Category Archives: Health

Good Gravy!

The week since I last posted was mostly routine, nothing too special. At least it was until Thursday. I played pickleball in the morning with the 3.5 group and planned to head to Costco before lunch. I wanted to look for a beef brisket flat. I thought about getting another tri-tip, but Donna thought I should smoke a brisket. She was right, as usual. It’s been a while since I’ve done a brisket in the Traeger.

My last game Thursday morning changed my plan. On the last shot of the final game, my opponent hit a lob to the back right corner of the court. I beat feet from my position on the left side of the court, caught up with ball as it bounced and twisted my body to the left to make the return shot. When I did this, it felt like an electric jolt ran through my spine. I limped home after the game.

A trip to Costco was out. I was afraid if I got into the Midget, I wouldn’t be able to get out. I popped a 500 milligram naproxen tablet that I had left over from a previous injury and sat outside with a heating pad on my lower back. After dinner, I took an Aleve pill and wasn’t good for much.

Friday morning I felt better, and took another naproxen with breakfast. By 11am, I was feeling pretty good and decided to make the Costco run and check out the briskets there. Once again, the Costco foot traffic was fairly light. I didn’t expect this a week before Christmas. I think the lack of snowbirds from Canada is having an effect.

Costco had whole packer briskets in the 16- to 20-pound range and flats cut in the seven- to nine-pound range. This was way more than I wanted to buy – it’s just Donna and me. The brisket was USDA Choice and I think it was $6.79/lb. They had USDA Prime tri-tips, but I passed on them and thought I would go to Chuck’s Fine Meats again and see what he had. I wrote about USDA meat grades in this post and everything you ever wanted to know about brisket here.

At Chuck’s, I found USDA Prime brisket flats. The butcher selected a four and a 1/2-pound hunk of flat (HOF) for me. I don’t recall ever seeing USDA Prime brisket before. It wasn’t cheap at $10/pound. Back at home I found it needed very little trimming – they had already trimmed most of the fat cap to less than a quarter of an inch. I seasoned it with the Kinder’s Blend – salt, pepper and dehydrated garlic granules – wrapped it in cling wrap and put it in the refrigerator. I didn’t do much of anything else Friday. I wanted to rest my back. Meanwhile, Donna played pickleball in the morning and tennis in the afternoon.

Saturday morning, I filled the hopper of the Traeger wood-pellet fired smoker grill with CookinPellets Perfect Mix – a blend of hickory, cherry, hard maple and apple wood pellets – and fired up the Traeger. I put the brisket HOF on at 8:30am on the smoke setting. I mixed up a mop sauce to baste the brisket. I used a base of eight ounces of Pepsi cola and added two ounces of apple cider vinegar and a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. I used Pepsi as a base instead of the usual beer because I wanted to add some sugar for the bark. I spritzed the brisket every hour with the mop sauce from a spray bottle.

I left it on the smoke setting for two hours, but I wasn’t getting much heat. The pit temperature was only about 150 degrees, so I increased the temperature to 180 for the next hour. Then I stepped it up to 225 and continued to spritz the meat every hour. At 1:30pm, I checked the brisket with an instant read thermometer in the thickest part and found the internal temperature to be 150 degrees. I checked it again at 2:30pm and found it was stalled at 169 degrees. I pulled the brisket off the smoker and double wrapped it in foil, basted it heavily and put it back inside.

I didn’t open the smoker again until 4pm when I carefully peeled back an opening in the foil and checked it again with the instant read thermometer – I was close, it read 191 degrees. I closed it up and waited another 25 minutes. When I checked it at 4:25pm, it read 201 degrees. Perfect!

Next I bundled the foil-wrapped brisket in a heavy towel and packed it away in the microwave/convection oven. I didn’t turn the oven on, I just wanted to pack the insulated brisket in a confined space so it would hold its temperature for a long while. It would re-absorb some of the moisture in the foil while it slowly cooled. Meanwhile, Donna cooked red potatoes and made southern fried cabbage with bacon. After resting for an hour and a half, I pulled the brisket out of the oven and opened the foil. It was still steaming hot and the bottom of the foil held about a cup and a half of au jus from the rendered fats and collagen.

Brisket HOF with au jus in the background

Donna calls the au jus “gravy.” That works for me. I sliced the thin part of the flat off – I’ll cube it for use in other dishes later – then I confirmed the grain direction so I could slice across the grain. This was the most tender hunk of brisket I’ve ever encountered.

Sliced brisket served with smashed red potatoes and southern fried cabbage with bacon

The brisket displayed a beautiful pink, or magenta, smoke ring penetrating a quarter-inch or more into the meat. It was absolutely delicious and tender – there was no need for steak knives. We cut it on the plate with regular table knives. Donna had a glass of California merlot while I paired my dinner with Four Peaks Kilt Lifter Scottish ale. I have about a cup of au jus leftover and plenty of brisket for sandwiches and whatever else Donna comes up with. I guess the premium price for USDA Prime at Chuck’s Fine Meats is worth it.

The weather has been on the cool side. We’ve had daily highs in the low to mid 60s with overnight lows down to the upper 30s the last couple of nights. A warming trend should begin today and we’ll see mid 70s again if the forecast holds true. I’ll take it easy again today and hit the pickleball 3.5+ round-robin tomorrow.

Have a safe and merry Christmas. That reminds me – Christmas presents. Sometimes I’m at a loss to think of a good present for Donna. I still have a few days!

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Mesa Move-in

I let another week go by without writing a post, so I have to catch up. We had our final days last week at Leaf Verde RV Park in Buckeye. On Thursday, I made a trip over to my daughter, Jamie’s, house to pick up a package for Donna. Jamie told me she wasn’t feeling well, so she would leave the package in the front courtyard.

When I picked up the package, Jamie stood at the dining room window to talk to me at a safe distance. She told me she had sanitized the package – it was on a chair in the courtyard. I think she was planning for a nap or at least a bit of rest after I left.

On Friday, Jamie went to an urgent care center for a COVID-19 test. On Monday, the results came back positive – so she has the virus from China. I don’t think we should forget where this virus originated – Wuhan, China. I hope Jamie’s case is mild. She’s 35 years old and generally in good health, so I expect her to make a full recovery.

We packed up Saturday morning. I had to hook the trailer back up, because I’d disconnected when I took the coach in for service. The drive from Buckeye, west of Phoenix to Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort in east Mesa was about 60 miles. I didn’t anticipate much traffic on a Saturday, but crossing a big city like Phoenix is always a crap shoot.

As usual, the major junctions on I-10 had slow downs. Some of these are predictable as the freeway design is sure to create a tie-up – such as where I-17 intersects I-10 and the left HOV lane ends right where traffic is merging into the lanes. At the junction of AZ51, L-202 and I-10 an accident on the AZ51 ramp had traffic stopped as everyone had to look at the crash site. So, the 60-mile drive took us over an hour and a half.

The office at Viewpoint is closed on the weekends, but the security guys were expecting us. We entered the park from Hawes Road and found our usual site at 5245. Our end of the 5200 row was (and still is) empty. Many Canadians are unable to come here at this point. They can’t cross the border in their car or RV. They can only fly into the US. For most of them, that would mean they would have to rent or buy a car once they got here or they wouldn’t have transportation.

All of the empty spaces made it easier to maneuver the trailer into our site. I dropped it, then put the coach in place. We were hooked up and back in business by 3pm and I was ready to relax with a cold one.

On Sunday, our friends Mike and Jodi Hall visited us along with their granddaughter, Swayzie. We watched football on our outdoor TV – Viewpoint has free cable TV – while Mike and I enjoyed a stogie. We both chose Arturo Fuente Gran Reserva for our afternoon smoke. Mike is recovering from major surgery, so we just sat and took it easy.

On Monday morning, Donna and I walked down to the pickleball courts. We played for a couple of hours and it felt good to be back on the familiar courts. Last month, Donna ordered a canopy for my birthday – I planned to use it for my ham shack. Lake Pleasant didn’t allow pop-up type canopies and Leaf Verde was a little cramped so I hadn’t used it yet.

On Monday afternoon, I unpacked the canopy and set about putting it up. The instructions were less than useful – it basically said to spread the framework slightly, lay the covering over it and put it up. There was a little more to it than that! With Donna’s help, I had it together in about an hour – it won’t take that long next time now that I know the process.

It has four removeable fabric walls with a zip open door on the front. I assembled it with only two walls – on the rear and the west side – to provide afternoon shade while allowing the breeze to circulate.

I set up my ham radio antennas next and put a folding table under the canopy to complete my ham shack. I was pretty excited about being just five miles away from the repeater towers on Usery Mountain. The repeater there would get me into the Yaesu WIRES-X system. What I didn’t count on was the fact that Spook Hill blocks the line-of-sight to the top of Usery Mountain. The repeaters are VHF/UHF which relies on line-of-sight to link the antennas! I’ll play around with it some more, but right now, I do better with repeaters on South Mountain – 26 miles away – and one in west Mesa.

Last week, our Sharp microwave/convection oven broke. The mechanism to open the door broke and the door can’t be opened. I looked at the linkage involved and it’s beyond repair. I ordered a replacement unit from Amazon and it arrived here Monday morning. Now I need to get someone out here to remove the old unit and install the new. It looks like I have a two-week wait to get a mobile RV tech to handle it.

So, we’re relegated to induction cooktop, crock pot or grill cooking, Reheating is a little harder but doable on the induction cooktop. I’ll set up the Weber Q and the Traeger now that we’ll be settled in for the winter. Last night, Donna made pan seared salmon with a ginger and scallion topping with forbidden (black) rice and broccoli.

Wild Alaskan salmon with forbidden rice and broccoli

We’ve had clear skies and warm temperatures. It was in the mid 70s when we arrived on Saturday. Sunday was warmer in the mid-80s. Yesterday we hit 90 and will see mid-80s again today. The forecast says we’ll be in the low 80s to high 70s for the next week.

Open Spaces

Now that all of the regular activities here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort are stopped, a lot of people have packed up and left. I guess for those that have regular sticks-and-bricks homes and family elsewhere, it made sense for them to head home while they can. Talk of restrictions on travel to and from some states have created a sense of urgency for some people. Of course, the Canadian visitors had their reasons for leaving as well.

Donna has been staying active, riding her bicycle and doing strength training three days a week with our friend and neighbor here in the park. Ginny comes over on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and they do their socially distanced training routine on the empty concrete pad east of our site. Ginny and her husband, Joe, were in my refined skills pickleball class last year. They’ve come a long way with their pickleball game. It’s too bad we’re not allowed on the courts here at this time. Like us, they’re planning to stay through the end of the month in their park model.

Lately my activity levels have really fallen off. We go out for a walk most evenings, but that isn’t much. We see a few people that are socializing in their sites with friends, some of them are still having fairly large gatherings. We’ve decided to avoid these situations and keep our distance.

This whole social distancing thing has been somewhat controversial, but I think we can’t ignore it. One of the statistics that really sticks out in my mind is the number of COVID-19 cases in New York. New York has approximately 20 million people and as of 3pm yesterday, they had over 92,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. California has approximately 40 million people – double the population of New York – but they have only about 9,200 confirmed cases as of yesterday. That’s only 10% as many cases with double the population.

Why is that? That’s the question everyone would like the answer to. Here’s my thought on this social distance thing. Whereas New York has high population density in New York City, it also has heavily used mass transportation – subways, trains, buses and taxi cabs. Californians have large population centers as well, but they are much more likely to travel alone or in small groups in their personal vehicles. People in New York are more likely to spend time indoors – sharing space with others – while Californians are more likely to be outdoors and not in close contact with strangers. Maybe that explains why New York has so many cases compared to California – that’s my theory for now.

Since last weekend, the only time Donna and I have left the RV park was to go grocery shopping. I’ve done most of the shopping, but today we both went. I dropped Donna off at Sprouts where she likes to get fresh produce and some specialty foods while I went to Winco foods to buy a few staples and beer. It worked out good, I was able to buy some needed foods at the lower Winco prices while Donna found everything she wanted at Sprouts. With our limited refrigeration and food storage, I go out to shop a twice a week.

Speaking of limited space, Donna’s been doing some re-organizing. Our bathroom has a closet space that holds our Splendide 2100 washer/dryer and cleaning supplies. We also had a basket for clothes that needed to be washed on a shelf above the washer dryer. Donna wanted to use this space as additional pantry space. When you live in about 300 square feet, finding space for a clothes hamper can be a challenge. Donna came up with a solution. She found pop-up mesh hampers online from Bed, Bath and Beyond. She ordered two of them – one for whites and one for colored clothes. These hampers are very lightweight. She put them in the shower so they don’t take up any usable space. When we shower, we just pull them out and temporarily leave them on the bathroom floor. Then we dry the floor of the shower and put them back.

Colored clothes in the black hamper, whites in the white one

You would think with all this time spent at home and not going out for happy hour that we would be saving money. Well, I’m doing my best to keep the economy rolling. I find myself in front of the computer screen placing orders online. Donna, too. So we’ve had Amazon deliveries almost daily!

We didn’t dine out very often anyway – we’re used to home-cooked meals and only went out to dinner once a month or so. Here are a few meals from the last week. First is pan-seared mustard flank steak with roasted garlic cauliflower and corn.

Another dinner plate was creamy lemony orzo with shrimp and peas. Delicious.

Last night, I grilled a pork tenderloin that Donna prepped with her mojo marinade. She served it with fire roasted sweet potatoes and steamed asparagus.

I bought a 2.5-pound London broil steak today (top round) to make beef jerky. My last batch was the best so far – I’ve made small improvements with each batch. I’ll prep this steak later today and smoke it tomorrow.

We’ve had excellent weather for the past week with temperatures reaching the upper 70s and low 80s. We topped out at 85 on Wednesday. The week ahead should be more of the same.

Starting the 20s in Mesa, Arizona

We pulled into Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort as planned on New Year’s Eve. Our timing wasn’t so good though. We arrived at the office at 12:05 pm only to find they close for lunch from 12:00 to 1:00 pm. A few raindrops were falling – even though the weather guessers said there was zero percent chance of rain – so we settled down in the coach, had some lunch and waited. At 1:00 pm, I checked us in and we headed over to our familiar site 5245.

Most of the sites around us were empty, so I had ample room to maneuver. I should add that the orange trees at the corner of each site always make it a little harder than it has to be to drop our trailer. We were set up fairly quickly and the rain didn’t continue. The sites at Viewpoint are roomy – it’s one of the things we like about this park.

We were surprised to find neighbors moving in as well. Our friends Chuck and Sue came in across from us and a neighbor came in next door. We didn’t expect much activity on New Year’s Eve.

I had called the Two Wheel Jones Bicycle Shop the day before to confirm Donna’s bike was ready to go. They were supposed to phone when they had it ready, but didn’t. They told me “No worries, it’s all set and on the showroom floor.” Once we were set up, we drove over to the shopping center at the corner of Power Road and McDowell Road to the bike shop. I wasn’t too happy to find the bike was on the showroom floor as they said, but they hadn’t installed the rack and bag I’d ordered or the upgraded pedals! In fact, they said the pedals hadn’t arrived!

They quickly resolved the issue and even robbed a set of the pedals from someone else’s order – they hadn’t come in to pick them up, so Donna left with the bike fully assembled as ordered after 30 minutes or so. The new bike is similar to the one we bought last summer in Arlington, Washington. The main differences are this is a women’s specific design – the frame and seat are different – and the color is Miami Green instead of black.

Once the bike was ready, Donna rode it a mile down Power Road to meet me at Lucky Lou’s. We met some of the usual suspects there for a cold one before Donna rode the four miles back to Viewpoint. We locked the bike in our trailer. Donna wanted to get a new bike lock before she took the bike anywhere. She ended up ordering a German-made folding lock that should be a formidable theft deterrent. The lock wasn’t cheap – it cost about $100, but that’s not unreasonable when you think about the cost of replacing her bike. We traded in our two road bikes for her Trek Dual Sport 2 last July and having it stolen less than six months later resulted in a cost of over $1,000 to replace the bike and accessories.

While we were at Lou’s, a number of people checked out Midget-San which was parked right at the entrance. There are almost always interesting cars in the lot at Lou’s and this day was no exception. I saw a beautifully restored Mercury Monterrey in the parking lot. I didn’t meet the owner, so I don’t know the model year for sure, but this body style was built from 1952 to 1954.

The cool weather persisted until the weekend with highs around 60 degrees and overnight lows in the upper 30s. At this time of year, the Phoenix area is a little colder than what we’d find in San Diego, but it’s much drier. San Diego’s rainy season runs from Christmas to March.

I finally shook the cold I’ve been fighting and now Donna’s over hers too. We’ve been taking it fairly easy. Donna started the Bright Line Eating plan on New Year’s Day. This plan cuts out flour and sugar. It still allows plentiful portions of food though. This plan is healthy and Donna has had great results with it. One of the menu items is pizza chicken – I wrote about it before. It’s an interesting dish that substitutes slices of chicken breast for pizza crust. Donna serves it with spaghetti squash and it’s very tasty.

On Saturday, my middle daughter, Jamie, and her significant other, Francisco, came by to visit. They moved from Texas to the west side of Phoenix recently and are only about an hour away from here. We sat outside in the sun and had lunch and talked while I was distracted by the wild card weekend NFL games on the outdoor TV.

Before they left, a neighbor unloaded a car from his trailer. It was a hot-rodded 1961 Chevy Impala. I wish I’d taken a photo. It’s a beautiful car with an incredible black finish. The panels are so smooth and the paint is flawless.

Monday, Donna and I hit the pickleball courts. It was windy and the gusts made outdoor pickleball very challenging. This morning, I played in the 3.0 round robin. I usually play in the 3.5 group, but I needed to work out some of the rust from only playing indoors for the past several months. Tomorrow, I’ll resume the refined skills coaching sessions I did last year. These are sessions for players moving up to intermediate level play. I enjoy coaching them and it helps my game as well.

The temperature reached highs of about 70 degrees over the weekend and today we should see the mid-70s. We’re sure to have another cold spell before things start warming up here in Mesa, Arizona.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Wet Christmas

I hope all who read this had a great Christmas and are continuing to enjoy the holiday season. I wrote in my last post about Donna’s start to the festivities with the Santa 5k Run. On Wednesday, December 18th we were invited to a Christmas party at my friend, Tye’s, house in Bay Park. He lives up the bluff on Galveston Street and has an outstanding view of Mission Bay all the way to Belmont Park.

We enjoyed good food and drink among friends there. Donna made deviled eggs with bacon bits that were outstanding. I wrote in my last post about my friend, Bob Babich, a former NFL player. He was in attendance at the party as was Ralph Perretta. Ralph was an offensive lineman – guard and center – drafted by the San Diego Chargers in 1975. He played here until 1980 then played two seasons with the New York Giants. Tye had old NFL FiIms productions playing on his DVR and it was fun to hear stories of the good old days of professional football from guys that were there on the field.

One of the things I’ve figured out recently is this. I’m getting older and don’t recover or heal like I once did. On the 11th, I cut my finger and had to have it stitched. I’ve had stitches several times in my life and it isn’t a big deal. Usually after a week or so I’d just clean the area and remove the sutures myself. The doctor told me this time to give it seven to 10 days. So I split the difference and on the 18th I removed the sutures. Well, I don’t heal so fast anymore or maybe the cut was deeper than I imagined – anyway I may have been a couple of days early.

This is what it looked like after I pulled the sutures

A couple of days later, it looked better, but it still wasn’t fully closed. The thing is, I’ve left stitches in too long before and it makes removing them difficult. I guess I should have waited the full 10 days in this case.

It’s in pretty good shape now and I’m able to play the guitar without any issues other than the lack of callous on my finger tip. Santa put a guitar-clarinet duet music book in my stocking, so Donna and I will see if we can play a few of the arrangements together.

Rain moved into the area on Christmas Eve. We kept it low-key and did the typical taco Tuesday night at Offshore Tavern and Grill and saw a few friends there. It rained off and on Christmas day. I had a restless night and woke up Christmas morning with a sore throat, congestion and lacked energy. I spent most of the day in bed reading and napping. Last night it stormed with heavy rain and gusty wind. Right now, the sun is shining, but I can see on the Radar Express app on my phone that another bout of rain is likely to hit us today.

I’m not complaining – things could always be worse. I was reminded of that when we came into the park the other day and saw the entrance gate and fence was damaged.

Apparently, someone hit it while entering the park. Later, I found out it was a new neighbor. He cut the corner at the entrance in his tag-axle Newmar Dutch Star. This coach is north of 40-feet long and he turned in too early. You have to really drive deep into a turn before you start to turn in or this is what happens. As you can imagine, the coach suffered damage as well.

It’s hard to see in the photo, but the damage starts behind the right front wheel with dents and scrapes across the first two basement compartment doors. The third door was completely torn away. Ouch!

The forecast calls for the rain to clear up and we should have sunny days starting tomorrow and through the weekend. This is fortunate timing as we have to prepare to move. We’ll pull out Sunday and head to the desert. I need to organize and pack the trailer. I’ll check and adjust all tire pressures – coach and trailer.

We still have Ken’s car. I notified the lender in writing about his passing and told them where they could pick it up. I haven’t heard anything from them. My friend and attorney, Dan Cullen, will take care of it if they don’t pick it up by Sunday. I also ordered a new bike for Donna from Two Wheel Jones bike shop in Mesa, Arizona. They said they could have the bike in the shop and set up for her by New Year’s Eve. I was supposed to be kept in the loop on the progress via e-mail, but I haven’t heard from them. I’ll follow up today with a phone call.

So, the plan is to head out on Sunday and spend a quiet night in the desert. Then we’ll move on to Casa Grande and get the Cummins ISL diesel engine in the coach serviced and move on to Maricopa for the night. Then we’ll be back at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort in Mesa, Arizona on New Year’s Eve.

A Quiet Passing

My step-dad, Kenneth Keller, passed quietly Friday morning. He was 88 years old. We’ve learned a few details about the final months of his life over the past few weeks. He had been complaining about shortness of breath for a few months. His primary care physician examined him in August and again in September. He didn’t order any diagnostic procedures (i.e. chest X-ray). On September 28th, he was gasping for air and his neighbor, Helen, called 911 after talking to Ken’s primary care physician. He was transported to Loma Linda Hospital in Murrieta.

Ken was born in 1931 but we don’t know anything about his biological parents – he was put up for adoption and was adopted by the Keller family. I think he was born in Connecticut, but the family moved to Iowa.

He joined the United States Marine Corps in 1950 at the age of 19. He was shipped out to Korea. He fought the Chinese Peoples Volunteer Army (PVA) at Chosin Reservoir in December of 1950. This was a pivotal battle in the Korean war and huge casualties were suffered by all involved. The marines were surrounded by an overwhelming force of Chinese PVA. The marines broke through and marched to the port of Hungnam, about 70 miles away for evacuation.

Ken was about five and a half feet tall and weighed all of 150 pounds at the time. But he carried and operated a Browning Machine Gun which had to be a heavy load to hump through the snow covered mountains around the reservoir.

Ken married and settled in San Diego, California. I don’t know anything about his first wife and children. After the divorce, they were completely estranged. Ken went to work for the City of San Diego as an electrician – a job he held for over twenty years.

In 1972, he married my mother. I grew to respect the man, especially for the way he always took care of my mother. As I came of age, he helped me purchase my first car (and second and third). They lived in a few places around San Diego before mom and Ken both retired. I think it was 1994 when they bought a house in Sun City – which is now a community of the city of Menifee in Riverside County. My mom passed away in 2012. Ken continued to live alone in their house for the remainder of his life.

At Loma Linda Hospital, he was treated for fluid in his lungs. Diagnostic x-rays revealed a tumor in his left lung. After a week, he was transported to Ramona Rehabilitation and Post Acute Care Center in Hemet. He was attended by skilled nursing staff 24 hours a day there. However, the place is somewhat crowded and the staff appears to be overworked.

Our goal was to move him into a boarding care home where he would have attendants 24/7 in a much quieter environment and more personal attention. After some research, Donna and I toured a couple of facilities. We decided that a new boarding care home in a recently developed residential area of Winchester was the best choice. New Hope Residential Elder Care is owned and operated by Jane Mikenas. She provides personal attention daily and has two attendants on duty at all times to care for up to six patients – a 3 to 1 ratio of patients to caregivers.

Unfortunately, our was plan to move Ken on October 15th was dashed when he was diagnosed with an infectious bacterial infection. We weren’t able to get him into the boarding care home until Wednesday, October 23rd. By then, his health had declined dramatically. Hospice care evaluated him and assigned a nurse. Jane made him her priority as she was certain he was in his final stages.

My phone rang at 6:03am Friday morning. At first I thought it must be an East Coast telemarketer as I slumbered. Then I realized there could be another reason for an early morning call. It was Jane. She told me Ken passed moments earlier. She was at his bedside and held his hand as he slipped away. She had come in early because one of the caregivers told her Ken was struggling. He had been on atavan and morphine and passed away in peace.

Last January, I had Ken’s trust reviewed and updated by an attorney. I was named successor trustee and now I have the fiduciary responsibility to settle his estate. I met with Ken and my brother, Eddie, at Ken’s house in January to go over his wishes. I made copies of all documents and distributed them to my brother and sister to avoid any misunderstandings. This is a big responsibility and I wanted to be transparent with what would happen under these circumstances. I’ll be busy in the weeks ahead. I’ll try to update with a post or two covering happier stuff Donna and I are sure to find. Ken’s last words to us were, “You two have fun!”

Engineering or Art?

I’ve been finding it hard to motivate myself to post to this blog lately. I’m busy keeping affairs in order for my step-dad, Ken. He’s still at the skilled nursing facility in Hemet. He is currently scheduled to be transported to the boarding home care facility in Winchester tomorrow. We will be able to employ hospice care there.

We got out and did a few things in the last week. Donna’s fighting a sinus infection, so that limited some of her normal activities. I went out and played pickleball a couple of times. On Thursday, we went to the UCSD campus to check out an unusual attraction Donna heard about. It’s located at the top of Jacobs Hall on the campus. The UCSD campus covers over 2,100 acres in La Jolla near Torrey Pines.

The attraction is an engineering/art exercise called Fallen Star. It’s a weird building cantilevered off of the roof of Jacobs Hall.

The hall is a seven-story building near the Ted Geisel library. It houses the Jacobs School of Engineering.

The building was designed by an engineer named Suh Do Ho. Everything inside the building from the floor to furnishings is set at crazy angles. It’s not like the floor is tilted and everything inside tilts with it. Some furnishings tilt one way while windows and other furnishings are tilted in different directions. It’s all very dis-orienting.

The Ted Geisel library building is another interesting bit of architecture on the campus. It was built in 1970 and renovated and renamed after local author Theodor Geisel – better known as Dr. Suess – in the 1990s. The building looks like something that landed from outer space. At night when it’s lit up inside, it really looks even more outer-spacey.

Ted Geisel Library viewed from the top of the Jacobs Hall – the construction cranes are far away in the background

Another view of the library from ground level

My friend Gary Stemple invited me to join him Friday night for the San Diego Music Hall of Fame induction show. There are a few organizations claiming to be San Diego Hall of Fame – this one is fairly recent with this being their second induction ceremony.

We took an Uber to Ocean Beach where the ceremony was held in a church hall. The musicians were each limited to just one or two songs during the presentation. I would have liked to have more music and fewer speeches, but that’s how these things go.

One of the inductees was Robin Henkel – a long time San Diego musician. Back in the ’70s, he was a member of a popular local band called Jambalaya. He plays blues and jazz now and has opened shows for many stars such as B.B. King, Dizzy Gillespie, Bonnie Raitt and many others.

Angelo Pizzaro is a young up-and-coming star on the music scene in San Diego and he performed an original composition on keyboards, accompanied by a horn.

The Candye Kane Alumni Band played a tribute to her as she is a San Diego Hall of Famer. Candye originally started in the porn industry in the early ’80s and her music career took hold in the mid-’80s. She passed away in 2016 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 54.

The show was fun and the atmosphere was very laid back.

We’ve had more great weather here although things are heating up again. We have a mild Santa Ana condition – I’ve written about it before. Santa Ana occurs when high pressure develops inland over the desert. This creates wind that blows across the mountains to the west, lowering humidity and raising temperature. The hot, dry wind is a big fire danger. Yesterday the high temperature reached 89 degrees and we’re expecting upper 80s today. The next few days should be upper 70s to low 80s, then we’ll settle down to a more “normal” high of around 70 degrees.

Mexican Boarding Pass

I haven’t written a post in over a week. It’s not just due to laziness on my part – I’ve been busy and family matters have me out of my usual routines. My step-dad, Ken, is still at Ramona Rehab Center in Hemet. It’s a little under two hours of driving time to get there if the traffic is flowing well. With a traffic jam or two, it can take three hours each way. His condition seemed to be improving, but then things changed. I finally got a report on the doctor’s findings.

He has a lung tumor of about 3.3cm in the left lobe. This is why he has fluid in his lung. I suspect he may also have additional tumors in his abdomen. At his age, 88 years old, no doctor is willing to risk surgical procedures – he probably wouldn’t survive an operation.

I’ve made several trips up to Hemet over the past week and half. The plan was to move Ken out of the rehab center on Tuesday, October 15th – tomorrow. Donna returned from her trip to Vermont last Wednesday night and she drove up with me on Saturday. We made a couple of stops to check out boarding care facilities. We found one we liked in Winchester – about 15 or 20 minutes away from the neighborhood Ken lived in. The boarding care facility is a normal looking residential house in a newly constructed neighborhood. They can accommodate up to six patients and have two attendants on duty 24 hours a day. After looking at the home, we drove up to the rehab center and faced some bad news.

Ken’s condition had worsened. He has a bacterial infection commonly called C. diff. It’s contagious and they won’t be releasing him until it clears up. I didn’t know this on Saturday – the test results came in on Sunday. I paid the admission fee and pro-rated care fee for October at the boarding care home on Saturday to make sure he had a private room available when he’s discharged from the rehab center. It won’t be happening tomorrow though.

Meanwhile life goes on and I had a few interesting days. On Thursday, my friend Gary Stemple invited me to go fishing with him and another friend of his named Duane. I bought a one-day California fishing license at Dana Landing at 3pm on Wednesday afternoon after returning from a trip to Hemet. I told the girl at the counter I needed a one-day license for tomorrow. I also needed a one-day Mexican fishing permit in case we crossed into Mexican waters. She told me I had to get the Mexican permit online.

When I got back to the park and started to search for the Mexican permit, I noticed the California license she issued me was for one-day but it was for Wednesday! Who would buy a license at 3pm and have it expire at midnight? I told her it was for tomorrow. I went back and she issued a new license without any further hassle.

Donna came home from the airport close to midnight Wednesday night. It was a long travel day from Vermont. I was up at 4am to go fishing. We left Harbor Island in a 24-foot center console fishing boat at sunrise. The first stop was at the bait barge where we filled the live-well with live anchovies.

The fishing turned out to be a bust. We got skunked, although we fished hard at the nine-mile bank and also near the Coronado Islands of Mexico. There was a lot of naval activity outside of San Diego along a couple of shipping lanes. We saw a few Littoral-class combat ships. These stealth warships are futuristic looking and a bit scary.

Another ship passed by us and I couldn’t figure out what it was. I think it was some kind of support ship for underwater research. It had two submersibles – the orange shapes you can see in the photo – and a weird open two-level deck.

When we headed south toward the Coronado Islands, we rigged three lines for trolling. I drove the boat as we trolled slowly – about 4mph. Gary napped on the bow seats while Duane took a nap on the aft bench. As we approached the islands, I saw what looked like a powerful go-fast boat come around one of the islands and head toward us. Something about it made me think this wasn’t good. It was speeding on a heading to come directly to us. When it was about 500 yards out, I could see a number of men on board – at least a dozen. And they had guns.

As they came closer, I told Gary to wake up – we have armed Federales coming. I put the boat in neutral and wound my line in. I told Duane to wake up and start reeling his line in – we were going to be boarded. As their boat came alongside about 10 yards, I could see they were Mexican Federal agents with automatic weapons and body armor. They came around behind us and ran over two of our fishing lines, cutting one of them.

One of the men on board started yelling at the boat driver and had him back away. They floated about 30 yards beside us with all eyes on us. Duane asked me if he should get his passport and permit out. I told him to keep reeling his line in and keep his hands in their view. I didn’t want him to reach inside his backpack.

Once Duane had his line and lure in, they seemed satisfied that we were merely gringo fisherman. The guy that yelled at the boat driver seemed to be in charge. He gave us a thumbs up and called out, “Okay?” Gary replied, “Bueno.” They drove away without boarding our boat! How weird is that?

As we headed toward the islands, I spied a fin cutting the water about 100 yards away. Gary drove toward it. It was a large shark – we think it was a mako based on the color and it was about eight feet long. We gave up fishing around 3pm and headed back to San Diego Bay.

As we entered the bay, two go-fast boats came toward us and passed off the port side about 50 yards out. They had flashing lights and each held eight or 10 special forces troops – probably Navy SEALS from the Coronado North Island base. Then two more flew by followed by two more pairs – making a total of eight boats.

Gary continued cruising at about 25mph toward the gas dock and Harbor Island when we noticed a go-fast boat with flashing lights coming up on us from behind. We thought one of the special forces boat had turned around to follow us. Then we heard the whoop-whoop of its siren and we slowed to a stop. It was a Coast Guard Patrol Boat with three, 300-horsepower outboard engines! Two officers boarded our boat. It was a routine safety check. It went smoothly – we had all of our gear and paperwork in order. This was the first time any of us had been boarded by the Coast Guard.

On Saturday morning, Donna and I drove Midget-San to the British Car Day show at Spanish Landing Park on San Diego Bay across from the airport. It was a nice show with the cars organized by marque representing various car clubs in the area.

There were several Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprites. My first car was a Bugeye that I bought when I was 15 years old.

The original Mini was a very small car sold under the Austin or Morris nameplate. The current versions are much larger cars. In the photo above, you can partially see a Clubman wagon with wood trim in the background.

There were several DeLoreans on display. Although DeLorean Motor Company was an American company, the cars were built in North Ireland, making them British cars.

This old MG was interesting. The bonnet not only covered the motor, it extended beyond the firewall to expose the steering column and control pedals. It looks like it might have been a bit drafty on the legs and feet.

We saw Paul Konkle’s 1962 MGB racecar. Paul is the owner of British Car Repair where I had the axle/hub seal replaced on our Midget.

Donna looking good in Paul’s MGB racecar

Paul raced the previous weekend at the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) Nationals at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. He brought home a gold medal!

We had to leave by 11am to go north to look at boarding care facilities which brings me back to the start of this post.

Gary invited us to join him on Sunday and drive up to Carson for the Chargers game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football. Gary has season tickets and Donna was our designated driver. There were so many Steeler fans visiting southern California at the game, the vibe in the tailgating area was hostile. I’ve never experienced such a negative atmosphere inside the stadium at a Chargers game before.

The weather here in San Diego continues to be outstanding. Last week was a little warmer than usual with highs reaching the mid-80s. The week ahead should have highs in the low-to-mid-70s and overnight lows around 60 degrees.

No More 24-Hour Shuffle

The short drive from Oceanside to Mission Bay was uneventful Friday morning. The day before, I had called Mission Bay RV Resort to inquire if they were still using the e-mail Fast Track check-in process – I hadn’t received the e-mail. The guy I talked to didn’t seem to know – I could hear him asking someone else in the office – then he said I would get an e-mail. I didn’t. Mission Bay RV Resort is under new management. I won’t go into the details in this post – it’s been a political football – but now the RV park is being run by the same people that operate Campland – an RV resort on the bay across Rose Inlet from Mission Bay RV Resort.

Not much has changed so far, but there was one positive at check-in. When we first started coming to Mission Bay, we were required to leave the park for at least 24 hours after one month – what we called the 24-hour shuffle. One month was defined as 31 consecutive days. Then they changed the policy to allow two consecutive months – 62 days. Now three months are allowed before you have to leave the park, so we’re checked in for 93 consecutive days. This is great – packing up and getting out of the park for 24 hours when you want to have an extended stay here was always a pain. We unloaded Midget-San and dropped the trailer in the overflow lot, then set up in site 111.

As usual we found many activities going on in Mission Bay Park. The RV park also filled up for the weekend. This is the normal pattern here at this time of year – lots of weekend warriors but generally quiet with many empty sites during the weekdays.

We’ve been having king tides with the high tide over six-feet above the normal sea level. The tides should be back to a more normal level after today – the high tide will be about four feet above mean sea level.

I have my outdoor TV set up again – I hook it up to the park’s cable TV. It allows me to sit outside in the evenings and puff a cigar while I watch football. Sunday night, that’s what I did.

I’ve been trying to stay on top of my step-dad’s healthcare at Loma Linda Hospital in Murrieta. When I visited him last week, I went to the nurses’ station on his floor and gave them my contact information and told them I was next-of-kin and had power of attorney for his healthcare decisions. I thought we were clear that I was the contact person. They didn’t contact me. They kept calling Ken’s neighbor, Helen with updates. Ken’s good friend, Ray, and his wife, Helen, live across the street from Ken in Sun City (Menifee). Ray is 90 years old. I think Helen is well into her 70s and she’s had her hands full taking care of Ray and looking after Ken. Helen is sharp as a tack and really on top of things. We finally got it straightened out with the hospital so I would be contacted if needed.

Ken is doing better, but he’s not able to fend for himself just yet. Monday we had him transferred to a skilled nursing facility for rehabilitation. Hopefully he’ll regain enough strength to be able to go home soon. Donna and I borrowed her sister, Sheila’s car on Tuesday and drove it up to Menifee to get some things from Ken’s house. I took Ken’s car – a 2015 Kia Soul – and we drove to Hemet to admit Ken to the rehab facility. I figured it was best if I kept his car in case I needed to take him anywhere else. I couldn’t get him into or out of the Midget. I also picked up his mail and took care of some financial matters for him.

I made a Costco run on Monday morning in Midget-San. I’ve written about the Costco on Morena Boulevard here before. It’s the original Price Club location. I’ve also written about the high end liquor they offer there. When I saw a bottle of Russian Beluga Vodka, I was dumbfounded.

I don’t understand how any vodka could command a price of $6,999 – but it does come in a Lalique Crystal bottle. The 50-year old Scotch Whisky from The Glenlivet tops all though.

This morning, we dropped off Midget-San at British Auto Repair near the Sports Arena. The right rear axle/hub seal is leaking. I don’t have the work space or all of the tools needed for the job so I found what are probably the best British car mechanics in the area for the job. Since I have Ken’s car right now, it was a good time to get the repair done.

Tonight, Donna will fly out of Lindbergh Field to Albany, New York. She’s going to Bennington, Vermont to visit her parents for the next week. She’ll be helping her dad with his rehab – he broke his hip a few weeks ago.

The weather here has been great – daily highs in the 70s and overnight lows around 60 degrees. I can expect more blue skies and fine weather in the week ahead with a slight warming trend after the weekend. I’ll probably make a trip or two to Hemet – about 90 miles from here – to visit Ken and check on his progress.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Family Matters

I closed my last post saying we had eight nights to fill before we could check in at Mission Bay RV Park in San Diego and needed a plan. What we came up with may not have been the most exciting plan, but it was practical. We left Bishop and headed south on US395 for about 140 miles to Ridgecrest, California.

The Elks Lodge in Ridgecrest has about a dozen sites with full hook-ups – five are 50amp service. Ridgecrest isn’t the most glamorous destination, but at $20/night it would work for the first four nights we needed to fill.

Ridgecrest has been in the news recently due to earthquakes centered near the town. In July, quakes with magnitudes of 6.4, 5.4 and 7.1 happened. In the last week, several smaller quakes occurred including a a magnitude 3.2 on Saturday morning, which was recorded by geologists, but we didn’t even notice it.

Ridgecrest’s other claim to fame is the China Lake Naval Station nearby. China Lake is mainly a research and evaluation facility for the US Navy – and it’s also the largest landholding in the navy’s inventory.

When we arrived, there were a few other RVs there, but after two days, we had the place to ourselves. We didn’t do anything exciting while we were there. Donna caught up on a couple of assignments while we took advantage of the 50-amp service to keep the air conditioners running during the day. The high temperature hovered around 90 each day, but quickly cooled off after sundown to overnight lows in the upper 50s. We also had excellent satellite reception and I recorded Formula One and Moto-GP races.

We dropped the trailer across from our site by the lodge

The Ridgecrest Elks Lodge has an RV club and they’ve done a great job with the RV sites, but the lodge doesn’t seem to be very active. They do have Bingo on Thursday nights and Donna went over to play. On Friday evening I went in for a cold one around 5pm and found only two people there. The bartender told me Fridays are usually quiet as so many people get out of town for the weekend. The lodge is closed Saturday and Sunday!

By the time I had the Midget secured in the trailer and hooked up, it was 10:30am when we pulled out of Ridgecrest on Monday morning. We followed US395 south to I-15 and went over Cajon Summit. Cajon Summit is followed by six miles of steep downgrade dropping into San Bernadino. The traffic was harrowing on this stretch as expected. Cars dart from lane to lane trying to take advantage of any opening without much regard for tractor-trailer and big-rig RVs.

We took I-215 down through Riverside and continued our trek southward. We made a stop at Ethanac Road in Menifee where I knew there was a travel center. Finding truck stops in southern California isn’t as easy as some places. I filled our tank with diesel #2 at $3.75/gallon. Not bad considering California fuel prices – we’ve seen much higher prices.

My step-dad, Ken, lives nearby but we didn’t see him. There isn’t anyplace nearby to legally park an RV. We would have to go several miles, then unload the Midget for a visit and load back up to get on the road. I really wanted to get past the afternoon rush through Temecula and get off the road. Our destination was another four-night stay at an Elks Lodge – in Oceanside this time. We’ve wanted to stay there for a while but weren’t able to get a reservation in the past. This time we got lucky and snagged a site for four nights – only a 30-amp service this time. The 30-amp service isn’t a big deal since we have cooler breezes here coming off the Pacific Ocean and don’t need to run air conditioners.

Tuesday morning Donna and I took a ride down the Coast Highway to Saint Michaels By-The-Sea just after crossing into Carlsbad. We met Debbie Bednarski – a friend from my high school days – there and played pickleball. They have two outdoor courts and 12-15 people showed up to play. It was great to see Debbie again and also get back on the pickleball courts.

While we were there, I received a phone call from the my step-dad, Ken’s neighbor, Helen. She told me Ken had just been taken away in an ambulance for transport to Loma Linda Hospital in Murrieta. I knew he was complaining about shortness of breath and it seems like it’s gotten bad enough that he needed attention.

This created a little tension for me – I had to figure out how to handle the situation. Donna’s dad had taken a fall a few weeks ago and broke his hip. He had successful surgery but now needs rehabilitation. He spent two weeks in a facility before Donna’s sisters decided to take over. Linda is a nurse and Sheila is a physical therapist. Sheila flew from San Diego to Vermont to get him going on rehab.

Meanwhile, Sheila’s 15 year-old son, Connor, was invited to play with a band made up of local middle and high schoolers opening up the Padres MLB game with the national anthem at Petco Park on Tuesday night. I needed to drop Donna off at Sheila’s place in La Jolla so she could use Sheila’s car to drive Connor to the ballgame and back.

I called the hospital and talked to an ER nurse. She told me they were taking Ken to X-ray, he was coherent, his vitals were good and I should wait and check back later. So I carried on and drove Donna to La Jolla. I called the hospital again and the nurse told me nothing had really changed and she advised me to sit tight and wait until the doctor came up with something. She didn’t seem overly concerned at this point. I notified my sister and brother and also my daughters of the situation. They admitted Ken to the hospital for more tests and observation.

Yesterday I drove the Midget up to Murrieta. It’s a blast up the interstate most of the way – not a fun drive in a small British sports car. At the hospital, I found Ken’s room and he seemed much better. They had discovered a large amount of fluid in one lung and drained 1.5 liters from it! With the liquid removed, he could breathe much better.

I’m concerned though. The thing is, his heart rate, blood pressure and temperature were all fine. He just couldn’t breathe. To me, I’m thinking this isn’t pneumonia or some kind of infection – he would’ve been ill. So why was there fluid in his lung? The only thing I can come up with is congestive heart failure or cancer. He’s 88 years old, so I’m hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.

Meanwhile, Donna has plans to fly to Varmont next week. She’ll spend a day with Sheila learning what needs to be done to assist with her dad’s physical therapy. Sheila will return home while Donna stays there for a week or more. Family matters matter. I’ll be at Mission Bay RV Resort – we check in tomorrow.

A rain shower passed through here this morning. We skipped pickleball, but drove down to the Oceanside Farmers’ Market near the pier. There were some unique vendors and we bought more than usual.

Oceanside Farmers Market – and the back of Donna’s head

It’s cloudy and cool – the high might reach 70 degrees. We expect pleasant weather at Mission Bay – daytime highs in the low 70s and overnight lows in the 60s. Hard to beat that.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Health

Good Gravy!

Mesa Move-in

Open Spaces

Starting the 20s in Mesa, Arizona

Wet Christmas

A Quiet Passing

Engineering or Art?

Mexican Boarding Pass

No More 24-Hour Shuffle

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Family Matters

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*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

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