Not much happening here. Just mucking along.
No progress on building our place, of course. Although we did pick up the final version of our house plans from George T. Farnum the architect in Ballston Spa. If you live around here and want house plans, Farnum is your guy. Well, Skyler is your guy. He actually did the plans. Very skilled, very accommodating. He looked to me to be about 12 though, so you might want to call first to make sure he's not outside playing.
We also bought Pam's brother's motor home.
It has a flat tire and needs a brake master cylinder, so on Monday we'll call Frank's Heavy Duty Truck Repair to go tow it and fix it. The plan is to stay in our rental Unabomber Cabin until after Christmas and then hightail it south, towing Jeremiah in a horse trailer.
Oh, we just bought a horse trailer too.
In health news, I went to see Dr. Carl yesterday. We had a noon appointment. At 2 PM, he finally came into our room. His cell phone rang and he left us to answer it. Pam was livid. You don't mess with Pam when she's livid. I've seen it. Her head actually spins around like a top and she breathes fire.
"I'm not impressed with Doctor Carl," fumed Pamela.
"But he's a really good doctor. I like him." I protested.
Pam gave me The Look. I hate The Look.
When Dr. Carl came back, he reviewed my MRI of my lower back to figure out why my right foot went numb and stopped working.
"It all looks good. I don't see any reason why your foot has issues."
Great.
"How is your upper back?"
"Well, I don't have any numbness in my middle finger anymore. Everything else is just as it was three weeks ago when the tree hit my noggin," said I. "So I guess that's slow progress."
"In my business, that's healing up pretty quickly," said Dr. Carl.
We had some discussion about my shoulder pain, which is chronic. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is me stepping on that friggin' nine inch nail a couple of months ago, it's about a 7. But it's non-stop pain unless I take a dreaded oxycodone pill. Then the pain goes away for an hour, and slowly creeps back over the next couple of hours. And then it's back.
Dr. Carl suggested a cortisone/lidocaine/novocaine in my shoulder. He said it might give me temporary relief for anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. I HATE the oxycodone because it turns me into an imbecile (OK, a bigger imbecile) so after a very brief discussion of side effects, I agreed. He produced a needle about three feet long and the diameter of a garden hose and jammed it into my shoulder.
"Rotate your arm around," he said. "How does that feel?"
I hadn't taken an oxy since 7:30 that morning and so was in considerable pain before the shot.
"I think i worked," I said. "The pain is gone."
Dr. Carl smiled. I smiled. Pam smiled. The nurse almost smiled. Everyone was happy.
We left and went to visit old friends of ours, Kate and Chuck, who live just a short distance away from Albany Medical Center. They rented a gorgeous apartment in a beautiful old home on a quiet street. They also bought a motor home very similar to ours. They're going to sell their sailboat and cruise in their land yacht, just like us. We had a nice visit while waiting for Preston and Vickie to arrive, friends from Annapolis. I won't bore you with the chit chat, but after a bit we went to Cornell's restaurant in Schenectady to celebrate my birthday and the fact that I'm here to celebrate it. Cornell's is partly owned by the Humes, fairly old friends of Kate and Chuck and fairly new friends to us.
On the ride over, we hit a HUGE bump. The pain in my arm came back. Sigh. But I planned on celebrating, so an oxy was out of the question.
Cornell's is in Schenectady's Little Italy part of town. Bottom line. It was fabulous, made even better by wonderful company and lots of laughs. I even forgot about my painful arm for a time. I've never had steak pizziaola before, but I'm going to have it again! It's a steak "sauteed with mushrooms, garlic, white onions, tomatoes, fresh ground pepper, and a touch of sherry wine". Because of the drugs I take, I don't have any appetite to speak of, but I did a number on that steak and ate half of it. The other half will be lunch today. Everyone else raved about their meals too. If you live in New York's capital district, or plan on visiting here, take a trip to Cornell's. Just a tad pricey, but the food is fabulous and the service was top shelf.
Being cruisers, Pam and I have learned to be flexible. You don't make plans, you just have notions. Since our notion of getting the foundation, well, and leech field installed this year didn't happen, we shifted gears and will now head south in the motor home along with all the other blue haired old farts, but towing a horse instead of a car. We might take a few trips. Key West has always been high on my list, and another internet friend Speedy (Kate and Chuck, and Preston and Vickie were met on an internet message board) has invited us all out to Arizona for a visit. That would be cool, if our old motor home is up to it. We'll see.
Last weekend was two weddings. Today is a wedding reception for Trish and Theresa. I need to load the wedding photos I took onto one of those electronic picture frames, select one photo to print for a regular frame, buy a good flash for my camera, and get ourselves to Gianna's Restaurant in Gloversville by 5 PM. Pamela has to work until 1 PM, so we'll have some scurrying around to do.
No progress on building our place, of course. Although we did pick up the final version of our house plans from George T. Farnum the architect in Ballston Spa. If you live around here and want house plans, Farnum is your guy. Well, Skyler is your guy. He actually did the plans. Very skilled, very accommodating. He looked to me to be about 12 though, so you might want to call first to make sure he's not outside playing.
We also bought Pam's brother's motor home.
It has a flat tire and needs a brake master cylinder, so on Monday we'll call Frank's Heavy Duty Truck Repair to go tow it and fix it. The plan is to stay in our rental Unabomber Cabin until after Christmas and then hightail it south, towing Jeremiah in a horse trailer.
Oh, we just bought a horse trailer too.
In health news, I went to see Dr. Carl yesterday. We had a noon appointment. At 2 PM, he finally came into our room. His cell phone rang and he left us to answer it. Pam was livid. You don't mess with Pam when she's livid. I've seen it. Her head actually spins around like a top and she breathes fire.
"I'm not impressed with Doctor Carl," fumed Pamela.
"But he's a really good doctor. I like him." I protested.
Pam gave me The Look. I hate The Look.
When Dr. Carl came back, he reviewed my MRI of my lower back to figure out why my right foot went numb and stopped working.
"It all looks good. I don't see any reason why your foot has issues."
Great.
"How is your upper back?"
"Well, I don't have any numbness in my middle finger anymore. Everything else is just as it was three weeks ago when the tree hit my noggin," said I. "So I guess that's slow progress."
"In my business, that's healing up pretty quickly," said Dr. Carl.
We had some discussion about my shoulder pain, which is chronic. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is me stepping on that friggin' nine inch nail a couple of months ago, it's about a 7. But it's non-stop pain unless I take a dreaded oxycodone pill. Then the pain goes away for an hour, and slowly creeps back over the next couple of hours. And then it's back.
Dr. Carl suggested a cortisone/lidocaine/novocaine in my shoulder. He said it might give me temporary relief for anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. I HATE the oxycodone because it turns me into an imbecile (OK, a bigger imbecile) so after a very brief discussion of side effects, I agreed. He produced a needle about three feet long and the diameter of a garden hose and jammed it into my shoulder.
"Rotate your arm around," he said. "How does that feel?"
I hadn't taken an oxy since 7:30 that morning and so was in considerable pain before the shot.
"I think i worked," I said. "The pain is gone."
Dr. Carl smiled. I smiled. Pam smiled. The nurse almost smiled. Everyone was happy.
We left and went to visit old friends of ours, Kate and Chuck, who live just a short distance away from Albany Medical Center. They rented a gorgeous apartment in a beautiful old home on a quiet street. They also bought a motor home very similar to ours. They're going to sell their sailboat and cruise in their land yacht, just like us. We had a nice visit while waiting for Preston and Vickie to arrive, friends from Annapolis. I won't bore you with the chit chat, but after a bit we went to Cornell's restaurant in Schenectady to celebrate my birthday and the fact that I'm here to celebrate it. Cornell's is partly owned by the Humes, fairly old friends of Kate and Chuck and fairly new friends to us.
On the ride over, we hit a HUGE bump. The pain in my arm came back. Sigh. But I planned on celebrating, so an oxy was out of the question.
Cornell's is in Schenectady's Little Italy part of town. Bottom line. It was fabulous, made even better by wonderful company and lots of laughs. I even forgot about my painful arm for a time. I've never had steak pizziaola before, but I'm going to have it again! It's a steak "sauteed with mushrooms, garlic, white onions, tomatoes, fresh ground pepper, and a touch of sherry wine". Because of the drugs I take, I don't have any appetite to speak of, but I did a number on that steak and ate half of it. The other half will be lunch today. Everyone else raved about their meals too. If you live in New York's capital district, or plan on visiting here, take a trip to Cornell's. Just a tad pricey, but the food is fabulous and the service was top shelf.
Being cruisers, Pam and I have learned to be flexible. You don't make plans, you just have notions. Since our notion of getting the foundation, well, and leech field installed this year didn't happen, we shifted gears and will now head south in the motor home along with all the other blue haired old farts, but towing a horse instead of a car. We might take a few trips. Key West has always been high on my list, and another internet friend Speedy (Kate and Chuck, and Preston and Vickie were met on an internet message board) has invited us all out to Arizona for a visit. That would be cool, if our old motor home is up to it. We'll see.
Last weekend was two weddings. Today is a wedding reception for Trish and Theresa. I need to load the wedding photos I took onto one of those electronic picture frames, select one photo to print for a regular frame, buy a good flash for my camera, and get ourselves to Gianna's Restaurant in Gloversville by 5 PM. Pamela has to work until 1 PM, so we'll have some scurrying around to do.
"On the ride over, we hit a HUGE bump. The pain in my arm came back."
ReplyDeleteYou've discovered the challenge of travelling with a neck injury. I did all the driving so that I could carefully avoid ANY bumps (you can get obsessed by them) and long car trips are especially challenging. I refused to travel East-West in winter, because invariably in VT these roads cause pain because of the mountain terrain and frost heaves.
BTW, the earlier advice someone offered here about Aleve (naproxin) was good.. I keep some in my pocket still for when I stress my neck and if it's bad, double it. (Mine was C-5/C-6 and concentrated in my right arm; headaches too).
I took pain meds for years for my lower back. I tossed the Lortab and started taking Aleve. It's a wonder drug. I took it for years. The only problem is that it does liver damage when taken for too long a time. I had to give it up.
DeleteMaybe the time has come to start a motor home Blog-- Just say'n...
ReplyDelete