'Meeting place of the valleys......'

7:24 am - Saturday - October 12th - Ramona, CA - 44° F, 49% humidity, wind - CALM.....clear, blue  skies today with a forecast high of 83° F.......the view this morning.....our Newell, along with us, will be back over there in a couple of hours.......↴

.....apparently, the name 'Poway' originates from a Kumeyaay Indian word that apparently had various meanings ranging from “meeting place of the valleys” to “meeting of the waters, hence the title of today's blogpost.

As I reported, we had wind all night at RORVR, but never lost power, however that did not mean we did not have a lot of leaves blowing around, and many of them ended up in the pool skimmers.  Below you see a picture after I had cleaned just two of the six skimmers........

....each skimmer was packed full of leaves so badly I had to pull handfuls of leaves out to get at the skimmer baskets.  Since the wind, although mild, was still blowing at 9 am I didn't do my usual sweep and vacuum routine Friday, so I left the pool with a lot of leaves visible on the bottom.  The same was true for the mini golf course.....no point in blowing off the leaves....they would be right back where they started minutes after I left.

Since I had no pool, or mini golf to tend to I returned to where I left off Thursday on the fence project.  I disassembled 4 more sections of fencing, and dug 4 more post holes, and then began to reassemble all 8 sections, which included the four upon which I had begun to work Thursday afternoon......

....every post hole had a large rock which had to be pried loose and removed.....

.....all but one of the posts, and half the split rails ended up on the debris pile.....

.......by 12:30 pm I was finished with those 8 sections, and began to haul the debris up to the roll away in the storage area, and then return my tools to the tool shed......I love short Friday's!  Marnie and Rich had ordered pizza for lunch on Friday, so I knocked off a little early and enjoyed a couple of slices of pie and and Orange Crush soda.

On a side note, SDG&E did turn our local power grid off at 12 pm for almost 4 hours.....why I do not know, because it was not very windy at all by that time.  

We were home about 1:15 pm, and after a long, hot shower I took an hour nap before heading down to Poway with TLE to COSTCO and TJ's around 2:30 pm.  We have a busy weekend, and won't have time to drive down on Saturday, or Sunday to get my prescriptions, and do our bi-monthly shopping.  Within a block of TJ's is an In 'N Out Burger, so after finishing up at TJ's we headed there for an early dinner treat.......the #2 Combo (cheeseburger, fries and a drink).......

.....TLE orders her #2 'Protein Style', aka: lettuce wrap.  It has been a very long time since I had an In 'N Out burger....I think it was right after my right eye cataract surgery back in late April......good times!

We were home by 5:15 pm to find that the electricity had be restored around 3:45 pm, just as SDG&E had promised.  The wind had completely abated by that time.  We enjoyed a relaxing evening watching a few recorded TV programs ('Gold Rush', and 'Blacklist').

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On the level......

6:16 am - Monday - September 9th - Ramona, CA - 52° F, 89%ea humidity, wind 3 mph out of the east (there's a change)....partly cloudy with a forecast high today of 83° F.  Love it being so cold this morning that I have to wear my slippers!  Today is the 30th anniversary of TLE's 40th birthday.  I will be celebrating mine in about 3 weeks....man, oh man we are getting old!  The view this morning......

Sunday was a very relaxing day after Saturday's shenanigans.  I was up between 7 and 7:30 am, wrote by blog in a very leisurely manner, and then around 8:45 am we headed out to Starbucks for some coffee and pastries......

.....TLE found a couple of easy chairs with a small table with just enough sunlight to keep us warm in the very cool morning air.  I always get the 'everything' bagel.  This has kind of become a semi regular occurrence on the weekends when we go grocery shopping early.....we have coffee and pastries, then go to Staters to buy another week's worth of groceries.  We were back home in time to watch some NFL football.  The early televised game was the Rams vs. Panthers game which was won by the Rams 30-27.  In the afternoon I watched the Giants vs. Cowboys hoping for a competitive game, but the Cowboys won handily 35-17, and it really did not even feel that close.  The evening game between the Steelers and Patriots was another blowout with the Patriots winning easily 33-3....oh well.

In between all of that I dumped our black tank in keeping with our new Sunday tradition, and walked over to our old site to watch Rich and Dave begin the leveling process of our site......

.....they actually got quite a bit done, and I expect Rich and I will finish it on Monday when I am back to work.

The weather was so delightful (81° F) that we spent the entire day outside (with the outdoor TV tuned to football, of course).  I puttered around spraying off dirt and leaves from our new picnic table, and the artificial turf piece we rescued a couple of months ago.  Later in the day I laid out our rope lights once again, and hung the red led patio awning lights to complete the setup of site #53.  I was not expecting Rich to get to work so quickly on our old site, and had planned on being in our new site for a few weeks, but now I'm wondering if we will not be back in our old site by next weekend.....we'll see.  We may just stay in site #53 until we're sure the summer heat is a thing of the past.  The 2 week forecast calls for mostly 80 degree days, and one, or two 90 degree days.  I may even begin to report for work later than 7 am again.

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A different point of view........

7:17 am - Sunday - September 8th - Ramona, CA - 61° F, 86% humidity, wind - CALM.....heavy marine layer this morning with a forecast high of 82° F.....11° cooler than Saturday!  The view this morning........

We were up Saturday way too early for a Saturday, especially real Saturday, but we had things to accomplish before it became hot.  The most important of which was to fill our hungry propane tank.  We last filled our tank sometime in mid January, so it has been almost 8 months.  That is by and far the longest we have gone between fillups since we went full time 8.5 years ago.  I turned over the big Detroit Diesel 6v92 at almost exactly 7 am, and within seconds the coach had reached 'ride height'.  We pulled out of site #72 where we have been for 4.5 months and headed directly to the propane fuel station.  After successfully completing a 4 point turn we were in position to satisfy the hunger pangs of our 60 gallon propane tank.........

......I know I mentioned that our tank began reading '0' about a week ago, and it was anybody's guess if we would make it to Saturday without running out of that precious fuel that fires our water heater (our water heater is gas only), but we did......

.....it took quite a while to reach the 'full' mark, but the pump finally clicked off at 61.9 gallons, which now becomes the most propane we have every taken on at one time in the over 11 years we have owned the Newell......

......within minutes we were parked in site #53, and beginning to haul the rest of our 'stuff' over from site #72.......

.......with the help of a borrowed golf cart we hauled most of the 'stuff' over while we had to carry the pop up shelter, and drag the artificial turf, but we got it done in pretty short order.....

.....and pretty soon our old site was empty.......

.....and all that 'stuff' was now at our new site......

......as soon as we plugged into the new pedestal I went inside to dial in our DirecTV, but I could not get the signal.  It appeared that we had plenty of clearance from the surrounding trees, but I could not get the signal.  After examining our position within site #53 we decided to move the coach forward about 3 feet, and that did the trick!

We have been sitting in one place for the past 4.5 months and over that time the top of the coach had gotten quite dirty, so my next task, while it was still shady, was to climb to the top with a hose and sponge to clean off the filthy roof.  It took over an hour, but after finishing that, and washing the Beetle I was done with labor for the day.....time for some college football!

I watched four, or five games in succession finishing with USC vs. Stanford around 10:30 pm.  For the first time in months we were able to open our curtains around mid afternoon and enjoy the view because the sun was not shinning directly into our front windows!

USC started slowly, but after getting down 20-10 they steam rolled the Stanford Cardinals winning going away 45-20.....I did not expect that.  

Well, as one might discern, we love our new site, and especially the shade in the afternoon......suweet!  Another piece of sweet news from Saturday is that the scale read 191.8 Saturday morning.....I'm on the move again!  Looking forward to seeing the magic number.....187....almost there!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Winter hours.....

2:21 am - Saturday - September 7th - Ramona, CA - 92° F, 35% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the west......clear, blue skies.

Another Friday has come and gone, and we are one week into September.  Things will slow down now, and within a few days we will return to 'winter' hours closing the park each night at 8 pm.  Additionally, I will now only sweep and vacuum the pool two days per week....Mondays and Fridays, as there is virtually no one using it in the middle of the week.  While cleaning the skimmers I found a dead frog.......

.....I thought frogs lived in water?  By the time I finished raking the horseshoe pits, and blowing leaves off the mini golf holes it was time for me to clock out from work (12 pm).  

With the advent of winter hours we'll see our weekly hours reduced somewhat....maybe four 7 hour days, or five 5 hour days.....we'll see.  Looking forward to working fewer hours for a while.  I know once we get into some of our winter projects we'll be working more hours, but for now it is still too hot for many of those outdoor projects.

TLE was home a little after 2 pm.  Since we are moving our Newell Saturday morning to take on propane, and then relocate for a few weeks to site #53 we began to take down our lights, sunshade, and sail shades in preparation for that eventuality.  It took a couple of hours, but we had everything done by 6 pm......

Ready to move Saturday morning.....

....we were in bed before 10 am so we could be up and ready to move by 7 am Saturday morning.

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What I do......

2:23 pm - Friday - September 6th - Ramona, CA - 94° F, 31% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the west......sunny today with a few clouds and a forecast high of 94° F.

I write daily about my maintenance of the horseshoe pits, and mini golf course here at RORVR.  I thought it was time for some pictures to illustrate what I do each day......

 I do not have a 'before' picture, but the concrete aprons around each pit become invisible under all the dirt that is thrown about by the thrown horseshoes

.....it is not hard work, or even very time consuming, but I try to keep each of these facilities clean, and ready for us on a daily basis.  Most of the use of them occurs on the weekends as one might imagine.  During the week there are really no children around RORVR, only on the weekends usually beginning Thursday afternoon, and ending Sunday afternoon as our weekend guests head back to their workaday lives.  Nevertheless, I keep them looking good each an every day.  

I'm not quite why the horseshoe pits were built with concrete borders, or aprons around each pit.  I've never seen horseshoe pits built like ours.  And I have no idea why the rubber mat is placed in front of the pit....I've never seen that before, either.  When people are playing horseshoes the concrete aprons, and rubber mats become completely covered with dirt, so it is necessary for me to rake the pits level each time they are used, and then sweep the dirt off the concrete aprons, and rubber mats back into the pit.  The picture above is how they appear after I've done my work.

On the other hand, the mini golf course is really not affected by use.  It is the dozens of eucalyptus trees surrounding the 9 hole course that cause them to become almost unusable just hours after I have blown the leaves off of them.  In the first two pictures below you can see the debris that falls from the trees in just a few hours...... 

......in the picture below you can see the fine particulate matter that still covers the artificial turf even after I have blown away the leaves.  When the accumulation of the particulate matter becomes great enough I have to literally hand sweep them to get them clean, and ready for play once again.......

.....it probably takes me about 30 minutes to hand sweep all 9 holes, but they look so much better.......

In less than 24 hours these debris free holes will revert 

back to condition shown in the first pictures above

.....unfortunately this good condition is short lived, and by 10 am the next morning I am battling the leaves, and other debris once again.

I only worked until 12 pm on Thursday as the temp got over 95° F.  I spent the afternoon after work napping, and reading waiting for The Lovely Elaine to return home from her front office sojourn.  She made me a wonderful dinner of  baked Mahi Mahi....OMG that woman can cook.

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Combo post - Tuesday and Wednesday & an announcement

12:38 pm - Thursday - September 4th - Ramona, CA - 93° F, 37% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the west by northwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 96° F.

Seems like a pattern is developing here.....combo posts.  There isn't really a lot to write about during our work week.  It's basically wash, rinse, repeat Monday through Friday.  We do, however, have some news to announce from Wednesday.  TLE's sister, Laureen, and her husband, Glenn, have committed to spending the summer of 2020 traveling to, being in, and traveling back from Alaska with us......

Glenn and Laureen with their new to them 

1984 Newell Classic back in April of this year (Our 1982 is on the left)

.....we could not be more excited.  Glenn and Laureen were married about 9 months after we were in mid 1972.  We all lived in Pasadena, CA at the time, and over the years we have become very close with them.  I cannot imagine a better couple with whom to take on such an epic journey.  They called us Wednesday afternoon to talk about a few issues with their 1984 Newell which they are getting into travel condition, and about some of their plans.  I'm  not sure if I mentioned this when they purchased this Newell back in April, but it also has a Kohler propane generator just as our 1982 Newell has.  Until we found their Newell up near Sacramento I had not found another Newel Classic with this configuration.  We talked for over an hour, and now the planning begins in earnest!

I worked the full 7 hour shift on Tuesday, but Wednesday the temperature got to 98° F, and that combined with higher than normal humidity, had me quitting work by 12 pm.  About 2:30 pm it clouded over and rained for about 20 minutes.   Then it stopped, and it was even more humid.....I was going to say "if that is possible", but of course it is possible.....have you ever been in East Texas in August?

It has only been cooling at night into the high 60's lately which makes for warmer sleeping temperatures.  Often our bedroom temp only gets down to 78° F now, where just a few weeks ago it was getting into the low 60's, and a couple of times into the high 50's.

Now that sites 43-51 have had new electrical pedestals installed our neighbor on the passenger side of the coach has moved back to his site in that area.  With his site being vacant we will be moving our coach out of our current site Saturday morning, filling up the 60 gallon propane tank (the gauge says it is at 'zero', but there is still enough gas to run our water heater) at the propane station, and then moving into site 53 across the street while our site and the just vacated site are re-leveled.  We'll be out of our site for about 10-14 days while the leveling work is being done, and then we will move back into our site for the balance of our stay here at RORVR.  We have awaiting this day for about 6 weeks, and I was beginning to think we would have to move to fill our propane tank and then move a second time to get our site leveled.

Life is good, and thank you for stopping by!

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A combo post....

2:34 am - Tuesday - September 3rd - Ramona, CA - 94° F, 37% humidity, wind 13 mph out of the west by northwest.....forecast high for the day is 95° F.

I'm getting behind again, so I will try to catch up today by writing, first, about Sunday's events.  Hmmmm....it was hot again Sunday so we stayed inside all day.  First up was a couple of recorded English Premier Soccer matches, then some reading, then some general TV watching.  Nothing else to really report about Sunday, but that was the essence.

We were back to work on Monday, and looking at low 90's temperatures.   I began working at my normal summer start time......7 am.  I have gotten somewhat used to the temps in the 90's, but it still leaves me very tired at the end of the shift.  I worked on reclaiming the pool area from 7 am until almost 11:30 am.  Rich reported that there were between 70 and 100 people in the pool area both Saturday and Sunday.  As you will recall I swept and vacuumed the pool Sunday morning, but by Monday morning it was dirty again, plus the deck was very dirty sporting numerous food spills, bird dookie, discarded chewing gum, and a few cigarette butts.  There are numerous 'NO SMOKING' signs around the pool area, but you know people, right?  They will do what they want if you are not around policing them 24/7.

The horseshoe pit area showed a lot of use, and it took me longer than normal to get it ready for use again.  Most of the time (about 95%) people put the horseshoes back, but on this occasion they were just left in the pit area, so I had to put them away.  The mini golf course was buried in eucalyptus leaves, which did not surprise me as it was a little windy on Sunday afternoon.  By the time I finished with the mini golf area it was time to clock out for the day.  

We are in the "dog days" of summer right now, and the days have all taken on a certain sort of sameness.  We look forward to the end of summer, but we've got a few more weeks of hot temperatures before we see some relief.  All that being said, we are still very happy to be where we are, and still loving the people with whom we work.

On the weight loss front, I have stalled out at 194-195, but the big thing is I am maintaining my 22 pound weight loss, and still looking forward to dipping under the magic 190 mark in the next few weeks.  The wound on my side resulting from the removal of the zero stage melanoma is healing quite nicely, and my right ear is also healing quite well.  I'm actually getting used to my new look.....it kind of looks like Mike Tyson took a bite out of my ear.

Thanks for stopping by!

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24 hours.....

11:12 am - Sunday - September 1st - Ramona, CA - 85° F, 50% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the west by northwest.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 95° F.

Saturday was kind of a wash for us.  We knew it was going to be a hot one (forecast high of 97° F), so we just stayed inside all day.  Years ago, maybe a dozen, we used to binge watch the TV series "24".  At the time the premise used by this series was totally unique.  It was shot in real time, meaning that each of 24 seasonal episodes covered 60 minutes of time.....one hour.  Each season covered just a single 24 hour period in the lives of CTU agents (CTU = Counter Terrorism Unit) in the L.A. office.  Keifer Sutherland played the part of Jack Bauer, a bad ass CTU agent, who did not believe in coloring inside the lines......he did whatever was necessary to end terror threats.  There were eight seasons in all, and the series ran through 2010.  We used to buy the DVD set at the end of each season and watch all 24 episodes starting just before New Years Eve each year, and usually finishing sometime early morning on New Years day.  We would usually finish about 3 am on New Years.

Well, it has been 9, or 10 years since we last watched seasons 1 and 2, so we began watching them about a week ago, and finished the last 14 episodes of season 2 around 7 pm Saturday evening.  It's been so long since we watched "24" that it was almost, but not quite, like watching them for the first time.  It's probably the first time in a long time we have just done nothing on a Saturday, and it felt good.  I think I walked outside briefly for about 2 minutes one time all day long.

And that was it for Saturday.....thanks for stopping by!

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A stitch in time.......

8:27 am - Saturday - August 31st - Ramona, CA - 69° F, 63% humidity, wind - CALM......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 97° F.

It seems that for most of August I have been recovering from various surgical procedures, and it is getting a little tiresome, even though I understand the necessity of it all.  Friday I had an appointment at Dr. Jou's office to have the stitches in my side removed.  After almost two weeks of applying, and removing dressings from the wound the skin around the area was quite irritated, and to add to the discomfort the stitches were itching to beat the band.  My appointment was for 1 pm, which worked well for me as I am off work at 11:30 on Friday's.  I did the usual stuff Friday, and also spent some time blowing leaves off Maple and Oak Streets respectively.  

After a quick shower I was off in a cloud of dust for Poway to keep my doctor appointment.  TLE was still working, so I drove down solo.  I arrived a little after 12:30 pm, and was shown in to Room 3 right at 1 pm.  Within 5 minutes the stitches were a thing of my past, and I was on my way home.  Within minutes the area stopped itching, and I was feeling a lot of relief.  I stopped off at the local Starbucks to treat myself to, wait for it, a mocha frappuccino.  It has been a long time since my last one, and I enjoyed the grande all the way home where I arrived just after 2 pm.

A little after 4 pm TLE and I headed up the hill to Wynola, CA for dinner at Jeremy's On the Hill, a fine dining restaurant with 4.5 stars on Yelp on 873 reviews.  Jeremy's is a 'farm to table' restaurant, and the menu changes on a regular basis.  On this day TLE chose their Rack of Lamb, and I their Center Cut Pork Chop.  For an appetizer we ordered their famous Crispy Brussels Sprouts-Ponzu.....yum!  I am not a Brussels Sprouts fan, but I am always open to something new, and unexpected.  We paired our dinner with a locally made 2017 Malbec from the Grant James Vineyards here in the Ramona Valley.....

.......we arrived just before 4:30 pm, and enjoyed a slow paced dinner lasting until well after 6 pm.  When we arrived there was only one other table occupied, however, by the time we left the restaurant was filling up quickly, and the alfresco dinning area was almost full.  They have live music outside on the weekends.

We always manage to find a good restaurant at which to celebrate our anniversary no matter where we find ourselves each year, and I am glad we chose Jeremy's On the Hill for this year's celebration.

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - My blog post about Friday will be published around 3 pm Pacific Time for your reading pleasure.

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48 years of love, children and commitment.........

7:40 am - Saturday - August 31st - Ramona, CA - 61° F, 81% humidity, wind - CALM.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 97° F.  So, we have arrived at the last day of August, 2019, and when we go back to work on Monday it will be September, and just 20 days until the official beginning of Fall.

After 11 days of work the electricians finished with the remodel of sites 43-51.  All of the old pedestals and plumbing were removed and replaced with all new, including new poured concrete bases......

....the old stuff was over 30 years old, and we had a lot of issues with reliability in that section, but now it is all new and there should be no more problems.  All that remains is for us to install new water spigots, new sewer caps, re-level the sites, and spread new gravel before they can once again be occupied.

Since we arrived 4 months ago it has been the goal of the park owner to get rid of the old 'park model' in the storage area.  One of our employees said she would have it moved, and the owner said she if she did, she could have it for free.  You will recall that I wrote about this back in early May.  Well, Thursday morning moving day finally arrived.  You will note in the picture I took in May (below) that there is no tongue, or axles on the park model.  The tongue, which was detached when it was moved into the storage area years ago, was still there, but had to be reattached.  The axles had to be purchased from a local dismantler, and installed......

.....early this month the used axles were delivered, and installed, however, one of them was locked up and would not allow the wheels to turn, so it had to be repaired.  Well, it was finally repaired a few days ago, and a mover was hired.  He arrived about 11 am, and thus began the long awaited move......

 Getting ready to move the 'park model'

.....I took a short video of this momentous occasion for your viewing pleasure.....

.....and now the cleanup of the space can commence, after which we will have an additional four, our five spaces to rent out for RV storage!

Gone, at last

Of course, the rest of my day was taken with the usual pool cleaning tasks, mini golf leaf abatement, and horseshoe pit maintenance.  By the time I clocked out from work at 2 pm it was very hot, and I was happy to escape to the A/C cooled interior of the Newell.

Thursday was also the end of the first 48 hours after my MOHS surgery on my right ear, and I was able to have TLE change the dressing for the first time.  It is still extremely sore, but not as bad as it would have been if it were not for the fact that about 1/2 of my right ear is still numb following the parotid cyst removal (right cheek) back in February.  Most of the numb area is were the basil cell carcinoma was. 

Thursday, August 29th, was also the 48th acknowledgement of our wedding day back in 1971.  Normally we head out for dinner at a fine dinning establishment on our anniversary, but I was still getting over the effects of the ear surgery, so we put it off until Friday evening.  Nevertheless, TLE pulled out a wonderful filet mignon for me to grill on the Sea-B-Que.  I grilled it for about 8 minutes, and pronounced it a perfect medium rare.  We actually set up our dining table, and had a real, formal, adult sit down dinner.  That we have been together 48 years is a number which is hard for me to comprehend.  It does not seem that long, but the chronology is undeniable......we have a soon to be 47 year old son as mute testimony to the beginning of that union so many years ago.

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Lidocaine express.....

7:04 am - Thursday - August 29th - Ramona, CA - 84° F, 49% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the west by northwest.....just past sunset on our 48th anniversary.

After my surgery on Tuesday I predetermined not to work more than 5 hours on Wednesday.  I felt fine, but I did not want to overextend myself.  I awoke feeling very, very tired, even after 9 hours of sleep.  The only thing I can attribute that to were the numerous lidocaine shots I received in my ear Tuesday.  It takes my body about 24 hours to work that out of my system, and at 7 am on the day after my surgery which ended around 3 pm the afternoon prior I still felt the effects of all that lidocaine.

As I always do on Wednesdays, I swept and vacuumed the pool, then cleaned the skimmers....wow, what a lot of stuff I found, including a slice of cantaloupe (see middle of net)!  

By the time I finished with the horseshoe pits, and mini golf it was almost 11:30 am, and time to end my work day.  I dropped off my 2-way radio at the office and headed for the Newell.  I actually felt better at the end of my 5 hour shift than I did at the beginning, but I took a nap anyway.  By the time TLE got home I felt much better.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Monday, and Tuesday

5:23 am - Thursday - August 29th - Ramona, CA - 60° F, 83% humidity, wind - 3 mph out of the west by northwest.....still dark.....we have a forecast high today of 91° F.  I am way behind in my blogging.....time to catch it up!  Today is our 48th wedding anniversary.

Work Monday was totally routine except I took time to wash down the pool deck.  Washing down the pool deck is something I normally do on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but since I would not be at work Tuesday (day of my MOHS surgery) I did it Monday.  By the time I was done it was almost 11 am, and by the time I finished with the horseshoe pits, and the mini golf area it was after 12 pm, and I had not had lunch.

Once lunch was done I only had 1.5 hours of work left, and frankly, 3 days later I cannot even remember what I did for those last 90 minutes.  At any rate when 2 pm came around I headed for home to get out of the heat, and take a good nap, as I knew Tuesday had the potential of being a long day.  I returned to the office by 4 pm to give TLE a ride home, and that was basically it for Monday.

I was up by 6 am on Tuesday as I needed to be at Dr. Rubin's office by 8:30 am for my 8:45 am appointment.  The drive down to Poway was completely uneventful with us arriving at the doctor's office just before 8:30 am.  I was called into the operating room about 5 minutes later, and by 8:45 am Dr. Rubin was taking off the first slice of my right ear (very top), and I was back in the waiting room awaiting the results by 9 am.  It takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to analyse each 'slice', and by 9:45 am I was called back into the surgery.  The lab results still showed basis cell carcinoma throughout the whole slice, so the doctor removed another slice of my ear for testing, and I was once again relegated to the waiting room to await the latest results.  It wasn't until after 11 am that I was once again summoned to the surgery where I was advised that there was just a small area left where there was still basil cell carcinoma, and, hopefully, this would be the last slice.

In the waiting room after the first 'slice.....

By the time I was back in the waiting room it was after 11:30 am so TLE and I decided to head to a local Carl's Jr. about 1 mile away for a quick bite to eat to kind of change up the routine a little.  We were back around 12:20 pm, and by 12:30 pm my name was called one more time, but this time I was directed to the doctor's office.....change is good, right?  I was told by the attending nurse that all the 'margins' were clear, and the basil cell was all gone....whew!  She advised that it would be about 30 minutes before Dr. Rubin could begin the 'repair' of what was left of my right ear.  Finally about 1 pm I was summoned to the surgery again, and Dr. Rubin began to close the wound.  

The whole point of MOHS surgery is to only remove what is absolutely necessary to be rid of the basil cells.  In my case the doctor had to invade the cartilage at the top of my ear, and after repair it looks like a toy shark took a bite out of my ear.  While I was sad to see the condition of my ear, I am grateful all the cancer is now gone.  In about 4 months I will probably return for reconstructive surgery in which they will be able to fill in the 'shark bite' and mostly restore my ear.  I say 'probably' as I am pretty sure I will have the reconstructive surgery done, but it may be that over time that I will get used to what my ear looks like now, and decide to leave it as it is.  Right now I am inclined to have the reconstruction.

We were in the car about 3 pm headed over to COSTCO to pick up a few prescriptions, including a pain killer, and an antibiotic.  My Brillinta prescription, which I had called in last Friday was ready, but we had to wait until almost 4 pm for the other two prescriptions.  By the time we got home it was 5:05 pm.....a very long day.  Needless to say I was tired, and just sat down in my recliner to rest.  I don't think I moved again until after 7 pm.

I'm very glad we got the pain prescription as the ear began to hurt in earnest about 7 pm.  I would say on a scale of 1-10 my pain was around 4, but by the time I went to bed it was down around a 1, and that is where it remained throughout the night.

Thank you for your patience, and as always, for stopping by!

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