End of Summer Lazy Daze

It's 9-11...a day none of us will ever forget...and I hope one we will never have to live through again. Please bow your head for the folks who have fallen to save our wonderful country. I did not come here today to talk about 9-11..it sort of happened. It's important NOT to forget that we live in a fragile world.

I meant to talk about the end of summer and that's when I remembered that today is 9-11. Not a happy day. Aside from it being 9-11, it's almost the end of summer. In fact, the rest of the country thinks about summer ending about the 3rd week in September..but in the high country, it ends right after Labor Day. There must be a "magic" clock somewhere under the mountains that rings a tiny alarm (that us mere mortals cannot hear) and all of a sudden it's fall. The colors are not exactly changing yet, but they are right on the verge of changing from green to gold. Right now, there are a few aspens dressed for fall with bright yellow leaves, but most are covered in dusty, dry, greenish garb. The mountain maples dot the hillsides with bright reddish orange splashes of color. The air has a different feel to it. It's not the crisp air of summer but the muted air of fall. 

The aspens on my little patch of terrain are tired looking. Their leaves are still green, but the green is "spent"..there's no life left in the green. They are getting ready to change color for fall. The breeze is slight and the quaking aspens are singing their song of the great outdoors. Somehow that song is different too. Because there are not as many leaves on the trees, and the leaves are brittle, the sound is a note or two higher. It's still calming, but I imagine it saying "good-bye summertime..our quaking song is coming to an end, and we need to get ready for the cold winter." 

The sound is also talking to the DrCs, as it's about time for us to go away too. We are fair weather friends. We come when the mountains start to warm up and the aspens begin to leaf out and we leave when the air becomes cooler and the aspens change their colors. We travel to the desert to the edge of the hottest, driest, desert in North America. Many folks for our little valley of the stars migrate to the dry desert where the  mountains are painted red and coral and yellow and  brown. We won't see larges expanses of green for a few months and we truly miss the green. Yet when the green disappears and the weather turns cold in the mountains, we'll enjoy the heat and sunshine of the desert and it will be good.

We'll spend these last few days of this "tween season" not quite summer not quite fall, getting ready for our migration. It takes quite a bit of work to make the move and lucky for us we know what to do and when to do it. We have a helper this year, as our niece will help us close down this house and drive south and open up our other home. We are thankful that she can help. The lazy days of summer are coming to an end and a new adventure is on the horizon. Remember, we're all in this together.

Recovery Day 20

 A lot has happened since I last wrote. My back doctor said if I had the procedure by the 10th of August, I would be ready to go to a wedding on the 22nd. Well, we went to that wedding (so I guess I was ready) in Southern California and we both did well. The hardest part was climbing stairs, but we went up and down the stairs very slowly and all went well. Of course we tried not to go up or down the stairs any more than necessary.

The wedding was wonderful. The bride was gorgeous. The parties were grand. We had a great time. We flew handicapped and Delta took good care of us. Once we landed in Ontario, we rented a car (a Genesis which was very plush) and drove to Fallbrook. All the planning worked out, but then I'm a planner.

I've had the follow-up visit with my doctor and he says I'm ready for part 2 of the procedure which is doing the same BVNA procedure on L4 and maybe L5. Apparently you can only do the procedure on 2 vertebrae at a time. That might happen on September 11 (also called 9-11--kind of an ominous date).

In the meantime, I'm walking and standing better, but I still can't walk a mile--2 blocks seems to be what I can handle. I can stand a little bit, but if I cook at the stove, I sit on a barstool. The pain level is low. I'm doing PT in both the pool and the gym, so I'm trying to do everything I can to recover and keep the back pain from returning.

I'm watching the fawns grow up. The twins, which were full of P and V when they were newborns, are now proper little fawns. All four of the fawns are starting to lose their spots--that means they are growing up and will soon have a scent of their own. Fawns with spots do not have a scent, nature's way of protecting the little ones. Yesterday the twins were resting in the back yard and their mama was not too far away. They mind her now--she finally taught them how to be little deer, but she had her "hands" full with their antics. The other 2 fawns were much quieter than the twins. 

Life in the Rockies is good. We are getting a bit more rain this year than usual, and no one is complaining. The rain is needed as the rivers and lakes are low on water. It rains at any time of the day but there's always a breeze before the rain. The rain is spotty too. The RV park, a mile from my home, will get rain and we'll be dry or the other way around. Rain cells are not predictable. '

I'm still crocheting. The menagerie on the kitchen desk has duckies, turtles, piggies and kitties. Most have a new home waiting for them but I get to enjoy them before I give them away. The latest turtle I've named Tortellini and I'm working on Donatello, who should be finished tonight. 

Healing takes time. I have the time and things to do to help me use the time well. I listen to books, crochet, paint rocks and watch the fawns grow up. All is good. Remember, we're all in this together.

Recovery

I read a long time ago, that one good way to recover from something is to place yourself in a happy environment. Look at fun movies; read fun books, do relaxing things that make you happy...so I'm trying to do that.

In case you're wondering, yesterday I had a procedure nicknamed BVNA (short for Basivertebral Nerve Ablation)...long story short, I was put to sleep and the naughty nerve was ablated to oblivion (or at least I hope it was). For the next week I'm in recovery mode...that means taking it easy so the thing can start to work. Yesterday I was not too sure it was working but today the back feels quite a bit better.

As part of the R&R treatment I'm playing iPad games, listening to books, looking at some TCM movies and "fun" TV series, crocheting roses and critters, and painting rocks. How edifying is that? 

We saw "Never so Few" that had a blockbuster cast of Frank Sinatra, Gina Lollobrigida, Steve McQueen and a lots of other big names only to find out it was group of people trying to develop a story that just did not work. Later, I read what IMDB and Wikipedia had to say about the movie, and we agreed with each other. In addition the 1959 movie lost over a million dollars. It was fun to see how a movie can be made without a story line--we were discussing the movie as it was being played and the discussion was a lot more fun that the terrible movie.I don't recommend it.

Then we saw "The Great Escape" with much of the same cast (no Gina this time--in fact NO women in the cast) and it was a good movie. Some stories work better than others...and while both were based on "real events" the addition of the love story in the former movie was just plain stupid. I recommend this movie.

I'm listening to the 32nd book in a monster series written by Christopher Cartwright. The books are about the adventures of a "wonder man" named Sam Reilly. The books have been great fun to listen to for their completely over the top adventures. Sam can do just about anything, and since he's rich and handsome he does. They are works of fiction with a bit of history and science and geography (and lots of descriptions of weapons, fast cars and motorcycles which I gloss over). I've been to many of the places mentioned in the books, and the geography and history are pretty accurate--however the last 2 books have taken place in Jackson Hole and Cartwright does not have a clue about Jackson Hole. Cartwright  greatly disappointed me...so much so that I'm thinking I might quit the series...even tho I'm really close to finishing them. Sometimes the stories have huge gaps in them, and after 32 books I know where to look for the gaps and gloss over them. It's sad because I've enjoyed the adventures and I like the characters in the books. Gees, I listened to the books for 2 summers now...they must have been fun. It's strange how I could ignore all the "story gaps" only to be brought back to reality when the author got the geography of a place I know very well, all wrong. It makes me wonder what else is wrong??? If you get hooked on the series, only go to book 30. The books have been fun and now I'm disappointed..that makes me sad...but I'm still on the road to recovery. 

(P.S.--all is not lost, I can crochet or paint rocks when I listen to books...and that's always fun.)

I'm learning how to crochet complex roses. I developed a pattern for "dashboard duckies" that are just too cute...and I'm giving critters to people to make them smile...that puts me on the road to recovery too. 

All of this explains why I've not written in my blog for so long. The last few weeks before this procedure have been painful...walking and standing have been hard. Pain zaps energy and I've been zapped. Now I'm hoping the pain will be gone soon. BVNA takes a while to work...but I'm hoping this will work. I'm writing this blog with fun and hope and positive thoughts and the prayers from my friends and loved ones. All of that is very important.  Remember, we're all in this together.

Another Old Movie Review: The Long, Long Trailer

I'm going to start this review with "I liked the movie." The Long, Long Trailer is a 1953 Lucy and Desi comedy about a couple spending their honeymoon in a 40 foot state of the art trailer. Since we've RVed for a long time, we kind of know RV life.  L/D did not know anything about it and that's where the comedy comes in. L/D had good intentions, but they did not know RV rules--so they broke all of them. For an RVer, the movie is fun, frustrating, sad, hilarious, and good all at the same time. I'll see it again in a couple of years and laugh and cry all over again.

I've seen the movie many times before, but it's the first time I realized it is a flashback. L/D are going to sell the trailer because of all the disasters they faced. Then, the flashback starts and for the next hour or so  we learn all the things you are NOT supposed to do in an RV. Things like : Don't cook in a moving trailer; Don't collect huge rocks in the trailer; Pay attention to warning signs on the road; Don't overload your trailer; Don't go up roads that you can't get out of. The list of don'ts goes on and on. 

We've made some of these mistakes. Once in Grand Tetons we saw a cute little road that said "not advisable for trailers" so we thought we're a motorhome so that does not apply to us--well we got about 1/8th of a mile on that road and needed to turn back. That's when we discovered motorhomes and trailers are the same thing when it comes to narrow, winding, mountain roads especially when you cannot see a good exit strategy. Over the years we learned to avoid those roads...or if we did take such a road, one of us walked it before we attempted to drive it.

We never tried to cook in a moving RV because it is against the law in most states. Sometimes we got food from the fridge while driving but we learned quickly it was not a good idea as balancing in a vehicle going 55-60 mph is HARD. Planning ahead is necessary. Planning ahead was not on the minds of L/D.

Lucy and Desi had trouble leveling their trailer one rainy night. We quickly learned to get into a campground while it was daylight and before the rain started as leveling (back in the 70s when we started) was never as easy as the salesman said it was. Lucy, ever the comic, crashed out of bed in her uneven trailer--we never did that. Their state of the art 1953 trailer had more primitive leveling devices than we had in our new RV 20 years later, and they were not all that great.

There's a shower scene we could relate to. Our motorhome had a bathroom the size of a small phone booth...and that phone booth-sized bathroom included a toilet, basin and shower all in one. And, guess what, there was a neat toilet paper holder in the bathroom too. I don't know how many rolls of TP we soaked before we learned to remove the TP before showering. Desi just exaggerated how much "fun" it was to take a shower in a teeny-tiny space. Like him, we were young and thought it was just part of the game.

The movie brought back some fun memories of our early camping experiences. We enjoyed those early years a lot as we continued to RV for 51 years. When we sold the last RV we were  sad. Nowadays, we look at RVs rolling down the road and wish them happy travels. The movie ends back where the flashback started, with L/D not selling the trailer, getting ready for the next adventure. That's the key--be ready for the next adventure. If you are an RVer and haven't seen The Long, Long Trailer, it's kind of a must see. If you are not an RVer, it's a good L/D comedy and a good laugh is a good thing. Remember, we're all in this together.

Logan's Run...a Real Growler

Tonight we saw a 1976 science fiction classic called "Logan's Run" on TCM. The story is of a dystopian future where survivors live in a "habitat" after most of civilization was destroyed in a war. Not much is mentioned about the habitat, the war, or the how the survivors created their world. It's all a "given"--you just know.

The people are dressed in color-coded filmy clothes, but no reason is given for the color scheme. We learn early on that the  lifespan for people in the habitat is 30 years. When they've lived their 30 years they go on the "carousel" and get renewed (aka killed?). Again, we don't know why 30 is the "magic age"--but the movie was made in 1976 and that was the time when we were told not to trust anyone older than 30.  There is a small underground movement in the habitat to escape and find sanctuary. Our heroes do escape and find Washington, DC in ruins (and they don't know what it is) and ... I'll stop there. No reason to spoil the rather thin story, if you decide you need to see this bad movie.

What was interesting was the rather lame depiction of 2275. Think computerized voices, flashing lights, tube transport, and escalators? The habitat was climate controlled. It was possible to "beam" people into rooms of the habitat. We don't see people doing any type of work per se but there are "law enforcers" who search for "runners" who want to find the sanctuary.  I guess, if you want to see how the habitat worked, you might want to see the movie, but frankly, it's as lame as the movie. 

The cast includes Farrah Fawcett with her lion's mane of blonde hair; Jenny Agutter of "Call the Midwife" fame and Michael York who plays Logan. They are not memorable. The pacing is slow. The script is shallow. The music was painful to my ears. In sum...it's just a bad movie.  I know I did not see it when it came out in 1976 and 50 years later I'm wondering why I thought it might be a fun movie to watch. 

Turtles and Duckies

For the last couple of weeks I've been making turtles and duckies...both are really cute and they are fun to make.

I've been wondering why so many Jeeps have rubber duckies on their dashboards and that's when I found out it's a "thing" to decorate your Jeep (especially a Jeep Wrangler) with rubber duckies. Since I have 2 Jeeps, I've decided they need a Duckie or two too.

I've also made several turtles. I have no idea if they are land or sea turtles -- but since they are crocheted, I don't think it matters.

I'm still making kitties and piggies. If you would like a critter, let me know and I'll make one for you. I love giving the critters away as they bring a smile...and anything that makes a person smile is a good thing.