Wow, 27 April!

 This growing old is hard!  I mean there are so many things that keep going wrong.  Yesterday I went to one of the two grocery stores in town and the old guy in front of me at the self checkout left the stuff he just bought and but at least he noticed he didn't have anything and had to come back for it!  Then I went to the other store and another old guy comes out with a cart full of stuff, stops by our car and says 'Oh, that isn't my car'!  And off he went wandering around the parking lot.  I'm also not talking about the stupid, lying crap that we get from our President and his ancient supporters in the House and the Senate.  Invading Greenland; what shit!

Since we got home from our cruise we've mostly been going to doctors and we all know that isn't fun.  To start with there is my wife's ankle.  She broke it almost 2 years ago by slipping in the shower.  She was airlifted to a Las Vegas hospital and had her ankle operated on to put it back together.  Well, that was screwed up and she still cannot walk more than a couple hundred yards.  So, of course, we've been talking to another surgeon about the ankle and he wants to freeze it.  That should cut down on her ankle pain however she also has pain in her toes and no one is coming up with anything about that.  But she is getting tested every way they can think of to make the surgery safe.  Of course the surgeon is busy and can't do it this month and is going somewhere in May so we are looking at surgery in June and then a couple months of wheelchair before she can walk again!

Then there is me.  I've noticed my eyesight is changing.  When we are out driving in the day it is very bright; when I drive into the garage and close the door I can't see much of anything for at least a minute.  That transition never used to be a problem; now days it's dangerous to get out of the car.  You could step on all kinds of dangerous stuff!  Clean up the garage?  Oh, hell no!  We donate to the VFW Food Pantry; when you have to go into the building it has no windows so you can't see a darned thing.  And lots of those folks are as old as me!

We changed insurance companies at the first of the year and my old doctor doesn't take the new insurance so I've had to change doctors.  Of course they want tests so I've gotten a bunch of tests as well.  One of the tests said my blood platelet count was so low that the nurse called and said I should go to the emergency room and have a blood transfusion!  So, off to the emergency room.  They wanted to do their own tests so after FIVE HOURS of testing they proclaimed that the original test was wrong and I didn't need a transfusion.  Well, that's good news but five hours???  And how many tests?  I've had so many x-rays that I might be in danger of radiation poisoning (just kidding, I think).

So that's life in the fast lane around here.  One day is overcast and 50 F (10 C) and the next is sunny and 90 F (32 C).  Get up; feed the dog and the birds; pick a few weeds; have breakfast; then the fun stuff!  Visit the doctor or whatever; sometimes we get visitors.  Lately our electric co-op is trying to bring 5G internet to the town.  A few months ago they ran lines along with the power lines that already hang behind the house.  Now they are trying to connect the houses to those lines and that takes quite a few visits!  One person to identify the electric entry to the house, a guy to spray paint showing where the power line runs and a couple of guys to dig a trench and bury a cable from their line to our house.  We are told that there will be someone else to connect the line to the house then another to attach the line to our modem but they are in the future somewhere.  It should be installed in a month or six at the rate they are going!  

It is also true that there isn't much going on around here.  There are some houses being built; that is VERY different from a few years ago but, still, it's not really affecting us.  We do drive around and check out the new stuff but it's just concrete and plywood and shingles.  The sunsets are still pretty good though.

Out in the world we've got Mr. Trump, AKA the Idiot in Chief, who just keeps doing stupid things.  I have to admit that he isn't as stupid as the people he's appointed to be in his cabinet but, well, that would be a stretch.  One of the really minor things Mr. Trump did just recently was to pardon a local politician who was appointed a judge and then found guilty of fraud.  She was in Las Vegas and started a support group to build a statue of a local policeman who was killed in the line of duty.  Then she used the money people donated to pay her rent, pay for her daughter's wedding and some plastic surgery.  She was found guilty of a felony of conspiracy and wire fraud.  So our felon of a president chose to remove the felony from this sorry ass judge.  Actually, on a scale of 1 to 10, it's way down there but it's still just so wrong!  The reporting is on the pvtimes.com website and her name is Michele Fiore.  

Anyway, that's it for today.  Have a good one and stay away from those sick people!

Ok, another month....

 But at least I have an excuse this time:  we've been traveling!  Back on 20 February we took Gus to the dog kennel and headed for Las Vegas.  The next morning we flew off to Miami (crappy seats & a fat 3rd person!) then on to Barcelona, Spain!  Yep, another Viking cruise in the Med.  I know, it's a tough life!

Of course one of my excuses for not posting is that my new HP computer is FAR from friendly with the camera.  Damn, it took 3 or 4 tries and reading stuff online to figure out how to upload any photos.  I mean that's just stupid.  And the photos from my phone are just crap.  Grrr!

The cruise was really quite nice but it was definitely a one-day-at-a-port cruise.  We got to visit a few places we've been before and a few new ones.  First on the list was Corsica.  We've been there before but this time we found a weird back road tour.  It was pretty enough but the driver often had to make a partial turn then back up and turn more; the road was that jack-knifed and narrow.   If we averaged 10 mph I'd be surprised.

 Because of my wife's broken ankle that still isn't fixed correctly we kept to the bus tours.  We took her wheelchair along but mostly it got used in the airports.  She got around on the ship ok as long as we took regular pauses for rest.  It's funny but many of those rest areas served wine.  Thank goodness!  

Our next port was Civitavecchia, Italy.  There is no way we were going to take a bus tour of Rome (it's at least an hour and a half each way) so we just stayed on the ship.  I'm sure the town is nice but there wasn't any tour that called to us:  too much walking for one thing.  It is a pretty port though.

 Our next port was the town of Valleta on the island of Malta.  We did manage to find a bus tour that took us around with the guide pointing out various buildings, etc.  It wasn't our favorite tour for sure and part of the problem was the roads:  tiny isn't a small enough word to describe them!

 

Because of my wife's difficulty walking we usually got the front bus seats so we were right behind either the driver or the guide.  It sure gives you a better view of oncoming traffic!  Shit-oh-dear!  Happily the driver of that truck had room to back up and off the road.  What a great guy!

Next stop was La Goulette, Tunisia.  We took another bus tour but they forgot to mention that we'd be walking for about an hour.  Nope!  We just stayed on the bus.  One of the things that surprised me was how the local drivers were totally unafraid of accidents.  I mean red lights are a suggestion; lanes don't mean a thing.  It's just amazing and as we got farther into Africa, it got worse!  I got a few photos from the parking lot but, well, that's not to exciting.  There was this guy snoozing next to a window.

 

Our next port was Algiers, Algeria.  It was kind of an interesting collection of old places and very new modern places.

 

We took a bus tour again.  In one area we actually got out and I got to push my wife around in her chair!  Happily it was only a couple of blocks but those paving stones can be pretty tough on both the rider and the pusher.

Our next point of interest was the Strait of Gibraltar - we've been through it a couple of times but it's usually at night!  So this time it was supposed to be earlier; around sunset.  Unfortunately it was foggy so all we could see were a few lights!  Maybe in out next lifetime we'll see it.

The next port was Casablanca, Morocco!  We got to visit a church we weren't able to enter and one that we could.  Who knows how that crap is worked out!  The one we got to visit had some pretty fantastic windows!

 

 

We also got to wander through a small shopping area.  Our guide on this tour was blind.  He had an assistant who told him where we were and helped him move around.  Amazing but it was actually ok.

One of the reasons we aren't taking lots of tours is shown in the following photo.

 

It is well over half a mile off the ship and down the pier to get to the road and the bus!  That is definitely a wheelchair trip.  Of course all those containers are beautiful as well.  LOL.

So it was time to leave Africa and head back to Europe.  Our first stop would be Cadiz, Spain.  We've been there so we just stayed on the ship.  They do have some fine architecture.

 

Next came Malaga, Spain.  Again, we've been in the area before so just stayed on the ship.  The crew did have some fun trying out a couple of the lifeboats.  

And while I was walking around on deck I got to see this guy splashing around.

 Yeah, I know, life in the slow lane.  Anyway, that's what took up the end of February and the first part of March.  We got off the ship in Barcelona  at about 08:00 a.m. and headed for the airport.  It was a couple hours until we got on our flight to London; then more waiting in London.  Do I have to say there was lots of wheelchair time in both airports?  Then, finally, a non-stop to Las Vegas!  I got some sleep on that trip;  no dinner but a nice sleep.  And we got home about 8 p.m. local time.  Well, it took us each about three days to get back to regular hours; that 8 hour difference between Europe and the West Coast of the USA is quite a lot.  

So we are back to our usual stuff:  lunch at our favorite places; doctor appointments and fooling with our new computers.  I'll post again when anything exciting happens.  Don't hold your breath!