Saturday, June 25, through Friday, July 1, 2016: Suddenly, Things Are Different:

Saturday I started feeling better than I had been, but it was not an earth-shattering improvement.  I did not expect to be running a marathon immediately, and I am taking one day at a time.  Saturday evening, we had pasta for dinner and watched a few episodes of The Americans.  It's still very entertaining, and we look forward to more.

Sunday morning, we hopped into the hot tub before breakfast, and once again Becky forgot her bathing suit.  I didn't. 

It was a lot easier for me to climb into and out of the tub, so it's apparent the Friday treatment and the new drug supplements are having a positive effect.  I am feeling a lot more energetic, though I'm still well below par.

After the hot tub, I made myself s batch of Ebbert Fizzes for no particular reason.  Great.  And I whiled away most of the afternoon---finishing The Secret Servant---

while Becky did her thing with Ramsey, Kelsey, and Libby.  Our late afternoon redbox movie was 10 Cloverfield Lane, a weird but watchable movie starring John Goodman as a bad man.

Monday was my birthday, of course, and I spent it in the usual way:  I watched the dogs sleep while Becky went to Flagstaff to get a haircut for herself and a lube job (at Jiffy Lube) for the truck.  We had dinner at Kicks On Route 66.   I had delicious Chicken Marsala.  Yum.  Becky had Pork Ribs.  Our wonderful server was Joline.  She was training a new employee.

Monday afternoon, a 23-year old hiker slipped and fell from Mather Point at the canyon, and died.  Sad.

Tuesday morning we headed for Flagstaff  (in warm and dry weather) and Dr. Ben Stark for dental (cleaning) appointments.  It's a good thing we left some extra time because I-40 was essentially shut down for a while to clear a nasty accident. 

We made it on time, though, even braving an unexpected rainstorm in and near Flagstaff, and had the usual good time with our dentist and his staff. 

The flip side was, though, that Dr. Stark discovered a problem that will require that I get two new crowns---and soon.  ($$$$)  That's OK.  I haven't had to have any real dental work done for almost 30 years.  It's about time. 

We returned to Williams, which by then was drizzling rain, without incident, and each of us had leftovers from last night's dinner for lunch.  That was enough to preclude having a full dinner Tuesday evening.

Wednesday was an expensive day.  Becky wasn't feeling well so I was deputized to take Kelsey to the vet.  Backing out of the garage, I felt something was wrong with the truck. A block later I decided to check the tires.  The right-rear tire was flat as a pancake. 

I called Becky and had her change the vet appointment while I waited for the AAA man.  Melvin arrived (from two miles away) 30 minutes later and changed the tire.  I followed him to the tire store in town and met with the fellow I normally deal with there, "J. J."  We decided on the replacement tires (both rear tires had less than the safe minimum tread left) and I was on my way shortly.  But, the owner of the shop did not let me go without first pointing out (accurately) that the front tires were not in such good condition either.  They both had bad wear patterns and little tread.  Since we are driving to southern California in a couple of weeks, he recommended replacing those tires now, as well.

I demurred, suggesting that I needed to discuss it with my wife (a weak husband's common excuse).  I related the conversation to Becky when I got home, and she immediately sent me back to the tire store to replace the front tires (and front shock absorbers, as well, which, after 283,000 miles on the factory shocks were part of the wear problem).  And I need to get the wheels aligned when I am next in Flagstaff.  In recognition of the cost of the day so far, we had toasted cheese sandwiches for dinner.

My health continues to improve, and I'm not as tired or winded as I was previously.

Thursday morning, Becky took Kelsey to the vet for a quick maintenance appointment, then hustled off to Natanya for a 1.5-hour massage.  As usual, the other dogs slept the entire time she was gone.  The weather was overcast and slightly drizzly, so I spent most of the day just keeping warm and relaxing.  I slipped out to Safeway in the late afternoon to pick up a chicken for dinner.

Friday was a normal, overcast day, in what has become a brief monsoon season in the area.  (It's usually in August.) 

The big news of the day was another terrorist attack---this time in Bangladesh, right on the heels of the attack at the Istanbul airport..  They are happening more often now. 

Our Friday Netflix movie was the delightful Pride And Prejudice, the 2005 British (naturally) film with a terrific cast headed by Donald Sutherland, with Brenda Blethyn, Judi Dench, and the absolutely adorable quartet of Keira Knightley, Rosamund Pike, Carey Mulligan, and Kelly Reilly.  

Friday, June 17, through Friday, June 24, 2016: Nearing My Birthday:

Friday morning I got another pedicure from Corey.  I know having someone do a pedicure on a man is iffy ("metrosexual" is the appropriate term, I believe) but if I cut my own toenails the result is pretty bad. 

That night, Becky surprised me by suggesting pizza for dinner.  I had been drooling every time I drove by the Pizza Factory in town for the past few weeks, but had been afraid to suggest getting one because of pizza’s deleterious effect on anyone’s diet.  Not surprisingly, I agreed to her suggestion.  Thank you, Becky.

After dinner, we watched State Of Play from Netflix.   It was a pretty good Washington corruption movie about seven years old, starring Ben Affleck, who is perhaps the worst actor on the planet, along with Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, and a few other notables.

Saturday, Becky made red bandannas for the dogs and herself, in anticipation of July 4 and other holidays, and that night we watched a few more episodes of Fargo, thus ending the second season.

Sunday was Fathers’ Day, of course, and I received nice phone calls from Donna and Rick.  Becky and I hopped into the hot tub right after breakfast.  (Becky forgot her bathing suit, that little vixen.)  It happened to be a warm, beautiful day, with amazing cloud formations.

Otherwise, I relaxed as expected.  Before dinner, we watched two redbox movies---Hello, My Name Is Doris, which was clearly the dumbest movie ever made, and A Royal Night Out, which was pretty entertaining.  Later, I watched the exciting game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Warriors and Cavaliers.  Congratulations, Cavs!

Monday was the first day of summer, of course, and the day started out warm and beautiful.  The next few days are expected to be very hot (115+ in Phoenix, for example) but, being in Northern Arizona, we will have much lower temperatures.

My new notebook computer is finally working.  The first computer would not even boot up, and then the battery in the replacement would not recharge.  The company now sent us a new AC replacement cord (which arrived on Monday) on the theory that the problem was with the cord not the battery, and apparently the diagnosis was correct since the battery is now recharging.  Yea!  Becky spent most of Tuesday getting my new computer set up---adding programs and such.  I watched, since I am a novice at that sort of thing.

 

On Wednesday, Becky went to Flagstaff for a facial and to do some shopping.  I stayed back and entertained the dogs---mostly by napping and doing crossword puzzles.

Thursday turned out to be quite interesting.  I haven't said anything about it here since it was very confusing, but for the past month or so I have not been feeling very well.  I have had no energy and have run out of breath after just the slightest exertion.  I attributed it to a side effect of the cancer medicine I started in late March.  I knew the medicine was working well against the cancer but thought it was not doing so well in the side effects department.  And it was getting worse.  Becky thought I was very pale much of the time.  Thursday morning I saw Dr. Mathern for a regularly-scheduled follow-up appointment and told him I was getting concerned. 

He checked my blood work results, waved his magic wand, and pronounced that I was anemic enough to require a blood transfusion(!) and to start taking doses of iron and steroid supplements.  It turned out that the hospital was so busy that day that the transfusion could not take place until Friday.  We spent the rest of Thursday contemplating what all of that implied.  A few adult beverages helped.

I hung around the house on Friday, waiting for the hospital to call with the news that a room was available for my transfusion.  We had arranged to leave the dogs at the GC Railway Kennel for the day, but weren't going to drop them off until we were sure of the timing.  I finally got the call that a room would be available at 1:00 PM, and that the procedure would take at least 4-5 hours.

We decided that was too indefinite in the case of the dogs, so Becky stayed back and I drove to Flagstaff by myself.  I  had long thought a "transfusion" involved replacing all of your blood; I was wrong.  It turned out that the procedure (pumping just two additional pints of blood into me) was boring and painless but time-consuming, and I did not leave the hospital until 8:30 Friday night, so it was wise that I went alone. And I was able to make significant progress through The Secret Servant, a Daniel Silva novel I just started.  I slept well Friday night.     

 

Thursday, June 9, through Thursday, June 16, 2016: Some Time With The Wheelers, etc.:

Early Thursday afternoon, the Wheelers arrived to spend a few days with us.  Neat.  Naturally, we got right into chatting.  Becky made chicken pesto for dinner.  Yum.  Friday morning, we went to Bearizona, our local wild animal park.  Always entertaining. 

After that, Becky, Pat, and Bill toured what we call "the North 40" with the dogs.  The North 40 is at one end of the development we live in. 

Bill and I hit the hot tub for a while before we all had hamburgers for dinner.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a memory flashback about the song "And This Is My Beloved" from Kismet, starring Howard Keel, Ann Blyth, and Vic Damone.  I decided to try to find the film---somewhere.  It was not available on Netflix or redbox but a search on DirecTV revealed it would be showing Friday morning on Turner Classic Movies.  What a coincidence.  I set it up to be recorded, and we watched it Friday night.  Great fun. 

Saturday morning, Bill and I went to the hardware store to get some parts for a couple of minor projects around our house, and were relatively unsuccessful. The store is not big enough to carry everything we needed.  We'll have to wait for the next trip to Flagstaff.  Saturday dinner was at the new Chinese Buffet in town.  That's the first time we've been there.  The food was good, though there were very few guests and some odd choices.  I'm sure we'll be back.  I love hot-and-sour soup.

The Wheelers left early Sunday morning, to return to their home in California.  They had initially planned to continue on to Michigan from here, but those plans changed for medical reasons while they were on their way here.  So this turned out to be just a junket for them.  But, it was a terrific three days.

Sunday afternoon involved chores to return the house to normal after having guests for three days and that evening we watched Atonement, a very engaging British film with a fascinating twist.  It received a lot of Oscar attention when it came out a few years ago. 

We followed that with some episodes of The Americans.  We may be getting hooked on that show.

Monday was normal, except for watching a lot of the news about the shootings in Orlando.  What a tragedy.  Tuesday's highlight, after a normal day, was watching 13 Hours, a terrific film (from the Redbox) about the Bengazi attacks that are still an item of inquiry in Washington.

Wednesday morning I had another great massage from Natanya while Becky walked the dogs.  I think the massages are actually doing some good, in addition to just feeling good.  We then went to Flagstaff for some shopping and to meet with Dr. Boettcher.  He pronounced the most recent procedure a success but said we should still watch it for several weeks---and he put another bandage on the involved area. 

We then picked up dinners of Cashew Chicken from Pato Thai and returned home to devour them.  Yum.

Thursday we noticed that one of the plants in our back yard----a red hot poker---was blooming   It must be almost summer.

In addition, Becky filled our dining table centerpiece with red, white, and blue stuff in anticipation of July 4, and I packaged and sent back to my brother the old family photos he had sent me a few weeks ago.  Otherwise, Thursday was a normal day of reading, walking dogs, and watching our favorite TV shows. 

Tuesday, May 31, through Wednesday, June 8, 2016: A Not-Too-Relaxed Week:

Tuesday started out early---a pedicure from Corey for Becky and a massage from Natanya for me.  Aaaaah!

Becky then went to the UPS place to return the dress we had decided was not quite right for the Buckelew wedding.  The rest of the day was normal.

Wednesday, June 1, a new notebook computer arrived.  It was to be my birthday present---but it didn't work. The screen showed a message to the effect that it had no ability to boot up.  Strange. 

So, after discussing the situation with the seller, Overstock.com, we packed it back up, preparing to return it.  Becky and the dogs then went for a long walk in the forest, and I later picked them up.

Becky received a replacement phone from Verizon on Thursday----because she could no longer hear the radio through the ear buds. (It turned out the defect was in the ear buds not the phone, but Becky decided that Verizon didn't need that information.)  Becky went to Flagstaff for a haircut and to drop
off the dogs at the Cinder Hills Kennels for the weekend.  She also picked up two "glamor" photos of my parents that we had duplicated at the Tom Alexander studio in Flagstaff.  My brother Bob had found the originals recently and we decided we both needed a set. 

After dinner, Mel and Roy Henderson stopped by on their way from Salt Lake City to their home outside Phoenix.  Becky worked for Roy at Union Bank some years ago (Roy was a vice-chairman) and they have stayed in touch ever since.  It was fun seeing them again; they're an interesting couple.

Late in the evening I dropped Becky off at the GC Railway Hotel to pick up the shuttle to the Williams Junction Amtrak "station" as she was headed to southern California for the weekend.  Over then next two days I did nothing but read, play free cell, and watch TV.  Exhausting.  But Becky was busy.  She stayed at the Jonathan Club in downtown LA.

Friday morning, just after her train arrived in Los Angeles, she was shocked and saddened to learn that one of her cousins, Bill Boggs, had a heart attack and died on Thursday.  Bill was a great guy.  He lived in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and had recently retired from being the "root canal king" of nearby Spokane.  He bought a Minnie Winnie Class C RV and planned to travel extensively.  He will be missed.

In the early afternoon, Becky met her long-time friend Honoria Vivell at the club to "catch up" before they attended what was called a "Goddess Tea" at the Pacific Dining Car restaurant in LA.  The participants were all former female employees of Union Bank who get together periodically.  One of the founding members of the group recently died, so they met to celebrate Sami Myers life!

That night Becky had seaweed salad from Ralph's at the club.  On Saturday, she went to the Jonathan Club at the beach in Santa Monica to have lunch with Aileen Garrigues and Shelley Gibson, both of whom are old friends and former co-workers.  I understand they had a great time. 

Becky's train left LA at 6:10 pm Saturday evening.  She had picked up some sushi at Union Station for dinner Saturday night, which she ate before getting on the train for the trip home.  Her train arrived in Williams only a half-hour late Sunday morning---a little after 4:15---and I picked her up at the GC Railway Hotel. 

I went back to bed for a while; Becky started working on transferring data from her old phone to her new one.

It turned out that transferring data from Becky's old phone to her new phone was going to take so long that her patience and our data plan would be exhausted---so we headed to Flagstaff and dropped the phones off at the Verizon store and let them do the transfer while we picked up the dogs at the kennel.

Late in the afternoon, Mark and Ellen Burstyn dropped by.  They are people we know through Barbara Coad and my brother Bob--definitely a USC crowd.  They are driving from their Calabasas home to their second residence in Oxford, Mississippi (the home of Ole Miss).  It was fun having adult beverages and snacks with them.

Monday was the 50th birthday of our daughter, Donna.  She's still in Israel so the best we could do was send her a congratulatory text.  We then packed up my new computer and Becky's old phone and sent them on their way back to whence they had come. 

Tuesday was our granddaughter Emily's 20th birthday.  She's with Donna (and the rest of her family) in Israel, of course, so again we just texted her congratulations. 

Otherwise, the highlight of the day was another massage from Natanya for me.

Wednesday morning I headed for the Flagstaff Medical Center for the procedure Dr. Boettcher had recommended to finally close the tiny hole in my scalp.  He had said the procedure would take only a few minutes but I still had to show up early and spend 2-3 hours going through pre-op. 

He was right, but it was no big deal.  I was awake throughout the procedure which involved "roughing up" the area a bit with what sounded like a dentist's drill, then packing a bit of what they call Integra (not the car model) and covering the area with a bandage.  I had no anesthesia since that area is permanently numb, and it was weird listening to the doctor and the nurses talk. 

We had left the dogs at the GC Railway kennel since it was going to be hot (at least 90 degrees) in Flagstaff and we didn't know how long they would otherwise have to spend in the truck.  They were happy to be picked up, of course.  After dinner, we watched Galaxy Quest from Netflix.  It was better than I had expected.