October 2009 Aspen Glen, CO Lat N 38° 23' 35",Lon W 106° 3' 52" elevation 8800’
I returned to our new home “Aspen Glen” in Colorado to undergo some neck surgery and recuperate prior to offshore Brazil deployment with the oil drill rig project. I received a dubious honor during the onshore commissioning effort. Susan did a great job of managing the upgrades to our new home. Texas weather is way different than Colorado and I found and recommend a great red wine.
I left the oil drilling rig project in Texas in mid October as the first of the two drill rigs was being loaded on a barge for shipment to Brazil. The second one will load out about three weeks later. Our on shore commissioning effort is over. I could have stayed with the project until we redeployed to offshore Brazil, but wanted to get a neck issue dealt with prior to leaving the country. I have damaged vertebrae in my neck pinching the nerves of my right arm. I’m in pain most of the time and the muscles of my right arm are beginning to atrophy due to this condition. This getting old stuff is not for sissies. Had I known I was going to live this long, I would have taken way better care of my body.
One of the Caterpillar engine generators blew up during the onshore commissioning phase of the project. I was the person responsible for that phase of the effort, so I became known as the “Cat killer”. The Caterpillar service representative gave me a Caterpillar sticker for my hard hat and my officemate hand lettered the word “killer” under the sticker. As it turned out the failure had nothing to do with what we did as a commissioning team and the engine was repaired. The rocker arm shaft was assembled incorrectly at the factory blocking oil to the rocker arm assembly. The rocker arm froze on the shaft leaving some of the valves in the open position while the engine was running at full speed. When the piston came up again it collided with the open valves and did what you might expect from a 2500 HP engine. It blew holes through the block on both sides expelling pistons and rods in a catastrophic failure.
Susan managed contractors through a complete repaint of the interior and exterior of our new house, the addition of a 30’ by 50’ garage shop , the addition of a whole house water purification system, and the installation of new heating appliances. She did a great job of planning and implementing these upgrades. Next are kitchen cabinet replacements, a big view window in the kitchen, hard wood floors, a master bath remodel, new decks, and a hot tub. Not necessarily in that order. It is a great place with plenty of room so come and visit. I will be working 28 on and 28 off for about the next year while we commission the drill rigs offshore Brazil. We are about 12 miles south of Poncha Springs, CO between MP 116 and MP 117 on US Hwy 285.
The weather was cooling off a bit when I left Texas with nighttime temperatures actually getting into the 70’s. Today as I write this, the temperature never got above freezing with about four inches of snow on the ground and still snowing. I’ve been really cozy with our new pellet stove all day. What a difference 1100 miles and 8800 feet of altitude change makes. I’m thinking there may be a snow mobile and a snow plow of some kind in my future.
I’m probably the only person on earth that did not know about this, but Ménage à Trois is about the best red wine I’ve ever had in the $10 range. It is a blend of three varietals that balance into “not to sweet or not too dry”. You knew enough French to know it was three of something, right? I buy it by the case so if you ever come to visit we will throw something on the grill and enjoy a bottle or so.
Our new contact information is, PO Box 337, 44011 US Hwy 285 Poncha Springs, CO 81242. Susan’s cell (719)221-4411, my cell (719)221-3248.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
June 2009
Aransas Pass, TX N 27°53′28″ longitude W 097°09′0718″ elevation 13’
It was another eventful period in the continuing journey. I moved with the drill rig project to the ship yard where the rigs are being built in Ingleside, TX near Corpus Christi. Susan came down for about six weeks then went back to Colorado and bought a house. I reconnected on the web with a bunch of old Navy friends from forty years ago, I found my first ever Civil War relic with my metal detector, and I must be going though a mid life crisis, because I bought a motorcycle..
We finished up most of the engineering on the drill rig project in the Houston office and moved with the mechanical completion and commissioning team to the shipyard on April 4th. We are currently doing mechanical check out of the construction phase of the project. We will start the commissioning phase in conjunction with the mechanical completion. The construction schedule is behind and dates are slipping. We are working 55 hours a week headed for 70 hour weeks in July and August. The thing that can not slip is the sail away date to Brazil. There is a firm schedule for the heavy lift cranes to set these modules on the offshore platform legs. If we miss that window the crane schedule and the ocean conditions would delay the project a year. The buzz word now is “carryover”. That means the commissioning work we can not complete here in the yard will have to be carried over to off shore.
Susan came down from house hunting and kid visiting in Colorado on the 5th of April. She left in early June to go expedite the house hunting effort. We bought the house on 53 acres south of Salida that I put up on the blog several months ago. It needs some finish work and the addition a garage shop but it is what we both want. Susan lined up contractors to do painting. I was there for the week on June 10th to help with the effort. I would have liked to stay longer, but work is getting intense.
I was surfing the web the other day looking for the old cartoon of two buzzards sitting in a tree, one saying to the other”patience my ass, I’m going to go kill something” because that thought matched my mood regarding the house. During the surfing I saw a Navy shoulder patch for some submarine that made me think it had been a long time since I did a goggle search for the ship I on which I spent most of my time in the Navy. The search turned up a web site one of my old ship mates put together to get us reconnected. I registered and was talking to an old friend within an hour. I talked with a couple of more of my old friends since then.
One of my co workers interested in metal detecting did some research on a nearby area that had two civil war battles. We did a reconnaissance and I turned up a .58 caliber hollow cavity sabot almost certainly from an model 1861 Springfield Muzzleloader used by the 17th Pennsylvania Volunteers in the 1863 and 1864 battles. The Model 1861 Springfield was the first muzzleloader mass produced that had rifling in the barrel. My bullet has rifling marks. Our next trip will be focused at trying to locate the nexus of the battles.
The mid life crisis is really not that serious. It is not a red Porsche, it is a black Kawasaki KLR 650 dual sport. After a year and a half of retirement fun, I went to little time for fun. It is called work, and is very over rated. About the only time I have for anything is going back and forth to work. I really wanted a Harley, but my homeless, at the time, wife thought my priorities were a bit skewed. So, the KLR is my commuter. I got a matching helmet and enjoy the 50 miles to the gallon verses the 12 MPG for the big diesel truck. It really is fun and the 8 miles to work on back roads along the bay takes 10 minutes. Life is good.
It was another eventful period in the continuing journey. I moved with the drill rig project to the ship yard where the rigs are being built in Ingleside, TX near Corpus Christi. Susan came down for about six weeks then went back to Colorado and bought a house. I reconnected on the web with a bunch of old Navy friends from forty years ago, I found my first ever Civil War relic with my metal detector, and I must be going though a mid life crisis, because I bought a motorcycle..
We finished up most of the engineering on the drill rig project in the Houston office and moved with the mechanical completion and commissioning team to the shipyard on April 4th. We are currently doing mechanical check out of the construction phase of the project. We will start the commissioning phase in conjunction with the mechanical completion. The construction schedule is behind and dates are slipping. We are working 55 hours a week headed for 70 hour weeks in July and August. The thing that can not slip is the sail away date to Brazil. There is a firm schedule for the heavy lift cranes to set these modules on the offshore platform legs. If we miss that window the crane schedule and the ocean conditions would delay the project a year. The buzz word now is “carryover”. That means the commissioning work we can not complete here in the yard will have to be carried over to off shore.
Susan came down from house hunting and kid visiting in Colorado on the 5th of April. She left in early June to go expedite the house hunting effort. We bought the house on 53 acres south of Salida that I put up on the blog several months ago. It needs some finish work and the addition a garage shop but it is what we both want. Susan lined up contractors to do painting. I was there for the week on June 10th to help with the effort. I would have liked to stay longer, but work is getting intense.
I was surfing the web the other day looking for the old cartoon of two buzzards sitting in a tree, one saying to the other”patience my ass, I’m going to go kill something” because that thought matched my mood regarding the house. During the surfing I saw a Navy shoulder patch for some submarine that made me think it had been a long time since I did a goggle search for the ship I on which I spent most of my time in the Navy. The search turned up a web site one of my old ship mates put together to get us reconnected. I registered and was talking to an old friend within an hour. I talked with a couple of more of my old friends since then.
One of my co workers interested in metal detecting did some research on a nearby area that had two civil war battles. We did a reconnaissance and I turned up a .58 caliber hollow cavity sabot almost certainly from an model 1861 Springfield Muzzleloader used by the 17th Pennsylvania Volunteers in the 1863 and 1864 battles. The Model 1861 Springfield was the first muzzleloader mass produced that had rifling in the barrel. My bullet has rifling marks. Our next trip will be focused at trying to locate the nexus of the battles.
The mid life crisis is really not that serious. It is not a red Porsche, it is a black Kawasaki KLR 650 dual sport. After a year and a half of retirement fun, I went to little time for fun. It is called work, and is very over rated. About the only time I have for anything is going back and forth to work. I really wanted a Harley, but my homeless, at the time, wife thought my priorities were a bit skewed. So, the KLR is my commuter. I got a matching helmet and enjoy the 50 miles to the gallon verses the 12 MPG for the big diesel truck. It really is fun and the 8 miles to work on back roads along the bay takes 10 minutes. Life is good.Sunday, March 29, 2009
Houston, TX area latitude N 29°46′50″ longitude W 095°588′18″ elevation 14’
Never a boring minute! We took an awful driving trip to Colorado at Christmas, I did a remodel in our Oregon house basement, Susan had major surgery, we sold the Oregon house, and I went back to work.
We drove the 1350 miles to Colorado to spend Christmas with our children, their significant others, and our grand daughter. Santa was very good to all of us. Much of the four day trip going out was on ice at 35 to 40 miles per hour. We had a great time during our short stay and a dry road for our trip back to Oregon.
When we returned to Eugene from our short Christmas holiday the western Oregon weather was wet and cold which is normal for that time of year I took that opportunity to do a remodeling project in our basement. I put up sheet rock and a drop ceiling on a 10 by 17 area that was part of a larger storage area. I moved in a desk, file cabinet, a TV, and some exercise equipment to give prospective buyers an idea of the possibilities available in all that space. I learned a lot about patience with that project and did a really good job. The project cost less than $300 in material and about two weeks of my labor.
I would like to think that the improvement made all the difference in marketing our house, because the first people that saw the house after the renovation bought it. The truth is, we don’t know what helped them make their decision. The house we want in Colorado is now in loan default which means we are dealing with a bank. We made them an offer, but they are taking forever to respond. We may try to buy something else. Susan is in Colorado trying to find us a house.
Susan had a large benign tumor removed from her abdomen the first week of February. The surgeons took out a bunch of unnecessary parts including her gall bladder, and appendix. Susan is to my reference to her surgery as a roto rooter job. She is fine now and completely healed according to her doctor. Susan did a great job of closing on our house and supervising the loading of our stuff in Oregon and getting it moved to storage in Colorado. We are now officially homeless.
I started a new job in Houston the 2nd of March. I’m doing some electrical consulting on a couple of offshore oil drilling rigs. I’m working on a contract basis for a small project management company that has commissioning responsibility for these platforms. The platforms are being built in the Corpus Christi, TX area where I will be working on the fourth of April. The rigs will load on barges near the end of September headed to Brazil for installation where the commissioning team plans to start them up. I should be in Rio for Carnival in February 2010. I know it sounds like a boondoggle, but who am I to complain?
Working after a year and a half sabbatical is a shock to the system. You know how hard it is to come back to work and get in the swing of things after a two week vacation. Just imagine how that feels like times about forty and going right into 55 hour work weeks.
Enough whining for now. How about dropping me a line to let me know what is going on in your life?
Never a boring minute! We took an awful driving trip to Colorado at Christmas, I did a remodel in our Oregon house basement, Susan had major surgery, we sold the Oregon house, and I went back to work.
We drove the 1350 miles to Colorado to spend Christmas with our children, their significant others, and our grand daughter. Santa was very good to all of us. Much of the four day trip going out was on ice at 35 to 40 miles per hour. We had a great time during our short stay and a dry road for our trip back to Oregon.
When we returned to Eugene from our short Christmas holiday the western Oregon weather was wet and cold which is normal for that time of year I took that opportunity to do a remodeling project in our basement. I put up sheet rock and a drop ceiling on a 10 by 17 area that was part of a larger storage area. I moved in a desk, file cabinet, a TV, and some exercise equipment to give prospective buyers an idea of the possibilities available in all that space. I learned a lot about patience with that project and did a really good job. The project cost less than $300 in material and about two weeks of my labor.
I would like to think that the improvement made all the difference in marketing our house, because the first people that saw the house after the renovation bought it. The truth is, we don’t know what helped them make their decision. The house we want in Colorado is now in loan default which means we are dealing with a bank. We made them an offer, but they are taking forever to respond. We may try to buy something else. Susan is in Colorado trying to find us a house.
Susan had a large benign tumor removed from her abdomen the first week of February. The surgeons took out a bunch of unnecessary parts including her gall bladder, and appendix. Susan is to my reference to her surgery as a roto rooter job. She is fine now and completely healed according to her doctor. Susan did a great job of closing on our house and supervising the loading of our stuff in Oregon and getting it moved to storage in Colorado. We are now officially homeless.
I started a new job in Houston the 2nd of March. I’m doing some electrical consulting on a couple of offshore oil drilling rigs. I’m working on a contract basis for a small project management company that has commissioning responsibility for these platforms. The platforms are being built in the Corpus Christi, TX area where I will be working on the fourth of April. The rigs will load on barges near the end of September headed to Brazil for installation where the commissioning team plans to start them up. I should be in Rio for Carnival in February 2010. I know it sounds like a boondoggle, but who am I to complain?
Working after a year and a half sabbatical is a shock to the system. You know how hard it is to come back to work and get in the swing of things after a two week vacation. Just imagine how that feels like times about forty and going right into 55 hour work weeks.
Enough whining for now. How about dropping me a line to let me know what is going on in your life?
Saturday, November 8, 2008
October 2008
Eugene, OR latitude N 44°01′28″ longitude W 123°08′55″ elevation 787’
This is my last invitation to read a post for a while. We met our initial goal of finding a place in Colorado but can’t purchase that place until we sell our Oregon home. Susan could not bear the thought of spending another winter in the RV. We are back in Oregon until we sell the house. We left the RV and our ATV’s in Colorado Storage. This blog is to become an online journal allowing you to view periodic post at your convenience at http://johnandsusanretirement.blogspot.com/.
Thank you to all who supported our family through the long and arduous adoption process. I sent out a special notification just after the final hearing October 9th Diamond is now officially part of our family. I love the picture of her applying the court seal on the final adoption papers.
The RV Park where we spent most of October is right on the Arkansas River. I finally got to use that non resident fishing license I bought several months ago. We ate a couple of really nice brown trout after my first outing. By my own accounting these trout cost much more than $100 a pound with the license, waders, boots, tube, and etcetera. On my second outing I decided to try out a new inner tube floater I bought to fish these small waters. I pulled it up on some rocks while fishing a shallow hole only to turn around and see it floating down the river a quarter mile away. I couldn’t catch it so I walked back to the truck driving down the river in hope of catching it. I met two guys who had retrieved the tube and got it back. I now have a rope to secure it when I’m out of it.
I was forced to re evaluate my personal grooming habits this month. My hair was at least two months with out a cut and it may have been that long sense I had trimmed my beard. While metal detecting in a Salida city park a teen age boy approached me. This happens a lot, as many people want to know what I’m looking for or what I’ve found. This young man surprised me when he held out a hand full of change. When I ask if he had found it, he replied no, it was his, but he wanted to give it to me. I accepted it and thanked him, not wanting to embarrass him. I got a hair cut and trimmed my beard the next day.
Susan spent her birthday in a Salida hospital with Labyrinthitis. Labyrinthitis is an inflammatory disorder of the inner ear or labyrinth. Clinically, this condition produces disturbances of balance and hearing to varying degrees and may affect one or both ears. Bacteria or viruses can cause acute inflammation of the labyrinth in conjunction with either local or systemic infection. What all this really means is she threw up every time she moved. She is now well and not much the worse for wear.
Much Love,
John and Susan
This is my last invitation to read a post for a while. We met our initial goal of finding a place in Colorado but can’t purchase that place until we sell our Oregon home. Susan could not bear the thought of spending another winter in the RV. We are back in Oregon until we sell the house. We left the RV and our ATV’s in Colorado Storage. This blog is to become an online journal allowing you to view periodic post at your convenience at http://johnandsusanretirement.blogspot.com/.
Thank you to all who supported our family through the long and arduous adoption process. I sent out a special notification just after the final hearing October 9th Diamond is now officially part of our family. I love the picture of her applying the court seal on the final adoption papers.The RV Park where we spent most of October is right on the Arkansas River. I finally got to use that non resident fishing license I bought several months ago. We ate a couple of really nice brown trout after my first outing. By my own accounting these trout cost much more than $100 a pound with the license, waders, boots, tube, and etcetera. On my second outing I decided to try out a new inner tube floater I bought to fish these small waters. I pulled it up on some rocks while fishing a shallow hole only to turn around and see it floating down the river a quarter mile away. I couldn’t catch it so I walked back to the truck driving down the river in hope of catching it. I met two guys who had retrieved the tube and got it back. I now have a rope to secure it when I’m out of it.
I was forced to re evaluate my personal grooming habits this month. My hair was at least two months with out a cut and it may have been that long sense I had trimmed my beard. While metal detecting in a Salida city park a teen age boy approached me. This happens a lot, as many people want to know what I’m looking for or what I’ve found. This young man surprised me when he held out a hand full of change. When I ask if he had found it, he replied no, it was his, but he wanted to give it to me. I accepted it and thanked him, not wanting to embarrass him. I got a hair cut and trimmed my beard the next day.
Susan spent her birthday in a Salida hospital with Labyrinthitis. Labyrinthitis is an inflammatory disorder of the inner ear or labyrinth. Clinically, this condition produces disturbances of balance and hearing to varying degrees and may affect one or both ears. Bacteria or viruses can cause acute inflammation of the labyrinth in conjunction with either local or systemic infection. What all this really means is she threw up every time she moved. She is now well and not much the worse for wear.
Much Love,
John and Susan
Sunday, October 5, 2008
September 08
East of Salida, CO latitude N 38°30′37.8″ longitude W 105°57′59.8″ elevation 7025’
This odyssey started a year ago this month with my retirement. It has not been with out challenges, but overall all it has been a good year. You never really know someone until you live with them in less than 400 square feet for a year. Susan and I successfully did that and we are still OK with each other.
We helped the local ATV club put on the historical color tour during the peak of aspen color. The aspen cooperated fully this year, the tour caught the peak of color. The weather was perfect and the mountain vistas still give me a rush down to the core of my soul. I hope I never get so jaded as to not respond to the natural beauty of this place. We met some great people, had great fun, enjoying the overall experience. Susan did a new design for the Tee Shirts this year. It was a big hit.
The Color tour Thursday night dinner and entertainment at the Coyote Cantina spawned my favorite memory. Wayne Foust, the entertainer, sings, plays guitar, and banjo. He is as bald as a cue ball and has fun with it. His signature song is something called Bald Guys he wrote and get selected guys to help him present. This year he selected me as a bald guy in training to join four other guys in the chorus line. It was hilarious to say the least. Still pictures do not even start to tell this story, but it is all I have.
Metal Detecting this month definitely took a back seat to ATVing. I still found a size five, 10K yellow gold women’s wedding band and a French ten cent piece. I had to buy quarters to do laundry. That part was humiliating. A friend from here and I joined my brother in law and another friend at an old town site south of Gunnison for some detecting. My brother in law found three intact cannon balls and I found nothing.
We plan to attend our granddaughter’s final adoption hearing on October 9th in Denver. This is a formality, the agreements are final and in place. I give Diamond the change I find with the metal detector. We call it her college education fund and put it in a huge plastic water bottle.
We can not move ahead with the place we found here, we now call Aspen Glen, because our house in Oregon has still not sold. I've included a couple of pictures from the front porch. The mountain in the back fround is Mt Simmons in the Sangre de Christo range across the San Luis Valley.
This odyssey started a year ago this month with my retirement. It has not been with out challenges, but overall all it has been a good year. You never really know someone until you live with them in less than 400 square feet for a year. Susan and I successfully did that and we are still OK with each other.
We helped the local ATV club put on the historical color tour during the peak of aspen color. The aspen cooperated fully this year, the tour caught the peak of color. The weather was perfect and the mountain vistas still give me a rush down to the core of my soul. I hope I never get so jaded as to not respond to the natural beauty of this place. We met some great people, had great fun, enjoying the overall experience. Susan did a new design for the Tee Shirts this year. It was a big hit.The Color tour Thursday night dinner and entertainment at the Coyote Cantina spawned my favorite memory. Wayne Foust, the entertainer, sings, plays guitar, and banjo. He is as bald as a cue ball and has fun with it. His signature song is something called Bald Guys he wrote and get selected guys to help him present. This year he selected me as a bald guy in training to join four other guys in the chorus line. It was hilarious to say the least. Still pictures do not even start to tell this story, but it is all I have.
Metal Detecting this month definitely took a back seat to ATVing. I still found a size five, 10K yellow gold women’s wedding band and a French ten cent piece. I had to buy quarters to do laundry. That part was humiliating. A friend from here and I joined my brother in law and another friend at an old town site south of Gunnison for some detecting. My brother in law found three intact cannon balls and I found nothing.We plan to attend our granddaughter’s final adoption hearing on October 9th in Denver. This is a formality, the agreements are final and in place. I give Diamond the change I find with the metal detector. We call it her college education fund and put it in a huge plastic water bottle.
We can not move ahead with the place we found here, we now call Aspen Glen, because our house in Oregon has still not sold. I've included a couple of pictures from the front porch. The mountain in the back fround is Mt Simmons in the Sangre de Christo range across the San Luis Valley. 
The beautiful Aspens are in the front yard. We have an option to lease this place for six months or until our Oregon house sells which ever comes first. That option is extremely expensive, but takes the house off the market.Friday, September 5, 2008
August 2008
RV Park West of Salida, CO latitude N 38°32′15.4″ longitude W 106°10′34.4″ elevation 8285’
Snow comes early in the season to the high country. Most mornings we can see fresh snow on the fourteeners. Frequent afternoon rain showers supply a large percentage of the much needed moisture to this arid land. Above 8000’ where we are, that typically means hail. The hail crystals reflect only a portion of the color spectrum giving the sky and mountains a greenish hue in mid afternoon. I’ve not yet been able to capture a picture of this phenomenon, but will continue to try.
Susan hit a deer with her car recently. Susan is OK and the deer walked away so I guess the only thing really damaged was the car, which is now repaired.
We are all so relieved that there is an end in sight to the adoption saga. Thanks to all of you who sent your congratulations and best wishes in response to our announcement. October 9th is the date of the final court hearing.
White’s Electronics published another of my metal detecting stories on their web site . This one is about the return of a Texas A&M class ring lost for twenty years. You can read the whole thing at:
http://whiteselectronics.com/component/option,com_story/task0,month_200808/limitstart,10/limit,5/Itemid,137/#4669
There are a couple of developments in the continuing search for a Colorado home base. The lot deal fell apart because the owner refused one of our contingencies. We will get our earnest money back so, no harm, no foul.
Snow comes early in the season to the high country. Most mornings we can see fresh snow on the fourteeners. Frequent afternoon rain showers supply a large percentage of the much needed moisture to this arid land. Above 8000’ where we are, that typically means hail. The hail crystals reflect only a portion of the color spectrum giving the sky and mountains a greenish hue in mid afternoon. I’ve not yet been able to capture a picture of this phenomenon, but will continue to try.
Susan hit a deer with her car recently. Susan is OK and the deer walked away so I guess the only thing really damaged was the car, which is now repaired.
We are all so relieved that there is an end in sight to the adoption saga. Thanks to all of you who sent your congratulations and best wishes in response to our announcement. October 9th is the date of the final court hearing.
White’s Electronics published another of my metal detecting stories on their web site . This one is about the return of a Texas A&M class ring lost for twenty years. You can read the whole thing at:
http://whiteselectronics.com/component/option,com_story/task0,month_200808/limitstart,10/limit,5/Itemid,137/#4669
There are a couple of developments in the continuing search for a Colorado home base. The lot deal fell apart because the owner refused one of our contingencies. We will get our earnest money back so, no harm, no foul.
We found another property we really like. This one is a one year old house never finished by the owner located on a 8700’ mountain top about 13 miles south of Salida. We have a signed contract contingent on the sale of our house in Eugene. Yes, there is plenty of room for guest. The property is surrounded by BLM meaning no one can build within a mile of the house. A BLM road cuts through the property giving us access to thousands of acres of Nation forest and BLM public lands and more ATV trails than we can ride in a lifetime.
Metal detecting in August only turned up a silver band and a pewter squirrel than fun and coins. I did give the large white gold wedding band found last month to my step son, Val. I also gave a small yellow gold ring to Diamond, our grand daughter. I’m really glad some one will get some enjoyment out of these things when I’m not able to find the original owner.I have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to examine the left arm and wrist injured in the ATV accident last February. The continuing pain, loss of strength and motion are wearing me down. Susan says I’m grumpier than usual which is a revelation to me. I always thought I had a sweet and sunny disposition. The personal injury Lawyer in Eugene is collecting medical records and billing information relevant to the accident. Who knows, we might buy this Colorado home base property without selling the Eugene house.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
July 2008
Eugene, OR latitude N 44°01′28″ longitude W 123°08′55″ elevation 787’
We came back to Oregon for a few weeks while our RV is being repaired in Colorado and I work with a personal injury Lawyer.
Well it’s official. I am a professional writer. Whites Electronics paid me and published one of my metal detecting stories in their August stories sections of their on line newsletter. http://hobby.us.whiteselectronics.com/component/option,com_story/task0,month_200808/limitstart,0/limit,5/Itemid,137/#4658
Did you ever see the movie RV with Robin Williams, when the sewer tank contents got all over every thing? Well it wasn’t quite that bad in some ways, but bad enough. Susan turned on an extra valve thinking she was going to water the lawn and turned on the black water tank flush system. Sewer water came out the overflow vent pipe on top of the RV and made its way into the ceiling. The top must be removed and the ceiling replaced in a month long $15K effort to correct the problem. Susan hasn’t found the humor in this yet, so give her a call and help her find that humor. Her cell is (541)968-4559.
The owners of the ATV rack and ramp companies have decided that the ATV accident last February was somehow my fault. These are the same people who were so willing and anxious to help me with the medical and other bills. They must be talking to lawyers from their insurance companies. I thought reasonable people could work this out, but I was wrong. I’ve lost my patience and hired a lawyer to represent me regarding this issue. We will see if the lawyers can work this out.
The Northern Cheyenne tribe agreed to no longer contest the adoption of our Grand daughter Diamond. Thanks for all your support through this ordeal. We were able to spend some quality time with her in Golden when we dropped off the RV for repair.
We rode ATV’s a lot this month as the high country passes opened after a record snow year. The wild flowers are spectacular in the high country. No close encounters with critters now that I’m carrying a camera. Isn’t that the way it is?
Metal Detecting this month was more productive and heart breaking at the same time.
We came back to Oregon for a few weeks while our RV is being repaired in Colorado and I work with a personal injury Lawyer.
Well it’s official. I am a professional writer. Whites Electronics paid me and published one of my metal detecting stories in their August stories sections of their on line newsletter. http://hobby.us.whiteselectronics.com/component/option,com_story/task0,month_200808/limitstart,0/limit,5/Itemid,137/#4658
Did you ever see the movie RV with Robin Williams, when the sewer tank contents got all over every thing? Well it wasn’t quite that bad in some ways, but bad enough. Susan turned on an extra valve thinking she was going to water the lawn and turned on the black water tank flush system. Sewer water came out the overflow vent pipe on top of the RV and made its way into the ceiling. The top must be removed and the ceiling replaced in a month long $15K effort to correct the problem. Susan hasn’t found the humor in this yet, so give her a call and help her find that humor. Her cell is (541)968-4559.
The owners of the ATV rack and ramp companies have decided that the ATV accident last February was somehow my fault. These are the same people who were so willing and anxious to help me with the medical and other bills. They must be talking to lawyers from their insurance companies. I thought reasonable people could work this out, but I was wrong. I’ve lost my patience and hired a lawyer to represent me regarding this issue. We will see if the lawyers can work this out.
The Northern Cheyenne tribe agreed to no longer contest the adoption of our Grand daughter Diamond. Thanks for all your support through this ordeal. We were able to spend some quality time with her in Golden when we dropped off the RV for repair.
We rode ATV’s a lot this month as the high country passes opened after a record snow year. The wild flowers are spectacular in the high country. No close encounters with critters now that I’m carrying a camera. Isn’t that the way it is?
Metal Detecting this month was more productive and heart breaking at the same time.
I found a very interesting designed silver ring that our daughter Mandi just had to have. That’s OK, because I would rather some one enjoy these finds rather than they just set in my collection. 
I found a really nice white gold 14K mans wedding band in a size 11.5, really a nice ring worth about $350. 
Then the heart break story. I found a 14K yellow gold necklace with a heart shaped filigree slide. In the center of the heart shaped slide was a ¾ carat heart shaped diamond. I picked it up, rubbed the dirt off and started to my watch pocket with it. I sensed more than saw something fall. When I looked, the diamond was gone. I spent days looking for it to no avail. It has gone back to the earth. I had a ¾ carat Peridot set in the slide and 
gave it to my granddaughter for her fourth birthday.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)