Slightly off my normal subjects.

Location, at Home, CA

Maybe I should have been a book reviewer. I certainly have read enough books lately to qualify.

I am particularly stuck on authors who write a series of books based on the same character. To that end, I keep lists of authors and which of their books I have on hand to read vs those the author has written but I have not gotten my hands on yet.

Authors high on my list right now are C. J. Box and his Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett series. Also, I really like Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series. Jack is one of those guys who finds trouble where ever he goes.

I have been reading a lot of James Lee Burke’s books after recommendations by our friend Cindy. One of his latest, Tin Roof Blowdown was a little hard to take as it was an inside look at New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and Rita. The scenes he paints leave a bad taste in your mouth as an American especially about the breakdown in our government response during this crisis.

I read a lot of books based on terror attacks or possible attacks against the United States. Some of the books by Stephan Coonts, Tom Clancy, books by Alex Berenson and Vince Flynn who fight back against our enemies are some of my favorites.

One of my all time favorite writers is W. E. B. Griffin who writes several series based on different military services. His series The Corp about the Marines after WWII until the present are classics as is his series called Brotherhood of War about the Army from WWII until now or the series Men at War about the OSS the fore runner to the CIA. The Honor Bound Series is about America’s efforts to stop the Nazi’s from taking over Argentina during WWII. He also wrote a series called Badge of Honor about the Philadelphia Police Department. He continues to write about two books a year with the help of his son.

I do read non-fiction also. Especially books about WWII or related. After reading some of the classic WWII books I wondered how the German civilian population survived after WWII. To this end I read a book called German Boy written by a survivor of the war who resided near Berlin. It truly was a story of survival. I followed this by reading Post War by Tony Judt which chronicled the rebuilding of Europe after the war until the establishment of the European Union. Reading it gave me an insight into the problems with the Euro Union today.

I have read and am reading British sailing ship stories from the late 1800’s. Books by C.S Forrester and his Hornblower series, Patrick O’Brian’s series, and Dudley Pope’s Ramage series which I have just started to read.

I love John Sandford and his Prey Series or Stuart Woods many books. Recently I read all three books by Stieg Larsson of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Good Stuff!

I love Naval stories. Especially about submarines, Navy Seals, or the Navy in general. I guess that’s why I served my military service in the Navy.

This really is only a small sum of the total books I read or of my interest in different topics.

I find my books wherever I can. I keep a list by author and mark off those I have on hand vs those I have read. I find books at the local library or a local used book store which does buy back some of me used books, and on-line at Paperbackswap.com.

I have always loved to read. It opens whole vistas to a world to which anyone can enter with just your mind. If I don’t have a shelf full of unread books, I start to panic. Fortunately, that rarely happens.

Felling good after surgery.

Location, at Home, CA

The surgery went well. I was only in the operating room about 45 minutes. I told the surgeon he must have set a speed record and he just laughed.

 
I was taken to my room about 5 pm and spent the night in the hospital. I had no pain so did not take any pain killers. I came home late Tuesday afternoon. There is only soreness now at the four incision sites. I am using the excuse to get a few naps in each day however. I see the doctor in a few weeks. By then I should be good to go.

Upcoming surgery.

Location, at Home, CA

I read the last post about “still getting beans from the garden” and laughed as we are still getting beans from the garden. I bet we picked 150 lbs of beans from that short two row plot. They are pole beans but still, that is a lot. Every time I pick I think they may only be a few more but it goes on. I need to pick again today.

I have been having a few problems which I finally concluded was gall stones. I had an attack in December, one in February and one about 2 weeks ago. I went to see my doctor and he ordered an ultra sound for me. Yeayup! It showed a one centimeter stone sitting down on my bile duct which is causing the problem.

On Tuesday I saw the surgeon and started the process for surgery. I have a pre-op meeting tomorrow and surgery is scheduled for Monday afternoon. I most likely will remain in the hospital overnight because of the lateness of the surgery and be released Tuesday morning.

I want this done an over with before our 50^th anniversary in October. I want to be able to eat and drink without discomfort on the cruise.

I will keep everyone posted after the operation.

Wedding at Moorpark.

Location, at Home, CA

I have really been remiss in posting to this blog.

I re-read the last post and need to bring a few points from it up-to-date.

We are still getting beans and zucchini from the garden. Not a lot of each but enough for us. The tomatoes are now getting ripe so we will have those for some time to come. We are still getting a few oranges from our naval orange tree although it is about done. Lots of lemons on the small tree in our side yard.

Clyda’s sister Candi left for home yesterday. She was here for our nephews wedding which was Friday night. It was held in a beautiful garden in Moorpark, CA. The weather was perfect. I thought we might need light jackets as the sun went down but we managed without them.

 

Table settings

It was a beautiful wedding with nine bridesmaids. I did say nine didn’t I.

Clyda, Candi and I drove to New Berry Park and brought the babies to the wedding along with their dad, Steve and the baby sitter. We dressed them at the wedding site in their wedding cloths. A tulle dress for Stella and a suit and vest with tie for Braedon. Chelsea walked them down the aisle in a red decorated wagon. She was afraid to let them walk by themselves as there is a water pond next to the wedding site and they might have just headed for it instead. The baby sitter then took them home as Chelsea was shooting the wedding pictures.

Braedon and Stella hydtating prior to the ceremony.

This and that.

Location, at Home, CA

Our trip to the Bay area was great. Always nice to spend time with friends. In total we traveled 860 miles round trip.

I did get the bottom back on the RV and sealed up all the places where mice might get in. Time will tell if that is successful. The next big job is to clean the rubber roof. I started that today by washing the edges from a ladder. It really is too hot to do the roof right now. I should wait for a foggy morning.

We of course have been watching the Olympics every day and night until 11:30 or so. It becomes addictive.

Last night I also watched the Mars landing on my Netbook while watching the Olympics. What a great achievement! There should be some spectacular pictures coming.

I am still picking zucchini and pole beans although I think they are coming to an end.

I dug up one row of boysenberries this week. So now I am down to one row of berries. It should still be enough for us.

Clyda’s sister Candi is coming to visit on Wednesday. She will stay for 2 weeks. We have a nephew getting married while she is here so will attend that wedding in a few weeks.

Way too HOT!

Location, at Home, CA

A short note to bring things up to date.

It is HOT! At 8:30 PM it is still 85 degrees. While walking this morning a few gusts of wind came up and right behind it the temperature rose several degrees. By mid morning the humidity also rose making for a very unusual sticky day.

I am working under the fifth wheel trying to get the bottom covers back in place after removing most of them last week to check the hydraulic ram which moves the living room slide out. The final solution was to lube the slide rubber with silicone spray and to wax the walls of the slide outs to reduce friction.

I discovered this remedy by doing an on-line search for slide out problems which wonder of wonders gave me a manual of my exact hydraulic system. After all the lubing the slide works fine. Before the lubing it took both Craig and I pushing on the slide from inside while holding down the pump switch to get the slide to move.

Needless to say, the work is going slowly in this heat. I also have the problem of aligning all the holes so the self taping screws go in. The screws go through the bottom cover and into steel beams. Everything has to be just so to make it work.

I am in no hurry to get it done as we have no trips planned in the immediate future.

We are going to the Bay area on Sunday after church to visit friends both in Walnut Creek and El Dorado hills. We also are stopping in Folsom to pck up a couple of cases of Bor-Do-Lay sauce for marinating. It is the best for meats going on the grill.

The passing of my father.

Location, at Home, CA

So many things have happened since I last posted.

We went camping for 4 days, my father passed away on June 28^th, we made a quick trip to Wisconsin for the funeral, and the solar water heat is still not complete.

The passing of my father was not unexpected as he was 99 1/2 years old. I had calling my sister every day while we camped but it was still a shock when he passed. I spent the next few days trying to get airline seats so Clyda and I could fly back for the funeral.

I had previously booked a flight for September to visit my parents and family members. Now I needed to change that flight and find new flights for last Tuesday. I called American Airlines reservations and was offered a “compassion fare” for less than a normal last minute fare would have cost. They also changed my Sept flight into the July flight without any rebooking fee. I did have to pay $25 to talk to reservations.

The real problem was finding available seats as all the flights were almost fully booked. In fact, we had to return on Friday July 6^th as all seats on Saturday were full.

Tim had somewhat the same problem from Houston to Chicago. It cost him a lot of money for his flights.

We really appreciated Tim coming to the funeral. He did the driving for most of the trip.

We also got to meet a lot of cousins, nieces, and nephews. It is too bad that it takes a funeral to bring families together.

The weather was terrible with terrific heat the whole time. Fortunately, we stayed inside most of the time. The day of the funeral was not too bad except for the short time at the cemetery.

On our drive back to Chicago on Friday the temperature was 103 with a heat index of 110 degrees. I told Clyda that it felt just like our days at China Lake, CA when we were first married.

All in all, everything worked out. The family met after the funeral at my mother’s Assisted Living facility and did all the thank you cards. That was a big help.

Our flight back didn’t get in until 11 PM and by then we just collapsed.

Here are some recent photos from our camping trip and garden.

A turkey at our front door looking for a handout.

Our apricot tree was just loaded with fruit this year.

A huge zucinni plant in our small garden.

The pole beans are over 8 feet tall.