2014-12-12 Taking Care of Father

Karen and I flew back home to Seattle on Tuesday, 9th, to help take care of Karen's father. He's been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer.

It was great to see Dick, but sad to see that he's changed so much since we left in September. He's gotten older.

Karen's brother, Vern, has been taking care of Dick and he has set up a downstairs room for Dick to sleep in. Additionally, he has rearranged the attached laundry room and he is installing a walk-in shower.

After a few days here we have fallen into a routine of care. I stay the night and take care of Dick's needs when he wakes up 2 or 3 times each night. Karen sleeps at home and then picks up food, clothes, or medicine any of us might need. She comes over and stays til 9pm.

Vern is working on upgrades to his place for Dick. He also needs to work on his construction business. We took the motor home over to Dick's old home and cleaned out the gray and black water tanks. The motor home is now parked here at Vern's house and we'll winterize it.

I've been going through the motor home and cleaning it up and removing personal papers that are in there. I've gathered Dick's mail and organized it for our future needs.

Karen and I take care of Dick during the day, make the meals, help him get onto his walker, play gopher when Vern needs our help, keep our families informed of Dick's condition, and work with Hospice on Dick's care. After dinner we all seem to take care of him.

It feels so good to be retired and to be able to spend this time taking care of Dick. We had our 3 months out on the road, we got to see the Rogers' in Texas, and now we'll comfort Dick and help the family as we all deal with this disease.

2014-12-03 Retirement Means Your Schedule is Flexible

Karen and I had arrived at the Rogers' place in Round Rock 10 days ago on the 22nd. We were talking on Black Friday, 28th, about going away to the coast again for 10 days or so. The nieces would be back in school on Monday, Dec 1st, and maybe we'd need some time apart from the family before coming back together for Christmas week.

Friday evening we were planning on where to go and for how long when Karen's brother, Vern, called from Seattle. We were kind of expecting a call since he and his father, Dick, were supposed to be traveling down to Yuma, AZ in the RV.

The phone call wasn't good news. Dick was taken by ambulance to the emergency room with heart attack symptoms. It wasn't. Eventually, they installed a tube to drain bile that was making him jaundice.

After returning to the hospital the following Monday to hear the analysis of the biopsy they had done, he was told he has inoperable pancreatic cancer.

We booked a flight home immediately to help with his care, to get him out of the retirement home he just moved into in September, and to do whatever else we could do to help.

Our flight was a week away, so we busied ourselves with projects around the Roger house, taking the girls to school, and Jessica's "Sweet 16" birthday.

Mark and Margaret had purchased a new front door but it was sitting behind the couch. The current one had a window in it from top to bottom.

We cleared out a space for me to work in the garage and I got busy sanding it and staining it. Once the new door was ready to install, Mark helped with demolition of the old one.

With occasional phone calls to Vern in Seattle we were able to get it installed correctly.

The next morning we installed the trim.

Our niece, Jessica, and 4 friends were taken down to San Antonio for her Sweet 16 birthday party celebration. Karen went along to keep Margaret company.

2014-11-30 Black Friday Weekend

Yes, stores were open on Thanksgiving. Yep, some of the ladies went out shopping. Karen wasn't looking for anything in particular. She went along as moral support.

My participation on "Black" Friday consisted of replacing my dirty oil in the truck. 13 quarts is a lot of oil. It might have gone "cleaner" if my bucket didn't have a crack in it at the 4 quart level. Ah, man.

Saturday morning Karen, Margaret and the nieces went shopping again. I went out and played 36 holes of disc golf in the sunshine at Cat Hollow Course a few miles away.

After church on Sunday we visited Round Rock Donuts. We've been told, "They're the best!"

Jessica's having a Sweet 16 party next weekend and so the ladies all went dress shopping. I think they made a great choice. She looked great modeling it for everyone.

Karen and I went shopping for a new printer. We found what we wanted (Epson XP-410) but decided to wait until we got back into town to purchase one.

Karen's wanted me to install a wider angle peep hole since Day 1 of our trip. We kept searching for a replacement 1/2" round one. Since we were at the Roger's place and he had more tools than me, I hit upon the great idea of putting in ANOTHER hole since the one she wanted was 9/16" in diameter.

Jessica came over tonight and she and Karen baked some great cupcakes. Smore Cupcakes. Mmmm.

Go buy some. I'll end the blog now for you.

2014-11-27 Thanksgiving with the Rogers' Family

We arrived from the beach with the nieces yesterday after a nice sunny 3 days in Rockport and Port Aransas.

Today is Thanksgiving and a boiled-in-oil turkey is on tap for today. Never had one, but they say it's moist and delicious.

Karen and I have been cleaning and straightening the 5th wheel this morning after the 3-dayer with the girls. I happened into the house and Mark
says we aren't having turkey tonight because the frying burner is at his sister's.

Uh, Plan B? Yes! Jessica starts making some stuffing to put into the bird. Mark gets a pan for this thing. Everyone pitches in and bird is in the oven by 1pm. ETA on the table is 6pm.

Mark's sister, Michelle arrived in the afternoon with her husband, Lance, and their 3 children. It was fun getting to know them as the day went on. A little later a couple of nieces showed up with desserts in their hands. After taking the pies from their hands, they were welcomed appropriately.

Here's Jessica making the fruit salad.

The turkey and ham are almost done.

They're ready.

Yep, she's ready too!

The turkey WAS out by 6pm but we didn't finally start eating until closer to 7pm. Everyone was hungry by then, so they said everything tasted great.

While waiting for dessert there's nothing better than browsing the ads for Black Friday bargains.

After dinner goofing off.

And after dinner play time.

2014-11-25 Nieces Kidnapped to the Beach

It was Monday before Thanksgiving and the high schoolers, Jessica and Sarah, were out of school for the week. So we hitched up the 5th wheel and them and off we went.

After arriving at Rockport and getting our spot at Bay View RV Park we headed for the beach

And this crazy monster.

It was a little windy and slightly cool but tolerable.

The next day we headed for Port Aransas with a stop at Rockport Donuts first. There was a FREE ferry boat ride to the town.

They have these cool sculptures to lure you into the T-shirt shops.

Once again the salt air smell led us to another beach adventure.

Here we are enjoying each other's company in the RV that evening before heading back to Round Rock the next morning.

2014-11-23 Time to Spend Time with Relatives

We left the Roadrunner RV Park in Oklahoma City on Friday, Nov 21st with a desire to make it south of Fort Worth before afternoon traffic.

I found this glitzy place called Cloverleaf in Ardmore on Roadside America the day before leaving so we stopped for a photo but Karen wasn't interested in going in.

Further down the road in Gainesville we found these giants on the side of the road (also via Roadside America).

We spend a few minutes here and the mail lady came by and asked if we'd like our picture taken! We had a great laugh at that. She says she does it all the time.

A short time later the owner, Glenn Goode, arrived and told us all about the statues, where he got them (one in Tennessee), and how much he paid ($800 for one of them). He had a story for each of them.

We arrived in Round Rock the following day, Saturday, and setup the 5th wheel in the driveway.

On Sunday I repaired my sewer hose storage that got partially destroyed on the steep driveway going into Stewart's RV Park Friday night. I moved it from below the bumper to on top of the bumper.

That evening we went to the movies with the Rogers' to see Disney's Big Hero Six at a theatre that serves you food. That's Jessica, Karen, Sarah, and Margaret.