More People

This is Sue, Gpa's sister visiting from Missouri. I recognized her from pictures, but I don't know how long its been since we met in person. She and Gpa had a great time.




This is Sue's daughter Rhonda, who lives around here somewhere. I did alot of research and determined that since she is the daughter of my aunt, she is automatically my cousin. Apparently, I have more cousins on Gpa's side of the family that I have never met.

Here is pretty much how the afternoon and evening went.

Christmas in Sun City

Not too much excitement here:

Mom's treasure:



Dad goes to the dark side:

More excitement

Yesterday we went to a retirement complex called "Freedom Village." It is a massive group of 7 story condos with various levels of nursing care. It was an open house with tons of food and live musicians and many many old people with way too much money. Apparently to get into this place costs about $300K to buy the condo and somewhere around 4K per month for service. Mom and I are thinking about buy one just for the winter months.



Then in the evening we went to the Elks for the Friday Fish Fry. The fish wasn't as good as last time but it was good enough that I ate it all.

Here are gandgg all dooded up for the big night out.

More exciting news to come.

The Saga Continues

Today, our luggage decided to stop by for a visit. Clean clothes after two days feels good.

Some of us have been decorating a little.

Too many stockings. Who are these people?


Here is how Gg rolls! We are talking about having it lowered and maybe some rims.

Well, somebody has to be in charge.

Geography Lesson

Today we are having a lesson in geography for our luggage.




On the left is a view of Salt Lake City. We passed through there on our way to Phoenix, which is on the right.

Our luggage got very confused and decided it wanted to stay in SLC. Maybe it wanted it's own little vacation. Maybe it had to do with the snow delay between Seattle and SLC. Hopefully, that will be resolved today. Maybe we could wear different clothes than what we are wearing now.

Anyway, it is very good to be done with traveling and to be here with GandGG.

Multimedia message

Multimedia message

"Leaving...On a Jet Plane"

Well, here we go. We didn't have much money so we decided to take an economy flight to go visit GandGG.

We will be spending a couple weeks down there. We have been watching the weather, looks pretty bad. Lows actually down in the 50s. I will take my parka.

I will try to post all the wonderful things we are doing. I couldn't get Blogger Mobile to work, so I guess I will have to do it the hard way.

Mondays are for MRIs

Today we went over to the VA for my MRI of my head "to see if anything was going on in there." I went to the MRI department and a guy led me through miles of twisting hallways and back alleys. Then we were in the basement headed out to the loading dock. Then, the most redneck thing I have ever seen: An MRI stuffed into a truck sitting in the back alley by the loading dock. I checked to see if it had rims on it. It didn't.

By looking at the image I think you can see the problem. If you will notice, there is an area in the center that looks pretty good. This is what they call the "Reptilian" or primitive brain. The surrounding tissue, oddly enough, is blurred and indistinct. I have to wait for the Radiologist to read the image, but it looks to me like we may have found a problem.



While checking into all this I ran into some pictures that indicate that metal objects are not good for placing near the scanner. I'm surprised that the plate in my head that I got in 'Nam didn't pull out of my head.

My new voice

Monday was the big day. We went back to UW for more treatment. This time it was even more "interesting." I sat up in a chair and they put a scope down into my throat. This one was bigger because it had a tube in it for squirting anesthetic in my throat. They had to twist and turn it to get it through my nose. Then they stuck a needle into the outside of my throat and watched for it to come out inside my throat where they could see it in the scope.

Twice I had to swallow which bent the needle so that had to put on a new one and try again. Finally they found the right spot and squirted the collagen into into the vocal cord. Then they asked me to say an "e" which came out pretty loud because I was used to pushing a lot of air to try to whisper loud.

It was a little strange to suddenly be able to talk out loud. I discovered that I would sometimes forget that I could talk and start whispering or reach for my note board.

Today on my way to the hospital to volunteer I was singing along with Michael Buble, as I am wont to do. I think I pushed it a little because by the time I got inside I could barely croak a little. That eased up over a couple of hours and I am mostly back to normal.

Monday we went to UW for a nerve conduction test on my vocal cords. It was really exciting. They had me lay down in a chair and then the stuck a needle into my neck. No anesthesia, not even an alcohol wipe. The skin penetration was a little painful, but after that when they were hunting around inside my throat was just kinda weird-feeling.

I was not able to follow the two Docs talking to each other except that they said my "recruitment" was good. When they were all done, they said I had to have an MRI of my brain, so maybe they think the problem is on the other end, in my brain. I say tumors, lots and lots of tumors. (Thank you Asher.)

Today we went to the VA and they gave me my Spokeman Voice Amplifier. It works pretty good in some situations. The only problem is that the boom microphone/headset is made for someone with a normal size head, so I have to wear it kinda sideways.

According to the box, it will make me young, attractive and female.

If you can read the fine print, you'll see that I can now "Cater For At Least 100 Audiences!"

I thought maybe that was Chinglish, but it says "made in Singapore." Maybe that is near China.

So yesterday I backslid a little and went to Wendy's for my usual triple combo. I was standing just out from the ordering line writing my order on my whiteboard (since I can't talk). Within a few seconds I find two middle aged guys in Wendy's shirts standing on either side of me. They are both very interested in what I was writing. I thought maybe they thought I was the competition writing down their prices or something. Mostly I couldn't figure out what was going on. When they saw I was just writing out my order they yelled to the back "he's just ordering" and laughed.

Later Joelene suggested they might have thought I was writing out a robbery note. "Put all the hamburgers in this bag and hurry it up."

It was fun.

I think this is my all-time favorite picture. The year is around 1978 or so and Ricky and I are moving irrigation pipe on a farm in Idaho. As you can see, I am doing most of the work. Funny how he looks so much older now and I look just the same as in this picture.

Me and Jeff at the hospital

This is my new buddy, Jeff. We deliver the surgery schedules at the hospital. He has learned a lot and does really well remembering where to go.