Last Day in Utah

After a rough night at the Utah / Nevada border on Sunday, I slept like a rock on Monday night, doing the blog post about Monday after I woke up today (Tuesday).  My agenda on Tuesday was to take Stephanie out for some shopping, then dinner with her and her roommate Jenny, who has been such a blessing for Stephanie and for us (Stephanie’s family) in helping Steph through her traumatic brain injury from last fall.  They have been friends for many years, and have shared apartments for 3 or more years now…but that is unfortunately coming to an end at the end of June. 

Our investment folks from Morgan Stanley needed some paperwork signed by Marcia, which they sent via email in PDF format.  I needed to get this printed off, so I headed over to a UPS store near Stephanie's apartment with a flash drive containing the documents, and for $1.35 I got four pages printed off.  (I only needed 2 pages, but I have learned my lesson that it is better to have more than one copy in case coffee spills, dogs eat it up, etc. etc. etc.)

First stop after I picked Stephanie up was to Sam’s Club.  A little of this, a little of that and our eleven items came to just under $100.  One thing she really wanted was a container she can put her homemade smoothies in, one that has a cover in case she spills, which happens since her coordination is not the best still.  So that brought up the idea of getting a smoothie, so off to…

Jamba Juice!  With 800 locations, you might have seen them, even tried one.  Yes, they are good.  Yes, they are costly.  But, while ordering I saw this Jamba Juice container that you can use over and over again…so I got one for Stephanie.  Those Jamba Juices were good…and came in real handy for me after lugging all that Sam’s stuff up the flight of stairs to their 2nd floor apartment.  Three loads up the stairs at 4,500 feet elevation = one dead daddy!

Around 2 pm I headed back up the mountain where the motorhome is parked.  After Marcia filled out the required two pages, I took a picture of each page and converted them to a PDF format and emailed them back to our Morgan Stanley folks.  (That, my friends, is how you conduct business on the road now days!  And for those who were wondering, I also have two extra pages that we did not have to use...but had I not had those pages, you know what would have happened...)  At 4:15 Marcia and I headed back down to Salt Lake City to get Stephanie and then over to the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant where her and Jenny wanted to eat.  Jenny met us there after she got off of work.  We had a great meal, although the restaurant was a bit too loud for our liking.   Hugs and kisses goodbye, and we hope to see them both again when we plan to drive through on our way back home in September after a short stop in California upon our return from Alaska.   Next stop, the Tetons!

Daughter's Surfboard Injury Update

This is a picture I took off of my daughter Stephanie’s Facebook page of her and my son, her brother, Ryan the day of the accident.  This was the second time she had been on a surfboard I believe….and his first.  They were in Santa Cruz on Friday before Labor Day just to surfboard.  While doing a wave another person’s surfboard hit her in the head…I think she said twice, but once really hard.  It knocked her out, and Ryan got her back to shore.  This also gave her a black eye…which is still healing too.

The previous day Ryan, Stephanie and Jenny, Stephanie’s roommate and good loyal friend, spent the day in San Francisco.  Jenny has helped so much in watching over Stephanie during all of this.

Stephanie and her mother Shelley are very, very close.  Shelley is a school teacher in Arkansas, and also attends classes working on her Masters.  She was able to break away yesterday and is now out here too for a week…the best medicine Stephanie could have.

On Tuesday afternoon they moved Stephanie to the Rehab floor.  Yesterday was her first day of “retraining”…retraining her mind to make the connection which tells your limbs to move, restore coordination, restore speech, etc.  It is unknown how long she will be in this “retraining”…perhaps up to three weeks. 

Three Kids Together Again

Had dinner with my three children, along with mom and dad and two other special guests.  Mom, dad and I drove over to the Bay Area to meet them for dinner at the Elephant Bar and Grill in Emeryville.  This was my first visit to a Elephant Bar and Grill / Wok Kitchen, and it was pretty good.  So around the table we go….left to right.   Dad, mom, Stephanie (daughter), Anna (Michael’s girlfriend), Jenny (Stephanie’s roommate), Michael (oldest son) and Ryan (youngest son).

Mom had asked before her surgery that “IF” she was up to it, would it be ok if they came along with me to the dinner.  I had not asked them figuring that a) she would not be up to it, and b) that she might force herself to go even if she was not up to it.   Well, she was up to it…all effects from her recent surgery are essentially over other than getting a couple of stitches out.  So here they are, mom and dad in front, and left to right, Ryan (youngest son, in college to become a Chiropractor, lives near Kansas City), Stephanie (only daughter, lives in Salt Lake City, works in Park City for a firm that rents out high end homes for vacations…especially ski vacations), and Michael (oldest son, recent graduate from U.C. Berkeley, current employee of the City of San Francisco, and so sick today that he missed work and felt real bad the entire dinner).

Michael and his wonderful girl friend Anna…both graduates of U.C. Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.  She graduated one year ahead of Michael, and they met at the school.

Stephanie and Jenny.  They have shared apartments off and on for a number of years now…they are a real “Hoot”. 

Ryan has just finished his first of four years at the Cleveland Chiropractic College in Overland Park, Kansas.  The college has been in operation in Kansas City area since 1922, and is one of the oldest Chiropractic Colleges in the nation, and has a real good reputation.  Dr. Cleveland, the first president, a pioneer in the field of chiropractic and chiropractic education, was a vocal activist and provided expert testimony, forming the basis for the passage of the Chiropractic Practice Act that legally defined the profession in Missouri.

Marcia has been battling a slight case of her Diverticulitis….nothing serious, just enough that she did not want to take he 2 hour drive through traffic to the Oakland area, and just under 90 minute ride back to the Sacramento area.  Wish she could have been there…we all had a great time.