Good-bye Loma Linda

Today is our last full day here in Loma Linda.  We'll be pulling out and heading for home tomorrow morning.  Last night we brought pizza for the gantry crew and petit fours for Jenny, the receptionist.  But, Jenny wasn't there!  So, we wrote her a note on the box and had the person filling in for her put them in their refrigerator.  Hopefully, there will be at least a few left on Monday when she returns.  

I got to take some pictures of Al in his pod, ready for his last treatment, and of his gantry crew.  Since I'm using a toss-away camera, I have my fingers crossed that they will turn out OK.  I'll finish off the remaining ten shots tonight at the barbeque.  Two of the couples that have already left, got out of here without our getting their pictures.  There will be a few people tonight that we haven't yet managed to shoot for the scrapbook, so I'll take care of that then.  Once the party is over, we'll spend some time battening down the hatches in the RV before we go to bed - and finish up the remaining odds and ends in the morning.

My next decision will be whether, or not, to continue this blog.  Since it was set up to keep people in the loop for what we were doing while living in the RV, and while Al got his treatments, my inclination is to end it on the up note "Al's Cancer free and were going home"!  Maybe I'll start a new blog to keep the family and friends that we don't see on a day to day basis, up to date on what's happening with those of us in the Marysville/Yuba City area.  If so, I'll let you know. 

Bad computer!!!

We've been having computer trouble all week so I have lots to tell you ----
    I finally have a full set of fingernails that are all around the same length.  This day should go down in history!  But the biggest news was a surprise to us this evening when we went over to the hospital (me to work on the jigsaw puzzle - Al for his treatment) and we were told that tomorrow is Al's last treatment!  We thought that we had to hang over the weekend and Monday would be his last, but, apparantly the 43 treatments we were expecting included the "dry run" that  he did the first day we were here.  Since we have already made plans for a big goodbye barBQ on Saturday night because most of our group will be leaving this coming week, we are going to stay until Sunday.  We'll be home for good, but tired,  on Sunday night sometime.
   Since we got back on Monday afternoon, we went out to dinner at Farmer Boys with George and Susie.
Then Al went for his treatment and we watched some TV and went to bed.  It woas almost the same old thing.  The difference was that we flew back instead of driving.  It only took an hour and a half to get here (so they said.  If you add the drive to Sacramento, the hour we sat at the airport in there, the half hour we waited for our luggage in Ontario, and the drive to the RV park - George picked us up in his convertible - then it really  took about four hours to get here.  Still a lot better than the usual 7 1/2 hours it takes to drive.)
    Tuesday, we went to our last potluck.  We sat with "the mayor", Patrick, and RV salesman from Arizona.
Someone is always the mayor of Tuesday and Wednesday nights.  Patrick volunteered when the last mayor finished up with his treatments and went home.  We had  hoped that sitting with the mayor might get us to the front of the line for the eats, but it didn't work out that way.  We had a ball anyway.
   Wednesday was speech night for Al and our friend John, since this was the last Wednesday for both of them.  I got pictures of them speaking.  Al introduced me as his wife and best friend.  It was a good thing I was concentrating on getting to where I could get a good picture or I might have cried.  George and Leroy are done this coming week.  Te other Al and Terry just left.  Only Don has until the end of July.  I hope some newbies move into our empty RVspaces and make friends with Don.  He's a great guy and we don't want him to be lonesome when all of us are gone.
   This morning Don drove us in his truck up to Lake Gregory and Lake Arrowhead.  I knew we had a lot of smog because we are right next to San Bernardino, the smog capitol of California, but, even though I have had trouble walking and breathing at the same time, I really had no idea of how bad the smog is.  You can't see it up close.  You can see it when you look out to the mountains, but you wouldn't believe what it looks like when you're up at 5,000 feet and the smog is below (barely) you!  The whole world dissapears in the afternoon.  It wasn't quite that bad when we went up in the morning, but it wasn't good either.
   Tomorrow night, before Al's last treatment, we are taking pizza to the guys in the gantry, and we're probably getting some special cookies for Jenny, the night receptionist.  I hope they finish the jigsaw puzzle so I won't be needing to see if I can finish it.  We wives in waiting had it down to only about 40 more pieces to fit in to finish it.  Jigsaws have become addictive.  It's what I do when I go with Al when he has a treatment.  It's a great conversation starter (so is my Connecticut T-shirt) which is good because I'm very bad at small talk. 
   I can't believe that this is almost over.  I'm not sure that I'm ready to go home yet.  Al, however is very ready.  He can't wait to get home and make sure everything gets done in his garden, the yard, and the pool the way that he does it.  I guess if I was a great housekeeper, I'd feel the same way about my house, but I'm not!

Father's Day

We've been home for the weekend and will be flying  back tomorrow morning.    It's been an interesting, and fun, weekend  -  different from day to day proton schedule, life in the 5th wheel, etc.  We drove about seven hours so we could see DeDe and Ray's new house, and let me tell you  -  this is quite a house!  It's gorgeous and I am very glad that I'm not the one who has to keep it clean!  I think it would take about a week just to get it dusted all the way through.  After viewing this amazing place, we had an early Father's Day dinner at the Elephant Bar with DeDe, Ray, DeDe's friend Jen and her dad and us.  Dinner was great but we elected for patio dining and the wind came up and it got very chilly before we were done.

On Saturday, we caught up with our PT Cruisers for a barbeque at another gorgeous home (this one also had beautiful landscaping.  DeDe and Ray are still working on that because their home is brand new.)  I am sooooooooooo jealous.  Our house is out in the country and it's cutish, but far from gorgeous - and the landscaping, such as it is, is also very country.  I AM going to clean out closets and cabinets when we get home for good and hope I can toss enough junk to have room to take a lot of stuff off of the counters.  I also want to clean up the driveway and the yard  and hide all the tools and things that are laying around.  I may even plant some summer flowers as long as they aren't around the pool to attract bees to swimmers.  But,
back to the barbeque - the food was fantastic, the company was wonderful AND we're going to do it again next year!  We'll see all these people again a few days after we get home to cruise to a Civil War Re-enactment.  I'm really looking forward to that.

Sunday - Father's Day.  Al has been working (playing?) in his garden most of the day.  I know that he's quite happy out there.  I've been trying to catch up on two weeks' worth of newspapers and mail.   The big highlight of the day was that Aeri came over (with the assistance of her grandmother , grandfather and aunt 'cuz she can't drive yet.  She's only two.)  and brought a card for her GGpa.  She took it out to him in his auxiliary garden - that's next door in the neighbor's back yard.  Then she tried to ride every bike and a scooter that belong to our tenant's kids.  She kept us all amused until she had to leave.  She has another great-grandpa here in town that she needed to visit too.

Tomorrow we fly back to Loma Linda.  Only six more treatments and Al is all done and can come home to his garden.  It's funny.  I'm so glad that he will come home cancer free, but on the other hand, the time in Loma Linda has been so carefree (yes, even with cancer) and fun,  that we both have mixed emotions about leaving for good.  We do plan to return in October for the big anniversary celebration for the Proton Treatment Center.  They have now treated 15,000 patients with proton.  I wonder where Loma Linda is going to put them all when they all show up to celebrate.

Two great days!

We spent a very nice afternoon touring Old Town Temecula today.  It was very Western/Mexican in flavor with several antique stores that we wandered through until we decided to have some lunch.  We found a place that made crepes.  Al had a zucchini and mushroom crepe but the cook forgot the mushrooms so they brought him (we were eating out on the porch) a really full bowl of them that he poured over the top of his crepe.  I had a strawberry, banana, Nutella crepe which was wonderful.   After we finished lunch, we drove out to Temecula's wine country.  It looked like Tuscany.

Yesterday, we went on the Proton Tour.  Al thought it was fascinating.  I'd say it was interesting, especially when we got to see the inside of the gantry where he has his treatments, but I wasn't all that interested in the pipes, wires and accelerators that went on for about three city blocks.  I know that's the equipment that's curing him, and for that I'm more than grateful, but they went on forever!  I would have rather spent some time looking at the old cars and firetrucks, and watching the trio of girls that were singing songs from the 50's (and dressed appropriately).  The hospital also had a spread of food set up in the waiting area.  It smelled heavenly, but we had just finished lunch and were going on to the Wednesday Social in about an hour from when the tour was finished.

The usual Wednesday Social was very sparsely attended this week.  I think that a lot of people assumed that there would be no meeting because the last tour was starting at 5 PM, the same time as the meeting starts.
That left more Loma Linda sandwiches and cookies for the rest of us.  There were five, or six, graduation speeches of men who will be done and gone before next Wednesday.  Al will be making his speech next Wednesday as we will be going home the following Monday.  I'm going to miss all this socializing.  It just doesn't seem (to me, anyway) that we do that much together at home.  I guess we'll have to make "date" days on a regular schedule - which would be great for us, but it still isn't the same as a whole bunch of friends sitting around shootin' the breeze.  That's so nice.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Lazy day today - well almost all day.  It's been hotter than Haedes for the last few days and we've been running the air conditioner a lot.  So, this afternooon, Al walked in to the bathroom and the light fixture fell down in front of him.  It was full of water and the ceiling was wet.  Since we haven't had any rain, we could only assume that the air conditioner is leaking somewhere and running down to the light fixture.  We thought we had that fixed before we left home.  Apparantly that was not the case.  So tonight , he crawlwd up on the roof and put a towel around the base of the AC to see if that was what was leaking (how it could be anything else?) and to, hopefully, keep the water from running down to the roof cracks that he patched while he was up there.  I hope it works.

We did the usual Tuesday potluck tonight.  There are a whole bunch of us that will be graduating in the next two weeks.  We were all commenting on how quckly this time has come.  A few even suggested staying a little longer and just do the southern CA things that we haven't had time to do.  It sounds good but you'd have to be independently wealthy to pull it off  -- and we aren't.   So when we actually leave, we will be leaving a piece of our hearts behind.

Tomorrow at 3 PM we will take the Proton Tour and get to see how the thing works.  I understand that you can't take pictures except in designated areas - but not of the gantrys themselves.  That's probably the most interesting part of the tour.  Since it takes about 45 minutes from start to finish, I guess I'll need to take my walker.  I doubt there will  be anywhere to sit down.  They were taking all the furniture out of the "B" floor's waiting area and all of the people hadn't even gone in for treatments yet!  I guess they need the room for the celebration tomorrow.  They are dedicating the updated gantry #1 and they will be able to serve a lot more people every day.  There will probably be a huge influx of "newbies" next week.  We will probably meet some of them, but we won't have time to make friends with them, because next Tues. and Wed. will be our last potlock and Wed. Social.  It makes me a little melancholy to think about it.

Weekend Fun

We’ve had a busy weekend. On Saturday, we went to the Redlands Optimists Car Show.


There were a lot of pretty cars in a beautiful park setting. We strolled around and took advantage of the $5.00 lunch. George and Susie were with us. We were supposed to meet up with John and Shirley, but they got moving a lot earlier than I did so they were leaving as we were finally arriving. It was fun anyway.



Saturday day evening we had what has become our usual barbeque next door. We had an

Extra guest, another truck driver named Al whose wife had gone home for a while and wasn’t coming back until later on Sunday. Don, the rock man, was off visiting his cousin so he wasn’t there. The food, as always, was very good, and so was the conversation.



Sunday, the guys all had treatments to make up for the Proton Tours that will close the gantrys down on Wednesday. Since we had no plans because of treatment times, Al and I

took a ride up in the hills to look for a spot where I could take some pictures. We found a great spot and, oncw I develop the film, I will have some great shots to put in the scrapbook that I plan to do about our adventure. We did have another barbeque for dinner. This time Don came and brought a yummy fruit salad. When we were done eating, Al and his wife, Helen, stopped by for s while. Even a little later yet, another couple here in the park, Verne and Josie, came by bringing their chairs to sit and chat a while. George pushed the rest of the lemon meringue and pumpkin pie off on them. It did save him from having to find room for them in the refrigerator. Another great night of food and conversation and jokes.



This morning, we went to the gym and tried to kill ourselves making up for the times we didn’t get there lately. My butt is sore! Al was complaining about his anatomy too, but I forget which part it was. I want to go to the student store and get a Loma Linda t-shirt but it’s already four o’clock so maybe that won’t happen today. Al’s treatment is at 7:30 tonight so I’m not sure what’s up for dinner. Time will tell.

The Luau

Today we went to a luau for seniors put on by Loma Linda's Drayson Center (the gym).  All the men got leis in honor of upcoming Father's Day.  The food was the usual 7th Day Adventist fare - lots of fruit , a little bit of cheese, and cookies.  The watermelon and pineapple were outstanding!  They had a local group of South Sea Island Dancers.  They did dances from Hawaii, New Zealand and Tahiti, and they were pretty good.  Naturally, I forgot my camera and their various costumes were really nice.  Some of the dancers "molted" grass while they were dancing but nobody noticed until the group left and there were long pieces of grass left on the floor.  George is going to share his pictures with me so I will be able to put them in the scrapbook I plan to do (someday) about this adventure.

Since we didn't get any poi or mahi mahi, or any other Hawaiian food, we are going out to the Elephant Bar for dinner tonight.  George and Susie took us to the Little Fisherman for lunch yesterday (it was superb fish and chips) so we're taking them out tonight.  I've never been to the Elephant Bar before but I've heard that it is very good.  I hope I can trust the opinion of the person who told me that it is. 

It's beginning to look more and more like we aren't going to make it to the one place I wanted to see while we were down here.  There are a few places that we wanted to go that were a little lower on the wish list that we may not make it to either.  This weekend, we have Saturday, but the guys have treatments on Sunday because the Proton unit will not operate on Wednesday.  They are rededicating Gantry 1 and having tours of "backstage" for patients and one guest each.  I don't think that photography will be allowed.  Anyway, Gantry 1 has been changed to be all robotic.  I think that will allow them to treat  a lot more patients every day.  We're taking the tour at 3 o'clock on Wednesday so we wouldn't be able to go anywhere that day either. 
Al's treatment on Sunday is for 3:20 pm - another day that we have to stick around.  Next weekend we're taking the car home and probably doing something "family" for Father's Day.  After that, we'lll have only one weekend left for going places before we go home for good.  (Al wants to come back for the Proton Unit's 20th Anniversary celebration on October 24th.  Since his garden will be pretty much over by then, I guess we'll be coming back for that.  Maybe I can get Legoland in on that trip.)

Progress

Wow!  We have our appointment for our discharge meeting on June 23rd.  That makes the end seem more real and a whole lot closer.  Al will have to start working on his graduation speech pretty soon.  That's the same date that he'll be giving his speech at the Wednesday Social since we'll be gone before the next Wednesday.  Speeches are expected of everyone graduating in the days before the the next meeting.  They said the time would go by fast and it really has.  I'm not sure about not wanting to go home, though.  It will be bittersweet as we've made friends from all over, some of whom we may never see again, but there are some that  I am sure we will.  Even living in the 5th wheel has been mostly fun.  (I do hate the low ceiling in the bedroom though.)  We almost never eat at home, or alone, anymore.  I'll miss that.  I have three weeks to get prepared for reality.  Next week on Tuesday (I think) we become seniors of the upper classmen style and get our red dots for our badges.  We're already seniors of the senior discount style.  And best of all, Al feels and looks great.  He's been working out regularly at the gym (me to, or the pool) and we're gradually changing our diets to eat "healthy" more often.

Hello, again

   I can't believe it's been nearly a week since I've written anything.  I did nothing but sew all day on Wednesday.  Al was pretty much on his own for the day.  We did go to the Wednesday Night Social and enjoyed ouselves.  I woke up on Thursday and officially threw in the towel on the dress for the wedding.  Therr was no way I was going to get it done by the end of the day and we were leaving first thing Friday for home and the wedding.  Needless to say, I went shopping.   I gave up on a dress and settled for a blouse and slacks that I wouldn't roast in since the temperature was supposed to hit 90 for the wedding.  It took me most of the day to get everything we needed, but I did make it back in time for Al to take the car to go to his appointment while I stayed home and hemmed the slacks.  Thursday evening, after dinner, we took a short run down to the Farmers Market in the hope that the vendor that was selling some really pretty jewelry for a ridiculously low price would be there.  He was, and I bought a necklace and earrings to complete my outfit for the wedding.
   We left about 8 AM on Friday and made it home in plenty of time to make it to the rehearsal dinner at the Home Town Buffet.  A good time was had by all.  We went straight home after dinner and preety much collapsed.  It had been a very long day and the wedding was to be at noon the next day, Saturday.
   What can I say?  The wedding was beautiful.  Even without my help, Jolie and the girls made beautiful flower arrangements, bouquets, boutinierres and corsages.  The tables were beautifully done too.  I'm so proud of them on one hand, and so jealous on the other that I couldn't be there to "play" too.    Since the flower girl, Aeri, and the ring bearer, Nicky, were so young, the maid of honor walked down the aisle holding their hands (make that holding Aeri's hand and kinda dragging Nicky along while he screamed all the way.  He did well at rehearsal, but all those people sitting in what were empty chairs unnerved him.)  Allie wasn't upset by this though.  She said he kept her from "bawling" because she had something else to concentrate on besides tear-ing up.  Once Nicky got out of his shoes and untucked his shirt, he was a lot happier.  All the girls, bride included, decided to go down the aisle barefoot.  There are pictures to verify this.  It was fun and the new Mr. and Mrs. Marques couldn't possibly be any happier.  They are off to the ocean for a few days before they have to be back at work.
   We started out to come back to Loma Linda about 7:15 this morning and finally arrived about 3:30 this afternoon.  We needed to be back early because we were signed up for a vegetarian cooking class at 5:30 this evening.  We had leftover chile and cornbread and headed out again to the class.  It was really interesting.  The highlight was that the teacher and her assistants showed us how to make a few things using vegetarian fare, including tofu.  We then got to have a sandwich, salad, chips and salsa, and a date filled with almond butter, rolled in cocunut and topped with a pecan - really good stuff.  Al and I split a plate since we had already eaten.  We had to leave immediately after because All had a treatment scheduled for 7:50 and  that time was rapidly approaching.  We'll have to ask someone tomorrow about what happened after we had to leave.  I think everyone who goes to Tuesday and Wednesday night socials was there tonight.  The place was jammed.  Now we're ready to get a good night's sleep.  It's been a very busy few days.

Here it is.  June 1st already.  By this time next month, we should be home  - back to our "normal" life.  Of course, if the gantry goes down, it may be a little later than that.  I hope I haven't jinxed anything.  The gantry has been on it's best behavior lately.

Today, while Al went to fax some papers and also to get his treatment for today, I sewed some more on my dress for Saturday.  I spilled the box of pins all over the floor, and had to tear out stitches five different times to fix mistakes I had made.  Thank God that this was an easy pattern!  Lord only knows what would have happened if it was complicated.  I'm about ready to throw in the towel and go shopping!

Tonight was the Tuesday night potluck.  we sat with George and Susie, of course, and a new guy, Don, who lives here in the RV Park.  He make absolutely beautiful rock jewelry and carries around what he calls "teasers" in his pocket.  He brought them with him last night to the barbeque next door, and he brought differerent teasers tonight.  Susie and I are going to walk down to his rig (it's right next door to where we were first parked) and take a look at all of his stuff.  He had a gorgeous green necklace with him last night.
So far we haven't got a price out of him for what he gets for these pieces.  Maybe tomorrow.

Memorial Weekend

   I've been told that pink isn't a very manly color so I've tried to change over to purple (the color of the prostate cancer ribbon which HAS to be manly) but I wasn't 100% successful.  Since I'm also included in what we talk about, some pink should be OK.
   We took a 2 1/2 hour (one-way) trip to the beach on the train on Saturday.  We went to Oceanside.  While we were there, we walked a lot up and down hills and a multitude of stairs to get down to the beach.
The weather was perfect.  We had lunch, bought T-shirts, and had ice cream (so we could use the bathroom at Dairy Queen).  We spent about two hours watching the assortment of people that were there before we had to get back to the train station for the ride home.  We were there an hour early, but the prople watching was pretty good there too.
   Al had no treatments this weekend so we have been free to go wherever we felt like going.  Sunday was pretty quiet.  we "vegged" all day and went next door for a steak barbeque.  The company and the food were great.  It was so good that we are repeating it tonight with hamburgers and ice cream sundaes.
  Al and Susie went bowling this afternoon so I took the opportunity to go to a sale at Jo Ann's.  I didn't plan on there being a million people there with the same idea I had so I went back to the bowling alley to watch.
I think they are planning to make this a weekly "date" for the next four weeks.  The bowling alley was gorgeous.  It had couches instead of plastic benches and updated, computerized scorekeepers.  They even said how fast a ball went down the alley!  They surely put Yuba City Bowl to shame.
   I finally started my dress for Allie's wedding this Saturday.  I may even get it done if I can stop making mistakes and having to rip things apart.  As I've said before, sewing is a challange in this rig.  I guess I'll go get challanged before we go to the barbeque.

Doing What I Do Best - Worrying

We have blue dots on our badges now! That's an exciting color because it signifies that we are just past the halfway mark. Al is off to his treatment right now (1:40 pm) so I thought this would be a good time to "blog". Besides, it gives me something to do while I'm waiting for news about Nicky's heart. I just tried to call Jolie but my phone keeps saying "no network". Since that has not been one of our problems before this, I don't have a clue what may be causing it. Guess I'll have to try Facebook and see if anyone is reading it that can tell me what's up with our great grandson.
Al "sprained" (for lack of a better description) a muscle in the area of his left love handle at the gym yesterday. It's all black and blue today. It's a good thing that the gym is closed now until Tuesday so he'll have some time to knit back together before we go again. I think he's taking this whole "Make Man Whole" motto just a little too seriously. I think he's trying to get back inti the shape he was in when he got out of college and forgetting that he's really 70 years old, no matter what his mind says. That, and the fact that he still believes in "no pain, no gain". He has a Masters Degree in Physical Education but he needs to do some continuing ed to catch up with all the new developments since he got that degree. I don't want him to hurt himself.
Tomorrow morning, bright and early (well, early anyway) we are taking the Beach Train to Oceanside with our next door neighbors. I need to get to the store for some sunscreen as soon as Al gets back with the car. It's going to be almost three hours on the train each way and about five hours there before we have to catch the last train back to San Bernardino where the car will be. I expect that we'll be mighty tired when we get back. Sunday, there's a community chorus concert in Redlands that is only a donation to attend. I think we're going to do that. Maybe Monday we can take a short day trip to one of the "Old Towns" around here. We're having a barbeque with George and Susie one day this weekend. Since I haven't yet had time to even start on my dress for Allie's wedding, I guess I'll have to squeeze in some dress shopping in the next few days too. We're rapidly approaching the day when it would be impossible to make a dress, since it would have to be done by Thursday as we'll be leaving for home Friday morning and the wedding is on Saturday. With that thought in mind, I'd better get moving ao I'll be ready to go when Al comes home.

Food, Diet and Holiday Plans

We went to our Wednesday night social support group and caught the second half of a program about food and diet the 7th Day Adventist way. Most of what was said is stuff I've heard many times before. The difference was that, this time, Al was listening too. We spent money on a CHIP (Cardio Heart Improvement Program) cookbook with the good intentions of putting it to use - at least once in a while. We'll have to see how that goes. I could easily be a dairy/egg type vegetarian because I'm not the biggest meat fan around, but this diet (excuse me, life style) could be rough for Al to stick to, even with all his good intentions.

Al has graduated up to daytime appointments finally. We reach the half-way mark and graduate to Juniors tomorrow. Time has just flown by and they tell us the second half goes even faster! We have plans to go to Legoland while we're here and it looks like we better do that soon, or we won't make it at all. I wanted to go over to Old Town Temecula, which is only a couple of towns away, so we could have gone anytime up until now (no daytime appointments before this) but we still haven't done that. I guess it's time for me to start making concrete plans since we only will have a couple more weekends here. We are going home for the wedding on the 5th of June, and again on the 19th to take the car home. We'll fly back and George will pick us up at the airport in ontario that day. After that, we'll only have about ten days until we go home for good.

Al says that he thinks he could get an early morning treatment if we wanted to go somewhere on a weekday. I hadn't thought about that, but it is possible. That's good! George and Susie want to go to the ocean this weekend. I LOVE the ocean but I'm a little concerned about my walking abilities and taking the train. I think we need to find out just how close to the ocean it actually gets. I know for a fact that the walker does not do well on sand (and neither do my feet and legs). Boardwalks, however are great! We're having a pow-wow with our neighbors tomorrow to plan out the Memorial Day weekend. There's lots of ideas floating around. I wonder what we'll settle on doing.

ZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Oh my gosh! I can't believe it's been five days since I last "blogged". We have been BUSY. I don't remember what happened on Thursday, but we left for home early on Friday and pulled in to the parking lot at Round Table at a few minutes after 5 PM - just in time for the appreciation pizza party for Club Z tutors (that's the company that Al tutors for during the school year). We left there and went home and stayed up late while Allie and her friends cleaned up the back patio for Saturday's bridal shower. We collapsed into bed around 12:30 knowing that we had to be up early to help get things ready for the shower/barbeque which was starting at noon.

Saturday's shower went well but it tired us out. It's hard to have a bunch of people in your home and be a good host when your tail is draggin'. It was all over by about 6 PM and itwas a good thing that there was plenty of food because we were too tired to even think about eating. A pleasant surprise during the shower were the many kids that came. They all got along well in spite of age differnces. I was blown away by the difference two weeks has made in the speech abilities of both of our great grandkids. Aeri, who was just beginning to make 2 and 3 word sentence and still sounded like a 2 year old, is suddenly speaking very clearly and appropriately. Little Nicky, who wasn't saying much that was really undersandable, was saying all kinds of stuff that you could interpret if you just listened carefully. They're growing up so fast and we're down here missing it! I know it can't be helped, but it sure is bad timing.

Sunday, Al worked himself half to death in his garden and I vegged it as much as I could while still fitting in a dress fitting for the Maid of Honor. As luck would have it, alterations are necessary and my sewing machine wasstill in Loma Linda so I had to bring the dress back with me. Keep your fingers crossed that it's right this time because it won't get back to her until the night before the wedding. We tried to get to bed earlier because we knew we had to be back in Loma Linda by 4 PM so Al could make it to his treatment appointment on time. We were up at 6AM this morning and we've been moving ever since. Al made it to his appointment and George and Suzie took us to Carl's Jr. for dinner. It was the 2nd time today that we ate there. We had lunch at CJ's on the way down. All this driving and social life has us worn out. Al is already lying across the bed and waiting for me to help him pull up the memory foam topper. It slides down at night and we have to reposition it every few days. It's very comfortable, but it's also somewhat of a pain. Guess I'd better go help him out.

Moving Day

Today was moving day. We now live right next door to George and Suzie and we can get on-line while still in our 5th wheel. It feels like we're living a life of luxury now. I can even park the car right in front of the 5th wheel instead of across and down the street. We have a little lizard that apparantly lives under the bushes. He came out and cleaned up some bugs that fell out of the lawnchairs when Al opened them up. The chairs didn't have any bugs when I folded them up and tossed them in the back of the pickup, so I guess they must have already been in the pickup bed and decided the cloth on the chairs was more comfortable - or they wanted to eat it.

We just got word yesterday that our great-grandson, 19 month old Nicky, has two holes in his heart and maybe other problems. He goes to his grandma's heart doctor tomorrow and we will know more. With both his grandma and his Aunt Allie having pacemakers to control their Sic Sinus Syndrome, it's very worrisome to hear that he has problems, especilly when we are so far away. The one good thing is that he's going to Dr. Achtel. He operated on both Jolie and Allie and he knows the whole story. They both love him to death. We're going home for the weekend and we're praying for good news.

Our other patient, Al, is doing great! And he's liking his doctor and treatment people to the max. I'm so grateful that he can get this thing treated and cured without having to go through the horrors that always seem to go with cancer treatment. I'm set on keeping him around for another twenty or thirty years!

We really didn't do much today besides moving. Al's treatment was at 6 PM tonight so we couldn't go to the Wednesday night social support group. Suzie brought us back some cookies and a printed handout that went with tonight's speaker. I haven't had a chance to look it over yet, but Al was reading it earlier. I plan to do that next.

The weekend

It’s Monday evening and Al is off to his treatment at 7:30 PM. I’ve stayed home to finish a hem of one of the wedding outfits and so I can watch “House”. Al suggested it, I suspect because he’d like to be filled in on what has happened when he gets home. “House” is one of our joint pleasures.
Saturday evening, we went to a local Indian casino. It was gorgeous, and we got free tickets to their buffet for joining their player’s club. We went with George and Susie.
We had a great meal, and everyone paid their dues except me. I actually walked out $20.00 richer than when I went in. This is some sort of miracle, let me assure you. I even found eighteen cents on the floor while we were there!
Since we (I mean I) ate too much Saturday night, it took me a while to get going on Sunday. Once I did, we went to the gym. I still haven’t gotten out to the pool area to see how warm, or cold, the water really is. For that matter, neither has Al. I’m thinking of joining the water aerobics class but the pool is outdoors and the air is still pretty cool in the mornings at 10 AM when the class is held. I’m absolutely sure that the water isn’t as warm as it is at Butchie’s Pool at home - and that one is indoors. Basically, I’m a sissy and I HATE being cold, especially cold and wet! Whatever we did between the gym and dinner totally escapes me right now, but we went to the Outback for dinner and had a Blooming Onion and steaks. We discovered restaurant row when we went looking for Outback. There must be anything and everything you could ask for in food on that street which is aptly named “Hospitality Lane”.
I just remembered something from Sunday afternoon - we had a jackrabbit in our back yard! It was just sitting there chewing on whatever it found appetizing and my cameras
were not where I could get at them fast enough to catch a picture. One was across the street in the glove compartment (my old 35 mm) and the other was in a box in the closet in the 5th wheel (the digital). I guess if I really want to take pictures of anything that might add to our scrapbook of living in Loma Linda, I’m going to have to start wearing the cameras like jewelry. They’re pretty heavy to do that.
Today dawned grey and overcast and very cool. It’s stayed that way most of the day. The sun tried to peek through for a while this afternoon, but it never really succeeded. We went shopping (again - my credit card is going to tilt!) for a few things that we needed but we forgot to get cards for the birthdays, graduations and the shower this week. That means that we’ll be shopping again tomorrow. That’s scary!
Besides shopping, we are looking forward to changing spaces to be closer to the laundry room and the wi-fi so I won’t have to “blog” in shifts anymore. We were going to move tomorrow but the gantry got us again. Ed and Alice, nice people from Pennsylvania, were supposed to be done today and moving on to their next destination. They do work for their church and go wherever they are needed. But, the gantry was down and now they have one more day to go. I’m sure they are a lot more “bummed” by the extra day than we are. Once we move, we will “live” right next door to George and Susie and we’ll have to use somebody else’s backyard to get to the orange tree.
Al just came back and told me that his appointment tomorrow is at 6:50 PM so we will have to leave the potluck early tomorrow night. Also Ed and Alice are taking George and Susie to dinner tomorrow and none of them will be at the potluck. Our usual table is going to be empty. I guess we’ll probably meet some “newbies” to fill it up. It feels a little strange to be considered upper classmen who know the ropes now.

The Sabbath in Loma Linda

Yesterday, Al got started REALLY early. The guys at his gantry gave him a 5:30 (that’s AM) appointment. They thought he was going home again this weekend, but we aren’t doing that until next week. It was a very long Friday. He took a morning nap after he’d been home for a while - and I spent that time finishing up Aeri’s flower girl dress. Then we went to Lowe’s and Wal Mart (which has become our usual form of entertainment and which we have to stop!). We also discovered Trader Joe’s. Since we don’t have a Trader Joe’s at home, neither one of us had ever had this experience before. It was interesting and, again as usual, we spent too much money. The veggie pizza that we bought, and ate for supper, was fabulous. We had talked about going out to dinner - using the Shell Vacation Club Dinner card that we bought using our timeshare points so that we could go out while we were here - but Al pointed out that “Medium” was on at eight and it was already 7 o’clock, hence the pizza. “Medium’ is one of the shows that he doesn’t want to miss. I like it, but I like going out to dinner better.

This morning, right after breakfast (apple cranberry bran muffins which came from, you guessed it, Trader Joe’s) Al went over to George’s Winnie to see if he and Susie had plans for today. He took our roof patch with him because they have a leak. They were fixing it when I went down to take a shower. I’d do that at home, but our water heater is pretty small, and, Al’s golf clubs are in the bathtub. Anyway, I informed them on my way past that the bottom of our front (and only) door had fallen off when I opened it, so now they are running back and forth to Lowe’s to fix that. It’s not exactly what I thought we’d do today. We can’t go to the gym. It’s the Sabbath here in Loma Linda and the gym is closed. Geeorge has suggested a trip to one of the casinos nearby and I guess we’re considering doing that with him and Sussie. My own opinion is that we should do some of the things to do that are outside while the weather is still nice, and save the casinos for when the temperature hit’s the nineties. That’s bound to happen when we get to June, and maybe even earlier. Right now, I’m sitting out on the patio and there’s a lovely breeze blowing. It feels great.

Earlier, we picked some oranges from the abandoned orchard that’s right behind our rig. They are the best oranges that I’ve ever tasted! I’m sure that the fact that they were free hasn’t got a thing to do with it. They really are good! Now I just have to remember that I’m supposed to be careful about increasing the amount of vitamin C that I eat regularly. I guess I’ll just skip the vitamin C pill that I take until the oranages are gone. It looks like that will probably be for as long as we’re here because there are a LOT of oranges out there.

Well, the door is fixed; the patio is cleaned up; and it’s time to decide what we’re going to do with the rest of the day. I guess the first thing will be lunch and, hopefully, Al won’t be all tied up in a Dodger’s game and not want to leave. He’s in 7th heaven because we can get ALL the Dodger’s games on TV down here! Oh Joy! I hate baseball. I can watch footbal with him, and I love basketball. I can even tolerate watching golf, but I just can’t watch baseball. It’s not quite so bad live at the ballpark, but, even that, doesn’t appeal to me much. Please God, no Dodger’s games on the weekend! I guess that’s one prayer that I won’t get answered.

Together Again

Al and I have been apart for a couple of days, but we are back together in our “cozy” 5th wheel today. We were home at our real home over the weekend together, but he had to
get back on Monday for another treatment and I had to stay home until Wednesday morning because I had an afternoon appointment with my nephrologist (that’s my kidney doctor). I drove down yesterday and got here barely in time for the Wednesday night support social. It was bad enough that I had to miss the Tuesday potluck so I drove like a demon (occasionally) to get here by 4 PM. I would have made it if I hadn’t turned the wrong way when I got to the bottom of the off ramp in Redlands. It’s a good thing I have a cell phone and Al had his with him. He got me turned around and I was only 20 minute late. Fortunately, George and Susie were saving us seats and we arrived before the festivities actually began.
While we were home, Al did a bunch of yard work and cut a huge pile of artichokes to give away to various people. He also built a frame to put our hanging tomato plants on, but he didn’t have time to move the plants to it. Just as well since the wind blew it over and broke the bottom off of it shortly after he left. It seems like I spent a whole bunch of time just doing laundry and running errands while he was still home. We did, however,
take some time out on Saturday to enjoy a barbeque with our PT Cruizer Club together. I’m certain that we are spending a lot more time in each other’s company down here - and I like it. I don’t feel like a second fiddle to the garden or whatever sport is on TV so much. He probably feels the same way about my doing things for the grandkids when we’re home, or my Barbershop activities and maybe even my trips to Butchie’s Pool. We are both spending a lot more time with each other instead of doing our own thing like we do so much at home.
After Al left, I did fittings for the outfits that I’m making for Allie’s wedding. All I have left to do are hems and to make something for me to wear. I had hoped to get my dress cut out so I could sew on it down here because there is no place in the 5th wheel big enough to do the cutting. I didn’t get that done. I was too busy having lunch with my BFF, Joanne, in Sacramento; going to quartet practice to make a recording of “Daddy’s Little Girl” for Allie’s wedding; and going to the doctor. And I couldn’t sleep! I missed the old geezer and I was a little worried about driving by myself for eight hours straight.
I’m not quite as brave (Stupid?) as I was when I was younger - a lot younger - and set off to drive cross county with three kids and hauling a trailer that I didn’t know how to back up. I made it - BOTH times.
When I asked Al what he did Monday and Tuesday and most of Wednesday, he said “Nothing really. I fixed the hose”. He’s a big help. I happen to know that he went to his treatments because the one he had on Wednesday, after the support social, was number 11 and we now have another sticker on our badges. This one is yellow and it means that we are no longer “newbies”. We are now sophomores. I also know that George and Susie had him over to their Mini-Winnie for dinner on Monday night and he went to the potluck on Tuesday. I do’t for one minute think that he waited around for me all day on Wednesday. He says he mostly read and did crosswords and Sudoku all day. I know he answered the phone both times that I called him. Tonight we’re going to the Farmer’s Market in downtown Redland for a little while, but we’ll have to leave early because Al’s treatment is at 7:45 PM. We’re movin’ on up!

Since my last blog entry, we have attended the Tuesday night potluck, the Wednesday night motivational meeting with sandwiches and cookies and rushed around getting ready to come home on Friday (for the weekend only for Al - until Wednesday morning for me). Sandwiches at the Wed. night meeting are interesting. They have egg salad, tuna or chicken salad, and peanut butter & jelly. This week they added a cheese and avacado. When we eat there, we eat pretty much like 7th Day Adventists as they run the hospital.

Al has had later night appointments for his treatments so far, but he needed an early morning one so we could get home on Friday evening and make the Cruizer barbeque on Saturday. Eventually, he will be able to pick the times for his appointments, but first, he has to gain a little seniority. He should be getting a lttle bit by Wednesday because he will graduate up to a sophomore after his 11th treatment, and there dhould be aboout 40 guys below him on the list by then. Fortunately, he was able to get in there at 9:30 AM and we got home about 7 PM. Made it to the barbeque and we had a great time. Al goes back Monday morning, but I'm staying here to go to my kidney doc on Tuesday afternoon. Then, bright and early Wednesday, I'm driving my car back to Loma Linda. I'll miss my
sweetie. I'll also miss the Tuesday potluck. Darn! With a little luck, I may get back in time for peanut butter & jelly sandwiches Wednesday night. I guess Al will have to fill in whatever's interesting that might happen on Monday and Tuesday. He'll probably hang with George and Susie,
and maybe Ed and Alice too.

We came home to an entire laundry basket full of mail and newspapers. That really stressed me out. It's bad enough dealing with it on a day to day basis, but after 2 weeks of NO mail, it was overwhelming! I just wanted to burn everything there! I'll be better prepared for that in two weeks when we come home again. Al's been outside fiddling with the lawnmower most of the day. Now he's over hob-nobbing with the next door neighbor. Tomorrow he's planning on working all day in the garden. I imagine he's somewhat overwhelmed too - but he hasn't actually said so.I'm actually looking forward to going back to the peace and quiet - and NO mail in Lomas Linda. I've got to take care of a couple of problems (besides the doctor) first. Gotta fire our financial planner and take care of getting paperwork together so the GAP insurance will finish paying off the loan on the car Al demolished. I'm not looking forward to doing either one.

Al just came back with a mylar balloon (for Mother's DAy) and a frozen strawberry cream pie. Reminds me, we had breakfast this morning with the grandkids, great-grandkids, Jolie & Richard, and Richard's mom & stepdasd.
Also Allie's soon-to-be mother-in-law and her parents. Anyway, gotta go eat this yummy stuff. Ciao!

The Closet Story

Well, it’s another Monday. Al’s treatment isn’t until 9:25 tonight so we have the whole day to do whatever. I figured that we might go to the gym for a while and then,maybe, do some exploring. It seems like nothing ever quite goes as I think it should. In spite of that, we did accomplish something. The day that we arrived here, the clothes rod in our big (That word is relative. It’s the biggest in the 5th wheel, but it’s NOT big) closet fell right out of the ceiling taking our clothes with it. So all of our clothes have been piled up on the top bunk-bed getting very wrinkled since then. We HAVE talked about fixing it, but it has been all talk and looking at different things that might work until today. Today we did some measuring and Al took off for the local Lowe’s store. While he was gone, I set up my sewing machine long enough for me to finish the machine work on Aeri’s dress and get Nicky’s vest halfway done. I had to rip out the shoulder seams on the vest because Nicky is still too little to work things the way the pattern instructed. I had to do that part by hand. Sewing is a challenge in this rig. I have to set up my machine on the dining table and take everything down every time we want to eat. Al wants to eat three times a day! Who would have thought? Anyway, Al came back just in time for lunch so I had to change things back to a dining area. After lunch, we tackled the closet. We did a complete closet remodel for about $23. We now have a closet with a shelf that it didn’t have before and a lot sturdier clothes rod. Gotta give Al credit. He had a good idea and it worked with only a couple of glitches. He bought a 4 X 8 piece of plywood; had Lowes cut it into the size of the three pieces we needed; bought a roll of contact paper; and knew exactly what we needed to do. The first step was to cover each piece with the contact paper to cover up the not so great looking plywood. After that, we took the first upright piece and put it into the closet……Well, almost. We neglected to notice that there is a bumped out box at the bottom of that side of the closet that gives access to the plumbing for the bathtub. So we did some more measuring to figure out how much we had to cut out of the piece we were working with. Cutting out anything became a problem because all we had in our toolbox to work with was a hacksaw! Al started sawing on the ¾” plywood….not an easy task by hand in any event, but a real problem with only a hacksaw. It was going very slowly . I took pity on him at one point and took over for a bit. I wasn’t accomplishing very much. The blade kept bending. So, Al trotted himself over to George’s (George is the first person that we met at Mission RV Park ---except for the manager --- and he’s proved to be invaluable. I think he has every tool you might need somewhere in his Mini-Winnie or in his Saab convertible. He says he has them but he doesn’t know how to use them. He also likes to talk -- a lot!). Al borrowed his saw, a rusty hand saw, but it was a whole lot better than our hacksaw, which had finally broken. We got the cuts made and took the board back to the closet. Unfortunately, Al had forgotten the old rule “Measure twice. Cut once” and one side of the cut was wrong.
Fortunately, however, he measured 7” when it should have been 11” so it was fixable with only another round of hand sawing. Voila! No more problems and our clothes are now trying to hang out all the wrinkles.

Speaking of George and his tools, yesterday, Al had to borrow his jack and tire iron so he could take a flat off the 5th wheel and take it to get it fixed. Today he borrowed his ladder to put some anti-flap gizmos on our awning. (George told him about them and where to get them …Wal Mart. George buys everything there because Suzie, his wife, works at Wal Mart in Carson City so he has a 10% discount card which he is always offering to use for us.) George started his treatments the day after Al and they’ve become close friends.

Speaking of treatments, it looks like Al will not be having a treatment tonight after all. The guy from the Proton Cancer Center called about 7 PM and told Al that his gantry (that’s what they call the machines. There are three of them but only two are working. The other is down being updated. Al is gantry #2.) had been down for several hours and probably would not be back up for a while. When they did get it running again, they were going to do treatments for the guys who were “graduating” (having their last treatment), and would not have time to get to the “newbies” tonight. Last week, it was the guys in gantry #3 that got bumped. Al has a total of 43 treatments. We planned for his last one being on June 25th, but now it will be on Monday, June 28th -- unless #2 goes down again before then. It’s a good thing that we’re having fun while we’re here.

Oops, again

Here we go again! The blog that I typed out last night to Copy/Paste in here is so scrambled that you can't read it. Guess we'll have to call DeDe again tomorrow and find out what we need to do. Darn!

The Rest of Week One

I guess I left off with Wednesday afternoon. That night we went to a presentation (kind of a motivational thing) with sandwiches and cookies. The movie was on a disabled athlete. It was very inspiring. The message was never give up. The speaker, who is the head of the Proton program at the hospital, pushed hard on the need to remain social and get out and become part of the group of men being treated and their caregivers (wives).
Said it's all part of the healing process. It all lasted about an hour and then we went over to the hospital because Al's treatment was at 9:10 PM - then we went home to catch up on TV.
Thursday, the wives' support group was cancelled so we went to the gym and exercised for about half an hour. The rest of the day we did laundry.
Thursday evening we went to the Farmers Market and street Fair in the old part of town. It was interesting - Music, Clowns, Street Peddlars, Crafts, Toys, etc. Al's treatment was late again so I stayed home, sewed a little and watched Grey's Anatomy.
Friday - No treatment until 9 tonight again. A long day with no particular plans. Loma Linda is a 7th Day Adventist town. The gym closes at 3 pm and is closed all day Saturday for their Sabbath. We were just sitting around mostly reading when the hospital called and they had an opening for 4:35 if Al wanted to come in early. He jumped at it and we trucked on down to be there about 3:15 so he could start drinking his water. The guy who was supposed to be before him was late so Al got to take his place since he was already there. We did some grocery shopping ( we have to do that every few days as our refrigerator in the 5th wheel is pretty small) and then on home to our home on wheels for dinner.
Yeah! Saturday! No treatments. Just a day for us. We had tickets to
the greatest barbershop chorus in the world, The Masters of Harmony, and the 1st place Internatiional quartet contest winners, Crossroads, show in Pasadena. It was for the matinee at 2 o'clock so we started out early since we weren't familiar with the area, or the traffic. Found the place, parked, and walked to a Ralph's to pick up some lunch from their deli. It was the closest spot to go, but, even then, it was an awfully long walk for me. (my legs are screaming today) Back at the auditorium, which was part of the HROCK Church and absolutely gorgeous, we found our assigned seats. I magine that! Assigned seating at a barbershop show! I was extremely pleasantly surprised. Need I say, the show was absolutely, unbelievably fabulous. We bought THREE CD's! We put Old Town Pasadena on our list of places to go when we have free days.
Today is Sunday. I'm catching up on the blog and I'm going to go to Joann's (as soon as I can get my chauffeur cornered) to get a few things I need to get on with the wedding sewing that I want to finish before we head home next weekend. Al's been BSing with George and changing a flat on the 5th wheel and taking it to be fixed. I think he's putting it back on now. Maybe we'll hit the gym again (if I die - forget that - I'm not ready). Maybe I'll just slap it silly instead of hitting it. Yesterday's walking has taken it's toll on me. Guess we'll just be lazy if we don't go there.
It's been an interesting journey so far, and mostly fun. Let's see what the coming week brings.

My Fist Attempt - and 2nd - Sucked

I am e-mailing (I hope) a document that I had hoped to copy to this blog about our first full day here in Loma Linda. I thought I could type it at the 5th wheel and come to the washroom, connect to the wireless(it doesn't work back where we're located)copy and paste, but NO - it won't work. I guess I'll just have to sit here on this hard bench with the computer on the counter - which is at my shoulder level when I'm sitting down - to type out our observations on our big adventure. Another problem may be that it's being done in Microsoft Works which may mean that you'll have to open the attachment and Save it to your computer to be able to read it. I didn't realize that he didn't have Word until we got here. After we get home for Mother's Day, I'm loading Word and Excel on this thing!

Day 2, yesterday, was very busy. In the morning, we went to a New Patient presentation and got all the goodies that the Proton patients and caregivers (mostly wives) are given - parking pass, gym memberships, discount cards, and tons of stuff to read for info on the area and things to do from right here to all over southern California. We left there and had lunch in the hospital cafeteria (all vegetarian) and at a discount. It was pretty good too. Al had his first "official" treatment at 3:55 PM and from there we went to the Tuesday Night potluck. We met several other "newbies" who, like us, did not have to bring any food, but we all got to go first in the food line. Next week, we get treated like all the rest of the people there. There was great food and some musical entertainment in the form of an alumni patient who sang Country and Gospel music. Alumni means that he has graduated from the program and has come back (in his case because he was invited and lives fairly closeby).

We have already met four couples in the program who also live at our RV Park while they are here. There are several others here that are also in the program that we haven't met yet. One couple is a hoot and they're only about four spaces away. They're from Carson City, NV. We also sat with a dentist from Long Island at dinner last night. I worked a jigsaw puzzle with a wife from Oregon while Al had his treatment. Everybody is very friendly most likely because we are all in the same boat. This being a big social club is certainly seeming to be true. We have another dinner and meeting tonight for the joint support group. Al skipped the Patient Only support group this afternoon in order to fix our RV door. It sticks. He doesn't have his treatment until 8:55 PM tonight. The drawback to being a "newbie" - You take what you get for times.

Our First Day at Loma Linda

This blog is to let everyone who cares know what’s happening with the Stirnamans as they proceed on their adventures in Loma Linda where Al is undergoing treatment for


prostate cancer.



This was our first day and what a day it was. We slept like logs last night. The memory foam topper on the bed was an absolute blessing - no more bedsprings that you can feel.

And Al (he’s such a sweetie!) brought me a dozen red roses for our 23rd wedding anniversary which is today. It almost got forgotten in all the hoopla getting ready to live in the 5th wheel for nine weeks.



Al had to be at the Proton Center by 11:30 for an noon appointment. Everything went well until then. We sat down at the jigsaw puzzle table and started working on a nearly impossible puzzle with a lady named Shirley from Oregon. Her husband’s appointment was about the same time as Al’s. As we all struggled with this insane puzzle, we started to notice that the room was filling up (apparently that is not usual, but we ‘newbies’ haven’t had time to learn that). The machine had broken down. We had heard, when we were here for the consult appointment, that this sometimes happens and appointments are delayed, or even cancelled! Lucky Al! It happened on his first day. It was about 2:00 when they finally called him in. I spent three hours working on that %$#%$ puzzle and only found eleven pieces that fit - and I’m GOOD at puzzles.



Meanwhile, Al was back in the treatment area where he didn’t have an actual treatment. They got him all fixed up for a treatment but all they did was take more x-rays to be sure that nothing had moved in the three weeks since they had originally measured him. He has to be back for treatment #1 at 3:45 tomorrow. That’s when we’ll get our green stickers on our badges indicating that treatment has begun and that we’re ‘newbies’. You don’t really feel like you totally “belong” until you start getting your stickers. It’s kind of strange that it’s set up like I’m in treatment too, but that’s the way it is. Everybody talks about ‘we’ and ‘us’ when they talk about themselves and what’s going on with the husband.



We had to try to arrange for me to get bloodwork done down here for Dr. Frazer back home. I have an appointment there on May 11th and I completely forgot about the lab stuff before we left. I think that it’s going to work out OK as long as we can find the lab. This University Medical Center is HUGE! The lab is in the eight, or so, square blocks somewhere.



We needed groceries for the few days that we can fit in our teeny, tiny refrigerator so we hopped (well, HE hopped. I have to work very hard to get into that truck) and drove about thirty seconds down the street to Food 4 Less. I got sticker shock from the prices

but we got almost everything we needed. We still needed two more things and decided to go to the other end of the shopping center - about 3 blocks away - to Wal Mart. When we got there I realized that I didn’t have my purse! Al hot-footed it back to F4L where I was sure that it was in the shopping cart next to where we had parked the truck while we were there. He was gone so long that I became a born-again Catholic and did a lot of praying (pleading?) that he would find the purse. All of our spending money (on Shell Vacation cards) was in there along with all the usual things you find in a purse. Thank God that someone had turned it in to the store. God bless whoever that was too!



After all that excitement, I was completely worn out and looked it! We were planning to out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. I was too pooped to want to get all gussied up so we decided to try the Macaroni Grill just down the street. ‘Dinner was mahvelous darlings’ and cost enough that we should have been dressed up. We got home in time to watch “House” - a perfect end to a day that had more than it’s fair share of excitement.

This is a test. Apparantly nothing I did before worked and it was pretty good too!  I don't know if I'll be able to do it all over.  There's a chance that, if you got our e-mail, you can save the attachment and then open it with Microsoft Works.  I used to get bulletins done in Works and that's what worked for me.
I won't get another chance to write until Sunday.  We're going to see the Masters of Harmony show in Pasadena tomorrow. (That's) great barbershop for those of you that don't follow the craft.)
Betty and Al