30 Jan, Sunday: Smooch surprised me by posting pictures again. I'm still satisfied, making good progress on the Rambo CD; the Companion Volume is mostly complete. This AM Smooch mentioned breakfast out, but cooking omelets in sounded better to me. After cooking the egg whites veggie omelet for Smooch Smooch, I called Dick Richards since I was too late to catch the Gowdys or Gregorys at breakfast. It will be fun to see everyone at the wedding.
29 Jan, Sat. AM, Lake Conroe, Texas: The Sunrise is spectacular! The patient amazing. Smooch!Speaking of amazing, my cholesterol labs results are in: total cholesterol 116, HDL = 58, LDL = 49, triglycerides = 43, but the evil LP(a) is still elevated at 35 - way down from 130 a year ago, but still a substantial risk factor.
28 Jan: WOW, the pain last night was intense several times, but fortunately for only a few seconds until I moved and relaxed. I wonder if it is the pressure of the sheets now that the toe is more exposed.
27 Jan: Dr. Ehret pronounced me a "good boy" for keeping the foot elevated and iced. It is healing faster than normal since I'm soooo good.Not a bad view for the bed-ridden. This morning a huge flock of birds gathered right out front until a power boat scared them all into flight. By opening the back door, Cynthia spooked the great blue heron away from the boat cover.
I don't understand how Blogger decides where to put my typing; it won't let me type next to the picture.
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| The perfect patient !! Cute ... and bald |
I've only done a sudoku or rwo a day and have spent most of my time working on the Rambo Companion Volume of Reference and the CD. It is so very satisfying to be making such progress; the time in bed is actually rewarding and pleasurable. My mending is still awaiting the day I don't feel like doing anything else.
Dr. Ehret will see me again Thursday; maybe he'll let me walk next week. I'm very curious to hear from Dr. Gould about the results my cholesterol blood work after a year of meds and limited fat intake (10 grams a day, total for all fats & oils).
21 Jan: Newest link is to http://www.BornerPower.com which demonstrates a more efficient engine design.
20 Jan: Dr. Ehret cut & pasted my hammertoe, and I'm now (self)-confined to bed. It is 20 hours since the surgery and nothing hurts yet. He is a marvelously efficient and competent surgeon besides being a "friend" of Cynthia's son, Jon. A cold front is arriving, the wind is gusty, and the lake quite excitingly choppy. Not a bad bed to rest in. The Rambo proofreading is progressing satisfactorily; 250 pages done, an equal number yet to do. Companion volume progressing nicely too (simultaneously). The CD is also progressing nicely, but the amount of work needed there is staggering.
19 Jan: Another day at the fitness center. No more fitness for a week after surgery this evening at 5pm. Walmart Pharmacy here is a farce, rude staff, incompetent lazy help, a huge demand, and totally irritating. Only one pharmacist, Angelena, seems to do any work, and she is endlessly busy.
18 Jan: Hank & Felicia, Jim & Cindy, Jon & Katie, and Smooch smooch & I thoroughly enjoyed a dinner at the nearby restaurant. It was a little noisy, and I was the most casually dressed (substantially), and we stayed up late for us, 10pm.
15 Jan: We are moved into the lake house (despite much remodeling/painting clutter) yesterday after Dr. Gould confirmed that I'm still alive. Blood was drawn for the several tests including especially my genetic heritage, the evil LP(a) cholesterol. I'm still wondering how Dr. Gould knew that I ride a Beemer.
OK, 'nuf blogging. Time to resume proofreading.
12 Jan: The DNA cheek swab is sent off to ??; I became interested after release of this latest "Family Finder" test that crosses the male/female boundary to provide more specific relationships within 5 generations. An empty Schenck family website is up for cousin Jean to modify and she has acquired the gmail account needed for accesss.
11 Jan: Luncheon with the Lutheran Bishop was wonderful. Michael Rinehart is a very nice guy, and he gave me good advice about website, and he expects to be notified by some Google bot that this mention of his name has been posted anywhere on the web (Hi Michael, don't forget to misspell your name as Michael Reinhardt. It is even Ok to add a line like "Please don't misspell my name as Michael Reinhardt or Rinhart.")
9 Jan: Lots accomplished. I'm a Wiki contributor - to the Peter Gunnarson Rambo page. The first new chapters of the Rambo Family Tree CD are published to the rambofamilytree web site along with a few other improvements. The CamblinBook website has another generation and a few links. It is nearly time to print the annual letter with pictures for mailing. Goodie, goodie, dumbdrops. Paint is still "drying" on this rainy day in Texas. Nice dinner last night at Caddy Shack with John & Hank (Ron) and Felicia.
7 Jan: My Oh My, How time flies. We've been in Montgomery, Texas for 24 hours now, and I've caught up with sleep, correspondence, and organization, so it is time to update blog & web sites. The biggest news is that the MIT Alumni Association had a couple of addresses for long lost buddies, Acorn & Weino. The wedding invitation list is completed. We are presently camped out at the Best Western while waiting for paint to dry at the lake house. Cynthia is just returned from running errands, so we will leave for dinner at the Caddy Shack ASAP. Cynthia tells me there are new pictures in a Hawaii10 Picasa album.
5 Jan: We enjoyed a lovely drive with Jean to Kapaa, ate at the Wahoo Seafood Restaurant, found the Farmers' Market, and enjoyed the open air atmosphere and street side balcony of the Olympic Cafe. Jean impressed us with her command of the Hawaiian language. Cindy at the Koa Kea was a lot of fun; she and I exchanged cheerful banter on several occasions.
4 Jan: We arrived on Kauii without incident, crammed like sardines into tiny seats on the Hawaiian Airlines Inter-Island flight. After renting our car from Enterprise, we checked in at the Koa Kea hotel, and Cynthia changed into a swim suit. The drive around the island to Honalea Bay was scenic but wearing after the lack of sufficient sleep two night in a row. Once there with Eric & Jean and Jason, Rachel and Ian we found ourselves enjoying the vacation & company tremendously. Little 10-month-old Ian had no problems with his drool and sand beard, but rubbing a tiny sandy fist in his eye was traumatic. He learns quickly and only did that once. Incredibly, today Cynthia and I both got wet in the ocean. We exited after a cresting wave bigger than I am pasted us and put a taste of salt in our mouths. Fun, fun, but that beach is shallow with an uneven bottom, so Cynthia swam three strokes, and I swam 0.
3 Jan: As we embarked on our daily walk, we took a path uphill through the grounds and found ourselves on a golf cart path. Cynthia entered the club house as I entered the lavatory. She did not reappear, but instead seated herself and ordered a glass of wine and salad. We enjoyed the lunch with a nice view before resuming our walk, again following an unused cart path. This part of the course was obviously closed and neglected so we felt quite comfortable and well pleased with the solitude and magnificent views of the ocean. Imagine our dismay when an authoritarian employee arrived en carte to insist that we leave this deserted course immediately with him on his cart. His brusque, unpleasant synopsis is that, "In the resort, you are an asset to us. Out here you are a liability."
2 Jan 2011, Sunday: The last few days have been pretty eventful, and we've had a lot of fun. Today George let us take a brand new Kawasaki 900 motorcycle for a test ride. The bike was good, but we decided to test ride a few others before making a decision. It was indeed fun to ride on two wheels again ... even if the ride was only ten miles around the airport. Hawaii is expensive; the taxi to & from the airport was $60 each way. We hadn't made dinner reservations, but we've eaten at Spago's so many times that the hostesses and wait staff know us, so we were given a nice table in a wonderfully quiet corner, and of course the meal (mahi mahi) was perfect as usual. Cynthia hadn't know the price of the glass of wine and declared that she'd drink dish water henceforth.
1 Jan: Happy New Year - we've heard, but haven't tried the Hawaiian for Happy New Year; Mele Kalikimaka twisted our tongues badly enough for now. Today the skies were much clearer, but we only walked an hour on the road towards the parks and surf. It was fun to see details up-mountain that had been obscurred previously - like the line of electric generation wind mills marching in a ragged line up the mountain across the bay. We enjoyed dinner with George, Ghee and their two kids, Gheo and Ginger. George has a new job at the Harley shop selling motorcycles, so we arranged to test ride a Kawasaki. The stars were bright and clear, unusual in our experience these eight(?) days on Maui.
31 Dec: Wayne with Hike Maui tours guided us to a magnificent 400' waterfall on the opposite side of the island. The ride started with a 6am pickup after a cold breakfast in the room. Sunrise came while we were inside the truck "barn" getting food and gear. We circumscribed (Is that the right word?) the mountain on a twisty road that puts the "Tail of the Dragon" to shame - something like 600 turns in 20 miles, many of them one lane hairpins. The hike in to the waterfall was more strenuous than our previous Hike Maui hike to Twin Falls (that one was a stroll); this time we hike uphill for about 2.5 miles and crossed a knee-deep stream twice. As we were changing shoes prior to the stream crossing, the mist turned to light rain. The mist/rain combo intensified as we approached the waterfall, preventing us from taking pictures, but the waterfall was magnificent, awesome even due to the additional water. After the waterfall, the ride back was overlong despite several stops at scenic water including an ocean cave, a black sand beach, and some awesome crashing surf. Whenever the van was moving, we were constantly thrown against each other as Wayne tried to make good time over this snaky road.
30 Dec: The highlight today was Cynthia's first frightening exposure to the thrills of hitchhiking, even though we hitchhiked unintentionally. The dead-end road to the State Park is narrow with many blind corners and hills, so I started giving "thumbs up" to indicate a clear road for cars approaching us from behind. We were both shocked and surprised when a car pulled to a stop alongside us. The driver & passenger were smiling & friendly, so I hopped in ASAP while Cynthia entered into a state of shock, climbed into the car, and begged them to treat her nicely. She was kinda shell shocked by the experience, but we did get out to the park at the end of the road quickly with time to hike a mile along the ocean, thrilling to the surf crashing onto the lava rocks, sometimes pounding and sounding like canons and sometimes throwing water thirty feet into the air. The white rock scattered along this remote beach is a puzzle; later our guide Wayne explained that the white rock was either coral or basalt lava.
29 Dec: Cynthia has resigned as scribe. Sorry to predict that updates will be less frequent and pictures will be fewer. Despite the loss & disappointment, I certainly thank Cynthia for all the work she has done on this blog. AttaDear.
