Spring Trip 2018

At Sister’s House, Citrus Heights, CA

With nearly a month between birthdays (mom’s) and our next family commitment (Sandy and Patti have a weekend trip planned so we will be back by May 24th to help Arny with his mother), we are going to do a big Central California (and a bit of Nevada) loop.  First, over to the Santa Cruz (B on Map) area where my cousin Rich and his wife Marci manage and live on a church camp.  We will have water and 15 amp power, but the weather will not require A/C, so it will be fine.

Our next stop will the Mariposa Fairgrounds (C on Map), which will provide us access to Yosemite National Park.  Followed by Kings Canyon National Park (D on Map).  The ‘gold’ markers on the map are places we get gas…the black is where we can use a dump station, blue markers are places we will stay.  Some places, such as the black above Bakersfield at the bottom of the map, actually also has a gold marker…but the black covers it up.

From there we want to get over to the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, so we will stay one night around Lake Isabella (E on Map), then up to the Alabama Hills (F on Map) for a few nights, then near Mammoth (G on Map) for a few nights, and finally to one of our favorite National Forest Parks outside of Truckee (H on map).  The “I” on the map has a “A” marker under it, and that is my sister’s house…our starting and ending point. 

Bubba has been here at my sister’s house for 8 months straight.  Last year we arrived back at the end of August…and did not leave until the day after Christmas, leaving Bubba with Aunt Sandy and his buddy Uncle Arny.  Yes, Bubba is going with us…and “we” will have to go through his depression, as my sister Sandy goes through the depression that Arny will have.  Arny KNOWS we will be back in 24-25 days…Bubba will wonder if he will ever be back.  We have had to go through this Bubba Depression every time we leave since Bubba first bonded with Arny back in 2012.  Chances are that on Tuesday morning when it comes time to eat…Bubba will stick his nose up in the air and get back into his chair (the driver’s chair is his bed). 

Skruffy Shows Off Our Latest Motorhome Upgrade

At Sister’s House in Citrus Heights, CA

Hello, Skruffy here.  Just wanted to show off my latest hairdo …

SKRUFFY!  People don’t want to see your latest grooming job…besides, that is nearly two weeks old now.

But dad, it is NOT my fault that you did not let everyone know about my latest hair cut…about how you trim my hair right under the tree with all those squirrels watching me…laughing at me…taunting me.

Skruffy, you NEVER told me before that you have been taunted by the squirrels when I cut your hair.

And how you put me in that small sink in Arny’s garage to give me a bath.  However, I do have to say that the water in the sink is at least warm…when you use that hose out back it is FREEZING!  But hey, do you think Uncle Arny might put in a sink that is like twice the size so that I don’t feel so claustrophobic???

You know Skruffy, Bubba takes a bath in that sink too, and I don’t hear him complaining!  Besides, you are suppose to be showing off our new motorhome upgrade, now get back on topic.

Well dad, if they saw my picture up there, they probably already spotted the change.  But in case they didn’t, folks, DAD PUT DOWN NEW CARPET IN OUR LIVING AREA OF THE MOTORHOME!  There, does that make you feel better?

Thank you Skruffy…but do you think they might want to know a little bit more about the process…see more pictures…find out the cost?

Hey, “I” am not the one who did it, and as far as I know, THAT is the only picture you have to show of it!

Well, that’s because “I” was so busy ripping up the old carpet, scrapping out the padding, sanding down the Particleboard, or Pressed Wood, or Plywood with Fragments of Compressed Sawdust looking stuff that makes up our flooring.  Then, putting down the Carpet Tile was a very meticulous process, especially with that round corner over by your food dish.  Hey, I thought YOU were going to tell the story….

Come on dad, you are doing such a good job (which is MORE than I can say about the carpet job…lol)

SKRUFFY!  You KNOW that this carpet is so much better than that dirty old carpet that I pulled out of there…why it couldn’t even be cleaned any more!

Come on dad, I was just teasing you…the carpet looks good, but the smells of the old carpet are gone…

Well, that is the idea Skruffy…this new carpet does not have that “new carpet” smell, and the dust, the dirt, the mold in that old carpet is gone and all but forgotten.

What is NOT forgotten dad is how long it took you, how many trips to Home Depot you had to make, and you did not say anything about how Uncle Arny helped you lay that carpet divider between the new carpet and the older carpet up by the cockpit.

Yes, Arny did help me with that part…and it is not called a cockpit, it is called the driving area.  And yes, I did go to Home Depot more times than I expected.  Twice to look at carpet, another visit to the Home Depot in West Sacramento (19 miles away) where they actually had the carpet tiles in stock (TrafficMASTER Field Day 18" by 18" for $31 per case, 3 cases), back to the Home Depot nearby for double sided carpet tape ($19), back to Home Depot for the divider, and back to get a wider divider and return one case of carpet tile and the thin divider, and back to get a longer divider ($18) and return the two shorter pieces (Arny wanted ONE large piece, cut down from a 104” piece, and he was right, it looks great).  So the total came to $99 plus tax, which in California, added about $20 more…

DAD!  Now YOU are exaggerating…California does not have a 20% sales tax!

You are right Skruffy, but sometimes it seems that EVERYTHING is taxed here in the Golden State.

And WHY did you use Carpet Tile?

When I was the Library Director in Pine Bluff Arkansas, I had a good relationship with the Public Library in Little Rock, where they built many Libraries.  They used carpet tile in because they hold up real good, and can easily be replaced if one gets ruined by bleach, dog urine, stuff like that…but our biggest concern is the marks that the slide out puts over time on carpets.  In fact, just today the young man who bought the house that mom and dad use to live in just two doors down from Arny and Sandy’s house said that many businesses are using carpet tiles.  Eric is a professional painter, and they just painted three Sacramento County Libraries in the past month…and all three, as part of their remodeling, put carpet tiles down.  And the big factor…for a one person job like this, carpet tile was easy to deal with.

Hey dad…you did do a good job, but you say it was “easy”?  I don’t think a 12 hour job like this, with as much sanding and scrapping that you had to do, was easy at all.  But you know, it took you about 4 hours to rip up the old carpet, and scrap off the padding (day one), another 4 hours of hand sanding the floor to get the residue off, and about 4 hours to cut and lay the tiles (day two)…and 20 minutes to install that carpet divider (day four...I think you rested on day three...you know, the day of rest is suppose to be the seventh day!).  And you did match the laminate floor AND the old carpet real well, and this carpet is easier for mom to walk on, which is important for someone with MS.  So all teasing aside…HOW LONG IS IT GOING TO TAKE FOR YOUR MUSCLES TO STOP HURTING?

Mom’s Having Another Birthday

At my sister’s house in Citrus Heights

Mom actually has her birthday on Wednesday…but we got together for Liver and Onions on Sunday to celebrate, since Sandy and Patti still work, making weekends much better for these events.

The table is set, and time to sit down.  What is that over there by dad you might wonder?

Now that’s my kind of Liver and Onions!  You see…dad and I don’t do Liver, so Arny cooks us up some Ribeye Steaks…that big thick one, that was mine, and it was SO GOOD!

There is the Liver and Onions…along with potatoes and yams (had to open the foil to see which one you got), salad, and Marcia and I had whipped cauliflower that Marcia does so well, and which is on our diet. 

Here are the others…that is the back of Marcia’s head, next to her is Patti, then Sandy, then Euleda (Arny’s mom who is 95), Arny, and Patti’s daughter Ashley.  You can see the Liver is nearly gone!

I missed a picture of the cake…but I did get a picture of Marcia and my low carb dessert.  That is a Atkins Brownie (2 net carbs) with Atkins Chocolate Covered Almonds (1 net carb since we shared a bag) and Halo Ice Cream (4 net carbs).  Mom’s cake was Lemon Bundt Cake, with Icing….about a zillion carbs.  On Wednesday, Marcia and I will be taking mom and dad out to breakfast, and that evening dad will take mom out to dinner using Lyft.

    

Patti brought her dogs over for the birthday celebration too.  That is Parker up in the air, Charlie is next to Skruffy…Bubba was inside, so I tossed in this picture I took just before his haircut the other day.

 

So there were four things we came out to California especially for this year….dad’s 90th, mom’s 88th, their 70th anniversary, and my son’s wedding.  Essentially, two of these are done, two more to go…what a year!

    

   

Spring is definitely here in Northern California.  Good rain has brightened up all the lawns and flowers, the critters are out, and this year these two ducks have shown up nearly every day we have been here.  Got to watch out when the dogs go outside, that male Mallard has a bum leg and is just a bit slow getting into the air…but so far, no incidents.

Next Monday Marcia and I are going on a 25 day trip…which I will blog about next time…along with showing our newest change to the inside of the motorhome, which is currently a work in progress….

9,000 Mile Delivery … That’s Our Federal Spending

At Sister’s House in Citrus Heights, Ca

Dad’s Hoveround sprung a flat tire.  Living in a Independent Living Facility, it is a long ways to the dining hall…and if you want to go to Walmart or CVS, which are across the street, one who is 90 years old needs an electric device in order to do this.  Wednesday night of last week he called to tell me to say that his Hoveround had a flat tire.  I went over on Thursday and took the wheel off, and Arny and I determined that the tire tube could not be repaired, it needed a new tube.  Two flats ago Arny found one eventually, but the last time it had a flat, same tire as this, Arny patched it.  Well, it sprung another leak, the tube just needs to be replaced.  A local ADA (Disability Assistance Store) could get a tube for like $30.  Amazon could get us two tubes for $10 plus change…but it would take 6 days to arrive.  Not a Amazon Prime item, but it was free shipping.

When I placed the order on Thursday night (the 5th), they promised it would be here by Wednesday (the 11th), yesterday.  So on Friday when I saw it was accepted at the Post Office in Fountainville, I knew things were on the way…good deal, and especially when I saw it arrived at the Philadelphia Distribution Center less than 90 minutes later.  However, when I saw 24 hours later that it was in Honolulu Hawaii…well, I knew we were in trouble.  As you follow the package route above, you can see that they say it left Honolulu on the 9th…but it did not get to Sacramento until the 11th.  Now on the morning of the 11th, before they posted that it was in Sacramento, I contacted the Amazon Vendor and asked them to look into the matter….after all, Dad needed his Hoveround!  (Well, actually, I took Marcia’s GoGo over there, which is just like mom’s, so dad had transportation, but the Hoveround is so much easier for him to get into and out of with his bad back.)

So, the Hoveround tire tube needed to travel a distance of 2444 nautical miles from Philadelphia to Citrus Heights.  Instead, it traveled 9,194 miles from Philadelphia, to Honolulu to Citrus Heights…assuming that the ‘PIGEON’ they used to carry it flew directly to each location and not through places like New York or Chicago on the way to Honolulu, or to Los Angeles or Seattle coming back from Honolulu to Citrus Heights.  Heck, I have never been to Honolulu, but Dad’s Hoveround Tire Tube has!

Here is the tire taken apart sitting on one of Arny’s work benches.  The tube to the right is the old tube…the new tube is on the box above and to the left a bit.  The hub is in two parts, and it all goes inside that grey tire to the left.

    

Above you can see how the hub fits, once the tire is put in place.  For such a small wheel, you would think this would be an easy job for one person…but in reality it much easier if there are two people, one to hold things in place while the other works on putting it together.  I was the holder, Arny the putter together man.

    

Above Arny gets the new tube in place, gets the two parts of the hub in place, and from there I am needed to help hold it as he airs up the tube, puts on the bolts, and airs up the tube to 50 pounds. 

I went back over to mom and dad’s, and put the tire on the Hoveround … all is good.  That was our 9,000+ mile fix job…all for a $5 tire tube…one must wonder just how much that delivery job cost the USPS…

Rainy Friday and Saturday

At Sister’s House, Citrus Heights, Ca

Around midnight Thursday it started to sprinkle…by morning it was a good, solid rain.  For the next 36 hours it rained…about 2-3 inches.  Rarely was it a hard rain, there might have been 15 mph winds, just a good, solid rain.  The type of rain that farmers really like this time of year…unless they were planning to get a crop in the ground this weekend.  Folsom Lake is now 82 percent full, which is 122 percent of its 15-year average.  They finished a new spillway last year, so the lake level can be higher than in past years.  Just this past February they wondered if it would get above half full…amazing what a wet March and a good rain in April can do for this area.  This was a warmer rain, so it rained on some of the snow pack in the Sierras, which means they had to release more water from the dams in anticipation of the high water rate coming into the lakes.  Looks like the farmers will have water again this year during the hot summer months, at least from Merced and the valley to the north of Merced.

This amount of rain means that a lake forms between the motorhome and the patio.  This picture was taken AFTER about half of the lake dried up.  I took the carpets up that lead from the motorhome to the patio in anticipation of the rain…glad I did because they would have been soaking wet.

Here is another angle…you can see the high amount of tree droppings in the bottom right of the picture, which is where the high level of the water was at.

The tree is a Fruitless Mulberry, and the Blossoms come out before the leaves appear.  The Blossoms fall off, making a big mess…but at least they are not sticky, just love to stick in doggies tails, feet, etc., and the bottom of your shoes.  We hoped that the storm would knock them all down…

…but not our luck…still a bunch of them up there in the tree.

   

The cherry tree…now that’s another story.  It once had a bunch of blossoms on it, like in the upper right picture…but the rain knocked 95% of them off, as you can see in the upper left picture.

By evening, I was able to put the carpets back out, and the dogs could have free run of the yard again.  During the higher water, I put them on the leash and walked them around the water onto the higher area of the lawn.  They could not understand that…but after all, they are just dogs…who knows what they understand outside of food, petting, and sleeping.

    

With the rain gone, the sun back, and a big blue sky…the animals came out to feast…

    

    

ALL of these bird and squirrel and dog pictures were taken today after 4 and before 8. 

   

Thought I might be able to see the Sierras after the storm, but it needed to pass through a few hours earlier…still clouds over the mountains to the east.

    

And with no clouds to the west, the sky did not light up for a real nice sunset…but any sunset is still nice, especially one with Old Glory flapping in the wind.

Ninety Years Old

At Sister’s House in Citrus Heights

   

Both mom and dad have birthdays in April…dad’s was on Sunday, an April Fools baby.

To celebrate the occasion, we thought “wild turkey” would be in order…but alas, them critters are hard to catch….so….

Black Angus was our secondary choice.  Saturday late afternoon, before they are too busy, those children and spouses who were able to attend, took dad there for his favorite…Prime Rib.  Pictured left to right are Marcia, sister Patti, sister Sandy, Arny (behind Sandy), mom, dad, Rochelle (Roger’s wife) and just out of the picture to the right, brother Roger. 

    

On Sunday we gathered again for an Easter – April Fools – Birthday dinner.  Easter has fallen on Dad’s birthday only four times in his lifetime, 1934, 1945, 1956, and 2018…and will do so again in 2029, but dad says he does not want to be around ‘that’ long…which is understandable. 

We asked permission from the Fire Department to put 90 candles on the cake…but they said ‘no way’.  I think there are 90 sprinkles on it instead…

    

In the upper left picture are dad’s brother’s two children who were able to attend, Richard (far left) and Barbara (next to Richard), along with Richard’s wife Marci, and Roger’s wife Rochelle.  Barbara lives in Italy, and I had not seen her for many years, and it was the first time she had met my wife Marcia.  In the upper right picture is my son Michael (far right behind dad) and his wife to be Anna (July wedding) to the left of Michael (his right, picture left).  In the bottom picture is Arny’s mother Euleda (left) along with my mom and sister Patti.

Above, Sandy and Arny, whose home we all gathered at, enjoy talking to Marci and Richard, who live in the Santa Cruz area…and Marcia and I plan to go over to their place in early May for a few days as part of our May excursion. 

   

And now that I got these two in the blog, I think I got a picture of everyone, although Roger only got his arm in a picture.

When I took mom and dad home, mom asked me to get a picture of their front door…the Independent Living Facility had decorated it for Dad’s birthday…so sweet of them. 

Unfortunately, Sunday also brought with it some sad news.  Marcia’s cousin, through her first husband, Sophie, passed away.  The above picture is from October 2016.  Every year we have driven through Fort Smith to visit with Sophie, who was 95 years old.  She will be missed, but we know she is no longer in any pain, and with our Lord.  Prayers to her family and friends who are mourning her loss.  We still plan to stop in Fort Smith to see her son Jim and wife Pat later this summer/fall.