Bad news, good news

I thought I’d spare you the details of the trip south this time but I decided to share this one. As many of you probably know, I hate to make reservations. I like to be free to travel as long or short days as we feel like. So we planned our stops for this trip but did not reserve the motels along the way. Mistake.

Oklahoma U played Notre Dame last night. Our choice of hotel sold it’s last room just minutes before we arrived there. We had to make do with what was available–usually everyone’s last choice.

But the bed was so comfortable we both had a good night’s sleep. And the room came with a frig so we got our meats kept for another day. And the free breakfast was vouchers to the Denny’s next door. So I can now recommend the Quality Inn in Ardmore, Texas.

TTYL,

Linda

Preparing

We spent a little time figuring out what we need to do to my Travel Scoot to make it fit in the space the maker says it will fit. Turn the handle backwards, drop the top of the basket, then turn the seat backwards. Nice to know it will fit in the space designed for it in my new RV without actually disassembling it. The top of the basket is held with Velcro so dropping it and reinstalling it is easy.

Gathering:

 

Packing:

 

What? You don’t use bath towels and dish towels as packing material? It all has to go anyway, right? And how much packing paper do you want to deal with at the other end?

TTYL,

Linda

Seasonal Weight Gain

The holidays are coming. Halloween candy, Thanksgiving pie, Christmas cookies. This is the time of year many of us put on a few pounds. So let’s think about that.

I have been reading about eating with the seasons. Eating those things that become ripe locally at each time of year as the cave people did. At this time of year around here that is potatoes, apples, pumpkins, pears, and squash. All carbs.

So what does that tell us? Maybe it is saying we need to put on a little extra layer of fat to prepare our bodies for winter?

What do you think? Does that sound like a good excuse?

TTYL,

Linda

Lump in the throat, Part 4

The ENT found the lump. That’s actually good news. It’s soft and does not have definite edges which cancerous lumps do. It’s most likely a lipoma. That’s just a lump of fat. We both have family members who get those in their arms. But the doctor says you can get them anywhere in your body and Dave’s body appears to have chosen his neck. They did a cat scan with contrast to be sure that’s all it is but the doctor is very sure. We’ll get the confirmation next week.

As to the hoarseness Dave is experiencing the doctor explained that the vocal chords are muscle. When men retire they stop talking as much. A muscle that doesn’t get much exercise tends to get weaker. Dave has never been much of a talker. He was offered the option of going to a speech therapist who could help him strengthen his voice if he’d like to do so but he decided that is not worth doing.

And the ear popping is a pressure issue. You know–like what happens in an air plane. His is because his left eustachian tube is more wide open than most. So just talking a lot can cause his ears to pop. All that wind, you know.

TTYL,

Linda