January 2024

Crystal Beach Florida

Hard to believe that January is nearly gone.  The "good news" coming out of the month is that we saw our primary doctor, and we both had better results (blood test, etc) than last year.  I still have high blood pressure, Marcia still has high Cholesterol.  With me, it is more a case of "white coat hypertension".  My doctor in Arkansas realized that when he would visit with me for a good 15 minutes and then take a second reading (nurse gave the first upon my arrival) and each and every time it dropped.  Not that I don't have high blood pressure, I do...but not as high as the 'test' says when taken when I first arrive.  At home, my pressure taken by my wrist pressure kit, is normally pretty good, so I took my wrist pressure kit with me just to see if there is a difference and show results I had from the previous 10 days.  There was a difference, the wrist test showed even a higher one than the nurse got...so at least I know my pressure kit is working, perhaps a little on the high side.

Crystal Beach Florida

I will be seeing a Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine specialist in two weeks.  Both of my knees are hurting, with the right knee being the worse.  Hope NOT to have major surgery, but this is my first visit to a Orthopedic Doctor, so let's wait to see what he says.

Pond at the Public Library, full of birds.

Our weather for January has been fairly typical.  We had a low one night in the upper 30's, although where we live it may have only got down to 40 or 41.  Our highs have been in the 70's and low 80's during most days, with just a small number where they were only in the high 50's and into the 60's.  

Wood Stork

Blue Heron

Wood Storks

Great White Egret

So far we have not had any sicknesses to speak of.  A few mornings we were a bit more congested than normal, but it did not amount to anything.

Mom, on the other hand, had another UTI, which is the third or fourth since she had the Antibiotic Infusion treatment back when we were still in California.  The doctor FINALLY has put her on a daily antibiotic pill, and we are hoping that this works.

In 1993 Joe Montana was traded to KC.  Being a 'loyal' Northern California boy, my football teams were the Raiders and the Niners, and among the 'hated' teams were the Rams, the Coyboys, the Steelers and the Chiefs.  This gave me a bit of a dilemma, because mom and dad moved to the Kansas City area in '92 or '93...so I relented and made KC one of my favorite teams.  In 2020 they Both were in Superbowl 54, Kansas City won.  Now they play again in this year's Superbowl, and my heart is with the Niners, but if KC wins, all is good.

 

Indy + New Phone + Bad Weather + Sick Neighbor

 

Here is Indy, sitting next to me, checking things out at the Tarpon Springs Dog Park.  We thought Marcia was going to get her hair cut on Saturday, and I had planned to take her to the Dog Park during the hair cut...but her hair lady canceled out on us for Saturday...wasn't feeling well.  So Saturday I mentioned to Marcia my original 'plan' and I used the words "Dog Park" out loud, and Indy lite up like a Christmas Tree!  Within seconds she was jumping from chair to chair, running over to me and then back to the chairs.  Well, cat is out of the bag, so I took her Saturday.  

Above are three of the five dogs that were at the Dog Park on Sunday...yes, I said Sunday.  On Saturday there were eight or nine dogs, and she had a BLAST.  When we got back Marcia said her hair lady called and she can do her hair on Sunday...so Indy got a double dog park weekend.  Talk about one happy dog!

On Monday Marcia had her Bible Study with the ladies at church, and this is when I normally go to the motorhome and charge up the batteries by running the engine for 45-60 minutes.  Well, her phone had busted on Thursday.  The phone still worked, but with a broken hinge, it was not going to work very long.  We decided to order a Kyocera DuraXV LTE E4610 like I have, which came on Saturday.  It is a very durable phone, but it requires a sim card, so Monday I went to Verizon while she was at Bible Study and would do the motorhome on Tuesday.

On the left is my phone (taken with Marcia's new phone), which I got in February 2020...on the right is Marcia's new phone (taken with my phone).  So that we can tell them apart, I put light blue tape on her phone.  The GOOD thing about this change is that now I can help her with questions about how to use certain features of her phone, where her old phone was like CRAZY bad on how to do certain things.  Already this phone is much more to her liking, and it only cost $20 more than my phone cost 22 months ago.

On Tuesday as I was traveling to the motorhome I got a picture of the remains of the storm that went through the Tampa Area.  Little did I know, that just 100+ miles south of where I was...

(This picture taken from Internet)

...a minor Tornado went through the Fort Meyers area.  Now compared to the Tornadoes that went through Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri and other states on the 10th, this was very minor.  One person hurt, a few cars were damaged, a few roofs damaged, a few car ports damaged...it was very minor.

We live in a corner unit, so we only share one interior wall with one neighbor...Mary.  Before we left California we knew that Mary had a heart by-pass.  She had been in rehab for about 6 weeks, and we knew two of her sons were coming out from New York to get her and take her to New York for home rehab.  They flew out Tuesday...not sure if there were any delays or not due to the weather, but I doubt it.  We saw her for just a few minutes on Monday as they brought her out of the rehab to select what she needed to take to New York.  We HOPE she gets better and is able to come back...only time will tell.

Hit a Cold Streak, Indy hit a HOT STREAK

 

Yesterday and today have been the coldest days since we got back to Florida. In some of the eastern part of Pasco County, it got down to the thirties Tuesday night, and it will be in the thirties tonight...in fact, it is 37 in Dade City right now.  

In Holiday where we live, it was in the mid-forties last night, and it will be in low forties tonight.  However, the monthly forecast says that we will be in the forties only six more times through January 2nd of next year.  Most of the daytime temps will be in the 70's...so there will be no complaints about the weather from me, looks like it will be short pants weather each day at least into January.

I posted the above picture of Indy on Facebook, but it is so cute I just had to include it in the blog.  This was Thanksgiving Morning, and here on the East Coast they have the annual  National Dog Show on in the morning, and without saying a word, she just lite up, got up, and watched the show.  I tried putting a chair over by the TV for her, but she just kept getting down.  I did hold her for awhile, and sometimes she watched sitting down...but she can stand like this for a good minute or more.

   

Last night we watched a few dog movies, and she got right into it again.  Trying to take pictures with my cell phone of her standing like this is not easy...I really need to dig out the camera and have it by my chair.

When she was not standing, or sitting on my lap, the was glued to the screen waiting for the "Dog" to appear again.  This movie was Chuck Norris' "Top Dog" from 1995.  A few times the dog ran off screen to the left or right, and Indy would chase it to the bedroom or to the sliding glass door...she wanted to catch that dog so much...

 

 

Speaking of Indy, the girl has been in Heat again.  We think she is almost done, and I plan to keep her away from other dogs for another week.  No trips to the Dog Park, but I have been taking her over to the Public Library where she can wander on leash and smell new smells.  Plan to call the Vet soon and see when they feel she can be spayed. I am thinking it will be late January or early February.  Hmmm...I wonder what type of thoughts she was having watching all these dogs on TV?????

 

HHR Gets New Tires

Home in Holiday / Tarpon Springs area, FL

We put tires on our motorhome back in 2015…lucky a Michelin Tires recall paid for six out of the seven tires at Discount Tire Store near El Paso.  Since then, we have had to stop at Discount Tire a few times due to stem problems because of our Tire Sensors…I have since gone to metal stems, and although I paid for the metal stems through Napa Auto, Discount Tire put them on for free.  So with our HHR needing new tires, I sure wanted to find a Discount Tire (called America’s Tire Store out on the West Coast).  Our nearest one is in Lakeland Florida, a LONG 60-65 mile distance from where we live.  LONG because it is not all Interstate, and can take two hours to get there depending on traffic.

I made an appointment for 11:30, and left the condo just about 9:30.  I have gone to Lakeland taking highway 54 to I-275 south to I-4 east and over to Lakeland…but Discount Tire was on the extreme north side of Lakeland, so I opted to stay on highway 54 through to highway 98…and that was a mistake.  Once you get onto the other side of I-275, highway 54 becomes county road 54, and things slow down a bunch until you get to highway 98.  I pulled in right at 11:29…I hate to be late, and that was too close.

 

The Discount Tire Store website says that the HHR takes a 215/50-R17 tire, and I picked out one for about $60…which after installation and 3 year replacement, came to $400.  Once I got there, and they pulled me in as soon as I was done at the register, we found out that what I really needed was a 16” tire due to the wheel size I have on the HHR.  So the new tire size, with what they had on hand, cost about $6 more per tire…so I went with that.  I should have looked at the tires I had on it and not relying on their website...lesson learned.

For the past year we have been having problems with the HHR’s internal tire sensor system.  While I was getting the tires replaced, I decided to replace all four sensors since three of the four were bad or acting up.  This problem was detected because the yellow tire deflated icon would light up every time the car is started, and the notification window would say “low tire” and/or “tire sensor”.  Well, I provided the four sensors (from Amazon), and Discount Tire put them in for free as part of the installation process.  By 12:31 I was back on the road and called Marcia to let her know I had lost a good friend.  “WHO????” she asks.  “My yellow tire sensor light…it is gone…all gone!”  It is nice being able to see what each tire is inflated to again, that's for sure!  By the way, I took I-4 to I-275 to highway 54 to get home…it only took a bit over 90 minutes including getting gas and a diet Pepsi.  I told them that I can't wait until they open a Discount Tire Store in our area.

Back in August 2015, I had to replace this little Solenoid, a 12 Volt Continuous Duty Solenoid which allows the motorhome engine to charge up the house batteries.  In real cold weather, like in the 40’s or below, it has not been working very well…so I replaced this $20 solenoid again.  Since I wrote a detail about it back in August 2015, it was easy to know what I needed to order, and how to replace it.  Click this link if you want to know more about replacing this solenoid.

Speaking of weather…the next seven days are going to have cold nights, and daytime temps under 70 each day…for Florida that is cold…to me it is WONDERFUL!  Looks like another good reason to make more soup!

NOTE:  My last post was about problems with Open Live Writer, and those problems still exist.  This post was written using the method talked about in that last post, and I have heard from a few people who used my method and it worked for them too.

Last Heat Wave – Heading to the High Country

I can clearly remember some HOT September days growing up in Sacramento.  Although most of my classes in grade school were in air conditioned rooms, there were also some which were in the dreaded School Bungalow classrooms…today I think they call them “pre-fab temporary learning centers”, so something like that.  Back then they were made of wood, no air conditioning, windows on one side, and to bring in a breeze one would have to open the door across from the windows.  Every September we seemed to have a few of these hot days…as we would in May or very early June.  So each year we would have three to six or more days of 100 degree weather during the school year. 

     

I can still remember the “duck and cover” drills in case of an Atomic Bomb going off nearby.  By Junior High a teacher showed some atomic bomb blast films, talked about the destruction zone, the fire outside of the total destruction zone, and it did not take long before a student, not me, ask, “Why do we have these duck and cover drills when there won’t be anything left of us after the “bomb” hits the state capital?

The outlook for Tuesday and the next ten days is HOT HOT HOT, especially for the next seven days.  Tomorrow dad has a doctor appointment in Sacramento which I am going to drive him to.  Mom has her after surgery check-up tomorrow morning, and I think the surgeon is going to be very pleased about things.  So we will be putting up with one HOT day…

…but Wednesday morning we are headed up to the 6,000 foot level…which will bring us back to the Truckee / Donner Lake area.

In anticipation of being in a National Forest Campground for a week to ten days, I loaded both of our Kindle Fire HD-7’s with Amazon Prime movies to watch.  Last time we were up there we watched two movies “on-line” and ate up 8 gigs of our 40 gig aircard for the month.  This way we will watch movies “off line” and just occasionally bring the Kindle online to communicate with Amazon.  Once you start a movie, you have 48 hours to watch it…then Amazon needs to “talk to” your Kindle to verify that everything is ok…then you take it off line again.  “IF” we want, we can go to the McDonalds or the Public Library and delete items off the Kindle and load new ones on. I have items in a “want to watch list”, so downloading is all I will need to do…which depends on the speed we get.  

So back to Granite Flats National Forest Campground we go. 

Now those temps we can handle”! 

The Triple Whammy

Can you even imagine what it is like to be sitting along the beach, 72 degree weather…and two weeks later be sitting in the Sacramento Valley with temps up in the 100’s?  Well, that is our triple whammy…temps in the 3 digits.  But alas, things are looking better…

…two more hot days, then the possibility of tens days with temps under 90.

I mentioned that we had two small issues to fix…first, the lower part of tis mirror had become loose.  I took it off before the wind while driving blew it off.  That was an easy fix, Arny said he used a tape that would not come off.

Second, we had the electrical problem that we had before.  It worked fine until we left Port Angeles…then I noticed that we were not getting a charge from the engine when we were driving.  So today I did some research into these two gizmos, because one of them is most likely the culprit. 

    

The bottom one had the words “Ignition Proof Coach Chasis”, with a label which read, “01-00055-010 / 17704 /  BD Relay”. Quickly I found that this is part of the Intellitec Battery Disconnect Relay, which is what normally is called, “Storage Shut Off Switch” for when you want to kill the drain on the batteries when you go into storage. (Which gives you more time, but let’s face it, you store it for more than a few weeks and you batteries are going to be DEAD)

Which leaves this little thing….no writing on it, but a little research and found out that this is a “12 Volt Continuous Duty Solenoid”, which are easy to find, and found one on Amazon for under $20 which will be here Friday.  I am 90+% sure this is the culprit.  I figure that when we had loose wires eight weeks ago when this first went out, that the sparking and arching which took place as the loose wires did make contact just sore this thing out.  If I tap on it, it will make the recharge light flicker…so the solenoid is probably just wore out.

Yesterday I spent the day grooming the dogs. With this hot weather, I think they will both enjoy the loss of fur.  I can tell that Bubba is already feeling better, but so is Skruffy.

   

The hummingbird is still protecting “his” bird feeder…only letting his mate use it, chasing away all the others.

This blue Scrub Jay is a bit younger than the others.  The older ones are very mean, chasing away the doves, even going after the squirrels sometimes.  This younger one is also picked on…but that is how it will learn the trade I reckon.  Since Saturday we have seen two non-native birds which I have not gotten my camera lens on yet.  One is a Parakeet…the other looks like a small Parrot, perhaps a type of Love Bird. They don’t come around very often, and seem to hang out with the finches…but I hope to get a picture of them soon.

We have a number of birthdays in our family in August.  My brother Roger, Sisters Sandy and Patti, and brother-in-law Arny…the only Patti having celebrated hers already, and the other three take place in the next four days.  So HAPPY BIRTHDAY all of you!