More Boring Stuff and a Personal Nightmare

14-16 Mar 2010--So even though Ellen is bored with my maintenance updates, I will tell you quickly that Sunday we had to work on the awning over our front door. While I worked the remote control, Cathy ascertained that we needed to oil the joints on the arms,, and we also had to tighten the screws that were holding it to the RV. So for those of you who were wondering what my job was, now we all know! I was exhausted by the time we were through! haha

When we were finishing working on the awning, this woman, Kathy, came by to talk to us about being in the military. She had stopped to talk to me Friday night when I was standing outside with the dogs, asking me if she could stop by over the weekend because she had heard we were TIs in the military and she was really interested in that.

So Sunday she caught us outside...sat down for about an hour before we could get rid of her. She knocked on our door again Monday evening to ask a question she had forgotten about before. I feel like she is stalking us!

A guy pulled in the park the other day and put up this banner. Can you believe how big it is? It is taller than his RV. Do you think he is proud? A little gaudy to me!



And now for my nightmare today. I am showing this cart and cooler because it played a significant part in my drama. I was working at USAA again, selling my sunglasses, so when I was leaving I packed up my cart and cooler and headed for the escalator. Getting on the escalator, I placed the cart/cooler on the step in front of me, and advanced down one flight without incident---almost! When I got near the bottom I sort of kicked the bottom of the cart forward, intending to get it up on the rollers to exit the escalator.

Not quite! Instead, somehow I lost my balance, fell backwards flat on my ass while tipping the cart/cooler over towards my feet, and proceeded to flail away trying to push the cart off the escalator with my feet, while at the same time trying to put my hands behind me to help get myself up off the ever-descending stairs.

All the while I am continuously advancing towards the end of the escalator, can't stand up because I couldn't grip the stairs that kept folding flat behind me, and I am pushing backwards with me feet because I am afraid that I will lose my toes or a leg if I get caught at the end of the escalator!!!

After what seemed to be 10 minutes but was probably closer to 10 seconds, 2 young women came running over to help me, grabbed the cart and cooler out of the way, allowing me to finally grab the handrails above me, hoisting me to safety and the end of the escalator.

This may not seem like a big deal, but let me tell you...it was! I was shaking I was so scared. I almost even started crying once I got off, but I was able to pull myself together until I got home. haha Really, I couldn't believe how scared I was, and how unable I was to get back on my feet. I know that if I had been 20 yrs old I would have been able to get up right away and laugh it all off. But at 54, I was incapable of even saving myself...getting old sucks!!! And I think I will have a fear of escalators in the future!

This, That and a Coffee Party!

23 Feb-13 Mar 2010--Hi everyone! It's been a little while since my last posting, so I have a few dribs and drabs to post, nothing earth-shattering, just little updates to let you know I am still out here.

Jabba's back problems have been accelerating. We have been to the Vet and the x-rays showed that 2 discs in her back are basically gone, and the bone is fusing in their place...sort of in an upside down "V" formation. We are now on the third different drug attempting to ease the pain. She walks in circles continuously trying to get away from the pain, and is seemingly only pain free when she is exhausted and finally lays down. She likes to hang out of her bed like in the picture below...she has always done this, isn't she a doll!?



We went to dinner with friends you haven't met before, Norman and Samantha. Samantha used to work in the base barber shop, and Norman used to sell jewelry at the base with his brother Harry. Norman is from Iran; his Persian name is actually Hooman, but he humors us by allowing us to call him Norman. He went into business for himself a couple years ago, and is now a big kahuna in the cell phone business.



We have had great weather here over the past couple weeks, mostly between 75 and 80 degrees, and have also had some really pretty skies, which everyone knows I love.

We have had to do some more maintenance on the RV. From talking to people over the last few months in the RV parks, I guess this is a regular exercise. Probably not a whole lot different than maintaining a house, except now we have a house on wheels, so I think it may be a constant state of affairs. We were told by a friend up in Dallas that we had to check the anode rod in our water heater...that we should check and/or replace it anywhere from every 6 months to a year. So we went outside to the water heater access door and prepared to take a look.

We knew that little round thing at the bottom of the picture had to be removed, but 1st we had to try to get all the hot water out of the RV. Once we did that, Cathy unscrewed it.

Once all the water flowed out, Cathy removed the old rod...look at the difference between the old and new one.

Once the rod was removed, we had to flush the bottom of the tank. You have to do this anyway, but we realized that whoever was the previous owner of our RV had placed their replacement rod in the hole with the paper wrap still on it. It makes you wonder who could actually be that stupid.

With a little plumbers tape, we were ready to replace the rod. Look at how old my hands look...I am horrified!

We also had to fill this tank with Hydraulic system oil...the book said it controls our steering, and it was almost bone dry!

This one was a little more than maintenance, we actually had to take the RV to a repair shop. We noticed that out of the blue some of our electrical outlets weren't working, so after asking the people at escapees.com, we checked the electrical box on the outside of the RV. We had hoped that it was just a loose screw, but after inspection we realized that part of this box was melting, so we knew we had a problem we didn't dare just try to fix ourselves. Our friend Donna gave us this flashlight Cathy has on her head, and did it ever come in handy!

My friend Barb called me yesterday morning telling me that the new "Coffee Party" was having a meeting here in San Antonio...its inaugural meeting, so we decided to go. For those of you who haven't heard about this, the Coffee Party is trying to get established as an alternative to the Tea Party folks...they say they are not Democrats, liberals, progressives, etc., but if they are the opposite of the Tea party folks (which I was hoping for) that is exactly what they are. Their website is coffeepartyusa.com if you are interested.

When the Tea Party had their 1st rally in San Antonio last year I went to see what was going on, and they not only had Glen Beck, they had an estimated 5000 people. Unfortunately, the Coffee Party doesn't have a network news organization to promote them (Fox), so we only had 30 people at the meeting. We actually had a native Russian woman, a German woman, and a man from India there...all now American citizens and all disappointed at how negative American politics had become. I felt bad that they were disappointed in my country.

The people running the meeting were definately "kumbaya" types, so I was a little frustrated that they weren't ready to take to the streets (haha). But at least they were meeting on the hopes of getting something done in this country. And they gave us all the switchboard number to the US Congess, in the hopes that we would call and tell our Congessperson what we felt about healthcare, etc. If anyone wants the number, it is:202-559-4225. Call away everyone!