Even a sick man's work is never done

Had to clean the pool today . . .

Further evidence . . .

With no posts since April, the rumors may have begun to spread again. So here's an update.

We (Grandmom & I) had a great road-trip with our eldest and his wife (that would be Randy and Kathie). We spent a couple of nights in Ouray, and then did some touring around southwestern Colorado. And I had no significant side effects from the chemo treatments during the entire trip.

We visited a portion of "Canyon of the Ancients" north of Cortez, CO, specifically the Anasazi Heritage Center. Kinda boring, but the small ruins (see pic) and lake overlook were good.

Then on to Ouray for Sunday and Monday nights. See pictures from our balcony at Ouray Chalet.

In looking for a geocache (Guston Church) off the Million Dollar Highway we "discovered" whole new sets of mine ruins, including the well-preserved "Yankee Girl", that we had not seen before. Readily accessible; we'll visit them again. We found the geocache.

Then to Yankee Boy Basin for some downtime. Well, I guess it was all downtime.

Tuesday morning was spent in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. This was named a NP in 1999, and is well-developed for viewing the canyon. Randy took pictures. He also left his telephoto lens where we were talking with a professional photographer with a $100K photo system. The NP Service has mailed it to him. Whew!

Did a little geocaching on the way to Canon City / Royal Gorge, which has now been developed (?) into a small village with shops, the incline railway, and a sky-tram across the river. We walked the bridge, took both the tram and the incline.

On to Colorado Springs to visit Garden of the Gods and Seven Falls.
A side note: we were the only visitors in southwestern Colorado. Well, not quite, but we had no reservations after Ouray and never encountered a hotel with greater than maybe 20-30% occupancy. All rates were negotiable. Very negotiable.

Going back south into New Mexico, we stopped by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial near Eagle Nest which we had discovered with Rick and Denise a few years ago. This is a surprisingly moving memorial done by a family in honor of a fallen son, but dedicated to all Vietnam veterans. It is so well done that the state of New Mexico has now agreed to take responsibility as a state sponsored memorial.

We drove through Red River and got the picture on Randy's blog of the Gostin cabin; looks much like it did then. Walked the squares in Santa Fe, then old town Albuquerque. Got home Saturday afternoon; resting ever since.

"Reports of my demise . . ."

There has been a lot of trash talk on the blogosphere, some by the fruit of my loin even to the second generation, concerning the expected or reported demise of my hair.  Although I may have inadvertently contributed to the initiation of these rumors, you can observe by the attached photo, taken this very morning, that my hair-retention capability has been greatly underestimated. 

Phx Grandad

The Old Folks at Home...

And glad to be here!  Dad has gone through his first bout with chemo.  It was not fun, even a little bit!! None of the meds the doctor gave him for nausea worked. After trying 3, he got out his trusty Meclazine and took that! Voila!! It worked. After that he began to feel a little better each day. We are still not "up and around" (so to speak) but improving!!

Let me explain the "we" reference. Sharing everything like old folks do, I developed a healthy (or unhealthy) allergy attack, so I could empathize properly with my patient. Problem is, now he is getting better, and I am still nursing a sinus headache and nasal congestion!!  We've got to get our act together!!!

The local family has been very sweet about leaving us to ourselves (because we weren't up to much company.)  They did come by Sunday afternoon after church, and brought in Kentucky Fried Chicken for the noon meal.  I went to church Sunday morning and taught our class, and they tolerated my teaching and my squeaky voice.  Paul & Kari are attending our class while we teach the book of Revelation, and this week they stayed for the worship service with me.  At the present time, Dad is planning to teach next Sunday. I hope he does. He's a better teacher than I am.  I am happy to be the sub!!

Dad sees the doctor again tomorrow. Don't know what for...they just always seem to want to see him.  Must  be nice!

Sorry I took so long getting back to blogging.  I sort of got stuck on e-mail. So I hope you find this, and even read it!

We love you all so much.  Our next out of town trip will be to Lauri's graduation, but we will have to pass on Disneyland this trip!

We had a nice visit with Rick, Denise and family before all this....in fact, we were there when Mother died. We came home, arranged for the funeral, packed for travel again, and went to Cotton Valley for the graveside service on Saturday.

. We then went to Valwood Park for church, and saw a lot of old friends there. 

I'll sign off now, hoping someone will realize, when I didn't e=mail, that I might actually blog this time.   Love ya! Ma