Getting old is better than the alternative, but....

GETTING OLD
Getting old is much better than the alternative, but it does take you down some paths that aren't so much fun.

I have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and since last Wednesday when we found out, Ellen and I have been bouncing all over the place, calling this hospital and that, doing internet activity on therapies, with their benefits and drawbacks, talking to family and friends, and wondering just what it is that we will do, and where we will go.

Thankfully, prostate cancer is a most treatable disease and one that can be taken care of...and we are hoping for the best. We are traveling to Jacksonville Florida, as at the U of Florida, there is a 'Proton Beam Therapy Institute'. This treatment, which uses a cyclotron, seems to have treatment that is not invasive, and has less negative side effects with better results. The proton is whipped through this cyclotron then sent along a path and into the treatment rooms, and stopped right where the cancer is!

We have initiated the process of acceptance as a patient, but there is some uncertainty about insurance coverage. So we also have an appointment Oct. 30 at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. They have a modified radiation therapy that is also highly rated. We shall keep our fingers crossed and our options open.

So, to put it simply, we are not going to be able to do our Arizona plans...so no reunion with our friends in that area, and no ATVing...and maybe more. But Florida does sound better than the upper midwest....climatically speaking.


RV WORK
In the meantime, we are at Smith Center Kansas, getting our 5th wheel looked at, as we had some incident with the hydraulics not working properly, plus a small list of other stuff. As it looks right now, it may just be a battery problem. That would be fine with us.

Smith Center is a small and slow farm town of 1600 that happens to have a major RV manufactureron the edge of town. Excel (Peterson Idustries) really does treat the customer well, and we hope to have everything taken care of by tomorrow.

In the meantime we are parked in the Excel parking lot, right next to a most talkative, and at times irritating customer who watches the Excel techs as they try to fix his coach. I am sure they appreciate his watching. We do, because then he is not talking to us.

Get together in Paton, Iowa

Believe it or not, this was the best photo I got of all 6 grandchildren at the get together Saturday 10/4 at Erin and Jeff's home in Paton, Iowa. You should see some of the other ones!!!

Left to right are: Nayra Lujano, Ethan Ackerson, Jaiden Ackerson, Mica Pedersen, Ellen's daughter Jenn, Mason Ackerson, and Rio Lujano.

I can't remember the last time all 6 were together. It was FUN to have them all there and watch them play together. Hopefully we can do something like this again soon. The weather was nice and we were able to go to the city park with Mica, Mason Jaiden and Ethan. That was fun on the play equipment. Rio and Nayra weren't able to get there til 4:30 or so. We really appreciated Heather/Pedro's and Jenn' effort to drive a lot of miles to get to little Paton!

I think all had a great time. Jeff grilled steak, brats and hot dogs. Nobody left the table hungry!

DISH Network today!!!

3 days without satellite is too long! DirecTV toyed around with us at our anniversary date...offering a whopping $5 off as incentive to continue. Our enticing sign up benefits were lapsing, so our bill was going to go up 40%. When we later called up to disconnect, all of a sudden they were able to reduced the bill to an amount LOWER than we were paying!!! Too bad, so sad. Dish is still $5 less than that. Kind of a stupid way to run a business. We are hoping Dish isn't that whacky.

Medical Stuff

Our friends L-R: Elvie, Connie, Wanda,
Jim D., Wayne, Janet, Jim I., Judie

What a nice looking crew. Again we had a great weekend at the reunion! Thanks Wayne and Janet!

I realize it is Wednesday already, (guilt sets in when I don't transfer my digitals to the computer in a timely manner) but we have had a wild time getting here to Fort Dodge. Plus on Monday I was getting ready for this morning's needle biopsy on my prostate...a high PSA led me to this new and different experience. So today is a day of rest, doctor's orders. He said it all looked ok, but the samples' results will be back next week.

We are parked at Alec and Charlton Pendry's in Fort Dodge. This summer Alec put in a 30 amp service for us, so we are free campin'!!! Thanks Alec! Last night Ellen had her last book club night of the season, and she totally enjoyed that. We will be catching up with other friends, plus playing some bridge and Settlers of Catan with the Pendry's.

Reunion and back to Fort Dodge

Wow, time sure flies when you are having fun! We are now in Fort Dodge, Iowa, for our final stay for the year. Ellen has her book club tonight, we are visiting friends and I am having some doctor stuff done. Next week we plan on seeing comedian David Sedaris at the Civic Center and an Iowa Chops hockey game in Des Moines, and finishing with attending a wedding of one of Ellen's favorite student's wedding in Ames. The bride, a great young person, Hannah Carse, is the daughter of one of my favorite teaching friends and one of my poker buddies, Bryce and Steve Carse.

But last weekend was a ton of fun, as we had our annual 'reunion' of the "women from Clinton". This group started as a new mothers' group Ellen was in back in the 1970's. So we were graciously hosted by Wayne and Janet Walters in Port Byron, IL, just over the Mississippi River from Davenport, IA. Good food, good muchies, and great company!

Jim and Connie Dent (Indianapolis, IN), Elvie and Wanda Hirl (Clinton, IA) and Jim and Judie Ives (also full time RVers, retired out of Grand Rapids, MI) were there, along with Buddy rounded out the folks there. We played some games, watched some football (ouch for my Packers!), and ate a lot of food. We look forward to next year and thank Wayne and Janet and Buddy for being so nice to open their house up for us. I hope to post some photos soooon.

'CATCH UP' TIME

Omigosh! Over a month and no blog additions... I'll try and catch up here.

When I left off we had water in our 'basement'. Well, it was solved when we went to Sheldon IA .... The RV tech, Dave, at RV Central solved it, finding there was a missing gasket in the shower drain. He also did a lot of other stuff in a day and a half, so our 5th wheel is doing well.

FORT DODGE

We went down to Fort Dodge, had some appointments, and had fun with our FD friends...the Provins, the Pendry's Mike Zahm and Marsha Storbakken, and as well a poker night at Brian McClain's, and Ellen had another night with her LLLL Book Group.

PATON and SPRING LAKE
We also were able to connect with daughter Erin's family in Paton. Had fun with the grandkids, and we found out 3 grandkids are too many for our home on wheels. 1 or 2 are great, but there just isn't enough floor space any more! We stayed at Spring Lake, a Jefferson County Park, which is very pretty, and very quiet. We found out why it is so quiet! We stayed at Erin's til almost 11 pm, and as we turned into the park, found out the gate was closed and locked! They lock up at 10:30!!! It was a very long walk in the dark to get to our site...plus a long walk back to the gate in the morning. It was the forced restart of my fitness program...

MAYO CLINIC

We headed up to Rochester again for another recheck for Ellen, plus she got into the Women's Clinic there, and she was super pleased with the staff and treatment. All is well for her, her functions checked out pretty good...although her spinal bone mass was down a nudge, and the doctor had her get an infusion of Reclast, an annual IV osteoporsis treatment. She actually was really glad to get it as it has been 4 years since she was taken off Fosamax. She is getting all her medical stuff at the Mayo now, and she is very glad about it..

We stayed at Autumn Woods RV Park south of Rochester, a very nice and clean park, with friendly and helpful staff. Park up the way from us was a monster 5th wheel .

A 'Space Craft' RV (made in Concordia MO) that must have been over 50 feet long, pulled by a big Kenworth tractor. We wanted to find out more about it, but there was never anyone around. 5 slides, and tons of basement access doors. Three roof air conditioners!!! Check out the stairway!

WHAT'S NEXT???

This morning we drove up to the Minneapolis area to stay at Lebanon Hills Park near the zoo in Apple Valley. We will be celebrating daughter Jenn's birthday, and as well, have grandson Mica stay with us at least two nights. We're looking forward to a nice week!!!

A MURAL AND A LEAK

This is our last day in Minneapolis (OK, we're in Eagan), and we picked up grandson Mica from daycare. The south side of Minneapolis is a unique and diverse bunch of peoples and structures. I think Caucasian is a minority, but I don't think any ethnic group is a majority.

As we were stopped at a red light, Ellen saw a mailbox at the curb, and having a couple of bills to post, she got out. Of course the light turned green as soon as she closed the door. I wheeled around the corner, and it gave an opportunity for a photo of one of the kajillion murals painted on store and shop walls. I passed the camera out to Ellen and she snapped a few digitals. Thought this one was nice, so enjoy.

Still hot, and today a bit more humid than Sunday. I discovered a water problem :-( in our basement (yes, our RV has a basement). I noticed wet edges on a piece of masonite laying on the floor under the ton of junk in the "belly". I found most of the floor's carpet was wet. Blotting as much up as possible, and looking for the source, we finally found our shower drain is leaking way up near the top of the drain pipe. A bucket under the u trap will prevent further wetness on the floor, but it was added to our list of warranty work we are hoping to get done in Sheldon IA later this month. We've got a fan under there now, with both bay doors open.

NOTHING WOULD FIT IN THE RV

We are staying at Lebanon Hills Campground near the Minneapolis Zoo. Catching up with daughter Jenn's family in the city, as well as taking Matt to the airport early Thursday morning for his flight to Miami and on to Colombia.

Today we went to the Powderhorn Park Art Fair, with more than 180 artists and lots of vendors, all ringing the little lake they have there. Saw some very interesting and creative stuff there, and reminded me of my art fair days. Hot, lots of lookers, and a very long day.

We were classified as lookers, that's for sure, because any purchase would have to be lightweight, stowable in a small space, and pretty much unbreakable...nothing else goes in the RV. Ellen did look at some small rugs, but colors weren't right.

I wore my 1-20-09 shirt (Bush's last day, "End of an Error" on the back), and must have had 25 people ask where I got it, plus lots of positive comments. The Powderhorn Park neighborhood is very diverse and very liberal.