DeWayne and Joy

DeWayne and Joy

Friday, March 18, 2011

Back At Tinker

It’s been a whirlwind for us the past few weeks since DeWayne’s Mom fell and broke her hip.  It’s been a hard road for her and it looks to be a long recovery, but I’m thankful for any improvement. 

She was moved from the hospital to a nursing home on Tuesday where she can regain her strength and possibly begin to walk again in time.  The nursing home is only a few blocks from her home, so it makes it easier for us to check on the house and “Molly”, her Schnauzer as well. 

We decided to move the RV back to OKC so that we can have our little home to stay in and not have the upheaval of having our things scattered in three different places.  We always have the option to stay at her house and we will, if need be, but we prefer our own comfortable little cottage on wheels.  And especially our own bed that we’re hopelessly spoiled to. 

After 10 visits to the Chiropractor, and only temporary relief after each visit, I gave up on the venture.  It was “plan A” for getting relief in my lower back, so I moved to “plan B”, which was to go back to Texarkana and get the series of three spinal injections that gave me such long term relief five years ago.  So we made the trip back to McAlester last Saturday to ready the RV to be moved, then we both drove to my folk’s place on Sunday.  DeWayne took me to Texarkana on Monday for the first injection since anesthesia is involved and I can’t drive myself after the procedure.  Then he drove me back to DeKalb where I would spend the night, and he drove the truck back to McAlester, hooked on to the RV, and hauled it back up here to Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City. 

I spent some time at the folk’s house visiting with Donna and Teresa, my two sisters who had driven in from west Texas to visit for a few days.  Teresa brought husband Billy and Donna brought daughter Hanna, so it was fun.  It was great to see them again and spend some time visiting.  Sister Sharron lives close by and came to visit also, so we had a nice mini-reunion.  It’s great that Daddy and Eula have such a huge house with plenty of beds.  They certainly come in handy at times.

I left the next day I went by the office and visited with my co-workers, then drove to McAlester to pick up Bentley from Ginger’s house and I stayed the night before making my way back to OKC.  Bentley was obviously in hog heaven, being in such a big house for a couple of days and from all accounts, he pretty much “took over” the place.  Ginger has two cats already and they weren’t too impressed with Bentley’s presence, so they had a time keeping them separated to keep the peace.  Thank you Ginger, Curt, Jana and Casey for taking such good care of our little rascal.

Bentley and I came back to OKC the next day (Wednesday) and it was great to be back in the RV with all our “stuff” in one place again, including the cat.  He immediately went to his scratching post and rubbed all over it like a long lost friend, lol.  He’s so funny.  He didn’t like the carrier in the car and I had it in the passenger seat next to me all the way.  But he would reach through and pat me on the arm and meow a lot, then got aggravated and started clawing me after a while.  So I let him out of the crate, but he just climbed under my seat and got even louder.  Back in the crate he went, but this time he decided to settle down and nap the rest of the way.

The wind has been blowing really hard the last two days her in OKC, but the weather is warm and I’m enjoying my shorts, t-shirts and flip flops again.  And I love being able to open the windows and get fresh air again.  Bye bye Winter!  Good riddance!  Some of the trees are getting leaves again and the wild plum and red bud trees are blooming.  After all the snow and ice melted in McAlester, it was almost as if you could watch the grass outside turn greener by the minute.  I love seeing the world come back to life in the Springtime with all the pretty colored blooms and the lush green. 

I will miss the abundant wildlife on the base at McAlester and especially all the space we had there.  Tinker FamCamp is a much more congested campground that stays pretty full all the time in contrast to us being the only campers most of the time at McAlester.  Nothing like having an entire campground to yourself, let me tell ya!  On the positive side, it is nice to again have a more social setting and there are lots of really nice folks here at Tinker.  It all comes out in the wash, right?  Anyway, we are booked for the next month and we’ll wait and see what we need to do from there.

That’s about all the news for now.  But the day we left to make the trip south, there were wildfires everywhere around OKC.  We stopped on the interstate long enough to get a picture of the sunset glowing through the smoke, so here it is.
Wildfire and Bentley 017
And, of course, here is one of the latest pictures of Bentley chillin out on our bed.
Wildfire and Bentley 005
He has it so rough, don’t you think?  Poor baby…..

Anyway, that’s it for now.  I’ll post as I can, but in the meantime….

HAPPY TRAILS!

Monday, March 7, 2011

On Hold

This is our new hangout:
DeWayne's mother fell 9 days ago and broke the femer bone next to her hip, so we have been in Oklahoma City most of the time since then.  She is still in the hospital after surgery and contracted pneumonia, but is doing better every day.

So, our travels are temporarily on hold until she is rehabilitated and her well being is secure.  I'll post updates as I can, but in the meantime....

HAPPY TRAILS!!!!!