Friday was a 500+ mile day, including the swing to the Cinder Hills Kennels 10 miles east of Flagstaff to drop off the dogs at 8:00 AM while I had my radiation treatment.
We headed for San Gabriel, California, the home of Becky's brother Peter and his wife, Terry, where we are spending the weekend. The trip was typical---some parts of northern Arizona are beautiful, with rolling hills and big trees, and some parts are just ugly desert. We had lunch at a strange but surprisingly nice place called Najah's Desert Oasis, in a wide spot in the road called Essex, California,
and we had horrendous bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-15 somewhat south of Victorville due to a seemingly never-ending road-construction project, but the trip was otherwise boring. We arrived at the Sheltons' home at 5:30, and I immediately opened a nice Chardonnay while Becky and Terry made a cake. After the dust settled, the four of us went to dinner at El Portal in Pasadena, a Mexican restaurant we frequented when we lived in Pasadena. Yum. I probably overdid it, having two double Margaritas, but I was certain I deserved them after the day we'd had.
I slept in on Saturday morning, reveling in not having to deal with Ramsey and Kelsey first thing in the morning. After Becky returned from a facial at her regular place in downtown Los Angeles, we took advantage of the fact that we're in Trader Joe's country and bought three dozen of their mini Thai food boxes. And I had one of them for lunch. Super yum! In mid-afternoon, Becky, Terry, and I went to Nikki C's to watch the Belmont Stakes race.
The place is a hangout for people who frequent the Santa Anita Racetrack, and it was fun being among knowledgeable horse racing fans. The race was exciting---American Pharoah leading wire to wire to produce a Triple Crown winner for the first time since 1978. And the beer was wonderful.
The Sheltons had a spirited Trustees meeting late in the afternoon, and we had a potluck dinner afterwards. Terry had made pulled pork, which was delicious.
Sunday morning, Barbara Coad and Wendy Kuwata came to the Peter Sheltons' home, and, along with Becky, they planned some of the activities of our upcoming (in October) cruise trip that starts in Rome.
After they finished, Becky and I piled into the truck and headed home---retracing our steps from last Friday. We arrived eight hours later, at 6:30, and crashed. It had been a productive but tiring three days.
On Monday we returned to our normal rhythm, but late in the afternoon Victor, a concrete man, arrived to assess our need for a separate driveway for our trailer. Traction is a big problem on our gravel. Tuesday morning, another concrete man arrived, this one was Wes from Foundations Concrete, and informed us it would be ridiculously expensive to pour a separate driveway and suggested he knew a guy who could "fix" the gravel to get us the traction we need.
Yea! Two fellows from Sutton Plumbing had arrived earlier to fix the problems with the equipment at our kitchen sink and to solve my silly problem with finding the location of the filters for our furnaces. Altogether a good day. On Wednesday, while I had my radiation and picked up a case of wine and 18 feet of rope light, Becky had her hair done, and we left Flagstaff all fixed up.
On Thursday, I started out very early to get to Flagstaff by 8:00 since I had an early appointment to get our truck repaired at High Mountain Diesel Repair.
I spent the next three hours cooling my heels, during which time the truck engine was mostly cooling down so it could be worked on. The only problem was an oil leak at the gasket on the oil pan, but they talked me into also replacing the fuel filter as a precaution regarding my fuel injectors. When they finished, I had three hours to kill before I was due at my radiation treatment. On a whim, I called the radiologists to see if they could squeeze me in early. It turned out they had a cancellation for the precise time I could get there. It worked out great, and I arrived home early.
Every Wednesday after the radiation, I meet with Dr. David and he assesses how it's going. Yesterday, he asked me out of the blue how my throat was doing. I mentioned that I was having a little phlegm, but no pain. He looked at my throat and said everything looked fine. I had no idea why he was asking.
Today, on my way into the treatment I asked the nurse whether it was normal for my throat to suddenly start hurting---which it did this morning. Her reply was, "Oh, so it has started" and proceeded to give me some over-the-counter medication to help soothe my throat a little. Apparently, I have been lucky so far and the throat irritation may get worse. I'm not looking forward to that. The pain, along with the phlegm, make it hard to sleep sometimes, and coughing and sneezing are a real challenge. But I will prevail.
While I was gone, Becky dealt with the man from Summit Spas to assess the condition of our spa and to give us a tutorial on how to operate the thing.
He was apparently very positive and helpful. There were only a few small things that need to be fixed or replaced, and we are on our way. As of Friday morning, the water was clear, its temperature was 102 degrees, where it was set, and we will try it out this evening, I'm sure.
On our way back from Flagstaff on Friday, we stopped at Summit Spas to pick up the items that were available, and stopped at the Pioneer Title Agency to get some documents notarized. After Becky served a delicious Sockeye Salmon dish loaded with a Balsamic vinegar glaze, we hopped into the hot tub for our inaugural soak. What fun! We'll have to do this often. We both slept very well.
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