Well we have been in Oklahoma for over 3 weeks now. Horrible time to be stuck here when we could be in Colorado but sometimes it just works out that way. We came back for an ultrasound on Sherries leg. She had grown a very large lump in there and it was pushing on the nerves. The ultrasound had been scheduled a monthe before and it was a noticiable lump then but by the time we get to the testing it is bigger than she thought… the ultra sound done they looked and imeaditely took to radioligist and he said , think you need an MRI… well that was enough of that, so through some family request and pushing some buttons we got into see a surgeon the next week and he pushed a MRI up and then scheduled surgery to get it out… all in 2 plus weeks. I am afraid had we staying in the “proper’ channels we would still be wondering what the MRI has shown…. Anyway last Tuesday was surgery day, pushed up from 1pm to 11am but ended up really at 1pm… that surgeon is really busy… Anyway …
Prepped and ready… but not looking too happy. The prep nurse had to work double hard to get a good vein, but did get it on first try, althoug took a lot of rubbing, slapping, rubbing, etc…
Of course for what we thought was outpatient stuff, it became an overnight stay or ???? so she was doing what she could to get out by getting up and moving around as fast as possible… multiple times… so when the Dr came in the next morning they agreed she could go home but be right back on MOnday to check it all out and hopefully remove the “drain bottle”…
So a few days later this is what it looks like, she is walking , very ver slowly… and not using the walker unless absolutely necessary… and yes it has a drain tube and bottle, since she lost a bit portion of the smaller muscle on that side I guess it required internal draining and clotting control…
She said she would be real happy when that thing is gone…
So now she can claim her scar is bigger than mine. I have a few more and some remaining metal parts in one leg, but hers is one long scar… Doctor said the lump was about the size if an Ostritch egg!… Now we wait on pathology and details for rehab… and I am sure biweekly trips for checking , etc…
On the the rest of the stay…well on the day after the ultrasound we made a run to the farms over by Drummond, checking on the plugged well and to make sure they got the pipeline stuff out and it was gone… on the way in we came across ‘hop toad heaven”…. must have been a great year for the toads cause the road was thick..
And if you moved a bit it was like the ground was moving under you they were that thick, the picture dowsn’t tell the truth…
Next up, I have said for 42 years I should finish up and take the Extra test for my amateur radio license upgrade. Well, I determined that this would be the time. since we were here and I planned to stay the one week and attend the OKC hamfest I signed up to take the test… (hey it was free!). I studied some the week before and got there about 9am Saturday, made the rounds of the tables, checked a few things, saw a few people I knew and visited and attended a coupld of the seminars, then test time at 12:30… I guess 42 years of study pays off since I passed much easier than I had thought, only missed two of 50… so I now am officially an Extra Class. I have a few more goals in line but that was one I had hoped to get done this year so one down and several more to do…
During that week when not studiing I hacked a little at the weeds on the back side of the dame… about 3 hours of using the gas powered weed wacker with a metal blade on it, yep some of those things were pretty tough… and got all that cleaned off (for now)… then moved to the black berry bushes…Since the wild black berries didn’t put out much and once I got to looking they were 7 ft tall and dead in the middle so even when they did you couldn’t reach much with out being bloody when you got out of it… I decided it was time to clear it out, if they come back fine if not fine… so I worked on it for 4 days… what a mess… and required special tools too.. that up close weed eater was not making much progress after two days I had about 1/2 of the area knocked down… ouch!…
This was way into the next week when I had about half of the area cut down. It seems that earlier we had skunks and armadillos living under those throne bushes so best they come out and let the critters move back out to more “distant” areas… but since it was going slow I figured that maybe an electric pole saw would be easiwer to reach in and cut things off from a good save distance and then use the hoe to drag that pile off. It worked out fine and I found a battery power unit on sale that used the same batteries that my drills do so I had extra batteries and it took all of them to keep up… but I got it all whacked out, cleared off and waiting to see if any shoots come back , in the right spots… I will try to keep the smaller stuff hacked dout around the edges and keep the size managable? maybe?
well it was raining so I didn’t go down to get a picture of the whole area cleared off… could have today but it was too hot and I had to repair the mower and mow and forgot the pictures… anyway all cleared off and pushed off to the side… oh and it hadn’t rained since we were here last, I think? month ago. I had rained all spring then just after the first of july … stopped and not a drip till the end of the month… Oklahoma!..
I got a new camera so I am learning… not good at it yet and may never be… in fact I may have over shot my ability with the camera? We will see.
Yes, the rain.. and a few days of nice cooler WX. not like Colorado where the kids were wearing coats this weekend but ..
test picture, capturing the rain running off ..
Oh and after years of saying I should have done this, I finally did it… put a garage door opener on the “external garage” small door… thinking I need to insualte the east and west ends of the barn as well ? something else I probalbyl should have done when we built but like daddy said… “hindsight is 20/20”. Anyway we got a garage door opener and will double as a lock on that door…
I did take down the jeep top lift, since I don’t use it here anymore… and it was not useable now that the door opener is right up next to it and hangs in the way…
I have also been lining up some folks to oil/stain the back deck, I got it power washed, and now also need to repair the garage floor epoxy coating… may also coat or tile the shop office and bathroom to make it a bit nicer but that is for later.
We now hope that Sherrie gets a release to travel tomorrow and we will get back to come cooler weather for a couple weeks. so till I remember or accomplish something that is where we are now…
WD0AJG