Presidential Campaign Hits South Carolina

     Well, I guess it's our turn in the barrel.  At least there are fewer candidates on the tube.  (I guess we don't have tubes anymore, do we?)  Yesterday, the political junkie in the family asked if we wanted to go to John Kasich's town hall meeting/rally in Mt. Pleasant.  Feeling the need to stay somewhat involved, we agreed.  Cindy got the tickets to Finn's Brick Oven.  They were expecting 50 and got over 500.  He spoke to the crowd outside before coming in.  Fortunately we got their early enough to get seats, although we had to stand to see him.  His strong showing the night before in NH greatly increased the crowd.  He said that he beat Donald Trump 3-2 in Dixville Notch, the perennial "first in the nation community reporting".

     I don't see any slideouts, but I guess that's OK.  We took two cars because I had to go directly to PT while Durelle and Cindy had a nice Italian lunch...not in Finn's; it was way too busy.  Here's a shot of Kasich speaking.

     His line of patter was persuasive, but, more importantly, his answers were direct and non-evasive.  Plus, his interchanges with questioners was responsive, humorous, quick and clever...all indications to me of a sound native intelligence.  Cindy is a Democrat.  I'm a Republican who, in his first presidential election, voted for Nixon against JFK who had appointed me to West Point.  As a matter of fact, it was an absentee ballot that I mailed from MS to MA...I doubt it was even counted!  Nonetheless, both of us are looking for a centrist we can trust.  As a matter of fact, Cindy and her brother Mark, who is somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan, could end up voting for the same candidate this year.  That's an event that could probably cause a reversal in the direction of the earth's rotation.

     The pictures are not due to my inevitable Leica.  It wasn't even there.  Cindy's I-phone did the trick.  Thanks Cindy.  As an additional interesting side note, Cindy and I were both interviewed by a NY Times reporter.  The reference didn't appear in the print version (yet?), but it was in a campaign blog.

Tentative schedule

     Before I get started with the schedule for 2016, permit me a  few pictures.  We now have some baby pictures that are not so immediately post-partum.  First is a classic proud dad picture,

and the second is a picture of the cousins, our two great-granddaughters, Brielle and Madeleine (in the carriage).

     Saturday we met Myrt and Debra at a halfway point between us at Pawley's Island.  We had a great lunch at Perrone's.  You have never seen a greater assortment of beers.  I had a couple of my own personal brand, an ale called "old curmudgeon".  Debra is really looking forward to leaving her job on the first of May and starting a new job as the manager of the Moorings RV Resort.

 

     A couple hours ago I had a visit with a spinal surgeon I have seen before.  We spent some time poring over my MRI from 2014. The reason for the meeting was to ask and answer the question, "If we start now, can the pre-op, surgery, recovery, and initial PT get accomplished so that he will release me for "light duty" to include driving o/a 1 June?"  Fortunately the answer is yes.  I'll need a release from my cardiologist before surgery, but I saw him in Oct, so I hope he won't need any more tests and will issue a release quickly.  A fresh MRI is being scheduled.  Surgery should be o/a 1 March.  I learned this morning that not only was there obvious slippage between lumbar 4/5, but there is a little slippage between lumbar 3/4.  Dealing with two joints in one surgery is a little more complicated, but since they are on opposite sides of the same vertebra, it's not that big of a problem.  My quick trip to New England in two weeks should not be affected.

     So we WILL be able to have another summer on the shore of Penobscot Bay.  Even Baxter is looking forward to another year (I think).  We may not get there on 1 June, but it will be close.

Madeleine

   January started slowly.  The stock market was setting new lows.  The presidential campaigning couldn't be more depressing.  But, then, along came Madeleine, our second great granddaughter, on the 28th.  She was a week early, and she signed in at a strong 7.2 pounds and 21 inches.

     The mother is our granddaughter Melissa, and the ugly guy on the left, husband-Illia, is the slightly crazy Greek from Australia...and a welcome addition to the clan he is.  On Tuesday our first great granddaughter will be eleven!  When your youngest kid is a grandfather twice, it starts to put your life in perspective.  Perhaps some day I will get introspective and write down some profound pronouncements about my observations.  For the moment, however, I'll be happily content that everyone is doing well.  And life goes on as it is supposed to.

     I'll be flying up to New England in three weeks for an alumni ceremony, and I'll be able to sneak in a quick visit.

January in SC

     Well, let's see if I can find enough information to put together something resembling a blog post.  I often recall the quotation from Bud Wilkinson, the legendary Oklahoma football coach: "When you create a monster you have to feed it."  What started as an easy travel blog as we did our "lap around America" in our new motorhome has become an obligation as some readers expect regular updates.  I know bloggers whose daily readership number in the thousands.  Mine is much smaller and more personal, so I guess I am obliged to provide inputs even if the story doesn't appeal to thousands.
     That said, one can always use animal pictures.  The last blog showed Baxter with his laser goggles on.

     Here's the old man warming his bum in front of a warm fire.  I understand the position as my back responds well to warmth.  I had a visit with a spinal surgeon yesterday to agree on a game plan.  It is clear that the stenosis (cartilage and bone minimizing neurological pathways) and listhesis (slipped disc between lumbar 4/5) are causing the lower back pain.  They are not causing the peripheral neuropathy, nor is diabetes.  But the two combine to sometimes make mobility a problem.  The decision was to wait.  When I get back in October from our last summer in Maine, I will sell the bus and see about some spinal stabilization surgery.  The MRIs at that time will give us a 30 month interval between MRIs to better asses the progress of the problem.  If we started that process now, I would not be sufficiently recovered to get in one more summer.  Not to worry.  There are a number of activities that have had to be abandoned as we have pursued the RV lifestyle.  A fifty gallon aquarium and a good garden are memories from more than a decade ago.  We have accumulated over 350,000 miles on motorhomes, so I guess we can say, "been there; done that".
     This morning Durelle suggested that I go out and look at the geese as a potential photo-op.  Although we have not been feeding them, our neighbors apparently have, because, as I leaned over the fence with the camera, eleven geese coasted up to our fence.  We expect to see a gaggle of goslings later in the spring. 

     A few days ago we had a Happy Hour with our Clemson friends, Walter and Brooke McCants.  The occasion was to deliver on a bet between Clemson and OU in the Orange Bowl.  They have a three year old Carson who is a delightful child.  I thought you would enjoy the picture of Durelle and Carson.

      We are doing fine and hope you are, too.

Rock Star dog

     Check out Joe Cool!

     If it looks as if Baxter were enjoying himself, he really isn't.  His arthritic hind quarters are getting a bit wobbly.  He frequently slips and falls on the hardwood floor.  With some reluctance we are in the middle of a two week, MWF "laser" treatment.  I really don't believe that it's a laser.  I think I know enough about the physics of a laser to be very skeptical.  I think that the glowing red wand used to massage his hips for 6.5 minutes each is an infrared source with enough energy to do some deep heating.  Even the vet calls it a laser, but I don't believe it really is.

     Other dog owners I talked with in the waiting room said it worked on their dogs.  We'll give it a good try, but we haven't detected any changes yet.

     I'm still trying to find a small residential refrigerator to replace the one in the bus.  No luck yet, but apparently the main slide out has been repaired with some confidence.

Christmas '15

     Well, another Christmas has come and gone.  Here in Charleston the temperature reached 81 degrees...a record for the date.  Sure enough, a few presents did show up.

     Cindy joined us for a Christmas breakfast of bacon and pancakes with real maple syrup.  I did a small standing rib roast on the Traeger for a fairly early dinner so she could go to work.  Durelle added Ann Grover's broccoli casserole and the rice pilaf that she has been doing for almost fifty years.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Jackie Fare sent along a personalized Yankee Candle with a sentimental picture and caption.  Thanks, again, Jackie.  My being a sentimental old f***, I got Durelle a new clothes dryer.
     In driving around Hanahan there were some nicely decorated homes.

     The sign, if you can't read it, says,"Ho, Ho, Ho.  Donner and Comet are loose in the neighborhood.  Please drive slowly."
     The stitches are gone from my hand.  A palm reader will think I have encrypted my life's story.
     This post number 650.  I thank all the hard core readers who have hung in there.  I wish you a healthy and happy 2016, and I hope our country will have a better year than has recently been the case.

Disconnected Observations

        A year or so after we moved in, we had to have three dead or nearly dead trees removed.  They were a large factor in choosing this lot, but they did not survive the construction process.  There's a city ordinance that says that, if you take down a tree with a diameter of six inches or more at chest height, you must plant a replacement.  So, outside our front door, we planted a holly that is now thriving.  The berries barely got red enough in time for a Christmas picture, but there sure are a lot of them.

    

  

    

     I have been asked about the status of the bus.  The major problem, of course, was the main slide-out.  It has been bothered by fragments of broken safety glass when the rig was burglarized several years ago.  We have had several slide failures since.  Each time a shear pin has failed while trying to close a jammed slide.  A shear pin is like a mechanical fuse.  It is made of a soft metal so that a drive motor won't fail.  After several failures, there was an ovaled hole that made failure easy if not inevitable.  It has been repaired to the happy satisfaction of both ProTech and me.

     I had some hand surgery Friday to repair a "trigger finger" on the ring finger of my left hand.  Trigger finger is like a small scale version of carpal tunnel syndrome.  The ligaments that open and close a finger pass through a sheath.  When interference occurs, you can close a finger, but releasing it is difficult and may require a painful release using the other hand.  Surgery was a 30 minute, out-patient affair, but I had to show up at 0600!  Durelle picked me up around ten.  So far, so good.

     We had a pleasant connection last Sunday with previously unmet relatives at a local bistro.  Harry Cloutier was my uncle.  His wife, Marjorie, was a Cobb from Maine.  Her brother had a son, Rick Cobb, who was living in the area.  Cindy, Durelle and I met Rick and his wife, Doris, at Madra Rua, a nearby Irish pub .  He's a Citadel grad who retired from the Air Force, so we had a lot in common.  Here's a picture.  I must confess that it was Facebook that made the reunion possible.

     The tree is up and "Things are starting to look a lot like Christmas".

     There are no presents under the tree as yet, but I suppose that Santa will take care of that.