment for the physical isn't until 2 o'clock.  While I was sitting here in waiting room they brought in some donuts and bear claws.  They were not large, but they were tasty.  

* * *

It's now after 2 o'clock and I've been in to see the doctor a little bit early.  But now I'm going to go get an x-ray on my knee.  Then I am to come back down to see the nurse and get the pneumonia shot. 

* * *

Okay I'm all finished at the hospital and it was interesting.  I will be receiving my prescriptions through the mail.  I've been looking forward to getting new prescriptions from the new doctor.  That'll make switching over from Walgreens a lot easier.  My x-rays will be given to the orthopedic surgeon for further examination and then I will get a call back from him, hopefully. 

        The doctor is also setting me up with an optometrist to check my eyes and hopefully get a prescription for glasses.  The other thing that I was interested in was the dental work, because I have a broken tooth.  This doctor said he didn't think I qualify for the dental work through VA.  That is something that I'll need to check on.  (A little aside here: when I said ‘dental’ the phone typed devil.  So evidently the phone didn't think I was qualified for the devil.) 

* * *

I have picked Ella up from Nathan and Beth’s at about 3:30 or so.  She had been baby sitting in the morning with Lorelia and, even though Aunt Audrie was there to take over the babysitting, she had no way of leaving until I got done at the doctor’s office.  We have a meeting at church at 5 and so are not going to go home and I am starving since it's now 4 o’clock and I haven't eaten since 6 o'clock yesterday evening. 
* * *

We stopped at Village Inn on east 14th street and found the manager there is the same manager that we use to have at Village Inn in Johnston. He is a good guy and I hope a better manager than we've had at this store for a long time. 
* * *

The meeting at church went on until after 7 pm and I was really tired by the time we got out of there.  Several years ago our church started a Wednesday after school program for elementary grade students.  As some of those students graduating from elementary, we started the program for middle school.  This year we had eight in what they call The Accidental Angels.  Next year we're going to have about 18 to 20 in there.  That means we're going to need a lot more volunteers than we currently have.  We also discussed exactly what we want the future of that mission to be.  We are trying to identify which ‘needs’ we can realistically expect to meet.  Most of the students are from low income and single parent families.  Some of the students have a parent who is incarcerated.  Most of them have been un-churched for most of their lives. 

Our goal, other than bringing them to relationship with God, is to give them the life skills they will be to succeed in life. 

.......

The above was written yesterday on the 25^th.  This is now January 26th 2012 and I am sitting in front of Aspen Dental waiting for my loving wife to get more teeth worked on it yet again.  I had thought that she would me done several visits ago.  I was wrong.   So here I sit talking into my Droid.  People walking by are looking at me like I'm strange.  Which I am.  However, I am not really sitting here talking to myself … as it appears to the passersby.

An odd thing keeps happening; the Weatherbug keeps posting dense fog advisories for the Des Moines area.  The strange thing is ... it is bright and sunny and I don't see a cloud in the sky. 

Because it is a bright, sunny day and above freezing I intend to make use of the good weather to empty my holding tanks and refill the freshwater tank on the RV. 

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I did indeed empty and refill the tanks.

I then went to Emeritus and conducted a Bible study.   I had a nice nap this afternoon.  And I took a photo of the sunset.  Enjoy.

2012 January 24

This was the poor excuse of a sunrise that greeted us today at Nathan and Beth's home.  We arrived about an hour before "sunrise" to watch the great grand daughters. We only had a short time to visit with Charlotte before I took her to school.

Lorelia sat in my lap and watched "Disney Jr." Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse etc.  

After great grandma told her that she needed a nap before going to preschool, Lorelia stomped up the stairs to her room crying that she didn't want to take a nap.  Shortly, Ella went upstairs and Lorelia said, "I've stopped crying, can I go downstairs?"

Ella told her that she still needed a nap.  Lorelia said, "I'll sleep with Grandpa downstairs."

So, she came downstairs and sat in the recliner with me ... and went to sleep.  I may have dozed a little myself. (grin)

She wiggled around to the point that she was 'burrowing' in behind me.  So, I got up and let her have the whole chair.

She slept until about eleven thirty, at which point Grandma woke her so that she would be awake when Aunt Audrie came home.
Shortly thereafter, Audrie took her to preschool and we headed into Des Moines for another of Ella's dentist appointments.
While Ella was at the dentist, I took Rudolf, the truck, to Valvoline for an oil change.
The oil change taken care of, I drove back across the street to Aspen Dental to wait for Ella.
Before I got out of the truck, Becky, my ex, called to wish me a Happy Birthday ... a day late.
We talked for a while and soon Ella was done with her appointment and joined in the conversation.
Once the phone call was over, we started toward home.
I realized that by now it was after one o'clock and I was hungry.  Knowing that about all that was in the refrigerator was a slice of ham steak, I suggested  going to Subway for lunch.  I had a foot long meatball with pepper jack cheese (no veggies to ruin a perfectly good sandwich) and Ella had a six inch flatbread with Turkey and who knows what all on it.
Once we arrived home, we washed our small about of dirty dishes and settled in for some reading.
The prez's State of the Union/Campaign Speech is on nearly all of the 'over the air' TV channels and we have neither cable nor satellite. I'll either do some more reading (I have an Agatha Christie mystery that I haven't read ... or have forgotten) or watch something that I've recorded on Droid TV.

Tiffin Videos

a couple of short videos from our time with the kids in Tiffin

2012 january 23

Happy Birthday to me.

Sunrise in Ankeny

I wrote a blog entry yesterday but I was having too much fun playing with the grandkids over in Tiffin to take the time to post it.  I will attach it to the end of this post later today. (done)


We left Tiffin last night around 6 o'clock and arrived back in Grimes about 7:30 so we made really good time, in spite of the fog and snow.


It started raining shortly after we arrive home last night and some time in the night, it turned over to snow.  We had probably three quarters of an inch of snow on the roads this morning.  The drive on the interstate on the way to Ankeny was alright, even though we saw several instances of cars that have gone off the road.  Second avenue appears not to even have been plowed.  So it was real slow going from the interstate on into Ankeny today.


Cierra dropped the girls off at Nate and Beth's about 7:15 this morning.  They had both eaten breakfast at McDonald's and Charlotte had already taken her medicine.  Lorelia ate another bowl of cereal long with grandma and grandpa.  And then I drove Charlotte to school. 

When I return, Lorelai and Grandma were  both on their electronic media.  Lorelai is watching a movie on the iPad and Grandma is listening to something, probably a TV show, on her Droid.  And I am sitting here speaking into my Droid and letting it type on my blog.  It works fairly well that way, however I have to go back and add punctuation and capitalization as well as correct some silly things that it does when it does not understand what I said.


Aunt Audrie returned home just in time to take Lorelia to preschool.  So we packed up our laundry and headed toward home.

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We stopped on the way for lunch at a little 'hole-in-the-wall" Greek resturant in Grimes.  I had the buffet (three choices plus lettuce) and Ella had a fish sandwich with onion fries. Food was fresh and good (not great). Ella said that her golden cod (code for deep fat fried frozen fillet) was too salty.  I would like to go back for dinner when the true Greek Food is served.


I said that I'd post yesterday's blog entry ... so here it is.

2012 January 22

Yesterday several of the men from our Wednesday Bible Study went to Staves UMC and had breakfast with their Men’s Group.  Their group does not do Bible study.  They get together for breakfast and then discuss what work needs to be done and what opportunities are coming up.

The drive to Tiffin ... All grey ... all the way

Ella worked in the morning but got off work a little early at 12:30.  As soon as she was done, we drove to Tiffin to visit Adam, Leigha, Tate and Emery.

When we arrived, Leigha and the kids were at swimming party.  We had a nice long visit with Adam before they arrived home.  I had a chance to play at puzzles with both kids and then play Connect Four with Tate.

After a nice Laguna and garlic bread supper, we played a few more games with the kids.  When the kids have gone to bed we had a chance to visit with Leigha and Adam.

Sunrise in Tiffin

            This morning Adam (and Dude, the dog) woke us so that he could get the truck keys.  He needed to move it so that he could get his car out of the garage and go to work.

Tate playing with the Wii

Tate, Emery and Leigha

            Leigha made an apple and chicken salad for lunch and a vegetarian chili for supper.  We had a lazy, laid back day with Leigha and the kids while Adam was at work.  We were concerned about the road conditions because there was a drizzly fog in the air and the temperature was just slightly above freezing.  Plus they were talking about freezing rain turning to snow. When Adam returned home at around five, we had an early supper and then hit the road toward home.