Wednesday, February 12, through Tuesday, March 4, 2014: Finishing Up in the Desert (sort of):

Wednesday started out in the usual way---Becky played pickleball and I did little, until it was time for my session with Jackie.  That wore me out a bit.  After lunch, we watched Enough Said, with Julia Louis Dreyfus and James Gandolfini.  It was his last picture.  Terrific film.

Early Thursday morning, I started The Confession, a John Grisham novel.  From reading the first 86 pages, it promises to be as good as his others  The DVR in the bedroom has  started acting up, much like it did a few months ago which ended up with a new one from DirecTV.  I called DirecTV and they readily agreed to send me yet another one.  It is supposed to arrive by Saturday.

Late Thursday morning, as promised, Luis from McMahons stopped by to install the two last parts to solve the problems with the leveling system.  The circuit breaker went in quickly, once Luis went back to the shop to find a replacement for a missing lock nut.  Then he determined that the replacement hydraulic leg was the wrong size, so a new one needs to be ordered.  The last one was supposed to have been ordered two months ago and it is said to have been received just recently.  We’ll see how long it takes to get this one.  I reminded Luis that we are only going to be here ‘til the end of the month.  He promised to make sure the people responsible for ordering parts understand that. 

Friday was the start of the annual pickleball tournament at our RV park.  Becky won the women's division last year and was looking forward to doing well this year.  By her own account, she was awful on Friday in the women's division.  Saturday the men and women will be joined in total round robin play.  I had my last session with Jackie, Friday morning.  

I stopped by McMahons Friday afternoon to check on the status of the order for the replacement leg.  They were having a bit of a problem ordering it but assured me it would arrive on time.  In the afternoon, a fellow RVer from several rows away stopped to tell us they had received our new DVR by mistake.  I retrieved it from them. 

Since Friday was Valentine's Day, a "holiday" neither Becky nor I get excited about, we decided to celebrate by having a nice dinner at home (filet mignon from Bristol Farms as the centerpiece), with champagne we got for New Years Eve, which we had forgotten to drink,  

and one of our nice Justin wines.  I selected a 2010 Isoceles that was delicious.

We watched Escape Plan from the Redbox Friday night.  Or rather, we let it play on the DVD player while we napped or just ignored it for the most part.  I think Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Swarzenegger have seen the end of their blockbuster careers.  The movie was hard to watch.

Saturday afternoon, I finished The Confession.  It was a 500-page tirade against the death penalty, but it was nonetheless very interesting and definitely another Grisham hit.   

Because I had so enjoyed The Reversal, I immediately started The Poet, another novel by Michael Connelly.

Meanwhile, Becky played in the pickleball tournament.  There were 24 participants, 17 men and 7 women.

Becky won a first place medal in one of the three divisions, but this time in the mixed play!  

Saturday morning, I installed the new DVR.  That evening, we watched Don Jon from the Redbox.  Very strange movie, quite raunchy, but somehow interesting---with an uplifting lesson at the end.

Sunday, Becky retrieved her necklace from Aida at the Street Fair.  Becky rode her bike there and back---15.5 miles, round trip---while I read and watched the dogs.  Sunday night, we watched The Spectacular Now from the Redbox.  It's a sort-of teenage coming-of-age film which I normally don't like, but this one was well-done and held our interest.

On Monday, we left early for a day trip to Murrieta to see Beverly Newhouse, taking the dogs with us.  We stopped on the way at the Wilderness Lakes Thousand Trails preserve in Menifee so Becky could get in a couple of hours of pickleball. 

I read and watched the dogs while she played.  At one point, Kelsey somehow shook loose of her collar and, while I wrestled with putting it back on, Ramsey's leash slipped out of my hand.  When I realized it a few seconds later, he was about 20 feet away and heading South.  The last time he got loose at Wilderness Lakes he raced around the place for about a half hour, causing the rangers to write us up for having a loose dog.  I instantly had feared that it would happen again.  In a panic, I called to Ramsey and---surprise!---he came back immediately.  Phew!

We arrived at Beverly's about noon, and she took us to lunch at Anthony's Lounge & Ristorante in old town Murrieta.  I had a delicious clam linguine.  We always have a great time with Bev.  She's a charming lady.        

       
I finished The Poet Tuesday morning and immediately started The Associate, another John Grisham novel.  Tuesday night we started to watch Fruitvale Station, from the Redbox.  We didn't finish it until Wednesday.  It was a sad but excellent movie.  Very thought-provoking.

Thursday morning I droppped Becky off at Cahuilla Park to play pickleball with some of the heavy hitters, and the dogs and I then proceeded into Palm Springs.  I had an appointment for some kind of heart scan.  It involved injecting a fluid into my vein that would travel to my heart and show up on a screen of some sort---to measure how well my heart absorbed the fluid.  There's a follow-up test of a different sort next Thursday, and I'll find out how I did on the 28th.  At this point I have no known heart problem but my doctor is curious how it's doing.

Wednesday morning I had started feeling a little strange. I didn't recognize the symptoms.  Friday morning, it became clear that I had what I thought was my first cold in more than 20 years.  I felt lousy all day.  I used the day "off" to finish The Associate. and to start Honeymoon, a James Patterson novel.

I finally rebounded enough for us to join Karen and Stephen Sloat for dinner at the Mario's Italian Cafe in Indio. 

We always meet them there.  Maybe it's because the food is terrific.  I had cioppino, of course, and it was delicious.  As usual, we had a great time with them.  I was shocked to realize I met Karen more than 31 years ago.  I guess I'm getting old.

Saturday afternoon, I finished Honeymoon and in the evening we watched The Vow with Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, from the Redbox.  Nice movie. 

Of course, when I was reading Becky was playing pickleball or shopping or walking the dogs.

The next two days were standard---starting to get ready to leave the desert on Saturday, March 1, headed for Soledad Canyon and our trip to Hawaii.

But on Monday night (the 24^th) I slept very little---I had the shakes (shivers?) all night.  Tuesday morning, I had trouble breathing and I had a dry cough.  Becky took my temperature (103!) then immediately took me to the urgent care facility at the Eisenhower Medical Center on Washington Street in La Quinta.  After a spate of prodding and a few tests, they gave me a handful of Tylenol tablets plus prescriptions for some cough syrup and an antibiotic, with the admonition that if my temperature did not come down in a few hours, I should go to the emergency hospital.  After a few hours my temperature did not come down and Becky dutifully raced me to the emergency room at the Eisenhower facility on Bob Hope Drive in Rancho Mirage. 

After another few hours of prodding and testing, I was admitted to the short-term “observation wing” with a bit of pneumonia and a suspected heart problem.

Tuesday afternoon we learned that our granddaughter Emily had won a regional writing competition for her poem entitled Art Is Not Dead---and was heading for the national competiton. 

The next day (Wednesday) I was moved to the “real” hospital wing, and four days later, I was released with prescriptions for an antibiotic refill, a complete replacement set of blood pressure medications, and an entirely new set of medications to settle down my heart rate.  (Essentially, my pulse was bouncing around erratically.)

I must say the entire staff at Eisenhower was quite thorough and attentive, and friendly.  And I will add as an observation, but definitely not as a criticism, that very few of them spoke without an accent.  Is everyone in the medical business from somewhere else these days?  My delightful primary doctor, Nina Maw Maw, was from Burma.  (She refused to call it Myanmar.)  And the food was excellent, with some choices allowed.

Since the length of my stay in the hospital was open-ended, we faced the prospect of having to “eat” our 15-day cruise to Hawaii on the Star Princess that was scheduled to leave Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 5.  I begged the doctors to let us go, and they replied that it was up to my body.  I was released on Sunday afternoon, three days before the start of the cruise. 

We had to beg the manager to extend our stay for a few days beyond the end of our contract at the Thousand Trails park, which we had originally intended to leave the day before, and we had to arrange to store our trailer at the TT park in Palm Desert for the duration of our cruise.  We already had a reservation for our dogs at a favorite place in Acton (139 miles away) and we had mail waiting for us at the Thousand Trials park in Acton, so we had to reschedule all of that.  Sunday night we watched the Academy Awards, as usual, and generally enjoyed it even though it was far too long.  Since I didn’t see it, I have no opinion whether 12 Years A Slave should have been the big winner.
    

I spent Monday recuperating and slowly starting to take the numerous steps necessary to move the rig (after 2 ½ months) a distance of one whole block to the storage area on Tuesday.  I decided to test whether the repairs to our landing/leveling system had worked, and, voila (!), everything worked just fine.  Tuesday morning, we shoehorned the rig into a spot in the storage section,

and headed for Acton.  We dropped off the dogs (Kelsey seemed confused at the new place, but we’re sure Ramsey will show her the ropes and she will end up enjoying the place as much as Ramsey always does) and decided to stop at Becky’s dad’s for a visit before checking in at the Jonathan Club in downtown LA for the night.  We had a nice visit with Bill, then picked up a very late lunch at El Pollo Loco.  We finally got to eat the lunch, which turned out to be a delicious dinner, at about 5:00 Tuesday afternoon.  Thus ended our stay in the desert for the time being.