Friday was a nice warm day (60 degrees) and we enjoyed watching the snow melt away. We also relaxed from our whirlwind visit from Peter and Terry Shelton. Becky went to Flagstaff for a haircut and to do some shopping. The dogs barely moved the whole time she was gone. I located a company (Aspen Alarm Systems) to fix the two problems we are having with our alarm. It turned out I gave them some bad information about what was wrong. I need to call them to correct the situation. Our friend Barbara Coad was due to arrive Saturday morning by train for a three-day visit. She called Becky in the early afternoon on Friday to say she had a horrific cold and would have to reschedule (for May) as the result. We were very disappointed. I had already set the table for the three of us. (I later checked the "train status" on the Amtrak website and determined that both the eastbound train from Los Angeles---which is usually on time---and the westbound train from Chicago---which is often as much as three or four hours late---were essentially on time for both of what would have been Barbara's trips.) We decided to go to Winslow (90 miles away) to have lunch at the historic La Posada Hotel as a consolation. We were last there in 2009. It's a classic Mary Jane Colter design.
I ordered a delicious French Dip sandwich with a glass of Sangria. Becky had a honey barbeque Mexican dish with chicken and green corn tamales. It was a fun early Valentine's Day meal.
For dinner Saturday night, Becky had what was left of her lunch and I had one of my Trader Joe's Thai dishes. To avoid watching the Republican debate, we watched two hours of the Fargo TV show from Netflix. Weird (It's the Coen Brothers, after all) but very entertaining. Sunday night we watched the first three episodes of last year's True Detective. It's a little too slow for me, but I'm sure we'll watch more.
Before we left Winslow on Saturday, we stopped at a barber shop to get a haircut. It had been two months since my last one and I was getting a little shaggy---where I still had hair. When she saw that the site of the most recent surgery was not yet completely healed, the barber backed away, saying she was concerned about causing an infection. I thought her concern was a bit overblown, but I couldn't talk her out of it. Instead, on Sunday, Becky took over the job---using scissors and my electric razor. I'll let someone else assess the result.
We had reservations at The Red Raven for Valentine's Day dinner, but changed our minds and decided to celebrate at home with filet mignons, baked potatoes, and a very nice 2012 bottle of Justin Isoseles.
I woke up on Monday with a stiff and sore neck. I attributed it to simply sleeping at a funny angle. It didn't improve, and by Tuesday I was in serious pain. Because of its location, we thought it might signal another attack of melanoma. With the blessing of Dr. Kuefler, we headed for the Emergency Room at the Flagstaff Medical Center to see if they would do a scan of some sort. I was already scheduled for a brain scan (MRI) there on Friday, but this would be a little better---just as a matter of timing. We arrived at noon, and were taken rather quickly.
That was the last thing that was quick. They took some blood, and a couple of hours later did a CT scan of my neck. They promised to do an MRI of my skull and neck shortly. It turned out that didn't start until 11:30. We finally left the hospital at 2:45 Wednesday morning! We (including the dogs) spent the night at the La Quinta Inn. Becky had earlier taken the room and relaxed there while waiting for me to be dealt with. She bought some food for us since we hadn't eaten since 10:00 in the morning. We finally hit the sack at 4:00AM and slept four hours before heading home.
It was a very long day. The medical report was that the neck pain was due to...(wait for it)...a sprain and there was no evidence of any melanoma that we hadn't already known about. It should heal over the next few days. They gave me a prescription for some pain medicine, in case I was a wuss.
The rest of Wednesday was a blur, mostly napping (Becky went to the local clinic to see Dr. Gibula to follow up on some previous blood work) and, of course, making sure the dogs were OK. Thursday's highlight was watching The Martian, from Netflix. I'm not a fan of this kind of movie, so I sort of ignored it, while Becky seemed to enjoy it a lot. Most of this week the high temperature was in the 50s, and it was nice. A lot of the pretty snow has melted.
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